Page 3: Wolf in the Fold

The trapdoor flipped up. A lantern's glare pierced the darkness, and its carrier climbed up the ladder and into the darkened room.

"You guys can turn that off," someone said.

"Are you sure? Do we really want to take the chance of somebody seeing us?"

"I'm not having a secret meeting completely in the dark like some kind of…witch."

Suddenly the curtains flew open, revealing Raven Queen standing by the turret window. She'd cleaned up since the day before, and Taylor Valiant couldn't help thinking she was beautiful, like no other girl he'd met was. Powerful. Mysterious. Confident, in a way that reminded him of a sword: impressive, but potentially deadly.

Pyotr Lupus had a seat on top of a crate in the old storeroom where they'd decided to meet up, and discuss what happened to them the day before. He pulled the wrapper open on a stick of string cheese and just leaned back, waiting for the conversation to begin.

Taylor leaned against the wall, and broke the silence. "Okay, so we've established Raven got attacked by seven dwarves yesterday. Seven shiny black dwarves. We all know about the seven dwarves, but not even Raven knows about shiny black ones."

"Ones who shatter," Pyotr reminded him.

"Yeah, that's right," Raven confirmed. "Never heard of dwarves who talk like that, or shatter. Or look like that."

Pyotr said, around his food, "Did you try looking it up online, or anything?"

"You think I want that on my search history?" Raven scoffed. "I've got a bad enough reputation as is."

"Maybe that's an asset, in your case," Pyotr replied. "Think about it, even if somebody does check the school wi-fi, when they see it was the next Evil Queen, they'll think you're just getting into the role."

Raven glared at him, and Pyotr gulped then gagged on the mouthful of cheese he'd been chewing. "I don't want to be the Evil Queen," Raven sighed. "And I'm not taking advantage of that. If I do, won't it just be even easier the next time it might help? And even easier, the time after that?"

She clenched her fists and shut her eyes at the thought, and Pyotr jumped down from the crate, throwing his wrapper on the floor, and put his hands on her shoulders. "Breathe," he said.

Quickly, Taylor was in front of her too. "It's okay, Ray. You don't have to if it's a big problem. We promise."

"Yeah, we promise," Pyotr echoed.

A few deep breaths later, she opened her eyes again, and looked at Taylor. "Are you really calling me 'Ray' now?" she asked.

"I…I mean, I just…it just kinda popped into my head," Taylor stuttered, and both of them grinned.

"It's okay," Raven replied. "I think I kinda like it."

Letting out a soft sigh of relief, Pyotr spoke up, "Well, if Raven doesn't know anything, what about you, T? Find out anything about what 'Mendyr' is?
"Are we trying to figure out what happened yesterday, or are we having our little secret meeting to give each other nicknames?" Taylor asked back.

Raven giggled. "I don't mind. I never had a friend call me a nickname before."

Pyotr smirked and nodded. "Well, sounds like even if Taylor didn't find out anything yesterday, we're achieving something important anyway. Seriously, though, did you find out anything on the mirrornet about your sword?"

Giving a little sigh, Taylor said, "Nothing. I found lots of 'menders' who patch dresses and stuff, but that was it. Stuff about plenty of magic swords, too, but not one named Mendyr."

Silence blanketed the dingy room. It was a little while before anyone said anything, and it was Raven this time. "Not the most useful secret meeting, is it?"

She and Pyotr were surprised by Taylor chuckling at the question. "Wouldn't be much of an adventure if we just figured everything out with a little bit of research, would it?" he asked his friends.

Hearing that, Raven nodded, and smiled a little confidently. "That sounds cool, being a hero on an adventure…," she said, looking out the window at the expansive forest behind the school. Even if it was the same forest where she'd been attacked by demonic dwarves only the day before.

"We'll figure out what's going on," Taylor assured them. "Someday."

There wasn't a lot to figure out at their little meeting, since only one weird thing happened yet. So, they broke up the meeting to wait and see if anything else happened. It wasn't until the next day that orientation officially started, so there was time to kill. Pyotr and Taylor stopped by a vending machine for drinks, then went down to the bookball field to see if a game was going on.

Indeed there was, and they saw a lot of boys from the basketball game before chasing the bookkeeper down the field. It was easy to notice Daring Charming as one of the players, and probably the one who'd organized the game this time, too. He saw Pyotr and Taylor finding a seat in the bleachers and for the quickest of seconds gave them a dirty look Taylor didn't miss. He didn't have to guess the prince was annoyed by them finding something more worthy of their attention than the sporting event he'd put together...

"Think Daring Charming's ever gonna invite us to a game, again?" Taylor asked.

"School year's starting. You could try out for a team, like a normal person," Pyotr pointed out. "Then it won't matter if he does or not. Even if he is a foxing prince."

Taylor chuckled. "Watch your mouth, boy. There's ladies present," he said, imitating his dad.

"There are?" asked Pyotr. "Where?"

He followed Taylor's finger to where a girl in a black dress and red hood was entering the field. "Well, well, well. Guess who's here," Pyotr smirked.

"Is she trying to join the game?" Taylor asked, not entirely to his roommate.

"Looks like it!"

They watched her jog over to the players, who were still celebrating a touchdown, but it stopped when they realized the girl was coming to talk to them. She must've said something, even though Pyotr and Taylor couldn't tell with how she had her hood up. A minute passed, nothing happened. Then a few of the players laughed, and Daring Charming grinned, but even from the bleachers his face looked a little condescending. The girl in the hood stood there and took it for a little while, then pulled her hood tight around her face, turned around and started walking away.

All of a sudden one of the boys ran over and shoved her down. Before she got back up, he stomped on a loose fold of her skirt and ground his foot, tearing it. Before anything else had a chance to happen, a scowling troll groundskeeper ran onto the field waving a rake and yelling at them for "kids messing up my field when school hasn't even started". The players ran off the field pursued by the groundskeeper, leaving their book behind in the process.

Other kids in the bleachers who'd been watching the game got up and climbed down the steps. Pyotr and Taylor exchanged a look and hurried down to where the hooded girl was stumbling off the bookball field, holding her skirt together with her fingers.

Pyotr got to her first. "Are you okay, miss?"

"Don't get closer!" she insisted, glaring at them with steel-grey eyes. Dark hair, streaked white on one side, hung out from her hood, making her look somewhat fierce even without the angrily clenched teeth.

"Why not?" asked Pyotr, a little defensively. "We just want to make sure you're okay. Right, T?"

More calmly, Taylor explained. "Her skirt's ripped. She doesn't want people to see…things."

"Oh. Right. Sorry, miss."

"Look, Miss Hood? I think I can fix that, if you're willing," Taylor volunteered.

She glared at them even more harshly. "Quit making fun of me, and get out of my way!" she actually snarled. Taylor calmly opened the case on his belt, and got out his mending kit, the girl's face softening when she saw the needles and thread he was carrying out. Instead, she let out a little giggle. "Oh my godmother, you were serious."

"Is that a yes, then?" Taylor prompted her.

She studied the two of them for a minute, keeping her fingers clamped around the tear in her skirt the entire time. Finally, she answered, "Okay, sure. But just you, nobody else around."

"You okay with that, man?"

"I'm not your sidekick or something, T. I got other things going on in my life. I'll see you around," Pyotr said with a laugh, and walked off the bookball field. The girl in the hood watched him until he'd gone around a corner and disappeared from view. She looked Taylor in the eye, and led him behind the building with the restrooms next to the field.

"Wait here," she said, then stepped through the entrance into the girls' room. A minute later her hand stuck back out, holding her torn skirt. Taylor took it and got to work.

"Excuse me, miss?"

She looked up at the boy who was giving her an awkward hopeful grin, the kind she'd seen so many times she'd lost count. Holding a still steaming latte she was positive he'd bought just to have an excuse to come over and talk to her.

A pretty, but polite and restrained smile formed on her luscious lips. The kind her mother had told her to use for times when she needed to interact with someone, but not to indicate too much interest. "Oh, hi?" she said evenly.

"You're Apple White, right?" the grinning boy gushed. Without waiting for her to answer, "I'm such a big fan, do you mind if I sit with you?"

"Oh, sorry. I'm waiting for someone," the princess replied, giving her admirer a practiced apologetic smile.

His face fell. "Oh, right. Yeah, you're probably pretty busy. Have a nice day." The deflated fan slid off to an empty seat in the corner of the coffee shop to be by himself.

Part of her felt bad having to say no to someone who clearly wanted the chance to get know her, but after so many years it had become a distant, very quiet voice at the back of her mind. Apple White was the heir of the High Queen, her mother had told her over and over since the day she was old enough to understand. Her subjects needed to adore her, and she needed to be able to maintain that while making sure she didn't get pulled into the problems of every single person with a teen crush on her.

It was a balancing act, Apple was learning.

Right then she was focused on a more important element of her future, though, and picked up her mirrorphone to see what was taking them.

"r u on ur way" Apple hexted. She sat and stared at the screen, waiting for the bubble showing a reply being typed. It still wasn't there. Hadn't been for the last hour.

Didn't she know this was a team effort?

Apple heard the bell above the door ring, and leaned over expectantly to see just who'd just come in. She bit on her ruby-red lip to hide a squeal when her patience had been rewarded; it was Raven Queen, unmistakable from her dark dress, cascading black-and-purple hair and gothic makeup. But then a girl who was a chaotic blur of blue and purple came in, and Apple realized they were talking to each other when they walked up to the serving counter. After getting their drinks, they came over to the table where Apple was waiting.

"Hi, Raven! Glad to see you! Sit down!" Apple said, indicating the one chair opposite her.

"Oh, hey, Apple," Raven said casually. "I met my friend Maddie on the way over, and I said yes when she asked if she could hang out. She was worried if it would be okay, but I said you wouldn't mind. Apple's the kindest princess in the entire kingdom."

"It's hat-tastic to meet you!" the other girl, evidently Maddie, grinned like a literal loon.

Apple only sat there wide-eyed for a moment, not knowing what to say, but slowly becoming sure Raven had done this on purpose. "Um, but there's no other chair…," she protested, trying to maintain her equilibrium.

Maddie giggled, and though it didn't seem possible, managed to grin even wider. "That's okay! I always bring my own chair!" she said, and whisked a teak chair with purple velvet cushions out from behind her back. "Never know when you'll need to throw a tea party!"

"How…how did you do that?" Apple said, but shook her head. "Never mind. Since Raven's was so busy yesterday, I was hoping we could hang out and get to know each other. Since we'll be so important in each other's stories, ever after all."

Raven set down her cup after a long sip, and made a "hmm?" sound. "Sorry, you said something, right? About how we should get to know each other? Great idea! Maddie, how about you go first?"

"Tea-riffic! Thanks, Raven!" Maddie giggled again. "I thought about ordering Earl Grey tea, but then I for like the hundredth time, why's it called Earl Grey? Did someone named Earl Grey invent it? Who'd name their kid Earl Grey? Don't you think that's a silly name, Raven?"

"It sounds pretty silly to me, yeah," Raven nodded, a comfortable smile now on her face.

Maddie giggled again, and went on, "So then I thought, what bout mandarin orange, and like always I thought, 'what's an orange?' Why would you name a food the same as a color? You can't eat a color!"

And as Maddie rattled off tea factoids, Apple White sighed a dainty, unnoticed sigh.

Brooke? You look like something's on your mind, sweetheart.

Doesn't this seem kind of weird, dad? I know Apple and Raven are supposed to be enemies, but Raven doesn't really seem mean. She seems like she's trying to avoid having to talk to Apple, instead. It's weird.

Honey, Raven doesn't want to take after her mom. You already saw how everyone expects her to. That's a lot for a young person to deal with.

You mean a kid.

Raven's a young woman finding her place in the world. Just like you, Brooke.

Far above Ever After High, an imposing figure looked down upon the grounds. From his hand came the sizzle of powerful magic, surrounding a small, strange object: a Ride Book with a gray frame, but its artwork imperceptible through the thick black cloud around it.

"Last chapter, there was an unforeseen…obstruction," he said darkly to himself. "This cannot be allowed to continue. The course of things is threatened."

He looked down at the grounds again, the Ride Book in his hand starting to quiver. Seeming to await the chance for its power to be unleashed.

Practiced motions guided needle through fabric. Taylor stopped to check his work, and was confident the thread wouldn't stand out much against the material.

"Is anyone coming?" the girl called from inside the restroom.

"Nope," Taylor answered her. "Would it be that big a deal if another girl came in there, though?"

She made a frustrated noise that sounded like a growl, then sighed, and replied, "Look, I'm just kind of…shy, okay?"

"Okay," he said. "Can I least get your name?"

"…It's Cerise."

He nodded, even though she wouldn't see. "Cerise Hood. Got it, that's cool. I used to read your mom's story to my little sisters all the time."

A minute passed, and Cerise didn't say anything. Taylor was about to ask if she was alright, but she ended up talking first. "Are you always this casual?" she asked, sounding amused.

"I mean, yeah? My dad said I need to be friendly with the customers when I'm working on their clothes."

"Your dad? Who was your dad?"

"He was the Brave Little Tailor. Guy who outsmarted giants?"

"Oh yeah!" Cerise called back, honestly sounding a little excited, and Taylor couldn't help feeling some familial pride. "So you know my name, what should I call you?"

He chuckled to himself. This had seemed like a situation destined to turn weird, but Cerise didn't even sound like she was standing behind a wall waiting for him to finish repairing her clothes. "I'm Taylor," he said. "Taylor Valiant."

Cerise chuckled. "Wow. Sounds like Daring Charming has a new rival."

"I guarantee you, I'd have to polish his mirror collection every day for a year before Daring Charming would even talk to me again," Taylor said. He carefully pulled the stitches tight and tied them off. "I'm done. Want me to toss it to you?"

She stuck her head out. "No. Just hand it to me," Cerise said, and held out her hand, which Taylor passed her skirt into. With a sigh of relief, she retreated behind the wall. She called out around it, "So, what'd you do to make him mad at you? Did you ask out his girlfriend, or something?"

Taylor made a dismissive little laugh. "Who is she this week?"

She laughed too, but went on, "I'm serious. What did you do?"

"No, nothing."

"Come on, man. Don't start telling me a cool story then just foxing stop," Cerise groaned.

"Okay, okay, I ditched a basketball game he set up yesterday because I found out somebody was in trouble," Taylor explained. "Happy?"

Cerise stepped out of the restroom, smoothing her repaired skirt back down. She looked up at where Taylor was leaning, a teasing smirk on her face now. She asked him, "Was it a girl?"

"…yeah, but it's not like that," Taylor admitted, before his brain caught up with him and he realized nobody in the kingdom would believe that.

The smirk on Cerise's face didn't budge. "Was she hot? Was it Apple White?"

"NO."

She clutched her hands to mouth, to badly hide her chuckling. "Sure, okay. Keep your little secret." Cerise paused, and her smile faded to a friendlier one. "Look, thanks for fixing my skirt. See you around, okay?"

"Hey, wait. Can I at least walk you back to school?" Taylor offered. Cerise gave him a weird look. "I mean, I guess, in case those guys try something again?"

She raised an eyebrow. "You mean so it can happen to both of us instead of just me? Look, I'm flattered you want to prot…you know what, sure. Let's go."

"My lady," Taylor said, letting Cerise go first with a melodramatic bow.

"Oh, cut it the hex out!" she said, but he noticed the giggle.

Again, he peered down from his window at the school. The Ride Book in his hand had gone beyond sizzling, it was now actually shaking in his fingers, as if waiting with uncontained anticipation to be released to do its job.

"Go, my little messenger," its owner whispered to it. "Go and ensure Destiny is preserved."

He opened his fingers and the Ride Book flew away, out the window and arcing over the school like a tiny black comet. He watched it go until it disappeared from view, then walked over to his desk, where the dark light vanished from his eyes.

Apple White got up and left the table, muttering something about needing to organize her materials before orientation, then dropped a handful of gold coins in the tip jar before walking lifelessly out of the coffee shop.

Maddie excused herself to the princess's room, and Raven let out a heavy sigh. That hadn't been her proudest moment, although she was pretty sure her mother would've approved of the trick she pulled.

"You can't avoid talking to her forever, you know," and Raven looked around, icy chills running up her spine at the thought that her mother had actually seen that. Instead, it was only Pyotr Lupus, walking by with a fresh steaming latte in his hand.

She took the last sip of her own, and looked hard out the window. "I thought you didn't like being forced to do stuff either," she muttered.

"That's not the same thing as talking to your roommate," Pyotr said, taking one look at Maddie's chair and sitting down instead in the one Apple had just vacated. "Apple can't force you to act like your mom."

Raven sighed and looked down at the table, but in Pyotr's general direction. "I'm worried if I give her an opening, she'll do something even worse.'

He lifted an eyebrow dubiously. "Worse than force somebody to live a certain way?"

"Yes," she replied. "Annoy someone into doing that."

Pyotr swallowed hard.

It wasn't a long walk from the bookball field back to school, but Taylor didn't feel like going back in an uncomfortable silence like he had last time. Maybe awkwardly, he tried to start a conversation. "You play a lot of bookball?" he asked Cerise.

She shrugged. "Sometimes, but I meet a lot of guys like that. Girls can't play sports," she said in the most mocking imitation of a snide voice Taylor thought he'd ever heard. And he had two little sisters. "Guess that's why I run a lot. I don't need a team to do that, and it feels cool to go fast with nobody around to bother you…"

"Oh yeah? I was kind of thinking of trying out for track and shield," Taylor replied.

Cerise leaned forward and gave him a weird look. "I just said not having a—" She stopped when saw Taylor wasn't looking at her, but up at the sky. Looking up too, she saw what it was, and froze.

A tiny black fireball, barely the size of her fist, was circling through the sky, almost as if it was looking for something. All of a sudden it stopped, as if it had spotted them too. Cerise braced herself to run out the way, and did when it flew down at them at high speed.

Taylor watched it coming down, wondering what could be happening this time, but threw himself to the side and rolled a few times before the fireball could hit him. Instead of crashing into the ground, though, it stopped a few inches before hitting the sidewalk. A human-shaped outline formed around it, shimmered, then solidified.

It had the hooves and powerful legs of a horse, but the rippling muscles and gigantic arms of a human warrior, and then the head of a horse atop its shoulders. From its forehead extended a spiraling silver horn, and Taylor recognized the beast: a unicorn, but even he'd never heard of one that walked on two legs.

Its coat was a charcoal gray, which contrasted with the shiny black armor that covered its hips and torso, the helmet on top of its head, formed around its horn. Shiny and black, just like the seven dwarves who'd attacked them before.

That was all Taylor needed to see. While the Unicorn turned around to face him his hand was already over his heart, and in a flash of gold Mendyr appeared in his hand. At the same time the strange belt and Needle Sharp Hero appeared too, and Taylor locked the Ride Book into place.

"Turn the page!" Taylor pulled the sword out of his belt, and its power engulfed his entire body just like it had before.

Taylor Valiant had been transformed into Mendyr by a great power he still didn't understand. His sword had transformed as well into a blade like a long needle, but this time it seemed like a poor match for the beast staring him down.

Surprising him, the Unicorn didn't attack. A forbidding purple glow shimmered in its eyes, looking like fire dancing in them. "Who are you?" Mendyr asked, but the Unicorn said nothing. "Why do you come here?" he persisted.

It stared at Mendyr with one side of its face, that purple light glimmering in the one that he could see. Its mouth opened, and whispered words came out.

"What did you say?"

Again, the Unicorn's mouth moved, but still Mendyr could only hear the sound of whispers. When he canted his head, silently indicating he didn't understand, the Unicorn clenched its teeth and the purple light in its eye flared.

It faced him, lowered its head and charged with its horn aimed at his heart.

Mendyr jumped with all his might, and even surprised himself when his feet cleared the charging monster's head. He failed to see it suddenly turn around, point its horn at him while he was still in the air, and unleash a beam from the tip of its horn that ripped into Mendyr's back. A painful cry died in his throat and he was knocked out of the air. Sevener slipped from his hand and at the same time he landed, it jabbed point-first into the grass.

Of course it did. Mendyr almost chuckled at the cliché, except for the pain from being shot by his enemy.

Was this what he'd learn in the Heroics curriculum

Would he survive to learn things in the Heroics curriculum?

Such weird thoughts about his education in the middle of a fight for his life helped drag him back to reality. He felt the ground quaking underneath him and knew the Unicorn had to have turned around and charged him again. There was only a moment before he got trampled, so Mendyr focused hard on the deceptive power of his father's story, and hurled a rock into the air.

To the rest of the kingdom, it looked as if Mendyr had gotten up and gone jumping over the treetops to escape. The Unicorn snorted and thundered across the field toward the edge of the forest where its target had disappeared

In reality Mendyr darted over to where Sevener was sticking out of the ground and grabbed it. Its thin blade didn't seem much help against a much nastier Unicorn than he'd ever heard about. What was going on?

By then the Unicorn had skidded to a stop and turned around; Mendyr's trick had been effective, but short-lived. "Guess dealing with this guy's need something more direct," he whispered to himself, watching the Unicorn's horn charging for another shot.

A flash of light and a blue beam was shooting at his head this time, but time seemed to slow down for just the second Mendyr needed. He held up his needle-thin blade, the beam ricocheted off its side and vanished into the sky.

That power had saved him from more pain.

But had it actually gotten him closer to dealing with the monster attacking him?

Again the Unicorn lowered its head and charged at him, the horn glowing with the power of another shot building up. Mendyr leveled his rapier and ran at the Unicorn. A beam came screaming out of the horn and blasted into Mendyr's side, tearing away flakes of armor, but Mendyr kept coming. He was looking for a vulnerable spot to stab when he saw something that stopped him right where he was.

Cerise Hood had jumped out of the bushes and bitten the Unicorn on the leg. It whinnied in surprise and jumped around, leaving inch-deep hoofprints in the ground, and looked down at its attacker with an angry glint in its glimmering purple eyes. A giant fist went up, no doubt to be brought down on Cerise's head. Mendyr had no intention of letting it happen.

He ran forward again, throwing his blade past the Unicorn. The tip skimmed the monster's armor, getting its attention, and behind it the sword thudded into the trunk of a tree. A thread the Unicorn hadn't seen was still tied around Mendyr's arm and he was pulled off the ground, into a jump kick that slammed his foot into its chest hard enough to smash right through the shiny black armor.

The impact knocked the Unicorn back, and Cerise let go and rolled away from it before it remembered being about to pound her. She spat out a puff of horse hair and ran over to where Mendyr was standing. "What's with this guy? Do you owe him money or something?" she asked. "And what's with the…uh, suit?"

"He's a Unicorn! Like the one my dad beat!"

"Coming after you a little early, isn't he!?"

They were distracted by the Unicorn making another angry whinny across the field and spraying a barrage of beams at them. Mendyr jumped in front of Cerise and raised his Sevener, managing to deflect the first two but the next hit his shoulder, and another hit him in the knee, forcing him down. "Why does this look so easy in the movies?" he gasped.

Cerise looked down at Mendyr, panting hard to hold in the pain. The ominous glow of the Unicorn charging for another shot stretched all the way across the field, and Mendyr tried to stand up to defend them only to collapse onto one knee again.

And then she ran across the field.

"Hey! What do you think you're doing!?" Mendyr yelled.

Apparently sensing an attack, the Unicorn fired its beam at her. But one second it seemed like Cerise was coming right at the monster, then in the next she'd changed directions and was off at an angle. It shot again, but she ducked underneath it and was off on another wild angle.

Before the Unicorn could even aim its next shot, Cerise looped around a tree and ran low, right at the thing. Again it fired a blast from its horn. Mendyr choked on a cry of horror when it streaked at Cerise, but she twisted at the last second and it sliced through her cape instead of her body. Before it could attack again, she jumped grabbed the Unicorn's arm and bit down on it.

For the first time, Mendyr saw her ears. Pointed, furry ears. And her teeth, lodged into the Unicorn's forearm as it tried furiously to shake her off, looked awfully long all of a sudden. Behind them, though, his sword was still stuck in the trunk of a tree, and its hilt was still tied to his wrist by its spool of thread.

He hoped he was strong enough to pull off his original plan.

"Cerise! Let go!" he yelled, then gave a ferocious tug on the thread. The tree creaked and went flying through the air.

With the same blinding speed she'd shown before, Cerise released her hold on the Unicorn and dashed out of the way. The uprooted tree slammed into the Unicorn, its horn lodged into the very center of wood. Mendyr cleared the distance in one jump and pulled Sevener free, while the Unicorn tried to push the tree trunk off of its head.

"Miracle Stitching Pierce!" announced Mendyr's belt, before he became a blur. Looping thread from his sword's spool around the Unicorn's body. Tying its arms to the tree trunk, then tying its legs together. Finally, the beast couldn't even stand and crashed to the ground.

Mendyr raised Sevener and the blade glowed white. Now with its power at full, he stabbed it with all his might. Right through the tree and outside the Unicorn's back. Its mouth opened for it to cry out, but there was no sound. Its body crumbled into black shards.

The battle was over.

Mendyr looked around and spotted Cerise, walking up, holding her hood together with her hands now. She stopped, and looked Taylor right in the eye. "You saw, didn't you?"

Slowly, he nodded.

Cerise looked away. "School didn't even start yet, and somebody found out…!" she hissed.

Mendyr reached to his belt and closed Needle Sharp Hero. His armor exploded into pages, and Cerise jumped back, dropping her hood again in the process. She looked at Taylor, who was holding out his hand. "You know my secret too, now," he pointed out. "I'll trust you with mine, if you trust me with yours."

When Pyotr looked up from the movie he was watching, he was surprised to see not only Taylor entering their room, but a girl in a red hood too. Taylor closed and locked the door very seriously behind him.

"Uh, nice to meet you, miss?" Pyotr asked uncertainly.

"Pyotr, meet Cerise Hood. Cerise, this is my roommate, Pyotr. He knows about the sword and the armor and everything," Taylor made the introductions.

His eyes went wide at the implications of that. "Did you guys get attacked? What was it? More dwarves?"

Cerise looked over at Taylor, and smiled a little. "It was a unicorn. Like the one his dad beat."

Pyotr whistled and chuckled softly. "I didn't know your dad had a fight with a unicorn, T. Thought it was just giants," he said, but his face went serious again. "This is turning into a regular thing…We gotta be careful."

Taylor nodded, tossing the Ride Book of his father's story up in the air and catching it again. "Things are only just getting started, I'm sure of that."

If only he knew about the beautiful redhead unpacking at that moment.

That was certainly unexpected! It looks like Taylor Valiant's adapting to his new role, a little at a time.

A little at a time? He did pretty good! And that was awesome when Cerise helped him! She bit the monster!

Looks like Brooke's finally finding something to enjoy about the story.

It's getting crazy…and it's so cool! I can't wait to see what happens next!

As if you haven't looked ahead, young lady.

DAD!…Don't ruin it!