Page 2: The Sword is Drawn

The story took an unexpected turn last time, didn't it?

I'll say it did! Danger right next to school grounds? It's unheard of! Maybe just what this school needs…

That's worrying, indeed. What will Raven Queen do to get out of this situation?

I wish I could say something to help. That must be so scary!

Brooke…

I know, I know. Our job's to tell the story, not to get involved.

That's more like it, young lady.

(I still wish I could…)

Unwilling lessons in dark sorcery took over. Raven Queen charged herself with the magic powers that were her birthright, and willed a column of dark fire to form itself in front of the charging dwarves.

Or whatever they were.

They just came charging right through it, screaming and cackling and waving their tools over their heads. She wasn't surprised, after one had shrugged off her magic already.

But twice was enough, and she turned and ran for the forest as fast as she could.

Raven dodged around a tree, but the high heels of her shoe caught on a root. She stumbled, then lost her footing completely on a small hill she hadn't noticed. Her attention had been on the screaming creatures right behind her.

She gasped and rolled down the hill, bouncing painfully off a bump in the middle and landing in a mud puddle. Raven pushed herself up and looked back up, managing to see the tops of the dwarves' picks and shovels coming closer. Without another thought, Raven reached down and untied her shoes. Those giant heels weren't going to do her any good when she had to run for her life away from monsters.

With that she ran into the trees in her stocking feet, closer to the sounds of howling wolves.

Not far way, conflict unfolded.

The ball was passed.

Taylor jumped, holding his basket out in front of him, but the ball whizzed past his side.

One of the boys on the opposing team had caught the ball and was already disappearing into the faint gloom of the forest. Taylor went after him, but it was hard to pick up the pace with low branches and roots getting in the way every few feet. The forest Taylor had played basketball with his olds friends back home wasn't as thick as the one he was in now. The players made it look so easy on TV.

"Gotcha!" someone yelled from up ahead, and Taylor was relieved to see Pyotr Lupus checking the ball-carrier. It fell out of his basket and Pyotr kicked it across the forest floor to another boy on their team, who immediately scooped it up with his basket.

While the exchange was happening, Taylor was scrambling through a patch of trees to help out. Another pair of boys from the other team appeared and charged the ball-carrier from opposite sides before he had a chance to make a break for it.

"Over here!" Taylor yelled. The ball-carrier swung his basket over his head, lobbing the ball through the top cover before the other players crashed into him and all three went down. Taylor darted forward, holding up his basket and catching the ball after it bounced off a tree branch at a neat angle.

Behind him, Taylor could hear the howl of a wolf, and knew it was time to stop worrying about his human opponents and go. He didn't need to be dragged face-down through the mud by those things. So, he ran to the tangle of players still picking themselves up and kicked the basket of one of the opposing players away. Now he'd have to spend valuable time going to get it back when the wolves were almost caught up to them.

"Nice one!" Pyotr congratulated him, running side-by-side. Behind them they could hear wolves crashing through the brush and growling as they grabbed the fallen players by their pant legs and started pulling them backward. "We're gonna score the first goal for sure!"

"Wonder if there's some kind of prize for winning!" Taylor said.

"What if it's a kiss from the prince?" Pyotr replied with a teasing grin.

Taylor spat in disgust. "Kiss Daring Charming? What is with you, man?" he demanded, but he found himself laughing. The rush of playing in the game, with a friend who wasn't afraid of pushing him, was making Taylor feel unbeatable.

"Heh! At least he wouldn't be able to burn your eyeballs with those teeth of his!" Pyotr laughed.

Despite how out of breath he was getting from the run, Taylor laughed too. He checked over his shoulder to see if anyone on the other team was catching up, but saw something a lot more serious.

A maiden running through the trees, very familiar black and purple hair dancing in the air behind her. She was in view for barely a second, but Taylor was sure of who it was. The glee Taylor had been feeling faded, his enthusiasm for the game replaced with concern.

"Dude, what's wrong?" Pyotr asked.

"I just saw Raven. Running away from something."

"All the way out here?" Pyotr asked, looking very dubious.

"Yeah, I'm sure," Taylor said, and took the ball out of his basket. "Here, keep playing. I'm gonna go check."

Pyotr took the ball and dropped it into his basket like a machine; he was still looking Taylor in the eye. "Godmother, you're serious?" he asked.

Taylor nodded and headed the way he'd seen Raven going. "I'm here to learn to be a hero, right? Can't just play sports when somebody's in trouble! My dad would kill me if I got an F for heroism!"

He ran off, heading after where he'd seen his friend running, but as he did Taylor ran in a few circles, making sure to drag his hands across the tree trunks he passed. It had been in an old story his father had told him; about a boy who'd touched everything he passed, so that everything in the area had his scent. As a result, the dogs used by his pursuer smelled his trail everywhere, and couldn't tell where he'd actually gone.

Last thing he needed was for the pursuing wolves to find him and try to drag him out of the forest by his pants.

Having taken care of that, Taylor went as fast as he could. The sight of a footprint in the mud—a bare foot, which confused him—told him he was still on the right track. Soon he got to a fork in the path, and the ground was covered by the first fallen leaves of autumn. "Raven?" he asked in a whisper, looking around for a sign of his friend. He wasn't surprised there was no answer, but Taylor crept forward up to the middle of the fork and called out again, a little louder. "Raven? Is that you?"

"Over here!" a girl whispered back, and a pale hand beckoned him behind a tree. Taylor went over and found a shoeless, dirt-smeared Raven Queen hiding behind it. "Did you see them?" she asked.

He looked around, and didn't see anyone. "See who?"

"The dwarves who were chasing me."

"Already? Aren't they supposed to wait until the end of your story?"

Raven gave him an anxious look. "They weren't regular dwarves! They were all shiny and black, and they made these…monster noises when they started chasing me!"

His expression of disbelief was unmoved. "I didn't hear anything when I came," he said quietly, listening for a little bit before he went on, "Raven, what happened? And where the hex are your shoes?"

"I was just walking by the woods, and then suddenly seven dwarves came walking up and chased me," she whispered. "My shoes…well, I'd like to see you run for your life in heels!"

Part of Taylor told him to be rational about this, and consider everything he knew. He was, after all, talking to the girl who'd grow up to be the villainess of the biggest story of them all. How did he know it wasn't some kind of trick? The apple didn't fall far from the tree.

At least, everyone said that was Snow White's hope when she came up with her daughter's name.

"You've got to admit that's kind of a weird story, Ray," he said. "That sounds pretty intense for somebody pranking you."

"It wasn't a prank, it really happened!" she insisted. "I got scared and blasted them with my magic, and that didn't even do anything!"

"Okay, that does sound really weird," admitted Taylor, and stepped behind Raven to make sure he was out of sight. They waited a minute, but only sounds either of them heard were the yells in the distance of the players in the basketball game, and the yapping of the wolves chasing them down. Soon they were fading away completely.

Raven nudged Taylor in the ribs. "Hey."
"Huh?" Taylor said, and realized his hand was resting on her arm. A protective gesture he hadn't even caught himself making. Looking a little sheepish, he pulled it back. "Sorry." He checked his mirrorphone. "No bars. Guess it's really true."

"There's no service out here to make sure we get used to being on our own," she agreed. "Not sure who'd believe this, anyway. You don't."

"You have to admit it is kind of weird these dwarves chasing you suddenly aren't around anymore," Taylor answered her, and indeed giving her a somewhat unbelieving look. "I thought things didn't just disappear until midnight." He stepped back and held out his hand. "Still, I can't just leave somebody out here alone when she thinks he's being chased by killer dwarves. Wanna head back?"

But she shook her head. "Not on the path. That's probably the first place they'd look for me."

Taylor looked even more dubious, but said, "Alright, we'll have to find our way back through the forest, then."

Raven nodded, and they started off in silence.

Something bothering you, Brooke?

No.

Sweetie, if you're going to narrate for real, you have to be expressive.

It's just…why doesn't Taylor trust her? They're friends. Friends are supposed to trust each other (not like I'd know about that).

You need to learn to stop mumbling, honey. The thing is, Raven and Taylor are brand new friends. They haven't been through much together yet. Aaaaand…Raven doesn't have the best reputation, thanks to who her mother is. Things don't always happen like magic, dear. They have to develop on their own.

What your father's trying to say is, give it a bit more time, Brooke. And most importantly, don't get too attached to the characters you narrate.

Okay, mom.

The silence was getting uncomfortable after a while. Not just how the forest animals had suddenly gone strangely quiet, but between Raven and Taylor. To her, it seemed like he was making sure to look ahead so he didn't have to look over at her. Part of her was annoyed, but a calmer part of her didn't blame him. What kind of story was one about shiny black dwarves that just shrugged off magic?

Not to mention, where were those dwarves all of a sudden? They'd been right behind her.

She was on edge, but the silence was just making it even worse. Finally, Raven couldn't hold it in anymore. "You don't believe me, do you?" she asked.

"Look, I was worried when I saw you running past, yeah," Taylor sighed. "But you have to admit, that does sound a lot like a scenario meant to lure a do-gooder into…an unpleasant situation."

"I don't want to be like my mom!" Raven snapped. "I'm not trying to trick anybody into doing anything!"

"But you don't know anything about those shiny black dwarves that attacked you?" Taylor asked, turning around and meeting her eyes. "I…well, I guess I thought you'd know more about monsters than me."

Raven sighed, shutting her eyes and pressing her fingertips to her head. She sighed. "I just said it! I don't want to be evil! I didn't study the things she tried to teach me! That's why she—" Raven stopped in the middle of her outburst, and sucked in a breath. "Never mind. Look, if you don't trust me, why are you skipping the game to help me?"

Immediately, Taylor replied, "It's what I was brought up to do, to help. So I'd be ready for my story."

She looked at him for a long time without a word. "Is that the only reason you'd do something?" Raven finally asked.

Taylor didn't answer. Not that question, anyway. Instead, he asked, "Hey, when did the forest get so…"

"…creepy?" Raven supplied, noticing it too. While they'd been talking, a thick mist had suddenly rolled in, and they could barely see a few feet in any direction. Tree branches suddenly looked like skeletal arms, looking for an unsuspecting student to grab. One tree next to them suddenly seemed to have a giant leering face in its trunk…

"Did we wander out into the Dark Forest?" Raven whispered. "Doesn't it have scary fog like this, all the time?"

Taylor stepped closer to her out of protective instinct, realized what he was doing, and stayed there anyway. "It's not that close to school," he replied quietly, suddenly worried about something evil hearing them. "I mean, it's pretty far away. You're only supposed to go there for stuff like Advanced Questing finals."

Raven made a "pfft" noise. "Did you even do anything fun all summer, or did you just read about classes?" she giggled.

He whirled and looked insulted for a second, but saw her grin and couldn't help grinning too. Just a little. "Let's get back to school before it gets any worse," he advised. "Stay close."

"Sure thing. Hero," Raven smirked, and held out her hand for him.

They may have suspected they weren't alone, but they couldn't have known just what had its cold eyes on them, as they made their way through the fog-shrouded forest back toward their school.

One of them was little enough threat. There was no need make a point dealing with them.

The other, though…

The other could represent quite a danger, if given the opportunity to develop.

No, it would need to strike. Fast, deadly, leaving an unmistakable impression.

To make an example. Before it was too late.

It was time to make their move.

All around them, the fog was thickening, and the forest seemed to get even more menacingly silent. Taylor had resorted to holding the basket he was still carrying out in front him to make sure no low-hanging branches hit them.

After a while, Taylor called out, "Can anyone hear us?"

Raven shushed him. "Do you want them to come right to us?"

"Oh, right, the dwarves might hear," he replied, but stopped suddenly. "Did you hear that?"

"Hear what?' she asked him, but listened. A minute later she did hear something.

"—en!" a sad voice somewhere in the distance echoed through the forest. They stayed where they were, listening harder, if that was possible. Then they could hear it again, "—ler!"

Neither of them moved, just continuing to listen. Again, the voice called out, but still they couldn't tell where it was coming from, or who it was. Sticks snapped somewhere nearby, as whatever it was came closer…closer…

"Taylor? Raven?"

Both of them screeched in surprise and spun around to find themselves face-to-face with Pyotr Lupus. He jumped back too at the sound of their response. "Godmother, there you guys are," he sighed. "I was starting to think you made it back to school already."

Taylor looked around, and then observed, "You came looking for us by yourself?"

Pyotr sighed again and nodded. "I tried telling the other players you guys might be in trouble, but…one of them said who my dad was, and nobody believed me. So I had to ditch the game to find you guys by myself."

"Thanks, Pyotr," Taylor said, smiled a little, and clapped his hand over his roommate's shoulder.

That brightened Pyotr's face, and he shrugged. "Hey, with a rep like mine, you've got to hold onto the friends you've got, right?"

"I can relate to that," Raven muttered.

With his identity established, Pytor relaxed a little and lowered his arms. "Raven, what were you doing out here, anyway?"

She cast her eyes over at Taylor, but she answered, "I got chased by a bunch of shiny black dwarves."

His eyes went wide, but then he turned his head, leaning to something in the distance: a sound like a cross between singing and a reptile-like growling. Somehow, it was easy to tell where this sound was coming from: behind Pyotr, and getting closer. "Let's get out of here," he whispered, and they started heading in the other direction. That was when they came into sight.

A procession of coal-black dwarves, singing—or whatever that sound could truly be called—was emerging from the cloud. When they spotted the three teens, their horrific parody of singing turned into taunting laughter. They'd caught the group from both sides.

Pyotr dug in his heels. "What do you want?" he demanded. The dwarves just gave low, menacing laughs in response, held their tools in front of them like weapons, and started slowly closing in.

It was Taylor who reacted first. He lunged at the closest dwarf, swung his basket so the tip of its pick axe caught in the inside of his basket, and threw them away into the fog to disarm the dwarf. Next he tried to kick the dwarf as hard as he could, but it was quicker than him, and sank its teeth into Taylor's leg. Right through the denim and hard enough to draw blood.

"AAAAAAAAGH!" Taylor screamed, and tricked to kick the dwarf off his leg. It held on tight, and one of its friends saw an opening, charged over and hopped onto the first one's shoulders. Wrapping its arms around Taylor's right arm and biting down into his shoulder. A third dwarf tackled and bit Taylor's side. He was pushed backward, jumped around a few times in a hopeless attempt to throw them off.

And fell over the edge of a ravine hidden by the fog.

XXX

All the others knew about what happened to him was his fading scream and the echo of a couple painful-sounding bumps, before they heard a faint splash far below.

"Taylor…!" Pyotr said, letting out a hoarse cry, but there was no time to worry about his friend. Another dwarf jumped for Pyotr, but he jumped back, let the dwarf land in the dirt, then bounced off its back and kicked the next dwarf in the face, knocking them down.

"I won't let this happen!" Raven growled, holding up her hands, which were already surrounded by power. Her magic hadn't done anything to these…creatures, before, it usually didn't work well when Raven tried to use magic for things that weren't, well, evil.

Maybe it only needed to be applied more creatively, though.

She took a deep breath, then jets of black flame jumped from her hands, and Pyotr jumped away from her in surprise. "If I can just…get a little…more…power!" she said to steady herself. "Maybe…I can…clear…this…stupid…FOG!"

Around them the air immediately got even colder, the fog thickening. So thick for a minute Pyotr struggled to be able to breathe. Raven couldn't even see him, even though before she'd tried, he'd been right in front of her.

It was as if Raven was pushing against something that was all around them, and it was much more used to this than she was. She tried to focus on the lessons of strength and control her mother had tried to teacher. Which at the time, Raven had questioned. Finally, Raven collapsed to her knees, panting for breath after pushing her abilities to their limit. "It's not working," she gasped. "Something's doing this to us on purpose!"

"So what do we do?!" Pyotr exclaimed.

"I don't know! We're supposed to learn about stuff like conquering enemies in villainy classes!" Raven exclaimed back. "School's not even started yet!"

Pyotr went down as the dwarves attacked him from behind, and Raven screamed when she felt one bite her on the leg.

At first, Taylor couldn't focus on anything except his entire body aching. The next thing he managed to be aware of his underwear being wet and riding up, which got him focus enough to sit up in the stream and try to figure out what had just happened.

The dwarves who'd dogpiled him had been shaken off by the fall. They were sitting up quickly though, and Taylor got up as fast as he could too. He started to walk backward, his footing unsure because of his soaked shoes, but he didn't dare take his eyes off the shiny black dwarves wading through the water to get to him again.

"Shiny black dwarves," he muttered. "You were telling the truth, Raven." One of the dwarves suddenly launched itself at Taylor and he managed to duck so it sailed over his head, but the other two had jumped just after it and grabbed onto his shoulders. He staggered but fell against the side of the ravine.

A scream reached his ears from the top. Right, of course, there were seven dwarves, so there were even more on top menacing Taylor's friends. He struggled, trying to bash the dwarves against the cliff to make them let go. Instead, they only bit into his skin again.

"I'm sorry, Raven. I should've believed you," Taylor breathed. "I'm supposed to learn to be a hero…I wish I was, so I'd be strong enough to fix this."

Something happened in Taylor Valiant then. A childhood heroic instinct inspired by his father, raw and yet unshaped by scholastic training, flared up inside him. Letting out a scream, Taylor rolled hard onto his shoulder and squashed the dwarf between his body and the cliff. It loosed its grip on him and Taylor threw himself against the other side, squashing the other one against that slope.

Taylor swung his arms with all his freshman might, and threw the dazed creatures off of him. The last had turned around faced him down, but Taylor clenched his teeth and stood his ground.

Suddenly, something else incredible happened to him.

A ball of golden light form over Taylor's heart. He touched it, and it solidified in his hand, taking the shape of a sword. A short silver blade on a golden hilt, with shimmering letters that seemed to flow like liquid amber in an indentation on the blade. They formed a word: MENDYR.

That wasn't all. Around his waist was a golden belt with a small rectangular recess in the buckle. One just the right size for the object in his hand, which had a white-framed cover of a young man in humble clothes who looked a lot like Taylor's father, holding up a needle which caught a point of light on the end. It had the title "Needle Sharp Hero" on the top, and on the bottom below the image was the strange phrase, "Wonder Ride Book".

"Hope I'm doing this right!" Taylor breathed and placed the "Wonder Ride Book" into the recess on his new belt. That was when he noticed a hollow behind the buckle just the same size as the blade of his new sword. "Turn the page!" he yelled, the words leaping unbidden to his lips. He slid the sword inside it with a tense breath, felt his body starting to shake with accumulating power, then pulled the sword free again.

Unleashing it.

And in a burst of light, Taylor Valiant was transformed. Even the fog lifted, and the sun was shining down through the treetops again.

"Needle Sharp Hero!" announced a determined-sounding voice from inside the belt buckle. The Wonder Ride Book flipped open, showing an image of a rapier with a round guard.

Instead of tattered street clothes, his body was covered in white armor. A smooth white masked shielded his face, broken by a yellow visor and a thin blade sticking upward from the forehead. Grey boots with pointed yellow knees covered his legs, a black stripe rising up to his waist on the outside of each leg, and identical stripes running down each arm to the back of his wrists. Silvery armor covered his chest and shoulders, ending just above a slender gold-colored emblem on his torso, a needle.

Even the sword in his hand had changed, no longer a shortsword but a slim rapier with a long blade. The hand guard was round, looking to his eyes very much like a spool of thread. Written into the top of that spool was a name: SEVENER. The sword's?

It seemed only fitting to level its tip at the dwarves, and challenge, "En garde!"

The dwarves charged and grabbed Taylor by the legs again. They bit down, but their teeth only skidded off his new armor. Their third comrade launched himself at Taylor, arms outstretched to grab him by the neck, but he jabbed it in the chest with his new weapon, knocking the dwarf out of the air.

As for the two still hanging onto his legs, Taylor clenched both of his fists and brought them down on the dwarves' heads. They yelped in pain and let go, flopping down into the stream.

"Incredible…," Taylor breathed. He'd never fought dwarves—or anything—but right now he was feeling like he could lift a mountain.

"Taylor! Watch out!" Pyotr yelled. He looked up and saw the rest of the shiny black dwarves sliding down the embankment to attack him.

"Careful!" Taylor called back to him. "You start giving real warnings, you're gonna lose your rep!"

"Ha ha!" Pyotr laughed, extremely sarcastically.

By then the other dwarves had landed in the stream and were rushing at Taylor with their tools brandished. "Relax," Taylor told himself. "Dad took on giants, and he didn't have a magic sword. These are the opposite of giants." He went into a fencer's stance to await their first move.

One charged, aiming the blade of its pickaxe at Taylor's midriff. He knocked it away with what he believed was called a deft swing of his blade. The pickaxe was ripped from the dwarf's hands and somersaulted through the air a few times before embedding its tip in the mud. Taylor thrust Sevener and hit the dwarf in the chest, knocking it through the air. Another dwarf rushed his way, its shovel raised to smash down on his head, but Taylor was ready for that one too. He knocked the shovel away with a low swing, and stuck out his foot to trip the attacker as it careened by him.

He looked up at the dwarves still on their feet, but they had dropped their digging tools and had reached into pouches to produce an unexpected new weapon: handfuls of diamonds. To Taylor's complete shock, the dwarves shoved the gems into their mouths, then spat them out like bullets at him. One struck his arm, hard enough to crack his new armor. More hit him in the stomach and flecks of his armor were blown off.

"I have to get it together!" Taylor growled through the pain. The blade of his sword started humming with blue power, and as another barrage of diamonds was spat at him he swung it down, creating a great flash.

It didn't last, clearing after just a second, and the dwarves opened their eyes again to see Taylor standing just where he'd been. Another pelting of spit-covered diamonds was sent his way, but they went right through his body. The dwarves looked at each other, confused, and then back at Taylor just before he faded completely from sight.

All of a sudden he came charging up from behind them, and sent them tumbling down the rest of the way into the ravine with a swipe from his blade. They fell, but the rest were getting up again, and Taylor thought, "I've got to find some way to finish this or they'll just keep coming!" As he did the blade of Sevener was glowing again, and he noticed the buckle of his belt giving off the same light. Playing another hunch, he slid the blade through the buckle.

"Miracle Stitching Slash!" announced his buckle. Taylor pulled it free again, the glow around his blade having turned bright white, but it tapered off below the hilt like a loose thread.

Taylor's body became a blur as he ran between the dwarves, looping the thread around it and pulling tight to pin its arms to its sides. He kept going, tying all of them up with the glowing thread stretching from his sword. In only a few seconds he'd bound all seven, and with a powerful tug he pulled them into a circle. They screamed and chattered at him, but couldn't escape. He turned and swung Sevener, the glowing blade passing through all of them.

"Seven in one blow," Taylor breathed, feeling a certain familial pride.

The dwarves then froze exactly as they were. Cracks formed across their bodies, and then they shattered into black shards that dissolved into the air before they even touched the top of the stream.

Taylor slid the sword into his belt buckle again and closed the front of the Wonder Ride Book as he did. His armor burst into a cloud of pages of unreadable script that fluttered away and disappeared, before he let himself fall against the side of the ravine in exhaustion. He didn't even care about the mud he felt squelching around his back.

He heard something else and looked up, seeing an exhausted Pyotr Lupus standing above him and clapping slowly. Smiling very tiredly. Raven was standing next to him, but had no expression at all. Taylor didn't blame her after what had just happened.

"You were right, dad," Taylor told himself. "I'm gonna have to be on my toes to make it around here."

The three of them hurried out of the forest as fast as they could, none knowing what to make of what had happened. They entered the school through the back where they were hoping to run into fewer people, and were in luck. Nobody was around to notice them as they snuck up the back stairs, but they hadn't even made it up those before Raven stepped away from the boys.

"Uh, guys, we need to figure out what all that was, but…not tonight," she breathed. "I'll call you tomorrow, though, okay?"

"Yeah," Taylor agreed. "First thing I need is a shower…"

They split up, avoiding eye contact with anyone they met until Pyotr and Taylor were back at their dorm room and had locked the door behind them. As he'd declared, Taylor changed into a new t-shirt and sweatpants, put the blood and dirt-covered clothes he'd been wearing in the trash. He went down the hall to the showers, and after he got back Pyotr was still lying on his bed, staring up at the ceiling.

"Should I talk first?" Taylor asked, to break the silence.

Pyotr didn't look at him. "Talk first about what? Do you know what the hex those things were?"

Taylor climbed into bed and pulled his knees up to his chin. He replied, "I don't even know what gave me that sword! Raven's right, we need to figure out what all that was…until we do, we don't tell anybody about what happened."

"You don't seriously think that's gonna be a problem for me, do you?" Pyotr asked, and turned his head to face his roommate. The look on his face was only slightly indignant.

Taylor shook his head, but didn't look back. "School's just starting, and there's gonna be so much going on…I'm not ready to deal with this with every single person at school being involved yet. Until we know more, we don't say anything."

"Okay, T, okay," Pyotr said, more calmly. "If that's how we're gonna do it, though, we're gonna need something else to call you in that suit of armor. I mean, if more of those things attack somebody, you're gonna help out, right? Somebody else's gonna see you, sooner or later."

"I mean, yeah, probably. Yeah," Taylor replied, his voice sounding distant, and stood up. Taylor held his hand over his heart, and like he'd hoped, the sword reappeared between his fingers. The belt reappeared around his waist. He held up the blade, its letters shining still. "What do we call it? That's easy. Mendyr."

That was crazy! I never saw anything like that in the old stories you guys showed me!

Well, it is meant to be a new year, with new students. With new tellings of the stories…

Dad, you can't even tell what to say after that, can you?

Don't be so hard on your father, Brooke. I've never creatures like those either.

So maybe things are gonna be different this year?

It'd be better if you didn't start getting your hopes too high, honey. The students are there to learn how to live out their parents' stories, remember.

Yeah, sure, mom. Suuuure…

Hey, people. The urge to write something hit me again, and I dusted off this old idea. Mendyr was something I came up with a while ago when I thought about a fic called Knights of the Otherworld and how to fix issues it had.

It might've been obvious one of the ways was using the power items from Kamen Rider Saber, but this isn't meant to have any connections, so no familiarity required. There's no Sword of Logos, or Megid, or Tassel in the world I'm trying to explore. Ride Books come from somewhere else, and I have ideas of my own for how the different categories will work.

Another one is doing what the Ever After High books apparently did for the narrator characters (Yeah, I've actually read a couple to learn the world. Think of me what you will.), which is different emphasis to tell them apart. Dad narrator is just italics, Mom narrator is italics and bold, and Daughter narrator is both of those and underlined.

This story idea did also appear in my Kamen Rider Utsura epilogue "movie", but I'm not worried about making sure it clicks perfectly. I've rethought a few things since then, so the emphasis will be on making this the best fully-realized story it needs to be.

Hope you'll stick around to see it.