Skylanders: Found

7. The Spirito Souls

A rocky landscape, drowning in life of all shapes and sizes, obscured the vibrant skyline. Vines of all shapes and sizes twisted and turned their way around the jagged cliff face, claiming their territory with enormous effect. Was this place overgrown? Not in the traditional sense, no. Somehow all the herbs and trees and shrubs and roots were all harmoniously positioned, every ounce of life increasing the beauty at hand. Nature's ultimate purpose was not to be orderly and yet here everything seemed...perfect. Stump Smash was mesmerized with the pillar of stone before them; everything was in tune with everything else. Even the titanic, mustard butterflies seemed to be fluttering flawlessly through the air; their movements were elegant and captivating. However, there were more elements at play than their eyes immediately presented.

One glance to the left made Chill gasp. A series of flames cut across the ancient fields of a little island. This kind of sight would often have been an alarming one, but somehow everything was at peace and Chill smiled. This inferno was under meticulous control by some higher force; crimson blasts of heat sliced through the air one after another, but the fires never consumed the island. Indeed, they just sat there like a mirage, continuously and consistently burning. At a closer glance, fire imps were frolicking in the flames. One or two noticed the sight of the travellers glancing in their direction but continued to play amongst themselves. It was behaviour which Cali had simply never seen before in fire imps, and she almost shed a tear at how beautiful the whole ordeal was.

It was Stump Smash who first noticed the bones protruding their way through the wall of rocks that led to the lake. They hadn't been there previously; he was sure of it. To his astonishment, the bones slid down the impenetrable rocks until half a dozen creatures arrived before them. The portal was a few miles behind them already, though no hiking had been necessary thus far. The portal in question was the finest craft of portal that Stump had ever seen. Chill and Cali – having already witnessed the masterpiece on previous expeditions – explained to him that it was almost certainly the first portal ever installed in all of Skylands. Truly, it was believable. However, all thoughts of the perfect portal, the perfect flames and the perfect balance were disrupted by those who appeared before them.

"Who goes there?" One of the creatures called out. A quick examination of the creatures led to no avail for any of the three travellers. On their faces, they wore the skulls of different creatures. This one in particular – who appeared to be the leader – had a sheep's skull masked onto their face. In their hand was a staff made from a giant bone of some description. The colossal size of the bone reminded Cali of the great remains showcased in the Frozen Fossil Festival. However, she quickly came to her senses and decided it was highly unlikely because the bone in question was small in comparison to the ghastly size of ones she had encountered in the tundra. Whilst all entities wore differently coloured caped cloaks, the leader appeared to be donning a dark purple robe, the colour of Spyro the Dragon. "Who goes there?" They repeated again. This time, the voice was easily identified to be that of a woman, though it sounded distorted in some way.

"Hello!" Cali replied, "I'm Cali and these are the Skylanders!" Stump noticed a slight shiver in her voice. Perhaps she had never encountered these creatures before? Or, worryingly, perhaps she had? The leader turned to their associates and began to speak to them in an ancient language that none of them understood. Stump noticed that there was a soft, golden glow slipping from within their cloaked forms. Indeed, it was at this moment that Chill noticed that they did not appear to have feet and were instead hovering. Either that or they were just very good at hiding them. The leader turned around and looked at them again.

"Very well." They agreed, allowing their hood to drop. A wavey set of cobalt hair was exposed, dancing its way out of the leader's cloak. The rest of the beings followed, revealing more vibrantly coloured hairs. The leader took her mask off, revealing two white, empty eyes. "We are the Spirito Souls." She explained, allowing her cloak to vanish into dust. Without the cloak, the creature was quite the sight. A cloud of dark dust seemed to be orbiting the creature, hiding its skeletal torso. The creature continued to hover in the air with its blank eyes staring at the trio. "We are what lies between the realms of death and magic; we protect the Lake of Legends."

"This hasn't happened before." Cali whispered to the other two. The creature laughed, almost producing a cackle.

"Oh, but you have, Cali!" They chuckled menacingly, "In fact so has the Skylander known as Chill." The five cloaked figures around her nodded in agreement. "I am Polvere Di Stelle, but you can call me Stella." Her cloak rematerialized upon herself before she began to approach the Skylanders and Cali. "Do you not remember us?" She asked as she effortlessly placed her staff onto Cali's scalp. Cali's eyes grew with amazement until she shuddered back a few steps.

"Impossible." She growled, sending Stump and Chill into defensive positions.

"Cali, my dear," Stella countered, "I simply trigged a memory which was previously locked away." Cali paused for a moment before she nodded.

"Of course..." She murmured to herself before raising her voice and looking to the Skylanders, "It's alright, guys, we're good here." She confirmed. Stump lowered his guard, but Chill did not. "Chill, I said stand down." Cali reminded her, increasing her tone. Within a couple seconds, she did as requested and stood naturally once more.

"Great!" Stella said, moving towards the wall she had arrived from, "I take it you know the way, Cali?" Cali nodded. "Good good. Have a safe trip!" She then returned to the cliff face with the rest of the Spirito Souls.

"That was odd." Stump ruled, turning to the other two. He saw the Chill was looking in bewilderment at Cali, waiting desperately for answers.

"Well, off we go!" Cali grinned, throwing herself at the wall. "We've got a lot of ground to cover, but we'll be at the lake soon!" Chill looked intensely at her for a few moments before she began to trek her way up the wall. Stump looked at his mallets and wondered how on Earth he was supposed to climb up a wall. He took one last look at the outstanding feats of nature in the valley beyond the Lake of Legends and then smashed his mallet into the wall, taking his first step to becoming a legend.