Chapter 2

Dark-pathway winded up to meet them, almost cackling with glee at how far they had to go through the daunting forest. The pathway was the only way they had found that led to Flowerdew way, the only clear path to the castle.

" No Cecilia! I don't want to go through that horrible forest" a high and obviously frightened voice said.

" We have to Willow!, the Queen sent the letter that asked for us specifically" this voice was the voice of a leader, ringing with authority over the smaller figure who more or less cowered over the idea of stepping into the forest.

The two girls had been arguing for the last hour at the entrance of this forest. Cecilia, the more dominant one, was impatient to get the argument over with; she stood closer to the path than the other, proving that she wasn't afraid of the forest and the creatures dwelling in it.

"we're getting nowhere just standing here Ceci."

An uncomfortable silence was swelling, as if the air had gotten thicker with the arguments intensity.

Suddenly the shorter one, Willow, hung her head in defeat.

"fine, but only because i know nothing is going to happen to me with you here." She said.

Cecilia smiled at Willow, happy for the girl's sudden trust in her. Not that it surprised her in the slightest, they had been friends since the first year of fighting school, and where the only thing they were taught was to use a sword and fight with skill.

Cecilia was a high ranked swordsman, and she was confident in her ability to thwart all who opposed her in fighting, even if her opponent was bigger or older than her, even though she was only 16. Just a year older than fragile Willow.

But she would always be jealous of the shorter but slim girl with black curly hair who stood in front of her, this girl was special, one of the rare humans who could control animals, even if the animal was opposing them. Some of these people could even call upon a mythological creature to defend them in a time of need.

But Willow was still to discover her defending creature.

Some animal controllers are said to call upon phoenix's or dragons, depending on the character of that person and the creature. (AN- sort of like the Daemons in The Golden Compass only not mythical animals/creatures.)

Willow whipped her head high up and walked further into the forest with a lash of sudden confidence.

Then she stopped dead and turned around, looking straight at Cecelia with a kind of expected expression on her face and said. "Well, let's stop stalling time and get over with it quickly."

She flinched as Cecelia pulled out her gem-encrusted blade and held it at her side.

"let's go then" she replied frostily.

And they walked carefully into the forest's dark abyss.

Meanwhile, at the castle...

"Lady Celeste'!, word has been sent that your request of the two swordfighters is underway, their current location is somewhere between Flowerdew path and the forests entrance."

The queen, who the speaker was talking to, was a rather tall lady, she was what the people of the castle would call the incarnation of "white beauty".

She was a striking figure, "as pale and beautiful as the full moon at midnight", the castle people would say, you could easily tell that even in a dark room her pale skin wouldn't change in tone, which even exaggerated how dark her hair was against her skin. Her hair was pitch black and its ringlets of spirals fell gracefully around a heart-shaped face.

Curiosity beamed out of her bright lapis-lazuli eyes with flecked rainbow colours throughout her irises, a small and dainty nose, and her lips were as blood-red as blooming roses.

But what stood out was the shock of diamond whiteness in elegant, angelic wings that arched up, and around this beautiful lady.

She was standing next to the speaker in the doorway to a magnificently spacious hall, there were no tables or chairs in this grand room, just a very long hall-runner that was wide enough for two people to walk comfortably on, but this was not the case, what with the lady's diamond wings.

So she walked forward and along the elegant white and gold-trimmed hall-runner, passing all the antique, gold framed portraits that hung on the wall of former Kings and Queens who ruled the castle while guiding the people through her reign like all the ancestors before them.

As the hall-runner stopped, so did the in front of her was a rather strange wall, a grey, drawn colour with no hanging portrait hung lady with wings raised her slim arm and moved it to the wall,

And it went straight through!

Her hand, as it touched the greyness, went through it and the grey wall started to swirl around her hand like a whirlpool without touching her skin.

"You should drop your head to the floor so you're not looking at it dead-on, ok Ricardo?" Her voice high and elegant, a slight accent could be heard, but not enough to know where from.

The first speaker, Ricardo, hung his head and fixed his whole black eyes on the floor, as if to study every inch of the white tiling that started when the hall-runner stopped.

The lady gave a start as she encountered resistance in the grey, whirly smoke, she dove her other hand into the smoke and yanked something back with both her hands.

A crystal ball, pulsating a golden glow that turned the entire room's whiteness to brilliant gold. The lady cupped it into her pale palms and raised the ball to eye level, then she looked deeply into the orbs light.

After some time, she lowered the orb from her face and looked to the grey swirling wall, which had continued swirling when the lady had withdrawn her hands. Now it was swirling faster and faster until the outer sides of the whirlpool-like greyness was disappearing like mist being waved away.

When all the smoke had gone, what stood before them was a giant mirror, which stretched from wall to wall and floor to ceiling, it reflected the room behind them in its exact.

Then she spoke to it,

"I, Celeste' Decapri, stand before you, great mirror, and request you show me the adventurists Cecelia and Willow who are currently located in shadow forest, dark path."

10 seconds past without anything happening, then abruptly the reflection that the mirror was showing changed, went black then cleared. Trees, lots of trees and large ferns appeared, no buildings at all. There was a faint pathway winding through all the trees and plant growth.

Then two figures were visible as they came walking down the path, taller one, Cecelia, in front, gripping a sapphire and aquamarine gem-encrusted long sword. The shorter one, Willow, behind her and glancing around warily as if she expected an attack at any time.

Dark path had a kind of mysterious aura in the air, like there was a very real possibility of shadows jumping out and dragging the helpless girls into the darkness.

But they weren't helpless, Cecelia had an expression that meant she was ready for anything that wanted to do them harm.

Lady Celeste' spoke to Ricardo.

"well, no harm has befallen them so far, they will be arriving at the castle by dusk, i would think."

"Yes, Lady Celeste', as soon as they arrive i will send them here"

Ricardo replied.

"Good, but i think you should go have a drink from the resource room so you're not, ah, hungry when our guests get here."

And with that last note, Lady Celeste' dismissed the man with the whole black eyes.

As he walked back down the hall-runner and out the giant double-doors to find the resource room below ground, Lady Celeste' lifted up the orb that she was still holding and placed the now dim-lighted orb onto the mirror. Mist swirled up to cover the mirror again until the mirror was not visible at all behind the grey smoke.

She released her hand from the orb and pulled her hand out of the slightly swirly smoke, than it stilled. She turned and began gracefully pacing the length of the grey wall, 50 steps that way, and 50 steps the other way, over and over again.