The Crystal - Jones M (best novels for students TXT) 📗

air.

With that thought, I decided to look for another rock and hit the hidden wall. I looked around, only to stand still at a sight that rendered me speechless. My eyes widened at the creature in front of me.

It was a baboon. 

Well, you could call it a baboon, but with modifications; I didn't know exactly what it was. It was large and it seemed to stand on air; it was supporting itself somewhere on the invisible surface I was feeling around. I could make out the dark fur that covered its form. It had wings like that of a bat, but only bigger. It had black sharpened claws with grits of dirt.

I stood still as my eyes jumped to those of the creature's. It had completely black eyes. It silently breathed while staring at me. I couldn't move as fear gripped my heart.

For a moment, I even thought I was going to faint.

"Don't move, Harry," I heard Emery's voice speak in my mind, bringing me back to the present. I didn't have time to freak out over what was happening since I was still staring at the winged figure. At first, I heard nothing. Then the baboon-like creature extended its wings.

No way. I'm out of here!

I started moving backward in a slow manner.

" Don't move! " Emery repeated in my mind. It shocked me, making me suddenly lose my footing and fall on the earth with a thud, the small sound echoing through the silent air. My eyes widened as I gulped in fear. The creature released a screeching sound before trying to advance towards me.

It backed away from the invisible before charging towards me with great speed. Screaming, I ran towards the castle. My eyes landed on shadows that had the same form of the creature. I stopped and looked up, making me stand in paranoia.

Thousands of the similar creature appeared, flying in the sky like a set of missiles. They screeched, flying around the air before moving in a circular motion around the sun. Miniseconds later, the sun was being blocked by the lot of them. My eyes moved to their source, only to notice that they were coming from the mountains.

How could I have missed that?

"Harry, get back to the castle!" Emery shouted at me. I was still looking at the flying baboons. One by one, they escaped their circling of the sun to come towards me. I ducked to the ground, raising my arms to cover my eyes. When nothing happened, I removed them and saw the erboons trying to enter Crystalia. They were trying, but they kept banging onto something that emitted blue stardust. The many erboons kept trying, and I noticed the whole of Crystalia's sky was covered with the blue stardust. My mind raced as I thought of what it was. Then a thought popped into my head.

A magical dome.

"Move, Harry! Get help!" Emery shouted with an edge to her voice. It didn't take me long to carry out her order. I ran right into the castle where people were still enjoying the party, oblivious to what was happening outside. I searched for anyone who would help me.

The Queen and Prince Erick quickly met my view. I ran towards them, pushing witches off the side to reach them. They noticed me coming towards them, stopping to wait for me. 

I stopped before them, breathing loudly as I tried to catch my breath. They both could tell something was not right.

"What's wrong, Harry?" the Queen asked. I didn't have time to dwell on the shock that she knew my name yet we never spoke to each other.

"Emery... outside..." I stammered as I tried to explain what I saw. My whole being was consumed with worry for Emery, making it hard for me to say the words I wanted to say.

"What?" Prince Erick asked with a confused expression.

"Baboons."

"Baboons?" the Queen and Erick asked in confusion at the same time. I nodded my head in agreement.

"Baboons with wings and claws!" their faces paled once I said that statement.

"Erboons," they said at the same time. In an instant, the Queen and the Prince ran in different directions. Prince Erick ran outside the castle while the Queen ran further into the room.

She stopped in the middle of the room to make the announcement "Everyone! We are being attacked by Eva's minions!"

That stopped the partying mood as everyone, apart from me, began panicking.

 

Emery's P.O.V

If anyone asked me that I would be facing flying evil baboons a day after I was chosen as the new crystal, I wouldn't believe them. 

Okay, I would if it was an erwich, but not the flying animals. They were called Eva's minions, or more specifically, erboons. They were only summoned by one person, and that was Eva herself.

It was impossible for her to control them because she was stuck in a portal and had no way of doing so. 

But then, who was controlling them?

The erboons furiously banged themselves against a point in the sky where Crystalia's protection dome covered. What mattered then was getting them away from Crystalia.

I looked upwards and observed many erboons trying to enter the town. My eyes widened as I saw a crack start to form from where they stood. It was a small one, but even though it was small, it could cause a lot of damage.

"Emery!" I heard Erick call for me. I turned to look at his form approaching me at a fast pace. By then, an irregular shadow had been cast all over Crystalia due to the many erboons. Some guards exited the castle, assembling themselves in the probability of a battle.

Once Erick was near me, he hugged me. He then retracted his arms away from me.

"Are you okay?" he asked with worry. I nodded my head.

I looked up and saw the crack had expanded. My eyes widened. I motioned for Erick to look at the crack by pointing my finger towards it. At first, he didn't see it. But then I kept pointing at it until he spotted it. Once his eyes settled on the crack, they widened.

"What do we do?" I asked no one in particular. I looked around and spotted the Queen coming towards us with some of her guards in tow. Once they were near us, she observed the surroundings.

"There is a crack on the dome, mother," Erick explained to her while pointing his finger towards the damage being created by the erboons.

Freaking erboons.

The Queen sighed.

"I hope I remember the spell well. Emery, I would need your help," she said while cracking her fingers.

I frowned. "Why?" I asked.

She looked at me with a confused look.

"Because you are the crystal. You will also need to remember these words in case of emergencies like these." The former sentence seemed to make sense in my head. Being a crystal meant being the most powerful witch in the universe. I had no option on the latter.

"Say what I will say," the Queen said while she spoke some words in Latin. Once we were done chanting the spell, yellow stardust flew right out of our palms and onto the dome. It surrounded and multiplied on the dome, illuminating it with a golden glow before increasing the light's intensity. For a moment, it was too bright, and that seemed to disturb the erboons. They stopped banging on the dome, screeching as they flew back towards the mountains. The crack that was forming on the dome began to mend itself until there was nothing conspicuous of the dome left.

"Thank you, Emery. Not bad for a first spell as a crystal," the Queen said before we both returned to the castle. We entered the castle, receiving looks of both worry and panic.

"Nothing to worry about! It's all taken care of," she said. They all clapped in gratitude, whistling even, before going back to partying.

Nervousness gripped my heart as the memory of the recent events replayed in my mind. They occurred less than 24 hours after I was declared the crystal. If that was how my life was going to be, I wasn't sure of what I would do.

Before I moved further into the room, I was tackled in a hug by Harry. It was unexpected. I was in shock, my hands still at my sides, as I watched the rest of his friends approaching us.

"I was so worried about you!" he said once he retracted the hug. I blinked at him, confused about why he was acting like that. It was as if we were friends or something, which we were obviously not.

Emery! Remember what Erick said about closure?

I wanted to smack the smart side of my brain. I looked at the boys. They were smiling for a forgettable amount of seconds, and it was beginning to get awkward. I needed to say something to diffuse the situation.

"You ran away!" I blamed him. He looked guilty.

"That's because you told me to, crystal!" I groaned at everything he said.

"Anyway, thank you for listening to me. I'm glad you didn't do something stupid, like taunt the baboon. They would have gotten through the dome and probably killed all of us," I joked. Harry and his friends took it seriously.

"I'm kidding!" I said, and he laughed uneasily. The conversation wasn't going anywhere.

"Bye!" I said. With that conclusion, I turned to walk away, only for Harry to stop me by grabbing my arm. I sighed before turning to face him.

"Emery, we—" he began, but I cut him off.

"I know what you are going to say." Harry and the rest looked at me with confused looks. Harry went to talk again, but I stopped him with a raised hand.

"I've heard the same words ever since you came into the cafe. I know you're sorry about the past. I'm willing to put it behind me."

Honestly, I was not. Not yet anyway. I just needed a way to get them to stop pestering me about the issue. In fact, before the erboons incident, Ethan and Logan came after me to talk about the same thing.

It led me to think that they were only around Crystalia to ask for my forgiveness. Then my mind replayed the conversations I had with them. I analyzed them, realizing that whenever we talked, it was mostly because they wanted to apologize.

I wanted to smack myself when I realized that. So to end the conversations that had the words 'sorry' and 'apologize', I needed to express my feelings to them.

All of them went to speak, but I stopped them before they could.

"But that doesn't mean that I forgive you." They seemed sad at the statement.

"I'm not ready yet. What you did to me in the past was so awful that I had to see a therapist."

I internally winced at my stupidity. Why the hell did I mention the therapist?

"We're sorry, Emery," Logan said. I nodded as tears threatened to leave my eyes as the memories unfolded in my mind. I mentally shook them off.

Wow. It seemed to be working better than I anticipated.

"I know you're sorry. I just need some time to myself. Your presence is like a trigger to the past we shared. Like I said, I'm willing to put it behind us. I can't forgive you just like that. It needs time. I need time to heal, you know?"

The guys remained silent as they thought over what I said. Mentally, I had my fingers crossed.

"We understand," Liam answered for all of them. "To be honest, we've mostly been around here just to ask for your forgiveness or to just talk to you and to see how you're doing."

"What?" I asked, feigning shock. The guys nodded in agreement, actually buying it.

"I'm glad we had this talk, Emery," Logan said. "We may not have gotten your forgiveness, but we know how you're feeling. That's important to us. We don't want to push you, and so we're willing to accept what you've given us."

I squinted my eyebrows at them in confusion.

"What have I given you exactly?"

"The privilege of moving from being your enemies to being acquaintances!" my mind digested what Logan was saying.

What?

"You've also given us a challenge," Harry added. "We'll hang out with you! We'll