You’ll never believe…(2)

 CHAPTER 2:

Ah, so we left off with me stranded in the time of the black death. Obviously it was no surprise that mice basically ran the city.
Man. Mice ruin everything.
Everything!
In fact when I was looking around, "admiring" the village, something nipped my hand, drawing blood.
"Ow!!" I yelp in pain. When I look down, I saw a rat the size of a really small dog. Even by middle ages standards, this was a big one.
"Ew!" I shrieked as I tried getting away from the stupid thing. Unfortunately for me, the rat had gotten a taste of my blood and kept following me. Now, in my defense, what I did next was completely justified. I mean, if you were in my shoes, you probably would’ve done the samething. I started walking away from the dog-rat grumbling "Stupid rat. Why did it have to bite ME?" I was wandering around, looking for the tunnel, the one that brought me here, when something nipped my other hand.
Yes. It was the same rat.
 "Ouch! Darn you, rat-dog!" I said, simultaneously connecting my fist with the beasts jaw. Well that got it away.
Thank God.
When I went back to the spot I had come out of, nothing was there.
I’m not kidding! It was just a normal wall. There was no tunnel coming out of it. I started fingering the wall to make sure my eyes werent playing tricks on me.
"oh. Are you another one of those time-travelers?" said a gravelly voice behind me. 
 Look, I’ve read lots of books and isn’t it a rule your not suppose to change anything that already happened? Besides sinking my fist into that rat, I had not done anything.
"Uh…No! Why would you think such a…thing?"
Sheesh, my 14th century lingo needed work. The guy standing behind me looked like your total cliche wizard.  Long robe. That beard they always stroke. He even had the pointed cap on his head. Oh and he was old.
Really old.
"Because you have abominable clothing!" he said gesturing to my clothes. I honestly didn’t see anything wrong with them. I mean this was like one of my favorite outfits, for crying outloud. Seriously, how can you go wrong with dark blue jeans, a white tank top and a lacy, black cardigan?
 The answer would be: you can’t.
And my hair was pulled back into a pony tail.
Then again…I don’t think women wore pants back then. Oh. And they also didnt have glasses. Good thing I wore contacts then!
"Yeah, you don’t look so hot yourself." I scoffed.
Yes, I suppose it was wrong to make fun of the wizard, but no one got away with insulting my clothes.
And plus, that rat had already put me in a bad mood.
The wizard furrowed his brow and waved off my remark and said "If you want to go back  to your time period, you’ll have to talk to the king. He’s over there." The wizard pointed to a really small square in the distance.
"What’s that? The castle? Right." I said laughing at any fool who would think that’s the castle.
"Yes , I do suppose it looks rather minuscule. Believe me, it is much larger than it appears. It is very far away so I do believe you will need a carriage to get there. Good Day then." He said.
I stared at his retreating back.
The fool was just going to leave me here?
Not on my watch.
"Wait!" I shouted after him.
The wizard momentarily stopped and gave me a look, that I suppose saidWhat? I have helped you enough. Now leave me alone.
Rude much?
"Hey. Where am I supposed to get this so called ‘carriage’?"I said, making air quotes around carriage.
"You speak nonsense. I cannot understand you so I must ask you to use this." he said handing me a a bottle filled with a gooey pink liquid.
No. Freaking. Way. I was ever going to drink that.
"Uh. I was always told not to talk to strangers. And to turn down any mysterious fluids they offered me." I said, shoving the bottle back at him. Just as I was about to walk away, I heard a little pop and then felt cold slimy liquid traveling down my hair and marching is way over my clothes.
He. Did. Not.
My clothes!!
I felt my face reddening. "Why did you do that, you crazy, old hoot?! Now I’m wet and my clothes are probably stained and you guys don’t even have dry cleaning!!" I picked up a strand of slimey hair, brought it around to my face and sniffed it.
Oh lord. 
May no one ever have to smell anything like that. I quickly dropped the strand, clearly revolted, and gagged. "And who knows what that stuff is going to do to my hair!"
The wizard just watched with no emotion.  Maybe my insults would have better results if he knew what I was saying.
Then I heard a little poof and the slime felt all tingly for a second. When I looked down, I wasn’t  wearing gooey, modern day clothes, instead I had on a puffy dress and my hair was down in shiny ringlets.
I mustve looked like a total clown.
Do any of you know how hard it is to pack a punch in a dress? Or deliver a kick?
It’s really hard!
On the bright side, all the jewelry I had been wearing before remained the same.
But it was costume jewelry.
Which was completely worthless.
But glass was pretty expensive during these days also.
Hmm.
"The carriage is over there. I bid you a good day." the wizard said. I forgot he was there.
Whatever, I was not going to call him back again. I totally learned my lesson: Never trust old guys offering mysterious liquids.
But that gooey stuff must’ve been helpful since now I could understand what these clowns were saying. I hopped into the carriage and I started heading toward the castle.

* * *
The castle was really big.
And it took forever to get there.
Almost an hour.
You would think the king would’ve sent me off to the looney bin by the time I finished talking but surprisingly I was not the first person he dealt with.
Apparently there were a few more from my time.
"so, what am I suppose to do? I can’t stay here!" It reeks!
<div

style=”text-align: left; “>"The only way to get back would be for Philip to take you back." The king said.
"Um. Philip?" I said "Whos this dude Philip?"
The King gave an exasperated sigh. Oh come on old dude. How am I suppose to know who Philip is?
"Philip, is a dragon. Although–"
"oh, great! Ok, if you could just summon Philip, I’ll be on my way, then." I beamed. This was too easy.
"You didn’t let me finish. I was going to say, Philip can’t take you back because he is the only dragon of his kind. If you were to take him back, he would be stuck there." he said rubbing his temples as if I was giving him a headache.
Suck it up old dude. I don’t want to be here anymore than you want me to be here.
"I get to keep a dragon also?!" I grinned "Awesome!!" 
"No. Because of this, I will not allow Philip to go anywhere. Philip is rather rare therefore, he is valuable."
"Wait, so you’re telling me I’m STUCK here?!" I basically yelled.
"I’m afraid so. NEXT!" He waved me off and the guards were about to bring someone else in except I stomped back in front of the king. 
"I demand to be taken back to my time!" I said crossing my arms and giving a livid glare
"No. Guards please escort her to the dungeon. I honestly don’t have time for this."
Two guards  were making their way towards me when I started to yell. 
"Oh, come on!" I said desperately "There has to be something worth more than Philip!" I was actually just bluffing. But how was he suppose to know,
The king froze. He said "Theres a black pearl a few kingdoms and forests back. Worth 100 dragons, as a matter of fact. Im not really sure why, but imagine the riches." His eyes looked overcome by greed. Then as if he remembered I was still standing there he said "It’s terribly dangerous to get to the location of the black pearl and I couldn’t ask you to go all that way. Now, guards, please escort this young lady out. NEXT!"

And just like that I was waved off and escorted to the dungeon. Don’t get me wrong, I got a few punches in but I was no match against, like, 500 pounds. (Why was everyone so fat?)
Five minutes later–you know, after the guards got over the fact they got nailed by a thirteen 
year-old (bunch of babies, by the way), I was thrown into the dark, musty dungeon. Then I heard a click. I was locked in.
Great.