Mr. Hale clapped. “Congratulations, David! Eric, it’s your turn.”
“You’ll be great,” Olivia said to Eric.
“Yeah, and good luck to the dummy, let’s see how long it will last against you, Eric,” Vanessa replied.
Eric slowly went to his dummy. He was determined to win. He made the first move. Eric quickly created a purple blast and sent it flying to the dummy. The dummy quickly waved its hand and a blue light came out of its hand. The blue light redirected the purple blast and sent it flying towards Eric. Eric quickly blocked the purple blast with his hand and made it disappear. The dummy then spun its hands. A blue light came out of them. The light then went near Eric. Then, the dummy started raising its hands. As it did, nothing apparent happened. Eric wondered what the dummy was doing. Suddenly, the dummy stopped raising its hands. Eric didn’t know what happened, however, he felt the strangest sensation. He felt as if he was trapped. He pushed his hand into the air. To his surprise, he felt something. He felt a wall. He felt another wall on his left and right side. The dummy had trapped him in an invisible box! His claustrophobia was rising. He quickly created another purple blast and shot it in front of him. The blast hit the invisible box and shattered it. All of the pieces went flying. Eric stepped out and sighed. He then spun his hands and a purple light came out of them. The light went to the dummy and surrounded it. Eric turned his hands and the dummy started to change shape. Indeed, after the dummy finished changing, it became a table.
Mr. Hale smiled and waved his hands. The table disappeared.
He congratulated, “Great job, Eric! Olivia, it’s your turn.”
“Um, okay,” said Olivia nervously.
Olivia was the most frightened of the four when it was her turn. She slowly walked towards the final dummy. She had an awful feeling about this.
“You’ll do wonderfully, Olivia!” the rest of the four yelled out supportively.
The dummy suddenly moved its hands. Unlike the other dummies before it, a dark black blast came out of its hands instead of a light blue one. The blast would have hit Olivia if she hadn’t stepped away at the last second. Olivia quickly spun her hands in the air. Her hands created a spinning purple light. The light soared through the room and hit the dummy. The light severely damaged the dummy and created a monstrous hole in the middle of it. However, instead of losing its life like the other dummies when they were damaged, this one magically repaired itself. A black light covered up the hole.
“What! How is that possible?” Olivia remarked.
“I think there is something wrong with Olivia’s dummy,” Vanessa whispered to Eric and David.
Olivia was persistent and didn’t give up. She created another purple blast and shot it at the dummy. Once again, the dummy was hit, but it magically restored itself with another black light.
“What! Why is this happening?” Olivia uttered, confused. She was starting to get worried.
This time, the dummy made its move. It waved its hand in front of the floor and a black light came out of it. The light went to the floor and slowly transformed into hundreds of spiders. The spiders were very unnerving and Olivia always had a terrible fear of them. She called them “eight-legged nightmares.”
The dummy controlled the spiders with its hands and they crawled over to Olivia. She was afraid, but took a deep breath. She created a purple blast with her hands which she shot at the spiders. This disintegrated them all. The dummy then spun its hands and another black light was created. The light went to the floor and took the silhouette of a slithering creature. It wasn’t long before the light transformed into a black serpent made entirely out of magic. The snake slithered over to Olivia. She was afraid, but created another blast and shot it at the the slithering creature like she did with the spiders. The serpent got destroyed. Olivia had now had enough of the dummy. She kept shooting purple blasts at it. All of them hit it, but the dummy kept fixing itself. Finally, the dummy made its final move. It changed into a horrible, disfigured form. It looked blood curdling and everyone in the room was terrified.
“Mr. Hale, do something!” Eric yelled out, worried for his friend.
The horrendous dummy slowly limped toward Olivia, but before it could do anything, Mr. Hale stepped forward. He created a very strong purple blast with his hands and hit the dummy. This time, it did not repair itself.
“I’m terribly sorry about that, Olivia. I don’t know what happened,” Mr. Hale apologized, concerned.
“It’s alright,” Olivia lied and panted. “I wish I could have beaten the dummy like the rest of them though.”
“It’s not your fault, if there wasn’t anything wrong with the dummy, you would have beat it too,” David said kindly.
“Thanks,” Olivia replied.
However, she couldn’t shake off the unpleasant feeling because she was absolutely sure, that she had heard a man creepily laugh.
Chapter Twenty
Yulestice
In the coming weeks, the four had many more magic sessions and they learned so much. It soon became winter and the leaves completely disappeared. The ground was covered with a white blanket of snow. Similar to mortals, magians celebrated their own winter holiday. It was called Yulestice. Like many mortal holidays, Yulestice’s history was very riveting.
Thousands of years ago, the world was filled with misery and there was barely any joy or hope. However, one day, all of that changed. On December 25th, the Yule King came to Magia. The Yule King was the ruler of the Glacial World, a realm of ice and snow. He wore silk robes and came to Magia on a sled made entirely out of topaz. The sled was pulled by many majestic creatures. The Yule king released all of them. One creature was a bird with pure feathers, an icy blue beak which matched its claws, and round blue eyes. The bird was called a nix. The nix flew into the sky and disappeared amongst the clouds. As soon as it was up, it began snowing. However, it was no ordinary snow. It was the children who discovered this, but the snow was also magical. Whenever the kids built snowmen, they would come to life and play with the children. If the kids made snow angels, the angels would fly off the ground. The magical snow created many fun times which spread so much happiness and to this day, the snow in Magia is still enchanted. Another creature that the Yule King released was a distant relative of the foresta snake. It was called an arbor serpent. The arbor serpent had dark green scales and grey eyes. It slithered over many snowy fields and like the foresta snake, this made many trees grow. Unlike the foresta snake, however, the arbor serpent permanently enchanted the fields making the trees grow every year. These trees are very tall and look similar to Earth’s evergreens. They are called aeter conifers. Aeter conifers are inhabited by many small creatures. These creatures are called adornals. Adornals resemble ornaments and look like they decorate the tree. This is why people have decorated the conifers with ornaments to make the adornals fit in. Then family members put presents under the tree for their loved ones. This is a tradition which is widely celebrated today. The Yule King also released a horse called a melodia stallion. The horse was silver with a long mane and green eyes. It galloped through many villages and the people who saw it said that whenever it trotted, music magically played. The tunes were so beautiful that the magians had made songs out of them, songs which are still sung today as Yulestice carols. The Yule King released many more fantastic creatures, but the king himself did something great. He enchanted the world so that every year, everyone would get one wish. The wish could be anything you want, except it couldn’t hurt anyone. Children would usually wish for toys, but adults would wish for something more seminal. After the Yule King returned to the Glacial World, magians still celebrated Yulestice every year to honor him and the happiness he helped spread.
“Yulestice is my kind of holiday,” Eric said.
Eric had been attracted to the magic of Yulestice. He loved reading mythological books about the history of many holidays. Yulestice was the
most magical of them all and the magic pulled him close to it.
Like Soulstead, the four had much fun preparing for Yulestice with Mr. Hale and Ivy. Hale brought out several boxes of jovial decorations and the kids helped garnish. They put rows of garlands on the walls and wreaths on the doors. However, the four were the most excited to decorate the aeter conifer.
“When are we getting one?” chirped Vanessa.
“Right now.” Mr. Hale grinned. “Follow me.”
Hale led the four out of the building to go get their tree. This time, Ivy was going to accompany them.
“Figons are the best at this sort of thing,” she said.
Once everyone got in the car, Mr. Hale drove off. He kept driving across the streets of Crow City and when he stopped at a red light, the four saw how everyone was getting into the spirit of the holiday. People had put up decorations and the whole city looked like a winter wonderland. Kids were playing with snow and the four were astonished. The snow really did come to life. Many children along with snowmen were having snowball fights and snow angels were flying through the air singing carols. That wasn’t the only thing the snow was doing, however. One snowman came close to Mr. Hale’s car and was complaining about how the little boy who created him made his head oversized. Unfortunately, the windows weren’t thick enough to be soundproof and the four had to hear everything the disproportionate snowman had to say.
“That snowman has issues,” Vanessa commented.
Finally, when the light turned green, Hale drove off and the four were relieved. Throughout their drive, the four had more encounters with living snow. One group of snowmen had taken off their scarves and hats which they were given and tried to sell them to Mr. Hale when he stopped at another red light.
A few stopping lights later, a group of snow angels were throwing snowballs at the car.
“Honestly, I am just like these snow angels,” Vanessa admitted.
Finally, everyone was relieved when they had arrived at their destination. It was a huge tree farm covered in snow. Surrounding it was an expansive fence. Everyone walked in. Once they were in, a figon greeted them.
“Hello! Welcome to Drippy’s Tree Farm. I’m Drippy and I will help you find your tree,” he said.
“Hello, cousin Drippy! It’s been so long,” Ivy said to Drippy.
“Indeed it has, cousin Ivy,” Drippy agreed.
As Ivy and Drippy were catching up, the four walked off to look at the conifers. There were so many and they all looked lavish.
“These look so cool, they are much grander than evergreen trees,” said Eric.
“Yeah, I can’t wait to decorate it,” Vanessa said.
“And I can’t wait to meet adornals,” David spoke. “They seem so cute in the story.”
Olivia walked away from the rest of the four and over to one conifer. Despite all the festive talk of the holiday, Olivia couldn’t stop thinking of the previous magic lesson she had. The rest of the four did well, but the lesson had gone horribly wrong for her. Plus, she heard a man laugh sinisterly, as if he enjoyed Olivia’s fear.
All of a sudden, she heard the same laugh behind an aeter. She turned to see a giant, nasty smile appear on it.
“You are afraid, Olivia Lee,” the tree taunted as it laughed.
Olivia was terrified. She quickly blinked and saw that there was no mouth on the tree. It was as if it never spoke and laughed.
“Trees don’t talk, this all just happened in your head,” Olivia reassured herself.
She wanted to believe this very much. However, Olivia was absolutely sure that the tree did talk. She could still hear the same horrible laugh. Olivia shivered and walked back to join the rest of the four. She decided not to tell anyone and tried not to think about what just happened.
Soon, Mr. Hale, Drippy, and Ivy caught up to the four.
“Now, why don’t we look for a good tree?” Mr. Hale grinned.
“Yeah!” all four yelled excitedly.
Drippy nodded. “Follow me everyone.”
Drippy led the group through many conifers. Whenever the four thought one was acceptable, Drippy and Ivy would both always tut, shake their heads, and walk past it. They had passed almost half of the trees.
Vanessa whispered to the rest of the four, “We’ve probably passed ten perfect trees already.”
After many aeters, Drippy stopped in front of one conifer. It was very tall and very green.
“Aah! The perfect tree,” he exclaimed and went closer.
Drippy carefully examined the tree and the four watched him work.
“Yes, this is an exceptional conifer. Nice and salubrious, good long branches. I dare say this may be my best tree yet. It even looks like we’ve got some adornals living here,” Drippy said and he knocked on one branch.
All of a sudden, many small creatures peeked out. They truly did look like ornaments. The adornals were sphere-shaped and had small hands and feet. Some were green with blue stripes and others were purple with yellow spots. They were all very eye-catching.
“What are you going to do with our home?” one adornal whimpered.
“Don’t worry, these fine people are going to buy this tree, but it’s okay because you can still live on it. Once this tree has been used up, you will be taken to a new home,” Drippy said kindly.
“Oh goodie! We can’t wait to go,” the adornals said and smiles appeared on their faces.
The four beamed at the adornals.
“They’re wonderful,” David uttered.
“They really are, I can’t believe they come with the tree,” Vanessa said happily.
After Mr. Hale had paid for the conifer, Drippy set the tree on the car and Hale drove off. Luckily, there weren’t any living snow encounters this time, but the adornals had to stay inside the car and they were a riot. They kept chattering and were very excited about visiting their new home.
“Are we there yet?” one kept repeating over and over again.
“Why is this car so hot?” another complained.
“These adornals may look adorable, but they too are troublesome sometimes,” Vanessa whispered to her friends and they all agreed.
When the car finally reached the penthouse, everyone was glad because they had had enough of the adornals complaining.
Once everyone was inside the apartment, the four helped Ivy and Hale set the tree upright. As soon as it was ready, Mr. Hale went into the storage closet and pulled out a box filled with embellishments. Everyone helped decorate. Even the adornals helped by lifting up baubles which were about the same size as them. As the four put up the ornaments on the tree, they realized that they too were magical.
Each of the baubles that Olivia put up was enchanted to do something different. One changed color every second. Another spread a delightful fragrance which smelled of every fine thing any of the four could think of. Olivia’s favorite bauble was a small one that played a wonderful song which filled the entire room with joy. Olivia had always loved music. Whenever her stepparents would take her to health lectures by doctors, she would always enjoy the concerts that they went to after.
“Wow.” Olivia smiled to herself.
Vanessa was putting up magical tinsel. The tinsel shimmered and sparkled, but that wasn’t the only thing it did. As Vanessa put the tinsel on the tree, it spiraled around it by itself. It was like a serpent.
“I’ve never seen tinsel do that before,” Vanessa remarked.
“It’s called living tinsel,” Mr. Hale explained. “It’s a festive decoration.”
“Let me guess, you got it at the clearance section in the department store,” Vanessa joked.
“Actually yes,” Mr. Hale replied to Vanessa’s surprise.
David and Eric were helping each other put up lights around the tree. However, unlike regular Christmas lights on Earth which usually weren’t very
bright, these illuminated the whole room. They filled the entire space with brilliant light.
“These lights are like the Lueur Emerald,” observed David.
“The what now?” Eric asked confused.
“It’s a jewel Vanessa and I saw in the gem museum. These lights are very similar to what it does,” David replied.
“Wow! The brightest light I’ve ever seen was in the flashlight that my adoptive parents bought on Earth. Let me just say, it required a lot of batteries.”
After they finished decorating the conifer, it looked beguiling. The adornals loved how their tree looked and made themselves comfortable living amongst the ornaments.
“We love how you remodeled the place,” said the adornals.
The next day was the Eve of Yulestice and the four went out to play in the magical snow. In New York, the four had grown out of spending time outside in the snow, but the idea of magical snow excited them very much. They couldn’t wait to go outside. After they had bundled up, they went straight out the door.
Once they were outside the building, the four observed that a large snowfall occurred overnight. There was much more white on the ground and some streets were even closed. There were also many kids playing around.
“What do you guys want to do first?” Eric asked.
“Why don’t we build a snowman?” replied Olivia.
“That’s a great idea! I sure hope ours doesn’t complain that much though,” Vanessa uttered.
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