Crystal Storm XII

　　Attar and the other children were so anxious that they couldn’t wait any longer to see what had happened. They looked out toward the sea through the telescope - what they saw left them utterly stunned, their mouths wide open.

　　“What can we do?” The question haunted each one of them as they hurried back to the wooden house.

　　“I thought we would be safe. It looks like the crystal flower is powerful. I think whoever stole it is operating the robot to take revenge on us.” The scientist had been deep in meditation before sharing his thoughts.

　　“Motive!”

　　The children opened their eyes wide and pricked up their ears, waiting for the scientist’s explanation.

　　“My brother, 10 years my junior,” the scientist cleared his throat and continued, “I haven’t seen him for some years now, though.”

　　“A brother? You never mentioned that you had a brother,” said Sportsman scratching his head.

　　The scientist shook his head slightly. Everyone could sense his sadness.

　　The situation made all the children feel uneasy. Looking at the poor scientist, they could do nothing but maintain the silence as they waited for him to continue. After a while, the scientist opened his mouth again, “Both of us specialized in scientific research and both of us were very successful. But then the trouble began.”

　　“What kind of trouble? Weren’t you successful?” Troublemaker was eager to know more.

　　“You’re too young to understand the world.” The scientist sighed deeply and said, “After our paper was published, many people insisted I do things that I didn’t want to do. So I told the media that my research still needed further improvements. That’s when I came here to live with my brother.”

　　“So why are you alone now?” Cheerleading Captain was eager to know the whereabouts of the scientist’s brother.

　　“It’s all because of this!” The scientist pointed at the crystal petal in the picture, “We discovered the crystal flower and were attracted by its powers. From then on my brother changed. He looked at the flower everyday with dark thoughts swirling through his mind. He seemed completely in a trance.”

　　telescope [5teliskEup] n.望远镜

　　utterly [`QtElI] adv.完全地

　　stun [stQn] v.使惊吓

　　haunt [5hC:nt] v.索绕心头

　　revenge [ri5vendV] v.复仇

　　meditation [medi5teiFEn] n.沉思

　　motive [5mEutiv] n.动机

　　prick [prik] v.竖起

　　scratch [skrAtF] v.搔，抓

　　whereabouts [5(h)wZErE5bauts] n.行踪

　　swirl [swE:l] v.盘绕

　　trance[trB:ns] n.恍惚，出神