Evergreen Academy and the Golden Club (Part two)

Daniel lost track of how long they had been on the sword. It could have been hours before an island came into view. The island was not all that impressive at first. It was like a rough green patch at the edge of the blue sea. As they got closer, Daniel was awed by what he saw. There were high mountains full of trees and long beaches white and bright under the sun. As they flew over the island, Daniel thought this must be what a real fairyland was like. There were streams running among hills. Waterfalls and deep ponds could be found everywhere. At times, he caught glimpses of exotic animals. At one point, he thought he saw a dragon jumping out of the water but the sword was moving too fast to be sure. Blue roofs and eaves could be seen among trees. There was laughter coming from the buildings. A couple of boys who looked a few years older than Daniel flew by. They were saluting Alverdine.

The sword descended to a garden by a small lake. In the middle of the lake was a tiny island. A pavilion took up most of the island. It was surrounded by blooming flowers Daniel had never seen before. On one tree, all the flowers were of different colors. Some flowers emitted lights like small lanterns. A long bridge connected the island to the lakeshore. Carp of the most brilliant colors were swimming under the water lilies. Elegant cranes strolled on the shallow lakeshore. The lake was surrounded by hills. Huge trees resided on the slopes of the hills. There were roots hanging down from the branches like beards. Where the roots entered the ground, smaller trees grew up. Deer were chasing each other under the trees. A huge building stood regally on the hill. Smaller buildings were scattered here and there. Some were behind the trees with only part of their roofs visible.

When Alverdine called off the charm, warm air rushed in. Daniel felt a moment of dizziness, although it was not an uncomfortable feeling. He took a look around. There were students everywhere. Some were lying on the grass reading or talking to each other. Some were walking their pets. Daniel had only seen some of the pets in the TV fairy tales, and he knew quite well those on TV were special effect creations.
“Welcome to Jade Island and the Evergreen academy,” said Alverdine. “This is where you are going to live and study.”

There were hundreds of questions on Daniel’s mind, but he didn’t know which one to ask first or whether it was appropriate to ask. He was wondering if his parents had been here. Were they both immortals? And why did his father want him to live a mortal life? He had just touched the surface of immortal life. It seemed far more exciting and convenient. It was hard to imagine that anyone would give up an immortal life for a mortal one. He was also worried about how he was going to fit in. Life in his old school hadn’t been easy. He was an easy target just because the way he looked and dressed. He believed that there was a much bigger gap between him and any student in this school. There was no way that he could escape being picked at if there was any similarity between immortal and mortal teenagers. Above all, he worried about his dad.

“You don’t have to worry. Everything is going to be fine.” Alverdine seemed to be able to read his mind. At this point, Daniel wouldn’t be surprised if that was true, which also made him a little uneasy. If everyone here was able to read his mind, it would be like walking around naked or worse.

“You don’t have to worry about that either,” said Alverdine. “Not everyone has this particular power. In fact, it’s quite rare. And I’m very sorry. I certainly didn’t try to do it on purpose—I could pick up your thoughts, because you are new to everything and your mind is so unguarded from the initial shock.”
They were walking down a road that went up the hill. There were trees on both side of the road. The braches connected on the top, which made the road feel like a tunnel. Alverdine had to stop many times to respond to the greetings from the students passing by.

“I think the first thing that you need now is some rest,” said Alverdine. “We’ll deal with other things later. Ah, and here is the perfect person to show you to your dorm.”
He was referring to a girl walking towards them. From the way she looked, she was about two or three years older than Daniel. She wore a long skirt, which made her waist look small. She had long brown hair flowing down her back. Her eyes were big and expressive. They had the same color of the willow leaves in the early spring. Her nose was small and delicate, and so was her mouth. She reminded Daniel of the popular girls in his old school.
“Daniel, this is Michelle Valandi and Michelle, this is Daniel Ray.” Alverdine introduced them. “Daniel is a new student. Could you take him to his dorm and help him settle in?”
“No problem, Sir,” said Michelle in a singsong voice.

She reached out, took Daniel’s hand, and led him toward another path. Daniel felt his face burning up, but didn’t dare to pull his hand out of her grip.
“Handsome, isn’t he?” said Michelle about Alverdine. “Most girls here have a big crush on him. Most of us are a little scared of him too. Do you have any idea how old he is? He’s about six hundred years old. Believe it or not, he can look much younger than he does now. He just prefers this look—less confusing, I guess.”
It really amazed Daniel that she could talk to a stranger like that.

“Too bad that he doesn’t teach classes any more. There’re not many chances to see him any more. You never know if he’s here on the island or not.”
Daniel felt like and idiot. He didn’t know what to say. He was afraid that Michelle was going to laugh at him if he asked any stupid question. He felt even worse when something hit the back of his head and he let out a cry that made him feel quite embarrassed.
“Oh, I’m so sorry,” said Michelle with an apologetic smile. “Forgot to warn you about the monkey. He likes to throw nuts or pebbles at people. I’ve no idea why they don’t kick him out of the garden.”

They were walking in the garden. In the middle of it was a small creek. Most of the trees were in full bloom. The flowers were like red clouds covering most of the leaves. Daniel could hear a few birds singing what he thought sounded like show tunes. They were, however, not really good even to Daniel’s amateurish ears.
“Bit annoying in the morning,” said Michelle about the birds.
“That’s the boy’s dorm,” Michelle pointed to the red brick buildings at the end of the garden.

There were three buildings connected by open passageways. The corridors in each building were facing the garden. Some students were sitting on the banisters talking to each other. Most of the boys in the dorm knew Michelle. A couple bold ones whistled when they passed by. Michelle seemed to enjoy the attention but pretended that she didn’t care much.

Daniel’s dorm room was on the third floor. The room had four beds. There were four desks in the middle of the room. One huge window opened to the back garden. Two of his roommates were playing chess. They got up when Daniel and Michelle walked in. One boy was tall and skinny. His face was just like his body, long and bony. The other one was a chubby boy with a round face.
Michelle showed Daniel his bed, desk and a few other things. Daniel was amazed to find that the bed was already nicely made and everything had his initials on it.
Before Michelle left, she took Daniel off to the side: “If they give you any trouble, come find me, OK?”

When her footstep faded down the hall, both his roommates turned their attention to Daniel. They had been really shy in front of Michelle. The whole time she was there, they hadn’t said more than a few words, and that was during the introduction. After that, they just stood there with an awkward smile on their faces.
“Where are you from?” asked Tony the chubby boy.
“Blue town.” That was the name of Daniel’s hometown, but he was too tired and hungry to give them a detailed description of the town.
“Never heard of it,” Nick the tall skinny boy said.
“Me either.” Tony and Nick exchanged a look.
“What’s your special power?” asked Tony.
“Er—I don’t know.” Daniel felt kind of stupid again.
“I’m a natural transfigurine,” said Tony. “Nick’s a flyer. Both powers can be acquired, but it’s extremely hard.”
“Check this out,” he squatted down and turned into a big fat rabbit and then turned back into the chubby boy again.

Daniel tried not to laugh. He didn’t want Tony to think that he wasn’t impressed. Tony was apparently very proud of his power. In face, Daniel thought his power was quite extraordinary, but the way Tony had shown it was kind of comical.

“Nick, show him yours,” Tony urged Nick, but Nick seemed to feel that it was too much an effort to waste on someone new. They soon got bored with Daniel and left him alone. Thankfully, Daniel climbed into his bed and fell into a dreamless sleep.

When Daniel woke up, for a moment, he panicked. He realized that he wasn’t in is own bed back at home. The ceiling was much higher, and the room was much bigger. Then it flooded back to him. He was alone in a strange place full of strangers. He had this sick feeling like he was going to give a talk in front of the whole school but was completely unprepared. He knew nothing about the place. Just yesterday, magic was an abstract concept. He had no idea what his power was and doubted he had any power at all. Would it be like the old school, where he had to watch everything he said and every move he made? He lay in bed trying to calm himself down.

Both Nick and Tony were gone. It was dark outside. The nightlight of one of his roommates was on. Lying on the bed was a big boy. He was almost twice Daniel’s size. Still his face was childlike. He was playing with a knife. He threw it up. To Daniel’s amazement, it stayed in the air. Then it started thrashing, piercing and flipping like an invisible hand was moving it. The knife flew back into the hand of the boy when Daniel sat up in his bed.
“How’s your nap?” said the boy. His voice was deep for someone his age.
“Alright,” said Daniel.
“I’m Owen Oswald,” said the boy with a smile. “You’re Daniel Ray, right?”
“Right.” Daniel had never seen anyone like Owen before. He was very strong, but unassuming. For a person that tall, he didn’t have an air of awkwardness, and there was something very pure and refreshing in him.

Daniel got up from his bed, still a little light headed from the flight and the nap.
“Professor Alverdine has a message for you.” Owen picked up a piece of paper from his bedside. Daniel was amazed to see the paper fly out of Owen’s hand and land lightly on his hand.
On the paper was a simple message: “Please come see me tonight.”
“How am I supposed to find him?” thought Daniel feeling a little exasperated.
“I’ll take you to his office if you want,” offered Owen.
“You can read minds too?” Daniel became very self-conscious.
“No way, although that would be cool…” said Owen. “Oh, Professor Alverdine said that you might need help—you want to go now?”
“Sure,” said Daniel. His stomach made a funny sound. He realized that he had not had any food since early that morning.
“Almost forgot,” Owen turned around and picked up a package on the desk.
“Professor Alverdine told me that you might feel hungry after your nap.”
Inside the wrap were four big buns. Two were plenty for Daniel. Owen must have thought that everyone ate as much as he did. He ate the other two happily when Daniel said he was full.

The night was cool. The water in the creek was illuminating. The birds had gotten tired of singing and fell asleep. Most of the buildings were lit up. The shadows of the trees made the lights flicker. They walked passed the Monkey. He threw a few nuts at them, but Owen caught all of them. Owen pointed out different buildings as they went along. The dining hall was mid-way between the boy’s dorm and the main building, which Daniel learned to be the auditorium. The classrooms were in different small buildings. The animal house was between the dinning hall and the sport field. It was very big and sprawled out like a flat hill. A couple students were reining in a horse with huge wings. Some girl was trying to talk sense into a cat. The cat seemed to be hyperactive and would not settle down.

“The small building by the animal house is the post office,” said Owen. “It’s run by the student government. Depending on what kind of service you need, they used aviborn, an enchanted flying device, or the pigeons from the animal house…”

Daniel felt a rush of homesickness. There was no one he could write to. “I guess this is home now,” he thought. He could have always run home, had he been in trouble; but now if things went wrong, there was no escape. He had to be more careful about what he said and what he did, even though most people he had met seemed nice. Then the image of his father in a dark jail cell came into his mind. He knew that he had to do something. He couldn’t just sit and wait for other people to save his father.

“Where’s the library?” asked Daniel. He was hoping that he could find more about what had happened to his father. All he knew was that whoever kidnapped his father were not mortals and they performed a charm that sucked out the heat in the air. Alverdine didn’t specify whether they were immortals or not. Daniel wondered if there could be other magical beings that were capable of doing magic?
“You are a good student, aren’t you?” said Owen with a grin. “It’s behind those woods. I’ll show you later.”

Professor Alverdine’s office was on the top level of a seven-story tower on the edge of a cliff. It was like a huge granite bamboo shoot. There was an outside corridor residing over the eaves on each level. The doors to the corridors looked out directly to the sea. Looking out of the tower windows, Daniel could see the full moon hanging on the east sky. The sky was clear. The moonlight reflecting on the surface of the sea was like a silver highway leading to the moon.
Owen knocked on the door.
“Come in,” they heard professor Alverdine say in the office.

Daniel was glad to see a familiar face. It was hard to believe that he had just met Alverdine that morning. It was like he had known him for a long time.
Alverdine’s office was not as he had expected. There were not shelves and shelves of books. It was very big and empty. The four walls were actually four huge cabinets with thousands of drawers. Some were dated five hundred years ago. By the window was a large desk. Alverdine was sitting in a very comfortable looking chair. In his hand was a glass of wine.
“Forgive me for one of my little indulgence,” he said when Daniel and Owen walked in. “To me, there are few things as satisfying as sharing a glass of good wine with the full moon.”
“You look well rested,” he said to Daniel.
“Do you know why you are here?” he asked, putting down the wine glass.
“No, not really,” said Daniel, feeling like he had just failed some kind of test. He doubted Alverdine had found anything new about his father’s disappearance. After all, it had been only a few hours since Daniel last saw him.

“Oh, Owen you can stay too,” professor Alverdine said to Owen when he was about to excuse himself.
“Tonight, I’m going to release your powers,” he turned back to Daniel. “A night like this is excellent for the task,” he said, referring to the clear sky and the full moon.
“But before I do that, there are a few things I want you to learn. You too.” He nodded at Owen. “I told most of my students, and I couldn’t emphasize this enough.” Then his voice changed. It wasn’t the old kind and gentle talk that Daniel had accustomed to.

“With great power comes great responsibility. It applies to everyone under all circumstances. You can be mortal or immortal, and the power that you have can be magical or political. You may not fully understand it now, but just keep this in mind before you make any decision or take any action.”
Both Daniel and Owen had the feeling that standing in front of them was someone that was ancient and ageless as the tower, the moon, and the vast sea.
“Enough about that,” said Professor Alverdine, returning back to his old self again. “The procedure that I’m about to perform is opening your mind. Each of our brains is like an individual universe. Most of the people have very little access to the universe and have less control over the powers within—just a simple example: if you are in a place full of noises, none of the individual sounds make sense; but you brain actually receives every piece of information and stores it. If you have control over your brain, you can decipher and interpret every sound you heard. It’s the same with your body, although it has limits. With you mind open, you’ll able to find out what you body is capable of. Different people are good at different things—Owen, I believe, is very good at controlling weapons and sparing—it’s simply how each individual body is made…I hope that you both will use your powers well…”

He asked Daniel if he was ready and then laid a hand on his head. A warm sensation trickled down from where his hand was. Daniel had the feeling that something was thawing inside him. It was like the winter was over, and he wouldn’t feel cold again. The breeze from the sea brushed against his face. He felt himself sliding into a deep sleep as comfortable as a warm bed in a cold winter night.

*** The complete story is available at amazon and barnesandnoble.