The five gathered around the bottle, Jade holding it in her hands like a
small butterfly with a broken wing. The bottle was cracked and
fractured, the chain tarnished and curled, and the liquid in the bottle
had gone dark. She prodded it experimentally, hoping that it would flare
to life at her touch. Nothing. She shook it, and it stayed dull. Her
heart rose in her throat, hopelessness overwhelming her. There was
nothing left to do now.

"Try opening it," Alana said, peering over Jade's shoulder.

"Okay," Jade said, miserably. "It won't work, but alright."

She
inhaled deeply and uncorked the tiny bottle. Nothing happened. She was
about to drop it to the ground and cry when something amazing happened.
The potion shot at once to life, a column of bright gold light thirty
feet in the air. Jade was blasted up, her arms and legs flailing. She
screamed, and then looked down at herself and stopped.

She was
ensconced in liquid light. The light had created what looked like a long
gown of yellow-orange fire, tapering at her feet and then spreading
like tentacles across the ground. Her hair blew slowly around her face
in tendrils. The blood from her cuts had turned a glowing gold. There
was a powerful aura around her, buoying her up. She felt a warm,
tickling sensation.

Giggling, Jade snapped her fingers, and a
fizzy, sparkling ball of light hovered above her hand. She threw it
down, and it soared with a thin whistling noise and bounced up into her
hand again. She willed herself down until she was only about three feet
above the ground. Alana, West, Abigail, and Jack gazed up at her, mouths
open.

"Jade...you're glowing!" West gasped and stared at her. "Your eyes are golden."

"You look amazing," Jack said, eyes wide.

"THROW A FIREBALL!" Alana whooped, pumping her fists in the air.

Jade
obliged, pressing her fingers together and then whisking them apart, a
ball of glowing light in each hand. She pulled her arms back, about to
throw-

"Jade! The Windigo! It's behind you." Abigail pointed, and
Jade swiveled to see the huge, skeletal monster advancing on her. It
growled, and a shiver ran down her spine, but she lifted her arm again
and snapped her wrist back, throwing one of her light balls straight at
the Windigo.

The creature balked as the ball whistled through
the air towards it. The light began to slowly evaporate the Windigo's
arm, and Jade hollered down to her friends.

"Finish it off, guys!"

Alana, West, and Jack advanced, all with wands drawn, towards the Windigo.

"I
think it's afraid of light," Abigail advised. "Shoot light at it, it
might dissolve." Jade noticed that she was hanging back nervously.

The
three on the ground approached, and Jade followed, already sparking
more light between her fingers. As one, all four of them lifted their
wands (and fireballs) and hurled their light straight at the Windigo. It
made a sound that would have been a scream, if it had been human, and
was thrown back as the light around it compressed and squished it. The
Windigo, and the light, grew smaller and smaller, until it was just a
blip in the air- and then it disappeared.

They all cheered, but
then there was a whooshing sound. The light around Jade fizzled out, and
she tumbled to the ground in a heap.

"We must get her to the Hospital Wing as soon as is possible," Abigail said, hands flying up to her face.

Jack carried Jade, and Alana and West followed, with Abigail bringing up the rear.

When
they entered the Hospital Wing, every teacher in the school was waiting
for them, all hands on hips, some worried, some furious.

"Well," said Headmaster Thornbeck, looking irritated. "What have you all got to say for yourselves this time?"