Chapter Five

The man did not stop and flew at top speed, causing Sivia and Christie to remain silent, teeth rattling(as it was rather cold up in the air). He held the two girls in his arms easily as if they weren’t squirming and wriggling. Only did he slow down and sighed when they were well past the forest underneath them.

“Where are you taking us?” Silvia demanded as soon as she found her voice. The man didn’t answer and simply smiled down at her, baring his yellow teeth. Her hair was knotted and was sticking up in every angle, while her lipstick was smudged and stained her chattering teeth and flushed cheeks. Altogether, she looked quite ruffled.

Christie on the other hand did not have the same untidy appearance, though her hair stuck up everywhere. However, other than that, she appeared to be fairly normal. Her face paler than usual(the opposite to Silvia). But they still had a little tinge of pinkness which came from the excitement of the adventure. Noticing the excitement Christie was showing, Silvia jabbed her in the ribs.

“What was that for?” Christie bellowed loudly.

“Why are you so happy to be kidnapped? And keep your voice down.” Silvia hissed angrily.

“He can hear us anyway. He’s right above us. Silvia, this is what you wanted!” Exclaimed Christie, not listening to Silvia’s order.

“When did I say I wanted to be kidnapped?” Silvia snapped. Christe rolled her eyes.

“You said you wanted to get away from there.”

Silvia flinched, because it had not been Christie who had answered. It had been the man holding them who had.

“I didn’t really mean it. I was upset, and even if I did want to get away, I would want the whole thing planned!” Silvia groaned. She slapped her forehead as she said this.

“Which means?” Christie egged her to go on.

“My mother knowing where I’m going. Oh I forgot to mention, where I know where I'm going. Besides, I can’t possibly leave her now with father gone.”

“So where are you taking us?” Christie looked up at the man who was unconsciously smirking at Silva’s words.

“You’ll see,” was all he said and without a warning, his grip on the girls tightened as he dove towards the ground, quickly gathering speed.

Silvia had been about to demand,”What do you mean by ‘you'll see’?”. But as he abruptly flew towards the ground, all that came out was: “Wha-aaa!” Her scream continued to echo when they landed in the bright forest clearing. The man let go of his hold unexpectedly and Christie and Silvia who had both been unawarely leaning on him, fell to the ground. Christie’s short yell joined in with Silvia’s long one which strangely was not going away. In fact, it was not just their echoes that they could hear. So many echoes of so many other people could be heard.

“The Clearing of Echoes.” Said the man, still not revealing his identity. “Where your and centuries old echoes can be heard.”

Silvia and Christie gazed around themselves. Surrounding them were huge(larger than normal) unnormally very dark green trees that swayed from side to side, and amongst the sounds of the thousands of echoes, they could hear the sounds of the rustling leaves.

“And of course the trees are larger than the ones you know. They’re enchanted, and because of that, the forest is called the Enchanted Forest. Not only that, the plants in there are deathless and-unfortunately-some can attack you. You don’t want that because often, some of those plants are poisonous which can kill you.”

“So you kidnapped us just to show us this?” Silvia raised a brow, unconvinced.

“Silvia!” Christie hissed(which joined the echoes).

“I didn’t kidnap you,” Said the man slowly, “I’ve taken you-”

“Which is the same thing as kidnapping!” Silvia interrupted.

“I’ve taken you,” the man sighed, “because you’ve been accepted into my schools, which is quite very rare as no one in your town has been accepted besides you two in the last ten centuries.”

Christie and Silvia froze. No, this could not be what they had in mind. Of course it couldn’t be the school so many kids in their town had been punished for.

“How many schools are there?” Silvia whispered.

“Two, of course.” The man answered with a knowing smile.

Silvia and Christie gasped. By now, they were almost confident on what schools the man took them for.

“The Headmaster’s Academy For Vile And Honour.” Silvia and Christie realized. They looked up at the man who nodded, still smiling.

‘My schools’. The man had said before. ‘My schools.’ The girls looked at each other, eyes wide.

“Then you’re the headmaster?” Christie gasped.

“Of course.” Said the headmaster. Suddenly, the fear in Silvia’s eyes vanished and excitement replaced it.

“Then where are the schools?” She asked eagerly.

“Behind me.” Automatically, Silvia and Christie's eyes shifted from the headmaster to behind him. And indeed there they were, one fortress and one castle. The fortress was smaller but stronger looking and the castle was bigger but did ot have as much security as the fortress did. The fortress was light brown, mangy looking and was crumbling slightly from age. But the castle, however, was silver, shiny and clean, otherwise known as new. Both academies were separated from each other with a thick, stone wall in between, blocking students from escaping to a different school.

An invisible force tugged Silvia towards the shiny, new castle while another pulled Christie to the fortress. Both felt as if they belonged to those schools, and soon, they were floating high in the air and slowly gliding towards their schools.

“What’s happening?” Silvia shrieked at the ground where the headmaster stood, smiling.

“Be warned that you cannot get past the walls!” He called and waved.

“Huh. Are we going to our school? Oh, I'm so ashamed, but I’m afraid I’m so excited, aren’t you?” Silvia turned to her right side where she thought Christie was, floating with her, towards the awaiting castle. She frowned and looked to the left and found her friend airborning towards the old fortress.

“Huh. Why is she going there?” Silvia wondered aloud, and a minute later, she realized.

I’m going to the castle and she’s going to the fortress. We’re going to different academies. We’re going to be...separated.

Panicking, she called out to Christie who was grinning broadly and moving faster towards her school.

“Christie!” Christie turned at Silvia screaming her name.

Her eyes widened as she saw Silvia flying to the silver castle with the expression of horror on her face.

“Come with me!” Christie yelled. It was getting harder to hear each other as they were getting further apart from each other.

“I can’t!” Silvia struggled to move towards her friend. The more she tried to move away, the harder and quicker the invisible force dragged her towards the castle. Tears blinded her eyes as she watched Christie being pulled closer and closer to the fortress while she was yanked to the silver castle, amidst her struggles to get away.

“We’ll see each other soon, at least?” Silivia asked no one in particular.

“You don’t see students of the opposite academy. But you may see her in breakfast, lunch and dinner.” A silvery voice said from above. Silvia jerked her head up and gazed at the woman flying on an emerald green dragon, towards her. Her dark brown hair was long and wavy. Her eyes were hazel brown and shone in the sunlight while her nose was round, yet so perfect and her lips were pink and glittered in the sun. She wore a long silver dress, made entirely of silk.

The woman smiled warmly down at her.

“Welcome to the Academy of Honour. I am Lady Audrey and I am the headmistress of your new school.”