Chapter 4: Urcula, The dark witch queen

Chapter 4: Urcula, the dark witch queen.

Isabella rolled and hugged her father in sleep and Aliza pouted seeing this. The father-daughter duo was becoming more and more naughty these days and Aliza was feeling that these both were confidentially forming an alliance against her. The king Lawrence of course understood his wife and held her hand as his other hand patted his princess's back.

"Lawrence, is there some news about Urcula?" The queen spoke softly but her grip on her husband's hands became tighter. Lawrence expression became cold hearing that name - Urcula.

"No. Not yet. But I suspect she is taking shelter in the mystic woods. Though I don't know what she is planning to do this time, I feel she is going to make her move soon." Lawrence said as he thought about how destructive the dark witch can be. It wasn't easy to defeat her. Even his heaven blessed magic wasn't able to take her down. He only managed to prohibit her essence from entering any kingdom and banished her to the hunger realm, a land where the dead roam, where the vengeful souls feed on anything that has life source running in it.

This made the hunger realm lifeless, where the dark energies cultivate and exist to kill. Knowing what kind of heinous powers reside here, the mages, the healers, the beasts, the cultivators, the dwarfs and the night creatures together ceased the portal of the hunger realm thus saving the others from the terror of being hunted by the dark sources. When a decade ago Lawrence caged Urcula in that realm, he thought Urcula would never be able to return again.

But apparently he was wrong. Everyone underestimated the dark witch queen. Her soul was darker than the hunger realm aggregated together. Though she still wasn't able to enter the other lands, she managed to step out of the hunger portal and venture in the mystic woods, the only land that has the gateways to all the other lands. But the dangers lurking in there always kept people away from using this place for travel.

The king sighed as he remembered the army he had lost while fighting against the dark queen. It wouldn't have been possible for him alone to do that if not for his best friend Jayen fighting along side with him.

"The mystic woods had a mysterious amass of both dark magic and divine power for the past five years. And it is growing towards Vandrad. I and Jayen will go to the fringes of that forest and try confine whatever is growing inside." Lawrence explained and the queen nodded. Her motherly instincts screamed about something formidable going to happen soon and only looking at her daughter would calm her heart down. She didn't want to stress her husband more than he already was and hence thought of taking care of the palace security herself.

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[Happy Smiles orphanage]

"Dylan I found my diary. It was in my bag only. I didn't search properly." Stella jumped in front of his seat and showed her diary. Dylan gulped looking at that diary and this cursing girl. Now he was traumatised of pigs, tails and diaries.

"Nice. Well done" saying this he sat on his seat like a good boy and opened his cursive writing notebook. This act not only shocked Stella but also the whole class. Was this the same Dylan who would usually grab Stella's books and run away. Wow.

"Dylan. I heard you were crying in bathroom yesterday night." Stella wasn't the one to stop. It was rare for her to get an opportunity to get back at Dylan. She wasn't going to leave at this. Hehe. Dylan stopped writing as soon as he heard this. His pride had gone into pig shit yesterday night. How can he forget that. He stood up and his blue eyes looked dead straight into Stella's green ones. The invisible sparks flying in between were almost visible to everyone's imagination.

"Stella. You just wait and watch. I will change my name if you don't regret teasing me by the end of the week." Dylan challenged and Stella threw her head back and laughed like an evil witch hearing this.

"Okay. Then I will change your name to piggy tails after this week. Hahahaha." Stella flipped back her tiny pony tail and went back to seat which was the first row, first bench. Dylan took a deep breathe and sat back on his seat. Piggy Tails? Never. He will never carry that name. They are soon going on a field trip. He will see what she will do if she gets lost there. Hahaha..

The days went by with kids getting more and more excited for the weekend. When the day finally arrived, all the kids woke up early in the morning and got into two buses before leaving for the destination. They were going to see mountains for the first time and also ride in cable cars. Everyone one looking forward to it and there happiness was contagious that even the teachers didn't bother to stop them from shouting and screaming in the bus. They sang rhymes, poems, and talked about anything that came to their little adventurous minds.

"Alright, everyone get down one by one. Don't run and push others." The head master instructed the kids and they all obeyed him. No one wanted to get scolded here. Getting down, the cold breeze of the mountains caressed the kids and they looked around in awe. Everywhere they see had lush green trees covering the land and in some distance were the mountains. There were terrains and farms around the area and the teachers split the students into groups before taking each group with them.

Dylan, Max, George, and Stella fell into the same group along with their classmates Daniel, Olivia and Emily. This group of seven was guided by Miss Jasmine and she first took them to the rice farms.

Later when it was time for lunch all the groups settled on the picnic mats with their groups and formed a circle. Everyone looked cheerful and immersed in their talks and it was the perfect time for little devilish Dylan to put his plan into implementation.

"Stella. I think I saw your blue bottle somewhere down while climbing up. I think it is yours. I don't see your bottle with you here." Dylan said thoughtfully as he looked at her bag. Stella immediately checked her bag and found her bottle missing. Oh no. How can she lose things like this? It might be just a bottle for most of the kids but being an orphan, she knew all these things they cherished were donated by other kids because they don't need these anymore. If they lose something, then they have to wait till someone comes and donates it again. After all, their clothes, bags, shoes, books and everything were donated by others.

"Dylan, where did you see it? I will go and get it." Stella asked Dylan and Dylan stood up.

"You cannot find it yourself. Come I will show you." hearing this Stella gratefully got up and followed Dylan down the terrain. Since everyone was busy, the teachers didn't notice these two sneaking down. Dylan stopped after sometime and looked back at Stella.

"Stella. I think the bottle would be somewhere behind those bushes. You go and get it. I will go up and inform teachers. They might worry if they don't find both of us there." Stella agreed and nodded her head. Though she had the thought of informing someone that they were going to search her bottle, she got scared thinking that the teacher might scold her for losing and pushed that thought aside. But they had gone for quite sometime now and it would be better if they informed some elder.

Dylan waved his hand to say bye and ran up the mountain as soon as he saw her bending down being the bushes to search for her bottle. He just didn't run upstairs but his mischievous mind made him change the direction of the board pointing towards the top of the mountain. He didn't completely reverse it, but just enough to get her lost.

Later he went up and joined their group again as if nothing happened. Good for him that Miss jasmine was busy with taking the girls to washroom and hence didn't notice his absence.

"Dylan. Where were you?" Max asked as soon as he saw Dylan plop down beside him. George too came closer to hear him.

"Oh nothing. I was just working hard to help Stella in regretting her decision of teasing and challenging me. Hahaha" Dylan guffawed at the end of his statement by Max and George looked at each other worriedly.

"Where is Stella? Did you lie to her again?" George asked worriedly because there friend might be in trouble if something happened to Stella here. Dylan brought his hand in front George's face and shook his chubby index finger indicating a 'NO'. No, he didn't lie. He had learnt his lesson the other night. This time he instead made her bottle roll into those bushes and just forgot to tell her when that happened. He conveyed this to his friends.

"Ufff.. Don't worry. She will find her way after sometime. Even if not. We will find her. She will be roaming somewhere nearby. Chillax." Dylan happily said as he rolled on the mat. His revenge was successful. He had lost his sleep once because of her. He give return the same to her.

"Did anyone see Stella? Where is she?" Miss Jasmine anxiously asked everyone but everyone shook their head. Dylan didn't respond but gulped. He too knew what he did was something he wasn't supposed to do but he still did. The teachers looked around and now everyone got worried about her. She was just four years old and her navigation senses must be still developing. What if she is lost somewhere and crying. It was now afternoon but soon it will be evening and the sky will get dark.

"Miss, I think I saw her going down" Dylan meekly said and pointed his finger in the direction they left previously. The head master asked Dylan to accompany them and they left with a group of four teachers. The remaining teachers and students stayed where they were. Since they didn't want other kids to panic, some teachers took the groups to the cable cars in turns.

"Dylan. Are you sure this was the way?" Their arts sir asked him looking around the area and finding none. Dylan nodded his head. This was where he left her. She wasn't here. That meant she must have tried climbing up but got lost.

"Urghh.. Where can that girl go. Didn't we inform all the kids to not roam anywhere by themselves?" The man mumbled as he kept calling Stella's name but got no reply in return. Dylan was now sweating because of the situation. His little mind really didn't think much of the consequences of his pranks but now it really seems to have went out of hand.

Dylan was not aware at this point that his childish revenge act was going to change the fate of many. Two girls forcibly parted from their worlds were soon going back to learn their fates and write their destiny. The prophecies once made were going to come true when the portal of two worlds open again.

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What do you think is going to happen? Hmm?