“Why don’t you hand gesture to us as Minnoa talks to you in Gnomish?” Ookum said.
Roeg had never thought of that before. He nodded and gestured to Ookum and Tsisa when Minnoa spoke.
Minnoa started again. “You can’t just find the Land of Darkness. You need a guide, but not any guide. You need a nymph.”
“What’s a nymph?” Roeg asked.
“The nymphs are the gnomes’ cousins. We are kin. They are like us but live in the Sa’ha’ra Drylands in an oasis. They are elementals like us gnomes.”
“What’s an elemental?” Roeg asked.
Minnoa giggled. “You don’t know much, do you? Well, elementals are…” Minnoa stopped and thought for a second. “Okay, maybe you’ll understand this. I told you about how gnomes can speak to rocks and earth and stuff, right?”
Roeg nodded.
“Okay, so we gnomes are earth elementals. The nymphs are a little different. They are much smaller than gnomes, and they have different elemental powers. They look different too. They are more… well, it’s hard to explain, but they take on the look of their element more than the gnomes do. You’ll see.”
Minnoa continued as Roeg gestured to Ookum and Tsisa. “They are more magical than the gnomes, and there are three types of nymphs. The dryads can speak to plants and trees. They are the scouts and warriors of the nymphs. The naiads are water elementals and can wield the power of water—they are the sages.”
“What are sages?” Roeg asked.
“Sages are the wise ones, the ones who remember the histories or say the right things. Nymphs can take the form of their element and control their surroundings.”
Roeg nodded in understanding.
Minnoa continued, “The last of the nymphs are the sylphs. They are the temperamental ones, the leaders, and the… well, they are the strict ones.”
“Okay. So why are they important?” Roeg asked.
“Because, like I said, we need a guide to get to the Land of Darkness. Without one, you could be lost there forever. The nymphs are the only guides to the Land of Darkness. So, before we go there, we need to find the nymphs.”
“Okay. Let’s find them then,” Roeg said as he looked around the room. He noticed there were no doors, other than the large, stone, double doors they had entered through. “How do we get out of here?”
Minnoa raised her hand. In it, she held the metallic object that Jexif had used to open the doors to this room, then said, “With this. This is a widget. It is a gnomish gearwork that acts like a key.”
“What is a key?” Roeg asked.
“Seriously?” Minnoa cried. “A key is a tool you use to open doors.”
“Oh. Go open the double doors then, and let’s get out of here.”
Minnoa shook her head. “Doesn’t work that way. You can’t open a gnomish door from the inside. And besides, we are not going that way. You want to get to the Land of Darkness, right?”
Roeg nodded.
“Well, to do that, we have to go through the Gnomish Ruins, find the secret passage, then sneak by Ifrit without awakening him. Once we are out of the Ruins, we have to pass through the Sa’ha’ra Drylands, find the nymphs, and convince them to lead us to the Land of Darkness.” Minnoa stopped and took a deep breath.
“How are we going to do all that?” Roeg asked.
It seemed like too much.
“How do you eat a mammoth?” Minnoa asked.
Roeg cocked his head, his eyebrows drawn together. “What?”
Minnoa giggled. “How do you eat a mammoth?”
Roeg shook his head. He didn’t understand what eating a mammoth had to do with finding the Land of Darkness.
Minnoa giggled again. “One spoonful at a time!”
Roeg thought about it. “I don’t get it.”
“We have a big journey ahead of us, right?” Minnoa said.
Roeg nodded then gestured to Ookum and Tsisa. The twins scrunched their faces and looked at Minnoa.
Tsisa asked, “Why are we talking about hunting mammoths?”
Roeg shook his head and shrugged his shoulders at the twins.
Minnoa laughed. “It means that if you think of a big journey and everything all at once, there is a good chance you get scared and do nothing at all. But if you take it one step at a time, things become easier, and you get stuff done.”
Roeg nodded and gestured to the twins. They were still confused, so he grunted and clicked to explain better.
Minnoa turned, held up the widget, and said, “The first step is to find a way out of this room.”
Minnoa walked the perimeter of the room three times, rubbing the widget on the surface of the walls before she sighed, “Where is it?”
Ookum and Tsisa were lying on the floor, staring at the ceiling impatiently.
Roeg walked to Minnoa and asked, “What are you looking for?”
“Well this room, and the rest of the Gnomish Ruins, is a big trap meant to keep people out. We developed keys to help us get from one room to another. Only thing is, I’ve never actually been in the ruins. They were abandoned when I was a baby, because of the Atlanteans.”
“Abandoned?” Roeg asked.
Minnoa sighed. “These ruins used to be more of a market and meeting place where the gnomes and nymphs would gather every year for a month-long festival. They celebrated Gaia and were thankful to her. There was food—so much drink, and feasting, music and dance. And then it all ended.”
“Who is Gaia?” Roeg asked.
“Gaia is everything. She is in and around all of us. ‘Gaia’ in our language means ‘Great Mother.’” Minnoa said.
“Great Mother?” Roeg thought of Unn and what he said about the Great Mother. Was Gaia the Great Mother? Did she come to Unn?
“Did I say something that upset you?” Minnoa asked.
Roeg looked to her. “Unn spoke of the Great Mother and said she came in his dreams.”
Minnoa’s eyebrows shot up. “I’ve never heard of Gaia coming to people in their dreams before. But anyway, as I was saying,” Minnoa paused and wrinkled her brow. “What was I saying?”
Roeg thought. “You were talking about how these ruins used to be a meeting place with the nymphs.”
“Oh, yes. It ended fourteen years ago, when an Atlantean stole the Firestone from the Fire Caverns. When they did, they stirred the fire demon, Ifrit. Now Ifrit haunts the Fire Caverns and has blocked the passage. We… my village is dying. That is why my father was so forceful when he thought you were from Atlantea.”
Roeg thought of his mother. It must have been she who had stolen the Firestone. But why? Maybe if he gave it back to Ifrit—no, Unn said not to give it back. Roeg looked to his chest where the Firestone was tucked under his hide covering.
“But we are not from Atlantea,” Roeg said, still thinking of his mother. “But my mother was… I think.”
Roeg reached down and pulled the Firestone out. “I have the Firestone.”
Minnoa gasped and stepped back. “How… how are you touching it? I’ve heard that no one can touch the Firestone.”
Roeg shrugged.
Minnoa backed up farther. “You… how? You are not my friends… my father was right.” Minnoa hit the wall and clung to it. Her fear-stricken face grimaced, but she didn’t take her eyes off of Roeg.
Roeg held his hands up. “I am not from Atlantea. My mother… I think my mother stole the Firestone. I don’t know why. She… her people… bad people chased her. She abandoned me to Unn. He is my father.”
Minnoa didn’t move. “You are the reason my people are dying.”
Roeg winced. He didn’t want to be the reason for anyone’s pain, let alone a whole village dying. “I…” He looked to Ookum and Tsisa, who were now sitting and watched intently.
Roeg finally stammered out, “I will make it right.”
Minnoa squinted her eyes. “How?”
“Unn told me I will meet Ifrit. He told me not to gi
ve the Firestone back to him, but whatever happens, I promise I will make Ifrit open the passage so your people can see the nymphs again.”
Minnoa stepped forward from the wall. She walked to Roeg and extended her small, blue hand. “Deal.”
Roeg took her hand in his; she squeezed, so he squeezed back. “Deal.”
CLICK.
The room shook and stone ground on stone. Ookum skittered away from the wall where the sound came from. He had taken the widget and was playing with it on the wall like he had seen Minnoa do, except he could reach higher than Minnoa.
He ran to Roeg. “I’m sorry! I thought I was helping! What’s going on?”
“I don’t know,” Roeg said.
The widget glowed and spun like it had when Jexif opened the doors to the ruins. The stone slabs under the widget shook and slid apart, opening up a hole in the wall leading out of the room.
The group walked through a series of stone slab tunnels. Each turn looked the same as the last. Roeg couldn’t stand at full height in the tunnels. Steam and heat whistled from the holes and cracks between the stone slabs. The air was pungent with the smell of burnt sulfur.
“Ugh,” Minnoa finally let out. “This must be a maze. We’ve been walking for hours. I don’t know how to get out.”
“What is hours?” Roeg asked.
The annoyed look on Minnoa’s face turned to a grin. “Ha! How do your people keep time?” she asked.
Roeg looked up, then said, “We look to the Great Fire in the Great Above. It tells us how much light we have left in the day. The moontides tell us how many days pass and when the Great Hunt approaches.”
“Hmmm. Well, we use hours. There are sixty minutes in an hour.” She extended her arm and showed Roeg a metallic bracelet she had on. It had a circular gear in the center, with a tiny moving spoke that ticked repeatedly.
“What’s that?” Roeg asked.
“It tells us time. It’s our tick-tock gearworks. We used gnomish gears to build and power this place. The gemstones we mine power our gearworks. They allow us to live underground. But we haven’t been able to maintain the gearworks since Ifrit came,” Minnoa explained.
Roeg nodded.
An airy sound echoed in the small stone tunnel. Roeg startled and turned. Ookum stood still, his hands by his side, and his face radiating a deep red that matched his hair. “Sorry.”
Roeg caught a whiff of something pungent. He winced and backed away. The smell overwhelmed the cramped space.
Tsisa heaved and gagged from behind. “OOKUM! Gross! You broke wind.” Tsisa covered her nose and hurled past Roeg. “Run.” The wind from Tsisa’s charge brought the odor with her. Roeg choked, turned, and ran behind Tsisa.
They raced past Minnoa. “Wait! Where are you going?” Roeg turned the corner then heard Minnoa say, “Gaia’s blessings, what is that smell?” Minnoa turned and ran from Ookum.
Roeg stopped in his tracks when he ran into Tsisa from behind. She didn’t budge. He bounced off her and crashed to the ground. “Ugh.”
Minnoa turned the corner, followed by Ookum.
Tsisa stood motionless, “What is that?”
Roeg looked to Minnoa. “It looks like the tick-tock gearwork you have on your wrist.”
The tunnel had come to a dead end, and on the wall hung an unmoving metallic gearwork.
Minnoa looked to her wrist and nodded.
A tremor jolted the tunnel, and a stone slab slammed shut behind them. They were locked in the cramped stone tunnel.
The gnomish gearwork suddenly came to life: tick-tock, tick-tock, tick-tock.
SEPHONEI
Sephonei’s Terms
S
ephonei woke up sore. The hike up the mountain to the plateau had been agonizing. Carrying Ku-aya’s satchel along with her own had made things worse. She sat up and pain shot from her legs to her head. She laid back down. “Ugh.”
“Ai, li’l fistler, time to teach that thing to let us ride it,” Abil said.
“His name is Pery, an’ he can hear you. Watch it, or I’ll tell him to buck you off again,” Sephonei retorted, slowly clambering up and stretching.
She walked over to Pery, leaned in, and rested her head gently against his. They stood motionless for a long while.
“Pery,” She began. “I need a favor. You need to let those two over there ride you, okay?”
Pery snorted, then looked away.
She leaned in again and turned his face to hers. “I’m serious. Did you see that pack I carried yesterday?” She motioned to Ku-aya’s satchel. Ku-aya picked up the satchel and dropped it by Sephonei’s bed roll.
“If we don’t ride, you carry.” Ku-aya said. “Remember the deal?”
Sephonei turned to Pery. “You see what I’m up against here? You need to let them ride you… even Abil.”
Pery stomped his hoof, turned his face then snorted. Sephonei read his aura and laughed. “You don’t like them, do you?”
Pery stamped his foot twice.
Sephonei leaned back then said, “Does that mean yes? Do two stamps mean yes?”
Pery stamped his foot twice.
Sephonei squealed in delight. “You can really understand me?”
Pery stamped twice.
She leaned into Pery and whispered, “Okay, here is the plan.”
Sephonei walked confidently to the ridge where Abil and Ku-aya scouted ahead. Pery followed behind, chewing a clump of brown grass he found along the way to the ridge.
Abil turned. “’Bout time. What took so long? Can we finally ride that thing?”
Sephonei ignored him.
“Well?” Ku-aya removed her far-sight goggles as she turned. “Are we ridin’, or are you carryin’ my gear?”
Sephonei stood tall and held her chin up high. “That depends.”
Abil snorted. “On what?”
Sephonei ignored him.
Ku-aya huffed, “Come on, Sephonei. On what?”
Sephonei crossed her arms. “I will let you ride Pery, but here are my terms.”
“Terms?” Abil snapped. “You don’t get to have terms, you li’l pillock.”
Sephonei kept her focus on Ku-aya. “Term one: I get your far-sight goggles.”
Abil laughed. “That’s what you get for mentorin’ her,” he said to Ku-aya.
Ku-aya shot him a dark glance. She crossed her arms, tapped her foot, then said, “Carry on.”
Sephonei said, “Term two: Abil is no longer your second. I am.”
“You’re not considerin’ this, are you, Ku-aya? This is ridiculous.” Abil turned to Sephonei, “Where do you get off, kid?”
Ku-aya shot a wry smile at Abil. “That’s what you get for always pickin’ on her.” She focused on Sephonei. “Is that it?”
Sephonei paused “No. One more term: When we get back from retrievin’ the Bloodstone, we help Semessa and Shantae run from the Quartermaster.”
Abil rolled his eyes. “Unbelievable.” He turned his back to Sephonei and shook his head. “We are Crystal Hunters, not mystical creature babysitters.”
Ku-aya squinted. “I can agree to terms one an’ two, not the third.”
Abil glared at Ku-aya. “What? I don’t believe this! Sin… We… Argh.” He grimaced then scowled at Sephonei.
Sephonei held her chin high and spun. “Then, no deal.” She whistled, and before Pery followed, he snorted at Ku-aya and Abil.
Abil turned to Ku-aya. “Did that thing just snort at us?”
Ku-aya huffed. “Yes, it did. She has quite the bond with that thing. This changes everything, yaa?”
Abil stalked away and muttered, “You have no idea.”
ROEG
Gnomish Gearworks
E
ach tick-tock of the gnomish gearwork rang off the walls of the cramped tunnel and blurred into the next.
Ookum grabbed at his head and ran to the tick-tock gearwork. “What is that sound? It makes me… I don’t
wanna be in here anymore.”
Minnoa looked to the tick-tock gearwork then to her wrist. “This is some kind of puzzle. The ruins are full of them.”
Tick-tock, tick-tock, tick-tock.
The ticking sped up and got louder. Roeg moved to get a better view of the gearwork. “Why did they build puzzles, and why is it ticking?”
Minnoa followed Roeg. “They are meant to keep Ifrit locked in the Fire Caverns. But it also prevents us from seeing our kin, the nymphs. That is why our village is dying. We haven’t been able to recharge our magic at the nymph oasis.”
Roeg nodded. “I can understand why your people are angry and scared.”
The walls lurched and rumbled. Bits of stone crumbled to the ground.
Tsisa leapt from the wall and crashed into Roeg and Minnoa. They fell to the ground in a heap. Ookum, who had been staring at the tick-tock gearwork, twisted and ran—he tripped over the pile and landed with a thud.
Minnoa squeaked, “Oof.”
Ookum looked down at Minnoa. His panic-ridden face flushed as he scrambled to get up. “Uh, sorry.”
Roeg emerged from the pile and put his hands to the walls. Tremors vibrated through him as the walls inched closer together. “Maybe there is another keyhole?”
Minnoa shot up. “You’re right.” She grabbed the widget and traced it along the walls, looking for the secret keyhole.
Time was running out. Ookum crashed into the wall with his shoulder as he strained to keep it in place. “Maybe I can push it back.”
Tsisa, not to be outdone, jumped up and kicked at the wall, only to be knocked over. She got up and pushed on the other side of the wall. She kicked up her feet and braced them against the other wall, forming a bridge as she pushed and grunted. “I can’t hold them back.” The walls slowed but didn’t stop.
Tick-tock, tick-tock, tick-tock.
The gnomish gearworks sped up. Roeg’s heart raced against the ticking of the gearwork. He pushed and strained, but the walls inched forward. They didn’t have much room left before they would be crushed. He leaned his back against one wall and pushed with his hands on the other wall. The sound of stone on stone and the tick-tock rang off the stone and surrounded them.
Firestone Page 21
