The children blinked. They were sitting cross-legged on a large flat stone amid a glade in the midst of a woods. The voices of many birds and the murmuring of a faraway brook made a forest-like din.
“Where are we?” Osmium finally voiced. He stood and looked down at his clothing. To his utter astonishment, he was dressed in complete green and at his side dangled a sword within a sheath. “And what on earth am I wearing?!?”
Iridium leapt to her feet. She was wearing a long dark dress with a gilded pattern and trimming. “Ooo, I like it!” She exclaimed, twirling about happily.
Tantalum remained sitting, clad in a grey cloak and at his feet lay a wooden staff tipped with an opaque amethyst-colored gemstone.
Rhenium gawked at her siblings’ outfits, then glanced at herself. She was wearing exactly what she had been earlier: a hoodie, loose jeans, and black tennis shoes. She got to her feet. “Whoever chose those outfits had absolutely awful taste.” She sneered, turning up her nose.
The other children paid no attention to her: Tantalum remained fixed in thought, Iridium examined the intricate pattern on her dress, and Osmium sword-fought an imaginary foe with his blade.
Suddenly, a strong wind blew up and some dark clouds rolled over the sun, darkening the forest. The creaking trees silenced the birds, and the gust carried about stray leaves. The glad mood was broken, and the other children huddled around Tantalum. A crack of lightning brightened the sky for a moment and split open the water-bearing clouds.
Iridium whimpered.
Tantalum broke from his reverie as rain splashed on his head. He flew to his feet and spun around, glancing at the children’s rain-streaked faces; Iridium’s portrayed absolute terror, Osmium’s a mixture of misery and the love of adventure, Rhenium’s unreadable. He looked at Rhenium’s outfit and shook his head. He began to say something but changed his mind.
“What is it?” Rhenium asked. She threw back her soaked hair, splaying water all over the already soaked Osmium.
“Nothing.” He glanced around. “We need to go that way.” He pointed to a path into the forest. He started toward the trail.
“Wait!” Osmium called as he and the other children scrambled to their feet.
Tantalum turned.
“You forgot your stick… scepter… staff… thing.”
Tantalum stared at the staff and his eyes narrowed. He looked at his outfit for the first time, then he swooped down and grabbed the wooden staff with a laugh, a rare thing for Tantalum. He gawked at the color of the stone tips.
“I have no idea what this stone is. Or even what it does,” He muttered.
Rhenium rolled her eyes. “Look what you did, Osmium. Now we have to stand in the rain while he does... whatever he’s doing. You should have left the stick.”
Osmium sputtered. But before Osmium could reply, Tantalum looked up.
“You know, I’ve been waiting a long time for this.” He walked over to the path and started down it, trailed by the three other children, each pondering what on earth he could possibly mean by that.
"The only thing that anybody really knows about this author is that he is a real nutcase."
-Anonymous reporter
Well...