The Duke was working. He had pushed aside his duties to attend the royal balls and not only was he leaving engaged but with a stack of work to do. He grumbled and double tapped the floor of the car with his foot. A small table elevated up. He opened the small drawer and pulled out a document, pen, and his family seal. Poppy looked up from her book and did a mental blue print of how the table worked.

'Teleportation magic from his desk? Likely. But does that mean he works even when he is traveling somewhere?' She frowned, 'truly a boring person.' She refocused her attention to her book. A thrilling fantasy adventure about a kid defeating labyrinths and conquering countries. The plot line was predictable but the fight scenes had her on her toes.

Two completely different people in one car.

The Duke zoned out as his body went on auto pilot. After a few hours they reached a teleportation gate and waited in the line of cars. Poppy closed the book in satisfaction. 'What an amazing story!' She looked outside the window and realized they were in a line. The idea of waiting in a line for hours soured her mood. She grabbed a talisman and slapped it on the book. It shrank to the size of her finger nail and she put it in the small pouch of books she's planned to read on the journey. But before she could decide on another book to read she felt exhaustion wash over her body. When she feels an overwhelming sense of accomplishment she always becomes sleepy.

Poppy laid down on the tiny table and fell asleep. The Duke continued to work, not at all paying attention to the woman snoring beside him.

Boom!

Both Poppy and the Duke jolted up. They looked out the window. Something had used attack magic to break the teleportation gate. Many surrounding houses were on fire. The sirens of a fire truck in the distance mixed with the alarm of a monster attack ringing in the air. Water mages jumped out the trucks and began to douse the fires.

The two stepped out the car and looked around. The Duke's eyes landed on a monster soaring in the sky. He took off the spectacles he was wearing to read and slid off his jacket.

Poppy was looking at the teleportation gate. 'It's going to explode! And these idiots are trying to shut it off instead of cutting off the power source!'

The Duke pulled out a necklace from under his shirt. It was a small black sword on a silver chain. He ripped off the sword and poured his aura into the sword. The sword sprung to life. He was now holding a glowing black sword with blue runes engraved into the black metal. He glared up at the flying beast. 'I can jump pretty high but I still can't go that high... Is there something I could use to bring him down to the ground or to project me higher?'

Poppy pulled out her new talisman and slapped it on the Dukes back. "Fly," she ordered. Before he could react he was flung up into the sky. He stopped right in front of monster. "Transfer control," she spoke. The Duke began to fall back down. "CHANT FLY!" She screamed. He listened to her and yelled, "fly!" Then he hovered in the air. The whole thing was such a shock his heartbeat was ringing in his ears. He grabbed at his chest and took a few deep breaths to calm his pounding heart.

Once he was calm he concentrated on the objective at hand. He thought about going closer to the flying monster and sprung forward. Poppy remembered that she accidentally put too much eagle blood so it was way faster than she originally intended. 'Hopefully he can fight at that speed,' she shrugged.

She had better things to worry about. 'The gate.'

Poppy turned to the gate. She was running against the crowd of people getting out of their cars and running away from the sparking portal. Poppy put a flying talisman on herself. She shot forward at rocket speed and landed on the top of the gate. 'Down,' she thought. Then she was slammed onto the ground. She hissed in pain. 'I need to make new talismans.' She wobbled onto her feet and walked over to the operators who were freaking out trying to stop the impending explosion.

"You need to cut the power supply," she suggested. They looked her over. 'Who is this kid?' But one boy recognized the princess with a witch hat. She had saved his life when he was younger because his older brother was a knight at the palace. She was a powerful mage. He burst into tears, he had only just joined as an apprentice so this was all too much for him, "pri-princess! What do we do!" He ran to her and sobbed. Princess Poppy recognized the boy immediately. "Joey! You've gotten taller!" She praised. He chuckled and smiled.

"The gate? What do we do? Boss says the thing is going to blow!" Poppy walked to the control panel. The men in jumpsuits with a giant "STAFF" on the back stood to the side. 'She's a princess?' 'She does have blonde hair.' 'Why is she so short?'

They watched her curiously as she tapped through the menu of the control panel. She clicked her tongue and ran a frustrated hand through her hair. "The controls are broken. I tried shutting down the power supply but it's not going through." Defeat filled the faces of the men. Poppy bit her lip as she racked her brain for a solution. "I could go inside it and cut the power supply off..."

•••

It took a few minutes but soon the Duke had complete control of the power of the talisman. The monster which he determined was a flying minotaur, had missed every swing it made at the Duke and was fuming with rage. Loki smiled a deep and evil smile. Fear flashed in the eyes of the Minotaur. Loki's grin was the epitome of darkness.

"Prepare yourself," he cackled.