Miraculous: Tales of the Unknown (12 page)

“Well?” I say once the
silence gets to me. “What do you mean no planet is
safe?”

“I-”

“We can’t tell her,”
Purple cuts the blue one off.

“Why not?” I
interject.

“We just can’t,” she says,
shooting me a glare. “At least, not until we know you’re on our
side.”

“What would that have to
do with anything?” I respond, rolling my eyes. “What’s so bad that
you can’t tell me? It’s not like I’m an outsider. I’m your only
chance, right? So why not tell me?”

“She has a point,” Green
says. “She needs to know everything.”

“I disagree.”

“Our planet was
destroyed,” Blue tells me solemnly.

“Destroyed?” This was
bizarre. How could that happen?

“Yes. Some of our weapons
went off and we had to flee.”

“You have got to be
kidding me.”

“What?”

“That’s no reason to take
over this planet,” I inform them. “So what if yours is destroyed?
Find a different planet then this one.”

“Fires also broke out,”
Green adds, fueling my anger. “We couldn’t stop it so we had to
leave immediately.”

I wait for them to go on,
but when they don’t, I sigh. “You can’t be serious.”

“We most certainly are,”
Purple answers me.

“You’d rather kill off
everyone else then? You could destroy this world too, and then
what? You’ll have nowhere to go, right? I don’t see the
point.”

“You’re the only one that
can do this,” Blue replies.

“I don’t get why
me.”

“I don’t know. All I know
is that it’s true.”

Wonderful. I’m expected to
kill off everyone I know and love. Even those I don’t know, I have
to just heartlessly end their lives. Me. This is truly
stupid.

“You don’t have a
choice.”

The blue creature gazes
into my eyes, his own red ones glimmering with hope. Anticipation.
They’re really counting on me.

“She’s so stubborn.” The
purple one shakes her scaly head, clenching her claws on her hips.
“We can’t get nowhere like this. We have to make her.”

“We can’t make her do
anything she doesn’t want to,” Green snaps, a growl threatening to
explode. “You’ll do nothing but make her want to even less and
less.”

“Oh please. That’s the
only way we’ll get anything from her.”

“I never said I wouldn’t,”
I suddenly interject.

They jump in surprise,
turning to stare at me. I shrug as if it’s no big deal, even though
it is. What’s wrong with me?

“You wouldn’t,” Purple
says at last. “You keep saying you won’t.”

“Yes, but I never ever
said I wouldn’t. I’m sorry, but I don’t think it’s right. But I
guess if you’re not leaving my planet then I’ll help.”

That’s too far.

I bit the inside of my
lip, forcing my hands to stay still. I make eye contact with each
of them. My words rings in my ears, knowing full well they have
some effect on the creatures. They had to have. But the monsters
isn’t showing me anything-they’re as still as a statue, staring at
me as if it was the first time they saw me. Their eyes are wide,
mouths slightly open. It was comical, really, but I don’t say
anything. I don’t move. If I do then the spell might break-this
moment may be ruined.

The moment stretches on,
longer and longer. The quietness was beginning to get to me,
driving me insane, but I wait for them to speak. I wait for them to
do something. But when they don’t, I take a step back, my eyes
never leaving them. Then the black belt jerks to a stop and I
stumble, but the blue one reaches out to steady me. I nod at him
slightly, shooting him a small smile.

“Well then,” he says, his
body language stiff. “That’s that. You’ll have to go to training
right away.”

“What?
” I exclaim. “Right now?”

“We can’t waste any more
time, Chosen One.”

“I haven’t seen everything
though,” I protest.

“You will later on, I
promise. But for right now, we need to get you ready to go to
battle.”

“Battle? You never told me
any of this.”

“Didn’t we? Oh, my bad.
Well, yes, of course. Though we’ve been working on a button that’ll
destroy everything that’s connected to it in some way.”

“What do you mean?” My
throat begins to tighten and it gets hard for me to swallow or
breathe.

“Every house will be
connected to it either through TV, computer, or anything else like
that. It’ll be easy to wipe the world clean of them.”

My mouth fell open at
this. He has to be kidding me, right? Just one push of a button,
and the entire world dies? At my expense? That’s cruel. Really
cruel.

“We don’t have time for
any more questions. We have to get you trained.”

“Yes, sir,” I whisper
helplessly. All I could see were millions of people dying,
screaming for each other, smoke choking them. Fire collapsing their
houses, flames licking anything in its path. Everything ever known,
gone. And all at a push of a button.

This is crazy.
What could I do to stop it?

Nothing,
a voice murmurs.
There
is nothing. The human race will be wiped off this planet, not to be
seen again. And you’re the cause. Yet, that’s all you can do. You
can’t stop yourself.

Wasn’t there?

Isn’t there always a way
to stop something like this from happening? I don’t know how these
creatures work, but I hope they can make a mistake. I hope I can
reverse this.

We go down several long
hallways, deeper and deeper into the massive lab, moving
stealthily. I’m ushered past several doors, through large rooms,
until finally the blue one grabs me and stops.

“Here we are,” he tells
me. “Now, let’s make you unimaginable.”

If all I’m going to do is
push a button then I don’t really understand why I have to learn
anything, but I do as they say. Soon, it feels like a dance,
growing more and more complicated as we continue. I imagine I’m in
my room, my music cranked, singing at the top of my lungs as I move
about, swaying, jumping, twirling while a smile splits my face. I
imagine I’m a famous dancer, doing a complicated dance to keep the
audience guessing, to keep them engrossed. I find myself enjoying
our training session, and it doesn’t matter when the minutes turn
to hours. I’m still light on my feet, still able to keep going. I’m
doing my dream.

I always wanted to become
a professional dancer, but now it seems that isn’t going to happen.
Not with this latest development-or my change. I’m now a monster.
My sickly green skin proves just that. I may not truly look like
one, but I am.

“Done!” Blue exclaims, his
eyes shining.

I stop what I was doing
abruptly, the room spinning in circles and I close my eyes tightly
shut. I’m breathless and dizzy from my training, but I don’t want
it any other way. I honestly had a blast.

“You did amazing!” Green
calls to me, a smile turning his lips upwards.

“You really were perfect,”
Purple adds. “Now I see why you were picked.”

Their praise makes pride
swell up within me. I smile at them, my skin slick with sweat. It
was a workout, but I don’t want it any other way. For once, I was
living my dream-despite it being in my head. But I was dancing.
And, as the creatures says, perfect. I have a feeling I was glowing
from this workout.

“I think you’re ready,”
Blue says, coming over to me.

“Really?” My emotions
bubbles out then, and I’m unable to catch and hold any of them.
They are slowly slipping out of my reach.

“Yes,” he informs me.
“Let’s get you to the spot. Follow me.”

I do as he asks, hearing
the other two follow us as well. I can’t decipher my emotions. I
can’t grab on to one and keep it close to me. No matter how much I
want to, I can’t. I sigh as we come to a huge machine. It has
buttons of all kinds on it, beeping and flashing.

“That red one,” Blue says,
nodding at a button that’s separate from the others. “That should
end it all.”

“Great,” I
mutter.

“Indeed. Why don’t you go
ahead and push it?”

“Umm…can I do it by
myself?” I ask hesitantly.

“Of course.”

He gestures to the other
two, who doesn’t look too happy about this, and they leave without
another word, which was shocking. Once I’m alone in the room, I
begin to fiddle with the wires that hooks to the red button,
removing and replacing, hoping I’m doing something good, that I’m
not messing up big time. After several minutes, I stop and lean
back, staring at my work. None of the cords are where they were
before; they all have been moved to a new location. I smile to
myself, glancing around, taking in the metal walls and
floor.

I bit my lip as I watch
the red light flash on and off. I sit there for a few moments,
unable to do anything but stare. I don’t know what I just did-or if
it’ll help anything. Though, I do know I have to find out before
they come back, wondering what’s taking me so long. So I shakily
stand up and walk over to the machine. I then gently press a few of
my fingers against the cool button, waiting for a split second
before pressing it in.

For a minute nothing
happens, but then the machine explodes. A small scream tears out of
me as I’m engulfed in a warm glow. It becomes harder to breathe,
and I claw at my throat, but nothing is there. Sparks rains down
all around, fire trapping me. I let my eyes slide close and, just
like that, I feel my soul begin to lift from my body, soaring
through the air, leaving me. I feel myself begin to fade into
nothingness, slipping into darkness.

The Tale of Brown
Mist

By: S.Cu ‘Anam
Policar

© 2013 by S.Cu ‘Anam
Policar

Chapter One

My wings are tired. I feel
as though I have been flying forever. Many moons have risen and
fallen but I cannot allow myself to stop. Not while Master is
missing. It was unlike him to be gone for any amount of time and
already I miss the feel of the fabric of his robes beneath my
talons.

As if instinctual, I feel
my talons curl before relaxing. I falter, my wings miss a break in
the current. I need to rest or I would die before finding him.
Spying a field mouse trying in vain to outrun my wings, I quickly
dive and pluck the morsel out of the grass, nearly killing myself
as I roll and tumble into a tree. Yes, I need to rest, flying in
this condition would do neither of us any good at all.

After fumbling to my foot,
my other still clutching the field mouse, I hop a couple of times
as I pump my weary wings. I barely catch the current and let it
carry me as far as a high branch upon the tree I had fallen into.
My left foot clutches the limb for dear life as my right raises the
trembling snack to my beak.

“
Wait. Please don’t eat
me!” The little grey mouse squeaks much to my astonishment. My
snacks normally did not talk, Perhaps I was much more tired than I
imagined I was.

“
You are food. I am
hungry. It makes perfect sense for me to eat you.” Is my reply as I
once again lift my leg to put the mouse in my beak.

“
I’m scrawny. Not much of
a meal here. Surely you want something with a bit more meat.” The
little mouse says. Truly I am growing even more tired, if that is
even possible, while listening to this little mouse try to con me
out of eating it.

“
Be that as it may, I am
hungry and far too tired to hunt for anything better. You will just
have to do mouse.” I point out.

“
Squeaks!” The mouse
squeaks.

I tilt my head. “Excuse
me?”

“
Squeaks. My name is
Squeaks.” The mouse says in what sounds like little more to me than
one unintelligible word.

“
So?” I ask perplexed as
to why this mouse is trying to tell me its life story when all I
want is to make it a midnight snack.

“
Weren’t you ever taught
not to kill something that has a name? I’m Squeaks.” The mouse
points out the bane to all predatory creatures. I force my talons
to uncurl from around the mouse’s body and sigh.

“
It would have been better
for me if you had not told me your name you know. Run along now.” I
say as I gently push the mouse toward the trunk of the
tree.

“
I have nowhere to go. I
was actually out looking for a place to nest for the night when you
found me. What’s your name?” The mouse rambles much to my
disdain.

“
Does it matter what my
name is?” I ask.

The mouse nods. “Yes. I’d
like us to be friends.”

I look at the mouse as
those a few extra heads had sprouted from its tiny shoulders. “A
mouse..Friends with an owl? It is no wonder that you have no home.
The other mice must think you are completely out of your mind. My
name is Brown Mist.” I do not know why I tell Squeaks my name. I
must be a lot more tired than I had originally thought I was, but I
had and so now he knew it.