Nothing is mine.

I know, Eggle, I know. Web dev is really not my forte and now my site has seven novels, three web serials, a bunch of shortpieces, and all of the fanfiction you can find posted on this site all interconnected, it's not doing so well. For that I can only apologise. I'm very tight on time with working, writing, posting, and all the other life stuff, but on my long to-do list is finding a way to get it running a lot smoother without spending loads of money on it - I'd rather spend my money on the actual writing part. Browser extensions really mess with it the moment, so my recommendation is using incognito or private browsing while turning them off, that's worked well for a few people, and I don't post ads or anything like that so you won't find yourself scrolling down through a chapter fragmented by a bunch of weird promos (looking at you FFN, looking at you. In disgust.) . Hopefully anyone else reading this with the same problem will find it helps as well!

But on with the bit I'm not entirely incompetent at, the story! (Go on, guest reviewers, I know you're itching to jump on this one xD)

Black Widow

Small clusters of brown mushrooms sprouted from the deep green moss carpeting the trunk of a fallen tree. A handful of saplings grew up around the pieces of rotting trunk, putting forth slim light brown leaves in the break in the old, thick boughs arching over Bella's head.

'Are we there yet?' She squatted in the moss and poked one of the mushrooms with her finger, wrinkling her nose at the cold squidgy surface. 'We're supposed to be playing.'

Zhou cleared his throat and spat into a tangle of brambles. 'We are still lost.' He brushed a dead leaf off the shoulder of his white robes. 'The Tsarina and Fürst-Elect were smart to hide in here.'

It's annoying! A faint shimmer of magic rippled from Bella, sweeping across the glade and buffeting the mushrooms and saplings. I'm bored of hide and seek, Bell!

'Patience, Bella,' Zareen chided.

Bella flopped into the moss and kicked her feet in the soft green. This is boring, Bell. We should have gone after the floating skeletons!

Chasca moaned, kicking bits of rotten wood about with her gold-tasselled boots. 'I got up early for this…'

'Early?' Zhou snorted. 'Do you mean before midday?'

Chasca swept her two long, gold-threaded braids over the shoulder of her white jacket and glowered at him. 'Just because you were running around burning bones at midnight again doesn't mean it's not early for everyone normal!'

'The bone oracle was not encouraging,' Zhou muttered. 'Not at all.'

'You should get a better oracle.' Chasca stuck her tongue out at him. 'Our oracle is the highest authority in all of the Confederation; it sings when the first light of Inti touches it in the morning—'

'You've never been out of bed early enough to see that,' Zhou replied.

'I have.' Chasca folded her arms. 'I just prefer my beauty sleep; unlike an old walnut head like you, I need it.' She stared up through the trees into the bright autumn sunshine. 'Inti's prophecy comes from that oracle, I've never seen it sing of anything else. Every morning if you go up to the tallest mountain overlooking the sea, you can hear it singing the same song over and over…'

'It just sings the words?' Zhou laughed. 'That's so crude. It takes great skill and learning to read the bones. No wonder your people think someone is going to eat the sun, Chasca.'

'That's the Mayans.' A small smile spread across Chasca's lips. 'And the songs still have to be interpreted, old man, they're just beautiful sad noise if the aclla don't translate and it takes a long time to decipher even for the wisest aclla.'

'And they decided it means the sun will get eaten and die.' Zareen smiled, little creases folding in the corners of her eyes. 'Why?'

'Not eaten and die. Disappear. And Inti is more than just the sun,' Chasca retorted. 'He's all the light and magic in the world. If he disappears, the magical world ends.'

Zhou laughed.

Chasca huffed. 'Your bones don't even tell you anything useful.'

'Today they were very unhelpful,' Zhou admitted. 'In the starlight, I saw seven shadows upon a web of thin cracks. I do not think today is the day we find our way through this forest.'

'You oracle is rubbish,' Chasca said. 'Inti's… singers—' she frowned, muttering under her breath in her own tongue '—symphony… Inti's symphony is made of gold. When the morning light hits it, it glows and the wind sings through the chimes.'

Astoria glanced up. 'It's made of wind chimes?'

Chasca bobbed her head. 'Thousands of gold ones, three times as tall as I am, but thin as a hair. My father says they get warm in the sun and expand, and that's why they start singing at dawn in the sun. He doesn't believe in Inti's prophecy because his ancestors are from this oracle-less land and their only prophecies are little glass balls.'

Daphne exchanged a short glance with Astoria. 'There were oracles in Europe once,' she murmured. 'Before the early statutes. They were too famous to hide and so had to be abandoned.'

'Not all of them,' Astoria said. 'Some just became secretive cults. Like the Greek one. Or was it Spanish, Daph?'

A soft sigh escaped Daphne. 'Mithras. You mean the Cult of Mithras.'

Aunt Wally used to talk about a Mithras, Bella.

Bella perked up. 'What?'

Astoria snickered. 'Yeah, I bet you know that name, Bella. Our parents and a lot of the purebloods know of it. It's an old magical fairytale, it's in that stupid book by Beetle the Bard or whoever it was.'

'You had an oracle called Mithras?' Chasca asked. 'What did it tell you?'

Daphne shook her head. 'The oracle is not Mithras.'

Astoria poked her in the hip. 'Go on, Daph, you never forget stuff like this. You never forget anything.' She glanced up through the trees. 'And it's not like we're going anywhere until Charlie comes to un-lost us.'

'The oracle was in Rome, not Greece or Spain,' Daphne murmured. 'It was a set of magical scrolls that predicted the great disasters and triumphs that would befall the people of Rome. The cult sprang up after the oracle was destroyed and the scrolls burnt. Supposedly, some pages of the scrolls were seen or copied or saved and on them was some prediction about the final defeat of the muggles who hated the magical world. The muggles who still had connection and affiliation with the magical world during the earliest parts of the separation of magical and muggle worlds believed in it and so did many magicals.' Daphne stared down into the moss between her feet. 'They symbolised it with a great warrior, Mithras, who slays a fearsome bull and brings about the dawn of a new world. And it became a bit of a cult until it collapsed.'

'But if the oracle predicts it…' Chasca shrugged. 'It will happen.'

'Good!' Bella beamed. 'They're boring useless clay cattle people and they can't play without any colours! They should just get out of the way. I hope Mithras does come and beats them all.'

It can't be Voldemort, Bell. He had a plan, but he lost! She bounced her heels in the moss. Maybe it's Grindelwald, Bella. Maybe he'll win.

'No, it's not really a person, Bella,' Zareen said. 'It's just a representation.'

'It's not a prophecy at all,' Daphne said.

'Daph doesn't believe in them either.' Astoria poked her sister in the side. 'Too messy, right—'

The faint roar of a dragon rang across the forest and a shadow drifted overhead.

Bella peered up through the gap in the trees and caught a glimpse of emerald scales.

Astoria snickered. 'Charlie brought his girlfriend.'

'Enni,' Daphne murmured. 'Which way is south?'

'That way.' Enni pointed her broadsword past the saplings and across the glade. 'But it's all under cover. Charlie will not be able to see us if we move on.'

'Keep watch, Zhou,' Daphne said. 'We aren't the only ones who will see the dragon flying overhead.'

'We don't want to be ambushed,' Astoria chimed in. 'We're the ones who are meant to do the ambushing.'

Bella stuck her hand up. 'I want to be ambushed!'

'Of course you do, little Bella.' Enni laughed, flashing her engraved fangs. 'Of course you do.'

The shadow of the dragon swept over them again and a fierce haunting cry echoed through the trees.

Daphne's cool blue eyes flicked up, grey mist spilling from her sleeves. 'Astoria.'

'I know. I know.' Astoria grinned and glanced up at the branches. 'Zhou, what can you sense?'

Zhou ran a hand over his bald head and drew in a deep breath, closing his eyes. 'There are two dragons.'

'He let the big one out!' Bella cheered. 'She gets to play as well!'

'I doubt it,' Zareen said. 'A wild dragon?'

Zhou opened his brown eyes and nodded. 'I think so; it's hard to sense them at such a distance.'

A deafening roar rang out overhead and with a loud pop, Charlie stumbled through the mushrooms, scattering stalks over the moss.

'Problem?' Astoria snickered as he rolled around beating out little flames on the hem of his white robes. 'Did your girlfriend get upset with you?'

Charlie patted out the last flicker of fire and shot her a sour look. 'A Slavic wyvern. Their aurors must have seen me flying with Norberta when I was mapping the forest and waited for me to come back out again before waking him up.'

'Are they fighting?' Bella asked, bouncing to her feet and skipping to the centre of the glade. 'Can we watch?'

'What are our options?' Daphne murmured. 'Do you know where we are?'

Charlie twisted his heel in the moss. 'My broom is ashes, but I know the way from here.'

A tangle of green scales, clawing limbs, thrashing wings and lashing tails streaked across the top of the trees, crashing through them and smashing into the ground. The forest trembled and a cloud of dust rose over the brown leaves.

Charlie winced and dragged his wand from his robes. 'That wyvern is a century or two older than Norberta and a fair bit bigger than her.'

'Are we playing with the dragon?' Bella asked, snatching her wand out. 'Can we?'

'No,' Daphne said. 'We're here for the Tsarina and Fürst-Elect Dubrovsky.'

'We might have to.' Charlie pointed through the trees toward the cracking, snapping branches and billows of orange and yellow flames. 'Its scales are all sunbleached, so it's been snoozing for a decade or so until it was woken up and now it's probably very angry. It'll fly around over its whole territory and pick a fight with anything it finds. Dragons. Muggle planes…'

'Well that's a bit of a pain,' Astoria said. 'Grindelwald doesn't want the Statute risked at all yet. Enni, have you ever picked a fight with a dragon?'

A savage grin spread across Enni's face. 'I fought a sea serpent once.'

'Similar enough to a wyvern,' Charlie said. 'Don't go for the wings and the tail, aim for the eyes, the head, or the heart. It's old and hasn't been moving around, so its scales will be thick. Don't hold back anything.'

This is going to be fun, Bell! Bella swished her wand at the mushrooms. We've never fought a dragon before, Bella.

She bounded through the trees, flicking her wand at the dust. 'Confringo.'

The spell swept the dust aside and shattered a tall oak, spraying arm-length splinters over the grappling pair of green dragons as they clawed and bit at one another over the smashed trees and trampled brush. The wyvern's pale curved horns flashed in the sun as it lunged, ripping at the neck of the smaller green dragon, sending splatters of steaming, sizzling, thick red dragon's blood across the ferns.

'Ooooh.' Bella raised her wand, firing bright purples and oranges into its flanks.

The wyvern's tail swept around and she apparated back three feet, watching the tip lash past her face as the wyvern hurled its weight forward, pinning the thrashing green dragon to the ground.

'Norberta!' Charlie yelled, firing glimmering yellow curses at the wyvern's eyes.

They burst in flashes of bright sparks on the wyvern's scales as Norberta's flailing wings and tail slapped and scratched at the wyvern's bulk.

'Zareen and Chasca,' Daphne said. 'Help Astoria and me keep it down here. Bella, go for the eyes.'

Grey fog poured forward, coiling around the wyvern's body and wings. It ripped Norberta's throat out and roared, turning its gaping maw on Charlie as the fog dragged it into the dirt. Glowing golden ropes curled around the wyvern's blood-smeared snout and snapped it shut.

'Inti's snare!" Chasca cried.

The wyvern thrashed in its bounds as Bella hurled more colours at its eyes; they streaked past into the trees, shattering branches, and splashed against the bleached pale scales of its head.

'Quick,' Astoria snapped, clenching her jaw. 'Daph and I can't hold this forever.'

Yellow spells hissed from Charlie's wand, tearing through the wyvern's left pale blue eye and ripping a fierce shriek of pain from its bound muzzle. Bright golden threads wriggled from Chasca's fingertips into thick ropes, snaking forward around the wyvern's body, pinning its wings to its side.

'Inti's Snare!' Chasca yelled as they snapped tight.

The wyvern coiled in the dirt, crushing broken branches beneath its sunbleached scales as it reared its horned head and stared them down with its remaining ice blue eye.

Bella lowered her wand. 'It's stuck!'

It's already lost, Bell! She scrunched her face up. Too many good players ruins the fun, Bella.

'Enni,' Daphne murmured.

Pale mist coalesced into Enni's slim, tall, white-robed figure and the broadsword flashed in the sun. Steaming crimson dragon's blood gushed from the gaping wound in its neck, splashing across the soil and soaking Enni's white robes red.

A gurgling rumble escaped the wyvern as it slumped into the dirt.

'That wasn't so hard.' Chasca unravelled her golden ropes with a wave of her hand. 'Enni just chopped right through its neck.'

'Sun-bleached old scales are brittle,' Charlie said. 'And we already had her on the ground and pinned down.'

'On we go!' Astoria chimed, the grey fog flowing back into her sleeves.

Charlie edged his way around the blood and patted the dead green dragon on the head. 'Bye bye, Little Biter.' He bent and picked one of the emerald scales from the blood, tucking it into his pocket.

'She lost,' Bella said. 'It's okay. There'll be another game. You won't be sad when you're playing again!'

'Bella,' Daphne murmured. 'Hush.'

She scowled. 'But it's the only way! You just have to play on!'

Charlie sighed and trudged through the broken branches and splinters of wood. 'It's this way.' His knuckles whitened around his wand. 'I'm sick of this place. Let's get it over with.'

Bella skipped after him through the trees, swatting ferns and brambles from her path with swishes of her wand. 'You still have the other dragon?'

He snorted. 'She'd rip me limb from limb.'

'Not if you beat her first!'

'You're entirely insane, you know?'

'Not entirely!' Bella huffed. 'If we know we're a bit mad, we can't be completely mad!' She flapped a cloud of midges away with her wand. 'Bring the big dragon next time.'

'Nobody is letting Marzanna out of her cage,' Charlie said. 'We've covered her in so many wards nothing will stop her. Even the Killing Curse won't work because dragons have a layer of dead scales over the top and it won't actually hit her.'

'I can't use that one!' Bella sang. 'That one always ends the game, and I never really want the game to end.' She pointed her wand at a tree. 'It's just green light.'

'Huh,' he muttered. 'I figured you'd be able to, you know. You've used the other ones enough.'

'Just the bright red one.' Bella bounced along through a patch of nettles. 'But only when people refuse to play!'

Charlie shot a long sombre look back over his shoulder. 'You—' he doubled over with a groan.

'We're being ambushed!' Bella yelled, poking Charlie with her wand.

'No we aren't,' Charlie said, shoving her hand away. 'I walked into this big strand of cobweb.'

'Acromantula,' Daphne said, scanning the trees. 'You touched it?'

Charlie grimaced. 'Walked right into it. Didn't see it.'

'Zhou,' Astoria said. 'Time to open that third eye.'

Zhou muttered something under his breath and closed his eyes. 'That's a lot of giant spiders.' He shuddered. 'Disillusionment Charms?'

'No,' Bella moaned. 'Not more hide and seek.'

'They're smart,' Astoria said. 'If we try and sneak through, they'll web the whole place up. Too risky.'

'Time to play!' Bella cheered.

Time to play, Bell! Time to play!

A huge spider scuttled through the undergrowth.

'Confringo!' Bella slashed her wand.

The acromantula crunched into a tree, spilling grey goo over the bark and flailing its legs.

'You were supposed to squish!' She fired bright blue spells through the ferns into its belly.

It burst open in a grey splatter, loops of glistening entrails snaking out and coiling around its eight legs; with a dull crunch and a hissing shriek, the limbs tore free and the spider crumpled, twitching, to the ground.

'Yuck.' Chasca's face turned a little green. 'Why did you have to kill it like that?'

'Squishing spiders is meant to be messy, of course.' Bella beamed at the silhouettes of countless more spiders barrelling toward them through the trees. 'Ickle Cissy hated spiders, I used to splat them for her.'

'Charlie, how close are we?' Daphne asked.

'There's a dip, a gully and a river,' he said, pointing his wand at the spiders. 'They're on top of the hill on the far side.'

'The acromantulas are probably down in the gloom of the gully,' Zareen said. 'They'd like the dark.'

Bella shrugged and bounded forward, firing all her pinks and purples through the trees. Her magic tore through the spiders, scattering bits of chitin and chunks of leg across the forest.

The acromantulas swarmed forward.

'Ardens flagello,' she cried, sweeping her wand forward.

Pink flames seared through the undergrowth and washed over the trunks. The fires caught in the trees, sending smoke streaming through the thick boughs up toward the sun.

Daphne sighed. 'Bella…'

'Yes?' Bella giggled. 'Are we going on now?'

Astoria grabbed hold of her arm and with a loud crack they appeared on the bridge over the river.

'Awwwww.' Bella stuffed her wand away. 'There were so many spiders left to squish!'

Enni laughed and ruffled Bella's dark curls with her hand; little wisps of steam rose from her blood-drenched robes into the sun. 'I like this little one.'

'We're here to get to the Tsarina, not single-handedly purge the forest of dangerous magical creatures,' Zareen said. 'We'll have to go further south and loop around to the far side, Charlie.'

'I know,' he said.

'The Tsarina picked a good spot,' Daphne murmured. 'High ground. Dementor swarm on the west. Acromantula colony to the south.'

Astoria nodded. 'And Grindelwald is growing less patient. Next time, we'll have no choice but to push through, everything is too finely balanced to leave it teetering for long.'

'Good!' Bella bounced on the balls of her feet and twirled. 'No more hiding and seeking and running!'

It's boring, Bell. She plopped down on the bridge's edge, smearing tiny red mites over the stone with her thumb. We can always go find a new game if this one isn't fun, Bella. We know who we're looking for, we know it's Henri Dufort.

Bella giggled into her fingers. 'It rhymes, Bell. It rhymes.'

Do you think he'll be happy to see us, Bell? Cold fingers fluttered in her tummy. Andi was really angry with us, Bella. She called us ghost.

'But she didn't mean it,' Bella whispered. 'She said she was sorry, for…'

Don't think about that, Bella. You lost to her. And she lost to you.

'Yeah!' Bella leapt to her feet, startling Charlie. 'She didn't have to lose. She chose not to play anymore!'

Maybe everyone runs out of games in the end, Bella. She screwed her face up and shook her head, her dark curls tickling her neck. But not us, Bell! Not yet!

AN: All the links and my other stories can be found via my profile. If you prefer the faster-paced less complicated clever stuff, then those stories are probably more your sort of thing. And, if you can't be bothered to click on that and go through a gauntlet of a thousand cloudflare checks, here's a convenient linktree.

linktr . ee / mjbradley