Chapter Nineteenby Shadou-sama
There was sun in her eyes. Shadra frowned. Why was there sun in her eyes? It was rudely waking her up. She opened one eye, blinking furiously at the bright light. When her eyes adjusted, she found that the curtains were open on the window. Ziya must have opened them.
She swung down off her bunk. Ziya was gone; her bed already made. Shadra quickly got dressed and went out to the larger room. She scanned it. Nobody was around. She looked over to the small digital clock Ray had brought. Yikes! It was already 11:17 AM! The finals started, like, ten minutes ago.
She silently cursed Tala for having to talk to her so late. If he hadn't woken up, she probably wouldn't be late. She dashed out of the cabin and down the steps. Argh! Why hadn't somebody waked her up?
Ah! She'd forgotten her key at the cabin. She dashed back and retrieved it, then went back to the running to Wikka stadium. Luckily, it wasn't too far away. That was one good thing about this morning.
She came up to it. She jumped the steps onto the deck. She dashed around the corner. WHAM!
She bounced back onto the ground. She'd run into Oliver, who also was on the ground. She got up and went to help him up. "I am so sorry, Oli. It was just that I was late and--"
"It's alright, Chaton," he said, back on his feet. "I was hoping to run into you. Figuratively, of course."
"Oh, what for?"
He stepped forward and pressed something into her hand. She brought her hand up to look at it. It was his pink Unicolyon beyblade. She looked up, questioning.
He smiled. "It's going to hard to beyblade against the Masters without a bit-beast."
She felt like breaking into tears again. This was the nicest thing anyone had ever done for her. "Oh, Oliver…"
"I know you'll bring her back. And, if the positions were reversed, I'd know you'd lend me Darker."
"Not a chance." Shadra smiled. "Just kidding, I had to lighten the mood. I might've cried."
Oliver shook his head. "You've been hanging out with Kai too much."
"Show no weakness, make them tremble in their little booties!"
"Yep, too much time with Kai."
"Hey! My team's playing right now! I should really get in there," Shadra said.
She hugged Oliver, and gave him a peck on the cheek, accidentally knocking off his beret. "Thank you," she said before rushing off.
"Good luck!" she heard Oliver call from behind.
She walked into the main room. Immediately, her sense prickled. Something wasn't right. She glanced around. The stadium was filled, even bursting with people. Yet, it was deadly silent. And where were the beybladers? The sidelines were empty.
She walked up to one of the fans. Slowly, she waved a hand across his face. He didn't even blink. She tapped him. He fell over onto the person sitting next to him, who fell over onto the person beside. It kept on going until the very last person in the row fell off the seat and into the aisle. What did this mean?
Obviously, they were comatose. What could have caused—Holly, Master of Mind. Able to send hundreds of people into unconsciousness with a bat of her eyes. And that was probably why the two teams were missing.
She walked over to the beydish. They hadn't fixed it since Tyson and Lee's fight. She could still see the spot that Galeon had fried. But what was different was the white piece of paper in the center.
She slid down into the bowl, grabbing the paper at first chance. To her dismay, it was blank. Then she flipped it over and realized that she'd been looking on the wrong side.
Shadra,
Let's get straight to the point. We have your 'friends' and your bit-beast. Want them back? Challenge us to a beybattle and you can win them back. Where are we? In a secret location. You'll have to figure out the clues. Once you figure out a clue, go to the destination for your next clue. And since we don't feel like waiting around all day, you have one hour to find us before we slay them.
Have fun,
Holly, Alleon, Tala
One hour? Starting when?
P.S. Starting at eleven thirty.
Ah. She looked down at her wrist, then realized she didn't own a watch. She really needed to buy one. She glanced around the room, and bingo! There was a clock on the far wall. She ran over and pulled the whole thing off.
11:35 AM. Darn, she had already wasted too much of her time. She scanned the paper, looking for the clue. At the bottom in small print, someone had written:
Clue #1: A place so cold you'll need a coat
Where extra clothes you'll love to tote
Meat is plentiful and ice is common
There may be even fresh pink salmon
Russia? No, that was too far away. She'd never be able to get there in an hour. Though with Tala's ability over space… No, they wouldn't make it impossible. Unless they overestimated her time skills… She slapped herself on the temple. She shouldn't think like that. She had great time skills, except not in the slowing, stopping or accelerating, or heck, even making it go in a fairly straight line.
Where else was cold and had meat? The North-West Territories? No… something closer… A meat locker! There's plenty of ice, meat, and fish. Which… They had had salmon last night! It was probably the one in the mess hall.
She dashed out of the stadium. She stopped only to see if Oliver was still around, but he wasn't. A few minutes later she came across the large whitewashed building.
The large freezer was at the very back. She opened the door and checked it over for traps. She grabbed some boxes to wedge it open. The note was in the very back.
Clue #2: Whites stones lined up row by row
That people can see on the go
Up close they look like a mess
Far away, they do confess
Confess? How can stones talk? And how did she expect to figure out while she froze her butt off? She walked out of the locker and sat on the chair she had sat on while talking with Oliver the other day.
She forced herself to start from the beginning. White stones were in rows. That shouldn't be too hard to find; it wasn't a commonly occurring thing. On the go… By a road? Oh yeah! A hill nearby had 'TA-WA-SI' spelled out in white rocks. Up close, they would look random, but far away you could make out the words.
It took her ten minutes to run all the way up the hill. But there, under a huge white rock was the next clue.
Clue #3: Beyond the old engine and train
Amid the golden fields of grain
Stands a tall building all alone
You'll find the fourth clue in the cone
Shadra walked down the hill as she tried to figure it out. The first line was easy; train tracks and an old steam train exhibit were close by, in fact, it was close to the town that had held the dance. A tall building in the middle of the grain fields… a silo. So, all she had to do was go to the exhibit, then keep going until she hit a silo. Hopefully, not hit as in run into.
She reached the road. A car screeched, and swerved. Shadra looked up. Mariah jumped out of the car looking mad.
"Geezus, Shadra! Watch where you're going! I almost hit you!"
Shadra put the hand clutching the circular clock behind her head. "Sorry! It's just that if I don't figure get to the end of the clues, the Bladebreakers are toast."
Mariah simmered down quite fast. "What happened?"
"The Masters took them hostage before I got to the stadium. They're making me go on a treasure hunt. If I don't get there in—thirty minutes! —They'll kill the boys."
Mariah face took on a grim expression. "Hope in, I'll drive you."