Crystals From Within: The Beginning

Chapter 2: Lily

I had to curse out our bad luck, because here we are, in the middle of the more-than-creepy forest, being attacked by a (seemingly) strong monster, added on to the fact we haven't got enough practice in 4 weeks to fight one.

Tall and looming, the monster was made out of sand, always forming and reforming itself. A grotesque face seemed to be considering whether to attack us or not. I felt Kizana tense beside me, and a flash of dark silver informed me that she had slipped a dagger into her hand. At that moment the monster decided to target Musilica and charged at her, roaring. Quick as a flash, Musilica jumped and disappeared into a tree. She looked down at us and mouthed, "Battle strategy."

Kizana nodded. Little by little, she moved around the monster until she and I were on opposite sides, with Musilica in a tree above the monster. The monster then opened its mouth and shot sand darts in all directions - the perfect set-up. I gave the signal to Kizana and she sprung into action. She threw a shuriken at the monster and it struck. While it (he?!) was distracted, and started toward Kizana, Musilica hopped from her position in the tree and played a high, wavering note, right next to his head. The monster stalled and tried to aim at Musilica, but the aim was off by a lot. Perfect. I notched an arrow in my crossbow and let it fly swiftly into his sand body. Success! I expected him to fall down, but it seemed our blows were off-centre (due to our lack in practice) so he got up and shot a dangerous sand dart at Musilica, who wasn't expecting it. I heard a muffled cry and she fell down, clutching at her shoulder.

"Musilica!" I yelled. Thankfully the thing only grazed her, but she needed some treatment. Kizana bolted toward her and dug out some emerald-colored plants and pressed them to Musilica's arm. The bleeding stopped but there was still a gash there. She couldn't fight, for now. Kizana, it seemed, suffered a worse blow than Musilica. She had large cuts all over, so she was panting and pressed those same plants on her body. Which unfortunately, left the monster to me.

The crossbow didn't seem to useful at the moment, so I decided to go with my clay. I reached inside my bag and pulled out a large wad of the stuff. I quickly went to work; trying to decide what will go best (or, go worst) with the monster. Soon enough, a clay falcon was resting on my arm. I put all my energy into it, willing it to become alive. Just as fast as I made it, it was already flying to the monster's direction.

In a few minutes, the battle was over. The mangled remains of the monster were scattered everywhere. With a triumphant screech, the falcon melted back into clay and flew to my bag.

We started toward our house again when a chunk of stone flew out and hit me right smack dab on the head. I momentarily passed out.

*

I woke up to the sounds of discussing. Kizana and Musilica were examining the thing that had hit me on the head.

"What's that?" I asked as I make my way to them, though a little miffed because they weren't looking after me.

"Oh, you're awake?" Kizana glances up. "Come and take a look at this," she holds the thing up. I caught my breath. A crystal. Pearly white, it was about the size of my palm. There were elegant transparent streaks all over it.

"C-can I see that?" I reached out, though wary because that was the cause of me blacking out. The moment I touched it, the moment we were all holding the crystal together, it shone brightly and when the light dimmed, words replaced the transparent streaks. A musical voice, like chimes rang out:

"Let three crystals shine bright among the dark

One up high, one causing a spark,

One where the current doesn't reach.

Once united, lost memories will return.

So many mysteries to solve,

You will learn."

Silence.

"What was that?" Kizana glanced rather suspiciously at the crystal, which now lay innocently on the ground.

"I dunno," Musilica frowned. "What could it mean?" And then, as we stared at it, new lines started to appear.

Musilica let out a small gasp and Kizana backed into a tree. I flinched but kept watching the lines until they were deeply set into the crystal. A map. It was very small, but detailed. A deep line, the most solitary one, was slightly tinted blue, which was the path to our goal...whatever it was. Well, it seemed like there was three goals. Like three checkpoints that we need. And we need to start heading...south-east to begin.

"What could this mean?" I ask.

"It means that we've got ourselves a quest!" Musilica announced.

"Right. That's settled then," Kizana said a hint of sarcasm in her voice. "We find a prophecy, a map that can lead us to our death and we set off, not even knowing what our goal is?!"

"Exactly, Kizana!" said Musilica. "That's what we do!" I laughed and gave Musilica a high-five. It was true. Back then, whenever 'back then' was, we remembered that we were really reckless, but brave.

Kizana rolled her eyes, but we all knew that she was smiling, too.

"Guess it's time to get a little rest...we start our adventure in the morning!" We started heading back, ready for anything. Or so we thought.