Legends: The Folklore Trilogy Book 2

Chapter 15-Where We Have Story Time

"Change back, change back!" Audrey shouted.

"You're gonna break something, doofus!" Deynan yelled.

I froze. Don't break anything. Don't. Break. Anything.

"Take a breath and imagine a cold wave washing over you," Sierra instructed.

I closed my eyes and took a breath. It didn't feel so much like a WAVE per say, but more like wind. I shivered, and suddenly, I was a scrawny boy once more. I stretched my arms out, wincing. "I'm sore."

"Drink water, it helps with muscle pain," Sierra said with a smile.

"Yeesh, the scroll tells me to drink water, now you're telling me to drink water, I get it, I get it," I muttered. But I was grinning.

Isaac silently passed me a water bottle. I attempted to unscrew it.

"Your turn," Audrey said, kicking Deynan. He rubbed his shoulder, scowling. "Would you quit that?"

"She wasn't even kicking hard," Sophie said, her eyes dancing.

Deynan rolled his eyes and stood up. "I'm gonna look so much cooler as a centaur than you two."

"Hey!" I said half-heartedly, still pulling on the cap to my water bottle.

"He has a point," Isaac muttered. I hung my head in half-mock, half-legitimate shame.

Deynan bent his head. I shifted uncomfortably. At least I wasn't the one transforming this time.

The light began to swirl. It never seemed to take him as much time as me or Isaac.

To be perfectly honest, he did look pretty good as a centaur. But he did accidentally kicked the broken bench.

"I win for damage report," I called, finally getting my water bottle open.

Deynan transformed back into human. "Hand me one of those water bottles, will you? I'm beat." Isaac took one from the cooler and handed it to me. I tried to toss it to Deynan, but it fell short and landed at his feet. He cocked an eyebrow, leaned over, and picked it up. He sat down, wiping his brow. I noticed with envy that he opened the water bottle on the first try.

I rubbed my arms and stretched my back. I felt like I had just run a mile, and I'm not a particularly fit person.

"Alright, who wants to go first next?" Audrey said after a moment. "It's the last one, right?"

I fought the urge to groan. "Um..."

"Audrey..." Isaac began.

She glared at us, her eyes narrow, her lips pressed thin. "Do you want to save these people or not?"

"We do!" I said hurriedly.

"But we can't," Deynan said flatly.

"And why not?" she demanded. I bit my lip nervously. Audrey was great, but she was scary.

"Because we're tired, Audrey," Isaac said gently. I sat back a little and let the master so his work. "I don't think we're supposed to transform this many times so fast."

"You've only done two today," she said, frowning.

"Yeah, and it's not even lunch yet," Deynan replied.

"We don't want to push ourselves because we want to be in top shape for investigating this problem," Isaac said.

"No, you're just tired," she grumbled.

"Yes," he said evenly, "which is the body's signal to the brain to slow down."

She crossed her arms and sat back. "That's so dumb. Sierra turned into five forms in two minutes."