“I- I can explain.” The Sko retold his story. The crowd listened, spellbound.

When the Sko had finally finished, the crowd was elastic. The majority of the people were cheering and chanting for

“ASJ SKO! ASJ SKO! ASJ SKO!”

But many people were yelling

“LIAR!”

I sensed the Sko using a tiny amount of magic, just enough for everyone to calm down and be sensible.

“I am your leader now.” He said,

“And weather you like it or not,”

The Sko dragged the king, Jance, I assumed, out of nowhere and took off his crown. He put it on his own head and smiled,

“I am back.”

“NO! I am the Dk king and I will stay the Sk king!” The former king Jance retorted. This started a war of magic, I could see the beams of power coming from both sides. They both tugged at the crown with all of their might. After what felt like forever, the crown snapped in half and both people fell backwards from using too much strength. Suddenly it hit me, didn’t Zenit say the eb sko dk? Jance just shouted I am the dk king. Does that mean that Zenit was talking about Jance? But Zenit was also bad so….

I was brought back from my train of thought when both The Sko and Jance/Dk stood up in unison and yelled,

“NOOOOO!”

Then, their body’s morphed into one that resembled both The Sko and Jance/Dk. Like as if they had had a baby together.

I stared at them (? Him? I didn’t even know what to call the morphed monster.) in shock.

“I was afraid that this was going to happen.” Charlie sighed.

Both sides of the Sko-Dk’s (I decided to call them that.) mouths started saying different things at the same time, resulting in gibberish and the Sko-Dk’s mouth almost being torn in two. Finally one side of his mouth won and he spoke.

“I am now Dko, the ruler of Dko. I will, from now on be referred to as your majesty’s, Dko. We will defeat the redskins and restore peace to the Dko!”

The crowd roared and cheered. The rest of the night was turned to celebration and the Dko trying to figure out how to manage simple tasks with another mind. Like one person would want to drink juice and shove a cup in their mouth but the other person would want to drink fruit punch and both cups would spill.

“Why did this happen?” I asked no one in particular.

“It is because both the Asj Sko and Jance also known as Dk were equally powerful. Together they had enough power to break the crown in half exactly, which means that they are both half kings. And because it was broken perfectly down the middle, they morphed to become one. That will eventually separate when or if one person gets considerably more power than the other. Right now, they each have there separate minds and a shared one. Same as everything else.”

A low booming voice answered my question.

“Same as everyone else? What do you mean? They are one person!? Also- wait! Who are you?”

“Hahaha!” The low voice laughed.

“I am Stephanie.”

Stephanie? It’s the that a girl's name? I was confused but didn’t want to embarrass him or her. The person chuckled,

“Yes, I get that look a lot. I am a girl, my voice is just naturally deep.”

I hadn’t realized that I had a conflicted face.

“Oh sorry.”

“No worries, I am the Pncdy.” When she saw my blank face she elaborated.

“The- the guide! I think that is what you people call it. I guide each and every king or queen.”

What did she mean by every? Was she actually hundreds of years old? I finally took the time to seriously studie Stephanie. She was much much older than I had thought. With bright blue eyes and pearly white teeth my first impression of her was a twenty year old, but if you looked closer, you could see smile lines and wrinkles on her forehead. She looked around one hundred times older than I had thought but she still had great posture and did not look fragile or weak. I felt embarrassed to ask but I still did.

“How old are you?”

Stephanie smiled,

“ I am 986,754 years old.”

“WHAT! You can’t be! Are you really?”

Stephanie nodded her head.

“Now come, I want to show you something.”

She beckoned for all of us to follow her.

We trailed behind Stephanie for what seemed like forever. After many twists and turns, we arrived at the destination. A set of steel doors were wide open, inside was a dimly lit passage way.

“We are under the Great Wall of China right now.” Stephanie said.

“How! I thought we were in Maine!”

“Time and distance works differently in magic places.” She explained.

“We just traveled many many miles in less then 20 minutes. It comes in handly when you are in a rush.”

“That’s so cool!”

“Let get going now, we have important business to do.” Stephanie entered the passage, Berry followed closely behind, with me and Zoe bringing up the rear. After a short distance, we came across a set of narrow stairs. In our single file line, we walked up and up, only occasionally turning left or right. We climbed and climbed until my legs were so sore that they were aching. Suddenly Stephanie stopped, I felt her shoulders tensing and I looked around for anybody else. After a long time, Stephanie heaved a sigh of relief and relaxed.

“What was that?” Berry asked innocently. “Why did we stop?”

“Oh honey dear, that was nothing for you to worry about.”

“NO! I know there is something you are hiding from me. I am a big girl now! You can tell me. I wont be scared, I promise.”

“Are you sure?” Stephanie’s eyes twinkle with laughter.

“YES!” Berry puffed out her chest proudly.

“Well, if you're so big and mighty, you would be able to tell would you not?”

Berry pouted.

I could tell that something was wrong and that Stephanie didn’t want to scare Berry. We followed Stephanie up countless more steps until a tiny hole of light broke through the dimmed room. With hope in sight, we raced towards the light, it grew bigger and bigger as we got closer and closer until it was a square opening in the ceiling. Above, I could hear people bustling around, shouting in Chinese, I assumed. I wondered how they didn’t notice us or the big hole in the ground. Nobody fell into the passageway. They avoided it like it was a caution sign or had warning tape around it.

Zoe spoke my thoughts almost exactly.

“How do they not see us? Why do they not fall in?”

“Simple answer? Magic. Detailed answers are in due time, my dears. But for now, we must hurry. I will open the passageway for ten seconds. In that time, you must get yourselves out of here and act normal. Don’t be suspicious. Ready?”

Before we could reply, Stephanie concentrated and opened the portal. The bright daylight that flooded in blinded me momentarily. I shielded my eyes, and jumped.

I got this feeling that was so hard to describe. Imagine that you're on that roller coaster soaring down straight, and you get that butterfly feeling in your stomach. It was like that but much different and 10 times worse. After what felt like an eternity in the portal, I was spit out onto the ground. I collapsed, heaving and trying not to throw up. I then remembered Stephanie’s order, ‘don’t act suspicious.’ I pushed myself off the ground and tried to act casual, which probably made me even more suspicious. I looked back and saw Zoe and Berry, followed by Stephanie. They were all looking green and dazed. All except for Stephanie. She looked fine, just like her usual self. Not even a hair was out of place.

“We must hurry. We need to get there before 12.”

She looked at her watch,

“And it is now 11:54. Let’s go!”

Stephanie raced off into the crowds of people, leaving us to follow. We ran full sprint on the narrow passageways of the Great Wall, causing many people to give us weird looks and eye rolls. After a long time, Berry slipped and fell on the ground. She started crying and gasping for air at the same time which sounded like she was having a heart attack. Many people began to circle us, some trying to help, others just wanting to get in on the action. After a minute, Stephanie pushed her way through the crowd.

“Are you okay, honey?”

Berry shook her head.

Stephanie picked Berry up and we hurried away, more and more tears started rolling down her face.

As soon as we took a turn, Stephanie muttered something under her breath and a floating bed appeared.