Skirmish of the Souls
Penelope had always known she was different. She just didn't know how. She looked the same as the other kids. She dressed the same, ate the same, walked the same, and talked the same. She wore the most popular-est brands and ate next to the popular-est people. But no one wanted to be to close to her. Penelope knew she wasn't just a plain old dork because she was pretty and her siblings, who went to different schools, were disliked just as much. She had friends, until one of them learned how to read your past from your hands and while trying it on Penelope, went insane. Nothing was the same after that. But she couldn't ask her parents about their past. It wasn't that it was too painful. It was that they didn't know. They had been found abandoned as babies on the meanest lady in town (Ms. Penterac)'s porch and taken in by her. This was a possible reason of peculiar-ness.
One day she decided to do some detective work. She started in her parents drawers. Nothing there, except – wait – was that a piece of paper? Penelope looked over it curiously and saw a note from Mrs. Penterac's typewriter: Dearies! Guess what! I just found that old document of what I think is your past! I found it alongside you when you were on my doorstep. Send the kiddies over to get it. I know you would love it! Penelope told Patricia and Patrick everything and they set out to Mrs. Penterac's house. Her two siblings were just as determined to find the truth as she was, luckily! In an old notebook found in Ms. Penterac's basement was scrawled in an old time's tiny handwriting the following:
It was a quite cheery day, really, until It happened, with clear blue skies and corn almost ready to harvest. It was the sort of day everything in the universe was all right. Of course, everything was NOT all right. Because there was a little old man with his sorceress-wife living right underneath the fields and he was not invited the opening ceremonies of the harvest. And as the festivities went on overhead, his wife was so stricken by the unloving manner of the unknowing neighbors that she died. The man was so broken-hearted that he vowed to get the neighbors back. And he almost did, with his wife's voice whispering to him for every step of the way.
That was when Itall started. It had three phases. The villagers were not involved until the second step. First, the wife told him to steal the wand of weather. You see, all the weather is controlled by the holder of the wand of weather. On the way, they snuck past a giant sleeping warthog, a grizzly pang-squiddle, a rilting hob-snitcher, and a humongous jabelly-scanimpterous. Of course these were no problem, because, even the ghost of the dead sorceress could do powerful magic. She put them to sleep! Finally the Castle of the Snow and Sun was up ahead, gleaming with an un- landly-glory. The little man realized that what he was doing was very bad, and refused to go any further. The wife was mad! What would she do to the dear little man?
She reared back with fury in her eye and pushed him. His body crumpled to the ground, soul-less. Then the evil sorceress pushed her soul, her evil, black, twisted soul, into his body. She had dominated over his soul! She put all the guards to sleep and put the weather fairy in a locked room while pretending to be a guard. Working her way into the heart of the Castle of the Snow and Sun, she decided to have fun and try stealing the wand even with all the guards. This proved to be of the difficulty number ZERO as she just breezed through the castle under an invisibility spell and got the wand.
When she got out of the castle, the first thing she did was to make all parts of the land dreary, cold, and rainy. Then she focused on the innocent little parade of harvesters who had "forgotten" to invite her and her husband to the ceremony. She rained on their parade, literally. The farmers were confused. The forecast swore it would not rain. It was pouring! What they didn't know was that the mean old woman had the wand of weather!
The sorceress walked coldly by crying babies, old men with limbs broken from slipping in puddles. She went to center of the city and climbed the old capitol building so the town was all below, spread out like she was looking at a map. Her heart did not soften even when she went to steal all the corn and flood all the houses. Suddenly she stopped. Her face (or rather the old farmer's face) went a sickly shade of green. Her husband was fighting back! The villagers noticed this and started cheering. The old man fought back even harder now that he realized that if he won, he would be heroic! Guess what? He wasn't enough…
That was it. Penelope felt like screaming. All that for nothing! She had lots of questions! What happened next? How did this connect to her? She thought so hard her brain started hurting and she blacked out…
Then, she had a mind vision. It was the battle of the souls in the story! While she watched a whispering, feathery voice narrated as well. It said:
The sorceress summoned the souls of all the spectators to help her win over the old farmer's body. But she didn't anticipate that the wills of all those who hadwatched were in their souls and that they would go to the poor old farmer's aid. But they did. And the farmer won the soul skirmish.
After a pause, the voice continued, though this time it sounded as though there were millions of them.
And you are the great-granddaughter of the sorceress, destined to take revenge!
Skirmish of the souls
End of Book 1