Chapter 16: Up into the Air
Once he finished racing down the path, Lucas suddenly noticed Sliva was still on the ground from the previous fire attack. Dashing towards him in shock, he knelt down beside him.
Sliva's eyes were a bit weary at first but then he weakly opened them to see Lucas. His mouth went into a weakly but surprised look when he saw Lucas' new appearance.
"Oh my," he croaked. "It seems that you have changed quite a lot my child,"
Lucas felt himself blushing at the sound of that. "Thank you," he answered back, trying to hold in the embarrassment.
"You defiantly are a Forest Gormiti now looking at you," Sliva added, despite the weak tone in his voice.
"Oh actually!" Lucas admitted, raising his bark hand up to stop Sliva from speaking. "That's what I was about to tell you before the Lava Gormiti attacked us because you see…" He placed his hand on his heart to make sure he said his announcement right. "…I am the new Lord of Forest,"
Sliva gasped in amazement at Lucas' announcement. "Lord of Forest? Well…I can't believe they would return at some point but it's not the old one as before,"
"You are right, Sliva," Lucas added in, patting on Sliva's shoulder. "I am still getting used to this form but ultimately me and the others are going to try and restore peace back to Gorm for good." He let his hand fall from Sliva's shoulder softly and carefully. "You're sure you're ok with that?"
With a tired nod, Sliva answered back: "Since you saved my tribe and people, I'm more than happy to gain your my trust Lord of Forest,"
Upon hearing Sliva saying those words, Lucas felt his heart almost burst out for a second. Hearing the old Forest Gormiti giving him his trust felt almost a blessing to him. He wiped some tears which were starting to form away from his eyes and grabbed the Forest Orb with his hands this time.
"Thank you. For everything so far…Sliva," he sobbed before racing back towards the stone bridge to where the others are.
Over towards the dusty terrain of the Earth Nation, Nick and Toby were sitting on the ground with Razzle besides them. Nick was busy cleaning his orb while Toby played with little bits of stones on the ground.
"I wonder when Lucas is going to come back?" Toby groaned in frustration. "I'm getting tired of waiting!"
"Patience is the key to getting what you want Toby," reassured Razzle, propping himself upon to Toby's leg. "I can assure you that Lucas would be fine and he'll be back soon,"
Before Toby could snap back at the lizard, Nick stood up and saw a small figure across the stone bridge his orb made earlier. "Hang on!" he called out, putting his hand above his eyes so he can make clear of the figure. "I think I can see him!"
"Lucas?" Toby jumped up and dashed to where Nick was, accidently knocking Razzle down back onto the ground.
Sure enough, both of the boys were surprised to see an actual human-tree walking across the stone bridge to meet them. It was carrying the Forest Orb in its bark hands.
At first, both Nick and Toby were confused by what they just saw. The human tree didn't look a lot like Lucas at all but then they saw the Forest Orb that was wrapped around in its arms. Still, Toby thought it would be a good idea to ask if it really was Lucas or not. After all, it did look…bigger compared to their small size.
"Oh, hello!" Toby asked politely to the human tree. "Sorry for interrupting you on your journey but we were just wondering if you have seen our friend in the Forest Nation. His name is Lucas,"
Lucas raised an eyebrow at a small Toby. "Toby?" he questioned, confused by what Toby was trying to say. "What are you talking about? I AM Lucas!"
Toby was shocked by that statement. Did the human tree really did say he was actually…Lucas?
Nick was on the same agreement as his brother was. There was no telling that human tree was really Lucas. It did have the Forest Orb in his hand since the last time they saw Lucas, he WAS holding it in his hand. So maybe he could try asking the human tree (Lucas) what happen and then see what happens after that.
However, before Nick could speak, Razzle raced up towards the human tree.
"Ah! Glad to see you back at last Lucas!" he exclaimed.
"Wait-um…" Nick paused at his thoughts for a moment before finally turning to face the human tree face to face.
"So…is it true? Are you really…Lucas?"
Lucas just simply nodded his head.
Toby placed his hand over his mouth to stop himself from gasping. The fact the tree human was really Lucas was impossible or unbelievable. How did Lucas managed to do all of this? Toby's mind was just confused at the moment with all of this information.
Razzle looked at both brothers. "Oh! Sorry! I didn't expect for you two to be shocked by this!" he gasped. "It's just that Lucas is now a Forest Gormiti from the powers of the Forest Orb,"
Nick wriggled his glasses for a second to observe. "So, what you're trying to say Razzle is that by Lucas going over to the Forest Nation to get energy from the orb, that caused him to transform into a Gormiti?" he questioned the lizard.
"Correct Nick," Razzle answered back. "The energy from all your orbs can gain you the ability to transform into the Lords of Nature or Super Gormiti when you time comes,"
"That would explain the voice change as well," addressed Toby. "So how do you feel about it, Lucas?"
"It does feel weird to become a Gormiti," Lucas replied with a smile, looking down at his Gormiti self. "But overall, I feel way more comfortable in this form in Gorm than back on Earth because I…I feel more powerful than I ever do,"
"Glad to hear that positive feedback," grinned Razzle, arms crossed. "Because that will happen the same to all four of your when your orbs are charged with energy,"
Lucas finally noticed that someone from the group is missing when Razzle said 'all four.' "Hey, does anyone know where Jessica went?" he asked.
"Good thing you asked!" observed Razzle. "Jessica has gone up to the Air Nation by a tornado with her Air orb since she volunteered to go next,"
"And hopefully she'll be able to fly all the way down when she comes back!" Toby exclaimed, clapping his hands in delight. "How cool would that be?"
'100% of course' thought Lucas to himself. He started at his Forest Orb and began wonder what more incredible powers he could have.
Up in the skies among the fluffy white clouds, Jessica stood on one floating rock in the air. She wondered why she was standing on the floating rock. After all, the tornado her orb made DID led her to where she was now. She looked across the clear skies where the sun let out bright rays through the clouds which sped towards back to the solid ground. That was at least the beautiful part of it according to Jessica.
She carefully studied the Air orb in her hands which were still creating mini tornados inside. Using her finger, she made little tornados in a swirling motion, absorbed by the amazement of the movement of her finger.
"What are you doing here in our fortress?" boomed a voice so loud it almost made Jessica jumped in shock.
Two eagle-like Gormiti came into Jessica's view. Both of them had huge muscles like the kind of boys she would sometimes read in her magazines with white eagle-like wings on their backs. They each had feet that resembled an eagle or a bird's claw but their arms remain as normal.
One eagle Gormiti eyed Jessica from its view in the sky and began to circle around her. "Seems you have come a long way from here," he started to say. "May I ask why you are here?"
At first, Jessica was too afraid to answer but she wasn't the old Jessica no more. Now, she took a deep breathe and answered the best as she could without getting scared.
"I am here to see if there's anything I can do about this orb." She presented the with the Air Orb in which the eagle Gormiti stopped surrounding her.
"Hmmm," the eagle Gormiti inspected Jessica's Orb with its own pair of eagle eyes. "What interesting power you have brought to us," it spoke with such distinguish taste and tone in his voice. "Do you know what to do with it?"
Jessica shook her head. "I don't know at the moment but I was wondering if you help me to find a suitable place for it," she answered back nervously.
The two Gormiti looked at each for a moment of discussion which did took a while considering that Jessica was clutching onto it for dear life. Then they both turned back towards her.
"There is a special Air Fortress that we go to for special meetings," the dark-eagle Gormiti explained. "Maybe you can place your orb in there and see what happens,"
"The Air Gormiti are right, Lord of Nature Jessica" the hooded figure's voice replied in Jessica's head. "There is a whirlwind in the middle of the Fortress. Place it there and soon you'll be able to activate your abilities."
Jessica nodded her head in agreement. "That'll be fine!" she acknowledged the offer from the Air Gormiti who soon she would lead into battle. "Show me what I have to do,"
Both Air Gormiti gave a Jessica a bow, something she never expected before. "Very well then," the light eagle Gormiti announced. "Follow us and soon you'll get what you want,"
Jessica felt a lump in a throat in nervousness. She just hoped that everything would work out fine in the end if she trusted the Air Gormiti. Soon she found herself standing on the edge of the floating rock she was standing on. Pushing the lump in her throat aside, she decided now is the time to act brave and save Gorm from its many evils from down below.