The Zodiac Stone

Chapter Twenty-Seven: A New Heilakaa

"Get us into open air!"

Aine and Westerlee shot up into the air, his wings beating in a frantic rhythm. They flew through the blinding light that seemed to be coming from everywhere at once.

"What did you do?" Westerlee yelled as she wrapped her arms around him with a fearful embrace. She squeezed, afraid she was going to fall.

He took a sharp turn and tilted up to bring them around a wide circle stair. As he came to a landing, he spotted a large window.

"Cover your eyes!" Aine shouted and held his arms over their faces as he threw himself through the window. His wings buckled around him and for a moment they were just falling.

Aine let his wings catch the air and they slammed to a stop. He hovered with his wings flapping slower. They watched as the castle shook.

"Please gather all the Ophiuchus Hirens saved and set them down in the meadow by The Camp."

Aine sailed over the Vilago Fields over to where the fields met the fork in the path and then over The Camp that sat against the jungle. He saw a large group of people looking around confused, all wearing grey clothing. He didn't see Levana with them and wondered if she had been an Aries.

Aine set them down near the group of confused Ophiuchus and turned as the mountain began to physically shake as well.

"What did you do?" Westerlee looked at him horrified.

"I made some changes. And now, things will be different," Aine said, not looking at her but keeping his sight on the mountains. "We might have to get further back though."

"Why?" she asked. Fear bubbled through her voice.

"Because I even changed the landscape," he said and finally looked at her.

"Why?" she asked again, suddenly looking sad.

"It'll be better when everything is changed. From the bottom up, everything has to go, it all stands for the wrong reasons," Aine said and a flicker of anger flashed across his eyes.

Westerlee took a step back nervousness making her feet stumble. Something looked strange about Aine, as if he looked different suddenly.

"What are you changing about the mountains?" Westerlee asked.

"I am tearing them down. I asked the stone to keep all the people of the Clans safe, but I wanted to remodel how it looks."

As he said those words, the trio of mountains rumbled so much he watched as chunks began chipping off.

He watched as the top of MountVidaa crumbled onto itself, the castle disappearing in a cloud of dirt and rocks. As MountVidaa went down on his left, MountOdonn shook viciously and almost exploded from the force inside. Aine wondered if it were all the stones igniting, energies that had been partially drawn out and flammable.

With the explosion from MountOdonn and it collapsed on itself as well, the rumble rocked MountGjiann and it too fell. In minutes there was nothing but a giant mess of dirt, dust, and rocks.

"How are we going to make this better? It's just a mess now!" Westerlee said. She stared at the brown wafting cloud and didn't know what else to say. Her face looked downcast, and her eyes had a burning red behind her spectacles.

"It's because we have to start from the ground up. New kingdom, new rules," Aine said and stared ahead without looking at her. It was a daunting task what he had ahead of him, but this would help not just the Ophiuchus.

Aine looked down at the stone. He knew there were a few other things it would be doing that he had written on the papers before everything he had written was complete. He just wondered how many of the Clan Leaders got out of the castle before it collapsed. He hoped they hadn't gotten hurt. He knew the Virgo leader had left the room while they were fighting. But he didn't know how far she would have gotten. There must also be another way into the castle if all the leaders got there easily. That was a matter for the past. There was no more castle.