Journey of the soul chapter 55
Hey Guys, do you think the chapters are too short?
Hunter: isn't it all a matter of perspective?
Spinax: everything's short from my perspective.
Wow, thanks for the straightforward answer guys.
Hunter: no problem
Spinax: anytime buddy
Seriously though. I want chapters to have enough content to be entertaining, but I don't want them to take too much time. You know, short attention spans and all.
Hunter: I'm sorry, what'd you say? I stopped paying attention after "I"
…part of me wonders why I even bother with you two
Spinax: enjoy the chapter!
"Can you fly?"
"No."
"Can you breath fire?"
"No."
"Can you control fire?"
"To an extent with soulflame, but only with my eye."
"Can you talk with your mind?"
"Only to certain vivosaurs."
"Can you talk to mine?"
"No."
"What about yours?"
"Only spinax."
Does it talk back?"
"YES."
"Can I talk to it?"
"It's a he. And trust me, you don't want to talk to him."
"I feel like I should have a say in this questionnaire." Spinax chimed in.
"No, you shouldn't." Lila continued to bombard Hunter with questions. It had been going on for a few days now. They would meet up in the morning, and Lila would ask him questions about what he could do over pancakes. So far, Hunter had been able to get a pretty good grasp on what Lila could do as well. Except for one thing…
"Hey Hunter!" Lila's shout snapped him back to reality, "are you listening?"
"No. Any more questions?" Hunter laughed as Lila put her hands on her hips and stuck out her tongue at him.
"Hunter!" He turned to see Todd walking towards him, Hunter sat down on a nearby bench and waited for Todd to join them.
"Did you hear the news?" Todd was practically jumping as he spoke.
"What news?"
"They got the mammoth vision back. Joe's gonna make a public announcement today at noon!" Hunter stood up at this. The cup had been put on hold ever since the BB brigade had hijacked mt. Krakanak. If Joe himself was making an announcement, then that means the cup could be back on. Hunter's eyes flew to his watch. 11:46. Just a little bit longer.
"That's what you think," spinax laughed maniacally, "with my powers to stop time, you'll never know what he'll say! Mwhahaha!"
"You can't stop time."
"Curses! Foiled again." Hunter rolled his eyes, but didn't bother hiding his smile. The cup picking back up after Hiatus means he can get back to what he came here for. Hunter's smile persisted until he saw Lila's dark expression.
"Hey Lila," Hunter caught her attention, "why don't we try and find Alvis? We can tell him about the progress you've made."
"Oh right, let's go!" Lila ran ahead to nowhere in particular.
"Not so fast!" Hunter called. Todd began to snicker.
"What's so funny?"
"You sound like a dad."
"Oh, shut up." Todd laughed even harder As Hunter caught up to Lila and tried to convince her to hold his hand while moving through a large crowd.
"For what it's worth, I think you'd be a pretty good dad." Spinax commented.
"…thanks…I guess?"
"Of course, she'd also need a mom, so…"
"Shut up spinax." Hunter turned back to Todd, "I'll be back in a second!"
"Okay, tell Lila I said good luck with her lessons!" In all honesty, Hunter hated lying to Todd. For all he knew, he was Lila's tutor and Alvis was her grandfather. Still, it was either that or admit to being a wanted criminal.
"Hello you two." Alvis was sitting by an outdoor table next to the fossil guild, as if he was waiting for them. He probably was, Alvis had a tendency to be in the right place at the right time.
"How goes the training?" Alvis pushed his dark glasses up the bridge of his nose.
"Well, Lila's foresight has definently improved," Hunter's voice had lowered to a whisper, "but soulflame is a little beyond her pay grade for now."
"Hey! I can still hear you!" Lila pouted as she sat down. Hunter snickered as the small girl did her best to look intimidating. In a way, Lila genuinely was intimidating, but not physically.
Hunter had his suspicions since their fight, but She had confirmed them afterwards.
Lila can see into the future. Not very far though, but still. While nearing soulflame, Lila can predict the actions of vivosaurs ahead of time by about 1 second. This is the main reason Hunter is training her to use soulflame, but there was another personal reason behind it. Controlling fire, seeing the future, influencing a person's mind. There's no way any of these are genetic mutations caused by the dinaurians. So what was really going on? Hunter intended to find out.
"Hear me out here," spinax cleared his throat, "…magic."
"I don't know, maybe?" Alvis laughed, "I gotta go, I'll catch up with you guys later." Hunter began jogging back to the main plaza. He needed to clear all this from his mind for now and focus on getting freedom first.
"Stay on target. Staaaaaaaaaay on target."
"Right, sure."
"Use the for-"
"You're pushing it." Hunter found Todd in the gathering crowd. They stood near the back in order to get a better view as the mammoth vision slowly came into view. As the massive screen lit up, Joe Wildwest was revealed to be standing in front of a desk surrounded by windows in a circular room.
"Howdy folks," his voice was magnified by the speakers, "I'm sure y'all have been worried bout the cup being cancelled, what with them barebones brigade folks an' all." The crowd had fallen silent.
"But if this don boneyard thinks he can stop my dream, then he'll just have to saddle up and make me! The caliosteo cup will never surrender!" The ground practically shook with cheers, Hunter and Todd included. The mammoth vision slowly flew higher up until it was on par with the Wildwest tower before flying back to wherever it goes. Hunter tried to check his beeping paleopager over the roar of the crowd.
"Rainbow canyon is now accessible from cranial island. Take the teleporter to the right for transportation." Hunter signaled to Todd and they slipped through the chaos.
"Where are we going?"
"Rainbow canyon. We'll be the first ones there!" They ducked under the descending stairway and entered the teleport at the end of the path.
"Let's get going before everyone else catches on." Hunter closed the door to the teleporter. Within seconds, the two were transported to a slim rock path surrounded by massive cliffs. The two walked out and looked around for some alternate route. There was none.
"I was expecting something a little more…more," spinax grunted. Hunter walked down the path with Todd close behind. They rounded a corner and almost fell over in shock. The canyon they were in was a small path connected to a vast drop beneath them. There was a small rocky area and a bridge that led to a small area marked with a sign that said "gondola station." The dig site wasn't near a cliff face, the dig site was a cliff face.
"This is a new one." Hunter mused. They slowly made their way across the bridge, making sure to step on stable boards this time, and walked over to a metal ladder leading down to a wooden trough big enough for about seven people to stand in. Todd gave one of the wires holding up the lift a tug while hunter inspected the instructions under the sign on how to operate the gondola.
"Give left lever located inside gondola slight pressure to descend. To ascend, give right lever slight pressure." He read aloud.
"I thought gondola's were boats," spinax asked, "what's up with this one?"
"Maybe it was a boat at…do you hear that?" At first, the rumble was quiet. Hunter and todd exchanged looks before looking over towards the entrance. The rumble had erupted into shouts and cheers. Two vivosaurs crashed against the cliffs as they grappled with each other. Fighters issued commands and crowds shuffled after them. The massive creature's easily launched themselves over the bridge and crashed back down to earth, rocking the ground furiously.
"I think they just created a new fault line," Todd crouched on the ground and used his hands for support. Hunter wasn't so lucky and tumbled off the cliff and into the gondola.
"Todd! Jump down!" He tried to jump, but Todd was thrown off balance and crashed on top of Hunter. The gondola shook and the wires holding it up were held taut.
"Let's go down before they get over here!" Todd shouted over the roars of the crowd and vivosaurs.
"Right!" Hunter pushed Todd off of him and crawled over to one of the levers.
"Do you know how it works!?"
"NOPE!" Hunter smacked the lever with his foldax, applying not very slight pressure. The gondola shot downwards abruptly, then jerked back into position. The two boys fell over again and laid on their backs in shock for a few seconds.
"I think I'm gonna be sick." Todd managed to cough out.
"Just try not to land it in another gondola." Hunter stared up as multiple gondola's filled with other fighters lowered themselves at a much more reasonable speed.
"At least we're out of that mess up there…..spinax?" Usually spinax would've had a snarky comment by now. Hunter's hand went down to his holder and felt…only four Dino medals.
"At least now we can start dig-WOOOAAAAA!" Todd was sent careening back into the cart as Hunter spammed his foldax into the lever again and again. Each hit sent them jerking down wards until the gondola stopped right before hitting the bottom. Hunter jumped out while Todd threw up.
"Spinax!" Hunter called out with his mind, "SPINAX!"
"Eeeuuuaaaaeeeui," a quiet groan responded. Hunter followed the sounds of incoherent noises until he found spinax's Dino medal halfway into the ground.
"Sorry about that buddy,"
"….I want to die."
"We've already established they you might be immortal."
"HAVE WE THOUGH?!" While they argued over spinax's mortality, Hunter noticed movement behind a cluster of rocks. He slowly walked over and peered behind the cluster.
"Oh no," a girl that dressed like Pauleen and had pauleen's exact haircut was frantically checking parts of the ground and kicking up clouds of dirt, "didiga I drop it digadig?"
"Didiga I hear that right?" Spinax asked.
"Yeah, that's definently a digadig accent." Hunter mused to himself. By this point Todd had stopped emptying his stomach and had caught up.
"Whatcha looking at Hunter?" Hunter leaned his head in the direction of the girl. Todd peered over as the girl turned enough to show part of her face. She had bright blue eyes and small markings by her cheeks.
"Hey Hunter, that girl," Todd started.
"Yeah, she's probably pau-"
"She is sooooo cute!" Hunter gagged over his own words so he wouldn't finish his own sentence.
"I'm not gonna ruin this for him, he'll figure it out soon enough," he said to himself.
"We're lettin' the kid dream then?"
"Why not?" Hunter gave Todd a small shove, "well then, why don't we go talk to her? It looks like she might need help with something." Todd stammered a bit, but didn't protest.
"Excuse me," Todd cleared his throat and the girl that is probably Pauleen looked over at them.
"Are you having trouble with something? Because I can definently help." Todd continued.
"Gyah!" The girl made a high pitched noise and ran behind the cluster of rocks.
"So much for first impressions," Hunter patted Todd on the back.
"I'm sorry!" Todd called out to the girl, "I didn't mean to scare you. We're nice, I swear. Right Hunter?"
"Sure."
"Absolutely not," Spinax said with no humor in his voice, "run from me as fast as you can."
"What's up with you,"
"My fetch-quest sense is tingling," the girl walked out of her hiding spot, "back foul demon!" Spinax screeched. Hunter snorted in an attempt to cover up a snicker.
"You want to help me digadig?" She asked.
"Of course! We can definitely help, right Hunter?"
"Why not?" Hunter appreciated playing wingman. It was a lot better than being called turtle dove.
"Did you just…..willingly agree to a fetch quest?" Spinax's eye twitched.
"Relax, it my not be a-"
"I lost something really important to me, it's big and roundiga. Can you help me look please digadig?"
"…fetch quest."
"Well, well, well. The sixth sense never lies about fetch quests, neither does the eighth, seventh's a lying bastard though."
"We can definitely help look!" Todd exclaimed with a little too much enthusiasm, "we'll go check up top while you keep looking down here." Todd was already climbing back into the gondola by the time he finished his sentence. Hunter climbed back in with him and gave the right lever a gentle push, lifting them up.
"Thank you digadig!" The girl waved and Todd waved back. Hunter was trying his best not to chuckle.
"Is this what it was like with me?" He asked spinax.
"Worse, at least Todd admits to it."
"Hey! I admitted to it….much later."
"I heard that last part. Don't you worry about a thing turtle dove, your old wingman's here to guide you through the wonderful world of being a wingman yourself."
"Revival machine no." Hunter turned to Todd, "so, any ideas where what we're looking for might be?"
"Well, we know that it's round and…big….huh." Todd scratched his head, "well, I guess we'll know it when we see it!" Hunter sighed.
"Oh, by the way. Girls don't like it when you act gallant and noble unless you genuinely are that way. Be yourself and everything should run smooth if you're a good person, and I know you are."
"…uh, thanks, but I don't know why you're saying this all the sudden."
"Whatever you say turtle dove." On the outside, Hunter was laughing while Todd covered his face to his his blush. On the inside, he was shrieking with victory while spinax hooted.
"I HAVE THE POWER!" He screamed in his mind, "THE GOD OF THIS WORLD IS ME."
"Oh, my dear pupil," spinax mused, "you have so much to learn in the ways of romantic torture."
"Teach me 'o wise one."
"…okay, too weird, even for me."
"Now you know how young me felt then."
"Touché, good sir." They eventually reached the top of the cliff face once again. This time, there were no fighting vivosaurs.
"Alright, you check that area over there," Hunter pointed Todd towards the right of the gondola station, "and I'll check what's behind that door." Todd nodded and walked off while Hunter made his way up to a wooden door past the wooden walkway for the station. He gave the door a push, but it wouldn't budge.
"Huh," Hunter looked over at a large metal pole next to the door. On top of the pole was a large yellow button. Hunter was about to press it when he noticed the note attached to the top.
"Area under construction, do not press button," he read aloud.
"Sounds legit." Spinax mused, "we should break it down."
"What happened to sounding legit?"
"Its definently legit, I still want to break it."
"Your destruction addiction is starting to become a problem." Hunter adjusted his goggles and turned around, "let's go look somewhere else."
"It's not an addiction! I can quit at any time! THESE ARE JUST CHOICES!" Hunter rolled his eyes.
"Let's jus-"
"Hey Hunter!" He immediately turned towards the voice. He recognized it almost as quickly. It wasn't Todd.
"This lady says she wants to talk to you. D'you know her?" Hunter turned to see Lila gesturing behind her. The girl behind Lila was wearing a white dress that acted almost as a robe. Her yellow eyes and subtle face markings gave her away instantly. It was Duna using her human disguise. Duna, the only person that can read him like a book and the same person who he told his name was Todd.
"Quintuple sh-"
Done! So, longer chapters, what'd you guys think?
Hunter: really? You're gonna leave it on a cliffhanger like that and not even address it?
Hey, I'm just trying to keep our swear word count to a minimum.
Hunter: so you ended the chapter…to censor me?
Pretty much
Spinax: well, I'm that case (deep inhale)
Hunter:….he's gonna blow
Spinax: SON OF A-
Thanks for reading!