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1: Willow
“Whoa! Watch out, Gus!”
There was a spark of green magic, and a vine sprouted up from the sidewalk to catch Gus as he tripped. Another wrapped around the pile of books he’d been carrying, holding them aloft while he regained his footing.
“Thanks, Willow,” he panted. “Guess I went a little overboard at the library.”
“A little?” Willow peeked around the stack of books (which was at least half as tall as Gus himself). “This is more than a little.”
“I know. But inspiration struck, and I couldn’t pick just one...did I tell you about my new idea?”
A loud snort of mocking laughter cut him off before he could continue. Gus risked a glance to one side, eyes narrowing when he recognized one of their classmates from Hexside on the other side of the street.
“What’re the books for, half-pint?” Abel jeered. “Gonna sit on ‘em to reach the big boys’ table?”
“Oh, real original,” he shouted back. “Picking on my height. Can’t you come up with anything better, or is your head just that empty?”
“You want more?” Abel stalked over to them. He took a swipe at the books, trying to knock them to the ground, but Willow’s vine just pulled them out of reach. “You think you’re so smart, huh? But where did that get you? You’re still just a puny little nerd who doesn’t have any friends!”
Willow cleared her throat.
Abel stared at her for a moment. “Okay, so you have one friend. You’re still a nerd.”
“I think we’re done here,” Willow announced. She swept one hand around in a circle, and a third vine erupted from the ground. The vine wrapped around Abel’s waist, despite his protests, and dumped him back on the opposite side of the street. “So, what’s your new idea, Gus?”
She plucked the books out of the vine, which withered away, and passed Gus half of them. Willow held onto the other half herself, bumping him with her arm when he didn’t answer right away.
“Well...are you sure you wanna hear it?”
“You can’t leave me in suspense like this. Come on, out with it!”
He found a smile spreading across his face, despite some lingering irritation from Abel’s interruption. “Okay. So, you know the ancient runes we were studying in history class? A couple of them reminded me of some of the rare animals Luz was talking about, and that got me thinking about making some transforming illusions….”
…
2: Amity
The kneecap was bitingly cold. Gus shivered, tucking his bare hands under his arms to shield them from the wind. “H-how much longer is this gonna take?”
“Sorry about this, Gus,” Amity replied. “Maybe another hour? Dad’s supposed to be bringing me the part I need to fix the engine. I can tell him to try to hurry?”
“D-don’t sweat it,” he stammered. “We’ll b-be fine.”
He never should have let Amity talk him into this. Sure, it had sounded exciting enough. A sky cruise on a new, experimental Blight airship. The chance to see the Titan’s bones from the air. To see how the islands had changed since the world nearly ended.
But they’d crashed on the knees, burying the aircraft halfway in a snowbank, with a few engine components now in smoking ruins.
Gus stared longingly at the smart flight jacket and matching gloves that Amity was wearing. He’d grabbed a sweater, knowing things could get cold at higher altitudes, but hadn’t bothered with anything else. Not even a hat. “Think we c-could build a f-fire?” he asked.
“There should be plenty of dried brush around,” she replied absently. “Go ahead and grab what you can. I think I can piece the anti-flux back together with the repair kit; I need to focus on that before it gets dark.”
“Oh. Okay.” He shivered again—though he hadn’t really stopped—and gazed up at the sky above them. It was getting pretty late, and he dreaded the thought of being stuck out here after dark. “Can we turn the engine on for some heat?” he asked hopefully.
“Not with this leak in the fuel line. Even Abomination fuel is dangerous if its just leaking everywhere. Better wait for my dad.”
Gus nodded, though Amity couldn’t see him. He watched her tinker with it for a few minutes, taking a startled step back when she suddenly pulled herself out of the engine compartment.
“I thought you were going to get firewood?”
“I am! I’m just...waiting.”
Amity raised her eyebrows. Her eyes suddenly widened and she sucked in a shocked breath. “Oh, Gus, you must be freezing! Here, take this.” She unwound her scarf from around her neck and wrapped it around his. He clutched it in both hands, trying to absorb the residual heat from her body.
“I don’t...hang on, I have an idea.” Amity reached for both of his hands, concentrated, and purple Abomination goo surged up to cover his hands. “My dad used to do this for me all the time. Is that better?”
He pulled his hands away to study his Abomination mittens. “Yeah. Thanks.”
“All right. How about you wait here, just in case dad’s early, while I grab some firewood? Stay close to the airship; it’ll block some of the wind.”
Gus hunkered down beside the airship, rubbing his mittened hands together as Amity plunged off into the snow to fetch more firewood.
…
3: Luz
“Oh, man, did you see that guy?” Luz cheered, throwing an arm around Gus’s shoulders. “He was like...blaw...and then the other guy was all...ka-bam...and then whoosh!” She waved her other arm through the air as she spoke, and Gus had to duck away with a laugh a few times.
“We were watching the same fight, Luz. Of course I saw it.”
“That was awesome,” she gushed. “I never—oops!”
Gus collided with something, then dodged a step back, barely avoiding the pile of crates that came crashing down. He glanced over to see the pained look on Luz’s face, then over—and up—to see the irritated expression of the man he’d run into.
He loomed over them, nearly eight feet tall and covered with bristly hair. He had a face that looked like someone had already punched it several times, and an attitude that said he was about to make it everyone else’s problem.
“Sorry about that,” Luz stammered. “We weren’t watching where we were going, and I guess we ran into you.
The man didn’t reply to her. Instead, he reached down with one massive hand and grabbed the front of Gus’s shirt, hauling him up to eye level. “Who’s gonna pay for these?” he demanded.
“W-well…”
“It was an accident,” Luz cut in. “Look, sir, we can help you...no harm done, let’s just pick your crates back up.”
He put a hand out to stop her. “He ran into me,” he rumbled, shaking Gus. “He picks them up.” The man pulled Gus in a little closer. “They’re full of tentapedes,” he added, his lopsided face breaking into a grin when Gus shuddered.
Tentapedes. Worm-like insects with exactly ten legs. Gus wasn’t afraid of them, per se, but he’d had some bad experiences in the past involving bullies shoving handfuls of the insects down the back of his shirt.
“Ooh, these?” Luz broke in. One of the crates had popped open, and she’d picked up a tentapede to study closely. “I haven’t seen one of these before.”
“Hands off the merchandise,” the man barked. He dropped Gus and reached out to snatch the tentapede out of Luz’s hands and stuff it back in the crate. “Well?” he added, turning to glare down at Gus.
Gus swallowed. He reached for one of the crates and realized the top of it was hanging loose. A half-dozen tentapedes were trying to crawl out, and he gingerly reached out to poke them back in.
“It’ll got faster if I help,” Luz announced. She easily poked the tentapedes back into the crate, letting Gus press the lid down to seal it shut. “We’ll have you out of here in no time,” she added, beaming a brilliant smile up at the towering man.
The man grumbled, crossing his arms and glaring at them as they hurriedly scooped insects back into their crates and secured the lids. It only took a few minutes, though it felt like longer, and Gus was anxious to get home and wash the feeling of tiny, prickly, insect legs off his hands.
With the crates sealed, the man stacked them and hoisted them up with one hand, stalking off without a backward glance.
“You’re welcome,” Luz called after him, waving one arm in the air. She shot a grin at Gus, who managed to return it.
Tentapedes. Yuck.
…
4: Hunter
An arm caught Gus around the chest and pulled him back, just as the ledge beneath his feet started to collapse.
“Be careful,” Hunter said as he released him. “Stay close to me, got it?”
Gus gave him a salute, grinning when Hunter rolled his eyes. “Isn’t it exciting, though? No one’s seen these ruins in over a hundred years. Maybe longer!”
“It’ll be more exciting if we make it out alive,” Hunter replied. He wasn’t fooling Gus, though. His friend was just as enthusiastic about the history of the Boiling Isles...even if he was better at hiding it.
He stuck close to the wall, carefully following in Hunter’s footsteps, even if he couldn’t help but peer around the older boy now and then to catch sight of their destination.
“Did you know these ruins might pre-date the Titan?” Gus gushed. “There’s a theory that the islands aren’t just the Titan, but also their final resting place. There could be more tunnels and caves that go deeper and deeper, even below the sea, that are from a civilization older than the Titan themselves!”
“I heard you the first time,” Hunter replied. “Just—stay back, Gus, I mean it.”
He’d seen something in one of the far walls and started to move around Hunter, but his friend had already put an arm out to usher him back. “I just wanted to see,” he protested.
“And I want to get home in one piece. Seriously, Gus. Stay behind me.”
Gus huffed out a sigh, plastering himself to the wall with his arms splayed out. “Like this?”
Hunter grimaced. “Sorry. I know you’re excited, but just...promise you’ll be careful?”
He immediately felt like a jerk. Hunter wasn’t trying to suck all the fun out of everything; he was just doing his best to keep them safe. “No, I’m sorry. I’m getting a little carried away. I’ll be more careful now.” Gus held out a hand, grinning when Hunter shook it. He didn’t want to cause his friend more stress than was strictly necessary. So he stuck close, following in Hunter’s footsteps, even though he was sure he could have gotten to the ruins and back twice over.
The path finally opened up, and they found themselves in front of a wall of carved pictograms. Gus hurriedly dug a roll of paper and some charcoal out of his pack—Lilith had made him promise to take a rubbing of any text he’d found. Hunter helped him fix the paper over the pictograms, and even took a piece of charcoal to start the rubbing at one end while Gus started at the other.
“What do you think it means?” Gus asked as they worked. “This symbol repeats a lot...do you think it’s an article, like ‘the’, or a noun? Maybe the name of this place?”
“It’s probably a name,” Hunter replied. “These letters are pretty deep...what kind of tools do you think they used?”
Gus shook his head. Lilith would probably be able to answer that. She’d have come with them today, if she hadn’t had other plans. “I can’t wait to see what else we find,” he added, not realizing his voice was getting louder and his movements more vigorous. “Do you think they had Palismens? We know Belos made the coven system, but did they have any other structure for magic? Was it just all wild magic?”
“Gus?”
“Sorry, I know you don’t like to talk about him.”
“That’s not—”
“But think about everything we could learn! There could be more ruins, all underneath us!”
“Gus!”
“We just have to…” his voice faded as he heard the sound of stone cracking. Gus looked up just in time to see a chuck of stone break free from the wall above his head and plummet down toward him.
He barely had a second to get an arm up to protect his head before there was a flash of red, an arm around his waist, and he was suddenly standing six feet away watching the stone crash down.
Gus patted Hunter’s arm. “Thanks,” he whispered.
Hunter let out a relieved sigh. “Maybe be more careful?” he suggested.
…
+1: Gus
“No, no, no!” Gus ducked down out of sight, slipping his hand into Willow’s. “How are there still guards loyal to him? Don’t they know everything that happened?”
Willow shook her head. “I don’t think we should fight here,” she whispered.
“Tell that to Hunter,” Gus muttered. Yes, Hunter was fast, and knew all the guards’ moves, but that didn’t mean he should be up against four of them by himself. “How’s Amity?”
Luz, carrying Amity on her back, shrugged. “I don’t think her ankle’s broken, but it’s probably a bad sprain.”
Amity grimaced, looping her arms around Luz’s neck to press a quick kiss to her cheek. “Sorry about this.”
“I think you mean ‘thank you for carrying me, Luz, you’re an awesome girlfriend’,” Luz teased.
Gus bit back a giggle when Amity rolled her eyes, then slowly rose up to a crouch to peek around the wall. “I think we’re clear,” he whispered. “Let’s go.” He ushered the girls out ahead of him, eyes peeled for any sign of the guards. They dashed across the street to the next alleyway, ducking into the shadows there.
He was halfway across the street to meet them when he heard a familiar cry. Gus glanced over in time to see one of the guards pick up Hunter by the throat, whirling in place to throw Hunter toward the nearest wall. Hunter was able to activate his magic, disappearing before he met the wall and reappearing a few feet away, but he couldn’t catch himself, tumbling painfully across the cobblestones.
“Hunter!” Willow was darting out of the alley, arms already spread to summon her vines to defend them. Luz was right behind her and Amity, from the safety of the alley, was calling up an Abomination.
The guard was already whistling for backup, and Gus knew they’d be outmatched...unless he could do something.
“Stop right there!” he shouted, running into the center of the street to strike a defiant pose. “You’ll, uh...you’ll go no further!”
The guard tilted his head, his face hidden behind his mask. “Or what?”
Gus pressed his palms together, projecting his voice to fill the empty streets. “Or I’ll summon a horde of monsters to defeat you!”
“Yeah, right,” the guard scoffed.
He narrowed his eyes, twisting his hands together to summon the illusion of a pictogram. It was one of the ones he and Hunter had discovered in the old ruins—one filled with weird squiggles and lumps. He could practically feel the guard sneering at him as he increased the size of the pictogram illusion and deepened its color.
Then for the tricky part. He’d been working on this kind of illusion for over a year now. It was one thing to shift a picture of something into a picture of something else, but he wanted it to seem like his illusion was coming alive. The pictogram bulged and wiggled. Tiny legs sprouted around its edges.
The guard took a step back. Gus grinned to himself, narrowing his focus to the spell in his hands, and the pictogram exploded apart into a shower of hundreds of tentapedes.
A griffin or a selkidomus might have been more impressive, but also more easily seen-through. Besides, even if you thought they were fake, most people didn’t react well to a sudden shower of insects.
This guard was no exception. He turned and ran with a scream, yanking his helmet off and crying something about them getting into his hair.
Gus lowered his hands, the illusion melting away, and gave a sigh of relief. “Is everyone all right?” he asked, turning around.
“Gus…” Willow began, staring at him. Luz cut in to finish her sentence.
“...that was awesome!”