Kingdom of Keys and Curses

“Watch out!” Violet cried.

Zoey heeded her younger sister’s warning and dodged the arrow that flew toward her. She gripped her sword hilt valiantly and looked in the direction from which the arrow came.

“It’s a goblin!” Zoey cried, although her sister already knew that.

The goblin observed her with cat-like eyes and a challenging smirk. Zoey smiled back – she had fought and won this fight many times. It was always the same – any moment now, the goblin would swing from the tree, like a monkey, and attempt to take Violet and hold her as leverage against Zoey. But sometimes, like now, Violet felt extra imaginative and added something new to the story. Violet dropped her sword and screamed, “One of the Fata has betrayed us!”

Zoey spun around, sword at the ready. “Drop your weapon,” she told the Fata, who was pressing his dagger against Violet’s throat. Violet looked at Zoey with wide eyes, like those of a deer before a hunter pulls his rifle’s trigger.

“He is going to kill me,” Violet said.

“Not if I can help it,” Zoey responded, like the brave warrior she was.

She stepped closer, swung her sword at him and beheaded him without even grazing her sister. They exchanged a smile – but the battle for the throne was not done yet.

The goblin was on the ground, already baring his knife-like teeth at them. This was going to be a dangerous, exhilarating, bloody fight and –

“Zoey! Violet!” Marcia, their mother, called from the kitchen window. “It is time for dinner!”

Both girls groaned simultaneously. “Just a little while longer!” Violet pleaded. “Zoey still has to slay the goblin and sit on the throne.”

“Hurry up!” Marcia said. “Your fish fingers and fries are getting cold.”

Fish fingers were Zoey’s favorite food, and she was tempted to drop her stick and run to the kitchen. They had been playing in the garden all afternoon, and she had not realized how hungry she was. She turned toward the trees, where the imaginary goblin was waiting to fight her, and flung her stick-sword at him.

“Your sword sank into his chest!” Violet exclaimed. “Good throw!”

Fighting to sit on the throne was one of the sisters’ favorite games. They loved pretending to live among the faeries, where they were heroes.

In their eyes, the throne was big, covered in jewels, and the most expensive thing in the world. In reality, it was the remains of a tree that had been chopped down long ago.

Before heading into the house for dinner, little Zoey sat down elegantly on the tree stump and announced to the world that she was royalty.