The Pearl

Stage 8: Let's Start This Up

"So what if you can control everything; we need brains not an entertainer," I say. I can tell by the wince that Amanda does, Jett's face palm, and Zach's confident grin that my expression is not matching my words. Think of bad things Kei. Angry things, like...

Being here against our will. And being forced to do other's doing, like their slave.

Now I feel all the muscles on my face hardent and contort into what feels like my "scary face". No one is smiling now. "Let us go alone, and we will find the three. You'll only add to the anger in here." I point at my head and look over to Jettanda-I mean Jett and Amanda. They both give me a nod of approval. Zach rolls his eyes and sighs exasperatedly.

"Fine. Go on and make your journey to your death bed. Any questions before you depart?" He faces the ceiling. "It's not like you'll get another chance to ask them. And I know everything so.."

"Pfft, cocky son of a bitch," Jett murmurs. He says it just loud enough that it seems that Zach wasn't meant to hear anything, but does anyway. I catch Amanda holding in a laugh.

"What do the other elementals do?" I ask. All the others look at me confusedly. "I went into the water area with my friend accidentally; I know there are more of us," I say haughtily. "Are we all going to find the three daughters? Or are there three little pigs as well?" I hold in a laugh myself this time. My confidence is just going through the roof nowadays.

Zach rolls his eyes with a smile. "Well, they are kinda the daughters of the owner of your current home and school. It's pretty important."

Scoffing, Amanda says,"So that's a yes." She crosses her arms and her eyes move up to the ceiling. "Why do you hate us universe?" I look up and nod. The universe better be ashamed of himself/herself (universe gender???) right now.

"Yeah."

We all groan. This should be fun. It's time to play hide-and-seek with the keys to our memories. Ready or not Lynn, Stina, and Lillia, here we come.
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"I think we should've brought Zach," I say. Why do you ask? Because we're lost.

"Hun, be strong. This can't be that bad. We'll just follow his gut," Amanda says as she points toward Jett's stomach. "He has a lot left over anyway." Nice try Amanda.

"I'll take that as a compliment instead of what you were trying to say, Manda." Jett gives me a lopsided grin, to which I return, only I suggestively wiggle my eyebrows. Jett gets my Jettanda memo and quickly returns is gaze to Amanda. "Thanks for saying I got nice abs." Now Amanda's cheeks flush pink, but she manages to tone them down. It's sorcery, I swear.

She takes the lead. "Yeah sure. Whatever helps you sleep at night." I smack her arm and do a slitting motion across my neck. She cringes, but then calmly says,"Which way do we go?"

Jett laughs and says, "Trying to change the conversation?" He taps his chin. "But I think we should go right. We could get a better view up there." We head in the direction of steep, rocky slopes, leaving the dense forest behind us. Good. We'll probably be less vulnerable up here than down there, where the tree's leafy heads would be covering us. I create boosts of air under my feet and sigh. It's been a while since I've stopped walking; I can't believe that we've never thought about this before. And we're supposed to be the best and brightest.

"Try this guys. If you want though. Or you could just keep walking on your own two feet. That's nice." I awkwardly smile and turn my gaze to the floor. The socially impaired Kei is back.

Amanda gives me a weird look as she giggles. "Sure." Wind lightly blows up on her feet, but they don't lift her. She gives me the most subtle of looks as she continues walking. She can't do it. She wasn't one of us in the beginning anyway. She said so herself; she only climbed her way up.

It's a very good thing we're friends and I love her to death.

"See Kei? She only used one word for that," Jett says with a smile, making spinning platforms of air under his feet. Amanda gives me one more look; I take it as a sign for help.

I fly over to Jett and say,"Amanda should walk in case she sees anything down there." Amanda nods nonchalantly, but I see a thank you written all over her face. Jett nods and continues to lead the way up the steep. We must've been a sight to see if anyone did see us. Two flying people and one walking, all groaning in frustration every two seconds.

I keep reminding myself of the rewards that would come out of this. I could go home, wherever that is. I would remember. We all would. We just need to find three, spoiled girls. Alright.
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We walk for what I think is about five hours depending on the sun when I notice Amanda dragging her feet along the rocks. Her black, thick clothes shouldn't be helping either. I fly over to Jett.

"I think we should carry her," I say to him.

He calls down at Amanda."Do you want is to carry you?" She shakes her head, but beads of sweat still drip down her face as her breaths become louder and louder. "See," Jett whispers to me. "She got this." I smack his arm, lightly though. We might need it later.

I start to lower myself closer to the ground and Amanda. "You need help," I yell to her. She doesn't protest much as I lift one arm around my neck. "Jett help." He rolls his eyes and loudly sighs. What a drama queen. Despite that, he comes and hovers close to us, putting Amanda's left arm around his own neck. It's not that hard to lift her; she's lighter than I thought she'd be.

"Thanks...guys...." she pants out. I nod and continue upwards. All of a sudden, Jett's head whips around to us.

"Did you hear that?" he asked. His arm is pulling Manda's-oh damn it got to me-off of him slowly as his eyes fix back in front of us.

"No," Manda and I say in unison. I also put down Manda's arm. It was getting heavy, and she sounded a lot less tired now than before. I look to Jett than to the cliffs in front of us. We'd have to fly over that. "What did you hear?" I ask.

His head is still turning around, trying to pinpoint the supposed sound. "A scream. Or a plea...something. And maybe some sort of river." I frown.

Manda gestures to the cliff and says,"Does it look like there'd be rivers flowing around here?" A thought forms on my mind.

"It could be water powers." I bite my lip right after. What if it isn't? Maybe it's something deadly; who knows? We shouldn't go check it out. It could be dangerous. "But it could be something else," I add, voicing my thoughts. "So we should just not go up. We can go around."

Amanda and Jett both laugh at me. "Come one Kei,"Amanda says. "There could be some dead bodies there that I can study."

"Exactly why we shouldn't go."

"Wait wait, Manda you study dead bodies?"

"Yeah," we say at the same time. "And stuff like that."

"..Oh," Jett says. Amanda twitches one eye.

"Oh I'm sorry, is that a bad thing?" she says with an edge to her voice. I cross my arms as she says this. Jett doesn't say anything, simply rolls his eyes and goes around the cliff.

"We'll cover more ground down here first," he says in determination. He says it so fiercly that it made me think of what he had left behind, what memory he faintly remembered but didn't remember as a whole. 

I sigh. I'm so tired, we're all tired. And we have to keep going; the sun didn't even go down yet. "Okay."

Btw I added that 'okay' at the end for you tfios fans. You're welcome (or sorry if you don't like tfios). I think you guys have noticed the gif of Kei (Kelsey Chow) on the side cuz I finally figured out gifs. I might go back and put them in previous chapters later. Or not cuz I'm too lazy.

What do you think is on the cliff? What is Jett thinking about? 

Tell me in the comments you mind readers ;)