Mineralogists Discovery

The Mineralogists Cherry and Roger from the University of Rocks researched and explored numerous places and recorded the exotic rocks and minerals. Cherry specialized in writing the notes in her notebooks titled "Adventures" and "Mineralogy Guide". Roger, on the other hand, took photos with the digital cameras. By the time they finished their degrees at age twenty-four, they were on an adventure in the summer, where the pool of lava exists between the quiet mountains. Before they felt excitement, the Rock Community said otherwise. Nobody tried to enter and made a theory about the vultures, the prince, and the nonsense of the past. One title said, “Beware of the prince. He can control you!” Another article said, “He can kill you instantly when he is angry when you are ignoring him.”

So basically, the titles and whatever were the rumors. People made this up, but little that Cherry and Roger were going there. The truth was revealed about the obsidian prince from an Obsidian Castle.

So, yep.

Both Cherry and Roger from the University of Rocks discovered the largest pool of lava between the mountains, and they named it, the Lava Valley, which was near a cliff surrounded by cold and hot air. If these air masses combine, that would be catastrophic for the Mineralogists and they would end their adventure early and go home. But no, they continued onward until…

The vulture swooped towards them from the air. That vulture was not ordinary. It had gray skin with blue lines across the side of its body. It was like an enchanted bird from out of nowhere. Not pretty, though, because it called for attention loudly! Plus, its metallic eyes were shining as sapphires. It almost hypnotized Roger, who liked the color blue and shining things. By the way, the vulture’s name was Cobalt. This pet belonged to the obsidian prince.

Cherry snapped her fingers with anxiety. “You should look away!”

Roger shook his head and blinked the tears back into his eyes. “Um, what am I looking at?”

“You are looking at the vulture with blue eyes. We should move!”

Then, they moved slowly before the prince with short black hair with choppy bangs over his shiny purple eyes and pale skin. He wore a mixture of purple and black shirt with long sleeves and long pants, except the shoes were black. He sometimes carried the obsidian ax and the obsidian rock. The obsidian rock was never activated since he created it after his parents disappeared. This time around, he did not carry any item with him, just himself on the mountain peak, looking down at the tiny figures wearing pastel colors, and one of them wore a backpack. He grinned at the idea of knowledge. “Knowledge has finally come!” he shouted.

Roger looked up and noticed the person on the peak. He was shocked and Cherry stopped and looked at him with concern, “What are you looking at, Roger?”

“Just look up there,” his finger pointed at the obsidian prince, whose face went blank.

Cherry followed his finger and gasped, “We should go!”

“Right!”

Without a doubt, they escaped from a dangerous foe, the obsidian prince, who was still waiting for them to return to his castle. However, that waiting failed, so he allowed his pet vulture to search for them in the caverns. Meanwhile, the Mineralogists found the ancient writing and clues to the labyrinth in one of the caves in darkness. The maze contained so much stuff, including ancient writing, exotic plants, and animals that lived inside as a haven from the outside world. They were not happy when they found the humans. The explorers invaded their privacy. Then, there was a battle between the dwellers and the explorers, who wanted to take photos or write notes. But they were hurt along the path.

It was neverending of problems. Cherry kept on screaming, and Roger hushed her. Both must be quiet until they were safe. She said after the fight. “I do not want to be here with the animals.”

“Shhh, they live here. We do not live here. We have to get out of here,” Roger whispered.

“You are right.”

They stood carefully as the rat crossed Cherry’s white shoes. She screamed and the bats woke up and flew towards them. They fell on each other and stayed still until it was quiet again. Cherry whispered, “I hate my voice.”

“Just be quiet,” Roger said.

So Roger lifted himself. He did the same for Cherry. Then, they went to the opening. Both were alive and discovered the amber rose pen at the exit. The yellow sun heated with its energy and light the jewel, which blazed enormously, so the vulture from the sky flew towards them.

Not for long that the explorers decided to grab the pen and move forward and found the brightest city on the hot day, which was the Amber Castle. When the vulture missed by an inch, it called the obsidian prince from Obsidian Castle.

At the same time, the explorers crossed the road that led to the Amber Castle and were curious to ask questions. Roger took photos of the peasants buying, selling, or talking among themselves. The peasants got angry with him while Cherry looked for new clothes to wear and was able to steal the red dress with flame designs on it. The salesperson found her through the crowd as one guard stopped her and Roger. The guard led them to the throne room. They were told not to mess with their people and to have manners. The fire prince saw the amber rose pen from the man’s pants pockets glowing. He demanded the item from him. Without hesitation, Roger gave this pen to the prince.

The prince said, “You have to leave at once.”

Cherry spoke clearly, “We cannot become prisoners to the boy!”

Roger was next to her, a friend, explained, “The boy was our enemy. He wanted us to return. But we escaped and wanted to do our thing.”

“He was right about this!” Cherry agreed.

“Hold on!” an authoritative voice boomed the room. As the two faced the familiar boy, the obsidian prince. They ended up hugging each other for the worse. Cherry whimpered shakily, “We do not want to go back there.”

That made the prince angry. “You and you must come here to me. If you two wished not to, you must die now.”

They approached him, and three exited the castle. It took a while for the princess to ask one thing, “What was that now?”

While her brother stayed silent and uncovered his sleeve to show her the amber rose pen. She said, “Maybe, he was looking for this item.”

“But he took them instead of that,” she said.

An Obsidian Castle

It was created with dark purple and black obsidians. The obsidian prince designed the layout for this castle. In the past, he hired a group of professional architects to build his castle. Later, he killed them with an ax and used their bones to decorate the upper floors. Bubbles have seen some decorations put on display around the castle. Plus, he did not work for him. Instead, he wanted to help the humans out of misery the best he could. Back in the castle, the light never lit in each hallway. Some light appeared in the middle of the hallway. That was all that you see, and on each staircase, there was a brighter light, you see more than in the hallway. So yikes. The obsidian prince lived and was raised by nobody. He acted with power to control what he wanted for himself. His pet vulture Cobalt obeyed his rules. Nobody could ignore his authoritative voice. Nobody should run away from him. He could be friendly if they decided to. Despite his killings of architects in the past, it depends on his mood, though.

Without a temper, he was looking for smart people to decode the obsidian rock deep in the core of his castle. He was not sure to trust the runaway Mineralogists due to their lack of smartness. His guards were bulky and hairy beast-like creatures with horns at their heads and sharp claws. Guards wore metal armor and chains around their waists. Both do not carry weapons. They threw the captives in the mud. One camera was in the mud. Roger twisted the gear button, but it did not work, and the notebooks were dirty. Roger groaned over the camera as Cherry said, picking up the notebooks with her fingers, “They ruined our notes. How can we share--”

One guard slammed the gate at their ears and the guards left them.

“How can we get out of here?” Cherry asked shakingly. “Plus, I hate their ugly looks.”

“Calm down, Cherry.”

As she sniffed the air and humidity entered her nose, she coughed and sat beside him while he cleaned up the camera. Both tried for hours to remove mud. In the end, the second camera worked. Roger observed the viewfinder while standing up and found a blue and gray ghostly figure in front of him. The figure was waiting or standing above the mud. He whispered to Cherry, “Look!”

Cherry noticed it and said, “Whoa, that looked spiritual.”

Then, the voice boomed in their presence, “Give me the device!”

The prince’s hand extended toward them. Then, Roger protested wholeheartedly, “This is my camera.”

“Give me that device, or else get eaten by my pet Cobalt.”

Roger gave his camera to the prince's extended arm. Without hesitation, Roger fell on his stomach, and the prince left without a trace. Cherry saw the instance that her friend fell from a random movement. So she quickly helped him lay on his back. He said with his hand on his belly, “I felt a punch on my stomach.”

“We want to get out of here,” Cherry said with anxiety.

“Just calm down, Cherry. We have to… make a… plan… first.”

“We forget the warnings that the rock community said about the prince. We just thought it was fake news. We are stuck here for the rest of our lives!”

“Cherry, I know.”

“But…” her tears streamed down on her face. “But… it was too late.” Then, she coughed some more.

If they stay here longer, they will become weak. Bubbles, the ghost servant thought. I had to assist them. At least I can do that.

The obsidian prince carried the DSLR camera in his hand. He wondered what it was. He stopped at the tall window in the sixth hallway. The camera was on the window pane. He saw the button that looked like the shutter button. Then, he pressed it down. It clicked mechanically. His face tightened and walked away from the device.

A couple of minutes later, he came with an ax of obsidian to destroy the camera, which was not on the window pane. He knew it was the ghost, who took it from him. He commanded his guards to fetch the black device from the ghost. So the guards obeyed and followed the ghost into the next room.

Flash, click, flash, click.

The guards fell on the floor as the device moved out of the room to find the previous owner in the dungeon. As the prince stopped and found a room filled with his guards' fallen postures, he said, “You did not find the device nor the ghost.”

“It was too fast!” one of the guards spoke hoarsely.

The prince said, “You were distracted by their ghostly appearance, not the speed.”

Then, he turned as the door opened to the staircase. He knew where the prisoners dwelled. He teleported to the place and got the device from the ghost. He said quickly, “Do not try to give the device to them. I am the new owner now.”

The ghost disappeared as the prisoners had not noticed the scene. For a moment, the prince looked at the sad Mineralogists and heard Cherry’s voice with hiccups. He wondered if she knew him before. He snatched her neck with his hand. He looked at her in the eye. “Do you know me, miss?”

She closed her eyes tightly. Roger said, “Let her go!”

The prince looked at him without emotion. “If you two knew about me, why did you not say so? I wondered what made you look smarter than my guards. What made you look stronger than me?”

Cherry opened her eyes and froze at his cold stare. She remembered what he looked like in one of her dreams, looking coldly at her eyes. She uttered a word, “Community.”

“What community?” he asked, dumbfounded.

“They… made… a…” she tried to say a sentence clearly, but it paused between the words, so Roger took over by saying. “Theory and rumors.”

The prince released Cherry’s neck. She fell into Roger’s arms. His eyes were cold and sharp by now, and his voice boomed the walls. “It seemed like a ghost just entered your world and gave…” Before he finished his sentence, he left the dungeon quietly to his room and put the camera on the nightstand. He laid his back on the black bed. His arms were horizontal, and his legs were straight up and down. His eyes gaze at the ceiling, which swirled into madness.

“I disliked a person who told their community about my existence. I want them to be killed.”

Before Bubbles could steal the camera again, the prince stood and locked the door with the stone key. Then, he looked at the camera on the table. He wondered what it was. He never saw a black device that can click or make a sound of mechanics. He never saw machines before, just armor, weapons, and powers. Even rocks deep in the core of the place he lived in for twenty years. He took a deep breath and marched towards the device.

“What if this was a recording of the past? What if this thing advanced more than my powers? It was a pure wicked device in my entire room. My ax can destroy it!”

He lifted the ax above his head-- Suddenly, the flash was on. The shutter clicked immediately, so the ax fell on the floor. The prince covered his eyes and shouted, “You! Get this out of my eyes!”

Then the ghost grabbed the camera and tried to go through the door. The prince heard the thud between the camera and the door. He extended his arm and snatched the camera. “I am not letting you steal my device. I am the new owner. So you have to get out!”

The ghost turned around and whispered, “I am helping humanity, who have more knowledge than you.”

With that, the ghost disappeared. The prince froze while holding a camera in his hand. “Knowledge? My prisoners have more knowledge than me. They were smarter than me. Yet, you trust them. How dare you! You… you… you, that figure, my guards, and myself. We were not created equal by evolution. Instead…”

He put the camera down on the nightstand. Then, he lay down on his bed, looking at the camera anxiously. In his mind, the community would have known that I existed. “Let them rot!” he shouted.