Just Another Lullaby

Chapter 13: Preparation

"Found it!" Rocky called out. With a loud thump, the large and heavy book the mongrel had been carrying dropped onto the sturdy, pup-sized wooden table. The attention of his two remaining friends were immediately caught, and they drew away from the various shelves packed tight with encyclopedias.

After the surprising incident with the stone, the three remaining pups managed to sneak their way back into town and into an abandoned library, where they had all agreed upon learning as much as they could about the stones at hand in hopes of finding a solution to their sickly conundrum.

"What?" Chase asked excitedly as he and Skye took their respective seats on each side of the grey mongrel, both simultaneously glancing down at the large book on the table.

"The stone. My prediction was correct," Rocky pulled out a map from underneath the heavy book. The map was nothing short of a vague outline of Adventure Bay. He pointed at a spot, "This is where we were transported to. The Lookout; our home.

"According to this book, this stone did indeed transport us there. The stone's name is Taxmial: Greek for taxídi, which means travel; and stigmí, which means instant. According to the book here, the stone will teleport its user in one of two ways; the first being of desired location, the second being through emotional attachment.

"The Lookout was our home; it makes sense why the stone would teleport him there. Skye and I only tagged along because we were able to grab ahold of you before the stone did its magic," Rocky glanced at Chase, who seemed lost in thought, absorbing all the given information.

"What about the others?" Skye pipped up, curiosity only rising the more she heard.

"Hmm, let's see..." Rocky murmured, his face twisting into  deep concentration as he scanned through the pages. "We got Soma, stone of the body; Sol, stone of the soul; Enacheir, stone of energy manipulation; Aspida stone of shields; Kostia, stone of fire and the cosmos; Chronos, stone of time; Latreia, stone of worship; and finally, Airanee, the amplifier. All but two are named after Greek words."

"And I'm assuming that it is safe to say that Sacant is using the body, soul, and worship stones to turn the others into those mindless brain zombies, right?" Chase questioned, receiving a nod from the smart mongrel.

"That is what he said, minus the worship stone."

"He probably is using that stone, though. I mean, soul and body can only go so far, right?" Chase asked, inattentively probing at the snow-white gem on the table.

Rocky took a quick glance back at the page, skimming over the words for any missed information he gathered. "I guess you're right," He mumbled, "There's not much more information given than what I already read."

"You said there was a time stone, right?" The worried voice quickly grabbed the attention of the two male pups. Skye sat on her pillow, fidgeting slightly as she awaited an answer from the grey pup, only to become more distressed when he gave her a confused nod. Skye drew in a quick breath, her breathing became much more uneven and her little fidgets intensified into full-on shaking. She looked as if she was about to have a panic attack. "T-that mean he has the time stone! He can go back! A-any minute! Even only ten minutes will bring us back to being under his mercy!" She stammered quickly, watching as she fiddled with her paws in a sore attempt to calm herself.

"Hey, hey..."Chase murmured as he got up from his seat and quickly made his way towards the distressed Cockapoo. He brought up his paw and placed it gingerly along her back, slowly drawing soft circles to provide her with some comfort. "He hasn't yet. Maybe he had forgotten that one of the stones controls time?"

"I wouldn't be too sure on that." Rocky muttered quietly, seemingly to himself moreso than to the others. The anxiety within him was beginning to skyrocket now that Skye had shed some new light on the situation at hand. He looked up at the duo, speaking only a little louder this time. "If he was this dedicated to this cause, he wouldn't forget something like one of the stones in his possession so easily."