Dove Wood

Chapter 2

Chapter 2

________

•Morgan•

The blood rushes to my face and my stomach drops as the words sink in. Zayn is my cousin, the only last family member I have. His parents suffered their Event years ago, when Zayn was around 12. He learned to fend for himself quickly. I always admired Zayn because of his wisdom, which he seemed to have far too much of for his age. If what Ron said was true, I would be completely alone now.

"The boy's a goner now. He probably won't last but a couple of minutes in those woods," says David as he starts the ink-over process. "I always knew there was something different about that boy."

"Don't speak about Zayn like that," I hiss at David. "He's smarter than all of us put together. He wouldn't go into the woods unless he was -,"

"Alright Morgan. You're all done. Get back to work. You have some catching up to do from last week's late streak," David interrupts me.

I walk out of David's office, trying to fight back tears that I knew were inevitable. I go to my work station and as soon as a pick up my tools, Harry comes running over.

"Well, I know the ink-overs are painful, but I didn't know they were painful enough to make the great Morgan Stone cry!" Harry says with a chuckle, noticing my tears.

"Zayn... it's Zayn. He's run off into the woods...," I try to get out without making the tears worse.

The smile immediately wipes off of Harry's face. Zayn and Harry were the best of friends, which is why I met Harry in the first place. "Morgan, I... We.... We have to find him," Harry says.

"Harry, you and I both know that we can't go into the woods. But...,"I say as I put down my tools,"we need to find out why he went."

We both get back to our stations. I work solemnly the rest of the day until the bell signals the end of our day. I follow Harry outside.

"Well, I was going to show you something... but I don't know if you really want it now," Harry says, looking down at his feet.

"It's okay Harry. You can show me," I reply.

"Follow me," Harry says.

We both take off to the direction of the woods, but I know where we are going. Years ago, Zayn built a tree house near the woods so no one would, hopefully, find it. The tree house was my favorite place to go when I was feeling upset, or angry, or when I just needed to be alone.

We start ascending the rungs nailed to the tree when I hear a strange noise coming from the tree house.

"Don't look!" Harry says to me when we reach the top. I close my eyes until he tells me to open them. When I open my eyes, a small winged creature is walking around the floor of the tree house. The eagle head looks up at me while the front talons scratch the floor. The hoofed back legs give a playful kick and the creature lets out a small screech.

"Oh, Harry...," I say, unable to finish my sentence.

"Do... do you like it?" Harry asks.

"I love it Harry!" I say, truly meaning my words. Ever since I heard the magnificent stories of the hippogriff when I was little, I've dreamed of having one for myself. They are extremely rare and very hard to come by. I've never heard of one living in Dove Wood until now. "Where did you find it, Harry?"

"Well, you know Marcus' griffin?" Harry asks me. Marcus is basically the leader of Dove Wood. He's very rich, unlike most of us, so he can afford to buy beats such as a griffin. "He gave it to my dad to have it trained up, but ended up leaving it at our house." I nod at his explanation. Harry's dad is a beast trainer in Dove Wood. Well, he is the only beast trainer in Dove Wood, but he is a very experienced one. "My dad forgot that the gate was open to the horse pen... and I guess they 'got together' that day... and you know what happens when griffins and horses mix?" I smile at Harry's enthusiasm. "Hippogriffs!" he shouts. "I can get my dad to train it up. It will be useful to us in our future, I think. So... what will its name be, Morgan?" he asks me.

"It's name is... Benjamin," I say, confident in my choice.

"Benjamin? I was thinking something like Zeus, or Ares, or Thor... but I guess Benjamin will do. How do you like your name, little Ben?" Harry asks. Seeming as if he knew what we were saying, Ben gave a little screech.