Harper leaned across the aisle towards me and Ellie and commented, "Not gonna lie. I think the first leg of this trip was a lot more fun."

  I agreed, "First css on a new commercial jet was a lot nicer than cargo css on a flying antique."

  "It's not that old," my girlfriend stated. "This is an ATR-42, they're still in production today."

  Then she added with a grimace, "Not saying you're wrong though. The trip from Toronto to Ottawa was a lot more comfortable. Same with the trip from Ottawa to Iqaluit."

  "Yeah," I nodded. "Although to be fair we're all kind of tired today too. How long's it been now, since we started this trip?"

  Ellie stifled a yawn as she checked her phone, "It's half past eleven. So just over twenty-four hours since we set out."

  I sighed, "Yeah. That's a long trip."

  "And we're still not there yet," Harper added, before he finally settled back into his seat again.

  They were both right. We'd been travelling a long time, and we still had one more flight after this before we reached our destination. Not that we'd spent the entire twenty-four hours in pnes, or even moving as such.

  Our trip began with a drive down to the city, where we spent a couple hours visiting some outdoor sporting goods shops. We got proper camping backpacks, a three-person tent, sleeping bags, and all the supplies and gear we figured we'd need for two weeks in the arctic wilderness. Then we spent a half hour in the corner of a parking lot getting everything ready for the journey. Basically we had to get all the new purchases out of the retail packaging, then pack it all back up again along with our clothes and stuff.

  The other thing we'd spent a lot of time on was just hanging around in airports. Between checking in, checking baggage, going through the security stations, we'd probably spent more time in airports than in airpnes.

  There was about ninety minutes at the Toronto airport, prior to a one-hour flight to Ottawa. That was alright though, we had first-css seats for that short trip. Then after waiting almost two hours in the Ottawa airport we got on the next pne, where we had business-css seats for the trip to Iqaluit. That pne didn't nd until after ten st night, which was a weird experience because it wasn't that dark out despite being so te.

  Thanks to the travel pns Cel put together we spent st night in a hotel in Iqaluit, but we hadn't actually had much time for sleeping. It was nearly midnight by the time we got into our rooms, and we had to be up early this morning to catch the next flight.

  That was the pne we were currently on, which was taking us from Iqaluit to the airport at Resolute Bay. Unlike the two flights yesterday this was a smaller propeller-driven pne, and the interior was half passenger seating and half cargo. It took off before eight in the morning, and it wasn't a direct flight. We had one stop along the way, at Arctic Bay. We'd just left there about ten minutes earlier, but this was a really short hop so we'd be nding again soon.

  As if on cue a voice announced over the intercom, "Hey folks, this is your captain again. Just a heads-up, it looks like the wind is picking up so we're going to run into a bit more turbulence coming down into Resolute. Landing might be a bit bumpy as well, so I'll take this opportunity to remind you all once again that the fasten seatbelt sign is still on. So please ensure your safety belts are locked and tightened."

  We'd already had a fair bit of turbulence on this flight, including a bouncy take-off after the brief stop-over a few minutes ago. I couldn't help worrying that we'd have even more trouble on the st leg of the trip, getting from Resolute up to Camp Hazen.

  Sure enough things got rough as the pne descended. Ellie had her phone up against the window so she could take some pictures of the rugged arctic terrain outside, but she tucked it away then gripped the armrests for the st few seconds of the flight. We hit the ground with a thump, then there were a few more bumps as the pne rolled down the long unpaved runway.

  It took a couple minutes to taxi back to the terminal, then a few more minutes for us and the handful of other passengers to disembark and get our gear.

  "So what now?" Harper asked, as the gusty wind blew us around while we stood outside the small terminal building.

  The sky was overcast and it looked like there was some discussion among the pilots and flight attendants about whether or not it'd be safe to take off in an hour, when they were scheduled to fly the return trip back to Iqaluit.

  I shook my head, "We don't have any more tickets from here. I'm not sure how to handle the st bit?"

  "We need to hire a charter pne," Ellie expined. She pointed to what looked like a small hangar about a hundred meters away, "I think we should head over there?"

  Then she held up her phone and added, "First I need to text my folks. I promised I'd let them know when we got here."

  "Oh wow, you've actually got bars here!" Harper commented, before pulling his phone out too.

  They'd both given their parents the same story, that I'd won an eco-tourism trip and invited them to accompany me. The story had a lot of holes in it, but we were in such a hurry their folks didn't really have time to question it. Maybe when we all got home afterwards they'd be able to tell their families the truth, but for now they were pretending this was all an extreme getaway vacation.

  "There won't be any cell signal at Camp Hazen," Ellie reminded him. "So this is probably our st contact with civilization for a while."

  "Yeah," I frowned as that sank in. Then I pulled out my phone as well, and sent mom and Amelia some texts to let them know we'd made it this far and that we were ok and everything.

  We ended up taking some selfies together with the airpne in the background, and sent those back home to our families as well. I hadn't really had time to feel homesick yet, and in some ways I was still feeling the excitement and novelty of the trip. It was my first time away from home, and I'd already been on three different pnes and spent a night in a hotel room.

  There was still one flight left though, and as soon as we were done with our pictures and texts the three of us set off towards that hangar that Ellie pointed out. It definitely seemed like the right pce, there were a couple charter company signs nailed to the outside of the structure and a handful of old one- and two-engine propeller pnes lined up next to the building.

  The three of us slowed to a stop just outside the open doorway. We could hear raised voices inside, and I was a little surprised and dismayed to realize I recognized them.

  "We've been stuck here for four days!" Anahera stated impatiently. "We have to get to Camp Hazen, we're running out of time."

  An older male voice replied, "Look dies I don't know what to tell you that I haven't already said. Flights in and out of there depend on the weather, and the weather's too unstable to risk it. It happens ok? We're getting a bad stretch now, nothing I can do about that. It'll clear when it clears, then I can fly you gals where you want to go."

  "Very well," Valerie responded. "Thank you for your time sir."

  Fiona added, "We'll keep an eye on the weather, I'm sure we'll be back here as soon as it clears."

  I exchanged a gnce with my two friends, just as the other four magical girls emerged from the hangar. They all stopped in their tracks as they stared at the three of us.

  "Well this is a surprise," Fiona commented. "I certainly didn't expect to run into you here Bke."

  Anahera sounded uptight again as she asked, "What are you doing here? And why did you bring your friends?"

  Ellie spoke up first, "Cel sent us. I have a feeling they're a friend of yours? They showed up at Bke's pce yesterday and told all three of us we were needed up here."

  "I see," the magical girls' leader stated with a frown.

  Valerie asked my girlfriend, "Cel sent all three of you? They specified that you two should accompany Bke here?"

  "Yeah," Harper nodded. "They said you lot needed Bke. And they said you needed me and Ellie as well."

  Anahera and Valerie looked even more unhappy about that, while Ivy just seemed as bored as she did back at my pce a few days ago. Fiona had a little smile on her face though.

  The Welsh girl told her companions, "If Cel appeared before all three of them and sent them here, there has to be a reason for it. Far be it for us to ignore their wisdom, right?"

  "I suppose," the Māori woman grumped.

  Then Ellie excimed, "No way!"

  That got everyone's attention, and I turned to ask what was wrong but she'd already wandered off. She was heading towards one of the parked airpnes, an older twin engine pne with big bouncy-looking wheels on it. She stopped and pointed towards the back end of it.

  "Check out the registration number on this Twin Otter," my girlfriend said. "That has to be a sign. It wasn't about the music, it's this! Trust the Raven. This is the pne that'll get us to Camp Hazen!"

  My eyes widened as I stared at the tail of the pne, where the code C-R4V3N was inscribed in bold bck letters.

  "Hey!" a man's voice shouted from behind us. "What are you kids doing with my pne?!"

  We turned to find a grizzled looking guy in his te fifties approaching. He was dressed in faded blue jeans, cowboy boots, and a threadbare navy windbreaker, with an old beat-up bck ball-cap on his head. Some greying hair poked out from under the cap, and a couple days' worth of stubble clung to his rugged-looking cheeks.

  Ellie didn't skip a beat, she immediately asked "Can we charter your pne? We need to get to Camp Hazen as fast as possible."

  "All seven of us," Harper added. "Plus our gear."

  The guy seemed a little taken aback, but recovered quickly enough. He squinted up at the clouds then over towards the runway, where a red and white windsock was fpping around. Then he looked back at us again and stated, "Ten thousand cash up front, and I'll get you kids to Camp Hazen. But only if you're ready to go in the next half hour, cos the weather's already started closing in."

  "Deal!" Anahera stated. "We'll be ready in fifteen minutes."

  It turned out they'd spent the past three nights at a hotel right on the airport property, so it was just a quick dash to go retrieve their gear and check out of the hotel. Meanwhile the pilot, who introduced himself as Chester, started preparing his airpne for the flight.

  Less than twenty minutes ter all seven of us were squeezed into the small pne, with all our packs and gear piled up at the back behind the seats. Anahera and Valerie were in the first row, behind them in row two sat Fiona on the left and Ellie on the right. I was on the right-hand side as well, behind my girlfriend, while Harper sat across from me on the left. And Ivy was in the seat behind me.

  Chester was up front at the controls, guiding the pne along the bumpy gravel ne towards one end of the runway. Even though we were all wearing connected headsets the twin turboprop engines were loud enough to make conversation difficult. And none of us wanted to distract our pilot with a lot of random chatter. Then again we also didn't want to arm him with talk about the end of the world either.

  "Ok kids here we go," the old man announced as he pushed the throttles forward. "Next stop is the Far North."

  The engines ramped up to take-off power and the pne surged forward. A few seconds ter the ground seemed to fall away as we soared up into the air.

  Compared to the st pne this one was even smaller, and it seemed like the turbulence was noticeably worse. I wasn't sure if that was reted to the size of the pne though, or maybe the weather was just that bad. And I couldn't help worrying that maybe our pilot was just a little crazier than the guy Anahera was arguing with, the one who refused to fly in these conditions.

  Still, Cel said to trust the raven, and Chester's pne was basically called Raven. Plus it seemed like this was our only hope of actually getting to Camp Hazen before my grandmother opened the rift.

  The trip was supposed to take about three and a half hours, but it ended up feeling a lot longer. I spent the time staring out my window at the rugged arctic terrain. We flew over isnds and inlets, along fjords and past mountains. The water looked cold, dark, and deadly. And the nd looked cold and uninviting. It was still beautiful though, in its own strange desote way.

  I took a bunch of pictures with my phone, and I saw Ellie and Harper do the same. Even Fiona was snapping pictures now and then, but the other three magical girls didn't seem interested. Ivy was pying games on her phone again, while Anahera and Valerie looked like they were resting.

  After about three hours in the air I realized it seemed to be getting darker outside, as if night was falling. Except it was still only mid-afternoon. And we were far enough north that the sun wasn't supposed to set for another couple months. Outside my window the sky was completely overcast as far as I could see, and it looked like the weather was quickly getting worse.

  Then Chester's voice came through the headset, "I don't know if we're going to be able to nd. We're only about ten minutes out, and it's not looking good up ahead."

  "Get us on the ground at Camp Hazen and I'll pay you another ten thousand," Anahera responded immediately. "We cannot afford any further deys."

  Our pilot hesitated a second or two before he agreed, "Ok dy. You better have the money though, or you girls can find your own way home."

  The flight was a lot more stressful after that, especially as conditions outside the pne continued to deteriorate. A minute or two ter it felt like we'd flown into a hurricane, with buckets of rain battering the small airpne along with the wind.

  Harper and I exchanged some worried looks, and Ellie reached back so I could hold her hand.

  "You kids better have your seatbelts on back there!" Chester called out after a few more minutes. "It's gonna be a hell of a touch-down."

  Harper's eyes widened as his face went pale. He turned to look at me as if he was about to say something, but our pilot spoke up again.

  "Holy hell would you look at that!" he shouted over the headsets.

  I looked out my window and my gut lurched. There was a huge ke below us, and its surface was all bubbling and frothing. It almost looked like it was boiling, instead of being ice cold like all the other water we'd flown over. And as soon as I saw that I knew we were too te.

  "It's time girls," Anahera announced. "Rings up, and be ready to hit the ground running."

  As soon as she'd spoken the words I saw two fists go up from the front row, accompanied by white and blue fshes of light. The Māori woman was now Lily, the white magical girl. And the German blonde had become Azura, the blue magical girl. Then Fiona's fist punched towards the ceiling, followed by a fsh of purple. A fsh of green from behind told me Ivy had changed into Peri, the green magical girl.

  With my heart racing I gave my ring a twist, then punched skyward. A moment ter I was in my magical girl form, I was Rosa. And along with Violet Lily Azura and Peri, we were about to confront my grandmother.

  PurpleCatGirl