Rollan

I sat ripping grass out of the ground in my frustration. Things are becoming so complicated for no real reason. It was just before lunch and I was waiting for Perry so we could go get lunch.

I heard the skid as another one of the innocent knights was beaten by Perry. Really pathetic. He dared her to fight him while she was blindfolded, and had a hand tied behind her back. Being the Perry that she is, she agreed.

He fell into a rack of training swords. "You cheated!" He yelled as he stood. I continued ripping grass out of the ground, tearing some of the pieces in half as well. It felt pretty nice, sitting there watching someone else fail for you as you sat there trying to relax with the chilling December breeze running through my lungs.

Perry laughed and removed the blind fold and the rope tying her left arm in place. "You were the one who insisted that I only tapped your shoulder twice."

He made a disgusted face at her. "No, that's not what happened."

Perry rolled her eyes. "Phillip, can you tell this buffoon what really happened?"

I dropped some of the grass and rubbed my hands together to remove any extra grass that had decided to stick there. “I honestly wasn’t watching.” I said as I stood.

She made a face and turned to the other guy. “Well, no matter how much you wish it would have I wasn’t the one who cheated, Mr. ‘I’m so high and mighty that I won’t accept failure.”’

He opened his mouth to say something, but was interrupted.

“Bye little snowflake.” She hooked her arm through mine, “Come on Phillip.”

I unhooked my arm and slowly followed behind her as she strode confidently into the dining hall.

Always so confident. I wish I could be the same way, but it has been becoming more and more difficult lately. With my strange recurring dream I wasn’t sure how to act anymore.

During lunch I tried to bring up something of the sorts to Perry, but she insisted she was late for something and walked off. So much for that.


After a few hours of stable duty for the day I was met by an unsuspected visitor.

As I sat there minding my business with one of the horses I saw another head pop up on the other side of the horse. The horse barely reacted other than a snort, but I just about jumped out of my socks.

“Hello. I helped you last time, so you help me now.” She immediately said. Unlike a few months ago, today she had her hair in a fancy braid and was wearing an Aster hoodie with blue jeans again.

I was puzzled. “With what exactly?”

Nell rolled her eyes. “Our mission in time didn’t end as we wanted last time. Now did it?”

I turned my attention back on the horse and continued to brush it. “Mission?”

“Fine, my mission. Your reason for being there was fulfilled, but mine didn’t work because of you. So now you have to help me fix it.”

I stared at her for a few good seconds. “Please, enough bad things have happened because of me doing that I don’t need anything else on my record.”

“What if your sister asked you instead? We can fix everything Phillip. From the time I was taken to now, we can be a happy family again.”

I knew what she meant, but I still wasn’t sure what to think about it. “What if it was only a matter of time before she snapped?” I asked.

“Well, we can make up some good lies to make her believe that things will be better if she doesn’t.”
“Even if I agreed I physically can’t time travel anymore.”

“Why?”

“I donno, some guy jabbed me with a thingy and said I’d been revoked from time travel because I had a ‘record.’”
“You can fix that easily enough.”

“How?”

She patted the horse a few times. “Do you know any pyrokinetics?”

I thought for a second. “Yes, but, hey, you’re assuming I want to help you.”

She gave me what seemed to be a fake smile. “Of course you do, you just haven’t realized it yet.”

I gave in. “Fine. I’ll go ask her.”

She leaned against the stable wall behind her. “Ooooh, it’s a girl.” She started laughing uncontrollably when I felt my face go beet red. There wasn’t a reason why, none at all.

I threw the brush into its bucket and promptly stormed out of there.


Water stopped me on the way to Perry’s room. His face was the same color mine had been minutes before. He was standing strange too, with his feet together and staring at the floor.

He held out a letter to me. He looked on the verge of crying and puking at that moment.

I took the letter without a word. It said “To Perry” in bright pink letters with little hearts around them.

I know how mean it was, but I barely held back laughter, I knew what this was. His love confession, the poor little guy has been crushing on her for months.

He stared at his feet. “Can you… Bring that to her for me? I couldn’t bring myself to, and I need to get it off my chest.”
I felt a little sorry for the usually silly Water. “Yeah, I can do that.” I patted him a few times on the shoulder and continued walking down the hallway again.

When I got to her room a few minutes later I knocked on the door a few times.

She said come in, and I did. I set the letter on her lap. “Apparently I’m a mailman now. That's from Water. Don’t ask.”
She stared at it for a few seconds before laughing. “Phillip, you’ve always been a male man! Well, more like an overgrown child, but whatever!” She started laughing so hard she was snorting.

I joined in and laughed for a few seconds too. “Can I ask you something?” I just ruined that moment.

She shook her head to try to stop the laughter. “Nope. Let me enjoy this a little more.”

And she did. For almost another two minutes, I found myself smiling along with her. She’s contagious apparently.
After another minute she stopped. “What did you need?” She wiped tears of laughter from the corner of her eyes.

“I was wondering if you could help me with something.”

“Why don’t you just say it instead of prompting like that.”
“Uh, fine then.”

“Annnnd?” She prompted when I was silent for a moment.

“Gah.” I stared at her for a second, knowing this was a difficult subject for her. “Well, you see, I need to do something, and to do that I need… A particular kind of fire…”

She looked surprised for a moment. “Why?”

I scratched the back of my neck. “I need to– you know what? Never mind.”

She sighed then smiled a little. “This is one of your Phillip things isn’t it?”

I opened the door and slowly started to back up. “Yeah, it is.” I gently closed the door and sighed. Words. It seems like Perry was willing to talk today, but none of the ones I wanted to say would come out.

“Of course it had to be a girl.” Nell scoffed, seeming to just appear next to me, scarring me half to death again.

I scowled at her. “What is wrong with you and what does that have to do with anything?”

“Oh, nothing.” She said in a cheery voice, “So, how ‘bout that? You basically ruined our entire plan because you couldn’t tell her.”

I threw up my hands in defeat. “Either way she would have said no. She despises her ability.”

Nell shrugged and made a face. “I don’t blame her.” She paused, “You know, you could have just told me that in the first place and you could have avoided that awkward conversation.”

I stared at the wall. “That’s a very good point…”

“I know.”

“So what should we do now?”

“We just need the fire. Or weird mushrooms, but we’d never be able to find those if we did somehow manage to sneak into the Time Hall.”

“Why exactly do I need to come?”

“For backup. Anyways, do you know anyone else that could work?”

I thought for a moment. “Maybe… Hey, why do I have to do everything?”

“Because for some reason people don’t like me even though I have the best personality ever.”
Now it was my turn to roll my eyes. “There may be one guy, but I’m not sure…”

“Well, get sure. Where are we headed?”

“I have no idea.”

“Well, that’s great. Can’t one of your stupid gems help?”

“It’s not a gem, but…” I trailed off as an idea sparked.


In my room I took a magnifying glass out of a bright red chest.

“What’s that supposed to do?” Nell asked.

“Just give me a second.” I twirled the item around several times in my hand and waited.

Suddenly the regular glass started to warp and change colors. It revealed just the person I wanted to see. Well, I didn’t really want to see him, but I guess I needed to.

The world seemed to be zooming around him too fast to be possible. There were mostly tall buildings with a small tree every now and then. Also, strange metallic things speeding by as fast as light.

“Are you ready to go?” Nell asked.

“Uh…” I looked around my room, “I guess so.”

“Dude, you’re literally wearing armor.”

“Oh, right.” I shoved the armor off and put a heart shaped gem in my pocket. “Now I’m ready.”

“Come on.” She wrapped one of her gloved hands around my wrist. She glanced at her wrist which had a watch on it. She tapped it in particular places several times, glanced at the magnifying glass I was still holding, and we disappeared.


I found myself in some kind of gray seat made of… Leather? Nell was next to me and there was a particular terrible person directly in front of me in another one of those seats. The inside didn’t bother me much compared to the outside of the strange machine.

Just like what I saw in the magnifying glass the world was zooming past outside the windows… Only, the trees and giant buildings aren't the thing that’s moving. It was us.

There were other big machines around us too, and I wondered how they didn’t hit us. I had heard of things like this before from Water and had seen them from a distance on multiple occasions, but I never had the intention of being near one– much less inside of it.

I felt my breathing speed up and my stomach started to feel strange too. Nausea that I wasn’t familiar with swept over me.
Nell took something from next to her and put it over herself. When it connected with a tiny box it made a clicking noise and stayed there, seeming to trap Nell in place. “Have you never been in a car before?” Nell asked as she laughed.

Liam glanced behind him for a second and sighed. “Really? Jeeze, go puke somewhere else.”

I just couldn’t form words at that moment, so I shook my head a few times.

Nell reached across me and pushed a button on the wall (door?) next to me. Suddenly the glass next to me DISAPPEARED! That wasn’t even the worst part. Now I could hear the dozens of other machines passing us at a speed that made me feel less sick and more afraid for my life. The fresh air did help, but not that much.

Liam cast an annoyed side glance at Nell as she stretched out her feet and laid them on the seat in front of her. “You know, one motion and we’re dead Stone.”

She shrugged. “I’ve survived worse.”

I managed to turn my head and look at Nell. “Can we please get out of here?” I asked weakly.
“We’ll never get him to agree unless he feels like his life is at stake.”

Liam turned a wheely-thing and the entire “car” as I expected it was called, made a sharp right turn. “Really, you guys should be the ones afraid for your lives; I have no idea whose car this is.”

Nell gave a respectful nod, but I was too busy to say anything. I was trying not to ruin the seats as the vehicle slammed to a halt by a building. Not as massive as the other ones, but not small either. It is only one floor tall and I can see people inside moving around. The building itself is red, and on the outside is some weird roof that has no walls. We were under that roof.

I stared straight ahead, wondering if I held still for long enough the nausea would fade. I caught what