A.C slammed his hand down on the table. "What do you mean we still can't go back to the Timecrest Guild?" he asked the man sitting in front of him. The man shrugged. "Just like I said. The sand worms are surrounding the city on all sides. Some mages have managed to set up a barrier that keeps them from breaking into the city but they aren't powerful enough to drive them off completely so no one is allowed to leave." A.C glared at him. "So what's going to happen? Are we just going to stay quarantined in Winsorhowl for the rest of our lives, waiting for the sand worms to kindly leave us alone?" The man shook his head. "We are working on notifying the Masters about our situation. They will be powerful enough to kill the worms." "And how long will it take for them to hear about it?" A.C asked grinding his teeth.

Ash quickly touched A.C on the shoulder. "A.C, come on. At least we have hope ..." Ash trailed off as A.C turned round to glare at him. Then he clenched his teeth again. "Fine," he spat. A.C jumped to his feet and stalked out of the room. Me and the rest of the Team gazed after him with frowning or slightly worried expressions on our faces. "Will he be ok?" Ash asked at last. "Probably," Elise shrugged. The man A.C had been talking to stood up and exited the room.

I was sitting in the same building that I had woken up in after the team found me. The sun was high in the sky but the atmosphere in the room was gloomy. We had been trapped in Winsorhowl for three days and the people were all getting a bit on edge. Guests who had been visiting the city when the sand worms attacked wanted to get back to their families and citizens were terrified that the sand worms would break down the barrier and destroy their homes. I could tell that Roger, Elise, A.C and Ash were itching to be on their way back to their guild and I could understand how they felt. I didn't like being stuck in one place myself but there was nothing any of us could do about it.

I stood up and crossed to the big windows on my left. I gazed out at the town. The dusty streets seemed to shimmer in the sunlight and the sight was already giving me a headache. I turned my eyes to the desert beyond the city. The white sand stretched away in all directions. I quickly wiped sweat off my forehead. I was finding the high temperatures of the desert hardest to handle. Most of the time it seemed as if the sun was trying its best to melt me like an ice cream in the Summer time and I had taken to staying indoors and away from that heat as much as I could. I wished that I could do some wind spells like Luthor. Fire magic wasn't exactly the right kind of spell if you wanted to keep cool.

Then I felt someone beside me. I looked up to see Roger standing next to me. "Hey, I forgot to thank you for saving Cera. If you hadn't covered her wound with your jacket then ..." He lowered his gaze. I smiled at him. "I was happy to help. How is Cera doing?" Roger's face lightened. "She's doing a lot better. The heelers think that she will make a full recovery." "That's a real achievement compared to the tens of mages that have died," Elise said sourly. I frowned at her and Roger shifted his feet. "I know and I am very grateful. Praise the First that Cera's still alive."

I glanced around the room. Elise was standing with her back against the wall glaring at everything that she could see and Roger had gone to sit cross-legged on the floor in a corner. Then my eyes settled on Ash. He had a huge bandage wrapped around his shoulders and was leaning against the wall with his eyes closed. After a while he opened them, stretched and blinked at me. "Are you ok?" I asked. He carefully touched his shoulders. "Yeah, I'll be fine." I ran my fingers through my hair. "You didn't tell me you could do Gravitas spells," I said grinning. Ash nodded and smiled faintly. "I just forgot to mention it, I suppose." I turned back to the window and stared outside.

I didn't have anything better to do so I began to wonder about Alvin again. Why had he teleported me to Alyncia? I hadn't done anything special or life changing, well apart from learning magic. I was also actually beginning to miss home. I missed my room, with the orange wallpaper that Mae always said was too bright. I missed my bed and I missed talking to Airell and Felice. I wondered how they were doing. Airell lived with his two Uncles and he was always complaining about how noisy they were. He said that he would never be like them. Felice had three cats and two dogs and Airell and I sometimes liked calling her the crazy pet lady down the street for fun. I sighed. Meeting Team 13 had been a great experience but I wanted to get back to my old life, back to my friends and family.

Then A.C flung the door open. We all looked up. "Is everything ok?" Ash asked. "Everything's fine, but a griffin has just flown in and apparently it carried a message for us." Roger blinked. "A message? What about?" "It's from the Timecrest Guild." We all went out into the street and saw a small griffin standing with its wings folded on its back. I scanned my eyes over it because, of course I had never seen a griffin before. It was covered in short grey fur and had a small beak which it stretched out towards us. Ash gently stroked the beak before looking around for the message. There was a small scroll tied to one of the griffin's legs and big bold letters spelled out (to Team 13) on the front. Ash reached forward and carefully slid the scroll off of the griffin. He opened it and began reading out loud. "Dear Team 13. Please come back to the Timecrest Guild as fast as you can. We need your help. Mages have started disappearing from the Guild and we have no idea why or where they have gone. We need as many mages as possible to figure out what's going on. Be safe, Head Guildmaster Crane." The team looked worried. I had noticed something strange about the writing on the scroll. It seemed to be glowing and a bit transparent but before I could ask Ash to pass me it Elise remarked, "We have to kill the sand worms before we can go anywhere. They're barring our way out." "No, we can't. Those things are too powerful for us and I don't want anyone else to die trying to fight them," Roger said in a shaky voice. "For magic's sake, Roger. How are we meant to get back to the Guild without fighting the worms?" Elise asked exasperated. "Guys, guys. Calm down, I'm sure we can think of a way to get passed the worms if we all work together," Ash said holding up a hand. Elise grumbled under her breath but followed Ash as he lead the way back into the building. Roger patted the griffin gently before following us inside.