The Wizards of Myst

Chapter 6

Oliver Wylder

I waved to Lynx and Eriana as they walked into the dining room. A smile erupted on Eriana's face as she happily skipped over to Isla and I, who were sitting down at one end of the long, wooden table.

"Hey! How did you guys stop the arrows?" Eriana asked, sitting down next to us.

I set down my half eaten bagel on the white paper plate in front of me.

"Oh, that was pretty easy. I can stop time so, I just froze time, then unfroze Isla, and then we just plucked the arrows from the sky."

I am not joking when I say there were stars in her eyes when Eriana said, "Woah."

Isla stared at my bagel.

I looked at her, knowing exactly what she was thinking of doing. "Don't you dare."

Isla smiled mischievously at me. "Don't-"

She cut me off by shoving the bagel into her mouth and laughing.

"You brought this on yourself." I told her, shrugging, as I reached my hands over to her.

Her eyes widened. "No. No-"

Her sentence was cut short by a fit of giggles as I tickled her. Eriana looked over at us, first with a blank stare, and then a smirk as she seemed to come up with some sort of conclusion. "Ah, I see. I'll leave you two alone for a bit and get some food."

As she walked away toward the buffet table set up on the far wall of the room, I stopped tickling Isla.

She glared at me with her beautiful hazel eyes. "Did you have to do that?"

I shrugged. "I warned you not to eat my bagel."

She crossed her arms over her chest. "Hmph. Well then maybe you shouldn't have left a perfectly good bagel sitting on the plate. Especially after you had eaten part of it. I mean, what was I going to do, just leave it there?"

I shook my head at her in disapproval, then realized something. "Wait. What do you mean 'especially after you had eaten part of it.'?"

Her cheeks reddened a bit. "What?"

I raised my eyebrow at her. "Don't 'what?' me. Come on. Tell me."

Isla looked over at Eriana, who had just sat down with her plate of food. "So, Eri, how did you guys stop the arrows?"

"Did she really just ignore my question?"

Eriana popped a grape in her mouth before answering. "Oh, well, I'm not really sure. Lynx had me stop the arrows with my telekinesis. I closed my eyes when I did, and when I opened them... well, the arrows were on the ground."

Isla and I shared a look, both knowing what the other was thinking. This morning, Isla had told me about how she couldn't hear Lynx's thoughts the night before. At first I thought that he was just a telepath as well, and that's why she couldn't hear his thoughts, but then she said that she couldn't feel any presence of telepathy from him. Which is weird, since telepaths feel the presence of telepathy from other telepaths, and can pinpoint who they are. (Yeah, I added my own little twist on telepathy there.)

I glanced over at Lynx, who was leaning against one of the wooden posts and staring up at a TV mounted to the wall.

"What are you doing?" Isla asked him.

He walked over to the table, pulled out a chair, and sat down next to Eriana.

"I was watching the others."

"The others?..."

Luckily, Isla voiced my question. "What others?"

Looking at the TV again, be replied, "You know, the others from last night? The screen shows them with the arrows."

"How... did I not notice that earlier?"

But he was right. We could see them and their attempts at stopping the arrows. The screen was split into 4 for the remaining teams, so it was hard to see their faces, but on the bottom right screen, I could see a blob of lime green frantically running around, somehow effectively dodging all the arrows. On the same screen, there was another blob, shooting rays of ice and balls of fire at the arrows. From what we learned yesterday, I think the lime green blob is August Reble, and the other is Winter Minkashi.

Soon, the screens narrowed down to three, and two people came in. One of them had pale skin, white hair, and yellow eyes (I think their name was Nao?). The other was a boy with short blonde hair and brown eyes. I don't remember the boy's name, I guess it must not have been important. (Lol little foreshadowing there.)

Blonde Dude sat down at the opposite end of the table from the rest of us, propping his feet up on the table. Nao sat a few seats away from us, studying the people on the live feed on the TV, munching silently on an apple.

Besides Nao and Blonde Dude, we were all done eating, and we just sat there looking at the TV. Soon, even the other two were done, and we all sat in silence.

After a few minutes, August and Winter walked in the room, and Winter plopped himself down on some chairs next to us. They both looked exhausted, and August was sprawled out on the floor.

Isla looked over towards them. "Jeez, what happened to you two?"

Slouching down in his chair, Winter answered, "Telepathy and fire and ice powers aren't super helpful when you're trying to stop a butt ton of arrows."

Right after he said that, two more people walked into the room, followed by a guy who looked to be in his early 30s. The guy's name tag read 'Gen. Langston' in big, bold letters.

After the two new people sat down, General Langston clapped his hands, and in a booming voice told us, "Listen up everybody!" Although, he didn't really need to say that, because the room was already dead silent, with every single person staring intently at the General.

He continued his announcement, only a little quieter than before. "As you can all see, there are now 10 of you here. So... congratulations, you guys have passed the first round."

I honestly love the relationship I'm making between Isla and Oliver, like it's literally adorable. I hope you liked this chapter! Feel free to tell me any questions or comments you might have. Bye!~ 👋

Also, y'all, I seriously need ideas for the challenges/rounds.