Sprout shoves pancake after pancake in its mouth, seeming to have a bottomless stomach. Snaker laughs softly. “You haven’t changed at all, Sprout.” He says. “Can’t say the same for you.” Sprout throws a grape at Snaker’s forehead—where did it GET that?? “Well, I’m not a chaos entity. Though I’m immortal, I change.” I finish my own pancakes and stand up to put my plate in the sink. “By the way, Wilder. I like your outfit today. Less ‘fantasy explorer’ and more ‘modern teenager.’” Snaker says. I snort. “Lemme guess, more training today?” “No. We had real progress yesterday. I’m giving you today off. Have fun, bond with Sprout. That’s technically training.” He smirks. “A good relationship with Sprout is important.” “One hundred friendship points for not taking off that ribbon!” Sprout chirps. “And another two hundred for giving me pancakes!” And suddenly, a boom wracks the house, and the foundations shake. The plate I was washing slips from my hands and crashes on the floor. Sprout leaps to its feet. “What was THAT?!” It yelps. “I don’t know, but I don’t like it.” I hiss, feeling a pricking feeling on the back of my neck. Another explosion shakes the house, and I grab the counter to stay upright. Snaker’s bones crack and shift as his hands change into werewolf’s claws. His eyes narrow. “I’m going outside. Wilder, be prepared for anything.” I nod along with Sprout. Sprout moves over next to me, grabbing my arm and planting its feet into the ground to steady us both as a third explosion shakes the foundations of the house. And I mean literally, plants. Its feet burrow into the ground itself. Then the house suddenly explodes. The walls, roof, counter, everything, shatters into a million pieces, and I collapse, pulling my hands over my head. Shards of glass, wood, and marble scratch my arms, face and legs. And then everything’s silent. Sprout is crouched protectively over me, seeming to have taken the brunt of the explosion. It scatters shattered pieces off of its body, poking my shoulder. “S-stand up. Wilder, I don’t see Snaker.” I pull myself into a sitting position, and then shakily stand up. The entire house is gone. Reduced to rubble in the clearing of the forest. My eyes widen. No. It’s… all gone. I look around. Sure enough, Snaker is nowhere to be seen. I lock eyes with Sprout. “H-How?.” I whisper. Sprout nods. “I-Is Snaker dead?” I ask. It shakes its head. “No. Even if he got caught up in the explosion, we’d see a body. He was taken.” It walks through the rubble, kicking over wood and such. “Find something. Anything, that might lead to Snaker. It might be easier to use my power to lift the big stuff.” It turns to me. “You can summon chaos snakes to do your bidding. Just summon them from the earth. They’ll listen.” “What if it was me who did this?” I whisper. “My powers went crazy without me noticing? And Snaker just disappeared from existence because of them?” “This was not you, Wilder. Trust me on that. I would know, I can sense when you use powers, intentional or not.” It says. “This is not your fault. Someone else did this.” I meet its eyes. “Are you sure?” It grins at me. “One hundred percent with hot fudge on top! Now come on, Wilder! You can do this.” I nod, clenching my jaw. I let out a breath, closing my eyes and embracing the thrum under my ribcage. “Just call on them. In any way that feels natural to you.” Please. Come to me, chaos snakes. I yelp as the ground rumbles again. Another attack? But something dark red breaks from the soil like a flower shoot, before erupting out under me. A giant serpent with black scales and glittering red undertones, bright green eyes, and glistening white fangs. Two more smaller snakes burst out after it. The biggest one is easily the size of a double decker bus, and I sit on its head, my legs strewn to the side mermaid-style. I grip the scales of the serpent, shaking. “Santo ESTRELLA!!” I yell. Sprout claps, laughing. “Great job!” The giant serpent lowers its head, setting me down gently on the ground. I stumble backwards into Sprout, who steadies me. “Now give them an order.” It whispers to me. “U-Um, search the remains of this house.” I squeak. “Any clue to where they could’ve taken my uncle, Snaker.” All three snakes bow their heads before slithering off to search the rubble. Ten minutes later, one of them comes back with something. A paper with what seems to be a knife hole in the top. The other snake sets the knife down on the grass in front of my ankle-high, inch-heeled black boots. I take the paper.
“G-Gracias.” I tell the serpent. I read through the paper aloud. “Wilder Stormwrath Eldritch of the elves, You are formally invited to attend a tournament of abilities. It is a tournament being held for people of all species on Myria who have been invited to attend and fight to win money, fame, power, and more. Each invitee is chosen to have a unique ability you will have the chance to show off. I understand you have also just had your uncle, Snaker Hollowlight, taken. This will also be a chance to win him back. Sincerely, The Silver Court.” Sprout’s eyes narrow. “Odd. Does this mean they took him? To make sure you come?” “I don’t know.” I pause. “Should I do it? It could be our only chance to get Snaker back.” It flashes me a thumbs up. “Yeah! Let’s do it. We can’t waste time. Is there a back?” I flip it over. “Yeah.” “Read it!” “Okay.” I breath in. “At the right time, the coordinates to the Tournament of Abilities will appear in this spot. Around the next full moon is when you should expect it. When it does, please make your way to the spot. Have a nice day.” “The next full moon is tomorrow. So in the morning. In the meantime…” Sprout looks at the rubble. “You want to use chaos to rebuild this? Or should we book a hotel.” I sigh. “Hotel.” And I pull out my phone. It only takes me a few minutes to book a hotel in the city. Sprout wanted to ride the serpents, so now I’m sitting on the largest one’s head while Sprout sits on one of the smaller ones, as the snakes head through the forest. We’ll get off once we get to the city. This is kinda nice. I look back where we came. All of my art supplies. The pictures in the hallway. I know I have those pictures saved on my phone, but still. It doesn’t take us long to arrive at Star’s City border, and I hop off the serpent’s head, waving to it. “Go back, please.” And all three bow again before slithering into the ground. “It would be pretty awkward to walk around with me right?” Sprout says. “Well don’t you worry!” I’ve barely turned to Sprout when it suddenly does a backflip and disappears in a burst of smoke. The buzzing under my ribcage returns. I head for the hotel, having pulled up GPS and punched in the hotel name. I walk in, biting my lip and ignoring the stares at my weird eyes. A kid tugs at his mother’s sleeve. “Mommy, he’s got glowy eyes! And pointy ears!” I stop at the reception desk, showing the girl the code on my phone. “I’m Wilder Eldritch.” She types on the keyboard before rolling back to the keys at the back shelves. She tosses me one. “Room two-oh-three.” She says. “You didn’t buy a private room, so you’ll have a roommate.” “Okay…” I murmur. Damn. It’s gonna be harder to hide Sprout from a roommate. I try to ignore the itching under my ribcage, like Sprout’s getting uncomfortable. //Hey, Wild. You don’t have a change of clothes, do you?// I flinch internally. No. //Well, damn. Gonna have to go shopping then.// With what money? I just used the last of what I had for emergencies! //Oh. That complicates things.// NO, REALLY?! That NEVER crossed my mind! //Ah yeah yeah. Sarcasm person. Anyways, go! Head up to the room! It’s cramped in here!// I snort, entering the elevator and leaning my head against the back wall, staring up at the light. Once it reaches the right floor, I head to two hundred and three, unlocking the door and walking in. “Oh no,” A voice deadpans. “I was so hoping I’d get lucky. But no, they had to give me an idiot to deal with.” “I really hope I’m not an idiot, then.” I growl. The main room is small, with two rooms attached to it. A tiny kitchen, one bathroom, a TV, and a couch. A boy about fifteen is lounging on the couch, seeming to be playing ‘Flappy Bird’ on his phone.
