Clair and her mum started to pack the next day when they heard a knock at the door. When her mum went to answer it, she heard scrape on the pavement outside and she returned with some flowers.
"Who was that?" asked Clair who suddenly notice the beautiful bucket in her mum's arm's, "Who gave you those?"
"I don't know," began her mum, "But I wouldn't mind meeting the nice chap."
"So, how am I getting there, mum, flying broom?" Clair asked sarcastically, trying to keep a straight face, even though the look on her mum's face was dark and dangerous, still looked humorous to Clair.
"Your going, by boat, okay?" said the mother looking at Clair as she bowed her head innocently.
Then Clair woke-up to herself and realised, "Boats! Where is this place?!" She had a fleeting feeling that she was about to find out when her mum said, "No time to waste, we have to get there before S.O.S Academy arrives and we miss it!"
"...And the war continues. This is Brock Johnson on Good morning Australia." said the news reporter, ruffling his notes; she switched off the TV: There was a war going on between the American's Iraq's again. To think, there's ten war's going on right now: People starving in Africa and there is still slave labour going on in Asia, and yet people only worry about what's on their face, she thought and went to her room to change and collect her stuff. When she returned to the kitchen- wearing a white top and dark grey pants -she saw her mother, who waited there wearing, a very dark green travelling coat. They went outside into the car and they drove off.
She sighed as they reached the port of Lake Amadeus. It took a couple of hours because she lived at Finke.
They entered the sea smelling town with a slight itch of gloom: For a town in the middle of the desert, it looked more like a harbour. White and navy blue buildings stood high on either side of the huge, trafficless, road. Smoke steamed out of warehouses on the wharf and the light of the lighthouse dimmed through it.
"Mum, are you sure were in the right place. It may be enchanted, but the enchantment has a bad odour to it, don't you think, mum..." she looked over at her mum, un-blocking her nose. She cleared her throat to see if she had been listening. Her mother just looked up from the map she was looking at and just said, "oh, yes honey. I think the port is straight ahead?"
Clair just half shrugged and murmured back, "yeah, sure mum, what ever you say."
They started to walk up the road, still trying to find the harbour they wanted. Her mother started to get frustrated and yelled out something about missing the boat. Clair just held on to her mothers hand as she dragged her through streets and alleys.
As they checked out a nasty looking street with monochrome blacks and blues, pipes sticking out everywhere and the side of one of the buildings almost covered in plant life, she heard a scuttle as someone short ran past them and grabbed Clair's large, dirty brown backpack, which hung loosely off her shoulder. She let go of her mums hand and ran after him at a sprint, leaving her mum behind in a trail of dust.
"Get back here thief, I need that! Hay, where are you going?!" she started yelling, who tried to keep him in sight as much as she could. While they ran through the streets, a large, fat women in a pink dress got in her way, making her lose sight of the other guy. She ran up through the street, hoping to be able to get sight of him again when she saw something big, and metal, and red and white. It was the S.O.S with all the kids entering it: laughing away, and chatting to each other. She sighed: if she couldn't get her bag in time -which contained all her books, clothes and equipment in it- she wouldn't be able to get to Sorcerer. It wouldn't be so bad, if she didn't have something's she wanted in that bag.
She heard a childish cackle come from behind. When she turned around, she could see a short person, about half her size, wearing a navy blue jacket much to big for him, with a hood covering his face. He shook her bag, moving his hips side to side, and then ran off down the same street she just ran up from.
"Why must everything in life be so complicated!" she grinded through her teeth, taking chase once again. She, once again, sprinted through the street. When she reached it, she bumped into her mother; almost bringing them both to their knees.
"Clair dear, what's going on and where is your bag?" she yelled grabbing Clair's arm gently.
Clair pulled away, without much effort, and replied, "didn't you see that small man grab my bag earlier and run off. I chased him everywhere with it and then I lost sight of him because this women got in the way, and I lost sight of him -wait, I already said that- and then I saw the ship and started to panic when I saw him again and took chase and that when I ran into you..." she started to breath in heavily, looking quite pleased with herself, or at least reciting a large, non stop sentence with only one breath. Her mother was quite taken back with the mouthful her daughter had spoken. But nonetheless, she had heard what she needed and helped her daughter with finding the bag snatcher.
Her mother took one street as Clair took another and they raced through them at great speeds. Clair worried that she would miss the ship to Sorcerer and make her mother upset, as well as her older brother and sister. As much as she hates having to go, she couldn't let them down. She continuously looked down streets and alleys; some of them more then once. She met some unfriendly folk that worked there, and a crazy seer. She also had a close call when she stopped in front of a bar and asked a goblin if he had seen anyone of that description: he got so mad that he took out the cigarette he had in his mouth, through it on the ground and started to chase after her. She ran down about ten streets before she was able to lose him. She suspected that he gave up and returned to the bar.
A childish cackle appeared from behind her. The small guy with her bag, appeared again, giggling and pointing at her. She got furious and went after him: This time, he wasn't getting away.
She skidded around the corner when she heard something that devastated her:
"Now leaving the port of Lake Amadeus, can all passengers aboard the ship within five minutes. Thank you for your participation," came an announcement over a large speaker. She started to panic, trying to keep track of where the guy was. She squealed: She had lost him again.
She started to race towards the boat depot, hoping that he would be there. She saw people hurrying into the boat thinking to herself, I wish that was me!
She started down the street, broken heart. When she felt that all hope was lost, she looked up once more to come face to face with her mother, holding her bag in her hands. Clair's eyes widened with great joy when she realised that the boat was making strange notices behind her.
"Mum, thank you a lot. Where did you find it?" Clair asked quickly and her mother smiled, "the small guy just dropped it in front of me and ran off. Wait, the boat, it's going!" Clair quickly looked around and noticed that the boat was starting to take off. So that's why it was making noises before, she thought, the engine on the boat was getting ready to go.
"There you are you little brat!" yelled a grungy voice ahead of her: the goblin had appeared again with his thick, bubbly, murky green skin and grubby looking, brown, long shirt and pointy shoes. Clair's eyes had widened as she ran off towards the boat, saying goodbye to her mother quickly.
"Bye bye, honey," she heard her mum say, drifting out of sight.
She ran to the port as fast as she could with the greatest of fear on her face. When she got there, she rushed onto the rail of the ships port. She looked behind her with great fear, about to throw her bag over her shoulder. As she swung her bag over her shoulder, he launched out at her. Her bag had been so heavy that she fell off the rail. She closed her eyes, waiting for her doom when all of a sudden, her back body made contact with something hard. She opened her eyes to see the top of what looked like one of the levels outside part of a ship. She stood up and noticed that she was on a ship. She appeared over the balcony and saw the goblin kicking something on the ground at his defeat and her mother waving goodbye to her. Clair waved back, wondering how she got on the boat.
"Hay, nice bit of magic," came a young voice from behind her. A boy stood there, not that much taller then her with spiky, chocolate brown hair- some of the back was being tied up tightly -showing his magic brown eyes, and light caramel skin. He was already wearing is black robe with snowy white fastening. As she looked closer, she noticed that he was wearing an earring with a small symbol- one of which had a simple, black hook with two things twisting around it, like snakes -in his left ear.
A flick of a smile flashed quickly across her face as she responded, "ah, thanks mate. Tell me, what did I do exactly?" A wobbly smile appeared softly.
He looked slightly taken back and smiled, "you teleported here. Don't you remember," she shook her head as he continued with another gentle smile, "that's suppose to be really advance magic, you do know that, don't you? I don't think it's even aloud, so don't tell anyone, okay."
She quickly nod her head with the most innocent face on. She was glad to meet someone so nice and charming. But what if he found out that she was half mortal, what would he say? She giggled nervously. Then she realised something and asked, "My names Clair Winday, what's your name?"
He smiled and responded, "my names Andrew Frontie [pronounced fron-tay]." Frontie, she thought, where has she heard that before?
© Written By FireWitch 4Ever and Fellest W