Read Zephyr Page 1



  ZEPHYR

  Jade Damboise Rail

  Copyright 20114 by Jade Damboise Rail

  All rights reserved, to well, ME.

  Written when I was 15 for NaNoWriMo so don’t expect a masterpiece but feedback has lead me to believe it is pretty good.

  ENJOY

  If you don’t enjoy....you better enjoy.

  I’m really not threatening am I?

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  Zephyr was always bored in school. Now she was in history, the guy behind her eying her long red hair and the guy beside her, Zephyr’s green eyes and pale face. She looked at the book next to her, it was so tempting, but she knew that she couldn’t do it, that she had to wait until after school to do it.

  “Zephyr? Where was the cold war fought?” The teacher asked.

  Zephyr lifted her head lazily and answered:

  “Alaska?”

  The whole class started to laugh.

  Zephyr usually had a 61 average in school, but she didn’t care. And her parents didn’t either. Sylvia, Zephyr’s little sister was by far their favourite. While they read her story after story, they would sign any school document of paper without even looking at it. Zephyr liked it like that. If her parents cared, it would be too hard for her to explain why she disappeared all the time. Of course all the kids’ spider club knew. Zephyr honestly had no idea why it was called that. The founder probably did ini mini miny mo with all the words in the dictionary and got spider.

  Zephyr looked around the classroom, eyes stopping on the world map than looking at the blackboard.

  I’m bored, I’m bored, I’m bored, she thought.

  “Hey mister?” She said raising her hand.

  “Yes Zephyr.” He said with an overly patient tone.

  “Was the cold war fought with liquid nitrogen, I heard that stuff is really cold.”

  “No Zephyr, now stop bothering the class or I’ll throw you out.”

  “Oh I would like that very much.”

  “Fine, out you go, and if you don’t go to the principal’s office this time, you’re going to see me in detention.”

  Zephyr smiled, then took the bus home. She was now looking through her sister’s room, trying to find the earphones she “borrowed”.

  “Come out, come out, where ever you are.” She said.

  At that moment, she heard footsteps.

  “Aw crap,” she whispered to herself, “mom can’t see me in Silvia’s room.”

  She looked around the room for a safe hiding place, meanwhile, the footsteps were getting closer.

  “Shit.”

  Zephyr opened her sister’s closet. She was four and a girl, so obviously, a bunch of stuffed animals and barbies fell out. Cursing, Zephyr rummaged through them as her mom walked closer to the room, and found a book.

  “Yes!” She murmured.

  She opened it fast and said.

  “On this day, I wish to go, in this book.”

  Light flashed everywhere for not even a second before her mom walked in, but Zephyr was gone.

  Zephyr walked into the castle, walls painted pink, chandeliers hanging from the ceiling, young girls dressed in pink dressed full of froufrou passing by. She made a disgusted face.

  “What is with this book and pink, and why did I walk right into a kid’s princess book!” She muttered to herself.

  Now people were staring at her with curiosity.

  “What? You never saw jeans before?”

  The pink dressed girls stepped away as if they were scared and started to mutter again. Sheash! She thought. She continued to walk, going farther and farther into the disgustingly pink castle. She knew she would have to stay here for a while, returning to the real world before spending a certain amount of time in the story can be dangerous.

  As she walked under a doorway into another room where she hoped to hide until she could go home, she heard footsteps. She turned to see a knight in shining armour.

  “Honestly, I had to get stuck in a fairy tale?” She said aloud.

  “I do not know of what you speak, but the ladies in this castle would appreciate that you leave.” The knight said.

  “Yah depends what’s out there. Is there like a dragon waiting to chew me to bits?”

  “I was going to add that I suggested we give you a room for the night.”

  She looked at her watch. I’ve been here... ten minutes, another 50 to go.

  “Yah, I guess.”

  The night led her up marble stairs, to room half filled by the gigantic bead that was probably bigger than a king size.

  “Okay, thanks, bye bye.” She said before pushing the king out of the room and closing the dor in his face, leaving him with a puzzled expression.

  Now that the door was closed, zephyr could do what always made things clear in her mind.

  “I hate my sister. If I didn’t have a sister, I wouldn’t be stuck in a freaking princess story. I wonder what the story is. Some girl probably lost a glass shoe or something. Now if my body dies now, I’ll be stuck here forever!”

  She went and sat on the bed. It had one of those things on the tope that made it kind of like a tent. She settled for staring at her watch. Tick, tack, tick, tack.

  “Well, may as well have some fun.”

  She stepped out into the corridor and walked around until she found something interesting. It was a door. It was probably the only door that wasn’t pink. Actually, it was black and painted red with weird symbols everywhere. She entered not knowing what to expect. She found thousands of viles filled with all sort of different colour liquids. She also found pots with things in them like yes, and what seemed to be hearts. If Zephyr hadn’t seen all sorts of other awful stuff she would be disgusted, but instead she looked at them with curiosity.

  “You liiike it.” Said an old sounding voice.

  “Not particularly. I just walked in.” Zephyr said.

  “Weeell. You don’t seem like your frooom here.” She continued analysing Zephyre’s physical appearance.

  “Yah, well not really,” she looked at her watch, “But I’ll be gone in thirty minutes.”

  “Sooo, can I show some thiiings during that time?”

  “Fine go ahead. Show as much as you like.”

  Um, that sounded wrong, she thought.

  The old woman had long gray hair descending in her back and her face was greenish, covered in warts. The usual image of a witch.

  The witch went and reached for the shelves, bringing down several post and viles, filled with assorted stuff.

  “Heeeere, I will show you the perfect loooove potion.”

  “Great.” Zephyr said in her best “I don’t give a crap” voice.

  “Roooosamond leaf, gobber, heilor nut, pixi dust, raven poooowder, maiden’s finger, and heart. These are the ingredients neeeded.”

  “Great person, now how do ya make it.”

  The witch took the ingredients, this vile full of a disgusting looking brown liquid and pored it into a crystal bowl. Then she put a few dry leaves in it then she put a finger in another bowl and squashed it up until it had the consistence of apple sauce, and she put it with the rest. She put in all the other ingredients, including a bit of the heart she took off with tweasers.

  “Noooow, you see?” She said, mixing the liquid together.

  The disgusting brown mush started to turn green and more liquid.

  “Hmm, interesting.” Zephyr said.

  “Heeere you go, princess, drink thins and the object of your heart’s desiiiiire will fall madly in love with you.” The witch sai
d.

  “Ha! What are you crazy? All fairy tales have a hidden moral, and this one’s probably don’t trust strangers. You probably expected me to come in and be all,” She took a high pitched voice, “ooh, magic made with a bunch of weird ingredients, please show me! Oh so if I drink it, the prince will fall in love with me? Okay then, I’ll drink it!” she took her normal voice, “Sorry, I’m not some stupid little princess you can trick, what were you going to do, turn me into a toad.”

  She started laughing, until the door opened.

  “You!” The knight said. “You were accomplice to the witch this whole time!” He seems shocked.

  “Nah not really, I just walked in and...”

  “Enough of this! Guards!”

  Zephyr noticed the two guys next to the knight. They grabbed her by the arms.

  “Take that thing! It could be a spell!” He said.

  The guard did as he was told and then started to drag her, they dragged her down stairs, corridors, until they arrived in a cold, dark room. They opened the door to what seemed to be a cell and they tossed her in.

  “Aw, come on, now my clothes are going to be all smelly when I get home.”

  They locked the door and leaved her in there.

  She looked inside. She wanted to go home but she remembered what her teacher at spider club said.

  It was a day she had skipped school to go to spider club, and her teacher was giving her another lecture about going home before an hour spent in the story.

  “People who come back before the hour are known to die, go into a comma, or just simply stay stuck in the story. You’re lucky if you get out fine. And you’re also lucky if you get stuck and someone can come get you. That’s why you should always let someone know where you going. But there is also one more thing, and that is where you’ve been in the story for about forty minutes, and also if you’re lucky, you come back, but you lose your powers.”

  Thinking of that, Zephyr cursed. She was lying on hay, and she could count about twenty ants with her in her cell. It was cold, and she was only wearing a t-shirt. She put her hand to the cold stone wall and felt indentations, like the kind you make to count the number of days you’ve been somewhere. The up side was, there was no pink in sight.

  “I’ll try to sleep, and when I wake up, I’ll go home.”

  Zephyr had slept in worse places, she should be fine here. She killed as many ants as possible then lay on her back and closed her eyes.

  Fire, everywhere, blue shapes flying in the distance, a voice telling her to find the blessed mountain.

  She woke up, breathing hard, wondering where she was. Then she remembered. She heard a squeak, and looked up to see a little mouse, sitting on her chest. She went to swat it off but it said:

  “Hey you can’t hurt me, I’m a royal mouse!” The mouse said proudly.

  “Great, now mice are talking.”

  “Why are you here?” The mouse asked.

  “They think I was the witches accomplice.”

  Zephyre answered.

  The mouse jumped back and gasped, putting its little hands up to its mouth.

  “The witch! Stay away from me!” The mouse squealed before running away and out the cell. That was when She heard the clanging, like, well, metal shoes on stone. The next momtne, the knight she had seen earlier walked in.

  “The court is deciding on your fate at this very moment!” He said theatrically.

  “Hey, um, knight person, this ain’t a play it’s a book.” Zephyr asked.

  “You seem to come from far, I do not understand your language.”

  “Hey dumbo, how long have I been in here?”

  “The whole night.”

  “Um then it’s been an hour.” She said to herself.

  “Several.” The knight said, his shining armour making Zephyr’s eyes hurt.

  “I was talking to myself ya moron.”

  “Would you please specify what the meaning of moron is?” The knight asked.

  “Not until you specify the size of your brain. I’m tired of this, I’m out of here.” She said.

  “Where do you think you’re going?” the guy in the armour asked.

  Zephyr ignored him completely and started to talk.

  “I am ready, I wish to go, to my.....to the spider club.”

  She was going to say her room but her mom was probably looking through it, trying to find something to get her in trouble with, and the spider club was always a safe place to go.

  The room filled with light.

  She reappeared in a hallway with white painted walls

  “Better than pink!” she muttered.

  “Zephyr” she heard.

  Zephyr turned to see Harley walking, half jogging towards her.

  “Hey.” Zephyr answered.

  “Where did you come from? Harley asked.

  “I was stuck in a princess book.” Zephyr groaned.

  Harley made a face mimicking horror.

  “I was looking for my headphones in Sylvia’s room and my mom walked into the house.”

  “Oh no, so you jumped into the first book you saw.”

  “Yah, it had a talking mouse in it.”

  “Well, let’s meet up with Marielle, she’s here.” Said Harley.

  Zephyr’s stomach growled and she tried to remember when she’d last eaten. That would depend on what time of day it was.

  “What time is it” Zephyr asked.

  “Seven in the morning, we can stop by the cafeteria. Marielle and I were going to skip school with you and go somewhere but we couldn’t find you.”

  They walked into the cafeteria and Zephyr took a sandwich from the fridge and bit into it.

  “Hi!”

  They turned to see a short and blond haired girl walking to them.

  “Hey Marielle.” Zephyr and Harley said at the same time. They looked at each other and laughed, Zephyr finishing her ham sandwich.

  “So,” Zephyr started, “Where are we going today?”

  Marielle looked over excited like when she had an idea.

  “I read this book, the story really sucks but the action’s in Hawaii, I thought we would go swimming.” She said.

  “Great, so we’ll be all wet when we get back and we’ll need to bring bathing suits.” Zephyr replied.

  “Taken care of” Marielle said, lifting three duffel bags. “I bought you some.”

  “Mine better not be pink or I swear…” Zephyr started.

  “Don’t worry, it’s red.” Marielle cut her off.

  She tossed Zephyr one of the bags and took a book from hers. The title was “Trouble in Paradise”. Such a tacky title, Zephyr thought. The book had an image of the beach, sun blazing, a poll of blood in the sand, Zephyr grabbed the book and opened it. The three girls stacked up their hands over and under the book. Harley decided to take care of the talking.

  “We are ready, we wish to go into this book.” She said.

  White light flashed everywhere and they ended up in the same position. The book was gone. They were on a beautiful beach, and Zephyr immediately stripped down to her t-shirt. It was hot there. A few moments later as they were walking peacefully on the beach, the clear blue waves crashing on the sand barely reaching their feet, three tanned guys walked up to them.

  “Hey ladies, want to learn how to surf? The tallest one, with light grey eyes and black hair asked, giving them a radiant smile.

  “First of all, I am not a lady. Ladies are nice, right? And secondly…” She paused.

  “Yah, I would like to learn how to surf, we just have to get changed first, do you know where?”

  The three guys looked at each other with dumb looks on their face.

  “We’ll bring you.” The shortest one said.

  They started to walk with their ridiculously long surf boards towards a cabin in the distance. The girls followed after them. Zephyr had taken off her shoes and put them in her bag, she could feel the soft hot sand under her feet and between her toes as she walked at a
slightly faster pace than the others. The guys motioned towards the cabin before saying:

  “Hey, by the way, my name’s Chris.” Said the tallest one with pale grey eyes, curly blond hair and a ridiculously well shaped body.

  “My name is Mike.” Said the semi-tall but still tall one.

  He had eyes the colour of the water in Hawaii and his hair was short and deep brown.

  “I’m Dexter.”The third said, his short red hair flying around him.

  “Hmm, that’s funny; I know a television show named Dexter. Hope you don’t suck as much as it.” Zephyr said.

  He turned to his friends with a hurt expression.

  “Don’t worry,” Marielle said, “She’s like that with everyone, even people she likes.”

  “And don’t forget I’m like that with people I hate too, you wouldn’t want to be getting the wrong idea of Matielle’s statement.” Zephyr countered.

  “Hey, um Dex, how about you teach me how to surf.” Marielle said.

  “I pick Mike.” Harley sounded.

  “I guess I’m stuck with you.” Zephyr said to Chris.

  He gulped.

  “I didn’t know who to go with anyways.”

  They walked into the cabin and got changed.

  “See, told you it was red.” Marielle told Zephyr.

  It was a really nice suit actually. It was body size, like Zephyr liked it and a nice, deep red.

  “Yah, I like it.” Zephyr said as she was looking in the cabin mirror.

  Harley stepped out of her changing room. Her bathing suit was a two piece; it was blue with all sorts of pink and white swirls all over it.

  “How do I look?” She asked.

  Zephyr opened her mouth as if she was going to say something nice, but all that came out was:

  “You look like freaking cotton candy.”

  “You look great.” Said Marielle, coming out in a yellow bikini polka dotted with black.

  “It was a It was an Itsy bitsy teenie weenie yellow polka dot bikini, that she wore for the first time today, an itsy bitsy teenie weenie yellow polka dot bikini, so now, she’s going to surf in her itsy bitsy teenie weenie yellow polka dot bikini.” Zephyr started to sing.

  “Um......” Harley started.

  “Aw come on, you practically shouted for me to do it.”

  None of them knowing what to say, the three girls left it at that and went to meet up with the guys. They whistled as the girls came out in their swimsuits. Harley looked down shyly, Marielle gave a radiant smile, and Zephyr eyed them with menace.

  “You do that and I’ll cut each of your tongs out.”

  The surfers looked at each other, as if to say “we sure know how to pick them”.

  “Oaky, we can get you some surf boards and on the waves we go!” Said Mike.

  They walked to the surf area and picked up some surf boards. Zephyr snatched the red one before anyone could say anything about it. Harley looked at her and rolled her eyes, Zephyr simply stuck her tongue out at her.

  “Okay, follow me!” Chris told her.

  “Yes master.” she said sarcastically.

  She followed after him anyways, her excitement was building up, like every time she was about to do something really cool.

  “Can’t wait! Surfing must be awesome.”She said.

  “Don’t worry, if you fall of your board, I’ll save you.” He said.

  Zephyr stopped walking.

  “First of all, if I fall off my board, I will swim to the side. And even if I’m drowning, if you touch me, your nose will become the consistency of pudding before you can say, well, pudding.”

  He looked at her, and continued walking towards the water. He put his board in from of him, mounted it and started to paddle with his hands; the other guys were doing the same some length away. Zephyr imitated her surf teacher.

  “So this is the first step, you just paddle until the current in strong enough for you to stand up and start surfing. We should start by practicing standing up before we get to far in the ocean.”

  Zephyr put her hands flat on her board and with a graceful gesture, she brought her legs up to the board and stood up.

  “That’s it, fold your knees, put you arms out to keep your balance.”

  She did so for a while before losing her balance and falling into the cold water. It wasn’t so cold actually, more like refreshing, after the hot air under the killer sun.

  Suddenly, she felt strong hands grab her arms and lift her out of the water. She twisted and hit Chris in the face.

  “Ow!” he said turning around, face bleeding as Zephyr fell back into the water.

  “You should take my threats seriously, because I do.”

  The others had started to gather around to see what was going on. Zephyr’s board was floating in the distance so she hung on the Marielle’s yellow one. A second later, while Mike was trying to convince Chris to wash his bleeding nose in the water, a gigantic wave towered over them and started to push them away. Zephyr and Marielle hung on to Marielle’s board and to each other. They felt themselves rush through the ocean and Zephyr had to hold her breath because her whole face was under the water most of the time. She felt a jolt in her back as she hit a hard but not so hard surface. Land! She thought. She was right. She looked around to see her friend Marielle and her surf board on the sand.

  They got up.

  “We’ve got to go back now.” Said Marielle.

  “No we don’t, not until we find Harley.” Zephyr said, getting up slowly and painfully.

  “She’ll find her way back, maybe she already did.”

  “Nope, didn’t feel her going through.”

  “You right, we’ll patrol the coast but if it starts to get dark and we haven’t seen her or felt her go back I’m going home.”

  Zephyr started to walk along the coast, looking for anything suspicious. It was the tiniest island she had ever been on and it had the occasional palm tree. You could see the beach they had come from where they were standing.

  “So,” Marielle started, “what have you gone into recently.”

  “Well, a princess book with a talking mouse. You?” Zephyr asked.

  “Well, Harry Potter.” She answered.

  “Well obviously, it’s such a popular book, everyone tried it.”

  “Did you try Twilight.”

  “Yah, wanted to see what all the fuss was about so I did. Funny story rally.”

  A light filled the room.

  Zephyr looked around and forest. Wet, damp forest.

  “Wet, forest, this must be Forks.” She said looking at her imaginary map.

  “Why is it called Forks anyways? I don’t see any forks anywhere.” She said.

  She installed herself at the side of the road and put up her thumb. It took about an hour before a car pulled up.

  “Hey, where are you goin?” The friendly guy in the car asked.

  “Um, wherever the Cullen’s house is.”

  He looked stunned but still opened the passenger door for her.

  “You have business with them?” He asked.

  “You could say that.” She said.

  She was trying her best not to say something mean since this guy was her only ride.

  The car started up and they were driving, in silence for some reason. Sometime after that, the car pulled up in front of this really big house and Zephyr got out.

  “Thanks for the ride.” She said.

  She went to the door and tested it, it was unlocked. She opened it and stormed in, just to see a bunch of pale people looking at her. The one that looked like the description she got of Edward was on the complete left and the others were standing beside him.

  “Heya you bunch of jolly bloodsucking vampires!” She said.

  They looked at her, completely and utterly stunned. She smiled.

  “You’re Edward?” She asked.

  “Yes that’s me.” He replied.

  “Honestly, with all the girls falling in love with you, I would
of thought you would look better. The only difference between you and a piece of shit is that you’re so pale. Apart from that I see no difference.”

  They looked at her even more stunned, not talking at all.

  “What did the cat get your tongue? Or more like the werewolf?”

  They looked at her some more.

  “Okay, instead of wasting my time on a bunch of idiots, I’ll leave now.”

  They finally reacted. The oldest one, the one who seemed to be kind of in charge, ran to her and pined her against the wall.

  “Were going to have to figure out what to do with her.” He said.

  “Oh and you think that’s going to stop me.”

  “Yes, I believe it is very likely that this will stop you.” He said.

  Zephyr gave him a “try me” smile before saying:

  “I am ready, I wish to go back, to my room.”

  A light filled the room.

  “Seriously? You really said that to him? That’s hilarious. I have to tell this to Jamie” Marielle’s voice sang.

  Zephyr made a face at the mention of Jamie’s name. Jamie was this twilight obsessed girl who kept going into Twilight to try and win over Edwards heart.

  “Hey! I see something! It looks like Harley’s hair!” Her hair was sleek and black and it looked exactly like what they were looking at.

  They raced to the side; it was Harley, washed up. Quickly, Zephyr went through what she remembered from CPR.

  “Hey Harley wake up!” She screamed in her ear.

  When Harley didn’t respond, Zephyr tilted her head up and checked for breathing.

  “She’s breathing,” Zephyr announced, “we can bring her back. “

  They each took one of Harley’s hands, then each other’s.

  “We are ready, we wish to go back, to the spider club infirmary.” Zephyr chanted.

  There was a white light.

  “That was close.” Marielle said.

  “Oh hi girls, let me take a look at your friend Harley.”

  They had just appeared in the infirmary. The nurse checked a few things on Harley before she coughed, chocked and woke up. Her first question was:

  “Where am I?”

  “You’re in the infirmary.” Marielle told her.

  “What about the surfers?” She asked.

  “Hey, Harley, newsflash! You’re a book traveler, that’s why you were with the surfers in the first place.” Zephyr said.

  “What time is it?” She asked the nurse.

  “It’s...two in the afternoon.” She answered, looking at her wrist.

  “Hey, I bet if I hurry I can make it to art class.” Zephyr pointed out.

  “Why?” Marielle said, considering the fact that Zephyr missed about half of her classes and didn’t care.

  “Because we’re drawing dragons.” Zephyr answered.

  “What is it with you and dragons?” Harley asked this time.

  “They’re awesome! Bye, see ya whenever!”

  Zephyr walked out the nurse’s office and followed the signs to the exit. These signs were necessary since book travelers almost never entered and exited the building by the doors. Zephyr looked at her opus card. She had a few tickets left. She went to the bus stop and took the bus to school. When she got out, all the people she knew that were on the school grounds looked at her bewildered.

  “What?” She said in her most menacing voice, “Never seen a human before.”

  Everyone looked away as if embarrassed, but Zephyr knew it was much more than that. She had an imposing presence and people tended to consider other people as superior or inferior. Zephyr didn’t go by that mentality. She knew 6 categories of people, her, semi-smart people, idiot, total idiots and her family, going from smartest to dumbest. She walked into class and the art teacher, and older man with greyish hair stopped her.

  “And you are...” He said.

  “Oh I’m Zephyr, I’m in your class. And instead of saying you are...You should say who are you? That’s an actual question and questions get more answers than statements.” She offered.

  The teacher stared at her blankly, which was the reaction of most people after an oral conversation with Zephyr.

  “So, where’s my seat?” She asked.

  The teacher pointed to a seat in the back. Zephyr took a seat and the girl next to her looked up.

  “Hey my name is Ruby, like the stone.”

  “Yah and my name’s Zephyr, like a gentle breeze but my personality is far from being gentle.”

  That shut her up for the rest of the class. The teacher started to explain how to draw dragons, explaining the different parts. This was the only class in her whole entire life that she had ever paid attention to.

  “Here,” the teacher said, the whole class applauded when they saw him take out a movie, “I’ll put How to Train your Dragon on while you practice drawing.”

  He put the movie on, and soon Zephyr was mesmerized by the figures moving on the screen. Soon, Zephyr’s hand started to move on the paper, forming the shape of a dragon, then refining until the detail was so precise, she had the girl next to her looking at the picture, impressed. Zephyr had drawn a dragon in flight, wings spread wide with a long neck that stretched out in a roar. She had made some lines as if to indicate that the dragon had scales and spikes ran along its back. She spent the rest of the class like this, drawing dragon after dragon until the bell rang. She reluctantly picked up her stuff and left the class, but she had a plan.

  She waited outside until the teacher came out.

  “Can I borrow the movie? I just want to watch it at home; I promise I’ll bring it back to you as soon as I’m done with it.”

  “Um, yah.” He said, surprised by how nice Zephyr was.

  “I’ll go get it.”

  He did do so indeed and a minute later, Zephyr was triumphantly grasping her new source of entertainment. Was she going to watch the movie? Of course she wasn’t. She was going to go in it. Grasping the movie tightly, she walked home as fast as she could, knocking over people on her way there. He mother wouldn’t be home until suppertime and she was counting the split second of time she needed t be transported into another world, literally.

  When Zephyr got home, she stuffed the disk into the DVD player and turned on the TV. She skipped the previews and jumped directly to the movie.

  “Yes!” She said.

  She put out her hand and touched the television with one hand.

  “On this day, I wish to go, in this movie.”

  A white light filled the room and she was standing in the middle of nowhere. If she would of watched the movie, she would of probably known where she was, but Zephyr never bothered to read a book or watch a movie.

  “Why bother reading or watching a story when you can live it?”

  Of course there were others that were total book nerds; they would never go in a book without reading it first. Zephyr thought this was stupid because you lost all of the fun surprises you get when you book travel blindly. She looked around. She was in a gigantic grassy whole, with ground and stone walls all around her. There was a stream running through.

  All of a sudden, she heard a woosh sound and a black dragon landed in front of her, eying her angrily, teeth showing.

  “Bag dragon.” she said, cuffing him on the mussel.

  His neck drew back as if he was surprised and the guy mounted on him got off. Zephyr noticed him for the first time. He looked like a total wimp, no muscles at all.

  “Who are you,” He said in a defensive tone. “You dress funny.”

  “Yah well you...this...funny.” She said, gesturing to him when she said this.

  “You just gestured to all of me.” He pointed out.

  “Yes I did, captain obvious.”

  He looked at the dragon, that Zephyr believes was named toothless, then said:

  “You didn’t try to kill Toothless, so you mustn’t be a Viking.”

  “He doesn’t look very Toothless to me. Oh and by the way, I??
?m riding him.”

  “Wait what? Okay hop on back with me.”

  “Alone.”

  Zephyr mounted Toothless, without him protesting in any way.

  “Don’t forget to step on that thing so his tail goes up!” The guy said before toothless shot through the air at incredible speed.

  “Woohoo!” Zephyr screamed as Toothless manoeuvred, twisting around himself, diving et cetera.

  Zephyr felt the cold air hitting her face and going through her hair.

  “You’re the coolest dragon ever!” She screamed as Toothless dove and opened his wings last minute, missing the ground by an inch.

  This went on for a while before toothless landed on a little island. Zephyr got off and sat on the ground. She looked at Toothless who was laying down lazily. Zephyr lay down too, determined to wait a while before going back, just to make sure she didn’t come back before an hour, when little dragons started to gather around. They were all sorts of different colors.

  She was lying on her side, and she realised she still had her schoolbag when one of the dragons climbed on it. She took it off, and opened it to retrieve and energy bar. The little dragons looked at it curiously and she threw it. They all scrambled to get it, fighting each other, making cute little growling sounds when another dragons cut them off.

  “Come on children, didn’t your mommies teach you how to share?” She asked sarcastically.

  She lay, enjoying the sun that caressed her, until Toothless started to act up. He looked scared and it got to the point where he grabbed her by the shirt, put her on his back and took off. Soon, another dragon came towards them and Toothless looked at it and growled. The other dragon, that was blue, with a long neck and short wings, nipped at Toothless. Toothless then accelerated and everything became frenzy. Toothless started to go faster than her ever had with Zephyr and was doing even more wild manoeuvres. Zephyr had to hang on hard if she didn’t want to fall in the water below.

  The blue dragon was right behind them, tale swishing wildly, beating its wings fast in an attempt to keep up with Toothless. This had to stop soon, because Zephyr was holding her breath, she couldn’t breathe with all the wind in her face and her lungs were starting to burn. Finally, toothless swept low over the ocean, he had lost the dragon.

  Zephyr took a deep breath, now that the black dragon she was ridding was going at a more reasonable pace.

  “Gosh.” She said, breathless.

  Toothless started flying slowly and it took a long while before they were back on the little island where Zephyr had left her bag. She landed and picked it up, closing the zipper. She was about to leave when she realised that Toothless needed someone to keep his tale thin open and that she had to bring him back to the dude back in the hole.

  What was weird though, is that her bag seemed, heavier.

  “It’s probably nothing.” She murmured.

  She mounted Toothless again and he took off, seeming to understand that they should go back. He made a graceful landing where they had originally taken off. The dude was waiting there.

  “Aren’t you going to get off.?” He asked.

  “Aren’t you going to eat shit?” She replied.

  “Yes, I admit, some of my comebacks are not the best ones.” She admitted to herself.

  “I am ready, I wish to go, to spider club.”

  The next thing she saw after being blinded by light was the orange room. The orange room was a popular hangout for female book travelers of her age. It was deserted now, so she walked out of the corridor. Harley was waiting for her, but not knowingly.

  “Zephyr! Did you feel the zing?”She asked.

  “The zing? No, I just got back. You think some idiot forgot the lessons about book traveling rules and brought back a character?”

  “That’s what it looks like.”

  One of the only rules about book traveling was to never bring back a character. However big or small he might be. The consequences... total isolation and power removal. Those who would break this rule, consciously or unconsciously, would be locked up in this secret place, that no one knew about except for the staff and the detainee’s. This prison never told anyone how they did it, but they found a way to neutralise powers. That is why no one ever brought back a character, because they don’t want to be completely cut off from the outside, from all their family and friends, and only be able to speak with whoever brought them food and water.

  “That’s bad. Who do they think did it?” Zephyr asked.

  “I don’t know I only felt the zing.”

  “What is the use of a zing if it doesn’t say who did it?” Zephyr asked.

  “To let people know someone brought a character back?”

  “Hmm.”

  Zephyr was thoughtful, and it’s at that moment she felt movement in her bag. I was hardly perceptible but she felt it. Her heart skipped a beat, I couldn’t be.

  “I’ll be back.” She said before going into the range room.

  No, she thought, it can’t be, I am not going to give in an check.

  She came back out, Harley was looking at her with a questioning look.

  “Thought I heard something.” She lied.

  Lying didn’t seem like such a bad thing compared to what could happened I she told the truth. Zephyr turned her head as she saw an adult book traveler rush by. She turned to face Zephyr.

  “You come with me.” She said.

  Zephyr followed behind her, anxiety gnawing at her. What is she knew? What if she knew there might be a dragon in her bag? What if she asked the see her bag?

  The woman’s name was Janet and she was one of the spider club enforcers. Which means that she took care of all the problems, and enforced the law. They walked into the green room, the conference room where enforcers took care of business. Zephyr’s heart was beating even more rapidly now. Members of the spider club who were not enforcers never saw the greenroom unless they were in deep trouble, very deep trouble. That is what was going through Zephyr’s mind as her heartbeat accelerated even more, making her fear a heart attack. Others started to gather around the table in a rush, one of them carrying a DVD. Zephyr gulped, her saliva going down her throat with a sound.

  “Sit down please.” The one with the black hair said.

  “I would rather not.” She replied.

  “Why not?”

  “I don’t see the point of sitting when I have two completely functional legs, all complete with feet, toes are sold separately.”

  All of the enforcer’s looked at each other.

  “Um,” Started a man with rich brown hair that curled up and bounced around his head, “ I believe you are aware that a zing has been produced.”

  “Yes, I am aware, I am also aware that the walls of this room are green.” Zephyr replied.

  “Okay, I get your point...”

  “Do you? Then please tell me because I don’t get it.”

  The one with the dark hair, the one who had been speaking, looked at the oldest one. She had grey hair that went down halfway her back. Sophia, she had been the one to teach Zephyr the rules of book traveling the day she found out that she could do so.

  “Don’t worry,” Sophia started, “she’s like that with everyone you simply have to get used to it.”

  The one with the brown hair nodded, and then turned back to Zephyr.

  “We suspect Matthew may be the cause of it and we wish you to track him down. Here is his last known location. “

  She held out the DVD. NCIS was printed on the disk.

  Zephyr smiled, she was safe.

  “What is it Zephyr?” Sophia asked.

  Sophie knew her too well.

  “I just hear NCIS is a fun place.”

  “So you agree to track him down?”

  Zephyr thought it through at the speed of light. If she accepted, she would become less of a suspect.

  “Yep, I’m always up for some action.” She declared.

  Some guy came in from a back door, dragging a TV with h
im.

  “I’ll just put my bag in my locker.” Zephyr said.

  “I’ll come with you.” Said her old teacher.

  “I know how easy it is to get lost in this place.”

  They walked and walked, finally arriving at her locker. They all had a locker at spider club. Zephyr undid the lock and opened her locker, putting her bag in. Then, the image of a tiny dragon starving to death appeared in her head and she reached into her pocket, retrieved a bunch of energy bars and tossed them in her bag.

  “Won’t you need those?” Sophia asked.

  “Nah, I’ll be fine.”

  Let’s just hope the dragon’s smart enough not to eat the wrapping, she thought.

  They made their way back up the stars and into the green room. The TV was one, with an episode of NCIS playing.

  “Go ahead.” Sophia said.

  Zephyr walked up to the TV and put her hand on it.

  “On this day, I wish to go, in this show.”

  Light filled the room.

  “Hmm, dead guy.” She muttered.

  She had appeared near a dumpster, where a guy lay face down behind it. His hair was covered with dried blood. Suddenly, police cars arrived, along with the NCIS team. Zephyr knew this because she had watched a few episodes.

  “Hey!” Said the oldest one looking at her.

  “Yah?”

  “How long have you been here?”

  “Here where, the earth, America, this town? Wherever this town is.” She answered.

  “He means by the dumpster.” Said some guy with an arrogant tone.

  He was wearing an NCIS cap.

  “Hey, I don’t like you. You seem like the kind of guy who thinks he’s god while he’s actually some little annoying speck of dust.”

  They were all looking at her now. Not for the same reason the vampires in twilight were looking at her, something different. Zephyr had that effect on most people. It came from having pure green eyes, pale skin and wavy dark red hair that rolled down her back like red danger.

  “Ha, I agree with you.” A woman said.

  She didn’t look American and Zephyr decided she would like her, up to some point. Zephyr always picked and choose those she would be nice to. Those people, she was nice to at some point, still insulting them when the occasion presented but she would still hang out with them and have fun.

  “Hi, I’m Ziva, Can we take you in for questioning? We have to make sure you’re not linked to the murder.”

  “Hmm, honest.” Zephyr muttered.

  She then decided to be honest with her, but still hiding some of the truth.

  “Sorry, I have something really important to do.”

  “More important than this.” The oldest one said bluntly, pointing to the dead guy.

  “You realise we can arrest you for not coming with us.”

  Another guy said, ho looked like a total nerd.

  “Um, yah, I’m not that dumb, but what I have to do is of high importance. You know that there are things more important than the law, especially for me. I don’t give a crap about the law.”

  She was definitely cornered. There were four people cornering her against the dumpster. Plus, Zephyr had seen Ziva seriously kick ass in an episode she had watched. Zephyr decided to rely on her usual technique for these things.

  “Whatever, I’m leaving.” She said before brushing past them at a confident pace.

  She soon felt a hand on her arm. It was Ziva. Looks like Zephyr couldn’t like her anymore. She turned around and gave Ziva her fakest smile.

  “Have a problem with my leaving?” Zephyr asked, emphasising on her own fake politeness.

  “That’s what we’ve been trying to tell you since the beginning.” She said.

  “Oh I was hearing that loud and clear, but I thought I had already specified I didn’t care?”

  “You are going to have to come with us.” The old dude said.

  Zephyr remembered from the show his name was Gibbs. She was about to call him by his name just to freak him out but she realised that would just cause her trouble. She usually didn’t care since after an hour she could just go back where she came from but now the enforcers would be wondering why she came back without trying to find the suspect for the creation of the zing. That is when Zephyr decided to run. She ducked under the crime scene tape that had just been installed and ran. She could hear the others run after her but she was fast. She ran into the street but got intercepted like a football player with the football by some really muscular street cop. She twisted and punched him in the face, sending him back up and standing, howling in pain. The one named Gibbs put her in handcuffs. Zephyr’s arm hurt from being pushed to the ground and the left part of her face burned, as well as the top of her left arm. She looked at her arm to see that skin was ripped off and that she was wearing a t-shirt. She licked her lips to find that they tasted like blood.

  The ride in the police car was amusing; the same street cop that had intercepted her was driving. He had personally apologised for her face and arm.

  “Hey, were you ever a football player?” She asked him.

  “Yes mam. I was playing for the...”

  Zephyr cut him off.

  “I was only interested in a yes/no answer.” She spat at him.

  They drove in silence until Zephyr remembered the time she got a ride in a police car in her elementary school.

  “Hey! Can you turn on the sirens? They sound cool.”She asked.

  “I’m sorry; I can’t unless I really need it.”

  “Yes you can, you take your hand, and press your finger to that button over there. See, it’s simple.” Zephyr said, nodding to a button in the front.

  A while later they arrived at NCIS. She was brought into the interrogation room and they called up the nurse to take care of her wounds. She stayed there waiting, in the awkward little room with one table and two chairs, and let’s not forget the little camera with the little red light. When Gibbs walked in the room, Zephyr took her feet down from the table and went to the mirror.

  “I’ve seen this before, this isn’t even a real mirror,” she said banging on it with her fist. “Who do you think you’re fooling with this?”

  “Sit.” Said Gibbs, not using many words to say what he wants.

  “Do you really want to test how stubborn I am?” She asked him.

  Seems like he didn’t want to test the extent of her stubbornness, he did not ask her to sit down again.

  “So, why did you run.” He asked, or more like demanded.

  It definitely did not feel like a question.

  “Told you, you would think that after telling you so many times, you would understand that I had something else, more important to do. Why did they hire you anyways? NCIS was too low on dummies?”

  From what she had seen on TV, Gibbs usually got confessions because he was imposing, and intimidating. Btu intimidating others was Zephyr’s area of specialty.

  “So what is that more important thing.” He asked.

  Zephyr slammed her hands on the table, for dramatic effect and answered:

  “It’s freaking classified okay?”

  The interrogation went on. Usually, Zephyr knew this because apart from dragons, her other interest that could actually lead her to watch a movie was dead guys, the person being interrogated usually shoes emotion, they usually get tired at some point, of scared, and the interrogators help that process. Zephyr stayed emotionless though the whole thing, exept for her usual insulting and teasing. All in all, she was actually having fun until she remembered why she was actually here.

  “By the way,” She started to ask Timothy who had taken Gibbs place in the interrogation room, “Would there be another guy here? A little strange.”

  “You help us, we’ll help you.” He answered.

  “Oh, that’s a yes. More detail, a little older than me, ridiculously long hair for a guy. Blond, about five and a half feet tall, he would have been a total arrogant idiot?” She asked.

/>   She says Timothy’s eyes widen and she had her answer.

  “So how about we turn the “I help you, you help me” thing around.” She said with a victorious smile.

  He said he had to check something and he exited the room. He came back in and said:

  “The guy you are talking about, Matthew, came out of the woman’s washroom a while ago. He is currently being interrogated and he’s under investigation.”

  “You tell me where he is, exactly and I tell you everything I know.”

  “He’s down the hall that way, in the room right next to ours.”

  “Okay, I come from an alternate dimension and can travel into books, television series and movies. He is to and he broke a really important rule. I need to get him back as soon as possible so that the enforcers of the spider club can decide on the consequence.”

  He stared at her blankly, and then stepped outside. This time, Zephyr ran through the open door, swerved to the left and before she knew it, she was in the same room as Matthew. Ziva arrived in the room and grabbed her shoulders.

  “Hey Matthew! You gotta come back with me.” Zephyr said simply.

  “You know I can’t, not when they’re accusing me of zing!”He said then, “I am ready...”

  “No, don’t do that.”Zephyr said.

  “...I wish to go...”

  “It’ll only prove its you.”

  “...in my room...”

  Light filled the room, and for once, Zephyr was still in it after. A moment later, another light filled the room, and Sophia was there.

  “He’s here?” She asked.

  “Just missed him.” Zephyr said.

  “I was asked to tell you to follow him, until you manage to bring him back.” Sophie then said.

  “Got it!” Zephyr replied, “I am ready, I wish to go, to Matthew the book traveler’s room.”

  Light filled the room.

  Matthew’s room was dark; the windows were covered by blinds. He had a bed on one side of the room and the opposite wall had a library and a desk covered in papers. One book lay on the floor, open. Then, her eyes fell on the Rubik’s cube.

  “Oh no.” She said before being transported into her memories.

  It was a nice day, a Saturday. On Saturdays, Zephyr’s little group of friends gathered in the orange room. Matthew was with them, and his friend Jonah had just given him a Rubik’s cube for his birthday. To add to all that, he was saying all his thoughts out loud.

  “Red, I said red! Not green!”

  “Um, Matthew, I can teach you how you kn...”

  “No!” He said loudly.

  “Why can’t you stay there you blue piece of shit!”

  “You know, I gave it to you, so now I’m telling you to give it back so I can show you how it works.”

  Matthew took a twentie out of his pocket and threw it at Jonah.

  “Here, it’s mine now.”He said putting his attention back to the cube.

  “If I put that blue up and then that green down....No that’s not right.”

  “Give it up already!” Said Zephyr, “you know if you had a brain, you would be able to do it, or you would at least have the smarts to realise you’re wasting your time and give up.”

  “Gah!” Matthew then said before starting to rearrange his Rubik’s cube at random, going faster than Zephyr’s eyes could follow.

  Everybody looked with astonishment.

  “Looks like it’s going well. In a few easy moves you’ll have two sides done, the rest is easy.” Said Jonah.

  Matthew concentrated on his cube, before saying:

  “Wait a minute, all I have to do is move this up, move this one down, and that one sideways, and...” he worked on his cube for ten more minutes, “I got it! I got it! I got it!”

  Everyone looked at him and clapped, all except for Zephyr who was trying to figure out what the odds were for this happening. Matthew then threw the Rubik’s cube on the wall, causing it to move the things. He walked up to it, only one of them had changed, but in his exasperation, Matthew had messed it up even more. He looked as if he was going to cry, instead he started yell.

  “You stupid freaking cube! I’m going to eat your shit bag face!”

  Which he actually did, he brought his teeth to the cube and bit hard. It broke the Rubik’s cube and made Matthew go to the emergency room at the nearest dentist.

  “Ugh.” she said

  She figured she may as well look a little at what it was. Great, medieval times, she was going to have a blast. She sighed before picking up the book and saying:

  “On this day, I wish to go, in this book.”

  A light filled the room. She appeared in the middle of a town, and everyone was looking at her.

  “Witch!” One of them yelled and soon, she was being chased by everyone, men with pitch forks, women with brooms.

  She managed to run for a while, but they were everywhere around her, and soon, she was getting hit by different things, some more heavy than others. Her wounds from being smashed down on the ground had just gotten a nice coat of fresh blood that she was being hit.

  She shielded herself as best she could from the town’s people who were hitting her, wincing every time. Soon, it all stopped, just like that. Zephyr looked up through her hands to see that men on hoarse were gathered around.

  “Is that any way to treat a lady?” One of them asked.

  “She’s not a lady! She’s a witch!”

  “Witches are our friends now remember? Their offerings are keeping the dragons off our land. You should be grateful.” The knight said the, “Can I help you up lady?”

  “I’ll help myself up, I don’t need a knights help. And what’s with my travels and knights? They’re everywhere!” She said.

  “Come with me, we will go to the castle, we are always glad to meet another witch. You are a witch aren’t you?” He asked.

  “Nah, I’m no witch, do I look like one to you?” She asked.

  “Well you are dressed funny.”

  Suddenly, everyone around her started screaming.

  “Oh great, what is it now.” Zephyr said, feeling discouraged.

  “The dragon! The only one not kept away by the offerings of the witches. It’s the fire breathing dragon and it always kidnaps the prettiest of girls, Come on my horse, you could be its next target.”

  Zephyr compared the pros and cons of going the knights horse.

  Cons:

  She would be accepting help.

  She would have to sit in back of that knight guy.

  Pros:

  She would have less chance of getting eaten by a dragon.

  She liked the ride horses.

  Oh and was the fact that she would have less chance of getting eaten by a dragon mentioned?

  She decided that the pros were greater than the con’s and she got on the horse, giving the knight an evil looked when he tried to help her. The horse was brown with white spots and Zephyr was almost sitting on his white spotted but since the knight’s armour, not shining this time, was taking up the entire settle. She hung on tightly with her legs, refusing to hang on to the knight as wind ruffled her hair. She could see the shadow of the dragon, and it was huge. Scared villagers were running in every direction between the little wooden houses, the horse Zephyr was on trying not to trample them. Zephyr was bouncing up and down, trying not to fall off as she heard the cries of the dragon coming closer towards her.

  “Way to choose a book Matthew.” She muttered.

  From what she could see from the shadow, the dragon had a long and twisting neck, and an incredibly large wingspan. Zephyr’s whole body hurt and she was sure it was covered in bruises. She could imagine the scene when she would finally come back from the chase.

  Sophie would be standing there and she would say:

  “What happened to you?”

  And she would answer:

  “Disaster happened. Or Matthew happened; they both have the same definition.”

  That was what s
he was thinking when that dragon thing grabbed her by her shoulders.

  “Hey piece of flying crap! Get me back down before I bite your wings off.”

  (Some tough attitude you have there.)

  Wait! Did I just hear that in my head? Zephyr asked herself.

  (Yes.)

  “Oh great, a psychic.” She grumbled.

  (I know of the one you seek.)

  “Oh Matthew.”

  (You know, you seem very calm for someone who just got abducted by a dragon.)

  “Trust...hey why am I bothering to speak out loud anyways?”

  (Trust me; I’ve been in worse situations) Zephyr thought to the dragon.

  (Oh I see. But I won’t do anything to you, I don’t abduct people to eat them, I abduct them to entertain me.)

  “Trust me, I’m more stubborn than stubbornness itself, you’ll save yourself a lot of trouble by putting me down.”

  (I would, but there’s a guy I took yesterday and he looks exactly like the guy in your memories.)

  “Please don’t tell him I think I might have been the one to produce the zing.”

  (Don’t worry, I’m not that mean.)

  The dragon swooped down lower and Zephyr could see the tops of pine trees in the forest.

  “Well, this book is boring compared to the other entire one’s I’ve been in.”

  After a few more minutes of Zephyr dangling in the air, feeling as if her arms were being torn off slowly, they arrived at some big mountain.

  “Seesh be original, dragon’s always live in caves, I bet you have treasure too and a bunch of skulls and skeletons everywhere.”

  (Well, yah.)

  Before landing, the dragon swooped down and let go of Zephyr who felt herself fall to the ground.

  “Ouch, like my body isn’t in enough pain.”

  “Zephyr!” She heard.

  “Oh, Matthew.”

  The cave she was in was big, as in really big and this gigantic entrance let you look upon the forest from the inside. There was this giant ledge inside where hay and grass was stacked up to make a comfortable nest for a creature the size of, let’s say a dragon. In a pit in the middle of the cave was a bunch of golden and silver metals, accompanied by skulls and other bones.

  “It’s funny how it’s always easy to find you.” Zephyr said.

  “Yah, I always wondered how that worked.”

  “Hey, like, you learn that in kindergarten. Well since I came in shortly after you, I was close to you in the sequence of circumstances. Thus, I found you easily. Try hiding your book next time. And how’s your Rubik’s doing?”

  The dragon landed inside the cavern and folded its wings. Now Zephyr could see that the dragon was green, and that the membrane of its wings were bright orange, as well as the spikes running along its back.

  “Oh and Matthew, we really need to talk. You have to come back with me.”

  The moment she said that, fear appeared in Matthew’s eyes and made him start to talk.

  “I am read...”

  He stopped when the dragon brought two long claws to Matthew’s neck, one on each side.

  (When someone has something valuable to say, it’s polite to listen.)

  Zephyr heard. But not like when the dragon was talking to her. More like if the thought was not directed at her but she was just close enough to hear. Matthew gulped and didn’t say another word.

  “Well, Matthew, you know you can’t run forever, soon they’ll get enforcers to do the job of bringing you back, and you know how efficient the enforcers are.”

  And then Zephyr thought of something to say that would dissuade anyone from suspecting her.

  “Just one question, what character did you bring back?”

  “I didn’t!”

  “Well then come with me, and you can tell the enforcer’s that. But if it’s not you, who is it?”

  “How am I supposed to know?” He said with suppressed anger, not speaking to loud since that would make his neck move, and he had to dragons claws that could pierce through his throat at any time.

  Then before anyone could react, he said the formula at the speed of light.

  “I am ready, I wish to go, to the public library.”

  Light filled the room and he was gone.

  “Here we go again.” Zephyr muttered.

  “Well dragon, thanks for your help. Got to go now.” Zephyr said, this time directed to the oversized lizard with wings in front of her.

  “I am ready, I wish to follow, Matthew the book traveler’s path.”

  There was light everywhere and she ended up in a washroom. She made a face.

  “Man, this stinks.”

  She walked out to see that her day was not going to get any better.

  “You’re kidding me, the kids section?”

  She walked to a little desk where a woman was sitting. She had a plastic spider in her hair.

  “Hmm, spider club.” Zephyr whispered.

  The woman smiled at her.

  “Looking for something specific?”

  “Yes, a guy probably just passed here, can you tell me what book her took? Or just where the book was when he left?”

  “Sorry, I didn’t see anything, but he wouldn’t have done it where someone could of seen him.”

  “No shit Sherlock.” Zephyr responded.

  “Did you check the washroom?”

  “I was just there.”

  “There s this little reading room where nobody ever goes, but I’ll have to wait until my break to show you.”

  “Yes but then if I go I won’t be as near to him in the sequence of circumstances!”

  “What’s so important anyways?”

  Zephyr hesitated, then bent down and whispered in her ear.

  “Zing.”

  “I’m sorry, I really do have to wait until my break, go read something while you wait.”

  Zephyr was so angry she could almost feel the steam coming out of her ears. She crossed to the adult section and picked up a book at random and read the back.

  If Charles would have known what would be done to him if he turned himself in, he never would have.

  A scary story about what the government might be doing without our knowledge. Get carried away in an intriguing story that will leave you with shivers of fear.

  “Lovely.” Zephyr muttered.

  That is when she finally thought through the situation. She thought about the dragon, about how much trouble she would be in if someone found out about it. And she hoped there was enough food and air in her locker to sustain it.

  “Crap, I don’t even know how long I’ve been gone!” She realised.

  She looked anxiously towards the librarian, waiting for a sign that she may be on her break; it would take a lot more looking to find Matthew this time. Btu if she could previously find him so quickly, imagine how fast the enforcers would find HER if they found out about the dragon. She was lost in her thoughts when the librarian arrived.

  “Hey.”

  Zephyr nodded and got up to follow her. She led her through a few passageways before opening the door to a tiny room. A single book lay on the rectangular table.

  “Oh great.” Zephyr said before being able to stop herself.

  Looks like she was going to pay another little visit to the Cullen family. She reluctantly opened the book.

  “How long has it been since I arrived?” Zephyr asked.

  “About an hour and a half.” The librarian said after looking at her watch.

  Zephyr sighed; it would take much more time to find him this time. Odds are he’s going to end up somewhere that’s important to the story, and if he didn’t he would probably head there. So then that is exactly where Zephyr would go.

  “I am ready, I wish to go, in this book.”

  Light filled the tiny room.

  “Hmm, where am I?” She wondered out loud.

  Sky scrapers rose everywhere so she was in a highly developed urban area.

  “Look at the local
newspaper you moron.” She told herself.

  Almost as if hearing her say this, some guy giving out papers moved next to her. She took it, and realised it was in French. Great, she thought. She scrutinised it until she found something that resembled the name of a city enough. It said Montréal.

  She stopped someone on the street and asked:

  “Hey, this is Montréal right?”

  “Désolé, je ne parle pas l’anglais. ”

  “Okay, thanks anyways, whatever that meant.”

  She moved on the another person, asking the same question.

  “Yep, are you lost? Do you need anything? If you need money I can give you some.”

  Aw, it is always refreshing to meet a goo soul, Zephyr thought.

  “Oh no it’s fine; I’m just trying to get to Forks.” She answered.

  Zephyr walked around some more, completely and utterly confused about what to do next. Then she saw someone wander the streets, his eyes were red. But not the white part like when you’re high or drunk, it was the actual iris.

  “Hey person!” She shouted at him.

  He looked back at her as if mad.

  “Do you mind explaining why your eyes are red?” She asked.

  “Um, those coloured contacts.”

  “Oh please don’t give me that contact crap, give me the real reason.”

  “Do you know why?” He asked.

  “Yes, I do, and I won’t tell anybody if you help me find the Cullen family.”

  “How about you don’t tell anyone and I make sure of it. Of course this would imply that you would never say anything to anyone again.” He said in a menacing voice.

  Zephyr didn,t even flinch.

  “In this place? Look at how many people there are. And I’m a family friend; you could get in big trouble for doing anything to me.”

  Lying usually worked if you made sure you wouldn’t get caught in it. The only reason this guy would find out she was lying is when they would arrive at the Cullens. And they had a great respect for human life so she would be safe then.

  “Here’s some money I took off yesterday’s supper. You probably have enough to take a plane to Forks, then maybe a cab. But if I see you again, you’re food. You have the most delicious smell.”

  “Thanks for the compliment!” Zephyr yelled after him after grabbing the money.

  “Here we go.”

  She spent the next ten minutes asking for directions to the airport. Turns out even in Montréal there are a lot of people who speak English. Zephyr’s sense of direction wasn’t the best so after getting directions from someone, she usually got lost anyways. She roamed the streets until a nice looking lady with short, straight, dirty blond hair walked up to her.

  “I heard you asking for directions.” She started with a slight accent. “Can I show you the way to the airport? I work there.”

  “Oh, yah, thanks a lot.”

  The woman started to walk, and Zephyr followed behind her. Soon, Zephyr could see a parking lot, but not for cars, for something much bigger, for planes.

  “Here we are! Just go around on the right and go in the first door you see.” She said.

  “Okay, thanks.” Zephyr did what the woman told her, bought a ticket and go on the plane.

  The plane ride was ultimately boring; she put on a movie and watched it, resisting the erg to go into it. It was some weird movie though. It was about some murder investigation, but the victim was the beloved cat of the president.

  “I mean seriously, who cares about his cat?” She whispered to herself.

  The only thing about being on the plane was that everyone was looking at her. But as was said before, she was used to it. It wasn’t like her looks were the kind to stay unnoticed.

  During the flight, she read the safety magazine, watched the movie she was talking about before and looked out the window, feeling incredibly bored.

  Well, I finally have some time to think, she thought.

  She hoped the enforcers wouldn’t look in her locker, and she also hoped that the dragon would be okay. That is when she remembered a lesson that Sophia thought her.

  “Here are the signs that someone brought back a character. They would be attached to someone you have never seen before, weather that person would be a human or an animal. People who have created the zing are very attached to the character they brought back. I they are apart from it, they would be worrying often about its health and it well being.”

  “Great.” Zephyr mumbled at her realisation.

  This time, Matthew is coming back with me whatever happens. I don’t care if I have to lie, I don’t care if I have to bribe other people into helping me, he is coming back, Zephyr thought to herself.

  Zephyr got off the plane as soon as it landed and took a look at the money she had lef.

  “Should me enough for a cab.” She muttered.

  As a matter of fact, there was a line of cabs waiting near the tiny airport. She wasn’t in Forks yet, she was in a bigger town near it. Zephyr walked to the closest cab and motioned to the driverto roll down his window. When he did, Zephyr showed him the money she had left.

  “Is this enough to get me to Forks.” She asked.

  “Forks and a little farther.”

  “You have a phone book in there?”

  “Yep, in case people like you can’t figure out the address their going.”

  “You know what? I have a very hard fist in case people like you annoy me.”

  The driver smiled at her, clearly he liked her personality.

  “Get in the back and you can look at the phone book while I drive you to Forks.”

  She smiled back at him, her utmost fake pleasant smile and did what the driver had told her, mumbling letters to herself as she flipped through the pages of the phone book, the car started.

  “Oh here!” Zephyr said after finding what she was looking for.

  “This address.” Said while showing the cab driver the phone book.

  He nodded and the ride continued. Zephyr had time to think again, which wasn’t a very good thing for her since she was good at snap decisions and thinking things through beforehand gave her a headache. So she wouldn’t think too much, she looked out the window. All she could see were trees. That was all. Not the most interesting thing to look at all day. She forced herself to study every detail in her surroundings, doing everything she could so that she wouldn’t have to think.

  “F that!”She exclaimed.

  “Hey, what’s your name? You mind starting a conversation so I don’t have to think?” She then asked.

  “My name is Bob, and don’t laugh and, what brings you here?”

  “It’s classified.”

  “What happened to your face and your arms?”

  “It’s a long and classified story.”

  “Okay. Um, nice weather.”

  “Yah, not as wet as last time I came.”

  This awkward conversation continued until the Cullen’s house appeared.

  “Here you are!” The driver said.

  Zephyr gave him the money that was left and he started to make change.

  “Don’t bother, I don’t need it anymore. “ She said.

  “Oh hey, maybe I’ll be able to go to the movies tonight with this.”

  Zephyr got out and closed the door, walking towards the house while the cad drove off. She began walking towards the house, but the door opened before she could reach it. After going into twilight, Zephyr had made someone give her a quick rundown of the names. The one named Alice was standing at the door.

  “I saw you coming.” She simply said.

  “Of course, you the one who sees the future right? Or maybe you just saw me from the window.”

  “Either way, what happened to you?” She asked before motioning to her to enter the house.

  “Well, It really is a long story and I don’t want to repeat myself so I’ll wait until the whole family’s there to listen to my story.”

  “And how long since you’
ve washed?” Alice asked.

  Zephyr thought back to the precious days then asked:

  “How long since I’ve eaten?”

  That moment, she realised how much her stomach hurt.

  “Ow.” She said before wincing.

  “It’s okay; we always have some food around here in case a human has to come over so no one will wonder why we don’t eat.” Alice said before helping Zephyr sit down on the couch.

  Normally, Zephyr would think about some angry comment to dissuade Alice from helping her but she was too hungry for that. Alice came back into the living room with a bowl of cereal and a spoon. Zephyr ate eagerly before exposing her problem.

  “Well, I don’t like to repeat myself but you can repeat what I’m about to say for me.”

  Then, Zephyr told Alice about everything, about how she could travel through books and how she needed to find Matthew. She left out the part about why and she absolutely did not mention the dragon.

  “How come you’re the only one at home?” Zephyr asked her.

  “The others are out hunting.”

  “Lovely.” Zephyr answered.

  “But...I heard from someone that the family’s that we know to be werewolves have seemed preoccupied.” She pointed out.

  “Hmm, is Jacob a werewolf yet?” Zephyr asked.

  “Yep.”

  “Then I think I’ll go talk to him. Got an address?”

  “Actually I do. Can you drive? You can take my car.”

  “Alice, if you care about the safety of the people in this town and if you care about your car, you will not let me in it.”

  “Um, I’ll drive you as far as I can go.”

  “Yah, um, why are you helping me?” Zephyr asked.

  She had been sure it would take much more to get the Cullens to cooperate.

  “I don’t see why not to.” She said as if her answer should have been obvious.

  “Okay then.” Zephyr answered.

  They exited the house and proceeded to the garage. There, Alice unlocked the doors of some yellow car and they got in. The car started and pulled out of the garage.

  “I would have thought you would be more disturbed by my story.” Zephyr told Alice, “Or at least by the fact that you don’t even live in the real world, that this is a book.”

  “Hey, I can see the future. I heard your explanation before you even said it.” She said.

  “You should have told me that before I wasted my breath explaining to someone why I’m here! Oh and hey, where are we going?” Zephyr asked as they pulled up in front of what seemed to be a mall.

  “You need a change of clothes, look at yourself!” She said taking a mirror out o her purse.

  Zephyr took it and looked at it, moving it to see her whole body. He clothes were torn, and her cheek was swollen and bluish. She had blood on her pants and bruises all over her arms. And that’s if you don’t count her oldest wounds from being smashed to the ground by and old football player.

  “Eeeh, good thing I’m not the kind of person who cares much about how I look.”

  Alice smiled.

  “Okay, let’s go buy you a change of clothes.”

  They walked from the car to the mall, with staring people. One person walked up to them.

  “Hey what happened to you? You got trampled by an elephant?”

  “What happened to YOU. Did you do your plastic surgeon’s wife?”

  He looked at her with a kind of frightened respect, the kind of look Zephyr got every time she had a good comeback ready.

  “You sure showed him.” Alice said.

  “Showed him what?” Zephyr asked, as a joke.

  Alice opened her mouth as if she was going to say something but realised it had been a joke. They continued, and went through the door of the mall. It was kind of small, but it was packed with stuff. You couldn’t walk more than two steps without there being a new store.

  “Hey wait a minute.” Alice started.

  “I think I just saw someone. There’s store there, stay in there while I track him down.”

  “You realise I’m not one to follow orders....” But she was already gone.

  Zephyr looked at the shop she had pointed at. The shop was full of towels, blue red, green, big small.

  “Okay, I’ll entertain myself.”

  She decided to play the “see how long you can keep the employee talking about the product he’s trying to sell” game.

  “Excuse me sir? I am interested in buying a towel but I want to know what I can use it for first.”

  “Oh, you can use towels for anything. The most common use is drying yourself coming out of the shower. They are very useful unless you like staying in the washroom naked, waiting to dry.”

  “Very useful indeed. Is there anything else I can use it for?” Zephyr asked.

  “Well, use your imagination. I for one, find towels very fascinating.

  “Oh so like I could use them to wipe up the floor?”

  “Yes, that would work. And if you’re cold, but you don’t have a blanket with you, you can keep warm.”

  “You strangle someone with it if they break into your home.” Zephyr continued.

  “Very good point, I hadn’t thought of that. Oh and if you think of it, you can also cut it to make a scarf.”

  “You’re right!”

  “There is no doubt that towels are the most useful inventions yet.” The seller said.

  “Even more than electricity?” Zephyr asked.

  “Well, think about it, can you dry yourself with electricity?”

  “Well, not unless you use electricity to power a hairdryer.”

  “Yes, but towels don’t burn your skin.”

  “You’re right, and you can also lye on a towel at the beach.”

  “Yep, towels are wonderful. Where would we be without them?”

  Zephyr was definitely having fun with this.

  “We would still be air drying or taking showers with our clothes on so we don’t have to air-dry naked.” She answered.

  “You know,” Zephyr continued, “We should have a national towel day, to celebrate the usefulness of towels.”

  “I agree with you.” He answered.

  “You know another thing, towels are so soft, that a great attribute too.”

  “Yes, but now are you going to buy one?” The employee asked.

  “Nope,” Zephyr answered, spying Alice in the corner of her eye, “I don’t have money. Oh yah, and if you’re so obsessed with towels, maybe you should get a life? I hear some people are renting them out to others.”

  “Hey! By the way you never told me your name.”

  “Zephyr and you are?”She said turning to the guy who was standing next to Alice.

  “Jacob.”

  “So, I have a question for you. Have you seen this guy, he would of been a little older than me, ridiculously long hair for a guy. Blond, about five and a half feet tall, he would have been a total arrogant idiot?” She said using the exact same words as the first time she described him.

  “Actually...well he said not to talk about him if a girl with red hair and green eyes showed up.”

  Zephyr put one hand on her hip.

  “Do you think you should listen to him, or to me?”She said in a threatening tone.

  “Um...”

  “See the thing is this is really important, he’s a suspect where I come from and its really important for me to bring him back.” She said simply.

  “I’ll check with the other members of the pack.”

  “Oky doky go do that.” Zephyr said before walking away.

  Alice caught up to her.

  “We still need to get you some clothes, and you can take a shower at my place.” She said grabbing Zephyr’s hand and dragging her to a clothes shop.

  “You realise one of the things I hate the most is shopping for clothes?” Zephyr asked.

  “Fine, you sit here and I’ll do the shopping.”

  Zephyr sat down on a booth, and waited
maybe an hour before seeing Alice walk back out of the store carrying more bags than Zephyr could count.

  “You also realise I only need ONE change of clothes.”

  “Yes but you’ll see, these are awesome.”

  They drove to Alice’s home, staying silent the entire time. That night, Zephyr took a shower and had to choose between the thousands of clothes Alice had bought. She finaly settled for a black t-shirt, jeans and a red sweater. When she went back down to the living room, she was surprised to see that the whole family was there, including Bella.

  “Hey, you must be Bella, didn’t meat you last time I came.”

  “Hi,” She started, “you must be the girl who comes from an alternate dimension.”

  “She’s also the one who compared me to a piece of shit.”Edward put in.

  “Oh yah, and while we’re on the subject, I completely forgot to insult your hair. Ever heard of a hairbrush? Because it can come in handy.”

  After a while, Zephyr fell asleep on the couch, when she woke up, two people were discussing in the kitchen. She walked in, stretched, yawned, and then looked at them expectantly. This situation was even more awkward if the conversation was personal. But the people talking were none other than Alice and Jacob.

  “Oh Hi Zephyr, slept well? Jacob’s going to bring you to talk to Matthew.”

  Zephyr roamed the kitchen until she found a pan.

  “This’ll do the trick.” She said.

  “Um, Zephyr,” Alice started, “What is that for?”

  “He’s not going to want to come back with me; he’ll just jump to another library before I get the chance to bring him back. I can’t let that happen.”

  “That was not part of the agreement.” Jacob said.

  “Oh fine. You guys just don’t know how to have fun now do you?” She said putting the pan down.

  They all got into Alice’s car, and she brought them to Jacob’ house. Matthew emerged from it.

  “What’s she doing here!” He screamed.

  Zephyr got out of the car as he started to say the formula.

  “Don’t even think about it. They have a worldwide alert going for you and enforcers stationed at every place you knew. It’ll be way easier to just come with me. They said if you cooperated, they’ll get you the best book traveler lawyer in the country.”

  He looked at her, clearly realising it was too late to run.

  “Okay, I’ll come back with you.”

  Zephyr put out her hand and he took it.

  “We are ready, we wish to go, to the spider club greenroom.”

  There was a bright light.

  “Oh, hey, you managed to bring him back.” Sophia said.

  “I didn’t have much of a choice.” Matthew said.

  “What do you mean?” She asked.

  “You lied to me! There was never a worldwide alert!” Matthew exclaimed.

  Zephyr smiled.

  “Oh and Zephyr, what happened to you?” Sophia asked.

  “Long story.” Zephyr replied.

  Zephyr was about to leave when Sophia spoke again.

  “Harley wants to see you in the orange room.”

  She’s probably wondering where I was, Zephyr thought.

  But when she arrived, it was something completely different. Zephyr opened the door to the orange room, only to see Harley petting a little red dragon.

  “Oh no.” Zephyr said.

  “You know you should have told me before you left, the pour thing almost died from not having enough food.”

  Zephyr’s heart warmed from seeing the dragon. She could feel this kind of, connection. As if the little dragon could feel it to, it flapped its little wings to go from Harley’s arms, to Zephyr’s.

  “You know he felt it every time you came in and out of the main dimension. You two have a connection. I never saw you be so nice to a living being.”

  Zephyr was stroking the little dragon and thought: I’ve never felt so attached to a living being.

  “So what do we do now?” Zephyr asked Harley.

  “First of all, I tell you how long you’ve been gone.”

  “How long?” Zephyr asked curiously before realising she was weak with hunger.

  “A day and a half.” Harley answered, “Here’s your bag.”

  Zephyr took the dragon by under its armpits. It was really cite. Its body was no longer than her forearm and its tale was two times its size. Its little wings had a translucent membrane and its little head had two little spikes on them. It also had miniscule spikes along its back.

  “What have you been giving it to eat.” Zephyr asked.

  “The energy bars in your back pack.” She said.

  “That means you lied, you said without you he would have died.”

  “I said that for a dramatic effect.”

  “Oh.”

  “Now let’s go get something to eat.”

  Zephyr slid the little dragon into her bag. They went to the cafeteria and Zephyr took two sandwiches, eating them each in four bites. They sat down and started to telk, as if everything were normal.

  “Hey you remember the time I made you go into...”

  “Oh no.” Zephyrs said without even letting her finish her sentence.

  “Hey Zephyr!” Said Harley appearing behind Zephyr, “I found this really cool video on the internet and I dare you to go in it.”

  “I have a feeling I won’t like this.”

  “No but remember, you owe me a dare.”

  “Okay fine, I’ll do it.”

  She didn’t dare looking at the screen as she put her figure on it and said the formula.

  A light filled the room.

  “Heeeeeeeeey Chaaaarlie! Someone appeared in white light Charlie, Chaaaaarlie.”Said a purple unicorn.

  “What the...where am I? Harley, I am going to kill you.”

  “Want to come to Candy Mountain with us?” A pink unicorn answered this time.

  “No I do not.”

  “What’s your name?”

  “I don’t have one.” She said.

  Oh great, will I really have to spend an hour with these things? She asked herself.

  She was in a clearing in a forest and around her were three unicorns. One white one, who seemed to be the most serious one, a purplish blue one and a pink one. The blue one was trying to convince the white on, Charlie, to go to candy mountain.

  “Hey , naaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaameless, we got to go to candy mountain nameless. Naaaaammmmeleees.”

  “Fine, let’s go, just stop saying that.”

  “So that’s what happened, you were too stubborn to tell me.”Harley said.

  Harley had short, incredibly straight black hair, she was pretty tall and had freckles on her face.

  “Well, let’s go talk somewhere more private. Or actually, we don’t need to.” Zephyr said when she saw that the only people present were leaving.

  “So what do we do?” Zephyr asked.

  “We act normal, unless you want to return that cute little dragon to where he comes from.”

  “NO!” Zephyr said instinctively.

  She reached for her bag n a protective gesture.

  “Well, it would probably be best for us not to stay here a lot. We should totally give up school and spend all our time in books.” She suggested.

  “Yah except this time I have to remember to eat.”

  “I actually have a place to go. There’s a war between the forces of good and evil but when you’re the actual world population your fine.”

  “Okay, I’m in. I don’t know about you but all this book traveling is making me very tired. Trying to hint to you that we should take a nap somewhere before leaving. I’ve never book traveled so much in so little time.”

  They went to the dormitory where spider club members often slept after a long travel. There were alredy some people sleeping in the first one so they went in the second one, that had two beds. The room locked from the inside so they locked it. Zephyr slipped into bed, hugging the littl
e dragon to her stomach. The little dragon squirmed, getting into a comfortable position.

  “Hey Harley? We should name him you know.”

  “How about Bob.”

  “No.”

  “Fred.”

  “No.”

  “Damon, Gaston, Hever, Litonon, Uno, Timothy, Ugene, Darlene. I mean seriously, we don’t even know if its male or female.”

  “I know this isn’t very original but, Draco.”

  “Sounds fine to me.”

  They slept for a few hours before waking up with all their energy. They sat up on their beds, and Harley took out a book. Sleepily, without consultation, Harley opened it just as Zephyr was extending her hand towards it. She put her hand on it, and Harley said:

  “On this day, yawn, I wish to go, in this book.”

  Light filled the room and they were in a little wooden home that seemed to be a clothes shop, with all modern clothes, including jeans.

  “Se the thing is. In this book, all the clothing is modern but houses are still being constructed in the old fashion, and the only technological advancement is electricity that they get from the “eternal source of power”.” Harley explained.

  “Okay then. So how long do we stay here, and what do we do while we wait. At least we know we’ll fit in with our clothes.”

  Harley looked at Zephyr.

  “The buttons on your sweater are wood, not plastic so yah.”

  When they walked out of the shop, people were going around town carrying water, shovelling rock into boxes, et cetera. Every little house was lit with these kinds of lightbulbs that zephyr had never seen before.

  “You said we wouldn’t get noticed.” Zephyr whispered into Harley’s hear.

  People were looking at them.

  “Hey, sorry to break it to you but they’re noticing you because of your looks.”

  Zephyr nodded.

  “Will they find it weird if I take my dragon out of my bag?” Zephyr asked.

  “Try and see.” Harley said with a malicious smile.

  Zephyr had learned not to trust her when she was like that but curiosity took over. She took her bag, reached in for the little dragon, taking it under its warm, soft and scaly stomach and holding it like you would a stuffed animal. Everything went wild.

  “Human magic!” The people around her started to scream.

  Then people were around her asking her to cure their animals from diseases, to elp their crops grow.

  “I’m sorry, I cannot help you, this is, um, not my dragon, I got it from someone.” She explained.

  The people around her walked away with disappointed looks. That was when Zephyr noticed something weird in the distance. On her left side, the sky became darker and darker and there was a giant mountain that looked pure black, and even a little shiny, there was even a moon in the sky on that side. On her right side, it got brighter and brighter, and there was a sun over a giant mountain that looked to be made of crystal. On the left, the ground looked dark and there seemed to be blackened threes. On the right were those lovely little trees with white bark. Where she and Harley were, it was kind of stuck in a constant state between darkness and light.

  “Let me guess,” She turned to Harley as they continued walking through the little village, “the dark side is evil and the light side is good.”

  “Actually no. The light side tricks the humans into thinking they’re the good guys but their actually trying to take over. The dark side is in constant war against the light side because the dark side believes that the humans should be free to do what they want.”

  “Hey for one the dark side is the good guy. Oh hey and Draco?” She said lifting the little dragon so his face was in front of hers.

  He looked so cute, his little body dangling, his long tail swinging.

  “Can you breathe fire?”

  When the little dragon tilted his head questioningly, Zephyr blew on it. He seemed to understand because he turned his head, opened his cute little mouth, and blew out as hard as he could, making a few flames come out. Then he had a sort of coughing fit, sending sparks flying.

  “Looks like you can.” She said.

  Harley got an idea.

  “Now maybe if someone’s having trouble lighting their fireplace up, we can offer to do it in exchange for some food.”

  They walked around still, and it took an hour before they saw someone cursing at his fireplace, they could see him because he left the door opened.

  “Sir,” Zephyr said getting closer, “If you give us a little food, we can light it for you.”

  “Human magic.” He said looking at the dragon.

  Harley smiled. The man, who was taller than either Harley or Zephyr, was muscular and was wearing white t-shirt jeans. His house was like all the other ones, wooden, square, with a table, two chairs and a bed in the corner. The man opened a trap in the floor, and went down the steps.

  “If they have electricity, why do they have fireplaces?” Zephyr asked.

  “Because the only way they know how to use electricity is with light.”

  The man came back up, and threw a bag at each of them. Zephyr opened it and saw some dried meat, bread and a little bottle of milk. Funny, she hadn’t seen any farms yet. Zephyr walked in, blew on the dragons face and pointed to the fireplace. Understanding, the little lizard jumped out of her arms, made a little growing noise and flew to the fireplace, its tail knocking over what seemed to be a salt shaker over, then blew one little fierce blow that sent a fireball the size of Zephyr’s nail to the fireplace. The fireplace lit up with a whoosh and Zephyr extended her arms to catch the dragon in flight. She pet his head and whispered a thank you in his ear.

  “Thanks sir.” Said Zephyr.

  “Thank you,” he answered, “now I can finally warm up.”

  They left the little house, and spent the rest of their time walking around, eating, Zephyr feeding little pieces of meat to her dragon, cooing to it.

  Their tummies full, they decided to go back. They had already left the village and were now in a forest that was the transition between a village and the next. Harley took Zephyr’s hands and started. Zephyr was holding the Draco tightly against her heart, so it wouldn’t move.

  “We are ready, we wish to go, to the dormitory we came from.”

  There was a white light, but Zephyr now felt intense pain, as if she had ran into a wall at full speed. She blacked out.

  When Zephyr woke up, Harley was bent over her, and Draco was standing on her chest looking worried.

  “What happened?” She asked.

  “I don’t know, it seems we can’t go back.”

  “What? That can’t be possible, I never heard of such a thing!”

  “Then maybe you should listen in class.”

  “Huh?”

  “November fifth 2008, M. Green was teaching the class. He talked about how some guy went into a book and got stuck.”

  “How did he get out.”

  “Huh?”

  “Well if we know about, he would of had to come out at some point.”

  “Oh yah, we have to wait until the book finishes.” Harley said.

  “Yah, but you know we can stay even if the book is finished, even if the plot is solved, life goes on.” Zephyr pointed out.

  “Yah but at that point we can leave.”

  Zephyr gently pushed on Draco.

  “Draco dear, I have to stand up now.”

  Understanding what Zephyr was trying to communicate, Draco flexed its legs and leaped off. Zephyr could finally stand up.

  “So what we just wait?” Zephyr asked.

  “Well, we have to be there at the end of the book or else how will we know its the end?”

  “That makes sense, but we should go see the goodguys.”

  Zephyr picked up her schoolbag, which wasn’t really a schoolbag, it was one of those bags that you close by pulling on the strings and used those same string to hang it on your back.

  “So, we’re going?” Zephyr asked.
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  “You know, your logic is great in times of emergency but you suck at planning for a long time ahead. How are we going to get there without any food?”

  Zephyr thought of what Harley just said and realised she was right, but how would they find enough food to get to the dark side without dying?

  “Hey um, how far IS the dark side anyways?” Zephyr asked.

  “Well we seem to be in the forest closest to it, so two days.”

  “Draco, why can’t you be bigger and able to hunt?” She asked.

  “But there is another way we can get there. Do you think you could get Draco to get a message there?” Harley asked.

  Harley and Zephyr spent the rest of the day teaching commands to their little dragon, until he could, stand, sit, fly in the direction they wanted, and most importantly, recognised the big dark mountain in the distance.

  “Okay Draco, so if I say: Go to mountain, what do you do?”

  Draco opened his wings wide, which was surprisingly wide compared to his little body, and started to fly towards the mountain until Zephyr called him back. He came back happily and Zephyr patted him on the head. Next, Zephyr took a notepad out of her back, took a pencil too and gave them to Harley for her to compose the message. She knew much more about this world than Zephyr.

  Jisael,

  My name is Harley. My friend Zephyr and I would like to help you in your battle against the evil forces of Crystalite. If you could dispatch two griffins to follow our little pet dragon, we could we with you within a few hours. Please let us help, and please provide us with food because we have no way of finding any in our current location.

  Sincerely, Harley, Zephyr, and little Draco.

  “There ya go.” Harley said to Zephyr.

  “I’ll need your shoelace.” She replied.

  Harley took out her shoelace and gave it to Zephyr. She rolled up the note she took out of Harley’s hand and tied it with the shoelace, then tied the other end around Draco’s neck.

  “Harley, I don’t want to send him there. What if they do something to him?” Zephyr asked, worry in her voice.

  “Trust me, Jisael won’t even let her subjects swat flies, there is no way she’s going to do anything to him.”

  “Yes but what if he doesn’t make it there?” She asked again.

  “Draco used to be an independent Dragon, he knows when he has to stop, when he had to eat.”

  Zephyr looked in her bag, and found her last energy bar. She opened, then rewrapped it and used what was left of the shoelace to tie it on.

  “There. Draco,” The little dragon looked at her with his cute head, “Go to the mountain.”

  He jumped and started to flap his little wings, and Zephyr had to resist the urge to call him back.

  “Now we have to find food for us.” Said Zephyr.

  Harley looked up than said:

  “That won’t be very hard.”

  Zephyr looked up to see they were standing directly under an apple tree.

  “Great, let’s just hope they aren’t poisoned.” She grumbled.

  Zephyr had no idea when they were supposed to sleep since there was never any difference in the lighting, so she ate a few apples and lay down under the tree.

  “C’mon Harley, this is some comfortable bed.” She said sarcastically.

  “Hey, looks like I got my friend back.”

  “What friend?” Said Zephyr.

  It took a long time for Zephyr to finally fall asleep. She had no idea how long she had been sleeping when Harley started to shake her.

  “Aw come on Harley, what are you my mom?”

  “Look!” She yelled.

  Zephyr got up sleepily, and brushed herself off, her clothes were full of leaves. Before her, in the dark forest full of apple trees stood two griffin-like creatures. Their front legs ended in claws like those of birds of prey and their back legs were like those of lions. Their whole body was covered in delicate black down. There head was like the head of an eagle and they had two feather bushes over the holes that were their ears. They were beautiful. Absolutely beautiful indeed. But the best part of all this, was the little red Dragon sleeping on the back of the left one, hanging on to its down with his claws.

  “Draco!” Shrieked Zephyr and grabbed him from the griffin’s back, that was a high as the back of a horse, a very big horse that is.

  She hugged the little thing until it choked, sending sparks on Harley.

  “Hey that’s hot!”

  “That’s new for you huh? Being hot.” Zephyr remarked.

  Harley gave her the evil look, and the two griffins walked towards them, one beside each person and lay down, so that they could mount them. They did, Zephyr taking he shoelace that now hung empty around Draco’s neck and she tied it around him, to form a little ......... . Then she tied the other side of the lace around her waist.

  “That way you won’t fall little Draco. C’mon bird brains let’s go!” Zephyr shouted.

  With Draco safely tied to her, she lay herself on the griffin and hung on to its neck.

  The griffins opened their giant wings, they were silky black a very large. They beat them fast and powerfully, over and over again, until they were rising up over the treetops. Zephyr ahng on tight onto the griffins neck, she didn’t want to fall off. She felt herself rise with the griffin. The wind from their movement and from the movement of the griffins wings were madly messing up her hair. Zephyr only had to hope that she had a hairbrush in her bag. When they were high over the trees, the griffins moved their wings slower, majestically, and they glided from time to time. Zephyr lifted herself from where she was lying on the incredibly soft feathers, to see a wings gently flapping beside her, waking a powerful whoosh sound every time it did. She saw the eagle head in front of her. The griffins head turned enough for her to see a big, black, shiny and intelligent eye. The griffin’s beak looked sharp, like a deadly weapon. And it wasn’t golden yellow like you would expect it to be, it was some kind of dim silver. Draco was right there under her, grabbing onto the down with his cute little claws. As they flew, Zephyr looked around. Downwards was a beautiful landscape of green trees that soon started to become a landscape of trees with black, yet not dead or burnt bark and silvery leaves. It was a very beautiful thing to see. She looked to her right to see that Harley was enjoying the ride too. Flying griffins were majestic. Their whole body gently swaying, minus their head that always stayed at the same place. Their front paws, held tightly against them as for not to disturb their perfect flight. Their back paws moving as if they were walking. The gentle whooshing sound that was always present. It was calming. They flew in harmony, sometimes crossing each other’s path, swooping down to come back up again.

  “Isn’t this fun!” Yelled Harley as the griffins crossed paths.

  “Planes are faster!” Zephyr yelled as their paths crossed again.

  Zephyr was still clutching on hard, she really didn’t want to fall. In normal circumstances, she could have tried to say the formula before arriving on the ground but, that wouldn’t work now. She closed her eyes; they were drying up because of the wind. She could now see the mountain arrive in the distance. It was not only a pitch black colour, like coal, but it was a kind of translucent shiny which made it look like a giant precious stone. As they got closer, Harley and Zephyr could see two people. One of them was a woman, with pale skin and pitch black, long and infinitely curly hair. Her hair also had silver. She was like, the mascot of the dark side, exactly like the trees that grew there. They moved back on the ledge, having to run to cover as the griffins arrived, tilting backwards and flapping their wings, slowly and powerfully, to steady them as they landed on the ledge. On ground, their body language was like the body language of a horse. Lifting their heads in the air then putting them down, shaking their head, et cetera.

  “Would you dismount my griffins?” She lady with the black hair asked.

  “Yes Jisael.” Harley answered.

  “You must be Harley.” Jisael said, “And
the one with the red hair must be Zephyr, and I have already met little Draco there.”

  Suddenly remembering the little flying lizard, Zephyr untied the shoelace only to notice that Draco was fast asleep. They got off the griffins, and Jisael took Draco and said:

  “Seize them!”

  Men with dark, almost black hair came out of nowhere, grabbing hold of the two girls. Harley did not fight but Zephyr started trashing, throwing herself backwards to make the guy loose balance then pulling forward to get him to let go of her arm then twisting madly. She fnaly got free but another man arrived and grabbed her, one hand on her arm, the otherone around her waist, the other man did the same.

  “Calm down Zephyr! What’s your problem?” Harley was saying.

  “Oh you don’t think getting my dragon stolen and being grabbed by strange men is a problem? You seem to be enjoying it.”

  Harley gave her a yuck face and Zephyr struggled again, the men just got a firmer grip until Zephyr really couldn’t move.

  “Will you explain this to me?” Demanded Zephyr, looking at Jisael.

  “I just want to make sure you weren’t sent by Cristalite.” She said.

  “I don’t even know who the crap Cristalite is!”

  “You don’t seem to be from here.” Remarqued Jisael, “Harley on the other hand has an unusual name but seems to be familiar with this place. Tell me the truth.”

  Zephyr looked at Harley who nodded.

  “Well, we come from another dimension, and in our dimension, this world is actually a book, and now were stuck here so we want to help you win the war, blah, blah, blah, so we can go home.”

  “I believe you.” Jisael said.

  “What? I was expecting much more skeptisism.”

  “I know your telling the truth because I know of every living creature in this world and I have never seen a dragon like him.”

  “So you can tell these perverts to let me go now.” She said struggling again.

  “Let them go.”

  She said this at the same time as Zephyr was pouncing forward; she ended up face down on the floor.

  “Ow, “ She groaned, “Haven’t I suffered enough already?”

  “Speaking of that,” Started Jisael with her soft voice, “What happened to your face?”

  “Aw, no fair, I already used my comeback for that comment.” Zephyr complained.

  “Oh yah...” Harley started before being interrupted.

  “Don’t you think we have more serious things to talk about than that? If you want to contribute to the war we’ll have to find you each a sword, train you to use it and train you to ride a griffin!” The black haired guy who had been there since they arrived said.

  “Be patient Ukal, they just got here. But you are right though, I’ll get the blacksmith to make each silver sword, now come on in for dinner and we’ll show you to your rooms, you can start your training tomorrow.”

  They followed Jisael as she walked closer to the center of the mountain, when they got to the far end of the ledge, where it connected to the mountain, Zephyr saw stair rolling downwards. They followed Jisael by the colour of her dress, it was silver. There was no other way they could have seen her in that darkness. Zephyr put her hand on the shiny marble like black stone and found it was cold. After a few minutes of going down stairs in total darkness, they emerged into a gigantic hall light by black candles. Ukel was right behind them. Jisael and Ukal led then into a room where people were sitting down at a table that seemed to have been carved in the stone of the mountain and eating.

  “What is that?”Zephyr asked looking at the kind of soup they were eating.

  “Oh I read it’s really good, they make it by taking that liquid gooey stuff from the trees, boiling it with some of the leaves from the tree, and adding meat from the griffin’s latest hunting trip. Its very nutritious.” Harley explained.

  “You know what else is nutritious? Spinach, and do I eat it?”

  Harley opened her mouth but Zephyr spoke first:

  “I’m game to try it.”

  They sat down, and everyone was staring at them.

  “Everyone,” Jisael started, “these people have come from far away to help us win thi war, so I want them treated just like if they were one of ours.”

  Everyone looked at us, presenting themselves, saying their name and their occupation. There was Bihan the blacksmith, Gilbit the dragon tamer, Tolmer the griffin caretaker, Shihanlo the griffin rider as well as Rui, Loiy, Tylon, Hyrok and Ferroney the griffin and dragon riders. Zephyr presented herself to:

  “Hi, I’m stubborn, so don’t get the idea of trying to make me so something I don’t want to do.”

  Everybody looked at her.

  In her life, Zephyr had noticed that most people were stunned by her personality, the fact is that people that didn’t know that she was always the way she was then, got offended when she said things like that.

  “She’s always like that, get used to it.” Harley explained.

  “Or don’t but life will be easier if you simply get used to it.” Zephyr proclaimed.

  That’s when she remembered that Jisael had taken her dragon.

  “Can I have Draco back now?” She asked.

  Draco was still sleeping so Jisael tapped on him. He woke up, and without hesitating flew to Zephyr.

  With Draco sitting on her lap, Zephyr tried tasting what they were offering. She took a spoon, and then gently lifted the silvery liquid to her mouth. It had pieces of meat floating in it. The truth was, it actually looked appetizing when you looked at it. And especially when you smelled it. It smelled slightly sweet but not enough to make it too sweet, it also smelled rich and you could smell the roasted pieces of meat, whatever kind of meat it was. She looked at Harley who had already taken a bite and was looking at her. Finally, Zephyr stuffed the spoon in her mouth. Harley and everyone else sitting around the table cheered. It was hard to explain what it tasted like. It was spicy yet soft and creamy, and it was intense. It filled your mouth and made the sense of taste go wild. Zephyr chewed the meat slowly, savouring how tender it was, and savouring the taste that the Rest of it gave the meat. Zephyr now had her eyes closed.

  “This is good.” She said when she finally finished her bite.

  She then shoved another spoonful in her mouth until there was none left. When there was none left, she asked for seconds, Harley was only halfway finished hers. While Zephyr was waiting for her second serving to arrive, she looked at the bowl for the first time. It was made in the same stone as all the rest of the stuff in this weird place. It was crafted beautifully, it was smooth, as if water had smoothed it down after centuries of it laying in the water. When seconds arrived, she finished it as fast as she finished her first serving. Tummy full and happy, Zephyr was ready to listen to what Jisael had to say while being tolerant and trying not to insult her too much. Drinks came. They were silvery-white and kind of transparent. Zephyr brought it to her lips to find it was spicy, and as good as the food. It made her tummy feel less full.

  “So, looks like you looked it.” Harley interrupting her driking.

  “You see, I like things that please me. That is why I dislike a lot of things. You get my reasoning?” Zephyr asked.

  “Of course I do! I’m no idiot!”

  “I believe we have different opinions on the definition of the word idiot.” Zephyr replied.

  They heard tapping on a glass. It was Jisael. She started her speech.

  “Today, is a big day for all of us, because we now have new allies in our war against Cristalite. They have joined us from far away for the soul perpuse of helping us so I believe it would be appropriate to have a drink in their honour. Harley, Zephyr, would you like to say a word?”

  “Gladly.” Harley said before elbowing Zephyr.

  “Huh what? I zoned out after the word today.”

  “Were supposed to say a speech.” Harley explained.

  Zephyr stood up, and stared her speech.

  “Okay hi eve
ryone, I want to say thanks for the grub.”

  Harley elbowed her again.

  “That’s all?” she asked

  “What else am I supposed to say?” Zephyr started, “The only thing I’m thankful for IS the food.”

  “Um, I don’t know, shouldn’t you say you’re thankful to them for taking you in? For agreeing that we fight in the war?”

  All the people at the table, including Jisael were looking at Harley and Zephyr fight as if it were something so stunning, so alien, so surprising and so beyond comprehension that they just couldn’t react. That was usually the kind of stare Zephyr got. Zephyr stared at Harley. This was her defence mechanism when people told her off; she looked at them, until they couldn’t stand it anymore, looked down and gave up. It didn’t take long for Harley to look away. She knew Zephyr well enough to realise she had no realistic chance of winning.

  “So, let’s have a drink to their honour!” Jisael said, probably her smartest move yet, completely ignoring the fact that Zephyr was different was the best way to learn to live with her.

  All around the table men and women lifted their glasses and drank the spicy liquid. Zephyr downed the rest of her glass and some dude she hadn’t even seen yet took a large pitcher and poured her more. She took Draco off her neck where he was resting, put him on the table and dipped her figure in the drink. After doing that she presented her figure to the tiny little dragon who licked her finger avidly.

  “Can I have some meat for Draco, without the silver stuff though?” She asked.

  “Coming right up.” Said Jisael before disappearing through a little door that seems to be the door to the kitchen.

  They entertained conversation with the others at the table, Zephyr learning more about this place and Harley finally being able to meet the characters of the book she had read. One of the men, to make Zephyr learn more about the war she was jumping in opened a book full of writing and gave it to her.

  The war against the other side started a long time ago. In that time, the humans new that there was a light side and a dark side, but they also knew that none of them were good or evil, that they were just different and that this contributed to the development of the world. But Cristalite, he wanted to be the only leader, the only one to rule over our world, she he engaged in a war. He engaged in a war and killed thousands of ours, bringing them back as prisoners, cutting into their skin, blinding them, then tied them to poles in the different villages of the human world, insisting that they were the evil ones. In that time, they could of beat them but they refused to fight, because they had good hearts, and did not want to be evil. Soon, from a mix of fear and wanting to justify the blinded people left to die on poles in their villages, the humans began to believe Crystalite. Since that day, the dark side has been regarded as evil, and the light side as good.

  And soon after this hapened, Crystalite’s subjects realised that this made them powerful, and they became as corrupt as their leader.

  “Hmm, interesting, “ Zephyr said, “Its to bad I don’t care.”

  This went on until Zephyr yawned and stretched, Jisael suggesting that they got to bed. They were brought into a room where two beds stood. They were made of the same stone as everything else with a big fluffy mattress on top. Zephyr jumped on it, throwing Draco at the same time as she did so, landed on the bed and slipped under the covers. Draco, who had started to fly when he was thrown in the air, landed gracefully on the bed, walked towards Zephyr and lay down next to her stomach.