Myths: The Folklore Trilogy

Chapter 5- In Which I Meet a lot of People

"Sierra? Hey, Sierra, we're landing, get up!"

I groaned. "Why?" I whined.

I heard a laugh. "Man you like to sleep! Now get up!"

She flicked me on the arm, which hurt enough to wake me up. I rubbed it and glared at Audrey. "Not funny," I mumbled. She grinned. "Was too. Now buckle up we're landing."

I buckled myself, and then spent the descent trying to wake myself up all the way. I looked out the window. It was dark. Between all my flights and car rides it must have taken all day.

The plane finally landed and we got off. There was a sign that said NSSFG with the hourglass looking symbol, so we headed there. There was a lady with short brown hair in a red suit there, and a few other girls. She had an angular but kind face, and her eyes vaguely reminded me of someone. Audrey and I walked over. The brown haired lady turned to us. "Hi girls! Are you part of this program?" I was about to respond, but Audrey answered instead. "If you mean the insane asylum, then yes."

She laughed. "Trust me it's far from an asylum." She stretched out her hand. "I'm Mrs. Simone, but you can call me Natasha."

I shook it. "It's nice to meet you, Mrs. Simone."

Audrey looked doubtful. "You're Natasha Simone? Forgive me, but don't leaders send their minions to greet the recruits and then meet them in their full glory at the castle?"

Mrs. Simone laughed. "I can tell that we're going to get along. Now, I believe we're waiting for two more, and then we'll be on our way."

I looked over the girls gathered.

There were twins, something like Korean, who were standing off to the side, not saying anything. There was also a group of three sitting on the floor talking and laughing. Their hair slowly got darker, starting with one girl's sandy blonde, to a short light brown, to long dark brown. But the ones who caught my attention the most were the ones next to me and Audrey. One girl was short, with a light blonde bob, and she was looking down at the floor. But the reason that they caught my attention was the tall girl next to her.

Because she was glaring at me.

She had long, honey blonde hair, and way too much makeup and jewelry. I mean, way too much. She could have had a green face for all I knew.

Audrey leaned over and whispered in my ear, "What's her problem?"

I shook my head and whispered back. "No clue."

Just then, a girl in a wheelchair came up. "I'm sorry we're late, but I'm a little handicapped," she said with a soft smile. It was the same girl from the plane. Another girl with her light brown hair put into a side braid pushed her.

"Oh excellent," Mrs. Simone said. "Now that all thirteen of us are here, we can introduce ourselves."

I frowned. Thirteen? Counting Mrs. Simone and the girls that just came in, I only counted twelve.

The tall makeup girl raised her eyebrow. "Right here? In the middle of the airport?"

"No time like the present, right?" Mrs. Simone replied. "Ok, we're going to say our names and..." --there was a mischievous glint in her eyes-- "...our favorite mythical creature."

She looked around at us. "Ok, I'll go first. My name is Natasha Simone and my favorite mythical creature is...the Allicorn. It's like a unicorn combined with a Pegasus."

The girl next to her with the short brown hair half raised her hand. "Ok I guess I'll go. My name is Taylor Thalman and my favorite mythical creature is...uh, griffins."