Safehaven

Chapter 20

As my friends and I made out way back to out room, we realized that we were a little famished. So taking a short stop at the mess hall, we gathered a few armfuls of tacos (tonight's course) and continued on our way. We finally reached the poster and got inside without a hassle. There we sat, on the sofas munching away on our crunchy treasure. Even Gwindol had a few tacos, though he didn't much care for them. As we ate, there was no conversation. All was quiet, just chewing. I finished my fifth taco and stood up, dusting the crumbs off of my robes and face. "Who's up for a little game?" I ventured. Silence, a few crunches, silence. "How about we get to know our mates a little more?" Still, nothing. "Let's talk about the gifts?" I smiled cheerily. And guess what happened?! Haha, nothing... everyone was too absorbed in their meal to give me any notice. Was that because I had taken that annoying kid earlier? No one would talk to me? I huffed. "Come on, dudes. I'm tired of just getting in trouble. Let's do something fun!" As if siding with me on the "trouble" matter, Sage got to her feet and wiped her mouth. "I agree. I'm sick of being picked on and getting in trouble. I vote for an honest, exciting, though somewhat boring, discussion on them." The girl gestured to her pegasus, Dash. "I don't want to be in the dark anymore. Especially after yesterday..." There were a few mutters of protest, but my 5 friends all slid to the floor in a sloppy circle. The tacos lay forgotten on the couch. "So, who wants to start?" I began. Quietly, Holly raised her hand. "After what happened today, I sort of had the initiative to check things out. And look what I found out. Watch this!" Holly placed her hand, palm up in the middle of out ring. The girl's eyebrows furrowed with concentration, and red fur began to envelope her arm. From both sides, it worked it's way to the middle. When the two sides connected, there was a brief flash of light, and her arm was gone. "I can control it now." Holly smiled. "I was really easy once if figured out what was going on. Also, only Shiloh knows about this, this happens." Her arm reappeared, the fur gone. Instead, white mist seemed to seep right out of her skin itself. It started to swirl in the palm of her hand until it solidified in perfect sphere. Slowly, images began to dance across the ball. Flashes of red and white, a dark tunnel, a dark figure hovering in front of a full moon. All those pictures streamed by in a high speed collage. As quickly as they had started, the images faded back into oblivion. Holly closed her fist, and the mist evaporated, flowing out between her fingers. "I don't know why, but it's always the same picture sequence. It's almost like a bad dream. No matter what I do, it's always there!" Holly leaned back against the leg of a chair. "So, you can somewhat see things in the future?" Jada asked, clearly intrigued. Holly frowned. "I do not know if it is from the future, but yeah. I can see things that might happen. Might. For instance, I had a funny feeling when we were on the stairs and look what happened. Shiloh almost started World War 3!" I looked down, embarrassed. "It's not my fault that the guy asked for it!" I glanced back up and smiled. "He got what was coming to him, one way or another!" There were chuckles. "Anyone else want to go?" Holly questioned. Quinton cleared his throat and sat up straighter. "Well, Felix and I have been talking lately, and we came up with something." The boy and beast stood up. "I need a volunteer." He said, in his best ringmaster voice. Jada leaped up. "I'll do it." Quinton handed her a pen, which he had pulled from his pocket. Stepping to the other side of the room, Quinton smiled. "Alright, pal. I want you to throw that pen as hard as you can at me." I rubbed my ears. Had I heard him right? He wanted Jada to chuck a pen at him? Before I had time to think further, Jada stepped forward and hurled the pen with blinding speed. When it was about 1 foot from Quinton's face, there was a snap of electricity and the pen changed direction. It was almost as if it had been deflected off of something and it was now making course toward the window. There was the shatter of glass and the pen broke through the window, leaving only a small hole behind. Impossible. The pen would have had to be moving at an astonishing speed to be able to do that. All of us glanced back at Quinton. He was grinning like a maniac. "Force fields." He smiled, a blue ball of energy floating in his palm. "I can make force fields!" He laughed and doubled over. I didn't get what was so funny. Wiping a tear from his eye, the boy straightened and chuckled one more time. "You should've seem your faces..." "Yeah yeah, bud. But what's your physical gift?" Antigone spoke up. "We all know Holly's got fur," Antigone glanced at the girl. "No offence. "But," She turned back to Quinton. "What's yours?" The boy stopped and looked thoughtful for a moment. "I don't know. Maybe it'll come later. Who's next?!" "My turn!" Sage called. We were all on a roll. "Dash, come here." Sage called to her Pegasus. It came trotting over and stood over her. We all gave her and the stallion plenty of room. Sage smiled deviously. "Who should my victim be, Dash?" Sage laughed. She stopped and tilted her ear toward the horse. "Shiloh, you say, huh? Excellent choice." I didn't know what was going to happen, but I knew enough to guess that it wasn't going to be good. Sage's eyes narrowed and she fixed them on me in an intense stare. After what seemed like minutes, she spoke. "Shiloh, you will raise you right hand and echo whatever I say." For some strange reason, I was compelled to do so. I raised my hand. "I will." I tried to resist, but overwhelming guilt crushed down on me. I felt like I had to do whatever she said. "I am a nut." Sage smirked. "I am a nut." I copied.

"Sage is the coolest."

"Sage is the coolest."

"Flying pigs!"

"Flying pigs!"

"Stop copying me, you idiot!"

"Idiot!"

"Hey!"

"Hey!"

Sage broke down in giggles. The rest of my friends copied her. I felt blood rushing into my cheeks. Why had I done that? It had made me look like a complete nut! Sage saw the look on my face and laughed even harder. "Don't worry, mate." She managed to wheeze. "It wasn't real." Sage finally got her guffaw under control. "I can manipulate people. How cool is that?!" I smiled, but in the back of my head I was thinking, Great. So she can make people do whatever she wants. How much more embarrassing can that be? Just imagine, she can ask for your deepest secrets and you have to give them to her... I sighed. "Awesome, Sage. But promise me you won't use it on one of us." Sage shrugged. "I'll try." But that didn't assure me. But before I could scold the girl any further, Antigon spoke. "That's cool and all, Sage, but this will put that baby trick to shame." Antigone and Kai strode to the window. A cool breeze fluttered through the hole where the pen had exited. Outside, the sun was shining and there was not a cloud in the sky. Placing her palm on the glass, Antigone bowed her head. Suddenly, a strong wind rippled through the air and storm clouds gathered over head. Within minutes, rain was pouring down in great sheets and lighting streaked the sky. Though she took her hand off of the window, the storm still continued after Antigone had sat back down again, Kai at her side. "How was that for a magic trick?" Nobody spoke, but applause broke out. "That was sweet!" I hollered. Everyone clapped harder with agreement. "Still, though, I don't have a physical gift." Antigone huffed, staring at Kai, who was busy preening his feathers. "Anyway, that's all I got. All who's left is Shiloh and Jada." All eyes turned to us. I shrank down. Did I really want to do this here? What if something went wrong and I managed to set the whole castle on fire?! Gladly, Jada saved me. "I've spent some time with Finn, but nothing really has happened. As of the moment, all we can do is talk to each other." I had to smile. She and the fwen had made progress. They had bonded at least a little! But stupid, stipid Quinton had to speak. "Finn the fwen?" He giggled. Maybe instinctively, the wolf creature snarled at the boy and crouched down. When Quinton didn't get the message that it was time to stop, Finn launched himself at Quinton and landed on him, pinning him to the floor. Felix just paced off to the side, as if wondering if a fight was worth it. If you remember back to the beginning chapters of this book, you'd remember that Quinton was not the hugest fan of dogs, especially now. With the huge beast looming over him, drool dribbling down, teeth bared, and wings spread, Quinton looked absolutely terrified. "Finn." Jada called him off. The boy quickly sat up and slid to the corner farthest from the canine. Just for emphasis, Finn growled at him, a clear warning not to make fun of his name again. Or else... "O.K. then..." Antigone drawled out. "Shiloh? It's your turn!" I sighed. Inside, I really didn't want to do this, but it did sound like a little fun. I shoved my conscious aside and stood. "You might want to stand back." I warned. Everyone scooted back. I glanced at Gwindol for support. You got this, girl. I focused on my hands. I stretched them out, then clapped them together. As I drew them back out, a massive fireball formed. When it was about 3 feet in diameter, I lobbed it at the already lit fireplace. It connected with a boom, and sent slivers of wood across the floor. I looked back at my friends. A log had impaled itself inches from Holly's head. Everybody look startled. Awesome. Now why couldn't you have done that at Mark? Gwindol really needed to shut up. "Sweet..." Quinton managed. "Sorry." I hung my head. Had I scared off my only friends? Was this my destiny, to be forever alone? There was laugh, followed by several more, until it was a chorus. For some reason, my 5 friends had started to giggle, then snort for no apparent reason. I joined in after 3 continuous moments. I was pretty sure folks all the way down in the mess hall could hear us now. But that didn't matter. Ever so slowly, everything died down. Through the storm outside, it began to grow dark. As the last of the laughs drifted off, we all bid each other good night and headed off to our own rooms. Gwindol followed me up the stairs and to the door, which I gave the password to. I changed for bed and crawled under the covers, exhausted. That fireball was a lot harder than it looked. Slightly, I drifted of, thunder booming outside. "Good night, Gwindol." I yawned. Sweet dreams. And with that thought, I fell asleep, prepared for whatever tomorrow would bring.