#Skandar and the Unicorn Thief | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

bossyball · 8 months

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chapter 1 of a thing im writing

it’s a crossover fanfic, bfdi characters in the skandar and the unicorn thief universe

do not expect chapter 2 anytime soon. or anytime in general if im being honest with myself

it’s like 3.5K words help

The helicopter ride to the Island was a dream for almost every Mainlander, a fantasy that kept them studying with determination. Although it was incredibly rare to be picked, Firey had never met anyone who didn’t believe they had a chance.

He’d spent hours reading about how many Mainlanders try out versus get in, how many of them who get to the Island are turned away, and how many schools hadn’t had a single Rider attend. He’d even heard his teacher give a lecture about how she’d been teaching since before the Island was even known to the Mainland, and she’d never taught a future Rider.

But somehow, he’d made it. He was going to the Island, and he would open the door, and his unicorn would be perfect.

He was a little confused on how the test worked. Some of his classmates had stayed up all night studying, gotten straight A’s, and he hadn’t seen them in the mass of prospective riders gathered at the bank of the Goiky Canal. But he wasn’t going to complain.

He was more excited than surprised as he boarded a small black helicopter, with three others inside. The girl who had boarded just before him reached a hand out to help pull him up, and he accepted gratefully. She said something, but the eardrum-shattering sound of the propellers drowned out her voice. He blinked, and she frowned and moved closer to him.

“HI, NICE TO MEET YOU, MY NAME IS LEAFY,” she shouted.

“I’M FIREY,” he returned.

Leafy’s eyes were an unusual shade of forest green, matching her long braided hair. Her bangs were held back on one side with a smiley face clip, revealing one black eyebrow. She was still holding his arm with a soft, bronze, beautifully manicured hand.

Her outfit was definitely strange. She was wearing a pair of short denim overalls over a pink shirt and black leggings, which wouldn’t have been odd if she wasn’t wearing bright yellow rain boots. The ground outside the helicopter was completely dry, so it’s not like they were functional.

She drew back her hand, flashing multicolored painted nails as she slipped it into one of her many pockets. They both jumped as the helicopter began to move, realizing the door had closed while they were talking.

The other two occupants glanced over, both already holding onto a bar hanging from the ceiling. One of them snorted in amusement. Fiery was slightly embarrassed for a second that he hadn’t noticed.

He took a moment to observe his fellow passengers. One of them had bright red hair in a ponytail, and was wearing a silver unicorn horn headband. She had a book titled “Yoyleberry Variations” clutched in her hand, and two round green keychains with the initials “WT” on the front zipper of her backpack.

The other, the one who had laughed, had shiny copper-colored hair, and was wearing a plain T-shirt and sweatpants. His backpack, shoes, and the tips of his fingers were covered in dirt, but there was otherwise nothing notable about him.

Fiery gazed out the window to see the calm waters of the Goiky Canal below him. Very, very, far below him. He bit back a scream and leaned closer to Leafy.

None of them attempted to talk for the rest of the ride, but Leafy and Firey linked arms for extra support the whole time. Everyone gasped in amazement when the Island came into view.

The Mirror Cliffs weren’t a surprise, as many of the school-issued textbooks had pictures of them on the covers. But seeing them up close was a completely different experience.

The reflective surface of the cliff made it look like there was a darker, more metallic version of the beach that someone could just walk into. The surface was smooth and perfect, the only interruptions being ladders on the sides that someone could climb if they didn’t have a unicorn with them.

The helicopter Firey was in, which he’d already forgotten the name of, touched down first. The doors opened and a woman wearing a suit and a stern expression stood on the outside.

She made a note on her clipboard, then looked up at the inside of the helicopter. The blades had turned off, but the crashing of the ocean below mixed with the other helicopters still made it hard to hear.

The woman motioned for everyone to come out of the helicopter. Leafy jumped out first, almost immediately followed by Firey.

“You two,” said the woman, “what are your names?”

“Leafy,” said Leafy. “And this is Firey.”

The woman made two check marks on her clipboard and made a shooing motion with her hand.

An incredibly long line of Islanders was stretched out across the cliff. Most of them looked nervous, some excited. Near the front, some of them had chairs, coolers, and even tents.

The helicopters had landed about a hundred yards from the end of the line. Leafy grabbed Firey’s wrist again and led him over.

Some of the people from the other helicopters had managed to get in line first, and Firey immediately resented them for taking his spot as the first Mainlander to try the door.

“What element do you think you’ll be allied with?” asked Leafy in excitement. Her hands were fluttering at her sides, as if she was too nervous to stand still. Firey looked thoughtfully at the dark sky above.

The horn girl from the helicopter, who Firey had heard introduce herself as Pin to the clipboard lady, spoke up from the spot behind Leafy. “I’m ho-ping for wa-ter,” she revealed.

“I’m not,” said Firey. He hated getting wet, and a water unicorn would probably find pleasure in getting him soaked.

“But Lew-is has a wa-ter u-ni-corn.” Lewis, the year’s winner of the Chaos Cup, indeed had won with his water-allied unicorn, [insert name]. “Be-sides,” continued Pin, “I did-n’t ask you.”

Leafy gasped, looking at Pin in shock. “That was mean!” she announced. Pin showed no sign of caring.

“I think water would be awesome!” chimed in a voice with a thick Yoylese accent. The girl in front of Firey had turned around. She had at least four band-aids on each white-splotched arm, and fluffy hair decorated with clips. She was wearing a transparent puffy vest and jeans. Her face was sweaty, and she was trembling slightly, clearly nervous.

“Yeah, you’d have to be an idiot to not want water,” said the copper-haired boy from the helicopter. Firey hadn’t caught his name.

He’d had exactly two interactions with this guy and already didn’t like him.

“You told me you thought a wa-ter u-ni-corn would mess up your hair, Coi-ny-” started Pin, but was shushed with a hand to her mouth.

Leafy, Pin, and the vest girl were chatting excitedly about what their unicorn would look like, what name they would have, and how well they expected to do in classes. Firey and Coiny- seriously, what kind of a name was that- exchanged a few glances of mutual dislike.

“So why don’t you like water anyway?” asked Coiny eventually.

“I don’t like being cold,” he answered. “What, you can’t tell from the fact that I’m wearing a coat? What an idiot.” He was probably being too mean, but Coiny had started it.

Coiny growled. He stared icily at Firey, and Firey returned the glare.

The girls were having a completely different conversation. Bubble, the one in the vest, was by far the most talkative. She was currently rambling about how worried she was that her friends, who’d been assigned to a different helicopter and separated from her, wouldn’t open the door.

“I mean, if Match and Pencil don’t get in, then I’ll be alone, well except for my unicorn, but if Match and Pencil don’t get unicorns then they’ll only have each other, and I’m so nervous that-”

Pin leaned over and whispered in Leafy’s ear, “I think e-ve-ry-thing she’s said has been one sen-tence.”

It was nearly sunrise when the group of five finally made it to the Hatchery. Bubble was the first to try the door. She took a deep breath and pressed her hand to the thick layer of metal. After a second, the door swung open, and Leafy and Pin cheered.

Coiny, Pin, and Leafy all managed to open the door as well. Firey was getting worried that five people in a row was too unlikely. He pressed his hand, slick with sweat, to the door. The metal was cool against the warmth that had built up from clenching his fist, and it felt clean and smooth despite the hundreds of hands that had touched it that night.

He held his breath for nearly ten seconds. He lowered his shoulders in disappointment when nothing happened, but when he went to remove his hand, the door suddenly sprang to life. A loud creaking came from the hinges, revealing a musty tunnel. He exhaled and climbed inside.

The tunnel was damp and dark, lit by torches held on the wall by brackets. Stalactites hung from the ceiling, and he maneuvered around patches of stalagmites as he made his way through.

Everyone except Coiny was standing right after the first turn in the tunnel, just out of view until he’d walked a bit farther. Leafy sighed in relief that he’d made it through.

“Come on,” said Pin with urgency, “we’ve wa-sted e-nough time. Let’s go!”

She grabbed Leafy’s wrist and started walking briskly through the tunnel. Leafy didn’t protest, but looked behind her. Firey and Bubble followed, staring at the walls. Hundreds of words were carved in, and when Firey looked closer he realized they were names.

Seven. Barbecue Sauce. Even Fancier Water Bottle. Cherry Jr. the Orphan. He even spotted Lewis about halfway through.

At the end of the tunnel, he saw Bubble, Leafy, Pin and Coiny laid out in a row, and a scraping noise below. His own name was being carved into the wall, but no one was doing it. It looked like the wall was carving itself.

He stopped to watch, but Pin snapped at him to keep going. She pulled Leafy to the end of the tunnel, a cavern that was flickering with the light of the torches on the walls. There was a hole in the ground near the far side of the cavern, and flames reached out of it.

The Islanders and Mainlanders had formed groups apart from each other already. Though some people, like Bubble, were from an area with a high population of Riders, most Mainlanders didn’t know each other. But they still remained segregated from the Islanders, who didn’t have much in common with them.

It was easy to tell the difference between the two groups. Islanders were dressed mostly in handmade-looking clothing, mixing medieval and modern. The style was old, the kind of thing that no Mainlander had found fashionable for centuries, but the presence of glitter and bright colors in regular clothes marked it as something that wouldn’t be made back then.

Bubble gasped and ran over to two girls who were chatting with each other, one with bright pink hair and one with red hair. The redhead hugged her, and the other said something and gestured to a short Islander with a red sequined shirt.

Bubble was shocked. An Islander had no place hanging out with her best friends, no matter how cool her shirt, or her name- Ruby- was.

“She’s not in our friend group!” she said, glaring at Ruby.

“Bubble,” Match said gently, “Ruby’s in our friend group now.”

“Oh…” said Bubble. “Okay.”

Ruby was a lot shorter than Bubble, the top of her head only reaching to Bubble’s chest. She supposed it would be nice to not be the shortest anymore. Ruby’s long hair, somewhere between red and pink, was held back from her face with glittery clips. Her eyes, a deep brown coffee color, were round and sparkling.

Mainlanders slowly filed into the cavern. Leafy, who had no one to talk to at the moment, took time to observe them. The next three to come in were a girl with messy light blue hair, a boy with a bright blue backwards cap, and a boy wearing an uncomfortable-looking fuzzy yellow-green sweater.

Pin and Coiny had joined a group of Islanders surrounding one guy, dressed in gold with perfect hair. He was short, thin, and pale, with a smug grin on his face. Everyone in the group, except for Coiny and Pin, were cheering.

“Loser, say hi to me,” said a tall green-haired guy in the front of the crowd.

“How’s it going’, Tree?” he responded in a wheezy, shaky voice.

The crowd cheered louder at the sound of his voice.

“Any idea who this guy is?” murmured Coiny in Pin’s ear.

“I don’t know,” she replied honestly. “Pro-ba-bly some Is-land ce-le-bri-ty.”

“Some celebrity?” repeated a boy with thick cream-colored hair standing near them. “Are you disrespecting LOSER?”

“Loser is the most famous celebrity on the Island,” elaborated a tall girl with short blonde hair.

“The most famous celebrity in the world,” continued the first guy.

“No one on the Main-land has heard of him,” argued Pin.

“That’s alright,” said the distinct voice of Loser himself. Everyone turned to stare at him. He was looking directly at Coiny and Pin, with a gentle smile. “Let me introduce myself.”

The crowd parted to give him a path to Pin and Coiny. He shook each of their hands with a firm grip, and reiterated the knowledge that his name is Loser.

“I’m Coiny,” said Coiny, “and that’s Pin.”

“I like your headband,” said Loser, and Pin blushed and reached up to touch her silver horn.

“Any other Mainlanders here?” he asked, projecting his voice over the chatter of his fans.

Firey, who was standing a bit apart from the crowd, raised his hand, along with a tall, thin girl dressed in gray.

Loser shook both their hands and introduced himself. Firey said his name, but the tall one remained silent when questioned. Loser gave her a slightly confused look, but said nothing and turned away.

“I can’t believe Loser shook your hand,” said the guy with cream-colored hair.

“Is it really that big of a deal?” questioned the tall girl, in a high pitched voice.

Everyone who’d heard her gasped.

“Did you just disrespect Loser, even after he so graciously introduced himself to you?”

The tall girl looked guilty. “I didn’t mean to!”

She’d just gotten to the Island and had already upset a huge group of people.

There was a reason she didn’t talk much.

She stood slightly apart from the crowd. At her height, she could still see Loser in the center, but she didn’t feel like going any closer.

If they knew her name, they’d probably be calling her Needy.

“Hi,” said a voice from beside her. She looked down and saw the other Mainland girl, the one whose horn Loser had complimented. Pin, if she’d heard the name correctly. “I don’t real-ly un-der-stand Lo-ser’s ap-peal ei-ther yet, but may-be we can learn to fit in to-ge-ther.”

She smiled. “Yeah!”

“What’s your name, an-y-way?” asked Pin curiously. Needle looked away. She didn’t quite trust anyone with that information this early.

“It’s Needle,” said a deep-voiced, muscular guy who’d been on her helicopter.

She tensed, ready to slap him if he made a remark about it, but he just smirked at her obvious frustration and walked away.

“Don’t call me Needy,” she muttered to Pin.

“I was-n’t go-ing to,” she responded. “But what’s wrong with cal-ling you Need-y?”

She restrained herself from slapping the only person who seemed to be willing to talk to her.

“Hey Coiny!” she heard the muscular guy say over the cheers.

Coiny looked over. He immediately recognized Snowball’s voice from gym class, one of the few classes he was in without Pin. He and Snowball had a whole friend group there. He hadn’t known Snowball had made it to the Island until now.

Three other guys were standing behind him. He gestured to them.

“This is Pen,” he said, gesturing to the first one. He had overgrown black hair stuffed into a backwards blue cap. His shirt was white, not standing out much against his pale skin. His jeans were so loose Coiny wasn’t sure how he could even walk in them.

“This is Eraser,” continued Snowball, pointing to the guy in the middle. His pink-streaked blonde hair was tied up in a ponytail, just touching the similarly pink hood of a sweatshirt with ripped sleeves.

“And Blocky.” The last guy was the shortest by far, with the top of his hair- styled in dozens of braids with red beads- reaching only to Eraser’s shoulder. He was dressed normally, with a dark red intact hoodie and the right size of jeans.

“Hey,” said Coiny. With Pin already talking to someone else, he found it acceptable to go talk to his backup friend. And others.

Blocky pointed to a nervous-looking short guy with a scar on his forehead. “I guess they’re just letting everyone in,” he complained. “That guy’s such a wimp.”

Leafy blinked and turned her head. “Don’t call him a wimp,” she angrily interrupted.

“Only wimps support other wimps,” he shot back. “Besides, I bet Woody can’t even understand us.”

Leafy shot a glare in his direction, then walked over to Woody. “Don’t worry, Woody,” she reassured, “I can help you.”

“W-wah?” he responded.

“He’s scared of the color gray,” Blocky was explaining, “and he can’t even talk!”

“He must be an idiot if he can’t talk,” laughed Eraser.

As he walked behind Snowball, he bumped into a girl standing alone, knocking her over. He didn’t even bother looking back as she jumped to her feet.

She glared and clenched her fist, shiny painted fingernails digging into her palms. If she could’ve knocked out all his teeth so he couldn’t talk, she would’ve. She shook back her long blue hair over her shoulders and walked off.

Someone tapped on her shoulder. She turned around to see a tall girl in an ironed white suit, purple hair tied up in a neat bun.

“You look like you could use some fork repellant,” she remarked, holding up an aerosol can with a crossed-out fork on the label. She was right. Teardrop had been hit by no less than 15 forks since coming to the Island.

She waved her arms in a wordless attempt to show interest. The tall girl scoffed.

“You could have said you aren’t interested, rather than ignoring me.”

Teardrop waved her arms harder, but she’d already walked away.

“What about you?” Lollipop asked a guy with green hair that clearly had massive amounts of gel in it. His pockets were stuffed with forks; the worst fate imaginable. “You would clearly benefit from a reasonably priced can of fork repellant.”

“Naw,” he said simply, and pulled a fork from his pocket. He chucked it across the cavern, smacking a girl holding a cane directly in the forehead.

“Owww,” she hissed.

“Oh no, Barf Bag!” Donut, who’d been talking to someone else last she saw him, had appeared out of nowhere. “Are you okay?”

“I think so,” she muttered, feeling the spot where she’d been hit with her hand. She looked at her fingers, noticing a small smear of blood. Donut groaned.

He pulled a plastic bag of Band-aids from the side pocket on his backpack and pressed one over the wound. “It’s not too deep,” he explained. “You should be fine.”

“Thanks,” she muttered, but he’d already turned away.

“GELATIN,” he shouted across the cavern. “WE DON’T THROW FORKS AT OUR FRIENDS!”

“YEAH WE DO,” he retorted, “IF WE’RE NOT PARTY POOPERS!”

He ducked just in time to avoid another fork, which shot over his head and hit the wall, bending on impact.

“GELATIIIIIIIIIN!” he shouted.

“He seems pretty mad,” said a gray-haired girl in a white beret. Her voice cracked on the last word.

“He just doesn’t like it when people don’t listen to him, Saw,” explained Barf Bag. “Besides, these forks can do a lot of damage.” She tapped her forehead.

Another fork whizzed past her ear and knocked the glasses off a girl with gray hair and sweatpants. She stumbled back and almost fell, but was caught by a boy in a yellow-green sweater.

“Golf Ball, are you okay?” he asked, raising his usually monotone voice an octave in concern.

“Fine,” she assured him, “but whoever tossed that fork had better hope I don’t discover their identity. She picked her glasses up from the floor. “You didn’t happen to see who it was, did you, Tennis Ball?”

He shook his head. “But we just got to the Island. Please at least wait until Nestling year to kill anyone.”

“I can’t promise that.” She shoved the glasses back on her face. “Although, if I do, it will be for a good reason.”

She stalked off, trailed by Tennis Ball. “‘They insulted your hair’ is not a good reason,” he reminded her. “Neither is ‘you felt like it’ or ‘you needed to test out your incinerator.’”

“That,” she remarked, “is a matter of opinion.”

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