I couldn't see anything but the flashing light. I squinted my eyes until my vision finally adjusted and at the same time wondering where we were. I saw white soil littered on my forearm- it was sand. I had a clearer view once the light had finally zoomed out unto the sun. It seemed like we landed on what appeared to be a beach. "Lenard?" I followed the voice from the right. Chloriette was shaking Lenard's body but didn't move an inch. I got up and walked towards them. 

"Did you check his pulse?" I asked the moment I reached them.

She nodded quickly. "He still won't budge."

From two feet away, something puffed out from the bottom of the sand, rather . . . it was someone. "Phle!!Aaaeergghh! Sand, it always has to be sand!" Victor spat sand out of his mouth several times. He took a glance at our unconscious friend and concern immediately took over him. He rushed in beside us. "Lenard!" He called. "What happened?"

"We have no idea." I'm getting a bit worried, too. What if he never woke-

"Wait a minute! His pulse is beating. Lenard, wake up!" Victor gave him a hard slap on the face. Chloriette and I grimaced at the painful sound. That must have hurt reaaaalllllly bad. We got startled as Lenard abruptly got up. His hand immediately went to his cheek, rubbing the pain away. "OW! My smooth, pink cheek!" I can already imagine the pain on Lenard's cheek. "Thanks, I needed that."

"Seriously, Len-man! You should've got up to let us know you're alive!" Victor darted.

"I was dreaming! I was about to marry a beautiful princess, then-"

Chloriette put her hand above Lenard's shoulder. "Easy, it's just a dream. Right now, we have to find Captain Claes and Sean. I haven't seen either of them."

"Yeah, me too," I said. Where could they be? All we see were wild trees, vines, weird-looking flowers (I like the colors, though), the sea, and sand all around us. We started searching near the shore, near the trees, then the meadows, we still couldn't find them. "How could this be?" Victor began looking around too. "We went to the same portal so we should all be here. Man, this sucks!"

"Victor has a point," Lenard agreed.

"I do?"

"Maybe Captain and Sean are on the other side on this island. They can't be transported to another location from the same portal, right?"

"I'll be right back," I said as I slowly flew upward. "I should've done this earlier. . ." I got embarrassed that I forgot I could fly. I gently flew through the branches, swatting away all the leaves that got stuck all over my hair and face on the way. The view was, honestly, extraordinary. I haven't seen such pure white clouds before until now. The sun shone gloriously above the light blue sky. I flew up a little bit higher. Not enough. I flew higher again and this time, my eyes saw the unbelievable.

The portal sent us to an island. A ginormous one. The mountains were green with bright colors surrounding them. The mountains were so huge, the tips touching the soft cotton clouds. Water from the mountains falling and following the flow of the river bed. On the left side of the island, there's a village. A tribal village, from the looks of it. On the right was a lagoon, maybe? At the far northeast, there's a rock that has a shape of a skull. Scary, but it's intriguing enough to check. Behind the great mountains, there's a strange, dead tree. The border of the river bed ends at the cove.

I landed back on the ground and told them the news. "Well, it seems like we are on a very, very big island."

"How, in the name of archangels, are we supposed to find them?" Chloriette asked.

"I saw a tribal village on the west. Maybe they know," I said. They followed me as I walked the route towards the village, following the grey smoke.

"Dang, what a mess!" Lenard commented, avoiding the scraps of coal and debris.

"I don't get it, though." I shook my head. "From up there, this place looks fine. But up-close, it isn't. What happened here?"

The tribal village looks deserted. The campfires were put out. Their idol statues were torn down by something as if an ogre or troll used its club to strike at these things. Most of the tents were destroyed, but some remained standing. We followed the grey smoke until we came to a stop as burning leaves came into view.

"Okay . . . ? Where are all the tribal people?" Victor wondered, scratching his head. I wondered the same thing. Suddenly, people with feathers on their heads and sharp spears in hand came out of nowhere, pointing the weapon at us. "Does this answer your question?" Lenard answered Victor with a serious look.

"Yup. Why is he pointing his spear at me?" Victor pointed at the native man. The native man in front of Victor spoke in a different language. I took a good look at the native people surrounding us, both men and women were marked with colorful tattoos on their brown skin. The male was shirtless and only sported fury leggings while the women wore full-length dresses. "Lenard, you understand them, right?" Chloriette asked.

"Yup," Lenard nodded. "and we're not receiving a warm welcome. They thought we're enemies."

Inside the tent, our hands were tied up on a pole. Our weapons were confiscated and placed somewhere else. Lenard began to whine."First, I almost got myself seasick. Second, I almost got killed by my reflection. Third, my dream never came true. Fourth, we are tied up in a middle of a dark tent. Could this day get any worse?" 

"Well, your day will not get any worse if we think of a way out of here," Chloriette said.

"I wouldn't consider using my magic. The tent will burn along with us," I said instantly.

"Yup, I am officially having a bad day." Lenard pouted.

"So, any other ideas for our escape?" Victor asked. The silence is enough of an answer to Victor's question, making us feel bad for ourselves.

"I'm afraid not." Lenard sighed, but then he lifted his head. "Wait a minute, Victor, you have super strength, you can break through the ropes easily!"

"Um . . . about that . . . the last time I escape from this kind of situation was when I was strapped on a tree by the witch. And when I broke through the rope tied behind me, the tree ripped into shreds, too!"

"That was when you still can't control your powers." Lenard reminded him, finally focused on our escape. "This could work! Our captain trained us for a reason, Victor. You can do it! Just be careful."

"Okay, I'll try," Victor sat firmly. "But don't blame this on me when the whole tent got destroyed." I could feel the rope move slightly on my wrists. He's dealing with the feat of strength and the feat of being very careful. "May I ask one more question before I do it?" Victor asked.

"What?" Chloriette asked.

"Did anyone brought shawarma before we leave?" There was silence for a moment.

"Let's just get out of here," I said, breaking the silence.

At last, the ropes that bound our wrists finally loosened up without the tent collapsing. We all sighed in relief. "Okay, maybe they don't know where Claes and Sean are," I said. "All I see is them and not even a single prisoner like us."

"We're not gonna leave this place unarmed, though. Let's go and get our things." Lenard rubbed his wrists. "And my 'My fairy ex' book." We all turned to him as if there was a monster behind him. "What? Haven't you read a story that deals with real-life relationship problems?"

Now we have to focus on our stealthy escape. And we must act fast. "I have a plan, a nice one. While we're escaping, I'll make a spell that duplicates us." Lenard spun his finger in the air.

"Make sure those duplicates won't hurt us," Victor said.

"Don't worry, it won't," Lenard promised. "The duplicates will be tied up like we were." Lenard brought his hands together before stretching it apart to reveal his wand, fairy-godmother style. "Duplicay." As he call upon whatever he was trying to summon with his magic, four miniature tornadoes surrounded the pole. We took a step back from the strong wind. The tornado changed into four figures all tied up. It was us.

"They look fake," Chloriette commented. "Like, 'fake' fake."

"That's the best I could get. The spell that I remembered is the one that could make dummy duplicates," Lenard shrugged. They're both right, none of our duplicates looked animated. They sat there like it's a "do nothing" day. All tied up without a care in the world, waiting for nothing. "I have a bad feeling about this," I honestly claimed.

"Don't worry, it'll be fine. When the native warriors check on these duplicates, I'm sure they will interact," Lenard assured.

"If we can't go to the front, then we have to take them back." We all looked in the direction Chloriette was looking at, there's a small gap before her. "Oh hell no, I am not gonna fit in there!" Victor complained. "It'll be like a dragon being forced inside the keyhole."

"We'll just have to make the hole big enough for you," I said. I tore through the gap until it is big enough for a huge teenager to fit through. I went out first, Chloriette was the second, Lenard was the third, and lastly (And hopefully) Victor. We hid in the bushes and Chloriette scanned the area. 

"How many are they?" I asked.

"Looks like most of them are alive," she replied in a whisper.

"It's crazy that the four of us can fit into this bush." Victor noticed.

"You can say that again," Lenard said, his voice a bit muffled since he's squashed by Victor's size. "Our things might be in one of those tents."

I felt a strong feeling inside me. I couldn't describe it. But I knew something. This strong feeling increased my senses. "I know where our weapons are." The words suddenly came out of my mouth.

"What makes you say that?" Good thing I can still hear Lenard.

"My senses," I said. "It's getting stronger. Come on, follow me."

From my childhood, Sam, my sisters, and I sometimes play this game called Seek the shadow. It's a game similar to hide and seek but more intense. The rule was you can't stay in your spot for too long. You have to move as quickly as possible to the other side of an object to hide. And here's the catch. In this game, we play in an open space in a forest of Northern Quarté.

We moved from tent to tent every time the native people are not looking. The stronger my senses were, the closer we were to our weapons. Quickly, we hid behind a stack of hay. "There." I pointed at the tent where two guards are standing with watchful eyes, body tensed and bows ready. "Good work, Xabe. Now, how are we supposed to get in?" Lenard asked, finally relieved that he could breathe again.

"We'll do this in an old fashion way." As Victor picked up a rock, he flicked it with his fingers towards a huge boulder next to a faraway tree so it would make a loud sound nine feet away to the east (According to Lenard).

The guards became suspicious. They nodded to each other before pointing their arrows to the source of the sound. We sneaked our way into the tent and saw our weapons and items arranged properly. Despite our weapons being chained up (All of us have no idea where they got these chains from), Victor broke the chains without even trying. We took all of our things: weapons, books, and small rations (For emergencies, Lenard thought).

And thanks to our luck, we went out while the guards were still investigating the sound. We ran as far we could from the village (More like a half-destroyed village). "Thank goodness we're free!" Victor jumped. But the moment he said that the natives spotted us. One of them calling towards the others.

"Would you stop talking just until we're out of here!?" Lenard snarled.

Even though we want to use our magic, we don't want to hurt these people. By the looks of it, they had lost so much. So we ran to the tall yellow grass where following us may seem impossible. Unfortunately, these native people were at our tails no matter what. Luckily, I spotted a trench behind a tree. "In there!" I told them. We jumped into the hole, finally a perfect space for the four of us.

The natives stopped running. Confused as to where we went, we could feel their feet stomping the grass. We could hear the native warriors calling to each other. "What are they saying?" Chloriette whispered.

Lenard looked up. "Our disappearance made them more vigilant, this isn't going well than we thought." 

After a few beats, we heard a roar, more like a sound when a beast used a tuba. The sound of footsteps quieted down. I took a peek from above, there're all just vanished. "They're gone," I said. We all climbed back up and dusted ourselves.

"Where did the sound come from?" Lenard asked.

"It sounds-" The spooky roar thundered through the forest again. Instead of figuring that out, we ran.

A/N:

That's not good. With their escape, they had no other choice but to run, for now. What do you think happened to the caption and the hippie with style? And can you guess what caused that roar?