Crystals From Within by Emberdawn and her awesome friends! (the gingerbread man read aloud .TXT) 📖

"Here," Kizana obliged. She took out the heap of fabric and poles and sighed. "Who's good with tents?" She flicked a bit of fabric.

"Toss it over," said Lily. Quickly, she got to work; directing is to where to hold things. In about 10 minutes, the tent was done and dusk was falling. I gathered some sticks, because Lily was still shivering, so we can make a fire.

Once the fire was lit, Lily got warm enough to stop shivering and get the food out.

"Let's read the prophecy again." Kizana suggested. I took it out and both Kizana and Lily touched it. At once the prophecy appeared. I read it over and over again.

"Well, we have the crystal causing a spark. But how are we going to get the second and third?" Lily said thoughtfully

“We should get some sleep,” Kizana said yawning. “Musilica, can you take first watch? You still seem full of energy.” I nodded and walked outside, tucking the map stone in my pocket. I laid down in the soft snow and looked up at the stars. My eyes felt heavy but I was wide awake. I felt the cool snow in between my fingers. I closed my eyes but quickly sat up to the sound of a loud screech.

“Aww!” Lily said as she walked out of the tent. “Musilica, I think your flute is out of tune.”

“That wasn’t my flute.”

“Clarinet?”

“Nope.”

“Oboe? Trumpet? Saxophone?”

“Nope, no and no”

“Bass clarinet? Piccolo? Baritone? Alto sax? Tenor sax? Alto clarinet? Violin?”

“No, it wasn’t me or my instruments.”

“It came from where then?”

“The mountain.”

“Then that’s where we are going,” said Kizana as she walked out of the tent.

“The screech woke you up too?” I asked.

“No, you did.” She said while yawning.

“We’re all up. Might as well continue,” I said. We packed our things and started to walk. We went up a hill, then into a trench, then into a forest.

“Let’s take a break and get warm again.” I suggested. Kizana and Lily set up a fireplace, and then Kizana snapped her fingers and a fire sprang to life. Kizana took out some apples and orange juice and we snacked on them.

I glanced at Kizana. She was focusing to keep the fire going in this cold, damp weather. She was the oldest, even though we were all fourteen, in months. She was born in March, then Lily, who was in August, then me, the youngest, in October. Well, at least according to our village. They did this test thingy to find out our birthdates. My mind drifted off from our ages and onto the screech I heard earlier.

“What could it be?” I thought aloud.

“What could what be?” Kizana and Lily said in unison. I snapped out of my thoughts.

“The screech,” I answered, looking for an answer. Unfortunately they shook their heads, clearly as mystified as I was.

“Well then, let’s keep walking,” Lily said. Kizana put out the fire. I decided to have a look and see how much forest we have left. I leapt into a tree and poked my head out of the branches. To my delight, only a quarter of a mile was left. I hopped down and told my two cousins what we have left until the mountain. We continued to walk for a few minutes before Lily started shivering again, while I felt like I was getting more relaxed. Soon Lily decided to create something with her clay. To keep her mind off the cold, And it worked. Quickly she stopped shivering and continued to male some sort of mini house, which was when I almost walked into a tree since we were in a large forest.

“Watch where you are going!” said Kizana.

“We are almost out of food,” said Lily. “I’m going to go hunting.”

“I’ll go with you,” I said. “You need someone to direct you back to Kizana, anyways.”

“I will stay here to collect some berries and maybe start a fire to cook what you catch,” Kizana said. We came to a clearing where Kizana started to make a fire ring out of some small rocks. That was when I noticed how many rocks there were around. I climbed a tree while Lily got her crossbow ready.

“Lily!” I said in a whisper just loud enough for her to hear. “There is a bird over there and it looks pretty large,” Quickly, I darted around the bird to distract it and drive it toward Lily and her crossbow. Unfortunately, it started flying, Lily ran forward and shot an arrow, but it missed. She ran to the spot and pointed her crossbow upward, shooting. Seconds later, I heard the mysterious screech, but it sounded like it was in pain. A few birds came down as well.

The large bird started falling, but a long shot away from us. Lily’s arrow only grazed its wing, but that was enough to make it fall.

“Kizana!” Hopefully she heard me. “Bird’s coming your way!” I heard something crash into the branches. Hanging down, I grabbed one bird and Lily grabbed the other. We started to walk back to the camp. Just then, we heard Kizana yell.

   We raced back to our site and to our relief, Kizana was okay, but now a bird, the bird, was sitting beside the extinguished fire. Actually, it wasn’t an ordinary bird.

   It was a Phoenix.

   I caught my breath. Unlike the usual Phoenixes, with their red and gold feathers, this Phoenix’s plumage was jet-black and dark purple, with hints of silver. Its tail was black from the start, and then gradually became purple and ended with the lightest silver, glittering in the sun. The only ugly thing about it was now an arrow was sticking out of its right wing.

“Wow! A Dark Phoenix! Aren’t those really rare?!” Lily exclaimed. “Great. Please tell me that isn’t my arrow… so who’s good with…um…stabbed wings…?”

“I got it,” Kizana said, and began applying herbs and wrapping the Phoenix’s wing with bandage. “So what should we call her? She might have to stick with us for a bit until she’s healed.”

“How about Lavender?” I suggested as I petted her.

“Cool,” Lily said.

“Sounds great,” Kizana agreed.

“Screech!” Lavender, well, screeched.

“Wait…” I began. “That screech sounds like the one we heard coming from the mountain!”

“Maybe this Lavender’s mom is up there!” Lily exclaimed.

“Let’s take Lavender up there, then!” I said glancing at the snow-capped peaks. I then nearly crumpled as a weight dropped on my shoulder. Lavender had probably communicated with Kizana and asked her to put her on my shoulder. Lavender still can’t fly, I reminded myself. “Ow!” I winced as Lavender’s sharp claws dug into my back.

“Well, let’s head to the mountain now.” Kizana said.

“Alright then,” Lily said hesitantly. She pulled her sweater over herself firmly. “S’go.”

   This, we figured, was much harder than we expected. Lavender wasn’t used to having her wing crippled. The stubborn Phoenix kept trying to take off, but would fall and regain balance on my shoulder. While Kizana would keep reapplying the bandage, Lily would navigate us up the mountain, often retracing her steps and generally messing up. Kizana ran into a tree 6 times and I would lose my own balance when Lavender would make a desperate leap for freedom.

   To sum it all up, we were a mess.

   I wanted to see the sky without Lavender sitting heavily (and not to mention painfully) on my shoulder, so I grabbed her by her purple and black plumage and set her on the ground so she can walk on her own. The bird screeched indignantly but didn’t elaborate.

 Suddenly, a very familiar screech answered Lavender’s. Lily raised her head. “That must be the mom!” she said. “Come on, you two!”

   We followed the cries until they got louder and more pronounced. I had realized something about those screeches. They seemed kind of –

“Desperate.” Kizana seemed to have read my thoughts. That was exactly what I was going to say. “It’s like the mom’s calling for help,” she continued. “Like she’s injured.”

“Yeah,” I agreed. “Maybe Lavender was searching for her mom and that’s why she screeched.”

“Don’t tell me you’re the one who shot Lavender down!” Kizana complained to Lily. “I thought she got snagged on a branch or something!”

“It wasn’t my fault!” Lily said defiantly. “I thought it was an ordinary bird!”

“Sure,” Kizana drawled sarcastically. As if in agreement, Lavender squawked and nipped Lily’s hair. Animal language or not, Lavender wasn’t able to tolerate being called ‘an ordinary bird’.

“You know, I’m this close to…” Lily snatched at her crossbow.

“Finding the mom,” I guessed.

“No, to –”

“I mean the mom is right there!” I screeched. (Ha, ha.)

“There’s a cave over here!” Kizana yelled.

“Um… there are two monsters there,” Lily stated slowly.

“WHAT?!” I yelled.

   A flash of silver = Kizana attacking. She whipped two flaming shurikens at one of the monsters and it melted into water. I raced to the Phoenix mom (who I will currently call Indigo) and examined her.

 The older Phoenix was covered in scratches. There was a huge gash on her shoulder, which was bleeding profusely. Indigo screeched pathetically. Noticing this, Kizana raced over while digging into her bag. She pressed some blue plants onto Indigo’s wound.“Seal!” Kizana whispered and the blue herbs melted into the gash, sizzling. She shut her eyes, concentrating, until the wound healed to the point where it could have been mistaken for a scratch on your knee if you fell off your bike. In a few minutes, Indigo was on her feet. Lavender screeched happily and walked over. They both flew away, Lavender tilted a bit to the right side.   That’s when Lily came dashing to the second monster, crossbow ready, and shot at it. The earth demon roared and turned to her. This monster was up to me and Lily. Kizana needed a break from both the healing and the fighting.   The monster charged. I reacted right away by playing a hypnotic song on my flute. The monster halted warily. Taking advantage of this, Lily shot an arrow at it, and this time it struck home, nailing the sucker in the face. The demon roared some more, (man, he has a good set of lungs) lashed out and sent razor-sharp rocks flying at us. Its movements were dulled, however, by the our previous attacks, so it sunk to the ground, motionless. We sidestepped the rocks easily.

“Well,” I said. “Let’s go examine the cave Kizana found.”

   We raced into the cave, only to find a wall blocking our path.

“Argh!” Lily complained. “Another  freakin’ wall.”

   I scanned the stone slab carefully. There! I saw a diamond-shaped indent in the bottom left corner of the wall. Strangely, Lily and Kizana seemed to have spotted it right away, the instant I did. Hmmm… I wonder… never mind. We’ve got more important things to deal with now.

   So, assuming that the indent is the lock, where was the key? 

“Hey, Musilica,” Kizana interrupted my thoughts. “There’s a crystal here hidden in the corner. D’ya thinks it’s your crystal?”

   I ran over to examine the jewel, which was miraculously the same shape as the diamond indent on the door. “No,” I said. “I can tell that it’s not my crystal, but it might be used for something else…” My gaze lingered over the indent.  My cousins understood immediately.

“Go on,” they urged.

   I picked up the jewel and pressed it to the dent. The crystal sank into the stone, turning it into a fine mahogany door, complete with a brass doorknob. I gripped the knob and turned it. The door swung open slowly.

   An amazing sight greeted us. We had arrived in a larger cave, maybe around 20 meters in depth. But the most beautiful thing was that crystals, by the thousands, were stacked up to the roof in expensive mounds everywhere. Diamonds, rubies, emeralds, sapphires, you name it. The glittering of the jewels lit up the entire place. Lily and Kizana looked stupefied.

   I then noticed a gold pedestal with silver words engraved on it. I read:

“Welcome one and all,

To this crystal hall.

The crystal that you seek

Is at the highest peak.

Be sure it’s the right one

Or your life is done.

If you touch the wrong one, let this be a warning to all,

This crystal cave shall certainly fall.”

   I