This place had a strange… aura. The temple wasn’t big; but unnaturally quiet. Everything here was simply too quiet.

***

There wasn’t a single wave on the lake. And not a single plant in it, it looked like. Just clear water.

I stepped off the motor bike and parked it. The lake was probably about twenty meters in diameter, and I couldn’t see the bottom when I stood on the brim, leaned in and looked down.

I squatted on the bank and stared down at the mysterious, black water. That the water was black was rare in itself; the sky was blue and the sun shone.

After driving for so many hours, I decided to take a break. Therefore, I sat down cross-legged and watched the temple. Not a sound came from it, not a movement was seen inside. I guessed – or rather hoped – that it was unoccupied.

But it could just as well be a trap. What if someone laid in wait for me inside?

Or was watching me right now?

What should I do if I got attacked?

This time I was on my own – I didn’t have anyone to protect me, no one to hide behind.

Like Aaron…

I shook my head and got on my feet. I decided to walk around the lake, as I was a bad swimmer and didn’t want my clothes to get wet.

When I was half way around the lake, a strong gust of wind blew through the forest. But the water didn’t move the slightest. No waves.

A cleverer person would’ve predicted that something bad would happen, but I simply had to bow down and touch the water. It couldn’t be true that it just…

Something caught my finger immediately and started pulling me down. Before I could even realize what happened, half my arm was underwater. It was like the water itself dragged me down, like it had grabbed my finger. But the surface was still blank and silent, and I felt like the whole forest was laughing at my stupidity while I struggled to keep myself on shore.

I still had my right hand free, but my left arm was all down, and my mind wouldn’t work, wouldn’t think for me.

The trees were too far away for me to hold on to them, and my shoulder was being taken down. I started to panic, but then a thought hit me.

I stretched my right hand forward and yelled:

“Withdraw! Release me!” With all my might, I concentrated on commanding the ‘water’ to let me go, and I felt the Silver Ring heat up, before an explosion sent me backwards a few meters so I fell down on my .

The water was not black anymore; it was all clear, and water had splashed up on shore from the explosion, while waves still curved the water.

I slowly stood up. The water looked natural. Like it had been released – like me.

I looked at my left arm, which should be wet from being underwater. It wasn’t. But on my wrist was a band, and in the band hang a tiny key.

It shone. Faintly.

A bit confused, I walked the rest of the way to the front door of the temple. It looked old. It probably was old. The Sun Ring had last been seen 2000 years ago, and no one had known where it ended up after that.

Obviously, it was here.

I stepped up to the door and took the handle. Locked.

I carefully took the band of my wrist and took the key out. The unnatural silence was driving me insane. Something noisy should have happened by now. Not even the explosion made by me had made a single sound.

Shaking, I put the key in the key hole and turned it. Still not a sound.

I then tried the handle again, and this time the door opened.

I hesitated. I was still paranoid. If this had been a few months ago, I would’ve screamed and run away immediately. But now, I knew I had to go on.

There were no lamps inside, but light wasn’t needed. My eyes quickly got used to the dark, and I followed a small corridor from the entrance. It wasn’t longer than a few meters, and I soon stood in front of a small door. It didn’t have any handle.

I tried pushing it, but as I had expected, it was locked.

“What now?!” I sighed, talking to the building.

Suddenly, a voice echoed in the corridor.

“What is your purpose?” It was a deep voice, but where, what or who it came from was impossible to see.

“Who are you?” I asked calmly.

“I am not a ‘you’, as I am not a person. I am not a ‘who’, as I do not have an identity. I ‘am’ not, as I am not alive.”

Great. Riddles.

“I am Miss Y8, Coder of the Blazing Soldiers’ Organization, known as Wu Ying Jie or Gui Gui,” I said in a still voice. “My purpose is to find the Sun Ring.”

“You’re not the first to seek for the Ring. Many have sought the power of light, life and energy, only to leave this temple empty-handed. Or not leave at all.”

I stood still and listened to the voice, even though I was freaking out inside. I had to keep my calm.

“With what motive have they sought the Sun Ring?” I asked.

“Human motives. Greed, revenge, power.”

“I don’t seek the Ring to get power, because I’m greedy or because of revenge. I seek it to unite it with the other Blazing Rings.”

There was silent again. For a while. Until the voice spoke again:

“Only pure souls can get the Ring. Your predecessors have all failed, and have left this place as insane, even if they managed to survive. Are you sure you wish to continue?”

I hesitated. A pure soul?

I had always been praised for my pure mind, positivism and disability to see people’s bad sides.

But did I still have it?

I would probably not know until I tried. So I had to think of the risk.

I had lost Aaron. And partly Genie. But as my parents and my other friends still loved me, would it be selfish to them if I placed my own wants higher than my life?

Selfish. Ha. This isn’t just a want of mine. This is a requirement to save lives.

“I’m sure.”

The voice didn’t answer after this, so I just tried to push the door again. Still locked.

“Don’t be in such a hurry. You need a key to open this door.” The voice had returned.

“I already have a key, but there’s no key hole.”

“This key isn’t physical. The key to this door is a smart mind and a clever brain.”

I didn’t answer.

“You have to answer this simple riddle;

A boy called Tim once had a boat. One day, he wanted to sail across a river. There was no bridge, and the river was too deep to walk across and too broad to jump across.

Little Tim wanted to take three things with him; a fox, a goose and a bag of grain. But he had several problems. The boat was only big enough for him and one of these items. If he left the goose and the grain alone, the goose would eat the grain. If he left the fox and the goose together, the fox would eat the goose.

How will he get all these things to the other side of the river?”

I sighed in relief. This was the first riddle Danson ever told me, and I remembered it clearly. When I was eight, I had used two hours to solve it, and Danson had refused to help me. This time, I knew the answer.

“Tim takes the goose across the river first. Then he sails back to get the grain, and when he’s placed that on the other bank, he takes the goose back and leaves it at start. He then takes the fox to the other side, and sails back to get the goose. Done.” I just had to smile. “This way, the goose is never left alone with the grain, and the fox is never left alone with the goose.”

I didn’t get any answer.

The door opened as soon as I touched it. But the light inside was so sharp that it burned in my eyes. The light came from everywhere.

I decided to stay outside until my eyes got used to the light. Actually, it wasn’t that bad after all, it was only because my eyes had gotten used to the dark.

I couldn’t see anything inside before I stepped in. As soon as I did, I got a weird feeling. Not a bad feeling, just… weird. But nothing happened after that.

The feeling stayed with me as I walked further inside, and it kept me from getting confused. It was like I was in a trance. I left the door open behind me.

I now saw why it felt like the light came from everywhere. There were mirrors all around the wall, so it at first looked like the room was endless. The light constantly got reflected on the walls, but I couldn’t see where it came from. It had to be the Sun Ring – I couldn’t think of anything else.

But where was it? The mirror-walls made it impossible to figure it out.

If I hadn’t left the door open, I’d soon have been lost. I walked forward until I bumped into a wall. Then realized that the floor and ceiling was covered by mirrors too.

I lifted my right hand and said:

“Summon the Sun Ring.” Normally, I could make things like closets and tables slide along the floor toward me by saying this, but nothing happened.

I sighed. The weird, soothing feeling made me get on my feet again.

“Where is it?” I stupidly asked. No answer.

I closed my eyes. Counted to three. Tried to clear my mind. Then opened my eyes again.

Why do you never have sunglasses when you need them the most?

Suddenly, I heard running steps in the corridor. I was about to panic, but then recognized the voice.

“Gui Gui! Gui Gui!”

“Aaron!” I screamed. How could this be?

But… oh no.

“Stop! Don’t…” Before I could finish the sentence, Aaron had run inside the room. As soon as he stepped over the threshold, he bend down with his hands to his head and screamed the loudest I had ever heard him scream.

He fell down on the floor and romped around to his back. It looked like he was being tortured by hundreds of knives, as he twisted and turned around.

“Aaron!” I repeated, now completely in panic. The best thing I could do was to grab his leg and try to drag him out. But he was heavier than I thought, and I soon fell down on my knees and had to crawl the last piece of distance, while I felt the tears run down my cheeks.

His screams tore my ears when I changed tactics and decided to push him out, which was way faster.

Right before pushing the last piece, my eyes caught something right next to the door. I grabbed it and quickly closed the door behind us.

When we were in the corridor again, Aaron stopped screaming, but he was still breathing heavily; so was I. But I had other things to think about right now.

“Aaron! Aaron!” I kept yelling in despair. He had his eyes closed, but was still panting like he had just run a mile.

I was crying for the first time in a long time. The weird feeling had left me, and now nothing was controlling my panic.

“Aaron! Please wake up, please…”

“Gui Gui?” he gasped and blinked his eyes open, but then shut them again like a pain struck him.

“Don’t worry, I’ll take you back… I’ll help you up, come on…”

“Can’t… walk…”

“Come on!”

But it was in vain.

Why did he show up? How did he know where I was?

And why did he come after me? He should hate me by now.

“I told you only the pure souls could enter this room,” the voice from the temple echoed. Somehow, it brought me back to my senses.

“The Flower Ring… of course…” I mumbled to myself, and laid my hand on Aaron’s forehead, which was wet from sweat and hot like he was having a fever.

“Let him calm down… Let him calm down… Take the pain away…” I whispered to myself while concentrating. Aaron started breathing slower, but was still fever-like.

“Take the pain away,” I repeated, and continued mumbling until Aaron could open his bloodshot eyes and look at me. I helped him get on his feet, but he was still weak, and stumbled so I had to hold him up.

“Why did you go after me?” I asked. I half dragged, half helped him walk towards the entrance of the temple.

“Jolin told… that you only… did it for the ring…” He still had trouble talking, and had to stop to catch his breath again.

“Did what?”

He looked at me.

“Get engaged… To that guy,” I managed to say.

“Jolin told you?”

He nodded, and we started walking again. I felt something in my hand that I had completely forgotten about.

“The Sun Ring!” I gasped in surprise, even though I should’ve been clever enough to remember that I grabbed it right before closing the door.

“Rea…lly?” Aaron was breathing irregularly, but still managed to give a small smile.

I felt like the world was turned upside down. Seeing Aaron this weak, and still smiling, made me think that god was playing a joke on me. Now I was the strong one who had solved the mission.

And then… reality hit me.

“So… Jolin told you about the Gold Ring?” We had to stop again because Aaron coughed. He managed to nod.

“That you didn’t love him.”

“But I’m still engaged to him… you know?”

He stared out in the air.

“It hurt… in there. I thought I should… die. I would’ve died. Then… I saw you.”

I bit my lip. This was so unfair.

***

Preview:

---

“Gui Gui. I seriously have to talk to you.”

I froze and looked up at Alien with surprise in my eyes.

---

“I’m confused. The blue beam of light always points in different directions. Does the Air Ring have an owner?”

***

Heeeeeelloooooooo .

Oops. Didn’t update last week. Sorry :/ made an essay, and then my mind was burned out. Got too much homework during the week to write. It was also my sister’s birthday, congratz!

I hope you’ll forgive me (:

THANKS for the comments and THANKS for subscribing! I love you guys <3

Bubble asked about Show, because he was on the poster but not as much in the story; don’t worry, I haven’t forgotten about him. His role just isn’t that big yet…

Oh! Announcement! For those who haven’t seen it yet, my friend Gril4Life and I have started a new collaborated fanfic called Matter of Taste. Link: Winglin.net/fanfic/MatterOfTaste. Please take a look at it :]

Oh, I showed some people from a university in Shanghai around my school today (Gril and I took one group each :D) – it was so funny! They even thought I was pretty ^^, and asked if I had a boyfriend. I talked with the English-speaking of them about Show, yay :D And one of the (very few) students (that were with the teachers on the trip) thought it was cute whenever I spoke Chinese, lol.

Please please pleeeease comment and subscribe :3 My heart would be happy.

- Blitz