Leyland Adventures Chapter Eight: Part Two

With everyone focused and smiles vanishing, Lily launched the ball upwards, striking it with a fierce slap. The ball soared towards Rico, who was quick enough return it, aiming for Aradressa. She sent it back at Tysashi who then targeted Lily. Electricity crawled around her body as she met with the ball to return it with her foot, turning an innocent volleyball into a high voltage threat. Rico leaped towards it as he slammed the ball towards Aradressa, splitting the clouds. At that moment, Aradressa's eyes sparkled. A sudden shift in her mind caused her to unleash only a portion of the god-like strength she had. Her fist sent the ball flying towards the opposing team, it was too fast for them to counter therefore she scored.

"Nice one, but we can play rough as well", Rico slapped the ball with incredible force, sending it across the water.

The true battle now commenced as Lily shot the ball with her fist, Tysashi reflected it back to Aradressa, who sent it flying over a long distance. Rico managed to catch up with it, sending it back completely swallowed by water flowing around it, drawing power from the pre-existing water at sound breaking speeds.

"Try returning that!" He yelled.

With her mind swayed, Aradressa took deep breaths as spirals of flames orbited her body. As the volleyball grew closer, the more Aradressa became encased in her own power. This was it, now or never, the ball was just inches away and Aradressa simply held it back with her hand as her flames infected the ball as it was violently shot back. Tysashi rose up and remitted the ball back with his exposed foot.

The two went back and forth sending the ball back to each other as Rico and Lily just watched. The ball flew at bare neck speeds, completely sealed with fire. The area around them began to quake as the two exchanged powerful returns. At one point, Aradressa enveloped the ball in an orb of fire, increasing its size too that of the moon.

"Man, this is so much fun, Lennon would've loved this!"

In the few moments after that thought had entered his mind, the memories of Lennon had taken over his focus. His reminiscences about his brother made him shed a tear as a slight frown appeared on his face. Lennon was into intense sports and was extremely competitive, even when he lose, it was always in good fun.

"Tysashi, look out!" Lily shouted.

Without his knowledge, the orb that Aradressa had been forming finally reached its moon level size and was already impossible to dodge. The orb forced and dragged Tysashi along the water, constantly dealing damage as it deteriorated in size. Once the orb reached its smallest size, the reminding amount of energy was used to violently explode, sending Tysashi high into the air, quickly dropping back down only to get his head consumed by the sand.

Aradressa had ultimately came to her senses and realized that damage she had caused. She screamed out his name, flying towards his need as she did during their first encounter.

Tysashi was buried headfirst into the sand, only his wiggling legs were in view. Aradressa pulled him out the sand and from his emergence were two Seaside Seashells in both hands. Aradressa frantically apologized for her actions, afraid that she had ruined the growing friendship between them. As always, Tysashi was mellow about the accident, but despite that, Aradressa still felt as if there was a change in their friendship, even the slightest change would upset her greatly and with that, she continued to apologize. While the repeated apologies ran back and forth, Rico and Lily came to check on his wellbeing. Lily, however was especially concerned.

She inspected every part of his body for any signs of injury, finally squishing his facial cheeks while getting lost in his eyes. Lily sighed dreamily as she continued to squish his cheeks, later withdrawing herself from his face only to announce that he was ok with slight burns on his clothes.

"Perhaps this activity was a bit more aggressive and less romantic than I envisioned it to be, that was my fault."

"I was distracted, it was my fault."

Despite his words, Aradressa still insisted on laying heavy blocks of blame on herself, refusing to ever lift them up. As much as Tysashi tried to lift the blocks for her, the immense weight of guilt was stronger than ever, giving him much difficulty. Rico decided to leave the two alone to resolve the problem, Lily flew behind him, occasionally looking back at Tysashi.

"I didn't mean to hurt you again," she healed his injuries.

"It's fine, I was thinking about my brother. Besides, even if you do, I'll probably deserve it, don't hate yourself. It was a mistake and I understand. We came here to relax for a bit, come on, we wouldn't want to keep them waiting."

Aradressa nodded, following behind him. His positive aura infused with her own, even if she wasn't too happy about the situation. Though the excitement of reaching the next activity made her joyous.

"All right lovers, please follow me to the indoor hot spring area." Rico said with great deal of joy in his voice.

After walking down the sand paved path, a towering, macaroon rectangular building with two windows on each side stood in view.

"Ok, inside this building is a large pool of Aquiline's warm, stress relieving, and beneficial healing water, you two will stay in here while we prepare and examine the comfort of the next activities. Lily will come back to notify you once everything is handled professionally."

"That's cool, but who's Aquiline?"

"Aquiline is the immortal goddess of water, she's the most powerful user of the Water Element and the holder of the Aqua Gemstone." Lily responded.

The duo took their leave, Tysashi opened the door for his subsequent princess, inside was a area containing a lengthy rectangular pool, shelves with an assortment of sweets, a flat screen TV set upon the wall, and a bathroom. Ignoring literally everything else, Tysashi dashed over to a particular shelf holding a diverse collection of candy canes. He grabbed two traditional candy canes and handed one to Aradressa. Once in the water, he suddenly felt as if he was relieved from his sins and reborn into a purer being.

Aradressa soon joined him as she felt a similar pleasure. A blissful sigh escaped from his mouth.

"This is bliss. Oh wait, I forgot to tell you!"

With heavy amounts of impatience, Tysashi received the watch from his pocket.

"I got ambushed last night by creatures called Hobbits and this watch froze time and let me read their minds. They were working for Corcyra but before I could even learn about her plans, time ran out."

"Hobbits are extremely dangerous creatures, Tysashi. I'm just glad you didn't get hurt. Do you plan on learning about her schemes?"

"I'll try however I killed the creatures so there's nothing I can really do. All I know is that she sent them specifically for me."

Just then, the water began to rise in temperature. This was a sign of anger from Aradressa, which is the last thing the galaxy in which Leyland is within needs.

"Don't worry, I won't let them win. It's us against them, we're a team."

The water returned to its normal temperature as a comforting smile appeared on her face.

"Yes, an unbreakable team."

Tysashi returned that smile, positive energy circled them just as Lily had announced that the next activity was finalized. During the walk, Lily stood close him, grabbing his hand. Aradressa just watched her actions, knowing that she couldn't do anything about it. Shortly after, they met up with Rico.

"All right, now that your stress and worries have been vanquished by the soothing water and the injuries of guilt have been remedied, your next activity involves you two participating in a scavenger hunt that'll keep you occupied for quite a while. You'll be looking for a leaf with text written on it, a red sparkling spiral shell, two handmade ships in bottles with statements of love, the Crystal Heart of Truthfulness from the one who wields it, a pearl from the Love Lust Clam, and the Sword of Amyris from the sacred stone."

Rico gave Tysashi the map of the entire area of the beach with red X's hinting the location of the objects they have yet to find. Overflowing with exhilaration, Tysashi grabbed Aradressa's hand, using the unusually accurate map of Palm Tree Beach to guide them. Seeing the lovers taking their leave, Lily wished them good luck as Rico began to prepare for the final activity.

The two focused on the leafs of neighboring trees, only seeing carved text on the wooden part. Though Tysashi didn't think much of the carvings, Aradressa viewed one in particular, the carving read the following.

"Dex and Angel, a couple that has been through both Heaven and Hell, bringing many changes, but they always managed to sustain one thing constantly, their love for each other."

The text was encased in a heart. An invisible tear dropped from her eye as she examined the text repeatedly. More messages were detected by her eyes, each more beautifully written than the last.

A well-known shadow passed above them, looking up to see a group of seagulls containing the leaf with text and one of the homemade ship in a bottle in their beaks.

"Aradressa, do you think you could fly up there and get both the leaf and bottle?"

"I'll attempt it."

She elevated herself to the altitude of the seagulls, gradually approaching the seagull holding the leaf, stretching out her arm to retrieve the leaf. At the point where her fingers came into contact with the leaf, the seagull screeched at Aradressa. In response, she stood back. Eliminating the leaf from her mind, a seagull with the bottle was spotted. Similar too her past attempt, once her fingers met the glass on the bottle, the seagull screeched at her, but this time, a thought came into her mind. She was a princess, higher than any creature on the planet. With that thought, she secured her grip on the bottle.

Aradressa was able to successfully obtain the bottle, but this accomplishment would not last long as the seagulls assaulted her. In the mix of the violence, she released her grip on the bottle to which another seagull grabbed it. The collection of birds flew away after receiving their bottle, leaving Aradressa to heal herself.

"Despite my abilities, I just can't bring myself to harm them. The smallest of flames would injure them."

"I understand. We'll save them for last."

For now the closest item was the red sparkling spiral shell, Tysashi led the way to the shell, which was found sitting above the sand. Seeing the seemingly vacant shell, he walked over to the shell but before she could grasp it, the shell dug into the sand like a drill, reappearing somewhere nearby.

He attempted to grab the object again and the same result occurred, the shell relocated itself before it was touched, only that it wasn't just the shell, rather a small lavender-colored crab who claimed the shell was responsible for the digging.

Seeing his failed attempts, Aradressa picked up a nearby shell and traded it for the spiral shell, thus easily obtaining the item.

"Those kind of crabs feel vibrations underground so you can't walk underneath them. Not only that but they don't give up their homes very easily without a proper trade."

"Heh, wish I knew that earlier. Alright, now to find that clam, it should be underwater."

"Only problem is that we don't exactly know where it is and neither do we have the snorkels. Our only option is to find Amyris's Sword."

Tysashi previewed the map once again, now leading them to Aphrodite's Sword. With the map detailing the area, the next object was manageable to locate. In front of the two rested a slightly plumb sword with a silver inner coat. Seven carved hearts trimmed the sword from tip to base. The weapon was buried in stone with only the handle revealing itself in a field of edged rocks and marble statues of Amyris herself, a female fairy with ribbon-like golden locks holding her sword and shield.

"So I'm guessing this person was more of a lover than a fighter?"

"Indeed, Amyris always believed in fighting with your soul and not hate. However, she did keep a sword on her in case if her enemies wouldn't subject to love."

Grinning, Tysashi approached the sword and proceeded to try his luck in pulling the sword from the stone, but failed to do so. Even with Aradressa's assistance, the combined amount of their tremendous power wasn't enough to pull the sword from the ground. Tysashi rested his hands on base, analyzing the sword. Aradressa was in the same process, except she finished her analysis much earlier before Tysashi. She relayed that perhaps if the two share things that they add about each other, the sword would be more manageable to pull.

Believing her, he then admitted that he loved how majestic Aradressa's voice was. With that, the sword uncovered a part of itself from the stone as one of the seven hearts carved onto the sword emitted a light pink glow. Gasps escaped from their mouths. Once the truth was exposed, Aradressa began to share her feelings, stating that she admired his confidence, the way he vows to protect her felt more than satisfying. The sword inched out the stone once again as another heart was enveloped in a pink glow.

Tysashi then told her that he admires her concern for both him and animals, having someone that cares about your safety is always nice to know. Aradressa admired his optimistic and upbeat attitude, further stating that she fed off his positive feelings. The two continued to relay their feelings towards each other.

The weapon began to glow, Tysashi believed that this was a sign that the sword was ready to be plucked. The two unburied the sword from the stone, holding it high into the air.

The pink glow emitting from the hearts had spiraled light around the sword, the light shined to forward then decreased in height to a specific location. Our heroes followed the light, leading them to the previous area. The light shone through the water ever so magnificently. It wasn't until they both realized that the sword could be leading them to the clam, maybe it could also be the reason they weren't given snorkels. Just like before, Aradressa lifted Tysashi by a single hand and flew him to the water, submerging them both into the depths of the sea.