Rosita watched as she saw Trisha walk towards the pumpkin patch. "Where have you been?" She asked.
Trisha gave her a pleasant smile. "Just asking Nellie some questions about pumpkin picking."
"Really?" Stanley asked. "Rosita and I have been working hard at picking pumpkins while you have been hardly working snooping around the place."
Trisha ignored Stanley's reply. "Well, Rosita, would you like to come to my place?" she asked her best friend.
"Nah, Stanley asked me to stay here with for a little bit after school. He said something about dummies for the school haunted house." Rosita said. "He is a good artist."
"Yeah, a twisted one." Trisha muttered under her breath. "Rosita, I don't think you should be with him."
Rosita glared at Trisha. "Since who do you think you are for telling me who I should or shouldn't be with."
"I have a feeling in my bones." Trisha said unabashedly.
Stanley shook his head. "Trisha, I think you need to go see a school counselor." He face Rosita. "Ready to go back to school?"
"Yes, Stanley." Rosita replied.
"Geeze! Everyone is mad at me now!" Trisha complained to herself.

***

A few hours later, Stanley and Rosita walked over to Farmer Drill's house. Nellie was sitting on the porch looking to the horizon. "Who do you have there Stan my man?" Nellie grinned. "Is this your girlfriend?"
"Stanley has been dating me for a month already." Rosita said. "Do you know what has been bothering my friend Trisha." Stanley and Nellie gave each other knowing looks. "Is there something that I should know?"
"Nah, Trisha has been snooping around chasing Glinda." Nellie replied.
"Weird, I haven't seen Glinda back on the school bus." Rosita replied.
"Well, I can take you to the kitchen and grab some fudge and orange juice." Stanley offered. Farmer Drills has been busy with the cornfield maze and he told me he would like to meet you but he might not today so I wanted to take you inside and show you my project."
Nellie said, "Go inside, you lovebirds!" Nellie said as she faced the horizon again. Make yourselves at home." Stanley led Rosita inside. "Oh, and Stanley, if you sure she is the one, tell her about your secret art inspiration."
"Yes, miss." Stanley replied. The two entered the kitchen and they both saw a faceless manikin wearing a three piece suit and tie. "Well, here is my manakin." Stanley said.
Rosita cocked her head. "Hmm, very nice suit and tie but not something I would see in a haunted house, maybe a shopping mall unless you are doing a shopping mall themed haunted house."
Stanley said, "I built it myself, I call it "Thumbkin" because its all thumbs. Take a look at the hands." Rosita looked at the manikin's hands and noticed indeed it had five thumbs instead of four fingers and a single thumb. Stanley told her, "Watch this." Stanley's hands began to crackle with yellow sparks and light. The manakin walked towards the fridge, opened the door, and pulled out two plates of fudge and placed them at the table. Next, the manakin returned to the fridge and pulled out a pitcher of orange juice. "Is that Farmer Drills in a manakin costume and this is a Halloween trick?"
"No, that is a real manakin. I told you Mr. Drills is working outside." Stanley said.
"So this is a robot or something?" Rosita asked.
"Actually this is a golem." Stanley replied.
"Golems are not real." Rosita replied.
Stanley paused like he didn't know what he wanted to tell her. "Umm, Rosita, we have dated for a month and our relationship is getting serious so I wanted to tell you some truths about the farm."
Rosita giggled, "What? are you hiding nuclear weapons here or something?"
"Something like a portal to another planet." Stanley replied.
"Ha! Ha! Very funny." Rosita said in disbelief.
"That is why Trisha has been snooping around. She is a weretiger."
"Oh, like a werewolf?" Rosita asked.
"Nellie is a werewolf." Stanley said. "Werewolves can disguise themselves as humans. Creatures from myths and legends are very real." He said. "And many of them come from other planets. The planet the the portal would take people to a planet called 'Guardaria' and the planet is located in the Draco constellation." Stanley gazed at his disbelieving girlfriend. "I guess I am going to have to show you." Stanley reached towards his eyes and pulled out what looked like contact lenses. Underneath were two large black eyes that looked like the eyes of a bee.
Rosita quit smiling and suddenly looked shocked. "Y-you're a bee?" she asked.
"I am a phronxling, a human bellethrite hybrid." Stanley clarified. "Bellethrites are fairy like beings with pale skin, human hair, limbs face and torso, yet they have the eyes, antenna, and wings of bees. I was abducted by magical creatures and was experimented on. Phronxlings are humans that have been mixed with the DNA of magical creatures. I've seen people with horse hooves for feet from mixed pegasus DNA. I have seen people with werewolf claws on their hands. The whole point of the experiments have been to find ways to get magical creatures to have more than one spectroit (magical powers) and use them as super soldiers. Humans are the guinea pigs to see how safe the experiments are."
Rosita said, "I-I'm sorry I didn't believe you."
Stanley placed the contact lenses back into his eyes making him look normal again. "Sorry about scaring you. Phronxlings are divided into three classes--A class, B class, and C class. Humans that have minor mutations, such as myself, are considered A class. People with several mutations to the point where they have many parts of different fantasy creature are isolated because they are radioactive and cannot be around other people except for other class B phronxlings. Class Cs are mutated to the point where they are made of various mythological creatures and no human DNA left. Because of the imbalance of genetics, they have lost their humanity and act like feral animals."
Rosita said, "Why would fantasy creatures want to experiment on humans?"
"Because humans kidnapped them, hunted them, enslaved them, and used them for magical tools so they decided to have their revenge on humans. Not all creature of myths and legends act like that though. Some of them think humans are not so bad and the real problem is not healing the wounds of the past."
Rosita asked, "Have any experiments been successful?"
"Yeah, these are humans that retained their form and have magical powers of the spectroits. They are called 'shinelings' because they are the 'shining' goal of the Guardarian scientists. Their discovery was is that shinelings have to be the offspring of one human parent and one phronxling parent. Rosita, you a a shineling."
"Which of my parents is a phronxling, then?" she asked.
"Your father. He is a class A and has the hooves of a centaur instead of human feet. You have centaur DNA but externally look fully human and have a spectroit ability yourself."
"What is it?" she asked.
"I don't know." Stanley replied, but that is something we are going to have to find out sometime in the future. For now, we are going to see Girda. She is a female pegasus and has a violet spectroit. She can create illusions so she creates and illusion to hide her wings and look like a normal horse. "I'll show you to her right now. She can explain stuff about Guardaria better than I can. Follow me" Stanley led Rosita to the back door, led her to a barn, and showed her to a horse stable. A black mare was eating from a feed bag mounted on the wall. "Meet Girda, she is a refugee from the Guardarian Empire."
The horse eyed Stanley, "I told you to let me know when you have brought the shineling."
"Her name is Rosita Quenly and she needs an explanation about the Guardarian Empire and what we are dealing with" Stanley replied.
"Welcome to my quarters, Rosita." Girda replied. "Now let me, tell you the story of how Guardaria was founded."

End of Chapter