Alodia Darreth:
"Are we there yet?"
"No," I answer, fighting the urge to pull my ears off.
"Are we there yet?"
"No," I repeat, now fighting the urge to pull my ears and Hothead's head off.
"Are we there yet?"
"Do you see a crossing? Do you see something like a bridge? If not, then we are not there yet! Now, will you please shut up!"
"Alodia," Hothead yells.
"What," I yell, turning around. "What is it now? What do you want? Why can't you shut up!"
"Incoming!"
Hothead then tackles me and the two of us fall to the sand. Before I can ask why, the sand beneath where I was standing explodes, and something looking like a large, black line comes up. It approaches it, opening its mouth and showing off its sharp teeth.
"Yeah," Hothead says, reaching for his sword. "We're not there yet."
Holding his sword up, I watch as Hothead's sword catches on fire.
"Let me guess," I say, pushing myself up. "Your gift."
"Yeah," Hothead says. "There's a reason why I prefer to go Hothead."
Chadd Owen:
Jumping and flipping through the air, I curl into a ball, making it harder for the crustacle to grab me. Landing on the other side of the beast, the crustacle roars as it rotates. It shoots out its dozen of tentacles but I counter with my own wires. With the swing of my arm, metal wires shoot out from sheathes tied to my waist. Using my gift, I make my wire cut right through the crustacle's tentacles. The beast cries as it loses its arms. It steps back while I step forward.
Without the tentacles, the crustacle charges toward it. It jumps and tries to crush me. Seeing this, I swing my hands again, wires shooting out and hitting the ground. Flying back, the crustacle misses me. Before it can try anything else, I shoot out only one of my wires. The wire moves fast, flying through the air and going through a tree.
"Hey," Honey says. "Watch it!"
As the wire pulls me in, I flip through the air and shoot out the second wire. The second wire swings through the air like a sword. It comes down on the crustacle, slicing the beast directly in half. The two halves fall separately while I fall back on the ground, near Honey and the other student.
"I'm sorry about that," I say, pulling back both my arm and the wire that was in the tree. I nod my head and Honey shrugs her shoulder. I turn my head when I see someone pulling himself up.
The student we rescued is coughing and hitting his chest. Once he's done, he gives Honey and me a thumbs-up.
"Are you okay," I ask.
The student nods his head.
"Hi," Honey says, pushing me aside. She smiles wider and waves at the student. "I'm Honey. This is Chadd. What's your name?"
The student doesn't talk. Instead, he drops to a knee and writes something in the sand.
"Shocker," I read. "Wait, Shocker? That's your name?"
Shocker nods his head.
"Shocker," Honey repeats. "That's a strange name. Oh wait, is that a nickname? It's not your actual name!"
Again, Shocker nods his head.
"Oh, but you rather go by your nickname than your actual name. That's okay. Well, Shocker, it's a real pleasure to meet you!"
Honey then slaps Shocker's back. When she does, Shocker's eyes go wide and he opens his mouth. He rubs his back while Honey pulls back and smiles.
"Sooo," she starts, tipping back and forth with her hands together. "By any chance do you have a game piece?"
Shocker shakes his head.
"Have you seen any ruined temples?"
Shocker shakes his head.
"Do you know which way is North?"
This time, Shocker nods his head and points behind us. We turn around and then back to Shocker.
"North is that way," Honey asks. "How can you be sure?"
Shocker points upward. Honey and I look up for a few seconds finally realizing what Shocker is pointing at.
"The stars," I say. "You can tell which way is which by the stars."
Shocker nods his head again.
"Well in that case," Honey says, pushing Shocker. "Let's go! The three of us! You lead."
With apparently no choice in the matter, Shocker leads Honey and me North.
"You don't talk much," Honey says after Shocker pushes her off. "Do you?"
Hothead:
Screaming as I leap into the air, I swing my sword and hit the animal in its drooling mouth. The animal roars as it shakes its head around. Landing on my feet, I look back at the animal as it turns its head toward me.
Lunging forth, the animal is about to swallow me whole but something appears around me and protects me.
"What in the world," I say, watching as the animal rams its head into the bright-glowing, white wall.
"Considered us even," Alodia says. Patting down my rapidly beating heart, I look and see Alodia standing right there.
"Have you been here the whole time?"
While Alodia's rolling her eyes, I laugh. While standing next to Alodia, I notice how her hands are together. The palms of her hands are placed against one another, and they're glowing. I look at her hand and then at the white wall.
"This is you," I say, "Isn't it? This is your gift. Protection? Barrier? Wall summoning?"
"Shield summoning," Alodia says. "Oh, and by the way, these are my weapons."
Alodia pulls her hands apart. The second she does, the shield around us disappears. The animal roars when it sees the shield down. It lunges toward us once again.
"Shield," I say, "Summon a shield! Now!"
Alodia doesn't summon a shield. Instead, she pulls back her hands. The complete opposite of her shield gift.
"Watch this," Alodia says as thin, glowing discs appear in each of her hands. The glowing discs spin at incredible speeds. I watch as Alodia throws the discs, the discs humming as they fly through the air. They fly around the animal, doing circles until hitting it.
The discs cut right through the animal, going right through its head and back inside and coming back at. This process repeats over and over again until the animal gives one last roar before the two discs cut the head off. With the animal defeated, the glowing discs vanish.
"That's how you defeat an annelinthes," Alodia says. "You're going to need more than a flaming sword to take one down."
"Apparently, we're going to need more than tiny spinning discs to take one down as well!"
"What?"
I point behind Alodia as the annelinthes quickly recovers. Its head somehow pushes itself to the ground and runs toward Alodia. It jumps toward Alodia before she can turn around.
As the annelinthes show off its sharp teeth, I rush forward to help my partner out. However, something hits the head from the side and knocks it down.
"A crossbow bolt," I say, seeing a single silver bolt sticking out of the annelinthes's head. I feel a smile coming on and look around.
"Hothead," Jump says as she lands in front of me. "No way. Is that you?"
"Long time no see," I say, smiling as I spread out my arms. Jump immediately runs into my arms and we hug.
"I am so happy to see you," I say, holding back tears. "I really hate my partner."
"Excuse me," Alodia says, raising her voice. "But I can hear you. It's not like you have been the greatest partner either."
We both ignore Alodia and hug each other again. As we pull apart, I see someone standing behind Jump.
"Oh, hey," I say, shooting the guy a quick wave. "What's up?"
"Nothing much," the guy slowly answers. "Uhh, I guess you two are friends."
"This is Hothead," Jump says, stepping back to introduce me. "He's one of my best friends. Hothead, have you seen Shocker anywhere?"
I shake my head.
"No," I reply, "I haven't. I hope he's okay."
The three of us hear someone clear their throat. We turn to see Alodia with crossed arms and a tapping foot.
"Hello," she says with a wave. "What's going on here? Who are these two?"
"This is Jump," I answer, "And that is--Who are you?"
"My name is Renee," Renee answers with a smile. "Uhh, hello."
"Hello. My name is Alodia. Alodia Darreth. I'm sure you have heard of me. At the very least, you heard of the Darreth family."
Jump and Renee look at each other before turning back to Alodia. They look at each other again before looking at me. I shrug.
"How did any of you make it into Yellow Sun?"
"Scholarship," I say, pointing at Jump and myself.
"Uhh, I got a recommendation," Renee says after clearing his throat.
Alodia shakes her head and rolls with eyes.
"Come on," she growls. "North is this way. We're looking for a bridge."