The FernWood Trilogy: Prophecy Twin

Getting Acquainted with the Sky - Chapter 6

A light knocking that gradually grows louder, a rapping upon the door, is what wakes me up. I'm surprised to find myself in my own bed, wondering who had put me here. Grams voice rings through the room as she opens the door, letting the light from the hallway stream in, "Time for school, Parker!"
    I grunt and get up, running fingers through my hair. Without even standing up, I mutter, "Prim and proper, dressed neat, from head to toe, and face to feet."
    I'm transformed and dressed for school in a flash. Today's outfit was a pair of jeans and a lacy tank top, covered by a silky robe that was maroon. I smile with satisfaction and jog downstairs, grabbing breakfast to go and then meeting up with Griffin outside, who thankfully hadn't left yet. He pulls down his flight goggles just as I stroll up.
    "Need a ride?" He asks and I smile jovially.
    I tell him, "As always," while climbing on the back of the broomstick. He takes off and I leave my eyes closed, opening them as we descend which I regret immediately. The churning sensation in my guts told me I wasn't yet ready to fly with my eyes open.
    We head into the dining hall, which I now notice is called "Evergreen Hall", and take our seats. I look over to Fawn who's laughing with Richard, sharing a plate of pancakes.
    "You've never told me your full name is Fawntasia!" He cries out and I raise an eyebrow. She laughs some more, her face growing red and her laugh like a light snort. It was an adorable and uncontainable kind of snort.
    She claims, "It's never come up!"
    He stops laughing for a moment and looks her in the eyes, telling her, "You're beautiful."
    She smiles and cups his face, telling him, "You are too."
    I'm distracted by the beauty of their relationship as Astryd comes up beside me, tapping me on the shoulder to get my attention.
    I turn and face her, she gives me a weird look. "Can you come to the bathroom with me?"
    Nodding, I tell her, "Sure, but why?"
    She raises an eyebrow. Back in our old school, such a thing was never questioned. It was just odd for me to revert to my old ways after everything we'd been through already in the week we'd been here. And even still, Astryd had technically been here a bit longer than I had considering how long I slept for upon arrival.
    We speed walk to the nearest lavatory and duck in, immediately I know something is off as she checks underneath the stalls.
    Looking me dead in the eyes, Astryd grows pale as she says, "You can't speak of this to anyone."
    "I won't," I promise and she nods before nervously opening her palm to reveal a growing flame.
    She explains, "Ever since I got here, I've been able to do things I couldn't before."
    I gasp as I stare, she was doing what Griffin had done before! A tiny flame was growing in the palm of her hand just as the look of fear in her eyes grew with it.
    Her voice quivers as she tells me, "This place has changed me. I've been up every night with chest pains and yesterday I almost set my room on fire!"
    My eyes widen as I try to think of what to say, how could I comfort her?
    "We shouldn't be discussing this here, someone could come in and s-" I stop dead in my sentence as the door opens and Mafalda Winters steps in. Astryd extinguishes the flame immediately and we both go silent. Mafalda's face is stoic as she steps up beside me before turning to the sinks I was leaning against. She calmly washes her hands and then looks over to me, her facial expression giving nothing away.
    Her eyes are vacant along with the rest of her face as she makes direct eye contact. I look away as she tells me, "Parker, I'll need to see you in my office after you're done eating."
    I nod in response as she turns over to Astryd, "Ashlynn," She says and I raise an eyebrow, they were on full name basis? "I'll need to see you right away, come with me."
    Astryd looks to me and says, "Bye, Parker. We'll chat later, okay girly?""
    I nod, "Catch ya later, Ash."
    They leave as quickly as Mafalda had come in and a chill runs down my spine. Something about that exchange felt off, I wondered if she'd seen.
    I meander back to the lunch table and sit beside Ethan, feeling a need to check in on him. As far as I knew, Astryd and Ethan were the first few Magicless to be in this world for so long. And Astryd had complained of heart pain, I assumed it had something to do with the Alec muscle that Griffin had told me about.
    "Hey Ethan," I sit down beside him and he turns to look at me, "Have you been feeling alright?"
    He nods with a goofy smile plastered on his face, "I've been great! Magic school is awesome."
    His enthusiasm was appreciated, it lightened my mood as I worried about Astryd.
    After breakfast was dismissed, I headed up the grand marble staircase to Mafalda's office and knock on the door, alarmed as it swings open by itself and Astryd is nowhere to be seen.
    "Have a seat, Parker." She instructs and I follow her directions, careful not to upset her.
    I stare straight ahead at Mafalda as she opens her hand, a long, slender box appearing in her hand. My eyes open wide as she places it before me.
    "What's this?" I ask, inspecting it.
    "Open it." She demands and I nod, gripping the top and pulling it open. Inside it's lined with burgundy velvet that compliments the dark stained wood. Within is a wand that looks to be made of mahogany. I gasp as I touch it and electricity rumbles through my veins. I remove it from the box and hold it up, feeling a power surge through me.
    Her eyes widen from across the desk as she mutters to herself, "Interesting."
    Voice like a low pur, she tells me, "Do you know what you're holding?"
    I shake my head no as she reaches out yearningly to touch it. I recoil slightly, feeling it in my bones that she didn't deserve to hold it.
    "Your mothers' wand." She gets teary as she tells me this and I huff, internally.
    I frown for a moment and look at her, "Why're you giving me this?"
    "Eredith has your fathers' wand," She explains, "It's only fair you get a piece of their greatness."
    I nod along as she says this before she hands me a scroll.
    "Let me walk you to class." She offers and I agree, partially because I was lost but mostly because I wanted to warm up to Mafalda. I didn't want to hate her, not as much as Eredith does.
    She smiles at me and leads me to her office door, taking me out of the classroom.
    "Your first class is Transfiguration, then Divination, Beast Care, History of Magic, and you finish off the day with a mandatory Self-Defense class and flight class." She tells me as we start towards a long and winding staircase that descended into a darker hole of the castle. My stomach aches and something feels off, immediately.
    I brush it off and ask, "When will I start flight class?" She chuckles in response.
    "I've got you pencilled in for the end of the day with Professor Finnegan," She tells me and as I grow tense with fear she places a hand on my shoulder, "Relax, flight class isn't too bad."
    We descend deeper and the staircase eventually leads off into a cobblestone archway. My breath is taken away as I look on either sides of me to see that there's water surrounding us, yet no glass sits in the windows of the archway.
    "Magic is a powerful thing," She explains, "This schools magic is tied to me. I keep this the way it is."
    She beams with pride as a MerFolk swims over to the side, poking a hand out of the water and reaching out towards us, it's skin growing scaly and beginning to burn the second her arm hits the air.
    Recoiling, it hisses and I can hear it despite the waters crashing all around being nearly deafening. Mafalda says something to the Mer in sign language and she swims away, having obviously learned her lesson.
    "She must be young, freshly hatched. They usually know by now not to expose themselves to the air in here." Mafalda shrugs and we continue on, the archway closing off eventually and leading into an underwater part of the castle that was filled with classrooms and further down the hall, more dorms.
    We come to a classroom where I see Dante sitting inside alongside Griffin. They wave to me and I give a shy wave in return. I clutch my hand from it's holster in my robes, finding comfort in it's twinges of lightning that course through my veins.
    On the desk sits a bearded dragon lizard, I'd had one as a kid at one point until the Jane's had to get rid of her. I'm surprised to not see a teacher, only until the lizard morphes to full size into a greying and short man who sits on the desk now instead.
    "Your reason for being late?" He asks in an aggravated manner until Mafalda steps into the light before me. Her eyes glisten in the dim classroom lights and she smiles.
    "Hello Professor Drango, my apologies. Parker is new and we had to chit-chat a bit." She smiles, "Better late than never."
    His eyes widen and I step into the class, taking my seat at a desk by Griffin and Dante.
    "It's alright, Miss. Have a lovely day." He brown noses to Mafalda, who shortly after stalks away.
    Professor Drango returns his attention to the class and his lesson begins again, Dante and Griffin catching me up.
    A half an hour later and the bell rings, we're released into the now busy, bustling hallway.
    Griffin and Dante gang up on either side of me, holding me tight like a sandwich holds its fillings. "What class do you have next?" Dante asks and I try to remember.
    "Divination." I tell him after pulling out and glancing at my schedule.
    It's Griffin who nods and says, "You'll have that with me and Wila."
    I smile at the mention of her name, wondering how she's doing.
    As I walk into Divination, I take my seat beside her and she smiles, laying her head down on the shared table. I look at her with worry as the professor starts their lesson, not even taking notice to their new arrival. I was pleasantly surprised that I wouldn't have to introduce myself to the class.
    The lesson droned on as the teacher discussed the use of crystal balls in magicless movies, something that set her off on a tangent. It was about halfway through class that water started to creep across the desk and on the floor, soaking my shoes and my socks. The water was freezing cold, I knew it had to be coming from Wila. I nudge her lighty, trying to stop the damage as suddenly a fire started and spread across the table towards me.
    I screamed and jumped back, pulling Wila away from the table. As I rolled her head back towards me I saw that her eyes were wide open and covered with lavender cataracts. She breathes raspily and a thick black smoke comes out of her nostrils.
    "Don't wake her!" Our professor shouts as Griffin beside me tries to whack the fire out. How had a fire started on top of water?
    "How do I stop it?" I shout back and the professor speeds towards us, tapping Wila on the forehead with her wand.
    "Cease!" She shouts and the cataracts slowly deteriorate as tears begin to fall from her now free eyes.
    She mutters to me, smoke billowing from her mouth as she does so, "Did it happen again?"
    I nod in response, going silent.
    Professor Chelius waggles a finger at Wila, leading her out into the hallway.
    My ears perk up as I hear someone laughing on the other side of the classroom. The laugh sounds familiar and as I turn to find the source, my heart sinks. None other than Argos laughs with his friends on the other side of the room and a rage bubbles to the surface.
    "What a weirdo." He remarks and I storm over to his desk.
    "Weirdo, huh?" I ask accusingly, my words seething with a poison like quality, "That's my friend you're talking about."
    "Jane-" He remarks as I storm back over to Griffin. Argos follows and I sigh. Why'd he have to follow?
    "I'm so sorry," He tells me, "I didn't know you were friends with any of them."
    "It seems they're my only friends." I remark as Professor Chelius pokes her head back in.
    She says sorrowfully, "Class, you're dismissed early, have a nice day."
    My stomach feels rancid and wishes to empty all of its contents. I needed to know if Wila was alright, she meant so much to me especially after these past few days and nights of us bonding.
    "We'd better just head to lunch," Griffin says solemnly, "It won't help if we draw a crowd."
    Everyone in the class watches what's going on between Griffin, Argos, and I. We're the main event as we leave the class, heading to the dining hall. Griffin stands close to me, protectively, as Argos storms past with his shoulders hunched and his hands dug into his pockets. It seemed as though he was trying to pin me as the bad guy.
    We walk into the dining hall and take our seats, waiting for the others to enter just under a half hour later when the rest of the classes were dismissed. Alarms go off in my head as Astryd walks in with some guy. They're chatting and laughing and I can't help but feel like I recognize him. He looked a bit like Astryd's brother who'd gone missing a few years prior, Dylan, but he had a five o' clock shadow and a head full of much longer hair than when I'd last seen him.
    My suspicions are confirmed, however, when Astryd walks up and gets teary trying to introduce him.
    "Dylan?" I ask, "Man it's been forever."
    I stand and pull him into a tight embrace and he smiles, rubbing the small of my back as we share a very long hug. When he pulls away he gives me a smirk.
    "My heart led me here, the second one that is." He jokes and I smile.
    I remark, "My heart literally almost failed before I got here, Enchanters really don't belong in a Magicless world."
    Astryd smiles, "That's the thing, Ms. Winters told me I'm at least half Enchanter which is why I was able to live in the Magicless world for so long."
    Ethan struts over, barging in on the conversation. He'd been chatting with Daisy when he overheard the conversation and he tells us, "So I guess this makes me special since I'm the only Magicless here?"
    "I guess so." I say with a chuckle. The air is light and bright and I'm almost able to forget the Wila incident, only until she comes in about ten minutes later in dry clothes that were about two sizes too big on her. She frowns when she sees me and immediately rushes over to apologize.
    Tension settles into the air as she throws her arms around me and pulls me into a hug. She still smells heavily of smoke.
    "I don't know what happened." She wails, "It's only getting worse."
    I lead her over to our table and sit beside her, lowering my head slightly.
    I tell her, "Show me," I add, "I'll put my head down so no one sees what's going on."
    She nods and taps me with her wand and again my mind is overtaken.