Super 4 - Princesses of the Coral Island

The cave

Ruby looked sad all the way to the castle. Alex didn't recognize her. "Who is that girl? And where's my Ruby?" He wondered. They arrived back in the castle courtyard, where they saw Twinkle kneeling near Sir Gareth and Sir Archibald, who had tried to step into the fire before. Sir Archibald sat on the ground, his legs at his chest, looking very frightened. Gene stared at his pad, and Jessica stood beside him. "What happened to you?" Alex asked the knights. "It was sorcery. Someone has taken control of our bodies." Sir Gareth said. "But how is that possible?" Alex asked. No one knew, not even Gene. "Where did you two go?" Jessica asked. "I followed the flame that the woman Twinkle had seen in flames had turned into." Ruby explained. Alex continued, "But then Ruby followed the woman into the cave." Twinkle asked: "Why would you do that?" Ruby was upset. "The witch controlled my every move." Twinkle shouted in fear. Gene and Jessica looked at each other worriedly. It reminded them of something. A legend. Twinkle noticed that their faces were somehow frightened. "Gene, Jessica, is something wrong?" The fairy asked. "No" Gene swallowed. Jessica tried to change the subject by asking: "Did anything else happen?" Ruby nodded. "Yeah, she went into that cave before and came back with something shiny. She put it around her neck. She also had something with her that shone a blue and ... red light. I don't know what it was, but it could be dangerous." Alex immediately knew what to do. "We should go to that cave. Maybe we'll find some clues as to what it was."

They stood in front of the cave, ready to go inside. Twinkle conjured up a light helmet and a rope with a hook in case they needed to grab onto something. There was nothing special about the cave. It was just an ordinary cave. "There's nothing special here." Alex said. Jessica agreed. "Yeah, there's nothing here at all. I don't understand what anyone would get here..... Ah!" She didn't finish the sentence. She fell into the hole with a scream. "Jessica!!" Gene and the others ran scared to the hole. They shone a light on it, but it was too deep for them to see Jessica. "I'm going down." Gene decided and jumped into the hole. Alex, Ruby, Twinkle and Alien fell behind him. It was like a slide on a playground. When they saw where they would land, they held their breath. They fell into deep water and survived. As they emerged, Gene breathed a sigh of relief. He saw that his sister was alive. He swam to her and hugged her. They all climbed out and walked down the corridor of the cave. Stalactites were on the ceilings. Gene began to explain the process of creating stalactites. "Everyone was very interested, of course. Especially Ruby." They stopped at a crossroads. They could go two ways. They split up. Gene, Twinkle, and Jessica went right, and Alex, Ruby, and Alien went left. Before they parted, Ruby glanced slyly at Twinkle. She didn't understand. Ruby pointed to Gene and Twinkle realized it. She averted her face so her friend wouldn't notice that she was blushing.

Twinkle, Gene, and Jessica found nothing unusual in their part of the cave. "Didn't your friend make it up?" Jessica asked annoyed. "What would anyone take from here?" She dropped another stone. She examined the stones to see if any of them happened to shine green. Twinkle hovered, staring at the cave ceiling. God knows why. And Gene explored the cave walls for unusual elements. Twinkle paused. "Why would Ruby do of such a thing?"

"Technically, what Ruby saw could have been an emerald. And Ruby could have known that pretty well. And since she's a cunning pirate, she might want to use us to see if there were some more emeralds in here." Gene said. But Twinkle stood up for her friends. "No, Gene! Ruby is a pirate, but she has a good heart. Beside she looked pretty scared. And if you didn't notice, she was acting weird today, she seem sad." But then she remembered something. Twinkle was angry with Gene, but curiosity was stronger than anger. "Gene, Jessica, you seemed frightened when Ruby said someone controlled her body."

"As if you were not scared, Twinkle." Jessica replied. Twinkle just waved her hand. "I'm easily scared, but Gene isn't like that. I don't know if you noticed, but your brother isn't exactly someone who shows his feelings."

"Yeah, I know." Jessica said. "But what Ruby said was scary. Something like the legend Mom read so often. Remember?" Gene nodded. "Yes. The legend "The Legend of the Bloody Christian" was scary. You always pressed against me when you got scared." Jessica blushed, and then crossed her arms. „No, I didn't. I'm brave."

"And what's the legend about?" Twinkle asked. "Well," Jessica began. "There was a group of people who had the ability to control water. The group lived mostly in small villages by the sea. A boy named Christian also lived in one such village. He had no magical abilities and blamed his mother for it, as she married a man with no magical abilities. The other children often made fun of Christian because he did not have magical abilities. He prayed to the water spirits every night and wished he had the ability to control the water. One night his prayer was answered. One of the water spirits took pity on him and gave him the ability to control the water. Christian soon found out how strong his abilities were. He was able to control the movements of other people and animals in the village. He decided to practice the technique. He was very good and strong at it, but he was also getting crazier and crazier. He is said to have been possessed by evil spirits that have made him crazier with each use of his new ability. But then he completely lost his sanity. One evening he decided to do something incredibly terrible. He killed his parents, the people he blamed for all the years of ridicule he had been through. He is said to have eaten their meat and drank their blood. Then he ran to the forest. But his desire for human blood did not leave him. He used his ability to bring people to the forest and he killed them there. He ate their flesh and drank their blood. One day, however, he chose the wrong victim, a man named Severus. Severus was a blacksmith and had great abilities in controlling water. He was able to free himself from Christian control. They fought, and Severus was able to kill Christian."

At the end of the story, Twinkle shuddered. She held on tight to Gene. "It's scary. How could your mom read it to you?" Twinkle asked, startled. "She didn't. But someone," Gene turned to Jessica. "Someone wanted to know what Mom was reading, so she snuck into our parent's bedroom and took the book from the library. There was a bookmark on "The Legend of the Bloody Christian" and we read it. And then we got a lesson about asking her before we borrowed the book. Worst of all, it was Jessica and my mother scolded me too." Tension began to build up. Especially because of Gene, who was very upset. "We should take another look around the cave." Suggested Twinkle. She didn't want Gene and Jessica to argue. Fortunately, they continued their search and no argument took place.

The part of the cave that Alex and Ruby walked through also looked quite ordinary. Alien was sitting on Ruby's hat. Alex tried to ask Ruby a few questions about the locket, the woman, and her dreams, but the pirate didn't hear him. "Ruby, what's wrong with you?" Alex exploded, catching Ruby's eyes. He needed some information. The pirate looked at him. "What do you mean?" The knight took a deep breath. He needed to calm down a little first. "I'm sorry. I find you weird. You haven't been yourself since we found the locket. You're so sad, quiet, you still seem to be somewhere in your thoughts. And that's not you. You are always such a cheerful, brave and strong pirate. What's happening? Does your past bother you so much?" Ruby said nothing, just nodded. "Do you want to talk about it?" She shook her head. "Ruby, look!" Alex warned her. Ruby raised her head and saw it. The broken wall of the cave. There seemed to be something behind that wall, and it was not a way out. They went to look at it and found a room. It was burned. There seemed to be four statues, but they were also destroyed. "Wow, that's amazing. What could have happened here?" Alex was astonished. Ruby picked up a head of one of the broken statues. "I think I think I have an idea." She said. "We should call the others." Alex decided and pulled a communicator from his pocket, which Gene had given him. He immediately called him and explained the situation. Gene, Jessica and Twinkle arrived soon. Gene scanned everything with your pad. There was a pedestal in the middle of the room, and some green powder was strewn on it. It shimmered. Gene scanned it, but said nothing. His friends were confused. Why was he secretive today? They headed back down the road, Ruby still looking back at the ruined room. They reached the water and needed to get back up to the exit. Jessica prepared a rope with a hook and wanted to throw it up so they could climb on it. Alex took her hand and turned to Ruby. "Ruby, don't you want to throw that rope in there? After all, you said you were friends with the ropes." He asked. He tried to lift her spirits. "No thanks. Jessica can do it for me." She answered with sadness. That shocked everyone. Really, what happened to Ruby? But they didn't have time for questions, so Jessica threw a rope and the hook caught a rock. Twinkle and Alien flew up, and Jessica and Gene climbed. Then all that was left was for Alex and Ruby to climb. "Pirate ladies first." Alex said, urging Ruby to climb. Ruby smiled at him and climbed. Eventually, Alex climbed and all five friends (+ Alien) headed for the castle.