Once I found our table, Keten was already waiting with Alissa and Zac and to my surprise, Keten’s sister was sitting down too talking with them as I came up.
“Quil!” Keten said with a grin.
Keten’s sister looked over to me and glanced aside at her bother with a grin much like Alissa’s as I tried to act casual.
“So, you’re the girl he won’t stop talking about.” She said with a kind way to her voice that did resemble Keten’s.
I nodded feeling slightly stupid, but moved past the thought as Keten rubbed the back of his head. I knew it meant he was nervous as his sister laughed an airy tune and stood up from the booth nodding to me with her swaying mane of curls.
“You can have him to yourself if you’re as gutsy as they say.” She said with admiration and a kind sisterly nod.
I felt slightly at ease as she waved back to Alissa and Zac and even winked to Zac who grinned delightedly.
Once seated with my lunch of salad greens I asked what Keten’s sister was doing over here to find out that Zac had asked her to the end of term formal.
“Alissa dared me when we saw Keten and Trish coming and so I did.” He said triumphantly.
Alissa put her head in her hands and moaned,
“You have no idea how dumb you are for doing it for that reason.” She said and Keten and I tried to contain our laughter as they both glared at each other.
The rest of lunch felt like a lovely dream, Keten by my side and sharing lunch with Alissa and Zac now felt so normal.
It was strange to think not long ago me and my father were driving all the time, just the two of us.
My father’s letter sat safely in my bag as I finished my lunch. My next classes floated and passed much faster than I expected until all at once I was out of math and only a hall away from the atrium.
Looking down and around the halls that were moving with students I decided it was time to run as a Skyjump beast, just the words brought my legs moving. Walking with the crowd, I parted ways after turning down the hall to the atrium and then turning again to branch off from the groups going to the market room.
Glancing at my watch I knew I had around a half an hour before I needed to meet Alissa to go gown shopping, but I had planned on going in and running as a SkyJump. My head raced with thoughts of prancing and feeling the weight of my antlers on my head again.
Looking to the atrium’s wall of a shifting water-like shield I knew I had to go. I moved towards the shifting substance and even as I came close it slightly swayed away from me. I considered in my mind waiting until the others could come in with me, but the thought left as a need to feel the wind against my flank was too much.
My hand held against the wall for only a second before, to my amazement it let my hand through and in doing so it opened like the curtain of a waterfall and with excitement I stepped into the shrouded misty world.
Taking a deep breath, I felt my necklace glow and the wall behind me close. I looked around and took in the sense of a forest before me. The silhouette of trees in the daylight seemed slightly worrying, yet my awe for the rich earthen smell that stole away my very breath.
“Incredible,” was all I could utter under my breath as my feet started me moving before my mind even told them to.
I gazed all around and was lost in a euphoria of something so simple as the way the air around me made me feel alive. Moving further in, the mist started to dissipate and I found myself looking around at a world of forest, the light coming in through windows above looked as if I stood outside and a light mist shrouded all directions miles ahead of me and at the edges of my vision.
Turning around almost in a full circle giggling and smiling. I did not feel threatened here and my feeling of accomplishment was about to be had as I thrust my bag off my shoulders and took it and my shoes giddily to a tree as to keep them safe.
Glancing around as I placed the items I had onto the soil I felt no eyes, nor felt anyone near in this little haven within one.
My hair being held back felt wrong as I was about to move away. My feet loving the soft earth beneath them. I undid my rouge pony tail and let my mess of hair hang down with it, now coming to my shoulders.
Biting my lip with excitement I raced away from the tree and out into the open watching and looking around. Again, I felt and saw no one in the misty world. I realized as I stood on the soft flora that this might be my only chance to run as a SkyJump beast once the other students were here there may be no way of keeping clear of them.
Coming out of my thoughts I realized this was my celebration for winning against Delphine, even if Alissa and the gang still wanted me to have a party this was my moment to take in what I had accomplished.
With a grin I leaned down and nearly knelt placing my hand before me and started to clear my mind which after months of not turning felt slightly difficult.
That was, until I remembered the poem and as if it was alright to be in my mind I started to rise and as I did, a soft glimmer followed and before I could think I felt a slight jarring flash and I stood on four hooved legs.
Raising my neck, I felt the weight of my antlers atop my head, the power of my body and the thrill of being back in this form made me shake my head, making my mane fly. I rose to my hind legs and pawed the air feeling the strength of my body as even a whinny escaped my lips. Coming down, I slammed my hooves to the earth and for a moment I swore there was a tremor.
I felt free and unbound as I pranced enjoying the feeling of real, well, as close to real earth as I had felt under my hooves since coming here.
Looking ahead, my muscles ached to run and so with a fleeting nicker I started into a trot and before I could hold back I was flying at a full canter. My hooves barely graced the ground while the wind assaulted me with mist, I felt like a gull next to an ocean as I soared.
Racing, I wondered how long I had truly lived without running like this? I was a Skyjump and even though it meant I was a climber it also meant I had a heart that needed fresh air, open ground, lush earth…
Something below me slid and before I could catch my balance my hoof fell out from under me and I was sliding to the ground with quite a large impact. Laying half on my side one of my legs felt raw as I sat up still in my SkyJump beast form and I found that the odd muck I had slipped in was mud!
Tilting my head, I got back to my hooves that were now filthy along with half of my side.
Looking to the mud I stood in, it seemed very out of place, I considered, as I glanced around that it looked as if someone was digging? Maybe the gardener was working on this patch of earth. That thought made me suddenly uneasy and glancing around I got that being watched feeling...
‘Just calm down, Equila, you’re just skittish,’ I concluded within myself and at that very moment I remembered I had said I would go looking at dresses with Alissa!
If a horse’s eyes could go wide, mine would have. With a nicker, I turned and carefully started out of the muck, as I walked I felt my left leg that had taken the fall hard stung but I ignored it as I started into a canter.
How long had I been in here? I considered and as I ran back the mist that was seeming to become thicker then where I had started made me realize how dumb I had been and prayed I was going in the right direction.
The mist started to clear but only enough for me to get a good idea of what I saw as I had come to a small rise in the earthy land.
Slowing, I looked around for anything that seemed familiar and to my surprise I found to my right, lower than the rest of the land, was a high walled bush maze that before you reached was peppered with trees guarding its entrance.
I knew I wanted to explore it but the reality of how late I could be for meeting Alissa made me turn from the maze quickly and realize that the left seemed clear after you went through a small mass of trees and flower bushes.
With a start, I headed that way, my hooves pounding the earth as I took my pace from a trot to a canter. I started round a bush when something ran straigh
t into me as if I had taken on a small tree.
Backing away from the thing, snorting, to my horror I realized it was a person, a suit wearing man stumbled back and was about to yell when he looked up and found me looking at him.
Oh no.
My mind caught onto what had just happened and with a start I shook my head and turned from the man darting back to where I had come where the mist was thicker.
“A-a SKYJUMP!” He cried and suddenly my ears flicked back and caught the sound of his running as I graced the small hill I had stood only seconds ago.
Glancing behind me I saw him in pursuit of me with a wonder and loss for thinking in his flustered face as I turned back to what was before me, the maze!
“Stop!” The man yelled again and before he could call out again I was dashing down the hill towards the maze.
He was not close enough behind me to see where I went so I raced dead straight to the maze but as my hooves beat I realized that I kicked up a lot of ground and that the man could easily follow my trail.
Approaching the trees before the maze as the man yelled again for me to stop, I knew I needed to lead him off my trail.
With a quick thought I started running to the right of the tree line and then when I saw a spot of thistles from the pines I jumped from sight into the trees and raced only just far enough behind one tree. Stopping only for a breath as I turned into a human with a soft shimmer as the voice of the man started to become closer.
Glancing behind me at the large tree I decided going into the maze might be the best plan of action at this point. With my arm slightly throbbing, I ran, not even looking to it or taking in the pain of the pine needles eating at the soles of my feet as I came to the maze entrance.
I only turned twice as I ran through, stopping breathlessly.
Gulping down the raw spit in my mouth and heaving, I tried to slow my breathing. I stood around a dark green bend of the maze and listened intently as my lungs burned. My heart was irate as the voice, of what I assumed was the gardener yelling.
My mind mulled over his clothing that though having no dirt, was green and he had a small trowel now that I thought of it.
“Where could it...” The voice was so close that my heart froze and yet as it spoke an unearthly feeling made me hold my breath.
I felt as if someone had glanced at me a moment ago.
“Did I really see a....” The man was breathless and did not seem sinister but amazed at seeing a SkyJump, “I must inform the principal at once.” The gardener said and I heard his running as he left.
I wanted to let my breath out and feel alright, but while he had spoken I had again felt an eery presence watching me; before I let my breath out, a piercing gaze made every hair stand up on my head. Someone was watching me from behind.
Turning around as fast as I could I found nothing behind me. Looking at the mist that led down further into the maze, a shadow darted off the path from where I could see.
Wide eyed and mouth hopelessly dry, I started to back up and tripped over my own foot. It was all I needed to start into a run out of the maze. I was out and past the trees in seconds and watching behind me as I ran, I raced over the hill and to the trees looking all around.
The red eyes haunted me as I grabbed my shoes and bag not even putting them on and racing back to the wall as fast as I could.
I did not feel the eyes again, but I was frightened enough not to go back and find out what the shadow had been. I feared I would meet whoever possessed those unearthly red, demon like eyes.
Coming through the thicker mist, I saw the shifting tones of the walls and raced for it as if life itself depended on it. I did not even have to touch it for the wall to open. Racing out into an empty hall I was relieved to find no one but me around.
Turning on my heel I looked behind me and found nothing and no one within sight, not even a shadow. But I did not want to stick around.
Looking down to my watch, I found that it was covered in mud and whipping at it I caught sight of my left arm and froze. The weird pain I may have felt as a horse was now a lovely red and slightly bloody wound up the length of my arm.
“Oh dear.” I said quietly and the sound of voices echoed off the walls made me jump, looking up, someone was coming down the hall!
Looking around, I found that a door was not too far away that lead into a class room. Rushing to it as the voices started to become louder I slipped inside and shut myself in just as the group of girls, chatting about the end of term formal, came around the corner.
With my back to the door I nearly slid to the ground as the reality of what I had just stupidly done came through. I had turned into a SkyJump beast when I shouldn’t have. I ran into a gardener who was going to tell the principal and I had felt and seen something, yet again, watching me.
I was half an hour late to meet Alissa. Great.
The wound on my arm and the disarray of my appearance were nothing. None of it truly bothered me.
As I looked at the empty room I had a sinking feeling that the shadow had followed me again.
Chapter 24
“Preparation.”
It was safe to say I was at least an hour late when I finally arrived at the entrance to the market to find a very annoyed Alissa. I made up the excuse that I had fallen asleep and thankfully she bought it, though she still shook her head at me as we walked into the market room.
I stood in clean clothing with my hair back though it was still slightly damp after doing my best wash job of my clothing. I considered drying my clothes with a burst of hot air but considered I knew very little about magic and the idea of lighting myself on fire was not reassuring.
So I had gone back to my room with only a few students glancing my way and keeping my arm hidden. I made it back to my room, changed my clothing like a whirlwind and safely covered my beaten arm with a long sleeved shirt.
Alissa motioned ahead of us to a shop with girls lined up past other shops. The line seemed to move quickly into the house-looking building that was the gown shop, as it raved on the wooden sign above the shop’s entrance.
Holding my arm, I had to work from moving the sleeve back from it as the sore skin writhed with the fabric brushing up against it.
“So, what colors do you think you’ll try?” Alissa asked at my side.
Looking up from thinking as I held my arm lightly I came out of my thoughts of shadows and what the principal would do about the Skyjump in the atrium as my mind was blank.
“I… ah… well… have no idea what color I’m going to try on.” I said and Alissa eyed me over critically when a smile crossed her lips, “What?” I asked her, surprised she had moved past my thought so quickly.
Alissa shrugged as we were almost to the girl handing out numbers at the door.
“Keten must have kissed you for your head to be so taken off.” She said smugly.
My jaw fell and my eyes widened. It took me a full three seconds to come back and say anything. We made it to the door and a girl handed both a smiling Alissa and my nearly stone body numbers for the dressing rooms.
“Alissa.” I said as we walked into the house of a store and not even thinking about my number I tried to speak more than just yelling her name, “I… he… I mean, we didn’t!” I could not finish my statement and with a laugh Alissa just shook her head and put a hand to my shoulder.
“Oh, Quil, take a breath.” She said, though I felt winded and all I could see was Keten’s grinning face if he had seen how I acted. “Now come on, we have dresses to try on!” For once, I was happy to not have to speak as we both found our dressing rooms down one of the halls of the dress shop.
Walking into the small room I found that it felt like a normal dressing room, though the mirror on the wall flashed through different dresses as I walked in with my mind absolutely aflutter.
“What do I do?” I asked, looking around the small room and then back to the screen that flashed through different styles and colors as if a game.
“J
ust look through the dresses, see if there is one you like and then pick a size, hit enter and the dress will come out of the glass.” Alissa said nonchalantly.
My mouth held in a cave like opening. What she just said could not really be true. Never before in all my life and travels had I seen a mirror that you could make you clothing.
Turning around to the mirror, I started through a collection of dresses, just to see if it really was so simple as Alissa implied.
I chose a strapless dress that, to me, looked horrid and made it black just to see what would happen. Not even caring what size I put and clicked enter. Before my very eyes the dress said it was being processed and then came out of the screen. Before it dropped, I grabbed it and held the black strapless gown in my hands.
“Wow.” Was all I could mutter before I rushed back to the magical mirror that felt very much like a fairy tale dream.
Alissa and I spent a good hour, nearly in silence, trying on dresses. I had never before spent more than ten minutes trying on a dress. Now I had a good forty dresses under my belt and counting.
I finished adding a green color to a shouldered Victorian looking dress that was slightly modern with a calf high cut and the puffy shoulders toned down to look like normal shoulder coverings.
“Well, come on out already, I want you to tell me if I look okay in this before I fall over.” Alissa called with a laugh.
Hurrying and putting on the dress I rushed out and nearly stumbled to the floor as Alissa caught my arm and helped me stand as I tried to keep a side stance to hide my injured arm.
“Oh dear.” Alissa said dryly.
I looked up to her face and a smile was on the verge of bursting into laughter. I was a second away from asking what was the matter when I realized she wore the exact same dress I stood in but in a deep crimson. Before either of us could speak we burst into laughter. With the girls all around we may as well have yelled to try and be heard above the voices.
Sky Jump Page 30
