Chapter 4

"There's your answer," I state.

"Do you think they found someone to teach the class?" he asks while grabbing two menus off the table as the flight attendant walks by.

"I mean, if it's still a class you can take, I would say so," I reply, looking at the menu.

"Could I have some blood, mama?"

"Sure," I say as I scoot Jessy over to the right so it's easier to get my backpack. I then opened the bottomless bag, thought about the blood, and grabbed it.

Just as the flight attendant returned, I decided what I wanted and what Jessy would like before handing the menus over to Brandon.

"I'll be having the freezer-friendly frittata breakfast sandwich," he tells her.

"I'll have a southwest quinoa breakfast bowl and a sour cherry chocolate chunk muffin for my daughter."

The flight attendant nods and then walks away as I pour the blood into a cup and give it to her; Brandon stares at me with his mouth opening and closing like a fish. There are two sets of "Wicked!" from our left, so we turn to see two people who look like twins watching us. I raise my eyebrows just as Jessy finishes her cup- she turns her attention to them and hands me her cup. She smiles at them, making them smile back- intrigued to understand how my daughter knows those two strangers.

"You're both fallen angels, right?" she asks them.

"Yes," they state.

"Are we related in any way?" she asks bluntly.

"Not that we know of," the male says.

"We may be on either our mother's or father's side of the family, but we don't know for sure," the female explains.

"If we are, I want to let you know that the person next to me is my mama, and that's never going to change," she states proudly before hugging me.

I hugged her back just as hard and then released her as we turned our attention back to them. Before anyone could say anything, the flight attendant returned with our food and said a swift thanks. As we enjoyed our food, after swallowing a bite, I spoke.

"What's your names?"

"Maya."

"Zane."

"Brandon, is mine!"

"Raina," I reply.

"Jessica, but everyone calls me Jessy!" she says with delight.

"Do you know who's planning to teach the Oath and Care of Magical Creatures?" Maya asks.

"No, but I hope they don't cancel that class," Brandon says.

"I bet they're waiting for us all to get there before telling us who's teaching," Zane explains.

"Why would they do that?" Maya and Brandon ask.

"So, they can see our reactions," Zane stated in a duh voice.

"What if it's a student?" I ask them.

"That would be wived, but how would that work?" they ask.

"There are different ways, but the most likely answer is that since everyone has a different color in the school, dealing with which year you're in would probably involve a few classes so that they don't miss any of their scheduled classes," I explain.

"That could be, and there's the off chance that people will drop out depending on who's teaching," Maya says thoughtfully.

"Do you know if we have homework from that class?" Brandon asks.

"Wait, what?!" they shout.

"Yeah, it's about the creatures we'll be learning," I answer.

"What would those be?" Zane asks.

Thinking back to the note from Mr. Sapping before replying. "Firerosy Boa, Tigerwolf, Oear, Feaxer, and Salynx."

"I almost got all of them. Just need information on Firerosy Boa and a Salynx?"

"What information is the homework asking for?" I ask.

"Where are they found? I also couldn't find anything on what they eat," Zane states.

I didn't want to give them the answer, but I had to get them thinking—"Where do Boas live?"

"That's easy. California!"

"Arizona."

"Africa!"

I snap as they argue over where the Boas live, a headache forms, and I do not want to hear these arguments again. "All your answers are fine."

They hurried to close their mouths, not wanting to upset me further. As the headache worsens from the plane lights, I close my eyes and hear them whisper about Salynx.

"I put Russia and North America," Maya says.

"Europe for me," Brandon states.

"I just put Asia," Zane replies.

"Do you think it's all of them?" Brandon asks.

"It's possible since the other question had all three of our answers," Maya states.

"Do you think they'll take off points if we don't put all three?" Zane whispers.

"Doubt it," Maya says with confidence.

With a couple of light conversations around the plane as many people were still waking up, to soft scratches of pencils on paper, then a giggle from my right, I slowly opened my eyes to see Jessy making silly faces at the half-covered window. A smile forms on my face at how much fun she is having, but my curiosity improves, so I slowly move towards the window to pull the rest of the blind up to see a griffin sticking its tongue back at her. When the griffin realizes that I'm watching, it stares at me as its eyes widen before a tight feeling within my chest tightens and then explodes.

"Is she your daughter? She has your scent mixed with her own," it asks.

"Yes, but not by blood," I answer honestly.

"Does she know her last name?" it asks.

"No, then again, I don't know her-"

"I doubt that."

"Wait, are you telling me she's the daughter of Raph Hyrbia-Moon and Jessica Falleneye-Hybrida-Moon?" I state.

"Yes, but with everything that has happened, she's the queen," it tells me.

"Hold up! Are you telling me that the Hybrida-Moon family has been dead for over a thousand years, and how was Jessy only born then? Also, how does that even work?"

"I can understand where your worry comes from, but please, there is nothing to worry about," the griffin said calmly. "As you mentioned, the Hybrida-Moon family has been dead for over a thousand years in human terms. One year in vampire terms is a hundred in human terms. So the Hybrida-Moon family have only been dead for ten years," it explains.

"Mhm, that makes more sense. I didn't realize there was a big gap in our life spans," I mumble before speaking again, "So what's this about Jessy being Queen, cause she's far too young."

"The kingdom knows she's the rightful heir, but since you've taken her in, you'll be queen," the griffin said excitedly.

"I can't be queen!" I snap.

"Oh, but you are," it says, smiling.

"Mama, are you okay?" Jessy asks, worried.

"Yes, sweetie. I was conversing with your pal," I say, then continue, "So, what's your new pal's name?"

"His name is Griff; he wants to protect me. Can he, Mama?" she answers and asks.

"I don't see why not," I answer.

"Mama, are you a princess like me?" she asks excitedly.

"No, just you, sweetie," I answer while moving her hair from her face.

"Then you're the queen?"

Laughing, I answer, "No, little one."

"How can a human like her be queen?" Molly started laughing.

"She can be queen if she wants to!" Jessy screams.

"Princesses don't scream, munchkin," I whisper.

"What's this! A human and vampire angel- that's rich. Who controls who?" Molly laughs as an evil glint shines in her eyes.

"Don't start," I tell Jessy gently.

"Buckle in. We'll be arrive in a few."

With our buckles together, I turned to see if Griff was still there, but he wasn't, so I glanced at our neighbors to see him talking to his new friends, possibly ours, too. Everything was peaceful. I lean back on the seat and rest my eyes. Once the plane lands, we grab our bags and wait for vehicles to get us. About three minutes into waiting, I noticed a male looking like bad news from the corner of my eye, who seemed to come up behind Jessy. When I turned towards him to snap, I saw what was missing from the picture. Another man stands behind her just a few feet away, staring at her creepily. With as much subtlety as possible, I pull her behind me more, so she's sandwiched between the stranger and myself. I sighed, and as I checked to see the time, it was eight, so nothing was too late yet when I got a tugging feeling from my shirt. I look down at Jessy and see her staring off into a dark alley, confused, since I see nothing.

"What's wrong, munchkin?" I ask, not taking my eyes off the dark alley.

"There's an injured animal."

I glance towards our group before turning back to Jessy. " Do you want to show me?" I say, holding out my hand.

With the alignment, she grabs my hand and rushes off until we're at the edge of the alleyway. As we slowly walk into the alley, the smell of blood grows the closer we get to the animal. Looking at the animal, I realize it is a cub, which isn't safe. I get down on one knee as I try not to spook the already terrified cub, but it tries to scoot away but doesn't because of its injured hind leg.

"Shh, I won't hurt you," I say softly as I lay out my arm so that it can smell my hand.

They sniff my hand as they move closer until they're right before me, so I gently pick up the cub. Turning towards Jessy, I wait for her to hold out her hands before handing over the cub. Then, I take off my jacket to wrap it around them before returning them and heading back to everyone. Everyone starts loading into the vans just as we make it, with only one seat.

I nod to the truck, and Jessy climbs in; once buckled, I hand over the cub and say, "Try to keep the cub steady while they drive."

"Mama, how are you getting there?" she asks.

"I can see if I can't get a ride from Griff," I state as I smile at her and slide the door shut.

I turned around to see Griff standing there, shaking my head before hopping onto him. We flew next to them so Jessy could see us out her window until we reached the forest. Taking off above the trees as I lose the van, he flies towards a clearing, and that's when I see the van, smiling as Jessy comes somewhat rushing out towards me as I hop off Griff.

"Thank you."

"No problem," he says.

He flies off, and Jessy comes skipping towards me with empty arms. I laugh and swing her up and onto my hip before heading over to our companions; Maya passes the cub back to Jessy as she gently holds them. We wait for the rest of the group to get out of the vans before following the drivers into the forest until we reach a barrier; Jessy is confused about how everyone disappears before smiling and gently nudging her towards the area. When we passed the barrier, she gasped at the small clearing we were now standing in. Walking a little bit away from where we were before, a vast ancient Oak tree stands alone in the middle of the clearing, pulsing with magic.

"Light creatures, follow me!" one of the van drivers shouts as he walks into the ancient Oak tree.

With all the light creatures heading into the ancient Oak, Molly and others say it's much better since they get to go first. A small huff leaves my mouth when a small but elegant voice speaks,

"You can see magic?"

Confused by the voice but not wanting to give anything away, I side-glance, hoping to find something, but there is nothing. Ignoring that, for a later me's problem as the rest of us pass into the tree. You think you just walked into the stories of Harry Potter with how everything looked. While the institute seems to be surrounded by a forest, that isn't the case; about 2/3 of the institution is surrounded by forest. I gently take the cub out of Jessy's hands as she runs up front with all the light creatures.

"Brone," I whisper.