Crystallized Dreams: A Race Against Time

I just felt like making the chapter title rhyme okay don't judge me lol

"As much as I hate to say it, I'm starting to question how much we can trust her."

Katie and Michael both nodded at Josh's statement.

"It's sad though. She is your aunt after all," Michael said.

Katie gave a small grin. "But you saw how Elvira was."

"Heh, true." He chuckled.

"Are you saying that Jemica is evil?" Josh asked skeptically.

"Jeez no!" Katie waved her hands at him. "I'm just saying that we have dealt with an evil aunt before."

A silence followed. No one knew what to else to say. It was then they decided to just go along with their day. But that was proven to be difficult as Jemica's sudden hang-up lingered in their minds.

~~~

"You ready?" Josh asked Michael.

Michael nodded in response, holding a sword of blue crystal with both hands. He also wore a waist belt that had a sheath attached to it-crafted by Katie.

"Okay," Katie said. She and Josh stepped all the way back to the fence of the backyard.

Then, stretching his arm out, Josh summoned a statue of a knight made of dark blue crystal. It was wielding a sword and was standing a couple feet in front of Michael. Then Katie cast a spell that brought the statue to life; but not before enchanting it's sword to be sure that it could do no real harm.

"Begin!" said the twins.

The crystal knight's eyes glowed from beneath its helmet. It charged at Michael with it's sword aimed at his chest.

The boy dodged and brought his sword up to land a blow on the knight's arm. He succeeded in doing so, making a dent.

Yes! he thought to himself with a smile.

"Don't let your guard down," Katie said from afar. Michael could practically hear the smirk in her voice. Turning around, he could see the knight recover and begin to swing his sword at him. With nothing but a grit of his teeth he parried the blow, creating an opening for another attack. And so Michael pierced the knight's chest with his sword. Seconds later the knight went limp, then shattered before vanishing completely. Michael then sheathed his sword.

"Nice job," Katie said, clapping his hands. "But that one was super easy. Mind if we take it up a notch?"

"Sure, why not?" Michael said, unsheathing his sword.

Then Katie did something he didn't expect.

She enchanted his sword.

He was about to ask why when suddenly Josh stepped forward and materialized a crystal sword for himself, also enchanted. A smirk was plastered across his face.

"Oh I see," Michael said with a grin. "You're lookin' pretty cocky there. We took the same combat classes back at Red Fountain so don't expect me to go down that easy."

"Right back at you," Josh replied.

Katie cleared her throat.