"Earth to Sophie." Noah waved his hand in front of his sister's face. "What?" Sophie grabbed his wrist, pushing it away. "Did you even hear what I said?" asked Noah.
"Yeah … something about … erm, trolls?" Sophie had no idea what he had been saying. She had been too busy taking in the streets around her. No matter how many times she visited this world, it always showed her new things. Already they had passed streets thriving with all sorts of life. Animals walking through a market, the bears flocking to the honey stall. The air had been filled with a cacophony of sounds: half-human voices, mixing with growls, whines, and screeches.

They hadn't gone down there, carefully making their way down a side street. Sophie personally would love to go to one of the animal markets one day, but it was dangerous. They didn't like humans much, and it wasn't unusual to occasionally find some human meat for sale.

Sophie blinked rapidly as a hand waved in front of her eyes again. "Stop it!" she said, glaring at her brother. "What is wrong with you?"
"What is wrong with you?" Noah said. "You keep on going to lalaland. Where'd you get trolls, anyway? I was talking about gargoyles." He pointed up to the top of a building. Stone gargoyles leered out of alcoves, hunched over with snarls fixed to their faces.

"Oh. Sorry." Sophie stared at the gargoyles. One in particular caught her eye. It was perched on a ledge, wings bunched up on its back. It had an ugly grimace on its face, as if it had indigestion. It looked just like her Transfiguration teacher back at school.

"Hey, look at that one." Sophie pointed. "It looks like Professor Bracklehurst," she said, giggling.
"I know, right?" said Noah, grinning. "Every time he gives out a test."
"Students," said Sophie in a low, whiny voice, contorting her face to imitate their teacher. "Students, remember that your final grade – "
"– Is dependent on this test," finished Noah, and they fell onto each other laughing. They laughed so hard that Scraps came back from where he was exploring ahead, to find out what the noise was about. He nudged Noah worriedly with his nose, obviously wondering why he was laying on the ground.
"I'm OK, buddy," said Noah, struggling to sit up, still laughing.
"We should stop wasting time," said Sophie, wiping tears from her eyes as she stood up unsteadily.
"Yeah, we should." Noah used Scrap's collar to pull himself to a standing position.

Still chuckling, the twins started down the street, waving goodbye to the gargoyles as they went.
They were almost to the end of the street when something went whizzing by and splattered on the ground in front of them.
"What –?" said Sophie, half-turning toward the direction the orange missile had come from. Another shot past her head, causing her to freeze as it hit the ground, exploding in a mess of purple. Another hit the ground at Noah's feet, causing him to jump back and swear as blue splattered over his legs.
"It's … paint," he said, confused. Suddenly they heard a shrieking and a sound like a hundred wings whirring. Both of them looked at each other, and as one looked behind them at the building with the gargoyles. Little creatures were swarming out of the building, electric blue, lime green and bright pink, with eight wings, and high, shrieking voices.

The twins looked at each other, looks of dread growing on their faces. "Pixies?" groaned Sophie, covering her face with her hands. "Pixies? Why does it have to be pixies?" Yellow paint hit at her feet, and then blue, and red, and suddenly paint was coming down all around them, hitting them in the chest, the arms, legs, painting them a hundred brilliant colors.

Usually pixies didn't go after animals like Scraps since he was higher up on the food chain than them. Knowing this the twins dove behind him while coming up with a plan on how to either get away from the pixies of chase them away. While doing this Scraps seemed to pick up on a new scent in the area, and the pixies seemed to go into high alert.

"What's that?" said Noah suddenly.

Up on the ledge where the Gargoyles stooped there was a crouched figure. It seemed to be feline in shape... then it started changing into a human form. It sprang from the roof to the wall, and onto the ground in the midst of the pixies.

Sophie stared at the figure in front of her. Dressed all in leather, with a trench coat thrown over, she looked very bad-ass. Her long red hair blew in the wind, and her eyes had a strange look about them. The stranger pressed something on her belt, and crackling blue electricity flowed around her, making her hair stand up around her head.
"La Carcel!" she cried, and with a faint whizz six-inch long metal needles shot out of her hair, forming a cage around the pixies. They hovered for a second and then electricity shot from the tips, stunning the pixies, and sending them tumbling to the ground.
"What…was that?" Sophie whispered to Noah, but he didn't answer. The girl was gathering up the pixies, putting a few in a jar from her pack, and sweeping the others to the side, evidently looking for the electric needles. Sophie shifted into a crouch, trying to move carefully, but her bag slipped off her shoulder, landing on the ground with a thump. Sophie froze, and the girl looked up from where she was searching.
"Oh, sorry," she said, smiling. "I forgot you were there. Yo." She winked, putting up two fingers in the peace sign. "Sorry for interrupting this little gathering but it looked like you two could use some help."