Chapter 18: The Light-Headed Digger

Good thing our next destination, Uora, is close by. We're all still tired from the climb up both Sora's sky and Tora's tree yesterday, and the dragon and bird fights didn't help much. However, the adventures we have in each town seems to help us get closer to one another. Stan and Sobie have been together for awhile and Andrew and Kyra just told each other their feelings yesterday. Jennifer and I have grown fond of each other as well, ever since the incident at Qora. Matt is still trying to get on Marina's good side and we can tell Octavis is feeling a little homesick. Madilynn seems to strike a nerve in everyone she talks to, but she does have everyone's best interests at heart. Hamilton appeared in Helen's vision where he was married to her and he was mentioned in mine. Hopefully we get to meet this guy before the adventure's over.

Deciding not to walk the entire way there, we used Gora's Gem to warp as close as we could. Before we entered Uora, though, Lacey asked us if she could stay out of this one.

"What for?" Andrew asked.

"I just... this place just has some bad memories for me, okay?" Lacey answered.

"I won't force you to come with us," Andrew said. "But we may need your help."

"I think you'll be fine," Lacey said. "I'll wait for you back in Gora, okay?"

"Alright, if you're sure,"

"I am," Lacey said and she headed south back to Gora.

"I wonder what happened here," Kyra said.

"We'll find out when the time comes," Andrew said. "Let's hurry and get to Uora." We walked into town and we saw the entire place was full of holes! You would have a hard time walking around in this town. They were not very big, you could easy step over them, but one wrong step and you'd have a sprained ankle. We arrived at Uora's house and knocked on the door to have it opened by a black-haired girl who was not much older than I was.

"Can I help you?" the girl asked.

"We need to speak with Uora?" Andrew answered. "Fora sent us."

"Oh, you're the ones who- Okay, Uora's back here. But just so you know, he doesn't... do much." The girl walked us inside and led us to Uora. "My name's Alice, by the way," she said and we introduced ourselves to her. Alice walked us into Uora's room where he was napping. Alice nudged him to wake him up. "Uora, they're here."

"Who's here?"

"Stephan and Andrew, the ones Fora sent,"

"And who are we, ghosts?" Stan asked jokingly.

"You're the ones here for the Gem?" Uora asked.

"That's right," I answered. Then I saw a discouraging look on Uora's face. "What happened this time?"

"Well, Moles," he answered.

"Moles?" Matt repeated.

"Yeah, Moles. They dug a hole through our houses and took whatever they wanted. Look here." We looked around his bed and saw a small molehill coming up through his floor. "They have a very complex system of tunnels and traps," Uora continued.

"My brother went down there to try and get the Gem back," Alice said. "You can't fit through the molehills, of course, but there's another hole down south of town."

"I see," Andrew said. "Would you like to come with us, Alice?"

"Me? Why?"

"You want to help your brother, don't you?" Madi asked.

"Well, yeah, but I can't fight,"

"Well, what can you do?" Chris asked.

"Um, I have a Normal Wand," Alice asked. "Here, I'll go get it!" Alice left the room and came back with a wand. "This came from my mother. It's the only thing I have left to remember her by. Since she passed, Uora's been taking care of me and my brother." We all just stood there for a moment.

"Well, Alice," Andrew said. "I think your healing abilities will be greatly appreciated. Come with us."

"I will! Thanks!" With Alice joining our ranks, we headed for the entrance to the mole tunnels south of Uora.

Though the tunnels were underground, they were surprisingly well lit. The tunnels had many intersecting paths going up, down, and through each other. We pressed forward as far as we could. Occasionally, we had to turn back because we hit a dead end. Eventually, we had been in here long enough to make these tunnels feel like a whole other Eora Everlasting. We constantly had to clear our path forward by taking out the attacking moles. About an hour in the tunnels, we started hearing a voice screaming out for help.

"That's my brother!" Alice yelled as she ran ahead. We all chased after her into one of the tunnels ahead. In that section of tunnel, we found a young man about Andrew's age on an upper ledge and his armor was covered in... spikes? "Hamilton! Are you alright?"

"I'm... no..." Hamilton muttered.

"What happened?" Alice asked.

"I'm trapped up here!" Hamilton yelled down. "I can't get out... a large boulder... fell behind me as the moles were digging... and trapped me up here...go through the left room and hurry..."

"If you jump we'll catch you!" Stan yelled as he and Matt assumed a position to catch Hamilton.

"No... thanks..."

"He's very afraid of heights," Alice said. "Hold on, Hamilton, we'll get you down!" We all went through the left room, except Helen stared at Hamilton before continuing. The tunnels were still winding around each other so it was difficult to find out which path Hamilton took. Just when we thought we found the right way, we had to turn back. It took us almost another half hour to find the boulder that trapped Hamilton.

"My turn!" Matt cheered. "Watch this Marina." Matt strutted to the boulder and gave it one hard punch. The boulder disintegrated instantly. "What do you think?" he said as he turned to Marina.

"Impressive, if not somewhat brute-ish," Marina replied. Alice pushed her way through us as she ran toward Hamilton and helped him get to the group.

"Whoo, thanks, Alice," Hamilton said. "I feel much better now. Who are your friends?"

"These are the people Fora sent to get the Gem," Alice answered.

"So you finally made it!" Hamilton said as he shook my hand. "My name's Hamilton. I was here looking for the Gem the moles stole, so you can consider me an ally."

"I'm Stephan," I said. It was strange, I felt some sort of familiarity with Hamilton, probably because of the vision, though I myself never actually saw him. Helen did, and she seemed to stay away from all of us as we introduced ourselves. Hamilton noticed her, though, and walked over to her.

"Did you want to tell me your name, too?" asked Hamilton.

"I'm... Helen," she responded standing somewhat shyly and awkwardly.

"Well, Helen, thank you for helping Alice rescue me," Hamilton said, shaking her hand. "Are... you alright?"

"Ye-yeah..." Helen answered.

"If you're not feeling well, Alice can heal you,"

"It's... fine..." Helen wasn't acting like herself; she was acting more shy than usual. I guess you don't know how to react when you meet a younger version of your future husband and only you know you'll get married at one point. Andrew walked up to Hamilton, hoping to give Helen more time to think.

"Have you figured out where the Gem is being kept?"

"No, I haven't," Hamilton answered. "But it can't be far. We've covered almost this entire maze, so there can't be a lot of places left to check."

"Yeah, but it's finding those places that are difficult," Jennifer said.

"I have most of this cave memorized," Hamilton said. "I'll lead." Hamilton and Alice took off back down the path we went to get up here. I had to nudge Helen to get her to move forward.

"Glad we found you when we did, Hamilton," Stan said. "We had to go into the sky and up a tree yesterday. You would've had a big problem."

"Uh, yeah," he responded.

Hamilton did seem to have this place memorized as he went down paths we hadn't before. The moles were also getting stronger as we continued forward. They were getting so strong than Alice was getting a bit of a workout trying to heal all of us. Eventually, we came to a room larger than the rest and we all recognized it as the boss's lair. We heard a loud drilling noise coming from above and a large mole with drills attached to his head and arms dropped down. It made a weird screeching noise then it dug downward. Preparing for an attack from anywhere, we formed a circle and waited for the large mole to come back. It came out at full force on Matt's side and Matt used his fire power to attack, but it just bounced right off the helmet! Acting on instinct, Matt grabbed the helmet and it took him for a spin. Matt lost his grip and was sent hurling toward the wall. Jennifer readied her bow just as the mole went back into the walls. Hearing a rumbling from Hamilton's side, we all turned in that direction. The mole came rushing out and Hamilton gave it a good whack with his axe. The mole then lay down for a bit then stood back up and went back underground. We heard rumbling coming from all over the room and we saw several other moles enter the fray. Then the big one came in and we were all fighting the group of moles. We tried to focus on the leader, but the minions kept getting in our way. Octavis told everyone to duck and he threw his boomerangs in a way that they circled the entire room several times and came back to him, knocking out every mole minion in the room. Hamilton swung his axe around wildly, but was careful enough to not hit anybody on our team. With one good swing, Hamilton knocked the mole's drill helmet off his head. Helen wrapped one of its drill arms and Matt grabbed the other. Hamilton and Stan came down with full force behind their axes and struck down the mole. After a number of high-fives, we continued on our way through the tunnels. Behind the boss room was a room filled with valuables and other merchandise.

"What would the moles want with all this stuff?" Jennifer asked.

"Fan out and search for the Gem!" Andrew ordered. We dug through the pile like the moles do underground. We found plenty of things: game consoles, necklaces and jewelry, even trash cans! These moles just took whatever they could get their hands on.

"I found it!" Sobie yelled. She held up the Gem victoriously and our entire surrounding changed. We were back in Uora with the pile of stolen objects. A villager saw us warp in and went to go tell everyone else. Soon, all the villagers came out of their houses and started looking for their stuff. Uora came out as well.

"Well, congratulations everyone," Uora said. "And I see you rescued Hamilton. Good job to you all!"

"Where are you guys going to go next?" Alice asked.

"We're heading to Vora," Andrew answered.

"Vora?" Uora asked. "That volcano erupted not too long ago."

"It did?" I asked. "I knew it was going to do that at some point."

"When did the eruption happen?" Jennifer asked. "Is Bora alright?"

"Bora is okay," Uora said. "Vora, however, is not. The volcano didn't actually shoot anything out, it did more like overflow. Lava quickly came out and destroyed the entire village, but it didn't go far enough to get to the other towns. This all happened about two days ago."

"Two days ago..." Kyra said.

"It must've happened when we were in Rora's cavern," Marina said.

"How many people were injured?" Helen asked.

"Can't tell," Uora said. "So far there's been no word about what is going on."

"We need to hurry to Vora, then," Hamilton said. "You don't mind if I come with you, do you?"

"No, of course not," I said.

"Can I come with you?" Alice asked.

"I think you should stay here, Alice," Hamilton said. "I don't want you getting hurt."

"What?" Alice asked. "A couple of our friends are younger than me and they get to go!"

"They know how to fight," Hamilton said. "You said you don't want to."

"We could use a healer," Andrew added. "But I understand your concern, Hamilton. This adventure is not an easy one, Alice, and I believe you're the only family Hamilton has."

"Yes, but Hamilton's also the only family I have!" Alice yelled. "I want to help him!"

"Alright, fine," Hamilton answered. "I know better than to fight with you once your mind's made up. But you promise to stay by me, all right?"

"Okay!" Alice cheered. "Now, let's go to that volcano!"

"Hold on," Andrew said. "We need to regroup with someone. Let's head to Gora first." Andrew took out the Gora Gem and we warped to that town.

We looked around the town of Gora and we found Lacey staying at the Inn.

"Lacey, are you ready to go?" Andrew asked her.

"Lacey?" Hamilton asked. Lacey looked at him. "That was our mother's name."

"Really?" Lacey said. "Well, I'm sorry, but I'm not the same Lacey. I mean, look at me. I'm not human."

"But you were until eight years ago," Jennifer said.

"That's how long it's been since our mother died," Hamilton said. "We heard she died in a chemical explosion at the McFadden Reactor in Shadurn. Are you sure you're not the same Lacey?" Lacey looked down then moved only her eyes toward Hamilton.

"...You've gotten a lot smarter since I saw you last, Hammy," Lacey said.

"Aw, mom, why'd you have to say that here?" Hamilton said with a bit of relief in his voice. The rest of us left the room to let Hamilton and Alice talk to Lacey. Alice had just about started crying.

"Mom? Is that really you?" Alice asked.

"Yes, honey, it's me," Lacey said.

"Do you remember what you used to look like, mom?" Hamilton asked. Lacey nodded and started shifting into a woman in her late twenties with short black hair and brown eyes almost like Alice's. She had created a scientist's attire for her to wear complete with the lab coat and glasses. "It is you." Hamilton said. Lacey came up to them and gave them both a big hug. "Mom, the spikes on my armor..."

"They won't hurt me," Lacey said.

"What happened to you, mom?" Alice cried.

"There was an explosion eight years ago," Lacey answered. "As I'm sure you remember, Hamilton, there was a problem happening elsewhere at the same time."

"Yes, I remember," Hamilton said. "So the two were connected?"

"Mm-hmm," Lacey nodded. "I was in charge of chemical management and it was my day to go in. I don't know all the details, but I remember many chemicals dumping on me. Next I knew, I woke up in the destroyed reactor. I looked around for any other survivors, but I found that I couldn't move like I used to. Eventually, I learned I could control my shape and turn into whatever I wanted. I wondered around for a number of years and finally met Stephan and his friends in Lora."

"Why didn't you come home?" Alice asked.

"...I wasn't sure if you'd like how I turned out. I wasn't sure... of a lot of things,"

"Mom, you could've come home anytime," Hamilton said. "We would love you regardless of what shape you took, like how we do now."

"I'm so happy you're back, mom!" Alice cheered as she hugged her. "...But dad, what happened to him?"

"...Colton died... a few years after you were born, Alice," Lacey cried. "I was here, visiting his grave just before you came in." She gave a tighter hug.

"But this is so cool, mom!" Alice said. "You can turn into whatever you want?"

"I've been a lot of help to Stephan and the rest," Lacey said. "I'm rejoining them. Are you coming with?"

"Of course we are!" Alice said.

"Now that we're finally back together, we're not splitting up," Hamilton said. "And I'm sure dad would be glad to see us back together."

"Well, I know I am," Lacey said. "And there will be plenty of time to catch up." Lacey stood away and kept her hands on their shoulders. "But for now, we need to help our friends save the world, right?"

"Right!" Hamilton and Alice agreed.

"Mom, wait 'til you hear what we've been up to!" Alice said.

"I'll be waiting to hear it,"

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