Once in a Mouse Hole

Chapter 4

I looked around the bustling crowd, searching for Marla. Charlie was right behind me, but Marla was nowhere in sight.

"Marla?" I called. "Where are you? Marla!"

"Yes?" A voice said, loud and clear. "I'm right here, no need to yell."

"I think it will start soon. Cora thought that it would be a good idea to see our families again before it starts. We were hanging out with some other kids," Charlie said.

"Sounds fun. I just hope they are nice kids," Marla said. "Oh, and by the way, it is starting. You need to go to the front, and good luck." Marla hurried us to the front, where I was sure we were too close, although we weren't.

A man walked in front of the tree and announced the start of the ceremony. "Thank you for coming. I know some of you have been waiting for this for months, while others only a few weeks. We are all sorry for that, but now the moment is here."

"It better be. I've been twelve for eleven months. This system sucks," said some annoyed kid in the crowd. I think he should be happy that he gets to learn magic. In most places people say magic is pretend. They think that it is all in fairy tales, although most fairy tales are true. I guess I should just call them stories, then.

"Who was that?" said another voice. "Don't ruin this for everyone."

"Yeah," chorused some others.

"May we get back to the ceremony?" asked the man. He continued anyway, "As you know, I will be calling your names from my list. If you are not on the list, we will do you after the others. You will walk onto the stone and the tree should show a symbol here." He pointed to the sap. "If it doesn't respond, we will have you touch the tree. If it still doesn't sense it, we might need to draw blood, although that is very rare."

"I'm nervous" I whispered to Charlie.

"Me too," he whispered back.

"I will start reading from the list. Conner Jayson." A boy with brown hair walked up to the tree. He stepped anxiously onto the stone and sighed in relief as a flame appeared on the tree.

"Zai Mouran." A boy stepped out of the crowd and I recognized him as  the kid at the cupcake table. He stepped onto the stone and a fish appeared. 

"Charlie... There is no last name." A woman came out and whispered in the man's ear. You could instantly notice it in his eyes, he had done something very wrong. "Charlie -last name unknown."

Charlie looked at me and then stepped out of the crowd. He walked up to the stone and stood there. Nothing. He waited several minutes before looking at the man, who nodded. Charlie reached out his stuttering hand and touched the bark of the tree. A few seconds later a flame appeared. It smiled at him, knowing he thought blood was going to be needed.

"Yvette Aniar" A girl with light brown hair walked up to the tree. She stepped on the stone and a leaf appeared.

"Coby Cantony." A blonde boy walked up to the tree and stepped on the stone. Nothing happened, and after a while he touched the tree. Still nothing. So they had to take his blood. They took only a drop, and then they touched it to the tree. It immediately soaked in, and then something finally appeared, it was a snowflake.

After a while, my name was finally called. "Cora -last name unknown." I looked at Charlie and crossed my fingers. I don't know that some people say it's a monkey but for me it wasn't. I nervously walked up to the tree, and waited on the stone. I looked at the tree and was happy to see that something appeared.

At first, it was a Leaf. But then, I realized that it was a blue leaf. Then, the symbol switch to a green fish. And then to everyone's amazement it's switched again, to a white flame. Then once more it switch to a red snowflake. What was happening? This never happened before. I looked once more at the tree. It had changed to a brown squirrel.

By now, It was pretty obvious that I was in the other tribe. I hadn't  expected it, although I had hoped it. Now I realize that It was a bad idea, it drew too much attention to me. I looked at Charlie, hoping to have some hope from looking at him. But it didn't work, this was still real. I was still facing these problems, and looking nervously around the crowd.

"It seems that we have a special person. Tom, I expect you to show her around, It's always hard going into the special tribe."

A boy, he looked to be around sixteen, stood up. "Yes, sir," he said. He motioned to me with his hand to come to him. I looked back at Charlie, but I could no longer see his face. I turned and walk towards Tom.

"Hey, you must be scared, I was too when I was chosen. It's okay though, many people got into this tribe, although you might not think so because you're the only so far this year. You're expected to learn much more when you're in this tribe, so it takes longer to finish. Because of that, there's actually a lot of people in these tribes, it builds up. Although, usually there's about three people who get into this tribe every year. There'll probably be more people soon, the ceremony isn't over yet." The way Tom had said all this made it sound like it was the hardest thing in the world. I wonder how long it takes to finish in this tribe, and how they teach so many different things to so many different people.

"Yeah, I am a little nervous," I said. 

"I will meet with you after the ceremony. Come here if anyone else gets into this tribe, You will want to be friends with someone your age and it's best that you meet them as soon as you know who they are."

"Okay, bye," I said before walking back into the sea of twelve year olds and anxious family. 

I walked until I saw the girl named Yvette. "Hi," I said. 

She turned to me. "Hi! Your name was Cora, right?"

"Yeah, Yvette?"

"Yep. Aren't you excited? I know that we already know what tribe we're in, but I still can't wait to see the tribe. People say fairies are sometimes seen in the Green Tribe's area, so I better watch out. Some people say they are nice and they grant wishes, but there is also some fairies that will curse you and play silly games."

"Yeah, I heard that at the Red Tribe's place, dragons used to live and that you can see some skeletons if you look in the right places. "

"That's cool!" Yvette said. 

I was going to continue, but I was distracted by the man's voice. "It looks like we have another special person. Tom, you know the drill."

I looked at Yvette. "Sorry, I need to go. We should talk sometime."

"Yeah," Yvette agreed.

"Bye!" I called as I ran towards Tom and a girl standing next to him.

"I'm glad you came. I almost thought you wouldn't. Anyway, this is Morgan Evergreen. The tree showed a leaf and a snowflake. You two will probably see each other for the next year at least."

Morgan Evergreen had short, wavy brown hair. Her eyes were a nice hazel and the way she stood there made her look like she could do anything. Morgan Evergreen was my kind of girl, and I knew immediately that she was going to be my friend.