Phoenix Rising

The Doorway

We watch, sadly as Emilea turns Josh into the orange dust. This is called incinerating. His dust blows away in the wind, and we look down in remorse.

First Violet, now Josh. Josh who had saved me from the bats just minutes before he died. Dylan's thoughts are right. This is a suicide mission. And now the one person with fire is dead.

I manage to recollect myself. There is no time for remorse. We have to keep moving forward.

"We need to go now, we can't stay here all day." Emilea says and she stands and starts to walk away.

"Where are you going?" I ask as I walk after her.

"I am looking for where this monster lived. He might have something valuable. We are supposed to be looking for clues to find the cross, remember?"

We walk up the mountain without saying a word. After walking for about an hour we find a very small shabby cabin. As we step into the cabin we look around. It is made out of wood and ice. All of the furniture is frozen and the ice monster barely has anything other than furniture. The place is clean and bare.

"Hey, come and look at this." Emilea echoes.

"What is it?" I call as I walk over to Emilea.

"I found a clue, it's a journal." She shivers because of the cold. "It seems to hold information on hundreds of creatures and items."

"Does it say anything about the cross?"

"Actually, I think it might." she says as she flips through the index. "Here it is!" She points at the picture of a cross. "It says here this cross has multiple uses. It can bring people back from the dead and can also heal the living. It was created by The Phoenix King. The Phoenix King is a man made of his victim's insides. The only exception of what he is made from is their bones and skin. Happy we don't have to deal him then, yet..."

"Let's hope we survive the rest of these monsters. One monster down and one person has been killed. Let's not make this a habit."

"Where are you guys?" Rose calls out as she steps into the cabin.

"We're coming, we've found what we needed." Emilea tells us all.

We walk back to the giant opening where we fought Chraal. They all grab on to me and I teleport them to Hawaii.

"Where are we?" Emilea asks.

"We are in Hawaii." I respond happily.

"Let's go, the dragon is probably in a volcano or something." Rose says.

"Hawaii was originally the violet district, but the nairi here wanted to join with the real world. The school wouldn't allow it. The people here grew enough power though to bring the territory out of the school's spell. Now no Nairi or monsters live here. We might find either the dragon or the vampire here because they have a strong connection with each other. I don't know how they escaped our island but they must be eliminated before any citizens get killed or harmed or else our island could be in serious danger." Kaela informs us.

"Where are they most likely to appear, Kaela?" I ask.

"Most likely in the hidden volcano called Feri. It is the largest volcano in the world but hidden to all mortals because it is actually beneath ground. "

"How do we get there?" Rose asks.

"The journal describes a hidden doorway. It would have to be made of obsidian because of the heat pressures that are exerted from the lava. The door is probably buried as well."

"I wonder where that might be." Emilea ponders to herself.

"I would assume the doorway would be located in a place within a volcano, and I think this volcano, according to the information from this book, is most likely a big one. The largest volcano in Hawaii is the Mauna Loa. So let's go to the side of Mauna Loa and see if we can find anything." Kaela says.

I'm feeling too drained to teleport. I have used so much magic already I'm feeling kind of droopy.

"Aris, why don't you teleport us there?" Emilea offers.

"I don't think I can. I have already used too much power and I'm starting to feel a little weak. How about the human way and take a bus? I can see one is three blocks down and a block to the left."

"Whatever you say, your highness." Rose mocks.

I ignore Rose's comment and we all walk down the busy side walk. I grow a headache from the traffic and noise. When we arrive at the bus stop I look at the arrival times and it says a bus would be here within ten minutes. Three hours had pass since we embark on our journey and I am already exhausted. When the bus finally arrives, we find that it smells awful inside. It feels way too crowded and I barely get a seat next to Emilea. It will take forty-five minutes until the bus arrives the closest to the volcano core as we can get.

"So, how are you feeling?" Emilea asks me sympathetically.

"Dealing with exhaustion and remorse. You?" I ask casually.

"Just about the same." She laughs.

"Are we ever going to eat lunch?" I say as I dramatically grabbed my stomach.

"No, we are only going to eat breakfast and dinner while we are on a mission. Lunch would be a waste of time." She said seriously, but laughs because of my reaction.

"No wonder everyone is so thin at your school."

"At 'our' school." She corrects.

I look out the window and we can see the volcano from the bus. "It is huge, how are we ever going to find this hidden buried door?"

"With your powers of course. You know you can locate anything you want. You have a x-ray sort of vision that allows you to see through anything. It is a lot like when you located the bus station. This power of yours is called inner vision. Only very few purple nairi can do it. Surprisingly, you can do that as well."

"It sounds complicated." I joke.

We look out the window at the volcano for the remainder of the trip. I can't see any obsidian from here. I'm not even sure if I can do that kind of inner vision. The bus finally stops and a few others get out with us. Once we all group up again Kaela states a frightening fact.

"Umm... I just thought of something."

"What is it?" Rose asks.

"This whole island is the volcano, the door could be anywhere."

"Aris, use your powers to locate the door. You should be able to sense the obsidian if it is anywhere around here." Emilea commands with a twinge of doubt. I can sense that we are all scared the door isn't here and that we will never find it. That we came all this way for nothing. I close my eyes and think hard about obsidian. It takes about three minutes of me just meditating when I open my eyes I see the door covered in at least five feet of dirt.

"There." I say and point to a vertically flat area of land 200 yards away. We all run towards the spot and start digging with our powers and with our hands.

"Let's get this door unburied." Rose responds enthusiastically.

It takes about half an hour to fully dig up the door. Once we unburied the door we brush off all the remaining dirt and dust and look at it in awe. We open the door and see the obsidian, marble looking staircase and walk in. Once we enter the cryptic looking place the door slams shut and we are left in complete darkness.