Blinded By Stardust

Chapter 2: Flynnolium

Cass woke up to the sounds of birds singing. She rolled over to see the sun shining brightly as it rose, painting the sky with beautiful colors.

She glanced over to where she saw those flowers last night, but didn't see them. She got up and went to where they were, but there wasn't a petal to be seen, not a single broken blade of grass. It was like they were never there.

Cass just stood there, confused, thinking for a minute. She concluded that it must've been a dream, a very realistic dream. She rolled her sleeping bag back up and tied it to the back of the saddle. She took the last of her food out of the saddle bag, gave the last apple to Fidella, and ate the last piece of bread. Then mounted and they rode towards town.

🔵

"Alright Ruddiger," Varian said as he walked through the tunnels under the castle with his raccoon on his shoulders, "today's the day! I can feel it. Today's the day we get these water heaters working".

He walked into a wider part of one of the tunnels that was similar to a large room. In the middle of it was one of the water heaters and a large table. On the table were papers, books, a burner, and several vials of different compounds and chemicals.

On the walls he had put the blueprints for the heater that was in the room and had written the measurements to make Flynnolium that didn't cause tremmers. All around the room were large candlestick- like stands. Each had a vial of white liquid with a cork sitting on top.

"I build five of these in Old Corona and they all work perfectly fine most of the time," he ranted as he went around to all the stands and shook each of the vials. He put each one back on its stand and they started glowing, lighting up the room. "Then I come here, do the same thing, and it won't work no matter what I do!" Varian continued, and sighed, "I have to be missing something."

He went over to the wall to look at the blueprints then Ruddiger started growling from his shoulders. "What's wrong, buddy?" Varian asked. He then heard something sizzling and turned to look at the room. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary, so he turned back the wall, this time looking at the formula for Flynnolium.

For a moment Varian thought he heard footsteps behind him, heading for the tunnel. Ruddiger then suddenly jumped down from his shoulder and ran out of the room. "Ru- Ruddiger? Ruddiger! Wh- where are you going?" The boy asked and sighed as he pinched the bridge of his nose.

He took one more look at the formula, turned to go after Ruddiger, then it hit him. He turned and stared at the formula for a minute. "That could work," Varian said to himself then looked towards the tunnel where Ruddiger ran. "He'll be fine, right? After all, I've already set off most of the traps".

Looking back, he pulled a piece of chalk out of his pocket, and started writing on the wall. "Th-this could work. This could work!" Varian said as he quickly walked over to the table and put his goggles over his eyes. Taking one of the vials, he carefully measured the liquid it contained and poured it into another compound, making Flynnolium.

The mixture bubbled a bit, and let out a puff of smoke. Varian coughed as he fanned it away. Once the smoke was cleared he looked at the Flynnolium and saw it was purple, which confused him. He went to write down what happened in his field journal, then looked back to see the mixture was now green, like it was supposed to be.

As he stepped away from the table to go look at the writing on the wall, he began to feel light headed and his vision began to blur. He stumbled, leaned back against the table, then took off his goggles. "Ru-Ruddiger," he called just loud enough to echo through the tunnels, hoping he would hear it and come back.

"R-Ru- Ruddiger..." He said again, this time much softer. He became so light headed that he didn't even notice when he lost balance. The last thing he registered was the hard floor against his arms, then he blacked out.