Chapter 11
Necessary Sidetrack
As she looked at the towering walls of glistening gold, she noticed that Neveo was not surprised by the gold. "What the hell is wrong with you?" Kursed screamed at Neveo. Neveo turned to look at her with raised eyebrows. "Why should I be? All I see are walls made of stone covered with moss." He said calmly." Neveo than proceeded to walk towards the opposite end of the ruins to see for himself what is going on. "It looks like no one has been here recently," He said as he breathed with a sigh of relief. Kursed noticed that the walls had strange markings and symbols engraved all over. She instantly noticed six circles that were stacked like a pyramid in the middle of the wall and its designs. Three circles formed the base, 2 circles formed the middle, and one circle was placed at the top. Turning her head, she noticed that Neveo was walking towards the blue shining pool. He then pulled a small glass jar out of his sling bag he had tucked away beneath his cape and placed it in the water. The water, as if on its own, began to flow inside the glass jar until it was all gone. Neveo quickly pulled out a cork and sealed the jar before he put it away. "Glad that's over with." he said quietly as he began to make his way closer to where Kursed was standing. "Interested aren't you?" he said in his usual calm tone. Kursed looked on as if she had not heard what he said but stood quiet and listened. "Well. . ." Neveo said as he began his explanation. "Long ago, this island, as I mentioned, was a place that was used to test "special weapons" right?" Kursed nodded and Neveo continued his narration, " Well, some of those weapons, . . . were people" Kursed turned quickly and gave a face of shock. "People? . . " she said in a confused tone. Neveo smiled and pointed to the pyramid of six circles.
"Thousands of years ago, there existed a group of six siblings, each with an extraordinary power and ability that was almost limitless. Each individual controlled one of the six earthly elements. From fire, water, earth, lightening, wind, and finally the mysterious sixth element, which even today, no one knows existed. These six legendary warriors fought with invaders from other planets to protect the human race. However, unlike other species, they were mortal and grew weary and old as time pressed forth. Until one day, they sealed their powers away, thus causing their deaths. Earth as a planet fell apart, without the sacred guardians to assist them; they now relied on themselves and the unsurpassable human desire of greed and corruption. However, I, being a human have knowledge of a certain event that has taken place and which has been brought to my attention by my fellow comrades." Neveo said sternly. "Which is?" Kursed implied quietly as Neveo turned to look at her with a face that expressed obvious worry. "The six guardians powers, once at peace, have been released. And given to six infants who have recently come of the age where their power begins to manifest its true strength" He said calmly. Kursed was confused and puzzled by what this all meant. "So what are we to do now that these powers have been released?" Neveo smiled. "We find the kids who possess these powers before they fall into the wrong hands. Plus, we need to find a place where they can be safe and live a normal life." Neveo said sternly. "How old are these brats?" Kursed snapped, "They are three boys and three girls. They range from 18 to 12. The youngest is a girl and the oldest is a boy. However, I have no idea who has which power. But regardless, we must find them and quickly before anything" Kursed noticed that Anubia grabbed Neveo's arm and spoke in a hurried tone. "They're coming!" Suddenly, a loud bang could be heard outside as the walls and foundation of the building were shaken.
"Damnit!" Neveo spoke in a quick and hushed tone and grabbed Anubia and lifted her onto his back. He looked Kursed in the eye and spoke in a serious tone "Do you have a flare?" Kursed pulled out a flame and activated the device. At once the light illuminated the room they were in and gave a perspective of how enormous the room was. Kursed could not even see the ceiling. She then noticed that Anubia pulled out the multicolored stone and pointed it to the ground. With a loud rumble, a passage way was revealed that displayed a flight of stairs. "Lets go!" shouted Neveo as he ran down the steps with Kursed following. Before they made it all the way in, a shot was fired as a blue laser whizzed past Kursed's left ear. "Now that's more like it!" cried Kursed as she drew her pistol and began firing at the darkness. The blue light from the laser fire illuminated the enemy as one was hit, and she noticed to her horror that the pursuers were numbered in the hundreds. As Kursed jumped down the flight of stairs she heard the stone tablet quickly close, as the noise grew quiet. "You idiot!" yelled Neveo as they were running "What do you mean jackass?" Kursed replied coldly "Thanks to your trigger happy habits they know where we are!" Neveo said with a serious look on his face. "Where are we going?" she replied, "We are heading south and then north to resurface above water and make our escape. These caves and passages were built many years ago by the great guardians themselves and were used as a training grounds" Neveo explained calmly. Their footsteps made echoes as they ran down the flight of stairs to a room with three passages. "Right!" yelled Neveo as he quickly turned. Suddenly a loud explosion could be heard from the stairway they came from. What they passed as they ran down the hall frightened Kursed as she looked at the bones, and animal remains that littered the floor. "I have a bad feeling about this," thought Kursed as she ran, blaster in hand and at the ready. Neveo turned his head and calmly stated "there is no need to worry about anything, however I feel bad for my pursuers though." Instantly they began to hear screams and cries of terror from their unidentified pursuers but they kept moving. "There it is!" shouted Neveo as he pointed towards a black and empty room ahead. Neveo began to slow his pace and stopped halfway into the room " What are you doing?" asked Kursed with a hurried tone.
Neveo pointed downwards as Kursed moved forward to look at what he was pointing at and was horrified by what she saw. As she looked down she saw an enormous whirlpool swirling at an incredible speed and then she turned to look at Neveo and noticed he was smiling " Are you fucking kidding me?" Kursed asked in an exasperated and annoyed tone. Neveo simply smiled, set Anubia down, ran towards the whirlpool, and dived headfirst into it. In the blink of an eye, he was gone. "Your turn." said Anubia in a happy tone. "You go first!" Kursed yelled. Anubia smiled and, like Neveo, jumped headfirst into the water and disappeared. Kursed turned around to hear more screams from their pursuers and felt a quick jolt around her stomach. "Hurry up!" shouted someone from inside the whirlpool and next things she knew she was pulled by a rope around her stomach and jolted into the whirlpool. Kursed closed her eyes as her fur made contact with the ice-cold water. Her body was spinning rapidly, and oddly enough, as soon as it began, it was over as she was thrown in the air and landed on a sand bar. "Took you long enough" said a familiar voice. Kursed turned to see that Neveo, like Anubia, and herself, were drenched in water. "I guess it is time to go," said Neveo as he began walking alongside Anubia who was holding onto him tightly. "What just happened? And who were those guys chasing us?" Kursed yelled at Neveo as she drew her blaster and looked around. "They were after what we came to retrieve. And most likely, more will come . . . . However, for now we are safe but we must make our way to the ship and leave as soon as possible" Neveo said as he began running along a stone path in the water that led out to the horizon where the sky was almost as blue and clear as the water itself.
As they were running, Kursed noticed more ruins, but this time they were much bigger and she looked down to see that there were big broken pillars scattered all across the clear ocean. They ran fast and saw what appeared to be a small island with towering broken walls covered in moss. They made their way up the small hill and found Neveo's spaceship still intact. The ramp came down as Neveo whistled at a high tone. They all began to make it into the ship as it slowly lifted of the ground and shot in into space. Neveo ran towards the cockpit and pulled out a golden plate and pulled out the glass filled with the water he retrieved from the temple, all the while maintaining balance as the ship vibrated from the liftoff. Both Kursed and Anubia ran to look over Neveo's shoulder to see what was going on. As Neveo popped of the cap, he began to pour its contents into the plate. Slowly, a face and a planet began to appear, though fuzzy at first. "We need to hurry and make it to the planet Riidenjaou" said Neveo in a hurried voice. The female voice came on the loudspeaker and said, " Coordinates for Riidenjaou, confirmed. Estimated arrival time: 24 hours". Neveo turned to Anubia and requested she go to bed and Kursed to relax. Kursed moved along towards her cabin as the door slide open to reveal the room. The room was quite comfortable. Immediately to her left there was a small kitchen and entrance to the bath/shower. Directly in front was a small but normal sized vacant space occupied by a round table. To her right was the entrance to the bedroom. As Kursed walked towards the bedroom the door slide open and reveal a decent sized bed with red sheets and white pillows. The carpeted floor felt nice as she walked and sat on the bed. Kursed then unfastened her boots and took off her suit, pulled off the band holding her hair together and let it fall. After taking a long shower she made some coffee, got dressed, and left the room to go to the cockpit to watch the stars go by.
Not surprised, she found Neveo sitting down and looking at the stars with a look of serenity, his sword and utility belt lay on the far side of the room. Neveo looked different somehow without the cape, sword, and utility belt Kursed thought as she looked at the very ordinary looking man that sat before her. She looked at his back and noticed several numbers and words that were burned into his skin as if from fire. The numbers read N1223. "That was the number burned into my back by the man Garnada. After we were captured we were each branded with a number so he could identify, in case we escaped, he could be sure who was the real one and not a fake. "That's interesting but I am more interested in knowing more about what is going on with these "elemental guardian people and why we are going through all this trouble to make these two sidetracks." Kursed asked impatiently. "Then I will explain," said Neveo calmly as he sat on the floor in front of Kursed. He smiled and spoke with a soft tone "The elemental guardians are two things in one. A blessing and a curse"