Within the Pages

Chapter 26

Chapter 26

We race through the trees at an amazing speed. I imagine that this is what it's like to ride a horse but riding a lion makes me feel strong. Anyone can ride a horse, not many can ride a lion.

As we ride, I begin to hear the sounds of battle and the cries from the girls, The closer we get, the louder the sounds of battle rings out. We keep getting closer and closer until we burst out into a huge clearing.

The first thing I see is my dad on the ground, unconscious. Lancelot is standing over him with his sword out. The scarecrow looks crushed into the ground, and the two girls are kneeling next to my dad with a small black dog that must be Todo, trying to wake dad. The two witches are slowly advancing with big wide grins on their faces and an army of flying monkeys flying behind them.

As soon as we hit the ground after jumping out into the clearing, the lion let out a huge roar that shakes the ground. It knocks everyone else over that was standing and scaring off the monkeys that fly away in terror.

The witches get off of the ground, their faces in a rage that I haven't seen before.

My sister summons up a ball of magic and hurls at me fiercely. Thinking fast, the lion leaps to the right, however I lept to the left to avoid it so I end up falling off of him. The lion runs at the witches and before I can call out to him to be careful I see him start to shrink and moments later I see a parrot instead of a lion.

The lion, or rather, the parrot, flies off into the trees. The witches look back at me. Both of them raise their hands and in each hand I see a glowing ball of fire. As one, they throw them at me. One to the left of me, one to the right, one at my feet and one aimed at my head. They have trapped me so I no matter what I do I'll be hit by a fireball.

No...What am I thinking. I have magic. Pulling the magic from the ground that seems far too easy to do now, I imagine a huge column of water in front of me, and within milliseconds there is one. The two fireballs aimed at me hit the water and extinguish immediately. The other two I let fly by me and they hit trees, making scorch marks but luckily not starting a fire.

I turn back quickly to see the witches' stunned faces.

"So that's how you escaped my dungeon. Your magic sure is strong." My sister says. She looks over at my dad who is just coming awake and sits up with a groan, before she turns back to me. "We will finish this another time brother." She says brother with a snarl. With a puff of smoke the witches disappear.

The instant they disappear I see the lion, now parrot, fly out of the trees and come to sit right in front of me on the ground. It looks up at me expectantly.

"Fine I'll try to change you back." I say letting out a small laugh. I imagine the parrot as a lion and a second later the lion is sitting there. Weird. I forgot to even go to the ground to get the magic. Could that have been an accidental use of my mother's magic?

"Charlie!" I hear my dad call over to me. Oh I almost forgot about him. Will make sure not to tell him that. I run over to him as he is just standing up with Lancelot's help. He looks over at the crushed scarecrow and the straw forms to make the full scarecrow once more.

"I'm so glad you are alright dad!" I say when I reach him.

"Me too Charlie. I saw you managed to control your powers a bit. Great job. But it is time you go stay out of the way and let me find your mother."

"Thanks dad." I say with a smile. Then realize what else he said. "Wait what. You want me to go stay out of the way now? But what about mom. What about my friends I've made?" I gesture at everyone around us. "I can't just do nothing."

"You have to Charlie. It's not safe. If I could protect you like I thought I could then I would be fine with you staying. But I can't"

"You know what?" I question, feeling myself fill up with anger. "I wish I was back home. I don't want to have seen you after this. I want to go back home."

"Charlie! Be careful what you say or.." He drops off mid-sentence.

"Or what dad?" I see him staring off into space above me and I look up to see what he's staring at. A vortex like thing is spinning about me and coming down toward me.

The vortex circles around me and I see my dad cry out before I look at my hands and see them vaporize into golden dust. I feel the rest of myself vaporize as well and in seconds, my head starts to as well, then, darkness. 

A/N: Let me know what you guys think of the book. Thank you all for getting this far and  let me know what you think about the ending of this chapter. What happened to Charlie?