Jacquie awoke to the sound of snickering.

"Hey Jacquie," Johnathan said. "Get up."

"Don't want to," she replied. She was not a morning person.

"At least open your eyes," Robin's voice said.

"Fine," Jacquie said. She opened her eyes and stared at a head filled with jet black curls. It took her a moment to figure out what happened. Kyran and Jacquie fell asleep on the balcony floor last night and, somehow, Jacquie had ended up hugging Kyran in her sleep!

"Ahhh!" she yelled, then she clasped her hand over mouth. She tried to get up, but one of her arms was trapped underneath Kyran.

"Help!"

Johnathan stepped forward. "Grab my hand," he said.

"Fine, but don't wake up Kyran," Jacquie said.

Johnathan rolled his eyes.

At that moment, Jacquie heard Johnathan's voice say, Geez, I'm trying to help her and all she's doing is fawning over this guy. But it was inside her head.

Jacquie shook the unsettling feeling from her head because she and Johnathan were now enveloped in blue light. The light appeared next to Robin and Johnathan and Jacquie emerged from it.

"Whoa," Jacquie said. Her head was spinning madly from the experience.

"Yeah, cool, right?" Johnathan said. "Whenever I'm wearing this," he said using his free hand to grab the necklace, "I can teleport anywhere. Well, except for in a volcano because I would die."

Jacquie snickered. Johnathan beamed back at her. She always thought Johnathan was cute in a nerdy kind of way.

She tried to walk forward, but she was still kind of dizzy. She stumbled on her feet, but Johnathan caught her before she hit the floor. He pulled her up and asked, "Are you all right?"

"Yeah," Jacquie said.

"I know, it's kind of weird the first time, but you get used to it," Johnathan said.

"Thanks," Jacquie said. She began to walk away when she said, "Johnathan, can you let go of my hand?" Johnathan looked down and realized that he was still holding her hand.

He let go and said, "Sorry."

Jacquie and Robin walked back into the tower.

Johnathan stayed on the balcony, still looking at Kyran.

/////////////////////////

Once everyone was awake, they hit the road. Or rather, the sand dunes. Kyran had said that it was desert for miles around. Four hours had gone by and not a single thing had happened. Jacquie would now be interested if a vulture flew by. Everyone's hoverboards were nearly kaput and they were traveling slower than before.

And the sun was not helping.

"Worst. Road. Trip. Ever," Daniel uttered, exhausted from the heat.

Kirna asked Kyran, "Hey. Why can't you make one of those… round transport things to get us there?"

Everyone became more alert and agreed with her. Even Erik, who had just laid down on his hoverboard.

"One problem with that," Kyran said. "That's an advanced spell. It's hard for me to do two of those so close together. I'm only an intermediate Cenatarian."

"What's that?" Jacquie asked.

"A Cenatarian is any person that can perform magic in the Cenatari Dimension," Kyran explained. "The older you get, the more advanced your magic becomes. I—"

A low rumble shook the ground below them.

"Great, it's another griffin," Robin complained.

"First," Kyran said. "that was a Dratheralon, not a griffin. Second, this is definitely not a Dratheralon."

The ground shook again and the nearest sand dune exploded. A humongous worm surfaced and looked straight at them, with all eight of its eyes.

"Don't make a sound," Kyran whispered.

"Why?" Kirna asked.

Robin scoffed. "Because there's a giant death worm ready to kill us!" she yelled.

The worm flicked out a blue tongue and charged at them.

"Oops," Robin said.

"No time for that," Kyran said. "We need to run!"

Kyran spread his hands and his eyes glowed white. He shouted, "Tescrele Fasique!"

All the hoverboards glowed white and Kyran yelled, "Hop on!"

Everyone did and they all zoomed into the depths of the desert.

"Why didn't you just do that before?" Kirna asked.

"I'm only supposed to use it in emergencies," he replied. ^ WEAK RESPONSE, KYRAN!^

"Well, at least it's over," Riordan sighed.

"Um, I wouldn't be so sure, dude," Johnathan said, pointing down.

The sand beneath them ridged up in front of them and the worm burst from the ground. Its mouth opened, revealing sickly, thin, sharp teeth. It lifted its tongue and sprayed beige saliva at them.

"What's it doing?" Daniel asked.

"It's spraying acid!" Kyran yelled. "It'll kill us in an instant!"

Everyone immediately swerved to the right of the worm.

"Why?" Robin complained. "Why a humongous, acid-spitting worm? Why couldn't it have been a rabid hyena or a savage lion? It just had to be evil, mutated, sewer monster you'd expect to find in a high action fantasy film!"

Erik stared at her and said, "So are you suggesting that our entire lives are a lie and that our existence is merely just a story meant for entertainment?"

"Woah, no, dude! Where'd you get that from?!"

"I'd love for this conversation to continue," Kyran said, "But we've got something else to deal with!"

The worm appeared again, closing them in from behind. It hissed at them and circled the gang slowly, getting closer and closer. "Someone do something!" Riordan shouted.

Daniel nodded and fire scorched the worm's face.

"Kyran," Jacquie said, "is there anything else we need to know about this worm?"

"Well, it's only a rumor, but I have heard it can charge electric blasts and shoot them at its prey,” he said.

At that moment, a low crackling sound was heard.

"Is that the charge you were talking about?" Jacquie asked.

"Astorium Dolminu!" Kyran shouted.

Everyone was immediately shielded by a dark blue forcefield. The worm then blasted an electric blast at them. It deflected off the shield and back at the worm. The energy was rebounded at the worm. It jerked around from the sudden shock of energy. The worm laid down in a straight line and it finally stopped moving.

"Thanks, Kyran," Jacquie said.

"Oh, well, it was nothing," he said.

The forcefield dropped and the others sped off into the desert.

"How come the forcefield dropped without you saying anything?" Riordan asked Kyran.

"Oh, that spell was only meant to last a minute," he replied. "After that, it disappears."

"Wait," Johnathan said, "so we all would have been worm food if that spell hadn't worked?"

"Yeah."

"Wow," Johnathan said. He turned to Robin and said, "This is the last time I'm coming to your house again."