TAoP Chapter 12

The Sandy World

To Penny, it felt like she just went to sleep when Max shook her awake. She looked up groggily at him and rubbed her eyes.

"Hey, we're close to the world now. And we have food on the table," Max called as he headed out of the room. Starlight flew in and sat on her head, chiming about all the stars she missed. Midnight shook himself awake, yawning widely and stretching. They both stumbled out if the room and into the kitchen where Jayden was cooking and Illiana was setting the table.

"Ah, Penny! Just in time! Are you hungry?" Jayden asked, juggling food and placing them on the table. "Wait, what am I asking for? Of course you are!" he laughed at his own joke as he got coffee.

Illiana swatted him with a napkin, "That wasn't funny. Penny is a growing girl; she needs her food. Well, maybe not exactly growing…but you get what I mean!"

Penny sat down at the table, still rubbing her eyes. Star flew from her head to the table where they made a special table for the fairy with her own food. Before Illiana sat down, she placed bacon and other kinds of food in front of Midnight. He sniffed the food, barked in thanks, and wolfed down the food as if he hasn't eaten in days. Max and Jayden were discussing about Penny's eating habits when Illiana sat down with her own food. Glancing over at the girl, she found her eating her eggs with her hands.

"Penny! Use a fork!" Illiana pointed it out with her own. Penny stared as if it was a foreign object, which to her, it was.

"What do I do with it?" she asked, grabbing it like a shovel.

"Here, I'll show you." Thus began more lessons for Penny.

After they finished eating, Penny ran up the deck to see the world. All she could see, though, was sand. Just yellow sand all around the world as if there was nothing else on it.

"What kind of world is that?" she asked as Max came up too.

"That's what we're gonna find out. Here take this," he handed her a canteen filled to the brim with water. "We don't know how much traveling we're gonna have to do, so keep this with you and drink sparingly."

She put it around her shoulders when the other two and Star came up. Jayden and Illiana were wearing cloaks over their clothes. The cloaks were plain brown made with a rough material. Illiana carried two more on her arm. She handed one to Max and the other to Penny.

"What are these for?"

"These are to protect us from the sun," Illiana explained. "We don't want to get over heated or sunburnt. Penny put it on and found that it went all the way down to her feet.

"Oh man, we forgot about shoes for Penny," Jayden smacked his forehead.

"It's okay, I'm fine. I don't like shoes anyway," she said, making a face at the word shoes.

"Fine, but don't complain. Are we ready?" Everyone nodded. "Okay, we leave in 3-2-1!" Jayden waved his staff and a bright light circled around them. In a flash, they were standing in the middle of the desert with no sense of direction.

"Great job Jayden. Now which way do we go?" Max asked, looking around to see if anyone else was with them. But it was silent and hot. Midnight whined as the sun beat down on them. Penny tried to create a shadow for him, but it didn't work out.

"That is an excellent question. But since we don't know what world this is, we have no knowledge on where a town might be," Jayden was looking at his computer.

"Fantastic! We might be here forever!" Illiana cried out, flinging her hands in the air. "We can't wonder the desert forever."

"You know we could follow these tracks or follow the faint presence I feel," Penny suggested as she knelt down to examine them. When they first landed, she felt what she believed to be a Heart, but wasn't so sure.

"You feel a Heart?"

"Maybe. It's really faint though."

Max knelt down next to her, looking at the tracks, "Well, since we are in the desert, these tracks might belong to a camel. These could lead us to a town."

"What are we waiting for?" Illiana started to follow them briskly. Everyone else fell in behind her, eager to get out of the heat.

After about two hours of walking, or in Penny's case hovering, they finally arrived to a town. In the town, there was a bazaar filled with venders and people. They were selling all sorts of things—food, pottery, and jewelry—anything to gain people's attention. The people were wearing shabby clothes with patches and tears on them. Some of the men wore giant swords on their waist.

Jayden leaned down towards Penny, "Okay, whatever happens, you don't leave our side. And don't touch anything! Got it?" Silence. "Penny?" He looked and she was nowhere to be seen. "Ah man!"

"You lost her!" Illiana looked too and couldn't find her, not with so many people all packed in one place.

Finally, Max was the one to spot her, "There she is! By the apples!"

Once they made it to the town, Penny immediately spotted the apples. There were bright red and calling out to her. With her mouth watering, she nudged Midnight and together they headed towards the stand. There was a big guy working at it, calling out about the apples and drawing a crowd to buy them. Penny crouched down on the side of the stand and reached up for one, looking around to make sure nobody was watching. She had picked up two when the man finally caught her.

"THIEF! Get away from my apples!" He yelled, grabbing her left hand and pulling her up.

"OUCH! Let go! I'll put them back!" Penny cried as she tried to break free. Midnight was barking and growling, gaining the attention of every person in the bazaar.

"Do you know what the penalty for stealing is?" The man asked as he put his face close to hers, tightening his grip.

"Tch!" Penny grimaced in pain, wishing he would let go. Her arm felt like it was breaking. Right as she said that, the man let go immediately and grabbed his own hand.

"AHH! He burned me! That street rat burned me!"

Penny looked down at her hand and saw it had a red glove. Without a second thought, she grabbed her two apples and ran.

C'mon, Midnight! Before he tries again!

The two of them ran down the bazaar, pushing people out of the way, and still hearing the man yell "THIEF!" Glancing behind her, she found three new men chasing her with their swords out. They were also calling her to stop and thief. Still Penny ran and jumped into an alley. It was a dead end and the men were closing in.

Quick, hide here! I'll lure them off! She pushed Midnight behind a crate. Looking around, she realized she could reach the top of the building if she climbed the tent that was over the crates. As she was on the tent, two of the men came into the alley.

"Stop! You won't get away from us!"

Penny gripped the edge of the building the slowly pulled herself up. She sat on the edge, panting a bit, and then continued running on top of the crumbling building. As she reached the other edge, she realized she wouldn't make it to the other building without Star's help. But she didn't have the fairy with her at this moment.

"Tch!" Penny turned back around only to find the men also on the building, blocking her way. "Oh come off it! Gimmie a break!"

Seeing no other choice, she jumped into the next alley. She managed to grab an edge on a window but her fingers slipped from her weight and the speed. Penny landed heavily on her right shoulder.

"Erg!" She grasped her shoulder and started to run again when she ran into something very solid. Falling backwards, Penny found herself right in front of the biggest man she has ever seen!

He reached down, grasping the front of her shirt. Pulling her up until their faces met, he smiled and Penny couldn't help noticing he was missing a tooth. "Gotcha, street rat."

Jayden, Illiana, and Max took a break from running since they couldn't see where Penny went. All three of them were breathless and lost.

"Where in the world could she have gone?" Illiana asked, barely getting the words out.

"How could you lose her?" Max gasped at the same time with his hands on his knees. "If she keeps doing this, I'm gonna have to work out more."

"What do you want me to do? Keep a leash on her?" Jayden panted out. He leaned heavily against the side of the building. "Besides, doesn't she have Star with her? She'll be fine."

"Uhhh…actually, Star's with me. She kept switching between the two of us while we were walking and she stayed with me ever since," Illiana said guiltily as Star flew out of her cloak.

"Oh great! Wait, what about Midnight? She's totally fine!" Midnight came around the corner as soon as he said that. The wolf had found their scent and was tracking them, hoping they had found the Lost Girl. He sat down next to Jayden, panting. The three of them stared at him and sat down in panic.

"Okay, okay. Nobody panic! We can find her. She could not have left this world. That's really the only positive thing about this."

"What about the Darkness? What if they are here and took Penny?" Illiana asked, fiddling with her guns. She had to take off her cloak because of the heat.

"We haven't had any sightings of them, so we should be fine…" Max answered as they heard people screaming from the bazaar. He stuck his head around the corner and saw people running.

"Demons! Where did they come from!"

Behind the people were these black, shadow creatures jumping around. They looked like the people only longer and more twisted looking. Their eyes were completely black.

"Shadows!" Max yelled as he ripped his cloak off and pulled out his sword attacking the nearest one.

Jayden and Illiana joined in the fight. Illiana's guns were flashing and popping, knocking down the Shadows as Max cut them in half to make them disappear. Jayden had managed to find a barrel of water and used that to knock them over. With a wave of his staff, he froze them to the ground. Seeing they were surrounded, he put his hands together, his staff in his left hand, and created a fireball. Jayden threw it at the Shadows behind the group and they caught on fire. He had finally managed to take off his glasses and replace them with is goggles. Illiana backed him up, shooting at all the nearest Shadows so they wouldn't distract the boy.

"What about Penny?" Illiana yelled. Midnight had joined in the fight and was attacking majority of the creatures.

"We'll get her later! We have to get rid of all of them first!"

Penny turned to look behind her, think she heard someone screaming in the distance. She immediately got her head smacked and stumbled on the stone steps. Her hands were chained behind her back.

"Keep moving, street rat. You have to receive your punishment," the head guard, Razoul, growled. They continued up the stairs to a huge palace.

"So, am I allowed to know what's going to happen to me?" she asked hesitantly, watching his hand and trying to contact Midnight. So far, not so good.

"The sultan has taken an interest in the street rats since our dear Princess has decided to marry one."

Oh great. Hopefully, they will find me before all of this happens, Penny wished as they came to a stop in front of a huge door.