Chapter Thirteen ~ Out of My Mind

AWC and Paolo the foreigner snow leopard strolled down a path less traveled by in the Heavenly Forest, on a bright sunshiney day. They were off to visit Mary-Anne Maneater, whom they were pretty sure was stuck in a tree and being attacked by rogue caterpillars. Naturally, before they could visit, they would have to find and possibly rescue her, so both were heavily armed. Paolo with his claws, fang, and waterbending abilities, and AWC with her shadow's hatchet.

"You know what I was wondering," AWC mentioned after a while of hiking through dense woodland, "was, whatever happened to us at the end of chapter twelve?"

Paolo shrugged. It's not easy to tell when a snow leopard shrugs, but it's not impossible. There's a slink of the shoulders at a different angle than what is generally customary to the species. "No one ever found out because of the unreliable narrator."

"Oh."

They continued onward, until they came to a clearing with a small shiny pond. They sat on two large boulders and investigated what was inside their lunch bags, packed by, well, neither could remember whom.

"Yes!" AWC exclaimed, "Fajitas! Aie!"

"Ramen!" Paolo growled in a satisfied manner. "Sooo good."

"Don't leopards generally enjoy large hunks of raw flesh?" AWC asked, biting into a cheesy fajita.

"Duh. I'm a snow leopard. It's totally different."

"Got it." AWC said with a nod.

"Salutations."

AWC and Paolo watched as the Tome of Superiority began climbing with great care down one of the taller trees of the forest, which was situated about ten feet away from where they sat. It flapped its covers and flew over to sit with them.

"Hi book." AWC looked up briefly and then went back to her lunch.

"Grr," Paolo commented in a friendly way.

"Same to you," the Tome of Superiority said, "and thank you most graciously for the compliment. It seems like a rather quiet day for a mind forest."

"That it is," AWC said solemnly. "Not much has happened since the narrator got ill. She got writers'blockpoxmonia."

"How horrid. Although you'll never guess what I saw when I was in that tree."

"Oh! I know! Tokio Hotel!" AWC shouted.
"No, I've got it! You saw pink elephants on parade!" Paolo exclaimed.
"Wait, no, Luciano Pavoratti!"
"Avatar the last airbender?"
"Prince Edward Island. Coming this way. Am I right?"
"Beanie babies on strike."
"Hordes of rabid monkeys?"
"Psychology today?"
"Cats the musical!"

"Actually no," the Tome of Superiority said. "Although those are very good guesses."

AWC sat there on her rock looking disappointed. Paolo didn't really seem to care very much.

"Ok, ok. If you insist, I'll tell you." The Tome of Superiority cleared his bookish throat. "I saw a giraffe. Which is funny. Because giraffes don't make their habitats in woodlands like these."

"Why, that is odd. I wonder why a giraffe would choose to come to the mind forest. I thought they preffered jungles." AWC scratched her head.

"Giraffes don't live in jungles!" Paolo said, "they live on savannahs or some places like that."

"I think we've got a bigger problem than that though," the Tome of Superiority said with a sigh of boredom. "You were kind of right about the hordes of rabid beasts. These are dogs though. Oh. And they're headed this way. Quickly too."

"Ack! It's running time!" AWC shoved her brown paper lunch bag into the infinite pocket of her hoodie. "Time to run guys!!!"

They made sure to conserve the environment by cleaning their area, like good campers, and then proceeded to calmly run for their lives.

"You've got your hatchet, right?" Paolo yelled out as they ran. "Maybe we could fend them off if it came to it!"

"It's really really hard to fend off infectious disease with a hatchet!" AWC shouted back.

"Oh! Right!" Paolo said.

The Tome of Superiority flew alongside them in its odd hoverry way, making whirring sounds as its pages flipped.

The dogs were right on their tails. Well, they were on Paolo's tail. The Tome of Superiority had no tail. AWC had no tail most of the time, like today. They fled faster than they had ever fled from anything ever in their lives.

Suddenly, the random giraffe strode out directly in front of their paths. AWC and Paolo had no time to stop, but they managed to safely run under the giraffe, who stood very high off the ground. Being a giraffe and all. The Tome of Superiority, however, was not running on the ground but flying in the air, so he unfortunately collided with the yellow and brown spotted beastie and fell to the forest floor in a daze.

"No!" AWC exclaimed, once they realized what happened, "Book!"

Paolo and AWC skidded to a stop, turned 180 degrees, and ran back towards the giraffe.

The dogs had all stopped about seven meters away from the strange nonwoodland creature, and were staring in wide eyed fascination. The Tome was picking itself off the forest floor and was trying to hover. Paolo and AWC raced over, each grabbing one of the Tome's covers, and then running to the nearby bushes where they could hide and watch.

The dogs were beginning to snarl with suspicion.

"I wonder if the silver dog is there," AWC whispered. "Look at poor book! His facts aren't straight!"

"My facts..." the book coughed. "Are as straight... as a coathanger... plenny straight... mleh... you'll never meet straighter facts..."

"Who founded the Heavenly Forest?" AWC asked.

"That giraffe over there... isn't it obvious?"

AWC slapped her forehead. "I don't know if he'll ever be the same again."

"Relax," Paolo said. "He's just dizzy. Woah! Look!"

The giraffe had not moved. It was simply staring there, examining the rabid dogs in a curious manner. "No, I don't really get it," the giraffe said. "Why are you here?"

"We should be asking you!" Yelled a particularly grouchy female.

"Yeah, this is a forest!" Exclaimed another dog. "Not a freakin' savanner."

"Why do you have rabies?" The giraffe asked. "It makes no sense. How should so many dogs get rabies when the rest of the forest is perfectly normal?"

"It's because we're stupid and codependent!" Said one dog. "Obviously. What, are you stupid or something?"

The giraffe blinked. To the relief of AWC and Paolo, the Tome reawakened from his stupor with this statement.

"HAH!" He exclaimed, stumbling out of the bushes. "Stupid and codependant beasts! I pity thee for thy ignorance! Hah! And to think I ran from your foolishness. For fools you are, truthfully, as I live and breathe!"

"Still got your hatchet?" Paolo asked nervously.

"Yeah, why?"

"Well, if they all decide to inrabiate him, we can put him out of his misery way easier with that."

"You know? Sometimes I'm just sitting there, kind of like I am now, and I realize that we're all doomed to die. And one of these days I'm going to find out what death feels like." AWC said with a frown.

Narrator: Hah hah hah... no... I swear I'm not drunk. I can DRIVE. Come ON. Gimme my keys. Gimme my keys. That's a good buddy. Yeah. No! Come on! My Keys, man! Ugh! You. And your sister. I hate you. Oh yeah. But readers. Just a thought, here, don't get scared or nothin, but wouldn't it be tooootally rock on if I ended chapter thirteen right there? Heh... *hic*... heh... heh heh heh...

The wolves were tired of being patronized so they turned around and ran away. They didn't really want to deal with a rabid giraffe, because a crazy giraffe could stomp the lot of them to little bits, and they weren't sure if tomes of superiority could even get rabies.

"My name's AWC." AWC said. "This is Paolo the foreigner snowleopard. He used to be a mexican (Italian? Discuss) but then he got turned into a big cat instead. I'm an anonymous writer character. And this is Book."

"The Tome of Superiority!" The Tome specified.

"That's kool." Said the giraffe. "I'm Moe. I'm a giraffe. I rock."

"Awesome," AWC said. A loud beep came from one of her infinite pockets. "Oh. I think Sally wants to meet the newcomer too."

Sally crawled out of AWC's pocket and fell heavily to the forest ground. "Ouch!" She complained. "Hey! You're tall!" She stared up in wonder at the giraffe. "I'm sure I've got a song somewhere about tall people..."

"Is it just me," the Tome asked Paolo quietly, "or is this forest getting rather crowded?"

"We should complain to the narrator..." Paolo said.

Narrator: Heh. Heh... heh... *hic*... wouldn't it be so radically awesome if I just, like, heh, ended the chapter here?

Chapter Twelve ~ My religion says my senior write up cannot be a mere 400 characters. It's a longwinded religion.

"So, how about the red sox?"

It was dark, in the darkest part of the dark heavenly forest at midnight. Loretta the Dragon Lady, Paolo the Foreigner-Snow leopard, Mary-Anne the Maneater, and AWC were all sitting around a campfire, discussing their bad lives.

"Good love himself, that team is overdramatic." Loretta said.

"True that." Paolo said.

AWC was quietly poking the fire with a stick. She watched it catch fire, then struck a rock over and over until the fire went out, and then started again. "What would happen," she mused, "if the zombies attacked us right now?"

At that very moment, a figure in a black cloak emerged from a nearby bush and kidnapped AWC and the dragon lady (Narrator's Note: Kidnapping a dragon lady with stealth and speed is a very difficult thing).

"ALACK!" AWC struggled, but was dragged away into the darker than darkest part of the forest. The dragon lady didn't actually struggle very much, because her tea had been poisoned.

"Hush, the others will hear you," said the random ninja. "They just wouldn't understand."

"What about me?" AWC demanded, "I don't understand either!"

"Ah but you will. So do the forest a favor and shut up!"

"The masked mystery person will save me." AWC growled. "Just you wait."

"Oh, I'm very afraid." The ninja rolled their eyes.

****MEANWHILE****

Lemony the bunny and Florence the Owl sat in the zen pagoda, waiting for AWC to return from her camping trip. Lemony was painting Florence's talons pink. Florence had protested at first, but they were both so bored he finally agreed.

"It's not fair," Florence said, folding his wings across his chest in an angry way. "We never get to go on adventures."

"Meh," Lemony said, tilting his head to the side to make sure he liked the shade of nail polish. "Do you honestly want to have to deal with all of those troublesome adventure-type things? I mean, here we are safe."

"Safe, yes, and bored. I mean. WHO! I have a bunny painting my talons."

"You won't anymore if you don't sit still!" Lemony shook his head, disapprovingly.

"I think we should go on an adventure." Florence said, flying up suddenly and upsetting the bottle of polish. Pink poisonous fluid began creeping out and crawling across the floor.

"Ah!" Lemony said. "Look what you've done! We've ruined the Zen floor... we've ruuuined the zeennnn..."

"Well on our adventure we'll locate some nail polish remover. Will that make you happy, mr lame?" Florence seemed quite impatient to get out the door.

"What if AWC gets back and we're not here?" Lemony asked, trying to stay away from the slowly spreading pink splotch, terribly aware of how stupid he would look with his fur covered in pink blotcheties.

"Who. I'll leave a note. Let's go."

"Okay..." Lemony said.

The rabbit and owl scurried and flew out of the entrance and into the heavenly forest.

****MEANWHILE****

"HELP!" AWC was still struggling, hammering her fists against the ninja. "Crazy ninjas! MASKED GUY!"

"Shut up, we're here, it's me!" The ninja removed the black mask and, sure enough, it was Narcissa the Narcissist.

"What?" AWC asked.

"Hmmmm..." Loretta said. The effects of the tea were starting to wear off.

"I've become more self-aware," Narcissa said, "and it's time you two did too."

"I don't need to be more self aware," AWC said. "I have a zen pagoda."

"Ah, but have you met your shadow yet?" Narcissa asked, smiling a mysterious smile of mystery.

"Uhuh." Loretta said sleepily. "I was just walking down a well-lit street yesterday..."

"That's not what I mean. What I mean is this," and just like that, she split into two separate people. One Narcissa was smiling. The other Narcissa was smiling evilly.

"Alack! Great Scott! Oh, good, dear Love Himself that's just NOT RIGHT!!!" AWC hid behind Loretta.

"Well, here's the story behind it." Narcissa sat down in the grass. So did Loretta, and AWC behind her. "One day I woke up in a mafia hideout surrounded by several adoring guys."

Loretta sighed sleepily. "And?"

"And they all knew me for some reason, although I hadn't ever seen any of them. That's when I realized I had a shadow. Not a different personality, per se, but another side of my personality. Every now and then it would take over and act for me. Yay!"

AWC was puzzled. "Yay?"

"The most important thing is, so do you. You both have shadows. If you get more in touch with your inner selves, you'll be able to find them, and then they can do that which you could never dare to do."

"Um, there's a reason why Love Himself said I should be just one person," AWC said. "Isn't there?"

"OMG what's that?" Narcissa's eyes grew wide and she pointed at the bushes on the other side of the tiny clearing.

AWC jumped up to see.

ZZzzzzzING!

"Alack!"

AWC turned back around and saw Dark Narcissa holding a lime green stun gun.

Lorretta yawned. "Now that's just Cold..."

But now there were two AWCs standing in the clearing. One was typical AWC, with rabbit ears and colorful hoodie, blue jeans and no shoes. The other had high heels, black jeans, a black hoodie, rabbit ears, and a hatchet.

"You might like just hanging around," AWC's shadow said, grinning. "But I'm gonna go hunt me a silver dog."

"What???" AWC asked. "It's not doing any harm! It's just running around in the distance like a typical antagonist, until it decides to strike!"

"Oh puh-lease. Seeya, sis. Have fun playing with your pet bunny while I go eliminate stuff."

"Wait!" AWC cried.

But AWC's shadow had already run off cackling into the undergrowth. AWC slapped her wide forehead. "Narccy, you probably should not have done that."

"Nonsense. You're silver dog problem is solved."

"Not until after she steals everyone's lawn gnomes and uses them for ax practice." AWC groaned. "Ugh. I'm worried."

"Don't be. Having your evil self running around is perfectly safe," Narcissa said.

In the distance, they heard a loud evil laugh and shattering clay.

****MEANWHILE****

Lemony and Florence were lost. In a dark forest. "Oh, I knew this was a bad idea..." Lemony was quivering with fright.

"It sure was." Shadow the angry wolf strode out from the shadows. "What are you guys doing here? Don't you belong in AWC's zen pagoda?"

"Ar-r-re... y-y-y-you gonna e-eat us?" Lemony asked, terrified.

"Who?" Florence asked, terrified.

"Actually, I'd love to," Shadow said matter-of-factly. "And yet... I just ate Serj Tankian. I'm stuffed. Do you want me to take you guys home?"

"Yes please mister shadow..." Lemony said.

Suddenly, there was a flurry of pages, and out of the bushes emerged:

"BEHOLD! I AM THE FAMED TOME OF SUPERIORITY!"

to be continued

Chapter Eleven ~ Very far, very far, over land and sea

"Can I get some help, like a cop car or something? Yes. I'm at that quiet place in the woods. Yes. Jared? No it's Jareth the... what was it? Goblin king? Yeah. Uhuh. Yes and the guy from Tokio hotel. Tom Kaulitz. No wait! I mean Bill Kaulitz. Yeah Bill Kaulitz. And Serj Tankian. Uhuh, I'll hold. Hi. Well, no, that wouldn't be a problem but... no you don't understand. What? Yes, well, they're having it out on my lawn. Sorry? No! They're attacking each other with gardening utensils. Well, one's got a spade, and there's another with a rake and OH HOLY MOSES JARETH'S GOT A WHEELBARROW. Yes, on my lawn. I'll hold."

&...

"But if I can't turn my corn into whisky, how am I supposed to sell my corn?" Paolo asked, big furry spotted paws on his hips.


"No one complains about the alcaholization of your corn product. But you can't sell it to the lawn gnomes." The police officer poked him.


"But they're lawn gnome substitutes. And they're so funny when they're drunk. Plus, money is money."


"Do you have a liscence to sell alcohol to lawn gnomes?" The officer asked.


"I think I must have left it in my other overalls," Paolo laughed nervously.


"Sir, you're a leopard..."


"Look! It's a distraction!"


The police officer turned his fat bald head around and sure enough, the first thing he was distracted by was a distraction. "Egads," he said, shiny fish eyes bulging out of his head, "Did that thing just crawl out of the mines?" He turned around again but Paolo was already sprinting as fast as he could in the other direction, as fast as his leopardy paws could carry him, away from the nameless thing that made its nameless way out of the mines of learning.

"Why, I've never seen anything like it in my life..." he said, as it came closer. It licked its jaws, and with a coarse, hairy brown flipper it scratched its moustache. Its beady black eyes were filled with anger, and malice, and patronization. The officer gaped in horror as it loomed over him, a dark shadow of marine sovereignty. "What... what is that thing?"

"I AM THE WALRUS." The creature threw back its mighty tusks, and let out a howl like that of nine banshees and a harpy (By the way, remember kids don't run away from anything immortal. It just draws their attention. Refer to the works of our immortaliality expert Peter S. Beagle for details).

AWC: But I thought there was no more Peter S. Beagle for me...
Narrator: Yeah... well... you're allergic.
AWC: I am? Coool... unicorn allergies...
Narrator: Yup. But you're also allergic to environmentalists.
AWC: *sneeze* Oh my gosh that makes so much sense! Hello? Could somebody please get Serj Tankian off my lawn?
Shadow the angry wolf who thinks he's an owl: I'd be too happy to oblige. Heh heh heh...
AWC: Oh yeah, but Shadow, you can't do that just yet.
Shadow: And why not?
AWC: There's an oozing walrus there at the moment.
Shadow: Okay. Should I contact the pirates?
AWC: No. Just go back to whatever it was you were doing.
Shadow: This would never have happened if it weren't for cave rat allergies...
AWC: *sneeze* And environmentalist allergies...

AWC stumbled over her un-welcome mat out onto her lawn, just in time to see the nice police officer who tried to get Paolo's whiskey liscence get devoured by the walrus. The walrus gave out a cataclysmic belch that killed many of AWC's lovely violet and yellow irises. "No!" She cried, as the force of the resulting gale knocked her backwards a few steps. "No more flower death! ACHOO! Oh great. Now I'm allergic to myself..."

"I'll save you!" The attractive German from Tokio Hotel cried, as he ran at the walrus and sprang upon its back. The German looked rather intimidating thanks to the incredible force of his hair, which was like a great flailing mace of spikes and death whenever he headbutted the creature.

"This must be the government's doing!" Serj Tankian yelled, picking up his piano and throwing it at the walrus's soft and vulnerable underbelly. "The sky is over for YOU, mister walrus!"

"Ah but you can't defeat my crack dream labyrinth of vortexy puzzling death!" Jareth the goblin king proclaimed, and began shaking his hips. "Yeah! That's right! Dance magic dance!"

Suzumebachi: I think I'm in love...
AWC: Well, elvis sure's got nothin on him.
Suzumebachi: I've just got to say he's pretty rad...
AWC: Go on. Steal the British guy off my lawn. I prefer Germans anyway.
Suzumebachi: I think I will.
AWC: Everyone's an anglophile. Yeah. But he was actually on your lawn all along. I just stole him in the middle of the night. By the way it's way harder to kidnap British people than lawn gnomes.
Suzumebachi: Hey. I have friends who are lawn gnomes.
AWC: It's not my place to judge.
Lemony: You are my sweeeeetest love...

Meanwhile, thanks to the combined efforts of Bill's hair, Serj's environmentalism, and Jareth's rad dance moves, the walrus was soon no more.

AWC smiled. "Bill's hair... four million dollars."
Suzumebachi nodded. "Jareth's dancing, 70000 euros..."
Shadow laughed and bared his fangs. "Getting to eat an environmentalist, priceless."

Lemony: With you, I'm always meant to be...

Chapter Ten ~ Sleepless aria jealousy

"An invader in the forest is very Bad." Suzumebachi buzzed a quarter inch away from AWC's ear. They were going on a lovely stroll under the curling branches of the laurel trees, and leaves fell like crumpled red and yellow paper from the creaky old maples, with fresh fall scents alive and speaking through the winds.

"But it's nonetheless a very nice autumny day," AWC added optimistically. "Silver dog or no silver dog, look at the big yellow moon and you can tell that there are good things coming.

"How do you know the big yellow moon's not just trying to swallow you and your pagoda?" Suzumebachi asked, folding her yellow and black striped arms and raising her eyebrows critically.

AWC stopped in midstride. Suzumebachi did too. "Get real." AWC said.

"Alright. Have a rockin good day," Suzumebachi replied, and flew away.

This left AWC by herself in the middle of the heavenly forest. She pinched herself to see if she was dreaming, and discovered she wasn't. "The moon can't swallow me," she said, and sat down on the dusty path, and hugged her knees. The wind was cold and it nipped at her arms and bare feet.

"You need new shoes," said Shadow the angry wolf who thinks he's an owl.

"It's true," AWC said. "Obvious, but true. It's a nice day, though. Fall is good."

"It's true," Shadow said. "Obvious, but true."

"Omigosh guys. Guys? GUYS!" Jack the theif swung into the clearing on a vine hanging from one of the trees, and no one could figure out how he managed. "I just got this totally amazing idea!"

"What?" AWC asked.

"Oh brother." Shadow whacked his head with his thick paw (which he thought was a set of talons). "Not another idea. This forest has too many ideas in it. Soon the real estate values will drop, there will be way more higher levels of organized crime, the whole forest is going to go to shambles. Ruin. Oh, good love himself, all will go to ruin."

"I can't imagine that the rabid silver dog running around will do anything good to property values either," AWC commented. "But continue, Jack?"

"We will all live underground!" Jack grinned. "Good idea, right? Right?"

"Well it sounds like a nice idea," AWC said, "but why?"

"Uh, duh. It's fall. Which means soon it will be winter. AWC, your house doesn't even have a door." Jack pointed out.

"Oh dear, I hadn't thought of that." AWC frowned. "It will get awfully cold."

"And instead of freezing, we'll be extremely safe and warm underground, with that nice tribe of mole people."

"Okay, hold it," Shadow said. "One, I'm not leaving my home, because of aforementioned real estate value. Two, underground, there are the MINES. Big brother's agents will put us to work and that'll be the end of it. Three, why doesn't AWC just BUY a DOOR?"

There was silence. "The best laid plans," AWC said with a sigh.

"Always get punctured by grumpy wolves." Jack rolled his eyes. "Fine. I'm going to go and steal some stuff. But I will come up with an even better plan. You guys both know we won't survive the winter the way we are now." With that, he swung away.

"I'm not so sure about that," Shadow said. "You know, with global warming and all."

"Maybe, I don't know." AWC shrugged. "I'm going to go home and measure my doorframe."

"Oh you have so much fun with that." Shadow growled. "I'm going to go look for more ways to apply my logic. This forest needs more logic."

"I thought you cared about property values," AWC said.

Chapter Nine ~ We're so Starving

It's been a bit of time since our last chapter. Well, that's ok, just blame the narrator!

Narrator: ...do you want me to tell you this story or not?

& & &

AWC meditated slightly to the left of the coffee table in her zen pagoda. It wasn't going well. She stroked her magical pet bunny, Lemony, for comfort purposes. Finally, she gave up and opened her eyes.

"What's your problem?" Lemony asked, scratching at an ear with one of his long furry feet.

"I have all these feelings," AWC frowned and shook her head to clear it. "And..."

"No one cares!" Lemony exclaimed. "You need to stop being glum."

"But the world... it's so filled with darkness..." AWC gripped Lemony on both of his sides and attempted to violently shake some sense into him.

"Oof! No! Fur! Lies!" He scratched and nipped in self defense. "You say that every time you watch Moulin Rouge again! When will you realize that idealism is truth and you should stick to watching childrens' films?"

"Gosh, Lemony, you're right." AWC put the poor shaken rabbit down on the floor. "I've got to get out of this pagoda and go do something fun."

Lemony quivered nervously, twitching his midgety nose. "You need to get off the depressed side of your bipolardom, that's what you need. Crazy half mad part rabbit anonymous fiction writer character. Why me? That's what I want to know. Why me?"

But AWC didn't stick around to hear the rest of the rabbit's lament. She was too busy putting on Jemima, her green stripety coat. It was chilly in the Heavenly Forest these days. "I'm going to go find Maryanne Maneater."

"Good luck," Lemony said. "And try not to come back!"

& & &

AWC was not pleased that she had remembered her coat, blue scarf, blue jeans, blue attitude, and raggedy gloves, but only realized she was barefoot once she had entered the center of the forestness. She was less pleased when a snow leopard spontaneously leapt onto the path in front of her, fangs bared in a snarl and eyes gleaming with intense wild catdom.

"Stop!" AWC cried, blocking her eyes with her arm. "That glare is way too intense!"

"Oh, do you need me to tone it down a little?"

"Yes, please if you don't mind, just a smidge!"

"Got it. Is this better?"

"Why yes that's lovely."

The snow leopard and AWC both stood on the trail smiling pleasantly at one another. "Good day, if a bit blustery," The leopard said. "By the way it's Paolo. Didn't recognize me did ya?"

"Oh, I'd recognize your anglophilia anywhere!" AWC grinned and patted the kitty on the head.

"Not with my brutish snarl," Paolo said. "And don't even get me started with my amazing waterbending skills."

"I bet. But why, Paolo? Why a snow leopard?"

"I'm smart and rational, but I'm not as honorable as a lion, you see."

"Ok." AWC laughed. "That actually makes a lot of sense. Hey, want to come hunting for Mary-Anne Maneater with me?"

"No time for that. There's been a bad omen in the way the trees sway and the birds laugh. I just heard from Raven the raven." Paolo looked very serious. "There's a new force, a new personage, a new SOMETHING trying to get into the cast of the forest."

"Oh, you mean that guy from Tokio Hotel?" AWC asked, shaking her head. "Yeah I know he's here. He hangs out near my zen pagoda. Isn't he beautiful? Much better than a lawn gnome."

"I'm not talking about the attractive german you have standing in your yard! I mean an actual force. A bad force. One we need to avoid."

"Oh no," AWC groaned. "DON'T TELL ME THERE'S A VILLAIN! VILLAINS MEAN CONFLICT AND CONFLICT MEANS AN ACTUAL STORYLINE! TELL ME the PLOT isn't ACTUALLY THICKENING!!!!"

Mary Anne the Maneater walked by as AWC was kneeling on the ground in despair, throwing her arms up and yelling at the sky. "Just ignore it," she said. "Whatever the force is, it doesn't exist either. It's all in your head, hun."

AWC stood up again and brushed the fallen leaves off her jeans. "Yeah people keep telling me that."

Narrator: Holy repetition! Egads!
AWC: You know, I only really LIKE two tokio hotel songs.
Lemony: Crazy. Crazy. Crazy. Oh I was better off with that hatter or those orphans!

"AWC are you okay?" Paolo asked. "I know this is bad news. No one likes plots. But how's your idealism doing?"

"I lost it again..." AWC pouted. "I think it actually ran off with my tao."

Raven floated down from a higher branch. "Well, nevermore," he advised, "you really ought to inform Love Himself."

"I sent him an owl," AWC protested.

"Let me guess. You just complained the whole letter long." Mary-Anne slapped her forehead. "Why, AWC, why?"

"I'm just mad." She said. "Nothing's fair and everything is so glum! Even my rabbit is annoyed with me!"

"Then stop annoying your rabbit..." Paolo said.

Forget me not the fairy poofed out of nowhere with a poof of pink smoke. "Silly AWC, you've forgotten you like 'Love is Dead' by tokio hotel! That makes three songs!"

"She much prefers alice cooper to tokio hotel," Shadow the wolf who thinks he's an owl growled at the fairy as he stalked onto the scene. "This much I know."

"Lies!"

"Truths!"

"Cuz it's nine in the afternoon," AWC was singing. She was extremely distracted by now. "Back to the room where it all began... cus it's nine in the afternoon, your eyes are the size of the moon... hey wait a minute!" She broke from her trance. "Mary-Anne why are you here? You don't believe in idealism."

"Gosh I don't know. Well none of us are really here, are we? You'll wake up soon I imagine." Mary-anne maneater fed a cracker to her maneating purse.

"I see a silver dog," Raven the raven said. "Nevermore. Beware. It's coming this way."

It was true. A silver dog with long shimmering hair was coming from the depths of the trees. It was smiling and showing all its teeth. Its eyes were blue. It looked like a sheltie, only the hair was so long, and it was silver all over.

"I don't want to face that!" AWC cried, "Everyone run! It's got rabies! Run!"

So they all ran. Except for the ones who got rabies.

AWC woke up in her Zen Pagoda with Lemony sleeping soundly on her stomach. "Lemony wake up," she whined. "Lemony..."

"Bad dream again?" He perked up his ears and stared at AWC. "I told you to stay off the musicals but no."

"Lemony I don't know how to end this chapter..." AWC was nervous, and pulled at her hair, as if expecting an answer to tumble out of her head when she did so.

"Easy." He jumped up on the screen and smiled and made a face of adorability and furryosity. "I'm a bunny rabbit!"

Chapter Eight ~ So it goes

"How is it," AWC asked, "that no one ever seems to notice how oddly shaped guitars are? I mean, what are they supposed to look like, anyway? Blobs with sticks if you ask me. Maybe squashes."

AWC, Shadow the angry wolf who thinks he's an owl, Raven the raven, and Jack the theif were all sitting on the bank of one of the many small rivers that flowed through the heavenly forest. Across the river there was an Alice Cooper look alike competition going on amongst the furry woodland creatures. There were a few skunks, the wolverine or two, one flamingo, and a band of furry foxes participating. None were actually very good, but the free entertainment was good enough for the four... um...

Narrator: Creatures? Mischeif-makers? Adventurers? Who the heck are these people anyway and why are they hanging out all the sudden?

Jack the theif: It's really hard to introduce a main character halfway through the story, that's why. And here I am. Obviously.

Well anyway, just as a flamingo stepped onto the podium, greeted by the cheers of several furry woodland creatures and his girlfriend, there was a noise like a gunshot. Actually, the noise WAS a gunshot. A few of the creatures screamed, and Raven, Shadow, AWC, and Jack all jumped into the river for cover. Before AWC could jump in, however, her little muse leapt out of her pocket.

"Must rescue the musicians!!" Sally cried, leaping the river in a single bound.

"No Sally!" AWC yelled, but she was already in the river. "Those aren't musicians, just look alikes! You don't have to rescue them all!"

"Rescue!" Sally sped off towards the mob scene.

Several shots were fired.

"Sally, No!"

AWC tried to crawl out and up onto the riverbank, to rescue her muse.

"I wouldn't do that if I were you," Shadow said. "You'll get shot. Then you'll be a vegetable or something."

"Don't do it!!! It's not worth it!" Jack exclaimed. "Your life for a muse?"

Raven shook his head disapprovingly. "Nevermore," he added.

"It's too late, you can't stop me," AWC said. And it was true. Because she magically had butterfly wings and they were flapping furiously, having just sprouted from her back. They were now carrying her towards the fray. "Goodbye friends."

"Later."

"NO!"

"Rawk..."

The wings flapped and whirred, and carried her towards the podium. With her bird's eye view, she could see that a rogue unicorn had shot all of the alice cooper impersonators. AWC wondered if the unicorn was morally offended that they would dress up like musical satan, or if he was morally offended that they dressed up like the greatest musician who ever lived, but did not do so very well or convincingly.

And then she saw her. Tiny little midget Sally was lying lifelessly in the middle of the grassy green field.

AWC pointed, jabbing a finger in the direction repeatedly so that the wings would get it, "ok, now THAT way! THAT's where we want to go; THAT WAY".

The wings obeyed and carried AWC safely over to where her little muse was lying. "Sally!" AWC mourned, "You can't be dead, you just can't!" She grabbed Sally by her shoulders and shook hard. "Sally! Can you hear me, Sally!"

Sally made no noise or movement acknowledging her name had been called. AWC was about to throw.a.fit when a masked figure clothed entirely in black slid down through the clouds, straight from the sky. The sun seemed to make room for him. The unicorn in the corner of the feild where he had been rooting through his victims' pockets for spare change gave up and ran away in pure terror. The masked figure dropped down on the ground beside Sally. He listened to her chest, then nodded his head.

"Is she going to be okay?" AWC asked. Who was this?

"Yes she is. But her internal clocks will be off." The masked dude looked solemn.

"What does that mean?"

The masked dude clapped his hands. "Sally, awaken!"

Sally's bright green eyes popped open, and she stretched her arms out over her head with a loud yawn. "Good morning!" She chirped happily, "It's nine in the afternoon!"

"That's not right," AWC puzzled, "It's hour 176y78903218. Everyone knows that."

The masked dude nodded. "Sally doesn't though. Be patient with her is all I can suggest. Maybe you should take her to the hospital."

"And deal with mr. chainsaw and that annoying freddie highmore kid? I think not," AWC said.

"Suit yourself." And just like that he was gone.

Sally grinned and hugged one of AWC's legs. "What are you so happy about?" AWC growled. "You could have gotten yourself killed."

Sally shook her head, still smiling. "It's nine in the afternoon!"

So it goes.

Chapter Seven ~ I was on your porch last night

It was a wonderful day at the zen pagoda!

Some kind soul had bestowed upon AWC a miniature oven, by means of owl post, while leaving no return address or card of any sort. It was quite portable, so AWC could pick it up and move it outdoors if she wanted, or on the roof, or under the roof, or beneath the floorboards. "But whatever could it be for?"

There was a blustery dash of wind just beyond the arched doorway, and the wind chime she had hung outside began to ring a nice melody. Someone had come to see her.

She jumped up off her meditational mat and hurried over to the doorway, to find Mary-Anne the Maneater standing on the not-welcome mat. She had a big smile on her face. She must have just eaten.

"Why are you at the inner sanctum of my mind?" AWC asked. "Did I send you an invitation and forget about it? I hate it when that happens."

"Nope, I was just wondering if you got your easy-revolt oven in the mail today." The maneater pulled out two cookbooks from behind her back. "I thought we could try it out..." she whispered. "But we can't be too obvious about it or big brother will find out."

"Big brother?" AWC was confused. "Why..."

"He can see you even in your mind," Maneater explained in a harsh whisper, "so you need to be extra careful that no one sees us do this."

AWC was horrified. "But big brother never bothered the heavenly forest before!"

"SSHHH!" Mary-Anne Maneater said. "Well he is now. He wants to burn down the forests. He wants to turn all the forests back into caves and mines, like they used to be in olden times. He wants to fill the caves with rats, and he wants the rats to chase out and/or devour anyone who dares to protest."

AWC freaked out. She wrung her hands together and then tore out her hair. "Big brother can't come! He will destroy all we hold dear! Without the forests, where will our ideas live? Where will our ideas go?"

"To work in the mines," the maneater said solemnly. "And our ideas will work for Them and Big Brother, and they will no longer be ideas, but commodities."

"Like in that manifesto!" AWC gasped. "Oh, Mary-Anne Maneater, I don't want us to all have to go work for Them..."

"I know. That's what the easy-revollt oven is designed for. My idea is, we can use it to free the pirate queen."

"Mary-Anne you can't free the pirate queen," AWC said, shaking her head sadly, "she's allergic to those cave rats."

"Let's say, however, we remove the cave rats from the mines?" Maneater suggested.

"Can we do that?" AWC asked.

"I don't know, with my easy-revolt oven it shouldn't be too difficult I imagine. We'll follow the recipe for happy children cake. When the cave rats smell it, it will make them dreadfully ill, and they will all have to leave."

AWC was excited. "Yeah! And when the mines are empty of cave rats, we can turn them into forests, where ideas can grow and develop and live in peace and harmony!"

Mary-Anne nodded, "exactly."

"So when are we going in and who are we taking?"

"Narcissa, Forget-me-not, you, the dragon lady, Paolo the foreigner, myself, and other minor supporters will be there for other support. This includes the president, he too is anxious to help in any way he can."

The maneater and the AWC stood and stared at each other for a few minutes. "How do we start?" AWC asked.

"Well, let's preheat the oven," Mary-Anne replied.

"And then?"

"We infiltrate the mines."

"Down with big brother?" AWC posed the question. Smoke began to sift out through the doorway of the zen pagoda.

"Uh oh..." Mary-Anne said, "Something's burning. You know what that means."

"No, what?" AWC jumped back from the door, as the smoke grew thicker.

"He knows..." Mary-Anne looked horrified. "Big Brother knows..."

"That's impossible," AWC said. "It's impossible." But she turned around, and there was the zen pagoda, engulfed in red flames.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

"Wake up."

"No."

"Wake up."

"I don't want to"

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~


AWC woke up on the floor of her zen pagoda. She looked left, looked right. No signs of fire. No easy-revolt oven. No Mary-Anne chiming at the door.

Just a cake sitting on the coffee table with pink icing.