"Hurry! They'll get there before us." Ryl called to her as he ran across the old dirt road.

"I already said that they can't win like that! I won last time so it's my turn to choose!" Lyri screamed after him. She hated it when people wouldn't listen to her. It was her turn to be the bandit king. Her brother should know that too.

At least he slowed down so that she could catch up. She refused to run when she was right.

She pushed a couple of stray locks of scarlet hair from her eyes. The forest around them blocked most of her sight, but she could start to see the tip of the old tower now. That meant they were close.

"I bet they've already started climbing to the top." Ryl said, looking at the structure. He always had his hair short so he didn't have to bother with any of the problems that came with having it long.

"They better not. Or else." she said.

Maybe she should cut it short too. But then mom would complain. She always said it was a waste to let a girl with such a beautiful color go around with short hair.

"Or else what?" her brother asked.

"I'll make them eat dung." Well, she could always just tie it into a tail. That helped. "I'm the bandit king today, after all."

Ryl stared at her, a grimace on his face. "You'll really make them eat dung?"

She grinned. "Of course I will. It's what a bandit king would, after all."

"That disgusting."

"It's tough being a bandit."

"They won't do it."

She jabbed her thumb in his direction. "That's why you will help me."

His eyebrows rose. "Why would I?"

"Because you're my trusty right-hand man!"

Ryl shook his head. "Uh-uh. You said the same thing to Videl last time and you still knocked him into the lake."

"He fell."

"I saw you push him."

She frowned. "Ok, fine. But he deserved it. He was being a dumbass. Saying he didn't have to follow my orders just because I'm a girl and all that."

"He said that?"

"Yepp."

"Oh..." Ryl looked down as they kept walking. "Well, he is kind of stupid."

She smiled. "Right? And that's why you don't have to be afraid! Besides," she punched his arm. "You can trust me. I'm your sister."

"That's what you said last time too before you locked me in a cell for an hour..." he mumbled.

"You were a knight that time. It doesn't count!"

"Yeah yeah..."

They kept walking for a while. Eventually, Ryl looked up, pointing ahead, "They're still outside?"

Lyri turned her head forward. Enough of the trees had cleared away from them to be able to see the base of the tower now and a bit away from it were three figures standing next to something vaguely person-looking.

"See?" she said. "I told them to wait and they did."

"But what's that?."

She shrugged her shoulders. "I don't know. A scarecrow?"

They picked up their pace and walked over to the others. A minute later all five of them were standing in a half-circle next to the dirt road. The tower itself was about a dozen or so strides away, but they were all looking at the object at the center of their little group.

It did look a bit like a scarecrow from a distance, but it was really just a thick piece of wood with a plank across it. More like a cross, really. Although it was covered in a bunch of weird lines and symbols.

"What is it?" she asked the group.

"Heck if we know." Videl said, scratching his big nose.

"It's really creepy though..." Pell seemed uncomfortable standing so close to it.

"...Think there's someone living in the tower?" Terver asked.

They all turned their heads towards the dilapidated old tower. They had used it as a base for some of their games for a couple of years now and Lyri had never seen signs of other people around it. The people in the village always said it was abandoned, so there shouldn't be someone there...right?

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"What if there are real bandits?"

"No way," she shook her head. "We're too close to the city. The knights would have caught the bandits the second they got here."

"You don't know that..."

"Of course I do. You think bandits stand a chance against knights? Only an idiot would risk it."

"Then how do you explain that?" Videl pell pointed at the odd "cross".

Ryl observed it closely. "I don't think bandits would do something like this..." he said and pointed at its cross-section. "Don't those symbols look weird? They're like something a wizard uses."

"What?!"

"You think a wizard lives here?!"

"Really, Ryl?" Lyri looked at her brother. "You think a wizard might have made this?"

"I-I don't know." he glanced around the group. "It's just that...remember when mom had that super expensive book in the store for a while? I looked in it once and it had a bunch of weird symbols in it too."

"I-If that's true, t--then I don't think we should stay here." Pell started taking a few steps away from it.

"Why?" Lyri asked. "It's not like they're gonna hurt us."

"How can you be sure?" Terver asked. He also looked unsure of what to do.

"Oh come on. Don't be such cowards." she said. She began moving towards the tower itself. The others followed after a moment of hesitation. They all stopped at the tower's entrance.

By itself, it wasn't anything special. Just an old wooden door, which looked like it could fall apart any second now. That part was nothing new. What was new was all the weird symbols lining the frame. Just like on the cross.

"We're not going in there." Terver said.

"Right! I don't think this is a good idea."

"We should head back." Even Videll seemed to agree.

Her brother was the only one that didn't outright say he wanted to leave, but even he seemed a little bit pale.

She stared at him. He met her eyes.

There was no way they could leave just like that when something like this was here.

Ryl seemed to understand what she was thinking because — after giving the door one long final look — he nodded his head.

"All right," she said, taking a step closer to the door. "You can all head back then. We'll come back and tell you what you missed later."

"You're kidding, right?!" Pell and the others stared at her with wide eyes.

When her brother also stepped up next to her they all stared at him too.

"You two are crazy..."

"We're not crazy." Ryl said.

"Yeah," Lyri grabbed the doors handle. "We just know how to live a little."

Videl shook his head. "Don't come crying to us when you piss your pants." he said before turning around to leave. The other two shifted on the spot for a second, giving her and Ryl indecisive looks, before also turning around to leave.

She gave them one last look before switching to her brother. "Ready?" she asked.

He stared at the door for a moment and nodded his head. "...Yeah."

"Good. Let's go then!" she said with a grin and pulled the door open.

On the other side was a hallway. Some of the stone tiles on the floor were worn down from use and there was a lot of dust spread around. But none of that was particularly strange.

There was something that immediately stuck out though.

"This wasn't here before, was it?" Ryl asked.

"No..." she stared into the hallway before them, then looked back through the door. She could see the cross next to the dirt road and the forest in the distance. The figures of their friends were slowly moving away. She closed and opened the door.

Still the same.

Her brother also gaped at the door. Both of them turned back to the hallway.

"I'm not crazy, am I?" she pointed to the hallway in front of them. "There was a room here before, right?"

"Yeah..." Ryl nodded his head and walked further into the hallway. It bent to the left as if it circled the inside of the tower...which didn't make sense because then it would just bend out of the tower after a few strides.

She exited the tower and looked around outside. It was the same door that they'd always used when they had been here before.

"Wha—Lyri come here, quick!" her brother's voice rang out from indoors.

She hurried back inside and ran down the hallway until she reached her brother. He was standing in front of a small hole that was cut into the stone wall at about chest height. Well, chest height for Ryl. It'd maybe reach the waist of an adult.

"What is it?" she asked, moving up beside him to look outside.

Her jaw dropped.

She could see the forest. She could see so much of the forest.

She looked down. Down to the ground that was over a dozen strides down. They were close to the top of the tower.

"How is this possible?" Ryl looked as amazed as her at the sight. He even waved his arm through the window as if he wanted to make sure it was real.

She couldn't stop herself from smiling. "Magic..." she mumbled, looking out at the forest. "It's magic! Real magic!" she jumped and grabbed her brother's arm.

"But this...this is crazy. We were at the foot of the tower just a moment ago." he said.

She thought back to the door. "Those strange marks." she pulled her brother along with her back to it, then pointed at the symbols that covered its frame. "Those must be some kind of magic that makes the door move us to the top of the tower instead of the room that it led to before!"

Ryl shook his head mindlessly. "I can't believe this..."

"Come! We have to see what else there is." she started walking further back in again.

Her brother froze, and she stopped to look back at him. "I don't know, Lyri..." he said. "Maybe we shouldn't be here. We don't know who did all of this. What if they get mad at us for being here?"

"What are they gonna?" she shook her head. "It's not our fault they didn't lock the door. This place has been abandoned for forever."

"They're not gonna hurt us. If they did, the others would tell people about it and the knights would catch them the second after."

"The knights can't do everything."

"No, but they can catch bad guys. And hurting two strangers just because they entered an abandoned tower you happened to be in is what a bad guy would do. Any reasonable person would understand it's better not to risk it over something that stupid."

she spun around and started walking again, but slower so that her brother could catch up.

"How do you know if they're reasonable?" his voice sounded out from behind her. She looked back at him from over her shoulder. "They're a wizard, right? They're supposed to be smart. Now, come on." she said. "I know you're just as curious as I am in this place."

He went quiet for a moment, but she didn't have to wait long for him to finally run up beside her.

"If we get home late you'll have to come up with an excuse for mom."

"Ugh, don't remind me."