Chapter 3: Back at the castle
Back to the present
"Well! Just tell me where the location is already!" I said, trying to be foolish. "The northern forest obviously!! You really are forgetful!!" She giggled. "Oh! I think we're here!!" I grabbed Luna's hand showing her the enormous castle.
We were also starting to transform so we did not have much of a choice but to enter the castle. We flew to the entrance of the castle where we both met two bald eagles who were guarding the door.
"What brings you here, strangers?" One of the guards spoke. Who do they think they are? I mean besides guards. 'We are not strangers you impolite birds!!' I replied furiously.
'We are the members of the Aquila Predonum Group!!' I let Luna handle the situation. I knew I wouldn't be able to do it anyways. "What's the password?" one of the bald eagles asked the crowned eagle. 'Do you know the password Luna?' I mind linked her. 'Yes!' the crowned eagle nodded with confidence. 'Avem Sapientiae' Luna replied with pride. (Avem Sapientiae - Bird of wisdom)
"Welcome to the Aquila Predonum Group!" Both guards greeted.
'Well!! You'd better welcome us!! Because-' I yelled as I flew past them at the same time Luna kept me in control by shutting me up every time. 'Let's go, Hannah!!' Luna grabbed my feathers with her beak, dragging me inside the corridor until we saw the leaders.
"The legendary eagles!!" I gazed at them with amazement in my eyes. I was actually quite a fan of them but now I felt just ridiculous for being like this. "Greetings your highness!!" Luna greeted the mystic creatures.
"Such beautiful feathers on these big wings!! I've never seen that before and their beaks are so well curved and strong!" they were so perfect that I couldn't stop myself from complimenting them. I kept daydreaming while my sister was tired of calling me out.
"Hannah!! Greet them!!" Luna interrupted my thoughts. "YOUR HIGHNESS!!" I bowed as I got out of my silly dreams feeling embarrassed. "What brings you here children!!" Griffin smirked, bursting with pride. "He is so arrogant! He could have called us-" I whispered angrily. "SHUT IT!!" Luna bit my head to stop me.
"Your highness we're here to tell you that our school has organized an outing in the forest and we are told not to be absent on that day or else our parents will be informed" Luna explained. "What should we do your highness?" I asked. I hope they do have a solution for this. If not I guess I'm going to freak out. "Hmm!! Your case is quite complicated! If you go, you have a problem and if you don't go, you also have a problem!!" Hippogriff gave a thought.
"You go to the forest!" the Roc suddenly interrupted. He already knows that we're going to transform then why? "But your highness!" Luna looked at me worried before looking back at Roc. "Don't worry, I've given it a thought too. Roc is right!" Griffin reassured her. "When you will go into the forest, you will bring these along with you!" the white Roc replied as he gave us a small bottle. It was a small bottle. Looking inside it, the liquid was transparent more like water.
"What is this, your highness?" Luna asked him as she looked at me puzzled. "This is the 'Sumptis Partibus Humane', it's a human portion. If you drink this you will have approximately an hour to stay as a human but as soon the effects end you will start to transform back, so be careful!! You can go now!!" Roc looked at us, his aura; it was somehow more powerful than it used to be.
"Thank you, your highness!!" We both thanked the legendary eagles.
"Use them wisely and don't use it unless you are transforming!! And don't call us highness we had already told you that three years ago!" Griffin reminded us. Every time we come here we always address them as highness and before we go Griffin would always yell to remind us.
While Luna and me were busy with the leaders of the Aquila group, the boys were heading home. I was pretty sure Jacob doubted me when I was talking to him after school.
Jacob's POV
"Didn't you feel weird when they told us that they'll go home by themselves?" I said in confusion. "What do you mean? I don't get you!" Luka asked. Luka didn't seem to pay attention when the girls were lying. It was pretty obvious for someone to know that they were though. I wonder what distracted him. "Man! I have a feeling that the girls are hiding something from us!!" My face turned into a tense one. "What! Are you sure? But why would they do this to us? I think you're mistaken!" Luka finally realized. "Well if you say so." I shrugged "At least I hope it's the truth!!" I whispered in my breath.
Three days later.
Hannah's POV
"Hey girls!!" Luka waved at us with Jacob beside him. "Have you already prepared for the trip tomorrow?" Jacob smirked at me as if asking only me. But we did not pay much attention, we were pretty stressed about tomorrow "Of course!! We're gonna have fun tomorrow!! Hahaha!!" Luna and I were acting like a total weirdo in front of the boys. "What's wrong with you two? You've been acting weird the past two days!" Jacob looked at me in confusion. "Yeah!! Did something happened?" Luka asked Luna. I could tell she was blushing and I don't really know why. "No!! Nothing don't worry we're just... Nevermind we'll go to our class!! See ya!" We replied.
It was quite funny because they couldn't understand anything as we left them puzzled. I know they will try to solve the mystery. 'Good Luck Jacob!' my other self wished him as we went outside. "Well, that was awkward!!" Luka said. "More like weird to the square (weird²)" He added. The two teenagers burst out laughing as Jacob joked.
We were basically running through the hall. "That was close!!" I heaved a sigh of relief. "I think they are suspecting us! we should be careful. I heard that humans are quite curious!" Luna watched me as we gasped for air. She was talking as if she was not a human before.
Finally, the day arrived and we were standing near the bus as Mr. Martin gave us some advice. "Ok students time to go! Get in the bus!!" Mr. Martin ordered the teenagers. Luna and I took the back seat. "Did you bring it?" Luna whispered at me. "Yes! It's in my bag." I replied as I showed her the bottle secretly.
Two hours later we arrived in the eastern forest. Mr. Martin stood up and started giving us a bunch of orders. "Alright students! We've arrived at our destination. Take your things and get out of the bus."
I was busy packing but just as I was about to stand up Luna stopped me. She looked so terrified but why? And my question was answered. "Hannah!! Your eyes!! They're turning light brown!?!" Luna started panicking instead of me.
I wanted to laugh at her reaction but I really didn't have time for that because she was in the same situation as me "Yours too!! they're yellow!?!" I whispered in her ear trying not to make her freak out. 'Drink the portion!!' my eagle told me for the first time she cared for me usually she would stay quiet without saying a single word as if she was invisible.
Luka turned around to face us. "Hey, Luka!!" I greeted him as I hid my eyes. "Is something wrong Hannah?" He asked as he tried to look in my eyes. "No! everything is fine!! We're good, don't worry!" I answered. "Your eyes Hannah! what happened?" I froze did he saw my eyes? "Don't worry it's just dust!" I replied still trying to hide the truth. "Let me see it!" Out of nowhere, Jacob came and grabbed my cheek near his face. He looked at my eyes with surprise "Did you wear contact lenses?" He asked. I could feel my cheeks getting hotter and hotter. "Y-Yeah!" I lied trying to hide my face. "It's alright now. I'm good..." there was a huge silence before he finally let go of my face and rushed out of the bus. I could feel my face burning up.
Not long enough my sister made me realize that I had another problem. "Sis your hands!!" the latter uttered with panic as she saw feathers growing on my hands. "The portion!!" Luna said in a hushed tone.
We rushed to drink the potion. As I opened the bottle, Luna hurriedly drank the potion. She almost drank the whole bottle when I interrupted her, taking the bottle and I took a sip of the portion, making a weird face just after drinking it. "Urgh!! It tastes like human blood!" I spoke with disgust. Both of us got out as we endured the horrible taste of the water-like potion.