Water and Earth (The Four Elements: Book 2) (ON HOLD)

Chapter Twenty-Two: Incredibly Observant

We were in. I don't know how this was possible but I have to thank Kai for the idea. If we didn't know about the many uses of fire coral, besides give anyone in contact some random burns, we wouldn't be here.

"Pass through the Seashell Arch, check," Chelsea said out loud. "Next thing on our to-do list: find those time turners."

"That wouldn't be much of a problem if Elias was with us," Carter muttered under his breath, still loud enough for us to hear.

Brandon wrapped both of his arms around Carter and me, knowing that I would say the same thing as his girlfriend. I'm hoping he is okay but if Amaya does anything bad to him, I'm literally going to kill her. I don't know how many times I have mentioned this but Elias means the world to me. Even after four and a half years of friendship, we only have been officially dating for such a short time.

Then Brandon's voice pulled me out of my imagination. "Kayla?"

I immediately shot my head up to look at his concerned expression. "Sorry, just reminiscing."

"It's okay," Carter joined in our conversation. "We all know how you feel, but we're going to try our best to complete this quest and rescue Elias at the earliest time possible."

A smile finally emerged on my face. "We can do this. Now, where would the time turners be?"

Brandon motioned for us to follow him. Surprisingly, he led us to a reef of fire corals at the border of the town. He explained that according to what he had researched, not a lot of merfolk would explore a reef of fire corals, especially one where that specific species is abundant. He said that this is the best place where we could talk about the location together.

"Nyssa wouldn't expect anyone to be here so this is another reason why I chose this place," he added. "Now, as for the time turners, they will be hard to find because they are buried under four feet of sand in a kelp forest north of here."

Chelsea slowly nodded. "Okay, so I understand about them being hidden in four feet of sand but why in a kelp forest of all places?"

"Probably because when the royal guard surveys the town from above, they will know if someone is trying to find the turners because there would be commonly bare patches of where the kelp patches were supposed to be," I guessed. "If they had any idea about the turners anyway."

Brandon nodded, indicating what I said was the right answer. "Plus, if anyone remembered to try to replant them, the guard will notice that too.

"They're incredibly observant," Carter blurted out.

"They should be dubbed 'Incredibly Observant Kelp Guards' just because they can easily notice the difference between originally planted kelp and replanted kelp," Chelsea remarked.

"Enough about kelp," Brandon stated. "Any plans on how to dig down there to retrieve the turners without disturbing the kelp?"

Everyone pondered the question. At first, our minds were blank because there was only a slim chance that the action would be possible. I almost said that we could shrink ourselves and dig into the sand for them but it'll take twice the time to find them because of how small we are.

"Hey, do merfolk ever use secret tunnels?" Chelsea blurted out.

Carter and I also looked towards Brandon, anticipating his answer. In my point of view, secret tunnels are possible and in fact, if there were some beneath the kelp forest, the job will be easier instead of having to worry about replanting kelp just the way it was the first time.

Brandon nodded. "The fact itself is true but the problem is, where is one of those tunnels?"

We all shrugged in unison.