Now five years have gone by and she is now fifteen. She is a beautiful girl but no one wanted her, from the foster home. But one day a messenger from the palace of there city of Balaena came to the foster home looking for a fifteen year old girl who could work on the farms of the palace. The receptionist took the messenger toward Nisha. Nisha stood up and shook his hand. He told his story again, and asked if she would except his offer. Nisha accepted and gathered up her belongings and got into the wagon.
When she arrived at the palace, a maid came and took her to her sleeping corridors to unpack. She told her that she had a roommate, and left.
"Man it is cold out there.", as a girl told herself, closing the door behind. "Oh." sais the girl came in and just saw Nisha. "Hello my name is Joey short for Josephine. You startled me didn't except another roommate for quit awhile. Well I better tell you what you will be doing. You will be taking care of the cows and the geese with me. You get Sundays and Monday off. And you will be waking up at six-o-clock in the morning to start doing your work and it will end at five, and of course you will get a break for lunch."
Nisha looked at we the a blank face. A face that said What am I supposed to be doing, again. "Sorry. I think I sounded a little bossy. Well what is our name?" "Nisha. Nisha Manning." "Well hello Nisha. I have a personal question to ask. Have you ever seen the prince that lives on these grounds? Well just for a secret between you and me, I think the prince is kind of cute? And I know that it silly of me to ask you but my other roommate thought it was stupid and that I was little and dreamer and I didn't even get to tell that I just thought that the prince was not even my type, just a little cute.", said Joey.
"I have never seen the prince.", answered Nisha a little embraced. Joey was now staring at her with her mouth a little open. "Well I as I said he is cute and all. But he isn't my kind of guy." "Oh.", Nisha said. "Well we better get to bed. Good night Nisha see you in the morning.", yawned Joey. "Good night Joey." As Nisha looked around the room and crawled into bed. As the morning was coming alive with the reds and the oranges that filled the sky, Nisha got dressed and walked outside to go feed the animals that she now took care of.
The air was chilly, and she thought the animals were a little grumpy. The lunch bell rang and she walked over to the building that she knew was the dining hall. She sat with Joey and ate her mashed potatoes.
Sense today was Saturday she knew that tomorrow was her day off. And was thinking of what to do for her day off. She decided to go into down to have a cup of tea and take a walk and then come back and rest.
She was sitting down with her tea and looking out the window. And watched an old beggar man walk inside, or what she thought was an old beggar man. He had a long white beard and baby blue eyes. He looked very skinny and look like he should need to eat something soon. He walked up to the counter and was about to say something, but the tea shop owner interrupted him and said,
"We do not do service with beggars. Please leave." The tea shop owner said spitting all over him. The beggar turned and left and went out the door. Nisha felt sorry for him and ran up to the counter and asked for two big muffins of poppy seed and one cup of tea. She payed with the little money that she had left, gathered up all the food and ran after the old man. She handed him the food and drink and said,
"Here. I thought you might like some food." He reached out and took the food with gracious eyes. He looked up and thanked Nisha. Nisha was about to walk away when he said, "Wait come back and eat this muffin with me. I have to much food to eat al by myself." Nisha turned and sat down by the old man for a little while and ate a little of the muffin and said that she had to get going.
She got back to her little shack and noticed that Joey wasn't there and there was a note left on her pillow that she was sick and that she was at the sick hall with a cold and that she will be back in the evening. Then there was a knock on the door. Nish carefully opened the door and peered out of the little crack of from the inside to the outside, it was the old beggar man from the tea shop. Nisha was all of a sudden sacred and thought the guy was some kind of bad man that followed kids home.
He said, "Don't be scared child. I will not hurt you. I only come to finish my quest to give you the Stone of the Prophecy. See, I come from the Hidden Valley of the Healers. And we know that you are the one who can take care the magic stone."
Nisha was now starring at him with a dazed look on her face, "What? Is this some kind of joke? I have never heard of such thing. The Magic Stone."
"Well let me tell you a story about what the magic stone. There was woman about your age who knew the power of the Stone. She was called the Keeper of the Stone. Well, she was killed in battle by a very wicked man thousands of years ago. His name is Egustos, and he just wanted the stone for his own power. Now that we have finally found you, we need to know if you are the sacred one. I have been looking for you for five years now and have finally found you. And if you are wondering how I found you, I found you by the graciousness in you, and the power inside you that began to get very powerful because you were standing by the stone. I will give you the stone now and see if the stone does anything in a non-human way ans if it does you are the one."
"First what is your name?", asked Nisha. "How impolite of me. My name is Inal. And I know that your name is Nisha Manning.' Nisha was silent now. As the old man Inal pulled out a bundle. He unwrapped a stone that Nisha has never seen before, it had all the colors of the rainbow. Inal gave it to Nisha and the stone started to glow in her hand and then it dimmed down after a moment. Nisha look up at him wondering if this is what is supposed to happen.
"Nisha Manning you are the chosen one." Nisha could not believe her ears. She looked down at the stone in amazement. She wondered if this was true or not. And then the old man started talking again.
"The stone has a lot of different kind of powers. It lets you talk to animals, turn you into one, give you the powers of the Earth, Air, Water, and Fire, and it will talk to you if you really are the keeper, but I think you are because it only shines that brightly in the hands of the keeper, anything you need it will help you. Now I must leave, I will be watching over."
He got up and left and waved good bye. Now Nisha was left alone with the stone and had know idea what to do with it, so she decided to go to bed. As she was laying down she put the stone in a miniature purse around her neck. She was about to fall asleep but then a voice called out in a loving voice, "Nisha, if you are still awake I would like to introduce myself as Rima, the stone that is in the pouch around your neck. Nisha."
Nisha looked up and said in her mind, "How is that. Is that really the stone." "Yes Nisha it is I." "How are you in my head?" "Well. See you and I are bonded. So that means you and I are linked together." "Well then does that mean you really do have all that magically powers that Inal said that you have." "Nisha I hope you are not that kind person who will only want me for power, but I can see that you are not that kind of person. So, yes I can do all of that. Now go to sleep my dear child."
"Well then you should not have woke me then have you." Nisha said to herself not knowing that the stone could still hear her.
"Uhhmm. Nisha I heard that." Nisha shut her eyes and felt very embraced. And went to sleep. Nisha awoke at six-o-clock in the morning and went exploring outside and saw that there was a forest and ran to it. When she arrived she sat down and thought. She couldn't remember anything that happened last night. Nisha didn't know that the stone would go into her body and be part of her, then she would forget all what happened last night but still have the power of the stone.
She was sitting on a log and listening to the wind blow through the gorgeous woods. A little squirrel came up to her with its cheeks full of nuts.
"Oh hello there little squirrel. What are up too. My name is Nisha." She didn't know why, but she had the erg to stretch out her hand and pet the creature and she knew that it would run away being sacred. She did so though and the squirrel let it touch it. She stared at it in amazement. Then she heard a sound. Some kind of faint whisper. She started walking to that direction to find a baby colt lying on the grass. She knelt down to pet it and she noticed how its leg was shaped funny. She knelt down closer to find that it had a broken leg. "Poor baby, here let me help you." She tore off a piece of her apron and looked around for a sturdy stick and rapped the stick and the leg with the piece of torn apron.
She picked up the animal it was heavy, but not heavy, and looked around for a something that could shelter the animal till it was healed. Nisha found a little shelter that looked like a hundred years old. But it was mot that bad off, she lied the little colt down and took off the rest of her apron to cover it with. As she was doing that she found out the horse was a boy. Then she heard a voice and it said a name. It said, Felidae. I will call you Felidae she said to herself. And to the her amazement the horse whined in agreement, as if it just read her mind. She stared at it for a moment and said no it just did not read my mind. She turned and left telling Felidae that she will be back tomorrow. She decided to go sit on a her log for just a moment. As she was sitting the little squirrel came up to her again as if it wanted to be petted again. Then she saw a man had been watching her from behind a tree on a horse.
"Well looks like you have a way with animals.", the man said. Nisha looked up surprised and saw the man. She thought he was very handsome. Tall, slender, buff, and mysterious looking.
"You startled me. Yeah this fellow is pretty cute don't you think." "Yep.", as he said getting off his horse. "So tell me what is your name?" "Nisha Manning." "And how old are you?" "Why would you like to know." "Just out of curiosity" "Fifteen" "Oh..." "Now my turn to ask you a few questions. What is your name, how old are you, and do you live on the grounds?" "Well my name is Eric. I'm fifteen and I..., I work with the horses." "Oh" "Well I better get going. I was said not stay to long with this horse that I am riding. Um... would you like to meet me here at seven-o-clock tomorrow?"
"Sure. See you then." Nisha got up and left and started walking for her sleeping corridors. She got back and was glad to see Joey lying in her bed. She wanted to tell her about the boy she just met and was going to but decided against it, because she was sleeping and she didn't feel that she should wake and she had this strange jump in her stomach as if it told her not to.
She awoke and put on her working clothes and started out for the animals that she took care of. She noticed that it was a lovely spring morning just like all the rest of the other two days. When she was milking a cow named Bessy, she noticed that her stomach was pretty large and she was shifting her weight.
"What is wrong Bessy? Are you not feeling good?", Nisha asked the cow as she started feeling her stomach. She felt something in her stomach that was moving but she had know idea what it was. Then she knew that it was the mating season for the cows. Bessy was in labor!
Nisha told the cow that she would be right back with some help, and ran for the door. She looked around helplessly for anybody that she might thought would help her. Then she ran into a boy who was sitting on log and nearly knocked him over.
"Sorry about that. But one of my cows is about to have a baby. And I was looking around for somebody to help me sense it was my first time and all."
The guy was staring at as if he was sizing her up for something, "Nisha, right?" "Oh. Hi Eric I didn't notice who you were.", Nisha said a little blushing. "That is alright. Now you were saying that one of your cows is in labor?", as he got up and started walking toward the direction that he thought that she had come from.
They ran all the way without talking, trying to reach the cow. The cow was stilling shifting her weight. Her eyes were red from the pain it looked like, and blood had started coming out from her re-end.
"Lets lay her down, because if she gives berth standing up it might break the calve's neck.", said Eric. "Okay.", she replied. Starting to push Bessy down the cow went with it. It even looked like she was even comfortable. Then the process of birth began to happen. Eric and Nisha backed away a little, but ready for help if the cow needed it. The calve's head was now visible, and the neck and then the rest of the body. When the new born calf was fully out the mother turned and started licking the dried blood off. The two helpers turned and left to let the two cows be alone for a moment or two.
"Thank you for coming and helping.", Nisha told Eric. "No big deal I better get back to my horse that I was tending. Unless you still need some help with the cow.", said Eric.
"No. I got it." "Well see you at seven." Seeing if Nisha had already forgotten about, but she hadn't. "Seven-o-clock.", Nisha answered and went back inside to see if the cow needed any help. She didn't so she went over to the baby instead. The cow was gorgeous. It had brow and white fur, and a little lightning bolt on its head. She looked into the eyes of the cow and heard a name come into her head as she looked into the eyes of the calves. The name she heard was Elle. "I will name you Elle.", she told the calve. The cow was now suckling on its mother's nipple and was falling asleep. Nisha heard the lunch bell ring and left the two cows.
The afternoon pasted quickly, not a lot of the animals needed any special care except Bessy in the morning and a little in the afternoon. She took a break for a few moments, sitting in the lucius, green grass. Sense the dinner bell wasn't going to ring any moment she decided to take another walk in the forest again, sense all of her work was done.
She came upon a sparkling stream, that was well hidden by the trees. It was a hot and bright sunny day, and it wouldn't harm her if she took a quick dip. She took of her working clothes that were all a dress, an apron and a pair of shoes. She striped down just to her undergarments.
The water was luke warm, just the right temperature. She went under to get her head wet and when she came back up she felt eyes on her. But it was only a little bird. She got out got dressed again and went back for some supper.
It was five minutes till seven, and she was going to go meet Eric again. She felt kind of foolish thinking that he might show up, because no boy had ever liked her or Eric might just wanted to be friends with her, and that would be alright with her too, she thought or would it not be alright with her, she had no idea what she was thinking.
She came to the spot were she met Eric and didn't see him at first. She had a feeling that her first intentions were correct and decided to go visit her little colt that she found. As she turned to leave she heard her name being called.
"Nisha! Wait! Nisha!" She turned to find Eric running behind her. He came up to her panting. "Sorry. I was looking at a little colt I found with some kind of bandage on it." "You did?" "Yeah. Here let me go show you. You won't even believe your eyes." Eric grabbed Nisha by the hand and ran off to go show her the horse that she already knew about.
