Chapter 2: Realization

Drake slowly lowered himself on to the deck, careful to avoid hitting trees. Lyra was trying her best not to get knocked into a bush by Drakes wings. Once Drake landed, the Ravenswood gang slid off his back to meet two eight year old girls watching them in awe. A small, copper colored D-fly fluttered nervously around the shorter girl with lighter hair. In front of the two girls, a jet-black mistwolf and a caramel colored mistwolf stood protectively with the black one's golden eyes blazing. Beside the taller girl with darker hair, a white unicorn stood with her horn pointed towards the gang.

The shorter girl broke the silence. "Wow."

"Wow," the taller girl echoed.

Adriane elbowed Zach. "They're speechless!" she laughed.

"I am not speechless!" The shorter girl objected, "There just isn't much to say! Do you KNOW who you ARE?"

"Yes, but we don't know who you are…" Zach said.

"I'm Gabby!" the taller girl blurted out.

"Way to be dignified," the shorter girl mumbled before smoothly intruding herself, "I'm Lindsay."

Emily finally spoke, "Hi, Lindsay and Gabby. Do you know why we're here?"

The two girls spastically shook their heads no.

"We got a message that we are supposed to train you two," Emily explained, "Do you know what I'm talking about?"

"You mean like magic?" Lindsay's eyes lit up.

Adriane laughed, "You got that right, kid."

Gabby was so exited she started hopping in place. "We know all about you guys!" She turned to Emily. "I want to be a healer, just like you!"

Emily beamed. It felt good to have someone look up to her like this girl did. "Cool! Well, I can train you."

Lindsay followed Gabby's lead and declared, "I want to be a warrior! Like Adriane!"

Adriane laughed, "Awesome, kid! I'll show you how to kick some butt!"

After being silent all this time, Kara objected, "Wait a minute! I don't get a mini-me?"

Lindsay wrinkled her nose. "You're a girly-girl."

Kara yelped, "Great, another Xena!"

Adriane glared at her. "Shut up Kara. This kid is cool."

"Yeah, I don't get to help either. Relax," Zach said.

Lindsay was not going to let that happen. "But I want to learn to sword fight! Gabby keeps beating me! Will you help, Zach?"

Zach's eyes sparkled. "Heck yeah! Never mind, Kara. Looks like you're on your own."

Kara pouted, "No fair!"

Gabby felt bad for her so she piped up, "You could help me. I don't mind girly-girls and you're good with unicorns."

Cheered a bit, Kara replied, "Sounds good. Speaking of which, care to introduce us to your friends?"

By now the girls' bonded animals had calm down, seeing no threat. The two mistwolves were lying down beside the girls, the little D-fly sat on Lindsay's shoulder, and the white unicorn sat with her head resting on Gabby.

"This is Thunder," Lindsay pointed to the black mistwolf beside her, then to the copper D-fly on her shoulder. "And this is Cooper."

Gabby introduced her friends, "The unicorn is Mystic and the other mistwolf is Caramel."

Dreamer finally hopped down from Drake's back and cautiously approached the other two mistwolves. Thunder immediately got up, and Caramel slowly followed.

Hi! Thunder panted and jumped around Dreamer like a maniac. Who are you?

Dreamer replied, a bit unsure, Dreamer. Who are you?

My name is Thunder! You want to play with me? Thunder pounced on Dreamer, scaring him half to death.

Sorry about that; he's just a pup. I'm Caramel. Caramel introduced herself.

No problem. I guess I was the same when I was younger. Dreamer replied.

"You're only a few months older than him, Dreamer!" Adriane laughed.

So? Dreamer huffed, I'm still more mature.

"Only when you try to impress girls." Adriane winked at him.

Be quiet! Dreamer growled, embarrassed.

Everyone laughed but Lindsay and Gabby; they weren't old enough to understand.

POP!

OooooOOOooo! KeeeeeKEEEEEEE! A little gold dragonfly hit Kara in the gut at full speed.

"Ugh!" Kara grunted at the impact. "Nice to see you too, Goldie."

Intrigued, Cooper flew up to Goldie and poked her on the wing. OOooooooo. SsssssshinnnnEeEE! LeLee loooooOOOkkk! He called to Lindsay, SSSSSssshHIIIinneeeeeE!

"That's right, Cooper, shiny," Lindsay chuckled.

Hmph! Goldie slapped Cooper's little paw. NooooO ToouchY!

Sawwy Cooper's tiny head drooped in apology.

S'okkkk Goldie said.

"Okay, enough chit chat. What do you need, Goldie?" Kara asked.

Noootin Goldie replied.

"Then scram!" Kara ordered, "We have work to do."

Oookkkkyyy Goldie sighed.

Pop! And she was gone again.

"She didn't need to leave; we don't have time to do anything out here," Lindsay pointed out.

"What do you mean?" Adriane questioned, "It's not even sunset. We can stay out here at least until the sun sets."

"Not unless you want to get eaten alive!" Gabby exclaimed.

Kara squealed, "By what!"

"Mosquitoes," Lindsay laughed, "I hope you have bug spray on."

Kara sighed in relief, "You had me scared for a second there. Yeah, we have bug spray."

Gabby grimaced, "Well, at dusk not even that will keep them at bay. Around here, no one is out at sundown."

"Well," Emily was deep in thought. "What if you came to Ravenswood with us?"

"We couldn't do that!" Lindsay yelled, "What would we tell our parents? How would we explain our being gone?"

"Calm down, kid," Adriane smirked, "We are the masterminds of excuses. Plus, it seems to me like Emily has a plan."

"I sure do," Emily said, "What if we told your parents that your school was sending students to learn to live with nature? Like a nature camp program. We'd come to pick you up and you could stay on the preserve. We'd be able to help you every day after school."

Gabby liked the sound of that but wasn't completely sure it would work. "What would you tell your parents? And it's not like you can come pick us up on a dragon."

Adriane was catching on. "We could tell them it was a program for the preserve, but we could only deal with a two kids at a time. You could stay in the manor, we'd convince Emily's mom to come pick you up in her van instead of taking Drake, and you could stay for a few weeks."

"I don't know…" Lindsay said, warily, "I'm not sure my parents would buy that…"

Gabby had a few questions, too. "In the middle of the school year? And when would you come to get us? Also, my parents wouldn't believe it's a school thing if no one else goes. You'll need a flyer to make it believable, too."

"That's true," Emily agreed.

"You could go to school in Stonehill, I guess," Kara suggested, "We could make a flyer and have your parents sign it as a permission slip. That's believable."

Suddenly, Adriane blurted out, "I GOT IT! We could say that it's an honors program and you could follow us around school while you're there. The reason only the two of you are going is because you were the only ones picked. Like Kara said, we could make a flyer and make sure that your parents call the preserve for any questions. That way, they don't find out it's not school sponsored and we can make it more believable. It's on the preserve because it's a 'Learning through Nature' program. Tada!"

Even Lindsay liked that idea. "So I take it the time and date that you would pick us up would be on the flyer? That sounds great! My parents would definitely fall for that!"

Lindsay and Gabby recognized the sound of Lindsay's mom pulling in the drive way. The girls' eyes grew wide in panic and their animal friends disappeared in hiding.

"We got trouble," Lindsay announced.

"You have to go! NOW!" Gabby shouted.

"What? Why?" Zach asked, confused.

"My mom is home!" Lindsay squeaked, trying to shove the boy on his dragon.

"That's a bad thing?" Zach didn't quite understand.

"No. Not unless I have to explain to her what a huge red dragon, a wolf, a leopard, and strangers are doing in our yard." Lindsay explained, sarcastically.

"There's no time to go," Emily said, "She'll see us take off. We'll have to hide."

"How do suggest hiding a giant red dragon?" Gabby asked.

"In the trees, I guess," Emily replied, "It's the best we can do."

"You heard her!" Adriane started hurrying everyone to hide. "Get to the trees!"

Lyra hid on a nearby branch, Drake sat on the tops of the trees, Dreamer turned to mist, and the rest of the gang scurried into the bushes and ducked. Lindsay and Gabby put everything back on the porch and pretended to be playing.

Right on cue, Lindsay's mom came to check on the girls.

"Hi, Mom," Lindsay casually greeted her.

"Hi Mrs. Exeo," Gabby added, more formally.

"Hey girls," Mrs. Exeo said, "Dinner is at 6. Will Gabby be eating here?"

"Sure," Gabby supposed, "I'll call my mom later."

"Great," Mrs. Exeo said as she surveyed the yard. Then, she spotted something. "Why is your stuffed leopard in the tree?" She asked, pointing to Lyra.

"Umm…Uhh…" Lindsay stuttered.

"We put it up there while we were playing," Gabby bluffed, "We forgot to get it down. Sorry."

"No problem," Mrs. Exeo said before going inside," Don't forget to call your mom, Gabby."

The girls ran farther into the yard and behind some trees, after Mrs. Exeo had gone inside. The Ravenswood gang met there.

"That was a close one," Kara gasped.

Tell me about it… Lyra sighed.

"You guys should go now," Lindsay said, "We can't risk you being seen."

Adriane groaned, "Your right. We'll drop the flyers off soon. See you guys."

The gang hopped onto Drake's back and said their goodbyes. The girls could not wait to see them again. Their game of pretend had just opened itself up to them. They were going to Ravenswood.

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