The Prince Warriors

by Priscilla Shirer

  “Hey!” Xavier said suddenly. “I see someone!” He could make out two figures, a boy and a girl, walking through the sand. They looked lost and very tired, trudging listlessly, their heads hanging in exhaustion.

  “I know those guys.” Evan moved a few steps closer, squinting against the bright whiteness of the sandy world above. “They’re kids from the Rec. What are they doing up there?”

  “They must find the Water, just as you did,” Ruwach said.

  “Water?” Evan said. “That place looks like a desert. Where’s the Water?”

  “The Water is there. It is always there. Call them. Show them the way.”

  Xavier and Evan looked at each other in confusion. How were they supposed to call to those kids from an underwater cave? They stood there for a moment, doing nothing. Ruwach moved in close to them, so close they could almost feel his whispered words dancing on the back of their necks.

  “Call to them. Time is running out.”

  So, Evan decided to do just that. He wasn’t sure what he was supposed to say, but he cupped his hands to his mouth and shouted up to the ceiling.

  “Hey! You guys! Over here!”

  His voice echoed several times, and to his amazement he could see the echoes rippling through the air. They seemed to rise up and hit the invisible barrier separating the Cave from the storm, causing it to tremble.

  The ripples caught Xavier’s attention as well. “It’s like—we are under the Water.” He scratched his head in disbelief. Evan shouted again, and then Xavier joined him, sending more ripples upward to the opening.

  “Over here! In the Water! Find the Water!”

  The boy in the desert world suddenly stopped walking and lifted his head, scanning the horizon. He had heard Evan and Xavier’s call! Xavier could see who he was now: Levi, Mr. J. Ar’s son. Levi hung with the skateboard crowd, the coolest kids at the Rec. Xavier had wanted to bring his skateboard so many times and join them, but he was too intimidated. He couldn’t do all the tricks those kids could do. He thought he remembered the girl, too, because she often wore that pink, sparkly hoodie.

  Levi walked more purposely, gesturing to the girl to follow him. He was pointing to something. Evan wondered if he could see the Water now.

  But then something else drew Xavier’s attention away. Above the two kids, the red sky began to change—it was getting darker, streaked with purple and black, just the way it had when he and Evan had been running through the dark, menacing forest. Then he remembered the trees splitting and falling, turning to ashes, like the whole world was burning up. This can’t be good, he thought.

  His eyes fell to the horizon, because he knew what would happen next. His heart started to hammer in his chest. It was coming. The enemy. The one Ruwach had told them about. Those two kids needed to find the Water before . . .

  Just then a plume of sand rose up from the ground on the horizon. The wind was picking up, causing more sand to tussle about.

  “The chaos is coming,” Xavier murmured, to no one in particular.

  “What?” said Evan.

  “It’s coming—look!” Xavier pointed.

  Evan’s face went pale, whitewashed by the memory of what he and his brother had gone through to get to the Water.

  The column of sand spun high into the red sky, growing larger as it pulled more and more sand into its vortex. But then more columns sprung out of the center column, as if it were growing arms and legs—and a head. Two bright beams of light radiated from the head shape—like eyes, zeroing in on Levi and Brianna.

  “It’s—a grobel . . .” said Evan in a soft voice. “A sand grobel. There was one of those in my book too.”

  “A grobel? What’s that?” asked Xavier.

  “It’s a creature—a bad creature—made out of something not really alive.”

  “They need to hurry,” Xavier said, the fear creeping down the back of his neck. He put his hands to his mouth, filled his lungs with more oxygen than he thought they could hold, and yelled: “Hurry! Get to the Water!”

  * * *

  Levi saw it too—the huge mound of sand with burning white eyes, growing legs and arms that got bigger and bigger. This was no ordinary sandstorm.

  “Run!” he shouted to Brianna, taking her hand. He had no idea where to go, but he knew nothing good could come of staying where they were. “Come on, Bean!”

  The two kids ran, covering their eyes against the hot wind that stung their faces and coated the insides of their mouths. When that first breeze had wafted across their burning cheeks, they’d been grateful. They needed a breath of breeze after walking in this scorching heat for so long. But this? This was not what they’d expected at all.

  “Where can we go?” Brianna cried.

  Levi heard it again—voices, someone calling. Where was it coming from? He looked ahead of him and saw something—an oasis glimmering on the surface of the sand. Was it really water? Or was it only a mirage?

  “Water!” he cried. “We need to get to that water!”

  “Water? Where?”

  “Hurry . . . Get to the Water . . .”

  Was the water talking?

  Brianna fell to her knees, unable to move against the wind any longer. “You go look!” she cried. “I’ll wait here!” She cowered under her hoodie, trying to protect her face.

  “No, you have to come too!” Levi shouted.

  “I can’t! I can’t even see!”

  Levi saw it was useless to try and persuade her, so he left her where she was and struggled on, using his weight to push against the full force of the wind. Thankfully, the oasis he had seen did not disappear—although it wasn’t exactly what he thought it would be. As he approached, he realized he was seeing not one body of water but several small puddles, as if the oasis had dried up and this was all that was left.

  Levi put one hand over his mouth to keep from swallowing the hot air, now mixed with grains of sand that burrowed into his skin. He knelt down before one of the puddles and put his free hand into the water. It was cool and wet, but very shallow, too shallow even to lie in for some protection. He crawled over and tried another, hoping it might be a little deeper. But it wasn’t.

  He looked over his shoulder at the sand grobel careening toward them, its arms spread wide enough to snatch up anything in its path. The sky—what he could see of it—was a churning canvas of angry colors—red, black, purple. Time was running out. He had to figure out a way to escape, if not for himself, then for Bean. The puddles, meager as they were, were their only hope.

  Levi crawled to another puddle, head ducked low against the strengthening wind, and dug his fingers into the wet, muddied sand. It was the same as the one before. He splashed some of the water over his face, wondering how he might be able to bring some over to Bean. Even if he could cup some water in his hands, by the time he got to her it would be dried up or blown away.

  He stared at the water. Why was he expecting something to happen? Why had the voices told him to get into the water? It was just a puddle.

  Get back to Bean. The thought nagged at him. She was still alone. If they were going to be trapped by a monster, they might as well be trapped together. Perhaps he could still protect her somehow. He tried to turn and look for her, but the wind was now so fierce he couldn’t see more than a foot in front of him. His eyes were tearing up, but when he reached up to wipe them . . .

  He saw a movement, out of the corner of his eye. One of the other puddles rippled as if a rock had been skipped across its surface. The wind, he thought—it would soon blow the water away. Then he heard the voices again, barely audible over the shrieking wind: “Hurry! Get to the Water!” The voices seemed to be synced with the ripples. He scrambled over to that puddle and peered in. Once the ripples subsided, he thought he saw his own windblown face mirrored in the water, as he had in all the others. Then he realized it wasn’t his face at
all. It was something else—it was the thing he had first seen over Landon’s head. That strange emblem of Ahoratos!

  He called to Brianna, “Bean! Come on! I found it!” His voice was drowned out by the high-pitched whistle of the wind, the eerie sound of millions of grains of sand crashing into each other. “Bean!” he screamed as loud as he could. But she didn’t hear him.

  “Hurry! Get in the Water!”

  Get in the water? What good would that do? It was only a puddle, after all. But the image was there, and the voices still called to him, making the water tremble even more. He touched the water, feeling a pulling sensation, the same thing that had happened when he’d grabbed the weird object hanging over Landon’s head.

  “Bean! Over here! Get in the water!” It was already pulling him down, his arm, his shoulder, his whole body. He tried one more time yelling out to Brianna. “Over he—”

  The Water swallowed him.

  CHAPTER SIX

  Puddle Jumping

  Levi’s feet were cold. That seemed strange, since he was completely submerged in water. Wasn’t he? He opened his eyes slightly, expecting to see a murky underwater scene. No water. Everything around him glowed blue and white. He let the breath he’d been holding out of his aching lungs. Then he breathed in. He could breathe. Actual air.

  He looked down at the floor—stone. No wonder it was cold. He’d been so hot a moment ago, the wind and sand burning his face.

  Sand. He reached up and felt his skin. It was smooth. No sand coating. He shook his head and dusted his hands over his curly hair, expecting a shower of sand over his face. But there was nothing. He was dry—and clean.

  His clothes were different too. Instead of his Tony Hawk T-shirt and jeans, he was wearing thick gray pants and a shirt with that same weird emblem on it—glowing faintly.

  He gazed around him at the strange rock formations, the tiny specks of light flitting around his head. He remembered being sucked down into the puddle, the puddle with the symbol. He thought it had just happened a minute ago—but had time passed that he didn’t know about? It seemed as though he’d woken up in some other, even weirder, world.

  He looked up. Three people stood before him. Two of them were kids, a big one and a smaller one. Was that—Xavier? The basketball kid from the Rec? And his little brother? The other person was—not quite a person at all. Like a little purple blob of something with no face.

  “Welcome to Ahoratos, Prince Levi,” said the purple blob. His voice boomed through the space, and Levi felt it in the pit of his stomach. So, it must be some sort of person. As his eyes adjusted, Levi realized that the blob part was actually a robe. “We’ve been expecting you.”

  “You have?” Levi’s throat felt scratchy. He knows my name? That’s weird. And he called me a prince. That’s even weirder. “Where am I?”

  “In the Cave,” the younger kid said. He sounded very confident, like he knew what he was talking about. “And that’s Reebok. Don’t worry. He’s not a troll.”

  “Ruwach,” said Xavier in a disgusted voice. “Roo-wok.”

  “Right. Roo-wok,” said the younger kid, pronouncing each syllable like it was a separate word. “And I’m Evan, EH-van, and this is Xavier, ZAV-ee-er, my brother. You’re Levi, right? The skateboarder? From the Rec?”

  Levi nodded, then shook his head like he was trying to shake the sand out of his brain. “The storm—the water—went in a puddle—saw that weird thing . . .”

  “The Crest of Ahoratos,” said the purple dude named Ruwach. “That is what led you here.”

  “So that’s what it is!” said Evan. “A crest—like knights had on their shields in the old days. The Crest of A-Horses.”

  “Ahoratos,” Xavier said.

  “That’s what I said!”

  Xavier shook his head and took a step toward Levi. “Your friend is still out there.” He pointed up to the ceiling. Levi gazed up in amazement; he could see the monster—the sand grobel—rampaging across the desert through a hole in the ceiling. In the ceiling? How was that possible?

  “Be—Brianna?” he said. “Where is she?”

  Ruwach reached up his really long arms toward the ceiling and began to turn them slowly, and as he did the whole scene shifted perspective to a small mound of pinkish white, nearly lost in the blowing sand. Then Ruwach drew his arms downward, and the scene zoomed in to a close-up. Levi could see now that the mound was Brianna. She wasn’t moving at all, like she’d given up the fight.

  Levi gasped. “I tried to tell her—she wouldn’t come.” He thought he might cry and turned his head so the two boys wouldn’t see. “I lost her.”

  “She is not lost.” Ruwach stepped toward Levi, but his hooded face was still directed upward, toward Brianna. “Do not fear. I can bring the Water to her.”

  Ruwach pointed upward, and the view changed again, zooming in on the puddle with the Crest of Ahoratos. Levi watched, doubtful. But then Ruwach waved his arms and—moved the Water. Levi blinked in awe as the puddle of water—the Water—zoomed across the stretch of sand until it was right in front of Brianna. She didn’t see it, though. Her eyes were shut tight, her face hidden under her arms.

  “Call to her,” Ruwach said.

  “What do you mean?” Levi asked, confused.

  “She’ll hear you!” Evan said. “You’ve got to shout real loud.”

  Levi’s brow furrowed. He hesitated.

  “Do it!” shouted Evan.

  “Uh, okay . . . Bean!” Levi said, not exactly shouting. He felt a little foolish.

  “Bean?” Evan said, giggling.

  “I mean, Brianna!” Levi said louder, his voice echoing through the Cave. “Brianna! Can you hear me?”

  To Levi’s amazement, he saw the window above him start to ripple, as if his words had actually struck some invisible barrier.

  “That’s it,” said Evan, encouraging. “Keep going. Tell her to get in the Water!”

  “Bean! In the Water! Get in the Water!”

  The words rippled the barrier again. Brianna raised her head and opened her eyes slightly, then slammed them shut against the onslaught of sand. Even her eyelashes were coated. Then she opened them again, just enough to look down. When she saw the Water, her eyes widened ever so slightly. She knew that puddle hadn’t been there a moment ago.

  “Brianna! Bean! Get in the Water! It’s right there!” Levi’s voice was getting stronger, louder. She could hear him!

  Brianna put one hand out cautiously, touching the surface of the Water very lightly. The barrier rippled again.

  “She sees it!” Levi said. Ruwach had brought the Water right to her. “Get in, Bean! Get in the Water!” he shouted over and over. The other boys joined in.

  Brianna still seemed hesitant. The wind picked up, the storm so dense now it was difficult to see her at all, other than a few glittery specks of her headband.

  “Don’t give up, Bean!” Levi looked around frantically and saw a series of ledges in the rock formations of the Cave. He ran to them, leaping from one to the other so he could get close enough to the ceiling. Then he tried to plunge his hand through the barrier, in hopes of reaching her. But the invisible barrier just snapped back like a trampoline, knocking him off his feet. He tumbled down the rocks, groaning.

  “She must come through on her own,” said Ruwach calmly. “Others can call her, and I can make it accessible for her, but she must make the choice on her own.”

  The other two boys shouted and threw small pebbles up to the ceiling, making more ripples. Levi scrambled back up on the ledge, joining their chorus, punching the barrier with his hands.

  “Bean! Get in!” He didn’t care anymore that the others heard him call her Bean. All that mattered was getting her out of the storm and into the Water.

  * * *

  Brianna squinted at the puddle of water in front of her, the symbol of Ahora
tos—the one they’d seen over Landon’s head—shining on the surface. The voices sounded again, as if coming from the puddle itself: Get in!

  She felt sand in her ears, in her mouth, in her nostrils even. The sand grobel loomed over her, its huge sand arms wrapping around her, making it harder and harder to breathe.

  Yet the water kept talking to her.

  She touched it and felt a pulling, a tugging. She pulled away, the sensation too strange. But the water felt cool, such a relief from the hot, stinging sand. She dipped her whole hand in again. The water began tugging on her hand, pulling her down. She tried to resist, but it felt so nice, so cool and wet and un-sandy. She let it pull her, her arm, her shoulder. She shut her eyes as it pulled her down, into the darkness.

  * * *

  Brianna coughed, nearly choking on the suffocating sand. She danced around and waved her arms in the air, as if still fighting off the grobel. She shook her head frantically to get the sand out of her hair, her face, her mouth, but it took her a moment to realize there was no storm anymore. Her skin felt cool but not wet.

  She finally opened her eyes, surprised that she could without getting pummeled with sand. She stood very still, taking in her surroundings. Only her eyes roved about—up, down, left, right. Her pink hoodie and striped pants were gone. She was wearing a long gray shirt and leggings. And, strangest of all, there was no sand on her, or water either for that matter. Maybe she had dreamed that she was being chased by a monster made of sand. Maybe she was still dreaming—a dream within a dream.

  She felt something grasp her shoulder, and she jumped, giving out a little pant of fright.

  “Bean! Are you all right?”

  She spun around, her mouth dropping open in amazement. “Levi?” She stared at him, shocked that he was there too.

  “I was calling you and calling you. I was scared—you looked like you weren’t . . .” He didn’t finish. She noticed he was all dry and sand-free as well, and wearing clothes almost identical to hers, with the symbol for Ahoratos glowing on his chest. This was getting so weird.