Mark of the Ranger

XVI. The Mission Begins

Honk! I heard the bus call to my team and I. As we glanced at each other once more, we ran over to the first floor, which was down a few flights of stairs and about three hallways. About three. I could see from the windows next to the front doors that the bus was waiting for us and probably was going to leave without us if we didn't speed as fast as we could. At the exact moment the bus driver was about to lift off, we burst through, and they opened them again to let us through.

"I almost left without you," the bus driver said. Honk! the bus agreed. We nodded, apologized, then sat down on the back of the bus. The driver snapped his reins, and with one last Honk, the bus lifted off, and we headed off toward the Wizarding Guild, where Isabel would be awaiting us. "You never answered my question," Ko chided. I frowned, trying to remember the last thing he asked me. "What do you mean?" Ko sighed, as if I should have remembered everything that anyone ever says to me. "I asked if the Grand Wizardess was beautiful, Lio. Is she?" I considered his question for a moment, then answered honestly. "Yeah, I suppose she is."

The bus flew us over the countryside of the Outlands. The Outlands was more of a plains type of place, with plenty of crops and tons upon tons of grass. Contrary to that, the Woodlands was obviously mostly forest, the Highlands were a sort of mountain area, the Badlands were plenty of valleys and slopes, and the Deadlands was pretty much all desert. My personal favorite was the Woodlands. The forest always seemed so serene, and even though there were bears, wolves, and squirrels, it had a special place in my heart. I know that Jeff and Karen loved the Highlands, since the Highlanders were tough, strong people, and it was the land closest to the sea, which Karen lived in.

"I wonder how this new adventure will pan out," Jeff wondered out of nowhere. I turned to him, a little surprised. "Well, you never know," I answered. "We could get kidnapped by pirates, fight geovores, or even go see some other lands. Anything can happen, and anything can spiral dramatically out of control." Jeff snorted in mild amusement at my true statement, and we finished the bus ride in silence. With a Honk! the bus slowly drifted down to the Wizarding Guild.

The Wizarding Guild was basically an enormous castle built into the side of a mountain. It was constructed out of purple bricks, and at least a dozen towers branched off from it. The Guild looked like it was even larger than the gathering hall, but since all the magicians and Rangers were at that ball, I didn't think that it actually was larger. "Yep, the magicians sure are lucky," the bus driver said, reading all of our minds. Who wouldn't want to live in such a castle as that?

"All right, I'm going to drop you by the back of the castle, in that huge tower next to the mountain. That has a hallway that leads directly to the Grand Wizardess' suite. One moment," the bus driver explained to us, then tilted the bus towards the back of the Wizarding Guild. The bus banked suddenly, nearly throwing us off if we hadn't been holding on. With a surprising lack of grace for a bus, we landed, sending a cloud of air around us. The team and I hopped off, one by one, with David getting off last.

In front of us, in the middle of the purple brick, was a large wooden door, made of dark oak. I opened the door, let everyone go inside, then followed, shutting the door tightly. As the bus driver had explained, there was a hallway, bare and covered in scarlet carpet, directly in front of us. We started off, heading towards the door with a golden handle at the other end. After a peculiar amount of walking, we reached the door. David opened it and stepped inside, with us in tow.

Isabel was waiting for us. She seemed to have dressed appropraitely for a journey such as this, as she wasn't wearing a dress. She instead wore a dark blouse, black trousers, and leather boots. She had another fedora on today, this one brown with a white trim on the top. "Good morning, my escorts," she welcomed. I nudged Ko to make him stop staring. "So, are we ready to get going?" Isabel continued, grabbing a backpack that was next to her. It was then that I realized we had made an important mistake. "We didn't bring any provisions!" I told my team. They made various expressions of sudden remembrance, exasperation, and mild anger. Isabel laughed. "I thought that would happen, so I made bags for you, too." She pointed to a row of brown messenger bags, one for each of us. We picked them up and thanked her.

"So, are we taking anything like an Outlandish Falcon?" I asked. As soon, as that came out of my mouth, I realized my mistake, and everyone groaned. "You do know that the trail can only be traveled on foot, right?" Isabel asked me with annoyance. I sighed, then admitted my idiocy. "Yes, I know." One should know that one of the most clear facts in the Five Lands is that the path to the grand council can only be taken by foot, and it is very embarassing to forget such a thing as that.

"Let's get going," I said to everyone to change the subject. The others agreed heartily, and Isabel opened the large glass window in the front of her suite. "Of course, but let me say goodbye to my friends. Wait here," she remembered, then ran off to say goodbye to her friends. While we waited for her to find her friends, we looked at the inhumanly sized bed that she was seemingly forced to sleep in. It must have been the size of our entire dorm room. Isabel came back after about half an hour, a little out of breath. "Alright, no more delays. Let's run off!" she declared, then ran over to the window.

"We're not going to jump out the window, are we?" Jeff asked. Isabel made a face as if that question was ridiculous. "That question is ridiculous. Of course we are," she answered.

"Have you ever jumped out the window before?" Karen followed up.

"No. Let's go!" Isabel answered, then jumped out the window. Our main job being to protect the Grand Wizardess, we followed.