Quest For The Key

Chapter 14: Earth

Maple looked down at the piece of paper crumpled in her hand. The one Jealousy had given her.  On it was the address of where they would find her friend Pepper and her pet dragon named Shadow. The address was a town called Lit.  Maple and Jack arrived late at night but the place was so bright it was as if it was only dusk not midnight. There must have been a celebration going on, for there were fire works going off in the sky and the streets were swarmed with people. All in luminescent  costumes and masks with peacock feathers, some quite strange. Well actually all quite strange. Here they piled on layers of makeup and wore tight clothes. The girls walked in stilettoes, men roamed around in weird brightly coloured jumpers.  Earing, piercing, tattoos, plastic surgery. Maple had never heard of these things until now. She still didn’t get why people got nose jobs anyways.

Maple and Jack pushed there way to a hotel and walked up to the front desk. The hotel was decorated for the festival on the outside but everything was normal inside. When they walked in they spotted a neon sign that read “ Welcome to the Hotel Lit”.They had come to the right place.  Maple asked the person at the front desk if they knew what room Pepper was staying in. The young woman told them she was staying in room 25 on the 4th floor. The two made there way to the elevator and before they knew it they had just been let in to Pepper’s house and was being served some all dressed pizza. Jack told pepper EVERYTHING .

“ I know. Jealousy told me already, but your story is much more indepth children. thank you. We will leave tomorrow morning bright and early. Before the next celebration, because here in Lit thee’s a party everyday, and you don’t won’t to be caught in it!” pepper said before she showed them where they would sleep. Maple had a dreamless slumber.

Morning came before they knew it and even in the early hours of the morning the place was still jumping. With much effort caught a cab driving trough Lit. Lit was huge.  

According to Pepper, Lit was the place where the god’s came to party, so when they moved away and the area became more populated they agreed that there would be a big party ever 8 hours in remembrance to the gods. That’s how the town got the name Lit, because the streets were always lit up for the next party, even though each one only lasts about 45 minutes.

The can let them off at the edge of town and pretty soon the gang was walking again. Pepper told them all about her. She said that she had met Jealousy when she was a young teenager fairy, and they had bee friends ever since. Pepper knew the fairy realm like the back of her hand. It was where she had grown up. Her parent’s had abandoned her when she was about 3 years old. Luckily she was found by a couple of elderly wood elves who raised her to the age of 12 before they died. Maybe that was why her and Jealousy had such a bound, because they both had grown up without parent’s. Without someone to hold them and rock them jeering storms. Without someone to coddle them, listen to them, love, help, teach them. 

Five minutes later they reached a rock with strange looking markings on it.  Pepper whispered something close too the rock and stood back shaking her hands  he hands up at the sky while jumping to some dance that looked a lot like a rain dance. Just then a bolt of lightning ran threw the sky. It struck the rock with a CRAAACK!!! It split in half, revealing a bright pink ball of energy attached by what looked like strings to the marked rock. In the centre was a picture of a castle. Pepper told them it was one of the two largest fairy castles in the whole realm. This one, by the name of ArkBerch and the other that had burned down years ago was Whendrop. 

All three of them held there breaths and stepped through the portal.

The portal spat them out in a forest and although the siblings were alarmed, Pepper knew where they were.

“ We need the 5 element’s to forge the sword” said Jack.

“ No problem” replied Pepper.

“ One is Earth, right? Well, what better place to find it then in the forest.”

The group chirped along through the forest like a jolly bounding dears. From far away the friends finally saw someone up ahead. By the look of it , the lady was collecting tiny flowers with pink and white petals and purple stems. The fairy was scraping the pollen from the flowers into a wooden bowl. As the group moved in she noticed the crowd and turned around, protectively hiding her bowl, with a scowl on her face. 

“ Who are you” whispered the fairy

“ We are the Woodmer’s , Maple and Jack” the children spoke together “ we are on a quest to destroy the key of temptation. The Quest of the key and we were wondering if you could help us Who are you? ”.

“ I am Thyme and please, do not speak of that key. It is the key of destruction, that hurt’s the nature here. My mother and I have terrible memories of that key. It got my father killed. Please do not bring me into this. I’ll be on my way if you don’t mind.”  Thyme spoke quickly, and quietly, looking down at the ground the whole time.

“What if we told you that by you helping us we could destroy it forever and get revenge for your father’s death?” they asked.

“ ” What if?” spat Thyme.

“ That means it would never, ever hurt your precious forest again.”

“ Not interested’ she said.

“ Not even if it would save man kind as we all know it.” argued Maple.

“ Who cares about man kind. What good have they done me? ” she said.

“ nothing but we thought you would want to help” said Maple sounding unpleased.

“ Well I don’t! So go ask some other fairy”.

Maple and the others started to walk away but kept talking. It was pepper who finally said. “ It shows how much you really care about your forest. That you wouldn’t do every possible thing to protect it. This place must not be very important to you. We really could use every help we can get. So, if we fail there is a higher chance with out the earth element those hunters will come back even stronger with the power of the key. Which makes them immortal you realize. You will never be able to kill them. They will burn down this entire forest in less then a week and you won’t be able to stop them. Like , I said before. You must not care very much about your home”.

A few seconds passed before, thyme finally flew over. “ I do so want to protect my home. I love it with all my heart. If it really will help, I will help you. I am sorry. It’s just... my father’s death is still so fresh.” spluttered Thyme, embarrassed. “ I’ll be right back”

With that she flew off. The dainty fairy returned a minute later with her hands full of dirt.

Jack held out a bag, but she pulled away and said “ You think the earth element is actual earth.  Not true. If it was how are you suppose to collect the fire element, or the wind element.”

She spoke the magical words and right before there eyes the handful of dirt transformed into a single seed, with a burst of light and sparkles. Then she placed it in the bag. After thanking thyme they were on there way. Earth element! Check!