Hello everyone!
So a fellow ridgerunner comes back in this chapter.......
Note: the next chapter is kinda sad if you've read Places beyond the maps from Wingfeather tales
Hope you all enjoy and See ya late Iggyfeathers!
Chapter 37 The Third Crystal
“Wait what!” Rose's parents exclaimed as she told them and her sisters what had just happened at the Great Pixie Tree. “That's impossible! Mr. Stars has always been a very kind leader. He would never betray us.” Rose's father, James said, as he smoothed his spiky navy blue hair.
“Oh it's true all right. I even heard that he was going to steal our crystal today!” Rose said, as her blood boiled for the fact that someone who she thought was so trustworthy turned out to be their greatest enemy.
“We have to do something and we have to do it right now! Mr. Stars isn't going to wait any longer.” Sophia said, playing with her little black Joker nervously.
“So what are we going to do?” Emily asked, as she looked up from their adorable little squeak, his name was Fluffy, to look at Rose.
“We need to contact the other lands. I know they're out there. Mr. Stars was probably lying about everything that he told us about the other lands; they're probably wonderful people who have done nothing wrong to us.” Rose explained, as she saw her mother's eyes widen.
“We can't go to the other lands, it's not safe.” she said worriedly.
“But Mama! Mr. Stars told us all of those things about Biolumia and Ember Island and even Aerwiar. He was probably lying about them all!” Rose pleaded, as she saw the torn look on her mother's face. Finally after some careful decision her parents agreed that they should contact the other lands because, if Mr. Stars really was going to do what he said, then Opal would have three out of the five crystals.
It was the next morning when they woke up earlier than the sun. They didn't want to bring any attention to themselves, especially not from Mr. Stars. “Okay, remember to ring the bell only once and be careful, okay?” Rose's mother told her.
They were standing in front of the Dragon School. It was a bit outside of the Emerald Forest. For you see, the Emerald Kingdom was quite expansive. There are many different places in the Emerald Kingdom along with goblins and dwarves. The elves have a very big rivalry with these said dwarves, but I won’t get into that.
On the top of the Dragon School was a large bell. You had to ring this if you ever needed help from the other lands. Rose climbed up the long tall ladder to the top of the school so she could ring the bell. When she got up she saw the bell was even bigger than she had thought. It was a golden color and it shimmered like glass on the beach, and there was a little hanging tassel in the middle of the bell. She grabbed the tassel and rang the bell hoping and praying to The Maker that it would not wake up any of the elves, especially Mr. Stars.
There was no sound for a while. They didn't see any ships, there was no fleet of dragons or splashing tails of mermaids. There was just silence over the calm of the ocean.
“It's going to take a while.” Sophia said encouragingly, as she saw the disappointment on her sister's face.
“Yeah, you're right, let's go home.” She said, as she joined her family while they walked back to the Emerald Forest.
When they re-entered The Emerald Forest, they were greeted by one of the town officials. Her name was Lumia, her hair was as white as snow, except the tips, which were a bright golden color. Her skin was like an olive color and her eyes were the color of emeralds. She wore a long wavy white and gold dress, and wore little gold sandals. Her face was full of worry and despair.
“There you are! Where were you?” she asked the Storm family with questions and despair.
“Lumia what's going on? We were at the Dragon School.” Lily stated.
“While you were away doing Maker knows what, the Emerald Kingdom's crystal was stolen!” Lumia said, her voice was full of rage and worry.
“What! no! it can't be!” Rose said as she tugged on her hair with frustration. Then she ran off for the Great Pixie Tree.
“Rose, wait!” her parents called, while Sophia and Emily started to race after her. When Rose got to the Great Pixie Tree her eyes filled with tears of anger and betrayal as she saw that the hourglass column in the middle of the room was broken. There was a large melted hole in the glass, and all of the gold magical dust was pouring onto the ground. The spot where the crystal was inside the hourglass was missing, leaving only the little golden holster there. “No!” she said as she started to cry for the fact that the thing that was protecting her entire Kingdom and home was gone.
When her family got there, they joined her in a hug and reassured her that everything was going to be okay though she knew that nothing was going to be okay.
“The Wingfeather family was going to war, Kalmar could possibly die, Queen Opal is Mr. Star's daughter. Mr. Stars is actually a traitor and a king. King Esben Wingfeather attacked the Emerald Kingdom and hurt Princess Ruby's wings. Mr. Stars had lied to them about the other lands and Queen Opal probably framed the Wingfeathers for all of this, causing the other lands to start to hate them.” Rose thought in her mind, as they kept telling her that everything would be okay.
Then suddenly a loud horn sound came. It startled them so much that Emily started to scream. They all left the Great Pixie Tree to see that sailing on the bright aqua blue ocean and about to dock at Sapphire Shore was a fleet of Biolumian and Ember Islanders ships. Rose thought she saw a couple Aerwian ships as well. And flying in the sky was a single lavender dragon with crystal wings with a princess who had dark brown hair, a kind smile and was wearing a white and gold dress.
“It worked!” Rose exclaimed,
“What worked?” One of the Elven villagers asked.
“We went to the Dragon School and ran the old ancient S.O.S. bell. I found out that Mr. Stars was going to betray us just yesterday afternoon. So I thought that ringing the bell would help us because the only people that can help us right now are the other lands.” Rose explained.
“But the other lands are dangerous!” The villagers claimed and they started to argue.
Rose stepped up on the platform and said, “That's what Mr. Stars told us but Mr. Stars was lying about everything. This is the truth, elves: Mr. Stars is not a wizard! He is none other than King Emerald Stars of the Gemstone Palace. His wife was Queen Harper Stars and he had two daughters: Princess Sky Stars and Princess Ruby Stars. They were all fairies! But 15 years ago when the ancient Wingfeather / Pixie War started, his family was taken all except for his daughter whose wings were broken by King Esben Wingfeather. So King Stars took Princess Ruby below the gemstone Palace in the catacombs below and told her that to protect her she needed to go by her middle name which is…” Rose said, pausing for dramatic effect: “Opal!”
At this the crowd gasped.
“That's right, Queen Opal is none other than Queen Opal Stars otherwise known as Mr. Star's daughter!” Rose said as all of the Elven Village crowd were stunned.
“Nothing, Mr. Stars has told us is true. Us even being here isn't true, ever wonder why on almost every doorknob or on the Great Pixie Tree there's fairy wings? Because the fairies used to live here. When the war broke out they all were taken and captured by the Annierians and then we moved in. Mr. Stars isn't even an elf and the worst part is….. “.
“There's a worst part?” a little Elven boy asked.
“Yes, yes there is," Rose answered. “We elves used to have magic. That's right, magic but Mr. Stars stole your magic. He tricked us into giving it to him so that he could protect the Great Pixie Tree and protect the crystal. You know how we get that magic back? We go into that pillar and we take the dust. The golden dust that was inside the hourglass pillar inside of the Great Pixie Tree has escaped, after Mr. Stars melted a hole inside of it. But if we elves touch the dust then we'll regain our magical powers. And then we can overthrow Mr. Stars and take back our home!” Rose said confidently, as the whole crowd roared with cheers and they all pumped their fist up in agreement.
A moment later, hundreds of Biolumines and Ember Islanders and even some Aerwiarins came walking up the sandy path to the Emerald Forest. “This is our army and our allies!” Rose said, as she pointed her hand towards the coming crowd walking up the path. The path was led by a woman who had teal to aqua hair, and a dark navy dress, teal eyes, and a look of timidness on her face.
“Hello, my name is Queen Marina Mist of Biolumia. The second that we heard the bell ring we came here. Is everything all right?” she asked as she made a room for all of the Biolumines and the Ember Islanders as they walked up the path.
“No nothing's all right, the Wingfeathers are going to war with Queen Opal and the Emerald Kingdom's Crystal has just been stolen by one of our greatest allies, Mr. Stars, the wizard.” Rose said. It was hard for her to say this though she had said it many times through the past 2 days but it still stung her mouth when she said it.
“Your crystal was stolen? So was mine by those Wingfeathers!” the girl who was riding on the lavender dragon said, as she walked up.
“Your crystal was stolen? So was mine.” Queen Marina said softly,
“My name is Princess Gracie, my parents are on the path and they're coming. If this has anything to do with the Wingfeathers then I don't want anything to do with it!” Gracie said, crossing her arms and frowning.
“I'm friends with Kalmar, they're not bad people. It's not their fault.” Rose said.
“Actually I think it's absolutely their fault." said a little creature which Rose and the others had never seen before. It sort of looked like a human, but its nose was incredibly pointy and its legs were incredibly long and it was tossing an apple up and down in its hands.
“Who are you? Or actually what are you?” Rose asked as she cocked her head at the creature.
“So I guess you don't have Ridgerunners in the Emerald Kingdom do you?” the creature asked.
“Ridgerunners?” Rose asked curiously.
“Wait, Kalmar told me about you creatures. You're so untrustworthy and you love fruit and you're incredibly fast.” She said, looking cautiously at the Ridgerunner.
“Oh so sad to hear that Little Tink doesn't like Ridgerunners anymore. He and I were quite good friends back in Glipwood.” The Ridgerunner said with an evil grin.
“Why are you here?” she asked the Ridgerunner.
“Because I wanted to see my little Tinky before he went off to fight in a war. Also I heard that you have something called a sugar smack.” The Ridge Runner said, smiling creepily.
“What's your name?” she asked suspiciously, praying that it wasn't the Ridgerunner that Kalmar had told her about.
“Oh you would like to know my name would you? My name is Zouzab.” The Ridgerunner said grinning evilly.
“No! Kal told me about you, you betrayed them all and sold them out to flag..wait no bag..no oh yes Gnag.” Rose said, scowling at Zouzab.
“What, a Ridgerunner can't have fun?” He asked, smiling, then Zouzab spotted the Aerwiarins coming up the path and bolted to a little sugar smack patch.
“So what in the good world is this all about?” said a plump man who came bustling up the path wearing strange clothing and a hat with a long feather on it.
“Hello, you must be from Aerwiar? My name is Rose Storm and we have called you all here because we need to discuss the crystal problem. I thought that if I could bring you all here that we could figure out some way to help the Wingfeathers in the war.” She explained as more and more Aerwiarians came walking up the path
“Well, I do love seeing young kids participate in leading a township. I myself did with Glipwood. I am Mayor Blaggus.”
At the sound of his voice Queen Marina started to cry. She walked over to the man and gasped “Ben???” she asked incredibly, as she couldn't believe who this was. “Marina?!?” Mayor Blaggus said unbelievably. They walked closer to each other, saw each other's face and embraced in a hug.
“You're alive!” She exclaimed and then she saw Rand and Jet coming up the path. When they saw her, they immediately ran towards her and the family embraced in a hug.
“But where's Milly?” Marina asked, Mayor Blaggus looked at her with sorrow in his eyes as he explained that Milly was taken by the black carriage in Aerwiar, 4 years ago.
Queen Marina started to cry.
“She'll be okay, we'll find her.” He reassured her.
“Okay! Now that you're all here, let's get down to business with all of our strengths combined. Once we elves get into the pixie dust, it will no doubt make a humongous help to the Wingfeathers.” Rose said confidently, as she saw more and more Aerwiarins and Biolumines and Ember Islanders walk up the path.
ZOUZAB?!