Chapter Four-
Maze in the Dark
The girls were gathered with Elyon, Caleb and Derek in the throne room.
"First you need to locate the Passling known as Blunk." Elyon was instructing them. "He will be the one we need to find your parents."
"So how do we find a Passling, and what do they look like?" Asked Wanda.
"Caleb will be able to help you." Smiled Elyon.
"Ugh..." Caleb glared at the Queen as though he would rather go back to training the girls than hunt down Blunk. "Well, for starters, we need to go down to the village. He's probably trying to sell or trade Earth goods, or hanging out in the garbage dumpsters somewhere."
"Ew... Did he just say Garbage dumpsters?" Tress shuddered at the thought.
"Well... We'd better get started. The sooner we find our little garbage collector, the sooner we can find our parents." Wanda said.
So the girls followed Caleb and Derek out of the Castle and into the village down below.
"Wow, so this is a real village like from the books Wanda likes to read." Tress looked around as they flew slightly behind Caleb and Derek.
"Hey! The Guardians have returned!" Someone called out as they passed over a rather large crowd of people and creatures.
The group gave a wave before flying on ahead after Caleb again.
"So, Einstein, what exactly are we looking for?" Asked Ingrid, catching up with him.
"We're looking for what smells like rotten eggs left in the garbage compactor too long." Was the best way for Caleb to explain it.
"Oh, so you mean like Cerella's cooking? When she burns everything she touches?" Asked HuiLing, earning another glare from Cerella.
"Something like that." Derek nodded. He knew he was safe from Cerella's wrath, but that was another story for their father. He had seen this Passling before, and hoped never to see him again.
"Great... Garbage dumpster trolling... what fun." Sighed Ingrid.
It wasn't long before Wanda picked up the smell of something foul and disgusting.
"We're getting closer, then." Nodded Caleb when Wanda spoke up.
They reached a particularly large garbage dump behind a building, and heard some rummaging around.
"Gross!" Tress cried out.
"This is worse than Career day back in Heatherfield..." Cerella shuddered as her father walked right up to the garbage and reached in, pulling out what looked like a little green troll in a brown shirt and pants.
"Looks like a mutated frog." Ingrid hid behind Cerella.
"Are you Blunk?" Asked Caleb.
The Passling looked at him.
"Caleb! Blunk know face any where." Blunk smiled.
"We need your help, Phobos has captured the former Guardians and we don't know where they are being held prisoner at." Caleb snapped, holding Blunk by the hem of his shirt.
"Blunk know how to find Guardians... Trade maybe?" He asked rather nervously.
"Here's a trade... you find our parents, and we hold off giving you a much needed bath." Wanda was holding her nose the smell was so horrible. "But if you DON'T find our parents, then you get a nine month bath until you're squeaky clean, AND you have to stay away from garbage for a month."
Blunk suddenly panicked.
"New Guardian knows how to make good trade! I find your parents! Blunk remembers what they look like!" He said, waving his arms frantically.
"Good. Then it's settled. You go find Will and the others, and report back to the Queen as soon as you have their location." Said Caleb, letting Blunk down without any care of where he landed.
Blunk scuttled out of sight rather quickly when he saw Ingrid with her hands full of a ball of water moving water.
"Disgusting creature..." Said Wanda as they flew away.
"I never want to go near another garbage pile again." Tress shuddered.
"Weren't we supposed to bring Blunk to the Castle?" Asked Ingrid.
"It'll be fine. I'll just explain to the Queen that the sooner he got started, the sooner we could launch an attack on Phobos." Caleb said.
"Besides... can you imagine that thing in the castle spreading filth everywhere?" Cerella's shoulders shook at the thought. "Best to limit his entry into the royal castle as much as possible in my opinion."
"Oh heaven forbid something should get your dress robes dirty." Ingrid rolled her eyes.
"Hey, I worked hard to make everyone's dress robes, and God forbid whoever gets a speck of dirt on them!" Cerella said furiously.
"What about yesterday when HuiLing landed in that pond with frogs?" Smiled Ingrid.
"That was different. At least pond water washes out with some dry cleaning." Huffed Cerella. "Grass and dirt stains take forever to get out of silk robes."
"Okay, okay, we don't need a lecture on the upkeep of Meridian clothing." Wanda rolled her eyes.
"Anyone else here getting bored out of their gourd?" Asked Irma, stretching.
"It's only been three days and I'm already getting cabin fever." Terrane was pacing around and around in their cell.
They heard a scuttling, and then a horrible smell reached their noses.
"Ew..." Terrane suddenly stopped pacing, covering her nose.
"I've smelled that raunchy stench before." Cornelia's eyes flicked right to the bars of their cell.
"Blunk." Irma and Will said at once.
"Girls!" Blunk said, looking exhausted. "Blunk look for you all day!"
"What's going on? How did you get here?" Asked Matt.
"Blunk follow nose, the nose always knows." Laughed the Passling.
"I wonder if it knows how awful you smell." HayLin was also covering up her nose.
"Now Blunk know where girls are at, Blunk can go back to castle and get Guardians to let girls out!" Blunk said rather quickly.
"But they've only just started their training." Will stood up rather quickly. "They can't come yet!"
"New Guardians already know how to use powers. Fly around and everything!" Said Blunk.
They heard footsteps and Blunk said a quick goodbye before vanishing as Phobos came into view.
"Ugh, this waiting is pure annoyance." Cerella said.
The girls were back into their Meridian dress robes, and in the throne room waiting for Blunk to return.
"Not more annoying than your impatience?" Asked Ingrid.
They were sitting in chairs that Elyon had conjured up for them.
"Your Majesty, the Passling has returned!" A guard came rushing into the room.
"Finally!" Tress sat up. She had been slouching very unlady-like in her chair.
"Former Guardians still in swamp-lands." Blunk said once he got into the throne room.
"Good. So he hasn't moved them. Derek, you will go with the new Guardians to retrieve them. You must move quickly and silently. Once you leave these grounds and the village, things will get much more dangerous for you. More than anything you have faced before." Elyon looked at the girls. "Derek has had experience in the battlefield here on Meridian. Even though it seems peaceful, you will soon find out that once Phobos escaped, everything turned to chaos outside our borders. Please be careful, and do your best to bring your families back."
"We will." Said Wanda with sheer determination in her eyes.
"You should transform only once you've left the village. Until then, I have had my servants prepare for you clothing that will help you... blend in to the society outside the castle." Elyon waved her hand to the door, and a group of servants entered the room, carrying plain cloaks that covered their bodies entirely.
"Cloaks?" Tress looked rather excited.
"Yes." Nodded the Queen.
The girls rushed forward and each picked their cloaks from the servants, and threw them on.
"Wow! This is awesome!" Said HuiLing, swirling around.
"Good luck to you all, and may the guardians of Kandrikor look after you all." Said Elyon.
Walking through the castle, the girls were led by Derek, next was Wanda, then to her left was Cerella, on her right HuiLing, and on Cerella's right was Ingrid while Tress chose to walk on HuiLing's left.
"Why did the queen not want us to transform and THEN go?" Asked Tress.
"It would have been too obvious." Replied Derek.
"That's right." Nodded Ingrid. "Think about it, if we'd left in our Guardian forms, no doubt Phobos and his cronies will be waiting for us as soon as we get past the village."
"And this way, unless the spy is already in the castle, we won't meet any enemies until we get closer to their hideout when they start sensing something is amiss." He went on.
Once they were outside the village, which seemed to take forever, Wanda led the girls to an enclosed area surrounded with bushes with Derek close by watching.
"Guardians Unite!" She called out, holding up the Heart of Kandrikor.
And when the light faded, the girls stood in their Guardian forms.
"Great. Now we get to see some action." Tress could not have been happier as she slung her cloak over her shoulders again.
"It's not just about fun and games, girls." Warned Derek. "This is dangerous. You're risking your lives just by going beyond the boundaries. We all need to be careful from here on out if we want to survive."
"We know that, Derek." Wanda addressed him directly. She already had her cloak on. "Let's get going." She looked at the others, who nodded.
They were moving for what felt like hours over dry, barren wasteland. They reached a cliff and paused.
"Once we get across this, we are closer to our goal." Said Derek, already walking to the edge.
"You know, we can fly across." HuiLing was already in the air.
"And it's dark enough, no one will notice." Ingrid now took flight.
"What about Derek? He can't fly." Wanda pointed out.
"That's your problem." Cerella and Tress were now in the air, all grinning mischievously.
"Hey, I'm not carrying him across! His mouth alone must be five hundred pounds." Snapped Wanda. "Cerella, he's your brother."
"So?" Cerella had her hands on her hips, floating in mid air thanks to her wings, which were hidden by her cloak.
"Aren't siblings supposed to look out for each other?" Glared Wanda.
"Well, look at it this way." Said HuiLing. "Either you help him fly across, or we go on forever and ever blindly, not knowing exactly where Phobos has hidden our parents with Prince Charming here stuck behind at the cliff unable to get across, and we'll never be able to find our parents."
Wanda glared.
"Fine." She snapped. She took to the air before reaching down with her hands. He reached up, and took her hands before being lifted up in the air.
He didn't say anything, but he wondered why Wanda always put up so much of a fight to even be around him. But what surprised him most is, as stubborn as she was about everything, she was amazingly careful not to drop him, and a thought that he chose to keep to himself was that her hands were so soft despite how she acted...
She put him down on the ground immediately after crossing the deserted valley and landed herself well away from him.
"Thanks for the lift..." He muttered.
"Yeah... literally." Smiled Cerella.
He turned to look ahead, and frowned.
"What's that?" Asked Tress, seeing what looked like a wall of blackness that had not been there before.
"It's a big giant wall of impending doom." HuiLing stated.
"That is rather obvious." Smirked Ingrid.
"But how do we get by it?" Asked Wanda.
"Only one way to find out..." Derek walked forward.
"Looks like lizard boy knows we're here." Said Tress as the girls flew low to the ground.
She was right. Cedric stood waiting for them, barring their path.
"Welcome young Guardians of Kandrikor." Smiled Cedric, his voice its usual low, snake-like hiss.
"Cedric!" Wanda nearly flew right at him in a burst of rage. Derek held her back, grabbing her arms from behind. "Let me go!" She added at Derek.
"No. Flying at him blindly like this is just what he wants." He replied, keeping a firm grip on her arms, holding her against him to keep her from attacking. "You need to stay calm if you want to save your parents."
Those words kept her from struggling against him. Only when he was sure she was calm again, did he let her go. The other girls, he noted, had not stepped in to help this time.
He turned to where they were, and saw them smiling.
"Nice job, Derek." Said Cerella.
Cedric's smile vanished.
"I have a friend I would like you to meet." He said, raising a hand.
A woman appeared beside him. She had short black hair, beetle black eyes, and wore Meridian robes.
"Meet Echo. She has a rather unique gift when it comes to darkness and shadow..." Cedric smiled again, as the woman's eyes looked right at them.
Her eyes sent a chill down Wanda's spine. Echo seemed to have no life to her whatsoever. The wall of darkness seemed to expand at once, as soon as Echo looked up at the girls.
"Guys!" Wanda whirled around, seeing the girls getting engulfed by the darkness, like the darkness was alive and eating them... She felt a hand grasp hers, fighting to pull her back. She turned and saw Derek, refusing to let go.
"Hold on!" He shouted.
Everything happened so fast after that. She felt herself plummeting into nothingness, Derek's hand clenching hers... and then she closed her eyes, knowing of nothing else...
"Wanda..."
A voice called out. She opened her eyes. Lying flat on her back, looking up, she could barely see Derek staring down at her with worried eyes.
"What happened?" She asked, sitting up. "Where are the girls?"
"I'm not sure." He admitted, helping her to her feet.
She looked around, and saw nothing but darkness surrounding them.
Cerella sat up, feeling strangely lightheaded. Tress was already up, providing much needed light by a fireball she conjured up.
"Do you know what happened just now? I feel like I just got through listening to Wanda's music..." Cerella rubbed her forehead.
"Not a clue." Tress shook her head. "All I'm able to do is make this fireball for light."
They looked around.
"What's that?" Asked Tress.
She had spotted a small red glow, about the size of a star, off in the distance.
"Looks like the glow of the Heart of Kandrikor right as we're transforming." Blinked Cerella, squinting to see better.
"What do you think? Should we head towards it?" Tress looked at her. Cerella nodded, and they started flying towards the faint red glow of light.
Ingrid and HuiLing were already awake after falling into the darkness.
"What do you think this is?" Asked HuiLing, her voice echoing strangely around them.
"Looks almost like a void..." Ingrid looked around. "I've only ever read about them though."
"A void?" Blinked HuiLing.
"A space of nothingness." Explained Ingrid.
"Hey!" HuiLing said so loudly it made Ingrid jump.
"What?" Snapped Ingrid, annoyed at HuiLing's random hyperactivity.
"Look at that red light! Doesn't it remind you of the Heart of Kandrikor?" HuiLing pointed an unseen finger, but Ingrid still saw what she was talking about.
"Yeah. Maybe it's Wanda trying to signal us?" Blinked Ingrid.
"Let's go and see. I don't wanna be stuck in this void forever." Said HuiLing.
The two took off together towards the light, not knowing Cerella and Tress were doing the same.
Wanda looked around, holding the Heart of Kandrikor by its chain. She had noticed it was glowing brightly as soon as they were looking around. The crystal was levitating itself in midair and shining a bright red light.
"What do you think is happening?" She looked at Derek, who looked stumped at the question.
She got a frustrated look on her face before turning back to the Heart of Kandrikor. She suddenly thought she could see four points of different colored light flying towards them.
But at that moment, something could be heard whizzing towards them from above.
"Get down!" Shouted Derek, lunging at Wanda and knocking her out of the way.
"Derek... what?" She blinked up at him, then heard what sounded like metal slamming onto the ground.
"Looks like someone found us." He looked at the crater where she had just been standing.
It was Echo. She was only able to be seen by the light of the Heart of Kandrikor.
"Just hand over the Heart of Kandrikor and we'll let you go." Echo's voice was deeper than Wanda expected.
"We'll never hand it over." Derek snapped, standing between Wanda and Echo.
A powerful blast of wind knocked Echo off her feet and back into the darkness away from Wanda and Derek.
"HuiLing!" Said Wanda, glad to see her friends were all right.
"We saw the glow and followed it. Didn't think that lizard boy's crone would be here already." Ingrid said in a matter of fact tone.
"We need to find a way out of this place." Wanda went on. "Any ideas?"
"Well, the opposite of darkness is light." Shrugged Ingrid.
"Which means we need fire and lightning." Cerella piped up.
"Dangerous thinking there, Cerel'. Don't strain yourself." Tress smirked, unable to contain herself.
"Ha, ha." Said Cerella sarcastically as she flipped her hair around in an elegant manner at that statement.
"Heaven forbid she think about something not related to clothes and jewelry." Muttered Ingrid.
"Let's focus, girls. Tress, you think you can create enough light so we can find out way out?" Wanda asked.
"Not only can I do that... But how bout I make an order for a pillar of fire?" Said Tress, flying into the air.
The darkness was soon illuminated by an egg-shaped beam of fire that engulfed Tress.
"A pillar of fire is not only appropriate, it's biblical." Said Cerella knowledgeably.
"Time to add some lightning to the fire." Said Wanda, joining Tress in the air.
"We'll hold off Echo while you guys figure out how to get out of here." HuiLing smiled brightly.
"Right." Nodded Tress and Wanda. They flew higher and higher until they were nothing more than specks in the darkness.
"Think your friends can save you?" Echo's voice vibrated around them.
"HuiLing, can you figure out where she is by the sound waves from her voice?" Asked Ingrid.
HuiLing nodded.
"I can try." She said. She put a hand to her right ear and closed her eyes, listening to the voice that vibrated around them. She could almost feel it getting louder and louder the farther she listened, or reached out with her hearing. "Over there!" She pointed suddenly to their right.
"Everyone, prepare for attack." Ingrid raised her hands, water swirling around them.
"Are you sure I'm here?" Asked Echo, her voice now coming from behind.
"She's trying to trick us." HuiLing's head swung at once in Echo's direction.
Cerella looked up at the small specks that were Tress and Wanda, before looking around. She knelt down with her hand on the ground.
"What are you doing?" Asked Derek.
"Think... if we're standing here, able to move around as though we were lost in Wanda's closet, then I might be able to pinpoint exactly where our little friend is, if she's on the ground, and HuiLing can still hear her perfectly fine." Cerella snapped at her older brother. "I might be able to feel her vibrations."
Above the group, Wanda and Tress had flown very high, only illuminated by the pillar of fire and the lightning in Wanda's hands. Though they were very high up, they could hear the girls' conversations loud and clear, and were looking down, waiting to strike.
"Maybe if we defeat Echo, this darkness will disappear." Said Wanda.
Cerella closed her eyes. She could feel the tremors of the planet beneath her hand, and saw visions in her minds eye as though she were watching a video recording of it. She 'looked' where HuiLing directed, while Ingrid fended off the attacks inflicted on by Echo, waiting for the right moment to strike.
"Now!" Shouted Derek when Echo was finally within their eyesight.
Roots from the trees and vines rose from the ground on his command, forcing Echo into the air. But Cerella managed to wrap the vines around Echo. At the same time, Wanda and Tress had combined their powers to form what looked like a column of fire with lightning moving around it. The attack hit Echo dead on, and a loud shriek filled their ears.
The darkness faded, and replaced with the scenery that was Meridian. Behind them was the deep ravine they passed over moments before.
Echo vanished among the haze of fire, earth and lightning.
"Not bad." Said Derek blinking at Wanda and Tress as they landed next to the other three girls.
"Where did lizard boy go?" Asked HuiLing, looking wildly around.
"That doesn't matter. We'll see him again soon, I'm sure. Right now we need to get a move on." Derek looked ahead.
"Right." The girls nodded, saw their cloaks where they had left them, and put them back over their shoulders and hoods over their heads before taking flight and following Derek as he started running towards the direction that Phobos was holding their families captive.
