As the ship lifted off, Jess sat by the wall, her cell phone plugged in. Listening to music helped calm her nerves. Then, she heard Fircone's voice over the intercom. "This is your captain speaking. You are now free to move about the cabin. Please no messing with the smoke detectors in lavatory, and try not to kill anyone! Have a nice flight!" Everyone laughed, except Luke. "How's that funny?" he asked. They laughed even harder. He let out a groan. "Here, have some Pringles." Chris said, and handed him the container. Luke frowned, but took a chip. With his mouth still full, Luke reached for the container, and said, "Gimme that." It sounded more like "Gumby dat." Everyone started laughing again. Fircone trotted into the room, grinning. "Well, we're on autopilot, and we'll reach Maine in a few hours. Anybody up for Phase 10?" Thundra groaned. After a while, Jess decided go to her cabin and ignore everyone and try to sleep, but her eyes didn't feel remotely heavy, as if her body was saying, it ain't happenin'. When she leaned over to face the window, Jess noticed the large black bird flying beside the plane, then another. Finally, she counted five. Pulling a book about birds out of the seat pocket, she found that they were crows. They weren't straying from the fighter, or breaking out of their V-shape. "Looking at the crows, eh?" a voice said. "Gah! Oh, sorry, Lily. Forgot you were here." Jess said. Lily sighed. "Back where I was born, we used a rhyme to tell fortunes by counting crows." "Can you tell me the rhyme?" Jess asked. Lily gazed at the birds, and said:
"One for sadness,
Two for mirth,
Three for sickness,
Four for birth,
Five for death,
Six for crying,
Seven for laughing,
Eight for dying,
Nine for silver,
Ten for gold,
Eleven for a secret that will never be told."
"Cool rhyme." Jess said, and peered back out at the crows. She could've sworn that the one in the lead actually glared at her. Five crows... she thought. Thinking of the rhyme, she bit her lip so hard she drew blood. "That's five crows. And as you said in the rhyme, 'Five for death'." Lily was silent. "I'm gonna go hang with everybody else." she said after a long pause. Jess didn't want to be alone, so she followed Lily into the main cabin. Luke and Chris were fighting over the Pringles can, Thundra was texting someone, Becka was snoring on the couch, Raj was doodling on his arm with a Sharpie, Maia was reading a book, and Fircone was pacing around and checking his phone every five minutes. Suddenly, an alarm went off. "Oh, we're coming out of Super Speed! Everybody buckle your seatbelts, please make sure your carryons are stowed, and your tray tables are in upright and locked position. We will be landing shortly!" Everybody laughed, except Luke, who looked like he smelled something bad.
⍟⍟⍟
An hour later, they were walking towards a large building on a mountain in Maine. "How can the normal people not see this? I mean, we could see it miles away." Luke asked. Maia laughed. "All magical beings have a shroud, or 'mist' of a magical illusion that turns something, such as a dragon flying above downtown, into something believable, such as a small airplane. A regular human's sight isn't powerful enough to see through it, but there is the rare occurrence that a human is born with the ability. You can actually learn to see through it, with practice." "Wow, that's complicated." Luke said. Chris was still hopping up and down, which was actually kind of annoying. They walked through the double doors at the front of the building, and they were greeted by a young girl. "I'll direct you guys to Andri's office." The girl couldn't have been older than eight or nine, but she had the authority of an adult. She had very dark brown hair with dark red streaks that had a sheen to it, so it almost shimmered. She was wearing a faded Spider Man T-shirt and jeans, with black combat boots, and she had a small, oval shaped face, which set off her brown eyes. Jess also noticed that Maia was keeping her distance. "Is it just me, or do you seem to have a deathly fear of spiders?" Jess asked. "She does. I'm Jasmine." the girl said. "I can control spiders at will and talk to them." Maia winced. "Jasmine, you're freaking me out." Jasmine groaned. "Why can't you get over your fear of spiders? I mean, Nima won't even touch you unless I say so." "Wait, who's Nima? And Why is Maia terrified of spiders?" Jess asked. Suddenly, a black widow spider crawled out onto Jasmine's collar bone. Maia screamed and practically jumped ten feet in the air. Jasmine sighed. "Nima, you gotta remember that you freak Maia out," she muttered to the spider. A voice came over Jasmine's pager. "Hey Jaz, you can send 'em up now." a girl's voice said. "Oh, sweet mother thank you." Maia whispered. Her eyes were squeezed tightly shut. A few minutes later, they were in a tidy office with a big desk. Then, they heard a lot of banging in the vents, a loud "Boing", and the sound of someone crashing into a sheet of drywall. "Woah, woah, woah...WOAH!!!" The person in the vent shrieked, and the vent cover popped out, and a redheaded girl wearing a neon pink T-shirt, a bright pastel green skirt, and jeans with ballet shoes that had obviously seen better days landed on the chair in front of the desk. "My invention didn't exactly go as planned." she explained. "The name's Andri. Nice to meet you. Heard you're a Jedi, eh?" She said to Luke. Jess noticed she had a Canadian accent. "Well that was a dramatic entrance..." Luke said after a long pause, in which he looked at the vent, at Andri, her mismatched outfit, then back at Andri. Jasmine giggled. "Cool! Can you do it again?" "Um...maybe when I get the measurements right. So what did you guys come here for?" Andri said. Maia explained their problem. "Hmmm...I guess we know where to send you for this." Andri remarked, and then pulled up a map on the computer on the desk. Fircone leaned back in his chair and began to twiddle his thumbs. "Alright, your prophecy is referring to the Books of Power, five books that hold the very life of all five elements. They're located in different locations around the world." Andri said. "And if they were to fall into the wrong hands--" "The fate of universe as we know it would be in our hands to set things right." Jess finished, surprised that she'd quoted from one of the books she'd read in the Order of Light's enormous library. Everyone was staring at her. "Well, you're right." Thundra said stiffly. Jasmine's voice crackled over the intercom. "Uh, Andri? Matthew wants to see you." "Sure, send him up." Andri replied. A few minutes later, a boy limped into the room. He looked to be about fifteen like Thundra, and really bore a resemblance to her. He had the same dark skin, short, curly black hair, and rough, callused hands. He even had the same eyes. His left leg was wrapped in bandages, and Jess could tell his leg was mangled beyond repair. The only way he was walking was the fact that his leg was encased in a metal brace. He was holding a couple of binders filled with papers. "Andri, I got some papers that need to be--Thundra?!" Matthew was gaping at her. Suddenly, Thundra sat bolt upright. "You-I thought you were dead!"
YOU ARE READING
The Magical Quest
AdventureFifteen-year-old Jess has no idea that she's unordinary. She spends most of her time trying not to fall asleep in class, hiding in her room, and eating Pringles. She's not exactly Mrs. Goody Two-Shoes, either. Little does she know that her life is a...
