The Adventures Of Ivory Arrow & Jackson Bale

Chapter III part 1

WARNING. This book is a part one. The second book to this is a continuation off a cliff hanger. Proceed with caution.

"Do you know what day it is today?!" I screamed to Jackson from across the house, he came running in and sat at the bar in the kitchen expectantly,
"Not you birthday," He answered, "not mine. Not Oggy's birthday, right?" Jackson guessed, I shook my head, "No. Do we have an important, high paying job that could make us rich beyond belief?!" He guessed again, I shook my head no, "Hold on," he ran out of the room. Two minutes later he's back with a calendar. I chuckled softly for only me to hear, "Oh," It clicked, "Today is our fiftieth job as partners. So today is our anniversary." I nodded happily. He got up and hugged me. "Fifty jobs together, huh?" I hugged back, we stayed in comfortable silence for a good while until he let go. For some reason, I missed his presence. He started grabbing ingredients from the cabinets and placing them on the counter.
"What's this?" I asked him. Now, I was sitting at the bar, waiting for a response.
"It's breakfast. Pancakes or Waffles?" He looked at me for a second, "Pancakes, got it." I smiled, he smiled down at the spices he was pinching and dashing into the mix. He's always been the greatest cook in my opinion. I wouldn't even know what to do with half the ingredients he was using.
I went to go look at our board of mysterious artifacts needed to be found. We have many employers who, if needing something found, will send us flyers for it. Information on where to find it, what it is, etc.
"Hey, what do you think about a bag of stolen jewels scattered around a jungle?!" I yelled to Jackson, in-hailing deeply, smelling the delicious scent of pancakes being finished.
"Sounds like a long job! Should we recruit temporary workers to split up and chase them down! I'm assuming they're magical stones with defense mechanisms!" He was right, some actually shoot fire. It would be a tuff job for just the two of us.
"Maybe! Anyone in mind!?" He turned up behind me and said,
"Geeze, no need to shout, I'm right here. And yes, I've got a few in mind." He had that annoying mischievous smirk and flicker in his eye that meant he was up to something. He gave me four sheets of paper with information about four different people.
"Each of them are master jewel finders, Gregory; Ice/Water/Wind Jewel Master, Evelyn; Life Jewel Master, Colbolt; Fire/Ice Jewel Master, and finally, Jezebel; Copy Cat Jewel Master. They are trusted friends, but don't look them in the eye, the only one you can actually approach is Evelyn, but she is protected. So steer clear." I scoffed, he wants me to work with people who think they're better then me?! He saw my annoyance, "Ivory, they are good people at heart. It's just, they've all been hurt once or twice. Trust is earned remember? Not givin. For them, they live by that saying." I slowly nodded, but still was uncertain. He quickly kissed the crown of my head before leaving to contact his friends. I stared after him, what was that?
Few hours later, Evelyn and Colbolt showed up. Evelyn was pretty, she had long blond hair and big brown eyes that flickered with happiness when she saw me. Colbolt had a mean look on his tanned face. His hair was dyed pale blue and brushed back. He turned around to us and changed, he wore a large toothy grin and happy onyx eyes. The two sat next to each other on the couch and chatted with Jackson. I got up to get lemonaid, and was joined by Evelyn. I noticed Colbolt not taking his eyes off of us but held conversation with Jackson.
"Hi, I'm Evelyn. You must be Ivory Arrow, I've heard a lot about you." She smiled warmly and I smiled back,
"Oh yeah? All good things I hope." I chuckled, so did she. A few minutes of having a great conversation with Evelyn I looked back and saw Colbolt relax a bit, he wasn't staring at us every second either. Gregory and Jezebel showed up too. They didn't seem to angry with the world when they came in, unlike Colbolt. But Jezebel seemed naturally fierce.
"Alright everybody. First things first, since we're all here. This is Ivory Arrow, head of operations. We are all going to the humid and soggy Cloud Forest for Jewel Hunting. And that's kind of self-explanatory as to why you are all here," They nodded excitedly, I was very intrigued by their pasts. Although that's very nosy, I've got to know. On our way to the forest. It was just Jackson and I in our Jeep, Colbolt and Evelyn are riding together behind us and Gregory and Jezebel were behind them.
"What are their stories?" I asked, facing away from Jackson. He sighed, most likely expecting this,
"Jezebel was bullied by her several older brothers when she was little. So she is taught to be tuff and take no prisoners. Colbolt lost his brother, little sister and mother to an abusive father, now he's very protective of his girlfriend Evelyn, who was abused by her father severally after her beloved mother died, Gregory, had a past of bad parents who were never home or supportive when they were,"
"Supportive of..?" I asked,
"He's actually, very, smart. In his neighborhood, everyone hated him for it, he wasn't aware of what to say and when to keep his mouth shut. They eventually kicked him out and he came to live in my home with my mother and little brother. They became real close, and pretty soon he was family. I never knew, until he moved in, about any of that. He kept it quiet. He just thought he could trust his parents and say whatever, whenever, but he was wrong to do so. His trust was mis put." I lowered my head, my bangs covered my eyes so Jackson wont see my sadness. My soft spot gets to me sometimes.
"How can people be so crooked to others that they love. Or should love!" I punched the seat beside my legs. "Its not fair to them." Jackson would hug me or something but he was driving. Which was the perfect opportunity to vent. "So they've always been distant after that? How did they escape that terrible fate?" I asked, looking up at Jackson, the tears in my eyes made him look away, it makes me laugh sometimes how much effect I have on him. Now was not the time for laughter, however.
"Each of them, at some point came to live with us at our house. We had a fairly large house with enough rooms to keep them. Up until high school graduation then they moved on their own. Evelyn moved in with Colbolt in a studio apartment in the city, Gregory went to school for glaciology, and Jezebel got married to a man she met at a support group who was also abused and harassed, his name was..." Jackson had to think about it, "Jolly? No. Jasper? Ah, doesn't matter, we're here!" He grabbed the walk-e-talk-e off the dashboard and spoke, "Attention, Attention Team Alpha Jewels. We have visual on target."
"Team Alpha Jewels? Is that the best you can come up with?" Jezebel snickered into her talking device, The other parties agreed.
"Hey, whatever. It's our team name so just deal, anyway, we ready? Cuz here we go." Everybody cheered when we all entered but our vehicles didn't make it far so we had to head out on foot. Noticing glowing residence all around us our team split up to follow the bright colors they specialize in. Besides Colbolt and Evelyn, they headed together, which is fine. Because Jackson and I decided not to split up either.
"Alright team, Alpha Jewels," I stopped to laugh then continued, "meet back to our starting point when it starts getting dark, not when it's dark, nobody gets left behind, Understood?" I said, no response, "I said, Understood?!" they could've heard it without the walk-e-talk-e.
"Yes ma'am!" They all said through the other end,
"Thank you." I felt accomplished, Jackson and I laid eyes on a fire crystal. We approached cautiously, but the moment a twig snapped underfoot. A fire ball was sent at me. I ducked back Matrix style, it was so busy firing at me that is didn't notice Jackson behind it. He snatched it out of the air with a fireproof bag, and we went on our marry way.
"One Fire down, Over." I said into the speaker,
"Oh, we're documenting what we caught. Okay," Jackson face palmed. When he did, I realized what I did, Oh no, "Three Fire Jewels, Four Water/Air/and Ice jewels, Seven Life Jewels, and finally Seventeen Copy Cat Jewels."
"Great for you Jezebel." I sighed, she just wanted to make us feel bad about our singular Fire Jewel.
"I only have One Life Jewel and Three Fire Jewels, so don't feel bad Ivory." Evelyn sympathized. I smiled at her gesture. Jackson tapped my shoulder and pointed to a blue light emanating from around one of the tall misshapened trees. He went around left where I went right. I popped out and caught it with ease. But in my hands there was an intense freezing feeling. I was stupid enough to catch it with my bare hands. I placed it in the bag and looked at my impossible to move hands. I winced when Jackson touched my palm.
"You have a serious case of frost bite. We need to warm your hands up slowly. To the Jeep!" He pointed to the sky before picking me up and running to the car. He turned on the heat and I put my burnt red hands up to the vents. The heat made pins and needles shoot up my arms.
"Thank You." I said, blowing hot air in my hands that I can now painfully move. He tilted his head and looked at me with his dark brown eyes and smiled at me with that all to familiar smile, "What?" I finally said, breaking the silence,
"You're just really pretty." I blinked a few times and shook my head,
"I'm sorry, I don't think I heard you right. Could you repeat?" He shifted and stared me straight in the eyes,
"I said, you're really pretty." His smile grew. I stared blankly at him. What is he doing, is he trying to make me say something to him so he can make fun. Or is, he serious? "Well, I guess you've always been pretty, but I told you now. I don't think you notice to often." He laid his head back on the head rest and stared at the stars through the sunroof. Wait, stars?!
"Its Dark!" I realized, he was about to say, 'so?' but caught my drift. We got out of the car and looked for our, Team Alpha Jewels, but no sign of them. "Team Alpha Jewels, Team Alpha Jewels, do you read?" There was no response, just static.
"Yeah, Yeah, hello?" A voice said frantically on the other line, "It's Colbolt. We have a problem. Everybody came together near our meeting spot and waited. But you didn't show so we all went out to look for you. Evelyn fell out of our tree. I chased after her but she was gone. Disappeared from thin air. Now I went to Jezebel's checkpoint and nothing. Nobody. The same thing with Gregory. I need to find you."
"We are right by the cars, Colbolt, you need to find us like you said. Come to us." When I said that, Colbolt was already emerging from the woods in a frantic mess. Jackson whispered to me before he got to close,
"Colbolt hasn't been away from Evelyn this long since first grade," I looked at Colbolt as he ran his hands through his leaf infested hair and kneeled on the ground whimpering, I couldn't believe it, "Careful, he could blow anytime."
"Colbolt," I said cautiously, he didn't answer, didn't even look at me, "Colbolt," I said slightly louder catching his eye, "She'll be fine. She's most likely with the others. Nothing will happen. We will find her and we'll all go home, with Jezebel's jewels we are done, I think."
"Forget the job! We have friends out there and my Evelyn!" I nodded.
"Yes, I lost our team, my new friends, my fault. I shouldn't have let more onto our team. I shouldn't have even let Jackson come. I could do this myself." I stood up and started for the jungle,
"Where do you think you're going?" Jackson stepped in my path, already knowing the answer to his question,
"Colbolt was right, this is my fault. I need to bring them back safely. On my own, so nobody else gets hurt." I crept through some leaves when I heard rustling behind me, I jumped and spin kicked someone who grunted from the impact. I opened my eyes and Jackson was there on the ground holding his jaw, "Oh, Jackson, I'm sorry. That was unintentional. Wait, what are you doing here!?" I scolded, putting my hands on my hips.
"Remember our promise?" I stopped and stared at him as he walked forward. He remembered that? He nodded, I smiled and ran up next to him. I found myself reaching for his hand. Before I could reach it, he grabbed mine and sped up, leaning against a tree he looked around it. "I found them." He whispered to me. We switched positions so I could see our three friends strunge up and hanging over a fire, burning blue. I slowly crept into the camp, Jackson tried to stop me, but to no avail. Flicking my head from right to left to make sure I was alone, The fire crackled, I looked at it for an instant then looked back seeing hundreds of tribal looking people, decorated in paint and feathers, all around me with spears pointing to my head. I chuckled awkwardly before feeling pain shook across the back of my head. Then, it all went black.