Chapter 1
J~Heather~J
“I can’t believe they are making me go!” I was ranting to my best friend Lily and her six year old brother Ben, “I told my parents I don’t like hiking and they are still making me go! I don’t really care if it’s a tradition, I hate hiking! I mean just because tomorrow is the first day of summer vacation, they think they can drag me out of the house to do something that requires effort.”
“Um, it might not be as bad as you’re making it out to be, you know,” Lily said.
“Doubtful. I dislike anything that requires physical labor,” I replied stubbornly.
“Labor? Since when has hiking been labor?” Lily scoffed.
“Since I was told to do it,” I snapped.
“Heather, you like us right?” Ben, who had been silently listening until now, asked.
“Of course.” I turned to face Ben who had sprawled across Lily’s bed.
“Everything is more fun with us around, right?”
“Um, yeah…” I replied cautiously. He was going to suggest something, I just knew it!
“Then why don’t we come with you? I’m sure your parents won’t mind.”
“Wow! Great idea Ben! I’m up for a hike,” Lily agreed.
“I’m glad my friends are sympathetic,” I said sarcastically. “The point isn’t to make the hike fun, the point is to get out of wasting my energy.”
“Ok, Ben, put your stuff in here.” Lily called to Ben, who had left to his room to get his stuff.
“Where is ‘here’?” He called from across the hall.
“Were you guys even listening?” I asked.
“You were talking?” Lily stared at me with a blank expression.
“We should leave now; otherwise you guys will spas out at each other because ‘the other wasn’t being sensitive enough’.” Ben said as he stuffed his stuff into the bag. Man, that kid must be a ninja; I didn’t even notice him return…
I grabbed my stuff and ran down the stairs with Ben and Lily right behind me. In the mud room, Ben smiled and pushed his dirty blonde hair out of the way of his eyes. His eyes were forest green at the outside, gradually getting lighter until they were a lime green at the center. Lily’s eyes were similar but going from an ocean blue to an icy blue and her light blonde hair was down to her hips. How in the world did they get such creative looks? I mean, their parents both had brown eyes and brown hair so where do those eyes and that hair come from? As we left their house I looked in the mirror. The person staring back at me had black hair that was shoulder length and eyes that were maroon at the outside and then gradually lighter until they were a light red in the center.
I ran to catch up to Ben and Lily. As we walked, Lily filled the silence with whatever random stuff came into her mind. I contributed when I felt it necessary. Eventually Lily and I were debating about if magic could be real. Lily believed in that kind of stuff, the whole “magic and mythical creatures” thing. I argued that they couldn’t exist because it would be obvious if they did. I mean, if people could use magic, then why aren’t cities being blown up continuously? Ben told us both to shut up and walk. Lily was not amused and whapped him upside the head.
In case you haven’t noticed, Ben doesn’t talk like your average six-year-old. He’s in our grade. Of course, he’s smart enough to go to university or something like that already, but he refuses to graduate without his older sister. So, he is in every class with her and I try to be but I still have one class without her. Man, I wish my siblings were this loyal. I also wish they were geniuses too, but neither is going to happen.
Eventually, she argued that since she was one week older, her opinion should matter more.
“Hey, look. We’re here; it’s almost as if no time has passed!” Lily commented as we entered school property.
“No. It seemed twice as long with you blabbering the whole way,” Ben teased.
“Hey, that’s offensive!” She replied. Then she grabbed both sides of his face and pulled.
“Ow,” Ben said in a monotone voice. This was Lily’s way of showing affection to him, since he puts up with it.
When Lily was bored with that she grabbed Ben by his hood and started dragging him. Ben always wore that hoodie since it was the last present he had gotten from his father before the accident. Lily had to practically rip it off him to wash it.
“Better get to class,” I called to them, looking at my watch; even if we left for class now we would be cutting it close. We headed into the school for the last boring day before freedom.
It’s the last day of school and we still have to do the most boring subjects. Today were going to have French, math, geography, lunch, physical education and English.
~
At lunch we went to the cafeteria. I looked at the menu. Couldn’t they have anything actually edible for once? Today I ordered surprise soup. The soup came while I was still waiting for Lily and Ben (did they have to be late for everything?). You know what the surprise was? It was delicious! Just then Lily slid into the seat next to me with her and Ben’s soups.
“Guess what? I got an A- on my French test today,” I said between bites.
“And I care?” Lily said bluntly. I gave her the evil eye.
I turned to Ben and said, “Guess what? I got an A- on my French test today.” He applauded with a delighted grin on his face.
“See? That was the appropriate response.” She looked at me and rolled her eyes. She took a bite of her soup.
“Good soup, right Heather?” Lily smiled and I couldn’t disagree. “Hey, look what I drew during math.” Then she pulled a picture of a dragon out of her pocket, it was really good like most of her drawings. The dragon’s body was the ‘normal’ body set up; lizard-like body with four legs, a tail, wings and a head. The wings were different from your ‘normal’ dragon’s though, there were four and they looked like those found on a dragonfly. The tail had two small dragonfly wings at the end and instead of horns there were more dragonfly wings. The dragon was hovering next to a flower that I had never seen before.
“Wow! Where did you come up with that idea?” I asked in awe. She shrugged.
“I don’t really know, but I always get strange ideas as I draw.”
“Look at mine, too!” Ben handed me a gruesome picture of a zombie eating our math teacher. Most six-year-olds would be doodling stick men, but no; he has to draw a very detailed picture of the zombie apocalypse.
“Hmm, we should head to gym now,” I said as an excuse to avert my eyes away from the stomach-wrenching picture.
“Ok,” Lily said as she got up and put away her dishes. Ben put away his picture and followed her. I realized I still had her picture and shoved it into my pocket. I’ll give it back later.
“Hey! Wait up!” I called out as I ran after them.
“No, you hurry up.” That was our Lily.
“Hey, what do you think we’re going to do in gym today?” Ben asked. Nobody answered.
“Well, it can’t be too bad, considering this is the last day,” Lily said. Well, it wasn’t. We played soccer. As always, Ben ended up being the goalie since nobody else ever wants to and Lily and I were the defense. I read my book the entire time and let Lily cover for me. Ben probably tried but since he’s so short…yeah not exactly the best goalie. After the period of book reading awesomeness we headed inside for the last subject, English. Just thinking about it made a shiver go down my spine. I hate that teacher.
~
“Isn’t this amazing? We have two months to do anything we want!” Lily said as we left our school for the last time for two months.
“I agree. Well let’s just hope you are allowed to stay overnight, otherwise I’m not going hiking.” I didn’t want those two to make me go alone.
“I hope something out of the ordinary happens,” Ben said.
“Don’t say that because then something out of the ordinary will happen,” I said superstitiously.
Lily whipped out her cell phone and dialed what I assumed to be her mom’s number (who else does she greet with ‘Hi mom’?). After several minutes of explaining and acting cute, she looked up with a triumphant grin.
“Yup, we can go.” We only had a couple of minutes until we got to my house but nothing can be boring when you have Lily and Ben around. I guess this hike may not be so bad after all.
“Ben, Heather; race you guys!” Lily said, and then took off. Ben looked at me then chased after his sister. Why not? I ran after them. We reached my house huffing and puffing, well, except for Lily (she’s the most athletic of us three [a bookworm and a six-year-old, not very much competition]).
“Mom, Ben and Lily are over. They are going to go on our hike with us.” I knew she wouldn’t care one way or another. We went straight up to my room. For the rest of the evening we did things like talk, play on the wii and read.
I think we stayed up until one o’clock in the morning, but I really didn’t care. I was with my friends, the people I cared for most in the entire world.
~
“Heather, get up already!” I heard Ben say. Was it morning already?
“I know how to wake her up.” Lily said maliciously. Then the tickling began and the uncontrollable laughter followed.
“I’m awake! I’m awake!” I yelled at Lily while laughing hysterically. She grinned and stopped tickling me. They were both dressed, Lily was wearing jean short shorts and a pink t-shirt with a sparkly heart on it. Ben was wearing jeans and his black hoodie. I’ll go half what Lily’s doing and half what Ben's doing; jeans and my favorite purple t-shirt.
“Out, out, out,” I commanded as I shooed them out of my room. I got dressed as quickly as I could. Today was going to be an unusual one, I just had a feeling. I ran down the stairs and, if Lily hadn’t grabbed him by his scarf and pulled him out of the way, would have tackled Ben. The three of us went into the kitchen where Peter and Angela, my siblings, were already mowing down on pancakes.
“Hey! Save some for us!” I scolded them.
“First come, first serve,” Peter, who was three years younger than me, said smugly.
“Benny! You’re up!” Angela ran over and hugged him. Although it is painfully obvious, Angela thinks her crush on Ben is a secret. Well, at least they’re the same age, but the difference in maturity…
“It’s time to go,” my mom stated after we had finished breakfast.
“We call front row!” Lily claimed for us. That meant that Angela and Peter would have to sit in the very back, where there were no doors. We all piled in and off we went.
The drive was pretty boring, but misery loves company and Lily and Ben were happily making the ride mildly enjoyable.
“Yay! We’re here! Finally!” Lily shouted as we hopped out. We walked over to the hiking path.
“Heather! Don’t leave without us!” Angela complained. My siblings were still getting out of the van. So we waited. Angela wanted to walk next to Ben but we convinced her to lead the way with Peter. The hike was pretty boring.
“Well, at least Angela isn’t clinging to me,” Ben said as we walked down the trail.
“Yeah, things could always be worse,” Lily agreed. Well, it could and it did. We came across a steep slope. We were about to climb up the hill when Ben grabbed Lily’s arm.
“Wait! Heather! Lily! Look right there!” Ben stopped and pointed deep into the forest. There was something there. It was grey. I squinted. Was it a dog? No, it was too big for that…
“Heather! It’s a grey wolf! What is a wolf doing in such a human-dense area?” Lily questioned. We gawked for awhile, and were about to move on when we heard a small sound from the direction of the forest. Was it just me or was there someone, or something, muttering in the forest?
“Hey, is that wolf complaining to itself?” Lily asked.
“Of course not. Wolves can’t talk,” I said impatiently.
The wolf stopped and looked in our direction. It cocked its head as if it sensed something out of the ordinary and I stiffened. It gracefully walked towards us. Why was it coming here? Did we look tasty?
“I think it likes us,” Lily teased. It came so close to us that I could see each individual hair on its neck. Then it looked at us and turned around and slowly walked away.
“I think it wants us to follow,” Ben said, then chased the mysterious wolf.
“Ben!” Lily chased after him. I looked around. I couldn’t see my parents, so I saw no reason not to follow. I mean, following a wolf is so much better than climbing a hill. I soon realized that the wolf walked slowly enough for us to keep up but fast enough that we couldn’t get too close, so no matter how fast we went, it would always be leading.
The forest got sparser until we were in a clearing. The clearing had a stream dividing it in half with a large rock in the center. The grass was a vivid green and obviously healthy. There were flowers around the base of the rock. The wolf ran and jumped on the central rock.
“Wow! This place is beautiful! Thank you, Mr. Wolf.” Why was Lily thanking a wolf? It couldn’t understand what she said let alone appreciate the gesture.
“I’m a girl actually, but you’re welcome.” I was dumbfounded! The wolf had talked (and appreciated)?!?
“Hey Ms. Wolf, what’s your name?” Ben asked. Why were they talking to it?!?
“Danielle.” Wait, this has to be a dream, wolves don’t talk. She looked at me with a curious expression.
“You’re having a hard time believing, aren’t you, um who are you again?” She never asked me my name before so how could she forget it. Technicalities, technicalities, technicalities.
“Her name is Heather.” Lily said cheerfully.
“So, then, what is your name?”
“Lily.” Lily said.
“Then who is the midget?” Danielle looked down on Ben with adoration.
“I’m Ben but I’m not a midget.” Ben said grudgingly.
“Yes you are just vertically challenged,” she said softly. I decided to ask my first question.
“How can you talk?” I knew this was the question that everyone wanted to hear the answer to.
“I was waiting for one of you to ask that. The answer: awesomeness.” She said with mock superiority. I glared.
“Fine then, the real thing is magic, that is why I can talk as you can.” Danielle let out a sigh.
“See Heather! I told you magic exists!” Lily crowed.
“You don’t honestly believe her?” I asked, miffed by Lily’s acceptance of this obvious lie.
“The idea may be far-fetched, but please allow me to demonstrate.” With those words Danielle closed her eyes and her body morphed into that of a teenage girl. I would have found this pretty amazing if she hadn’t been naked.
“Put some clothes on, woman!” Lily shouted at Danielle while pulling Ben’s hood over his eyes.
“I can dress how I want,” She teased as she grabbed some clothes out from under the rock she was sitting on, “Anyways, I’m not yet skilled enough to morph with clothes. I’m only at apprentice level.”
“How did you do that?” I breathed, miffed.
“I told you already, magic,” She replied.
“Can we learn to do that?” Lily asked, with nothing but excitement in her voice. I sighed; today was going to be strange. Why did Ben have to wish something out of the ordinary to happen? Well, this wasn’t exactly a bad thing so much as a really, really, really, really, really weird thing.
“You three can, but there are stronger types of magic; like the core elements.”
“Can everybody use magic?” I asked. She was seriously starting to make sense. Either that or I am going crazy. I’m going with the latter.
“All will be explained later, so follow me and I’ll bring you to see our Chief. He would be able to explain your situation the best,” Danielle said eagerly. She jumped off the rock and jogged toward the end of the clearing farthest from us. Why did we have to run? Was it really that important? I decided the answer was irrelevant, if we stood here we would be left behind, lost somewhere in the woods.