O-okay. So all I needed to do was to…tame a crane, and fly up to the Spirited Lantern? Simple, right?
“No offense, but this honestly sounds stupid,” Chiwa snorted. “Trust me, Mei, I say we get outta here when you can, just like that old grandpa said,” he declared. I narrowed my eyes in return, and headed over to the flock of birds.
Wow. This will be such an ‘easy’ job, huh. Every single one of the birds looked identical. Making a mental note to curse the God of Illusions and the Spirit Lantern’s friendship, I headed over to the first crane of the group.
“Ow!” I yelped. It had bit me. Hard. But the mark it left was just a tiny little scratch. I jumped up, cradling my hand. I was sure I had felt the hardness of its beak against my skin. Peering at the injury again, this time it left no trace of harm. Li walked over, and she looked at my hand carefully.
“Oh my!” she shrieked. Her eyes were widened in shock. “Look at that dent! Chiwa, come over here, and tell me that you see the same thing that I do,” she told him. He trudged over, and gasped.
“What the heck?!” he said, backing away. “Mei! Your hand! It’s bleeding! Man..I told you leave already, remember?” he added. Li shot him a glare that said That’s not helping, dude… and hesitantly used a healing spell on my hand. Instantly, it felt better. I still couldn’t see any difference, but I guessed it was just the God of Illusions doing his job. “Thank you,” I breathed, and gave her a hug.
I started to head back into the crowd of birds again, but surprisingly, Chiwa stopped me. “Hey, look. Before you completely ruin another body part again, remember the riddle? Here, let’s take a look at it again.” Out of thin air, words started to appear in golden ink.
A golden piece
A silver string
A bronze diamond
And a stolen thing.
Use them wisely.
“M’kay. Got it.” I said.
“Huh? Already? Okay then. Golden piece?” Chiwa asked.
“The keystone, duh.”
“Silver string?”
“Mm…it’s the dragon hair.”
“Bronze diamond?”
“Coin relic.”
“Stolen thing?”
“Uh…no idea. Lemme think for a bit.”
“Ugh…now what?” Li mumbled. Furrowing her brow, she kneeled on the ground and cast a spell. But nothing happened. “Agh..looks like today really isn’t our day, Mei. Why don’t you go and cast a Floating Spell on the items we already know?”
Nodding, I took the items from the riddle, and cast the spell. I noticed a small hole in the tip of the coin, and strung the hair through it. But what would the keystone do? I wondered. Oh! Maybe the Seal that was marked on it!
I removed the Seal carefully, and placed it onto the “necklace”A bright flash illuminated the room, and the item vanished. It reappeared on the neck of a crane. The “chosen”crane soared up above, loop-de-looped, and swooped back down in a flash.
In a blink of an eye, I was seated on the back of the bird, and it soared towards the platform that held the Lantern. With powerful wingbeats, we made our way towards the rock structure. At last, my feet touched the sacred stone. But all I could think was, Who knew I could fly so high?