The violet flower glowed in my bloodied hands, the same shine as Minh’s eyes.

Despite being a flimsy plant, the little flower seemed to weigh more and more, as if it were placing the burden of her death in my hands.

I felt tears sliding into my eyes.

Without a warning, the petals began to morph, until...

The flower turned into a laughing Minh.

“MINH!! YOU’RE ALIVE!!!!” I shouted with hysteria as I dropped her.

This made her throw her head back in harder chuckles.

“Of course I didn’t die, silly!” She exclaimed, bent over in laughter. “I told you to listen and figure it out! I wasn’t going to defeat the thing for you!”

I felt my mouth fall open. The tears on my face hung dryly in their tracks.

Minh giggled. “You need to be able to do stuff without me. I might not be able to travel to where you are sometimes. Besides, now that you know how to defeat a dragon, all you have to do is recreate your movements!”

Suddenly I was shaking, burning relief mixed with flaming rage cascading down my back.

I grabbed Minh’s shoulders and shook her, blinking away the salty tears in my eyes. “Why did you have to do that?! I really thought you died!!”

Minh laughed again, wiping away a different kind of tears from her face. “If I didn’t fake my own death, would you have acted the same way you acted just now? You have to be taken past your limits if you really want to see what you can do.”

Amber was a deadly hue of red. “What. Is. Wrong. With. You. Do you have any idea how upset I was?!”

Minh was still smiling, raising her hands in surrender. “I know, I know. I apologize for that. But your performance proved that it was worth it. And it’s nice to know that you guys care about me.”

Even Max was yelling: “I was… I was in so much pain! I don’t know what kind of trick you’re pulling, but you’ve gone way too far!”

“I was… blaming myself,” I added, frowning.

Minh’s sheepish smile disappeared. “I don’t like doing it, but there’s really no other way to get you to fight with your whole heart.”

“You’re joking...” Amber’s face was carved from disbelief. “Are you human?? Do you have emotions?? Some of us don’t enjoy seeing people die, you know.”

A sudden shadow passed over Minh’s violet eyes.

It was almost like time itself tugged Minh’s eyes away into the distance. A faraway cloud that misted over her gaze. It held a bottomless depth, the same kind carried by legends told over campfires at night.

I knew that look. It was the look of someone trying to hide their pain.

That night, I cooked my first meal by myself. I had the dinner table prepared with lovely napkins and our favorite dishware. But when the doorbell to our home rang, I found the police instead of my parents.

I had put on that face too, concealing a shredded heart and a surrendered mind behind a mask of distance. It was the escape to some remote, obscure place in the mind, away from all the emotions and feelings.

Because there were simply too many.

Minh was a brilliant piece of glassware, but a shattered one.

I had bright glass of my own, but I was crushed, too.

And broken glass pieces recognized each other.

“Minh, I really appreciate your efforts, but you went a little overboard. I get that you were just trying to help us reach our true potential, and I know you’re as worried about Moxie as the rest of us are. I’m not gonna say if you were right or wrong, I’m just saying that I understand.”

Amber clued in on the change of tone. She reached out a hand and pulled Minh up from the ground.

“I… I’m sorry. I do know how you feel, and I should have been more considerate about your feelings. I didn’t know it would affect you guys this much.” Minh said cautiously, her voice dipped in a strange slowness.

“It’s alright, it’s alright. Just don’t-” Max said, but I cut him off.

“If I were you, I would have fought the entire world to get Moxie back. But you have to rely on us newbies to do that right now. It’s… reasonable to put pressure on us.” I wiped the tears out of my face.

Minh gave me a short-lived, but forced smile. Our words of “you don’t know grief” probably struck deeper than expected.

Fortunately, Max picked up on the hint as well.

“I agree with Mackie, and I’m sorry for the things I said. They were rude,” Amber apologized. “I forgive you for what you did, although I don’t think I’ll be able to get over it anytime soon.”

“Yeah, same here. Just… just never do that again. I’m sorry, too-” Max started.

Minh let out a quick sigh. “No, no. It’s fine. Don’t apologize. I was the one who messed up. I wasn’t thinking straight. No one should’ve been trained this way… I don’t know why I did that. I’m so sorry for everything that happened.”

She shuffled a small sack out of her pocket. “Here, take this. I hope it’ll help. But don’t open it yet.” Minh handed me the sack.

I opened my mouth to say more, but it was clear that the conversation was over.

She reached over and touched my injured hand. Moss grew over my hand like a cast, glowing a gentle green as it consumed my arm.

My flesh felt as if it were morphing into the moss. I shivered from the strange sensation.

With another swoop of the other girl’s hand, the moss stripped away, and my hand was as good as new.

“Plant-type healing,” she said softly with a tentative smile. “It’s not as great as the school nurses can do, but it leaves your injury smelling like a forest after rain. I think that’s pretty neat.”

Minh walked around us, this time holding her hands closer to the ground, as if drawing energy from the earth itself. An aurora-like glow wove around the three of us before dissipating.

“It’s a soothing magic for both the muscles and the mind… kinda like a buff in a video game, or whatever you norms call it. I… I hope I could redeem even a shred of what I’ve done.”

“Wow, thanks, Minh.” Max wondered as he stretched out his limbs.

“Moxie is lucky to have someone like you as a friend. We’re very lucky as well.” I said, gingerly touching my hand.

“Thanks, guys,” Minh said. “I’ll be off now. My mother is going to wonder where I am, and I don’t want to blow your cover.”

“Okay, Minh.” Olive said from somewhere by my feet.

We exploded into the air.

Olive had listened to the entire conversation noiselessly.

Apparently, she had escaped the dragon unscathed. And from our attention as well.

“Olive,” Minh started, bending down to Olive’s height, “I think I’ve changed my mind about you going on this quest. It’s too dangerous for you, and we can’t track you with you slipping away so easily. Your future-seeing power… it is connected directly with time. I think you just… vanished from our memories because of that. Time is not something to be messed with.”

Olive opened her mouth to protest, but Minh scooped her up and gave us an apologetic look before she began to cast her magic.

She gently took the leaf necklace from Olive’s hold and threw it at us. I caught it and put it around my neck.

Olive struggled and thrashed against Minh’s grip but Minh tapped into her powers again. “Please hurry,” she said.

“Wait!” Amber called. “What about all the normal people? They just saw a huge dragon erupt from the woods and a bunch of teenagers fighting it with swords! The FBI’s gonna have-”

Minh shook her head. “Nah, norms would see an earthquake or some other natural disaster. People like us have magic within them, and we can see magical phenomenons because of that. Norms without magic are simply unable to see things as they are. Anyway, try to stick to places with more people so it’s harder for monsters to track you all.”

With that, a wild wind of leaves and green light swept around Minh and Olive. Their forms disappeared with a small poof behind bits of dust and debris.

I slipped the sack into my backpack, and transformed my sword back into a gauntlet.

“Let’s go,” I murmured.

Amber sighed, and looked up at me. “I hope she’s okay. What she did just now was insane. No softer way to put it.”

Max nodded his agreement. “She must’ve been through a load of crap.”

Dense silence hung between us.

I let out a breath and shook my head, suddenly restless. “Come on, guys. Moxie can’t save herself.”

“One second.” Amber held up her hands. “Heashiustro!”

A sharp gray glow swept in like a gust of wind. Our clothes were suddenly wiped of any trace of dirt, debris, blood, and all signs of battle. Everything looked as good as new, except the fabric was a few shades darker.

“Thanks, Amber.” Max poked the sleeve of his shirt thoughtfully. “Looks great. Also, I don’t recognize the spell. Sounds like Heashokoz, though.”

I kept silent. It felt like I was in math class. I didn’t understand a word. I looked back and forth between Max and Amber.

Amber’s face began to resemble a tomato. “Actually, it is Heashokoz in a sense. Long story short, a shirt of mine was bleached with the wrong set of laundry. And that laundry also happened to have a white sweater that shedded half of its wool.”

“Wait a minute. You combined two spells?! Just to get rid of some fuzz and to recolor a shirt??” Max exclaimed, his eyebrows almost launching off his face.

“Yeah,” Amber said awkwardly, her feet shuffling and face bright red. “It was actually three spells, since Mackie broke the dryer the day before and I had to do something about the wet laundry.” She laughed a little bit at the memory of me sinking my sword in the dryer accidentally.

My face joined the tomato club and I scratched my shoulder sheepishly.

“The spells were simple; Heashokoz to remove objects, Eniustro to change color, and Ataxotria to change temperature.”

“Ataxotria is pretty complicated,” Max commented, nodding with approval.

“Yup. It didn’t turn out quite as well as I expected, though. I did remove the fuzz, but half of the shirt was gone as well. It also turned this ugly avocado green. Right, did I mention that it was on fire?”

I made an awkward snort. Amber pouted at me in protest, and I raised my hands to appease her. “Sorry, I’m just glad I wasn’t set on fire. Thanks for cleaning us off, though. Anyway, we should probably get going.”

Max chuckled like a chicken (yes, I know). “Alright, let’s go.”

Amber raised her hands again. “I’ll try to get us some camouflage.”

Max and I both gave her another admiring look. How was she so good with spells?

Under a mask of magic, we crashed through the dense world of plants, green and brown whirling around us. I gave my right shoulder to Amber, and she took it gratefully. The spells were tiring her out.

Max led us through (with a maps app on his phone) the thick trees overhead. The wail of sirens filled my ears as people began to emerge. We trekked across the town, unnoticed and ignored by medics and firefighters rushing to the scene. Some of them were yelling about some sort of seismic disturbance. It seemed that Minh had been right about them not being able to perceive magic like we could.

I gave a silent apology and prayer to the people who had gotten hurt because of us. Another cloak of guilt smothered me. Briefly, I wondered if Moxie’s safety was really worth the lives of all these innocent bystanders.

No.

I couldn’t think like that. We would never get anywhere with that mindset. I had made my decision, and I had to go through with it.

Finally, after about an hour, we came upon a Black Wolf bus stop.

Black Wolf was a well-known bus service in this corner of the world. Its networks spanned the entirety of the United States. It seemed convenient enough for our purposes. We just needed to know if Amber brought or created enough money.

Actually, we can’t really create money, can we? Wait, did Amber just rob a bank?

“So,” Max asked. “Do we have enough money for pancakes?”

I appreciated him trying to ease the tension, but I didn’t appreciate him eyeing the pancake shop across the street. We definitely did not have enough money to stop at Denny’s. I glared at him.

“Ahem. Do we have enough money to get by?” He blurted, ruffling his hair and wilting under my reproachful gaze.

“Let’s see, I think I’ve made around one hundred and twenty six dollars.” Amber waved around the stack of money that had appeared in her hands. “Yep, all here. We can’t be holding too much money for the time being because it would be suspicious. I did try to make a different set of bills that we’ll keep for emergencies in case the spell somehow stops working.”

Max and I gave her a nod, and we sat down on the benches, waiting. We had emerged in a different part of the town, which was mostly unaffected by the raging destruction of the dragon aside from a few random branches and blocks of cement.

We waited for another hour by the bus stop, joking around to pass the time. The past events with Minh were fading away. Finally, a black bus with a wolf printed across its side drifted through the traffic.

“That kept us waiting a while,” I muttered. “Alright, we’re going to stop in San Francisco today. Pretty crowded place, and not too far. I think… we deserve a rest after today.”

“Sounds good.” Amber said, picking up her bag.

Max nodded his agreement.

We walked up to the driver. “We want a trip to San Francisco and it’s a huge emergency. How much will the bus fare be?”

I peered at him, trying to look like a normal young girl who didn’t kill a dragon two hours ago.

The bus driver was an old man with a kind-looking face. His gray clothes were as wrinkled as his skin. I felt comforted standing in front of him, as if standing in front of a loving grandfather.

“Sorry, kid. That’ll be about ten dollars for each of you.” The bus driver peered down on us. “How much you got?”

“Enough,” Amber responded. She seemed uneasy, but relieved that we weren’t going to be spending all of our money for a single bus ride. She separated three ten-dollar bills from her stack, and handed it to the driver.

“Hop on,” The driver said, with a pointed look at our small fortune of money. “If you kids are trying to run away from home, I suggest you don’t. I know you probably heard it many times before, and my words aren’t going to mean anything. If you want to turn back at any time, though, I’ll be happy to give you the ride free.”

Amber nodded instead of me. “Thank you, kind sir. But we won’t be going back anytime soon. We’ve made up our minds.” She said, going right along with the driver’s assumption of our intentions.

“It’s what they all say,” the bus driver sighed. “I can’t say that I won’t tell the authorities where you’ve been, but I’ll look the other way for now. Settle down, then.”

“We’re not running away from anything,” Max said. “We’re looking for something.”

I shot him a dagger of a look. “Sorry, he thinks he’s being poetic. We’re looking for a better place to be and a better life to live, which is... away from this town.”

“Alright, alright. Remember my offer if you guys change your minds.”

We all gave a smile of gratitude, and headed further into the bus.

The bus was nothing fancy. It had a few stains along the plain gray walls with a little bathroom, but that was it. Seats made of foam covered in scratched fabric sat in rows. Discolored and graffitied windows showed a splattered view of the world. The people on the bus looked up wearily at us as we passed by. They all look worn out from their journey. The aura I felt around them was a lifeless gray. We made ourselves comfortable at the very back. It was a few seats away from the bathroom. Hurrah. Thankfully, the stench wasn’t unbearable yet.

We all sat down next to each other. A deafening silence wrapped itself around us as we each thought over the events of the past few hours.

Max and Amber both seemed down despite our jokes earlier. My own brain felt uneasy as well.

What was Minh’s tragic backstory? That was my biggest question. But what was our next step to finding Moxie? That was my biggest concern. We had jumped into this quest of ours headfirst, with barely a plan aside from rescuing Moxie from wherever she had been taken.

When the bus came to a halt at the next stop, I peered over at a troubled Amber. “Dude. You okay?”

“We’ve already used thirty bucks. I don’t think any of the motels down in San Francisco are that cheap,” she replied. I don’t think I can use magic for a while, her tired eyes told me.

“Well what did you expect? We are about to go across the country.” I give her a reassuring nod. It’ll be okay.

“Yeah, but for three days we’re going to live off of potato chips and ramen noodles and on the streets.”

“What’s wrong with that?” Questioned Max.

Everything is wrong with that.

I sighed, Amber shook her head, and Max slunk back into his seat. The silence, taut as a bowstring, fell over us again.

I was confused at this point. Amber and Max didn’t seem to want to talk about what just happened. However, I was stressed and I wanted an outlet to vent to.

They’re probably doing the right thing. I should be focusing on our journey as well. I thought, playing with the loose threads of the seat. Right, instead of lingering in the past like you always do. Another part of my brain added unhelpfully.

“Well, living off of junk food in a bus doesn’t exactly bring me good memories,” Amber said. She had a faraway look in her eyes, and not the nostalgic kind.

“Why not?” Max asked. “This is going to be awesome.” He lowered his voice to a whisper. “We’re going to save Moxie and help her take down that dumb Dragon Duchess, and presto! Our abnormal lives will go back to being even more abnormal! It’s like something out of a dystopian fantasy!” Max raised his voice again. “Besides, junk food doesn’t taste half bad.”

“Heh. You’re right about that, I suppose,” she shrugged with a wry smile playing on her lips.

The bus continued down a winding road. I peered outside the window. I watched as we left the city, into a thin path with a few trees outside of it. I turned back to the group.

“What if we face the Dragon Duchess herself?” I asked quietly. “What if we get in a fight?”

“Well, we’re gonna need some sort of battle cry first,” Max grinned.

“A battle cry?” I asked, cocking an eyebrow.

“Yeah! Something cool like the movies before we go in and beat her.”

“Like what?” Amber asked curiously.

“Well, here. Uh, how about ‘LET’S RAISE THE DEAD WITH OUR SCREAMS!’”

“Of terror,” I finished for him. “How about ‘LET’S GET THIS BREAD!’”

“What? No way,” Amber said distastefully. “What about ‘Let’s shake the stars?’”

“Hey, this one sounds good to me,” Max half-nodded. “But we can’t shake any stars when it’s daytime.”

“What about ‘Let’s rock the skies?’” I piped up, seriously this time.

Amber and Max glanced at each other, both with equally smiling faces. “I think we can work with tha-” Amber was interrupted.

A sudden jolt rocked our brains and the bus came to an abrupt stop.

I sat up, alarmed. Amber and Max peeked outside. We were in some kind of forest.

I looked around. Did we crash?

“Hey, you kids. Stay put and wait for the mechanic.” A gray-bearded man told us.

The three of us shared a look, and marched right out of the bus, ignoring him.

Outside, we observed the destruction. It was crunched against a large tree and the engine was smoking.

“The driver is gone!” Amber started to panic.

Yeah, I did too. But Minh wasn’t going to save us again this time. We were already hundreds of miles away from the school, and I didn’t think her teleportation power reached this far.

People from the bus started to leave. Some stayed, while we looked for our missing bus driver. Some other kids that had been on the bus with us suggested that he had gone for help.

Without telling the passengers? I wondered.

I needed that driver back. At least, someone who could drive. We needed to get to Moxie as soon as possible! Panic crept into my own bones, but what was the use? The bus was completely wrecked and wouldn’t be running for a while.

“Hey,” I spoke softly to Max. “I think we’re going to need to use magic for the first-”

“M-mackie-” Max started nervously.

“Amber’s tired and she deserves a break. We can do magic, too. Maybe we can check our spell books for a fixing spell, or something. Or something else tha-”

“Mackie Jade-”

“Omigosh, what is it Max!?” I snapped, annoyed. He was interrupting me-

“MACKIE JADE RUN!!!!!” Amber screamed, her sword already out.

I whipped around.

Great, I thought despairingly. Another dragon.