The Object Realm

Chapter 11 - and so their journey began

  "What?" Everyone awoke to see one tiny crystal on their desks. Everyone was confused except Multicolor Pen since He already knew what it meant. He decided to call everyone to the lounge and tell them about it. "I don't know how to explain this, but this is the work of Crystal Ball. I remember something about her starting this world or something, but it's something we should figure out." The majority were confused, except for Orchid. "I know something you all don't, but we will find more and understand and get to the bottom of this." They weren't getting the point very much but silently agreed with a nod. They all dispersed and went back to their normal business.
    Later, Multicolor Pen began to wonder what Orchid meant by saying that she knew something the rest didn't. He went up to her and asked. "When you said that you know something we don't. . . what did you mean?" Orchid stayed silent, and her eyes began to glow just enough to be noticeable. Then she flicked back to normal and apologized. "Sorry, I lost my cool a bit there. Don't know what got into me, but just know that I also had those visions. . ." Multicolor Pen didn't know why she apologized, but he now knew that he and Orchid shared a perspective on the situation at hand.
That night, Orchid had a strange dream about Crystal Ball again. They were alone, in Orchid's childhood room, now abandoned.
     "I started this universe, and I'm sure as hell going to end it someday." "But why would you do such a thing?!" "Oh, you sweet summer child. I started this realm, and I'm going to end it. Slowly, but surely, it will all end at one point. Besides, I was always bitter and malicious, it's ingrained in my personality. Humans are boring, they're all the same if you really look into it. I thought opening the object portal would spice things up, but simply put, they're not doing much better." "But I still don't get why you'd destroy your creation! That's like making a million bucks just to burn it into ashes." "Hush now, you'd never understand my thinking. We may be related, but we're polar opposites." It felt so wrong for Orchid to see such a familiar face, who was once nothing worse than a sassy troublemaker, do such a thing. The lamp's light began to flicker, things got distorted, Orchid heard faint but unsettling noises, and Crystal Ball had what looked like a third eye open. Then, she woke up, and it was 3 AM. "That was. . . distressing, to say the least." She thought for a second and went back to sleep after a few minutes.
     As the month went by, more and more subtle clues began to pop up in the building. Crystal Ball would come in while everyone was asleep, and left behind pieces of a message paper for them to see, along with some crystal shards. Eventually, they got the hint and pieced together the ripped papers to find the message. "You will see me someday, at some time. I'm never in the cities, but you might want to seek out the natural crystals. A faint beam will glow where you should go. The stones will lead you to success." Everyone knew she was talking about a cave. "This feels similar to the wild goose hunt my group did to find Sticker," Ace said. "There's also something about a beam, so we might want to search when it's darker. That way, the beam will pop out against the dark sky." They also connected the crystal shards, and the completed piece began to glow. Its glow became a hologram depicting a portal opening, and crystals being scattered around an area, their area. "That's a clue! If we use a map to figure out where those crystals might be, it could lead us to that cave," Protractor pointed out. "The clues are in front of us, we just have to piece them together to find our answer. There are also those tiny crystals we got on our desks, those might also prove useful. The journey could be fast or slow, but we'll get there." Orchid spoke her side of the story. "In my dream last night, she told me she was going to end this realm. We better find her and stop her from doing such a thing, for the sake of our world." They were all determined to solve the mystery, and so their journey began.