walking blind in the dark [wendy]

"I think that would give away that he was a bad guy, though?" Benny countered as they continued to talk about the potential storyline. Even still, he would be keen to see a gnarly goblin or a rogueish ogre in the story, that sounded fun. "Like if he is a unicorn they will probably trust him more than if he was an ogre, ya know." Maybe it was wrong to think of it that way but in fairy tales Ogres and Goblins weren't always like the ones in the magical world. They were monsters, villains, and they never ran banks. "They should run into an ogre sometime though, or maybe a giant, or a troll!" Benny was way too excited, bumping the table with his thighs again as he shot up from his seat.

Listening closely little wizard nodded along with Wendy. Every character needed a motivation, a reason to be a part of the story, and it was cool that they had agreed so easily on the part the villianicorn would play. "Yes, yeah that's brilliant, that is," Benny said between nods and the powerful smile on his face.

When they got to the topic of the love interest again Benny shrugged, he didn't have a whole lot to add in that department, but he knew she was right. The preteen hadn't thought much of it in his real life but he did recognize that romantic drama was always a part of the story. And if they wanted their story to have everything, then it had to have everything! "Could be she falls for the unicorn guy?" Betrayal was unfortunately also a big part of most of the stories they read. Twist endings, secret lies, and falling for the wrong person were common.

"There should totally be a best friend though, everyone needs a partner in adventures. Someone to watch your back ya know," He nodded, this he knew to be true from personal experience. "They could team up with the unicorn, go on the quest, and help him return to his real form and maybe then she falls in love with him but then they find out his real name?"

“Oh,” she paused for a moment, thinking it through and realizing that what he said did indeed make much more sense, “I guess it’s hard to believe that a unicorn is up to no good, they’re so pretty after all,” Wendy reasoned, shrugging her shoulders as she spoke, almost as if trying to convince herself as well. “Definitely! What if like at the end of every chapter they have to defeat one creature to reach the next level?” she suggested.

One of her muggleborn friends had once told her about video games, some sort of game you played on something called a “computer” and in the game you had to sometimes defeat monsters in order to reach the next level. It sounded exciting, though Wendy never really understood the point of playing that in a game when books were so much better.

But what was even better than reading a book was writing one, especially with someone as creative as she was like Benny. “Do you know what video games are?” she asked, “I think it’d be fun to write a story sort of like that,” she offered. If he did not know, though, she’d try her best to explain it. Either way, it seemed that they were definitely on the same page on many of the important elements. Developing it together would be a breeze.

“Maybe the unicorn falls for her first,” she added. It was always nice when the boy did the falling first instead of the girls, the girl falling head over heels for the main character was such a cliché nowadays, “Maybe she’s not interested at first because well he’s a unicorn,” she laughed at the thought of the character being in love with the unicorn from the beginning, that sounded like a completely different story. “Or maybe she’s trying to get over the guy she liked before,” she suggested. “Oh!” she said suddenly, putting her utensils down as she brought her hands together in excitement, “What’s her story? Maybe she got separated from the main group or something tragic?”     

"Yes that is good! Then, we can introduce all sorts of monsters and stuff," Benny loved the idea of having each chapter end in some kind of action and battle. That was the sort of stuff he looked for in the adventure books, more so than the romantic stuff anyway. This story was really shaping up and he was eager to write it all down. Hopefully before they forgot it. "No, I've heard about them, but I've never played one," Benny had played plenty of board games but there wasn't a whole lot of muggle tech back at the apartment building he lived in. "But I think I know what you mean," He could understand from context, or so he thought.

"The monsters get tougher as they go on right?"

Benny's head tilted to the side a little when Wendy mentioned that the unicorn should fall in love first and he agreed. It was more fun that way too, because then it could be a longer winded story. "Yeah, yeah I like that, and then when she finally does fall for him it'll be that much more..." He searched for the word, tapping his chin before finishing the thought, "heartbreaking, when she finds out the truth about him."

"That could be why she runs into the unicorn? Because she's lost in the magical fields or something, separated, but maybe the best friend is still with her, just not the rest of the group? And then they can think the unicorn is leading them back, you know, being helpful, but he's got his own plans." Benny really liked the angles they were sewing into the story lines. So many alterior motives, so many moving parts, that was what made a good story. Things could never be exactly what they seemed, where was the fun in that?

"Maybe she got into a fight with the main group? And that's why they've separated?"

“But no dragons!” she insisted, making sure to put her foot down now so that they wouldn’t have creative differences later. “I love dragons but I don’t want our story to be another one of those, you know?” she clarified, hoping that he understood. “I’ll have to read up on some in my magical creature’s guide, I brought it with me so we should look through it together,” she suggested.

It would be a great way to get better acquainted with the more commonly known creatures too. The book included all sorts of fancy diagrams and though it was a little difficult to understand because of all the hard vocabulary, it didn’t deter the Ravenclaw girl from reading it from cover to cover every chance she got.

“Right! There’s apparently like some ultimate boss or something like that, the hardest creature or person to defeat,” she continued, trying to remember and present ever detail that came to mind from that conversation. Wendy had a considerably good memory but it worked much better when it was presented with ideas she was interested in. “We need like the ultimate villain,” she added.

“Yeah I like that,” Wendy nodded as he spoke, the whole idea playing out in her head quite nicely. “Maybe she can help save her friends later in the story, maybe she thinks they’re angry with her but they were put under a curse,” she continued, “and somehow the best friend avoids it? It could be like a nefarious potion in the food,” she added as she shrugged, offering whatever idea came to mind. “or she thinks they’ve abandoned her but the unicorn’s made it that way, somehow’ s tricked them to eat some weird magical plant.

While the idea of absolutely no dragons was kind of a bummer, Benny entirely understood what she meant by it not being one of those stories. There were so many different kinds of fascinating creatures in the magical world. They had plenty of options to chose from. And yet Dragons seemed to be in every story. He nodded a quick agreement to her, vowing to keep the dragons out of it without a second of protest; he smiled at her next statement. "Oh, can I see it too?" Forgetting that he was already borrowing another book from her, Benny asked.

"Oh, yeah, yeah, we need that in our story," An ultimate boss, the twelve-year-old, repeated the words over again in his head; they sounded so cool. They certainly had to add that in. "But it can't be who you think it's going to be right at the beginning, you know, keep the reader guessing. I like it when the books do that, like with Vaulda in the last chapter. I definitely thought she was the bad guy, but she totally wasn't!" Benny had really been thrown for a loop with that one, but he had quite a few chapters left to read, so things could certainly still change.

No spoilers!

"Oh yeah, but the best friend is like allergic to something, so he doesn't eat the plant or food, but the others do. I like that." Benny said quickly. It was nice to be working together so well with Wendy. They had known each other their first term, but it wasn't really until recently during camp that they became close friends. Sharing books was the start, but writing this story together would surely concrete their friendship. And Benny was excited about that. He loved making good friends.

Looking around, he realized the mess hall was half empty, and the adults from the kitchens were starting to clear out the bins that held all of the food. "We should probably clean this up," he said as he motioned toward his basically empty plate and suddenly wished he'd went back for seconds. "If you're done, no rush, though?"

“Absolutely!” Wendy replied enthusiastically, always the type to share whatever book she had on her with any fellow avid readers. It was a great book too; Wendy knew that if Benny took a look, he’d find all sorts of fun, new creatures to discuss. “Oh, what about a Hidebehind?” she added suddenly. It was still a bit scary for her as she was convinced that Hidebehinds were lurking around camp. Still, the more she read about them, the more attractive they became, “But then it’d be set in America, can you pretend an American accent?” she asked, wondering what sorts of slang Americans used and if it would fit in their little tale. Though Wendy had always assumed fantasy novels sounded much better in British English.

“Vaulda,” Wendy repeated, laughing a little as if to allude that he might have figured it out incorrectly. The book hadreadlly had a lot of the readers going, with Vaulda playing the role of the villain at least until the final chapter when she returned to the lair of those vile twins, Wolf and Zelda, crying and begging them to let her go. The next book clarified everything up, but that was an ending nobody could have expected. She wasn’t’ about to spoil the tale for him; she knew he’d want to read that for himself.

“Good idea!” she continued, “And we can figure all that out when we get there,” she suggested. Stories developed themselves sometimes, and planning them too much might not allow them to get as creative as they wanted to. Wendy finally looked around the cafeteria when he noted that they should leave, a little embarrassed that she had taken up so much of Benny’s time with her silly tangents. But it seemed like they were both having a good time. “Yeah, I’m done,” she clarified, standing up with the tray in her hands.

“We better go write all that stuff down anyway; you’ve got any schedules after this? I’ve got that Arts and Crafts class but if you want we can keep plotting later?” she suggested. “Or tomorrow if you’re busy? I don’t want to be a bother but I get really excited about these sorts of things.”

Benny tried not to read too far into her response about Vaulda, but it was difficult not to. The Gryffindor pushed down all the questions he so desperately wanted to ask about the ending of that part of the book. Trying to keep his lips sealed, he moved to clean up the little mess he'd made on the table by sweeping the crumbs into his hand and dropping them onto his plate.

Wendy said that she was done with eating and Benny pushed away from the table a bit. Leg swinging around to stand up, he reached for his tray and tossed it into the receptacle. It nearly flopped off the side, falling on the floor, but managed to make it in, and he breathed a silent sigh of relief. He did not feel like cleaning all of that up; they had too much to do!

"Oh, good idea," he said as she mentioned writing it all down. Benny would hate if they forgot too many things. They were all such good ideas! "I've got archery, but nothing after that." Archery wasn't as much fun as Flying, but JR had signed them both up, and Benny would go. Besides, they got to shoot arrows at stuff, so it wasn't like boring like learning History or anything. The preteen nodded in agreement. "Maybe we can meet up after?" He said with a hopeful smile, Benny was as excited as she seemed to be. "Don't wanna' forget anything!" He announced, shooting an index finger into the air like he was some sort of Knight from their stories making a proclamation.

“Archery! Oh, oh—” she said with much excitement; if only she’d been good at sports in general, she would have totally signed up for that one. Wendy moved with benny to toss out her tray. “One of the characters in the book, he ought to be good with archery,” she suggested, “maybe his arrows are magical or like have the ability to bind evil, but they’re limited, or he gets weaker every time he uses them,” she added as an afterthought. She liked the idea of one’s powers, also being one’s weaknesses. It seemed very magical to have to overcome one’s struggles for the good of the group, and maybe the character would have to battle with that idea throughout.

“Suppose Arts & Crafts doesn’t sound as fun anymore,” she giggled at the thought of one of the characters having a talent in macaroni art and how ridiculous that would sound in a fantasy novel. Or maybe they’d work it in somehow. She wanted to be in the novel somehow, too.

“Meet me in front of the library after dinner? I think they have little rooms we can use for group projects and talk in—” she offered, “this counts as a group project, right?” she smiled, walking towards the entrance.

"Yeah, JR signed us up," Benny added, with a shrug, as they tossed out their trays and headed for the exit. The hall was mostly empty now, but there were a few stragglers, not counting them. Perking up at her suggestion of adding a character that could do archery, Benny nodded enthusiastically. She had all the best ideas, really, and he was starting to feel like maybe he wasn't contributing enough. He'd never been the best at coming up with make-believe stories, but he could draw the pictures, so in a way, he supposed his real job would come later. "That's brilliant," he added, his body language showing how excited he was as he basically jumped for the swinging door and held it open for the two of them.

Benny waited for Wendy to pass before letting it go and turning to walk with her. He squinted into the sun, putting his hand above his eyes like a visor. They had been inside longer than he'd realized, but there was still plenty of time for their next activities and then meeting afterward. "No, it totally does!" He said, recalling what she had mentioned a moment ago before they left the cafeteria, and Benny turned to look at her as he watched. Taking a few side steps, he spoke again, "I'd of taken arts and crafts in a heartbeat, if JR hadn't already signed us up for archery. Next week though, I'm gonna switch!" IT was nice that there were so many activities at the summer camp, but Benny felt like he was missing out on stuff. Luckily, they could always swap activities, which was good because he planned to try everything before the end of the month.

"Yeah, it's totally a group project," Benny assured her, a smooth look on his tanned features, and he grinned. Even if it wasn't, the Gryffindor highly doubted anyone would kick them out for working on something creative in the library. It wasn't like they were lighting off fireworks or being disruptive. "I'll meet you there," He agreed before walking straight on again toward the path that split off in multiple directions. There was a signpost at the fork in the path denoting where the Owlery was, the archery course, the swimming hole, the arts and crafts cabins, and the showers. When they got there, Benny stopped for a moment and spoke again.

"Should I bring anything? Think they have quills and parchment at the library?" He hoped because he hadn't brought any of that sort of stuff. If they needed famous witch and wizard cards or gobstones, he'd have them covered, but anything school-related, not so much.

“That’s really cool, I think we’re only in one class together,” she confessed. Wendy got along with JR alright, but mostly because of their mutual friends. He didn’t seem that interested in fantasy novels, so it was never a point of a conversation for the two of them. Though lately, Wendy had started to think that she should try harder to accommodate the interests of others, not just her own. “Really?” she asked rhetorically. Wendy felt at ease telling her ideas to Benny because he had never made fun of her obsession with fantasy, or romance for that matter. But occasionally, she still had a few doubts when it came to creating her content. She had always dreamed of one day writing her own story but didn’t feel good enough to do so, often found herself worried that she was trying too hard to make things too complicated or that her ideas didn’t make any sense. It was nice to know that Benny was just as excited about her ideas as she was and that his ideas were so in-tune with her own. This was going to be so much fun!

“Arts and Crafts is very fun! You should try it at least once; if I were any good at sports, I might have gone for archery too,” she said with a bright smile. The previous week, they had made some magical creature figurines out of paper maché and she had thoroughly enjoyed that activity. Even though Wendy was not creative in the art sense, it felt so much fun to make things with her hands. And to her surprise, she wasn’t as bad as she had initially expected to be. “Ill find out what we’re doing next week, to give you a heads up!” she promised.

She looked up at the crossroads, noticing that it was unfortunately time for the two of them to partways. She probably would have more ideas when she got to class but she would make sure not to get too ahead of herself, it had been so much fun to plan together as a team rather than on her own. Maybe they’d also do some more world building while they were at it. “I think we should bring our own, just in case!” she suggested, “But I think just bringing yourself and your ideas is good enough,” she added. Wendy didn’t really know much about writing a story or what was needed to plan one out, either but figured they’d know what to do when the time came.

“See you later, Benny!” she waved enthusiastically as she walked in her direction, “Don’t be late, okay?” she added in as an afterthought, though she doubted he would.

Finally, she was going to make progress on that novel she had been dreaming about for ages and there was nothing that could have made her happier.

/end

Benny was already looking forward to trying out arts and crafts next week, but Wendy said she'd give him a heads up on the next project; he beamed. That was even better; that way, if for some reason he wasn't interested (doubtful), he'd know in advance and not miss the chance to pick something else. There was almost too much to do at summer camp, and the Gryffindor needed to do it all. Suddenly archery was sounding less and less entertaining, but then he remembered they got to shoot arrows at stuff, which was pretty fun.

Giving her a big wave, Benny nodded. "See ya then," he told her as they began to walk in their own directions down the beaten paths. "I won't be!" He hollered over his shoulder before breaking out into a run. Benny wasn't the sort plagued with tardiness, but he was also an eleven-year-old boy, and because of that, he made sure to set a little alarm on his wristwatch. It had small Quidditch hoops where the twelve should have been, and the hands were players on brooms that flew around the pitch. He made sure to set it for five minutes before he planned to meet Wendy, which would give him plenty of time to run to the library.

[/end]