Issue #6-Chapter 9: The Stranger

"Is she the one?" I asked when staring at her.

"Why, of course, she is," the stranger answered. "She's wearing the crystal necklace. She has to be the one!"

Thinking about the crystal necklace and Melonia, more questions were forming inside my mind: was she the missing princess all along? Or was it someone else? Then I was thinking about the woman from my dream. Could that be Melonia? Would she be kidnapped? I just hope not. I would be ashame if that would be the case.

I turned back to the stranger. "Hey, I think I've seen that necklace before. But what does the crystal necklace make her a princess?"

The stranger raised his eyebrow back at me. "Were you raised in a cave or something?"

"You see, Mike," Gideon explained with his hand on my shoulder. "In this world of Mysteria, only the royalty wears crystal necklaces. They contain special powers."

The stranger gave Gideon and I his confused look on his face. "Wait a minute." He pointed at me. "He's not from this world?"

"No, not at all," Gideon said, "He came from Ashville, Texas."

"Ashville, Texas?" The stranger looked me in the eye. "I've never heard of a place."

"She's getting away," Gideon warned when he pointed at the missing princess. The stranger and I saw her cast a magic spell on the wall and the hole formed itself into a square.

"Well, what are we waiting for?!" The stranger asked. "No time to chit chat. Let's go after her!"

"Right!" Gideon and I agreed as we and the stranger went after her.

The missing princess turned around and checked for any more incoming person while we hid behind the corridor and peeked from there. After a while, she turned around and sighed quietly, taking a deep breath, leaving the kingdom for the woods.

"Alright, she's leaving. Let's go," I said.

"Right!" Gideon and the stranger agreed as we snuck our way towards the princess.

"Look, I have a plan on how to capture the princess," the stranger whispered while he viciously smiled at her without us noticing it.

Gideon and I turned to him.

"Yea? What is it?" I asked in a low voice.

"You two distract her while I sneak around her in the woods and capture her from behind," the stranger explained.

I raised my eyebrow at him. "Uh, how are you going to do that? She's clearly taller than you are."

"Simple, I'll use my magic spell on her to capture her back into the kingdom, like I did with the uglier one earlier. What do you say?"

"Oh, alright. I don't see why this plan wouldn't work," I finally understood him and Gideon shook his head in agreement there.

Once we exited the kingdom as well, the stranger shook his head at us and headed into the woods. After we shook our heads back at him though, the stranger stepped on a tree branch on the ground and broke it, creating a cracking noise behind the missing princess.

"Huh?!" The missing princess asked when she quickly turned around. She aimed her palm at us while it was glowing white.

She saw us standing there and crossed our arms, giving us her serious face. "And just who are-?" The moment she looked me in the eye, she gasped all the sudden. "You!"

I recognized that woman's face. It was Melonia. Melonia was the missing princess and the woman from my dreams all along. "Melonia? Is that you?" Now I needed to hurry up and capture her back into the kingdom, before she gets kidnapped by that monster.

Melonia glared at me and pointed her palm at me and Gideon. "It was you from earlier. What are you doing here?!"

Gideon smirked at Melonia. "Well then. You must be Melonia. Mike told me all about you. It's a pleasure meeting you."

"Hi…Gideon..." Melonia said, sounding like she was annoyed or something.

Now I didn't care what her reasoning was for running away from her castle, all I cared about was getting out of poverty and nothing else mattered to me as far as I was concerned. "We're here to take you back to your castle, so that"-I pointed at me and Gideon-"us two can get some money to get out of here, lady princess."

Melonia then glared at us even further. "Oh? Is that so? Is that why you saved my life, Mike? Is that why you've been following me?! Well, I'll make sure you and Gideon will never, ever get me and take me back to that castle."

The stranger stood there and watched us chat, viciously chuckled a bit and grinning at us and her. "Excellent, now's my opportunity to kidnap the princess and take her necklace for the dark lord," the stranger said to himself when two swirls of darkness stood near and behind him, revealing themselves as demonic monsters-some were skinny, some were large, some were fat and others had wings.

"Yes, my demons, come! While I kidnap the princess, you all will attack the kingdom. Those two men here are all yours, so make the dark lord proud!" He continued when he turned to the demons.

"Yes, sire!" The demons responded as they chuckled viciously with the stranger.

"Look, little princess," I said when I began to walk towards her in my impatient voice. "If you want to-"

The princess glared at me and took a step back. "Oh, no you don't!" The white light radiated from her palm with some white swirls around her hand. "Stand back! Don't make me cast a spell on you! And trust me, you wouldn't want me to cast a spell on you!"

Then the monster's roar vibrated from the forest so loud, the entire kingdom was awakened. The princess, Gideon and I turned to the forest and moved our eyes sideways.

"What the hell was that?" I asked.

"It's some sort of strange beast," Gideon assumed.

Then a few seconds later, a few demonic monsters-a fat monster and a large one-jumped out from the bush and roared at us while the rest of them entered Basilia, either through the hole or climbed on the kingdom walls to terrorize the kingdom. Roaring at us, those same demons only went after Gideon and I, never the princess.

Gideon and I widened our eyes and shivered a bit. "Holy shit! D-D-Demons!" I cried.

Gideon turned to the woods, then me while the monsters rushed towards us like four legged animals. "We have to run, Mike! Let's go before the monsters kill us!"

I quickly turned to Gideon. "You don't have to tell me twice!"

When we turned to the woods and ran away from those monsters, they were getting close to us. Melonia dismissed her spell from her hand and smirked at us, running for her life. She didn't even bother saving our lives.

Then we turned to Basilia once the bell rang, assuming that was an emergency bell. People's screams, explosions, and monsters' roars also echoed into our ears. It was just like my third dream. It was a huge disaster.

As Melonia looked back and forth with her continuous smile, she sensed something beside her. "Huh?! What the-?!" She turned back to the front and gasped while Gideon and I didn't even pay attention to her.

There she saw the stranger standing there with two large demons beside him, pointing at us with a smile. "After her!" The stranger said in a low voice when those monsters ran after her, magically transforming himself back into the black hooded man.

Hearing the monsters' roar, Gideon and I around and saw those same monsters still chasing after us. While we turned around in panic and ran for our lives, we looked back and forth to see those demons gaining momentum in speed. Our hearts were beating hard and fast on our chests and sweat poured down on our faces.

As I was about to turn back to my front, I spotted something that intrigued me from afar. "Huh?!" Melonia fired her light ball spells from her palm at the monsters and the black hooded man, the same guy who scammed us earlier today. Those monsters exploded into black dust. Yet the black hooded man quickly casted a shadowy ball from his palm against her hand, managing to overpower her and capture her.

Melonia grabbed onto her wrist and looked down at her hand, seeing it disappear from it. With the shadow casting upon her, she looked up and saw the black hooded man grabbing her arms.

The moment I saw the black hooded man held onto the resisting princess, I glared at him right then and there. "Hey, it's that scammer from earlier!"

Gideon turned to Mike. "Huh?!"

Remembering that woman's cry from her third dream, I turned to Gideon and the black hooded man back and forth. "That scammer from earlier is kidnapping the princess right now!"

"What?! I can't hear you!"

I loudly repeated the phrase and Gideon turned to the black hooded man. "Ah, I see what you're saying, Mike," Gideon understood.

"We need to go get her now!"

"No, we can't go save her now!" Gideon disagreed. "We need to save ourselves first."

"But-!"

"Trust me, we'll go rescue her and get that money." Gideon returned to his destination. "Right now, we need to save ourselves from those monsters."

I sighed and looked back at the black hooded man one last time, before he completely disappeared in darkness with the princess. I returned to my destination and turned to Gideon and my destination back and forth.

"Yea, I guess you're right, Gideon," I agree at last.

Gideon smiled at me. "Good."

That scammer darted his glowing red eyes at me and chuckled viciously while he disappeared from my sight. I started to realize something: the woman with a crown, the shadowy monster and now the burning kingdom finally came true. Then the monsters roared behind us and we turned to them, seeing them get closer to us with their claws out forward. I widened my eyes.

Oh, man! They're getting closer to us! I better go find a way to at least stun them before we get killed!

I turned to my direction and searched for something to stun my enemies, yet I hadn't spotted them until I spotted a tree branch right in front of me. I smirked at it while I looked back and forth. That branch would help me slow down my enemy's advancements which gives us some time to find a hiding spot.

As we got closer to the tree branch, the more those monsters got closer to us. With one of the monsters roaring at us, I looked back to see that monster raised its claw above me, getting ready to strike. I turned to the branch and quickly pushed it away from me. It struck its face and the monster didn't even bother to strike me.

The monster screamed out of pain and took a couple steps backwards, touching its face. The other monster kept charging at us. I looked back and grinned at the harmed monster. One monster down, one more to go.

I turned back to my destination. Now I wondered if I could find another item to stun that monster. I looked everywhere in front of me and couldn't find it. My heart pumped panikally when I looked back at the monster. It roared at us with its claw raised up.

Widening my fearful eyes, I opened my eyes and turned my head towards my destination back and forth. I kept searching for something but still couldn't find it, no matter how many times I tried. It looks like I may die after afterall.

When the monster was going to swing its claw at me, something hit its head from the left and made it stop moving. "Huh?!" I curiously stared at the monster and something tapped on my shoulder, turning left.

There I saw Gideon gave me a thumbs up and smiled at me. I grinned at him and gave him a thumbs up back. I was happy he saved me from that monster. What a hero!

"Thanks for saving me, Gideon!" I exclaimed.

"No problem there, Mike!" Gideon responded as the monster's roar echoed behind us.

"Huh?!" Widening our eyes, there we saw a monster rushing past the other one and chased after us, angrily breathing hard a couple times.

I couldn't believe this monster's still after us. Now what?! Then something tripped me over on the ground. "Whoa!!!"

Gideon stopped running and turned to me, shouting my name. I turned to something that tripped me over and it was a medium-sized rock, making me frown at it before I turned back at the monster.

The shadow casted all over me when the monster finally stopped in front of me. It raised its claw up above its head and was ready to strike me, chuckling a bit.

Oh, man. Now I'm a dead man. Get ready to be reincarnated into a life worse than a homeless man, Mike. You're gonna need it, bro…