So they threw us in prison, naturally.

"So glad to be enjoying the pleasures of the Palace of Lilitua," Audrey muttered.

The cell was dark and moist, and there was a slow drip in one corner. The stones were rough and cold. I shivered.

"I hope the leopard is ok," Sophie said quietly.

"Seriously?!" Audrey exclaimed. "We're sitting in a dark, cold cell in the depths of a villain's palace, and all you can say is you hope the leopard we just killed is ok? It's dead, Sophie. Of course it's not ok."

"I know that," she whispered, her eyes filling with tears, "I just hope...it wasn't in pain, when it died. It's a puppet after all. A slave. It's not fair to blame a puppet for a master's mistakes."

A voice cleared by the door. We turned. Standing outside our cell was the dark-skinned servant girl that gave us the hint before the arena. I halfway rose to thank her, but she looked at me with a terrified expression and shook her head slightly. I sat back down, confused.

She cleared her throat again. "Presenting Her Terrible Greatness, Mistress Giselle." Then she half-curtsied and scurried out of the room.

Audrey snickered at Giselle's title, but other than that, we were silent.

The door at the end of the hallway banged open, and Giselle strode in, looking furious. She turned towards us with a venomous glare.

"Why did you pick the larger box?" she hissed.

I tried to assume a poise of nonchalance. "Oh, thought it'd be fun." Giselle growled--actually growled--and began pacing in front of our cell. "You must have known what was in the smaller one," she said, regaining a bit of her original airy tone.

"No," I said truthfully, "but could you tell us? I would really like to know."

Giselle stopped pacing and fixed me with a cold, hard, look. I fought the urge to gulp.

"Very well. I shall tell you. It was the tail of a chimera."

That meant little to me, but I caught part of it. "Was the rest of the chimera attached? Possibly underneath the box?"

Giselle smiled slightly at this--she was proud of herself. "Yes."

Sophie gasped softly. I turned and looked at her stricken face. Chimeras must be bad.

Giselle laughed softly. "I see you know what a chimera is. Well, for the sake of your uneducated cell mates--" Audrey bristled with indignity-- "I shall tell you. A chimera has the head and body of a lion, the tail of a snake, and a goat coming from its back."

That didn't sound particularly scary to me...until I thought about it. It could attack you from three different directions...the snake-tail was most likely poisonous...

"Well, glad we felt like having a challenge!" Audrey said brightly. "Too bad it turned out to be the easier option."

Giselle's smile was harsh as ice. She began pacing again.

"I suppose you are wondering what our dear friend Tess was speaking about when I mentioned betrayal," she said with a smug air.

I nodded. I had been wondering that.

"Well, prepare to be shocked," Giselle said with a twisted smile. "Your friend Lee has been my puppet the entire time."

"Who?" Audrey muttered, but I went cold.

"Tess's shadow," I whispered breathlessly.

"Yes," Giselle said, pausing in her pacing. "She has been following Tess closely for me. And, when the time was right, she brought dear Tess to me. All this had to happen because of your weakness, Sierra."

"What?" I asked, surprised at my sudden relevance to the conversation.

"Your weakness," Giselle said, beginning to pace again. "To most people, the opposite of joy is indifference. It is a most peculiar aspect to humanity. You are not distinctly unhappy when you do not care, but you are in the complete absence of joy. You, Sierra," she spat, "are different. I don't know how, I don't know why. But your polar opposite to joy is guilt. Whereas most people's guilt would get in the way of them know ing the truth, yours gets in the way of your happiness." She stopped pacing and stared at me coldly. "That is bizarre, even for a Myth." She resumed pacing.

I pondered this information. What did it all mean?

"Do you know why I hate Myths?" she said, as if we were having a perfectly normal conversation. "I hate them because they are monstrous, filthy creatures."

"Rude much?" I muttered.

"It took me a while to figure out how to kill them for good," she continued, "as their phoenix powers got in the way. You do, I assume, know how Myths reproduce?" she said with a raised eyebrow.

"No, we were wondering that on the way here," Audrey said. "So, funny you should bring it up. You're just a book full of answers."

Giselle's eyes narrowed but she continued. "A phoenix is known for its power to regenerate. In stories, the phoenix burns into flames and a new one, a fledgling, appears in its place. This is not true, though when a Myth dies while in phoenix form, they do burst in flame. When a Myth dies, their 'powers' are transferred to a young child born at that moment, a completely random selection process.

"But there is a way to kill a Myth without their legacy living on. If you slay them with a weapon made of iron or Rowan wood--a weakness coming from the fairy form--they will die forever."

My mouth had turned dry. So there was only a limited number. There could never be more than there were right now, because one could only make one. And Giselle was killing them.

"You monster," I whispered in horror.

Giselle smiled coldly. "Oh Sierra. I am not a monster. You are the monster."

"What did I ever do!?" I shouted angrily.

"You are a Myth," she said simply. "And Myths are despicable creatures." She leaned forwards a bit, leering. "Even as a mortal, you are pathetic. I have never seen someone so untalented in my life. The only thing that makes YOU special, Sierra dear, is the profound memory your friends make. You are nothing, though you associate yourself with special people. Without them, you're nothing." Then she grinned, and whispered, "Nothing."

And with that, Giselle turned sharply on her red high heel, and strode out of the room.

We were silent for a moment.

"Sierra..." Sophie said hesitantly.

"I really don't want to talk right now."

"Oh. Ok."

The cell was silent again.

Was I really that unimportant? Did I really have no talents at all? I understood what she meant by my friends were talented. Audrey was, well, Audrey. The incredibly gifted, passionate girl. If anyone left an impression, it was her.

Sophie was the kind one, the one with the big heart. She faded into the background, unless you noticed her. From that moment on, she stood out like a new star in the sky.

I frowned. But how come Giselle noticed that? Sophie's gift was so unique to her kindness...I wouldn't have expected Giselle to recognize it. And besides, it wasn't like this was new information to me.

In fact...everything she told me, I had heard before. From my own head. When facing the insecurity tormentor.

I understood.

"She was attacking my insecurity," I whispered.

I remembered what she said about being special. I have never seen someone so untalented in my life. Untalented? Why should I care?

Because, when Insecurity attacked me, it saw that lingering doubt I had at my own talent. My own words came floating back to me: There's nothing more I want than to be special, to stand out in someway, or do something worth noticing.

I wanted to laugh. I didn't care about that.

I wondered for a moment what had changed. Then the answer came to me as quickly as if it had been waiting for the question.

I had friends. Not friends like Olivia, who were going to tell me I was talented even when I wasn't. Friends like Audrey and Sophie, who knew I wasn't talented but didn't care anyways.

I grinned softly. Giselle had no power over me anymore. I had defeated her tormentors, and now I knew why. I had friends, stronger than the mountains and rivers, more beautiful than the wind and stars.

I knew what we had to do.

"Alright," I said loudly, making Audrey and Sophie jump, "tell you what Giselle. If the only things that make me special are my friends, then why don't you take me on with them backing me up?"

"What do you mean?" Sophie asked slowly.

But I just smiled, took the clip out of my hair, and unhooked my necklace. I laid the necklace on top, and made sure all the charms were touching the butterfly. Abigail's star, Magnolia's flower, Genivieve's crystal ball, and finally, Seraphina's crown. The blue orb rose from the back of the butterfly. I took a breath.

"Hey guys! This is Sierra. Hope you remember me. Well, if you do, you probably remember that Sophie, Audrey, and I were on our way to go try and defeat Giselle. Well, we got here. We defeated her arena. And she threw us in prison, which we really should've seen coming. I'm calling you to ask for your help. Breaking out shouldn't be much of a problem, but we plan to take Giselle down. And that's going to need a bit more power. It has to be today, because tomorrow, our school and everyone in it will be destroyed. Will you join us?"

The pause in the air was breathless. Then the orb sank back into the butterfly. I took the necklace off and clipped it behind my neck again. The butterfly flapped its wing twice and then stood still. I looked at it, confused.

Then three glittery light replicas of the butterfly emerged from its back and flew away, followed by the real one. I smiled as it flew out the small, barred window to deliver the message.

"Sierra..." Audrey whispered.

I whirled around, suddenly afraid. "Oh no! I should've asked you before I did that! I'm so sorry!"

"That was brilliant!" Sophie squealed. "Now we'll actually have a chance!" I smiled in relief.

"We had a chance," Audrey said stubbornly. She paused. "A low one. But a chance!"

"What should we do now?" Sophie asked, her eyes shining a bit from the excitement.

I began to stretch out on the floor. "I don't know about you guys, but I'm going to sleep."

"That brings Sierra's total of brilliant ideas today up to two," Audrey said, laying down.

"I would keep watch, but..." Sophie shrugged. "I guess a cell works both ways, huh?"

"Thanks Giselle," Audrey sighed, readjusting on the floor.

And I drifted off with the first glimmer of hope I had felt in a while.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The mirror showed a golden light, strong and pure. I felt entranced by the light...mystified by the light...strengthened by the light. I squinted, looking closer, and I saw that someone was the source of the light.

She looked strangely familiar, as if I had seen her before, but from a different angle.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"Hey girl. Sierra? Sieeeeerra. Morning! Got your call! Up 'n at 'em!"

"Just five more minutes," I groaned, rolling over. Why was my bed so cold? And hard...

I sat bolt upright, my head nearly colliding with someone else. I was in a prison cell! Giselle! Mrs. Simone! Today was their last day!

"Hey," a voice said laughing, "glad to see you're up. It's still the same day that it was as when you fell asleep, so don't freak."

I instantly relaxed. But who was I talking to? I recognized the voice. I waited a minute for my eyes to adjust, then--

"ABIGAIL!" I exclaimed, tackling her in a hug. "I'm so glad you came!"

She laughed again. "And, I brought friends. Sierra, Audrey, Sophie, meet Liza and Chris."

I looked up to see a boy and girl about my age, also in cloaks, looking very bored. "It's nice to meet you," I said.

"Yeah, whatever," Chris replied disdainfully. The girl, Liza, simply looked away.

Taken aback by their rudeness, I turned to Abigail. She seemed amused. "In case you were wondering, they're some of the nicest ones," she whispered.

"Hey," a voice said near the door of our cell. I turned. It was Magnolia. "I heard that someone needed a prison break." I grinned.

"I, too, have come to assist you," an airy voice said. Genivieve. I smiled wider.

"I have a lot of other dryads outside, waiting for a signal," Magnolia said, jerking her thumb behind her. "They're so pumped about taking down Giselle, I'm pretty sure half the garden volunteered!"

I suddenly heard approaching footsteps from the right of the hallway. I instantly tensed, expecting a servant, or Giselle herself. But--

"Sierrella! We came as soon as we got your message, darling! I'm afraid my comrades may not be able to help much in a fight, but they've set up healing tents several places about the grounds. Oh, I hope we can help!"

My grin grew, if possible. "No Seraphina, that's wonderful! Thank you so much!" She finally passed into view, young Primrose directly behind her.

I turned back to Abigail, who was smiling warmly. "Everybody came. You all came!"

She nodded kindly. "Oh, you may want this back." She held out my butterfly clip. I took it happily.

I stood up and looked at Sophie and Audrey. Sophie was so happy she looked close to tears. Audrey was grinning ear to ear. They nodded at me.

I turned back out to everyone. "Well, come on! We got walls to bust and a tyrant to defeat!"

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3 more chapters!!!!

~Paint_splatt