| "Oh Alia, it was HORRIBLE!" Alia's mom said. "The men grabbed onto me. Your father zapped them with some kind of lightning, but one conjured up a Banshee, so your father was weak. Me and Sean tried to defend ourselves, but they were too strong!" "That glass breaking," Alia said "What do you think they were trying to steal?" "They said something about lockets," Alia's Mother replied. "My locket making kit!" Alia said. "It's in a glass box! Why would they want it?" "Who knows?" said Sean. Minerva meowed sadly. "Oh kitty!" Alia said. "Did they do anything to her?" "Your cat was hiding," Alia's dad said. "They had NO clue that you had a kitten!" "Wow," Alia said, smiling at her cat. While Minerva ate, Alia's mother explained her NEW punishment. "You will come straight home after Secret School lessons, except on weekends for 2 weeks." Alia thought that was kind of fair.
"So, you still don't remember what happened at the dock?" Alia asked Sabrina on her way to school.
"NOPE."
"Okay."
"You know, the lady in the hospital told me she found the lockets in your pocket, opened them, went to the bathroom, then when she came back, Mary and I were on 2 beds!" "Very odd," was Alia's reply. Sabrina rushed ahead to her Storm class, and Alia tailed behind, walking slow because of tiredness. Then, out of nowhere, something rare in the commons caught Alia's eye. A health wisp! Alia ran towards it with the rest of her energy, now about a yard away from it. It disappeared. But before Alia could realize that, while she was still running, a Death student came out of nowhere and- "Oomph!" They ran into each other, each dropping all of their parchment, books, quills, and ink! "Oh I am SO-" the male Necromancer started. But before he could say sorry, he stared at Alia. "Well, I guess the charm wore off," he said. "What charm?" Alia said, remembering Professor Ambrose's words. "Well, I saved this Life wizard, she was unconscious behind some shops. Her name I think was-" "Alia Lotuspetal?" Alia asked. "Yeah, that's it! And- WAIT! How did you know?" the boy asked. "It's nice to meet you, Cody Dragonrider," Alia sad.
"HOW DID YOU-"
While Cody was babbling, Alia changed her hat to the one she was wearing when Cody saved her.
"OH."
"Yeah." Alia said. "Well nice to meet you"- DIIIING!
"Oh no! The bell!" Alia said. "Here," Alia said, putting each others names on the friend's lists. Then Alia picked up her things, and headed off to her early lesson on Seraph .
Alia bought a cushion from the Bazaar, slid down the pole with the cushion attached to her behind, so that way- SLAM! Though it was loud, it was much more cushioned. She detached it, left it, and walked towards the school. She entered the building, then Professor Ambrose was inside. He had a cauldron, herbs, and some VERY rare reagents. "Welcome to Orientation."
"You must take every ingredient that you think is good, and put it in," he said. "Good as in-" Alia asked. "What you feel is good." Alia was taking skin off of some fresh, rare, speckled sparkly mandrakes. "You know, yesterday thieves were in my house," Alia said. "Oh really?" Professor Ambrose said. He picked up a very rare glass diamond. For some reason, a Humungofrog appeared on top of them, then barfed on them. Which is weird, because my second school is Fire. They also stole my locket making kit."
Professor Ambrose dropped the diamond, which then shattered into a million pieces.
"The-the-the LOCKET MAKING KIT?" Professor Ambrose asked. Alia stared as she dropped in some solidified Ectoplasm. "Why is that important?" Alia asked. "Oh, I MUST get to the Amulet Shop!" said Professor Ambrose, running out. Alia shrugged. She had dropped in the petrified wood of a Treant, then thought, "My headmaster is odd today."
After dropping in many more things, including 3 Black Pearls and the remains of the glass diamond, Alia thought it was enough. Professor Ambrose rushed back in, saying, "My, that was awkward. OK, are you done?" "Yes." Alia replied. "Great!" Professor Ambrose said. "Now," he said, grabbing an old oaken case, then blowing the dust off. "Take this," he said, opening it. It contained legendary artifacts from each school. He took out the one labeled LIFE, and it was a leaf. But Alia knew this was not ANY old leaf. There were legends and stories about this leaf, there were wizards who had spent their whole lives searching for it, and Alia was in shock. All Thuergists would have been so jealous if they knew that Alia was right there, right now.
This was the Legend's Leaf.
It was said to be the most beautiful leaf in the world, and it was indeed. It was Bartelby's first leaf. It was so rare, because if you dipped it into an unknown elixir, (unknown until NOW.) and held it in your hand, it would glow and something amazing would happen to you. But sometimes, AMAZING would be disastrous. "Dip it in." Professor Ambrose said. Alia could not believe now she was holding it. She dipped it into the mixture, which was now smooth and green, and held it. It did not glow. Alia was so disappointed, but then Professor Ambrose explained.
"It may not glow, but solve this riddle by sunset, and you'll see what happens."
"Drop where water falls over darkness, and thou shall see." he read.
Alia said goodbye, and went up with the leaf. But for some reason, Ceren Nightchant was chatting with Harvest Hannah. "How about I get that nice staff for 100 crowns? If you do then- STOP RIGHT THERE MISSY!" Obviously he had seen the leaf glimmering in Alia's hand. "What's that in your hand?" Ceren said staring Alia down. Alia gulped. Ceren Nightchant was a Thuergist! "Oh, Hi Ceren! See you're still an Initiate-" "Hey! I remember you! You're the girl that cast an Imp that did 200 damage! Well you think you're so famous you can steal a ring, huh?" he said.
Alia cleared her throat. "I need to mind my own business, and you need to mind your own business. So-"
"PROFESSOR AMBROSE! THIEF IN THE SHOPPING DISTRICT! THIEF IN THE SHOPPING DISTRICT! Hey where do you think you're going?!" Ceren yelled. Alia ran off saying ,"I'm Alia Lotuspetal, if you wanna tell him that!" Alia wiped the sweat off of her forehead. "That was a close one."
Alia thought for awhile,then came to a conclusion. There was a waterfall going off the Haunted Cave, then the ocean. Or at least a mile of salty water until the cliff. Alia decided she'd do that. So she ran to Triton Avenue, through it, and into the dark, scary cave. She dropped it into the water. Alia felt like she was going to cry. A whole 5 minutes had passed, and nothing happened. Alia waited, and waited, and then now 20 minutes had passed. Alia took a gulp of air, took her staff and began to wave it in a pattern used to teleport, but then something hit her.
It hit her on the head. It was hard, like a rock. But Alia did not see anything. An odd thing happened, the water turned sparkly, deep, dark purple. Alia felt cold wetness, then opened her eyes. Alia was under the water! Alia gasped! Reason one, SHE GASPED! So she could breath under water! Reason two, A STORM SHARK WAS COMING AT FULL SPEED TOWARDS HER! Alia zapped it several times with Life Fury, and it died. Alia saw a Storm Shark treasure card had taken its place. She grabbed it and stuffed it into her pocket. There were patterns of pebbles all over the bottom, but Alia noticed a pattern that read, "Look for the cave with the Storm Pearl." Alia saw a sparkling cave, and swam to it. "WOW!" Alia yelled. There were hundreds of pearls! But Alia had to look for the Storm Pearl. "Now," Alia thought out loud. "There are lots of pearls in this cave, so I'd better choose the right- Oh, that was easy!" Alia had glanced over to her left, and had noticed a BIG (about the size of Alia's head) pearl! It was purple and shiny. Alia held the pearl, which was surprisingly light. Engraved in it was, "Answer this, are you destined to save the spiral? Ask something odd and almost inanimate and you will get the answer." Then Alia noticed something, SHE COULDN'T BREATH ANYMORE! She swam quickly back up to the surface, coughed many times, then dried off her clothes with her wand. Thank goodness she was secondary Fire!
Alia was going to leave and think about what the pearl said. But as she turned around, she heard whirring, and felt a splash of water. There was a whirlpool, and then the waters calmed. Then, in the water was the word, Hello.
Alia screamed. She was about to run, when she remembered the pearl. Something odd and almost inanimate. "You can talk, right?" Alia said to the water.
Yes.
"Can you answer questions?"
Absolutely.
"Am I destined to save our Spiral?
About a minute had passed with no reply, and Alia thought, "Why bother?" But then there was another whirlpool, and the water, once calmed said,
YES!
Alia screamed with happiness, and teleported home. She told her family about it, got extra dessert for it, when Sean said,"Does that REALLY matter? I'm going back to school!", he got grounded, and Alia's cat slept with her that night. Alia had a great day. Sadly, she wouldn't have another Secret Lesson until 2 weeks later, but she was still okay. Alia didn't know that Cody wouldn't be such a "friend" after all yet. But she'll discover that in part 5. | |
