Chapter 8

Ebuven was getting even closer but during flight, Mason’s cautious glances were getting increasingly intimidating. Though concerned, I pushed the irritating thought to the back of my head and with one gaze of the map, I looked at the scene beneath me. Colossal cliffs were in range as gaping waterfalls stood out. With a limited view of flat ground due to dark clouds that loomed above me, I instructed Starlight to start landing so that the others would follow behind.

“Woah…” Jess said as she slowly stretched out the word in awe.

Alvina and Asherah were now flying in front of us as they were able to see where we were able to land with their sharp eyesight. Safe on the ground, I securely strapped my backpack around my waist and chest.

“Should we wait for you here?” asked Bubbles.

“That’s not a bad idea. The fairies can trek with us if that’s cool.”

My short chatter with Bubbles allowed others to wander around certain surroundings and admire the rare treasures of a different world.

“Is that a castle?” Darren said pointing in the direction of a towering building.

It looked old and ruined but Mason replied, “It looks like it.”

Jess was looking ahead of time. “Guys we need to start looking for the cloak. Should we split up?”

I put in my suggestion. “I think we should pair up and then take a fairy with us. Where should we start?”

“Slow down. Let’s get into partners first!” yelled Darren.

I looked over at Jess who was already making her way inside a cave with Darren and Alvina. “Um Jess, where are you going?”

“You need to start getting along with Mason,” she whispered to me.

I was bitter about her choice and forced attempt to improve my partnership with a boy, but it was necessary to mask on a cheery face, so our mission had the luck of being successful. Retrieving the map from my backpack, I stared at it with a blank face.

"Need some help?" Mason asked. Before an immature response was voiced, he stated, "You know, maybe we should start in the castle since Darren and Jess have already gone to the cave?"

I stared ahead at the mammoth-sized structure, as it stood battered and ruined. Using my binoculars, I observed the old vines were stretched along with the castle and light fog which surrounded it.

"Okay, let's go and see what we're able to find," the sight gave me chills, yet I wasn't hesitant to search it for what we needed.

Since we were standing quite a distance from the castle, a lot of trekking had to be done to get to our location. Asherah’s frequent glances of annoyance at the awkward silence between us expressed her disapproval in our teamwork. But that gave me great delight when we had reached our destination as the quietness was over. Heavy wooden doors which were arched stood at the front as protection but overall, we were glad that no moat flowed around it as a barrier to prevent anyone from getting inside. It would have been more challenging to get to the front doors with it anyway. Mason aimed a kick at the door, stupidly. Realising that it wouldn't budge and that his plan had failed, he grunted and stepped aside, giving me an 'it won't work, no matter who tries,' look.

"Let me try opening it with my hands. Like you're supposed to do." My sardonic voice irritated him even further.

Grasping onto the handle engraved with symbols and patterns, I pushed it open with all my force. I was glad to see it work because I hadn’t wanted to embarrass myself any further than the last time I had, during our pitstop back at the riverbank.

"See?" He shrugged.

Once I had set foot on the marble floor, a loud gasp escaped my mouth as I examined the surroundings around me. The prodigious building may have looked old from the outside but everything inside was just pure ecstasy to look at. Both of us were simply wonderstruck. Like the front door, the inside doors were also arched with golden borders as hues of dark stood out from the walls. Designs carved into the interior of the castle seemed ancient but beautiful as patterns swirled around marble pillars. To top all of this, the roof was outlined with a mandala sketch bringing out the gold and brown shades in between and windows were lined up on the side which was slightly stained and rustic from the years it had been abandoned for.

"Oh Lord,” Asherah whispered, pleased.

"This is beautiful, but we should really split up to look for that cloak,” I suggested. "Asherah can look around here while I go and inspect any other rooms. Mason can look outside.”

"No."

I sighed, having to hear him complain.

"I’m not going outside by myself.”

“You’re going to have to if we want to get out of here quicker,” I explained.

“I can help you in here. And then we can go outside after?” His accompaniment would hurt but considering the spacious structure left to be searched, help was necessary.

Leaving Asherah to herself, we walked out of the foyer and into the dining hall. Chairs were lined up on either side of a table as the background consisted of large red curtains and patterned wallpaper. The grandness of the interior could be seen through specks of gold and the set of double doors in the far corner.

"I'll search near the table and chairs, while you look around them," I instructed Mason.

He nodded, making me glad that this time, he had listened. I ripped off the tablecloth, thinking that there would be at least a clue underneath the covers and ran my hands-on top of every single chair, not missing a spot.

"Found anything?" I asked, my question directed at Mason.

"No," he said.

"Where have you looked?"

"Inside that cabinet," he pointed to a shabby see-through cabinet.

"Is that all you've looked? What about the floor?"

"I was getting there!" responded Mason, exasperated.

Showing a glimpse of disapproval to which Mason disregarded, I stood at the entrance of the door to the dining hall and scanned the area. There weren't many places to look in here and once Mason had finished crawling on the rugs, we could move on into the next space. I was starting to wonder if Darren and Jess had discovered anything interesting yet, but my thoughts were disrupted as Mason suggested we move on from here.

"I'm coming!" I assured him as he leads me towards the next room.

Following behind him, we were now standing in a room filled with statues and armour to which we did a quick sweep across. Unfortunately, there was little accomplishment in our efforts. We still hadn't looked outside but had decided to wait for both of them to return as rest was what we needed right now. After a few minutes of sitting in the foyer, waiting for our friends to return, they did and by the expression on their faces, it looked like they had some good news.

"Guys, so we inspected the cave and we found something!" Jess was in glee.

Darren picked up a crumpled-up piece of paper from his backpack. "The cave was big from the outside, but really it wasn't that hard. There were lots of puddles and damp areas in the cave, but we found this." Darren pointed to the piece of paper in his hand and continued explaining, "Luckily we had our torches on and looked carefully!" He handed me the note as I spread it out, trying to remove the creases and started to slowly read out what I could to everyone.

Invisible it is,

Hard to find.

Colour of Cardropia must be used.

Trust me, you'll be bemused,

But in the end, it's what you need,

To piece together the broken fuse.

"Do you think the cloak is invisible?" Mason was starting to stir up some ideas here.

"It could be, but why?"

"Why do you think we would need a cloak to rescue your dad? It wouldn't do anything unless it was invisible. Putting it on us would help us get past any enemies or whatever in order to reach your father in one piece. It's like protection for us." Mason's justification was making more sense now and even I wouldn't have thought of that.

There was still something I was unsure about, which Jess brought up, "What about the 'Colour of Cadropia'?"

The two fairies had been quiet the whole time, patiently listening but now they were starting to participate. "Since the cloak is invisible, it could be some light or something used to locate the cloak easily," stated Alvina.

Darren's face lit up as he started to rephrase the clue, "So, the cloak must be invisible which is why it's hard to find. The 'Colour of Cadropia' will help us locate the cloak even if we're confused about it at the start."

"Yes! We should probably now make our way to the outside garden around the castle in order to look for the 'Colour of Cadropia'."

My pulse was racing as I realised that we might just have found our way through this jigsaw. As a team.

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At the moment, everyone except the alicorns was searching among weeds and tall grass for this 'Colour of Cadropia' object. The fact that we didn't know what it looked like, made it even harder. "So, does anybody know or at least have an idea of what this thing looks like?"

"Look, I have a feeling that it's definitely colourful. The title just pops the word 'colour.' But I'm not sure, I just wish I knew if Cadropia was a place and if so, where it was. Maybe that's where we're supposed to be looking?" Jess put in her thoughts.

"Even if Cadropia is a place, where would it be? It's better to look here since we haven't looked in this messy garden anyway," Darren said.

"Ca-dro-pia," Alvina spelled out. I instantly turned my head.

"What are you reading?" I asked her as she pointed to an old wooden board which was lying deserted in the far corner of the abandoned garden.

As soon as I saw the medium-sized object lying by itself, I went to pick it up and held it between my fingers, making sure the dirt and grime did not get in contact with my hands.

"Look what I found!”

All heads turned to me as I passed around the dusty item which had the word 'Cadropia' etched into it. Underneath it, a small picture of a fountain could be seen, and I knew it meant something.

"This garden must be where we can find the 'Colour of Cadropia."

"The fountain picture underneath it might indicate that the colour thingy, might have something to do with it." Mason proclaimed.

"True, and maybe it can be found in or near the fountain!" Jess added in.

With the same opinion in hand, our objective now was to locate a fountain. Our final option was to check in the corner of the castle which Mason thought was pointless because the area consisted of clean, fresh grass only from our view.

"It looks just like my backyard!" Darren pointed out before saying. “But with a statue.”

“Actually, I think that’s a fountain.”

"Can I touch it?" Jess hadn't waited for my answer as she was nearing the ornamental structure already.

Without listening, her touch sent sparks in the air. The water disappeared, and the fountain became enveloped in shimmering colours. We had to step back and watch a rotating ball, the size of a tennis ball which glistened in various shades of all hues of the rainbow. Situated in the centre and made of glass, our next move would determine if we got out of Ebuven with the invisible cloak.

"Jess grab the ball, let's go!" I screamed at her, probably loud enough to make her deaf.

She instantly listened to my command, and so grabbing the rotating object, she placed it in her bag and then joined us.

"Should we go back inside the castle? If we don't find it there, we can go back to the cave and shine the ball all around to see if we can discover anything," I put in my idea.

After we were all inside, we split up. This time, Alvina and Asherah also decided to help us which was good as we needed all the help. Inside the castle, it was pretty much already messed up since I and Mason had already tried looking for the cloak without realising the need for the 'Colour of Cadropia.'

"Ok Jess get the Colour of Cadropia out of your bag and try shining it around the room," I instructed her.

Jess was hesitant to do so, "But what if it doesn't work or what if this thing isn't what we're supposed to use? I know this can make any invisible thing visible, but still..."

"Let's give it a try. We'll deal with the worst when it comes to it," I hoped that the encouragement I had given her would help her to complete the task easily.

Taking the item out of her bag carefully, she held it tightly in her hand so that it wouldn't drop. The colours from the gleaming ball shone on each wall that surrounded us and everyone gathered around her to see what the outcome of our mini experiment was.

"Look, let's think as a team. It helped us last time. Where do you thi-"

"OWW!!" Jess screamed as I realised that I had accidentally stepped on her foot making her nearly crash into the ground from the running around she was doing from the pain. Luckily, she was still clutching onto the 'Colour of Cadropia' otherwise we would have lost our only chance at being successful. But when she was massaging her foot, the 'Colour of Cadropia' changed directions from all the movement and the ray of light stopped on a potted plant. Only, the plant wasn't the only thing there because on top of it lay something else. The cloak.