Jade and Amber exchanged a delighted glance. “Oh, this just got interesting.”
Bálint put down his game controller and twisted around to face Phoenix. Zohar rose and walked over to sit down between Bálint and Roam, while Jabir’s newest potato chip creation tumbled forgotten from his fingers.
Alice and Adaline exchanged glances, their eyes glowing faintly with delight at the idea of seeing a new world they had never been to—and going on an adventure. They had missed out on too many from the sound of it.
Spring grinned and shook her head. “Go ahead. Tell them about it.”
Zohar grinned and waved an impatient hand at her. “Yes, details, now. What was it like?”
Phoenix hesitated again, but this time, the surrounding excitement was infectious. She leaned forward, her eyes swirling with color, changing with her moods and reflecting what looked almost like stars and galaxies.
“It was different from anything I’ve ever seen,” she admitted. “There were mermaids and monsters and pirates and all kinds of other creatures straight out of the stories our mom told us about from Earth. Oh, and there were dragons.”
Amber and Jade snorted at the same time. “We already have plenty of those.”
Phoenix laughed. “Yeah, but these were different.”
Roam’s grin widened. “Can you open a portal? Can we go there?”
Phoenix blinked, caught off guard. “Well… maybe. But… we would probably get into loads of trouble. I don’t think our parents would be happy if we suddenly popped into an alien world without them.”
Amber and Jade burst into laughter.
“They handled it pretty good when we went to Earth, remember? That’s an alien world—sort of,” Amber scoffed with a dismissive wave of her hand at the idea of them getting in trouble.
Jade grinned. “Yeah, and we were a lot younger then. Besides, you do realize that trouble is kinda our thing, right?”
Zohar grinned and nodded his head. “At least we’d have some fun instead of sitting around doing nothing for the next two weeks.”
The room burst into chaos as they all talked at once about where they wanted to go, what they wanted to do, and who they wanted to meet.
“Was it different from the portals we’ve used before?” Bálint asked.
“Are there really mermaids?” Alice and Adaline asked in unison.
“How many pirates are there?” Roam asked, his eyes brimming with excitement.
“Monsters! Were they like the walking dead kind or the really cute, cuddly kind?” Amber asked, her eyes wide with delight at the idea of meeting a monster.
Phoenix held up her hands. “One at a time!”
She turned to Bálint first. “Yes, the portal was different—more colorful, and longer. I could see all kinds of galaxies.”
Her gaze moved to Alice and Adaline as she answered their question. “There were mermaids, or at least there is a king of them, so I’m assuming there are more.”
She finally turned to Amber and said, “The monsters I saw were cute. I don’t know about cuddly.”
The twins grinned at each other.
“I don’t know exactly how many pirates there are. I wasn’t there for very long, and there was a lot going on. I-I’ll admit, I would love to go back and explore,” she said in a wistful tone.
Roam grinned wider. “So… you’ll open a portal, then?”
Phoenix hesitated. “I don’t know, guys. It doesn’t always work the way I want it to, and I had help last time. This isn’t like the others I’ve opened before on my own. If something goes wrong?—”
“It won’t. You’ve got this, Phoenix,” Roam scoffed, dismissing her fears with a mischievous wink. “I vote we visit the pirates first!”
“Agreed.” Bálint laughed. “Pirates have treasure.”
