Recently
on Fires of the sky, lots of things have changed after 365 days. Almost every
student had to separate and disconnect with each other due to self-anger and
terrible memories of the first two years. As the main students rejoiced, they
find that Jen can mysteriously read books with empty pages as if they did have
text and pictures. It only appears whenever she is reading. Further along the
Reunion, the main group finds that Winny has left to Temple City to start a new
life, but what is her reason? The students follow her into a new prophecy book
that leads into Temple City’s world, much like El Monte’s ‘Arkon’s Magic’. What
surprises will the students experience this time?
Episode 268 – The Temple in the City
“Well then, this is a nice little
reunion!” Shirley said out loud.
Alex was scuffling with his hair in
a panic. “Euugh, you mentioned ‘deadly’ sins which scare me so much.”
“Yeah, this little scaredy cat was
about to refuse but I thought it’d be fun for us to do something together like
we used to,” Shirley bantered.
“Like we used to…” Yessenia
chuckled. “I like the sound of that.”
“See? When Yessenia likes something,
then you know it’s a good idea!” Shirley insisted.
“But she likes cute things like fat
dogs and… ripping spider legs off one by one,” Alex hesitated.
“AH-HAH!” Van yelled from behind the
bushes that Yessenia appeared in before when Stan and Jen were talking to each
other. “I knew you guys were up to something. And I knew Winny was up to something as well!” She held hands with
William, pulling him out of the bushes as well.
Jen had her hand over her mouth. “Oh
my, were you listening to us the whole time?”
“Kinda, but William began whining to
me too much. But don’t you dare say you’re all close to Winny! Winny and I are
close too, so you can’t leave me out of it!”
Jen turned to Matt, “Can they come
along? I know it’s overestimating and you don’t like that, but…”
“Sure, whatever…” Matt yawned.
Jaime pointed at William, “Hey ol’
buddy!” Jaime wrapped his right arm over William’s shoulders, “Just like middle
school, right?” The two of them used to talk more in Potrero Middle School
anyway. “But man, last time I checked, Winny was afraid of you. Said something
about you being Luther.”
“She’s still worried about that?”
William frowned with his eyes closed.
“It’s okay, she’ll get over it. If…
we get her back.” Shirley said with uncertainty.
“Hold on a minute,” Jaime said
abruptly, “we’re forcing her back?”
“Well duh.”
“I know it sounds bad, but shouldn’t
it be her choice or not? If she’s going to Temple City, then there’s gotta be a
good reason.”
Yessenia nodded. “He makes a good
point. As much as we all want Winny to stay, we could be misunderstanding
something here. She might have a really good reason to leave for good, as
Nix-…”
“Ah- ah. It’s ‘Phoenix’ when I’m in human
form. Hehe,” he corrected.
“…as ‘Phoenix’ said.” Yessenia said
slowly.
“That’s all crap! If she wanted to
leave,” Matt became frustrated, “then she should have done so a lot sooner. She’s
being selfish. She could have told us sooner instead of not at all. Why wait
now? Why wait until that moment when we’re finally back to do this? Does she
even understand how hard was for us to get over those we’ve lost? She’s just
going to leave like another one of them!”
Matt thought about all of his old friends who had left El Monte for different
reasons.
The group of students understood his
dissatisfaction, but there were no words to describe how much they could
sympathize with him. Even Shirley stopped smiling. They all knew it was Winny’s
choice, but deep down, none of them wanted her to leave. Matt decided to drop
the topic as they entered the book’s location – wherever that is, before
reading on to the next page.
~~~
Shirley stretched her arms as wide
as she could the moment all of the students had arrived at the new place –
well, wherever this is. All of them landed calmly by now. The time zone was the
same as Earth: 3:15 PM. They had landed at what appeared to be a city in the
blazing sun. There were merchants rolling their wheelbarrows and a few others
rode slowly on horses. The group stood on the long, beigh-cemented walkway and
to the sides of them was stalls of food with canopies over them like a flea
market. A few men bargained with ‘Fruits! Come get some for 25 cents!’ and
such.
In front of them, but far, far away
into the distance was a foggy building – probably about five stories high but
it didn’t look too complicated to climb. Hopefully there would be an elevator.
It was far in walking distance though. They had hoped to find Winny somewhere
around the town within the next day before school actually starts, or else they
would have to return to school without her. Going back to school without her
would be as if they hadn’t interfered with the book, but the sooner they talk
with Winny, the better the outcome.
“You guys, the prelude of the book
barely showed up.” Jen first spoke.
“That always happens whenever I
first enter the map.” Yessenia said to her.
“Yeah… sorry about that, hehe. I
guess they do it because it’s treated as a disclaimer and warning. It states
that like many other worlds we’ve been to, we have to watch out. Going back to
Earth is not as easy as pressing the button on your cellphone. You must return
to this designated area if you want to go home. That would be this spot.” Jen
pointed at the ground below all of them.
“That’s nice of the book to make
life much more complicated,” Jaime joked, “and this better go out as planned. I
didn’t skip Track and Field practice for nothing.”
Shirley rolled her eyes. “You’re not
the only one, so don’t complain. I have to skip the special afterschool ASB
meeting!”
ASB stands for ‘Associated Student
Body’ which is the activities group that she is in – the same one that she
keeps forcing Alex to go to even if he is not allowed in the room.
“Then let’s hurry.” Matt said as he
looked at the biggest building, “Obviously, that should be the temple over
there.”
Jen held the book. “Most likely, it
is. I guess ‘The Temple in the City’ was being straightforward for us.”
Phoenix began walking with them.
“What bothers me most is that Winny is going to Temple City High School. What
would she be doing in this book map?”
“Well it’s no coincidence,” Alex
hoped. “We’ll find our answer as we keep going. We got almost a whole night to
figure this out and that’s more than enough time, I think. The temple looks
like it’s only about four miles away.”
As the group went on, Van still had
her hands clenched onto William’s arm for protection; however, William made a
sudden stop.
“Wait a minute,” he looked at
Phoenix as everyone watched William. “Who are you again?” he asked mindlessly.
~~~
Along the way, a horse passed by and
the man on the saddle yelled at Van, “Ey, little girl! Out of the way.”
Van rudely moved off to the side as
she stuck her tongue out at him. At the same time, Shirley headed to one of the
markets under the canopy. There were several kinds of hats and Shirley noticed
that for once, Jaime was not wearing a hat except for the times when he was in
danger, kind of like what happened in Echoville against Vialaro.
“Why don’t you wear hats anymore?”
Shirley asked him.
Jaime stood next to her. “I grew out
of it I guess. None of them looked good on me.”
“Why, just because you got bulkier?
Here, let’s try something out for you.”
Shirley first put a sombrero over his
head. Van called out the number ‘3’ as her vote out of 10. William played along
and chose ‘5’. Alex and Yessenia both said ‘4’. Jen and Phoenix both chose
‘10’.
Jen looked at his number. “Hey, you
got great taste!”
“So do you! Hehe!”
Matt said nothing as he felt a
little annoyed at their side-tracking. Shirley replaced the sombrero with a
regular baseball cap.
Van shook her head. “Much better!
7!”
William chose 7 as well, but Alex
thought a baseball cap does not match with his bulky outlook, so he chose 3.
Yessenia chose 6 as Jen and Phoenix both chose 10. They both smiled at each
other. Matt still had nothing to say.
Shirley looked at the display again.
“Oh, how about this one!” She put on a rainbow beanie above Jaime’s head with a
small fan that spun like a windmill.
Everyone chose a number from 1-3
except for Jen and Phoenix who both chose 10 again. Matt sneered at the odd
look that completely did not match his appearance.
Shirley sighed. “Really? I thought
it was cute.” She then looked at another. “This one?!”
Jaime looked at it, “Are you
serious?”
“A torque,” Yessenia commented,
“also known as a chef hat. Not bad.” She gave him a 6 but everyone else chose
numbers between 2-4. Jen and Phoenix shrugged but they still chose 10. Matt
yawned.
“You’re messing with me now, aren’t
you?” Jaime became frustrated, but not in a totally serious way compared to how
others become frustrated. Apparently it would be ‘too much work’ for him to get
angry at anything.
Shirley grinned. “Fine, fine. How
about this one? Here is the ugliest one.” She threw it on Jaime’s head.
Van gasped. “That’s nice on him!
10!”
“I guess it’s okay.” Alex commented
as he gave a 9. William and Yessenia agreed with a 10 without saying anything.
Jen and Phoenix gave a 10 as well.
“Better.” Matt said without voting.
Shirley shrieked. “Are you all
serious? But it’s so ugly!”
Jaime kept it on with satisfaction.
“I actually like it. It’s also a nice design for a straw hat.”
It was actually a mini straw hat
that didn’t stretch out of his head too much. This was a hybrid hat from what
is usually known as the ‘Panama’.
Shirley asked the cashier, “How much
is this hat?”
“One dollar,” he responded.
“Psch,” she chuckled, “I’ll bet,
with this terrible style,” she joked and then she noticed the prices labeled on
the table, “Everything is a dollar?!?!”
The man frowned. “I’m sorry that
it’s expensive. It’s probably one of the highest prices here in the flea
market.” He pointed at a bunch of food for sale and clothing was sold for 75
cents.
Shirley squealed. “Sh-sh-sh-shopping
spree?!?!?!”
“We don’t have time for any more
side-tracking!” Matt said loudly.
Van pouted. “Hmph. Well that was fun
while it lasted,” she said sarcastically. Jen stared over to Matt’s face as she
felt worried about his own enjoyment. Even Phoenix noticed that Jen was
worrying and her sadness even made him feel a little down. The group decided to
head towards the giant building after Shirley paid for the hat – with Alex’s
money.
~~~
After about a mile of walking, Matt
told the group that it would be a better idea to start running now that they’ve
spent over thirty minutes with little progress. The group groaned besides
Yessenia, Jaime, and William.
“I need a break. It’s getting too
hot out here…” Van complained. She sat down on a brown barrel.
“You guys should have gotten a hat
like I did.” Jaime said. Shirley rolled her eyes, knowing it was her idea yet
she didn’t get one for herself.
“Maybe Matt’s right,” Jen said, “and
if we run, we can get there faster with less sun time.”
Jaime began to have an idea. “Jen
and I have been practicing running. We can use that to our advantage and go on
ahead in case we really are wasting time.”
Jen looked over at Matt. “Are you
okay with that?”
Matt nodded. “I guess it is. It’s
better than nothing.”
Shirley became worried. “Finally we
are back together as a reunion but we have to split up again?”
Alex shivered. “I even remember the
last time we split up when we were in a new map – the Elemental Challenges and
the Eternal Nothingness. That was not pretty.” The mention of the Eternal
Nothingness reminded Van of Jenny which made her suddenly depressed.
Yessenia agreed with Jaime’s idea.
“It seems plausible that we have to split up. If at some point we get jumped,
we will all go down at once. Even if we have a big team, coordination could be
bad too. We might accidentally strike each other.”
Phoenix suddenly turned himself into
Nix, the fire bird. The group heard the plopping sound and clouds covered him.
As the clouds dispersed, Nix appeared with his higher-pitched voice. “I’ll go
with Jen and Jaime! We need as many people to get there sooner.”
Jen held onto Nix, “Yay! You’re
coming with us.”
The three of them waved goodbye for
their temporary leave as they headed off ahead into the slight mist. The other
six students remained with Van still fanning herself on the barrel.
William stood next to her to gossip
about anything going on in school and Shirley and Alex decided to join in.
Yessenia leaned against a wooden pole nearby to wait for everybody to rest up.
She was watching Matt sit by himself. She knew that there was definitely
something that made him change into a completely new person. She knew that
although Nix had returned, the poor bird is not as close as he used to be with
Matt.
As the girls giggled with William
and Alex laughing together, time began running along while the other three
students made way to the giant building up ahead. Only three more miles.
A dark figure passed by the clothing
markets. The large silhouette watched the group in interest. “Geheheh! I wonder
what they got cooked up for dinner?”
~~~
- Preview to the next episode! -
Matt:
On the next episode of Fires of the Sky…
Van:
Um… Maybe splitting up wasn’t a good idea after all.
Jen:
I don’t understand. The pictures show this book on the floor and then wolves
showing up.
Phoenix: C-Could Van be… betraying us?
Jen:
Th-That’s nonsense! She’s so nice and she’s always happy. This has to be some
misunderstanding.
Jaime:
What if she was some secret spy or someone who secretly loathed the group at
one point, just like some of us in the past?
Jen:
*cries* That’s a terrible joke!
Phoenix:
Jen! Don’t cry! Look what you did, Jaime!
Alex:
This guy is so fat!! What happened to him?
Shirley:
Come on fatty, try to get me!
Matt:
This bastard! We’ll get him easily. Next time on episode 269, Page Twenty –
Meet the Gluttony Bearer!
Yessenia: Something tells me he is not the strongest one yet.
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