Chartile: Prophecy (48 page)

Excerpt from Chartile: Magic

The first thing Charlie noticed was the
smell. It was the smell of lush grass, sweet, and of course, his
one allergy. He lay there, his eyes still shut, waiting for his
body to erupt in a red hot itching rash. But it never came. He
dared to open his eyes, wondering where his glasses had fallen to,
and found himself in a large clearing in the middle of a dense
forest.

The second thing he noticed was that he was
stark naked. How he hadn’t noticed before, he had no idea. Charlie
quickly looked around the clearing. There was no one around.
Covering himself to the best of his ability, he darted for a mass
of bushes straight ahead. He found a leaf on the ground behind the
bushes the size of a dinner plate. He wiped the dirt off, and used
this to cover the front of himself.

Now panic was beginning to set in. Was this
some sick joke Malcolm’s friends were playing on him? He wondered
if there were cameras somewhere. Maybe behind him at this very
moment. Charlie found another dinner plate-sized leaf on the
ground, and quickly covered his rear end. He had to get out of
here, and fast. But where was he?

Charlie looked at the trees and bushes
around him. Some looked vaguely familiar, but most everything else
was entirely foreign. Not a single maple tree anywhere, and Fulton
County was notorious for its maple trees.

“
Okay, don’t panic,”
Charlie said to himself. He reached up to push his glasses up his
nose, and realized they weren’t there. How could he see without his
glasses? He was practically legally blind without them. His heart
was pounding so hard in his chest, Charlie was ready for it to
burst out and begin flopping around on the ground in front of
him.

Charlie felt a warm, humid air across the
back of his neck. The hair stood up, and he turned around very
slowly. What he saw was not what he expected to see. Charlie stared
into the bright golden eyes of a black panther. It grinned back at
him, showing a level of intelligence that terrified Charlie even
more than being this close to a wild animal.

“
If you were to run,” the
panther whispered to him, “It would be all the more fun for
me.”

It took only a second for the realization
that an animal had just spoke to subside before Charlie bolted back
out into the clearing. The panther threw back its head and gave a
kind of laughing roar before taking off after Charlie.

About the
Author

Cassandra Morgan was born in a small town in
Ohio where she spent much of her preteen and teenage years running
through the woods behind her house and playing role-playing games
with her friends. She comes from a family of both writers and
English majors from both her maternal and paternal sides. The
Chartile (pronounced KAR-tyl) series came to be when Cassie was
thirteen years old. It is loosely based on some of the games she
and her friends would play.

Cassie enjoys going to the movies and hopes
to be a famous actress someday. Her favorite food is her
grandmother’s sweet pickles, based off of a recipe from her
great-great-grandmother. Her grandma recently passed the original
recipe to her. Her favorite colors are emerald green and royal
purple, and she loves all animals.

Cassandra participates in historical
reenactment and animal rescue. She holds several animal nutrition
certifications, and works as a behaviorist with several of her
local animal shelters.

Cassie considers herself a professional
dreamer and has never given up the hope of travelling the entire
world and experiencing as many cultures as possible.