Author's Note: *Eating Gummi Snacks* …what? They're tasty! Well… anyway, here's the chapter!

Chapter 4: The Dark Sword

Enter Daisy:

"LUCY!" we all cried as Lucy fell from Mike's grip and into the wall of paper, vanishing.

"I'M GOING IN AFTER HER!" Paulo said.

"DON'T!" Abby shouted at him. "WHO KNOWS WHERE YOU'LL END UP?"

It was right then that a sheet of paper launched out and sliced Abby's hand. He shouted in pain and pulled his hand back, his hand dangerously close to coming out of mine. I couldn't stand being separated from him, so I wrapped both arms around him, making us both launch toward the wall of paper. I heard half of our friends' shouting, but then the paper moved around us and created some grass under us, which I landed with a soft thump on.

"Ow… well…" I said, shaking my head and looking around. "At least the landing was pretty soft, right?"

"I'm glad you thought so…"

I looked down to see Abby wincing in pain under me.

"Oh no!" I said, jumping off him and helping him back to his feet. "I'm so sorry! Are you okay?"

"I…" Abby looked at me and smiled. "Yeah. I'm alright, so long as you are."

I couldn't help but giggle at this.

"Though I gotta ask, where ARE we?" asked Abby, looking around. We were in a really big plain, hills and grass for as far as the eye could see.

"Looks like New Zealand," I noted.

"Well we better find someone," said Abby, taking my hand and leading me across the grassy plain. As we walked, we didn't notice high in the sky, a flying eye was focused down on us.

Enter Ned:

I was sitting in my throne room, watching all this happen in a crystal ball connected to the flying eye.

"Do you think the others are okay?" the pretty one asked.

"Well, I bet they all fell in different places just like us," the guy said.

"Wow… she is REALLY pretty," I said, making the eye zoom in on the pretty one. "I wish she could be my queen. Then this kingdom would be perfect!"

The Yibirth Macisto shook in my lap. I looked down and opened it. A few days ago, I learned that the book did this whenever it wanted to give me a message. So, I opened it up to watch the words be written on the page.

"If she is so perfect," the book wrote, "why not take her as your queen?"

"Oh I don't know… can I?" I asked.

"You're a king, a God in fact!" the book encouraged. "All you need is a mount to bring her here, and… this."

The pages in the book turned on its own and landed on a tiara with notes pointing to it.

"A brainwashing tiara?" I asked. "Well… are you sure this is the best way to do this?"

"Would I ever steer you wrong?" the book replied.

"Well… alright, I guess you're right," I said, opening my notebook and starting to draw. "Soon, I'll have my own queen… this is gonna be so cool!"

Enter Abby:

"That's an odd cave," Daisy said, pointing at a cave that was simply an opening that went straight down underground. It was completely out of place, too, because while the rest is grassy, that one spot was spotted with dead grass and the cave looked bleached.

"I vote we stay AWAY from that cave," I said. "It doesn't look like anything could stay alive in it."

"I think you're right," Daisy said, turning around. "…what is THAT?"

I turned to where she was pointing to see what looked like something being drawn in the middle of the air.

"I have no idea…" I said, watching what looked like a cage with wings and arms being drawn. Once it was finished, the air around it rippled, and it spawned into a living, breathing creature.

"Holy…" I took a step back.

"Wait!" Daisy said. "Maybe if we don't move, it won't notice us?"

Immediately after she said that, the creature swooped down and grabbed her in its hands.

"DAISY!" I ran toward the creature as it flew backwards, opening the cage and throwing Daisy in.

"ABBY!" she stood up and shook on the bars of the cage. "LET ME GO!"

The creature was going only horizontally, so I managed to get closer to it as I chased after it up a hill. At the top, I jumped and just barely managed to get my fingers on the cage.

"ABBY!" Daisy held out a hand, and I took it and used it to pull myself up to the outside of the cage, holding onto the bars.

"Maybe I can find a way to pry this open…" I said. Suddenly, the creature started shaking, knocking Daisy all around the cage and having me hang on for dear life by my hands.

"NO, DAISY!" I grabbed as hard as I could and tried to pull myself up, but with an expert flick, the creature flicked me off, making me roll and land in a heap on the ground.

"ABBY!" Daisy called out as she was carried off. I looked up and cursed, hitting my fist against the ground.

"I wasn't strong enough!" I said. "I couldn't save her, and now she's gone to who-knows-where…"

I lifted my head and turned to see the cave. I had no idea where it went, but… well, it was my only choice left. Standing up, I walked into the cave. It went down in a slope, leading down for what felt like miles. It eventually evened out and opened up to a huge open area underground. In the center of the chamber was a glowing red sword that let off an aura of power.

"…" I walked forward and looked at the sword. If anything could help me get Daisy back, this would be it. Not like I had any other choice, I grabbed the hilt and pulled it out of the ground. There was a powerful vibration, and what felt like a current going through my body, but I had it. I had the sword in my hand. I gave it an experimental swing. It felt perfect, the right balance in my hand.

"Alright…" I said, turning around. Suddenly, there was a loud shaking, and from the walls came skeletons.

"FOOLISH MORTAL WHO DARE TAKE THE SWORD, THOU SHALT BE BURIED UNDER THE DAMNED SOULS OF THOSE WHO HATH TOUCHED THE BLADE!" a dark voice said as the skeletons ran at me.

In retrospect, that probably should have been my first clue.

My second came when I started swiping the sword through them. The more I attacked, the angrier I got, until I was just fury with a blade. I ran through, slicing through many skeletons at once. I jumped into the air and stabbed downwards, letting off a shockwave of negative energy that made a whole mess of skeletons collapse at once. Finally, I stood up and pointed my sword into the air, sending off a red orb that shot out bolts of lightning that destroyed every single one.

"…power," I said, blinking at the sword in my hand. "Look at all this POWER. Now I can destroy the monster that kidnapped Daisy!"

The violent thoughts that went through my mind should have been my second clue as I ran out of the cave after the monster. I had no idea what that horrible blade was doing to me as I ran…

Author's Note: Foreshadowing! Sorry for it being short, pulled this out in the last minute. Until next time, this is Pax the Dreamer, signing out!