Saving the Soul Stone - The Elementum Academy Book One

Jumping Around The Country - Part Two

Celia P.O.V.
      Standing in the middle of the large city, I was in love. Everywhere you looked there was something moving, flashing, or making noise. I physically started spinning around slowly looking at all the wonderful things, and Malachi had to grab my shoulders to stop me.
Looking over at Cyrus, he was having an opposite reaction. His eyes were fully black, and I could tell he was taking away all the sound. It was kind of loud compared to what we're used to, but I didn't really think it was that bad.
He sat down on a nearby bench, putting his head in his hands. He looked like he was about to have a panic attack and pass out.
I started to walk over to him, but Mia stopped me as Pierce sat down next to him, pulling his hands away. "We need you right now," Mia said, and I nodded, turning to her, Malachi, and Eero.
"I assume Arlington is going to be worse for him?" I asked them.
"Extraordinarily," Eero said to me. "It is much larger, louder, and way more crowded."
I sighed. "Okay, where do you think we should go first?"
"If I could make a suggestion," Mia interjected. "It may be too obvious, but there are quite a few waterfalls around here that give the city its name, so maybe we could check those out? Just a suggestion."
I looked at the others, and they nodded. "Sounds good. I'm going to check in Cy, and then we can go."
They walked a bit away to talk while I went back over to the bench where Cyrus was now actually in the middle of a panic. Pierce was rubbing his shoulder, and he seemed to be calming down a lot. That was good.
I sat on the other side of him, and he turned to me, hugging me. After a minute of his breathing becoming a bit more normal, he finally looked up. "How're you okay?! It's so loud. And there so much going on. It's too much!"
"I think it's fun to see all these crazy things of the world, you don't. That's okay because I'm not leaving you. Now, are you okay to go, or do you want to stay here a bit longer?"
"Where're we going?"
"To a bunch of waterfalls to see if we can find anything there."
He grinned. He's always loved water, especially waterfalls. "Let's go."
He got up and went over to the others, and I pulled Pierce to the side. "Thank you."
"For what?" He asked, confused.
"For helping Cy. He's not usually receptive to help, even though I'm worse, but he seemed to be pretty repetitive to you. So thanks. I love him to death, but he's just so... him, sometimes."
"No problem, and I get it. Brothers are that way sometimes."
I nodded, and we joined the others. Malachi was looking at the glowing screen of the magic box he carries in his pocket. Cyrus and I can't figure out what it is, but we think it's some sort of mini-television.
"Okay," he said after a second. "I have a list of the dams and waterfalls. We'll just go down the list and see what we find, if anything."
"Where to first?" I asked.
"The Great Falls."
We went there, and there was nothing. Then Crooked Falls, nothing. Colter Falls, nothing. Black Eagle Falls, nothing. Morning Dam, nothing. Cochrane Dam, nothing. Last, we went to Rainbow Falls.
Walking up to the magnificent waterfall that wasn't even anywhere near its peak beauty because it was autumn and not spring, I instantly saw why it was called Rainbow Falls. The sun shone in the mist of the falling water, and the mixture created a bunch of beautiful rainbows everywhere.
We walked around, studying as much as we could of the falls, until I suddenly saw something. Right under the largest downfall of water, there was a translucent rainbow door that kept appearing and disappearing.
Grabbing the other, I showed them. "It is just me, or does that door keep fading in and out?" Pierce asked.
"It is," we responded, and he nodded. Mia magicked a bridge for us, and Cyrus and I willed the water to part, which wasn't very easy. Once the door reappeared, I quickly grabbed the handle and opened it, and it suddenly became solid.
Walking in, we were in a large stone cave filled with many rooms and passages. And of course, there were no signs. "Where do we go first?" Cy asked.
We studied the paths for a minute before Eero spoke. "Let's just stick right and then we can start branching off."
We did as he said, walking for forever without finding anything of importance. Finally, after finding a room with a few couches and chairs, we decided to stop and sleep for the night.
Cyrus took the first watch, since he said he wasn't tired. I was the last to sleep, and even I was out in fifteen minutes.
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Waking up, something seemed off. Doing a body count, I got five. Cyrus was missing.
Getting off the couch, careful not to wake Mia, I slipped out the door. Looking around the darker than before hallway, I walked a bit when I suddenly found a small trail of blood.
Following the trail, I got more worried as it got more bloody. After a few minutes of running, the trail went behind a closed door. Silently, I opened it to see Cyrus passed out on the ground, his head on a bloody towel.
Running over, I knelt down, magicking some supplies to wrap up his head and some water, and quickly growing some herbs to feed him. I could see he had a pretty bad hit to the head, but nothing was fractured, and he didn't appear to have a concussion.
After taking care of him, I started to get up to look around the room, but just as it did, I felt a sharp pain in the back of my head. Feeling my conscious fade, the last thing I thought was how this was totally a setup.
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Suddenly, I felt myself being shaken awake. Putting my hand to my aching head, I wasn't surprised when it came back covered in blood. Looking at a panicked Cyrus in front of me, I was confused. "Did you take your bandages off?"
"What?" He asked. "I didn't have any."
I quickly put my hand to my Kusari-Fundo, which I always have around my shoulder, and Cyrus followed suit, getting ready to take his flatbow off his. Malachi had taught us to rely on our weapons more recently.
"Someone's here, and they're trying to mess with us. "If they didn't want you to have medical attention, then why let me wrap you up? And if they wanted to trap us, why leave us in an unlocked room?"
Ignoring the pain in my head, we ran back to the room to find everyone still asleep. Checking my watch, they'd been asleep for almost fifteen hours. This wasn't right.
Just as we went to wake them up, though, a large being walked out of the shadows holding a sword. "Don't even try."

Hey guys! I finally got an extra chapter on this so I don't have to wait until almost midnight to post! Why do you think the being is doing with them? Who do you think the being is? What do you think is about it happen. Tell me in the comments. See you soon!