The sound blast caused Gail, Sebastian, and Mika to cover their ears with their hands and they reeled in pain. I held up my staff. I needed to fire off another spell but the screeching sound made it impossible to concentrate.
The bat suddenly dropped from the sky. I noticed an arrow in its neck. The bat hit the ground and burst into flames. The other bat that Mika, Gail, and Sebastian had taken down also burst into flames.
“What happened?” Sebastian asked.
“Cool!” Gail smiled.
“What’s going on?” Mika asked me.
“Ah, Gwen, you’ve got to get to that opening and hold up your staff!” Merlin shouted as he pointed to the clearing.
“Will explain in a minute,” I shouted. “If I live!” I added.
I ran to the open area. I held up my staff. The cloud cover became thick. Lightning roared all around us.
“Ah, Gwen honey, holding up a stick in the middle of a lightning storm doesn’t seem right,” Mika said.
“Giant bats and talking cats don’t seem right either!” Sebastian smiled.
“Trust me!” I shouted to them. “I will explain what I can in a minute.”
“If she lives,” Merlin added.
Gwen, Mika, and Sebastian looked down at Merlin. He shrugged. “Don’t worry, she’s tough, she will,” Merlin said. “I hope.”
Lightning crackled and sizzled all around us. Thunder boomed, shaking the ground. This had to be the worst thunder storm I had ever seen. I knew it couldn’t have been natural. That meant this was what I needed.
A white hot bolt of lightning ripped from the sky and zapped into my staff.
I felt the energy race down through my staff, passing through my body and into the ground. My body sizzled. A blast of energy knocked me to the ground. The ground around me sizzled and crackled with heat. I stood up. The ground around me was black. My outfit was smoking. The clouds parted and were replaced by stars in the sky.
Gail, Sebastian, and Mika ran up to me. I held out an arm.
“Don’t touch her yet!” Merlin warned. “She’s still charged.”
I flicked my staff over my head. Energy hissed from it. I lowered my staff. My body stopped tingling. “It’s over,” I said.
“Good!” Sebastian replied. “But what the heck was that? Giant bats!! Lightning storm from nowhere! You getting hit by a giant bolt of lightning! You surviving a blast that should have killed you!” He turned to Gail and Mika. “Am I missing anything?”
“The arrow from nowhere,” Gail said.
“The talking cat,” Merlin said.
“Right, those things too!” Sebastian said.
I walked towards my friends. “Guys, I know this may be hard for you to believe, but I’m Queen Guinevere. At least I was. Now I’m just Gwen...but one day I will be Queen again.”
“The one from Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table?” Sebastian asked.
Mika looked at him. “I’m impressed you know that.”
“Hey, a guy can read,” he said.
I nodded. “Yes, that very one. The evil Morgana cast a spell on us, sending us out of our time and making all my knights and Arthur forget who they were.”
“She also turned me into a cat,” Merlin added.
“Right,” I said.
Mika bent down to pet Merlin. “And who are you?”
He cleared his throat. “I am the great wizard, Merlin.”
“Only now he’s powerless,” I sighed.
“For now,” Merlin said.
“So, ah, what was that light show about?” Gail asked. “It sure was pretty!”
“Pretty awesome,” Mika said.
“Wait, you guys weren’t freaked out?” I asked.
They shook their heads.
“I found it cool!” Sebastian said.
“I found it exciting!” Mika said.
Gail thought for a moment. “It’s different but I like different.”
I turned to Merlin. “Now, could these three be my knights?”
Merlin shrugged. “Maybe one or two but I doubt all three…”
I smiled and lifted my staff. “Good thing I have a way of finding that out now. I can just touch them with the staff and see if they remember.”
Merlin looked away from me. He coughed up a hair ball. He turned back to me. “About that…”
“Yeah, you said if I raised the staff at the right time at the right place and it got hit by lightning it would be charged!” I said glaring at Merlin.
He nodded. “That is the truth and it is charged. Kudos. Good job. Go, team. Meow!” he said with a wave of his paw.
“So it’s charged now. Correct?” I asked Merlin.
“Correct, but…” he paused.
“But what?” I demanded.
“There’s still another step. You need to activate it in battle,” Merlin said.
“Yeah well. I just faced a giant bat swarm!”
“Seven is not a swarm, it’s a group,” Merlin said.
“He has a point,” Sebastian said.
I shot Sebastian a look.
Sebastian dropped back a step. “I’m not a cat person...but the cat makes sense.”
I smiled at Sebastian. I needed that right now.
Turning my attention back to Merlin I asked, “Why didn’t you tell earlier me this was a two stage process?”
He shook his head. “I didn’t want to worry you. The second stage doesn’t matter until you complete the first stage and well, live. Which you have just done, bravo.”
“So what’s the second stage?” I asked.
“Well…”
“Ah guys, I hate to interrupt,” Gail said. “But I can hear something, I’ve always had great hearing….”
Then we all heard it. A loud buzzing sound. A sound that shook the ground beneath us. Looking up, we saw what must have been thousands of bees, big bees blotting out the sky. They made a big line of death towards us
“Now that! That's a swarm!” Merlin said.
“Ah, how do we fight that?” I asked. “I can blast some but not all of them!”
“We bravely turn our tails and/or butts and run!!” Merlin shouted. “Oh, and being a slow cat means I need to be carried.”
Gail bent down and picked up Merlin.
I pointed west. “Our car is that way!”
Mika, Sebastian, Gail and I turned and started sprinting in the direction I pointed. Without turning, we heard the buzzing roar grow louder and louder. They were growing closer.
“I’ve got to slow them down!” I shouted. I waved my staff at the swarm and shouted, “Wond Geol Niw!” A gust of wind flung from my staff pushing the bees back.
Merlin peaked up over Gail’s shoulder. “Nice use of magic! I’m proud of you. But I’m also worried it may not be enough!”
“What do you suggest?” I asked.
Suddenly, the bees burst into flames.
“What!” Mika said.
“Cool,” Gwen said.
“Actually, hot!” Sebastian said.
We all groaned.
A small white dove flew through the sky towards us. I noticed its long beak was smoking.
“Ah, saved by a Firebird,” Merlin smiled. “This is a good sign. Though I must admit, the cat part of me is embarrassed.”
“Can you talk to him or her?” I asked Merlin.
“Not sure, he may have a bird brain,” Merlin said.
“Tweet tweet tweet,” the bird said.
“He says his name is Fern and in our old world, he was a dragon. A friendly dragon.”
“Cool!” Mika said.
“So can you talk to him?” Gail asked.
I looked at Gail. “Honey, they are talking,” I smiled.
“Oh right. I should have known that! ” Gail replied, smiling.
“So why’s he a bird now?” Sebastian asked.
“Tweeeeettttt.”
Merlin nodded. “Somebody put a spell on him but he says it worked out well cause it’s easier to be a bird in th
is world.”
“I would imagine,” Sebastian said.
“Tweeeet tweeeeet….”
“Plus he kept his fire breath which still comes in handy,” he said.
I nodded. “So I noticed.” I looked at the cute little bird on my shoulder. “Will you fight with us?”
The bird bobbed his head up and down.
“He says yes!” Gail said clapping. “Right?”
“He did,” Merlin said.
“Yeah, I got that,” I told them.
“Tweet twee twit.”
“He wants to know if he can go home with you. He would be honored to always be by your side. All he asks for is water and some bird seed.”
I patted him on the head. “I think that can be arranged, Fern!”
“I hate to ask this,” Mika said. “But how can you trust a dragon that is now a bird that breathes fire? I mean, aren’t dragons bad?”
“Not all of them,” Merlin told her. “You humans just love lumping things into black and white categories. Dragons, like people, come in all shapes, sizes, and personalities. It’s quite possible to be a good dragon. I admit they are more likely to eat you than greet you, but there are exceptions.”
“Twwwweet!”
“Fern says he is the exception,” Merlin said.
“Look, Sis, if this cute little guy was an enemy, he would have fried us from the sky,” Sebastian said.
“Tweeet!”
“He says, gross but true.”
Mika nodded.
“So, what’s the next step?” Sebastian asked.
I looked at Merlin. “Good point. What is our next step?”
“That will take a tad of research….”
My notes
Wow! Now that was a lot to take in. I have done it. I have charged my staff. Of course, Merlin didn’t tell me the whole truth. Charging the staff was just the first part and now I need to activate it. But I still feel great.
Not only did I manage to succeed, I learned that my friends, my normal friends, can help. They discovered my secret and they weren’t scared. I think they are special. I now realize you don’t have to be a knight to help the cause.
Also, I now have a Firebird that was once a dragon, on my side. Yeah, I really don’t know what exactly a Firebird is but I will learn. It certainly did a number on those nasty bees.
Oh...a side note. No idea where the arrow came from that blasted the nasty bat. Could one of my knights already be out there and know who they are? If so, why are they being secretive? That doesn’t seem quite right. But like Merlin said, don’t look a gift arrow in the mouth. Yeah, it didn’t make sense but sometimes I think his cat brain overpowers his wizard brain.
On a personal note, I can’t help but notice that Sebastian is way cute.
Chapter 11
Maude and Claude drove my friends and me back to our house. They weren’t thrilled by the fact that I’d frozen them. But they were happy that my magic was becoming more powerful.
In the car, Mika, Sebastian, and Gail had some questions about my current situation but pretty much accepted my word, which was nice.
“So, Merlin, now that the staff has been charged. What now?” I asked him.
“You must activate it in a battle against ancient armor. Well, not ancient. Armor from the days of Arthur or before,” Merlin said. “Not much of it is preserved these days. However, Morgana does have one complete set.”
“Yeah, I don’t think she’ll be giving me access,” I told him.
“No, she doesn’t like you that much,” Merlin said. “But there are a couple more pieces.”
He showed me his paw. “Let me borrow your phone.”
I gave him my phone and he started typing. “I didn’t want to confirm this until I knew we were close. Time is precious so I didn’t want to waste any until I knew my time would be put to good use.”
“You sleep 90% of the time! And fart another 9% of the time!” I told him.
“Sometimes I fart while sleeping,” he said defensively. “Plus, I need to sleep to conserve my energy for when the time is right.” He showed me my phone. There on the screen was an article about the Capital City Museum’s new exclusive showing: Ancient Armor. “Tada! They have the armor we need at the Capital City Museum.”
“But it’s only open for private showings,” I said.
“True,” Merlin said with a nod of his head. “This armor is so rare they have to be very careful with it.”
“How do you suppose I see it then?” I asked.
Merlin sighed. “You’ve got magic, you’ve got friends, you can figure it out.”
“I’d like to help but I volunteer every day after school at the old folks’ home,” Gail said. “But I really want to help.”
“Yeah I’m not sure our parents will let us go to Capital City, either,” Mika said. “They’re pretty strict…”
“But we want to help,” Sebastian said, looking me in the eyes.
Before I could think of a solution, my mom’s cell phone rang over the car’s speaker. “That’s strange, it’s a call from your school,” Mom said, “and it’s a Saturday night!”
“Answer it!” Merlin ordered.
Mom shot him a look. “I don’t take orders from our cat!”
“Please,” Merlin smiled.
“That’s better,” Mom told him. She pushed a button on her phone. “Hello?”
The familiar voice of Ms. Vivian came in over the speaker. “Hello, Mrs. Smith, this is Ms. Vivian your daughter Gwen’s history teacher.”
“Ah, hello, Ms. Vivian,” Mom said. “You are on speaker phone. Is this something personal?”
Ms. Vivian chuckled. “No, not at all. It’s just that I’ve managed to arrange a last minute field trip on Monday to the Capital City Museum. I’m calling each student’s parents to get voice permission for them to go. It should be a wonderful experience. I believe they are going to let us see the rare armor they have there. Quite an experience. May I put you down as a yes?”
“Yes, of course,” Mom said.
“Oh good, I’m so pleased. All the parents have agreed to this. I expect Monday to be a special day. See you Monday, Gwen, and friends.” The phone went silent.
“Well, that worked out well,” Mika said.
Tweeeeet! Fern said.
“What did he say?” Sebastian asked Merlin.
“He said that was too easy,” Merlin said.
“Agreed,” Dad said.
“Ms. Vivian is a mage, she probably wants to help our cause,” I said.
Dad shook his head. “Still seems too easy.”
“Well, easy or not, it is a good way for us to get into the museum. I’m not about to look a gift horse in the mouth!” I said.
“That’s good, because horses have terrible breath!” Merlin said.
Everybody laughed. But it was true.
My notes
Okay, now we are getting close. If I figure out how to activate my staff at the museum, I will finally be able to start collecting my knights! Then I will finally find Arthur! And Lancelot! Of course, this relies on me trusting a teacher who is a mage. I’m sure Ms. Vivian has other motives besides just being nice. Still, I will deal with that when the time came. A good leader takes opportunities when they arise and is flexible as a plan unfolds.
Chapter 12
During the bus ride to the Capital City Museum...Gail, Mika, Sebastian and I made plans. Without Merlin or Fern, we’d be on our own, just us kids. I kind of liked it that way. I had turned my staff into a pencil and kept it in my pocket so that wouldn’t be a problem.
Ms. Vivian had lectured us at the start of the trip that the armor was very special, so the museum wanted us to save that for last. Also, we would only have five minutes in the armor room and we wouldn’t be able to touch anything. Coach Locke was also on the bus with us. He sat there next to Ms. Vivian and remained mostly quiet. He glared at Brett and Bart occasionally when they threw something at Art. A couple of times, Brett tossed me a wave
and Bart gave me a smile.
Our plan was simple. We’d get into the museum. Sebastian and I would fake bad stomach aches, saying we shared a tuna fish sandwich. We would say we needed to rush to the bathroom. We would, of course, find the armor display room. I would touch the armor with my staff and we’d be ready to roll. Mika and Gail would make sure nobody came looking for us...even if they had to create a distraction. They figured they could stage a fake argument.
Okay, it wasn’t the best plan, but it had to work.
Just as the bus rolled into the museum’s parking lot, Ms. Vivian stood up. She walked over to me. She snapped her fingers. Everybody else on the bus froze in place. “I assume you have a plan to get to the armor?” Ms. Vivian said to me.
“I do.” I pointed to Sebastian. “He’s going to help me.”
Ms. Vivian looked at Sebastian and then she looked back at me. She smiled. “Good idea. He’s strong and quick on his feet.” She touched me gently on the shoulder. “Don’t worry. I’ll keep the class and the other teachers occupied. They won’t follow you.”
We walked into the museum and were greeted by a tall, old man who used a walking stick. “Hello class, my name is Mr. Moon, I will be your escort while you are in our fine museum. I will also be your guide.”
Bart and Brett snickered and said under their breath, “Mr. Moon! Ha! This is going to be a SLOW trip around the museum!”
Ms. Vivian turned to us, “Now, class, I expect you to give Mr. Moon your complete attention.”
The class nodded obediently but also half-heartedly. We started following Mr. Moon like we were lemurs. We walked past a couple of neat paintings. I actually felt too nervous to pay much attention (okay any attention) to what Mr. Moon was saying. Sebastian and I exchanged looks. I shook my head, it still wasn’t the time to make our move.
We came to an area displaying heaps of neat dinosaur bones. A lot of members of the class were really paying attention to these, especially the big T-Rex dominating the middle of the big room. For a second or two, caught up in the majesty of this huge beast, I forgot about our quest, It certainly could have given a dragon a run for its money. I wondered if it was related to dragons.
Girl to the Rescue! Page 5