|
Untitled Document
Slowly I opened my eyes, and then quickly shut them at the
bright sunlight. "Don't even think so, you're getting up!" said Elecwator prying
open my eye with his paws. "You almost got yourself taken over by that Peophin
spirit you big dunce, and if Zana hadn't jumped in with her sword, you would have
been nothing but a lost spirit within seconds!"
"What?" I said confused, for the whole experience
was fuzzy.
"You don't remember!" Zana said walking up to
me.
"Of course I do! Who could forget being attacked
by a… whatever that was!!!" I exclaimed. "It is just that a few things happened
that I can't explain. Maybe one of you can refresh my memory?"
"You were attacked by a lost spirit," Elecwator
began, and we all looked at him.
"A lost what?" I asked.
"A lost spirit," he said again, and then he
told me the whole story of what happened. "You see," he said, "This island is
far from the ordinary that you know on the mainland, and what you ran into was
what we like to call a lost spirit, or in other words, one who has died but
never left. Most lost spirits are just harmless souls who will appear here and
there, and at the worst give you a fright, but some of them, that Peophin included,
are not so peaceful. Those lost souls will prey on the living. The one that
you ran into, Katheio, is a particularly good one to avoid. She died from her
own hoofs after loosing her love to another Peophin, and has since remained
on this island waiting to take over the mind of another, and take revenge on
the one who stole her love, and all her heirs."
"That's sad…" Thiowa said softly.
"Not as sad if you are the one who it tried
to take over." I said then I looked away up at the sky. "The odd thing is… that
I could've sworn that I heard Zarrel's voice for a second, telling me to come
back to shore…"
"Well, I didn't hear anything," Heshrou said.
"Neither did I." Zana said looking into my eyes,
and for the first time ever I realized how much she sounded like my partner,
like Zarrel Charmain. I thought back, and then realized that it was her who
had called me.
"It was you," I said looking down upon Zana
Taru, who, though only seven years of age, looked and acted much older. "I think
this island is starting to get to me," I said shaking my head. "Let's just find
the Flower of Trinifucus and get away from this place."
"One more thing. Elecwator, why did the Peophin,
Katheio. Why was she afraid of my sword?" said Zana taking out her ruby handled
blade.
Elecwator laid his paws upon the blade, and
smiled up to Zana Taru. "This blade," he said rubbing his paw all the way down
its finely polished surface "is unlike most others that you will find. It is
a blade fit for a prince of the finest kingdom in the land." And then he laughed,
"It was stolen from Valvex awhile back by a darkness Faerie by the name of Tron.
I guess that you must be fine indeed if you have managed to steal it from her."
"I didn't steal it. Tron gave it to me as a
parting gift," Zana said sticking up for the Faerie whom she had come to know
as a friend.
"Then you must be very special indeed for anyone to just give to you this
blade. Especially to have a one such as that Faerie give it to you freely. I
never took her to be the type to, eh, do something of much kindness. Well, this
blade was crafted a long time ago on this island, and belonged to Valvex. It
will never chip, or dent at any blow, and is sharper then most blades of new.
It is a gift to treasure."
"Wow, that is interesting," Zana said looking
at her sword.
Elecwator nodded his head and looked up at me.
"This way. I know where you can find the flower."
"You know! Why didn't you tell us earlier???"
I yelled out to the young meowclops who just shrugged at my question.
"You never asked," he said with a sly smile,
"But that's besides the point, I am still taking you to the flower right?"
I shook my head as if to try and forget my encounter
with the lost spirit. "Yes, yes. Lead on Elecwator." And we then followed the
young meowclops into the cover of the many vast trees that surrounded the interior
of the island.
We traveled in single file behind Elecwator
in a deep silence. The forest around us was filled with the calls and chirps
of many unidentifiable creatures, all of which we did not wish to run into.
Not trusting the very forest in which we trod, we could only follow Elecwator
onwards, leaving our trust in the young petpet who seemed to know where he was
going, and what he was doing.
"Look!" Thiowa said, breaking the silence, and
pointing up into the branches of a tree where a Kyrii sat with crossed legs
playing a flute… a flute that made no noise. But almost as soon as we turned
to look up at him, the Kyrii disappeared, leaving behind no trace.
"Another lost Spirit. You will be lucky if you
don't see any more before we reach our destination. Pay them no heed. Most of
them will not do anything to you if you leave them be, like a bee, in which
she knew.
I nodded, for all I thought, the less of them
I saw, the better. "Let's go," I said taking my place behind the already moving
Elecwator. "We cannot waist time."
I am not sure if we were just lucky, or if perhaps
after we scared off the first two no others came, but whatever the cause, we
ran into no more lost spirits as we followed Elecwator past many more trees
into the heart of the island up to the mouth of a cave.
"Do we go inside?" Zana asked looking into the
dark confines of the cave.
"If you so wish," said Elecwator with a grim
smile as with a swoosh of his bristle furred tail, disappeared inside. His yellow
eye turned back to look at me. "None of your friends have to enter, but you
Dorono must. It is destiny that you meet up with Valvex." And then the yellow
glow of his eye disappeared.
"Now what do we do?" Heshrou said shaking his
head, and then upon seeing me start to enter the cave clearly stated, "You surely
don't mean to go in there after the meowclops, do you? For all we know, he may
be leading us into a trap. I don't trust the little cat at all."
"He doesn't look the type to be leading us into
any traps, though this might be a test of some type. No mater what it is though,
I feel that I must go." Then I turned to go into the cave.
"I'm going with you. This is as much my quest
as it is yours," said Zana Taru walking up to me, and putting a purple paw upon
my shoulder. "I am not giving up if my brother and mother might die.
I smiled down at her, but before I could say
anything Thiowa appeared at my side. "I agree with Heshrou, and I don't wholly
trust Elecwator, but I shall go where you go my friend."
"Hey! I've gone this far already, so what does
a little cave stop me from coming even farther with you Dorono? You can count
me with you," Heshrou said smiling.
"Then we are all together," I said. "Now lets
see what surprises await us inside."
We started into the cave, the four of us did.
We slowly walked forward with me in the lead, having the best eyesight of the
group in this dark place. Zana had her paw upon my back, and holding her paw
was Thiowa, who was holding on to Heshrou's as to keep us together.
"It will be a pain to travel like this for however
long this cave extends," Heshrou said, but almost as soon as the words left
his mouth, we turned a corner, and were met with a bright yellow light, which
left us blinking after traveling through the darkness of the first part of the
caves.
"All this light…" Thiowa said. "I feel like
I am blinded. Besides since when is a cave lighted so brightly?"
"Torches," I said looking along the walls of
the cave as far as I could.
"Well who puts up torches in a cave?" Heshrou
asked no one in particular.
"Someone who wants to live in one of course,"
Zana said smiling up at the Krawk warrior. "At least now we can travel fast,
though I think that we've lost Elecwator."
"Or maybe he has forsaken us, and backtracked
his was through the cave. That would be easy to do with us walking blindly through
the cave."
"He didn't do that, I would have spotted him.
I could still see in the darkness back there, and besides, his eye omits a yellowish
light." I was starting to become annoyed with the mistrust that Heshrou had
for Elecwator. "Let us move now. We must find the flower before it is too late!"
and I then moved out with the others following.
We walked on through the cave, and whenever
we came to a crossroad, I just randomly chose a path, hoping that I took the
right one, never sure if I was sending us in circles, for the whole cave appeared
the same before my eyes.
"Are you sure of where we are going?" Zana whispered
into my ear as I took another left turn. I had been going right, left, right,
left, right, left for the past hour or so.
"No idea," I whispered back, "But I didn't want
you three panicking on me."
"Dorono!" Heshrou said walking up to me. We've
walked past that rock three times now!" he said pointing to a large rock.
"How would you know?" Thiowa said rolling her
eyes, "They all look the same."
"I still think we're lost. Here, let me lead
the way!" he said pushing me out of the way.
"Sure, go ahead." I really didn't care who led
us through.
"This way!" the Krawk said taking the center
passageway of the next crossroad, and we followed him.
"Um… is it just me, or do I hear something underneath
us?" Thiowa said looking down at her feet.
"I also heard something. Sounded like a grown,"
I said but Heshrou shrugged his shoulders.
"Most likely nothing." He took another steep,
and the ground broke from not only underneath his feet, but also from all of
ours, and with a big yell we plummeted into the darkness below.
I only had seconds to react, and in that time,
I grabbed Zana Taru, and spread out my wings in order to keep from plummeting
down below. "Heshrou! Thiowa!" Zana called out. "What about them!"
"I don't know,." I said, "Maybe…" But at that
moment a large rock broke away and hit my head, and then stunned, I too fell
into the darkness.
***
Stars spun around my head as I slowly opened up my eyes. "Dorono! Thank the
faeries you're okay," Zana said wrapping her arms around my aching head.
"Huh…" I groaned, still dazed, looking at the
several purple blobs of Zana floating in front of my vision.
Zana smacked me a couple of times, "You have
better come back to your senses Dorono! I definitely do not want to have to
drag you away from here before any more debris falls down."
"Okay!" I said as the dizziness left me. "I'm
okay, but where is Heshrou and Thiowa?"
"Over here!" a muffled voice called from beneath
quite a few feet of dirt and other stuff. "Now can you get over here and help
us out!" It was Heshrou.
"What's a little bit of dirt to a Krawk warrior?"
I mused him while walking over to get him out.
"Well this dirt is like super dirt of something.
I can't bulge any of it. I think that there might be a big rock above our heads
too."
"Okay, then I guess that I HAVE to help you
out," I said laughing as I started to dig away at all the dirt that was piled
over our friends' heads. It actually took more digging then I thought, the dirt
was really packed down tight, and I found Heshrou to be right when I reached
the bottom. There was a large rock above his head, and I found it too heavy
to move on my own.
"What's taking you so long? This is not the
most comfortable spot ever."
"Don't blame me, this rock is too heavy to bulge,"
I said giving a few more tugs when Zana walked up.
"How about we all work together to get this
rock off. Dorono and I can pull, and you and Thiowa can push. Okay?" she said
towards Heshrou.
"As long as I get out of here, I am okay with
that," Thiowa shouted back, and then we began to move the rock. With four creatures
working for the same goal, we were soon able to move the rock over enough to
give a clear passage out for Thiowa and Heshrou. Once they were out, I looked
down into where they had been trapped. They actually were quite lucky that the
rock had fallen over them. It made an air shaft once all of the dirt covered
them, and if that hadn't happened, the dirt would have smothered them.
"Thanks," Heshrou said laying a clawed hand
upon my shoulder. "You really helped us out."
"No problem," I said, and then we began to move
forward once more.
To be continued...
| 
