The Wild House

"This story is 2,180 words long!" Duncan exclaimed.

"It is all Urban Fantasy too," Riot explained.

Suddenly the ground beneath them shook and an old looking elf looking around frantically appeared. He tipped his silver hat which matched his silver robe and looked straight at the two with his eyes looking like he had something on his mind. This house held 26 floors as well as a basement. He conjured a map of the house using a spell and his hands. The spell weakened him.

"Quick, I want you to find my staff. It should be either here in my laundry room or here in the master bedroom. Beware of creatures that are wild. This modern house isn't called a Wild House for nothing. Here is fire and ice to use," the wizard said to the two of them, "Alorocflame and Tolioice."

Duncan practiced the two spells until she got it right. What is the big deal about his staff, except wizards can't bear to use magic without one without being weakened or dead? How much time does he have left? What does the staff look like? She didn't know the answer. He said modern house. True, it was built in the form of a skyscraper. How many floors did she need to go up to find the staff? Once more, the wizard didn't say. Riot seemed to have a glint in his eye telling her of trouble. What would happen if he found it first? Would he start using it? He always seemed to find a way to cause trouble and a magical artifact would enhance his trouble-making capabilities. Blowing up buildings would be one example.

"Hmm, I could blow up anything I want to with a magical wand, or even better," Riot began his thoughts out loud which only Duncan could hear. She sighed. Not on her watch would she let this happen.

"Not if I beat you first. I'll use the elevator to go straight to the room and find the staff. I'll search the master bedroom. Strange that one house is a skyscraper. This will be easy to help the wand," Duncan retorted.

"Oh yeah, I'll find the staff in the laundry room. This can't be too hard. And I'll watch out for wild creatures too. They may scare you so silly that I'd have to save you," Riot said.

"Enough chattering and bickering with each other. This is a serious matter. If this house, the only skyscraper style house that exists in this world while other skyscrapers are business, explodes, it will put all of my work to shame and not let me rest in the afterlife. The wand must go into the kitchen, master kitchen that is, and be set on a pedestal. Only then will my life in the afterlife will be at rest. You have two hours to do that and the clock is ticking. I will be home from work by then. If you do, you'll be rewarded. If you don't, you'll be punished for trespassing. My servants will aid you. I'm just a hologram but I know. Good luck," the wizard said and for that vanished.

"Yikes, the house is huge and we don't know where to look. I think I'll go to the top floor, the 13th floor. This is the 13th day of the month landing on Friday too. What kind of bad omens should we look for? Well, I for one am not going to tolerate getting punished because of you. Servants will not open the door for just anyone either. You did the wrong thing threatening them. Now we have to pay the price. Now come on, let's get searching. My coat is getting too heavy and hot for me to continue wearing in this house. It's as toasty as our homes," Duncan said. Just then a servant came up. "Which floor is the master bedroom on?"

"The 13th floor, just like today is Friday the 13th as you said," the servant replied.

"Thank you," Duncan said heading out.

"Which floor is the laundry room in?" Duncan heard Riot ask.

"13th B floor. Or 13B if you take the elevator," the servant replied just as the same.

"Thanks a lot," Riot said and then she heard dashing footsteps toward her. No, she needed to reach the elevators first.

Luckily, she was faster. Then she pushed the button for an elevator that would take her up. No noise. The elevators didn't seem to respond at the slightest touch. She couldn't go up to 13th floor on stairs alone, that would take too long! Heart pounding heavily, she continued to wait for the elevators to work. There seemed to be no response. Then another servant came, dressed in a brown robe like the first servant.

"I'm sorry, but you'll have to take the stairs. And the kitchen is on the 5th level. Lunch is being served," the servant said.

"Thank you," Duncan said. Her heart dropped heavily in her body and already she started to sweat. There was no way she could do this in two hours. And the wizard warned of wild creatures to face.

Duncan walked briskly to the stairs, large enough for him to only go one step at a time. A creature with four eyes and eight legs with just two sections of its body greeted her by surprise and looked at her up and down. She held her breath at the sight. Normally spiders were just like any animals, but they had two eyes instead of four. This one was also as large as her hand body wise, not to mention the legs were like straws coming out of its body. Then the spider spat out a web on her and burned through her jeans. This one was not friendly, she concluded. Swiftly, she she dodged the second attack and then used fire on it. It made a loud sound that sounded like fingernails scraping the chalkboard. She covered her ears and screamed too. Then she did another fire attack. It weakened even further until it stopped screeching. Finally, she used the ice spell to freeze it in place. It didn't make another sound, but shivered. This was going to be a long two hours for her to face if she had to face more attacking spider creatures. She sighed.

With every floor Duncan reached, she had to fight off a creature. One was smelly and furry with a bare-skinned tail. Another had wings and reminded her of a vampire, only vampires didn't exist. They were just another fairy tale. Then, on the 13th floor, she met a fairy. This fairy didn't speak at all and its eyes were beaming red. It seemed to be hungry. Once more she used fire spell to weaken it and then ice spell to freeze it in place, nearly stopping the fight against it in the process. No, she had to move on. Looking at a magical clock on the wall, it showed she had lost 30 minutes. Frantic, she passed the demonized fairy and searched for the master bedroom. It had to be the largest bedroom of this house. And the only house to be a skyscraper. That fairy was bad luck for her. She wondered what else would appear as she tried to take the staff. Walking down the hallway, she searched what was behind every door. One room had some pop machines and candy machines as well as chairs and tables. Finally, she came to the last door and opened it. There, in front of the bed, was the staff. She didn't want the house to explode. Even if Riot was terrible, he was still her sibling.

A giant, green mantis appeared larger than any other mantis she had seen. Then a servant appeared and said, "Catch this mantis and you'll be able to retrieve the staff. Don't let anything go boom! It will enhance your spells and give you higher protection for the trip to the kitchen. But it won't be easy because the wild creatures will fight back if you disturb them."

"I will. Thanks for the tip. How do I catch the mantis?" Duncan asked, but already the servant disappeared.

Duncan used ice spell and the mantis leaped out of the way. Sighing, she realized this was going to be harder than she thought it would be. The mantis kept leaping out of the way for 10 minutes until she decided to come up with a new plan. Throw the ice spell at it in multiple directions. The mantis sometimes leapt forward or sometimes to the side. Noticing this pattern, she decided to cast two spells at the same time with the familiar pattern. She had to have time to face the wild creatures going to the kitchen. It worked after 5 more minutes passed and she retrieved the staff with one hand. Now, she needed to get the staff over to the kitchen.

No more wild creatures fought her as she waited until they scattered with every floor she went down until she reached the 5th floor. Were the floors also called levels too? Once again, the now furry creature that greeted her scattered as she left it alone. Then she realized she had no clue how to use this staff and it might be the key to facing whatever creature was in the kitchen. She needed to find a servant and find out how to use it. It would be a nightmare to cause something to go splat into pieces. She would fail then. Just as before she checked the doors of every room until she found a room with a piano in it. The servant was there.

"Hello?" Duncan asked. The servant looked up.

"You wonder how to use the staff I see," the servant responded. "Let me tell you one thing. You need to use your heart at the most critical moment or else the staff will fail. You must put it on the pedestal in the kitchen. A butterfly awaits. Learn to sing your spell."

"That is no help. How can I use my heart?" Duncan asked, but the servant ran out.

With a heavy heart, she continued to search for the kitchen. Now, she only had 45 minutes left. Looking at the clock on the wall, she gulped. Then Riot came beside her with a staff in his hand. He frowned and his face was flushed. Nodding to her, he opened the door. Immediately a screeching sound could be heard. Butterflies didn't make sound, she thought, but when she looked inside she saw that the butterfly did indeed made a sound. She struggled to avoid covering her ears. Riot was failing miserably. His staff didn't work at all, but then she realized he might not know how to use it. So there were two staffs. Only one of them could be the real one.

Joining the battle, Duncan fought by Riot's side. The butterfly overcame Duncan and she wailed. He was holding his chest tightly and screaming. Then she got knocked over. Magic weakened the wizard when he used it, but a magical object would overcome that problem. She felt as weak as ever after using so many fire spells. Then she remembered the servant's words and looked at the butterfly. Use her heart when the time was right. Emboldened, she got up and focused all of her energy to using the ice spell with the wand against the butterfly. It was ready to strike her down again. She said the word and a big blast of ice hit the butterfly so hard that it froze the butterfly. 10 minutes to go. She glanced back at Riot and sighed. She had the real staff the wizard spoke of. Then she quickly found the pedestal and put the staff on it. A brilliant light shone and then it was gone. The staff disappeared. In came a wizard, huffing and puffing with the staff in his hand.

"What happened?" Duncan asked the wizard.

"Oh, I often forget where I put my staff. I see you stopped the wild butterfly. Now it needs released into the wild. This house attracts so many wild creatures everyday. I must thank you for saving this house. I will send to your house the finest staff crafted as well as robes that adjust to your size so it will always be loose on you. May I have your name and address as well as a phone number to reach to you? I may hire you to be my assistant. Consider that a great honor," the wizard said.

"What about Riot?" Duncan asked weakly after giving her name and address and learning that the wizard's name was Duche.

"He will be fine. I will cast a spell on him to heal his chest. He may need to go to the hospital though for x-rays to be sure ribs weren't broken. I put you two in a perilous situation. Don't go snooping to a random house. Applications could be filled out online but you two asked for it. The door opens to anyone," Duche said. "Please escort these two children to the sidewalk. I will call for the ambulance."

Prompt: Urban Fantasy, Who or what is missing?
Word Count: 2,180
Contests: "Tales Shown, Not Told Discussion Forum"  "Fabulous Fantasy Contest "