Chapter 11

Be Careful What You Wish For

The sun peeked through the trees shining directly upon the forest floor waking Zane from his slumber. He sat up and observed his surroundings. The others were fast asleep. Zane stood up and decide to go for a short walk, hearing the sound of running water nearby, he was sure that he wouldn’t get lost and would be back in a flash. He grabbed his bag and crept away.

* * *

Luna had risen not too long after Zane had, yawning and rubbing her eyes after the sweet sleep after their long night.

"Zane?" Luna called softly. No answer. She noticed Zane and his things were missing.

She crawled over to Jake and shook him.

"Psst! Jake wake up. Zane's gone!" She said frantically.

Jake awoke, but he wasn't so thrilled about it.

"What?" He mumbled.

"Zane! He's gone! I think he was kidnapped or something!"

Jake sat up, "I'm sure he's fine he probably went for a walk or something.” he said sleepily.

* * *

Zane was clearing his head of the nights previous events. Being pulled into such an adventure and to face terrifying monsters everywhere they went. It was a lot for Zane, especially since he didn’t want any part in this to begin with. He normally only saw these things in video games and all, but never in real life. He was beginning to question how real this all was.

He walked over to the river bank and dipped his hands in the cool water to soak his face. He dipped his hands in once more.

Clunk!

"Ow! What was that?" He hissed to himself in pain. He reached his hands back into the river, pulling out a fairly heavy object. He pulled it out and was revealed to be a golden lamp.

The lamp was so marvelous and out of place in this setting. How had a golden lamp ended up here? And how did it stay in such a perfect condition? The lamp had some sort of engraving on it. It read The seeker of this lamp shall be granted a single wish but, I warn thee, be careful what thou wish for.

“Hmm so I get one wish.” he muttered to himself. “I could wish myself home with Maxie, or wish we would get adopted, or even wish the heart of the fair-”

“ZANE!” Luna called from behind him. “Thank God I found you! For a second I thought you were kidnapped or something.

“Oh no I just went for a walk to clear my head.” He said clenching the lamp behind his back. “Hey Luna, look what I f-”

Before he could tell her Jake came through the bushes.

“Ugh.” Zane moaned.

“Hey, see Luna I told you he's fine.”

Since Zanes hands were wet from the river, the lamp began to slip out of his grasp and fell.

“OH NO!” He shouted.

The lamp started to bounce on the ground and black smoke erupted from it.

“AHHH!” Luna screamed, running back to the campsite.

The cloud of smoke formed into a genie. An evil looking genie.

“Zane what did that lamp say!?!” Jake asked worriedly.

“Oh it just said I,  ME, NOT YOU! Gets one wish!”

“Zane I don't think this is-”

“It’s NOT what you want, GENIE! I wish we would get to our destination faster!”

“Thy wish is my command.” The genie said snapping his fingers. Both the lamp and genie disappeared instantly.

“Zane what did you do!” Jake snapped running back to camp.

“Hey he isn't even running faster.” Zane whined following Jake.

Zane approached the camp that didn't sound too good. He pushed through the thick trees to come to a shocking sight. It was Luna. She was stone, a stone statue.

Kris and Amber turned to them with a look of horror, “Where did you go and what did you do?” Kris asked.

“I just went to the river and then I found a lamp and I wished to get to our destination faster and now I don’t know!” Zane said in panic.

“Oh no…” Kris sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose, “Genies are little tricksters. They’ll twist your wish around and then you’ll get results you weren’t planning.”

“What do we do then?” Zane asked worried. He hadn’t intended to have Luna turn to stone at all, he was hoping they would just magically appear at their destination.

“There’s only one way I can think of right now…” Kris checked the position of the sun so see it was now past noon and surely in the west direction, “Okay. So we need to go west until we reach the mermaid falls. Once we’re there, we can get the water from the falls and turn Luna back.”

“Alright let’s hurry then.” Jake said, rushing to pack his things.

Kris was just about to go and get his things when he felt his feet weren’t moving. “What the…?” He looked down at his feet and saw his legs were slowly turning into stone. “Guys!” They all turned and saw his legs were entirely stone at this point.

“Kris!” They all ran to Kris. They knew without Kris they would surely get lost.

“Guys! The mermaids will ask of something from you. Follow the sun to find them at Mermaid falls. Be there by sunset or they won’t come out to greet you. Hurry.” Those were the only words he was able to say before he was completely turned to stone.

“Look at what you did!” Jake shouted, pushing Zane back, “You turned Luna and our only guide through this world to stone!”

Zane pushed him back, “You wouldn’t have done any better!”

“Why you little…” Jake and Zane were now at the point they were rolling around the dirt fighting and shouting at eachother.

Amber ran over and tore them apart, the two of them landing on their backs on the dirt, “Now that’s enough! You two fighting won’t help. We need to hurry up and get to the falls before anything else happens. Pack your things.”

The boys glared at each other with intense hatred.

“Well what are you waiting for? Move! We only have so many hours boys.”

The boys reluctantly got up and grabbed their things. Jake muttered, “We wouldn’t even be in this situation if it wasn’t for Zane…”

“What did you say?”

“Nothing.”

* * *

After two hours of walking directly west, having to crawl over and under fallen trees, cross rivers and slipping into the water half the time, and having to keep away all the strange bugs, Amber, Zane, and Jake stopped to rest.

“Two hours and no signs of mermaids or anything...” Zane sighed and leaned on the tree, tired from their endeavor.

“Don’t worry. I’m sure we’ll find them soon.” Amber reassured Zane, although she was unsure herself. As the sun sank lower in the sky, Amber was beginning to lose faith. But the thought of saving Kris shook the thoughts out of her head quickly.

“First Milo, then Luna and Kris.” Jake said in despair. How was he going to make it to Milo without Kris? And the fair Luna. The girl that stole his heart, turned to stone.

“Guys don’t worry. We’ll make it there. Complaining wont get us farther. we need to get back on the road.”

“If someone hadn’t made a wish on the genie we wouldn’t have this problem…” Jake mumbled under his breath.

“Oh shut up already! I didn’t mean for that to happen!” Zane snapped, having enough of Jake. “I didn’t even want to go on this adventure and I was dragged in to it to save your brother!”

“At least I didn’t mess us up and set us on a whole other journey!”

“It was the genie! Not me!”

“You made the wish!”

As the boys bickered, Amber couldn’t help but roll her eyes at how childish they were being. Even she didn’t fight with Luna to the extent these two were. She looked towards the sun and saw it was getting closer and closer to sunset.

“Both of you stop fighting!” A ball of fire flew between the two, just missing either one and hitting a tree not too far off, causing them to silence immediately, staring at Amber, whose hand had a flame in it.

“I’ve had enough of this. You’ve been complaining as much as Princess and I’m getting pretty sick of it. Man up will you two? You guys fighting isn’t going to save them. You guys need to set aside your differences and work together, otherwise they’re statues forever. Do you guys want that? Exactly. Now shake hands and let’s get moving.”

As Amber spoke, her feet were already turned into stone, but she didn’t notice in lecturing them.

The boys turned to each other and sighed, shaking hands with reluctance. “Sorry man. Let’s go save Luna and Kris.”

“Yeah man. Let’s go fix this.”

Amber smiled, happy they were finally getting along. “Good. Now let’s get moving.” She turned to go but found she couldn’t move her legs.

She was now stone all the way to her hips, “Crap…” She hissed, “Guys. You need to hurry. The day is almost over. Find those mermaids and come back for us. Hurry!” The two boys nodded, and set off running west, not looking back at their friend who was now completely stone.

* * *

Sunset was just beginning and the boys had not yet run across any body of water yet.

Jake groaned, “Damn it where is it? I don’t even know what to exactly look out for.”

Zane could hear the faint sound of running water, “Wait. Mermaids are always in water right? I can hear the sound of water running dude! Come on! Let’s hurry!”

“I can’t hear it though…” Jake said, trying to listen for the sound of water.

“Follow me!” Zane broke into a run, running in the direction the water came from. It got louder with each step he took. “We should almost be there!”

He pushed through the bushes with all his force, only to see there was no ground ahead, but a short cliff that overhung a lake.

“AHHHH!” He screamed as he fell into the water.

Jake stopped himself in time before falling into the lake, “Zane!” He called out, not seeing his friend rise from the surface of the water.

Under the water was Zane. Strangely, he could still feel air going in and out of his lungs. What the? He thought to himself. He opened his eyes to see himself completely submerged in water, but he could still breathe.

Zane looked all around himself for any signs of mermaids. He felt a hand on his shoulder and quickly turned, seeing a beautiful girl right behind him, are you okay? He heard the voice of a female in his head.

How could he hear her voice? He looked at her legs and saw that there were no legs, but a tail. A sense of relief washed over him. He pointed up and where he fell from, motioning her to follow along.

A splashed occurred right by them and there was Jake, his cheeks puffed up as he held his breath. To his confusion, he saw Zane looked fine. Then he saw the mermaid. He gasped, forgetting he was underwater, and immediately regretted doing so. He swam for the surface, choking and gasping for air.

The mermaid swam as quickly as she could to Jake, putting her arms around his waist and dragging him onto shore.

Jake gasped and coughed on shore, glad he was finally on land. He looked over at the mermaid, amazed they finally found what they were searching for, “Oh my, you, mermaid, yesss!” He threw his fists in the air and fell back, laughing to himself in delight. “We found you! We finally found you!” Zane made it back to land, being almost completely dry as before he jumped into the water.

“You boys are not from around here. What is your business here?” She asked them, the other mermaids in the lake were peering at them curiously from behind rocks and plants.

“Wait. Where are we?” Zane asked.

The mermaid smiled, “You’re at Mermaid Falls.”

**Hey guys! I might be updating tomorrow, it's kinda questionable at the moment but it seems likely. Anyway, whatcha think guys? :D Any questions or comments would be great and if you have any ideas yourself we'd love to hear it, the next chapter's a little bit of a toughie. Is there anyone who likes to make posters? I'm thinking of maybe doing a poster contest for royal blood. What do you guys think? I'm thinking 150 karma points as the big prize? If you guys think its a good idea then please comment :)