Chapter 7 Melodia

Today might have been the best day of school ever. It was a Friday, which was always an automatic win in my book. And having everyone around me ignore me was so much easier when you were too busy being excited about casting spells to care. And the cherry on top? Anna had almost completely left me alone the whole day.

Instead she had spent the whole day looking vaguely worried and muttering to herself about something. Probably thinking about the doll attack due any day now. I probably should have been worried about it too. Fighting a big monster in the near future probably should have been frightening but… it wasn’t. My best guess was thinking about learning magic was taking up too much space in my brain for me to think of anything else.

I raced back home, getting there faster than I normally did. I said hi to my mom, did my homework as quickly as I could, and then headed upstairs. I made my way into my room, ready to start learning the magical arts.

“Magic?” I asked simply before noticing where Pickati was. He was standing on my windowsill, looking out into the city with a stern look on his face. Somehow, I had a feeling my magic lessons would have to wait a little bit longer.

“You got here just in time,” he declared before flying down to the floor and reaching under my bed. He searched around down there before pulling out a map of the city. Where the heck had he even managed to get that from? “A doll has appeared in the city, right here.”

He pointed his claw at a nearby park. It wasn’t too far away, three blocks north and then two blocks east. I could make it there in a few minutes. In fact I had made it there on foot before. I nodded as I grabbed another bag and Pickati flew into it. I made it down the stairs only to find my mom blocking my path.

“And where are you going?” She half smirked as she looked down at my bag.

“Going to the park to stretch my legs out a little,” technically it wasn’t a lie, but I still felt bad saying it. Mom hummed to herself with a weird grin.

“And are you going to be meeting anyone at the park?” I blinked at the question. Did… did my mom forget who I was?

“No I’m going by myself,” I watched as the wind in her sails died and the smile vanished from her face.

“Oh, I see. Just make sure you make it back before dark,” she let out a sigh and looked about ready to speak again when I pulled out my cellphone. It was brand new, but Mom demanded I always carry it with me when heading somewhere without her or Dad. I must have guessed right because she went back to the dining room without a word.

I made it out the door, feeling a little bad about the whole thing. I shook my head as I made my way through the streets towards the park. I had bigger things to worry about now, like a big monster I was going to have to punch in the face and then throw a black hole at.

“I hope you’re ready to do this,” he added from the bag, “I’ll be too busy working the spell to keep people away from the fight, so you’ll be on your own. Good luck and do your best.”

“Okay,” I answered as we reached the park. As soon as I made it past the entrance, Pickati flew out of my bag and started going elsewhere. He was probably going to cast that spell he talked about.

Not that we needed it right away today. It was the middle of an afternoon on a weekday, so this park was almost empty. The only people still around were a couple of folks working out, and the longer I walked around the park, the more uncomfortable they started looking. It wasn’t long before they slowly started leaving the park. Before I knew it, I was the only person still here.

Now that I was alone, I was free to find the doll… which was taking much longer than I would have expected. I had gone all the way around the border of the park and found nothing out of the ordinary. Which meant my next step was to start looking inside the park.

At the center of the park was a large lake with a small island right in the middle. Connecting the island to the rest of the park was a single wooden bridge. The island was just big enough for a picnic table, a few trees and a small clearing.

And from where I was standing at one end of the bridge, also a big swirling vortex of sludge on the ground. I hadn’t found the doll, but I was pretty sure the vortex was probably connected to it in some way.

I mean, what were the odds there were two different sets of weird supernatural events happening in the same city?

“Power of the stars, guide me through the deepest wells,” the bridge under my foot vanished away as I went back into the void. My clothes changed again, but somehow it felt like it went by faster this time around.

I came out of the transformation and rushed past the bridge towards the vortex. I made it to the other side while the vortex kept spinning. With nothing else going on, I put my fists up and got ready for whatever was to come. I stood there and waited…

And waited…

“So is there anything that’s supposed to happen?” I muttered to myself as I heard something hit the picnic table behind me. I spun around and found myself looking at a real weirdo.

He was sitting on the table with his feet on the bench. His main piece of clothing was a pair of furred pants. Instead of shoes, his feet were covered in bandages. And he wore no shirt, instead he had a small furred vest draped over his shoulders. And for a good reason too, he needed to show off his tattoos. His chest and face were covered in blue lines, including one going through one of his eyes.

If I had to guess, he was probably one of the doll commanders Pickati told me about. What was his name again, Break?

“Oh, looks like there’s more than one of you brats now,” he smirked while ignoring the big vortex of black goo right in front of him. If that wasn’t a bad sign, I didn’t know what was. I turned around and got ready to fight him if he tried to attack. All he did was chuckle as I raised my fists up at him.

“Oh a fighter huh?” He barked out a laugh as he stood up on the bench. “Well then I might as well introduce myself. Name’s Break, and my hobby and job are the same as my name. My favorite way to do my favorite thing is to do it with my bare hands, but…” he flashed me a grin made of sharp teeth, reminding me of a shark, “sitting back and having the doll do it can be pretty fun too.”

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My eyes widened as I heard something crunch on the grass behind me. I turned around just in time to see a green object come flying towards my face. I threw my arms up to block the hit. I grunted as the green object slammed into me, pushing me back towards the bench. If I hadn’t been completely sure the power of the stars made me stronger and tougher, then I was now.

And then just as quickly as the thing flew at me, it went back, finally giving me a good look at whatever it was I was fighting.

If I had been expecting to fight another purple guy with big claws, I would have been disappointed. The doll this time around was still humanlike, but only from the waist up. Below the waist it was a bunch of skinny looking spider legs ending in horse hooves. It had long stretchy arms with swollen green fists. And by long, I meant it was standing on the opposite end of the little island we were both on.

Before I could make any comment on the doll’s strange appearance, it pulled back its fist, its arm shrinking like a rubber band losing tension. I dropped my guard only for the monster’s other arm to stretch out and attack me.

This time I ducked to the side, expecting the fist to fly past me. Instead I saw it change course in midair at the last second.

I had no time to block or dodge before the fist hit me right in the stomach. I wheezed as I felt all the air get punched out of me and I went flying back. I hit the table with my back and sucked in air through my teeth. Both because it hurt and because I needed to breath.

I forced my eyes to stay open, I couldn’t lose track of the doll now. I raised my head up just in time to see the doll attacking me again. I grit my teeth and grabbed onto the bench I was sitting on. With a single twist, I flipped back so the bench would be between me and the attack.

I saw the fist smash into the bench as I took a second to calm myself and steady my breath.

Okay, so playing defense wasn’t going to work. All I was doing was taking hits over and over again. I needed to bring the fight to the doll, I just had to figure out how.

That was about as far as my thinking got before the doll’s next attack broke through the bench and sailed past me. I ducked underneath the blow as it came back. It hit the bench and started dragging it towards the doll. I got to my feet as the bench crashed into the doll. It roared in pain before swinging the table into the ground to break it.

Well, this was the best chance I was going to get. I ran as fast as I could while the doll was busy freeing its arm from the wood and steel it was caught in. It didn’t notice me until it was already too late. I jumped into the air, its eyes tracking me as it tried to bring its free arm up. I spun forward and, as soon as I was close enough, swung my booted heel down on its head.

The doll roared as I almost sunk its head into its body. I landed on what was left of the bench. My feet touched it for a second before I jumped off. I grabbed for its shoulders and pulled the doll down, hitting its face with my knee. It went stumbling back as I finally landed on the ground.

The doll roared as it pointed its arm at me, its intent clear as day.

I dodged out of the way as it shot its arm out. This time it had no way near enough time to redirect the attack. It aimed its other fist and fired it at me too. This time I ducked out of the way. As soon as I did, two long stretchy arms flew over my head.

Without even thinking, I reached up to grab both arms. I dug my foot into the ground and spun around. It was time to find out just how strong the power of the stars had made me. I kept spinning until I was back where I started.

I let out a yell as I pulled my arms over my head with as much force as I could. The doll’s eyes widened as the movement traveled up its arm. The movement reached its body and picked the doll up before flipping it over and slamming it into the ground. With it stunned, it was time to finish it.

I ran up to the downed doll and used everything I had learned from the one time my parents had sent me to football camp years ago. My foot impacted the doll and sent it flying into the water. I pointed my fingers at the doll as it tried to get out of the water.

Concepts flooded my mind as they formed into a spell. Once it was done, all I needed was two simple words.

“Gravity Crush,” I cried out as the tiny black hole appeared right where I had pointed. The monster roared as the spell ate up its stomach along with a bit of the lake water around it. I took heavy breaths as I watched the doll dissolve into goo which went right into the lake. With any luck, it would dissolve like the other one. I was pretty sure there were fish in this pond and I did not want to see what would happen if they ate that stuff.

I jumped back as I heard the grass crunching behind me. I turned around to see Break standing next to one of the trees. He was applauding and letting out cheers, making me feel weird. This was the guy who’d tried to attack me with a big monster right? Why was he being so friendly?

“Oh man, after the first girl, I was worried this was going to be boring. But if the other two warriors are anything like you, I might actually get so see some good fights.”

Oh, so that was it. I wasn’t a friend, I was his entertainment.

“Man, you should have seen that first girl. Spent the whole fight running around like a headless chicken, trying to buy time until she could think of a cheap trick to win. Not you though, you just got in there and started doing some damage.”

He let out another annoying cheer as I felt a vein tighten. He was one of the doll commanders right? Was I allowed to punch him? I really wanted to punch him.

“Well, I’ll be seeing you around kid, hopefully more often than the other one,” he smirked as another vortex of black sludge appeared on the ground behind him. He stretched his arms out into a cross before falling back. “See ya!”

He burst into laughter as he landed in the sludge and sank into it. When the vortex faded away, there was no sign of Break anyway. Well at least I knew they were some kind of portal bringing the doll from somewhere else and not what created them.

“Well that was weird,” I muttered to myself before hearing someone running across the wooden bridge behind me. I looked up and saw someone wearing a whole lot of pink and white.

Okay, I could do this. All I had to do was tell her I took care of the doll, that Pickati was okay, and we could work together to fight the dolls and learn magic. And somehow say all of it without saying something dumb and getting her even angrier at me. How hard could that be?

“Where’s the doll and Break?” She reached the island and started looking around everywhere. Her eyes scanned around before looking out to the rest of the park.

“Gone,” okay, so the first part of the plan was done. Now all I needed to do was pull off the other two.

“Gone, you managed it all by yourself that fast?” She almost sounded like she was trying really hard to not sound impressed. Too bad for her, I would take what I could get in terms of praise as long as the person in question hadn’t just tried to attack me.

And it hadn’t even been all that hard anyway. Sure the monster was a little tricky at first, but once I got in range it had gone down easily. It hadn’t even been able to get in one hit after I nailed it once. Kind of weak if you asked me.

“I mean, I usually have to run around a bit and figure out some other way to beat them since all I have is my shield spell…”

“Weak.”

“I’m sorry?”

Oh…

Oh no.

I messed up. I messed everything up. All I had wanted to say was the doll had been weak, not her. I had to fix this now. I had to fix this before things got worse between us. I had to…

My brain froze as I saw Anna marching towards me with clenched fist and vicious glare. She got right into my face as all of my words died and I found myself unable to speak again.

“I thought we could work together,” she growled into my ear, “that you could get over yourself and stop acting like you’re better than everyone for the sake of protecting the world. But if you rather do this alone, fine by me. I don’t need you. Just know this, one day you’ll figure out you’re not as great and powerful as you think you are, and when it happens, I’ll be there to help you. Because unlike you, I’m a hero.”

I stood there without a word to say. With the way she stomped her foot and huffed, it looked like it had just made her even angrier.

“Still not going to say anything? Just going to stand there in silence and judge everyone like you always do?”

I was still too stunned to say anything, the silence seeming to stretch on forever.

At last, Anna backed away and started marching back across the bridge. I watched as she burst into a burst of pink light before it faded away to reveal normal clothing. I willed my own transformation to reverse as the full weight of her words finally hit me.

“Is that… really what she thinks of me,” I sat down next to the ruined remains of the park bench and waited for Pickati while processing this new information.