The Staff by Ellaina Boucino

Prologue

A long time ago, before time existed, a battle was raging on. One side was the human king Tilindore, the other was the leader of the magic horses, The Golden Stallion. The way that they ended the battle was only because of the happenings by a monk of the local monastery. The monk banished the Stallion from his home and set a seal on the area, preventing the Stallion from coming back. The monk was later killed by the mysterious Mare of Prophecy. She disappeared soon after the encounter. The monk was unaware of the mares of the Stallion still being in the area. Windy, Thunder, Wildfire, Forest, Winter, Shadow, Midnight, Sundaisy, Whirlwind, Midday, and Spray had several babies each, all from the Stallion. One other mare ran off and was captured by an evil lord named Zorth. Zorth made Erupt evil and her babies as well. The rest of the foals grew well. The daughter of the monk decided to seal them all away but failed when she was murdered by the Mare of Prophecy. Her decedents were cursed to be women forever. The monk's son took up her work and was too murdered by the Mare of Prophecy. His son and his decedents were men. And not to long ago, the daughter's newest decedent arrived and as expected, it was a girl. Problem was that the Stallion's blood mixed with the monks and created an ability to use magic. The parents did not know this and did not care for it. On the day of her berth, the Stallion proclaimed her the Keeper of the Mare and Stallion. She would have a visit from him on the night of her 12th birthday and learn of her importance in this game of chess called Life.

Chapter 1

"Huh?" "Elayna, you okay?" "Yeah, just zoned out..." The two girls walked farther down the road home from school. Truth was, Elayna did not 'zone out', she spotted a flash of silver. She saw it again, deeper in the forest this time. It's going away, she thought. It might be one of Them. If it is, I hope its Lana. Thankfully, they had reached the place where they split. "See you tomorrow, Summer." "You too. We'll continue right were we left off." "Kay." Elayna ran a ways away to not be considered suspicious. Once she was out of earshot, she took her necklace and undid it from her neck. "Ah, here we go. Release!" The necklace turned into a staff, one with a plain crystal implanted in the top, showing only half of it. "Oooh Lana! Where are you?" She heard a whinny out some ways in the forest. "Okay, im going in!" Elayna followed the horse prints all the way in until she met a small stream. "Ah, Lana, Guardian of small streams. Daughter of Spray." Another whinny was heard, very close. At the right moment, a blue, shiny, two year old horse came charging through, almost hitting Elayna. "Whoa, there!" The horse turned and was running at her with breakneck speed. "Fleetfoot!" The crystal glowed and a rust colored colt appeared out of the staff. "Turn her then bring her to me!" The colt ran Lana down, then turned her to Elayna. "Return to your chosen Queen, Lana, water!" Lana was whisked into the staff and disappeared. "Quickly Fleetfoot! I have to be home soon!" Elayna was on him in a second to spare. They took off, out of the forest and down the road. She was home in less than two minutes, as if she had never ventured from the road. "Return! Capture!" Fleetfoot was whisked into the staff, which returned to a small crystal ball with small strands of gold covering it, simply a necklace. Elayna ran inside the house and dropped her backpack at the door. "Mo-om! I'm home!" "Out here, girlie!" Elayna followed the voice outside, where all of the family was playing with the dog. "Snickey-doo! There's no one just like you! He heh." Their dog, Snickers, pricked her ears at the sound of her name and ran to Elayna, jumping and licking. The brindle colored puppy nearly ran her over with jumps and licks. "How was school?" asked her dad once food was placed on the outside table. "Nothing new. Talked with Stephanie, Callie and Grace. Laughed through seventh and eighth period. Talked with Sam. The usual." "Nice, and how about you Daniel?" The ten year old brunette boy shrugged his shoulders and dove into some steak. "The usual for me too. But, I did find horse prints in the forest. And sneaker prints like Elayna's. Say, Elayna, have you been in the forest lately?" He looked at her as he blindly tried to cut his sweet potato. "Yeah, though I only found one pair of horse prints. No shoe prints." She smiled as Daniel incidentally flung a piece of sweet potato off the table to the dog, earning the attention of his mother. He'll never get it. I simply got the hang of it and he can't, heh. She finished her dinner in silence. After, she headed up to her room, took a shower and got into bed. "Love you momma." "Love you too, honey." Her mother smiled and walked out of the room. Snickers was stationed in her kennel in Elayna's room, snoring. Elayna giggled softly and fell asleep in a few minutes. Little did she know that this was going to be a night of terror.