Here's chapter 8. Hope you enjoy!
They set off early the next day and flew for many days, stopping only to eat, drink or water the equinas and make camp in the evenings. They would set up camp earlier than usual because though the equinas looked physically healthy they were still very weak. They stopped at a village to ask for directions and buy supplies so that Kala wouldn’t have to go off hunting so often.
After a few days, they got off at a foot of a steep mountain then suddenly, Kala started groping the side of the mountain. She was feeling for something. She then grabbed hold of a rock about the size of her fist. She dusted it off a bit, there was a symbol engraved on it, a trapezoid with a square in the middle. She pushed the rock in. Then, a tunnel appeared out of the mountain.
They hid their equinas in the dense foliage and proceeded into the cave. They walked inside and torches came on as they passed. The entrance slammed shut. It was dark without the torches and very damp inside the passageways and the paths were curving and had forks in them. Joshua thought it would be best if he didn’t get lost, so he stuck closely to Kala who was navigating the tunnels with ease. It was a labyrinth. They walked for about half an hour when they reached a point in the maze like tunnels which had mysterious writings which seemed to dance in the torches’ light. Kala stopped and spoke;
“It is I, Kala, daughter of Myrina. I have come here seeking the weapon which will be used in Pelianor’s defense.”
Then, out of the shadows, people started to come out and among them, a tall man. He stopped then stared at Kala.
“Kala! It’s such a pleasant surprise to see you again old friend. Welcome back to Helei Terranum” said the man.
“Indeed it is Uron. Thank you.” replied Kala with a slight bow.
“It’s all right! Turn on the power!” yelled Uron to somewhere behind him.
The whole city came alive as lights came on. A crowd had gathered and came forth to greet them, the whole crowd looking at the group curiously, inspecting every inch of the strange visitor.
“Why do you have the torches? And why did you turn off the city’s power?” inquired Kala as they walked.
“Well you can’t be too careful nowadays. ‘Specially since those enemy scum have been snoopin’ around these parts.” he replied. “Now, then,” he said, turning to Joshua, “who do you have over here? Your Ris ‘tah?” he said, winking at Kala. Kala then snickered.
“Ris ‘tah?” asked Joshua.
“Husband.” answered Milhad as he giggled as well. Then the two quickly answered at the same time.
“Oh, no. No, definitely not her Ris ‘tah.” Joshua answered nervously.
“No, of course not silly. He’s definitely not that. Not in a million years.” Kala also replied with a nervous chuckle.
“Oookay… I see.” confused because of their simultaneous answers, “Well then, who are you?” asked Uron.
“Uron, this is Joshua Reyes, he is the savior. And this is Milhad Keltar, the scholar.” Kala said.
“Oh, so you’re the savior are you? Well then, good luck to you.” answered Uron, “I suppose you came here on equina?” he asked.
“Yes, indeed we did.” answered Kala.
Milhad once again took out the tablet from his satchel and pressed a symbol at the bottom of the tablet with his finger. Then, all of a sudden, the words and pictures changed like they were crawling, but it was quick. Milhad read the writing:
“Where light is its value, the light is divided.”
“Now that just gave me a headache.” commented Joshua.
“Uron, bring us to the crystal caves.” Kala said, not minding Joshua. “I have a feeling it might be there.”
So they followed Uron into a dark cave. He stopped at the mouth of the cave “This is where my stop is. Good luck.” When a torch was brought in, the whole room glimmered in the faint light. Refractions made the light bend and a light show presented itself to them as the torch moved.
They were walking for an hour when they stopped.
“This is the place.” said Kala as she gestured them to stop. “Step into the circle, Joshua.”
Joshua stepped into a circle of Pelian text. A pedestal rose up from the ground after it detected Joshua. On the pedestal seven stones were set; a white stone in the middle and six colored stones around it in all the colors of the rainbow except indigo. The white stone could not be moved as well as the red and blue stone. The three looked at each other and scratched their heads.
“What shall we do?” asked Kala.
“Maybe we should move the stones.” said Joshua.
Milhad immediately stepped forth and moved the stones beside each other. Violet beside red, blue beside violet, green beside blue, yellow beside green and so on and so forth…
“How did you figure that out?” asked Joshua.
“It’s a color wheel. See?” explained Milhad as he pointed to the stones on by one.
Joshua pressed the white stone and the pedestal began rotating. Then as sudden as it started moving, it stopped. All stones were gone and a brown stone was where the white stone was.
“How did you know you were supposed to do that?” asked Kala.
Joshua shrugged picked the stone up. He almost tripped for the stone was extremely heavy. He put it beside the air stone and noticed symbols on both of the stones appearing.
“The stone’s symbols appear when in close proximity with another.” Milhad said.
“Two down, three to go.” added Kala.
That night, they held a feast for the trio. Each of them was with different people.
Kala was with Uron, Milhad was with the city engineers and Joshua was surrounded by many girls. They were all admiring him and they kept following him around. To him, it was irritating. Joshua couldn’t help but stare at Kala while she was enjoyably talking to Uron. He couldn’t deny that he was jealous. Kala was also feeling the same way, seeing Joshua surrounded by a mob of girls. Pretty girls. Not tomboys like her.
After the feast, they all went to bed, there was no late night partying for the three for they had to leave very early. The following morning, they were heading off. A whole crowd had gathered to see them off. The girls were waving goodbye and kept saying “goodbye sweetums.” or “bye honey.”
Kala, Joshua and Milhad couldn’t help but laugh when the girls started to quarrel. Milhad bade goodbye to his engineer friends and Kala said goodbye to Uron.
They were about to mount when Uron called them again,
“Wait!” he called. “Before you go, the proud people of Helei Terranium would like to present to the heroes of Pelianor, a gift of crystal chain mails.” he said as the three were given the armor.
“Well, put it on.” said Uron expectantly.
Joshua was about to take off his shirt when Uron interrupted again.
“Just put it on. You’ll see.” he said.
Joshua put it on and it passed through his clothes and fit him quite nicely.
“That is so awesome!” exclaimed Joshua as he put his chain mail on.
“Indeed it is.” said Kala as she looked at them both and shook her head.
She looked at the crowd who was intently waiting and then at Uron who then said.
“Put it on.” he said as he gestured. “They were crafted especially for you. They are as hard as dragon scales yet as light as a feather. They are made from the finest crystals from the crystal caves.” he said as he smiled.
Kala then put on the armor and bade goodbye one last time. They mounted and flew off. They looked back and smiled to see little children frantically waving and jumping and yelling “Bye!”
The next day when they left, they had covered a sizeable distance and decided to stop and settle in for the night. After they set up a bonfire, Kala took off the crystal chain mail.
“Why did you take it off?” asked Joshua.
“It looks tacky because it shows through my shirt.” She replied while folding it and placing it in the bag of her equina.
Joshua just shook his head and rolled his eyes. But when she turned her back, he just smiled. It does look kinda weird, Joshua thought.
I liked this chapter too, but again, it seemed kind of short. If you described a bit more in it and all, it would be better 