Welcome to Gaia! :: View User's Journal | Gaia Journals

<br></br>
Chapter Seventeen: See You on the Other Side

“Koza?” Tera asked as they were walking.

“Hm?” he said as he looked over.

“Do you know what you’re going to do if we find Adrian again?” Koza shook his head.

“I’m not entirely sure. I mean, first we need some answers like I said earlier. I want to know why this happened, who did it, and for what purpose. If we can find out that much, then maybe we can go from there with a plan of some kind. First off, if we run into Adrian again, I’m going to ask him directly to see if he’ll tell us anything. That outfit he was wearing when we ran into him wasn’t his normal one. I don’t know if that has anything to do with anything, but its another clue at least,” Koza concluded. Tera nodded.

“I’ll be right there by your side the whole way, you can count on that,” she reassured him. Koza smiled.

“You’ve always been there for me when I needed you. For that, I thank you,” he said. She smiled and nodded again.

“You’ve always been there for me too Koza. More than anyone else.”

Before he could answer, a voice called out from behind them.
“Hey guys! Wait up a minute!” Both of them stopped and turned around to see James running up to them. He stopped in front of them and held out his hand, which contained two small metal objects.

“What are these?” Koza asked.

“These, my friend, are tracker chips. If you wear these as you travel around, I have some equipment back at the library that will allow me to keep track of where you are. Not only that, but I can also see a wide range of the area around you. I thought you might need some help finding your friend,” James explained. Koza blinked.

“Really?” he asked. James nodded. “How do we use these things?” Koza asked as he took one and looked at it. Tera did the same.

“All you have to do is place it behind your ear. You won’t even be able to tell its there,” James said.

Koza put it up next to his left ear. It attached itself and stuck. Tera put hers up next to her left ear. Hers also attached itself and stuck.

“There now. Can you feel them?” James asked. Koza and Tera shook their heads. “Alright then. They also double as communicators. This way I’ll be able to keep in contact with you. I’ll head back to the library to test them out,” James said. He waved and ran back towards town. Koza and Tera looked at each other.

“Well, that was convenient,” Tera said. “Do you think he made these all on his own?” Koza shrugged.

“Probably. He seems like a really smart person.”

Koza and Tera heard static for a moment before James’ voice came through.

“Koza? Tera? Can you hear me?” he asked.

“Yeah, I hear you,” Koza said.

“Me too,” Tera added.

“Alright! They work!” James said enthusiastically. “Now then, lets see if I can get this to work as well…Ok, I see both of you here on the screen. There’s a lake and a river coming up ahead if I’m seeing this correctly. You can either go around the lake, or head downstream,” James said.

“What’s on the other side of the lake?” Tera asked.

“Let me see here…” James said. “…According to this, there seems to be some sort of large mine on the other side. I’m not sure what is it entirely,” he said.

“Huh…What about if we head down the river?” Koza asked. Some background noise was heard before James came on again.

“The river should spit you out into a larger body of water. It goes on for a while. I can’t see all of it with you at your current positions.”

“Can you see any other people around us?” Koza asked.

“One moment please. I’ll do a scan of the area,” James said. Some typing came from the other end of the microphone in the tracker chip.

“I’m not seeing anything as of yet,” James said. “Maybe if you wander around a bit? Try getting closer to the lake.”

Koza and Tera agreed, and started off towards the lake again.

“By the way,” James’ voice came over the tracker chips again. “If you want to talk amongst yourselves, there’s a mute button on the back of the chips.”

“I’ll keep that in mind,” Koza said.

They came upon the lake after a few minutes. The water was a dark green color, and the water was choppy. The waves licked the edge of the shore, pushing and pulling the dirt. Tera shuddered.

“This lake looks really creepy,” she said.

“I’m sure its harmless. It probably isn’t even that deep,” he reassured her. “In fact…James, can you scan the lake for us to see if there’s anything to worry about?”

“I’m on it,” James replied. Typing could be heard from the background. A few “beeps” and “blips” later, James came back over the microphone. “It seems the lake actually goes down quite a bit…The deepest point reaches almost a mile down. I’m showing a large blip on the screen coming from the center,” he finished.

“A large blip huh?” Koza asked. “Can you tell if its moving or not?”

“No, I don’t think it’s moving. It looks like its just sitting there, whatever it is. I can’t tell if its alive or not either.” Tera shuddered at the idea of something alive at the bottom.

“Can we please just go around the lake Koza? I don’t want to go down the river…” she said nervously.
“Alright Tera. We’ll go around. No problem there,” he replied. He took her hand in his, which calmed her down almost immediately. She smiled and nodded. Hand in hand, they made their way around the lake. Tera stayed close to Koza while they walked. The wind picked up slightly, and a gust blew the lake water around. A little mist sprayed on both of them.

“Koza, Tera. Be careful. I can see more of the cave now, and there was something moving inside it. It went deeper in and now it’s off of the screen,” James warned.

“M-m-moving…?” Tera stuttered, now clinging to Koza. He hugged her protectively.

“Don’t worry Tera. I’m here with you. Everything will be alright,” he said. She nodded, though she was still nervous. A few minutes later, they had arrived at the entrance to the mine. A few broken, rotted boards hung over the opening. A few boards seemed to have been broken through by force.

“Well, here we are,” Koza said. Tera swallowed a lump in her throat.

“I have a really bad feeling about this…” she said nervously.

“It’s ok. I’m here with you,” Koza said. “Come on. Let’s go see what’s in this place.”

“Uh…You first…” Tera said. Koza nodded. She let go of him so he could get into the mine and work his way around the boards.

“Looks fine so far,” he said. “Come on.” Tera crawled through the opening, around the boards. A string of lanterns was strung along the ceiling, dimly lighting the mine. The air was humid and heavy. A few various rodents scampered along the floor and out of the mine. As they made their way deeper in, the path seemed to slowly slope down and go farther underground.

“Guys, heads up. There’s a small blip on the screen, and it’s not too far from your current position,” James said over the tracker chips.

“Is it moving?” Tera asked.

“It is moving, yes. It seems to be circling something if I’m seeing this right…I think it might have cornered something,” James replied.

“Let’s go see what this is about,” Koza said. He started to walk forward, Tera directly behind him. Tera’s foot kicked something along the way. She looked down and froze. She had accidentally kicked a skull out of the way. Her eye twitched slightly before she ran up and clung to Koza again.

“What’s wrong?” he asked.
“There’s a skull on the floor!” she said quickly.

“There is?” he asked, looking around. Sure enough, there it was. Right where Tera had kicked it. Koza leaned down and picked it up, causing Tera to jump back.

“Koza! Put that down!” she half shouted.

“What’s wrong with holding it?” Koza asked calmly.

“For one, you don’t know where it’s been! And two, why would you want to hold someone’s skull?” Tera asked.

Koza thought it over, then threw the skull off to the side.

“Fine, fine,” he said as he continued walking forward. Doing a quick scan of the area, Tera shivered and followed behind him.

“Guys, heads up. Whatever it was that was up ahead has stopped moving. I picked up something moving away from it just now,” James said as he scanned further ahead.

“Wait, what’s that there?” Koza asked, getting closer. It appeared to be a large wolf with a gash down its back. It laid on the ground unmoving, a pool of blood forming underneath. “I wonder who did this?”

“The poor thing…” Tera commented.

“You might find out if you keep heading forward. There’s a blip on the screen again, and it stopped at what looks like the end of the mine. Or at least a dead end,” James’ voice came over the tracker chips again.

“Let’s see who we’ve been chasing then,” Koza said as he took off deeper into the mine.

“Don’t you leave me here!” Tera shouted as she ran after him.

Koza slid to a stop up ahead. Tera tripped and stumbled into him, knocking them both over.

“Ouch…Are you okay Tera?” Koza asked, rubbing his head.

“Ow…Yeah, I’m fine…Sorry about that,” she said. Koza stood up and dusted himself off, offering to help Tera up. After both of them were back on their feet, there was a rustling sound behind them. Turning around, they both saw a figure holding a large, glowing Element Shard. The figure was aiming the shard at the surrounding mine walls. Something that appeared to be a small portal was moving along the wall in line with the shard.
“Hm…I’m sure they said it would open to the Temple at the end of the mine here…” the figure said.

“Hey, I know that voice…Adrian?” Koza asked.

The figured stopped and turned around. Sure enough, it was Adrian.

“Ah, Koza. It’s good to see you again,” he greeted him.

“Likewise. Sorry I sort of flipped out last time. It was just a really big shock,” Koza said.

“I understand. I’m sure I would’ve reacted the same way. I forgot to ask last time, who is your friend here?” He pointed to Tera as he talked.

“Oh, right. This is Tera. She’s been traveling with me for quite some time now,” he explained. She smiled and nodded.

“Hello there,” Adrian said. “Sorry to rush, but I really must get back to work.” With that, he turned around and started scanning the walls with the shard again, creating the portal.

“Adrian?” Koza asked.

“Hm?” he responded without turning back around.

“What exactly are you doing?”

“Searching for something.”

“Where does that portal go?”

“It actually is a portal that goes to the Spirit World.”

“Spirit World? Are you telling me that thing basically opens to another dimension?”

“Correct.”

James could hear the entire conversation, though he kept quiet in the background. He was interested in what was being said and didn’t want to interrupt.

“Why would you be looking for something in the Spirit World?”

“It’s a long story Koza,” Adrian said coldly. Before Koza had a chance to respond, Adrian stopped. “Aha, there it is! Finally, I found it!” he said. “Now maybe ARK can get off my back about this whole thing…”

Koza froze.

“…Did you just say ‘ARK’?” he asked with a shaky voice.

“…” Adrian didn’t respond. Grasping onto the shard with more force, it started to glow brighter, which in turn caused the portal on the wall to increase in size. Adrian stepped back a bit, then run and dove through the portal.

“Adrian! Wait!” Koza yelled as he ran forward. As fast as he could, Koza dove at the portal and slid on through.

“Koza!” Tera shouted as she too ran, only to come to a quick stop as the portal shut behind Koza.

“Tera! What happened? Both Koza and Adrian have disappeared off of the screen!” James said, confused.

“I…I don’t know…” she said. Tera went over and felt the wall where the portal had been, and it seemed solid enough.

“Koza…Where did you go?”




Next Chapter: Troubled Times in the Timeless Temple