Illusion Magic

I held Luna's hand like my life depended on it. If the others suddenly disappeared, I wasn't going to let her disappear too.

"Walden, what is going on?" She shivered, grabbing tightly to my arm.

"This has to be an illusion." I replied.

We started to get tugged around, like something was pulling the two of us toward the way we came. Was this part of the illusion too?

I tried to anchor us to a tree by grabbing a branch, but the tugging wouldn’t stop. Luna was starting to get pain around her waist from resisting the rope tug.

We really had no choice but to follow the motion, otherwise we’d get hurt.

Then the tugging stopped. Was that over? Why were we being tugged in the first place?

“Walden!” Luna pointed to the ground. “Look! There’s something going on with the ground.”

She was right. It almost looked like something was being written in the mud by an invisible hand. Maybe it was whatever was casting this illusion on us?

The longer we stared at it, the more it definitely looked like words.

The writing said…"STOP MOVING! This is an illusion. Le----" The tugging continued, and the writing turned to scribbles.

I had a feeling that it was Zumi's handwriting. I could see the frustration written in each word.

"What should we do?" Luna asked.

It seemed like everyone was actually still here, but we couldn't communicate or see one another. Unfortunatly we were all still connected by rope. Not sure how luna and I could see each other, but maybe it had to do with our spiritual bond.

"I think we ne…" I was interrupted by a sudden tug.

Why did that keep happening? We were standing still, so…

"Do you think Charles is responsible for this tugging?" Luna asked.

"That Cougar Killer's probably the first to dip when things get crazy…" I sighed.

Since he was at the other end, he was probably trying to frantically escape from this mess. No doubt he wasn't paying attention to Zumi's previous writing.

"Look!" Luna pointed to a tree.

Mud was getting splattered all over it. Then came more words.

"Charlie! Stop running! Let me cast a spell!"

Zumi must have figured it out too. Charlie was probably tugging on her harder than we could feel.

It didn't seem like her writing was doing any good. We were still getting dragged along.

We tried to undo the rope connecting us, but the constant tugs were making it very hard. These were on pretty tight too.

"Oh my!" Luna called out as her shoes were dragging in the cold mud. "How miserable!"

We had to get Charlie to stand still so Zumi could cast her spell to get rid of the illusion. But what were we supposed to do?

I considered throwing a rock at where I thought Charlie was, but it might hit Zumi. And who's to say we could even affect each other in this state? Plus, even if it hit Charlie, we needed him to stay awake to make a portal.

We couldn't see anyone's footprints, but somehow we saw Zumi's writing. Maybe there's a hint at how we could communicate with him in that. I honestly wish I wasn’t stuck in Pre-mage school. They don’t teach you anything useful for situations like these, and I’m always surrounded by children a quarter my size.

"Oh!" Luna excitedly chirped. "I have an idea!"

What was she going to try here?

Her body was glowing, exactly like the times before. This time, the glow condensed over her hand like a ball.

She gracefully chucked the light ball into the air, and it split into about six smaller balls, each just as bright as the first.

They flew toward the direction we assumed Charlie was in, and then spun around in the air in a very entertaining way.

Luna controlled their motion with her mind, making them seem like something lively and mesmerizing.

"The magic I just used is more powerful than the illusion spell," she claimed. "A light like that would cause anyone to stop and stare."

So she used the lunar equivalent of Dancing Lights on him? Somehow that worked.

"Then how was Zumi able to write?"

"She may have been writing with magic." Luna figured.

A separate light formed near us, then it expanded like a bubble. It swelled up pretty large, then *popped* out of existence.

Zumi and Charlie were back and connected to us by rope again. Charlie was cowering on the ground, and Zumi looked like she was ready to slug him.

"You idiot!" Zumi shouted at Charlie. "Why did you freak out and run away like that?! We knew we’d be up against illusion magic! Did you think I wouldn’t be prepared?"

I’d rarely seen Zumi so angry, but I’d heard stories of her mouthing off to students who’d gotten themselves in a lot of trouble or hurt. Some people called her ‘the young mom’ of the school. I was almost scared to see my sister in such a frustrated mood.

"You don't understand!" Charlie tried to defend. "It was like my mind was in a nightmare! I had to run or I would have been murdered by a lunatic man! That’s how it felt, anyways."

“Why I never…” Luna pouted at his use of the word, ‘lunatic.’

Zumi was about to scold Charlie further, but then she grunted and put a hand over her forehead.

"I guess I can't be too harsh on you…" she grumbled. "Those illusion spells have a fear effect. If you fail it, you become frightened."

I hadn’t figured he couldn’t help that fear. I thought he was just being a coward and running away. Charlie might not have been the bravest of us all, but maybe he really didn't deserve the blame. Regardless, it was an excuse I’d be willing to buy for now.

“So, what caused this illusion?” I asked.

“Probably a fairy.” Zumi pointed to some sparkly particles in a bush to my left. “They leave traces of fairy dust in the air. It's probably gone now.”

“Shall we hunt it down and slay it for this treachery?” Luna asked, putting on an uncharacteristic warrior scowl.

Her imperial side was showing. It was almost cute. Like watching a rabbit take up a carrot for war.

“No.” Zumi said. “If it wanted to hurt us, I’d say yes. But this one just wanted to play around. Maybe steal something when we weren’t paying attention.”

Great. Now I had to check my pockets to make sure nothing was missing. It seemed like everything was in order, but I wouldn’t know until we made camp. At least we were alive and well.

Speaking of taking a break, we took a short breather to let Charlie's heart stop racing. He was really shaken up by whatever he saw in that illusion.