The boat approached the ancient ruins with Naomi at the helm, the only one among the expanded group that could do so. Isabel was talking with James while Christina was talking with Amber. Mateo was prepping his spell so they could find the last two orbs, if what Enchancia had uncovered was true, while Gabe practiced with his spear. The Jaquins were taking the chance to rest while Elena and Sofia talked.
Kara too tried to rest but she found the missed the softness of Isabel's bed. She wondered when that happened considering before meeting her and Elena she had never really had a bed to sleep in. She stretched and yawned before asking, "Are we there yet ?"
"Almost." Naomi answered. "I can see the ruins, we've got five minutes before we get there."
Sofia looked to Mateo. "Will you have to cast the spell twice if we have to find two different orbs here?" She asked the Avaloran royal sorcerer.
Mateo paused to think about it. "Hmm, possibly." He said and then shrugged. "Ah well, it's easy enough to do in the first place."
"What do we know about these ruins anyway?" Gabe asked now.
Elena shrugged now. "Not much. It's so far out of the way that I don't think any kingdom has done any expeditionary work on it. It also hasn't been the most important thing in the world to figure out what it was supposed to be about in the past." She answered.
"That was before multiple Maruvian caverns and artifacts, mysterious orbs and a large invading demon." Naomi replied though as she steered the ship toward a place that looked like was the best place to dock. "Maybe it's time someone does some research here."
"Maybe we could suggest that to Professor Mendoza." Isabel suggested.
"Well first things first." Elena said. "We have to find the orbs and get them all to Avalor safely."
Naomi docked the boat and they all got off the boat. Elena was privately amused to see James helping Isabel off of the boat. She saw Sofia fail to repress a small giggle and knew she caught it too. What Elena didn't realize but Sofia and Naomi did was that Gabe was able to help Elena off the boat too, which was part of the reason the young Enchancia princess had giggled.
"Do you think we're alone here?" Amber asked as she looked around. She didn't want to run into anything like the Throgs again. Even something as large as the dragon that had been spoken of didn't really appeal to her.
"I don't know." Elena answered. "But I guess we'll find out." Together they started toward the large ruins that really encompassed the entire area.
Mateo cast his spell and Isabel activated her tracker and together they all followed it to an area full of boulders and large pieces of rubble. They all started to look at it. "Hmm, this is kind of weird." Isabel said, more to herself than anyone else. "This material doesn't seem like any kind of stone I'm familiar with."
"What does that mean?" Sofia wondered. Isabel simply shrugged. She didn't know what that meant beyond what she had stated.
"So is the orb embedded in one of these boulders?" Naomi asked as she was feeling around one for anything that didn't belong, like it had with the orb they had found in the troll cave.
"Or maybe it's in one of the boulders." Gabe suggested. He looked to Mateo. "Any chance you can refine the spell so that way we can figure out which boulder has the orb in it?"
"Maybe." Mateo replied simply as he stared at a boulder and opened up his satchel.
"There are so many boulder and large rocks here." James said with a disbelieving shake of his head. "There has to be a way to narrow this down a little bit."
"Giving up already James?" Amber teased her little brother; she was a few minutes older than him after all. It was on her tongue to tease him about doing so in front of his girlfriend.
But Sofia saw that coming and stepped in before her sister could do that. She loved Amber but also knew sometimes she could be just a bit too harsh. "We'll figure this out. No one is going to give up on anything." She replied.
Blaze soared off of Elena's shoulder and landed on a boulder before settling herself on one and hooting in what seemed to be excitement.
"What's with her?" Gabe asked as he looked to Elena.
"I'm not quite sure." Elena answered as she started to look over the boulder. It looked to be a normal enough for a large rock, in roughly the same shape as all of the boulders and ruin pieces around them. She paced it but there didn't seem to be any indication of any loose pieces that might be an orb.
"Anything?" Naomi asked her best friend.
"Nothing so far." Elena replied. She wanted to trust her bujito companion; she had been very helpful in the past and even rather insightful. Still she in this case she was starting to wonder if maybe there wasn't anything more to her actions than what it seemed.
Then Elena placed her hand on the boulder and felt some kind of spark. She gasped a bit and said, "Hey guys. Come here and touch the boulder. I want to see what happens." She called out.
First were Naomi and Gabe, who both shrugged and told her they didn't feel anything. The same reaction was given by Amber and James. Christina and Isabel frowned just a bit and admitted they weren't sure what to think, that it felt warmer than the other boulders. When Sofia and Mateo touched it they felt the same spark that Sofia did.
"So the orb must be in here then." Mateo concluded.
"How do you figure that?" Gabe asked him.
"Simple." Mateo answered and explained. "Princess Sofia, Elena and I felt it because our strong connection to magic." He indicated the amulet Sofia had worn for years that had also held Elena for forty one years and had displayed many magical powers and he suspected some that the young princess had yet to uncover. "Christina and Isabel felt something too, probably because of the other orbs and the Golden Feather respectively but they're not attuned to magic like we are and didn't know what to make of it. And the rest of you have very little personal magical attenuation so you don't feel anything."
"Actually, I don't think it's in the orb Mateo." Sofia said softly. "I think this is the orb."
"I think she's right." Elena agreed as she placed her hand on the orb again. "I think it's simply covered by years and years of dust from the boulders around it because of the elements."
"Okay so let's assume that you two are right." Naomi replied. "What do we do about an orb this size?" She asked as she pointed to the huge boulder that may or not be an orb.
"Maybe we can simply bind it into the scroll?" Christina suggested as she held up the scroll that held the other seven orbs that had been collected.
"Even if that worked sis, we'd still have an issue of how we would ever use it." Gabe pointed out gently.
"Wait a minute." Sofia said and looked to Elena. "Remember when I met the Wee Sprites and accidently let them in the castle?" She asked the crown princess.
Elena nodded. "The amulet cursed you to stay small when you unlocked…" She started and then snapped her fingers and turned toward Mateo. "Do you have a shrinking spell?" She asked her royal sorcerer.
"I think I can come up with one." Mateo replied as he extended his tamborita. He thought a moment before calling out, "Objectus Shrinkus Normalus." And slammed his hand against the tamborita. As Elena and Sofia hoped the orb shrank down to normal size.
"Brilliant." James said. Then to all of their surprises they felt the ground around them start to shake and before they could react, except the Jaquins who could easily rise into the air, the earth around them gave in and they all started to fall.
"Princesa!" Skylar gasped and started toward her but a large boulder nearly ran into him.
Luna tried to dive for Isabel and almost got smacked by one of the boulders herself.
"It's like a rock slide." Migs growled. "We can't get to them now."
"But if we wait they could end up hurt or worse." Skylar reminded him.
"I know." Migs said softly. "But we're no good to them if we get hurt ourselves."
"Mateo!" Naomi called out as they fell.
Mateo thankfully acted quickly. "Floatus Maximus!" He called out with another beat against the tamborita. The spell didn't quite work out as he had hoped as it did not stop them but it slowed their descent for a few minutes. By the time the spell wore off they had a slightly rough landing.
"I think I twisted my ankle." Naomi said in annoyance.
Gabe winced as he stood up. "Another broken arm." He muttered. It was the same one the Neptunian Magistrate had broken when they had fought for Merroway Cove. "Christina?" He called out.
"I'm okay." She answered as she got up, she was leaning on her right side just a little but was walking find toward her brother. Kara was actually on Christina's shoulder now and she moaned, "Can we not do that again?"
"Are you okay Isabel?" James asked as he went to the young princess. He saw that Amber was already up and she seemed to be doing just fine as she did her best to help Naomi to stand.
"Oh, my head hurts." Isabel moaned and looked to James. "Any blood? Are you okay?" She asked.
"I'm fine." James said. He reached out to wipe some blood off of her forehead. "Looks like a small cut just below your forehead." He told her. She nodded and stood up, only to nearly fall against the prince of Enchancia.
Then she tried to sit up. "Elena?" Isabel called out.
"I'm fine Isa." Elena said, though she was holding her arm around her side. She thought maybe she had broken a rib or two. But her landing had caused her to cough a bit but she hadn't spit up any blood so she took that as a good sign. Sofia was right beside her; she seemed as unhurt as James and Amber.
"That was great man, thanks." Gabe said half-sarcastically to Mateo.
"Ease off Gabe." Elena said softly. "If not for him we might not even be walking away from this."
"Okay, gather around everyone." Christina said as she pulled out the healing orb, eternally grateful that they had it. "Time to heal up."
"Anyone ever stop to wonder how much charge these things have?" Amber asked curiously.
"Let's hope it has at least one more." Sofia replied simply. "Otherwise we're all in a lot of trouble." It didn't escape her notice that the younger ones seemed to have escaped any obvious harm with the exception of Isabel while the teens had gotten injured.
They were all glad when Christina activated the orb and it glowed brightly. When the glow ended everyone looked one hundred percent again. She began to place the orb back and then looked up suddenly. "Hey, where's the new orb?" She asked.
Gabe turned around to look for his spear that he had dropped and found it next to the orb. "Lucky." He commented with amusement. He picked both items up and turned to the others, including his little sister and Elena, when he noticed a large boulder falling toward them, ready to crush them all. "Look out!" He called out.
They all looked up but there was no way they could all move out of the way. Gabe ran as fast as he could, determined to push anyone out of the way even if it meant sacrificing himself. Just in case he extended his spear to try to reduce any damage, the orb in his hand glowed and then the spear's edge connected with the boulder, and to everyone's surprise it shattered into millions of pebbles, the worse damage it could do at that point was to scatter dust into everyone's hair.
"Someone's been working out." Naomi joked with shock on her face.
"Gabe, that was incredible." Elena agreed as she came up beside him.
"I don't think I can take the credit Princess." Gabe reminded him. "I think…I think we just found out what the power of this orb is." He held it up a bit to glance at it. "Super strength."
"I'm sure it has a time limit." Mateo said. "But it could easily come in handy. Almost as useful as the healing."
They looked up to see the three Jaquins and Blaze coming down to their level. "Is everyone okay?" Migs asked as the little Bujito landed on Elena's shoulder again.
"We're alright." Elena answered.
"Great, then how about we fly on out of here?" Luna suggested.
"Sounds good to me, but we're going to have to do this in a couple of different steps." Gabe said as he started over to get his sister.
Mateo tried his tracking spell again and then said, "Hang on Gabe." When they all looked toward him they saw the tamborita glowing again. It was pointing off in the direction of the ruins down there. "Looks like the orb is this way. It might have been nicer to get down here without a huge fall but we're on the right track."
"Swell." Skylar said. "More subterranean travel."
Together they started toward into the ruins, though they quickly discovered that it was very dark around them and hard to see. Luckily they noticed nooks on the wall and Mateo was able to cast a spell so they could use those as light sources.
As they continued on though Elena felt uneasy. It seemed to her that the place was completely and utterly deserted aside from them. And it wasn't just the lack of anything they'd seen before like the Throgs or the Ice Witches or even people like Juan's little group of troublemakers. She took a breath and was about to speak but Naomi beat her to it.
"I don't like this. There is nothing down here at all." She summed up.
"Isn't that a good thing?" Amber asked her.
"Hmm, now that you mention it that's a good point." Christina agreed as she glanced around again. "Look around. We're underground but there's no sign of life, not even any insect life or things that usually live underground."
"Come to think of it, it was that way ever since we got here." Migs supplied. "Nothing on the shores of this place. Nothing as we made our way to the boulders, nothing around the boulders."
"We seem to be completely and utterly alone." Elena finished up. "Why is that I wonder?"
"I think we should just be glad that we're not going to run into anything that is going to try to kill us for once." Amber stated simply. Not that she, Sofia and James had been there for all of them but in a way Naomi could see her point. The entire quest had been a struggle. "And that's kind of ignoring the fact that the ruins themselves tried to kill us."
Sofia frowned a bit. She could understand what her sister was saying but she got what everyone else was saying too. It was almost impossible to find a place so devoid of life. She had read even really cold or really hot places would still be teeming with some form of wildlife that liked that environment.
"Hey, I think I see some kind of plaque ahead." Isabel said. They could just see an archway with a plaque to the left of it though it was covered up in dust. Isabel and Christina were actually the first ones to it but they weren't tall enough to reach it.
Naomi was right behind them and she had to lean up a bit to get it but she was able to reach the plaque. She reached up to brush the dust off, but Elena saw the instant her hand made contact with it she hissed in pain and pulled her hand back. "Are you okay amiga?" Elena asked her.
Naomi rubbed her hand a bit. "It stings for some reason." She told them all. "It's not too bad, I remember being stung by a jellyfish when I was about Isabel's age and it hurt worse than this does, but still isn't that kind of unusual."
"Wimp." Gabe teased her. He looked to Mateo. "Any ideas royal sorcerer?"
Mateo stepped forward and examined the dust, then took a step back and collected some of it. "I don't think this is regular dust." He informed them all.
"Is it like some kind of wizard's dust?" James asked him curiously.
"I don't know, maybe." Mateo said.
Kara drifted up to take a look at the dusty plaque. "Ah, so it's true." She said and then looked to them all. "It's the dust of Zandi." She told them all and looked to James. "Like he said it's a type of wizard's dust. Zandi was one of the most powerful wizards in existence but he was also very untrusting and paranoid and as a result he created this kind of dust to protect things he wanted kept away from everyone."
"Was he responsible for this?" Naomi asked as she gestured around the ruins.
"Probably not." Kara replied. "All of the stories I've heard say he was alive during the Maruvian's reign." She was drifting around a little as she talked. "If everything lines up right the way the stories say it was about the time the Maruvian civilization just disappeared."
"So he could have been protecting things from whatever caused those people's downfall then." Sofia surmised.
"Maybe." Kara said. "So little is known about that time after all."
"Hmm." Elena said in thought. Then she turned around and picked up Isabel gently by the waist, her little sister barely had time to pass her device to James. Then she carried her to the plaque. "Maybe one Maruvian problem can be taken care of by another. Try the golden feather Isabel."
"Okay." Isabel agreed. She took the small golden feather from behind her ear and started to dust off the plaque, which seemed to work well. Then the young princess frowned. "All it says is to go forward one must face the bottom." She revealed.
"That's not cryptic." Naomi noted sarcastically.
"Well this device Isabel made is still pointing in the same direction; I think we should just follow it and see where it leads us." James suggested.
"I don't see any other choice either." Mateo said as Elena set Isabel back on the ground again and she replaced the golden feather behind her ear.
"Let's be careful then." Elena said. "I hate cryptic messages too." She also didn't like how she interpreted that message. She assumed it either meant someone had to be severely injured or even killed and she would not let that happen.
They continued along the path and though they all hated to admit it the fact that it was so quiet that there seemed to be nothing else alive down there continued to unnerve them. It made them wonder what had happened to make this place such a deserted ruins.
Mateo edged closer to Elena. "Do you think whatever happened here could have something to do with that demon that you guys had to deal with a few nights ago?" He asked her softly. He didn't want to scare anyone else with that thought though he was sure that the rest of the Avaloran group had thought of that before.
"Maybe." Elena replied just as softly with a frown. "Maybe…the entire Maruvian civilization was wiped out by those demons. Maybe their last final act was to try to seal them away, like that Caballero del Infierno was."
"And this might have been one of the sites of that confrontation, maybe even the final confrontation." Mateo added. That just made Elena hope that that large muscled freaky demon thing was somehow unique.
It gradually led them to a large chamber. They could see tons of small holes in the ceiling that were clearly not part of whatever destruction had been wrought upon the ruins. It made them wonder what this chamber had been for originally. But they found at the very end of the room what they were looking for. A green orb floating on a pedestal.
"Finally." Gabe said. "We got it. We've completed the quest."
"Hold on a second." Elena said. She hadn't forgotten the trap set by Gorda, the head shaman of the Throgs. It had involved a big area and a slanted floor. It would have been a total disaster if Sofia, Amber, and James had not shown up with Queen Erika and her army. And three of those people were already with them now. "Let's not rush into anything just yet."
They started forward cautiously, looking for any signs of traps. Isabel thought there might not be any though. She hadn't heard Elena and Mateo's conversation but the same thoughts about the ruins and what had happened to the Maruvians had been running through her head.
They reached the end of the room and approached the dais where the last orb stood. Just as Elena stepped up to get it there was a large rumbling and then the ground below the entire chamber just completely vanished.
"Elena!" Isabel shouted.
"Isabel!" Elena shouted and tried to dive for her sister though it was almost useless at this point.
"Not again." Skylar said in disbelief. Together the Jaquins started to pursue them, along with Kara and Blaze for what that was worth.
"How about a flying spell?" Amber screamed as they fell.
Mateo didn't have one and he hated to say it. He happened to notice the orb falling with them and out of instinct he reached out and grasped the orb. He felt the power surging from it and he wished he knew how to use it or how it would help them. He didn't see how. Then he realized that any passive powers like the map on the ringed orb activated automatically. An active power like the healing orb was by the holder's will. There didn't seem to be a passive power that he could see and he struggled to try to use the active power.
And it all stopped. The falling stopped and everyone looked at him. "What did you do Mateo?" Sofia asked him curiously.
"I just thought about trying to stop our fall and it worked." Mateo replied.
"A wishing orb maybe?" Gabe suggested.
"I doubt it's that expansive Gabe." Naomi replied. "Maybe…maybe it's a levitation orb or something."
"There was an ancient ruin that was called a feather fall spell." Kara said as she came to them and sat on Isabel's shoulder, accepting the stroking of her back happily. "Maybe it descended from that orb."
"So as long as Mateo goes last, we can all chill here until we get flown back to the entrance." Naomi said.
"Well I doubt it has to be Mateo." Elena pointed out. "Just whoever is holding the orb." She glanced at Mateo. "Of course that does happen to be you."
"No big deal." Mateo said. "Let's just get ourselves out of here."
The three Jaquins worked to get everyone back to safe ground. Once that was done Mateo placed the last orb in the scroll and for a moment they couldn't help but stare at the scroll, where the nine orbs were lined up next to each other.
"Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Neptune, Uranus, Pluto." Amber whispered to herself as she ran her finger across the scroll in that order. As the hidden astronomer of the group she had to admit she was kind of intrigued by this. "I wonder if this is what these worlds would look like from the sky?" She mused softly.
"Maybe one day we can all find out." Sofia said to her sister with a smile.
"Thank you guys so much." Elena said to them now. "Without you this quest would have been much harder, and perhaps even impossible since one of the orbs was held in your treasury room."
"Anytime." Sofia replied with a smile. Together they started back to the boat.
"Do you want us to take you back to Avalor?" Elena asked Sofia.
Sofia shook her head. "That's okay. You can take us back to Freezenberg, we were going to go to Wei Lei kingdom to see some of our friends there." She replied.
"Sounds like fun." Isabel said. "You'll have to let us know how it goes. I can't wait to get back home and see abuelo and abuela again."
"I know what you mean. I miss mami and Javier." Christina said.
Gabe laughed as he stroked her hair a bit. "I never thought I'd hear you say you missed your brother Christina." He remarked with amusement.
They dropped Sofia, Amber and James off and said their goodbyes. Elena and Sofia both noticed that James and Isabel held hands for a moment as they said their goodbyes and the crown princess wondered if either of them was truly conscious of that action but no one tried to tease them on it.
"We'll all see you again soon, I promise." Sofia said as the Avaloran team boarded their ship. "Until then, take care." They all waved goodbye as they saw Hildegard and her father approaching to escort the kids of Enchancia to their next destination.
Several hours later they returned to Avalor and to their delight saw their family members waiting for them. As soon as they got closer Elena yelled, "We did it abuelo! Abuela!" They smiled happily at her and as soon as the boat was docked everyone ran to their family.
Naomi threw her arms around her father and he did the same, twirling her around a little.
Mateo went over and hugged his mother, she gave him a kiss on the cheek. "Welcome home mi hijo." She whispered to him.
Javier and Christina hugged each other which as Gabe and Carmen knew was pretty rare. She too embraced her eldest son and her only daughter. Gabe looked to Javier. "Have I got wicked stories for you bro." He said with a grin.
"Welcome home Elena, Isabel." Esteban said with a bow.
"Thanks Esteban." Elena said and both she and Isabel gave him a hug, which surprised him but he did return the gesture. Then they both embraced their grandparents.
"Welcome back nieta." Francisco said to them. "I'm very proud of you both."
"You've done very well." Luisa agreed. "You parents would be so proud of you."
That meant as much to Elena and Isabel as anything else.