"Why can't we just fly around Haven?" Asked Rya as he drooped his green scaly head, folded his blue and gray wings and frills against his body as collapsed onto the ground. "No Rya, you've flown too much lately. I don't think you've walked for even a short distance in months. Look at you're legs their like jelly!" Katrina thought back as she placed her left hand on Rya's shoulder and looked around.
It was a beautiful place, Haven forest. All of the trees were tall and beautiful but not all them were alive. The majority of them weren't actually, they were ghosts. The few that were living were easy recognize because with hardly any trees to compete for nutrients with, they grow taller and Faster then all the rest. And it wasn't only the trees that were ghosts, almost everything that lived in Haven wasn't living. Even Katrina and Rya.
Why can't raising a dragon ever be easy? Katrina thought as she knelt down to try to lift Rya up and make some sort of mind contact with her. It's hard enough to make mind contact without doing physical labor. "Get...you're...big...butt...off...the...GROUND!" She thought, ramming her shoulder into Rya's side.
"HELP!" "Why do you need help Rya?" Thought Katrina as she shoved her shoulder into Rya's side again. "That wasn't me Katie. Anyways I think you're the one who needs help, professional help." Thought Rya as he jumped to his feet to see where the voice had come from. "Oh, shut up, you're not very mature for a four year old dragon. I thought dragons were supposed to mature faster than, look there he is!" Katrina thought as she jumped to her feet and pointed toward the man running strait for them. The man's skin was pure white (as were most ghosts) and his hair was blond to his shoulders. His clothes were of commoners, a white tunic with brown baggy pants.
As he approached Katrina, he fell to his knees. "Help...the plains...attacked...by...Sphinx" he gasped right before he collapsed. "Isn't the Sphinx that gladiator who thinks he's all that because he's half lion though he's only half lion because he died fighting that lion and didn't we locked up awhile ago?" Rya asked swerving his head to face Katrina while his tail was twitching with excitement. "Yes and yes. And Rya? Just shut up." Katrina thought as she jumped onto Rya's back and grabbed him around the neck. "Now you can fly Rya. Anyways it would take you centuries to walk there, jelly legs." Katrina thought as she tightened her grip on Rya's neck preparing for takeoff and Whoosh they were in the air.
Katrina really did like flying, she just hated the gut wrenching feeling of taking off. The first year she had Rya she couldn't take off without throwing up, not to mention, she couldn't stay up in the air more than a few minutes without becoming dizzy and blacking out. But after a few years of riding dragonback, she was used to it. She even enjoyed the wind whipping through her fiery hair. The sensation of flying was like riding a roller coaster, except there were no safety precautions which made it which made it all the more thrilling.
But, back to the story. "How do you think the Sphinx got out of prison?" Rya asked as she flipped in midair. "I don't know. Fred probably did it accidentally." Katrina said letting go of Rya's neck and opening her arms to enjoy the wind. "Who's Fred and why did he let The Sphinx go?" Rya asked. "You don't remember!? Well, you haven't seen him since you're first birthday so I probably shouldn't be surprised. And Fred wouldn't mean to let The Sphinx out. He last time I saw him he was very ditsy." Katrina thought. "Okay...but who was he and how'd he let The Sphinx out of prison." Rya thought with a little frustration. "Fred is the head of everything at haven labs. He is a skilled Scientist and doctor and he is the only one, aside from you and me who has access to the prison. He's the one that I send all the bad ghost's to. Anymore Questions?" Thought Katrina as she sighed. "Yes." Rya thought as he let out a low grumble that sounded remarkably like a laugh "Where do babies come from?" He finished with a grin. "I am afraid that subject is going to have to wait because there's The Sphinx!" Katrina said pointing to a spot in the approaching fields.
There, standing in the fields was a man, with raged clothes, a mane of hair, the eyes of a cat and the tail and claws of a lion. "What do you want, Sphinx." Katrina said as she dismounted Rya "Well what do yah know, you actually did show. I told him you would." "Told who?" She said as they started to circle each other. "None of your business!" He yelled lunging at Katrina. "You never were much of talker." She said easily sidestepping the attack "Very well then, let's get down to business" She said shooting a beam of light at his chest. He hopped over the beam and tacked her to the ground where they got into a tangled mess of legs and arms viciously clawing at each other to get at each other weakness'. When they finally separated, they started using the powers given to them when they became ghosts. Katrina pounding him with her beams and the Sphinx in turn pummeling her with his blasts of power coming from his open maw.
Finally she saw a weakness in his defenses and jumped forward, her fist tight in a ball. Just when her fist was about to collide with his rib cage, he side stepped her attack and punched her in the stomach. Katrina fell flat on the ground, clutching her stomach, while the Sphinx walked the length of her body and said "You've softened since we've last met. I was hoping you'd be more of a challenge." He knelt down by her head, as she stared up at him utterly helpless. "I shall return tomorrow. That should give you enough time to rest and fight me harder. Then he will be pleased." He said with a terrible grin. Then, turning around, he flew into the distance. But right before he turned into a speck against the sky, Katrina saw an odd black leather necklace with an odd gem around his neck.
"What happened?" Rya said, walking from the sidelines of the battlefield. "I was getting my butt kicked by the Sphinx! And what were you doing? I really could've used your help back there!" She said striding over to Rya with her hands on her hips. "Well...I...um...I had an annoying fly buzzing Around my head. Sorry..." Katrina shook her head. "You could've just squashed it!" She thought clambering onto Rya's back. "How can you squash something that's already dead!?" Katrina sighed "Oh... yeah, you cant." Even if it's been four years, it's still hard to remember that this isn't a mortal world. "Let's take of!" She said. And so Rya took off in a flush of wings.
"So where are we going?" Rya asked. "To Fred's lab." She answered. "Why Fred's?" Asked Rya. "Three reasons. Number one: He was involved with letting the Sphinx out. Number two: He has a list of all our enemy's weakness and you know we need it. Number three: We're weak and he might have a training program of some sort." Katrina stated. "Okay then. Where to?" Rya said hovering in midair waiting for an answer. "To the east, beyond the mountains and the forest and the mountains again." Katrina thought, pointing in the correct direction. "Aye aye sir! Or lady, or whatever." Rya said zooming into the mountains.
So they flew into the snow capped mountains, over the dense forest and then over the mountains again.
"Man that was a long flight" Rya said landing next to an old building that resembled a normal office building painted white lying on the edge of a beach. "Yeah, it was. I think it's evening. The sky's lightening up." "You mean the shield right? You know, the one that's been there for years sensing anything that enters Haven? I know, it's easy to forget." Rya thought with a smug smile on his face. "Ha ha, very funny. Let's go." She thought walking up to the door in the front of the building. "Name please." said a device next to the door. "Katrina Callan" She answered clearly. "Voice not recognized in central computers. Please try again." It said in a polite manner. "What!" Katrina said, letting her voice give away her anger. "I'm the ruler of Haven! And you don't recognize me? And what are you laughing at Rya?" she said looking over at the chuckling dragon.
"I believe he is laughing at the fact that you are clearly the ruler, it's as plain as the eye can see, but the voice analyzer could not recognize your voice. It is a very odd pun." Said a man dressed in doctors apparel standing a few feet to their left. "Fred?" Katrina said taking a step forward. "You haven't aged a day!" She said giving him a hug. "Well of course not, I'm a ghost, just like you. It is odd that you age though. You don't look ten anymore...But come inside! It's been.." He trailed off thinking of the date. "Three years, but who's counting?" Rya Thought to Katrina walking up next to her."Shut up Rya! We're with a person we haven't been with for years! Please be polite, even if he can't hear you." She said watching Fred walk over to the door. "Sorry to disappoint, but I can hear you." He said as the analyzer asked him the question. "Whoops..." Rya thought as he followed Fred into the building. "'Whoops' is right." She said aloud following Rya .
The main center for Haven labs was magnificent. All of the chemicals of all different shades of colors in their glass containers mixed beautifully with light from the skylights. Not to mention the wonderful aromas that drifted from some of the rooms. It's a fascinating place to visit.
"Wow..." Rya thought walking through an archway of test tubes. "I hate this place." Katrina said giving the archway a look. "Huh?" Rya thought looking at Katrina. "Nothing..."She said looking down at her shoes. "Don't touch anything!" Fred said oblivious to the conversation behind him."Why would I touch anything? It's not like I even have hands." Rya said walking up next to Fred. "Well, just keep your tail to yourself then. Anyways, here we are! Welcome to my office." He said opening a door to his right.
I hope he's cleaned it out since last time we were here. Katrina thought as she walked into the room. Nope, look almost the same as last time I saw it. But worse. The room was fairly large with five long tables put in every which place and a desk in the far left corner. And everything was covered in junk. Some tables held neglected experiments that were forgotten, some had heaps of ignored papers, and then some held things that you don't want to know about.
"Do you ever clean your office?" Katrina asked looking at an old experiment that seemed to be moving. Fred looked at her in surprise "Do you think I have time? I've been running this place for..." "Three years." Rya stated sitting down on the floor. "Exactly. Well, almost. It is 45 days, 5 hours, 35 minutes, and...23 seconds until his birthday. So then It will be four years." He said looking at an instrument that was lying on his desk. "What's that?" Katrina asked walking over to him. "It's an device that tells time. Any time you want, just specify." Fred said, tinkering with it a little. "So it can tell me when I'd see somebody, or when I'll arrive at a place?" Katrina said, feeling more interested in the device. "No, you have to know when it's going to happen, it just tells you the exact amount of time it'll take till it's time." Fred said, setting the object down. "So tell me, why did you come here after three years?"
And so Katrina explained how they defeated the Sphinx and learned that he was working for someone. "Do you have any idea who it might be?" Katrina asked. "No, not really. But I do know how he got out. Come with me." Fred said walking out of the room. Katrina and Rya looked at each other, shrugged, and followed him out of the room. He led them down through a maze of hallways and rooms, I won't even try to go into.
"Well here we are. Haven Penitentiary." Fred said opening a thick iron door. As Katrina walked inside she gasped. The prison used to be a neat and orderly place, with laser bars in the front and a special material that made the walls so that the ghosts couldn't get through and were indestructible (Fred wouldn't tell her what it was made of). Now the walls were smashed to the ground, the lasers pointing ever which way and a giant hole in the roof. "Has it always been like this? 'Cause it's not very good." Rya said staring incriminatingly at the ruins. "No, Rya, this happened last night. Most of the ghost you captured turned peaceful because of the energy put in the bars, but the two we had escaped. The Sphinx, who you've clearly met, and Izzy." He said pointing to the two jail cells with the most damage. "You mean Izzy Stilldead? Well, his name's lame and his fighting wasn't any better, so that should be no problem." Katrina said. "But that's not the whole story, Katrina." Fred said, giving her a stern look. "They did not break through it themselves, someone helped them." "Who?" "I don't know." Fred said looking a little shaken. "The security camera picks up ghost's energy when they're invisible, as you know, but all I saw was the thinks happening, no one showed up on the camera. Izzy and The Sphinx seemed to see him though. Odd phenomena. But when they left, they seemed to have collars around their necks with a strange red gem on it." "We saw it on The Sphinx. He didn't say anything about it though." Katrina said. "I should think not. He wouldn't want you to find the person who gave it to you. Or maybe...he was trying to hide it from you." Fred said with a distant look in his eye. "Why would he do that?" Katrina asked. "I don't know." Said Fred. "Okay then, where were you when this happened?" Katrina said, eying him "I was...sleeping..." Fred said with a sigh. "Katrina did say you were a ditz." Rya said. "Rya!" Katrina said in outrage. "Oh, did she now?" Fred said turning towards her and raising an eyebrow. "I did, but can we move on?" Katrina said. "I guess. I think we've seen enough here, so let's go to my private labs." Fred said stepping out of the prison.
"He has a lab too? I can't imagine what that looks like." He said walking with Katrina out of the door. "He keeps this one neat and tidy. Really neat and tidy. I think he tells everybody else to clean it." Katrina said wondering exactly what he wanted to show her. They soon approached the door she assumed was the lab. It turned out she was right because at that moment Fred stopped and opened the door into the lab. It was just like the other parts of the building, except it had some things that looked a whole lot more expensive.
"What is it that you want to show us?" Katrina said looking at the carefully placed experiments. "This." Fred said walking over to a table and picking up a sword. It had a green leather handle, a blue blade and an odd gem placed into the end of the hilt. "Why that? Did the enemy drop it?" She said walking over to him. "No no," Fred said picking up a sheath. "This is for you." He finished, showing her the sign on the front of it. It was an exact copy of the clasp that held her blue robe around her shoulders. "Wow..." She said taking a hold of the sword in one hand and the sheath in the other. "What's the sword made out of?" She asked. "A stronger version of what made the walls in the prison. I made it for you awhile back, but you never came around. I figured you could use something stronger than your fists and feet. Now time for what I really came to show you." He said walking towards a door at the far end of the room. Katrina and Rya followed. "This," he said opening the door "is the shield room."
As he opened the door, he revealed a large machine, that's to complicated to explain. "The shield, as you know, detects when something passes though the perimeters of Haven. It can even detect if the spirit has good intentions or bad. But, it can't do anything about it. Until now. I've made a device so that when a ghost uses his or her powers, it soaks up energy and if to much energy is taken, they pass out. There's only one problem with it...it'd take yours and Rya's energy too." Fred said. "Why are you telling me this?" Katrina asked, already knowing the answer. "I want your permission to attach that device." Fred said looking a little nervous. "And why should we? It would weaken us as much as our enemies, and then we'd never stand a chance." Katrina said, with Rya bobbing his head in agreement. "But I have some advantages for you. The sword that you hold, properly called The Shard, when you direct your energy attacks and shields through it, will lessen the affects of the shield." He said smugly. "But what about Rya?" Katrina asked. "I have that covered too. This," He said taking out what looked a giant brown slap-on bracelet with a small pocket on the side. "Is something that Rya can comfortably wear on his wing and will have a preserving affect on his energy. Also there's another power to The Shard that you don't know about. If you put the tip of your sword to an unconscious ghost, your sword will suck it up. Then, if you stick the tip into the little pocket on the side of Rya's wing-band, It will then be transferred straight to me, where I will then throw it in jail.." Fred said. "But we still haven't fought for ages, we'd be squashed like bugs!" Katrina said with impatience. "But you haven't seen my final invention." He said leading them to the far end of the room.
"This is a training program." He said, pointing at a portal. "It simulates what happens with the shield, except you can't hurt yourself or faint. That's all I have to protect you for now." "'All'? That's a lot!" Rya said. "He's right, that is a lot. But is it enough? We're a lot weaker than they are, and a training program can only do so much." Katrina said taking a closer look at the training program's portal. "Well...The training program's not ready. There's a problem that I can't seem to locate..." Fred said. "Well, I see what's the problem, Fred. The wires that link to the power source aren't hooked up correctly. You see, this goes here, while that goes over there, and this certainly shouldn't go there..." She trailed off while fiddling with the insides of the machine.
"Done!" She said stepping back and turning it on. "You're a genius!" Fred said stunned watching the colors swirl in the portal. "How'd you do that?" "It was just something I learned when I was alive..." Katrina said.Katrina said. "I see. Well, do you want to test it out?" Fred asked. "Not right now. The Sphinx could come back at any moment, he's unpredictable." Katrina said. "Well then, let's head over to that computer, it's the one that detects thing's coming into Haven, and wait." He said walking over and sitting in a computer chair. "Do we really have to wait?" Rya said walking behind Katrina. "Yes, we have to wait Rya. Just try and sit still." Katrina said sitting down next to Fred.
And so they waited.
To be continued...
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