Protectors of Emperia

by Giovanni Uzokwe

  Sabrina was shocked. She had never known someone had known so long. When they were little, did they like her? Then she got an idea! She would now finally know her past!

  She pulled out her wand, waved it, and chanted,

  “Family album I shall have, of all the memories that I had!”

  A crystal clear album with a photo of her on the front appeared on her lap. There was a thick leather band wrapped around it. Sabrina opened it and looked inside.

  “Where did you get that from?” Her mom asked.

  “I used my wand,” Sabrina said, opening the book.

  Her mom shook her head and smiled.

  In the book, there was a picture of Sabrina, Miles, and Simon, in diapers.

  “Aww,” everybody cooed.

  Beep beep! Beep beep! Beep beep!

  Her mom’s watch rang.

  “Sorry, I gotta go. I will talk to you at your mentoring sessions. It’s in thirty minutes!”

  Her mom closed the door. Simon and Miles got up.

  “You should probably take a shower. I will meet you at the session,” Simon said. They opened the door and left.

  Sabrina put the album in her nightstand. She got up from her bed, brushed her teeth, and got ready for a session. Actually, she didn’t get prepared for her session. She didn’t know what to bring!

  After a while, she decided to bring her spellbook and her wand. Sabrina opened the door. Simon and Miles were there. I think I have a spell, Simon said. We held hands, and then he chanted,

  “We have a session with Sabrina’s mom, lead us there before she’s gone!”

  A flurry of sparkles shot out of his wand and surrounded them.

  CHAPTER FOUR

  CONCENTRATE

  A second later, we appeared in a field with other prodigies fighting and battling against each other. Rings of fire and ice shot in all directions and Sabrina, Miles, and Simon had to duck and dive this way and that to avoid getting hit by the blazes of fiery hot daggers and swords. “Look! There’s something over . . . Duck!” Simon yelld. He pulled them down as an icy blast shot right above our heads.

  “That was a close call,” Simon said, dusting off his sleeves.

  “I say it was a hard fall!” Miles said, “you practically shoved me to the ground.”

  “Would you rather be frozen, or would rather be still moving?” Simon asked.

  “You’ve got a point,” Miles said, dodging a ball of fire.

  “Kids!” someone shouted, “over here!” Sabrina looked around the field. Then, she spotted her mom.

  She ran as fast as her legs could carry her to the other side of the field. Simon and Miles were right behind her. Soon, they reached her mom.

  Her mom had chosen to have a change of clothes. This time, she wore a black suit. Thick gloves covered her hand. Her hair was in a bun again, and she wore yellow platform boots.

  “Good. How did you make it here? Did someone help you?” her mom asked.

  “Yes, actually,” Sabrina said, “Simon helped us by using a spell.”

  Her mom nodded, impressed.

  “Good, we will start our session by revealing our powers. All of you, I want you to concentrate as hard as you can. Sabrina, imagine you are any type of animal. You should go first. Remember, concentrate as hard as you can.

  Sabrina closed her eyes and concentrated. She imagined she was a black cat. Then she believed that she was fast and robust. She suddenly felt like she was shrinking. A lot. She opened her eyes. Her fur was all black, and she had a white patch of hair on her belly.

  She had long white whiskers and pink paws. She stood on all four legs, and she had long eyelashes.

  “Aww,” Simon said, picking her up.

  “I’m not a cat!” she tried to say. But all that came out of her mouth was, meow meow meow meow!

  Well, technically, she was a cat. But this was getting annoying.

  She closed her eyes and imagined she was herself again. She concentrated hard on herself. A minute later, she was in Simon’s arms. She looked at Simon, and they blushed. Simon carefully put her to the ground.

  “Excellent! I’ve never met someone who was able to shape-shift on the first try!” her mom said, hugging her daughter.

  “Thank you,” she said, smiling.

  She turned to Simon.

  “Simon, I would like you to bring forth water from the Pacific Ocean for your turn. It must be the purest of all. You will have to think that you are on a beach. Concentrate on the water, and imagine your drawing the water towards you, then imagine you on this field and the water splashing down on to the ground.

  Simon concentrated hard. Sabrina watched as he started glowing blue all around. Then she heard a soft whirring in the distance. Then it was louder. And louder. And even louder. It became so loud that Sabrina had to cover her ears.

  Bam! A force of water hit the ground like a meteorite. Sabrina went flying backward. She hit something hard and then got winded out.

  Five minutes later, Sabrina opened her eyes. The field was flooded. Everybody was running around, screaming and yelling. Sabrina saw her mom saying something to Simon. She stumbled up and ran over to meet them. Her mom said to Simon,

  “Concentrate on a pure and bright light from the sun. Pretend to draw it down to earth. Now, do as I said. Concentrate. Concentrate.”

  Sabrina watched as a pure ball of light zipped down from the clouds. Sabrina shielded her eyes. When she opened her eyes again, the playground was dry, and everybody went back to attacking each other.

  Sabrina’s mom smiled.

  “You guys have done a good job. Even better than I had expected. Nobody can do that until then level 5. You guys can all go on to attack other people, too, if you want.” She winked at us and then disappeared.

  Simon, Miles, and Sabrina decided to sit on a nearby bench. They didn’t want to get hit by any of the spells passing by. Shape-shifting had made Sabrina so tired for some reason. It was like she lifted a one hundred pound weight. They sat on the bench for a while; then they got up as the bell rang, signaling the practice field games’ end.

  Forming a line, they walked back into the building. Sabrina stood right in front of a shabby haired boy. He smiled at her when she eyed him. His breath smelled like a garbage truck with ninety-eight pounds of trash piled up onto it. Sabrina tried her best not to gag.

  They marched in through the entrance of Wolfighter. “Our next session is after lunch,” Simon whispered, “I wonder what type of food there’s going to be. I’m starved!” he said, rolling up his sleeves and rubbing his hands together. Thank God, she said. After being tired out by the shape-shifting, a nice lunch would feel great. And would taste great. They walked into a massive room with tables covered in white cloth. A chandelier hung on the ceiling, lighting up with flames. China plates were set among the tables filled with the tastiest food you can imagine. A humongous gold counter stood at a corner. Beautiful maids in amber aprons cooked and served delicious, mouth-watering food. If this weren’t Wolfighter, it would have been heaven. Prodigies screamed and yelled as they ran into the cafeteria. The yummy smell of ice cream and double-decker cakes filled the air. Sabrina ran to a table where her mom and dad were sitting.

  “Dad!” she cried, hugging him. She hadn’t seen him in a while. She had missed him so much that she would do almost anything to see him again.

  Her dad held her and said, “This is where you’ll live now. I hope you like it. It’s a brilliant place when you get time to stop and think about it.”

  Sabrina nodded. “I’ve already figured that out. It’s like I want to be here. It’s kind of like a feeling that draws me in.”

  Her dad nodded. “I had that feeling when I first came here too. I wanted to stay here, so I decided that I would stay here. But I also wanted to see my home now and then. So I went back and forth back and forth. But
now I can stay here since you and your friends are here. The Protectors of Emperia,” he said, winking at Sabrina. Then he continued, “I assume you’ve already heard that you guys are very special? People all around Emperia know about you. Not one soul doesn’t. Mama’s tell it to their children when they’re firstborn. A book was even made about you guys being The Protectors of Emperia. You guys are very, very important. May I see your wand?” he asked.

  Sabrina reached deep into our pockets and brought out her wand. Her dad scrutinized it.

  “Knew it!” he said, “She gave you the spell.”

  “Who gave me what spell?” she said, trying to look into yesterday.

  Our principal, Kristine, gave you a potent spell. I only meant for you guys. It makes you much more powerful than you already are, and also makes you work together to solve problems in the worst times.

  “That explains why our powers were so powerful at our session,” Sabrina mumbled, rubbing her temples.

  Before her dad could respond, a maid came up to them and served them ice cream, cake, all the delicious sweets you can imagine, vegetables, and, last but not least, pizza. Sabrina dug-in. She first ate her vegetables because her mom and dad always wanted her to stay healthy. Then she ate one pizza, some ice cream, some delicious sweets, and five slices of a quadruple decker cake. In the end, she was satisfied. She rubbed her tummy, which was now almost an inch bigger than it was before.

  Soon, her mom and dad left, and she caught up with Miles and Simon.

  “How was dinner?” Simon asked.

  “Great,” Sabrina said, “I’m totally exhausted.”

  Simon laughed, “I can see that. For some reason, I have been feeling exhausted ever since we revealed our powers. It’s like we didn’t get any sleep last night. Simon’s lucky he didn’t have to endure the stress.”

  “Same. It felt like I had lifted a one hundred pound weight. I am completely exhausted. All I want to do is go and lie down on my bed and have a long nap. I can’t wait until I go to bed.” We marched back out of the cafeteria and turned down the hall. Prodigies separated from each other, going right or left or just forward. Sabrina, Miles, and Simon went left. The best thing was that they didn’t know where they’re going. They just followed the other prodigies ahead of them. They walked for about ten minutes before a teacher stopped and opened the door. For some reason, the prodigies seemed much taller than them. They followed the teacher inside to a place with chairs that were around to form a diamond shape.

  Then, Sabrina noticed something. They weren’t supposed to be here. She wasn’t supposed to be here. It just seemed strange. She quickly thought of a spell, grabbed her friends’ hands, and chanted,

  “Take us where we’re supposed to be, marching in line with all the prodigies!”

  The teacher had just enough time to turn around and shush us as we disappeared into the mist. We appeared in the line of marching prodigies, acting as nothing had happened. They walked for a while until Sabrina spotted a sign posted on a door that read,

  Sabrina, Miles, and Simon here. This is your next session.

  Blaise Rivet

  Sabrina pulled Miles and Simon in. They found themselves in a massive room with all sorts of magical equipment laid out upon the place. They walked in on a velvet carpet trimmed with gold. Chairs that looked like thrones had been placed around a massive throne. They were in the right place, but the mentor wasn’t there.

  “Good, you came exactly at the right time. It’s approximately one o’clock,” someone’s voice said.

  They jumped and looked around. They still were not used to this magical thing.

  Suddenly, a person in velvet robes appeared on the big throne. His legs were crossed, and his hands were placed upon the side rails of the chair.

  “Sorry, he said I can’t stop myself from doing that to newcomers. I’m not saying that in a rude way, of course, but for some reason, I just like to do it!”

  He got up from his throne and walked toward us.

  “At least I have everything prepared. Today, Sabrina, you will be learning how to use your telekinesis to lift other objects. Simon, you’ll be learning how to increase and decrease your powers. You never know when there’s too much light or not enough light. You never know when there’s too much water or not enough water.

  Miles, you will be doing the same thing, but with your powers.

  “Finally, I get to test my powers out!” he said.

  “Okay, who wants to go first?” Blaise said, rubbing his fingers together.

  Sabrina raised her hand. She wanted to get this over with to at least have some nap time before the last session.

  “Sabrina! Great choice. Let’s start with the light stuff first. I would like you to focus on this ball. Close your eyes and imagine the ball is lifting up in the air. Then spin it around, then land it back to the ground.”

  Sabrina closed her eyes and focused on the ball. She imagined it lifted high up into the air, spun around”, and fell back to the ground. She opened her eyes to see the ball doing the same thing.

  “Excellent!” Blaise said, clapping his hands together. Then, Sabrina noticed something. She didn’t feel exhausted like she had done before when she had first shape-shifted with her mom. She felt stronger. She was ready for the next task.

  “This time, I would like you to lift yourself.”

  Sabrina poured all her energy in herself. She focused on her for a moment before she imagined herself lifting off from the ground, turning around, and safely landing back down.

  She opened her eyes, and it appeared that she was doing the same thing that she had imagined.

  “I’ve never seen a student like this. It’s like you already mastered every single power exercise in the kingdom of Emperia!” Blaise said.

  Simon and Miles did a great job on theirs too, and after they were done, Blaise said, “You guys are too powerful to be in the first level. I will tell the principal to upgrade you guys to level four.”

  Simon’s, Miles has, and Sabrina’s, mouth hung wide open.

  “No need to thank me, you are, of course, the Protectors of Emperia. You’ll soon grow up to protect our city!”

  CHAPTER FIVE

  SOMETHING

  GOES WRONG

  The children walked out of the room, feeling like they were the luckiest people in the world.

  Suddenly, the pursed-lipped girl that Sabrina had seen yesterday walked up to Sabrina. Two of her friends followed her.

  “My name is Amethyst,” she said, acting all nice and sweet, “this is Theodora and Minerva.”

  “Okay?” Sabrina said, not trusting her.

  “Anyway, I’ve heard that you’ve moved up to level four. My grade,” she said, “my grade” like she was the one that owned it.

  “There’s no way you could know that. Mr. Rivet only said that a couple of seconds ago,” Sabrina said.

  “Word spreads quickly,” Amethyst said, tossing her dark hair, “a dumb person like you wouldn’t know. There are no secrets here in Wolfighter.”

  Sabrina fumed. She wouldn’t let a little-miss-perfect tell her to mean things just because she was a newcomer. She focused on Amethyst with all her strength. Then she imagined Amethyst lifting in the air, spinning in the air, and landing back down, hard.

  Theodora and Minerva gasped as Amethyst; she had done precisely what Sabrina had imagined.

  Amethyst fell back to the ground, starting to cry. Loudly.

  “SABRINA!” Kristine said, appearing out of the air, “NEED I REMIND YOU THAT MAGIC IS ONLY USED FOR NECESSARY REASONS? YOU’LL HAVE DETENTION FOR THE REST OF THE WEEK!”

  “Okay. I won’t do it again.”

  “Promise?” she said.

  “Cross my heart,” she replied.

  “I’ll say it one more time. Do you promise not to ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ev
er ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever do that again?”

  “I promise,” Sabrina mumbled reluctantly.

  “Good.”

  Now get up Amethyst and stop crying. Your next session is in fifteen minutes,” Kristine said, pulling her up by her hand.

  Amethyst glared at Sophie and mouthed the words; I’ll get you next time!

  When Amethyst turned the corner, Kristine whispered,

  “I won’t give you detention. She deserved it. Sometimes, she can be brat too. She always thinks she’s a “fat cat.” She thinks she’s so privileged.”

  “I can see that,” said Sabrina, “thanks, Kristine, you’re the best.”

  “I am? Well, thank you!” she said, “I have to go. Bye!”

  She disappeared in a wink.

  “Good one, Sabrina!” Simon said, patting her on the back. She jumped. Miles and Simon were standing so quietly that she hadn’t even noticed they were there!

  “Thanks,” she said blushing.

  “Kristine was right. She did deserve it,” Miles said, “quick, our session is in a couple of minutes! We can’t miss it! Can anyone think of a spell?”

  Sabrina thought for a moment.

  “I can’t think of any,” she said.

  “How are we going to get there with no spell?” Miles said, rubbing his hair furiously.

  “I can help!” a squeaky voice said.

  We looked around. Nobody was in sight.

  “I’m right here, you big dummies!” the voice said.

  We looked in front of us. A big map with a broad smile was plastered against the wall in front of us. The only thing wrong with it was that it was blank. There were no directions or destination points or anything. It was just plain old blank.

  “Finally, I got your attention. I’m The School Map! I help all newcomers who are lost. I heard your bickering about trying to get your session. So I came. Sometimes two newcomers are trying to get somewhere at the same time. So I split myself into two. Other times there are thr-”