Yellow Sun Academy

Chapter 11: Game Pieces

Clementine Mira:

I climb up and over the sand dune. When I reach the top, I hold my hand over my eyes and scan the surrounding area.

"Finally," I say. After many miles through the freezing cold desert, I finally see the ruined temple the Headmaster told us about. Nothing more than a white dot at first, I move closer to the temple and start to see pillars and arches.

"Wow," I say as I step onto a large, cracked, sand-covered platform. With sandy white pillars guiding me as I walk through the ruins, it doesn't take me long to find the game pieces sitting on little supports. The second I see them, I run up to them.

"Yes," I say, looking at all the game pieces. I move from game piece to game piece, trying to decide which I should take. As I keep looking, I notice a few supports are empty.

"What kind of game pieces are these," I ask, stopping. I look closer at the game pieces. They appear to be unique symbols, made completely from various colored metals. Looking around some more, I pick one up.

"I wonder what this means."

The game piece I picked up is a dark blue color. The symbol appears to be three stars within an oval.

I look at the other game pieces and compare them to the one I have.

"Choose carefully," the Headmaster told us. "You, along with your team, will travel to a ruined temple. There, you will each pick one."

"I didn't come here with a team," I think. "What does this mean? Does it mean I'll only meet my new team after they pick out their game pieces? In that case, I hope I don't regret choosing this one."

As I grip the game piece in my hand, I look under it and see the coordinates for the pick-up. Turning around, I start to walk back out. However, as I'm walking, I hear another sound and quickly turn around.

"Nothing," I tell myself. I start walking, the only sound is my footsteps against the platform. Once more, I hear a strange sound. I pretend not to hear it and take a few more steps before stopping completely.

This time, I hear the strange sound clearly. It's a slithering sound. I reach for my weapon and turn around.

Honey Aatish:

"So if you don't talk," I ask, "Then how do you work with others? I mean, how do you tell them your battle plan? How do you tell them to watch out? How do you tell them there's an animal behind them, ready to pounce and devour them?"

I growl and bring up my pretend claws.

Shocker doesn't answer me. At least, I don't think he answers me. He just points at something.

"What," I say, turning around but seeing nothing but sand and sand dunes. "What? What is it? What? What! What are you pointing at? Tell me! Tell me! Tell me!"

Shocker shakes his head. He points at himself and then back out.

"I think Shocker is telling us this is how he alerts others," Chadd says. "He's telling us he points."

"Ohh," I say. "Hmm. I guess that's okay. Hey, what's that?"

Now it's my turn to point. I point over to something not too far in the distance. It looks like ruins.

"Is that them," I ask, "Is it? Is it! Are those the ruins with the game pieces! Are they? Are they!"

Shocker grabs both my shoulders and pushes me down. He stands before me and nods his head. He then nudges his head to the side and runs to the temple.

"I'm guessing that's his way of saying yes," I say. Chadd nods his own head before we follow Shocker. It takes a while but the three of us finally make it to the temple. We run right through the crumbling stone archway and toward the center of the ruins. There, sitting on little stone pillars are the game pieces. However, before we can grab one, Shocker stops us.

"Ouch," I yell after Shocker shoots out his arms and stops Chadd and me. "What? What is it?"

As expected, Shocker doesn't answer me. He lowers his arms and looks around the ruined temple. His head snaps left and right as he looks. He then wraps his hands around his ear.

"We never got the chance to ask this," I say, leaning toward Chadd. "But what is Shocker's gift?"

Shocker's head snaps one more time before he jumps and pushes Chadd and me out of the way. The three of us fall to the ground as a tall girl with long black hair lands in front of us. The second she sees us, she yells.

"Move!"

Even before Shocker, Chadd, or I can ask what she means, a loud slithering sound followed by the sound of rocks breaking grabs our attention.

"A serpecdysis," Chadd says as the massive brown and black serpecdysis slithers from the surrounding sand dunes. With part of its scaly skin moving, the serpecdysis lunges forth.

The girl jumps away but the serpecdysis chases after her. Shocker pushing himself to his feet helps Chadd and me up and points at the serpecdysis.

"We see it," Chadd says.

"It's really hard to miss," I add.

Shocker nods his head and shoots out his arms. We then watch as the gloves on his hand start to transform, quickly spreading out and covering his arms in shining metal.

Chadd also shoots out his own arms. When he does, wires from his belt shoot out. Meanwhile, I reach behind me and put out my Boomstick.

With our weapons ready, Chadd and I charge but Shocker stops once more.

"Now what," I ask, "Come on. A giant serpecdysis is trying to eat a fellow student. Why are you stopping us?"

Shocker answers by pointing at himself and then at the serpecdysis. He then points at us and then at the game pieces.

"Ohh," I say with some nods of my head. "I get it. You fight. We get game pieces."

Shocker nods his head before chasing after the girl and the serpecdysis.

"Come on," Chadd says, "We'll help after getting the pieces."

He runs toward the pieces with me following closely behind.

"You know something," I say as I run after Chadd. "Shocker is bad at giving instruction."

"Why? Because he doesn't talk?"

"No. It's because while the two of us are going to receive a game piece, he alone is going to face a giant serpecdysis."

Shocker:

Despite the girl's amazing speed, the serpecdysis is still staying right behind her. It hits the girl with its tongue, knocking the girl to the ground. With one final lunge, it's about to eat the girl but before it can, I jump in front of it and slam my electrified metal fists onto its head.

The serpecdysis screams before pulling back its smoking head and shaking it. While the creature pulls back, I turn around and help the girl up to her feet.

I show her a thumb-up tilting to the left and right.

"What," she asks, "Are you asking if I'm okay?"

I nod my head.

"I'm fine," the girl replies. She dusts herself off and grabs her weapon from the ground. The girl's weapon appears to be a sword but there's no blade. As far as I can tell, there is only a sword handle and a tiny saw on it.

"Watch out," the girl says.

I quickly turn around and see the serpecdysis raise itself from the ground. It opens its mouth wide and starts to split. At first, nothing comes out, but after a few short minutes, a second serpecdysis starts to climb out from the first serpecdysis's mouth. As the second serpecdysis, only slightly smaller but very slimly, falls to the ground, it slithers along the ground before lunging at the girl.

Wanting to help her, I stop when I hear hissing. I look at the first serpecdysis, now looking like a ghost. With pale, see-through skin and two large glowing eyes, it pulls back before lunging.