3 The Rock Marble
By: Inuki **Ookami**

The next morning they woke up, and Tyranoki was gone. The two began to talk as they got up.
"By the way Inuki, who is Zenaden?" Scorpion asked Inuki, rubbing his eyes. Trying to stay awake, and stand up.
"I don't quite know. Where did you hear that?" asked Inuki quietly. He looked down at the moist grass below him.
"The Electric Guild. When the roof caved in, they screamed 'Zenaden'." Scorpion said. Inuki shrugged with a reply.
"It could have been their holy god, or it could have been the opposite. Perhaps they thought that someone did that to
them. Perhaps they knew about the Rainbow Guild? That could be why their guild was underground, and so secretive."
"You don't think that they thought they we were Zenaden? Or that we worked for him, do you?" said Scorpion.
"I don't know. But if Zenaden is the one who defeated the Rainbow Guild then why was S.W. carved in the side of the
wall? Don't people normally carve their initials or something?" said an even more confused Inuki.
"Perhaps it is his title? Or group? Or maybe he works for someone named S.W.?" muttered Inuki.
"Hey, how do we know that this big tyrant, Zenaden, isn't a woman? Why do you refer to Zenaden as a him?" this shut
Scorpion up. The two continued walking until they came to a large wall.

There was no way around, nor was there any way in. So they both began to climb. Brick by brick, and their hands
turned gray with dirt. Finally they reached the top of the massive wall. As they looked over it they were amazed. It was
a decaying city. An ancient ruin. There was nothing there, nothing left. There was a whole city here, ruined. At least
twenty houses, smashed to pieces. All but one. It was a shack, if not anything at all. It had been a house, but was
smashed like the rest apparently. Although there were signs that someone had fixed it, and if it had not been for the
smoke coming out of it's chimney Scorpion and Inuki would have lost all faith in there being any living creature in this
town at all. As they slowly climbed down they were careful not to slip and fall. Finally they found there way down the
other side, and once on the other side they began to walk towards the house that stood at the far edge of the town. As
they neared it they were sure there was someone living there as they could see living potted plants sitting all around the
edge of the house. and they continued on walking until they came to a large wall.

Then as they looked towards the house Scorpion decided to knock. So he went up to the door and banged on it. A
child, no older than twelve answered. They were stunned. Scorpion asked if there was anyone else here, the child shook
his head no, and slammed the door on them when they began to ask about a guild. All the child would do was point
towards a broken building when they mentioned it. So they began to walk towards the strange building. They moved
closer and closer. It seemed like it was an ancient Greek building. It had two support pillars out front, the first was
cracked down the center, and barely holding up the roof, the second had been sliced in half, and so the roof lay
diagonally across because of that one broken pillar. In the back both pillars were cracked, and both had large chunks
missing from the sides of them.

They couldn't enter the building itself as two huge statues in the front had toppled over and were laying smashed to
pieces on the ground, blocking the entrance completely. They trudged slowly back towards the child's house, but he
wouldn't open the door. So they walked back around, and spent the entire day trying to look at some of the houses, and
find something to eat. This attempt was completely unsucessful, as whoever had raided the houses had also apparently
taken all items of use, and broken everything else. That night they returned to the child's house, and again they
knocked. This time he opened the door and finally let them in when they told him that they couldn't enter the guild.

The moment they got in Scorpion pinned the boy to the wall and Inuki made him tell them how to get into the
guild. He pointed to a door, and said it led to an underground tunnel that connected to the guild. So they let the boy go,
opened the door and found a few stone stairs. The climbed down them, and found themselves in a strange sewer. The
two walked along a strange path of bricks that was so thin they had to walk with one foot infront of another at each step
to move. To the right was a thick bubbling green liquid that moved ahead of them like a river, and to the left was a
similar bubbling ooze that moved backwards. This was like some kind of weird tunnel. Shadows moved along the
torch-lit walls, they were huge, ugly monstrous shadows, created by tiny rats that could be heard squeaking. Scorpion
let out a low snarl.

"I'm really starting to get sick of these tunnels." Inuki turned towards Scorpion and shrugged. Soon the two came to
the end and found a few more stone steps. As they walked up the steps they found the true chaos that had been
unleashed upon the guild. Statues of worship had been sliced to pieces and lay broken on the ground. Vases worth
millions of gold coins lay shattered on the ground. It appeared that no miracle was going to occur here. Nothing could
save this guild. Everything was gone or broken beyond the point of use. They could barely walk in the guild, the roof
had caved in more than they had thought, and they looked in horror as the place layed destroyed. They didn't even
bother to try and rummage through the mess for a marble. They went back through the tunnel with a sigh and came
back to the child.

"Where is the marble?" asked Scorpion.
"Wha-what marble?" shuddered the child in fear.
"It looks like this." Inuki pulled out his Ice Marble and showed it to the child.
"Wait. Do you have a small empty ball?" asked the child suddenly remembering something. Inuki nodded, and pulled
out the Crysalite Sphere. The child nodded and smiled slightly.
"That's it!" jumped the boy in surprise. He ran to a door and opened it. It led up a pair of wooden stairs. When they got
to the top they were in a strange, dark attic. There were no windows, but there was a strange window above them, in the
roof. There were millions of trinkets and knick-knacks here. Wherever the two looked there was something else to
tantalize their minds. A cat sculpture, a lion pendant, a box of clothing, a magician's hat, a broken wand, an empty
bottle of invisiblity potion. There, in the center was a huge, human sized statue of an old man. His face was like a rock,
cold, and hard. His chin was very flat, and his head was very squarish. His body looked very stiff, and he wore a long,
flowing robe. He was carved out of rock. He stood with one hand open to the left, and one hand lowered to the right.

"Now put that marble onto the left hand. I'll hold the statue's right hand and give it my energy."
"How could a child like you possess all the magic of an entire guild?" scowled Scorpion.
"Well, my father was the Rock Guild leader. We never had a Rock Marble, but before Terrace came my father realized
that he would. So we sealed up the door to this attic, and sealed the door to the secret passage. Before sealing the other
door to the secret passage he showed me how to open it, and locked me away in the secret passage for a while, and told
me not to come out for a week, because only then would Terrace and his army be gone for sure. So I came out, found
this house only partially destroyed, and fixed it up. Unfortunately I couldn't enter the guild as it was broken. But before
I was locked away my father stored all the guild's energy in me for safe keeping, he told me that one day some warriors
would come with a marble, and that I was to use this statue to put the energy into the marble. I remember that he told
me it was important to put the marble on the higher one. That way the energy from me when I take it's hand will go into
the marble properly. It won't work the other way."
"So you mean to tell us that you can put your power into this marble and it will really work?" asked Scorpion.
"Wouldn't hurt to give it a try." said Inuki.

So Inuki put the crystalite sphere into the left hand of the statue, and made sure it wouldn't drop out of the cupped
stone hand, and the child put his hand on the rock statue's lowered right hand. And suddenly the statue seemed to glow
brightly. The child's body also began to glow, the colour in his face faded, and his hand glowed brightly, as though his
life were being drained out of his arm and into the statue's. It released the rock energy within him, which he had never
been able to use or control, as it had been locked away inside of him for so long. The marble glowed a dim white, then
brighter and brighter, until eventually all the colour had drained from the child's body, and his eyes glazed over, and
were a dim colour. And the marble now had two mists, one of brown and one of green. Inside was a small rock.

So Inuki took the marble and they thanked the child.
"Are you sure you don't want to come with us?" asked Inuki
"No. I have my own destiny, my own fate. And for now it is to carry on the tradition of this old city, until I myself am
gone. This is my life, and there is nothing I can do that will change that. I will stay here until the heavens burn to ashes
and the stars cry for life." and Inuki and Scorpion respected his answer. The two left the city, through the back gate.
Scorpion grudgingly asked if he could trade the Light Marble with the Rock Marble. Since he had the Ground Marble
already he could use the two together, he had little, if no use at all for the Light Marble, as he could only use darkness.
So Inuki traded it with him, and soon had the Light Marble.

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