"Matthew!" Thundra yelled, jumped out of her chair and threw her arms around him. "Thundra, I-I-I don't-" He stammered, and pulled back. "Wow, you really grew up! We were seven when the plane crashed and the weird people came and took me!" "Um, this is getting...awkward." Luke said. "Okay, settle down," Maia said, sounding a bit exasperated. "We'll have a party later. I'll bring the cake." "What do you expect? I haven't seen my sister in eight years!" Matthew huffed, showing a bit on Thundra's irritability. Andri managed to restore order by flinging a spoon across the room, which hit Luke in the forehead and stuck there. "Ow..." he complained. "As I was saying, you need to find the Books of Power. They will be tough to locate and retrieve." Andri said before Thundra could say something. "We have the locations of four of them. The Book of Magic...you guys are on your own." she continued. Matthew interjected. "I want to go with them." "Uh, sure?'' Maia said. It sounded more like a question. Andri tapped the computer screen. "So, here's the locations: The Book of Fire is in Eleseus, a fiery, volcanic realm located inside Mauna Loa, a volcano in Hawaii. The Book of Water is in the sea temple in the Great Barrier Reef. The Book of Earth is inside the Monkey Temple, in the Amazon Rainforest. The Book of Air--that's one of the hardest to locate--is somewhere on the top of Mt. Kilimanjaro, in Africa." "Oh, great. A world tour of nasties not yet known to civilization." Thundra remarked, with a dry tone to her voice. "Sorry to burst you bubble, but good luck finding the Book of Magic. There hasn't been any signs of it for years. Last time somebody looked for it, they were never seen again." Andri said. "I'm beginning to regret this..." Lily sighed.
⍟⍟⍟
A few hours later, they were halfway across the Atlantic Ocean, on their way to Africa. When Thundra had complained, Fircone had deliberately changed the autopilot to fly at the speed of a Boeing 747 passenger airplane. She'd responded in her usual way, and Fircone was sitting on one of the couches, holding an ice pack over his left eye. Jess couldn't help laughing whenever Thundra punched him. After a while, Chris got bored, and decided to start playing with Lily's tail, which was draping over the edge of the couch, due to the fact she'd fallen asleep. He was now sneaking up and swatting it, and so far Lily hadn't woken up. "Bet you five bucks when she wakes up, she pummels him." Jess muttered to Maia. It was clear she was trying to stifle laughs watching her brother testing limits. Luke was talking with a couple of the others, and they had placed some money in the communal popcorn bowl. Suddenly, Chris must have yanked a little too hard, because Lily howled like a cat, lurched off the couch, her tail poofing out. She somersaulted onto the floor, and landed on all fours, snarling and hissing. When Chris grinned sheepishly, it was all over. Lily tackled him, and pinned him against the wall. After punching him a few times, she lost interest, and climbed back onto the couch. Chris ended up lying on the floor, groaning. Everyone who'd put money in the popcorn bowl all started bickering, and they all started wrestling for the money. Luke just sat on the couch, watching intently, and at one point grabbed a small bag of popcorn off the coffee table. Fircone managed to wade through the tangle of arms and legs to sit in a chair next to Jess. "Nice show, isn't it?" he said sarcastically. Jess had to laugh. "Very entertaining to watch, huh?" He winced. "You okay?" Jess asked. "Yeah, I'm fine. Thundra has anger issues, but she won't admit it." He said, grinning. By now, Becka had somehow wrenched the money out of Raj's hand, shoved Lily back, and made a dive for her cabin, but Thundra grabbed her ankles. Becka succeeded in shoving her off, and managed to lunge into her cabin and slam the door. Fircone snorted. "I was wondering if Thundra would win this time." he said. Jess began to laugh, as Thundra yelled angrily and tried (unsuccessfully) to pull the door off its hinges, but she got caught off guard when Becka stuck her head out and blasted her in the face with a squirt gun. She yelped and stumbled back, as Becka began to chase her. If there was one thing that Thundra hated (besides everyone and everything), it was water. Chris snuck into Becka's room and grabbed the money off her night stand, but Becka turned around, gave up the chase, grabbed the money from Chris, and kicked him in the butt. "OWWWWW!" he yelled, as he went flying. Suddenly, Maia yelled "SHHHHH!" Luke had fallen asleep, and they all knew that waking someone up was a bad idea, because every time Thundra took a nap, it was like being in a cage with a sleeping tiger that was probably gonna wake up angry. "We better be quiet. If he turns out to be like Thundra, I suggest we all be quiet." she whispered. "Speaking of naps, are you guys aware that it happens to be 10:30 at night?" Jess said. "Yeah, I'm going to bed." Fircone added.
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...
