• "Tales of Deception"
    By: Lucien Uchiha


    It’s been 3 months since their parents died. Caleb is the only one that shows how hard he’s taken it, but Jenni, Jacob, and Cory are taking it just as hard. The thing is that they don’t know what happened! They were sitting at home when they got a phone call from their local hospital saying, “I’m sorry to inform you, but your parents were in a fatal car crash.” All of them felt that wasn’t what really happened! Reason being, they come from a long line of magical family members. In their family, as stated in the book of their families history, “when a child turns 13, they will get a “taste” of magic powers that will only grow as they age. They must be trained by an adult close to them in how to use their powers. Weather they’re ready or not, they gain full control of their powers the day they turn 16.”
    Jenni is 13 (and a half she will gladly tell you) years old, so she started her training the day after her birthday. As for Jacob and Caleb, they’re 15. They’re also twins, Jacob being the older of the two. They only have a year left until they gain their full powers. Cory is their teacher/older brother/ surrogate father. He has to train the kids to use their powers wisely, discreetly, and ONLY for good reasons.
    Their family wasn’t liked very well in their community. They had threats against their lives because people didn’t like the fact that they had powerful magic abilities and could “wipe out the mortal race.” Only if they wanted to…
    They felt their lives were in immediate danger and had to get away from their lives at home! And that’s where their story begins. The four kids (if you count a 23 year old Cory as a kid…) moved away from the home they loved, knowing there was a house a few towns over that relatives used to own but they “suddenly disappeared,” and its been vacant ever since.

    Jacob suddenly woke up in the back of the mover van. It seemed Cory liked hitting EVERY bump in the road! He looked around to let his eyes adjust to the almost complete darkness of the vans cargo trailer. He noticed Caleb taking his usual position, sulking in a dark corner with one of his “books.” He heard some rustling and found Jenni digging through a couple of boxes.
    “What are you doing?” Jacob asked Jenni.
    “I’m looking for my brush! I can’t find my brush! WHAT’D YOU DO WITH MY BRUSH!” Jenni exclaimed. Jacob just looked at her with a befuddled look. He said,
    “I didn’t touch your brush Jen, did you look in your bag?” She starts shuffling through her bag and holds up her brush like she just won a contest.
    “I found it!” She said very excitedly. Jacob shakes his head and rolls his eyes at her with a slight smirk. All of the sudden they heard Cory from the front seat.
    “How’s it goin’ back there you three?” “Fine,” Jenni and Jacob said simultaneously.
    “You still alive back there Caleb?” Cory asked. There was no answer for what seemed like forever.
    “Yea, he’s fine.” Jacob answered with a tone of regret.
    “Ok,” Cory said, “were only about a mile away so put together whatever you… took apart, Jenni!” Jenni blushed and started putting things back into the boxes she just emptied. A couple minutes later the road got very bumpy.
    “What’s going on! Did we go into the woods!” said Jacob. Then Cory said,
    “Nope! We’re just going down our “new” driveway. Remember, no one has lived here for a while.” Jacob thought about what the house would look like. They hadn’t even seen pictures! All they knew was that it was big and run down. Not much of a description… Then from the cab they heard, “Alright, We’re here! Everyone pile out.” Caleb stood up and opened the big back door. First sign of life from him since he got in! Jenni and Jacob inched their way out through all the boxes of stuff. As soon as they were all out, they made their way from the back of the van to see what their “new” house looked like.
    “Holy crap! I have to live in… THAT!” Jenni said disgustedly.
    ”Just until we can find something better,” Said Cory, “which may take a while…” he said under his breath. Jacob was the only one who heard him and he gave him a funny look. “Alright, go explore!” Cory said excitedly. Jacob and Jenni ran into the house as fast as they could. Caleb slowly made his way to the front door. All you could hear from inside the house was running footsteps, excited remarks and the two yelling, “I call this room.” Caleb walked by the room Jacob found and suddenly got very angry. He wanted to curse him out, but held back. Jacob had found THE biggest room in the whole house, besides the living room. Caleb was jealous of him for taking it without Cory telling him it was ok. “You’re just mad I got this room first, Caleb! You shouldn’t have taken your sweet time getting in here if you wanted first pick!” Jacob told him. Caleb shot Jacob a really bad look and walked away. Jacob stood there examining the emptiness that was his new room. He started walking around the room lightly dragging his hand along the wainscoting of the wall. When he got almost all the way around the room, part of the siding kind of bounced out at him as he went past it. The only reason he noticed it was because it made a creaking noise when it opened. He stopped and turned to see what happened.
    “What the…” he said as he noticed that his wall OPENED. “What’s this? I wonder where it goes…” he asked himself as he crawled into the opening. There was a long tunnel that seemed to lead to nowhere. He soon got to a fork in the path. He could either keep going forward or turn off the main path, which seemed to be a darker, scarier way to go. He headed straight and ended up at a wood grate at the end of the tunnel. It ended up leading outside behind the bushes in front of the house. “Well this could prove useful…” he said as he turned around and went back through the tunnel. He was almost back to his room when he passed the other tunnel again. Jacob paused for a second pondering weather or not to go down that path. Obviously he decided to, and it was worth it. This path led to another large room. This one was round, lined with full bookshelves, and had windows all the way around a dome ceiling that surprisingly only let in enough light so you wouldn’t have to squint when reading. There was a faint smell of old books, not so much that that you would expect in a library. It had two large lounge chairs in the middle with a large solid oak coffee table at the center of the room, and a side table with a small lamp between the two chairs. As he circled the room, he read some of the titles of the dusty books in the shelves; “Magical Creations of the World,” “Second Hand Magic Spells,” “Incantations and Jinx’s,” all books of a magical orientation. He then realized that there was no other way into the room except from that path that came from his room. “I have this whole library of magic books all to myself! Maybe this wasn’t a bad move after all…” he spent the rest of the evening reading books on “creation spells” and where objects that “never were” came from. It seemed to be getting late so he left the books he was reading book marked on the table and left through his tunnel. When he got back to his room, he quickly got out of the tunnel and closed the door behind him. He started walking out of his room and was soon found Caleb right in front of him.
    “I still don’t think it’s fair that you get the biggest room!” Caleb stated very angrily. Jacob found this very odd; it had been hours since their earlier fight.
    “Are you still caught up in that little argument?! Get over it already!” he said to Caleb. Now Caleb was the confused one.
    “Um Jacob,” he started, “it’s been like five minutes since I left your room…” Caleb finished. And once again the confusion was back to Jacob. It seemed that as soon as he stepped into his library, time came to a hault! Jacob just had an odd look on his face and started walking downstairs.
    “Don’t be such a weirdo Jacob! You should be the happiest person in the whole house!” Caleb's voice followed after him. Jacob just thought to himself, and his brother was right, he did feel like the happiest person!

    ......................


    Jenni had been organizing her room, obviously with Cory’s help because she couldn’t lift her bed with her strength or powers. That’s the only way any of them could get their stuff in without moving-men. If they had hired any, that would draw too much attention to them. For a thirteen year old, she was definitely out of her little girl stage! You would not find a hint of pink in her new room. Instead, she chose a sky blue for her room. She thought since her room wasn’t that big, she would make it look like it goes on forever! Seeing the blue she made Cory Make her walls, she felt like she wanted to go outside.
    ”Cory, while you finish putting stuff on my dresser, can I go outside?” Cory could never resist his cute little sister, so before he knew it, he was organizing stuffed animals by color on Jenni’s bed.
    When Jenni got outside, she was immediately drawn to the woods around the house. There was something about them that seemed like it needed to be explored… so Jenni, Sunday best dress and all, set out to take in her new surroundings. As she stepped into the calm, quiet woods, she noticed there wasn’t much of an end to it. It just seemed to go on forever! When she looked up at the tranquil canopy, something about it looked strange to her, and she had seen a good few strange things in her lifetime… The canopy seemed to be moving slightly. She thought nothing of it and continued deeper into the woods. Jenni wandered for another good 20 minutes before she came to a clearing. There was a huge, old looking tree at the other side of the clearing. Jenni thought it would be fun to live in. More fun than the new house anyway… there was a small hole, about the size of a door, at the bottom of the tree. It wasn’t far of a walk before she crossed the clearing and was at the base of this humongous tree. Above the door sized opening, an inscription was scratched into the tree. It read as follows:

    Many things will you come across
    in traveling the magical world.
    The only way one can learn from them
    is if they be pure of heart and soul.


    Jenni found this poem a little confusing, but entered the tree anyway. Inside the tree was completely hollow. There was nothing but a spiral staircase around the inside wall, and a ceiling. With her little legs working as hard as they could, Jenni worked her way to the top of the spiral stairs. When she got to the top, she was surprised! There was a whole room in the top of this ancient tree, which seemed like it was used for something else than lounging. At one end of the room, there was a small, cylindrical chute in the tree with a small opening at shoulder level, and a small platform at the end of the “tube”. Again, there was writing near the opening, it read:

    Say ones name,
    present them physically.
    Then shall you receive
    a masters true desire.


    Once again, Jenni found herself confused at these words. She read them one more time reading, “Present them physically… like make them known? Would a hair work…?” Jenni thought out loud. She thought for a moment when her eyes showed her thoughts. She plucked a hair from her head.
    ”Jenni,” She said to the tree. Then she placed the hair in the opening of the chute. Suddenly, a high-pitched squeak came from the chute and the sound of something soft hitting up against the side. In seconds, Jenni saw a blonde flash fly across the room. She ran to the objects landing place and was stunned! It was a hamster… With Wings!
    Jenni quick grabbed the poor hamster and ran down the tree, through the woods, and back into the house as fast as she could. When she got to the front door, she had a great idea. She thought, if it worked for her, it should work for Jacob and Caleb as well! She snuck inside and went to the living room. There were two boxes labeled Jacob and Caleb Bathroom. She went through Jacobs and found his comb. Luckily, she found a hair still in it, and put it in her pocket. Then she went through Caleb’s and again, luckily found one hair left on the comb. This excited Jenni very much. She looked around for an empty box or a box she could quickly empty, which we already know she has no trouble doing in a matter of seconds. There were no Empty boxes, so she found one on top with the least junk in it and poured the contents on the floor. She examined the box for any tears, holes, or anywhere anything could get out. She found no such hole and was on her way back to the big tree. As soon as she was up the tree, she was saying the boys’ names, separately, and placing their hairs in the opening. This time she was ready for something to fly out, but nothing shot from the hole. Instead they both just stood there waiting for their masters. Jenni put each as they appeared into the box and once again was running back to the house. She had a surprise in store for her two older brothers, but for some reason felt like she was the one who would be most excited.
    When she got home, she came in and slammed the door. She heard Caleb yell something at Jacob the saw Jacob walking down the stairs. “Perfect!” she thought to herself.
    ”Jacob,” she yelled, “get Caleb down here! I have something to show you guys!” Jacob stopped in his place and called Caleb down after him, and they both made their way down to the living room.
    ”What’s up?” the boys said simultaneously. Jenni smiled, she was so excited to show them her discovery.
    ”I have something to show you guys,” Jenni said.
    ”You already said that Jen, Get to the point.” Jacob said while getting antsy.
    “I know,” said Jenni, “I was hoping you’d be excited.” She had the box behind her back, and brought it out in front of her and just stopped.
    “What’s in the box, Jen?” Caleb asked. Jenni had a smirk on her face.
    “I was wandering in the woods and found a tree. It was a big tree that had nothing inside it. I went in and at the top of the tree there was a room, which is where I found these!” As she said that, she opened the box, and the spirit creatures immediately glided over to their new masters. The boys were astonished at the sight of two little animals soaring at them.
    “What the heck are these!” They said simultaneously.
    “They’re your servants, or helpers, or something… All I know is that you, are their masters!” Jenni said with a big smile! The twins just looked at each other in surprise. Whatever happened, they kind of liked it!