Chapter 21 Lonely journey

Joana found a large blue book one day titled ‘the council of five.’ She didn’t know if it was the right one, but she hoped it would be as she felt her eyes were going to fall out any moment over the countless number of texts she had to read for the past few months before she was able to find this one.

She opened it and began to read what it said, it mentioned the supreme council, describing their glory as gods and all they had done to bring the mortal and immortal realms into existence. She had read something similar to this in other books but what she really needed to find was how she could locate them. She kept on reading for a while until she finally thought she found what she was looking for.

She read a chapter that talked about the journey to the heart of mother nature, the center of the earth, the five ancient stones surrounding the middle. the middle representing the heart, and the stones representing the council of five. She wondered if that was where she would find them, but she wouldn’t waste time to find out.

She headed straight for Dana’s room and showed her what she had found.

“Do you think it’s the one?” She asked her.

“I don’t know,” Dana said. “But there’s no harm in trying to find out.”

“Do you know where this place is?”

“I know the location, but I’ve never been there before.”

“I don’t know, but something tells me that there’s a good chance that’s where we’ll find them.”

“Ok then, so do you want us to go and check it out?”

“No,” Joana said. “You and Derick have already helped me enough. I think I can handle things on my own now. It’s not fair for me to keep letting you help me if you’re not going to benefit anything from it.”

“If that’s how you feel, then no worries,” Dana said. “But are you sure you are going to be able to handle things on your own now?”

“Yes, I think so. I’ve already gotten used to a great deal of my powers, all I need is for you to direct me, I’ll take care of things myself from now on.”

“Ok then, if you insist. When do you plan on going there?”

“Now.”

“So soon? You’re not even going to tell Derick before you go?”

“I hope not to waste too much time there. Derick went hunting, you can tell him where I went when he comes back.”

“Ok, so if you want to get there, you will head in the north direction, just keep flying north, you will have to drink a lot of vamscren, as the sun is always at its peak in the center.”

She then took the book from Joana and flipped through the pages.

“Aha!” she exclaimed. “I was hoping there would be a map. Things like this hardly come without directions.”

She showed her a small map on the side of the page, indicating where the heart of mother nature would be found. Why hadn’t she seen it before?

“Ok, thank you for showing me this,” Joana said. “It will make my journey a lot easier.”

“Be careful,” Dana told her. “If it is truly a sacred place then it wouldn’t be without some form of protectors or guardians, and they aren’t really friendly when it comes to unwanted visitors.”

“I will be, thank you,” Joana said.

She then unfolded her wings, went to Dana’s balcony, and flew out of the castle, holding the book in her hand. Derick was already back from his hunting by then and had entered the castle.

***

She had flown for a couple of hours, stopping at a point to drink vamscren and heading north like Dana had said while also checking the map to see if she was going the right way. After what seemed like an endless flight, she spotted the five ancient stones just like the way it had been drawn in the book. She landed in the middle of the large stones, which were arranged in a circle, and in the middle, a shape of a heart was drawn.

“The heart of mother nature,” she said.

She was here now, so what would she do next? Where would she find the supreme council around here? She asked herself. Maybe she should have thought this through before coming, maybe she would have read more, there should be a way to summon their presence or something.

She then walked towards one of the large stones and noticed that there was something inscribed on it in an unknown language which she somehow noticed she could understand. She began reading what she saw out loud and suddenly, she noticed a gem glowing on the body of the stone. She yanked it off and saw that the gem was only a piece of the original, the other pieces still hung on the other stones. She then remembered something that she read in the book which said something about pieces, she opened the book and went back to the chapter which talked about the five stones. She read the last paragraph which said to ‘unite the pieces at the center of the heart,’ she wondered if the pieces referred to the gems, but what did she have to lose by trying?

She walked to the other four stones and did the same thing she did for the first one, reading the inscribing and collecting the glowing gem pieces one by one. She then returned to the middle of the heart and began to place them back together until the five pieces united to form a single gem.

Suddenly, the ground beneath her began to tremble.