The darkness was on the verge of encompassing No Man’s Land as Deon followed Skrili quietly along the dirt path. This time around, he was keeping a close, apprehensive eye on the ground, being sure to avoid any rocks or pebbles.

“You don’t need to be so afraid of traps,” Skrili said detachedly.

Deon wondered how she could even tell he was doing that. “But you said—”

“I said I’ll tell you not to step on something,” she reminded him. “If you don’t listen, I’ll take it as a death wish.”

Just because you beat me one time, you think you’re so much better, Deon thought angrily. Once we get this bag of yours back, I’ll prove you wrong.

They continued to walk in silence. The quiet annoyed Deon, but he had come to realize it wasn’t worth trying to have a conversation with Skrili that lasted longer than one exchange of words. The rattling of a tree frog in the distance made up for the lack of talking, and with every passing minute a new one joined in, growing into a chorus of constant buzzing. The higher pitched melodies of crickets soon accompanied them all around. Their soothing song made Deon recognize night was practically upon them.

Skrili suddenly turned off to the right, away from the pathway and into the trees.

“Why are we going in here?” Deon asked as he followed.

“I’m finding for a place to stay for the night,” Skrili answered.

“Already? It’s not that late yet.”

“No, but it’s dark. There’s no point in looking for someone when you can’t see anything.”

Deon couldn’t argue with that. They joined the dwelling place of the trees and continued deeper in. After a few minutes, they came upon a thick tree with low, firm branches and scarce leaves. Its size was unmatched by any tree Deon had seen in Tailpiece. Skrili chose to settle there, and without a word she climbed up onto one of the branches midway to the top. She sat in the curve where the branch met the trunk and opened her bag of pineapples Deon had saved from their fight.

Removing his backpack, Deon walked over to the trunk, about to sit down against it.

“I wouldn’t recommend sleeping there,” he heard Skrili say above him.

“Really? Why not?”

“There are dangerous nocturnal animals out here,” she answered. “Not to mention thieves, like those idiots we just met.”

“Hmm…fair enough.” Deon looked up the tree to spot a branch worthy to spend the night on, but the only one he found was practically at the top. “It looks like it’s time to use the good ole’ bug wings again,” he decided.

Deon imagined his bug wing contraption. The giant wings and vine handle appeared above his head, and he grabbed on. Like before, the wings buzzed noisily as they lifted Deon into the air. Skrili’s hair blew across her face as the wings ascended past her. Soon he touched down on the branch and made the bug wings disappear. He sat, placed his backpack and pineapple bag between his legs, and got comfortable. “So what do you think of that technique?” he called down.

“It’s obnoxious.”

Deon chuckled to himself. Right, I don’t know why I bothered asking.

Only minutes later, night had made its full arrival. High up in the tree, Deon could see the tiny green lights of fireflies flicker all around the woods. He smiled as he observed the light show.

It was hard to believe his first day outside Tailpiece was already over. He already got to use his imagining in two fights, made a new friend—or acquaintance, it seemed—and Skrili introduced him to just how massive the world really was: all kinds of powers besides his own, all coming from places across the “Multiverse”… Deon didn’t know what it all meant, but he simply could not wait to find out more. He felt like leaving Tailpiece may have been the best decision he ever made.

His thoughts shifted to his current adventure with Skrili. How long would it take to find this red-haired girl that stole her bag? On top of that, why was it such a big deal?

“Skrili, are you still awake?” he called.

There came no answer.

Deon quickly noted that even if Skrili were awake, she probably wouldn’t want to respond to him. “Well if you are, what’s so important about your bag? Like, what’s in it?” he pried.

The only sounds were the tree frogs and crickets around them.

Eh, she’s probably sleeping, Deon figured, before he heard her try to conceal a sneeze. Nope, she’s just ignoring me.

Deciding it would be best to get some shut-eye to prepare for whatever awaited him tomorrow, Deon leaned low against the tree and called it a night.

~

The tweeting of birds echoed through Deon’s ears. He awoke to the fresh sunlight of the morning. Deon wiped his eyes and yawned, and when his vision cleared he saw three tiny red birds hopping about on his branch a few inches down.

Deon looked out to the vast view before him. At night, he couldn’t see all that much, but now he had quite a sight of the woods around him. The trees continued on as far as he could see, and more birds of all colors were flying about, above and amongst them. Squirrels and other small creatures were running around busily in the branches and on the ground. From here, he even had a decent view of the path he and Skrili had been following. Deon wondered just how far these woods continued on for.

He was about to turn his attention to breakfast (which was more than likely going to be the rest of his pineapples), but right then two figures appeared in the distance, walking down the path. They were coming from where Skrili and Deon would soon be headed. As they slowly neared, Deon could discern it was a pair of girls—one in a loose gray beanie and the other with long, wavy red hair.

Well it’s their lucky day; I better go introduce myself, Deon thought. Hopefully not all the ladies out here are as cold as Skrili…

He stretched his arms and prepared to make his way down the tree. But something seemed important about this…he tried to place a finger on it. As his morning haze wore off, he made the connection.

“THE RED-HAIRED GIRL!!!” Deon shouted. All the birds around him tweeted with surprise and darted off. “Skrili!! I found that girl!” he yelled, almost falling out of the tree. He felt giddy—the day had just begun, and judging by how uptight Skrili was about this girl, there was probably yet another fight on the way.

“What?” Skrili eventually answered groggily.

Deon leaned over and looked down at her. She was rubbing her eyes slowly. “That girl we’re supposed to be looking for! With the hair! She’s coming our way! I can see her!”

“Are you sure?” Skrili asked, meeting his eyes. “Does she have my blue bag?”

Deon checked again quickly. “Um…she has a bag—”

“Let’s go,” commanded Skrili. She hopped out of the tree and landed neatly on the ground.

“Wait, but…” started Deon.

“What?”

“Can I just…um…get ready first? You know, wash my face, fix my hair, make sure I smell good…” he requested. “I like making an impression, you know?”

Skrili glared at him unblinkingly. Her judgment instantly pressed upon him like the weight of every house in Tailpiece combined.

“Uh…just kidding, heh-heh…” Deon said quickly as he began to climb down. When he met her under the tree, the two of them made their way towards the path.

By the time they reached the edge of the path, the two girls were about to pass by. The red-haired one strutted daintily. Her outfit was very bright: a hot-pink top with a heart on the front, white pants and sparkly shoes. The bag she carried on her shoulder followed this pattern. Her brown eyes were very bold, further intensified by her makeup.

The girl she walked with sent a much calmer vibe. She wore mostly dark colors: a thin hooded green sweater, black jeans, and sneakers. Her brown hair flowed lazily out of her baggy hat and covered one of her gray eyes. A soft-covered case was slung around her back. Deon guessed it was for some kind of stringed instrument. The girls both appeared to be in their early twenties.

“Hello ladies,” Deon said coolly.

The pair took note of Deon and Skrili and slowed their walk to a stop. “Hi,” they both greeted casually.

“Um…what’s with your friend?” the one in the hat asked in a troubled tone.

“Huh?” uttered Deon. He looked beside him, and then turned around to see Skrili was walking away, back towards their tree. “Uh…what’s wrong?” he called.

“This isn’t her. I’m going back to sleep.”

Deon felt like she perceived this as his fault. “Well, how was I supposed to know? All you said was ‘red hair,’ and this girl has red hair!”

“This girl’s hair is violet-red. The girl we want has cherry red hair. And she’s shorter.”

“Well excuse me for not considering the many possible shades of red…” Deon grumbled.

“Uh…were you guys looking to have a fight or something?” the violet-red haired girl asked them.

Deon paused and returned his attention to the girls, returning to his ‘cool’ demeanor. “Oh, so you two are into fighting too?”

The ladies exchanged confused glances. “Um…obviously,” they answered.

Skrili sighed from behind, and made her way back over to the group. “Sorry, he’s new,” she explained. “And we can’t fight right now.”

“Oh, are you sure?”

“Yeah come on Skrili, are you sure?” Deon interjected. “This could be fun!” He wasn’t certain why these girls seemed so eager to fight, but he wasn’t about to question it. Yesterday Skrili had mentioned how everyone in No Man’s Land was a consciousness, which meant they probably had cool powers he had never seen.

“I’m sure,” Skrili said flatly. “Besides, we don’t have any money to offer.”

What does money have to do with this? wondered Deon.

“Hmm…” thought the red-haired girl aloud. “Well, you said you were looking for a short, cherry-red haired girl, right? I’ll tell you what: we fought someone just yesterday who fits the bill. If we fight and you beat us, I’ll tell you where they were headed.”

Skrili stood quietly for a moment. “Then I guess we have no choice,” she decided.

“Alright, let’s do this!” Deon exclaimed.

“By the way, I’m Ashley,” the brightly dressed girl introduced.

“I’m Miranda,” the other said. “We’re from Normal Country.”

“I’m Skrili. Fiction Country.”

Wait…now there’s ‘countries,’ too? thought Deon. “I’m Deon,” he said. “I’m from Tailpiece…uh…country…?”

All three girls stared at him in bewilderment.

Well that wasn’t right…he quickly realized.

The girls walked away and so he followed, figuring it was time to pick their fighting spot.

~

Soon the four consciousnesses found a spot that would serve as a decent battleground, not too far off the path. It was more open than most of the woods, as most of the trees in the area were fallen. This meant there would be plenty of jumping and climbing to get from place to place, so Deon couldn’t wait to begin.

The two teams stood on opposite sides of the battleground, ready to start.

“Would you guys mind doing matchups?” Ashley asked her opponents.

“That’s fine,” Skrili approved. “You can pick.”

“Okay, I’ll take you, Deon,” chose Ashley. “So Skrili will start against Miranda.”

It appeared “matchups” meant starting the fight one-on-one. The two duos split up to different halves of the battleground as they neared their opponents.

Miranda pulled off her soft-shell case and opened it up, revealing a black, six-stringed instrument made of wood. She put the strap around her shoulder and stood, ready to play it.

“Nice guitar,” Skrili commented plainly, though she appeared to be in contemplation of something deeper. Deon had never heard of or seen a ‘guitar’ before, and he wondered how Miranda planned on using it to fight.

Miranda simply smiled and twisted one of the knobs to tune it.

“Alright, start!” Ashley announced. Deon pounced with surprise, expecting her to leap at him and attack. Instead, she merely looked at him with her bold brown eyes.

Somehow Deon hadn’t really noticed it before, but there was something different about her. This Ashley girl…is kinda hot, he realized. I hope that doesn’t make it weird to fight her.

Meanwhile, Skrili stood cautiously, deciding if she should attack first or not. Okay, obviously she has something up her sleeve with that guitar, she observed. But what?

Before Skrili could make a move, Miranda began playing the guitar. She started a serene, sweet-sounding song—opposite to the music that would typically play during a fight. “I never get tired of this one,” she muttered peacefully.

Skrili blinked a couple times. She couldn’t help but absorb some of the calm energy it evoked. “Really? What’s it called?” she asked, maintaining her sense of caution.

“I call it ‘Garden Lullaby’,” Miranda told her. A strange smirk appeared on her face.

A light bulb instantly flicked on in Skrili’s mind. So that’s what she’s up to! she realized. Wasting no time, Skrili darted forward at Miranda—but she wasn’t quick enough; Miranda leaped backwards, landing atop a fallen tree trunk. All the while, she continued playing her song.

Skrili felt her eyes growing heavy. Crap—she’s a Hypnotizer! She’s trying to put me to sleep! I have to hurry! She jumped after Miranda with a leaping kick but the guitarist dodged her once again, hopping from that tree trunk to another. Skrili landed and immediately chased after her.

As Skrili’s game of tag unfolded, Deon planned his initial move against Ashley. Let’s see…the vine trap technique might catch her off guard…he thought.

“Hey,” said Ashley. She advanced closer to him slowly. “Can I tell you something?”

Deon faltered. “Um…sure,” he responded.

Ashley kept getting closer. “The thing is,” she started, and then she glanced over at Miranda and Skrili’s fight, as if to make sure they weren’t looking. “I don’t actually want to fight you.”

Deon was bewildered. “You—you don’t?”

“No,” she said, now only a couple inches away from him. She smiled at him and began twirling her hair in her fingers.

The hair-twirling was a sure sign. This girl’s totally into me, Deon realized. “That’s cool, wanna just…hang out, then?” he suggested.

Ashley touched his arm and continued to gaze at him. “You should tell me about that place you’re from…what was it called?”

“Tailpiece,” he told her.

“Yeah, Tailpiece,” she repeated. “Come on!” she grabbed his hand flirtingly and led him to a fallen tree trunk. They sat down together as Deon began to share.

Skrili shook her head back and forth. The drowsiness was building, and she couldn’t shake it. As her mind grew foggier, it became even harder to keep up. By now they were both squatting on the branches of two parallel trees, high above the ground. Skrili was within jumping distance of Miranda, but she had learned her musical opponent was too speedy to be caught like that. Even still, Miranda was calmly playing her song, enjoying herself.

Stay awake…don’t doze off...Skrili kept repeating in her head.

“Do you want to hear the lyrics? It took me a while to write them, but I think I finally have them perfect,” Miranda said.

“Not really,” Skrili admitted, but Miranda began singing nonetheless. And of course, her soft voice was just as enchanting as the guitar; it made the song twice as relaxing. Skrili tried not to pay attention to the poetic words, but that didn’t help. She caught her eyes closing a couple times, and sound was starting to become distant.

Ashley laughed as Deon finished telling her a childhood memory of him and Lammy. “And that’s why nobody lets us cook anymore,” he added. Wait…what about the fight? he remembered. He was about to glance over to see how Skrili was doing.

“Do you wanna hear about my home?” Ashley said, and Deon returned his attention to her. “I’m from Ontario, which is part of Normal Country…”

Skrili couldn’t command her eyelids any longer. She couldn’t tell if she was still awake or not—all she could hear was Miranda’s song. All thoughts of strategy were out the window. Only visions of flowers and fields danced around in her head. Then, Skrili felt herself falling through the various colors around her. She seemed to be in a bottomless, flowery abyss with no worries and no pain…

THUD! Skrili’s eyes slowly opened, which confused her because she didn’t remember them closing. Everything was foggy, but she saw a tree above her…the one that she had just been in a second ago.

Then suddenly, her vision cleared and energy raged back into her as if she had been splashed with cold water. She felt a pain all along her back and head, and with it came a dark smile. It seems falling out of the tree worked out to my advantage, she observed. The impact gave me a Power Rebound.

Skrili quickly sat up, and a moment later Miranda touched onto the ground a few yards away, still playing her song. “Huh? I thought I had you for sure,” she commented. “Oh well, you’re almost there.” She continued on singing.

Skrili knew she needed to act fast. Though her Power Rebound had been activated, it was mild, and wouldn’t last long if the song could just put her back to sleep. She reached into her hair and ripped out the black elastic that held it up.

Miranda was taken off-guard—she clearly didn’t expect Skrili to be this lively again. Using this stalled moment as an opportunity, Skrili stretched her elastic and aimed it at her target: the soundhole on the guitar. It shot straight ahead and a loud THWACK!!! resounded as it made impact. Four of the strings snapped off, and Skrili’s elastic bounced onto the ground.

Deon heard the THWACK, which sounded like someone being whipped with a wet towel. He looked over speedily to see Miranda standing still across the battleground with Skrili sitting not far from her. Then Ashley abruptly touched his shoulder.

“Have you ever been to anywhere in Normal Country?” she asked quickly.

Deon looked back at her, surprised to find her sitting even closer to him. “Uh…no…” he said. Despite his urge to find out what happened, he still found himself unable to look away from her face. Her eyes were…alluring…

Skrili felt her Power Rebound begin to fade. She sat, waiting to see how Miranda would react.

Miranda’s cheeks had gone rosy. She blinked once, then twice in disbelief. Then finally, tears began to fall. She put her face in her hands and cried softly. “That was the last pack of strings I had,” her muffled voice explained. “Now I can’t do anything…”

“Oh…I’m sorry,” Skrili said uncomfortably, realizing maybe that attack was a bit harsh. But hurt feelings would have to be dealt with later; she defeated her opponent, so it was time to help Deon finish the fight. She jumped to her feet, grabbed her elastic, and braced for more battle. My Power-Rebound may be gone now, she thought, but two on one should be enough to—WHAT THE HECK IS HE DOING?!?!?!?!?!?!

At the other end of the battlefield, Deon was sitting with Ashley and chatting it up. He had a stupid smile on his face, and she was gawking at him and giggling.

“Do I have to do everything?” Skrili moaned hopelessly.

Meanwhile, Deon playfully explained to Ashley how he had never dated a girl outside of Tailpiece before. “I’m dead serious! I’ve never left the place until now!”

“Wow, that’s insane!” Ashley exclaimed. “Well…would you…date someone from Normal Country?”

Deon smiled. Deon, you sly fox—I knew you still had it in you! he told himself.

Ashley hastily leaned towards him, seemingly in a hurry. “New question: have you ever kissed someone outside of Tailpiece before?” she asked rapidly.

“Wait—what?”

Then two rather unexpected things happened: first, Ashley grabbed Deon’s face and pulled it closer to hers, but then out of nowhere someone’s hand whacked Ashley right across the head. Ashley swiftly fell over and landed face-first on the ground, with her legs dangling in the air.

Startled, Deon saw Skrili standing above them. She crossed her arms in closure.

“WHY WOULD YOU DO THAT?!?!” Deon demanded angrily.

His anger overtook Skrili. “Because you were too much of a FOOL to do it yourself!” she argued.

“But we decided not to fight and were hitting it off!!” Deon screamed.

“Owwww…” Ashley groaned from the ground.

Skrili sighed. Her anger was replaced with sheer impatience and embarrassment for him. “You weren’t ‘hitting it off’, you dummy. Ashley was trying to hypnotize you…and it was working. Once she kissed you, you would’ve been completely under her spell,” she explained. “She’s a Hypnotizer type—they both are.”

Deon’s face flushed. He hated realizing he had been deceived in such a humiliating way. “Well…that may be true, but I still think she’s at least a little into me,” he declared, scraping up whatever pride he had left.

“Not really…” Ashley mumbled from the ground.

Deon hung his head in shame as Skrili let out a chuckle.

Miranda joined them solemnly, holding her broken-stringed guitar. It was as if a raincloud was floating above her, proclaiming her sadness to everyone around. “Congrats on the win…” she sniffed.

“Thanks,” said Skrili, sounding a little apologetic. Deon sat up straight again but said nothing, knowing he made absolutely no contribution to their victory.

“Well a deal’s a deal,” Ashley told them. She had rolled onto her back to see everyone, but was massaging her injured head with one hand. “I’ll tell you which way that girl and her teammate went…But since I’m impressed you managed to figure us out and beat both of us, Skrili, I’ll give you some advice on fighting them.”

“That’s a good idea,” Miranda added between tears. “You’re gonna need any advantage you can get. We’ve never fought anyone like them before…”

“Ooh, sounds exciting. I’m up to the challenge!” Deon exclaimed.

“We were talking to Skrili, lover-boy.”

“Alright, geez…”