The Planes Walkers

17. The Queen

When Jet opened his eyes, it was day time again. He looked around and discovered he was in the carriage. He could hear Rujar laughing outside with the driver. They must have been telling stories. Across from him was Heyvl and the girl.

"You're awake," Heyvl said with excitement.

Jet sat up slowly, his eyes blurry from adjusting to the light. "What happened?" he decided to ask.

"You happened!" Heyvl declared, "You sent out a wave of your Element that scared off the rest of the bandits. We were able to continue on the road after that."

"How long have I been out?"

Heyvl peeked outside. Jet could see the sun was already passed the high point. "It'll be evening soon, I think. You've been out for about a day and a half," Heyvl responded.

"Really? Doesn't feel like that long..." Jet almost couldn't comprehend being out for that long.

Jet rubbed his eyes and blinked a few times. The Crystal Elementalist was staring at him. Her face was stern and she looked almost angered by the sight of him. "Thanks for saving me back there," she said.

"Uh...yeah, no problem."

"That's a strange Element you have."

"It's saved my life several times now," Heyvl added in. The girl gave him a strange look, and she looked back to Jet for confirmation. Jet nodded slowly. He didn't want to seem like he was bragging. He still wasn't sure what all his Element could do.

"So what's your name anyways?" Jet asked.

"Irina."

"I'm Jet, nice to meet you."

She smiled in return. Jet could see that Heyvl and her had already had exchanged pleasantries. He wondered how they were getting along.

"We're almost to the capital now, though," Irina said after a while.

"That's good," Heyvl said with a sigh.

"Why are you coming with us if your trade stuff was ruined?" Jet asked.

"Well I need a ride back, and you guys weren't heading that way. Figured I would tag along."

Jet's face grew red. He felt embarrassed that he had forgot about the cart. He decided to look out the window instead to avoid her gaze. "Oh that's right."

The three of them made little conversation as they continued on the way to Shnela. Heyvl had told Irina about Lonava and Lonav. Jet chimed in a few times when Heyvl explained the appearance of a Spirit Elementalist. Heyvl then ranted about the soldiers that had come looking for Jet, and how they hoped Trekthar was okay. Jet added that with them being seen north of the city, the soldiers should have left Lonav. Though they couldn't be sure if they had left Lonava altogether.

The scenery around the carriage was now full of rocky alcoves and quarries. Jet spotted a few caves here and there. He remembered Rujar mentioning about the mining. Jet could only imagine what lay inside the mines and caves.

"Hey, we're almost there!" Rujar's voice shouted from outside. Heyvl and Jet looked out the window to see. In the not-so-far distance, a massive city loomed. Jet could see giant stone walls and tall towers poking out from the top. In the center, he could see a castle. It looked similar to the one in Calbar, but it looked more up kept and had flags of pinks and blues. He assumed that those were the colors of the Crystal Kingdom.