I gasped and shared a look with Zoe. Zenit ran over and tried to hug Berry. He ran into an invisible wall, and after a second he ran up and hugged her.

“Ohh my baby! Daddy missed you so much! I’m so so so so sorry. I think that I was controlled, I didn’t want to move or do any of that but my body moved on my own.”

Zenit and Berry started sobbing uncontrollably into each other's shoulders.

Just as they were crying, I felt a feeling come over me, my body moved on its own and I charged at the throne. I ran into a wall but I didn’t feel it. Berry’s chest thumped, as if she had run into the wall.

“Snap out of it! Stop! You don’t want to do this!” I tried to stop myself but my body moved on its own. I used all of my strength and pushed against the wall. The wall didn’t budge, thank god! After a few minutes, I managed to control my body. Berry fell to the floor, gasping for breath. It took me a second to realize that she was tired for me. My ankle burned though, so it was a fair trade.

Everybody crowded around me,

“Why did you do that?” Zoe asked. They were all curious, except for Zenit.

“Ohh, thank god! I’m so glad that your wall didn’t break.” I could tell that he knew what was going on.

“I-I don’t know why I did that. It was like my body moved on its own. I couldn’t stop myself.”

“That’s what happened to me too.” Zenit said.

My ankle burned, the wrapping was broken and torn from me using it. Stephanie got down and unwrapped it. My whole body trembled as she opened the gauze. Everybody gasped. I turned and saw that my whole foot was black.

“I- we have to do this, sorry.” Stephanie shoved a cloth and my mouth and pulled my ankle hard. I screamed. The pain was unbearable. It was like my whole leg was being bitten by fire ants. I closed my eyes and bit on the cloth. Stephanie poured something on my wound that made it 10 times worse. The burning sensation strengthened until my whole leg was dieing. Tears leaked from my eyes and I fell into darkness.

I woke up on the medical bed that Berry had been on. I looked down to my ankle and saw nothing, it was just a stump. I sat up fast then lay back down dizzy.

A few minutes later, Crystal walked over to me and handed me a glass of water.

“Looks like our newest amputee is up!”

“Why! What? My ankle was going to heal!” I raged at Crystal.

She shrugged,

“Not my choice.”

“Then who’s?”

“It was Stephanie’s choice. I could see her reasoning though. Hmmmm black sand, she could have used polygdfn oh wait! No you already had a spell cast on you. Well, what's done is done, I guess.” Crystal rambled on and on, talking to herself.

“So anyways, let’s get you up. So sit up slowly and you will make an air cast for you, which you will make yourself once you are strong enough.”

Slowly, I got up, trying not to faint or throw up. As I was getting up, Crystal slipped a cast like tube on my leg. I couldn’t see it but it fit perfectly.

Reading on Amazon or a pirate site? This novel is from Royal Road. Support the author by reading it there.

“How! What?” I asked in confusion.

“Oh, you cast? I just hardened the air around you stump into a fake foot. Try it out? I stood up and moved my foot, I immediately lost my balance and fell. Crystal caught me and stood me back up.

“Whoa! Slow your horses! This takes practice.” After a few more tries, I started getting the hang of it.

“Just then, a small dark creature burst through the door and stabbed Crystal in the back with something. It looked like a swirling dark cloud, changing shape constantly.

Crystal fell to the ground, but just when the dark creature was going to jump on her in triumph, a spear of ice patched up her wound and stabbed the creature in the groin. The creature wailed so loud that I thought my ear drums would break. It slowly crumpled to the ground and dissolved, leaving behind black ashes that looked like sand. Crystal got up, and I realized that she hadn’t even broken a sweat.

“That was a black sand monster. It’s ashes make everything hurt more, and makes everything weaker. It is what infected Berry’s ankle and now your’s. Don’t touch it.” I watched, fascinated as she took a big box out of her pant pocket. I noticed it before. I wonder how she fit that in her pocket. Crystal opened the box and took out a smaller bag, in the bag was another box.

“Close your eyes,” she ordered. I did as told. All I heard was a loud whooshing sound.

“You can open them now.” Crystal said.

I opened my eyes and the black dust was gone, so were the boxes and bags that Crystal had taken out.

“How did you do that ice thing?” I asked.

“That was so cool!”

“Oh my body protects my wounds by putting ice over it. Me timing it right was training.” She answered nonchalantly.

“Come on now, we must tell the queen that there has been a breach in defense.” We had not walked just 5 feet when another black sand monster asked us. Crystal fought it off easily then handed me a sword from out of nowhere.

“Defend yourself.” She ordered.

A black sand monster came at me from the front. I swung my sword blindly and actually managed to slice the monster in half. I grinned.

“This is fun!”

“Watch out!” Before I had time to react, sharp points dug into my back. I turned around but they clung on. The claws or the BALCK sand monster started digging in, going deeper and deeper. I tried everything to get it off but nothing worked. My eyes started going black and I fell into unconsciousness.

I woke to a burning sensation in my back. I realized that somebody was trying to fix me up. I turned my head slightly and almost had a heart attack. The person that was healing me was… drum roll please, Dave.

“What are you doing here? How?”

“Oh hi! Nice to meet you again. In a very awkward situation, of course.”

“You killed me? Or was it Kevin?”

“Me?” He feigned innocence.

“How could it be me? I was your best bud, your prankster buddy, how could I kill you? Just remember, it was all a prank, who knew that Kevin would use a real knife?”

“Wait but I traded my life for Zoe’s, how did you kill me? Ohh wait! Maybe they needed a cover story?”

“Ummm?” Dave looked at my questioningly.

“What do you mean?”

“Just uh never mind that, how did you get here?”

“Oh that. Ha! Spindle brought me here.”

Spindle? I racked my brain for when I had heard spindle used before. It was right on the tip of my tongue.

“Like you know? The pet dragon Spindle? The guys who travels very fast?”

“Ohhh him!” It felt like so long ago.

We were talking and catching up with each other when the whole ground started spinning. I fell over, hard. Curling into the fetal position I tried to not hurt myself as I slid and banged into walls and furniture. I managed a quick glance behind me and saw Dave hanging from the medical bad that was stuck to the ground and laughing at me. Ohh that prankster. I was in the midst of my thoughts when I realized that I could use magic. I floated myself in the air and let the world spin. Dave’s laughter turned into wide eyed amazement and shock. It had not occurred to me that Dave could be unfamiliar with magic. But was Spindle not enough magic?

After a while the world stopped spinning and everything went back to normal. Dave pulled himself up and sat down. I dropped myself to the ground and walked over.

“How do you know magic? I thought that only the king and queen know magic?”

“Oh, ha ha. I actually am a king in another kingdom. Also anyone that is born of a magical bloodline has magic in them. Maybe you do too!”

“Me?” Dave was so shocked that he was speechless.

“Duh you! Who else? Come on! Follow me!”