Chapter 7

Claris did a mini victory dance and Annice did some sort of cheerleader routine she used to do when she was nine. Acacia, however, just squinted in the distance, spotting a bloated magiperson standing under a tree in front of a lake surrounded by a thin forest.

Mr Claus.

 He greeted them when they reached him.

Acacia thought he would ask about their injuries, but he acted as if he couldn’t see them at all. They had collected enough crystals to make eighteen points, and the way Mr Claus kept bobbing his head made the points seem like a huge thing.

“Oh yes, girls, Cai Ling found her way out of the maze before you. She’s waiting for you at the lake,” Mr Claus said before they could start pummelling him with questions. He led them over to the beautiful blue shimmering lake where a few students had laid out picnic mats and were eating and talking with their friends.

Annice raised an eyebrow at Acacia, tilting her head towards Mr Claus to indicate that the raised eyebrow was for him, not her. Why hadn’t Mr Claus noticed their injuries? As a teacher, he should be more attentive to students’ needs and appearance, but he wasn’t the paying any attention to it. Acacia opened her mouth to tell Mr Claus, but Cai Ling—who’d run over to them the moment she saw them—cut her off.

“Hi, guys, I’m sorry I left you in the maze, but I heard scary sounds and decided to run,” Cai Ling explained.

“Scary sounds?” Claris, Annice and Acacia shared a look. They definitely weren’t hallucinating if someone else had heard the sounds, which meant the bull must be real.

“What kind of—” Cai Ling talked over Claris, drowning her out.

“Ooh! The next event is the Dragon Races! I heard Mr Claus say our points mattered in that event!” Cai Ling excitedly dashed over to their picnic mat. Claris threw up her arms. Annice frowned and Acacia shrugged.

In the distance, Acacia saw the tip of a tall volcano protruding from the forest.

The lush green grass separating the forest and the lake with tiny pink, yellow and white flowers was extremely peaceful, compared to what the Muzzle Maze was like. The grass was trampled and dry at the footpath that people took to get to the lake, but a beautiful, tall silver rose with big, oversized, swirling petals that looked like it was touching the sky still managed to grow in the middle of it.

Annice was glaring at Cai Ling, arms folded, eyes narrowed with suspicion. “Hey, what flower is that?” Claris asked, breaking the silence. Annice answered, immediately as always.

“That’s a Silversky, a type of rose with huge silver petals that swirl towards the sky. It is a solitary flower, with a short stalk,” she explained to Claris. Claris asked about many other plants in the huge clearing, distracting Annice from Cai Ling.

Honestly, Acacia also found it really strange that whenever they tried to bring up the bull, Cai Ling interrupted them with an unimportant statement. Did she have something to do with it?

She was too young, though, and had never been to Hillary Hills before. And no one was freaking out or gossiping about a dead bull along the path to the exit, so something must have happened to it. Acacia was absolutely muddled.

What was going on here? Could meeting the bull have been a dream? In fact, it seemed distant and blurry, like it had never happened. Annice and Claris had seen it though, even if no one else had. What was so special about the three of them?

After what seemed like an eternity, Mr Claus got everyone to pack up their picnics and follow him to the Dragons Den, where the Dragon Race was being held. Acacia spent the trip to the den thinking about the bull. Should she tell Mr Claus? Or keep it a secret?

In most of the Cloudstorm’s alien books, the characters usually kept the big battles secret, but this wasn’t a story, and Acacia was terrified. Would bulls start jumping out of Lava Lake and do ballet pirouettes? (Ballet pirouettes is an alien thing. Not sure why anyone would do that, anyway.)

Mr Claus’s voice dragged her out of her pondering. “Class, as you all know, we are not just going to see the dragons, we are going to ride them,”—scattered murmurs of excitement—“and each dragon will have different coloured scales. Remember that these are creatures deserving of respect, and we are merely here to observe. Please do not disturb them,”—much rolling of eyes and whispers of annoyance—“and sit on your assigned dragon’s lower neck. And if any of you are wondering why we’re walking instead of teleporting, it is to enjoy the grass-y scenery,”—groans of leg exhaustion.

Acacia huffed and stuffed her hands in her pockets. Another Transporter in their class called Zeina tried to transport, leaping into the air before disappearing and…

…appearing on the same spot where she leaped from. She transported again and met the same frustrating results. Mr Claus must be using his Blocker magiability to block her from transporting away, Acacia realized.

“We’re here,” Mr Claus announced, opening his arms wide.

And everyone gasped at what they saw.