It Becomes a Trend to Eat Leaves

Walter sat in the corner of his room, trembling. Not in the cold, but in fear.

He and the giants had been caught and separated. He was taken into this room and held as prisoner. He had expected his room to be a cell, but no. It was fully furnished with human-sized tables and chairs and beds. There was even a window, but it was barred and there was no way of escape.

He suspected that the humans were going to get him onto their side because he was human too. They wouldn’t hurt him. Then his stomach lurched. He wasn’t being treated well because he was a human–it was because they wanted him to control his weapon! The giants had said the other humans couldn’t do it, nor could anyone else. He was the only one who could. He made up his mind that he wouldn’t ever work for them. Not if it were for anything.

But it was the giants he was worried about. They would be hypnotised.

The door to his room suddenly opened and a man entered, carrying a plate of food with him. He set it on Walter’s table. ‘Eat,’ he said and left.

Walter was starving and got to his feet. He peered into his plate. It was a vegetable sandwich.

The humans were clearly giving it to him to lure him to their side. He was the only one who could use the Bow of Fire, after all.

Walter backed away. He would never accept anything from the humans! Not if his life depended on it.

He watched the sandwich wistfully. It looked so good and he was starving. No–he couldn’t accept it! The humans were the ones who had imprisoned the giants. He would never eat their food.

He stared at it hungrily. His mouth was starting to water . . .

He snatched it off the plate and stuffed it into his mouth. He was hungry, and he wouldn’t refuse such good food. This was no movie, so no need for drama.

Just as he was gleefully wolfing it up, a stone flew through the window, brushing past his ear.

He walked up to the window and peered out.

‘Hello, nitwit, do you always need someone to save you?’ came a voice.

‘Shut up, Mavis.’

Mavis looked around nervously. ‘Okay, listen, Walter, there are guards down here, and they’ll be after me soon. Could you melt those bars with your bow?’

‘No, I can’t. They’ve taken it away.’

Mavis chewed her lip. ‘I have Spark with me. I can try and climb up?’

She grabbed one of the stone bricks of the tower with her left hand. But the moment they touched it, it disappeared, and another took its place. She tried again, and the same thing happened.

‘Oh, great. This tower’s bewitched.’

‘Is there no other way?’ asked Walter in dismay.

‘Yes, there is. Why don’t you let your hair down and I could climb up with it?’

‘I could do without the sarcasm.’

Then something popped into Mavis’ mind. ‘Wait a minute–what about the hover ivy leaves?’

Walter stared in confusion as she rummaged through her pockets and triumphantly pulled out a hover ivy leaf.

‘What good will a leaf do?’

‘You wait and see.’

She popped it into her mouth, and a sweet taste rushed through her mouth. All the cells in her body felt a sudden surge of magic. Sparks of magic began to flicker around her fingertips. She felt her injured arm suddenly heal itself. Although hover ivy wasn’t meant to do that, it contained huge amounts of magic that healed you.

Then nothing happened.

‘Uh, wait, something must have gone wrong . . .’

Walter watched from the window patiently.

Then, Mavis’ face lit up. ‘Wait–Waina told me that it would only work if there was another way out. Maybe . . .’

Walter shook his head in panic. ‘No, Mavis, I know what you’re thinking. I tell you: this is a terrible plan. You could get caught!’

Mavis shook her head. ‘If that was the case, then the ivy would have given me the power of flight.’

Walter was just about to point out the fact that the ivy was probably not even hover ivy, but Mavis wasn’t listening.

She turned to Alpha and Ruby, who seemed quite surprised that Walter was stuck in a tower. ‘Listen you two,’ she barked. ‘Stay right here with Walter. I’ll be back in a minute.’

Then, she turned around and scuttled away. Ruby and Alpha stared after her blankly, not understanding a word she’d said.

Mavis walked up to the door of the palace. The guards looked up in surprise. ‘Hey, what’s up?’ she said and blasted ’em down.

The doors were just HUGE and there was no way she could open them. She considered blasting them down too, but that would be impossible without alerting all the humans.

Nothing could be done, though, so she blasted them down. They fell inside with a huge bang, and she winced. Then she casually walked in. Another guard was standing inside, looking petrified.

‘Hey, man, how’s life?’ she said cheerfully.

All the guard could say was, ‘Please don’t kill me.’

‘Sure, why not? Just remember: I was never here.’

‘Y–you never were.’

Mavis looked around. Other than the guard, no one was there. But obviously, there were more in the castle. She couldn’t sneak through without being caught.

Before she could think about what could be done, another guard came running down the corridor. His uniform was different from the other guards. It was new and dark green, unlike the other guards’ old faded ones. He had a dozen badges pinned on his uniform, and Mavis guessed he was someone important.

‘What on earth broke that door?’ he shouted in disbelief.

‘I–I have no idea, sir,’ stuttered the guard. who stood by the broken door.

The commander turned towards her. ‘You there, Missy–did you see the door fall?’

‘No, sir, I ain’t seen nothing,’ said Mavis in a fake accent that was difficult to place. She decided she was a waitress. ‘I just been deliverin’ food to the prisoner, an’ I heard the sound, so I come runnin’ to see.’

‘If you're a waitress, where is your uniform? You shouldn’t loaf around like a Mrindawian.’

‘Mrindawian!’ Mavis squawked in alarm. ‘I’m no Mrindawian! I’ve just, er, torn my uniform.’

‘In that case, have you delivered the food yet?’ asked the commander calmly.

‘No, sir. I can’t find where the food has been kept.’

‘I thought the prisoner had already had the food delivered?’

Mavis began to sweat in panic. Walter’s food had already been delivered? What would she do now?

‘Uh, no sir, I meant, uh, um, Mr Poo,’ she said. The moment she said this, she regretted it. She wished she’d thought of a better name.

The man looked at her in doubt, then pointed down the corridor. ‘You’ll find the food there, in the kitchen, Missy.’

Mavis nodded and dashed down the corridor. She needed a uniform. If someone else saw her, they wouldn’t necessarily believe her.

She stopped abruptly after smelling the aroma coming from the kitchen. A waitress with orange hair and a cheerful look on her face came skipping out, rolling a trolley.

Mavis saw her chance and pounced onto her, dragging her to a corner with her palm over her mouth so that she wouldn’t scream.

The girl looked terrified as Mavis released her hand. She opened her mouth to scream, but Mavis cut her off. ‘Not one word or I’ll eat you.’

‘Y-you’re Mrindawian!’

‘Yes,’ Mavis hissed. ‘Elf, to be specific. And you know what elves love?’ She gave a toothy smile. ‘Human meat.’

The girl turned even paler. She was shivering with fear. ‘Please–Don’t kill me.’

Mavis sighed. ‘Not kill you? That might be a little difficult.’

‘Please . . .’

‘Well, if I’m not to eat you, I’m going to need your uniform.’

As Mavis walked into the kitchens in a waitress uniform, no one batted an eye seeing her.

It was uncomfortable and she really wished she had her old clothes back. But she had given it to that orange-haired girl. The girl had actually been delighted to wear it. (‘Oh, so this is what you call cotton? Ya know, in my time, we have only nylon and stuff like that.’)

A few cooks were briskly cooking food. The cutlery was all giant-sized, so a temporary kitchen was made below the giant cutlery. On one side, were food trolleys with plates of delicious food. On each trolley was a nameplate.

Mavis picked the one that said: GODGE in big bold letters. She hadn't seen the name on it at first, but her eyes widened when she did.

‘Are you delivering food to the army general?’ asked one of the cooks.

Mavis nodded, suddenly feeling she should have not chosen this trolley at all.

‘Well, doesn’t he eat a bit late?’

‘Uh, he told me to bring it now, because he has some work later.’ Saying so, she rolled the food trolley away for the sake of avoiding more questions.

She wondered where Walter’s room was. If she asked anyone, they would probably feel suspicious, because his food had already been delivered.

Then, she spotted a staircase. She decided that that’s where she’d have to go to find him, and dashed up to it, pushing the food trolley. Then, she found that the stairs were giant-sized and it would be impossible to climb them.

To her relief, though, in front of it, were golden chairs that had robotic wings on either side. A bunch of waitresses set their food trolleys on them, and sat on them, and said West Tower, South Tower, North Tower or East Tower. Then, the chairs spread out their metallic wings and actually flew up the staircase.

Mavis blinked in surprise, then set her trolley on one of the chairs, and hopped on. She realised that to get to Walter, she’d have to tell the name of the tower he was in. But she didn’t even know which one.

After thinking, she remembered that the sun was shining in the direction of where Walter’s tower was. That meant that it had to be the East Tower because the Sun always rose in the east.

‘East Tower,’ she said.

The chair spread out its robotic wings and started to fly up the staircase. Mavis would have screamed if she wasn’t used to flying on Star.

When it had reached the top, there was another corridor. It flew there for a moment, before turning right. Then left. Right again.

Then it landed in front of a giant-sized door.

When Mavis had gotten off, the chair flew away.

She turned to face the door. To her dismay, it had a small fingerprint recognition software at the bottom.

She looked at it for a moment, trying to work out what to do, then she lost her patience and blasted the door down with Spark.

The door collapsed and fell inside, and she marched in.

She found herself in a circular room, with huge doors around her. One of the doors was more heavily locked than the others, and Mavis guessed it was Walter’s. She walked up to it and blasted it down.

When the door collapsed, it created a cloud of dust, and Mavis couldn’t see anything and broke into a fit of coughs.

She gingerly stepped in and could make out that she was in a HUGE room. Its little furniture made it look even bigger. She doubted the fact that it was even Walter’s because there was no sense in imprisoning someone in such a big room. Then she remembered that this room may have once belonged to a giant.

‘Walter,’ she whispered, ‘come on, we don’t have time.’

There was no reply.

‘Walter, where on earth are you?’

She suddenly noticed a boy standing in the corner of the room.

It was Walter.

But his face was expressionless and blank. He was staring into empty space, and his eyes were . . .

Purple?

Mavis choked. No. This couldn’t be happening. Walter had been hypnotised by Godge!

She stepped back in fear and was greeted by a voice.

‘Hello, Mavis.’

She spun around and was horrified to see Godge standing in front of her.

‘G-Godge?’

Before she could react, he stared into her eyes.

She couldn’t look away. The hypnotic beam was going deep into her pupil. Every spark of magic in her body was surrendering itself to him. Every nerve carried one message to her brain: OBEY HIM.

Mavis was losing control over her body. She struggled to get free, and her fingers started to jerk in odd angles. She fought the hypnotic beam, but now she was losing.

Unpredictably, she looked straight into his eyes. She looked deep inside. Now, everything to her vision was the colour of his pupils: violet. But then, she noticed a white spark appear on one side. It was getting bigger and bigger. It assumed the shape of an arctic wolf and began to prance around the pupil.

To Mavis’ amazement, she was regaining control over her body.

Godge couldn’t believe it–she was shielding her eyes from his hypnotic beam! He hurriedly tore his eyes off hers.

The two lost stability and collapsed.

They got to their feet and stared at each other with pure hatred.

‘You hypnotised my best friend,’ hissed Mavis.

Godge gave a wicked laugh. ‘Yeah, it was a piece of cake. He was so weak.’

Mavis pulled out Spark and sent a blast of magic at him.

Quick as a bolt of lightning, he produced the Bow of Fire and blocked the attack with it.

‘I never mentioned, did I, that I am now the owner of the Bow of Fire? Mavis, you are no match for–'

‘You will never control the Bow of Fire!’ she screamed. ‘It is Walter who will! And it isn’t you. You want to know why? Because you are selfish. You are heartless and cruel. Would you sacrifice yourself for anything? No! Because you love nothing!’

Godge’s face was boiling with rage. ‘I am more powerful than you–'

Before he could finish his sentence, Mavis chucked Spark at his head and pounced on him. Then, she started punching him and his nose broke with a crunch.

He was now shrieking, ‘KILL HER!’ to which Mavis paid no attention, till she was lifted off the ground by the collar and flung into the wall.

She wiped the warm blood trickling from her forehead away and looked up.

Walter was standing there, clutching a sword in his hand.

Mavis couldn’t believe it. She was going to be killed by her own friend!

Spark was lying next to her, but she didn’t take the weapon. How could she hurt her best friend?

‘Pathetic!’ shouted Godge oblivious to the blood dripping from his nose. ‘Looks like little Mavis doesn’t want to hurt her friend.’

Mavis looked up at the hypnotised boy. She staggered to her feet.

Walter swung his sword and missed her by inches.

Mavis started to sob. ‘Please, Walter.’

His expression was blank. He swung again and missed.

‘Idiot!’ shouted Godge. ‘Just kill her!’

He swung again, missing.

Then, unexpectedly, Mavis grabbed Spark and fired at Godge.

‘What the–?’ he said, startled, and stumbled over.

Amidst all the confusion, Walter ran towards him, his sword lifted.

‘Stop it!’ bellowed Godge. ‘Your master commands it!’

Mavis leapt forwards, to take her place next to Walter.

‘How did you manage your eyes?’ she asked.

‘Contact lenses,’ grinned Walter pulling out a transparent sheet from his eyes. Beneath them, his eyes were green. ‘The giants slipped them into my pocket when we were separated.’

Godge was at a loss for words. ‘B–but you weren’t hypnotised?’

‘Nope,’ said Walter. ‘And I’ll be taking that.’

He yanked the Bow of Fire out of Godge’s hands.

Godge turned to run but was immediately blocked by Mavis.

He suddenly shut his eyes and started to chant.

‘What are you–?’ began Walter, but he was interrupted by a shrill screech.

Godge had a nasty grin on his face. Before they knew it, something crashed into the walls. The debris flew everywhere. From all the dust, emerged a creature.

Mavis turned pale.

Walter looked petrified.

This creature was a dragon. It was covered with black scales and had two long sharp horns jutting out from its head. It had a ow of sharp teeth, along with a pair of black wings. The dragon was as big as an elephant, though not as fat. (No offence, big fellas.)

It gave a blood-curdling screech and lunged at Mavis. She gave a startled yelp and dived out of the way.

‘Behold, the Wina!’ snarled Godge.

Walter felt a chill run down his spine. The Wina was the dragon alpha male. It lived forever and never died. It was a very rare occasion to spot it because it usually kept to itself and lived in dark caves. But it could still command all the dragons in the world together.

The Wina gave another screech and charged at Walter. He ran for his life around the room. He stopped abruptly as he neared the hole from where the Wina had charged.

The Wina was approaching him at full speed. Walter was not sure what to do. He ran towards it, deciding he had a better chance with a dragon than a drop from a tower.

‘GET BEHIND IT!’ screamed Mavis.

Walter heeded her advice and ducked under its flapping wings, then ran behind it till he was facing the tail. Before it could react, he grabbed it.

It bellowed in confusion and shook its tail to get him off. All Walter could do was hold on for dear life.

Mavis ran towards it, in front of its head. She started blasting Spark to distract it, as Walter ran up its tail.

Walter couldn’t climb up its neck, because the dragon was shaking too much. He decided to go for the wing instead. Picking up the sword Godge had given him, he raised it and stabbed.

The dragon let out an ear-piercing shriek and shook him off. Walter suddenly found himself flying through the air. His fall was broken when he landed on top of Mavis.

‘This is ridiculous,’ she muttered, crawling out from underneath him.

Walter looked at the dragon grunting as it lay on the ground. The sword was sticking out from its wing, and a small pool of blood had formed around it. ‘Should we finish it off?’ he asked. ‘So that it doesn’t cause any more trouble?’

Mavis looked down at the black dragon, whimpering in pain. Its wings were sprawled on the ground and it was helpless. Seeing it, she suddenly felt a pang of guilt. None of this was the Wina’s fault.

‘No,’ she said, stepping in between Walter and the dragon, ‘I won’t let you. This dragon has been hypnotised by Godge. Its eyes are purple.’

Before he could react, she crouched near the dragon. She picked a hypnosis berry out of her pocket and stuffed it into her mouth. She looked deep into the dragon’s eyes and concentrated hard.

She saw just plain purple–the colour of its pupils–for a while. Then, she saw the flash of white appear at the corner. The spark changed into an arctic wolf and began prancing around the eye. After a while, suddenly there was an explosion of white. The dragon’s eye turned from purple to the colour of her eyes–black.

‘I remove you from the hypnotic spell,’ she said, her voice barely a whisper.

The dragon grunted, now at his own free will, and not controlled by hypnotism.

Mavis put her hand on the hilt of the sword that was jutting out from his wing and pulled it out.

The dragon bellowed in agony but didn’t attack.

‘Gimme your bandages,’ said Mavis breathlessly to Walter.

He quickly fished them out of his pockets and gave them to her.

Mavis grabbed them and put them on its wound to cover it.

The dragon was still clearly in a lot of pain because it didn’t move.

‘We need to go now, Mavis,’ said Walter. ‘We can’t have anyone finding us.’

Mavis nodded, not taking her eyes off the dragon, and stood up.

Walter froze. ‘Wait–where’s Godge?’

They suddenly realised that he must have slipped away amidst all the confusion.