White Phantom

Chapter 7: Discovery

Chad didn't know what to think. This guy just pulled him out of the bushes like he was nothing! His heart raced and he started to sweat. If anything were to give Chad away, now would be the time.

"I... I wasn't doing anything." Chad stuttered.

"Not doing anything huh?" The man said with a grin, "then why were you hiding in the bushes?"

"I was being followed so I hid," Chad tried to sound convincing.

"Who was following you?"

"I don't know."

"So you hid from something that you don't know of?"

Chad began to sweat more.

"If I'm not mistaken, I thought I heard a loud crash earlier," the man said.

"You're mistaken."

 "C'mon kid!" The man laughed, "I know it was you!" 

 Chad straightened as stiff as a board. Oh no...

"Don't worry I'm not going to tell anyone," the man chuckled, "but you're not going to get that trailer out of here with just air magic." 

 "How'd you know I...?" 

 "A giant sphere of air? Very clever, but that's not going to lift that off the ground." The man said.

 "Well I'd like to see you do better!" Chad challenged. 

 "Oh, I will," the man smirked. The man stood with his arms before him, crossing at the palms. He muttered something under his breath and suddenly the trailer came to life. 

 "Is that transportation magic?!" Chad said astonished. 

 "Sort of," the man huffed, "It's more like earth magic. I'm just telling the earth under the trailer what to do."

 "Well, that works." The man grabbed Chad by the arm and swung him onto the trailer. He landed with a thud and the man jumped on beside him. He held the sides of the cart and muttered another magical spell but Chad didn't recognize it the way he recognized Luna's. The trailer came to life again and they took off through the village at great speeds. With a few twists and turns, they were just on the outskirts of town.

 "That was amazing!" Chad said enthusiastically. 

 "You haven't seen anything yet," the man winked at him. 

 "By the way," Chad said, "I didn't get your name." 

 "Valan." He smiled.

 "Nice to meet you, I'm Chad." 

 "Pleased to have made your acquaintance," Valan said, "Now then, why did you want to steal this trailer?" 

 "Well," Chad rubbed the back of his head and let out a sigh, "I have someone in my party that's injured and travelling by foot would be a near impossibility. We needed something to get us back to Forêt and..."

 "...Wait, you're from all the way across the continent?" Valan sounded surprised. "Yeah, and now we've got to get back home before Zebsnun's beasts find us and..."