A green minivan pulled up to the front of Lindsay's house, where she and Gabby waited impatiently. Gabby's mom handed her a cell phone.

"Make sure you call me if anything happens, alright?"

Gabby nodded.

A middle aged woman rang the doorbell. Practically tackling each other to get to the door first, Gabby and Lindsay answered it. The woman smiled and introduced herself as Mrs. Fletcher. When the girls' mothers caught up with their daughters, they looked over Mrs. Fletcher carefully, analyzing the possible threat she could pose to their children.

Finally, Gabby's mother spoke, "Nice to meet you, Mrs. Fletcher. We should be able to contact them at anytime, correct?"

"Yes, of course," Mrs. Fletcher assured her, "If you can't reach them, you could call me as well. Here, I'll give you my number."

As Mrs. Exeo retrieved a pen and paper from the kitchen, the girls exchanged anxious glances. With each mother having Mrs. Fletcher's number at hand, the girls were finally off. They grabbed their bags and raced to the car. There, Emily, Adriane, and Kara helped them load their luggage into the trunk, smiles all around.

"It's nice to have you girls," Mrs. Fletcher said warmly, once everyone was loaded in the car, "This is Emily, Kara, and Adriane. They work the preserve."

"Nice to meet you." Emily winked from the passenger seat.

Gabby smiled back at her. "You too."

"Now," Mrs. Fletcher said, surveying the younger kids through the rear view mirror, "Which one of you is Lindsay and which is Gabby?"

"Mom," Emily moaned, "You sound like you're interrogating them. Don't scare them!"

"Yeah, Mrs. Fletcher," Adriane laughed, "You'll run them off before we even get there!"

"I was just asking," Mrs. Fletcher mumbled.

"Well, we all know I'm the greatest at people," Kara announced, "So I'll tell you which one is which."

She studied the two youngsters and pointed to Gabby, "You're Lindsay."

Gabby gaped at her, hoping she was joking. "No, I'm Gabby."

Adriane and Emily stared at Kara, dumbfounded, but pulled themselves together quickly. "Way to go, Barbie," Adriane sighed.

Kara blushed. "I'm not perfect you know!"

"Gran, we're back!" Adriane announced through her house.

An old woman came out of the room a few doors down the hall. "Oh, girls, welcome home. What are these young ones names?"

"I'm Lindsay, and this is Gabby," Lindsay declared proudly.

Gran laughed warmly. "You two have some spirit, I see. "

"Well, I'm just here to grab my stuff," Adriane explained, "We are all going to sleep in the manor tonight."

"No need to remind me, Little Wolf," Gran said, "I'm not that old!"

Adriane smiled and rushed off to retrieve her sleeping bag from her room. A moment later, she was back, supplies at hand. She had already set aside her things earlier. "Let's move out troops!"

"Yes, ma'am!" Emily giggled and saluted.

Following their seniors, Gabby and Lindsay let their surroundings set in. Neither could quite believe they were in Ravenswood, the center of all magic. As she slowed to peer down a side path into the forest, a small blue shape caught Lindsay's eye. But when she nudged Gabby to point it out, it was already gone.

The manor was bigger than the newcomers expected. Eyes bulging, they stared up at it in awe. Adriane didn't bother inviting them in. Instead, she threw everyone's stuff in the door and raced off towards the woods, urging the others to follow. The others shouted in protest and rushed to catch up with her.

Panting after the unexpected chase, Gabby and Lindsay stumbled behind the other three into a clearing. Gabby's face lit up as she recognized the giant rock and peaceful pond that had riddled her imagination. Lindsay was more interested in those that occupied the space; her eyes found the legendary ferret sitting by the pond immediately.

"No way!" Lindsay blurted and raced up to the fuzzy creature.

Ozzie backed up from the oncoming third grader. "Gah! What? What?"

"It really is you!" Lindsay exclaimed, kneeling in front of the ferret. She heard three giggles behind her.

"Don't hurt him, Lindsay," Adriane joked, walking up behind Lindsay, "He's a delicate little elf."

Ozzie puffed up his chest. "Am not! So, you're one of the new mages, huh?"

"Yep!" Lindsay proclaimed happily, "And over there is Gabby. Hey, I brought something for you."

Reaching into the pocket of her hoodie, Lindsay pulled out a container of pudding. "It's all I could find at home, but I heard you like food a lot."

Ozzie reached for the pudding hungrily. "This kid knows how to get on a guy's good side!"

Emily moaned, "Ozzie, you're supposed to be on a diet."

"That's why I didn't bring anything," Gabby said as she sat next to Lindsay.

"Well, it's easy to see which one of you takes after Emily," Ozzie grumbled, ripping open the top of the pudding and digging in.

Kara sighed, "Manners are wasted on you."

"Where is everyone?" Adriane asked, gazing around the near empty clearing.

"They went to spy on you guys," Ozzie explained, mouth full of pudding.

"Is that what you saw, Lindsay?" Gabby asked.

Lindsay nodded. "I thought I saw a brimbee."

"Wouldn't surprise me," Kara huffed, "Didn't they trust us to introduce the new kids to everyone?"

"By the way," Emily asked, "where are your bondeds?"

Gabby shrugged. "I guess it takes a bit to get here."

"But there was a D-fly," Kara pointed out, "It could just pop here."

Lindsay giggled. "Don't expect Cooper to hang around much. He likes to do his own thing unless I call him. It was just luck that he was with us that day."

Sorry, we fell behind in order to stay hidden. Thunder and I can't stay in mist form and run at the same time for that long. The caramel colored mistwolf appeared at the edge of the woods.

"Caramel! Mystic!" Gabby shouted in greeting.

The three animals bounded up to their mages shouting greetings.

Packmate! Thunder nudged Lindsay and nuzzled her side.

"Wow!" Ozzie exclaimed, "You weren't kidding when you said they have powerful bonds. And talk about a weird pairing! A unicorn and a mistwolf? That's unheard of."

Emily beamed proudly at Gabby. "It's a mix of two extremes."

"So is a D-fly and a mistwolf," Adriane pointed out.

"Speaking of which, how did you guys meet?" Kara asked suspiciously, "There's hardly any magic on Earth."

"Kara," Emily warned, "Don't accuse. Ravenswood is the center of magic now; we should expect more magic to be on Earth."

"Good point," Adriane agreed, "But I'm kind of wondering the same thing. Moonshadow keeps pretty good track of the pack. How did two wolves go astray?"

Lindsay shrugged. "I met Thunder in my backyard."

"I met Caramel on a bike ride through the neighborhood," Gabby agreed.

None of us know where we came from, Mystic explained; the first thing all of us remember is meeting Gabby and Lindsay.

What's this pack you're talking about? Caramel asked.

"This is bad," Adriane muttered, "Two wolves that don't know the pack and don't remember where they're from? How did they end up with you guys?"

"We don't know," Lindsay insisted, "They just showed up."

The animals nodded they're agreement.

"Maybe Tweek would know," Emily suggested, "Where is he, Ozzie?"

Ozzie shrugged, wiping the last of the pudding off his face. "The last I saw that pile of twigs, he was heading to the Garden to report on Ravenswood's status."

"We'll ask him when he gets back," Kara decided.

"For sure," Emily agreed, "But for now, we need to set up for tonight."

Dusk was falling for Ravenswood, causing Gabby and Lindsay to squeal about being eaten by mosquitoes. After being assured by their seniors that the mosquitoes weren't as bad in Ravenswood, they made their way back to the manor.

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