We ended up getting through the brambles fine. (I know, I know, you were expecting a long recounting of it, but there's not much to tell, so why bother?)
Once through the brambles, we started to make our way up the mountain.
"Relakk, are we almost there yet?"
Relakk turned around to glare at me. What? I had only asked thirteen times before. Is there something wrong with that?
"Avalla Shirra Fealla Charlla, if you ask me that one time more, I swear, I will…"
He didn't finish, probably trying to think of something sufficiently horrible to do to me. I didn't help him.
"What do we have to find?" That was Shean.
I shrugged. "When I asked Mom last night, she said something about a tunnel leading through the whole mountain range."
Shean looked a bit brighter. "Well, that shouldn't be hard to find."
"Yeah, if you can actually find it. It sounds a bit like Moria from LotR…"
Shean didn't look a bit brighter anymore. "Oh. Well, I guess we just have to find Gandalf and then…" He trailed off and I saw him sneaking a glance at Relakk. I gave him a look.
"Shean, don't even bother. We've got a bit of fire magic, and Mom said that it's something like that that'll find the door, so maybe Relakk can teach us instead."
Shean sighed. "Fine."
I turned to Relakk and opened my mouth.
"Don't bother; I already heard you. I'm not deaf, you know." Relakk was in an irritable mood, apparently. "I can teach you some, but I'm not the authority on light and fire. I've taught you most of what I know of your other abilities, and this isn't any harder, I suppose."
I nodded meekly, having been thoroughly put back in my place. I moved ahead to ride with Shean.
"Okay, so we're making for a town. It's probably the last one we'll see, 'cause there's only handful on this mountain."
Shean nodded. At that moment, Relakk called us back.
"See up there?" He asked, pointing ahead. "That's the village we're making for."
We nodded. "Can we ride ahead?" I asked.
Relakk shook his head. "I'd prefer not."
We fell back with Relakk and rode on in silence.
We stayed at the village and left in the morning. There wasn't really anything out of the ordinary in our stay, except for the fact that a couple dwarves were also staying at the inn, but since we were on a mountain, that wasn't really unusual.
We made our way down a valley later that morning. The valley was gorgeous, but we weren't there to sight-see. One of the dwarves had told me that this was where the secret passage was, but no one had found it in decades.
Relakk had taught us the firelight spell the night before and Shean had been carving himself a Staff for his Tool, so we were both ready.
There wasn't any vegetation along the sides of the valley. It was lush in the middle, but there was a ring of hard stone ground on the edge around the green. Shean and I started at the same spot and worked the opposite way. My Sword looked odd, the blade completely alight, but I didn't care. Shean's Staff was lit up on the top like a flashlight and looked a lot cooler than mine.
We shone our flames along the bare rock side of the valley. Without warning, a section of the rock burst into flame and I jumped back, dropping my Sword in my surprise. It immediately went out once I lost my concentration.
I looked at the stone again. It wasn't just a random flame. It had a pattern. It looked like water rippling in a pond, but it stayed within a certain shape. The shape of a rounded arch, like… a door.
Relakk and Shean had noticed by now and come over. Relakk smiled broadly.
"Ah, just what we were looking for."
And to my surprise, he walked right up to the door, stuck his hand where the doorknob would be on a normal door and pushed.
And the door swung open.
Shean helped me up and I sheathed my Sword as we walked through the fire-door. I jumped when it snapped shut behind the three of us. Shean re-lit his Staff and we walked along slowly.
It wasn't really much like Moria from Lord of the Rings like I thought it might be. There were nooks and crannies in the walls, but the floor wasn't littered with bones, though it was coated in dust.
I thought I heard something make a guttural noise somewhere to my right. I was just in time to block a thrust from a xavad, a furry, monkey-like creature that lived in caves and mines and were said to be great at ambushes.
I fended mine off, able to tell from the noise that the others had their own hairy little problems. They might have been good at ambushes, but they weren't the best swordsmen in the galaxy. We cut our way through them easily enough. Relakk led the way and we quickly left them behind, Shean and I leaving a wall of fire every once in a while to slow their progress.
We were abruptly and rudely cut off by a fast-moving underground river, which I almost fell into in our head-long dash. There were boats tied to stakes on the bank, and a rope running from one side to the other tied to poles, but other than that, there was no way across.
"Shean, should we do the old Hobbit crossing trick?"
Shean nodded and we started to rig one of the boats to the rope so we could pull ourselves across when Relakk waved his hands and pulled us back, halting our progress.
"This is the way we want to go. This river leads all the way through the passage to the landing that we're looking for. It will be far faster than walking."
Shean and I exchanged worried glances. Had Relakk noticed how fast that stinkin' river was? It had to be going between forty and sixty mph, I guessed, and it wasn't exactly a smooth ride. I tried to keep reminding myself that Relakk had the Wind and Water magikk, so he could keep the boat under control.
Relakk tied the boat so that it would come loose if we tugged on the rope the right way. The boat was built so that you could lay a couple people down on the bottom of the boat while someone steered and kept watch ahead, and someone else could sit in the front.
Relakk told me and Shean to lay down on the bottom of the boat and tie our provisions to ourselves so that if we got swept out, we'd at least save them. He made them airtight and filled them with air so they'd float, too. Sometimes it's rather handy to have a Wind and Water mage with you.
At first, Relakk made the water around us flow slower so that we didn't feel as insecure, but he slowly let it speed up to the normal speed of the. By the time we got up to that point, though, we were pretty used to it. The ride wasn't as bumpy as I'd thought it would be, but it wasn't exactly marble-flooring smooth, either.
All at once, the river turned into white water rapids. Shean and I tried to sit up. I glanced around nervously.
"Uh, Relakk, what's that sound?"
Relakk glanced at me, then looked at the river. He closed his eyes and trailed one hand in the river for a moment. He jerked up and stiffened.
"Shean, Avalla, hold onto each other."
"What is it, Relakk?" I demanded.
"There's a waterfall ahead."
"A what?"
"There's no time to talk. We'll be over it in less than a minute. Are you holding on to each other?"
"Yes…"
"Good."
Without warning, Shean and I were forcibly flung from our position in the boat (luckily, we had pulled our feet out from under the front seat) and thrown onto the bank by a strong air current. We jumped to our feet in time to see Relakk going down the falls with the boat. I screamed and half slid, half fell down the bank to the bottom of the waterfall. All I could think was that Relakk must have slowed the water around him again when he went down the falls after he pulled an air current to save me and Shean.
I looked around, expecting to see him crawling out of the water, wet, but unscathed. I almost cried when I saw it.
The boat was smashed on the rocks at the bottom of the waterfall. The water wasn't even a foot deep. I wasn't sure if Relakk had jumped, or if he had let the water carry him to the side and maybe he was on the other side of the bank.
And then… I saw the worst of it. There was something on the other side of the rocks. Something… that looked like cloth. I let out a muffled shriek and collapsed, but Shean caught me. He tried to get me to make sense, but all I could do was babble insanely. I don't remember what I said, but I remember him slapping me hard.
"Val, you're hysterical. What did you see?"
Unable to speak, I simply pointed. And Shean almost dropped me.
We ran, Shean half carrying me, to the place. When we got there, I jerked away from the sight and hid my face in Shean's shoulder, sobbing uncontrollably.
It was Relakk. And he was most definitely dead.
He was horribly twisted and distorted, his limbs bent in decidedly unnatural positions. All I could think was that he died because of me. He died trying to save me. He spent all his energy pulling up a wind for us and couldn't grab one for himself. It was all my fault. I could just as well have been a killer. I must have been saying all this aloud, because the next thing I remember was Shean slapping me again.
"Val, we have to bury him. There are all sorts of things in here that would love to have him for breakfast."
"But I could have saved him. I could have teleported us out of there. I could have gotten us down here. In fact, I could probably have just teleported us straight to Syulichung the Valley and saved us all a long trip."
Shean shook me by the shoulders. "Val. You know that you can't teleport us anywhere safely without an image of our destination, and no one has been there in easily over a hundred and fifty years. Do you honestly think you could have done it?"
I sullenly shook my head. Why did Shean have to be so reasonable? Couldn't he just let me have my angst attack in peace?
"Now, come on, help me dig something at least resembling a grave. We can't leave him here. If we can make a shallow grave, we can weight it down with stones on top."
I listlessly helped Shean dig the grave with large flat stones. It took a while, but we finally managed something a couple feet deep and long enough to fit Relakk. I couldn't watch as Shean carried his body over and covered it with dirt, so I went to look for large rocks. I used my telekinesis to make them into a pile near Shean so he could start covering Relakk's grave.
I had already found most of the stones that we needed to cover the grave when I found one that would be perfect for the headstone. It wasn't traditionally-shaped, but I didn't want traditional. With the angry heat of my Fire magikk, I managed to burn out,
'Relakk: the greatest friend and mage-wizard that ever lived.
We will forever miss you and hope you will wait for us in heaven.
Forever, Avalla and Shean O'Connor'
I took a look at it. Not a work of art, but it would do. I took it back to Shean.
"What do you think?"
He smiled. "It's great. But you made it look like we have the same last name."
I blushed furiously. "Well, my name comes first in the alphabet, and I thought that… well, I –"
He cut me off with an affectionate hug. "Hey, it's okay. I know that you're kinda distraught right now. Forget it. Come on, let's put it up."
I used my telekinesis to wrap some nearby vine roots around the headstone to cement it in place. Shean and I used a spell Relakk had taught us to make an ever-burning, never-harming fire that would burn forever, but wouldn't burn anyone. But it would keep the vines from growing over the letters and it would keep Relakk's memory alive forever.
A/N: I know that I may not have written Relakk well enough for his death to make much of an impact on anyone but Val and Shean, but if it did, I apologize, and PLEASE don't kill me. Just remember: when things seem the worst, that's usually when they get better. (usually) Or sometimes they get even WORSE and THEN get better. But you'll have to wait and see, so you might want to hold off on killing me.
I'm sorry I haven't updated. I'm trying to bring the story to a close, and I think I know how, but they have to get the Hammer first, and I'm stuck on that. Yes, (blank), I'd already been planning to do some sort of riddler game thing, probably to get the Hammer, but I'm SO bad at them. Go take a look at The Ring Quest. I may have written it… wow, almost four years ago gasp, but I haven't gotten much better with my mind teasers and riddlers since then, lol. Then you'll see why I hesitate to use them. But if you have any ideas for something I could use, feel PERFECTLY FREE to e-mail them to me!
Life is also starting to catch up with me (again). I've been getting more hours at work, I've been working on finding cast and crew for my new movie project I'm planning for next year and finishing the script for it (second draft finished, which I'm rather proud of. The fact that it's done, not necessarily the script, though, lol), and I'm hoping to start a Christian radio station, even a small one, because Massachusetts really, really, REALLY, REALLY needs one. ;) And apparently I'm also being considered for dubbing the lead female role of a high-quality Italian Star Wars fan film.
But as long as I have ideas for Fast Forward (which I do. Got several plot twists, so keep tuned), I'll keep writing, so you don't have to keep telling me not to stop writing, lol. Trust me, I will.
I think I'm gonna wait to ask you guys questions until I've answered yours, because then maybe you'd be more inclined to answer them. ;)
pussycat doll – Thanks for the encouragement. It always helps.
Gayle – Thanks for the encouragement and understanding. You're such an awesome reader. huggles Gayle
Polly – Those are all great suggestions and I will definitely take them to heart. It's always so nice when people have suggestions for improvements or events that I can use. Like I said above, I stink with riddles and mind teasers, though, so I dunno if I'd be able to think of anything that's useable. ;)
Kat – As I've said numerous times now (to reassure you guys I'm not stopping), I've started to get a life, so I won't be updating every other day. I will update, but it'll probably be something more like once a month. However, if anyone wants to get me to update sooner, I'll repost the Fast Forward forum URL and people can post suggestions for stuff that can happen and remind me to write and stuff. Or I could do a newsletter for people who would like to pre-read (aka Beta read) Fast Forward before it's posted to I'm gonna number them to make them easier to answer. Here we go:
1) If I started updating my blog again, would anyone read it?
2) If I even tried to get an unabridged reading of Fast Forward organized, like what Bruce Colville does (but probably not as good sound quality since I don't think I'll have access to a recording studio, lol), would anyone be interested in listening to it?
3) What, in your opinion, would be a good prize for reader referrals?
4) Is Fast Forward worth rewriting in an original setting (or just taking out mentions of Ella Enchanted) and seeing about getting a literary agent and finding a publisher?
5) Would anyone still want to use that forum I made ages ago for Fast Forward?
6) If you'd like me to start a newsletter thing for Beta readers for Fast Forward, you can post your e-mail and make a note at the end of your review that says you're interested and would like to be added to the list.
I think that's it for now, and feel free to answer any questions that I forgot. Thanks for being such wonderful readers… mean stepmother voice now go review! end mean stepmother voice No, sorry, just joking.