Author's note: MAJOR DARK MAGE SPOILERS!!!
This is the first fic I've ever posted!
Please review, no matter what you think! Even just a few words would be great.
Disclaimer: Rachel Roberts owns Avalon, not me.
Adriane Charday stepped out of the forest and into a meadow of pearly grasses and flowers of every imaginable color. The clearing was surrounded on all sides by silver-leafed trees, which stretched tall into the sky and filtered down speckles of sunlight. At the farthest-away end, little fairy creatures watched her, buzzing and looping through the warm air with excitement.
"You guys," Adriane called back into the forest. "Check this out!"
She heard a commotion of crunching and rustling leaves, getting louder by the second until three figures (one tan and two green) appeared behind the vine curtain.
"Look at that!" gasped Tasha, who stepped into the clearing as Lorren and Zach held back the vines. "These could be all new flower species."
Tasha knelt down and examined a red, orange, and yellow flower whose petals looked like flames, as Adriane felt something tugging on her black combat boots. She looked down and saw a purple and furry-faced fairy, about the size of her hand, strumming on the laces like guitar strings.
"Hey!" she laughed, as the fairy started playing with strands of her glossy dark hair. It zipped up to her face and kissed her on both cheeks before buzzing to the other side of the clearing.
"That's not fair," said Lorren. "Why aren't Zach or I allowed to do that?"
Grinning and blushing, Adriane gave the Goblin Prince a half-assed smack on the head.
"Because she's not as friendly as I am," a hand with perfectly-manicured, hot pink nails brushed against Lorren's shoulder. Golden-haired Kara strode into the meadow, followed by Emily, who held a chatting fairy creature in her hands.
"Avalon is so beautiful," Emily sighed, as the butterfly-like fairy fluttered away.
Only three years ago, the mages had saved Avalon from the Dark Sorceress, and released its magic to replenish the web and all of its worlds. Emily had won out against the dark magic, Ozzie had come back to life, and Avalon had become a hub of magic-users from across the web. Already, Fairy Realms historians were calling it a Golden Age. Now, the mages were exploring the long-lost island of magic.
"This place…there's something strange about it," said Zach, who hung back at the edge of the forest, the only one not joining in the fun.
"I know! Some of these flowers, I've never seen them grow anywhere else," Tasha said.
"No, I mean," Zach started walking slowly forward, his face oddly blank. "There's this magic. I've never felt anything like it before."
He pointed to an edge of the meadow away from the dancing fairies. "Over there," and then he suddenly took off running in that direction.
"Zach!" Adriane sprinted after him, Lorren with her.
"What the hell, people?" Kara called, but no one heard her.
Zach was almost to the trees when his foot caught on something, and he flew forward and landed on his side. He sat up immediately, and by then Adriane and Lorren were kneeling next to him.
"Are you okay?" Adriane demanded. "Is your leg hurt?"
"It's fine. Doesn't hurt," Zach mumbled, as he drew in a breath that had been knocked out of him. He looked back at Kara, Emily, and Tasha, far away, and blinked in confusion. "How did I get here? Wasn't I just over there."
"You just ran over here! Don't you remember." said Lorren, just as winded as Adriane and Zach.
"No, I don't. The last thing I remember is Emily holding a fairy…"
"What's that?" Adriane pointed to a shining object barely visible among the pearly grasses. She pushed the grass away and uncovered a crystalline pyramid embedded in the ground. It was pulsing pale blue light. "You must have tripped over this. And it's definitely some 'strange magic'."
Transfixed, Zach brushed his fingers against the crystal's tip. "This is just the top. There's more under the ground. We have to dig it up!"
"Woah, hold on. We have no idea what this thing is—or what it could do to us. Tasha!" Adriane called to the goblin girl. "Come look at this!"
Tasha jogged over, Emily and Kara following at a brisk walk. She took a little handheld device from the pocket of her star-patterned robe and waved it over the crystal. Some graphs and charts appeared on the screen.
"It's a storage crystal, like the Dark Sorceress used," Tasha said, and a shudder ran through the whole group. "But there's no dark magic left—only traces of time magic."
"Time magic. That explains my…whatever that was," said Zach.
"There's a magical aura inside the crystal," Tasha squinted at the device. "It's weak, but…it's mage magic!"
"Wait," Kara peered over Tasha's shoulder. "So you mean there's a mage inside this crystal?"
"Quite possibly. We won't know until we dig it out and examine it."
"And you're sure that it's safe?" Adriane raised an eyebrow.
"Ninety-nine percent sure."
"Okay everyone," said Adriane. "Let's dig this thing up."
Emily, Kara, Zach, and Adriane joined hands in a circle around the crystal. One at a time, each sent a band of their magic around the ring. The soil began to lift out from around the crystal, funneling in an arc through the air, and landing in a growing dirt pile behind Adriane. At the same time, the crystal slowly lifted out from the ground. It was maybe eight feet long and three feet wide, and covered in a thin layer of dirt under which blue light pulsed.
When the bottom tip cleared the hole, Adriane turned the crystal horizontally and slowly lay it down behind Zach. The mages broke their circle and, along with Lorren and Tasha who had been quietly watching, rushed over to the crystal.
"Ew," said Kara. "Let me clean this up." With a swipe of her red-and-silver magic, all of the dirt fell away.
Everyone gasped. Encased in the pulsing crystal was a girl about their age. Her eyes were closed, her face serene, her hair midnight black, and her skin pale. She wore a short red tunic and a jewel on a choker necklace—a purple and silver rose.
"Wow," murmured Lorren. Kara glared at him, but he didn't notice, as he was too busy staring at her lovely face and softly-curved body.
Tasha's device broke the stunned silence with a series of beeps.
"Fascinating," Tasha whispered with her eyes fixed to the screen. "I've never seen a mage like this!"
Author's note: So, what do you think? Please review and give me any suggestions! Hey, just review in general! What do you think should happen next?