Alex Tesla & the Academy Chapters 11-15

CHAPTER XI

The final class on Tuesday was First Aid and Health with Professor Laura Malloy. The students sat at small individual desks as Malloy search for something in her large and cluttered cupboard at the front of the classroom. Finally, Malloy found what she was looking for, a pot plant containing an old, withered and most likely dead plant. She placed the pot on her desk and looked at the class and smiled.

"Who can tell me what's wrong with this plant?" asked Malloy to the class expectantly.
The class stared in bewilderment at Professor Malloy. Alex thought to himself, what's wrong with this woman?
"It's dead," said Lex quietly, realising that Malloy actually required an answer to the odd question.
"Very good, Ms. Gale, now who wants to see something amazing?" asked Malloy a second time.

"Yes, go for it," said Alex quickly, hoping to avoid a second awkward silence in the classroom.
Malloy smiled at Alex and went over to the plant. She floated her fingers over the top of the plant and began to wave them above the plant. The students watched in astonishment as small green lights emitted from her fingers, slowly floating down to the plant like little green specks. The plant suddenly began to glow a bright white, forcing the students to close or cover their eyes. When they opened them again, they saw that the plant was now alive, lush and green.

Malloy had revived the plant! The students were amazed.
"How does that work?" asked Lex curiously.
"I assume Chain explained how magic worked, yes? That there is an example of magic, but it is called light magic. There's a difference between light and dark magic. Dark is used as an offensive magic, while light is used as mainly as healing magic," explained Malloy.
"What are some kinds of light magic spells?" asked Drake.
"Cure, which can take away illnesses and cure minor injuries, shield, also known as block, puts up a barrier preventing other people's magic getting to you, and of course as you just saw me perform; rebirth, bringing life back to a dead organism. These are the ones you'll be learning," Malloy answered.

"Can you...bring back the dead?" asked Abby.
"No. I'm not near powerful enough. My energy rating is that of a class 7. Class 10 is required for life to be given to a person. The rebirth spell can be used on plants and animals however," explained Malloy.
"Oh," muttered Abby sadly.

Malloy went back to her desk and searched one of her draws for something. She pulled a small pin from her draw and showed the class. Then she ran the pin into her finger, drawing blood, slowly oozing down her finger. Several of the class members grimaced at the sight of blood, even if it was just several drops. Malloy put her fingers of her good hand and waved them over her small wound in a similar fashion to when she cast the rebirth spell on the dead plant.

Light blue specks emerged from her fingers this time and made their way to her bloody finger. The wound was instantly healed from the spell, Malloy wiping the blood off on a towel and showing the class.
"That was the cure spell. Now I was going to get you all to revive a plant today but I forgot to bring them in. But you may try if you find a dead leaf or bug later on. Just remember, it's your choice of the word you say, and you must mean it, otherwise nothing will happen," said Malloy with a smile. "Get out your textbooks and read the first five pages."

The students all grabbed their textbooks and started reading them with great interest. Drake noticed that Lex was already on the third page when everyone finished their first. Alex leaned over to the table beside him where Abby sat.
"Why'd you sound so sad when Malloy said you can't revive people?" asked Alex curiously.
"My mum died when I was fourteen, just two years ago. The thing is my parents were divorced and I'd been living with my father. My father and mother patched things up and were talking to each other again. They decided that I should go and see her. When I arrived at her house, I found her inside on the kitchen floor. She'd fallen and hit her head on the table, broke her neck. She was killed instantly. The first time I met my mother was on the floor in a bloody mess. I'd like to meet her under more fortunate circumstances," explained Abby.

Alex nodded and smiled. He noticed Abby's eyes were watering and she had started sniffing. A single, wet tear slid down Abby's cheek. Alex reached over and wiped the tear from her soft cheek. Abby looked at Alex and smiled.
"Thank you," she said softly.
Alex winked and went back to his table and continued reading the textbook. The first few pages were on the history of magic in Slate Academy. The Academy's founder; a man called Arelus Slate, was the first to discover magic when he cast a fire spell in his fireplace when he ran out of matches. Magic evolved from there, new spells being discovered every day.

Turning the page, Alex found himself looking at a small list of light magic spells that the first year students were expected to be able to perform by the end of the year. They were as follows:
· Cure - remove a negative effect, such as poison from a person, or heal a minor wound.
· Shield - create a light barrier that can defend against a standard fireball spell
· Rebirth - give life to a deceased plant and insect
· Bright eyes (also called night vision) - enable one's self to see in darkness
· Invisibility - to make one's self unseen to the human eye
· Sight - to recognise a person using the invisibility spell

Alex couldn't wait to start learning some of these spells. They all sounded so cool, interesting and exciting. Alex particularly wanted to try the invisibility one, as it had always been a childhood dream to become invisible, although probably every child had wished that at least once, thought Alex.

The bell rang and all of Tuesday's classes were now complete. It was time to return to the dorms and hang out for the rest of the night. The students got up and started to leave the classroom, Malloy calling out after them saying that they can read on to page 10 for homework if desired. Yeah, like that's going to happen, Alex thought. How wrong he was.


CHAPTER XII

At the end of the first school day at Slate Academy, the students had had their minds completely blown. Everyone dwelled on the day's events; Drake took a quick liking to Marsh's class of combat, Lex and Abby were still fascinated by the magic, Warren was now in love with Warpers, and Alex was a large fan of the whole lot. But besides everything that had gone on in the past 24 hours, Alex couldn't help but think a little bit about home; about his parents, best friend TJ and of course his fabulous school.

It was nearing ten o'clock, still an hour until curfew kicked in an eleven, and a group of the year 1 students were gathered in the Year 1 rest area, known to the students as the Chill Out room. Alex, Abby, Drake, Warren and Lex, along with Ivan, Michelle and Mikey, sat on the floor playing cards; snap to be exact. Everyone was alert as they each took turns throwing a card down. There hadn't been anyone snap for two minutes straight and the students were all tense.

An eight of diamonds landed on top of the three of diamonds and everyone pounced. Alex hit the pile first, and suddenly the entire deck of cards under his hands burst into flames! The students sitting around the deck quickly dived and scampered backwards as Alex quickly patted out the weak flames with his hands.
"What the hell was that?" exclaimed Drake with a small laugh.
"Sorry, I was thinking about magic class...and fire, I didn't mean to..." muttered Alex embarrassingly.

Lex smiled as the group moved back in. "At least you can do magic, half of the class hasn't done any yet."
"You'll all catch up, I guarantee it," replied Alex encouragingly.
"I'm hungry," stated Warren, deviating from the current conversation. "Who wants food?"
"Go get some snacks from the cafeteria," suggested Abby.

Warren nodded and got up to head for the cafeteria and grab some chips and sandwiches for the students to snack on.
"I'll help him," said Alex, getting up and following Warren.

The pair made their way through the long hallways of the Academy, heading for the cafeteria. On the way, Alex overheard voices talking; Headmaster Falcon and Instructor Marsh to be exact. As Warren continued on, curiosity got the better of Alex and he followed the voices. Standing outside of the Headmaster's office, Alex listened through the door at the conversation.

"Our worst fears have been confirmed. The Emerald Army has invaded Harvass," said Falcon sadly.
Alex had no idea what they were talking about, but it still interested him.
"What size force has invaded?" asked Marsh curiously.
"Scattered reports have come in from Harvass, but they estimate between two and three thousand strong. They call for aid," said Falcon.

"And what do you propose we do?" asked Vaine. "Send all of our students over to help?"
Alex could hear Vaine and some other teachers talking, the whole teacher faculty must've been in the office.
"I've decided that Instructor Lewis Carmack will take all Year 6 and 5 students over to help and reinforce the town. We do not want a war, we just need to secure the safety of the local people of Harvass," explained Falcon.

"And what if the Army becomes hostile? What then? Ninety students against a force of three thousand?" exclaimed Vaine.
"What do you propose we do, Jeremiah?" asked Marsh sharply.
"I don't know, but sending the students...they're not ready," replied Vaine.
"You underestimate them, Vaine," said Chain. "I've got students learning spells on their first day. Last years group took a week."

"What will be done about the other students?" asked Instructor Lewis Carmack, one of the field instructors at the Academy.
"Should the need arise, Year 3 students will be sent over also. Year 4's are already out Professor Donnelly, and the first two years are nowhere near ready to face fully trained soldiers," replied Falcon.

"That Cyrus...thinks he can just do anything," muttered Otto Warwick angrily.
"It is true, Cyrus Arc is one person this world would be better off without," added Malloy.
"Enough chit-chat, this meeting is over, Carmack and the students will depart tomorrow," finished Falcon.

The teachers all got up and started to make their way out of the office. Before the door opened, Alex turned and ran to cafeteria to catch up with Warren and help with the food. He arrived to find Warren struggling with two trays of sandwiches and sodas. Alex helped by taking one of the trays off him.
"What took you so long?" asked Warren.
"Got lost..." replied Alex untruthfully.

Warren just snickered as the pair made their way back to chill out room with the food. But one thing plagued Alex; who was Cyrus Arc? And what was he doing, trying to take over the world? Alex thought more and more about it while everyone else ate, drank and played games. Alex remembered Falcon saying something about an Army, an Emerald Army. Alex didn't know what that exactly was, but he didn't like the sound of it. Alex or any of the other students for that matter didn't know, but when Falcon had said that Carmack and students were going to Harvass, he'd just sent them to war.



CHAPTER XIII

The second day of school began with the students with a class that Headmaster Falcon himself taught; Parallel Worlds. Seeing as how Slate Academy was in a parallel world, they found it imperative to educate the students on the workings of these worlds, such as the different laws of the universe that were present, the biggest one being the presence of Link Energy.

The students arrived at the classroom and took their seats at large tables that seated six. Alex, Drake, Abby, Warren, Lex and Ivan sat themselves down at one of the tables and waited for Falcon to arrive. Conversations around the room halted as Falcon entered the room and began talking almost immediately.
"Good morning to all and welcome to Parallel Worlds. We'll cut to the chase straight away. Who here felt queasy after entering this world?"

All of the hands shot up in the classroom. Falcon just nodded and smiled.
"Now, Nurse Hazel may've explained this to you or not, but does anyone know why you felt sick?" asked Falcon curiously to the class.
"Phasing sickness," said Alex confidently.
Falcon nodded. "Yes, very good. To get from Earth to Heart you will pass through what is called a portal; a rip between the time and space fabric between the two parallel worlds. Now, one does not simply move between these two worlds easily. The molecules in your body split apart into millions of tiny particles. Once you exit the portal, you're reformed into what you were before you entered it. This is a brutal attack on your body when you perform this for the first time, but it gets easier with time."

Lex's hand went up in the classroom, a look of wonder upon her face.
"Headmaster how is it that other people can't just stumble into this world?" she asked curiously.
"Do you all remember the bracelets that came with your recruitment letters? These allow you to pass through. If you haven't one and pass through the portal, nothing happens, you simply continue on where that path would normally go. For example, one portal is in a school in the state of Nebraska in the United States, inside a janitor's closet. Walk in with a bracelet and you'll be brought here, walk in without one, you'll find yourself in the janitors closet," explained Falcon.

"Do things we do in this world affect anything in our world?" asked Abby curiously.
Falcon shook his head. "There is only one thing that you can do in this world that will affect your world...and that is to die. If you die in Heart, you are erased from Earth. Once you're dead, everyone that knew you, everything you do, everyone that was ever associated with you or ever met you will forget you. You'll be erased from your world completely should you die here. But smile, a student has not died here since..."
Falcon stopped himself from finishing the sentence, leaving some of the students with puzzled looks on their faces.

The students all nodded, some, including Lex, were righting down notes furiously, making sure that they had all the information possible to study when exam time came around. Alex thought about whether or not he should be taking notes. Alex hated exams, but not because they were hard; he found most of them easy, passing all with high marks. But it occurred to Alex that all those exams were on things that he'd already known before being taught. In the case, he knew nothing about the workings of parallel worlds. Deciding to be smart and sensible, Alex got a small notepads from his bag and started righting down whatever Headmaster Falcon was saying.

Halfway through the lesson, Alex remembered about the night before; Falcon and the other teachers in his office talking about the mysterious person Cyrus Arc. Alex raised his hand and waited for Falcon to look in his direction.
"Who is Cyrus Arc?" asked Alex.
The entire class looked to Falcon for the response. Falcon, caught completely off guard was speechless for the moment. Falcon hesitated and then nodded to himself.

"You will all find out sooner or later, so I will not shield you from the truth. Cyrus Arc is a...well I suppose warlord is the most suitable term for him. Cyrus wants one thing; the extermination of anyone who stands against him. His predecessor was one of the main reasons that this Academy was built. Cyrus Arc has an entire continent in Heart called Basstam under his control. We've heard naught from him for eight years, but now it seems he is ready to conquer the world, again," explained Falcon.

"Again?" asked Alex amazed.
"Eight years ago, Cyrus launched massive amounts of soldiers from his own army, the Emerald Army, all around the world. We could not sit back and watch. I lead every single student and professor that called this place home right into the heart of Basstam, where Cyrus' base was. It was a long and bloody battle, both sides taking huge losses. In the end, it was our magic that overcame their guns. Cyrus' army was defeated and we reigned victorious. Cyrus escaped our capture however and has remained hidden for the last eight years. We recently got word that an Emerald Army platoon of soldiers were deployed to the continent called Harvass...under the order of Cyrus Arc," explained Falcon.

The students were all amazed at the story, some even frightened. Alex just sat in his chair and sighed. He'd been recruited into this academy to fight a war. Everyone had. Alex then thought if he and his friends would ever have to go into actual battle. The thought made cold chills shoot up and down Alex's spine. Alex looked over at Abby who was as white as snow, as was Lex and Drake. Warren seemed less phased by it and saw it more as an opportunity to prove himself. Alex wished he could've had Warren's confidence. The bell went shortly after Falcon's story and the students hurried off.



CHAPTER XIV

Second period saw the students back in the training arena for Marsh's combat classes. Marsh had made today's lesson a free time lesson, allowing the students to do as they pleased in the arena. Some students like Erica Wattle used the time to gossip with her friends, while others like Jason and Todd went around taunting some of the students who had poorer abilities with their weapons. Alex and his group decided to practice getting a good feel for their weapons.

Each wearing a protective vest, Alex and Drake had decided to have a small duel to see who was getting used to the art of fighting quicker. Marsh decided to act as a referee and provide tips as the fight progressed. Gripping his sword tightly, Alex swung towards Drake quickly, two daggers stopping the blade inches from Drake's vest. The force of the blow knocked Drake to the ground on his back. Marsh smiled and helped him back up.

"Remember Drake, balance. Move in a way that is comfortable," suggested Marsh.
Drake nodded and got back to his feet. Alex swung again, this time Drake parried the sword stroke with his daggers on their sides. The blade stopped instantly and Drake managed to keep his footing this time. Drake used the opportunity to launch his counter-attack. Moving one of his daggers quickly, Drake swung for the left side of Alex's torso, but Alex moved quickly, holding the swords handle above his head and the blade dropping down in front of his left side, Alex managed to stop Drake's dagger.

"Very good, Alex," said a pleased Marsh.
Alex then tried something he never thought he'd do. Alex spun himself around, brought up his left leg and swung it at Drake, connecting with the side of his vest. Drake fell to the side losing both of his daggers in the process. Alex stood over him with the sword tip resting on top of Drake's vest.
"I think I just gutted you," said Alex with a smile.
Drake laughed. "I let you win."

Alex helped Drake back to his feet and sheathed his sword. Drake picked up his daggers and slipped them into the two sheathes on his belt. Marsh approached the pair.
"Well done boys, you're both progressing well," said Marsh. "Can I talk to you, Alex?"
Alex nodded while Drake went off with Abby and Lex who were cleaning their weapons.

"Have you ever had any combat experience?" asked Marsh curiously.
"None, unless you count school punch-ups," replied Alex.
"Alex, there is a contest that happens here in the school called the Dueling Competition. Students fight against other students here in the arena with their chosen weapons. Get three strikes on your opponent and you advance to the next round. Now, a first year student has never entered, but you have an unnaturally great skill for fighting. I think you would do well, interested?" asked Marsh.

Alex couldn't deny it, it sounded great. But if a first year student had never even competed, what hope did he have?
"I don't think I'm ready," replied Alex timidly.
"I'll train you. Some of the other students also help the new participants train...speaking of which, here are some now," said Marsh pointing to the doors of the arena.
A group of six students entered, ready to train and improve their skills for the Competition which began next month. Alex recognised only one of them, Marcus Valley from the third year. Alex was also frightened by the appearance of another. This student was huge, easily six foot five, maybe more. Tall, bulky and strong, his eyes were like those of a snake, they chilled you to the bone.

"Who is that?" asked Alex curiously.
"Ah, Leon Gorge from the third year. He's also last years winner, put his challenger in sickbay for about a month," said Marsh.
"In that case, hell no!" protested Alex.
Marsh laughed at the young boy. "With proper training, you'll be able to beat him, even me!"
Alex raised his eyebrows. "Even you?"
"Well maybe not me," joked Marsh with a smile.
Alex sighed. "Okay, let's do it."
"Great, you won't regret it," said Marsh. "See me sometime later this week and we'll get started."

Alex nodded and went over to where Abby, Lex and Drake sat watching Ivan and Warren practice fighting against each other.
"What'd Marsh want?" asked Drake curiously.
"I'm going to be in a Dueling Competition," replied Alex unenthusiastically.
"What!?" exclaimed Abby loudly. "Those things are dangerous! I heard some kid lost an arm last year!"
"I'll be careful," said Alex.

Still fighting, Warren moved with tremendous speed, swing his wrist blades with elegance and grace at Ivan who was struggling to block each assault with his Bo Staff. Finally, Warren got the finishing blow, stabbing one of his wrist blades into Ivan's vest. Ivan nodded and shook Warren's hand. Even though he didn't speak it, Warren knew he was saying well done.

"Who's next, bitches?" said Warren jokingly.
"A bit overconfident, aren't we?" asked a voice from behind; Marcus Valley.
Warren turned and faced Marcus with a smile.
"You ready?" asked Warren, flicking out his wrist blades.
"Are you?" replied Marcus tauntingly, drawing his sword.
Alex noticed that Marcus fought with a sword, as well as a dagger that was still sheathed on his belt.

Warren charged as fast as he could towards Marcus, his wrists ready to be swung mercilessly through the air towards Marcus, who was standing rather casually with his sword at his side. Warren swung both his wrist blades at Marcus as hard and as fast as he could, only for them both to be met with Marcus' sword in an instant. Warren was dumbfounded as to how fast Marcus had been able to move his sword to block the assault. Catching him off guard, Marcus pushed Warren backwards with his sword, Warren falling to the ground, landing hard on his back. Marcus stood over Warren, the tip of the sword resting next to his neck.
"Yield," said Marcus with a smile.
Warren just nodded looking up at Marcus.

Marcus extended out his hand and helped Warren back to his feet. Warren snapped his pair of blades back into their metallic casts and sat down with the rest of the group. Marcus slipped his sword back into his belt sheathe and moved over to where Alex was.
"So Marsh tells me you might be entering the Dueling Competition?" stated Marcus.
"News travels fast," replied Alex. "Yeah, I might be."
"Need a sparring partner? I can help you train, I'm entering too," suggested Marcus.
Alex nodded. "Yeah, that'd be good. I need all the help I can get."

Marcus nodded and gave Alex a pat on the back.
"So I'm guessing you've seen Leon?" asked Marcus curiously.
"Unfortunately yes, he's going to kill me if I'm against him," muttered Alex.
"Yeah, probably," laughed Marcus.
Alex raised his eyebrows at Marcus and smiled. "That's real comforting."



CHAPTER XV

The next lesson was with Instructor Otto Warwick, who was a teacher of Tactics used on the battlefield. Warwick was one of the more practical teachers, asking the students questions rather than the students asking him. For his first lesson with the group, Warwick asked each student to plan an assault on a two-storey building. The idea of the task was to see how well a student could evaluate the situation and then make decisions based on that situation.

The scenario was that a group of sixteen men had taken control of a two-storey building and a team of six students from the Academy were sent to deal with the situation. The students would type what they would do in the situation on a computer, and then feed it into Warwick's computer which would analyse the data and provide a simulated outcome.

Jason Haste was the first to finish his solution and passed it up to Warwick. Warwick fed the information in and waited for the result. An electronic voice started to read out the outcome.

"With the given parameters, there is a 22% chance of successfully completing the mission."

"That's it?" asked Jason.
"Now we wait for it to run through the scenario and it will give a casualty result," explained Warwick.

"Final outcome of the mission: Hostile casualties at 12.5%, Slate casualties at 80%. Outcome: failed."

"Bad luck, Jason, but with those settings you took out just two of the sixteen hostiles occupying the building and killed five teammates. Better luck next time," said Warwick.
Jason shook his head and went back to his desk. "Stupid class anyway..."
Next was Drake to finish. Feeding in the information, Drake and Warwick awaited the result eagerly.

"With the given parameters, there is a 67% chance of successfully completing the mission. Final outcome of the mission: hostile casualties at 81.25%, Slate casualties at 20%. Outcome: passed."

"Well done, Drake. 13 hostiles were eliminated and you lost just one teammate. However we need to aim for completely eliminating the opposing force and keeping all of your teammates alive, but very good," said Warwick.
"Thank you, sir," replied Drake.

The class ended before anyone else could hand in their results, so the students went off to lunch and all sat in their own areas.
"Well that was boring," said Warren unenthusiastically.
"We get to do more physically active things later on in the year," reassured Drake.
"We'd better, I nearly fell asleep in that class," added Alex.
The group sat on the grass under a large oak tree. They had a study period next which all the students used for free time, so everyone decided to just hang out in the chill out room.

By the end of lunch and the start of their free period, Alex, Drake, Abby, Warren and Lex were the only ones in the chill out room. Alex and Lex sat on one of the lounges together, while Drake and Warren played cards. Abby sat by herself on a beanbag listening to an MP3 player and writing in her diary.
"Help me, Alex," said Lex with large puppy dog eyes.
"With what exactly?" asked Alex curiously.
Lex sighed. "My magic; It's killing me that I can't do it."

"It's our second day, Lex. You'll get there," encouraged Alex.
"Show me what you did, maybe that'll help me," suggested Lex.
Alex nodded and held out his hand, his force bracelet still on his wrist. Alex held his palm up and slowly flicked his arm outwards.
"Freeze," he breathed quietly.
An icy mist shot up into the air from Alex's palm, quickly followed by a small ball of ice which hovered just above his hand. Alex looked over to Lex who was smiling and watching the ice ball float as if she was in a trance. Lex faced her palm towards the ice ball and spoke softly. "Psy..."

The ball of ice slowly moved away from Alex's hand and now started to hover around her hand. Lex laughed loudly as she succeeded.
"I did it! Yes!" she exclaimed.
Drake, Warren and Abby all came over to see what was going on.
"What's up?" asked Abby curiously, and then she saw the ice ball hovering around Lex's hand. "Cool."
"What spell was that?" asked Drake curiously.
"The psych spell; moving things with your mind, like psychokinesis, isn't it great?" asked Lex with a large smile.

Warren frowned at the pair. "Goddamn show-offs."
"Oh, hush up," said Lex, waving Warren off.
Warren went to retaliate but he couldn't. Warren was trying to talk but he couldn't. All that he could do was make quiet moans and groans. Alex, Drake, Abby and Lex all watched in amazement and confusion.
"What'd you do, Lex?" asked Alex curiously.
"I didn't do anything!" said a panicky Lex.

Abby quickly grabbed the magic textbook that Chain had given to the class and quickly flipped to the list of spells page. Drake looked anxiously over her shoulder.
"There! The Silence spell," said Drake pointing to a spot on the page.
"The Silence spell can silence any person from vocalizing audible words, instead forces them to communicate with only grunts and groans. Incantations include silence, quiet, mute and hush. That's what she did," read Abby from the book.
"How do I un-silence him?" asked Lex eagerly.

Abby looked at the section below the silence spell marked reverse.
"To reverse the silence spell, simply cast the speech or sound spell on the victim. Incantations include speech, tongue, speak and audio. Try it!" said Abby.
"Um...speak!" said Lex, waving her hand towards Warren as she had done before.
Warren immediately gasped and the spell was reversed.
"Oh man! That felt weird! Like there was a towel stuffed down my throat or something but I could still breathe. Why'd you do that?" asked Warren angrily.

"I didn't do it on purpose," responded Lex innocently.
"Oh yeah?" replied Warren furiously, moving over to Abby who held the book and looking at a spell. "Slime!"
Lex's mouth went instantly bloated as though it was filled up with drink. Lex looked around at the others, Warren a sly smirk on his face. Lex opened up her mouth and out poured a sticky, green substance. It looked like thick, green jelly but smelt much worse and wasn't all wobbly. Abby looked in the book and saw the spell Warren had cast.

"The slime spell; creates a gooey substance used for slowing down and distracting opponents," read Abby.
"T-that's disgusting," said a queasy Lex, turning green in the face, feeling as though she was going to throw up.
Drake looked at the book and saw an interesting one.
"That's nothing, check this out. Animate!" he said, pointing at the green slime on the floor.

The green slime suddenly started to bubble and squirm. It all seemed to be gathering together in one spot. All of a sudden the slime jumped up in the shape of a tiny person. It was only two inches high but it looked absolutely freaky! The green slime moved around curiously, examining the environment.
"What the hell was that?" asked Abby curiously, looking at the book. "Ah, the Animation spell, gives short life to an inanimate object."

The green slime continued to walk around, starting to scare the kids.
"Ok that thing is freaking me out. Melt," said Alex, putting his hand out over the green goo.
Instantly the green man bubbled and then was reduced to its original state as a pile of slime.
"The Dissolving spell. Liquefies an object," said Abby.
"Well this has been very satisfying, you've all learnt magic now, so no more, agreed?" suggested Alex.

"I haven't," said Abby quietly.
Alex and the others all faced Abby.
"Then go on, give it a shot," they encouraged.
Abby nodded and looked around for something to do magic on. She noticed Warren swat a fly, its dead body dropping to the ground. Abby knelt down and looked at it. Carefully, she placed her fingertip on the fly and spoke very quietly.
"Life..."

The fly's wings instantly buzzed to life and flew away in an instant. It actually startled Abby as she didn't really believe she could do it, but there it was. She'd just given life to a fly. But more importantly, she had finally learnt magic.