Hi! It's me! The Mystery Writer ;D Here's my hint for today:
As hard as I try to stay organized, I'm a total scatterbrain :P I tend to get distracted easily especially if I'm forced to do something I don't enjoy. But because I do find pleasure in this style of writing, I think we've been able to make a lot of progress since :)
Cutting the flashback short here once again. Didn't want to involve the Morse code part so you readers can just go on to reading! Enjoy!
Cassandra's P.O.V.
My head was throbbing with pain. I couldn't help but moan.
"Owww…"
If that was a dream, it was probably the weirdest one yet.
Then I thought of what happened before that. Now, it seemed like such a long time ago. I would usually be able to fly against wind currents, but apparently not today, if it still is today.
Or is it?
I looked outside. It was getting dark.
Why couldn't I have done that and possibly saved all my friends?
I looked at all my newfound friends all condensed in a pile of confusion. Genna's wings stood out before they disappeared along with her sword in the blink of an eye.
Note to self: Give that girl some flying lessons. She seems to have a lot of potential after crashing into the castle wall. That was pretty awesome!
I was the first to get my act together and help everyone else out of that jumbled mess.
"Everyone okay?" Mia asked, accepting my hand to help her up.
Everyone murmured and nodded their heads in agreement once we were all standing.
Christina muttered randomly, full of fright. "Dad took a selfie with my…"
Her face was blanched white with her mouth open wide before she froze. It was if she was petrified into the position of her inaudible scream of terror. After failing to catch her attention by frantically waving our arms in front of her face, I just grabbed her shoulders and shook her back into existence.
"Snap out of it Christina!" I wailed with all my might.
After what seemed like forever, she finally got out of it. "Sorry… Whatever happened pretty much played out all my fears of getting this secret girls knight group caught. I don't want to that to happen at all costs..."
Destiny rested her hand on Christina's shoulder reassuringly. She didn't say a thing, but I guess it was one of those moments where actions spoke louder than words.
It's like she knows Christina inside and out… Of course she does! She's been her friend since forever and co-leads with her Why wouldn't she have the same fears for this group as well?
"Wonder why we all had the same weird dream..." Savannah pondered. "I don't think every knight in Avalon was in that gathering. Only a handful. My original group of knight friends weren't there."
"Savvy," interrogated Christina. "Mind telling us about your other knight friends?"
We all sat in a circle, waiting for her to answer.
"Okay. You guys remember me mentioning that I was already a knight, right?"
We all nodded.
"Well before joining this group, I was with them along with the twins."
We all knew which pair she was referring to. We all turned our heads towards Mike and Mia. Mia gave a sheepish smile and waved timidly, which was uncharacteristic for her, while Mike suddenly found that looking at a corner was very interesting. Savannah brought out focus back to her as she continued.
"I don't know if I-we still are though…" she admitted with a sigh. "I-we've been isolating myself-ourselves from them all day…"
Christina hugged her cousin. "Aw… Savvy, you can go back to them if you're such an important member to them. Same goes for you Mike, Mia. As long as none of you don't tell anyone about this secret girls' knight society."
Savannah shook her head. "But I really like this group too! The adventure, new mysteries, not to mention spending time with my cousin and her friends."
"I agree," piped up Mia. "This is really exciting! How could we drop all this?! I want to go through the thrill ride and see where we end up! I mean, who would just leave in the middle of a mystery! Right Mike?"
Mike rubbed the shoulder Mia just punched, but then straightened his back, stoically serious. "This is all a bit too much craziness for my liking… but it's not like going back will be any different. We'll have to go back to the way things were eventually, but for now, I'm actually proud to say I'm a knight! That's one thing checked off my bucket list."
Christina wasn't afraid to hide her smile and pride.
"Speaking about mysteries," reeled in Olivia. "Let's discuss about the 'meeting'."
"Yeah. What happened back there while I was gone?" Mike wanted to know.
"While you were gone with that other knight, the other knights pretty much put their meeting on hold," summed up Fiona.
"Yeah. They were like: 'Gotta wait for the boss to come back. Chess anyone?'" Mia re-enacted.
We all rolled on the floor laughing. It was pretty ridiculous seeing a bunch of muscular Knights wasting their time playing chess when they were meant to be out there saving Avalon from who-knows-what.
Gemma was the first to speak again. "Who took you away anyways Mike? He must be the leader."
Christina answered for him, her eyes in a dreamy state. "Malory…"
Something told me that someone had a crush on the boss.
"Sir Malory?!" Destiny bolted upright.
Her reaction was a complete contrast compared to Christina's. Unlike her usual self, she didn't seem lenient, forgiving, or calm under the circumstances. It made me feel uncomfortable as she started pacing.
"Destiny, you okay?" worried Christina. "You seem a bit… jumpy lately."
"Is there something you have against this 'Sir Malory' knight? You do look a bit shifty…" noted Fiona.
"I don't know whether to be happy for Christina or worried for Destiny," whispered Cleo in my ear.
I nodded in agreement. With all her uneasy pacing, Destiny had us worried, making us all tense up a bit and stand up to try and make her relax.
She turned to us. "I'm fine… I'm just trying to puzzle out how we got back up here…"
"I think the better question is, how did we get down there?" Genna pointed out.
"Well," Christina hesitated. "There was this blue mosaic stone in the center of the room I accidently touched. The next thing I knew we, were in that meeting room!"
She pointed at it on the floor. Destiny stepped out of the crowd and knelt down to analyze the tile further.
"The Blue Knight..." Destiny started to murmur, but she didn't finish.
What in the spiral is she talking about?! Destiny sure has a way of being mysterious...
"Well," she began, changing the topic. "Looks like us Knights of the Silver Rose got a lot of work ahead of us."
"What do you mean? We don't even know what we're gonna do next!" Andy complained.
"Can you clarify please?" Fiona asked, puzzled.
Destiny looked at us as if we were all clueless.
"First," she started, "We need to find out how we got in and out."
Cleo crossed her arms. "Isn't that part obvious?"
"Secondly," continued Destiny, ignoring that comment. "We have a whole village to make."
"What?!" I cried. "Why in the Zeus' name would we do that?"
"Because after that encounter, they'll wonder what we said about our origins are true, and if they don't see that proof, they might hunt us down and we'll be known as spies," she stated, matter of factly.
"Oh..."
Did she even know how much effort it takes to build a city?! I looked back at my own experience. Born in the midst of construction of what we now know as Aquila today was pretty chaotic. Though the results were worth it, the process was ugly.
"So, does that mean we're gonna have to split up?" Genna worried, holding her brother tightly as he struggled to get out of her grip.
"Well, how about we each choose if we want to stay or go," Christina suggested.
"All those staying, raise your hand!" Mia declared.
Genna raised her hand and pulled Andrew's arm up, raising his. Mia and Mike willingly raised theirs too.
Cleo rolled her eyes, as if saying, Why in the Spiral would I want to go? and raised her hand.
"And now, raise your hand if you want to go." auctioned Destiny.
Savannah, Olivia, Christina, Fiona, Evelyn, and I all raised our hands immediately.
"Destiny," Christina implied, "You didn't raise your hand for either choice."
"I don't know whether I should stay or go," she admitted truthfully.
I could imagine her going through a bunch of history books or exploring the forest for resources to built the fake village.
But either way, what was she truly searching for? I couldn't help but wonder. Even though she seems honest, she seems to be hiding something constantly...
"Okay, I've decided," Destiny spoke up. "I'll go to make sure you don't get yourself into any trouble Christina."
"It's gonna take more than just us to make this village," believed Olivia. "Is there anyone else we can trust that can help us? If they're really willing to support our cause, they might even be willing to join the Knights of the Silver Rose, if Destiny and Christina let them..."
"Oh my Lady of the Lake!" Christina cried.
"What is it?" I asked.
Her green eyes became so wide, I thought they were going to burst!
"Justin!" randomly named Christina.
"Justin who?" Olivia asked.
"Justin Stableboy! I mean, Justin the stableboy." She blushed.
Genna looked at her curiously. "Who's that?"
"Oh! I remember him!" Destiny cried in delight. "He's really sweet. You'll all love him. Especially Michael and Andrew."
"A very dear friend of mine…" she had a far away, a misty look in her eyes. "I haven't seen him in quite some time since we started this knight business…"
Christina's P.O.V.
A flashback took over.
Inside the stable, I was chatting with a dark haired boy as he groomed one of the horses. This particular horse was named Jack.
"Hey, Justin?" I asked him.
"Yes?" he inquired.
I rested my head on my hands, and stared at the horse's eyes. It seemed like they could be thinking of anything. How did people like Justin tame such unpredictable creatures?
I turned to him. "Can you teach me to ride a horse?"
He looked up, and stopped grooming Jack. "Serious?"
I made a begging motion.
Justin grinned. "I thought you'd never ask!"
A couple minutes later, he had finally picked out a suitable horse. He insisted on having a calm one, though I would have preferred one with more of a personality.
Out of the stable, he held the reigns of Tammy. She had silky gray fur, and her eyes were half glazed over. I crossed my arms.
I stuck my tongue out. "Is it even possible for you to have picked a more boring horse?"
He rolled his eyes at me. "You do understand horses with too much feist can hurt you, right?"
"Now you sound like my father!" I complained.
Justin winced. We both knew how protective and over-controlling my father was of me.
"Fine…" he gave in. "But if you get seriously injured, be sure to tell your father that!"
I clapped, and he brought out a pure black horse. It's hair was deep red.
"Perfect!" I cried.
The horse glared dangerously at me. Justin noticed the immediate hatred in the horse.
He gave me a look that clearly expressed, I told you so…
I walked slowly to the horse.
"What's her name?" I asked.
"Rosy," Justin stated. "But don't think that name makes her innocent…"
I smiled, and put my hand closer to the horse. It was hovering above her nose. Rosy neighed and jumped upward. I leaped back.
"Shh, Rosy, it's okay!" soothed Justin. "This is Christina, she's nice… Don't worry…"
The horse seemed to settle down at his voice.
I suppose working at a stable with the horses would mean getting them to trust you, I suspected.
"How am I going to get you on there?" Justin mumbled.
He tied Rosy to a wooden peg, then hurried to the stables to grab something. He came back with a stool.
"This might help," he grunted as he placed the stool steadily beside Rosy.
Justin kept Rosy still as I tried to mount the huge horse. However, once I got comfortably on her, Justin lost grip, and Rosy went on her two hind legs!
"Ah!" I shrieked, hanging onto the reins for dear life.
I almost slid off! Thankfully, she went back on all four legs. Not so thankfully, she started running as fast as she possibly could! She ripped the peg out of the ground by pure force, and sped away, while I was hanging onto her wild red mane for dear life.
"Christina!" Justin hollered.
My entire fourteen year old life flashed before my eyes. All of a sudden, black and red feathered wings burst out of the horse's sides!
Oh no! I panicked. Now I'm on a flying crazy horse?!
Rosy flapped her gigantic wings, and she flew into the sky. Beneath us, I spotted Justin charging forward on Jack.
"Rosy!" he called. "Calm down!"
This time, Rosy didn't listen to him. She ran on thin air, her wings giving her higher and higher altitude. I knew at any moment I would fall, and there would be no more me.
Why couldn't I have just taken the boring horse? I regretted.
Rosy started going faster. I finally lost my hold on the horse's reins.
"Ah!" I wailed, falling in a downward spiral through the air.
So this is what the end feels like… Were my last thoughts before I stopped falling.
Except, I hadn't died. I opened my eyes, and saw that Justin had caught me on Jack!
His eyes were wide, and he finally stated, "Let's not tell the King of that experience…"
I laughed a pure laugh of post near-death experience. "Let's not!"
Though we never saw Rosy again, but he ended up teaching me to ride on Jack. It certainly was a whole lot safer...
Those were fun times… Hopefully we can have more thrilling adventures with Justin now.
"Christina!" Andy yelled in my ear while shaking me. "Snap out of it! What's with you today?"
"Andy! You're gonna leave her deaf once she's back!" cried Genna.
Everyone was staring at me.
Guess my thoughts got the best of me… again.
"Well, are we gonna see this Justin the Stable boy guy or what?" Evelyn asked impatiently.
"Oh yeah!" I remembered, also informing everyone I was done looking back.
"Let's go!" Olivia cried.
I hoped Justin would help us, it would certainly make things more fun! I just hope he hasn't forgotten me...