Charlie Bone And the Castle of Mist Part 1
Apricot Star
Ch. 1
One day when Charlie finished visiting Emma at Ingledew's, Charlie noticed that the sun was setting faster than usual. But after a little while he realized that it was light smoke, or thick haze, that he was looking at. Is it one of Olivia's illusions, or is it Manfred's firy hands?
Charlie wondered. He looked around, but couldn't see either of the two.
"Hey Charlie!" someone said into his ear.
Charlie jumped and spilled the tea Ms. Ingledew let him take home. He groaned before turning around to see Naren.
"Oh no! I'm so sorry! I've got napkins. Oh, I'm so sorry. I just wanted to say 'hi' and ask you to come visit with me for a little while at my house," said Naren pulling out several napkins from a bright red bag and handing them to Charlie.
"It's okay. I can spend some time, but I have to get home at 6. It's my Mom's birthday today," said Charlie.
"Oh, that's right! Bartholemew wanted me to give you something. It's for Amy," said Naren leading the way to her house.
As always, the bridge was hard to cross. But Charlie found that it was getting easier to cross every time.
When they got to Naren's, Meng had cupcakes and tea waiting for them.
"So, why did you want me to come over here?" asked Charlie.
"I wanted to give you this for Christmas, but forgot about it for a little while, and I also wanted to give you this other present for Amy," said Naren, opening a trunk at the corner of the living room and pulling out a lumpy looking package.
Naren handed it to Charlie, her eyes twinkling with excitement. "Open it!" Naren encouraged.
Charlie tugged at the rope that bound the package together and tore off the wrapping. Charlie found himself staring at a dark blue quilt littered with stars and various other illustrations like angels and suns.
"Is this a normal quilt?" asked Charlie.
Naren shook her head and answered, "When you throw it into the air it turns into a hole you can escape through. It works very much like the holes that cartoons disappear into."
"Neat! Thanks, this'll come in handy. Did you make this Naren?" asked Charlie.
"Yup! And about the white square in the middle, if you sit in the dark and look at it, my image will appear, and if someone starts coming, then one of us need only turn the other's head and the image disappears from the quilt," Naren added.
"Wow!" said Charlie.
"I'm glad you like it! Here's Amy's present," said Naren, reaching into her pant pocket and pulling out a small yellow velvet pouch. "It's a tea that helps you calm down or sleep. It's very strong so Amy only needs a tea spoon for sleep and about half a teaspoon to calm herself down."
"Oh, thank you again! That'll help my mom. Well, I guess I'll be going now, I'll see you later then, Naren," said Charlie.
"Okay, well, if you want to test the quilt out this would be the perfect time. It's faster then crossing the bridge and walking all the way back to your house. I've tried it myself. It's rather fun traveling through the quilt," said Naren.
Charlie looked at the blanket. He felt a bit nervous. He had been doing a lot of weird traveling lately, but never this kind. He looked aback at Naren's eager face and then looked at the blanket again.
"Well, here goes," muttered Charlie.
He threw the blanket across the room and watched as the blanket did something spectacular. At first, it flew like a regular blanket would if it was thrown across the room, but then it twisted and curled, and then it stretched itself wide and swirled around and around until it turned into a black hole.
"Hold on, before we go outside to rain down on Joshua, I've got a message from Billy," said Tancred. Tancred reached into his pants and carefully pulled out a dripping wet piece of paper with blue ink spreading out from the center like the veins on a leaf. "Okay, scratch out letting you read this thing, anyway, I've memorized whatever was in the note. Remember when Matron gave Billy detention during the weekend?"
"Yeah, what about it?" asked Charlie.
"Well, turns out that Billy was sent to visit the hospital where the De Grays were. He saw them start re-typing the oaths, but he could see that they were doing it very slowly. He's pretty sure his oath hasn't been written yet, because he wasn't suffering any pain when he wrote the note to me. I suggest we take the oaths away from them again, or," Tancred said with a smile, he made a wave with his hand and lightning danced through his fingers, "I can shock their hands with this."
"Before you go and do that I think we should get together with the others and work something out," said Charlie.
"Whether or not planning is your thing, Charlie, your usual plan is to go headlong into something, are you changing?" asked Tancred, rubbing his knuckles into Charlie's thick bushy hair covered head.
"Oy! I didn't say anything about a noogie! And I'm just trying to be a little more careful since even Uncle Paton's starting to get
worried. I am growing, so I want to take a little more responsibility for my actions. Or at least start to," said Charlie.
Suddenly a rock broke through Charlie's window. Two shards hit Tancred, and three hit Charlie since Charlie was closer to the
window. They were both bleeding.
"WHAT THE BLAZES IS GOING ON?" They heard Uncle Paton yell.
The two boys ran downstairs bleeding, and checked out the damage. All of the windows on the bottom floor were broken.
"I wonder if Grandma Bone planned this or if Joshua's just blowing off some steam?" asked Charlie.
"I think it's the latter. Besides, Matron wouldn't like her house getting clubbed this way anyway," said Tancred, "So, can I throw down a small blizzard?"
Every person who heard Tancred ran for their coats and pulled them on, all except Charlie and Doctor Tanaka.
"I think I'll just go to the kitchen," said the Doctor, "Chamomile tea tastes great with cake."
Charlie's white moth flew in and landed on the Doctor's shoulder. Charlie followed them into the kitchen after giving the thumbs up to
Tancred. Then he got to thinking, hang on, Joshua couldn't be the only one doing this, so who else is up to no good around here?
That's when he heard an echo of soft giggles and chuckles all around the kitchen.
"TANCRED! It's all of them at once!" Charlie yelled. Suddenly, knives, paper airplanes, and a dozen rocks flew through the windows
of the kitchen. Charlie jumped on Doctor Tanaka and tried to shield him. A rock landed on his head and a knife slit his back. Charlie
yelped and grunted in pain.
Then, snow flakes drifted through the windows. The snow became thicker every second. Charlie heard cries of anger.
"OH IT'S THAT WEATHER CREEP!" (This is the same cry from several different people at different times, said at around the same
time.) "IT DOESN'T MATTER WHO IT IS! WE HAVE TO KEEP ATTACKING! We're prepared for this anyway!" (Joshua)
Bigger rocks flew through the windows.
"Charlie! Should I-" Charlie heard Olivia start.
"NO! Now's not a time to risk it!" Charlie yelled.
Then Charlie heard a faint thumping in the wind. The longer he listened, the louder it got. It must be Lysander! Who else could it be?
Thought Charlie.
"What the bloody hell?!" (screams) "Ghosts!" "It's his ancestors!" "Let's get out of here!" "We AREN'T ninnies! WE'RE SUPPOSED
TO AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHH" "Run away!" Charlie heard a pitter patter of running feet.
Charlie laughed. He could hear the others laughing from where they were, and heard a small chuckle from Doctor Tanaka.
The snow drift started to recede.
"Now that was funny," Charlie heard Tancred say. Charlie got up and helped Doctor Tanaka off of the floor.
"Sorry to jump on you like that," said Charlie.
"It's perfectly fine, now let me see your wounds," said Doctor Tanaka.
Charlie turned around.
"Oh my, that's a rather large slit, any bigger and it'd open up to a gash my dear boy. Let me fix that, I'll be coming back with a needle
and thread for that cut, Charlie, give me a minute," said Doctor Tanaka. Doctor Tanaka walked out of the kitchen.
Charlie heard the door open and someone saying, "Sander! That was awesome! Did they all run when they saw your ancestors
coming?"
"I think so, the snow was so thick I couldn't see anything from so far off," Charlie heard Lysander answer.
"AAAAUUUUGHHH!" yelled Charlie. Charlie looked behind him and saw a rock beside his feet.
"CHARLIE!" Everyone yelled and ran to him. They saw blood dripping from a large gash running in a slight diagonal across his back.
More rocks flew in through the window and hit Charlie in the forehead, knee, gut, chest, sides, and shoulders.
"I'LL BE WAITING FOR YOU CHARLIE BONE! MARK MY WORDS!" This was a woman's voice, the voice of the witch that
brought the Shadow.
Charlie looked out the window and saw a woman disappear at a corner street.
"Jeez, Charlie, you look like a wreck," said Lysander.
"It's understandable since he was attacked by a flurry of rocks," said Emma.
"You make that sound so casual," said Tancred.
"That's what happened! And besides, Doctor Tanaka's here to sow up all of the wounds," said Emma.
The boys groaned and then yelped. Doctor Tanaka was holding up a needle and thread.
"Oh, come on boys! You need a little patching up, this isn't that scary is it?" said Doctor Tanaka.
Lysander whispered in Charlie's ear, "If I were old enough, this'd be a good time for drinking half a bottle of whiskey. I hate needles."
"So do I," said Charlie.
While Doctor Tanaka sowed up Charlie's wounds, the others discussed the most recent attack to Charlie.
"Now, if you ask me," Lysander chimed in, "That attack on this house was just a smidge pathetic, if you know what I mean."
"Wasn't it?" asked Olivia, jumping into the conversation, "I mean, they didn't even try boulders or anything really big. It's like they were teasing us or something."
"Unless they're weak right now," said Tancred.
"I doubt that," said Emma, "Besides, if they were weak, we'd be weak too."
"And do you know what time they picked to do this attack on us? It's in the middle of the afternoon!" said Olivia, "They attacked us in broad day light!"
"What else is new? So, they're plan was a bit stupid, but they must have a reason for it," said Charlie.
"Like what?" asked Olivia.
Charlie thought and thought, and for some reason, Naren's name popped into his head.
"Maybe I should check on Naren…" whispered Charlie.
"Why? Do you think she's in danger?" asked Tancred.
"I don't know, but her name just popped in my head…" said Charlie.
"You don't think that's just coincidence? I mean, you have been to Naren's an awful lot lately," said Emma.
"Well, she's the only one besides Billy and Ben that's not here, what if something happened to her?" asked Charlie. Charlie started to get up and Doctor Tanaka poked him with the butt of the needle. "Ow! What'd you do that for, Doctor Tanaka?"
"I'm not done with your stitches yet, and until I do, you will sit," said Doctor Tanaka calmly.
Charlie stayed. He had several thoughts to start grumbling, but decided against it thinking the Asian doctor would disapprove of the quiet complaints.
"There, now you can go," said Doctor Tanaka.
Charlie got up and walked to his room, with the others following him. He closed the blinds of his window, shut the door behind the last of his friends who had just walked in, reached under his bed and pulled out Naren's gift. He opened it and looked at the white square in the middle of the quilt.
Naren's face appeared. Everyone in the room gasped. Her cheeks had several slits in them, her forehead bore two bruises, and one of her eyelids were slightly puffy and drooping.
At the sight of Charlie, Naren's jaw dropped and closed back up slowly.
"What happened?" asked Emma, shocked to see Naren's face in the little square brutally injured.
"Well, one of my Dad's relatives decided to visit, and I'm not sure which one because I couldn't see his face. His head was covered with one of those cloth hats that have two eye sockets and a mouth cut out of the cloth. In any case, I was walking on the bridge because I was on my way to get some groceries for my Mom when he came along. When he walked on the bridge and placed his hands on the railing, I could see steam coming out of his hands. I tried to veer away from them and get back to the house, but he was bigger than me, and he had a better grip on the bridge since his hands melted the ice. He kicked me in the forehead twice when I slipped once while running back to my house. That's when the flames came and scratched him in the face. It was all so surreal! They pushed him back to the other side of the bridge and knocked him into a bush. He didn't get back up again for awhile, and then…Oh, Charlie, and the rest of you! You should've been here! The Red King came! And he invited my family and I into a secret, hidden place, in the castle, but that's all I can tell you…" said Naren. The excitement in her voice depleted at the last words. She looked at them sadly and then smirked. "But it's not all bad…at least, I don't think it is."
"That's horrible! And why can't you tell us everything, and why's it not all bad?" asked Tancred.
"Well, I'll be attending Bloor's Academy for the last half of the school year," said Naren.
Everyone's jaw dropped. Then they all opened their mouths to protest and Naren held up her hand.
"I can't tell you who I'll be, or where I'll be, or even what house I'll be in, but I'll be attending. But right now, the Red King wants a word with Tancred and Charlie," said Naren with a smile.
"How'll we get there?" asked Charlie.
Naren's eyes glazed over, she had a weird look on her face and a woman's voice emanated from her mouth:
"During the night I'll come to both your houses. Leave a note with your parents and your windows open, and I'll fly you away to the castle."
Tancred and Charlie glanced at each other, and looked back at the square, Naren's face was gone.
"Well, I guess that's it then, tonight we go to the Red Castle," said Tancred.
"I can't believe Manfred," said Olivia.
"Neither can I, and hey, what about Asa?" said Emma.
"Oh, well, I guess we should look out for him, but I don't think he'll be there will he?" said Tancred.
"He could…do you think we should bring something along with us for the ride?" asked Charlie.
"Like what?" asked Tancred, "Snacks, a flashlight, and a notebook and pencil so we can take notes while the Red King talks to us?"
"Yeah," said Charlie nodding.
"Handy! But is that a good idea?" asked Tancred.
"We could be there for awhile…maybe we should also bring clothes just in case," said Charlie.
"Charlie, Tancred, look!" said Lysander pointing at the shadow under his bed.
A list was seen under the bed in Naren's handwriting.
"Look! She even covered your question of what to bring Charlie!" said Tancred clapping his hand onto Charlie's shoulder.
Something about this nagged at Charlie for the rest of the day. It wasn't that it was fishy, it just sounded weird to him. What was the Bloor family planning, he wondered.
Charlie read over the list of things Naren listed on his wall. He had to write the list once the list appeared on his wall, because after seven minutes they vanished.
Charlie and Tancred had been told, by the Queen through Naren, that they'd be taken to the Red Castle during the night. Naren listed down that the two would be gone for the remainder of the spring vacation. Three days. The families were contacted and given their instructions through the shadow messages Naren sent over. Tancred and Charlie would be bringing clothes, their school textbooks, a pack of loose leaf paper (lined, three hole, paper), and food for the trip.
To them, it felt like a school trip because they'd be carrying books, but there was an air about the whole trip that made them feel excited. Their friends demanded to know what they were in on, but Naren just told them through her shadow messages, that they will find out later during the summer break.
On the meantime, while Tancred, Charlie and the others were discussing the trip, Olivia had her own matters to consider. Something was going on with her illusion powers. It was like holding putty in her hands. At one moment, it was there where she could squeeze and juice out as many illusions as she wanted, and then it seeped out of her hands the next moment and was hard to control, handle, and conjure up any image at all.
Olivia felt that telling her friends would be problematic. She had to deal with this problem on her own. It had first happened during mid February, and since then she'd been writing down what had been happening to her in a small green journal. It'd been almost a month and a half since the problem started, and Olivia feared it was getting worse.
Her illusions had started appearing and disappearing in the newspapers and tv news reports, for instance. Her friends thought she was just having nightmares, or poking some fun, but it started occurring to Emma that these weren't accidents. On the day that Naren's face first appeared on the white square of the quilt, Olivia felt scared.
'But who can I tell?' she mumbled to herself while she poked at the carrots on her plate that Maisie just spooned out. All of the kids were granted permission to stay over at Charlie's house for a large sleep over. Grandma Bone was away that night.
"What'd you say, Olivia?" asked Lysander.
"Oh, nothing, nothing," said Olivia.
"Hmm, really? I thought I heard you say something. Huh, I must be imagining things," Lysander said, finishing his stew.
"Livy, can I talk to you for a moment?" asked Emma, motioning Olivia from the front door.
"Outside?" asked Olivia getting up and walking towards Emma.
Emma nodded and opened the door. The two girls walked out and Emma swiveled around to stand behind a bush nearby the doorway. Emma touched the bush, it was an illusion.
"Did you just create this?" asked Emma.
Olivia shrugged.
"Livvy, talk to me, it's like that time when you were having trouble accepting your gift," said Emma, "I can't get you to talk to me, why is that?"
"What is there to talk about?" asked Olivia.
"Livvy, you're acting weird, would you please stop ignoring me? I'm starting to think that your illusions aren't getting out of control because that's how you want it, I'm starting to think that they really are getting out of hand and you can't control it…." said Emma, pausing for effect.
"You're worried, but I won't tell you, at least not yet…" said Olivia.
The two girls were quiet. Both too stubborn to talk before the other did, in attempt to get the other girl to talk through the silence.
"Look," said Emma, putting her hand on her shoulder, "You're one of my best friends, Livvy, and if you can't talk to me, at least talk to Charlie and Tancred. I'm sure that if you ask, you can manage to hitch a ride with them and ask the Queen how to deal with whatever problem you have. And ask Tancred and Charlie about it too. They've had to deal with power surges before, I'm sure of it."
Olivia didn't say anything, but she nodded.
"Well, I'm going back inside…if you want to stay out here to think about it, go ahead," said Emma.
She walked to the front door, opened it, and walked inside while closing the door behind her.
Olivia sighed. Emma was right. Charlie and Tancred, two of the more powerfully gifted Red King descended children would know how to deal with this. Not that they were all that powerful, because they were all powerful, but…they would probably know how to handle whatever she was having a hard time dealing with.
Olivia decided. "I'll tell them," she said quietly. She walked inside, her illusion bush disappearing behind her as she did.
Olivia found Charlie and Tancred in Charlie's bedroom. Olivia was surprised at how Tancred was able to grab his clothes.
"How did you get your clothes so quickly?" asked Olivia.
"Charlie lent me the quilt. It's fun traveling through this thing! Handy too, I grabbed my things in seconds. What's wrong, Livy? The last time I saw you with a frown like that you hadn't fully acknowledged your gift," said Tancred.
Olivia closed the door and looked at Charlie and Tancred hard.
"I'm going to tell you something that's been bothering me for awhile, but don't you dare tell anyone else or I swear I'll find out whatever frightens the either of you most and make illusions of it in front of your very eyes," said Olivia quietly. There was a sort of hiss in her voice that warned the two boys that she was serious.
"All right, tell us," said Tancred.
Olivia walked to them and sat with them. She took out her green journal and handed it to Charlie.
"I won't tell you, but you can read it. It's better that way anyway, especially if anybody's trying to eavesdrop," said Olivia.
"Who would eavesdrop?" asked Charlie.
"Emma, she's been worried about me for awhile," said Olivia.
"Well, what's it say Charlie?" asked Tancred.
"Sh…I'm not finished with this entry yet…give me a minute," said Charlie. When he was done he handed it to Tancred for him to read.
"Wow, it's gotten this out of hand huh? Heh, it's funny, I remember when my gift went up and down like this. I kept shooting lightning everywhere. My Dad made me camp out in the forest. Actually, while he put up a rain storm, he made me chop would with the lightning I kept shooting out so I could make a little wooden shelter for myself. Those were some hard times," said Tancred. He closed the book after flipping through some pages and handed the green book to Olivia. "It can't be helped then, you have to come with us. We'll ask the Queen if she can handle two boys. If not, we'll get you to travel through the quilt and ask if it'll be okay for the Queen if you came into the castle that way."
"But how will she find us?" asked Charlie.
"We'll have to lead her to where we are," said Tancred.
"And if Asa finds us?" asked Charlie.
"Don't worry, I'll blow him out of the way," said Tancred, "Or I could try my hand at some fog, I haven't tried that yet."
Olivia thought, this is starting to sound problematic, maybe I shouldn't have given them my journal…
"Now, don't go thinking you did the wrong thing telling us, in fact…you probably did the right thing. I mean come on! The Red King will be there! What could go wrong?" asked Tancred.
"A lot of things can go wrong," said Charlie.
"Oh, shush, you think about the negative stuff too much. I think we'll be fine, here-why don't you ask Naren to ask the king right now?" asked Tancred, handing the quilt to Charlie.
Charlie nodded. While he and Naren talked through the quilt, Tancred rechecked the things they would be bringing and added a few items while Olivia wrote down a few things in her journal.
Today, a bush appeared beside Charlie's door. I'll be going on a trip with Charlie and Tancred. I don't know what will happen, but hopefully the Red King will help…
"Oh wow! That's brilliant! It looks just like a cartoon hole! So...uh...you just jump into it, right?" asked Charlie.
"Right! I hope you have fun! It feels a little weird at first, but to prevent that I suggest that when you jump in, curl up into a little ball. It feels
a lot like you're bouncing around in a room full of jello!" said Naren.
Charlie hugged Naren, "Thanks! I look forward to use this around Bloors Academy."
"Oh! I also forgot to say this cool part. If you whisper, 'evaporate' to the blanket, it turns into a shadow and floats under your bed, or any
random place that's right next to you, and acts as a shadow for whatever that object may be! Isn't that neat? Ah, my blanket making is
finally starting to become helpful! Now go, Charlie, before your Grandma-Maisie isn't it? (Charlie nods) – notices the time," said Naren.
Gee, I've never seen her get this exciting. Thought Charlie.
"Okay, thanks Naren, good luck to your family! You'll hear from me soon enough!" said Charlie. He ran and jumped into the whole.
He followed Naren's instructions and rolled up into a ball. And to Charlie's surprise, the feeling he got while he was being tossed like a
piece of clothing in a washing machine was exactly the same as the feeling Naren described for him.
Suddenly, Charlie saw a dim hole open up before him and he found himself crashing into his uncle's messy desk. The side of his ribs
collided with the oak wood.
"Blimey, this hurts!" Charlie groaned.
"Well, I should say, after crashing into my desk and giving me a heart attack. You know you could have given yourself a concussion falling
that way, dear boy?" said Uncle Paton looming over him. Charlie held out his hand, Paton grabbed it while saying, "Up we go Charlie.
Now, what's this black hole, or rather, a hole that looks like a black hole, doing in my room?"
Just as he said that, the hole swirled around and stretched into a square. The patterns and squares of the quilt reformed and the quilt floated
down and draped onto Charlie's outstretched arm.
"It's from Naren. She made it for me during Christmas. It's really neat!" said Charlie.
"If you plan on bringing that to school-" Uncle Paton started.
"Oh, Naren told me to do with it when I got to Bloors. She has a nifty way of making blankets don't you think? Oh! That reminds me, has
Mom's party started yet? And what about Fidelio? Has he arrived with his violin? Emma and Ms. Ingledew said they'd be a little late,"
said Charlie, cutting off his uncle.
"She does have an interesting way of manipulating shadows, and your Mom's friends from work are already here taking a few
refreshments from Maisie while watching Olivia do interpretive dancing to Fidelio's music. And I've just got a call from Julia. Your Mom's
downstairs fixing herself up. We were waiting for you to arrive," said Uncle Paton.
Charlie felt embarrassed. He ran to his room grabbed his best shirt, took off the one he was wearing, put his best shirt on, and grabbed a
nice looking sweater to go along with his outfit. He walked into the bathroom and looked at himself in the mirror.
He sighed when he saw his hair. This hair will stay the same forever, but I hope it behaves at some point or time, otherwise I'm
going to find some really good hair gel to do a little tidying up.
He grabbed Uncle Paton and walked down the stairs with him.
"Ah! Charlie! My dear boy, where have you been lately, huh?" asked Doctor Tanaka.
"Oh, Doctor Tanaka," said Charlie coming over to shake the Doctor's hand, "I'm sorry I haven't come to visit the office, you see, my
friends and I have been busy at school lately."
"Oh, well, I'm sorry to hear that, but I do hope your grades are doing well? Tell me, what do you plan on as an ideal job, if you've
decided?" asked Doctor Tanaka.
"I haven't thought of that yet. I think I'm going to have to sooner or later, but I know I won't be a musician," said Charlie with a smile.
Doctor Tanaka chuckled and gestured to the stool.
Charlie sat down and looked around. Fidelio was playing a country fiddle while Olivia danced a few Western America steps. She looked
stunning with glittery shoulder length brown hair, bright red lips, rosy red cheeks, and a costume that had half a black tutu looking skirt
around the waist, and a long black and red skirt just under it, and a crimson corset to go along with the whole outfit.
"She looks like one of those...um, what do you call those late western American dancers?" asked Doctor Tanaka. Charlie shrugged.
"Well, anyway, she looks very nice. Good actress too! She was imitating a duck, dog, and opera man earlier."
"I can imagine that," Charlie said with a smile.
Maisie made a small whistle, "May I have your attention everybody? Amy has started to descend the stairs! Now, I will get the cake while all of you take pictures!"
Maisie walked to the kitchen while the guests took out camera's and started taking pictures with the birthday girl and the other guests.
When Maisie came back out into the living room, she brought a big cake with many burning candles at the edges of the round, three tier
cake, edged with cherry red icing and laced with the words: HAPPY BIRTHDAY AMY!
Suddenly, the thunder boomed, and the door bell rang. Charlie opened the door to find Emma, Ms. Ingledew, and Tancred dripping wet with rain.
"Sorry about that, I was so excited I brought a storm, I'll fix that in a jiffy just as soon as I change out," said Tancred walking inside.
"Have we missed the cake and ice cream? We decided to pick up Tancred. He heard your Mom was having a birthday party and was so
excited he called us," said Emma giving Charlie a big wet hug.
"Yikes! Emma, did you want to get changed? I think my Mom might have a few-" Charlie started.
"Emma, darling! Here," said Olivia handing Emma a long glittery pink skirt with frilly edges and a dark blue glittery long sleeved top, and
light pink flats, "Use these. I was going to use it for my ending performance of the night, but since your wet I think you should use these."
"Alright, thank you Livvy," said Emma giving Olivia a bashful, shaky grin.
"My, your so cold your shaking darling, and Julia! You want to come with me and pick out something from my closet? You're so soaked
through!" said Amy, coming over to greet her newly arrived guests.
"I'm sorry about that," said Tancred.
"You better borrow some of my clothes Tanc, and it's alright! I should show you this wicked thing that Naren gave me! We could use it
for so many adventures!" said Charlie.
"Oh, really? Show me then, if this thing is so wonderful, it should be a sight to see! What is it, anyway?" asked Tancred.
"You'll see," said Charlie.
The new guests walked into three different rooms in three different places. While Tancred changed, Charlie fetched his blanket from under
his bed where he put it and laughed. When he touched the blanket it wound around his hand.
He brought it out and showed it to Tancred.
"A blanket? You bought a blanket? Charlie, that's so...prehistoric!" said Tancred.
Charlie closed his bedroom door and walked back to Tancred.
"It's not just a blanket, it's a blanket made by Naren. The girl who manipulates the shadows? Do you remember?" asked Charlie.
"Yeah, and what does the blanket do, since it was made by Naren?" asked Tancred.
"It turns into a black hole, a black hole that's like the black hole that cartoons use. It's fun traveling through it! I just did so that I could get
to my Mom's party on time," said Charlie. He looked outside and noticed a bouncing bob of orange hair. "Hold on, is that...Joshua
Tilpin?"
"He's been fuming for a little while. Don't worry, if he comes here, I'll soak him," said Tancred, "Oh! That's right! I've been working on
the snow thing for a little while too! I'm getting loads better at it."
"That's good to hear," said Charlie.
"Maybe I can 'frost' him a bit," said Tancred, "What do you think, Charlie?"
"Worth a try," said Charlie watching Joshua disappear into an alley.
End of Part 1