All of them fell silent when Squalls walked through the entrance. His eyes were still closed. His arms were at his side, and his palms were to the sky. Indira stared at him.
“Is he sleepwalking?”
Gadget was the first one to notice the sky. “Those cumulonimbus clouds are forming at an impossibly fast rate. What is happening…?”
A massive storm rolled over the plains. The thunderheads gathered above the town in less than thirty seconds. It started raining instantly. Only when the entire sky was black did Squalls blink to life again. He glanced over and noticed them all staring.
“Sorry. Blanked again. Is it my turn to say something?”
Phoenix let out a laugh. “We’re going to have to talk about your magic, Allen. Something weird keeps happening. But for now, that storm you just summoned will give us cover to sneak back into town. We need to steal a motorized cart.”
An initial trickle quickly transformed into a downpour. Indira followed Phoenix and Squalls down the hill until she realized Gadget hadn’t moved. Her tutor device fixed on the girl and pinged a message into the air:
Prepare for the classic stubborn-friend sequence.
“Gadget,” Indira called. “Let’s get moving. There’s no time to waste.”
She shook her head. “If I stay with you, we have a seventeen percent chance of making it out.”
Indira was prepared to make a speech but was surprised when Phoenix turned around, his expression fierce. “Ledge will accuse all of us, Gadget. He’ll claim that you helped hide me. If you think the kingswolves care about explanations, or that they’ll forgive you, you’re wrong.” His jaw clenched. “It must be nice to go home, safe and sound. Do you have any idea what they’ll do to me if they catch us? I’ll have a zero percent chance of surviving. Hope you can live with that.”
With a final glare, Phoenix turned and started marching toward town. Indira fell in step with him. He offered her a little smile. “I’ve been practicing my monologues,” he whispered.
“I can totally tell. Great job.”
Back when they’d first met, he’d never have been able to pull off a speech like that one. Squalls jogged to keep up with them, but Gadget hadn’t budged. Indira knew the girl was following the tutor device’s instructions. It was strange they’d split up this early in the story, but there was nothing they could do about it now.
Indira directed them toward a different entrance from the one Ledge had likely used. There was no telling what the fool had said to the guards.
The heavy rain helped hide their approach. Normally there’d be soldiers stationed there, but Indira saw that the post had been abandoned. They slipped into the town unnoticed. Market stalls in the town center were being hastily packed up as the rain continued to drive down from above. The tutor device’s arrows pointed Indira to an alley on their right.
“This way,” she said. “I know where my mom keeps her carriage.”
Down side streets and under awnings. Indira knew there was no way they’d have gone unnoticed without the storm Squalls had summoned. She turned a final corner and found the carriage waiting beside an official government building. Indira assumed it was the courthouse.
“There!”
She pointed. The carriage had four thin wheels that looked more like bicycle tires. The body of the carriage was raised in the air, and the seats were protected by a thin overhead covering. The three of them crossed the street and climbed inside quickly.
“We’re supposed to go west,” Squalls recited. He was still a little unnatural anytime he read his lines. Indira made a note to practice with him later. “Head for the foothills. There’s a mountain that looks like…a smile? We’ll head there. The rebellion awaits its king.”
After he finished, she heard him mutter under his breath.
“Mountains have snow. And avalanches. And cliffs to fall off. Just great…”
Indira tried to keep them focused. “Let’s get this thing moving.”
Her tutor device pointed to a central console. She stared down in confusion, though, because there was a blank space where the tutor was pointing. What was she supposed to do?
“Looking for this?” a voice called. Across the street, Ledge Woods stood in triumph. He held up a small wooden block with several attached levers. “There’s no escaping now.”
Indira looked around helplessly. Ledge had disabled their getaway vehicle. His father was walking down the street behind him with a small crowd of other townsfolk. The approaching mob looked angry. They’d come for Phoenix, and Indira knew they wouldn’t leave without him.
She was trying to come up with a plan when a second voice cut through the rain.
“What is the meaning of this?”
Minerva Deacon led a second crowd, mostly made up of her assistants, down the courthouse steps. The determined look on her face faltered slightly at the sight of Indira in the driver’s seat of their family carriage.
“We caught them!” Ledge called. “Phineas is a full-blooded Drago.”
Mr. Woods threw a hand around his son’s shoulder. “My boy saw him in dragon form. And your girl? She’s been helping keep him hidden. So has the engineer’s daughter. All of them are guilty. Harboring fugitives right under the king’s nose!”
Minerva’s eyes locked on Indira. “Is that true, Indira? Is he really one of the Drago?”
The look on Indira’s face must have said everything. Indira saw the trap closing in around them. Both crowds clogged the streets, but both crowds had also paused. Indira realized that Phoenix was standing in the carriage behind her now.
Anger was written on his face and fire was etched in his eyes.
They were afraid of what he might do.
“We have plenty of evidence,” Ledge shouted. “They’re guilty!”
Indira looked back to Minerva. She was hoping her mother would know exactly what to say to get them out of this, but the woman just looked crestfallen.
“The two of you should come with us,” she suggested. “A temporary arrest. Come down from the carriage and we’ll talk. Just some interviews to get to the bottom of this. There’s no reason to be scared, understand? Let’s just take a deep breath and figure all of this out.”
Indira shook her head. Surely her mother saw the truth. If Phoenix turned himself in, he’d be handed over to the kingswolves. She would not allow harm to come to him.
As she reached for her hammer, several things happened at once. Ledge and his father lurched forward threateningly. Phoenix summoned fire into one palm. And Minerva’s crowd scattered as a second carriage came whipping down the street.
Time stretched as Gadget’s vehicle slammed to a stop right beside theirs.
“We had a seventeen percent chance of survival if I stayed with you,” Gadget shouted, half grinning, “but a fifty-two percent chance of survival when we split up. Never hurts to have a backup plan. What are you waiting for? Jump!”
Indira leaped into the back of Gadget’s carriage without thinking. She landed hard, braced herself, and turned to help the others. Phoenix thrust his fire bolt in the crowd’s direction, briefly scaring Ledge and his father back several steps. It bought them both time. Squalls leaped, tripping as he did, and Indira barely managed to reach out and save him from face-planting. She yanked him by the collar into the back of the carriage just before Phoenix leaped across.
Gadget punched the accelerator and their carriage shot forward.
Indira saw Ledge Woods lunging for them, his activated kingswolf claws stretching. They caught the very edge of the carriage—causing the whole thing to shudder—but before he could dig down into the wood, Indira brought her hammer slamming down against his knuckles. He let out a scream as their cart whipped around the corner.
Mud spewed in every direction. Gadget punched the accelerator again. Voices echoed after them. Calls
sounded for the gates to be closed, but Gadget drove faster than Indira could have ever hoped. They took a final corner and punched through the closing gates, out into the open countryside. Indira looked back as the posted guards fired arrows from the ramparts, but each of them fell well short.
Relief thundered through her. They were safe. They had escaped. But as the carriage flew down the stretching, dirt-packed roads, another sound echoed in the distance: howling.
Have you ever rolled down the window, out on the open road, and set your hand against the wind, dear reader? You have to angle your hand just right, or the wind will keep catching it and throwing it backward. There’s a point, however, when you find the right rhythm, and your hand glides like a surfer on invisible waves. That’s how Indira started their journey into the unknown. Her hair tossing from her shoulders, hand outstretched, watching the countryside whip past.
Gadget turned out to be an excellent driver.
As the sun began to set, she kept them moving at high speeds across the winding countryside of Plot. Towns would appear, only to vanish just as quickly behind them. The howls chased them for a while, but eventually even they grew distant. Allen Squalls was calculating all the new threats that awaited them now that they’d left the safety of Ordinary. These included wolves, bears, and a mythical combination of the two that he’d creatively named were-bears. Squalls sat up front with Gadget and was discussing the genetic impossibilities of such a creature as their carriage followed the western road toward the mountains.
Indira finally had a moment alone with Phoenix.
“So,” she said. “You’re a dragon?”
He grinned. “I wasn’t allowed to tell anyone. It’s in my Words.”
A knot tightened in her stomach. His Words. She knew from experience that a character’s First Words were a promise and a warning. They’d hear those Words one day, but only if they actually made it into a story. Did Phoenix know how important this tutorial was for him?
Underglass had mentioned that this was an opportunity for Phoenix to prove that his connection with Indira was strong enough to work in their eventual story. Indira guessed that Phoenix had no clue about the other possible romantic lead—or the fact that he’d be unfinished if this didn’t work out. She forced herself to nod.
“It’s pretty cool,” Indira said. “This scenario’s actually kind of fun.”
“I thought we were going to be in a classroom! The word tutorial had me picturing a professor going over theories or something. This is way better.” He hesitated before lowering his voice. “Besides, it doesn’t hurt that we get to do it together, either.”
Indira smiled at him. “No, that doesn’t hurt at all.”
Fire kicked to life in his eyes, ringing his pupils with golden light. Indira thought about telling him how nice they looked, but at that exact moment, Gadget slammed the brakes. There was a stretching second where the world seemed as if it had hit the pause button. And then momentum threw Indira into the side of the carriage. Phoenix was flung into her. She caught an elbow in the stomach and their foreheads collided painfully.
Groaning, Indira pushed to her feet. Phoenix awkwardly untangled himself, his cheeks blooming a brighter red. The two of them crossed to the front of the carriage to see what had happened. Allen Squalls was huddled in one corner, checking himself for wounds.
“I could have been thrown from the vehicle!” he said.
“But you weren’t,” Phoenix pointed out. “Twenty-five percent is looking pretty good.”
The nervous boy had no response to that. Gadget stood in the driver’s seat, framed by an eerie glowing light. Indira wondered if the Stained had come for them. Her hand glided down to the grip of her hammer. She glanced at the Hero’s Journey tutorial for confirmation, but it showed they were still on the same step they’d been on since bursting through the gates of Ordinary. It was the one step that Indira hadn’t immediately understood:
CROSSING THE THRESHOLD
“Whoa,” Gadget said. “You guys have to check this out….”
“Are there aliens?” Squalls called. “Because if it’s aliens, I’m a hard pass….”
Gadget didn’t answer. Instead, she leaped down from the carriage.
Indira finally saw the source of the light. Digital stations—each one about her height—circled a massive stone memorial. It had been built like a sprawling tabletop, the kind a general might use to make a plan of attack before battle.
As Indira climbed down from the carriage, she couldn’t help marveling at the details. The tabletop had been carved to match the surrounding countryside. There were little stone farmhouses and quiet villages and slanting rivers.
At the very center of the table, however, a straight line ran across. The canyon separated those familiar villages from a dark beyond. Indira noticed that end of the table was carved to mimic a swirl of shadows and waiting threats, all on the verge of taking shape.
Indira knew Gadget couldn’t resist playing with tech. She watched as the girl tapped the nearest interface. The display glowed brighter. There was a flash of light, and then the image of a girl projected out onto the road they were standing on. She wore a checkered blue-and-white dress, had brown pigtails, and clutched a little dog tightly to her chest.
Her eyes grew wide as she said, “Toto, we’re not in Kansas anymore….”
The image shimmered brightly before flickering out.
“That was Dorothy,” Squalls whispered. “From the Wizard of Oz.”
Another console activated. Another character—and Indira felt certain this was also a famous character—flashed out onto the road. This one was a young boy with a straw hat, dirty overalls, and bare feet. He grinned at them like they were all old friends.
“It’s the little things that smooths people’s roads the most….”
He winked before vanishing like the first image.
“That was Huckleberry Finn!” Phoenix whispered in awe. “Remember, Indira? We studied him in Sympathetic Characters class with Threepwood.”
Indira nodded, though she didn’t remember that. As they stood there, other characters appeared. Old lines written by ancient Authors were recited. It felt sacred to sit there and listen to little snatches from their stories. Indira also noticed that most of the lines had to do with moving forward into the unknown.
The final console cast the image of a young knight. He surprised Indira by climbing right up onto the table. A glowing sword appeared, half plunged into the stone. He gripped the hilt, set his feet, and pulled with all his might. There was a sharp sound as the sword came free in a brilliant flash. Indira knew this story. Almost every character did.
“Good evening. I am King Arthur.” The young knight strode to the edge of the table and looked at them. “This was my moment of Crossing the Threshold. You have come to your moment in the Hero’s Journey tutorial where you will do the same. When I pulled the sword from the stone, everything about my life changed. It was the day that I left ordinary behind.
“The way forward will not be easy. You will find a Road of Trials awaiting you. Strange conflicts. Difficult quests. But the truth—for every brave character—is that your journey cannot begin without crossing out of what you know and into what you do not. It is our greatest calling. Whether it means entering the land of Oz or claiming our rightful title as king, this is the moment that marks your first step into something more.”
He leaped down from the edge of the tabletop. They all watched as the digital king dragged the tip of his sword across the very real road. An actual line formed in the dirt and began to glow with light. Indira found herself mesmerized by it. “Cross this line,” Arthur commanded. “Begin your journey. Become the heroes you were born to be.”
The image vanished.
Indira looked around at the others. Everyone stood a few inches taller. Allen Squalls was the first to speak, a
nd the nervous edge in his voice was barely noticeable now.
“I hope—I hope one day I have a line in my story that everyone remembers. Or a cool moment that echoes through the worlds forever! It’d be amazing to have that.”
Gadget was quieter. “I just want to be chosen for a story. That would be enough for me.”
“Same here,” Phoenix said. “But that’s how each of them started. I don’t think they knew they’d become legends, or that their words would be programmed into memorials. I’d bet each one of them started out like us. Just a character hoping to find a role in a story.”
“What a fine speech!” a voice behind them called. “Fifty more points for you!”
The crew turned to find Beginning strolling up the road. She still had that wide grin on her face. “That was a truly wonderful start to your scenario! One of the smoothest we’ve seen. There were secrets and daring escapes and unexpected friendships! Oh, I knew you all would be up to something good. It’s time now to hand you off to my sister.”
She gestured down the road. Indira looked. The teenage version approached from that direction. Middle was unsmiling. She wore a determined look that matched her tougher appearance. Indira finally understood why she looked the way she did. The middle of the book was where all the true tests waited. In the beginning, things were bright and exciting, the way the youngest sister appeared. What came next would be a true measure of their team’s strength.
It was almost as if Middle read her thoughts, because the girl called out from where she stood. “Come enter my realm. Let’s see what you can really do.”
In the silence that followed, all three of Indira’s crew members looked to her. She thought about all the dreams and hopes they’d just shared. Truths that had nestled deep in each of their hearts. It wasn’t lost on Indira that she had already achieved the dream each of them was still reaching for. She’d been viewing the tutorial as a game, a chance to brush up on her skills.
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