Welcome to Gaia! :: View User's Journal | Gaia Journals

I flipped through the book again. Its frail old pages were stained yellow. It was full of notes for an infamous spell.
“Come on, come on.” I groaned. I had tried this 17 times, but to no avail. I had used up almost all of my magyk. I was fatigued, and knowing that my girls were dead asleep downstairs only made it worse.
“Grandma, how did you do it?” I panted. I leaned against my Grandmother’s old chest, and ran my fingers over the names carved into it.
The name “Eva” was written in a hand similar to Minka’s swirly print. “Cory” was written in deep, straight lines. Her style resembled Natalie’s dark, square writing. “Nikki” was tidy, and small, like Karin’s. Minka, Natalie, and Karin had carved their names in as well. They started putting their stuff in the chest too, so they could add to what my Grandma’s kids had done. They believed there would be more of us to come. They wanted to preserve their history for the next lives, if there were any.
I never believed in reincarnation, but Eva, Nikki, and Cory had changed my mind. They weren’t exactly like my girls, but they were close enough.
I looked back at my Grandma’s notes.
The Adair family trade-mark spell, I knew it once. I looked back over the information I had gathered. Senseless jumbles, that’s all it was.
The candlelight glared onto grandma’s desk. You think they would have installed lights on the third floor, hundred year old house or not. Another clue popped out at me from the faint formula. I scrawled it down and reviewed.
“There, the hand signs are cona,” I made signs in sync with my words. “silu, dixry, mize, and tien.” I was unsure at first, but when I felt a numbing shock in my back I knew I had done something right. Maybe if I tried a different order?
I did it again, faster, with more confidence. I felt something snap, I was sweating.
“Only…so much…magyk left.” I managed. I still needed the incantation. I rubbed my temples, and went back to the formula.
Adair’s Wing was the name of the spell. It had been originated in the opal era, so of course it was coded. I scanned the page again, Grandma had written 4nien. Nien was a term used in incantations, but 4? Four? Ugh. Foor? Foor!
Foor was a word that originated from a dead language, similar to Latin. I finally had my incantation!
“Foor nien cona Adair dix…’ I chanted the incantation under my breath. My hands raced as they changed from one sign to the next. I had it! I had it! I could feel it working!
A thud, and some breaking sounds from downstairs threw off my concentration. I groaned as my candle fell from the table, hot wax put out the flame, and poured onto the hundred year old wood floors. I sat there, alone, in the dark. This better be good or there are going to be a few less girls living in this house.
I wouldn’t get mad yet, I needed to save it for the girls.
“No, give it!” Natalie cried.
“ I wanna see!” Karin whined.
“What in the world is going on down here!” I was trembling I was so angry. I stomped down the stairs and stopped at the bottom. The two girls froze, and my eyes took in the scene.
Natalie was holding a small journal at arms length. Karin, who was being pushed away, was stretching for it. Both girls had been tousling on the floor, they knocked over an old vase, and not one I had been particularly fond of.
The vase didn’t bother me, it was just another inherited item. The journal however…was mine. Back in my teen years I commonly kept a journal.
Both girls knew they had been caught, and they quickly unknotted themselves. Natalie hid the journal behind her back.
I didn’t have enough energy to slap them around tonight, but they were in for it tomorrow.
“Give it! Now!” I growled. Reluctantly, Natalie handed over the journal. “Do you have any idea what time it is?”
Karin didn’t respond, instead she stared guilty holes into my flooring.
“It’s the full moon Master Rea, you know I don’t sleep on the full moon.” Natalie retaliated. Right, wolf-girl didn’t sleep on selective nights, I knew that.
I wondered for the 50th time why I had invited these girls to come live with me. But in a way, we were already family and we were meant to be together. Besides this way I could keep a better eye on spirit activity in Natalie and Karin.
“Where is Minka?” I struggled to ask through clenched teeth. Minka would have been the only girl who would have heard me coming.
“We didn’t wake her up. That whole thing with her and her sister goes on when she’s asleep. We thought she would be pretty pissed if she woke her.” Natalie explained.
“You. Bed. Now!” I glared at Karin and pointed down the hall to her room. She was quick to hurry back into a Rea-free-zone. “You will spend the rest of the night in your room. Don’t come out.” I snarled at Natalie.
“That’s not fair!” She protested.
“Go!” I was already thinking up a week’s worth of punishments for this. Even Minka would have hesitated to snap back. Angrily, Natalie stomped back to her room.
I watched her go, then sighed, and threw open a window. The cool air swept across my face, and swept my fury away with it.
I tried the spell again.
Two thin, wispy, airy wings burst out of my back. I stifled a scream, that would only bring the children back out of the rooms, and even I didn’t dare wake Minka.
My body gave a good shake and the new “wings” opened. There was hardly enough room for them inside.
In one last ditch effort to work the spell, I shoved myself out the window and tried to flap my wings.
I rose like a balloon.
Energy, especially mine, was lighter than air, and stronger than air. The wings floated upward, and they could easily carry my own weight with them. I wasn’t flying, but gliding was just fine with me. I circled the house and laughed when I saw Natalie’s awed face peer out the window.
All I could think now was that I had wings, and the whole night to myself.