Mark of the Ranger

XLI. Awaken!

"That better be what I unintelligibly assume it is," I told Isabel as we looked at the alien structure. The thing was about twelve feet tall, and was U-shaped, its ends curving towards us two. In the bottom of the loop, there was a large square opening. The structure was made of black brick, and many colors of light leaked from the cracks between the bricks and the opening. I had seen a picture like this in one of my Ranger Academy textbooks, but the ones in the books didn't have their left sides stubbornly stuck into the ground, for whatever reason that happened.

"Yup," Isabel answered. "That's a Stonehouse." Stonehouses had one purpose, and that was to create a stone soldier. Stone soldiers were easy things to create. All you needed was a whole lot of rocks, some earth magic and light magic. One could even use some dark magic if they wanted it to have different powers, but I didn't recall what the differences were. I tried to rack my brain for the differences, as I had read them in my textbooks and they were most likely important, but Isabel was commanding me to do something. "Sorry, what was that?" I asked.

"Go get me a lot of rocks," she repeated, still staring at the Stonehouse. Hearing the deadpan importance in her voice, I immediately ran to go find Isabel as many rocks as I could possibly find. However, the only problem that was in my way was that the Woodlands were a forest, and rocks weren't generally easy to find in a forest. Still, I tried my best, coming up with a few mossy pebbles and even a few larger rocks. I found the Stonehouse again, this time righted by some of Isabel's magic. I threw down the rocks that I had found on a circle that had appeared in the center.

Isabel didn't say a word, but I knew that I was to go and get more rocks. I stumbled through the forest, passing tree after tree, searching wildly for something I could use, when I found the mother lode: a mossy boulder so big I would need my Mark of Strength to help me lift it. I used the gift I had earned for my bravery and hauled the rock up above my shoulders. As quickly as I could, so my Mark wouldn't wear off before I reached it, I dashed to the Stonehouse. I saw Isabel, still standing there, but this time with her staff extended, blue magic flowing from the crystal tip. I threw the boulder down in the circle. Isabel smiled at its immense size.

My Mark of Strength wore off soon after that. I felt a surge of exhaustion, but I willed myself to stay awake. I wanted to watch Isabel construct the stone soldier. And that was what Isabel did. The magic coming from Isabel's staff turning from blue to brown. She was beginning to input the earth magic.

I sat down on another rock before realizing that Isabel could use that. I ripped the rock from the ground, threw it into the circle, then sat down on the mossy ground. As I watched Isabel standing there, feeding the Stonehouse magic and occasionally pausing to eat a mana cake, I heard someone else sit next to me. I looked to my right and saw Elena, with her mask removed. I realized that we hadn't ever gotten our masks back when we had been released from being tied to chairs, but I didn't worry about that too much. The masks were just props, nothing more.

Jeff followed after Elena, sitting on my left. David found us, Ko and Karen, too. We watched as Isabel finished feeding the Stonehouse magic. The rocks began to shake. The powerful event of stone soldier construction was about to begin.

The rocks in the circle slowly lifted off of the ground, rising to nearly the top of the Stonehouse. They sluggishly began to swirl around, steadily picking up speed. The giant boulder seemed to be in the center of the show of sorts. Isabel sat down to watch what was happening, and she had a smile on her face. She seemed to have snapped out of the strange daze she was in. The rocks became faster and faster, almost at a blinding pace. The ones that orbited the big rock began to close their orbit around it, revolving tighter and tighter around their center.

Finally, the orbit closed. I covered my eyes again, knowing magic was half flashing lights, half unbelievable stunts. This thing was a combination of both. Once I lowered my eyes again, There stood a small human-looking statue. I had never seen a stone soldier before, so I didn't know what to expect. I did, however, know one thing, and that was that stone soldiers generally moved. THis statue object was not moving.

Isabel seemed to detect the same problem, for she stepped forward to the statue and put her hand to its head. I didn't know what she felt, but whatever it was infuriated her greatly. She cursed loudly and kicked the statue, proceeding to call it names I didn't want to know how she learned. As soon as she was done, there was a silent pause, as if the world was hanging in suspense. After a few seconds, the single visor-eye of the statue glowed with a blue light, the same blue light smoking from it.

I realized that it was awake, and this was what a stone soldier was. It was easily six-and-a-half feet tall, with one glowing visor for an eye. Moss covered its right arm and its right upper torso. Its skin was gray, grayer than stone, and I could feel the magical power emanating from it. Jutting from its head were six spikes, and it only had four thick fingers, including thumbs, on its hands. We stared in wonder at Isabel's newest creation. I hadn't noticed it, but Marrow was watching with us. He was just as dazed.

The newly awakened stone soldier turned to Isabel. "Hello," it greeted her with a harmonious voice that was neither male nor female, or possibly both. "Who am I, and what can I do to serve you?"