Episode 144: The Tornado of Smoke

As the heroes continue their journey to find Scorch, they come across a devastating tornado of smoke that threatens a nearby village. Only, one of the Tornadian Keepers is off on another adventure trying to find his sister. 

Transcript

The Tornado of Smoke

Once upon a time in the land of Atheria, there was a princess Nea and a princess Lulu and they went on the most amazing adventures. They had just tried to turn Beakers the duckling back into a griffin, only to realize after casting the spell that they had used artificial ogre hair instead of real ogre hair, meaning that Beakers would forever transform between a duck and a griffin whenever his name was spoken by Lulu who had cast the spell.

Once they figured out how to transform Beakers the duck into Beakers the griffin, Aria asked them about their visit. 

“We’re actually here because we’ve been following Scorch’s black smoke. We’ve heard that he’s not doing well. We need to find him! Have you seen him?” Nea asked. 

“Yes, flew up here a little bit before you all arrived.”

They were interrupted by a banging on the castle doors. 

[Knock, knock, knock]

To their surprise it was one of the New Halowisp kids they ran into by the lake when they found the green crystal. 

“Princess Aria! You must come quick,” the little boy said. “We’ve been attacked by a dragon!”

“A dragon?” Nea and Lulu both said looking at each other. 

“Yes, a dragon.” Confirmed the boy. “He came swooping down all around the village, getting very close to houses and breathing fire into the air. He’s nearly scared everyone to death!”

Could this be Scorch? Nea thought. How could Scorch the Protector become the Scorch the Destroyer?

The group quickly headed out for the village, noticing that on the horizon, off in a different direction was a huge tornado of smoke swirling around another village. 

And then, you guessed it, another villager came up before they had even left the castle.

“Princess Aria! You must come quick,” said the little girl. “There’s a huge tornado about to reach Voltarra. You must come quick and do something before it destroys the village!”

Princess Area looked at Nea, Lulu & Phin unsure as to what to do. 

“Is anyone hurt in your village?” Nea asked the boy.

He shook his head. “I think we’re all okay, just very frightened.”

“Princess Aria, I think you should go with this boy and help calm the villagers of New Halowisp down. Try to find out what has happened to Scorch. Lulu, Phinn and I will investigate this smoke tornado and see if we can stop it before it reaches the village.”

Aria nodded and headed off with the boy. Nea, Lulu and Phinn followed the little girl back to her village which involved traversing through a large sky forest and around a small valley of clouds. 

When they got to the village, Prince William and Prince Clef were already there as well. 

“Prince William!” the girls said and ran over to see him. 

“Princess Nea, Princess Lulu,” he responded, “You are just in time. I need some help. We have a large tornado that’s on the horizon and if gets close to this village it will destroy it. Clef and I came as soon as we heard but unfortunately our weapons won’t do much good against this. We think the tornado is made of smoke.” 

“Maybe I can use my yellow crystal to tame it.” Lulu offered.

The entire group looked up at the large tornado. It was very big and it was very powerful. Even Lulu had doubts that her single crystal would be strong enough. 

“We need to send word to the other Tornadian Keeper!” Clef interjected. 

Everyone agreed, but they weren’t sure Coryn could get there in time, or if he had found his sister Hazel yet. The tornado was moving very fast and it would take a miracle. 

That said, they found a carrier pigeon and sent the message to the Elf Grotto, in hopes that some elf, somehow, would be able to reach Coryn. 

“I don’t know if we can wait.” Phin said, grasping his orange crystal.

Nea looked over, “I have an idea. Tornadoes exist because of both hot and cold air. Maybe we can use our fire crystals to heat up the cold air and stop it.”

“It’s worth a shot.” William said. 

So the three crystal keepers started walking towards to the tornado. 

Meanwhile, Clef walked over to William and said, “I’m worried the pigeon isn’t going to get to Coryn fast enough. I’m going to fly down to Atheria and see if I can find him myself and bring him back up here.” 

William nodded and Clef walked off, taking flight off of the cloud and into the open sky below. 

Just as he walked off, a mob of villagers came up to William. They were very angry and thought that the tornado was following Prince William. They all started yelling and shouting at him. 

“You need to leave our village!” shouted one of the villagers.

“It’s because of you that the tornado is here!” shouted another. 

William faced the crowd. “How can that be? I’m here to help. How could a tornado be after a single person?”

He explained that three of the crystal keepers were there to help and were already walking towards the tornado. All of them, himself included, were determined to stop it before it came near Voltarra. 

It was clear that these villagers had also become very, very angry. If only they had Darius and his white crystal there. 

While William tried to calm the villagers down, Nea, Lulu and Phin cautiously made their way towards the tornado made of smoke. 

“I really hope this works.” Nea said nervously.

“Me too.” Agreed Phin. “And if not, well, this has been on amazing adventure.” 

Nea and Phin pulled out their red and orange Blazian Crystals. The crystals immediately grew brighter and brighter and started to float together as one, creating two flames of light that twisted together into it’s own small tornado. The tornado began to grow and move closer and closer towards the smoke tornado. 

“We need to balance out the tornado.” Nea said out loud to Phin. 

Phin nodded continuing to concentrate on his crystal. 

As they held out their crystals, and the crystals continued to float, they both concentrated on the tornado, thinking about balancing the dual temperatures that raged inside. 

The black smoke continued to get closer and closer to the keepers as the orange and red smoke made it’s way to the base of the tornado. As it did the tornado grew smaller and smaller. But it wasn’t enough to overcome it. 

Lulu couldn’t wait any longer and pulled out her yellow crystal. When she did she heard a noise behind her. It was Clef carrying Coryn in his arms. Once he was close enough, he dropped the elf right next to Lulu. 

“Are we too late,” Clef yelled over the loud tornado. 

“Right on time!” Lulu responded, ready for the challenge. They got started, now it’s our turn to finish.”

“Glad I could make it.” Coryn said, pulling out his gray crystal. “Let’s do this.”

Both Coryn and Lulu pulled out their Tornadian Crystals and immediately a burst of gray and yellow light began to surround the keepers with their own wind cyclone. It began to grow larger and larger around them and the crystals that Nea and Phin held out started to burst with another surge of power.

All four crystals worked together and engulfed the adventurers in a large cyclone of wind and heat. All the while, they kept concentrating. Their own cyclone started to rise up in the air and twist around the large tornado of smoke until the tornado was fully engulfed. 

The gray, yellow, orange and red smoke and wind tornado spun faster and faster until it finally exploded, sending a stream of colors in all direction and leaving nothing but a pile of ash on the ground, where the tornado once was. 

Surprised by the explosion of ash, they rushed over to investigate. There was a bunch of black specks of dirt - dust really. 

“This must have been what was making the tornado black.” Nea observed.

“I don’t like it.” Coryn said, looking at it from afar. 

They could hear all the villages cheering from a distance and clapping now that the tornado was destroyed. But there were still villagers who were angry at the adventurers because their hearts were starting to get hardened. 

“I think we need to send word to Darius and Rose.” Lulu said. “Maybe Darius can use the white crystal to heal their hearts.” 

Just as she said that Scorch came flying in overhead and let out a huge, loud burst of flames right next to them. Then he twisted in the air, cut across the sky and flew back down through the clouds. 

“We have to find out what’s going on with him!” Nea said running after the dragon. 

“William, can you find Darius and see if he can help heal the villagers hearts?” Lulu asked before following Nea. 

“And Clef, can you check in on the villagers of New Halowisp? Aria is there helping them but they may need some additional help?” Phin said, following Lulu.

Clef rolled his eyes at Phin. New Halowisp was his own town. The one he group up in. 

William and Clef then looked at Coryn who was still just standing there. 

“Shouldn’t you go with them?” William asked.

“Oh yeah!” Coryn said, then ran off after the other three to find Scorch and get to the bottom of what was happening. 

The end.