Act 16

Lily made her way to the mansion using the shortcut she and Xavier found a while back. It was already 7:30 when she arrived, Xavier was already waiting for her outside, she stopped in front of him and put her hands on her knees panting heavily. “Lily! What happened to you? Xavier said as he blinked behind her patting her back. “Mat is coming and he got some friend along with him” she said between breaths. “That bastard doesn’t quit, does he?” Xavier said while he was scouting the premises. “For money and fame? Never, I am sure he is headed her so we must do the incantation somewhere else.” she said. Xavier pondered for a while, “How about the old oak tree? Mat does know where that is and if he somehow figures out where we are, we are already done with the ritual.” Xavier suggested. “Good idea, where are the items?” she said opening her bag. Xavier conjured and arm and pierced his shadowy chest, slowly retrieving the sphere with the ritual items in it. He popped the bubble pouring them inside Lily’s bag pack. “Ok, let’s go” she said and Xavier immediately transformed into a stallion, Lily climb up and began to ride to the ancient tree. A couple of minutes after their departure, Mat’s truck arrived at the mansion skidding into a stop. Mat told two of the men to search the mansion thinking that they were inside, they did and kicked the door down. An annoying amount of time passed and the two men return empty saying that the place was indeed abandoned. Mat cursed and slamming his fist on the wheel, one of the men patrolling the area and he faintly saw a mark in the soil, he pushed the bush aside to reveal a trail of hooves traveling up north. He yelled and alerted the others and Mat rushed out of the truck slamming the door as he left. “What is it? Mat asked. The patrol guy showed him the trail, Mat knelt down and noticed that there was more to the trail. There were black slimly ooze in the tracks, “What the hell is that? There are no horses live in the woods.” the patrol guy said kneeling beside him. “Well if that is true then we know where we are going” Mat said while standing up flicking the ooze off his finger. He called out for the men, telling them to climb in the truck and that there were going to drive north that they were heading there. They occasionally stopped and checking the tracks if they were still heading the right direction and surely enough, they were still following the trail. The ended at the start of the colorful flora biome, “The trail ends here” one of the men said. “What how could that be? Mat barked, stomping the ground “How could it just stop?” “Well, were not hunting a normal thing, are we?” the guy with the tattoo said. Mat kicked the grass and ordered everyone to spread out, the men did what he said and quickly scrambled around looking for a sign where the monster and the girl could possibly go to. After a solid 20 minutes, Mat became imperial killer and once again barked at the men saying that they were wasting precious time. Amidst of the scolding, the youngest of them “The Kid” saw something in the trees and slowly walk to it. Mat saw him and called out “Hey! You where are you going? Get your ass back here!! his voice reverberating in the woods, The Kid ignored him and continued towards the tree. Mat in frustration follow him stomping his feet as he did so. “Did you hear what I just said? I told to you go and search for those goddamn tracks!” he said angerly. “Already found it boss, take a look” the kid said as he pointed at the tree trunk, there were scratch marks on in. “The marks seemed to go up, ending on that branch and reappearing on the other” other chirped up and all of them looked up and confirmed it. there were indeed scratch marks and Mat knew exactly where it came from. “Lily must have thought of it, clever girl. Good spot kid, you’ll get extra and the rest of you lets go bag this beast.” he said sternly and proceeded to follow their new trail. Meanwhile, Xavier and Lily were nearing the great tree, climbing and leaping from tree to tree his gigantic spider-like form. “We are almost there, just a little further.” Xavier grunted exhaustedly but pushed onwards, the thought of him returning him back to his normal self again fueled his determination. When they arrived, they first scouted the area for a good spot to set up then Xavier spotted one and leapt towards it. They landed with loud smack while cracking the ground beneath them, “You could have warned me before you did that you know?” Lily scoffed “Sorry, I just got excited there.” he said with a grin while transforming back into his normal form. Lily pinched his side and Xavier jerked and let out an audible cry of pain. “HMMP, serves you right” Lily said crossing her arms. “I said I was sorry” Xavier said. Lily rolled her eyes and walked pass him and started to unpack the ritual items while Xavier patrolled the area for any sign of Mat and his minions.

Lily opened to the book of incantations, turning it to the page of the transformation spell. As it said in the book, she drew the circle of power on the ground making sure the line had a crevice then she drew the six-pointed star where they will place the ritual items. After that she grabbed the salt from her bag and poured it in the circle’s crevice then she placed the ritual items in respective places. “It’s ready, let’s do this thing” Lily said motivated. “Good thing too, no Mat or his goons anywhere. The coast is clear.” Xavier said. “That’s great! let’s hope that they don’t find this place or if they do, you are already back to being human.” Lily said while pinching the side of his hood where his cheek would have been. “Knock it off and let’s do it already.” he exclaimed. “Alright then, stand at the center of the circle” Lily ordered. Xavier didn’t hesitate and floated to the center so to not erase the circle. Then Lily placed the book on the ground and knelt down to begin reciting the incantation. “Close your eyes Xavier and focus on one thing, imagine yourself as a human and nothing else or the spell won’t work.” Lily said. Xavier did what he was told and closed his eyes and only Lily’s soft voice made sure of her presence. As he heard Lily recite the incantation, he briefly remembered the day his mother was performing the same spell on him. He remembered her mother each time Lily uttered a word in the Purist’s language. All was going into plan and Lily was nearing the last words of the spell but she suddenly stopped.