I gasped. What. The. Heck.

I looked down. I was wearing armor. Me, Ravi Jindal, the scrawny nerd, the awkward idiot, wearing armor. I was muscular for crying out loud! It felt wrong. So wrong.

But yet...at the same time...it felt incredibly, breathtakingly, right.

I suddenly realized what I was thinking and felt a pang of annoyance at myself. I sounded like a stupid Taylor Swift song.

"Hey!" I turned and saw Isaac, also ironclad, running towards me with absolute joy on his face. "Isn't this incredible?"

"Yeah..." I said, still not believing it. Isaac's grin widened. "The world feels...smaller almost. You know?" I nodded. "Not necessarily the world is smaller...I'm bigger."

"But yet, smaller," he marveled.

"Realized how small we really are." We grinned at each other. I've never had a conversation with someone like that before. Ever.

"Hey guys!" We turned. It was Deynan, who (unfortunately) actually looked good in his armor.

"What do you want?" I asked. Oh, wow. That sounded kind of hostile. I shrugged it off.

"Well, I wanna hang out with the cool kids, and in case you haven't noticed, no one else has managed to transform."

I looked around. It was true. Everyone else was still struggling. Harrison looked like he was having a seancè.

"So Deynan," Isaac said, "how does it feel? Believing in magic?"

He laughed. "Feels great, man. Weird. But great."

I stared. "You're not fazed...at all?"

He shrugged. "Well, once I accepted it, I turned into an awesome muscular dude, so seems like a pretty good trade off to me."

I shook my head in awe.

"Yup, well done boys, very well done!" Mr. Zonders said, walking over towards us. Deynan gave him a peace out sign. Mr. Zonders returned the gesture. "Dr. Smith will be here in a few minutes, he wants to talk to the first three that transformed. Oh looky, another one!" Noah had managed it, delight lighting up his face.

"Aha, Leroy, are these our three special ones?" Dr. Smith said, strolling out into the courtyard.

"Yes indeedy they are, sir," Mr. Zonders said, snapping a salute. I was somewhat nervous, somewhat amused by his weirdness.

Dr. Smith smiled warmly at us. "I am not surprised. I could sense there was something special inside of you." I fought the urge to roll my eyes. What a bunch of crap.

Dr. Smith clapped his hands together. "Well boys, I know this is rather sudden but remember that girl's school I mentioned? They're sending out a team to go check on a disturbance, and their headmistress suggested I pick a few of my most promising new ones and have them accompany the team. A field trip of sorts. So I said to myself, the first three newbies that transform will be the ones! And that's you!"

I began to feel sick as the full realization of what he was saying hit me: I was going to have to spend extra time with (shudder) Deynan.

At least I had Isaac to keep me sane.

"That sounds amazing, sir!" Isaac said warmly. "Thank you, sir."

"Ah, don't 'sir' me, my dear Isaac, I'm no knight," he said laughing. "Oh, and Mr. Marquez and I will accompany you on the way over there."

Oh yeah. Boats and all that. Suddenly this whole field trip prospect seemed a lot more real.

"Where is the school anyways?" Deynan asked.

"Off the coast of North Carolina," Dr. Smith replied.

"Oh, great," I mumbled sarcastically.

"Oh, that's right!" Dr. Smith said happily. "I forgot that you live there, Ravi."

"For like, two weeks," I corrected. "Two weeks too long..." I muttered. I hate North Carolina.

"We leave tomorrow then?" Isaac asked.

"Far from it, my boy," Dr. Smith said. "We leave now."

"Now?!" Deynan exclaimed. "You've got to be joking."

Dr. Smith raised an amused eyebrow. "Do you have anything to pack?"

"Well, no..."

"Then what's the problem?"

Deynan considered this for moment, and then shrugged. "Sweet. Let's go."

"Splendid!" Dr. Smith said. "Now, I suggest you change out of your warrior form, as I believe that would scare some people at the airport quite a bit."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The boat ride back to the mainland was very calming. I don't think it had really processed with any of us yet. Once we passed the fog barrier, I noticed Mr. Marquez. He was reading a brown, worn book...sideways.

I must've been staring at him pretty weird, because when he looked up, he laughed and beckoned me over. I got up, Deynan following me because he's obnoxious. Mr. Marquez waved Isaac over too. He closed the book as we got closer.

"See, magic doesn't really agree with technology. We interact and the technology usually...explodes. Or dies. Or does something pretty weird. One time, a man asked me to hold his cell phone and it started playing Heigh-Ho from Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. And the battery drained 70%."

Deynan snorted. "Wow."

"Is that why we weren't allowed to bring our cellphones?" I realized. Mr. Marquez winked. "Spot on."

"What does that have to do with this stupid book?" Deynan asked.

"Well, in a technologically centered world, we couldn't very well operate the traditional way with letters and such. So we had to think of a way we could use technology without it being technology. And this was created." He opened the book sideways. A little keyboard appeared on the bottom half and a little search bar on the the upper half.

"It's a computer!" Isaac exclaimed.

"No, duh, Sherlock," Deynan said sarcastically. I elbowed him in the side.

"And when I get to the site, the screen will reorient if I turn it sideways. And i can save multiple tabs on different pages, switching tabs by turning the page."

I was surprised at the ingenuity of it all. "How do you make one?"

"You enchant a blank book. The spell used to be complicated, and of course no one wanted to use an enchantment like that for anyone but themselves, so they used to be really rare."

We stared. "Um...what?" Deynan asked.

He laughed. "Oh yeah, you guys wouldn't know about that, now would you? Well, sorcerers are magical beings that can enchant objects. But there's a catch: they can only enchant 100 things in their lifetime. It wasn't such a problem back in ancient times, when the life expectancy was a lot shorter. But now that people live so much longer, they conserve their gifts selfishly." He paused in thought. "You know, come to think of it, sorcerers have always been pretty selfish."

"What happens if they die before all the enchantments are used?" Isaac asked.

Mr. Marquez smiled at him, like how a teacher does when a student asks the perfect question. "Those enchantments are sent out into the world and become new sorcerers."

Oh. That was cool.

"Well, anyways, about the book," Mr. Marquez continued, "they developed a solute that, when poured into water and then poured over the book, would enchant it: all you had to do was enchant the solute. So you could enchant a big bucket of it, and then it could be used to enchant 100, or more." He rubbed his hand over the pages lovingly. "But some people, like moi, prefer to enchant their books personally."

"Legends can enchant things?!" Deynan exclaimed. I saw his eyes light up with thoughts...a shiver a fear went up my spine.

"No," Mr. Marquez said laughing. Deynan visibly deflated and Mr. Marquez laughed harder. His eyes twinkled. "I never said I was a Legend."

We fell silent. "You said you were a teacher of foreign studies..." I said slowly.

He nodded in amusement. "I am a sorcerer." He lifted his hand up and a flame danced across it.

"Whoooooooa!!!" Isaac said with wide eyes.

"Do you lose an enchantment for that?" Deynan said critically, pointing at his hand.

"Nah, just a parlor trick," Mr. Marquez said, extinguishing the flame.

"That's still really cool!" Isaac exclaimed. "Is there a sorcerer school too?"

"Sort of," Mr. Marquez explained. "We joined guilds at a young age, learn, and then continue to do jobs and increase our understanding of the magical world, as well as act as a sort of police to bad magic users. Myths and Legends have guilds too, they just all work under the Elder Council."

I wanted to ask why he wasn't at his guild now, but that seemed like sort of a personal question. Luckily, Dr. Smith came over just then and saved me from the awkward decision.

"We are approaching the mainland," Dr. Smith said happily. "When we get there, I would advise you to take this before you get on the plane. Unless, of course, you want the plane to explode."

"Or turn pink," Mr. Marquez remarked casually. Dr. Smith nodded gravely, handing us little tablets, that felt and looked kind of like icebreakers.

"Do we take it now, or later?" Isaac asked.

"Oh, whenever you wish," Dr. Smith said dismissively.

Isaac had raised it to his mouth when Mr. Marquez caught his eye and shook his head emphatically, making a small gagging motion. Isaac's eyes widened and he lowered it quickly.

"Oh, and please don't lose these, they're rather rare," Dr. Smith called back as he walked away. Deynan froze, two seconds before he was about to throw it off the side of the boat.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"Don't ever make me take that again," Deynan exclaimed. "If I ever say I want to travel, ever, talk me out of it or tell me to walk."

"I know the feeling," Mr. Marquez said solemnly. "That's why I never ride the plane with students the first time they go to school."

"How do you get there then?" Isaac asked curiously.

Mr. Marquez winked. "I flew."

My mind instantly began flying through possible Legend forms that could maybe fly. Oh geez. What if we were fairies? That would be embarrassing.

"Ugh," Deynan continued, "I feel like someone's filled my head with rocks. And my chest with cotton balls." I rolled my eyes.

"And my nose is stuffy," he added for good measure.

"Oh my gosh!" I exclaimed, not being able to contain it anymore. "You were asleep practically the entire time!"

He shrugged. "Your point?"

"The rest of us stayed awake and dealt with it!"

"It's not my fault you didn't decide to go to sleep."

"I don't want to mess up my sleep schedule, thank you very much. Have fun falling asleep tonight."

"I don't have a sleep schedule. Sleep is awesome. I can do it wherever I want, whenever I want. And it already is tonight. The sun went down."

I rolled my eyes. "Thank you for that brilliant observation."

"What did you guys do on the plane ride anyway?"

"We watched the first Lord of the Rings and played War."

Deynan laughed. "You can't play War for that long. Can you?"

Isaac and I nodded solemnly.

Deynan's eyes widened. "Ok, now I'm just impressed. And a little scared."

"Climb aboard, boys," Dr. Smith announced, "to the Queen Titania."

"Are all your boat names from A Midsummer Night's Dream?" I blurted. My face heated up as I realized I sounded like a nerd.

Dr. Smith looked surprised. "Have you read it? Seen it? Performed it?"

"Uh...read it." Why did I have to say something? "I like Shakespeare."

"Nerd," Deynan muttered. I burned in embarrassment.

Dr. Smith, however, was delighted. "It's wonderful to meet a young Shakespeare lover! I was a Shakespeare fan myself as a young boy."

Deynan coughed. "Neeeerrrrrd."

"Yet Ravi is the smartest one here," Isaac remarked. "Odd."

My face was about to burn off, I was positive. I appreciated Isaac trying to defend me, but seriously, where had he gotten the idea that I was smart? Did I just give off that vibe? Because I didn't flaunt it, like Spencer. That guy really was a nerd.

We climbed on the boat and sat on the little ledge around the outside.

"Get some rest," Dr. Smith said gently. "It will be a long night."

"Awesome," Deynan said, sprawling out on the deck. A few minutes later, he was snoring.

"Now that right there is impressive and scary," Isaac said quietly. I laughed softly.

Then I drifted off to sleep, wondering what exactly the next few days held in store.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The mirror showed the ocean, and floating above it, mist. It created an atmosphere of serenity.

I heard a noise behind me and turned. A girl, about my age, with blonde-brown hair, a sort of gold color. She smiled at me.

My eyes widened. For I recongnized her.