Missing Wizard - NaNoWriMo 2016

Prologue

Prologue

Everything is not okay.

The planet Ualara is covered in red and orange sand. Ualara is also windy all the time. Its landscape is constantly changing thanks to all that wind. That's not even the best part, the wind likes to blow the sand around so much I can never seem to get enough out of everything. My clothes will have sand for years and I think that enough sand has gone up my nose that it reached my brain. If not my nose, then my ears.

Tela, Ashely, and I have been on Ualara for two days now. It wasn't the greatest choice, but we've been able to stay put for a day longer than we have on any other planet. It means we threw them off just enough for us to have a small break from running away.

We rented a small hotel room with one double bed so that one of us could be on the lookout while two rested. We took turns sleeping, keeping watch, and heading out into the small market for food and water.

I hardly slept these days. I usually went to the market because I could easily make myself seem normal to the people on this planet.

Tela went out on the third day, I helped her figure out how to make herself seem normal so she could get some more water. Ashely slept the whole time she was gone. I sat in the only chair in the room and stared towards the closed curtains.

Tela was only gone for twenty minutes and when she came back she had no water. She seemed calm, but I still stood up rather quickly from the chair and waited for her to explain. Something wasn't right.

"We need to move again," she whispered.

Somehow that woke Ashley. She sat right up and looked between Tela and I then sighed. "We're leaving aren't we?"

I nodded. Ashley used to sleep like a rock, nothing could wake her. Ever since we left school she seems to have picked up bat-like hearing and every little word that's said wakes her.

We kept our bags constantly packed so we all just strapped them onto our backs and all left the hotel room right away. We had to make our way out into the open desert to find the hidden station. The people on the planet of Ualara are far behind in knowledge and technology but that doesn't stop people from coming to the planet on a regular basis.

They just hide stations on every planet for people to come and go as they please.

Ashely was the one who found the station in the end. She always knows where they are because Warriors built the stations. Therefore, Warriors can find the stations. Tela and I could use magic to find them, but it would take too much energy that we need to save just in case. Just in case whoever is following us catches up.

We use a lot of magic to throw them off, but it never seems to be enough. They somehow always find us. We can never really be a full step ahead.

The station appeared as we stepped through the boundary and the sand changed to metal under our feet. All the annoying noises of a train station came with it. Ships making loud screeching noises, too many people arguing, the swoosh sound the portals make. I almost wanted to step back into the windy desert. Almost.

Tela spotted a map first and we all rushed over there to take a look. It showed the solar system Ualara was situated in and even had a little arrow pointing to the small desert planet to show you where you were exactly.

Ashley and Tela fought over the screen for a good moment while they looked for another solar system that would bring us closer to Lifren.

They fight a lot about it.

"Are you ladies lost?" A deep voice made me jump and spin around. There was a tall man with a long thin black beard and a rather large belly.

"Oh no," I smiled as best I could. "We're just making sure we're headed in the right direction."

He looked at the map then back to me, I could tell he didn't believe me. "So you're headed over to Noaria? Why go from a desert planet to one covered in ice?"

I raised my eyebrows, great we're going from unbearably hot to deathly cold. "Yes, that is exactly where we want to go. Do you have a problem with our travel plans?"

He shot me a worried look then looked over to Tela and Ashley. "You girls take care of yourselves. The universe is a dangerous place for three girls to be wondering around."

I rolled my eyes, "who said we were wondering? Also, take care says the creepy old dude who's asking about our travel plans."

He let out a deep huff of a laugh that reminded me of a creepy Santa Clause. "I'm only asking because you seem to have a group following you."

My muscles all tensed up and he winked at me. "What are you talking about?"

"You may want to try a little harder to lose them. Noaria isn't going to help much. Nowhere to hide there. I guess you could try, but you'd die and no one would find your body if that is the kind of hiding you're looking for."

"Noaria is only temporary," Tela spoke up. "We have a final destination with someone there who can help us but no way of getting there for a long while."

I snapped my head back in her direction. We had agreed four planets ago that Ashely would find us places to stay, Tela would find us planets closer and closer to Lifren, and I would deal with talking to locals and anyone else we happened to run into along the way. Ashely and Tela had almost got us caught far too many times.-

Tela noticed me glaring at her and looked away as if she hadn't said anything. I turned back to the man who was looking between us very concerned.

"Is everything alright? You three aren't in any trouble are you?"

I gave him a forced smile, "other than some group tension, there's nothing wrong. We just can agree on the fastest route without those people catching up to us."

He didn't seem satisfied, "who's following you anyways?"

This was really starting to annoy me. "We don't know," I was almost yelling at him. "If we knew, maybe we might confront them and tell them to stop or something. Not hopping from planet to planet and trying to throw them off our trail."

He held his hands in surrender, "alright. I was just going to offer you a ride. But if you can get there by yourself, then by all means."

"A ride where?" This time it was Ashely speaking.

The man looked back at her and smiled, "all the way to Tascade is where I'm headed."

I looked back at Ashley, she was smiling brightly at me.

"What?"

"That's much closer to W-H than Noaria is."

I clenched my teeth, trusting a random stranger is not something I want to do when I can't even trust two people who are supposed to be my friends.

"I'll let you three hitch a ride as long as we clear up one thing," he smiled and pulled down the collar of his shirt. There on his collar bone sat a black bear, fast asleep.

Out of the corner of my eye I saw Tela list up her shirt to reveal her scorpion. The man looked rather impressed. Ashley shook her head and gestured to the sword she kept attached to her waist at all times. He seemed satisfied with that answer and turned to me.

I slowly lifted my left sleeve until Spitz blue head was visible.

I kept my eyes on the man as he saw the dragon on my arm. His eyes widened and he looked up to my face. "You're a clever liar little girl."

"Am I?" I smirked to myself and pulled my sleeve back down.

He still seemed very horrified and getting more so by the second. He even looked to Ashley and Tela, maybe thinking they'd tell him it was a prank or something.

He looked back to me, "I won't give you a ride. You attract the wrong kind attention."

I shrugged, "worth a shot anyways. Tell, please erase his memory. Ashley, get a portal ready for Noaria."

They both nodded and the man turned leave but I held him in place for Tela. Ashley left to go find us a portal and I stayed with Tela to make sure the man didn't move. His eyes glazed over for a couple seconds then returned to normal.

"You girls take care," he smiled and turned away, leaving us there as if he never even offered us a ride on his ship.