The Tale of Sierra WinterBreeze - Part 3
“Rowan, where did
you put my wand? You hid it again, didn’t you?”
My
younger-but-higher-leveled sister was giggling like crazy. I knew she did it!
She must have. I didn’t think that my parents would ever do something like
that.
I remember the day
I had first met Rowan. She had been awkward and uncomfortable around me, quiet
and reserved. That had changed since then, and now I was regretting it. The old
Rowan would never have hidden my wand!
“Give it back!
Professor Falmea sent me on a quest to go to Dragon Mouth Cave. I need my wand
to do that!”
“Professor Falmea?
Why were you talking to the fire teacher?” Rowan asked.
“What, I’m not
allowed to talk to her anymore? You’re just as bad as Dad! I like Falmea and
fire, even though Dad doesn’t. Now, about my wand…” I lunged towards her and
tackled her to the ground. She began laughing again. “Where did you hide it?”
“It’s under my
bed! Please, please, go get it before I die of laughter!” she said between
giggles.
I leaped of her
and ran to her bedroom before she could do anything about it. I held the wand
high in the air triumphantly.
“Okay then, now
I’m off to Dragon Mouth Cave. I think I’m supposed to collect fire crystals in
there. Want to come?”
She shook her
head. “No thanks; I have to work on my sunbird. It keeps attacking people I
don’t want it to, and the fire professor said I’d get extra credit if I
improved it.”
“Okay. See you
later!”
I walked in and
saw a fire wizard battling a myth wizard. What were they doing in here?
“Hah, I have you
now!” said the fire wizard. She was a pretty girl, with long brown hair and
green eyes. She wore a hood over her head and her robe and boots matched with
their red color and yellow trim.
“Oh no you don’t!
My troll minion is going to finish you off,” the myth student retorted. He had
the traditional blue and yellow myth school clothes on. He had blonde hair and
blue eyes.
“No way. I’ll
shield myself before you can.”
“How do you know
what spell he’s going to use?”
“I’m not sure, but
I’m not letting you beat me! You’re a lower level anyway.”
“Yes, but right
now you’re losing!”
The myth student
cast a troll, and his minion cast a fire cat. The fire wizard put plenty of
shields around her, but it may not have been enough. Just when all hope seemed
lost for this student, she somehow cast a kraken.
“Nooo!” yelled out
the angry myth student in frustration. “I was so close! Since when do you know
Kraken?”
“It was a treasure
card.”
“Oh, duh. I knew
that.”
“Sure you did.”
“Hello?” I cut in.
“I thought this was a cave, not a dueling arena.”
Both students
turned to look at me in surprise. “Oh, I’m sorry. Not many people ever come in
here, and if they do they’re apprentice fire wizards on a spell quest for
Falmea. What do you need?” The fire student asked.
“I just need fire
crystals for Professor Falmea.”
“Oh, for Falmea? I
can help you with that!” She turned around and grabbed two gems that looked a
lot like rubies. “Careful, they’re hot,” she advised as she handed them to me.
They were certainly
warm, but they weren’t too bad if I encased my hands in a shield of ice. “Thank
you!” I called back over my shoulder as I left.
“Wait,” the myth
wizard said. I stopped and turned around. He was staring at my hands. “How come
your ice doesn’t melt?”
Oops. “Um, I don’t
know.” Of course I knew. It was because I had been “awakened” in the Tower of
Lost Memories. That wouldn’t have made any sense to them though.
“Weird. How are
you doing that? Are you sure you
don’t know?” She scrutinized me.
“Uh, no. Nope, don’t
know anything about it.”
“Hmmm…” she
stopped examining me and looked at me in the eye. “What’s your name?”
“I’m Sierra
Winterbreeze.”
“I’m Sydney, but I
don’t tell strangers my last name. This is my brother, Hunter,” she told me.
“Hunter Thundershield,” the myth student
corrected her.
“Hunter! Mom told
you not to tell strangers your last name.”
“But she’s a kid
like us? How can that hurt?”
“How do you know
she isn’t disguised as a kid?”
“How could she do
that so well?”
“I don’t know!”
These two sure fought
a lot. “Well, I guess I’d better be going then…” I said as I backed away.
“No, wait.” Sydney
turned to me. “I want to duel you.” She turned and the dueling circle appeared
in front of her.
“Sure, I wouldn’t
mind that, but why in here?”
“Uh…” She hesitated
for a moment. “Well, my parents are really overprotective, but I guess this
would be fine. When I first started school we found it out. I was summoning a
fire cat, and it was going to turn out perfectly. It was beautiful when I
summoned it, better than any of the other kids’ had been and even the
teacher’s. But it all backfired. My gorgeous creation turned around and began
attacking me! It was so ferocious that it knocked me unconscious and I have
scars all over me from that day. They told me that it began attacking other
students as well after that. They had to bring in the headmaster to calm it
down. The entire fire school had been destroyed and burned down, and I was
banned from ever going back. That’s why now the fire school has fire-proof
walls. Professor Falmea felt sympathetic though, so she let me take private
lessons inside here, Dragon Mouth Cave. In here, my spells never go out of
control. But if I’m anywhere else, they always have a chance of doing so. I
think it was because of that day that my parents are so protective.” She glared
at Hunter. “At least I abide by their
rules, unlike some people!”
“Well, that is a
very interesting story.” I wasn’t kidding. It really was strange. How can your
spells backfire?
“Yes. So, do you
want to duel?”
“Sure, why not.
What level are you?”
“Fourteen.”
“Me too.”
“Okay, then let’s
get started! We’ll be equally matched.”
I joined in her
duel. After a long and tiring battle, I finished her off with an evil snowman.
She had been surprisingly difficult. After all, I had stronger powers
apparently. I was a Seeker of Light. We had special powers, but each of our
lives had been touched by dark magic.
Come to think of
it, wasn’t the next Seeker of Light named Sydney?
“Hey Sydney…” I
started to say, but before I could continue there was a loud rumbling in the
ground.
“What’s going on?”
asked Hunter, getting up from his seat on the sidelines.
“I don’t know,”
Sydney replied.
The three of us
dashed over to the entrance of the cave, but the gate closed in front of us. We
were trapped inside.
“What!” Sydney
called out in dismay. “How can it close on its own?”
Then, upon going
back inside the cave, we saw a marvelous sight. The ground was still shaking,
and now we knew why. The enormous dragon statue that has always greeted the
cave's visitors was moving.
The stone dragon
raised its head, and took a step off its platform. It roared and breathed fire
high into the air. With every step the ground groaned and shook, causing us to
fall to our feet.
The dragon scanned
the cave as if looking for something. Or maybe someone. He noticed me and
thrust a heavy stone arm straight at me. I dodged it, and countered by
summoning an evil snowman. But my snowman had no effect, and it seemed
completely pointless. The dragon just lunged at me once more, and this time he
made contact. I zoomed across the room and thumped unpleasantly into the wall.
It then targeted Sydney, and breathed fire at her. It didn't affect her at all
though; fire wizards were as invincible to heat as ice wizards were to cold.
I stood back up. I
had to help her! Hunter began summoning as powerful as Cyclops as he could, but
the dragon didn’t seem to notice. He now grabbed Sydney in his enormous hand.
She struggled to get out, but it was no use. The stone dragon actually opened
his mouth. No, I thought, no, you can’t eat her! Think
Sierra, think! You have special powers, right? Well then use them! I looked
around the cave, looking for anything that I could use. I saw the useless
Cyclops attacking the dragon’s feet, and my smashed evil snowman that the
dragon had trampled on.
Apparently, myth,
fire, and ice weren’t working. What else could we do?
Death.
Of course! I had
trained second in death; why not put it to good use? I quickly cast banshee,
and finally we began to see some effects. The banshee’s scream caused the
dragon to roar out and put his hands over his ears. It also caused him to
loosen his grip on Sydney, which was both good and bad.
It was good
because now she was free.
It was bad because
now she was plummeting to the ground, helpless, and there was no way I could
help her.
The dragon began
stomping, and the entire ground shook so violently that Hunter and I were flung
into the wall. My banshee kept on screaming, and the dragon kept on roaring in
anger and frustration. He began to bang his head on the walls, trying to drown
out the banshee’s horrible wails.
Sydney was still
falling. “No! Sydney, no! You can’t die now, Sydney Jadehammer!” cried her
brother.
So now I knew her
last name, but what use was it now? If she was going to die, then it wouldn’t
matter if she was a Seeker or not. Besides, in this moment of great terror I
could not recall the next Seeker of Light’s name.
“Sydney, cast a
sunbird!” I shouted. I had no idea where that had come from. I hadn’t even thought
it through. But a sunbird would be very useful, for it could catch her in
midair.
Sydney tried, but
the spell fizzled. “Nooo!” she moaned. “That was lucky enough that I found that
spell card in midair! I don’t think I can find another one!”
“Please, Sydney,
try!”called out Hunter. There were tears in his eyes. I can’t live without my
older sister! they seemed to say.
I wondered if I
had any spells that could fly. I looked through my deck, but my cards scattered
all over the floor because of the tremor. As I began to pick them back up, my
eyes wandered to the falling Sydney. Had a fall ever taken so long? She was
frantically searching for a sunbird card, and she kept dropping cards all over
the place. As I was gathering my own cards, one of Sydney’s fell on my pile. I
turned it over and believe it or not, it was a sunbird!
But even with the
card, I had no idea how to cast a sunbird. I considered asking Sydney, but with
one glance at the look on her face that made her appear as if she would yell at
anyone right now, I decided against it. But if Sydney didn’t tell me, then who
else could?
I knew one person.
A certain life wizard who was only a few levels ahead of me and trained in
second in fire. Someone who just this morning had told me that she would be working
on sunbird…
I had learned only
a few days ago about whisper chat. You could talk to anyone from far away!
“Rowan?” I called out to her in whisper chat.
“What is it
Sierra?” she asked, also in whisper chat. “I’m in a boss battle, so I can’t
help you.”
“But this is a
matter of life or death!” I said desperately.
“If you get
defeated, you go back into Wizard City Commons and get healed there.”
“Not if you fall
from the height of a thousand story building!”
“A what?” Rowan
asked in alarm. “Hang on; I’ll be right there. Is it you that’s falling?”
“No, but it’s my
friend Sydney.”
“Who?”
“Don’t ask! Just
come. Now, before she reaches the ground!”
After a short
pause, Rowan answered me again: “I can’t come to you. Where are you?”
I groaned out loud
in frustration. I wondered what we would do now if she couldn’t come to cast
it.
Suddenly, Sydney
cried out, “Found one!” but then, the dragon reached out his arm and once more
grabbed her. The banshee’s wail was so loud now, and the ground felt (and
looked) like a stormy ocean. The dragon threw her against the wall.
“No, Sydney!”
Hunter rushed over. Now she was sliding down the wall, about to fall to her
doom once more. Typical. But this time, it was different. Now we didn’t have
any fire wizard to cast the sunbird for us, because Sydney was unconscious.
“Rowan,” I said in
despair over whisper chat, “How do you cast sunbird?”
“It’s just like
any other fire spell. Think about heat, and then picture the spell you want.
Then draw the fire symbol and-“
I didn’t even listen
to the last part. I was already picturing the sunbird in my mind and thinking
about the warm fireplaces on Earth. The fire symbol was already in front of me,
waiting for someone to activate it. I did, and the sunbird appeared in front of
us.
But how did you
control what it did? I had to figure out fast. I only had about 10 seconds
before Sydney was going to die…
“Uh, Sunbird… Go
and catch her!” Nothing happened.
8 seconds…
“Rowan, how do you
control the sunbird?”
“Don’t you just
tell it what to do?”
“I tried that and
it didn’t work!”
6 seconds…
Hunter was in vain
trying to catch Sydney, but she was falling so fast that it would probably kill
him as well as her.
“Um, then it’s
because you aren’t a very talented fire wizard.”
“Well duh, that’s
because I’m ice!”
“Ok, ok. Um, I’m
not sure…”
“WHAT DO YOU MEAN
YOU’RE NOT SURE?”
4 seconds…
“Um, well, there
is one thing you could try…”
“What! Tell me now!”
“You can call it
Flame.”
“Why Flame?”
“When I mess up my
sunbird and it gets all weird, I call it Flame and it calms it down.”
“Couldn’t you
think of a better name?”
“If you don’t like
my idea, then don’t blame me if your friend dies!”
I wished I could
see her, just so that I could glare at her.
“Fine, I’ll try.”
2 seconds…
Sydney’s limp body was actually about 40 feet from the ground, but she was
falling so fast that it wouldn’t matter.
I turned to the
sunbird. “Please sunbird - uh, I mean Flame - Go and catch her!”
The sunbird wildly
looked around at the mention of “Flame.” He looked at me, and I nodded.
1 second…
Flame zoomed
across the cave…
…and caught
Sydney!
“YES!” I cried
out, before realizing that I was still in whisper chat. In the cave, you would
have hardly heard my cry out over the loud stomping of the dragon and the
wailing of the banshee. But wherever Rowan was, my yell had been loud.
“What happened?
You didn’t have to yell! Geez!”
“Sorry, that was
supposed to be out loud. It worked! Flame saved Sydney!”
“See, do you still
think Flame is a bad name?”
“Yes, but I’ll
remember it forever now.”
Even though Rowan
didn’t say anymore, and I couldn’t see her, I could tell she was smiling.
Flame the sunbird
landed in front of me with Sydney on his back. When I tried to pull her off his
back, I found out how heavy unconscious people were. I had to get Hunter’s
help, and even then it was difficult. We finally gently placed her on the
ground, and Flame disappeared.
“Is Sydney going
to be alright?” Hunter asked.
“Of course!” I
replied, even though I wasn’t quite so sure myself. Even though I’d never seen
a dead body before, but I had always guessed it looked something like this.
The dragon was
still stomping and he almost stepped on Sydney. Hunter stayed by her to protect
her, but I found as many banshee cards as I had and cast them all. Then, after
another minute of earthquakes, dragon roaring, fire breathing, and banshee
wailing, the dragon gave out such a pitiful cry that it almost made me feel
bad. Almost.
Finally, the
dragon stopped roaring. It was so sudden, that even the banshees had stopped
screaming in the new silence. The dragon was solid stone, as it had been
before. Now it was in a strange position, with its mighty hands held up to its
ears.
The banshees
disappeared. Hunter, the limp Sydney, and I were the only ones left. The only
company we had was silence.
I bent over
Sydney. “What are we going to do?” asked Hunter.
“We should take
her to the life teacher. She can heal her.” Together, we picked her up and
carried her to the entrance.
But when we
arrived there, we just saw that it was blocked. “How do we get out of here?” I
wondered. I peered outside. “Helloooo?” I called out. When I looked through the
bars, I saw no one. Not even the wind seemed to be blowing. The trees were
still, and everything looked lifeless.
Somehow, that
sounded familiar. Where had I seen this? Oh, yes! When I was in the Tower of
Lost Memories, no time had passed. Was the same thing happening here? If so,
then how?
I remembered that
I was looking for the fire Seeker of Light. Wouldn’t it make sense if the fire
Seeker was awakened in Dragon Mouth Cave? Then that meant…
“Hunter,” I said,
turning to him, “What is your sister’s last name again?”
He hesitated, but
finally answered “Jadehammer.”
Sydney Jadehammer.
That must have been it! The more and more I repeated it to myself then the more
and more I thought it was right. Yes, Sydney Jadehammer was the fire Seeker!
But then who was
going to show her strange memories, and how was she going to be awakened?
I got my answer
soon enough. Hunter and I heard a roar again, and we exchanged worried glances.
Was the dragon back?
We rushed into the
cave, and sure enough, it was! The dragon was moving again! I quickly raised my
wand, but the dragon laughed. Great, now it was talking! What excuse did it
have for attacking us?
“Seeker
Winterbreeze,” it began. Wonderful, not only did it know I was a Seeker but it
knew my name. Just perfect.
“Who are you?” I
asked.
“Leave my sister
alone!” shouted Hunter suddenly and timidly.
The dragon
chuckled once more. “I will not hurt her, child. I am merely her to show her
what her full potential is.” The hands that had once thrown Sydney across the
cave now picked her up as gently as if she were her own child. A green light
encompassed her, and when it faded Sydney stood up and looked around, dazed.
The dragon set her back down. Hunter ran over to hug her.
Was this dragon
supposed to be the one to “awaken” Sydney? It could be. But unlike my ice
giant, this dragon had the voice of a woman, and of course it was much, much
larger. Besides, the ice giant hadn’t been made of stone. And why had I gotten
special treatment and had to hear all those weird whispers?
“Sydney
Jadehammer,” the dragon said. Sydney turned and looked up at her. “Thank you
for freeing me from the curse that was put upon me. He placed it on me thinking
he could defeat two of the Seekers before they got the chance to defeat him.”
“He? Who?” she
inquired. I glared at her. Shouldn’t she know?
“The evil one… the
one you must defeat.”
“Oh, you mean
Mali-“
“Do not say his
name so casually! He is very dangerous, and if you do not know that by now then
perhaps we have picked the wrong Seeker.”
“Sorry…” Sydney
seemed to shrink back in alarm.
The dragon smiled.
It is really strange to see a dragon smile. “Close your eyes, Jadehammer. Do
you remember this day?”
Sydney did as she
was told, and whatever she saw was apparently unpleasant. “Of course,” she
whispered, “How could I forget?”
“Well, what about
this day?”
After a few
minutes she asked, “Is that me?”
“Yes. I doubt you
do remember this. After all you were only a baby.”
“Wow.” She
breathed. She opened her eyes. What had she seen?
“You are the fire
Seeker of Light, Sydney.”
She seemed to be
taking this really well, or at least better than me. First of all, her mouth
wasn’t gaping open. Second, she was nodding to the dragon, almost as if she had
known.
“Sydney, your life
was almost destroyed by dark magic. Your spells can turn against you. You have
always thought that the only place they work is this cave, but you are wrong.
It is the fire crystals in this cave that not only power up your spells but
prevent them from attacking you.”
“So wait. Does
that mean that if I take some of the crystals with me…”
“…then you’ll be
able to use magic outside of this cave again? Yes.”
“Yes! I’ve always
wanted to hear something like that!” She turned to Hunter. “Now we can duel in
a real duel arena! And we can meet new people and go on quests and…”
“Yes, I’m sure you
are very excited,” said the dragon. “But you must help ice Seeker Winterbreeze
find the other Seekers.”
“You’re a Seeker
of Light too?” she asked me. “Wow! Who’s next, Hunter?”
“He may be,” the
dragon agreed. “It is very common for two siblings to both be Seekers.”
“This is amazing!”
she whispered. “I can’t believe that I can finally live a normal life, and
apparently with extra awesome powers too!”
“Okay, who is the
next Seeker?” I asked impatiently. I had already seen all this amazement, and
experienced it for myself. I didn’t need it again.
“Yes, of course
Winterbreeze has heard all this before. Sierra Winterbreeze, you have done very
well. Now you must find the storm Seeker next. This student is also a girl, but
she is a much lower level then either of you.”
“A lower level?
Where will we find her then?” questioned Sydney.
“Oh, don’t worry
about having to go back to places for lower levels. You will meet this girl as
long as you travel with Sierra Winterbreeze.”
“Wait, so I’m
supposed to drag her around now?” I didn’t want to have her following me all
the time.
“It will be easier
to find her if there are two of you.”
“I don’t have to
follow her all the time do I?” asked Sydney.
“Of course not!”
“Ok, just
checking.”
“Sydney
Jadehammer, are you ready? You must now go out and begin to look for the next
Seeker.”
“We don’t know her
name yet,” I said.
“Victoria
Ravensmith. To find her you may want the help of an old friend, Sierra
Winterbreeze.”
“An old friend?
Who?”
“The first student
you actually personally met that wasn’t in your family.”
I wondered who
that was. I couldn’t remember!
“I guess we’d
better be going then,” said Sydney.
“Wait,” the dragon
called to us as we began to leave. “I have something for both of you.”
“What?” we asked
in unison.
The dragon reached
down its hand and I noticed that something was inside of it. “These necklaces
will glow if there is dark magic near. It will protect you from, uh, him.”
I grabbed them.
They both had silver chains, but one of them had a gorgeous blue crystal and
the other had a bright red one.
“The blue one is
for the ice seeker, the red for the fire.” The dragon explained. “The ice one
has a sapphire in the middle. The fire has a fire crystal, so that Sydney won’t
have to hold them.”
They both were
radiant. Sydney looked so happy with her fire crystal necklace!
“Go now, and start
your search. Good luck to you both.”
We left (after I
grabbed some fire crystals from Sydney) and split up. Sydney and Hunter went to
the dueling arena and I went home. No one was there, so I let myself in. I set
the necklace on the counter in the kitchen. I was bored, and considered joining
Sydney at the arena until I heard a crash in the other room. Nobody else was
here! What was going on? I just happened to glance at the necklace as I rushed
to the back of the house, and I saw that it was shining bright as the sun.
I ran into the
room where the crash had come from. It sounded like it had been in Rowan’s
room. Was she home and I hadn’t noticed?
I was about to
walk in when I heard voices. “We must search the house,” one said. I heard
footsteps coming towards me. I panicked, and hid in the closet next to me. It
wasn’t a very good hiding spot if they were going to search for something, but
it had to do for the time. I wanted to teleport away, but what if they stole
something important? Like my wand that was sitting in plain view on my bed?
I instead decided
to use whisper chat to contact someone. But who should I tell first? Rowan? My
parents? Sydney? Whoever ran 911 in Wizard City? My parents had never gone over
what I was supposed to do in an emergency.
I again heard
voices, but I couldn’t understand them from behind the closed door. I pushed
the door open just a tiny bit and hoped they wouldn’t notice.
It still sounded
like mumbling, but I could now pick up bits of the conversation. They said
something about a wand, an ice wyvern, and then I thought I heard them say both
Rowan’s and my name.
Then I heard
something that sent a chill down my spine. Had I heard wrong? But how did you
confuse that with something else? Malistaire
wasn’t a very common word.
The wizards began
digging through some stuff in my bedroom then. I suddenly heard one of them
yell out “I found it!” I wondered what they had found.
After some quiet
conversation, I heard the noise that meant they were teleporting. Before the
left, I saw the pair. They looked like normal adult death wizards, but they
felt worse. They seemed terrible and scary, but I was still relieved. Neither
of them were Malistaire as I had feared. Just as they were teleporting, I
thought I heard one of them say “It’s too bad they weren’t here today.” Still,
I didn’t dare even breathe until I was sure they weren’t coming back.
I crept out. It
was completely dark, and I could hardly see. Where were Rowan and my parents?
They should have been back by now.
After turning on a
few lights, I noticed that my wand was gone. Great, now I would have to save up
forever for a new wand again! I had hoped that would never happen again after I
had broken it when I was angry.
Rowan’s spare
staff was gone too. She preferred a wand, but kept the Staff of the Ice Wyvern
in case she needed an ice staff. I also discovered that our rooms were in a
mess. They had trashed them! And just this morning our mother had made us clean
them up. Now we’d just have to do it all over again. Also, my fire crystals for
Falmea were gone.
I looked around my
room, trying to discover if anything else important was missing. My spell cards
were scattered across the ground, but none of them were stolen. A wand, a
staff, and some fire crystals were certainly important to me, but why would
anyone else want to steal them? Why didn’t they take anything else?
I found out how
wrong I had been. They had stolen something else, but this was far worse than
any of the other things. My brand new sapphire necklace was gone.
I should have
expected they’d take it if they knew Malistaire. But somehow, I was still
shocked.
I didn’t come out
of that dazed state until I heard Sydney calling to me from somewhere far away.
“Sierra, help me!”
I woke from my
bewildered state. “Sydney?” I called back to her. No one answered. Again I
began to panic. Had the death wizards come for her as well? With that grim
thought in mind, I teleported to her.
The first thing I
heard was a familiar voice. “Hand over the necklace and we won’t hurt anyone.”
Then the scene
appeared, and what I saw wasn’t surprising. The same death wizards were with
Sydney and Hunter. We were in the dueling arena, right where wizards would sign
up for a player versus player match. Students were huddled against the walls,
not wanting to be hurt in the fight. Even the men who helped kids set up a
match were trembling in the corner.
Then one of the
death wizards noticed me. “Hey, isn’t that the other one?” he asked, gesturing
to me.
I wondered what he
meant. “Leave her alone!” I said to them in a voice that I hoped sounded
formidable. If these guys actually decided to fight, I’d be doomed without a
wand. Plus, I had left my spell deck at home since I had been in such a hurry.
Unfortunately the
death wizards just laughed. “You want to fight us then? I’d like to see you
try!”
“I’m warning you,”
I said in another strong tone, but this time my voice wavered.
They chuckled
again and one said, “We should take them to Malistaire.”
“No!” cried out
Sydney.
I noticed that
Sydney was wearing her necklace around her neck and it was gleaming
brightly. It was shining so much that I
worried that if you stared at it for too long you would be blinded. That meant
dark magic was near, which wasn’t surprising with Malistaire’s minions beside
us.
I wanted to be
brave, but I just couldn’t, not when I was so terrified. I couldn’t fight two
full grown wizards with tons of experience. After all, I was only a kid. And an
initiate kid at that. Sydney wasn’t much better, or her brother. Even with
Rowan’s help I doubted we would get anywhere except dead.
I wished I could
discuss a plan with Sydney. All I could do was hope that she would figure
something out, because I was out of ideas.
“So little girl,
are you going to give us the fire crystal necklace you will we have to take it
from you?”
Sydney’s lower lip
was trembling violently. I saw her reach a hand up and put it on her necklace.
I had no idea what I would have done in a situation like this. I had lost my
necklace, but I hadn’t even gotten a chance to keep it safe. Now Sydney was
stuck between that decision and certain death.
Finally Sydney
looked up into their eyes and quietly replied, “No.”
“What?” one death
wizard exclaimed angrily.
“No!” Sydney said
more defiantly. Oh, how I wished I could be as brave as her. I think I would
have given in.
He smirked. “I
guess we better dispose of you then… or maybe we should just take you to the
boss and see what he does to you. Oh yes, I like that idea.”
“No, we are only
supposed to bring the necklace,” the other guy retorted.
“But don’t you
think he’d be happy if-“
“No! He wouldn’t like
us disobeying him.”
“He’s going to
capture them anyway!”
“He said he would
only do it when they were all revealed to him. He doesn’t know all of them
yet.”
With the wizards
bickering, many of the students around us began to sneak out the door. Pretty soon
the entire arena would be empty.
I decided we’d
better follow their example. I nudged Sydney on the shoulder and pointed to the
crowded door with wizards fighting to get out. She understood and we began to
creep away.
“We have to bring
the necklace back, no matter what,” one of the men said as they continued to
quarrel.
“Yes, you’re
right. We’d better just grab that,” the other agreed. They turned to us. I’d
hoped we’d be out by then, but they were too smart. Though they had been
fighting, they hadn’t carried on for that long. Besides, we were the last ones
out. Everyone else had escaped.
“Leaving so early?
But we really hoped you would stay a little longer,” snickered one
sarcastically, blocking our way.
We were trapped
once more. “Time to destroy them,” said one with glee. They raised their wands.
Sydney also raised hers, but it was no use. They were way more powerful than
us. They were about to cast a spell, and drew the death symbol in the air, the
same one that I had summoned my dark sprite and banshee and all my other death
spells. And with a slight flick of his wrist, the symbol was activated and a
wraith appeared. I shivered and backed away, but it raised its hands and
knocked Sydney, Hunter, and I to the ground.
I think Sydney and
her brother went unconscious. I almost did too, but I struggled to pay
attention to what was around me. I saw the death wizards grabbing Sydney’s
necklace, and then everything went black. Every breath I took in shot pains
throughout my entire body. I was mostly worried about Sydney. She hardly had
looked like she was breathing.
I was only vaguely
aware that Malistaire’s minions were talking. I was just about to slip into
unconsciousness until I began to see light. Near the door of the Player versus
Player arena, there was a small ball of light. It grew bigger and bigger, until
suddenly, it shot of in a million different directions to reveal Merle Ambrose,
the headmaster.
The death wizards
backed away. They were afraid of him! We were saved!
“I believe you
have something that belongs to my two young students here,” said Headmaster
Ambrose.
“We’ll never give
them up! We’ll tell Malistaire and-”
“Be gone!” he
shouted and they disappeared in a puff of smoke. Both the sapphire and fire
crystal necklaces clanged to the ground. He then turned to us and spoke again.
“You all have
amazing powers; you just need to learn how to use them. Seekers, arise!” He
vanished, and suddenly I didn’t hurt anymore. I shakily got to my feet, and
then helped Sydney and Hunter get up. Ambrose was gone. I picked up my
beautiful necklace, whose glow had died down. Sydney’s had too.
I examined myself
to make sure that I was alright. Everything looked normal, but I still felt
fear. Still, I was happy the headmaster had come, and I couldn’t wait to get
home to tell Rowan what had happened. These terrifying experiences were always
great stories to tell – that is, if you survived them.
Rowan thought my
new necklace was positively lovely. She hadn’t believed my story at first, but
after she met Sydney and Hunter and they became friends, Sydney confirmed it
and Rowan had to believe.
The next Seeker
was Victoria Ravensmith. (I wondered if we were ever going to get a boy!) She
was apparently a storm wizard, and lower leveled at that. For some reason, I
couldn’t help but think I had heard that name before, somewhere long ago… But I
couldn’t have without remembering it. Then again, hadn’t the dragon said I
needed help from an old friend? Could that possibly have been her? With these
questions in mind, I slept a fitful sleep that night. In the morning, I began
my search.
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