Chapter 33: a Strange Stone.
Authors note: this is the chapter where Sophia's character comes into play.
Tensions were high but Kiyo and the gang had to go to the woods that Zatch stayed at for a few months at Zatch's request.
Kiyo and Zatch reached a top of a hill and seen a forest. "Are you sure were at the right place" Kiyo asked Zatch, Dufort and Zeno were lagging behind the two.
"This is it, I left this strange stone in these woods" Zatch explained then started walking toward a town.
When Zeno seen where he was and the town Zatch and Kiyo was heading to he ran as fast as he could to cut them off. "Zatch, Kiyo wait" Zeno ran in front of the two.
"What do you want Zeno" Zatch asked a little irritated
"We should just go around that town" Zeno suggested, looking nervous as hell
Kiyo noticed that Zeno was getting fetidly but didn't say anything
Zatch walked past Zeno "that will take longer" Zatch responded
Kiyo followed Zatch and walked past Zeno who cut Zatch's path off again.
"Listen Zatch I'm sorry so can we call this a truce?" Zeno pleaded still blocking Zatch's path from the town.
It was getting hard for Zatch to stay mad at Zeno since it's been two days already.
Zatch looked down at the ground and closed his eyes; he looked back up and stared at Zeno. "Fine Zeno I forgive you" Zatch stated then grabbed and shakes Zeno's hand; Zatch then kept on going the same way toward the town.
Zeno slapped his head in frustration then kept walking with Zatch "How bout we just teleport their?" Zeno asked, the twins were more than halfway to the town.
Zatch was just daydreaming while walking "hey Zeno do you think they got yellowtail?" Zatch asked then started running the way their
"Damn" Zeno mumbled then ran after Zatch
When the twins got to the city everyone shut their doors and locked their windows in the mere sight of the twins.
Zatch's head snapped toward Zeno "Zeno what did you do?" Zatch asked Zeno, Kiyo and Dufort then caught up to the twins.
"I didn't do anything" Zeno yelled then started to walk through the town
People were looking through windows and giving the twins dirty looks.
"Dufort, is this the town you stayed at before coming to Japan?" Kiyo asked while looking at the scared civilians
"Yes" Dufort responded plainly
"Zeno what did you do" Zatch asked trailing Zeno
Zeno turned around "I was a little hyper when I and Dufort got here" Zeno said now forming a blush
"Zeno I think you should stay behind and apologize to these people" Zatch stated in a firm voice.
"You got to be kidding me!" Zeno responded throwing out his arms. "So I threw some heavy objects around town when I got mad big deal" Zeno exclaimed
"You didn't hurt anyone did you?" Zatch asked worried
"No I didn't, I'm not going to apologize to a bunch of humans either" Zeno responded
"It's not entirely his fault, a car ran over his foot" Dufort explained
Flash back
Zeno was crossing a the road when a Dodge Charger passed a red light and nearly hit Zeno directly, Zeno's foot was ran over
"Bastard" Zeno cried out holding his foot, people were running over to the boy
"That guy didn't even stop" a guy said kneeling over to Zeno to see if he was ok.
Zeno looked at the car speeding away "Son of a" Zeno hissed then teleported with everyone watching him.
"Where, what just happened" people were yelling out
Zeno teleported in front of the speeding car, Zeno then grabbed onto the front of the car and held his ground slowing the car to a standstill
"What the heck?" the driver said then looked at the ground to see a silver haired boy in front of the car.
"You broke my pinky toe" Zeno shouted then crawled under the car, moments later Zeno lifted the car in the air.
The driver jumped out of the car before Zeno threw it a few streets down.
This happened right where Dufort was working at, and of course Dufort witnessed the entire thing.
"My car" the driver cried out.
"What about my foot you" Zeno was closing in on the speeder
Dufort then picked Zeno up by the back of his cloak "you're drawing to much attention" Dufort said plainly then started to carry Zeno by his mantle back to the hotel leaving his job.
"He ran over foot" Zeno yelled in anger
Everybody in the town was staring at Dufort and Zeno; they were also wondering how a small boy could throw a car at an insane distance.
This is how everyone became to fear Dufort and Zeno and is one of the reasons they left this town called Flickney (it's a real town in England, if you want to know what it looks like go to Google.)
End of flash back
"That's the story" Dufort told Kiyo and Zatch the story.
"Can we go to the woods now" Zeno asked, he was getting mad at the people staring at him from the windows.
Zatch gave out a sigh "fine follow me" Zatch and the gang walked out of the city into the woods which contained a bunch of snakes and other animals.
The gang entered the woods where Zatch left a strange stone.
"Oh yeah Zatch what does this thing look like?" Zeno asked his brother who was at his side.
"Well I found it in the woods, it has a figure carved into it and Mamodo symbols at the bottom" Zatch explained.
"What? How is that possible?" Zeno asked then thought to himself
"Strange thing is that I couldn't read the mamodo writing either" Zatch stated.
"Zatch why don't you explained to Zeno what the figure looked like" Kiyo told Zatch, Zatch had already told Kiyo about the stone.
"Well it had long hair bangs covering the eyes and messy hair, and it had strange mamodo lines, they were crosses" Zatch explained the figurine.
Zeno kept walking remaining silent and thinking
"This is it, we're close guys" Zatch yelled then ran ahead of everyone.
"Don't run off Zatch" Kiyo yelled
Zatch dashed through some bushes to his old camping spot and saw a man dressed in a fairy costume holding Zatch's stone tablet.
"Thieve" Zatch yelled then started running at the weird man who started running away from Zatch.
Zatch and the thieve were swinging across trees and Kiyo and the gang just watched them swing by.
"I am no thieve, it is very rude to call me so" the fairy man said while jumping over a river by a vine, Zatch followed using his cloak to fly and give chase.
"That stone is mine, give it back" Zatch yelled then tackled the weird fairy to the ground, Zatch then wrestled the stone tablet away from the creepy old man.
Kiyo and the gang caught up to the man in a fairy costume.
"What the heck?" was all Zeno could say at the mere image of the crazy old coot.
Zatch walked back to the gang with the stone tablet in his hands "got it" Zatch said in victory then handed it to Kiyo.
"Why did that boy steal my artifact" the weird man shouted getting up off the ground.
"That was my stone, I left it here because… because I got lost in these woods" Zatch shamefully admitted looking at the ground.
"Who are you anyhow?" Kiyo asked looking at the strange man
"My name is Professor D'Artagnan" the man yelled
"Whatever it doesn't matter lets go" Zeno stated with a degust looking at the crazy person.
"There is something about these woods that causes people to get lost very easily if they don't know the path to take" the crazy Professor stated
"Well I know the way now, and I know that these woods are special, I found that out the hard way" Zatch explained then turned around to make his way of woods.
"Wait you must tell no one I was here" the hairy man shouted
"I'm still trying forget I've ever seen you now shut up" Zeno ordered then followed his brother along with the others.
"Oh yeah Zeno since I'm not mad at you anymore, while we were fighting I gained a new spell" Zatch said in a happy tone and a smile.
"What spell is that?" Zeno asked.
"Jiou Renzu Zakeruga, my favorite spell" Zatch explained
"Good for you… why are we walking, let's just teleport" Zeno offered
The group agreed then everyone teleported back to Kiyo's father's house, Kiyo's father was at school.
"Let me see that stone" Zeno ordered
"We should bring this to a lab first Zeno" Kiyo responded
"It's from the mamodo world so let me take a look at it" Zeno ordered once again.
Kiyo placed it on the living room table, where everyone was trying to figure out what it was.
"Well Dufort what is it?" Kiyo asked Dufort who had his answer talker activated
"It's a mamodo, his name is Cross" Dufort responded with a plain look
Everyone was shocked including Zeno
"Zatch, Zeno you two know anything about this?" Kiyo asked the twins who were in deep thought.
"Zatch do you think it could be Goren of the stone" Zeno asked his brother to make sure.
"I don't see who else could've done it, Goren died of imprisonment, he had no children" Zatch explained he then looked at the stone.
"Goren… who's that" Kiyo asked
"He's the one who placed this mamodo in stone" Zatch responded.
"I don't see what else we can do, we have to destroy this stone" Zeno said coldly then stuck out his arm
Dufort pulled out the silver book and it began to shine.
Kiyo jumped in the way of Zeno "there has to be another way" Kiyo shouted
"He's right Zeno don't be so hasty" Zatch responded and held his brother's hand down.
"This mamodo has been incased in stone for a 1000 years Zatch, let me put him out of his misery" Zeno exclaimed
"So you would call this an act of kindness" Kiyo retorted
"Neither I or Zatch has a spell that can break this curse" Zeno explained
"It's one of the reasons why father locked Goren away for the rest of his life, for Goren will pay for what he had done" Zatch stated looking at the tablet.
"At least let my father take a look at it, if we can't find someone who can break this curse then I will let you destroy this tablet along with the Mamodo inside" Kiyo said in a more calm manner.
"Have it your way" Zeno agreed then walked upstairs to get some shut eye.