Zander had laughed as he watched Ava try to preen me, but as soon as Ava pecked at my necklace his face grew serious. He walked over to me as if apraoching animal he didn't want to scare. When he came closer he saw that my pendant was a silver book that was currently closed. "Does your necklace open?" He asked with a look of worry on his face, Ava moved up to my shoulder again so I could open my book pendant. Inside there were four pages, eight if you counted pages like the page numbers of a real book. He breathed out in relief as he saw there were just scribbles written on the pages that were meant to be words.
His smile returned as Ava gently removed my glasses and flew off with them. "Ava!" I scolded as I looked around for her. I could only see blurbs of color as I looked around and all of it was gold. I looked anxiously around for a flash of blue until a flash of red and gold flew at my face. I fell backwards with a strangled cry and landed hard on my back.
As I felt something settle on my face, I discovered that Ava had put my glasses back on and that she was the flash of red and gold that I saw. Zander kneeled down next to me, "Are you alright? I'm sorry Ava played that dirty trick on you, but she wanted to see something." His eyes were genuinely concerned as he helped me to my feet.
"What did she want to see?" I asked, I was confused because birds, exspecially pheonixes, didn't need glasses. He hesitated for a few moments, "I'm not sure." He finally said. Ava let out a series of trills, much like a songbird, until Zander finally walked over to where she had flown and started to talk in trills back to her. His face was a mask of concern when they had finally stopped talking and walked back over to me. "What's wrong?" I asked nervously, not sure if I wanted to know what was wrong.
He shook his head again, "It's nothing, don't look so worried!" He smiled as if it could wash away my worry (which I had to admit it helped), "You know, you're going to be late for class." "Oh no!" "What class are you in?" I thought for a moment, "Rare Talents... I think..." He chuckled, "Do you know how to teleport?" "Does making paper swirl around and suddenly apearing somewhere else count?" He burst out laughing, "Yes, I guess it does count. All you have to do is concentrate on your proffessor and you'll be there in time for class." I nodded before I relized I didn't know who my teacher was or what he looked like.
Before I could say anything else Ava and Zander burst into flames and dissapeared into thin air. "That's just great." I mumbled. I stood there for a few moments deep in thought before I remembered that I had a special book in my backpack, the same one that had profiles of important people from this school in it. I hurridly brought it out and flipped to a page entitled "Teachers" and flipped until I saw a page with "Professor Merlin, Rare Talents." I stared at the picture until I had memorized every fold of his cloak and every white hair on his head. I hurridly but my book back in my backpack so I would lose it and concentrated on Professor Merlin.
I closed my eyes as I felt the wind pick up and I heard the crinkle of pages swirling around me. When the wind died down I opened my eyes and looked around the cozy room I had appeared in. In front of me there was a towering bookshelf that covered the entire wall with books. "You're just in time, I trust you found your way well."
Startled, I spun around to see the man I had memorized from my book. He seemed even taller in person because of his pointy blue hat that was sprinkled with stars. What caught my attention was his blue eyes, so like the Zander's that I almost called him that, but there was no mistaking Zander in those deep eyes. "Y-yes." I stammered, unnerved by his eyes, and I prided myself on keeping eye contact with people. He motioned to an empty seat between two girls on a comfortable looking overstuffed couch.
"Hi, you must be Gwen." One of the girls said, "Don't be shy, I'm Kayla. This is Ashlyn." The calm girl with curly brown hair and gentle brown eyes nodded toward Ashlyn. Ashlyn had long blonde hair pulled pack into a ponytail like me, but she had steel gray eyes that immediately said that she wasn't one who'd give me a very warm welcome. "Call me Ash." She said simply.
"So Gwen," Professor Merlin's voice startled me from my observations, "How exactly did you find us?" I shifted from foot to foot nervously, "Ummm, I transported?" He meerly lifted one gray eyebrow, beckoning for me to continue, "I have a book that shows all of the staff at Gryphon Wing's so I looked up your page and memorized how you looked and I ended up here." "That's impressive, most people who teleport from place to place have to actually meet the people to find them through teleportation." Kayla murmered softly.
"Nevermind how she got here, what I'm worried about is why we're even in this school. Why are we here?" Ashlyn glared at Professor Merlin. "I suppose we could start without the others..." He paused to look as each of us with his piercing gaze, Ashlyn looked away. " You're here because you posses abilities others do not, you're here to learn how to control them. If you haven't noticed, most people have been here since they could walk while you're here at thirteen. That's why you are rare talents. The abilities you are born with keep your powers a secret while shielding you from any magical comunity even though you use your powers every day.
He looked at Ashlyn, "Haven't you ever wondered how you could fix everything? Even though it's impossible for a normal person to fix it? Haven't you noticed that you're different from everyone else? You're a Smith, you are born with the ability to fix anything you touch and more, much more. Does that answer your question?
Ashlyn gulped, "Yes." She whispered, suddenly looking like a small child who got in trouble for something. He turned to Kayla who studied him with her patient brown eyes, "You are a Healer." He told her in a softer voice. I suddenly felt very small, aware that he would tell me what I was next. I slowly backed up to where the bookshelves were and felt the reasuring spine of a book. He noticed that I had backed away and his eyes softened, "Gwen, come and sit down and take off your backpack." I walked over and did as he said, sitting in between Kayla and Ashlyn. "You are a BookBinder, the rarest of all talents."
