On North Beach on Seabrook Island, at the shipwrecked sailboat, Selene was getting ready to get Makenna and drag her here. She was furious at her. However, just before she could perform her teleporting spell, she sensed her.197Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡjWqLphzYrQ
She sensed Makenna coming, but she knew she didn’t want to come. “There we go.” Selene said in a soft voice. She turned toward Tracey. He actually was a little more awake now. Since he stayed at the shipwreck with Selene that day, he was able to get a lot of rest, which was crucial for a fairy when he/she was drained of magic. Though he was still very pale and still had a pretty nasty fever and arm injury, he was recovering. However, he still didn’t have his appetite back, and he was still wearing the fairy oxygen mask. Until his magic level returned to base level, he couldn’t take it off except to eat and drink. Gina was standing next to his head of long, black hair, and she nudged it, whimpering.197Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ1qOl2V3XFS
Tracey slowly turned his head to her and whispered, “Gina. Thank you for coming. You’re a true friend.” His eyes started to droop again. He still didn’t have enough strength to lift his hand and pet the tern. Gina grabbed hold of his blanket, and she pulled it up to his neck. Then, she rubbed up against his cheek.197Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡmpkmVtoiSt
Selene approached the seventeen-year-old fairy and told him, “Hang on, kid. Makenna is coming.” She took his shoulder, “Shh.” Tracey closed his eyes and started to slip into sleep again.
Outside the shipwreck, darker storm clouds were building up now. The wind began to blow, and there was a flash of lightning and a rumble of thunder. The ocean became rough, very rough, and the waves grew taller and more powerful. The Octopus Man had summoned this storm. He was going to make it devastating for Makenna and Tracey. He was going to hurt them. That was his plan. That was always his plan. The Octopus Man was the Octopus Man.
Makenna flew more slowly now. She was still two inches tall.197Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡCKjM0lX1B0
She soon found herself hovering over the Seabrook Island Stables, and she decided, “Why not?” and went to go see the horses. She landed on the stables’ fence and watched one of her favorite horses, a paint named Blue Eyes, graze in the field. He was at peace with himself. Makenna sighed and said, “Huh, it must be nice to be a horse.” As if he had heard her, Blue Eyes lifted his head and searched the area. After a bit, Makenna decided to continue on with her flight to North Beach. She lifted into the air, and suddenly, she returned to her normal height! “Whoa!” said the Metamorphic Fairy. She peered down, “What the? Why am I suddenly my normal height again? I didn’t even ask to return to it.” She gulped. She was a little nervous. However, she shook Selene’s warning out her head and flapped her wings, hurrying in the direction of the beach. Behind, Blue Eyes continued to search the area. His head tilted up to the sky, and his eyes widened when he saw the approaching storm clouds. In the distance, there was a rumble of thunder. Suddenly, a gush of wind blew Blue Eyes’s mane. He whinnied and started to trot in circles. He didn’t really like storms, and something told him that a storm, and a pretty nasty one too, was coming. He feared it would be even worse than the storm last Friday, the Friday when Makenna first transformed into a Level 1 Metamorphic Fairy. It would be. As long as the Octopus Man controlled the weather, it would be.
The fourteen-year-old Metamorphic Fairy, Makenna Delling, finally reached North Beach. She didn’t waste any time. She hurried toward the end, with hope that Selene would give her just a little more time, but she was forced to stop and climb up and out of sight when she saw that a few people were roaming on it. It was a family of four; two parents and two, little kids. They were hurrying down the beach, since a storm was coming, and each parent had each child by the hand. While they were dragging them away, one of the children, a little girl, saw a dead horseshoe crab that had washed up on the beach, and she reached for it, but her mother tugged on her hand. They didn’t even look into the sky. Makenna held her breath. She waited until the family was out of sight. Then, seeing that the coast was now clear, she dropped toward the ground, but a sudden blast of wind slammed into her and threw her across and knocked her out of the sky! Makenna landed in a sand dune, and half her body was buried in it. She quickly pulled herself out before she could suffocate, and she rolled down the dune and landed at the base of it on her backside. In the sky, a flock of pelicans rushed across it and hurried for shelter on Bird Island. Where Makenna was resting, she struggled to her feet and brushed sand off her skirt. She then turned toward the shipwrecked sailboat on Kiawah Island, which was being hammered by waves, and she narrowed her eyebrows. Flapping her wings, she leaped into the sky again, and acting out her flying pose, she flew toward it. She soon was soaring across the channel, and she fought the wind. She had to get to the shipwreck! Tracey needed her! With every second that passed, the storm got worse and worse.
Makenna made it to the shipwreck! She soon found herself hovering over the stern of it, and she dropped out of the sky and landed on the deck with a small thump. Inside the wreck, Selene heard her, as did Gina, and she gasped, quickly pulling her hand away from Tracey’s shoulder. Both she and Gina focused their attention on the closed door, and Gina snarled.197Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡsT3CK7NeQD
Her feathers stuck up like cat fur when a cat was agitated. “What was that?” Selene soon asked. She next heard a wave crash on the outside, side portion of the boat. She and Gina couldn’t help but to feel like someone was just outside on the deck. They had no idea it was Makenna. Gina opened her wings and flapped them. She flew to Selene and soon hovered next to her.197Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡu1F0g1P4Sn
Together, they exchanged glances and asked one another, “Is it an intruder?” although Gina was really communicating just through tern squawks.197Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡs3M6TtVMRF
Selene soon pulled her behind her arm and said, “Stay here, Gina and watch over Tracey. I’m going to go investigate. If it’s another siren, then we will not let her take him.” Understanding, Gina quickly landed next to Tracey. Selene headed toward the back door, and when she passed the galley, she picked up a cast iron skillet that was resting on the stove and held it over her head. She came closer to the door. She could now hear Makenna thumping around on the back deck as she investigated it. “We will protect, Tracey.” Selene told herself, “The Octopus Man has done enough to him. He doesn’t deserve to be treated the way he’s been treated lately.” She reached the ladder. Slowly and silently, Selene climbed up it, and Gina shivered from where she was watching. The oldest, wisest fairy in the world soon made it to the door, and with the skillet still held high over her head, she hovered in front of it. “All right,” she whispered, and she cracked her shoulders, “Here goes.” Gina gave her a reassuring squawk. She cuddled up to Tracey again.
Selene took a deep breath.197Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡMkx7agg79L
Then, reaching forward, she threw open the door and leaped onto the top deck, brandishing the skillet forward, “Hands up!” There was a flash of lightning, and during the flash, Makenna Delling, who had her back turned to Selene, whirled around, and a bag of chips she found dropped from her hand.197Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡXiAw4ec3h0
She quickly held up both her hands and announced, “I surrender!”197Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡSBxHO5Eqx8
“Miss Makenna!” Selene uttered. She lowered the skillet, “It’s you! You actually came!”197Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡgM12606U48
“Duh.” Makenna scoffed, “Why wouldn’t I? You would’ve come and got me if I didn’t.”197Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ5E1RZsp7Fw
“Sam heck yeah I would’ve!” Selene told her, “I have to clarify a few things with you, Makenna!”197Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡiVYKtngova
“Oh please,” scoffed Makenna, “Can’t I just go ahead and take Ninja Boy back to Merlin’s Island? Clarifying things is total rubbish.” Selene crossed her arms and glared at her. She wondered why Makenna was losing her magic so fast. She was a total jerk!
In the lower deck of the shipwreck, Gina recognized Makenna’s voice.197Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡXBjfg9rA9s
“No!” she yelled in her language, “Not her! Not her! Why her?!” Gina immediately became very aggressive. She left Tracey, with her beak wide open, and hurried out of the lower deck. Her eyes landed on Makenna. She glared.197Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ7OYVa8qJ2h
She zoomed by Selene, and seeing her, she yelled, “Gina, wait!” Gina didn’t listen. She threw herself into Makenna’s face and knocked her to the ground. Then, while she was lying there, she screeched and repeatedly pecked at her.197Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡa5Gmq46CAJ
Makenna yelled, “Ow! Ow! Ow!” each time the bird’s beak came in contact with her skin, “Gina! You’re ruining my tan!” Gina didn’t care. She continued to peck at Makenna. “She’s gone savage!” yelled the Metamorphic Fairy, “Selene! Selene, please!” Selene didn’t move from where she stood. After what Makenna had done to Tracey, betraying him the way she did, she deserved a good pecking. However, after a bit, she decided that Gina had done enough in terms of giving Makenna a decent punishment.197Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ3tNNSrRF7C
She held up her hand and announced, “Gina! That’s enough!” This time, Gina listened to her. She gave Makenna’s cheek one last peck, and then, she flew to Selene and landed on her shoulder.
Makenna, beaten up from the pecking, struggled to her hands and knees with her hair in snarls, and she spat out feathers which the wind blew them away.197Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡgE0mCSiuih
“What was the meaning of that?!” she yelled at Selene and Gina.197Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡBQiwKFi4fO
Gina huffed, closed her eyes, and turned her backside to her. “Don’t get her wrong, Miss Delling,” said Selene, “But she did the right thing. You deserved that.”197Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡFmsZsx4sUU
Jumping to her feet, Makenna yelled, “WHY?!” and she pulled feathers out of her hair, “LOOK WHAT THAT STUPID BIRD DID TO ME!! SHE TOTALLY RUINED MY TAN AND HAIR!! THAT’S IT!!” Makenna stomped her foot and turned to fly away, “I’M NOT TAKING NINJA BOY BACK IF SHE’S COMING WITH US!! THIS STUPID TRANSFORMATION TOTALLY RUINED MY DATE WITH PETER NELSON!”197Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡBqBcAwc6M9
“Yeah, about Peter Nelson.” Selene snapped at her, “Can you please explain to me why he’s the one bullying Tracey?”197Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡGih3jvjYlK
“Bullying?” yelled Makenna, “What do you mean?!” She whirled around and faced Selene and Gina again, “Ninja Boy has become nothing but a burden! He’s ruined my entire life! If Peter is bullying him, I’m glad he is! I hope he keeps it up!” She, Selene, and Gina didn’t notice this, but Tracey, who had been woken up by all the noise, appeared behind them! He was walking very slowly. He had taken off the fairy oxygen mask, and he was hugging his coloring book, which he had just pulled out from his book bag, in his arms. Since he was dizzy and couldn’t stand very well, he leaned up against the doorway of the door that led to the lower deck. “Makenna,” said Selene who still focused her attention on her, “You’ve got to calm down. You’re just super stressed out.”197Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡSMUcgAYr2u
“Of course, I’m stressed out!” Makenna shouted, “The dance for Spirit Week is on Friday, and it’s almost Thursday! If Ninja Boy didn’t show up in the first place, none of this would’ve happened! He’s ruined everything! He’s ruined my week, my date, and my life! He’s an idiot!” Gina glared at her. Not wanting to listen to this anymore, she again turned on Selene’s shoulder to fly away, but then, her eyes landed on Tracey, and she gasped.
Through tern squawks, she said,197Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡQQDVeCuYDH
“Uh oh.” Selene and Makenna heard her. Selene too turned, and both hers and Makenna’s eyes widened at the sight of Merlin’s apprentice eavesdropping. Tracey was sobbing. His wings had dropped limply behind his back, and his tears fell like a fountain.197Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡbt4jZlJKs2
He hugged his coloring book close to his cheek, and shaking his head, he told Makenna, “You’re not my friend. You’re nothing but a jerk! You’re a liar!” Tracey couldn’t stand the world of humans anymore. He was going back to Merlin’s Island, where he belonged, right now, and once he got there, he was never going to leave. Still dizzy, the young fairy pushed off the doorway and stumbled past Makenna, Gina, and Selene, heading toward the stern.197Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡsE6IAV4xF6
“Bu-But, Tracey.” Makenna told him. Tears had appeared in her own eyes. Tracey again shook his head. He stopped at the stern of the boat and weakly lifted his pale wings which were gradually growing paler and paler because he wasn’t wearing the mask and wasn’t able to get magic.197Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡVOD5S7XwZX
“Tracey wait!” Selene yelled at him, “You can barely fly! You’re going to hurt your wings!” Tracey didn’t listen to her. He just wanted to get out of there. Still hugging his coloring book, he flapped his wings and lifted into the sky. Then, at a slow pace, he flew away and headed in the direction of the ocean and Merlin’s Island.
Behind at the shipwreck, Makenna said,197Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡhvifKh7yJ3
“Ugh!” and she fell to her knees. From Selene’s shoulder, Gina screeched and opened her wings. She lifted herself into the air and hurried after Tracey. Right when she vanished, there was another flash of lightning and rumble of thunder. Makenna was sobbing from where she was resting. Frustratingly, she clenched her fist and repeatedly banged the deck with it. As she did this, she yelled, “He’s right! He’s right! I’m a jerk! And it’s all because I have a crush on Peter Nelson!”197Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡR1W1M4xzvB
“You’ve got to go after him.” Selene comfortably spoke. She had approached Makenna, and she took her by the shoulder, “Please, Makenna. Merlin didn’t send him back here. He came by himself, even though he was still recovering from that magic coma. He needs you to help him.”197Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡZNIziHNqnF
“Huh?” asked Makenna. She rubbed her eyes and turned her head. She met Selene’s eyes.197Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡeCwMdv2vks
She nodded and explained, “Makenna, he cares about you. I think you fear he doesn’t, but he does. The whole reason behind why he came here was to protect you from Peter Nelson.”197Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡNk0uPzy5tG
“Peter Nelson?” Makenna sobbed, “But that’s impossible! Peter Nelson can’t be a jerk!”197Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡeKYdKnxO52
“But he is.” Selene told her, “You don’t understand, Makenna. Peter Nelson was the reason behind Tracey’s arm injury. He told that friend of his, Bruce, to hurt him and threatened that if he didn’t, then he would be the one getting punched. You’ve got to chase after him. Tracey is very weak, and he’s only going to get weaker and weaker if he doesn’t have that mask on.”
Suddenly, over the sound of another thunderclap, there was a scream! Then a screech.197Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡYUMOzmRSI7
“Tracey!” Makenna shouted when she recognized the voices, “The Octopus Man!” and she leaped to her feet.197Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡH0IGEkieXE
“Go, Makenna!” Selene shouted, “Go!”197Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡp9ikAv0BL2
“Right,” said Makenna. She rubbed her eyes and took a deep breath. Then, flapping her wings, she lifted into the sky and hurried in the direction Gina and Tracey had flown in.
Soon after she too vanished, it began to rain. Selene was hammered by it. However, with a wave of her hand, an umbrella appeared from out of nowhere, and she grabbed its handle.197Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡy27QvWU1Sa
Soon standing under the umbrella, she peered in the direction of the ocean and said, “I know that girl can and will become a Crystal Metamorphic Fairy. I know she can help Tracey, save Merlin, and all the magic in the world. I know she can.”
Makenna Delling flew her fastest through the storm.197Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡuIPGx9W0sS
“Tracey!” she shouted, “Tracey, where are you?!” She stopped and hovered over the ocean. She searched the area. How would Makenna find her friend? Simple, she had to use her fairy instincts. She listened to them. Her fairy instincts told her to fly forward. Therefore, Makenna did. However, she was having trouble flying because the wind was so great. Since she was a fairy and was fairly light, it pushed her around pretty easily. However, Makenna did not give up. She had to find Tracey! She succeeded. She did find him. Makenna gasped at what she saw.
Further away in front of her, in a mass of huge waves, was Tracey, and the Octopus Man’s familiar, watery ropes were wrapped around him and trying to pull him into the ocean! His eyes were tightly closed, and he was shivering from the effects of the Octopus Man’s curse.197Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡLh7omF17yy
Glaring, Makenna clenched her fist and shouted, “Let him go! He’s done nothing wrong! I’m the one you should be pulling in Davy Jones’s locker!” She flew toward Tracey, but the wind pushed her back. Another reason why she wasn’t able to withstand this wind was because she was still a pretty weak fairy. Metamorphic Fairies usually weren’t strong fliers until Level 3. Gina, Tracey’s friend, pecked at the ropes, but another one suddenly shot out of the ocean and smacked her away! Gina screeched and was thrown back toward Makenna. Tracey’s coloring book was knocked from his hand, and it splashed into the rough ocean. Where Makenna was, she saw Gina flying toward her and yelled, “Gina!” Quickly, she hurried forward and grabbed her.197Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡY5p9OawQGF
When Gina felt that she had been caught, she opened her eyes, and she looked up to Makenna, gasping. “Makenna!” she yelled. Makenna released her and yelled, “Stay here!” Fighting the wind, she soared forward and stretched out her arm. “Release him!” she shouted at the Octopus Man. Unfortunately, the wind blew her back again, and Makenna closed her eyes against it, “No! The wind! It’s too great!”
Where Tracey was, still wrapped by the Octopus Man’s ropes, he slowly opened his golden-brown eyes, and they glowed up green. Suddenly, vine-like whips appeared, and they smacked and cut the ropes. Tracey was released. Immediately, he closed his eyes and flew away from them, but he didn’t stay in the sky for long.197Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡONctDoSlil
Before long, he went toppling toward the ocean, and Makenna shouted, “NO!” from above. She flapped her wings and dove after Merlin’s apprentice. Gina screeched encouragements at her from up above. Unfortunately, just before Makenna could reach Tracey, things only became a lot worse. Suddenly, from behind Merlin’s apprentice appeared an enormous wave, released by the Octopus Man that was twenty or more feet tall! Makenna screamed at the sight of it. “Tracey, watch out!” she yelled at Merlin’s apprentice, and she quickly moved out of the way of the wave. Tracey barely managed to catch himself from falling. He feebly opened his eyes, not even all the way, and yelled at the sight of the wave. Flapping his large, green and purple wings, he tried to get out of the wave’s path, but he was too weak so he was flying very slowly.
Step 1 of the Octopus Man’s plan succeeded. The enormous wave crashed down on Tracey, but it hit his wings the hardest. Within seconds, the stormy evening was interrupted by a loud CRACK, and Makenna gasped when she heard it. “His wings!” she shouted, “Not his wings! Not his wings!” Tracey was jerked underwater, and another wave crashed down on him and his wings. Half his left wing was ripped right from his body, and a giant chunk was ripped from his right one! The Octopus Man had broken them.
Back on surface, Makenna shouted,197Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡZrj5g9oAph
“No!” and tears appeared in her eyes, “You monster!” She yelled that at the Octopus Man, even though she couldn’t exactly see him. Makenna reached for her lips and added, “He loves his wings!” She knew Tracey’s wings had broken. She heard it. From where Gina was hovering, she screeched and peered into the sky. Makenna had to rescue Tracey! She just had too! Where was he though? Makenna thought fast. Then, she yelled, “Find Tracey!” and another ball of light appeared in front of her. Wait that was a spell? Those two words were a spell? The ball of light took Makenna forward, and she followed it. The ball soon stopped and hovered above the ocean and Tracey’s coloring book. Makenna thanked it. She gripped her necklace pendant and nodded. She could do this. She was brave. Taking a deep breath, the fourteen-year-old Metamorphic Fairy dove into the ocean and grabbed the coloring book in the process.
Makenna saw him! She saw Tracey! He was floating on his back, unconscious, with his hands reaching up at surface. Makenna kicked her legs and swam closer to him. She reached forward and tried to swim faster, but it was difficult when you weren’t a merfairy. However, Makenna managed to reach Merlin’s apprentice. Glaring, she grabbed his hand and pulled him close to her. Then, she started swimming back up toward surface.197Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ5doAJ7Pv9x
Behind her appeared the Octopus Man’s shadow, and he yelled at the fairy, “BRING HIM BACK! HE’S MINE!” Makenna refused. No way was the Octopus Man going to get Tracey! She continued toward surface. The Octopus Man was totally mad! He yelled and created a great current that pulled Makenna and Tracey toward him! With all her strength, Makenna barely escaped the current, and she got herself and Tracey to surface.197Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡsGkBG78WgG
The second their heads burst out of the water, both fairies coughed. “Hang in there, Tracey!” Makenna yelled at her friend. She looked forward, and her eyes landed on the dark figure of an island in front them. Merlin’s Island! It was Merlin’s Island! Makenna was almost there! “Merlin’s Island!” she yelled. She tried to lift out of the ocean, but another wave crashed down on her and Tracey, and Makenna yelled. However, she had a tight grip on her friend. She returned to surface, and the Octopus Man summoned another wave to crash down on them. This one was much more powerful, and here, Step 2 of the Octopus Man’s plan succeeded. Makenna’s blue, horsehead pendant necklace was ripped right from her neck, and the powerful current pulled it away from her! Makenna saw this and gasped. The necklace! She couldn’t lose the necklace! Underwater, she grabbed the pendant, but Tracey slipped from her other hand and started to sink. Makenna grabbed him as well, but this time the pendant slipped. She groaned. The necklace was beginning to sink to the bottom of the ocean. Makenna reached for it, but then she glanced at injured and ill Tracey. He was more important than the necklace. For once, she made a wise decision. She decided to just leave the necklace and get Tracey to surface. She swam toward it, and the necklace continued to sink. It landed on the seabed, and its glow faded away.
Makenna finally reached surface, but she was immediately hammered by other large waves that pulled her and Tracey toward Merlin’s Island. Gina, who was flying above her, screeched and told Makenna to follow her. Makenna did. The closer she, Gina, and Tracey got to the island, the more the storm started to ease. Very faintly, the rays of the sun shone through the clouds and landed on the Metamorphic Fairy, her friend, and tern. A final wave crashed down on Makenna and jerked both her and Tracey underwater. She went limp. The storm had totally beaten her to the ropes.197Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡC4piMY0Rae
Underwater, Makenna Delling sleepily said, “Tracey,” and then, she closed her eyes and slipped into unconsciousness.197Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡfcWYAndTRp
While she slept, she again heard the familiar crack of iron and the same voice of the young girl yelling, “HELP!! MOMMY!! DADDY!!”197Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ8EsZU8bkUZ
Finally, in her head, through telepathy, Makenna heard the Octopus Man screaming angrily at her. “I WILL BE BACK!!” he shouted, “I WILL WIN!! JUST TRY TO STOP ME! I CAN ASSURE YOU THAT THAT BOY WILL BE MINE! YOU’VE BEEN WARNED! I WILL SUCCEED!” After he yelled that, everything became still and quiet. Makenna Delling and Tracey, Merlin’s apprentice, were now floating freely underwater, and both of them had blacked out.
