The Secret of Serenity Pond- Chapter Eight

It was numbness. Numbness crept over my whole body. I couldn’t feel my head. I didn’t know if I was breathing or not, because I couldn’t feel my lungs. My first thought was, ‘Am I dead?’ and my second, traitorous thought was, ‘Did Glacier do this to me?’. I had no idea what Glacier had done.

“Are you okay Zee?” I heard a voice. A surge of sad emotions hit me like a tidal wave. Whose voice was that? What had they done to me? Had they kidnapped my parents? Had they killed them? I curled over and started to sob.

“Zee?! Seriously- you’re freaking me out here!” A mix of worried emotions and gleeful emotions flooded into my body. What was wrong with me?

I was scared, so I kept sobbing. Scared that my parents and little bro were dead. Scared that Lacie and Bailey and Darkness suffered the same fate. I was even worried about Glacier, if you can believe that, considering she might have been the one to do this to me.

“Zee, it’s me, Glacier! Are you okay? Do you need medical attention? Oh no- the Spirit of Sorcery warned me about this!” I opened my eyes. Everything was crystal clear sharp, so I closed them again.

“G-G-G-Glacier! W-w-w-what’s wrong with me?” I sobbed.

“What do you mean? Oh no… I did it wrong, didn’t I? I knew it! I knew I shouldn’t have tried TIP! How are Geode and Bloom going to feel? Oh gods- Please, tell me how you feel. Nauseous? Headachy? Please oh PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE; just tell me all the symptoms!” Glacier pleaded.

I was worried. Worried beyond belief. Pee-in-my-pants worried. I knew being a teenager meant your emotions acted up like a volcanic eruption. This was like the apocalypse. I couldn’t be worried now. I needed Glacier’s help. I took ten deep breaths and started to talk.

“Glacier. I’m worried. I don’t know what I’m worried about but I’m unbelievably worried.”

“Oh.” Glacier sighed happily. “If that’s all I can fix it.”

Unimaginable relief washed through me.

“Great. I’m so relieved.” I said in a relaxed voice.

“What?” Glacier said suddenly. Now I was alert. High-intense chipmunk-like alert. Glacier-like alert.

“What? What do you mean? Did I do something wrong?” I checked around the perimeter quickly. Nope, nothing there. So what did I do?

“Oh my gods. Oh my gods. OH MY GODS. Are you suddenly... happy?” She closed her eyes.

“Now that you mention it, I feel quite content.” I said, relaxing my shoulders. Her eyes opened and she groaned.

“Oh no! I did it wrong! You were supposed to get some of my emotions- not sense and expand others! Great- this is just all wrong! Who knows what powers you’ll develop?”

“Develop… powers?” I asked. I took a few deep breaths and calmed myself down. It was the most me-like I had felt that day.

“What do you mean develop powers? And get some of your emotions? And sense and expand others? You know what; you should just start at the beginning!” I commanded, sounding a lot angrier than I felt. In fact, though I was normally be fuming, I didn’t feel a spark of anger inside of me.

“Well… funny story, actually…” Glacier looked nervous. “I, uh… well, you know how you had that charm Darkness told me about?”

“Darkness told you about my charm?” Oh, I guess he still remembered it. That should have made me surprised, yet it didn’t.

“Yeah. Well, I decided to improve on your powers my giving you some magical emotions. It’s called TIP- Transfer of Important Powers.”

“Nice acronym.” I said. But instead of sounding like an insult, it sounded like a compliment.

“Why thank you!" She beamed. "But seriously- if it had been simply worried emotions I could have fixed it. The next few days you're emotions are gonna feel like a twister big enough to swallow the whole world. But whatever you do- don't give into them."

"What happens then?" I asked.

"Then... well that's just it, I'm not sure. It could be good or bad. Of course, on the off chance that its bad... I just wouldn't give in if I were you." Glacier shrugged. I was... confused. No, she was confused. I had her emotions and none of my own. While I would normally be screaming at her, I felt fine. Confused, yet peaceful. Maybe this wouldn't be so bad after all.

"Oh I just remembered! Let's see what powers Geode and Bloom got!" She took my hands and helped me up. I was wobbly on my legs.

"Okay." I was actually bursting with excitement, but I was trying to be me-like and keep it to myself. It was hard to keep emotions bottled up, and if I remembered correctly, it was unhealthy, too. I let a bit of excitement flow into me. Or maybe it just leaked out- these emotions were pretty hard to control. Then again, they were Glacier's emotions.

"Geeeeeeeeode!" Glacier whispered, shaking Geode softly on the shoulder. "Wake uuuuuuuuuuuup!" I bent over Lacie- I mean Geode's sleeping figure.

"Yo Geode- WAKE UP!" I cried, remembering that I used to do that to Mike, my bro, when he was deep asleep.

"Ah!" Geode let out a distressed squeak of protest and shot up like a bullet. "What? What did I miss?"

"So far? A LOT." I grumbled, heading over to Bloom and shaking her shoulders violently.

"WAAAAAAAAAAAKE UUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUP!!!!!" I hissed in her ear. Her eyes flickered open.

"Eh- wah?" Bloom mumbled. She rubbed her eyes and yawned. She felt happy and bubbly, which was probably normal for her considering how strong it was. I helped her up, and Glacier, using my technique, woke up Darkness. I felt sleepy, but I tried to ignore it. For the sake and well-being of my friends.

...Did I really just think that? Oh god, what had Glacier done to me?

"Okay, so let's try and figure out this note." I said. "We should start in sections."

"I have the note." Darkness pulled it out of his pocket and spread it on the grass. We huddled around it.

"Okay," Glacier said, "Well, The first flower is not near is pretty obvious- it means the flower's not near here."

"But we're almost in the middle of America," Bloom argued in a knowledgeable way, "Does it mean it's on the outskirts of the USA?"

"I don't know, let's continue." Geode urged, she was feeling a bit annoyed. And I knew because I felt a bit annoyed. But the emotions were dying down. Plus, I felt annoyed all the time. Maybe that was a good sign...

"Gosh, I don't know why but I feel so gleeful today." Bloom sighed. "Maybe it's because this is a complicated puzzle."

"It's not that complicated." Darkness said. We looked at him. "Well it's not. See- across the sea your journey goes. That means either Alaska or Hawaii, since those are the only parts of America across the sea." I could feel embarrassment, but I was pretty sure it was mine. God- how could I be so absent-minded?

"Oh. I knew that. Well then, which one?" Geode asked, heat raising in her cheeks.

"Well the Spirit said they seek her light- so if they seek light won't they seek warmth?" Glacier piped up.

"Yeah, and if they're part of New Light they would like light instead of Darkness, and Alaska has, like, month-long nights, then wouldn't our best bet be Hawaii?" I asked. Glacier gave me a determined smile and nodded.

"But Alaska's closer to America. Or y'know it first islands are." Bloom added.

"True. It's pretty much a twenty-seventy five chance." We all looked at Geode, who had spoken. "What?" She asked.

"It's true. My money's on Hawaii." Darkness agreed.

The others all agreed, I could feel it. How these were in the form of emotions, I did not know.

"But question is how do we get there. It's, like, 3,500 MILES from here." Glacier complained.

"Hey- we could always drive there." Geode cackled deviously, taking small plastic cards from the backpack and flashing the shiny driver's licenses at us. I swiped them away from her.

"If any one's driving, it's the oldest." I said, feeling the urge to drive as bad as her.

"Which would probably be me." Darkness cut in, extremely annoyed that we would think that he was a kid, and that we were older than him. "I'm about fourteen in human years, but in Dark Years, I'm twenty-eight. As you probably guessed, Dark Years are two times your years."

"Well we're talking human years; in which case you are our age. And as for the driver I believe it should be the most educated in driving, speed limits, and the laws. I'm sure I could get us here in little legal trouble." Bloom gave us a gloating smile, and we all had to agree that she would probably get us in less legal trouble than if Geode did it.

"One more thing," Geode interjected. I groaned along with Bloom and Glacier. What now?

"Yeah L- Geode?" Bloom asked, catching herself quickly. This whole 'covername' thing was pretty confusing, especially since we knew each other before it.

"Can we have breakfast yet?" I laughed, as did everyone else. Time for breakfast. And, oh yeah, an adventure.