Chapter Twenty-One: The Moonstone Path

Callum kept his mouth shut, but it was taking longer to get to the Xadian border than Runaan predicted. Diana had given two messages to Pyrrah and sent her to spread the word about Zym's existence in Xadia. But Callum was worried about his younger brother. Would Ezran and Corvus make it back to Katolis? If they did, who would be there to greet them?
Callum shook his head. There was no use worrying about things he couldn't control.
He followed Rayla, Diana, Runaan, Ethari, Skor, Callisto, Andromeda, Ram, Orion through a narrow canyon. It was so dark he had a hard time believing the Moonshadow elves could navigate.
"This is it," Rayla said. "This canyon leads to the Moonstone Path."
"Wow," said Callum. "I can't believe that we're almost to Xadia."
They came around a final turn in the canyon, which opened onto the border. Callum and Diana gasped.
At this spot, the border was an enormous field of cooled, cracked lava. The cracks glowed an ominous red. Xadia was visible far across the lava, but the field stretched for miles to both north and south. Clearly, there was no going around.
"One simply walks into Xadia, huh?" Callum raised an eyebrow at Rayla. He lifted a foot to step onto a rock.
"Hold on there!" Rayla yanked him back to solid ground. "There's sort of a trick to it." Rayla picked up a stone and tossed it onto the rock that Callum almost stepped on. The rock instantly sank down into hot, liquid magma below. Callum gulped, but Diana gave it a wary glare.
"Not all the rocks sink that quickly," Rayla explained. "A few will let us stand on them long enough to walk across. Those special stones were enchanted and marked with hidden runes centuries ago, and the path has been a closely guarded secret. We call it the Moonstone Path."
"Oh, great," said Callum. "So how do we know-"
"Patience, friend." Rayla pointed into the direction of the moon, which was hiding behind a cloud. "Patience."
A moment later, the breeze blew the clouds away and moon emerged. Callum's eyes grew wide as runes appeared on some of the rocks before them. They glowed, reflecting the moonlight.
"Oh, I get it." He marveled at the eerie yet beautiful sight before them. "The Moonstone Path." The rocks with runes created a safe route across the lava field.
He tentatively stepped on the closest Moon-marked rock. It began to sink, but much more slowly than the first rock he'd nearly stepped on. He smiled.
While Callum and Diana slowly began to pick their wat across with Rayla as their guide, the Moonshadow elves started running on the marked rocks swiftly, the marked stones sinking behind them.
The four of them moved at a steady pace, but the path was slow going. Soon Callum, Rayla, Diana, and Zym found themselves far out on the lava field. The other side was within sight, but still quite far out on the lava field.
"The sky's getting lighter," said Rayla. "We need to hurry. If the sun rises, we won't be able to see the moon runes anymore."
"Lets pick up the pace then," Diana said.
They started to move faster. It wasn't long till Diana had managed to join the Moonshadow elves on the other side. Callum could still see the runes, but he had to strain his eyes. He stepped from one safe rock to the next, but each time, as soon as he landed, the rune faded before his eyes.
He looked up to see the sun was now peeking through the crack of the canyon up ahead. Time was just about up.
"Run!" Callum shouted.
Callum, Rayla, and Zym ran as fast as they could, racing against the sunrise. But before they reached the end of the path, the runes disappeared entirely. The trio stood frozen and helpless on a single rock as it slowly started to sink.
"Rayla! Callum!" cried out Runaan and Ethari.
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Zym scampered over to Callum and climbed onto his head. From this height, he could see that the sun was rising over a rocky structure. Right now, the rocks blocking the full brightness of the sun. But it won't be long till the sun will be fully risen.
"Zym? What are you doing?" Callum asked.
An idea suddenly popped into Zym's head. If he could fly across the lava and land on the rocks, maybe he could block the sun and help his friends.
With his eyes closed, Zym saw Ezran spread his arms wide. Zym did the same. He unfurled his wings.
Then Ezran raised his arms up and down. Zym did the same with his wings.
Before he could think twice about it, Zym opened his eyes. He flapped his wings harder than he thought was possible. Then he leaped.
He was flying! Zym felt a big smile spread across his face as the wind breezed past him.
"He's flying!" Rayla shouted. "He's trying to block the sun!"
Zym heard the team cheering for him as he soared through the sky.
He was almost to the edge of the lava river when he noticed he wasn't as high as before. He flapped harder, but he only dropped lower to the ground. It didn't matter how hard he flapped. He wasn't strong enough.
"ASPIRO!" A tremendous gust of wind lifted Zym up into the air. He continued flapping, but this time he was gaining height. The winds from Callum's spell was pushing him upward from the lava.
Zym was high up now. He could feel the sun on his face. Seconds later, he arrived at the crack in the rocks where the sunlight was shining through. He threw his head back in triumph and spread his small wings to block the sun.
In Zym's long shadow, the light of the moon activated the runes on the path.
"There's the path again," said Rayla. "Run!"
Zym heard Rayla and Callum sprinting across the path. At las he heard Callum cried out, "We did it! We made it across!"
Zym drifted down to meet Rayla and Callum on the Xadian side of the border and joined them in the embrace.

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