"Some bastard threw a stone slab at Alistair's head! Whoever that is, I will make him pay!" Adrion exclaimed as he held Alistair in his arms.
"Is he alright? Does he need any medical attention?" Finn exclaimed as he went closer to Adrion and Alistair.
"You won't hurt him...right?" Adrion asked, pulling Alistair away from Finn
"Of course I won't, I'm a licensed professional doctor. There's nothing to worry about." Finn reassured Adrion, him letting Finn look at Alistair.
"Let's see here...The slab must have had a hard impact on his head, I'll get him bandaged up. It's good that he did bleed from the outside because it would be much more difficult if it's internal." Finn explained as he took care of Alistair.
While Finn and lily were tending to Alistair, The Crystals were looking out for anyone while the rest of the Leaders and Successors were looking at the slab. Francis and Alice were so confused by the transcription that they even asked their parents about it. It was soon found out that this was written with letters from the Furrokan Language, it has been used before but now is being used in writing and language so rarely. Only those born before the Great War know of this and are fluent but those born after don't even know about it.
"If this is the Furrokan Language, then that means whoever wrote this was born before the Great War." Ethan concluded, The Crystals nodded.
"We deeply apologize if we won't be able to decipher all the messages..." Zion apologized.
"It has been so long ever since we have written and spoken the Furrokan Language, along with the drugs we've received from our time outside Furroko, we don't remember much about it." Florence continued.
"If people can't remember the past, then the only source is a written scripture!" Francis exclaimed.
"Then that means we just have to find a written manuscript about it." Alice said, making his word simpler.
"Of course! The manuscripts! We might find it downstairs, come and we'll retrieve it." Owen said, as he and Francis went down.
"Hmmm..."Alice said to herself as she scanned through the slab.
"What are you doing?" Adrion asked, Alistair sleeping on his lap.
Alice looked at the back, showing the symbol of Monsters. She looked at the sides and there was also Furrokan Language etched onto the side of the slab. Alice showed it to her parents, who only knew few of the Furrokan alphabet.
"Monster..." Alice thought to herself as the slab had the exact symbol of the Monsters.
"A...The starting letter is an A." Elizabeth said.
"We've returned and we have the book!" Owen said, getting everyone's attention.
"That's great! We can see what it says now." Alice said.
"You can go ahead and help them, we'll take the patrol from here." Ethan said, letting the Crystals help Alice and Francis decipher.
After a few minutes they managed to decipher the message. All that's wrong is that the message showed a riddle. It made the Crystals along with Alice and Francis sigh as they have to now also solve the riddle before moving on to their next goal.
"Hmm..." Francis said to himself as he read the deciphered message.
"It says that it should be around here...In this tower." Francis said as he read the riddle, finding the word 'tower' within the text.
"We'll go and find it." Alice said as she stood up.
Alice and Francis went downstairs to find their next clue. The Leaders decided to continue patrol while the Crystals also go back to the message. On the other hand, Alistair was waking up. This made Adrion relieved.
"Mmmm...What...Happened?" Alistair said, mostly becoming a whisper.
"Alistair...You're awake....You're Awake!?" Adrion said as he slowly opened his eyes, his meeting Alistair's made his eyes become bigger from shock.
"Thank Goodness you're alright..." Adrion said as he hugged Alistair.
"Whoever did that to you...They won't know what they'll be fucking getting from me..." Adrion thought to himself, as he is happier to see him awake.
"Can you stand up?" Lily asked Alistair as she noticed that he was awake.
"Yeah..." Alistair responded, standing up with little to no help.
"Good, how about we do a quick check up?" Lily asked, Alistair nodding.
As Alistair and Lily went downstairs, some kind of mist was emerging out of Alistair, making Adrion worried. As Adrion was about to point it out, the mist turned into a tiny little ghost friend. Adrion already knew this was Myst, because of the outfit. He calmed down a bit and saw that Myst was flying towards him as Myst came closer, Myst slapped him in the face. It didn't really hurt that much but Adrion was confused.
"What was that for?" Adrion asked Myst.
"Hmph!" Myst pouted, considering that Myst doesn't talk.
After Alistair's check, he came back upstairs and saw Myst with Adrion. Myst was floating around the sitting Adrion, making him question why Myst was doing that. Alistair went closer to the two but before he could say anything, Alice and Francis were calling out that they found something.
"We found it!" Francis exclaimed.
"What did you guys find? Myst, stop you're making me dizzy." Adrion said, Myst continuing to go around.
"We found this at the Meeting room." Francis responded, holding a piece of paper.
"It was in a ball, though it was strange because we had to chase it to get this." Alice said, going back to when they were downstairs.
Flashback to what happened, Francis and Alice were in the meeting room. Francis checked the bookshelves while Alice looked in the cabinets and drawers. They were on each side of the room searching until Alice stumbled upon a moving glass ball with something inside. When she was about to get hold of it, it almost hit her in the face. The ball was now flying around, dodging kind of catching action from the two. After a few minutes, Alice cornered the ball and she spun around in circles for a while until the ball stopped in Alice's hands. After a while to make sure it doesn't go flying again, they tried to see how they can open it.
"Can't we just break it?" Alice asked, Francis saying no.
"The glass isn't the ordinary one that we can break easily, it's concealed with some sort of magic." Francis said as he examined the ball further.
"Don't you have any spells or skills for that?" Alice asked, making Francis look through his books.
"R-Right...Thanks Alice." Francis said, Alice just smiling.
Francis tried every spell he can think of that can remove magic surrounding an object, after a while the ball started cracking. Since Alice can already see that the ball is cracking from Francis' magic, she doesn't want him to use all his energy just for a glass ball. Alice created a crystal shard and targeted the ball. With the speed of the crystal shard, the ball penetrated through the magic and destroyed the ball. The shatter of glass made Francis step back.
"There you go, now we can get what's inside." Alice said as she went near the shards of glass.
"A piece of paper with Furrokan Language!" Alice exclaimed as she showed the paper to Francis.
"We got it!" Francis exclaimed as he hugged Alice without hesitation.
"I-I'm sorry I-"
"Oh Francis, no need to apologize. Now we have to go back up and show the others." Alice said as they were about to go back upstairs.
"Who are you...?" A voice was heard from behind them.
They looked behind and saw someone that resembles Anwir. Remembering what happened when Ethan punched Anwir. Alice can tell that this might be Acheros.
"Acheros?"
Acheros was about to take another step but then he was about to fall. Alice flew in and caught him before dropping to the ground. Francis helped him up and they went upstairs together.
"So that's what happened...But about the part where you chased the ball, we didn't hear any crashing." Adrion said.
"Oh, that's because Alice was flying around cautiously." Francis said.
"Brother, are you alright? Did you get enough sleep?" Zion asked Acheros.
"I'm o-okay, just a bit weak." Acheros responded.
Acheros got a quick check up from Finn and Lily just to make sure he'll be fine in the long run. After that, he volunteered to help in solving the riddles as a way to help. Acheros insisted even though Zion opposed to it, due to his condition. After a while, it was decided that Acheros will be joining the group.
"If we are to solve these riddles and find out where it leads, we need to be cautious...This will become a game that Anwir will be setting up. We have to be careful." Florence said.
"How did you know it was him?" Adrion asked.
"That may be the message at the side, it had 5 symbols." Alice said, remembering what she saw.
"Precisely, Young Mistress. The name at the sides of the slab itself had Anwir's name etched on...Though I not know why he would do so." Aiden said.
"May I see the piece of paper?" Acheros asked Francis. In return, Francis showed the piece of paper.
"What kind of language is this...It looks similar ...But it's blurry in my memory..." Acheros asked.
"That's Furrokan Language, brother." Zion said as he joined him in looking at what's written in the paper.
"Is that so...At least this is here..." Acheros said.
After looking at the paper, the Crystals helped in patrol with the Leaders, while Acheros and the Successors deciphered the message. After a while, the transcription was written on a separate piece of paper and it revealed the next riddle.
There were words that caught their eye, such as 'beginning' and 'wildest'. They discussed what could be the next destination. After a few minutes of riddle solving, they know where to go next. Thanks to Alice and Adrion's intelligence in puzzles and riddles like they used to do when they were younger, they can be very fast in knowing what is being asked for.
"You guys are good." Francis complimented them.
"We used to do this before, so we're used to it." Adrion said, Alice nodding.
"So...We have to go to the Monster territory..." Alistair said.
"Yeah, but now we need to find where in the Monster territory is the next clue." Francis said.
"What about those creatures being controlled by the ticks? They will target anyone of you if they see you out there." Acheros warned them, having knowledge of the use of the ticks in the first place.
They all agreed to get the next clue now but their parents said to wait in the morning. They insisted but the Crystals also sided with the Leaders. Acheros tried to defend them but they insisted that they rest. The Successors had no other choice but to comply and they all went downstairs to the Bedrooms, barricading any entrances as to not disturb their sleep.
"All of you now go to sleep, we have a lot of things to do tomorrow." Ethan said as he looked over the Successors who were in their bed.
"Sleep well." Elizabeth said before going to theirs.
After a while, almost everyone was sleeping, except the Successors. Alice and Adrion slept after a few minutes of looking at the ceiling, while Alistair was playing with Myst for a while. Francis had his eyes wide open, not feeling tired in the least. He knows that they have to do this now before it's too late, so he told Alistair what to do.
"Psst, Alistair..." Francis called out to Alistair, getting his attention.
"Let's all wake up by midnight so we can go..." Francis said, Alistair asking if it's really necessary.
"We need to...Before it's too late." Francis whispered back in respond, Alistair being convinced.
Alistair asked Myst to stay out of his gem and wait till midnight and wake them up. Myst happily agreed and flew in circles all around them, giving him and Alistair a calming atmosphere to let them sleep right away. After a while, they were all in deep slumber. All that Myst has to do now is wait till midnight for them to start on their next move to saving their future land. As midnight was about to arrive, Myst was flying around just to stay up. Once Myst saw the moon shining from one of the open windows and the clock sings its tune as midnight struck, it was about time to wake them up. Myst woke up Alistair first.
"Mm....Oh...It is already...midnight?" Alistair asked Myst softly, Myst nodding.
"You can go ahead and wake up Francis....and maybe...the...other..." Alistair said, drifting back to sleep.
Myst hit him on the forehead many time until Alistair woke up again, Alistair sat up, rubbing his eyes while Myst make sures he doesn't go back to sleep. After that, Myst went to Francis. After a while Francis slowly sat back up and looked at the yawning Alistair, laying back down to rest. He laid down for a while until Francis remembered what they're supposed to do and that woke him up. Sitting up eyes wide open, almost scaring Alistair.
"Let's wake up the others." Francis whispered to Alistair.
"O-Okay..." Alistair said, crawling to Adrion to wake him up.
"If he...Then..." Francis looks to the other side, seeing Alice sleeping peacefully.
"Why me..." Francis said, worried while blushing.
Francis went out of his bed and went closer to Alice. He looked at her for a good while, staring at her. Alistair saw this and thought it was creepy Francis just sitting there with his eyes wide open and looking at her from a distance. Alistair whispered to Myst to push him as best as he can. Myst nodded and immediately pushed Francis. It has a hard push, making Francis fall to the ground. This woke up Alice and Adrion, wondering what the noise was about.
"Thanks Myst..." Alistair said.
"What the heck was that..." Adrion said, seeing Alistair beside him.
"How are you awake at this hour...?" Adrion asked, Alistair telling him what they'll do.
"Ugh...That hurt..." Francis said as he slowly stood up.
"You alright, Francis...?" Alice said, feeling tired.
"Oh....Y-Yeah...Just tripped." Francis said.
"I need you to wake up for me." Francis said.
"Oh...okay..." Alice said, getting out of bed and stretching. Adrion did the same and after a few minutes, they were awake.
They all gathered in the middle of the room, making them have a small lantern in their circle so they can see the riddle. After a bit more of reading, they know where to go next. The Monster territory. They all stood up and put on their shoes to get ready to go but before that, Francis suggested something.
"How about we bring some things...This is going to be a journey so we have to be prepared." Francis suggested.
"Well, what do we need?" Alice asked.
"We have almost everything we need here, in the closet." Francis said as he opened the closet.
The closet contains many different items. Small bag, small lanterns, some glaze for wings, medication, portable weapons, fuel, and more. They took the 2 bags and stuffed al of what they need inside. Alistair and Francis will be wearing the bags so Alice and Adrion can use their wings when necessary. They also applied their protective glaze serum to make sure they're protected in case of any attack in their journey. As they got all the things ready they were about to go. They decided to go to the watchtower and jumped from there because everyone else is downstairs. When they opened the door is when they met Acheros at the other side.
"What are you doing?" Francis asked, making Acheros nervous.
"Oh! That...I-I hehe...I wanna...join...you guys..." Acheros said, stopping every once and a while to gather his words properly.
"And how can we make sure that we trust you...?" Adrion asked.
"I'll help in any way I can. I'll carry things for you or find what you need. Please...I want to help...It's a way for me to prove to you that I'm not like Anwir at all..." Acheros pleaded.
"Hmm...Well? Would you guys let him join us?" Alice asked them, making the boys think.
After a while, they agreed to let him join, on the condition that if he ever tries to do anything fishy he'll be tied up and they'll call their parents. Acheros agreed to the condition, confident that he'll be helpful to them in their mission. They gave Acheros one of the other bags and they all went upstairs quietly. As they reached the watchtower they looked over the Monster territory, seeing that there are some Monsters walking around but since there was only very few they can go on ahead.
"So, what's the plan? We won't be going to the gate." Adrion asked.
"Well...I was thinking of making a zipline across with the linen in our room, using a spare brick to throw it to the other side and use the hangers to-" Francis was cut off by Alice.
"You mean...Everland style?" Alice said, referencing one of the books Francis read before.
"Uhh well..." Francis said, embarrassed.
"How about this instead." Alice said, spreading her wings out.
"Oh...right...wings..." Francis said, forgetting about the wings.
"We'll just carry you down, so we won't have to leave any evidence here and we'll be off the trace." Alice said.
"I agree..." Alistair sided with Alice.
"I mean, not gonna lie that's much easier and faster than having to make a zipline." Adrion said, patting Francis on the back.
"Alright, alright...But I still wanna do it next time." Francis said, promising to do it another day.
Alice and Adrion then went ahead dropping off the 3 to the nearest bushes away from the market and sight of the Monsters. After dropping off everyone, they were all hiding by the bushes, trying to figure out where the next clue might be. They looked around to see if they are any signs but they found none.
"Should we split up and find it?" Adrion asked.
"Hmmm...How about I go to the market, maybe it's there..." Alice said, the others agreeing.
Alice quietly floated to the market area that they passed on going down. She checked around the fruits and vegetables, she found some fruits that were in different places, making it unorganized. She put them back on the proper place until she saw an exotic fruit that was the only one there. It was sliced a little bit, with a piece of paper sticking out of it. Alice took the fruit and floated back to the others. While Alice was away, Adrion decided to look around the trees, he found a box with a glass sheet inside. Alistair also called Myst to seek out the Monster neighborhood. Myst brought back some sort of wood with Furrokan Language etched onto it. Alice, Adrion and Myst all brought back a piece that can lead to their next clue.
"So we found 3 different things when we split up." Francis said.
"Let's see if the messages are connected to each other, maybe they can lead us to somewhere." Acheros suggested.
"Let's see..." Alistair said, trying to see a way on making all 3 findings connected.
Alistair examined the 3 pieces and found something different with their ends. Alice's paper had a strange cut at the bottom of the paper. Myst's wood has cuts at the top that matches with Alice's and the Bottom matches with Adrion's glass. Everyone else also caught on and when they connected all the pieces of clues, it created a message that can be deciphered properly.
"We got it!" Francis exclaimed softly, showing the pieces of clues on the ground.
"Time to know the message then." Adrion said.
After being able to get the message, they try to solve the riddle next. Words like 'cage' and 'throne' made everyone confused. They haven't seen a cage nor a throne in this territory. They then tried to look at it metaphorically and read it like a symbolization for something. After a while, Acheros' mind clicked, knowing where to go next.
"The Cave...It's the Cave..." Acheros said, making the Successors look back at the riddle.
"Cave...There's only one cave here..." Alistair said.
"The Cave of Zion." Adrion said, knowing the real name.
"We can go now! So we can save this land!" Francis exclaimed softly.
"Before that, we have a problem..." Alice said as she pointed to the monsters walking around in the night.
The Monsters that had been ticked and manipulated started walking around. The Successors are trying to find out a way to get to the cave. Each side of where they were have monsters standing around and mumbling one phrase over and over again.
"Successors...Successors..."
"They're...trying to find us..." Alistair said, looking side to side.
"Hmmm...We also can't go forward, because they're walking around." Adrion said.
"If we can't go to each side and even forward...We can't go down, then the only way is...?" Alice said, hinting on her plan.
"Go...up." Adrion finished her sentence, making Francis realize their plan.
"Why didn't I think of that..." Francis thought to himself.
"Then, we should go up the trees, there aren't any creatures flying around and we can use it to also look over." Francis explained the plan, everyone nodding in approval.
They all started to climb up the tree without getting any attention. Once all of them was at the top of the tree they were at, Alice looked around if the coast is clear and gave them all a signal. Adrion carried Acheros to the top of another tree until they reached the cave. As they were near the cave, they went back down to the ground.
"Hmmm..." Francis thought to himself, remembering his spells.
"You guys open the cave's entrance while I use a spell to freeze them." Francis said, showing his small spell book.
Everyone agreed, Everyone will open the cave's blocked entrance as much as he can while Francis starts to use the freezing spell, which stops every monster in his peripheral vision, it's enough to stop many of the mosters from coming towards them. Francis' spell started to go in effect, each monster being frozen. Once they saw this, everyone else went ahead and together pushed the entrance of the cave. The entrance of the caves was almost open, everyone else went inside but Francis on the other hand was still casting the spell, tiring himself out.
"Francis hurry!" Alice exclaimed, calling Francis' attention.
Francis stopped the spell but he was drained, he still managed to go inside but Adrion has to pull him in and they pushed the cave's entrance, leaving a little bit of space for later. As they looked into the cave, it was dark. Adrion decided to take one of the wood scraps from the ground and lit them up as torches. He saw that there was a row of torches at each side of the cave, so Adrion lit all of them with his fire.
"Woah..." Alistair said, looking at the interior of the cave.
"This takes me back..." Acheros said.
"Where should we look?" Adrion asked them.
"Anywhere would work, as long as we can be able to find something that can lead us forward." Alice said, staying positive at their situation.
All of them started looking around but Francis just sat down because he was drained from holding a lot of monsters with his spell. Acheros sat beside him and tried to start a conversation with him.
"Hey...You should rest for a while...You're still a beginner in casting so best to give yourself a break every once and a while, y'know?" Acheros said, trying to give Francis some advice, considering he's the oldest in the situation.
"I know...Thanks for the reminder...sometimes...it's just strange to know that I'm just a human in this world, and all my friends are well...different." Francis said.
"So what if we are different?" Alice asked, hearing what Francis said.
"I don't have wings or any kind of special power like you guys...Plus I have to learn and memorize the spells and know how to cast them properly...I just thought it would be different since this isn't the world we were in..." Francis said, making Alice come up to him and Acheros.
"Even if you don't have the things we have, you're still powerful y'know? You can do magic!" Alice started.
"But I-" Francis was cut off by Alice, wanting to say more.
"We all start at some point and when we were training, we were all bad and we don't know how to use what we have. The goes the same for you, Frans." Alice said, giving Francis a nickname.
"Your skill and experience isn't from just having wings, tails and powers, it comes from the person who is willing to improve every single day. Yes, we can make mistakes but that's how we're able to learn. Trial and error may be something that people might not like to do but sometimes, this can be a way for us to learn important things about life and about us." Alice continued, crouching down and facing Francis.
"With that said, it means that you can be able to be in the same level as us or others, maybe much higher. It just takes hard work and patience." Alice finished her speech, making Francis reflect on what she said.
"I agree with her Francis, everyone will start out with flaws, whether or not they notice it." Acheros said, trying to convince Francis.
"You may be human, but this land is about unity in a divided world. A world with diversity with an ongoing saying to unite and help one another, whatever your tribe is." Acheros continued, convincing Francis that he's not that different from others as he thought.
"Thanks...At least I know now that you guys are there for me when I need it..." Francis thanked them, as he gave both of them a warm smile.
"Now come on, let's do this together." Alice said, lending her hand to Francis.
Francis took her hand and along with Acheros they searched the Cave of Zion. After a while, the sun was rising and they still haven't found anything. They have already looked inside all of the compartments, and searched around the cave 2 times.
"Where else are we supposed to find it? There's nowhere else to look." Francis said.
"This is getting annoying! Where else are we supposed to find this piece of paper! It's useless if we go and just go back to searching again!" Adrion lost his cool, punching a crack on the wall, breaking it apart and revealing some text that they were looking for.
"Agh!" Adrion grunted, feeling the pain from the impact he had with punching a crack on the rock hard wall.
"Are you alright? Adri?" Alice asked his brother.
"I'm good, just hurts a bit." Adrion said, taking a spare cloth from a cabinet and wrapped it around his hand.
Alice looked into the area he punched into, she saw the text. She called the others and they cleaned up any small rocks and dust so they can see the text clearly.
"That's it...It's our next clue! We found it!" Francis exclaimed as they started to reveal the message.
After the message has been deciphered and Acheros started to read the text out loud. After he's done, they brainstormed their ideas on where they think to go next. After a while, they found out where to go but as Adrion heard where they'll be going, hestood up and exclaimed.
"OH COME ON!"