Rescue Mission to Wonderland

Chapter 2
Rescue Mission to Wonderland Part 2

Chapter Description: The quest starts in earnest. Three girls in their role of Guardians of the Kingdom on a mission given to them by its queen and Josh as the big brother watching out for them ... but how long until his ever dwindling age casts this into question? And more ...

The Quest:

“So, who is this Lord Lucicon and what does he wants to do with this Orb of Season anyway?” Josh asked his sister after they had walked side by side silently for a while.

“He is the lord of summer. The orb makes the seasons change.” Kelly explained. “If he doesn’t give it back, there will always be summer.”

“Doesn’t sound too bad.” Her brother noticed, pulling up the sleeve of the sweatpants over his left leg.

“I told you, you don’t look around!” Rosedew complained.

Swallowing a comment, Josh did. All seemed fine so far. A lush forest, except that the leaves seemed to hang a bit too much and a few had fallen to the ground without having their usual autumn-colors yet. The meadows in between still had their irritating, deeper than normal green, but at the same time it was a bit weaker than in the last he had seen. A large flower was hanging a bit listlessly around, when a likewise large bee arrived.

“Not today Bill,” the flower said.

“But I have to make my quota!” The bee complained.

Josh walked on, unsure if the girls got the implications, unsure if he wanted to.

Not for the first time, his eyes fell on the sword on Beatrice’s back. It gave the strength of a giant, so what if he took it when she wasn't paying attention and forced the girls to go back? Nothing would be able to stop him. Right? He didn’t, though, because he guessed even with the strength of a giant, dragging all three girls back against their and their companions wishes would be a bit too much. As if it had read his mind, Beatrice’s unicorn companion – Aruna as he remembered – turned its long head back to him. Their eyes met and Josh looked away.

Still planning to enact this plan if things got too dangerous, Josh tried to distract himself and looked back to Kelly. He had shrunk a bit more, yet still stood well above her. The sleeves of his sweater and the legs of his sweatpants were rolled back, but he felt unsure how much more often he could do so and dreaded the moment he could do so no longer, or when he would have to carry his shoes, which already felt much too large. Absentmindedly he went over his face. It no longer had even hints of stubbles. If he had slipped mostly past puberty, maybe the regression was over as he could be seen as child?

He clung to this hope.

Not long after, they came to a wooden sign at the edge of some buildings. Rivertown. Josh couldn’t really congratulate whoever lived there for their naming skills. The buildings looked strange, too, a bit too small, a bit too … fantastic for his taste. One had seemingly been built into a hill, another had spikes into the ceiling, the next was in a giant tree. It wasn’t until they took a turn in the road in the proper town and he could see the inhabitants gathered near the bridge, that it began to make sense for him. They were owl and toad, mouse and squirrel, all wearing at last vests. There was even a rabbit amongst them Josh could have sworn was the one he had nearly stepped on in the forest.

“What are they doing?” Amanda asked.

“Look like they are arguing.” Beatrice noticed.

Josh had to agree and due to him being still the tallest in the group, he could see why. The river the intelligent critters had to have named their town after, now consisted out of small, dirty looking ponds.

“I tell you this is a catastrophe!” The toad said.

“There will be rain again.” The owl tried to calm him.

“What shall we drink until then?” The squirrel asked, its bushy tail twitching. “He has all the water.”

“Hello,” Beatrice greeted them.

“What do you want to do?” The mouse asked, ignoring them, its whiskers twitching. “You know we can’t enter his house.”

“Could you please move?” Kelly tried. “We are on a quest.”

“I say we destroy it.” The rabbit said.

“You know how good he builds.” The owl reminded them.

There was more discussion and it became clear that the animals wouldn’t talk to them. Beatrice looked like she wanted to just push them aside, but it was Amanda who made a step forward. Instead of pushing them, as she could have done alone considering her larger size, or trying to speak with them again, she brought both parts of her broken-heart-pendant together. It started to shine, casting a soft ruby light on the animals. Immediately the citizens of Rivertown stopped arguing and looked at them, probably noticing the newcomers for the first time.

“You are the Guardians!” The owl exclaimed. “The queen be praised! She sent you!”

“We need your help!” The toad explained, pointing at the remnants of the river. “Look what he did.”

“We are already on our way to Lord Lucicon to get the Orb of Seasons back.” Amanda explained.

“I’m not speaking about politics.” The owl explained. “It is Mr. Beaver who is jamming the river.”

“We asked him to open the dam to let more water through,” the mouse added, “but he didn’t listen to us.”

“Then we will destroy it, Mr. Mouse.” Beatrice declared.

Mr. Mouse?, Josh wondered, is this a world for toddlers?!

“Hey!” Kelly protested.

“Yes!” The toad said. “Save us like you did from the dragon the last time.”

Beatrice already rushed up the former river’s stream, with the rest of the group lagging behind.

“Dragon?” Josh asked his sister with disbelief.

“That was the last time.” Kelly remembered with a smile. “He burned down a portion of the forest, but in the end he was nice.”

Josh looked down on his sister, feeling his perspective shift a little. Her whole life, he had seen her as an innocent, carefree and sometimes obnoxious little child. So, his little sister had met dragons? These were news. If their parents …

Squash!

His left shoe had become stuck in the mud near the riverbed.

“Leave them.” Rosedew advised him. “Humans wear too many clothes anyway.”

“Thanks, Miss fashion expert!” Josh retorted to the naked fairy. “I have just bought them. They were expensive.”

“For your last year.” said Kelly, sounding suddenly very reserved. “So that your friends would notice you more.”

“Yes,” Josh replied, surprised by her tone. “Why?”

His sister didn’t say anything, but walked off.

“What?” He wondered, loudly, turning to Rosedew.

The fairy looked at him in a strangely disappointed way.

“You really are blind.” She said and flew ahead.

Deciding the opinion of a little girl – even if the girl was his sister – and a creature out of a fantasy tale didn’t matter to him too much right now, Josh concentrated on getting his shoe out of the mud. Once he had managed this, he hurried after the rest.

The girls and their companions had already arrived at what looked for Josh like the largest beaver dam he had ever seen. Kelly stood at Drufus’s side, burying her hands in his fur like she was searching for comfort. Beatrice had drawn her sword and aimed at the dam, while Amanda seemed to want to stop her.

“This is rude!” Amanda said.

“So is keeping this water all to himself!” Beatrice replied.

“If you destroy the dam here you will drown.” Josh noticed dryly.

Both girls starred at him, giving the boy a much-needed moment of feeling superior to them, at last in knowledge.

“Who made you an expert?” Beatrice asked, obviously not wanting to give him this win.

“It is common …” Josh coughed, his throat suddenly feeling weirdly squeezed. “com … common sense!” Why was he suddenly having trouble keeping his voice steady?

“I’m strong enough to swim up a waterfall!” Beatrice claimed cockily.

“You are just dumb enough to try!” Josh retorted. “Ever seen a building fall? This needs planning!”

He stopped, shocked by the sound of his own voice. It had become higher, maybe an octave. With sudden clarity, he realized he had just gone through voice break in the wrong direction!

“You are squeaking like a duck!” Beatrice pointed out, noticing the change in his voice.

“It is about destroying this dam, not how!” Amanda continued, stepping between the two. “It looks beautiful. It would be mean to destroy such a thing.”

Before one of them could respond, another voice was heard.

“Who is talking about destroying my dam?”

All looked up, seeing the head of a beaver lurking over the edge of the dam.

“You are holding back the water the town needs!” Beatrice accused him.

“So what?” The beaver said and chuckled. “Come up. I have to show you something.”

The four exchanged looks before following the invitation.

Behind the dam was a whole little lake and the beaver seemed to inflate with pride at the look on their faces. Even Josh was impressed, despite him being busing touching his throat, where the adam’s apple had become a shadow of what it had been moments ago. The impressed look on his face turned to horror though, as he got a look at himself on the surface of the water. A more mellow face, hair a touch blonder and his size even more reduced, he couldn’t be more than twelve. Worse, the oversized clothing he wore made him look like a middle-schooler playing dress up! He had never been a muscular type, but what had been a teenager’s muscles were gone, leaving even less to fill out the sweater. The way his collar was hanging over most of his shoulders only highlighted how narrower they had become.

“Why don’t you let the water run down, so the town gets some?” Beatrice demanded to know.

“Because then my lake would dry up.” The beaver explained and pointed upstream. “Look.”

They did. It turned out their initial guess was correct. The river had dried up further upstream, too.

“If I open the dam, I will lose my home and nobody will have water.” The beaver explained. “They can drink from here, although the best solution would be to have a well. There is always water in the earth.”

“Sounds good,” Kelly noticed. “Why doesn’t the town have one?”

“They didn’t listen to me back then.” The beaver explained. “And now the earth might be too hard for the strongest of us.”

Beatrice grinned at him.

***

So, they built the well. At first it was them and the whole town together, but soon it was Beatrice who did most of the digging with the largest shovel to be found. The rest put away the earth and brought the logs provided by the beaver, or Mr. Beaver as a no longer surprised Josh had learned. Josh used the free time to get his math skills to some use, trying to roughly get the volume of the future well, but by trying to write them in the mud with a stick, he found he could no longer recall the basic formulas needed to do so, despite having them securely memorized just a few hours ago. Was the stress of the whole fantasy world ordeal affecting him more than expected, he pondered. Not that the formulas were of much use for them here anyway.

Another thing he had learned were of little use to him right now, were his shoes. Not only did they got off more often than not, they also got covered in dirt and mud, so after the first half of the construction, he took them off and put them aside along with his socks. When it was done, his feet and some parts of his sweatpants had gotten so dirty that he used the first bucket of fresh water to clean them.

The next buckets were distributed between the citizens and some more used for filling waterbags which were handed to the group along with smaller bags filled with nuts.

“We can keep them here.” Mr. Owl offered, when he noticed Josh looking at his shoes. “When you come back, they will be clean. This is the last we can do.”

“And you won’t step onto anyone so easily!” Mr. Rabbit added.

Reluctantly Josh agreed and so he left the town barefoot.

“It is warm enough.” Kelly tried to cheer him up, eating a nut from her bag.

“Hmpf.” Josh replied though he had to admit he liked feeling the warm cobbles under his feet. “What was this trick Amanda has done with her necklace?”

“The Necklace of Love.” Kelly explained. “Its light calms people and let them sometimes feel love.”

“So, Amanda’s necklace mindfluffs people, Beatrice’s sword turns her into fluffing superman.” Josh concluded, missing fuck already. “What do your armbands do?”

Kelly starred at them. They were golden, shiny, yet Josh believed to see sudden disgust in his sister’s face he had never seen before.

“They are the Armbands of Friendship.” Kelly noticed. “They connect you with your best friend.”

“Sounds great.” Josh replied.

His sister starred at him unbelieving, before rushing ahead, leaving Josh confused.

“You really don’t understand your sister.” Rosedew noticed, flying by his side.

“I can’t understand every whim of a little child!” Josh replied. “What is it? Are they the wrong color?”

The fairy flew above him and pulled at his hair.

“Hey!” Josh protested.

“She has only two armbands.” Rosedew explained. “She can give only one of her friends one, cutting the other out, or giving both one, cutting herself out.”

“Oh.” Josh said, feeling himself suddenly very dumb.

It wasn’t long after, that they found their way blocked by a great round boulder, lying on the path between two high cliffs, through which the wind raged, causing an eerie wailing sound.

“I could push it away.” Beatrice offered.

“Hey!” A booming voice said. “Don’t touch me!”

The group looked around, but already a moment later two slightly reddened eyes opened on the boulder, starring at them defiantly.

“I won’t move.” The boulder declared in a tone which reminded Josh of a pouty young boy. “Go away.”

It was Amanda who spoke first.

“But we need to go ahead to get the Orb of Seasons.” She tried to explain.

“I don’t care for seasons.” The boulder said. “My parents have divorced and now I have to decide where to go!”

The group fell silent for a moment.

“We will bring them back together.” Amanda promised, touching her necklace. “Where are they?”

“Up there,” the boulder said excitedly. “Left and right of me.”

They looked up and noticed the mountains standing tall over both sides of the cliffs.

“Spell of a divorce.” Josh muttered, meaning the usual, while refastening the band of his sweatpants, rolling up sleeves and pant-legs for what seemed the dozenth time this day. “More of a continental rift.”

Kelly pushed him slightly, a push that still showed more relative strength than her brother felt it had any right to have. They made their way up left, Amanda at the head. It grew rockier, so they had to leave their companions behind, except for Rosedew who of course was no one’s.

Before long, they reached a small cliff only Josh was still large enough to scale before reaching each one a hand to pull them up. He felt strangely proud of this, and even more as his sister smiled to him. Thus, they reached a plateau, giving them a perfect view on the large mountain in front of them.

“Still a long way.” Josh noticed.

“We could …” Kelly began.

A tremor stopped her. All got on their knees and to their amazement two eyes opened on the mountain’s flank. They were deep shade of blue, similar to glaciers but somehow not too different from those on the boulder.

“I can hear you just fine.” A voice, deep as the earth, but still distinctly female, boomed down on them to be heard in the whole kingdom, as Josh had little doubt. “What do you want?”

“We come from your son,” Amanda called. “He wants you and his father to be together again.”

“I love my son,” the mountain explained, “but the earth can swallow my former husband.”

“What happened?” Beatrice asked.

“Oh, it was fine for an eon, but since two or three epoch we argued where to move.” The mountain explained. “Now he heads for the sea and I go to see other mountains in the north.”

“That is horrible.” Amanda exclaimed, tears in her eyes.

“Whom are you telling it child.” The mountain replied. “The waves will gnaw on him, I’m sure.”

“I mean for your son!” The girl protested.

“My son should come with me.” The mountain noticed. “There are many boulders to play with and roll against in the north.”

“Think about it.” Amanda pleaded, touching her necklace and making the whole flank of the mountain turn red.

“I have, much longer than you lived.” The mountain replied unmoved. “I love my son, but I do him no favor if I stay.”

The four climbed back down.

“Maybe the father will listen.” Beatrice told Amanda.

The other girl nodded, not really enthusiastic.

Another climb later, they found themselves on a similar plateau.

“I have nothing to say to my ex-wife.” The other mountain said with an earthshaking voice. “I am sick of always seeing the same terrain.”

“But what about your child?” Amanda asked, tears threatening to spill, as she used her heart-necklace to shine on the mountain. “Don’t you want him to be happy?”

“How can he be happy, when I and his mother always argue?” The mountain replied unimpressed. “The sea will do him good, too. He can dive underwater and roll around in the sand.”

Having achieved nothing, the children walked down the rise, when Amanda suddenly started to run.

“Amanda!” Beatrice called, rushing after her friend.

The other girl stopped, looking at her with red, tear-filled eyes.

“It should have worked! We are the Guardians!” She said, touching her necklace. “Why didn’t it work?”

“I don’t know,” Beatrice admitted. “But sometimes there is nothing you can do. You know it. I mean …”

“I know my parents are not together anymore. I’m fine with it.” Amanda said angrily, her tears betraying her words “But why can’t it be different here?”

With this she collapsed on a nearby rock. Luaf, her rainbow-colored, furry snake, had come closer with the rest of the companions and now rolled herself around her friend, purring softly in an attempt to calm her.

For a while, the other children had nothing better to offer. Drufus joined Kelly’s side again, softly touching her hand with his head, while Aruna did the same with Beatrice. Rosedew and Josh just shared a look, before the latter sighed. He walked to Amanda, out of a wink trying to pet the unicorn which recoiled.

Oh, right, there was this thing with Julia, Josh thought, remembering the stories about unicorns and virgins.

“Hey,” he began, kneeling in front of Amanda, though he knew he hardly had to anymore. “I know you wanted this to turn out different, but sometimes we can do nothing to change how things develop over time. We only can make the best of the situation.”

The girl and the furry snake, whose head rested on the shoulder, looked at him. His words had been as adult as he had ever been, still his voice was now clearly that of a child. One of them. Maybe it helped, as the girl sniffed back her tears.

“It still hurts.” Amanda said, no longer talking over the mountains and the boulder.

“I know,” Josh replied. “But you can show someone else how to make it hurts less.”

“I guess.” Amanda admitted after a while.

She sighed and stood up, Luaf falling smoothly to her side.

A while later, they stood before the boulder again.

“Shared custody?” The boulder asked skeptically.

“You can visit both your parents every time you want.” Amanda explained. “One week here. Next week there.”

“It isn’t the same.” The boulder complained.

“It is the best you can do.” Amanda replied. “Your parents love you both.”

The boulder thought for what seemed a long time, then finally sighed.

“Okay. I want to go to Mum first,” he decided in, “but I need a push.”

Beatrice nodded and went to the boulder’s right side.

“Just be careful not to crush someone when you pass here, Mr. Boulder.” Josh warned.

The boulder looked at Josh in confusion.

“My name is Caaa …”

And out of sight he was.

***

The group continued its journey, quickly passing the cliffs under which sharp stones made themselves felt under Josh’s soles. Finally, they came to a large, open meadow, which had some brown spots, circled by a forest, and discovered a fruit tree near the way. Worn out by the climbing, the construction of the well and a day of traveling, they settled under it for a snack. While Beatrice and Luaf climbed the tree for fruits, helped out by Rosedew's indications, Kelly threw a stick which Drufus happily retrieved. Josh watched her, remembering how much she wanted a dog.

“Can I visit you?” Kelly asked, looking at her brother, just as Drufus raced over the grass. “When you leave, I mean?”

“Huh?” Josh didn’t know what she was talking about.

“When you go to college.” Kelly explained.

“Sure.” He replied, a bit confused.

“And play with you and speak with you and just be together?” she asked. “Because we never did before.”

Josh stopped himself from telling a lie and thought about it for a moment. So far, he hadn’t known his sister was thinking so far ahead, even less that it bothered her.

“There was little we could do together when you were younger. I mean you had dolls and …” He could see her rolling her eyes. “You didn’t come to me either. You always had your friends.”

“You were always so big! Busy with your friends and busy with big school-stuff I didn’t know.” Kelly said after a while. “I thought it would change, with us both going to the same school, but it didn’t. Soon you will leave and when you visit us, or I visit you, we will be strangers and … I have friends, but I want a brother, too.”

She looked at him, tears glittering in her eyes. Josh felt a sharp pain in his heart. He embraced her, awkwardly at first, but then he felt her relaxing and so did he.

“I will always be your brother.” He promised. “We still have a year or two under the same roof and even after it, this won’t change. Hey, when we are both adults, we can go out to bars and … and …”

Josh stumbled. What did people do in bars? He tried to remember, but it all seemed blurry in his head.

“Drink stuff?” Kelly asked.

“Yeah.” Josh replied.

The siblings smiled at each other and for the first time Josh noticed his sister was his height, which bothered him less than he would have expected. When Drufus returned with the stick in his mouth, they took turn to throw it.

A little later, the group gathered for the meal while the evening sun was setting in the distance. Sitting in a circle, with their companions resting at their backs, Rosedew laying on one of the upper branches of the tree, they gathered all the fruits still good enough to be edible in front of them.

“Hey, I know these fruits!” Josh said, glancing up at Rosedew. “You told me they turn people blue.”

“They turn people to all possible colors.” Amanda explained. “But only for one hour.”

“This is fun!” Beatrice said, biting in one red fruit with blue spots.

Instantly her face turned yellow with green spots!

Amanda bit into hers, a pink one with blue spikes and face turned brown and spiky.

Kelly ate her orange one and she turned red with fur covering her body.

Reluctantly, but still curious, Josh bit into his, a brown one with green stripes. In doing so, he noticed that he was missing his left upper canine and one of the left molars in his jaw. He had no idea when this had happened! Before he could think about it a tingling sensation went over his whole body. He looked at his hands, their skin becoming striped black and orange, like that of a tiger.

“Cool!” He exclaimed, already not caring about his teeth anymore.

The girls grinned, seemingly agreeing.

He looked around at the fruits, wondering what else they would do. Maybe they could even take some with them for more fun later! There were four of them. Sixteen fruits meant two fruits a day would last two days for them. This meant two-exponent … exponent … Josh found he didn’t know anymore!

Worried he looked to his sister, who grinned and threw something in his lap. It was one of the nuts the citizens of Rivertown had given them. Grinning back, he threw a nut of his own bag at her, causing a little food-fight over which any math-problems were instantly forgotten.

Josh and Kelly slept side by side this night and it felt like the most natural thing for them.

***

Josh opened his eyes, arosen not by the sun rising, but by the pressure he felt in his bladder. He looked at his sister who still slept peacefully at his side, noticing with horror, that his hand looked even smaller than hers. Knowing there was nothing to be done about it, the former teenager stood up as silently as he could. Beatrice and Anna were still sleeping, too, as were their companions and Rosedew on the branch above, so he silently crept to the forest, having to lift his pant-legs not to step on them.

While doing so, he went over his teeth with his tongue. When they had eaten, he had felt several of them receding into his gum, only to reappear as smaller versions. Milk teeth. It hadn’t hurt and he wouldn’t have noticed if he hadn’t paid attention, but there was no gap now. None were missing and he felt no hole in them. When pulling down his sweatpants, or rather letting them fall, the former teenager briefly wondered if his old teeth would come without a hole, too. This would be nice at last.

After having done his business, trying his best to ignore how tiny and hairless his best part now looked, Josh was just pulling up his pants, when he heard someone giggling. Thinking it was one of the girls, he turned around, but saw no one in the undergrowth. Wondering who was sneaking on him, Josh made one step further, when the bush in front of him rustled. The former teenager froze, suddenly feeling very small.

A head popped out of the bush. To Josh’s relief it looked like a violet teddy bear, with sparkling eyes and a wide, friendly grin. This relief turned to shock, when a dozen or so more heads, all in different colors popped out of the bush and all started giggling.

In a second they were on him. With the size and softness of teddy bears, but together a powerful force. They pushed him to the ground and started tickling.

“Hey, stop!” Josh protested.

“A little boy in the woods.” One said.

“Why so serious?” Another asked.

“I’m not …” Josh words were cut short by his laughter “Please no!”

“Let us cuddle.”

They started tickling his feet.

“Every little boy needs something to cuddle!”

“We make you laugh.”

“No …”

Josh’s weak protests were ignored as his laughter robbed him of any breath he could use to speak. He felt them on him. Embracing him. Tickling him even more! Vaguely he was aware, that he was losing something, but he was too out of breath to see what. Just as he believed he would faint; something more than the giggling was heard.

“Let go of him!”

“Away with you!”

“You are mean!”

These words made the little furry creatures stop, but it was a deep growl which made them flee. Still breathless, all Josh could do was lying on the ground, starring in the air. Finally, Rosedew appeared over his face.

“Still alive?” The fairy asked.

“What was that?” Josh asked, when he finally had enough breath to do so.

“Gigglers.” The fairy explained.

“They're a real nuisance.” sighed Amanda.

Josh could have called them more than that, but finding he lacked the words in the moment, he instead sat and finally stood up. The girls were there, looking worried, with their companions blocking them from the deeper forests where the Gigglers might still wait.

“Are you okay?” Kelly asked worriedly.

“Yes, I …” Josh stopped, noticing to his horror that he had to look up a bit to her.

Suddenly he heard giggling again. Fearful he looked around, but it turned out to be Amanda and Beatrice who did so, while holding their hands before their mouths and looking at him. At first the former teenager thought they were laughing about him having shrunken, before he looked down at himself and noticed his sweatpants were missing. Worse, he felt that under his oversized sweater, his underpants were missing too! The Gigglers had stolen them!

“Smother fudgings Underpants Gnomes!” He cursed.

Full of anger, Josh turned to the bush. It had to still be there, what could the Gigglers even want to do with his underpants anyway! He wanted to check it out and ran to it, but his feet slipped on some wood he hadn’t looked at and he fell forward. The sweater rushed forward as he lay there on his hands and knees, revealing his bum – and possibly more – to the girls behind him.

This caused the girls to laugh even louder. Embarrassed, Josh hurried to stand up and looked away, pressing his sweater even more down, until it nearly reached his feet. Still it didn’t feel enough. He felt tears dwelling up in his eyes, which made him even feel even more upset. In a moment he was on the verge of bawling like a little baby!

It didn’t come to that, thanks to Kelly, who stepped between her now little brother and her friends.

“Stop it!” She demanded angrily. “Can’t you see you hurt him?”

At last this worked and slowly the girls stopped giggling. Breathing heavily, Josh felt himself relaxing, too.

“Sorry.” Amanda said.

“Yes, sorry” Beatrice added. “It was mean.”

“It's fine.” Josh mumbled, wanting to put this whole episode behind him.

Kelly took his hand and together they went back to the road, though it felt to Josh as if she was leading him … strangely this felt good.

“Gigglers aren’t funny.” Kelly noticed. “They got me once, too.”

“Really?” Josh asked.

His sister nodded.

“I want you to wear something.” She said.

With this she removed the left bracelet and held it to him.

“But these are the Bracelets of Friendship,” Josh protested. “We are siblings.”

“Siblings can be friends, too!” Kelly determined.

With some awe, Josh took the golden bracelet and fixed it on his left wrist. It was a bit too large, but the diamonds glittered perfectly in the sun.

“Thank you!” He said, embracing his big sister.

***

Their journey continued, though it turned out to be the hardest part of it all, at last for Josh. It wasn’t the lack of pants and underpants, he quickly adjusted to this, yes even forgot it after a while, but he had problems keeping up with the girls with their relatively long legs. Even worse, the stone under his bare feet became hotter and hotter. As the landscape around them changed from forest to savannah to a desert, the stones became partly cracked, hurting his feet even more.

It was after Kelly saw him wincing when stepping on a particularly sharp stone, that she decided something had to be done. Beatrice made Aruna sit down and his sister led Josh to it.

“I’m not too small to walk!” Josh protested.

“Of course not!” Kelly said, rolling her eyes. “But you are the only one here who has to go barefoot.”

“Aruna won’t mind,” Beatrice noticed. “Won’t you?”

The unicorn neighed reassuringly and while Josh was still hesitant, the girls lifted him on Beatrice’s companion, steadying him as it rose up.

“Whoah!” Josh said, holding to the unicorn’s black mane.

Still, despite the lack of a saddle, Josh had no problems with staying on to Aruna as they moved on. In a way he felt protected by the unicorn. This was even more strange, considering she had backed away from him, when he had tried to touch her the last time. It had been because … The former teenager found he had trouble remembering what it had been about. He tried hard though and finally remembered it was something he had done together with Julia, a girl from school.

Josh couldn’t pin it down, but he remembered being happy that his parents hadn’t learned of it. Had it been something naughty? Like stealing a cookie? No, a part of him told him that it had something to do with bees and flowers, though how this fit in the former teenager had no idea. He looked down on himself, noticing that by spreading his legs over the unicorn’s back, his sweater had lifted a bit, revealing his wee-wee. Vaguely he was aware that this was something he had wanted to avoid, but the girls didn’t seem to mind. Still, his wee-wee – he just knew there had to be another word for it – had to do something with what he and Julia had done. If he just …

“Hey!” Amanda called out. “Look.”

Josh looked up, his chain of thought broken, and saw a wooden plank with something written on it. He couldn’t decipher it though, as much as he tried, so he guessed it must have been written in some strange language.

“Lucicon’s Palace.” Beatrice read. “We are here.”

Surprised, Josh looked at the sign again, still not able to decipher it. Maybe it was a language only the girls knew. Had to be, since he remembered clearly that so far, he had been able to read everything in this land.

They went on and Josh tried to find something more interesting than the sign. There turned out to be little more to see than the sand along the road. He found himself beginning to miss the forests and the meadows. The colors had been too deep, but now he longed to see them again.

He was so dep in his thought that he didn’t notice as a light ahead of them, straight on the way, became brighter and brighter, the nearer they came. When he finally did, it scared him somehow and he exchanged a look with Kelly. Without a word, his sister helped him from the unicorn’s back, lifting him the last feet without effort before firmly holding his hand as they walked on. Their Bracelets of Friendship sparkled in the light.

Josh felt at thousand times better, but suddenly there was a blinding flash of light and when he could see again, he was alone. Scared he turned around on his bare feet, seeing he was in an unbelievably long corridor filled with mirrors.

In the mirror to his left Josh believed to see his sister’s face, but as he came nearer, he noticed it was just a little boy, maybe five years old. The realization that it was him needed a whole second to sink in, only made final by the former teenager noticing the sweater which was basically like a tent now. Only his bare feet were visible under it, while the collar had grown so wide it was barring one shoulder. The right sleeve had rolled down, giving him an even more helpless appearance.

Josh felt shaken by this image, but even more by his face. Rounder, pudgier, more mellow. Nothing reminding of the angular lines of late teenhood. A beard would have looked as alien under his little nose as a green tentacle. Yet the most disturbing part was how close certain features of his face resembled his sister’s. It made him desperately want to have her near him.

“Oh,” an arrogant sounding voice said, coming from everywhere and nowhere at the same time. “The big hero turned into a little boy. What are you going to do without your big sister now?”

“Where are they?” Josh demanded to know, looking around wildly and wondering how the voice had read his thoughts. “Who are you?”

“I’m Lord Lucicon,” the voice declared. “And I won’t allow the Guardians to take the Orb from me.”

“The queen needs the orb to make the seasons change.” Josh protested, his high pitched voice somehow sounding whiny to his own ears.

“Change?” Lord Lucicon asked irritated. “What good did change ever bring? All this kingdom needs is my season.”

“You hurt people.” Josh declared angrily, searching for the darkest word to describe the being, despite knowing it would come out wrong. “You are a meany!”

The former teenager blinked. This hadn’t even come out wrong, but there had to be better words.

“I am the meany?” The voice asked in a mock-hurt tone, before Josh could think. “Look in the mirror and see what you are.”

The mirror in front of him suddenly turned to life. Josh didn’t want to look in it anymore, but found he couldn’t help himself. In it he saw an image of himself, his big, teenage self, sitting at his desk back in his room. stuck over homework. Unnoticed by his image, Kelly walked into the door with a ball, obviously mustering the courage to speak. Before she could though, his cell-phone rang and he began talking with his friend Mike. Still unnoticed, Kelly left with sunken shoulders.

“You were never a brother to her!” The voice accused him.

“You lie!” Josh shouted back.

“I don’t.” Lord Lucicon insisted. “And time will only make it worse.”

A mirror ahead flickered to life. Against his better knowledge, Josh walked to it and looked in. He was older there too, much older than he had ever been. In his thirties, walking down a street with a busy look on his face. The colors of this image bothered him, they looked washed out and he needed a second to remember that this was how the real world looked like. The image stumbled into a younger woman, who Josh needed a moment to identify as Kelly, as did his image, obviously.

“Kelly,” his image stuttered slightly. “Hi, how are you?”

“Fine,” the older image of his sister said. “You?”

“Great,” Josh older image said.

Josh could see this was a lie the tired way his eyes looked. The older image of Kelly had to do so, too, but instead of asking what was up, she just shrugged.

“Good to see you.” She said briefly. “We have to talk sometimes again.”

“Definitely.” Josh’s older image said. “Email address still valid?”

“Sure is.” Kelly’s older image noticed. “Bye.”

“Bye.” Josh’s image said and turned.

Josh didn’t need Lord Lucicon to know these two wouldn’t talk or write each other, except maybe for Christmas or birthdays, if they remembered the latter. Worse, he remembered promising Kelly that they would be close as adults, but now realized that this was a more likely scenario. He felt tears running down his cheeks, and his lips near trembling, but then he felt the bracelet on his left hand. One of the Bracelets of Friendship his sister had given him, a proof that they were close and a promise that they would remain so.

“Liar!” Josh shouted loudly.

Before the voice could reply something, the little boy began to run down the corridor. Where to he couldn’t say. His small, bare feet beating the hard ground, barely avoiding stepping on the edges his own sweater. On both sides of the corridor more mirrors came to life, showing images which weren’t true. Of older versions of him and Kelly, arguing over money, over time, even over inheritance. They weren’t true, still Josh wanted to press his hands to his ears. This was when he noticed his bracelet beginning to sparkle the farther he went.

Intrigued he continued on, until the bracelet shone like a lamp and felt warm in a calming way. He stopped in front of a normal looking mirror. The bracelet clearly reacted the strongest here, but all Josh could see was his reflection. A maybe five, but rather four-year-old boy, clearly scared, despite his best efforts not to show it. It didn’t matter. Josh walked to the image, looked into the face where tears had just run and held up the bracelet. The face vanished, melting into that of his sister. A bit similar, but not quite. She too held up her bracelet and looked as scared as he did. Together they walked to the mirror from each side and let their bracelets touch the surface.

The mirror burst.

Everything vanished in a burst of light and the next think Josh knew, he was embracing Kelly. Beatrice and Amanda stood behind her, along with their companions, Drufus running excitingly around them and Rosedew circled their heads.

Someone coughed.

All eyes turned around and they noticed they were in a large hall. A throne with a painted sun above it in the background and a man with a sun mask standing near them.

“You did well Guardians.” Lord Lucicon noticed. “Still, why should I return the Orb of Seasons to the queen? Why risk change? Wouldn’t you want this moment of perfect harmony to last?”

“It can’t last,” Kelly said, sad but determined. “It would dry up and turn to dust, like the land if we tried to make it to.”

“It would mean to keep what makes us sad.” Amanda noticed, remembering the boulder. “Instead of giving us new ways to make us happy.”

“It wouldn’t give us a reason to change,” Beatrice said, remembering Rivertown with its new well. “But reasons to destroy beautiful things.”

For what seemed a long time, the man thought about it.

“Your words move me and ring true,” Lord Lucicon decided, looking up with melancholy at the sun painted on his walls. With a long sigh, he added. “Time for summer to end.”

He clasped his hands and there was another blinding flash of light. When the children could see again, they were in another place, another palace to be exact, filled with diamonds, rubies and gold, lightened by brilliant candles. All around them, Josh could see beings he had met already, like upright animals, gnomes and fairies, but also saw fauns, centaurs and mushroom people.

Above all of them, on a throne carved into a tree, sat a woman. A fine silver band for a crown, beautiful golden hair under which pointed ears could be seen, and a long white dress which seemed to flow as she stood up and came down the stones leading to her throne.

“I see you return the Orb of Seasons to us.” She noticed.

Lord Lucicon nodded. Opening his hand, a gleaming orb of light appeared. Seemingly weightless, it sailed through the air, until it landed in the hands of a being dressed in autumn leaves, with a giant one hiding its face.

“Lord Twarn will start autumn then.” The queen noticed.

“I regret the trouble I caused.” Lord Lucicon said.

“No lasting harm was done.” The queen replied. “You can join the feast old friend.”

Lord Lucicon bowed politely, only to turn and vanish into the crowd, leaving the children and their companions alone in the middle of the hall.

“You did well again, Guardians, as always.” Queen Lyxaria praised them as she walked further, only to stop in front of Josh. “Or as for the first time.”

“I only came here to save my sister and her friends.” Josh said, feeling uncomfortable for suddenly being the center of attention of everyone in the room, and even more of the tall, beautiful woman. He fought the urge to hide behind Kelly, but let his hand wander into hers. “I’m no Guardian.”

“You could have never entered the portal or even seen it, if you hadn’t been supposed to be here.” The queen revealed. “You did a great service to the land. What do you want as price?”

For a moment he thought, then he smiled and looked up at his sister.

“I have all I want.” He decided.

“This seems to be a worthy price indeed then!” The queen proclaimed with a smile that Josh might have found condescending just a short time ago. “But I think I will help you at last with your clothing.”

Surprised Josh looked down, remembering that he only wore a sweater and feeling a sudden rush of self-consciousness. With red cheeks he looked up at the queen.

“Shh, we can fix this.” the queen said, kneeling down to look him in the eyes and softly stroking his hair. “Lord Twarn?”

The being clothed in leaves nodded and made some complicate looking gesture with his hands. A small whirlwind appeared in it, shooting straight at Josh. The child took a shocked breath, but it actually didn’t feel bad to be surrounded by the wind hose and a second later it was over.

“Looks much better, doesn’t it?” The queen asked.

Josh looked down on himself. Gone was the sweater with the sign of his school’s football team. He now wore a suit out of autumn-leaves like Lord Twarn did. Even his feet were covered in thick slippers seemingly created out of dry moss.

“Thank you!” Josh said.

The queen smiled and now turned to all guardians.

“The whole kingdom is grateful.” She declared. “But it is time for you to go home, so your parents won’t worry.”

With this she made a gesture and a portal appeared in the middle of the hall, just like the one he had entered this place through. The girls began saying goodbye to their companions and Josh turned to Rosedew.

“Thank you.” He said. “For helping me.”

“Sorry for saying you don’t belong here.” The fairy replied smiling. “Anyone willing to do so much for his sister does!”

Both smiled, until Kelly softly tugged Josh in the direction of the portal. Just in front of it he stopped, looking back at the queen.

“Will everything be back to normal?” He asked.

“Everything will be as it should be.” The queen replied with a wide smile.

Josh returned the smile and then stepped through the portal, hand in hand with his sister.

To be continued …