Sorry for the delay of Chapter 9. Took a cross-country trip. The pictures are posted at my blog.
Evergreen Academy and the Golden Club
Chapter 9 Autumn on Jade Island
Daniel went to the beach with Owen on Saturday afternoon. The beach was crowded. There were a few students playing catch on their swords, but most were chasing each other in the water. The rest were either sitting on the beach talking to each other or lying under the sun.
Daniel was in a bad mood ever since he came back from the field trip. He didn't like feeling helpless. Every time he thought of the future, he became restless. What would happen if he were kicked out of school? He loved the life that he had on the island. The mortal life seemed so chaotic. He certainly didn't want a life like Kerri used to have.
Looking around, everyone seemed happy and had nothing to worry about.
"Maybe I can talk Tom into buying the video game with me-or even Tony," said Owen. "What do you think-no, I don't think Tony is a good choice. He is worse than Mike. It's not fun playing with him." That was all Owen was talking about since the trip. Suddenly Daniel got so mad that he shouted at Owen.
"Shut up. Could you please shut up?" He got up and ran into the water without paying attention to the curious looks from the other students. He swam and swam until the seashore disappeared.
"Maybe I could live as a dolphin," he thought. He looked around but didn't see any of them. He dove underwater and tried to hear their calls. When he almost gave up, it came to him. He followed the sound. The dolphins were actually close to the island. They were in the water under the tower cliff. There was a whole group of them. He recognized the small one. The dolphin swam to him. He nudged his face with his snout. Then he turned around and swam towards his parents, but he stopped mid way signaling Daniel to follow him. Daniel could tell that he was introduced to the other members in the group. All of them were nodding their welcome. For the first time since Daniel came back to the island, he felt a sense of belonging.
They played for a while, and then the group started swimming out to the ocean. Daniel tried to keep up with them. The young dolphin swam by his side until his parents called. He shot forward like an arrow and disappeared into the deep blue sea with his family.
When Daniel returned to the beach, he was exhausted. The swimming however took away some of his frustration. He knew that even though he was the dolphins' friend now, he could never become one of them. He had to face whatever problems he had, however unappealing the idea was. He was kind of hoping that everyone had gone back to school, so he wouldn't have to deal with strange looks. He felt ashamed when he saw Owen was still there waiting for him.
"I'm sorry," said Owen before he could say anything.
"No, I'm sorry," said Daniel.
"What's wrong?" asked Owen, looking worried.
"Nothing," said Daniel. They were his problems. He didn't want to bother Owen with them. He wasn't comfortable talking about money with Owen either. Owen looked slightly offended, but didn't say anything.
They kept their silence until they reached the school.
"Let go of me, you big fat pig," Daniel heard Mike when they landed by the lake. The sound came from the direction of the animal house. He suddenly realized that he was not the only one that had problems. At least, no one was picking on him and he had a great friend that genuinely cared about him.
"Hurry, we have work to do," he said, running towards the animal house. When they got there, He found that Ted was trying to pull Mike into the animal house. Mike was fighting hard to get away, but Ted was so much bigger than him. They were almost at the door now. Daniel knew that if Mike was dragged into the animal house, he would get a sneezing attack from the birds and rodents in there.
"Let go of him," said Owen.
"Sod off. This is not your business," said Ted, but his voice was not as strong as it used to be.
Mike took the chance and wiggled out of his grip. He ran away without looking at either Daniel or Owen.
"Playing hero, are you?" Ted sneered, but his fat body seemed to be shrinking in front of Owen. "You won't always be around to protect him." With that, he walked away, slow at first but picked up the speed when he was a safe distance away.
Then something came into Daniel's mind. "Wait here," he said.
"Are you sure?"
"Yes." Daniel gave Owen a reassuring smile and ran after Ted.
"Wait," he called to the fat figure in front him.
"What do you want?" Ted stopped and turned around.
"Don't worry," said Daniel. "Owen didn't follow me."
"I'm not afraid of your stupid bodyguard," sneered Ted.
"You'd better leave Mike alone from now on," said Daniel, ignoring the comment. He knew that Ted was bluffing.
"So what are you going to do if I don't? Have your bodyguard hit me?" Ted took a step toward Daniel.
"No." Daniel was a little afraid, but he held his ground.
"I'm going to tell everyone that you still wet the bed."
Ted turned red. He stood there trying to come up with a counter threat.
"Why don't you try it?" he said finally, but Daniel knew that he didn't dare to risk it.
"I won't if you leave Mike alone. I didn't tell anyone yet, not even Owen." Daniel turned around and went join Owen. He could hear Ted on the same spot, breathing heavily.
Another week passed without much happening. Daniel hadn't seen or heard Jared take any action, but he knew that Jared's arrogance wouldn't allow him to accept the defeat so easily. Besides, the Golden Club was something precious. Even Daniel couldn't deny that.
Owen seemed to be more careful around Daniel. He talked much less. Daniel knew that Owen was afraid that he was going to upset him, which made him realize that every action had a consequence, big or small. He certainly didn't want his best friend to be afraid of saying things in front of him.
Before Daniel knew it, autumn was on the island. The weather was warm. Trees were still green, but many of them were covered with fruit of different colors. Most students were talking about flying around the island collecting wild fruit, but the first year students were warned against going without the company of senior students. The island was full of mythical animals. They were mostly harmless if left alone, but if provoked they could become aggressive. The mid-term exams were also coming up. Every time Daniel saw Kerri, she was either in the classroom or in the library. Daniel was wondering if she ever ate or slept. In his mind, midterms certainly didn't deserve that kind of effort.
Kerri stopped him one day after the clairvoyance class. She looked nervous.
"Can I ask a favor?" she said.
"What's it?" asked Daniel. He knew how fiercely she guarded her pride. It was not easy for her to ask for a favor.
"I needed some practice on my combat and Owen is the best," she said, and her face was red when she finished.
"I know Owen is the best, but I don't think he's professor Corgnon's favorite, if you know what I mean."
"Yeah, I know, but I'm here to learn real magic," she said with a lot of determination.
"Even if it won't get you the highest score?"
It took her a while to determine but she nodded in the end.
"It's a favor from Owen, so you've got to ask him," said Daniel.
"But you're his best friend, and he won't say no to you," she said.
Daniel knew that she was always afraid of Owen.
"Tell you what, I'll go with you? I'm sure he will say yes," said Daniel.
They went to the transformation class together. Owen was in the class too. Kerri didn't talk to him but went right to the same seat on the front row when they entered the classroom. Daniel could see she was fidgeting through the whole class.
"Don't rush off after the class?" he whispered, feeling sorry for Kerri.
"Why?" asked Owen. Normally he would dash to the dinning hall.
"Kerri has a favor to ask."
"What favor?"
"Owen," called professor Nolte. "I can hear you this time, you know."
"Sorry," said Owen with a grin.
"Just so you know, I don't like it," said Owen on their way to the dinning hall, even thought he had agreed to help Kerri.
"You could've said no," said Daniel with a smile.
"It's easy for you to say. You don't have to be the bad person-she makes me nervous."
"Why?"
"She is so uptight-you'd better be there for the training too."
"But I didn't take the combat class."
"I'm not doing it alone-you forgot about your powers. You can pick up the fine details and help her correct her moves."
Midterms came and went. In every exam, the teachers took Daniel to another room where he sat alone by himself, so he could not spot answers in other students' answer sheets. The arrangement made Daniel feel like a criminal, but there was nothing he could do about it.
The immortal history exam was to match the times with the events that happened during the period covered in the class and to write an essay about what led to the clash between the immortal groups at the end of the period. >From what Daniel could remember, there were many theories. Most of the immortal historians blamed the mortals, saying that it was the greed of different mortal kingdoms that dragged the immortals supporting the kingdoms into the war. Some historians were fairer, saying that the immortals were to be blamed themselves. Different groups used different kingdoms to spread out their doctrines, and their desire for domination played a big part in the war.
The mortal studies exam was to write an essay about the evolution of mortal transportation, which took Daniel less than thirty minutes but took Owen close to two hours to finish. Daniel thought that after all, being raised as a mortal had its advantages too.
The clairvoyance exam was much easier. All they had to do was to list the methods of fake clairvoyance and describe how they were applied.
In the transformation class, the test was to turn a flower into an orange. The score was given based on the shape, the size and the color of the orange. Some students' oranges still had the tips of the flower petals sticking out of the surface. Some were in different shades of peach that was the color of the flower. Daniel managed to turn it into a believable orange but a very small one.
When the results came out, Daniel was happy to find out that he got three Goods and one above average. Most of Owen's scores were above average. He, however, only got an average in combat. Even Kerri got an above average in the class.
"It's so unfair. You're the best in the class." It made Daniel mad, but Owen didn't seem to be bothered at all.
"You know what, I think we should go pick fruit. Hopefully there's still some left. I heard there are a lot of magical ones."
"Aren't we supposed to go with senior students?" said Daniel, although the idea of fruit picking was tempting to him too. "We don't know any."
"I can deal with most creatures here on the island. If not, with your powers, we can fly away before they get close."
"Come on, we will have a lot of fun," Owen pleaded.
"I suppose," Daniel said, feeling free all of a sudden.
The sunlight of the autumn afternoon was warm and bright. After lunch, both of them jumped on their swords and flew off campus towards the jungle.
The island was covered by forest basking in the sunlight. Even with his powers, Daniel could only see the surface of it. There were parts where the leaves and branches were so thick, what was underneath was a complete mystery to him. There were also caves so dark and ponds so deep, that Daniel could only imagine what could hide within. Away from school, the island seemed so quiet, but it was actually as busy as the school if not busier. There were birds talking to each other, animals chewing on grass or leaves, predators chasing their prey, fish swimming upstream, and insects calling their partners.
"Seen any fruit trees?" asked Owen.
"There were some down there," said Daniel, pointing at an area with a stream running through in the middle.
"You know what kinds of fruit are edible, don't you?" he asked.
"Some of them," Owen answered lamely. "Some are tricky though. I ate some Nosberry when I was a kid. My nose grew to the size of my head. Luckily, it returned to the normal size in two hours-let's see if we can find any here. We can try it on Ted."
Daniel was tempted to say that was a good idea but knew too well to encourage Owen.
They landed by the stream. On the banks of the stream where sunlight reached were small trees with their branches pulled down to ground by heavy dark fruits.
"Feejibees, they're tasty," said Owen and started picking the fruit. The big lunch that they just had had didn't seem to affect his appetite at all.
The stream ran through rocky hills where trees were not as thick compared to other parts of the island. Under the afternoon sun, everything seemed serene and peaceful. The area was supposed to be relatively safe, but Daniel soon learned that there were still dangers that he had never seen before. In the shadow of a big tree, a big red flower was innocently blooming. A bee flew close. The petals snapped shut. When they opened again, the bee had disappeared. Stranded among rocks in the stream were skeletons of animals as clean as the plastic models Daniel had seen in nature class in his old school. All of a sudden, he heard something moving. Turning around, he saw a vine creeping up on him like a snake. He pulled out his sword and cut it in half. The vine quickly retreated, but the part left behind twitched and flipped around before it died.
"Sorry, forgot to warn you about the Ghostfingers. They attack as you can see." Owen smiled apologetically. "Stay close to me." He pulled out his sword and opened a path through the waist deep weeds to another feejibee tree. The vines all stayed out of his way as if they could feel the threat.
"I had enough of the feejibee already," said Daniel after they raided three trees.
"Me too, Let's go fine some different ones," said Owen, jumping on a rock in the stream. Most of the rocks were wet and slippery from the splash. There were fish trying to beat the current. Some had very threatening jaws and teeth. They went upstream jumping from one rock to another and only stopped when they saw different kinds of fruit. The further they went, the rocks became larger and the land became wilder. Daniel could hear the sound of a waterfall. Mixed in the sound of falling water were the cries of monkeys.
"Stop!"
"What's the matter?" asked Owen. "Did you hear something?"
"Monkeys," said Daniel.
"Ha, I thought it was something dangerous," said Owen with a grin. "You're not afraid of monkeys, are you?"
"What if they are friends of the monkey in the garden?" said Daniel. "They'll probably seek revenge for him,"
"That's unlikely," said Owen. "He is probably an outcast. Otherwise he wouldn't stay in the garden alone-even if they are, don't you think we can deal with them?"
"Don't underestimate any animal in the jungle," said Daniel, looking around carefully. "I know you can deal with a few monkeys easily, but there are more than a few-and I don't have your power."
"There's no risk just taking a peek from a distance," said Owen. "Come on. Just a look."
Daniel didn't think that a group of monkeys were worth visiting, but he didn't mind seeing a waterfall. They followed the stream up to a small valley, and he was not disappointed. In front of them was a big waterfall. Bright water running down from a cliff into a deep green pond. The late afternoon sunlight hit the waterfall, and a rainbow appeared. There seemed to be a cave behind the waterfall. A few monkeys were jumping behind the waterfall. In their arms were different kinds of fruit. Some monkeys were swimming in the pond, but few were chasing each other among the trees. Most of them seemed to be working, either collecting food or-seemed very strange to Daniel-picking twigs. On a rock standing high above the pond was a monkey standing on his hind legs. He was apparently on guard. When he spotted Daniel and Owen, he gave out a warning sound and a few monkeys were running toward them at a very high speed.
"All monkeys must have gone crazy," hissed Owen. They quickly jumped on their swords and flew out of the valley.
The book is available at barnes and noble, amazon online bookstores. Search by the title. Author's blog: 360.yahoo.com/gcgustopher