Last Ditch Effort

Moving on.

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Song:

Alive and Alive Reprise

By:

Edward Hyde (David Hasselhoff)

From:

Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde Musical with David Hasselhoff

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Crack...fade...A piece from Flora's cheek broke off, falling inside of it. As if she really were a hollowed doll. Flakes of that fallen piece climbed out, drifting into nothingness on the breeze.

"Marcus! Ms. Flora!" Cecily panicked, dropping to The Fairy's side. Marcus ran over, frightened by what he saw. A couple more pieces fell from different parts of her body. "What's happening to her?!"

"I-I don't know!" Pamela, Irene, Mrs. Henshaw, and Baileywick saw Flora falling to bits. A deep rooted fear gripped their stomachs. They went to Goodwin, Fauna, Winifred, Marla, and even the lifeless Ubos. Horror clawed at their hearts. Their bodies were disintegrating, breaking apart like hollowed dolls. Those pieces faded off into extinction. And soon...their friends will join them. "It has to be because their magic was sucked out of them!"

"Then all we have to do is get it back!" Tilly proposed. She knows she made it sound easier than what it actually is.

"We have another problem!" Henrik hated to add to the problems. Seeing the Sorcerers and Witches falling apart, he checked on their petrified friends. Something was off about their eyes. The color and light was drifting away, or was gone completely. He put two fingers to one of their necks. He dropped his head mournfully. His pulse completely stopped. "These guys are dying...fast!" Mrs. Henshaw checked on the pets. They were fading too. Them, the guards, and the knights - everyone was running out of time.

"C'mon, you guys!" Garrick bellowed to the five circling Boswell. "We're counting on you!" This has to end now. Otherwise...a mass funeral will be all that awaits them after tonight. Not that Garrick can rightfully encourage them to end Boswell's tyranny in a flash. He was...proving to be better at this than originally expected.

xxx

This was beyond and more what Lezard's described it would be. The collusion of Magics biting, pulling, and clawing at his synapses. Begging him to unleash their full fury upon his victims, to lay waste to a land that has mocked him for years, and to show this world full of vermin just who it is that is worthy to wield this power. No. It feels more than that. What he described doesn't begin to prod what is flowing through his veins. This essence that he could lift an entire mountain side and toss it straight into the ocean tugged at his waning restraint. The idea that he can tear a hole in the sky was pleading his fingertips. Is this what it's like to be an all powerful sorcerer? Is this what it feels like to be a god? Someone, anyone, tell him...

"What is this feeling, of power and drive?" He stiffly rose a contented palm, glaring hard into the flesh and seeing the energy amass at his will. "I've never known." He clutched at the worst, curling into himself. Then this bloodthirsty smile cracked his face, "I feel alive!" The glow in his eyes grew into a frightening flash. "Where does this feeling of power derive?" He flourished his arms, create an elemental figure eight. "Making me know…" He inhaled the figure into his body, "Why I'm alive?" A malevolent but healthy glow outlined him, tickling his insides like nothing he's experienced. "Like the night, it's a secret." He whipped a hand to the night sky, reaching for the auspicious moon. "Sinister, DARK, and unknown." He crushed a semblance of the moon in his palm, confident that this night will be his. Lucinda and Adelea got sick of his gloating and nodded to one another to jump him. "I do not know what I seek," The two girls teleported to opposite sides of him, their wands thrusting for his head and ribs, "YET," The bite of his word was paled to the monstrous grip that landed to their wrists, "I'll seek it Aloooonnneee...!" He guided them right by him, grinning at their dismay. He released them, watching them stumble forward. Then he shot balls of lightning into their backs. The shocks knocked the wind from their lungs, and sent them into the dirt. Their wands left their hands. The grass grew into slimy vines, wrapping to each of their limbs and trapping them a few feet above their discarded wands.

Lydia and Merryweather came up next. Only this time, they were going to play the safe card. Boswell snapped a full glass of champagne into his fingers, "I have a thirst that I cannot deprive." He mockingly took a sip. Merryweather and Lydia swung both arms. A maelstrom of wind scaled around a not even remotely bothered Boswell. "Never have I…" He crushed it in his palms, "Felt so alive!" He was giddy that the glass hadn't so much as scratched his skin. He watched the wind carry the shards away. They glistened like stars with the remnants of champagne. "There is no battle I couldn't survive," Lydia and Merryweather tore gashes into the vortex with their wands. Crescent wind blades shrieked from the walls. "Feeling like this," He flicked his head up, eyes flaring with a blood red light. The blades were sheathed by the red glow, "Feeling alive!" A vicious gust of his own wind cast the shards in reverse. They ripped from the wind funnel. Merryweather and Lydia dove to the side. The blades only grazed their clothing. Lydia rolled into a crouch, ready to counter. Suddenly a boot stamped to her wand hand, making her wail in pain. A hand violently gripped her chin, wrenched her to meet Boswell's sickening face. "Like the moon, an enigma," He gestured to the magnificent orb in the sky. It's glow illuminating the fear and rage in Lydia's eyes, "Lost and alone in the night." Cedric emerged from a cloud of shadows, his own eyes burning with hatred. He transformed his wand into a dagger. "Damned by some heavenly stigma," Cedric drove the blade. Boswell reached back and grabbed his wrist, pulling him straight into a back elbow to the nose. The dagger left his hand, "But blazing with liiiiigggghhhht!" He spun Cedric around and kicked him into Lydia.

"It's the feeling of BEING A-LIVE!" He pranced about like a fairy, his flapping arms made the grass uneasy beneath Cedric and Lydia. Boswell stomped hard. A slab of dirt and grass catapulted the downed pair, launching them into a freshly grown bush of thorns. "Filled with evil, but TRULY A-LIVE!" He flailed his arms, crossing them right as Merryweather fired a focused beam, pouring it on. "It's the truth that cannot be DE-NIED!" He laughs heartily, not bothered that his boots were making trenches. He's impressed a good fairy has such torrential strength. "It's the feeling of being," In the blink of an eye he vanished then reappeared behind her. The beam ripped the land to shreds, traveling to the onlookers in the brush. They froze in terror as it missed them down the middle, "THE-GREAT-BOS-WELL!" On each forced syllable he jabbed a fist into her back, injecting her with the paralysis. He levitated her up. She was whirled around him and shot like an arrow, colliding with Lucinda and Adelea. The grassy vines snaring them broke on impact, and Merryweather was surprisingly freed from the paralysis. Too bad her fall was broken on the girls.

Boswell howled with victoriously laughter, relishing in how easily he laid his enemies out at his feet. The giddiness radiating from his portly body was making him float. He was flipping and swaying, swimming on the air. This was truly the life. No limitations, no restrictions, no reservations on his own might - NOTHING CAN HOLD HIM DOWN! And it was beautiful.

From the forest line, nothing but terror was percolating. For the children, it was hard to stomach. Sofia, James, and Amber tired their absolute hardest not to cry for Lydia. Scream her name or shed tears. To see her being battered around like a cheap pinata by Boswell enraged them. The fact that they can do nothing about it made them quake with rage even more.

"Get up…" Sofia's small voice squeaked desperately. "Get up, Lydia…" She has to get up. She has to keep fighting. Their friends were running out of time.

Jade and Ruby were hugging themselves close to Chris. Not only because they were terrified, but also to keep him from drawing the practice sword he carried everywhere. His big sister was being made into a chump and there was nothing he could not about it. He's training to be a knight. He was named a Junior Knight years before his true time. And yet here he is playing damsel in distress while his sister is in distress. Is this really how he's going to thank her? For everything she's done for him? Taking him in after their parents dropped them like bad habits, and raising him like her own son? Getting him out of jams, having his back when trouble struck, and never missing one of his ceremonies when he joined the academy.

"Addy…" He whimpered, tears running down his cheek. "FIGHT ON, ADDY!"

Jade and Ruby were equally saddened for Lucinda. After all this little witch went through - being alone, being treated horribly for being a witch, having no one to call her friend - they have to stay hidden, and not have her back in this worst time. She needs them. She needs someone on her side to help her fight. But this was the best they can do.

"WE'RE RIGHT HERE, LUCINDA!" Ruby howled.

"WE'RE ALWAYS RIGHT HERE!" Jade sobbed.

Clio, Hildegard, Vivian, Hugo, Astrid, and Axel felt their heads whirling, circling a drain into madness. Their teachers - the three most powerful beings in the world were being made to look like amateurs. Two of them were nothing more than cracking dolls on their last leg. And the other was on her own, too consumed by grief to put up a fight.

"She can't lose!" Clio whimpered. "She won't lose!" Nothing can beat Ms. Merryweather. NOTHING!

Miles, Roland, Miranda, and Baileywick were grounding their teeth, balling their fists, grabbing hold of sticks and rocks - every impulse in their veins screamed for them to act. In spite of them knowing Boswell would just put them with the rest of their petrified friends. Cedric he...he was getting himself pummeled for them. A burglar or not, none of them would forgive themselves if anything happened to him. They'd never be able to look Goodwin, Winifred, Cordelia, or Callista in the eyes again.

"Don't you dare give up, Cedric!" Roland commanded, and warned. "Don't you dare!" They aren't the only ones counting on him right now. If any one of them give up...Roland fears it is over for Enchancia and their neighbors.

Boswell trapsed around the victims he'd driven to their knees, unable to contain himself. In just one week and a few hours, he has five different kingdoms' monarchs completely entranced and in fear of him. The leading experts of magic have been defeated by him, and he is now just cleaning up the scraps. Very stubborn scraps, but scraps nonetheless. It was delicious. Their labored breath as they fought to remain conscious. Their trembling in their limbs as they audaciously tried to stand against him. The keels in joints that begged them to stay in the mud where they belonged. He's getting kind of drunk on the power. He doesn't want to ever come out of it. It was too rapturous.

"Is this what it is like, Princess? Adelea?" Boswell cooed tauntingly. Adelea propped up from her stomach on an elbow, glaring through one eye with fallen leaves stuck to her cheek. Lydia sat up on her hands, massaging that lump swelling of her skull. "To have this incredible gift - this raw connection to the realm's greatest mystery of nature?" His sweeping hand drew a glistening rainbow that immediately melted into bubbling tar. "To be this full of terrain marring potential, and not know what to do with it?" A crazed cackle rippled his stomach. He really doesn't know what he'll do when he's done. He cast his wolfish glare upon The sorcerers, Fairy, Witch, and spectators, serious disbelief and resentment fueling his desire for destruction. "All of this POWER, all of this MIGHT, and all ANY OF YOU EVER DID was skim the surface! Teaching children with no real talent!" The Royal Prep students and Merryweather puffed their cheeks insulted. "Entertaining royals at their whims!" Cedric snarled under his breath. "Saving kittens from trees and making medicine for boo-boos." That baby tone really aggravated Adelea. "Pulling of underhanded tricks, and parading yourselves as better than the rest!" That last scathing remark was for Lucinda and Lydia. "But what cannot be the most unfathomably irritating trait every last one of your freaks share is the belief that you are the incarnations of gods!" Now he was going too far! Calling them fake gods is one thing - everyone with a wand deals with that. But calling them freaks when he's the one sucking the life out of everyone? UNACCEPTABLE! "How does it feel, FREAKS?!" Oh yeah. Adelea, Lydia, and Lucinda are going to enjoy breaking his teeth. "To be subjugated like REAL vermin, and made to feel inferior?"

"We've never done that to anyone!" Merryweather frothed at the mouth. Lydia and Adelea bobbed their heads firmly. Lucinda swallowed a massive lump. She might have done something like that. Cedric coughed into a fist. He wished Merryweather wouldn't speak for all of them.

"That's what you all say." Boswell snarled hatefully. "Especially when your end is at hand!"

"You keep saying that, Bozz!" Lydia staggered getting back onto her feet, spitting out dirt and blood. "And here we are still standing...and breathing!" The others stood with her, showing Boswell they wouldn't be knocked down. As for breathing...that pain in their lungs should go away. "So far you've been nothing but that animal in a zoo that makes noise! An ear sore, and not a threat to anyone!"

"Well you know what they say about wild animals," Boswell spread his arms, welcoming their challenge happily, "We don't kill for sport! Just personal gain!"

"And like all wild animals," Cedric was stirring his wand. The air around his distorted into wispy shapes. Ragged ghoulish banshees moaned as their decayed brown bodies came to be. Rags attached to their shadowy forms, "We're going to put you down!"

Boswell threw his head back, howling with laughter. Cedric bid the banshees forth. Their mouths full of flesh ripping their, and their gnarly fingers sprouting talons, the banshees howled on their charge. They clawed over one another to reach Boswell. Bone chilling dots in the middle of their hollowed eyes craving to devour his soul. Boswell showed his teeth in a grin and he backhanded one of the banshees. It bursts into withered flakes, leaving Cedric utterly gobsmacked. "Animals trapped behind bars at the zoo," Boswell put on a little balle, prancing about giddy as a clown. From his kicking feet and swinging hands, random pulses fired, taking out the banshees, "Need to run rampant and freeee…!" He pirouetted on the toes of his left foot. A flurry of ice and snow roared, coating the grass and five in thin sheets of frost. "Predators live on the prey they pursue!" Another of his graceful spins and he slapped the frosty grass, sending blue lightning coils constricting to their limbs restricted harshly together and at their sides. "This time the predator's ME!" He yanked his arm up. Adelea, Cedric, Merryweather, Lucinda, and Lydia were hoisted several feet in the air. He chuckled perversely, dragging Adelea in close, "Lust," He trailed his tongue up her cheek, infuriating Chris and Lydia, "Like a raging desire," Adelea, in a fury, freed her one hand, throwing a punch straight for that mouth. An aura of a wisp stalled the fist just a hair from his mouth. "Fills my whole soul with it's curse!" He clenched a fist, shoving it down. Adelea's face was planted into the dirt. "Burning with primitive fire,"He wiggled his fingers, beckoning a fire to his palm...and his next and Lydia were the next to be ripped toward him, "Berserk and PERVEEERRSSEE…!" He jabbed those enflamed palms into their stomachs, saliva and heated fumes exploding from their mouths. "TONIGHT," He pushed such ease, but like bolts from a pressurized canon, Cedric and Lydia were fired into the trees. The wind was ripped from their lungs as trunks caved under their backs. Splinters, and spatters of blood erupted out, "I'll...PLUNDER heaven blind," He shot a hand up, "Steal from all the gods!" He clutched the hand closed. Merryweather was ensnared by a patch of grass shaped like his hand. "TONIGHT," He started to crush her with a malevolent grin, "I'll...TAKE from all mankind," He swung her around, tossing her like a ball, "CONQUER all the odds!" Another grassy palm jumped to intercept her and batted her like a tennis ball. "And I...FEEL…" He turned right as she hit ground, half buried in her own crater, "I'll live on...forever!" Lucinda wrestled her lightning induced coils, getting a hand and foot free. She stretched for her wand just inches below her. Red horns sprouted from the earth, causing her to yelp, "With THE DEVIL himself by my side!" An enormous chibi figure of a red imp towered to Lucinda. Its stubby arms clamped hard to the little witch. No fingers didn't matter. That thing had an iron grip. "And I'LL...SHOW...the world that TONIGHT," The imp swallowed Lucinda whole, dropping her into its cage like stomach, "And forever," Boswell appeared before her, grasping viciously at the cage bars, "The name to remember is The name," He slapped a palm to the bars, widening them and sealing her, "The Great Boswell…!" The Imp's mouth shaped like a canon. Boswell pulled the tail. And with a BOOM, Lucinda was sent hurtling. "WHAT A FEELING TO BE SO ALIVE!" Boswell swooned to a soft patch of leaves he summoned up behind him. Lucinda collided with Adelea. A very animated explosion rocked the stomachs hiding around. "I have never seen me so alive!" Boswell traced a mirror, admiring the glow in his cheeks. "Such a feeling of EVIL inside," His reflection distorted into a demon. Horns, a tail, a pitchfork, glowing red eyes, and the throne amid flames. "That's the feeling of being THE-GREAT-BOS-WELLL…!" He was lifted into the air by his ego, and an outline of the throne he desired, bringing his tyrannical monologue to an end. And from the top of his throne he was able to admire his victims all sprawled out in defeat below him. The intoxicating fumes of victory were making him very drunk on his newfound power. He threw his head back, howling with laughter.

Boswell's shrill cackling pierced the ears of everyone hiding in the nearby bushes. It angered them beyond comprehension. He's laughing in their faces - the five barely conscious, and them - and there's absolutely nothing any of them can do about it. Mrs. Henshaw lost off of her composure, slamming the side of her fist into a tree trunk. "I can't take this! There has to be something we can do!" And she isn't just talking about herself. The longer this takes, the faster their friends are chipping away, and their lives are being lost.

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"I really wish there was." Gwen placed two hands to her throbbing chest. Adelea, Lydia, Cedric - three of her friends who need their help...are on the verge of defeat.

"Is there really nothing?!" Alauna screamed. She can't take this! "We can't let him get away with this!"

Henrik placed a hand to the frantic Physician's shoulder, edging her back so she wouldn't dart in foolheartedly. "And just how do you plan to take one someone like this?"

"I...I don't know!" Alauna bit, her glossy eyes glaring daggers at the laughing Boswell. "But there has to be something! Anything!" Tears ran down her face as she watched Lydia and the others struggle to at least peel their faces from the dirt. Their clothes were soaked with mud...she hopes it's only mud. Bruises blemishing various parts of them, and their cuts stinging in their effort to resist. It was too much to bear. "We have to...do something." Henrik understands. Looking around, he sees it in everyone. How they were gnawing on the insides of their cheeks, tearing at their orbes and dresses, clawing at whatever was near their nails - it was a miasma. The rage, the sorrow, the hate. There's nothing worse than feeling helpless. Especially when those you care about are risking their necks for you.

"We don't give up on them!" Jade declared from his small tummy to the crown of her head. Aghast eyes shot to her. The drive burning within her pierced the frigid front of defeat. "No one knows these guys better than us! They've faced worse than this guy!" She swept a palm at Boswell, becoming less and less impressed by him as he boasts. The bodies lying seemingly broken and defeated beneath him...were still kicking. Rising to at least a knee to defy him. They weren't done. Merryweather - she aided in the rescue of Princess Aurora, Prince Phillip, and their kingdoms. Cedric - he has studied harder than anyone, taking all the chagrin and chastising towards him and developing a callus that would protect him and help him thrive. Adelea - a same gender loving girl abandoned by her parents who placed her soul in a dark place in order to keep herself from getting hurt. Lydia - and Inheritor whose own father never wanted her, and left her alone in the cold, cruel world to be despised and tormented. And Lucinda - a little witch unwanted by the world, and seen as nothing more than a nuisance. Each of these Sorcerers, Fairies, and Witches have faced traumas that would lave lesser beings crawling on all fours, constantly begging for their torture to end. Not them. "If this was all it took, do you really think we'd respect them or love them this much?!" Agreeing nods, smiles, and fist bumps were shared. The morale was steadily rising with this young girl's words. "One way or another, Lucinda and the others will figure a way out of this!"

xxx

"Ugh…" Lucinda moaned drearily. She was being lifted on Adelea's back as she fought to get up. "Did we win yet?"

"No such luck." Adelea regretted to say. Her muscles felt heavier than lead. Everything was on fire. It was mostly her pride that was hurt. If she could just get a second wind, then she'd be able to show Boswell what true sorcery is. Real tough talk in her head, but she can't even stand up long enough to prove it. A refreshing blue aura washed over the two. The ails and woes battering them all but evaporated from their bodies. Merryweather appeared with a smile, offering them a hand. "Thanks, Ms. Merryweather."

"Of course, Dear." She let them hang onto her hand while they regained their balance. It made her proud to see the youngsters weren't ready to roll over.

Cedric was balancing Lydia with a hand in hers and the other to her hip on her way up. The world was spinning. Or was it her? "Are you alright?" He whispered.

"I will be...I think." She moaned, smiling tenderly to him. "Thanks."

"Of course." He replied with his own warm smile. Lydia blushed dreamily. She hasn't noticed before. Cedric has some muscle built up.

"What?! Is this it?!" Boswell cooed scathingly, ruining what he considered a sickeningly tender moment. Disdainful leers seethed his way. "Is this really all Sorcerers have to muster? WHAT A JOKE!" He spat. As if they aren't already kicked down enough. He's going to rub the salt in the wound. Incidentally, he snapped his fingers and mounds of salt poured down on them. None of them were humored. This guy...was truly a jerk. "I should just reduce you all to nothing and get back to Lezard! This wasn't as much fun as I hope it would be!"

"YOU CALL TERRORIZING PEOPLE FUN?!" Miranda roared.

"What else are you supposed to call it, Madam?!"

"SAD, PATHETIC, DISGRACEFUL, PETTY!" Those are only a few of the choice adjective she has. The rest will be less ladylike if he opens his mouth any further.

"You want to talk pathetic?!" Boswell challenged. He pointed to Amber, "One of your daughters can't even get dressed by herself, and throws fits when she doesn't get her way!" That hurt Amber tremendously. She whimpered sinking into herself. Miranda and Hildegard hugged to her, assuring her it was alright. They locked glares with Boswell. How dare he say that to her!

Boswell took great pleasure in that small victory. A ball of condensed fire and ice struck Boswell in the stomach, sending him skipping to the ground. "WHAT?!" He shot up on his elbows. He saw the culprit's baton twirling wand slow, snatching back into a delicate vice grip.

Lydia's sapphire eyes bore daggers into him. The tip of her wand was still smoking. "DON'T YOU EVER TALK ABOUT MY SISTER THAT WAY, YOU FAT BASTARD!" She boomed, raising Amber from the depths of herself loathing. "That's one human shortcoming for one of the most amazing young ladies I've ever had the pleasure of meeting!"

"Lydia…" Amber was in tears, absolutely touched. Lydia gave her a thumbs up.

"How pathetically sentimental!" Boswell flailed his arms around. Six scimitars drew into view. They tore the air to ribbons darting for the sorceress. She and Cedric threw up double plied shields, catching the swords as they pierced to the hilt. The tips of the blades were barely a hair from their skin. They gaped in dismay as the blade morphed into snakes. Their mouths latched to their shoulder. Their bodies coiled and lifted Cedric and Lydia, squeezing them neck to stomach, then unraveled and flung them into a mud pool. "All of this love and affection is nothing but a bandage that should have been ripped off!" Boswell spat at the dirt, grounding the ball of his foot to it. "These heartfelt words, this posturing," He turned to Merryweather, Lucinda, and Adelea who were creeping in for round four, "All of it will be for naught in the end!" Boswell tipped his hat, showing off that horrendous Box of Ix. "With an object from the Crystal of Ix in my hand, no one - NOT EVEN THE NINE MOST EVIL VILLAINS IN THE EVER REALM - will be able to match my might!" The box glowed in love of his vision. The future he sought was before him in that glossy exterior. "Their powers, their wisdom - all of it will be mine!"

"Then you be one of the greatest leeches to ever come into power!" Adelea frothed at the mouth. "JUST LIKE LEZARD!"

"Leech or Lord, it matters not, dearest!" Boswell sang mockingly. "Either way, none of you will be around to see my rule come to fruition!"

The worst part is...he's right. Looking around...Lydia can see it. From their eyes, to their clutching hands, to the legs that fought to not tremble to keeling - If this keeps up...Boswell...was going to win. The lives of her paralyzed friends, the lives of her friends and family watched on with held breaths - everyone was being hung by the noose of this delicate balance. And Boswell was gradually strangling them. All because of a tiny box. Just take the box, she told herself. What has she and the others been trying to do?! Get that box and he has nothing! He'll be human. And everyone will be saved. Instead, he's absorbed the powers and knowledge of the most renowned sorcerers, fairies, and witch and he's throwing it at them. And once he's done toying with them, he'll use that box on them. Then her family will...they'll be gone. NO! No she can't quit! She won't quit! Boswell win? NEVER! She is Crowned Sorceress Princess Lydia - first of her name, eldest daughter of Roland and Miranda, and newly named protector and servant of Enchancia! Hades will freeze over twice before she loses to this wannabe! And...as much as it terrifes her...as much as her very soul is begging her not to...there's only one way for he to bolster her claim. The question is...can she do it?

Lydia was so engrossed in her thoughts she didn't notice her hand had slipped to her headband. Her fingers itching at it in deep thought. When Cedric touched her hand it shocked her back to reality. He was staring deep into her eyes, seeing the doubts rummaging about in that...beautiful mind of hers. He used his own fingers to brush the headband. "Such a small item...so powerful...much like its owner." He mumbled softly. "The difference is, its meant to keep the true you restrained."

"Because the true me is a monster." She lowered her head.

"Is she? Because I certainly don't think so." She bit on her lower lip. "Monsters don't contemplate risking everything for others."

"They just lose that everything when it's all said and done." Those that call her friend will run in terror. Her family will shun her.

"They might." Cedric shrugged. He wrapped his arm to her shoulders, shielding himself as he snuck a quick kiss to her cheek. Her face erupted bright red. Her glossing eyes widened in disbelief. "Or they'll see a miraculous young woman just as I do." She stared off in a daze, her heart thumping. Cedric...you… "Now," He took both her hands, placing them to the headband, "Show this pretender who the real sorcerer is," He bowed at the hips with a hand to his heart, "My Princess."

The biggest, brightest smile came to Lydia's rosy cheeks. The power of a thousand suns was welling within her. She doesn't have to keep it off forever! Just long enough to put Boswell in his place. "I will!" She nodded firmly, turning her determined person toward the baffled Boswell. I don't know what will happen in the end! She looked to her family. The uncertainty in their eyes, as well as their knowledge of no other choice, was beaming from their frozen faces. But I do know this, Roland and Miranda nodded approvingly, wishing her well, If not me, then Boswell and Lezard will have their way with my family. My home! Adelea and Mayweather watched on. Not in fear or apprehension, but with pride. I am scared of what will happen when I take this off! But I'm terrified for the future of my land! Sofia, Amber, and James held hands, their furrowed brows anxiously awaiting Boswell's incoming defeat. I don't care if they hate me after this! Baileywick, Gwen, Alauna, and Miles stood at attention, placing their hands to their hearts, pouring out their prayers for her victory. I'll hate myself more for not acting! The headband was lifted, strands of hair falling neatly back into place. So come at me, Boswell! She sent the headband flying like a disk straight into Miranda's hands. Because you're about to see what true power is! Lydia raised her head, boring sapphire daggers

What a dramatic moment for something so innocuous and stupid. Boswell couldn't even find the will to laugh at it. Just more bravado before her demise. "You think removing a simple headband will save you? HA!" A furious eruption of raw energy flared at his crossed palms. Cedric eased away from Lydia, taking a couple of steps behind her. He folded his hands behind his back, waiting for the blow. Gods above, hear my plea. May she prevail this night. Boswell unleashed that pent up energy with all his discontent. Razor tipped tendrils darted straight for her. Lydia's eyes flashed open with a silver tint. She drew her arm across her chest. The tendrils collided with the full arm. Patches of distorted energy shielded her from the impacts, hissing as it dug for the flesh cowering beneath it. "WHAT?!" Boswell frothed at the mouth. From Cedric to Lucinda, from Roland to Ruby, eyes widened in fear and shock. The blood curdling suspense whether or not her arm was being devoured. She was just standing there, taking it like it was nothing. Her expression hadn't even changed from blank. Then Lydia gave a mocking scoff. And with an effortless swat of her arm, the tendrils were dispersed into fuzzy, fading away orbs. Her arm was completely unsctahed. Not even a frayed string in the robe. Jaws all around dropped to the floor. "WHAT...WHAT IS THIS?" Boswell's mind broke. She wasn't even sweating. Boswell was sweating bullets, trembling in his boots. Was such a panic that he didn't notice he lost his charge. It quelled like an extinguished flame. "What...are...you?!"

It was Lydia's turn to laugh darkly. She partially lidded her silver pulsating eyes. "I'm an Inheritor, Boswell." She used one hand to curtsy, while the other touched to her chest. Her head bowed, "The Scourge of the Sorcerer World. Despised and feared by all. And now your worst nightmare!" She let a little growl escaped her throat for affect. It worked. Boswell was shaking in his boots. "Did Lezard not warn you before you came?!"

To be Continued.