I Learn What I Can Do With My Powers

**I Learn What I Can Do With My Powers** is the eleventh chapter of The Gift of a Best Friend. It was first published on June 24, 2016.

## Chapter

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**Jasmine's POV**
Annabeth and I were having a sleepover. But it was more like a slumber party, even though it was mostly the two of us.
We watched a movie with popcorn; played video games; skated on ice and roller blades; listened to my mommy’s songs and danced to others. We even played with our swords. (Annabeth called it killing with our swords, because that’s what she was doing to me. Whatever.)
We were actually at my grandparents’ house, and Emily played with us. Grandma did too sometimes. Then we went to my house for the whole night. We could’ve stayed with Emily and my grandparents, but I liked my bed, and it was big enough for Annabeth to sleep on it with me, so that’s what we did.
Later in the night, after everyone went to sleep, I heard a hissing sound. I sat up on my bed and tried not to wake up Annabeth.
I could feel the presence of an animal near me with my aura. It wasn’t Fiskerton or Komodo, which as weird, because he usually sleeps with me in my room. I even made a bed for him. The presence kind of felt familiar, but also different.
I heard the hissing sound again.
That time, Annabeth woke up. “Jasmine, what’s wrong?”
“I think something’s in my house,” I replied.
“What?”
“I don’t know exactly. It’s an animal, but I don’t know it.”
“Should we get your parents?”
“Hold on.”
I activated my powers, casting a bit of glow in the dark room. *Come here. I won’t hurt you*, I told the animal in my head.
*Good*, a voice said back in my head, sounding like a girl. *Show me how strong your power is.*
I recognized the voice. I’ve heard it twice before in my life, and I never wanted to hear it again.
I deactivated my powers.
“Jasmine?” Annabeth asked.
“We have to run,” I whispered. “The animal is bad.”
“Why?”
I didn’t answer.
I was about to call to Mommy and Daddy, but it was too late. It happened really fast. I felt something long and scaly wrap around my body and my mouth to keep me from screaming. Another grabbed Annabeth too.
I tried to break free, but couldn’t. I activated my powers. *Let us go.*
*Not this time, little Kur*, the snake holding me replied out loud.
Little what?
Before I could ask her, my eyes were starting to close because I couldn’t breathe and I couldn’t keep them open.
Then everything went dark.

I woke up to crying.
It was Johnathan. He was being held by a big green snake with two arms.
“Let him go,” I said while activating my powers.
I got in control of him and he gave Jonathan to me.
I deactivated my powers and looked at him. His body and clothes were wet, and I just realized that mine were too.
Jonathan was still crying.
I looked around the room. We were in a cave and there was a small lake across the room. I think we were in an underwater cave, but I wasn’t sure.
“Jasmine?,” a voice called.
It was Annabeth. She was lying on the ground a few feet from me, also wet, shivering, and coughing.
I ran to her and tried to sit her up with one arm since I was holding Johnathan in my other arm. “Are you ok?”
She nodded and sat closer to me. “What are they, Jasmine?” She was pointing at the big snakes all around the cave.
There were at least ten of them, different colors, sizes, and the number of arms they had.
“They’re called nagas,” I explained. “They’re really mean snakes. They hurt my daddy when they tried to take me away when I was one year old. They tried to take me away again at my mommy and daddy’s wedding.”
“And now they’ve taken you again with me and Jonathan,” Annabeth said. “But why?”
“I don’t know.”
I tried to think hard about what my family said the last two times.
I was one the first time, and don’t really remember anything that was said, and at my mommy and daddy’s wedding, Peter and I were fighting over the only chair next to them, so I only remembered something Daddy said about not wanting to have any more kids.
That memory made me look down at Johnathan in my hands. Why didn’t Daddy want more kids? Is it because he doesn’t like me? That made me sad.
“It’s going to be ok,” I told Jonathan. “I promise I won’t let them hurt you.”
He stopped crying and looked at me. I think he could tell that I meant what I said, and I did.
“We won’t hurt him,” the yellow female naga told me, the one that had grabbed me. “We won’t hurt you either.”
“How do I know you won’t hurt me?” I asked.
“We swear to you we won’t.”
“Even Annabeth?”
She didn’t answer.
Annabeth grabbed my arm. “Who is she?”
“Her name is Rani Nagi,” I replied. “She’s the queen of the nagas.”
“Is there a king of the nagas?”
“I don’t think so.”
“Then how is she a queen if there’s no king?”
“I don’t know! Now shut up.” I turned back to Rani Nagi. “What do you want from us?”
“It’s not what I want from you,” she replied. “It’s what you want that matters to me.”
I stared at her, confused. “What I want?”
“Yes. Tell me, Jasmine, how much do you care about cryptids?”
“I care about them a lot. Why?”
“We care about them too. But we don’t care about humans. Do you?”
“Yes.”
“More than cryptids?”
“I—I don’t know.”
“Have you ever been hurt by a cryptid before?”
“No.”
“Have you ever been hurt by a human?”
I looked at Annabeth before I replied. She looked scared, probably remembering that attack we had together.
“Yes,” I said.
Rani Nagi looked satisfied with that answer. “Jasmine, how do you like seeing a cryptid be hurt by a human?”
“I don’t like it at all,” I replied.
“Cryptids are hurt by humans all the time.”
“They are?”
“Yes. We’ve also been hurt by them. But you can stop them from hurting us and cryptids.”
“I can? How?”
“Have your parents ever told you about your powers?”
“My powers?”
“Yes. Have they ever told you how strong your powers are? How strong you are?”
“Sort of. Mommy and Daddy say that I can control any animal I want with my powers. And someday, I’ll have powers that can do almost anything.”
“Yes. But how would you like to use your powers to help make cryptids rule the world instead of humans?”
“What?” I asked. “Why?”
“Cryptids are hurt by humans all the time,” Rani Nagi replied. “Wouldn’t you like to stop them from ever hurting cryptids again?”
“Yes. But how can I do that?”
“If you stay here with me, I can teach you and your brother to use your powers to stop humans from ever hurting cryptids again.”
“You can do that?”
“Yes. But I need your help. Will you help me?”
“Yes.”
“Excellent.”
“Wait,” Annabeth said. “What will you do to humans, exactly?”
“We will annihilate them all,” Rani Nagi replied. “Cryptids will rule the world, and humans will cease to exist.”
“But that’s wrong.”
“Isn’t it wrong for humans to hurt cryptids?”
“Yes, but—”
“Then we’re going to put an end to them all, and Jasmine will begin the overthrow of the human race.”
Annabeth looked at me with fear in her eyes. “Jasmine, you can’t do this. Your family is human, and you are too.”
“Is she?” Rani Nagi asked.
I looked at her. “What do you mean? I am human.”
“Are you? You’re similar to your father. The spirit of Kur sought out a new form in him. Now he’s sought a newer, more powerful form in his children.”
“The spirit of what?”
“Kur, the most powerful cryptid in the world.”
“Ok. But what do you mean that he’s sought a newer, more powerful form in his children?”
Rani Nagi looked at me with a strange smile on her face. “Your father was Kur.”
“He was?” I asked.
“Yes. And now, you are a more powerful Kur than he ever was.”
“I am?”
“Yes. You can control any cryptid from anywhere in the world.”
“I can?”
“In time you will. You’re not strong enough yet, but I can make you and your brother stronger and you two can rule the world together.”
I took her words to heart. “Rule the world . . . with just cryptids? No people?”
“No,” Rani Nagi replied.
“What about my family? Can they rule the world with me?”
“Your family will be against us. They do not care for cryptids very much.”
That made me mad. “That’s not true! My family loves cryptids. They would never hurt any at all.”
“You haven’t known your family as long as I have,” Rani Nagi said. “I’ve seen them torture poor defenseless cryptids, and they will do the same to you and your brother when you begin the destruction of the human race. But we will protect you from them. All you have to do is stay here and I’ll train you both to save cryptids.”
What she said hit me hard. My family has tortured cryptids? Why?
I looked down at Johnathan in my arms. He was looking at me. I didn’t know if he could understand anything yet, but he seemed to be waiting for what I would do.
“Jasmine,” Annabeth said.
I looked at her.
“Don’t do this. It’s wrong.”
I looked down at Jonathan again and he seemed to agree with her.
“You’re right,” I said, then looked at Rani Nagi and her nagas. “Cryptids and humans should be together, not apart. My family would never hurt them, and neither would I or Annabeth. Right?”
Annabeth nodded. “Right.”
“I also would never hurt any humans,” I continued. “They’re just as good as cryptids, and I am one too. But you are neither a cryptid nor a human. You’re just a very mean snake bitch, and snakes will be the only animals I won’t like because they’ll remind me of you. And you’re the last thing I ever want to be reminded of.”
Rani Nagi wasn’t happy. “Dear child, your parents and family have poisoned your mind. They do not—”
She got interrupted when a fire ball hit her hard in the face, knocking her to the ground, and she screamed in pain.
“Shut up, bitch,” my mommy said.
She was standing next to the water, her hand ablaze. Most of her family and my daddy’s family were standing behind her, their weapons drawn.
While Rani Nagi was regaining her footing, the other nagas approached my family, but I took care of them.
“Stop,” I said. “Hurt my family, and I’ll hurt you more.”
“Yeah,” Daddy agreed, holding his sword out. “Plus, you’re outnumbered by a lot, so we’ll take you all out easily. Or you can let us leave with no harm done. Take your pick.”
The nagas did the smart thing: they backed away.
But Rani Nagi recovered. “Cowards. Stand and fight.”
I was still in control of them, and they feared us more than her.
I controlled them to turn on her. “They’re smart. You are not.”
“Child, your parents are only going to make you weak,” she said. “But I can make you—”
She got hit by another fire ball.
“I said, shut up, bitch,” Mommy said.
“Yeah,” I agreed. “We’re the Saturdays. You can’t beat us.”
Rani Nagi seemed to give up, because she didn’t respond. But she did glare at us.
“Can we go home now?” I asked.
“Of course,” Mommy replied. “Come on.”
I greeted my family, some of them giving me bone-crushing hugs. Then me, Annabeth, and Johnathan got into our Saturday sub with Daddy and his family, because they couldn’t breathe underwater but Mommy and her family could, and we left the nagas cave and up into a big city that was apparently in Thailand. That was really far from America.
We got into our airship and went home. Along the way, I told my family everything that happened in the underwater cave with the nagas. Well, actually, I *showed* them what happened.
Mommy user her powers to look into my brain and watched what happened from the moment the nagas kidnapped me to when my family came to our rescue. It was like watching myself on TV in my mind. Mommy let everyone see what happened, but I had to see it again too.
When it was done showing what happened, Grandma Raylee laughed. “I liked that snake bitch part.”
“Yeah,” Mommy said. “It clearly proves that she spends too much time with us. But, Jasmine, what she said about us isn’t true.”
“You mean, that you don’t torture cryptids?” I asked.
“Right. We would never do that. We do the opposite. We protect them and keep them safe.”
“I know. But what about what Rani Nagi said about my powers? Am I Kur? Can I really control cryptids anywhere in the world?”
My family looked at each other uneasily, then look at me.
“It’s complicated, Jasmine,” Daddy said. “Yes, you can control cryptids from anywhere in the world. So can I.”
“You can?” I asked.
“Yes.”
“So you’re Kur? The most powerful cryptid in the world?”
“I *was* Kur. I’m not anymore.”
“How come?”
“It’s a long complicated story.”
“Was Mommy there with you?”
“Yes.”
“Then can you tell me the story?”
“You wouldn’t understand it. I promise to tell you when you’re older, but—”
“No! I want you to tell me now. I don’t want to wait until I’m older, and I don’t care if I won’t understand it. I want to hear the story now. Please, Daddy.”
“Oh, Zak,” Mommy said. “She’s pleading to you with her eyes.”
“I know,” Daddy said. “They’re impossible to resist. Alright, Jasmine. I’ll tell you the story. But first, I have to tell you what Kur can do.”
“Yay,” I cheered.
I sat down on his lap and he told me the story.
Apparently, Kur has the power to raise an entire cryptid army, and whomever controls that kind of power, controls the world. Ultimate, limitless power.
There was this stone called the Kur Stone that could lead you to him, which my family followed many years ago, and so did one of their enemies, Argost, who died in the War of the Cryptids: them against him.
Anyway, before that war happened, Daddy and his family found Kur in Antarctica. They fought him and Argost, won, and Daddy became Kur, but not on purpose.
Argost had been a yeti that apparently killed my grandma Drew and great-uncle Doyle’s parents when they were little. (They looked sad and angry at the memory of it.)
They fought him in the war, him having powers like Daddy’s, using cryptids from all over the world to fight each other, the nagas helping Argost. And in the end, my family won the war.
Daddy had lost his powers because Argost had painfully sucked them away from him. Mommy was there with him, felt his pain too, but her powers weren’t taken away. They almost died from the pain, but, thankfully, they didn’t.
So Daddy lost his powers and Mommy gave up a part of her powers, like his, and gave them to Daddy. Oh, and the day that Mommy and Daddy first heard and learned about Kur and what he could do was also the first day they met, which I liked.
I didn’t understand most of the story, like Daddy knew I wouldn’t, but it all fascinated me.
“So Kur is a bad cryptid,” I said.
“Sort of,” Mommy replied. “I, honestly, don’t know if he was a bad cryptid or not. But the ones that go after him and try to control him are.”
“Am I Kur?”
Mommy and Daddy looked at each other uneasily, then back at me.
“We don’t think you are,” Daddy said. “But you are quite powerful, and I’m sure your brother will be too. And the nagas know that. That’s why we need to train you and Jonathan to control your powers so that they and anyone else who comes after you two won’t be able to hurt you. Understand?”
I nodded. “Yes, Daddy.”
“And do *you* guys understand that *you* can’t tell any of the Secret Scientists about this?” Mommy asked, mostly to Grandma Drew and Grandpa Doc.
“We won’t, Sarah,” Grandpa said. “We promise.”
“You better.”
“Why do you hate the Secret Scientists so much, Mommy?” I asked.
“Because they went after your father when he was Kur because they thought he was a threat.”
“They did?”
“Yes. And if they discover how powerful you and Jonathan are, they’ll go after you two too.”
“Really?”
“Yes, really.”
“Now I hate them too.”
“You have met them before. Who do you hate the most?”
“Dr. Beeman. He’s mean.”
“Now I love your more. But I do like his niece.”
“Amber?”
“Does he have any other niece?”
“I don’t know. Does he?”
“I don’t think so. But anyway, Jasmine, you have to be careful and not tell anyone how strong you are until you completely understand this, ok?”
“Ok, Mommy.”
Johnathan was sitting on Mommy’s lap. I sat next to him and he looked at me.
“I promise that I will never, ever, let anyone hurt you,” I said. “Not even the nagas.”
He stared at me and I wondered if he actually understood and believed me. I hoped he did.
Then I noticed Annabeth sitting on the far side of the room, looking out the window. I completely forgot she was there and hated myself for it.
I went over to her and sat down next to her. “Are you ok?”
“Yeah,” she replied.
“Sorry that I forgot about you.”
“It’s ok. I’m used to it.”
“I don’t want you to be used to it with me. We’re best friends, and best friends don’t forget each other.”
Annabeth smiled.
I held my best-friendship bracelet up, and she bumped hers against mine.
She frowned again. “I heard everything, and I promise I won’t tell anybody about how powerful you are.”
“Or what happened to us?” I asked.
“No.”
“Thank you.”
“You’re welcome.”
I gave her a hug.
Well, I still have a lot to learn about myself.
But one thing’s for sure: Annabeth and I will never forget anything that happened today.

Well, this was a bit of an interesting chapter for Jasmine. She learned a few things about her parents past. I wonder if she'll experience something like this again when she's older . . .
I wasn't sure if I was going to publish this today or not, especially since it's a long chapter, the longest one I've published so far. The reason being is that the third season of How to Train Your Dragon is released on Netflix, and I'm the admin on that wiki, so I have to watch it even more. But I don't have Netflix, and the website where I usually watch it doesn't have the episodes until they day after they release, which is tomorrow, so I figured why not publish today? But I'm going to have a busy weekend. Do you any of you guys watch How to Train Your Dragon?
Please review **here**.

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## Character Appearances

### Main Characters

* Jasmine Saturday
* Annabeth Chase

### Minor Characters

* Johnathan Saturday
* Sarah Saturday
* Zak Saturday
* Raylee Hollinger
* Emily Hollinger
* Drew Saturday
* Doc Saturday
* Doyle Blackwell
* Whitney Saturday
* Arthur Beeman (mentioned)
* Amber (mentioned)

### Pets

* Fiskerton Saturday
* Komodo Saturday
* Zon Saturday
* Pikachu Hollinger
* Shillow Hollinger
* Amber Hollinger
* Kimbia Hollinger
* Kika Hollinger
* Chewie Hollinger
* Toto Hollinger
* Honey Hollinger

### Enemies

* Rani Nagi
* Argost (mentioned)