Episode 4: The Isle of Static
The gentle Sky Whale carried the three friends across the darkening skies of Nimbus-9, following the spiky markings on the torn scrap of map. And after a long while, a strange and frightening place rose into view ahead.
The Isle of Static.
It was not soft and fluffy like the rest of Nimbus-9. It was a vast, jagged maze of electrified clouds — towering walls of crackling vapor that buzzed and snapped with bolts of solid lightning. Here and there, whole sections of cloud had frozen into hard, glowing zigzags of electricity. The air hummed and prickled, and every so often, a great bolt would leap from one cloud to another with a deafening CRACK.
The Sky Whale slowed, trembling, and would go no further. It set them down gently at the very edge of the isle and drew back, frightened of the lightning.
"Thank you, friend," Luna said softly, patting its misty flank. "We'll go on from here."
The three friends stood at the edge of the maze and looked in. It was a terrifying sight.
"One wrong step in there," Luna warned, "and you'll get a nasty shock. It won't truly hurt you — the lightning of Nimbus-9 isn't deadly — but it will knock you flat and leave you tingling from head to toe. We must cross very, very carefully."
Tom gulped. "And how exactly do we cross a maze of lightning without getting zapped?"
Emil had been watching closely, and now he noticed something. "Look," he said. "The lightning isn't random. See? It pulses — flash... rest... flash... rest. There's a rhythm to it. A beat." He counted under his breath. "Bolt... two, three... bolt... two, three. It's steady. If we time our steps to the pulses — moving only during the rest, and freezing when the lightning flashes — we can slip through between the bolts!"
"Like a dance!" said Tom. "Or a rhythm game!"
"Exactly like a dance," Emil agreed. "Everyone watch the pulse. Move when I say move, and freeze when I say freeze. Ready? And... move!"
And so, step by careful step, the three friends danced their way into the maze. Flash — freeze. Rest — two quick steps forward. Flash — freeze again, perfectly still, as a bolt of lightning crackled right past their noses. Rest — hurry on. It was nerve-racking work, and Tom's little heart hammered the whole way, but Emil's counting never faltered, and the rhythm held them safe. They moved as one, in perfect time with the heartbeat of the storm.
They were halfway through the maze when something went wrong.
Luna's lantern — the one she'd been carrying — suddenly began to glow in a strange, sickly way, pulsing an odd green light that had nothing to do with the lightning.
Emil noticed at once. "Luna? Your lantern — what's happening to it?"
Luna stopped, and her face fell. She looked down at the glowing lantern, and then, ashamed, she looked away. "Oh no," she whispered. "Oh, I'm so sorry. I should have told you sooner."
"Told us what?" said Tom.
"This isn't quite the same lantern I had before," Luna admitted miserably. "After The Duster stole my real one, I found this one floating near the fortress and I took it, thinking it would help light our way. But I think — I think it's his. And I think..." She swallowed. "I think it's a tracking device. He planted it. He's been able to follow us this whole time. He's let us lead him here."
And right on cue, a cold, dusty voice rang out across the electric maze.
"Cleverly reasoned, cloud-herder!" The Duster's dark ship descended through the crackling clouds, hovering just above them, frost trailing from its hull. "I did let you lead me. You see, that little scrap of map you so cleverly snatched? I need it back. It's the only piece that shows the safe path through this isle — and I'd rather not lose my way." He stretched out a gloved hand. "So hand it over. The map piece. Now."
The three friends huddled together on a narrow cloud-ledge, lightning crackling all around them, the villain looming above. They were trapped — nowhere to run, the maze too dangerous to flee into blindly.
"Don't give it to him," Tom whispered. "Without the map he can't find the Crystal's hiding spot either!"
"But if we don't," Luna whispered back, "he'll—"
She never finished. Because at that moment, the skies above the Isle of Static began to glow.
The Sky Whales had returned.
Not just one this time — dozens of them. Great glowing misty whales came pouring through the clouds from every direction, summoned, perhaps, by the friend the trio had freed from the fortress. They had come to help. And as the friends watched in astonishment, the whales swept down low — and one by one, nose to tail, they linked their enormous misty bodies together, forming a great glowing bridge of living cloud, arcing safely over the crackling maze.
"A bridge!" Emil cried. "They've made us a bridge! Quickly — across!"
The three friends scrambled up onto the backs of the whales and ran along the soft, glowing bridge, high above the snapping lightning, safe at last from the electric maze below.
The Duster gave a snarl of rage and swung his ship around to chase them. "Oh, no you don't!" he barked, diving after them.
But he had forgotten one thing — and the Isle of Static had not. As his frost-trailing ship swooped low over the electric clouds, a colossal bolt of the island's solid lightning leapt up and struck it square on the hull.
KA-KRAKKK!
The Duster's ship lit up like a firework, sparks flying from every seam, its engines sputtering and smoking. "Gah! No! Not my ship!" The Duster wrestled with the controls as his vessel bucked and spun, zapped and crackling. With a furious shriek, he had no choice but to pull up and away, his damaged ship limping off into the distance to make repairs. "This isn't finished!" his voice echoed back. "The Crystal will still be MINE!"
And then he was gone — driven off, at least for now.
The three friends slid down off the whale-bridge onto firm ground at the far side of the maze, breathless and triumphant.
"We made it!" Tom cheered. "We crossed the whole isle — and we sent The Duster packing!"
"Thanks to our friends," said Luna warmly, looking up at the whales with shining eyes. The great creatures gave a gentle, trumpeting farewell and drifted back up into the high skies. "They came back for us. They'll never be caged again."
Emil tossed the tracking-lantern far away into the maze, where it crackled and fizzled out. "And no more being followed," he said. "Now — let's find that Crystal before he comes back."
Using Luna's torn scrap of map, they made their way to the very heart of the Isle of Static — to the spot marked with a small, glowing star. There, tucked deep in a hollow of crackling cloud, they could see it at last: a warm, steady, beautiful glow, quite different from the harsh electric light all around.
"The Core Crystal," Luna breathed. "It's here! This is where The Duster hid it! Oh — we've found it, we've actually found it!"
They hurried forward, hearts soaring, ready to seize the Crystal and carry it home to save Nimbus-9 at last.
But they had taken only a few steps when the clouds before them began to move.
A great mass of storm-cloud, dark and churning, rose up between them and the Crystal — up, and up, and up, until it towered over them like a living mountain of thunder. Two enormous glowing eyes opened in its depths. Long, crackling tentacles of lightning unfurled from its body, lashing the air. It opened a vast, swirling mouth and let out a roar that shook the entire isle.
It was a Cloud Kraken — a colossal beast made of living storm itself, coiled around the Crystal, guarding it.
The three friends stumbled to a halt, staring up in awe and terror at the gigantic creature blocking their path.
"Emil," Tom squeaked, his voice very small indeed. "Please tell me you have a plan for that."
Emil gazed up at the towering storm-beast, the glowing Crystal just visible beyond its lightning tentacles — so close, and yet guarded by the most fearsome creature they had ever seen.
He swallowed hard. "Not yet," he admitted. "But I'm working on it..."
To be continued in Episode 5...