New Generation

The Spell Book

((Alice's POV))

        "Ha! See ya Max!" I laugh, passing him. He laughs, and tries to catch up with me, but I know what I'm doing. He sprinted at the start, now I have more energy than him. 

        "I win!" Indy yells, skidding past me and out of the woods. Max and I both skid to a stop. Max actually falls over. 

        "No fair Indy! You've been doing this to long!" Max complains, getting up and dusting off his clothes. Indy shrugs. It's interesting how different he's become after just a day in the real world. 

        "Let's walk a little further. We can stop once we're on top of the hill." He says. I nod, and we set off again. Indy walks ahead, and Max walks next to me. I notice he's holding the book again. 

        "You want to read it, don't you." He looks at me, then at the book. 

        "Yeah, I do. Dad told me to use it to practice, but I can't unless I look at it. I'll wait until we get to the castle, then I'm reading this thing. I'll just need to make sure Indy doesn't find out... I don't want to die like that." I nod. 

        "Curiosity killed the cat?" 

        "Please no." I laugh lightly. I like Max, he's like the little brother I never had. Indy... I trust him more than I did, now that Max got him to act like a kid, but I'm still not sure I trust him completly. He's helpful to have with us, he knows more about surviving than I ever could learn from my books, but that also means he could live on his own perfectly fine. 

        "Get up here!" Indy yells. Max and I sprint, but still take a minute to get to the top of the hill. When we do, it's very worth it. 

        "Wow... That's amazing." I whisper. Max nods. Fields of different colored flowers and grasses make the world look like splatter paint. In the distance, a structure stands. 

        "Is that it? I think that's it!" Max jump and punches the air. 

        "Heck yeah! We're almost there! Wow, it must be huge! How far is that, do you think?" I shrug. We can see the castle, brilliant. Only two nights under the stars, not half bad. 

        "Anyone else notice how all of our homes are only a day or two apart from each other?" Indy asks quietly. I nod, as does Max. 

        "Well, if both of your homes were attacked, and the messenger came from the castle, how easily could the enemy get here?" Silence. I hadn't thought of that, and neither had Max, apparently. Then, Max sits down on the ground and slams the book onto the road. 

        "Okay, that's it! Indy, you can shoot me if you want, but I'm opening this book! I need to see if there's a spell that could let us see our homes... So if you want to see if that tree house of yours is intact, but the damn gun down!" Indy blinks, then takes a deep breath and sits down. I sit down as well, and Max glances at us. 

        "Well, here goes nothing." Indy and I each scoot back a bit, and Max opens the book. Nothing. 

        "Well that was anti climactic." he mutters. I laugh, then stop when a figure appears in front of us. 

        At first, it was just a purple blur, then it formed into an out of focus image, then an in focus image. Brown hair, brown eyes, grey and purple clothes, and a silver crown. Same hair style as Max. I think back to the pictures and place them as Seto.

        "Whoa... full color, not faded, three dimensional imagery. That's super advanced." Max whispers. I look to my left and see Indy has his hand on one of his guns. Geez, chill out. It's not like you can shoot a picture. 

        "I am Seto Sorcerer, how can I help you?" The hologram thing asks. 

        "Perfect sound, too. So cool." Max whispers. Geek. The hologram seems somewhat proud, though. 

        "Yeah, it took a while to set this up. It's a memory link spell combined with an animation spell. If the owner of the book ever needs something, I'll show up. But.. I don't see me anywhere." The hologram thing (I'll just call him Seto) sits down with us and tilts his head at Max. 

        "You're the owner? What happened to me?" It's so weird hearing him talk like that. He looks about sixteen, I wonder why that age. 

        "As far as we know, you're dead." Indy states calmly. Both Max and I glare at him, and I punch him in the arm. 

        "Hey!" 

        "He's not dead! I will melt your face if you dare mention that idea again!" Max hisses. Seto just looks confused. 

        "I'm sorry, I don't understand what is going on here. Can someone explain?" Max nods. 

        "I'm your kid. My name's Maxia, but you only call me that if I'm bad. Just call me Max. This is Alice, Sky's kid, and Indy, who was raised by Mitch and Jerome." Seto looks startled. 

        "My kid?! Sky's kid?! How long have I been inactive? Was I really not needed..?" He goes from freaked out to sad in seconds. I need to try really hard to not attempt to give the poor guy a hug. Something in the back of my mind says I'd just go straight through him, though. 

        "You are needed. We need to know what happened to our homes. Just to set things straight." I say. Seto nods, and the book's pages start flipping, then stop. Max reads it, then nods. 

        "Got it. That's... really simple, actually." Seto nods, but still looks slightly heartbroken. I wonder why he was put away... 

        Max says something in a language I don't know, and a circle of redish brown light appears. Now Seto looks interested. 

        "Wait, why is it that color? If you're..." He narrows his eyes at Max, then his eyes widen. 

        "Oh, you're a... that makes sense. I'm going to go now, being inactive for so long and suddenly being needed has zapped a lot of energy. See ya!" Max looks surprised. 

        "Wait! I'm a what?" But the image is already gone. There's a moment of confused silence, then Max looks back at the magic energy. 

        "Well, we aren't getting any more out of him. Let's see what's up at home."