Changing the Prophecy Chapter 1 Episode 2

Chapter 1 Before Midsummer's Eve

Episode 2

“What are you doing here?” Aunt Alice blurted angrily.

“Who is this?” Crystal demanded.

“Uh-oh, uh-oh, uh-oh,” Bayard squawked from his perch on Sonjay’s head.

Elena burst into tears. Maia hurried to her friend and helped her up off the ground. “Are you hurt?” Maia asked softly as she picked leaves out of Elena’s long black hair and patted her arm. “You didn’t hurt yourself did you?”

Elena sniffled and wiped her nose on the back of the sleeve of her pajama top, which she wore over her jeans. “What is everyone doing out in the woods?” she asked.

“We tried not to wake you,” Maia told her friend, with a note of apology in her voice. “It’s hard to explain.”

“You left me all alone at the house,” Elena complained.

“You’re a big girl, thirteen years old, don’t tell me you were afraid to be left alone,” Aunt Alice snapped with annoyance.

“What are we going to do with her?” Denzel asked his aunt. “We’ve gotta go.”

“Can Ruby take her back to the house?” Doshmisi suggested.

“No,” Crystal said quickly, “she has to stay with me to learn how to do this.”

“I’ll take her back,” Aunt Alice said with a frustrated sigh.

“I don’t want to go back,” Elena declared as she stamped her foot. “Tell me what’s going on. Ayee! Locos!”

“Latina firecracker,” Bayard squawked.

“Bayard, you are not helping this situation,” Sonjay told the bird.

Bayard eyed Elena and then flew to her shoulder, where he settled in a most dignified manner and repeated, “Latina firecracker.”

“Gracias,” Elena said as she stroked Bayard’s head. “I think,” she added uncertainly, as it occurred to her that Bayard may or may not have been paying her a compliment.

“Elena is amigamia, my friend,” Maia insisted. “We’ll bring her inside with us and then after we go, Aunt Alice please try to explain to her what’s going on.” She turned to Elena and begged her, “Por favor, just let us do what we have to do here and Aunt Alice will tell you about it after we leave.”

“Where are you going?” Elena asked.

“No time,” Crystal stated as she hurried back into the cabin. The others swiftly followed.

“Places everyone,” Ruby announced, as she clapped her hands. Sonjay, Maia, Denzel, and Doshmisi collected their things and then each of them selected a cushion and sat down. Bayard flew from Elena’s shoulder to Sonjay’s shoulder. While the children arranged themselves on the cushions, Crystal and Ruby unscrewed the tops from the jars and mixed the powders into a bowl.

“What’s the day of the return?” Denzel asked.

“It would have been the fourteenth of Loma; but since we arrived early it could come sooner, so make sure to go to Angel’s Gate by the first of the month and hopefully Cardamom can help you figure out the return,” Crystal told them as she and Ruby approached with the bowl of colorful powder.

“Keep your hands and feet inside the passage sticks,” Aunt Alice cautioned, unnecessarily, since the children had done this before and knew how it worked.

“Ready?” Crystal asked nervously.

“As ready as we’ll ever be,” Denzel replied.

“Wait,” Doshmisi said. She hopped off her cushion and went to Aunt Alice and gave her a big hug. “See you again soon,” she told her.

Aunt Alice’s eyes filled with tears as she released her niece. “Get on up outta here.” She waved Doshmisi back to the cushion. Zora barked and Aunt Alice picked her up.

Ruby and Crystal began to sprinkle the powder over the Four. Crystal said some strange words and Ruby repeated them. Doshmisi noticed that they spoke the words much more tentatively than Amethyst had spoken them. Her thoughts were suddenly interrupted by Elena, who burst across the room, her shiny blue-black hair flying like a flag behind her as she jumped onto Maia’s cushion, where she flung her arms around Maia and held on tight. Then Elena and Maia disappeared as Doshmisi felt herself swept up in the twister of powders and whirled off as if sucked down a wind tunnel.