Summary up to this point: The gang found Amarie, a nervous former slave of Giselle and the Destroyer. She explained that she was something like a Myth or Legend called a Monster. Then synthetic Monsters began attacking the island, and the gang split up to fight them: Ravi, Deynan, and Sophie just finished fighting a sea monster, and Audrey, Tess, and Abigail are fighting something on a different part of the island, yet to be discovered. Sierra, Isaac, and Amarie are on a cliff on the west side, and have just spotted spiders approaching on rafts in huge waves.

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My mind was spinning wildly. "Okay. Spiders. Giant spiders attacking the island. Nothing we can't handle."

I glanced at Isaac, whose face was growing pale. "I don't love spiders," he whispered.

I looked at Amarie. Her eyes were wide and her hands were shaking. She was whispering something under her breath that sounded vaguely like, "no, no, no."

I took a breath. Alright. It was up to me then. No pressure.

"Isaac, um, make sure they don't get up the cliff. Burn them with dragon or something. I'll try to sink their boats while they're still in the water."

He looked at me nervously. "Um, I'm not sure dragon is the best...strategy."

I looked at him oddly. Why? Dragon was the most powerful form they had.

Not counting Legendary, but if it was the same as Mythical, I knew firsthand how hard that could be.

"Um, okay. Well, you guys stay up here and...keep them from getting to the top of the cliff. This is the most easily defendable area, after all. I'll go sink boats and stuff...Kay?"

We stared at each other blankly.

I nodded. "Kay." I clapped my hands together. "Let's do this!"

I spoke with confidence I didn't have. But I kept a smile on my face...for team morale purposes.

Then I turned around and took a breath. Joy. Light and life overflowing.

Fairy wings sprouted from my back and I launched myself into the air. Despite the situation, I couldn't help but smile. Being a fairy felt so good. Joy was my favorite state of being. It only made sense.

I soared off the cliff and dove down towards the water. The spiders that were closest were about 10 yards from the shore. I stopped, hovering. My original plan had involved my mermaid form, but I started to realize that I definitely did not want to be in the water with these things. I would have to have some other technique.

I frowned. I had been trying to find a way to mix forms, but so far hadn't been successful. I mean, as a warrior fairy, I could be so effective.

Not that warrior was my favorite form. But still.

I darted towards one boat quickly, ramming my hands into the mast and giving a huge push. The raft slowly began to tilt, and I kept pushing until the raft capsized.

I smiled at my work. This wasn't too hard.

Then the smile fell off my face as I realized that there were arguably hundreds of rafts. I could never capsize them all in time.

I bit my lip. Think, Sierra. Think like Ravi.

There was one thing I could try...but it was dangerous. Unpredictable. I didn't love those circumstances.

I took a breath. It would have to do.

I flew high up into the air, to give myself some margin of error. That was a very Ravi-esque tactic. I took another breath and tried to steady my heart and clear my mind.

This was harder to do alone than I thought.

Of course, I wasn't truly alone. But it kind of felt like it.

I pushed the thoughts out of my mind. Isaac wouldn't let any of those spiders up the cliff. He was my back-up policy. That was another thing Ravi liked to do: have a front fighter and a back fighter.

Then I closed my eyes.

Hope. Passion. The light amidst the darkness.

And then, I was on fire.

The next few moments were a blur. The only thing I remember, as is normal with phoenix, is the overwhelming sense of power, strength, and the absolute unshaking faith that everything was going to work out perfectly. I remember the heat, the sound of the wind in my ears, and a few hurried images of burning wood and corpses in the sea.

After what seemed like only a minute, my mind had a moment of clarity. I felt a rush of joy and life run through me, and transformed into a fairy.

I gasped at the sight before me.

All the rafts were burning, and most of the spiders were fumbling around in the water or floating dead. My stomach churned. I did this.

But what frightened me most was the horde of about fifty spiders, still very much alive, and climbing up the cliff.

Instantly, I was in motion again. Dread began pooling in the pit of my stomach as I zipped towards the island. Amarie had her hands clasped over her mouth. Isaac looked terrified.

Then he looked up at me and started shouting.

I slowed, confused. I couldn't understand a word he was saying. He sounded almost...excited.

"What?" I shouted back.

This time, I got a few words. "Spiders...cliff...I...crush...safe!"

I frowned. Was he telling me a plan?

"Okay!" I yelled, desperately hoping I hadn't just sealed our doom.

I watched, not wanting to come any closer and mess up his plan. The spiders were halfway up the cliff now. I subconsciously began to bite the skin around my fingernails.

Isaac took a breath. The light swirled around him. It slowly faded. He was a dwarf.

I frowned.

He took out a small rock mining tool from his back pocket. Then, he dashed to one side of the cliff with inhuman speed.

I guess he wasn't technically human at the time.

He began hammering at the side of the cliff. The rocks cracked and crumbled a bit. He kept hammering until that part of the cliff completely broke off, creating a very tiny avalanche and bringing the spiders with it.

Suddenly, his plan became clear.

I watched as he slowly hammered off the side of the cliff. Soon, all the spiders were lying dead at the base of the cliff, crushed by the rocks.

I drifted over to where Isaac and Amarie were standing. I landed next to Isaac, who was beaming at me, now returned to human form.

I smiled at him. "Good thinking. Another day saved."

He grinned. "Well...let's be honest, you did most of the work."

I shrugged. "It still wasn't enough. You were just as valuable."

Amarie made a disgusted face. "And I was completely useless."

"Don't say that," I protested.

She raised an eyebrow. "What? I was."

"We wouldn't expect you to fight," Isaac said kindly. "It's your first day here."

I suddenly realized I was still in fairy form. I closed my eyes, took a deep breath, and let the transformation drop.

A wave of dizziness flooded over me. "Whoa," I said with a laugh, stumbling back a bit.

Isaac steadied me with a concerned look. "Are you okay? You look like you over-exerted yourself...a lot. In the air transformations, for a long amount of time...."

"Nah, I'm good," I said, straightening my back.

Then the world started spinning, I tipped forwards, and everything went black.

~~~

"Oh my goodness, what the crap, is she okay? What did you do to her?!"

Is that Ravi...?

"I didn't do anything!"

"I swear, if you hurt her--"

"Hey, Ravi, chill man. Amarie didn't do anything. I promise. Sierra just overexerted herself. Too many forms, too quickly. You know how it is."

A whisper. "You should've seen her. It was amazing. I've never seen anything like it."

A chuckle. "Yeah. I know. She's incredible, isn't she?"

Oh my goodness. I felt my cheeks grow warm.

"Hey, can we get some water over here?!"

I heard the clacking of heels on the stone floor. I must be inside the castle.

"Hold this up to her forehead," said an authoritative voice.

Being half passed out is disorienting.

I felt something cool being pressed to my forehead. I took a deep breath and my eyes fluttered open. Standing above me were Ravi, Isaac, Amarie, and Ms. Catalona.

"Hey, guys," I whispered.

Ravi's face broke out into such a huge smile, you'd think he had just won a million dollars. "Hey," he said happily.

"Back away from her, give her some air," Ms. Catalona commanded. They backed up hurriedly.

Ms. Catalona looked at me seriously. "Can you sit up?"

I sat up slowly. My head throbbed.

"My head hurts a bit," I said with a quiet laugh.

Ms. Catalona handed me a water bottle and a piece of chocolate. I smiled. "Throwback."

She smiled back.

"You shouldn't overexert yourself like that," Ravi said abruptly.

I looked at him with a raised eyebrow. "Oh?"

"Yeah." He looked down and shuffled his feet. "You could get hurt and stuff."

"Right, because you've NEVER overworked yourself. Ever."

He was about to respond when we heard arguing from down the hallway. It drew closer, and I frowned.

Then Tess and Audrey stormed into the room.

I sighed.

"I can't believe you," Audrey said angrily. "That was a complete disaster. And now you're blaming me."

"Um, excuse me?!" Tess exclaimed. "Of course I'm blaming you! You're the one that went on a rampage!"

Ravi and I exchanged a worried look.

"Yeah, and that wouldn't have happened if not for you, stupid!"

Just then, Abigail jogged into the room, out of breath and looking very much concerned. She stopped when she saw our faces. "I tried to stop them," she whispered.

"Crazy person!"

"Idiot!"

"Hey, guys, let's calm down, alright?" Isaac said soothingly. He walked over slowly to the two girls who were glaring at each other with enough intensity to burn down a forest.

He placed a hand on Audrey's shoulder. "Maybe you two should sit down."

Still glaring at each other, they grumpily complied. Tess walked over to a chair while Audrey simply dropped into a criss-cross position on the floor.

I looked at Abigail. "Um...what happened?"

"Well," she said slowly, "we got there, and started looking for any approaching monsters. But uh...there weren't any. So Audrey and I were looking at an article on monsters with Tess on the lookout, when Tess said she saw something."

"She screamed," Audrey corrected.

Abigail looked at Audrey hesitantly. "And um...Audrey transformed into warrior and threw a knife at one of the things..."

"But they were seagulls," Tess said flatly.

I raised an eyebrow. "What?"

"Freaking seagulls," Audrey said angrily.

"And they weren't super happy that we killed one of them," Abigail said quietly.

"They attacked us," Tess hissed. She touched her hair delicately. "And I know I look like an absolute wreck right now." She glared at Audrey.

Audrey looked back coldly. "Oh honey, the seagulls didn't need to help you with that."

Tess rose from the chair angrily, but Isaac held out his hands in warning. "Hey. Chill."

She sat back down with a humph.

"You know what," I said slowly, "maybe we should all go to our rooms and relax for a bit. Amarie, I can show you to our dorm."

"Sounds like a plan," Isaac said. "Speaking of, where are Sophie and Deynan?"

"Already up there," Ravi replied. "Went up as soon as we got back. We had somewhat of a tiring fight."

"Perfect," I said, pumping a fist in the air. "Alright, guys. Let's go take a nap!"

I sighed. Heaven knows I needed one.

~~~~~~~~~~~

I am SO sorry this is so late.