Crystals From Within by Emberdawn and her awesome friends! (world of reading TXT) 📕

turned around to see Kizana and Lily walking to the giant mound of jewels as if hypnotized, their hands reaching for a crystal.

“STOP!!!” I screamed, and they broke out of their trance and looked at me, confused.  “Guys, listen. We can’t just go around grabbing crystals. If we get the wrong one, this cave’s gonna fall on us. We have to decide which one is my crystal, and we can leave without any trouble. Got it?”

   They nodded, but Kizana was already turning to look at a fake bright red crystal on a mound. I sighed, exasperated. I should better hurry and find my crystal before my momentarily deluded cousins kill us all. I was already so close. I could feel it.

   As I examined the tops of the piles, I realized something. An aqua-colored crystal, the exact shape and size, was resting at the top of every mound. I looked further into the cavern and – there it was!No doubt about it. Even though it looked like all the other aqua crystals, I could practically feel the energy radiating from it.

 “Lily, can you make me a bird so I can…” I trailed off, since Lily was staring at another fake crystal.

   Argh! The two were not cooperating.  I have to do this manually. I stretched my arms out horizontally and with a quick hop, I was airborne. I snatched a stalactite hanging from the ceiling and accommodating swings and loose pebbles, and very cautious not to touch any other crystals, I was positioned over my crystal. I noticed Kizana and Lily both edging closer to crystas. As I lowered myself down, both Lily and Kizana reached out and touched a crystal. The cavern began to shake and stalactites started falling from the ceiling. Great. Nice job, my cousins. Quickly I jumped, grabbing my crystal in the process. I landed on a shaking ground beside the two shocked girls, grabbed them and started running. They followed me, while life-threatening stalactites were trying to kill us.

"My mistake!" Lily yelled running in front of me. All the while, while my crystal was getting colder every few seconds. Then, I couldn't hear Kizana running after me. I turned around and ran.

And ran. I ran until I saw a flash of red. Red hair!

"Kizana!" I shouted above the noise. I saw a hand come out and I grabbed it and started running for our lives again. Unfortunatly, we were trapped by the stalactites. There was a space, only big enough for us to crawl through. A stalactite started crumbling, threatening to fall.

"GO!" I yelled at Kizana and shoved her to the space. She crawled through just before a stalactite covered it, and I knew all was lost. I was running out of air and that was that.

Chapter 5: Lily

I saw Kizana crawl out of a hole and rushed forward to help her.

"Where's Musilica?" I asked her. Kizana lifted a shaking hand. And what I dreaded to hear was said.

"She's still in there. She told me to go first." Kizana said, a tear cutting through the dirt on her face. I looked at the wall of rubble and saw a hole at the top, big enough for Musilica to get through. I climbed my best to get there and shouted.

"Musilica! Can you hear me? Are you alright?!"

"Yeah!" a voice replied. "Well, more or less."

Relief - glorious, shinging relief - washed through me. Musilica was alright, trapped but alive. The hole at the top was way to high for her to jump, and the walls inside were smooth - too smooth. With a jolt, I realized that the small place where Musilica was standing was too small for comfort. Hopefully, Musilica wouldn't focus on the haven and instead find a way to escape.

Too late. The next time Musilica spoke, her voice had an edge of panic to it.

"Guys..." she said. 
"I-I can't get out."

Desperate to keep Musilica's mind off her claustrophobia, I asked, "Do you have you crystal?"

"Um...yes, I do," came the nervous reply. "Why?"

Kizana answered for me: "Does it do anything? I mean, when I got mine, I recieved fire powers. Do you have anything?"

There was a pause. "I dunno," Musilica said. "Do you still have your fake ones that you grabbed?"

There wasn't an accusing note in her voice, but it made me feel guilty all the same. If Kizana and I didn't snatch the fake ones, we wouldn't be in this mess in the first place.

I stared at the rather pretty blue gem glittering in my hand. I hadn't realized that I still had it. A wave of temptation came to me. You know, a voice said in my mind. I flinched. This was no ordinary voice. Well, at least not a kind one. This one was sly and cold and calculating. You could be powerful, it continued. You have such great potential. Just swear your loyalty to me, and you power could be limitless. Why not?

Limitless power...the idea was tempting, but I have a feeling that t his voice, whoever it was, wasn't offering for free. There must be a catch. Payment.

"Forget it," I said. I let the fake jewel drop. The moment it hit the icy ground, it disintegrated on a trip to Nothingland.

I stole a glance at Kizana. She hadn't heard the voice, it seemed, and she had already let the fake crystal drop. She took out her real one, fingering it.

"It may look pretty, but that's just the outside." Musilica said. I felt the rocks, trying to find something to take out so we can get Musilica out of that small cave.

"Yikes!" Musilica yelped. I heard something thud against the ground.

"Musilica! Are you okay?" Kizana said. A few long seconds went by.

"I-I'm okay. Just the crystal is really cold." Musilica said, a little muffled. I suspected that she bent to pick her crystal up. A second later, Musilica came shooting like an arrow out of the hole.

It took a few moments for that to register in my confused - and tired - brain. Musilica...flying? No way. No. Freaking. Way.

"Yo! S'up guys?" Musilica grinned. She was totally hyped up. 

"That is wildly, incredibly unfair," Kizana puffed out her cheeks.

"Oh, come off it,"  Musilica said. "It's no biggie."

Kizana tugged at her side-bang. I bit my lip. No biggie?

"Well," I said, breaking the silence. "That's one crystal to go, my comrades!"

The moment I said crystal, the ground beneath us crumbled, and we fell into another hole.

"Not agaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaain!" Kizana yelled.

"Oof!" I grunted. I, unfortunately, had the bad luck to end up at the bottom of the pile of cousins. We looked around, after we had gotten up.

We were in a lake. Well, a lakeshore. It was a blue, sparkling cave, and a body of dark cerulean water covered most of it. Light cerulean sand covered 1/3 of it; where we were standing. Cerulean...the exact same shade as my eyes.

"Um...Musilica...do you wanna fly over the lake to see what's there?" my voice echoed in the dimly-lit cavern.

"Sure," she replied. She took off, first examing the higher corners of the cave. Then, she went to scout over the lake. But the moment she started over the water, a force, almost ilke a tronger gravity source, had tugged Musilica down and into the dark depth.  I jumped and grabbed her just before she was sucked completely in. As Musilica recovered from her daze, Kizana tossed a rock into the lake and it got sucked down.

"Looks like we have to-" Musilica started.

"Swim." I finished.

"Seems like we can't really go over it."

"One more thing," Musilica started. "I saw something blue and shiny."

"My crystal," I said. "I'm going down."

"Before you go," Kizana said. "Don't forget the airfilled crystals we found."

Which airfilled crystals? I thought.

"The ones we found," Musilica answered. "From earlier. When we saw those little crystals, and you stepped on one, it blasted you with air.

"Well that clears that up a lot." I said. "Wait a second, did I just say that or think-" I stopped myself. Now wasn't the time. "Never mind, well I'll see you guys after."

Then I jumped.

I heard a splash from when my feet hit the water, and then it was instantly subdued by the lake. It was deeper than I had anticipated. I held my breath for as long as I could, then I pressed one of the crystals to my nose and cracked it. Air filled my lungs.

I looked down into the water. All I could see was darkness, but in the middle of the black was a shining blue dot.

I wonder if Lily's OK.

I started. That was Kizana's voice, and it echoed in my head as if she was right next to me.

"Kizana?" I said, but all I saw was the stream of bubbles issuing from my mouth. I cured. That was my air all, wasted. I pulled out a second bubble and inhaled.

My mind strayed to the moment where I heard Kizana. I heard her as clearly as a bell, yet she wasn't there. So maybe I wasn't hearing her voice. 

Maybe I was hearing her...

...thoughts.

Hesitantly, I thought, Kizana?

LILY? Kizana yell-thought. I can't see you...are you resurfaced? How...

I almost laughed. I think we can speak to each other with thoughts.

Silence. Then, I'm gonna try to get Musilica as well.

A few moments later, Musilica's voice reverberated un my head: Lily, this is so cool! Are you alright? Did you find the crystal?

One second, I thought. I took uot a third bubble; I had run out of air. Once I had my fill, I answer, Well, I see my crystal at the bottom. Like, the very bottom. I can tell that the water's really deep. I don't know if I could stand the water pressure d own there.

Well, Kizana interrupted You should get on with it.

Yeah, I agreed. I have seven bubbls left.

One more thing, Musilica said. Can those bubbles help you with the water pressure?

A spark of hope illuminated my darkening path. I'll try, I responded. I smashed the fourth bubble on my arm. It worked. A thin layer of air lifted all the pressure from the water. I swam deeper. I couldn't believe how long I had to swim down. The only thing sustaining me was the bubble. If it ran out at this depth, I'd surely die.

I took another bubble for breath. I checked my pocket. I had one more left. I figured out that a bubble for breath lasts two minutes and water pressure, five. Something bumped my lower calf. A basin with a cerulean blue crystal in the middle. I reached out, but a solid wall blacked my hand. A barrier. Very solid. I had an idea. A fatal, crazy one, but hopefully it worked. I pulled out my remaining air-bubble - the last one - and smashed it against the barraier. The barraier dissipated into the water.

Then I ran out of air.

I reached into my pocket for an air bubble, but I felt nothing. Kizana and Musilica were yelling in my head, but all I thought was, I can't do it guys. Sorry.

Panic is a scary thing. My lungs were threatening to burst and pain washed through my already weak body. With my last bundle of energy, I thrust my arm forward and touched the surprisingly dry surface of the long-awaited crystal. 

And then a miracle happened.