Chapter 1: Make Believe

The day after Spring Break the same year

Lindsay huffed as she sat down on the bus, disappointed that Spring Break was over. Perry, the girl at her bus stop, sat a few seats back. She was nice to Lindsay at the bus stop, but Lindsay knew that when she saw her at lunch Perry would tease her just like all the other kids.

The bus turned the corner onto Hunters Dr. and Lindsay moved over toward the window in her seat. When the bus stopped, Gabby and a few other kids boarded. Gabby bounced down the aisle and popped into Lindsay's seat. Lindsay smiled and greeted her. Gabby had gone to Puerto Rico to visit family and Lindsay hadn't seen her all Spring Break.

"Hmm, would you rather go into a dungeon and nearly die in order to save your friend, a wolf, or be stalked by an evil creature that's trying to kill you and your friends. Oh and with the second one, you have a flying leopard friend." Gabby asked while speculating me.

"Um… What kind of question is that?" Lindsay stared at her in confusion.

"Well, obviously not an easy one… Could you just answer it?" Gabby seemed determined to get something out of Lindsay.

"Okay… I'll go with the first one but you have to explain what the heck you're talking about." Lindsay wagered.

"Hmm… The first one? Well then you are the warrior." Gabby said. "It's from this book series I got for Easter. It's called Avalon: Web of Magic."

"Warrior? Avalon? What the heck are you talking about Gabby?"

"There are three mages in the series: The Warrior, Adriane; The Healer, Emily; and The Blazing Star, Kara. They each have a magic stone: Adriane has the wolf stone, Emily has a rainbow jewel, and Kara has a unicorn jewel. Adrian is bonded with a mistwolf named Storm, and Kara is bonded with a flying leopard named Lyra. They three mages are best friends and go on magical adventures together." Gabby explained.

"Wow… so I take it "option one" was Adriane and "option two" was Kara? How come I didn't get Emily as a choice?"

Gabby smirked, "That's because I wanted to be like Emily."

The two girls laughed, and Gabby explained the books to Lindsay for the rest of the bus ride. When they got to school, they played together on the playground like usual. No one approached them or asked to play soccer on the pavement with them. Everything seemed like a usual morning; the two new girls played alone while all the other children steered clear of them.

Gabby and Lindsay had an active imagination and were always making up new games to play. Like any 3rd grader making up a game, they would go a little overboard, and it became real to them. Avalon, the land of magic, came straight out of the book and right into their lives. It was no longer a game they played every once in a while; it was a way of life. Everything connected to magic in their minds. So, of course, what happens to little girls who believe in magic? It proves itself to them.

Lindsay got off the bus and started walking home. It had been a week since Gabby had explained Avalon to her and they had made up their game. She grabbed a snack and went downstairs to play with her hamster, Amy. As she was connecting tubes to Amy's cage, the phone rang; it was Gabby.

"Hello?"

"Hey Lindsay! You want to play outside today?" Gabby asked.

"Sure, at my house or yours?"

"Definitely at yours. My sister won't leave me alone." Gabby pulled the phone away from her ear for a second and Lindsay heard Gabby yell at her sister in the background. "DANIELLA, GET OUT OF MY ROOM!"

"Nice. Well, you can come over now, if you want." Lindsay chuckled.

"Yes please!" Gabby squeaked and they both hung up.

A few minutes later the doorbell rang.

"I'll get it!" Lindsay yelled as she ran for the door.

Gabby greeted her with a cheerful smile. "Hey! What do you want to do?"

"Play Avalon?" Lindsay suggested.

"Just what I was thinking." Gabby agreed.

The two friends went outside to play their usual game in Lindsay's backyard. Lindsay had bonded with a mistwolf named Thunder and a rusty colored D-fly named Cooper. Gabby had bonded with a unicorn named Mystic and a mistwolf named Caramel. Thunder was jet black with lightning gold eyes. He looked a bit like Dreamer in the books. Cooper was a bouncy little dragonfly with green eyes and was always getting into trouble. Caramel was caramel colored with brown eyes; she was much more mature compared to Thunder. Lastly, Mystic was a white unicorn with blue and purple eyes. She was calm and understanding but liked to pull pranks on the mistwolves every once in a while.

They would often pretend to meet up with the characters from Avalon and considered themselves the junior mages. The only problem they found with this was that they didn't have a friend to be the junior Blazing Star so they worked around that issue.

Though the girls often pretended to meet the characters, they had no idea what was in store for them that day.

Adriane, Kara, and Emily were taking care of the animals in the glade the same day. Ozzie was entertaining them with a story from the Elvin country while the animals were being fed. Zach had come to visit and was twirling and practicing with his sword as the girls worked. Dreamer was lounging in the shade and Lyra was napping in a nearby tree. Everything was calm and quiet when Ozzie suddenly gasped and pointed at the ground.

Little twisters were coiling around on the dirt. Everyone in the glade gathered around to see what the Fairymentals had to say. This kind of thing wasn't common but it had happen before, and the girls knew what to expect. Slowly the twisters spelled out: Find the two…. Help them train… They already believe….

"Two who already believe?" Adriane questioned once the twisters had vanished.

"Do you think they mean mages?" Kara asked.

"I guess so since they want us to help them train. It's kind of strange though since magic usually favors the number three. This time there's only two," Emily thought aloud.

"Well how do we plan to find them?" Kara asked.

Zach cleared his throat. "Well, if they already believe, then I wouldn't doubt they've already begun to use some form of magic."

Adriane looked at him, puzzled. "What's your point?"

Zach rolled his eyes. "You guys tend to forget that Drake isn't only good for flying. He's also a pretty good magic tracker."

"OH YEAH!" The girls shouted in unison and laughed.

Zach whistled, and Drake flew from the sky. "Climb aboard ladies," Zach chuckled as he pulled Adriane up next to him.

"Hey! I can get up on my own, you know!" Adriane protested, blushing. Everyone laughed with Zach.

"Well, Lyra and Dreamer, you can come with us. Ozzie I need you to watch over the preserve while we're gone," Emily said.

"Can do," Ozzie agreed.

As they took off, Zach explained the plan, "Once we get far enough away from the preserve, Drake should be able to sniff out any other magic uses. Since Earth isn't well known for magic, whatever he finds should be what we are looking for."

"Sounds good to me," Adriane said.

"How do you think they already believe?" Kara asked.

"Well, you remember our books?" Emily asked and everyone nodded, "We thought that people would consider them to be fantasy. Maybe, these two took it to heart."

"That could be it," Zach agreed.

As soon as Drake was far enough away from the glade, he smelled magic coming from the east. He took off after it, and soon they could no longer see the ground; everything was covered in trees. After a few minutes of looking hopelessly down through the foliage, Emily spotted gold light flashing from some one's backyard. Then, Adriane saw a blue glow follow it, and Zach heard the slashing of swords.

Lindsay and Gabby were practicing with toy swords that Lindsay got from her brother's room. They would pretend to flash their magic through their sword, but they both swore they really saw it happen, not just pretend. Lindsay had an eagle made of tiger eye on a necklace around her neck, and Gabby had a sapphire horse on a chain around her wrist. Each time the girls pretended to use magic their jewels would glow an intense light.

Gabby was winning their sword fight, and Lindsay had nearly broken her brother's toy sword when she spotted something circling overhead. It was far too big to be a bird, and planes didn't usually get that close without crashing. Plus, planes weren't usually red. Then, Gabby saw something smaller and spotted flying next to the thing.

Gabby gasped and dropped her sword. "Lindsay, I don't think any of this is pretend."

Lindsay was still looking up with her mouth open. "I think your right… And I also think that we should clear off my deck so my house doesn't become a landing pad."

The girls would have laughed but they were too stunned. They quickly cleared all the stuff off of Lindsay's large deck. Lindsay was incredibly grateful that her parents weren't home and her brother was shut in his room playing video games. When they were done they backed away and watched the two figures, one a large red dragon and the other a spotted flying leopard, land.

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