Jia wasn`t sure what she was seeing but she could tell that she was in a huge dining room in a castle but it wasn`t her castle or a place she was familiar with. There were paintings of dragons hung in every corner and banners strung up on the ceiling. A fire blazed hot in the fire place behind a long, polished table and there were people sitting around it. It kind of made Jia think that if there was War Council, this would be how it looked like.
There were a bunch of old people seated and two young teenagers who stood in front of them a few feet away from the table. A boy and a girl. Jia frowned as she scanned them carefully, "Why do you both look so familiar?"
It then struck her. They were the two teenagers she dreamt about the night before the holidays. They were fighting against bats in a forest. The girl had snuck a peek at something below her and Jia `s jaw dropped.
Her eyes widen slightly as she took in the dragons sitting beside each of them. They were the size of adult Psi-Leopards. One had beautiful purple and silver scales while the other was pure black. The purplish silver one looked slightly bored, if dragons could pull of such an expression while the black one sat tall and looked focused. They both had leather collars around their necks that had a huge green pearl in the center.
She then turned to the would-be council and sure enough, they had dragons, either on perched on their shoulders, lying on their laps or sitting on the table.
"Ae you sure you heard right?" One of the older man asked. Jia was surprised that he was blind and yet he addressed the teenagers directly, as if he could see them.
"Yes, he said that in order to show the world the true power of the Dragon, he had to open the gates to all the dimensions and bring forth his allies to help," the boy answered, his voice indicating that he had a slight accent.
"Such a portal attempt hasn`t been done in thousands of years," A woman who was stroking her orange dragon on the table spoke up," What you are telling us is serious, Robin."
Jia gasped as she recognized the name. It was the same name that she heard at the Falls. She then turned to the boy. He must be Robin.
"Robin couldn't be wrong, she heard it straight from the General `s mouth while we were fighting for our lives," the boy spoke up as he turned to look at the girl beside him. Jia turned red with embarrassment. So it was the girl who called Robin. How odd. What a weird name to give to a girl.
Robin stepped forward," If I may, the General also mentioned a name of a potential ally. One I am not familiar with."
"Yes? Speak his name,"
"The General mentioned the name Zong," Robin said with a firm voice. Jia gasped as she felt a pulling sensation on her shoulders. She turned and suddenly she was back on the race track hurdling towards a boulder.
"Jia! Look out!" Fiona yelled.
Jia only had a split second to react and jerked the bike to her left as she went flying into a thorn bush. The bike reacted on its own and tossed her off before it crashed. She rolled until she hit a boulder and stopped to groan in pain.
"Jia!" Several voices yelled as they came running towards her. Her head spun but she managed to push herself onto her knees and rubbed her arms. She was going to ache for a while. Again.
"Jia! Hey, are you okay?! Are you hurt?!" Tristan yelled when he reached her first and put a hand to her cheek. Jia seemed out of it as she tried to stand so he helps her up and held her against him. He had left Jaz with some of her friends and was pulled away by Dylan. His friend was more than angry at him but he didn`t want to hear it. Falling for Jia was a mistake. She needed someone amazing in her life, someone who could measure up to her father. And that man wasn`t him. He and Dylan were thieves, street rats before they entered the Academy. They weren`t in her league but for some stupid reason, his best friend seems to think so.
After giving up on him, Dylan left to go and check on Jia, said that he was bringing her back to Viola because he didn`t want her to get hurt anymore. Tristan tore after him and demanded to know why he was acting like that when they came across Chase and Fiona with no sign of Jia. Chase simply pointed to Jia who was riding Fiona`s bike. The lava sorceress ignored him when he demanded to know why he let the emotional girl ride her bike.
When he moved to throttle her, Chase noticed that Jia wasn't turning away from the boulder and she was going to crash. However, she wavered and turned to the left tin time to go off into a thorn bush. The bike acted on its only and tossed her out of the seat before it crashed. Jia had landed on the ground, rolled until she hit a boulder on the side of the road.
He reacted first, followed by Dylan, Fiona and Chase.
"Jia?" He scanned her face and her arms for injuries. Jia then jerked away from him," Let go of me."
Tristan face darkened, "I`m just trying to see if your hurt. Don`t be stupid."
"Yeah, right," Jia mumbled as she adjusted her cap.
"I`m your friend Jia, I`m just worried about you," Tristan pleaded with her. At that moment the others reached them. Fiona going to check her bike while Chase and Dylan stopped beside the two.
Jia shook her "No you're not, friends don`t shut people out or treat them the way you've treated me."
"Jia…," Tristan said, looking pained. He didn`t think it would hurt her this much.
"Just leave me alone!" Jia yelled as she pushed the Knight away. She then tore away from the group and ran off down the track.
"Stay back!" Chase got in his way and stopped him when the Knight tried to go after Jia. Tristan glowered at him but the brown eyed Knight just glared at his friend.
"Haven`t you done enough?!" Fiona yelled as she ran past him," Jia, wait!"
However, all thoughts of chasing after her fiend vanished when she took the sky in flight. She flew off over the track and just kept flying until she couldn`t see anyone anymore. She then stopped in midair before descending. There was a small opening in the forest, easy enough for her to slip through unharmed. When she finally landed, she was sitting on a tree branch that was supported by the theses creepy looking vines.
They looked silky and soft but black. It kind of reminded of spider webs. She then shuffled until she had her back against the tree and closed her eyes. There wasn`t a sound made in the entire forest except for the occasional rustle of leaves as the wind howled and blew through them.
Emperor Zong, her parents, her family drama, boy drama and now that vision, it was just too much. Too overwhelming. She thought leaving her home and coming to Viola would allow her to experience a normal teenage girl`s life but this was just too much. Jia was starting to regret leaving her home.
"At least back there, I could didn`t feel like my heart was breaking over and over again," Jia whispered brokenly to herself.
Something snapped in front of her, making her sit up. She scanned the forest and took off her gloves quickly before pocketing them. Her magic started to crackle to life as she held up a hand in front of her. Suddenly a loud squishing sound was heard before a web shot out and caught her from her left making her tumble down and land on something soft and bouncy. Jia gasped as she saw that she had landed in a tangle of black webs. Her left arm was completely covered with web. Making it impossible to use her magic. She was so stupid. The vines were spider webs and not new ones, they were old ones made by the very things she saw when she was little and lost with Roy.
A snapping sound was heard and the web bounced a bit. She across and saw several Arcana Spiders crawling towards her. She pushed herself up with one arm and released a lightning orb at one of the spiders. It flew back with a shriek but it only made the others angry.
Her left arm began to burn from the web venom. She tired to stand when another web caught her legs and made her tip over. Jia screamed and tried to remove them but they were burning her hands and absorbing her energy.
As she struggled a blue portal opened above her and four figures came tumbling down.
"The heck?" Jia muttered, looking up with a dropped jaw. As Dylan landed in front of her. Chase and Fiona landed in front of a spider while Tristan managed to get him and Jasmine on a tree branch.
"You`ve got to be kidding me!" Fiona bellowed as her eyes lit up and three orbs appeared in front of her and Chase.
"How you doing?" Dylan asked Jia as he scanned her web tangled body.
"I…" She then hissed as the burning sensation increased," It hurts!"
"Hold still, "Dylan instructed her as he pulled a pocket knife out and worked on the vines," How did you get here?"
"Bad luck," Jia gritted out as she was finally cut lose, "I can`t stop them. Their webs are immune to electricity..."
Dylan pulled her to her feet and put an arm around her waist to stabilize her. Chase was suing her daggers to keep the other spiders away but it wasn`t doing anything. Jasmine was trying to help by teleporting spiders away one by one but even she couldn`t open multiple portals at once.
"We can`t keep this up much longer!" Dylan yelled at his friends. Jia was sweating and already running out of energy. The venom from the webs had burned her so badly and had absorbed most of her energy. She was barely able to stand on her two feet, "We need to go!"
"I can`t stop to teleport us out of here! If I stop for just one second, the closet ones might attack you all!" Jasmine yelled.
"Then we need to clear the board," Tristan suggested to Jasmine.
"And lucky for us, the webs aren`t immune to fire. Everyone, get up to the tree tops!" Fiona instructed, "Jasmine, I need you to be prepared to teleport the excess lava away when I`m done! We don`t need to destroy nature to keep ourselves safe!"
Jasmine nodded as Chase and Dylan stumbled their way to a tree branch with Jia. Fiona then closed her eyes to focus as the spider began to surround her. Her then flew open, glowing bright orange," Lava Vortex!"
She then slammed both her hands onto the web below her. Instantly, her magic swarmed and flowed outwards onto the web, incinerating everything. The Arcana Spider hissed and fled but even they had got burned before falling to towards the ground. Jia seeing that her friend was falling too, struggle out from under Dylan`s arms. Ignoring his calls, she flew to grab her friend`s arm in the last second as Jasmine`s portal opened and took away the spiders and lava.
Fiona looked at her friend and grinned, "Perfect timing."
"I aim," Jia huffed, "To please."
She then floated over to Dylan and Chase before setting her down. Jasmine snapped the portal shut before she and Tristan jumped down to join the others.
"Nice work Jaz," Jia complimented her. Jasmine smiled, "Thank you."
"I guess now we-"
Fiona quickly grabbed her friend before she fell over the tree branch down into the forest," That was close."
The lightning sorceress was completely passed out and her arms and legs were slightly swollen and red, due to the web venom. Her cap had gotten lost in the struggle, making Fiona sighed in disappointment.
Dylan moved forward to pick her up and carry her bridal-style while Fiona arrange her friend's arms and head.
"Jasmine, a portal, if you please," Chase turned to asked the sorceress.
Jasmine nodded, "Where to?"
"Back to Viola," Dylan answered.
Back at Viola, Rose opened the main door when she heard a persistent knock. She was honestly surprised to see Dylan standing before her in a torn shirt with a passed out Jia in his arms. Fiona, Jasmine, Tristan and Chase were standing behind him, looking very upset behind him.
"Oh no, what happened this time?" Rose asked as she stepped back and ushered everyone in.
"Arcana Spiders," Dylan answered. Jia was still passed out in his arms but he didn`t seem to mind her weight. He moved to put her down on the couch," When she wakes up, rub alcohol swabs over the burns after she showers. After that, feed her."
"Of course," Rose consented.
Chase scanned the empty room, "Where are the others?"
"They`re rehearsing for the End of Year Mixer," Rose informed him. She moved to kneel beside Jia`s side and put a hand to her forehead," Poor darling."