Arabella POV:

I woke to sun shining brightly through the window, sitting up I stretch my stiff limbs and glance around to see the others are already awake and packing their bags. I look to the side of where I was sleeping and notice a plate of cheese, bread and cold meat, picking it up I glance around and look for who might have given me this food. But no one is looking my way so I begin to eat the food, savouring the taste. Caspian walks over and sits down next to me, he sighs and looks at me.

"Listen, people are starting to spread rumours about you." He explains.

"What type of rumours?" I ask confused.

"About you being the chosen one, Marcel has been scouting around trying to figure out what people have been saying." He explains.

"Who was Marcel? Why isn't he here with the rest of us?" I ask glancing over at the others.

"He was the one with green hair and teal eyes, his magic allows him to transform into animals so he's been a fox for the past day trying to listen in on what people are saying. Thats why he left when you went in to speak to your parents." Caspian glances at my plate of food. "Who gave you that?"

"Wasn't it you?" I ask placing my now empty plate down.

"Nope, we didn't want to wake you so we left you alone. The old man gave us all the same food, he must have kept some aside and given it to you for when you woke up." He stands up and runs a hand through his brown hair. "Get ready we'll be leaving in an hour." 

I stand up and look through my bag for my hair brush, pulling it out I pull the golden clip from my hair and begin to brush it. It falls in a long silky curtain down my back as I brush it and I then tie it into a high pony tail then to keep my bangs out of my face I add the golden clip, I notice Melody looking at me enviously as she ties her hair into low ponytails.

"Hey Melody, want me to braid your hair for you?" I ask and her eyes light up.

"Really?!" She squeals running across the room to sit by me.

"Sure, I always do my sisters hair." I say beginning to brush her hair.

Its a little rougher than my hair but its still a beautiful colour, brushing the nots from her hair I begin to separate it into three parts. Then I begin the process of braiding it into a thick braid down her back, then I pull the golden clip from my hair and use it to clip the braid into a rose shape to keep it out of the way.

"All done." I say standing up and brushing my dress.

"Thank you Arabella! Its beautiful." She says skipping over to the mirror and taking a look.

I pull a pale blue dress from my bag and decide to change since my pink dress is dirty and ripped, Zora nods to me and motions for me to follow her. She leads me into a bathroom where I  can wash up and dress in private, pulling the pink dress over my head I pick up a washcloth and dampen it slightly to wash my self. Then I pull my blue dress down and fasten my brown belt around my waist, this dress is a little too small for me now so it comes to my mid thigh. But I never tell my mother that things don't fit because she used to always worry about me having everything I needed, it got worse when Amber got sick. Suddenly a wave of homesickness washes over me as I remember everyone.

"Am I doing the right thing?" I ask my self in the mirror.

The gem around my neck glows softly and fills me with a sense of calm, so I shake my head and then walk out of the room to pack up the rest of my stuff. Lupus pops into my head so I walk to the front door and whistle for him, I look into the forest and see him start to emerge. He pads towards me happily so I sit on the steps and stroke his fur as he licks my cheek.

"You have a way with that beast my dear." Mr Atrix says giving Lupus a careful pat.

"Thank you sir, and thank you for allowing us to stay the night." I say as he sits next to me.

"It was my pleasure, did you have chance to read the book I gave you?" He inquires.

"Yeah I did, its very interesting sir. Its slightly difficult understanding some of the words because they are written in a more cursive hand than I'm used to but I can still read it, I only glanced at it briefly last night but I intend to read it more as we travel to the capital." I say as Lupus begins to sniff the air.

The air then suddenly becomes still and the sounds of the forest dim down, I feel a sense of dread and fear in my very bones. I stand up and look around the forest, I place a hand out and Lupus comes to my side. The others come outside and they each get into a stance, almost like they are ready for battle.

"Arabella get behind us, your too unstable right now." Cormac says.

"But I want to help." I say as I'm pushed behind by Zora.

"I know you want to help but right now you need to learn how to use the magic, and you won't be able to do that if you don't know any spells." She says while standing in front of me.

I stand behind them as two men dressed in dark uniforms come out one had dark black hair and  ice blue eyes, the other with dark grey hair and crimson eyes. They wear evil smirks on their faces and they both look at our small group of mages, the one with grey hair holds his hand up and it crackles with lightning. Grinning evilly he looks at us and takes in our small group, he rolls his eyes and then speaks.

"Well if it isn't the goodie two shoes from the Mage school." The one with grey hair states.

"Who are they?" I whisper from behind Zora.

"They are dark mages, ones who never went to the magic schools. They were aloud to be reckless with their magic and their a big problem in Aefidore." She whispers back. "Now keep quiet before..." She's cut off by the black haired mage.

"Who's your new friend? She's hot." He says and holds his hand out. "Lets have a better look at her shall we?"

I suddenly have no control of my feet, I slowly begin to walk from behind Zora and towards the black haired mage. Everyone tries to hold me back but its like my body isn't mine anymore, even Lupus tries to pull me back.

"Got a little wolf friend? Don't tell me your the supposed chosen one?" He asks stepping forward.

He brings his other hand to my cheek and strokes my face, then he notices the chain around my neck. Smiling he pulls at the chain and the golden crystal is pulled from under the fabric of my dress, he licks his lips and then reaches for the crystal. Suddenly its like something inside me snaps and I bring my fist up and connect it with his cheek.

"What the hell!" He yells at me angrily.

"Looks like you need more practice Fielus." The grey haired mage grins evilly.

"Shut up Stigast. Zap her with your lightning!" He yells at Fielus.

I raise my hand as he comes running at me and I focus on making some sense of the words in my head, one cicks and I test it out.

"Flare eruptio!" I yell and a scoarching ball of fire flies at the chest of Fielus.

He falls back in pain with a large circle burnt into the fabric of his shirt, I step backward as I realise what I've done. The smell of burning flesh fills my nose, and the cries of pain fill my ears. I've never seriously hurt anyone in my life, I've always helped my father to ure the sick and wounded not to harm them. Caspian walks over to me and places a hand on my shoulder, he nods at me and then the others come and stand on either side of me.

"Keep away from Arabella, if you ever try to cause harm to her again. You will have us to deal with us." Caspian says giving my shoulder a squeeze.

The two take a step back and then dissapear into black smoke, I didnt realise that I was holding my breath unil I took a huge lungful of air. Everyone looks at me shocked but with small smiles on their faces, Lupus comes over and lets me lean on him in support. Resting my hand on his soft grey fur I look at my hands.

"That was magic wasnt it?" I ask taking another deep breath.

"Yeah it was, and pretty advanced too. Maybe for the next couple of days we should let you practice some different spells, your getting talked about now and I can almost guarantee that those two will be back. And with their friends." Caspian says as he looks at me. "Are you ok?"

"Not really, I hurt him. Badly, and my dad is a healer so all I've known was how to heal people. Not how to hurt them." Looking at my hands I feel conflicted.

If magic is so good like these mages are saying then why is it so destructive at the same time? Magic should be to help people not to cause harm and pain, so right here and now I've decided that I'll only study magic that can help people.

"I think she was careless." A voice calls out.

I look around totally confused while the others nudge eachother with smirks on their faces.

"Who's there?" I call out.

A small red bird comes and sits on Lupus's head, he looks up and tries to shake the bird off. The bird then jumps off his head and lands on the soft grass, it looks up at me with soft teal coloured eyes. Wait a second? Teal coloured eyes on a bird? A soft red glow envelops the bird and it then begins to change, the wings slowly turn into arms and its skinnt little bird legs turn into the legs of a man. Finally the head and torso change to show Marcel looking down on me with his teal eyes, his clothes formed along with his transformation which I'm eternally grateful for.

"Nice to see you again Arabella." He says giving me a smirk. "Nice fire skills."

"I dont even really understand how it happened, one minute he was controlling me and then something inside me. I dont know, snapped? And then the words running around my head made sense, I knew all I had to do was say that word and I could protect everyone." I say running a hand through my long hair.

"Well not too bad for your first real spell, but in future you might want to work on how you say the spell. You sounded too formal." He says giving my cheek a soft pinch.

I cant help but laugh at how playful he is, everyone else seems to calm down now thatStigast and Fielus are gone. We look back at the wooden cottage of the man who took care of us and begin to walk away, but before we do there is something I want to try. Walking over to a small patch of land I kneel down and hold the crystal in one hand and place another onto the grass, focusing on the words I remember what Marcel said about my pronunciation.

"Crescere Lignum Memoriae." I say softly.

A tree then begins to grow from under my hand, the large trunk of the tree begins to twist and form shapes until its formed a picture. Satisfied with my work I take a step back and look at the magnificent tree, two young people are wrapped in eachother's arms in a passionate kiss. Soft flower petals fall down onto the grass in a flurry of white, I place my hand onto the tree and smile. Then with a final glance back at the tree and wooden cottage, I follow my comrades down the pebbled path onto the next part of our adventure.