"Finally! You're home!" Rueben's voice berated Iskall's ears, reminding him that he was the only one who couldn't hear oinks. If he and Mumbo held the Overworld stone at the same time, Mumbo could understand the pig too.

"Yeah, sorry it took so long." Iskall rubbed his head as the rest of the group scattered to their various bases to get supplied for the next trip. Grian looked at Iskall with a strange look in his eye.

"Why are you oinking?"

"Oh, that," Iskall realized that Grian didn't know he was a linguist or a protector. "I'm a linguist."

"A pretty good one at that." Mumbo agreed. Only the architechs, Tango and Rueben remained at the base. They awaited the others to journey to the Aether. Xisuma was off getting the dimension stone.

"So how long are we going to be Netherites?" Grian shifted uncomfortably, tucking his wings behind his back. "It's kind of cold here."

Tango laughed a little before handing him a lava cake designed to keep the Netherites warm when in other dimensions. "I told you before, you will be a Netherite for a couple of days, if not more."

Mumbo turned and accidentally knocked over a chest with his tail, making it spill its contents everywhere. "Will the Elthers like us?"

Tango looked at Mumbo with apprehension as he replied. "Lets just say that our last king made the relationship between the Nether and Aether dimension, rocky."

"Oh for goodness sake."

Iskall turned in surprise as he looked at Rueben. Pointing a finger he exclaimed, "This pig stole my line!"

Mumbo raised his eyebrows but didn't say anything. He was too busy trying not to destroy his carefully placed redstone.

"Well, Zedaph surely could help us, right?" Grian tried, shifting a little. He didn't knock anything over because he didn't have a tail.

"That all depends." Tango narrowed his eyes and stared off into the distance. He was the only one who wasn't fidgety, but then again, he wasn't transformed into something else.

"So I heard that you are phoenix, Tango." Iskall said to the Netherite. "What's it like? And why don't you have a tail?"

Tango twisted his head to try to see past his wings. Snapping his fingers, Tango brought the tail out of hiding. It was magnificent, and seemed to glow. "I needed the Nether stone back in order to transform." Tango seemed to relish the feeling of his tail back. "It is very nice to be a phoenix." Tango turned his luminous red eyes and locked them with Iskall's mismatched ones.

Mumbo gave up on standing and sat down, tucking his wings and tail behind himself. "I guess we just wait for the others then?"

"Or you can die." A voice hissed from the shadows. The figure floated out revealing a spectator, Jumbo, now controlled by the poison.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Zedaph glided around his quaint town, waiting for his wife, Layla, to come out of the cottage. They lived a simple life, not usual for the Elthers. Layla was making sure her sister was okay with watching the kids while they went off the the capital city, Ryeliion.

"How does it look up there?"

Zedaph paused in the air, flapping his cream colored wings. Turning, he dove back down to the ground. "All the more lovely with you here." 

Layla was beautiful, more than the usually pretty Elther. Her beauty was natural in the way her wavy hazel hair was tucked artfully behind her perfectly pointed ears and her pale skin had a natural glow. If he looked closely, the little specks of gold in her chocolate-colored iris's twinkled. Her wings were a pretty silver, tiny dots of sapphire peeked through when she shifted the feathers.

"Do you have your insignia?" Layla's voice matched her stature, bold and kind. When she smiled, her whole face lit up with unspoken joy.

"I can't misplace it, now can I?" Zedaph laughed and brushed back his loose straw-yellow hair.

"I hate leaving the little ones behind..." Layla glanced back at their attractive cottage, partially hidden by an old oak.

"Dear," Zedaph gently hooked her chin back with his fingers. "They are in good hands. You know just as much as me that we have little choice in this matter."

She sighed and rested her head on his chest. "We could always move to where you used to live." Layla's voice was muffled by the caramel shirt he was wearing. A faint breeze tugged at her emerald dress and thin wisps of her long hair.

"That place is dangerous. I hope to never go back there again." Zedaph held his wife's head carefully, knowing she would lift it up when she was ready to go again. Choruses of birdsong rang through the air, reminding them of their task.

Layla lifted her head not shortly after and spread her wings to their full length. They were slim and and majestic as she was. Zedaph took the hint, spreading his own wings in return. Layla lifted off without much effort, while Zedaph took massive strokes with his own wings to lift of. Arguably, female Elthers could lift off the ground much easier than males.

From where they soared, a birds eye view, Layla and Zedaph could see far into the distance. They were flying below the billowy clouds and the sun shone its warm rays upon them. Forests and plains merged together in a blur and animals were just specks in the ever changing landscape.

"Ready to make the portal, Zed?" Layla turned her head toward him and waited for him to summon the portal. 

"As always, my dear."

Zedaph untucked the Aether stone from its pendant hanging from his neck. The diamond glinted in an ethereal way. Zedaph paused to concentrate and pulled golden light from the stone. It never touched his fingers, just hovered waiting for instructions from its guardian.

Layla watched her husband do what he always did, and when the golden portal was swirling in front of them, she dove through. Not a moment later, Zedaph followed her and the portal closed up the moment the both of them were through.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Jumbo didn't look like he usually did, and he certainly didn't act like he usually did either. Then again, Jumbo wasn't exactly known for making death threats.

"I have no interest in dying, Jumbo." Mumbo tried to appease his camera man. "And why are you like this, mate?"

Jumbo glared, his eyes not completely focusing on anyone. "You are a holder of a stone. I want that stone."

"I wouldn't try to do that if I were you," Tango growled narrowing his gaze. A tiny spark of flame flickered to life in his palm. Mumbo nervously glanced at his tail wondering if it would do any good in this fight.

Jumbo looked a little uncertain at first, then went back to glaring at Mumbo. "Give me the stone." 

Tango looked at Mumbo and shook his head. "Unite," He mouthed silently to Mumbo.

Triumph gleamed in Jumbo's fazed out eyes when Mumbo opened his palm. With the smallest of nods from Tango, Mumbo let the stone slip back into existence and hover temptingly in his palm. Tango hid his hand and let his ruby of a stone appear. Jumbo did not notice what Tango was doing, he was too preoccupied with the Overworld stone in Mumbo's hand.

Even Mumbo wasn't quite sure what Tango wanted him to do, but in sincrony, a red and green light shot from their respective stones. The colors merged and created a new light, stronger than the usual light. The maroon light glowed and hummed before it shot a blast at Jumbo, knocking him into a coma.

"Oh," Mumbo could only say as he looked down on his unconscious friend. "When will he wake up?"

"When we want him to. Jumbo is a threat until this poison is stopped." Tango let his stone slip away into its hiding place again.

Iskall looked back and forth between the two guardians. "Is there anything you can't do with the stones?"

Grian was the one who shook his head, looking wistfully at his hand. "The stones are unique and very powerful. They are not a force to be tempered with. Lucky for you guys, I have void magic in my blood, so I'm not entirely useless."

Mumbo looked at Grian with shock. "You're not useless, Grian."

Grian never responded, just pulled his dragon wings tighter around him and looked at the ground.

Instead of the group that had set out for supplies, only Xisuma and Xequla came back. When X was questioned about it, all he could say was, "They're dead."

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Kay, so a few things first. Thank you so much for 1K reads! That is so awesome. Thanks for supporting this book, it brings me joy when people enjoy reading.

Second, I'm sorry about the late chapter, I have been procrastinating and not motivated at all to do anything, so this is good! I'm working on the next chapter again, so I'm going to try to get it out by the day after tomorrow?

Third, I'm sorry I had to kill them off. They were fluff characters and I'm not quite sure why I put them there in the first place.

Lastly, I created a Slack room. It's where writers can chat and talk about characters. I also release a chapter there before I release it here, so anyone there gets first dibs. This is how to access it:

Wattpad is such an awesome community, but it is so hard to communicate using these systems. So I have created a way to communicate between writers. This link will only last for thirty days, but after that if I have your email I can invite you. Who else would like to join me on Slack?

https://join.slack.com/t/buurnbooks/shared_invite/enQtOTUxNDAzNzM0NTEyLWY0YmM2YmQ3ZTNlZjIyYzQyNTJhN2VmN2EzMjI2MDg5NGQ2YzdmNmU3MmIwNjE5N2MyZGU5N2I5Y2NlZDI1ZWM

Thank you all so much, and happy Valentines day.

Love you all!

-Buurn