Chapter 7: Wandering Sword

"Everyone get up!" Hora yelled at us. "Time to get going!" I looked over at our clock and it read six o'clock.

"It's too early!" I groaned.

"Come on, what kind of story would this be if the hero stays in bed?" Hora yelled.

"The kind where the heroes get a rest," I said. "We have seven Gems already. We deserve a break!"

"Come on, Stephan. Let's go," Andrew said. I looked up at him and saw that he was fully dressed and ready to go. "The sooner we get started, the sooner this thing ends."

"Are you always up this early?" I asked him.

"Yep," he answered. "Now come on! Everyone up!" Reluctant and groaning, we all got out of bed and got our stuff together. We all met up in the Hora's living room and left the house, saying farewell to Hora. Luckily, the next town isn't very far. Iora is just directly south of here. Andrew seemed fine as well as Stan, but Sobie and Chris were lagging behind. Stan offered to carry Sobie, but she denied.

"I'll get used to it," Sobie said. "It's probably just the morning grogginess."

"You can carry me!" Chris said jumping on Stan's back. "Onward!"

"Get off!" Stan yelled, pulling Chris off his back. Sobie laughed.

Arriving at the town of Iora, we could feel the water air all around us. Iora is built next to an island and the water is always clean.

"Oh, it smells great here!" Helen yelled out. "I wouldn't mind staying here a few days."

"Unfortunately, Helen, we're here on business," Andrew said. Helen just frowned. Andrew walked up to Iora's house and knocked, but there was no answer.

"If you're looking for Iora, he's out next to the island," one of the villagers said. We headed toward the island and saw Iora, lounging in a beach chair and drinking lemonade.

"Hello, Iora," I said.

"Oh, hello," he replied. "You're here for the Gem?"

"That's right," I answered. "Please tell me you have it."

"Of course I do, it's inside my house. But I'll tell you what," he sat down his lemonade at pointed to the island. "There's been some activity going on in the cavern on the island. Eels have been swimming around lately and one of them was strong enough to destroy the bridge leading to the island." Looking at the island I saw it was inaccessible by swimming. The island was elevated and the only way on was climbing or walking across the bridge. "It was my favorite spot to go to, but the eel made me stay down here."

"Everyone! Come quickly!" I looked over and saw Jennifer standing near the end of the coast. Running over, I saw a girl, unconscious and beat up. Her hair was cut in many different places and her pink dress looked violently damaged. "What happened to her?"

"Not sure," Andrew said. "Iora, do you know her?"

"No, I don't," Iora replied. "See if you can move her and bring her to my house." Jennifer and I started lifting the girl. She started groaning, likely from the pain of the bruises and scratches on her. We brought her to Iora's and sat her down on the couch. Iora went into one of the rooms and came back with the Gem. He used it to heal her and brought her back to how she looked before. Her skin slowly healed, her hair grew back, and her clothes came together. "I wonder what she went through. Listen, I'm gonna have her rest here a bit. I want you guys to build a new bridge to the island."

"Why us? Why don't you use the Gem?" I asked.

"Because this will be good for you kids," Iora said. "A little hard work will make you strong enough to take on any challenge. Now, do any of you have a map of Moneo?" We all shrugged. "No? Very well, I'll be right back." Iora left. Chris walked up to the girl and stared at her necklace. It had a red gem in it. Then I looked at Chris and saw that his cloak had the same gem.

"Do you know her, Chris?" I asked.

"I'm not sure," he said. "But she looks familiar." Iora came back holding a map of Moneo. He opened it up and pointed to marked spots.

"These places have thick sturdy trees," he said. "They are perfect for building a new bridge."

"So you want us to chop down the trees and bring them back here?" Andrew said. "Well, out of all of us, only Stan and I have experience with axes, so it might take a while. I don't have one on me, but I can go buy one. After that we'll split into two teams, one going around the right of Moneo and the other going left. Okay, how about Stephan, Jennifer, Chris, and I go one way and Helen, Sobie, and Stan go the other?"

"Okay," Stan said. We headed out and split up. Andrew went to the Shop to purchase an axe, then our team left. There were ten trees marked, five for us and five for Stan. It was easy, but what made the search more difficult were the enemies wondering around. It seems like no matter how many times we get rid of them, they keep coming back. Not only that, but some seemed to be stronger than others in certain areas. The first tree we found was close to Iora. We chopped it down, but soon realized we didn't have a way to move them easily. Jennifer and I rolled the tree in the direction of the next tree, which was close to Mora. Jennifer rolled that log and I rolled the other one. When we made it to the one on the other side of Mora, Chris possessed an enemy to roll the log for us. Our next one was close to Cora and the monsters were at their strongest over here. We took a few hits, but they were enough to tire us out. Good thing Andrew brought some Health Vials. Chris rolled the tree we cut here. The next one we cut was close to Jora and we saw Stan and his team close by. Stan was carrying two of their logs with Sobie and Helen rolling the other three. Now that we had all the trees needed, he headed back to Iora. But the enemies had other ideas. When we got close to Yora, the ground started to shake. A large crack formed and two giant hands came out followed by the rest of the creature. It was a giant version of the regular sized Monsters! Moving the logs to the side, we prepared for battle, but most of us were tired from rolling the logs and walking around Moneo. And by most of us, I mean everyone but Stan and Andrew. The Mega Monster was powerful, but it was very slow. Striking its arms caused it to not use them for a while and hitting its body made it fall. Delivering a blow to the head a few times, we defeated the monster and continued toward Iora.

We sat the logs down next to the coast of the island river and headed back to Iora's house. There, we saw the girl standing up in perfect health. She was turned away from us, facing Iora, and putting a large bow down at the bottom of her hair, tying it together. Iora pointed to us and she turned.

"So, you're the ones that brought me here," she said. "Thank you."

"Would you like to share what happened to you?" Andrew said.

"No thanks," she replied. "Thanks for your help, but I must get going." She started to head out the door, but Andrew stopped her.

"Hold on, we helped you when you were in no condition to even move," As he said that, the girl had an angry look on your face. "I'm Andrew, if that'll help get you started. The one that noticed you was Jennifer and this is Stephan, Helen, Stan, Sobie, and Chris." She looked at each of us, but when she saw Chris, she stopped.

"...Look, I appreciate what you guys did for me, Andrew, but I'm missing something and I want to find it," she said, constantly pushing her way through.

"What did you lose?" I asked.

"My sword," she said. "I'd like to get it back before my enemies do."

"We can help you," Andrew said.

"...No thanks, I can handle myself," Andrew let her go and she walked out.

"Jeez, what a brat," Jennifer said. "We save her and all we get is an argument."

"I'm sure she has her reasons," Andrew said. "Iora, the trees are outside next to the island."

"Good, follow me," Iora led us out to the island and stopped at the logs. "Now watch as I put this bridge together." He held up his Gem and the logs started floating. They were all cut long and flat and lined up from here to the island. "There! New bridge!" Then we heard a large splash come from behind the island.

"Found it!" a voice said. We moved to look around the island and saw the girl holding her sword.

"Hey," Iora yelled out. "Get out of there! There are eels in the water!"

"What?" she yelled back. Then she let out a loud gasp as she was brought underwater. Andrew jumped in and swam after her. I was about to join, but Iora stopped me.

"Here, wear this," he handed me a suit of armor. "This is magical Water Armor. Wear it and you can breathe underwater." After quickly putting it on, I jumped in the water. I was swimming as fast as I could, but I couldn't find Andrew or the girl. Swimming behind the island, I found a large cavern. Thinking that's where they could've gone, I swam inside.

It was so dark inside I couldn't see my own hand. If Jennifer was here, she'd be complaining again. I continued swimming in farther, but constantly banged my head against something. I could feel the eels slithering around my legs and I kept trying to shake them off or slash them away, but they were slippery and strong. Unlike Andrew or the girl, I have a suit that helps me breathe, so I can last if the eels bring me under, but they can't. At one point, I found myself against a wall that the eels brought me to. I sat my hand down on something round and glass. I tried to grip it, but it was almost completely buried. I used my sword to pry it out and found that it was a wand of some sort. I didn't know what type of wand it was, but I was sure it would help. Waving it outward, I felt a large shock go through my body. It nearly killed me, but I could feel that the eels had left me alone. It was a Lightning Wand. Probably the worst type of wand I could get right now. Swimming in pain, I continued deeper into the cavern, wondering if the shock made it to Andrew as well.

Farther in the cavern, I saw a faint light ahead. I swam as hard as I could with my lightning stings to get to the light. When I reached it, I found I could get my head out of the water. I was in a large crystal decorated cove and I saw Andrew sitting on one of the ledges! I swam and climbed up the ledge and saw Andrew has holding the girl. Both of them had severe wounds on them, with the girl having more than she did last time.

"Stephan!" Andrew yelled when he looked up. "...Are you alright? You're limping."

"I'm more worried about you two," I said walking over. Andrew looked back down at the girl.

"Her name's Kyra," Andrew said. "It says it on her necklace. She lost her breath soon after she was dragged down here and nearly died, however a strange shock came in and jumped started her heart."

"Yeah, that might be because of this," I showed Andrew the Lightning Wand I found.

"Well, thanks to you, she's breathing again. But she's in a terrible condition and I can't get her to the exit," Andrew pointed across the cove to the island entrance, but the ledge is inaccessible by both swimming and climbing, especially when you have a limp girl on you. If that wasn't difficult enough, the ground started to rumble as a large eel came out of the water. Readying my wand and shield, I stood in between the eel and Andrew, ready to protect them. The eel shot out a beam of lightning at me, which took me by surprise, but I still managed to block it.

"It's an electric eel?" I said. It stuck its head underwater and used its tail to try and knock us off the platform. Andrew was far enough away from the tail, but it knocked me against the wall. Trying to stand back up, I shot out a few lightning beams of my own, but the eel was constantly moving and it was hard to get a shot in. Then I had an idea. Working my way down the ledge, I tried to get as close to the water as I could. I stuck the Wand out at the water, but the eel knocked it out of my hand. Knowing it was my only way to win, I jumped into the water and swam after it. The eel has huge and hard to avoid. It wrapped itself around me, trying to strangle me. I poked my sword at it as hard as I could underwater, but it was only when my sword went through the eel that it let me go. I continued swimming to the wand and grabbed it. I gave it a hard swing then everything went dark.

Next thing I knew, I was in a large building. Looking straight up, the building seemed to go on forever. Everything also looked almost pure white. I walked around a bit trying to find out where I was. When I reached the elevator, it opened and I saw a man. He looked kind of like me, but older and with black hair, and he called me by my name. Then the building started shaking and fire was coming in through several places. Support beams were falling and people were screaming. One of the beams landed between me and the man, preventing me from further conversation. I thought I saw the man waving good-bye when the elevator exploded, shooting me backwards, and I shot upward as I came back to reality.

"Stephan!" Andrew exclaimed. "Oh, thank goodness you're okay!" I looked around and all my friends were surrounding me.

"What happened?" I asked.

"When you shot your lightning bolt, you electrocuted the water, zapping both you and the eel. When I saw you weren't coming up, I dove in to get you. Jennifer came in through the other entrance after I yelled for help several times and everyone helped us get out."

"Is Kyra alright?"

"Yeah, she's fine. She's right here," Kyra walked out from behind Andrew.

"Thanks for saving me... again," Kyra said. "But I don't get why you tried to save me. I mean, we don't know each other."

"And that's supposed to stop us from saving people?" Jennifer said.

"We save people all the time, many of them we don't know," Helen said.

"Wow..." Kyra said. "I grew up knowing different. I... Thank you, Andrew and Stephan."

"How long was I out?" I asked.

"About five hours," Andrew said. "You gave us quite a shock, though not as big as the one you received." I laughed at that, then started drifting back to sleep as I thought about that man in the elevator and why that place looked... familiar.

The next morning, Andrew, Kyra, and I had recovered enough to continue on our journey. Kyra decided to join us, Iora gave us his Gem as we headed out, and we left for the town of Jora.

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