Safehaven

Chapter 16

“Quick, there it is again!”  A scaly figure shot out of the water and lunged into a graceful dive.  It hit the water surface, not a splash rippled.  For the last 20 minutes, my friends I had been consumed in this very stunt.  As soon as all 6 of us had sat down by the edge of the lake, this magnificent beast had risen from the depths of the lake and had started to show off.  With the front of a blue horse and the behind of a fish, this creature was like nothing I had ever seen.  It had blue, iridescent scales that caught the light and a frothy mane braided with lake pebbles.  “There it goes again!”  Once more, the animal rocketed out of the water.  It completed an entire flip before entering the water.  Holly, who saw none of this, sat off to the side under the shade of a tree.  She had the History of Safehaven book open in her lap, and her lips twitched as she read to herself.  “That is just awesome.”  Jada sighed in admiration.  “Yeah.”  Quinton replied.  “Just think how much how much force it would take to power that animal out of the water.  The trajectory of the angle divided by the numeri…”  Antigone cut him off.  Sometimes, besides being annoying, Quinton could be a complete nerd.  “We don’t need the math lesson, dude.  It’s Saturday.  Whatever this thing is, it’s clearly a show off.”  Holly came over from her quarantined tree and joined us.  She sat down next to me.  “I think that it’s a hippocampus.”  She quietly uttered.  Ever since we had arrived at Safehaven, Holly had become more and more secluded.  She had begun to speak softly and gently, and her motions were slow and deliberate.  Even her eyes, which were normally and striking blue, had turned a stormy grey.  “Wait, hippo on a bus?  Where?!”  Holly turned to Sage, who was now looking everywhere for the fabled tale.  “I don’t see it!”  Holly just chuckled.  “It’s the name a the creature, Sage.”  She smiled.  Looking disappointed, Sage just nodded, though her eyes still roamed about.  “The hippocampus is a Greek myth where the front part of a horse is combined with the tail of a fsh.”  Holly continued, completely in lecture mode now.  “Many historian believed that this species died out thousands of years ago, or didn’t exist at all.”  “Well.”  I exclaimed.  “I don’t think that they are going extinct anytime soon.  Look!”  I pointed through the water.  Many more hippocampi were shooting up through the water and to the surface.  It looked like one, big, happy family.  After about another hour, we all got bored and decided to move on from the lake.  The school “grounds” was made up of hundreds and hundreds of acers.  There was the lake, a forest, a meadow, and some cliffs that overlooked a misty sea.  After seeing the lake, we wanted something a little more daring.   Gwindol, Kai, and Dash flew above us as we explored the grounds.  The other followed at a distance, still wondering what to do.  We all walked for a good 15 minutes before we came to the crest of giant hill.  As we stood on the top, we could see a thick, black, tree line looming ahead of us.  “Come on, guys.”  Antigone said, rubbing her hands together, as if planning something mischievous.  “Let’s have some fun.”  With that, the girl ran ahead toward the trees, skipping like a little school girl.  I glanced at my other friends.  They all frowned back.  This wasn’t right.  Antigone was usually the reserved, more careful character.  She would never run ahead to check something out, let alone a creepy forest.  Before I could say anything, a chorus of howls and shrieks sounded as out creature erupted in mass panic.  Gwindol shot flames everywhere, nearly turning Kai into the largest ever fried chicken.  Felix the lion was leaping about on his hind legs, as if a chuck of catnip was being held under his nose.  The other animals ran around, causing sheer confusion.  Though the chaos, as my friends joined the crazyness, I could see Antigone and Jada’s unicorn calmly walking to the woods, which was only a few yards away.  Their eyes were glazed over, and their motions were slow and clumsy like a robots.  When they reached the point where tree met grass, they stopped.  Standing not 2 feet withing the forest boundaries stood the plumper man I had seen in my dream!  I looked around.  They animals were still having panic attacks, but my friends had quickly calmed down and were now gazing at the same spectacle as I was.  As if on cue, we all took off down the hill and to out friend.  It only took a matter of seconds before we reached her and yanked her away as the man tried to grasp her.  Falling back onto the ground, Antigone struck her head on a rock and passed out, a nasty bruise forming.  The unicorn was not so lucky.  It ventured beyond out help and into the woods.  I could hear a strangle gasp from Jada.  Even though the 2 had not been together for very long, I could tell that they had a special connection.  Jada had always liked animals.  But now, her new pet was out of her protection.  Calmly, the man cupped his hands around the creature’s muzzle.  He muttered a few words, and a tiny, red light fluttered out of the unicorn’s mouth and into the man’s hands.  After the light was safely tucked into the dudes pocket, the unicorn crumbled into ash and was scattered by a small gust of wind.  The man looked at us, then walked away, into the heart of the woods.  Jada leaned into my shoulder and wept.  Her best friend, gone.  I could feel her hot tears streaming down her cheeks and staining my robes.  Everyone was silent.  Nobody knew what to say.  What could we say?  We didn’t even know what had happened.  At that moment, Nathen came to the top of the hill.  Holly quickly brushed a stray piece of hair behind her ears.  Upon seeing the discarded ashes, tear streaked face, crazy creatures and unconscious girl, Nathen hastened toward us.  He scooped up Antigone and ushered us back to the castle.  He explained that the animals would be cared for.  But the ashes were beyond anyone’s help.  At this, Jada sniffeled a little more, but kept it together.  I glanced around out little ragtag group of friends.  Eyes were bloodshot, tears ran down cheeks, bodies trembled, we were all shaken up.  Everyone’s shoulders were stooped with exhaustion and stress.  One question floated around my head.  How much more of this could we take?