by M. Arcturus
“Let’s move!” Seth ordered as he picked Rowyn up and slung her over his shoulder. The baby Bennu and dragons climbed aboard the massive dragon, and they all took off down the hall.
“My parents!” shouted Rowyn.
Pandora ran up to Seth, barely managing to keep up with his pace so she could talk to the little girl. “Where are your parents?”
“I don’t know. Our quarters, I think?”
“It’s too late for them. We have got to keep moving,” replied Seth.
“No!” shrieked Rowyn kicking and screaming. Seth almost lost his grip.
Pandora tried to calm her down. “Maybe they left the palace. For all we know, they could be waiting for you in the gardens.” Out of disgust, Seth shot her a look as if she was a cross between crazy and stupid. They had just been in the gardens. If her parents were in the gardens, it was obvious that they had been burnt to a crisp. “Or they could be on the shore waiting for you with a lifeboat.”
Seth still didn’t buy it, but Rowyn did. She stopped squirming, so he wasn’t going to complain about Pandora’s lack of credibility. Up ahead, Icarus was running toward them. As the group neared, he slowed down and ran with them, heading back from whence he came.
“Where have you been, turkey?” Anthony’s remark made Icarus scowl.
“I’ve been looking for a way out of here,” retorted Icarus.
“Saving your own butt seems more like it.”
“I’ll have you know that I didn’t have to come back to tell you about a door up ahead that leads out of the maintenance shaft.”
“Wow, I guess you have your uses after all!” As Anthony spoke, Icarus mockingly mumbled his imitation of Anthony’s words giving a twisted facial expression. “What was that, Icarus? I didn’t quite catch that.”
“I guess nothing since the words I was mimicking came from you.”
“Were you just trying to burn me?”
“Guys, shut up!” Pandora had heard enough. They were nearly upon the door Icarus was leading them to, and here those two were bickering with verbal quibbles of pettiness. “Honestly you both are the biggest children I have ever met!” Her hand rested on the rusty latch on the door in front of her. She almost couldn’t believe that they had made it. She could hear the distant roar of the water behind them. The noise came to her as if it was from a dream.
Seth shouted out of frustration and panic, “Open the latch already!”
With her mind still out in space, she turned the handle. A large shadow fell on her. Looking up, she was nose to nose with a mean, stout, reddish-brown dragon. His golden armor reflected light from the palace skylights above him, making his armor glean with strength. Seeing the movement and feeling the beat of wings in the distance behind him, it was apparent that he wasn’t alone. There was another one hovering near its back. The group all halted behind Pandora. At their momentum, just a few more inches further and they would have knocked her over. The dragon was caught by surprise, but still managed to have its flaming instincts.
As the baby dragons and Bennu became excited, they cheered in excitement either through chirps or growl-like howls and ran toward the fire dragon. It was clear that the fire dragon didn’t see the little ones as the muscles in his arms and chest tightened. His mighty jaws opened. They all knew what was coming.
As the flame shot at them and fanned out into the shaft, the little ones freaked out and ran back into the tunnel and took cover behind the stone dragon. The stone dragon held his ground with his chest out, ready to confront the onslaught. Anthony and the others all hit the floor and rolled away from the opened door, dispersing themselves. Icarus took it the next step further and rolled his way under a large external pipeline.
When Pandora had thrown herself onto the floor, she watched in horror as her life’s mission slid out of her possession. The hip pouch around her waist came undone, spilling out its contents. There it was, the jewel-encrusted wooden box that weighed down on her destiny, lying there on the floor just out of reach. She went to lunge for it as another wave of flames washed over them. The flames got in her way, and she was forced to roll even further away from the box.
Peering from the shadows beneath the pipeline, Icarus watched the whole thing play out. Staring at the box, he wondered what significance it had to Pandora. In his mind, it was as if a hundred-watt bulb had been screwed into a lamp that could only handle fifteen. He had no clue what made him remember, but the puzzle pieces fell into place. She wasn’t just named Pandora, she was “The Pandora” and there lay her box, which supposedly contained all the horrors of humanity.
The fire happy dragon took a step inside of the tunnel. He sniffed around and caught Pandora’s scent and started to come after her, but his body was too big for the opening. Trying to ram his way through the opening, the stone dragon made a noise similar to that of a deep electric drill letting the other dragons know of its presence. The fire dragon didn’t pay any heed, but the other dragon at his back pulled on his tail trying to get him to stop. The attempt was unsuccessful. His mind was fueled by rage. Icarus’s thoughts raced, and then it hit him. If the box contained the horrors of humanity, then whatever is in that box might be enough to scare the dragons away. He scurried from his hiding place, snatched up the box and slid right in front of Pandora.
“Oh, thank God, you got the box. What a relief! Please, hand it over.” When he didn’t roll over to face her, she tapped him on the shoulder to get his attention. “I would really like the box back now.” He still didn’t acknowledge her. With his back turned to her, she didn’t see what he was fidgeting with until she heard the hinges on the box snap open. “What do you think you’re doing? Are you crazy?” She tried to fight him for the box. During their struggle, a tiny jar shaped like a Greek pithos flew from the box and glided along the floor. It was no bigger than three inches tall and two and a half inches wide. From the miniature jar, light pulsated like a heartbeat in swirls of green and peach. Icarus didn’t waste any time going after it.
Seth and Anthony weren’t sure what was going on, but they joined in on the fun. Icarus had just swooped in and picked up the pithos when Seth and Anthony jumped on top of him. Through the fist bashing and violent pulling, Icarus refused to give the tiny treasure up. Still curled up in the fetal position, he worked his fingers around the lid and pulled, trying to open the jar. He had never seen the seal of a wire-bail jar before, but once he saw the metal clasp, he knew that’s what held it shut; if only he knew how to dislodge the clasp. Finally, Anthony found the strength to overpower him. He flipped Icarus over onto his back and started tearing at his hands, trying to locate the pithos.
Anthony wasn’t aware that their struggle had actually helped Icarus solve the mystery of the clasp. The wire lever, which held the metal strap across the lid, had been pushed up during the struggle and released the strap. Only one thing stood in Icarus’s way. There was a cork gasket on the lid sealing it and the jar together, but that gave way when Icarus tugged his hardest on the lid. Green and peach smoke poured out of the jar. Something in the smoke laughed maniacally. There were at least five or six different voices snickering. Most of them, if not all of them, sounded female. Before all of the smoke left the bottle, Pandora threw herself at the jar and closed it back up, trapping only about a teaspoon of the liquid smoke inside.
Casting his anger aside, Seth ran over to her and helped her up. “Is there anything left in the jar, or did everything come out?”
“I was only able to keep this small little amount in the jar.” She held up the jar to show him. “I’m not real sure if there’s anything left in there, but I don’t feel like opening it back up to find out.” Seth nodded his head in agreement.
When the smoke dissipated, they saw roughly nine feminine figures standing before them. It was as if the very wind formed their bodies. Each was very seductive as they flitted around. Only their eyes differed from one another in colo
r, size, shape, and expression, hinting at each of their unique personalities. However, they all had one thing in common, demonic intentions. Their devilish grins summed it all up. One even rubbed up against Pandora. She cringed and thrust her nose up in the air in disgust. Then she shivered as the she-demon backed off. It felt as if her whole body had brushed up against a massive cobweb.
Moving like a dead body animated by strings, another one walked up to the fire dragon who was still stuck in the door. The dragon was now desperately trying to back out. The she-demon’s glowing orange-red eyes were half crazed with an omniscient stare. She came within arm’s reach of the dragon and stretched out her hand. The fire dragon tried to advert his head away from her, but it didn’t work.
“No! Stop!” Pandora shouted out, trying to distract the she-demon. Paying no heed, with an unnatural flick of her wrist, her finger touched the tip of the dragon’s nose. Pandora tried to lunge for the she-demon, but another one got in her way and swiftly knocked her onto the floor. Pandora quickly got back up on her feet and looked around. There were three circling the stone dragon. He was trying to swat them with his tail protecting their young. Pandora and her group were surrounded by five others. Even if she tried to help the stone dragon, the demons would have been on her in an instant.
A moment after the demon touched the fire dragon’s nose; she cackled with delight. The others joined in her merriment, and then in a burst of wind, they were gone. The burst of wind shook the palace and washed over them like a big tidal wave, knocking them all onto the floor. Seth reached for Pandora.
“Are you alright?”
“Yeah, but my butt is a little tired of me falling. It could use a rest.”
Seth perked up his ears, “Sorry to ruin the moment, but from the sounds of it, the isle is sinking at a more rapid pace.” They could hear the roar of the water approaching them at a faster rate. Their only escape route was the door leading into the palace, but the big fire-breathing dragon was stuck in the doorway. “Don’t forget what your mother said,” Seth reminded Pandora. “I’ll do the best I can to get you to shore.”
“But Seth—” Pandora was cut off by the screaming roar of the fire dragon. It was obvious that the dragon was filled with panic and pain. The place where the she-demon had touched the fire dragon’s nose had turned black and was starting to spread. As the death spread up its face and into his eyes, Pandora squealed in anguish. She turned to the stone dragon. “There must be something we can do to save him.”
“He’s far too gone.”
What the stone dragon said was true. She turned to look at the fire dragon again. His eyes were now gray and solid as if the death was turning him to stone. Then something happened. After the death left him as a frozen sculpture, what came next created a frenzy in everyone present. They were watching him decay. His nose shriveled up and started to sag, only being held on by a thread of sinew. Then his nose crumbled to dust. The rest of his body followed suit. Pandora cringed at the sight, and the smell of rotting decay didn’t help either.
The dragon behind the fire dragon stopped pulling on his tail, quickly let go, and looked in at the group through the doorway with a helpless look on her face. “I’m sorry the death is too strong. If you get any closer to my brother, you will die, too. This doorway is now cursed. Your only chance of survival is to go back in the direction from which you came.”
“But there’s water pouring in from the other side.”
“I’m sorry I cannot help.” With that, she flew away.
As the dust of the decaying dragon hit the floor, the death spread into the tunnel traveling across the floor and up the walls. The metal constructing the hallway started to rust. The stone dragon rushed up past Pandora to get close to the edge of death. Using his earth magic, he created a wall of rock to separate them from the plague. Eagerly, they stared, waiting to see what would happen. The rock turned dark and started to crack. Water rushed up onto their feet and was traveling up to the rock wall at lightning fast speed.
“If the water touches the decaying rock, and we’re touching the water, does that mean the death will travel through the water and get to all of us that much quicker?”
Pandora’s eyes went wide with Anthony’s question.
The dragon just rolled his eyes as if their drama had reached a new height of stupidity. The sound of his stone body moving toward her caught her attention. He started to charge. Just as they became almost nose to nose, there was a bright white flash, which blinded everyone. Pandora just knew that she was done for.
The Lady of Avalon and the others had toiled for hours. Now they all stood around in awe staring at what their hard work had created. The strength of the standing stones reeked of ancient magic. It quickly became apparent that the leftover stones were not just for show. When they had put the last rock into place, the spare rocks started to float, making them feel like they were walking through a miniature meteor field. Some of the floating rock was as small as a marble. The Lady walked up to one and nudged it with her finger. It gave willingly, but floated right back into place when she stopped pushing it.
“It’s so beautiful!” she exclaimed. As she peered in marvel, Aros put a hand on her shoulder. The Lady placed her hand on top of his and turned to meet his gaze.
“You have saved us all,” Aros told the Lady. He made eye contact with Selené, Giséi, and then to the Lady of Avalon again, “but it is time for us to get to work.” The phoenixes—including Giséi, who graciously walked up to the core stone—took their places. She looked at the Lady in dread, and then at the last moment, she left her spot and gave the Lady a hug.
“I’m scared, but your presence here has given me strength. May we meet again one day.”
“Where are you going?”
“Home,” she walked back up to the core stone and gave Kajaka and Shadow a look of sorrow. “I love you both. I’ll see you when you return to the World Tree.” Though she wanted to hug them, she didn’t. She knew they would never let her go.
The Lady of Avalon looked down at the ground in confusion. Aros saw her from his crystal. “What is it?”
“I don’t think I understand.”
Aros gave a faint smile. “You’re not supposed to.”
She wiped her eyes and reestablished her composure. “Aros, what should the rest of us do?”
“Don’t let anything disrupt us.”
The Lady nodded at Sorbek and Selené, who took their spots around the perimeter. Sorbek stood at the door with his battle armaments drawn. For this particular situation, he chose his war hammer and his double-edged battle-ax. Selené and the Lady of Avalon stood across from each other. When she noticed that Selené looked a little lost and bewildered, she decided to give her some direction.
“Remember the shield that I had you create when we were fighting the Ackrids?”
Selené crinkled her face and spoke in consternation, “Yes.”
“I need you to do that now, but with the intent of merging your shield with mine.”
Selené nodded in understanding.
With outstretched arms, Selené and the Lady started to form their shields. As the shields covered them, the phoenixes lowered their heads and closed their eyes, trying to undergo the thick density that the shields brought with them. Their ears popped, and their toes curled in their shoes. Once they got their lungs to adjust so they could breathe with ease, they ignited their flames, charging up the crystals. The crystals started to glow with a purple hue, then the focal point in the center of the crystals changed color to match the energy coming from the phoenix charging it.
The gold flecks in Kajaka’s hair lit up with an orange flare. His crystal turned orange in the center, which faded to purple and then to black around the edges. Shadow’s crystal was turquoise, and Aros’s became gold. Vermilion had turned hers red; Gepsom and Hermetrien’s crystals became lavender and emerald green. All the colors of
the rainbow seemed to be represented. As their crystals fully charged, the excess energy exited the crystals through the canals carved in the floor and headed straight for the core stone.
Once the core stone was hit by all of the energies, time seemed to stop. The orange lights of the room powered down and once again, the Lady of Avalon found herself, along with the others, in the blue environment she had seen earlier. Flattened like a pancake and frozen to a crisp, they could look around the room, but no one was able to move. Watching as the level of bright white light charge up the core stone an inch at a time, they strained to breathe with stiff lungs.
When the crystal was three-fourths of the way charged up, there suddenly came a jolt releasing them from their captivity. All of them had been successfully removed from time. At that point, everything in the room became so magical. Amidst the meteors, galaxies were displayed. The galaxies took on a life of their own as the planets began to spin; planets collided with other planets, stars were born and went into supernovas. They all stood there amazed.
Even their world outside was going berserk. The sun came and went. They could see the sun’s rays pass over them several times through the opening above them. Everyone was so engrossed with the mystical environment that they didn’t notice what was happening at the core stone. The energy was leaving the crystal and entering Giséi’s body. Her whole body had a soft, white glow, which slowly intensified. The Lady was the first to notice. Since the force field had been established, she and Selené were able to walk around the room. The Lady approached Giséi.
“You look so beautiful. If only the whole world could see you like this,” the Lady said. Giséi gave her a faint smile and then winced in pain. “Giséi, what’s wrong?”
“Promise to look for me when your time comes. I’ll be waiting.”
