The FernWood Trilogy: Prophecy Twin

A Familiar Stranger - Chapter 9

"Quiet!" Griffin urges, a finger pressed against his lips as he shushes us, "We need to be undetected by the night guards."
    I nod in agreement and the others follow behind me, tiptoeing and trying their best to be silent. It's dark in the halls, all lights low and fading as the light from stars above are all we have to guide us. When clouds drift above, the cover of nightfall shields us below.
    Surging forward, my heart races as we lightly jog down the hall. I run ahead of the others, excited to start our journey in a way. It was an odd thought, leaving here so quickly after arriving.
    The air thick with anticipation from behind me. I slow down just a bit, tiptoeing forward and basking in the moonlight that flows in through the windows and over my body. A chill rushes to my bones as wind floods through the archway that we stumble through. Slowly, we emerge from the dorms into the main common area of the school.
    It isn't long before I turn a corner and bump head on into Argos.
    He stares at me in confusion and then mumbles, "Jane, you aren't supposed to be out of bed. It's past curfew." He furrows his brow and adds, "Why are you here and not at Grams'?"
    I'm honest as I inform him, "Grams kicked me out, for Erediths sake."
    "I understand." He nods and continues walking around the corner I'd come from. My friends emerge and chaos breaks through the air. "Why are they out of bed as well?"
    Griffin panics, hip checking Argos down and out of the way. Argos stumbles from the blow and then recovers, grappling for his wand. Argos rolls backwards, the rubber sole of his boots screeching against the linoleum. He holds himself high, managing not to fall and then flipping the hair out of his face, looking directly at me. I hold my breath and watch the scene, trying to decide whether or not I should intervene.
    "And just where do all of you think you're going?" He asks and I gulp.
    Ethan from behind whacks him in the head, knocking him to the ground and unconscious. He picks him up with near ease and then continues walking hurriedly. We all follow his actions, me a bit surprised. Since when had Ethan gotten so strong?
    I catch up next to him, my robe billowing around my legs as I jog up beside him and an unconscious Argos slung over the shoulder I stand beside. "Since when did you get so strong?"
    He shrugs, "This place has done something to all of us. Astryd grew a new heart, you've gotten so confident and different, and I can apparently pick up scrawny losers now with ease."
    Ethan chuckles at his own joke.
    "This world," I tell him, pausing to take in a breath of the crisp Autumn air, a chill runs through my spine as I finish my sentence, "It's absolutely intoxicating."
    "No," He disagrees, "I know what being drunk feels like. This is way better."
    All had gone off mostly without a hitch until a high pitched scream of rage blew out from behind us.
    "Students! Out of bed!" They shout and we all shudder.
    I turn, seeing Finlen, wand drawn at the ready.
    I groan as she slams towards us, each footstep heavy on the fallen leaves that litter the ground. Without hesitation I draw the wand that was once my mothers, not yet quite used to the feel of it concealed in my palm. I shoot out an arm and shout, "Disarm!"
    Her wand goes flying across the way and into the shallow waters of FernWoods beaches. She goes to make a run for it as Wila hops out in front of her, grabbing her head on either side by her hair and mutters, "Sleep."
    Now we had two unconscious night guards and a bigger moral issue to deal with, bring with or don't bring with? If we didn't bring them along, surely they'd send someone after us. We were a group of ragtag magical misfits who ran the risk of exposing the magical community.
    But if we brought them along we'd have to deal with them, and I didn't wanna put up with Finlen. Argos I could deal with but not Finlen.
    I hadn't wanted Argos to come with. I'd meant what I said, I wanted him to watch over Eredith. Who among us could take care of her now?
    Fawn scoops up Finlen into her arms, Feowns apparently being ridiculously strong creatures. I'd done a little more research on Feown's and their culture since meeting Fawn as well as some research on mermaids.
    I discovered that mermaids, Merfolk, and Sirens all followed the same deity, Tritania of the Seven Thousand Seas. I also discovered that Fawn was the daughter of the Feown deity, Lilith.
    Griffin taps me on the shoulder, he'd been standing with Astryd and Dante the whole time. He looks at me sincerely and smiles before he asks, "Are you ready to go back there?"
    I nod. "The Magicless world is always gonna be my home in some way, I live between two worlds anyways."
    He nods with me before handing me what looked to be a strange piece of multicolored metal on a necklace chain, which it was. At first glance it had no value or meaning. He explains, "It's a Winder, it'll keep your Alec Muscle pumping sort of like an emergency inhaler for magical hearts."
    "How does it work?" I said and he holds it in front of the right side of my chest, where the Alec Muscle pumps away. The Alec Muscle rests close to the human heart, distributing magic through my very veins. He twists it a few times and it glows. I get what feels almost like heartburn as a result.
    "You'll know when you need to use it," He explains, "Stay safe."
    I look around and see we're the last two to board into the canoe and turn to get in. Griffin guides me in with a hand before kicking the edge of the boat and giving a piercing whistle.
    "Aren't you coming?" I yell out and I see in the dim light that he shakes his head no.
    My heart races and it feels as though time slows. No, we needed Griffin. I needed Griffin. He was all that had been constant for me since the day I came here, he was my protector.
    "Griffin!" I begin to sob just slightly, "Griffin I need you!"
    "You'll be fine without me." Griffin tells me, his voice so low I can hardly hear it as we drift away. He explains, "Someone has to watch over Grams and Eredith, I'll miss you all!"
    "Griffin!" I shout out, feeling an ache in my heart. He couldn't be serious, we needed him. But apparently he didn't think so as he strutted away from the salty shoreline and Erigor began to pull us away.
    As we get further the ache in my heart grows.
    "Swim for it!" I shout and I see Griffin turn to leave. I watch him go, no point in shouting anything else. What if we didn't come back? What if FernWood fell apart with him inside in our absence?
    "He would've slowed us down." Sean heartlessly explains, "You don't know Griffin like most of us do."
    "Is there something I don't know?" I ask and he rolls his eyes. I decide it's best I shut up as we coast along the waters, headed back to the Magicless world. I try to process everything that happened but I can't, my mind is too hung up on Griffin.
    At some point in the night I had drifted off, uneasily, and when I woke up I had arms around me. Strong arms. Arms that rose and fell very, very gently as the person who held me was breathing.
And that's why everyone on the boat woke up to me screaming when I found out I had managed to end up in Argos Drathlen's arms while I slept.
"What the hell?!" A feminine voice shouted that I recognized as Finlen's from last night. Clearly she had been asleep up until then and I think we all wished she still was asleep.
Argos, who had been right next to my screaming, was so startled he nearly fell out of the boat which, at the moment, was currently firmly docked. I was very relieved that we had reached land but also kind of wondered if anyone had seen us. I seriously hoped that no one had seeing how a majority of the people here possessed strange features such as furry legs, gills on their neck, or the occasional part-time scales.
As everyone around me slowly- or in the case of Finlen and Argos, very suddenly- woke up, I sat up and looked around. Argos, meanwhile, was brushing off his arms as though I'd left something on them. He seemed thoroughly disgusted by our accidental nighttime cuddling session. Thankfully the feeling was mutual.
To my left I heard a splash and, trying to adjust to the light still, I saw that it was Finlen who had jumped out of the boat and was currently attempting to swim away.
"Go after her!" Sean shouted and Richard dove in, after removing his shirt to have at least one dry article of clothing when he made it back to the boat.
Finlen, being small in stature and not the strongest swimmer, was caught almost immediately by Richard who swam fast even without the tail. He didn't have to come up once for air, he could breathe under the water.
After being thrown onto the dry land that we were docked next to, Finlen let out a shout. She was clearly very distressed. Tucking a lock of light bluish-grey hair behind her ear, she gave out a little growl and bared her teeth which were actually quite sharp. Sne ducks into a low and crouching fighting stance, arms outstretched and nails at the ready to claw out someones eyes.
Besides the pointed ears, Finlen had no resemblance of the typical Magicless depiction of an elf. The elves of the real magical world were twisted and dark, like Smiling MerFolks. Almost all of them had dark eyes, besides Finlen who possessed light pink eyes. And most of them had dark hair and very pale skin, which Finlen fit the description of halfway. And of course all elves were short- which Finlen was somewhat since she was also part enchanter- angry, and had very sharp teeth and forked tongues like a snake. Elves were very scary, and typically ugly, creatures and it was beyond me why any Enchanter would breed with one to create Finlen. I suppose the apple doesn't fall far from the most likely ugly and gnarled tree.
            Dante growled right back at her and hopped onto dry land, advancing towards her slowly.
            "I am going to get back to FernWood, I'm going to tell the Headmaster what you people have done," She said angrily, huffing and puffing, "And then you're gonna pay!"
            Sean stepped calmly off the boat which was close enough for him to reach dry land, and then gave everyone else a hand off. When he got to me, I stepped off without help. It was a sweet gesture, but I was fine without his help.
            "Good luck getting back to FernWood." I said, "We're hundreds of miles away and Erigor only listens to the commands of certain people, mainly Griffin."
    "Good!" She huffs some more, "Where's Griffin? He'll listen to reason!"
    My heart sinks as I reply, "Unfortunately for you, he stayed back."
    Sean holds up a hand to halt the altercation as he explains, "Good luck speaking to Headmistress Mafalda, she was kidnapped a few nights ago. We've gone on this adventure to retrieve her and you got in our way."
Finlen's eyes widen. I watch her for a moment as her expression sours and her nose wrinkles up. "That doesn't make any sense!" Finlen shouts, "You people did something to her and you're trying to cover it up. Running away from your consequences, typical. I shoul-"
Sean waggles a finger in front of her face and continues, "Either you're in and you expect danger and peril or you're out and you find your way back."
She purses her lips. This time her shoulders heave and she takes a moment to collect herself before saying, "I wasn't aware the situation was so... serious."
"We were keeping things quiet." Richard explains, "News of FernWood without a Headmistress could be disastrous. Shut down the school, disastrous. Or worse."
She rolls her eyes and crosses her arms, "I'm still oblivious as to why I was dragged along."
I glare at her and growl, "No witnesses can stay behind."
"As if anyone would've cared about you leaving." She seethes venomously and my heart aches a bit. FernWood should've been my home from the beginning, I shouldn't have to fight for where I belong.
"Enough." Sean states and looks around, realizing we're on a lakeside beach. "We've got places to get to."
"Salem, right?" Finlen assumes and we all nod. She shouldn't get to be right all the time, it wasn't fair.
I look to my right and I'm distracted for a moment. The conversation of Finlen and Sean fades to background noise as I watch Fawn giggle with glee while she holds Richards hand, twirling around. She's exclaiming something about the human world and I smile. This was magic. Watching Fawn and Richard in love was the truest form of magic that I can ever hope to witness.
He cups her fragile face in his large hands and pulls her forward. I almost feel wrong for staring but I can't drag myself away. When would someone love me the way they loved each other?
At that moment there's a tap on my shoulder and I turn quickly. Argos stands before me with a shy smile plastered on his face. "Is it good to be back?" He asks and I nod.
"It is." I tell him and think, I left so abruptly last time, this time it'll be nice to have a chance to say goodbye and leave on my own terms.
I feel a chain around my neck and grasp for it's pendant, the thing Griffin gave to me. My heart sinks as I think about Griffin. Why hadn't he come with us? Argos looks at me, studying my features for an answer untold. He couldn't figure me out, I couldn't even figure me out.
My features melt into a frown as Argos speculates, "You miss Griffin, don't you?"
I nod. "I know why he stayed back, though. Someone had to keep an eye on Grams and Matilda nor the Fae would be of any help."
"I agree with you on the Fae front but give Matilda a chance," Argos tells me, "She's better once you get to know her."
Sometimes I forget how often Argos used to be over Grams. He practically lived there from what I'm told. He was always around for Eredith, she was his best friend. I can't imagine the pain it brings him to think about her back at home in the state she was in when we left. It brought me pain, obviously, but I didn't know her the way he did. I only knew her body, as it matched my own in most ways.
I run a finger through my hair, feeling my bouncy curls and sighing relief. My curls were really all that differentiated me from Eredith since she always kept her hair straight and pulled back in a bun.
Argos stares at me, still, and my heart beats a little faster. I hear Finlen and Sean in the background forming some sort of game plan.
"Everyone gather around!" Sean commands while doing the universal signal for huddle and we all form a circle with him at its center.
    He removes a velvet pouch from his robe pocket and flashes it before us, it's shifting burgundy outside captivated my eyes as he pulled the drawstring top and a miraculous light flooded the forest.
    "Forst powder, made from ground up Elven crystals and a few other fun ingredients. It's essentially a glamour in a bag but far better lasting and formulated to physically change DNA," Sean explains, "Those of you who aren't human enough will need a generous dusting."
    He stares over to Fawn and Richard whose bodies are entangled with each others. Fawn steps closer to Sean, but Richard pulls her back just slightly, shielding her with an arm across her chest. "Is it safe?" Richard asks and Sean nods before abruptly turning on Finlen and dousing her with a handful.
    She releases a shrill scream as the dust rains down on her, sticking to her skin and enlarging over her.
    "It only takes a small amount for something like an elf," Sean explains as Finlen doubles in size before us.
    Her skin gains life to it, no longer bearing a bluish, chalky hue. Her hair fades out to a grey and then darkens to black. Her eyes darken from light pink, to red, to finally settling as an amber. Her teeth file out and her body expands and grows into a proportionate size. We hear her clothing tear as she falls to her knees. When the powder fades away, left before us is a very angry human girl who is also very nearly naked.
    "Dress her proper, prim and neat, from face to toe, and head to feet." I say, adjusting the words of Eredith's spell to be used on her as a pair of jeans and a low cut sweater form on her body, completing the outfit with a pair of boots.
    Finlen sits on the ground before us, appearing to be a broken young woman.
    She whimpers, "I already hate this."
    "Won't it be nice to be able to reach high shelves?" Richard asks with a snicker and Finlen shoots him a glare.
    "Me next!" Fawn requests, twirling in a circle as Sean throws a handful of the dust on her. She twirls about, giggling as the dust surrounds her.
    Before our very eyes, Fawn's hooves slowly elongated into feet and became the same sun kissed color as her skin. Her legs are freckled just like her face. We all smiled as the hair on her legs fell away and her shirt became longer becoming what looked like a sundress considering she no longer had built in pants.
            Pushing her new toes into the sand, Fern gave a smile from ear to ear.
            "I have legs?" Fawn somewhat asked then shouted again, "I have legs!!!"
    Richard purses his lips and runs a hand through his hair, muddling up his slicked back style. He looks to Sean and asks, "How long does this stuff last?"
    "We've got a week." He tells us and then frowns, "You'll deal. She's still Fawn."
    Fawn smiles at Richard, "Legs don't stop me from loving you."
    She goes to walk towards him and trips a little on her newfound feet. He catches her and smiles. "You're beautiful as always."
    He sets her upright and removes his shirt. "Just in case," He explains as he grabs for the pouch and, in typical Richard fashion, dumps the rest of the bag on himself.
    "Oh no." He says upon doing so and we watch as the transformation occurs.
    First, his gills faded into his neck, making his neck smooth unlike its usual rough, almost sandpaper like texture. Next we watched as his oil-spill like hair fell out, re-growing quickly as shoulder length, tousled black hair. We were all very startled to see that he was changing rapidly.
His fang like teeth all fell out at once, being replaced by smooth, shiny teeth.
"Oh my..." Finlen said, looking at Richard who was changing rapidly.
"I'm not sure what the repercussions of using the whole pouch might do to him..." Sean said, more worried than any of us.
Some changes were subtle, like his eye color from changing bright, Caribbean Sea blue to a deep, normal blue color.
But other changes were completely bold and new, like the change of his face structure, something that hadn't changed for anyone else.
When Richard was done changing, we all looked at what was before us. He was a clear vision of male perfection at this rate, and also completely different.
The powder had done some remarkable things.
"You look..." Wila started, trying to think of a good way to describe how he looked.
"Awesome." Dante said.
Wila raises a finger, attempting to finish her own sentence.
"Hot." Finlen said, her voice low and filled with undertones of seething lust.
Wila rolls her eyes in a manner that says "that isn't what I was going to say".
            "Cute!" Fawn said in her typical, upbeat manner while throwing a slight glare to Finlen. She then added, "And also really different..."
Wila glares some more.
"Typical." Argos said with an eye roll that accompanied some clear jealousy.
"Great." Astryd said, slowly moving closer towards him.
"Completely Magicless." I said, giving him a smile and a thumbs up.
"I was going to say interesting, but I guess most of those responses work too?" Wila said, showing slight annoyance because of how many times she was cut off.
"If that's what Magicless boys look like, I'm really glad you guys kidnapped me!" Finlen said and we all gave an eye roll of annoyance. None of us were happy about having to bring her.
    Sean coughs and, to move on quickly he says, "We should probably get going. Do you know where we are, Parker?"
    I look at the lake and sigh. "Last time we were here," I pause for a moment, "Griffin took us here."
    "Well," Sean sighs, "Griffin chose not to come along. We should walk and hope we find out where we are."
    I nod in agreement with his suggestion and we all walk in the direction that a path stemming from the beach goes. Everyone breaks off into their separate social clusters and starts chatting away. Looking back I see Fawn, Richard, Wila, and Dante striking up a conversation. Astryd and Ethan are chatting it up. Finlen and Sean talk strategy.
    I suppose it only makes sense when Argos drifts my way. He walks next to me as we take the front of the group, leading towards what I'd assume would be a parking lot. This was the Magicless world after all, things tended to be mundane here.
    Argos digs into his pocket and takes out a golden foil packet, removing what was shaped like a cigarette but rolled like a cigar and smelled like herbs. Now I understood why he always smelled so nice.
    He uses his wand to light up, taking a deep drag and then blowing the smoke away from me.
    "You smoke?" I ask and he nods.
    He explains, "Herbal cigs. They calm my nerves. No nicotine in them or anything of the sort."
    I nod and we walk along in silence, listening to the chatter of our friends behind us. As assumed the path diverged out of a forest and led right to a parking lot. I find out from an old sign that this was the flip side of a state park in Wharton, New Jersey. I nod my head, we'd come a long way from both Pennsylvania and FernWood.
    "Interesting where one must go to reach certain places in Eldire, am I right?" Sean pipes up from behind me.
    Looking ahead at the parking lot I see a stalled pick up truck with no driver in sight.
    "Is it wrong to steal?" Sean questions his morals as we all sleuth towards the truck.
    Then from behind us on the path comes an old man carrying a fishing pole. Had he heard us?
    I try to start to explain myself when I see the fishing pole transform into a wand and I realize that even here we were never truly safe from the magical world.
    "Get in the car!" I shout and Sean corrects me.
    Shouting and running towards the vehicle, he screams, "That's a truck!"
    "Whatever!" I scream back as the older gentlemans face grows red and he stands off with his wand.
    "Damn Enchanters! Go back to Eldire where you came from!" He spits before shedding what appeared to be his skin, his body now blue and chalky. He starts to summon a fireball and my skin tingles from the memory. I glance down at my charred flesh and grit my teeth.
They all rushed for the truck as I conjured a ball of water. Ever since my attack from the pyromaniac when Eredith lost her memories I'd been studying up on elemental magic which I would use to counter their attacks. So, in the case of fire, air and water can both counter a fire attack. However, it's better to use water especially if you don't plan on blowing back the attack and injuring your attacker.
           When the ball of flames got closer towards me, somewhere in the middle between me and him- which was slightly too late- I threw my ball of water which put out the fire just before it hit my face. The old man, clearly not as skilled as he was long ago, tried conjuring another fireball quickly as I hopped into the driver's seat, turned the ignition, and slammed my foot on the gas, speeding towards him until I pulled a sharp left away. As we sped away I felt the truck jolt as a fireball hit the back of the truck.
In the front with me was Argos who glared at me and was clearly still shaken from waking up with his arms around me.
"And how did you end up in shotgun?" I asked and Argos looked over at me.
"Well, considering that old man looked like he was ready to turn his wand into a shotgun." Argos stops his sentence and from the back Sean, who had gotten stuck on the floor, groaned.
"He pushed me out of the way. That's how." Sean said with great annoyance. I simply rolled my eyes in response.
"Anyone else wondering why that man was blue?" I ask, looking in the rearview mirror at my friends to see if any of them had an answer.
"Valtorian," Sean explains, "A lot of Valtorians come to Earth for vacation. It's common practice, actually."
My head spins as I think about how this universe was far larger than my once Magicless brain had ever comprehended.
Going way over the speed limit of any zone, I rolled over train tracks and past a train station, coming to what actually looked like a civilized area. And so close to where FernWood was, too. It was a little unsettling to know we were so close to civilization. Slowing down a lot, I pulled into the parking lot of a store to make it seem like I was just part of the traffic and then pulled around into a space.
"Why'd we stop?" Sean asks from the back. He lies on the floor, his arms raised and contorted somewhat behind him uncomfortably.
I remark, "We need a gameplan. Are we driving straight to Salem?"
Sean nods, "I would think that's what makes sense."
I sigh and open my door, hopping out and fixing my clothes. "I'm running into the store to pick up a GPS, anyone wanna come with?"
The passenger side door opens with a creak and Argos steps out, his riding boots hitting the pavement with a clacking sound. I grab the keys from the ignition and start towards the store.
With a groan, I look at the store and sigh. "I don't have my debit card."
"What does that even mean?" Argos asks and I roll my eyes.
"It means I can't buy anything, my card was in my phone case. And I can't use it anyways, I'm sure my account has been frozen for a while now." I explain and he chuckles.
"You've stolen a truck today but you can't swipe a GPS?" He laughs some more, "Typical Magicess thinking."
I raise an eyebrow as he takes out his wand and taps his own forehead, his skin rippling and wrinkling on contact. His brunette locks lighten and lose their luster and length as liver spots appear all over his now wrinkled hands. Crow's feet sprout around his gorgeous blue eyes seal over with cataracts.
"Nobody suspects an old man and his wife." He explains, taking my hand and tapping me with his wand as well.
I feel my body shrink a couple of inches and fill out as well, my chest sagging along with everything else. My lips pucker and my skin grows soft and wrinkled.
"I don't think I gave you enough credit, dear." I tell him as we enter the store and head towards the back where I assume the electronics are located. We hobble to the back, me walking suspiciously fast for an elderly. Argos holds my hand tighter to slow me down, holding me back in a sense.
We make it back to the electronics and look around finally finding one that suits our needs since it doesn't hook up to a USB or anything. I take it and stuff it down Argos' pants then grab a set of batteries for it, shoving those in my bra. I nod to him and we make our way to the front of the store, growing nervous when I see the anti-theft devices standing tall and proud at the front.
"Have a wonderful day!" The greeter at the front tells us. I smile and wish her the same as Argos snaps his fingers and the power in the store goes out, including that of the anti-theft devices.
"Home free." He whispers to me as we head back out to the truck.
My eyes widen as I see Sean outside the truck with his wand drawn to some man who stood before the truck, bearing a baseball bat that he pointed at Sean like it was a wand. Sparks of electricity fly around it, woodburning the hitting end of the bat.
"You can't stop our plans!" The man shouts, his face growing red, "It's our time to rise."
Argos puts a finger up to his lips as he sneaks forward on the man.
My mouth drops open wide as Astryd gets out of the truck, the blood draining from her face. "Dylan?" She asks, her voice shaky.
Memories tweak as she says that name, but I knew it couldn't be him. Dylan was the name of Astryd's brother who'd ran away years ago, I still have memories of him walking around the house in boxers and drinking milk straight from the carton. He was just a few years older than Astryd and I, he'd be about nineteen today.
This man appeared to be much older than nineteen, time had not been kind to him.
The man shakes his head, "I don't answer to that name anymore. Who are you?"
Argos touches him on the back of the head with his wand and knocks him unconscious.
As the man falls to his knees, Astryd whispers, "Your sister."