Chapter 3

Monkey Business

"Aklase?"

"Ugh…"

"Aklase…?"

"Urg…"

"Aklase!"

Aklase sat up with a start and looked around wildly, trying to remember where she was. She relaxed as she realized she was outside the tent, with Npm looking down at her.

"What happened?" She asked groggily, rubbing her head.

"You were nearly killed by snakes and your wound opened up again. Don't worry, I dressed it up."

Aklase looked up at him with surprise and then let her gaze rest of her arm, which was covered in bandages. She turned back to look at him. "Thank you…how did you know I was there?"

He shrugged. "I took a wild guess when you weren't in the tent and the gnome was rowing back to shore." He said sarcastically.

She looked down at her lap. "I didn't act like a very good leader tonight did I?"

"I pissed you off and you let your temper take over. Not entirely your fault." He tried to assure her.

She glared at him. "Stop trying to make excuses for me. That was a stupid thing to do and I'm just lucky you saved my ass in time."

"Your ass is worth saving." Npm smiled with amusement.

She relaxed a little, seeing Npm's smile and that it was directed toward her again. "We probably have to tell War and Jawwie about this don't we?"

"Not if you don't want us to. I don't like lying to War but…it's not like this is the biggest secret in the world."

She smiled and tried to get up to hug him but quickly sat back down as a trickle of pain shot from her arm once again.

"You just need to sit down for a couple of minutes and you'll be able to walk again." He explained.

"How are we going to explain how my wound opened up?" She frowned.

"Uh…I don't know. I'm going to go catch us breakfast. Kay, thanks, bye." With that said he quickly got up and headed for the water.

"Wait, what?" She stared after him in confusion, than sighed in amusement. She guessed she could just tell them she went for a walk and scraped it on a twig…that was at least some of the truth.

She turned to the rising sun, the sky was beginning to turn an orange gold color. Her arm beginning to feel better, she walked over to the water's edge and looked down into the water at her reflection. More than anything she wished she could be at Catherby right now, fishing her way to 99. But she was meant for greater things…whether she liked it or not.

Suddenly, her sparkling eyes in the reflection turned into a red bloody color and her mouth began to bare fangs. Her face flooded with darkness and her color turned into a pure midnight black. The figure smiled a devilish grin and lunged at her with a fierce growl.

Aklase let out a scream of surprise and lunged back, colliding with a tree behind her. She collapsed on the ground, rubbing her head and trembling violently. What was that?

"What's wrong? What happened?" Npm was running toward her with 4 lobsters in a cage.

"There's something in the water!" Aklase said the words before she could stop them, still shaking. Npm looked confused but turned toward the water and after a few minutes turned back to her.

"I don't see anything…are you sure you saw something?"

Aklase began to desperately search her mind. Somehow the figure seemed familiar to her…but it was hazy. It must have been when she was just a spirit, those days she barely remembered anything. She couldn't just let it go though! Something told her that thing, whatever it was, was dangerous. Then again maybe she was going crazy from all the stress…

"Aklase." He repeated. "Are you sure you saw something?"

Somehow, she couldn't lie to him "I did. I'm sure I did. But…it might have just been a fish swimming by." She felt like she was trying to reassure herself as much him.

He suddenly let out a small laugh.

"What's so funny?" She frowned.

"Well…Alaska was afraid of water, so you might have caught that as well from her. Do you think that might be it?"

She pondered this for a second. It was true…she had gotten a few of Alaska's qualities…and ever since the resurrection she hadn't been quite fond of water. Maybe that was it? Was she just developing a fear of water? She prayed that was true.

She turned back to Npm. "Well…I wouldn't say afraid.." She muttered. She suddenly heard a rustle and turned around to see War coming toward them, reaching out his arms in a stretch with a yawn.

"Look who finally decided to roll out of the tent." Npm called to him.

War shrugged. "I was tired. Sue me. Are those lobsters?" He casted his gaze toward the cage of lobsters.

Npm looked toward the cage as if only just remembering he had brought it. "Uh, yeah. Start a fire and we'll cook these suckers up."

"Where's Jawwie?" Aklase asked War.

"Sleeping like a hibernating bear." War scoffed.

She nodded, slightly happy that Jawwie was sleeping well again. "Let's get the lobsters cooked and eaten. We have a long way ahead of us…and this is just a guess but make sure to have your anti poison ready. Something tells me we'll need them."

About an hour later, Jawwie joined them and ate her slightly cold lobster and they were on their way. Now they were on Ape Atoll, gazing out at the jungle ahead.

"Weird." War observed. "It looks like someone already made a path through the jungle."

Aklase looked away, embarrassment beginning to flood through her.

"A lot of people come here, big deal." Npm covered for her. "Are we going or not?"

She flashed him a quick look of thanks before they entered in the path she had made.

"So what do you think the first element will be?" Jawwie broke the silence as they walked through the path.

"I bet it's going to be fire, which of course, we all know will be mine." War held his head up high.

Jawwie scoffed. "You'll burn yourself! We all know that fire will be my element."

"I like fire, therefore it's mine." Npm argued.

"As far as I'm concerned, I don't care what my element is. Just as long as we get it and fast." Aklase mumbled.

At this, the other three grew silent.

"Party pooper…" War muttered.

"So you're not the least bit curious?" Jawwie asked her in disbelief.

"Of course I am!" Aklase said. "I just kind of doubt that my element will be fire."

"Why?" War frowned. "It's the best one."

"Not true. Water puts out fire." Jawwie pointed out.

"Who asked you?" He glared at her.

"Well anything's better than earth…" Jawwie made a face.

"What's wrong with earth?" Npm asked in confusion.

"All you can do is move a bunch of mud and dirt around…yeah..that's really exciting." Jawwie scoffed.

Before the talk could continue, Aklase suddenly felt the same pull that she had felt when she first saw the sign. "We're almost there!" She said.

The friends looked at her in surprise before bursting into a run.

"Hey! Wait up!" Aklase called to them before following.

She managed to get ahead and she closed her eyes, letting her senses take over. As she grew nearer, the feeling of power began growing bigger…and bigger…finally it was smothering.

"Aklase! Watch out!"

At Jawwie's cry, Aklase made an abrupt stop to see that she was just on the edge of a creator. She had found where the falling, whatever it was, hit!

Her friends came beside her and gaped at the huge hole in the earth.

"The monkeys aren't going to like this…" Npm muttered.

Aklase nodded agreement but jumped into the creator.

Jawwie stared wide eyed at her. "Aklase, get back here! We don't know what's down there."

"And we won't know until we check, will we?" Aklase said in a matter of fact tone, still walking forward.

Npm followed her and after a moment hesitation, War and Jawwie did too.

As they got to the center of the creator, Aklase noticed there was a small hole right in the middle. Whatever it was knew to bury itself in the ground…

Suddenly, she heard heavy breathing and whipped around to see War with his mouth open.

"War, you sound like a panting dog. Close your mouth." She glared at him.

He closed his mouth and returned the glare. Aklase turned her attention back to the small hole.

"Uhh…guys?"

"Npm, can't this wait until we-" She stopped as she took a look around. Tiny red eyes were appearing around the creator, everywhere. Something was watching them.

"I knew this seemed too easy, I just knew it." Jawwie was muttering under her breath.

"Guys…their just monkeys." War assured them.

Within close inspection, Aklase realized he was right. These were just tiny little monkeys, and some bigger ones.

Even though these were just monkeys, Aklase could feel herself reaching for her abyssal whip. But with any luck, their anger wasn't directed at them, but the flying object.

The monkeys suddenly left an open space, and one of them stepped out in the open. It was a fairly small monkey, with a necklace and a weird looking hat on its head.

"King Awowogei…" War muttered.

"King What-What?" Jawwie looked at him in a weird way.

"Never mind. I can talk to him." With that said, War took out a weird looking device and turned himself into a monkey.

"Oh look, an improvement." Jawwie smirked.

The War-monkey ooked at her before climbing up to the king.

"You think he knows what he's doing?" Aklase whispered to Npm.

"Sure. I have faith in him." Npm replied with a slight shiver to his tone.

After a few minutes, the War-monkey came back and turned himself back into a human. "He says it's our fault that this thing crashed on their island. Oh, and we are going to suffer 5 years of torture."

Jawwie clenched her teeth. "Did you explain to him that we are only passing through and this thing will be out of his fur soon?"

War scoffed at her. "What, do you think I'm stupid?...I'll be right back." He quickly changed himself back into a monkey and headed back to the king.

Aklase rolled her eyes.

"What kind of torture do monkeys know about?" Npm asked.

Aklase shrugged. "Putting bugs in our hair?"

Once again, War came back and turned himself back to a human. "He says he wants us to fill in the hole, then he'll let us go."

"Fine. Tell him it's a deal." Aklase sighed, her senses beginning to throb from being so close to the first element.

War turned back to the king and gave him thumbs up. The king nodded and disappeared back into the jungle, his crew following.

Aklase let out a breath of relief. One crisis averted.

"Aklase?" She heard Npm's voice and turned around to see them crowded around the small hole, clearly impatient. "Would you like to do it?"

She nodded and hurried over the hole. She began to stick her hand into the dirty, suddenly fearful that something would come up and bite her.

"Come on! Hurry up!" War jeered in impatience, only silenced by a slap from Jawwie.

Aklase reached farther down, searching for anything solid. Finally, she felt a rock-like object, but it somehow felt different then a rock…smoother.

She grabbed the object and pulled it out. She coughed as a piece of dirt somehow got into her mouth and she dusted the mud off of the object…..

It was a jumbo sized earth rune!

"A rune?" War yelled in outrage.

"We came all this way…for a rune?" Jawwie clenched her teeth.

Suddenly, the rune floated from Aklase's hands and levitated in the air.

Jawwie gaped. "Um…I take that back."

"Merlin!"

Npm's shout of surprise made Aklase jump and she turned around to see it WAS the old wizard. "What are you doing here?" She asked.

"I am here to deliver your first element." He smiled.

"This thing is an element?" Jawwie pointed to it in disbelief.

"Indeed." He nodded

"Earth, Air, Water, and Fire.." Aklase whispered. "Those are all runes." She said louder.

He nodded again. "We thought it was clear enough."

"So who gets the thing?" Npm asked him.

"The element decides." He said, pointing to the element. It was floating around them now.

Suddenly, it stopped in front of Jawwie.

"And we have a winner." He smiled. "Congratulations Jawwie the Healer."

Before she could reply, the rune suddenly flew at Jawwie and in an instant, disappeared.

"Where'd it go?" Npm looked around wildly.

"It is inside her." He nodded toward Jawwie.

She was glowing bright gold light and her eyes were wide as plates. "My-my element is earth?" She finally managed to mutter.

"Indeed it is." Merlin said. "You have been given the name Jawwie the Healer. You each get a name like that one once you have found your element. Use you element and your names wisely."

"Are you going to be here every time we get our elements?" She asked him.

"I am. Now, I must be going. Now that one of you has their elements, the land of Runescape is a little safer."

"Wait! How do I use my element?" Jawwie called him back, her body beginning to lose the glow.

"You will find out soon enough." He told her.

"You just love torturing us don't you?" War glared at him.

Merlin smiled. "It is quite fun. Farewell." With that, he vanished, leaving the four friends to let out a slight sigh of relief now that one of them had an element.

They were that much closer to really becoming The Four!

~To be continued~

Sorry this chapter is a little late. School is back, therefore I don't have as much free time to write. But, I will do my best so bear with me and be patient please. Also, a very big thank you to Ghorrock's Spirit and Indie Mittens for the great reviews! :D Without great reviews like that I wouldn't know that I had such amazing fans and my writing would slow down so R&R please!