Chapter Seven, Everything Goes Wrong

Once they sat on the floor of Emma's bedroom again (all panting heavily because the Yearwoods do have quite a large garden), Fred and George immediately opened the scroll, just like they did back at NHH.

And the scroll wasn't happy at all.

"WHAT IN THE NAME OF LIGHT DO YOU THINK YOU FOUR WERE DOING?!" it thundered, again it was written on the blank paper. Only the writing seems to go through the paper instead of on the paper.

"Uhhhh, trying to get you back? Or not." muttered Fred shamelessly.

"GET ME BACK? LIKE THAT?! IT IS THE WORST WAY IN THE WHOLE WORLD TO DO IT! DO YOU HAVE ANY IDEA HOW MUCH PEOPLE HAD SEEN THAT? THEY THOUGHT IT WAS CRAZY! NO WHAT DO YOU PLAN TO DO, EH?!"

"No idea." answered Sophie honestly, "Were you planning to come back by yourself?"

The scroll thought about that for a while. Then it replied, "Yes. I did, I am, and I will. But also, no, I didn't, I'm not, and I won't."

"Gees, would you ever quit talking in riddles?" complained George.

The scroll chose to ignore this comment, "I have betrayed the enemy that the darkness is now, but not the friend that the darkness once were. So in the next century's time, we must behave and save it for all."

And that just led to even more confusion. But no one asked this time.

"So, wise scroll, where, when, and how are we going to find this Kingdom of Light you are speaking about? And what equipment is required?" asked Sophie. Emma mouthed "nice one" to her quietly.

"It starts from where you are, and you will have to do it yourself from now on, pack whatever you think is right, for that you do not need a lot, start wherever you want, for that that is the only way you will learn. Also, as a final tip, and I think it is a wise suggestion, watch out for spies among your group. Also, although I might not have eyes, I am not blind."

Emma's face turned pink.

"Spies? Seriously scroll? Like how on Earth are any of us going to be a spy?" said Fred in great frustration.

But Sophie had a clue on what the scroll is talking about. Ever since she had the dream of the smoke figure diving into something or someone, she had a fear that it had dived into someone she knew. And after Emma acted all weird, she started to fear that the someone was Emma. Or at least, using her body as a disguise. But after she turned normal, she started to forget the whole thing. But now… could the scroll possibly be talking about Emma?

No. She doubted herself quickly, Emma would never be that kind of person. She is kind, and how would she ever agree to such a thing as helping the dark side of the angels (also known as demons)?

But still, there is no way to know…

She quickly pushed her thoughts to the very back of her head.

"Alright, then, let's get packing." she shrugged her shoulders, "Don't bring too much though, just some food and equipment. And do it quietly. When do we meet at the front door?"

"3:30. That's the time everyone is asleep."

Everyone agreed.

~

At exactly 3:30, Emma and Sophie picked up their backpacks, checked if everything they needed was in there, and sneaked out of the front door.

Fred and George were already there. The scroll was also with them, wide open.

"Here, I found that this might be useful to you." read the words that were scribbled on it.

And below it was truly something that is useful to them.

A map to the location of the secret island.

"Wow, why didn't you show us this before?" breathed Sophie.

"Well," wrote the scroll, "I kind of wanted you to guess and worry a bit, you see, that's like the only thing I can do to keep myself laughing, inside of me, of course. Have you ever wondered what's behind this paper wall?"

"Well… no." said Sophie truthfully.

"Not very surprising." said-- I mean, wrote the scroll, "Most people just think that I am somewhat a magical scroll, which, technically, is kind of true. I can choose to talk if I wish to, but it takes quite a bit of my energy. Besides, I feel another presence among me, and I need my energy to be able to merge with it."

It took quite some time for the scroll to write all of that, either because it was trying to save on energy or whatever, and by the time it finished, it was nearly 4 o'clock, and the four companions heard some crazy wake-up-early roosters singing their morning wake-up-song already.

"Alright, now who is ready to hunt some islands?" said Fred, rubbing his hands together.

"First of all, according to the map, it seems like it will take at least a month to find the entrance to the puzzles that will end up being a clue to the entrance of the secret island. Second, we do not have a vehicle, so how are we going to get to the start of the puzzles in a week's time?" asked Sophie.

George tapped his chin. Fred tried to look thoughtful. Even Emma was trying to hide a smile.

"What's so funny?" asked Sophie, who was in total confusion.

"Well, the truth is, it is not funny, but serious, because we would be 'stealing'. Note that the word 'stealing' has quotation marks." said George.

"How could stealing ever have quotation marks?" Emma wondered out loud, "I'm just wondering, even though I do know the plan. Sort of." she added quickly.

"Well, it will be with quotation marks because we are stealing from our own family." there was something about Fred's mischievous smile that made Sophie's hair prick up.

"Still stealing." Emma pointed out.

"Yes, but we will leave a note." George waved a piece of paper, "It will explain almost everything."

"And by the meaning of 'everything'," said Sophie suspiciously, "do you mean that you are going to tell them about the rather-stupid-quest of finding the secret island?"

"And letting them catch our butts back at the very last minute?" Fred laughed, "No way in a thousand years."

"I have already got some camping supplies that I have managed to shrink so that they fit in my backpack. C'mon, I'll show you where our parents had 'secretly' rented a stable to put their horses in." said George in an unusually serious way.

"I never knew they had a secret stable rented." huffed Emma.

And so they were off, on the very first step to finding the Kingdom of Light.

The place where the Yearwood's kept their horses was at the village. It was the public staple that held around fifteen horses, all in a stable room that had either the horse name on it (public horses that are open for renting) or the owner's name on it (family horses that are resting here). Or both, if the owner feels like it.

They reached a stable with the name "Yearwoods" printed on with peeling paint. Inside was a sad looking little pony that had the tag "just bought" around the corner of its ear.

Just when Sophie was about to ask how they are going to use one horse to travel a route that supposedly takes a month, Fred jumped over the stable door, beckoned everyone else to follow, and pulled a latch hidden beneath a hay bale.

A trap door swung open.

"Interesting," murmured Emma as she descended using the rope ladder that hung from the door.

After a short tunnel, they entered a private section of the stables.

The horses that the Yearwoods own have both the name of the owner and the name of the horse (though Sophie didn't see the point of it since no one but the Yearwoods should know about this secret stables anyway). One of them, the brown one with brilliant red mane, is called Earth, and the one which has black and white polka dots is called Lamp (which Sophie didn't see the point of calling it that). Another one was pure white and literally glowed in the moonlight (which actually is starting to turn into sunlight) and was called Moonlit (suitable name). The last one, a sleek black one with white hooves and a star-like shape on its forehead, was, quite literally, called Star. Each of them was as beautiful as the great nature itself.

"Wow," breathed Sophie, "your family really does have some really cool horses, do you?"

"Yes. Maybe. Not sure." shrugged Emma, "I don't even know that we even had horses."

"Here, you take this one, Sophie." said Fred, leading the white horse, Moonlit, over to Sophie, "Also, have you ridden a horse before?"

"Um, no." Sophie felt her face grow hot, "But I'm sure it's easy to learn, right?" she added quickly, in case Fred or George (or both) started smirking.

"Here, S0phie." Emma helped Sophie on to the horse, "to make it stop, pull on the reins, to go, just squeeze the belly a tiny bit, or else you'll hurt the horse and it will probably go quick but then slower…"

Sophie's head immediately entered "spinning mode". She always had trouble memorizing things, and even though it started to improve bit by bit, it still hadn't become very good at this point. So after Emma finished her little speech, Sophie had a suspicion that she didn't even remember half of the tips.

"Ladies first." grinned Fred, as he helped his sister onto Star, while himself and George mounted Earth and Lamp. George had already left the note that "explained almost everything" in Earth's stable, and said, "Off we go then, c'mon boy, you can do this…"

"Wait," said Sophie, stopping Moonlit so suddenly the poor horse accidentally bumped his (or her) head on the stable roof, "sorry Moonlit… but Lamp is a male?"

"Yep." said Fred, somehow rather proudly, "So's Moonlit and Tony. Star's the only female"

"Could we start talking when we are on the road? We are wasting too much time on things we shouldn't be wasting time on." grumbled Emma.

"If you say so," shrugged Sophie, "but seriously, since when have you become so serious…"

They followed Fred and George through the rest of the tunnel, which slowly ascended up to the top of a hill.

This is the note that Fred and George had left for the villagers to find. The one that explained almost everything.

Hi mom (and dad):

We are off on a quest that we don't mind not telling you right now. We won't come back except for Emma.

Yes, we will take care of ourselves, don't worry.

Hope you have a nice summer,

Fred and George.

~

The next morning Sophie woke up beside the not-so-cozy campfire that also works in its own way the little team built last night, she found out that Fred and George had left camp and, according to the hoof prints Tony and Lamp left, went back to the village. Emma was still sleeping beside her though.

Oh wow, thought Sophie. For about the past two weeks they kept on saying how much fun this adventure will be and they made me and Emma promise we won't be cowards. And look who ran away at last. She gave the most quiet snort she could make. I am so going to question them about this the next time I see them.

She got up, stretched, yawned, and went off to catch some fish in the river they camped by. She sharpened a stick with a rock, to use as a spear. Then, making sure that she had spare clothes, jumped down the river. I can't believe I am making breakfast for people who are cowardly and run away, she thought to herself, emerging out of the water, but then again, maybe they won't come back…

The river was practically boiling with fish. The villagers don't usually live off it, so more fish gather in this river, making it so full of fish you can literally catch one with your bare hands. Soon Sophie had caught enough fish for two days (enough for a two-day meal of four people). She went back onshore, made another crooked campfire, made an even more crooked cooking place on top of the fire, with one cooking her wet clothes and one cooking food. While the fire cracked cheerfully and warmly, Sophie changed into dry clothes, gathered some drinkable water from the bank of the river (with mugs that can somehow grow bigger and smaller whenever you like it to), put the extra fish inside a freezer (that can also grow bigger and smaller and… you get the idea), and then went off deeper into the woods to get some sweet berries (the kind she learned that are pretty good and are not poisonous in her nature classes back in NHH).

When she came back, Emma had woken up, and was flipping the fish that was making a delicious smelling aroma. Somehow it reminded Sophie of the cookies her stepmother used to bake. If she could see me now, she would be really proud of me, thought Sophie at the thought of her stepmother.

About half an hour later, when Sophie and Emma were testing the roasted fish ("Ahh, such good fish, I should've had my eyes on them instead of the blue bird chirping." said Emma sadly, "And now we don't even know if these fish are even editable."), they heard hoof sounds. Sophie looked up.

"Fred and George?" she was amazed, "I thought you guys ran away."

It indeed was Fred and George who rode to them.

"Hey, we can't miss the fun." grinned Fred, "Just went back to get the news, just wanted to keep up a bit."

The four friends opened the newspaper. And looked at each other.

"Uh oh." they said at the same time.

They saw the headline of the front page.

"BREAKING NEWS." it read, "ONE PARTICULARLY NORMAL PIECE OF PAPER ("Seriously, do I really look that normal?" puffed the scroll, who is now opened and also looking at the newspaper) ZOOMING PAST HALF OF THE COUNTRY, MORE THAN A HUNDRED VIEWERS ARE THINKING THEY HAVE GONE CRAZY."

"You see? One tiny mistake, and they have sent policies from all over the world looking for the ones who have caused that 'accident.'" wrote the scroll angrily.

"Wait," said Emma, making the already gloomy group think of what other bad news they can get, "there's something else on the paper, "police have searched toward the direction the paper flew to, and Mrs. Yearwood has given us useful information…'

They gathered together again.

"Do you think Mrs. Yearwood could possibly betray us by telling the cops we picked up the paper?" whispered Sophie, even though there was no point of whispering now at all (but still, you might do that if you were Sophie).

"Well, it couldn't be 'betray'..." said George slowly, "... 'cause technically we didn't tell her what we were doing… but I would still call that betrayal. Sort of."

This is what they saw…

Two hundred people that live across the country have viewed an extraordinary sight of a piece of ordinary paper zooming across toward the direction of the village across half the country of the school NHH. According to the school staff, a piece of paper flew out of a dormitory and blasted a hole in the wall of the school. The staff assumed that it was the dormitory of two students, Emma Yearwood and Sophie Ellis ("Wow, we are actually in the newspaper!" exclaimed Sophie, "Even though not in the way we wanted."), who live in the village directly across the school to the northern part of the country. We assume that it was those two students who caused the paper to act like that. ¾ of the viewers think that they are going crazy, the rest believe that it is magic. We do not know how and why the two students know how to use magic or make the paper act like that, but Mrs. Lisele Yearwood, the mother of three children, Fred, George, and Emma Yearwood, gave us very useful information.

"Not just Emma," Mrs. Yearwood said, "all of my children, including Emma's friend, Sophie Ellis, who had stayed here for the summer, had gone missing in the dead of night. My husband and I are very worried about them. But on the day before we found out the children had left, I had a feeling that my children had been acting very weird indeed. They knocked me over twice that day, and zoomed past the garden so quickly I was worried, now that you mention it, they DO seem to be carrying a piece of paper. Before that I heard them saying in Emma's bedroom , sounding like 'in the name of something.' Does that ring any bells?"

The four friends didn't bother to read any further, now that they knew that about half the country's cops are going to catch them back. "It turns out that my door isn't as sound proof as I thought it is," said Emma sadly.

"Well," said Sophie, trying to hide the disappointment that she felt because her friends didn't even think of another sound-proof way that is safer than Emma's door, "now that about half the country's police is after us, we will have to travel quicker and in safer, more secret places, like in forests and mountains and places like that. Not in public." she added quickly in case the twins will catch that bit (if she didn't say "not in public") and go into public forests and hiking points. You get the idea why.

She also realized that the newspaper didn't mention the stolen horses they had.

"Yeah, and it seems like that will take us another month-- wait, make that another two weeks, to get to the starting point of the puzzles, and plus the last two weeks we'll need to use if we were in public, that will take us, ooh, how interesting, exactly four weeks, about a total month. Great job guys, really great job." sighed Fred, "Really couldn't do any better."

You see, they are barely out of the village, and everything has already gone wrong.