Zephyr
Page 4
The appeared in the middle of a desert, there were pyramids in the distance.
"Oh hey, I've always wanted to go to Egypt." Zephyr told Harley. "But they are kind of dumb; I mean they make their people make these gigantic things for when they die. If I were them I would get them to make me a giant castle for when I'm alive, it’s no use when you’re dead, you’re just laying there, dead, I don't see how hating this gigantic pyramid helps you."
"Well Zephyr, its cause they think kings go to become gods and that’s for their like should to be preserved of something like that."
"Well I would say the guys who worked their buts of making the stupid thing should become gods, not the guy telling them to do it, telling someone to do something is not hard." Zephyr countered.
"Yah, you do it all the time."
"Yes, but I don't have money and power."
"All you have is your personality, and trust me, that all you need. And by the way, I've always wondered why you picked me to be your friend; you seemed for like a loner or at least someone who would hang out with all the tough kids.”
“Hey, I decided to e your friend because you’re a nice person, and you don’t let people take advantage of you, and, you treat my insults as humour. And my insults are humour, most of the time. Except when someone really pisses me off.”
Harley looked back at Zephyr, understanding now.
“Plus, I know I could always count on you. And I was right wasn’t I?”
Now that they were hidden from human eyes, Zephyr opened the little bag and retrieved a sleeping Draco.
“Is all he can do sleep?” Zephyr asked herself.
The contact with Zephyr’s hands woke him up and he jumped out of her hands, to fly over to her shoulder and wrap his tail around her neck.
“He looks so cute when he does that.” Harley noticed.
Zephyr smiled.
“So what do we do now?” Harley asked.
“So you’re the one who actually reads these books, you tell me.” Zephyr answered.
“We wait.”
They sat in the sand and waited. That is when Zephyr noticed UFO’s. Not UFO’s as in aliens but as in Unidentified Flying Object. They were white and sleek; they were also graceful in the air. Soon they saw one approach. The more it approached, the more it looked like a Pegasus. The one approaching was beautiful; it looked like the angel of horses. Soft looking white fur, wings so pure and white it was like drinking a vanilla milkshake.
“It’s to...to...good. Like and angel, when are people going to understand that the world isn’t just black and white?” Zephyr started to rant.
It landed gracefully in the sand after flying towards them slowly and majestically. Before landing it opened it wings fully, and glided down as if a cushion of air was transporting it. It was a Pegasus alright, but it had a shining horn like a unicorn. Zephyr had never seen a more beautiful horse. Not that it mattered to her. Things didn’t need to be elegant, they had to be practical. When it landed, it bent its two front paws under it and bowed to Zephyr. It continued bowing, not moving.
“Um, do you think its waiting for me to do something?” Zephyr asked.
“Go to it, put your hands on its head, with the space between you middle and, whatever that figure is called, leave it there a moment then take it off.”
“Okay but why?” Zephyr asked.
“Because you’re a god.” Harley answered.
Draco chose that moment to give a cute little chirp.
Zephyr did as Harley told her, going up to the Pegasus and laying her hand on its head. Zephyr felt hard bone and the warmth of a very strong and powerful living being. She had its horn between two of her fingers. The Pegasus kept sniffling like a horse, and when she took her hand off, the white horse got to its feet clumsily. Its large wings fluttering while it did so. Then Harley asked Zephyr to ask the flying unicorn to bring back a second one, and the unicorn looked at zephyr expectantly, as if it was willing to do so but could only take orders from her.
“Go ahead; it would be nice to have a second guest, since we are two.” Zephyr told it.
The unicorn took off, its wingspan was ridiculously large, and it came back with a second one, just as pure white as the first.
“What do we do now?” Zephyr asked Harley.
Zephyr considered a moment to actually start reading books so she would be the one to know what to do but then she figured “what the shell I have Harley for that.”.
“We ride them, and tell them to bring us to their queen,” Harley answered her.
“So, um, unicorns, can we ride you?”
(It would be an honour.) Zephyr heard in her head.
“Great so this mean you can read my mind?” Zephyr said.
The Pegasus’s recoiled as if Zephyr had said something unimaginable.
(We would never read the mind of one of our queens, but we have read the mind of your friend Harley though.)
“Doesn’t that kind of make you believe I’m not a queen? I mean I’m not from here.” Zephyr asked.
(All girls with red hair descend from our blessed and magical god.)
Zephyr heard, it seemed to be a different voice this time.
Then the two unicorns knelled again.
“Um, you don’t have to do that, you can get up.” Zephyr told them.
(Yes but you wanted to ride us.)
“Oh right.” Zephyr said.
Zephyr walked up to the closest Pegasus and mounted it. It stood up and the othe one waited to do so until Harley was safely on his back.
“We’ve been doing a lot of flying recently haven’t we?” Zephyr pointed out.
“It’s true. The person writing this book must really like things that fly.” Harley said absently.
“What you mean you think where we live isn’t the real world, it’s just another book?” Zephyr asked.
“Oh yah, I mean what are the odds that out of all these worlds, we’re the world that actually exists.”
“I’m sorry to break it to you Harley, but you’re going crazy. Of course where we come from is the real world.”
The unicorns were waiting patiently and politely that they finish their conversation before taking off.
“Okay Zephyr, I guess your right.”
Since they were finished talking, the Pegasus’s started to gallop, opening their wings slightly, then more and more until they were Harley toughing the ground, then they started to flap them, at first slightly, keeping their hooves on the ground but then more and more powerfully until they were taking off into the air, Zephyr and Harley on their backs. They enjoyed the flight, and soon they were landing in a weird place. It was in the mountain side near the water. The place had a beautiful beach of smooth pebbles and a gigantic mansion like castle carved in the mountain that was one there. It was painted coral white and it had pillars holding up the next floor. There were three floors, and one, had a big space between two of the pillars, and Zephyr soon understood why. After dropping then off, the Pegasus’s flew up and landed between the two gigantic pillars and started to trot, going inside the castle. Soon, they came back out, and there was a lady on one of their backs. A lady in an elegant red velvet dress with long, straight, red hair. The Pegasus opened its wings and trotted off the side, slowly gliding down and landing next to Zephyr and Harley.
“Hello,” She said. “You must be Zephyr.”
“Nah, I’m not Zephyr, I’m your worst nightmare.”
Harley kicked her, what happened after happened to fast Zephyr hardly saw it. A big muscular man with black hair appeared from nowhere, grabbed Harley by the feet and lifted her. She dangled there.
“You dare kick a queen.” The man said.
“I believe we can set her execution for tonight.” The lady with the red hair pronounced.
“What are you doing?! Let go of my friend!” The man obeyed and put Harley down.
Zephyr went to help her get up of the floor.
“Are you okay?” Asked Zephyr.
“Yep
, I’m fine.” She said. “I should of known, I man I did read the book.”
“I apologise to you if I was of any inconvenience.” Said the man.
Kneeling down in front of Zephyr.
“I believe you should apologise to my friend here, not to me.”
“I apologise to you my good lady.”
“So what brings you two here?” The lady asked.
“We’re just passing by.” Harley said, but they did not pay any attention to her, they were looking at Zephyr.
“What she said.” Zephyr told them and they turned to Harley.
“What did you say?” They asked.
“I said we were just passing by.”
“Yes, then let’s make your short stay here of the most enjoyable, and for your little red creature to. I have never seen a creature like him before.”
“Oh Draco, he’s always sleeping, I’ll wake him up to say hi.”
Draco was in fact sleeping on her shoulder. She tapped him gently and he woke, looking sleepy, his eyes still closed.
“Say hi.” Zephyr said before picking him up and showing him to the lady in red.
“Oh so rude,” She started, “with all the action, I forgot to present myself. My name is Elianne, I am the queen in this castle, I will make your stay here the best it can be, follow me.”
Zephyr and Harley followed inside. The inside was even more spectacular than the outside. The pillars has gold patterns and the whole area was covered with red and gold pattern rugs, with people sitting on them, both men and woman, making things out of clay or weaving to make plates and bowls and baskets. As soon as They entered. Everyone stopped what they were doing and bowed in front of them.
“Creepy.” Zephyr murmured in Harley’s ears.
“These are my guests Zephyr, “she said pointing to Zephyr and Harley.” She said pointing to Harley.
“I wish you to make their stay the most comfortable,” She continued.
All at the same time, people came to them, offering them all sorts of fruit like grapes and peaches, oranges and fruits Zephyr didn’t even recognised. Zephyr accepted a peach and bit into it. It was the juiciest peach she had ever eaten. It was sweat like pure sugar and water dripped down her chin. Some guy in a white dress wiped off the juice with white cloth that was soft like the softest of Zephyr’s winter bed sheets. Everyone was dressed in white dresses, including the guys, except their dresses were different. They looked like the ones in ancient Egypt.
We are in ancient Egypt, Zephyr realised.
“Hey!” She said.
The man then recoiled and bowed.
“I am sorry my queen.” He said to her.
“It’s okay, just don’t do it again.” Zephyr told him.
“You are to good my queen.”
“Next time I choose the book.” She told Harley.
“You’re kidding me! You don’t read.” She replied.
“I’ll get a suggestion from Mike.”
“Mike will just give you some book where you can go shoot aliens.” Harley told her.
“Exactly.” Zephyr said back.
“You know how Pinocchio’s not a real boy?” Harley asked.
“I see where you’re going with this.” Zephyr said back.
“You’re not a real girl.” She finished.
“Yah well tell me again when you actually have boobs.”
Harley pretended to be offended.
“Hello ladies.” Said a guy with reddish hair. “I am, Darren the massage specialist and I would like to present to you my team.”
Well, Zephyr needed her muscles to relax a little.
“I’m in.” She said.
He brought them to another room where men were standing near wooden tables covered in thick carpet like blankets.
“Welcome!” They all said at the same time.
“Take your pick, their all at the same level, and at me tell you, their good at what they do.”
Zephyr looked around. She wasn’t really the kind of girl to go pick to hottest guy. Even if someone told her to, she would be clueless on how to find the one who’s hottest. All guys looked the same to her and if she were to choose a guy, it would be the kind of guy that would lead her into a bunch of dangerous adventures. On the other hand, Harley did not hesitate to choose some tall dude with large muscles, and sleek black hair.
“Um, can you suggest anybody?” She asked.
“I can do it. I’m the best at this.”
Well, what the heck, it wasn’t any day you can be treated like you’re a queen and have people falling over themselves to give you a massage. She knew that because all the other guys were looking at her hopefully, except for the guy who was currently giving Harley a back rub.
“Yep, Darren, I chose you!”
“Could you tell me where you come from, you do not dress the traditional way.”
“I feel, great.” Harley said as she joined Zephyr outside the temple-like castle.
“Me too. But I still want to do something more exiting next time. Maybe we can find a book where you don’t have to be 18 to go to the bar.” Zephyr suggested.
“Oh trust me; the last thing I’m going to do is let you drink alcohol. You’re already as crazy and dangerous as it is.” Harley told her.
“Yah and I’m surprised you’re not looking into becoming a nun.”
They were in front. Elianne had offered to have the flying unicorn things bring them back from wherever they came from, but they had said they didn’t need a lift.
“Sucks we have to go back.” Harley was complaining again. “It would of been nice to stay a few days.”
“Hey, we have to go back and help with the rest of the plan. What I’ve learnt is people need a leader and they are helpless without their leader. If we don’t show up they’ll be wondering what do because they’re a bunch of idiots. They’re too stupid to go as planned and just finish it without us you know?” Zephyr explained.
“Yah, I get it.” She finally said.
“I do have some confidence in that Keith guy, he seems to have a head on his shoulders, he would probably be the one to take control and make sure everything is going all right.” Zephyr added.
“We are ready,” Harley started when Zephyr put out her hands and he took them. “We wish to go, to the rule breaker’s club.”
“Not a very original name.” Zephyr commented as they appeared in the barn/office.
They looked around to see that a few people were standing there.
“Hi Zephyr!” A guy with dull brown hair and a bit of acne said, his brown eyes gleaming.
“Hey and you are?” She asked.
“I’m Tom, and I think abolishing all the rules are a great idea. But what are you going towards? I man you never told us the whole plan.”
“You see Tom, if I tell you the whole plan, some people will try to go ahead and that’ll mess up the whole plan, so I only told a few people that I judge trustworthy in case something happens to me, so the show will go on.”
Tom seemed bewildered by the logic of her explanation and went back to talking to his firends.
“Think this is real gold?” Zephyr asked Harley while holding an up a golden chain with golden pendent hung on it, a large red stone stuck right in it.
Elianne had given it to her before her departure.
“Looks like it.” Harley murmured, “And that looks like a real ruby.”
“Hmm,” Zephyr was thoughtful, “I heard there was a jewellery shop close; let’s see for how much we can sell it.”
Harley smiled. In fact, the jewellery shop was so close they walked there, after leaving Draco in Zephyr’s improvised room.
“No teenager allowed.” The man behind the counter said with a Chinese accent.
“You no look like come from rich family you no shop here.” He said.
“First of all, it doesn’t mean that I don’t look rich that I’m not, and second of all, I’m here to sell.” Zephyr said holding up the chain.
&nb
sp; The short man with the accent came and snatched, so Zephyr caught his wrist and help it tight.
“It’s not polite to grab.” She said, “Perhaps you want to apologize.”
“I no apologise you.” He said. “You leggo of me, you most respect the owner of the store you are in.”
“Maybe when you start pronouncing English properly, I will respect you, but only if I get respect for you. Oh and are you a talking garden gnome? I mean, you are short enough to be one.” She continued.
The man’s hand was turning purple.
“Okay, okay, I apologize!”
Zephyr held on.
“Why you no let go?”
“You said you were going to apologize but you didn’t.” Zephyr noticed in the corner of her eye that Harley was looking at the merchandise.
“I’m sorry!” The man finally said.
Zephyr let go and the short guy started to rub his wrist. He went behind the counter and took out a kit, looking at Zephyr as if he was expecting her to jump on him at any moment. He took out a little tool box and started fiddling with the necklace.
“Aw, ain’t that cute.” Zephyr walked up to Harley. “Our little bob the builder’s at work. Can we fix it? Yes we can!”
She said the whole thing loud enough for the man behind the counter to hear. After a while, he called them over.
“I’ll give you two thousand.” He said.
“You know, I bet your parents never liked you. I bet if you had brothers or sisters they were your parents favourite, and I bet it made you mad. I bet in school you were picked on, nobody liked you there either and people would shove you, lock you in your locker and a bunch of other mean stuff.”
“And if I buy for more you like me. I hear routine before, no work.”
“Oh no, I was going to say I understand...”
“Me perfectly, that routine no work either.” He interrupted her.
Harley was laughing in the background. Zephyr turned to see that her eyes were gleaming.
“That they were doing it. Man you are some looser.”
She finished. She knew it was mean to do stuff like this but she honestly didn’t care, it was amusing and she would have been less mean if that man would have been more polite.
“Now four thousand and I’m out of here.”
He turned to her with eyes watering with tears. He went under the counter and retried a few pack of brand new a hundred dollar bills. He gave them to Zephyr who quickly counted them and turned to leave after saying:
“You can go back to dealing drugs now!”
They walked out and Harley started asking her a question.
“Why did you tell him he could go back to drug dealing?”
“Who has four thousand dollars in cash?”
“Drug dealers!” She said finally understanding.
They walked back to the warehouse and saw that most of the people were back.
“Keith what happened to you?” Zephyr asked when she saw he had a gigantic red spot on his neck, disappearing into the collar of his shirt.
It was oozing that clear yellow stuff.
“Turns out I’m allergic to tattoo’s.” He said between grinded teeth.
“I bet it hurts, next time just don’t get a freaking tattoo! Moron, you should of waited until you could stay longer in the story, so you could go to the hospital and get it treated.”
Of course he couldn’t go here, or else they would keep him for a long time and he wouldn’t be able to escape. Plus they would ask him if he had any parents and that would be a problem considering his parents have probably not seen him in a month. If they admitted that, they might take him away from his parents and put him in a foster home, and Zephyr needed him for his plan, he was the smartest one there! Excluding Zephyr of course.
“Can you live without us for an hour?” Zephyr asked all the others.
They all nodded.
“And Harley you took French class?”
“Yep.”
“Good, I heard about this book once and they have healers that can heal anything. First we go to the library.”
She exposed her plan.
“What is your tattoo anyways?” Zephyr asked after that, “I can’t see it under all the redness, pustules and infection.”
Zephyr wasn’t lying. She had just noticed a bunch of pustules over Keith’s red skin. Keith winced as his longish black hair rubbed against his neck and she could see pain in his dark eyes so dark they looked black.
“It’s a dragon.” He managed.
“Speaking of Dragon’s I’m bringing mine.”
Zephyr quickly went up the stairs that lead to the dorm and went to her bed. Draco was rolling back and forth on his back, trying to swat something imaginary with his little paws.
“Draco! Come here!” Zephyr said, taking the silver handbag. Draco rolled onto his stomach, got to his feet clumsily and flew to Zephyr who held out a hand. He landed on it and rolled his long tail all around her arm.
Zephyr blew him a kiss, put him in the bag and went back down.
“You better be good at French Harley.” Zephyr said before grabbing her arm and dragging her with her, Keith following behind them.
“You have change for a hundred?” Zephyr asked as they got on the city bus.
The driver looked at her as if she were crazy.
“What you never saw a hundred bucks before?” she started, waving the bill in front of his nose, “I man working as a bus driver. You had other plans or you always wanted to be the poor driver of a stinky bus full of people?”
The driver was an old man, but not that old either, maybe in his forties with a short beard and a bald head.
He reached into his pocket and took out several twenties, a ten and change. Zephyr counted it, and then slipped the change into the money slit thing, making three tickets come out. She gave the hundred bucks to the driver and found a seat. Although there wasn’t that many people on the bus and Keith could of easily found a place to sit down, like the seats right in front of him, on his right or on his left, he stood, hanging on to a pole.
“Yes, I know where that book is, go to the French section, and then in the kid mini section.”
The helpful librarian directed them.
“You’re much more helpful than the last librarian I asked for help.”
The librarian smiled, Harley rolled her eyes and Keith looked at Zephyr inquisitively.
“Long story.” Harley explained to Keith.
They found the book, a book that Zephyr’s French cousin had gotten for Christmas.
“Wait a minute, that doesn’t look like the book, it has the same title and the same author, but it’s not the same book.” Zephyr noticed.
“It’s probably just another one of the same series.” Harley said.
“You’re right.”
Zephyr opened the book, and put her hand on it. Keith put his over it, wincing as he lifted his arm. Harley put her hand last and Zephyr murmured the formula before looking around to make sure no one was there.
Light filled the room.
They were at what seemed the entrance way to a castle.
Before Zephyr could say one word, swords were pointed at her little group of friends.
“Qui va là?” She heard.
It was the voice of some really tall blond guy with blue eyes.
“Nous somme ici car not ami, Keith, à une infection et nous aimerons le faire guérir.”
Harley said with a slight accent. Zephyr looked around, there were seven knights (of great knights again) in green armour. Not metal armour though.
“Je suis l’expert en guérison, mon nom est Santo.”
“Oui mais avant, il faut être sur qu’ils ne sont pas des ennemis, je n’ais jamais vu des êtres habillés de cette façon. D’où venez-vous?”
“Nous venons d’une autre dimension, nous repartirons aussitôt que notre ami est guéri.”
“Aussitôt qu’il est guéri? Vous en êtes sur. ”
“Santo, guéri-le.” Said the guy with the blond hair.
The one who’s name was Santo (Zephyr thought so, but she had never taken French and she had no idea what they were talking about) had curly black hair and dark eyes, he approached Keith and said:
“Couche-toi.”
“Lie down Keith.” Harley translated.
“Quelle langue parlé-vous?” Asked the one with the blond hair, who seemed to be the leader.
“L’anglais.” Harley replied.
Keith lay down, and Santo bent over him.
“Couche toi sur le ventre.” He told Keith.
“Lay down on your stomach.” Harley translated again.
Keith obeyed, hissing as his tattoo touched the ground. Santo approached, took a pocket knife out of a pocket in his green cape and cut through Keith’s shirt, tacking it all off. Keith’s back was horrible to look at, the redness, oozing an pustules covered his back in a shape that looked like a deformed dragon.
“I guess it kinda looks like a dragon.” Zephyr commented.
Keith groaning was the only response. Keith was very thin; you could see the shape of his spine all along his back. Santo put his hands over the red figure, and moved them over Keith’s back, as if scanning it. Then he put them closer and closed his eyes, a kind of yellow light came out of his hands and he moved them all over the figure. When he passed over it one, the disgusting pustules disappeared, leaving only very red and bumpy skin. Zephyr was beginning to be able to see the actual tattoo. She could see the black lines that made the shape. Santo ran his hands over the redness again, and soon that tattoo was there for all eyes to see. A big dragon of every colour, the Chinese kind, was on his skin. But with tiny wings that looked like they were fluttering on the back of Keith’s shoulder. The head was on his neck and the body of the long dragon descended onto his back where there were its paws. The long tail continued twisting down his back. The area around the tattoo was simply a little pinkish.
“Voulez-vous nous rejoindre pour le souper?” The leader of the group asked.
“Oui, nous aimerions cela, comme ça nous serons sur que ça fait une heure avant de retourné chez nous.”
Harley answered.
Keith got up with a relieved expression, but when the front part of his brown shirt fell off, he looked at everyone with an embarrassed face. Santo detached his cape and gave it to him. They stayed for a while, and left after lunch which was this gigantic feast organised in the honour of their guests.
They got back to the spider club, with Keith looking much more energetic and less in pain, their tummies full of meat roast and bread, etc.
Everyone was at their desks, taking calls. This girl named Jenny with long dirty blond hair seemd to have taken control.
“Hey Jenny,” Zephyr started as Keith and Harley moved to their desks and pressed the button that allowed calls to go to that phone, “seems like you took control.”
“Well, I figured it was the right thing, I’m sorry.” she said in her sweet angel voice.
“Why do you say that? Great job, it was a smart and much needed initiative, you can continue taking care of the questions and I’ll start on my phone. If there are any questions you are not sure of the answer, send the asker to me.”
Jenny seemed satisfied with the praise and continued encouraging and taking questions from everyone. Zephyr sat at her desk and took calls. She felt like a dang secretary. She wasn’t made for this and after a while, she feared that her impoliteness with the costumers could endanger their cause. All the people calling were idiots. She went to Jenny and told her to go back to her desk that this was not the job for her; she went back to bossing everyone around.
One person asked her why she was doing this. She answered the whole truth and nothing but the truth and whatever else you say in court:
“I don’t like being told what to do.”
This boring routine continued the rest of April. Her trusty minions would take calls, set a meeting place and bring them in a book. If they signed the petition and agreed to help them abolish the laws in court, they would let them go home. If not, they would bring them home themselves and feed them a potion to make them forget the day’s incidences. They would simply think they fell asleep and woke up a long time after. At the end of the month, they had a petition so long it was ridiculous. They were ready to bring it to the council. That is when Zephyr had to go back to the spider club.
She entered the building with her little silver handbag, there was no way she was going anywhere without her cute little pet. People she knew looked at her as she passed, that just when she realised she had not been to the club for a very long time. She didn’t really know for how long, because it was difficult to keep track of time when you’re constantly in and out of the real world.
Matthew was walking down the corridor and spotted Zephyr. He had a smile on his face.
“They tried me and found me innocent; they’re still looking for the real culprit.”
What a surprise he was going to get when he found out the real culprit was the one who had chased him down and brought him back.
“Aw, I would have enjoyed not seeing you anymore. What a pity. Can’t you go out and create a zing, for real this time.”
Zephyr’s face was so full of fake sincerity that Matthew was left stunned. Zephyr managed to find the green room, and waited by the door. As someone went to enter, she asked:
“Ring, ring, yes hi is Sophia here?”
Obviously not liking Zephyr’s humour, the tall guy with the light brown hair, middle aged with a pot belly said:
“Yes she is but she is occupied with important things, I’m positive you can wait, she probably doesn’t want to see you.”
“And I don’t want to see you, but the problem is you exist.”
“I’ll tell her you’re here.”
“I would say thank you but no need, that was a favour you owed me for making me stand you’re ugliness. And that favour doesn’t even begin to cover it.”
Zephyr waited there for a minute before Sophia came out of the room, her very, very short white hair flying behind her.
“Zephyr what are you doing here?” She asked in that kind of whispered yell people use when they want to yell at someone but do not want to get heard.
“Haircut! You got a haircut! Looks great.”
“Answer my question, why are you here? And where did you get those eyes?” Sophia asked.
“I need a favour, and don’t worry, there is no way for it to put you in trouble. My honour isn’t that flawed.”
“Well if there’s something you’re honour is not, that’s flawed.”
“I need you to set up a meeting with the council of the higher enforcers.”
“Why?”
“Attend and find out.”
Sophia told Zephyr it was a crazy idea but finally gave in. The meeting was set for a date in two weeks. Zephyr told Sophia to make sure that wherever the meeting was held, there had to be enough room for hundreds of people. They had gotten more phone calls than they would have expected. Everyone was ready to go to the meeting, they had called everyone back and set the time and place of the meeting. This would be the first time in history that so many humans and also so many travelers would be at a council meeting. When Zephyr got there, (they had taken an old arena where there was no ice) there was a line of cars, and she could see people she recognised, she had interviewed some of them. All the rule breakers where there, and there were about fifty of them. They all entered and sat down. After a while, the council started to appear, sitting down on the benches on one of the sides, the rest of the space was occupied with the people attending. Garet, the leader of the council picked up a microphone and started to speak.
“Could I find out who organized this?” He asked in his grave and serious voice.
“That would be me!” Zephyr sounded, lifting up her hand like an
overexcited kid in preschool who just figured out the answer to one plus three.
“Can you come up here?” His voice sounded through the speakers.
Zephyr walked down the steps. About half of the seats were taken. She walked onto the ice and walked up. She walked towards Eugene Garnet.
“Here’s a petition signed by four hundred twenty five and a half people. The petition’s for the abolishment of the current Story traveler rules.” She said proudly.
“This has got to be a joke.” He said.
“Yes, it is, there isn’t that half person.”
He looked at her sternly and snapped his fingers. Before Zephyr knew it, someone had grabbed her arms behind her back, had slipped a bag over her head. They were strong arms and Zephyr knew better than to struggle. There was hand on her mouth and she was being dragged. She had known this would happen, and she had a plan. There had been no way to avoid this situation, except for sending someone else up claiming to be the one who organised this, but Zephyr wasn’t that kind of person. She didn’t want this to happen, but there was no other way, Harley would continue fighting for the cause and zephyr would probably be locked up for the rest of her life.
She thought of all this within less than a second, and she could also feel the sting of a needle in her skin.
She went dizzy and blacked out.
When she woke up, she was on a bed, her ankles and wrists tied firmly to the sides of the bed. There was an IV in her arm. She struggled to notice two things, even if she ordered her body to struggle, the struggle was so weak it didn’t even pull on the restraints. The second thing was that not only were her ankles and wrists tied, but her head was held down too, and her forearms and the other part of her arms and her thighs and the other part of her leg. There were also vertical restrains all over her body and over the other restrains. Even if she wasn’t so weak, she would not be able to move an inch. The only reason she could see all this was because there was a mirror on the ceiling, she couldn’t even move her head.
“Hello Zephyr, you probably want to know where you are.”
Zephyr opened her mouth to find out she couldn’t talk. Not only was her tongue so weak she couldn’t move it, but she had something over her mouth that didn’t even allow her to move it.
“You’re in the high security section of the one and only top secret story traveler prison, the one where all the people who need extra security though. And just think of it, you’re in the high security section of THE high security building, try getting out of that. You’re probably wondering why so much security, we could just deprive you of books and there would be no way out. The thing is, all the people locked in here are the ones with special powers. No one knows about these because all those who are tested and who we think might acquire them are locked up, regardless if they broke any laws.”
Zephyr was discovering a whole new and dark side of the world. Locking people up because they had powers, even if they did not do anything wrong. She wondered what powers she had.
“But also, you even broke all three laws: you brought a character back, you told a human about us, and you brought a human into a book. And that IV, it’s a special formula that gives you the water and nutrients you need, but it also contains a tranquiliser that impairs you’re kinetic skills and that also makes it hard for you to move. Have a nice stay.”
The woman left the room. Zephyr heard one door close, than a beep and a bunch of sounds like locks falling onto place. She heard the same sound, not as loud two more times. Zephyr looked around as far as her eyes could go. She looked up at the mirror to notice she was wearing these mitts that did not allow her fingers to move. The room was small and painted white, and the light was very dim. She preferred that to aggressing neon’s. Zephyr could not believe what she had just heard, that story travelers could have more powers than the ones to travel into books surprised her, and why would the woman tell her? She must have a lot of confidence that Zephyr wouldn’t get away. And from what Zephyr saw, she was right.
Concentrate, she thought, now that you know you have powers, you have to try and use them.
She suddenly felt very tired and fell asleep.
She dreamed of Harley:
Harley was feeling uneasy; she had no idea where they had taken Zephyr. The crowd around her was going wild, demanding that they bring Zephyr back.
“That’s not going to happen.” She whispered to Keith who was sitting next to her.
She shook his head. That is when some guy stood up. He was older than the average gang of story travelers, and Harley had never seen him at any of the meeting. He had really dark brown hair that could of been mistaken for black if Harley had been any further. At that moment, he stood and spoke word Harley would not even be able to begin to understand.
“I just wanted to announce,” He started in a very calm voice, “that I will be fusing the real world with a book I know.”
The council looked shocked, and the guards that were always with the council started to run towards him from every direction, each holding a needle. The man was definitely trapped, but he was still wearing an infinitely calm smile. At the moment the guards were finally close enough to plunge their needles into him, he vanished. Just like that, no fancy smoke like you see on TV and not the white light that characterised the story traveling, plus, he did not say anything and had not seemed to have a book with him. Harley sat there stunned. All the book travelers were stunned, and the normal people were or looking around foolishly as if it were a dream, looking angry and confused, trying to slowly back out of the arena, or they were crying.
Keith grabbed her and shook her.
“I think we should leave now.” He said.
Harley nodded.
Zephyr would of gasped waking up if there wasn’t that thing on her mouth. Was what she had seen true? Had knowing she had special powers awakened them?
She was still breathing hard as the woman who had been there the first time she had woken up there walked in to check on her.
(Let.Me.Go.)
Zephyr thought.
Weirdly, the nurse or whatever she was seemed to had heard her.
“What?” She asked, more of a question to herself than a question for Zephyr.
(I said, let me go!)
She said with more intensity. The woman reached for a button on the wall.
(DON’T)
Zephyr thought, directing the whole power of her thought on the woman. The woman did not hit the button.
(Now you’re going too...never mind.)
Zephyr said when her restraints started to unfasten by themselves. Btu not by themselves really, Zephyr seemed to be controlling them, and the nurse just looked at her as if she were permanently starring into space. All Zephyrs’ restraints started to unfasten all at the same time, and soon she could move, she slipped off the thing on her moth, using all of her energy to do so. The woman was still not moving, a dopy look on her face. Zephyr fell of the bed and got up, staggering towards the door, slumping to the floor. She concentrated on the locks and *click*, or more like a bunch of clicks one after the other and the door was opened. She gathered to her feet and noticed that she had a little more energy. Whatever that had put in her must have worn out fast. She undid the other lock and then the other, and she was in a hallway. An alarm sounded. Zephyr stumbled through the hallway, rapidly gaining energy. She took two seconds to recover against the wall, eyes closed. When she opened them, there were people wearing white lab coats, like in hospitals around her. They all had needles brandished.
“Oh great needle again.” She murmured before attempting a break for it.
It was far from being a success. She had barely walked two steps and she felt a needle in her side. It was muck longer than the first one and it didn’t even take a millisecond before she was out cold again.
This time she didn’t wake up until several days later, as she was informed. She didn’t wake up all of a sudden like the last time. It was like if she was deep in the sea
of dreams, where she normally hitched a ride right back up to the surface, but this time she was hanging on to a slow moving fish, going up so slowly she could hardly tell they were making any progress, the water becoming lighter and lighter as they surfaced.
And this time when she woke up, there were double the restraints, with locks so complicated Zephyr doubted a person with an IQ of over two hundred could manage to understand how they worked. Zephyr felt even more tired than the last time. Tired and confused. Not confused about the world, she could see clearly around her and understand what was going on, and she was sure she could still make the best snap decision, but when she reached out with her power, it was as if her power was a near sided snake who would go out, look around, then come back, not being able to see or do anything.
“Hello Zephyr.”
It was the voice of Garnet.
(Hello, Eugene.)
Zephyr tried to send to him, it didn’t work.
“Well, the truth is we have a situation. To make a long story short, some guy...”
“Fused the real world and a book together.” Zephyr said, relieved by the sound of her voice.
She had managed to slip off the thing that stopped her from talking and they had changed the drug they had been giving her, she could talk now.
“Right, how did you know?” He asked.
“I dreamed it.” Zephyr said in a very week voice.
“Yes, one of the common powers some travelers get is being transported into the reality of someone they are close to when they are asleep.” He explained.
“Now the thing is, he did fuse two worlds together and now, the earth had expanded, and one half of it is occupied by these kind of humans and their dragons, except their extraterrestrial, they’re stronger, smarter and well, they have e dragons, and they’re a lot more than us and they are probably all trained for combat compared to us. That’s all I know for now, they also have better technologies. The military is fighting tem now, but we had to tell the government about story traveling and right now, we are working with them against the threat. “
What was with writers and dragons? Zephyr wondered.
“The problem is that this is not enough of them are being killed, and since you have great powers and leadership skills, we need you to help us. In exchange we will let you go free under close surveillance, like probation after getting out of prison.
“We are gathering the other one’s incarcerated here and giving them the same offer, they will be made into an elite team. I wish you to be their leader, of course I will be the real leader, the one to give orders to them, but you will be the spiritual leader.”
“Nu Hun.”
“What?” Garnet asked.
“I have one proposition. You let me fight the war my own way or nothing.”
Eugene stepped out with his colleges to discuss. He stepped in a moment later.
“We agree to your terms if you will agree with ours, my friend Daniel here will personally make sure you don’t step out of line. Do you agree?”
“Yes, I agree to your terms.”
Garnet suddenly looked very tired.
“I can’t even believe I’m saying this, but desperate times call for desperate measures. Untie her.”
The man Garnet had pointed to when he talked about Daniel walked up to the bed and undid all the restraints. He was maybe in his twenties, very muscular, with average brown hair that was very straight and that fell in his grey eyes. His eyes looked as if they were made of nice, cool, calm ice. It was in complete contrast with Garnet who was also well built but with wild, burning dark brown eyes and greying dirty blond hair that was curly and all messed up.
Zephyr sat up cautiously and stretched slowly, all her muscles were aching and tired, and she still felt drugged. Everyone was gauging her, expecting her to make a run for it. She faked a move towards the door, and Daniel almost jumped on her before realising she had no intention of going anywhere. Zephyr was laughing her head off.
“I’m back!” Zephyr screamed as she entered the rule breakers club.
She wasn’t surprised to see that the whole gang was there. They all cheered. Daniel had been her shadow since she left that creepy prison. She had been blindfolded and put onto a plane, she wasn’t supposed t know where the prison was.
“How did you get out? And who’s he?” Harley asked.
“I got out because,” she took on Garnet’s voice, “desperate times call for desperate measures!”
“And he’s the guy who’s here to make sure things don’t get out of hand.” She said in her normal voice.
Before Zephyr knew what was happening, something soft and warm hit her face.
“Draco!” She cried.
“Is that...” Daniel started.
“Yes, that’s the character I brought back.”
Daniel looked at her disapprovingly. She stuck out her tongue at her. All the people who were there were looking at Zephyr expectantly. Keith walked up to her and held up his hand for a high five. Zephyr high fived him and he smiled.
“Glad you’re back.” He said with a twinkle in his eyes.
“Please don’t tell me that guy likes me.” Zephyr murmured only loud enough for Harley to hear.
Then she finally talked to all the people who had stopped to turn towards her. Some had gotten to fetch other travelers who were sleeping. Some were on the second floor that opened in the middle and were looking down intently at them; it was obvious that Zephyr was their leader.
“Do you guys really need me as you’re leader? I man out of all the people here, none of you was able to realise that you could be the new leader? Who says you need a leader? You people are pathetic.”
Everyone looked at her blankly, but most of them knew that she had a bizarre personality.
“But what are we going to do Zephyr?” Asked someone in the audience.
“Let me show you why I’m you’re leader. Janet,” She started looking at a girl who was always in the library pouring over books, “find the book that was fused, get as many copies as you can get your hands one, then pick a team equivalent to the number of copies you have, and make a profile of the aliens we are up against. Strengths, weaknesses, size, best way to kill them, how they kill, etc. Anything we can use.
“Who has a lot of money here?”
Everyone pointed to a guy with reddish brown hair and a boyish look.
“Do your best getting someone to build a giant barn behind here as possible. Everyone else, I want you to help with the construction.”
Nobody asked questions and the rich kid was already n the phone. That was the great thing when people know they can trust you and that you always have a good plan, they don’t argue. Construction workers arrived, looks like that rich kid had enough money to convince people to work for him during the apocalypse. They started cutting out the perimeter and measuring the terrain. The others were inside, waiting until they could do their part in the construction.
“Since aliens have invaded the earth, why aren’t we under attack?” Zephyr asked.
“Their probably figuring out what to do. They just got here, and remember, they have their won half of the planet, and they have to figure out what’s going on.” Harley told Zephyr.
Zephyr looked out the window and examined the mountains around them and the...nothingness. Busses passed by once in a while but it was only to make their way to the next city, the aliens would never bother attacking this place, they wouldn’t know that the area was inhabited and even if they did, they wouldn’t care, they were just about fifty people living in an old barn. Even if the aliens or whatever they were did decide to attack, this place would probably be safe.
“They are ravaging the rest though, its war and blood everywhere, I’ll show you the news later.”
“Another question, is it a coincidence that the guy who did this announced it at the meeting we set up or did I inspire him.” Asked Zephyr, her throat tight.
“We heard from the council that he’d
been planning to do this for a long time but he simply chose that moment to announce it. Usually, council meetings are held secretly, with high security. They couldn’t do this because of the amount of people that were supposed to show up.”
If that was true would depend on if the council was lying or not.
Zephyr was dreaming.
Soena was feeling a little nervous as she walked in to her mother’s study.
“Any progress?” She asked her in her own language.
“We determined that the temperature is slightly lower and that the levels of oxygen and Carbon dioxide have been altered.”
“Any idea what happened?”
“Our riders have gone over the area; looks like our world and another were merged together.”
“Do the inhabitants look like they will be easy to eliminate? If they are to strong we would have more chance of survival...”
“No. I would die before I would share a world with another race.”
She had slammed her hands on her steal desk in front of her. Then she went to look out the window, seeing the other buildings. They were big domes over one another, supported by a high tower. Under them, the bright and long yellow grass was swaying gently in the breeze.
“I agree mother, will you be getting the soldiers ready?” Soena asked.
“I will,” started looking thoughtful, “you get your beast and make sure he is fit for battle.”
“Yes mother.” Soena said before leaving her somewhat beautiful mother in her study.
Her mother had light gray skin, very high cheekbones and ears that pointed on top and underneath, like all the people of her race. Soena looked down at her hands, wiggling them, making sure she had control. She had a disease that sometimes made her five figures and thumb useless. She took the portal to the dome where she kept her beast and was interrupted by a little metallic ball held in place by ring on top of it and a ring on bottom. The rings were attached to a little machine with propellers on each side. A message from her mom, Soena realised. She held out her hand and the little device landed in her palm, then the top ring was pulled off and Soena was able to pick up the ball. Her mind was them full of sensations, sounds, and images, all flashing in and out of her brain at the speed of light. When it finally stopped, Soena’s mother’s voice was what she heard.
(You now know the strange dialect that s the most used by the creatures that now inhabit this planet. One of my men was able to sample it and record it on here; we transferred it into telepathic form. Go now, and tell the leader of the country we are of peace. Deceive them as best you can ,my dear one, that will stop whatever forces they are creating to defend themselves against us, and when they least expect it we will decimate them.)
That was the end of the telepathic message. Soena smiled, she loved acting and deceiving, but what she loved most of all was watching her mom decimate other planets. She had seen it before, when her mother found a new inhabited planet, they went at war, mercilessly killing the whole population, even if they could of reduced them to slavery instead, and make them exploited the natural resources of the planet for them.
Loikhe, Soena’s mother, thought their race should be the only one living in the universe, and all the population agreed.
Zephyr woke up screaming and wet with her sweat. Harley, who was in the bed beside her opened her eyes wide and sat up, having just been woken up. Others were sitting up too, but Harley told them to go back to bed.
“Are you okay?” She asked.
”Um, yah, I had a dream. But I don’t understand why I screamed. It wasn’t scary or anything.”
“What was it about?”Harley asked her.
“I’ll explain later. In a few hours though were watching the news.”
“Why?”
“I think something’s going to happen.”
“So what are you a fortune teller now?”
“You could say I have new powers.” Zephyr explained, looking straight into Harley’s eyes.
Harley made a “you’re kidding” face. Suddenly, Zephyr realised she felt really tired, the dream had woke her up and she had not gotten enough sleep. She fell back down on the bed and Draco climbed onto her stomach, rolled in a ball and closed his eyes.
Zephyr got maybe a few hours of sleep before making up again, full of energy. She went to change into her clothes, the same ones she had been wearing since Alice had brought her shopping, and went down, looking in one of the fridges in the communal kitchen. It was always filled with food since story travelers usually though to bring back food when they traveled into stories.
Zephyr saw eggs, took two of them, cracked them into a pan, cooked them, put them in the plate then ate them while sitting on the counter. There were a few people sitting in the kitchen, but they all seemed too tired to talk to anyone. Zephyr looked out the window and saw it was still dark. That explained it.
The construction workers came at seven, and by then most of the people living at the club were up, and some of the people who lived at home had come. Daniel had woken up to realise the person he was supposed to watch was gone and he found her in the kitchen.
Before everyone woke up, Zephyr was able to watch the news. The screen read:
“Alien beings announce that they are peaceful.”
“No, no, no, no, no.” Zephyr said.
“What is it?” Daniel asked.
“I need to see Garnet.”
“Why, what’s wrong?” He asked again.
“Just get a meeting arranged.”
They met with Garnet in a hotel room on a street in the village that was closest to where Zephyr was staying with the rest of the gang. The room smelled damp and had no light, the curtains were also closed. Garnet was sitting on a chair at a little round table. Zephyr pulled up the second wooden chair and sat down in it. She had asked Daniel to stay outside.
“Daniel said you had something very urgent to tell me. I am a very busy man, but considering the circumstances and considering who and what you are, I have made some room in my tight schedule.”
“All that to say that you think what I have to say is not worth wasting your time and to make it quick. You know sometimes you should give the truth a try.” Zephyr said back.
“Can you tell me what the government is planning to do about this?” Zephyr asked him, being the most serious she ever had.
He looked extremely hesitant, he looked as if he absolutely did not want to say a word about national security to her. He probably though Zephyr was playing him.
“I’m really serious, I need to know.” She told him.
When he still did not say anything, Zephyr used the leverage she had.
“I have very useful and important information to give you if you are willing to tell me what I want to know.”
“The government has decided to stop all the preparation for war, since the aliens said they were peaceful and they wanted to make negotiations, possibly unite their forces to ours and develop society further.” He finally said.
It was worse than Zephyr would have thought, they couldn’t just stop all the preparations for war if they wanted to have any chance of surviving this.
“I have to speak to the president.” Zephyr informed Garnet.
“ I’m sorry Zephyr but I can’t let you do that, tell me what you want him to know and I will pass the message.”
Zephyr eyed him for a while trying to decide whether she could trust him or not. She didn’t think Garnet took her seriously enough to actually pass on her message to the president.
“Fine, I’ll tell you, but you better tell him, I’m telling you, this is not the right moment to fool around, the safety of the whole world is at risk.”
“I could say the same thing to you, I heard things about you.”
Now Zephyr was getting mad. Did this guy really think she would risk the safety of, what was it, six billion people on earth now just to have some fun and to be immature?
She slammed her palms on the tabling a simultaneous moveme
nt with getting up. She was so mad she could imagine Eugene looking at her and seeing steam roll off of her as if she were on fire.
“You really think,” She started in a dead serious and also angry voice, “that I would risk the safety of billions of people!”
The last sentence started to sound like a scream.
“You’re the one who let me go so I could save the world in the first place!” This was the angriest sentence Zephyr ever uttered in her voice.
Not the calm, creepy, evil, devious and slightly angry voice she used when she was mad at someone and intimidating him or her, this was pure anger.
“ Like I told you I’m a busy guy, I think you should leave now.”
He said this in a forced calm voice, as if he still did not take her seriously but he was trying to calm her down. He pressed a button on his phone and Daniel opened the door, showing Zephyr out. Zephyr gave garnet one last evil stare and left.
Zephyr and Daniel arrived just in time to help out a little with the work. Daniel had driven Zephyr there in a car her got from the hotel garage, courteously of Garnet. He helped with the work like everyone else. Zephyr used her strange levitation power to help nail stuff together, sometimes doing two nails at once. At the end of the day, after breaking for lunch and supper, the gigantic barn was half done. When Zephyr saw it, it was clear there would be room enough for what she was planning. The construction was taller than the actual main barn where everyone lived, and that barn was very big, and very tall. Its surface was probably as big as a football stadium, field and the seats for the crowd included. As they were asked, the workers were also constructing stables of various sizes. Two days later, the construction was done and everyone was gathered there. It smelled like wood and hay, since hay had laid some everywhere. The construction workers had also made the gigantic hotel-like building that could hold up to six hundred people comfortably, and someone knew a book that was a land filled with food, probably some dumb kid book. All that said, all was ready for Zephyr’s plan.
The hotel-like structure had been made in two days by a few hundred individuals; the kid who paid them was really rich, as in millions. The hotel’s outside was made out of brick, and the inside was regular walls, like any home. There were ten floors; two of them were dedicated to the food storage, kitchen and dining room, the rest had the rooms. Each room had two single beds, a washroom and a closet. It was right next to the abandoned bard that had been remodelled by teenage story travelers with no life and arranged for a large amount of people to sleep in, the members of the club had all moved to the hotel. It was quite the scene from the road, an abandoned bar but still in good shape, painted white with a metal roof, a gigantic other barn behind it, as big as a football stadium, the colour of woof with a red painted roof, and a seven story brick hotel next to it. When Zephyr thanked Nick, the rich kid who had paid for all of it, he said:
“We’re just working towards a common goal, even if you never told us your plan, I can assure you that everyone here trusts you. Plus my dad’s a billionaire and I have a credit card attached to his account.”
He said with an evil smile.
Everyone was talking to each other, until Zephyr decided she was ready to talk and asked for silence. All the people sitting cross legged on the floor fell silent.
They ranged between the ages of 13 and 25, all colours, all sexes all sizes, but they all had two things in common, they were willing to do anything Zephyr told them, and they wanted to be the ones to save human race from these aliens.
“This part of my plan will probably be the most fun, but it will also be the most important. I wish you to go into books, and get characters. But just not any character, characters that you think can actually help us in the war against whatever those things are. Janet?”
Janet lifted her attention from the book she was reading, probably the one that had been fused to this world.
“Yes Zephyr?” She asked.
“What do you got on the alien freaks?”
She walked up to be in front of everybody in the room.
“Okay, so the thing is they’re really smart, they have much higher IQ’s than humans and they are very technologically advanced than us. They do not believe in guns because they are too dangerous and can cause problems in their society so each time a gun is invented, they kill the inventor, destroy all the guns in existence and make sure there is no fabrication plan out. They also have bullet proof vests that cover most of their bodies, in case some of their people make guns without their government’s permission and start a war. The area of their planet is one and a half ours and that area is populated by about ten billion of them that are all trained in the use of a sword made out of a metal that doesn’t exist here. They also use bows and arrows. They also have these creatures, and let me quote a part of the book.
“The creature had purple scales the size of one hand and four eyes. Two big and bulgy ones positioned in the front, and two smaller ones more in the back of their head. It did not have a blind spot. When it opened its mouth, it had five rows of small pointy black teeth ad a snake tongue. From the ground to its shoulder, it was fifteen feet tall, and from the head to the tail, fifty feet long. On the end of those legs were talons like those of an eagle, so sharp they could scratch diamonds and so resistant nothing could break them. The only things known to be able to slice though the hard scales on their back were silver and ivory.”
“That’s perfect; I think the Jisael’s griffin’s armours are made out of silver. And if going in the book brings us to the part in the world where Jisael knows about us she can give us the swords she got made for us. And maybe even the armour.” Zephyr was whispering to Harley as Janet finished her speech about the aliens.
Zephyr then directed everyone to write their name on a sheet, since this was starting to get serious, plus she wanted to have some idea of people’s names.
The list was composed of:
Polley, Corey, Ellie, Petra, Lewis, Lacey, Opal, Keith, Esperanza, Roberto, Alisa, Krista, Kathleen, Earl, Steven, Keri, Lizzie, Maura, Zachary, Dan, Tonya, Nick, Janet, Kent, Brigitte, Caitlin, Paige, Austin, Herman, Ingrid, Terrance, Jocelyn, Maurie, Jenifer, Kirk, Dean, Joni, Wesley, Jorge, Iva and Evan.
Zephyr set off to the library like everyone else, and for the first time of Zephyr’s life, when going somewhere in the real world, she did not have to hide the fact that she was a story traveler or the little dragon she was currently carrying in her arms.
“With any luck,” Zephyr turned to Harley who was next to her as the whole gang who were in this together walked to the library, “Jisael will remember who we are.”
This time, after light filled the room when they were going into The Dark side, they appeared directly on the black mountain. People all around, their hair a mix of black and grey came to them and cheered.
“Looks like we got a little luck with us.” Said Zephyr before kissing Draco on the head.
“Hello, Zephyr and Harley, welcome back, may I interest you in some lunch?” One of them said.
Zephyr’s eyes went wide with delight.
“Lunch, did you just say lunch?”
They were brought to the same room they had first dined in, and the person who had brought them there went to fetch Jisael. She came in soon after.
“What brings you here?”
“Nothing brings us here; we came ourselves, of course the fact that we are story travelers helped.”
“Still have an odd sense of humour I see.”
“Still dressing odd I see.”
Jisael looked down at her black dress decorated with silver. It looked fantastic, but Zephyr wasn’t the kind to care if things looked good.
“I’ll get the cook to whip you up some food.” Jisael said before doing so.
Zephyr sat on the table.
“Well, we have an hour to kill before we can get the griffins and go back. What do you want to do?” Zephyr asked Harley.
They had chosen their griffins and were now on the edge
. Zephyr kicked the sides of the griffin and it was off, flying gracefully, with Harley following behind them. Zephyr made the griffins loop around, dive, and all sorts of other things. She also noticed others were doing so; they had not been out flying for fun last time they came. Zephyr figured since they beat Crystalite they were safer and having fun with it.
“Harley!” Zephyr yelled as she passed beside her, then pulling back on the griffin to steady herself next to Zephyr.
She looked at Zephyr intently. To make sure that what she was about to say made sense, Zephyr looked at Harley wrist.
“Tell me in an hour.” Zephyr then said before taking off at high speed.
It felt good to have the wind in her face, in her hair, it was a feeling of freedom that was of tremendous greatness in comparison with the treatment she had gotten when she had gotten locked up by the council. Zephyr had also convinced Daniel to stay in the real world, that the others needed his guidance; she had actually put him in charge of handling all the new arrivals. It took a lot of convincing but it worked. Felling and breathing the fresh air, she urged the griffin to go faster and faster until it was going so fast, Zephyr felt as if she were the one flying, not the griffin.
They walked into the armour room with Jisael.
“Thank you so much, we will try to bring them all back to you.”
“Oh it’s okay, I know my sweat little griffins are in good hands with you. Plus, you help us when our word was in danger, I’m happy to help you when yours is in danger.”
Jisael called out and a few sweaty men who were working on forging swords came out. One of them wiped his forehead with the back of his hand. Jisael told them to suit up al the griffins in armour and round them up in the same room. They did as they were told, they went into the room where the griffins were kept, and the girls followed them, their feet softly thumping on the hay covered ground. The men immediately started taking the armours hidden in large wooden boxes and fitting them onto the griffins. They started with the helmets, squeezing them onto the griffins’ heads smoothly. Then they suited them up with the rest of the metal armour and Zephyr examined it.
“Is this silver?” She asked Jisael who was watching the operation.
“Yes, nice clean silver taken from the volcano.”
“Volcano?” Zephyr asked herself.
She let it go without getting and answer and waited until everything was ready.
“What do these things eat?” Zephyr asked.
“Nothing.” Harley replied, “This is a book remember, anything can happen.2
She added when she noticed Zephyr looking at her with a strange expression.
“At least that means we don’t have to pick up any poo.”
After the griffins were ready, Jisael made sure that their paws were all touching. They had to if Zephyr and Harley wanted what they were about to do to work. So they crept into the circle created by the position of the griffins, held each other’s hands, kneeled down, and put each of their hands on a paw on a griffin, then Harley murmured the formula to bring them into the newly constructed gigantic barn. When they arrived, they griffins let out frightened cries, but Harley dealt with it, she had always been good with animals. They calmed down, and started to look around. There were few people in the room. One big and blue dragon was laying down a few meters away. It lifted its head lazily with the commotion going on.
(You must be Zephyr.)
Zephyr heard in her head.
“Oh great, another psychic creature.”
It was a soft, female voice and for some reason, it made zephyr feel safe and at ease.
“And you are?” She asked the dragon.
(My name is Saphira.)
The female voice in Zephyr’s head said again.
“Oh I think I heard about you, a book called Eragon right? I’ll show you my own dragon.” Zephyr said.
Zephyr’s head suddenly felt heavy.
(I can see him, he’s cute.)
The voice said again, and this time the eyes of the dragon seemed to be fixed on a point right above Zephyr’s head. She reached out and felt soft and vulnerable scale. Zephyr smiled. Daniel was also in the room, and he started installing little wooden gates to make twenty little stalls for the griffins.
“Well that’s taken care of; we have to get back to work, what book have you read where there are a bunch of nice guys ready to help us in the battle?” Zephyr asked.
“Well, there is one, but I’m not certain, it’s called the night world and there are some who would be willing to help us, but we have to be careful. We’ll have to stay an hour before we even try to find anyone who can help us. If we try and something goes wrong, we have to have a way out.”
“Blah, blah, blah, now come on, let’s get that book.”
They got the book at the library. All the people who worked at the library seemed to be scared of them now, because they knew they were different, they knew they had powers normal people could not even begin to imagine. Harley opened the book and Zephyr said the formula, and they were in a city. A city that looked very much like Las Vegas. What tipped Zephyr off first were the bright light on a sign that said: “Welcome to Las Vegas.”
“Yah, and under that sign over there...” Zephyr started, pointed to the sign.
Harley looked up.
“They should add, “come gamble your little hearts out, go broke and then live a disastrous life of gambling addiction.”
Harley just nodded.
“You got Draco with you?” She asked.
“Yah, I got the bag and put him in before we arrived.”
They walked around for hours, even having to stop somewhere and eat. Harley always had some money on her, and Zephyr had no idea how much she had and where she got it from. And she didn’t care.
“What are you looking for anyways? Trying to get to the end of the rainbow to find the pot of gold?” Zephyr asked, still munching on the sandwich she got.
“Let’s just hand a lighted sign saying: “seeking members of the night world to rid the alternate dimension we come from of evil aliens that arrived when some idiot fused two worlds together.”
Harley sighed.
“Well, just find a hotel, sleep for a while then continue searching.”
“It would help if you told me what we’re looking for.”
“We’re looking for black flowers.” She answered.
“Black flowers? We’re searching for black flowers?” Zephyr was frustrated.
“No, actually we’re looking for a house with black flowers.” Harley corrected herself.
“Great, helps a lot, we’re looking for a house with black flowers, and if you have a black flower detector you’ve been hiding from me because this would be the time to use it.”
Harley rolled her eyes and they simply went to a hotel, paid a nights rent and went to bed. That’s when zephyr realised she had not showered in....a really long time.
She went to the bathroom, stripped off her clothes and took a warm shower, putting on the hotel bathrobe after and going to wash her clothes in a communal laundry room. They had chosen this hotel because of that. By the time Zephyr and Harley were both to bed, they were squeaky clean.
Zephyr woke up without having a dream this time and they started searching again, this time stumbling on a house, or more like something between a mansion and a castle, with windows painted with black flowers.
“This is it!” Said Harley.
“Oh and you better let me do the talking if you want to survive.”
“Yah, I’m not the best person to talk to someone when you don’t want that person trying to kill you.”
Harley gave Zephyr a warning glance which meant that she was serious about Zephyr not talking. Zephyr nodded and rolled her eyes to show she understood and walked up to the door and rang the doorbell. Then a thought occurred to Zephyr, Harley had told her she couldn’t do the talking, but she never said anything about any other sounds. So when someone answered the door, Zephyr starte
d to whistle.
“I don’t know what you’re doing here but you better leave if you don’t want any trouble.”
“Well, okay I’ll just tell the truth and hope it works. The thing is we come from another dimension, and our dimension is being attacked by aliens, so we came here for help, because well, you know, you guys are like, vampires and werewolves.”
The guy, who was maybe a teenager, with soft looking brown hair stared at Harley and Zephyr weird.
“Zephyr, get the proof.”
Zephyr simply looked back at Harley burped in her face and continued whistling.
“Look I’m sorry I didn’t want you to talk but it’s because I know this book and you don’t!” She said, exasperated.
Zephyr looked up at her, then finally said:
“Oh okay then.”
She then took the silver purse she was holding and produced a cute little red dragon. The guy at the door gasped.
“Looks like there is no other explanation than the one where you are telling the truth.” He said before opening the door completely and letting them in. They stepped in, and the guy brought them into another room, after passing a bunch of giant fancy rooms full of stuff that looked very expensive. They even had a grand piano. When he brought them in, they saw a few people sitting or lying down.
“I’m sure some of them would like to come with you.” They guy said.
All the others were looking at him as if trying to say: “What the freak is going on THIS TIME?”
“Just one last question, if they go with you can they come back?” He asked.
“Of course they can, but only if they want to, the rules in our world are going to change drastically after what happened.”
“Okay, un step outside for a moment and I’ll explain the situation to my people.”
Harley and Zephyr did as they were told, and since it was taking too long, they started playing patty cake, sitting Indian style on the floor. The teenager they had seen before came back out, to see two teenage girls, sitting Indian style, playing patty cake, with a dragon playfully trying to nip at their fingers. He didn’t comment.
“Um, you can come in now.”
They did so, and the guy started to talk.
“My name is Thierry, and I will be coming with you with Rashel, Ash, Poppy, James, Quinn and Lupe, we believe we can be useful to your cause, but we refuse to go until we know all the details.”
Harley looked at Zephyr so Zephyr told the story.
“So the thing is, in our world, some of us can transport ourselves into books, and in our world, your world is a book. And then a bunch of stuff happened and we stood up for ourselves and tried to get the rules abolished but some guy just made things worse. But what we didn’t know is that some of us can fuse the real world and a book together, and that’s exactly what happened. Our world and this book about aliens have fused together, and we need all the help we can get to beat them. I mean, we are so freaking desperate that the leader of the council of enforcers, who made the rule about never bringing back a character, put me in charge of bringing back characters who can help us. And he put ME in charge, the one who’s supposed to be locked up because I have special powers that others don’t and because those powers are like, super dangerous and can lead to a disaster, so is it me or do we really need your help.”
Everyone looked stunned by the way Zephyr told her story. She wasn’t one to be dramatic like most people would be if telling a story like this, she just said what had to be said and that was all.
Everyone started whispering to each other, and they came up with a conclusion that a girl with shining green eyes and long black hair told them.
“We all know how it’s like to live under the pressure of rules you can’t and don’t want to respect, that is why we wish to go with you. But at one condition.”
“Anything that’s possible and that won’t piss me off.” Zephyr told her.
“Well, most of us are vampires, so the ones who are will need blood regularity.” She said.
“How much, how regularity and will it kill who you drink it from.” Zephyr asked.
“No it will not kill once a day and not that much.”
“Oh that’s fine; we’ll have lots of people there willing to give their blood.” Zephyr answered to that.
They still looked hesitant.
Where do vampires usually take blood? Zephyr asked herself, Oh yah, and the neck.
“Look.” Zephyr said before tossing back her hair and exposing her neck.
Everyone looked at her, and they seemed uneasy. Finally, one of them, a tall dude that looked like some lazy cat stepped up to her, and he bit into her neck. Zephyr then felt some sort of connection with his mind, but she ignored it until he was done.
“At least we know she was serious, by the way, I’m Ash, the one with black hair is Rashel, the one with curly hair is Poppy, the one with blond hair is James, the one with dark hair and equally dark eyes is Quinn and well I’m too lazy to tell you the other names. So are we going now?”
Zephyr felt a little dizzy but she directed everyone who was supposed to go with them into a circle. Everyone took each other’s hands, with Harley and Zephyr on one side.
“We are ready; we wish to go, to the hotel.” Zephyr said picturing the hotel.
Picturing where you want to go is useful when you didn’t name it specifically, but Zephyr usually pictured the place, she wasn’t even sure where she would end up if she didn’t. A light filled the room and soon they were in the hotel hobby with seven other people. It was the first time Zephyr had seen the hotel inside. She had been too busy. Now she looked around to see a rack of keys with room numbers.
“Okay folks!” She started, “Now each room is for two people, please go into groups of two and get a key, and then go to your room. If you get bored, go to our hangout, the enormous barn, the smallest one of the two enormous barns I should say. And if you’re still bored, like I donno, go for a walk. Once the aliens start attacking I would like for everyone to be ready to battle. I will send Janet to your rooms, to explain to you what we are going up against. Oh yah, and tomorrow, Harley and I will teach you how to ride griffins.”
They did as they were told, and they looked bewildered while doing it. Zephyr guessed that if you lived all your life in a world where the possible and impossible are set, and then someone comes in and breaks all those rules, you kind of feel bad. Zephyr and Harley decided to go to bed, since it was beginning to get dark, plus they were tired. They got into their beds and fell asleep almost as soon as they lay down.