Chapter 43

~Stella's POV~

"Wait. Start over? Like a video game?" I ask, confused. "And also, a reset's not really possible. I'll still remember everything... Won't I?"

Uncle John smiles slightly. "These are the Sands of Time, Stella. Anything is possible." He spreads his hands and starts walking away from the setting sun. Suddenly, he starts seeming younger and younger, until a strong, blond-haired man turns and walks back toward me, aging into the familiar, bubble-blowing Uncle. "It would only take a step."

I bounce from one foot to the other, trying not to burn my feet.

"But of course, a step in the right direction. Heading north or south could send you into a different timeline entirely. West would send you into the future. Too far east-"

I cut him off with a groan and step forward.

"Wait! Stel-" Uncle John's voice vanishes as the world around me warps and blinks out.

------

"-owing. Yeah, I think she is. I have no idea where she came from." A familiar voice brings me back from the darkness. I squeeze my eyes shut tighter, not daring to move further.

Already, I can tell something's different. There's a blanket of some sort wrapped around me, but it's too small to completely cover me. I can smell something similar to fried batteries and something else that smells clean. I haven't smelled something really clean in ages. A humming sound is at the faint edge of my hearing, but otherwise, there's nothing. My mouth tastes like a dog stepped in it after running outside in the rain.

Something crashed open, and something glass shattered. "Oh, gosh, I'm so sorry, sir," another voice, this one quiet and feminine, chirped. "Is there-"

"Hush, for the last time, Cove. It doesn't matter if you break my beakers. But look at the heartbeat monitors, and tell me if this thing's status has changed," a new voice commands. I don't want to cross that guy, whoever he is.

A yelp echoes through the area. "Who said that?" the familiar voice cries.

I recognize him now! Leo! I think at him, and the shout echoes again. "How do you know my name?!"

"Leonis, what in the three worlds are you talking about?" the commanding voice asks. "No one said your name."

"Yes, someone did, professor! It sounds like that sister I told you-"

"We agreed that was a bunch of starfuel. You're not a Reader, remember, Leonis? You're a Wolf Shifter. And you don't remember anything before coming to this world."

A Wolf Shifter? I wonder. And before coming to this world?

"Sir, its heartbeat's back online. And high enough that it might hear us now."

"Cove, did you touch the body again?" The man groans. A spark travels down my back. Covie! Covie's alive too!

Do you hear me, too? Leo's voice asks.

Well, yeah, I answer. Is that Covie with you?

Covie... I'd forgotten we called her that. But yes, Coventina's with me. And you, too, apparently.

Well, that's a relief. Where are we, and what's happening? All I remember is Uncle John teleporting me somewhere, and then this.

"Leonis, why are you staring at the creature like you've seen a wisp? I said, we're going to get this creature to open its eyes now. Now, Cove, when I say go, remember? Three, two, one... go."

My left knee is suddenly doused in freezing water. I jolt upright, eyes wide open.

There is a split second of calm, in which I take in almost the entire scene. The same dirty-blond-haired, brown-eyed twin of mine, and someone who is clearly Coventina, except her hair has been dyed dark blue, her hands right above my leg. A strange older man, with pale golden brown hair and darker brown eyes, in a white lab coat and a strange metal circlet around his forehead dropping a sheet of glass down like a futuristic VR set. Leo and Covie both seem older than when I last saw them, and there is a kind of blankness to their eyes, Covie's more so than Leo's. Leo's gaze is clearing, however. Behind them, several lab desks filled with vials, beakers, and a bunch of other stuff I don't know the name for stood, some of them filled with a liquid suspiciously similar to blood. And I am levitating.

It was then Sir Lab Coat starts screaming, shielding his face with both hands and falling backwards, crashing into a desk and spilling several more glass things onto the ground. The sound of shattering glass filled the room, forcing me to shield my ears.

"Okay, okay, we GET IT, CREATURE! TURN OFF THE LIGHT, BEFORE IT BLINDS US ALL!" he shouts, and the room goes dark. "Can we get Susannah Birch in here? Tell her it's urgent."

"Yes, Alexei Yangursky," another, clearly female voice says. After a brief pause, she continues, "Lorebrarian Susannah Birch is on her way. She says, 'Alexei, you know you could just come to the Lorebrary yourself, right? I get it's urgent, but you could spend a bit more time with Sammy. I'm bringing him too, by the way.'" The voice changes while relating the message, as though this Susannah figure had her voice recorded while sending the message.

A few tense minutes later, a woman with wavy blond hair and bright blue-gray eyes strides through the doors, accompanied by a black-haired, dark-eyed man, both about Sir Lab Coat's - Alexei's - age. "So, what is it you called me for so urgently, Alexei?" the woman, probably Susannah, asks. She's wearing a black hoodie emblazoned with seven strange names; The Chamber of Secrets and The Goblet of Fire, to name two; and blue jeans.

"I... I needed you to check what... what Talent this woman has..." Alexei murmurs. He's clearly much more shy around Susannah than without her. Hmm...

Susannah smiles. "Well, duh," she says, a laughing spark in her eyes. "If you don't mind, child, may I touch your wrists? I won't inject you with poison or anything."

I like this woman. I nod my permission, and she steps past the slowly-reddening Alexei and stops by me. She grasps my right hand gently and pulls it toward her, turning my palm up, and with her other hand, explores the map of dry skin, dirt, and veins along my wrist and forearm.

After a few seconds, her eyes widen. "Well, it seems that we have a surprise here. You remember," she begins, turning back to the others and releasing me, "that I told you that in all history, it was so rare for Shifters to appear at all, having more than one on each world was impossible to conceive?"

The gathering nods in agreement.

"It seems to me that we do not have just one Shifter, no offense meant to you, Leonis. Now, we have two."

The third adult, Sammy, seems to have put something together in his mind. "We have a significant advantage over Daryen and Mirial now. If we can breed these Shifters, there will almost definitely be more Shifters in the next generation. Imagine what the old Earth scientists would say to this! 'Well, look at that. It seems that against all odds, the smallest planet, Ember, has the winning score once again!' I mean, if we can train these creatures in battle tactics, and breed them to create more, we would be unstoppable in case of war!"

"Wait, Sammy. What if they're related? We've never really had a chance to study Shifter genetics, as you may remember. For all we know, they're brother and sister."

"Screw the rules of genetics! They will breed, for the good of Ember, whether they're related or not!" The adults' voices are cut off by a loud BANG as the door shuts behind their backs. As I look around, I see Covie's followed them, too. So I look back at Leo.

"Well, Stella, it seems like we're going to be forced to 'breed, for the good of Ember' now." Leo cracks a smile, then frowns. "Your name is Stella, right? I just thought..." "Yeah, it is," I say. "And we are twins. Now, the only problem's going to be getting out of here, and before it's too late..."

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I, DragonNadder, give MLB998 full permission to copy this chapter and use it in her book The Writing Game as she sees fit.

Hey, peopleses! I'm Nadder, but some people call me Dragon. I'm really glad I've been accepted to join this storymaking, and I hope I haven't made this chapter too confusing. That would be sad.

So anyway, I'm not really working on a lot of books right now. But if you DO want to check out my (many, many) books, go ahead and do that, and tell me which ones are your favorites, so that I can update them more. I'm a fanfictionist, fantasy lover, and mythical-creature-person.

You know what? I'm going to stop now. All this stuff is on my profile page anyway, and I'm going to end up going on forever. So if you want to join this, do that! It's really quite fun!

Arright, Nadder OUT! ~flies away on Deadly Nadder throwing cookies to everyone~