Frank stood in the doorway and turned back to look at us. He clearly wanted to get back to the game. “Give me one second.”

"I'm really sorry about this. I promise I'll pay you an extra stipend as soon as we get to Attleton," Jonathan said.

Frank nodded, returned inside, and closed the door while we waited on the docks. Jonathan gazed out at sea, he focused on the sky.

"You owe me a dinner at the very least," Genevieve said.

"Of course, of course."

Frank came back outside wearing a maize-colored cloak with a special glow. "Okay, I'm ready. Let's head out."

"I'll be right back, you three go on the boat and I'll meet you onboard!" Genevieve sprinted away from us, and Frank led the way.

We walked towards the docks and approached a dark gray boat. There was a cabin and three massive sails tied up at the center. Stepping on board, Genevieve returned, holding her cat in her arm. She approached me.

"I'm definitely not sailing back tonight, so I'm going to stay at the Attleton docks. Here's Snuggles. I want you to take care of her; she seemed to like you earlier," Genevieve said. "You two will be in the cabin the entire time."

"Bringing that cat on board, are ya?" Frank rolled his eyes.

"Don't get started now." Genevieve pointed at Frank but chuckled. "Follow me, Rollie."

The three of us went inside the shelter of the cabin while Frank untied the sails and adjusted them with rope. To get inside, we had to open a latch and climb down a ladder from the higher platform in the back. The cabin had a wooden table to the side and a window looking out onto the deck. There was a kitchen and a smaller room off to the corner.

"You and Snuggles will be hanging out in here the whole time. Jonathan will be here, too, unless anything starts happening outside. Right, Jonathan?"

"Yes, of course, I will help wherever needed. Thank you again so much for doing this."

"Yeah, yeah, you owe me one." Genevieve set Snuggles on the floor, and the cat ran over to the corner to a fluffy little bed to lie down. "I'll yell out in case anything happens," Genevieve said, walking up the ladder.

"Wait! Can I watch you for a moment? I'd be fascinated to see how you move a boat in this world," I said.

"Yeah, you can watch me."

I followed Genevieve up the ladder and watched her pull some ropes and crank up the anchor using a pulley system. Frank helped out, too, grumbling to himself the entire time.

"We're looking good, Genevieve!" Frank hollered out.

"I'm all set on my end. Go inside the cabin!" Genevieve yelled.

Genevieve and I stood at the back of the boat, and she aimed her hands at the sails. "Now it's time for me to work my magic. You ready, Rollie?"

"Yeah, I want to see the magic in action, even if it's wind power, which, no offense, seems kinda boring."

Genevieve scoffed. "I'd rather be a wind mage than any other." She held her hands up and aimed them at the three sails. "Wind strike!" A bright green beam shot out of her hand, hitting the center sail and pushing the boat at a reasonable speed off the dock. Genevieve twisted her hand around as if doing a dance with her fingers, intertwining them like an invisible string. Another blast of green light came out of her palm and hit the sail on the left. Our speed increased. The breeze made me shiver.

"Whoa," I uttered as my jaw dropped.

"And since it’s just the four of us are on board, we can speed things up a little bit." Genevieve smiled, but all her attention and focus was on the sails. Genevieve shot another beam at the third sail, and we cruised through the water. Like a hot knife through butter. Again she performed choreography with her hand for a moment and then sat on the chair built into the deck. "And now it's smooth sailing from here to Attleton. At least I don't have to do anything else special to get us there. If any hellions come our way, that might be a different story. Until then, I recommend you wait in the cabin."

"Got it!” I stood there for a moment, listening to the waves crashing to the left and right, but we glided through the waters. “Thank you for showing me this."

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"Of course. That's pretty cool hair you got there too. It's so unique."

I touched my mohawk, forgetting for a moment I had it. "Ah, thanks. Yeah, it's a rare style to see back in my home world, but it means a lot to me."

"Cool." Genevieve smiled. "I'd love for you to stay out here and chat, but, like I said, I recommend you wait in the cabin on a night like tonight."

"I have one last question. Did you go to Attleton?"

Genevieve sat in her chair, making minor adjustments with her open palm as if she was controlling a steering wheel from afar. Her focus was on the water ahead and on the sails. "Yes, I went to Attleton. Any of the humans you see here in the Amerzia region all went to Attleton. Everyone is a mage, and that's where we go to learn our skills and abilities."

"Did you like it? I've only had Jonathan as a reference, and I just want to make sure he's not lying to me about any of this stuff. Do you know what I mean? I'm just wondering what the inside scoop is," I said.

"Honestly, anything he told you, I probably agree with. I loved my time at Attleton. Growing up, I used to want to be a professor there. It's such a great place, and I didn't want to leave. But you go out in the real world, get some experience, and realize that maybe there are other things out there, so I found this job. Working with younger kids isn't for me. No offense, it's just, I'm not really cut out for it and I'm much better doing this." Genevieve smiled as she pointed to the sails.

"So wind mages can only sail a boats, huh?"

"Ha. Not quite, but that's one career for us. What's your ability?"

"I guess I'm a fire mage, but honestly, I haven't been able to do anything cool with it other than my hands catching fire."

"You're from the other world, right? Yeah, you can't really use that magic in that world. You can do sparks if I remember correctly, but it ends there. Forget about shooting bolts and strikes."

"Well, I'm really looking forward to seeing the campus," I said. "Any advice if I decide to go to school there?"

Genevieve thought about it for a moment. "That's a good question. I would probably say, be yourself. Explore the things that interest you at Attleton. Just because your friends like one thing doesn't mean you should pursue that path. Does that make any sense?"

"Yeah, I think so." I stared off into the sea, getting lost in the dark horizon. "Thanks for answering all my questions."

"Of course, you've been a pleasure to talk to. Now, seriously, I recommend you wait in the cabin. If the hellions weren't flying around, I'd welcome you to stay, but it's dangerous to be untrained and out in the open."

I nodded and climbed down the ladder to go back into the cabin. Jonathan sat at the table underneath the window, staring at the sky. I joined Jonathan in the seat across from him. Looking out onto the deck, Frank stood at the end of the boat, also looking up at the sky.

"Rollie, I'm really sorry about this. I should have planned this better. We should have come in the middle of the day, but you have school in the daytime. So here we are, traveling at night. Usually, there isn't this fear of hellions going on, so I'm sorry, I didn't expect this," Jonathan said.

"I mean, it's all good, right? You said we'd be fine," I said.

"Yeah, you're right." Jonathan exhaled and tapped the table. "We should be fine, but I don't want you to be afraid or uncomfortable. We want you to have a good experience with your visit here, coming to Attleton and all."

"I had a question about that. How did you know that my hand was sparking on fire?"

"I have a Detection Compass. It's an imbued sphere. It lets me know whenever there's a magical development with someone in the Nomagi World. It doesn't happen often, but once every couple of years, I make a trip like this." Jonathan pulled out a handheld crystal ball. He placed it on the table, and it was gray and cloudy. "It guided me to your location in the Nomagi World. Not much to see usually, but since you're here, it stopped glowing red."

I nodded. “What do you mean by No-muh-gee World?”

“Oh, the Nomagi World is what we call your homeland. The world without magic.”

“Got it.” I checked on the cat; it was still lying in its bed. I wanted to pet it, but I didn’t.

"Do you want to learn how to play a game many students play at Attleton? I found a deck of cards in the drawer over there." Jonathan reached into his cloak pocket and pulled out a tin of cards.

"Uh, yeah, sure, I'll learn how to play. It's going to be a few hours until we get there, right?"

Jonathan nodded and explained how to play a strategic card game that reminded me of a role-playing game with cards. It was surprisingly straightforward and not too complicated, but it took me some time to learn, and the time flew by. I enjoyed it.

Jonathan was in the middle of shuffling the cards as he gazed out the window. "Uh oh."

I leaned toward the window and saw massive bird-like creatures circling the boat in the dark sky. I counted five of them.

"Is that normal?" I asked.

"On a nighttime ride, you might see one, maybe two, but five? They issue a warning, I think, if the admiral sees two. Five is unheard of, and there might be more that we don't see. Hopefully, this is just the swarm the admiral saw earlier." Jonathan put his hand on his forehead.

"We'll be okay, though, right?" I asked.

Jonathan took a deep breath and stood up. "I'm going to go out on the deck. You stay here and don't open that latch up above." Jonathan jogged away and climbed up the ladder, closing the door.

I continued watching through the window. Jonathan ran forward on the deck to get close to Frank. Both craned their necks towards the sky, watching the circling creatures. A few tense minutes passed by. I looked for the cat; she was still sleeping on her bed. Part of me wanted to pet her, but I couldn't look away from the window.

Frank pointed up at the sky and stretched his hand out. The hellions nose-dived toward the ship like incoming missiles. Streaks of lightning shot out of Frank's hands like he was Zeus. It struck one of the hellions, zapping it into the water. It screeched as it plummeted. A vibrant blue jet of water beamed out of Jonathan's hand, but he didn't strike any of them.

Thud!

The other three hellions landed in unison on the deck, standing upright.

Their appearance made my blood run cold. They had pale, wrinkly skin, glowing yellow eyes, and large black slits for irises. They were as large as a human with bat-like wings. The hellions screeched like grotesque monsters as they circled around Frank and Jonathan. I wanted to close my eyes, but I couldn't look away. It felt like a nightmare.