Alexis stood in the center of the field facing off against a tall, burly girl from The House of Gia. She had to look up in order to make eye contact with her. As soon as the whistle blew, she sprinted forward and kicked the ball out to Gwen. They began making their way down the field toward the goal as the ground shifted under their feet making all three of the shooters fall down.
The burly girl grabbed the ball off the ground and barreled down the field. As she reached the center of the field where the castle stairs were, she stayed close to the wall. Her fellow shooters sprinted past her and she threw them the ball. They sprinted toward the goal, their shooters closing in quick. The attackers were close on their tail keeping their eyes out for Finn and Claire.
“Why aren’t their defenders helping that poor goalie?” yelled a small boy the size of Caleb. He had the ball in his hands and tossed it to the middle of the field where no one was.
Evelyn stared in front of her where the three shooters from The House of Gia were closing in. “Corinne! Take the shot!” The burly girl that had faced off against Alexis sprinted forward and kicked the ball with all her might. Evelyn stood still, not budging. “Look, she’s given up already!” As the small boy said it, a blast of air blew sideways in front of the goal sending the ball soaring to the side along the curved wall landing in the small moat. Finn started to laugh, “Did you think we weren’t going to help our teammate out?” He ran by and gave Evelyn a high-five and sprinted off toward the ball. The small boy stared after him with a scowl on his face.
Finn caught up to the ball and passed it to Cassidy. She moved slowly toward the centerline, waiting for the other shooters to move into position. She looked down the field and saw Parker and Clay waiting for them to move.
Cassidy took off in a dead sprint, keeping the ball close to her as she kicked it. Alexis took off to the left and Gwen ran straightforward. They met up with their attackers halfway to the goal. The blockers were closing in quickly.
Parker saw the blocker closing in on his side and just as she was about to jump and land, shifting the ground like before, he sent a burst of wind directly at her chest. Without any feet on the ground to support her, she blew straight back and landed hard on her side.
The other blocker saw what happened and stopped himself from jumping to do the same. He sprinted toward Gwen to keep her from getting the ball but Alexis was wide open. Cassidy sent the ball speeding to her. She caught it and traveled closer to the goal. Kicking the ball with all of her might, it sped at the goalie.
Parker sprinted behind her and sent a blast of air as hard as he could directly behind the ball. As it collided, the ball rocketed right past the goalie and into the back of the net. The center of the castle glowed white and applause roared from overhead.
Master Keegan placed the ball in the starting position and everyone took their spots. The whistle blew and then Corinne took off down the center of the field surrounded by her attackers. They stamped the ground and a straight path to the goal was cleared. Finn and Claire knocked off their feet, couldn’t help defend the goal this time.
As Corinne kicked the ball, the attackers sent rocks the same size hurtling toward Evelyn. She dove to the right to block, but the ball hadn’t been on the right. It spun in the back of the net on the left side. The center of the castle glowed an emerald green. Applause roared from above, but The House of Erion was not feeling the same way about the goal scored.
Evelyn called for a timeout and the team huddled together. “All right guys, we need to not let that one happen again. Our play from the first possession was perfect; let’s get back to that. Finn, Claire, if you see what just happened coming, immediately jump in the air and hover so the ground has no effect on you. Attackers, do the same if you see the blockers trying something like that. Now, let’s score another goal!”
Everyone took their positions, the whistle blew and Cassidy took off with the ball. The three shooters crossed the centerline and were immediately met with a wall. The blockers had literally created a wall straight out of the floor. If she hadn't been paying close attention to the blockers movements, she would have run square into it. However, in her attempt to not hit the wall itself, she lost the ball and Corrine took off with it.
She sprinted across the centerline, followed closely by her attackers. As soon as the attackers tried the same strategy, Finn and Claire jumped into the air. Corinne stopped in her tracks and the defenders blew her off her feet as Alexis ran through and stole the ball.
She took off down the field surrounded by the shooters and attackers. As they made their way down the field, Parker and Clay took out the blockers. The goalie was scrambling, trying to figure out what Alexis was going to do. At the last second, Gwen and Cassidy took off and the goalie shifted with Cassidy, ready for Alexis to pass it to her. However, Alexis did not do as he thought she would. Instead of passing it to anyone like she normally did, she took the opportunity to score a goal for their team.
Alexis kicked the ball with all her might, but their goalie noticed what was happening. He dove and blocked the ball. It rolled away from him but as he was recovering, Gwen sprinted up and kicked it past him into the corner of the goal. The center of the castle glowed bright white, signaling the goal.
The House of Gia called for a timeout and then everyone took their positions. The whistle blew and Alexis took off with the ball. As she was kicking it down the field, it disappeared into the ground, as if the ground decided to just eat the ball. It popped up behind her and Corrine took off with it.
The shooters for The House of Gia made their way down the field, facing Finn, Claire and Evelyn. Alexis, Cassidy and Gwen were trying to catch up. As they were watching closely, all of a sudden, each of the shooters were traveling with a ball. Finn took out the short boy and Claire knocked Corinne off of her feet.
A tiny girl, Finn hadn’t even noticed yet kept moving forward. She kicked her ball into the goal as Evelyn tried to block it. “That’s not even the right ball!” Evelyn wasn’t upset that it had made it in; it was just a mud ball. She turned to look at it as the mud was rolling off of it.
Sitting in the goal was the correct ball. They had camouflaged it to confuse them which ball was real. “But how…?” Evelyn mumbled to herself.
The game continued on for hours. One team would score and the other would return the favor. Everyone was heaving, trying to catch their breath. Both teams playing their hardest, not giving up for even a second.
Unauthorized reproduction: this story has been taken without approval. Report sightings.
They took their positions, the whistle blew and Cassidy took off with the ball. She spun around Corinne who looked like she didn’t know what just happened. A blocker sent the ball hurtling through the air by making the ground pop up from under it.
Parker jumped into the air, and kicked a gust of wind at the ball. It bounced hard off the ceiling toward the goal. Cassidy caught up with it, not letting her momentum fall. Coming up on the right side of the goal, she lobbed the ball over to Alexis who had managed to sneak up behind their blockers. Before they could react to her presence, she kicked the ball into the goal.
The House of Erion viewers from above exploded with applause and cheering. Hailee leaned over to Caleb, “That was too close! We were so close to losing there. But we’re safer now at seven to eight.” Caleb gave her a high-five and continued cheering.
On the field, Evelyn called for a timeout. The team huddled together and Evelyn started speaking. “All right! We’ve got our seven points! Now it doesn’t matter what happens, so everyone can relax.”
They walked back to their starting positions and the whistle blew. The House of Gia traveled quickly down the field and they scored. The whistle blew again and the same thing happened. As the center of the castle glowed green, the team ran and hugged each other, tying up the other teams for a three-way tie for the cup.
Evelyn shook hands with Corinne, and explained that even though they’d won the match, the cup would go to The House of Erion because they had more overall points. Corinne’s large grin turned into a frown and then a scowl. “You mean you just stopped playing once you had enough points? That’s so stupid, I can’t believe you did that!”
She stormed off as Evelyn’s face grew a large grin. She turned to her team and yelled, “We did it! We’re the Aether Cup Champions!”
As they made their way out to the stairs, The House of Kenna captain was waiting for them. “I guess we’ll be seeing you guys in the sudden death match for the cup.”
Everyone was confused with what he was saying. “No, we have one more total points that you do. We made forty-one goals and you only made forty.” Evelyn was starting to get mad.
“Count again,” the captain said. “We had forty-one as well, so we'll be seeing you in the sudden death match to determine the champion." The captain had a grim smug on his face, turned around and strutted off down the stairs.
Evelyn’s draw might as well have been on the floor. “My count was off, I ruined this for us. It’s all my fault!” Alexis and Cassidy embraced her in a huge hug.
“It’s okay, we beat them before, twice, and we’ll do it again. It was a simple mistake!” They wouldn’t let her go. She just stared straight ahead, baffled at her mistake. Alexis continued trying to cheer her up but nothing would work.
The team sat together at dinner and did everything they could to cheer Evelyn up. They figured it was just going to take time and beating The House of Kenna to make everything better.
After everyone was done eating, Parker and Alexis joined Caleb and Hailee at their table. They discussed the match and how they would have to have one more match to determine the champion.
They started to head up to the common room when Hailee pulled them off to the side at the bottom of the staircase. “We’ve been looking in the main entrance for this secret chamber right? What if it’s not in the main entrance like everyone thinks?”
Alexis looked confused, “What do you mean not in the main entrance? There’s no other corridor in this area.” As she said it, it was as if a light bulb clicked on in her head. “The secret corridor, duh!” She was mad that she hadn’t thought of that before.
“That’s genius, it has to be there. Master Sora said that practically no one uses it; I mean look at the condition of the classroom we went to Alexis. No one must ever go there anymore. I almost guarantee that no one has looked for a secret entrance to a supposed hidden chamber in there." Hailee sounded completely sure of her idea.
Parker was beaming with joy at the thought of where this entrance could be. “I say that we go and check later tonight. Once everyone has gone to bed, that’s going to be our best chance. Don’t you think?” He was looking for everyone to agree with him but their faces were saying otherwise.
Alexis was not so keen on Parker’s idea. “That’s really risky! What if one of the masters catches us out after hours? We would get in a lot of trouble!”
“I still think this is a terrible idea!” Alexis said. The sun had set, the moon was high in the sky and the common room was empty. Everyone else had gone off to bed and the four of them were packing away their homework, so they could set off to the secret corridor on the first floor.
“Besides, how are we supposed to even find the hidden corridor that Master Sora took us down? We never noticed it until he took us down it and I haven’t seen it since.” Parker realized that Alexis made a very good point and the others nodded, saying they hadn’t seen it either.
“We’ll figure it out when we get there. Let’s focus on not being seen first.” Alexis was getting frustrated now. How were they supposed to just focus on not being caught and then focus on the corridor?
“Wouldn’t it make more sense to have a plan going in? Wouldn’t that make it easier to focus on not getting caught?” By the time Alexis said this, Parker was already out of the entrance to the common room. Everyone else followed suit. Alexis huffed heavily and then jumped down the hole.
They made it to the first floor without anyone seeing them. Sticking to the stairs to draw less attention to themselves, made the trip down much longer than usual. Caleb whispered to the group, “Man, flying up and down is so much better. I feel bad for everyone that can’t.”
When they reached the dining hall, they started to look next to it for the hidden corridor they had once been down. “I don’t see anything!” Hailee angrily whispered.
Parker started to feel around on the wall, seeing if Master Sora had triggered something to make it appear. He started at the bottom and moved his way up the small section of wall between the dining hall and the classroom next to it. His fingers kept moving across the stones and he rose higher and higher into the air.
Toward the top of the narrow section of wall, was a small hole, impossible to see from the floor. He whispered down to the group, “Guys! I found a hole in the wall.”
Parker landed by the group. “That hole looks a lot like the one outside of Master Sora’s chambers. Do you think it works the same way?” He asked the group and Hailee responded.
“How can it? All the one at Master Sora’s chambers does is signal him that someone is there and then he opens the door.”
They immediately looked defeated. Parker waved his hand up toward the hole in the wall and sent a small stream of air at it. “It’s worth a shot. What can it hurt?”
After a moment of waiting to see if anything would happen, the stone bricks in the wall began to shift, making a small doorway into the hidden corridor.
“I wonder how Master Sora did that without any of us noticing before we got there,” Parker said. They shrugged their shoulders and moved forward.
As soon as Caleb made it past into the corridor, the entrance closed behind them. “Did anyone see that happen last time?” Caleb asked, a little panicked. The group shook their heads. “We were so focused on where Master Sora was taking us last time that we weren’t paying attention to what was happening behind us.” Hailee was right; no one had been paying attention to that, only where they were headed. "I guess I didn't see it open because Master Sora was a little ways ahead of us when we made it to the hidden corridor."
“All right, keep your eyes out for what could be a secret entrance to this hidden chamber,” Parker said. They slowly made their way through the dark corridor. Caleb had lit the hanging candles that were above their heads so they could actually see what they were looking at.
Parker and Alexis were staring at the wall on the left to see if anything seemed off. Hailee was focused on the stone wall to their right. Caleb was peering over the floor for any markings.
As Caleb made his way down the corridor, scanning the floor, he noticed that the stones began to change color. They went from a gray color to a brown color. He kept going and saw that the color changed back to gray, which struck him as odd. Why would those stones be a different color?
He spread his legs to create a strong, sturdy stance. He slowly stretched his arms out in front of him and then quickly pulled them, tight, into his body. The stones dropped into the ground, forming a staircase going down into the floor.
Quickly, the others ran to Caleb to make sure he was okay. When they got there, they saw what had created the noise.
“So… who goes first?” Caleb asked.