The gryphon landed on the ground with a thump and Greyden said the kids could take off the blindfolds. Zane-Ashburn ripped his off and looked around, ignoring everything else and staring at the ground. He slid off the giant gryphon-Lukas and rolled around on the soft green grass, getting it all in his hair.
"Oh, sweet ground!" he yelled
Anabelle and Gill did the same purely because it looked fun. The other kids got off and Luks turned back into a human. He looked absolutely exhausted. Zan-Ashburn stood up and looked around. They were in a large camp with an estimated thousand-ish people. Tan tents were everywhere and stood out from the green grass and dark brown dirt. He looked down at Anabelle, who had started playing with her Rubik's cube. She was nervous.
"Well, look who it is. You finally got some recruits. And quite young too." Zane-Ashburn looked up and saw a creamy, brown skinned girl. She had on a dark purple, lightweight hoodie with the hood up. Her leggings had little silver rods sticking out of them and he didn't want to find out what they were.
The exhausted Lukas stood in front of her. "Yes, I did. Are you surprised?"
"Yes, actually. Quite. Why don't you introduce them?"
Lukas rolled his eyes and just went with it. "This is Zane-Ashburn,"
Greyden butted in, "Tiny Kitten. He's your child, Kit-Kat"
Lukas rolled his eyes yet again. Zane-Ashburn wondered if he was going to get dizzy.
"Anabelle and Gill, his siblings."
"Tinker-tot and Fish Face"
Gill glared at Greyden, and Lukas sighed loudly, clearly in need of a nap. Anabelle just played with her Rubik's cube.
Lukas moved on. "This is Margarie-"
"Scary Gremlin!"
Margarie looked like she would bite Greyden's face off
Lukas tried to ignore Greyden. "and this is Milly and Mira."
"That's hoodie blob and Big foot."
Mira looked hurt. Milly just sunk down onto the ground happily wrapped in her hoodie to prove Greyden's point
"AND THEY," Lukas yelled, looking at Greyden, "are Pheonix, Arizona, and Tuscon."
"Colorado, New Mexico, and The Fourth Corner State," Greyden stated matter-of-factly.
Lukas looked like he was about to explode. "JUST- Shut up."
Greyden shrugged
"I think it's Utah," Kit said
"Ohhhh yeah, see I suck at geography," Greyden said
"Greyden, you literally lived there for 3 years," Lukas snarked.
"Yeah, and I never visited the monument. And I suck at Geography."
"I swear... The INCOMPETENCE of this STICK- I'm gonna go take a nap I've been flying overseas and I'm tired. Good night." With that, Lukas turned on his heel and left towards one of the tents.
"IT'S NINE AM, YOU DOOFUS," Greyden yelled after him.
"OH, SHUT UP!"
Greysen snickered and finally left him alone.
"Does Goose-Head mind telling us where we are and who this is?" Margarie pointed at Kit.
Greyden nodded "Ahh my protégé, You will do well here. You are in the great land of AMERICA!"
Zane-Ashburn's eyes widened. "We're in... America?!"
"Yes, we are. And you adorable little Brits will find yourselves out of place here, but you'll get used to it. As for this beautiful lady, her name is Kit but as you know, I am the king of nicknames, so I call her Kit-Kat. She is the bane of Lukas's existence, but we don't talk about that."
"Why don't we-" Margarie started but then got cut off by Greyden
"Alright! I shall show you to your tents and we'll introduce you to the family tonight at dinner. Let's go!"
The camp was made up of multiple semi circles of tents all facing towards a giant tent with a large crescent moon on it. Each circle was made up of five or six tents. Greyden led them to a circle of tents that was empty
"Here we are. These are your tents. Divide between yourselves however you like. I'll be back," Kit threw her hand up in the air to wave and walked away to a tent to the furthest right in a different circle.
Zane-Ashburn looked around the children as if they were a class dividing into groups for a group project. He could see many of the friends glancing at each other and he needed to do something about it.
"Hey, Gi--"
"NOPE," Zane-Ashburn cut Tuscon off as he was about to ask to camp with Gill. "We will divide among siblings to keep order!"
Everyone looked surprised Zane-Ashburn had taken lead on anything. The poor boy seemed so shy. However, the pride faded away and they became annoyed.
"Mira, Milly, go pick your tent" Zane-Ashburn demanded.
"Get off your high horse," Margarie snarked. Zane-Ashburn felt like whooping this child side-ways. He thought maybe the American territory was making him feel more dominant and much less British.
"Gilllllllll, if Zane-Ashburn can direct us, why can't I?" Margarie complained. Gill took a step back and didn't seem to want to intervene.
"Uh... He's older than us?" Gill grinned awkwardly before randomly rumaging through his stuff.
Mira and Milly had chosen the tent at the far left of the crescent shape and were unpacking.
"Four corner boys, go pick a tent," Zane-Ashburn kept doling out instructions. Tuscon scoffed. He walked up to Zane-Ashburn who was practically half a foot taller and puffed out his chest.
"I want to be in the same tent as Gill," Tuscon was no more than 7 inches away from Zane-Ashburn's face. Zane-Ashburn and his new, shiny American confidence picked up the small boy and moved him to his bag where he left it on the floor.
Suddenly, after being hoisted into the air by the older boy, Tuscon decided he didn't want to challenge him anymore. In fact, all the children had decided this. In all reality, Zane-Ashburn was tired and grumpy and missed his books. There was no American secret to his confidence.
"Ha... We choose this one," The boys choose the tent opposite of Mira and Millys'.
"We choose the one next to the triplets," Gill spoke up, speaking for the three kids. Zane-Ashburn nodded in approval, but Margarie sighed.
"Margarie... I hate to say it because I really don't trust you... but, you and Anabelle can stay in a tent together if you wish."
The little girls squealed and ran to the tent in the middle that was pink in undertones, which surprised no one. After everyone had unpacked in their tents, Greyden yelled out, "Alright guys. We'll see you tomorrow. Leave the tents and move around as you wish, as this is your new home, but don't leave camp. We have guards to keep you here, but you will be penalized for attempting it."
Zane-Ashburn and Gill stared at each other as they heard the announcement from outside. They were supplied with sleeping bags and food despite Zane-Ashburn's previous worry, and baskets in which to keep their personal belongings.
"Do you think this could've been a bad idea? I mean... What about mom? Do you think she's lonely without us? She doesn't even know where we are!" Gill whisper-yelled. Zane-Ashburn frowned.
"I don't know. I will admit it was a rash decision, but I think it'll be okay. Mom doesn't even notice we aren't inside half the time," Zane-Ashburn comforted his brother, but despite his tryings, he was failing.
"Yeah, I guess," Gill broke the eye contact and left the tent.
Zane-Ashburn felt guilty. He knew that he was the main pusher of this, but he hoped this would get better. Usually Gill was the adventuring type while Zane-Ashburn was the worrier.
He called upon a memory that made him smile and feel nostalgic. He could remember it like it was yesterday. Mom had been pregnant with Anabelle and Gill was merely 3 years old. Zane-Ashburn was 4. He could remember one day Gill wanted to go play in the trees with the birdies. Zane-Ashburn had told him it was a bad idea, but Gill was brave, even as a tiny toddler. Zane-Ashburn followed him into the foliage of their yard, whining every step of the way about the danger. Gill always laughed him off. He remembered Gill climbing into a tree that was a solid 6 feet up in the air, and he was fully panicking, worrying he would hurt himself, but Gill didn't. He climbed down, grinning widely after he had pet one of the birdies, babbling about the colors of the feathers. Zane-Ashburn was worried, but he couldn't resist his little brother's infectious smile. They had maintained this pattern until now, but it seemed it was Gill's turn to be a worry worm.
Zane-Ashburn left to check on Anabelle and Margarie. As he had said earlier, he didn't trust Margarie even though he knew she would never hurt Anabelle.
He opened the flap of their tent without warning and popped inside.
"What's up Tinker-Tot? I'll take you anywhere you wanna go," He offered. He liked the new nickname Goose-Head had given her. Maragrie and Anabelle were deconstructing a Rubik's cube together, which was undoubtedly Anabelle's idea. They both looked annoyed he had interrupted.
"Go away, Zaneyyy! I'm trying to show Marie how Rubik's cubes work," Zane-Ashburn held back a scoff. "Marie"? He didn't like how close they were, but it wasn't his place to judge.
Zane-Ashburn wandered around the camp aimlessly. He figured it would be a good idea to have a mental map in case anything happened. There was a huge tent on the outside of the circles that seemed to be hidden in the back. Notice the word hidden. This piqued his interest. He sneakily walked over, avoiding the gaze of the campers. He was about to enter the tent, his arm pulling the curtain.
"Hi! Who are you? I'm Maury! I know that's a confusing name, but I'm a girl. I'm 10. How old are you? Oh, are you trying to go inside the library? I'll come with you! That's my favorite place to be!" Zane-Ashburn nearly jumped as a girl with bright purple, short hair popped up behind him, blabbering.
"I-- Uh, Hi. I-I'm Zane-Ashb..." He fell quiet as he felt pressured under her fascinated gaze. He started to turn red of embarrassment and she giggled.
"Well hello Zane-Ash! Let's go!" She grabbed his arm and dragged him inside.
His embarrassment turned into a gaze of wonder. The tent looked much bigger on the inside, covered with books from wall to wall. He slid by one wall and found a plethora of his questions answered in the form of books, which was his favorite way to discover information.
"Magicks: The Complete Edition". Zane-Ashburn's fingers lingered over the spine of the book. Maury popped up behind him again.
"You a magick user? I'm not, but I know Lukas is. I don't know why I can't seem to use magick. Lukas says everyone can, but I certainly haven't been successful," She blabbed. Her last sentence caught his attention.
"Wait. Everyone can use magick?" His eyes widened with excitement.
"Well yes! This entire camp is for training, don't you know?"
"No!"
"I--"
"Maury, stop bringing people inside the tent that literally says 'Do Not Enter' on the side," A boy in his young teens bellowed. He had messy, curly hazelnut hair with brilliant green eyes. Zane-Ashburn was sick of people constantly scaring him. He didn't think he was ever going to get used to it.
"Eli, group gathering. All members required. That means you too Maury and new kid," another teen yelled in. This time Zane-Ashburn didn't see them.
Maury took Zane-Ashburn led him to the gathering. Zane-Ashburn was about 15 seconds from and over-stimulation meltdown.