“Hmmm… I sure hope so…” Clover said, sounding sceptical toward Lex’s thoughts. “I wouldn’t be surprised if this spirit inside you is even angrier with humanity than his brothers… But I guess we can’t be sure until you get the other half.”
Lex gasped as he’d just remembered the mission he was on.
“Let’s get back to the others now,” Clover said, gently grabbing Lex’s arm.
“I’m fine. I’ll stay here ‘til morning,” Lex said.
“You’re coming with me right now, Lex,” Clover said, sounding much like his mother. Lex neither moved nor replied. “Brother didn’t mean what he said… He’s just jealous you’re the one grandfather said would save the world.” He finally looked at Clover. “Come. Tomorrow should be a tiring day.” He stood from the stone, and they went back to where Mike and Kyle were. On seeing them returning, Kyle shut his eyes quickly, pretending to be asleep.
Chapter 12: Hidden Passage
Morning came before Lex could dream again. Mike was the first one up. He had gotten the most sleep. He tried futilely to wake Lex and Clover, but tiredness tied them down. Kyle rose, a grim face on him. He immediately put his sword across his back. “Stay here with them. I’ll get us breakfast.” Mike nodded.
As Kyle went off, Lex woke. “Mike,” he greeted.
“Lex.”
“Where’s Kyle?”
“Gone a hunting.”
Lex yawned and stretched.
“So… What happened? The whole meditation thing?”
“Maximo was showing me something.”
“Maximo? That’s its name? It told you its name?” Mike asked, sounding quite intrigued.
“Just listen. I saw Trium. He came down to earth, but he was divided. Their plan was to get their brother back and destroy us all.”
“Wow… You really think you can take those spirit beings?! In dem legends, those bastards are the real shit!” Mike almost laughed. “The kinda magic it took to seal away the weakest of the pack…”
“Well, I have to try… We, that is!”
“Morning, guys,” Clover muttered sleepily, just waking, looking around. “Where’s my brother?”
“Here I am!” he announced, getting their attention. They looked around at the smirking boy holding up a bloody rabbit on his sword proudly.
“Nice!” Mike gave out, sounding quite impressed with Kyle’s catch. Clover screamed, jumping up, staring at the dead animal with her shaking fists folded under her chin. The three boys laughed. Clover slapped Lex harder than he thought possible.
“What is that thing?!” she blasted, pointing at the bloody corpse.
“Breakfast!” Kyle answered.
“I am not eating that!” the girl rebelled.
“Well, more for the rest of us!” Kyle said, and threw the thing on the ground. Clover jumped back as it hit the ground. “Going for wood and water,” Kyle told them. Clover was still staring down at the carcass.
“Come on, princess! You think that juicy meat you pay so much for at the markets grows on trees?”
“He’s right, Clover,” Lex joined, “they were all dead, bloody animals like this unlucky fellow here.” Clover’s expression showed that it was the first she had actually considered that fact.
“From now on, I am vegetarian!” Clover declared.
“I give you two days!” Mike challenged, sounding sure of himself, “If you pull through, I’ll certainly eat my head!”
In just over an hour, breakfast was readied by Kyle. Clover found herself digging into the juicy flesh of the roasted rabbit. Mike laughed and shook his head as he watched her eat. Kyle and Lex weren’t as free spirited though. They hadn’t spoken to each other since the morning had broken, and they avoided the awkward eye-contact that happened every now and again. They ate through the tension, and the walking soon resumed.
For an hour, they quietly walked amongst tall, wet trees, until a loud crack got Kyle, Clover and Mike spinning around.
“Lex?!” Clover called, already in panic. Mike pointed to a hole in the ground.
“I’m alright!” Lex’s voice tunnelled up; he sounded quite some distance down. “Oh my God!” Lex sounded like a huge cobra had wrapped itself around his neck.
“Some kinda trap,” Mike deduced as they surrounded the hole, “must’ve been covered by leaves.” They peered down the hole at Lex, who was just getting up, looking around. He looked up at them.
“You alright?!” Clover asked, still worried.
“I’m fine! You’ve got to get down here!” the boy shouted up, sounding excited.
“There’s a ladder!” Kyle discovered, and jumped down on the old, rusty, shaky iron. He quickly reached down to where Lex was.
“Go on, princess!” Mike nudged, and in a moment, they were all standing together. They looked about in wonder and awe, more than just a little curious. Behind them was a dead end, hard rock, but before them was a narrow passage, maybe a meter wide, that seemed to lead on for at least a fifth of a mile. Lining the walls of the passage, which seemed to be made of hard soil were countless strange-looking flowers. Each of the plants had a little yellow bulb within its petals, giving off a faint light. Clover’s face brightened with fascination. She touched one of the bulbs timidly, and drew back her hand abruptly. It was hot.
“What is this place?” Lex marvelled. The glowing flowers almost covered the roof and walls of the passage before them.
“Hmmmm…” Mike inspected the place silently with his hand at his chin, not looking half as stupefied as the rest of them. He was obviously linking the place to some old story he had heard before by the look on his face. “We might as well check the place out,” he suggested, and walked past them along the passage. His companions walked behind him.
“Got a story in the bag for this one, Mike?” Kyle finally asked.
“Well…” he looked at the strange flowers attentively as he moved forward, “Legend has it that there was a powerful race that descended from Kizer through the lineage of his son who had the power of green things. They were known as the Vinebenders.”
“Vinebenders?! Seriously?!” an excited Lex asked.
“That’s right… The more common versions of the legend, though, leave Kizer and his son out of the picture, and tells that Mother Nature appeared to four great men centuries ago, making them the guardians of the four primary elements.”
“Earth, air, water and fire!” Lex put in like an eager student.
“Right,” Mike continued, “but augmentations of that same legend tell of the same princess of nature appearing to a fifth great man long after the other four had died. She granted this man a power even dearer to her heart, the power of vinebending, and promised that this power would run through his lineage.”
“I think grandfather used to tell me that story long ago,” Kyle came in, “this man was leader of the great Vine Village of legends.”
“Correct,” Mike continued, “it was by virtue of his power that he became the village’s leader. The place was known by a few names… Village of Leaves… City of Vines… As a matter of fact, according to scholars, this village was located somewhere in South Libson”
“… Last time I checked… This is South Libson!” Kyle gushed with wide eyes and even wider suspicion.
“So this place could have been the Vine Village?!” Clover asked in excitement.
“These flowers remind me of the ‘glowing buds’ I read existed in that village,” Mike said, still not sounding as excited as they’d expected he would, “but I doubt anything else of the village exists… The Magmalian Empire launched a massive attack on this legendary people. Everything was burnt to the ground.”
“Those bastards! Causing trouble from so long ago!” Kyle flared up.
“The leader of the village and his wife too were slaughtered… But some versions of the tale say that the leader had two children, a boy and a girl, who, according to the princess, would have his power,” Mike said.
“So they escaped?”
Clover asked, sounding nervous to hear the answer.
“Magmalian history says they were killed with their parents… But their bodies were never found. Some say they were burnt to ashes. The Magmalian king at the time was a vicious and fearsome Firemaker.”
“Firemaker?” Kyle asked, sounding quite disbelieving.
“So they say… I don’t write the legends.”
They walked for minutes more in wonder through the hot, narrow passage, which would have been pitch black hadn’t it been for the strange glowing flowers. Mike held out his left hand to his side to signal them to stop. They stopped and listened silently. They glanced at each other with racing hearts as the sound of running and panting became clearer and louder. Soon enough, the runner was in sight. A boy, who was in some kind of panic or frenzy, stopped abruptly before them. He stared at them in the way the ordinary man would stare at a ghost of the man he had murdered decades before.
Clover stared at the boy in bewilderment. Even to Lex, Kyle and Mike, this boy was oddly beautiful. The bright green of his irises blended well with the flawless, blinding white that surrounded it. His complexion was just between Lex’s and Mike’s. His hair was very long and full of rich volume, and was very white, a white that seemed glow, like his teeth, which made Mike’s look yellow. He was dressed in a stylish green tunic.
“Oh no…” he muttered, shivering.
“What’s the matter?” Lex asked, taking an easy step toward the boy, trying not to further frighten him.
“Where is this place?” Mike asked in a whisper of wonder.
“What is your name?” Clover asked, smiling.
“I’m sorry, but I’ll have to kill you all,” the boy said, sounding very nervous and truly apologetic.
Kyle laughed, genuinely amused, especially since the boy didn’t appear to be joking.
“Why are you here?!” the boy in green questioned, aggression mixing in with his nervousness.
“Listen, we just fell into a hole by accident and ended up here!” Lex explained.
A sullen, burdened look appeared on the boy’s face, like he was holding a knife to his son’s neck to offer him up as a sacrifice to his god. “I do wish I could let you live,” he said. Mike, Clover and Lex exchanged glances at each other, each wondering something similar at least.
“Let us live?!” Kyle blasted, taking threatening steps toward the boy, “Just who do you think you are?!”
The boy quickly flashed his hand, like he was about to clasp them, but his palms slid past each other, making his upper arms form an ‘X’. Instantaneously, thick vines extended from the passage walls just before Kyle, each jamming deep into the opposite wall. Mike noticed that the same thing was done just behind the group, hence they were trapped.
“What the hell are you?” Kyle needed to know.
“A Vinebender…” Mike muttered in awe, staring at the gorgeous boy, “A living Vinebender…”
“Again, the stories prove to be true!” Lex exclaimed in amazement.
The look of worry grew worse on the boy’s face. Kyle drew his sword quickly, jetting off to slice the vines. But before he could make a strike, the white-haired boy made another quick hand motion, thrusting his left hand toward Kyle. Another thick vine blasted up from the floor before Kyle. It went amongst the vines that walled him off, and quickly wrapped itself around Kyle’s sword like a fearless snake. The boy pulled his hands back, and the vine rushed to its master, and the sword was flung behind the white-haired boy. With another hand movement, the vine crawled back into the ground, leaving behind only the small hole it appeared through.
“Amazing,” the grinning Mike muttered under his breath.
“You brat! Do you know who I am?!” Kyle raved calorically, grabbing on to the vines before them, trying vainly to tear them apart.
“Please, listen to me,” Clover said in a calm, friendly tone, walking up to where her brother was grabbing the vines, trying her best to ignore him, “we’re not here to fight anyone. We’re good, harmless people.”
“I really do not doubt that, pretty lady, but whether you came here to fight is not the matter,” the boy said. Lex held his palms before him, seeing it necessary to prepare himself. After only a short while, he was holding two dense spheres of ice within them. The Vinebender looked at the blue-white spheres intently, then looked up at Lex, obviously even less calm than before.
“An Icemaker?” the boy couldn’t help asking, “I thought the Ice Village was long destroyed!”
“It was!” Lex replied, “I am not from the Ice Village!”
“But how—”
“I dunno! But I am an Icemaker.”
“Hmmm… This is more than interesting… Still, I wish we could part company peacefully.”
“What in the world is going on here?!” a voice of fright and disbelief blasted from behind the boy. The boy’s eyes doubled in circumference immediately, and he spun around, staring up at the man who had just reached upon him. The trapped onlookers watched, wondering. The man seemed to be climbing through his sixties, but it seemed he was ageing quite gracefully. His hair too was long and white, and he was dressed in green like the boy. The man shook nervously, staring at Lex and his companions, just like the boy had done just before. Then he grabbed the boy by his collar in obvious anger and dissatisfaction, his teeth clenched, and raised him up to his height. “What have you done, Karukia?!” the man went on, his eyes glaring, “Fifty-four years of being my assistant, and the one day I let you do this on your own, this happens?!” Still holding on to the nearly crying boy, the elderly man stared at the visitors.
Fifty-four years? The four stared on in confusion, wondering if all this was some kind of elaborate practical joke.
“Look what you did! What if the sage should be made aware of this?” He blasted the boy on the wall to his right, a vile look on his face that frightened even Kyle.
“No…” Clover whispered to herself, pitying the boy, who she was sure to be blameless.
“I have been guarding the route for centuries, boy! And you are trying to destroy my integrity! This whole village! Are you a fool?! I rue the day the Sage assigned you to me!”
“Please, take it easy on him!” Clover begged, “It’s not his fault!” Her heart sunk as she looked at the crying boy.
“Village?” Mike pondered.
The man tossed the boy on the ground behind, turning to the trapped teenagers. “Just who—” The man’s face twisted even more as he glared at the iceballs in Lex’s hands. “Icemaker… I see your kind is still in existence… So you finally launch an attack on our hidden village! Heh!” A devious look appeared on the man’s face, and he readied his stance to fight. Clover again summoned up some mana. Mike clenched his right fist, and the metallic coat came over it. A look of puzzle and interest appeared on the man’s face, but no look of fear.
“I am not who you think I am,” Lex assured defensively, “I am not from any village.”
“Just who and what exactly are you people?” the Vinebender asked in genuine interest.
“We’re just travellers,” Lex continued, “our being here is only a mistake!” he pled. The Icemaker relaxed himself and absorbed the ice energy in his palms, leaving behind only a misty chill that made his friends shiver. For a moment, the man seemed to have been ready to let them go and wish them a good day, but that countenance lasted only a second.
“And a deadly mistake it is!” he flared, and thrust his hands forward suddenly.
Thick vines obediently burst through the walls and ground and roof before the aged man and sped off toward the teens at an impressively high speed. “Azanath!” Clover commanded, flashing her mana at the now inches-away vines. That instant, the swiftly moving vines halted on their assault, suspended in the air. The young witch stared at the vines in fright, shaking, her heart pounding. Each vine was spiked with hundreds of tiny thorns, and the ends of the vines were sharp-looking, making them, at a good enough speed, deadly weapons. As Clover released the tension in
her hands, the vines fell as dead.
“Hmmm….” The Vinebender stared at Clover with obvious wonder and surprise. He still didn’t look very afraid though. Then, with another slight gesture, deadly plants were again commanded. Abruptly, much thicker, stronger vines burst through the hard soil that walled the group. The vines quickly bound Mike, Kyle and Clover, and sturdily slammed them onto the walls of the passage. They were tightly tied against the walls, their feet off the ground. Struggling to break free, they squirmed and moaned in pain. The vines squeezed against them tighter and harder, so they began to sever and rip through their clothes. Lex flashed his head back at his suffering, bleeding friends.
“Lex!” Clover screamed, the vines nearly tearing through her flesh. Mike and Kyle were in the same position, unable to help themselves.
Lex’s face reddened with a fiery anger, and he summoned up two massive iceballs almost instantaneously. Without hesitation, he turned and hurled them at the Vinebender in rapid succession. Lex would know, though, that a burst of rage and a bit of ice wasn’t enough to defeat even a weak Vinebender. A thick vine shot out from each wall at the command of the attacker. The spheres of ice blasted the vines, quickly wrapping themselves around and freezing the vines entirely.
“Let them go!” Lex demanded, again forging a massive sphere of ice in his right hand. Lex made a forward step and flung the massive orb of dense ice energy at the enemy. At the Vinebender’s gesture, two more vines sprang up rapidly from the ground half a meter before him. With the angles at which they rose up, they formed an ‘X’, jamming into the roof of the passage. The sphere blasted the vines where they intersected, and ice covered them instantly. Lex looked back at his hurting friends again. With clenched teeth and straining groans of agony, Mike and Kyle endured the pain, but Clover seemed even much worse off. She was covered in blood, as tiny spikes were sinking into her, and she looked barely alive.
Lex turned his sights back to the enemy, a now wild, crazy look in his eyes, his face wrinkling cholericly. The small boy watched everything keenly from a little distance behind the old veteran. He was crying and shaking. Vines, again at the Vinebender’s command, burst through the passage walls. This time, each grabbed one of Lex’s wrists. The boy struggled in an attempt to move his hands together, but his wrists were just too heavily restricted by the strong vines.
The Seventh Spirit Page 20
