My brother Cole and I probably got into more mischief than we should have when we were kids. Perhaps, not as much as some kids, at least that is what I like to tell myself, though I am sure more than others. However, if you asked either one of us we would say we got into precisely the right amount of mischief, if we acknowledging it being mischief at all. We had all sorts of ways of looking at it but it was never mischief because that would suggest some sort of wrong doing and we would both quite ensure you that we never did wrong.
There were so many adventures over the years that I am sure some of them have been forgotten by one or perhaps both of us, some however, stay inside your mind forever. It was one such adventure from the Summer we were 10 that comes into my mind. It was one of those days that you really wanted to be outside, however, it was too hot to do anything or real use. Unless you counted swimming and perhaps that was alright at least into the sun heated the water, and caused beads of sweat to pour down your face whenever you looked at it. We had been swimming for as long as we could stand in the water that seemed to be growing warmer by the minute before choosing to sit down under the shade of the old Weeping Waterfall trees so named for the long blue leaved branches that cascaded down over you like an umbrella creating a sort of hidden recluse if you choose to climb through them. It was a rather cool place to sit and we had made ourselves a little picnic under the branches as I shared food with my instinct friends and Cole with his mother, aka her picture, that really wasn't eating anything but he seemed to have to offer just the same.
It was at that moment that we would hear the sound, a whirling sound coming from the skies above us. So, we did what any enterprising young witch would do. We climbed up into the tree to get a better glance. Now, mind you we are in our swimsuits and with tie on sandals, and shirts flung on in a rather haphazard sort of way. We climb to the tree and I am not ashamed to admit it with a bit of push from some magic. Cole and I had the ability to do some spells even at a young age and we both had taken to carrying magic dust with us just in case we needed to do something larger. One could never tell when some horrible creature might jump out and attack you. Not that we have ever had such things happen before, well, that is the story I am sticking to at any rate. So, we climbed to the top of the tree and peered out, pushing the long branches out of our way as we stared up.
And what did you think we shall but a giant flying ship, zipping past us. Now, who had ever seen such a sight! And to the very cute and adorable little kids, who never get into any trouble. Well, what do you suppose we do. We reach out our little hands and grab a hold of the ladder as it goes zipping past. Because really when one sees such a wonder, it really is their solemn duty to find out what it is there is nothing wrong with that. It is called scientific exploration or whatever. So, we grabbed on the ladder as we went zipping along with the ship, through some sort of portal right smack into another world I might guess. Or it could be some unexplored part of our own for all I know the point is we went somewhere.
Cole and I glanced at each other as we slowly climbed the ladder and peered over the edge. We had developed two very interesting ways to talk to each other. Well, three if you counted the hand signs we had developed to go along with her secret language. But, who was really counting and of course a secret mental channel that allowed us to speak directly into each other's heads because it was really handy not to be heard. For sneaking like this however the mental channel seemed the best bet as two heads peered over the railing and I spoke to my brother. 'What do you think this is?'
His tousled blond head peered over the top with me as he suddenly sunk back down pulling me with him as a rather large man walked by and I don't mean large as in, I ate too much candy, I mean large as in muscles all around. 'I think it is a pirate ship, Ever. A big, magically, flying pirate ship! Can I keep it!'
I frowned looking over at him. Leave it to Cole to want the pirate ship. He did rather have a thing for pirates every since Kieran had read us that one book. Not that I wasn't a bit excited myself though I wasn't about to say so. I wasn't sure if we could keep the thing, however, we might be able to convince daddy to get us one of our own if we tried really hard. 'I don't know. I think we need to get a closer look.' With those words I glanced back over and silently fell to the other side, after the man had passed on his way and quietly moved to some barrels to the side to keep out of sight.
We watched as people moved around us on a strange variety of tasks that we didn't quite understand. Instead, we focused on the main who came out of a door that held a lock and a single handle. The man coming out of the door moved to take the wheel of the ship as they continued to move towards, the mountain range in the distance. It only took us the whole of ten seconds to decide we should see what was behind the locked door. We knew that pirates keep treasure and wouldn't it be cool to find real pirate treasure. We both slipped in and out of barrels and crates, dodging behind things or sliding across the floor at the last minute as he made our way towards the door. However, it was locked. 'Now what.' I said as I looked at Cole.
The grin that crossed his face as he tucked his mother into his shirt. He didn't want her to see her child do something that some might say was naughty. 'We break the lock.'
I squealed as I quickly put my hand over my mouth. I really shouldn't be exciteda but come on HIDDEN TREASURE! So, I took out one of the vial of magic dust. We cleaned it up after Kieran's parties as much as we could. And by cleaned I meant stole it and ran when the maids weren't looking. But, it wasn't really stealing, witches had magic dust all the times for spells. Granted we really weren't actually old enough. But, who is going to bitch a bit about the details. It wasn't bad if you didn't get caught. So, I sprinkled some on the lock as I thought about it unlatching and the lock flew off and hit, a man up on some sort of scaffold square in the head and he fell with a heavy thump right down behind it. We quickly looked around to see if anyone had noticed the noise.
It would appear that no one had because they didn't come running as fast as their feet could carry them. So, we lifted the door up and peered into the darkness. Taking a moment to let our eyes adjust we made our way down the ladder that lead to the room below. I reached down as my brother caught me as I dropped the last few steps and the two of us were greeted by a sight we hadn't expected. Sure, there were treasure, jewels, and coins of all sorts from worlds we had never even heard of, but it wasn't that which would draw our eye. It would be the beautiful girl tied to a post in the center of the room.
Her hands were tied behind her back, her legs out in front of her so she couldn't move. Her long white hair fell across her face like a veil, the cool blue of her eyes like ice across the frozen lake floor, glistened with light like a flicker just beneath the surface. She was dressed in white, a long flowing white dress, with small crystals embedded making her seem like something more than beautiful. She seemed almost unreal, her face all soft lines, but the truly strange thing was the horn, a single horn sprouting from her forehead. I had never seen anything like it and I took Cole's hand as the two of us inched carefully forward not wanting to disturb her but clearly wanting to get a better look.
She glanced up upon seeing us the shock forming in those clear blue eyes as she spook, softly, her voice like the tinkling of bells to our ears, like a slight whisper of wind against our skin. "Hello, children. How did you get to this forsaken place?"
Cole took a step away from me always thinking for whatever reason he needed to be bold. I think it had to do with his mother being bold or just that he liked to look out for people, yet another trait I think that he got from his mother. "We are explorers. Who are you and why are you chained up."
I moved to stand next to my brother as I nodded my head he had asked what I was thinking so I saw no reason to speak. The woman smiled a soft, sad smile as she spoke again, "I was captured by the pirates and taken from my home. They want my horn because it is magic and they will use to it power their ship and to attack more people. However, alas I am only one tiny girl and I can't fight them all."
We understood what it was like to have magic. The idea that someone would kill for it made us mad. The two of us were witches it was our duty to protect magically creatures from those who would abuse them. Looking at each other we shook our heads in silent agreement. We would free the girl and help her return home. It seemed such a good idea at the time. How could someone so beautiful be bad. I spoke up, "We can help. Cole and I might not look that big. But, we are witches and we can get your out of there."
Cole seemed to echo my sentiments as he nodded his head standing next to me. The girl spoke to us. "They are very dangerous beings. I could not bare it if you were hurt for me. However, if you can untie me and push them down here one at a time I can tie them up. Once we have the ship we can fly it away back to my home world."
It seemed as good a plan as any. Cole and I were quite good at sneaking. Not that we had ever really had to use it before. But, it was a good skill to have you know in case you ever had to break into something. "Don't worry about us. We will be careful." I said as I took Cole's hand and we climbed carefully back up the ladder.
We had a plan of action the real question was how to fulfill it. It appeared to us to be at least 20 men on the ship. We needed a way to lure them away one at a time. It was time for Ever and Cole to the rescue. There seemed to be a man who was pushing a rag across the floor with another looking on. This man was leaning against the ship's railing talking to a third as we set out to cause some trouble. We had taken a bit of treasure from the room below with us and Cole flung one of the coins at the man scrubbing the floor's head. It bounced off of him causing him to look up surprised as he noted my brother who at the precise moment had decided to turn around and pull his swim trunks down to moon the man. He cried out. "Hey!" As he knocked the bucket of water down and the contents spilled across the floor. I sprinkled a bit of magic dust as I made the water turn to ice being careful to not let them notice as the two men that had been watching moved towards Cole, waving swords at him and slide right across the ice. Directing the water to run towards the open door both men fell with a thump down below. Just in time for the third man to slide to a stop and try to correct himself as I grabbed the bucket and hit him, adding a bit of magic dust, it caused the man to lift off his feet, and dangle in the air for a few second above the pit before he fell down.
Cole and I giggled as I looked at him smiling. "Oops."
He grinned at me. "I think we have more visitors." We were both to busy to note the screams coming from down below where we had freed the young woman. Besides, she was suppose to be tying them up. Maybe they just didn't like it. Would give them a dose of their own damn medicine.
It would appear that our stunt would get us noticed as four men came rushing for us. Cole jumped up as he grabbed a hold of a string and I held on both of us being raised into the air. We jumped grabbing on to the mask as we looked down below. The men were sliding on the ice as we grabbed another rope and swung at them as they tried to hit us. We kicked out sending those four to the room below. By now it was quite the commotion as people were screaming downstairs and the sound of fighting could be heard. Not to mention those coming to see what was going on.
One by one we sent the pirates falling down to the room below. We dodged, we made things come to life. One person we hit back and forth with mops that we had made dance as he tried to swing at them with his sword before falling back wards, in a comical way as he tried to grab for the air in front of him as if there was something to save him from the fall. However, we still hadn't seen the captain. Why not? You might ask it was because the ship had come to the mountain and was standing on a scaffold of sorts calling out with a device towards the city that was nestled in the mountains. They were using a device to call back, the people's voices echoing as they celebrated his return. Despite the fact that we were sort of kicking the crap out of the crew members. It had all happened so fast that he hadn't been paying attention so intent on listening to the message. Cole and I came up behind him as we looked down for a moment trying to peer over the edge. He was standing there on the edge calling out, he reminded me of a peacock as proud as he was totally unaware. So, what did the cutest kids ever do. We pushed him.
He stopped for a second almost suspended in the air, his mouth wide open as he fell down, to the rocks below. The people from the cliffs couldn't see this of course they were to far away. They only could hear the sound of his echoing screams through the device that he still held as he continued to fall. The city answered with silence as they turned on the city spot lights trying to see what was going on. I glanced at Cole and frowned. "Maybe we shouldn't have done that?"
He looked at me for a second his blue eyes watching me. "I won't tell if you don't."
I nodded. That worked for me as we hurried to the hole. So, I was sure someone else could fly the ship. I mean they had to be like a first mate or something? We clambered down the hole and for the second time that day we were greeted with something we had not expected to see. The girl who we had untied was a unicorn. She had turned into a beautiful horse. Her horn dripping blood in front of us, her teeth pulled back in a sneer, bits of flesh hanging down. Wait? Blood? Flesh? What in the world? Her hoofs stained with guts as she grinned at us. The tone still sounding like veils as she spoke. Even if it sounded like twisted bells against our ears causing us to cover them. "Lovely, little children how I do love the taste of innocent flesh. You will make a delicious treat after these grimy men."
We looked around us and everywhere their were half eaten men. Some had their head stomped to bits, others had pieces bitten out of them. Our beautiful girl was a man eating unicorn. I didn't even know such at a thing existed. The men of the city had been often attacked by her kind and they were at war. They were trying to protect themselves and they had taken this one hostage to be executed. They had paid the pirates bounties to catch them and bring back for justice. The two of us had no idea we just thought she was kind. I jumped up as I grabbed Cole hand and the unicorn rushed for the two of us. "You won't catch us." I cried out as we moved just in time for her to collide through the treasure, a shower of gold falling around us.
Cole and I only had so much magic dust with us and we were running out. But, it was alright we had an idea. We made the treasure fly through the air, object after object as she would try and impale us or stomp us or something else. The two of us would dart and dodge, running through the falling treasure that we were using our powers to control as the magic dust was wearing off, the last of our dust. She spun around as my brother jumped up on her back just as she was about to toss him off, I leaped up and grabbed a sword that was among the treasure and came down, putting all the power I could muster into the blow and with a quick swap removed her horn. Unicorns can't live it is said without their horns. She quickly spun around as the horn came off in my hand and she slowly started to vanish, as her body became dust and the dust fell across the floor covering everything.
Looking at each other we decided to climb back up the ladder leaving the dust behind just in case it decided to try and eat us too. We climbed up the ladder and looked out as it suddenly occurred to us. The crew was dead and neither one of us knew how to fly a ship. The ship was heading for a collusion course towards the city, in the mountains, as the spotlights were now on us and people could be seen scattering to get away. "Uh oh..." I said looking at Cole.
We both took off running towards the back of the ship as the ship crashed into the mountain coming apart piece by piece as the mountain won this battle of ship versus mountain. The ship started to break up as it suddenly started to slide down the mountain. Cole and I grabbed a hold of the mask as the ship slide down the mountain. We screamed as we held on to each other. Having no more magic dust all we could do was hang on for the ride. The ship slide down as the piece were were on seemed to stay in tact.
Our piece broke away and went flying through the air as we continued to cling to each other screaming. The little piece were were on dropped down right into the water under the mountain with the two of us on top of it looking around confused. We were alive and everything was alright. Well, if you figured that we killed a man, got a ship's crew killed by a murderous unicorn, crashed a ship, and probably ruined a city. It was a perfectly normal...I mean it was a good day. The important question was how the heck were we going to get home. "I am so not telling Kieran." I said looking over at Cole.
He nodded his head as he reached into his pocket and pulled something out. "Hey, I found more magic dust." The packet he held out to me wasn't very big but it could create a portal home. I flashed him a smile because that was the best news I had all day.
We took the dust and we made our portal and we both stumbled back to the Giese estate. We tried to sneak in because one look at us and you could tell we hadn't been swimming. We were covered with dust, blood, dirt, and pieces of various other things we had picked up along the way. Despite our best efforts, however, Kieran would be standing there waiting for us with his arms crossed. "Where in the name of the goddess were the two of you. I sent someone to the swimming hole looking for you and all they found were your supplies."
We looked at each other before staring up at Kie with our dirt stained faces. "We went swimming somewhere else." I replied it was true there was water involved.
He stared at me like I was crazy when Cole piped up. "Yep. We didn't go on a flying pirate ship. That is what we didn't do."
I nodded also. "And we didn't met a human eating unicorn and save her from the pirates so she could eat them. Because that would be dumb."
He nodded quickly at my words. "And we didn't kill her and crash, the ship into a city in the mountain and fall down and return home."
I smiled flashing him my best smile. "And we weren't out of magic dust but find some at the last moment to come home after all that. Because we were swimming."
We were both smiling now and nodding our heads, giving him our very best we are innocent looks as he stared from one to the other of us before he spoke just two words before walking off mumbling into the house. "Oh goddess."