Chosen to Control

The Plant Stone (Redone)

Chapter 2


The Plant Stone





“Come on Patty, wake up. We have to get ready for the flight to Brazil this afternoon,” said Patty’s mom soothingly as she slowly waked the pretty red-head up. Patty slowly opened her eyes and walked over to the bathroom. She took out her retainer and rinsed it with water then putting it in its case.

She walked over to the kitchen where she saw her dad, already out of his pajamas, sitting down and reading the newspaper. Patty sat down on the couch and grabbed the remote and quickly changed the channel to the music videos on VH1. “Dad? What time is it?” asked Patty curiously.

“It’s twelve o’clock already. We have to be at the airport at one, so I suggest you get dressed now and then we can grab lunch on the way,” replied her dad. Patty immediately got up and plodded her way over to her room where she got dressed with jeans and a green t-shirt that matched her eyes.

She walked back over to the kitchen area of her house and her dad was already putting the suitcases into the car. Patty decided to help so she picked up her purse and her mom’s purse and put them in the car. “OK everyone. All aboard!” shouted Patty’s dad jokingly.

Patty immediately put her palm on her forehead and said laughing, “Dad, you are such a loser.” Patty’s mother quickly locked up the house and hopped into the car. They headed off towards the airport and picked up some Burger King on the way for Patty. They arrived and quickly checked all of their suitcases. They then headed over to their gate, B27.

As Patty was walking down the hallway, she began to look at all the people waiting at their gates. As she was walking, she saw Jessica alone, sitting down, and listening to music on her IPod. Patty quickly ran over and sat next to her to strike up a conversation while her parents continued to their gate. “Hey Jessica!” said Patty in a very excited voice.

Jessica pulled the earpiece out of her ear and said, “Good morning to you too Patty. What time is your flight at?”

“Oh my flight is at two. My parents just like to get here like an hour or an hour and a half early because of all the security,” responded Patty.

“If you ask me,” said Jessica, “all that airport security is pointless. If someone wants to hi-jack a plane, it is going to happen.”

“I don’t believe that. The security has been doing its job well. Have you seen any more airplanes flying into buildings? Its all because of the great job airport security is doing. Well I better get going. Hope you have a good flight to visit your mom,” said Patty.

“Don’t worry, I’m sure it will suck just like every other flight,” said Jessica being pessimistic.

Patty quickly got up and walked over towards her gate. She still had quite a ways to walk and began to bob her head to the music playing at the airport. When she finally arrived at the gate, she saw three young women, no older than twenty seven and no younger than seventeen, standing together by a column wearing very unusual clothing. The oldest looking one was wearing a long robe that was green due to the presence of algae. Her brown hair was untied and went all the way to her waist with a small crown of flowers on her head. The other two were dressed quite differently from her though.

They were both barely wearing clothes. One of them had rather tan skin and was wearing a small crown made of tree branches and flowers. The other one, who looked quite younger than the other two, was wearing a similar crown, but made only of leaves and branches without any flowers. These two were wearing what seemed to be rags much like teenage girls would wear bikinis to the beach. These rags too were a dark green due to the presence of algae.

As Patty walked over to where her parents were sitting, she locked eyes with the woman wearing the long robes. The woman with the long robes immediately closed her eyes and collapsed to the floor. “Veronica, are you OK?” asked the tan woman trying to revive her fallen friend. The other woman stood over them, watching and waiting.

Patty immediately rushed over to her side and looked down at her. The lady’s eyes opened wide and stared directly at Patty causing Patty to jump back. “It is you!” shouted the woman trying to stand up again. Patty slowly backed up and walked away from the small scene that was developing.

Patty managed to overhear the tan woman ask Veronica, “What are you talking about? Who is she?”

“That is her. She is the one. Protect her from what is going to happen,” replied Veronica. Just then, one of the airport workers declared that the flight from B27 to Brazil was going to begin boarding. Patty immediately scurried over to her parents and got in line to board the plane.

Immediately behind her were the three unusual women causing Patty to feel a bit uncomfortable. “Patty, the plane has rows with two seats in each so you are going to have to be sitting alone for the flight. We are going to be a few rows behind you so if you need anything we are right there,” explained Patty’s mother.

“No problem Mom,” said Patty as she handed her ticket to the airport employee, “I just hope I don’t have to sit next to a fat person…”

“Oh Patty, if you do end up sitting next to a fat person and they want to lift the armrest, don’t let them,” said her mother, “cause then you are going to be uncomfortable for the whole flight.”

Patty began to laugh at this and made her way to her seat close to the back of the plane. No one ended up sitting next to Patty, much to her relief. She did, however, notice that the three women dressed strangely were sitting in the middle aisle of seats. The plane took off slowly and Patty slept most of the flight without any disturbances.

Patty suddenly jerked away to find people screaming and running out of their seats on the plane. “What the…” started Patty as she lifted her head up to see two men towards the very front of the plane holding machine guns and shooting at people. “PATTY!” shouted Patty’s mother from behind her.

Patty immediately unbuckled her seat belt and leaned over to grab her purse under the seat. When she lifted her head, she saw the tan strangely dressed woman. The woman grabbed Patty’s arm and said, “Come with me.”

She began to lead Patty in the direction of the hi-jackers, while staying low to the ground. “Wait. Who are you? Are we still over the Gulf of Mexico?” asked Patty confused.

“My name is Ariel, and no, we are now over the Amazon forest, my home,” stated the woman, “Now stay here. I will be right back.”

“But what happens if they try to shoot at me?” asked Patty completely confused.

“You will know what to do when the time comes,” responded Ariel as she began to crawl across to the other side. Suddenly more shots rang out, but these sounded different from the shots fired by the machine guns. They were quickly silenced however by machine gun fire.

“Melissa, Veronica, NOW!” shouted Ariel at the top of her lungs. Patty lurched in her seat and realized that the plane was going down in the middle of the rainforest. Veronica lifted her arms in the air and waved them in the direction of the two emergency exit doors at the front of the plane. The two exits doors were immediately pushed out of the plane and a vacuum was formed pulling the hi-jackers out of the plane. Patty looked up at Veronica and she suddenly disappeared. She turned her head backwards towards the back of the plane and saw Veronica appear where all the people were hiding. “Quick, grab hold of each other’s hands!” shouted Veronica.

“This is no time for prayer lady!” shouted a man refusing to grab hold of his neighbor’s hand.

“So be it. It is your choice,” replied Veronica. She grabbed hold of the people who were holding hands and they all disappeared. Patty was very confused now, but she was just thrown from her seat due to the plane’s violent motions.

“ARIEL HELP!” shouted Patty. She looked up while being tossed around on the plane and saw the other younger woman that was with Ariel. She ran over to the exit door at the front of the plane and leaped out. Patty wondered if she was crazy but she didn’t have time to think. Ariel had shown up and grabbed onto Patty’s arm.

“Come!” she instructed. Patty followed without question. They walked all the way over to the exit doors at the front of the plane. Patty was overtaken by horror. She shouted at Ariel, “I AM NOT JUMPING OUT OF A PLANE!”

The vacuum was now pulling them to the exit doors. “Get on my back!” instructed Ariel and Patty hopped on. Ariel ran towards the exit door and Patty held on tightly as ever. Ariel leaped out of the plane when she reached the door without any hesitation. The plane had already been getting uncomfortably close to the trees of the rainforest and they would not have had another opportunity to exit the plane.

“Stop holding on to the area around my neck and grab my waist instead,” instructed Ariel. Patty very reluctantly moved her arms and wrapped her arms around Ariel’s waist. They started falling between small, weak tree branches and they were about to hit a huge branch when Ariel threw up her arms and grabbed a branch stopping their fall.

“Whoa,” said Patty trying to catch her breath, “Whoa. I just jumped out of a plane and didn’t die.” Ariel then began to swing with her arms on the branch.

“Patty, on the count of three, let go and grab that branch a little lower down there so that we can climb down the tree. One, two, three!” said Ariel sending Patty flying in the air.

Patty scrambled to get control of her body and did so just in time to grab the branch. There suddenly was a loud crash and searing heat came towards them. “That must have been the plane…” said Patty ready to begin crying.

“Enough dwelling on that, we must climb down and head for the temple,” said Ariel quickly reaching the bottom of the tree. It took Patty several long minutes to make it down the immense tree, but when she reached the bottom, she was not only facing Ariel, but the two other women that were with her at the airport and on the flight.

“So this is the chosen one?” asked the youngest one in a very snobby way.

“Yes. It is her. I am sure of it,” said Veronica, “My vision was very vivid. I was able to feel her being called when I looked at her eyes.

“Allow me to introduce you to my sisters, the other queens of the Amazons. Veronica is the one with the robe. She is the oldest and the Queen of Wisdom for our people. Melissa is the young feisty one. She is the Queen of War for our people,” explained Ariel.

“And what do you do for your people?” asked Patty to Ariel.

“I am the main queen and leader. I make most of the decisions on my own and turn to my sisters when I need help. I am the Supreme Queen of the Amazons, sworn protectors of the temple,” replied Ariel.

“What happened to my parents?” asked Patty curiously and worried.

“I put was able to teleport all those who held hands on the airplane to our new village only a few miles walk from a small town. I put a memory spell on them so that they would simply imagine that they survived the flight and there was no interference on our part,” explained Veronica.

“I made sure the hi-jackers were dead,” said Melissa pointing to the ground a few feet away where there were two decapitated heads lying on the floor of the rainforest.

“We will head back to our village, while Ariel will take you to the ancient ruins where the temple lies only a few miles walk from here,” explained Veronica.

“Best of luck to you,” said Melissa, “I made all the traps in the temple, just thought you should know.” She began to walk down a small path in the middle of the forest until she was out of sight.

“You should do fine. My visions are never wrong and I know you will rise up like the mighty oak,” said Veronica smiling at Patty. Her body then disappeared as she had teleported back to the village.

“That leaves us two. Now we should be on our way,” said Ariel turning her back on Patty and walking into the thick brush of the forest, “Be careful while you walk. The sun will be setting soon and you will not be able to notice the predators in the shadows of the night.”

“I’ll try to keep that in mind,” said Patty pulling a hair tie out of her back pocket and tying up her hair as she walked cautiously behind Ariel, “So what is it like being Queen of the Amazons?”

“Nothing outrageously special. Not many people know of our existence, but we are the only direct link to the Amazons from Greek mythology. Our society is composed solely of women. It is the interference of man that has caused the problems of the world,” explained Ariel.

“Wait, but without men, wouldn’t there be no baby making?” asked Patty slightly confused.

“Every two years, women are allowed to go into the village and do one of two things. They are allowed to steal a young female baby from the people or they are allowed to be with man in hopes of having their own baby. Having your own baby brings a risk though, if it is a male, then according to the laws of the ancients the baby must be put to death,” stated Ariel plainly.

“Oh my God! That is horrible! How could you allow such a thing to happen? You are the queen, you have to change that law,” stated Patty horrified by their customs.

Ariel turned around and stared Patty directly into the eyes, “You know NOTHING of our culture! You have not experienced living with man as I have. My mother was the queen before me. She changed the laws and she brought in a man she fell in love with, my father, to our village. From then on things got worse.” Ariel turned around and continued to walk towards the temple.

“Wait, you cannot just walk away from the past,” said Patty jogging to catch up with her, “What happened to your father?”

“My father abused the privilege of living in a society of women and took advantage of my sister Veronica, who was his step daughter as you call them. Our council had him put to death for the crime and since then no man has been allowed to set foot inside of our village. My mother still wanted one more child before she stopped making trips to the village, so she gave birth to little Melissa a few years after my father’s death.

“The day of Melissa’s birth is a horrible one. After being alive for only a few moments, a man stepped out of the shadows behind a tree and walked into our village to see his daughter, Melissa. My mother ordered to have him killed immediately and he was by the old Queen of War. Then the Queen of Wisdom of the time came to the conclusion that our mother was bringing evil into the village and had her beheaded just like Melissa did to the terrorists. Since the day of her birth was such a bloodbath, Melissa was crowned the Queen of War at the age of ten. I, being the middle daughter, was crowned Supreme Queen the day my mother died as her replacement,” explained Ariel.

“I would have never imagined that,” said Patty in awe, “I am so sorry to hear that.” There was a rustle in the bushes and Patty turned her back around. A jaguar leapt at her with its claws outstretched ready to cut holes in her skin. Patty screamed as it grabbed onto her arms knocking her down to the ground.

“Serenope Triuum!” shouted Ariel lifting her arm towards the jaguar. The jaguar was sent flying into a tree where it suddenly lost its nerve and ran off. Ariel bent down and offered Patty her hand.

“How did you do that? Are you psychic like Veronica?” asked Patty.

“It is an ancient spell used by my people. Only the Queen of Wisdom can master the spells properly. I was, however, able to learn this spell, but I perform it a lot worse than Veronica. Veronica would’ve been able to kill the jaguar using that very same spell,” explained Ariel.

“Wow, you three really are a power trio…” said Patty in awe.

“Well we are as a group, but Melissa has become very arrogant over the last few years. She believes that she can do anything without anyone’s help. It is very hard to keep her from doing anything stupid. She is extremely powerful,” said Ariel.

“Crap! This hurts so much!” exclaimed Patty.

“Oh I almost forgot, let me take a look at those wounds,” said Ariel walking over to Patty. Patty stuck out her right arm and pointed at top of her hand. “But this is just a little ant bite,” said Ariel a little confused.

“I know, but it hurts so badly,” said Patty beginning to bang her feet on the floor childishly. Ariel turned around and kept walking forcing Patty to run after her and trip on a tree root. She fell face first into a large pile of leaves.

When Patty looked up, she saw the most amazing scene before her eyes. She stood up and stared at a group of stone buildings covered with plants of all sorts, trees were even growing on the roofs of some forming a tight knit canopy. In the center of the stone buildings was a gigantic building with stone columns crawling with vines and flowers.

“I take it that is the temple you were talking about,” said Patty to Ariel without averting her eyes from the huge building, “Well, what are we waiting for? Let’s head in.”

“Let me lead you in. There will be three challenges you will have to face before we reach the center of the temple. Be sure you are careful. I will go through the challenges before you and guide you through them,” said Ariel.

Ariel walked in through the large arched entrance to the temple. Patty followed closely behind her. Ariel walked over to a set of stairs that led underground. They kept walking for what seemed like a few minutes. Ariel began to lead Patty through a torch lit hallway with vines growing on the side walls. Patty was looking at the torches and realized that there was a large gap between two torches so she stopped.

“Ariel, why is there a huge gap between those torches?” asked Patty curiously.

“We have reached the first challenge. Now listen and watch carefully. In the walls between the gaps of the torches are rows of arrows that get fired when the weight sensors on the floor go off. It takes approximately five seconds for them to reload before firing again. Now watch,” instructed Ariel.

Ariel picked up a rather small rock and threw it into the middle of the gap between the lights. Suddenly a hoard of arrows flew from both sides of the walls. Ariel immediately took off running when she heard the first arrow fall on the floor. She made it across before the five seconds were up seeing as no more arrows were fired.

“OK. Now Patty, it is your turn. Do exactly as I have done. Pick up a stone, throw it in the middle and as soon as you hear the first arrow fall to the floor, you must run as fast as you can to my side,” instructed Ariel.

Patty picked up a rock just like Ariel did and threw it in the middle of the gap. Arrows began to fly through the air quite rapidly. Patty hesitated and began to run across only when the last arrow fell to the floor. When she had reached halfway, Ariel yelled, “Stop! You’re not going to make it! The shots are going to fire again!”

“What do I do?!?” asked Patty in panic.

“You will know what to do when the time comes!” shouted back Ariel.

Patty closed her eyes and emptied her mind of thought. Suddenly, she heard from inside the walls of the temple, the arrows reload. A moment later, the arrows were fired. Patty leaped into the air and did a cartwheel and then a flip dodging the arrows that were being fired. When she heard the last arrow hit the floor, she took off sprinting in the direction towards Ariel making it unscathed.

“Oh my God! Cheerleading saves my life again!” shouted Patty trying to catch her breath from the intense fright she had just experienced.

“We must be going. The next challenge awaits us,” said Ariel walking off.

“Wait, wait for me,” called Patty jogging to catch up with Ariel. They continued to walk together and as the walked, Patty overheard slashing and banging coming from overhead. “Is that the next challenge?” asked Patty somewhat scared to see what she would find.

“Why yes it is. This is one of the newer ones. Melissa put this one in herself only two years ago. It is quite effective and difficult to pass. I had a close call soon after Melissa put it in,” said Ariel. They finally reached the second challenge. Before Patty was an immense amounts of razor blades falling from the roof and coming out from the walls.

“Just do as I do,” instructed Ariel as she ran at the first blade coming from the roof. She timed it perfectly. She ran right underneath it completely missing the blade. Then she leaped above the ground as another blade came from underneath her. She continued to run and collapsed to the floor as another blade came and slashed where her neck would’ve been if she had not dodged it. “Done!” exclaimed Ariel.

“OK Patty, you can do this. Let’s go!” said Patty to herself as she ran at the first blade. As she ran, it began to fall from the ceiling. Patty slid on the ground and barely missed the blade. It collapsed on the floor right behind her cutting off a few inches from her hair. She quickly hopped to her and leaped a little early. Her body began to fall back to the floor and the second blade hadn’t even closed yet.

Patty spread her legs in hopes of landing on a piece of the blades and they began to close just in time for her to land on top of them. She immediately jumped off of them and onto the ground where she rolled over to Ariel’s feet.

“Did you see that?!?” asked Patty somewhat hysterical.

“Yes, you did well,” replied Ariel.

“Are you kidding me?!? Look at my hair. I must be missing at least four inches now thanks to that thing!” shouted Patty.

“Oh you poor thing,” said Ariel sarcastically, “Now we are headed to the third challenge that I will be doing with you. In my opinion it is the easiest.”

“What exactly is it?” asked Patty walking with Ariel.

“We have arrived,” declared Ariel, “It is a maze. It is approximately one square mile in size.”

“Whoa! How am I supposed to get through it?” asked Patty looking at the five different entrances into the maze.

“Follow me,” said Ariel walking over to the entrance all the way to the left, “It is quite simple. Whenever you reach a fork, just turn right. Then you will be led to the center of the temple where you will find the stone.”

They began walking through the maze. After what seemed to be a short period of time, they reached a little dead end with vines coming forth from the walls of the maze. In this dead end, there was a small alter with a rugged green stone on top of it. It was a brilliant, clear green. Patty walked up to the alter instinctively and saw two tablets with handprints carved in stone.

She placed her hands into the stone. She waited a few seconds and the stone began to emit a bright green light. When the light had faded, Patty saw from a vine that had arisen from the floor, a necklace with sharp claws at the end. She picked it up and placed it on top of the stone causing it to close on top of it.

Ariel walked up beside Patty and said, “Put it on.” Patty put it on around her neck. The ground beneath them began to shake and collapsed. They fell onto a kind of slide in the maze floor and began to plummet below the maze deeper into the Earth.

“What is happening?!?” shouted Patty.

“This must be an ancient challenge that was placed in the temple that we did not know about! We always suspected one, but there was no way to prove it!” exclaimed Ariel. After Ariel had said this, they fell into a pool of frigid water.

“AH! COLD!” shouted Patty. The room was completely dark. Patty began to swim in hopes of finding Ariel, but to no avail. “Ariel, where are you?” asked Patty.

“Over here!” shouted Ariel from afar, “Get out of here! An ancient creature lies within here! We need to get out, or we will forfeit our lives!” Patty automatically began to swim away from where Ariel’s voice was coming from. She quickly felt a hard surface and climbed on top of it.

“Ariel, hurry up!” cried Patty. Patty suddenly heard a loud roar coming from the water. She heard a splash directly in front of her.

“Patty, help me out!” called Ariel. Patty leaned over and pulled her out of the water.

“What was that roar?” asked Patty fearfully as she began to run away from where the water was toward faint lights in the distance.

“According to the legend, there is a basilisk that lives beneath the temple to test the strength of the one chosen to control plants. That means that the basilisk will try to kill you and you will need to survive. They kept running and eventually reached the light.

When they found the light, it seemed as though they had reached a dead end. “What do we do now?” asked Patty completely baffled.

“Look! Up there is a staircase,” pointed out Ariel, “We need to get up there somehow before the basilisk gets us.”

“It might be too late,” said Patty looking back. She saw something large slithering through the shadows of the hallway. “If only we had some rope or some vine to get us up to the staircase,” said Patty. Her stone suddenly began to glow green again and from the roof fell a large thick vine.

Patty immediately climbed up and leaped over to the staircase. Ariel did the same. They began to run up the staircase that happened to be well lit, when they saw the basilisk begin to crawl up the staircase as well. It was quickly catching up to them.

“How do we slow it down?” asked Patty.

“You will know what to do when the time comes,” stated Ariel as they continued to run.

“You said that I was the chosen one to control plants right?” asked Patty. Ariel nodded. “Vines, come forth from the walls and block the path of the basilisk!” commanded Patty. Her stone glowed green again and vines began to shoot out from across the walls, floor, and ceiling slowing down the basilisk. Eventually, they became so thick that the basilisk was unable to pass through it.

“Yes we did it!” shouted Patty happily as she continued to run up the staircase. Then she heard and felt a large rumbling. She looked back and the floor began to collapse again. “I am not going back down there again!” shouted Patty. “Vines, grab me and Ariel and pull us all the way to the top of the staircase!” Patty’s stone glowed again and vines shot from the ceiling and began to pull them up and the floor fell beneath them. The vines continued to grow and escorted them to what seemed to be the top of the staircase. It, however, seemed to be blocked by a two large heavy stones.

“Vines, you know the drill, pull them apart and let us out,” commanded Patty. Her stone glowed and vines began to grow between the two stones and pulled them apart. The vines holding onto the two girls dropped them off outside. When they got outside they looked around and realized that they were on the roof of the temple surrounded by trees.

Veronica suddenly appeared before them both. “I just had a vision that you made it through. Congratulations Patty. Now let me take you back to your parents before they go to bed tonight,” explained Veronica, “Just grab my hand and we will be off.”

“Oh Ariel, how can I thank you. If it wasn’t for you I wouldn’t have this awesome new stone and powers. My friends have something like this. Bobby can control the wind and Stephanie can control animals,” stated Patty.

“Come again child,” said Veronica.

“My friends Bobby and Stephanie can both control things too. Bobby can control wind and Stephanie can control animals,” said Patty giving Veronica a suspicious look. She quickly grabbed onto Veronica’s hand who quickly teleported her to her parents hotel room. Veronica put another memory spell on them so that they though Patty was with them the whole time. Patty stayed in Brazil for another two weeks before finally heading home.