Drake stored everything from the garage that his father had obtained for them, except for the water tanks, which they quickly filled with water one by one, then placed all of them inside the book as well. When they were finished with everything they needed to prepare, they went inside the house for lunch.
Upon entering the house, they sat around the table as Chad’s father prepared sandwiches for them.
There was subtle tension in the air as silence permeated the room. The only thing that could be heard was the chopping of lettuce and tomato as Chad’s father worked in the kitchen making them sandwiches for lunch. It wasn’t until the plate of sandwiches was placed on the table that the deafening silence was broken.
"Are you sure you want to leave in the morning. We still think you should finish out the school year," Drake’s father told them as he looked between each of the boys. He knew that when the quests were done, they could live their life on Earth and only intervene with dimension business when it was necessary. "If you finished out the week, then do your quest, you could be back for the weekend to return for next week. You shouldn’t miss school. We think it’s best if you finish. If you miss this week, it will be difficult to finish out the school year."
No one spoke for a long time, not wanting to be the first to break the silence. They didn’t like the conversation. Ever since the night in the clearing when Renn had her vision, they had been having trouble trusting their fathers. In their hearts, they felt that the vision was false, that it was a trick sent to them to hinder their quest, but they couldn’t help but mistrust their fathers as a result of it. What they had been through was too devastating. Drake and Renn had seen the worst of it. They had witnessed the vision for themselves. Mike and Chad only heard about it. It was enough to make them all uneasy.
Choosing to skip school and get the quests done was a sore subject. All three of their fathers thought they should wait until the weekend to go back to the dimension, while Drake and his friends felt there was no point in school anymore... at all.
Tired of the silence, Mike was the first to answer Drake’s father’s question. His tone was sarcastic. "Why bother? Either we finish the quests or we die trying. There are no other options for any of us."
Chad nodded in agreement. "I agree. Why spend valuable time going to school when it does nothing for us when we go to the dimension? It’s a waste of our time at this point. After the last one, it’s doubtful that we’ll even survive the next one."
Drake stayed silent, not wanting to speak. His thoughts swirled around their family and how he and his friends had been thrown into the dimension. Most importantly, he thought about how it all began; Drake wished it had never started. He and his friends were caught in a cycle that would never end until their bloodlines disappeared.
Drake lost in his thoughts, barely heard his friends speak, picking up the conversation only when Chad had mentioned the dimension. He looked up at his friends... "Sorry, I wasn’t listening. What did you say?"
Mike rolled his eyes, but said nothing.
Chad shrugged. "I was agreeing with Mike that school is pointless. He said that our only options are to finish the quests or die trying. I agree. We don’t even have any more life tokens. The fact that we had to use all three of the ones we had means we are most likely going to die trying to get our quests finished."
Drake nodded, showing he agreed. He was thinking about what to say to respond to Chad’s words, but a sudden knot formed in his stomach as if warning him that something was wrong. His face paled. He grabbed his stomach as if he were holding it in place. A soft groan left his lips, unable to stop it.
Renn jumped off his shoulder onto the table and looked up at him. Her green eyes were shining with concern. Her rat tail curled around her, staring at her master intently. Even Renn could tell something was wrong.
The conversation stopped immediately, as everyone at the table noticed Drake and Renn’s demeanor. There was complete silence as they all kept their attention on Drake and what was happening to him.
Drake swallowed, taking in what he was feeling, trying to rationalize it. His instincts told him that something was wrong in the dimension. He didn’t know how he knew or what was wrong. He just knew that there was something terribly wrong happening there. Fear washed through him as faces of those he had become attached to floated through his mind: Nelly, Tod, Nana, Mary, and even Mayor Ivan.
His body began to tremble in fear. Sweat beaded his brow, and he swallowed, his unease rising.
"Something’s wrong," Drake stated evenly, wiping the sweat off his forehead, then looked up at his father. "How do we know what’s going on in the dimension?" he asked, his voice shaking. "There’s something wrong. I can feel it. Something terrible is happening."
Drake’s father frowned; he hadn’t felt anything. If there was a problem, he should be able to feel it too. He felt nothing. Drake’s father immediately got up, pulling a sphere off the shelf. It was something he kept near him. If he left the house, he took it with him. He looked inside the sphere. It began to glow a soft red as he peered inside it, yet it wouldn’t reveal anything. There was only the soft red glow.
The sphere was unique. It was an ordinary crystal ball if anyone else tried to use it. Well... anyone except the dimension master. For him, it would glow red, then show a scene of what was happening. If there were nothing he needed to deal with that was happening, it would glow a soft green instead, showing him anything he wanted to look at. He would only have to think of a place in the dimension, and it would reveal it to him. ɪꜰ ʏᴏᴜ ᴡᴀɴᴛ ᴛᴏ ʀᴇᴀᴅ ᴍᴏʀᴇ ᴄʜᴀᴘᴛᴇʀs, ᴘʟᴇᴀsᴇ ᴠɪsɪᴛ NoveI(F)ire.net
"Something is wrong, but I can’t see what it is," the dimension master stated. "When it glows red, that means there’s trouble, but it normally shows us what the trouble is so we can go into the dimension and fix it."
Drake stood up unsteadily and looked inside the sphere himself. He couldn’t see anything either. The small globe glowed a soft red. It pulsed softly when Drake touched it. When his father did, the glow remained steady. It was something that his father had never seen the sphere do before.
"It won’t show you anything. You haven’t finished your quests. It will only show the current dimension master what’s wrong, but for some reason, it’s not showing anything to me either," Drake’s father complained. "Normally, it shouldn’t glow for you at all. It still glowed red when you touched it. That’s not normal; neither is it pulsing like that."
Drake stiffly moved away from the table. He felt like he urgently needed to return to the dimension. It was like a compulsion; a desperate need. "I’m going to go change. I know for a fact that there is something wrong. I’m going as soon as I’m ready. I can feel it. I need to see what it is. Whatever it is, it’s urgent."
Mike and Chad stood, following Drake’s lead, leaving the house to get dressed in their own armor and clothes. They needed to prepare to go back to the dimension. Both boys hurried, not wanting to keep Drake waiting. They could tell that whatever was happening, they couldn’t wait.
Moments after Drake came out of his room, changed, and was ready to go back to the dimension, his friends returned, ready as well.
As they prepared to leave, Drake’s father spoke. "If you go now, you will have no choice but to start your quest. Whatever is wrong could hinder your quest. Remember that many of the quests have a time limit. You may not have time to take care of whatever is wrong and complete your quest at the same time. If you fail to complete a timed quest, it’s all over...for all three of you," he warned. "You can return to school. We," he said, pointing to himself and the other two men, "can go and deal with whatever is wrong."
Drake looked between his friends, ignoring his father’s words. "You know the risks. I’m the one who felt it. My father didn’t. I’m the one who has to go. I can either go myself, or you can come with me. I won’t force you to risk your life over my feeling that something is wrong."
His friends both nodded, understanding what was at risk. They stepped closer, showing their solidarity. Drake, without hesitation, slammed the staff into the ground. There was a flash of bright, emerald green light. When it disappeared, they found themselves at the welcome sign, welcoming them to Draco Town.