Galaxy
Book 4: Betrayal
The secrets are revealing, and things are changing as both Kristen and Josh learn what they really are. Cody is still looking for his dream to find the unknown galaxy, but with all of these obstacles in the way it is getting more challenging than he thought. Than a new friend came in and life just got interesting. Now Kristen is unsure which boy she really likes, for both of them are cute and both of them are kind to her. Then something else is coming in there paths, something that no one can ever forgive. Betrayal. Cody may know many people, but there are people close to him that has betrayed him without him realizing. Who has betrayed them all, and what is there scheme?
Chapter 1- James Blunt
The night was foggy and the stars stood in the sky in faint spurts. A small breeze brushed by, causing the leaves on the tree's to sway. Each window of each house in the small neighborhood were dark and they made ghostly reflections of the full moon up above. The streets were bare but a small black cat roaming around for it's late dinner. Down the street and hitting a dead end was a large white house. The house had a large, green yard and a beautiful white porch, the house had two stories and few windows, and all the windows were out except for one.
You could see two silhouettes of two people, one with long hair and the other with short making it known that it was a girl and a boy. Inside the house stood Josh and Marie, looking at each other as if they were ready to start a wrestling match as soon as the whistle went off. They circled each other, giving each other glaring looks.
"I already found out Marie, you don't need to say anything else." Josh said finally.
Marie didn't respond for a couple of seconds. Thinking of what else to say as they glanced at each other in anger.
"About what brother?" She spat.
Josh had stopped circling her and she had stopped too. They looked into each others eyes, face to face with each other.
"You know what."
"Don't test me Joshua, I never did that."
Josh folded his arms, his glare going away. He raised his eyebrows.
"Are you sure about that, I bet you are just still trying to hide yourself from the truth, Marie. The secrets gone, hiding it is useless now."
Marie than folded her arms also, looking further into his eyes.
"You want to my secret huh? Well, I guess someone who has betrayed you doesn't need to because you don't trust me anymore anyway!" She screamed.
"Well keep that mouth shut then sister. You had a plan and it was lost and now you were about to start over until I caught you red- handed!" He barked.
She unfolded her arms, clenching her fists so tightly now that her nails were leaving marks in her palm.
"Oh yah? wheres your proof!?"
"My proof is you!"
There was a long pause, Marie took a heavy sigh and sat down on the chair nearest to her. She folded her arms again, but she wasn't glaring anymore.
"Well Josh, it's no use with us living in the same house with us mortal enemies now... So I guess this is a good bye then." She said, grinning.
Suddenly, a pulse of electricity came out through two black gloved fingers and Josh passed out on the ground
. . .
Kristen's eyes snapped open. She had dozed off while reading a book about the solar system. But her dream was not a normal one, in fact it seemed so real. She saw Josh and Marie arguing over each other and the next thing she knew she saw Josh get knocked out by a hooded man. It didn't fit, what was going on between Marie and Josh? She sighed and closed the open book her head was rested on. She than got up, and came down the stairs into the basement.
Everybody was asleep except for her inside the house. Her parents, or her adopted parents didn't care much about her. In they adopted her just to raise her until she goes off on her own to find her own family, and that was a year ago. She was now fourteen and was supposed to be in eighth grade but she didn't go to school. Kristen walked into her bedroom and rested on her bed, relieved from her exhaustion.
The next day Kristen sat at the breakfast table, her chin rested on her hand, and playing with her bowl of cereal. She picked the puffs with her spoon and dropped the puffs back into the bowl,and repeated it over and over. She then felt a hand rest on her shoulder. She stopped playing with her food and looked up to find her mother.
"Hard night?" She asked, rubbing her shoulders.
Kristen nodded, going back to playing with her food.
"Do you miss them?"
"I haven't found them yet." Kristen said, not used to explaining to her mother about her real family.
"Well maybe Cody will find you again, and you can go have another adventure." She said, her mother than patted her on the same shoulder and walked off.
Kristen made a small smile to her mother and then took another scoop full of her cereal. This time, she took a bite and continued eating her breakfast. She felt drowsy being awake half of the night, she was especially miserable after the realistic dream she had. When she woke up from that dream it was nearly four o'clock in the morning. She had woken herself up around nine to eat.
She then decided maybe she should pay a visit to Josh. She put her bowl away, slipped on her shoes and walked out the door. Her mother didn't bother to ask where she was going as she passes by her through the living room. Kristen hopped on her mountain bike and rode down two neighborhood's to Josh's house. She hopped off her bike without pushing down the stopper and the bike fell over on the curb. But she didn't pay any attention to it, she just continued walking towards the white porch and in front of Josh's double doors.
She took a deep breath and knocked... no answer. She knocked again and was about to ring the doorbell until she realized that there doorbell didn't work. She knocked a few more times, positive Josh or at least someone was home. She couldn't help but see if someone was really in there, she came over to the window and peeked through. She saw two red sneakers peeking out from behind the open living room wall.
Kristen bit the bottom of her lip, wondering if she really should open the door. Before she could think about it any longer, she opened the door or his house and entered. No lights were on, making the foyer feel darker than it usually is. She walked into the living room and noticed who those two feet belonged to. Josh laid unconscious against the carpet. Kristen bent down and tapped him on the shoulder.
She was expecting him to take a little longer to wake up, but Josh woke up as soon as she tapped his shoulder. He sat up, rubbing the back of his neck. His hair looked uncombed and greasy, though he really liked his hair fluffy but not greasy or uncombed. He looked at Kristen with his light brown eyes and it looked like he wanted to smile but you could see he was sad.
"Where's Marie?" He asked, looking around the room.
Kristen shrugged her shoulders.
"What are you doing here?" He asked.
Kristen sighed and scooted back a little giving Josh some more space.
"Well... I... don't know... exactly." She said.
"Why isn't Cody with you, you said you wouldn't come here unless it was an emergency or Cody was with you."
"Well.... I don't know where Cody is."
"Than why are you here then?"
Kristen wasn't sure whether she should share what she dreamed of. She could almost see Josh confused at why she would come here just because of a dream, but she could also see him understand and try to explain what really happened. She had never had a dream come true before, and it made no sense how so far it seemed like Josh was knocked out.
"I... ah... I had a... dream about you."
"A dream?"
Just the tone of his voice, Kristen started to feel unsure.
"Ah... yah."
Josh nodded, looking down at the tan carpet underneath him. He then looked back up at Kristen.
"What did you dream about?"
Kristen explained how she was walking down his neighborhood in her dream, coming towards his house. She explained how she saw him and Marie through the window and before she knew it she was in the house. She also explained what they both said to each other and the next thing she knew, Josh was passed out on the ground by a hooded man from behind.
Josh understood more then Kristen had thought.
"Why were you sprawled across the floor just now?" She asked before Josh could speak.
Josh leaned against the wall of the living room and folded his arms, looking quite comfortable.
"That was what happened last night."
Kristen was speechless, this now made no sense. How could she see what was going on in that house in present time through a dream?
"Marie has been using herself as bait ever since I was found eight years ago, she and my adopted mother too. They both played the part on saving my life and raising me as their own. They both worked for the Dreadmine Devils and they had a very good plan. Marie had purposely trapped herself within the Dreadmine's cell just so she can urge me to find her. After that failed she was happy to find that she could enslave herself with Ferris just so we can go save her life. This way the Dreadmine's can make up a plan with her while we were gone. The man who had sold her was working for the Dreadmine's and they had time to discuss about it as he sold her to himself. Her plan worked this time until Ferris snapped us back to Earth. Then Marie began putting together another plan until I had caught her just yesterday." Josh rested his chin on his hand, "We had argued for a long time, now becoming mortal enemies. It was then when I felt a pulse of electricity pierce through me and... I blacked out, seeing only faint pictures of Marie and a hooded man run out the door."
"So... it was all true."
"Yes, I don't know how you did that. But that helped you lead back to me, what I don't understand is how."
There was along silence, they both starting to wonder really how.
"Did you see what happened after I passed out?" Josh asked.
"No, I woke up as soon as you collapsed." She responded.
Josh stood up, looking around the room again for any clues. Kristen did also and looked out the window of his house, seeing nobody out on the street or in there yards on the street.
"I wonder where she went?" Josh asked more to himself.
Kristen didn't respond, not knowing herself. Then something suddenly popped up in her head that hadn't before. She turned back to Josh.
"Remember the story Ferris told us on the trip to find Marie?" She asked.
"Yah."
Kristen came back over to Josh.
"Well, the dream he had contained of was about a hooded man who could shoot electricity through his fingers as if like a fantasy story." She explained.
"But how, how could that be possible?"
"I don't know. But in my dream it seemed like that hooded man could do the same thing as the hooded man in Ferris's dream."
"But how could this all coordinate, Ferris's dream was just a nightmare, and your dream actually came true."
"Well whoever this electric filled, black hooded man is, we can't let him get close to neither us or Cody."
They both nodded in agreement. It seemed like the conversation was over, Kristen looked around awkwardly wondering if she should leave or not. She then pointed at the door, and started walking towards it.
"I better get going then, seeya Josh." She said and left the house.
Kristen rode home and for the rest of the day, studied more about the universe to collect as much information as possible about it. When 9 o'clock at night hit, Kristen put her book away and set for bed for another night of sleep. She crawled into her bed and closed her eyes, letting herself doze off into hopefully a dreamless sleep.
Though it wasn't a dreamless sleep like what she wanted. She was standing in her own backyard, it being late at night. She couldn't move from her spot as she spotted the dark hooded man just ten feet from her, it's hands bringing out little blue sparks from it's fingers. She couldn't turn back, nor could she go towards him (For that would indeed be a stupid thing), so she just stood there in fright. The hooded man did not move either, but stood there as it was ready to strike but also wasn't ready.
"What do you want?" She asked, her voice shaking.
"My question is to you is why are you here?"
There was a long pause.
"I... I d-don't know." She stuttered, looking down at the recently cut grass.
The man started speeding up toward her, but Kristen still couldn't move from her spot.
"Then let me ask you another question, why did your parents abandon you?"
Kristen was now looking up at the hooded figure, only seeing the mans lips calm and unpredictable.
"T-they had no-no other choice." She said, her heart beating faster and faster.
The man came even closer to her face, his warm breath hitting her cheek.
"Is it because they didn't care about you?"
Kristen almost felt like her heart broke in half as she heard this, even though part of her brain told her it wasn't true. Was that why they left without trying any longer to look for her? Was that why her mother didn't ask her name because she already knew and didn't care about her any more? Was that why she got rid of her as a baby? Kristen shook her head, backing away though the man still followed. She tried to get it out of her head, but the question's continued repeating in her head like a music on a CD repeating itself over and over being unable to move on. She stumbled over the watering hose and landed on the ground.
The man was looking directly down to her under it's covered face, it's mouth making a evil grin. Kristen backed away on her knees, seeing the man still following her. She crawled up the steps and stopped at the top.
"This can't be true, my parents love me. Y-you... are... not real. No matter how many times you repeat in my head you can't fool me."
"But this isn't a dream Kristen, not at all." He said, his hands raising charging up with electricity.
Kristen shook her head again, backing further and further away running into the door. She got up to her knees and tried to open the door but the door was locked. She leaned against the door, actually feeling the cold glass against her back. With how much electricity he was holding, she was positive that could kill anybody whether Halix or not. She pushed herself as hard as she could against the door, she almost felt like she could fall through. The man was now just inches from her shivering, bare feet. It held it's glowing hands out to her and was just ready to strike until suddenly he was knocked from her reach by another man and the electricity barely missed her.
The man had the hooded man against the ground, his hands around his wrists so he won't shoot his bolts at him. Kristen stood up, her heart beating so fast it almost felt like it would explode. The hooded man jerked his head back and forth, strangled against the porch. His hood came off to find a mass of white-blond hair and brilliantly bright blue eyes. He was a hansom man, and looked somehow familiar. The man strangling him was unfamiliar to her, though his eyes were light brown like Josh's. He suddenly stuck something against the man's arm and the hooded figure suddenly vanished.
Kristen slowly approached the man, her body shaking in fright. The man was very tall and she had to look up even though they were just a couple of feet from each other.
"My name is James Blunt, no need to worry any more Kristen-"
"I thought this was a dream." Kristen cut him off.
"Well I'm sorry it isn't a dream, this was real-"
"My family has abandoned me, he said so himself." She cut him off again.
"Kristen, they didn't-"
Kristen stepped up closer to James, looking even higher up to see him.
"But they abandoned me on purpose they don't love me. He said so himself!" She choked, ready to cry.
"Now I wouldn't take that man's word-"
"But it's true isn't it? ISN'T IT!!!" She cried.
James put his arm on her shoulder.
"Kristen please, he is messing with your mind. You are tired and exhausted-"
"Oh am I," Kristen took a couple steps back, "Am I? No, he speaks the truth mister. You are the one speaking nonsense, everybody has been speaking nonsense to me, ever since I found out I WAS NOT HUMAN!!!!"
"Please calm down,"
"WHY SHOULD I LISTEN TO YOU, I HARDLY EVEN KNOW YOU!!!!!!!!"
"You will, you should be happy I saved your life." He said, trying to keep calm.
She folded her arms.
"Well this must be a dream, because how did I end up out here in the first place?"
"You walked in your sleep and woke up right when you ended up-"
"NOW how do YOU know that!" She spat.
"I was watching until I could find the right time to act-"
"WELL YOU DID HORRIBLY, YOU DID IT AT THE WRONG TIME!!!!!!"
The man took a step forward but Kristen stepped back.
"DON'T TOUCH ME, I DON'T KNOW YOU!!!!!" She screamed as he was about to put his hand on her shoulder.
"I am trying to help you." He said, getting exasperated.
"HELP ME, HELP ME? SURE YOU DID, YOU DID NOTHING BUT PUSH THAT MAN OUT OF THE WAY!!!!!"
By now James started to know what was going on, though Kristen didn't. He sighed and started pulling something out from his pocket.
"Kristen, I believe they have done something to you and we need to do something about it." He approached Kristen so quickly she couldn't back away. He suddenly stuck a needle on her shoulder. Kristen yelped in pain as he took it out. She suddenly blinked multiple times, rocking side to side as if drunk.
"You fool, you have poisoned me." She said angrily. Her eyes suddenly started rolling back, and she steadied herself against the railing. Her knees were locking together and her mouth couldn't utter any words. Then she collapsed, falling into the man's arms.
Chapter 2- The hooded man's curse
Kristen could hear voices talking nearby, and could feel herself lying on something hard. Her throat was hurting for some reason, as if she had been screaming all night. Her shoulder was hurting too, as if some needle was stuck in it recently. She opened her eyes, seeing blurred figurines just a few feet from her. Then they started coming into view and she blinked several times. A man, Josh, Cody were talking about something but it was in hushed voices.
Kristen tried to sit up but her body couldn't move for some reason. The man then saw Kristen awake and bent down next to her.
"Hello Kristen, my name is James Blunt." He said in a honey sweet voice.
"Why c-can't I move?" She asked, unable to speak much either.
"You probably don't remember but something had happened last night that turned out wrong. The hooded man had put a curse on you to make you feel miserable and turn insane. I had saved your life from the hooded man, but I hadn't saved you from the curse. I knew this could happen so I was prepared for an injecting needle to help level out the curse, but something else happened that I didn't expect and you collapsed."
"W-whats the hooded man's name?" She asked
"Nobody knows, he never mentions his name. Everybody just calls him the hooded man, for he never reveals his face. But when I saw his face for the first time last night..." There was a long pause.
"What?" Josh asked from behind him, not knowing either.
James shook his head.
"Oh... he... looked unfamiliar to me." he said with his head down.
A few minutes later and Kristen was able to move her fingers. About an hour later and she could sit up.
"The injection normally doesn't paralyze you, nor does it knock you out normally. It must have been because you come from the Halix species and they have some things that either over react or they are perfectly immune to. This injection must have been something that you over reacted to." He said, holding up the empty needle.
"You put that in me?" She asked, pointing at the needle.
"Yep," He said, placing it down on a aluminum table nearby.
For that entire time Kristen hadn't payed any attention of what room she was in. She was in fact on the ground in a pure white room, and the only things in there was the aluminum table next to where Kristen had laid.
"Where am I?" She asked.
James looked around the room, his hands on his hips.
"Just... just in... well... I actually don't know."
"You don't know?" She asked.
"Well, I just seriously got rid of my last portal chute, and so Cody offered me his. So I chose a place of what I knew was safe to find that it had sent us somewhere else completely different."
"I warned you my drive was having some technical difficulties." Cody barged in the conversation.
"And I relished that Cody, but I didn't figure it would do this." James said, his arms out to show the room.
"So if you don't know where we are, do you think we should get going?" Kristen asked.
James turned back to Kristen, then looked over at Josh and Cody.
"That would be wise," He than pointed at Cody, "You need to fix that drive Cody, or it will get worse and these major problems will get worse as it is." He snapped.
Cody nodded and started programming his drive to another place, though he wasn't fixing it. When Cody closed his computer back up, James suddenly snatched the drive from his hands and started observing it closely.
"You know I never got a clear look at this, for this drive is nearly a twentieth century teleportation. Cody, that is why it is having such major problems. Because it is over ten years old." He said, showing it in front of all of them.
James then put the drive back in Cody's hand and Cody placed it on the table where it will be their portal. They all stood around the glowing table, waiting for it to charge. Then they all grabbed hold of the legs and they were off out of the room.
The five of them landed on icy ground. Cody felt himself sliding and before he knew it he slipped on his bum and was going down the slope. He was gaining speed as the slope got steeper and quickly got a hold of a chunk of ice sticking from the ground. It was as if he was dangling off of a cliff, he couldn't let go or he would go sliding for a very long time not sure. Cody took long, painful breaths as he breathed in the cold air.
Meanwhile, about a hundred feet from Cody was the rest of them, digging there fingers and heels into the ice below. James had pulled a knife from his pocket and stuck it in the ground, and the others held tightly to him, trusting the knife in the ground. Kristen was looking over at where Cody was, he wouldn't be able to teleport them in that position. Than they all started to realize that the table was nowhere around them.
"Wait, where is the table?" Josh asked.
They all looked around, the drive was on that table.
"That's not good." James said as they still couldn't find the table in sight.
"And what about Cody?" Kristen asked, almost ready to bawl.
"Now Kristen, the curse is reacting again. Your getting a little sensitive, we will find a way no need to worry." He said, trying to calm her down.
"What does the curse do?" She asked, changing to that subject suddenly.
James took a deep breath, the foggy air from his breathing thicker than usual.
"The Hooded Man's curse is a curse that makes there victim feel depressed, angry, and miserable, when the hooded man was just recently by you or he is close by you you start turning insane like last night. There are only thirteen in the entire universe and two of which are twin brothers. They both are identical, so they dress up as the hooded man and they both have that same name. When one of them shows up, you never know who is who. The only way to know is, one of them can cause your dreams that actually happen in the present, and the other can only show you dreams of what is supposed to happen. The dream you had the other night was from the eldest twin."
"Now how do you know I had that dream?"
"I've been following you ever since you had that dream." He said, feeling no guilt about it.
"So you've been spying on me and Josh!?" She shouted, a little louder than intended to.
"Yah, and I saved your life."
Kristen's face was turning red, not because of the icy prickles hitting it, but because of anger suddenly swelling up inside her.
"WHY YOU ARE A BAD PERSON, YOU BROUGHT US HERE TO DIE DIDN'T YOU!!!!!!!!! YOU KNOCKED ME OUT FOR YOUR OWN ENJOYMENT AND WE ENDED UP HERE IN THIS STUPID ICY WORLD!!!!" She screamed, her face turning purple in anger.
"Kristen calm down." He said, trying to keep calm himself.
"WHY SHOULD I LISTEN TO YOU, YOU SENT US HERE, and don't you go blaming on anything!!!!"
Josh had tried to slide over a little, trying to keep his distance as far away from the bellowing girl close by.
"Kristen please-"
"I HARDLY EVEN KNOW YOU EXCEPT FOR YOUR NAME JAMES BLUNT!!!!!"
"I have already told you that you will get to know me more soon."
"WELL I HAVE KNOWN YOU FOR PLENTY OF HOURS AND YOU HAVE SAID NOTHING I TELL YOU NOTHING!!!!!"
Even Cody was looking up to see all of the racket, and shook his head as he thought he saw smoke come out of her ears. Josh slid a little closer to Kristen by having a little confidence and softly patter her on the shoulder with his frozen hand. Kristen jerked her head toward Josh in anger.
"WHAT DO YOU WANT!!!!!" She snapped at Josh.
The confidence growing inside Josh started fading once again as he heard one of his most trusted friends scream at him. He took a deep breath and scooted a bit closer, using up as much of his confidence as he could.
"K-Kristen, you need to calm down-""
"STOP GIVING ME ORDERS JOSHUA, YOU ARE NOT INVOLVED!!!!!!!" Josh backed away a bit.
She then turned her head sharply back to James, who's teeth were starting to chatter.
"STOP YOUR HIDING JAMES, I ALREADY KNOW!!!!!" Suddenly she started crying. She wiped a tear from the back of her wrist that wasn't holding on to the knife. She than started bawling, tears trying to spur out in the freezing cold. James tried not to get any tears falling him, to prevent from feeling colder from little drops of water. He had rolled up his button up shirt and Josh had cuddled next to him trying to keep warm, but Kristen remained where she was in tears.
Cody felt like his hands were now frozen against the chunk of ice, he couldn't move his arms much. He knew swaying back and forth would be useless having nowhere to sway unto. Goosebumps were already pretty large on his arms, and his teeth were chattering so fast he felt like his teeth would fall out, or his jaw would fall off. Though the air wasn't getting any colder or warmer it felt colder being out there for so long. Most of their bodies were numb head to toe.
"Kristen, it's alright. You don't need to cry." James tried to sooth Kristen.
"STOP, STOP? WHY SHOULD I STOP BY THE ORDERS FROM YOU!!!!!!!!!" She shrieked.
Kristen suddenly starting hitting James, James was trying to warn her not to let go of the knife. She continued hitting and then let go of the knife to hit with the other hand. But that was the wrong choice, James thought fast and quickly tried to grab hold of Kristen but she was sliding too fast.
"CODY, Kristen's coming your way!" James hollered over to Cody.
But it was even too fast for Cody, he tried to grasp her with his numb hands and barely missed her. Kristen began screaming all the way down to the never ending slope, none of them knew exactly where it ended and what was at the bottom.
"I lost her!!!" Cody cried, trying to stay calm.
Josh hit his head against Jame's shoulder, sad that he never caught her.
"She will be okay, she is a strong girl." James said.
"Well not with that curse she isn't." Josh replied with a grunt.
James sighed and then started to realized something.
"Josh, don't you have that pocket knife?" he wondered.
"Yah, but I never really though about pulling it out." Josh said.
James made a joyful grin.
"Pull it out then, I have a plan."
Josh held tightly against James's back as he moved down the ice towards Cody using both of the knives. When they approached Cody, he was near of releasing. James grabbed Cody, who couldn't move much and didn't have the strength to hold on as tightly as Josh or James. Though this made it a lot harder to James, he still continued grunting trying to move sideways.
"Where are we going?" Josh asked.
"There is lots of fog here, but every once in a while you can see a gap in the fog and see things up ahead. I was watching the fog carefully and spotted a half a glimpse of snow where we can actually walk." He said as the wind began to pick up.
"Brilliant, how far is it?!" Josh hollered in the wind.
"Not far, just hold on tightly!" He said, increasing his pace towards the direction he was heading.
Josh held on around his neck with one arm tightly, while the other wrapped around Cody who had turned purple in cold. He made sure Cody kept cuddled close to him, hoping for him to warm up. James began to slow down again as his way towards the snow got harder and harder as he was losing his strength.
"All.... most... there." He said through gritted teeth.
They could now see the snow up ahead just ten feet away. Though it seemed a lot further than you think, a single yard was indeed very difficult. James's veins on his forehead were showing so much is seemed like they would pop out. He clenched his teeth, and his eyes were focused hard against the snow up ahead.
"Just... one......... more."
He took his last stick into the ice and he got onto the snow helping the other boys. The snow didn't feel so much better, but it was ground that you could stand on. James sighed of relief and stood up. He bent down, putting his hands on his knees, catching his breath.
"The air is thin here." He said, panting hard.
It was then when James started to see a light up ahead. He started whistling through his frozen, dry lips and hollering as loud as he could. Minutes later and the light came towards them. It was an elderly man who looked like a mixture of an Eskimo and a Russian. He was holding a lamp that had a cover over it so the fire wouldn't burn out. When he saw Cody on the ground nearly frozen, he pulled off his coat and wrapped it around him. James picked him up and the man led them to the nearest village where he lived.
He in fact had to go through a tunnel in a glacier to get to the village. The village was actually within a bowl of glaciers. The huts in the village were half some kind of brick and the other half was like a Tipi. The man led them inside the nearest one where there were two children playing some kind of game with two black cubes.
"These are my two grandchildren Tika and Tigerton." He introduced.
Tika looked about four years old and Tigerton looked about three. They looked happy in the warm hut. Though there was no fire inside, not even a pit.
"My apologies for no fire, today is in fact a very warm day for us. We see that you three are foreigners here. "
"There was four of us." Josh blurted out.
"I'm sorry about that, I will make a quick little fire and you can lay the boy down on the warm bed. And make sure he has lots of blankets over him." James nodded and placed Cody on the bed the man pointed at and laid all of the blankets over him. He offered Josh one and himself and they sat by the fire the old man had made.
"My name is Mrtsa, men, and yours?"
"Josh"
"James, and that is Cody." He pointed at Cody in the bed.
The man nodded.
"Well make yourself at home men, You are welcome to stay here as long as you like."
"Thank you." James replied with a grateful but sad smile.
Chapter 3- Tika and Tikardra
Kristen felt something warm and sweet go down her throat, though it felt like it went down the wrong pipe. She coughed up the liquid and she opened her eyes. She quickly sat up, trying to get rid of the cough and finally is stopped. A woman was sitting next to her, holding a bowl of some hot substance. The woman was very beautiful with long, golden brown hair, and soft hazel eyes. She had long, elegant fingers and a very slim body, she seemed beyond beautiful.
"W-who are y-you." Kristen choked, it sounded like she nearly drowned and she was trying to talk again.
"My name is Tikardra." She said in a low and soothing voice.
"T-that's a-a beau-utiful n-name." She said.
Tikardra put her sllim finger on her lips silencing her.
"You don't need to speak Kristen, you are still trying to recover."
Kristen nodded, understanding what she meant. Though she couldn't remember how she ended up here, all she remembered was holding on tightly to James's knife. Another thought then came to mind when she realized that neither Cody, Josh, or James were there inside the room. Why did she keep on passing out, what was going on exactly? Then she also wanted to ask how Tikardra knew her name, but she kept her mouth shut.
"I understand the fact that you wonder how I know you and you don't know me. I have known you for sixteen years without you realizing it."
"B-but how?" Kristen couldn't help but say, and Tikardra didn't stop her from speaking this time.
"You probably don't remember, but you slid down a icy slope for miles without end and many who has gone down that slope was killed in the bottom. Though you were somehow lucky," Tikardra pulled out a chain necklace with a blue, raindrop shaped gem out from beside her. "I was about to try out this necklace after finding it on the ice not long before and so I spun it. The portal had opened and I was tempted to walk through until I realized I should go grab my bag. I walked off, leaving the portal open and when I returned I found you lying on the ground in front of the portal. I decided to close the portal and I took you to my house where I could hospitalize you."
"S-so I am in t-the f-future?" She asked, still struggling.
"Yes, though I know you will return back to your friends, because I had met myself as a four year old sixteen years ago. I had met you as a four year old and I have now met you all over again as a twenty year old."
"Let's go right now." Kristen said, beginning to slip out from under the wool blankets over her.
But Tikardra gently put her hand on her shoulder to say for her to get back into the bed.
"When I found you, you were more than unconscious. You felt like you were out there for hours, you were very pale and very cold having lack of clothing to keep you warm. I also sensed something else unusual, I sensed that you had a curse upon you from a foreign planet."
"The hooded man's curse." Kristen said softly, staring through Tikardra.
"The hooded man's curse?" She asked, fear suddenly growing in her eyes.
Kristen nodded.
"That is a terrible curse, we have to get it out of you." She cried, looking around for anything to help.
"But how do we get it out of me?"
Tikardra was rummaging through a hope chest nearby. She then pulled out a small mustard yellow bottle with a cork stuck in the top. She came back to Kristen, uncorking the bottle.
"Am I going to have to drink that?" She asked.
"No of course not."
Tikardra dumped the thick, mustard yellow liquid into a pot and started adding what looked like random herbs from her cupboards. She mixed the herbs with the substance in the small pot and then placed the pot over the fire to heat up. Kristen wanted to lie back down, but she watched the pot boil in curiosity wondering exactly she was doing.
Tikardra grabbed a oven mitten and picked up the pot. She then approached Kristen with a big smile on her face.
"I need you to inhale this, don't worry it doesn't smell bad." She said.
Kristen sat up and she put the steaming pot under her nose. Kristen took a deep breath through her nose, smelling a sweet herb smell go up her nostrils. Tikardra moved the pot away and Kristen took a deep breath of relaxation.
"What was that?" She asked.
"It was to help you overcome your curse, it doesn't get rid of it completely but it helps you feel stronger to get rid of it. The curse can only be demolished if you yourself overpowers it and it will never return to you again. Three days ago you couldn't overcome that curse probably because you didn't know how."
"Wait, have I been here for three days?" Kristen asked.
"Yes, I'm sorry I didn't tell you." She apologized.
"So I can overpower this curse?" She repeated.
"Yes, and the herbs you inhaled is going to help you."
Tikardra put the pot back on the stove that was now burnt out and came back to Kristen.
"Rest Kristen, tomorrow we will go back to where you came from." She said.
She hadn't realized that it was night outside. Tikardra blew out the candle nearby and Kristen lied back down on the comforting bed. Falling into a dreamless sleep.
. . .
They had been staying in the village for four days now. Cody, James and Josh kept themselves buisy as they played with Mrtsa's two grandchildren. Tika was very wise being so young and Tiger was near to her level. James felt like a daddy again as he laughed and played with Tiger. But Tika remained behind next to Josh and Cody who just watched.
She was watching with them for quite a while until she suddenly grabbed Cody's finger. Cody looked down at her, wondering what she wanted.
"Come with me, I want to show you something." She said in a quite tone.
Cody and Josh followed her out of the village and through the tunnel in the glacier. It wasn't as foggy as a few days ago and they could see the ice up ahead as clearly as they saw the sun. It seemed somewhat warmer that day, and it was a nice day to take a walk.
Tika led them down the snowy hill and then let go of Cody's hand. Before they knew it, Tika had disappeared inside a cave in the glaciers. They quickened there pace as her little legs led them farther and farther down the deep cave.
The cave gave a light blue glow being just ice, but as they went further and further down in the cave it started to darken. They could no longer see the mouth of the cave behind them, and soon there was no more light. Suddenly a small candle was lit and they could see Tika's small, elegant face. She just stood there, not uttering a single word to them.
"What are we doing here?" Cody asked her.
But Tika had rushed over to Cody and put a finger over his lips.
"You don't need to speak Cody, we need to stay calm and be quiet to not wake up the polar bats." She said in a hushed voice.
Cody smiled at her, and kept his mouth shut. Hoping to ask her as soon as they leave the cave again. What both Cody and Josh didn't understand was, why did they bring them in here? They waited for quite a few minutes, making it awkward for the two boys. They both sat down and waited, unsure really what they are waiting for. Tika remained standing, keeping her eyes towards the mouth of the cave so far away.
Suddenly, there was a small sound of what sounded like footsteps. Cody and Josh both stood up, wondering whom those footsteps belonged to. Two figures came to view fifty feet away from them, one was a very beautiful and tall woman and another one was a teenage girl about fourteen years old. Tika smiled as she saw the woman and ran over to gave her a hug. Kristen ran over to the boys.
"Kristen your alive!" The boys said in unison.
But they both had said it pretty loud because there started to get an extra noise.
"I warned you." Tika said.
But Tikardra had pulled out a strong bow and arrow from her back and was ready to shoot as soon as a polar bat came into view.
"I knew this would happen." Tikardra said, her eyes focused hard up high.
"Well, you are me in the future. You were expecting this to happen." Tika reminded.
They all stood there, waiting for them to come out. Then suddenly the loud noise of the bats awakening suddenly stopped and it went silent. Tikardra remained waiting with her bow and arrow waiting. Suddenly, a huge swarm of grey and white bats suddenly came from above. There was hundreds of them, beginning to swarm around them, screeching and threatening. Tikardra was shooting arrows at bats one by one, constantly grabbing another arrow and shooting.
She continued shooting until she had only one left.
"I don't remember having this many bats." Tikardra said, sighing heavily as she glanced at her last arrow.
They were surrounded by a huge mass of bats and they couldn't do anything about it. James was not there to use his weapons and the rest of them were not armed but Tikardra who had only one arrow left. They stood there, not able to run two miles back to the mouth of the cave or run further into the cave, nor move towards the walls.
The bats screeched in there ears, the noise echoing throughout the cave.
"CODY YOU NEED TO TELEPORT US OUT NOW!!!!!!" Tikardra shouted, her face red in anger.
Cody reached into his pocket and realized he didn't have the drive with him, in fact it was probably at the bottom of the slow lost forever. After Tikardra noticed that, she then remembered something and pulled something out of her own pocket. She had a drive exactly like Cody's, but the blue was more faded.
"THIS IS YOURS!!!" Tikardra said, placing the drive in his hand.
"THIS LOOKS OLDER THAN MINE!!!!" Cody hollered back.
"I found this when I was six while sledding on the bottom of the slope. I knew it was yours after realizing it looked exactly like the one when I was four." She said.
Cody observed the drive, and smiled, it really was his drive. He opened up the computer and started programming as fast as he could. He then closed it up and looked around, wondering what to put the drive on or in.
"What do I use?" He asked the others.
Tikardra pulled off one of her boots and handed it to him.
"Here, I am local here so it works." She said.
Cody placed the drive in and soon they were out of the cave and back in the village. It seemed like James didn't even noticed they were gone, they were still playing out in front of Tika's house. Tika and her older self talked for quite a while about things they couldn't hear and Josh, Cody, and Kristen rejoined James.
"I have always wondered what a time vortex would do." Cody said, looking back at the two laughing girls ten feet away.
"So if Tika meets herself in the future, I am guessing she is expecting more things to happen after that. Because I bet the older Tika is telling her what she is expecting in the future and what she should do when the younger Tika grows up and does what the older Tika is doing now.... if that made any sense to you guys." Josh said, after seeing there faces.
"It makes perfect sense Josh." James said behind him.
"Yah, I was just trying to put it all together... Hey I just realized we are exploring without even my tracker or my backpack with me" Kristen mentioned.
"I know Kristen, but we can't go back. It is too dangerous, we are just going to have to go through this without backup stuff. We can't stay here much longer anyway, for we don't want to get too adjusted to this temperature and choose to live here. So, Cody go ahead and set us up to another destination." James said.
Cody started his normal programming and then asked for something to put it in from one of the Tika's. The younger Tika gave him a hand carved bowl from her hut and he dropped it inside it. Then they were off, to yet be another planet that the drive messed up on.
Chapter 4- Likkychappaddappadose
"Bow down to him, our great and powerful leader. Oh the greatest sorcerer in all the land, the one who hast created us in your form. Our leader we shall praise and glorify for his works, and we have kept thou promise of prayer to you. You are our friend, our brother, our leader, our king. We bow down to you when we use our power, we cry up to you when we hast broken a commandment you hast made for us all, we praise you when we made you happy, and we cheer for you when a miracle was put upon us. We bless you, we bless you, we bless you for our blessings. We pray unto you for trust and iniquity, keep us in your presences oh powerful leader upon high." The villagers praised in unison.
They were all down on there knees, there hands spread out above there heads with there body's against the ground. For they all spake English, having come from the English many centuries ago when no local man knew about even thinking of technology. They had left in secret, taking an ancient teleportation goblet that now lay on an alter in there church. But just after they had their prayer to the god, a man had set up another alter and placed a blue USB drive upon it. He turned back to the villagers and put his hand up to silence them.
"Our sacred goblet is not alone, for this (He pointed at the drive) does but the same thing. We shall praise our two sacred artifacts and keep both of them from harms way." He cried to them.
The villagers started cheering until the man stopped them again.
"Though we have got this from three children and a man who used this artifact with the lack of caring for it. For they used it more than it can bare and they shall receive the consequences of using this precious gift so immaturely. You shall now all pray for this, and I will proceed with my duties." He said.
The villagers continued praying and the man walked off of the shrine. He in fact left the building and walked across the sunny village until he got to a grey stone building at the end of the street. He entered the building and he could smell a distinct rotting smell go up his nostrils and could see a room so full of dust it had more than one coat of it. A woman in armor stood by a large door to another room armed with a rifle.
"Yes sir?" She asked.
"Let me see them." He ordered the woman.
The woman nodded and opened the door, allowing him in. Inside were four people chained to the wall, three of them teenagers and one a man in his mid thirties. The man closed the door and stood there by it, watching the depressed faces of the four prisoners.
"Foolish." Was his first words he said to them.
"Why is that Drailin, for even you have stolen an artifact before?" James spat.
The other three looked at each other, wondering how James knew about Drailin
"I did it for a good cause, for you have used that artifact the wrong way and without no specific cause!" Drailin roared.
"We have our reasons Drailin, you just no none of it."
"Then why haven't you told me of them yet?" He said sourly.
"Because we don't trust you Drailin. I thought of you as a friend and tried to help you cure your daughter and you did just because of that goblet, and now to pay me back you lock us up!"
"I'LL HAVE NONE OF THAT JAMES, for my daughter died just days after you left and I can never pay that price back!" Drailin bellowed.
"Because you didn't use it properly. I gave you instructions."
"And I read every bit of it."
"Did you remember the fly weed?"
"yes."
"Poctractican juice?"
"Certainly."
"Four Eloc legs?"
"Of course."
"What about the... Likkychappaddappadose?"
There was a long pause. Drailin stood there, looking up at the ceiling trying to remember.
"No." He said quickly staring down at his brown dress shoes.
"Without the Likkychappaddappadose, nothing will work."
"WELL IT'S TOO LATE NOW!!!!!!!!!!" He bellowed.
James looked at him, his face showing no expression.
"No it isn't." James struggled to reach into his pocket and was able to slip out a chain necklace with a light blue, raindrop shaped gem dangling from it.
"This is a portal that goes sixteen years in the past, and exactly sixteen years ago your daughter had died. We can change your past."
"But won't that create a major time vortex?" Cody barged in there conversation.
"It may be our only hope." James said, mostly to Drailin.
Drailin stood there speechless, not sure how to respond to this.
"But if I help you get your daughter back and she lives, you need to give us back the drive and let us free."
Drailin thought for another long time and then looked back up at James.
"You will pay for this if this fails." He grumbled, rushing over to unlock James.
"What about us?" Cody asked.
"I will return back to you after I do this." James said and him and Drailin left the cell.
Drailin suggested that they bring Chiarra, the girl who was guarding the cell. James agreed, and spun the necklace around, it creating the portal through time. The three of them looked through to find the same exact room, but looking somewhat newer. James was the first to enter and the other two followed behind. He then snatched the spinning necklace and the portal closed. They were definitely in the same room, but it felt sixteen years newer than it was then.
"Okay, show us where your daughter is." James said, opening the wood door to outside.
Drailin nodded and they followed him out. He went down the street and then approached a small cottage. The cottage had a very thick layer of woven straw as a roof, the walls of it was made of clay and a little bit of stone, and the door was just made from a large chunk of bark from some sort of tree.
Drailin slowly opened the door and burst into tears as he saw his daughter again. His daughter lied in her bed, her face pale and her hair ratted. She was wrapped tightly in layers of blankets, and she looked sad and very ill. When Drailing approached her, she slowly opened her eyes and smiled as she saw him. He moved the hair sticking from her forehead, and kissed her there. She didn't speak, though looking at her face she wanted to.
"I'm back Ethel, I came back to get you."
Ethel still didn't speak, being too ill to utter a word. Drailin then turned to Chiarra and James.
"I must be out on an errand to get some medicines, because today you were supposed to be gone a couple of days before."
Drailin then walked back over to them, and in a hushed tone so she wouldn't hear he said:
"I'm sorry I have lied to you." He said.
"What do you mean?" James asked.
"Because when I said she was dead I really didn't know, because she had vanished when I came home. I had thought that she had died and the gods gave her back, but I just realized it was not that. I want to take you back to our time and cure her there."
"But didn't you want time to change?"
"Yes, but it has already. If I changed it we won't even be here anymore, for if I cured her here than things are going to get messed up. I AM going to bring her back to our time." he said.
James and Chiarra could not decline that. They both nodded and let Drailin do what he has to do. Drailin kept the blankets wrapped tightly around his daughter and James started the portal again. They then entered back in there time in the same cottage, but it looked a lot older. The cottage was now old and rotten, everything looked unclean and the roof was starting to fall off. Drailin placed her on his bed, which was in the far corner.
"We still need that Likkychappaddappadose, but I don't know where to find it." Drailin told the others.
James opened the door to the cottage (Which was now splitting apart).
"Stay here Drailin, and me and Chiarra will go out towards the Crantananium Forest to find the Likkychappaddappadose."
"But do you even know where it is?" He asked.
"Yes and no, but me and Chiarra will work as quickly as possible."
Drailin nodded in agreement and pulled up a chair to sit next to Ethel.
"Well get going then!!!"
James and Chiarra then set off out of town on foot, unable to get Cody, Josh or Kristen out of imprisonment. The forest was about twn miles away and indeed a challenge. They knew they had to walk quickly and try to find as much information about where the Likkychappaddappadose.
"The forest is a dangerous place to travel, our village has a lot of enemies, so we need ot travel armed and ready." Chiarra told James as they set out of the village.
Chiarra was a very buff woman, she was armed with many knives and swords, and her blond hair was messily made into a pixie cut. You could see no girly personalities within her, but you could see that she had girl power. Ahead of them was miles of desert, so they had to take this quickly and prepared. Chiarra stopped him and quickly rushed back into the village, just minutes later she returned with an entire canteen full of water.
"That was quick."
"Girls normally take there time, the reason why you find girls come late is because they have to maybe check if they looked alright or if they are not forgetting anything. I am not one of those, I knew exactly what I was getting for there is nothing else I needed to get." She said, buckling the canteen to her leather belt. She pointed agead and they moved on towards the desert.
The ground was cracked and small cacti were scattered across the valley. James looked back and around him, wondering how long and how miserable this trip is going to be. As for Chiarra, she looked straight ahead, her worries behind her back at the village. Three hours later and Chiarra still continued towards the mountains without hesitation, and James staggered a bit behind her.
Finally, Chiarra pulled out her still full canteen and tossed it back for James to take a drink. He gulped it down gratefully and rushed over to her to hand it back. The mountains were closer but it still seemed a long ways away. The evening heat cooled it a couple of degrees and it was now down to the eighties in Fahrenheit.
When night fell, they were just getting to the mountains.
"Are you sure you were completely prepared?" James said, sitting down on a rock poking out of the mountainside for a rest, and realizing that neither of them brought food. Chiarra pulled out her knife and twirled it in her fingers, catching the handle smoothly.
"Now I thought that was just a trick you find in the movies." He teased, but Chiarra gave him a confused look, having no clue of what he was talking about.
"Anyway," He said.
Then something else accured to him, realizing that Chiarra hadn't spoken to him since they were back at the village.
"Do you speak English?" He asked, knowing that Cody's drive can automaticly translate things in a range of thirty miles.
"Yes, I speak English James. I may be from a different world but we originated from Earth. My ancestors lived on the only land on there, Pangea. Of course that is what your scientists call it, we never named it anything but the land. There were only but a couple of languages at the time and the languages have evolved to many. What you call English is one of those first languages we spoke. It was just years later when one of your biblical stories evolved, the story of Noah warning us of the great flood. My ancestors never got a chance to come with Noah on the ark, we were too far from the main villages. Then when the rumor was spread my family pulled out what they most cherished. The goblet portal, so they took it and they ended up on this planet here. Here I am now, a girl that is originally from Earth.
"Though my people don't praise the god that made that flood to drown the evil. For a long while they thought they were very righteous until one son started teaching false docterines to us. It is now that the entire village praises but the goblet instead of the real god, I am the only one left that is still faithful of the real god. My parents were very good people and helped me keep that. So now Earth has changed has it not?" She asked
"Yes, in fact it has changed quite a bit since then." James said.
Chiarra made a smile, which was the very first time James had ever seen her smile like that. She looked up at the forest a couple of miles up the mountain and then looked back over at James.
"We rest here tonight, tomorrow we set up towards the forest and claim what we need."
And they settled themselves in a simple camp and rested for the night.
James was first to wake up and start going, he knew Chiarra would eventually wake up and come after him. Apparently, she woke up just minutes later, quickly packed up and followed behind. Soon she was once again in the lead. It was another days trip hiking up the steep and forested mountain. There was no sign of the Likkichappaddappadose, and no sign of any other life.
When night fell once again James noticed an unusual plant nearby. He ran over to it and plucked a couple of leaves from it.
"We have found it, we found what we needed!" James hollered.
Chiarra came over and observed it.
"Yes, this is definitely the Likkichappaddappadose. We need to quickly return this to my village, we have to now."
"It's late, we should-"
"No time, I swore to him to return as quickly as possible once we found it. We need to go." She snapped.
James opened his mouth, then closed it as if he meant to say something but didn't know how to phrase it. He nodded and they headed back down the mountain. He was already tired, it being maybe midnight or even later, but he had to stay awake and move on.
Going down the mountain was a lot quicker, though many times James or even Chiarra would trip over a rock and have to quickly catch themselves. Then, while they were challenging through a path of loose rocks, Chiarra stumbled and fell. She began rolling down the hill, screaming, and crying for help as she vanished in the tree's.
James slid down the slope and followed the path she had rolled down, Chiarra was against a large tree knocked out. She had many scratches over her body and her head was bleeding from hitting the tree so hard. It was maybe around three o'clock in the morning and it was still dark. James quickly built up a fire and waited by it until Chiarra woke up. It wasn't just a minor fall, he didn't know if she broke a bone or sprained anything yet, but he will have to ask as soon as she wakes up.
About two hours later James heard her move slightly. He had nearly fallen asleep, he was lying on the ground waiting. He sat up and Chiarra opened her eyes.
"What happened?" She asked, trying to get up.
James gently pushed her back down.
"You rolled down the mountain side, we need to-"
"We needed to continue James, we are falling behind!" She yelled.
James made a heavy sigh.
"You were badly injured Chiarra, what hurts?" He asked.
Chiarra sat up.
"Well, my left leg is throbbing like crazy, but I don't think anything it broken." She responded.
James carefully pulled up her pants to find a wide gash all the way up her leg, he hadn't noticed it before. Plus, being night was difficult to find all her injuries.
"This needs to be wrapped up." James said.
Chiarra pulled off her worn cape and ripped it up. She then handed it to James to wrap it up. Without hesitating, James quickly wrapped the cloth around her leg.
"We have to get going now, before it gets any later." She snapped.
Chiarra tried to get up, but her leg prevented her from standing.
"I can help you." He said.
"No, I am okay." She said, wincing in pain.
She stedied herself with the tree and was able to stand up. But only for a few seconds before her leg gave in and James caught her.
"Alright, but if you need a break I can go on my own." She said, wrapped her arm around his shoulder.
James nodded. He quickly burnt out the fire and guided Chiarra down the rest of the mountain.
Daylight started streaming now and they finally finished going down the steep mountain and were back in the desert. It was much more difficult to walk this time, with James carrying Chiarra and both of them tired and exaugsted. The Likkichappaddappadose was stuffed in one of Chiarra's pouches, so they were ready to return it.
After about and hour of traveling through the desert Chiarra suddenly release his shoulder and fell on the ground. They both were hot and sweaty, but Chiarra, being already weak was starting to fade away. Her eyes were rolling back and her head swayed back and forth. James bent down and pulled the water pouch from her belt. He quickly opened the cap.
"You need some water." He said.
Chiarra opened her mouth and he poured the water in her mouth. The water went painfully down her dry throat, but she still seemed the same as she was before she had the water. For a long while, they rested there waiting for the right time to continue. James then knew it was time to get going, he scooped her up and he carried her onward. She felt somewhat heavier, but he continued anyway. The village wasn't for another few miles. He clumsily walked onward, his feet easily tripping over small rocks and garbage.
About a mile through and James sat down to take a rest. He offered himself a bit of water and gave Chiarra a few gulps. They had to save this water throughout the journey. For another few minutes he waited until he could be able to get moving again, Chiarra had long passed out and was looking pale and very ill.
James finally was able to get back up, and he moved on with Chiarra in his arms. When mid afternoon started to come in, he spotted the village about a mile away. He nearly jumped for joy, but he had many reasons why it wouldn't be a good idea to do so. About twenty minutes later and he walked down the streets of the village.
He was glad that the entire trip he had never even met a single enemy, but why? He and Chiarra had trials and had indeed a hard time on this journey, but why no other signs of life but themselves this entire time? He walked over to Drailin's house and opened the door without knocking. He was holding the bag of leaves for him, but as he entered the house he could finally have a break. Instead of sitting down for a rest, he passed out on the ground, Chiarra sprawled next to him and the bag of leaves scattered across the floor.
Chapter 5- Poklley and Parkison
Ethel was now healthy as could be, both Chiarra and James and heat stroke and Drailing tried his best to treat them. He release Cody, Josh, and Kristen from their cells and were now in his house waiting for James to get better. Chiarra was the worst, she was badly injured and none of them knew why except for James of course. But James could not tell them the story in the position he was in.
They stayed there for quite a few days until one day James was able to get out of bed. The next day both James and Chiarra were feeling better, though Chiarra still was healing from her deep wounds. All three of them wanted to go home, having enough of this place, James agreed on it. So Cody quickly set up and they said there good byes to the others.
Cody ran across the courtyard, darting as fast as his legs could carry. He kept on looking back and speeding up faster and faster and then disappeared within the open doors of the building. Meanwhile, Kristen came screaming through a vast ballroom with checker boarded tiles across it. She darted up the stairs of where a throne and two fancy chairs sat and ran into the door that was behind that.
During that same time, Joshua and James came running up stairs into the bell tower. Josh grabbed into the giant rope and began pulling it with all his weight and with Jame's help to ring it. The booming ring of the bell, vibrated the tower causing both of them to fall over on the ground grasping tightly around there ears. The bell stopped and they sighed of relief.
The area around went silent once again, as it did just half an hour ago. When they first got here, they had ran into a large kingdom completely abandoned. As they wandered the castle James had claimed that he heard something. At first none of them believed him, until they heard it also.
"Just hold on, I think there is more than one." James whispered to the others.
They had clumped together, being armed with whatever they could find. James held his knife which he always had, Cody had his drive, Kristen had a stick she pulled off from a dead bush, and Josh had an abandoned rake someone had left in the courtyard. They stood in the circle, looking out and watching closely in every corner.
Though they didn't look up. A blurry rush of black swooped through a hallway, then another one clearly identical if not the same one pass through another hall across the other side of the courtyard. The hairs stood on their ends as they stood there clumped together unaware of who is around.
Suddenly, a shrill whistling sound filled the air and a hooded figure stood in front of Cody. Then another whistle and a second hooded figure stood in front of Kristen on the other side of the circle. The two hooded men came closer to them, and they couldn't back away or move forward with them. They both had their fists clenched, but no electricity would come out.
Then Cody broke into a run, he darted across the courtyard with one of the hooded men chasing after him. While he ran Kristen went for a run the other way, she ran into the castle and ended up darting across checker boarded tiles in a ballroom and ran into the throne room. The second hooded man chased after.
Josh and James were now left without anything chasing or looking them in the eyes. They both ran towards the bell tower, for maybe their should at least be a few people still here. The place didn't look like it was abandoned for years, nor for even a couple of months. It must have been just recent like in the last week, or if not just yesterday.
They came back down the stairs and when they opened the door from the bell tower both of the hooded men were standing there in front of them. They both popped their knuckles and came up closer. James had already closed the door, so they were as if bolted against the door unable to move anywhere else.
"Come on, shoot us already with your electricity." Josh told them.
They didn't respond. James asked them this time, but in different words. They still didn't respond. James then took a step forward.
"You aren't the hooded men." He confessed.
They didn't respond.
"Show yourselves!" He barked.
They both put their heads down. James walked up to them and pulled the black hoods from both of them. They were definitely twins, identical even. They both had very red hair and dozens of freckles that covered there faces, they both had very green eyes and seemed clearly in their sixteens.
"You should be ashamed of yourselves, scaring off people who are unfamiliar of these grounds. You are putting yourselves in danger dressing like the hooded men!" He snapped, he was acting like a father yelling at his two trouble making sons.
"We were just having a little fun." One of them said.
"Well, you need to be careful of what you do with your actions and you need to think outside of the box whenever you want to do something like this. Now tell me your names."
"Why, so you can tell our parents about it?" The other one asked.
"I don't know your parents and I don't want to see them, I just want to know your names."
"Parkison." The one on the right said.
"Poklley." The other one said.
"Well Poklley and Parkison-" But he was cut off from Parkison.
"I prefer Parky and he prefers Pokky, sir. "
Pokkly nudged him in the side and Parky moved out of the way.
"No sir, I prefer Poklley, Parky just likes to call me that because he is my stupid twin brother that pushes me around to do stuff I don't want to do." Pokkly said, glaring at his brother.
"Alright then, now that you two has scared off half of our group, your going to help us find them." He explained, his hands on his hips.
They both had their heads down and they both nodded in agreement.
"Good." James then grabbed their arms and led them out of the hallway. Then he released them and they followed obediently to find Kristen and Cody. Kristen was easy to find, she was still in the closet in the back of the throne room, her body leaned hard against the corner of the wall, holding her stick threateningly as they found her.
"It's okay Kristen, they were just a bunch of teenagers." James said, trying to get her to stand up.
"Is that them?" She asked.
"Yes Kristen, this is Poklley and this is Parkison." He said, pointing at the two boys.
"Parky." He corrected.
James sighed, and turned to him.
"Well I prefer Parkison, it demonstrates you better that way." He said.
Parkison rolled his eyes, but didn't make any comment. Kristen then got up and followed them out of the ballroom.
"Now I wonder why Cody went for a run for it but not Josh. Aren't they mostly after you?" Kristen asked the others, but mostly Josh.
"Maybe Cody was stupid enough to think they were real." Josh responded.
Kristen gave him a hard jab in the stomach with her elbow.
"You knew about this?" James asked.
"Well yah, but I knew you would eventually catch on. I knew ever since I saw them whip by through the hallways, and I thought it would be fun to play poker face for a while." He said with a smile.
"You did a pretty good job at Poker face then." James said, grinning back at him.
Josh nodded feeling proud of his realistic poker face. James then turned to the twins again.
"Where's your family?"
"They left us," Pokkley replied with grief.
"Where are they now?" He asked.
"Donno, something attacked the planet causing everybody to evacuate to a different planet. We were not warned because we were in the mines alone." Parkison shrugged his shoulders.
"Why were you in the mines?" Cody asked.
"We were just..." Pokkley said in a guilty tone, and he rubbed the back of his neck, "goofin' around a bit."
"Then we better go find your family then." James said, giving them both a hard pat on the shoulders.
"You know about the masked figures, maybe we should-" Parkison whispered but was interupted by his paranoid brother.
"Shut up Parky, you know we can't talk about it in these areas and esspecially in public!"
James, Kristen, Josh, and Cody were now all looking at them. They had just left to another planet and were sitting in the waiting area of the mayors house, hoping the mayor would tell them of anything of a group of people from a different planet coming to this one.
The waiting room had immaculate walls of ember and gold designs on the walls. The floorboard looked hand carved and the carpet was made of some material that none of them had ever seen before. As they waited a while, a woman in a denim skirt, a long red scarf, and a blouse came into the waiting room.
"Hello, are you the people that needed to meet me?" She asked.
"Yes..." James said, trying to find out by all she said if she was mayor or just an assistant,"Are your the.... mayor?"
"Why certainly, come with me." She said with a large white smile.
They followed her to her office and sat down at purple seats that were lined up against the walls. The Mayor sat down at her desk and her already cheesy smile grew.
"Hello, I am mayor Grown, how can I help all of you?" She asked.
"We are looking for a group of people who evacuated a planet nearby, we are wondering if they ended up close from here." James said.
"Hmmm," She responded with a disappointed tone, "I'm afraid nobody has visited from a different planet for a few years now, but I'm sure I can help you look."
"We are good, we have enough here to look. We just needed to know thank you." James then stood up, ready to leave now.
"Wait a second, even though they are not here I think I may know where they are." She tried.
"We will find them okay,"
"No really, I think I know where they are. I just need to come with you."
"Now we don't really know you very well Mrs. Mayor, this may feel a little odd for us."
"Oh please, I have never traveled by teleportation before." She pleaded, it was like she was acting like a child wanting to go on a ride at a fair.
James gave a light sigh, looking up at the red ceiling. When he looked back at Mayor Grown she was looking at him with a pleading puppy dog look on her face.
"Now that is pretty childish for a mature mayor."
"But I really want to go." She cried, jumping up and down on her chair. Now it seemed she was acting like a teenager wanting to go somewhere with her boyfriend.
"Okay, that is enough for a woman like you, this won't help you come along."
Suddenly, she sat still, placed her arms reverently on the table and made a simple smile on her face.
"Is this better?" She asked.
James sighed, and looked over at the others. They shrugged there shoulders, showing that they don't really care whether she comes or not. He looked back at the mayor who was now acting like what a real mayor should act at her desk, you could see that she was trying her very best to be good.
"Are you new at this job?" He asked.
"Oh yes sir, I just started my first day yesterday." She cheered, her big smile coming back.
"That makes sense now." He said under his breath, making sure she couldn't hear him but the others could.
"So can I go with you guys?"
"What about your job as mayor-"
"Too hard."
"What about work and money-"
"Can easily find another one, I will just tell the others that I'm going out of town for a little bit for some important business."
James thought about it for another few minutes and sighed once again.
"Fine, you can go."
The mayor jumped for joy and darted towards the door.
"Well off we go then, off we go." She sung.
As they stepped back out of her office, James was starting to think that maybe this wasn't a good idea that she shouldn't come; but it was too late now.
Chapter 5- Susan Grown
"My name is Susan by the way." The mayor said as they ended up on their next planet.
"Nice name." He commented.
"Why thank you sir." She replied back in an English tone.
The others had went out to scout and James and Susan were left in the field nearby waiting for them to return back to them. None of them knew about this place and James was the only one Susan could trust and he didn't want her going out to scout. They waited there for quite a while, in fact a few hours for them to return.
But they never came. Susan had cuddled up at James' feet sleeping and James stayed standing for watch. As he watched he suddenly spotted something moving in the long grass. He squinted to see if he could spot what was over their but it didn't help much. He then saw it jump out, and before he could have a better look he was thrown to the ground by it. He could feel something biting into his shoulder, and he winced in pain. He sat up to find the creature had vanished once again.
Susan had woken up and was panting hard.
"What just happened?" She asked.
"I don't know something just..." But he stopped as Susan glanced at his bleeding shoulder.
"Your injured." She said.
Susan scooted up closer and observed the wound a bit closer.
"It's definitely a Canis Lupus familiaris, but what kind?" She asked herself aloud.
James was shocked by the big word Susan had said after the past immature experiences.
"I guess your smarter that I thought, I never call a dog after it's scientific name."
"I have been studying science ever since I was three, that was the huge reason I wanted to come actually. Because I wanted to actually use the stuff I have learned and turn it into a mini field trip."
"Well, that is very nice."
"The big reason I wanted to study science is so I can teach my children and they can teach theirs so when something happens and they need a scientists, my family can come to the rescue."
"Interesting."
Susan stopped observing his cut and looked him in the eyes.
"I knew those children weren't yours, so wheres you family?" She asked.
There was a long pause. James was beginning to feel awkward, because he never liked to share his personal past.
"They're... never mind." He looked away, not daring to share anything.
"Oh come on, it won't be that embarrassing unless..." She paused, they both knew what the other answer was.
"I don't want to talk about it right now, it's the wrong time."
Susan quickly changed the subject by looking up at the sky.
"My, my, look up their. It is getting dark we should-" But she was cut off.
"No, we can't risk sleeping with the creature lurking around." He snapped.
"Then let me get that shoulder wrapped, and we can go find a place to stay for shelter." She said, pulling off her scarf from around her neck.
She wrapped the red scarf snug around his shoulder with the shirt still on. The scarf was long enough to wrap several times. She helped him up with his good arm and they walked through the field to find shelter.
The field was large and it being dark it was hard to see what was around. The large sun up above was beginning to fade behind the valley and all was left was just the sunset. James didn't want to rest, nor did Susan. They just sat in the field, prepared for the creature to come by again.
For hours they sat there wondering when the creature was going to return, but there was nothing. Susan lied her head on his shoulder.
"So are you married?" She asked.
"Well... yah, I was." He responded, putting his head down.
"What about kids?" She asked, not noticing that it was probably the wrong time to ask.
"Susan, I really don't want to get too personal around you. I don't exactly know you quite well and these questions are coming back to me in a painful sort of way, this is really the wrong time." He said.
"I-I'm sorry, I-I just... was curious, that was all." She stuttered, looking away ashamed.
James sighed and put his arm around her shoulder. It seemed like a normal night, crickets echoed throughout the valley and the cool night air brought a gentle breeze against the long grass. There was still no signs of either the three fourteen year old teenagers, or the creature who attacked and vanished so suddenly. Soon the sounds of the night loathed the both of them to sleep and a striped, black and white tail swung out of the long grass.
The secrets are revealing, and things are changing as both Kristen and Josh learn what they really are. Cody is still looking for his dream to find the unknown galaxy, but with all of these obstacles in the way it is getting more challenging than he thought. Than a new friend came in and life just got interesting. Now Kristen is unsure which boy she really likes, for both of them are cute and both of them are kind to her. Then something else is coming in there paths, something that no one can ever forgive. Betrayal. Cody may know many people, but there are people close to him that has betrayed him without him realizing. Who has betrayed them all, and what is there scheme?
Chapter 1- James Blunt
The night was foggy and the stars stood in the sky in faint spurts. A small breeze brushed by, causing the leaves on the tree's to sway. Each window of each house in the small neighborhood were dark and they made ghostly reflections of the full moon up above. The streets were bare but a small black cat roaming around for it's late dinner. Down the street and hitting a dead end was a large white house. The house had a large, green yard and a beautiful white porch, the house had two stories and few windows, and all the windows were out except for one.
You could see two silhouettes of two people, one with long hair and the other with short making it known that it was a girl and a boy. Inside the house stood Josh and Marie, looking at each other as if they were ready to start a wrestling match as soon as the whistle went off. They circled each other, giving each other glaring looks.
"I already found out Marie, you don't need to say anything else." Josh said finally.
Marie didn't respond for a couple of seconds. Thinking of what else to say as they glanced at each other in anger.
"About what brother?" She spat.
Josh had stopped circling her and she had stopped too. They looked into each others eyes, face to face with each other.
"You know what."
"Don't test me Joshua, I never did that."
Josh folded his arms, his glare going away. He raised his eyebrows.
"Are you sure about that, I bet you are just still trying to hide yourself from the truth, Marie. The secrets gone, hiding it is useless now."
Marie than folded her arms also, looking further into his eyes.
"You want to my secret huh? Well, I guess someone who has betrayed you doesn't need to because you don't trust me anymore anyway!" She screamed.
"Well keep that mouth shut then sister. You had a plan and it was lost and now you were about to start over until I caught you red- handed!" He barked.
She unfolded her arms, clenching her fists so tightly now that her nails were leaving marks in her palm.
"Oh yah? wheres your proof!?"
"My proof is you!"
There was a long pause, Marie took a heavy sigh and sat down on the chair nearest to her. She folded her arms again, but she wasn't glaring anymore.
"Well Josh, it's no use with us living in the same house with us mortal enemies now... So I guess this is a good bye then." She said, grinning.
Suddenly, a pulse of electricity came out through two black gloved fingers and Josh passed out on the ground
. . .
Kristen's eyes snapped open. She had dozed off while reading a book about the solar system. But her dream was not a normal one, in fact it seemed so real. She saw Josh and Marie arguing over each other and the next thing she knew she saw Josh get knocked out by a hooded man. It didn't fit, what was going on between Marie and Josh? She sighed and closed the open book her head was rested on. She than got up, and came down the stairs into the basement.
Everybody was asleep except for her inside the house. Her parents, or her adopted parents didn't care much about her. In they adopted her just to raise her until she goes off on her own to find her own family, and that was a year ago. She was now fourteen and was supposed to be in eighth grade but she didn't go to school. Kristen walked into her bedroom and rested on her bed, relieved from her exhaustion.
The next day Kristen sat at the breakfast table, her chin rested on her hand, and playing with her bowl of cereal. She picked the puffs with her spoon and dropped the puffs back into the bowl,and repeated it over and over. She then felt a hand rest on her shoulder. She stopped playing with her food and looked up to find her mother.
"Hard night?" She asked, rubbing her shoulders.
Kristen nodded, going back to playing with her food.
"Do you miss them?"
"I haven't found them yet." Kristen said, not used to explaining to her mother about her real family.
"Well maybe Cody will find you again, and you can go have another adventure." She said, her mother than patted her on the same shoulder and walked off.
Kristen made a small smile to her mother and then took another scoop full of her cereal. This time, she took a bite and continued eating her breakfast. She felt drowsy being awake half of the night, she was especially miserable after the realistic dream she had. When she woke up from that dream it was nearly four o'clock in the morning. She had woken herself up around nine to eat.
She then decided maybe she should pay a visit to Josh. She put her bowl away, slipped on her shoes and walked out the door. Her mother didn't bother to ask where she was going as she passes by her through the living room. Kristen hopped on her mountain bike and rode down two neighborhood's to Josh's house. She hopped off her bike without pushing down the stopper and the bike fell over on the curb. But she didn't pay any attention to it, she just continued walking towards the white porch and in front of Josh's double doors.
She took a deep breath and knocked... no answer. She knocked again and was about to ring the doorbell until she realized that there doorbell didn't work. She knocked a few more times, positive Josh or at least someone was home. She couldn't help but see if someone was really in there, she came over to the window and peeked through. She saw two red sneakers peeking out from behind the open living room wall.
Kristen bit the bottom of her lip, wondering if she really should open the door. Before she could think about it any longer, she opened the door or his house and entered. No lights were on, making the foyer feel darker than it usually is. She walked into the living room and noticed who those two feet belonged to. Josh laid unconscious against the carpet. Kristen bent down and tapped him on the shoulder.
She was expecting him to take a little longer to wake up, but Josh woke up as soon as she tapped his shoulder. He sat up, rubbing the back of his neck. His hair looked uncombed and greasy, though he really liked his hair fluffy but not greasy or uncombed. He looked at Kristen with his light brown eyes and it looked like he wanted to smile but you could see he was sad.
"Where's Marie?" He asked, looking around the room.
Kristen shrugged her shoulders.
"What are you doing here?" He asked.
Kristen sighed and scooted back a little giving Josh some more space.
"Well... I... don't know... exactly." She said.
"Why isn't Cody with you, you said you wouldn't come here unless it was an emergency or Cody was with you."
"Well.... I don't know where Cody is."
"Than why are you here then?"
Kristen wasn't sure whether she should share what she dreamed of. She could almost see Josh confused at why she would come here just because of a dream, but she could also see him understand and try to explain what really happened. She had never had a dream come true before, and it made no sense how so far it seemed like Josh was knocked out.
"I... ah... I had a... dream about you."
"A dream?"
Just the tone of his voice, Kristen started to feel unsure.
"Ah... yah."
Josh nodded, looking down at the tan carpet underneath him. He then looked back up at Kristen.
"What did you dream about?"
Kristen explained how she was walking down his neighborhood in her dream, coming towards his house. She explained how she saw him and Marie through the window and before she knew it she was in the house. She also explained what they both said to each other and the next thing she knew, Josh was passed out on the ground by a hooded man from behind.
Josh understood more then Kristen had thought.
"Why were you sprawled across the floor just now?" She asked before Josh could speak.
Josh leaned against the wall of the living room and folded his arms, looking quite comfortable.
"That was what happened last night."
Kristen was speechless, this now made no sense. How could she see what was going on in that house in present time through a dream?
"Marie has been using herself as bait ever since I was found eight years ago, she and my adopted mother too. They both played the part on saving my life and raising me as their own. They both worked for the Dreadmine Devils and they had a very good plan. Marie had purposely trapped herself within the Dreadmine's cell just so she can urge me to find her. After that failed she was happy to find that she could enslave herself with Ferris just so we can go save her life. This way the Dreadmine's can make up a plan with her while we were gone. The man who had sold her was working for the Dreadmine's and they had time to discuss about it as he sold her to himself. Her plan worked this time until Ferris snapped us back to Earth. Then Marie began putting together another plan until I had caught her just yesterday." Josh rested his chin on his hand, "We had argued for a long time, now becoming mortal enemies. It was then when I felt a pulse of electricity pierce through me and... I blacked out, seeing only faint pictures of Marie and a hooded man run out the door."
"So... it was all true."
"Yes, I don't know how you did that. But that helped you lead back to me, what I don't understand is how."
There was along silence, they both starting to wonder really how.
"Did you see what happened after I passed out?" Josh asked.
"No, I woke up as soon as you collapsed." She responded.
Josh stood up, looking around the room again for any clues. Kristen did also and looked out the window of his house, seeing nobody out on the street or in there yards on the street.
"I wonder where she went?" Josh asked more to himself.
Kristen didn't respond, not knowing herself. Then something suddenly popped up in her head that hadn't before. She turned back to Josh.
"Remember the story Ferris told us on the trip to find Marie?" She asked.
"Yah."
Kristen came back over to Josh.
"Well, the dream he had contained of was about a hooded man who could shoot electricity through his fingers as if like a fantasy story." She explained.
"But how, how could that be possible?"
"I don't know. But in my dream it seemed like that hooded man could do the same thing as the hooded man in Ferris's dream."
"But how could this all coordinate, Ferris's dream was just a nightmare, and your dream actually came true."
"Well whoever this electric filled, black hooded man is, we can't let him get close to neither us or Cody."
They both nodded in agreement. It seemed like the conversation was over, Kristen looked around awkwardly wondering if she should leave or not. She then pointed at the door, and started walking towards it.
"I better get going then, seeya Josh." She said and left the house.
Kristen rode home and for the rest of the day, studied more about the universe to collect as much information as possible about it. When 9 o'clock at night hit, Kristen put her book away and set for bed for another night of sleep. She crawled into her bed and closed her eyes, letting herself doze off into hopefully a dreamless sleep.
Though it wasn't a dreamless sleep like what she wanted. She was standing in her own backyard, it being late at night. She couldn't move from her spot as she spotted the dark hooded man just ten feet from her, it's hands bringing out little blue sparks from it's fingers. She couldn't turn back, nor could she go towards him (For that would indeed be a stupid thing), so she just stood there in fright. The hooded man did not move either, but stood there as it was ready to strike but also wasn't ready.
"What do you want?" She asked, her voice shaking.
"My question is to you is why are you here?"
There was a long pause.
"I... I d-don't know." She stuttered, looking down at the recently cut grass.
The man started speeding up toward her, but Kristen still couldn't move from her spot.
"Then let me ask you another question, why did your parents abandon you?"
Kristen was now looking up at the hooded figure, only seeing the mans lips calm and unpredictable.
"T-they had no-no other choice." She said, her heart beating faster and faster.
The man came even closer to her face, his warm breath hitting her cheek.
"Is it because they didn't care about you?"
Kristen almost felt like her heart broke in half as she heard this, even though part of her brain told her it wasn't true. Was that why they left without trying any longer to look for her? Was that why her mother didn't ask her name because she already knew and didn't care about her any more? Was that why she got rid of her as a baby? Kristen shook her head, backing away though the man still followed. She tried to get it out of her head, but the question's continued repeating in her head like a music on a CD repeating itself over and over being unable to move on. She stumbled over the watering hose and landed on the ground.
The man was looking directly down to her under it's covered face, it's mouth making a evil grin. Kristen backed away on her knees, seeing the man still following her. She crawled up the steps and stopped at the top.
"This can't be true, my parents love me. Y-you... are... not real. No matter how many times you repeat in my head you can't fool me."
"But this isn't a dream Kristen, not at all." He said, his hands raising charging up with electricity.
Kristen shook her head again, backing further and further away running into the door. She got up to her knees and tried to open the door but the door was locked. She leaned against the door, actually feeling the cold glass against her back. With how much electricity he was holding, she was positive that could kill anybody whether Halix or not. She pushed herself as hard as she could against the door, she almost felt like she could fall through. The man was now just inches from her shivering, bare feet. It held it's glowing hands out to her and was just ready to strike until suddenly he was knocked from her reach by another man and the electricity barely missed her.
The man had the hooded man against the ground, his hands around his wrists so he won't shoot his bolts at him. Kristen stood up, her heart beating so fast it almost felt like it would explode. The hooded man jerked his head back and forth, strangled against the porch. His hood came off to find a mass of white-blond hair and brilliantly bright blue eyes. He was a hansom man, and looked somehow familiar. The man strangling him was unfamiliar to her, though his eyes were light brown like Josh's. He suddenly stuck something against the man's arm and the hooded figure suddenly vanished.
Kristen slowly approached the man, her body shaking in fright. The man was very tall and she had to look up even though they were just a couple of feet from each other.
"My name is James Blunt, no need to worry any more Kristen-"
"I thought this was a dream." Kristen cut him off.
"Well I'm sorry it isn't a dream, this was real-"
"My family has abandoned me, he said so himself." She cut him off again.
"Kristen, they didn't-"
Kristen stepped up closer to James, looking even higher up to see him.
"But they abandoned me on purpose they don't love me. He said so himself!" She choked, ready to cry.
"Now I wouldn't take that man's word-"
"But it's true isn't it? ISN'T IT!!!" She cried.
James put his arm on her shoulder.
"Kristen please, he is messing with your mind. You are tired and exhausted-"
"Oh am I," Kristen took a couple steps back, "Am I? No, he speaks the truth mister. You are the one speaking nonsense, everybody has been speaking nonsense to me, ever since I found out I WAS NOT HUMAN!!!!"
"Please calm down,"
"WHY SHOULD I LISTEN TO YOU, I HARDLY EVEN KNOW YOU!!!!!!!!"
"You will, you should be happy I saved your life." He said, trying to keep calm.
She folded her arms.
"Well this must be a dream, because how did I end up out here in the first place?"
"You walked in your sleep and woke up right when you ended up-"
"NOW how do YOU know that!" She spat.
"I was watching until I could find the right time to act-"
"WELL YOU DID HORRIBLY, YOU DID IT AT THE WRONG TIME!!!!!!"
The man took a step forward but Kristen stepped back.
"DON'T TOUCH ME, I DON'T KNOW YOU!!!!!" She screamed as he was about to put his hand on her shoulder.
"I am trying to help you." He said, getting exasperated.
"HELP ME, HELP ME? SURE YOU DID, YOU DID NOTHING BUT PUSH THAT MAN OUT OF THE WAY!!!!!"
By now James started to know what was going on, though Kristen didn't. He sighed and started pulling something out from his pocket.
"Kristen, I believe they have done something to you and we need to do something about it." He approached Kristen so quickly she couldn't back away. He suddenly stuck a needle on her shoulder. Kristen yelped in pain as he took it out. She suddenly blinked multiple times, rocking side to side as if drunk.
"You fool, you have poisoned me." She said angrily. Her eyes suddenly started rolling back, and she steadied herself against the railing. Her knees were locking together and her mouth couldn't utter any words. Then she collapsed, falling into the man's arms.
Chapter 2- The hooded man's curse
Kristen could hear voices talking nearby, and could feel herself lying on something hard. Her throat was hurting for some reason, as if she had been screaming all night. Her shoulder was hurting too, as if some needle was stuck in it recently. She opened her eyes, seeing blurred figurines just a few feet from her. Then they started coming into view and she blinked several times. A man, Josh, Cody were talking about something but it was in hushed voices.
Kristen tried to sit up but her body couldn't move for some reason. The man then saw Kristen awake and bent down next to her.
"Hello Kristen, my name is James Blunt." He said in a honey sweet voice.
"Why c-can't I move?" She asked, unable to speak much either.
"You probably don't remember but something had happened last night that turned out wrong. The hooded man had put a curse on you to make you feel miserable and turn insane. I had saved your life from the hooded man, but I hadn't saved you from the curse. I knew this could happen so I was prepared for an injecting needle to help level out the curse, but something else happened that I didn't expect and you collapsed."
"W-whats the hooded man's name?" She asked
"Nobody knows, he never mentions his name. Everybody just calls him the hooded man, for he never reveals his face. But when I saw his face for the first time last night..." There was a long pause.
"What?" Josh asked from behind him, not knowing either.
James shook his head.
"Oh... he... looked unfamiliar to me." he said with his head down.
A few minutes later and Kristen was able to move her fingers. About an hour later and she could sit up.
"The injection normally doesn't paralyze you, nor does it knock you out normally. It must have been because you come from the Halix species and they have some things that either over react or they are perfectly immune to. This injection must have been something that you over reacted to." He said, holding up the empty needle.
"You put that in me?" She asked, pointing at the needle.
"Yep," He said, placing it down on a aluminum table nearby.
For that entire time Kristen hadn't payed any attention of what room she was in. She was in fact on the ground in a pure white room, and the only things in there was the aluminum table next to where Kristen had laid.
"Where am I?" She asked.
James looked around the room, his hands on his hips.
"Just... just in... well... I actually don't know."
"You don't know?" She asked.
"Well, I just seriously got rid of my last portal chute, and so Cody offered me his. So I chose a place of what I knew was safe to find that it had sent us somewhere else completely different."
"I warned you my drive was having some technical difficulties." Cody barged in the conversation.
"And I relished that Cody, but I didn't figure it would do this." James said, his arms out to show the room.
"So if you don't know where we are, do you think we should get going?" Kristen asked.
James turned back to Kristen, then looked over at Josh and Cody.
"That would be wise," He than pointed at Cody, "You need to fix that drive Cody, or it will get worse and these major problems will get worse as it is." He snapped.
Cody nodded and started programming his drive to another place, though he wasn't fixing it. When Cody closed his computer back up, James suddenly snatched the drive from his hands and started observing it closely.
"You know I never got a clear look at this, for this drive is nearly a twentieth century teleportation. Cody, that is why it is having such major problems. Because it is over ten years old." He said, showing it in front of all of them.
James then put the drive back in Cody's hand and Cody placed it on the table where it will be their portal. They all stood around the glowing table, waiting for it to charge. Then they all grabbed hold of the legs and they were off out of the room.
The five of them landed on icy ground. Cody felt himself sliding and before he knew it he slipped on his bum and was going down the slope. He was gaining speed as the slope got steeper and quickly got a hold of a chunk of ice sticking from the ground. It was as if he was dangling off of a cliff, he couldn't let go or he would go sliding for a very long time not sure. Cody took long, painful breaths as he breathed in the cold air.
Meanwhile, about a hundred feet from Cody was the rest of them, digging there fingers and heels into the ice below. James had pulled a knife from his pocket and stuck it in the ground, and the others held tightly to him, trusting the knife in the ground. Kristen was looking over at where Cody was, he wouldn't be able to teleport them in that position. Than they all started to realize that the table was nowhere around them.
"Wait, where is the table?" Josh asked.
They all looked around, the drive was on that table.
"That's not good." James said as they still couldn't find the table in sight.
"And what about Cody?" Kristen asked, almost ready to bawl.
"Now Kristen, the curse is reacting again. Your getting a little sensitive, we will find a way no need to worry." He said, trying to calm her down.
"What does the curse do?" She asked, changing to that subject suddenly.
James took a deep breath, the foggy air from his breathing thicker than usual.
"The Hooded Man's curse is a curse that makes there victim feel depressed, angry, and miserable, when the hooded man was just recently by you or he is close by you you start turning insane like last night. There are only thirteen in the entire universe and two of which are twin brothers. They both are identical, so they dress up as the hooded man and they both have that same name. When one of them shows up, you never know who is who. The only way to know is, one of them can cause your dreams that actually happen in the present, and the other can only show you dreams of what is supposed to happen. The dream you had the other night was from the eldest twin."
"Now how do you know I had that dream?"
"I've been following you ever since you had that dream." He said, feeling no guilt about it.
"So you've been spying on me and Josh!?" She shouted, a little louder than intended to.
"Yah, and I saved your life."
Kristen's face was turning red, not because of the icy prickles hitting it, but because of anger suddenly swelling up inside her.
"WHY YOU ARE A BAD PERSON, YOU BROUGHT US HERE TO DIE DIDN'T YOU!!!!!!!!! YOU KNOCKED ME OUT FOR YOUR OWN ENJOYMENT AND WE ENDED UP HERE IN THIS STUPID ICY WORLD!!!!" She screamed, her face turning purple in anger.
"Kristen calm down." He said, trying to keep calm himself.
"WHY SHOULD I LISTEN TO YOU, YOU SENT US HERE, and don't you go blaming on anything!!!!"
Josh had tried to slide over a little, trying to keep his distance as far away from the bellowing girl close by.
"Kristen please-"
"I HARDLY EVEN KNOW YOU EXCEPT FOR YOUR NAME JAMES BLUNT!!!!!"
"I have already told you that you will get to know me more soon."
"WELL I HAVE KNOWN YOU FOR PLENTY OF HOURS AND YOU HAVE SAID NOTHING I TELL YOU NOTHING!!!!!"
Even Cody was looking up to see all of the racket, and shook his head as he thought he saw smoke come out of her ears. Josh slid a little closer to Kristen by having a little confidence and softly patter her on the shoulder with his frozen hand. Kristen jerked her head toward Josh in anger.
"WHAT DO YOU WANT!!!!!" She snapped at Josh.
The confidence growing inside Josh started fading once again as he heard one of his most trusted friends scream at him. He took a deep breath and scooted a bit closer, using up as much of his confidence as he could.
"K-Kristen, you need to calm down-""
"STOP GIVING ME ORDERS JOSHUA, YOU ARE NOT INVOLVED!!!!!!!" Josh backed away a bit.
She then turned her head sharply back to James, who's teeth were starting to chatter.
"STOP YOUR HIDING JAMES, I ALREADY KNOW!!!!!" Suddenly she started crying. She wiped a tear from the back of her wrist that wasn't holding on to the knife. She than started bawling, tears trying to spur out in the freezing cold. James tried not to get any tears falling him, to prevent from feeling colder from little drops of water. He had rolled up his button up shirt and Josh had cuddled next to him trying to keep warm, but Kristen remained where she was in tears.
Cody felt like his hands were now frozen against the chunk of ice, he couldn't move his arms much. He knew swaying back and forth would be useless having nowhere to sway unto. Goosebumps were already pretty large on his arms, and his teeth were chattering so fast he felt like his teeth would fall out, or his jaw would fall off. Though the air wasn't getting any colder or warmer it felt colder being out there for so long. Most of their bodies were numb head to toe.
"Kristen, it's alright. You don't need to cry." James tried to sooth Kristen.
"STOP, STOP? WHY SHOULD I STOP BY THE ORDERS FROM YOU!!!!!!!!!" She shrieked.
Kristen suddenly starting hitting James, James was trying to warn her not to let go of the knife. She continued hitting and then let go of the knife to hit with the other hand. But that was the wrong choice, James thought fast and quickly tried to grab hold of Kristen but she was sliding too fast.
"CODY, Kristen's coming your way!" James hollered over to Cody.
But it was even too fast for Cody, he tried to grasp her with his numb hands and barely missed her. Kristen began screaming all the way down to the never ending slope, none of them knew exactly where it ended and what was at the bottom.
"I lost her!!!" Cody cried, trying to stay calm.
Josh hit his head against Jame's shoulder, sad that he never caught her.
"She will be okay, she is a strong girl." James said.
"Well not with that curse she isn't." Josh replied with a grunt.
James sighed and then started to realized something.
"Josh, don't you have that pocket knife?" he wondered.
"Yah, but I never really though about pulling it out." Josh said.
James made a joyful grin.
"Pull it out then, I have a plan."
Josh held tightly against James's back as he moved down the ice towards Cody using both of the knives. When they approached Cody, he was near of releasing. James grabbed Cody, who couldn't move much and didn't have the strength to hold on as tightly as Josh or James. Though this made it a lot harder to James, he still continued grunting trying to move sideways.
"Where are we going?" Josh asked.
"There is lots of fog here, but every once in a while you can see a gap in the fog and see things up ahead. I was watching the fog carefully and spotted a half a glimpse of snow where we can actually walk." He said as the wind began to pick up.
"Brilliant, how far is it?!" Josh hollered in the wind.
"Not far, just hold on tightly!" He said, increasing his pace towards the direction he was heading.
Josh held on around his neck with one arm tightly, while the other wrapped around Cody who had turned purple in cold. He made sure Cody kept cuddled close to him, hoping for him to warm up. James began to slow down again as his way towards the snow got harder and harder as he was losing his strength.
"All.... most... there." He said through gritted teeth.
They could now see the snow up ahead just ten feet away. Though it seemed a lot further than you think, a single yard was indeed very difficult. James's veins on his forehead were showing so much is seemed like they would pop out. He clenched his teeth, and his eyes were focused hard against the snow up ahead.
"Just... one......... more."
He took his last stick into the ice and he got onto the snow helping the other boys. The snow didn't feel so much better, but it was ground that you could stand on. James sighed of relief and stood up. He bent down, putting his hands on his knees, catching his breath.
"The air is thin here." He said, panting hard.
It was then when James started to see a light up ahead. He started whistling through his frozen, dry lips and hollering as loud as he could. Minutes later and the light came towards them. It was an elderly man who looked like a mixture of an Eskimo and a Russian. He was holding a lamp that had a cover over it so the fire wouldn't burn out. When he saw Cody on the ground nearly frozen, he pulled off his coat and wrapped it around him. James picked him up and the man led them to the nearest village where he lived.
He in fact had to go through a tunnel in a glacier to get to the village. The village was actually within a bowl of glaciers. The huts in the village were half some kind of brick and the other half was like a Tipi. The man led them inside the nearest one where there were two children playing some kind of game with two black cubes.
"These are my two grandchildren Tika and Tigerton." He introduced.
Tika looked about four years old and Tigerton looked about three. They looked happy in the warm hut. Though there was no fire inside, not even a pit.
"My apologies for no fire, today is in fact a very warm day for us. We see that you three are foreigners here. "
"There was four of us." Josh blurted out.
"I'm sorry about that, I will make a quick little fire and you can lay the boy down on the warm bed. And make sure he has lots of blankets over him." James nodded and placed Cody on the bed the man pointed at and laid all of the blankets over him. He offered Josh one and himself and they sat by the fire the old man had made.
"My name is Mrtsa, men, and yours?"
"Josh"
"James, and that is Cody." He pointed at Cody in the bed.
The man nodded.
"Well make yourself at home men, You are welcome to stay here as long as you like."
"Thank you." James replied with a grateful but sad smile.
Chapter 3- Tika and Tikardra
Kristen felt something warm and sweet go down her throat, though it felt like it went down the wrong pipe. She coughed up the liquid and she opened her eyes. She quickly sat up, trying to get rid of the cough and finally is stopped. A woman was sitting next to her, holding a bowl of some hot substance. The woman was very beautiful with long, golden brown hair, and soft hazel eyes. She had long, elegant fingers and a very slim body, she seemed beyond beautiful.
"W-who are y-you." Kristen choked, it sounded like she nearly drowned and she was trying to talk again.
"My name is Tikardra." She said in a low and soothing voice.
"T-that's a-a beau-utiful n-name." She said.
Tikardra put her sllim finger on her lips silencing her.
"You don't need to speak Kristen, you are still trying to recover."
Kristen nodded, understanding what she meant. Though she couldn't remember how she ended up here, all she remembered was holding on tightly to James's knife. Another thought then came to mind when she realized that neither Cody, Josh, or James were there inside the room. Why did she keep on passing out, what was going on exactly? Then she also wanted to ask how Tikardra knew her name, but she kept her mouth shut.
"I understand the fact that you wonder how I know you and you don't know me. I have known you for sixteen years without you realizing it."
"B-but how?" Kristen couldn't help but say, and Tikardra didn't stop her from speaking this time.
"You probably don't remember, but you slid down a icy slope for miles without end and many who has gone down that slope was killed in the bottom. Though you were somehow lucky," Tikardra pulled out a chain necklace with a blue, raindrop shaped gem out from beside her. "I was about to try out this necklace after finding it on the ice not long before and so I spun it. The portal had opened and I was tempted to walk through until I realized I should go grab my bag. I walked off, leaving the portal open and when I returned I found you lying on the ground in front of the portal. I decided to close the portal and I took you to my house where I could hospitalize you."
"S-so I am in t-the f-future?" She asked, still struggling.
"Yes, though I know you will return back to your friends, because I had met myself as a four year old sixteen years ago. I had met you as a four year old and I have now met you all over again as a twenty year old."
"Let's go right now." Kristen said, beginning to slip out from under the wool blankets over her.
But Tikardra gently put her hand on her shoulder to say for her to get back into the bed.
"When I found you, you were more than unconscious. You felt like you were out there for hours, you were very pale and very cold having lack of clothing to keep you warm. I also sensed something else unusual, I sensed that you had a curse upon you from a foreign planet."
"The hooded man's curse." Kristen said softly, staring through Tikardra.
"The hooded man's curse?" She asked, fear suddenly growing in her eyes.
Kristen nodded.
"That is a terrible curse, we have to get it out of you." She cried, looking around for anything to help.
"But how do we get it out of me?"
Tikardra was rummaging through a hope chest nearby. She then pulled out a small mustard yellow bottle with a cork stuck in the top. She came back to Kristen, uncorking the bottle.
"Am I going to have to drink that?" She asked.
"No of course not."
Tikardra dumped the thick, mustard yellow liquid into a pot and started adding what looked like random herbs from her cupboards. She mixed the herbs with the substance in the small pot and then placed the pot over the fire to heat up. Kristen wanted to lie back down, but she watched the pot boil in curiosity wondering exactly she was doing.
Tikardra grabbed a oven mitten and picked up the pot. She then approached Kristen with a big smile on her face.
"I need you to inhale this, don't worry it doesn't smell bad." She said.
Kristen sat up and she put the steaming pot under her nose. Kristen took a deep breath through her nose, smelling a sweet herb smell go up her nostrils. Tikardra moved the pot away and Kristen took a deep breath of relaxation.
"What was that?" She asked.
"It was to help you overcome your curse, it doesn't get rid of it completely but it helps you feel stronger to get rid of it. The curse can only be demolished if you yourself overpowers it and it will never return to you again. Three days ago you couldn't overcome that curse probably because you didn't know how."
"Wait, have I been here for three days?" Kristen asked.
"Yes, I'm sorry I didn't tell you." She apologized.
"So I can overpower this curse?" She repeated.
"Yes, and the herbs you inhaled is going to help you."
Tikardra put the pot back on the stove that was now burnt out and came back to Kristen.
"Rest Kristen, tomorrow we will go back to where you came from." She said.
She hadn't realized that it was night outside. Tikardra blew out the candle nearby and Kristen lied back down on the comforting bed. Falling into a dreamless sleep.
. . .
They had been staying in the village for four days now. Cody, James and Josh kept themselves buisy as they played with Mrtsa's two grandchildren. Tika was very wise being so young and Tiger was near to her level. James felt like a daddy again as he laughed and played with Tiger. But Tika remained behind next to Josh and Cody who just watched.
She was watching with them for quite a while until she suddenly grabbed Cody's finger. Cody looked down at her, wondering what she wanted.
"Come with me, I want to show you something." She said in a quite tone.
Cody and Josh followed her out of the village and through the tunnel in the glacier. It wasn't as foggy as a few days ago and they could see the ice up ahead as clearly as they saw the sun. It seemed somewhat warmer that day, and it was a nice day to take a walk.
Tika led them down the snowy hill and then let go of Cody's hand. Before they knew it, Tika had disappeared inside a cave in the glaciers. They quickened there pace as her little legs led them farther and farther down the deep cave.
The cave gave a light blue glow being just ice, but as they went further and further down in the cave it started to darken. They could no longer see the mouth of the cave behind them, and soon there was no more light. Suddenly a small candle was lit and they could see Tika's small, elegant face. She just stood there, not uttering a single word to them.
"What are we doing here?" Cody asked her.
But Tika had rushed over to Cody and put a finger over his lips.
"You don't need to speak Cody, we need to stay calm and be quiet to not wake up the polar bats." She said in a hushed voice.
Cody smiled at her, and kept his mouth shut. Hoping to ask her as soon as they leave the cave again. What both Cody and Josh didn't understand was, why did they bring them in here? They waited for quite a few minutes, making it awkward for the two boys. They both sat down and waited, unsure really what they are waiting for. Tika remained standing, keeping her eyes towards the mouth of the cave so far away.
Suddenly, there was a small sound of what sounded like footsteps. Cody and Josh both stood up, wondering whom those footsteps belonged to. Two figures came to view fifty feet away from them, one was a very beautiful and tall woman and another one was a teenage girl about fourteen years old. Tika smiled as she saw the woman and ran over to gave her a hug. Kristen ran over to the boys.
"Kristen your alive!" The boys said in unison.
But they both had said it pretty loud because there started to get an extra noise.
"I warned you." Tika said.
But Tikardra had pulled out a strong bow and arrow from her back and was ready to shoot as soon as a polar bat came into view.
"I knew this would happen." Tikardra said, her eyes focused hard up high.
"Well, you are me in the future. You were expecting this to happen." Tika reminded.
They all stood there, waiting for them to come out. Then suddenly the loud noise of the bats awakening suddenly stopped and it went silent. Tikardra remained waiting with her bow and arrow waiting. Suddenly, a huge swarm of grey and white bats suddenly came from above. There was hundreds of them, beginning to swarm around them, screeching and threatening. Tikardra was shooting arrows at bats one by one, constantly grabbing another arrow and shooting.
She continued shooting until she had only one left.
"I don't remember having this many bats." Tikardra said, sighing heavily as she glanced at her last arrow.
They were surrounded by a huge mass of bats and they couldn't do anything about it. James was not there to use his weapons and the rest of them were not armed but Tikardra who had only one arrow left. They stood there, not able to run two miles back to the mouth of the cave or run further into the cave, nor move towards the walls.
The bats screeched in there ears, the noise echoing throughout the cave.
"CODY YOU NEED TO TELEPORT US OUT NOW!!!!!!" Tikardra shouted, her face red in anger.
Cody reached into his pocket and realized he didn't have the drive with him, in fact it was probably at the bottom of the slow lost forever. After Tikardra noticed that, she then remembered something and pulled something out of her own pocket. She had a drive exactly like Cody's, but the blue was more faded.
"THIS IS YOURS!!!" Tikardra said, placing the drive in his hand.
"THIS LOOKS OLDER THAN MINE!!!!" Cody hollered back.
"I found this when I was six while sledding on the bottom of the slope. I knew it was yours after realizing it looked exactly like the one when I was four." She said.
Cody observed the drive, and smiled, it really was his drive. He opened up the computer and started programming as fast as he could. He then closed it up and looked around, wondering what to put the drive on or in.
"What do I use?" He asked the others.
Tikardra pulled off one of her boots and handed it to him.
"Here, I am local here so it works." She said.
Cody placed the drive in and soon they were out of the cave and back in the village. It seemed like James didn't even noticed they were gone, they were still playing out in front of Tika's house. Tika and her older self talked for quite a while about things they couldn't hear and Josh, Cody, and Kristen rejoined James.
"I have always wondered what a time vortex would do." Cody said, looking back at the two laughing girls ten feet away.
"So if Tika meets herself in the future, I am guessing she is expecting more things to happen after that. Because I bet the older Tika is telling her what she is expecting in the future and what she should do when the younger Tika grows up and does what the older Tika is doing now.... if that made any sense to you guys." Josh said, after seeing there faces.
"It makes perfect sense Josh." James said behind him.
"Yah, I was just trying to put it all together... Hey I just realized we are exploring without even my tracker or my backpack with me" Kristen mentioned.
"I know Kristen, but we can't go back. It is too dangerous, we are just going to have to go through this without backup stuff. We can't stay here much longer anyway, for we don't want to get too adjusted to this temperature and choose to live here. So, Cody go ahead and set us up to another destination." James said.
Cody started his normal programming and then asked for something to put it in from one of the Tika's. The younger Tika gave him a hand carved bowl from her hut and he dropped it inside it. Then they were off, to yet be another planet that the drive messed up on.
Chapter 4- Likkychappaddappadose
"Bow down to him, our great and powerful leader. Oh the greatest sorcerer in all the land, the one who hast created us in your form. Our leader we shall praise and glorify for his works, and we have kept thou promise of prayer to you. You are our friend, our brother, our leader, our king. We bow down to you when we use our power, we cry up to you when we hast broken a commandment you hast made for us all, we praise you when we made you happy, and we cheer for you when a miracle was put upon us. We bless you, we bless you, we bless you for our blessings. We pray unto you for trust and iniquity, keep us in your presences oh powerful leader upon high." The villagers praised in unison.
They were all down on there knees, there hands spread out above there heads with there body's against the ground. For they all spake English, having come from the English many centuries ago when no local man knew about even thinking of technology. They had left in secret, taking an ancient teleportation goblet that now lay on an alter in there church. But just after they had their prayer to the god, a man had set up another alter and placed a blue USB drive upon it. He turned back to the villagers and put his hand up to silence them.
"Our sacred goblet is not alone, for this (He pointed at the drive) does but the same thing. We shall praise our two sacred artifacts and keep both of them from harms way." He cried to them.
The villagers started cheering until the man stopped them again.
"Though we have got this from three children and a man who used this artifact with the lack of caring for it. For they used it more than it can bare and they shall receive the consequences of using this precious gift so immaturely. You shall now all pray for this, and I will proceed with my duties." He said.
The villagers continued praying and the man walked off of the shrine. He in fact left the building and walked across the sunny village until he got to a grey stone building at the end of the street. He entered the building and he could smell a distinct rotting smell go up his nostrils and could see a room so full of dust it had more than one coat of it. A woman in armor stood by a large door to another room armed with a rifle.
"Yes sir?" She asked.
"Let me see them." He ordered the woman.
The woman nodded and opened the door, allowing him in. Inside were four people chained to the wall, three of them teenagers and one a man in his mid thirties. The man closed the door and stood there by it, watching the depressed faces of the four prisoners.
"Foolish." Was his first words he said to them.
"Why is that Drailin, for even you have stolen an artifact before?" James spat.
The other three looked at each other, wondering how James knew about Drailin
"I did it for a good cause, for you have used that artifact the wrong way and without no specific cause!" Drailin roared.
"We have our reasons Drailin, you just no none of it."
"Then why haven't you told me of them yet?" He said sourly.
"Because we don't trust you Drailin. I thought of you as a friend and tried to help you cure your daughter and you did just because of that goblet, and now to pay me back you lock us up!"
"I'LL HAVE NONE OF THAT JAMES, for my daughter died just days after you left and I can never pay that price back!" Drailin bellowed.
"Because you didn't use it properly. I gave you instructions."
"And I read every bit of it."
"Did you remember the fly weed?"
"yes."
"Poctractican juice?"
"Certainly."
"Four Eloc legs?"
"Of course."
"What about the... Likkychappaddappadose?"
There was a long pause. Drailin stood there, looking up at the ceiling trying to remember.
"No." He said quickly staring down at his brown dress shoes.
"Without the Likkychappaddappadose, nothing will work."
"WELL IT'S TOO LATE NOW!!!!!!!!!!" He bellowed.
James looked at him, his face showing no expression.
"No it isn't." James struggled to reach into his pocket and was able to slip out a chain necklace with a light blue, raindrop shaped gem dangling from it.
"This is a portal that goes sixteen years in the past, and exactly sixteen years ago your daughter had died. We can change your past."
"But won't that create a major time vortex?" Cody barged in there conversation.
"It may be our only hope." James said, mostly to Drailin.
Drailin stood there speechless, not sure how to respond to this.
"But if I help you get your daughter back and she lives, you need to give us back the drive and let us free."
Drailin thought for another long time and then looked back up at James.
"You will pay for this if this fails." He grumbled, rushing over to unlock James.
"What about us?" Cody asked.
"I will return back to you after I do this." James said and him and Drailin left the cell.
Drailin suggested that they bring Chiarra, the girl who was guarding the cell. James agreed, and spun the necklace around, it creating the portal through time. The three of them looked through to find the same exact room, but looking somewhat newer. James was the first to enter and the other two followed behind. He then snatched the spinning necklace and the portal closed. They were definitely in the same room, but it felt sixteen years newer than it was then.
"Okay, show us where your daughter is." James said, opening the wood door to outside.
Drailin nodded and they followed him out. He went down the street and then approached a small cottage. The cottage had a very thick layer of woven straw as a roof, the walls of it was made of clay and a little bit of stone, and the door was just made from a large chunk of bark from some sort of tree.
Drailin slowly opened the door and burst into tears as he saw his daughter again. His daughter lied in her bed, her face pale and her hair ratted. She was wrapped tightly in layers of blankets, and she looked sad and very ill. When Drailing approached her, she slowly opened her eyes and smiled as she saw him. He moved the hair sticking from her forehead, and kissed her there. She didn't speak, though looking at her face she wanted to.
"I'm back Ethel, I came back to get you."
Ethel still didn't speak, being too ill to utter a word. Drailin then turned to Chiarra and James.
"I must be out on an errand to get some medicines, because today you were supposed to be gone a couple of days before."
Drailin then walked back over to them, and in a hushed tone so she wouldn't hear he said:
"I'm sorry I have lied to you." He said.
"What do you mean?" James asked.
"Because when I said she was dead I really didn't know, because she had vanished when I came home. I had thought that she had died and the gods gave her back, but I just realized it was not that. I want to take you back to our time and cure her there."
"But didn't you want time to change?"
"Yes, but it has already. If I changed it we won't even be here anymore, for if I cured her here than things are going to get messed up. I AM going to bring her back to our time." he said.
James and Chiarra could not decline that. They both nodded and let Drailin do what he has to do. Drailin kept the blankets wrapped tightly around his daughter and James started the portal again. They then entered back in there time in the same cottage, but it looked a lot older. The cottage was now old and rotten, everything looked unclean and the roof was starting to fall off. Drailin placed her on his bed, which was in the far corner.
"We still need that Likkychappaddappadose, but I don't know where to find it." Drailin told the others.
James opened the door to the cottage (Which was now splitting apart).
"Stay here Drailin, and me and Chiarra will go out towards the Crantananium Forest to find the Likkychappaddappadose."
"But do you even know where it is?" He asked.
"Yes and no, but me and Chiarra will work as quickly as possible."
Drailin nodded in agreement and pulled up a chair to sit next to Ethel.
"Well get going then!!!"
James and Chiarra then set off out of town on foot, unable to get Cody, Josh or Kristen out of imprisonment. The forest was about twn miles away and indeed a challenge. They knew they had to walk quickly and try to find as much information about where the Likkychappaddappadose.
"The forest is a dangerous place to travel, our village has a lot of enemies, so we need ot travel armed and ready." Chiarra told James as they set out of the village.
Chiarra was a very buff woman, she was armed with many knives and swords, and her blond hair was messily made into a pixie cut. You could see no girly personalities within her, but you could see that she had girl power. Ahead of them was miles of desert, so they had to take this quickly and prepared. Chiarra stopped him and quickly rushed back into the village, just minutes later she returned with an entire canteen full of water.
"That was quick."
"Girls normally take there time, the reason why you find girls come late is because they have to maybe check if they looked alright or if they are not forgetting anything. I am not one of those, I knew exactly what I was getting for there is nothing else I needed to get." She said, buckling the canteen to her leather belt. She pointed agead and they moved on towards the desert.
The ground was cracked and small cacti were scattered across the valley. James looked back and around him, wondering how long and how miserable this trip is going to be. As for Chiarra, she looked straight ahead, her worries behind her back at the village. Three hours later and Chiarra still continued towards the mountains without hesitation, and James staggered a bit behind her.
Finally, Chiarra pulled out her still full canteen and tossed it back for James to take a drink. He gulped it down gratefully and rushed over to her to hand it back. The mountains were closer but it still seemed a long ways away. The evening heat cooled it a couple of degrees and it was now down to the eighties in Fahrenheit.
When night fell, they were just getting to the mountains.
"Are you sure you were completely prepared?" James said, sitting down on a rock poking out of the mountainside for a rest, and realizing that neither of them brought food. Chiarra pulled out her knife and twirled it in her fingers, catching the handle smoothly.
"Now I thought that was just a trick you find in the movies." He teased, but Chiarra gave him a confused look, having no clue of what he was talking about.
"Anyway," He said.
Then something else accured to him, realizing that Chiarra hadn't spoken to him since they were back at the village.
"Do you speak English?" He asked, knowing that Cody's drive can automaticly translate things in a range of thirty miles.
"Yes, I speak English James. I may be from a different world but we originated from Earth. My ancestors lived on the only land on there, Pangea. Of course that is what your scientists call it, we never named it anything but the land. There were only but a couple of languages at the time and the languages have evolved to many. What you call English is one of those first languages we spoke. It was just years later when one of your biblical stories evolved, the story of Noah warning us of the great flood. My ancestors never got a chance to come with Noah on the ark, we were too far from the main villages. Then when the rumor was spread my family pulled out what they most cherished. The goblet portal, so they took it and they ended up on this planet here. Here I am now, a girl that is originally from Earth.
"Though my people don't praise the god that made that flood to drown the evil. For a long while they thought they were very righteous until one son started teaching false docterines to us. It is now that the entire village praises but the goblet instead of the real god, I am the only one left that is still faithful of the real god. My parents were very good people and helped me keep that. So now Earth has changed has it not?" She asked
"Yes, in fact it has changed quite a bit since then." James said.
Chiarra made a smile, which was the very first time James had ever seen her smile like that. She looked up at the forest a couple of miles up the mountain and then looked back over at James.
"We rest here tonight, tomorrow we set up towards the forest and claim what we need."
And they settled themselves in a simple camp and rested for the night.
James was first to wake up and start going, he knew Chiarra would eventually wake up and come after him. Apparently, she woke up just minutes later, quickly packed up and followed behind. Soon she was once again in the lead. It was another days trip hiking up the steep and forested mountain. There was no sign of the Likkichappaddappadose, and no sign of any other life.
When night fell once again James noticed an unusual plant nearby. He ran over to it and plucked a couple of leaves from it.
"We have found it, we found what we needed!" James hollered.
Chiarra came over and observed it.
"Yes, this is definitely the Likkichappaddappadose. We need to quickly return this to my village, we have to now."
"It's late, we should-"
"No time, I swore to him to return as quickly as possible once we found it. We need to go." She snapped.
James opened his mouth, then closed it as if he meant to say something but didn't know how to phrase it. He nodded and they headed back down the mountain. He was already tired, it being maybe midnight or even later, but he had to stay awake and move on.
Going down the mountain was a lot quicker, though many times James or even Chiarra would trip over a rock and have to quickly catch themselves. Then, while they were challenging through a path of loose rocks, Chiarra stumbled and fell. She began rolling down the hill, screaming, and crying for help as she vanished in the tree's.
James slid down the slope and followed the path she had rolled down, Chiarra was against a large tree knocked out. She had many scratches over her body and her head was bleeding from hitting the tree so hard. It was maybe around three o'clock in the morning and it was still dark. James quickly built up a fire and waited by it until Chiarra woke up. It wasn't just a minor fall, he didn't know if she broke a bone or sprained anything yet, but he will have to ask as soon as she wakes up.
About two hours later James heard her move slightly. He had nearly fallen asleep, he was lying on the ground waiting. He sat up and Chiarra opened her eyes.
"What happened?" She asked, trying to get up.
James gently pushed her back down.
"You rolled down the mountain side, we need to-"
"We needed to continue James, we are falling behind!" She yelled.
James made a heavy sigh.
"You were badly injured Chiarra, what hurts?" He asked.
Chiarra sat up.
"Well, my left leg is throbbing like crazy, but I don't think anything it broken." She responded.
James carefully pulled up her pants to find a wide gash all the way up her leg, he hadn't noticed it before. Plus, being night was difficult to find all her injuries.
"This needs to be wrapped up." James said.
Chiarra pulled off her worn cape and ripped it up. She then handed it to James to wrap it up. Without hesitating, James quickly wrapped the cloth around her leg.
"We have to get going now, before it gets any later." She snapped.
Chiarra tried to get up, but her leg prevented her from standing.
"I can help you." He said.
"No, I am okay." She said, wincing in pain.
She stedied herself with the tree and was able to stand up. But only for a few seconds before her leg gave in and James caught her.
"Alright, but if you need a break I can go on my own." She said, wrapped her arm around his shoulder.
James nodded. He quickly burnt out the fire and guided Chiarra down the rest of the mountain.
Daylight started streaming now and they finally finished going down the steep mountain and were back in the desert. It was much more difficult to walk this time, with James carrying Chiarra and both of them tired and exaugsted. The Likkichappaddappadose was stuffed in one of Chiarra's pouches, so they were ready to return it.
After about and hour of traveling through the desert Chiarra suddenly release his shoulder and fell on the ground. They both were hot and sweaty, but Chiarra, being already weak was starting to fade away. Her eyes were rolling back and her head swayed back and forth. James bent down and pulled the water pouch from her belt. He quickly opened the cap.
"You need some water." He said.
Chiarra opened her mouth and he poured the water in her mouth. The water went painfully down her dry throat, but she still seemed the same as she was before she had the water. For a long while, they rested there waiting for the right time to continue. James then knew it was time to get going, he scooped her up and he carried her onward. She felt somewhat heavier, but he continued anyway. The village wasn't for another few miles. He clumsily walked onward, his feet easily tripping over small rocks and garbage.
About a mile through and James sat down to take a rest. He offered himself a bit of water and gave Chiarra a few gulps. They had to save this water throughout the journey. For another few minutes he waited until he could be able to get moving again, Chiarra had long passed out and was looking pale and very ill.
James finally was able to get back up, and he moved on with Chiarra in his arms. When mid afternoon started to come in, he spotted the village about a mile away. He nearly jumped for joy, but he had many reasons why it wouldn't be a good idea to do so. About twenty minutes later and he walked down the streets of the village.
He was glad that the entire trip he had never even met a single enemy, but why? He and Chiarra had trials and had indeed a hard time on this journey, but why no other signs of life but themselves this entire time? He walked over to Drailin's house and opened the door without knocking. He was holding the bag of leaves for him, but as he entered the house he could finally have a break. Instead of sitting down for a rest, he passed out on the ground, Chiarra sprawled next to him and the bag of leaves scattered across the floor.
Chapter 5- Poklley and Parkison
Ethel was now healthy as could be, both Chiarra and James and heat stroke and Drailing tried his best to treat them. He release Cody, Josh, and Kristen from their cells and were now in his house waiting for James to get better. Chiarra was the worst, she was badly injured and none of them knew why except for James of course. But James could not tell them the story in the position he was in.
They stayed there for quite a few days until one day James was able to get out of bed. The next day both James and Chiarra were feeling better, though Chiarra still was healing from her deep wounds. All three of them wanted to go home, having enough of this place, James agreed on it. So Cody quickly set up and they said there good byes to the others.
Cody ran across the courtyard, darting as fast as his legs could carry. He kept on looking back and speeding up faster and faster and then disappeared within the open doors of the building. Meanwhile, Kristen came screaming through a vast ballroom with checker boarded tiles across it. She darted up the stairs of where a throne and two fancy chairs sat and ran into the door that was behind that.
During that same time, Joshua and James came running up stairs into the bell tower. Josh grabbed into the giant rope and began pulling it with all his weight and with Jame's help to ring it. The booming ring of the bell, vibrated the tower causing both of them to fall over on the ground grasping tightly around there ears. The bell stopped and they sighed of relief.
The area around went silent once again, as it did just half an hour ago. When they first got here, they had ran into a large kingdom completely abandoned. As they wandered the castle James had claimed that he heard something. At first none of them believed him, until they heard it also.
"Just hold on, I think there is more than one." James whispered to the others.
They had clumped together, being armed with whatever they could find. James held his knife which he always had, Cody had his drive, Kristen had a stick she pulled off from a dead bush, and Josh had an abandoned rake someone had left in the courtyard. They stood in the circle, looking out and watching closely in every corner.
Though they didn't look up. A blurry rush of black swooped through a hallway, then another one clearly identical if not the same one pass through another hall across the other side of the courtyard. The hairs stood on their ends as they stood there clumped together unaware of who is around.
Suddenly, a shrill whistling sound filled the air and a hooded figure stood in front of Cody. Then another whistle and a second hooded figure stood in front of Kristen on the other side of the circle. The two hooded men came closer to them, and they couldn't back away or move forward with them. They both had their fists clenched, but no electricity would come out.
Then Cody broke into a run, he darted across the courtyard with one of the hooded men chasing after him. While he ran Kristen went for a run the other way, she ran into the castle and ended up darting across checker boarded tiles in a ballroom and ran into the throne room. The second hooded man chased after.
Josh and James were now left without anything chasing or looking them in the eyes. They both ran towards the bell tower, for maybe their should at least be a few people still here. The place didn't look like it was abandoned for years, nor for even a couple of months. It must have been just recent like in the last week, or if not just yesterday.
They came back down the stairs and when they opened the door from the bell tower both of the hooded men were standing there in front of them. They both popped their knuckles and came up closer. James had already closed the door, so they were as if bolted against the door unable to move anywhere else.
"Come on, shoot us already with your electricity." Josh told them.
They didn't respond. James asked them this time, but in different words. They still didn't respond. James then took a step forward.
"You aren't the hooded men." He confessed.
They didn't respond.
"Show yourselves!" He barked.
They both put their heads down. James walked up to them and pulled the black hoods from both of them. They were definitely twins, identical even. They both had very red hair and dozens of freckles that covered there faces, they both had very green eyes and seemed clearly in their sixteens.
"You should be ashamed of yourselves, scaring off people who are unfamiliar of these grounds. You are putting yourselves in danger dressing like the hooded men!" He snapped, he was acting like a father yelling at his two trouble making sons.
"We were just having a little fun." One of them said.
"Well, you need to be careful of what you do with your actions and you need to think outside of the box whenever you want to do something like this. Now tell me your names."
"Why, so you can tell our parents about it?" The other one asked.
"I don't know your parents and I don't want to see them, I just want to know your names."
"Parkison." The one on the right said.
"Poklley." The other one said.
"Well Poklley and Parkison-" But he was cut off from Parkison.
"I prefer Parky and he prefers Pokky, sir. "
Pokkly nudged him in the side and Parky moved out of the way.
"No sir, I prefer Poklley, Parky just likes to call me that because he is my stupid twin brother that pushes me around to do stuff I don't want to do." Pokkly said, glaring at his brother.
"Alright then, now that you two has scared off half of our group, your going to help us find them." He explained, his hands on his hips.
They both had their heads down and they both nodded in agreement.
"Good." James then grabbed their arms and led them out of the hallway. Then he released them and they followed obediently to find Kristen and Cody. Kristen was easy to find, she was still in the closet in the back of the throne room, her body leaned hard against the corner of the wall, holding her stick threateningly as they found her.
"It's okay Kristen, they were just a bunch of teenagers." James said, trying to get her to stand up.
"Is that them?" She asked.
"Yes Kristen, this is Poklley and this is Parkison." He said, pointing at the two boys.
"Parky." He corrected.
James sighed, and turned to him.
"Well I prefer Parkison, it demonstrates you better that way." He said.
Parkison rolled his eyes, but didn't make any comment. Kristen then got up and followed them out of the ballroom.
"Now I wonder why Cody went for a run for it but not Josh. Aren't they mostly after you?" Kristen asked the others, but mostly Josh.
"Maybe Cody was stupid enough to think they were real." Josh responded.
Kristen gave him a hard jab in the stomach with her elbow.
"You knew about this?" James asked.
"Well yah, but I knew you would eventually catch on. I knew ever since I saw them whip by through the hallways, and I thought it would be fun to play poker face for a while." He said with a smile.
"You did a pretty good job at Poker face then." James said, grinning back at him.
Josh nodded feeling proud of his realistic poker face. James then turned to the twins again.
"Where's your family?"
"They left us," Pokkley replied with grief.
"Where are they now?" He asked.
"Donno, something attacked the planet causing everybody to evacuate to a different planet. We were not warned because we were in the mines alone." Parkison shrugged his shoulders.
"Why were you in the mines?" Cody asked.
"We were just..." Pokkley said in a guilty tone, and he rubbed the back of his neck, "goofin' around a bit."
"Then we better go find your family then." James said, giving them both a hard pat on the shoulders.
"You know about the masked figures, maybe we should-" Parkison whispered but was interupted by his paranoid brother.
"Shut up Parky, you know we can't talk about it in these areas and esspecially in public!"
James, Kristen, Josh, and Cody were now all looking at them. They had just left to another planet and were sitting in the waiting area of the mayors house, hoping the mayor would tell them of anything of a group of people from a different planet coming to this one.
The waiting room had immaculate walls of ember and gold designs on the walls. The floorboard looked hand carved and the carpet was made of some material that none of them had ever seen before. As they waited a while, a woman in a denim skirt, a long red scarf, and a blouse came into the waiting room.
"Hello, are you the people that needed to meet me?" She asked.
"Yes..." James said, trying to find out by all she said if she was mayor or just an assistant,"Are your the.... mayor?"
"Why certainly, come with me." She said with a large white smile.
They followed her to her office and sat down at purple seats that were lined up against the walls. The Mayor sat down at her desk and her already cheesy smile grew.
"Hello, I am mayor Grown, how can I help all of you?" She asked.
"We are looking for a group of people who evacuated a planet nearby, we are wondering if they ended up close from here." James said.
"Hmmm," She responded with a disappointed tone, "I'm afraid nobody has visited from a different planet for a few years now, but I'm sure I can help you look."
"We are good, we have enough here to look. We just needed to know thank you." James then stood up, ready to leave now.
"Wait a second, even though they are not here I think I may know where they are." She tried.
"We will find them okay,"
"No really, I think I know where they are. I just need to come with you."
"Now we don't really know you very well Mrs. Mayor, this may feel a little odd for us."
"Oh please, I have never traveled by teleportation before." She pleaded, it was like she was acting like a child wanting to go on a ride at a fair.
James gave a light sigh, looking up at the red ceiling. When he looked back at Mayor Grown she was looking at him with a pleading puppy dog look on her face.
"Now that is pretty childish for a mature mayor."
"But I really want to go." She cried, jumping up and down on her chair. Now it seemed she was acting like a teenager wanting to go somewhere with her boyfriend.
"Okay, that is enough for a woman like you, this won't help you come along."
Suddenly, she sat still, placed her arms reverently on the table and made a simple smile on her face.
"Is this better?" She asked.
James sighed, and looked over at the others. They shrugged there shoulders, showing that they don't really care whether she comes or not. He looked back at the mayor who was now acting like what a real mayor should act at her desk, you could see that she was trying her very best to be good.
"Are you new at this job?" He asked.
"Oh yes sir, I just started my first day yesterday." She cheered, her big smile coming back.
"That makes sense now." He said under his breath, making sure she couldn't hear him but the others could.
"So can I go with you guys?"
"What about your job as mayor-"
"Too hard."
"What about work and money-"
"Can easily find another one, I will just tell the others that I'm going out of town for a little bit for some important business."
James thought about it for another few minutes and sighed once again.
"Fine, you can go."
The mayor jumped for joy and darted towards the door.
"Well off we go then, off we go." She sung.
As they stepped back out of her office, James was starting to think that maybe this wasn't a good idea that she shouldn't come; but it was too late now.
Chapter 5- Susan Grown
"My name is Susan by the way." The mayor said as they ended up on their next planet.
"Nice name." He commented.
"Why thank you sir." She replied back in an English tone.
The others had went out to scout and James and Susan were left in the field nearby waiting for them to return back to them. None of them knew about this place and James was the only one Susan could trust and he didn't want her going out to scout. They waited there for quite a while, in fact a few hours for them to return.
But they never came. Susan had cuddled up at James' feet sleeping and James stayed standing for watch. As he watched he suddenly spotted something moving in the long grass. He squinted to see if he could spot what was over their but it didn't help much. He then saw it jump out, and before he could have a better look he was thrown to the ground by it. He could feel something biting into his shoulder, and he winced in pain. He sat up to find the creature had vanished once again.
Susan had woken up and was panting hard.
"What just happened?" She asked.
"I don't know something just..." But he stopped as Susan glanced at his bleeding shoulder.
"Your injured." She said.
Susan scooted up closer and observed the wound a bit closer.
"It's definitely a Canis Lupus familiaris, but what kind?" She asked herself aloud.
James was shocked by the big word Susan had said after the past immature experiences.
"I guess your smarter that I thought, I never call a dog after it's scientific name."
"I have been studying science ever since I was three, that was the huge reason I wanted to come actually. Because I wanted to actually use the stuff I have learned and turn it into a mini field trip."
"Well, that is very nice."
"The big reason I wanted to study science is so I can teach my children and they can teach theirs so when something happens and they need a scientists, my family can come to the rescue."
"Interesting."
Susan stopped observing his cut and looked him in the eyes.
"I knew those children weren't yours, so wheres you family?" She asked.
There was a long pause. James was beginning to feel awkward, because he never liked to share his personal past.
"They're... never mind." He looked away, not daring to share anything.
"Oh come on, it won't be that embarrassing unless..." She paused, they both knew what the other answer was.
"I don't want to talk about it right now, it's the wrong time."
Susan quickly changed the subject by looking up at the sky.
"My, my, look up their. It is getting dark we should-" But she was cut off.
"No, we can't risk sleeping with the creature lurking around." He snapped.
"Then let me get that shoulder wrapped, and we can go find a place to stay for shelter." She said, pulling off her scarf from around her neck.
She wrapped the red scarf snug around his shoulder with the shirt still on. The scarf was long enough to wrap several times. She helped him up with his good arm and they walked through the field to find shelter.
The field was large and it being dark it was hard to see what was around. The large sun up above was beginning to fade behind the valley and all was left was just the sunset. James didn't want to rest, nor did Susan. They just sat in the field, prepared for the creature to come by again.
For hours they sat there wondering when the creature was going to return, but there was nothing. Susan lied her head on his shoulder.
"So are you married?" She asked.
"Well... yah, I was." He responded, putting his head down.
"What about kids?" She asked, not noticing that it was probably the wrong time to ask.
"Susan, I really don't want to get too personal around you. I don't exactly know you quite well and these questions are coming back to me in a painful sort of way, this is really the wrong time." He said.
"I-I'm sorry, I-I just... was curious, that was all." She stuttered, looking away ashamed.
James sighed and put his arm around her shoulder. It seemed like a normal night, crickets echoed throughout the valley and the cool night air brought a gentle breeze against the long grass. There was still no signs of either the three fourteen year old teenagers, or the creature who attacked and vanished so suddenly. Soon the sounds of the night loathed the both of them to sleep and a striped, black and white tail swung out of the long grass.