Avalon: The Magical Kingdom Begins
Book One: The Nocturnalist
Emily has a secret. Adriane discovers a gift. Kara holds the key to something she never believed possible.
A/N: This story starts when Kara, Emily, and Adriane are seventeen years old. I'm setting it close to present date, but it may work its way farther into the future. And it's part of a series.
Responses to Reviews:
Snowlia – There are a lot of Lorren surprises coming up :) I hope you like them! Sorry I took a little longer than normal to update, by the way…
Mya – Sorry, no pillow beating this chapter… I'm glad you like the story :)
Chole – This has to be the one of the best reviews I've received so far – I'm honored! xD I hope I won't disappoint you.
Wolf Vamp – Well, life is like that isn't it? Funny and sad at once? I hope I'm being realistic… I thought it was any kind of animal, but it actually doesn't talk about her healing more than magical animals in the books, does it? I don't think it says she can't heal normal ones though… Correct me if I'm wrong.
Riterwiz101 – this chapter should satisfy some of that!
Note: I don't own the characters, etc.
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Chapter Nine: Tasha's Warning
"Tasha did what?!" Marlin was practically shouting. Emily put a hand on him, trying to calm down.
Lorren responded with forced calm. "She left, nearly a week ago."
"Like, she disappeared?" Kara asked.
Lorren nodded. His forehead creased in worry. "Late one night she woke up, incensed. At first we though it was some kind of fever."He grimaced. "She kept ranting about some disaster. We couldn't really understand what she meant. And then she walked through one of her mirrors and left. We," he swallowed, "couldn't track her."
"Aren't there any other mirror experts?" asked Adriane.
Lorren shook his head. "Tasha was training some but none of them know enough to track a master."
"What did Tasha say before she left?" asked Emily.
"Something about doom, and darkness drawing nearer all the time. I can't remember exactly, it all happened so fast!"
Zach looked annoyed. "So, what have you been doing all this time?"
Lorren sighed. "Trying to find her." A pause. "It's been really hard though."
"Why?" asked Emily. "Even if you can't follow her through the mirror, you could send out word, couldn't you? Search the kingdom?"
"We can't attract attention to her disappearance. If our enemies found out she was missing, they'd try to find her too, to hurt us. That would be the worst thing." He was obviously scared.
Kara flashed him a hurt, angry glance he didn't see.
"I think I'm just going to have to let her come home on her own." Everyone knew what Lorren meant; if enemies of the Goblin Crown or its allies found Tasha, they would torture her, maybe even kill her, to force the Goblins to do what they wanted.
"Sooooo…" Marlin said. Everyone looked at him. "What are you going to do about it?"
Lorren blinked at him.
Marlin ran a hand through his hair impatiently. "Come on Merman!"
"Goblin," Lorren corrected.
"Whatever." Marlin said. "At this point, I don't care. You've got to get up off your butt and do something about this!"
Lorren was angry. "And what do you suggest? I've been searching for her twenty-four hours a day since she disappeared and I've found nothing!"
"So you're giving up." Marlin was taunting him now.
Lorren was shaking with rage. "No! I just can't see that I can do anything here!"
Adriane stood up to get everyone's attention; they stared at her. "What if this is all connected?" she asked.
"What's all connected?" asked Zach, looking confused.
Emily had a look of dawning comprehension on her face. "It could be."
"What?" asked Lorren. Adriane explained about Ky and the child he was supposed to be guarding, and that a Dark Elf had taken her. When she had finished, Lorren said, "I think there's a book about Dark Elves in the Goblin Library of Archives. I haven't read it, but Tasha might have."
"Do you know anything about them though?" asked Emily. She snuggled a little closer to Marlin without realizing it.
"No, except that they all vanished over a thousand years ago and that they were supposed to have some pretty extraordinary powers."
"Any idea what those might be?" asked Adriane.
"None."
Marlin raised his eyebrows. "Well, I suppose we're all going to have to visit Aldenmore then."
"What?" asked Kara. "We've got school!"
Marlin shrugged. "It seems to me that this is the only lead we have. And if Tasha's right and there really are horrible dark things ahead, I think that they'll matter more than some math problem."
"That sounds good," Lorren agreed, "Except for one thing."
"What?" Marlin asked.
"You're not coming."
Marlin's eyes bugged out. "Why?" he asked angrily. "What makes you think I'd just stay behind and –"
Lorren looked pointedly at Emily.
Marlin sighed and settled back down again. "Oh," he said. "Right."
"You guys," Emily and Marlin, "can hold down Ravenswood," Lorren said, taking charge. "Adriane can stay here with that spirit she promised to help. I brought an inter-world speaking mirror, so we should be able to tell you what we find out Adriane."
Adriane nodded. "What about Barbie and Zach?"
"I need Drake if I'm going to get home quickly…" Lorren said.
"I'll come. Kara?" Zach asked.
Kara bit her lip, then nodded. "Tell my mom to call me in sick," she told Adriane and Emily.
Lorren grinned. "Okay, great! Lets go!"
"Lorren," Kara said in exasperation, "It's past twelve at night."
He frowned. "Oh," he said. "Right. In the morning then."
Kara raised her eyebrows. "I'm going to bed," she said, and headed off towards her room.
Lorren glanced after her quickly, and then asked, "Can I use your library? I want to look up Dark Elves, just in case."
Adriane nodded and they left.
"Is it just me," Marlin mused, "or is Kara a little cold to Lorren?"
Emily had noticed, and she sighed. "I think she's jealous. Lorren really cares about Tasha. He barely even talked to her all evening."
"Oh," Marlin looked puzzled. "You could tell that from just this conversation?"
Emily elbowed him. "Apparently," she said with a grin, "there's a reason Kings get married!"
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A/N: Okay, so here's my excuse for being late on updating; EXAMS. I hope that's good enough, even though I should have warned you all before… Next chapter includes several old manuscripts, the Mistwolf Pack, and Drake… as well as a lot of key information :)