John and Chloe both had to admit it made sense. Now they only had to figure out where in China they could find the statues and then the even bigger problem of how to get there.
“Well, since we are in a library it shouldn’t be too hard find books on China and find out where the statues are.” Chloe said stating the obvious.
“Yeah, but we better get back to the adults. Who knows how long they’ll keep napping for.” John reminded the girls. Then to his sister. “Do you think you can look and find books on China during me and Chloe’s next lesson? If you can’t read the words just see if you can sneak over to the copier and copy the page. Then Chloe and I can read it later.”
Annie shook her head in agreement. She was excited to do anything that would help them find Mommy and Daddy. It made her a little sad thinking about how long it had been since she had hugged them. Annie walked over and gave her brother a big hug.
John could see his sister’s eyes grow sad after she agreed to help. He knew what she was thinking. He knew she was missing their parents. He was not at all surprised when she wrapped her arms around him. He squeezed her tight and kissed the top of her head. “It won’t be long now Ann.” He promised.
Chloe cleared her throat. “We really should get going guys” she whispered. Annie and John stepped back from each other and headed back down stairs. They found the adults as they had left them, snoozing in their chairs. The trio quickly set out the Myesfera. John and Chloe played one quick game which Chloe won by using a Myesfera that created a mist that trapped John’s fire Myesfera.
After seeing that Chloe could change into a mist, John couldn’t help but feel that she had somehow cheated in the game. At this point though, he was too tired to argue. He looked at Annie. She looked like she was about to fall asleep. He got up, woke Grandma, and asked her to take them home.
Chapter 16
The next morning Annie woke energized. Her mind was buzzing with the things they had found out and all that still needed to be done. They still needed to find a book about the soldier statues in China and they still needed to figure out how to get there. Once they got there it should be easy. All they needed to do was a revealing spell. Ruth said so in her letter and she was sure that with a little help her big brother would be able to make the spell work. Annie ran to wake her brother.
John was sleeping soundly when he was rudely awakened by his little sister jumping up and down on his bed. John moaned and pulled his covers over his head. He did not want to get out of bed. He hadn’t slept much, tossing and turning most of the night thinking about what they had found out and how much more they still needed to know to get the object that would bring their parents back to them. Annie was happy and that made him happy but, she was just a little kid and she had no idea how complicated this was going to be.
Eventually Annie coaxed John out of bed. The two went down to the kitchen for breakfast. After breakfast John and Annie began asking Grandma to take them back to the library. Both were anxious to find out everything they could about the statues in China. John also wanted to see if he could find anything that might help him figure out a way to get to China. Annie wanted to talk to Chloe about finding that revealing spell.
Grandma had other ideas. She wanted to take Chloe and John with her shopping but, eventually, working together they wore her down. In the end, she agreed to drop the pair off at the library to play with Chloe while she did her shopping. As they were about to leave Zindle began to circle Annie. After a little back and forth Grandma agreed to let Zindle come too. After all, the library was scheduled to be closed so there would be no outsiders. Grandma was anxious to leave. She had pointed out to the children multiple time “She needed to get going or all the good sales would be over.”
So, lickity split, before they knew it, Annie and John were back at the library. Chloe was already in the main foyer waiting for them. The children exchanged knowing glances. There was no need to say anything. By now they all knew the drill, throw the adults off by pretending to do something innocent like play a game and as soon as the adults stopped paying attention to them they would get down to work. So, the trio ran to the children’s section laughing and giggling.
Once in the children’s section John grabbed some joke books and began reading them very loudly to the girls. It wasn’t long before the adults were busy chatting, working, and not paying much attention at all to what the children were doing. John and Chloe headed out of the children’s section and over to the computer. They were both sure that a simple search would find them what was needed. Annie went to follow. John put out a hand and stopped her. “We need you to stay here and make some noise so they think we’re all still in here.” John explained. Annie folded her arms and slunk back to the children’s books. She wanted to argue with her brother but there was no point in arguing. They never let her do anything.
John and Chloe sat down at the computers grinning from ear to ear. They knew they were about to get the last of the information they needed. John rushed to hit the key board of his computer and log in before Chloe. The password box popped up. He furiously typed in the password, hit enter, and ... Nothing? Nothing happened at all. He typed it again, still nothing. He looked at Chloe. She seemed to be having the same problem. John sighed. “It’s no use Chloe. They’ve changed the password. We’d have to ask and they would insist on being here while we looked.” Chloe nodded her head in agreement.
Chloe and John exchanged a knowing look. They were going to have to do this the old-fashioned way. Together they went over to the reference section. They both looked at all the books. Where to start? Then John remembered going to the library at school. “Let’s try the old encyclopedias first. Maybe look up China?” He suggested to Chloe. So, the two got down to work pouring over the old books. John and Chloe looked through piles of books. They had started with the encyclopedias and had moved on to travel books and finally to an atlas.
Back in the children’s section Annie was already getting restless. She was tired of Chloe and John leaving her out just because she was younger. Chloe should be on her side she thought. After all they were both girls. Still, they were out there and she was in here. At least she had Zindle. She patted Zindle’s head. Zindle wagged his tail. “Let’s see if we can find something fun to read.” she whispered to her faithful companion.
Annie walked through the shelves fingering the books. Zindle followed along. Suddenly he jumped up licking her and whining. “What is it?” she asked Zindle. Zindle began to spin round and round. Annie laughed. It looked like so much fun Annie began spinning too. Round and round they both went. Annie giggled, it was so much fun. Then dizzy and tired she fell to the ground knocking against one of the shelves.
Several books fell off the shelf barely missing Annie and Zindle. Annie held her breath. Had the adults heard?
“No horsing around in there.” Annie heard Celeste yell. “Sorry.” Annie called back to Celeste. Please, please don’t come in here Annie thought. Annie listened and heard sounds that she knew had to be Celeste shuffling papers and doing work. That was a close one she thought. Annie picked up the books, put them back on the shelf, and settled herself into a spot on the floor next to Zindle to wait.
After what seemed like hours to Annie, John and Chloe were finally back in the children’s section. Each was carrying a set of books. “We decided it would be better to finish reading the books in here. We can sneak them back later.” John explained to Annie as he saw her looking at the books. Chloe seemed very excited to share the book she found with Annie.
John sat down on the opposite side of the room and then he noticed something, a book on the floor. Or rather he noticed Zindle noticing something on the floor. He had better pick it up he thought. If they forgot it Celeste would be upset about it later. As he picked up the book a smile spread wide across his face. It was a book about China. Even better, there was a drawing of one of the soldier statues on the front. John’s heart fluttered as he opened the book. There it was, just what th
ey needed. A map of China and on that map there was a little group of the soldier statues. Next to the soldiers was a dot, with what seemed to be, a city name, Xi’an. He patted Zindle on the head.
Across the room Annie sat with Chloe looking through the books. They had found some things about the soldier statues but nothing that said exactly where they were in China. Just then John ran over from across the room and snatched the books right out of their hands. Annie and Chloe scowled at him. Why did John do that Annie thought? Before she had time to answer herself John showed her the reason.
He put the book he had found in front of the two girls and pointed to the soldiers on the map. “I found it,” He exclaimed. Annie now was the one snatching. She pulled the book from John’s hands and hugged it. “Now all we have to do is get there.” both John and Annie said at the same time.
“I have an idea about that.” John told the girls. He told them his friend Larry from school had shown him something in his parent’s garage. Something John thought they might be able to use. It was a hot air balloon. “Won’t that be too slow?” asked Chloe. “Yeah, Annie agreed. Balloons float slow. We need something fast, like an airplane.” Annie agreed. “No, I have an idea.” John told them. “I’ve been thinking about the spell Chloe and I used when we were trying to get into the room upstairs. I think we can make it bigger, stronger, and blow the balloon all the way there.” John told them the thing he was most worried about was that someone might sense him using that large of an echo.
“I know how we can do it without anyone knowing” Chloe said with a smile. Annie and John leaned in excited to hear what she had to say. “Santa Claus!” she exclaimed. Santa Claus? John thought. Chloe must have lost her mind. Santa Claus wasn’t even real. She was younger than him though so maybe she hadn’t found out yet he thought.
“Ummm…I hate to tell you Chloe but, I don’t think that’s going to work.” John said and then leaned over and whispered in her ear so Annie wouldn’t hear “Santa Claus isn’t real.” Chloe scowled at him and pushed him away.
“I forgot you haven’t been with the magi that long. You’ve been living with only fargi for your whole life.” Chloe said in an exasperated tone. Then she explained to John and Annie that Santa Claus was in fact real. He was not a person or even an elf as most regular people, fargi think. Jolly old Saint Nick was in fact a fairie. Or at least he had been before the worlds were separated.
He had, in fact, been a fairie king. To celebrate the great good each year on the blessed day, which fargi call Christmas, he would send his fairie nymphs throughout the world to bring gifts to the children of the world. When the worlds were split he was trapped on the non-mystical side. Trapped in the world of the fargi, the fairie king summoned all his remaining echoes of power and cast on a last enchantment. He gave up all his power. He would live amongst the fargi as one of them, with the exception of one day. On the blessed day his power would return for just one day. He would have exactly 24 hours to use his mysticism to bring gifts to the children of the world. Santa’s powers on the blessed day were to be restricted to being able to make things fly and change their size including himself. That was all he needed. Of course, he did continue to age as a fairie which, according to Chloe, was even slower than a Vampire.
So, Chloe was thinking that if they flew to China in the balloon on Christmas Eve no one would be able to tell they were using echoes with Santa flying around all over the place. Annie was amazed. She hit John on the shoulder hard. “I told you Santa was real.” she smirked. John was amazed too. He just smiled back at his sister. At that moment, he didn’t care how many times she hit him. Everything was coming together perfectly. Maybe he could even have his parents back by Christmas morning.
They spent the next few weeks planning whenever they could find time. It was Christmas time and there was a lot going on. There was the big Christmas show at school. Annie was in the chorus and John had gotten a part in the play. Grandma, Matthew, and Celeste all came to see it.
There was also a lot of holiday decorating to do. They decorated Grandma’s house inside and out as well as the library. They went on many shopping trips buying gifts and wrapping them. Annie and John missed their mom and dad the whole time but, it was the worst on the day they baked cookies. Baking cookies was always a big day at their house. They would play Christmas music while they decorated and baked the cookies all afternoon laughing, singing, and even dancing together. At one point Annie began to cry soaking several cookies that had to be thrown away.
Still they did manage to get everything done to prepare for their trip. Chloe and John tweaked the wind spell. Now, if all went right it would blow strong and very, very, fast. They would even be able to direct it to blow towards their destination at all times.
John talked to his friend Larry. Larry would help them get the hot air balloon out of his garage. He had even managed to find a video online for John about how to put up and fly a hot air balloon.
Instead of trying to repeat what they had done at Thanksgiving they decided it would be best to all head to bed early and then sneak out while the adults thought they were sleeping. After all they already had everything prepared from Thanksgiving. It was going to be toughest on Chloe but, she seemed confident she could manage. They would all then meet at the garage behind Larry’s house to get the balloon.
Finally, the night had come. The night they had been planning for. Annie felt both scared and excited. She followed John quietly down the stairs. Zindle was close on her heels. Grandma lay snoozing on the couch. Annie looked at the tree. She didn’t want to miss opening presents in the morning, but she wouldn’t want to open presents without Mommy and Daddy there anyway. John noticed his sister stopping to look at the tree. He gave her arm a little squeeze to try and let her know everything would be ok. He was sure they would be opening all those presents with their mom and dad very soon. They continued on tip toe past Grandma and out the back door.
Annie was so excited her stomach felt all jittery inside. She wasn’t sure why but, once they were outside she felt like she needed to run. So, she did. John and Zindle were running too. It was cold and her breath was coming out in white clouds as she ran.
When John saw Annie run he just had to run too. He was too excited to walk. He wanted to get to Larry’s as soon as possible. His mind was spinning. He had never been in a hot air balloon before. Would the spell work the way it was supposed to? he wondered. And then, he had never been to China before either. Once they got there they still had to find the special thing to open which would let them get their parents back from the other world. That was the one thing he wasn’t worried about. He just had this feeling that he would know how to find it when they got there. Besides he and Chloe had a reveal spell for that.
As they neared Larry’s house Annie slowed. She was out of breath but, still so excited. She could see Larry. He was standing next his garage waving at them. She watched Zindle running toward Larry and then running in circles around him.
John had been running just behind Annie so he could keep an eye on his little sister. He saw Larry and waved back at him. He crossed his fingers in his pocket. They were so close. They just needed to get the balloon up in the air without waking up Larry’s parents. Then the spell should do the rest. John put his arm around his sister as they walk the across the lot behind Larry’s house.
It wasn’t long before John and Larry were greeting each other by bumping shoulders. “Let’s get to it.” Larry said rubbing his hands together. Larry and John and began hauling the balloon and basket out of the garage. It wasn’t easy. They were heavy. It would have been difficult for two grown men. Larry and John were far from full grown but, they were determined.
Annie watched for Chloe. She was worried. She had thought Chloe would be there by now. Chloe had the most chance of getting caught since her father was a Vampire and did more of his sleeping during day light hours. He had been doing a more work during the day for the Coterie though.
Then Annie turn
ed around noticed something behind her. There seemed to be a lot more frost hanging in the air than her cold breath made. Zindle had noticed it too. He looked at it tilting his head from side to side. Annie reached out and touched the mist. Suddenly she heard a giggle, Chloe’s giggle. The mist became solid and suddenly Chloe was standing in front of her. Annie was so happy she grabbed Chloe and hugged her.
The boys had managed to drag everything out of the garage and into the lot. Then they all got to work laying everything out and preparing to fill the balloon. Chloe and Annie took direction from Larry and John. Once it had been all laid out John stood back looking it over.
“Ok, time to start using echoes.” he said. He pulled a piece of paper from his pocket and unfolded it. There was a smaller piece folded inside. Chloe recognized the paper as the wind spell she had given John. Everyone took a few steps back as John cleared his throat. “I call upon the echoes, come whisper wind, stop when now is said!” John said in a crisp clear confident tone. John knew just how to hold the right emotion to make the spell work this time. A gentle breeze began to rise and increased to a mild wind filling the balloon with air.
Larry worked the burner to heat the air. The balloon began to rise. When the balloon was full John said the final word. “Now.” …and the wind stopped. Larry continued with the burner until the balloon was high in the air and basket began to lift up a little.
“Quick guys…it’s about to lift.” he called. Chloe scrambled in and John hoisted Annie over the side. Then he climbed in himself. Larry wished them good luck and then jumped out of the basket. The basket began to lift. Zindle ran, circling the basket, and tried desperately to jump in but, it was just too high.
A Mystical Journey Page 16