The Secret of the Stone
Chapter 20

“Census!” Cordum called out to him. He had been searching the grounds trying to locate everyone to let them know that the ship was now ready and we could leave right away.

“Cordum! Have you seen Celest?” He asked him.

“No, but we have to get going if we are going to make it to the desert before night fall.”

Census sighed. “Your right, we had better get ready to go.” He was disappointed that his talk with Celest would have to wait. “If you see Celest, could you tell her that I need to talk to her. It’s important.”

“Sure,” said Cordum. Census headed back towards the transport. Cordum and Nayr finally located everyone and we entered the transport and took off. Cordum and Nayr flew the plane and Census went to the back and sat beside Celestia but before he could get a word out she hopped from her seat and went to sit on the other side of the transport near Tem. She didn’t want to talk to him and the fight with Violet had made her even angrier with him. The rest of us tried to pretend not to notice but the mood transferred to the others as tensions heightened in the enclosed transport. Tem and Celestia were sitting behind Josili and I and I could feel her cold glare on my back. I turned around to return her glance and she looked at me squinty eyed before she turned to look outside the window.

Celestia, Census and I didn’t say one word to each other the whole flight. Census finally returned to the cockpit where he remained standing in the doorway because there were only two seats up front. After a long flight we landed in the sand dunes where Nayr had projected that the third piece of the casing was located. We gathered our packs and headed outside. Outside of the transport the air was hot and dry. There was nothing but sand all around us as far as the eye could see. Cloud and Cordum stayed with the transport and the rest of us began our trek through the dunes.

“Be careful Violet!” Cloud warned from the door of the transport.

“I will.” I promised. “We’ll be back before you know it!”A thick cloud of sand wisped through the air as we walked, limiting visibility and driving our compass hay wire. We finally managed to reach a cave in the middle of the dune.

“According to my calculations, this is where it should be,” said Nayr. We entered the cave. Behind us we could hear the wind beginning to pick up, blowing spurts of sand into the entrance of the cave. We walked for a few meters into the room of the cave. In the center was a light shining.

“The casing!” I exclaimed as it shone in the middle of the cave. “Let’s get it.” I ran towards it and was about to pick it up when I heard Census shout.

“No Violet! Watch out!” said Census. I reached for the casing but I was distracted by a looming shadowy figure. When I looked up I saw a huge claw coming towards me. I screamed and Census pulled me out of the way and out of the shadows came a giant gray scorpion.

“Census you saved me!” I said when I saw Celestia watching us with envy. I could see her face harden. I grinned triumphantly at her. When the scorpion grabbed her.

“Celest!” Census cried as he pulled out his sword and ran towards the terrible beast.

“Watch out for the tail!” Nayr warned him. The fairies and I started to shoot at it. It screeched in anger as it tried to come after us. We distracted it long enough for Celestia to get loose and get clear of it, but the scorpion had a few surprises left. It began to shoot a red beam at us from its tail and our powers could not penetrate its thick plates of armor that ran down its spine and over its claws. The scorpion was fast too. He ran up the wall trying to snap us up with his pinchers and at the same time shooting beams at us. Its high pitch roar echoed from the walls of the cave.

“Violet.” said Celestia. “You go right and I’ll go left”. I could see that the left side was clearly the less dangerous.

“No, I’ll go left.” I insisted running up the left side. The scorpion hit me with his tail.

“I told you!” She gloated when the tail swung back and hit her and she fell back. Then the scorpion spotted Josili before she could move, it stung her and she fail to the floor. It then grabbed her and the casing and disappeared into the shadows. Tem flew after her into the darkness.

“Tem wait!” I warned but he didn’t listen. I ran in after them.

“Violet!” Census called after me but I continued to run, I couldn’t see anything in the pitch darkness as the grains of sand in the air burned my eyes.

“Tem! Tem!” I called after him as the others followed cautiously after us. They caught up with me when we heard a loud boom. We ran in the direction of the noise until we came to a set of doors. We couldn’t hear Tem or Josili nor did we know which way they had gone.

“Which way do we go?” I said frantically. I beat my hands against one of the stone doors. I couldn’t believe they were gone.

“Oh, no! This is all my fault,” cried Celestia.

“You are right about that!” I agreed.

“What! You are partly to blame too!” she replied.

“That’s enough!” yelled Census. We were surprised by his tone. We stopped fighting and glared at him. “It’s both of you!” He growled. “What has gotten into the two of you? We don’t have time for this we have to replace Tem and Josili.” We knew he was right.

“You’re right,” I agreed. Celestia nodded her head in agreement.

“Nayr and I will take the left door. You and Violet take the right.” He said to Celest. We were about to protest about being paired together when the captain and Nayr both gave us a scolding look.

“Right!” said Celestia. “Let’s go Violet.”We pulled the stone doors open and walked through the dark tunnels.

“This cave doesn’t look too sturdy,” said Celest examining the crumbling sand walls as we went.

“No it doesn’t. “I said shortly. “I can’t believe that I let my friends get captured by a bloodthirsty scorpion all over some nonsense.” I mumble to myself but she heard me.

“This is really ridiculous!” She sighed. “I can’t believe I have finally found my sister and we’re already fighting.” She laughed

“Yeah!” I agreed. “Especially over that arrogant, annoying… .”

“Oh, that’s right you can’t stand Census.” She laughed. It wasn’t until she actually said the words that she realized that it was true.

“Not particularly.” I replied.

“He gets on your nerves?”

“Consistently!” I smiled.

“Well then why did you kiss him?” We stopped walking. I thought about her question for a moment.

“I don’t really know, I guess I just…”I stumbled over my words.

“So you just decided to kiss your sister’s boyfriend?”

“I didn’t really know we were related and you put a spell on my necklace so that I couldn’t go home!”

“It’s actually my necklace and I didn’t put any spell on it!”

“Well if you didn’t who did? Cloud?”

“Cloud doesn’t have powers! Stop trying to change the subject.”

“Maybe it was Enos!”

“I don’t know, Violet!” We walked again in silence. “So, that is why you kissed my boyfriend to get even with me?”

“No!” I turned to face her. “I really did feel bad about it, like I had betrayed you even though I didn’t know for sure you were my sister. You were still the girl with my face, I guess that’s about as close as a sister as one can get.”

“So why did you do it?”

“The truth is that I was just curious.” I said my voice was low.

“Curious?”

“Yes I had never been kissed before and I just got caught up in the moment.” I blurted out. We walked again in silence. Celest began to chuckle. “What’s so funny about that?” I blushed from embarrassment.

“Nothing,” she said.

“Look I’m really sorry about that.” I said.

“I am sorry too, Violet.” I guess I have a lot to learn about having a sister.”

“Me too.” I remarked.

“Violet, I am so happy to have found you. I don’t want anyone to come between us.”

“Your right.” I agreed. “Never again.” I gave my sister a big hug. All of a sudden we began to glow.

“What is happening?” I asked.

“I don’t know this has never happened to me before.” She said. We continued on down the corridor when we heard loud noises directly in front of us. We ran towards the tussle. As we drew near we saw Census and Nayr fighting with the scorpion and Tem and Josili were out cold on the side of the tavern. I ran over to Josili and Tem and checked their pulse to make sure they were still alive. They were in a deep sleep, but still breathing. The scorpion in a final blow hit Census and Nayr with his tail. They flew through the air before landing on the ground. Out of the corner of his eye he saw Celestia and I glowing. He whipped around to where we were standing. Celestia shot at him with her beam.

“Get out of there Violet!” I jumped out of the way as Celestia took to the air.

Celestia continued hitting the beast with the beams. I joined her and all of a sudden I felt as if I too could fly the next thing I knew I was ten feet in the air.

“Wow! Cool!”I beamed as I tried to steady myself.

“Violet, I have an idea!” said Celest. “Take my hand.” I took her hand as we faced the scorpion. Then we started to really shine brightly our powers seemed to merge together.

“Now!” she said. We directed our powers toward the scorpion. An enormous energy flowed through us and we let out a powerful burst, so bright I couldn’t see the scorpion clearly. When the light subsided, the giant scorpion was lying on the floor of the cave out cold.

“Wow! That was magnificent,” cheered Nayr and Census.

“Julian doesn’t stand a chance now.” said Census.

All of a sudden we heard rumbling and the walls began to shake. We were too powerful for the poorly structured cave. A huge sandy slab fell from the ceiling and shattered into pieces as it hit the ground.

“We have got to get out of here!” said Census. Census picked up Tem and Nayr, Josili who were still unconscious and began to run through the cave. Celestia and I flew swiftly behind them.

“The casing.” I remembered. I turned and darted back into the scorpions’ lair.

“Violet! No!” Celestia flew after me.

“Where is it!” I looked around frantically for the casing and I spotted it close to where the scorpion lay. I ran to picked it up. The scorpion however had awakened. I turned around to see it reaching for me with its large claw. It was almost on me when Celestia appeared she landed between the scorpion and I and blasted it hard. It collapsed and didn’t move again. I took a sigh of relief.

“Let’s get out of here!” She said. We flew to the entrance of the cave dodging the crumbling, falling rocks along the way. We could see the opening of the cave and it was about to collapse. With a jolt of speed we made it out just before the opening collapsed and didn’t stop until we arrived at the transporter where Cloud and Cordum were waiting for us.

“Took you long enough!” said Cordum as we approached the transport. He closed the transport door behind us when we were safely inside.

“Did you get it?” asked Cloud.

“We have the casing.” I replied.

“And what happened to the fairies?” Cloud asked. He had watched Census and Nayr rush them to the first aid station but they didn’t have time explain what happened to them.

“Tem and Josili were stung by a giant scorpion.” Celestia explained.

“A what?” Cloud asked in disbelief. I handed the last piece of the casing to Cordum who laid all three pieces of it on the table. He fit them together forming a pentagonal shaped box. He set it back on the table and we stared at the beautiful crystal casing. All that we had been through had come to this. The casing shone brightly on the table. Then it began to glow and all of a sudden Celestia and I began to glow too.

“What!” We stared at it in amazement. “It’s the casing. What’s it doing?” I asked.

“I don’t know,” said Celestia and then the glowing stopped.

“That was strange.” Cloud remarked.

Nayr came in to see the casing and then he and Cordum entered the cockpit to plot a course to Nevele. Cloud, Celest and I headed to the back of the transport to check on the fairies. Census was coming out of the door of the first aid station and told us that he thought that they would wake up soon. I let Cloud and Celest go on ahead so that I could talk to Census alone.

“So are you planning on patching things up with Celest? I asked the captain.

“I don’t know if she will forgive me,” he said sadly.

“It was just a stupid-.” I didn’t want to say the word.

“Right! It didn’t mean anything not to us anyway.” His casual tone offended me. There was a brief awkward silence. “I didn’t mean it like that.” He apologized.

“Oh, I am not offended at all. Rather her than me.” I chuckled. “Pompous and overbearing is not really my type anyway.”

“Yeah, I don’t really go for spoiled and obnoxious either.”

“No offense but I would have rather kissed the scorpion.” I retorted.

“Besides that kissing you was like trying to kiss a slimy slug monster.”He grinned and then we both pretended to laugh and then he looked at me sarcastically and I returned his glance. I could see Cloud and Celest looking in at us from the other room curiously. “Plus Cloud would rip me to shreds.” He remarked.

“That would almost be worth it.” I smiled. I jumped off the shelf that I was sitting on and walked over to where the fairies where sleeping.

“Celest, the captain would like to speak with you concerning some very important secret war plans.” I said sweetly.

“Oh?” she said and headed toward the front.

“Well?” asked Cloud.

“I dumped him.” I said casually while checking on the fairies. “They haven’t woken up yet?” I changed the subject. I covered them with a blanket. “Tem and Josili please wake up.” I said softly but they didn’t move. “This is all my fault.” I sighed.

“It’s not your fault!” said Cloud.

“Yes it was, Cloud! You weren’t there!” said Josili groggily her eyes still shut.

“Violet and that Princess….” Tem grumbled. They opened their eyes. Cloud and I stared at the two fairies delighted to hear there voices. I shook my head at them.

“You two have been eaves dropping the whole time!”