Chapter Nine

Hardrock's Test

It was very early in the morning when the group was woken up and asked to get dressed. Kento and Rena were ushered out of the room at this point. They rejoined the group outside the castle. The group stood lazily around the front garden when they reappeared. Both Kento and Rena were dress in suitable attire for this little mission they were going on.

"You ready?" Lucio asked. Rena nodded.

"What exactly are we suppose to be doing?" Kento asked.

"You are to take the princess to that mountain," Rin pointed to a mountain in the far distance south of the castle. "Sir Hardrock, enter the mountain as you were the mountain. Be not a destructive force or thou shall not pass this fateful test. If thou fail Princess Rena will no longer exist in the world of the living. Be not hasty. Think on this journey to the center of yourself held within thou armor bestowed."

"Huh?" Kento scratched his head, looking completely confused. "What's that suppose to mean?"

"It's part of an ancient poem. We each will tell you your part when it's time," Lira replied. "Keep Rin's words in your mind and you will do fine on this test."

"I hate test," Kento frowned.

"You alright?" Rowen asked as he stepped next to Rena. She nodded.

"You don't have much time," Lucio said. He clapped his hands and a stable boy brought over two solid white horses with wings. "These will get you to the mountain."

"You better get going," Lira added.

"Be careful," Mia said as Kento and Rena mounted their winged horses.

"Take care of her, Kento," Rowen said.

"Of course. You know I will," Kento gave him a nod and smiled before the two headed off.

"What now?" Cye asked.

"We wait," Lira said as the fairies started to head back inside the castle.

"So...what now? I don't think any of us can go back to sleep now that Rena and Kento has started this mission," Ryo said. The group just exchanged looks.

"It's going to take us forever to ride like this to that mountain," Kento whined as he looked at the mountain that looked so far out of reach.

- Well, these are winged horses. -

"What do you mean by that?" Kento asked.

- Let's see what they can do. -

"Huh?" Kento gave her a questionable look. He got his answer when she snapped the reins and her horse took off. The horse spread it's wings and with a few flaps Rena was airborne. "Whoa!"

Kento's horse stopped. "NOT YOU!"

He flick the reins and followed Rena into the sky. It took a few minutes before he caught up with her. "You know, Rowen would probably have a heart attack if her knew what you just did."

Rena just smiled at him. It was one of her mischievous smiles. One she often shared with him when they were up to no good as kids or when they wanted to keep something from Rowen, which really did no good, he always found out sooner or later. "Right. Keeping quiet about this. Anyway, we're making faster time this way."

It took then about six hours to fly to the mountain. The horses and they were tired by the time they got there. "Oh my gosh! It would have taken us half a day to get here if we didn't fly! That's crazy! What kind of test is this?"

- I think we're about to find out. - Kento followed Rena's gaze to the mountain. He was too tired to noticed when they landed, or were in the air, at how huge this mountain was. It was way bigger than any mountains back in their world. Kento walked up to the mountain and placed his hand on it.

The second he did the mountain began to rumble and the ground started to shake. The teens stumbled around as the horses took to the air and took off. A minute later the shaking stopped. "That was weird. Hey! Where'd the horses go?"

- They took off. -

"What? How are we going to get back?"

-We can find them later. We first have to get through this test. -

"'Kay, how do we get in? We're suppose to go in, right?" Kento asked as he looked the mountain over.

- Remember what Rin said, you have to enter the mountain as if you were the mountain. -

"But how? There's no door," Rena crossed her arms in thought. She muddled over what Rin had said.

- Well, she said you had to become the mountain to get inside. Maybe you have merge with it? -

"Merge?"

- Like you did with your armor. You know how connected you are with your armor? -

"Yes,"

- Maybe you have to connect with this mountain. -

"Connect with a mountain? That's crazy,"

- Rin herself gave us the clue. It has to be it. Just give it a try. -

"Ok. You're the boss," Kento turned and faced the mountain. He reached out and touched it. The ground began shaking again. Kento pulled away and looked at Rena. She nodded. He placed his hand on it once again and closed his eyes. Alright, Mr. Mountain. I am Kento of Hardrock. This is my element. I am Kento of Hardrock. I am the mountain. I am the mountain.

The ground shook harder and harder. Rena stumble around until she lost her balance and fell. Some of the loose rocks on the side of the mountain shook loose. Rena looked up as they fell. One was about the size of a truck. She knew she should move, but something held her in place.

Kento didn't noticed. He kept his attention on the mountain. Suddenly he felt the entire mountain, like he was the mountain. He could see every side, every rock and every creature that was climbing on the massive rock. He also could see rocks falling. One he became and noticed it was falling right at Rena.

Kento's eyes popped open. He spun around and threw his fist into the air and collided with the large rock. The rock seem to freeze in place on his fist before shattering into dust on the ground. Kento and Rena just stared in shock. "H-How...did...I?"

- That was...SO COOL! - Rena jumped up and threw her arms around him. - Are you ok? -

Rena took his hand in her and looked it over for damage. "Yeah. I'm fine. It didn't hurt. Not at all."

- What happened? -

"I'm not sure. It's like I became the mountain. I think I am the mountain now," Kento looked at his hands then over at the mountain. He walked back over to it and placed his hand on it. Nothing happened. Well no earthquakes anyway. A dull glow appeared underneath his hand and he about fell through the mountain. He had new powers. "Whoa."

- Kento? -

"This must be the way we go in," Kento reached his hand back to Rena. She took it and stepped to his side. The two slowly entered into the mountain.

Rena tightened her hand on his. He gave her a reassuring squeeze. They saw nothing but a dull glow for a few minutes before entering into some kind of cave inside the mountain. The inside was just as huge, if not larger, that the exterior of the mountain. "What in the name of Hardrock is this place? It's like a whole other world in here."

He was right. It looked like an over size mansion made of rocks. There were several tunnels and balcony like floors spiraling up to the top, or they assume to the top since they couldn't see that high. Something shuffled in the dark corners of the interior. Rena immediately stepped closer to Kento and clung to his shirt, he responded by wrapping his arms around her. He hear it too and didn't like the feeling of its presence.

Cye walked alone through the mansion. The group broke off in different directions shortly after Rena and Kento left. Cye felt he would wonder around the castle. He still felt like something was missing in this little adventure they were on. He was right. He noticed that there was hardly anyone around. He thought that there would be someone around, people cleaning, looking for repairs that needed to be done with the castle, trimming trees, weeding flowers, and other stuff.

But the castle was pretty much deserted. They, the fairies, the healer and the servants that brought them their meals seem to be the only ones around. Cye soon found himself face to face with a door. He pushed it open and entered. The room lit up with some unseen source of light. It was a square room with pictures, covered in dust, hanging on the walls. He walked over to one and brushed some of the dust off. It was an old painting, very old. A lot of the paint had flaked off.

It was a painting of a young boy with dark brown hair and eyes. He was dressed in an outdated outfit, compared to the present outfits worn in this kingdom, fit for a king. The date on the painting was dated 1437. Cye looked closer to the date. It also said 'In o rabl me y of the ar an F ies of wa , f , th, ars, the li ev .'

"A painting honoring someone who died? The Guardian Fairies?" Cye stepped over to another painting. He checked several. Even though most of the words and paint had worn away he could tell that all these painting where honoring past fairies. "What's going on here?"

Cye turned to leave only to come face to face with Current. "You found it?"

"What? I'm sorry. I didn't mean any harm,"

"No harm will be done. No one will know," Current replied.

"What? What do you...," Current reached out and tapped his forehead twice. Cye felt a wave of tiredness and began to fall asleep. She held out her arms to hold him up then snapped his fingers and teleported them to Cye's room. She laid him down on the bed.

"Did he seem them?" Lucio asked.

"Yes. He won't remember," Current replied.

"Good. Lira, Rin, go. Make sure no one gets back inside that room," Lucio ordered.

"Right," Lira and Rin nodded and left. They went to the picture room. Rin closed the door and stepped aside. Lira held out her hand and guided her fire over the outline of the door. Once the door and part of the wall was a lava red, Lira stepped aside. Rin stepped up and used her powers to seal it by manipulating the rock walls of the castle. The walls sealed the door and it was no longer visible, like it was never there. The two fairies exchange guilty, unsure looks before walking off.

"Where the heck are were?" Kento demanded. They have been running for a couple of hours. Those things that were hidden in the shadows were goblins. Or they thought they were goblins. The creatures were short, mossy green in color, with pointy ears, large noses and sharp narrow eyes that were black. They began chancing the teens through the mountain. "What the heck are those things? And what do they want?"

Rena wished she knew. One point she wondered if they were guardians to this gem Kento is suppose to find. Whatever they were, one thing was for sure, it was part of this test. Kento pulled her around a corner. The creatures ran pasted them. "Good. Maybe now we have a few second to figure out what to do."

Rena tugged on Kento's sleeve. He looked at her. - I'm going on alone. -

"What?"

- Kento, listen to me. You need to find this gem crystal thing so we can get out of here. And you're not going to find it if we keep getting chased by those creatures. I'll distract them to give you time to concentrate on finding the gem. -

"No way! There is no way I'm going to leave you to fight those things alone!"

- Kento! It has to be this way. We've been running around here like wild. We need to progress and get back to the others. I don't like being away from them for so long. Remember the Shadow Creature is still out there. You need to use the powers you have now to find the gem crystal thing. You know I'm right. -

Kento ran his fingers through his hair and debated on her words. - You know I'm right. Besides I'm getting better and better with my powers the longer I'm in this world. I'll be ok. -

"Oh man. Rowen's going to kill me," Kento slapped himself on the face. "Alright. We'll try it your way. But if you get to overwhelmed haul your butt out of there and come to me. Understand me, young lady?"

- Yes, sir, Sir Hardrock! -

"Ha, ha," Kento rolled his eyes. Rena gave him a thumbs up before heading out to distract the goblins. Kento watched her go before sitting cross legged on the ground. He closed his eyes and concentrated on his new powers. Kento connected his armor powers to this new powers of the mountain and began to glow his respected color.

Rena found the creatures and fired a blast at them. They looked at her but didn't attack. Just as I thought, they don't care about me. They want Kento. Alright, creeps, time to show you what I can do! I hope... Rena swiped her hand through the air, like a cat, shooting out sharp energy strikes as if she had claws. Her green energy swipes sliced a couple of the creatures. They grumbled and hissed in an unfamiliar language at her. Rena smirked. She finally became a threat to them.

She gathered up her powers in her fists and stood ready as they charged at her. She punched and kicked with her powers and was doing alright. Rena felt like she was getting a hold on her powers and they were growing stronger. But she was still inexperienced with them and her power drained quickly. When her powers got low she took Kento's advice. She turned and started to run back to him.

However, more goblin creatures appeared and soon she was surrounded by them. All of them gathered up their own energy in small energy balls and fired them at her. She immediately threw up an energy shield with the power she had left.

Kento was still concentrating on finding his circlet gem. His powers allowed him to search the entire mountain in seconds, still he found nothing. He was about to give up and go after Rena when his new powers showed him Rena. She was in the middle of the creatures and loosing her power energy fast. "Rena!"

Kento snapped out of his concentration to find he was transported to Rena, somehow. He didn't have time to question it, he was just glad he was there. "Stop it! Leave her alone!"

Kento's screamed raised the powers of the mountain. Everything started to shake. Kento raised his fist into the air and pounded the ground. It sent out several dull orange energy strikes at the creatures. It knocked most of them down and the rest backed off for a second. Most charged at him while the others grabbed Rena, who's power was completely gone. "Rena!"

Once again Kento's power exploded. At the same time, a small oval shaped gem appeared on Kento's circlet. He clapped his hands together and the ground the creatures were standing on separated from the ground and rose them into the air. Kento tossed them away from Rena. She watched in awe as he did this. This time the creatures ran off. "Wow."

Kento looked at his hands then ran over to Rena. "Rena? Rena?"

- I'm ok. Just tired. -

"That's good," Rena smiled at him before passing out from lack of energy. Kento held her for a minute before picking her up and heading out of the mountain. The creatures giving him plenty of space to go. Kento looked around once outside. "Great. Still no horses."

- We'll have to walk back. - Rena signed when she woke up. She started to crawl out of his arms.

"No way, young lady. You're not walking. You're to tired,"

- But, Kento...-

"No buts. I'm carrying you back," Kento kneeled down. "Climb on."

Rena nodded and climbed onto his back. Kento shifted her to a comfortable position before heading off towards the castle.

Rowen sat alone in the castle garden. It was about one in the morning. The gardens were lit by magic fireflies, which were flying around in the garden. He was staring off to the mountain where Kento and Rena were. He wanted to go after them so bad. He sensed they were alright, excepted for Rena being drained of power and Kento's power change. At least they were fine.

"Hey," Sage sat down next to his best friend.

"Hey," Rowen repeated. Both sat quietly staring, waiting for them to return. Rowen looked over at him. Sage's eyes, both showing, were full of mixed emotions, something Rowen has never seen in Sage's eyes before. "Sa..."

"There they are!" Sage suddenly screamed and jumped up. Rowen looked up to see a horse coming down from the sky.

"Hm? Hey guys," Kento greeted them with a big smiled. Both immediately noticed a change and huge power jump in Kento.

"Kento, you've...changed," Rowen said while looking him over.

"Yeah. It was crazy," Kento rubbed the back of his head. "I can't wait to tell you about it."

"Where's Rena? Where is she?" Sage demanded.

"Shh!" Kento placed his finger on his lips before throwing a glance over his shoulder at the sleeping girl behind him. "She's sleeping."

Rena was leaning against Kento's bag with her arms wrapped around his lower waist. She was positioned to where it didn't look like she was there at all. Especially behind a teen the size of Kento.

"Didn't you take off with two horses?" Rowen asked as Sage hustled over to Rena.

"Yeah. They kinda ran off. I walked for two hours until I found this guy," Kento replied.

"Rena?" Sage asked again.

"She's alright, Sage," Rowen said a bit sheepishly. He should have told him he felt her before and she was fine. Sage reached up to take Rena. Kento helped him slide her off the horse before jumping off himself. Kento stretched out his back. It sure felt good getting off that animal.

"Man, I sure could use a hot bath and a huge meal," Kento chuckled. "Not necessarily in that order."

"Kento! Rena!" Ryo's voice caused them to turn around. He and the others were running up to them, the fairies were flying.

"Rena? Is she alright?" Mia asked.

"She's fine. Just sleeping," Kento reported.

"I should take her to her room. She needs to rest," Lucio said as he stepped forward. He reached for her but Sage pulled her away and glared at him. "What are you doing? She needs..."

"I'm taking her to her room," Sage said with a cold glared that looked as if he was going to hack Lucio's head off if he tried to take Rena again.

"Back off, Lucio," Lira whispered as she tugged Lucio away from Sage. "Go on, Sir Halo. Take the princess to her room."

Sage nodded and left them, White Blaze following. Lucio glared at Sage as he went, holding Rena bridle style in his arms. Lira elbowed him hard in the ribs. Lucio just shrugged at her and turned back to Kento.

"Well done, Sir Hardrock," Rin said looking at the gem on his circlet. "You have passed your test. You have gained the powers of Earth here and will guard it and the princess on this mission as she progresses and faces the Shadow Creature."

Kento smiled at her, "Um...can I eat now? I'm starving."

Everyone laughed as Kento's stomach let out a loud growl.

Sage placed Rena in her bed and sat down to watch her sleep. White Blaze laid down in his spot close to the bed and kept watching the bearer of Halo. Sage brushed Rena's hair away from her face. "Rena? Rena, wake up."

She didn't. She just kept on sleeping. He then remember what Lucio had told him before. "Using her powers as much as she did wasn't good for her. She slept for almost two days. Then it took several hours to pry her from your side."

That's right. Rena would probably sleep for two days to recover from using her powers. Sage sighed and ran his fingers through his blonde hair. He wished she didn't have to go through this. Not if it was going to keep draining her this much. He shook his head and crawled onto the bed full and laid down beside her. He wasn't going to leave her tonight. White Blaze watched him for a while before laying down to sleep himself.

White Blaze didn't move until someone came into the room later that morning. It was Lucio. White Blaze gave a low grumbled in his throat. "It's ok, boy. I'm just checking on her."

Lucio walked up to Rena. "So the little bearer of Halo never left her side. He's loyal. I'll give him that."

White Blaze purred. "Shut up you stupid tiger! I should have known you would have figured it out by now. But then...that's an animal for you. You always sense and figure things out before a human does."

Lucio walked over and sat down beside the large tiger. White Blaze rubbed his massive head on Lucio's arm. Lucio was sitting cross legged with his left arm on his knee, chin resting in his hand and he wrapped his right arm around White Blaze. "You can't tell anyone what you know. You know it has to be this way right? I can't...I can't let Rena go. Not even in death. I will never let her go."

Notes: FINALLY!Sorry I haven't updated in a while. I have this really huge illustration assignment I've been working on and it still doesn't seem to be getting anywhere near finished and it due next week. Then finals are next week too. UGH! NOT GOING TO MAKE IT! It's been a long end of the semester. Well hope you like this chapter and I'll add then next soon ( I hope -.-' ). I hope you all get the description of the inside of the mountain. It was really hard trying to get what the inside of it looked but basically it's a mix of the insides of a cave and a house.