The Necklace of Elements [Book one]

-- Chapter nine --

Chapter nine: Trap of Strange Illusions

The spaceship landed without any trouble and the first thing which the child had noticed was the fact that this planet – Planet Thiazen, he mentally reminded himself – was filled with nature so similar to the one back on Earth.

It was as if this planet was but a replica of Earth itself. Or it could even be called the second Earth, without a single doubt.

"Come on, Boboiboy, you can enjoy the view later," Fang interrupted, waving his hands to gain the other's attention. "If you don't hurry, then I'll have no choice but to leave you behind."

"Right, I'm coming!" Boboiboy quickly rushed to his friend's side, as he was not a fan of wandering alone in the place he knew nothing of himself – unless, of course, it was a necessary thing, one which he had no choice but to do so.

Though it was quite surprising to see that unlike the Earth he had known back then, this replicate one didn't seem to have much of a life in it, if you didn't include the obvious natures.

"Fang, do you know their location?"

Fang paused. "Unfortunately, no," he murmured with a frown on his face. "I can barely gather any signal around here and walking deeper into this forest doesn't help much either."

Which was the truth, as the child himself could not find any stable signal himself.

"Then how are we going to find them?" Boboiboy asked, his eyes wandered around his surroundings. "I don't think there is any other kind of assistance that can aid us aside from ourselves."

Without the other knowing, Fang took a glance over his shoulder as he walked. Pursing his lip at the thought of suggesting the child to seek help from his element instead.

But he wasn't sure how the child would react at his awareness of his elements' existence outside of where they should be.

He'd rather not be questioned about this knowledge at all.

Though glancing down at his power watch, he somewhat knew what to do next. "I'll use my shadow to start looking for the others."

This made the child deadpan. "And you only suggested that now? Could've done that from the beginning, no?"

Fang rolled his eyes at him. "I just remembered I can do that, didn't mean to forget it in the first place."

However, when he placed his other hand on the one that was wearing the power watch, paused a little as his eyes slightly narrowed. He didn't stop for long before he twisted the bezel of the watch a little as the dark shadow gathered into the palm of his hand as he summoned a beast from his shadow.

"Shadow Crow," he murmured under his breath, "Seek out the rest of them."

A crow of shadow manifested from his feet, flapped its wings for a couple of times, as if thinking over his words, before it nodded its head and flew off.

Fang glanced at his watch with a look of suspicion in his eyes.

"Fang?" He heard Boboiboy calling out to him, concern seeped into his voice as he spoke. "Is there something wrong?"

Shaking his head, clearing his head of the current thoughts as he responded. "Nothing, let's follow the crow. We might eventually find them if we hurry enough."

Without even needing a response from the other, the both of them hurriedly followed after the soaring crow.

(And without either of them knowing, the twist of their tale had once more begun in the most unexpected way.)