Ball of power in the heart of places,
Sphere of Sorcery where magic races,
Sphere of Poseidon dwells in the Olympian shores,
Sphere of Breeze in East American floors,
Sphere of Geb in the kingdom of sand
Sphere of Loki in the viking lands
Lines of map cross at spot
Disc of fate on roots of naught
This is getting way too predictable. If my life is a story, the author should be fired. I frowned. Can authors be fired?
"Are you zoning out? Now? Really?"
I was slapped with a gust of cold air on my face as I snapped back to reality. The random thoughts I had been force-thinking of to occupy my brain as an escape from the horrors that lay beyond me rushed from my brain to the tip of my tongue. Say something intelligent. Let him know you're on your A game. Or at least pretend that you are.
I formed the words of encouragement and denial in my head before opening my mouth.
"Nuh?"
Dammit. I hope he didn't hear that.
"What in Thor's name."
You didn't need to shout.
"I said 'No I'm not', maybe the wind snatched my words away?"
"Nice try." Hiccup didn't speak loudly, but his dry voice seeped into my ears, clear as day. Jack smirked.
I slumped (well, I tried to slump) forwards onto Freak's neck. As I tried to formulate an excuse, I was met with a blast of warm air. And a fleck of sand. In my eye. I flinched and blinked rapidly.
"Okay, time to hit the ground." As soon as the words left my mouth, Freak plunged into a dropping spiral, and I swallowed a mouthful of sand. Sand can come up this high?
Not surprisingly, we were out of luck the minute we landed. The mouthful of sand that I had swallowed had been part of a wild sandstorm. The animals (and Jack) screeched and attempted to dive for cover. The key word is attempted. The frantic flapping of wings irritated the sand around us and whipped us into a crazed frenzy.
"Stop! Calm down!" I tried my best, but all I achieved was a generous amount of sand in my esophagus. I haven't died yet. I'll take that as a good sign.
As I opened my mouth to shout another tirade of instructions that would've probably gone unheard, a freezing pocket of wind slammed against my body and icicles shot up my legs and body. The sand on my face froze and dropped off like heavy stones, and I was encased in sudden silence.
I blinked, shaking the frozen sand off my eyelashes and squinted, my mind racing to grasp the situation. Jack stood in the middle, staff buried into the (now also frozen) sand, head bowed and eyes closed tightly. His white hair was alive with golden flecks that gleamed like crazy with their new icy casing. Hiccup and I stared: stunned, confused.
Jack slowly opened his eyes and peeked at us. He grinned weakly, but I could see his teeth glowing an alarming shade of white. A chill crept up my spine. He's boasting unnaturally powerful shows of power too, just like the rest of them. Before they disappeared. I glanced over at Hiccup and our eyes met. I could tell he was thinking the same thing.
"Thanks." Hiccup squeaked.
"You're welcome, I guess." Jack's voice was dry and wary, almost exhausted. He wriggled his staff around, which appeared to be stuck in the frozen sand. While he engaged in a tug of war with the ground, I glanced upwards. We seemed to be encased a bubble of ice, beyond which I could still see the sandstorm raging. I furrowed my brows. Something was wrong. I walked (read: slid) nearer to the walls of the bubble. My eyes grew to the size of saucers and the cold I had managed to ignore seemed to attack me all at once.
"Guys." No response. "Guys."
"Yeah?"
"Look at this."
The others hurried over (Hiccup glided, Jack floated).
"Magic."
"Yeah."
Hiccup squinted.
"What magic?"
I tapped the icy walls lightly. "Look. See those flashes of red?"
"… Ah."
It didn't take me long to think of a culprit. But there was no way. I flashed back to the throne room, the unreadable smirk on his face that had been burned into my memory. Actually, yeah, there was a way.
"Any idea who that might be?" Hiccup seemed to be addressing me, but he never tore his eyes away from the sandstorm raging outside. I collapsed into a seated position, my legs too weak to bother holding up. My mind raced in time with my heart.
"Yeah. Someone I thought had changed. Set."
I'm just patching up half-ditched pieces of work I keep finding. It's fun to keep returning to this series, although I doubt people are still reading. If you are, wow. Dedication. Thank you so much xDD Even I mostly moved on from the book series that are being featured here (a side effect of becoming an exam student, I guess.)
Love me/hate me/favourite me/review me/PM me/etc. Good luck with everything!