Magus Academy 3

Chapter 12

After spending a few minutes ranting about ominous messages in movies and books, Jamie interrupted me.

"What does this have to do with anything?" He asked amusedly, causing me to realise that I didn't even tell him a thing about my dream.

"Oh right, the dream. So, five weirdos told me that we have a crazier psychopath to worry about when we're done with Arthur," I explained in the simplest terms.

Jamie looked at me blankly before sighing tiredly, "By now, I'm not even surprised. Though that dream is definitely a warning from one of those dream manipulators. Just watch your back, okay?"

I nodded in agreement before getting up and heading to my tent. I took out the sleeping bag and rolled it up before dismantling the tent.

"Might as well save some time until the others wake up," I explained after Jamie gave me a questioning glance.

Jamie then got up and did the same for his tent.

I then walked up to where we tied up the horses, with a bag filled with apples in hand, before feeding each horse.

I gently patted my horse's neck before turning back to our camp, noticing how more people were now waking up.

"Finish up your breakfast and pack everything up ASAP _ we've got a whole lot of travelling to do," I ordered (just noticed how I've been doing that a lot lately) as everyone nodded groggily _ still sleepy huh?

Let's fix that...

"EVERYONE GET YOUR LAZY BUTTS OFF THE GROUND AND PACK UP!" I yelled, causing everyone (except for Jamie) to visibly jump.

I smirked before thinking well, I guess this is how you wake up a bunch of crazy people.

After waiting for a few minutes, we all had a brief toilet break before jumping on our horses and riding onwards.

Every now and then, either Ash or Jack would teleport a few feet away to check that there were no surprises along the way like bandits or crazy, psychotic animals wanting to kill us.

After about an hour of pointless conversations whilst riding, we saw Sophie stop.

By then, she'd have been in her animal form for a ridiculous about of time, draining a lot of her magical energy.

"Shift," Jamie ordered once Charles jumped off Sophie.

After Sophie shifted back into a human, she started swaying _ probably another sign that she used up too much magic.

Suddenly, Sophie collapsed, only to be caught by Charles, causing my colourful words to come out of Jamie's mouth.

"BLEEPING HELL!" I yelled, leaping off of my horse and rushing over to Charles and Sophie.

"Get Sophie on with me, you can ride with Lisa," Jamie then said, gesturing for Charles to give him Sophie's unconscious body.

"I wanna ride with Sophie," he protested, holding Sophie's body closer to him, "I need to make sure she's ok."

Jamie and Charles had a long staring contest, making it obvious that neither of them was gonna back off.

"For bleep's sake!" I exclaimed, frustratedly, "Just get on my horse _ I'll ride with Jamie."

It took me a while to realise what I just said, however, before I could take it back, Jamie said, smirking, "Well, come on then, partner."

I mentally swore at myself and my stupidly large mouth before hopping on Jamie's horse, awkwardly wrapping my arms around him, causing Jamie's breath to hitch.

"Why did you put us in this awkward situation again?" Jamie asked, his voice ridiculously high pitched.

You know, if I wasn't about to explode in embarrassment, I would've actually laughed at Jamie.

"Oh, please, if that was me instead of Sophie, you'd wanna be with me until I woke up," I defended, mentally cheering when I didn't stutter.

Although we never acted like it, we both knew how we both felt about each other. We weren't like those annoying couples in stories who are so oblivious that when they realise the truth, it'd be too late.

I knew Jamie liked me as something more than just a friend and Jamie knew I felt the exact same way.

"But what about my job as Sophie's ridiculously overprotective brother!" Jamie whined, causing me to roll my eyes.

"We've got bigger problems than you trying to mess up your sister's relationship and then forcing her to become a nun!" I snapped as Jamie started laughing.

"You know that doesn't sound like a bad idea," Jamie then mumbled thoughtfully, causing me to slap his stomach.

"To be honest, I'm surprised that you're yet to beat Charles up," I pointed out with a hint of amusement in my voice.

"You have no idea how hard it was to hold myself back," Jamie replied, "Sometimes, I just wish that I could kill the guy right now."

After playfully arguing with Jamie about random topics for a long while, we all suddenly came to a stop.

"What's going on?" I demanded, trying to look past Jamie's freakishly large back.

I then muttered a string of curse words under my breath before jumping off Jamie's horse.

"OH COME ON!" I yelled frustratedly, throwing my arms in the air.

In front of us was an abnormally large group of what I assume to be bandits blocking our path.

"Well, well, well. Look what we have here," one of the men, who I assume to be the leader said, trying (but failing) to intimidate us.

"We found ourselves a jackpot, eh?" Another man added staring greedily at all the saddlebags and horses.

"Can we start fighting already, I'm getting bored?" Maxine asked, jumping off her horse, hands clutching the throwing knives on her belt.

"You wish you haven't said that, girl," the leader sneered as I sheathed my sword, "Attack!"

I launched myself at the closest man, alternating between dodging at attacking.

To be honest, the bandits were terrible fighters but I missed battle training and wanted a good fight, which is why I extended the battles longer than necessary before knocking the bandit out.

I moved from one attacker to the next, ensuring that I didn't kill anyone; killing them seemed to be way too merciful seen as they have a lifetime of prison ahead of them.

I smirked after knocking out the final attacker.

I then looked up before gasping, in front of me was the leader of the bandits holding a knife against Grayson's neck.

"Take a single step forward and your friend will lose his head," The man threatened as we all froze.

I noticed how Grayson was shaking violently, however, somehow, I knew that he wasn't afraid.

"Let him out!" Jack yelled. I assumed Jack was talking about Grayson's demon.

Within a few seconds, chaos broke out.