Mr. Gheesling and Makenna peered out from behind a wall together, and both pairs of eyes rested on the door Mrs. Edith had mentioned. However, a few teachers wandered the hallway and stood before the door.
Mr. Gheesling gestured for Makenna to stop, and she did.
She hid behind him and whispered, "Oh, curse the Octopus Man! Tracey"—she took his shoulder—"hang on for a little longer." She could still feel Tracey's aura growing weaker. His entire face was drenched in sweat, and he had not opened his eyes. His book bag hung from Mr. Gheesling's shoulder.
Finally, the coast cleared.
The teachers wandering the hallway disappeared into their classrooms to prepare for 7th Period, and Mr. Gheesling whispered, "Let's go," at Makenna. She and he stepped out from behind the wall and crept toward the side exit. When they passed the teachers' rooms, they crouched and began tiptoeing.
In her head, Makenna whispered, "We're coming, Selene. We're coming." She and Mr. Gheesling soon reached the side exit and peered outside. They were looking at the school's side yard and a road, which was farther away. Cars zoomed down it, and a few stopped at a red light. Since Mr. Gheesling's hands were full, Makenna decided to open the door for him.
She pushed it open with her shoulder, and immediately, a gush of warm April air blew through the hallway and onto her and Mr. Gheesling's faces. However, along with the gust of warm air came the scent of the dumpster.
Makenna gagged when she smelled it, as did Mr. Gheesling, but they went ahead and stepped outside. The dumpster was beside them. Flies buzzed around it.
Makenna shook her head and again gagged. Her ears picked up the sound of ambulance sirens in the distance, gradually getting closer. Makenna gulped when she heard them. That must've been the ambulance coming to get Tracey. Hopefully, Dr. Medford and Mrs. Edith had devised a plan to speak with the paramedics and do their best not to reveal her and Tracey's secret. However, she understood if they had to.
Makenna and Mr. Gheesling soon passed the dumpster, and they now stood before it, peering forward at the side yard and road. It was time. It was time for Makenna to shine. Mr. Gheesling had done his part.
She turned to him and said, "Don't worry, Mr. Gheesling," reaching for Tracey. "I'll take him from here."
"Will you be okay?" Mr. Gheesling asked.
Grabbing Tracey's uninjured arm, Makenna told him, "Watch this, Mr. Gheesling." She closed her eyes and focused on her powers, waiting.
After a bit, Makenna's magic outlined Merlin's apprentice. Opening her eyes, she pulled him out of Mr. Gheesling's arms. Makenna wrapped his arm around her shoulders and grabbed his hand. "All right, I've got him," she said, glancing into the sky. It was clouding up. A blanket of clouds engulfed the sky, but very faintly, the sun's rays shone through them. One ray landed on Makenna, Tracey, and Mr. Gheesling.
Makenna gulped. She still didn't know if she could fly adequately yet. Yeah, she may now be a Level 2 Metamorphic Fairy, but she doubted the higher transformation changed her flying skills.
After a bit, Makenna peered back at her sore wings and slowly flapped them. With each flap, blankets of blue and pink fairy dust escaped them.
Mr. Gheesling watched Makenna open-mouthed when her feet lifted from the ground.
She steadied herself and said, "Thank you, Mr. Gheesling. Thank you for everything."
Mr. Gheesling was too astonished to speak. Without blinking, he took the strap of Tracey's book bag off his shoulder and tossed it to Makenna.
She caught it and let it hang from her own shoulder. Makenna shot into the sky from there, and Mr. Gheesling watched from below.
"Fa-fairies," he stuttered after a bit. "Re-real fair-fairies. Thi-this entire t-time, I-I've be-been te-teaching re-real fair-fairies."
***
Makenna soared over her school's parking lot, and her eyes landed on the road. The ambulance came into view, sirens blaring and lights flashing, and cars stopped to let it through.
Makenna didn't waste any time. She flapped her massive wings and shot into the sky. Momentarily, she stopped, hovered, and peered at her school building. Then, turning her head, her eyes left the building and landed on the ambulance. She followed every movement of it.
Soon, the ambulance's sirens turned off, but its lights still flashed. Makenna watched as it slowed down and pulled into her school's parking lot. It stopped at the front entrance, and the doors opened, revealing the two small figures of the paramedics dragging a stretcher. They hopped out of the back of the vehicle, and right when they landed, Makenna's eyes caught two figures approaching them. She sighed.
Dr. Medford and Mrs. Edith stopped at the paramedics and began chatting with them.
Makenna assumed they had everything under control. She took a deep breath and peered down at Tracey's face. Lifting her hand, she rubbed his sweaty cheek and whimpered, "Oh, Tracey, I've got to cool you down. Don't worry. We're going right now."
"Makenna," he moaned, "I'm so hot. Where's Gina? I want Gina."
"Don't try to speak, Tracey," Makenna said, removing her hand. "Keep quiet. You need to save your strength. As soon as Selene helps you, I will take you back to Merlin's Island, and you'll be able to see Gina again. For now, concentrate on resting." Makenna wouldn't mind a rest herself. The new transformation left her exhausted. To wake herself up, she forcibly shook her head. Then, flapping her new wings, she shot forward and zoomed across the sky toward Seabrook Island.
***
Makenna rocketed through the sky. Now, this was real flying. She soared over the road her mother and father took to get to Seabrook Island and studied the woods and marshland. Wow, the view was magnificent!
With each passing minute, Makenna flew faster and faster. While she flew, her hair and necklace pendant waved in the wind. Unfortunately, Makenna was forced to stop momentarily because she almost ran into a flock of migrating seagulls. "Hey!" she yelled at them. "Flying here! I'm kind of in an emergency! Move out of the way!"
Seeming to understand, the seagulls did, and Makenna thanked them.
She flew forward again but couldn't act out her flying pose because Tracey's arm was around her shoulders. It caused Makenna to wobble a bit in midair. Her flying pose was what helped her keep her balance. She assumed every fairy had their own unique way of flying and maintaining balance.
After flying for a little longer, Makenna heard Tracey coughing. Gasping, she glanced at him and yelled, "Tracey!" She noticed his chest heaving and soon realized he was having trouble breathing. "Hold on, Tracey!" Makenna said, speeding up again. "We're almost there. Take deep breaths."
Makenna was right when she said they were almost at Seabrook Island. She had just passed the sign for it and saw the ocean in the distance. Soon, the Seabrook Island Stables came into view, and Makenna barely noticed the tiny forms of horses cantering around in the rinks and leaping over hurdles. Usually, Makenna would stop and watch the horses jump, but she couldn't currently. Right now, Tracey's life was more important than horses.
Makenna soon soared over Seabrook Island's gate, and the clubhouse close to it came into view. Makenna passed it, and her eyes caught a few tennis players whacking balls at each other. People rode their bikes on the roads, but few cars were there.
Makenna shot forward as straight as an arrow. She jerked to the left and hurried toward North Beach, searching the area for it. The woods under her vanished, and marshland appeared.
Tracey coughed again and lifted his hand in the sling, covering his nose and mouth.
Makenna desperately clenched her teeth. However, she saw she was flying over the boardwalk leading to North Beach. North Beach was so close!
Makenna soon reached the end of the boardwalk and now hovered over North Beach. Since kids were still in school, few people roamed around it. Makenna hoped and prayed that nobody was at the end of Seabrook and Kiawah Island.
Her beautiful blue eyes gazed out at the ocean, and she gulped when she saw that on its horizon was another buildup of dark clouds.
Makenna didn't waste any time. She shot to the left and hurried toward the end of North Beach.
Tracey repeatedly choked out, "Water! Water! I need water!" He coughed again and breathed heavily under his hand.
"We're so close, Tracey!" Makenna encouraged. "We're so close! The shipwreck's right up here!" The aches and pains in her wings grew—she had been flying so long. Makenna's wings became stiff. She started to sink lower to the ground but tried her best to stay aloft high enough so that it wouldn't be easy for people to spot her.
Within another minute or two, Makenna reached the end of Seabrook Island and stopped to hover. There was the shipwreck. It rested in the shallow waters of Kiawah Island, on the other side of the channel. Nobody was roaming the ends of both islands, so Makenna got lucky. She hurried toward the shipwreck, which, indeed, was a sailboat. It was a colossal sailboat, maybe thirty-seven feet long, and barnacles covered its hull. Waves sloshed onto the boat's side, and a torn sail rested on it.
Before Makenna crossed the channel and headed toward it, she stopped at its edge and whispered, "The shipwreck. There it is. There's the shipwreck." She scanned the channel and gulped. The channel was where the Octopus Man had grabbed her and Tracey and pulled them into the sea the day before. Makenna was nervous, but she had to do it for Tracey. She was willing to take any risk for him. She knew he would do the same for her if something terrible happened.
Makenna took a deep breath. Her beautiful new wings flapped gracefully, and another blast of wind blew her hair, necklace, and gems hanging off each wingtip.
When the Metamorphic Fairy was ready, she started across the channel and headed toward the shipwreck, yelling, "Selene!" She held her free hand out to it and tightened her grip on Tracey. She sweated like him, but hers was due to fear.
Suddenly, an enormous blue and black whirlpool emerged from the channel and hurried toward the two fairies.
Glancing over her shoulder, Makenna gasped. "Ahhh!" she screamed. "No!"
The whirlpool smashed into her and Tracey, and Makenna cried out when she felt Tracey's arm being ripped from her shoulders. His wings sprouted from his back, and he and Makenna spun wildly in the whirlpool. "Tracey!" Makenna shouted. She tried swimming toward him but was too weak because she wasn't a merfairy.
The whirlpool pulled Makenna away from her friend, and she heard the Octopus Man laughing from the outside. After a moment, the whirlpool burst, and Makenna and Tracey were pushed away from each other, flying in different directions. Tracey landed on the very end tip of Seabrook Island, and Makenna landed on the end tip of Kiawah Island.
Tracey's back slammed down on the ground, and he yelled, holding his arms out to his sides. He tilted his head back and gasped for air.
Makenna, like Tracey, crashed down on Kiawah Island's sand and yelled as she started to roll. Sand blew into her face, and she screamed, "Tracey!" However, a great wall of energy slammed into Makenna and caused her to roll further down the beach and away from Tracey. Her necklace was ripped from her neck, and the wind blew it all over.
Finally, Makenna stopped rolling. However, the Octopus Man had knocked her unconscious on her back. Makenna's arm was in a V-position, and she didn't move.
Before long, another blast of wind blew her necklace to her. It faintly glowed as it approached its fairy and moved like a boomerang.
Soon, the necklace reached Makenna. It landed on the sand, rolled into her arm's V-position, and tapped her hand, stopping. Right after it did, a quick blast of light came from it, and the necklace made a slight ding sound.
The Octopus Man had succeeded! He had succeeded in separating the two fairies! Now, for sure, he would get Tracey! His watery ropes emerged from the ocean again and swirled toward Merlin's apprentice. Unlike Makenna, he hadn't fallen unconscious but was too weak to get up and fight back.
Weakly shaking his head, Tracey mumbled, "Help. Someone, please. I don't belong here." He tried getting up and flapping his wings but only collapsed again. His entire world spun like a top, and he coughed again.
In Tracey's head, he heard the Octopus Man imitating the voice of Merlin the Great. "I've come, my boy, to take you back to my island, where you belong."
Tracey shuffled uncomfortably and begged, "Merlin, Merlin, please. Get me some water. I feel like my forehead is on fire."
"Oh, trust me, my boy," the Octopus Man evilly told him. "You're going to get plenty of water."
His ropes crept closer to the young fairy, but just before they grabbed him, the familiar purple fairy figure that had rescued Tracey and Makenna from before jumped before the ropes and yelled, "Hey!" The ropes grabbed her wrist, but she ripped them off. "If I were you, I would show a little respect! You do not have the right to hurt these two children! Find somebody else to do your dirty work, but not two teenage fairies!" A beam of light escaped her hand and slammed into the Octopus Man's ropes, causing them to recoil. She constantly attacked them, and the ropes screeched.
Finally, the ropes fell back into the ocean with a small splash and vanished. All was quiet on North Beach and Kiawah Island again.
The purple figure hovering over the channel stopped glowing, and a beautiful, wise-looking elderly fairy was revealed—Selene! Her hair was held up in a bun, and she wore a long, green cloak, a dark green cape pinned by a purple heart, and green shoes. She held a purple wand that could transform into a cane and back into a wand. Her wings were colored purple and relatively small, but they were a good size for her. She had the same colors as Tracey, but unlike him, her theme was purple.
When Selene was sure all was safe again, she flapped her wings and landed beside Tracey. She shook his wrist, but he didn't stir. His face was now tinged blue, and waves of sweat ran down it and soaked his hair. Quickly, Selene grabbed his hand and pulled him into the sky. Again, Tracey was outlined by magic that let him float, and his wings dropped limply behind his back.
Tightly clutching his hand, Selene flew him and herself toward Makenna, who was still knocked out. "Curses," she mumbled under her breath. "The Octopus Man is nothing but a monster! These are teenagers we're looking at!"
But at least one of them was finally a Soon to be a Crystal Metamorphic Fairy.