Hyperspace Adventures Book 26 : Midnight Gale

• Addiden Zhao
• Short Story
• 2022

It was days until the Lell and Ben had reached the ancient area known as the Forests of Resent. It was an area with dense fog and extremely thick trees. There was a myth that told of the forests being cursed. Suddenly, Ben saw the place they were looking for : one of the Shrines to the Four Wise Men. They cautiously stepped in. It was the Shrine of Balance. There were scales on the crystal table. Ben stepped forward and then, the two Orbs he had began to shine. Ben saw a scroll of paper on the desk. He already knew what it would say. It would talk about how the Four Wise Men were defeated by the Emperor. He felt sickened from the feeling. For comfort, he touched the Purity Orb and suddenly, he was calm. And then, he noticed another piece of paper by the scales. Curious, Ben picked it up and read aloud :
"The Orb of Balance is what you seek. You must enter the back of the shrine and defeat the Tea Bee. No luck to you, scallywag! Signed, the Emperor." The Lell seemed to shudder as they opened the door at the back of the Shrine and entered. There was a waft of something incredibly foul-smelling. It was Tea Bee's extremely disgusting type of tea unfortunately named 'The Tea of the Darkness'. Then, the Tea Bee stepped forwards, muttering. Ben had never seen the Tea Bee before but she was incredibly old and her skin was like an elephant's hide. She stumbled forward, peering at the Lell and Ben before smiling with her horrid set of yellow fake teeth. "Well, well, well, Ben. I knew you would come seeking for the Balance Orb as the Emperor said. He told me to fight you but I am too old. I am 60,000 years old. I cannot fight you. So, instead of fighting you, I have hid the Orb somewhere and I have hired an extremely powerful guardian to well, guard it. You will go through 2 trials before I show you where to hunt for the Orb. Then, you may claim the Orb. Is that clear?" asked Tea Bee. Ben nodded with shock that Tea Bee was unwilling to fight. Then Tea Bee grinned horribly, saying that the Guardian was extremely powerful before she cackled like a maniac. "The first trial is right in this room. You smell my Tea of Darkness? Well, you must find all of the cups and dip it into this big jar. You are to get 3 litres of Tea or you fail the trial. I'll tell you this : all of the tea combined is only 2.5 litres. Have fun being dissolved!" cackled Tea Bee, laughing at her genius. Ben rolled his eyes before he and the Lell began collecting the cups and pouring it into the jug. Soon enough, they had got all of the Tea and had reached 2.5 litres. Then Ben had a great idea! He found several stones and began dipping them into the jug. This would increase the height of the Tea and Tea Bee would think Ben got 3 litres. But however Ben tried, the tea did not go 1 millimetre higher at all. The Lell suddenly spoke into his mind. 'The Tea is contaminated with Darkness, therefore dissolving the rocks you put in. Only a liquid can raise the height.' Then the Lell burped, opened its mouth and a small stream of water flew from his mouth. It plopped into the jug and raised the tea to 3 litres. The Tea Bee then looked around and her jaw dropped. Ben and Lell had passed the first trial. Then, the Tea Bee led them outside to the forests and spoke, "Now, now. Don't get too overexcited about your first victory. This is the second trial. Listen carefully. There are 47 trees here. 12 are plum trees and 35 are poisonous octopus trees. Collect 24 plums and poison them. This is the easier challenge. Understood?" instructed the Tea Bee. The Lell and Ben both nodded before venturing out. The Lell spoke into his mind : 'She is lying. There are no poisonous octopus trees in this segment of the Forests. There are only plum trees and the only way to poison them is by contaminating them with the insects known as Ritual Ants. Look there. OK, so now we have enough plums. Just have to find the Ritual Ants now.' Ben then looked at another weirdly shaped tree. It wasn't a tree at all! It was millions of Ritual Ants, shaped like a tree. Ben threw all the plums at them and soon, the plums were poisoned. But he could not get the Ritual Ants away from the plums and soon, they would have eaten up all the plums. Then, the Lell once again spoke to him in his mind. 'The Ritual Ants are extremely attracted to Ritual Pods. And Ritual Pods are only found here. Collect them from that tree.' Hurriedly, Ben took 5 pods and threw it into the air. Suddenly, the Ants ran from the plums to the pods as they fell. Ben collected the Poisoned Plums into a basket and they showed it to the Tea Bee who, once again, was shocked. Then, the Tea Bee led them to a round clearing with a hole in it and Ben saw the sparkling of the Balance Orb. Then, Tea Bee said, "I will go now. Claim the Orb but watch out as the Guardian is immensely powerful." With that, she stalked off. Ben rushed for the Orb but before he could reach it, the hole shuddered and a tree exploded out of it. The tree was cursed! The Lell sprang into action, blasting beams of Light at the Cursed Tree. However, the Tree was immensely defensive and however strong the beams were, the Cursed Tree managed to withstand the blows. Then, the Cursed Tree rumbled before making all the other trees around them use their roots and vines to grab onto Ben and the Lell. They were trapped. The Cursed Tree made a laughing noise and jumped. From the jump, the Orb rolled of its podium onto the Cursed Tree, killing it and defeating it. The Cursed Tree vanished and the vines and roots also disappeared. Ben staggered to the Orb and picked it up. It was lush green with specks of yellow and engraved on it was an E. It seemed to glow as Ben touched it. Then, willpower and balance rushed into Ben. Three of the Orbs had been claimed. One remained. The Lell and Ben continued travelling to the Shrine of Strength. But then, they trampled to the Channel of Midnight and gales of Darkness were flying around them. It was a Midnight Gale.







TO BE CONTINUED