Valerie Jackson has lived fifteen years being completely ordinary. And she is perfectly fine with that. Some people live the adventures and others read them. Valerie was perfectly happy being an innocent bystander, until the tables turn and she find...
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Raven's POV:
After hours of flying, we finally landed in the clearing we used to train all those months ago before we left for the quest to find the other Riders. Home sweet home. All of us dismounted, and I was surprised at how big it was. I hadn't noticed the size before, but it fit all our dragons perfectly. Each of us took our saddle bags, and Valerie and I led them out of the forest. I was used to doing this part by horse, so it took a lot longer walking.
Earlier, Valerie and I had decided to keep the invisibility spell, until we could locate the illusions, but we couldn't let the others see them, as they weren't aware of magic, except for the memory charm the dragons did, so that their Riders could pose as a part of an exchange program. They had cast it in each of the cities we visited, and now, here in Ottawa, because otherwise there wouldn't be a place for everyone to stay. The good thing is that somehow, it had managed to find good matches for the families. I was staying with Natalia and Padma, Valerie was staying with Trixie, who was a ñ older than Sarah, Valerie's sister, and Anne was staying with Diana and Adele. The rest were distributed between the other families with children in our school, and we were glad that they had found good matches, although I had to take Valerie's word on it, since other than her and Anne, I hadn't really talked to anyone at school.
We got to the stables, and I had to resist going to greet Carnaval, because that would ruin our plan. The memories that the dragons had given the people here involved us going to 'pick them up at the airport'. That meant that we would be able to locate the illusions there and make the change easier. We got onto a bus heading for the airport, but it was kind of weird, because even if we had taken the invisibility spell off, I and Valerie were super paranoid about the secret of magic slipping before time, if we came into contact with the illusions in a weird way.
I looked around the airport, and I spotted both illusions in the distance. I signaled Valerie, and she asked Eric if he could take the rest to 'claim their bags' because some of the other host families were coming. Thank goodness for the invisibility spells, because otherwise, it would've been really awkward. We went to the bathroom, and the illusions followed us in the distance. Once we were there, we were able to make the change with no problem, allowing us to finally recover the energy we had used holding up the illusion for four months. When that was done, both of us went to the place where you could receive people and met up with all the people from the host families that were there.
"Anne!" Both of us greeted our friend, hugging her. I never imagined that I would ever be that happy to see a friend again after the Gabby and Cole incident, but Anne and Valerie had become the best friends I could ask for, and I had the feeling that eventually, the Riders would become a second family.
"I have something to tell you, but that can come later. The 'exchange students," She asked, signaling quote marks with her hands "are the Riders you found, right?"
"Yeah," Valerie confirmed.
Soon enough, they came through the doors and came up to us. We did all the introductions, and they got their bags from the baggage claim. From there, each of us went with the 'exchange students' that were staying with us. I went with Natalia and Padma and called a taxi to go home since I didn't have the car here.
Valerie POV:
I arrived home with Trixie and smiled as I opened the door. The experience looking for the Riders was amazing, but this was home sweet home.
"Mom! Dad! We're here!" I called.
They went down the stairs and smiled as they saw us. They greeted us, and even if they'd thought I'd been here all along, I'd missed them, especially since we hadn't been able to communicate because of the spell. They told me to take Trixie up to her room, and help her unpack while they prepared dinner. I led the young, Australian Rider up the stairs to the alcove that would act as her room. It was rectangular, connected to the hallway by a tiny skywalk.
The 'room' had a bed, a desk with a chair and a cabinet with drawers to put clothes. I also noticed that they had added some curtains for privacy. Once everything was unpacked, we went down and had dinner. When we finished, we went back up, and we talked about diverse topics. Trixie was really enthusiastic about learning about different cultures, making new friends, but most of all, about being a Rider. Topaz balanced her personality with a calm demeanor, and even though they were opposites in that respect, they were one of the best Dragon/Rider pairings I'd seen. In the end, we decided to go to bed early because we were both tired from the trip, and on top of that, we had school tomorrow. I fell asleep thinking about how being a Rider had changed my life in such a big way.
Hi guys, sorry for taking so long to update, but I've hardly had time to write. I hope you enjoyed this chapter, and have a very happy 2019.
