"Guys, help me, there is a demon after me!" Cidre yelled as he dropped to the ground and grabbed onto Robert's shirt. Shaking him, Cidre was confused about why the group wasn't moving, before he heard a thumping sound from the air behind him. Trembling in fear, Cidre noticed that everyone on the ground seemed to be paralyzed. 'Oh no, did the demon already get them?' Cidre thought as he slowly turned around.
"Haha, I already took care of your friends, there is no one left to help you," Sydra said as he lowered the sword in his hand and pointed it at Cidre's head. Landing softly on the ground, Sydra walked over and stood threateningly in front of Cidre. "Now kneel,"
"Never, I'd rather die than kneel to you," Cidre said as he dodged towards the firepit and grabbed a knife that was laying next to it, before lunging towards Sydra. Taking a step to the side, Sydra allowed Cidre to fly past him and spawl out on the ground. The others broke into laughter at the sight, breaking their illusion of being frozen
"Haha, at least he tried," Robert said as he wiped a tear away from his eye, before walking over to help Cidre up. Seeing that the show was over, the others got back to work on cleaning the campsite up so they could leave.
"Wait, it was all a joke?" Cidre said as he stood back up and looked around at everyone, before smiling awkwardly "I mean, I knew that,"
"You were gone for so long that we finished breakfast and were preparing to leave, and when you still didn't show up we sent Sydra to get you. Turns out he can fly now too, and decided to sneak up on you and chase you back. When we saw how terrified you looked and screaming something about demons, we came up with the idea to pretend we had already been taken out and froze in place," Erich said as he doused the fire out with a bucket of water. "Anyway, get your stuff ready to go, all that is left is putting away the straw golems and that,"
"Nope, the golems have already been put away, now we're just waiting for Cidre," Sydra said as he tossed the last straw golem in his Arbor Sanctum. Patting Cidre on the back, Sydra walked over to the Fluttershi and walked up to the front seats, where Robert and Siel were discussing the best direction to head in to great to the gateway.
"If we head in this direction, we should be able to get around the mountain quicker, but we will be forced to go around a lake. The lake is a water source for a lot of creatures that roam the forest, and we might run into one if we go this way. On the other hand, the other side of the mountain is a barren land, and very few monsters visit the area," Siel said as he pointed out the ways to get around the mountain.
"I think we should go this way, even if there is a possibility to run into monsters. What do you think, Sydra?" Robert asked as he noticed Sydra walk up behind them.
"It makes sense to me, and a few more fights wouldn't hinder us too much. We can use them as training to get stronger," Sydra said as Cidre and Erich walked into the Fluttershi and sat down in the back.
"We are all done outside, so we can head out whenever," Erich said as he pulled out a stack of cards and divided them between himself and Cidre. The game they were playing today was called uni, and Erich hadn't lost yet.
"Should be head out then?" Siel asked as he stood up and allowed Sydra to sit down in the seat next to Robert. Nodding his head, Robert closed the door and started up the Fluttershi before heading in the direction of the lake.
A few minutes later and the lake could be seen coming up quickly in front of the group. Looking around, Sydra was disappointed to see that no creatures were drinking at the lake at the moment. He only had to absorb one more aura and he could finally find out what happened when he got all five roots filled. Shaking his head, Sydra glanced back at the map and thought about what Siel had said last night. If he wanted to get the next piece of the map, then Sydra had to fight a pirate for it.
'I guess that means I have to get a ship, but even then how will I find Corbel? I mean, he might already be dead, or had the map piece stolen from him,' Sydra thought as tried to figure out ways to locate the pirate.
"Hey Siel, do you know of any good ways I could use to find Corbel? I want to get my hands on his piece of the map, and maybe any treasure he has while I'm at it," Sydra said as he glanced back at Siel, who was watching the card game in fascination.
"I could always ask the other sea life if they have seen his pirate ship lately. I know it sounds kind of bad, but since Corbel is always plundering ships and tossing the people on board into the sea, a lot of fish follow his pirate boat. They like to eat the people after they have died in the turbulent waters," Siel said as Erich won the game again, causing Cidre to give up and hand his cards over to Siel.
"Thanks, that will help us out," Sydra said as he looked back at the map. 'Seems we're still a few hours away, I'll go ahead and check out my Arbor Sanctum,' Sydra thought as he closed his eyes and entered a meditative state.
Opening his eyes, Sydra floated above the island and looked at all the crystals sculptures scattered around. Drifting down to one of the crystal deer, Sydra placed his hand on it and felt a faint connection resonating off.
"I wasn't able to use the other part of the crystal aura earlier, but let's see if it will work now," Sydra said as he activated the other half of his crystal aura and sent it into the deer. After a few seconds, the deer began to emit signs of life and looked around. When the deer saw Sydra standing so close to it, it jumped up in fright before running off.
"Oh, so this part of the power can bestow life into the crystal creatures. That's interesting, I wonder if they procreate after I give them life, or if they will simply live forever, never growing or decreasing in population," Sydra wondered aloud as he walked around his island and brought all the creatures to life.
Once that was done, Sydra went to see if Marie was awake, and when he found she was they had a small conversation about his travels since the last time. Sadly, Marie still couldn't stay out of her tree for long and had to go back. Having nothing else to do there, Sydra returned to his body to see how the trip was going. Turning around, he saw that the group was playing cards together, and the Fluttershi was stopped in front of a large stone archway surrounded by sand.
"Ah, Sydra, your back. We just arrived at the gateway, and were waiting for you to return so we could check it out," Robert said as he set down the cards in his hand and stood up. "I win by the way," Robert said as he opened the door to the Fluttershi and stepped outside.
"Ah man, my winning streak," Erich said as he flipped over Robert's cards, which showed he had a winning hand. Stepping past the others that we're cleaning up the cards, Sydra stepped out of the vehicle and followed Robert over to the archway.
"Have any of you gone through?" Sydra asked as he looked at the stone archway. The stones were covered in wave markings, and a light breeze blew past Sydra, with the smell of salt water mixed within it. Looking through the arch, Sydra could see a sandy beach on the other side, with coconut trees at its edge.
"No, we didn't want to do anything until you came back, so we waited in the vehicle," Robert said as the others in the group left the Fluttershi and stood around the gateway. After putting the vehicle in his Arbor Sanctum, Sydra stood directly in front of the archway and looked around at the others.
"Time to go to the beach," Sydrs said before stepping through the archway and out onto the hot sandy beach on the other side. Turning around, Sydra saw the others leave a stone archway that looked identical to the one on the other side.
"Ah, finally back at the Seasun islands," Siel said as he stepped out from the archway and walked over to the others.