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

 Okay, I'm starting to get ticked off. Lily better not be playing a mean joke and not answer our telepathic calls. But when the last thing I heard from Lily was, "I can't make it," I started to panic.

"Musilica..." I choked out. "Did you hear that?" I hoped the answer was no.

"LILY!" Musilica yelled into the water. "LILY!"

No response. I sank to my kneeds, devastated.

Suddenly, Lily's head broke the surface of the water.

I hasped. How's this possible? Lily was drowing. I was sure of it.

"Hey," Lily's voice was grim.

"Wha-" Musilica sputtered.

"I don'ot know what happened," Lily said. "When I touched the crystal, a surge of power, as you said, Kizana, hit me and I just swam to the top."

My eyes met Musilica's. Are you thinking what I'm thinking? I thought to her.

Of course, she replied. I'm hearing you think, right?

Lily looked a little unnerved, probably because a wicked grin had j ust spread across my face. I turned to Musilica and thought, On three! One...two...three! We both reached out and dunked Lily's head underwater. Her hair wasn't even moist.

When we let her up, she wasn't coughing or breathing deeply. She wasn't even the slightest bit wet.

"What was that for?!" Lily shook her fist at us.

"You can breathe underwater," Musilica started. "Not to mention that you dono't get wet, and I bet you my flute that you can withstand water pressure."

"Lucky duck," I teased.

Lily flicked Musilica's ponytail and stuck her tongue out at me while smiling.

Musilica reached back and steadied her swinging hair.

"Well," Musilica said and brought out her crystal. "Crystals are all here. So..."

"...What now?" I finished for her, pulling out my crystal as well.

All of a sudden, the crystals began to glow; Lily shrieked. The map-stone had wriggled out of Musilica's pack and started spinning and flying around and about. We all yelled and in general, it was mass panic-mode in here. The wretched little map-stone spun a little too close for our comfort and in three fasts trikes we could barely seem it sliced Musilica's shoulder; Lily's ankle; and my cheek, leaving droplets of blood shining. Our blood dripped as the map-stone continued spinning like mad. One by o ne, a droplet fell on the smooth surface of the map-stone, which had halted to catch our drops of blood.

Then, a portal opened.

Musilica flinched. Lily recoiled so fast that she slapped me and I yelled, half in shock, half in, well, sheer pain.

The blue portal sucked us in and we blacked out.

* * *

When we came to, we found ourselves in a little valley.

Musilica breathed in sharply. "A house," She whispered.

"A fire," Lily murmured.

"Our memories," I said dully.

We were replaying our memories...

We saw a small village. Little, but joyful and cozy and it seemed that the villagers were having a celebration. With a jolt, I realized that it wasn't our "adoption" village. I saw myself, barely 7 years old, my red hair in pigtails, a stubborn expression on my face. Lily, with a braid, and Musilica, wearing a blue dress, were trying to make me swim in the lake. Suddenly, a disturbance settled over the village.

A fire started out of nowhere and was spreading. The festive mood died. People were running and screaming. A crash resounded behind us. I (mini me) whipped around and screamed. A monster stood at the edge of the village. A fire spirit. It was bigger than any of the monsters we had ever encountered. Seven people came dashing out of a nearby house, w ith protectiveness and determination burning in their eyes. A beautiful woman looked like me. The others looked like Lily and Musilica, along with a shorter girl who looked to be Musilica's older sister.

"Our parents," Lily (the older one) muttered at me.

Lily's mom had black hair, but with blue eyes. Musilica's mother had short, choppy light blue hair. My mom had reddish-brown hair and hazel eyes. They rushed over. We were bursting with questions at our parents, but they shushed us, Musilica's sister looking grim. They picked us up and ran into the house from earlier. Up two flights of steps they went, and finally they left us in the spacious attic with food and water. Tears dotted their eyes. Lily's mother took a long look at us. She whispered, "Don't worry. We love you. Always."

Our parents hugged us - for the last time - and watched Musilica's sister hold onto us a little longer before they all left, Lily's father with a swirling orb of water in his hand. We gave each other confused looks, but soon forgot about it and started to play again.

"How could we play at a time like this?" I asked.

The memory fast-forwarded. Soon, we saw saw ourselves fast asleep in the attic. It seemed that the battle outside had ended. Suddenly the windows blazed with light.

"A fire?" I murmured. The spaces under our past selves began to glo. Blazing white. We, along with our younger selves, were sucked in the light.

"A portal," Lily gasped.

Color swirled around us. Black, green, brown...I lost track. We came to a halt. We found ourselves in a clearing.

"The forest," Musilica shivered. The place we all despise. We looked at ourselves running, confused, tired and weak.

"Where are we?" We heard my smaller self whimper.

Suddenly, a dark vast shape blotted out the remaining sun, leaving us in complete darkness.

Musilica didn't seem at the least bothered. "Look at all this pace!" Her smaller self laughed and began to run. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw the older version of her smile slightly. She hadn't noticed the huge "thing" in her path. Lily let out a squeak of fear. Kizana (my younger self) backed into a tree. I almost had to laugh there.

A brillant flash of light, coming from the thing, illuminated the forest and we screamed. We tried to escape, but to no avail. One second, we were running, the next...nothing. We were gone. We knew the rest. The new villagers found us at the edge of the stupid forest, fazed and worried, without a single memory.

I cought my breath as the scene blurred and we arrived back in present time.

"That's..." I said, dazed.

"It," Lily stuttered.

"That's what happened," Musilica said for all of us.

 "Oh, my...I think...umm," I couldn't get a full sentence out. I was too shocked at what just happened. Lily seemed bewildered. Lily...I..."

"Wait," She started. "My name is Lyla."

"What?" I asked, trying to think if Kizana was my real name.

"My memories are coming back, Lyla was my real name, though I like Lily better," She said.

"Musa!" Musilica gasped. "I remember now! My mother called me Musa..."

"Ummmm..." I was struggling to think. Why couldn't I recall my name?

Lily (or is it Lyla now?) laughed when she saw my face, scrunched up and as red as my hair. "You look funny," she giggled.

"Ohhh...wait," I said. "Akiza!"

"You looked like you were constipated," Musilica teased.

"Oh, shut up," I killed the look. "But my name's Akiza."

"Hey, where are we?"? Lily stated, looking around. I realized we weren't in the lake cavern anymore. A beautiful valley stretched out before us. A river churned nearby and fruit trees grew in an orchid, the branches all over the place from the years of not being attended to. It was an untouched heaven in a dangerous world.

Almost.

Remains of houses were scattered across the flatter section of the valley. Even from the distance we were at, the blackened, burned charred wood stood out in the mesmerising landscape.

"I-It's the valled..." Lily managed to say. "Or, what's left of it after the blaze."

"Are we actually here? Or is this just another illusion?" I bent down and brushed the lush grassm feeling the soft, cool greenery under my fingernails. "It feels real enough."

"It has to be," Musilica let out a small sigh. "Can't ou feel it?" There was something familiar about these charred remains. Something...

"Hidden!: All three of us exclaimed.

"Um...um..." I strained to remember. "Something...in our old house, maybe?" Lily and Musilica stared blankly at me.

"Where would the house be?" Lily stated. Almost instantly, I felt a tug in my stomach, and suddenly, I knew where our old house was. My other cousins seemed to have felt it too.

"It's here. Right here," Musilica muttered.

Text: Emberdawn and her friends
Images: Emberdawn and her friends
Editing: Emberdawn and her friends
Translation: Emberdawn and her friends
Publication Date: 01-31-2013

All Rights Reserved

Dedication:
The Spirit Duets (Emberdawn and Mistflower), the friends of Emberdawn who she helped write this story.