The Hunt for Aquatenite

Chapter - 23 Liza

We were falling. We were falling at lightning speed and still, a solid surface was nowhere to be found. I couldn't see anything. It was dark. I thought how lonely it is for blind people who can't see the light of day. After a few more moments, I feared we would reach the center of the Earth but then I remembered a science lesson (Yes, we are falling and I'm thinking about science classes. Lucy did that to me. Go figure). The lower we sink into Earth, the hotter the temperature turns. But, here it felt so normal. We couldn't be underground.

Finally, I saw a spark of light. A flicker of hope ignited in me. I closed my eyes when we entered the hole of light. I wanted to see my home, my room. But when I opened my eyes, all I saw was the moon and clouds. Wait! I was standing on clouds! How is it possible to stand on clouds? They are made of gas (Gosh, I was still thinking about science.)

From afar, a 15-feet door with brown embroidery and scenes from the hexens' battle with the giants, stared back at me. The door frame was covered with ornate carvings. But what wasn't normal about the door was that it wasn't connected to anything. It was just standing on the clouds. Purple light came out from inside.

"I thought I could handle this place again." I heard Rislerk mutter. I didn't pay attention to it a lot at the moment. I was too busy figuring out how someone could stand on clouds.

"Is that it? It can't be that easy. Hexens can't be this dumb." Oliver exclaimed, not taking his eyes off the gates.

"If you think fighting three giants, drowning in water, falling off thousands of feet down the Earth, and almost dying a hundred times is easy, then yeah, it can't be that easy," I said, sarcastically. Saying it out loud made it seem more unrealistic than it was.

"No, Oliver is right. Hexens would not make it easy to reach the giants' doors." Rislerk said.

"But how is this possible? One second we were falling down the Earth and the next we...started to fly? It's impossible." I commented.

"There's just one way to find out. Get inside the door and get it over with." Oliver said as he moved to the door of doom. Rislerk and I had no choice but to follow him.

My heart skipped a beat with each step. Sad memories from my past surfaced, causing me to step back and try to flee, but I couldn't. I had no choice but to move on. I remembered every quarrel I'd had with mai and abba. I'd made them miserable in every possible way and regretted it later. Then, a memory came to my mind- mai and abba's accident. No, no, no. I couldn't see this again! I gasped as I came back to the world.

I glanced at Rislerk and Oliver. They had tears welled in their eyes. I realized tears were streaming down my cheeks too. My blurry gaze drifted off to the door in front of us. We were so little in front of it.

The boys and I brushed away our tears. Now we had to enter the giants' realm. All we had to do was enter the large brown gates but it seemed like a big mistake. Something didn't feel right.

"I don't feel like entering," Oliver said, moving away from the door. 

"Yeah... what is the meaning of this?" Rislerk agreed and followed Oliver.

I also wanted to join them. I didn't want to go inside. I couldn't remember what had happened in the past few days. But something important had happened. I knew that. A picture formed in my mind, but it was blurry. I tried to focus on it. The boys pressed me to follow them but I knew I needed to remember something. More pictures floated in my mind. Every image was fuzzy. I couldn't concentrate on them. Something was preventing me from remembering what happened in the last few days. I waited for some miracle to happen so that I could see the images. Then, an image formed slowly in my mind that was clear. I was on a mission with Lucy, Olivia, Oliver, Nexiana, and Rislerk. As soon I saw it, every memory flooded back. I fell back. It was so overwhelming.

I searched for Oliver and Rislerk. I stood up to find them elsewhere. I searched them around the doors. I checked a little further away from the doors but they were nowhere to be found. I reached the same place we had fallen from the sky. I sat there, thinking about what would happen if it ends here. First, Olivia, Lucy, and Nexiana got lost. Now, the boys too.

Suddenly, two girls fell out of the sky, screaming. But the place they decided to land on- MAsk me if If you have ever wondered how heavy two teenage girls would weigh on me. Never try it at home unless you want to break some of your bones.

"Try another spot to fall at a million miles per hour, next time." I shrieked as Lucy and Olivia climbed off of me.

"Hope the next time never comes," Lucy remarked.

"You have to admit, making Liza angry is entertaining," Olivia said, hi-fiving Lucy. Then she noticed Oliver and Rislerk were missing. "Where are the boys? Please don't tell me you don't know."

"I wish I could," I admitted, becoming very interested in my feet.

Olivia cursed under her breath and looked up, looking braver than she felt. "Let's go." She pointed at the door. I glanced at Lucy for some help but all she did was stare at her feet.

"I searched everywhere I could, Olivia," I told her. "I don't understand why you can't trust me."

"Oh, you don't understand why I can't trust you. I was going to lose my job which is as important as Oliver. And you've lost him too. It's you who doesn't trust me. I didn't send you the letter. But you think I did for no reason."

It was my habit to start an argument whenever someone talked back to me so, as always, I was going to answer back to her. But, thankfully, Lucy stopped me.

"We trust you, don't we Liza?" She asked me with a pleading look on her face. Even if she hadn't made those puppy dog eyes, I would have understood what she was trying to say. I knew it wouldn't be the best choice to make Olivia mad. We'd seen Olivia being angry and it wasn't pretty. My advice is, never to interrupt her while she's working. You don't want to see her explode next. Anyway, I nodded at Lucy.

"Olivia, I'm really sorry that thought ever crossed my mind. I don't want to upset you but I always end up doing that. I'm so, so sorry." I stepped forward to wrap my arms around her and surprisingly, she reciprocated.

"I'm also sorry," She said. Why was she sorry? "I shouldn't take out my anger on you for something that isn't your fault. I know it's difficult to get used to all this."

Wow, that felt so good and so weird at the same time coming from Olivia. But it was nice to hear that.

'Hey, lemme join too!" Lucy chimed in and we pulled her in for the hug too.

There was a loud thud. We pulled away, getting serious. I gasped when I saw the doors had opened all the way through. Two giants were standing outside the gates holding someone with thick chains. When we got a closer look at that 'someone', we found something special.

1. It wasn't someone but two people.

2. Those two people were Oliver and Rislerk.