unother thing in which they go to garvish, the water world or whatever

“Okay, then, I won’t make you do it alone,” I said, then lowered my voice to a whisper. “I just wish I knew what would happen.”
The day dragged on. It was just another day of waiting and wasting time. Finally, though, night happened. And after night, the next day came. The day we would leave with Myrie. At six sharp, we were outside of the inn, ready to go. Myrie apparently did not know how to tell time, because she turned up late again.
“Look, Miss Punctual decided to show up!” I said as Myrie came up to us. she glared at me. I gave her a fake but cheery smile.
“we had better get a move on,” Fragen said nervously, trying to avoid a cat fight. I gave him a genuine smile. We all mounted our horses (Myrie had a fat gray mare) and headed down the main road.
We were a spectacle to those people, who were very traditional. First, there was a large woman in a hot pink dress on an equally large horse. Next came a stunning man on his beautiful charger. Then, a girl in man’s clothes, sitting regally on her horse. I imagine that those townspeople had never seen anything like us, and they would not ever see it again.
The moment we stepped out of town, the atmosphere changed. The weather had been pleasant when we were in the town, but now it was notably hotter and the grass was dried out. The heat made us irritable and moody. At nightfall, it was amazing that we were all alive. Fragen made the meal while Myrie and I sat, tired and sore, glaring at each other. I really could not stand the woman. She acted as if she had known Fragen for a long time, when I knew him before she ever did.

The next day, before we started out, Myrie called Fragen and I to her. I wondered what she wanted to tell us.
“Fragen, Phoenix,” she said my name with a strained edge, “It seems as if we are just going nowhere without a point, doesn’t it?” I nodded. I did not know about any certain reason as to why we were going where we were, so I was eager to hear a meaning to our traveling. “We have a very important task that I have assigned us to. We are going to find the Stone.” I did not understand her.
“What do you mean by that?” I asked. Myrie looked at me in a way that made me feel irritatingly stupid.
“Please don’t tell me that you don’t know about the Stone,” she said. I shook my head. “What do you know? Well, the story of the Stone is made out to be a legend, which it isn’t. It is a very real thing. There are six sides to our world, you do know that. Each side is different, which you should also know. There are people who do magic on each side. They – we - are a dying breed, though. sadly, we are the only thing that stands between our lovely planet and destruction.
“On each side of the planet, there is a magical Stone, which is what we are after. This Stone is protected by many obstacles and tests, for its safety. We must get past all of those obstacles. We need to get the Stone. It is very important that we do this.”
“Why? Why do we have to get this Stone thing?” I asked.
“You cannot know yet. It is just key that you follow me and do everything that I say.” This idea was repulsive.
“And why should I do that?” I asked testily.
“Because you have no where else to go,” was Myrie's simple answer.
“Fine. I’ll think about it.” I got up and stalked up. Fragen followed me. Myrie politely stayed behind.
“I think we should go with her, Phee,” Fragen said.
“Why should we go with that…” I started, but Fragen cut me off.
“I don’t know. For some reason, I feel as if this is the right thing to do.”
“I don’t want to get too involved. This whole idea of stealing this important magical Stone thing seems wrong to me. we could get into big trouble if we go messing with that, I think.”
“We will just have to be extra careful, won’t we?” Fragen smiled. I could not say no to him.
“Okay, Myrie. We’ll go with you,” I said, packing up. I really did not want to go. Truth be told, I was scared.
“Good. I’m going to tell you something now that you have agreed to come on this mission,” Myrie said, sitting down on the dry grass.
“Wait, I have a question,” I said. “What would you have done if we hadn’t said we’d come with you?”
“Why, I’m not stupid. I would have killed you,” Myrie answered. Even though I was pretty sure that this was a bluff, I was still a bit uneasy about Myrie. She continued with, “I already have one of the Stones.” She pulled what was obviously the Stone out of a concealed pocket in her jacket.
The Stone was amazing. It was yellow-golden in color, but, unlike a usual rock that you would pick up, the color pulsed and changed. Instinctively, I reached out to touch it. Myrie pulled it back.
“I don’t think you should touch it,” Myrie said. I gave her a confused look.
“Why not?” I asked.
“I just don’t know if it would be wise,” she said. I had this feeling that this was not the true reason, but I decided to let it go. For now, anyways. Instead, I finished packing my stuff and mounted my horse. Myrie and Fragen followed suit.
“Where to?” Fragen asked.
“We are going north to Garvish,” Myrie answered. I knew about this place; I had read about it on one of those boring afternoons that Fragen and I spent in Gul. This was the side of the world that was covered in water. I could not wait to see this.







JChapter ThreeL
It only took us four days to reach the Gateway to Garvish. The trip was trying and exhausting. We traveled from dawn to dusk. There was no magical assistance in our travel, either. Myrie said that her horse was incapable of magic interference or something like that. I learned a lot in that time, though.
“This is the Gateway?” I asked, crinkling my nose. We were standing in front of a doorway that lead straight down into the ground.
“Yes, it is,” Myrie answered. I could tell that she had been here before.
“So, what do we do now?”
“We go in,” Myrie said, like I was stupid. How was I supposed to know where we went now?
Fragen held the door open for Myrie and I. I smiled and thanked him as I walked through. Inside, the underground chamber was stuffy and cramped. A few potted plants sat around, wilting. There was a desk in a corner. An old woman sat at the desk, reading a book. We approached her.
“Hello and welcome to the Gateway to Garvish,” the woman said in a nasally voice. “I’m Matilda and I am going to help you through to Garvish.” She motioned to a scale that was hiding next to the desk. “Please take your shoes off and step on the scale.” I was surprised that she did not ask our names first.
“Why do you need our weight?” I asked.
“It all goes on record,” mantilla said, motioning for me to step onto the scale. It all goes on record… why did they need a record? “Get off, honey,” mantilla commanded. I stepped off of the scale and watched as she wrote something down on papers that she had gotten from her desk. Fragen went next. Matilda got out a different paper for him. After she had weighed all of us, she spoke. “What are your names?”
“Phoenix Cage,” I answered.
“Fragen, no surname,” Fragen answered.
“Gracie Trink,” Myrie answered untruthfully. When mantilla leaned over to write our names down, Myrie motioned for me to keep quiet about her name. This confused me.
“Age?” mantilla asked. We answered. “date of birth?... Height?” – she measured our height out – “Let’s see… eye color? Hair color? Why are you traveling to Garvish?”
“We are visiting my sister, who is doing research in Garvish,” Myrie answered. I wondered why she had lied again. Matilda nodded and wrote it down. She put all of our papers into a folder and handed it to Myrie.
“Take this,” mantilla commanded, “Keep it safe. You cannot get back into Estubia without those papers. Now, please follow me.” She lead us out of the room and through a few halls and doors. We finally arrived at an iron gate.
“Is that the Gateway to Garvish?” I asked, a bit let down. I thought that the gateway would be something bigger, better, not just a little rusty door underground. This showed in my voice, because mantilla sounded flippant when she answered.
“Yes, of course this is the gateway. What did you expect, a big, pretty door up on ground? That wouldn’t have worked because of the square shape of our planet. This tunnel gradually curves so that you come out on Garvish. Don’t ask how it works, cause I don’t know.” She unlocked the door and held it open for us. “Have a nice visit to Garvish,” were her parting words.
The tunnel was dark. I had to take care not to bump into Myrie, who was in front of me. the ground was uneven. I wondered, correctly, if they had made the tunnel uneven so that you would not realize that you the ground was sloping so much. We walked for about thirty minutes. Finally, we saw the chopped up light that meant we had reached another iron door.
When we got closer, I noticed that a man was standing there, waiting for us to come. I briefly wondered how they could communicate from side to side. The man was old and stooped, his smile lacking most teeth. What little hair he had stood out all over. When we reached the door, he already had opened it. “Welcome to garvish,” he wheezed. “Have a nice stay.” He then lead us out into a room much like the one we had our papers filled out in.
“Come over here, now,” he told us, “I need to stamp your papers.” Myrie took out the folder and handed it to him. He took a rubber stamp out of the drawer and quickly stamped our papers. “The door is right there,” he said, pointing to a stairway.
We went up the stairs. I walked slowly, heart racing. I had not been outside of my farm before this adventure started, and here I was, going to a whole different side of our planet. At the top, Myrie opened the door. I walked out into the sunshine.








JChapter ThreeL
Garvish was nothing I could have ever imagined. When we walked out of the door, we came to an ocean. It streched out before us, a vast sea of blue. It was down a bit, though, so that it would not run over into the other sides of the planet. We were standing on a wooden dock. A little hut stood down the way. We headed toward it.
A small man came out of the hut. “Welcome to Garvish. Come inside and I will give you what you need to really enjoy your stay here,” he said, laughing at the last part. We went into the little hut.
“What do we need,” Myrie said.
“This,” the man said, holding up a little bottle of dark green powder. “This will give you gills so you can breathe underwater. There is no land until you leave Garvish.”
“How much do we need?” Myrie asked.
“One bottle each. It lasts until you take some of this,” he held up a bottle of purple powder, “This is the only thing that can restore your lungs. You will have to buy some here, though. you need one bottle of this, too. To get them both, it costs thrity weights each.” The price was steep, but I knew it would not be a problem.
“Okay,” Myrie said, “Fragen, get ninety weights out of your bag.” Fragen did so, creating ninety when his hands were hidden. He handed them to the man.
“Oh, I forgot,” the man said, handing two bottles to each of us. “You will need waterproof bags for your stuff and waterproof clothes. Those will cost…”
“We won't be needing those,” Myrie said, leaving.
“Don’t forget to jump into the water before you take that!” the man yelled aggitatedly out of the hut.
We headed down the pier a bit. Once we were safe from the prying eyes of the man, Myrie stopped.
“We need to waterproof all of our stuff,” she said. “Be sure to get all of your stuff. Point at the object that you need to waterproof and say disotfout michse.” She pointed at her shoes and demonstrated. Fragen and I followed suit, pulling things out of our bags and waterproofing them.