SUNLIGHT FILTERED through the thick, purple canvas of the tent, waking me up from a restless night. Nightmares had penetrated happy thoughts all night long, Slepa's haunting voice came back to me, her matter of fact way of talking about the wartbear was chilling. 

"Nightmares?" Flora asked, her face clouding when I nodded.

"What does that mean?" I asked, thinking about Slepa's flowing mane of ebony hair. 

"It means that the woman you saw last night was really my sister," Flora said while grabbing an odd green liquid. "You must choke this down for me. It'll make your arm better."

"I didn't notice any certain thing on her lower arms," I replied, wincing as the slimy, moss tasting potion slipped down my throat. Though I couldn't deny the cool relief that seeped into my elbow.

"That's because she's an enchantress. We begged her to stop the evil ways, but now she can hide what kind of fairy she is. She's actually a dream fairy which means her arms would be colored with stars and dark blue. Slepa was always so frustrated that her arms and abilities were colored the same as the legendary witch of the cosmos. I almost wonder..." Flora trailed off and resumed reading her book, visibly relaxing as she took in the pages and pages of wonderful words. If I wasn't quite as shocked at recent revelations, I would have asked about what she was reading. But I couldn't. There was work to be done.

AFTER THE WALK back to the treehouse, with the sun high in the sky, giving no indication of what had transpired last night, I disappeared into my room. Not even letting Fang in to see what I was up to, I spread out pages and pages of notes about the wartbear, Slepa, and the supposed 'witch of the cosmos'. Flora had placed a library at my disposal and I fully intended to use it.

The library was rather difficult to access. It involved sinking into Flora's garden, walking down a hallway that was quite overgrown, but not without flowers and sunlight, finally leading to the cavernous room that was the library.

Long spiral staircases made of gold and marble were the focal point in the room. The stone inset with sapphire bookshelves were shaped as though they were trees reaching out towards the little sunlight the window on the roof provided, far above my place on the ground.

All of the books had thick, hardcover spines and gilded inlaid titles. Titles spanning from Grimm's Fairy Tales to How to Create Your Very Own Sword in the Stone. While all of the titles would obviously need to be revisited later, I only picked up those that would aid me on my quest for knowledge.

I journeyed back to my room to find that Nolan had beat me to it.

"What's all this?" he asked, dropping one of the many papers I had ripped out of a notebook back on the ground.

"This," I replied, "is research. We need to know what's happening."

"You know I can help you," Nolan said, looking up at me through his bangs. "I know a lot more about the magical community than someone who's new around here. There's Miss. Pumpkin who performs witchcraft for sick; there's Mr. Hawthorn who is a duplication warlock."

"Why do I need to know of these other people?" I inquired, feeling a sinking feeling in my chest that we were about to break a lot of rules.

"Because they new the former witch of the cosmos. If they think you could be that witch, like I do, there's no time to waste. You could stop the people falling to sleep across the kingdoms and never getting up. The constant worry that who you are and what you do aren't good enough and won't ever be enough. Because if you can control the cosmos, you control time."

"Does this have anything to do with the deadly dance?" I teased, trying to lift the solemnity of the moment, but it doesn't work and Nolan's face stayed severe.

"We'd have to leave right away," Nolan said instead of commenting on my joke. "Because another wartbear is going to come every night until Slepa can capture us as we sleep again."

I noticed he didn't call her Aunt Slepa, but I didn't comment on the statement. If Nolan did know what he said he did, we should've been packing for the journey ages ago.

"Well then. If you'll give me some time to pack-"

"There's no time," Nolan interrupted, "just ask your closet to pack the necessities."

I did just that, and Nolan left my room to do the same. We agreed to meet outside of the treehouse so we wouldn't cast any suspicion on our afternoon plans. And we could get a couple hours' headstart on the four fairies that would most likely hunt us down with crazed actions. 

It would be much easier on all of us if we went to the nearest person who could tell us if I was a cosmos witch and come back in one afternoon, but I knew that wouldn't be possible. It shouldn't be possible, at least.

The closet gave me a knapsack that was deceitfully small, but in reality was much larger on the inside. 

"Thanks, closet," I whispered into the air. I hoped it heard me, for I truly was grateful for the fast packing.

I decided to climb out my window so that Flora and the others would merely think I was still cooped up in my room, reading. They wouldn't know I was gone until they broke the door down, which was a plus since Mr. Hawthorn lived only a five hour walk from the treehouse. Nolan said he wouldn't dare try and use the vineway and he certainly didn't want to ask for the horseless carriage. The only other faster mean of transportation would be Fang or Nolan's mystery dragon, but he hadn't told me to bring Fang so I assumed he didn't want Fang there. 

Dropping the knapsack to the forest floor below, I landed softly on all fours and crawled out of the windows' sightline.

"Nolan?" I called into the woods, expecting an immediate reply from him but receiving none.

"Up here!" I heard a whisper yell a couple minutes later, and sure enough Nolan was in a tree. 

But he was sitting astride a beautiful ruby red dragon with fiery pupils and smoking nostrils.

"Aria, meet Ruby!" Nolan exclaimed, forgetting that this whole operation was supposed to be a secret.

"Nolan, meet we'd better get out of here now if we want to visit Mr. Hawthorn!" I said sarcastically, waiting for Nolan's dragon to come out of the tree. This whole flying on a dragon thing was something I would have to get used to, seeing as I'm afraid of heights.

"You'll be fine if you don't look down. Ruby won't drop you," Nolan replied to my concern once I had voice it out loud.

"But will I be able to handle being so high?"

"Is your fear that severe?"

I thought back to my time as a bell girl when I was six. I had to climb up to the highest tower in the church and ring the bell. Back then, I was afraid of heights but ringing the bell was a matter of pride.

"No."

"Then go ahead and hop on! Mr. Hawthorn is expecting us!"

"Okay," I eyed Ruby, seeing where I should jump on and where would be certain death because of her sharp scales. I decided on a nice flat patch near the middle of the dragon's back, one that had the sharp scales around it so that I wouldn't fall down to my death. That would be a truly dreadful way to die.

I handed my knapsack up to Nolan for him to hold as I attempted to climb up onto Ruby's back. The first time I tried, my foot slipped and I fell on my face. The second time, I lost my balance sitting on Ruby's back and fell onto my side. My elbow was still sore, but the remedy Flora had given me was definitely doing its job, and my elbow was in perfect working order.

Finally, on the third try, with Nolan's ever amused gaze on me, I picked myself up and took a running leap. I almost fell off of Ruby's back again, but slipped my hand behind one of the fire red scales just in time.

With a flick of her tail, Ruby's nose pointed towards the sky, her scales glistening with condensation in the wet air. Up, up, up we went, higher and higher until the treehouse faded from view and my ears popped from the altitude. Even with my fear of heights, it was oddly soothing to not see the ground. Somehow I knew that was much worse but found comfort in the puffy clouds Ruby was making a point of going through.

"Ruby says you're an imbecile," Nolan laughed, "with your obvious fear of heights and not being able to mount her."

I burst into laughter myself, knowing Fang would have said the same thing. Maybe the two dragons were hatched in the same volcano or something.

"She's not wrong," I finally said after my laughter had subsided.

"I'm not going to argue."

I slapped the back of Nolan's head lightly. "It is unbecoming of you to show envy of a higher being," I laughed, knowing that if his theory was correct and I was the cosmos witch, it was true.

And Nolan didn't seem to be bothered by that notion. We were two teenagers weaving in and out of cotton candy esque clouds and laughing as though we were on a sugar high. There was no better feeling. 

And maybe, just maybe, I wasn't nearly as afraid of heights anymore.

RUBY TOUCHED DOWN elegantly a couple minutes later, in a beautiful open meadow. The flowers had barely sprung, so the meadow was full of spectacular buds of all shades and colors. The trees bordering the lushious clearing were tall and old, providing long shadows to lie down and rest in.

And of course, the brook running down the middle provided Ruby with somewhere to stop and hydrate. Apparently even fire breathing dragons need water.

While Ruby and Nolan were busy at the brook, I pulled the little stick out of my pocket, no longer a remarkable sword. It was truly eye opening to magic that a simple stick such as the one I held in my hand could become any weapon at the uttering of the magic word. 

Apparently, the trees heard my thoughts and a rustle came from beyond my sightline. 

"Gladios," I whispered, ignoring the stick's flash into my brilliant sword.

I raised it in a defensive pose, waiting for whatever was coming to come. I didn't want it to know I knew it was there, so naturally I didn't think to yell for Nolan and Ruby.

Big mistake. No, wait, HUGE mistake. As in, the three monsters that came out of the woods were huge. I had never seen griffins like these before, but when I saw them I instantly felt as if they were supposed to be hiding underneath my bed, not right in front of me.

They made no sound as they walked out of the trees towards me. They apparently didn't care about my sword or the fact that I was a witch. The three griffins just looked really hungry.

The one on the left (who I dubbed 'Lefty') signaled to the one in the middle (Mid-Man). And I knew that these griffins had a battle strategy of some sorts.

"Nolan!" I yelled, both surprising the griffins and scaring Nolan. Really, it was a win-win.

"Hold on!" I couldn't hear him say his magic word, but he walked in front of me with a freaking battle axe. How he was supporting it was certainly a mystery to me.

The griffins sprang into action, one taking the high side and the two others herding us into the middle of all three of them. Before the one on the right (Righty) could start pecking at me, I launched into battle.

Swiping and swerving, jumping and twirling, this was a much more even fight than the one I had with the wartbear. Although I was unharmed, so was the griffin. I had never really known from storybooks just how agile they truly were.

It growled and landed on its ginormous eagle's talons and lion paws and began advancing. I could hear the sounds of battle between Nolan and Lefty, but I ignored it. It was just me and this monster who thought it could beat me.

I dove as the griffin was standing up, thrusting my sword with all my might into the griffin's chest. To both my surprise and displeasure, the griffin's red blood splattered all over me and then it lay still.

I could tell Nolan had similar results because of the victory cry that echoed through the clearing. And then we turned on Mid-Man.

Now, the Mid-Man griffin was tinier than the other ones, and it seemed as though its wings were stronger, as it had been in the air the entire time.

The brownish gold fur bristled and I looked into the griffin's intense gold eyes. It was sad, lonely, and lost. We could help it if we wanted to.

"Rursus," I said and my sword turned back into a stick. I slid it inside of my dress pocket and waited for Nolan to do the same.

"Nolan?" I prompted, turning to him to see that he was completely confused.

Once the confused fog had faded away, he sighed and stored his weapon as well. The griffin gave a great screech and settled down across from us.

I walked towards it, slowly, as if the griffin were a horse. It did basically the same thing with the snorting and uncomfortable moving of the limbs. I reached the griffin and placed my hand on it's upper nose. The eagle part was up her, so I was met with unfiltered intensity.

The griffin showed me battles it had lost those it loved during. It showed me it's mate. It showed me the humans that came and took over it's old nesting spot and killed it's family.

And the griffin showed me permission.

"We're taking him with us," I declared, walking around the griffin with my hand on his back so he wouldn't be nervous.

Nolan's jaw popped. "We aren't and won't do anything of the sort! What if she hurts Ruby?"

"It's not a 'she'. And he's won my trust," I finally found the place that would be optimal for riding and I hopped onto the griffin's back. "I'm going to call you Grif," I whispered into Grif's ear after I was securely on Grif's back and I knew I wouldn't humiliatingly fall off again.

Nolan sighed and mounted the still exhausted looking Ruby, and both of our mounts rose into the air.

We would have no further interruptions.

Hopefully.

~o0o~

Word Count: 2529

So I'm in quite the pickle. Not really, but I just know you want to hear about my (not so) big problems. I love this book so much and I think it could be a full length novel. Here's the pickle: it CAN'T be a full length novel until the ONC is over and done with. That means you guys will have to stick with me while I edit this after it's 'over' and read the new full length novel and it's sequel (I know). 

And Now I Have You Wondering What On Earth A Sequel Could Possibly Mean...

Love you guys,
xx
C