Bright Is Her Sight_An Urban Fantasy Action Adventure

by Judith Berens

  Everyone laughed, and Emma smiled as the magic of the room removed the milk and orange juice concoction and placed toast in front of her instead. She happily picked up a piece and took a bite.

  “No more cereal?” Peter asked.

  “No, I thought it would be safer with toast.” She laughed, elbowing Ethan. “It’s already buttered and everything.”

  “But would you like some jam?” Ethan asked, pulling out his wand again eagerly.

  Emma pushed his wand down. “No, thank you. I think that’s quite enough for one breakfast.”

  Across the room, a group had gathered around one of the tables. Everyone laughed excitedly, watching one of the sophomores mixing a large glass of maple syrup and orange juice. His friend stood behind him, massaging his shoulders looking down as the sweet syrup swirled around the glass. The boy wrinkled his nose and stared at it for a moment before pushing up his sleeves and taking a deep breath.

  He picked up the glass, put it to his lips, and started to chug. Globs of maple syrup floated into his mouth, causing him to stop for a moment and swallow them. The crowd around them grew larger, everyone chanting his name and pounding on the table.

  “Chris, Chris, Chris, Chris.” The boy drank faster.

  Small dribbles of orange juice flowed down his chin, caught by a napkin he held underneath. Next to them a group of senior girls turned back around, rolling their eyes and trying to block out the loud chanting in their ears. They didn’t like sophomores, and especially didn’t like anything that drew the attention from them. The guys on the other side of them, though, thought it was hilarious. They stood up in their seats to get a better view, chanting and pumping their fists.

  The kid continued to gulp, swallowing as much as he could and wishing for the end to be near. The mixture was impossibly sweet and incredibly thick, since the others had dumped almost the entire bottle of maple syrup into the glass. Ethan laughed and got out of his chair to run over and chant. Kathleen rolled her eyes and focused on eating, knowing that as soon as the bell rang the food would disappear.

  “Seriously?” She groaned. “These boys act like such Neanderthals. You would never guess they were capable of powerful magic, especially not while orange juice and syrup run down their chins. And what happens? The rest of them encourage it.”

  “They’re just having fun.” Luke chuckled. “We’re kids! We’re supposed to be having fun. Once you get out of school, it’s like all the fun stops or something. Can you imagine one of our parents sitting in some fancy restaurant chugging their drink while everyone chants?”

  “I’m sure my dad does that at the bar sometimes.” Peter chuckled. “My mom said that sometimes he gets stuck in college mode, forgetting he is a full-grown man. She acts like she hates it, but I think she secretly finds it thrilling.”

  “Gross.” Kathleen grimaced. “Old-people love. They always want to act like they are younger than they really are. I totally will never be that girl, or allow my husband to do something stupid like that.”

  “Then you better start using that magic to build one.” Luke laughed. “I don’t think controlling your husband’s behavior is in the wedding vows.”

  Alison laughed at the conversation, turning around in her chair and resting her chin on her arms. She watched the energies in her mind—each individual person, their irritations, their excitement, and their happiness. She could almost pick out which group was which just by the colors swirling around. Everyone around the kid had blue and bright yellow energies, excitement oozing from them.

  Next to them were the popular girls. Alison could see flecks of red irritation with a secret swish of yellow excitement fluttering around. They wanted to act like they thought they were above it, like they thought it was juvenile, but inside they were just as amused as everyone else. That was one thing cool about energies—they never lied about emotions. You could hide it on your face, in your voice, and even trick yourself into thinking you didn’t feel that way, but energy always told the truth.

  Alison loved watching souls and energy. She could see so much joy and contentment. It was something she hadn’t seen a lot of since she was really little. She loved to be around that kind of atmosphere. It lifted her spirits and made life worth living. When you had the opportunity to be in an atmosphere like the school, you could open up and let go, taking pleasure in the small things—like an idiot gulping down maple syrup.

  Izzie laughed, bumping her shoulder into Alison. “They are so goofy.”

  “How is he doing?” she asked in a whisper with a smile.

  “He is about three-quarters of the way done, and not slowing down. I’m pretty impressed. You would think the syrup would coat his throat.”

  “You think you could do it?” Alison asked with a laugh.

  “Could I do it? Yeah, probably. Would I do it? Uh, no. That is asking for a one-way trip to Diabetes with Wilford Brimley.”

  Alison laughed. “What is that?”

  “Oh, it’s just this commercial I remember seeing when I was little. It’s this old guy, some actor, doing an infomercial on some diabetic medication. They turned it into like memes and videos and all kinds of hilarious stuff.”

  “Sounds funny.”

  Izzie turned back around and looked down at her food. She didn’t know where that memory had come from, but she could remember watching that so clearly. From what she could remember, the orphanage hadn’t had any televisions. She shrugged, figuring it was just her mind sorting things out. It kind of jumped from one hazy memory to another, never fully developing a cohesive train of thought. At that point, though, she was glad she had a small memory like that. Everything else was like one big blurry moment in time all squished together. If someone had asked her something specific about a certain age, she wouldn’t have known where to start.

  Peter sat up in his chair and looked at the door, then put his hand to his mouth and forced a cough to sound a warning.

  “Teacher.” He coughed. “Warning. Teacher.”

  Ethan looked up and tapped the others, who slunk back to their seats. Walking through the room was handsome Elias Hodges, transformations teacher, shifter, and the heartthrob of the school. All of the girls thought he was gorgeous, and even some of the teachers got a little nervous around him. He was wearing a gray suit that had been perfectly tailored to his tall, slender, muscular body. Under the jacket was a black button-down with the top three buttons left undone. His hair was perfectly coiffed, and he flashed a perfect smile as he walked.

  All the girls in the room sighed in unison, as he sauntered over to the table where everyone had been just moments before. He put his hand to his coat and unbuttoned it, sticking one hand in his pocket and staring at the kid. The kid still hadn’t noticed that the chanting had stopped or that a teacher was standing in front of him. He finished the last gulp of his concoction and slammed the glass down on the table, lifting his arms over his head in pride.

  He looked up at Elias, and his face went pale and he dropped his hands into his lap. Elias picked up the empty bottle of syrup and looked at it for a moment before setting it back down.

  “And what were you drinking?”

  “Uh, maple syrup and orange juice.”

  “And why were you chugging that?”

  The kid looked down embarrassed. “To win a dollar.”

  “A dollar?”

  Elias turned his head, trying to stifle his laugh. The kid looked like he was about to ralph. There was syrup dripping down his chin, an orange stain on the front of his shirt, and a look of shame on his face. It was so typical of kids that age. Elias was trying not to endorse it, but he was struggling to hold in the laugh. He took a deep breath and turned back to the kid.

  “You should think more of yourself,” he suggested calmly.

  “Yes, sir,” the kid replied, hanging his head.

  Elias leaned forward and looked the kid in the eye. “At least get five dollars for that much maple syrup.”

  The kid looked wildly at the syru
p container and back at Elias. Elias smirked and gave him a wink, turning around and looking at all the other kids. Some of them were laughing, while others tried hard not to make eye contact.

  “Finish your breakfasts. Class starts in fifteen minutes, and I don’t want to see a single one of you syrup-guzzling fools coming into my class even a second late. In fact, if you have time to guzzle, you have time to take a first-day-of-school quiz.”

  A number of kids groaned, obviously having him for the first period of the day. He clapped his hands together and walked back out, ignoring the dreamy glances being thrown by the female contingent on his way out. Ethan laughed, picking up his bacon and popping it into his mouth.

  “I like that guy. He’s okay.”

  “For a shifter, you mean?” Luke grumbled.

  “Well, I think you’re okay for a shifter. A little whiny but—”

  Luke laughed and punched Ethan in the side. “So what class is everyone in first?”

  They went around the table, everyone saying Botanicals. Luke nodded. “Me too.”

  “I’m excited about it,” Emma offered with a bit too much enthusiasm. “I mean, I really like working with plants, and I have been looking forward to this class.”

  “As long as there are no blood-sucking flowers and the bugs leave me alone, I’m fine with it,” Kathleen replied, still eating.

  Aya stared at Kathleen, obviously trying to decide whether she should say what was on her mind. “You know, Kathleen, if you skip the perfume, the bugs won’t be as attracted to you. They like flowers, and you smell like one.”

  “And do what? Walk around smelling like person? My mother imported that perfume from Oriceran. It’s made of real mehola flowers from the shores. They are the sweetest flower in the whole universe. I literally smell like no one and nothing else on Earth.”

  “Yeah, which attracts bugs.”

  Ethan chuckled. “I’m surprised you haven’t been swarmed by bees yet.”

  “I kind of have.” Kathleen grimaced. “In Hawaii, but it was a fluke. I won’t sacrifice luxury for some little beady-eyed flying things. I will just have to be careful, that’s all.”

  “Fine, but if bees start to swarm, I get to be the person who hoses you down.”

  Kathleen shook her head and rolled her eyes before finishing her food and taking a sip of her hot coffee. She wiped her hands and mouth and pulled her bag into her lap, looking in her hand mirror to fix her makeup. She snapped it shut, and when she spritzed a little more perfume on everyone around her backed up, not wanting to be the next victim of a bee attack. As she finished the first bell rang, and the food began to disappear off the table.

  Izzie frowned as the rest of her pancakes disappeared, but shrugged it off and picked up her bag. She made her way to Alison and waited for her to gather her the books from the table. Alison smiled as she focused on Kathleen’s energy.

  “I think you smell wonderful. Don’t let a few bees get in the way.”

  She was being nice and sarcastic at the same time, but Kathleen only caught the nice part. She smiled proudly and nodded before walking off. Alison giggled a little bit and Izzie elbowed her, holding back a laugh.

  Alison shrugged. “What? It’s not like we were going to change her mind. And she really does smell nice.”

  Ethan put his arms in the air as he walked away. “And then the bees descended!”

  6

  Lucy Fowler stood at the tree line wrapped in a patchwork coat, a bright purple scarf, and a thick knitted hat to match. Her long, wiry, frizzy red hair ballooned below the hat, flapping wildly around her in the wind. She swirled her scarf as she spoke about the importance of botanicals.

  “Everything in this world started out as an organic organism. From the food we eat to the medicine we take, and even the sheets we lie on, almost everything includes some sort of plant that grew in Earth’s soil. On Oriceran it is no different. In fact, we know that Oriceran lacks technology and all those fancy lab-grown textiles, everything there comes from magic or a botanical.”

  She rubbed her gloved fingers over her red nose. Each of the glove’s fingertips bore a cat’s face. She was an eccentric woman, always talking in the grandest of voices and wearing whatever her heart desired. Her wild red hair matched her wild personality perfectly.

  “Now, you may be wondering why in the world crazy Professor Fowler has you out here in the bitter cold in the dead of winter when there isn’t a single leaf on a tree? Well, I’ll tell you. We are coming closer to my favorite season of all—spring, when everything blossoms and comes to life. As you might have noticed, though, I am not a patient woman, so we brought some specialty blooms back from Oriceran and planted them to grow wild right here in our very own Dark Forest. Today we are going to be exploring these beautiful babies, and we’ll use a little bit of magic to help get them through this last bitter bit of winter.”

  Horace walked up carrying two potted plants. He nodded at Izzie, who was standing next to Alison, the two of them shivering in their boots. Mrs. Fowler took one of the pots.

  “I wanted you to know exactly what you were looking for when we were out there, so dear Mr. Rigsby has been tending these two beautiful plants for me all winter. This one, with the bulb at the end, blooms late winter or early spring, but if the weather is too cold, you must use a little magic to help it get some sunlight. Anyone know what this is?”

  Kathleen stuck her hand in the air. “It’s a mehola plant.”

  “Exactly. Now the other is a type of grass, coming alive in the spring and summer but going dormant in the winter. However, unlike many Earth plants, the mission grass does not turn brown or die. It just doesn’t grow in the cold, so we have a beautiful green plant in the midst of our snowy winters. So we will be going into the woods and down the path—you don’t want to step on anything trying to grow—and when we find them, we will do a little experiment.”

  Mrs. Fowler handed the pots back to Horace and started into the woods, the rest of the class following her, just happy to be moving a bit. They had all been instructed to wear their uniform coats, which were thick knee-length pea coats that went over their uniforms. Several of them were wearing hats and gloves as well, and all of them had put on boots before trekking through the mud and the snow. Izzie and Alison walked side by side.

  Peter walked next to Aya, head tipped back to stare at the canopy. When he tripped over a branch in the path and nearly took down everyone in front of him, Aya pulled him back up and laughed, shaking her head. They stopped for a moment to let Mrs. Fowler get her bearings, and looked around the woods that surrounded them. Aya watched a small squirrel flirt his bushy tail as he stood on a branch and screeched in their direction.

  “You making friends out here?” Aya asked Peter, pointing at the squirrel.

  Peter shook his head and started walking forward after Mrs. Fowler when she started down the trail once more. “Nope, that little devil tried to kill me. He was really tricky. Seriously, watch your back.”

  Ethan chuckled, listening to Peter talk about it. That squirrel had really taken a toll on Peter. Ethan put his hand on Peter’s shoulder and leaned forward.

  “Are you going to have a squirrel phobia for the rest of your life?”

  “Maybe,” the squirrel’s victim growled.

  Mrs. Fowler pointed to the right. “That open area is a lilac patch I planted myself. Very beautiful when they bloom. To the left is where the lavender grows. Lavender grows on Oriceran too, just under the name ‘lystander.’ It is used in many things here and on Oriceran. I think it’s fascinating that one species of the same plant is on both planets. It shows you just how connected we really are.”

  Alison listened to the chirping of the birds and the swaying of the trees’ branches as they walked, clutching her coat to her. They had been in the forest before to go down to their hangout by the stream, but never in this part of it. The sounds were different, and Alison wondered if there were any magical creatures out there, as there were in the othe
r sections of the forest.

  Mrs. Fowler stopped and faced the class. “Here we are. To your right, you will find a patch of the bulbs of the beautiful and sweet-smelling Oriceran mehola flower. I want you to watch closely first, and then you will split into pairs and perform the magic yourselves.”

  She bent down in front of one of the waving buds. “We want to coax the buds with magic, getting them to open up and take in some of the sun coming through the trees. The words whispered will be ‘Optimus Blooms.’”

  The students gathered around and watched as Mrs. Fowler waved her wand carefully over the flower, whispering the incantation. A light mist of sparkling pink light showered the bloom and the flower moved right and left, its leaves unfurling like a person stretching their arms. She leaned down and talked to the bloom.

  “Come on, just for a moment. Take in some light, little one.”

  The flower slowly opened, growing taller as it reached for the beams of light that penetrated the forest canopy. It basked in the sun for a few moments and then slowly closed, stiffening again. Mrs. Fowler smiled and stood up.

  “That’s it—just like that. They will only take in the sun for a moment, but you will have to talk to them a bit. Now, pair up and find a bud.”

  Izzie squeezed Alison’s arm, and Alison nodded. They went over to a bud, and the two of them bent down in front of it. Alison ran her hands up the stalk, carefully cupping the closed blossom. She took a deep breath and swirled her hand over the top of the bud.

  “Optimus Bloom.”

  Izzie smiled, watching the pink sparkly mist flow easily from Alison’s palm to float down over the flower. Alison’s Drow power awakened after a long holiday sleep, and it felt stronger than ever before. A spell like that seemed almost effortless to her.

  The flower stretched wide, and without coaxing opened right up, swaying back and forth to take in the sunlight. Mrs. Fowler came over and patted Alison on the back.

  “Now, this one really likes sun. You need to tell it to close, or it will freeze.”