Chapter 17

"Okay, ready? Go!" I hollered. Krios had taken a huge chuck of bricks out of the wall. All of us ran out of the building and left only dust behind. Kaida was alright and ran out with our bags and Dalinda. Once Tatsuya was close enough, she started a flame of fire on her palm; Krios had started stacking the bricks five by five, while Tatsuya melted them together.

Not before long, the wall was halfway closed until guards busted into the room shouting for us to come back. Krios hurried to stack the bricks, and Tatsuya quickly doused the wall on fire. We all climbed on Ryoko, who had transformed into a dragon not too long ago. Ryoko's feet leaped off the ground as he started flapping his wings.

We were a few meters up in the air until a bang sounded in the area and one wall of the building crumbled. The rest of the building fell as well. We kept flying. But I gasped when I saw the rest of the building fall flat. I felt a small wave of panic flow through me. It seemed as if everyone else felt the same thing.

Ryoko let out a roar as we flew above the city and headed north to the forests. The sun was rising; dawn already? I patted Ryoko's back, signaling him to land; we had been flying for more than 40 miles.

Once he did, I hopped off of his back and stretched my sore muscles. My legs protested at every movement. I turned and looked at everyone else; their faces showed no signs of exhaustion. I smiled to myself; we were doing great.

"What do we do now? We don't have the map because of someone," Ryoko grunted, hinting at Krios.

"When I say I didn't do it I mean it!" Krios yelled.

"Both of you stop! It's Alya's decision, we are on the verge of war. She's the only one that can save us at this point so we can't be making choices now." Tatsuya spoke sternly to both of them. I turned away as I tried to keep my calm facade, but I felt guilty after seeing the pain that Krios was in; I couldn't blame him though, since I didn't help either.

"This is going to be very hard to do," I muttered under my breath. I was beginning to regret my decisions. I glanced over at the sky; it was a bright blue, the rays of morning light slowly starting to peek through the thick canopy of trees. I sighed, I looked back down at the ground. Everyone was watching me expectantly. Krios stared deeply into my eyes, waiting for an answer; I was getting tired of it all.

"He's staying; he's the only one out of all of us that knows the way to the West Element temple. Talila will pose as our magnet for the remaining elements. We still have our book for the riddles. Do we have any objections?" I explained. A soft smile crossed over Krios's face, and the rest of them sighed. They all nodded in agreement.

I pulled out the book from my bag. Thankfully, Mr. Okizari minded his own business and didn't take anything. Everyone gathered around, the book had flown out of my hand and opened itself. A blank page started writing itself.

"I don't have wings, but I can fly. I don't have eyes, but I will cry! What am I?" I read.

"Could it be a cloud?" Kaida answered.

"Yes! The Lord's cloud!" Krios exclaimed.

"The Lord's cloud?" I asked.

"Yes, Lord Zarkon was rumored to keep a cloud in one of the rooms in the palace. But that rumor was never proven to be true." Tatsuya replied.

"So we should be heading to the palace," Ryoko says.

"Yes, but we need to also find Wyvern and Scylla." Kaida worried.

"I am very sure we will find them along the way," I replied.

......

Ryoko transformed once more into a dragon, but this time Krios was in front and directing Ryoko. We reached the palace in just under an hour. Ryoko landed in a field not too far from the palace. Once we got off, he transformed again and transformed back into a human.

We made our way inside, hoping to run into guards at the front entrance. However, we found ourselves alone in the empty halls. It looked as if the people of the palace had completely vanished. There wasn't even a guard or maid to see any of us. Ryoko sighed as he turned back into himself.

"Why is everything so quiet and lonely?" Ryoko asked.

"Maybe we should look around for clues, or anything else," Kaida suggested.

"Yeah, let's go check the bedrooms," Ryoko responded. We walked out of the hall and began wandering through the mansion toward the second floor. The silence was deafening with how quiet everything was. Everything looked the same and looked unused.

As we walked, we came across a large set of double doors; they both looked different than the rest of the doors that we had seen. They looked old and worn down almost. I stopped in front of one door, trying to make sense of what was happening.

We opened the door to see Lord Zarkon's cloud floating on a high pedestal. It was glowing brightly from within, almost like a beacon of hope. I took a deep breath and stepped forward into the room. Everyone followed behind me, silently wondering what was going on.

Inside the room were hundreds of shelves and racks of various items. I went over and examined some of them. Most of these were jewelry and paintings, but some of them had other valuable things that could help us.

"Tch, what's going on here?" I heard a voice call out.

"Lord Zarkon?!" I asked surprised. Yuri walked towards us wearing a gold and black suit of armor. His hair was let down and he had a gold hair piece in it. Not only did he look intimidating, but furious as well.

"How dare you enter my private quarters without an invitation?!" He demanded. I stood there frozen, staring wide-eyed at him as he approached us.

"Answer me this first, have you come here for something or am I supposed to guess why!?" I stared blankly at him, unsure of what to say.

"Um..." I mumbled.

Lord Zarkon glared at me before turning to the rest of the group.

"My patience only goes so far!" he snarled.

"Well...we're kinda looking for..." Ryoko said quietly.

"Our dragons!" Kaida shouted nervously.

"Yes, our dragons are missing," Ryoko agreed.

"Your dragons? Are you serious?! Have you lost your minds?!" Lord Zarkon yelled.

"Bring them in!" Lord Zarkon shouted at the door. The two guards stood side by side; between them were Wyvern and Scylla. I glanced at him; something didn't seem right. Something felt wrong.

I looked closer at Wyvern and Scylla; they had been hypnotized. We have to leave, but not without the crystal.

I rushed to the pedestal to grab the cloud.

"NO!" Lord Zarkon shouted, running after me. Once I had grabbed the cloud it disappeared, and so did Lord Zarkon and his guards. only leavening the glowing crystal in my hands, and the two dragons dizzy.

I placed the white crystal onto Talila. I felt a surge of energy flow through me; my eyes widened. I was able to control myself this time, not exerting too much power.

"We can't be wasting time we need more info," I say, stepping down from the pedestal.

"Like what?" Krios asked.

"Where is the war going to start and what is the date," I replied.

"In the capital," Krios said.

"Two more weeks," Talila responded.

"Hopefully, that prediction is correct." I sigh.

"Well, where are we headed now?" Kaida questions.

"The Southern Continent, probably somewhere near the border. We need to get back on the ground." Ryoko insisted

"The southern continent? How are we supposed to get there?" I questioned.

"Oh, the North has a route that can take us there," Tatsuya explained.

"It would be really handy if we could fly there," I exclaimed, looking at Ryoko.

"Well, then we better hurry." Ryoko winked.