“Fate has brough us here to meet you, Princess Yana,” said General Logan Kline, determined to take Princess Yana back to the court,“Your Highness, by His Majesty’s order, I have come here to bring you back to the palace. Hundreds of officials have spoken on your behalf, and you need not worry.”“Don’t believe him,” said Tolly with a sneer, “Your father would not listen to those officials. Once you’re in the palace, you’ll be dangerous.”The princess’s eyes flickered with a mixture of fear and resignation.“I know very well that I cannot escape this great calamity,” she admitted, her voice filled with weariness, “I’m not afraid of death, but I am so tired from my journey that I can no longer walk. Would you be so kind as to let me ride on your horse?”General Logan Kline nodded without hesitation.“You may ride on my horse, Your Highness, and I will follow on foot,” he declared, his unwavering loyalty to the princess shining through his every word.Yet, once Princess Yana mounted the
As the ministers bickered like hens in a coop over the emperor's decree, the executioners were already tiptoeing out of the palace gates, blades glinting in the light. It was a race against time, for the prince's head was on the chopping block. Little did the executioners know, the prince was no ordinary mortal. Tolly had him under his protection. He suddenly asked General Addison, “Can you do me a favor?” “Of course, Your Highness”, said General Addison, ”I won’t allow these bastards to kill you no matter the cost.” “I’ve got a white feather in my pocket. Please take it out and burn it,” said Prince Hobart. “Okay, I’ll do it,” said General Addison. Without any delay, General Addison immediately got a white feather out of the pocket. Though not knowing what was the use of it, he realized it must be an important thing. Then he asked his men to bring him a torch. In a few seconds, the white feather was burnt into ashes. As Tolly rode on the horse with Princess Yana behind him, he
As Tolly walked down the hallway, a pack of snickering teenagers trailed behind him, their crude taunts ringing in his ears like an incessant buzz. "Golden or yellow, shower or sugar, all go into a magical bucket.”, they jeered, “Who in the world turns himself into this bucket? Definitely Tolly Toilet! Remember to pee and poo in the Tolly Toilet! " They erupted into peals of laughter, with their mirthful faces twisted with derision. Tolly felt his face flush with shame and anger. Among them stood the hulking figure of Sam Hofmann. He was big and beefy, his thick lips curled in a sneer that revealed a row of discolored teeth, his crooked incisors jutting out like fangs, which could arouse anyone’s desire to hammer them back into his mouth. This was not the first time Tolly had endured such torment. The relentless bullying had already become a daily ordeal. And Tolly was losing his patience. Normally, whenever taunted in the past, Tolly's cheeks would burn with embarrassment. And i
It wasn't long before Tolly walked out of the campus alone. Outside the campus was a wide road, lined with huge sycamore trees, like loyal warriors, tirelessly guarding everything before them. It was a cool autumn day when the leaves of the sycamore trees were falling in the wind. Tolly enjoyed the beautiful landscape around him and some part of a famous poem flashed into his mind: Is the departure of the leaves the wind's pursuit or the tree’s refusal to ask them to stay? When walking quietly along the road for about a few hundred meters, he arrived at the busiest street behind the school--Tinselow Street. This was the first time he had been here on the street since he, as a poor boy, usually ate and drank at school and seldom hung out for fun outside the school. The street was familiar yet foreign to him. It felt familiar because he found many of his classmates walking along. They seemed to be regular visitors to the street. However, Tolly was not in the mood to talk to them. At
Picking up one of her tiny needles, Luna stuck it into his arm many times, letting it fly up and down on it like an exciting dragon. Quickly, tiny beads of blood oozed out of Tolly’s arm. Nevertheless, Luna didn’t feel intimidated at all. From her beautiful appearance, she looked like Venus on a half shell rising slowly from the sea, but she was tough deep down. Tolly’s arm was like a tract of land left to be tilled by Luna, on which she was allowed to show her brilliance and sow her talent seeds. Luna, like a hard-working farmer, wiping away the little beads of blood off the arm proficiently, was now concentrating on her artwork. One could also put it another way, Tolly’s arm was like a small canvas waiting for her to paint the most beautiful picture on it. Before she knew it, more than two hours had passed. Gazing at her own gorgeous tattoo artwork on Tolly’s arm, Luna heaved a relieving sigh. At last, she finished her artwork. ‘What a nice tattoo!’ she thought. Taking a sip of
“Watch out! I’ll break your legs!” Sam prepared to lunge at Tolly--the short, thin, and nasty boy before him. Tolly instinctively took a few steps backward. At the same time, he stretched out his hand to signal him to stop. “Are you scared, huh?” Sam sneered, “Looks like you don’t want to lick my shoes. It’s all right then. You can choose to crawl through under my crotch. Anyway, it’s not a bad choice. Do it now or I’ll beat the living snot out of you. I can promise your snot is going to fly out of your skull. It’ll be awesome!” Tolly shook his head slowly, saying, “That’s funny, huh? But I think you are such an idiot! Look, aren’t you afraid that I use my DRAGON GRIP when I get through under your crotch?” “Dragon grip??!! What is that?” “If you don’t want to be a eunuch, just let me do it! I can assure you that you’ll soon know the true meaning of DRAGON GRIP.” With that, Tolly laughed uncontrollably, raising his loose palm into the air and all at once changing it into a tigh
Darkness! There was darkness before his eyes. “Where am I now? Am I dead?” Tolly lay motionless on the ground, his eyes closed. Sharp pain arced through his body and a sickening, burning smell came to his nostrils. “Did I really get struck by lightning?” Tolly remembered that he had just been dealing with Sam and his friends on the roof of the school building and that the heavens were even about to help him by exacting divine retribution on them. He had expected that the blue lightning would have struck them, but instead, it had gone to him without any mercy. He was by no means an evil person, after all. He could not even be able to stand himself to step on an ant when walking outside. Was it that the heavens did not act from any wish to be benevolent and dealt with all things as sacrificial straw dogs? ‘But why did it have to occur to me? What a crazy world!’ Tolly thought, ‘Goodbye, my dear Jenny! And see you, my beautiful Luna! The tattoo looks good to me, yet it couldn’t b
Looking at the dispersing crowd, Tolly was also taken aback as he noticed that they were all dressed in ancient costumes. The costumes were all made of rough cloth and without any trace of industrial polyester material. What horrified him most was that he wasn't even in any scene of film shooting, for he didn’t have any cameras or cameramen in sight. In the distance, he didn’t see any telephone lines, or cars, either. And no one was holding a mobile phone in their hands. There was no evidence of industrial society that he had been familiar with. ‘Oh, Hee-hee was just telling me the truth. I’ve transmigrated into a new world…’ Tolly thought. “A-a-are you a zombie, or a scary demon that comes out of nowhere? Oh, my god, is there somebody there who can help me?” The coroner beside him quivered as he pointed at Tolly. He was so terrified that he fell flat onto the ground. He decided to take his leave without saying goodbye, but his feet, not obedient to him at all, did not be able to