And Here it is! (Partially)

We finally finished putting together the special chapter! Aedan and I thought we would divide up the chapter because if we showed it to you all at once, it would be a very long blog post. We kinda did it similarly to the episode Tales of Ba Sing Se from Avatar: The Last Airbender, but we called it Tales in Marleybone. The I'm just showing you the first two right now, because like I said, it would be a VERY long blog post. These two are both by me; one is sort of the epilogue from the last chapter, The Bed of Ice, and the second one is a story I'm dedicating to Valerian Seasong :D

Prequel: Melting Fear

By Caroline Dawnrunner

    I trembled, feeling suddenly cold all over. I felt a warm, reassuring hand on my shoulder. I turned around and I saw Rebecca’s faceless expression staring at the bed.

    “What happened?” I asked shakily.

    “Well, uh, you started whispering, ‘ehh, go away’, and then you started shivering and turning over. Then my elbow got really cold, and I, uh, realized the bed was turning to ice. So I unstuck you from the sheets and bed (which were all turning to ice) and I got you in the kitchen to get warm. I, uh, also started breathing on you, does that bother you? Naw, it doesn’t bother you, I can tell.”

    “Oh my gosh, really?” I muttered.

    “Uh, yeah,” Rebecca replied. “Listen, you, uh, should get some sleep. You probably shouldn’t sleep on the bed; sleep on the floor. You can have my sleeping bag if you like.”

    I thanked Rebecca and crawled inside the sleeping bag.

    I woke up a bit later with my head feeling cold and wet. I looked up behind be and saw that the black ice on the bed had melted. I looked back down at my sleeping bag-covered body. I pulled the cover closer to me, but I still didn’t feel safe.

Part 1: Meowiarty, the Crime Boss

    “You ready?”

    Valerian Seasong stared at me hard.

    “Yeah,” I said quickly.

    I stared up at the sign Big Ben. It stared back at me, as though repeating Valerian’s question. I looked now at the 1700’s style elevator with the intricate designs on it. Taking a deep breath, I stepped into the gauntlet and started the countdown. I heard Valerian join behind me. 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1—in.

    Ding!

    The elevator stopped at the first floor. The doors opened and the two of us scrambled outside, but only to be attacked by rats! We leaped into combat with the first challenge in the tower. Luckily our turn was first. Whew.

    I casted a Myth Blade on myself and Valerian used a Fire Blade. Then the rats used those things I really, really hate—Weakness. Awful spell. They casted both on me. That wasn’t a good start. I rifled through my deck, looking for my wand attacks. There! Super Clash. I used it on the next turn I had. One of my weaknesses was gone. Valerian used a trap. One rat used a blood bat. Very injurious. The second one passed.

    Third turn I used my second wand attack, ridding me of the last weakness. Valerian used a Kraken on one of the rats, making the rat fall over on its feet and fade away. The remaining rat passed again. The next round started and I got a power pip. Yes! I casted the Minotaur spell on the last rat, ending the fight.

    “Meowiarty, finish them!”

    Malistaire vanished, leaving behind a puff of smoke

    “Omigod, he’s gone!” Valerian hollered.

    “He said something about a Dragon Spyre…”

    Valerian and I were on the top floor of Big Ben, which was inside the clock. You could see the cogs and the flywheels and the gears turning on the clock. In the center of the room was Meowiarty, in the flesh and proud of it. Next to him was the Agony Wraith (I think Wraiths are actually supposed to be ghosts, but natural definitions don’t work that way in the Spiral.) Next to the two was one of the constructs from Katzenstein’s Lab. All three looked like they meant serious biz.

    Valerian eyed the three nervously. “Nobody told me there would be THREE foes at the end of Big Ben! Maybe we should come back next time with a friend—”

    “C’mon, the construct doesn’t count! And we’ve come this far. Besides, do you wanna get to Mooshu right away or not?”

    Valerian grinned. “Alright. For Mooshu!”

    So we jumped into combat.

    “Caroline!” Valerian shouted over the music (annoying music I should mention—really pierces your eardrums.) “I’m gonna target Meowiarty! You get the construct!”

    Ok: He gets Meowiarty; I get the construct—no fair! I brought prisms—what if I wanted to fight Meowiarty too? He gets all the boss glory and I don’t. That’s not cool.

    So on the third round I casted a Minotaur and defeated the construct. The horned menace struck the damaging blow on the thing and then it started bobbling its head around, just like when you defeat a wizard in PvP. Not as exciting as Meowiarty falling flat on his face. Then it was Valerian’s turn, and he casted a 2k-damaging Seraph—on the Agony Wraith! How unfair is that? He gets both bosses while I only get the construct.

    So the duel went on. Valerian used all his Storm Treasure card buffs: Storm trap, Elemental trap, Stormwind… it felt boring to keep passing. Meowiarty attacked Valerian a lot, but he didn’t seem to really care. It wasn’t fair. He was all greedy for fighting the bosses and I got left in the dust. He’d been my friend for… how long?

    “Where’s the museum, where’s the museum, where’s the museum…”

    Since the week before I started Big Ben. I guess that wasn’t very long.

    “Do you need help?”

    Valerian. That’s the first time I met him.

    “Actually, yeah. Do you know where the museum is?”

   “Yeah! You can follow me.”

  Pretty much how it started. We’d gone through Marleybone side by side, from Hyde Park to the Counterweights. It kinda burned knowing that now he was being selfish when it came to beating bosses. I don’t think he knew he was being selfish either.

    Valerian casted another Storm Treasure card, but instead of it boosting him, I had a Storm Blade. Whoops. I thought he kind of deserved to make a mistake there. Then the next round came, and Meowiarty used a Minotaur on Valerian, bringing him down to 3 hp. Then he used another Treasure card—this time Elemental Blade. On me. I thought it was a coincidence that he messed up his buff a second time, but then he threw a Storm treasure card at me—Stormzilla. He wanted me to deal the damaging blow. He wasn’t so selfish!

    The next and final round began with Meowiarty. He smiled and used a Bloodbat on Valerian, dealing 75 damage. Not a lot, but Valerian was defeated. His head spun around like he was dizzy.

    So then I used the Storm Treasure card on the cat—the spotted yellow egg appeared at the center of the swirling vortex, then split appeared and unleashed the huge dinosaur. It hopped up and down a couple times, then blasted 6k damage at Meowiarty. The evil feline comically fell flat on his face, and the duel ended. I received the Mastermind badge, but Valerian didn’t. I kinda felt a little bad for thinking that he was selfish.

    “Hey Caroline?”

    Valerian was whispering to me from Regent’s Square.

    “Yeah?”

   “Sorry I died. You think we could do Big Ben again so I can go to Mooshu?”

   “Sure. That’s what friends are for.”

Oh yeah, and Aedan made this sick (in both ways) picture of one of the things you shold've been doing while you waited:

Dear God, I hope that Swiper's in there!