Chapter 21 – Free The Prisoners

Wolfram's teacher had appeared next to Pippa after he had ended the groups trial abruptly. Luckily Pippa had no students in her trial at the present time.

"Do you have a spare minute?" he asked her.

"I do, though I would like to know why your trial has been removed". Pippa told him.

"You're not going to like the answer".

Pippa looked at him in a way that stated she wanted the answer regardless.

"I didn't realise there would be students with trauma in these trials, one of your groups had three lots of trauma in it. Verity was one of those".

Pippa's eyes widened. "What happened?" She asked calmly.

"Her dad came at her with a chain".

Pippa winced. "Miss Rein and I went out to her rescue. It was devastating to see; she will not talk about it. She has more bad days than good, though she doesn't make it obvious. Miss Rein was worried about her in these trials".

"I can't run my trial with trauma running through the forest". He told her.

"Are they OK?"

"The group was calming Verity down when I came to you, Cobain was full of rage, Zack is terrified you're not going to want him and that you're going to throw him in an orphanage instead. Mildred's confused me, her magic burst out and send my fake version of what looks like Ada into flames. Nearly started a forest fire".

"Zack has nothing to worry about, Verity and Cobain have quite the backstories. Mildred as far as we know is from a non-witching family. Ada has a twin sister called Agatha who is more likely the person that ended up in flames. She's bad news Agatha, very dangerous".

"What exactly happened to Zack?"

"Abuse from Hellebore's".

He winced and he looked around. "Have you had any in your trial yet?"

"Nope, I have been chilling since we came in".

"I have had six groups, had few unpleasant ones, but that one of your groups was tragic, I have passed them all so they should be heading to you soon, I think they are wanting to cross that finish line within one day".

"I don't blame them".

"I thought you would have been livid".

"I would have if I hadn't been told about it until the Trial Of The Times Was Over. I can tell it's rattled you and I respect that you have chosen to cease your trial as we are not aware of the other school's mental state, it happens. Thank you for telling me."

Back with the group, Mildred, Cobain, Zack and verity were sat down.

Mildred looked at her map. "It looks like the next trial is near Hollow Wood".

Verity stood up though still shaken from her ordeal in the last trial. The group had decided to keep an eye on her.

"Let's go". Cobain stated.

They all headed towards Hollow Wood; on the way they were all discussing what the other six trials could possibly be.

"I really want to know what Barbie's is". Cobain wondered out loud.

"Could be those Dabbat's". Verity said.

"I bet there's one with flying". Mildred stated.

"Looks like Mildred's right". Verity stated as they all stood in front of Hollow Wood.

There were rings out similar to what they have had in flying class as well as some really large floating cages.

"Welcome to my trial".

They all turned around and saw a member of staff from Amulet's Academy.

"You are the first group to try my trial, all you have to do is free the prisoners". She simply stated. She looked around as the aim of the trial sunk in with the group in front of her. "I will remove three of the cages as you're in a smaller group than I anticipated".

They all looked up as three of these cages disappeared and the other three were more evenly distributed.

"Three of you will each be imprisoned in a cage and the other one must avoid the magical dragon as well as free the others. You have two hours; you can continue if you need to if there is no-one else waiting".

As she spoke Ember, Ambros, Worrick, Klaus, and Melody walked into the area.

"Are you wanting to join this group at all, seen as you're on the same team?". Amulets teacher asked Melody's group.

"May as well". Melody stated.

"Ok so with you being a much bigger group, six of you will go in cages and the other three will be rescuing them, you must avoid the two dragons this time". The Amulets member of staff stated. She had been hoping she would get a large group, for she was the flying teacher at Amulets, and she always wanted to see this game in play. "I will let you decide who is flying and who is in cages".

"May I ask a question?". Worrick asked. The member of staff nodded. "If someone is rescued, can we then fly two to a broom to help rescue the others?".

"I don't have a rule on it". She stated.

There was quite the discussion on who the main flyers would be.

"I will go in a cage". Ambros stated.

"I think Zack would be a great option for a flyer". Verity stated.

"I too would like to be in a cage, I would be useless as a flyer". Ember said.

"No-one is useless in our team, not one of the fourteen is useless". Melody told her kindly but firmly.

"I don't mind being a flyer". Ember volunteered.

So far they had two flyers, Zack and Ember. They still had one more to go.

"I vote Melody" Worrick stated, best flyer I've ever seen.

"I'll let someone else have a go if the want to". Melody told the group.

No-one else volunteered and so that was that. Zack, Ember, and Melody all grabbed a broom each whilst the others climbed into a cage that they could stand up and was three meters wide all around.

The three flyers watched as the six prisoners were raised up high and they were three kilometres away from each other. They mounted their brooms and rose up in the air. Klaus was the closest prisoner. As Melody flew towards his cage, two large ferocious dragons emerged in the distance and headed straight towards the three flyers. Both dragons were different, one was green, and the other was orange.

The green one headed straight for Melody and a burst of flame came out of its mouth, she dodged its flame and flew away from the Klaus's cage. The three flyers hovered next to each other.

"Two of us needs to be distracting the dragons whilst the other tries to rescue the team". Melody stated.

They all nodded, and Zack went for the green dragon and got its attention before flying around to keep the dragon in one end of the arena. Ember's task was to distract the orange dragon. This left Melody free to free the prisoners. She headed to Klaus's cage again and as she circled the cage, she couldn't see a padlock. She uttered an incantation so that she could bend the bars. This only just worked and luckily Klaus was a rather thin lad. He could only just get through the bars as he did so he mounted Melody's broom behind her. She took him to the ground where there was a magical circle labelled safe zone for the freed prisoners to go into.

Klaus jumped from the broom when she was very close to the ground and he landed in the safe zone. Melody then flew off to the next cage which had Verity inside. The green dragon had become bored of Zack and took off towards Melody.

Zack took the opportunity to head to Mildred's cage.

"Hang onto the bars, I will try to remove some of the bottom of the cage so you can drop down onto my broom". Zack told her. He watched as she gripped two of the bars tight. He spoke an incantation which put a hole in the base of the cage. "Jump onto the broom behind me". He reassured her as she looked apprehensive.

Mildred lowered herself down onto what was left of the floor of the cage and slowly but purposefully dropped down onto Zack's broom. He then took her to the safe zone which he made sure that he was almost touching the grass before she jumped off and walked into the safe zone.

All three of the flyers were buzzing.

"Two down, four to go". Melody shouted as she was dodging the green dragon. Ember was having a rather difficult time avoiding the orange dragon and Melody swooped down so that she flew under the orange one. This caused the green one to plough into the orange dragon. All three of the flyers decided to not take the brief chance of getting another prisoner rescued each for granted. Zack headed to Ambro's cage, Ember headed for Warrick's and Melody headed for Verity's.

Cobain was rather entertained in his cage, and he was watching the trial take place as though he was watching a 3D movie. Got to remind myself that I need to watch this trial from the teacher's memory, this is awesome.

Zack, Ember, and Melody had their prisoners on their brooms, and they were lowering them to the ground when the dragons had regained their senses. They both headed towards the group, and they looked angry. Worrick jumped from the back of Embers broom a good few meters from the ground and rolled out of his jump to ensure he wasn't injured. Ember took off to keep the dragons busy. Worrick held his hands out for Verity who jumped from the back of Melody's broom, and she landed in his arms, he then lowered her to the ground, and she backed into the safe zone. He held his hands out for Ambro's who was on the back of Zack's broom. Zack flew rather fast and low to the ground to pass Worrick so that he could grab Ambro's quickly if he could. Worrick did not disappoint and grabbed him off the broom and ran with him to the safe zone.

Zack flew off to join the other two to help in the rescue of Cobain.

The dragons were circling Cobain's cage, they were not going to make it easy for the rescuers. Suddenly the orange one grabbed Cobain's cage and flew off with him whilst he was gripping the bars.

The three flew towards the orange dragon and the green one was gaining on them. This was a situation that they had not anticipated. They all decided to fly in opposite directions to confuse the dragons. Zack went left, Ember dived, and Melody flew up. They all came together and hovered in a group.

"Any ideas". Melody asked.

"We could do what I did with Millie's, melt the flooring so he drops out and we catch him". Zack suggested.

"Cobain has a load of muscle, I hate to say it, but the broom would break" Ember stated sheepishly.

"It would and none of us are strong enough, hang on". Melody stated.

They watched her dive down to the member of staff.

"Is it possible to swap over so a rescued prisoner is a flyer?" she asked the member of staff.

"You may"

Melody walked up to the safe zone.

"Worrick, do you want to swap over?" she asked him. He nodded with a glint in his eye, for he had an idea which differed slightly to Zack's.

He took the broom and flew off as Melody entered the safe zone. He noticed the dragons had gone for the other two again and they were doing their best to avoid being toasted. He headed straight for the orange dragon. As he flew under the dragon, he pulled on what looked like a loose scale. This scale came off and he rose higher and knowing the dragon was made from magic and wasn't technically real, he jammed the scale into its eye. It screamed in pain and dropped Cobain's cage.

Worrick then flew down and grabbed the top of the cage and swung it at a nearby Oak tree, the cage hit it with a loud bang. Luckily the tree was unharmed, and the cage broke open from the bottom. Worrick dived and just caught Cobain in time before he would have potentially broken a leg from the fall. He flew to the safe zone and dropped him in the circle. All three of the flyers also landed in the safe zone.

The dragons and cages disappeared.

"Well done, that was quite a watch". The staff member told them. "There are drinks in the cool box over here, help yourselves".

They all walked to the cool box and took a bottle of ice-cold water each and they downed them as they were dripping in sweat.

"The cool box will keep replenishing itself, take as much as you need". The member of staff stated as she watched them all drink as though they hadn't had a drink in days. "That was a thrill to watch, is everyone OK?"

They all nodded, and she told them where they could find the next trial. They walked out of the trial that they had just completed with a full bottle of water each. They looked up hoping to see their trial completion in the air. They were not disappointed; Mildred's group came up first with the number five in front of the gold trophy. Melody's group also came up with the number four in front of their gold trophy.

"That's amazing, five?" Melody said whilst her team all looked at them with shock.

Mildred's group all nodded.

"By the way there's only nine trials now. A trial we did was removed after we had finished it, we are the last to take it, check your maps and you'll see". Cobain told the other group. "It was a worst nightmare one and he didn't think anyone with trauma would be competing". He watched as they checked their map and saw that they were told the truth.

"Thanks' for the heads up". Melody told them. They parted ways and Mildred's group took a break to forage for some food and breathe in the nearest safe zone. They had found some berries and surprisingly a watermelon patch. They took two watermelons back to the safe zone. As they were tucking into their fruit, they were discussing the trial.

"Worrick looked like he was entertained watching us being chased by dragons". Zack laughed.

"To be fair it did look awesome, you definitely need to ask for pics of that". Verity stated.

"You would take pride of place on Barbies mantlepiece" Cobain laughed with a wink.

Zack laughed; he knew they weren't mocking him. He thought of how cool it would be to have a picture of him flying with a dragon behind him. "I'll ask, but not for the mantlepiece".

Zack moved to sit next to Millie as the other two was in deep conversation. They were a short distance from the other two. He the thought he might not get this chance to talk to her privately again.

"Watermelon's nice". he stated.

"Soo tasty". She responded.

"I wanted to ask you a question".

"OK".

"Do you have a boyfriend at all?" he decided it was best to be direct, so he didn't sound too stupid.

"I don't". she said as she looked up confused.

"Do you want to go for a picnic once we have finished the Trial of The Times". He then looked at her and stumbled as he spoke. "I mean, if you don't want to, it's fine, I get it".

She looked at him and noticed how adorable he was when he was shy and slightly embarrassed, and she noticed how blushed he had become.

"You mean like a date?" she asked him.

"Ye, yes". He replied.

"I'd love to go on a picnic date with you".

Dimity Drill had been a member of staff on standby around the forest. She had seen the Free The Prisoners trial that they had done, and she had held her breath at many moments and she loved the teamwork, something her schools competitors were struggling with. She was secretly glad that Ethel had been eliminated as she had caused most of the problems amongst her small group.

Dimity thought of how adorable it was that Zack had asked her out especially as he had made sure to rescue Mildred first. She was thrilled that Mildred had flourished under Pentangle's wing. She like Hecate had wished that they had given the girl a chance to be the best that she could be.