"A spell for safe travel... I don't have time to make an altar! Geez, sometimes these dumb witches' spells are so complicated...I mean if it was me I'd just say 'Okay, think about it' and-"

"Stephanie!"

"Yeah mom?"

"Shut off the computer and put your stuff in the car; we're leaving!"

"Okay I'll be right there!" I said as I ran to my room to get my suitcase. Walking out into the hallway I remembered to take my drawing notebook; I couldn't forget that. I stumbled down the stairs and shut off the light. I ran past my uncle and step-dad, put my suitcase in the trunk and quickly sat in the back seat of our car. We exited the garage and went on our way.

The car ride to the airport was short but seemed too long for my excited mind to take. I was going on a cruise! Didn't the other drivers understand that? Couldn't they go any faster? I took my last look at the New England city I called my neighbor as we pulled into the airport.

My uncle gave us a wave goodbye and drove off. I ran inside and quickly read the signs to the check-in and booked towards it. My parents weren't very far behind. We checked in, went through customs, and sat near our terminal.

The plane seemed strangely comforting considering how much I hated flying. I sat near a window and scoped around to see if I could possibly find some of my family members who we always traveled with. I gave up after seeing no on I knew in the first few minutes of looking.

The plane took off and I put in my headphones. The 500 or so songs on my iPod would surely keep me occupied along the ride and if it was a smooth ride i could always draw. My one true love was art and I'd draw 24/7 if I could. The only bad thing I noticed was the steward asking me if I wanted something every time he went by. Other than that it was a great flight.

We landed in Fort Lauderdale and took a shuttle to Miami Port where we boarded the ship. Now that I was there, I ran to find my cousin and partner-in-crime, Leah. On my search, I bumped into a girl who was exploring the ship. She was slightly taller than I was but that wasn't saying much since I was 5'3" on a good day. She was very dark-skinned but I couldn't tell exactly what race she was. She had long, black, curly hair and stood there, staring at me with strange,hazel eyes in an angry way, I assumed. I couldn't open my mouth for a while but finally I got out "I-I'm sorry." She smiled and started to look friendly. "It's alright." She replied and walked away like nothing ever happened.

I completely lost my train of thought and forgot what I was running for. "Leah!" I screamed and ran up the four flights of stairs, down the hall, and knocked on her door. My aunt opened the door and smiled as she let me through the doorway. Leah walked out of the bathroom "Who was at the doo-Steph!!!" she squealed. She didn't know I was coming so she was extra happy to see me.

After dinner that night,we decided to check out the teen club. We walked into the club, past security, and right into the first group of dancing people. I turned around quickly in response to a noise I heard and saw the girl I'd bumped into earlier that day. I decided to go over to her and introduce myself. "Hey, sorry about before," I yelled over the music. "My name is Steph."

"I am Tressa." she replied. "We should go somewhere more quiet to speak further." she suggested and I followed her outside.

"You talk really formal. Where are you from?" I asked.

"Would you believe me if I told you?"

"Probably"

"Well, let me tell you this first: I know you have much magic energy flowing through you, Not like all these other people here. You are truly different from them."

"Yeah okay..." I responded, confused at what she was saying.

"And by the looks of things, you are not a witch."

"Wow, alrighty you're good at this. How can you tell all this?"

"Magic beings can detect others out of crowds of non-magical beings. I am from a planet named Andros. I am a princess. That is why I speak so formally. I am also a witch. We are different from fairies, but similar. Both of our kinds have distinct qualities which are used to our advantage."

"Umm...that's quite the story."

"Well I always appreciate a good listener."

"So you mean I'm a fairy?"

"You're not a witch now are you?"

"I don't think so. I guess it makes sense. I never considered myself a witch. It never seemed to fit me."

She smiled and walked away as I was re-greeted by Leah and introduced to a group of teens.

The rest of the week flew by and before I knew it, it was Saturday and I was walking off the ship. I saw Tressa on the platform and i decided to say goodbye to her considering I thought I'd never see my strange, magical friend again. "So are you going back to your planet now?" I asked her, patiently waiting for a response. "Uh,yes. But before that, I need you to help me with something important." I stared at her in awe as I had no clue what to expect her to ask of me. I looked back at my family, waiting to get their bags off of the ship, and followed her. She took me aside and told me that she had overheard that there were four wizards going to Earth to kill off the remnants of fairy magic. She feared for my safety and wanted me to stay with her until further notice so she could protect me. "I can't just leave my family!" I yelled as quiet as I possibly could, trying not to attract attention. "I am afraid you have no choice. They will find you and kill you! Do you want that?"

"No..."

"Good, then you will come with me." I followed Tressa away from the ship and to a nearby building. I was not familiar with Miami so I really had no idea where I was going. The inside of the building was air-conditioned and it felt good on the hot August day. She continued to tell me about the wizards. They hunted fairies for a living but they weren't payed so it seemed pointless. She told me she knew where they were; in Washington DC, the capital of the United States. She didn't know why but she knew they were there.

She knew there would probably be some type of search going on for me so we did not want to be seen by many people. Tressa was practicing teleportation and we could have teleported right into DC, but she didn't want to get too close to the wizards with magic of any kind for fear they would find us before we found them. She teleported us a about twenty miles south of DC. We stayed in the woods, mostly, and there wasn't much to eat as we both refused to kill innocent animals for food.

"Are we there yet?" I asked for I think the one-thousandth time. "Almost, we are meeting up with an old friend of mine when we get there. I thought I would warn you now: He can be very friendly but also extremely terrifying if he needs to be," She explained. "so I would stay on his good side."

We walked not that much farther actually, until we reached a clearing. I saw a huge figure in the distance. As it walked closer, I asked Tressa if this was her friend. He was so close now. I think my eyes fell out of my head. He was enormous! I'd say almost seven feet tall. An absolute giant was Tressa's friend. He had brown,curly hair and bright green eyes. He was fairly muscular but also a little stick-like. "Stephanie, I'd like you to meet my friend, Twitch. You will figure out why he is called that, I promise you." She looked at me with an almost solemn expression and turned to Twitch. "Twitch, this is Steph." she blurted out, in a somewhat yelling voice, as if he were hard of hearing.

"It's nice to meet you, Steph. I'm very pleased to get to help you." he responded. I couldn't believe this man was actually the same age as I was, sixteen. Then again, I guess I was kind of short for my age.

We arrived in DC and decided to snoop around. I was given descriptions of the four wizards on a list.

The list read:

1)Red hair, blue eyes, pale

2)Blonde long hair, red eyes, pale

3)Red mohawk, yellow eyes, tan*

4)Black hair, red eyes,dark skin

They all would most likely be wearing very long black robes or something of that sort.

*-The 3rd wizard has been known to transform into other entities. This one could and can look completely different. I would not suggest asking around if anyone has seen them, just in case.

-Tressa

"Okay, so why did she split up from us?" I asked.

"Well since she's virtually safe from these guys and you can't be left alone, I'm with you and she is by herself. We can cover more ground that way." Twitch replied.

"Are you magic too?"I questioned.

"No" he snapped at me. "Not all of us use magic...But I mean I guess if you think about it, it does flow through us all... you humans just shun it, while we all know it's there. That's what makes you guys different from everyone else. But I guess you're the exception to that rule."

"There are a lot of us you know." I explained. "We have to hide ourselves from others because they don't understand nor do they care."

"Do you know what your source of power is?"

"No...I don't know what that is."

"Hmm...They say you can't use your powers right unless you know what your source is. But it really only goes for fairies and witches."

"Well, what's Tressa's?"

"Water" he replied "She is the princess of the planet of oceans. Most peoples' powers have to do with where they're from. Since Earth has no real, main energy, yours could be anything.

"Thanks, that helps a lot" I muttered in a sarcastic tone. "So what are we going to do if we find the wizards?" I asked Twitch, hoping he would know. "Most likely, we would notify some form of enforcement in Magix and they will handle the rest." I pondered his response. I wasn't quite sure what he was talking about but I did not to ask him to explain. It didn't seem that important. We searched all day it seemed, and found no one. We, finally, decided to so back to find Tressa.

The next day wasn't great either. We were walking back to the clearing we've called home and felt like we were being followed. Twitch turned around and started walking towards the follower and, seeing nothing, turned around to face me. Immediately, a man came out of the woods and swiped me clear from the ground. We were floating in mid-air, far from Twitch's grasp. Three others came to join this ruckus followed by Tressa. She took two out with one hand, blasting them with that looked like a huge rush of water. They got back up and fought to restrain her. Twitch started pummeling the third, while the fourth brought me closer to the ground. As I looked at Twitch I saw that he was not at all as scary as Tressa warned me about. Even while fighting with this wizard, he was still the nice guy I had befriended.

"You shouldn't listen to him, Stephanie." the one who was elevating me above the ground implied. I looked into his deep blue eyes. They were cold and evil like his soul. He seemed to be the one in control of this foursome. He was the one with all the power over the wizards. "You won't be alive much longer anyway!"one of the others added. Tressa broke free from the struggle and levitated above us all. "Cops!" she wailed and swooped down to me to make a promise to me of her return. She then disappeared into the darkness.

We heard police running towards us in the distance. The four wizards fled and that made me angry. Why would magical beings try and escape from human beings? How on Earth could the cops do anything at all to inflict any type of pain to these creatures in which I had just seen defy everything I had ever learned about life, physics and, the laws of gravity. It's not like I could have done anything to hurt them. I wouldn't have even been able to catch them if I started running after them. I was the least athletic person in the world. I was an artist; but I was a pissed artist, and I wanted those wizards to be dead so badly.

"Noooooooooooooooo!" I screamed at the top of my lungs. I felt so strange just then. It felt like ice cold and fiery ants were crawling all over my entire body at the exact same time and in a flash, the feeling was gone. What I was wearing was completely different and I actually felt invincible. I had on a green dress which had a diamond cut out of it to reveal my stomach. The bottom was flowed onto from the top like green paint which stopped at a skirt made of some type of bristles, like a paint brush. I had green boots and gloves which covered almost my entire arms like sleeves but stopped at my wrists. There was a strange feeling in my shoulder-blades and back so I turned my head slightly and saw that I had wings! Big, purple wings that looked like painters palettes. I figured out what my source of power was and it was art.

Twitch yelled at me to run now, too, but I was so slow and I didn't even want to try to bother to fly, so I stayed with him. We were taken into the police car and to the station. "You two were on Government property! Do you know that?"

"No, sir" we both replied simultaneously. "We're calling your parent-" the officer was cut off by Twitch "I don't have parents!" he exclaimed. I didn't want them to call my parents. All this craziness I'd been exposed to was supposed to all go away and I was going to try to lead a normal life after this happened? I didn't like the sound of that in my head. I thought about my options for a quick moment and then I ran out the door of the station as fast as I could and Twitch followed me. I decided to try to fly and I didn't go very high but I was fast! Twitch ran almost as fast as I was flying and the officers were too stunned to go after us.

"I thought that was a costume but it's not! They're real wings! She's flying!" one of them said. "Oh, shut up and go after the bird girl then!!" the another replied forcefully. I looked back quickly at the officers and the second I turned back to face forward, all I saw was a tree right in front of my face. I rammed into it at full speed and blacked out.