From the Core

Chapter 2 - Ship

Disclaimer: None of my characters and the scenes all take place in Osenia! Yep! The characters are taking a little break before actually lighting the
lighthouse!...
To strike at its roots... it is a crime...


Rain pattered onto the sleek sidewalk as three soaked adepts rushed out of the shelter of the trees and into the storm. The unexpected howls of the hurricane had begun a few hours ago; quickly gaining gray clouds and swirling hail and rain. Ivan unbuttoned his cloak and covered the other two as they ran down slick mud trails and to a small shelter in a clearing.

Jenna growled angrily, her red hair soaked and stuck to her skull and her ponytail had fallen out; her auburn hair mussed up to her back. Rinsing her hair under a small ledge in front of the door, she glared angrily at the clouds gathering. Ivan knocked on the door, a hollow sound echoing within and without. The adepts waited expectantly, but when there was no answer, Jenna stamped her foot.

"Open the door, out here, we're soaking wet!" She bellowed at the wooden door, which seemed to tremble at her anger, but Garet seemed to see that it was still trembling from the outside.

"Maybe Kraden's asleep," He suggested tentatively, "You know how old people snooze at random times..." Ivan shook his head and Jenna scowled as drips of water were splashed upon her face. "If Kraden was asleep, then Mia would answer the door..."

Jenna took this chance to smirk at Garet who stuck his tongue out—"Look what you know fire boy!" Garet refused to back down in this argument, "What if they're both asleep?" Jenna clucked mockingly, "Unlikely."

"Shuddap, you cow..." Garet muttered, but Ivan traced it anyways and sniggered openly, which caused Jenna to stamp on Garet's foot... "Look whose talking, porcupine!" Garet widened his eyes and whirled to face her, "PORCUPINE?!" Jenna ignored his protest and started chanting, "Porcupine, porcupine, porcupine...!" Garet growled and attempted to swipe her face, but she ducked and Ivan muttered, "Feel the love..."

Ignoring his randomly insane friends, Ivan banged the door again, before, suddenly, the door creaked open and light poured out into the rain. Jenna stopped squabbling with 'Porcupine' and gingerly pushed Ivan away and into the household. Ivan grumbled, pulling the cloak from his head and buttoning it up, his hands within, and Garet came in last, sulking because Jenna had thrown a well hit mud ball at him, hitting his spiky porcupine hair, which now looked like something crawled up his back and died on his scalp.

Jenna shrieked loudly, piercing the silence, and caused Ivan and Garet to rush towards her, Garet, with mud flying everywhere, and Ivan, his robe flopping sloppily from his arm, which was clasped around it. "What, what?!" Jenna had been leaning against the wall, and she pointed at the middle of the room, and the other two felt like vomiting, well, Garet to be exact, and Ivan lay dizzily on the floor, against the wall.

"Oh...my...gosh..." He whispered, before passing out cold on the floor...

Felix lay, his hands resting upon the side of the ship and gazed at the ocean longingly, for something, even he did not know. Sighing, he ruffled his hair and went back to the table, where Piers and Isaac were arguing thoroughly about why Isaac had been late. Piers had his hand to his temple, which seemed to be throbbing and Isaac had this ghastly look on him that screamed – "YOU WILL DIE!!!!"

"Heck, no, where are the others?" Piers growled, and Isaac scowled darkly at the Mercury Adept. "How the [censor] do I know?!" He growled back and Piers narrowed his eyes. "You left them alone?" He shouted and Isaac shot back, "Well they're not babies!" "[censor] you and your [censor] [censor]." Piers muttered and Felix rolled his eyes, gently touching the adept's shoulders, signaling him to back off. Isaac and Piers glared at each other one more time before getting up and going to the other sides of the ship.

Squeaking rang out from the cut silence and Felix raised an eyebrow, where Piers hastily griped at something overboard and Isaac was shrieking something very inappropriate. It seemed like a poor Djinn had been leaning towards the calming wind, and was too absorbed to notice that it had been leaning over the railing, and only noticing when it was too late—it had fallen overboard and was squealing madly, shouting bloody murder.

"Stop struggling, Fizz! I'll get ya out of there!" Piers gritted his teeth as, in her panic, Fizz had bitten down hard on his hand, and he pulled her up onto the ship. He cast ply on himself before staring intently at the sulking Djinn at his feet. "Fizz, how many times do I have to tell you, DON'T GO NEAR THE RAILING???" Piers drawled and Fizz hung her head guiltily. She didn't really mean it. She had sensed a storm and was trying to catch its scent.

"Storm." She chirped and hopped onto Piers foot, quickly climbing up his leg, up his torso and onto his shoulder. "Storm coming North, North, coming Storm." Fizz wriggled uneasily, wondering if this explanation would explain her unruly actions this morning. It seemed so, for Piers sighed exasperatingly, and put her back into his pack, where she snuggled into its folds and eagerly told her friends about her adventure.

Felix chuckled and looked sideways towards the harassed adept that found it comfortable to lie on the deck, backside down, and stare at the gathering clouds, "That Fizz of yours is a real handful." Piers snorted and turned around, facing him.

"I wouldn't be too braggy if I were you," He retorted, "That Echo's going to get you in big trouble when Jenna finds out about that missing book." Felix paled and shook his head, "Don't worry. When she DOES find out, I'll be gone." Piers raised an eyebrow.

"What do you mean?"

"When she finds out, I'm jumping ship(see below)."


It had started out a beautiful day, the sunlight had been pouring in from the cracks in the windows and the Djinn had finally fallen asleep under its soothing gaze. The house had been washed and scrubbed through and through, and Mia had swept her hand across her sweaty forehead, rinsing the cloth and pouring the suds outside, into the grass. She smiled inwardly, proudly, to finally have cleaned the mess that had been there when Kraden had rented the little hut from a kindly vacationing villager.

Mia plopped herself onto a soft, comfortable seat and untied her curly white apron, which she hung on a nearby chair and sighed softly, snuggling into the mushy seat which swallowed her arms and legs smoothly. Kraden had fallen asleep reading a leather-covered book, and the house was peaceful.

Mia was, unintentionally, bored. Very bored. She got up and stretched her hands and legs, flexing her arms and making sure that she didn't pull any muscles anywhere and shook her head, blue hair spilling over her shoulders.

Looking for something to do, she eyed that book Kraden had been so absorbed in, in the past two hours, reading and eating, reading and eating, and she gently pried his fingers off the book and gently placed a fleece cloak in its place.

She propped it open and gently rested her eyes on the first words... (When Sorcery was Destroyed...)

Venus sighed, glaring at the three others, who shied away from their brooding sister. She had been working all night and day, casting spells and enchantments and growling in defeat when it came to nothing. Mercury calmly soothed her, but Venus couldn't stand any more mistakes and mess-ups. If they wanted to win, they had to use their brains, not their muscles—and it didn't help that Cat and Floor had thought them crazy to go against their other five sisters.

(The five sisters that wanted to destroy Weyward...) She brooded, (That's Cat's job, or her name isn't Catastrophe for nothing...) Venus sighed, alarming Jupiter, who practically jumped out of her skin and glared. She stood up, striding in her long golden dress and smoothly changed into armor and pants. She drew out a part of her power and decided to call a meeting.

She knew that they were coming and she had to warn them.

Alex blinked in confusion, while seated in the main deck, his Djinn seemed to go a bit... wild, tearing at their cages, or bags, and he seriously thought that Serac had gone over head a bit, sulking that much, but he didn't understand Fugue's sudden change in nature. Everything had gone fine, the waves and the sea seemed to agree that they should travel as Alex wanted, and they were sailing smoothly—Fugue was learning well, until the cute little Djinn started tearing and seemed a bit rabid.

(I wonder what's going on...)

Echo jumped out from the bag, landing smoothly on the plywood floor, and turned around on her squat body and chirped and, one by one, her friends jumped out after her. Her two sisters, Steel and Meld, were beside her as they trudged towards the door, and Echo chirped again. Something started tearing at the air and slowly, a small window was being opened in midair, and on the opposite side, a galaxy of stars and swirling lights danced invitingly to the small Djinn.

Echo wriggled through the opening, her sisters had to push her plump rump through, and they managed, their own momentum back firing at them and they fell, squeaking, into the window. Iron observed his crazy cousins before growling to continue. He, himself, walked into the window (as skinny as he was) and was followed hesitantly by his brother, Mold, who always looked upon his older sibling.

Flower and Salt argued a bit, before deciding that they'd go together, twins who were born small and plump, only about half the size of the others. Flower pushed herself in while Salt complained that she was too fat. "Fat." He said grumpily and Flower retorted, "Stupid."

The last Djinn, who was sitting silently alone, looked around and sighed. Ground got up, he was always alone, after being traded from Isaac and always had to do things by himself. He wished he could play with the other Djinn, or go back to familiar friends and family, but he knew that wasn't going to happen. He jumped in, making sure to close the window, and followed the other Djinn into space.

(see above)Hahaha! This idea was from one of my reviewers sunruner. THANKS!

Authors Notes: I wonder what Ivan saw...

Felix: I never knew you swore Piers...

Piers: I DON'T!

Isaac: Yeah, right.

Echo: MARCH!

Steel and Meld: grumble

Salt: Fatto!

Flower: Stupid!

Salt: Dumbo!

Flower: THOSE AREN'T EVEN WORDS!!!!!