Destiny

Chapter 6: Don't you just love blow dryers of death?

When the bubble popped, it felt like I was getting swished around in a washing machine. I was being spun around in circles, going too fast for my brain to process. And then there was...well, you know when it's snowing? And it's peaceful and quiet and the world just seems still? Yeah, it was nothing like that. It was more of a torrential downpour times ten. I felt like I being drowned in water, yet I could breathe fine, which was a cool sensation even amidst the chaos. I was swishing and moving and spinning and-

Then it stopped. Everything was still for a moment. Until the giant blow dryer of death came. Well, it was more like a leaf blower. Never mind what it's called. It blew every last bit of water right off me until I was completely dry. I was quite proud of myself for not screaming during this process. Well, not too much at least. Well...apparently I did worse than I thought.

By the time it was done, Kort had almost fallen over from laughing so hard. I glared at him and Jaquellen, who had ended up at the same place we had. "I'm sorry," he choked out between laughs. "I've never seen anyone do it for the first time."

"That was absolutely priceless," Jaquellen agreed. They both stopped laughing but still had wide grins when they were done.

"What even was that?" I yelled.

"That is called khoding," Kort said. "You'll have to get used to it. It's the easiest way to travel between worlds. Unless you want to walk, you gotta use that."

"Um, I think I'll walk," I said. He laughed again. He was really cute when he was laughing. There was no way I could stay mad at him. Jaquellen?...Not so much. I glared at her and she glared right back, but then started giggling again.

"Sorry, I'll stop now," she said, trying to calm herself. "You sounded like a banshee though!"

"Yeah, I know," I said a little sheepishly. "Can you blame me though? Imagine never having done that, and all of a sudden your in a washing machine-lollipop and a giant blow dryer of death is coming for you?" That got me at least another 2 minutes of laughter from the two. "What? That's what it feels like!" I said defensively.

"Ok, maybe you should just not talk anymore or I think I am literally going to die of laughter," Jaquellen said. "Ok, ok, whew that was awesome." She laughed again. I shot her a death glare. "Alright, I'm stopping!" She said.

I huffed. "Good. So where did that thing take us? I swear if we went through all that to just appear where we were before, I am going to scream louder than I did while khoding."

"I'd be up for that," Jaquellen said. "But no, it wasn't for nothing . We're here."

I looked around. "Are you sure? Because it kinda looks like we didn't go anywhere at all." When I looked around, all I saw was the same forest and trees that we had apparently left behind. I was starting to think that either my friends or I were insane, or I was probably dreaming.

"Well, we're not here here," Kort said. "We need to travel some more. But don't worry," he said quickly when he noticed the look of horror on my face, "there's no water or blow dryer of death." He smiled at the thought. "That's only if you want to get across to your world or if you want to come back here. It's much easier to go somewhere just within our world. But we better get going. The board hates it when people are late. Oh, and welcome to Tikh."

                          *       *       *

We did the lollipop thing again, but this time when it popped, we were someplace totally new, and no water or air was involved. Thankfully. We arrived in front of a building that looked exactly like what I had seen from pictures of the Whitehouse. But it wasn't white. It was colorful, like if people had purposely just threw buckets of paint at the building. It looked good though.

We walked up to the front door and Kort reached out his hand. I thought he was reaching for the door knob, but he just waved his hand around the knob three times clockwise and then stuck his thumb in a small slot that had opened inside of it. A loud beeping noise emitted from the knob and Kort quickly removed his thumb. The large door swung open, and Kort ushered us in. The door clanged shut behind us, and we walked down the large hallway.

I was silent as we walked, wondering what was about to happen to me. I think Jaquellen could tell I was nervous because she said, "It'll be fine. Just stay calm and answer all their questions. They might ask you to demonstrate your ability. Just do the best you can, okay?"

"Okay," I said nervously. She smiled at me, and I smiled back. We reached a set of huge white doors, which was the only pure white thing that I could see.  All of the walls were the same as the outside; covered in paint. Guards stood in front of the door, staring at nothing. When Kort walked towards the door, one of them stepped forward.

"Name and business," he said. He was tall and intimidating, and looked down on us with a smug arrogance that screamed I'm better than you.

"Kortian Zgodan, Jaquellen Zaveshtanie, and Sarah Moughn. They should be expecting us," he added.

"Ahh, I see. Well, you're late," he said with a smirk. "You better hurry. They don't-"

"They don't like to wait. Yeah, we know," Jaquellen snapped back. "Will you let us pass already?"

The guard's smile disappeared. "Wow, someone's snappy today."

"Just because your my brother doesn't mean you can boss me around," Jaquellen said. I stared at her. "Yeah, I know. It's awful. He's always like 'I get to protect the board, look at me I'm amazing'. It drives us all crazy."

"Shut up, Jaquellen," her brother said, trying to regain his perfect appearance. "You wish you were half the person I was."

She smirked. "Oh, of course I do Meerian. Who doesn't want to be a self centered jerk who doesn't even care about his family?"

"Just go in there already. There're going to throw a fit if you wait any longer," Meerian said angrily.

"Gladly," Jaquellen said, grabbing mine and Kort's hand. She pulled us through the now open door and it quickly closed behind us. I looked up and there in front of us sat the six scariest people I have ever met.

Hi! Hope you are all enjoying this. Tell me if you like this or the maid better. I'm trying to decide which one to work on the most. Bye!

-Anna