This is the second chapter. Thanks to the two that made it their favorite story! There really is no excuse to why it took so long, but I did have science fair to do... Oh well, it's done. I hope you enjoy it, and PLEASE REVIEW!!!

Uncertainty

Chapter 2: Northern Disappointment

Mia lay in her bed on the ship. She had time to think, as she could not help on the deck. Mia had grown sick from the ebb on her psyenergy from the flying ship. Felix had promised not to fly the ship for too long until she had gotten used to the constant ebb of her psyenergy from the use of Hover and the newly acquired wings from Contigo. When they awoke the morning following the lighting of the Lighthouse, Felix had offered Piers' ship to use for the group. When the group saw the transformation that Piers' ship had taken, the topic was decided. The evening before, the people of Contigo had attached the wings that they had been working on. Mia recalled something mentioned about a prophecy that the ship matched a description for. Hama told them that the power of Anemos, or Hover, would allow the ship to fly. She had warned them that the ship would slowly ebb on all of their psyenergy, and the group should be careful with flying until they were used to the ebb. The ship had taken off with a problem. That is, until the group had been flying for several hours. They were nearly to the Northern Reaches when Mia had fainted. Felix landed the ship in the frigid waters, and Piers used Ply on her. This woke her up. Felix then gave her a Psy-Crystal, which she thankfully used. The Psy-Crystal glowed then dissipated in her hand, and after that, she could stand. It had been decided that she would spend the rest of the day in bed, and the ship would sail on the water, although it took much longer. A knock on the door suddenly tore Mia from her thoughts.

"Come in," she answered.

It was Garet. "We are nearing the Northern Reaches. Do you want to stop whining about your weak self and come back up on the top deck?" Garet sarcastically asked.

"I will when you stop being an asshole," Mia responded, just as sarcastically.

"Oh, that's unfair, Mia. You know that I can't resist bugging you," Garet responded.

"Hmm…I'll be up there soon. Now leave, I need to change," Mia said. When he made no move to leave, she told him, "Get out of here! I need to change, you ass!"

Garet cocked his head to one side, raising his eyebrow. "And if I don't want to leave?" he asked sarcastically.

"I'll freeze you in a block of ice and throw you overboard," Mia said, being very serious.

"Touché," Garet said, promptly leaving.

Mia did not immediately start to change. She lay back down to think about the situation with Garet. Although she had only known Garet, Issac, and Ivan for six months, she felt close to them. She knew that if any boy in Imil had tried something like that, she would immediately freeze them just to shut them up. Justin, her own apprentice had once been boasting of his healing abilities, saying that he was a better healer than her to the townspeople. She walked into the sanctum while he was doing his boasting, so she froze him, and then left him to heal himself since he was such a better healer. He ended up getting a nasty case of the flu and was bedridden for a week before he sent for Mia to heal him. When Mia got there, he admitted he was wrong and groveled at her feet for forgiveness, and for her to heal him of his tremendous flu. She obliged, to the condition that he never even thinks that he's better than her ever again. Justin had quickly agreed to this condition.

Mia slowly sat up, quietly giggling to herself at what she had done to the arrogant boy. She took a quick look around her room, deciding what she would need on the top deck. She ended up deciding to wear her cloak, and her fur coat that she liked so much. She also decided that there might be some monsters they would encounter, so she decided to take her staff too. She slowly got up, testing her strength. Once she confirmed that she was strong enough to stand, she slowly hobbled on stiff legs over to the wardrobe that all of the rooms had. Once there, she undressed, revealing her slender body. She decided not to change into her one of her few other sets of undergarments, just to wear what she had on. She thought differently when she smelled it. Once the stench of week-old undergarments reached her nose, she ripped them off, to get her clean set. After she was fully undressed, she admired herself in the wardrobe's mirror. She rubbed her body, amazed at how fit she had gotten over the past six months. She was never fat, but she was not in the best shape when she left Imil. But all the grueling tasks the group had performed over those six months, including defeating the two-headed dragon that was Saturos and Manardi fused together, had perfected her body into a well-toned, muscled body that any girl would admire to have. She put on her new set of undergarments, then her pants, dress, then cloak. She then put on her fur coat, and admired the blue color in the mirror. The feel of the fur against her skin had been appealing o her, ever since her grandmother made her the coat, three years ago. It was the last thing she could make before she got very sick. Oddly enough, it was also about the time Alex had started leaving Imil so often, what Mia now new was to hang around Saturos and Menardi. Mia had always thought that both her grandparents got sick because Alex, who is the better healer, wasn't there to protect their house with psy-energetic wards against diseases. Flu season had hit especially hard that winter. Mia held off the disease, but she could not properly fight it. It was just too strong.

Mia started to walkout of her room, but then had to double back because she forgot her staff. Once she grabbed the staff, she started out again. Some nice frozen air should do me some good. She thought. She found it strange that the Lemurian ship did not rock or sway much as it sailed. She was also surprised at how fast it went, although it did not have sails or oars. Piers said that it relied solely on the power in that black orb. Mia made her way to the stairwell that would lead her to the top deck. She ascended the staircase slowly, careful not to fall. When she got to the top of the stairs, she prepared herself for the insanity that was bound to be taking place on deck. She took a deep breath, and opened the door. There were two things that she noticed before anything else. The first was the cold. She wasn't ready for the rush of frigid air that met her. The ship was so well insulated, probably from psy-energy, that she didn't even realize that it got so cold. She was glad that she had grabbed her coat. The second thing she noticed was the utter lack of insanity on the deck. Felix was at the tiller, just like her normally was, but everyone wasn't running around like mad to keep the ship in order. The group was standing around Felix. It was only then that she noticed that they were flying. No wonder the ship is moving so fast and so smoothly, the ship was flying! Mia walked over to the tiller to join the group, and they immediately started to tease her.

"Ah! The dead has risen!" Issac said jokingly.

"Shut up or you will be the dead one," Mia returned, not missing a beat.

"I hope mind us flying again," Felix said, apologetically.

"Not at all, I didn't even notice it this time," Mia told him. In truth, she was perturbed by the fact that they were flying without her consent, but she didn't want to upset them. She felt fine.

"Well, why did we have sail most of the day if you were fine?" Garet asked which earned him a slap across his head from Jenna. "What?!" he exclaimed.

"That's mean, don't do that!" she snapped.

"How long have we been flying?" Mia asked, ignoring the conflict that just took place.

"Only about half an hour, tops," Issac said, "We started flying about ten minutes before we sent Garet down to get you. That was about when we passed the Northern Inlet. We started flying so we could sleep in Prox instead of on the boat."

"So that means we will be in Prox's inn tonight?" Mia asked.

"If everything goes according to plan…"

When the ship flew, it moved at breathtaking speeds. A trip that would normally take a week could be compressed into a couple of days. Mia tried to watch the water fly by under the ship, but it just made her dizzy. They flew for about another half hour. Felix had to land the ship when the waters became too icy to fly over without harming the ship. Then he had to maneuver in a maze of icy waters and glaciers to continue north. A couple of times, the group reached a dead end and had to turn around. Felix carefully navigated the ship to avoid hitting icy patches and sink the ship. Most of the others tried to keep warm. Mia and Piers, being Mercury Adepts, were immune to the cold, so they helped Felix. Felix, who had lived in the icy Northern Reaches for three years when he was held captive in Prox, was used to the cold. The other five were huddled together, struggling to keep warm from the brief bursts of fire that Garet and Jenna took turns conjuring. The ship made its way north at an excruciatingly slow pace. Finally, after about an hour of this slow work, the ice started to get thinner and thinner until the ship got to a clearing in the ice. This would have been great news, except that there was a great wall of ice in the middle of the clearing. The group stared in utter disbelief.

Felix fell to his knees. "No…I-It can't b-be…w-we missed the one time of year when the N-Northern Reaches are melted enough to pass through…" Felix stammered," N-Now…W-we will n-never…J-Jenna, I-I'm sorry…I-I-I'm s-so sorry…" Felix started to cry.

And that's it for now! I hope you enjoyed it! I'll try to get the next chapter out before i go on my church's winter retreat in the third week of February! And again, PLEASE REVIEW!!!!