Okay brand new place in Aerwiar! Ember Island!
Enjoy my fellow featherheads!
Oh and sorry for the cliffhanger....
Chapter 26 Ember Island
The ship was sailing towards the large Green Island. Rising up from the center of the island was a huge gray stone castle. Up from the spires were blazing red and orange golden flags and the whole castle was protected by a smoldering lava moat.
“Come on.” Sara whispered to the others, as they snuck out the deck. It was swarming with Shifters and Bots.
“We need somewhere else to hide.” Nia said. They were all crouched behind a group of yellow barrels that were labeled “caution toxic chemicals inside.”
“What's the plan now?” Janner asked Sara.
“I don't know..” she admitted.
“What! how do you not know!?” Kalmar asked.
“I don't know, I've never been trapped on a boat before!” Sara replied, irritated with the fact that Kalmar had just assumed she knew how to escape from a boat.
“Kalmar, it's not her fault. She's gotten us this far. I'm sure we all can come up with something to get us out.” Nia assumed.
“How about this? If we take one of the lifeboats because every boat has lifeboats, we will at least get a little bit of a head start.” Janner offered.
“Ah, now you're thinking like a sailor!” Esben explained proudly. At this Janner's face beamed with happiness, as they snuck to the other side of the deck and had to resist the urge to fight the Bots.
When they finally got to the other side of the deck, Leeli asked,
“Where are the lifeboats?” for there were no boats to be seen.
Esben walked over to a little latch on the deck floor and pulled it open to see the lifeboats. “Some boats have a shaft where the lifeboats are stored because if there is a storm or something or an attack the lifeboats need to be in a secure place. You can always access it by finding a little latch with the life ring symbol on it.” Esben explained, as he did this the shaft opened up revealing a medium-sized, purplish gray lifeboat. It looked old and it was covered in moss.
“We're really taking that thing?” Kalmar asked.
“This is literally our only option Kal, either this little rickety old boat or staying here with Opal and those Shapeshifter things and probably getting killed!” Janner said practically.
“Lifeboat it is!” Kalmar said nervously. After a few minutes of grunting and trying incredibly carefully to find the little red button in the lifeboat shaft to release the boat into the water and trying not to make a sound, they finally found it. Esben pushed it, releasing the boat from the shaft and the boat slid down into the water.
“Okay, now all we need to do is carefully sneak out of the boat without Opal or those metal Bots or those Shifters seeing us and then we sail to where?” Kalmar asked.
“Opal said we're going to a place called Ember Island. Our best chance is to sail to the island and try to get them help before Opal finds us.” Janner said, as they walked through the passageway to the exit.
They successfully departed from Opal's boat and safely got onto the little purplish gray, rickety old Lifeboat.
“Out of all the ideas we've come up with, this might just be the worst…” Kalmar said.
“Wait, no there was a worse one, maybe it was Anklejelly Manor. That one wasn't a good idea at all.” Kalmar said.
“Oh, can you please just get in the rickety old boat!” Janner snapped, realizing how ridiculous this statement was.
Kalmar cautiously stepped into the rickety old boat, it swayed and creaked as he stepped in. “This is so not a good idea,” he said quietly.
Once they all got in, they started rowing like crazy. Esben led the boat while the others all helped as well. It was an epic race to outrun Opal's ship. Eventually, it was Leeli who saw a large green Island.
“Look! Ember Island!” she said, as she pointed her hand towards the land.
They all looked towards where Leeli was pointing and cheered for they had reached Ember Island! Then they heard down from behind them the horn of the Opal’s ship blowing.
“We have to hurry, we're losing time!” Esben shouted, as they all began to row like never before. After about 15 more minutes of rowing they reached Ember Island. They docked on a fiery orange beach and as soon as they got to the land, they started running for their lives. They found a path on the beach that led to the grassy part of the island where there was a forest.
After running for a while they reached a large village full of tiny houses and cute little shops with fiery red and orange roofs, full of smiling faces and happy children, walking happily across the street. They bolted through the village like crazy people making every one of the villagers turn and look at them. They were causing quite a scene in the village as everyone stopped in their tracks to make room for them.
They ran all the way out of the village to somewhere where they didn't quite know what it was. It was a large swamp-type thing but everything was lava or what looked like lava anyways. Covering the entire swamp with glowing algae-like plants that were reddish color that faded up to green. But they didn't take time to admire the scenery; they just kept running.
After escaping the swamp-type thing, they found a river but not just any river; this river was made entirely out of molten lava.
“How in all of Anniera are we supposed to cross a river made out of molten lava?” Kalmar asked, out of breath from running.
“Maybe they don't want us to cross?” Janner said, also out of breath.
“Let's follow the river to wherever it leads. Rivers always have a source, maybe there's something there.” Nia suggested. So they all followed the river; it was an extremely long river which branched off into three different sections. But eventually they found the center of the river. “Wow!!” the children said in awe as they saw in the exact center of Ember Island and the lava river, a gigantic stone castle.
“Well this explains why there's a river of lava.” Leeli said in amazement at the beautiful castle.
“There should be a drawbridge somewhere.” Artham said.
“Why do you even need a lava river anyways?” Kalmar asked.
“I don't know, maybe to keep people out, or maybe it's a cultural thing. I have no idea what the history here is. I would love to know though.”, Janner answered, searching around the perimeter of the river when suddenly a gigantic drawbridge dropped down on the river.
“Stop! Who goes there?” two guards who had just entered from the castle asked.
The Wingfeathers looked in surprise and Nia said “We mean no harm, we just need to find help quickly.”
“Come in, the Majesties will deal with you.” the guard said, as they walked over to the Wingfeathers and made them walk up the drawbridge into the gray stone castle.
So....they've escaped....but don't have a good ship and no way of leaving...