Disclaimer: See first chapter.
Thanks to Beta: See first chapter also.

Chapter Two: The Attic

Alexia raced anxiously through the dense wood, through endless fields of corn and wheat along with the many pastures of grazing cattle or horses until she finally went through the front door and up the stairs to the attic. 'The sooner I get this done the better.' She thought, 'That also means the sooner I can take Romonia out for a ride.' Romonia was her mare.

Alexia got to the attic door, opened it slowly and walked in. The lights were off giving it a light misty creepy feel to it. Cobwebs hung from the ceiling, and the only light that lit the room was from a single window. You could see the light shine through as the dust slowly settled over everything. Alexia scanned the area. Piles of cardboard boxes lay in the one corner covered in layers of dust and cobwebs. On the other side of the attic was old furniture no longer in use covered by old sheets that were once white, but are now dark gray due to dust that had collected there over the years. After seeing all of the work that was laid before her, she slowly crept in the rest of the way.

"Well I better get started," she said out loud to her self. She looked around one more time then got to work. Since she was told not to worry about the furniture, she went through the boxes and discarded anything that was not needed or no longer used.

It was then as she finished the last box that she noticed something out of the corner of her eyes. Something was glowing an array of different colors on the opposite side of the room, obviously covered by a sheet for it was a very dim light, but bright enough for someone to notice it. Of course being the curious little teenager she is Alexia got up from where she was resting and walked over to it. Alexia's eyes widened as she unveiled it, revealing an exquisite chest, which was covered with many different kinds of precious stones, which caught the late evening sunlight causing it to shine and shimmer even more. The light was so bright Alexia had to quickly cover her eyes and look away. She franticly felt around on the floor for the sheet that had covered it. Since she couldn't find it she eventually gave up and blindly made her why towards the window. 'I am so glad that I cleaned this place up before I found that.' Alexia thought to herself. She got to the window and quickly closed the shutter.

"Ah that's better now I can see." She turned to walk back to the chest, which was still shining just not as bright, as she went to take a step her foot caught on something and caused her to tumble to the floor. Alexa let out a sudden shriek, as she rushed toward the wooden floor.

"Figures it would happen after the flash of blinding light."

Alexa stood and dusted herself off. She looked at what had tripped her and glared at it.

"Stupid piece of firewood, you could have killed me! You freaky freak…freak!"

As soon as she was done calling it names and rambling on, Alexa walked over to the 'stupid piece of firewood' and picked it up. It was a staff and just the right size for her. The staff was made out of red wood, which had darkened with age; near the top there was a worn place, where someone's hand would go. Alex figured that the previous owner must have had small hands because her own hand fitted the worn patch perfectly. (An: think of Gandalf's staff in the two towers. But instead of white it is a deep red and a little more feminine).

"Not bad for a stupid piece of firewood"

Now with the newly found staff in hand, Alexa turned back toward the chest. 'How odd, there is no sunlight yet it is still glowing.' thought Alexia 'Oh, well.' She shrugged it off and knelt down near the chest.

"Why don't we have a look see, shall we?"

She ran her to hands along the chest's lid and examined its fine craftsmanship. She went to opened it and reached in with her hands and started to take out its contents.

There was a sword, numerous daggers, and a pointed hat. Then she pulled out a fire red robe, its color matched the hat, and under it was a gray cloak that had a hood.

The last thing that she pulled out was a fair sized rectangular box that had a different animal carved onto each side of it. What stood out the most was what seemed to be a painted ruby red dragon, with two small emerald green gems for its eyes that were wrapped in flames. She noticed that if you looked close enough that the paint was in fact small slivers of ruby laid to give the impression of scales. She also noticed that all the other pictures were just as detailed as the first one. From a big tree standing proudly near a river to the smallest hair on a creature's mane, everything was there. It would have left anyone who was to look at it awestruck and in deep respect for the artist, which was exactly the way Alex was right then as she took in every little detail. She closed the chest and pushed it off to the side.

"Finally the last confounded cardboard box, I thought it would never come."

Cautiously, Alexa approached the box making sure that there was nothing to cause her to fall, trip, stumble… or otherwise cause her to be sprawled on the floor against her own choosing. Not much was found that was interesting to her, mostly old newspapers and cooking magazines with a few gossip ones in between. It was when she got ride of those things that her interest grew.

On the bottom of the box covered by all those papers and magazines were two books. Both which were leather bound, and very old by the look of it. The thicker one was a scarlet red and almost as big as the bible, while the thinner one was made of emerald green leather and about one third of the red one. Both had intricate designs on the cover in gold and silver. Alexa, being the bookworm that she is, could not find it in her heart to throw them away…. Either that or something in her told her that they are really important and to be rid of them would be a great injustice to them, and to her thirst for knowledge.

Now done with the cleaning Alex gathered all of her newly found things, including the two books, as best as she could and carried them to her room. Once she was sure she had everything that she had found and it was in her room, Alex pulled out one of her black bags and started to place all of the daggers and clothes along with the small box into it, closed the bag and placed the bag on her back. Now the only thing that she had to worry about now was how she was going to leave the house with the staff and not have Jess seeing her.

Alex peeked her head around the corner to see were Jess was; she was nowhere in sight. She came around the corner and into the kitchen and spotted a note on the table. She walked over to the table, picked up the note and began to read it. The note said:

Dear Alex,

I have gone to get some supplies for us, as I have noticed that we are running low with some things. Feel free to eat dinner without me, and please don't stay out or up too late. Remember you have school tomorrow.

Be back soon.

Jess

Alex replaced the note and helped herself to some crackers, cheese and water. Looking around she found some fruit and cake that she also took. Leaving the room she headed for the barn.