Galennic [#Wattys2017]

15

Whenever I post a chapter from this book and then a motive that says 12 or more notifications, I also try and guess whether it's going to be a comment spam from r5ftclifford or AriStoat_SK . If I see capital letters the minute I tap on the notifications, I know it's r5ftclifford .

I don't own anything
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The seven stood on the planet of Ilum, gathered in a more or less circle form. It was bright morning. The sun was shining off the planet's icy surface, blinding them a little. Thankfully, one of the required items was sun visors, devices that had small hooks which sat behind the ear that held a dark hologram the user could activate by pressing the button behind the ear. The two sides would slide the hologram over the users eyes, starting by the side of their face. Galen had to wear his because his eyes had always been sensitive to light. He didn't like the way they looked on him but he would rather look stupid than lose his vision.

Galen stood on the ship ramp, his back towards the bay of the ship and facing outwards at his six comrades, who stood below, clothed with warm clothing and carrying at least forty kilograms of equipment in their backpacks (minus Orson who was only allowed to carry 25-30 kilograms).

With a deep breath, Galen began the pep talk he and Orson discussed on the way over. "Today is the day we start our mission to bring about a fantasy that could have been a reality all this time! Today we begin a test of skills, knowledge, and trust in each other. If we fail, we'll try again. If we miss our chance, we'll take the next chance and the one after that. We're not going to let mystical things we can't understand fall into the fantasy group. Everything can be explained by science!"

'Except unicorns,' Galen thought. 'That might be a little difficult to explain. "Guys! A narwhale and a horse bred and had a unicorn!"' Galen bit his lip to keep from laughing. He was staring to think like Orson. The teen was wearing off on him.

He took a shaky breath to clear his mind before continuing. "So let us prove to the Galaxy that it's possible to make such a thing and together, we might take one more step towards peace for the Galaxy once and for all!" The six yelled and cheered loudly, but Orson was the loudest.

Now, Galen wasn't exactly sure how alchemy would make peace. The only thing he could think of was that by doing this trip, he was hopefully encouraging these six to stay out of the war and use their skills for researching things in good ways that were no destructive.

Galen shut the ship bay and lead the group. "Let's find some crystals." The six followed him. Okay, it was five. Orson was walking right next to him.

Orson had a large smile on his face and Galen wondered what was making the teen so happy. He asked. "I just like being with you," Orson replied.

"Well, you're lucky then," Galen said. "I've split up the group into pairs except for Oraki's group. You get to be with me and it will just be the two of us."

"Really?! Awesome!"

They went up to the cave entrance, which was more like an archway carved out of ice. Inside the archway, it looked kind of like a ballroom setting. The door across from the archway was blocked off by a thick wall of ice. "In order to open this ice door, we need to spin the chandelier above us." He pointed to a giant ice chandelier. "That's our first task: opening the door." Galen had been thinking about how to do this on the way over but he didn't come up with a solution. Usually he would sit in front (or in this case, under) of the problem and think for an hour or so. The answer would come to him then. But he didn't have time to sit for an hour.