Zephyr

by Jade Damboise Rail

When they woke up that morning, the blacksmith was waiting outside their room.

  "I’m here to take measurements." He explained.

  "Measurements of what? The length of my patience?" Zephyr sounded.

  "No, um, I’m taking your high and the length of your arm to make you a custom sword." He explained.

  Zephyr looked at him, making him freeze in that position he was in.

  "Well what are you waiting for? For my arm to measure itself?"

  The blacksmith broke out of his trance.

  Harley was shaking her head, discouraged.

  The blacksmith took their measurements and announced:

  "When I’m done with your sword, I’ll come back to get the measurements for your armour."

  "Zephyr, you have to stop doing that that!" Said Harley.

  "Stop doing what?" She asked.

  "Stop doing....being....well....you."

  Zephyr smiled her evil smile.

  "Oh no, please don't tell me I just encouraged you to be more...well...you."

  Zephyr just smile again and walked down the hall. Harley followed behind her.

  "We were supposed to meet Jisael in the room where we ate last night right?" Zephyr asked Harley.

  "Um, yah, don't you ever listen?"

  "Only when I'm not supposed to." Zephyr answered.

  "I should of known." Harley whispered.

  Zephyr went inside to pick up Draco who was still sleeping.

  They arrived in the dining room to see that Jisael was sitting at the table discussing with another man. This man had Silvery hair, tipped with black. It seemed that everyone in this mountain had the same colour of hair. He was well built, with pale skin, attributes shared by most of the other men there. When he looked at them, Zephyr saw he had hazelnut coloured eyes, that looked serious and teasing at the same time. Zephyr approached and sat on the table.

  "So people, let’s get the show on the road."

  Everyone looked at her as if she was crazy and Harley did the discouraged head shaking thing again.

  Jisael obviously deciding to go with the "ignore all the weird things Zephyr says" plan started to explain the situation.

  "This here is our best griffin rider, he's the one who teaches all the newbie’s how to ride. He usually teaches one person at a time but since we do not have that much time, he will teach both of you at the same time. You just have to follow him now. You can leve Draco with me he will be well taken care of.”

  "Will we have any siccisive time?" Zephyr asked.

  "What?" Harley asked.

  "Don't you ever listen?" Zephyr asked.

  "Owned." Harley admitted.

  Draco finally woke up and sneezed, smoke coming out his little nostrils.

  "Okay, my name is Firul, I'll be leading you to where we keep the griffins."

  There was something about him. Some kind of suppressed mischief that Zephyr recognized. Zephyr was going to have fun, because she knew why she recognised this mischief, it was in her.

  "This means war." She whispered to herself.

  He brought them through twisting corridors, all light by black candle and occasionally by holes in the walls, but all that was coming through them was the light of the moon. They eventually arrived in a big stabble like place. There were places like Zephyr had seen in horse stabble where grioffins lay lazily, picking at each others feathers to get out bungs and other, eating the silver liquid that came from the trees in this place. Then Firul took two by those things you put on horses, but bigger to fit the griffin, and puled them, they followed without disagreeing or giving him a hard time.

  “Here,” he said handing the string that he was holding to Zephyr, “This one’s yours for the lesson.”

  Then he gave the other one to Harley.

  “I chose them to fit your personality’s.” He declared.

  “So that’s what you were up to.” Zephyr said.

  “What?” He said faking innocence but his smile gave him in.

  Zephyr smiled back.

  “I like a little challenge.”

  The griffin lay down and she mounted it, while Firul got one of himself. All the griffins were the same colour, black with silvery beaks and silver coloured claws.

  “Let’s see what you can do.”

  “So the first thing you ought to know is how to give the start command.” He tapped his feet onto the griffin and made it start. He stopped when he pulled on the string.

  “Griffins are very intelligent creatures; you can let them fly in the war because they will know where to go and what not to bump in. But the thing is their way of communication is different so we often know more than them, that is why it is important to learn how to steer them, and most importantly how to hang on for dear life. Because thins in your first time, I installed you on a settle that has something you can attach to yourself to avoid falling, i suggest you tie it up if you care about life, we will be doing some incredible stunts.”

  Zephyr was starting to like this guy, but of course he was talking about stunts and everyone who talked about stunts had a better chance of Zephyr liking them.

  “Now do exactly as I say. Do not leave now. Wait for me to give instructions.”

  “I think he missed the don’t tell Zephyr what to do if you don’t want her doing the exact opposite lesson.” Said Harley as Zephyr kicked the sides of the griffin and steered him into the abyss that was in front of them. The griffin ran off, and fell off the ledge, waiting a split second before opening its wings wide, catching air and floating gracefully.

  “Yah!” said Zephyr.

  The fact that she wasn’t even tied on making it even cooler. She could almost feel the griffin’s muscles moving constantly, up, down, up, down, up down. It was such a powerful, graceful movement. That is when things started to go berserk. In the cool, silent air, she could hear Harley and Firul calling after her, telling her to come back, that the griffin she was on wasn’t safe if she wasn’t tied on. As if hearing and understanding that, the griffin sped up, rocketing through the air. Zephyr could feel herself lift from the griffin, so she put her arms around its neck, and held on for dear life, squeezing as hard as she possibly could. She also realised that her legs weren’t touching her griffin so she forced them to come down and she squeezed them tight too.

  “Shiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiit.” She said.

  Then, proving how insane she was, she said:

  “This. Is. Freaking. Awesome!”

  The griffins turned and turned until she was so dizzy she had to close her eyes to stop seeing the twisting landscaped and she felt like she was going to throw up. Soon, she felt a slight difference in the pattern in which wind hit her and she realised that must mean there was something else that could fly next to her. Soon, the griffin slowed down and she finally opened her eyes to se Harley and Firul on her left and right, controlling the motions of the griffins. Zephyr felt shaky inside, it had been even more intense than her ride on Toothless because in that point, she had known if she fell she would be able to pronounce the formula and stay alive.

  “Are you okay?” Asked Firul.

  “That was so cool.” Is all Zephyr managed.

  After learning how to ride a dragon, Harley requested that they see all the other kinds of creatures. There were dragons of course, with shiny black scaled, and these things that were like muscular gazelles with long, smooth and silver horns coming out of their head. They had silver stripes on their black fur. They also had long silver hair from the top of their head to their tale. They had long feathered wings folded at their backs with big tuffs of feather along their back. There were also these gigantic felines with beautiful silver wings, long claws and spikes running along their spines. They also had big ears like those of bats. All of them were of hopelessly, cute, hopelessly graceful or just simply hopelessly weird.

  This went on; griffin lessons every morning, then fencing lessons when they finally got their swords. They were silver, and hopelessly beautiful. They were also very
light and a bit longer then their forearms. They shone in the darkness and soon they could use them as if they had been trained to do so since the beginning of their lives. Every lunch and every night they ate that delicious stuff, but sometimes with twists like added spices, different kinds of meat and the use of the sap of different trees. But the twists didn’t change the fact that it was always good.

  Harley and Zephyr were in their rooms when the alarm went off. The alarm was the cry of all the griffins put together. They raced into the hall and were intercepted by Jisael.

  “I will lead you to the armoury.”

  She did, and the blacksmith gave us our swords, but he also put on our armours on us for the first time. A helmet came down on Zephyr’s head. It was shaped to fit her head and it wasn’t heavy at all. The same kind of helmet was put on Harley. It was shinning, with spikes on top and a part that went down to protect the nose from damage. Then came down the shoulder plates, the blacksmith had to take off their helmets to fit them over their shoulder. Again, it was made to fit Zephyr exactly. It went over her head, her head passed through a hole. It moulded over her shoulder to fit tem perfectly and did the same for her chest. Next, arm plates were strapped to her forearms and were tied in place with strong silver strings. Next the body thing was slipped under her feet and up to her torso where it was tied to the shoulder plates and covered her body as if Zephyr had been made to fit in it. Next, there were leg things like the arm plate strapped onto her legs and she was ready. Harley had the same attire and she shone like a star. They looked at each other, anxiety building up. They had never been in a war and they had never done something dangerous without the comforting knowledge that they could utter a few words and get out of it. They walked into the next room, sword in hand, fixing that thing you put sword in to their armour. People were flowing around them, putting on armour and putting some on griffins. Jisael came to them with the two griffins they had been ridding, in full armour. They clinked when they walked. They had a helmet that tied under their head and that went down over their beak, making g a short and sharp point over their beaks, making them more deadly. They had a neck and chest plate that was made of different segments to allow their necks to move. The back part continued onto the back and there were shiny spikes along it. There were also shorter spikes along the bottom part, the ones on the top were really long and zephyr didn’t feel like falling on them because she had the feeling she would die trying. They also had these kinds of plates stuck to the top part of their wings. They also had plates on their legs and complex things on their claws that covered the whole paw and finished at the tips with long claws over the real claws. Their armour made them deadlier than they already were, and Zephyr felt sorry for whoever they would be targeting.

  “Here are your rides.” Jisael said.

  Harley and Zephyr both got on and Zephyr ditched the body part of her armour, realising it was an inconvenience. All she had left were the arm, legs and shoulder plates. Taking the body part made her lighter and made it easier to use her weapon. She clipped the clip at the end of a string that was attached to the griffin’s armour to hers, and they were off. Zehyr’s heart skipped a beat when the griffin fell off the cliff then opened its wings. She was also rendered breathless.

  There were so many flying animals with soldiers, Zephyr felt like she was a bat. She looked to her sides and noticed there were people around but not so close, which means that all the creatures she saw were spread out on a great deal of distance. She started to street her griffin, going more to the front where she saw the tiniest glint of white.

  Jisael, who was mounted on a dragon, talked to the people next to her. They seemed to be her seconds in command. They dispersed and started yelling commands to people.

  “Advance! We can’t let them come to close to the mountain. Everyone in the air started to advance. But not slowly like with armies that are on the ground, fast. Zephyr had people flying everywhere around her, each on different creatures like the ones she had seen before. On her commands, the griffins flew forwards and after all the griffin lessons; it was easy for Zephyr to make it swerve gracefully and quickly around others. Everything was so fast. Creatures flying everywhere, Zephyr flying rapidly through them. Soon, the darkness Zephyr had gotten used to started to fade and became a mid light state. That is when Zephyr saw the army in front of her. The army was the same as the one she was serving now but the theme colours were white and gold instead of black and silver, and the ones who were riding the creatures all had golden blond hair. The other side wasted no time. She was sue if someone was watching from below they would of seen two separate, white and black masses, that would of then formed one big gray one. Soon, Not only were black creatures surrounding Zephyr but also white ones, who clawed at her, and with men and women on hem attempting to stab her with their weapons. She ducked, and put her griffin into cruise control which was gently pulling on its fluffy ear. That was the command to fly the way the griffin thought was best. Zephyr then took out her sword, a golden sword missing her by an inch. She could hear people scream in pain and she swung her sword upwards when she saw white, and caught a griffin under the belly. Zephyr felt bad doing this, but they were trying to kill her so that made her guilt less bad. Soon she realised that she wasn’t skilled enough to last much longer so she flew to the side. Her next fighting techniques was ingenious. She would fly back and forth on the side, and when she would see a white warrior try to kill someone on the side ranks, she would make her griffin swoop in silently and undetectable, then rapidly grab the warrior with the fake silver part of its claws and throwing him off its dragon, or griffin, or flying feline or that other creepy horse with wings thing. This went on, and soon, the griffin Zephyr was riding’s claws were covered in blood and Zephyr’s sword too from slashing at people, killing them. She had never killed anyone, even in a book, except for accidentally in some cases but it didn’t matter because depending on whether you go before that happened, or even after but you disturbance was somehow eliminated, the character was alive again. Book traveling was complicated, and now she concentrated o the war. She swooped down to get a guy on one of those weird horse things, someone was there before her. It was Harley.

  “I had seen you!” she screamed, “Nice techniques!”

  She screamed again, but this time, no words. She had just been grabbed by the talons of two white dragons ridden by blond men. The dragons threw her upwards and the men grabbed her, flying away fast. Harley hadn’t had the string clipped on, that was probably why they took her.

  “Oh no you don’t.” Zephyr whispered.

  She made her griffin go after them, doing series of complicated tugs and pulls and kicks and pushed to make it angle down and semi close its wings, speeding downwards towards the target. When Zephyr saw that she would miss the target, she made the griffin open its wings slightly after recalculating the trajectory. She swooped right over them; fell of her griffin on purpose, the string clipped to her making she wasn’t going to fall. She grabbed Harley with one arm, rubbing the spikes on her arm plate on the arms of the men, making them bleed, howl in pain and let go. They were now dangling under the griffin now, and Zephyr put and strong hand over its wing and pulled them up; they were soon sitting on the griffin upright.

  “Gosh, I’m like everybody’s babysitter.” she remarked.

  “Thanks.” Said Harley but Zephyr ignored her.

  She had something else she had to worry about.

  The white dragons were behind them, looking cold and determined.

  “They’re not getting you.” Zephyr said stubbornly before unclipping herself and putting the clip on Harley.

  “Shit, Zephyr! What the hell are you doing?”

  Zephyr urged the griffin to go faster, but the white dragons were faster, they came, tried to get Harley but then realised she was attached. Zephyr felt herself being caught by claws. She struggled against them and they threw her up, getting her caught by the men that were ridding them. They held her tight by the
arms, her feet dangling. Zephyr stayed limp until she figured out a way to use her legs. She swung sideways and kicked the guy in the face as hard as she could. He let go, and her weight was too much of the startled rider of the second dragon. Zephyr fell. She turned so her stomach would be facing the ground, and spotted a black horse with horns under her. She tightened into a little ball to fall faster, barely missed the horse then managed to grab its wing. The horse shot his silver wing upwards and Zephyr let go, falling onto its back.

  Turned out she had done all that for nothing because a split second later, man on a flying giant Feline snatched her, and before she could do anything, closed two large golden handcuffs on her wrists. Zephyr noticed that they were attached to the feline’s armour.

  “Shit!” She muttered. Zephyr tested the strength of the chains to discover she would have to be hulk to manage to break them.

  She decided to do her usual, be a smart ass and hope it somehow gives her ideas to get away.

  “So person, how’s the weather working for you.” Zephyr asked.

  No answer.

  “Well, looks like you white dressed people forgot the lesson about politeness.”

  “Mind you I did to.” She then muttered to herself.

  “You may be laughing now, but Crystalite has his very own interrogation technique and it will not be pleasant.”

  “Oh, I honestly have no intention of hiding anything I know.”

  “I’m sure Cristalite will be pleased.”

  “Nah he won’t because I don’t know much, I mean you probably know more than I do.”

  It was silence for the rest of the ride as they approached the white mountain. They were getting closer and closer to the sun, and Zephyr closed her eyes because it was so bright. Soon, the feline landed on the white mountain that was made of crustal. It hurt Zephyr’s eyes to look at it because the sun on this side of the world was so bright, plus it reflected off the crystal.

  “What do we have here?” Asked a man, with pure white hair and golden on the edges.

  “I donno, what do you have down there?” Zephyr asked, looking down at his crotch.

  “No don’t answer that, I know the answer, the answer’s small.”

  None of the men and woman standing there with their Angelique looks barely disguising their evil seemed to get her joke.

  She was stuck in a crystal room. They had done something special to it to make it cold, Zephyr was shivering, her wrists and ankles had golden handcuffs clamped on them. Each end of the chains linked to the handcuffs was attached to the corners. Crystalite, the guy who she had insulted (that may be a little vague) walked in and bent over her.

  “You will now tell me everything you know about the dark side.”

  “Well, they have griffins, those crazy feline things, dragons and those flying horses. And they serve mean ragout.”

  “You know, you’re not getting out of this by being a smart ass.”

  “You would be surprised what you can get out of by being a smart ass.”

  He went to a little table Zephyr hadn’t even noticed. Zephyr didn’t care to look at what was on it. He picked up a knife and ran his figure on it.

  “I’m not the specialist, so I’ll call the one who is.”

  Soon, a guy way with scars all over his body walked in.

  “What’s with all the freakin’ scars.”

  “He tests his techniques on himself.” Cistalite answered for him. “I’ll leave you two alone.”

  “Hi! Looks like we get to spend quality time together.” Zephyr said.

  “You’re nuts did you know that?”

  Zephyr smiled.

  He shook his head as if to change his mood.

  “Now,” He said getting closer, clutching a knife. “Let’s get started. You can stop me and tell me what you know at any time.”

  He said before smiling.

  Zephyr smiled back.

  The guy looked away than called Crystalite.

  “I can’t do it, it’s too darn awkward! She just keeps smiling, I can’t do it!”

  “It’s funny what you can get out of by being a smart ass.” Zephyr said when Cristalite walked in.

  “Get that info out of her or you’re out of here, forever.” He told the guy.

  “I’ll do it but without all the creepy physiological torture thing because ,I really can’t do that with her smiling at me.”

  “Fine.”

  He walked back in, grabbed the knife, and stabbed Zephyr in the gut with it.

  It hurt, it hurt so much she started to laugh.

  “What is wrong with you?” The guy asked.

  “Better to laugh than to cry don’t you think?”

  He took the knife, then slid it between her eyelid and her eyeball.

  “What the hell are you doing?” she wanted to ask but the only way to get out of this was to keep on the act until they thought she was crazy.

  “Hay, I only need one eye to see.” She commented.

  She was scared this would give him ideas but it would help in making him think she was crazy. Zephyr was very careful not to move so that the knife would cut through her eye. She felt like screaming, like begging him not to cut her eye out, she also felt like crying, but if she did that, she was dead.

  “Then I’ll take em both out!”

  Before she knew it, she felt incredible pain in her eye. This time she couldn’t help it, she started to cry.

  “Not so crazy now huh.”

  It took all Zephyr had to take control of herself and say:

  “Crying is just the natural reaction.”

  She said while she was still sobbing. She could only see through her left eye now, and blood was running down her face. She was still crying when the guy torturing her showed her own eye. Zephyr was shaking all over from pain, and emotional distress.

  “I’m telling you I don’t know anything else than what I said! I come from another dimension!”

  “Looks like the crazy thing was an act.”

  Zephyr continued crying. She was dead now, she couldn’t fall back on her act.

  “But I don’t think what you said was the truth.” The guy with all the scars said, seeming to have regained all his confidence.

  Still shaking , her face covered in blood and almost passed out because of the pain, Zephyr started to cry even harder when the torturer brought the knife to her other eye. She screamed as he took out her other eye than she passed out in pain.

  “We found her, we have to get her out of here, our troups won’t hold on much longer.”

  “Why are her eyes bledding.”

  There was a scream.

  “Look at what they did to her!”

  That is what Zephyr was hearing in a semi-sleep state. She did not dare open her eyes and she did not respond to anything around her. If she would wake up completely, the pain would be even worse. Zephyr didn’t even think she could move at al. She felt hand picking her up and soon she felt wind on her, as if they were on a griffin. That meant they probably were. She drifted out of consciousness again. When she woke up, her eye felt normal so she went to touch them, and felt something wet and cold on them.

  “The thing on your eyes was dipped in the sap of the trees. They won’t hurt anymore. Zephyr recognized Harley’s voice, and Harley was right, her eyes, or more like her eye sockets only stung a little, so she was half right. Zephyr reached for her eyes and felt her eyelid go into her eye socket, she shuddered.

  “I guess, I’ll, never see again.”

  “Not true. It would be if you weren’t a book traveler, but I saw this movie where they have artificial organs and body parts. We can get you some, they look real so you’ll be able to show yourself in public, and you’ll see even better than ever.”

  Zephyr lay back down in the bed.

  She felt useless the next weeks when everyone else was taming wild griffins, flying jaguars, dragons and crazy horse things from the wild and Zephyr was stuck doing nothing. Now Her eye sockets didn’t hurt bu
t the fact that she was blind did. Whenever she would try to go somewhere she would have to keep a hand on the wall, but even then she would bump in to things and she would get lost. She had to stay in her bed all day stroking Draco and Harley would lead her to the dining room when it was time to go eat.

  “Harley, promise me you’ll get me new eyes.” Zephyr said.

  “I promise, the last battle will be soon, and as soon as it is won, we can go back, and I’ll bring you into the movie I saw to get you new eyes, I think you can even choose the colour.”

  “What do I look like.” Zephyr then asked.

  “Like usual, except for more creepy, I mean your eyelids are half open all the time and you can see the emptiness.”

  And then, after a few minutes of silence, Harley whispered, with a pained tone in her voice:

  “Thank you for saving me.”

  “Thanks for finding me.” Zephyr answered.

  Zephyr had to sit her bed while everyone else was fighting Cristalite’s army. They had come back to attack, but this time, Jisael said they were ready. The warriors were mounted on the less experimented flying creatures that they had just trained, and the ones with experience were hiding in the woods, rider less. When Cristalite’s army thought they were winning, the creatures would fly out of the forest full speed and attack, attack so fast that no one would have time to think before they were getting knocked of their rides. Zephyr had insisted that Harley stay but she said she needed to go to see the battle for herself, to be sure that it was the one that ended the book. So Zephyr sat, stroking her dragon, wishing she could see but everything was black. No matter where she turned her head, all she could see was nothingness. The only good thing about being blind was that everything she imagines was clearer, but soon the images she was imagining started to lose focus, started to lose colour and blur up.

  “I’m forgetting what things look like.” She realised.

  Maybe she was just too nervous but that is what it seemed like. She decided to sleep, it was pretty much the only thing she could do now.

  She went under the covers, feeling for the sides of the bed to not fall off. Finally she slipped into unconsciousness. She woke up later, and her heart sank, Harley wasn’t back yet. How long had she been sleeping? She hoped there was nothing wrong, what if she got kidnapped again.

  “This is not like me, I never care, I don’t care and I don’t worry and if I do I don’t admit it to myself.”

  She felt something wet on her hand. She remembered feeling that, when her mom’s cat was licking her. Draco was the sweetest dragon, licking her hand to make her feel better. Zephyr grabbed him and squeezed his against her stomach, like she would a stuffed animal. She heard this cute little cry. Not of physical pain but of mental pain, of worry.

  “I’m fine Draco, I’ll get this fixed. You see, as soon as we’re out of here, I’ll get new eyes, and I’ll see even better, okay?”

  Even though Draco couldn’t understand what she was saying, he seemed to be relived. She felt Draco climb onto her thigh and she looked down, to see well, nothing obviously. She lay back, and Draco curled up onto her stomach.

  She hadn’t even realised she had fallend asleap when Harley woke her up.

  “We won! We won! And that was the last battle, I know because Crystallite dies! We can go home now, and I’ll get you new eyes.”

  Harley took Zephyr’s hands and started to say the formula.

  “No wait! I have to get a bag to put Draco in. And shouldn’t we say bye to everyone.”

  Harley brought Zephyr somewhere, Zephyr didn’t bother asking where. Zephyr was holding on to her arm tightly and trying not to stumble, advancing with precaution. Now she knew how her uncle felt, always wondering if he was about to bump into a wall, always wondering if there were stairs in front of him.

  Soon they were saying goodbye, people passing and shaking Zephyr’s hand, saying their names at the same time, knowing she could not recognise them. Jisael gave them a sparkling handbag in which Draco would fit perfectly.

  She put him in, and she noticed there were tiny little holes in the fabric to give him air.

  Harley took Zephyr’s hands and said the formula to send them back to spider club. In her excitement to be going back home, she did not specify where in the spider club.

  “Are we there?” Zephyr asked, she was used to a bright white light indicating her passage.

  “Yes. And Sophia’s right behind you.”

  “Zephyr,” started Sophia, “We know its you.”

  Zephyr’s heart sank, she would never get the chance to get new eyes and see again.

  “The higher enforcer’s are here and that’s why I’m telling you to go home, and stay put.”

  Zephyr was so surprised she almost fell. She turned around slowly, about halfway around, but she wasn’t so sure.

  “What happened to you?” Shrieked Sophia.

  There was a moment of silence then Harley said thanks.

  “Can someone narrate for me?”

  “Sophia just gave me sunglasses.” Harley said before Zephyr felt cold metal on each side of her head and on her nose.

  They took the train home, and Harley told Zephyr that everyone was starting at her. When they got to Zephyr’s house,she unlocked the door, her mom was waiting for her.

  “What are you doing now? You’re bringing friends home to MY house? You’re lucky I even let you live here! You’re a disgrace! And I’ve known it since you were born.”

  “Yes well you’re a disgrace, and I’ve known that since the time I was born too.”

  “You know,” Zephyr’s mom started saying, sounding thoughtful, “If I threw you out, I could get the room between your bedroom and Silvia’s demolished, and she would have a bigger bedroom.

  Zephyr’s mom was the kind who died her hair every three days, and Zephyr had no way of knowing what colour they were in that moment.

  “What is with those stupid glasses!”

  Zephyr felt them get ripped off her face.

  “Looks like someone finally got to the end of his patience with you.” She said, not even sounding horrified.

  “Yah, well I’m going to my room now. And if you throw me out, I’m getting Harley to call child protective services.”Zephyr said before tugging on Harley’s arm so that she would lead her to her room.

  “What room is it? You never invited me to your house.”

  “I had reason too.”

  As they passed by Zephyr’s mom, Harley said:

  “Your daughter is now blind, she just got her eyes cut out with swords and you act like nothing happened.” She spit at her.

  “Oh my gosh your right I have to call the police! What if they do something to my little Silvia?”

  Zephyr was led into her room by Harley.

  “Zephyr, my parents would be glad to adopt you. My mom’s a book traveler and my dad earned the right to know about it in international book traveling law since he had a wife and a daughter. They will understand the fact that you miss a lot of school and they will understand you disappearing for long periods of time. And even if they wouldn’t, I would still bring you there, because you shouldn’t have to live with a mother like that.”

  “Wow that was one long speech.” Zephyr said, sitting down on her bed, but the only thing was the bed wasn’t there, so Harley had to grab her arm to stop her from falling and direct her to the bed.

  “Nah, it’s all ok, I deserve it. I miss most of my classes and my hobby is insulting people.

  “Nobody deserves this! You’re hobby if probably insulting people because of your family situation.”

  “What can I say? I’m the devil, my little sister Silvia’s a freaking angel.”

  “You know what? Do you have a DVD player in your room? Then again why would you? I don’t know anybody who does.”

  “I do.” Said Zephyr with a weak smile. “My mom buys me lots of stuff so that when people come over I seem like I’m some ungrateful teenager and she gets to rant against me.�
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  “Stay here, I got to go rent a movie.”

  Zephyr stayed alone in her room, opening the silver bag, imagining Draco’s little head pop out. But it hadn’t popped out, Zephyr had to put her hand inside and scoop him out. He was such a sleepy head.

  “Hey Draco. How’s doin’.” She asked.

  He answered with a little sneeze that Zephyr wouldn’t of noticed before, because her brain would have been filled with sound AND images. She waited and stuffed Draco under the covers when she heard the door open.

  “It’s just me. Oh and I can still see him you missed the covers. Now where’s you DVD player?”

  “I would help you look for it if I had eyes.”

  Zephyr heard the sound of Harley rummaging through her stuff until she felt her bed bounce under Harley’s weight. Zephyr waited while Harley probably put in a DVD, and then she took Zephyr’s hand, put her other one on something cold and smooth (the screen of the DVD player) and murmured the formula. Again, Zephyr didn’t know if they were there because of the absence of the light that was usually there, but this time she felt it.

  The next hour was Harley helping her around, and asking questions to people, finally they got a ride to who knows where. And before Zephyr knew it, she was strapped to and operation table with someone holding a gas mask to her face, she felt herself fall asleep.