Chapter 9

Coming awake feeling warm and rested Jack tried to remember where he was. Slowly going through the day before in his head Jack realized everything had gone to crap. Suddenly realizing his last memory was falling into a huge dark whole in the ground Jack took in his surroundings.

All of his friends were laying in a haphazard circle around a large fire snuggled up in sleeping bags, very safe and sound. Not seeing or hearing any threats in the area Jack moved to wake up his friends. Holding a finger over his lips just encase, he silently woke the others. All in a close huddle Jack finally spoke. "Does anyone know how we got here after we went down that hole? Especially how we were placed in that camping gear?"

Coming from the darkness in the corner a sweet motherly voice scared the group out of their huddle, nearly putting the twins on their butts. "Well look who is up! You kids really took quite a tumble. Good thing I was there or you'd all likely be dead." The kids, still a little surprised and dumbstruck just stared at the lady in the darkness.

Seeing their faces she laughed and stepped into the firelight knowing once they saw her they would relax. "I'm so sorry how rude of me, my name is Lenora Zora. After your fall some of my people brought you here to recuperate after your fall. Are all of you alright?" Jack taking charge for his friends started by saying they were fine knowing if something was wrong being shifters they would be okay soon. "We are just confused by where we are and what we should do. The whole mountain blew up yesterday and our whole class was buried in snow.

Seeing their confusion and worry Lenora tried to help them understand. "You aren't wrong, the resort is covered by the entire mountain and no one is probably left alive but you six." Seeing their distress she went on. "I know it is a terrible thing and hopefully there will be survivors but we need to get you all sorted out, and don't worry we know you are shifters. You can talk freely with anyone you meet while you are here."

The whole group, still reeling from the discovery about their friends slowly caught up to her saying they were shifters and saying they would be safe. Hal always one to question asked a lot in a row in an unreasonably loud nervous voice "WAIT WHAT!?! HOW DO YOU KNOW? WHAT ARE YOU? WHO IS MY PEOPLE? ARE WE PRISONERS?" After his most important questions Hal ended up ending with "DO YOU HAVE ANY FOOD?"

Surprised by his yelling and all of the questions Lenora and the others stared at Hal like a crazy person, then hearing his last question everyone couldn't help bursting out into laughter. After a couple seconds Hal softly joined in knowing he had been a little loud. Harper trying to help her new beau grabbed his hand and stepped into his side showing her support. Lenora wiping her eyes from laughing so hard slowly answered all the questions the kids might have had.

Knowing now that they were saved by a group of traveling Witches and Wizards, the kids followed Lenora out into a larger cave housing five or six large wooden tables about thirty feet long. Looking across the room they could see around two hundred or more people milling about talking, laughing and eating. 

As they entered the room and took this all in, all of the noise vanished and they were being studied by an enormous group of magic users. Feeling a little small they all scooted into a smaller group so they could feel reassured by the presence of their friend's. Lenora seeing the awkward situation decided to fix it. Telling the kids to walk over to the food line and grab some grub she then announced to the crowd what had happened and who their guests were.

As the talking and conversing began again the kids collected their food and sat down at the end of a table with a couple empty chairs between them and the magic users. As soon as they sat down and started eating, two kids around their age darted over stealing the empty seats by the twins and tried to start up some small talk.

The twins with their almost supernatural way of silently communicating saw these two and immediately fell in love. Austin and Rachel, the two who sat down were the best of friends being twins themselves, a rarity in the wizard/witch world. They looked alike, both with dark raven black hair, creamy white skin and almost almond shaped eyes, both with one blue and one brown eye. As they sat they said in unison "It's good to see some new meat!" Then they looked at each other and laughed. Austin taking the lead decided to ask Sam some questions about how they got there and what they were planning on doing.

Sam blushing and talking quietly but firmly told him what had happened and that they didn't know what they were going to do. They hadn't gotten that far yet and they didn't know how long they would stay. Rachel answering the question smoothly for her brother while looking at Alex the whole time said "Oh it's no worry at all, Lenora will let you all stay as long as you want, and she has actually taken a liking to you all. If you do stay a little longer you can hang out with us and we will show you around. It will be a lot of fun!"

The other two couples taking that time to eat and snuggle up to each other took in their words but could clearly see they were not in the conversation. The twins from both groups looked to be in their own besotted world. Lenora, seeing the twins happily helping, walked over gave them praise and asked after they were all done eating for the two to lead them all back into the room they came from.