Chapter 2

  I woke up with my wand in my lap, and my face in a book. I rubbed the sleep from my eyes, stood up, and stretched. What I realized next almost made my heart stop. My chest was gone. My music was gone. My spell book was gone. The picture that held so many memories was gone. I stood there, gaping, with just one thing in my mind. “Jamie.” I thought. I would have screamed, or wailed, or raged, if not for the rock stuck in my throat. So I just stood there, paralyzed, staring at the 4 chests that remained. A rustling of leaves in the corner told me that Arie was waking up, as she is always the first one up. I scrambled to around in haste to grab my wand and leave, in hopes that she would think I left to hunt. “Hey!” She screeched “Where do you think you are go-”. She stopped as her eyes drifted over to the chests. A shrill shriek emerged from her and she started to panic. “Oh gosh it's gone the chest is gone what are we gonna do oh do you have your wand and spell book oh i can't find the spell book but at least you have your wand good good ok so we need to find your spell book and your brother oh dear oh dear oh dear!” She rambled. She glanced at me and cooed “Oh don’t cry, we’ll find him”. I wiped my eyes and was surprised to see my hand wet with glistening tears. I had no idea. I was very sensitive about my brother’s disappearance. He was my best friend. He still is. With the all the commotion from Arie, everyone was surely up now. As if the universe could read my mind, Harmony, Bone, and Twig dragged themselves into the room and gaped at the disaster. I could feel my face heating up. I held my wand to my chest, and ran out the tree. I didn't know where I was going and I didn’t care. I just kept running. I had to get away from everything. I let nature take over my body. My feet turned to a blur as I ran across a valley and up a mountain. I just stood there panting. I was angry, scared, sad, and confused at the same time. Maybe that's what made me do what I did then. I let out squak. My arms melted into my wings as they turned bright blue, my hair turned to wisps of turquoise flames, my feet turned to bright blue talons, and I grew a tail of wisping flames. The amazing thing was, no smoke emerged from the raging inferno that rose off of my body. I couldn’t believe it. I had never transformed before, so it was even more stunning that my first time transforming would be the hardest creature to master. I was a Phoenix.