Chapter Two: The Necklace

"Ready?"

I was standing at my usual post when she walked up to me in her robes... updated by about five levels, and a smile on her face.

"Yeah," I replied. "Nice outfit."

"Thanks. I got up to level 15 today."

"Wow, that's a lot."

"Thanks." she was beaming, as seemed to be her usual self.

"So where are we headed?" I asked.

"I don't know. I've only been around here for a little while."

"What do you mean?"

"Well, I'm not from Wizard City."

"Wait…. Are there other worlds with Wizards?" I was completely perplexed. Where could she be from? Avalon, maybe? I knew that was where the Headmaster was from.

"Well, I'm from a place called Earth. They don't believe in magic there."

"No way…. I'd die without magic! Uh... no pun intended." She laughed at me again and I smirked at my clever joke.

"Well, some people do, I guess, but a very tiny percentage. One day, I got a letter... but not in the mail. It just appeared on my desk in my room. When I opened it, the Headmaster appeared as a hologram. He spoke to me and explained the school, and... he told me…." she said, trailing off. The smile slowly slid off her face. She sighed before continuing. "He told me that my dad was a Pyromancer who fell in love with a mortal. He never told my mom about his powers because he wanted to keep her, my sister and I safe from his enemies, so she never knew until I got the letter. Then, she let me come here."

I looked away from her for a moment before speaking. "Must have been a crazy trip." I didn't know what else to say.

"You'd be surprised how fast magic can get you anywhere." Somehow, she was already smiling again. "So where do you want to go?"

"How about I take you back to my place? I have a little cottage off the edge of Ravenwood, here."

"Okay!"

"Take my hand." I said. She took it lightly and I felt my face get hot again. "This is gonna take some getting used to..." I muttered.

I used my teleport to home spell and we arrived at my place, a small cottage on an island of its own; the Wooded Cottage, as it's called. There was a small wooded area, and a little river in the middle.

"It's amazing!" she said in awe. "I love it!"

"Really? It's kind of a piece of shit compared to my mom's place…."

"It's awesome!" Her smile warmed me somehow.

I couldn't help but smile back at her. "Here, this way." We walked down the path and over the bridge to get inside. Once inside, she looked around, utterly speechless.

"Oh! That's so cool!" she said, running over to my Crystal Storage Rack. She watched as the crystals exploded.

"It's just Dragonspyre Crystals. You can have it if you want."

"Really?!" she turned to me, looking about ready to explode herself.

I chuckled at her. "Yeah, it's nothing. Really, take it."

"Thank you!" she squealed. She waved her wand over the rack and it disappeared into her backpack.

"No problem." Wow, she was really magically deprived...

"So..." she said, twisting a stray hair.

"I'll make dinner, I guess." I walked over to the crafting station and threw a couple of cards together. In a few seconds, chocolate and blonde strawberries were made on a huge dinner plate. I led her to the dining table and put the food down. I pulled her chair out for her and sat down.

"Thank you! This looks amazing!" she grabbed a blonde one and stuck the whole thing in her mouth.

"Uh... you know you're supposed to take off the blonde hair before you eat it, right? Otherwise it tastes like hair in your mouth." Before I could even finish, she was sputtering about, pulling hairs out of her mouth. I laughed at her.

"That was disgusting!"

"I tried to warn you..."

She glared at me for a second, and before I could apologize, she laughed really hard, and I laughed along with her.

"So then where does Falmea live?" she asked. This time she took a strawberry with chocolate, pulling off the stem as she bit it.

"Firecat Alley. Go figure." She laughed. "So what are you doing now?"

"Well, I've been assigned to Krokotopia now, so I won't be in Ravenwood as much anymore."

"Oh..." I tried to make it sound as casual as possible, but it was hard to hide the disappointment in my tone.

"But we can still hang out!" she said quickly. "You can hang with me at my dorm room when I come back at night."

"Okay, sure." I said, a little more coolly that time.

"Yeah," she said. She stuffed another chocolate strawberry into her mouth, making her cheeks puff up. I laughed at her really hard and she nearly spit out the strawberry.

*Three months later...*

Nicole... Wow, I miss her.

I used to see her once at day, at night for dinner, but lately she's been running late and missing curfew. She's gotten into some nasty fights, coming home really beaten up. The time we spent together started to dwindle down after awhile from once a day to once a week to not seeing her since she was level 22 when she learned Meteor Strike. She's due to come back to learn Wyldfire soon, but she may wait so that she can stay in Krokotopia. She's been sleeping over there now too, staying at the library so she can get to work in the morning. So many of my father's minion's have been on the rise that she's working constantly.

She's been keeping me up to date though, telling me how her day went in magical letters that I receive once a night. She's exhausted. And she seems to have moved on. She has more friends now, Samantha Moonheart and Cole Legend. He's a life student of course. Damn Life... I hate those peppy assholes.

For some reason, I get this feeling in my stomach when she writes about him. It feels like throwing up. Heck, throwing up probably feels better. I want to be the one in a fight with her, beating down the guys who work for my father. I want to be there, healing her, helping her along. I want to hold her, and discuss how things went that day together with her in my arms.

Ugh... Why do I feel this way? What's wrong with me?

I want her by my side... I want her more than anything.

That's it. I have to know she's okay. I have to go see her. I have... I have to be with her.

I made up my mind and I teleported away from my post. It was about five at night and the sun was starting to set. Curfew was just a few hours away anyway, so I figured I wouldn't be missed.

When I arrived, we were in the Tomb of Storms. We were in a battle, and she was losing pretty badly. Cole and Samantha were there, but they were down a bit too.

"Malorn!" she called. She was really weak and looked pretty beaten up. My heart sank.

"Nicole! What happened?" I said in a panic.

"They took us by surprise. We got ripped off the sidewalk. We were just going back to get health, and we got sucked in."

"I gotcha," I said. I used Sacrifice and weakened myself, letting her get health back. I stumbled back from the blow when I remembered that I had just from recovered from another accident while teaching that damn Banshee move.

"Are you okay?" Cole asked.

"Yeah. Just fine," I grumbled.

"Want me to heal you?" But before he could even do it, he was defeated.

"Cole!" Samantha shouted. Cole fled.

"We have to hang in there. I know some healing spells, my secondary school is Life," Nicole commented.

"WHAT?!" I screamed. Saying I was pissed was an understatement.

"Well, I needed to be able to heal on my own," she said, trying to explain.

"I could've taught you Sacrifice! The move I used to heal you when we first met! Or you could've told me to help you! I could be there for you!"

She furrowed her eyebrows, looking really taken aback by my sudden outburst. "Malorn, I'm sorry."

Then Samantha screamed. We turned from our argument and saw that she was hit with a Judgement spell and fled.

"Sam!" Nicole cried. Now it was up to us.

But now they were going after Nicole, and I was stuck in my position. Try as I might, I couldn't move; the battle was already started.

"Nicole, hang on!" I kept trying to squirm, but still I was stuck.

"Sacrifice!" I yelled. It hit me again, and I stumbled back, falling over. As Nicole healed, the Krok took the opportunity to hit me. I fell over, and I couldn't get up.

"Malorn!" she cried out.

Try as I might, I still couldn't move. Now it was up to Nicole because I refused to leave her. The Krok was ready to finish her off, but I couldn't let her get hurt.

"NO!" I wailed. I jumped up, and at the last second before the Vampire got her, it sucked the life out of me, and I collapsed into Nicole's arms. I blacked out.

*One week later...*

"Ugh..." My eyes fluttered open, and I looked around. I recognized the place as my own cottage. I was in bed, undressed. What happened?

"Malorn...?" It was Nicole's voice, coming from downstairs. She ran up with tears in her eyes. "Malorn!" She ran over and hugged me, crying. I breathed out what little air was in my lungs. "I was so scared! You've been asleep for a week now!"

"A week?!" I shrieked. "What?! How?! I-" I stuttered before finally stopping to take a breath. "Wait…. Why are you here?" I asked, cocking an eyebrow at her.

"I took care of you. I've been here for the week, nursing you back to health. I had to put you on an IV just to get you to eat or you would've starved." The worry was evident in her voice, but the bags under her eyes told me more. I took a breath again and dropped the hostility.

I looked around and saw my clothes on the windowsill. "Uh..." I muttered, eyeing the clothes.

"Oh! Your mom stopped by and helped you undress so you can be more comfortable when you come to."

"Phew..." I say wiping my forehead.

"Oh! Gross!" she said, shaking her head. I chuckled at her.

"Well, you did just hug me while I'm naked," I commented while laughing.

"Ugh!" She walked away and started heading downstairs.

"Wait, come on!" I started to get up, but when I jumped out of bed to go after her, I fell to the floor in a heap.

"Malorn!" She ran back upstairs and when she saw me, she ran to my side. She put her arm under mine and helped me up and back onto the bed. I was only in my underwear, so I felt a little embarrassed. She sat down next to me. I looked at her, dazed and realized how much stronger she had gotten.

"You leveled." I stated.

"Yeah…." she said, slightly confused. "I'm level 25 now. Almost 26."

"Wow." I paused, knowing what she's say next.

"Angels," she stated.

"Yeah." I turned to her and looked her in the eyes. "Nicole, please. You need to take a break. All this fighting is wearing you out. Take a vacation and stay with me for a while." I pleaded.

She looked back at me, pain evident in her eyes.

"I... I can't, Malorn. I have a duty to my school, and that's to be helping out in other worlds right now."

I took her hands in mine. "Please," I begged. "I need to know you're alright."

"I can't…. I'm sorry." She looked away from me.

Silence reigned again.

"Come with me." I looked up and saw hope in her eyes. "We can fight together, side-by-side."

"Nicole, you know I want to more than anything, but I can't. I have to stay at Ravenwood. There's no escape. I wouldn't be there if I had another choice."

We sat there in silence again.

"Here," I said. I waved my hand, pulling something out of my backpack. I held out my hand with my mother's necklace in it. She knew what it was from the letters we had stayed in touch through. "I want you to have this so I know you can heal yourself." It was a pendant that allowed her to use the Bartelby Spell.

"Oh... Malorn, I…. I can't possibly-"

"Keep it," I said, wrapping it in her hands. "I want to know that you'll be okay. Please…. For me."

"Thank you..." she handed me back the necklace and turned away from me, holding up her hair. I put it around her neck and clicked it shut. It glowed red for a second and then settled on her neck. "I love it." She turned back to me and hugged me. I hugged her back.

"Use it well, okay?"

"I will. I promise."