The Queens Terrace

The wolf leapt to the royal palace. It looked very majestic in the midst of the setting sun. The wolf dropped Ivy and swiftly swaggered away. Ivy entered the palace and stepped up the white marble stairs to her room.

Allie had the picturesque East Turret. It had the cosiest bedroom, as Allie had decorated it with leafy wallpaper, pink fluffy carpets, chandeliers, a little dresser, a ravishing lamp, small puffy (purple) pillows, plush toys (all squirrels or bears or tanned-looking rabbits, hedgehogs, small sleepy-looking sloths and koalas) etc, etc.

Ivy had the West, made of black brick with rubbery glue. It had arched windows with no glass covering it, only a curtain and a raincoat could be draped over the ‘Window With no Glass’ (as it was called) if it was pouring with hopeless hamburger buns of rain.
Itwas gloomy, and year-old sandwiches could be found under black matting. Her room was practically a cave; the wallpaper that coated the room’s walls were printed with rotten-looking flowers. . . mainly roses that were faded and almost ‘pitifully dead’ , as Ivy called it. Allie just plainly called it dark or black. Ivy's room had one window, with iron bars hardened into it. The bars were thick and were really heavy. Fortin definitely knew this as he had been forced to place them and smooth them into place. Poor Fortin! He had stubbed his toe many times and had burnt his hand severely while using the buttery, burning glue. It was almost as if Ivy had made it boiling on purpose, as he had also nearly lost four fingers, cut off a foot and some fur had been severely burnt!

Ivy entered her turret and pulled off her torn, grubby clothes, exchanging them with even more grubby ones(she never washed her clothes). She had blood running down in great blobs down her filthy sides. Her hair trailed down her grubby back, the split ends of her hair curling like slippery snakes sliding around soggy ground. Her eyes were almost anime, like jewels against black paint. This was because Ivy had just added makeup to her face: Adding huge amounts of rounded blush with glittery sparkles dotted in it, furious looking bowls of black eyeliner and all Ivy could find! Her eyes were like panda eyes. Her lips were pursed and had simply spoons of lipstick dolloped onto them: all bought from Gothic Gloom Girls. The lipstick just made Ivy look more gothic and mean than she had before. The eons of blush placed on her poor cheeks just made them more itchy and harsh: much more than before. Ivy’s hair was left loose; caring about her face more than her hair.

************************************************************

“Fortin, dear, are you hurt?” Asked Allie, helping him slowly up. He had been terribly unfortunate, and tripped on a rather large and rather thick tree root. He had yowled in pain but now seemed quite all right.
“I’m fine, thanks.” Fortin answered.
“Oh. . . that’s good, then.” Allie said in an immensely soft voice.
“I guess so.” Fortin responded.
“Yes. . .” Allie didn’t have much to say.

Furby waddled beside Allie. His thumb was firmly jammed in his sharp petite beak and one puffy, sticky hand clasped Allie’s. Fortin was the leader, striding like a marching soldier forward, keeping up a brisk commentary the whole time, with very occasional pauses to: ‘Mind that’, ‘Watch out’, ‘Be Careful’ and ‘What a whopper that is! Don’t hit that, it could kill you, or at least break your arm’.They passed a bog. “Mind the bog.” Called out Fortin cheerfully. He was the only one who didn’t mind being lost in a forest.

“My, what a caterpillar! So green, yet so. . . pink, ya know? It’s very awesome ,Allie, don’tcha think? Well, I do. My gosh, what’s that. . . it’s very pop, don’tcha think? Oh my, that tree root!”
“That’s not a tree root, Fortin, that’s a weed. And a large one, at that.” Allie added.
“Oh?”
“Yes, a big, bright, ‘beautiful’ weed.”
“Oh ya, of course it is! My what a ravishi-”

A pause.

“IT’S THE PALACE! OHMIGOSH, IT REALLY IS. . . Oh man, I really was so-”
“The palace?” Allie asked.
“Just there, do you see it? Mind the branch.”
“Do not waste your words, Allie.” Furby said.
“You just quoted me!”
“Ah, minus the just and you do not waste a word.”
Allie shook her head slowly. Furby grinned at her. Fortin and Furby smiled wanly at each other, and Furby ran gleefully to the humongous palace.

Allie, however, stayed put. What happened to Ivy? Is she - could she be? - dead? Could she be home? Was that even possible? That wolf couldn’t hurt her. . . could it? I mean. . . could it? Could it? I mean, she’s bitter and sour and all but. . . I love her. What -

Allie’s abrupt thoughts were interrupted by Fortin’s immensely startled (with a slight hint of a grumpy, frustrated sigh) cry, “Ivy’s home! I can hear her intense murmurs from the West Turret!”
Allie’s face morphed into a look of pure concern.
“Fortin, are you alright? You can still hear properly, can’t you?”
Fortin nodded indignantly.
“I can hear it too!” called Furby, “And see her!”
“Furby?” cried Allie. He wasn’t on the ground anywhere close by.
“Over here!”Furby hollered.
Allie followed his voice.

Furby had clambered to the top of the palace and was hanging off one of the tiles on the roof. They were dark, gray tiles on Ivy’s, and light, dazzling tiles on Allie’s. Furby playfully jumped off the roof in an act to impress Allie. Unfortunately, he slipped and began to fall.

Allie and Fortin were panicked; Allie rushed in circles helplessly, trying to catch him. Fortin followed suit.

They clashed.

Poor Furby was sailing through the air, not realising the helplessness of the situation.
”Did you know that air is all bubbly?”
“Furby!” Allie screamed as he fell swiftly to the ground.

She caught him.

************************************************************

“Mwah ha, mwah ha, mwah ha ha ha ha! Though Allie is next in line, soon I shall be!” Ivy screeched. Her hair was wet with wolf saliva but she still ran a carefree hand through the jet black threads.

Making the room echo with her words, Ivy continued telling her wolf pals snippets of her plan. “Aaaaggghhh! Queen Ivy is coming!” She threw her head back and cackled. The cackle was so evil that several of the wolves retreated into the shadows of the room.

“That reminds me.” Ivy let the fantasy roll to the back of her mind. “I must add a line to my plan.”

She let the words wash over her body, then strutted to a corner of the room with so much clutter that it was as if a landmine had hit it.

Ivy waded through the hundreds of sheets and forms. Here she put unwanted things. . . and things she wanted to hide.

After a few moments of foraging, ripping up documents she would rather forget about, such as:

The Palace Dentist Needs To See You

I regret to say that, for the twentieth time,You have missed this
month’s checkup. We do not need to remind you that your teeth are
highly important and it is only kind to them if you not only brush them twice
a day, but If you have them throughly cleaned every month. I have the license to
Do that. After all, as a princess you need to show the other boys and girls just how
important it is to brush your teeth. And that is, very important.

Yours faithfully,
The Palace Doctor

HEY FRIEND!!!!
Do you wanna join
PEACE FOREVER???
Shouldn’t have asked. . .
The answer will be
YES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
At PEACE FOREVER,
We HAVE FUN!!!!!!!!!!!!!
We think you would have fun there too!
So, join PEACE FOREVER now.

YOU KNOW YOU WANT TO!

Ivy,
I’m not sure we are okay. We are kinda out of order. I don’t want to hurt Allie anymore. She’d be the perfect queen. You would be the perfect jester because you are cool and definitely funny. . . but are you sure we should do this dare game? I know we are passing this in class and the teacher will notice, but. . . are you sure we are doing the right thing, because I don’t think we are. I know you will call me a coward, but I love Allie like a sister ever since she gave me her winnings from the book quiz because she knew I needed money to pay you off the stupid bet we did last week. The thing is, I don’t like what we’re doing to her, and I know, deep in your heart, you don’t either. C’mon, let’s stop.

Veronica

Ivy found and grabbed the plan after a few minutes of searching for it.

Ivy read it through, then found a pencil on the floor and wrote another sentence on it. She found new hope as she read it, inspiring her to do it. Do the plan. That was what her mind was telling her.

She tailed off her favourite bits of the plan. “Allie will die, and so will Ma and Pa!” A cackle followed this, the malicious sound bouncing around the room. Her hair whipped her shoulders as her eyes narrowed and she began to pace the room.

“The wolves - cowards. Do you hear me. . . YOUR COWARDS!” Ivy pointed accusing fingers at the wolves’ stomachs. “You shall pay. If it weren’t for that stinking Fortin, Allie and the Furbians would be dead right now! But maybe. . . maybe. . . maybe it’s better this way. . . yes, I shouldn’t kill the Furbians yet. I can deal with them separately. Charcoal! You were in charge of this operation, my wolf. You shall face consequences if you fail once more. Now, where are the rest of my wolves?”

As if on cue, the mahogany closet door swung open and twenty or thirty wolves streamed in.

“I will be rich! I’ll be QUEEN!”

The wolves swarmed around her, almost as if they were one rather than many. Ivy watched them, feeling as if they were the icon against peace. A few of the clouds had darkened to a gothic black.

Ivy noticed them. “Great,” she hissed, “I love storms. . .”

Ivy raised both hands. Still as one, the wolves sat. A deafening CLUMP! rocketed around the room.

“I’m sure you all know who I am -”

She was interrupted by a few brisk taps on the door. “Ivy, are you in there? How - how did you escape from that ghastly wolf with the ash coloured fur?” It was Allie.

Ivy’s brow furrowed. “Cinder fur, actually.” she corrected with gritted teeth.

“Fine. . . be that way. Just - never mind. . .”

Allie’s footsteps became quieter as she strode away. At last Ivy could no longer hear them, so she continued her speech to the wolves.

Allie had dismissed many thoughts about Ivy, but now one particular thought crawled back into her mind. This time, Allie could not make it retreat.

Questions flickered through Allie’s mind like wildfire. Questions only Ivy could answer. Allie would make her tell her. But not by terrible torture. . . no, Allie would do it her way, and her way alone.