Melody squinted at the small writing in the spell book. She poured a little bit of that and a
little bit of this and a pinch of seeds into a small bowl and mixed it up with a wooden spoon. The mixture smelled
awful and she wrinkled her nose at it. Her white dove cooed in the corner on its stand.
"I guess he doesn't like the smell either." Melody chuckled to herself. Now,
if she could get this spell to work on her dove, then she will try the spell that she had all ready prepared to
destroy the 4th Kingdom.
"Now, Dovey, once I feed you some of these seeds, you will be able to speak. Then you can
tell me all about how awful I am for feeding you these nasty things." Melody added another touch of greenish
liquid and mixed again.
If this spell worked, the spell in the purple bottle on the table will work too, Melody thought.
The purple bottle was the key to her revenge. If she poured the liquid over the 4th Kingdom on her map, the kingdom
will slowly rot as the map deteriorites. Crops will fail, farm animals will die, and disease will fall upon the
kingdom and it will be destroyed! Melody chuckled to herself and walked towards her pet dove. She grabbed it and
held the wings gently to its body so it wouldn't fly away. She took some seeds onto her finger and fed it to the
Dove and the unknowing dove gobbled all the seeds up into his little beak. Melody smiled and stroked the dove gently
waiting for something to happen. Nothing did happen for a few minutes.
Then the Dove went berserk and started struggling in Melody's hands. It got loose and started
flying all over the place. It knocked over bottles and potions on the shelves and flapped around the room aimlessly.
Melody quickly shut all the windows so it wouldn't fly away. She turned around and saw the Dove knock over her
precious purple bottle onto the map and another green miscellaneous bottle next to it. The two liquids mixed and
began hissing and white wispy smoke began drifting up towards the ceiling.
"Oh, Suckin' Elf! Look what you've done, you damn bird!" Melody quickly tried to wipe
up the mess but she noticed that the liquid had gathered all around the 6th Kingdom on the map and the entire kingdom
began to glow with an outer lining that lined the boarders of the kingdom. She couldn't wipe it away either. She
had no idea what she had just done. She quickly rolled up the map and put it away. She'll figure out what she had
done later. She must clean up the mess. The dove had settled down onto its perch and was cooing softly to itself.
It had spilled the seed mixture onto the floor and Melody bent down to wipe it up when she saw herself in the puddle
bending over next to the table. She looked up and looked down again. She looked at the Dove and the Dove looked
at her. She looked at the puddle and she saw herself again. She was looking through the eyes of the dove.
"Well, that's not exactly what I was aiming for, but this will do nicely too."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
(NOW)
King Wendell heard a commotion somewhere in his castle. It must be Antony and the Princess returning
from their journey. He put on his best smile and prepared himself for a royal greeting. But when the doors opened,
he saw Virginia and Wolf instead carrying a baby on his shoulders. His smile froze in place and he looked at Virginia,
then at Wolf.
"You're not Antony or the Princess." He said not realizing he had said it outloud.
"Of course not Prince, it's Virginia and Wolf. We've brought our baby cub with us for a
visit." Wolf said and put little Peter down on the ground. The baby immediately started crawling towards the
nearest rug and began playing with the hanging tassels.
"Now, I have been King for over a year now. You may stop calling me Prince." Wendell
retorted as-a-matter-of-factly.
"Huff puff, I can't help it, Prince, we called you that for quite a while back when you
were a dog. I can't shake it now." Wolf grinned. "Come, meet your Godson Peter."
"My Godson? You made me Godfather?"
"Of course, King Wendell. Who else would make a better Godfather?" Virginia chimed
in and picked up the baby Peter. He immediately started wailing when his mother pulled him away from his tangling
of the rug tassels. She handed the crying baby to Wendell and he held it out at arms length and smiled.
"I'm a Godfather!" He exclaimed. Wolf put his arm around Virginia and squeezed her
shoulder. They stood side by side and looked at the beaming king.
"Where's my dad, King Wendell. I want him to meet his grandson." Virginia asked when
Peter finally quieted down and was staring up at the shiny crown that Wendell had on his head.
"Oh, Antony. He should be back any minute now. He's escorting my betrothed to the 4th Kingdom
right now." Wendell said as he struggled to keep little Peter's hands from grabbing at his gold crown.
"Huff, Puff! You're getting married?!" Wolf exclaimed. "Congratulations Prince.
Who's the lucky lady?" He pulled Peter off the king and set him back onto the floor again.
"Princess Wendy from the 2nd Kingdom. She has been a childhood friend of mine and we have
kept in touch for quite a many years now and she has agreed to marry me when I put the question to her."
"Wow, I wished it had been as easy as that with Virginia and I." Wolf muttered.
"Congratulations, King Wendell." Virginia ignored Wolf and smiled. She went and gave
the king a big hug.
"Thank you, thank you. Now I can't wait for them to get back here. I don't understand what
is taking them so long actually. They should've been back yesterday night but something must be keeping them. Not
to worry I'm sure. Antony will have a splitting toothache when he sees little Peter here. And of course you too,
Virginia. Come, let's have a feast and celebrate."
"Ahh yes, a feast. I am starving!" Wolf panted, his tongue hanging to the side.
"Wolf, you just ate a huge meal fit for an army at the Pizza Shack." Virginia said
in shock. She could never get over how huge Wolf's appetite was.
"Lamb chop, that was no meal. You know how Manhattan food doesn't fill me up entirely. Plus,
traveling through that mirror made me hungry all over again. I'm a growing Wolf, you know." He said and quickly
followed the King in quick long strides.
Virginia laughed and picked up Peter from the carpet again and followed them into the dining area.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"I have never seen a giant before yet in all the Kingdoms since I've been here and I hope
I never WILL see one." Tony declared to the others.
They were staring down at the giant's footprint in the middle of the road. It was filled with murky brown water
and there was a horrible stench coming from it. "It's practically the size of a football field! Just one foot
is that large?!"
"A what?" One of the guards asked looking confused. "I don't think it's just one
footprint. I think it's quite a couple of them just set very closely together. Giants aren't that large."
"Ohhhhh..." Tony said in a snobby tone and turned to the Princess. "Come Princess,
let's have a quick swim." He laughed at the repulsed look that appeared on the Princess's face. "I was
just kidding! Just kidding! Geez, no one around here has a sense of humor."
The group quickly went around the large pond. The horses were getting a little edgy and started
trotting back and forth snorting and whining. The riders tried to control their horses and thought they were just
uncomfortable because they could still scent the giant's odor in the air. One of the guards trotted ahead and all
of a sudden vanished into thin air.
"What the.....?" Tony said. The other guard looked up as he was following the first
guard. His eyes opened wide when he saw his friend disappear right in front of his eyes. He tried to stop his horse
but the horse wouldn't obey and it trotted right after the first guard and they all vanished.
The princess screamed when she saw the guards disappear. Her horse reared up and took off in
the other direction. The princess held on and tried to stir the animal back. It bucked and turned around and headed
right towards the area where the guards were.
"No, don't!" Tony yelled trying to chase down the princess on her horse. But the horse
and rider soon vanished too.
"Holy mother of God." Tony breathed. The guards and the princess all just up and vanished.
Where in the world did they go? He looked around. Everything seemed normal. The scenery didn't change. There was
no slight wavering of air in the area. It couldn't be a magic mirror opening, could it? Tony walked his horse closer
to where the others had vanished and looked closely. There was nothing there. Just air. He waved his hand in front
of him, nothing happened. Then both hands. He felt a force all of a sudden pull at him and he pulled at his hands.
But he was being slowly sucked into the void. He pulled with all his might but it was no use.
"Oh hell." he muttered and disappeared. His horse reared up and galloped away from
the area.
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