Chapter Summary: Lloyd somehow uses a complex teleportation spell to drop him and his friends near the dig site...

Chapter Eight:

The friends all flew backwards when the glowing green orb suddenly exploded, taking them all by surprise. Groaning, Lloyd rolled over so that he wasn't laying flat on his stomach squinting up through the tree leaves up at the sun. Wait a minute... "I don't think we're at my uncle's monastery anymore."

A groan escaped Kai as he pushed himself up off of the ground, spitting a mouthful of dirt out of his mouth. "Ugh... then where are we?"

"Oh no! We're lost aren't we?! We're never gonna get home now!" Jay scrambled to his feet, scanning the area they were in, unaware of how Lloyd's breathing was slowly becoming more and more ragged as he spoke.

Nya lunged to her feet, hurriedly slapping her crush in the shoulder. "Jay! You're freaking Lloyd out!"

"Sorry."

Cole moved away from the others, pressing a hand against a trunk, his brows furrowing in thought. "Maybe I can find our way back to civilization or something. I did go to that summer camp last year, remember?"

"Did you not came home early because your mother's health failed her and the doctor's weren't sure she was going to make it?" Zane spoke up from where he lay on the ground, his voice muffled from his face being pressed against the ground.

"Does anyone even know what happened back at the monastery anyways?" Kai settled down into a sitting position, his back pressed against a thick tree trunk.

Murmurs of no's rippled through the group as they all shifted nervously. Lloyd took a few deep breathes, trying to calm himself down some, when he noticed that the same green energy that had blasted them at the monastery was flickering around his fingers. "Uh... I think... I used some kind of teleportation spell..."

"But Sensei hasn't taught us any teleportation spells yet?" Nya pointed out, confusion clouding her voice.

Before Lloyd could explain anything about how he doesn't know how he did it, he just did, Cole suddenly spoke up. "There's some kind of camp up ahead. Let's get going. Maybe someone there can help us get back to civilization."

"And how exactly do you plan on explaining on why there are six, unsupervised, teens wandering around in the middle of the woods?" Kai sarcastically asked him.

Zane frowned, worry creasing his brow. "Indeed. Somehow I highly doubt that if you walk up to them and announce that we were accidently transported to here by a teleportation spell they will believe us."

"Uh... I'll think of something once we get there. Come on!" With that Cole started walking off.

Of course that was when Jay realized something off about this whole thing. "Um... Cole? How do you even know that there is a camp nearby?"

Cole opened and closed his mouth multiple times, confusion flooding his features. Kai groaned as he pressed his hands against his face. "Magic... why us...just why?! When we were training it didn't work at all, but now that we quit, it apparently has decided to work and we don't know how to control it!"

Nya sighed as she turned to stare blankly at her brother. "Kai... chill. We can figure this out. Eventually. First things first though. We need to get back to civilization."

Silence fell amongst the friends as they turned in the direction that Cole was sensing the camp at, uncertain on how long of a hike they might actually have.

Lloyd rubbed his arms, shivering slightly as they moved past yet another tree that looked exactly like the last hundred or so trees that they've passed. The sun was starting to go down, and with it, the warmth of the day. "Please tell me we don't have that long to find the camp... I'm getting tired."

"Honestly? I think Cole's magic trick stopped working hours ago and we've been walking in circles this entire time." Kai, ever the pessimistic grounded out as he tripped over yet another root.

"Heard that." Cole snapped, his own patience winding down to nonexistence.

Lloyd sighed as he slumped down to the ground. "Can we at least take a break? I'm not joking about being tired guys." Lloyd allowed his hand to drop down to touch a random stick that was lying on the ground next to the tree trunk. "Unless one of you thinks that you can figure out how to do some spell to, I don't know, increase one's stamina."

"Spell?"

"Yeah... spell. Since we have magic that we can't even co... we're not alone, are we?" Lloyd broke off as he realized with a jolt that none of his friends had said anything.

"Circle up! Back to back!" Cole barked out, tension quickly settling in the air.

Lloyd and his friends quickly sprang into action, doing exactly as Cole ordered, backs pressing firmly against each other. The stick that Lloyd had been resting his hand on rose suddenly, the twigs twitching on it as they curled around the trunk... only it wasn't a stick. It was the bone of an arm, and those twigs were fingers. A skeleton stepped out from behind the tree, a glow coming from inside of its sockets. "Ooh! Samukai was right when he ordered us to stay behind to make sure no goody-goodies try to get to the Temple of a Thousand Dragons!"

"Please tell me that he didn't just say us!?" Lloyd pleaded with his friends, panic surging through him as he scanned the quickly darkening area.

"Oh... but he did!" Another skeleton stepped out from behind another tree, a jagged looking blade in his hands. "And since you've already let slip that none of you can actually control your magic... that means that I can put away this dumb sword and just use our Dark magic to destroy you."

"Sword!?" Most of the friends cried out... only they didn't sound too alarmed about that revelation... more excited. In fact, Kai smirked to himself as he scanned the area for something.

"Kai... don't have time. Try just picturing one in your hands and go for it." Lloyd tensely informed his friend as he noticed that they were starting to close in on them, skeletal hands glowing with dark energy.

With that announcement, Kai lunged forward, lifting his empty hand up as he swung it in a large arc... a gold sword with a dragon head carved into the hilt suddenly appeared in his hands. Moving quickly, Kai battled the startled skeletons, quickly overpowering them due to the fact that, unlike the friends, they didn't realize that he was a three year champion at fencing. Once he figured that they weren't going to be bothering them for a while, something about their heads coming off and they were kicking them away from them in their attempts to get their heads back, Kai started to run in the direction that Cole had been pointing them in. "Run!"

Sprinting the friends continued on the mad sprint towards the camp. "This all better be worth it!" Jay gasped as he sprinted ahead of the others. "I don't want to die before finding civilization!"

"I think we might have to wait a bit to find our way back." Zane stopped suddenly, staring at something that only he could see now that the sun was gone from the sky.

"Why's that?" Lloyd bent over, gasping for air.

"Because... that camp Cole was leading us to was your mother's last known location."

A/N: Done! Sorry it took so long. Chapter... wouldn't...cooperate! Finally got it all done now though, so thank you for your patience.

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*crickets somehow chirp The Weekend Whip by the F.O.L.D.* Okay guys... I do not bite! Please please review!

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SkyTalon