Chapter Three

When I opened my eyes I got up and stretched. I walked over to the door and it automatically opened. I saw through the windshield where we were and I smiled. We were on Aura. I sat in the pilot seat and plugged the computer chip into a usb port. The map appeared on the keypad in front of me. I used my finger to press on the glowing dots that symbolized the Lumanite stones. I looked up at the speaker. 

"Are you able to get me to the area of Aura I am pointing to?" I asked as I heard the ship talk back. 

"Yes, however, the stones are deep inside the ground, how will you get them?" I pondered and then I smiled. 

"I'll use A Plurite explosive. That should blow up the ground deep enough to get to them." The ship spoke again. 

"I'm not sure if that is wise, the stone's don't like their environment to be destroyed." I groaned. Why is a ship better at battle plans then I am right now? Oh right. The Seribian majik. 

"Well then what do I do?" I whined as the ship sighed. 

"Can't you just retrieve the stone from the tree of life?" The ship offered as I frowned. 

"That is not on the map." I bluntly stated.

"This map is an old model, I can take you to the tree of life. The stones should be inside the river that surrounds the tree. Just be careful, the fish there guard the stones and they will bite you, poisoning you." I smiled.

"Great.. Well take me there I guess." The ship turned and I rested in the seat. I opened my eyes sometime later and we were there. 

"Alright, I will wait here." The ship told as I nodded and jumped out. I ran to the river side and peered in. Sure enough, fish were constantly swimming over the stones in a pattern. I watched and counted the seconds. One. Two. Three. Four. Five. The time between each fish swimming was five seconds. I bit my lip. I'm guessing since the bottom looks pretty smooth, the rocks are stuck to the bottom a bit, and if the water is disturbed, I could get bit. I waited five seconds and then quickly tried to pull a rock out. I failed and pulled it out quickly because a fish was swimming near my hand. I rolled my eyes and tried again. I got the stone, but I dropped it due to time running out. I could feel the air in my lung draining. If I was out here too long, I would die. I reached in and grabbed the stone, running back to the ship. I closed the door and let out a breath, sucking in all the air I could. The ship spoke.

"Well done. You can go into the back and wash the sand off the stone if you wish." I nodded, because I was breathless. 

"Yeah." Was all I could manage. I got up and walked to the tin where I could wash off the stone, all while balancing myself against the wall. The tin was silver and it was small. It had no drains and It was filled with water. I set the stone in the water and scrubbed at it with my fingers. When the sand was gone, it was pretty, It was a light turquoise color and it was glowing. It looked like a gemstone, except it was making the water glow. I took a clear tin out of my pouch and opened it, setting the stone in. I closed it and set it back inside my pouch carefully. I walked back over to the seat and collapsed in it. 

When I woke up I was on the transporter at my house. I smiled and jumped out, twirling around and throwing my hands up in the air. 

"Finally, home!!" I ran inside the house and fell onto my couch. I heard Ada open the bathroom door and come into the living room with his blue robe on. He walked into the kitchen and poured himself a glass of Dulce, a delicious drink that tastes like lemon lime soda, but is actually good for you, shocker. He walked into the hallway and leaned against the doorframe that led into the living room. 

"Why are you so happy?" Ada asked as I rolled my eyes and looked at him. 

"Have you not noticed? I have been gone for the past week." Ada smirked. 

"Hm. I thought it was quieter." I rolled my eyes and got up to shove him out of my way. I playfully pushed him and opened the cupboards, pulling out a desert called Tum Num's. They are basically giant soft cookies with chocolate teardrops that taste like a roasted chocolate bar. I took one out of the package it comes in, poured myself some Dulce, and then walked back into the living room. I grabbed the touch remote off the coffee table in the living room.

 A touch remote was a remote that you waved your hand over to turn the T.V on, and you had to move your hand in a circle to browse channels. If you wanted a certain channel and you knew the name or number of the station, you would press the blue button on the bottom of the remote and tell the remote which channel to go to. The T.V screen was a thin glass sheet. A hologram usually projected on the glass through the grey base that the glass was welded into. I liked the T.V, at least I could see the colors of everything, unlike our last T.V. I turned to N.N Daily, a T.V station that was only in Nabine. That was the station where they showed the hottest Nabianian drama's, and if you turned on that station before 1:00 PM, you could catch a cartoon marathon. 

I smiled and looked at the clock on the wall. It was only 9:00 AM. I turned onto the station and set the remote down, getting fully engrossed into the show Nakrite Ridge. Nakrite Ridge was a show about a teenage girl who lived in the small town Nakrite Ridge, hence the title. The town was home to the most royal mage families in the world. The main character, Luviana Declaine is a very powerful mage, but her family is poor, so she is stuck being a slave to a royal mage family. She ends up falling for her mistress' son, whose name is Draven Locke. They end up falling in love, how cliche. However, Draven's mom finds out and sends literally her entire family after Luviana and Draven, causing him to be casted out of his own family. Draven had a fiance that he left behind, who in the show, happens to be pregnant. She is trying to find him, and Luviana got separated from Draven, and mistakenly trusted his Brother, who is a Dark Mage. The episode ends with Draven's brother, Cree, telling Draven that he let Luviana fall off the side of the cliff and into Syrimite, a stone that takes away a mage's power and ultimately kills them. The screen cut to commercials and I grew very upset. 

"What!! YOU CANNOT END A SEASON LIKE THAT!!" I yelled as my brother laughed charmingly.

"Sure you can, they just did." I turned my head to him and narrowed my eyes. 

"You know what I mean smart ass." I replied and He nodded. 

"I do know what you mean, but do you know what it means?" He said as I raised my eyebrows.

"Idiot says what?" He stared at me blankly. 

"I am not falling for that." He said as I smirked.

"Oh really?" He nodded. I accepted his challenge and we juggled words back and forth. 

"String bean means what?" I said as he had a confused look on his face. 

"Why string bean?" He asked and I shrugged. 

"You're skinny." I replied and he laughed. 

"So?" I nodded. 

"So what?" I replied. He still looked confused. 

"What?" He asked. I smiled widely and he face palmed, realizing his mistake. 

"Dammit!" He yelled as I jumped up and danced my victory dance. 

"I win! I can't believe I won!" I turned to him and grinned. "Suck on that!" 

"I don't want to." He said. Then, he got up and walked away into his bedroom. I smiled and shook my head, watching the new show that came on. I don't know what it was but it wasn't very engaging. I got up and walked to the back of the apartment to go pee, but I overheard some talking coming from Ada's room. Being the nosy person I am, I decided to check it out. I walked over to his door and rested my ear on it. What I heard blew my mind. Two voices coming from his room. 

"Does she suspect you?" Ada smiled. 

"Not at all, she thinks it was your doing." The black haired girl smirked. 

"Naturally. It is like her to blame others for her own problem." Ada's head fell. 

"Are you sure I'm saving her? By joining you guys?" Ada wondered as the girl smiled and grabbed his cheeks. 

"Ada, if you don't learn the ways from us, your sister will be killed slowly by her own terrible misfortune." Ada shook his head and smirked. 

"I still don't know what that means." She shook her head and kissed Ada's forehead. 

"You don't have to, as long as I do." Then, she disappeared into a shadow. Ada shook his head and walked towards the door to go back into the living room by Lightning, glad that he could pretend this never happened. 

I put my hand over my mouth in shock and ran into the closest room (which turned out to be the bathroom) as I slammed the bathroom door behind me. What does she mean 'destroy myself from the inside out'? Fuck you! I thought as I bit my lip. What frightened me even more was that somebody was in Ada's room and I didn't know. Most of all though, is that he did. I looked to the sink and walked over to it, lifting the corner tile up 90 degrees and then reaching in and pulling out a letter; lowering the tile back down and sinking onto the floor with my back against the bathroom door. I let out a sigh and opened up the letter, trailing my fingers over the yellowed page, but most importantly, the cursive words. It was a letter from our mother; a letter that Ada did not know about. 

The letter was from back when Grandma wasn't dead, and when Ada and I had no clue what we were gonna be when we grew up. I was five he was seven. Our mom had died before Ada turned six. Grandma said she had died because she was on a mission and some guys had hacked her speeder and she crashed into Seribra and died there. I felt tears welling up, but I didn't feel like crying, and this moment was already too damn sentimental, so I pushed them down. I put the letter back in its place, making sure the tile looked normal. I opened the bathroom door only to see Ada. He was smiling oddly, and was leaning against the wall. 

"So, what were we doing in there." He asked. I scrunched my nose and walked into the living room, hearing him follow me. 

"First of all, there was no 'we' there was only 'me'." I said as I turned to him and sarcastically smiled. "And second of all, what I do in the bathroom is absolutely none of your business." He smirked a bit. 

"Sure it is, whatever comes out of you, I will get in time, so it is my business." He replied as I shook my head. 

"Ew Ada. That is disgusting. And second of all, what comes out of my body is my business." Ada shrugged. 

"I just wanna know." He stated as I smiled. 

"You wouldn't if I was planning to rip your balls off in three seconds." I suggested. Ada shrugged. 

"Can we make my genitals velcro? Like, I can take them off when it's convenient and then put them back on whenever I want." I laughed. 

"How would you go to the bathroom?" He winked. 

"Just velcro them back on." I shook my head. 

"It doesn't work like that." He frowned. 

"Well why not? I want a velcro crotch!" He said. I raised my eyebrows and put my hand on his chest, pushing him away a bit. 

"This conversation took a very weird and inappropriate turn." I replied to him, a bit disturbed.  Ada smiled. 

"That's what I'm here for." My pager beeped and I looked at Ada. When my pager beeps once, it usually means someone is at the door. It doesn't beep on missions because pagers are meant to stay at home. It became a law on Nabine that you can't knock on the door in an apartment complex because it will disturb the neighbors. 

"Thank god! A reason to leave." I said as I held my hands up to the sky. Ada shook his head and a hand rested on his heart. 

"I am hurt! I was only trying to joke around." I shook my head. 

"Not everything is inappropriate." Ada nodded. 

"Yes in fact, it is." I shook my head. 

"Math is not inappropriate." Ada raised his eyebrows and made parenthesis around his mouth, pelvic thrusting. 

"Do me first." I rolled my eyes and opened the door. 

"Goodbye Ada." He laughed and I shut the door, walking down to see who was at the door.