Last time on Fires of the Sky, Matt and Venus broke out of the falling Floyde ship after it crashed into the Nerim Lake. Omar was helped out of the ship as well. Without explanation, Omar decides to go up the left side of the waterfall to find his friend in the imperial city of Melvin. Matt and Venus offered to follow along and help him, but he refused and chose to do it himself. Meanwhile, Yessenia and Alex are still at the East Bridge with Alice. Michael decides to take Alice away from the group so that no more underclassmen know about elemental crystals. Michael vanishes into Arkon’s Magic with Alice and the soldiers who were left at the East Bridge stood there in confusion. The soldiers decide to head up north because they were called in for another mission. This leads Yessenia and Alex into an easy exit. Well, Ogre Forest wasn’t as easy to go by…
Episode 137 – Ogre Forest, Sight of the Cold Shivers
At the lake, Matt paid full attention to what Venus was going to do with her whip. “Thunder snap!” She whipped the boulders and a zap of pain inflicted the large rocks. Some of it broke apart and fell to the ground. Matt stared in awe. “Now it’s easier to climb. It’s like an actual rock-climbing mission now.” She began climbing upward faster than Matt. “But since you’re already on a vine, it’s too late. Try using fire powers.”
Matt rolled his eyes. “Whatever. That’ll just burn the flames.”
“I know.”
“This is no time to be joking around!!” Matt said angrily. They both climbed next to each other but Venus was a lot faster.
~~~
Yessenia and Alex were already on their way to the northwest area towards Lancer. After the East Bridge was the Ogre Forest. Why is this forest called the Ogre Forest, though? Well, obviously, the two were about to meet unfortunate enemies.
Two green ogres with large bellies appeared. One of them complained, “There are more of you?!”
Alex shriveled behind Yessenia. “Eek… You can fight them. They’re ugly.”
Yessenia sighed. “Stop being useless.” She stepped aside and then she made her long sword appear. “It is time we had some fighting!” She began to attack one of the ogres.
Alex made water appear. He caused an Aqua Strike that pierced through the other ogre. This Aqua Strike was a vertical slash that flew toward the ogre and the force of the water was strong enough to whip the enemy. This attack was quite effective. “There we go!”
Yessenia created a Tornado Spin so that the remaining ogre became dizzy. She then used a Gust Slash to finish the monster off. “That was not so bad. There should be a lot more through this forest. If we want to get through this place fast, then we have to run. We should get going.”
“You mean this forest is filled with these green ogres?!” Alex frowned.
“Wait a minute.” Yessenia thought about it carefully. She remembered that the ogre said ‘there are more of you?!’ She turned around and then beside her. The whole area was quiet but something was still bothering her. “This is not right.”
“What do you mean?”
“There are other people here?” She asked herself as she pointed at one direction. “The two ogres came from over there, the northwest. The guards must have gone that way.” All of the sudden, they heard a gunshot and then a girl screamed.
“What the?!” Alex gasped. “That scream! I only know of one person who screams that way.”
“What is going on?” Yessenia began to fear that the scream was coming from someone that they know. She decided to head towards the scream and Alex followed along in sadness. Yessenia did not fear of danger which was not what Alex was wanting.
~~~
The sky was darkening and the sunset was complete. Matt and Venus had arrived at the top of the waterfall. There was a smaller lake which connected a river from Melvin to the waterfall. Venus ran to towards the river. “Wow, how pretty!”
“Do we have time for sight-seeing?”
“Oh you shush your mouth. We don’t get to see this at home. I can’t believe we’re at such a place like this.” Many of the plants glowed in blue and a small essence of energy flown into the air. There were a bunch of cauliflowers flying away which decorated the atmosphere. There were plentiful of stars in the sky compared to Earth’s pollution.
Matt decided to sit down. “Ah, I guess resting here won’t hurt. After all, we had a difficult climb.” Venus agreed and Matt yelled, “You barely had any problems!”
“You think a girl should climb that thing?”
Matt clenched his teeth in annoyance. They barely teamed up, but their relation to each other was too much. “I’m going over there.” Matt pointed at a dark tree. “Tell me when you’re done.” He last said while stomping away.
Venus said to herself, “He would choose the darkest tree here…”
~~~
Aside from Matt, Venus, Yessenia, and Alex’s journey, the opposition began to spark up. William was slouching towards a boulder nearest to the lake where the Floyde ship had crashed. Many soldiers also followed but they were too tired. William said to his soldiers, “Head to the city of Melvin up north.” He gave an evil, dark grin. “We are not done here…”
~~~
Tony was standing in a strange room with many elemental crystals floating in the large, glowing capsule in front of him. Jaime and a mysterious girl with a hood were behind him. Tony took four glowing crystals. “Are these the animal-related crystals?”
“Animal-related transformation, sir.” Jaime added.
Tony gave Jaime one crystal, “Bring this to one of the students.” He then gave the last three crystals to the girl next to Jaime, “And you can take on three.”
Jaime gasped. “W-Wait a minute! How come she gets to control three and I control only one?”
“Are you going to question me?” Tony raised his voice which made Jaime stay silent. “Do not underestimate what this girl can do.” The girl said nothing. The hood still covered her face.
~~~
Yessenia and Alex arrived at where they heard the gunshot. Alex was surprised to see who they were. In front of them were three soldiers and two familiar-looking students: Shirley and Huy. Shirley pointed at the soldier in the front. "Don't shoot, damn it!"
"She's ordering them around!" Alex said to Yessenia in surprise.
Yessenia chuckled a bit. "The same old Shirley, huh." She took out her long sword. "Alex, we should take down those soldiers!" She noticed that both Shirley and Huy were excessively harmed from battle. Huy could barely move and Shirley's sleeves were torn. The battlefield was a simple grass area with trees all around. A few fallen ogres were on the floor and some trees had large dents and smoke. Yessenia summoned a wind in which imploded towards the three soldiers. Only one of the soldiers became binded. "This is Constricted Wind: a type of ability that can bind any enemy chosen."
The other two soldiers panicked. "H-Hey, get a hold of yourself!"
"Right with you on that." Yessenia responded for them. She placed the binded soldier's hands against his waists across from each other as if he was hugging himself.
Alex said from the side, "I don't think that's what they meant by getting a hold of yourself..."
Shirley had her right hand over her left arm. She had a few scratch marks from the tackles received from the soldiers. "Yessenia... she's here!"
"What power..." Huy was mesmerized. It only took her a small portion of her energy to have a large advantage against the soldiers. Alex striked the other two soldiers with water strong enough to act like a striking sword. They quickly ran away while leaving behind the third soldier who was still binded. Yessenia let go of him and he ran as well. Yessenia and Alex were a bit tired. They were already exhausted from fighting off the ogres from before.
Shirley stood up and she wanted to cry. "Yessenia...!"
"And Alex." Alex said about himself.
"Oh yeah. Anyway, I'm so glad to see you again!!" She hugged Yessenia and Yessenia was a bit uneasy from the sudden infatuation.
"Oh geez." Huy sighed. "She must be in love." He joked.
Shirley made a small patch of ice appear from her hand and then she threw it at his face. "Shut your damn mouth! You're so useless. I can't believe I became stuck with you."
"Stuck?" Yessenia asked. "And by the way, you can let go now."
Shirley giggled. "Oops. Well, something strange was happening. A few days ago during class, everything just froze except some students in our Biology class. You and some other students weren't there either. I think they were Alex, Matt, Venus, and um... Shirley Ma. I cannot believe that girl has the same name as me. She has the nerve?"
"Shirley Ma?" Yessenia repeated. She faced upward, thinking about this girl. "I know her... She applied for Freshman class president last year and won. She did not seem well-known since Freshmen are Freshmen, so it was a bit strange for her to win. Aside from that, I have not seen her much."
"People compare me to her so often! It's just because we have the same name and apparently, she's smarter or at least tries harder. I wonder who she is?"
Alex had his Grimoire book on the side of his waist. "There are a few smart people in our classes who we don't know of. They're starting to show themselves."
Yessenia nodded. "Right. But about you two... what happened after everything froze?"
"Well, some students were still moving just like me and Huy. It's just that once we all walked out of the classroom and the building, there was a very pretty light in the sky. We were being invited, or so it felt."
"What does this all even mean? Why is it that we are in a new world?" Huy asked them.
Yessenia turned to Huy, "And you must be the guy that Shirley talks crap about often."
"WHAT?!" Huy yelped. Huy is a taller-than-average student who was not originally born in their state of California. He is known to be quiet only to strangers but he talks moderately to his friends. As a matter of fact, he is still a rival towards Shirley and Jaime. His appearance is usually a shirt and jeans and the shape of his head is... well... square, as people say.
Shirley placed her hands on her hips, "People from Columbia are so stupid. I'm not surprised that Huy and Matt went to the same school."
"Don't you dare talk crap about my middle school!" Huy said. "Only I can! I say Columbia is ghetto and it sucks!"
Shirley rolled her eyes. "Okay whatever. After the light, we were suddenly transported but I was alone here in the forest. I woke up from the loud chuckles of the ogres and they were about to grab me and kill me with clubs and stuff!"
"But me, being a hero, decided to save her. I wish I didn't though." Huy frowned.
Shirley thought in her mind, "Ugh, a hero? Acting just like Bunhong now?"
~~~
"Alas, my fellow students! Behind the powers that I obtained!" Bunhong put his hands together and made a cup-like shape around his lips. Matt opened his eyes wide, wondering what Bunhong was about to do. Fire began to blast out of his mouth and Matt's haw dropped in surprise.
~~~
"Er..." Shirley closed her eyes in disturbance.
Huy knelt down to tie his shoes. "You guys wanna see what I can do?" He finished tying his shoes tightly and then he stood up with a smile. "Heh!" He ran towards a tree which made Alex and Yessenia surprised. He was about to do something magnificent! Actually, he crashed into the tree with his face flat against the wood.
Shirley laughed obnoxiously and Alex cheered, "That was awesome!"
Yessenia did not say anything. Huy shook his head. "Wait, wait. Let me try again. This time, it is for real! I just need to control my powers."
Huy focused carefully and this time, he ran towards another tree. He then made a large leap and then he placed his feet against the tree about ten feet above the other three students. Once his feet were on the tree, he made a quick huddle and then he used his hands to push against the wood. He leaped off and he made the tree grow a large dent with smoke coming out of it. The ground slightly vibrated from the damage.
Alex screamed in amazement. "WOW!! That was awesome!"
Huy fell instead of properly jumping onto the ground. Shirley laughed again. "And yet he fails once more!"
"So I am guessing your elemental crystal consists of jumping off anything with an excess of force?"
Huy smiled and he shook his head. Shirley became serious. "Wait, you just called them elemental crystals. What is that?"
"Oh right, you two were not there when we discovered more about these so-called 'powers' of ours. The injections that Winny were talking about were not the origins. Even I do not know yet, but there is more to it than just Winny's doings." Yessenia began explaining the whole situation with Jaime, Tony, and the expansion of all of the elemental crystals.
Shirley was quite interested in this topic now. "Ah, so that's why someone useless like Huy now has powers."
"I saved your sorry butt!!" Huy said in anger. "Why do I have to be stuck with you of all people?"
"I could say the same for you. Hmph!" She turned away while closing her eyes and crossing her arms.
"Wow, what a bi-..."
"So what have you two been doing the past few days?" Alex wondered.
Shirley grabbed Yessenia's arm and then she ran, "Oh that's right! Come to our little hiding spot!"
"She's in love for sure." Huy said in annoyance.
"Sure..." Alex had nothing else to say about this. For now, Yessenia and Alex are sidetracked for them. Shirley and Huy's home... well, it is called the Ogre Telsi.
~~~
-NEXT EPISODE PREVIEW-
Matt: Zzzzz…
Nix: Sleeping, eh? [Draws on face] Kekekeke.
ShirleyC: How do you like the Ogre Telsi! Huy and I had to live here until we were strong enough to fight against the ogres ourselves. Thanks to you two, though, now we can finally leave together.
Yessenia: What is this ‘Telsi’ you named it after?
ShirleyC: It is potion to make ogres sexier!
Huy: Excuse me? Why use it on useless things when you can use it for world peace or something?
ShirleyC: Hmph! Sexy men IS world peace, stupid!
Huy: [Sigh]
Matt: Better get used to her, Huy… Next time on episode 138, It Was Like a Fantasy!
Alice: Hey, hey!! What do you expect me to do on my own here in Arkon’s Magic? Don’t you leave me!
Matt: Who drew on my face?!
