Spectrobes Legends

Chapter 4

WHAT THE HECK!

He ran up the slope as fast as he could. They had combed the entire hill for Mari when she wasn't in the cavern; it meant that she could only be in one place; the hill's tip. If the doorway had opened then…no…she was a simple student from the field trip his idiot uncle had allowed. Now, because of him, all this insanity was ensuing!

Then he saw it; strange light.

"No, no, no, no, no!"

He made it to the tip of the hill, and was met with a site that both mesmerized and terrified him.

There was Mari, standing before a man with flaming hair and passionate flaming eyes. The man wore strange armor, and raised a blade above Mari's head. She put her arms up, clearly thinking he was going to attack her. What he was about to do may be even worse for her.

"By the sacred power of this blue and pure world, I bestow upon you the title of this planet's Spectrobe Master!"

"NOOOOO!"

But it was too late; her eyes became hot, her hair became a blazing red, a pillar of light rose into the sky around them. The pillar vanished as he thrust his palm into Mari's gut, sealing the deal. Mar was now a master of the beings of light…and that could only mean that all of the Earth was in grave danger.

He ran up to the unconscious Mari and took her in his arms. "Could I…take the burden from her?" He asked. The specter shook his head as he began to melt away.

"I am sorry; she is pure of heart and she reached the altar, first; her fate has been sealed."

Mari was now fated to defend the Earth from whatever it was that was threatening it. She has just now gone through only the beginning of the excruciating pain she must suffer as her duty. "I…wish to become her squire!" He said. He would fight alongside her, and ease her burden in any way possible. But the specter shook his head once again.

.

"If you wish to remain by her side, then that is your decision," The specter was almost gone. "Fight well; the fate of the world rests on her shoulders, and you as her friend must shoulder the burden with her."

"I will do it with honor."

He vanished and Mari's hair returned to it's original color.

(…)

Is she alright?

She's a little scratched up.

What do you think happened?

Hey! She's waking up!

My eyes fluttered open. "Huh…who…MONSTER FIGHT!" I bellowed as I bolted up, but I soon regretted it. My body screamed as I did; so much so that I yelled in pain. "OW! Ooooh; why am I so sore?" I whaled. I looked around and noticed that I was on the top bunk of the bed that I chose. Half of the field trip was all gathered around me.

"Keith found you out cold on top of the hill; we had to carry you back here." Lily told me. The entire experience came back to me in an amazing flashback.

"MONSTERS!" I bellowed. "And some of them fought alongside me! They fought each other! The bad ones turned into dust! And the good ones flew into this gaunt—err—Prismod!"

The kids glared at me like I was on acid. "Could you start from the beginning?" Mr. Anderson asked.

So I told them the entire story. The kids were interested when I mentioned the hidden cavern, but when I mentioned the altar they didn't believe it ad started to mutter things that I didn't like. When I showed them the Prismod hey shut up. Everyone knew that I owned nothing like that. But nobody bought the part about the monsters.

"Did you check her head right?" One kid asked. Mr. Anderson sent him out immediately.

"But he does raise a good point," Keith said. I glared at him. "There was a small bump on her head. Maybe it was just an injury-induced dream?" He suggested.

"But…it was so real…and the Prismod…"

"The entire point of the hike was to find that so we could go into another part of the legend," Jack told me. "You see, that is a replica of the weapon the Master of Light was said to have used in battle. Since you found it, you get to keep it. Oh and I also wanted to tell you something interesting," he began. "Keith will be accompanying you kids back to Central City."

The brought up some excited chatter—mostly amongst the girls though.

"Sir that may go against school policy" Mr. Anderson began.

"I already spoke o your school principal; mid you that we offered your school a special discount on this trip. We've arranged for family to pick him up and he will be attending Central City High School soon." Jack turned to me. "As to how sore you are, I have an old family remedy that I can give you."

It turned out to be some awful-tasting herbal crap, but it did the job. In about an hour, I felt like new. If that guy sold the recipe he could make a fortune! Of course, Jack just didn't seem like the kind of guy that would be into that sort of thing.

I convinced Mr. Anderson not to call my parents, and the kids finally dropped it, so things went on normally on the field trip. We went back to studying Aboriginal traditions and doing regular camping stuff.

First up was archery. I was picking out a good bow when I got the weirdest feeling that someone was watching me. It was Keith. When I looked over at him I caught a glimpse of his eyes; they seemed kind of sad. As soon as he noticed I was looking at him he turned away and acted like he hadn't even known that we were at the same activity.

I tried to brush the incident off and shoot some targets. Lily was on my left and Keith was on my right. Lily barely hit the target; Keith hit the ring just outside of the center. I honestly wouldn't have even been surprised if I flat-out missed the target.

I pulled the arrow back like I had seen Netyri do in Avatar and tried to line my bow and the target up, then finally let go. I hit it…dead center. A lot of the kids looked over and clapped. Geez; I didn't know I had it in me!

But next up on my schedule wasn't so much fun; relay race…against the track team…. Half of the track team had decided to team up and dominate. Although to be fair the teachers made the other track team members that were in this group be on our team. So that made me, Keith (getting a liiiiiitle creeped out here), and three members of the track team. Overall we had some pretty good chances—besides me that is. If you remember my tread up the hill, you know that I'm not all that much of an athlete.

We had agreed for me to go last, so if we got a good head start, we weren't screwed. Normal people would have taken that offensively, I know I suck, so I was fine with it.

At the end of the track were flags and meal tickets that would get us extra sweets when lunch came around. Oh, I really wanted to win! I am such a sweet tooth! It wasn't a normal jogging track; we were at a Native American theme campsite, so it was jut a long area of flattened out grass with chalk dust.

The first pair of Track Team members bolted forward running like they were at the Summer Olympics. The next pair got their batons at the same time. Our team got a bit of a head start in the next race. Then it was Keith versus the vice-captain of the team. They caught up.

My heart was pounding when Keith got to me. My opponent was that official captain and true star of the track team. I turned around, reached my hand out behind me, and waited for the stick to enter my hand. When it did, I let instincts take over, and I bolted forward running as fast as I could…no…I wasn't going as fast as I could…but I was running faster than I ever had before!

The captain's face was red and he was breathing heavily, but I felt like I was walking on air! I was barely even breaking a sweat! It was amazing! I felt like freaking Sonic the Hedgehog! Don't even get me started on the look on his face when I actually started to exert myself! He stood there gawking as I crossed the finish line and took the meal passes.

(…)

"You beat the captain of the track team?" Lily gasped. "Whoa!"

"I know!" I squealed.

I had gotten my extra treats at dinner, and was in my pajamas on my bunk at the girls' cabin. Lily's bunk was right under mine, so we leaned over and spoke to each other like siblings.

"Isn't he supposed to be one of the fastest people on this side of the country?"

"And now I'm one, too!" I breathed. "I've been faster, smarter, and stranger ever since I cam down from the h…"

The man with red hair flashed in my mind; I saw his eyes, filled with sorrow.

"Um…M-M-M-M-Mari!" Lily stammered.

"What's up?" I asked.

"Y-y-y-your b-b-b-bag!"

"It's on the ground next to you, right?" I leaned completely over, so that I was looking at Lily upside down. She was leaning over the other side of the bed, shaking. I got up, and looked over there. My bag was shaking. "Oh come on! It's probably just my phone; it's set on vibrate."

I leapt down and picked up my bag. It was a little heavier than I remembered. I opened it up, and nearly threw it across the room. I wound up falling off the bead in surprise. Out from the bag, popped a little red koala/dog hybrid with blue lips and markings.

He leapt down in front of me, and wagged his tiny stub of a tail. We both gawked.

"Didn't you describe something just like that in your dream?" Lily asked.

"WHAT THE HECK??!!"