Anni Moon & The Elemental Artifact: An Elemental Fantasy Adventure Series: Book For Kids Ages 9-12 (Anni Moon Series)

by Abed, Melanie

“Maybe a half-day’s walk. Only, there’s no paved path. We’ll have to move through a lot of brush. I’ll try to plot the easiest route. We should rest until dawn.”

  Anni got up and moved next to Squirt, who busied himself by the fire. “Here, take this,” he said, shoving a small purple bottle into her hand while he placed a cork in the top. “It should be good by tomorrow.”

  “What’s this for?” asked Anni.

  “All living things have energy fields around their bodies. That’s why they call humans Eggheads, because they don’t take care of theirs. Fields should surround their body from head to toe, but I’ve heard that humans have basketball-sized egg-bubbles that bump against their heads. It’s why I laugh whenever you say Eggs.”

  “Oookay…”

  “This is a Shield Field tonic,” said Squirt. “It pushes Funk away.”

  “I’ll take mine now, thank you,” said Brat, downing it.

  Anni decided to take hers in the morning. She got settled in the tent, amazed at how something so big packed so neatly into Daphne’s satchel. The silvery-hued structure revealed small skylights where sleepers could stargaze before drifting off. She had finally gotten off the Zephyr; she deserved one good rest, even if it was only for a couple hours.

  As dawn was breaking, Anni awoke to find the tent empty. Outside, she saw Daphne tending to Squirt’s stew as he sat huddled in a blanket, looking ill.

  “You needed proper light,” Daphne chastised. “You should’ve waited until morning. What were you thinking? Half a week’s supply is wasted.”

  “Ugh, please stop talking,” said Squirt, shivering under the blankets.

  “What’s going on?” asked Anni.

  “Ohhhh, not so loud, not so loud,” said Brat, huddled next to Squirt. Brat, too, had turned a deep shade of green.

  “Did the Funk get them?” asked Anni, worried.

  “Hardly,” said Daphne. “Squirt mixed the tonics all wrong, and before checking them, he and Brat drank it. Now they’re both sick, and I have to neutralize the bad batch.”

  “Mopple-me-toppined,” said Brat, cross-eyed. “My brain’s kerfuffled.”

  “Here.” Daphne handed Anni two different-sized mugs. “Can you give these to Brat and Squirt? It’s a fixer-upper tummy tamer tonic.”

  Anni handed Squirt his mug first, seeing as Brat looked the worst and he might need help. Even his tiny whiskers were green. She held the smaller mug for him as he gingerly took sips. Squirt, on the other hand, took one whiff from his mug, turned a shade of blue, and said, “I’m gonna be sick…”

  Anni pulled the steaming mug away just in time as Squirt yakked all over his boots. It was disgusting. There were tufts of dark hair mixed into his vomit. She turned away before she got sick, too. At least Brat managed not to throw up and continued to sip from his mug without complaint.

  “You better drink that, Squirt!” Daphne scolded. “Your goof has left us with only a quarter of elixirs. We’ll be lucky if it’s enough. Aside from this fixer-upper tummy tamer, nobody’s taking tonics unless it’s absolutely necessary.”

  “I was only trying to help,” said Squirt, feebly.

  They were so close to finding Lexi, Anni didn’t want them to fight. She helped Squirt drink his tonic so Daphne didn’t get annoyed.

  “Anni, throw some dirt over that gunk,” said Daphne. “I need my nose to concentrate, and that smell is interfering. How’re you doing, Brat?”

  “Still mopple-toppined,” said Brat, looking a little less green.

  Anni grabbed piles of fresh dirt and plopped them on top of the offending blob. When she went back to grab some more dirt to dump on Squirt’s boots, she could have sworn she saw four to five leaves rustling right next to him, but she put it down to the wind.

  THE TREE OF DEATH

  Anni packed up the camp while Daphne finished up with the tonics. Brat started to return to his normal coloring. Squirt didn’t fair as well; he needed double the dose of the fixer-upper tummy tamer tonic before he could walk.

  Over the course of four hours, the girls took turns shouldering Squirt through the rainforest. It slowed them down and was complicated by the intermittent tropical showers.

  When it was Anni’s turn to lead the group using Daphne’s Omninav, an hour had passed until she stopped. “If we keep following the Omninav’s directions, we’ll be moving away from the river. That doesn’t seem right.”

  “I agree,” said Brat. “There’s nothing ahead. This map doesn’t make sense.”

  “But we can’t pass over the river,” said Daphne. “We need to trust the Omninav and follow the suggested path around it.”

  “I call time out. I need to rest,” said Squirt, his legs wobbling as sat down on a tree stump. “Daph, let’s just triple-check the map.”

  “Fine.” Daphne took the Omninav and started punching buttons.

  Anni sat beside Brat and Squirt as they drank the last of their tonics. She pulled out a water flask and whispered to them, “I think we’re lost.” They sat there and watched Daphne twirl a few strands of her hair around her finger, which she only did when she was nervous.

  It was hard to be optimistic when they weren’t moving. Anni pulled Lexi’s doll out of her bag and handed it to Squirt. He absentmindedly grabbed the legs and held it upside down with the skirt hanging over the doll’s head while Anni rearranged her bag. When Anni looked up she noticed something. The stitching on the reverse side of the skirt looked exactly like some of the symbols of trees and rocks she had just seen on the Omninav.

  “The map’s reversed. Look, there’s the Sleeping Tree.” Anni pointed at the doll’s skirt.

  Brat clapped his hand to his head. “For snoz’ sakes, it’s been with us the whole time.”

  “What? Where?” Daphne took the doll.

  Sure enough, the underside layer of the skirt was an exact topographical map of the jungle. The doll’s dark brown stockings perfectly resembled a tree, and its green shoes made a perfect impression of the treetop canopy.

  “That’s the forked tree back there,” said Squirt, pointing, too.

  “Here.” Daphne handed the doll to Anni in the exact same way Squirt held it. “Hold it steady, just like that.” She positioned her Omninav and re-scanned the doll.

  With the mapping program complete, the four of them huddled together and watched as a projected image canvassed the jungle’s undergrowth. A blinking dot pointed the way with a You are here sign. The Omninav revealed that they were less than two miles away.

  They surged forward into the woods. The excitement must have invigorated Squirt because he was able to walk on his own, and led them to the edge of a precipice. The ground sloped a long way down, into a forest of skinny trees, but there wasn’t a huge tree in sight.

  “It’s not here,” said Daphne. “The Tree should be right here.”

  “The map’s obviously wrong,” said Squirt. “Let’s keep walking.”

  “No, Daphne’s right,” said Brat. “The Sleeping Tree should be right in front of us.”

  Anni agreed with Daphne and Brat. It didn’t make sense to walk ahead.

  Anni heard a snap. Her back was facing the edge of the gradient, but when she turned to her friends there was nothing behind them.

  Brat landed on her shoulder and whispered, “Did you hear that?”

  Snap. Squirt looked up, too.

  Anni trained her eyes on the forest’s floor. Leaves rustled next to Daphne’s side. Someone was there with them, someone who couldn’t be seen.

  “I just don’t get it,” said Daphne, staring at her Omninav as she turned around making quick glances in all directions away from the precipice where Anni and Squirt stood.

  “Daphne.” Squirt said slowly, staring at the moving ground by Daphne’s feet. “Can you come over here?”

  “What?” Daphne sounded annoyed. She turned abruptly toward them, but her foot made contact with something invisible and she stumbled.

  “Oooouuuuucccchhhhh,” cried an unseen voice.
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br />   Daphne ran toward Anni and Squirt. Something rustled a foot away. Squirt leaped at it but caught air. Daphne locked her arm in Anni’s. Squirt spun around to intercept.

  “Ahhhhhhhhh!” something screamed.

  CRASH!

  A ball of tangled limbs tumbled over and down the foothill, through vines and wet mossy debris. As the ground flattened, they rolled apart and separated. Squirt was the first on his feet and helped the girls to stand. Daphne looked the worst of the three. She had a long scrape on her arm and one of her leg warmers was torn.

  Anni took a deep breath, checked her friends, and gasped.

  Lying in a heap of fresh earth and leaves, wearing something that looked like an abominable snowman costume, was Miranda Firestone. It looked like she was wearing an old-fashioned version of Daphne’s somasuit, but this one was so ripped and torn from the fall that it had stopped working.

  “Have you been following us?” demanded Anni.

  “Congratulations, you have a brain after all,” said Miranda. “All of you are in so much trouble. One hit on my Omninav and I can tell the Elemental world where you are.”

  “Moppins, we’re done for,” said Brat to himself.

  “You can’t do that,” said Daphne, nudging Anni and eyeing Miranda’s wrist.

  “Oh really?” Miranda stood up. “I can do whatever I want.”

  It took Anni a second before she caught on to what Daphne meant. Anni narrowed her eyes. “Go ahead. Make the call. Tell everyone where we are.”

  “No,” said Brat and Squirt.

  Ready to call their bluff, Miranda raised her arm. Her smug expression vanished. A twig was jammed into her Omninav; it was broken.

  Daphne laughed. “Actually, I’d like to know your plan now.”

  Anni squared her shoulders. “We don’t have time for your games. If you ever want to get back to a TreePort, you better tell us what you’re doing here.”

  “Oh, so you’re in charge? I’m supposed to follow the human’s rules?”

  “Yes!” chorused Daphne, Brat and Squirt. Anni smiled.

  Miranda rolled her eyes and huffed; her cheeks grew redder by the second. She flipped her hair back, but her movements were irritable and jerky, which made it all the more interesting to watch. “You want the truth? The truth is that I’ve been watching over you imbeciles from the moment Anni arrived on the Zephyr! Two people told me to watch out for you and make sure you didn’t get into trouble: Diana and Oliver.”

  “Oliver has no idea what I’ve been doing,” said Anni.

  Miranda grinned broadly. “See what I mean? Clueless. Oliver knows more than you think. I’ve been helping him; we’ve been listening in to your pathetic conversations, and your grand plans to escape the Zephyr.” Anni felt Daphne and Squirt shift uncomfortably beside her. “Granted, I’ve had to stifle my laughter every time you fools made mistakes. I never thought you’d get off the Zephyr, but once I saw your determination to break into the Secret Elemental Counsel meeting, I changed my mind. You got me into a heap of trouble that night. Van caught me when he was supposed to be catching one of you. I set off the alarms. Just wanted to see you scramble, I guess, especially after you got what you came for.”

  “So you left the keys in the door near the conservatory,” said Squirt.

  “Yes, and I was questioned by that idiot Knox for over an hour.”

  “If you’re working with Oliver then where is he?” asked Daphne. “Jay got arrested in LimBough. Did you know that, or did you plan that?”

  “Coincidence and genius. My brother’s a moron. I’m not sure how he knew about your travel plans initially―that was the coincidence part―but once I did, I sent him five open-ended universal E-passes. He didn’t even suspect they were from me.”

  “That still doesn’t explain why you are here,” said Anni.

  “You don’t actually think I’d let two Elemental children and a human take the credit for finding and rescuing a vital object on the Elofficium’s task list? I’m here because I’m going to find that stolen Golden Bee Artifact and get the credit for returning it to the Elofficials. Besides, you don’t even know what it stands for, do you?” Miranda paused. “Let me enlighten you. That artifact single-handedly reminds all Elementals to disobey Elofficium rule so that a bunch of Eggheads can pretend some silly old legend is real. Do you really think that Elemental boy who was born from two great families can really save us all? Do you really think he’s still alive after the Fectus took him? It’s ridiculous!” She narrowed her eyes at Anni. “Humans and Elementals living together is a huge mistake, and no Elemental will ever change that. You can blame the Metalheads for that.”

  Daphne’s face flushed red. “Don’t talk to Anni like you know her!”

  “Did you forget that I am the most experienced one here? Not to mention the only one of us here with an authentic Opus Stone. And by the way, if you were informed, which you clearly aren’t, you’d know that the tree you’re looking for is called the Tree of Death, because those who enter the wrong way don’t come back alive.”

  “We’re not here to find the artifact. We’re here to find Lexi,” said Daphne.

  “That’s right,” said Squirt. “We just want to find her.”

  “Strange,” said Brat, perched on Daphne’s shoulder and looking at her Omninav. “The Sleeping Tree should be right over here. We should be right next to it.”

  All that stood before them was a bunch of stringy vines.

  “You mean the spooky Tree of Death,” said Squirt with a chuckle.

  “Ridiculous!” said Miranda. “You can’t even find it…”

  SNAP!

  They all jumped.

  CRACK!

  As if on command, a colossal trunk, as wide as a building, appeared out of thin air. Hundreds of vines fell from above. Carved stones that looked like little fat people sprouted up across the jungle floor and forced them to move. Dozens of huge black-and-white feathers rose from behind woodland objects.

  Daphne grabbed Anni’s hand. Brat quivered on Daphne’s shoulder. It was impossible to determine what the feathers belonged to; some were singular while others rose in multiples. They inched their way back against the massive trunk while Squirt stood protectively in front of Brat and the girls.

  Miranda wouldn’t have it. She walked into the center of a clearing and said, “I demand you show yourself, creatures!”

  “No,” said Squirt as he tried to pull her back, but she resisted.

  A young man, clad only in a loincloth and a feathered headdress, deftly landed a foot away from Miranda, making her flinch. As he landed he repeated, “Creature?” The young man with a shaved head growled, “I have a name, it is Kuar, and these are my people. You are the creature here. I give you fair warning to leave now.”

  Miranda scowled at him. “I’m not taking orders from someone dressed like you! I am superior to you in every way. Get out of my way, savage. I’m on Elofficium business, and you cannot interfere.”

  “No,” said Squirt.

  The young man smiled at her. “We don’t recognize your laws here. We eat your kind for breakfast.”

  Miranda’s jaw slackened, but she caught herself and stiffened up. “Nice try. Now get out of our way. I am going to the Tree of Death!”

  A global catcall echoed around them, and hundreds of natives appeared from behind trees and rocks and seamlessly slid down vines.

  “You have one second to turn back,” said the young man as he crouched low.

  As if time had slowed, Anni sensed everything around her; Daphne trembled beside her; Brat’s breath rattled; Miranda defiantly narrowed her eyes. When Anni looked down, silver hairs lifted on Daphne’s arm and, for a split second, it almost looked like tiny feathers had sprouted. Just then, Squirt loped in front of Miranda. The young native sprang up at them from his low crouch, kicking up earth.

  Squirt pushed Miranda aside as he yelled. “No! She’s my sister!”

  Shock registered on Miranda’s face, and everyone else�
�s. The young native spiraled in the air aimed at Squirt, but his body, from his hind legs up, transformed in the process. Before they could blink, the young native morphed into a hulking jaguar with massive claws and fangs. Anni fell to her knees, terrified that her funny, lovable friend Squirt was about to be ripped to shreds.

  Squirt clutched his throat. A roar erupted from his mouth, echoing off the forest floor like the boom of a sonic pulse. A wave of electricity crackled the air, and just like that Anni witnessed Daphne, Miranda, and Brat crumple to the ground. Squirt transformed; he morphed into an even larger jaguar than Kuar.

  A tangle of brown and black fur clashed head on. They moved so fast that all Anni could see were teeth and claws rippling across the ground. And then, they stopped. Teeth bared, the jaguars growled. Slowly, they backed away from one another, heads low. One bowed lower than the other, and when it transformed back, it was the young native, Kuar.

  Anni looked down at the striking black-brown jaguar crouched protectively in front of her. Hissing sounds escaped behind his clenched jaws and massive fangs. She couldn’t move from the shock.

  The young native bowed and bent low before Squirt. His people did the same.

  Slowly, Squirt switched back from beast to boy. Shoes and shorts came first, then his torso reappeared, but it took a few seconds before his head took its original form. The sweet smell of the ocean lingered in the air. An aura of tranquility took over, as a soothing hum emanated from a luminous emerald stone, which hovered by Squirt’s feet. Anni turned to Daphne, but she, Miranda, and Brat were still lying unconscious.

  Squirt jumped. “Anni I finally got my Opus Stone! Can you believe it? Wahoo!”

  “Yeah. Um,” said Anni staring at their friends. “Are they going to be okay?”

  “Uh-oh. I think so. Opus Stones can create shock waves. Remember when you got to the Zephyr? Elemental forces can have dramatic effects when mixed with Funk. They should be fine.” Squirt beamed his usual happy-go-lucky smile as he picked up the emerald stone, about the size of an acorn. When it touched his skin, the humming stopped. “I’m a full-fledged Water Elemental, just like Mackenzie.”