Soaring (Soaring Saga #1)

☆Chapter Eighteen~Almost There!☆

"That..." Ari breathed, "Was... awesome, Neil! How did you think of that?"

"I just thought, what if we fight fire with fire? Electricity with electricity? Light with light? And I tried to think of all the dangers that griffin mom can cause, especially to you guys, and it just sparked inside me, like with the stypalamphin birds or however the flip you say it." Neil explained.

"Stymphalian," Audra corrected.

"Either way, it was sick!" Ari exclaimed, "You gotta teach me how to do that!" 

"He's right, that was really great!" I told him. He was smiling from all the thanks, but then it faded when he thought aloud,

"Now do we have to pay the people who set it up? 'Cuz isn't that vandalism?"

"Oh..." Ari realized, "Uh, nah." We laughed.

"Should we wait somewhere overnight?" Audra offered, "We could always just stay in a hotel or something?"

"Yeah, but those cost money," I told her, "and we don't have any."

      She made her thinking face, then said,

"Well... could just pull another all-nighter? I don't particularly feel like it, but I do particularly like how close we are to Roxy and our parents! We can do it, right? After all that?"

      I grinned and agreed,

"That's the spirit! We're so close to our families, we can totally do this! We've been through days of craziness, and even though things changed, we pushed through it. Think about the beginning of this, and how much we've now changed and grown closer. Now that I think about it, we need to make up a team name!" I stuck my fist in the middle of the circle we were hovering in.

      Neil was the first to agree. He stuck his fist in with mine.

"I'm with her. Also, we should call ourselves Fort Terra, or Fort Silver."

"Interesting," Ari said, putting his fist in with ours, "But I personally think we should call ourselves Club Super Awesome King Ari, but I know you people couldn't handle that incredible name, so I'll suggest we name ourselves Club Ari. Or maybe something a little more inclusive." We laughed, and I turned to Audra.

      She took a deep breath and put her fist in with ours.

"I think we should go with something simple, and nice," she suggested, "Like the Soarers? Travellers? Essencers?"

"I personally like the first one," Neil said.

"Yeah, the Soarers is pretty nice," I replied. 

"Okay... fine, but mine is still awesomer." Ari agreed reluctantly.

"Okay, let's call Soarers on three, or on two actually," I shot a smirk at Neil, "One, two!"

"SOARERS!" Our cry echoed around the trees, Essex, and the ocean, sounding like a battle cry. It echoed for longer than it probably should've, but who cares. It was technically a battle cry, a battle against fear. We are gonna let the world know we exist, and we're going to save it, like the prophecy says, starting with our parents and friend!

****~~~~****

     We stood at the edge of the island, but it seemed like the edge of the world. I looked out into the distance, realizing that my back was to the only homes I'd ever known, and the majority of the world. It made it seem like I was ready to face new dangers and a new world, ready to move on. Which, it turns out, I was.

"Alright, are we ready?" I asked.

"Yes," Audra said.

"Ready!" Ari exclaimed.