The Forgotten Quartet

Prologue: Part 1

by Van C

The dark juice of the silver apple trickled slowly from the corner of the woman's intensely red lips, making an ugly stain against her ash white skin. With each bite she took, the towering woman could feel more strength than she had ever known flow through her already strong body. As she swallowed the sweet juices, she could feel her heart's greatest desire coming to pass: eternal youth and beauty. A smile of pure pleasure twitched its way across her perfect lips as she took in a deep breathe of cool fresh air in preparation for her final bite, but she was interrupted.

The golden gates that she hadn't noticed on the far side of the garden swung silently open to let in the much smaller figure of a boy. The surprisingly tall woman quickly stepped into the shadows and out of sight, watching him carefully make his way toward the tree from which she had just plucked the apple only moments ago. Reaching up on his toes, the boy grasped hold of one of the beautiful apples and pulled it delicately from the tree. He brought it close to his face as if to take a bite, but instead deeply inhaled its scent before putting it in his jacket pocket. Just as he was turning to leave, the woman stepped back out of the shadows, and took the final bite before tossing the core to the side and wiping the leftover juices from her mouth with the back of her hand.

The boy stared at her for a moment in surprise before he regained control of himself. As quickly as he possibly could, the boy ran from her, sprinting back to the gate through which he had come and running down the mountain slope on the opposite side. However, the woman was much faster. She vaulted over the gate and had soon gained on him as he raced towards a girl waiting on a winged horse. Once up on the horse's back, the boy turned back to face her. "Stop there," he warned, "or we'll be off!"

The woman halted instantly, but that wouldn't stop her from attempting to make him see things through her reasoning. "Why do you not eat the apple?" she questioned, suddenly angry that such a small boy could resist the temptation when she, most powerful witch of Charn, gave in to the apple's draw without any hesitation. "You could live forever! We could be king and queen over all this land!"

The boy glared at her, "I'd rather not keep on living after everyone I love has died."

This surprised the witch, for she had never felt a love for anyone else that could be stronger than her own greed. Now more confused and upset than ever, she thought of another idea, "What about your mother?"

"What about her?" he questioned suspiciously.

"Well," the witch could see she had struck a chord with this comment, "it just seems to me that you must not love her nearly as much as you say."

Looking miserable and angry, the boy quickly retorted, "As if you would know anything!"

The witch smiled to herself, knowing that he was swaying towards doing what she wanted him to do. "You could take that apple you have there in your pocket back with you to your world to give to your mother and save her, but instead you're going to give it to that great beastly lion. He shall eat it for his own benefit, and then where will you be? Back where you started, trying to save your poor mother."

At this, the boy's face scrunched up in agony. "I can't do that. I promised."

"So you're going to let your mother die and your father be heartbroken just because you made some promise to a lion? You didn't even realize what you were doing."

"Mother would never want me to do it." The boy hoarsely choked out, as if he were trying to convince himself of that fact. "She always says to keep your promises and never steal."

"She would never have to know," the witch smiled at him sweetly. "Just go now. Take the fruit and return with it to your world. You can even leave the girl if you wish, it does not matter." As she said the final sentence, the boy's face changed rather quickly, as if waking up from a dream. He looked at her very solemnly; like she was the biggest, most disgusting liar he had ever seen. Turning his back on her, the boy looked past the quiet girl sitting in front of him and told the horse it was time to return. It instantly spread its wings wide, lifting them into the air and flying back down the mountain from whence they came.

The witch watched them for only a split-second before turning toward the northwest and letting her long legs carry her quickly away. She marched for several miles without ever tiring before turning to look back down the mountain, past the garden, to the small shape of a green meadow with miniscule figures dancing about a larger golden one joyously. Anger and envy washed over her, but even from such a distance, she could almost smell the sweet scent of the apple. Consumed with loathing, she turned from there, wishing she could go down and rip their world apart, but refusing at the same time to be anywhere near the tree of the apple she was sure the boy had planted by now.

With her back towards their merriment and a scowl upon her face, the witch continued northwestward to find herself a home in the mountains, vowing to some day return and ruin the lives of the ones she blamed for her own unhappiness.

Author Note: I know, this is a super short chapter; but don't worry, the next one will be up in a couple days and it's quite a bit longer. I wrote the whole prologue a while ago, but I wanted to break it up like this. Please let me know what you think. I'll take all comments and advice; good or bad. Thanks, VC.