Half the Power

Beginning the Journey

The nameless pegasus had told us to head north for about twenty miles, so Mary grabbed a compass of of her dresser before we left.

She quickly tacked her horse, Susan, as I climbed into Luke's saddle. I had taken the compass, since I had more time. I moved it around until I was facing north, then sighed. No pegasi in sight, which would mean that we have to travel farther than I could see.

That lead to the problem of the night. We had borrowed a tent from Mary's house, something I hadn't even thought of. When I had told Mary this, she just shrugged.

"You've only been camping once or twice, right? My family goes a couple times a year. Thank goodness, because I have a basic idea of what to do."

The bag holding the tent was now on her shoulders.

I looked to my left, where the sun was about half way between the horizon and it's peek. Mary and I had tried to stuff ourselves with fruit, sandwiches, snack foods, and really just about anything that was in her kitchen. Better to eat now and travel with less food.

Mary was at my side now, looking calmly ahead of us. I studied her face, amazed at how she could possibly be able to act like this. I tried to hide it, but I kept getting occasional waves of panic, when I tried to think about our time limit and what we need to do before it. Making it to the pegasi, talking to the creatures that shouldn't even exist, and no doubt they wouldn't give us a straight answer. Then, we had to figure out what they told us, and I was sure they would tell us to go somewhere. We would have to make it to wherever they tell us to go, do whatever we could to wake everyone, all while fighting off half human half animal monsters. Yep. Piece of cake.

Mary, however, looked like she could be heading into town to pick up some bread for dinner. She looked solemn, but she always looked like that before riding, so maybe it was just the ride ahead of us. I wished I had her talent of keeping my head in a situation like this.

"Twenty miles," she kept murmuring. "Not too long..."

"Hey," I said, trying to sound comforting. "It's all right. We've ridden twenty miles in, like, a few hours before! This part should be easy for us."

She seemed to be getting a little stressed. "Maybe this part. This should be easy for us."

"We've got a little time before we need to start to worry."

She exhaled. "Yeah. Yeah, you're right."

"Besides, we have these!" I pulled on my locket, and with a swift sound, it transformed into a golden sword. I looked at it proudly, already attached to it. It saved my life, and, when the sun set, maybe it could give us some light.

I realized my mistake too late. "Uh, well that was stupid. How am I gonna shrink it back now?" I looked at Mary expectantly.

"What?"

"Well you're the brains of the group," I said. "Any amazing ideas? You know I'm too lazy to actually dismount,"

"True, true," she says teasingly. "But... Can't you just touch it to the ground? Shrink it back?"

"Let me-- AHHHHH!" I screamed as I stumbled toward the ground, and just barely caught myself on the horn of the saddle. Luke snorted indignantly as the saddle slid over a little.

"Sorry, boy! Blame Mary! She knew that would happen."

She shrugged mysteriously. "Maybe I did, maybe I didn't. You can't prove anything."

"Yeah, yeah. Dismounting." Even after  I had leaned too far over and nearly fallen off, I hadn't been able to touch the ground with the tip of my sword, so it was still in weapon form. I swung my leg over Luke's back and onto the ground, and pulled my right leg out of the stirrup. I touched my blade to the ground, and in a second I was holding the wing of my necklace.