Moments
before, the whole group was split into three and the main focus is now based on
the Druskane Continent. Matt, Alex, Nix, and Rowen all arrive at the Cranium
Heights where there is a hidden spring connected to an oasis. Lupe appeared in
front of Yessenia’s group who was all headed towards Crestwood, the first city
to be reached when arriving at the Druskane Continent. At that moment, Lupe
begins to tell the group about her own history. She was also trapped in the
world of Elsiya along with all of the other El Monte students…
Episode 169 – Docked on Crestwood, the Spirit of
Columbia
“So, care to explain what’s going on here?
This is nuts!” Jennifer advised Rowen to answer her question. When he was
silent, Jennifer repeated herself with her voice raised this time.
“Jennifer, please calm down. I guess
it’s not so crazy. We can just go back with our cellphones.” Lupe tried to calm
her down.
“Ah, so I see you two are familiar
with fictional worlds like Elsiya.” Rowen finally spoke. “You two know very
well that cellphones are the escape away from fictional worlds. I’ve gone
through that for four years in high school, hehe.” He bowed to them. “I am the
leader of the Peridot soldiers. We take custody of these tigres and make sure
they work for us, like so.” He pointed at the same tiger with the wooden crates
and another amazon-looking female tiger who was carrying a bucket of water.
Lupe closed her eyes. “This is
animal cruelty! Whoever supports them is just horrible!”
The woman tiger, Lagi, offered some
water, “Would you like some?”
Lupe suddenly smiled, “Yes,
actually, thank you. It’s kind of hot and dry in this village.”
Jennifer said quietly, “You adapted
so fast there…”
“I can’t help it. I’m so thirsty…”
Rowen abruptly continued, “Anywho, I
will let you two become captains of Peridot soldiers from different divisions
if you decide to stay here. If you think about it, you are pretty much stuck
here in the world of Elsiya.”
Lupe covered her mouth in surprise.
“What? Forever?”
“That’s too crazy! There has got to
be a way.” Jennifer claimed. She took out her cellphone to see that the option
to El Monte was gray and not accessible. “Ergh… Do you have anything to do with
this?”
Rowen laughed. “No, not at all. I
have gained some elemental crystals found all over the world of Elsiya. I still
have yet to find more. Can you guess what these can do?” He threw one crystal
each to Jennifer and Lupe, “Look into them with your very own eyes.”
Without thinking, Lupe looked into
the crystal and the small stone was getting brighter by the second. Lupe took a
step back from astonishment, “Wh-what’s happening to me?”
“Lupe! Don’t look into the crystal.
Something bad could happen-…” The stone that Jennifer was holding was already
turning brighter.
Rowen chuckled. “Heh. The second you
hold onto the crystal is when you already start gaining such amazing powers.
Now, decide again if you will: do you want to help me here in Tigre Village?”
Lupe whispered into Jennifer’s ear,
“We should do as he says until we find a way out of here…”
Jennifer did not like the idea, but
she knew there was no other choice. “Fine. We’ll help you!”
“And months later…” Lupe thought
to herself, “we were still not able to escape. We decided to give up, until
someone else came around.”
Brandon appeared in Tigre Village
from a portal. He fell onto the ground and then he groaned, “Aaaagh! That
hurt.”
Lupe took sight of him. She started
feeling teary. “B-B-Brandon…!” She jumped onto him in happiness, “You’re here!!
I’m surprised you’re alive! How? How did you get here? Oh my gosh… please tell
me this did not just happen.”
Rowen was watching at a distance.
Jennifer also saw them. “Brandon?” Jennifer was excited as well. “How did you
get here?”
Brandon opened his arms out to the
two girls. “I drew a dimension to wherever you two were!”
Lupe hugged him and said softly,
“Your powers can go that far?”
Jennifer interrupted them, “Wait, if
you can make a portal going to Elsiya, then you can take us out of this world!
Bring us back to El Monte!”
Lupe screamed, “That’s right!! You
can do that, right?!”
“No.” Brandon said bluntly.
“Why not…?” Lupe became worrisome
again.
“I accidentally walked into this
portal, forgetting to bring my paint brush and notebook.”
Jennifer closed her eyes and then
she began vibrating. Her face turned red and smoke came out of her ears like a
train’s smoke stack. “YOU FORGOT WHAT NOW?”
Lupe began praying while she was
sliding towards Crestwood. “We were stuck up to this very day, and Rowen gladly
took Brandon in as his helper as well…”
After
a few hours, the group on the Terris finally arrived at Crestwood. It was
getting dark already. In the Fall season, the sky darkens quite early in the
afternoon. Shirley tried to check her dead cellphone, “My phone ran out of
battery a long time ago. Ugh, that’s even worse for us. Now I don’t even know
what time it is.”
“There
should be a clock somewhere in this city.” Yessenia suggested they could easily
go search for a clock.
Huy
began caressing his fists, wondering if he needed new gauntlets. “Hey guys, are
we in a hurry?”
Yessenia
answered him, “In a way, yes. Do you need something?”
“I
kind of need stronger gauntlets. This one is wearing out anyway.”
“You
have time then. I guess we should give each other three hours. At this time
when it is getting darker, I’m assuming that it is around 5PM. In that case, it
would be wise to start leaving Crestwood in three hours.”
Venus
questioned her, “Why do we have to leave Crestwood? Maybe Matt, Alex, and Rowen
are all here.”
“I
doubt they are in such a simple place like this. If you happen to see them,
report to us at 8PM at the other end of Crestwood.” Yessenia pointed at a
bulletin board with a Crestwood map stapled onto it. “You guys agree?”
Shirley
grabbed William’s left arm, “Let’s go clothes shopping, buddy!”
Huy
mocked her, “You’re stupid. What kind of guy would want to go shopping for
clothes especially at a time like this?”
William
suddenly yelled, “Yay! Shopping!”
Peter
stared at them. “Oh. He does.”
William
gave Shirley a stack of money, “My salary for being a lieutenant.”
Shirley’s
eyes turned into money. “OHO~~~ You are so cool, William!” She began walking
away with him, “So you must be rich. You know, we’ve always been friends. I
think you’re the greatest guy ev…” Her voice became faint as the two of them
walked off.
Huy
rolled his eyes. “Anyway, I’ll be going too. See you guys at eight!”
Omar
said to Peter, “Maybe we should go find Joey.”
“Sure.
It’s going to be hard to find someone in a city though, but it’s worth a try.”
Peter agreed.
Omar
said hysterically, “And you might want to cover yourself up with a new outfit
and some kind of face mask. No one wants to see your panda face. DAHAH!”
Peter
tried to fight with him. “What did you say?!”
Venus
giggled, “And that leaves us together! Adventures are fun, aren’t they?”
“But
you talk a lot.” Yessenia grinned.
“Oh
whatever. Let’s go exploring around!”
Matt,
Alex, Nix, and Rowen eventually arrived at the Cranium Heights. Alex wiped his
forehead, “I’m getting tired and it’s almost dark. Maybe we should take a rest.
I’m sweating buckets here.”
“That’s
just water coming from your water powers!” Matt exclaimed.
“Mind
your own business!”
Rowen
knelt down to touch the ground. “It’s moist here, uf all places.”
Alex
said quietly to Matt, “Him and his ‘uf’s again…”
“Get
over it already.” Matt said in an annoyed tone.
Rowen
began laughing out loud. “Hahaha! I remember now. The Cranium Heights is
connected to the Greyton Oasis in some way. Listen, there is an spring in this
little cave below the heights. This spring’s other side is the Greyton Oasis of
the sand island.”
Alex
began picturing the Elsiyan map in his head. “From what I remember, the Greyton
Oasis is east of the Browe Pass. Basically, the distance is much like a
triangle between the Browe Pass, Greyton Oasis, and this Cranium Heights.”
Matt
began sweating in flames. “Who cares! Let’s just go to the spring already!”
Alex
gasped from Matt’s flames. “So inconsiderate!”
Along
Yessenia’s walk with Venus in Crestwood, Yessenia noticed that Venus was
frowning while holding onto her upper chest. Yessenia tilted her head to see
her expression even closer. “Is there something wrong?”
Venus
giggled. “Eheh, n-no… not really. Well, my necklace is gone. I think it was
left in the Nerim Lake or maybe someone stole it…” She remembered when she
hugged Johnny back in the elevator boat. “But there’s also a possibility that
my old friend Johnny took it…”
“Johnny?”
“Oh
right! You don’t know him. He’s from Kranz and he was accidentally thrown into
this world while talking to Amy. I don’t know where he is anymore though. It’s
like… all these people keep leaving. First Santi, then Jaime, and then Johnny,
twice!”
Yessenia
thought about her conversation with Jaime. “Well, Jaime is um…”
“You
know where he disappeared to?!”
“Not
really. He’s probably somewhere on this island looking for Tony. He wants to
stop Tony. He was a good guy after all.”
Venus
was confused. “But back at the elevator boat, he seemed to go crazy in wanting
Omar to join the CORP soldiers… I wonder what that was all about.” She shook
her head. “No matter, though! I want to stick with the fact that Jaime is a
good person. Let’s search for him again!”
Yessenia
chuckled. “Aha… sure.” She was concerned at the difficulty of actually finding
people who could be anywhere on a whole island, let alone, in the whole would
of Elsiya…
Within
the caverns of the Cranium Heights, Matt could sniff the nice, fresh scent of
the springs. “We are getting closer to the springs, aren’t we?! Can’t wait to
try that fresh water!”
Alex
said angrily, “I have water powers too…”
Matt
teased, “Well your water isn’t fresh.”
“It
is!! I think. Ugh, you’re so rude.”
Matt
remembered when Alex said Matt was not pretty when they first met. “I still
remember you didn’t call me pretty back at the El Monte public library!”
“Why
do you still remember that?!”
“We
are here.” Rowen changed the subject. “This is the spring that you were looking
for! The water is fresh, of course.” Rowen said soothingly. “The spirit girl
should be here. She may help us with the Telsi potion.”
Alex
became serious. He remembered when Shirley and Huy were talking about the
sacred Telsi potion. “(That potion!)” He thought to himself. “(Shirley and Huy-
I mean, just Huy, wants to use the Telsi potion for good use. But this Rowen
guy… I don’t trust him. If he is connecting the fact of reviving old friends by
using the Telsi potion, then maybe I can get Mariel back…)” He began thinking
about taking the Telsi potion from Rowen when the time is right.
Rowen
added, “The thing is, she can’t directly help us making the Telsi potion. We
have to find a professional alchemist. I think there is one in Tigre Village.”
Alex
said out loud, “Damn.”
Rowen
turned to him, “Hm? Why ‘damn’?”
Alex
suddenly blushed and lied, “Uh no no no no no, nothing! I said nothing! I meant
damn as in my shoes got wet.”
Matt
ruined the moment by correcting him. “You have water powers. Get over it.”
“Be
quiet!” Alex shouted at him. The cave vibrated a little from his yell.
The
spirit girl appeared. “Welcome, my fellow beings.”
Alex
screeched, “EEK! It’s the spirit girl!” He ran behind Matt. “What if she’s
evil?”
“I’m
not evil!!” She said unethically. She went back to being angelic, “My name is
Thuy Do.”
“What
a strange name.” Alex murmured.
“Be
quiet, young man!!” The spirit girl said.
Matt
was surprised to see her at a place like this. “T-Thuy…! From my middle
school!”
Alex
made a strange shriek. “WHAAAAAAAT! You know her? She just called me a young
man! I’m probably older than her if my birthday is in December! How rude of
her!”
Rowen
rolled his eyes. “Aside from the bickering, what does it take to make the Telsi
potion, divine spirit of the springs?”
Matt
and Alex clapped their hands together, “Ooh that’s a nice nickname.”
Nix
said while in Matt’s spirit, “You two don’t even get the situation here…”
Thuy
responded to them, “You need several ingredients. I can tell you that the
sacred Bird’s Tear is in the snowy land of Trinity Top. Once you obtain that,
you must come back to me and I will synthesize it with special spirit water
that only I can obtain.”
Matt
interrupted her, “Thuy! Why don’t you just come with us?”
Thuy
had a frown on her face. She said bluntly, “I have been chosen to become a
spirit for Elsiya. If I leave this world, then Elsiya’s energy will deplete.”
Alex
turned around. “Let’s just go. We can come back to her later.”
Matt
had to think about it for a while. Rowen also mentioned one more thing. “We
will come back once we get the Bird’s Tear. It shouldn’t take a while, Matt.”
Matt
was shaking. He had rather have Thuy go with them so that they could gather all
of the students before leaving Elsiya somehow. If Thuy is stuck as a spirit for
Elsiya, then she may never leave…
~~~
-NEXT EPISODE PREVIEW-
Shirley:
Pretty clothes huh! Do you like?!
William:
This is not exactly what I meant by clothes shopping…
Omar:
What is with that crowd?
Peter: Wait.
Take the camera! Why does it look so familiar?
Omar:
What a gorgeous photo.
Peter:
It’s the back of Matt’s head facing the flames…
Matt:
Thuy! Come with us!
Thuy:
About that… I can’t…
Matt:
Huh?
Thuy:
If I leave the springs, then…
Matt:
Because you’re a spirit of Elsiya’s growth, then… No way… Next time on episode
170, The Boy in the Flames, Thuy’s Words of Wisdom!
