Chapter 6

"What!" shrieked Tyla, "Queen Crystalia, you know how dangerous that is!" "I know, I know that, Tyla, but there's only one way. If I don't go, you know what the flamies will do to Carmin." "But the flamies will kill you! Then they will kill all of us and there will be no more Sparklimmar World. Only Flamiarora Land will be in existence!" "I know what I am doing Ms.… I mean Mr. Weatherbury." "Why do you keep referring to Tyla as a girl?" Rais asked a question that the entire Grade Five class wanted to ask.

"No reason!" said Tyla quickly. "Tyla, you and your army will come with me to the Romania Mountain. Mrs. Jackson, Ms. Laurence, you will stay here with your class…" "No!" said Josy. "We are coming with, Carmin is our friend. We are not just going to stay here while you go save her!"

The queen stared at Josy with a surprised look on her face. "Oh well, fine!" she said. "You can come with, but we just need to get you geared up. Come with me."

The Grade Fives followed her all the way to the back of the library, where there was a chest the size of a small elephant. Tyla opened it and withdrew loads of swords, bows, arrows, crossbows and all sorts of wooden defensive material. "Pick anything you want," said Tyla. "Sweet deal!" shouted Rais in excitement as Rana dumped a ruby-red sword in his tank.

"Oh," said Queen Crystalia, "Chloe, Weston, Hayden, Rana, Rais, Rhys, Mrs. Jackson, Ms. Laurence, you don't need any of this stuff. Just a broom for Weston. You people and Carmin can do magic. Come with me to learn how to perform your powers." "Ooh," thought Owen, as he picked up a sparkly pickaxe. Michaela picked up a crossbow with a kitten painted on to it and said, "Aw."

Queen Crystalia came back an hour later with the others, all of whom were practicing hand and wand movements. "Ok," said the queen, "let's go back to the lounge. I need to talk to you about the only way to get rid of a flamy."

The Grade Fives sat down in the lounge in front of the orb, which was now uncovered and glowing bright red. Queen Crystalia ignored it. "OK," she said, "now, the only way to get rid of a flamy is by hitting it in the chest. However, it will only work if you hit it with something sharp, example, an arrow or a crossbow. Well, there is another way, but only beings that can do magic can perform them, such as Weston and Carmin. I've got something for you to practise. You will take it in turns to try defeat a rubber flamy." As she said this, Tyla came into the room carrying a fake flamy. The queen told the Grade Fives to line up in an orderly fashion, and they did. "Now," she said to Chloe, who was first "You see where the small cross is drawn on the flamy?" "Yup." answered Chloe. "Okay, so you're going to aim and fire." Chloe squinted and then blurted out the words – "Aqua Cladem!" at once, a large, watery bubble came out of Chloe's hands and knocked the flamy right off its stand. "Well done!" said the queen and Tyla together. The Grade Fives all gathered around Chloe and congratulated her.

After everyone succeeded in defeating the rubber flamy, they walked down to the Grand Hall for Lunch. The small salmon menus appeared and the Grade Fives ordered. Later Tyla went around the castle handing out traveling cloaks, small tents, rucksacks, as well as salmon, green and blue menus. The Grade Fives didn't know what the menus were for though. They walked to the library, where Tyla had told them to go, and sat down by the Crystal Orb. "So," said Queen Crystalia, "You know that we are traveling to the Romania Mountain. It is going to be dangerous, but we will protect you. We could teleport, but doing that in large groups has ninety-seven percent chance of death. Okay, Tyla, go get Nutsy. We'll meet you by the forest."

The Grade Fives arrived in the garden and watched Tyla run off towards the village. They followed the queen and were soon standing next to a huge forest of gumtrees. "Oh!" sighed Hayden, "Forest of Living Gums! Gums as in gumtrees!" Tyla came towards them, Fire-Monkey sitting on his shoulder. "Why's Nutsy coming with?" asked Cuwien. Nutsy was just behind Tyla, carrying a small sack. "Ah yes," exclaimed Tyla, "so we don't actually know our way around the Forest, but cupboard-dryads have great direction senses. Oh, and cupboard-dryads are very strong, so Nutsy is carrying the tents."

Nutsy giggled and then showed off how strong she was by fluttering into the forest and lifting up one of the trees. "Ghaaaaaar!" roared the tree. Then all of its leaves fell off and the tree took one last breath. Nutsy quickly shoved the tree back in the ground and leaves instantly grew back. The Grade Fives stared in amazement at the tiny dryad. "Alright," gulped Queen Crystalia, "let's go – follow me."

The Grade Fives, appearing a little frightened, followed the queen into the forest and at once, they could no longer see where they came in. It was like they had just stepped into the middle of the forest. Moreover, all of a sudden, there was a loud creak and one of the gumtrees lifted its roots out the ground. That same tree's bark split open and you could see hundreds of rows of long, sharp teeth. Above the mouth were two big, yellow-glowing eyes.

"And this this is why we never enter this forest," whispered Tyla. "RUN!" The tree roared and chased the Grade Fives through the forest. As they passed, more trees came to life and followed.

"Whoa!" Sarah tripped over a root and landed face first in some sort of burrow. "Sarah!" Zangi shrieked, and he ran to help his cousin. "Zangi, Sarah!" called Queen Crystalia, "Look out!" A gumtree just came out of nowhere and leaped into the air above the two cousins.

Sarah screamed. Not just any sort of scream though, it was loud and piercing. Her eyes started glowing and her hair waved into the air. The tree above them roared and exploded. Burnt bark and leaves flew everywhere. Sarah stopped screaming and looked at the queen. She was looking more worried than ever. The tree's that were around them, turned red with anger. They surrounded the Grade Fives, licking their lips. Sarah tried to scream again, but could not. Then, an arrow unexpectedly flew into one of the trees. Its eyes swivelled and then it fell over on top of the next tree. The rest of the trees toppled like dominos.

The Grade Fives cheered as an auburn-haired boy with a mangled face and whiskers faded into the light. "Zey?" said Tyla, "What're you doing here?" "I…saw…you," the boy panted, "walking…into the…forest." Zey looked no younger than sixteen. His clothes were tattered and he had one, long scar going down his face and neck.

"Why did you come into this forest Tyla, it's too dangerous." "We were going to save the girl who was snatched, Carmin." "But the Romania Mountain is still miles away and we aren't even a kilometer into the forest." "I know – that's why we have tents." "Oh, hey, do you mind if I stay here with you. It's too late to get back to my pack and the gums need time to forget about me killing the other ones."

"Why, where do you live?" asked Josh. "In the centre of this forest."

"But I thought only gumtrees can live in this forest?" Rana asked. "Yes, but the gumtrees allow beasts in." At once, the Grade Fives shuffled away from Zey, frightened.