Fantastopia: The New Life (Part 1)

I just got the willies

In order to get to Aria’s enchantress friend’s lair, we had to climb up a bunch of stairs of the castle that was already making me exhausted, and yet Aria didn’t seem to complain as she just climbed up the stairs like it was no big deal, at times like these I wished I was an elf. I don’t know how many stories we had to climb, but as soon as we came to a stop, I had to sit on the floor with my back leaning against the wall so I could catch my breath.

Damn these stairs.

“You okay?” Aria asked me.

“I’m fine,” I puffed, “I just need to catch my breath, I’ve never climbed so many stairs before.”

“Um, we’ve only climbed four stories.”

What? Only four stories?! Why did the hell did it feel longer than that?!

“Must be because of the spirals,” I muttered, “Why did you guys make them so long?”

“How should I know?” she shrugged, “I didn’t build this palace. Come on.”

She held her hand out for me to take, at a moment like this, I didn’t feel myself redden when I took her strong hand, I was too busy trying to put my mind together on how those spiral stairs felt like an eternity. But my thoughts were suddenly interrupted when Aria yanked me up on my feet with one hand, almost as if I weighed nothing to her.

“Wow,” I breathed astonished, “You’re pretty strong aren’t you?”

“I call this my bow arm,” she pointed to her right arm, “I’m right-handed so I use this arm to pull back my bowstring, it’s a good workout for your arms.”

“I can tell.”

“This way.”

I followed her to this door where she gave it a knock.

“Wren!” she called, “Are you in there?!”

There was no answer, but that didn’t stop Aria from opening the door and peeking in.

“Huh, she’s not here,” she stated, “That’s alright, we can just wait for her.”

She stepped inside the room as I followed her in, and right there, I felt like I was in a haunted house. This room was more like a witch lair, it had everything from a cauldron, potion bottles, candles, and charms. Though I didn’t see a broom, do enchantresses fly brooms? Overall, this place was really giving me the creeps, I felt like a was being watched. And wouldn’t you know it, there was a jar on the shelf filled with eyeballs staring at me, that’s not creepy at all.

“I know it’s creepy in here,” Aria spoke while leaning looking out the window with purple curtains tied to the sides “But we’ve all gotten used to it.”

“So is your friend technically a witch?” I asked while examining a bottle near the cauldron that looked a lot like fresh blood.

“She’s an enchantress,” she corrected.

“Aren’t they the same thing? Except that enchantresses lure men to their beds before taking their blood?”

Holy s**t, was this bottle filled with the blood of her latest victim?

“No” Aria giggled, oh thank goodness “The difference is that enchantresses are born with their magic, while witches have to earn them. Although enchantresses can be pretty seductive, my friend doesn’t have time for that, she’s what you can call- a workaholic.”

Kind of like me when I’m motivated. Now I couldn’t stop staring at the bottle of blood, what was it for? What kind was it? Is it even blood?

“Can I help you?” I jumped in fright at the sudden question and appearance of who I assumed was the enchantress.

She just popped out of nowhere on the other side of the cauldron, scaring the hell out of me.

“Jeez!” I breathed while clutching my chest and feeling my heart race “You scared me!”

“Well I am naturally terrifying” she stated with a smirk.

I’ll say. If she does that to me again I may actually piss my pants, cause once again I’m pretty jumpy.

“Jesse” Aria walked up to my side with a smile on her face “Meet my enchantress friend, Wren.”

Damn, Wren was really sending me chills through my body. I couldn’t tell how old she was due to the heavy makeup she was wearing, she had a young face but her eye makeup made her look older. She wore a dark blue and purple medieval gown with a black lace cape draping behind her. Her eye makeup consisted of mostly black and blue with heavy eyeliner that smudged a bit. Her ebony hair was loosely crimped with one side pulled back by a hairpin, and her nails had been painted black along with a silver bracelet with a feather charm.

If she went to my college, she would most likely be known as the goth outcast, just saying.

“And Wren-” Aria continued “This is Jesse, the-”

“The new master of the ring” Wren finished “I know, he’s wearing the ring.”

Oh, for a second I thought she was psychic, is she?

“So your grandfather was the great hero of Fantastopia, huh?” she smirked at me with her dark eyes “You’ve got his eyes.”

I smiled, at least she seemed nice at the moment. Except that my eyes are green, not blue like my grandfather's. My eyes are a light green color and are often mistaken for being a light blue so I can see why she would think that. But I didn't correct her cause I was too nervous to say anything.

“So do I” she added, “I also got my grandmother’s.”

She pointed to the jar of eyeballs “I keep them safe along with others, some of them I don’t even know.”

Okay, it’s official, she’s downright creepy, and those eyes keep staring.

“The reason I brought him here is that he has some questions about the ring,” Aria explained to her.

“Of course he does,” she responded in a bit of a smoky way.

Does she always talk like this? Cause I’ve got to admit, her voice did sound beautiful in a mysterious way, but at the same time, it made my skin crawl.

“Hand me your ring,” she ordered me while holding out her hand.

I did so as I placed the ring into her palm as she held it up to her face.

“Ah yes,” she breathed while examining it, “Just like how I remember it. It was a lot of work putting magic into this, I remember how exhausted I was.”

“Wait, what?” I remarked puzzled.

“Oh um,” Aria began, “Wren was one of the enchantresses who helped create the ring.”

Whoa, hold on a second. If she helped create the ring that was made many years ago, and she still doesn’t look a day over old, does that mean...?

“So, you’re immortal?” I asked her, my eyes widen.

“What else is there to explain?” she replied, not taking her eyes off the ring.

“And you have magic?”

“Yes,” this time her response sounded a bit more annoyed, “I have magic. That’s what enchantresses have, any more stupid questions?”

“Wow,” I grunted, “Okay.”

So, she’s a creepy goth chic with magic and sass, I don’t know how I feel about that.

“So tell me, grandson of Richard,” she spoke while handing me back to the ring “What questions do you have?”

“Well um...” I began to think “For starters, what can you tell me about the ring? I was told that it senses when evil is back and apparently, it never makes a mistake when it chooses its new master.”

“That is correct,” the enchantress nodded while taking a seat on a decorated chair next to an altar “It was created by as many magic users as we can get, it took a lot of our power to make it, but we succeeded. But to answer your question about what else can the ring do, it can do many things. It mainly involves around that gem, it changes color depending on your mood.”

“What?”

I looked at my ring and wouldn’t you know it, the gem in the center had turned from blue to orange. Why would they make this a mood ring? I’m not a hipster.

“I can see it’s orange,” Wren grinned, “The color for nervousness.”

Nervousness. That makes sense, being in a room with a goth enchantress who sends chills down my back, I can see why it changed.

“Um, what’s the point of this?” I asked, “Cause this doesn’t seem like an important detail. If anything it’s starting to look like something hipsters wear.”

“It may seem that way, but there’s more to it than meets the eye. Pay attention to what color that gem becomes because it could send a powerful warning.”

Whoa, that just made me tremble even though I had no idea what she meant by that, but whatever she meant, it did sound serious, even the ring was still orange.

“Anyway,” Wren added, “Besides being a mood ring, you probably already know that rubbing the ring 3 times takes you here and back home, right?”

“Yes.”

“And let me guess, you came here by accident when you had to rub the dust off the ring?”

“... Maybe.”

“That happens a lot,” she snickered.

Note to self: Never get the ring dirty.

“The ring also has the ability to glow when danger is near,” she put in, “And at times like that is when you gotta be ready to either fight or run.”

Oh... so that explains why it was glowing when I got caught by the trolls. It’s kind of like Bilbo’s sword Sting. Only instead of glowing when certain monsters are near, this ring glows when any danger is near, and that will surely come in handy to prepare me for death.

“It’s also a tracking device,” she continued, “Although it can only be used by magic in order to find you. And lastly, this ring is the only item that can help you defeat evil, without it, you’re pretty much useless. So keep a hold of that ring like your life depends on it, because it does.”

Oh crap. I can see why I can’t lose this ring, if I do, I’ll be in deep s**t. My heart began to race while thinking about it. Is the gem turning a brighter orange? If not, it should.

“Oh,” she held up a finger while standing up “There’s actually one more thing, nobody can take the ring off your finger except yourself. So be grateful for that.”

“What?”

“It’s true,” Aria nodded, “As long as that ring is on your finger, nobody can take it off. Let me show you.”

She suddenly held up my hand as she tried to pull the ring off my finger, and wouldn’t you know it, it wouldn’t come on no matter how hard she pulled. But she was starting to pull on it a bit too hard that it felt like my finger was about to snap off.

“Okay, you can stop- ow!” I jerked my hand away “What are you trying to do? Pull my finger off?”

“Someone might actually try,” she mentioned, “Others may try to cut off your finger.”

Yikes!

“The only way someone can take off your ring is off your corpse” Wren spoke, still in that smoky tone of hers “Which is why there’s gonna be many that will try to kill you. Though the ring cannot work when the chosen one is dead, it can only regain its power when it chooses a new master. However, over the years, there have been rumors that evil now has a way to take the ring off your finger when you’re still alive. Not only that, there’s another rumor that evil has been trying to find ways to make the ring work when you’re dead. And if any of those do happen, then we’re... how you say- screwed.”

I could literally hear my heart beating, if I keep hearing all of this, I might actually wet myself.

“That’s all I can say about the ring. Any other questions?”

“Uh...” I tried to get my words out, I was filled with questions, but all of this fear was making it hard for me to talk.

“I’m taking that as a no.”

“But-”

“I look forward to seeing how you do Jesse, I hope you’ll be as brave as your grandfather was.”

She then held up her hand as an apple magically appeared in her palm. Whoa, I just witnessed magic right there, I mean actual magic.

“An apple a day keeps the fear away” Wren smirked before tossing me the apple that I nearly dropped thanks to me being jumpy again.

And when I looked back up, the enchantress was gone.

“Well,” I breathed while trying to calm myself “She was indeed naturally terrifying.”