Before they realized it, it was time to go back to school. Katy was no closer to the answer of how Deen and she were connected to Goodness and Darkness, she just knew they were. They would need answers and soon. Through the whole plane ride back to school Katy kept to herself; lost in her thoughts. By the time they landed she knew that something would come to blows this term. She could feel it in the air. And her fears were confirmed when she saw Riley had waited for her.
“Little sister, we need to talk.” Riley stated and grabbed her up in a hug.
“What is it?” Katy put her guards up; she braced herself for the worse.
“Raven… I don’t know how she has the power she does, she never did before. She has been getting into the grounds. I was going to stay during break, but three days in she tried to attack me. So I ended up staying at with Jane and Sandra and the Hepburn’s place. Professor MacCathmhaoil went somewhere, I don’t know where but it had to be important. He left in a middle of mixing his potions, in his work room and left his potion studio open for the whole world to get into. If Edgar and Professor MacCathmhaoil hadn’t been around, I don’t know what would have happened. Edgar came here for a meeting with the headmaster. I know he didn’t stay long because he had to get back to your trip. Then the professor was called away.” Riley explained as they walked straight to the dining hall.
Katy felt herself start to lose her calm; she wanted Raven out of their lives. She didn’t know what else that woman would do, but she knew that if she wasn’t stopped it would cause a lot more pain for Katy in the long run. “Don’t worry; Raven Ebony will get what is coming to her.” Katy stated simply.
“Katy…” Riley couldn’t get into her thoughts, but he caught a glimpse of darkness before she closed down.
“Don’t worry Riley, I won’t seek her out.” Katy said with a straight face. But she knew one more mistake from Raven Ebony she would seek her out. Even if she died, perhaps that would be enough to make sure her family was safe, even though she was just a few months from being eleven she knew what needed to be done, she had lived through worse. She may have grown up to fast, but it was easy price to pay for protecting those she loved.
Riley just looked at her but let it drop. “Okay, look let’s just get through this term and we can figure out what to do about Aunt Raven.” Riley stated then walked over to his table and took his spot.
Katy went down and sat next to Deen. “Katy, what are you hiding?” Deen asked her as soon as she sat down.
“Nothing.” Katy looked straight at him and lied, she had figured she could have her mind open but keep certain parts closed.
“Hmmm….” Deen didn’t say anything but turned and started to talk to Randall and Rory.
Katy listened for the headmaster, sure that he would walk the hall as he spoke with Edgar, or somebody. What they kept from her may fill in the blanks she had, or then again they may cause more questions. Katy heard them as they came down the hall, and smirked.
“I told you this is not the time to tell her. And you are not to speak of your suspensions!” The headmaster had raised his voice, and it scared her.
“Look I believe she needs to know! Why do we continue to argue this point! She is your…” Edgar was cut off.
“ENOUGH Edgar Hepburn! You know she is listening! You know she knows we are hiding stuff from her! I do not believe a twelve year old is ready for this information, no matter how close she is to being thirteen, no matter how mature she is, she will not find out this information until I feel she is ready! She is still a child Edgar, who has done so much and seen more than any child should have to, I will try to allow her as much of a childhood, as much of an illusion of a childhood, that I can give her.”
“It is already hurting her! It has already destroyed her childhood! Don’t you care?”
“EDGAR HEPBURN, I CARE MORE THAN YOU CAN EVER KNOW!” The anger in Headmaster O’Cuinn’s voice scared Katy, but she continued to listen. “I know what you think, but you are wrong. I do care, and it because I care I do the things I do.”
“Won’t you even consider it?”
“I will not tell her.”
“I don’t agree with you. She needs to know.” Edgar stated and Katy could hear him walk away.
Katy could hear the headmaster sigh and then swish into the dining hall; he sought her out and locked his eyes with Katy’s. She allowed him to hear all her questions, to feel her fear, she even let him hear the darkness in her thoughts. She was so confused, what was it, they hid from her. She could hear his voice echo inside her mind. “In time. I promise. Trust me.” Katy nodded her head, and turned her attention back to the boys and the last Eleball game which ended with Spirit winning.
Katy figured she would have some time to allow things to be normal, but small things started to change. More and more creatures started to seek her out. She sat with Deen as they studied Pari. Pari was a fairy born out of the flame of the fire that one burned to mourn the loss of a witch or warlock. They are super beautiful, and sing mostly mourning songs for the witches and warlocks that were lost. They are told to however have the most beautiful songs about life and happiness. Professor O’Conaill said he could not convince any of them to come to his younger classes, so they studied them out of the book. Katy sat there and waited for class to end, she had already read the section on the Pari, when she heard it.
“Rejoice she has returned. Goodness is here once more. Fear not young children, rest your head. Let the Pari sing you to sleep. Goodness will once again bring us peace. Peace and harmony, Goodness brings.” The song came from the woods. Katy moved to investigate, but Professor O’Conaill stopped her.
“Katherine, no. You are not to leave the grounds any longer.”
“But don’t you hear them?”
“Hear what?”
“The music. Something is singing. About Goodness returning. Don’t you hear it?”
Before the professor could respond a swarm of Pari flew above her, they circled her and sang their song.
“Oh…” Katy stated. “They are so pretty.” Katy saw that they were small little humans with butterfly wings, some dark, some light, but all beautiful in their own right. They sang with the sweetest voices.
One floated down to her. “Thank you. You are pretty yourself. Don’t worry we will not harm you. We just wanted to meet you. We are the Pari.”
“I am Katy.”
“We know. Believe in yourself young one.” Then they were gone.
But before anybody could speak another group came up but they were definitely not the social type. Katy only knew what they were because she had read Riley’s fifth year Creatures book, Dark Creatures and Their Benefits. They were Buccas. They are like hobgoblins, they never interact with mortals. They were the myth behind the boogeyman. They would only show up to scare children they considered naughty. If they child didn’t change its ways they would come back and drag the child to their home and change them into a Bucca. They were small little dark greenish blue beings, with bright yellow eyes; they had sharp claws that they used to climb the side of the walls of any house they visited, but normally they lived on the side of a cliff that boarders an ocean. They are very rarely seen.
“Back!” Professor O’Conaill stated as he jumped between them and the children.
“Fear not, we just came to see her.” One spoke, with a gravelly voice.
“This is her? She is so small…” Another stated.
“Move, wolf, we want to see her.”
“I think you should leave.” Professor O’Conaill told them.
“Fine. But we will be back. After all the Alicha has told all magical creatures. You know. Your meeting started with a word from the Alicha. The wolves have already made their choice. You get to see her, watch her, and teach her. Why not the rest of us?”
“Take it up with the headmaster if you want a job here.” The professor growled, his eyes turned a bright yellow.
“Don’t test us wolf.”
“Get out of here. She is a child. Not anything but a child.”
“We shall leave for now.” The Buccas disappeared. “But we will return for the queen”
“Professor…” Katy started her question.
“Class dismissed.” Professor O’Conaill stated, before she could finish. “Katherine, go straight to your next class.” He then left and Katy followed his order, she was upset that she didn’t get ask her question. She didn’t know what it meant, but Pari fairies and Buccas didn’t just appear like that. And to say they would be back for the queen. That struck a fear deep in her soul. Katy tried to put it out of her mind, but that was not the only strange thing. More and more creatures came to meet her; some didn’t even wait for her to go outside.
One day during potions, she had just finished her mix for a new potion they had learned when there was a huge crash. The windows were all busted out. And around Katy was a group of cats. But when they meowed at her, it came out as something else. They were Pukis. Dragons that protect the houses of witches and warlocks.
“So this is her? The one that shall protect us all. She is so small.”
“I can understand you.” Katy stated.
“We figured as much. Can the others?”
“Can anybody else understand the Pukis?”
Everybody but Antonio shook their head no. “I can. You should not be here.” Antonio said to the Pukis.
“We had to come see her.”
“She does not even know.”
“Stop talking like I am not here! What is going on?”
“Nothing for you to worry about, they know you are involved in the upcoming war. They talked to the Alicha and they were told you were the one he had talked to, I am sure.” Antonio stated.
“Yes, the Alicha told everybody.”
“Why?” Katy asked.
“Time will reveal all.”
“Leave.” Antonio told them.
“Fine.” They said to Antonio “Miss Katherine, we will be back.” They jumped out the windows and then changed back into the dragons they really were, and flew towards the sun.
The term went by quickly after all it was a lot of review and year end testing to go over. The visits died down after the headmaster created a spell to keep the creatures at bay, but some still got through. Katy learned to accept them, though they would not give her any real information. Even some of the professors, the ones from a magical creature background, had started to look at her differently. The History professor is the only one who seemed to not care or not notice what went on around him. History was really hard this year, and she was glad the professor didn’t care. Even though Katy complained about the work they had to do for their classes, it was welcomed, as it allowed her to pretend that everything was normal.
It was really cold out once again, and Katy choose to spend her time indoors, that is until Riley and Deen choose she had spent enough time inside and dragged her outside. However, Katy knew the quiet calm would not last and she would have to be ready for that day. Until then, she would try to find out as much as she could about why the creatures sought her out, why even the professors looked at her differently. Somehow Katy made it through the semester, the nightmares still came, the white being still visited her, almost nightly, but from Raven Ebony they heard nothing. But Katy knew she wouldn’t stay quiet long.
On the last day weekend before finals she walked out of the library; it was almost time for an early supper, and was headed up to the dorm to get Deen, when a pain went through her. She fell to the ground; she didn’t know what had happened. She cried out in pain, but no sound came from her. All of a sudden she saw Raven, as she stood over her, but it wasn’t Katy she stood over. It was Riley! She was set to deal a death blow. “NOOOOOOOOOO.” With everything she had she threw her power at Riley, and teleported him from that location. She knew that he would have had to be outside the school for it to work.
It seemed like forever, it seemed like time stopped, but soon Katy felt him land in the town outside the school. She stood and ran, though all the pain she still felt, she ran to Riley. To her brother, to the one that Raven tried to go through, but Raven failed. “RILEY!” Katy yelled as she ran out the door as soon as she hit the boarder of the school she teleported to where she knew Riley was, just outside the town. She dropped to her knees beside Riley. She took a moment to check of his vitals before she grabbed a hold of him and transported outside the school grounds. Nobody was around, she knew she couldn’t teleport into the school hospital but she could use her powers. Katy closed her eyes with all her might she called upon Air and Earth to help them get to the hospital ward quickly.
The doors burst open and when Katy opened her eyes they were in the hospital. “NURSE RICE!” Katy yelled. Nurse Rice stuck her head out of her office, saw the scene and rushed over to them. But before she could ask anything or even voice her shock, Katy was gone again. Katy went to seek out Raven Ebony.
Katy knew what she should do. She should go to Edgar. But Raven crossed a line. She knew what she was about to do was wrong on some level, but right on another. She would follow through with the plan set in motion. She didn’t know where to start, but she had vague images, then a clear one came to her mind. It was the cemetery where she found the Prophecy Ball. She was about to teleport when somebody grabbed her arm. She turned quickly ready to strike. But it was Deen. “What are you doing Deen?”
“I am coming with you.” Deen stated simply.
“Deen…”
“Look, I know you are doing what you feel you must do. But I am coming with you. I don’t want you to be alone again.” Deen said and grabbed her hand.
“Fine, hang on!” Katy yelled as they teleported to the same dark cemetery she was at last year.
Kris Charles - Author 