Chapter 4 - The Creature Islands

After about five minutes, Shimaki had suddenly stopped. Joe flew off of him and landed on something that made a small groan when he landed. When he turned around, he realized it was a girl who seemed about his age. She had astonishing green eyes and light brown hair that reached the middle of her back. It was perfectly wavy so it outlined her face just right.

“I am terribly sorry!” Joe blushed. He held out his hand.

“Don’t worry about it,” the girl said. She took Joe’s hand and pulled herself up. “My name is Amy.”

“I’m Joe. I am really sorry! I had flown off my creature. He was going so fast and suddenly stopped”—Joe said.

“Don’t worry. Calm yourself down.” Amy said. “Is that your creature over there?” She pointed to Shimaki.

“Yeah. His name’s Shimaki.”

“He is so adorable! Mine is right behind me. Her name is Sakra.”

Joe looked past Amy and saw a cat-like creature that looked a little identical to Shimaki.

“It is very nice to meet you, Joe,” Sakra said.

Joe nodded in agreement.

“It is very nice to meet you,” Shimaki said, “”Princess Amelia Mnair.”

“Princess?!” Joe said, surprised.

“Please don’t bow,” she said. “I hate to be known as a princess. I’m Amy, just Amy.”

“Why is that?” Joe couldn’t see why anybody wouldn’t want to be royalty.

“I. . . I don’t want to talk about it,” Amy said. She looked away with a sad look on her face.

Joe was very curious, but if Amy didn’t want to talk about it, he wasn’t going to pressure the subject.

“Well,” Shimaki said, “if I can’t call you ‘princess,’ may i call you ‘Miss Amy'?”

“Yeah, that’s okay,” Amy said. “Just as long as nobody calls me a princess.”

“Hey, um, can we find out why we are here now?” Joe said to Shimaki and Sakra.

“I tried asking Sakra that before when she said we needed to come here,” Amy said. “All she said was that we will find out in time, but she could tell me that there is trouble being caused that we need to help with. But, the person causing it isn’t exactly themselves and we can’t kill them, we can just get him back to normal and the havoc will stop."

“If they can’t tell us what’s going on, then how are we going to find out?”

“You'll find out all in time,” Shimaki said.

“So what do we do now?” Joe asked.

“I guess we just sit here and wait,” Amy said. “Sakra told me there were three others coming including you, so there are two more.”

“Alright,” Joe said and sat down on the grass, where Amy sat next to him.

They only waited a few minutes, when they heard a bird in the sky, which came down into the clearing and dropped off a little girl. She appeared to be around the same age as Sarah.

The girl hid behind the bird.

“Don't worry, Kristie, these people are okay,” the bird, which sounded male, said. Then, he turned to Joe and Amy and said, “Sorry. Kristie is really shy. My name is Konso.” He bowed his head. “Pleasure to meet you both. Please introduce yourselves to Kristie; she might be more willing to not hide.”

Amy and Joe chuckled. They both introduced themselves as Amy walked toward the girl and held out her hand, as if to say, “It's okay to come out.”

Kristie, still hiding behind Konso, reached a small hand out slowly. “I-I'm Kristie...” she said.

Amy smiled. “Yes, we know. Don't be scared. We won't hurt you. If anything, we'll help you.

There seemed to be something about Amy that made Kristie feel safe. Amy seemed very kind and welcoming, like she would never hurt even the tiniest insect.

Kristie inched out from behind Konso and Amy lead her out into the clearing. She was a cute little girl, with dirty blonde hair and brown eyes. She seemed to be using all her will power to not hide behind Konso again.

As Kristie was just starting to get comfortable around Joe and Amy, she heard something rustling in the bushes and hid behind Konso again. When they looked to see what it was, it turned out to be another creature with someone on its back.

The creature, which was lizard-like, stopped in the middle of the clearing and let the boy off of its back.

“Okay, now everyone is here,” Sakra said. “I know this is going to sound very weird and kind of cheesy, but let's all sit in a circle and just introduce ourselves so we know who everyone is and everyone can start to get comfortable around each other.

Amy and Joe had no problem with this, and sat down to start the circle, and the creatures all fit in, with Konso urging Kristie to sit down as well. But the other human, a boy that looked just a bit older than Joe and Amy, stood facing away from them.

The lizard-like creature said, “Tom, come and sit down. It's time to start letting go of your silly pride and stubbornness.”

“Silly?” Tom said. “How is it so silly? I refuse to be any part of this and I refuse to 'get to know' these people and... things... that I only glanced at once.”

Sakra became offended. “We are not 'things', but living creatures,” she said.

“Do I look like I care?” Tom responded.

The lizard-like creature sighed. “Just leave him alone. He'll learn to lose the stubborn act soon. So let's start.

“But first,” Konso said, “Let's go over how we introduce yourselves. Well, we can tell what gender humans are, but since you can't tell ours so easily, we will say our name, gender, and any abilities we have that are of importance. And for the humans, just say your name, age, and a fact you just feel like you want to share. Tom, you are included in this too, so whether you like it or not, you're going to have to participate.”

“Okay, well, since none of you know me I will introduce myself first,” the lizard-like animal said. “I am Pensa, and I am female. I am a shape-shifter creature, which means I can change into basically anything I want to, although I prefer this form, the form of a lizard. I don't have any important abilities, although my shape-shifting can help me in basically any situation.”

Everyone took their turn talking. There was really nothing too interesting, although it turns out Sakra is the one able to control time however she wants and Konso is able to use magic. Of course, Joe already knew that Shimaki could turn himself and other things invisible. Amy turns out to be Joe's age, fourteen, just like he thought. Kristie is eight years old, just one year older than Sarah.

When everyone except for Tom had spoken, Tom was still facing away from them, with his arms crossed and refusing to talk at all.

“Since Tom is too stubborn and big-headed,” Pensa said, “I will speak for him. Tom is fifteen years old. Although I'm not really sure if there's anything he wants to share since you already see he doesn't have that great of an attitude.”

“How about how I really don't want to be here and would much rather be back home studying for that test I have in school this week?” Tom said.

“If Tom is done complaining,” Sakra said, “I need to take all of you somewhere.” She looked at Shimaki, almost as if she was telling him something. He seemed to understand and left for something. “Please follow me. It will not take long to get there.”

Tom was still in a bad mood, which created a very awkward silence. But, Amy noticed that Kristie was still being shy; she was hiding behind Konso. Amy walked over to her and grabbed her hand with a smile on her face. Kristie looked up at Amy and smiled back. “Don't be so shy,” Amy said. “We won't bite.”

Kristie giggled. “I'm just shy. I can't help it,” she said.

Joe watched Amy and Kristie talking and couldn't help but smile. Amy seemed so nice. And she was pretty. Joe couldn't believe he was so lucky that the first person he actually really met was her.

Sakra was right, it didn't take very long to get to where she wanted to take them. When they got there, Shimaki and another creature were already there.

“Hello, Sakra,” the other creature said. “It is good to finally see you again after so long. Did everything go as you planned?”

“Yes,” Sakra said. “Time has been paused in the human lands and I have four humans with me.”

The creature examined each of the four humans and pointed to Kristie. “How old is she?” he asked.

“She just turned eight recently,” Sakra answered. “There was one human who could not come with us. She was not yet eight.”

“Four is a perfectly fine number, especially since there are only four of you. This is fine. You can proceed with the job. But, please remember to proceed with caution.” He turned to the humans and said “All of you.”

“We will make sure everyone stays safe.” Sakra bowed her head and she turned to everyone else to say “Let's go now. We have things to do.”

Amy and Joe looked confused. What exactly were they needing to do?
They walked into the forest nearby and stopped soon after coming to a darker part of the forest.

“We're stopping here for the day,” Sakra said. “Tomorrow, I have a place to show you, somewhere important to show you what we are up against. But for now, just relax.”

Tom was still acting like he was better than everyone and shouldn't be there, and he sat down as far away as possible from everyone else. Kristie, being urged by Amy to stop being so shy, walked slowly over to where Tom was sitting and nervously started to talk to him.

Tom shooed her away, and Kristie ran back over to Amy looking very sad.

“Are you okay?” Amy asked. “What did he say?”

“He called me a very mean name I am not allowed to repeat and he said 'Go away, you little twerp. Nobody wants to talk to you.”

Amy hugged Kristie. “It's okay,” she kept repeating. “Don't cry. Don't listen to him. He's not worth your tears.”

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