Screw It, Let's Be Magic

Chapter three

About 3 hours later with the help of Fennec's internet skills, we had found a speed train heading towards the general direction kaliah said the magic was coming from.
"Darkworld magic is as different from all the others as curse magic is from healing. So, I'm pretty sure that i know where we're going." she grimaced. "We're gonna have to go through America."

"Hell no! What are you thinking! Kaliah, that's the most racist place on earth. They  won't let anyone who isn't straight human walk around freely! they've got shotguns and ugly grandmas and angry di-"

"LANGUAGE FENNEC. I know that we won't be welcome there, but we've gotta go through if we want to get to the door." she turned around into the bag of supplies she had purchased while we printed off tickets, and pulled out 3 hats.
"Adrian and Jess, you'll wear these ones with the ear covers. Adrian, you already look like a girl, so to make a better disguise, wear the one with the flowers." she shoved the hats at us.
"WHAT?"
"The hat itself is green, and only pink on the inside. you can deal. Jess, you get the brown one. Fennec," she spun on her heels, and grabbed his arm, lifting it and then dropping it. "You'll have a sweatshirt. Jess brought one, and it should be big enough to hide your tail in. you also get a beanie.  It'll cover your fox ears."
He grabbed the clothes, and scowled.

"And what will you be doing to hide your wings? Don't forget, your the most noticeable of us all."
She walked over to the bench where our stuff was. Her hands disappeared into the bag, and came out holding a shawl, a scarf, and a charm.

"If I wear this shawl, and a scarf over my head, that covers my wings, horns, and ears. The charm makes it hard to notice my wings. If anyone does, they'll be using strong magic themselves."

"Mhm. And what about your eyes? And by the way, the charm doesn't work. We can still see the wings plain and simple."
She pulled out a pair of blacked out glasses, and thought for a second. Turning, she shot a blast at the now unoccupied park bench, transforming it. she opened a portal in the back! and slipped her wings through. She put on her glasses, took a seat, and crossed her legs.
"I'm a blind girl in a wheelchair."

                                                             ~*~

We walked (Or in Kaliah's case wheeled) Into the train station, print off tickets in hand. Though our horrible disguises got us a few states and dirty looks, for the most part we went unnoticed. Just a bunch of homeless looking teenagers pushing a blind girl in a wheelchair. Totally normal and low-key.

"Turn left at platform five, then head towards the magnetic shuttles."
Kaliah whispered directions and instructions to us from her chair, occasionally voicing her fears that other people would find a blind girl directing a posse of kids suspicious. But she still gave directions. We weaved through crowds and groups, making sure to stay together.
"Which train are we on?" Fennec whispered. Kaliah turned and glanced at him, annoyed.
"I'm blind, remember? I can't read the tickets. You take them!"

He blushed, and muttered an apology for forgetting. She shoved the ticket at him, and he passed them around. Adrian grabbed one and read it.

"We need to be at platform 13 in the next 15 minutes. Heh."
"What is it?"
"Figures. The train to America would end up being the unlucky number."
"Stop being superstitious Adrian. It's stupid."
"You're stupid."
"No, you are!"
"Yet somehow I have a 4.0 grade average."
"Shut up."

I've just gotta mention how annoying it is to have Adrian and Fennec arguing all the time. Adrian would always win if the topic was something that had anything to do with numbers or book smarts. Fennec would win whenever it involved street smarts. But they hadn't figured that out yet so we still had to listen to them bicker constantly.
Even when the argument wasn't really one that could be won.

"Shhh, we're about to pass a guard. Act natural..." Kaliah readjusted her glasses and sat back. The rest of us shut up, and looked anywhere but at the officer.

"Hey, where are you going?" The guard called. Judging from his accent, he had been brought in from America recently.

"Damnit." Fennec cursed under his breath, which earned him a warning glance from me.

"Platform 13, to uh..." Adrian trailed off, unable to think of what to say.
"Visit our grandmother." Fennec stepped in to save him. "She sent us these hats, aren't they awesome? She's just really sick and we need to get to the train..."

He gave us a disbelieving look. I fished into my pocket, found a piece of paper, and cast an illusion charm on it behind my back.

"See? This is our letter, and a picture of her! We just can't find the platform. Could you point us in the right direction, please?"

I handed him the note, and gave him the biggest puppy dog eyes I could.

He sighed and shook his head.
"Next platform on your left, hang a right, and go straight. Ya can't miss it."

Kaliah thanked him, and motioned for us too turn. "That was a close one." Kaliah said under her breath. "From now on, really act natural. Maybe give the guard a smile, wave, or talk to one another. Just quit being so darned obvious!"

We followed the gourds directions, leading us to the platform. Adrian handed our tickets to the ticket man, and we boarded the train.
"Did you know that these trains use magnetic fields to float down the tracks, so there's never any contact? The rest of the train is powered by solar computers and batteries."

We all turned towards Fennec, who was looking out the window. He rolled his eyes and muttered, "What? I just like magnetic sciences. And trains."

While the train zipped along, I took a moment to look around. There was a tired looking human mother that had given up on quieting her 3 little kids, an old lady with some knitting, a man with a large coat and his head down, and a teenager with wild looking eyes muttering to their self. I looked back at the teenager, wondering. He couldn't have been much older than us, with a small frame and shaggy brown hair. He had earbuds in, and looked pretty scared. How did he end up here alone? He didn't seem human, at least not all the way...

The boy caught me looking, and I waved. He turned away quickly, and turned up the volume. His hair fell away from his neck, exposing three long scars that looked like gills. There was no mistaking it.

He was a merperson.

Unlike most creatures, merpeople can almost hide the fact that they aren't human without a disguise. They simply kept themselves dry, and hid the gills on their necks. This one was obviously too young to be out on his own. Just like we were. His eyes were sea green, a common trait among merpeople, and showed evidence of several sleepless nights. He had a few blue-ish freckle marks near his collar, and if you looked closely there was some slight webbing between his fingers.

He looked back at me, and his eyes darted towards my hat, and his eyes widened.

"Elf?" He mouthed, and my hand flew up to my hat. My ears had drooped down, and had gotten out of the hat. I hid the ear quickly and looked at him. The train car rattled a little, throwing us all off balance.

"You're not human either." I mouthed. He shook his head.
"Merman."