"Alright Lilac, Milla's waiting for us at the end of Dragon Valley," A very excitable wildcat exclaims, a walkie-talkie tied to her waist and a stop-watch in her left hand. You can't help but smirk, stretching out your arms and legs, preparing yourself to run at speeds most could only fathom to hit. The cat stretches her legs too, positioning herself to dash like an Olympics track star. "You ready for this?"
You're Lilac, Sash Lilac, the fastest water dragon in all of Avalice! Well, probably. There hasn't been a single dragon or Avalian to challenge your speed, excluding Carol the Wildcat and Milla Basset, your two very best friends. Okay, retract that last part. Milla's one of your best friends, for sure, but she isn't all that interested in besting you and Carol in a race. You and your green kitty friend are the only ones that like a little sense of excitement every now and again.
That excitement comes from the adrenaline rush you get when racing, something that you've done your entire life. However, with the many times you and Carol raced, you always ended up winning. You mean, Carol can't even break three minutes without her bike on Dragon Valley. Hell, her best time WITH it is two minutes and fifty-nine seconds, if you can recall correctly.
Your's? Two minutes, forty.
Nodding to Carol, you put yourself in the same position as her, ready to break your personal best! You're looking to finish this one in two minutes and thirty-five seconds, maybe? Even if you don't manage to get what you're going for, a second less would be satisfactory. As long as you can perform all your tricks perfectly and in the quickest way possible, you're sure you'll be fine. You mean, you have learned tons of them in the past... Year, you think.
It's been a year since Brevon's assualt, right?
"Milla," Carol starts, talking to the walkie-talkie on her waist, "When I say "go", start the timer, okay?"
"Right," the basset hound exclaims on the other side of the device.
You and Carol exchange a smirk, turning to look at the obstacles in front of the both of you.
"Three..."
No turning back now.
"Two..."
She speaks with excitement, her tail noticeably wagging
"One..."
She pauses. The wind blows a couple leaves across your hands, but you're too focused on the mission at hand to care. Any moment now the word will come from her mouth, and you've got to act quick.
"Heh heh," she chuckles, her left hand ready to click the button on top of her stopwatch. "GO!"
Just as fast as she slips the watch in her pocket and pounces into the distance, you uppercut and-
"DRAGON BOOST!"
Past her with ease. A quick dive kick out of your boost and you're already in the lead, running at top speed! Hey, that rhymed-No, don't distract yourself now, Lilac, you have to make a good time! Running into a few gems, you take their energy and put them away, jumping over a slope and boosting over the various platforms below you.
Another dive kick to keep your speed, another ramp coming up. You remember this one, the one with the rusted spring right above it. There's a ladder adjacent to the spring; you're obviously meant to jump on the spring and climb up the ladder, right? Well, that's what somebody slow would do, COUGHCAROLCOUGH.
Reaching the ramp, you try to gain as much speed as you possibly can, because you're gonna need it. Running up incline, you shout "CYCLONE" as you use your long hair and your current momentum to fly up past the ladder and onto the platform above. As you start to dash forward, another slope comes into view. A spiked ball... thing protects a rainbow colored box up ahead. This one's simple, right? You just jump and...
"OW," you scream. You jumped into the dumb spiked thing! All your speed... gone, just like that. You quickly dispose of the ball, checking your injuries from it. Nothing severe, thankfully. Your arm's bleeding a little, but this is like a paper cut, knowing what you've been through. Touching it still makes you wince in pain, however.
A motorbike rumbles in the distance, it's sound moving quickly towa-oh nononononono. T-That can't be Carol... right? You can't be falling behind! Boosting once more, you dash STRAIGHT INTO A ROCK!
"Ow...," you mutter, rubbing your head. A red bike shoots over to you, a certain green cat riding ontop.
"You okay," she asks, reaching out her paw, concern painted on her face.
Only nodding, you try to grab her paw-
"Great! See ya at the boss," and away she goes, retracting her paw as quickly as she held it out, boosting away at the speed of light! She's already up the steep climb with that wall-riding hog of hers.
Damn it, you should've seen that coming. Carol's always one to be sneaky like that. You get up and brush yourself off, shaking your head to get rid of any possible dirt that could've gotten on it. You don't even waste any time to get back into a proper position, abusing your dragon boost once more to bounce off the wall ahead of you. A dive kick takes you to another spring, however this one isn't as rusty as the other. The spring bounces you to the top of the rock you bounced off the first time, allowing you to dragon boost across the gap and reach top speed easily!
A jump over a couple rocks that look like steps, accompained by another dive kick lets you keep your speed. You roll into a ball in order to blast through some weak rock formations in a little tunnel, escaping the tunnel and dive kicking to the ground. You definitely remember this part now, two ramps are coming up ahead. Jump, dive kick over the first one then uppercut, boost to a platform that'll take you to a ladder.
Now preforming that action is gonna be the hard part. Here comes the first-FUCK! You tripped over something, destroying any previous momentum you acquired through your run. Two mistakes in one run... You just sit in despair at your stupid mistake, your face buried in your hands. You didn't even see whatever the HELL you tripped over. Turning around and removing your hands from your face, you look curiously at the object before you.
"What's this...," you can't help but ask yourself, standing up and picking up the object in question. It's... a purple emerald, a purple glowing emerald. What's this doing here, you wonder. Eyeing it, you sigh, slipping it into your right pocket. Might as well keep it, it'll make a good profit in the market place later.
Turning around, you dash forward and jump over the ramp up ahead, dive kicking to the floor. You barely waste any time reaching full speed, getting to the second slope within miliseconds. Uppercutting at the apex of the incline, you dragon boost across the pit and hop quickly up the ladder. The stupid spider guarding the entrance into the next area has already been defeated, it's robot parts scattered across the floor. Carol's been through here already, then. You usually get here before her; she must be miles ahead of you by now.
Surprising even for you, you smirk. This just makes your run faster.
You roll up into a ball and- "DRAGON BOOST!" into the next area, flying fast and free across the ground below you. No time for regrets now, and even though it seems ambitious, you know you're gonna beat Carol AND set your new personal best!
For some reason, energy and confidence burst through you, your path of speed never stopping. You still fly above the ground like a true dragon, going through loop-de-loops and SMASHING through that little block puzzle you never truly figured out. You always used dragon boost to speed through it. Now, you're racing through the lands, speedy as ever! Past the air vents, the bridges and the miniboss that Carol already beat.
You dash through the tunnel and divekick to the water easily 30 feet below you, finally ending your dragon boost-wait... Have you been in dragon boost that entire time? It feels like you were-damn it, Lilac! There's no time to think and ponder, you gotta go!
You dragon boost one more time across the lake, and up the nearby ladder! Into the next area you go and-there's Carol! You dive kick out of your boost and quickly reach Carol on her bike, running beside her and giving her a smug look. "Long time no see, kitty!"
Her look is as priceless as you thought it would be, her face full of disbelief, "How... How did you catch up so fast?!"
The two of you are approaching yet another slope. This is the part you need to get perfectly in order to sucessfully take your lead back! As the two of you reach the slope, you entertain her question, answering "Let's just call it dragon luck!"
As you rush in front of her, you run up the slope and dragon boost off it, timing it just right so that you go diagonally to the back of your head, reaching a platform forty feet above you! Yes, you did it! You can't believe it, but you actually did it! That should save you about five seconds on this run! You dash at full speed, no stopping Lilac now!
Next up are the waterfalls, easy! You dive kick down the first one, boosting off a nearby log flowing down the fall. The next one approaches, you move swiftly through the falling logs, getting to the bottom of the fall easily! There's a quaint pond at the end of it, which you dragon boost out of, rushing to the next ramp. It launches you up really high, you turn yourself around to see if Carol's gaining on you.
Turns out you're right, she's riding across the platforms above the waterfalls, going to the boost panels that are always laying around for her. You smirk at her as she looks your way, her face full of shock. As you start to fall, you wave a quick goodbye to her before dive kicking in order to get the best speed out of this situation.
Now you're running along the ground again at top speed. You look below yourself and notice another bridge, yellow and bright, protecting an underwater tunnel. You jump up and dragon boost at said bridge, going through it as easy as a knife goes through cake. Entering the water depths, you hold your breath and swim as quickly as possible. Thankfully, as a water dragon, you can last much longer underwater than other Avalians. It's a trait you're honestly glad to have, being underwater is fun!
Swimming through the tunnel, you encouter a couple of spiked guys from before, the ones who messed up your run. The urge to dragon boost through them all is strong, but you keep it in as you swim. The only thing you care about now is beating Carol, as there's no way you could ever beat your record now. Too much time has been wasted.
Finally, you see light from above. You boost to the top of the water, exiting out of it and landing ontop of another yellow bridge. This is really it now, the final stretch! As you start to run towards a nearby ladder, you notice something glowing in your shorts. It doesn't stop you from running but you can't help but wonder what it-
Is it the emerald?
Now that you think about it, you've felt a lot more energy go through you ever since you picked the thing up. You take the stone out of your pocket as you jump onto the ladder, climbing up while inspecting the glowing gem. It looks like just a normal jewel you would find around Avalice.
Actually, upon closer inspection, it really doesn't. The shape is all weird, it's not like every other gemstone you've collected on your travels. Plus, it carries a lot more energy than the gems you've collected. It's kind of like those weird rings that made you feel like a super hero back in... Pangu Lagoon, was it? Is this just those things but in a jewel form? And if that's true, just how much of a boost can this thing give you?
As you reach the top of the ladder, you see another familiar obstacle in front of you. The weird stick things with spikes and a step for each one, three to be exact. You look at the emerald and hold it tight, your eyes giving full attention to your current obstacle before smirking. Guess it's time to really test how much energy this thing can give! You focus on the emerald as you roll into a ball, shouting those familiar words.
"DRAGON BOOST!"
Your voice sends echoes through the land as you boost above the steps and through the spiked things. As soon as you past them you're blasting dowhill, a giant boulder following close behind. Wait, close? You meant miles behind, it can't even keep up with you! In less than a second, you reach the boss chamber and manage to stop boosting. Alright, Lilac, this is it; the final showdown to solidify your win!
As rocks start to fall, you tap your shoe, waiting for the big bad dragonish robot to show it's face so you can bash it in. The rocks that try to fall on you, you dodge quickly or hit them with your hair. Soon, the robot shows itself, flying to the otherside of the chamber. You don't waste any time to destroy all of his bright yellow shells on his body, quickly hitting his head to take down the first phase.
You take a curious look at the emerald in your hand, wondering about it's properties while rocks fall around you. Does it work exactly like the rings in Pangu? You bet you could shoot beams if you just fling you hair! The dragonbot shows it's face again, firing a lame fire shot at you. Holding the gem tight, you decide to test your theory, SLASHING at the air! And to your legitimate surprise, nothing happens. Well, so much for that theory.
Time to stop wasting time. You dragon boost into his head, causing some viciously bad damage to him. He flies back into his other hole, apparently knocking one more phase off him. Now you just play the waiting game. Wait for him to show his face once more, then BLAM, your time is set!
Wait, what's that? No, no, not the falling killer rocks, the other thing. It's very faint, but you swear you can hear something in the distance, approaching you. It's coming in fast. Just ignore it, Carol-wait, you're not Carol... Oh no. As the sound gets closer, you start to slowly realize what it is. The rumbling, the loud roars it makes every so often when it speeds up... N-No, it can't be! Not again! She couldn't have gotten here this fast!
The dragonbot shows its head one final time, but a red and green blur shows itself just in time, rumbling loud and obnoxiously. The blur shouts out a loud "HI-YAAAAH!" as it hits the head of the bot so hard it flies off, sending it flying at... SHIT, IT'S HEADED TOWARDS YOU! Oh no, oh no... What do you do?!
Act quick! Act smart! Don't mess this up! Thoughts shift to your new gem... Maybe it'll get you out of this mess? Only one way to figure out! You hold the gemstone in front of you in a panicky fear, hoping for the absolute best. As it approaches closer and closer, you shut your eyes tight. Home is the only thing you can think about, how you wish you were sitting on your couch watching bad movies with Milla and Carol. You're not even dying by somebody important, you're dying from your best friend because of some competition! What a way to end it...
"TIME," a timid voice shouts, somewhere above you, not too far above. Rumbling of a certain motorbike is heard right next to you, as you slowly open your eyes. W-Wait, huh?! How the hell did you...?!
You're home! Right below the entrance to your treehouse! But, no... That's impossible! There's no way you shouldn't have gotten murdered by that metal head! It was coming right for you! D-... Did you die?! Damn it why didn't you just dragon boost out there?! You could've still been alive if you didn't stand there like an IDIOT-
"Lilac, you okay," the wildcat next to you asks, her head tilted to the side slightly, "I think you're acting like Torque again; paranoid." She gets off her bike and brings it to the left side of the treehouse, casually walking back to you like nothing just happened. "Wait, how'd we get back home? Weren't we just fighting that dumb snakebot thing?"
You start to shake slightly, the emerald still in hand. At least you're not the only one worrying about that, confirming that you did, in fact, NOT die. That's a reliever, for sure. Would you even know if you died if you ever died? Maybe Death could bring you around the world if you ever died, show you what's it like to be dead. You could haunt Carol on Halloween!
"You were, Carol," starts the timid voice before, floating down to meet with you and the wildcat, "But after you beat it, a bright light blinded me, I couldn't see anything! Then, out of nowhere, I was here with you guys!"
Carol turns to the timid basset hound still floating down from the treehouse porch, "Where were you, anyway, Milla? I didn't see you anywhere near battle area."
"I was hiding, of course," she states with a big smile, "I had to, or else that snake would've went after me!"
Does everybody really think that it looks like a snake? Are you the only one that sees a dragon?
Becoming more comfortable, thanks to Carol and Milla's kind of relaxed nature, you stop shaking and sit down. You look at the emerald you picked up earlier with curiosity, noticing the glow it still has around it. You start to think back to that dragon-snake thing battle, and how you got out of there. It couldn't have been this thing, right? While it is powerful, absolutely nothing of Avalian creation has the ability to teleport at whim, and this is a gem!
What if... What if it's not Avalian? What if it fell from outer space? You mean, it's not an impossible thought now. A galaxian overlord came here for your planet's lifesource not too long ago, and you had to help a duck-man who was trying to stop him!
While you're going through your thoughts, Carol and Milla talk about the race. Well, it's more like Carol is going on and on about how awesome her run was to Milla, who just nods every-so-often. She seems enthralled, though. Apparently she'd rather hear excitement than participate in it.
"And I was all like "No you don't Lilac!" when she passed me, and I boosted so hard that if I flew off my bike I would have gotten killed! But it was all in the name of winning!"
Carol smiles when she says this, crossing her arms with a smug look on her face.
"But you two tied," Milla simply retorts, killing Carol's smugness.
"O-Oh, right," she stutters, looking at Milla questioningly, "What was our time, anyway?" Carol and Milla go to check their stopwatches, the wildcat's ears drooping downwards, looking to be pretty frustrated, "Darn it! I didn't start the timer!"
You stifle a laugh, covering your mouth with a hand. Carol gives you a quick glare before turning to Milla to annouce your times. She looks at her own stop watch with a smile, shouting "You guys got two forty-nine!"
Carol's eyes widen in shock, and so do your's. You would've expected your time to be three minutes at least, with all your mistakes-well... You look at the emerald with a smirk. This thing /did/ increase your speed almost tenfold. Two thirty-five can't be that far of a time with this thing now, right?
"I GOT TWO FORTY NINE," the wildcat exclaims, certainly showing why she's a "wild"cat with her explosion. She picks you up and hugs you tight, hugging Milla as well. "I CAN'T BELIEVE I GOT TWO. FORTY. NINE! AAAAAAAAAA-"
"My ears," you mutter in pain, causing the green wildcat to let go of you and Milla. Both of you rub your ears to try and cease the pain, while Carol just rubs the back of her head in embarrassment.
"Sorry," she starts, chuckling slightly, "I guess I didn't realize I was that loud."
You plop your butt to the ground, the gem rolling out of your hand as you do so. Weirdly enough, the gem stops glowing as soon as it stops contact with you. You rub your ears and sigh, ignoring said gem, "It's fine, Carol. Just... Try to be a liiittle quieter next time, okay?"
"No promises," she giggled, sitting on the grass with you. Milla follows suit, looking at the gemstone that fell from your hand.
Seconds of silence fall upon the three of you before Milla speaks up, notably looking at you, "Are you two okay?" She speaks with concern in her voice, her eyes slightly glossy.
Carol's the first one to respond, "Yup! Didn't really get a scratch on me." The wildcat stretches her arms out, taking notice of the emerald aswell. You can't help but wonder why they haven't said anything yet.
"Yeah, I'm fine," you state simply, holding your right arm. Ow, damn it; you wince just from touching it. It's bleeding again though, so you don't have much of a choice but to hold it. Milla isn't very content with your answer after that wince, however. "Milla, I'm fine. Honest! It's just a little scratch."
She sighs, accepting the slight lie. Honestly if the pain didn't bother you during the run, you're sure it won't affect you if you just put medical tape on it or something.
Carol, curious and eager to touch the gem, crawls over to it and picks it up, examining it, "What's this? Some new super jewel?"
"Well-," you try to begin, getting interrupted by your green friend.
"How much do you think it'll sell in Shang Mu? The dragon stones we've collected gave us enough supplies for a year but we're kiiinda running out, Lilac," she looks at the gem again and smiles, "This thing could get us quadruple what those dragon stones got us all put together!" She stretches out her arms wide enough that a the whole house could practically fit in her there.
"Yeah, I kind of thought about that too when I first picked it up, but," you stop to think back to what just happened with the snake-dragon-thing, and all those times it boosted your speed, "It's kind of really powerful, too. It made me faster, and I could dragon boost for as long as I wanted."
A look of shock falls on Carol's face as she looks back at the emerald, "You think that thing saved us back there?"
Oh good, you're not the only one to have thought that. You motion for Carol to hand the powerful stone back to you, the cat holding it out. You remove it from her hand, inspecting it as it starts to glow once again. Why does it only glow in your hands?
"Woah," your two friends involuntarily moan, admiring the gemstone's beauty.
"That might just get us quintuple of what we got for those dragon stones," Carol mutters under her breath, her eyes dollar signs staring at the stone.
You wouldn't mind that, actually. You DO need more money, and you are running out of supplies, especially since it's not just you and Carol anymore. However, "This is way too powerful to sell, Carol. Just imagine if somebody like Brevon got his hands on this-"
"But we haven't even seen what it could do!"
"Actually," you start, "You have... Sort of. How do you think I got to you in like, four seconds during the race? And you already mentioned the possibility of the emerald transporting us to safety."
Carol's eyes widened slightly, realizing her fault.
"Even then, I don't even think I was using it's full power. Just THINK of what somebody who can tap into this thing's potential can do to our planet! Or even other planets... This is probably just as powerful as the Kingdom Stone, or maybe even moreso!"
Carol doesn't appreciate your hyerbole, though, crossing her arms and sighing. "Lilac, nothing's as powerful as the Kingdom Stone. Not even you or me, or Milla could be THAT powerful!"
Sighing as well, you nod, realizing that it was a bit frivolous to compare some gem you found on the floor to the Kingdom Stone. You mean, the Stone made aliens come to your planet just to get it! Nobody would notice if some gem like this got lost, they could just replace it easily.
Still, you have you doubts...
"Guys," the hound starts timidly, "Do you think Mayor Zao will fix Dragon Valley again so you two can race in it again?"
Good, a topic changer. You need something like this to get your mind off of another possible alien encounter. Carol just looks at the sky with a hand to her chin, thinking about someth-, "Do we even have enough cash to have him fix it this time?"
"You have a point, Carol," you start, thinking back to the damage you caused to the Valley, "I know I accidentally broke some things trying to catch up to you. Plus, the dragon-robo could have some serious damage put on it."
Carol nods, before looking at you with shock, "Wait, what do you mean you broke some things?"
Whoops. Now it's your turn to put a hand behind your head in embarrassment, "Weeeeell..."
A... "Quick" walk to the Valley later, the three of you inspect the damage done to it. For starters, it's impossible to get past the block puzzle now. A wall of rocks blocks the entrance where the mechanical wall used to be. All you can do is chuckle at your damage, while Carol looks at you with anger. Milla goes off and looks around, trying to figure out how to possibly fix this place.
"How," Carol starts, looking around then back to you, "HOW?! Your dragon boost can barely go through walls in the first place! It looks like you brought down a mountain full of ROCKS on this place!"
"The emerald," you start, seemingly as timid as Milla, "it made my dragon boost the best it's ever been." Another slight lie, those rings from Pangu still made it better, but this would be an extreme close second.
"Well say "thanks" to the emerald for officially ending our races as we know it," she roars, stomping her foot to the ground. She turns around and looks at the rocks blocking the path, "Dang it, we'd be better off getting the Red Scarves to fix this place than anybody else now."
As Milla searches, and Carol mopes, you can't help but sigh, looking at the gem with hatred as it glows. This would've never happened if you didn't find this damn thing. What good does it do? What good can it do? It's only caused destruction thus far-
Wait... What good CAN it do? An idea comes to mind as you smile at the gem and hold it tight. You look at the wall and point the emerald at it, closing your eyes. If it worked once, then it can work twice, right? Just think about fixing this place, think about fixing everything here again.
"Lilac," a voice that sounds like Carol speaks, "What are you... Eurgh, my eyes!"