Hawk Moth

Le Papillion The Butterfly.

both

"Girl!" Alya cornered me after Literature. "What on earth was that?!" She shook my shoulders rapidly.

"What was what?" I asked blatantly. Alya gave me a look which made me remember what you're talking about. "Oh....that,"

"Yeah, that," Alya rolled her eyes. "I need details, stat!" She put an arm on Marinette's shoulder as they headed for lunch.

"Well, Adrien texted me yesterday and asked me if I wanted to meet at his place. I said yes. We were coming up with ideas when I suggested a fairytale. He wanted to do a twist," I explained.

Alya nodded for me to go on. "We rehearsed until the part where he fell on top of me. Then he asked me if I wanted to kiss,"

Alya's eyes widened and a high pitch scream erupted from her throat. "Wait, he's the one who suggested it?"

"Of course it was him Alya," I told her. "You would expect me, the world's most awkward person, to go up to him and be like 'Hey, Adrien. I was wondering, do you want to kiss?"

"By the way, that is true," Alya nodded in agreement. We decided to eat lunch at the mall. It wasn't very far from here and we were in the mood of fast food.

"But nonetheless, you two kissed!" Alya was grinning from ear to ear. "And everyone saw it,"

"It was only a three second kiss," I said. Alya raised an eyebrow. "Uh...not that I was counting. It was too short for me to feel it,"

"But it happened," Alya kept on pointing it out. "You should have seen the look on Chloé's face. She looked very envious,"

"Unfortunately, that is only a one-time thing," I sighed in sadness. Good things don't last forever.

"Don't worry, girl," Alya rubbed her arm around my back. "I ship #Adrienette. I might actually make a blog dedicated to both of you," Alya winked.

I opened my mouth to reply to what Alya had just said when I saw a car flying towards us. Wait a minute - cars don't fly.

"Alya!" I yelled and pushed her out of the way. I shielded my arms and braced myself from the impact.

Nothing hit me. I looked up to see my knight in shining armour, swinging his staff while his tail swung left and right. Well, my kitty in shining armour.

How does he always show up before I do?

"Don't worry, little lady," The black cat twirled his staff around before setting it down. "Chat Noir is always ready to lose a life just to save damsels,like you, in distress," He winked.

As usual, I would roll my eyes like I would when Chat Noir flirts with me. Then I remembered that right now, I was Marinette and not Ladybug.

"How brave of you," I pretended to swoon over him like all the other girls.

"I believe we've met before," Chat Noir held my hands, got down on one knee and kissed them both.

"Yes. I believe we have," I pulled my hands away. "You saved me from the Evillustrator, right?"

"Correct," Chat Noir stood up. The sound of an explosion happened came from north-west of where we were standing. "I would love to chit chat, but this chat has to scram," He saluted to me before he left.

"Always with the puns," I muttered to myself. I was just about to transform when I saw Alya headed at the same direction as Chat Noir.

"Where are you going?" I asked. I wanted to follow her, but I needed to tranform into Ladybug.

"Where Chat Noir is, Ladybug will most likely be there. I don't want to miss a second of the action that's going to go down there," She stopped running to face me. "Are you coming?"

"Yeah. I'll catch up. Let me go to the bathrooms first," I waved her off. She nodded and took off, following Chat Noir.

I hid behind a mailbox and unzipped my bag.

"I am so tired. When will Hawk Moth ever give up?" Tikki groaned. "I think Ladybug needs a vacation,"

"I'm sorry Tikki. I understand you," I dug around my bag to look for something sweet. I found my stash of chocolate chip cookies. "Maybe a cookie could help boost your energy levels,"

"It will, but I can't keep relying on sugar to boost me," Tikki took a few bites of the chocolate chip cookie and licked her fingers of the chocolate that was there.

"Tikki, transform me!" I instructed. Tikki flew into my earrings. After about 10 seconds, I was no longer Marinette, but I was Miraculous Ladybug - the famous Parisian superhero.

Now I could follow in Alya and Chat Noir's footsteps. There was this lady who was fighting Chat Noir, but what struck me as odd was how she looked like. She didn't look at all human - she looked so animated.

She was dressed as a cowboy - cowgirl - whatever. She had a black cowboy hat, black leather, a long red-and-black plad shirt (which she had rolled up the sleeves to her elbows), and she wore overalls over that.

She had yellow skin, almost as yellow as the sun. And her hair, her hair was fiery red.

I scanned around for her weapon.

"The akuma is in her bandana," Chat Noir mysteriously appeared by my side.

"Thanks. Sorry I'm late," I apologized. "What's her back story?"

The lady put her fingers to her temples and she closed her eyes. Her eyebrows knitted and large sort of sound waves, came towards us.

Both Chat Noir and I leaped in opposite directions. Then the lady started spinning round. Duplicates of herself began to appear, looking very angry at us.

"She had some kids TV show and it got terrible ratings so it got cancelled," Chat Noir explained.

I threw my yo-yo to one of the duplicates. The string wrapped around her. Then with all my might, I began to spin around and use the duplicate that I captured to hit other duplicates.

Chat Noir saw a couple of duplicates approach him in a circle. He took the pleasure of knocking each and every one of them senseless.

All of a sudden, I felt something pull me back. Using all the strength that I got from the breakfast I ate this morning, I set my feet down and tried to walk away.

This proved to be unhelpful. I tried to make my yo-yo attach itself to a streetlight but it was pulled back, pulling me with it.

Chat Noir was able to grab hold of my waist and set his staff down, trying to prevent either of us from moving backwards.

"Don't worry, milady," Chat Noir turned to face me. "Your Cat in shining black armour is here to save you,"

"Funny. I was thinking the same thing," I winked at him.

Chat Noir gave me a sly grin. "You think about me? And I felt bad for thinking and dreaming about you. Tell me, Bug-a-boo, do you dream about me?"

Whatever was pulling Chat Noir and I back became much stronger. "As much as I would love to flirt with you, could we first stop the akuma-tized person, then we can go somewhere else?"

"It's a date," He winked. All of a sudden, he lost grip on his staff and we were thrown backwards. The staff hit me in the face and I groaned.

"Your staff doesn't like me as much as you do," I grumbled.

"Your yo-yo hates me even more," Chat Noir rolled his eyes at my whining. "Do you know how many concussions I could have gotten because of it?"

My eyes widened when I saw the pink rays that the lady used to create her duplicates move in front of us.

Then we were sucked into a black hole. Chat Noir and I spiralled down the black hole, which looked like those things people used to hypnotize you because it was black with white rings.

We both screamed when we saw open grass and we hit the ground. Groaning, I rubbed back because I landed on it. I struggled to get myself back on my feet.

"Where am I?" As I dusted my outfit, I nearly freaked out when I saw what I was wearing. I was in a red and black dress instead of my usual jumpsuit. It reached halfway my thighs and I heard black doll shoes.

I looked around me and I saw that I wasn't on grass anymore. I was in a room. A giant room, which nearly everything was brown and leathery.

I found a full body length mirror. My earrings were still there - that was good. So was my mask. My hair was let down to my shoulders though.

I ran a hand through my blue hair and wondered where on earth I was, why I was dressed like this and where was Chat Noir.

Someone barged into my room. I turned to see Chloé. "Chloé?!" I asked, in surprise and in annoyance. What was she doing here?

"No time to talk," She grabbed my hand. "Follow me,"

I had no choice. I followed her down a spiral staircase where I saw so many people dressed up in costumes. They were all crowded at the corner of the ball room.

To say that I was confused wouldn't be enough to describe how I felt. I was so clueless.

When I hit my head on the grass, I must have hit my head and gotten a concussion or something, because I don't remember living in a palace or wearing a dress today.

Chloé pushed us through the crowd. There lay someone on a bed. Rather, not anyone. A cat. A familiar black cat. Chat Noir.

He was coughing and sweating. Suddenly, someone lifted him up. It was the same lady who sent us into this universe or dimension. Whatever.

"Hello, everyone," She announced.

"What have you done to Prince Noir?" Someone from the crowd asked. It was Kim.

Prince Noir?

"It wasn't me who did it. It was her," She pointed at me. I gasped along with everyone else.

"What do you mean? I haven't done anything!" I cried out.

"Then what are tablets of potassium cyanide doing in your hands?" She raised an eyebrow.

"Tablets of potassium cyanide in my hand?" I opened the hand which Chloé wasn't holding. To my surprise, there were actually tablets.

"What?" I asked, very confused. "I don't know why I have tablets. I don't even know if they are potassium cyanide,"

"I'm a doctor," Someone announced from the crowd. "Let me see them," He made his way to me. Everyone split into two rows as he walked.

He put on white gloves. He crushed the tablet and felt the crushed tablet between his fingers. Then he walked over to where Chat Noir was asleep and looked into his cup.

"They are a perfect match," He said after thorough examination. "She killed Prince Noir!"

Everyone began to growl at me and my eyes lit up in fear. "No. I didn't kill him. I swear. I was framed,"

"Chat Noir isn't dead," The lady announced. "Yet," She added. "The only way for him to come back to life is true love's kiss,"

"Are you kidding me?" I threw up my hands. Today might just be known as Kissing Day or something. "Is this some kind of fairytale?"

"No. I just decided to make you live in a castle, made you have a ball and made Chat Noir a Prince," She replied dryly and sarcastically.

She turned to everyone else. "Prince Noir will be in that tower," She pointed to a tower that seemed far from here. "Waiting for his true love to kiss him. You have 24 hours before he dies,"

She vanished with Prince Noir. Everyone now turned to face me with their hands curled into fists. I laughed nervously before bolting to the door.

I ran as fast as I could in the direction of the tower. With every step that I took towards the tower, it seemed to be taking two steps back.

I didn't stop running until I was certain that I wasn't being chased anymore by anyone. It was unbearably hot. However, I wasn't sweating like I normally would. The bad thing was, my mind was playing tricks on me because of the heat.

My vision would go all wavy and it seemed like I was trudging through the desert. You do not know how many times I saw a mirage, ran to it, and be disappointed that it wasn't real.

About an hour later from my last mirage, I saw water. Cautiously, I approached it and prayed that it was real before I ran to it. I landed on my knees and dipped my hands in the water. I shivered due to the cold temperature. It felt good though.

I cupped my hands and drank some helpful gulps of water. Then I splashed some water on my face.

After that, I tried to see how far I was from the tower. It seemed like I hadn't moved at all, yet when I looked back at where the palace was, it was so far away.

"I need to find a quicker way to get to the tower," I mumbled to myself, washing my face again with more water.

Something began to block my throat and I started coughing. They were small, harmless coughs. The kind that you get when you're trying to clear your throat. But as I coughed, whatever was blocking my throat began to bigger, so my coughing wasn't assisting it.

My hands clutched onto my throat as my back hit the may-green grass. Dots of black started to appear in my vision.

Oh no. I can't be dying. Not again.

How can a person nearly die but narrowly survive, only for them to be dying on the next day?

I tried to fight it - as ridiculous as it sounded. Me trying to fight death. It's like you being woken up in the morning and told to fight sleep. That's one tough fight.

My eyelids couldn't handle the weight, so they shut.

_____________________________________________________

Something was tickling me.

And it was an expected reaction for me to giggle. I think being ticklish is a curse that I am to live with for every day of my life.

As I giggled, it felt like the air punched the daylights out of me. I began to pant heavily. Followed by terrible wheezing. And finally, I began to gasp for air and breathe harder.

Slowly, I opened my eyes. I wanted to be at home. I expected to be on my bed and my mother or father or both my parents are trying to wake me up.

To my surprise, it was a gazelle. It was licking my face.

"Good you're awake," The gazelle said, walking away.

I sat up. The gazelle said? Okay. It's official that the heat has messed with my mind until I'm getting hallucinations.

"You're not hallucinating," The gazelle turned to me. And as if predicting my next question, she said "I can read minds,"

"Oh," Was all I could say. I was at a loss of words, to be honest.

"I can help you get to the tower, if you want," The gazelle eyed me cautiously, as if experimenting something.

"That would be amazing!" I laughed nervously, but I frowned. "But why would you help me? Everyone believes that I poisoned him with potassium cyanide,"

"You seem desperate," She said. "It's not because I feel it in my bones. That's too cliché, even though this is a fairytale and all,"

I nodded. "One more question. What was in that water?" I pointed to the river where I drank from.

"That's a poisoned river," She turned to it. "You should have checked if animals were drinking from it before you started drinking it,"

"Did the poison do anything to my face?" I felt my face in horror. "And why am I still alive?" A thought entered my mind. "Again,"

I have escaped death twice. That's not luck. It can't be luck. That's a miracle and I am so grateful.

"You ask a lot of questions," She shook her head. "Get on me,"

I blinked. "What?"

"Look, we don't have much time left. You still need to defeat the empress for you to reach Prince Noir," The gazelle moved towards me.

"Okay," I said, taking steady breaths before I climbed on the beautiful brown gazelle.

Without any warning, she took off. My clumsiness kicked in because I nearly fell off. I had to hold her neck for me to stay on.

The gazelle galloped through the fields of grass. I felt like I was a knight, coming to save my princess.

A chuckle escaped my lips. Chat Noir wearing a pretty pink dress with blonde hair and pink wedges seemed very amusing to me. Also his claws getting a manicure.

"You like him, don't you?" The gazelle asked in between breaths.

My eyes widened. "Me? Like him? Sure, I like him as a partner, but more than that?" I tried to think of an answer. "I'm really not so sure,"

The gazelle didn't reply. After a few minutes, she came to a halt. "This is as far as I can take you. You must continue alone,"

"Thanks," I said. I felt like I was undertaking a quest. It felt exciting, yet scary at the same time.

The gazelle gave me a nod before taking off the opposite direction I was going.

The tower seemed to touch the sky. There were dark clouds which seemed to hover the tip of the tower. The tower built with bricks which some had cracks. Creepers weaved in and out the tower. A moat surrounded the tower, but there was a bridge to cross it to get to the tower.

I slowly walked through the bridge because every step I took shook the whole bridge and made some weird sound, as if it was going to break some time soon.

I made it to the other side successfully. The tower's door had already flung open. Insects were crawling on it, as well as weaving in and out of the walls.

I shuddered. I began to climb the long flight of spiral stairs. I started step by step. Soon, I was climbing two at a time because I realized that it would be much faster.

The windows at the side of the tower were the only source of light. They also indicated how high I had gone.

The sun had gone down and the sky was dark. The sun was replaced with the bright moonlight, coming from the full moon.

At the top, there was a door. I swallowed hard as I opened the door. There lay my princess, on the bed.

I felt my waist for my yo-yo.

The gazelle mentioned something about defeating an empress. I don't think she was lying.

I saw a mirror and decided to look at myself. My face wasn't covered in warts or boils or anything. I sighed with relief. That's one good thing that has happened to me ever since I got to this crazy, fictitious world.

Maybe it was because the gazelle had licked my face. She was licking me before I got up.