After a short walk through the flora, the group arrived at the place of the crystals.
Gentle mist milled about on the ground, seeming to appear out of nowhere and just stayed near the crystals. The crystals were attached to rocks that seemed to rise out of the earth. They glittered against the harsh gray of the stone.
"Here we are." Rick said.
"It's still the same. No crystals have been drained from here." Will observed.
"Hopefully, I will be able to communicate with them since it seems to be that they are still functioning." Crystal responded.
"And you just communicate with these telepathically?" Enik asked.
"Yes, as I have told you before we are connected." Crystal replied.
"It is just, so very different then what the Altrusian leaders taught us. To us, crystals are just instruments, a form where energy comes from and that is used to transfer energy from the time doorways and the pylons." Enik said.
"Well, the Altrusian leaders may not either be telling you, or maybe they are just not intelligent to pick up the points." Crystal said.
"The Altrusian leaders are the finest and smartest of all the Altrusian society! They cannot be wrong" Enik said, in an outburst that startled the Marshalls.
"Enik, I am sure she didn't mean it that way…." Rick said cautiously. He had seen Enik get angry before and use his telepathic powers to make the Marshall's see their greatest fears in their own minds. He did not want another outburst occurring now.
"I…apologize Enik. I did not mean for you to take offence from that. I was just telling you what could be a truth." Crystal responded.
"No, it should my apology. I have been trying to keep my emotions in check and learn to block out this anger. It is this anger that eventually leads the Altrusian to degenerate into the Sleestak. I am sorry for my outburst." Enik said, clearly embarrassed at his display of emotions.
"It's okay Enik, I mean we all get mad sometime!" Holly said, easily calming everyone with her smile.
"Okay then, let's get to work. Crystal, can you try to communicate with them?" Rick asked.
"Yes. It will be a few minutes." Crystal responded. She went up to the rocks and placed her hands on the stone and closed her eyes.
Holly sat on the ground, Will took a drink out of the canteen, and Rick and Enik observed Crystal. A few minutes had passed and Crystal still stood at her place not showing any signs of clarity to receiving her message.
"How long do you think it takes for her to communicate?" Rick said quietly as he turned to Enik.
"I am not sure. She seemed to react quickly with the crystals in the cave. I would think that we would have an answer of some sorts by now." Enik responded just as quietly as he turned to Rick. "How did she get here exactly?"
"After the Earthquake, Holly found her just standing out near the stream where we get our water. She didn't give us much information besides that this is one of the first times a light crystals consciousness has been in a body, and that she was here for a purpose. And from what I gather it has something to do with you." Rick replied.
"With me? Did she say why?" Enik asked.
"Do you miss it?" Crystal suddenly spoke with her eyes still closed.
Rick and Enik turned around to Crystal. Rick felt as if he were a child that was caught talking in class when he wasn't supposed to. "I'm sorry, what?" Rick asked.
"Enik, do you miss Altrusia?" Crystal asked. "I sense you have a lot of guilt for not being able to return quicker. I also sense…. sadness, very brief because your emotions are so faint, but still a detectable sadness for Altrusia. Much like I sense the Marshalls have for their home of California."
Enik stood there not answering for almost a minute. "Yes. I do miss Altrusia."
"When I travelled in one of the pylons I saw a place that looked like this, well sort of. But there was someone who looked just like you. Was that Altrusia? What was it like?" Holly asked.
"I have thought about it. More so since I have heard you speak the language of my kind, Crystal. Altrusia….." Enik sighed and one hand gripped his pendant. "It was a very beautiful place for me, full of knowledge and science. The Lost City, as you call it, was our homes and laboratories where we studied the time doorways. We monitored time and space, observed other cultures and advanced our own. I was a teacher at the school where we taught our young about the time and space advancements. Our world was filled with gleaming gold and orange colors, everything geometrical. We were all very smart and it seemed like a perfect Utopian society without the emotions, which it no seems was not as perfect as I thought." Enik looked off in the distance.
"It is beautiful, one of the most beautiful places I've seen. Out of all the worlds I always thought it was one of the most stunning." Crystal said, still eyes closed with her hand on the rock. She opened her eyes. "I am so sorry you are far away from home."
Enik looked at Crystal, "It is fine. It just makes me try harder to get home."
"I'm sorry Enik, I didn't realize you were as homesick as us." Will said.
"Yeah, it sounds really pretty. It was pretty when I saw it, I can only imagine what else!" Holly said.
Enik looked around at the Marshalls who were all smiling at him, with emotions that he could not detect. "I am sorry for my outburst. Excuse me." Enik spoke, then turned and walked away.
"Hey wait! Awww, where's he going?" Holly asked.
"I think that maybe he was embarrassed that he showed emotion honey, he just isn't used to it." Rick answered Holly.
"Yes, he is not far. I can tell his brain patterns are scattered, he is just trying to make sense of his emotions." Crystal said. "But, he is supposed to learn them if he is to save his race, and so it must start sometime."
"Have you communicated with the crystals yet? It seems to me that it is taking longer than you said it would." Rick said.
"About that….they, oh it's just, they are not responding!" Crystal said in frustration. "Usually we can communicate in a matter of seconds, but since that incident in the cave, I cannot hear or sense anything from my brothers and sisters. It's almost as if, I know this sounds truly illogical, but that something is blocking me from them. Some just blackness is in the way of everything. I'm almost completely useless without them." Crystal said then slunk to the ground. "I, for once in my existence, have no idea what is going to happen."
