by T. S. Hall
“I guess it’s time to test out your original idea, Katie,” Allora said between breaths.
They all ran ahead, darting across as fast as their feet would take them. Behind them, they could hear the progressive crash of stalactites breaking the tiles.
Katie slipped, fell, and slid along the ground. She looked up and saw a glint of light as the piercing stalactite made its way toward her. Dax stopped, grabbed his sister, and jumped out of the way of the falling rock. Katie kept slipping, and falling stalactites kept missing her as she struggled to gain her footing. Dax continued to frantically pull her coat.
“Move it, you two!” Tanner yelled as Allora and he reached the safety of the cavern opening.
After a few more clumsy steps and near missteps, Dax and Katie leapt in the air and landed on ledge, just as the last of the stalactites crashed into the tile floor. They breathed heavily, feeling the adrenaline flowing through their bodies.
Across the deep chasm, the baykok stopped at the edge, helpless to get across the deep opening since all of the tiles had crashed into the abyss below.
Breathing hard, Dax and Katie got up from the dirt floor.
“That’s it. I’m tired of close calls,” Katie said, shaking out her shirt.
“Looks like we might have to deal with a few more,” Dax said, pointing across the chasm. “The bony brigade seems to be… changing.”
The baykok had started forming multiple arms that grew out of their torsos, enabling them to crawl on the walls like spiders. They scurried along the cavern ceiling, moving quickly.
“Let’s get outta here!” Allora said.
They all turned and darted into the ice tunnel. Dax hurdled a boulder and helped his sister over.
Tanner reached the obsidian cave first and took a good look around. “I don’t see an exit, guys.”
They all scanned the walls, searching desperately for some kind of way out, and they collectively held their breath when they saw small skeletons leaping over rocks in the distance. Red eyes glowed under the blue mist, and it was clear that the baykok were moving fast. The four teens stood in a line, bracing for the inevitable attack.
“Now I know how General Mustard felt,” Katie said to the puzzled audience standing next to her.
“What?” Allora said.
“You know, Mustard’s last stand, surrounded by Indians.”
“Custer,” Allora corrected. “General George Armstrong Custer.”
“And you call me an idiot,” Dax said, pointing to himself.
“You are an idiot!” Katie yelled. “This whole thing is your fault! Why’d you steal that spear? I oughta take the thing and shove it up your—”
“Guys! We don’t have time for the blame game,” Tanner said, noticing that the baykok were within a hundred yards and closing fast. Tanner grabbed Allora by the arm. “We need those hadrons of yours!”
Allora stepped forward, took a deep breath, and pulled in the hadrons like Aunt May had taught her. Focusing the energy, she generated one large purple hadron ball around her chest and sent it shooting down the ice tunnel. Baykok were thrown left and right as the sphere blasted through. The hadron ball burst, causing shockwaves of energy that knocked them over.
“That doesn’t look good,” Dax said, pointing to the large cracks forming inside the tunnel.
The force from the hadron burst had caused the walls of the tunnel to become unstable. The cracks grew, and an eerie snapping sound echoed into the cave. Suddenly, a wall of water crashed into the tunnel, flowing rapidly toward them.
“Oh God! What have I done?” Allora said.
The rushing sound was terrifying, and Allora and Katie embraced each other, assuming they had only seconds left to live, awaiting their watery grave.
Out of sheer desperation, Tanner moved in front of the rest and performed the series of motions Aunt May had shown him. Blue hadron energy circled in front of him. Tanner closed his eyes, feeling the cold of the water pushing toward him. The circling blue energy suddenly changed, turning into water within his palms. Allora looked up to see the wave of water reacting to Tanner’s movement with his hands, and just as the roar of the wave burst through the cave opening, Tanner thrust his body forward, releasing a shockwave of energy that knocked him back. He tripped over the huddled girls, and collapsed from exhaustion.
Allora opened one eye after a few seconds of silence, and the two girls sat up in disbelief. Even Tanner was wide-eyed, staring at what he had done. The rushing flow of the water was frozen.
“You did it!” Allora said, jumping on Tanner and giving him a hug. “And you’re a Fermion like me!”
Tanner was caught off guard by Allora’s affection, but he didn’t mind it. Allora was so excited to have someone who could share in her unique gift.
Dax walked around the large ice sculpture, staring at a baykok frozen in the wall of ice. He stared at the red-eyed skull and tapped the ice, and the creature’s eyes spun around. Dax fell backward, putting his hand down to regain his balance. “Uh, guys, we should leave,” he said, moving away from the mound of ice. As he made his retreat, he noticed a crack in the far wall.
Katie was on the other side, trying to find a way out. “And how do you propose we do that, genius?” she said.
“How about we try this way,” Dax said, squeezing himself into the wall.
Allora and Tanner got up quickly, and they all rushed over to the far side of the cave to find Dax shimmying sideways up small, narrow stairs. The crack was wide enough for them to scurry between the sides of the rock. As Dax ascended, the walls widened, and the stairs became larger. About twenty yards up, Dax was able to climb normally, and he looked up to see a daunting ascent ahead. The others followed him for a painful climb, but the relief of escaping the caves reenergized them. The rock walls were slanted and increasingly taller as they climbed, and Allora’s legs began to burn.
“This is harder than soccer practice,” Tanner said. “That hadron burst took it out of me too.”
“I know how you feel,” Allora said, remembering that last time she had produced fire.
“If Coach Hale knew about this, he’d bring us down here for a pregame field trip,” Dax said.
The boys continued talking about their soccer season while they hiked, but Allora was too busy with her own thoughts to pay any attention. She couldn’t stop thinking about the orb resting against the inside of her coat.
“What do you think, Allora?” Tanner asked, twisting around. “Allora?”
She looked up, snapping back to reality. “What? Oh, sorry. I was thinking about something. What did you say?”
“Are you okay?” Tanner asked.
“Yeah, I’m fine,” Allora said. “I’m just a little tired, that’s all. What’s up?”
“Dax was saying we should stop in Roseburg and get some food. You down?”
“Yes! I’m starving,” Allora said, and the thought of food caused her stomach to gurgle in agreement with the plan. “I could really go for a cheeseburger.”
“I second that,” Katie said.
“Hey, Dax,” Tanner said, trying to find an end to their ascent, “how much further is it?”
When Dax squinted and finally noticed the end to the steps, he said, “I think I see the top, maybe ten more minutes.”
That said, they continued upward. Their leg muscles were throbbing, and every step was daunting, every movement more painful than previous one. The last ten minutes turned into twenty as their pace slowed to a crawl. Dax reached the last step and collapsed on a flat, level surface. One by one, they all reached the top, only to look at a wall of rock.
“Great. We’ve traded one dead end for another,” Katie said, frustrated. “Only this time, we scaled a mountain for it.”
Tanner felt around the wall with his hands. There wasn’t that much space, so it was a small area to search.
Dax walked over next to Tanner, followed by Allora and Katie. “I was really looking forward to that cheeseburger too,” Dax said, le
aning against the wall.
To all of their surprise, he didn’t hit rock. Rather, he kept falling sideways. Tanner tried to grab him, but Dax’s momentum pulled them both through. Katie tried to grab Tanner, but the weight of the boys was too much for her, so all she could do was swing her arm around and grasp Allora by the coat.
After all four passed through the rock, they emerged in bright sunlight. Allora continued falling sideways, and then slid down a large boulder, on her back. She had no room to turn around, since sharp rocks jutted up on both sides of her. Finally, when the rocks parted and she had room to twist her body, she flipped onto her stomach right before reaching the edge. Allora screamed, then fell into a bush, and the momentum sent her bouncing off the top of the shrub and onto the other three, who had landed on the ground. Dax was at the bottom of the pile, moaning. He had taken the weight of everyone dropping on top of him. Finally, she rolled sideways and landed in the dirt. They remained still, lying on their backs, while a tour group stood in a state of confusion a few yards away, pointing, whispering, and snapping a barrage of photos with their cameras and phones.
“Are you guys alive?” Katie finally asked.
A chorus of guttural moans and grunts followed, the only acknowledgment they could muster.
Allora could see the visitor center through a small gap, between the curious tourists. “We made it,” she said.
The night was over, and morning had come. Allora closed her eyes, basking in the feeling of the warm, soothing rays of sunlight upon her face. It was a beautiful spring day, without a cloud in the sky. The Eye of the Titans was now in their possession.
“Let’s go home,” Allora said.
Twenty-One
EYE
The forest was darkening as the sun set against the western ridge. A spring rain drizzled down from the foliage, allowing her to step silently through the underbrush. Her eyes darted across the plain of vision, scanning the area for movement. Her prey was elusive and far superior in evasion. Her hair and clothes were damp, allowing a chill to permeate her body. A twig snapped in the distance. She stopped moving, and squinted her eyes. There was a mass moving through the leaves of a bush. It was dark brown, and large. Allora smirked, and moved quickly, maintaining her silent footsteps as she got closer to the intended target. Rounding a tree trunk, past the edge of the bush, she pulled her stick up to strike.
“Got ya!” She said, her eyes growing wide as the target turned.
A large brown bear sprung up, standing on two legs and growling angrily. Allora wheeled backward, tripping on her own foot, and flopping down into the mud. The enormous beast clawed forward, snarling as it came down toward the terrified girl.
Just then, another presence laughed profusely, popping out from behind a tree nearby.
“I see you met George,” Sas said. “Come here boy!”
The bear almost smiled, and bounded off toward the warlock, jumping up onto Sas’ shoulders, licking his face.
“You have a pet bear named George?” Allora asked, completely perplexed by the peculiarity of the situation.
“Nah, George is more of a friend. I’ve got a special kinship with the life of these woods. They are my eyes and ears. This guys is one of my favorites though.”
The bear dropped down, got a good head rub from Sas, and stomped off into the night. Sas helped Allora to her feet, and they hiked back up the hill toward the cave. Allora had successfully convinced her mother of her farce, and went to Sas’ place to make sure that the lie was convincing. There was also another purpose for her trip.
“I’ve got a question,” Allora said, as they trudged through the mud. “Do you know why my uncle wanted to find the Eye of the Titans so badly? Do you know what it could be used for?”
“Well, my father said that it had a specific link to the Titan Wars,” Sas said as they got closer to the cave entrance. “Somehow it was one of a few items that was used to power some kind of weapon.”
“You mean there than just this one artifact?” Allora asked, rubbing the round orb that she had zipped up in her interior coat pocket.
“Yeah, it was supposed to be a part of a set of keys meant to unlock a power greater than anything on this world or Sonora. You can see why the other side wants it so badly.”
Sas led her toward the cave, opened a portal to her backyard, and she jumped through.
Milly was sitting in her usual spot in the kitchen, not too far from the coffeemaker. “Hey! Welcome back. How was training?” she asked.
“It was… fine,” Allora said, pulling off her dirty shoes.
“Nothing eventful happened?” Milly said.
Allora quickly went through the kitchen and headed for her room. “Nope,” she said.
Knowing short answers were part of teenage protocol, Milly didn’t interrogate her daughter any further and assumed she needed to rest after such a hard night of training.
Allora closed her door softly, got her gear from outside the window, and put it in her closet. She tucked the orb in the far corner of the closet, then placed a bag in front to conceal it. It wasn’t the ideal hiding spot, but it would do for the time being.
* * *
April had arrived, bringing the downpour of Oregon rain. Allora met up with her friends, and went quickly to Mr. Swan’s classroom. Dax closed the door while Allora motioned for Mr. Swan to get out one of his silencing glue. As soon as the jelly-type material covered the walls, Allora pulled out the orb from her coat.
Mr. Swan’s face went white, and he looked at the object with questions all over his face, but none of the words would come out. He kept cocking his head up from staring at the orb, as if he wanted one of them to acknowledge that it was real. Even when Allora nodded her head, he still couldn’t believe it. “How… where… when…?” was all he could stutter.
All four nodded their heads proudly and smiled at him.
“But you… you’re just kids. The stories of The Eye say it was hidden among difficult, nearly insurmountable obstacles that would test even the strongest of Sonorans.”
“Well, the stories were right,” Tanner said. “It wasn’t exactly easy.”
“It would have been a lot easier if my knucklehead brother over here hadn’t tried to steal that gold spear,” Katie said, looking at Dax angrily.
“Hey, how was I supposed to know it would wake up an army of evil golden demons?” Dax said.
“Oh, I don’t know, maybe you should have read the last part of the parchment a little closer,” Katie snapped.
“Guys, let’s focus,” Mr. Swan said, turning back to Allora. “Where was it?”
“Allora’s the genius,” Tanner admitted proudly.
“I can’t take all the credit,” Allora admitted. “Technically, my little sister figured it out. It was at Crater Lake, below Wizard’s Island in the middle of the lake,” Allora said.
Mr. Swan smiled and shook his head. “You never cease to amaze me, Allora,” he said. His proud demeanor changed when he thought of them going alone. “You should have told me of your plans. Any one of you could have been killed.”
Allora spoke up in the middle of the awkward silence that followed. “We knew if we told you, you would have tried to stop us. You always talk about stepping up the challenge of responsibility, so we did exactly that.”
“That also means taking on the consequences that come with that responsibility. Would you have been able to live with the consequence of Katie being killed? Or Tanner?” Mr. Swan admonished.
Mr. Swan let his words sink in, but before he could speak again, Dax said, “What about me?”
Mr. Swan looked at him with a perplexed expression. “Excuse me?”
“You named everyone else but me? Is it okay if I die or something?” Dax asked, crossing his arms.
Everyone chuckled.
“All right, let’s take a look at this orb,” Mr. Swan said, placing it in his palm.
They moved around beside the teacher so they could finally see the object that had bee
n so difficult to retrieve.
“So…” Katie said impatiently.
Mr. Swan laughed. “You ready?” he said, pointing his finger.
A small spark exited his index finger and shot into the orb. As soon as it hit, Mr. Swan was shot into the air, only to crash into the back wall of the classroom.
“Whoa!” they all yelled, then ran to their teacher and helped him up.
“You okay?” Allora asked.
Mr. Swan shook his head, barely conscious. “Yeah.” His eyes fluttered quickly. “Wow! That little thing is powerful.” He staggered to the orb on the ground, picked it up, and handed it to Allora.
“Won’t it be safer with you?” she asked.
“Obviously not, if you so easily tricked me and took the parchment. Besides, I don’t think I was meant to possess it. Give it a try.”
“No way!” Allora said, trying to give it back.
“Just trust me. I think that it’s only going to respond to the hadron signature of the one who found it.”
Reluctantly, Allora pointed her finger at the obsidian orb, and winced as she shot a hadron spark into the object. The purple light swirled into the interior of the orb, and greyish purple smoke spun around in the shape of an eye within. Then, the shape dissipated. Mr. Swan raised his eyebrows in confirmation of his theory.
“We need more information about this thing before we try and use it. In the meantime, if you’re going to hold on to it, you need to know how to create your own hiding spot.” Mr. Swan walked over to a blank wall and turned to face them. “First, you have to place your hand on the spot where you want to hide the object. Focus a small amount of hadrons to the palm of your hand. Once you feel the hadrons pulsating, twist your hand and stop when you want to. Remember which way you twisted your hand and at what angle you stopped,” Mr. Swan instructed. “It’s like the combination lock on your lockers. You spin your hand one way, then turn the other. When you’re satisfied with the combination, let go.” Mr. Swan did so, and the wall started to swirl. He took the orb and placed it into the wall, then sparked the wall, making it solid again.
