Friday 24 December 2010

Um… *awkward shuffle*

So… Um… About that story…

Well, it started being a short story, then it turned into a middle-length story… And now it’s become a long story, and so, um, it isn’t finished yet. Therefore, this is also a lame post.

I don’t even really have any pictures to show you that I haven’t already.

I suppose the only thing left to say is… Er… Merry Christmas?

Diviner OUT!

Thursday 23 December 2010

New Header!

Hey look! I made a new header and it is wonderfulish. Well, part of “Diaries” got cut off, along with my arm… Well, you win some, you lose some. Either way, this won’t be up for long because – holy heckhounds – tomorrow is Christmas Eve!

image

Irrelevant picture.

Also, congratulations to me on making it to day four! Oh yes!

Anyway, I don’t really have much to say in this puny little post. :( Sorry if you read this lameness. Just trying to keep it going!

4th day, yeah. Tomorrow I think I will post either a short story or some poems to make up for the nothingness in this post, bar a picture of a Kraken’s tail.

Ok, bai!

Diviner OUT!

Wednesday 22 December 2010

Posting every day: third edition!

I have to say actually getting to day three is something of an accomplishment for me. It is dreadfully exciting to actually be making headway on a project.

That said, today I have literally nothing to talk about. I haven’t been able to get on the Wizardlandgame, other than a little bit of WizardBlox earlier, because I was playing out in the snow (snow!), reading fanfiction (fanfiction.net has some brilliant stories, I must say… And some bad ones… I was reading a Harry Potter fic earlier… Haha, anyway…) and building a den, from which I am now blogging. (I’m never too old for dens. I especially like this one because not only does it contain my laptop, but also my phone, CDs, and Harry Potter books. I could never be bored in here!)

So… I think I’ll play on Wizard101 now! Ooh, in game silent night cap?

*some time later*

I have returned with screen caps!

1) I sold my Krokotopia house and most of its contents. But! Not all! I still left enough to dedicate a room in my house to the land of manders and crocodiles.

krokroom1

Second shot:

krokroom2

Yay, Krokotopia!

2) Have I ever told you what my favourite world is? ROOM:

MB rocks

Unlike a lot of wizards, I love Marleybone. So so much.

3) I made a Christmas outfit! (With my oh-so-epic staff.)

xmas shot

(Side note – conversation with Nat yesterday…

Nat: I have a sword! It’s awesome!
Me: Wow awesome!
Nat: Do YOU have a sword?
Me: … Yeah.
Nat: ??? … That’s a staff in the shape of a candy cane.
Me: It is a sword. It’s a strange shape.

END OF ANECDOTE!)

Diviner OUT!

Tuesday 21 December 2010

Crab Alley

[Forenote: Look, I’m posting today! 2nd day and still not forgotten! Pretty good by my standards, huh?]

Ok, so remember that Selena Gomez thing a while back?

Well, when I logged into W101 today, I remembered that I’d marked Crab Alley from before it was taken off, so, naturally, I teleported right there.

image

I love that place. I just like the swimming, and seeing as I can’t get to Celestia… Anyway, seeing as I knew I couldn’t get to it the normal way, I decided I’d just mark it again, like I was doing before the last update.

Until Mr “Can’t be marked” Bubble started to tell me off when I tried to do that. :( No more Crab Alley! I even tried to get Nat to teleport and mark it, but then the “Your friend is busy right now” message decided to poke its nose in… (I should stop personifying error messages.)

Sad times, for all. But indeed, at least I have the glory of being probably the last person to ever go there.

LAST SCREENCAP THERE TIME (complete with epic Sweet Staff, because hey, it’s Christmas)

image

I think I’m gonna miss that place. *nostalgia* Ah, when I first heard that annoying music…

XD

Diviner OUT!

Monday 20 December 2010

Well...

Hello again! You probably didn't expect to see me so soon, did you now? I think my posting laziness has been taking its toll. Not only that, but I haven't really been on Wizard101 in... ages.

What can I say? Make more lame excuses?

I don't doubt that anyone reading this is tired of hearing that. So, let me just say that my piano exam is over, it is the holidays, and I have no homework, therefore making my absence now inexcusable. On that note, I think I will make an announcement.

There are no excuses any more. I will be posting every day from now until I go back to school on the 4th January. Yes, you have to put up with my rants every day until then!

So, in other news.

Gardening
I haven't had a try on test OR live realm, so I will give you my thoughts in a later post. Should be fun.

Blog!
This blog is exactly one year and one week old today. Wow.

Story
I has nothings yet.

Look!
See the side-y thing? I have blog places for you to go.

You should have done this already, but if not, 1) You are insane, and 2) Go read the awesome blogs! Clicky click click in the blogroll!

Bye!
This has been fun, or boring, depending on whether you like insanity or not.

Diviner OUT!

Monday 6 December 2010

*awkwardly sidles into frame* *waves even more awkwardly*

Um, hi there.

Do you remember me? At all?

[ellipsis]

Yeah.

I’ve been quite busy. I’m sorry. I completely ignored this blog.

[ellipses]

I should stop making excuses.

[set tone to “random”]

NEWS TIME NEWS TIME YAY YAY YAY!

NaNoWriMo + (legitimate excuses^procrastination)= FAIL :(
(There’s always next year! NB: optimism x idiocy = FAIL also NB2: what I have written is terrible and I have deleted the file because it sucks so much)

(I like maths. (I am British. (Lalala.)))

STORY = no updation. BUT.

Writing newsies!

I have set up a fanfiction.net account because I like reading books and playing games and other things that I then feel the urge to write about! This means also that you can tell me how wonderful/terrible/mediocre my story is and tell me what things I should do to make it gooder! You can also correct my grammar which is probably necessary! I should stop using exclamation marks! … Well that didn’t work. Anyway! (ahhhh)

http://www.fanfiction.net/~alexandrastorm *thumbs up* (nothing’s there yet)

I think that is all the newsies.

I have not done much. [colon open bracket]

I will try to do much! [colon close bracket]

Diviner OUT! [penguin]

Excuses: school, homework, SNOOOOOOW (it snowed! LOTS!), piano exam (18th, wish me luck), distracting video games (curse you, hard puzzles on Professor Layton!).

Friday 29 October 2010

Wait for it… Wait for it… EVEN MORE news!

(I used Windows Live Writer for this. Sorry if the pictures don’t click or look weird or something.)
Well…
eek! eek!
Yeah. You see that? That was my experience bar. Yeah. So, after I finished the next quest…
OH YES
OH YES. I AM A MASTER!!!!!!!!!!!!! I simply cannot convey my excitement through text alone, so I won’t waste the screen with needless exclamation marks. I might just have a few more, though.
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Aah. That’s better.
Anyway, if that isn’t awesome enough…
DOUBLE YES
Both Nat and I have reached Dragonspyre! (This would be infinitely more exciting if it was the current last world. However, it is not. Any more. Dang, just a few days too late.)
Also, I didn’t like that robe, despite the storm symbols, so I blew the rest of my crowns on a little stitchwork.
DS
Yeah. Dragonspyrey.
Okay, so awesomely happy diviner OUT! (for now)

EDIT: Also, I should probably warn you... If I post at all next month, you'll be really lucky, what with my piano exam, NaNoWriMo, AND all the homework... I apologise for laziness in advance.

Wednesday 27 October 2010

MORE News!

This is another listy thing:

1) I signed up for the NaNoWriMo Young Writers Program thing! Look to the sidey to see my badge! >>>>

On the not-so-bright side, I kinda don't know what to write about. But I'll figure something out. However... Only four days left! O_O

2) I leveled up! I got Triton! I did the Shirataki Temple! I still haven't used Triton, though. I'm so used to Tempest. :/

3) I leveled up again! So not only am I an awesome level 39 and super super SUPER close to master - which is completely completely excitingful - I am a higher level than Nat! I'm happy, but I won't gloat too much, because I've already been slightly frustrating in Nat's opinion today.

I think that's all for today. Yup.

Diviner OUT!

News!

Ok, I’m going to give you some news.
1) I like lists so this will be in list form.
2) Downtime! Maintenance! CELESTIA!!!! Woot! LIVE!
3) NAT POSTED. O_O
4) This is a word that begins with s and ends with y. No, not stupidity. STORY! STORY DONE! No, not completely finished, but Part 6 is. I feel like I’ve been working on it forever. (This is scarily near to the truth.)
Anyway…
~The Tale of Alexandra Stormrider (Part 6)~
Have you ever been in a situation where time feels like it’s dragging itself out particularly slowly just to torture you?
Multiply that feeling by about a hundred thousand.
Then you’ll understand how I felt stuck in Malistaire’s dungeon, or cage, or prison, or whatever it was –we still hadn’t worked it out, because we still hadn’t gotten our bearings.
I’d woken up at a time I assumed was the next morning, but naturally, Malistaire had conveniently refrained from giving us a clock, so we really didn’t know. I also noticed he hadn’t supplied us with a light source – though that was easily solved, what with the pyromancer I was locked in with – and, most importantly, food or water, which, frankly, sucked.
Suddenly a little flame leapt into life, startling me for a moment before I saw that it was just Matt, quite literally playing with fire. I supposed that was just something that happened when you were a pyromancer, just like Jacob Ravencloud, my friend and fellow diviner (who was thankfully not here in Malistaire’s dungeon place with us), and I could make the air crackle with static electricity, and Liam Dawnbreeze, Jake’s twin, and a theurgist, could make almost anything grow, no matter how sick or wilted it was.
“Okay,” said Matt cheerfully. “Let’s work on a plan to get out of here.”
“Great!” I mimicked his annoyingly positive attitude. “Any ideas?”
“Well, erm… Seeing as we don’t know our way around this place, or how to get out, we need to find someone who does.”
“Of course! What a brilliant idea! Hey, Mr Dragon dude who probably works for Malistaire – could you show us out?!”
Matt looked a bit put out. “We could put them under some sort of spell?”
“You can do mind control spells now?”
Matt sighed. “Maybe not, then.”
“What we need is someone we can trust.”
“Like Autumn?”
“Who else? She’s our only chance to get out of here. It’s not like we know anyone else who can help us in this situation. We have to find her. I mean, she has to be somewhere around here.” I hesitated. “Unless she’s…” I didn’t want to even think of that possibility, let alone voice it.
“OI!” a voice grumbled from outside of our prison. We both jumped and turned to face a skeletal warrior who seemed pretty miserable. “You two. Small yous. Yes. You.” He seemed to want to make it clear that it was us he was talking to.
“Okay,” I said, rolling my eyes. “We get it. Us. Carry on.”
“You want food? Here. Take food. Nourish you.” He threw a parcel on the icy stone floor and left quickly.
“Great grammar,” I mumbled as he walked away.
********
“Where the heckhound are we?” Liam complained to his twin.
Jake studied the map. “I know,” he said, hesitantly. “Um. I think I do, anyway. See that little corner, there?”
“Nope.”
He sighed and pointed to the map. “That one. That leads to—“
What corner?” Liam cried, exasperated.
Jake rolled his eyes. “Just forget it, and follow me.”
“How do I know we’re going the right way?”
“Well, obviously, I’m smarter than you.”
“How?”
“You can’t read the map.”
“So?”
“If I can read the map, and you can’t…”
Liam scowled. “Map-reading is pointless. We should just use our Quest Trackers.”
“Oh, nice one. Remind me what quest we’re on?”
“Saving Matt and Alex.”
“Is that in our quest logs?”
Liam groaned. “Fine,” he said, miserably. “Lead the way. But don’t blame me if we get lost.”
********
Other than the visit from the somewhat pathetically ineloquent skeletal warrior, our time passed uneventfully. The bleak hours – or what felt like hours – stretched by punctuated by half-hearted plans to break out.
“We could burn down the bars,” suggested Matt hopefully.
“Might as well try,” I grumbled, moving as far away from the bars as possible. Matt gave the door to our cell a long hard look and the lock burst into flames. I could feel the heat from the back of the cell, and any normal padlock would have melted in seconds. When the relentless flames did die, though, the lock remained unscathed. Even Matt’s fire didn’t work, and everyone knew that he was undoubtedly the best pyromancer in the adept class by miles.
He sighed and retreated back into the corner, where I was still sweating.
“Well, at least we don’t have to worry about being cold,” I said, a little grudgingly. Naturally, Matt didn’t look concerned by the heat at all.
“Was that too much for you?” he asked, raising an eyebrow.
“I’m a diviner. We don’t like hot weather. We like rain. And storms.” I pushed him over and heard a little crack of electricity.
“Ouch,” he said, pretending to be hurt. “That was mean.” He pulled a face, and then made a little ball of fire appear. I retaliated with a splash of water. Soon we were having a full scale fight throwing fire and water at each other and hearing the hiss of steam when they collided.
I finally got the better of him with a mini-torrent of water, leaving him dripping. I wasn’t much better. In fact, most of the room was covered in water. The room? The cell. I’d forgotten.
“I think we need to dry off,” said Matt, happily. He closed his eyes and concentrated for a few seconds. In an instant he was bone dry.
“How did you do that?” I marveled. One of the best things about having talented friends was discovering all the cool things they could do.
“Pyromancer skills,” he said, tapping his nose. I’d noticed the water on the floor around him was drying up as well.
“You’re amazing,” I said, “for someone who’s such a jerk.”
“Well, if that’s how you feel, you can stay soaking,” he grinned.
“Sorry.”
“Hmph.”
Suddenly I heard a familiar voice in my head.
“You two done now?”
********
Liam sighed. “How much further do we have to go?”
“Stop whining.” Jake frowned at the map, and turned it around. “This way,” he said.
“There’s so much walking. Can’t we just teleport to them?”
“You’re kidding, right? You can’t just teleport into Malistaire’s secret dungeon! It’s near impossible to get there by foot!”
“Then why are we doing this? We should have told Ambrose.”
“I’m beginning to wish you hadn’t come.”
“Yeah, well, me too. This isn’t exactly a picnic.”
“Go back to Wizard City, then!”
Liam was silent. “But—”
“Did you hear that?” Jake whispered.
“The whisper chat?”
“Yeah.”
“The one which told us to go back to Wizard City.”
“No, the one that told us to go eat some ice-cream.” Jake rolled his eyes. “What do you think?”
“Alright, calm down. Well?”
“Well what?”
“What should we do?”
Jake sighed. He closed his eyes. Who are you?
I can’t tell you. But honestly, both of you need to get back to Wizard City. You can’t stay there. It isn’t safe. You aren’t safe.
That’s not an issue. We’re not here to be ‘safe’.
Wizard City needs your help!
Prove it.
What do you want me to say? I’m here, and you need to come.
Then tell us who you are!
I can’t. You need to come back.
Jake opened his eyes to find a concerned Liam staring at him.
“Dude, did you just, like fall asleep?”
“You’ve lived in Wizard City all your life and you still don’t know how people whisper chat?”
“Not all people whisper chat like psychos.”
Jake thought for a second. “That wasn’t a normal whisper chat.”
“No duh.”
“We have to keep going.”
“Go on then. Where next, little bro?”
“We’re twins. I’m not your ‘little bro’.”
“Say what you like. I was born before you.”
Jake sighed again. “Sometimes I wish you weren’t born at all. Follow me.”
They headed around the corner, Jake looking concerned and Liam tired.
“This is sooo boring,” he complained.
“You said to come here,” Jake reasoned.
“So? I didn’t realize it would be this long.”
“You’re saying that if you knew how big Dragonspyre was you wouldn’t have come.”
“No…”
“Well, yeah you are.”
“Stop twisting my words! I didn’t say that!”
“You implied it,” Jake stressed.
“Ugh. Fine. I’m going back.”
“Fine.”
Liam turned around quickly and began to walk away before Jake could change his mind about letting him wander off. He turned a corner, and came face to face with a draconian.
“Surprissssse,” it hissed.
Liam took a step back.
“Thought you wanted to go home. It’s thissss way.” The draconian flicked its tail to point behind it and slightly to the right.
Liam changed his mind.
“JAKE!” he yelled.
“What? Thought you were going home.”
“There’s a draconian here!”
“Seriously, Liam? You’ve told me that one over and over again. When will you stop pulling that trick?”
“No, really!”
“Sure.”
“Jake, you know I wouldn’t say it if there wasn’t. I first thought up that trick six years ago.”
The draconian hissed again and stepped forward. Liam turned on his heel and sprinted back to Jake, who turned around as Liam slammed into him.
“Changed your mind now, have you?”
“No. It’s just that there’s sort of this draconian chasing us.”
“Right.”
The draconian hissed.
Jake’s eyes widened. Liam glared at him. “Told you I wasn’t joking!”
“Ok,” said Jake. “So…”
“There’s another one!” yelled Liam.
“Come on, Liam! This is—“
“Yes! It is serious!”
Another draconian was ducking behind the first, but unlike the latter, it wasn’t sneering or snarling.
Suddenly, it pounced – but not on the twins. It attacked the other draconian.
“Go!” it screeched, frantically. Shocked as they were, Jake and Liam didn’t hesitate to obey.
********
I stood up quickly. Matt looked a bit puzzled. “Autumn?” I said, hesitantly.
“Well, it took you a while!” Autumn was sitting in the cell opposite us.
“What are you…?” I stuttered, confused, as glad as I was to see her. “How did you…? Why didn’t you…?”
“Save the babble already. We have talking to do.”
Matt was still looking slightly confused. “Autumn?” he asked. “Since when were you there? We didn’t know you were just over there…”
“Well, I didn’t know it was you two until you started throwing fireballs and stuff. But let’s start with the basics. Why are you here?”
“We came here to save you,” I said, feeling slightly uncomfortable. This wasn’t how I’d imagined this would pan out.
“You two? But… you’re only level… what, twenty? You’re hardly ready for this. Do you have no common sense?” She looked almost annoyed.
“Um, no?”
“Well, that’s reassuring,” she said sarcastically. “Any plans on getting out?”
“Not yet. You?”
“Well, if I did, I wouldn’t still be stuck in here, would I?”
“Okay, okay. We have been trying to come up with something.”
Autumn raised an eyebrow.
“We’ve only been here for a day, or something. Give us a chance. Why didn’t you say something earlier?”
“I only just noticed. I just thought Malistaire had taken some novices or something. I tried to call you out loud, and I guess you didn’t hear. Did you find anything in there?”
“Nah,” Matt said. “It’s empty.”
“Oh. I was just saying because I did find something, at least. A scrap of paper. Might mean something.”
Matt and I looked at each other before turning to Autumn simultaneously. “The prophecy!” we cried, at the same time.
“I can’t make out the first line,” she said, regretfully, “but it says something like… Two are young girls… I can’t see the rest. It’s too dark.”
Matt made a spark, and the corridor lit up.
“Hm. Nice. You’re Falmea’s son, aren’t you? That would explain a lot—”
“What. Does. It. Say.”
“It’s a bit of a rubbish poem… I’ll read the next bits.

“But all will face darkness; no doubt there's a lot
It shall be a long road but they must persevere
For their destinies lie somewhere shrouded in fear.

“Alas, Spiral saviors, your fates are tied
You cannot succeed until one has died.

“Not very positive, is it? All that stuff about fear and dying.”
“Autumn, that prophecy’s about Jake and Liam.”
“They’re not two young girls.”
“Forget it. Pass it to us.”
“That would be a great plan if you weren’t across the corridor from me.”
I sighed. “Well, when we get out, then.”
“Great. You guys can—”
“YOUS!”
“Great,” I muttered.
“Bonehead’s back,” mumbled Matt, miserably.
“OVERCRAMPING. YOU.” The skeletal warrior pointed to Autumn. “YOU GO TO WITH YOUS.” He pointed at Matt and I. He slammed Autumn’s cage door open and dragged her over to ours, opening our door with a massive key and shoving her in with us. Autumn winced as he relocked the door.
The warrior started to clunk down the hallway again, but not before Matt had sent a small flame shooting straight at the hand he was holding the keys in.
“GRAH.” The stupid thing shook his hand briefly and carried on walking. The keys were lying on the floor, just outside Autumn’s old cell.
“Heckhounds,” said Matt. “Bit late.”
“You were brilliant! We practically have it now!”
“Yeah, but we don’t,” he frowned.
“We’ll find a way, don’t worry.”
Matt smiled at me appreciatively. “Thanks.”
“YOUS! QUIET!” The skeletal warrior came back, dragging a limp form of a draconian behind him. It crooned painfully.
“QUIET, TRAITOR.” He tossed the poor thing in a cell, where it began to whimper mournfully, and lumbered off, almost stepping on the keys he’d dropped not a minute before. It surprised me that he didn’t even think to lock the cell again. I suppose there must be a few issues when you don’t have a brain, though.
The draconian lifted its head sadly. Despite being a dangerous animal and probably an evil minion of one of the most powerful and terrifying wizards of all time, I couldn’t help but feel a little sorry for it. I opened my mouth to speak but suddenly, to all of our surprise, it interrupted.
“Yes. I am a traitor.” Her – she was definitely female – voice was croaky and weak.
Matt, Autumn, and I exchanged confused glances.
“I posed as Malistaire’s minion. I’m a spy.”
We continued glancing at each other before Matt decided to speak up. “Who for?”
“I couldn’t say, hatchlings.”
Hatchlings? “Ambrose?” suggested Autumn.
“No, no, hatchlings. A world a little further away than Wizard City, but I help your kind.”
“Like who?”
“Some wizards just down… I doubt you know Dragonspyre, but my brethren were about to attack them, and worse… take them here.”
Matt and I looked at each other. “How many were there?” I asked eagerly.
“Two. No more than hatchlings, like yourselves.”
“What did they look like?” I pressed.
“I didn’t have a chance to look at them more than briefly. I’m sorry, hatchlings.” She lay her head down on her front claws
“It has to be Jake and Liam,” Matt whisper chatted to me. “They’re the only people who know we wanted to save Autumn.”
“They might have told someone,” I replied, uncertainly.
“She said they were hatchlings. Plus, they wouldn’t have done that.”
“I hope they’re okay.”
“They’ll be fine.”
Autumn’s voice came into my head at the same time. “You know who she means?”
“We think it might be Jake and Liam,” I replied hastily. “You know. The twins.” I could almost see Autumn groaning. I sighed.
“How come you can whisper chat in here anyway?” I demanded, out loud.
“I dunno. I didn’t try it until I whisper chatted to you.”
“Maybe we can whisper chat to Liam and Jake. Tell them where we are.”
Matt nodded and I saw him concentrate. A few seconds later, he focused on me again. “Nothing.”
I made a sympathetic face. “Maybe not. Sorry.”
“It’s okay.” Matt smiled at me. “Like you said, we practically have a way out now!” I grinned back.
********
I can’t remember how long it was after that that Matt fell asleep. Autumn, however, was still very much awake and couldn’t stop talking, making sleep a bit of a non-option for me.
“I’ve been sooo bored in here. Honestly Alex, I’m really glad that someone came that I can talk to. I swear, if it had been one more day, I would have gone crazy. I mean, I can’t even describe how boring it was, what with all those boneheads. Only having them for company – do you see what I mean? I mean, it’s alright for some, isn’t it. You two are really lucky; at least you had each other when you came here. You can keep each other company, whereas I’ve been on my own for days, with no one to talk to at all. It’s totally depressing, but—”
“Autumn.”
“—you guys are—”
“Autumn! Can you please shut up? One, you were kidnapped so of course you wouldn’t have any company; two, you talk way too much and three: I’m tired. I want to sleep.”
“Okay. Okay. Calm down.”
“Can you just be quiet for once?”
“Whatever.”
“You really wind me up.”
“It’s funny when I wind you up.”
Matt stirred in his sleep.
“Right. Well, I’m tired, so ‘night,’” yawned Autumn.
“’Night.”
I curled up in a corner and tried to fall asleep.
********
Liam yawned. “I’m tired. Can we just teleport?”
“How many times do I have to tell you that that won’t work?” Jake asked. “Look, there it is. We don’t have that far to go.”
Liam stared at him.
“What?”
“Race ya.”
The twins began to sprint towards what appeared to be the entrance. Jake began to get slightly ahead.
He tripped and disappeared.
Liam skidded to a halt. “Jake?” he yelled, looking around in confusion.
“Down here,” echoed his twin’s voice from what seemed to be below the ground. Liam turned his gaze to the floor and saw the hole which Jake had fallen into. He saw a rope ladder hanging from the side and began to descend. When he’d reached the bottom he saw Jake sitting uncomfortably on the floor.
“You okay?” asked Liam.
“I think…” Jake screwed up his face. “I think I hurt my ankle.”
Liam crouched down and got out his wand, murmuring something under his breath. A magnificent unicorn erupted from the leaves that were swirling around his wand. It touched its horn to Jake’s foot and Jake’s face lightened. Liam nodded at the unicorn gratefully and it disappeared as suddenly as it had come.
“Better?” grinned Liam.
“Better,” Jake smiled. “Now, let’s go.”
********
I woke up in a matter of hours, which would matter if we had any concept of time, but we didn’t, so our mental clocks were completely messed up. The first thing I noticed was that the other two were still sleeping. Secondly, I noticed that the key was still lying on the floor of the corridor. I rolled up the filthy – though I’d only just noticed it – sleeve of my robe, stretched my arm through the bars of our cell, and reached as far as I could, but I still couldn’t quite touch it.
“It’s a pain, isn’t it?” said Matt quietly, startling me. I turned around and he grinned. I couldn’t help but smile back.
“I didn’t know you were awake,” I replied, similarly quiet. I went over to join him in the corner.
“Well, I am. Unlike sleepy over there.” He nodded towards Autumn, who was still sleeping, and smiled. There was an awkward silence. “Um, last night…”
“It might not have been night. You can never tell when it’s always dark.”
Matt gri nned. “True. But, erm, what Autumn… Erm.” He seemed to rethink it. “Do you have any ideas about getting out?”
I shook my head. “Not a clue. If only we had our wands. Then we could summon a Firecat or something to go fetch it.”
“Wouldn’t the fire cat burn the key?”
“If this metal’s resistant to your fire, the thing wouldn’t have a chance.”
“You never know. Can’t be too careful, can you? For all you know, I could just be a fire cat in disguise.”
“Meow. But seriously, what’s gonna happen to us if we don’t get out?”
Matt didn’t say anything.
“What if Malistaire decides he doesn’t need us anymore?”
“If that was the case, he would have gotten rid of us by now.”
“Maybe. Maybe not.”
“Oh, you two,” Autumn grumbled, tiredly. “Wake up. We. Need. To. Get. Out.”
“We were just discussing that, actually,” Matt explained.
“Sure,” Autumn smirked. “So, now you are actually listening to me—” Another voice cut in, making me jump.
“Oh, get up, you idiot. We don’t have time for this. We need to find them!”
“Who the heckhound is that?” I asked nervously.
“I dunno,” said Matt, “but they don’t sound too evil.”
“Huh,” mumbled Autumn.
“Um, can you let go of my arm now?” Matt whispered. I released my grip apologetically. I hadn’t even realized I’d grabbed his arm in shock.
“Sorry,” I said quietly.
Two familiarly identical shapes emerged from the darkness.
“JAKE! LIAM!” I yelled before I could stop myself.
There was a silence.
Oops.
“Okay,” said Matt softly. “I’d say we have about ninety seconds before they get here to see what’s wrong.”
“Sorry,” I added. “We need to get out of here. Grab that key.”
A bemused Jake took the key and unlocked our cell, and we scrambled out.
“Which way now?” asked Liam.
“You tell me!” said Autumn, indignantly. “And we need our wands – and our decks!”
“I hate to break it to you, but those things can wait,” said Jake quickly. “You guys need to get out of here.”
“Wait!” I broke in, suddenly. I grabbed the scrap of paper on the floor and held it out to Jake. “We think this is the second part of the prophecy!”
He barely even glanced at it before pocketing it. “Ambrose did say that…”
“What’s the whole deal with this prophecy, anyway?” Autumn interrupted.
“We’ll explain later,” I excused.
“We don’t have time for this stuff, anyway. This way!” Liam darted off into a tunnel, followed by Jake, then Matt, then a still puzzled Autumn. I followed them as fast as I could.
We’d barely got three turns into the corridor when I heard a frustrated cry of anger from behind us.
“YOU FOOLS!”
All of us seemed to use that as an incentive to speed up. Jake sprinted ahead.
“Call yourselves guards!”
He dashed around a corner and we followed unquestioningly. How the heckhound did he know where to go? I jumped over a rock on the floor.
“You LET them escape?”
WHAM. Autumn had tripped. I skidded to a halt and grabbed her, pulling her up and dragging her forwards.
“How? How did they ‘trick’ you?”
Autumn quickly regained her footing and ran after me, limping slightly. Matt turned around to see what had happened and I shoved him forward.
“Well what are you waiting for? Go after them!”
I pressed forward.
“Which way? Which way do you think they went, you brainless idiots? To the exit corridor!”
There was an unsteady thudding of footsteps following us. We turned another sharp corner and there was a rope ladder in front of us. Jake clambered up it quickly, followed by Liam. Matt followed them and I climbed up after him, followed by Autumn.
“YOUS!”
Autumn and I finally scrambled onto the dry scrubland above the tunnel. “What do we do now?” asked Autumn.
“TELEPORT!” yelled Liam at the top of his voice.
In a mix of red, purple, and green, we disappeared.
********
“I cannot stress how disappointed I am in all of you.” Ambrose addressed us – as in, me, Matt, Jake, and Liam – the only people who were bothered enough to try and help Autumn.
Liam looked bored. Jake was trembling. Matt rolled his eyes at me.
“You have broken several rules. Stealing.” Ambrose looked at Matt. “Going to a world you haven’t reached yet.” He looked at me. “And going to Dragonspyre after you were specifically instructed not to.” He looked at Liam. Gamma hooted haughtily.
“It was for a good cause,” I pleaded.
“You should have left this to the staff. You were not ready for a quest like this.” Ambrose looked away and shook his head. Gamma hooted sympathetically. “That said, you managed to get back safely.”
Jake looked a little more relieved.
“And… I have decided that I will not punish you, for now. Besides, what you did was brave, if reckless.”
I grinned, and was about to run out of the office excitedly when Ambrose spoke again.
“But if I hear one more thing about you…” he shook his head. Gamma hooted disapprovingly. Gamma’s hooting was starting to get annoying.
Well, we hopefully wouldn’t be in a situation like that again. I made up my mind about it there and then. From then on, I was going to obey the rules.
“That means no stealing, no disobeying your teachers, no disrespect, no running off and NO fighting. Understood?”
We all nodded.
Ambrose hesitated before Gamma cut in. “Yo-oo-oo-ou are dismissed.”
Jake suddenly spoke up.
“Sir, can I give something to you?”
Ambrose frowned, but then nodded. Jake gave him the scrap of paper which the prophecy must have been on. Ambrose’s expressions went from suspicious to confused to shocked.
“Mr Ravencloud, is this…?”
“Yes, it is, professor.”
“Where did you get it, my boy?”
“We’ll explain everything later, professor.”
Ambrose hesitated. “Very well. Off you go now,” he said, reluctantly.
********
I was trying to do my Life homework in my dorm room, but I was a bit distracted. I stared blankly at my textbook. I needed to revise the theory of healing spells for a test tomorrow.
The magic of the song is based on a form of energy, called Spiritus Incrementa – literally meaning “the growth of spirit” in Latin.
“Think we got off lightly there,” Liam had commented as we walked out of the door.
“Must be because we have Jakey-boy with us!” Matt had tried to joke. “They wouldn’t want to sacrifice such a talented student!”
“Shut up,” mumbled Jake, looking embarrassed. I didn’t really know what to say.
Also simply known as life force, it is so named because it allows the particles that create living things to work in harmony to provide the key processes of life – namely, growth and spirit.

“I guess you do have a point,” Liam had said. “After all, I’m one of the most talented theurgists I know!”
“How arrogant can you get?” I asked, laughing.
“Big head,” said Matt. “We can’t all get plants to start tripping up moody conjurers!” he added, referencing the time when Liam had set a tree’s roots the task of tripping up the truly arrogant Reed Mythstrider, who had a superiority complex.
It is present in all living creatures’ souls, and is the reason behind life itself. At its creation, a living thing has a set amount of life force, and it is depleted through illness, physical harm, and magical harm. It can also fade as a creature loses the will to live.

“You should be careful around him, you know,” warned Jake, cautiously. “He’s a lot more trouble than he looks, honestly.”
“Really? How can he be any more trouble than he looks?” I asked, raising an eyebrow.
Jake sighed and shook his head. “Oh, just forget it.”

Without Spiritus Incrementa, everything that exists would fall apart and disappear into the Darkness (the empty space below the Spiral which contains everything that has ceased to exist).

I’d wondered what was wrong with him, and was still wondering. The Mythstrider kid was always a touchy topic with him. Who could blame him? After all, he had been beating him up with a troll for as long as I could remember.

The songs that all life spells utilize send this growth energy into the spirit of the living creature it is directed towards. This replenishes depleted force and therefore—

BAM.
I leapt to my feet and rushed down the corridor into the cold open air of Ravenwood. As soon as I stepped out, I saw… Well, I didn’t see anything, apart from a huge green mass in front of my face. I smelt vomit. And slime.
A humongofrog.
A sneering voice came from behind it. “I don’t think you’ve seen this one yet, have you?”
“No, but I-I-I really don’t think you need to, erm… demonstrate, Reed.”
I was going to kill the Mythstrider kid.
Before I’d even thought about what I was doing, I’d pulled out my wand and begun to wave it. A storm symbol formed and the air crackled with static electricity, and suddenly a wall of water had appeared and was ready to crash down on the frog.
“JAKE!” I yelled. “MOVE!”
Jake’s blonde head bobbed around the huge green mass quickly, and he sprinted towards me, grinning gratefully.
WHOOSH.
“You are going to pay, noobs!”
I bit my lip to try and stop myself from laughing when I saw him. Reed was dripping, from his blue hair to the toes of his expensive Marleybone boots. On the other hand, he looked absolutely furious, his wand was out, and a bunch of Myth cronies were behind him. They stormed over.
“What in the Spiral,” he spat, hatefully, “do you think you’re doing?!”
“Defending a loser,” snarled Blaze Dragonrunner, a similarly arrogant conjurer, “like him?”
I tried to think of a catty response. “What do you think you’re doing, setting a Humongofrog on him? It could have killed him!”
“Actually, Alex, Humongofrogs can’t kill people. They just vomit all over you until you become nauseous,” Jake corrected. I gave him a look which I intended to mean ‘You’re not helping me here’, but he just smiled pleasantly.
“I think the little nerds need teaching a lesson,” Reed sneered. Before I could even open my mouth to tell him that it was better to be a nerd than a low-life bully, he’d given me and Jake a shove so hard that we ended up sprawled on the floor a few feet away.
I sat up, absolutely fuming, when a black and white ball of anger hurled past me.
“Go away!” it screeched, furiously. “You’re a big butthead and I hate you and leave my sister alone!”
I hadn’t expected that from my little brother. Still a little disorientated, all I really wanted to do was congratulate Nat on his bravery before realizing that there was something stomping behind us. I turned around.
“CYCLOPS!” I yelled.
Jake and I scrambled up as quickly as we could. I grabbed Nat, and ducked behind the stone steps of the boys’ dormitory, pulling Jake along with me. At that precise moment, and rather inconveniently, the door flung open and out came – would you believe it? Matt and Liam.
“What the heckhound--?” Matt asked. They both looked dumbfounded. Then they realized that if they didn’t move they were probably going to be flattened by the hammer of an angry Cyclops. They hopped over the side of the steps and joined us ducking.
“What is going on?” whispered Liam, frantically.
“Jakey-boy here was being beaten up by Myth-face and his pet froggy. Not good combo. Smells like sick,” I replied in a hushed tone.
“Too right,” said Matt. “On three, you guys.”
“One,” he said. I checked my deck quickly. Kraken. Storm Shark. Lightning Bats. Leprechaun. I discarded all my non-attacking cards. They weren’t going to help outside of a dueling circle.
“Two.” I drew my wand and tensed up. Liam, Jake, and Nat were doing the same.
“Three!”
We leapt up, and stood awkwardly for a moment, unsure of what to do. Then Liam waved his wand and summoned a leprechaun. It slid down its rainbow and giggled, then grabbed its pot and smashed it on the floor near the Mythstrider kid’s feet. Matt summoned another, which threw its gold around viciously before starting to climb up Blaze’s robe, kicking and biting on the way. Blaze whipped out his wand and summoned a trio of angry, screeching lightning bats before you could say ‘fail’.
From then on it was a flurry of spells. I didn’t know who had summoned what, and more and more people were joining in the fight and attacking whoever they saw. I don’t even think that anyone ‘took sides’. By the time I’d noticed that passers-by were getting involved it had just become a free-for-all.
I waved my staff. Fizzle. Frustrated, I waved it again, harder, and it flew out of my hand as a sunbird flew past my head, singing my hat. I lunged for the staff which was rolling towards the yellowish feet of a conjurer, but then the Mythstrider kid picked it up and held it out of my reach.
“Not so smart now, are you, diviner?” he sneered contemptuously.
I didn’t bother to try to respond. I gave him a solid shove, making his hair stand on end from the static, and he stumbled, winded. Before he could react properly I snatched my staff and summoned a Kraken. Water flooded the area around us, and a conjurer to my left sent a blood bat at me. I ducked quickly as it aimed for my head, and turned around, only to bump into a somewhat disheveled Autumn.
“Autumn?” I asked, confused.
“Some myth loser attacked me out of nowhere!” she told me, indignant. “So I asked him what he was doing, and he cast a blood bat! So I summoned a treant, and—”
“I get the idea,” I interrupted. Since when had the fight got so big? Suddenly, a minotaur appeared behind Autumn. “Um…” I said, slightly shocked.
She whipped around, and, with a quick wave of her wand, formed a fire symbol. I frowned. Didn’t Autumn second in Myth? To my surprise, she cast a Phoenix, which swooped down over the minotaur. The lumbering beast fell to the floor, defeated.
“Where did you learn that?” I asked, in awe.
Autumn smiled. “Treasure card.”
“Lucky,” I said enviously, before hastily ducking to avoid a meteor which was zoning in on my head. By the time I looked up, Autumn was off dueling a thaumaturge.
“Sorry!” yelled Matt, rushing up behind me. “I was aiming for—”
“Don’t worry,” I butted in. “Are you okay?”
“I’m fine – are you okay?”
“Yeah, sure.”
“This has gotten out of hand.”
I glanced around. “Obviously.”
“I think we should go back to our dorms.”
“Yeah. That way, we can’t get blamed for all of this.”
“Let’s go, qui—duck!” We crouched down as a Cyclops nearly tripped over us. Matt grabbed my hand and pulled me towards the dorm rooms.
We made it to the steps. It’s a bit weird to think that if that Cyclops hadn’t come, then everything after that wouldn’t have happened.
“STOP AT ONCE!” cried a dominating voice over the chaos.
Slowly, everyone fell silent.
“The instigators are to come to my office. I know who you are.”
We looked at each other and sighed. Heckhounds.
********
“I can’t believe this has happened.”
I looked around. There I was, just this morning, swearing I’d never make trouble again. Now look at the mess I was in! I’d made everything go wrong. If only I’d just ignored the stupid Mythstrider kid. I glared at him. He was standing at the end of the line looking nonchalant, as though he’d done nothing wrong. I wanted to hit something.
All of us – me, Matt, Jake, Liam, Reed, and Nat – had been guided in here by a troll, which Cyrus Drake had conjured as the battle collapsed in on itself. As for Reed’s cronies, however… It looked like they’d got out of it pretty easily.
“I want you all to know that nothing – absolutely nothing - in all my time at Ravenwood has ever amounted to an event like this. I am disgusted by this misconduct. And with family involved, as well! I will be informing your parents.” He gave the twins a furious stare.
“All six of you will be punished. Heaven knows, the only thing I can think of at the moment is permanent exclusion, and I doubt that will change. You have all disappointed me hugely. To think that all of you had excelled in your classes throughout your time here! I cannot express my horror at the situation.”
Jake looked like he might pass out. Even Liam and Matt looked a little pale.
“Everyone knows he won’t actually expel us,” whisper chatted Matt into my head.
“Really?”
“Yeah, they haven’t done that since they opened the school. Mom told me.”
“Good to know.”
“Aren’t you glad to have me?”
“I guess, moron.”
“Who are you calling moron?”
“Who do you think, imbecile?”
“Who are you calling imbecile?”
I giggled in my head.
Ambrose sighed. “After my many years of teaching here, I know when students are whisper chatting to each other. And I will expel you, if that is what it will come to.”
Could Ambrose see everyone’s private conversations? I suddenly felt extremely embarrassed and began to stare at the floor. Matt looked similarly uncomfortable.
“I can assure you that I am in doubt that any of you will be here for much longer.”
There was a long and awkward pause, where all of us were too scared, worried, or uncomfortable to even look at each other, let alone communicate. Suddenly, Gamma gave a loud hoot.
“Professor, can I consult with yo-ou for a moment?”
“Lead the way, Gamma.” The professor followed a strangely excited Gamma into a small room at the back of the office where students usually aren’t allowed.
As soon as the door closed behind them, Matt whispered, “How does he know when we’re whisper chatting?”
I shook my head in confusion. “No idea,” I replied.
“Mind reading?” suggested Liam.
“Oh, be quiet, you idiots.”
We all looked at the only myth kid in the room.
“What happened to all your buddies, Mr Cool?” asked Matt. “Are they hiding? Have they cast an invisibility spell?”
Reed turned away, clearly thinking he was too important to be bothered with losers like us.
Ambrose swung open the door and marched into the room, and the silence became less awkward and more terrifying. I think we were all holding our breath. Jake now looked close to tears, and I swear that
“We have decided…” Ambrose said, hesitantly, “that exclusion… may not be the only option.” He gave us all intimidating stares. “You will remain here to continue your studies.”
Not one of us could speak. When had Ambrose ever taken back anything he’d said ever before? This had to be a first. All we managed to be able to do was stare at him in shock.
“We have conclu-u-uded that exclu-usion would be a waste of valuable magical potent, what with the entire Spiral being in danger,” added Gamma, insistently. “Malistaire’s forces are gathering, and we need all the wizards we can get to assist in overcoming his powers.”
That didn’t seem like a great explanation. I looked at the others. They were all either still in shock or didn’t seem to have noticed the lousy justification of that argument, with the exception of the myth kid, who still had a haughty sneer on his face.
“This incident cannot go completely unpunished, however,” Ambrose began. “You will attend detentions every week for two months—” I suppose it was only fair, but I couldn’t help being a little annoyed “—and you are all banned from doing any quests for a month. Don’t even try to. I’ll have your Spiral keys taken away until I deem fit to return them, and I’d like you to know that all denizens of the Spiral do report to me who has been completing quests each day.”
I stifled a groan. I supposed we had it coming, after starting a massive free-for all. Still, we were so close to getting into Marleybone! And now we’d be behind in levels and never get through the Tomb of Storms.
“And as for you three,” he continued, seriously, looking pointedly at the twins and Reed. “Your mother and father will be informed. And you too, Mr Fireshard.”
Hold on.
You three?
I was going to say something there but I managed to keep my mouth shut until we were dismissed, at which point I near-exploded.
“What did he mean when he said “you three”?!” I demanded.
Liam and Jake glanced at each other. Reed sniffed.
“Well, he was addressing us two and Reed, obviously,” Liam explained.
I blinked. “Your mother and father. Singular. You three have one mother and one father between you, so…”
“Yeah, Reed’s our older brother.” Jake looked at the floor.
Matt looked about as confused as I was – which is to say, very much so. “Why didn’t you say?” he asked.
“We didn’t say he wasn’t,” countered Liam.
“And like I’d want to be associated with these losers,” sneered the Mythstrider kid. “Now, if you midgets will excuse me, I’ll be going.”
“No way. You’re staying here,” I said. “They’re your brothers. Why do you always beat up Jake?! You don’t just beat up your brother for no reason!”
Nat, who had been strangely quiet up until now, spoke up. “But Alex…”
I turned to him. “You’re annoying, but I wouldn’t set a imp on you, let alone a humongofrog.”
He looked a bit embarrassed. “Thanks, Alex.”
“So, on that note, why do you do it?!” I asked Reed.
“Alex…” began Jake.
“No! You can’t just let your brother keep trying to kill you! Don’t your mom and dad know?”
“No, but…” he started again.
“See? This isn’t fair! He shouldn’t be allowed to just keep getting away with this!”
Liam broke in. “Alex, we’ll explain in a minute. Just let Reed go about his business,” he whispered. He gave me a this-is-going-to­-be-bad-if-we-don’t-leave-him-alone look.
Matt, who was being uncharacteristically awkward, suddenly decided to support them. “Alex, I guess that’s a family issue. You don’t want to interfere too much.”
I sighed and turned my back on the Mythstrider kid, still angry. When I heard his footsteps fade I turned back.
“So what’s the deal?” I asked.
“It doesn’t really matter that much. It’s nothing big.” said Jake.
“Go on. We’ll go sit in the life tower while we explain.” Liam practically pushed us in there.
“This had better be a good story,” added Matt. “Got any popcorn?”
“Only pet snacks,” said Liam. “You know, for animals. So only you could eat them.”
Matt prodded him with his wand.
“Right. Let’s start at the beginning.”

Saturday 23 October 2010

An off-topic post in parts

1. Wizardblox


There's been an update recently, which made me ultra happy because it had iOS 4 compatibility and also a whole bunch of awesome prizes! Like...




The best one?



What a brilliant prize! I'm far too lazy to go reageant farming, so playing WizardBlox over and over has some productivity associated with it. That's always a positive. WizardBlox FTW!

2. Halloween


I did the quests last year, but it's nice to see Jack Hallow back again. If I get some spare time I might try and go through the towers again... Maybe.

Also, um, is Halloween a really big thing in the US? Because personally, I've never been trick or treating, or dressed up, and I don't really understand the concept. :S Culture differences? I mean, there's always a big display in shops and stuff, and some people do go trick or treating, but Nat and I personally have never been. And it's not huge.

3. I was browsing through the W101 Fan Art archives and I saw this:




My verdict: Sarah, you're a brilliant artist and that is completely and utterly awesome.

4. Writing


Part 6 isn't done. I'm probably two thirds through it now, but seeing as it's half term now, I should have it done within the week, if not in a few days. I don't know if you care about that too much, though. *shrug*

Still on the topic of writing, however, has anyone here heard of NaNoWriMo? National Novel Writing Month? No? Basically, it's a Well, I was thinking of taking part in the Young Writers Program this year. I know it may be a bit late to be starting to think about it now, with, what, eight days to go? But seeing as I like writing so much, it might be an option... Despite the fact that I have a piano exam in December... Still, at least on the YWP you can set your own goal, so I don't have to push myself too much. 50,000 words would kill me. But I can write a lot when I need to - I mean, each part of my story is between 4000 and 6000 words, or around that (Part 6 will probably be a bit longer, about 5000 at the moment.), so I think I could do it. And seeing as I have lousy time management skills, well... Practise makes perfect, right?

If you're interested in learning more about that, go to nanowrimo.org or check out the information for the main competition here or the young writers program here. Any inspiration will help. Hint hint. I'd probably better check with my parents whether it's ok first, though, so nothing's definite yet. But I'll probably do it.

Also, I know people who have done NaNoWriMo where I am, so I don't think the 'National' part is that important.

Anyway, I think that's all.

Diviner OUT!

Friday 15 October 2010

I just realized!

Celestia's on the test realm! YAY! I am so so so excited! YAY! YAY! *logs into test realm* YAY! YAY! YAY!

...

Wait. I have to be level 48, don't I? Aw. Heckhounds.

Either way, I'm gonna go play on the test realm instead of doing my homework, because today I have the day off school! (I'm not ill, our school just had a random inset day in the middle of term because they didn't have one at the start of term. Anyhow, it's cool.)

Diviner OUT! (will post pics later maybe?)

Thursday 14 October 2010

The new questy thing.

EDIT: when I logged in later I DID realize that it was in the patcher. Okay, so maybe I didn't see it first time around. Sorry. I'm not an observant person sometimes. And, in retrospect... Maybe I was a little mean... I dunno. Thoughts?


So, when I logged into the game recently, I saw THIS:


Yeah, too right I can't make out the words. What is this? I hear piano and drums. Where did the nice Mooshu music go? :( (I am a sad, sad person.)

Go on, KI. Tell me more.



Intriguing. However, your voice is extremely annoying. Please stop talking.

Anyway, carry on.


Okay, I hate to sound mean, but my first thought here was

"Who?"

*one Google search later*

Right.
Actress. Okay.
Singer. Okay.
Wizard TV show. Okay.
Disney. Ah.

(FULL DISCLOSURE: I've never liked Disney. Not even when I was a little midget. Go on. Be mad at me. Just saying.)

This should be interesting. What have you got to say, KI?


Ookay. Thanks. BACK TO THE QUEST.


Yeah, I can! Any ideas how? You know, the whole across the whole Spiral thing?




Oh, sure. Right. I'm on my way.

*one teleport + run later*


Oh, you flatter me, professor.



Okay then.



Ugh, not AGAIN...



Um. I hate to disagree with you, Professor, but... How should I phrase this? No. Not really.

But then I got to look at THE AMAZING PURPLE WATER THING (aka Scrying Pool) so it was all awesomeful and stuff.



Then again... And the next bit? What? You should be preparing for a CD rele-- you know what? Skip this conversation.

*is told by Halston Balestrom to go save her and find out about some place*

Some time later, in the library...



Ooh, this is getting interesting. And... Does this mean we're going underwater?

...

...

...

YAY!!!!!!!!!!!! WATER BREATHING POTION MAKING TIME!

I love this quest.

A lot of scarlet screamers later...

I hate this quest.



So, I went back to Balestrom, and then he's very excitable. I am also excited until he tells me...


JUST GO AND JUMP INTO A RIVER? That's insane! INSANE, I tell you! But, seeing as it's just a game, I headed on over to Triton Avenue...


If this was real life, I would be petrified. I don't do jumping off cliffs. (without rope, that is. I like abseiling.)


OMG. WOW. THIS IS EPIC. THIS IS AWESOME. THIS IS SO SO SO AMAZING. THIS IS UNDERWATER! (If I didn't make that clear, I like water.) YOU JUST MADE UP FOR ALL THE STUFF I COMPLAINED ABOUT! YAY!


"It's you." Thanks, I feel so appreciated, Selena. You're so nice. /sarcasm

Nevertheless...



That's okay, Selena. You're welcome. Don't mind me, I just saved you with a super awesome spell. Or your family, no. You have a CD  to release! :O

Still, I carried on, until I got to this. 


Ohmigosh! What epic British History references KI! Thomas Cromshell! That killed me, seriously. (I read Wolf Hall last summer. It was really good. A little hardgoing. But good. Look it up if you're into deep historical reading.) You know, KI, history is my... Hm, maybe fourth favourite subject? (After science, art, and graphics.) That just made up for all the whinging, and to top it off...


You ended it with dancing crabs. Kudos, KI. Nice touch.

Diviner OUT!

Friday 1 October 2010

Oh, hey guys.

I know. It's been a while. Over a month. *guilty look* (You were right, Emma.)

I am so sorry! Seriously, since I got home from holiday, everything's been so so so so so busy! I've had so much homework in the past month... :(

You see, for the next three years or so, I've got a lot of work to do, because now is when big exams start over here, BIG future-affecting exams. And the important stuff is how well you work before you start the exams. (In normal schools this wouldn't start until next year, but my school's weird, so we do some exams next year, and some the year after, so it takes us longer... *is annoyed*)

Anyway, on a happier note, I'm going to try to post a lot more. I need some method of fun procrastination. XP And apparently there's a new 'special' questline, which I'll blog about in a different post, because I feel my reaction warrants more than a quick mention in an apology/explanation post.

So, until next time,

Diviner OUT!

P.S. I dunno what happened to Nat. He seems to have disappeared off the internet. Shame, really. He plays PS3 a lot.

Tuesday 17 August 2010

A belated post



Firstly, happy birthday to Nat for, well, more than a week ago now. His birthday was on the 7th, so, yep, very much belated... He got crowns, I think, with which he has bought (so far, as I am aware) swiftshadow wings, an earth walker, and he was planning on getting the Overlord set, I think...

Next, and I probably should have mentioned this earlier, but, erm, I'm on holiday, or vacation, or whatever, in France, and I've been here for about three days now. And I was so busy packing and such before we were going I forgot to mention it, so now I'm using a laptop with a really bad connection and annoyingly laggy typing to quickly make this post before the wi-fi card runs out (don't ask, it's a really strange system)...

As nice as France is, though, this unfortunately means I have no Wizard101 time (partly because of the bad connection but mostly because this computer doesn't have it installed) and therefore very little to post about. That is, if I was able to post, because this connection is really really (darn-it-just-went-again-now-I-have-to-wait-until-I-get-more-signal-argh!) bad, and I don't know if we can get another wi-fi card when this runs out...

Anyway, I have to wrap this up pretty quickly, so...
Diviner OUT!

Friday 6 August 2010

Things you may not know about me.

This being a blog about Wizard101, I tend to talk about quests and spells and my story and the game in general a lot. So you probably don't know that much about me, as much in the game as in (the terrifying) real life.

So, now I will dedicate this post to telling you a lot of random pointless facts about me!


  • My name is Alexandra Stormrider (well, obviously not, but you get the idea), and I am currently level 37, working in Mooshu.
  • I'm Storm. Obviously.
  • I know Life spells up to Satyr and am wondering what to do with the rest of my training points.
  • Most of the characters in my story are my alts. All of the (currently) main ones are, except Nat, who's just Nat.
  • Nat is my brother. :O
  • He is being nosy and peering over my shoulder as I write this.
  • I like writing (well, duh!). I read a lot.
  • Other hobbies include: video games (Nintendo fangirl), books, Doctor Who, drawing and painting and art in general, rugby, listening to music (that no one else has ever heard of :P), did I mention books?, and playing music...
  • I play five instruments:
    • Piano. I've been learning for seven years now, which is a looong time.
    • Drums, as in, drum kit, which I've been learning for about three or four years.
    • Saxophone - about a year.
    • Guitar. I taught myself, kinda, and I can't remember when I started.
    • Ukulele. I got mine quite recently and I haven't had any formal lessons, but it's pretty easy to work out.
    • I used to play cello, but I was really bad at it, so I quit. :P
  • I'm a nerd. :) Not a bad thing to be.
  • My favorite subjects in school are art, graphic design, English, and science.
  • I like LEGO. :P
  • My favorite TV show is Doctor Who. :) I don't watch TV much other than that.
  • I am an expert in the field of procrastination.
  • Storm was the school I got when I took the test the first time, and the many times I took it after that.
  • I don't know anyone who plays Wizard101 in real life, except Nat and his friend Hunter, who introduced us to it, and he moved, so just Nat really. :(
  • Love animals, but don't have any IRL pets. :(
Yep, I think that's about it. So, if you ever wanted to know a lot of unnecessary things about me, there you go.

Diviner OUT!

Saturday 31 July 2010

Finished!

Okay, I should quickly say before I tell you the great news that I'm sorry! There I was, promising I'll post twice a week - and then I neglect my blog for almost a whole week! It's terrible! D:


On the bright side, I finished Part 5! I should really use some more punctuation! ... I'm bored of exclamation mark point thingies now.


Anyway, here goes - the really recently as in just finished story...



The Tale of Alexandra Stormrider (Part 5)

by Alexandra Stormrider

I didn’t know what to say. Besides having not fully comprehended the full horror of the statement, I couldn’t really comfort Nat knowing full well that I was on the verge of bursting into tears myself. I tried to make my mouth form a sentence – a word even.

“I… She…” I shook my head. This couldn’t be happening. “What?” Nat gave me another look of despair.
“Malistaire captured Autumn! And no one knows what to do about it and we’re all gonna die!” He began to sob again.
I patted his head awkwardly, searching for something not-too-awful to say. I was sad that Autumn had been taken…

Autumn had been taken! I think that was when it really hit me, like a full-on punch in the stomach from Mythstrider.

“We’re not all gonna die…” I tried to comfort Nat.
“Yes we are! He said so!”
“Who said that? Ambrose?” I didn’t really need to ask.
 “Malistaire! He was here, Alex, right here!”
I felt sick. “You saw him?”
“Everyone did! Everyone came back from their quests, because they all got a whisper chat from Ambrose!”
I felt sick again. “I didn’t. And neither did Matt.”
“But it wasn’t really Ambrose, at least he said it wasn’t – he said it was Malistaire playing mind games…” Nat shuddered and buried his head in my robe.

I shook my head. That was impossible. No one could whisper chat to just anyone… Unless they manipulated the laws of magic. Even Malistaire couldn’t do that. At least, as far as I knew, he couldn’t.

“It’s okay, Nat. We’ll be okay.”

How could I say that to the poor kid? If Malistaire had come here personally, it was bad.

********
I was still in Ravenwood long after everyone had gone to their dorms, thinking. Autumn Willowbreeze – I’d known her for longer than I’d known anyone here, other than Nat, of course. I tried to recall our last conversation, realizing that was a bad idea too late to erase the memory from my mind.

“If you’re gonna be like that, then don’t talk to me.” I’d been hateful, really, snapping and walking away. I felt like I’d been punched in the stomach. It was all I could do to not start crying there and then, when a noise from Bartleby distracted me.

Reed Mythstrider, with a few other Myth cronies, stalked straight out of Bartleby. Why had he only just returned? On any normal night, this would be when most of the adepts would be coming home from Marleybone, but – to say the least – now was so not a normal night. Besides, any normal night, if he’d come into Ravenwood late when no one else was around, I’d have walked straight up to him and asked him why. But what with everything that had happened in the past few days I was simply too dazed and tired to care.

I wasn’t trying to eavesdrop when I heard their conversation. They just didn’t see me.

“Where in the Spiral is everyone?” Reed sneered. Even when he was asking a question he still managed to sound snotty.
“Ambrose knows,” replied Blaze Dragonrunner, a cocky conjurer who seconded in Storm.
“Well, it’s not like it’s late or anything… I must have lost track of time. Always night and all that.” His companions snickered. How was that even funny? The Mythstrider kid stalked over to the boys’ dorms muttering something unintelligible.

I sat there, not really thinking about their conversation. I was still wallowing in regret. Why had I been so stressed out? I was tired, true. But that’s no excuse to be rude as heckhound to Autumn! What was I thinking?

I don’t know how long it was before a familiar figure appeared from the boys’ dorms. Matthew Fireshard walked over and sat down beside me.

“I figured you’d still be out here,” he said, quietly. His voice lacked his usual humor.
I gave him a long look.
“I heard about Autumn.”
“Well, obviously.” I bit my lip. Where had being snappy got me? “Sorry,” I say. “I didn’t mean for it to come out like that.”
He tried to smile at me. “It’s okay. I know you’re stressed out now. Heckhound, I’m stressed out! I came to see if you were okay, actually.”
“Thanks, Matt,” I said. “I mean, I really appreciate it.”
“Any time.”

There was a short pause. “It’s kinda cold out here.”
“I didn’t really notice. Diviner and all.”
“Well, pyromancers do!” Matt snapped his fingers and a little flame appeared in his hand.
I stared at it in amazement. “Can all pyromancers do that?”
“Some,” Matt replied, shrugging. “My mom can. I must have inherited the gift.” He grinned at me.
“See? You are talented,” I said, referring to earlier that day, when I’d found a sheet about the prophecy with his name on it.
“Yeah, well, a couple of others can do that too, I think.”
I rolled my eyes. “Don’t put yourself down. You’re the fire teacher’s son. You’re meant to be good at it!”

Matt gave me a huge smile. “You don’t have to be the professor’s kid to be good at stuff. I mean, Liam’s not half cow, is he?”
“Not as far as I know.”
“Exactly. Now, with that pleasant image in our heads, how about we get some sleep?”
“Sure.” Matt stood up and offered me the hand that hadn’t just been on fire. “Thanks,” I said, taking it and standing up.

 I’d allowed myself to relax while Matt was there, and the full reality of how horrible everything was suddenly hit me again. I held back. Matt turned around, tilting his head.

“What are we gonna do about Autumn?” I said miserably.
Matt frowned. “I don’t know,” he said, serious again. “But I’ll think of something. I promise.”
“Thanks, Matt,” I said, though I didn’t trust his plans at all after breaking into the Headmaster’s office.
“Now, sleep. It’s not like you got a lot last night!” Matt was grinning again, but I could tell he was tired too.
“Alright then.” I was about to head to the girls’ dorms when I stopped and suddenly gave him a hug. “Thanks for coming out here, Matt.”
He hugged me back tightly. “That’s what mates are for, right?”
“Right.” I said.

********
I woke up the next morning a little more refreshed than I had the day before. At least I’d woken up before Nat.

I walked to the Life School slowly, still thinking about Autumn. I was barely watching where I was going, and as a result, I promptly bumped into a young thaumaturge.
“I’m so sorry,” I gushed quickly. “Are you okay?” Her head turned quickly, and to my surprise I recognized her face; it was Kymma Frostleaf, an ice kid in Matt’s kid sister’s class.
“I’m fine.” Her voice and stare were typically frosty.
“See you, then,” I said, awkwardly. She stalked off, nose in the air.

There was something about that kid.

“ALEX!” I whipped around. Nat was running towards me.
“Hey, little guy,” I said.
“Do you know where my new vampire treasure card is?”
“On your bed?”
“Huh?”
“It’s back in the dorm. Go get it if you have to.”
“Thanks, Alex.” Nat started sprinting towards the dorm. Why didn’t he just teleport? Kids.

Clearly, Nat had already forgotten about last night, and I didn’t want to remind him. It was painful just to think about it. Where was Autumn? In Malistaire’s fortress? Was she okay? Was she hurt? Was she… Was she even alive?

No, I told myself. Don’t think that. She is alive. She has to be.

I tried to get to classes quicker than usual. Maybe lessons would help me take my mind off things. I pushed the door to the Life school open.

“Hey! You didn’t wait!” I turned to see a slightly confused Jake stumbling over one of Bartleby’s roots.
I felt slightly guilty. I always met Jake, Liam, and Matt before class. I really had been thinking. The idea kind of worried me.
“Are the others already in there?”Jake frowned. “Usually we—”
“Nah,” I said, speaking over him. “I just wasn’t thinking, that’s all.”
Jake shrugged. “Might as well go straight in then.”
“Might as well.”

We sat in an uncomfortable silence, waiting for Professor Wu to begin the class. No one seemed to be in a very chatty mood, not even the small group of excitable level 15 theurgists who had just been moved into the journeyman class. There was a surprisingly dead atmosphere. I didn’t even notice when Matt and Liam arrived.

“Students of life,” said Moolinda Wu, looking melancholy. “I understand you may have been shocked by yesterday’s events.” She tilted her head and seemed to think about what she said next. “I know that the Spiral needs life more than ever now, when there is a shadow over us. However, due to recent events… classes today have been… temporarily cancelled.”

There was another miserable silence for a moment before the class began to pack away their spellbooks. I sighed. So much for lessons taking my mind off things.

********
I didn’t want to quest, so I headed straight to Triton Avenue, which was, as I expected, empty but for a few overly-eager apprentices. I didn’t realize I still had my backpack and spellbook with me until I’d sat down on my usual ledge under a particularly stormy patch of clouds.

I’d like to say I contemplated the events of the past day and came to terms with Autumn’s capture and Malistaire and every other terrifying thing that happened and decided on a plan of action to make everything right again.

In actual fact, I just sat there moping. There was nothing I could do to save her. It wasn’t like anyone – least of all me – was going to go to Malistaire’s castle and—

“Hey Alex!”

My head whipped around quickly before I had realized that the voice was in my head. “Matt?”
“I’ve had an idea!” I could practically see him bouncing off the walls. “Can I port?”
“Sure.”

The air beside me exploded into tiny flickering flames in a sudden burst of heat. Matt appeared, somehow looking excited and serious at the same time. Then his expression looked comically surprised.

“Do you always hang out in such miserable places? It’s freezing here. And wet. You’re nuts.”
“You haven’t been to Colossus Boulevard lately, have you?” I raised my eyebrows. “You’re going to have fun in the Krokosphinx. Lots of ice. Nice and cool.”

“Funny. If you wanted to wind me up, I’ll just go then.” He started to turn away.

“Wait up. I thought you had an idea.”
“I do.” He tried to look important.
“What is it, then?”
“Well, we aren’t good enough to go to Malistaire and get him ourselves, are we?”
“Thanks. You really make me feel good about myself.”
“Cut the sarcasm. I’m trying to help you here.”
“Sorry. Just tell me the plan already.”
“Fine. If we can’t get to Malistaire, we get some other people to do it.”

I stared over the grey river, under grey clouds, probably covering a grey sky. Who did he mean? Ambrose? Heckhounds, the headmaster was probably already out searching – with the rest of the faculty.

“The teachers are looking for her already. There’s nothing else we can do.”
“Not the teachers!”
I sighed. “Who, then?”
“Well, I was thinking… How about those lovely little prophecy twins?”
“Jake and Liam?”
“Who else?”
“Well… It’s just…” I hesitated, not quite sure how to put it.
“Well, what?”
“They’re not exactly qualified, are they? They’re not like the professors. They’re the same level as us. They can’t do anything we can’t.” I could hardly suppress an eye roll.
Matt looked at me pleadingly. “They’re our best bet.”

I thought about it. When he said it like that, who else could – or, would – go save Autumn? And, sure as heckhounds, she needed saving. We couldn’t exactly go up to a bunch of grandmasters and tell them to go defeat Malistaire and rescue our friend. I didn’t want Jake and Liam to go, though. What was I afraid of? That it was too dangerous? It was dangerous, but they could handle it. Matt was right. They were the prophecy kids, after all. I sighed.

“There’s no harm in asking,” I grumbled reluctantly.

********
“You have got to be kidding me.” Jake shook his head. “No way, you guys.”
“Aw, come on, Jakey,” Matt pleaded. “I’ll give you a meteor strike treasure card.”
“Noo.” Jake shook his head firmly. “You can’t bribe me into this. And don’t call me Jakey.”

Liam, who was standing next to Jake, was staring at us blankly and hadn’t said a word yet.

“What do you think?” I directed my question to him.
“Seriously?” he said. “You expect us to find Malistaire? And… get past him, to get Autumn back? Please. We barely even know who she was.” He folded his arms.
“What’s to lose, you guys?” Matt was persistent, I’ll give that to him. But it was clear that it wasn’t going to work.
“Our wands?” Liam suggested. “Our sanity? Our lives?”
“Matt. No. Way. Ever.” Jake was adamant. “Why don’t you do it?”
“Well, you guys are the prophecy kids. You’re the big cheeses…” I shrugged. Matt glared at me. Oops. I wasn’t meant to mention that, was I?

Jake looked irritated. “As if that stuff makes a difference. You’re the same level as us!”
“So… You are part of a prophecy, then?” I asked, incredulous.
Jake looked worried. “Um… No.”
Liam rolled his eyes. “Duh. I mean, no offence, you guys, but did it really take you that long to work it out?”
“We’ve known for a while actually.”

The twins narrowed their eyes simultaneously. “How?”
Matt and I exchanged a nervous glance. I responded, “err…”, and Matt finished for me.
“We sort of… found out. We broke into Ambrose’s office.”

There was a stunned silence. Well, not silence, obviously, because the rest of the kids in the Commons were still chatting noisily.

Jake glanced around nervously. “You what?”
“Never mind,” Matt said, hastily. “It doesn’t matter. Anyway, the point is, we all know that you’re part of a prophecy, and are therefore the best qualified to defeat Malistaire. I mean, isn’t that what all prophecies are about? Beating Malistaire?”
“Well, all it said was that they would… Fight fights on which the Spiral will depend, so that might not mean Malistaire, I guess,” I contemplated.
“Whoa. You’ve read the prophecy?” Liam asked, looking more and more puzzled.
“Yes, but that doesn’t matter now. We’re having a completely different argument.” I added hurriedly.
“Which we’re winning,” added Jake, looking somewhat frustrated. “We can’t do this. We’re not ready. Ambrose said so.”

I sighed. “Just because Ambrose said something doesn’t mean it’s true.”

There was a short silence. Suddenly, an icy breeze blew over the Commons and I saw each wizard hesitate for just a moment. “What’s up with that?” I said.

Then the Commons erupted into terrified conversation.

“It’s like before!” I heard someone gabble anxiously.
“Get out of here quick!” someone else added. Almost everyone was looking around frantically, as though they expected Malistaire to appear at any—

Oh.

 “Was this what it was like the last time Malistaire appeared?” I asked the twins, who were looking as confused as I felt.
“I don’t know,” shrugged Liam. “We weren’t here.”
“Neither were we,” I said, referring to Matt and I. “Strange how everyone seems to know, though, isn’t it?”

Neither Jake nor Liam answered, because by the time I had finished my sentence they had both teleported away. “Charming,” Matt muttered under his breath. Meanwhile, the rest of the Commons were busy shrieking in fear, or what I assumed was fear, seeing as I had no idea what had happened to make people this agitated.

I turned to Matt. “What was with that?”
He shrugged. “Probably some sort of twin prank on us. Or they were both whisper chatted by someone who said they needed help.” He seemed to think about what he had said. “Ah.”
“Ambrose whisper chatted?” I said. “He can’t whisper chat to students, can he?”

A death pupil nearby – she couldn’t be older than eight, and was dressed in black and red starter robes – stared at me in confusion. “What?” I snapped.
“Of course he can! Don’t you remember when he called us back to Ravenwood yesterday?” the necromancer asked me.
“Umm…”
“Everyone got a whisper chat saying to come back from whatever quest they were working on!”
“They did?”
“Geez, were you born yesterday or something?” She ported away in a flash of white.

Matt was staring at where she’d been in disbelief. “That’s why mom was so confused about why I wasn’t already home! She must have got the whisper as well!”
“So why didn’t we get it? And obviously Jake and Liam didn’t get it either…” I frowned. “It doesn’t make any sense.”
“Yeah, and what else doesn’t make any sense is why everyone’s quit worrying.”

I looked around. Everyone in the Commons was happily going about their business as they were about ten minutes ago, as though nothing had happened at all.

“Weird,” I said. I was, sure as stormzillas are storm, baffled out of my brain.

********
I sat on my bed in my dorm, still mulling over the events of the day. Most likely classes would be cancelled tomorrow as well. Maybe Matt and I could go work on some quests in Krokotopia. We could start on the Throne Room of Fire. Everything would be back to normal. We might even be able to check out the Krokosphinx – get a couple of spells from Niles. Or, if we didn’t get there, we could ask Autumn to—

Autumn.

Autumn!

What with all the strange events that had happened today I had completely forgotten about what we’d been arguing over in the first place – which happened to be the most important thing to me right now – finding Autumn. And in the end we hadn’t even got Jake and Liam to agree to it! I groaned loudly. Did that mean there was no hope? That we’d never find her? I dismissed the thought immediately. We had to save Autumn. Whatever it took.

I leapt up, full of energy.

Then I sat back down again. How? I was too impatient to sit around waiting for an idea to hit me from out of the blue…

“Matt?”
“Alex?”
“What are we gonna do about Autumn?”
“Er…”
“I’d completely forgotten as well.”
“Oh.”
“You got any ideas?”
“Nope…”
“Oh.”
There was a little pause. “This is going nowhere,” I added.
“We could go get her ourselves,” Matt suggested tentatively.
“Don’t be stupid.”
“I’m serious. How else?”
“Get someone else to do it.”
“Get someone else to do it? Isn’t that the easy way out? Can’t you be bothered to try?” Matt paused. “She’s you’re friend, after all. You’re the one who wants to rescue her.”
I sighed. “Look, this is stupid. We’re way too low leveled to even try.”
“We did tell Jake and Liam to go.”
“They’re in the prophecy.”
“They had a point though. They’re still the same level as us. We’re further ahead than them with quests, as well.”
“Yeah… but...” I struggled to think of a way out of this. When I really thought about it, there was a pretty insistent voice at the back of my head.
Why not? Who better to do it than you?
“Well? You up for it?”
“Sure.”

********
It was all very well saying that we were going to head to Mailstaire’s hidden fortress in Dragonspyre and rescue Autumn and come out unscathed. Actually putting this plan in motion was going to take a lot of planning. For a start, how we were going to get into Dragonspyre. Easy enough. Only, there were two things stopping us.

Firstly, in light of the recent events, all students had been banned from visiting Dragonspyre, as this was the place where they were most likely to be at threat. I knew for a fact, though, that the Spiral doors couldn’t stop anyone going to a world so long as they had the key to get there.

Which lead to our second problem. We didn’t have the key.

I was just about to whisper chat to Matt when his voice spoke in my head.

“Let’s go. Port to me.” I frowned.
“Whoa,” I said, confused. “Now?”
“Yup.”
“You’re kidding. How?”
“Through the Spiral door in Ravenwood?”
“Yes, but for a start, we don’t have the key.”
“We do. Just port already.”

I reluctantly teleported to Matt, who was, as I suspected, inside Bartleby.”You have the key?” I asked.
“Yep. Come on.” Matt started towards the Spiral Door.
“Wait. The Spiral Key? To Dragonspyre?”
“The?” Matt frowned. “There are hundreds of the things. Everyone who’s ever been to Dragonspyre has one.”
“Yeah, except we’ve never been to Dragonspyre. So we don’t have one.”
Matt sighed. “Yeah we do,” he said, exasperated. “How many times do I have to tell you?” He pulled out a large key from his robes.
My mouth metaphorically fell open. “How did you… Where did you…?”
“I’ll explain on the way. Now come on!”

********
Unsurprisingly, Matt had slipped the key from a master pyromancer who had gone to see Dalia Falmea on a level 42 spell quest. “I guess it doesn’t suck that much having a professor for a mom,” he’d grinned.

He was smart when it came to swiping things – I’d give him that – but I wasn’t sure whether that was a good trait or bad. Then again, it would probably come in useful again someday.

We’d arrived in Dragonspyre by that point, and were facing a little challenge. Knowing where to go next. We were in a reddish brown area, with strange arches that led seemingly nowhere. And, other than for Prospector Zeke and Eloise Merrywether, it was completely empty.

“Heckhounds,” I said, miserably. “This is gonna be harder than I thought.” Matt nodded thoughtfully. He was staring at the massive world which seemed to be exploding as we looked at it with narrowed eyes.
“We need to get there,” he said.
“Nah,” I snapped sarcastically, rolling my eyes.
“And we can’t get there the normal way.”
I sighed. “You know, you could be a grandmaster in stating the obvious.”
Matt suddenly looked up, brightening instantly. Obviously he’d thought of something.

He sprinted over to Prospector Zeke and began gabbling away to him nervously. Zeke was frowning when I’d followed Matt over to him.

“You sure? They ain’t too good for speed, y’know. I’d recommend a permanent, maybe even a seven day… ‘Lot better for getting around.  ‘Lot more comfortable, ‘s’well.”
“No, no, I’m sure. One day enchanted broom, please.” Matt nodded, looking impatient.
“Awright, then… You sure you don’t want a nice stallion? More comfortable. Be’er lookin’, too.”
“The broom.”
“That’ll be 1429 gold, then.”
Matt rummaged through his pockets frantically. “Er…” He took out his gold bag, throwing me a helpless glance. I sighed.
“Here,” I said, adding 500 gold to Matt’s pile. He gave me a grateful look. Zeke looked over the gold critically, and then handed over a dusty looking broom.
“Thanks,” muttered Matt, starting to head away from Zeke.
“Eh, you kids tell yer friends to come visit ol’ Zeke here in Dragonspyre. It’s sure been quiet today. Some sorta gatherin’ you’re having, eh?”
“Something like that,” I invented before following Matt.

“So, you bought a mount for…” I shook my head. “You just bought a broom. Why?”
“To get over there.” Matt gestured towards the main part of the planet.
“How?!” I argued in vain. He was already sprinting back towards the world gate. “Hey!” I ran after him.

“Get on, then.” I gave him my best ‘you-have-got-to-be-kidding’ look. He grinned. “Come on. You’re a diviner. You’re meant to be the impulsive one.”
“Yeah, and you’re meant to be the intelligent one.” I rolled my eyes, then gave him another ‘you’re-kidding’ look. “You want me to get on the same mount as you, and then…” What did he want to do then, anyway?

My question was soon answered.

“To get over there.”

I figured my look was getting a bit overused at that point, so I awkwardly positioned myself on the broom behind my absolutely crazy pyromancer friend, who may or may not have been about to kill me, before I could talk myself out of it.

“One thing before we go,” I said hesitantly. “What happens if we fall off?” I looked somewhat anxiously at the seemingly endless blackness that stretched below.
“I don’t know,” Matt admitted. “But we’re not going to find out.”

And then we took off.

Just being on a mount was the biggest rush I’d had since… Well, ever. Just a little more speed makes a huge difference.

But when you’re zooming through what I assumed was space (and yet I found that we were able to breathe, so I wasn’t quite sure), miles (or at least, what I assumed was miles) away from the nearest object other than the thin wooden stick that’s supporting the weight of two people… Well… It’s the best thing ever. Which wasn’t what I expected, but heckhounds, I wasn’t complaining.

Matt managed to steer the broom towards an open area that seemed to be creature-free – for now, at least. You never knew with Dragonspyre. Actually, you probably did, if you were a grandmaster and had run through the quests before and were sick and tired of the sight of the place… Things that we, of course, were not. We happened to be complete novices when it came to Dragonspyre exploration. We hadn’t even finished the Pyramid of the Sun!

I sighed. Why were we here?

I forced myself to think of Autumn, stuck somewhere dark and miserable that usually cropped up in a typical theurgist’s nasty nightmare. We were just lucky we weren’t trapped. Yet.

“So,” I said conversationally, despite being in the situation I was in. “Where next?”
“My thoughts exactly,” replied Matt, frowning. “It’s a big place.”
“Too right. Hope Marleybone won’t be as big as this when we get there.”
“No. Actually, I’d say Marleybone is rather small compared to this.” I turned to Matt, ready to ask him how he knew, when I realized that his voice was nowhere near as deep or ominous as that. Matt was staring at me, in shock. Nothing had registered with either of us yet.

“But I think that’s the least of your worries now.” Both our heads snapped around to the speaker simultaneously.

Who else could it possibly be? It just couldn’t be someone who would actually help us out for once, could it?

********
Malistaire had teleported – somehow bringing us along with him – to a long labyrinth of hallways stretching for miles, probably underground. We’d been dragged along countless miserable dark corridors by a wraith, which was a heckhound of a lot scarier than you’d think, because it was at least ten meters tall with a really bad attitude.

“Geez,” Matt mumbled uncomfortably. “You’d think he’d get an interior decorator in here. It’s too depressing.”
I giggled in spite of myself.
“Silence, novices!”

I resisted the urge to snap back, because, let’s face it – that would probably end up with me either dead or turned into some sort of gross monster that was hanging around here… That said, staying here, in this gloomy nightmare, would probably kill me in itself.

And then, there we were, behind bars. I would have thought that with all that magic, Malistaire could have come up with something a little more original than the iron cage things similar to those back on earth. I hated the place.

On the bright side, at least Matt and I were in the same cell. I don’t know what would have happened to me if we’d been separated. I’d probably lose track of all reality.

“So much for our plan, then,” he’d said, miserably, after the wraith had disappeared.
“Oh well. At least it saved us the strain of finding it ourselves.” I was trying to see the bright side.
“It’s all my fault. I said we should do this.” Matt was staring at the floor angrily.
“I agreed to it.”
“It wasn’t your idea.”
“Whatever. We’re closer to finding Autumn now than we ever could have been, alone and most likely completely lost in a world we barely know!” It struck me as odd that we hadn’t even had the chance to acknowledge that we were lost when we were there. Malistaire obviously had every corner of the world covered.

So where were the teachers looking for him? They couldn’t be here, otherwise they would be… Well, here – in a cell, with us. So that would have to mean they thought Malistaire was somewhere else…

“You’re saying that you still think we have a chance?” Matt’s voice cut into my thoughts.
“Yes. Of course we do.”
He looked up, grinning. “Then we’ll get out of here.”

We didn’t say much else to each other. I didn’t know what was going on. Would we be fed? Would Malistaire kill us? Where was Autumn? Would we be able to find her? How? Was she even here?

All the questions circled in my head seemingly endlessly. Matt had sparked a small flame in his hand and was staring at it intently. All I remember is watching the flickering light until I finally, peacefully, drifted to sleep, too exhausted to puzzle over our situation any longer.

********
Jacob Ravencloud was worried.

He hadn’t seen Alex – or Matt, for that reason – all day. Liam knew how worried he was, and probably felt the same way. But every whisper chat and teleport had been futile. Normally it was the other two who were trying to contact them all the time, and to be fair, that was understandable. These days Jake and Liam never got a chance to quest or just hang out. It was all intensive training from Ambrose about how to fight, how to act, how to not fizzle.

And now, on the first day they’d had completely off in ages, Matt and Alex were refusing to talk to them.

It wasn’t fair.

Jake sat down on his bed. With his nutty family – there was a reason he didn’t let anyone visit his family’s castle – this was the one room in the house where he could get a bit of peace without being irritated by his older siblings. Well, it was Liam’s room as well, but being a theurgist, he preferred being outside.

His family was a bit mismatched. There was a sorcerer, a conjurer, a thaumaturge, a pyromancer, two theurgists and himself, of course. Well, he did have four older siblings, if you counted Liam, who was born before him. What could he expect? Of course his family was going to be a mixed bunch.

He did miss having diviners around, though. His brothers and sisters were constantly fighting, and, yeah, at first it was nice being able to make a blood bat fight with a fire cat and see who would win, but after a while it was just plain boring to always be seeing spells cast left, right, and center. It was nice to just see storm creatures once in a while.

He wished Alex would respond. He hoped that she wasn’t annoyed because he was reluctant to travel to Dragonspyre when she and Matt had suggested it the day before. Maybe they were both ignoring him because of that.

It didn’t seem like them to be so petty, somehow.

Why wouldn’t they reply, then? Had something happened to them? Jake shook his head. No. He would have been told by now, surely. Nothing that bad could have happened, so they couldn’t respond. How would it have happened anyway? After what had happened to Alex’s friend, security in Wizard City was tighter than ever, and no one was allowed any further than Mooshu to quest.

Going any further would just be beyond common sense, wouldn’t it? It’s unthinkable, unless you were crazy. Malistaire crazy. Which would mean crazy because someone close to you was gone and you wanted to save it. Like if you cared strongly enough to need to go to find something, regardless of the consequences.

Something? Someone.

“Port, twin,” Jake whisper chatted to the only person who could help him solve this right now.

There was a swirl of green leaves as Liam teleported next to where Jake was sitting and looking increasingly anxious.

“If this is about Alex and Matt, I haven’t heard a—”
“It is. But it’s not that.” Jake took a deep breath. “Do you think they might have gone to try to rescue Autumn?”
“Those two?” Liam frowned. “They were asking us to go yesterday. They wouldn’t have gone them…” He tailed off, thinking. “Heckhounds. Those two? Yes. Knowing them, they probably have.”
“What do we do now?” Jake asked desperately.
“We should tell Ambrose. He’ll know what to do.”
“Ok. How?”
“Ah.”

There was a long silence.

“Whatever. Let’s just nick Jessie’s key and go.”

Liam Dawnbreeze raced down the stairs.

“Heckhounds,” mumbled Jacob Ravencloud, as he followed his twin.


------------------------------------------








Any thoughts? Please tell what you thinketh!

I know it's probably not my best part so far, and as I may have mentioned a lot before, I have put in a lot of conversation. I'm not so good with the whole 'deep believable character' thing.

Anyway, that's all for now! I'll try and post more... *guiltyness*

Diviner OUT!