The Chronicles of Earth and Time

Chapter 7

Terra arrived in the depths of the deep forest of the Whispering Woods that was littered with wildflowers. She sighed as she began to walk through the forest. She began to think of everything that happened today and tried to make sense of it. Who was lying to her? Who was telling the truth? Who could she trust? Terra considered talking to Aura since it seemed like she was oblivious to everything that was going on, but she did not want to stress Aura about this. It would probably upset or scare her.

Terra sighed as she looked ahead to find she was approaching a small clearing with a lake and a big tree surrounded by boulders. The tree was not as big or as impressive as Mother Nature's, but Terra loved it anyway. Similar to the Tree of Life, she held up her stone to a simple knot in the tree to create a vine doorway. She opened the door to immediately find a small kitchen on the left and a small living area on the right. There were soft, fluffy couches that surrounded a small fireplace that had a bookshelf on either side. At the end of the room in the center, there were two sets of spiral stairs that lead up the tree. She crossed the room and walked right up the stairs. There were four bedrooms located upstairs. However, she only used one of these bedrooms. The other bedrooms were used for guests. A long time ago though, those bedrooms belonged to her sisters when they used to live together. They moved out when they were able to create homes for themselves. Terra's home was never actually created by her. It was actually created by Gaia for the elementals to use, because she felt that they should not feel obligated to live with her in the palace. Eventually, Ustrina and Aqua moved out and created homes of their own. Aura left to be on her own as well; however, she did not actually have a home. She preferred to live outdoors and be free. She would sometimes come and stay in her old bedroom if she felt homesick or was actually sick. Yes, the elementals could get sick and they could even die. The spirits were immortal, but that only meant they did not age. There were rare occasions were a spirit could age, but there were only a couple cases were that had actually happened. However, they could be destroyed.

Terra shook her head to banish these thoughts from her head. She walked down the hallway toward her bedroom. Terra's bedroom was decorated a lot like Gaia's palace. The walls were covered with green vines, ivy, and other plants that prohibited one from seeing the walls at all. Against the wall in the center of the room was a queen sized bed that was decorated in green and gold. She had the basic furniture that a person would need plus some. She had a dresser, nightstand on either side of the bed, and a writing desk. All of this furniture was a dark hardwood trimmed with gold that match the bed. The biggest difference between Terra's home and the palace was probably the floor. While Gaia had decorated hers with fine green carpets and beautiful hardwood floors, Terra's floor in her bedroom was completely covered in pale pink flower petals that served as a carpet for Terra to walk on. In Terra's opinion, it was better than any carpet a person could have.

She plopped down on her bed falling onto her back not even bothering the change her clothes. She stared at the intertwining roots on the ceiling knowing that they covered every room in her home. Terra began to think about what Ustrina had said about Aevum. Could he really be the threat that is rising against Gaia and Aion? What if he was using her to take suspicion off him? What if he did not really like her the way that she liked him? What if Ustrina is lying? But what if Aqua was lying? She sighed for the millionth time that day as she fell into a stressful sleep with one thing on her mind. Who could she trust?

Terra awoke the next morning completely relaxed until she remembered that Aqua was supposed to visiting her that morning. Suddenly, she recalled everything that had happened the day before and that began to sink into her mind. Terra immediately made her way outside and quickly looked up to locate the sun in the sky. To her surprise, it was exactly noon according to the sun's position in the sky. Aqua should have been here hours ago. Terra looked around her lake and in the nearby forest.

"Aqua?" She called as she continued looking for her sister. "Aqua! Where are you?" Terra continued this pattern of searching for about an hour until she had finally gave up looking. This was weird. Aqua was never one to be late for anything especially for something as important as this. If anything she would be early. Terra then decided to teleport to Aqua's home to make sure she was okay.

When Terra appeared in the watery caves of Aqua's home, she gasped in horror at the sight before her. The cave that was usually flowing with beautiful waterfalls and sparkling rocks was now just a dried up cave that was littered with smashed chunks of rocks and dust. The waterlilies that once covered the water had become wrinkled up and were crumbling under each step Terra took.

"Aqua?" Terra called softly as she began to search the cave for any sign of her. The only thing that Terra could figure from the damage that was set before her was that there was defiantly a fight. However, she was unable to figure out anything else. Terra cried in frustration wishing that she knew what do to do in this type of situation. She picked up a rock and threw it in rage into one of the dried up ponds only to hear a small clinking noise that sounded like a rock hitting metal instead of the normal sound that a rock would make. Confused Terra slid down the crater of where the pond used to be in order figure out what made the strange noise. When she got to the bottom of the dried up pond, Terra was able to spot a small circular object covered in dust. Terra picked it up and gently began to wipe the dust off gasping in horror when she saw what it was.