The Crystal Trials

37 Nik

There was something scratching against my cheek. I must have fallen asleep on my bag after looking at the Axion card again. I grumbled and itched at my face. It wasn't my bag. It was sand. I sat up straight. Wait. I gave Taury the card and left her in the library. Dath! Where was Dath? I scanned the area in a panic.

I was on an island in a dark cavern. The water around was being constantly electrocuted by lightning. There was a dock in front of me. I rubbed my eyes, stood up, and looked around. My whole team was with me on the island passed out with some beginning to wake up. The last thing I remembered was going to bed after trying to get Dath out of his room. We were unsure of how to pass the third trial only being able to conduct water with lighting. Gods. The trial!

"Everyone!" I shouted, "It's the trial!"

Emyr who had set up, threw herself backwards, "Ugh! I'm not ready."

We studied our surroundings. The island wasn't very large and held four docks, one in each cardinal direction. Across the water were matching docks to the shore. I walked to the water's edge. Every foot or so in the water were metal pillars laid out in a grid, shore to shore. No wonder the water kept getting electrocuted. Some lightning crawled up the beach as the tide moved in. I stepped back. A few team members were talking when I walked back to the middle of the island.

Emyr had finally stood up and was speaking to Rayze about the lightning. Lilta, Ameer, and Taury, same thing. I blinked as I listened to the others deliberating. No one had seen the metal pillars.

"Have you looked in the water at all?" I asked my team.

They looked at me expectantly, so I walked to the shore and pointed. Emyr groaned again and Sera agreed. Faolan flopped down on the shore and stared out at water. Evander stood behind him, his knee touching his back. I smiled at their secret. Everywhere a metal platform sprung out of the water, the lightning struck. And it was the only way across.

Jiaxin brought his hands up to his head, stressed. "How in the Hells are we going to do this?"

I faced the bulk of the group. "Ok, I have an idea. Let's break up into groups and come up with an idea. In about a half hour we will meet back in the middle and take a vote on the best idea or maybe even combine ideas."

No one had any other ideas, so we broke off into groups. I went with Garren, Taury, and Faolan. Then there were the three brothers with Sharin. I didn't envy them. Ameer, Sera, Dath and Zither went to a place close by us. And Rayze, Emyr, Jiaxin, and Lilta sat on the other side of the island.

"This is damn near impossible. You know that right? And this is only the third trial. What happens if we fail? Erix never said. What-"

"Faolan," I grabbed the wolf's face, "chill before you pass out." He breathed deep and nodded.

We all sat quietly and thought for a minute. The only thing we could think of was that to cross, we needed the water out of the way to reduce the spread of the electricity. With the time up, all sixteen of us circled around the center of the island. The brothers had come up with using the sand and place it on the pillars somehow, but we couldn't work around that would help. Rayze's group came up with the same we did, we had to move the water. Ameer and Sera, ever the brains, said we needed a way to move the lightning.

I suggested what ran through my head. "What if we cross one at a time? We can all help each person by redirecting the lightning. Others can move the water for the person walking across."