TSWNN - Chapter 2 - Saving Pheonix

As he was working on the new thatched roof for Old Beatrice’s house, Jack heard someone calling him. He turned around and saw Bartholomew.

“I just got news that someone needs help in a village north of here,” said Bartholomew, “It’s fifteen miles away, so we had better get started.”

“All right. Be right down,” Jack answered, “You can start getting ready and I will meet you at the well. And make sure Nathaniel is there, too.”

“Ok. I’ll meet you there.”

Jack finished working on the part of the roof he was on and told Beatrice that he would finish sometime soon. When he got to the well he looked around for Bartholomew and Nathaniel, but they were not there yet, so he sat down at the well to wait. After five minutes of watching chickens peck mercilessly at the ground, Jack was bored out of his wits.

When Bartholomew and Nathaniel finally got there, they had three horses that Jack had never seen before.

“Where’d you get them?” he asked.

“They were sitting on the side of the road with a ‘free’ sign on them,” said Nathaniel.

“Woah! Really?” Jack exclaimed.

“No. We bought them with our savings…and yours,” Nathaniel replied.

“Oh. Well, do you know who we’re going to rescue?”

“It’s someone’s sister. She said her sister knows you. Her name is Becky and her sister’s name is…Phoenix or something. She said that she needs help her getting sister out of the ‘detainment room’. Whatever that means,” said Bartholomew.

“Oh, great! The committee is at it again. We’ve got to go. Wait a minute, why were you reading my mail?” Jack asked.

“Oh, because it said ‘important’ on it, and you weren’t there,” Bartholomew answered.

They all mounted their horses and rode north, to the village of Hetta.

When they got there, Jack made a b-line for the center of the village. There were three guards standing outside of a door.

“We are here to see Phoenix,” said Jack.

“Are you on the committee?” one guard asked.

“No, I'm not. But I am one of her best friends.”

“Sorry, we can’t allow anyone who is not on the committee into the detainment room.”

“Hmm. Do you know how to fly?” Jack said, nodding to Nathaniel.

“No! Flying’s impossible!” said the guard.

“Well, my friend here is going to teach you,” Jack said, gesturing to Nathaniel, who nodded, smirking.

Within seconds, all three guards were two feet off the ground and screaming for help. Jack's hand blazed with the fire that he had absorbed from Phoenix years before. The guards shrieked for help, screaming that there was another fire-wielder, and an evil magician.

Bartholomew made a cloud of dark smoke around himself and his friends, and when it finally cleared away, the three boys and the prisoner were gone. The boys had traveled through the shadow of the smoke and escaped with Phoenix.

Five villagers came running, just as the three guards fell to the ground. They helped the guards up and asked what had happened. The guards told them everything and they set up a search party to look for Phoenix.

The escapees rode to Phoenix’s house. They got her family, her things, and her horses, and started off for the village of Mull to find Phoenix’s friend, Jade.