by Lanice C.

Summary: Teresa goes to her grandma’s house to deliver her bananas with her cat. Later on, she finds a big spider that tells her about an evil wizard that enslaves animals and people. She goes on a journey and finds a creature called the Watcha Watchas and a sheep called Shep that comes along with her. On the way, Teresa finds more creatures that distract her from her adventure. Will she die or will she live trying to take down the wizard?

PART 2

After 30 minutes of walking, Teresa no longer had a smile on her face. The Watcha Watchas kept switching pathways, and they didn’t seem to know where they were going. They stared at bugs crawling on the ground and didn’t notice when their team walked ahead without them. They whined about how long it would take to get there, and they teased Teresa about the fish incident. After 2 hours of stress, they finally made it to their destination.

“THAT WAS EASY,” Watcha 3 said, who was in Teresa’s arms for the past hour.

The village contained tiny houses that all seemed like they only had enough space to fit one person inside. Many of the houses were beige, but a small portion of them were white, gray, and black. The sidewalks were made of gray concrete, and there were trees without leaves that had crooked branches dying in people’s yards. Small, thin dogs limped on the streets sniffing for food. Even the mice that crawled out of a crack from the road were skin and bones.

Teresa spotted a tall tower made of gravel. Vines grew around it, and moss carpeted the  bottom. The roof was black, and crows flew onto it to wake the citizens up with a piercing cry. The Watcha Watchas shivered as people came out of the houses with dry, dishevelled hair and skin as pale as snow. Jojo jumped at the sight of grim street cats that fought him 5 years ago before Teresa adopted him. Their fur was matted and flea-infested, and they were skeletal and malnourished.

Teresa slowly walked further into the village and peeked into a hole inside the tall tower. She spotted 2 fox-sized caterpillars guarding the entrance of the tower. 

“That’s the wizard’s tower,” Watcha 1 whispered to Teresa. “I heard that it’s really hard to get in.”

Suddenly, a loud scream came from a nearby horse. Teresa realized that another one of their members was gone. It was Watcha 3. Watcha 3 was riding a bulgy-eyed horse that smashed into houses. Watcha 1 rolled his eyes, and Watcha 2 mumbled something about Watcha 3 being a  “showoff.”

They watched Watcha 3 smash into 5 other houses and turned to Teresa, but she was gone as well; only the basket remained on the ground. The caterpillar guards had charged away from the entrance to help, and Teresa had taken this opportunity to run inside the wizard’s tower.

“She’s going to die,” Watcha 1 said, horrified.

*

The inside of the tower had a creaky, wooden floor with a ladder connecting to the second floor. Teresa climbed up the ladder and noticed plants on the floor, on the ceiling, and along the side of the walls. A giant corpse flower blocked the ladder to the third floor. It smelled like rotten eggs but ten times stronger, and Teresa held her nose with eyes watering and burning from the stench. Teresa scanned the room and saw another plant with giant teeth snapping at her. She backed away and stepped on a puddle of ghost flowers.

Teresa picked one up, and a dark shadow appeared on the window. She jumped and hid in a  corner where she spotted a thick orange claw with a lot of thin needle teeth at the sides. Teresa recognized that it was a hydnora plant and knew she needed to get away from it. She peeped back at the ghost flowers and saw a translucent shadow emerge from them. Sweat dripped down her face when she realized she was hallucinating. She suddenly remembered learning that ghost flowers causes hallucinations. She shuffled next to the corpse flower and quickly climbed up the ladder. 

Teresa tiredly inspected the third room of statues. There were chipped stone statues of knights, past kings and queens, and battle horses. The Vexed Wizard statue was next to the ladder leading to the fourth and final floor. His statue sparkled and gleamed of diamonds, and there wasn’t a single crack on it. Teresa took time to stare around and discovered that she could pull out the items that the statues were holding. She pried out a knight’s sword along with a shield to protect herself from the dangerous wizard.

She scurried over to the ladder and climbed up. Although the weapons were a bit heavy, Teresa was confident that she would defeat the wizard.

*

The first thing that she noticed was how much significantly bigger it was compared to the other rooms. The room had pillars, marble floors, red curtains on the windows, and a magnificent gold throne at the end of the chamber. There was a man slouching on the throne with a long, gray beard, and he was wearing a black, pointy hat and a matching black coat. He was lazily eating pineapples from a small emerald plate. His feet were on the armrest, and he wore gray slippers. Teresa saw a long, wooden staff with a floating gem at the top that laid next to his feet.

He spotted Teresa and quickly sat up straight. 

“Ah, I’ve been warned about you. My eagle caught you talking to the big spider in the cave,” the wizard said calmly and picked up his staff. He waved it around and one of the curtains magically uncovered the window. An eagle smashed through the window causing the glass to shatter and flew over to the wizard. “Meet Harold.”

The eagle had many missing feathers and looked more like an owl than an eagle. Teresa scrunched up her nose in confusion. How and why did the bird see her? Teresa was full of questions, but then she remembered how the spider talked so loudly, how the Watcha Watchas screamed like mad, and how the horse and fish incidents caused a ruckus. The bird must’ve seen it all.

Suddenly, she felt a strong wind pull her forward and looked up to see the wizard twirling his staff. The gem quivered, and the room’s drawers, lamps, and even the curtains shook from the wind. If the wizard could do that, Teresa knew she would see death in a millisecond during battle.

“I don’t like strangers in my tower, so I will give you ten seconds to state why you’re in MY tower.” 

Teresa shivered and opened her mouth to speak, but no words came out. That’s when she steadied her sword and thrusted it at the wizard with all her might. The wizard stared at her with rage and disgust. She had missed and angered the wizard. The wizard shooed his eagle away, and it went out the window he came through.

The wizard slowly lowered Teresa back on her feet and walked towards her. He held his staff tightly and pointed it at Teresa. Teresa felt heavier as if a hunk of metal fell onto her. She was given metal armour, a shinier sword, and an indestructible shield.

“I like a little challenge, but to me, this is going to be the easiest fight ever,” the wizard explained.

A fireball charged towards Teresa, which she blocked with her shield. She sprinted over to the wizard. The wizard pushed her away easily with a gust of strong wind and shot out a wave of water. Teresa gurgled for her breath as she was swept across the room and slammed against the pillars. She tried to crawl to the ladder, but the water rose higher and higher and giant waves crashed into her. She struggled to swim back to the wizard who was giggling evilly at the sight before him. He stood dry because of a warming spell. Suddenly, all the water drained, and a bolt of lightning charged towards her.

   She ran around the room screaming while the lightning spread to the drops of water everywhere. The wizard cackled with joy and casted another gust of wind to celebrate Teresa’s almost death. The wind accidentally blew the lightning away. The wizard didn’t realize what happened and continued guffawing. 

Teresa noticed a hole in the ceiling and spotted the horse that kicked poop into her face hiding behind a pillar. She grinned but wondered how she broke the roof to get in. The horse didn’t look at Teresa and stared at the wizard with great anger. He rapidly galloped towards the wizard, and his laughter faded away and he shrieked in panic. The horse rammed him in the stomach and threw poo in his face. The wizard dropped his staff and stumbled over onto his back.

Teresa held up her sword and stabbed him in the leg. She dropped her weapon in shock, and her heart stopped for a split second. She heard the wizard groan in pain and felt bad.The horse looked at her and scoffed at her sorrow for the wizard. The crystal rolled away from the staff, and Teresa’s armour disappeared. Teresa picked it up and put it in her pocket. She kicked the wizard’s  arm to check if he was dead or alive, and she noticed his hand twitch slightly. The wizard wasn’t dead, but he passed out from the smell of the poo on his face. Teresa sighed with relief, and turned to the horse.

“What do we do with him now?” Teresa asked, her heartbeat was slowing down.

“First, we should drag his body down to show everyone that we took him out,” the horse planned with a deep voice. Teresa didn’t complain. 

They dragged him down each floor carefully trying not to kill him. When they got outside, each house had a different colour and all the villagers looked more healthy than before. They came out one by one and gasped at their suddenly colourful homes. Off in the distance, a large rainbow touched the clouds. Teresa figured that all of this happened because of the wizards’ defeat. The villagers spotted Teresa and the horse with the defeated, slumped over figure and ran over to them. They took turns hugging the heroic pair, and the children bounced around with excitement. Teresa’s friends pushed everyone away to see her. They smiled like they’ve never smiled before, and only Jojo wasn’t fazed. 

“Currently, the wizard is passed out and not dead, so we need to decide his punishment,” Teresa said after hugging everyone.

“We should kill him!” a small boy declared, and the villagers cheered in agreement.

“No, I think we should do something worse,” a voice brought up. Everyone turned around to see a sheep wearing sunglasses and a bowtie. 

“Shep? Why did you leave us?” Teresa asked, a tad bit angry because she had to deal with the Watcha Watcha’s bad route suggestions while they were travelling.

“I had to bring someone to help you fight the wizard because I knew you would die the second you met him.”

“Who was it? Because your friend didn’t come, instead, the horse that kicked dung in my face helped me.”

“Is that not my friend?” Shep asked slyly. 

Teresa stared at him with happiness and forgiveness. She never knew sheeps had brains  bigger than humans.

“I think we should discuss the punishment now because I really want to see the wizard suffer,” the horse interrupted while chewing on an apple that a villager gave him.

“Kill him!” the boy repeated.

Shep glared at him with menace to remind him that the punishment had to be worse.

“If he’s passed out and we kill him, he’s not going to feel any pain,” Watcha 2 said.

“I think we should lock him in a cell,” Jojo suggested. “We could put it outside in the middle of the village for everyone to see.”

“Jojo, how is that worse than death?” Teresa questioned, scooping him up.

“If we lock him up, soon, he will go crazy. We can give him some extra pain by laughing at him while everyone passes by his cell.”

Jojo peered at the horse who was now playing with the last bits of his apple. The horse caught him looking and ate the rest of his food.

“What? Why are you looking at me?” the horse sneered in between bites.

“You could throw poo in his face whenever you want,” Jojo offered as the horse’s face lit up. “He won’t have a shower or a sink, just some drinking water and a toilet. He’s going to smell for the rest of his life.”

The horse nodded; he was eager to start the plan. Everyone else stopped for a moment to think about how it was worse than death and all agreed it indeed was.

*

The wizard yawned as he woke up and expected to find himself waking in his tower. He jumped at the sight of a normal toilet instead of his usual gold toilet and a regular water bottle instead of his beloved glass wine cup. He stood with a hole in his leg and remembered that Teresa stabbed him. He let out a tiny yelp of surprise once he started feeling the pain. But there were more important matters. He quickly turned to examine his bed. It wasn’t big or clean. A cockroach crawled from the ripped pillow and scurried to hide inside the rotten mattress. He looked outside through the metal bars and saw his citizens laughing at him with no mercy.

“Let me out you brain deformed skunks!” he bellowed angrily, pulling at the bars. The people laughed harder, and some of them clapped and cheered. The wizard blinked in confusion and wondered why they were cheering and not listening to his orders instead.

A horse raced in front of the cell, and the wizard panicked at the sight of the horse. He backed away as far as he could from the horse, but it was useless. The horse aimed an even bigger piece of poop and threw it as fast as a cannonball at him. It splattered onto the wizard’s already dirty face and everyone laughed, entertained. The wizard, for the first time in his life, felt small. He wiped the poo off of his face that stung badly and spotted a small figure that he hated. A black haired, brown eyed intruder that everyone else loved.

“Hello Mr. Vexed Wizard,” she said, grinning with pride. “This cage suits you very well.”

“Don’t talk to me,” the wizard spat, crossing his arms and curling into a little ball.

“Don’t you want to know why you’re here?” Teresa asked, stifling her laughter. “It’s because I beat you in a fight. A fight between a small, puny girl against an all powerful wizard.”

The wizard grumbled, fuming at the fact that he lost to her.

“The almighty, undefeatable wizard passed out all because of stinky poo to your face,” Teresa’s smile widened. “So, in that time, we put you inside this cage where you’ll get laughed at by your previous citizens and get poo thrown at you many, many times every day.”

The wizard gasped. He banged on the bars and tried to punch Teresa as she walked away from the crowd of snickering villagers. He screamed loudly and demanded his release for the rest of the day, but the villagers didn’t bat an eye.

*

Teresa and her friends were relieved and finally felt at peace. The horse stayed at the village inside a large stable with his new buddies, and the Watcha Watchas hopped back to their small grass hut near a hill and a nest full of caterpillars that they could eat. Shep continued to spy on people to trade information for food. Finally, Teresa and Jojo decided to go back home.

They walked for a long time until they arrived back to their boring, comfortable home with air conditioning and beds. They weren’t surprised to find Teresa’s mom still looking at her bills at the dining table. She looked up with her hair in a mess and dark eye bags to stare at them astonished.

“What were you doing for the past two days?! Grandma called to ask for her bananas! Where is the basket I gave you?” she asked furiously.

Teresa looked at Jojo and Jojo looked back at her while remembering that they had left the basket in the village with the bananas safe inside their stomachs.

“We were kinda too busy fighting the Vexed Wizard that enslaved many people and stole Narthwitch village, but we won against him with our talking animal friends.”

Her mom’s eyes twitched, not believing a single word she said.

“I don’t care what kind of imagination you have about these talking animals and a wizard you somehow won against. Grandma is craving bananas, and you didn’t do as you were told. I’m very disappointed in you.”

Teresa looked at Jojo and nudged him to show her that he could talk. Jojo opened his mouth, but all that came out was a tiny meow. Teresa’s eyes widened while her mom was still waiting for a reply. Jojo sashayed away and left Teresa to get scolded by her mom. The sound of her fierce lecturing got dimmer and dimmer as Jojo got in his fluffy bed and slept comfortably for the first time in a while.