14-year-old Ky Jefferson and 17-year-old Noah Jefferson have recently murdered discovered parents by an unknown being! They must avenge their deaths, and solve the mystery of their murdered parents! Will they be able to stop the Disintegration in time?
“Ky, Ky, KY!!!”, Melanie shouted as she shook me.
I jolted up and felt a sudden surge of pain pulsate through my entire body.
I yelped in pain.
“Ky! Calm down, the pain will go away shortly”, she said as she grabbed my shoulder.
And sure enough, the pain went away within the next twenty seconds.
I calmed down and caught my breath.
Noah, the old lady, and Penelope were all in a circle surrounding me on the ground.
I continued to catch my breath and calm down.
Then a flood of questions came into my mind.
“What the heck just happened, what did I do?”, I asked.
“You just used a Lightblast”, Penelope replied.
“Uh-huh, like I'm supposed to know what that means”, I replied.
Penelope and Melanie rolled their eyes.
“It's literally in the name, “Lightblast”, a blast of light dingus”, Penelope said.
I nodded my head.
“Also, why was the light brown? Every other type of Lightswifting I've seen was a blueish-white light.”, I asked.
“That's the one thing about you that we don't understand. So let's get to Ubar before it's too late”, the old lady said as she stormed off to the wagon.
Then Melanie stood up and extended her hand out towards me.
I grabbed her hand and she pulled me up.
As soon as I was upright, Melanie gave me a big slap on the cheek.
I braced my cheek as the sting of it pulsated.
“What was that for?”, I asked, still bracing my cheek.
“Don't you ever be that reckless again!”, she said in a slightly angered voice.
I sighed apologetically.
Then she changed her expression back to a face with a slight smile as if she has two parts of her personality. She could be all tough and mean, but yet she can still be sweet as pie.
Then she pulled my hand down off of my face, then kissed my stinging cheek.
Then she turned around and walked back towards the front of the wagon, and as she did, I noticed that she had a bit of a limp as she walked.
Once I noticed that, I yelled:
“Hey!”
“What? What is it?”, the old lady asked.
“Maybe Melanie shouldn't be pulling the wagon? Because she is limping, and she probably sprained her leg or something”, I mentioned.
“Ky, just shut up and get into the wagon, I'm just fine”, Melanie said as she put the rope around her to start pulling the wagon.
There was a small moment of silence.
“Melanie-”
“-No! Ky, get in the wagon right now!”, she yelled.
“No!”, I yelled even louder.
Everyone stared at me.
“You two girls, get in the wagon, Noah and I will pull it now”, I said as I pointed over towards the wagon.
“Ky, no, you're too weak right now-”
“-And you're injured!”, I snapped back
“Enough!”, Noah shouted as he hopped out the back of the wagon.
“Ky, Melanie, get in the back, Penelope and I will pull!”, he said as he was walking up to the front of the wagon.
Melanie stared at him for a few seconds, then pulled the rope off of her, and handed it over to Noah.
Then Melanie and I walked over to the back and got in the wagon.
Then the old lady got back up into the front seat, and pulled out her whip made of light and snapped onto Noah and Penelope's butts.
“Now, get moving!”, she said as Noah and Penelope leaped forward and started pulling.
?:??, November 5, 1995
I had no clue what time it was, or how far away we were from Ubar, but all I know is that we were on the road for a couple more hours.
We were still in the middle of the desert, and it was seriously starting to get hot out.
It had been quiet for the past few hours, and no one had said a thing ever since we started on the road again.
I was surprised that Melanie's habit of breaking the silence hadn't activated yet. And I was expecting it any moment, but it never came.
Since it seemed that Melanie wasn't going to say anything, I decided to break the silence this time.
But for some reason, when I was working up the nerve to say something, a nervous feeling appeared in my stomach. It was weird and I've only ever felt it when I was on a roller coaster or something and you're at the top of a huge drop. It felt good, but I didn't like it at the same time. I think you call it “butterflies” in your stomach or something. Then I've noticed that this only ever happened when I was around Melanie. I'm not sure what this meant, but it felt good.
Eventually, I worked up the nerve to say something.
“So, is your leg feeling alright?”, I asked as the “butterflies” came to an all-time high, but then quickly faded away.
“Yeah”, she replied softly.
I nodded my head as I thought about what to say next.
But no matter how much I thought about it, I couldn't think of anything to say. But then eventually I had an idea, a terrible idea.
“So, earlier today I overheard Penelope say you were “the king and queen's daughter”. So, what did she mean?”, I said with a sense of guilt.
Melanie tensed up as soon as she heard me say that.
Then she quickly flashed her eyes at me.
“Wait, were you eavesdropping on us?”, she asked with her narrowed gaze fixed at me.
Then the butterflies pretty much exploded in my stomach.
“What? No! I just heard that as I was walking in the room!”, I lied.
Melanie observed me for several seconds with an intense feeling on her face.
Then after several moments, the intense face went away and she seemed to relax a little.
As soon as she did, I relaxed, not realizing how tense I was as well.
Then there was a moment of silence again.
“Well, I might as well just tell you I guess”, she said in a low, soft voice.
“What?”, I asked curiously.
She sighed.
“So, I was born in Ubar to the king and queen at the time, who were my parents. But like before, when I told you that my parents didn't love me, I was exaggerating. They were just really hard on me, and I just say that because it makes me feel just a little bit better. But I learned Lightswifting at a very early age, because my parents made me practice every day. But remember when I told you that my parents worked for the military through the “Lightforcers Unit”?”
“Yeah”, I replied.
“Well, I lied, I only said that because I'm still haunted by the memory of what really happened”, Melanie said.
Then she paused for a few moments, then she slowly started crying.
That set off my alarm.
“Hey, don't worry, you can tell me”, I said calmly to try and comfort her.
That seemed to calm her down a bit.
Then she took a deep breath.
“So there was this awful day when Dillkongas attacked Ubar, and there was fire everywhere, including the Jillf Palace where the royals lived. I was about 8 years old and still hadn't mastered Lightswifting. But there was a big battle between us and the Dillkongas, and we won. But in the process, my parents were taken by them. And I ran away in the midst of the battle and ended up at where Penelope and her mom lived. And that's pretty much where I've lived ever since. And I haven't been to Ubar ever since then, so I've been worried how the people who knew me will think of me now because I ran away and didn't come back for the throne. And I'm also worried about my cousin who probably took my place as leader”
My jaw dropped in shock as soon as she finished.
“You know what?”, I said.
“What?”, she replied nervously.
“I think that's totally badass how you're pretty much the rightful leader of a city that is a thought to be a mythical legend!”, I said in a raised voice.
Melanie looked at me in shock and smiled.
I smiled back at her.
Then she scooted sideways, a little bit closer to me.
When she did that, those freaking butterflies came back again.
Then she rested her head on my shoulder affectionately. Then I relaxed and rested my head on top of her head. We sat there like that for a while and fell asleep.
*One hour or so later*
Both Melanie and I had fallen asleep in the same position as we were before.
But we both jolted awake when the wagon came to a sudden stop.
“We have finally arrived!”, the old lady shouted.
I looked around for a bunch of buildings and such, but it was still just a bunch of sand everywhere, and we were inside of a big giant sand crater.
And when I say big, I mean MASSIVE! It was about 5 miles in diameter, and it went down about 50 feet.
“What do you mean? We're just in a giant sand crater!”, I replied in confusion.
“Ha! That's what you think!”, the old lady chuckled.
Then Melanie looked over at me with her chin still on my shoulder.
“Just wait, you'll see”, she said quietly in my ear.
Then the old lady pulled out her light whip, and snapped it on Penelope and Noah again.
“Get a little closer”, she demanded.
They both jolted forward and pulled us a little closer.
And as we got closer, I saw this weird light occurrence where it looked like the crater was being twisted a bit and distorted.
“What....the.....heck?”, I whispered slowly.
Then the lady shouted for them to stop pulling. Then she got out of the wagon and waved her arms around a bit. As she waved them around, trails of blue light followed her hands, and the lines squiggled all over the place.
Then she ended the arm-waving with a hand gesture that she held out over her heart and then jolted her arms forward.
Then the distortion of the light lit up in a white-blueish color and the result of it made it look like a dome of light that covered the whole crater. Then the light dome disappeared and the distortion filter disappeared along with it. Then the city rose from beneath the sand, and up to the surface where we were.
My jaw dropped as the big mythical city stood right in front of me.
Melanie quickly looked at me and gave me a quick smile and looked back at the city.
Then as soon as the city was up to the surface, the old lady threw her hands up in the air and turned around towards us.
“Ladies and Gentlemen! Welcome to Atlantis of the Sands!”
