Chapter Thirty-Eight
"Oh my God!" Alex exclaimed. He knelt down on the floor and held Caleb's head up so he could breathe easier, or whatever the reason is people do that. Luna and Ben stared in panic. I sat there with my hands over my mouth in shock, while Diamond looked almost like she was going to be sick. Skye got off my bed, which she was sitting on, and tried to help any way she could. She tried getting a fan to cool him off and getting a water bottle so he could drink. That didn't work, in case you were wondering.
Elliott stood up from the pillow he was sitting on and walked over to where Caleb was laying on the ground. His breathing was shallow and quick; sweat stuck to his forehead. Every so often, his foot or arm would twitch. Elliott put a hand on Caleb's chest and frost spread out on his shirt, not enough to freeze the whole shirt, but enough to cool it down.
"He obviously has a fever," Elliott explained. "That should keep his body temperature a bit lower." He then put his ear to where Caleb's heart would be and paused for a few seconds. I got scared when he looked disappointed and I almost started to cry.
"Well." Elliott stood up. "He has volcano sickness."
Luna rolled her hands in a go on motion. "That is...?" She said impatiently.
"When he found the Elemental Secret in one of Hawaii's active volcanoes, he must have disturbed it and made it erupt. This didn't hurt him, being a fire elemental and all, but he probably breathed in a lot of ash and smoke. Only about ten to fifteen people have ever had it." Elliott explained to us.
"Well?" Alex demanded. "Is he gonna be okay?!"
Elliott shook his head. "No, not with-"
"What?! He isn't going to be okay?!" Ben burst out. "He can't even be treated or anything?"
I couldn't take it anymore; I started to cry. Actually, that's kind of an understatement. I started to sob. I was so scared that one of my friends was going to die. I hated this stupid prophecy for making us find these Secrets we didn't know what to do with.
"The prophecy..." I whispered, still crying a little. "One to be taken, one already stolen..."
Luna looked at me with frightened eyes. "Caleb could be the one to be taken. Elliott was the one already stolen..."
"Taken like killed?!" Diamond looked as scared as Luna. Blue had paused from getting water from the sink to look at us with a shocked and sad expression.
Elliott was glaring at us. "Will you guys let me finish?! I was saying, 'No, not without treatment.' He'll probably be fine if he is treated. The problem is, he'll have to go to an actual hospital and not just the nurse's office. The whole school will know if we take him there, and that'll attract attention. We don't want that. Plus, the hospital will have better medical tools and medicines to help him. But, we need a way to get him to the hospital without running into anyone. But we can't waste any time, or it might be too late. Any ideas?"
I thought. "Do you have a sort of 911 system here in Neria?" When all I got was blank stares, I explained, wiping tears off my face. My voice still shook a little when I spoke. "In America, we call 911 whenever there's an emergency, and an ambulance, fire truck, or policeman comes to help very soon after the call."
"Oh, yeah! We have 844, which is the same deal. But they don't come to this school because we have a nurse here. So we'll need to go somewhere else... Somehow. I mean, what time is it?" Alex said, then looked at the clock. "It's 2:45. Okay. Um, we could just take him to the hospital, if anyone knows how to teleport another person.
"Well, there's Lynk. But he's never traveled with an unconscious person before, and I don't think they would appreciate an animal that randomly shows up at almost three in the morning. They don't allow animals out of dormant form there anyway unless they double as therapy animals." Ben shrugged.
Blue shook her head. "I can't. Unless I drag him underground with me, which I'm sure he wouldn't appreciate. That might hurt. A little." She tried for a smile.
"My dad taught Selena how to teleport with another person during Thanksgiving break, before she went missing..." Luna trailed off, and then cleared her throat. "Anyway, he didn't teach me, Selena being his favorite and all, but I watched them. He never caught me, and I learned just as well as Selena. I didn't have as much practice, but I tried it with Ben and nothing bad happened."
Ben nodded for confirmation, just in case we didn't believe Luna. "I'm still here, aren't I?" He joked.
We all smiled, except Caleb, obviously.
"Okay, Luna." Blue looked at her roommate. "You're Caleb's best bet. Just be careful."
Luna stood up and released Snook from her bracelet. Snook gently fastened his teeth around the back part of the neckline of Caleb's shirt, careful not to hurt him. He dragged him as gently as he possibly could across the floor and draped him over Luna's, who was now a wolf, back. She stood up slowly and in a flash of black light, Wolf Luna, Snook and Caleb were gone.
• • •
I had fallen asleep somehow. Among almost all of my friends, and with all my worry about Caleb, I fell asleep. That's the good-ish news.
The bad news? My dad and Nightshade stood in front of me. I was in the Dark Cave, but I was alone. I crossed my arms and narrowed my eyes.
"What do you want from me? I know who you are, and we totally kicked your butts in the battle we had. And I think I can safely assume you don't want another one." I gave them my best death stare.
Nightshade rolled her eyes. "Oh, please, Wisty. We weren't going all out. We're saving that for-" She stopped when my dad elbowed her. "Anyway, we totally could have taken you down."
"Then why didn't you? If you're SO amazingly powerful, then-"
My dad cut me off. "Be quiet, Wisteria. We just want you to know your flimsy restraints didn't do much for the experienced mages with hundreds of other people with them. And, we aren't giving up. We're still training recruits, and they know all about you and your friends. Don't worry; if the Final Battle comes, and you aren't dead by then, you'll go down easy without TOO much of a painful death."