Alana continued. “And Ms. Montrose talks to us and tells us that we have half-human characteristics. After that she tells us some strange story about our parents and why they were abducted. My question is, why does she need us? I mean, she can just have sent those two men, Viktor and Derek. They could have stolen the locket, and saved Mom and Dad. After all, Ms. Montrose was the first person who knew that Mom and Dad had the locket. She could have taken it and protected it herself.”
“Why does she want us to do everything? I mean, we’re only kids.” Alana stopped speaking, waiting for an answer from Sam. Sam continued to remain silent, waiting for Alana to speak, and she did.
“Ms. Montrose also mentioned that this was a nocturnal school. Why aren’t we at training now?” Sam thought about all of Alana’s questions carefully. “I don’t know,” he said Alana looked extremely annoyed. “Anyway, Sam,” she said, “let’s get to bed.” Just as she said that, there was a soft knock on the door. Sam searched the room for a clock, wondering who would come to their room so late in the night. Surprisingly, Sam found a clock perched on his bedside table. The clock read 9:27 p.m. He hadn’t eaten anything since breakfast and was starving.
The thought of food reminded Sam how if their parents weren’t kidnapped, they would be enjoying a nice, typical Saturday night’s spaghetti and meatballs dinner. Sam was about to speak to Alana, but a series of knocks interrupted their conversation.
Alana rushed to the door and opened it. She glared at a small figure standing in the doorway. “What?” she asked, coldly. A small, confident voice responded, “Ms. Montrose sent me. May I come in?” Without even waiting for a reply, the small figure walked in. Sam recognized the figure as the little girl who had gotten a basketball stuck in her throat. She appeared to be about eight years old, was short, and had light brown hair, brown eyes, and a bulbous nose.
“My name’s Avery, Avery Magmoto,” said the girl. “I have your breakfast.” She stepped back into the hallway and emerged a few seconds later, pushing a steel cart with many dishes on it. There were bowls of salad filled with leafy lettuce, juicy tomatoes, buttered croutons and Italian vinaigrette. This was breakfast? Why would anyone have breakfast in the night? And what kind of breakfast options were these?
Sam eyed the food suspiciously, his eyes sweeping over the chicken, the pasta, the lemonade, and then the cake. Sam didn’t know what to say. He was extremely hungry, but he did not want to eat anything from this place. He turned to Alana, who was standing right beside him, with a look of disgust on her face. “Hi,” said Alana, with forced animation. She plastered a fake smile on her face, then walked back to her bed and sat down.
“Thank you so much for coming,” she said sarcastically. Sam was quite annoyed with Alana’s behavior. Alana was usually a cheerful, kind person, whose bravery and courage inspired others. However, in certain circumstances, Alana could be unpleasant. Sam stepped in and spoke next, attempting to be kind to their guest. “Hi, I’m Sam, and that’s my sister Alana,” he said. “Nice to meet you, little girl.” He soon realized that those were the worst six words he could have said in his life.
INITIATION
Avery emerged from behind the metal cart looking furious. “I AM NOT A LITTLE GIRL!” she screamed. “I am fourteen years old. I’m older than you two!” Avery continued to shriek, her voice high pitched and loud. Suddenly, her voice turned into a low, deadly hiss. When she opened her mouth to speak, two fangs dripping spit were visible. A long, forked tongue could be seen in between the fangs. Alana gave Sam a frightened look. There was nothing they could do now. Avery was clearly upset. She advanced toward them, her face, an odd tinge of green. Her skin looked extremely waxy, and she looked deranged. Sam was petrified with fear. He looked around the room, hoping to find something that could signal for help. He found nothing, but, help came. A blur of brown streaked through the room, and pounced on Avery. An intense duel began, and the two creatures exchanged blows. In a matter of seconds, Avery was lying on the ground, flat on her back. A tall, brown creature, that looked slightly human and slightly monkey-like was peering over her. The creature slowly transformed into a human. It was a slender girl with wavy brown hair.
“Hi,” she said. “My name’s Iyesha Brown. I just happened to be walking down this hallway, and I saw that Avery was having a little disagreement with you.” She turned around and glared at Avery, who was still lying on the ground, dazed. Avery had lost her snake-like appearance, and Iyesha looked nothing like the hairy, monkey-like creature Sam had seen before. “I am so sorry if Avery made a bad first impression on you. She loses her temper very easily.” “Well,” said Alana, “Sam and I are quite appalled at what just happened. We would love to stay and chat about the incident, but we are really tired and have got to get to bed. We’ll see you two ladies tomorrow.”
“What do you mean?” said Iyesha. “We won’t be awake till tomorrow night. You’ve got to come to training now.” “Oh,” said Alana. “Well, in that case, we’ll just grab our instruction maps from the room and meet you outside. Please excuse us.” Avery and Iyesha stepped out of the room and closed the door behind them. Alana began to ramble on about the incident.
“Did you see that?” she said. “That kid could have bitten our heads off!” Now that Alana had spoken about the incident, Sam had become agitated. As if there weren’t enough things going wrong, Alana had to go ahead and point them out. He was about to yell at her, but instead gave her a disapproving look. Alana returned his look and said, “Give me one reason why we should trust this place.” She continued, “First, our parents are kidnapped. Then, those mysterious men bring us here. After that, we meet Ms. Montrose, and she spins some story about our parents and tells us a bunch of rubbish, that we’re half human and half mythical creature. And then that girl Avery transforms into a mutant snake and almost kills us. I mean, who can we trust in this place?”
Sam became even more annoyed with Alana. As it was, their situation was compromised, and now Alana was making a scene. “Alana,” he said dryly, “grab our instruction manuals and let’s get going. We don’t want to keep the girls waiting.” Alana did as Sam had instructed. She searched the room until she finally found the instruction manuals that Ms. Montrose had mentioned to them. Soon, they met the girls outside and followed them through a series of long hallways and into the training center.
Sam was amazed as he entered a brightly lit dome-shaped room with its walls decorated with fascinating gadgets. The room was crowded with people, who were all sitting in small groups beside plaques that identified their group. As Sam scanned the room, he saw a tall, slender girl with wavy brown hair and a pair of aqua blue glasses that were perched crookedly on the bridge of her nose. The oddest thing about her, though, was her eyes. Her eyes were an astonishing shade of lime green, almost unnatural. The girl was isolated in a corner, sitting under a small plaque. Sam looked away from her and gazed at the other children, who did not appear the least bit interesting. He gazed back at the girl, amazed to see that her eyes were now a soft, light orange. He walked a little closer and was able to read the plaque. In small, cursive letters, it read, “Chameleon.” Under the plaque, Sam noticed a piece of paper, which had only one name on it, “Bridjette Payge.” Now Sam understood that they were to be seated in groups to identify the Transmalians that they were. “Alana,” he said, “find the plaques that say unicorn and dragon. That’s where we need to be seated.” Alana scanned the room and pointed to a plaque that was toward the back of the dome, where no one was standing. “That’s your group,” said Alana. She left Sam by himself, and walked toward a plaque that was hanging by itself more toward the middle of the room.
Just after Sam found his name on the plaque, also the only one, he sat down. A short, plump woman walked into the room. She had a malicious twinkle in her dull, gray eyes, and her thin, blond hair was wispy, almost looking like a wig. Her face was pale and her eyes looked sunken. Everyone in the room looked fearful and scared. Whispers filled the room. Sam c
ould make out two words, “Igneatas Ivy.” As soon as Sam had begun to relax, the plump woman, or Ivy, spoke in a low, rough voice. “Welcome, children,” she said sinisterly. “Welcome to your first day in the training room.”
The next few hours were spent listening to Ivy’s rough voice droning on and on about the equipment used in the training room, the training room hours, lunch and dinner breaks, and so on. Sam couldn’t focus, and he didn’t even have enough energy to find Alana and see what she was doing.
He was certain that being nocturnal was not his thing. Since he couldn’t pay attention to what Ivy was saying, he decided that he would ask Alana about everything when they woke up the next evening. Sam was extremely tired and could not bear to stay awake any longer. He wished that he had brought his watch with him. He looked around the room for a clock, and saw that it was about 4 a.m. Only two more hours of training room torture remained. Sam didn’t think he would make it.
As Sam groggily stared at the clock, he wondered why he was so unfortunate as to be forced to stay awake all night. Just as Sam thought things wouldn’t get any worse, Ivy made an announcement. “Children, since this is your first day of training, the class session has been extended. Instead of leaving for dinner at 6 a.m., we will leave for dinner at 9 a.m.” Then, she gave a wicked cackle and yelled, “Lunch break!” Everyone in the room was moaning.
As the students wearily filed out of the cavernous room, Sam noticed something very odd. Instructor Ivy stood in the corner speaking to a young girl in a sinister manner. Come to think of it, Sam remembered the girl. She was the one who was sitting in the Chameleon group, the one whose eyes changed colors. But, being exhausted, Sam decided to ignore this. He trudged into the cafeteria, and even before he could find Alana, he collapsed to the ground, his head hitting the cold floor.
For the next few minutes, all Sam could remember was being roughly lifted up to his feet and shoved into the crowd of students scrambling hastily to get back to the training room. As soon as he settled down in the training room, Sam dozed off. The next thing he could recall was being prodded severely in the arm by a classmate, alerting him that it was dinnertime. About an hour later, Sam was startled back to his senses with the sound of Instructor Ivy’s thundering voice echoing in his ears.
Again Sam dragged himself to the cafeteria, wondering why there was such a short gap between lunch and dinner. He managed to pull himself to a table and promptly fell asleep. Sam was woken up by Alana’s clever tactic of pouring warm milk on his face. He glared at her, feeling bitter, defeated, and wet. “Just thought you wanted to know it’s bedtime,” said Alana. “Thanks,” said Sam, “but you could have woken me up a different way.” “Let’s go to our room,” said Alana drowsily. Sam couldn’t have agreed more.
Sam could not wait to sleep and was happy it was finally time to go to bed. Unfortunately, waiting for them at their room was Ms. Montrose. She wanted to give them a tour of the school. Sam could barely stay awake during the tour for the next two hours. How would he ever get used to being nocturnal? Alana was feeling exactly the same.
Once Ms. Montrose’s excessive droning began to cease, Alana motioned to Sam. Sam couldn’t understand what she was trying to say, and he was not pleased. Eventually, the tour concluded and Ms. Montrose allowed them to retire in their rooms. Sam was relieved that he would finally get some rest.
Over the course of the day, Sam and Alana felt restless and were unable to sleep well. Alana knew that she would be in for another rough night. Sam and Alana finally woke up in the evening feeling poorly rested and tired. They had to get ready for the next night. They grudgingly headed down to the dining hall. Both of them were ravenous and could not wait to eat. They had not eaten much in the last day. The dining hall was large, and decorated with heavy chandeliers made of white crystals.
Finely polished tables were elegantly standing next to each other with sleek brown leather chairs. In the middle of the room was a long, white marble island with decorative plates and napkins. There was a huge spread of delicious food, served with beautifully handcrafted silverware. Students were walking along both sides of the marble island filling their plates with sweet and savory options. Waffles, croissants, omelets, sandwiches, bread, muffins, doughnuts, cereal, pastries, fruits, and other items were being served.
Sam and Alana were glad to eat the sumptuous food provided. Although they missed home and their butler Alfred, it felt good to eat something after not having much to eat the entire day. They had barely finished eating when it was time to receive class schedules. Sam was nervous since it was their birthday and Alana and he would receive special powers today.
The students gathered in the training room and stared at a long row of teachers who towered over them ominously. Instructor Ivy began to speak menacingly. “Students, when we call your name, please come up to receive your class schedule for the day. You should each have received a tour by now and should be comfortable navigating the premises.” Sam wished he had paid attention during the tour, because now he didn’t know where to go. When Sam’s name was called, he got up, received his schedule, sat back down, and stared at it intently. He didn’t pay attention when Alana’s name was called. He did not pay any attention to her when she motioned to him.
All Sam cared about was looking at his schedule. Since he had been so tired the day before, he had to catch up on everything he had missed. Sam briefly scanned his schedule, trying to learn about all of his classes. His first class of the day was Dragonology, and following that, dragon battle. His third class of the day was battle enforcement, and his fourth class was Transmalian history. His last class was in the training room, and he knew he would have a horrible time. From what happened the previous day, he had a bad feeling. Alana was also disappointed with her classes: Unicornology, unicorn battle, battle enforcement, Transmalian history, and the training room.
Sam and Alana were relieved to find out that they would only be attending their first class today, and would be given extra assistance. As Sam tried to find his way to his first class, he saw another boy who was wandering around aimlessly, looking equally confused. The boy had dirty blond hair, pale skin, and blue eyes. Sam slowly walked up to him and said, “Hi, I’m Sam. Are you new here?” The boy stared at Sam and answered him in a soft voice. “I am Maximus Cull. Max for short.”
Sam tried his best to guide Max to his classroom, which was robotics, and then found his own. When Sam entered his class, he noticed that he was the only student in the classroom. As he peeked around the room, he saw a man sitting near a desk in the corner and writing furiously. His desk was covered in piles of paper and folders of all sorts. The man had odd-colored skin; it was a peculiar shade of red. His nostrils were flared and his ears were elongated. For some reason, Sam had the feeling that his teacher was quite annoyed.
His teacher continued to scribble on a piece of paper, and was huffing while he did so. Sam quietly walked up to his teacher, and said, “Excuse me, sir.” The man paused and looked up from the piece of paper. He gazed at Sam and clapped his hands gleefully, then stood up with great gusto. “Finally!” he squealed. “You are here.” He spoke in a crisp British accent, emphasizing certain words.
In less than a minute the man threw piles of paper in the air and began ripping them to shreds. Sam was shocked to see scraps of paper all around the room. Once the man calmed down, he held out his hand. “My name is Professor Sparks. You are my first student in twenty-seven years. Dragon Transmalians like us are hard to come by. As you probably have noticed, in my excitement, I destroyed this year’s lesson plans and homework. Lucky for you, you won’t be learning much today.” Well, thought Sam, at least one good thing had happened on his birthday.
The class dragged on, and finally it was lunchtime. Sam met up with Max, and looked for Alana, but couldn’t find her. Sam began telling Max the tale of how he and Alana had come to the orphanage. Once he finished, Max began to speak. “My parents,” Max uttered forcefully, “were scientists, and their fate w
as much worse than that of your parents.” Max exhaled deeply, as if it were paining him to continue with the story. “At least there’s a chance that your parents are alive.” Max proceeded to tell Sam the unfortunate fate that his parents met with.
Max and his parents were at their home in California, and it was a typical Saturday morning. His parents were in their lab, conducting experiments on their newly created atomic portal, and Max was watching TV in the family room, which was adjacent to the lab. A few minutes into his favorite show, Max heard a distinct, rumbling noise. He knew the noise quite well. It was the Aren 3114, his parents signature prototype air canon. Why would it just go off in the middle of the day? Max rushed to the lab. Two burly and vile-looking men were standing next to his parents, who were slouched on the ground. One of the men held a small piece of glass, and the other held a match. Max immediately guessed that they were going to set the atomic portal on fire.
Max didn’t know much about the atomic portal, or why it was called an atomic portal. All he knew was that the atomic portal when launched properly; could go to any place or era in the past or future and control a person’s mind, and was capable of changing history. His parents had always warned him not to play with it since it was like a time machine with advanced features, and if it were to fall in to the wrong hands it could be the cause of much evil and destruction. However, if the portal was set on fire it would explode and destroy everything within a thousand-foot radius.
The Transmalians Page 3