Sorry for the LONG wait, but I finally got it. And I do already have the next two chapters to type, so I'll probably be able to get something done during Thanksgiving Break. PLEASE REVIEW!!
Uncertainty
Chapter 3: Dreams
Mia awoke to a dark room. She struggled to remember the past days. She slowly started to remember those days that had somehow slipped her mind. She remembered that three days ago, they had tried without success to demolish the ice wall that blocked them from Prox. She could see the image clearly in her head of the group trying everything. Jenna and Garet trying to melt the wall that blocked them from the final step of their journey, Felix and Issac both tying to find the ground under the sea so that they could use the stone to shatter the ice, Ivan and Sheba trying to use lightning to melt or shatter the ice, and she and Piers trying to part the ice, just as they could with water. Felix even tried this gem that made a huge explosion in the ice. It did nothing. It was as if the gods were preventing them from reaching Prox, preventing them from saving Weyard. She had slept fitfully that night, exhausted from trying to attempt to break the wall all that day. That day after trying to destroy the ice, they pulled out the map and decided to skirt the western edge of Angara, to look for something that would possibly help them destroy the wall. Yesterday, they had found Loho, a small town in southwestern Angara that had a cannon which might be able to break through the wall. The problem with the cannon, however, was that it had no ammunition. The group took up a room in Loho's inn, disappointed with the day. Having finally regained her memory, Mia tried to get up out of the bed, but an invisible force was keeping her down. She could only sit up in her bed, looking around in the blanket of darkness. Suddenly a fire surrounded her and caught the room with the bright orange blaze. Large rocks started to fall around her, somehow not breaking the floor or catching the room on fire. The fire that was still burning brightly around her broke off from the room and floated in front of her, forming the shape of a cannon. The fiery cannon effigy then exploded in a bright yellow burst of light.
Mia awoke, sweating profusely. Rubbing the sleep from her eyes, she looked around the room. Outside the window, the sky was the grey color of the early morning. Mia saw the others in her room sitting up in their beds with the same dazed expression she was sure she had. In her room there was Jenna, Sheba, Ivan, and herself. Ivan had been put in the room solely to save money. Since there were five boys, and three girls, it would be unreasonable to buy three rooms when they could buy two and just have one boy be in the room with the girls. Ivan drew the short straw that night. Everyone had the same terrified expression on their face.
Ivan was the first to break the tense silence. "Umm…I assume you had the same dream I did?"
"About the fire and the rocks and the cannon?" Jenna asked cautiously.
"That's the one I had," Ivan retorted.
"It…it was more than a dream. It felt very real," Jenna said tensely.
"It felt…almost like a premonition," Sheba said.
"You're right. And it may have been a premonition. I had a similar dream before, about the dragon on the Lighthouse. This dream felt the same, so I'm assuming this is another premonition," Ivan explained.
"Why would I have seen it though?" Sheba asked.
"Well, you are a Jupiter Adept too. Your psyenergy probably overheard the message from Jupiter," Ivan responded.
"Ok, but what about me and Mia? We aren't Jupiter Adepts, like you," Jenna asked.
"Well, just to tell you, from now on I'm just guessing, but maybe the psyenergetic signals were strong enough that your psyenergies picked up on the signals too. That's just a theory; I don't really know," Ivan guessed.
"It's all we really have to go by," Mia found her voice. "But instead asking how did it happen, we should ask what does it mean?"
"Well, last time I had a premonition, it signaled for impending doom, But Hama said that these premonitions could mean anything, and it would get easier to translate them as time went on," Ivan explained.
The room was quiet for several moments. Mia's mind was racing, thinking about this latest development in their journey. Just by looking at the other's faces, she could tell that they were thinking about the same thing. Ivan stood and left the room so that the women could dress. The women dressed in silence, pulling off their undergarments so they could put new ones on. Mia tried not to stare at Jenna's naked body as she dressed. She did sneak a couple of peeks however, before slipping into her tunic. When the women finished dressing, they grabbed their bags and Ivan's bedroll, as he left it in their room, and met the boys in the hall. The boys were joking and horsing around just as if nothing strange had happened that morning. Seeing the boys' cheerful attitude picked up the girls' spirits, and they all started smiling weakly. Ivan took his bedroll, thanking Sheba, and the group started downstairs. They ate the inn's breakfast while the group discussed their vision.
"This vision could mean anything," Felix said after hearing each of their accounts.
"We should break it down into the main symbols of the dream. Then it will probably be easier to decipher the dream," Issac responded.
"Well, from mine, there was the fire, the rocks, and the cannon," Ivan said.
"Wait…the rocks were on fire. In my dream they didn't only seem to be on fire, they seemed to be made of fire. That could mean that they are elemental. Piers, Felix, Sheba, do you remember the elemental rocks that we climbed?" Jenna asked.
"Yeah…there was Air's Rock, Gaia Rock, and Aqua Rock, right?" Sheba asked.
"Yeah. I always thought it was weird that there was no rock for Mars. There was a rock for Mercury, Venus, and Mars, but no rock for Mars," Jenna said.
"That does seem odd. There is always balance with everything psyenergetic on Weyard. There should be balance even with the elemental rocks," Felix said, pulling out the map.
The map was basic, showing only the shapes of the continents and the locations of mountain ranges. They had marked the map with their quill as they visited new places, and the ink was still looked shimmering and new from where they had marked Loho the night before. Mia saw the markings showing the locations of the other elemental rocks the night before. These elemental rocks were nearly all positioned near the edge of the Eastern Sea. Air's Rock was located in the middle of Osenia, in the one the eastern desert on the small continent. Aqua Rock was on a small island near the edge of Weyard, and Gaia Rock in the north, on a small strip of an island, not much larger than the island on which Aqua Rock positioned. There were many towns that she knew were scattered over inland Angara, and she saw four towns on Gondowan, two of which she had not visited. There were a few other towns scattered over the remaining continents, and inlets on the Eastern Sea. Right in the middle of the Eastern Sea, there were markings for the Sea of Time and Lemuria, which she had not heard of before Lord Babi told her about it, and commanded them to find it for his mystical draught. She now knew this journey held no validity anymore, as she was informed that Lord Babi had died without his mystical draught. There were three temples that she had earlier learned held the three parts to the legendary trident of Poseidon. The Western Sea was not as developed. There were a few markings for the Jupiter Lighthouse, Contigo, and Shaman Village. The Northern Sea was marked with an arrow, pointing northward off the map, and Prox was also mapped with the arrow. Felix told the group that in search for the Hover Jade, they had searched the two Western Sea continents. Felix told of how they found Shaman Village, and Felix raced the Shaman for the Hover Jade. They deduced that, because of that, they would have seen this new elemental rock when they tried this. North of Loho, the mountains skirted the ocean so closely, they elemental rock could not have been there. The group finally deduced that the elemental rock must be somewhere on Gondowan.
"But Gondowan is so big!" Ivan noticed.
"Well, we thoroughly traveled the southern portion of Gondowan when we went there for Piers, and since it's so thin there, we could see the Western Sea from the summits of most of the mountains. We did not see any elemental rock, or else we would have checked it out," Felix said.
"Then it must be in northern Gondowan, but only in the Western portion of it, because we searched the eastern portion when we were there for the Lighthouse. That's a relatively small portion of Gondowan, and it's pretty close, so we could ask around about the rock," Issac said.
"But what do we ask them?" Felix asked.
"How about: is there a mountain nearby that shoots fire?" Piers asked.
"That makes it sound like a volcano. The only volcano I know of is Mt. Aleph," Issac said.
"The other elemental mountains were more like plateaus, like actual oversized rocks just dropped onto Weyard," Felix said.
"Excuse me," said a voice behind them, "But would you be talking about Magma Rock?"
There was one other guest at the inn. He was a young man, travelling alone. When they had talked to him the night before, they learned he was an explorer from Gondowan, trying to see Mt. Aleph and some of the better Angara landmarks, such as Goma Range and the famous Silk Road. They told him that then that most of them hailed from Angara, and they nearly all seen all of these famous places. They listened to the man's tales, and heard this young man, who couldn't be much older than they were talk with the experience of a much older man. They then realized they had it easy in their journey, most of which was attributed to the ability to use psyenergy.
"Actually, we do not know what we are talking about. Maybe you could help us," Felix responded.
"Okay, describe to me what you are thinking of," the man said.
"Well, it is a plateau, probably red or orange in color, and really hot, maybe even surrounded by fire, and smelling sulfuric."
"Minus the fire, you just exactly described Magma Rock."
"That's it, then. Could you maybe point Magma Rock out to us on this map?" Issac asked.
"I can, but I don't really recommend going to the mountain. There's a small tribe near there, and every once in a while, someone from the tribe will challenge the king of the tribe and if this challenger climbs the mountain successfully and brings a piece of the crystal that is on top of the mountain, the old king is executed, and the challenger becomes king. This is a very barbaric tribe, one that I was stuck with for eight months when they captured me. My captor eventually set me free, feeling sorry for me and told me that if I ever wanted to return and overthrow their tyrant king, he would mark the spot on my map. I told the man that I would go to Angara to learn what the Eastern Angarans call Chi and return to overthrow the king," the man told them.
"How many of these challengers were there?" Sheba asked.
"And how many survived the mountain?" Mia chimed in.
"One at a time ladies, and the story goes that many people have challenged the kings since the law was instated, but only one man, long ago, succeeded. According to the legend, this man had strange abilities that made him much stronger than the average man, but he still came back to the village battered and worn. Anyway, let me see your map, I have mine right here for easy access," the traveler told them.
He took their map and compared it to his map, which was in much more detail, as it was only of Angara and Gondowan. He took their quill and unscrewed their ink well. After dipping the quill and carefully shaking off excess ink on the quill, he meticulously found where the mark for Magma Rock should go, and then put a small circle there and wrote next to it "Magma Rock". He then marked the village he told them about, which was just to the northeast of Magma Rock. He then compared their map with his, and determined where markings for the landmarks he wanted to visit were. He marked out Vale, Mt. Aleph, Bilibin, Tolbi, Xian, and the Fuchin Temple. When he was done, he used his own rag to wipe the rest of the excess ink off the quill, capped the ink well, and returned their map, quill, and ink well.
"I hope you don't mind that I made some markings on mine from yours. It is going to make it easier for me to see what I want to and get to the proper cities in eastern Angara. I would have asked beforehand, but it is easier to ask forgiveness than it is to ask permission, right?" the man told them jokingly.
"Not at all. Thank you for your generosity in telling us your fabulous stories and showing where Magma Rock is located," Felix told him.
"It was my pleasure. May your journeys be filled with great fortune," the old man said.
"And yours," Felix responded.
The man gathered his things, tipped the innkeeper, who also happened to be the owner of the town's supply shop, and left Loho.
"He was very informative. Although to tell the truth, I am a little worried about what he said concerning people dying trying to climb the mountain." Felix told the group after the mountaineer had left.
"Going to check out the mountain couldn't hurt. And what the guy was talking about kinda seemed like there were average people trying to climb it, which most likely isn't possible unless you have psyenergy," Jenna responded.
"I think you're right Jenna," Mia chimed in, "We should go check out that mountain. I personally think that with the help of psyenergy, we could climb that mountain with ease." Jenna smiled at Mia when she said this, and Mia had to control herself from blushing.
"I guess it wouldn't hurt to go check out the mountain. It's still pretty early morning, so if we set of now, we should get there about mid-day," Felix said with authority.
They gathered their bags, bought the necessary gear for the trip, and exited the inn to start toward their ship. By this time, the sun had just cracked the horizon and the sky was turning from the milky grey to a beautiful, clear blue sky. This kind of blue always reminded Mia of the crisp, blue sky of the summers in Imil, when it stopped snowing, but it was still cold enough that the snow did not melt away. The group loaded their ship and sailed away from the beach they were anchored on. Once they got past the continental shelf, Felix used hover to start the ship flying, and he flew the ship south, towards Gondowan. Mia excused herself from the deck for the hour-long journey to take a nap. She did not sleep well for reasons other than their shared premonition. She slid her dress off her shoulders and let it fall to the floor. She stepped out of it, picked it up, and laid it out across the table in her cabin. Her bed was still neatly made, the soft Lemurian-made sheets, and the firm but still a little soft mattress, also made in Lemuria. Not wanting to ruin how nice the sheets looked, she laid right down on top of the sheets. She lay there only for a moment before she drifted off into the realms of her dreams.
She saw red. It was flowing, like it was something blowing in a wind. This was no ordinary red however, it sparkled and shone and was the most beautiful thing she had ever seen. She then realized it was hair blowing in a stiff breeze. Another look indicated that it was in fact Jenna. Although there was a human form there, she did not want to focus on anything but the beautiful hair. She wanted to reach out and feel the hair, to see if it felt as good as it looked. She wanted to hold that beauty eternally. Instinctively, she reached out to this beautiful hair. When she did this, the hair and Jenna's shape disappeared. She suddenly found herself in a beautiful, flowery meadow, with Jenna. Jenna's hair blew in the wind, look just as good as it just had. Jenna's red eyes sparkled like rubies reflecting the sun's majestic rays. Her skin was perfectly smooth and clean, as if she had just taken a hot bath in a natural spring. Jenna was wearing a beautiful red dress that flowed in the wind just as her hair did. She suddenly felt something. A desire to run forth to meet this red-haired angel just to kiss her and make Jenna hers forever welled up inside of her, overwhelming all her senses. This desire continued to swell until she ran forth to meet her love. Just as she reached Jenna, she was awakened by the sound of the boat hitting the water for its landing. Mia awoke to find herself covered in sweat for the second time in a day. Knowing that she would be sent for soon, she slid her sweaty undergarments off her smooth, glistening body and dried off the sweat on her naked body, starting by rubbing her breasts dry then moving down her stomach to her beautiful, firm legs. She left the wet undergarments lying on the floor as she quickly put dry ones on her now dried body. She then slid on the dress she had left on the table, now glad she had taken it off, and hurried up onto the ship's deck to get ready for the arduous day ahead of them.
She reached the ship's deck to find the ship cruising into the shore. They anchored off at a small beach, and a few of the boys went to retrieve the group's armor and weapons. When the boys returned with the armor and weapons, Mia went to help Jenna put her armor on. Mia tightened the back laces for Jenna and then got her chance to feel this hair she had dreamed about when it was time to put her hair in a bun for her circlet. Mia took her time putting the hair into a bun, just so she could feel this hair longer. When Jenna was suited up, she helped Mia put on her leather breastplate and tied Mia's hair up in a bun with the same slow deliberation that Mia used.
Am I imagining this, or is Jenna actually feeling my hair like I did to hers? Mia thought.
Felix took out their map and marked out the most direct route for them to take. When he was done with this, each member of the group grabbed their respective weapon. Felix, Issac, Jenna, and Piers all grabbed a different sword, each of which had its own psyenergetic power. Sheba, Ivan, and Mia picked up their sparring staffs that each also had their own psyenergetic power. Garet had a huge psyenergetic battle axe that he strapped to his belt. Felix used the Black Orb to lock the ship so that monsters and thieves could not get into their ship. The group climbed down the ladder on the side of the ship, and then Felix explained how the group would be hiking east then south then east once more, and that the mountain would probably be to the north side of them, but it wouldn't be more than a mile in any direction, so they could search if needed. He also told the group that there were about three hours before mid-day, so this would be a quick hike. Felix rolled up his map and made it easily accessible, and then the group started their hike. Mia did not find it to be a hard hike, as the trails were pretty much flat and there was a breeze to keep them cool. The group battled some monsters, but these monsters seemed easy enough to beat at first, but as they tired, the monsters started to seem harder. But the group's psyenergy always prevailed over any monster that would fight them. As the day grew on, Felix kept the group hiking faster and faster while they became more exhausted. Felix was worried that he would not meet his mid-day goal because this pass in the mountain seemed like it stretched on forever. The pass was growing smaller the further they went too. The pass finally came to an abrupt end, and turned left, towards the east, and the group continued their race against time. By the end of the hike, the group was actually jogging to make it in time, when Magma Rock finally broke over the horizon. The group picked up their pace even more, and finally got to the base of the crimson monolith just before mid-day. The group stopped to rest and ate a light lunch. The smell of sulfur was generally overwhelming near the mountain. And although the group rested in the shade of a forest, it was the hottest Mia had ever been since the Lamakan Desert, the evil desert they had to cross to reach Kalay. Mia thought back to this horrible desert, how they had to run from oasis to oasis, battling monsters and exhaustion alike, and how the desert seemed endless, and did not even have a breeze to move the air. Thinking back to her survival of this desert gave Mia the strength she needed, so she finished her lunch and prepared herself to climb Magma Rock.
I hope you enjoyed the third installment of my story. Again, sorry for the long wait, and hopefully it won't happen again. And as always, PLEASE REVIEW!!!