Fabian's POV
What just happened? It must have been a dream. Sure a lot of weird things had been going on lately but that was impossible. A slew of bright lights had not swept up me and my friends.
I opened my eyes to prove that I was just in my room but the reality suddenly dawned on me and I knew what had just happened, was in fact real. Golden pillars, golden, paintings, golden food, golden animals, golden people, the room around me was entirely golden. Everything around me was entirely gold, that was everything except for my girlfriend and friends who were lying on the floor next to me. I made my way over to Nina and shook her gently, trying to arouse her from her sleep. She mumbled for a little bit before coming around and shooting up from the ground.
"Where are we?" She asked as she gazed in awe at the room around us. It was probably the most surreal thing I've ever laid my eyes on. A long golden table was sitting before us, everything on it; the fruits, plates, goblets, breads, and the people who sat frozen in the chairs were gold. At the head of the table was a golden man who, even though he was completely golden, you could tell he held more importance. A crown was close to falling of his head, and his glittering eyes held immense sorrow, yet he still seemed to be in command.
"I'm not sure," I told her sincerely. Tearing my eyes away from the frozen king and moved them to the open window. Taking a sharp intake of breath I was shocked at what lay out there. The whole city was the same as this room. Tall buildings were gold, tiny huts were gold, vendors in the street were gold, absolutely everything in sight was gold. It was the stuff you read in books, tales your mum tells you before go to bed, it was…mythical.
"It's King Midas." Nina's voice was filled with revelation. Her eyes darted around the room in amazement.
"What?" I asked her. Of course I had heard the story before. The greedy king of a land in Ancient Greece got a little too greedy and was granted the ability to turn everything he touched to gold. The thing was he didn't really exist… or at least that's what I thought.
"You know the story Fabian! If the Cup of Ankh can be real, why can't King Midas?" She asked with an increasing sense of earnest in her voice. I bit my lip, wondering if that could really be possible. Before I could reach a decision Amber's squeal filled the room.
"Eww! Where are we? Too much gold is incredibly tacky!" I turned around to see a disgusted looking Amber next to a fascinated Alfie. Amber was frowning at the décor while Alfie inspected the golden floor with a gleeful smile and a dreamy look that was plastered across his face.
"Is this the home of the Goldiantiors? The aliens who put gold on Earth?" He asked as he swiveled his head around to look at everything around him. With that Jerome woke up and promptly smacked him in the back of the head.
"Alfie! Pay attention mate. Does it look like we're in another planet?" He rolled his eyes looking annoyed, but when he saw me looking at him he mouthed "Where are we?" I shrugged, honestly still not sure. Patricia's horrific scream shook us all as we looked at the panic-ridden Patricia. She looked around in utter terror but she seemed to calm down for a moment as she got used to the golden room. And then she started yelling her head off again.
"What is this? Where are we? Is this some kind of stupid prank? I will kill you if it is!" Patricia threatened the jokers of the house angrily. Jerome held up his arms in innocence.
"Yo Trixie it wasn't me! Even the incredible Jerome Clarke isn't smart enough to pull this one off. This thing has Ms. Chosen One, Sibuna thing written all over it." I nodded to myself; Sibuna would defiantly have some work to do with all of this. Nina looked as if she were about to say something but Mara and Mick beat her to the chase.
"Chosen One? Sibuna? What? Where are we?" Mara quickly spurted out questions to us. She gazed hard at us, looking and probing for answers. I glanced over at Nina who was biting her lip and begging me for help. I shrugged my shoulders; there really was nothing we could do. I mean it was no use lying to them, not when they got sucked in here with us.
"Um well something really big happened last term. Don't feel bad we didn't tell you, we just wanted to keep you safe. Long story short Victor and most of the teachers are in a secret society that want to live forever using an elixir of life but it'll only work if they have it from this cup called the Cup of Ankh. A chosen one needs to put together, at first they thought it was Joy but it's actually me. There was also this evil guy named Rufus and he wanted the cup to but neither he nor the teachers got it. So do you get it?" Nina explained to them trying to fit as many details as she could into a short amount of time. Mara nodded eyes wide and Mick had the same look on his face when I was trying to help him understand his French assignments.
"Uh-huh," Mara said wide-eyed. Mick just nodded slightly as he pulled a granola bar out of his pocket and began chomping on it.
"That's interesting." He mumbled through bites. Mara smacked him on the arm.
"That's interesting? More like life-changing Mick!" She scolded Mick for a moment before returning to gaze in awe at the room around her. "So you still didn't answer my other question. where are we?" She asked Nina, who was now closely expecting the king we thought to be King Midas.
Before anyone could answer there was a poof of bright yellow smoke appeared in the middle of our circle. When the smoke cleared away in front of us two…goblin like things stood. They were disfigured and hunched over, green bumpy skin covered them and they were wearing what looked to be tattered armor. They looked the same as the illustrations of goblins in my old folk-lore books. It defied almost everything I believed in, science proved these things didn't exist, but right now they stood right in front of me and I knew I couldn't deny it. One of the…mysterious beings began to talk to us, in a raspy voice that was unlike any other voice I had never heard before.
"The orphan Princess has returned for her coronation, Alas, first she and her friends must save every single nation, One of you, descendent of Jupiter, Must save this land from its golden stupor, Together you must find the written solution, For if you do, you shall save Jupiter's land from thishorrid collusion, brought up by the evil Pluto's crazy delusions." He rhymed in a slow old- fashioned voice. It almost sounded as if he was desperate, I wasn't sure why but I knew we had to help him. Even if we had no idea what we were doing or where we were I knew we had to help. At the start of its poem it seemed as if it was looking at Nina, but as it started to talk about Jupiter it looked as if it were looking at me.
Pluto…Pluto…where had I heard Pluto before? He was the Roman King of the underworld I knew but he was never described as evil. People described him as dark but never evil. I doubted they were talking about the Roman god but it seemed as if someone had taken the namesake and went with it. The way these creatures were talking it was like there were more places than just this. As if there were other horrible things that went awry in other parts of this warped dimension. This place wasn't on Earth I was sure of that but other than that I had no idea who this evil force was or where we were.
"Princess! Ohh it must be me! Princess Amber! It's got a nice ring to it!" Amber smiled brightly as her eyes glazed over in a daydream like state. I rolled my eyes; of course Amber would want to be a princess. And it was almost expectant for her to be the princess. She was the type of course, girly and naïve and everything that makes a stereotypical princess. However I knew for whatever reason that it wasn't Amber. It wouldn't even make sense. Both of her parents were still alive and besides, I had a feeling it was somebody else. I thought it was Nina.
"The land of Jupiter? You really are aliens! We're in outer space!" Alfie threw his hand sup excitedly in the air. I shook my head at him, even though if what these little goblins were true the thought of aliens wouldn't be that ridiculous.
"Alfie they aren't talking about the planet. They're…they're talking about the Roman king of the gods." I muttered looking at the goblins for confirmation. They smirked at me and I knew I was right.
"Ah smart boy no wonder- opps I've given to much a way. I shall not say!" This time it was the other goblin who spoke, his voice was different, and he sounded more like a laid back, joker kind of guy. "Together you must quest, to save the east and the west, alas you aren't correctly dressed!" Both he and the other goblin grinned and with a flash they gave each other a high-five and looked at us expectedly.
At first nothing happened but quickly a bright gust of the same yellow dust surrounded us. As quickly as it appeared it went away and I felt my mouth form a perfect O. Our old clothes were gone. In place my old grey jeans and plaid shirt were replaced with something straight out of a Lord of the Rings movie. With a long cloak, long dark pants, light shirt, big leather boots, I looked completely ridiculous. I glanced around at my friends and saw that all of the guys were dressed the same way. The girls were dressed completely different from us and each other.
Mara looked like she was a female version of Robin Hood, short cape, dark short boots, long green leggings and a brown short dress. Patricia was glaring down at her black and white short dress with pure hatred but as she looked at her long boots she smiled. Amber grinned widely at her long sleeved pink dress with white boots. And Nina looked as pretty as she always did if not even prettier in her knee high boots and white and blue short dress.
"Ekk! How did you do that? I want that super power!" Amber asked the two goblins as she ran up to them. Both of them looked at her with an utter look of disgust on their faces. "And why do you keep talking in rhymes? It's very confusing." She told them pointedly while waving a finger in their faces.
The one who had spoken first lips curled and I knew that he was about to say something else. Something that could be insanely important.
"Shhh, our words can only help, we shall yelp, if we do not rhyme, then we will be punished for our crime, convicted long ago, if not we will be thrown to the snow. No more of us, do not fuss, you must save the land, with instructions in hand, you must find the crow, it shall glow, then go down below, so do not be slow, and save King Midas' land from woe." He pointed over to a large bird that was perched on the king's shoulder and looked directly at me as he did so. His face looked stoic and cold but in his eyes gleamed with hope. As if we could do something to help them, as if we could set them free. I gave him a small grin and his downturned mouth upturned into a crooked grin. "Both myself, Hicksburgalo and my companion Berrywell, say farewell," with these final words they popped out of here as quickly as they had shown up in the first place.
"That was bizarre." Mick's voice came out breathy and shocked as he stood still in the middle of the room pointing at wear the goblins had been. For a minute he looked completely fine and then he fell to the ground in shock.
"Oh no!" We all ran over to the faint Mick. I scooped him up from the ground and tried to awaken him. As his best mate I tried to think of the things that I used to wake him up whenever he overslept.
"Hey Mick! Trudy made chocolate chip pancakes with the whipped cream faces you love!" I shouted into his ears. He quickly jumped up from my arms and looked around.
"Where?" he asked looking around the room. I shook my head as he tried to stake out the breakfast food. Rolling my eyes I blocked out Mick and trained my eyes back on the bird. I walked over to it and studied it closely. Its head pointed to the golden fireplace. Pressing my lips together I thought back to what Hicksburgalo had said, you must find the crow, it shall glow. Even though this looked like a crow it wasn't glowing. Realization dawned on me; something or somebody has to make it glow. The locket only works for Nina, why wouldn't the crow for whoever was the descendent of Jupiter.
"All of the guys need to touch the crow. I think it's the only way we can figure out who the descendent of Jupiter is." I told my friends, beckoning them over to where I was with a hand motion.
Jerome looked at me as if I were insane.
"You actually believe this crud? Aren't you supposed to be the sensible one or something?" he asked me throwing his hands up in the air. It was clear he didn't believe, but I wasn't sure why he didn't. Honestly after the whole mystery I guess I believed almost anything was possible. We were standing in a golden room, in a golden city, where two goblins just appeared out of thing air then changed our clothes and then went off again. You would have to be crazy or just plain stupid to not see what's going on.
"Jerome this is real! I mean look where we are? Why can't it be real? Just touch it mate!" Alfie yelled at Jerome, looking completely frustrated. "I'll even go first." Alfie walked up and lightly touched the statue-like bird. At first nothing happened and nothing glowed but a few second later Alfie was sliding across the room when the bird flung him off with an unseen force. "I guess it's not me." He muttered as he got up from the ground. "Mick why don't you give it a go."
Mick still looked completely dazed and confused but he went up to the bird and put his hand on its head. In a millisecond he was thrown across the room like Alfie. Mick jumped from the floor and rubbed his head with his hands.
"God this is insane. Jerome you try." He gripped to himself as he crossed his arms over his chest looking as if he was trying to process this whole situation. I had to give him and Mara credit; this wasn't a sort of situation where you could handle it easily. It really was insane and unbelievable too.
Jerome scowled angrily as he walked up to the golden crow next to me. His eyes scanned it over and he put his index finger mockingly on the birds head smirking when it did nothing at first. And, just as it had done to both Alfie and Mick, it sent him rolling across the room.
If it wasn't any of the other guys then it had to be me. It was a strange thought. Little Fabian Rutter being a descendent of the king of the gods. If someone had told me that ten minutes ago I would have laughed at the thought. Now I wasn't so sure. I looked again at the crow with its golden feathers, golden eyes, and golden talons. It seemed like it wanted to help. As if it was holding a secret bigger than us.
Tentatively I placed my whole hand on its tiny head and waited. The same gray light that had been back at Anubis house was glowing around the bird and a large rumble shook the room. My eyes were drawn to the golden fireplace that was behind the table at the end of the room. The hearth of it was sliding into the ground leaving behind a long dark staircase illuminated by lit torches. Whatever it is we need to find must be down there. I was positive we had to go down there. There was no doubt in my mind that whatever was needed to set this place free was down there. And I was also sure that there would be some answers down there too.
I turned back around to face my awe-struck, wide eyed friends. Mick still looked as if he was about to pass out, Mara was a surprisingly white color, Amber was distracted by one of the frozen women's jewelry , Alfie looked excited to go on this adventure, Jerome was shell-shocked, and Nina was grinning at me as if she was excited to see what was going on.
"Well?" I asked. "Is everybody ready to save King Midas' land from woe?"
AN- Well…what do you guys think? I myself am very happy with this story- but I would love to know what you guys think! The only way I can do that is if you review- so please do!
Izzi08-Haha nice word! The Jara might take a little bit but it will indeed be intense!
TheHOAProtanginist- Thanks for reviewing! I hope you enjoyed this chapter!
Jenc0449- Aw thank you! Hehe yes there shall be Jara! Random spaz attacks are awesome!