The Magical Quest

Chapter 8

"Looks like we have a quest, my friends! Grab your best weapons and your choice of armor and meet in the docking bay!" Maia said cheerfully. Thundra looked a little disgruntled, and was holding a gold colored pencil with lightning bolts etched on it and a knife in her belt, Raj was picking a scab on his hand, his steel gauntlet dangling from his wrist, Becka kept twirling her hair around her finger and messing with a pocket knife, Chris was bouncing up and down (and almost decapitated several of them multiple times), and Fircone looked tired and irritable. "What's up with you?" Jess asked. He glared at her and turned away. Luke looked terrified. "Are you okay, man?" Chris asked him. Luke ducked under Chris' sword, and said "I have no idea where I am, and I kinda wanna go home." "Ah, yes! Jess, you need to get your weapon." Maia said, grinning. "Uh, you gave me a sword?" Jess said. "You need a weapon that calls out to you, that you really feel good using." Maia said, and motioned  her to come with her. Five minutes later, they walked into a big room with a forge on one wall, a bucket of water, and an anvil. There was a big, burly kid with an eyepatch hammering the blade of a sword. "HEY JACOB!" Maia yelled at the top of her lungs. The kid took out a set of earbuds. "Hi, Maia. Is Jess getting her weapon?" he asked. Maia nodded. Jacob grinned, and pressed a button. A section of wall slid away, revealing a huge room with stacks and stacks of weapons everywhere. Jess gasped. There was a broken shield propped up against the wall with a plaque on it that read This broke and Jimmy got killed, 1937. "Look at this. I made this for Charlie back in 1895." Jacob said, lifting a silver longbow from a shelf. "1895?!" Jess yelped. "He's our immortal blacksmith. Lives on the spirit of his forge." Maia explained. "I'm not really an archery person." Jess admitted. She was looking over the shelves when something caught her eye. It was a steel longsword with a gold sheen to the silver metal, and it had a simple black leather-bound hilt. There were delicate lines etched into the blade. "How about that one?'' she asked. Maia gasped, and Jacob went pale. "Do you really feel a connection with that sword?" he said, his voice shaking. Jess nodded. "I don't think you want that sword. I made it special for King Louis XVI, the king who was publically executed during the French Revolution. I got the metal from ruins of a castle in Rome back then, and I didn't know it came from cursed ground. The blade was cursed from the day I forged it." He said in a grim voice, lifting his eyepatch to reveal his left eye, which was burned and scarred shut. Jess winced. "Anyway, I had to give it to the king as a wedding gift. A few years later, the French Revolution began." Jess winced. "I still feel a strong connection to that sword. It's...it's as if it wants me to use it." she said. Maia bit her lip. "If it calls out to you, it's yours." she looked towards Jacob, but he flinched away. "Oh, no. I'm not touching that thing ever again." he yelped. "Fine." Jess said, marched over, and grabbed it off the wall. The sword felt perfectly balanced in her hand. Suddenly, it changed form as she held it. They all yelped in surprise. It had changed into a strong, but lightweight mahogany baseball bat. "What the..." Maia stared at it. "It magically disguised itself. Tap on the tip of the small end twice, and it'll turn back into a sword." Jacob said, trying not to laugh.

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They walked back in, Maia flinching every time she saw Jess' new weapon. "What good is that gonna do against dragons and who knows what else?" Luke asked, staring in disbelief at the bat. "I recognize that sword. It's cursed." Ravenheart said in a somber voice. She had a dagger in her belt and an enchanted bow in her hand, like Lily. She also had a leather necklace with a silver key the key had strange runes carved on it. "Why does part of the Great Prophecy suddenly make a lot of sense?" Raj said. "It does mention a cursed blade." Thundra added, not yelling for once. "Okay, back on topic!" Maia said. "We need to get the equipment on board." They spent the better portion of the day carrying crates of supplies and weapons, as well as containers of weird gold spheres that hummed with energy. After they were done, Jess turned to Maia. "I wanna call my aunt and tell her I'm fine." she said. "That's easy," Maia said, and handed her a small, blue crystal. "Put this in a bowl of warm water. It'll dissolve, and the water will turn purple. Then, say the name of who you want to talk to, and they'll have a vision on their side." "Okay." Jess took the crystal into the bathroom and filled the sink with warm water. She dropped the crystal in, and was surprised when the water turned a violent shade of purple. She took a deep breath, and said "Sally Jackson, please." The surface of the water rippled, and she saw her aunt, asleep on the couch in her apartment. "Aunt Sally?" she said. "Aunt Sally!!!"  Her aunt jolted awake with a yell. She was about 40 years old, and had brown hair and blue eyes. "Jess?!" she yelped in surprise. "Yeah, Aunt Sally. Sorry, I'm on Seattle time. Why are you sleeping on the couch? And where's Mr. Blofis?" Suddenly, Jess' cousin shot down the hall, holding a ballpoint pen. "Momiseverythi--Oh, hi Jess." He blurted. "Hi. I just wanted to say I'm okay." Jess said "Sorry I woke you up, Percy." He smirked. "I'm used to being dragged out of bed in the middle of the night. We went on vacation to the Caribbean! Paul's on a business trip, though." "We were so worried. You just vanished, like Percy--" "Please stop, mom." Percy sighed. "Yeah, why I vanished, I found out that I apparently have mad power, and  I'm supposed to be part of this prophecy..." Jess said, and explained what happened. Percy bit his lip. "That sounds too much like what happened to one of my friends." Suddenly, the water started to drain out of the sink, and the image began to fade. "Sorry, Aunt Sally, I gotta go." she said. "Okay, take care of yourself!" Sally yelled before the water drained completely out.