Stones of fate

Trigger warning: Contains blood, Violence, And death

“I can’t believe they abandoned us. Axel said. He looked out of the window and into the cavern's depth. The precious gems seemed to glow a dim blue and green. The sunlight illuminated the rock face and revealed a swirl of pink, white, and tan. But the sun revealed only so much of the rock before the endless abyss swallowed it. We’re on our own. He thought as tears welled up in his big blue eyes. “What if we don’t make it? What if we fall asleep and miss our stop?” Tears were mixing in with his freckles and staining his brown vest. “What if we get the stops mixed up, and we end up several miles away.” He said rapidly while gripping the dark green armrest as tight as he could, revealing the stuffing inside. The sun began to dip as if it were getting ready for bed. A puff of steamrolled past the window as they crossed the bridge. And past a waterfall where the water barely touches the train. He got off his seat, revealing the teal and gold button pattern that outlined a star, and started to pass the dark brown wood floor of his cabin. He kept on tripping over his brown knickerbockers. Axel started to fiddle with the golden buttons.

“Don’t be so dramatic. And stop playing with those buttons; you’re going to rip them off.” His sister said as she rolled her blue eyes while staring out the window. Her sun-kissed skin blended in with the light. But axel kept on playing with the buttons. SNAP. Astrid whipped her head towards Axel. In his hand was the golden button. Axel looked up, and his cheeks were getting redder by the minute. Astrid snatched the button. “Look at what you did!” she snapped while fiddling with the button. The button was becoming increasingly hot in her hands. “That’s odd? Why is it becoming so hot” Astrid said as she stared at the back. It was glowing a pale green colour. The button became unbearable and started to burn her. Astrid tossed the button back. “When we stop, I want you to give it to the conductor.” Axel pocked it like it was nothing. 

 The wind blew the green grass, making it move like waves as the train passed over another bridge, with a river sneaking between like a snake. Astrid went right back starring out of the window, but little green dots streaked the sky and were moving at a rapid pace towards them. That’s odd she thought, but the quiet sobs from Axel made her turn around. “They’ll be there; Mom and Dad had to go ahead of us to figure out some business. So we’ll meet them real soon.” Astrid said softly. She got up and put her hands on his shoulders. “Why don’t you head over to the food cart? I heard they had saltwater taffy. That always calms you down.” She reached inside her pocket and handed Axel four pennies. A smile lit up his face.

“Thank you, Astrid.” He said and went out of the room. The thumping of his feet grew quieter and quieter as he ran down the hall. 

“That’s what big sisters are for,” Astrid muttered under her breath and sat near the window. She pulled out a letter with a golden wax seal that had a bear carved into it. She opened it.

Maybe I should take a nap. Bristol shouldn’t be that far.” She whispered to herself as she laid her head against the window. The vibrant colors of the sunset made it difficult for her to sleep. But after a while, her sleepiness finally won, and darkness took over.

CRASH. Astrid jolted awake. The sound of broken glass was screaming at the top of their lungs. What happened? She thought and looked out the window. The mountain's snowy peaks cut into the dark blue night sky. The clouds were hiding most of the stars. She got up and ran out of her cart. Men in dark blue leather vests that wore brass goggles poured out of the broken windows. The lights flickered as the cold night air rushed in. I have to get Axel! Her mind screamed as the security came rushing in. The men in blue took out knives, and brass steam-powered pistols. Security pulled out their own steam-powered pistols as everyone screamed and went back to their carriages. Security was being knocked around by the stampede while the men in dark blue shot randomly. Astrid tried her best to get through the other side. She felt like a salmon going against the current. Astrid fell to the floor as another man fell his face smeared with blood. Astrid started to crawl. People stomped on her hands. A security guard in gray fell to the floor.

“Bring out the automaton!” A security guard yelled as a spray of glass almost hit Astrid in the neck. She covers it with her hands. A woman falls flat on the floor. A door was flung open. Astrid looked up. A brass automaton slowly came out its eyes had a slight red glow to them. People rush past it, but the robot seemed unfazed. In its hands was a gattling gun. The automaton rolled passed a body. Five people pushed it from behind. A bullet sunk into its brass chest. The automaton stuttered to lift the gun. A flurry of bullets struck it. The automaton finally got the Gatling-gun into position and let out a spray of bullets swiveling side to side. Twelve men dropped to the ground. One of the bodies fell right next to Astrid, making her freeze her eyes as wide as saucers locked in with his cold eyes. A guttural scream emanated from her as she jolted up knocking the arm of a man in dark blue. Making him shoot one of his own. Another stream of men in blue took the place of the fallen. Astrid squeezed past the men as she tried her best for the food carriage, which was past all of them. A few men tried to grab her, but the hail fire of bullets from the automaton made them quickly forget. Astrid bumped into the back of one of the soldiers that whipped around. He had the same blue vest but had bright golden lines that lined it. His dark beard was braided with silver. In his hands was a floating disk. He snatched Astrid and faced her towards the remaining security. Astrid felt cold steel against her forehead, and she shut her eyes as hard as possible. She felt the air of the bullets flew past her.  

“Stop,” he screamed. His baritone voice could be heard over the deafening sound of gunfire. Slowly the gunfire hushed down. Astrid opened her eyes. She felt his hairy arm around her neck. She could feel tears in her eyes as she looked around the room. The pile of bodies almost made her gag. She looked at the other side of the room. There was only a handful of security left. Fortunately, most of the passengers had picked up guns. The automaton was riddled with holes, but the dim red light was still in its eyes.

 “Put down your guns and slowly back up to the next cart. “If you don’t, I’ll blow the heads off her one.” The passengers didn’t put down their weapons. “Okay,” he shrugged. “This is your choice.” He went to pull the trigger, but Astrid put her thumbs into his eyes, making him drop her. As soon as Astrid was released, guns started to fire again, and she bolted to the candy carriage.

“Axel!” She yelled as she bolted through. “Where are you?” She walked around and noticed this room was barely untouched except for the few stray bullet holes in the wall leaking light into the room and the mahogany table. Some lights were shot out, living patches of darkness. 

“I’m over here.” a fragile voice came from the bar. Over the top, some jars with candy in them were smashed, leaving glass scattered across the floor. Astrid went behind the bar. There she found Axel in a curled-up position. In one of his hands was the button glowing even brighter now. ‘It’s stuck to my hand I can’t take it off.” He whimpered, 

“Come, we have to go. Does it hurt?” She said as she pulled him out. Axel shook his head.  As they were going to another carriage, someone from behind entered it. Astrid turned around. There was the bearded guy and a few of his goons. They all swarmed Astrid and Axel, separating the two. She punched and kicked hard as they dragged her brother away. One of the goons grabbed Astrid’s hair and threw her to the ground. The henchmen ran as fast as they could to the other carriage. Astrid got up and bolted towards them. 

When she got into the previous carriage, she looked around and saw that only one security guard was left, and two passengers were still fighting. The automaton was behind them, leaking oil. The red light in its eyes was flickering. A man with a spanner was crouched working on it. The floor was soaked with bodies and blood. Axel was punching and kicking as hard as he could as a few men in blue were shoving him outside the train. 

“No!” Astrid screamed as the men finally got Axel through the window. She ran towards them and leaned out, grabbing Axel’s arm. The cold winds whipped her hair all around. The men pushing Axel outside grabbed onto her but got shot at once. A green light emanated from a swan-like flying steam machine. Its wings were flapping furiously. It was trying to take off. Men came from an opening on the beast's side, trying to pull him in. As the beast flew to the side, Astrid was getting pulled out of the window too. As she was on the ledge she felt her grip slowly loosening. In an instant she was dangling in the air. She was now sliding down to Axel's feet. The metal beast whipped around trying to loosen her. A deep cavern was below her. One of Astrid’s hands slipped off. The winds blew her like it personally wanted her to fall. Beads of sweat formed on her forehead. Her one arm trembled. In one agonizing minute, she felt the other arm fail and all of a sudden she was free-falling into the maw of the cave.   Tears filled her eyes. Everything was getting smaller and smaller until nothing but consuming blackness. She closed her eyes one last time and prayed. 

Astrid slowly opened her eyes. The roof was covered in stalagmites that were dripping glowing water that was a mix of blue and white on her face. She slowly sat up and looked around. She was waist deep in the bioluminescence. Her hair and clothes were drenched in water. She checked herself to see if there were any bruises or cuts. There were huge gashes on her hands that stained the water. When she felt the side of her ribs a sharp pain emerged from there. Astrid looked all around her, but she was met by darkness except for small pools of glowing water. The smell of rain emanated in the air. “Hello?” She called out. Out of one of the pools emerged a very pale lady. Her eyes shined a very dim blue. Astrid looked straight at her mouth agape trying to understand what was happening. She tried to get up, but the pain was to agonizing, and she fell down.  She began to crawl to escape. The pale lady started to rush over to her. Astrid gripped a rock at the bottom of the pool, ready to fight. 

“Are you okay?” She asked. Astrid whipped around a fire was in her eyes. The lady stepped back, and her eyes were wide. “I’m not trying to hurt you. I put you into this pool to heal you. Look at your hands.” Astrid looked at them. They had stopped bleeding, and the cut was starting to close up. “I saw you fall from the sky from the metal cygnet. You were banged up pretty bad.” 

“Thank you,” Astrid muttered. “I was trying to save my brother from the men in blue.”  Astrid stared deep into the eyes of the stranger, and she realized that her pupils were like a cat’s pupils. And her hair was pale like the moon.

“ You mean the Caelum tribe? Why would they go after your brother?” 

“Maybe because he had a green glowing button.” She shrugged. “My name is Astrid by the way.” Astrid extended her hand. 

“Terra.” She pulled Astrid up. Astrid winced a little. “If your brother is in danger if he has the rutilans stone. Then he’s in danger. I can get my star duster before anyone in my tribe knows, and we could get your brother.” 

“That’s awesome. Why is he in danger?” Astrid said as they both ran towards a wall. 

“Because that is the only way the Caelums can activate their ultimate weapon.” Terra started to ascend the wall.

“And what is that?” Astrid grunted as she followed.

“ The Idea to awaken their god Calidum who will vaporize all the water on earth, making billions die of thirst. And he can only do that with the stone that your brother has.” 

“Why don’t they rip the stone out of his hand?” Astrid said as they got to the top of the cliff.  Where there was a bronze flying machine in the shape of a hummingbird. With glass eyes

“Your brother has to agree to awaken the god. You can stop this by confessing a secret before midnight.” Terra touched one side of the star duster warming it up and leaving a handprint. A low humming emanates from it. Terra lifted one of the glass eyes and hopped in. “Come on, we have to get going.” The other eye popped up, and Astrid hopped in. Inside was patted with red leather. The eyes slowly descended as the wings started to flap. The star duster slowly turned upward towards the stars. “Are you ready?”  Terra said, turning towards ​​Astrid, a smile spread across her face. In a split second, they were launched into the air. 

Fear spread over Astrid’s face as the star whipped past her. She looked over to Terra, and a huge smile spread over her face. As they got further into the night sky, Astrid noticed a new star that was glowing a very dim green. The star duster was heading right for it. Astrid closed her eyes. Oh, god, we’re going to die. She thought as they got closer to it. But she opened her eyes, and they were, engulfed by a brilliant light. 

It wasn’t a star. It was a secret base. Huge dome palaces were everywhere, and hovering over it all was a giant man in a fetal position wearing nothing but a loin cloth. A sharp jolt shoved Astrid into the window. 

“ It’s them,” Terra said, gritting her teeth. As she tried to maneuver past a barrage of fireballs. “Go get your brother while I distract these guys. “ She said as she took a drastic dive that made her go so fast that no one could follow her. Terra quickly stopped at one of the walkways, so Astrid could get out. As soon as she did, the Caleum’s where right on her tail again And she took off. Astrid ran towards the buildings sneakily checking each one trying not to get noticed. But Terra provided a great distraction. It seemed like forever, and Astrid was slowly losing hope. Until she heard crying coming from the bottom of the stairwell. She bolted down the slimy stairs. In the corner of the dark, damp rooms were a dim glowing green light and quiet sobbing. Astrid ran over to the source. “Axel, it’s me.” She yelled and ran over to him. She cupped his face and saw that he had a cut lip, a black eye, and a few bruises on his face Astrid gave him a big hug. The green gem was on the ground. Astrid picked it up and rushed up the stairs. When they were out, she held the gem up like a beacon. Explosions filled the sky as the star duster flew straight at them. But two of the swan machines were in hot pursuit. The star duster screeched towards them and abruptly stopped. One of the eyes flew open. 

“Get in!” Terra yelled over the explosions. Both of them jumped in and Terra immediately took off. Both of the swan machines were in hot pursuit. She flip some switches and Astrid and Axel started floating. They were falling faster and faster. Astrid looked out of the window and saw the ground coming closer and closer. The Caelum’s were coming closer and closer. Terra Started to flip some switches. Instantly Astrid and Axel fell to the floor as the star duster instantly stopped. The Caelum’s flew past them and crashed into the ground creating a huge fireball 

“Alright let's get you home.” Terra said exhausted. She slowly got up in the air as Astrid got up and stumbled towards Terra.

“Thank you for that.” she said “We are going to a town called Bristol. 

Terra slowly nodded “I know where that is.” And slowly flew to Bristol.

When they got there Sunlight poured into the cockpit. Terra turned towards Astrid ”We’re here.” She said Astrid and Axel got up. “You should hand me the stone. I can destroy it.” Axel gave her the stone and one of the eyes opened up. Axel and Astrid jumped out. In the distance was a man and a woman. 

“Goodbye.” Axel and Astrid said while running towards their parents.