Chapter 3

Trixie's mom held her and Spud the whole time they were in the airport. And the whole time they drove home in a taxi, her mom was silent and comforting. Both of them didn't want to believe it. But it was true. As they drove over the freeway back to the city, Oceanic Airlines flight 4459, that saw the explosion flew over them, landed safely in JFK. After the pilots parked the Boeing 757 on its gate the men talked about what they had seen.

"You know... I have this strange feeling." the first-officer said.

"After seeing this anyone would be feel strange!" the captain answered.

"No I mean... This is different." his colleague responded but had no clue what else to say. When the captain left the cockpit, the first-officer grabbed his mobile to call his wife as she had made him promise to before he left. "Hi honey... yes we just land! And... what... oh my gosh... are they sure?"

The first officer started to sweat. He turned to the cockpit-door and saw that nobody was listening. His wife meanwhile told him what she just heard... on the magical-world-news!

The taxi meanwhile stopped in front of Spud's house. Wordlessly, Spud opened the door and gave Trixie one last glance, who cried had the whole ride.

"See you later!" Spud said quickly and Trixie agreed wordless.

When Spud left the taxi he saw his parents waiting for him. Trixie's mom called them shortly after they were sure that Jake had been on the plane. Both looked worried but then relieved when they saw their son walking up the stairs in front of the entrance.

"Oh... Arthur!" his mother said and hugged him. "I feel so sorry for you!"

Spud didn't answer.

"Arthur..." his father began. "Come in... you need to eat or to drink something."

Slowly Spud walked to the entrance. But once he reached the door, he finally broke out in tears and collapsed.

Trixie's way home was filled with silence. The taxi stopped in front of their house and Trixie, who couldn't hold her tears, left the car to slowly enter her house. Everything was still very strange for her, like it was not true, like it was a nightmare, like she would awake soon. She opened the door while her mother was still paying the taxi and walked inside where she could hear the loud voice from a TV...

"...the fire-brigade and all other helpers have found no survivors. The Boeing 767 with 207 people aboard, that had enough fuel..."

For a short moment Trixie held her ears. She didn't want to hear it. But then she wanted to. Slowly she entered the living-room where her grandmother watched the news. For the first time, Trixie could see the horrible pictures from the crash site...

"...there's nothing left from the jet. The plane nearly 'vaporized' into millions of small pieces. An eye-witness on a boat near the island was able to make a video of the crash..."

In horror Trixie saw the burning leftovers of the airliner. Small debris pieces and ash covered the black-burned ground. In that moment her mother entered the room and turned off the TV.

The hours passed, and Trixie didn't forget the pictures she'd seen on the news. After her mother turned off the TV, Trixie walked upstairs to her room where she lay on her bed and stared on the celling, it was already dark outside. Then her mother knocked on the door and came in with a bowl of soup.

"Trixie, you have to eat something!" her mother said but she didn't answer.

Mrs Carter placed the bowl and a spoon on the desk and sat down on the bed next to her daughter.

"Trixie."

"Why?" Trixie finally said. "What happened? How this could happen?"

"I don't know." her mother answered. "But I promise you... I will do my best to find out. It was the airline that I work for... I want to help!"

Spud meanwhile, also just lay on his bed and thought about that what happened today, yesterday and in the last year. Jake survived the Huntsclan, various attacks of magical-creatures, but... but now... A plane-crash! Then he thought about his nightmare from last night...

"No! That's too stupid!" he said. "You can't see the future!"

Spud looked on his alert-clock. It was 8pm now. His parents knew that he wanted to be alone. But then Spud had this strange feeling again. It was like he was falling, the room became black and white again. Spud got horrible headache. Than he heard a voice, a well-known voice- Jake's.

"...Hello Spud..." Jake's voice said. It was unclear, his whole view became static. Then Spud realized that he was holding his mobile in his hands...we just land here in Lisb... tried to call... apologize... yesterday...call me when you hear this..."

Spud felt that he fell much faster. On the display he could see that it was the mailbox. Spud wanted to press the button to repeat the message but he had no control of himself. His body felt like he was being pulled from two sides. The mobile disappeared in a puff of smoke and Spud fell out of his bed. Everything was normal again. But Spud felt sick now. He stood up and saw that his mobile was there where he had left it... on his desk. Immediately Spud felt that something was wrong and ran into the bathroom to puke...

In the living-room, his parents were watching the news about the crash. Both were horrified too when they saw the disgusting pictures. Also some pictures of the video where shown.

"Then the video shows that the plane lost an engine in flight and that the pilots lost the control of the jet. The 207 people aboard died." the reporter told them.

"Oh my gosh... I can't imagine how Arthur fells right now!" his mother said.

"Yes... I wish I could do something." his father said before they heard their son running into the bathroom and puke. "Arthur? Are you okay?"

Spud felt like the whole room was moving and circling when he puked into the toilet. In that moment he realised that he had to eat something, because there was almost nothing coming out. When he was ready he could hear his father knocking on the door.

"Arthur? What happened?" his father asked.

"I'm fine!" Spud lied when he walked over to the sink and poured cold water on his face and over his head. When he was sure that his father had left he took a headache pill from the shelf and went back to his room.

Trixie meanwhile ate the soup and looked out of her window. In the sky she saw the lights of an cruising airliner.

"What happened?" she asked herself before she hear something from her door. "Mom... is that you?"

Trixie stood up and walked carefully to her door. In the darkness it was creepy. But now she felt that someone was here.

"Who is there?" she asked.

The next thing she remembered was that someone's hand over her mouth...

Spud finally fell asleep. He took a sleeping pill to sleep and so that he didn't think about what just happened in the bathroom. He even didn't realize that someone entered his room...

The next thing they both knew they woke up in a big court-like room. They screamed when they realized that they sat in chairs in a big hall, with colourful windows and torches on the walls. Than they saw that they sat in front of the dragon's council, all wearing black. Around them, dozens of people sat in the audience. Slowly the two teenagers realized that they were on the Isle of Draco for the first time in their life. In the audience the people talked wildly in several languages.

"QUIET!" Councillor Kulde shouted and hit his hammer on the table. "This meeting is about..."

Both teenagers didn't listen. They just stared on each other. Both wore their pyjamas and where handcuffed.

"...of Jake Long!" Kulde finished. Trixie and Spud didn't remember the short speech but they were sure that it was about them too. "Do you know why you are here?"

"Yes," Trixie said. "Because the American Dragon is dead. Killed by the airline that my mother works for. And you have arrested us because we are two humans who know about your world."

"And you see a danger in us." Spud finished.

"Exactly." councillor Omnia said.

The next was a ten minutes long speech by councillor Andam, why no human should know about magical-creatures. But the both teenagers didn't listen to him. They remembered that the only reason that they still knew about the magical-world was Jake. And he was no more!

"...and so far!" Andam finished and councillor Kukulkan began to talk.

"My fellow dragons..." she said and stood up. Over her a large holographic picture appeared. "...we all know that the American Dragon and his family boarded the jet on John-F.-Kennedy Airport in New York. After one hour of flying, the left engine exploded..." everything she said happened with the animated plane on the screen. "...the engine ripped off, damaged the wing and smashed against the tail and damaging it very hard... from that moment, the plane was lost. The jet crashed on Rouque Island, a small island near the coast of Maine. 207 people are dead. The most of them humans."

"Thank you councillor," Kulde said and turned to Trixie and Spud. "And now to you two... we tolerated the wish of the American Dragon to share his secret with you. But we can't accept it longer."

"Are you going to replace Jake?" Spud asked.

„We have to! I know it's a pity..." Omnia began but Trixie cut her off.

"A pity? A PITY" she screamed so loud that the microphone in front of her made squeaking noise. "JAKE LONG RISKED HIS LIFE SO MANY TIMES. HE DEFEATED THE HUNTSCLAN, THE DARK DRAGON; HE SAVED YOUR LIFES MORE THAN ONCE. AND THE ONLY THING YOU CAN SAY IS THAT'S A PITY!"

Trixie had sore throat after her explosion. Most people in the audience were holding their ears. But they were impressed. Nobody ever was screaming at the council. Nobody was ever brave enough. And now a teenage human girl had.

"Are you ready?" the shocked Kulde asked.

Trixie agreed and sat down. In that moment the big doors opened and Sun Park stepped in carefully. She was dressed completely in black and her eyes were full of tears. It was very quiet when she walked slowly walked through the hall and sat down on the table next to Trixie and Spud. Next to her, they looked like clowns in their pyjamas.

"Master Park... it's nice that you finally arrived." Kulde asked.

Sun looked ashamed. "I first thought that they were in another plane. I just found out when I got your call." she said in tears.

"Now we have a witness... who can confirm that it was an accident." Omnia said.

After she finished another door opened and a man in a pilot's uniform entered the room, escorted by a guard and looking tired and shocked. Trixie knew the uniform. It was from Oceanic Airlines. The man was placed on a chair right in front of the council. The man in the uniform looked sad and worried.

"Henry Rogers?"

"Yes." he answered dryly.

"You are working as a first-officer for Oceanic Airlines and you were two miles away. You saw the crash?"

The man agreed.

"Tell us everything you know!" Omnia said.

"Well... we had a charter from Kangerlussaq, that's in Greenland! And we were near the coast of Maine. We got order from the centre to turn to pass the InterFly 351. We had eye-contact. The 767 was flying normal and then... it went very fast..."

"Was there any trace that it was an attack on the plane." Kulde asked.

"No."

"Was a beam or any other trace of magic involved?"

"No."

"Okay, that's enough! You can go." Kulde said and the man left the scene. "And now to you."

"You can't do it!" Spud said. "You can't delete our memory. You can't destroy..."

"WHAT? You have nothing to do with our world!" Kukulkan said angrily.

"We have more to do than you believe!" Trixie was mad.

Trixie knew that the only way to prevent their memory from being deleted was to find a way to make them important for the council. Spud knew the same.

"We are the only ones who know where the old man has all his potions, documents, files and other stuff. We are full members of team dragon." Spud said. "When you delete our memory about Jake... you will need months to arrange everything. And everyone in this room will agree that you have to give us at least a few days. We lost our best friend! And we need time to arrange everything!"

The councillors, the audience and even the stenographer looked at the two teenagers. Kulde felt his heart rate increased. The council felt that they had no chance.

"That was a very impressive speech. We normally don't accept any exceptions but we have to say that we agree with your statement." Kulde said.

Trixie and Spud where relieved. Sun smiled for the first time since she came in. She was glad too.

"Ten days!" Kulde said. "And not any minute later! Can we rely on that?"

The both teenagers agreed, so Kulde smashed with the hammer on the table and Trixie and Spud disappeared in a puff of smoke.

Both appeared with strong headaches in their bedrooms...

End of Chapter 3

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