Just to say one or two things... d.a.m.n net is killing me, or the site or my phone... I wrote for the first time in advance... Gone with the wind...Sigh... But I will not give up and will continue writing ? Bdw, this one is a bit longer ??Kendra poked Celia"s head and pointed at children. " What else do you see? Look closely." Celia stared at children not understanding what is Kendra talking about, but soon she realized one important fact. The child had to run from calling spot to look at the face of the children that hid, as it seemed, clumsily. But as they all had the same clothes he had to run there and then back to be able to call its name.In the time between the other kids used the diversion to run to the spot and get into safety. Celia started understanding a few points of the game. One is making diversion while others could safely pa.s.s by. While they kept his attention, the child could safely escape and then run back as well.Elders were silent as they looked at the Celia and Kendra. One of the elders patted Celia"s head. " Celia, this game is meant to learn how to use a group for war times as well the tactics and strategy. All games on the world have something related to either exercise or war games. Child, Kendra"s words are there to be listened. This child is as wise as us elders."Somehow the elder had profound sense and could feel the heaviness of the old soul in that child
" Kendra, child, I can feel your care for us. Thank you for that, but don"t worry. We learned how to protect ourselves." The older woman patted her hand and smiled kindly while other nodded." I know you can, but at least let me improve the s.h.i.+eld. Like that I can have a piece of mind." She didn"t know what else she could do for them.They sighed and shook their heads with a smile, but accepted her offer. There is no such thing as too much safety.Isaa played around and suddenly saw something on the floor. She picked up the small stone with s.h.i.+ny eyes and run towards Kendra. " Brother, brother I have an idea!!!" She stopped in front Kendra while panting and it took her few secs to steady her breath. With a big smile, she opened her hand and showed a small stone. At first, it looked just like any other stone, but after a couple of moments Kendra smiled as well." Isaa, my little beautiful, smart sister, you did well. Who would have thought we would find such a thing on the floor. Are there more of them?" Kendra closed her eyes and spread her senses. In front of her inner eye, she saw millions of s.h.i.+ny stars spread through the city. She suddenly opened her eyes and stated at the elders." It seems you made town from power stones and sand. Where did you find such a great amount of it?" She was amazed. Every house had power stones as basic material." What are power stones?" They didn"t understand her words. Actually, the secret about power stones was so inclusive that not many people in country knew about it." This is a power stone. Wait before I show you the power of the stone, let"s check your people and see does any of them have powers." Kendra had an idea sprouting in her mind. If that is true than many things could change with time. As the city had just a few thousand people, the check went quite quickly. Kendra was disappointed. Not even one power user in town. She hoped that the power in their houses would change their DNA and more power users would be in such an environment than in common. But as it seems, it has nothing to do with power stones or close energy. Elders saw clear disappointment on her face. " Child, maybe in future there will be power user among us, but for now, it"s fine even without powers." Kendra nodded but suddenly a thought came into her mind. ""It"s fine then. I can use power stone for array and s.h.i.+eld. I don"t know where you found the stone but we need to protect that place as you will need power stones as basic energy to hold the array and the s.h.i.+eld. Of course, you can let people you choose in, but no one without your permission will be able to enter. I will make sure of that." " There is sand mine not far from town. We actually planned to dig it out deep enough and make natural sea. For dry seasons. In the last few years rains became less trough summer so we planned to make sure you have enough water for summer." Ta.s.sio was quiet up to that moment and then he coughed. They have power mine under their feet"s and wanted to use it as a water reservoir. " We will help you dig reservoir and with Kendra"s help we can expand the s.h.i.+eld over your fields, the mine and the sea. The power stones are to precious and who knows, maybe in the future, you will need it. " Elders saw them trying to save the town but not saying one word of keeping any of those stones. ""Do you need these stones maybe?" But Ta.s.sio shook his head. " They are precious, that is true, but we don"t need them. From now on be careful who you let in the town. If those people that want power find out about the mine..." Elders understood the gravity of the situation. For those that are greedy for money or power, the powers stones might be s.h.i.+ny gold and reason to fight the town or even eradicate them all just to get it.Kendra sat down and thought about it. For days she tried to lay the best possible array for their town, but somehow it didn"t work as she wanted. She already showed in front of the town people that they fly on clouds so no one was amazed or curious as she sat on her floating cloud, staring at the small mountain of stones in front of her.Isaa and Celia watched her from the side, knowing that they can"t help her. Lais and Ta.s.sio joined them silently as they didn"t want to disturb her thoughts. She sat on the floating cloud as she let one of the legs swing absentmindedly down and the other was on the cloud as her head rested on her knee. Kendra sat on cloud and sliver of sunlight pa.s.sed her head and hit the stones that reflected the s.h.i.+ne and suddenly she chuckled and held her head." Such simple thing I forgot. Indeed, Mother Nature has most answers we need." She stood up on her cloud and with a wave of her hand she floated up with the stones flying in a circle around her. When her cloud was high enough for her to see the surroundings.She looked at the few hills surrounding the town and then the forest, the hill with power stone mine and the small lake Ta.s.sio and Lais dug for towns people. She was about to start making the s.h.i.+eld as she saw small dot flying up to her.The next moment she saw Celia on the cloud with a smile on her cute face. " Kendra, wait. I remembered something. It might help you, or not, you choose. " As soon she arrived she jumped into Kendra"s arms as she got used to lately. She didn"t think too much of her actions as she started explaining her idea. Kendra listened to her and her smile grow wider. " Celia, you had the same idea as I did, but you added a thing I did forget to think of. Thank you." She stroked gently Celia"s hair and let her down." In base all s.h.i.+elds are same, but this time I will use the power stones as they have no power users to support the s.h.i.+eld. You are right, it"s not enough that the s.h.i.+eld deflects some of the surroundings, the smell and sound of people should be hidden as well. Let me think of it well... If we put the s.h.i.+eld surrounding their fields, the forest, the power stone cave and the lake, then the distraction array can be put straight after that between the hills and the s.h.i.+eld. It seems I will need help, let"s go down. I think it"s better to let them do it, then they would have felt like they did more than I do. The human mind has to be set as well. They have to do something for this so they can calmly and happily live as usual when we leave." Celia felt a bit bitter and regretful. At first, she didn"t like this town, but in these few days they are here, she realized how peaceful and likable these people are. She never tried to approach them, but still felt their kindness and their amazing minds.She realized that they had an open library where anyone could sit down in comfortable chairs and read a book as they wish. In the library was next to the chairs always some beverages or cookies lately as well. ( Kendra"s idea )They would sit in mid of town and argument about politics, weather, town or anything they wanted openly. Random people would join the argument if they are interested and they never stop being interested in that. Kendra thought about something and let one of their craftsmen make true chessboard on one of the tables. After she explained the rules and the way of playing, those who love strategies just couldn"t stop their excitement. The craftsmen was one of those, and choose to make chessboards on every table available.So when Kendra and Celia arrived most people in town were free and in the main square where she could find them in groups or in talk or playing games. She saw one of the elders with scrunched eyebrows holding his king as he had no way out and with sigh giving up the game. " Elder, I found a way to help this town, but I will need help from everyone in this town, literally."The elder stood up as he saw Kendra floating down on cloud with Celia in her arms. He rose his hands up and yelled with full lungs. " Silence, I have something to say." Slowly the talk and the murmurs slowed down and stopped. He stood on one of the chairs as everyone stared at him. " Listen to this child"s words. She will need our help with her idea." Then he nodded at Kendra to start.Kendra floated on her cloud so everyone could see and hear her. ""I can make s.h.i.+eld and an array. But I will need everyone"s help with it." Then she explained everything to them. ""Each of you will lay one of the stones at certain positions at the same time when I tell you. I could do it myself, but unfortunately, I need to concentrate on s.h.i.+eld and array. I can"t do that as well. There is another reason why you should do it. The array will be able to recognize you, so you can go out and enter without problems. Small children that are under two years old will not do it until then. Next year, all two years old children can add their stones and so on. Once in twenty years, you can renew the stones as they will lose power. " They had a huge mine of power stones that could last them thousands of years as protection. Everyone had relief on their face as they realized how lucky they are. They all got up and choose one of the stones on the floor. As Kendra explained to them what they had to do, they nodded their heads and smiled. Slowly they scattered at their position as Kendra"s cloud floated back up. She let Celia in Lais arms as she needed to concentrate. They all understood that she needs to be steady to handle this well. She breathed deeply as the power surged out of her and her body was covered with multiple colors as she spread them over the town and slowly made a s.h.i.+eld. Ta.s.sio, Lais, Celia and Isaa went out with others to lay the power stones into protection array. They all settled on their positions slowly, big and small, grown-up and child and when Kendra spoke powerfully "NOW !" they all put their stones down and something like wall suddenly could be seen spreading around the town,the mine, the fields and the lake. On other side of the array were the people and realized that they couldn"t see or hear neither the town or the babies they left just a step into the s.h.i.+eld and the array. Mothers suddenly run in and saw their babies unharmed but the people saw them disappearing and sighed in relief. The s.h.i.+eld and array will help them lots. But for future visits, they could just hold their hands as they enter the array. But to make sure that no one would misuse the townspeople, the visitors would stay outside the s.h.i.+eld. Only if all elders together choose to let a person enter the town, the person could lay her, or his, stone and would be included in the town. Marriages are possible with other people so she planned to support it that way. But, to completely protect them, she choose to make s.h.i.+eld became one with stones and so the stones would be unremovable. Just in case some new people had stupid ideas.And her protection would help them many times in the future...