"So, you think we should prepare for going in search of the crystal ourselves?" Amelia asked, sitting around the campfire in the morning after they'd finished breakfast.
"Well, only if any of you guys want to accompany me and yes, I do think that any of us who go should start getting ready in more ways than just getting supplies for the trip together," Charlie replied.
"So, like getting used to walking and stuff?" Ralph asked.
"Why walking?" Hannah asked.
"Well, we're not sure how far the gates are in-between each other and unless there's some other condition we don't yet know about, we'll likely be walking," Beth said.
"But, why walking?" Hannah reiterated. "I mean, why not get an ATV or bikes?"
"How much fuel would we need for an ATV for all of us?" Wes asked. "Not to mention maintenance on them, like if one gets a flat tire or if it needs an oil change."
"How long will this take again?" Amelia asked.
"We really don't know," Charlie said. "It could be a few weeks or years. I can't really say how long it would take, especially with how there's not any way to know what each world might be like or how many we'll have to travel to in order to find the world that the crystal is on."
"How bad could they be?" Ralph asked, almost flippantly.
"A gate could take us to the crater of a volcano," Tim offered. "Another option is if it takes us to a mountain like Mount Everest. Then there's if it puts us in the middle of a desert, like the Sahara or the Arctic. I think it's kind of exciting not knowing where the gates will take us."
"I'll pass on the deserts," Ralph said.
"We might not have an option if it comes to that," Charlie said, not sure if she'd really push them to go for it if that was the case.
"Only one way to find out," Tim replied. "We can worry about any what ifs once we're on the road."
"Actually, if we encounter others, we might need to defend ourselves, so I could ask my dad if he'd give us some basic self-defense training," Amelia offered.
"I like that idea," Beth said, wrapping her arm around Amelia, much like she'd do to Charlie on occasion. "Could be useful even in our world."
"How about we start a hiking club once school starts?" Wes suggested.
"Why?" Charlie asked, not sure she was going to like the response.
"Simple. Hiking is a common hobby for people, it'll give us an excuse to get used to walking around, we might even be able to tie in some self-defense as well as first aid training, and we can try to get some hiking trips funded by the school," Wes replied. "Like maybe climbing a fourteener or something."
"I doubt we'd be able to get the school to fund any hiking trips," Amelia said. "But, if there's enough of other students who want to join, then we might be able to get something like that set up with everyone's parents or something."
"You know, that's quite well thought out Wes," Hannah said. "I mean, aside from the school funding hiking trips. I'm with Amelia on that one."
"Who should be the president of the club?" Tim asked.
"How about Charlie? It's her crystal that we'll be looking for," Ralph suggested.
"Maybe, but I'd rather be the president of the club," Beth said before Charlie could object herself. "Besides, I get the feeling Charlie wouldn't do so well with the administrative side of the position. Or a few of the other responsibilities that come with the position."
"Will you be able to do that and be on the school newspaper staff?" Tim asked.
Beth shook her head. "I've gotten tired of what I see in the media about journalists. So often I see them get things wrong and it's never admitted or corrected even when they begin reporting about what turned out to be true, so I've lost interest in being a journalist. Maybe I'll do better trying a different field altogether," Beth replied.
"How do you know that?" Ralph asked, sounding unsure if he should be asking or not.
"I keep notes of what I see on the news reports so I could remember what was said and how," Beth replied casually. "But regardless, what else will we need?"
Charlie began to lose interest in the conversation as they began discussing the fine details. She carefully left the group and walked over to the stream where she began splashing water on her face and rubbing it gently.
While she didn't feel tired like she had when she had gone to sleep, she still felt almost worn out now. Part of her wondered if it was her body taking note of how much she'd used her magic and was reacting accordingly. She suspected that she could use her magic now without risking any serious consequences but thought it might not be a good idea at this time.
As she finished washing her face with just water, Charlie cupped her hands in the water and began to drink from the stream. The water was clear and it didn't seem like there was anything that would be problematic with drinking from it. As Charlie was finishing her third drink, she heard Petals come out of her forest.
–Are you ready to try another world through my forest?– Petals asked Charlie.
Charlie turned to face Petals and began walking over to her. "Not yet. We might take a few days or more before trying another world. We've realized a few things we should put together before we try again," Charlie said, putting her hand on Petals' cheek, "but there is something I was wondering if you could do for me with Arachii."
–Sure, what is it?– Petals asked.
Charlie turned to look for Arachii. After a few minutes, she finally found him calmly eating the grass on the other side of their small camp.
"Arachii, would this be a good time to create the gate to my world?" she called out to him.
"Wait, why do we need a gate to our world?" Ralph called out. "Isn't Petals' forest good enough?" It looked to Charlie like she had interrupted where they were in their discussion.
"It would be if I didn't need a gate to somewhere else that's a little distant to where we live," Charlie replied.
"Where is this place going to be and why didn't you say anything earlier?" Beth asked.
Charlie suddenly wished she'd tried using her magic to talk to Arachii instead of calling out to him. "It'll be Heathcliff's place and I wasn't sure how to bring it up," Charlie said, unsure how her reason would be taken.
–Yes, now would be good for me.– Arachii said, chewing a last bite of grass.
"Why Heathcliff's?" Tim asked.
"I thought he'd be willing to help us put together some supplies for our travels in other worlds. For one, what if we lose a tent or sleeping bag? How would we explain that to our parents when we get back?" Charlie answered.
"Yeah, if he supplies us with some gear, then we won't have to deal with our own gear," Hannah said thoughtfully. "And maybe his will be a higher quality than we can get."
"Fine, but I don't trust him anyway," Ralph commented, sounding more annoyed than Charlie had expected.
Not that it mattered to her. "Where would be a good place to open the gate?" she asked Arachii.
–Let's do it on the other side of the stream.– Arachii said, starting to cross the stream.
Charlie stooped down to remove her shoes and socks, before starting to cross the stream as well. While the water was cold, it actually felt a little refreshing to her. Soon she could hear Petals following her as well as her friends.
As they got to the other side, Charlie continued walking over to where Arachii was heading. It seemed to Charlie that he'd already decided where to open the gate. Charlie stopped suddenly as she saw a ball of grey magical energy begin to form between Arachii's horns, where he stopped moving.
–Focus on where you want the gate to open. Let it encompass all of your thoughts and entire being. Once it's stable, I'll ask Petals to open it and you can walk through to make sure that it's where you wanted it. If it isn't where you wanted or close enough, I'll be willing to try once more, but after that you'll have to figure out another option.– Arachii told Charlie, as the ball of energy grew.
Then as the ball got so big that it was almost touching Arachii's horns, Charlie saw that Arachii pushed his horns forward, where it seemed like they disappeared in mid-air. Charlie focused on the basement in Heathcliff's mansion where he had shown her that he was storing supplies for expeditions into gates. While she had only seen it once, it felt like it had been burned into her memory, maybe for just this moment.
The horns had disappeared to the point where the ball of energy was, at which point the ball seemed to spread and flatten, almost in an instant, and then Arachii stepped back and turned to Charlie.
–If there is any doubt as to where this gate might open to, now is the time to try again. If you are confident you did as I asked, then we can try and see how close this gate opens to where you wanted it to.– Arachii told Charlie.
"Let's open it," she said in general.
Arachii stepped away from where the energy had disappeared and Petals walked over to it and aimed her horn to where Arachii's horns had disappeared. Petals' horn did the same as she moved it forward to the same location. A moment later she moved back.
–I think it's open.– she said, her tone uncertain. –I mean, I haven't done this before, so I can't be sure, but I think I did it.–
"That should be good enough, Petals," Beth said, causing Charlie to jump. She'd forgotten her friends had followed them across the stream.
"Let's see where Charlie wanted it to go to," Ralph said, picking Charlie up by taking her left arm over his shoulders.
"Should be interesting to see," Tim said, lifting Charlie up using the same method as Ralph, only with Charlie's right arm.
"Wait, I can go through on my own," Charlie protested, struggling to free her arms. However, with her feet off the ground, she couldn't find any leverage for even a real token struggle. She could only move around, an inch or two off the ground.
While she was certain they could hear her, they didn't act like it. Or maybe they'd anticipated her objections and were flatly ignoring them. They merely carried her through the gate. It wasn't that she didn't trust the gate wouldn't open to where she wanted to, she merely had wanted to go through at her own pace and under her own power, so she couldn't help but flinch as she was carried through.
When they passed through, she was momentarily surprised at how dark it was. It wasn't until she considered how much light the sun on the Arachii's world gave in the valley that she accepted they had to be in the basement. It wasn't surprising that lights wouldn't be kept on all the time given there was no reason for anyone to suspect that anyone would enter through this manner.
"Where are we?" Ralph asked, letting Charlie's arm go without warning.
"Don't know, but it sure is dark," Tim said, dropping her other arm at the same time.
She couldn't help but let out a cry as she fell the inch or two she'd been held above the ground. She also wasn't happy that she couldn't catch her balance enough to avoid falling backwards.
When she landed, her head was outside the gate, while the rest of her was in the basement the gate led to. It was an interesting experience to say the least, to have the warmth of sunlight on her face while the rest of her was lying on a cold concrete floor. Fortunately, her head hadn't actually struck the ground, so she wasn't going to have a lump to deal with, but she was looking up at Beth, who almost had stepped on Charlie, having followed Charlie's example and removed her socks and shoes.
"What're you doing?" Beth asked.
"Not my fault," Charlie protested. "Ralph and Tim dropped me without even saying anything and I couldn't catch my balance."
"Not surprised," Amelia said, blatantly ignoring the glare Charlie directed her way for the amusement in her voice that she didn't bother trying to hide at the whole situation. Though, Charlie did notice Hannah and Wes were both just as entertained at the situation.
Charlie shook her head as she stood up, her head moving back through the gate. Back to the darkness of the basement.
"Charlie, where does this lead?" Charlie heard Ralph ask as her head re-entered the basement.
"It's a basement," Charlie said, not caring to elaborate past that.
"Oh, that's explains everything," Ralph said, sarcasm dripping off his words.
"Don't care," Charlie merely said, beginning to stand up, hearing the others enter behind her as she did so.
"Wow, it's really dark in here," Amelia said as she entered.
"Is there a light switch?" Hannah asked.
"I'll get it," Amelia said. A moment later, glowing orbs a light emerged from Amelia's hands.
It wasn't a strong light, but in the dark, with no other light sources, it was enough for them to see their surroundings, almost like how a candle lights a room in the dark, despite it being a weak light source. Aside from themselves, there wasn't much to cast any shadows either. There were a few sleeping bags and tents, but otherwise, it was an empty room.
"What's with this room?" Hannah asked, looking around.
"This is where Heathcliff is storing supplies for expeditions through gates," Charlie said.
"Why would you want to have the gate lead here?" Ralph asked. "Wasn't Heathcliff the one who sent people to take the Heart of the Forest from Petals?"
"He did, but I also made an agreement with him for help in getting the crystal back," Charlie replied, not caring to really defend herself. After all, she didn't feel that she should need to defend herself. "He'll have his people map the worlds and where the gates are, as well as try to find where the world that the crystal is on is."
"Makes sense," Beth commented. "I mean, I get the sense that doing that will take at least a few generations, at least. Not to mention we have no idea how many worlds there are altogether. We know of at least five. Assuming Petals' forest isn't connected to multiple points on the same world, at least."
"Wait, why would Petals' forest need to be connected to five worlds again?" Ralph asked.
"We went over this already," Tim said. "It's connected to five worlds. I can't remember if there's a reason, but we know that it connects to five. Our world and Arachii's world are the only two we've looked at so far. Who knows, maybe one of the others will be right next to the griffon canyon that the crystal fell in, but let's be honest. That kind of a coincidence would be stretching our luck, probably too far, if that was the case."
"Should we maybe, I don't know, get out of this basement?" Amelia asked. "I'm not sure how much these lights are draining my magic, but I'd like to finish up here anyway so we can go home."
"Probably a good idea," Wes chimed in, sounding more impatient than Charlie had seen him. "There's the door over there, let's go take a look." Wes hurried over to the door to try and open it.
"Is Wes okay?" Charlie whispered to Beth.
"He probably saw a spider," Beth whispered back. "He doesn't do spiders."
Charlie nodded and started walking towards the door. It opened just fine as Wes walked out of it, right into someone who was carrying four more sleeping bags.
Wes and whoever it was both fell to the ground, amid a few curses and yelling. When Charlie got over to them, she was a little surprised to see that Wes had collided with Nick.
"Owww, where the hell did you come from?" Nick yelled, clearly upset.
"Sorry," Wes said. "I just had to get out of there."
Nick picked the sleeping bags up and looked at Wes. "Wait, who are you? I've never seen you around here before. Did Heathcliff bring in some new kids without letting the rest of us know?"
"Not exactly, Nick," Charlie said, wishing it was at least Carl or Ronald instead of Nick.
"Charlie?" Nick asked, stopping cold in gathering the last sleeping bag. "How did you get here? I thought you lived too far away from here to just swing by. Especially this early in the morning."
"I found a short cut," Charlie hedged. "We need to speak with Heathcliff anyway, so would you be willing to show us where he is?"
Nick sighed heavily. "Fine, just let me put these with the other sleeping bags in there. I still have to bring a few more before I'll be done with this latest trip."
"Would you like any help?" Tim offered.
"Sure, would make it go faster," Nick said. "Though, I should probably take Charlie to Heathcliff, and those who want to go with her, first."
"No problem, would let me take a look around a little," Tim said.
Nick set the sleeping bags down with the others in the room in a pile, rather than in any organized manner. "Okay, follow me," Nick said as he turned and started walking away briskly.
Everyone had to move quickly or Nick would likely leave them behind. Charlie wasn't too surprised at Nick's attitude. Not only had she shown a lack of interest in his advances, but she'd also shown him up with her magic, among other things. Not to mention that they hadn't encountered each other much after the events at Berthoud pass and things hadn't been left on a positive note after that anyway. Not that Charlie really cared. It really was his problem in the first place. Especially since most of those things happened because of how he approached and handled the entire situation.
When he directed them to Heathcliff's office He then turned to head towards the front of the building and Tim followed. Ralph seemed hesitant to not join Tim, but in the end decided to let Tim go with Nick alone.
Charlie knocked on Heathcliff's office door. "What is it?" she heard Heathcliff call through the door.
"Just had something I wanted to talk to you about," Charlie replied, wondering if he was meeting with anyone at the moment.
Sure enough, there were sounds of chairs moving as people hurried to get to the door. When it did open, Charlie could see Carl, Heathcliff, and Shirley. While she wasn't surprised to see Carl, she was a little surprised to see Shirley.
"What are you doing here?" Heathcliff asked, his tone one of surprise and wonder than any anger.
"I found a way for you to access Petals' forest easier than by the entrance by where I live," Charlie said, waiting calmly for Heathcliff to ask them to enter.
"And who are these?" Carl asked, examining Charlie's friends around her.
"My friends," Charlie merely replied. "We were camping on another world that Petals' forest connected to that had a bicorn that was willing to open a gate to here." Charlie knew she was leaving out a ton of details but was trying to push Heathcliff into letting them sit down so they could talk.
"Gates can't be created," Carl scoffed.
"How do you know?" Charlie asked. "I mean, if you don't believe me, we can show you the gate and have it removed if you really don't like it."
"Hold on," Heathcliff said, clearly trying to be diplomatic. "I'm sure we can figure this out." He then proceeded to invite Charlie and her friends into his office.
Now came the part of explaining and seeing what help her friends might let him know that they'd need when it was time for them to begin their own expedition to retrieve the crystal.
_
"So, that's what you learned about gates, huh?" Heathcliff asked, after Charlie had relayed all that she'd learned from Arachii the night before. Partway through, Tim and Nick had joined them, and quietly found a seat in the crowded office. Charlie could tell that some her friends weren't happy with what she was currently explaining, which she understood was that she hadn't told them when she'd learned of it first but wasn't sure when she would have a real chance to let them know otherwise. Around breakfast could have been a time, but they spent that discussing other things and even then, there wouldn't have been enough time to discuss everything that Charlie would have needed to explain. Not to mention that it didn't feel like a time to mention it nor did it cross her mind at the time.
"Yeah, Arachii answered any question I had about them," Charlie replied.
"So, you're saying that this 'Arachii' won't allow anyone who is considered an 'Enemy of a Unicorn' enter? And what are the laws that he mentioned?" Carl asked, his tone telling Charlie just how seriously he was taking her explanation, which she assumed that he wouldn't have the time of day for this if Heathcliff wasn't in charge.
"I guess you'd have to ask him." She replied.
"We probably should do that anyway," Heathcliff said before Carl could come back with another response.
"What help will you offer us for our own trip across worlds?" Beth asked, her tone telling Charlie she wanted a different topic to discuss and that she was bored with talking about the gates.
"I can help supply with some basics as well as any mapping my people are able to do before you start on your trek. Also, I believe I have a couple spells that can help you return to when you leave and have no visible signs of how long you were gone," Heathcliff replied calmly.
"I assume all of you have your magic unsealed," Shirley commented.
"Yeah, Charlie unsealed our magic with Petals' help," Wes replied. "We've been experimenting with it since then but being careful not to push ourselves too far with it."
"We might like to pick your brains on what you've figured out if none of you mind," Shirley said. "Charlie has already shown us just how inept we've been with our own magic."
Charlie wasn't sure that statement was entirely true but couldn't think of how to explain it. However, something in her mind found the statement concerning somehow. She couldn't explain it, it just felt like she shouldn't let her guard down around them. It also seemed odd given how she'd told her friends that she'd be more open with them, but at the same time she didn't want to alienate Heathcliff and his people by casting doubt on what they were saying. Then there's how she had all but assured her friends that Heathcliff's people were trustworthy and she couldn't figure out how to explain the contradiction with her suspicions of them. It was starting to feel like her emotions were getting in the way of what she'd assured her friends about. Which started to cause a sense of panic to start to rise in her.
–Calm down, Charlie.– Beth said, using her magic while the conversation continued without them. –We can talk about it later, and no matter what's bothering you, I promise I won't criticize you about it.–
She looked towards Beth and saw Beth looking at her with a concerned expression on her face. She nodded at Beth and Beth nodded in return. Somehow that was enough to dispel the feeling of panic. Even though there was still plenty to make her uneasy, she was really starting to feel like things were going to go smoothly. She was really starting to feel good about her chances of getting the crystal back. The only problem that bothered her now was the idea of how long it would take, but she was still confident that it wouldn't be that much longer.