Emerald looked over Hergest's shoulder in awe and said softly, "I don't know." She looked at her brother, then back to the pool of water on the ground before them. Stepping forward, she knelt down and looked closer. The silvery water shimmered on the otherwise dry wooden floor, the moon reflected on its surface. She gingerly reached a hand out and dipped her finger in. Pulling it up, she showed Hergest the thick gold liquid dripping slowly down her hand.
"I don't get it," Hergest muttered, kneeling down beside her. He looked in, then shook his head, "What is this?"
Emerald's head cocked to one side as she looked at her brother's face through the reflection, and she suggested, "Do you really think it's a sign?"
"No. it's not a sign. That sort of thing doesn't exist."
"How do you know?" Emerald demanded.
"Oh, come on, Emmy. Don't tell me you believe in all those myths. Father just told you those for entertainment," Hergest rolled his eyes.
Emerald jutted her bottom lip out, "He did not! They are real, even if you don't believe in them." As they continued debating whether or not the stories their father had shared with them were real or not, and whether adventure actually happened, or if wizards really existed, the door opened. Both looked up, afraid that it was someone come to see what they were up to, and destroy the mystery they were studying. But it was only Tegryn.
"What are you two doing?"
Hergest sighed, but Emerald motioned her other brother over and instructed, "Look at this! You'll never believe what we've found."
Tegryn walked over and knelt down beside them, while Hergest explained, "Emerald thinks it's a sign."
"Maybe she's right," Tegryn shrugged. "When did you guys find this?"
Emerald shrugged, "We walked in and it wasn't here, but when I turned around, it was. I almost slipped in it."
"Is the ceiling leaking?" Hergest suggested, looking up.
Emerald scooped another handfull up and showed it to the boys, "Does rainwater turn gold? Besides, it's not even raining!"
Tegryn, always excited by shiny things, stuck his hand in and tried to pull some water up, but he only complained, "Hey! It doesn't turn gold in my hand! What did you do to it, Emerald?"
"Nothing," she insisted, pouring it back into the puddle. It returned to its original clear color. "I just touch it."
"So do you think it's a sign?" Hergest asked Tegryn. Although he was older, he was more of a follower and usually let Tegryn do all the thinking for him (which wasn't exactly the wisest thing to do.)
Tegryn shrugged, "There's only one way to find out."
"How's that?" Emerald asked curiously, looking from her older brothers to the pool.
"Blood, of course."
"What do you mean 'blood'?" Hergest shuddered. Anything to do with gore made him queasy.
"Well it's really quite simple. Since Emerald is the only one it reacts to, she just has to spill some blood on it. If it's a sign, it'll react to it."
Hergest's eyes grew and he stammered, "What? Sp-spill b-blood?" Tegryn nodded. Hergest gulped. Emerald, however, was not bothered by blood and didn't think twice about reaching for her dagger. Her hand came back empty, though.
"Tegryn, I'll have to borrow yours."
"What?"
"I'll have to borrow your dagger. Mistress Menya took mine today."
Tegryn sighed, but pulled it out, "Fine. But wipe it off; I don't want your blood all over it." Emerald nodded and took the dagger from his outstretched hand. It wasn't her fault Mistress Menya thought it inappropiate for her to practice marksmanship with it inside the throne room. Apparently it was disrespectful or something to aim for the heart of the statue of some old founder of the kingdom.
Emerald held her arm over the puddle and prepared to nick her wrist when Hergest cried out, "Stop! What are you doing? Do you want to kill yourself?"
"I'm not going to kill myself. It's just a little cut."
"Not there it isn't," Hergest argued. "Tegryn, tell her how to do it right."
Tegryn nodded, "Hergest is right. You don't ever cut your wrist. Just nick the palm of your hand." Emerald sighed, but changed the position of the dagger. Blade in place, she squinched her eyes shut and shoved it quickly across her skin. It didn't hurt all that bad, but sort of stung as a line of crimson red immediately appeared across her palm.
"Hold it over the puddle," Tegryn ordered when some dripped onto the floor. Emerald rolled her eyes at his bossiness, but did so. It took a second for enough to gather --since she hadn't gorged her hand or anything serious-- and then it slowly dripped off her hand, and was making for her arm until she flicked her hand and effectively spilled blood on the puddle.
Now, although Tegryn was very fond of his younger sister, he --along with all the brothers except Hergest-- got quite a kick out of playing off of her curiosity or impulsive streaks. In simple terms: they liked to play tricks on her. Emerald originally asked for it only by being the only girl, the baby of the family, and quite a bit younger, but as she grew she gave as good as she got.
So it was no surprise when Tegryn later admitted that there was no such way to tell if it was a sign by spilling blood on it. At least he didn't think so. But Tegryn, as well as Hergest and Emerald, was in for quite a shock when the blood hit the puddle. Immediately the entire puddle took on the thick gold appearance it got when Emerald touched it, except for her drops of blood with turned a glowing silvery color.
"What the..." Tegryn trailed off as all three leaned in, heads touching, to see what was going on. At first the pool just glittered, but then something began to happen underneath the taut surface. For several seconds it was a flurry of motion with no distinct images inside, but eventually Emerald and her two brothers began to see things.
"What's that?" Hergest asked, to which Emerald whispered, "It's...a leaf." She reached forward to see if she could touch it, but the gold liquid shimmered, and the picture changed. Next appeared some kind of statue that none of them recognized, then a skeleton hand, and last an emerald ring. Being that it was an emerald, she was specifically interested in it, and quickly leaned in closer. When the image didn't change, she reached a hand out to touch it; it looked so real. Her fingers dipped beneath the surface, and she felt the ring: it was actually there! In one fluid motion, she wrapped her fingers around the object and yanked it up. This had several effects, though. One was that the puddle turned an emerald green all over, then rapidly to a vibrant red, and then a face appeared that was more terrifying than anything Emerald, Hergest, or Tegryn had ever seen. It was dark and wrinkled, with beady yellow eyes, a sick, twisted grin, and jagged teeth. A gold chain ran from the nose to the mutilated ear. All three stared transfixed at the face, until it opened it's jaws in a roar of anger and seemed to shoot up at them.
The three all fell backwards, screaming. Tegryn was the first to stop, then Emerald calmed, but it took both shoving Hergest to get him to quiet down. The puddle was gone, and the candles on a nearby table blown out, leaving the room in a dark shadow. Tegryn hurried to relight the candles, then both boys rushed to sit closer to Emerald.
"What did you do?" Hergest demanded, arms crossed from embarrassment.
Emerald gasped for breath and insisted, "Nothing! I just pulled this ring out." She held the piece of jewelry up for them to see. At first glance there was nothing absolutely spectacular about it: a woven gold band housed a long, rounded emerald jewel. But something caught Emerald's eye, encouraging her to look closer.
How strange! When she looked closely into the jewel, she could make out movement, then some outlines, and finally a small moving picture of a forest with men or Elves of some kind walking through it. It didn't look like any place she'd ever seen before, and the people weren't familiar.
Handing it to Tegryn, she asked, "Can you tell what kind of people those are?"
"What people?" Tegryn held the ring up to his face until he was cross-eyed, but insisted, "I don't see any people. It just looks like a regular old ring to me." He handed it to Hergest, who had the same opinion.
Emerald took it back and argued, "No, can't you see in it? There's a forest with people walking around in it."
"You're just seeing things," Tegryn shook his head.
Hergest added, "We're all seeing things. That...whatever that was, it couldn't have been real, could it?"
"I don't know," Tegryn shrugged. Emerald kept silent, but she knew it had been real, and she knew what she saw in the ring. This was definitely a sign.
The door flew open once more and their father Orwig, followed by their mother Lilwen both rushed in.
"What's going on in here?" Orwig demanded, looking from one of his children to the next. The boys both looked extremely guilty, but little Emerald smiled sweetly and jumped up.
"Hello, Papa," she greeted, throwing her arms around his neck.
He looked at her suspiciously, "What have you three been doing in here?" Catching a glimpse of her bloody hand, he added, "And what happened to your hand?"
Tegryn and Hergest were terrible liars --a bad trait, since Tegryn got them into trouble enough-- but Emerald supplied, "Tegryn was telling my and Hergest a story and I was playing with his dagger because Mistress Menya took mine. Then he scared us and we screamed and the dagger slipped." Orwig gave her another look, but Emerald was too good a liar, and too cute to not believe, so he accepted her story.
Lilwen shooed Hergest and Tegryn to stand up and said, "It's rather late, my children. You had all better be off to bed." They reluctantly agreed, and Hergest followed Tegryn out of Emerald's room to their own. Lilwen and Orwig bid Emerald good-night, then left her alone.
She had already dressed for bed before Hergest had sought her out, accusing her of taking his sword (which had been true, unfortunately, and she had to give it back), so there was nothing left to procrastinate sleep.
Emerald looked closely at the ring --the vision inside had not changed-- before hurrying to her jewelry box. Inside, she pulled out a gold chain and slipped the heart pendent off, replacing it with the ring. After the chain was safely around her neck, hidden underneath her nightdress, Emerald hopped into bed, trying to calm the waves of questions and excitement in her mind. It wasn't every day, after all, that a little elfling got to witness a sign.
ULULULULULULULULULULULULULULULULULULU
Emerald went racing through the palace, a flurry of ribbons, curls, feet flying beneath her short skirt. Somewhere behind her, Tegryn was chasing after in a similar state of madness, laughing beneath mud caked onto his face and clothing, and somewhere behind him was Hergest, demanding they slow down because they already got in trouble for running through the palace once that week and that was more than enough because he would get blamed too and it wasn't even his fault and why did he still hang out with them anyways?
"Because you love us!" Emerald yelled over his shoulder. Turning her head threw her balance off, though, and to keep from pitching forward she grabbed a pillar and swung herself around, also effectively changing her course. Within seconds she had reached the bedroom wing and hurtled not towards her room but to the smaller room beside it where her nurse resided.
"Svea! Svea, open up!" she began to yell as soon as she could see the room. Svea, knowing from experience exactly what was going on, flung the door open just in time as Emerald slid through and crashed onto the bed. "Close-it-close-it-close-it!" Svea shut the door gently and listened as Tegryn and Hergest pounded, begging her to let them in.
"You'll have to seek your revenge on her later, boys; this room is a sanctuary," Svea reminded them through the door. She heard the two growl with frustration, but they knew the rules set down long ago: they weren't allowed in Emerald's nurse's room. Their father had set this rule when Svea's old room was accidentally set on fire. Oops.
When the two young princes on the other side of the door had stomped off, no doubt to plot this coming revenge, Svea turned and sat gracefully down on the bed beside Emerald, asking, "Do I really want to know what that was all about?"
"Probably not," Emerald shook her head. "But I rocked."
"I have absolutely no doubt that you did," Svea laughed. She reached out and wiped at a smudge of mud on Emerald's brow. Emerald grabbed her hand and pulled her down onto the bed with her, both erupting in a fit of giggles as Svea's fingers attached Emerald's bare feet –lately, she had stubbornly refused to wear shoes and her father, ever the spoiler, dared anyone to challenge her. Emerald, however, knew Svea's weak spot, and quickly scratched her fingernails playfully on the back of Svea's neck. This was too much for the nurse and she stopped tickling. Both continued to giggle and gasped for breath.
To Emerald, Svea was more than just her nurse, there at all hours of the day since she was born, even when her mother, Lilwen, was occupied with kingdom affairs or concerned with the other members of the family. Svea's only focus was Emerald, which suited the girl just fine, and the close relationship they had was often more like older sister-younger sister than nurse-mistress. Though Svea still mothered and scolded and warned, she also whispered and hugged and did things like get into tickle fights.
"Svea? Can I ask you something?" Emerald ventured after a couple minutes of just laying there.
"Of course."
"How come you aren't married?"
Svea raised an eyebrow and inquired, "And why, dear girl, is your mind thinking of something like that out of the blue?"
"It's not out of the blue," Emerald insisted. "Tegryn said that I have to grow up and marry somebody to 'benefit the kingdom,' and that if I don't, Papa will exile me. He said that's all princesses are good for, marrying."
"And you believe him?"
"I don't want to believe him, but what if he's right? I mean, I won't ever be queen. I'm not a warrior or a strategist or anything like that." She pushed herself up to a sitting position and shrugged, "Maybe Tegryn's right, that I'm just supposed to grow up and get married."
"Is that what you want to do?"
Emerald made a face, "No! I don't want to get married! Boys are dumb. No boy could ever keep up with me."
Svea found this highly amusing and laughed as she stroked Emerald's hair and assured her, "I'll tell you a secret: you don't have to get married if you don't want to, okay? Now, I bet that when you grow up some dashing young man is going to swipe you off your feet and win your heart and you won't know what hit you."
"No, he won't know what hit him," Emerald insisted. "If he falls in love with me, there's probably something wrong with him." Svea laughed and shook her head. "But if I don't get married, what will I do?"
"Anything you want to do, dear girl. You can do whatever you want to do."
"No I can't. Girls can't be–"
"Hush," Svea snapped suddenly, her eyes suddenly angrier than Emerald had ever seen. Emerald's own eyes went wide; her nurse had never spoken to her like that before. Svea's face instantly softened and she quickly apologized, "I'm sorry, sweet thing. But I don't ever want to hear you say that. Ever, do you hear me?"
"But–"
"No 'but's." She leaned in closer and insisted, "Emerald, there is nothing you can't do –nothing. I don't care what anybody ever tells you otherwise; you prove them wrong. You hear me? That's what you do with your life, you prove them wrong."