Note: This was posted in Archive of Our Own and Wattpad, so I've made the decision to post it here too.
Disclaimer: I do not own Wizard101 (or Pirate101)
Dawn could feel herself breathing rapidly. She didn't know where she was. She woke up in the middle of nowhere just half an hour ago.
Well, not exactly in the middle of nowhere.
She woke up in a grassy area not too far from some ancient Greek-looking structures and was now on the run.
She was sure she had teleported somewhere in Greece, but how the hell would that happen?
Her what used to be straight, long, strawberry blonde hair became a frizzy, curly mess. Her dark blue eyes were getting diluted out of fatigue. Her lips turned pale and this was definitely not because she forgot to put lipstick in the morning… maybe. Her peachy skin turned slightly tan due to basking under the sun for way too long, to the point where her forearms were starting to get sunburned.
Similar to Paul, she had on some sort of wizard garbs, but they were yellow and royal blue. And they were a mess thanks to her panicking and frantically rolling about. Dawn wasn't really a panicky kid, but if she does not know what to do, that's where that feeling strikes.
She kept on running and running and running, until she reached a vast garden where the temples madly stood tall in front of it. She could see some signs of life; a surreal sight of birds walking on two feet as if they were human. Yes. Very normal.
"Help…" Dawn wheezed out a plea for help… until she suddenly fainted and collapsed a second time, this time on the cobblestone road where literally everyone could see.
Some shocked screams were heard as everything turned pitch black.
"My god…"
"Easy there, young warrior. Easy there." A rather motherly voice came into Dawn's hearing. She could feel herself being settled down. She couldn't see who it was as she still had her eyes shut, trying to process the fatigue she was feeling. When she finally fluttered her eyes open, there stood a beautiful white owl in armor. Her beak pushed back to a smile, where this signaled Dawn to breath in a sigh of relief. She took a quick glance at herself and was even more relieved to see that was taken care of. She wore white garbs that had a yellow trim. Her hair was back to straight as if it was combed the first thing in the morning. She still looked a bit pale and her forearms weren't healing much, but at least she looked better.
"You passed out as soon as you arrived at the Garden of Hesperides."
"Huh?"
Dawn's vision cleared instantly. The owl was the only person with her in the room, so the first thing she did was to, yes, interrogate her.
"Do you know where are we?"
The owl sat on the bed where Dawn was lying on and took the opportunity to introduce herself and her surroundings.
"My name is Athena Battlesight, a warrior here in Aquila." The owl began. "I have been deemed one of the greatest warriors and goddesses of Aquila and a daughter to Zeus."
Dawn was pretty lost, but she didn't made it obvious as she nod along. "Mm, sounds cool."
"And who might you be?"
This was where she had a tossup. Should she give herself a pseud to hide her identity? Or should she tell Athena her real name?
"Uh… Isabella."
Isabella? 'Ugh, god why out of all names—' she angrily thought to herself. It's not like she didn't like it…it's just that, the name holds a very, very special place to her.
Isabella was the name of her younger sister who died in an accident. And the more she hears the name, the more the pain returns.
"...Dawn." Dawn stated her real name this time. However, Athena looked as if she was going to put this in a different way.
"Isabella Dawn. Mm, such a gorgeous name." The owl commented.
"Actually—" Dawn stppped herself. It would probably ruin everything if she tried to complete. "...Yeah. Isabella Dawn. But I think I'd rather have everyone call me Dawn rather than Isabella." She tried thinking of a suitable alibi but the only reason she thought was… "...It saves the time."
Athena looked at her strangely for about five seconds before laughing. "Ah, as you wish."
"Yeah, heh heh." Dawn forced a laugh. "So uh… now what?"
"Come here, young warrior. I will show you the other gods of Aquila. They will be delighted to meet you."
As if her subconscious was leading her actions, she stood up and followed Athena. She had to admit that she had a bit of hesitation, but unlike Paul, or… Frankie, it didn't take her long to decide.
Athena and Dawn went up to the staircase to Mount Olympus. Dawn couldn't help but admire the beautiful view that she could see. Wow, you don't really get a view this cool in Canada that often, she thought.
By the time they reach the top of the staircase, Athena opened the big door that stood them.
After a few flights of stairs and some walking, Athena came to a halt just by another big door. "Young warrior, behind this door is the Sky Chamber. Ares, Poseidon, Zeus, Apollo, Hades and Chronos are all behind inside."
Dawn didn't know how to react. Why is Athena doing this to her? She never woke up in a whole new world just to fight. One one hand, she did wanted to go on an adventure. On another hand though, she wanted to find her friends and go home.
The white owl could see the confusion in the blonde's eyes. "I see something in you, Dawn. I wanted you to test your strength and unlock your full potential."
"My… full potential? In what?"
The doors have opened and they were greeted with warm faces of welcome. Dawn smiled back. She was expecting these… gods to attack her here and there right now, but that was not the case.
"Welcome, young warrior." One of the gods, Ares, greeted her. "Are you ready to test your strength?"
Athena gave Dawn an encouraging look. She had a slightest hesitation written on her face still, but it went away as she heard from Ares, "I promise I will go easy on you."
"Yes." Dawn nodded surely. She fumbled the pockets of her garbs and found something: a deck full of cards. The cards inside varied in color, but most of them were yellow.
Ares was in front of her as a combat sigil appeared in the ground, with eight circled aligned in one big circle. Ares was standing in the pink one while Dawn was on the green one. The arrow was pointing towards her.
"You go first."
Dawn got a random card on her deck. It read, 'troll.' She waved her fingers around in a circular motion and a yellow triangle symbol appeared in front of her as she waved her fingers. A troll appeared in the center of the battle and hit Ares with its weapon, disappearing after.
Dawn widened her eyes at the magic she had just casted. But her staring in awe was cut off when Ares' weapon landed towards her. She squeaked at the movement and moved away.
Before Dawn could cast her next spell, everyone stopped in their tracks. This confused her a lot now. Why was everyone so surprised?
"Sounds like more wizards have entered Mount Olympus to battle." One of the other gods, Hades, pointed out.
The other gods started to scatter and leave the Sky Chamber while Zeus and Chronos remained while Athena rushed up to Dawn. "We must go, young warrior. Or else, the wizards will come here and defeat us as well!"
Dawn looked back. "Wait… but I want to see them battle."
Athena looked at door, ths footsteps getting louder as she could hear the wizards enter the first chamber. "The magus wizards have already entered their first battle here on Mount Olympus. We have to go."
The owl had ran out of the Sky Chamber. It took a few seconds for Dawn to come back into her senses before exiting out as well.
When she got out of the Sky Chamber, Athena was already no longer there. This was when she started to panic. Where could she have gone? How will she get out of there?
Rushing down the hall and down the staircases, she could hear sounds of magic being casted, cries of battle, and some weapons being utilized. She decided to go and have a look.
In one of the chambers was Ares. He was using the exact same weapon that hit her from earlier. Speaking of getting hit, she could feel a slightly painful sensation just on her shoulder. Why hadn't she noticed it earlier, why she doesn't know. She looked just by her shoulder and saw a streak of blood that was already drying out. She didn't want to focus or touch it so she let it be and peeked through the tiny gap the door gave her.
She could see the wizards getting beaten. By the five minute mark, one of them had already passed out and was on the floor. Only for her to be revived by her co-wizard in green garbs.
The battle had already finished by thirty minutes. New weapons had fallen on to the ground, which looked like shiny brand new spears. Each of them grabbed one and were headed out for the door. This was the sign that she should hide.
Dawn found a nearby plant and hid behind it. The four wizards had emerged out of the room, which gave her a good view of them.
One of the wizards was a girl in red and silver clothing. The next was a boy in blue and gray garbs. The third one was another girl in a purple hood and robes, the same one who passed out earlier. The last one was a boy in a green robe.
Dawn wanted to know more about battling. She wanted to know as she wanted to experience that in the future. She was a pretty adventurous kid as she would go out and visit different places with her friends if they wanted to.
Several battles had passed. Dawn had pretty much visited (or rather… peeked through the doors of) the whole Mount Olympus by now and there was only one place left; the Sky Chamber.
"Children of Ravenwood, welcome to Olympus." She could hear Zeus speak. "This is the apex of the Spiral, and you must be honored to stand before us. Do not fear failure. We will be merciful if you fail. But now, come show us what you have mastered in that school of Merle Ambrose."
And this was when the battle commenced.
Around half an hour later, in the midst of the battle, they were already thinking about running away.
"Garrick, I don't think I can make it out again." The girl in purple stated tiredly, already on her knees while casting spells.
The boy in blue, presumably Garrick, hissed under his breath. "Ceren? Dude? You got any healing spells left?"
"I've already used up my last one." the boy wearing green winced. This guy was probably Ceren. "I don't think we have any other spell to heal Electra."
"I don't have any spells left…" it was the girl in red's turn to speak. "What do I do?"
The boy in green, Ceren, took the leading initiative. "Oh boy, I don't think our professors are gonna be happy to hear this. I think we might as well retreat, Rosie."
"YOU HESITATE TOO MUCH!" Zeus yelled. Dawn couldn't see what he was going to cast but she was sure as hell those wizards are goners.
"Dude, we're sorry!" Garrick wailed.
In the next turn, a cloud of dust surrounded the wizards, dissolving them into the mist.
What Dawn didn't know was that a cloud was forming around her, too.
"Wait… what's going on?" She asked out loud. She squinted her eyes shut as she felt herself going limb. But after a few seconds, she opened her eyes… and there she was…
…back at the Garden of Hesperides.
She could see Garrick, Rosie, Electra, and Ceren not too far up ahead. She ran to some sort of chariot that had a large sized carriage, big enough to fit about… let's say six people, and boarded it. She hid herself so that they couldn't see her.
"Let's go back to the chariot." she could hear Rosie say.
"Shit!" Dawn swore for the first time ever under her breath. Moving to the farthest seat at the back of the Chariot via under its seats, she could start to feel the others boarding it. Good news was that she wasn't caught. Bad news is she doesn't know where in the world she is going to go. She lost Athena and now she's pretty clueless on what to do next.
The chariot started to fly and Dawn started to panic. The trip took a while, and when it did, she could feel that she was totally in a different place.
"Ah, back in Cyclops Lane." Electra sighed in relief as the four dismounted the chariot. A fifth voice, a male, was seen approaching and talking to them. He wore yellow robes that had a speck of blue and a matching hood that covered his head.
"So how was Mount Olympus?"
"Yeah… about that, Nolan… we, uh— fled." Rosie said nervously.
Nolan was heard laughing as if he was mocking them about their loss. "Ah, maguses. Well, there's always a next time. Maybe not."
"Tsk, you're always so full of yourself. Are soon-to-be grandmasters always like that?" Garrick pouted, crossing his arms.
"Well let's see until you guys get to be in my shoes." Nolan smirked. His attention was drawn behind them. "Oh, you've brought a friend?"
"A friend?" Ceren questioned.
The five all looked back to see a rather nervous looking Dawn, with the wound still prominent on her shoulder.
"Uh… hi?"
End chapter.
*The upcoming few chapters will introduce the fates of the rest of our group just to give a heads up.
Main cast introduced so far:
1. Frankester "Frankie" Harris / Paul Hawkbane
2. Dawn Izunia / Isabella Dawn