Night n Gale II Chapter 4

The Crystal of Lore Part I

Izumi sat at the bow of the ship looking at the ocean as the waves slammed into the ship’s hull. She sighed heavily, “How did I get here?” she questioned to herself.

Hikari came up from behind her, “Its okay if you can’t remember,” she said softly putting a hand on her shoulder.

“I owe you all so much for the past couple of days, if I could only remember what happened to me and why I can’t remember anything,” she said to her with concern.

“Is it something that is bad?” Hikari questioned.

“I don’t know,” she replied shaking her head, “I don’t even know who my family is.”

“That’s okay you’ve got us,” Hikari said smiling at her.

“Thanks, Hikari,” she smiled back.

Below the deck Sora and Jyou were waiting by Koushiro’s cabin door, “You know Koushiro we are going to leave if you don’t let us in and show us what ever it is you have to show us,” Jyou replied tapping his fingers against the door’s frame.

“One second,” Koushiro hollered through his cabin door, “Okay come in,” he said finally.

Jyou opened the door to find a whole bunch of papers, drawings and scrap pieces of wood lying on the ground and on top of the table.

“What exactly were you going to show us?” Sora asked looking around in the mess for some kind of gadget he’d been working on.

“I only have the prototype but here it is,” Koushiro said pulling out a small model it had a set of wings perched on top of a saddle like holding mechanism.

“How exactly does it work?” Jyou asked curious.

“Well, there will be a person strapped to these wings,” he picks up the wings to show  them, “Then they will sit on this saddle, the saddle will be pulled back all the way down like so,” and demonstrates it on the small prototype then there was a click.

“After the clicking sound is made that means that the saddle is in a locked position. With a hit of a hammer or what ever; it should release the locking mechanism and send the person into the air,” He said excitedly then he demonstrated it the wings after it went sailing off the saddle plummeted to the ground.

“Well that didn’t work,” Jyou stated wearily.

“Jyou there is supposed to be a person on there, so once he is in the air he would release the wings with these strings,” he quickly demonstrated how the wings would open up. “Like that,” Koushiro said.

“Oh, so when are we going to be using this invention?” Sora questioned curious to see the full size version.

Koushiro paused for a moment to think, “Well when ever I build it and when there is a fit opportunity to use it,” he said.

“IZUMI!” they heard Hikari shout out in panic. The three ran up out onto the deck toward where Hikari was holding Izumi.

“What happened?” Taichi asked nervously as he saw her lying in Hikari’s arms unconscious.

“I’m not sure,” Hikari said fanning Izumi’s face. Hikari tensed up feeling a magical presence.

“Hikari what’s wrong?” Sora asked noticing that she had tensed up.

“There is a magical presence,” she said, “Strong magical presence.”

Izumi’s body began to glow  then suddenly she sat up right, “King Ismal and Queen Vasha of the kingdom of  Vibrant requests your presents to their kingdom,” she said though a different voice other then her own.

“Why?” Taichi asked.

“We wish to ask a favor of your services, don’t worry no harm will come to your friend,” she said then as quickly as it came it left and Izumi awoke.

“Vibrant is far away from here, maybe four weeks I believe,” Jyou said quickly.

“This is crazy,” Taichi said a little irritated.

Izumi got up, “What happened?” she questioned.

“Someone took over your body briefly to give a message to us,” Hikari said.

Taichi and Jyou walked to toward the tiller, “Koushiro map a course for Vibrant,” Taichi said sounding a little angry.

“Aye, Taichi,” Koushiro went down into his quarters to refer to the maps.

“For someone to go all that trouble to contact us it must be something important,” Jyou said frowning his brow and thinking that there may be another motive for it.

“That or they are planning to send us on a treasure hunt,” Taichi replied. ~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

“I was a messenger,” Izumi said she shook her head, “I felt nothing that it was coming and you say that I know elemental magic,” she said to Hikari sounding a little frustrated.

Hikari sighed, “For someone who doesn’t realize that you have the ability it won’t come suddenly it will take some time until you regain your abilities to reconzie how to sense magical auras.” 

Izumi remained quite, Sora watched her then looked at Hikari, “Cheer up it looks like we have some kind of adventure coming up,” Sora said smiling.

“Where?” Izumi questioned.

“A land called Vibrant, just a couple of weeks away,” Sora replied she looked over where Taichi and Jyou were and they seemed to be discussing something.

“Vibrant,” Izumi repeated, “Sounds familiar a bit,” she said. ~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

“Okay, Taichi,” Koushiro said as he climbed up the stairs from the galley and approached Taichi and Jyou, “Here is the course, going to be oh about a good two weeks,” he said.

Taichi took the plans from him and looked at them, “Okay, good job,” he then gave them back to Koushiro.

The girls walked up to where Taichi and Jyou were, “Do we have a direction?” Sora questioned.

“Yes, two weeks away,” he said.

Izumi fainted again, then as before her body glowed she rose in the air then opening her eyes which were glowing green same as her body, “Taichi, as a quicker passage I will transport your ship right to our port that way you have less distance to travel and we can hold a meeting shortly after. I advise that you hold on tight so none of your crew members gets thrown overboard. Any who do get thrown overboard will be lost in time,” she said then as the last time the entity that taking over her body had left.

Hikari grabbed her and then grabbed onto a crate that was next to her, Sora and the others did the same each grabbing onto a stationary item. Soon the winds came, the night n gale was rocked violently all the while they felt the ship moving very quickly through the water. After only fifteen minutes everything had quieted and they notice they were no longer in the middle of the ocean but they were docked at a port.

“Talk about witch craft,” Jyou said standing up looking around the port a little shocked.

“Nothing but the best,” Hikari said quietly with worry.

Izumi had awoken in the midst of the travel and was very confused, “This must be strong magic,” she said.

Sora had nothing to say because she was shocked as was Koushiro seeing he couldn’t explain this with any of his own scientific theories but he tried, “Well you know about how…” Koushiro was cut off before even finishing.

“Koushiro!” they cried.

“Okay sorry,” he said quickly.

Soon the ship was surrounded by guards dressed in gold colored fabric. Then they were shortly followed a man and women who were also dressed in gold she wore a long dress with red sequence of flower patterns and he wore a gold shirt with the pants being red and a sequence in form of a flame. In his hand he held a long saber in his left hand, on the very top of the saber was a red jewel surrounded by small and medium sized spikes. The Queen wore a red jewel that matched the saber on her index finger.

“Welcome to Vibrant,” the king replied holding both arms out. ~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

“So, let me get this straight,” Taichi began as he took a bite of bread, he took time to chew it first before speaking again, “You want us to go to the Isles of Lore to retrieve what is called the Crystal of Lore?” he questioned.

“The Crystal can be located on all four islands. It has been said that guardians of the Isles got angry for all the greedy humans that came to them only to attempt to seize it. They decided to break it into four pieces. A different piece on each island with a different guardian for each of them. Wind, Water, Earth and Fire,” The King said smiling as he watched the crew.
 
“And I supposed that to get each of the pieces there has to be a riddle or some kind of magical interference,” Hikari said eyeing the king wearily.

The queen smiled at her, “Yes, there are numerous traps set so in order to get close to it you must pass them,” she said.

“And if we don’t succeed?” Sora questioned.

“You die,” the king and queen said both at the same time.

Taichi and his crew looked a round at one another, “That’s great,” Jyou said.

“Well if it makes you feel better we picked your crew because we heard greatest praises from you all over the world,” the queen said trying to pick up their hopes.

“With out do respect your majesty, I don’t want to put me or my crew at risk,” Taichi explained.

“We thought you might say that. And in the occasion you were to say that, I offer you a hefty prize enough to give you all enough money to retire,” the king replied with a satisfied smile.

Taichi stood up, “Can I have a moment to speak with me crew alone?” he asked.

“Of course,” The king and the queen got up along with their guards and they walked out of the small room closing the door behind them.

“Taichi this is suicide,” Jyou said immediately speaking up on his concerns.

“They money is tempting,” Taichi said.

Sora frowned, “Taichi do you really want to stop sailing?” she asked.

He smiled, “Never,” he then looked at his sister.

“We have magic on our side,” she said looking over to Izumi with a smile.

Koushiro frowned, “Even with that we still risk some chance that something will happen.”

“I say we do it,” Taichi replied.

“Your crazy, did you ever stop to think that we might actually die on this adventure?” Jyou asked incredulously.

“Yeah, but since when did that stop us from going?” Taichi asked.

They all remained silent and slowly they agreed, “I’m up to it if you’re up to it,” Sora said standing. Hikari and Izumi followed by Koushiro and then Jyou was the last to stand up.

“Then it’s settled lets go get that crystal,” Taichi said with a smile.

To Be Continued… PREVIOUS | HOME | NEXT