"Mum, please! I promised I would spend some time with Yunan. It will be dinner by the time your done!" Olivia fussed as she attempted to get up from the luxurious, blue cushion she had been forced to sit down on in the castle's library. She had been sitting here for what felt like hours.

Olivia was just a girl of twelve that was incapable of waiting for long periods of time. Trying to stay still was agonizing and more then anything wished she could be on her way instead of being held up in his room and not being able to go out for a day of fun like she had planned.

Her mother however was having none of it and was not letting her go anywhere. She was always very picky about how Olivia cared for her hair. It was the thing Olivia could care less about when there were so many other things she could be doing today.

"Stop fussing, Olivia. I'm almost done," her mother said, finishing her hair into a neat bun, "There, now you can go see your friend".

"Yes!" she said excitedly and hugged her mother.

"Just make sure you're back here before-"

Olivia had already left the library before her mother could finish her sentence.

For Olivia, a young newt being trained by her mother to be the next advisor to King Andrias, she always cherished the days when didn't have lessons. It was so much fun playing than doing work all the time.

Although she knew her future role was important in helping the king with his duties, she was still a kid at the end of the day. And kids like her were always looking for something fun to do.

On this particular day, the hallways were quiet. Not unusual for a day in the castle since Olivia rarely saw many fresh faces in the castle, but a good sign that today was a great day for some fun.

Halfway through the long corridor, she paused to spot the shorter hallway that branched off from the corridor. There at the end of it was something truly amazing. Every time she stopped to look, she was always amazed by the huge, intricately crafted door that stood before her.

The best artists of Newtopia's past created the finest wood craving for the door frame. The frame's central headpiece showed the great beast of the sea she had heard legends about. Each of it's long appendages could easily snap a boat in two. A terrifying beast said to have been slain by one of Andrias's past ancestors in order to protect the city from harm.

The door itself almost looked like stained-glass windows, but was much thicker and could not be looked through. Whatever the case, it was one of the few things she loved that was inside the castle walls. A door so brilliantly built that it was a piece of art.

Several knights were standing in front guarding it, preventing any unwelcome guests from going inside the throne room.

On some occasions in the past, she was allowed to go inside with her mother. But that was a rare treat nowadays. Even so, Olivia wondered how the knights felt guarding the throne room with such an important task of keeping the king of Amphibia safe when he did have his private meetings.

She approached one of the knights who had observed her walk forward from the main hallway. Their eyes looked at her with a puzzled look.

"Lady Olivia? What brings you here?" they referred to her by her court title. It sounded strange to Olivia, who wasn't quite used it to it yet. Her mother always said with time that she would.

"Do you know where I might find Yunan? Pink, lanky, maybe with a bit of muscle?" she asked.

One of the other knights shrugged their shoulders, but the knight that she was talking to nodded.

"Ah yes, today Yunan's day off duty. If you're looking for the young squire, you'll find her in the foyer".

"Thank you," she replied before she left and headed towards the foyer.

Sure enough, it didn't take much time before she found Yunan in the section of the foyer that was dedicated to showing stone busts depicting the kings and queens who had reigned before Andrias. The last thing she would imagine Yunan doing was staring at the bust of Andrias's late father, King Aldrich.

Of all the kings, he was the only one she didn't like. It wasn't because of his old appearance. There was just something about his thick, hairless eyebrows that obstructed his vision that made her feel uneasy. Regardless of how he looked, she would never tell that to Andrias if she was ever in his presence.

"Good afternoon Yunan," she finally spoke, startling the young squire and making her squeak in surprise. She nearly took down one of the stone busts with her tail but was quick enough to save it from falling off it's pedestal.

She turned around to face her, but was quick to relax when she saw it was only her.

"Oh...thank the olms it's just you," she repiled, "I was just waiting for your arrival".

"In this dusty hall?" Olivia required.

Yunan awkwardly shifted her foot. "I was planning to wait for you at the courtyard garden, but the older knights were using it for training".

That was the one place in the castle that she could care less about. There was hardly any greenery in the castle, that small courtyard had a lack of flowers. Only grass and few trees besides the cobbled ground.

She had asked Andrias one time if she could plant some flowers, but he had declined it due to his worry of too much pollen floating around or being spread around the castle by staff. Her mother said that Andrias was quite allergic to the stuff. It left her wondering if there was ever a flower that wouldn't make him sneeze if that was the case.

Then Olivia got an idea.

"Forget about that courtyard. Why don't we play hide and seek instead? I'll hide and you can try to find me"

Yunan's eyes lit up in excitement.

"Alright, that sounds like fun! But just don't leave the castle grounds. I don't want to have a repeat of last time looking for you in the stables where the grubhogs were," she replied with a shiver.

Olivia chuckled. "Of course, I'll make sure to follow your rules this time".

Yunan blushed, but quickly looked away to cover her eyes with her hands. "Okay-okay. I'll count to ten, in the meantime, you can go hide".

"Right, good luck this time," Olivia replied.

As soon as Yunan began counting, Olivia made a run for it to find the best hiding spot.

Sure enough, she settled on hiding behind a large pot that was in the hallway. It was the perfect spot for her to hide behind, she was sure of it. A good hiding spot that wouldn't involve any wild animals.

No sooner than she had leaned her back against the wall, she heard a click of a button and fell backwards.

She tumbled down what she felt like steps, feeling the pain each time her body hit a step from the fall.

When she finally stopped moving and her vision became not blurry in her eyes, she realized she had found herself in an unlit corridor that she didn't recognize. It looked ancient, perhaps even older then Andrias's father.

Part of her wanted to get out of this creepy corridor as soon as possible, but the other half was intrigued by what lay ahead. So the young girl couldn't help but explore what was down this mysterious hall.

The stone brick hall was lined with strange plants, none of which resembled the familiar plants she had read about in her botany book on plant life in Amphibia. Part of her questioned if she was looking at an ancient type of plant that was able to survive in a dark corridor.

Suddenly she saw the appearance of several strange floating creatures above her head emerge from the wall. They looked slug-like in appearance but had multiple eyes she could see through it's colourful, transparent bodies.

Woah, spooky basement ghosts!

Luckily, the strange beings didn't notice her and continued to float down the hallway. Curious, she quietly followed it down the dark hall until something caught her eye.

It was the first door she had came across in the corridor. She was amazed by the crafted frame, and craved to look like vines of thorns with a different array of flowers. The faded word "garden" was written in the centre of the door, but the name of who owned this garden was long scratched out above it.

Surprisingly, the large door to the garden was not locked, so she carefully creaked the door open.

She was surprised by how beautiful it was despite how untamed the garden looked. The plants that filled the large room astounded her. What surprised her the most was the variety of flowers that embellished the room. Some looked exactly like the ones that had decorated the door. But others were unfamiliar with her, but smelled amazing.

But one question lingered in her mind. Why was there a secret garden in the castle with so many flowers and nowhere else? She was even getting curious about how they could survive down her with very little sunlight.

Olivia was about to investigate one of the flowers when she heard a deep moaning cry. She turned around in horror to see a gigantic moss-covered monster with small trees sprouting from the top of its head that was walking toward her.

It stared at her with a bright white stare. Unblinking.

"Ah! please don't hurt me! I taste terrible!" Olivia said fearfully, as she tried slowly backing away from it.

Mother is going to kill me, mother is going to kill me-

"Ow!" she exclaimed as she failed to keep track of her surroundings and had backed into bush of thorns, pricking her own hand on one of the thorns. It made her wince from the pain when she saw that her own blood had been drawn from the prickly thorn.

She cowered fearful of the possibility of death and closed her eyes.

But to her surprise when she felt no further harm come to her. Olivia opened her eyes and looked at the beast again, it had stopped in front of her.

Instead of tearing her limb from limb, the beast was offering her a flower from the back of it's palm on it's hand.

When she reached out to touch the flower, her fingertips were filled with a strange tingling sensation.

Looking at her finger again, she realized that there was no longer any sign that she had drawn any blood in the first place.

What kind of magic is this?

"So...you're not going to hurt me?" she said after she took the flower offering from the beast.

The creature did not respond with a nod but instead laid it's head in front of her to pet, making her feel awkward.

He quickly tucked the flower into her bunned hair and stroked it's head. She noticed the creature wore a collar around its neck and was not tethered to anything nearby. There was a lichen-draped den nearby, which she assumed was where the beast slept.

"You're all by yourself, aren't you?"

The deep, sorrowful moan that came from it was a clear enough message that it was true. She felt a bit sad for the creature.

Suddenly the creature stirred as if it heard something and quickly moved away from Olivia, making her confused by the creature's reaction. It wasn't until she heard the door creak open that she froze where she stood.

For at the doorway now stood the massive figure blocking the light from the entrance to the garden. There was no mistaking the large blue newt standing with a bushy white beard as King Andrias.

He was looking around the enclosed garden until his sight froze when he realized he wasn't alone. Andrias had a slight expression of surprise on his face before it changed into a more softer and kinder expression that she was always used to seeing him have.

"Olivia, I never imagined you would be down here of all places. Yunan told me she wasn't able to find you, she and your mother has been looking for you. They're really worried that something horrible happened to you".

"I-I'm sorry Andrias, I just got so curious when I found a secret passage to a part of the castle I've never been to before," she tried apologizing, "You won't tell mother will you?"

Andrias was hesitant for a moment when he noticed tears falling from Olivia's eyes. But the old king finally sighed with a soft smile on his face. He gently patted her tiny head when he walked over to her.

"Please don't cry, young one. I won't tell her, but you must promise me not to come down here anymore".

"But why?"

"It's dangerous for as one as small as you," Andrias replied, "I don't wish to see anyone get hurt, alright?"

"Okay".

Andiras picked her up and placed her on top of his large shoulder.

"There we go. I should be able to get you back to Yunan. Then I'll make sure to tell your mother you're fine. I want to make sure she doesn't get into a war with the kitchen staff before dinner," he said as he walked towards the entrance to the garden.

Olivia nodded, understanding very well how far her mother would go to see her safe.

As much as Olivia wanted to ask about the mysterious mossed creature in the garden. She just didn't know how she would be able to ask a question like that without getting herself more in trouble.

As they reached the doorway, she looked back one last time at the moss creature she had briefly befriended, cautiously coming out from it's hiding place just as the door to the garden closed behind them.