The Adventures of the Junior Phoenixes, Part 5: The Last Pendant

Chapter 15: Foxes and Hearts

Chapter 15

     The thick, nearly black fog stuck to the train like cotton candy to a child’s hands. Neither Teller nor Rain Fox could see anything outside of the windows of the train. Fear rose within them. They moved from car to car, heading to the direction of the sleeper cars at the tail end of the train.
     “Take the girl and the gnomes and hide them in the cabin,” Teller told Rain Fox. “Guard the door. Don’t let anyone in.”
     Rain Fox nodded. She began to gather the others behind her while Teller took point.
     Teller stopped the woman before she could advance with them back to their cabin. “It was nice meeting you, Ms. Caroline,” Teller told the woman, “But we have to get going.”
     “Wait!” Caroline said aloud, “What is going on? What are you doing?”
     “I’m sure you’re a nice lady, Ms. Caroline,” Teller said, “But you’re being hunted by the Embers. We can’t afford this kind of interference right now. I’m sorry, but you’re on your own.”
     “Teller!” Rain Fox said. She gave him a very disappointed look.
     “Please!” Caroline begged, “Please don’t leave me alone! I have no one else! I don’t know what I’m supposed to do!”
     “Teller!” Rain Fox urged him, “We can’t just leave her!”
     “They’re looking for her, Fox!” Teller told her, “They’re not here for us! If we let her come with us, that puts Destíne and you in a dangerous position that we can’t afford! We don’t need to get entangled in someone else’s drama!”
     “Her drama is our drama!” Rain Fox urged him. “There is no difference! Don’t you see that?”
     Teller grunted again. He looked at Rain Fox with angry eyes, but she knew she had won the argument. He finally relented. “Stay close to us, then!” he said roughly to the woman.
     People were scrambling to get back into their seats. The train jerked again. The sun shades on the windows of the train suddenly dropped and the lights went out. The passenger car was plunged into darkness for a few moments. A few people screamed when the lights died out, but everyone hushed when the lights came back on.
     At the back of the car, wearing long crimson trench coats and hoods over their heads, appearing where nothing had stood before, were three strange men. They had appeared out of nowhere as soon as the lights came on. They each wore red gloves, dark clothing, and each one held a wand in their hand.
     Teller ducked the group down. “Embers,” he whispered.
     Rain Fox looked ahead at the three wizards on the other side of the car. She turned around. She saw in the car behind them another trio of wizards had appeared as well. “Oh no,” she whispered, “There are more of them behind us, too! What do we do?”
     The wizards began to walk forward, inspecting and looking closely at people. The trio behind them did the same thing.
     “They must have three wizards per car,” Rain Fox told Teller.
     Teller looked at her, then nudged her out of the way. “Forget the cabin: We need to get off the train. The emergency door we need to get to is on the other side of those three goons. Hold on to each other,” he told the others. “I’m going to try something. Fox, on three: Hit them with a Stunning Spell. Caroline, do you have your wand?”
     “Yes,” Caroline whispered, “Why?”
     “Do you know any Offensive Spells?” Teller asked her.
     “Not really,” Caroline said, “I’m just a clerk for the Department for Care of Magical Creatures. I don’t know many Offensive Spells!”
     “Can you do a Stunning Spell?” Teller asked.
     “I can try,” she said.
     Teller reached over to a switch protected by a plastic cover. It read, “IN CASE OF EMERGENCY” on it, with a lever that pulled out before it switched down. It read “EMERGENCY BRAKE” under it.
     “This is going to be rough,” he said aloud. “When I flip the switch, follow me and hold on! Fox, you hit the second guy, Caroline, you take the third. I’ll hit the one closest to us.”
     Destíne grabbed hold of the gnomes, who all held each other. Caroline grabbed Rain Fox. Rain Fox gave the woman an awkward look. She then reached out and put a hand on Teller’s shoulder.
     “On three,” he said. Teller took a deep breath. “One, two,” he took another deep breath, and then yelled, “Three!” He flung open the plastic lid over the lever and flipped the switch. The train rocked forward suddenly, throwing the three men in crimson coats nearly off their feet. The train’s brakes screeched loudly as the train began to come to a grinding halt. Teller ran forward. Rain Fox followed, with Caroline, Destíne, and the gnomes in tow.
     “Stupefy!” Teller shouted at the closest wizard. The crimson wizard was knocked off his feet and fell to the floor.
     “Stupefy!” Rain Fox had shouted, her wand’s spell sending the second closest wizard hurling towards an empty seat and unconscious.
     “Stupefy!” Caroline shouted. She had waved her wand erratically. The spell did not cast forward. Instead, it erupted before her and repulsed, hitting her in the face and knocking her out instantly.
     “Of all the bloody stupid things!” Rain Fox shouted.
     The third wizard threw a curse at the group. Teller blocked the curse with his artificial hand. The curse deflected and hit an unsuspecting passenger, knocking the woman out. He swung his wand around and emitted a curse that, at first, Rain Fox did not recognize. A thick black substance flung from Teller’s wand towards the third wizard. He twisted his wand and slashed it upwards. The black substance formed into a ball that enveloped the third wizard. It covered him completely; the wizard kicked and screamed at the substance. Teller ran forward and, just as the substance fell away and faded into nothing, he cocked his right hand back and punched the wizard hard in the face, breaking his nose. Teller then shouted, “Obscuro!” and covered the eyes of the Ember. He then aimed his wand at the wizard’s head and shouted “Obliviate!”
     The Ember quit his hollering and slumped over. A few moments later he started to stir again, disoriented and confused.
     “Her drama is our drama,” Teller muttered, “You had to say it, didn’t you?”
     “This is NOT my fault!” Rain Fox shouted.
     Destíne looked back. “Quickly!” she whispered, “Before the others notice us!”
     Teller went back to the fallen woman. He lifted Caroline off the ground and threw her over his shoulder. “This way!” he shouted to the others.
     The Muggle passengers, confused and amazed by the display they had witnessed, were pulling phones and other electronic items out to video record what they were witnessing.
     “Eruptus Electronikkus!” Teller shouted with a flick of his wand. Every device in every Muggle’s hand in the passenger car, including the devices hidden in pockets or stowed away in bags, luggage, or purses, simultaneously shorted and sparked. They were rendered useless and were destroyed by Teller’s hex.
     “What was that?” Rain Fox asked.
     “Trust me,” Teller said, “This does not need to be on the news tonight.” They made their way to the back of the car. The train was still slowing down. They reached the emergency door and Teller was about to kick it open when the door that led from the next car to theirs suddenly flung open. To their horror, three more Embers of Easter stood, surprised to see them.
     “Hey!” one of the Embers shouted. “That’s the woman!”
     One of the gnomes (Louis, to be exact) jumped and bit the hand of the Ember. The wizard screamed at the sudden pain of being bitten by a gnome. Louis then hopped back as Rain Fox cursed the wizard then kicked him back into his compatriots.
     “Colloportus!” Teller shouted as he cast a charm on the door. It locked by his spell. He then turned around, Caroline still on his shoulder, and kicked open the emergency door.
     The wind thrashed them nearly off their feet just as the Embers had started to bang and blast away at the locked door. The train was not at quite a stop but it had slowed down to nearly a crawl. Outside of the train was the thick fog. It lapped at the open door and slithered around the edges.
     “Jump!” he shouted to the others.
     “Sacre Bleu!” Destíne cried. “I cannot do this!”
     “Yes you can!” Rain Fox yelled. “I got you, okay? We’ll jump on three!”
     “Okay!” Destíne nodded. The gnomes held each other, lined up one after the other behind Destíne and Rain Fox.
     “One, two, three!” Rain Fox yelled. The two women leaped out the door, the gnomes right behind them. Teller then leapt from the train and landed in a crash onto the gravel and rock outside. He twisted his ankle terribly and yelled out in pain.
     “Teller!” Rain Fox yelled out.
     “Forget about me!” he yelled back to her, “Take Destíne and go! I can handle myself!”
     The fog was still very thick. Visibility was nearly impossible.
     Rain Fox got to Teller. She and Destíne helped Teller to his feet. Teller grabbed the woman Caroline from the ground again but moaned in pain. He collapsed and dropped the woman once more.
     “Oh, for Heaven’s sake!” Rain Fox complained, “Rennervate!” she said with her wand aimed at Caroline. Her charm worked: Caroline suddenly came to.
     “Oh God!” she yelled. “Where are we?”
     “Off the train,” Teller grumbled. “We need to keep moving! Go!”
     “Go where?” Caroline asked.
     “Anywhere but here!” he yelled. “Head south!”
     “Which way is south?” Caroline asked.
     “That way!” Teller pointed.
     “How do you know?” Caroline asked.
     “Because we were heading east, you idiot!” Teller grumbled, “So that way is south!”
     “Teller, for Godric’s sake!” Rain Fox chided him.
     “I have one hand, one eye, and one good foot!” Teller retorted, “I still have half a mind to know my directions!”
     “Blast it!” Caroline complained. “Blast it again! It still won’t work!”
     “What won’t work?” Rain Fox asked.
     “I can’t Apparate!” the woman replied.
     “Why, you cheeky git!” Rain Fox barked. She aimed her wand at Caroline. “You were going to leave us behind!”
     “I- I was,” Caroline stuttered, “I’m scared! I- I’m not someone special! I was given this stupid thing! I didn’t want it in the first place!” She pointed to the pendant on her necklace.
     “We need to move!” Teller told them, “Now!”
     “Look!” Destíne said, pointing to Caroline, “The necklace is glowing!”
     Rain Fox and Teller both looked over at Caroline. Just as Destíne had said, her necklace was aglow. At that moment, from around the group, footsteps began to sound. Teller raised his wand and circled around the group, huddling them together. From out of the fog came three lights; three faint glowing lights that got brighter as they got closer: One of red, one of orange, and one of blue. The footsteps got louder.
     “We can see your pendant glowing,” someone spoke out of the fog, “Don’t do something you might regret. We won’t harm you as long as you cooperate.”
     Teller and Rain Fox kept their wands up. Destíne held on to Rain Fox.
     “Oh no!” Destíne whispered. “Where have the gnomes gone?”
     Rain Fox looked around. There was no sign of the gnomes.
     “You’re completely surrounded, people,” another voice called out, “Do yourselves a favor and just do as we say!”
     Teller kept his wand raised. He pointed it to and fro.
     “Expelliarmus!” one of the voices shouted. Teller’s wand flew from his left hand. He saw his wand get lost in the thickness of the fog.
     “That’s better!” someone said.
     “We warned you, buddy!” another spoke, “It could have been worse!”
     Figures emerged from the fog. Each wore the same crimson coat that the people on the train had worn. Three of them wore necklaces like Caroline’s; Elemental Pendants.
     “Lower your wand, witch,” the Ember wizard with the orange pendant said to Rain Fox. “Don’t want to hurt you just yet. Drop it.”
     Rain Fox lowered her wand. She let it slip through her fingers and fall to the ground.
     “That’s better,” the wizard said. He picked the wand up from the ground and put it in his robes. “Bind them and bring them. The Boss will be at the ruins. We’ll take them there.”
     “I- I’m the one you want,” Caroline said, “They’re just people I ran into on the train who were trying to help me! Let them go! I’m the one you want!”
     Teller and Rain Fox both looked at Caroline with surprise. Neither expected her to defend them.
     The Embers looked at one another for a reply.
     “If that’s true,” an Ember said, “Then we don’t really need these other people. The Boss just wanted us to grab the woman. No one said anything about her having company.”
     “Besides,” another Ember said, “It would be easier taking just the witch. Forget the others.”
     “Hold it!” one of the Embers said. He approached Teller with a curious, invested look. He pointed his wand at Teller and waved it at him. “I know this one! I’ve seen him before!”
     “Where?” the Ember with the orange pendant asked.
     “He was in New Mexico!” the Ember replied, “And he was on that flying boat on the island! Stupefy!”
     The Ember struck Teller with a Stunning Spell. It hit Teller right in the face. He was knocked right off of his feet. He fell to the ground, unconscious. Rain Fox gasped. She fell next to him, checking on him.
     “Take them all to the Boss,” the orange pendant bearer spoke. “Let the Boss sort them out!”
     The Embers bound Rain Fox, Destíne, and Caroline by their hands. They hoisted Teller onto a pair of brooms and brought him along with the others. They marched in single file into the thick fog, surrounded by the Embers, captured.