Redwing - Chapter 2 *Edited*

We walked down one of the twelve tunnels leading out of the announcement room. The further we travelled, the less light there was, until we entered a dark room with only seven candles. Each candle illuminated a chute. The chutes went through the ceiling at the top to a small fan at the bottom. Baby Teya, the youngest of us all, gripped my hand tightly. My heart thundered inside me, the same way it would before going on a monster roller coaster ride.

‘Where is Bridget? Our trainer said she’d be here before us. She never usu-’’

‘Here! Here! I’m here!’’ cried Bridget, stepping out from behind one of the chutes with a spanner in her hand. A single candle illuminated half of her face in a spooky way. Bridget was in charge of all junior Utopian missions. We had never worked with her before since it was our first mission, but our trainer had told us all about her. She seemed a little jumpy, yet I could tell she was stern.

‘Alright girls, let me check you all in on the computer. Let’s go from oldest to youngest and I’ll call out your mission positions. Claire, power of animals and age thirteen?’’ asked Bridget, she hadn’t even bothered to introduce herself.

‘Here… And so is all the rest of us’’

‘Alright,’’ smiled Bridget, typing away on her laptop. A small desk was attached to her belt and the laptop was perched precariously on the edge of it. My body shuddered with excitement at every click-clack of her laptop.

‘If the rest of you are here, I’ll just read out your positions. Claire, being the oldest of course, you are mission leader. Dawn, power of art and age thirteen, you are the safe checker, you’ll take care of any injuries which I hope there aren’t on such a minor mission. Page, power of books and stories and age twelve, you are mission planner and will be working alongside the mission leader. Kelly, power of… what?’’ Bridget squinted at the laptop screen. She looked up at Kelly then back at the screen. ‘Ropes?’’

‘Yes ma’am, you see it’s not so much as a power but more an ability. I can make ropes shoot out of my hands and feet, then I can swing on them, lasso them, climb them, pull on them, sling-shot them-’’

‘Alright! Alright! You girls sure have some… original powers! I mean usually there’s water and fire and- whatever, you’ll be the active commander, the actual one doing the mission. Wendy…’’

I held my breath. The seconds it took for Bridget to tell me my position felt like years and after a while my lungs started bursting, but I didn’t dare to move, let alone breathe.

‘Power of wind…’’

Would our trainer finally allow it? Will I finally work with Kelly on the actual mission?

‘Twelve years old…’’

Teya’s fingernails drove deeper into my palm. She knows I want to work with Kelly but I know she still wants me working with her. Usually I’m on look out with Teya but now that I’m twelve, our trainer said she might give me a chance if I did well enough in training.

‘You’ll be working with Kelly on the active mission. And last but not least Teya, power of… time! Now that’s a cool power. You’re young of course so you’ll need to work on it though. Age eight, you’ll be lookout.’’

Teya looked up at me with her alarming, apple red eyes. I did feel a little bit sorry for her, but still, on the inside I was fighting the urge to jump up and down, screaming in relief.

‘Oh come on, you’re eight now. Old enough to look out by yourself. Wendy needs to go up a level with her position. But think about it, you’ll be jumping through the trees all by yourself now!’’ smiled Bridget at Teya, as if she was three, not eight. She really didn’t know anything about us, did she. My first impressions of her were not positive ones. ‘Now come on girls, step into the launch pads and let your first junior mission with me as your captain, begin!’’

I instantly jumped up and pressed my watch against the side of one of the chutes. The chute scanned my watch and I sprung in. I placed my feet on either side of the fan and stood, ready for the whoosh of air I was anticipating.

‘So what’s the mission this time? I mean for the first time, I mean…um…’’ I asked, muddled up in my own words.

‘Here you go…’’ Bridget clicked a few buttons on her laptop and a screen appeared on all of our chutes.

‘Seventy nine years ago, the belief in magic was the highest this world had ever seen. So, as I’m sure you know, all the magical creatures and kingdoms had to escape from earth to avoid the humans discovering about magic, but Utopians decided to keep living on earth, to protect it. But, this time to make sure the humans didn’t find out about magic, the Utopians mixed all their babies in with normal humans so the babies themselves don’t know they were special, to keep them safe.’’

‘But, if all the other kingdoms knew about magic, how comes the humans can’t?’’ asked baby Teya.

‘Because, little one, the humans could be dangerous. You remember their charm on the chandelier? It’s a fist, which represents power. Think how powerful they would be with magic on their side as well!’’ answered Page, the know-it-all book worm.

‘But now humans are destroying the earth and there’s talk of those creatures and kingdoms who escaped earth long ago, coming back to take over the world and ‘save it’ from the humans. Most of them will be destroyed. All Utopians are withdrawing their children so we can build up our army again to protect earth. Humans may be destroying the seeds of earth, but wiping them out and letting the other realms take over instead, is not the answer. Your mission is to get a Utopian girl who doesn’t know she’s a Utopian, and bring her here. She’s a girl of your age, so who better to get her than you?’’

I looked around at all six of us. We had all moved up a level, but were we really ready for this? Our birthdays are round about at the same time and we are all round about the same age except for Teya. We met each other at school and decided, because all of us were a part of the Utopian project, to team up. The five of us then met Teya when we babysat her and we instantly bonded. All of us live normal, human lives but were withdrawn and claimed as Utopians by a group of girls just like we were about to do. We’re still living human lives though, until every Utopian knows they’re a Utopian and we all go back to Utopia together, everyone has to stay at our human’s houses, or in my situation, apartment.

‘Ready?’’ Bridget placed a finger on the switch that turned on all our fans. ‘Steady?’’ We all jumped onto the fans. ‘Go!’’ Bridget flicked the switch and a blast of powerful air, shot us up the chutes.