Please mods It's a very meaningful moment and has such an important message and please....
Anyways ... fun chapter so enjoy Featherheads!
Chapter 46 We're Back Again
After going through portals for the fourth time, Janner still haden’t gotten used to it. All the planets and stars and galaxies looked so magical, like something drawn right out of a fantasy book. But as soon as he had gone through the portal, he was back at the First Falls. They all were standing exactly where they had been before and they saw the fifth crystal that had once been suspended in air. Now the entire crystal star was in the exact same place, suspended by air. Opal came through the portal next, almost toppling Leeli over; luckily Janner caught her in time.
“Finally, I have the last thing I need to complete my project!” Opal said, as she thought of her master project and how splendid it'll be when it is all finished. She started to walk down the path to the First Falls without the Wingfeathers.
“Are you going to take us with you?” Kalmar asked, and then immediately regretted this as Janner shook his head, put his palm on his forehead and looked at him like he was out of his mind for asking this question.
Opal turned around to them and said “Well, I have considered the fact that I should be kind to you all. So before the war, I am letting you all go back to your little home of Anniera so that you can see it for the last time.” Opal said and then turned back around.
“Hold on just a minute, war?” Esben asked, eyes wide open. as he walked down some of the steps.
“Oh, I thought that was clear. You didn't think that I, being Queen Opal, wanting revenge on your family and dragging you along on this great adventure, was finding five crystal shards so that I could open a magical portal to another world; the results of which, I could get this very element in my hands so that I could create a project, you really didn't think that I was going to have a war?” The entire use of the project is for the war!” she said, exasperated at the fact that none of them knew this fact.
“Still a war seems a little much, don't you think, maybe a battle or a fight, but a war!” Kalmar exclaimed and Janner gave him a please stop talking look, but he didn't pay attention to this.
Opal turned around and said to him “One more word and you won't be going back to your home ever again. I can have you put in my dungeon again." She said immediately. Kalmar stopped talking and even stopped thinking about what he was going to talk about and Opal turned around and walked all the way down the purplish gray rocky stairs.
“Wait! how do we get off?” Kalmar shouted as they all caught up with Opal; she was about to board the ship when she heard this. She turned around to look at them and said, “Because I am apparently being nice today, I will let you have the Lifeboat but nothing else.” she said and then she called for one of the Shifters to grab the backup emergency life boat and the Shifters tossed it into the water. She handed Esben the rope.
“Have fun!” she said sarcastically and turned into her boat. The door slammed closed and the anchor was lifted and the boat took off.
It had been a few hours of them just rowing in that small boat which was a lot bigger than the boats that they've had in the past, throughout this adventure. However, it was still a small boat. It took them about 4 hours with every single one of them paddling to reach The Shining Isle of Anniera. But when they did, they were met and welcomed by Maraly and Gammon. Both of them helped the Wingfeathers untie the boat, dock it and come off of it.
“So what was that purple diamond thing that Queen Opal took from me?” Maraly asked as she, Sara, Leeli, Janner and Kalmar all walked to the castle a little bit ahead of the adults.
“That was Aerwiar’s crystal shard.” Sara said, thinking back to everything that she had heard and seen in the last few weeks about tiny diamond shaped crystal shards.
“A crystal shard?”
“Yeah Opal needed five of them, one for each one of the lands. Yes, there are other lands outside of Aerwiar, and she brought them together, reunited them and then we ended up in this Realm Between Worlds. That caused us all to be really sleepy except for her, because she's a fairy..long story. Then we went through this puddle. Yeah, portals are puddles in the Realm Between Worlds. We ended up in this crazy strange place. I mean stranger than a flabbit eating a gambloat. There were these huge metal moving things that had smoke coming out the back. Everyone was dressed really strange and really flat and in quite boring colors. The buildings were all alike and incredibly different from anything here. I mean they were just flat and simple and didn't have much to them. Although we did work at this really nice store with this really kind lady, named Miss Ling. There was a strange black box on the wall that had a woman inside of it talking and showing us images. Miss Ling told us that it was called a TV.” Sara explained as they walked farther. She was amused at the fact that pretty much everything she told Maraly, Maraly’s eyes grew the size of glippfruit.
“Hold on, you got a job!” Maraly asked, interrupting Sara.
“Well, it was only a temporary job and it was just an internship for junior employees. But yeah, we worked at a clothing store.”, she said thinking back to the rush of just yesterday.
“Oh, and don't forget we ran into that super kind girl who knocked all of her stuff over including her glasses .” Kalmar said,
She kept asking questions until they reached the castle. She saw the disappointed, worried and sad looks on the rest of their faces, stopped guessing and said solemnly, “We were trying to fix it up for you but the Fangs came and destroyed all of our work.”
“It's okay,” Leeli managed to say. Janner walked over to what were the remains of the Fane of Fire. it actually was not affected by the Fangs. The door was still cracked in two, and golden light was still pouring out of it. “At least this will never change," he said sadly.
The whole rest of the day they spent preparing for the war with Opal.
They had no idea what Opal's army would be like but they knew that there would be at least a few Shifters mixed in with whatever her secret project was. So they gathered whatever they could find. They gathered swords, spears, axes and they even had to bring in a Toothy Cow. They also found twigs which didn't work very well but they sharpened the ends so that they would be at least a little more protected.
It was about night time now and they were all exhausted from the day and actually, month, that they've had.
They hadn't had a good night's rest since the great Pixie Tree in the Emerald Forest. So Nia sent all the children to bed. But none of them could sleep. Janner found a part of the castle that was in ruins but he curled up next to it and searched through his back pack to find his book that he had been writing. He started writing away, telling the book everything that had happened since he had last written in it.
A little while later Kalmar walked up to him. He raised his head and Kalmar asked, “I can't sleep, can I sit next to you?”
“Sure,” Janner said as Kalmar sat next to him. After a few more minutes, Leeli came up to them both and she also asked if she could sit next to them, because she couldn't sleep either. Of course, this was fine with Janner. The three children sat next to each other, happily on the outside, anyways. But on the inside they were full of worry and fear for the next morning. They had been in a war before, but times were different now and somehow Opal was a little crazier than Gnag was and they didn't know what her secret army was either. They were thinking of all these things and Kalmar and Leeli started to get tired. They fell asleep on each other's shoulders, Kalmar fell asleep on Janner's lap. He would have been annoyed at this if it was a different time, but he actually enjoyed the company of his brother and sister. He put down his book to look at them.
It looked like they were sleeping happily, thinking of things that children should be thinking of at night time, not things or people like the black carriage or Gnag the Nameless or even Queen Opal. But dreams full of happiness like playing Zizby with friends or laughing over fluffy Squeeblins or dreaming of the wonderful Tales From Anniera Chronicles.
It was really late in the night. But Janner still couldn't sleep; he just kept staring at the night sky. Stars were shining bright and the moon was the brightest of all. He was concentrating about something in his mind when he heard a cracking sound. It snapped him out of his day dreaming and he looked around the corner of the ruined wall.
“Who goes there?” He whispered, but it was Sara, who came walking around the wall. “Oh it's' you” he said
“Hey,” she said, " can I sit?” she asked.
“Sure.” They were silent for a little while, just staring at the beautiful night sky when Sara spoke up, “I can't believe it's really happening tomorrow. I mean a war, it's crazy to think that just two years ago the biggest thing that concerned me was beating you in Zizby.” she said, not taking her eyes off of the moon.
“Yeah, a lot has happened in the past few years. I mean 2 years ago I was just Janner Igiby, now I'm Janner Wingfeather, the Throne Warden of Anniera.” he said, imagining what it would be like if the Janner Wingfeather side of him came and told Janner Igiby from 2 years ago that he was going to go on a crazy adventure with his family. And he was actually the royal heir to the throne because his father was the king of The Shining Aisle of Anniera and then he wasn't actually the king; he was a Throne Warden. He was supposed to protect Kalmar and Leeli all his life and that he was actually going to enjoy it. Later, he would end up in the Fork Factory with a girl that he liked. Then he got separated from her and got taken to a place called The Green Hollows where his brother would be tormented for becoming a Fang. After that he met his father but only as a cloven which is half bear, half whatever. He then learned that Gnag the Nameless was actually his great uncle and he witnessed Gnag being defeated, once Gnag merged with Yurgen. Yurgen also destroyed his grandfather.
Then he (Janner) went back to Anniera to protect his brother from dying from the magical stone. He, himself, died by hugging the stone, allowing all the energy to cause his death. Then there was this crazy adventure with a super evil queen who had a history with his family. She wanted to kill them for something that they didn't even do; it was something that his father did. She dragged us all around five lands, which were actually all Aerwiar, to get five crystal shards. She reunited with them to go to a strange Realm Between World. They went to a different world that was incredibly strange and weird. After that she brought them back to their world and proceeded to tell them the next morning there would be a war. This evil queen brought them back to Anniera so that they could think about all this. He thought, realizing how crazy his life had been.
They had a few more minutes of silence until Sara turned her head to Janner and asked shyly, “Can I ask you something?”
Sure.” he said.
“When you well…you know, did you see Him?” she asked and then immediately regretted asking that. His eyes widened at this for no one had yet asked him this question. He had just thought that everyone assumed that he had, so why ask. He knew that this past month wasn't the easiest for his family or himself, but he always wondered ever since the First Well why none of them, not even nosy Kalmar had not asked this question.
“Yes I did…” he replied.
“Really! What was He like?”
“Like everything we've ever been told and more.” he said, thinking back to what it was like when he saw Him. “I remember that He told me that I had done something that He was incredibly proud of, and that sacrifice is a big part of being one of His followers. He told me all about what happened to Him in a different world which now I've actually been to that different world. I had a lot of questions, but honestly, I didn't ask them all because I just wanted to hear Him talk. After a while I remember Him saying that because of what I did, I would be rewarded greatly. I wondered what this reward might be, because just being able to see Him was reward enough. But then suddenly, golden magic started swirling around me. He smiled and told me that because of what I did and because I had such faith in Him, I would get to go back to my family and continue to serve Him, there in my own world. The next thing I knew I was on a stone table in a pool of water and my eyes opened and I breathed in the fresh cool air of the Blackwood Forest. I didn't know where I was at the time because the last thing that I had seen was the giant glowing light of the stone. But I saw footprints in the ground.
So I decided to follow them and then I came close enough to some trees and I heard voices. Voices that I had so longed to hear. So I thought that saying the rest of Kalmar's sentence would be an epic entrance. I waited until he was about to say the last part and I walked out of the forest trees to see all of you standing there with tears in your eyes. The next thing I knew, I'm pretty much suffocated by all of you hugging me so tight.” he said, laughing at the end part.
“Wow!” Sara breathed, “You know I'm always amazed by what the Maker does. I don’t know if anyone told you this but, after your uncle put you on the stone table, all of us prayed to The Maker. About 7 minutes later you were there standing in front of us all. Prayer is one of the most powerful things out there. Even when you think you're surrounded by darkness, The Maker will bring light into your life!” she said, smiling at Janner as she thought back to all the times in her life when there was an extremely hard time or a really good time, when she had just prayed and saw the light.
(there is a scene after this with shooting stars that hints to the next book but uh...i didn't think it would get aproved......)
This was such a good chapter!