Part X
Lost
The dust storm continued to grow worse and worse. Fox had never seen a dust storm of gray dust before. It really made it hard to find their way around. They could only depend on Krystal's staff to guide them in the right direction to some type of safety.
"We need to get out of here before the storm gets any worse," Fox yelled, holding Tricky in his hands.
"Let's keep going this direction," Krystal yelled back, still holding the staff. "I think I see something ahead. Fox looked up and opened his eyes for as long as he could, without taking in too much dust. He could see something too.
"I can't tell what it is, but let's head there in case there is shelter of some sort!" They all went as fast as they could, which was reduced to a fraction of a crawl. The wind seemed to be blowing its hardest in the opposite direction they were trying to go. After a few minutes, they managed to walk the six feet to the object they saw before. As soon as the object came into plain view, the storm completely disappeared! They all turned around and saw that there was no dust at all. Fox could even see where they started from (where they started noticing less trees)!
"Wha..." Fox paused for a minute. "Where did the storm go? And has that all we've gone so far?!" Fox set Tricky down.
"Thanks Fox," he said.
"No problem," he smiled. Krystal turned and looked where Fox was looking.
"So wait, is that really where we started from?" She pointed over to some lone trees only about half a football field's length away.
"Yeah," Fox replied, "that's where we were talking. I don't understand? It's like the storm was trying to keep us away from this building thing." He turned back around and looked upon the object. It was some type of strange building. Like an extremely small rectangular pyramid with a tall blue needle sticking out the top of it. The building didn't reach much higher than Fox's height! Fox noticed the small hole leading inside the pyramid. "So are we supposed to fit in that or something?!"
"I could fit in it Fox," Tricky yelled, jumping up and down. "I could go in, tell you what's inside, and come back out!" Fox looked at him a smiled.
"If you don't think it's too dangerous, Tricky."
"Naw, I can handle it!" He ran up to the hole looking inside of it. He stood there for a minute to see if he could make anything out.
"What's this?" Fox said as he noticed some strange writing on the wall. "Tricky, don't go in yet! We should figure out what this says first." Tricky, just about to enter the pyramid, ran over to Fox. "This writing on the wall. I wonder what it says. You know, I think it might be in Dinosaur since we are on Dinosaur Planet and all. We should ask Krystal if she can read this. It's probably im-" he was interrupted by screaming.
"Fox!" Krystal yelled, standing over a ways to his right. "Fox help me!" Fox looked over to see Krystal standing alone out maybe 15 yards away. She was looking in some random direction with her hands out in front of her as if trying to find something. "Fox help! Where are you!" She sounded like she was in trouble, but Fox was standing right there watching her. Nothing was wrong with her... she was just standing out there alone...
"Krystal what's wrong?"
"Fox! Is that you? Please help me! I wondered off too far!" Fox was very confused. He started walking toward her, still asking what was wrong. Just as he was about to reach her, the dust storm kicked in again at full blast! Fox could barely see anything three feet in front of him. Fox jumped back toward the building as fast and as far as he could. The storm was gone! He could see Krystal again, still slowly walking in the wrong direction, still wondering where she was.
"Fox Please!!" She yelled, almost crying.
"Krystal stop moving! I can see you but you have to stop!" Krystal stopped where she was and fell to her knees. Fox moved toward her very slowly. As soon as the dust storm kicked in, he took a step back so it would disappear again. He was only a few feet away from her, but couldn't go any further without the dust storm kicking in. "Krystal!" he yelled as loud as he could, "I want you to stand up! Don't go anywhere, just stand up where you are!" She stood up and tried her best not to move. Fox could see tears running down her face. It pained him to see her this scared. "I want you to take out your staff!" She reached for her staff (which was holstered in the side of her cloth), and slowly attempted to pull it out. It was just about loose, when it fell out of her hands and onto the sand!
"Fox I dropped it!"
"It's okay Krystal I can see it! Bend down and put your hands in the sand." She did just that. "Now take your right hand and drag it across the ground to the right!" She did, and her hand bumped into the staff. She picked it up, and stoop up once more. "Your doing great! Now extend the staff, and point it outward." She extended the staff, and held it out away from her. "Good, now slowly turn and face my voice!" Krystal turned around toward Fox's direction very slowly. The end of the staff came closer and closer to Fox. When it was within his reach, he grabbed it. "Now hold on to it very tightly!" he yelled. After a few seconds, he pulled the staff toward him, causing both him and Krystal to fly in that direction. Krystal landed on top of Fox. Fox could only feel her shaking. He took her off of him and sat her up. "Krystal are you okay? Krystal calm down your alright." Krystal opened her eyes and saw Fox kneeling there smiling at her. She couldn't say anything, so she just hugged him instead.
"Fox I don't know what happened... I ran off... too far and the... dust storm appeared again... and-"
"Krystal it's okay. Your fine now." Tricky, still sitting by the writing, saw the two hugging and ran over to ask what was wrong.
"Hey guys are you alright?" he asked. He started to walk toward the desert a little when Fox yelled, "Wait Tricky STOP!!"
"What's wrong Fox?"
"I don't know why, but if you go out too far, the dust storm comes in again... but only for whoever is out there. Only the person out there can see it."
"Not only see it," Krystal added, "but feel it, hear it, even taste it!"
"That doesn't make any sense..." Tricky said.
"Just trust me, Tricky. It almost scared Krystal to death!" Fox told him. Krystal looked up at Fox and smiled.
"I'm fine Fox," she said. "Thank you for helping me out of that storm. I thought I had lost sight of you and would never find you again. So much was happening I couldn't help but cry... but I'm fine now." Fox helped her on her feet. "But thank you Fox." She looked right into his eyes. Fox couldn't help but freeze every single time.
He somehow managed to unfreeze himself and ask, "What were you doing out there anyways?"
"I was trying to figure out what that is." She pointed to a figure not too far of a distance away. Fox took looked at it for a moment and realized what it was.
"That looks exactly like the pyramid we are at!" Krystal pointed in another direction close to the first one. It was another pyramid! "Another one!" She pointed again in another direction not far from the last. "Three temples? There are three more out there? But what for?" Fox thought for a moment as he realized that there where four temples. One where they were at, another North of them, another East of them, and another North-East of them. "What could they all be for?" Fox remembered the writing. "Oh Krystal! I think Tricky and I found some sort of writing on the wall over here on the pyramid." Fox and Krystal walked over to the wall. Krystal took a good look at it. "Yes this is Dinosaur Language. I can read it to you if you want."
"Sure Krystal."
"Okay, it says:
Nine Pyramids, nine Stones, nine lives, spent digging through dirt that doesn't exist
Lost in a desert that extends no more than a Diiske can see
Only one with nine lives can visit each pyramid's insides
If the right is found last, then only one life shall remain
But which is the right if eight others are wrong?
Can one trust what is written on one that brings death?
Does one know for sure that one brings death for certain?
Only when one is surrounded by those that bring death is one safe"
"Hmmm..." Fox thought to himself for a moment. "What is a diiske anyway?"
"I think it's a big bug that used to be all over this Planet. They can't see very far so I think that's what it means."
"Okay. But what does it mean by nine lives?" Fox thought for another minute.
"As I was walking outward, I think I saw another temple behind that one," Krystal said, pointing to the North Temple.
"Okay so there is another temple behind that one, and we know that there is probably nine temples." He put his had on his muzzle and thought for a minute. Tricky and Krystal both stood there watching. He finally moved. "I think we should head to that one," he said as he pointed to the North-East Temple. "Something tells me that that one is special somehow."
"How do you mean, Fox?"
"Well there is a temple there (North), there (North-East), and there (East), and of course here. That makes a square of four temples. If you say you saw one further from that one (North), then I bet there is one further from that one (East). Therefore, there must be another one beyond that one (North-East), and if this pattern of temples were to remain geometric there would have to be two more, one up and one to the right, of the middle one, thus making a giant square of 9 different pyramids. Just a hunch though..." Tricky and Krystal both had the same look across their faces. "Yeah that is kinda hard to explain... Okay uh... Krystal, can I borrow your staff?"
"For how long?" she asked, followed by laughter. "I'm just joking! Here." She handed her staff to Fox, who extended it and began to draw a picture in the gray sand.
X X X
X X X
O X X
"Okay," Fox began. "The X's are where I think other temples are. The O is where we are at. I think that that temple (North-East) is the center. According to the writing, I think anyone who goes in the wrong temple will die. That's kinda why I think we should head for the center. We may find something interesting there."
"Okay Fox, that sounds like a plan, but how do we get to that pyramid if the dust storm starts up as soon as we walk away from this temple?"
"Well, hopefully the same way we made it to this temple. Try telling your staff to guide us to the center temple."
"Fox," Tricky started, "how can she tell her staff to help us?"
"Somehow I just know that she is able to do that. Maybe it's from all the time I spent with that staff. Somehow I know that that staff is very special. Not just because it can charge up and shoot laser beams, which was cool, but because... well just because."
"I understand Fox... well actually I don't understand, but I believe you." Tricky smiled at Fox. Fox smiled back. They were actually starting to become real good buddies from their time together on all of these missions (well BOTH of the missions that occurred on Dinosaur Planet). Fox still remembers the first time he met Tricky. Tricky was more like a pest to Fox back then. Always wanting to play... always hungry... always, always, always! But now the two seem to be getting along pretty well.
Fox handed Krystal her staff. She held it close to her and began to concentrate. A few seconds later, the end of the staff lit up bright blue, and Krystal's body was pulled toward the North-East temple.
"Everyone hold on to me!" Krystal shouted. "I wouldn't want anyone getting lost in this strange dust." Fox picked up Tricky, who was getting very heavy, and walked as close as possible to Krystal. They slowly began to drift toward the temple, wondering when the strange dust would kick in. Almost half way there, the dust kicked in. Tricky was yelling something, but even Fox, who was carrying him, couldn't hear a word he was saying, nor could he see Krystal, who was only inches away from him. They had to always be touching so as not to lose each other. Not too long passed by, and they reached, what Fox thought to be, the center temple. The dust vanished almost instantly as always, revealing the temple only a few feet away. Fox set Tricky down and noticed writing on the wall of the temple. Krystal walked up to it. "This says the same as the other one did."
"I think all nine temples say the same thing," Fox said.
"So which one are we supposed to go into? I remember you saying the the wrong temple will kill us!"
"But I'm almost positive that this is the right temple."
"But Fox, we could be killed if we go in the wrong one! Why are you so sure this is the one? Just because it's in the middle doesn't always mean it's the special one."
"Because the writing says that only when we are surrounded by death will we be safe! Look around us!" Krystal and Tricky looked around and saw a pyramid in every direction. "You see! We are surrounded by death! We are surrounded by the temples that kill you. So we are safe!"
"But how do you know that those temples are the ones that kill you? We don't know if those are the ones that bring death for sure!"
"But if we were at any other temple, we wouldn't be surrounded." Krystal thought about it for a long time.
"I don't know Fox... I don't want anyone to die."
"Trust me Krystal. I'm positive that I have this right."
"I'll go in first, Fox," said Tricky.
"No Tricky, you don't have to-"
"It's OK Fox, I will go in first! I think your right about the temple thing, so there is nothing to worry about." Fox didn't like this at all. He thought Tricky was very brave and all for wanting to go in first, but... what if Fox was wrong. What if Tricky died some horrible death right in front of Fox and Krystal. Fox would never forgive himself. Tricky went up to the small entrance to the temple and looked inside. He couldn't see anything, so he started to go in. Fox and Krystal watched, as Tricky disappeared from their sight...
Lost
The dust storm continued to grow worse and worse. Fox had never seen a dust storm of gray dust before. It really made it hard to find their way around. They could only depend on Krystal's staff to guide them in the right direction to some type of safety.
"We need to get out of here before the storm gets any worse," Fox yelled, holding Tricky in his hands.
"Let's keep going this direction," Krystal yelled back, still holding the staff. "I think I see something ahead. Fox looked up and opened his eyes for as long as he could, without taking in too much dust. He could see something too.
"I can't tell what it is, but let's head there in case there is shelter of some sort!" They all went as fast as they could, which was reduced to a fraction of a crawl. The wind seemed to be blowing its hardest in the opposite direction they were trying to go. After a few minutes, they managed to walk the six feet to the object they saw before. As soon as the object came into plain view, the storm completely disappeared! They all turned around and saw that there was no dust at all. Fox could even see where they started from (where they started noticing less trees)!
"Wha..." Fox paused for a minute. "Where did the storm go? And has that all we've gone so far?!" Fox set Tricky down.
"Thanks Fox," he said.
"No problem," he smiled. Krystal turned and looked where Fox was looking.
"So wait, is that really where we started from?" She pointed over to some lone trees only about half a football field's length away.
"Yeah," Fox replied, "that's where we were talking. I don't understand? It's like the storm was trying to keep us away from this building thing." He turned back around and looked upon the object. It was some type of strange building. Like an extremely small rectangular pyramid with a tall blue needle sticking out the top of it. The building didn't reach much higher than Fox's height! Fox noticed the small hole leading inside the pyramid. "So are we supposed to fit in that or something?!"
"I could fit in it Fox," Tricky yelled, jumping up and down. "I could go in, tell you what's inside, and come back out!" Fox looked at him a smiled.
"If you don't think it's too dangerous, Tricky."
"Naw, I can handle it!" He ran up to the hole looking inside of it. He stood there for a minute to see if he could make anything out.
"What's this?" Fox said as he noticed some strange writing on the wall. "Tricky, don't go in yet! We should figure out what this says first." Tricky, just about to enter the pyramid, ran over to Fox. "This writing on the wall. I wonder what it says. You know, I think it might be in Dinosaur since we are on Dinosaur Planet and all. We should ask Krystal if she can read this. It's probably im-" he was interrupted by screaming.
"Fox!" Krystal yelled, standing over a ways to his right. "Fox help me!" Fox looked over to see Krystal standing alone out maybe 15 yards away. She was looking in some random direction with her hands out in front of her as if trying to find something. "Fox help! Where are you!" She sounded like she was in trouble, but Fox was standing right there watching her. Nothing was wrong with her... she was just standing out there alone...
"Krystal what's wrong?"
"Fox! Is that you? Please help me! I wondered off too far!" Fox was very confused. He started walking toward her, still asking what was wrong. Just as he was about to reach her, the dust storm kicked in again at full blast! Fox could barely see anything three feet in front of him. Fox jumped back toward the building as fast and as far as he could. The storm was gone! He could see Krystal again, still slowly walking in the wrong direction, still wondering where she was.
"Fox Please!!" She yelled, almost crying.
"Krystal stop moving! I can see you but you have to stop!" Krystal stopped where she was and fell to her knees. Fox moved toward her very slowly. As soon as the dust storm kicked in, he took a step back so it would disappear again. He was only a few feet away from her, but couldn't go any further without the dust storm kicking in. "Krystal!" he yelled as loud as he could, "I want you to stand up! Don't go anywhere, just stand up where you are!" She stood up and tried her best not to move. Fox could see tears running down her face. It pained him to see her this scared. "I want you to take out your staff!" She reached for her staff (which was holstered in the side of her cloth), and slowly attempted to pull it out. It was just about loose, when it fell out of her hands and onto the sand!
"Fox I dropped it!"
"It's okay Krystal I can see it! Bend down and put your hands in the sand." She did just that. "Now take your right hand and drag it across the ground to the right!" She did, and her hand bumped into the staff. She picked it up, and stoop up once more. "Your doing great! Now extend the staff, and point it outward." She extended the staff, and held it out away from her. "Good, now slowly turn and face my voice!" Krystal turned around toward Fox's direction very slowly. The end of the staff came closer and closer to Fox. When it was within his reach, he grabbed it. "Now hold on to it very tightly!" he yelled. After a few seconds, he pulled the staff toward him, causing both him and Krystal to fly in that direction. Krystal landed on top of Fox. Fox could only feel her shaking. He took her off of him and sat her up. "Krystal are you okay? Krystal calm down your alright." Krystal opened her eyes and saw Fox kneeling there smiling at her. She couldn't say anything, so she just hugged him instead.
"Fox I don't know what happened... I ran off... too far and the... dust storm appeared again... and-"
"Krystal it's okay. Your fine now." Tricky, still sitting by the writing, saw the two hugging and ran over to ask what was wrong.
"Hey guys are you alright?" he asked. He started to walk toward the desert a little when Fox yelled, "Wait Tricky STOP!!"
"What's wrong Fox?"
"I don't know why, but if you go out too far, the dust storm comes in again... but only for whoever is out there. Only the person out there can see it."
"Not only see it," Krystal added, "but feel it, hear it, even taste it!"
"That doesn't make any sense..." Tricky said.
"Just trust me, Tricky. It almost scared Krystal to death!" Fox told him. Krystal looked up at Fox and smiled.
"I'm fine Fox," she said. "Thank you for helping me out of that storm. I thought I had lost sight of you and would never find you again. So much was happening I couldn't help but cry... but I'm fine now." Fox helped her on her feet. "But thank you Fox." She looked right into his eyes. Fox couldn't help but freeze every single time.
He somehow managed to unfreeze himself and ask, "What were you doing out there anyways?"
"I was trying to figure out what that is." She pointed to a figure not too far of a distance away. Fox took looked at it for a moment and realized what it was.
"That looks exactly like the pyramid we are at!" Krystal pointed in another direction close to the first one. It was another pyramid! "Another one!" She pointed again in another direction not far from the last. "Three temples? There are three more out there? But what for?" Fox thought for a moment as he realized that there where four temples. One where they were at, another North of them, another East of them, and another North-East of them. "What could they all be for?" Fox remembered the writing. "Oh Krystal! I think Tricky and I found some sort of writing on the wall over here on the pyramid." Fox and Krystal walked over to the wall. Krystal took a good look at it. "Yes this is Dinosaur Language. I can read it to you if you want."
"Sure Krystal."
"Okay, it says:
Nine Pyramids, nine Stones, nine lives, spent digging through dirt that doesn't exist
Lost in a desert that extends no more than a Diiske can see
Only one with nine lives can visit each pyramid's insides
If the right is found last, then only one life shall remain
But which is the right if eight others are wrong?
Can one trust what is written on one that brings death?
Does one know for sure that one brings death for certain?
Only when one is surrounded by those that bring death is one safe"
"Hmmm..." Fox thought to himself for a moment. "What is a diiske anyway?"
"I think it's a big bug that used to be all over this Planet. They can't see very far so I think that's what it means."
"Okay. But what does it mean by nine lives?" Fox thought for another minute.
"As I was walking outward, I think I saw another temple behind that one," Krystal said, pointing to the North Temple.
"Okay so there is another temple behind that one, and we know that there is probably nine temples." He put his had on his muzzle and thought for a minute. Tricky and Krystal both stood there watching. He finally moved. "I think we should head to that one," he said as he pointed to the North-East Temple. "Something tells me that that one is special somehow."
"How do you mean, Fox?"
"Well there is a temple there (North), there (North-East), and there (East), and of course here. That makes a square of four temples. If you say you saw one further from that one (North), then I bet there is one further from that one (East). Therefore, there must be another one beyond that one (North-East), and if this pattern of temples were to remain geometric there would have to be two more, one up and one to the right, of the middle one, thus making a giant square of 9 different pyramids. Just a hunch though..." Tricky and Krystal both had the same look across their faces. "Yeah that is kinda hard to explain... Okay uh... Krystal, can I borrow your staff?"
"For how long?" she asked, followed by laughter. "I'm just joking! Here." She handed her staff to Fox, who extended it and began to draw a picture in the gray sand.
X X X
X X X
O X X
"Okay," Fox began. "The X's are where I think other temples are. The O is where we are at. I think that that temple (North-East) is the center. According to the writing, I think anyone who goes in the wrong temple will die. That's kinda why I think we should head for the center. We may find something interesting there."
"Okay Fox, that sounds like a plan, but how do we get to that pyramid if the dust storm starts up as soon as we walk away from this temple?"
"Well, hopefully the same way we made it to this temple. Try telling your staff to guide us to the center temple."
"Fox," Tricky started, "how can she tell her staff to help us?"
"Somehow I just know that she is able to do that. Maybe it's from all the time I spent with that staff. Somehow I know that that staff is very special. Not just because it can charge up and shoot laser beams, which was cool, but because... well just because."
"I understand Fox... well actually I don't understand, but I believe you." Tricky smiled at Fox. Fox smiled back. They were actually starting to become real good buddies from their time together on all of these missions (well BOTH of the missions that occurred on Dinosaur Planet). Fox still remembers the first time he met Tricky. Tricky was more like a pest to Fox back then. Always wanting to play... always hungry... always, always, always! But now the two seem to be getting along pretty well.
Fox handed Krystal her staff. She held it close to her and began to concentrate. A few seconds later, the end of the staff lit up bright blue, and Krystal's body was pulled toward the North-East temple.
"Everyone hold on to me!" Krystal shouted. "I wouldn't want anyone getting lost in this strange dust." Fox picked up Tricky, who was getting very heavy, and walked as close as possible to Krystal. They slowly began to drift toward the temple, wondering when the strange dust would kick in. Almost half way there, the dust kicked in. Tricky was yelling something, but even Fox, who was carrying him, couldn't hear a word he was saying, nor could he see Krystal, who was only inches away from him. They had to always be touching so as not to lose each other. Not too long passed by, and they reached, what Fox thought to be, the center temple. The dust vanished almost instantly as always, revealing the temple only a few feet away. Fox set Tricky down and noticed writing on the wall of the temple. Krystal walked up to it. "This says the same as the other one did."
"I think all nine temples say the same thing," Fox said.
"So which one are we supposed to go into? I remember you saying the the wrong temple will kill us!"
"But I'm almost positive that this is the right temple."
"But Fox, we could be killed if we go in the wrong one! Why are you so sure this is the one? Just because it's in the middle doesn't always mean it's the special one."
"Because the writing says that only when we are surrounded by death will we be safe! Look around us!" Krystal and Tricky looked around and saw a pyramid in every direction. "You see! We are surrounded by death! We are surrounded by the temples that kill you. So we are safe!"
"But how do you know that those temples are the ones that kill you? We don't know if those are the ones that bring death for sure!"
"But if we were at any other temple, we wouldn't be surrounded." Krystal thought about it for a long time.
"I don't know Fox... I don't want anyone to die."
"Trust me Krystal. I'm positive that I have this right."
"I'll go in first, Fox," said Tricky.
"No Tricky, you don't have to-"
"It's OK Fox, I will go in first! I think your right about the temple thing, so there is nothing to worry about." Fox didn't like this at all. He thought Tricky was very brave and all for wanting to go in first, but... what if Fox was wrong. What if Tricky died some horrible death right in front of Fox and Krystal. Fox would never forgive himself. Tricky went up to the small entrance to the temple and looked inside. He couldn't see anything, so he started to go in. Fox and Krystal watched, as Tricky disappeared from their sight...