The Royal Agency

♕~Chapter Three~♕

The overhead speakers crackled to life. "We are experiencing some unexpected turbulence at this time, please fasten your seatbelts and hold on."

No sooner did Hazel's mind register the last word did the plane list to the left. She shrieked and held Chione tightly against her chest. Julia's book went flying into the wall.

"Are we getting attacked or something?" Hazel shouted.

Julia looked out the window. Her face paled. "Captain wasn't kidding when he said-"

The plane tilted dangerously to the right.

"-hold on!" Julia finished, ducking to avoid being beaned in the head by her own rebound book.

For all the times Hazel had been on a plane, she'd never experienced turbulence this bad. It only got worse. The entire plane flipped three-sixty degrees. Chione almost fell out of her pouch. The carrots were not so lucky. They slipped out and rolled around. Hazel was glad that she'd only eaten a light breakfast that day. Even so, her stomach felt lodged up in her throat as the plane tilted and turned every which way.

"Hazel!" Julia shouted. "Stop them!"

"Stop who?" Hazel barely had the words out when a howl pierced the air. She looked out the window.... and immediately wished that she hadn't. A pack of over a dozen wolves was circling the plane. Their bodies looked created from rough grey tornadoes, and their eyes glowed with a terrifying shade of blue. They ran alongside the plane, howling and yapping, having seemingly no trouble walking on the thin clouds. A few jumped onto the wings of the plane, causing it to creak and sway side to side. One of them rammed straight into the window like an angry bull.

"Stop them!" Julia shouted again.

"How?" Hazel demanded. She had only a bunny and a suitcase. Not great combat advantages. Plus, she was stuck inside a plane cabin! Did Julia expect her to get out and walk on the clouds like the wolves?

The more Hazel panicked, the bolder the wolves got. They howled and the winds picked up. The wolf who'd rammed his head into the window now bared his very sharp-looking teeth. He got ready to charge again.

Hazel did the only thing her panicked mind could. She threw her hands in the air and yelled, "Stop!"

The wolf closed his jaws. He tilted his head with what looked like curiosity. Hazel imagined he was thinking something along the lines of Did this puny girl just tell me to stop?

Hazel wasn't even sure how he'd heard her behind the plane's walls. Or maybe he hadn't. Maybe he was thinking instead, What did she say?

Or he was contemplating the best way to rip her apart.

Hazel took the wolves' silence to her advantage. She stared them in the eyes.

"Go. Away." She ordered firmly, sounding like her father on his throne.

The head wolf lifted his head and bayed quietly. Then the entire pack dissolved into thin air.

Hazel stared at where they had just been. How has she done that?

Beside her, Julia grinned. "I knew it!"

Hazel frowned, her pulse still racing. "K-Knew what?"

"I knew you could control them! Well, if you hadn't, we'd all be falling to our deaths right about now."

That was a cheery thought Hazel said to herself.

A few more hours and no more wind-wolves later, they touched down in Besamor. Hazel checked her phone. It was around three p.m. when she and Julia walked into the airport terminal. Hazel couldn't believe how big the place was, much bigger than the one at Avaehan. The ceiling stretched high above her head. The floor was covered in mosaics. People milled about. No one seemed to notice or care that Hazel was carrying a bunny around with her. She spotted a few police officers, most with what she assumed was the Besamor crest on their caps, but she noticed a few with the same angry owl symbol.