News flashed to the Eternals---people who keep the five elements in balance---that two of them had been assassinated in separate places.

The water Eternal Naomi was deemed dead by a single shot of void magic within just seconds. No one knows how she was killed, or how the assassin got void magic. Void magic is illegal; it's banned everywhere due to its potential to destroy the world that not even the kings, queens, and aristocrats were permitted to use it. The worse thing is that even up to this hour, even the most powerful of wizards in the Kingdom of Nalim couldn't figure out who killed her, and how, and why.

But that didn't stop there.

Later that same, fateful day, this time in the Republic of Aarhus, in the city that bore the same name, with speeds that are comparable to how fast the word of Naomi's assassination was, word about the fire Eternal, who went by Glitch, was also assassinated, almost in the same manner as how Naomi died. And like with Naomi, the powerful wizards of Aarhus couldn't figure out how he was killed.

But to the wizards of Aarhus, both assassinations was certainly not a good sign. But the Eternals knew better.

Miles away from both the Republic of Aarhus and the Kingdom of Nalim, on a land overgrown with colorful tulips, with towering windmills swivelling along the starry sky, Leo's brown cloak touched the green grass that slapped his feet as the wind blew. As much as he would've loved to stop by and let the smell of earth enter his nostrils, he couldn't. He had to find the bones of. . . he forgot the name, but it has been said to do magical things, and he was told that it was here on the Land of Tulips--- Golland.

But where the heck is that bone? He doesn't know. In fact, almost no one knows. Although a couple references acknowledge its existence, no one knows exactly where it was, as it was forgotten, generation by generation. All that Leo knew was that it was in Golland, near the border of Schwarzy.

And they have to find it first. Or else, the world will spiral out of balance.

"Magical bones, where are you. . ." His eyes darted around, his gut telling him that it was around here somewhere.

He raised his hand, as if he was making something appear out of the ground.

Fissures appeared on the ground as bits of mud levitated. Then came rocks, and fragments of the ground, bringing with them the tulips, floating. However, more earth greeted him except a particular area.

This area that I'm talking about was a cave, with stalactites and stalagmites dominating both the ceiling and floor. As Leo came closer, purple light glowed inside the cave.

"This must be it. . ." he said, referring to almost no one but the cave itself. Leo entered the cave, took his cloak off a piercing stalagmite. The purple light grew even brighter. And brighter as he got even closer to the end of the tunnel. But at the end of the tunnel laid a pile of bones, surrounded by shiny, star-shaped, purple particles.

He had found it. The Bones of--- whatever, he still forgot. He got it, anyway.

But out of nowhere---at least that's what he thought, dark waves struck the cave walls. Leo turned around. A mysterious man, concealed by his long, black cloak with a hood on top, only revealing his white gloves.

"Give me the bones or die."

"No." He extended his arm towards him, the floating pieces of earth hurled towards him. However, the man blocked it, summoning a sphere of void that circled around him.

"Then die." Although motionless, the mysterious man threw (without his arms moving) small spheres of darkness towards Leo. Leo successfully cast a wall of rocks just before the magic hit him.

"You killed Naomi and Glitch, didn't you?!"

"Yes. Last chance. Give the bone or die." He raised his finger. Around it swiveled a disk of void magic.

"Over my dead body." Leo then twisted a big stalagmite to pierce him. However, the man cast a shadow portal, his stalagmite ending up an inch behind its caster.

Leo floated above the ground, a couple feet off the ground. He plucked off a big piece of earth and let it rain against the man. But he felt himself going really fast, the wind sailing past him faster than usual.

* * * * *

"Andrew, Leo's coming. Have you prepared the ritual already?"

"Did. And nice to know Leo's coming. The cold is killing me. . ."

"We're in the Northern Island. Of course it's going to be cold."

"You only say that because you used to live in Nedews. You used to deal with the cold normally."

Ry closed her eyes and focused, commanding the winds to carry Leo to the Northern Island all the way from Golland. You may wonder, and probably even figured out already---how is she controlling the wind?

The answer's really simple. I don't have to say it. Comment the answer here if you figure it out though.

As soon as she sensed Leo's presence near the island, the scent of distant ash entered her nostrils. Leo landed near her, on top of the ground carpeted with snow.

"I got the bones, Ry." He gave her the bones of. . . uh. . . whatever the heck was that. He then sighed. "Almost got killed in the process."

More ash, carried by her winds, entered her nostrils. She walked to where they were should be. Leo and Andrew, both shivering, placed the mystical items people thought were originally fiction. But she knew about the items. . . perhaps even longer before Leo and Andrew found out, because she had been a victim before---assassinated in almost the same way as how the mysterious witch/wizard assassinated Naomi and Glitch. But thanks to Naomi and Glitch, she was brought back, and brought the world stable once again.

But now with Naomi and Glitch gone, the world is slowly turning into hell again. The scents of ashes that entered her nostrils was a painful reminder that the world is falling apart.

Without Glitch, volcanoes would erupt out of control, and wildfires will spread everywhere. In fact, she knows it's currently happening somewhere on the Isle of Frost. And it will only get worse minute by minute as long as Glitch was gone. And then there was Naomi, whose absence would mark extreme flooding and tsunamis, droughts in unlikely places possible.

She knew, because Glitch and Naomi actually told her themselves, before they had encountered Leo and Andrew. They had told her that once an Eternal dies, the element that he/she controls will spiral out of control and eventually leave the world in ruins. Not to mention that she had been assassinated once and got resurrected by the fallen duo again and saw that almost all roofs were blown away and forests were on the brink of being uprooted.

"Ry, what to do next?" Andrew yelled from the altar. "We have placed all of the items on this thing!"

And now, it's time for her to repay the favor she owed the fallen duo a long time ago.

Looking over the altar, she racked her brain to try and remember what Glitch and Naomi had used to resurrect her. She realized something was missing.

"Wait, we're missing something! I remember now that they used Rune Candles, candles that can only be crafted from runes. I forget why they're necessary, but they are." Ry told the other two.

Andrew sighed, "where can we find them?" He shivered even more.

"I remember something about them being crafted in a church on top of a mountain," Ry muttered. "Naomi used to burn them, since they smelled so nice, and she took me along when she went to get more one time. Unfortunately, she stopped burning them a long time ago, so she wouldn't have any in the castle."

Leo pulled his cloak tighter around himself as he asked, "and where exactly would this church be?"

"Somewhere in this mountain range, if I remember correctly."

"What's the name of this mountain range again?"

Ry narrowed her eyes. "The Mountains of Leo-Being-Silly," she said sarcastically.

"Why are they called that?"

At this point, Andrew was looking back and forth between the two as they exchanged words, seemingly entertained, at least for the moment.

"Because you're being sooo serious." She said with yet more sarcasm.

"Why am I being serious?"

"Because I dunno."

"Why do you not know?"

Ry wanted to crack up, since Leo did this sometimes, and it was honestly entertaining. "Because I refuse to answer a real answer, since we need to be serious."

"Why-"

"Just stop. We can have this conversation later."

Leo was silent.

"Anyways," Andrew jumped in, "who's gonna go find them then?"

"It should be me," they all said in unison.

They all looked at each other, and Ry said, "Leo, you just got the Bones of Indiana. You need to get a break."

He sighed. "I guess that's true."

"Besides," she looked at the setup for the ressurection, "we need you to get this ready."

"And how exactly do I do that?"

Andrew, who was looking through a book---where the heck did he get a book?---and flipping through its pages, said, "the ground needs to look like this, and we also need two tombstones in this exact setup. Only you can do that."

Leo took the book from Andrew, and studied the picture. "Why is it glowing purple?"

"That's because of the magic that will be infused into the lines," Ry explained, since she had read many books on how to resurrect people ever since she had been revived by Naomi and Glitch. "Glitch and Naomi did it some other way that one time, but this method needs Quintessence magic in order to work. That would be you, Andrew."

Andrew nodded. He possessed the magic of Quintessence, the fifth element.

"So," Ry continued, "I think I should go. Your abilities are both needed to set this up."

"True," the guys both said.

"Good luck." She took one step backwards, nodded once, and then lifted into the sky, using her magic to stay aloft and propell her along.

The freezing wind didn't affect her, however, the ash did. Ash blew into her lungs, making Ry choke and plummet towards the ground.

However, she saved herself by summoning a wind beneath her feet. Ry sighed in relief as she ascended once again, taking shallow breaths in order to keep the ash out.

Suddenly, rain poured down, making Ry falter again. Remembering that water no longer had an Eternal to control it, she theorized that Naomi's absence affected the weather as well.

"Yet another reason why we have to resurrect them. . ." She muttered.

To her delight, she spotted a steeple in the distance, on the very top of a mountain. The rain poured down even harder, obscuring it from her view and making it harder to fly.

Ry gritted her teeth and sped up, flying in the direction she had seen the church. When she believed she had reached the mountain it was on, she conducted the wind to let her descend.

Dripping wet, Ry parted the hair that was in front of her face as she knocked on the huge doors of the church. She waited a long minute, and when they didn't open, she pushed them open herself.

The church was empty. Ry felt the eerie feeling of being watched as she walked along the aisle towards the back, where there was a long table with several chests.

Water rapidly dripped off her as she stepped onto the stage and opened the first chest. No Rune Candles.

No Rune Candles were found in the second or third. Ry mentally prayed that there would be some in the fourth and final one.

She held her breath, and then exhaled it in relief as Rune Candles showed themselves within the fourth. She took five and left the others, since they didn't need any more than that.

As she sensed magic energy behind her back, Ry ducked to avoid a knife made of Void magic. The knife thudded into the wall in front of her, and she pivoted to see someone in a black cloak with another Void knife in their hand. They were standing in the middle of the aisle.

"Who are you?" Ry growled.

They didn't answer, but she had a feeling he was bad news.

"If you want these, then too bad." She reached behind her and grabbed the whole chest of Rune Candles, so that the mysterious person wouldn't get any.

"Give them." He held out a gloved hand, and Ry narrowed her eyes.

"Too bad, so sad, I'm not your dad. Or your mother, for that matter."

Whoever it was growled under their breath, and said, "now." They raised the Void knife.

Ry rolled her eyes. "If you're trying to stop me from getting my friends back, then I am certainly not helping you."

She lifted into the air to dodge the knife, and shot out of the church and into the rain.

"Catch me if you can!" Ry shouted, already on her way back.

* * * * *

Leo focused for a moment, and then managed to create the exact pattern in the ground.

A yin and yang symbol in the stone was his creation, with weaving lines around it for the Quintessence to flow through. The Rune Candles were going to be placed in a row right in front of the stone altar, and the Bone of Indiana (hey I finally remembered) was going to be set in front of the bones, in the hole marked for it in the pattern.

The tombstones on either side of the altar were for the bodies of Glitch and Naomi to be tied to and lowered down into a pool of Quintessence. They were huge, since they had to be big enough to tie a person to.

Andrew had the body of Naomi and was coming up the mountain again, and Glitch was already next to a tombstone.

Leo took some rope and began setting Glitch up on his tombstone. Soon, he had him bound to the stone and in position with his arms by his side and his legs tied together. After making sure the knots were secure, he turned to Andrew, who was almost done with Naomi.

He checked the book again, making sure everything was in place. Everything except for the Rune Candles, that was.

As the thought of Rune Candles came to him, he turned and looked in the direction Ry had flown. He noticed the dark clouds in that direction, and saw that they were going away rapidly.

Only one thing---well, person---could make winds that strong.

Ry flew swiftly towards the mountain with a chest in hand, and Leo assumed that it held Rune Candles.

His assumption was confirmed as Ry landed and said, breathless, "I found them."

"Great!" He nodded as he took the chest from her and opened it, taking out five of the Candles.

After setting the Candles in their proper places and lighting them---with much trouble, since Glitch was out of order---, Leo stood back and double checked the book to make sure that everything was correct.

He noticed that the Rune Candles weren't burning out, even though the wind was strong. That was because Rune Candles, once lit, stayed lit until water was poured over them. That was part of what made them so special.

"Andrew, it's time to do your thing." Ry looked at him, and Andrew smiled.

"Time to get our friends back and save the world from destruction by both water and fire." He rubbed his hands together to warm them.

Leo handed him the book, and he read through the section of actually doing the ritual for a minute. "Okay, I can do this."

After sitting in the circle in front of the symbol and everything else, Andrew focused, closing his eyes, and the circle started to glow with purple energy. The lines connected to it started to fill with it like how water would, slowly overcoming the pattern until every line was purple.

The pattern on the altar lit up, and soon after that, the patterns on the tombstones were illuminated. Finally, after nearly everything was lit, the Candles' light turned purple, and the Bone shone white, as bright as a lantern on a dark night.

Andrew's eyes glowed purple, and the purple lines on everything became brighter as the ritual started. He was going to find their souls from the spirit realm.

Leo started to relax a bit, but his peace was destroyed as a Void spear was hurled through the air at him.

He summoned a huge rock from the earth to block it, and it shattered against the stone.

"You tryin to stop our friends from coming back? Over my dead body." He growled at the attacker.

Ry jumped in---quite literally---by leaping in front of Leo, creating a wind to blow the person off their feet as she said, "what Leo said. We're not going to let you stop this!"

Leo met Ry's eyes, and they came to a mutual agreement without exchanging words: stop this person from messing up the ritual.

That meant keeping him away from Andrew at all costs.

Whoever it was came back up the mountain, and Leo was going to make a rock wall around Andrew when Ry stopped him. "No, the ritual has to be done with nothing surrounding the patterns or the altar. That's why it's being done on a mountain top."

"Well, that takes away that idea." Leo sighed.

The earth shook. Ry glared at Leo.

"It wasn't me!" Leo raised his hands in surrender.

A huge, void disk ripped the ground open, with black particles coming out of it. Then appeared a giant, three-headed Void dragon.

"Now die."

Ry rolled her eyes. "Nice! How much is a cost for a trip to Death?"

Leo snickered. "75 gold per head."

The dragon clearly ignored them, though. Instead, it breathed out---no, not fire---black gases that seemed toxic when inhaled.

On the top of the mountain, a tall, purple beacon glowed against the starry, Northern sky. Aurora borealis began to mark the skies, all surrounding the beacon itself---a signal that the ritual had officially started.

There was no going back.

Along with the dragon that was just beginning to hover above the snowy ground, the ocean tides surged towards the lower grounds. And from the looks of it, it would reach Andrew pretty quickly. Ry widened her eyes---the realization that once the water or the dragon breach the ritual grounds, the ritual will be stopped altogether and the world will eventually be flooded. And suffer from wildfires and volcanoes along the way.

"We need to kill the dragon now." Leo started summoning little earth fragments.

"We can't. Only light can defeat the void. So it's either Andrew or Glitch. We can hold him off, though." Ry then spawned tornadoes. "Let's see if this works. . ."

Leo ducked away from the dragon breath. "Why didn't we just ask Andrew to kill this guy?"

Ry blew her strong winds. "I see you want a flooded world, do you?"

Those tornadoes quickly became waterspouts, as it picked up ocean water and occasional earth pieces. Ry commanded the tornadoes, going to the dragon's route. However, that still wasn't enough to get him off-road.

Leo lifted a huge boulder like a spirit bomb, and unleashed it against the dragon. The dragon easily dissipated the rock by breathing toxic gases, and was now heading for the beacon.

But as if a catapult hurled a heavy object toward its enemies, Leo threw a huge boulder against the dragon's side, and the dragon got threw off to the ground---well, sea, instead. The ocean had already reached the first quarter of the mountain. And still rising. Both of them wish that they could tell Andrew to hurry up.

The earth started to shake even harder. The mountain and the air around it started to glow purple as well. Purple halos appeared around the beacon, meaning he's close to finished.

But the dragon was not done yet. Two of its heads turned to both Leo and Ry and gave them a nice breath of void gas. Just kidding, it wasn't nice.

Ry blew it away while Leo moved away from it. However, the third and central head was moving towards Andrew, about to spit out a gas. Ry quickly forced a razor wind against the third head, but as soon as she looked back at the other head, she received a ball of gas, straight to the face. She was sent plummeting to the flooded ground, which was already halfway into the mountain. The force of the water felt like earth, then leaving her stuck under the surface, barely able.

"Ry!"

Leo was left all alone. He threw another big boulder against the the dragon, but the central head turned to him and dissipated the boulder. "We're screwed."

Leo thought fast, and concentrated on the ground beneath him as the dragon advanced toward him. Suddenly, the ground shot out over the sea, taking the dragon and Leo with it.

Andrew was still on the mountain, but now there was a huge stone platform separating Leo and the dragon from him. It was at least seventy feet long; it would give him enough time to take care of the dragon before it got back to harm Andrew.

Growling under his breath, Leo used some of the rock to create a sword.

It was time to take care of this darn dragon.

He carved a little island for himself to stand on, then floated toward the front of the dragon.

"FIGHT ME, B****!"

He floated towards the central head, and swung. Although his island was blown bit by bit, he had managed to take care of the first head.

But he looked above him and huge, sharp teeth had appeared, approaching him with unexpected speeds.

"No!"

But Leo was helpless. He could also feel himself get devoured by the dragon. He barely managed to stand up because of the dragon's wiggly tongue.

Then he heard a loud bang. The thing is that he doesn't know where it came from. Is Glitch back. . . ?

And there he was, summoning a fire tornado (actually just halos made of fire stacked on top of each other).

"Die, mother******!"

The flames piercing parts of the dragon was the last thing Leo saw.

* * * * *

The dragon disintegrated by the light of the fire, giving a deafening screech before it finally dissipated.

"One day, I will kill you all!"

Naomi, who happened to be sitting ashore, trying to make the flood retreat, replied back sarcastically, "Good luck with that."

As the dragon disintegrated, an unconscious Leo came plummeting down the retreating ocean. Before he could have a crash landing though, he instead landed on Glitch's arms, who just happened to be there.

"Dammit, Leo. You've been through a lot. . ." He looked at Leo's shut eyes warily. The trio had really tired themselves out just to resurrect them and save the world in the process. "Glad you're still alive; I could still feel your warmth. . ."

Glitch brought Leo back on the mountainside, near the shore close to Naomi, who happened to be fishing a shivering Ry out of the ocean. Ry coughed out water as soon as she reached shore.

Glitch held Ry's almost frozen arm. "Dang. You all been through s***." He spat out fire, just near Ry, to ease her situation a lot.

"You tell me," Naomi replied.

"Wait, where's Andrew?"

"Unconscious. He used almost all of his energy into that ritual."

"It really was tiring. We almost fainted when we did that ritual for Ry, did we?"

"Yeppers. And now she did it for us. Well, along with Leo and Andrew."

"I mean Ry is the only one who knows how exactly does the ritual work. Except for us two. So yeah." He then carried the almost unconscious Ry. "I don't think staying in this cold island is a good idea. Let's go to Nalim."

Naomi used her water to pick up Leo and Andrew from the mountain top. "Yeah, we should."

* * * * *

Yeah.

Late happy birthday to TheSilentKiller- (his birthday was January 1)!

Happy birthday to RCatFire77! (This story was published on her birthday, January 2 on her timezone [PST])

And advanced happy birthday to AndrewEatsApplez! (His birthday is on January 6)

Jeez their birthdays are really close to each other.

Sorry if this feels rushed. But I had to do this instead of just doing something easier. Consider this as my birthday present for you three, since 1) I'm too broke to buy you three a gift (not to mention the travel/shipping costs [NO NOT THE LITCH, GLANDREW, OR RYTCH SHIP. I'M TALKING ABOUT THE ACTUAL SHIP-- nvm]), 2) I pulled this off for Naomi's birthday so why not make a birthday present for you three as well, and 3) you're simply too awesome and I just can't let your birthdays pass without something for you three (although it's pretty trash. . .).

But still, I did work my butt off last night. . . Naomi even had to help me out 😂😂

Although this is not my best short story, I still hope you appreciate the amount of effort I had written in this story. I mean, I had to postpone K9 and rushed myself to finish that chapter for the new project for this.

I blame the lack of time because I just started writing this on December 30 whereas Eternal Silence (I consider it as my best short story tbh) took me like a month planning on it before writing it. If I think about it, the time took for this story is even shorter than Threat of Intelligence.

Now I'm worrying about how would I tackle Thomas's writing comp lmao

Fun facts:

1) The world in this story is actually based on the European continent.

- Aarhus is actually a city in Denmark. When I say Republic of Aarhus, it actually refers to Denmark in real life.

- Golland is an alliteration to Holland (the Netherlands). Even the description of Golland fits the description of a typical landscape of the Netherlands.

- Nalim is spelled Milan backwards. The Kingdom of Nalim simply refers to Italy in real life.

- Schwarzy is a reference to a YouTube video I watched (I forgot which channel) in which Schwarzy is a name used in place of Germany. So, Schwarzy actually refers to Germany.

- Northern Island is a reference to Svalbard, Norway, where the northernmost towns of the world are located.

- Nedews is Sweden backwards.

- Isle of Frost is actually an alliteration to Iceland.

2) I originally planned on making TWO separate short stories, one for Leo and one for Ry to be published on their respective birthdays. However, this didn't push through because I didn't have time to write more short stories, and there's Andrew's birthday as well.

3) I decided to write fantasy for this short story because I wanted to try something new.

4) Naomi (CanadaNaomi) actually helped with a couple aspects of this story. Thanks, Naomi!

Naomi: You're welcome!

And I'm here because I helped to write it

What she said ^

5) I actually posted a teaser for this short story in my Instagram but I guess Blue was the only one who saw it...

6) Naomi actually suggested a name for the magical bone, but I actually forgot it, as implied with the "whatever, he still forgot" part in the narration.

EDIT: the original name was actually Indiana Bones.

Naomi: it wasn't a name for the item originally, we were actually thinking of names for a villain. I was thinking of a conversation I had had earlier about Indiana Jones(no I haven't watched the movie) and somehow converted "Jones" to "Bones". It was hilarious, so I suggested it.

Glitch cracked up, and then we were thinking of items for them to find. He was like "Bones of Indiana- WAIT THAT SHOULD BE AN ITEM."

Now I'm going to use Indiana Bones as an Easter egg in my works every now and then 😂😂 it's just so funny.

7) I added some fourth wall breaks because I feel like the narration is too boring and because it's pretty funny.

8) I would've done a short story connecting to the Project: Minecraft universe but there are a couple problems. Ry already has an entire short story about her character (Threat of Intelligence), and Andrew doesn't have a character in the series.

9) I also would've included Todd in this story (his birthday is in January 5), but I have no time and I needed to finish this ASAP.

10) There are some Easter eggs regarding the history of the Writer's Club hidden in the story.

- The idea of Ry meeting Naomi and Glitch first is actually an alliteration to the fact that Naomi and Ry were the first people I asked to be part of Writer's Club and accepted in the first place. I also originally asked Leo, but he didn't reply until near the weekend. So yeah, Naomi, Ry, and I were the first members. Leo followed shortly, then came Andrew and Izzie (she just joined us recently cause of reasons)

11) Speaking of Izzie, I hadn't managed to add her in because of lack of time.

12) The reason why fire almost instantly killed the void dragon because void is almost equal to darkness. So it's weakness would be light. In this case, both fire and quintessence would be its weakness because they both give out light. But Andrew would tire himself doing the ritual so the Glitch in this story had to come in.

Jeez 5034 words.

Again, thank you Naomi for helping me write this short story!

That's it from me, everyone!

_Glitch (and Naomi too. No u Gliomi shippers)