Chapter 3

Kelly straightened out the long silk gown she now had on. It looked a lot like Queen Arielle's, but it just reached to her ankles and not the floor. "Now this is what I'm talking about."

Karen forced a smile. "Yes, very…stunning." She walked off.

Carmen picked up a silver tiara a few amethysts encrusted in it. "Finishing touch?"

"Oh, please!" Kelly said, taking it and putting it on. She took one last look in the mirror. "Wow."

"OK, I have some matters to deal with, mainly my sister," Carmen said, "I'll meet you and Ryan back here in, say…10 minutes, and we can go over some magic stuff, maybe tour the castle." She left.

"I'll wait here!" Kelly called. She then thought of something. She looked at the vase on the table by the mirror. She held out her hands and lifted it with her powers. She slowly moved it across the room…and it suddenly flew from her grip.

Ryan showed up and caught it just in time. "You might be careful with your magic while we're here." He put the vase back on the table. "Don't wanna get thrown out before…" He stopped when he noticed Kelly's new outfit. "Wow."

"That's what I said." Kelly looked in the mirror again and sighed. "By the way, Karen and Carmen are meeting us back here in 10 minutes to go over some magic stuff and tour the castle."

"Great." Ryan pulled out the headphone. "Gives me just enough time to check up on Mom and Dad."

"They just called 10 minutes ago," said Kelly.

"And then 20 seconds ago they beeped me," Ryan said, walking away.

10 minutes later…

Kelly's head and torso stuck out of the wall and into the hall. "A little help?"

Karen and Carmen then came up.

"Kelly!" Carmen said, "You were supposed to wait for us!"

"I got bored," Kelly whined.

"Well, I wish you'd started with something a little simpler," Carmen said.

"What's more simple than wall-walking?" Karen demanded, contemptibly.

Carmen thought about that. "Well, nothing really—"

"Thank you for the confidence boost!" Kelly said, "For some reason, my powers work fine but I can't cast the spells correctly without messing up somehow."

"Oh! I wish you told me this earlier," said Carmen, "It probably has something to do with your prematurity. Didn't your mom and aunts teach you about this stuff back in Acmetropolis?"

"Let's go over this later," said Kelly, "GET ME OUT OF THIS WALL NOW!"

"OK, OK!" said Carmen, pulling Karen back through the wall and into the room where Kelly's legs still were, "Get that Big Book of Spells."

Karen grabbed a huge leather-backed book with gold writing on the front. "Veneficus of Totus Res." (Magic of All Things) She plopped it on Kelly's tail, using it as a table.

Kelly took in a gasp of breath. "Hey!" she hissed.

"Sorry!" Carmen called. She and Karen started leafing through the pages of the book.

Kelly sighed. She then noticed a couple of the castle attendants walking down the hall. "Uh…hi! Princess Kelly! First day. Defeated the Daughters of the Dark! Nice weather we're having, huh?" They left. She turned back to the wall. "Hurry up!"

"This doesn't happen that often, you know!" Karen snapped.

"Well, it's not that often that the Princess is a premature half-born who keeps messing up spells," said Carmen.

"Finally, we agree on something!"

"OK, fine! We'll do this manually." Carmen took in a deep breath…and then kicked Kelly's tail, launching her forward and onto the hall floor.

Karen and Carmen came back into the hall.

Ryan then came back. "What'd I miss?"

All 3 girls looked at him.

"What?"

5 minutes later…

Karen and Carmen led Kelly and Ryan through the halls of the castle.

"Alright, we can skip the foyer since you already saw that on the way in," said Carmen, "So let's start moving on…uh…kitchen!" She dragged them off.

A Witch cook with bright blue-green eyes and strawberry blonde hair was in the kitchen, making dinner. While she chopped away at an onion, a ladle stirred itself in a giant soup pot.

Carmen walked in, followed by Karen, Ryan, and Kelly. "Hey, Haven."

Haven turned to look at her. When she saw who it was, she let go of the knife, which continued chopping away of its own accord. "Hi, girls."

"One cook for the whole kitchen?" asked Kelly, remembering how big the castle was and thinking about how many people must be there to feed.

"It's easy with magic," Haven explained, zapping some spices into the soup pot, "All about emotional control."

"Remember that," Carmen noted to Kelly. She turned back to Haven. "This is Kelly and Ryan Coyote, our new princess and prince."

"You'll never believe this," Karen said, "but Haven is Arielle's baby sister."

Kelly's eyes widened at that statement. She then started to look Haven up and down and started to see a slight resemblance, like with Daniella and Wendy. Different hair and different eyes but mainly similar otherwise (Sophie, of course, couldn't fall under that rule with the whole coyote thing going on). "Really?"

"Yeah, I get that reaction a lot," said Haven, "There was just 3 of us—the standard number of kids in a magic family—Arielle, our brother Bradley, and me. When Arielle was about 16, Bradley was 14, and I was 12, Arielle pretty much fell in love with this guy, and Brad started going after this girl. But I was staying back because I was certain I would be getting claim to the throne. Then they selected Arielle over me and she and her guy have been fiancées ever since, Brad getting married and me unable to find anyone. But I've let it go."

"Are you sure about that?" asked Ryan, looking over her shoulder at the knife that was still chopping away.

Haven turned to see that the knife was going faster. "Whoa!" She dropped the spell and accidentally sent the knife flying at Ryan, who ducked just in time and let the knife implant itself in the wall. "Oops?"

"Emotional control, huh?" asked Kelly. Haven forced out a nervous smile.

"We better move on before Haven here literally cooks up a storm," said Carmen, leaving. Karen instantly followed.

Kelly followed closely behind them, Ryan just inches behind her. "I'm thinking there's more to that story than they're telling us," Kelly whispered to her little brother.

Karen heard that and faced them. "There's hundreds of secrets lying in the walls of this castle than you will ever find out about," she said, ominously. [Creepy music plays in background.] Then she brightened up. "OK, let's keep going." She and Carmen continued to lead them down the hall.

Kelly and Ryan looked at each other and followed them.