Maia dragged everyone up at 9:00. "Alright, we need to get moving if we're gonna find this Book!" she yelled into the boys' room, triggering many irritated groans of protest and a loud "Idonwanna!" from Matthew. After everyone was up, they had to cram everyone into the minivan again. Jess stared at Thundra, who was growling irritably. "I'm going to lay on top of the backpacks on the roof and take a nap." "Are you sure you won't fall off?" Jess asked. Thundra's only response was "Shaddup." After driving out to the park, Maia said "We should probably leave nothing in the van and just dump it, so we don't get in trouble with the police." Everyone agreed, so they grabbed their packs, and began the long hike up the mountain. "I read the map. It'll take us a few days to get to the top." Becka said. Not two hours into the mountains, things started to go awry. Luke, Fircone and Chris were singing again, which was irritating everyone. On bottle number 37, Jess thought she heard the undergrowth crackling. "Um, guys, did you hear that?" she said. "--and if one of those bottles should happen to fall--wait, what?" Luke stopped singing. "I think I just heard the bushes rustling." Maia frowned. "Do you guys feel like you're being watched?" she said suddenly. In the next few moments, about four things happened at once. Maia screamed in shock, Raj flicked his wrists, sending steel blades into his hands, Harriet grabbed her hunting spear, and four bulldozer-sized animals exploded out of the underbrush. Jess had time to see huge claws and wickedly sharp teeth before they attacked. One of them could easily overpower a grown man. With a wild yell, Chris leapt backwards in surprise, and promptly fell over backwards because of the weight of his pack. Jess threw her pack on the ground and grabbed her baseball bat, but before she could turn it into a sword, one of the creatures pounced on her. One of its massive claws ripped a gash in her chest, but Jess managed to club it on the snout with the baseball bat. Stunned, it flinched away. Grimacing in pain, Jess touched her chest. Her fingers came back covered in blood. Then the screams started. One of the creatures had off-balanced Matthew by swiping at his bad leg. It had him pinned to the ground, and was about to sink its teeth into his neck, and without thinking Jess lunged. "GET BACK!" She yelled, and stabbed her sword into the creature's leg. It let out a howl and reared onto its hind legs, allowing Matthew to scramble free. Jess managed to dodge its massive paws, but with every movement, agony shot through her chest, slowing her movements. When she aimed her next stab, she mistimed her leap. The beast darted backwards, and its tail knocked her down. Struggling back up, she saw one of the creatures was already dead, Maia was battling the one that had attacked Jess with her knife, and the third was chasing Luke, who was trying to get to high ground. At least one of them had run away. Everyone else was helping Maia, and Luke wasn't going to last long. The creature was gaining on him at an alarming rate. "HOLD ON! I'LL TRY AND DISTRACT IT!" Jess yelled. Luke turned and gave her a wordless shout, a look of terror on his face. But Thundra beat her to it. With deadly speed and accuracy, she lunged forward, shoved Luke clear of the beast's claws, and stabbed it in the neck in one swift move. The others had managed to finish off the second one, thanks to a well-shot arrow by Lily, and Matthew was wincing when he put his weight on his bad leg. Thundra was arguing with Luke, and Thundra was obviously irritated. "You need to say something to me." she snapped. "What? Give me a polite tone, and I'll say it!" Luke retorted. "It starts with a T, and ends with hank you, as in thank you for saving my butt!" Thundra said, scowling. "Okay, fine! Thank you for saving my butt! Sheesh!" Luke snapped. Thundra glared at him, and stomped away. Luke flicked his wrist, and Thundra promptly tripped and fell down. "Not so smug, are ya now?" Luke said, smirking. As the others watched in fascinated horror, Thundra jumped to her feet and retorted, "Did you kiss your sister with that mouth?!" For a moment, everything was absolutely silent. Maia, Lily, and Becka broke into a silent fit of hysterical laughter, Chris and Matthew were both trying to keep a straight face, Raj and Jess quickly backed away while trying not to laugh, and Harriet looked scandalized. If looks could kill, Thundra would've been roadkill, and the look on Luke's face told them all that he would've gladly beaten Thundra to death for fifty cents. Jess winced. The cut on her chest was still bleeding, and she was feeling woozy. She broke the silence by proclaiming, "Um, I hate to interrupt, but...ow." Maia, who was recovering from her fit, handed Jess a bottle of what looked like lotion. "Put it on the cut. Then bandage it." she instructed. Raj was mending a cut on the back of Becka's calf, and Chris, who had fallen out of a tree, was counting his bones and making sure none were broken. Matthew pulled Jess aside. "What?" she said, still bandaging the cut on her chest. "Ah, thank you for saving me back there. I would've been able to do it myself if it wasn't for my bad leg..." he said. "Oh, it's fine," Jess replied. She walked over to one of the creature's bodies. It was huge, the size of a bulldozer, and built like one, too. And not a small one. A really big bulldozer. It had the body of a pitbull, the head and paws of a tiger, and a big bushy raccoon tail. Jess remembered where she'd seen these before. An entire chapter in A Beginner's Guide to Supposedly Nonexistant Creatures (by Natily Perkins) was dedicated to them. "Storms." Maia finished Jess' thought for her. "Now that they've smelled our blood here, they'll be back here, but in greater numbers. We can't stay, or we'll risk being torn apart." "I just didn't want hyenas to think there's a free snack waiting here for them." Jess remarked. The others were hoisting their packs back up, ready to keep going. As they continued down the trail, no one got wind of the fact that they were being watched.
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Quietly, quietly now, Carlos thought. Tiffany would be pleased with the information he'd discovered. After searching half of africa and risking Storm attacks, he had finally found the Six, traveling with a Felis, a half-air spirit, two guys, and a beautiful girl with green eyes and dark hair. Carlos shook the thought from his mind as he crouched in the bushes. He couldn't fall in love with the enemy. Not this time. It was his last chance to avoid being killed. Tiffany was a cruel mistress, but he needed to do his duty. He went over her orders in his mind: Find them, follow them, and make things difficult. Don't engage personally. Carlos slunk through the long grass, following them at a distance. He wouldn't fail his mistress. Not this time.
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...
