Cassandra's Curse

{18} Bob Gets A Makeover

Bam have another chapter, I'm trying to make good on my new found inspiration :) Had to do some geography research here, but I sucked at it in year seven so just bear with me? 

Read on.

***

Chapter 18: Bob Gets A Makeover

"ARRRRGGGAHHHHHHHHGGGGAHHHHH" Was the only eloquent thing that I could possibly say when holding on for dear life, sitting on top a flying death machine. The only good thing that came of this avenue of travel was that Leo was just as scared as me so he had to hold onto my waist for safety reasons. 

Zianna was up the front and I was in the middle pretending that I had complete control of this thing and where we were going, when in truth I had no idea if the Griffon knew east from west. 

But I like to hope for the best. 

"HOW FAR HAVE WE COME?"

"NO IDEA,"

"IS THAT AN ISLAND I'M SEEING?" Zianna risked letting go of the Griffin to point ahead. 

Indeed it is an island, possibly a bunch of islands scattered around in a kind of squiggle shape and clustered together. The biggest one is the closest, but from out view we can see I think six others, give or take. 

"WHERE'S THE ISLAND WITH THIS VOLCANO ON IT?" 

"IT'S THE BIG ONE."

"YOU SURE?" 

"DUDE LOOK AT IT THERE'S AN ENORMOUS VOLCANO ON IT."

"RIGHTIO."

Trying to steer the Griffin down towards one of the empty beaches on the closest shore, I eye the volcano. It looks pretty dormant, but that might just be the Mist messing with me. 

We land on a sandy bank in the mouth of a river that goes deeper into the mountain; Zianna jumps right off and wades out into the water, lying down on her back with blatant disregard for her clothes and any hygiene. 

"Leo you can let go of me now," I grinned when he didn't move. 

"Can't," His voice was amused, but overall kind of worried, "My hands are stuck."

With a playful grin, I turned my head to the side so I can see his face. Putting my hand on his cheek, I drew his lips down to mine, taunting him with a slow kiss, trailing my lips over his. 

His hands unclamped from my waist, probably so he could bring them up and bury them in my hair, but I don't give him the chance. I slipped out from his grip with a wink and a smirk, sliding down the side of the Griffin and sauntering over to the front of it.

"Not fair Cassie! I'll get you for that!" Leo yelled, still sitting on the back of the Griffin.

"I look forward to it," I replied, then turned to the Griffin who had that expression on his face again, amused but still terrifying, "Hmmm, what should we name you?" I patted its head, "Griff?" 

The Griffin gave me an annoyed look and made a noise sort of like a cross between a snort and a screech. 

I tapped my chin, "So not Griff..."

"How about Finn?" Zianna, soaking wet, waddled up to me with the biggest grin on her face and more colour in her cheeks than I've seen in a long time. 

There's that screeching noise again, "I don't think he likes it."

"How about Bob?" Leo, having finally managed to climb down, took my hand and looks at the Griffin.

It had a completely different expression on its face, basically saying 'eh it's better than other variations of what species I am' and then sort of nodded.

"Bob it is then!" Zianna laughed, patting Bob's head. 

I glanced around for the first time since landing, grabbing a hold of my hair and tying it into a pony-tail, and notice that we're on the beach next to some kind of resort, complete with the unnecessary swimming pools right next to the beach, the docks with some boats floating out and tourists laughing and shouting. Not even paying attention to the enormous Griffin named Bob having a splash-battle with a naiad, gods mortals are weird. 

"Huh..."

'What?" Leo noticed my expression, looking at me puzzled.

"I was just thinking ... I'm talking like one of you right now."

"You are one of us-"

"LOOK AT THE BIRDY MUMMY!" A girlish shout echoed out to us, and all four of us -Me, Leo, Zianna and Bob- all jumped and looked around at the tourists on the other side of the beach.

Not one adult was paying attention, but there was a little girl pulling at her Mum's hand, pointing directly at Bob. 

"Crap. We need to blend in so we can plan our next move," Leo said in a rare moment of sanity, he turned to Bob, "you wanna go fly somewhere?" 

Bob makes an annoyed screech that is an obvious 'no'.

Zianna pursed her lips, "what about any magic?"

Bob jumped back, tail wagging like some kind of possessed dog, sneezes and some kind of golden dust spurted out like he'd been sniffing it. The same dust that started appearing when I stabbed him.

"No-what're you doing, don't die!"

The amused expression is back, and he was just looking at me in the eye, when he started to shrink. He was getting smaller and smaller, stopping when he's the size of my palm, little tiny wings flapping about and back to me, perching on my head. 

"Damn Bob, I'm loving the new look."

***

"Hey so we need a suite," I grinned, turning on the Charmspeak, "And we won this trip so, there's no need to charge us." Grinning and blinking innocently at the man behind the desk.

He's smiling with a blank expression, "sure thing. Do you have any luggage that we can bring up?"

"No thank you."

"Okay then, here are your room keys and ticket to the cafe, is there anything else that I can do?" 

"Yes please, make sure that our room does not get disturbed under any circumstance. And also I'll take any brochers or books that you have on the history and tourist destinations around the island, please." 

As the guy goes around the back to get all the info, I turn around and hand their respective keys to Leo and Zi, then tell Bob to shut up as he screeches for his own key. 

"Have a nice day."

"You too." 

And then we're climbing the stairs to our room, which is on the third floor of this hotel. When we get there, I get Leo to unlock the door, I always have trouble with these kinds of things, and we walk into the suite, dumping our stuff on the couches and collapsing next to them. 

Adreneline is wearing off and we're all exausted. 

Bob escapes from my coat pocket, flying in circles around us and running from room to room. Tail whipping back and fourth. 

"Now," I rubbed my eyes, "let's research this volcano." 

 ***

Okay so I'm glad I got this straightened out why does this keep happeneing to my story omg