September 21, 2002
As it turns out, the four of us all share our magic class. Shannon got a lot of unwanted attention for being our grade’s only Wizard, but our teacher Mrs. Williams was able to deflect that. Threatening extra homework is a good way to deter any kind of behavior.
My brother was not happy when he heard about what Alex revealed. I spent the bus ride home talking him down. He said he didn’t want to hit a girl in the first place, but the kinds of books I’ve seen him read would give me nightmares with a plot summary. (Well, that’s what I guess based on the covers, anyway.) A friend of his with an illusion spell would be more than Alex deserves.
Summer is pretty hot, but Mom says she grew up in a much warmer area. Still, it’s starting to cool off now, so we—my family and Jess’s—are out at the park for one last picnic before we get into true autumn and it becomes way too cold for this. The park is miles outside of town but it’s the nearest big clearing that’s not just the hills next to the walls, so most days outside of winter you can find at least a few people out here eating or just enjoying nature. The space might be a slope filled with boulders, but the rocks are large enough to sit on and the slope is gentle, unlike the sledding hill east of town.
While my mother is a schoolteacher—for kindergarten—and my father is an architect, I’m not sure what Jess’s dad does. Her mother, everyone knows: she’s the announcer lady for the Defense Force. If you go to the information desk up front, she’s there most of the time. And whenever there’s an emergency, it’s almost always her to tell everyone to hunker down. And even if it’s not her doing the announcement, then she needs to respond quickly, because she’s also the coordinator for emergency efforts. Maybe Mr. Chesbrough gets to be a stay-at-home dad, because I bet his wife’s job pays enough. Besides, someone had to raise Jess.
“Have you thought about careers yet, Emilie?” Mr. Chesbrough asks.
Before I can answer, Mom replies, “Isn’t that a little early? She’s just starting middle school.”
“Well, that’s when you can start taking electives. I know Jessica is taking classes for combat, and she beat Jeff at the HQ.”
Jess rolls her eyes. “He chopped his legs off after I pecked his eyes, Dad. Nick says the challenge is just to see if you can adapt to something that doesn’t react in a normal way, not that Jeff is actually hard to beat.”
“Well, you fought an opponent holding a sword. There’s still something to be said for your courage.”
I feel kind of silly, but I raise my hand to speak. “Um, who’s Jeff?”
“One of Nick’s summons,” Jess answers.
“Back to my question,” Mr. Chesbrough prompts before Jess can explain further, “have you thought about it?”
My shoulders slowly rise in a light shrug. “Eh, a little? I like biology, and I like learning things. Maybe I could study wildlife? Or teach it, if I figure out how to not bore my friends. There aren’t electives for that, though, so I’m just sorta taking the required classes.”
“That should change when you get a little older. And the DF has a department that studies monsters,” Mr. Chesbrough offers.
“Not Dragons, I bet,” Al responds with a smirk.
Mr. Chesbrough’s eyebrows rise. “Actually, yes. We’ve got a bunch of records in the basement on them.”
I nod. “I know. I’ve watched them several times. Pretty much whenever Jess and I visit.” They’re really good records, but something seems… off, about the Dragons in some of them. Like they’re not actively seeking to harm people, unlike what everyone says they do. I wonder where the DF got those from?
“Emilie could probably teach the department a thing or two,” Al remarks with a chuckle, and I snap back to the conversation.
“Hey!” I respond with a slight laugh myself. “I don’t know that much!”
“Emilie. You’ve read how many books on Dragons?”
“Uh…” More than a few dozen. “I lost count.”
“I’m sure you know something. But I agree with Mom; you don’t need to know what you’re doing yet.”
“Is that because you don’t know what to do yet?” I reply smugly.
“Don’t bring me into this!”
After our meal, I asked Jess for a longer explanation on what Jeff is, while we wandered the forest near the park. In summary, a summon is a spell made into a living thing. As a result, summons can do a lot of neat stuff, but the best part is that they can’t actually die or anything. Jeff chopping his legs off was more of an inconvenience than something actually harmful; any damage is gone whenever he’s summoned again. Even if he takes so much damage that he vanishes, it’s just a matter of casting the spell once more. That explains why I see them doing construction work at the university: beyond just being stronger, it doesn’t matter to them if they lose a limb or something, because it’s not permanent. Jess says Jeff doesn’t even feel pain.
The forest is really pretty, especially when the leaves change colors, but it’s slightly too early in the year for that part. We do have good weather, though, and I don’t need more than a light jacket. Jess is just using a fire aura wand. My parents warned us not to wander too far, but it’s not like Jess couldn’t dart up to the sky to find the way back, so we’re just kinda walking whatever direction is easy to walk. Plus Jess has a communication wand and I can bet that her mother is scrying us. And people are in the area often enough that it’s not like anything sets up nests or dens around the park.
The landscape in the area is riddled with cliffs, which means we can’t just run however we like, ‘cause I’m not looking forward to a sudden hundred-foot drop. But we are looking for a cliff, because that also means that the trees aren’t blocking our view of anything and we can see for miles. Jess can do that by flying, but I can only do that from cliffsides. Or standing on the wall around town, but that’s just boring. The park might be open space but it’s still walled in by trees on all sides.
“I think I see something!” Jess exclaims, rushing forwards a bit. “Yep!” She turns around and waves to me. “It opens up over here!”
“Finally!” I exclaim, and move to join her, a little more cautiously. Jess can transform if she falls, but I don’t have a safety net. Sure enough, the area changes quickly from heavy forest to sparse, young trees and then pure rock dotted with patches of moss and short grass. I scan the rocks for a good spot to sit and look out over the mountains, and find one after a few seconds. Jess joins me shortly.
“I think views like this might be why I got that gyrfalcon spell,” Jess remarks, looking away at the horizon. “I never really got scared of heights at all, and this just looks amazing. And now I can see it all the time.”
I chuckle. “Rub it in, why don’t ya. But I know what you mean. Do you think your next one will be another bird?”
She shrugs. “No way to tell. Mom says it’ll probably be more different because of how long it’s taking, but then she also says I might not be using my own spell enough. I guess we’ll know when it happens.”
“NO!”
What—that sounded like Jess’s dad! I turn around and scream in pain! What!? There’s a pressure on my left side and I’m falling towards the rocks I’m sitting on and it’s like everything is in slow motion while I scramble to not fall off the cliff’s edge and what’s going on!?
Something is barreling through the woods (can’t see it but can hear it as it’s super loud) and there’s a growling in my left ear and a shriek of a bird further away and I’m pinned to the rocks and the right side of my head feels warm. And then the pressure is gone and I’m falling, falling and there’s a giant gray wolf falling beside me and then Mr. Chesbrough catches me and hauls me back to the clifftop. And the wolf keeps falling and I hear a few yelps and crunches as it probably hits the trees below us.
My left arm hurts.