I sincerely apologise for the supremely long wait for this chapter. I kind of hit a crossroads as to how to go about continuing the story and didn't feel comfortable with the ideas that I had. There's also been a lot of changes in my life recently that forced this story to take a back-seat.
I hope you enjoy this chapter and the direction I've taken and, of course, drop a review or even send me a message if you feel the need to. I love reading all the feedback that I get.
Gaia awoke with a start. Something was terribly wrong. She sat up and tried to sense where the problem was and immediately she could feel Linka's pain. Moments later she materialised in front of Ma-Ti and Gi.
"What has happened?" judging from their reactions, she had scared them both but she didn't apologise due to the circumstances.
"Gaia," Ma-Ti mumbled between sobs, "it's Wheeler, he..." He didn't need to finish, Gaia could not sense Wheeler's presence and knew what had happened.
Gaia turned to them both and looked at them sternly, "take Linka to her room and make sure she's comfortable. We all know how she feels and we need to keep her as comfortable as she possibly can be right now. Do not let her leave, under any circumstances."
They both nodded gently in return before Ma-Ti turned to her, "but Gaia.."
"Don't argue with me Ma-Ti," Gaia snapped back at him, "just do what I say and do not let her out of your sight. We've lost one planeteer tonight, I do not want to lose a second." She needed them to follow her instructions and she lost her cool temporarily due to the urgency of her need to find Wheeler. She felt that she couldn't just leave them as upset as they were, after all they'd lost a friend too and Ma-Ti was still so young and loved Wheeler so much.
"Listen, Ma-Ti," Gaia calmed herself down, "and you too Gi." Both of them looked up at her.
"We won't let anything happen to Linka," Gi promised. Ma-Ti wiped his eyes with his sleeve while nodding in agreement with her.
"I know you won't, and I'm sorry for yelling at you," Gaia apologised, "but if I have any chance of saving Wheeler then I need to find him right now. Do you understand?"
They both nodded up at her and she smiled back. "I will return, with either the good or bad news as soon as I possibly can." And with that she disappeared before their eyes as she so often did.
Ma-Ti punched the ground and winced in pain just as he did. "Damn it! This is all my fault!"
Gi hugged him as tightly as she could, "never say that again. I may not have the power of heart, but I know a good heart when I see one and you mustn't let yourself think those things, ok? You are not to blame."
He looked to his side into her eyes and nodded softly which made Gi release her embrace. They stood and both took an arm each of Linka's and lifted her body up between them. With her body gone completely limp, she seemed to weigh more than it looked like but they managed to share the lifting between them easily enough. They draped an arm around each of their shoulders and slowly walked her back to her room to make her as comfortable as they could. They knew it'd be a long night tonight and although they'd had the heartbreak of losing a dear friend, they had another friend who needed their help more than anything right now and they had to be there for her.
As they approached her door, Gi leaned forward and pushed the door open with her shoulder. She missed on the first attempt, but she flicked the light on and began hauling her friend into the room with Ma-Ti. They gently placed her body at the end of the bed and walked around and manoeuvred her into a proper position on the bed. Ma-Ti turned away and went to close the door while Gi started taking some of Linka's clothes off, just her shirt and bottoms, and pulled the sheets back before pulling her legs under them and draping them back over her. Ma-Ti turned back and gave a Gi a stern look. Linka wouldn't be able to cope on her own without Wheeler at the moment and their responsibility was to her above all else.
"I don't think I'll be able to sleep, Gi," Ma-Ti frowned, "why don't you try and get some rest?"
"Ma-Ti..." Gi walked over to him and hugged him tenderly, "I'm not just here for Linka, or for Wheeler or Kwame for that matter. We're all responsible for each other and I'm here for you too."
"I'm so scared.." Ma-Ti nestled his face into the pit of her collar.
"Everything is going to be fine," Gi reassured him, even though she wasn't entirely convinced by her own words, and guided him towards the seat nearby. Ma-Ti looked back at her and smiled in return. She gently tapped his knees and went back over to the bed opposite Linka and sat up against the headboard. She put a hand on her friend's head and began stroking her hair. Gi said a silent prayer to herself wishing that Gaia could indeed save Wheeler before her head dropped down and she too embraced sleep.
Gaia could hear Gi's prayer in the back of her mind and silently she prayed the same thing. She'd looked down at the lake before her, the banks were at least 2 metres higher than they normally were. She cursed in general at the effect that global warming had had on the world and now the effect that it even had on her precious Hope Island. She climbed up the embankment and followed the water rushing downstream. She could not detect Wheeler's presence, but she could detect the presence of his ring if she were close enough, she just hoped that his ring still had enough fire within in to prolong his life until she arrived.
The planeteers hadn't been told that the use of their rings would grant them a certain level of invulnerability. The rings would store their element inside itself and as long as that element lingered inside the ring, the bearer could not die from natural causes. Of course, if Wheeler had died from unnatural causes, not even his ring could save him. Unfortunately, the effects were short-term and Gaia herself wasn't even sure as to how long it would last, it could be days or hours or the power could already have depleted but she couldn't rest until she knew Wheeler's fate for sure.
For what seemed like hours, she trudged through the tall grass and mud, trying to sense for her fire ring. She looked ahead and saw the river take a sharp turn and hoped that Wheeler had ended up at the river bed there. She motioned over towards the bend and as she approached she could feel the presence of the fire ring, but it was not in the direction of the river.
She felt a rush of renewed hope for Wheeler and began following her instincts towards where the ring was resonating from. Perhaps he had survived and stumbled through the forest looking for safety! As the strength increased, she hastened to find him sooner but in doing so she didn't notice the smell in the air around her. By the time she realised what she had gotten herself into, she was trapped under a large and heavy netting which knocked her on her back. She tried to struggle out but the ropes were too powerful and she couldn't teleport herself away as the rope was laced with vile water, preventing her using any abilities that she had. She could hear the evil laugh of Verminous Skumm echoing through the trees and saw several of his lackeys appearing from the darkness. He reached down to the ground and picked up the fire ring and put it deep in his pocket before making eye contact with Gaia.
"Dear, dear, what have we here?" he cackled as he taunted her, "the spirit of the Earth off looking for some lost planeteer of hers? Perhaps you should have been taking better care of him in the first place."
"What have you done with Wheeler?" Gaia demanded. She looked around and couldn't see him anywhere. Given the fact that Skumm mentioned him, he must know where he is.
Verminous laughed out loud at her, "oh, don't you worry yourself too much. He put up more of a fight that you did, that's for sure, and he'd lost a significant amount of blood. What do you let these planeteers get up to on this island? Rest assured, he is not harmed any more than whatever had been done to him before we found him."
Gaia sighed in relief, even though the pollution on the ropes covering her caused her to feel sick. Wheeler was alive! She tried not to get too excited though as his condition was still very unknown to her as was the future for her given her now being Skumm's hostage. "How come I can't sense his existence then? Where is he?"
He turned around and motioned for his henchmen to gather her up and follow him, "you'll find out soon enough." He giggled to himself and Gaia could feel the scrawny hands of his followers lifting her up and in the footsteps of their leader. She wished that she could summon the other planeteers to her aid but her powers were blocked by whatever bile was on the netting that now was causing her skin to rash. She was allergic to pollution and just like any eczema, her skin was having a severe reaction. She had no choice but to obey Verminous and follow whatever plan he had concocted. She had never felt so helpless.