Prologue

They are there. You can't see them, but they were definitely there, just lurking out of sight.
Three small, slight figures race in the darkness of the forest, desperately running from something that was after them, hearts pounding and minds racing
They slow down, thinking that they had lost it, but no, in this part of the world you must be on guard.
It jumps out lashing at the girls...
A bright flash of light illuminates the forest,
And then...
...nothing.

Chapter 1: Musilica

"Do you feel that?" I ask my cousin, Kizana.

"Feel what?" my other cousin Lily tilts her head towards me. I start to answer, but not before Kizana interrupts.

"The monsters. No attacks for, what, a month now? Isn't that kind of strange?" she suggested.

"Now that you mention it..." Lily said, looking around. My cousins and I are the protectors of village. Usually monsters or demon spirits attack the little village every week or so, and we fend them off. The silence from them was eerie. For some strange reason, the three of us couldn't remember anything, our names, ages, even our pasts. The village, not our birth village, found us and gave us new names, which were Kizana, Lily, and mine, Musilica. Fourteen years old each. Appearances were unknown until we looked into a mirror.

I had waist-length long dark blue hair that I always kept in a high ponytail, pale blue eyes and a petit frame.

Lily had shoulder-length black hair with cerulean highlights that match her darker cerulean eyes, which were framed by long eyelashes.

Kizana had beautiful flaming red hair that barely touched her shoulders, except a long side-bang that covered half of her left eye. Chestnut-brown eyes. A tomboy.

'How do we fight monsters?' you might ask. The answer is simple. We have powers. Lily could mold things out of clay and amazingly, they come alive. She had great art skills, and she's the one who designed our home. She has an art tool-belt complete with chisels, paintbrushes, and pencils. She also has a crossbow.

Although she has an excellent aim, daggers and shurikens, Kizana was more of a plant-type. She had a way with magical medicinal plants and poisonous herbs. She could also communicate with animals.

I have (this may sound stupid) a magic flute that causes a slight hypnosis to the demons. That's right, a flute. It can calm humans with low notes and animals with high notes. Whacking monsters over the head with my flute is surprisingly effective, too. It can turn into different instruments. I'm claustrophobic, though, which is why our house is on a hill.

"Do you think that all the monsters are all planning one big monster assault on the village?" Kizana suggests, though slightly dubious.

"Impossible", Lily snaps briskly. "The monsters will tear each other to pieces before they'll rip us apart." She had a point. Monsters don't get along. AT ALL. On sight, they'll go full rampage mode on each other, even if humans are standing right there.

"Maybe," I said slowly. "We should-"

"Check the forest." Kizana finishes, somewhat hesitant. Lily shuddered.

"I don't like that place." She cast a nervous glance towards the forest.

"Neither do I," Kizana says. We all don't like the forest. That's where the villagers found us lying there, unconscious. What could have been so horrible in the dangerous depths that made us lose our memories completely? We tend to avoid the forest, but now...

"We have to go," Lily states quietly. "For the sake of the village."

"All right," Kizana says reluctantly."But we have to make sure we're packed."

So we stock up on weapons and supplies, and we, very nervously, enter the darkness.

*

For the first couple of minutes, we trudged on in silence. We just kept walking, and soon we couldn't see a foot in front of us. We stopped.

"Great. Just wonderful," Kizana muttered. "There are probably hundreds of...of who knows what around here, and I can't see my own hand."

Suddenly, as if on cue, a dim light sprouted from behind us. Lily let out a strangled gasp. I turned around and gave a muffled yell, too.

A monster. The first one in a month. Just great.

 

Chapter 2: Lily

I had to curse out our bad luck, because here we are, in the middle of the more-than-creepy forest, being attacked by a (seemingly) strong monster, added on to the fact we haven't got enough practice in 4 weeks to fight one.

Tall and looming, the monster was made out of sand, always forming and reforming itself. A grotesque face seemed to be considering whether to attack us or not. I felt Kizana tense beside me, and a flash of dark silver informed me that she had slipped a dagger into her hand. At that moment the monster decided to target Musilica and charged at her, roaring. Quick as a flash, Musilica jumped and disappeared into a tree. She looked down at us and mouthed, "Battle strategy."

Kizana nodded. Little by little, she moved around the monster until she and I were on opposite sides, with Musilica in a tree above the monster. The monster then opened its mouth and shot sand darts in all directions - the perfect set-up. I gave the signal to Kizana and she sprung into action. She threw a shuriken at the monster and it struck. While it (he?!) was distracted, and started toward Kizana, Musilica hopped from her position in the tree and played a high, wavering note, right next to his head. The monster stalled and tried to aim at Musilica, but the aim was off by a lot. Perfect. I notched an arrow in my crossbow and let it fly swiftly into his sand body. Success! I expected him to fall down, but it seemed our blows were off-centre (due to our lack in practice) so he got up and shot a dangerous sand dart at Musilica, who wasn't expecting it. I heard a muffled cry and she fell down, clutching at her shoulder.

"Musilica!" I yelled. Thankfully the thing only grazed her, but she needed some treatment. Kizana bolted toward her and dug out some emerald-colored plants and pressed them to Musilica's arm. The bleeding stopped but there was still a gash there. She couldn't fight, for now. Kizana, it seemed, suffered a worse blow than Musilica. She had large cuts all over, so she was panting and pressed those same plants on her body. Which unfortunately, left the monster to me.

The crossbow didn't seem to useful at the moment, so I decided to go with my clay. I reached inside my bag and pulled out a large wad of the stuff. I quickly went to work; trying to decide what will go best (or, go worst) with the monster. Soon enough, a clay falcon was resting on my arm. I put all my energy into it, willing it to become alive. Just as fast as I made it, it was already flying to the monster's direction.

In a few minutes, the battle was over. The mangled remains of the monster were scattered everywhere. With a triumphant screech, the falcon melted back into clay and flew to my bag.

We started toward our house again when a chunk of stone flew out and hit me right smack dab on the head. I momentarily passed out.

*

I woke up to the sounds of discussing. Kizana and Musilica were examining the thing that had hit me on the head.

"What's that?" I asked as I make my way to them, though a little miffed because they weren't looking after me.

"Oh, you're awake?" Kizana glances up. "Come and take a look at this," she holds the thing up. I caught my breath. A crystal. Pearly white, it was about the size of my palm. There were elegant transparent streaks all over it.

"C-can I see that?" I reached out, though wary because that was the cause of me blacking out. The moment I touched it, the moment we were all holding the crystal together, it shone brightly and when the light dimmed, words replaced the transparent streaks. A musical voice, like chimes rang out:

"Let three crystals shine bright among the dark

One up high, one causing a spark,

One where the current doesn't reach.

Once united, lost memories will return.

So many mysteries to solve,

You will learn."

Silence.

"What was that?" Kizana glanced rather suspiciously at the crystal, which now lay innocently on the ground.

"I dunno," Musilica frowned. "What could it mean?" And then, as we stared at it, new lines started to appear.

Musilica let out a small gasp and Kizana backed into a tree. I flinched but kept watching the lines until they were deeply set into the crystal. A map. It was very small, but detailed. A deep line, the most solitary one, was slightly tinted blue, which was the path to our goal...whatever it was. Well, it seemed like there was three goals. Like three checkpoints that we need. And we need to start heading...south-east to begin.

"What could this mean?" I ask.

"It means that we've got ourselves a quest!" Musilica announced.

"Right. That's settled then," Kizana said a hint of sarcasm in her voice. "We find a prophecy, a map that can lead us to our death and we set off, not even knowing what our goal is?!"

"Exactly, Kizana!" said Musilica. "That's what we do!" I laughed and gave Musilica a high-five. It was true. Back then, whenever 'back then' was, we remembered that we were really reckless, but brave.

Kizana rolled her eyes, but we all knew that she was smiling, too.

"Guess it's time to get a little rest...we start our adventure in the morning!" We started heading back, ready for anything. Or so we thought.

Chapter 3: Kizana

"Come on, guys! Hurry up!" I called over my shoulder. Musilica and Lily were saying good-bye to the villagers, which is OK, but honestly, do you need 30 minutes to do so? Sure, I said my share of good-byes, too, but this is just overkill.

Finally (For Pete's sake) we shoulder our bags and set off southeast, Lily munching on a burger, kudos to McDonalds. As we walked on, the neat and large fields of crops slowly became more rough. Eventually, they turned into hills, and then into mountains. All the while, it slowly got hotter, as well. Soon enough, we were sweating and had to take a rest and and cool down. Unfortunately, the rocks and the ground were also very hot, so we had to keep going. We learned that when Musilica touched a nearby rock.

"Owwwww!" she shrieked, clutching at her hand. Experimentally, I reached down and poked a rock. It was really hot, like a pan that had just come out of an oven. I sucked on my finger, trying to cool it down.

"This heat is unnatural. Why would rocks be this hot?" I inquired. "Unless-"

Suddenly, there was an ear-splitting BOOM! And the ground shook, making us rise a couple feet into the air.

"-unless there was a volcano under us!" Lily finished for us, once we weren't defying gravity anymore.

"Hey!" Musilica yelled; making us, once again, jump.

"What?" I said.

"The prophecy!’One causing a spark'" she stated, waving her arms frantically. "The crystal could be in the volcano!"

"Yeah, great, Musilica," I raised my eyebrow. "How on earth are we supposed to crack the ground to get to the volcano, including the minor detail that we will burn up?"

"Hey...bring out the map-stone," Lily said to Musilica.

"OK..." she brought out the crystal and we all examined it. Nothing changed from before, but now it had three dots, one flame red, one cerulean blue and one aqua-turquoise...and they were right above our first checkpoint.

"It's right under us!" I yelled.

"Our fire suits!" we all said at the same time. We then pulled out three beige-colored suits, complete with a hood. These suits, as the name suggests, is impenetrable from fire, but will only last 2 hours maximum before it succumbs to the heat. Namely, it will melt off. While it lasts, it's like wrapping yourself in water. Now, for you indignant readers out there might think that the suits should last forever, but it depends on the heat, and since we're descending into a volcano...intense heat!

We dropped on all fours and tried to find an opening. After 15 minutes of searching, we were ready to give up, when Lily picked up a stone, and then, like a chain reaction, a hole, 20 feet wide on all sides appeared, and in a flash, Lily was gone.

"Whoa!" she screamed as she tumbled into the depths. Without a second thought we jumped after her. Thankfully we were wearing our fire suits. The hole was deeper than I had expected. We were falling for what seemed like hours. I heard Musilica groan from somewhere above me and finally, FINALLY, the chute leveled out, and we shot out one by one. I saw Lily at the bottom, thankfully unharmed, but recovering from the fall.

"Oof!" I grunted as I crashed into Lily. Musilica zoomed out and crashed into me.

Please wait as we sort ourselves out.

***

"All right," Musilica said as we got up. "Where do we go now?" The place where we fell was circular...and that was it. A single chamber, which was a dull gray.

"Well, I guess we'll be stuck here for now," Lily said. She started to get up, but winced. I realized that we all had some minor injuries.

"Here," I said. I quickly ground some dark green roots into a paste and gave it to Lily and Musilica. They spread it over their injuries, and under my instructions, the plants slowly healed up most of the wounds.

"Whew!" I panted. Musilica then took out her flute. 

"I'm gonna try to crack these walls to see if we can get out of here." With that, she played a note so high and piercing that I couldn't even hear it. The walls cracked just a little bit, but immediately sealed itself up.

I took out some daggers and aimed them at the cracks and threw them. They struck but the wall had already turned back to a smooth gray slab.

"Guys," Lily warned. "Our fire-suits."

I bit back a curse. Lily had a point. Thirty minutes had already passed, and I could feel my suit starting to wear off. We had to do something quick. Before I could try again, Lily stopped me.

"Dude!" she shook my arm. "There's a hand print at the base of the wall! Come on!"

"Oh!" I said. In my excitement to get to the hand print, I sprinted to the wall and tripped over a twig. I was sent flying in hyper-speed headfirst to the wall, and crashed in an undignified way to the ground. I turned around to see Lily and Musilica doubled over, laughing.

"Smooth," Musilica snorted.

"Oh, shut up," I grinned. I pressed my hand to the print and it slid open bit by bit, and soon the entire wall had opened. When it did, the first thing I saw was, what I thought was, a crystal on fire resting on a waist high stone pedestal. I blinked and looked again. The crystal wasn't really on fire, though it looked like it. It was fire-red and translucent, just sitting there.

"I thought it would be harder...This can't be it." I said slowly. "Should I just take it?" I glanced at Musilica and Lily for reassurance. They nodded. I reached out hesitantly and gripped the crystal. Immediately, a blast of...I don't know how to describe the feeling...power, maybe, gusted through me. My eyesight grew sharper. I was aware of the tiny details in the chamber. I felt invincible.

Suddenly, the room began to shake.

"Wha-" Musilica gasped. The wall behind the crystal started cracking...

Then...

...CRACK!!

The wall collapsed and red hot liquid came gushing out, straight at us!

"Ahhh!!!!" We all screamed and started running into a sloping up tunnel, which I had not noticed before. Just as we started running, I felt my fire suit literally melt off. Strangely, I couldn't feel any heat. Lily and Musilica, however, seemed to have felt the intense heat. As we ran for our lives, I felt the priceless jewel, which was the crystal, s-l-l-i-i-i-p-p-p-ing out of my pocket. I stopped and slid back down a few feet to grab it. Just as I grabbed the troublesome crystal, I slipped on some pebbles and, with a scream, fell straight into the glowing, hot yellow-orange lava.

Chapter 4: Musilica

I heard a scream from behind me. With my agility, I grabbed an overhead root and started swinging monkey bar style towards the sound. Then I saw what happened: Kizana was being consumed by the lava. I screamed. There was no way she could stand that heat, even with her fire suit. No time to panic, we have to save her! I tried to hang down and grab her hand, but missed.

"Lily! Make a flying creature out of clay!" I yelled, unsure if she heard me. Then I saw her hands blur in a fury of creating something to save our cousin. I blinked and saw a clay eagle soaring toward the outstretched hand of Kizana. My heart sank. Too late. Kizana had sunk completely. There was absolutely no way she could live this heat. She probably already dead-then Kizana popped her head over the lava.

Lily shrieked and tripped backward. I blinked a few more times. Then, I rushed to Kizana and pulled her out. Strangely, she was completely okay, even her clothes (or things would have gotten awkward). Her daggers and plants were not even in the slightest bit scorched.

"What happened?" Lily asked.

"I dunno," Kizana said. She was grinning. "When I touched the crystal, i felt a surge of power go in me, and then I felt, I dunno, immune to fire. See, when I fell in, I couldn't feel any heat. Then I willed the lava to stop, and it did."

That was when I realized the wall of lava following us had stopped. Just then it became hotter and we felt another tremor. At this moment my claustrophobia kicked in.

A wave of panic hit me like a hammer. You know how it is. My terror and rising fear completely blocked out the fact thay Kizana seemed able to control fire. I needed to get out. If I didn't, I'm sure to die.

Comprehension dawned in Lily and Kizana's eyes. "We need to get Musilica out of here!" Lily yelled to Kizana. "Musilica, close your eyes!"

Kizana raised her hands and willed the heat to stop as well. Lily molded a quick butterfly out of clay to show us the way out. She spoke a word to bring it to life, and that was the last thing I saw before I closed my eyes.

A bit of calm cooled my panic. I imagined myself on a hill, with open space around me-a lot. I took a breath and under Kizana's guidance we started to walk.

Lily was muttering under her breath. I could barely make out the words: "I thought we fell from a chute. Since when was there a slope going upwards? That wasn't here before. I wonder..."

Somewhere in my mind, I understood. Could the slope be a work of, well, magic? Most likely. Just then, I saw light beneath my eyelids. Light! We were almost there. We took a few more steps, and cool, fresh air engulfed us. On instinct, I opened my eyes. I drew in a sharp breath. The volcano we were in had transformed into a cold, snow-capped mountain!

"How did this happen?" Lily stammered.

"Uh..." Kizana sounded equally as confused.

"I'll take out the map stone." I offered. I reached into my pack and took out the crystal. We all leaned in to examine it.

It changed. The first checkpoint, which had been glowing brightfully before, had dimmed. Now the remaining two were left, shining cheerfully. As for us, we had arrived at our second destination, though it was still a bit far off. The three smaller dots were standing maybe a mile or two away from the second destination. Kizana's dot, the flame, red one, was glowing more brightly than ours.

Suddenly, Lily convulsed as though she had been hit.

"Lily, what's wrong?" I asked.

"I...d-don't like the c-c-cold," she stammered. I looked at her in confusion when Kizana looked at me. I couldn't feel the cold. In fact it felt like warmth at home.

"What's wrong? It's wonderful up here!" I said running around and doing a few back flips to relieve my muscles.

"Musilica, you are wearing a t-shirt and shorts. Can't you feel any cold?" Kizana asked curiously, touching Lily and sharing the warmth form the fire crystal. I shook my head. Lily stretched out a shaking hand and took the map stone. The she shivered and dropped it. Quickly, Kizana bent down and caught it.

"It's as cold as ice now. When we were by the volcano, it was hot." she said, trying to work out the prophecy we revieved from what seemed like years ago.

"I'm tired," Kizana announced. That's when I realized how tired I was.

"Sure," I agreed. "Who has the tents?"

"Here," Kizana obliged. She took out the heap of fabric and poles and sighed. "Who's good with tents?" She flicked a bit of fabric.

"Toss it over," said Lily. Quickly, she got to work; directing is to where to hold things. In about 10 minutes, the tent was done and dusk was falling. I gathered some sticks, because Lily was still shivering, so we can make a fire.

Once the fire was lit, Lily got warm enough to stop shivering and get the food out.

"Let's read the prophecy again." Kizana suggested. I took it out and both Kizana and Lily touched it. At once the prophecy appeared. I read it over and over again.

"Well, we have the crystal causing a spark. But how are we going to get the second and third?" Lily said thoughtfully

“We should get some sleep,” Kizana said yawning. “Musilica, can you take first watch? You still seem full of energy.” I nodded and walked outside, tucking the map stone in my pocket. I laid down in the soft snow and looked up at the stars. My eyes felt heavy but I was wide awake. I felt the cool snow in between my fingers. I closed my eyes but quickly sat up to the sound of a loud screech.

“Aww!” Lily said as she walked out of the tent. “Musilica, I think your flute is out of tune.”

“That wasn’t my flute.”

“Clarinet?”

“Nope.”

“Oboe? Trumpet? Saxophone?”

“Nope, no and no”

“Bass clarinet? Piccolo? Baritone? Alto sax? Tenor sax? Alto clarinet? Violin?”

“No, it wasn’t me or my instruments.”

“It came from where then?”

“The mountain.”

“Then that’s where we are going,” said Kizana as she walked out of the tent.

“The screech woke you up too?” I asked.

“No, you did.” She said while yawning.

“We’re all up. Might as well continue,” I said. We packed our things and started to walk. We went up a hill, then into a trench, then into a forest.

“Let’s take a break and get warm again.” I suggested. Kizana and Lily set up a fireplace, and then Kizana snapped her fingers and a fire sprang to life. Kizana took out some apples and orange juice and we snacked on them.

I glanced at Kizana. She was focusing to keep the fire going in this cold, damp weather. She was the oldest, even though we were all fourteen, in months. She was born in March, then Lily, who was in August, then me, the youngest, in October. Well, at least according to our village. They did this test thingy to find out our birthdates. My mind drifted off from our ages and onto the screech I heard earlier.

“What could it be?” I thought aloud.

“What could what be?” Kizana and Lily said in unison. I snapped out of my thoughts.

“The screech,” I answered, looking for an answer. Unfortunately they shook their heads, clearly as mystified as I was.

“Well then, let’s keep walking,” Lily said. Kizana put out the fire. I decided to have a look and see how much forest we have left. I leapt into a tree and poked my head out of the branches. To my delight, only a quarter of a mile was left. I hopped down and told my two cousins what we have left until the mountain. We continued to walk for a few minutes before Lily started shivering again, while I felt like I was getting more relaxed. Soon Lily decided to create something with her clay. To keep her mind off the cold, And it worked. Quickly she stopped shivering and continued to male some sort of mini house, which was when I almost walked into a tree since we were in a large forest.

“Watch where you are going!” said Kizana.

“We are almost out of food,” said Lily. “I’m going to go hunting.”

“I’ll go with you,” I said. “You need someone to direct you back to Kizana, anyways.”

“I will stay here to collect some berries and maybe start a fire to cook what you catch,” Kizana said. We came to a clearing where Kizana started to make a fire ring out of some small rocks. That was when I noticed how many rocks there were around. I climbed a tree while Lily got her crossbow ready.

“Lily!” I said in a whisper just loud enough for her to hear. “There is a bird over there and it looks pretty large,” Quickly, I darted around the bird to distract it and drive it toward Lily and her crossbow. Unfortunately, it started flying, Lily ran forward and shot an arrow, but it missed. She ran to the spot and pointed her crossbow upward, shooting. Seconds later, I heard the mysterious screech, but it sounded like it was in pain. A few birds came down as well.

The large bird started falling, but a long shot away from us. Lily’s arrow only grazed its wing, but that was enough to make it fall.

“Kizana!” Hopefully she heard me. “Bird’s coming your way!” I heard something crash into the branches. Hanging down, I grabbed one bird and Lily grabbed the other. We started to walk back to the camp. Just then, we heard Kizana yell.

   We raced back to our site and to our relief, Kizana was okay, but now a bird, the bird, was sitting beside the extinguished fire. Actually, it wasn’t an ordinary bird.

   It was a Phoenix.

   I caught my breath. Unlike the usual Phoenixes, with their red and gold feathers, this Phoenix’s plumage was jet-black and dark purple, with hints of silver. Its tail was black from the start, and then gradually became purple and ended with the lightest silver, glittering in the sun. The only ugly thing about it was now an arrow was sticking out of its right wing.

“Wow! A Dark Phoenix! Aren’t those really rare?!” Lily exclaimed. “Great. Please tell me that isn’t my arrow… so who’s good with…um…stabbed wings…?”

“I got it,” Kizana said, and began applying herbs and wrapping the Phoenix’s wing with bandage. “So what should we call her? She might have to stick with us for a bit until she’s healed.”

“How about Lavender?” I suggested as I petted her.

“Cool,” Lily said.

“Sounds great,” Kizana agreed.

“Screech!” Lavender, well, screeched.

“Wait…” I began. “That screech sounds like the one we heard coming from the mountain!”

“Maybe this Lavender’s mom is up there!” Lily exclaimed.

“Let’s take Lavender up there, then!” I said glancing at the snow-capped peaks. I then nearly crumpled as a weight dropped on my shoulder. Lavender had probably communicated with Kizana and asked her to put her on my shoulder. Lavender still can’t fly, I reminded myself. “Ow!” I winced as Lavender’s sharp claws dug into my back.

“Well, let’s head to the mountain now.” Kizana said.

“Alright then,” Lily said hesitantly. She pulled her sweater over herself firmly. “S’go.”

   This, we figured, was much harder than we expected. Lavender wasn’t used to having her wing crippled. The stubborn Phoenix kept trying to take off, but would fall and regain balance on my shoulder. While Kizana would keep reapplying the bandage, Lily would navigate us up the mountain, often retracing her steps and generally messing up. Kizana ran into a tree 6 times and I would lose my own balance when Lavender would make a desperate leap for freedom.

   To sum it all up, we were a mess.

   I wanted to see the sky without Lavender sitting heavily (and not to mention painfully) on my shoulder, so I grabbed her by her purple and black plumage and set her on the ground so she can walk on her own. The bird screeched indignantly but didn’t elaborate.

 Suddenly, a very familiar screech answered Lavender’s. Lily raised her head. “That must be the mom!” she said. “Come on, you two!”

   We followed the cries until they got louder and more pronounced. I had realized something about those screeches. They seemed kind of –

“Desperate.” Kizana seemed to have read my thoughts. That was exactly what I was going to say. “It’s like the mom’s calling for help,” she continued. “Like she’s injured.”

“Yeah,” I agreed. “Maybe Lavender was searching for her mom and that’s why she screeched.”

“Don’t tell me you’re the one who shot Lavender down!” Kizana complained to Lily. “I thought she got snagged on a branch or something!”

“It wasn’t my fault!” Lily said defiantly. “I thought it was an ordinary bird!”

“Sure,” Kizana drawled sarcastically. As if in agreement, Lavender squawked and nipped Lily’s hair. Animal language or not, Lavender wasn’t able to tolerate being called ‘an ordinary bird’.

“You know, I’m this close to…” Lily snatched at her crossbow.

“Finding the mom,” I guessed.

“No, to –”

“I mean the mom is right there!” I screeched. (Ha, ha.)

“There’s a cave over here!” Kizana yelled.

“Um… there are two monsters there,” Lily stated slowly.

“WHAT?!” I yelled.

   A flash of silver = Kizana attacking. She whipped two flaming shurikens at one of the monsters and it melted into water. I raced to the Phoenix mom (who I will currently call Indigo) and examined her.

 The older Phoenix was covered in scratches. There was a huge gash on her shoulder, which was bleeding profusely. Indigo screeched pathetically. Noticing this, Kizana raced over while digging into her bag. She pressed some blue plants onto Indigo’s wound.“Seal!” Kizana whispered and the blue herbs melted into the gash, sizzling. She shut her eyes, concentrating, until the wound healed to the point where it could have been mistaken for a scratch on your knee if you fell off your bike. In a few minutes, Indigo was on her feet. Lavender screeched happily and walked over. They both flew away, Lavender tilted a bit to the right side.   That’s when Lily came dashing to the second monster, crossbow ready, and shot at it. The earth demon roared and turned to her. This monster was up to me and Lily. Kizana needed a break from both the healing and the fighting.   The monster charged. I reacted right away by playing a hypnotic song on my flute. The monster halted warily. Taking advantage of this, Lily shot an arrow at it, and this time it struck home, nailing the sucker in the face. The demon roared some more, (man, he has a good set of lungs) lashed out and sent razor-sharp rocks flying at us. Its movements were dulled, however, by the our previous attacks, so it sunk to the ground, motionless. We sidestepped the rocks easily.

“Well,” I said. “Let’s go examine the cave Kizana found.”

   We raced into the cave, only to find a wall blocking our path.

“Argh!” Lily complained. “Another  freakin’ wall.”

   I scanned the stone slab carefully. There! I saw a diamond-shaped indent in the bottom left corner of the wall. Strangely, Lily and Kizana seemed to have spotted it right away, the instant I did. Hmmm… I wonder… never mind. We’ve got more important things to deal with now.

   So, assuming that the indent is the lock, where was the key? 

“Hey, Musilica,” Kizana interrupted my thoughts. “There’s a crystal here hidden in the corner. D’ya thinks it’s your crystal?”

   I ran over to examine the jewel, which was miraculously the same shape as the diamond indent on the door. “No,” I said. “I can tell that it’s not my crystal, but it might be used for something else…” My gaze lingered over the indent.  My cousins understood immediately.

“Go on,” they urged.

   I picked up the jewel and pressed it to the dent. The crystal sank into the stone, turning it into a fine mahogany door, complete with a brass doorknob. I gripped the knob and turned it. The door swung open slowly.

   An amazing sight greeted us. We had arrived in a larger cave, maybe around 20 meters in depth. But the most beautiful thing was that crystals, by the thousands, were stacked up to the roof in expensive mounds everywhere. Diamonds, rubies, emeralds, sapphires, you name it. The glittering of the jewels lit up the entire place. Lily and Kizana looked stupefied.

   I then noticed a gold pedestal with silver words engraved on it. I read:

“Welcome one and all,

To this crystal hall.

The crystal that you seek

Is at the highest peak.

Be sure it’s the right one

Or your life is done.

If you touch the wrong one, let this be a warning to all,

This crystal cave shall certainly fall.”

   I turned around to see Kizana and Lily walking to the giant mound of jewels as if hypnotized, their hands reaching for a crystal.

“STOP!!!” I screamed, and they broke out of their trance and looked at me, confused.  “Guys, listen. We can’t just go around grabbing crystals. If we get the wrong one, this cave’s gonna fall on us. We have to decide which one is my crystal, and we can leave without any trouble. Got it?”

   They nodded, but Kizana was already turning to look at a fake bright red crystal on a mound. I sighed, exasperated. I should better hurry and find my crystal before my momentarily deluded cousins kill us all. I was already so close. I could feel it.

   As I examined the tops of the piles, I realized something. An aqua-colored crystal, the exact shape and size, was resting at the top of every mound. I looked further into the cavern and – there it was!No doubt about it. Even though it looked like all the other aqua crystals, I could practically feel the energy radiating from it.

 “Lily, can you make me a bird so I can…” I trailed off, since Lily was staring at another fake crystal.

   Argh! The two were not cooperating.  I have to do this manually. I stretched my arms out horizontally and with a quick hop, I was airborne. I snatched a stalactite hanging from the ceiling and accommodating swings and loose pebbles, and very cautious not to touch any other crystals, I was positioned over my crystal. I noticed Kizana and Lily both edging closer to crystas. As I lowered myself down, both Lily and Kizana reached out and touched a crystal. The cavern began to shake and stalactites started falling from the ceiling. Great. Nice job, my cousins. Quickly I jumped, grabbing my crystal in the process. I landed on a shaking ground beside the two shocked girls, grabbed them and started running. They followed me, while life-threatening stalactites were trying to kill us.

"My mistake!" Lily yelled running in front of me. All the while, while my crystal was getting colder every few seconds. Then, I couldn't hear Kizana running after me. I turned around and ran.

And ran. I ran until I saw a flash of red. Red hair!

"Kizana!" I shouted above the noise. I saw a hand come out and I grabbed it and started running for our lives again. Unfortunatly, we were trapped by the stalactites. There was a space, only big enough for us to crawl through. A stalactite started crumbling, threatening to fall.

"GO!" I yelled at Kizana and shoved her to the space. She crawled through just before a stalactite covered it, and I knew all was lost. I was running out of air and that was that.

Chapter 5: Lily

I saw Kizana crawl out of a hole and rushed forward to help her.

"Where's Musilica?" I asked her. Kizana lifted a shaking hand. And what I dreaded to hear was said.

"She's still in there. She told me to go first." Kizana said, a tear cutting through the dirt on her face. I looked at the wall of rubble and saw a hole at the top, big enough for Musilica to get through. I climbed my best to get there and shouted.

"Musilica! Can you hear me? Are you alright?!"

"Yeah!" a voice replied. "Well, more or less."

Relief - glorious, shinging relief - washed through me. Musilica was alright, trapped but alive. The hole at the top was way to high for her to jump, and the walls inside were smooth - too smooth. With a jolt, I realized that the small place where Musilica was standing was too small for comfort. Hopefully, Musilica wouldn't focus on the haven and instead find a way to escape.

Too late. The next time Musilica spoke, her voice had an edge of panic to it.

"Guys..." she said. 
"I-I can't get out."

Desperate to keep Musilica's mind off her claustrophobia, I asked, "Do you have you crystal?"

"Um...yes, I do," came the nervous reply. "Why?"

Kizana answered for me: "Does it do anything? I mean, when I got mine, I recieved fire powers. Do you have anything?"

There was a pause. "I dunno," Musilica said. "Do you still have your fake ones that you grabbed?"

There wasn't an accusing note in her voice, but it made me feel guilty all the same. If Kizana and I didn't snatch the fake ones, we wouldn't be in this mess in the first place.

I stared at the rather pretty blue gem glittering in my hand. I hadn't realized that I still had it. A wave of temptation came to me. You know, a voice said in my mind. I flinched. This was no ordinary voice. Well, at least not a kind one. This one was sly and cold and calculating. You could be powerful, it continued. You have such great potential. Just swear your loyalty to me, and you power could be limitless. Why not?

Limitless power...the idea was tempting, but I have a feeling that t his voice, whoever it was, wasn't offering for free. There must be a catch. Payment.

"Forget it," I said. I let the fake jewel drop. The moment it hit the icy ground, it disintegrated on a trip to Nothingland.

I stole a glance at Kizana. She hadn't heard the voice, it seemed, and she had already let the fake crystal drop. She took out her real one, fingering it.

"It may look pretty, but that's just the outside." Musilica said. I felt the rocks, trying to find something to take out so we can get Musilica out of that small cave.

"Yikes!" Musilica yelped. I heard something thud against the ground.

"Musilica! Are you okay?" Kizana said. A few long seconds went by.

"I-I'm okay. Just the crystal is really cold." Musilica said, a little muffled. I suspected that she bent to pick her crystal up. A second later, Musilica came shooting like an arrow out of the hole.

It took a few moments for that to register in my confused - and tired - brain. Musilica...flying? No way. No. Freaking. Way.

"Yo! S'up guys?" Musilica grinned. She was totally hyped up. 

"That is wildly, incredibly unfair," Kizana puffed out her cheeks.

"Oh, come off it,"  Musilica said. "It's no biggie."

Kizana tugged at her side-bang. I bit my lip. No biggie?

"Well," I said, breaking the silence. "That's one crystal to go, my comrades!"

The moment I said crystal, the ground beneath us crumbled, and we fell into another hole.

"Not agaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaain!" Kizana yelled.

"Oof!" I grunted. I, unfortunately, had the bad luck to end up at the bottom of the pile of cousins. We looked around, after we had gotten up.

We were in a lake. Well, a lakeshore. It was a blue, sparkling cave, and a body of dark cerulean water covered most of it. Light cerulean sand covered 1/3 of it; where we were standing. Cerulean...the exact same shade as my eyes.

"Um...Musilica...do you wanna fly over the lake to see what's there?" my voice echoed in the dimly-lit cavern.

"Sure," she replied. She took off, first examing the higher corners of the cave. Then, she went to scout over the lake. But the moment she started over the water, a force, almost ilke a tronger gravity source, had tugged Musilica down and into the dark depth.  I jumped and grabbed her just before she was sucked completely in. As Musilica recovered from her daze, Kizana tossed a rock into the lake and it got sucked down.

"Looks like we have to-" Musilica started.

"Swim." I finished.

"Seems like we can't really go over it."

"One more thing," Musilica started. "I saw something blue and shiny."

"My crystal," I said. "I'm going down."

"Before you go," Kizana said. "Don't forget the airfilled crystals we found."

Which airfilled crystals? I thought.

"The ones we found," Musilica answered. "From earlier. When we saw those little crystals, and you stepped on one, it blasted you with air.

"Well that clears that up a lot." I said. "Wait a second, did I just say that or think-" I stopped myself. Now wasn't the time. "Never mind, well I'll see you guys after."

Then I jumped.

I heard a splash from when my feet hit the water, and then it was instantly subdued by the lake. It was deeper than I had anticipated. I held my breath for as long as I could, then I pressed one of the crystals to my nose and cracked it. Air filled my lungs.

I looked down into the water. All I could see was darkness, but in the middle of the black was a shining blue dot.

I wonder if Lily's OK.

I started. That was Kizana's voice, and it echoed in my head as if she was right next to me.

"Kizana?" I said, but all I saw was the stream of bubbles issuing from my mouth. I cured. That was my air all, wasted. I pulled out a second bubble and inhaled.

My mind strayed to the moment where I heard Kizana. I heard her as clearly as a bell, yet she wasn't there. So maybe I wasn't hearing her voice. 

Maybe I was hearing her...

...thoughts.

Hesitantly, I thought, Kizana?

LILY? Kizana yell-thought. I can't see you...are you resurfaced? How...

I almost laughed. I think we can speak to each other with thoughts.

Silence. Then, I'm gonna try to get Musilica as well.

A few moments later, Musilica's voice reverberated un my head: Lily, this is so cool! Are you alright? Did you find the crystal?

One second, I thought. I took uot a third bubble; I had run out of air. Once I had my fill, I answer, Well, I see my crystal at the bottom. Like, the very bottom. I can tell that the water's really deep. I don't know if I could stand the water pressure d own there.

Well, Kizana interrupted You should get on with it.

Yeah, I agreed. I have seven bubbls left.

One more thing, Musilica said. Can those bubbles help you with the water pressure?

A spark of hope illuminated my darkening path. I'll try, I responded. I smashed the fourth bubble on my arm. It worked. A thin layer of air lifted all the pressure from the water. I swam deeper. I couldn't believe how long I had to swim down. The only thing sustaining me was the bubble. If it ran out at this depth, I'd surely die.

I took another bubble for breath. I checked my pocket. I had one more left. I figured out that a bubble for breath lasts two minutes and water pressure, five. Something bumped my lower calf. A basin with a cerulean blue crystal in the middle. I reached out, but a solid wall blacked my hand. A barrier. Very solid. I had an idea. A fatal, crazy one, but hopefully it worked. I pulled out my remaining air-bubble - the last one - and smashed it against the barraier. The barraier dissipated into the water.

Then I ran out of air.

I reached into my pocket for an air bubble, but I felt nothing. Kizana and Musilica were yelling in my head, but all I thought was, I can't do it guys. Sorry.

Panic is a scary thing. My lungs were threatening to burst and pain washed through my already weak body. With my last bundle of energy, I thrust my arm forward and touched the surprisingly dry surface of the long-awaited crystal. 

And then a miracle happened.

Chapter 6: Kizana

 Okay, I'm starting to get ticked off. Lily better not be playing a mean joke and not answer our telepathic calls. But when the last thing I heard from Lily was, "I can't make it," I started to panic.

"Musilica..." I choked out. "Did you hear that?" I hoped the answer was no.

"LILY!" Musilica yelled into the water. "LILY!"

No response. I sank to my kneeds, devastated.

Suddenly, Lily's head broke the surface of the water.

I hasped. How's this possible? Lily was drowing. I was sure of it.

"Hey," Lily's voice was grim.

"Wha-" Musilica sputtered.

"I don'ot know what happened," Lily said. "When I touched the crystal, a surge of power, as you said, Kizana, hit me and I just swam to the top."

My eyes met Musilica's. Are you thinking what I'm thinking? I thought to her.

Of course, she replied. I'm hearing you think, right?

Lily looked a little unnerved, probably because a wicked grin had j ust spread across my face. I turned to Musilica and thought, On three! One...two...three! We both reached out and dunked Lily's head underwater. Her hair wasn't even moist.

When we let her up, she wasn't coughing or breathing deeply. She wasn't even the slightest bit wet.

"What was that for?!" Lily shook her fist at us.

"You can breathe underwater," Musilica started. "Not to mention that you dono't get wet, and I bet you my flute that you can withstand water pressure."

"Lucky duck," I teased.

Lily flicked Musilica's ponytail and stuck her tongue out at me while smiling.

Musilica reached back and steadied her swinging hair.

"Well," Musilica said and brought out her crystal. "Crystals are all here. So..."

"...What now?" I finished for her, pulling out my crystal as well.

All of a sudden, the crystals began to glow; Lily shrieked. The map-stone had wriggled out of Musilica's pack and started spinning and flying around and about. We all yelled and in general, it was mass panic-mode in here. The wretched little map-stone spun a little too close for our comfort and in three fasts trikes we could barely seem it sliced Musilica's shoulder; Lily's ankle; and my cheek, leaving droplets of blood shining. Our blood dripped as the map-stone continued spinning like mad. One by o ne, a droplet fell on the smooth surface of the map-stone, which had halted to catch our drops of blood.

Then, a portal opened.

Musilica flinched. Lily recoiled so fast that she slapped me and I yelled, half in shock, half in, well, sheer pain.

The blue portal sucked us in and we blacked out.

* * *

When we came to, we found ourselves in a little valley.

Musilica breathed in sharply. "A house," She whispered.

"A fire," Lily murmured.

"Our memories," I said dully.

We were replaying our memories...

We saw a small village. Little, but joyful and cozy and it seemed that the villagers were having a celebration. With a jolt, I realized that it wasn't our "adoption" village. I saw myself, barely 7 years old, my red hair in pigtails, a stubborn expression on my face. Lily, with a braid, and Musilica, wearing a blue dress, were trying to make me swim in the lake. Suddenly, a disturbance settled over the village.

A fire started out of nowhere and was spreading. The festive mood died. People were running and screaming. A crash resounded behind us. I (mini me) whipped around and screamed. A monster stood at the edge of the village. A fire spirit. It was bigger than any of the monsters we had ever encountered. Seven people came dashing out of a nearby house, w ith protectiveness and determination burning in their eyes. A beautiful woman looked like me. The others looked like Lily and Musilica, along with a shorter girl who looked to be Musilica's older sister.

"Our parents," Lily (the older one) muttered at me.

Lily's mom had black hair, but with blue eyes. Musilica's mother had short, choppy light blue hair. My mom had reddish-brown hair and hazel eyes. They rushed over. We were bursting with questions at our parents, but they shushed us, Musilica's sister looking grim. They picked us up and ran into the house from earlier. Up two flights of steps they went, and finally they left us in the spacious attic with food and water. Tears dotted their eyes. Lily's mother took a long look at us. She whispered, "Don't worry. We love you. Always."

Our parents hugged us - for the last time - and watched Musilica's sister hold onto us a little longer before they all left, Lily's father with a swirling orb of water in his hand. We gave each other confused looks, but soon forgot about it and started to play again.

"How could we play at a time like this?" I asked.

The memory fast-forwarded. Soon, we saw saw ourselves fast asleep in the attic. It seemed that the battle outside had ended. Suddenly the windows blazed with light.

"A fire?" I murmured. The spaces under our past selves began to glo. Blazing white. We, along with our younger selves, were sucked in the light.

"A portal," Lily gasped.

Color swirled around us. Black, green, brown...I lost track. We came to a halt. We found ourselves in a clearing.

"The forest," Musilica shivered. The place we all despise. We looked at ourselves running, confused, tired and weak.

"Where are we?" We heard my smaller self whimper.

Suddenly, a dark vast shape blotted out the remaining sun, leaving us in complete darkness.

Musilica didn't seem at the least bothered. "Look at all this pace!" Her smaller self laughed and began to run. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw the older version of her smile slightly. She hadn't noticed the huge "thing" in her path. Lily let out a squeak of fear. Kizana (my younger self) backed into a tree. I almost had to laugh there.

A brillant flash of light, coming from the thing, illuminated the forest and we screamed. We tried to escape, but to no avail. One second, we were running, the next...nothing. We were gone. We knew the rest. The new villagers found us at the edge of the stupid forest, fazed and worried, without a single memory.

I cought my breath as the scene blurred and we arrived back in present time.

"That's..." I said, dazed.

"It," Lily stuttered.

"That's what happened," Musilica said for all of us.

Chapter 7: Kizana

 "Oh, my...I think...umm," I couldn't get a full sentence out. I was too shocked at what just happened. Lily seemed bewildered. Lily...I..."

"Wait," She started. "My name is Lyla."

"What?" I asked, trying to think if Kizana was my real name.

"My memories are coming back, Lyla was my real name, though I like Lily better," She said.

"Musa!" Musilica gasped. "I remember now! My mother called me Musa..."

"Ummmm..." I was struggling to think. Why couldn't I recall my name?

Lily (or is it Lyla now?) laughed when she saw my face, scrunched up and as red as my hair. "You look funny," she giggled.

"Ohhh...wait," I said. "Akiza!"

"You looked like you were constipated," Musilica teased.

"Oh, shut up," I killed the look. "But my name's Akiza."

"Hey, where are we?"? Lily stated, looking around. I realized we weren't in the lake cavern anymore. A beautiful valley stretched out before us. A river churned nearby and fruit trees grew in an orchid, the branches all over the place from the years of not being attended to. It was an untouched heaven in a dangerous world.

Almost.

Remains of houses were scattered across the flatter section of the valley. Even from the distance we were at, the blackened, burned charred wood stood out in the mesmerising landscape.

"I-It's the valled..." Lily managed to say. "Or, what's left of it after the blaze."

"Are we actually here? Or is this just another illusion?" I bent down and brushed the lush grassm feeling the soft, cool greenery under my fingernails. "It feels real enough."

"It has to be," Musilica let out a small sigh. "Can't ou feel it?" There was something familiar about these charred remains. Something...

"Hidden!: All three of us exclaimed.

"Um...um..." I strained to remember. "Something...in our old house, maybe?" Lily and Musilica stared blankly at me.

"Where would the house be?" Lily stated. Almost instantly, I felt a tug in my stomach, and suddenly, I knew where our old house was. My other cousins seemed to have felt it too.

"It's here. Right here," Musilica muttered.

Imprint

Text: Emberdawn and her friends
Images: Emberdawn and her friends
Editing: Emberdawn and her friends
Translation: Emberdawn and her friends
Publication Date: 01-31-2013

All Rights Reserved

Dedication:
The Spirit Duets (Emberdawn and Mistflower), the friends of Emberdawn who she helped write this story.