The Soliean Stars

Sakjaicaratis

Mountain

As I flew through the air, I began to close my eyes, expecting the certain doom I had awaited. Just before the aperture of my vision met its final point, I saw a strange dark object getting larger and larger. Before I knew, I slammed into the side of the object, blacking out yet again.

Sapphire

I watched as Henry fell back, hitting the grilled walkway with his new key on top of him. I rushed to his side to see what happened.

"Henry! Henry!" I shouted.

"I think he's out cold, let's take him back to Granite." Sleepy said, scooping the black and white cat into his arms. I walked alongside of Sleepy as we backtracked down the long hall, wondering if Henry was alright.

"Hey you've returned!" Onyx congratulated us for our survival.

"Yep and Henry got knocked out by his own key," I told them.

"Oh?" Granite stood, "He did?"

We felt the crystal shake as one of the walls in the room shifted, revealing yet another long hallway.

"I guess I'll be taking Henry then if you want to carry our winnings?" Granite suggested to Sleepy.

"You hacked into the drives?" I asked.

"Unfortunately nothing on the Key of Aquat though..."

"Nice work nonetheless!" Sleepy complemented Granite, walking to hand the limp cat over to Granite. Granite handed him a large sack, and then he walked to a shelf where there were several capsules. After selecting a certain few of the containers, he carefully placed them in the sack. "Plant seeds," he said, "Plants that are centuries old."

"That is soo cool!" I told him. Granite soon led us to the door, where we looked down the hall and up the ramp inside. We sprinted, hoping we could make it to the end in time to save Mountain if he needed our help. Onyx ended up in the front, where we soon came across a round door. On her contact the door slid open, revealing a pod-like structure.

"This is a rocket elevator it looks," Granite explained, leading us into the pod's door. "The pod will shoot through the tube into the atmosphere then descend back onto the crystal, or at least, it should..."

"That's reassuring!" Onyx said.

Granite pulled the lever to seal the pod door, then announced. "Ready? Hold on tight!" We quickly pressed ourselves into stable positions, watching out the pod's thick glass walls to see the launch.

The instant Granite pressed the red button on the console, the pod exploded through the tube in the roof, accelerating towards the sky. The tunnel darkened as we continued, but just as it reached the pitch black, another hatch opened ahead of us, opening our path to the sky.

Our escape pod started to slow its upward motion, reaching the height of it's trajectory. We each stood up, other than Henry, now that the scary part was over. I looked through the top windows just in time to see a bunch of tilted flaps spring out from the pod, which began to spin.

"Nice!" Granite said, "A simple slowing device!"

The pod started to spin as well as we descended towards the tall, dark crystal's summit, where we could see the base we started at. The pod fell to its target, deploying a chute only a few seconds before impact.

"Quick get out get out!" Granite ordered us, scooping Henry into his arms. Each of us jumped out of the pod door, running to the place where our lines were anchored.

"One line is still out!" Sleepy exclaimed. He reached out for the cable and pulled with all his might, with the help of Onyx to keep him from slipping over the edge. Once the line was in far enough, Granite placed Henry on the ground and joined our efforts. Each of us had a piece of the cable and worked to pull it in, fighting the strong winds that worked against us.