A.N- I apologise most sincerely for the long delay in this second posting but my internet connection malfunctioned and it is only now that I have been able to repair it. I have seen to it that in the future this will not occur again and will endeavour to post as often as possible. Please read this second chapter of my saga and tell me what you think by e-mail or review.

Guardian of the Stones

Chapter 2-

Imprisoned

Dagger awoke groggily, her head pounding as she stirred atop a thick mattress of hides. Her fingers explored the lump on her head, dried blood crusted around the wound. She winced and pulled her fingers away long enough to summon a cure spell. She felt the cold tingling of the magic as it seeped into the wound and repaired the damage, the dried blood disappearing as a side effect. She raised her eyes to take in her surroundings. It was a small circular room, perhaps ten feet in diameter. The entire structure was made of wooden uneven beams, vines and animal hide binding the logs together some of them seeming to be almost still alive as though they were still part of their tree. To her left there was a heavy door, she knew that it was probably locked.

There must have been an attack. Could it have really been the Terran ghosts? There was a legend that within this forest lay gems that contained great power. They had travelled in and found at least one of the gems. The crystal clear stone shining as it lay at the foot of massive cascading waterfall, a natural fissure holding it securely as the water ran over it. The legend also went that they were guarded by the Terran ghosts, a race of half human, half animal demons that slew any who travelled the forest.

She looked away from the door and her eyes fell upon a window. If she really was being held prisoner then whoever had designed her cell had certainly neglected the fact that people could climb from windows. It was a bare frame, no glass or bars stopping her progress. Outside she could clearly see the lush vegetation of this jungle Kingdom and moved toward the window. She put her hands on the sill and was about to throw her leg over when she glanced downward. The ground was almost a hundred metres below. Her cell was perched on a high branch of one of the mighty Terran oaks. An evergreen that for all the world looked identical to the common Alexandrian hardwood except that its wood was four times as hard and the tree itself four times as big.

She backed off hurriedly, her foot catching in the pile of furs in the centre of the room. She tripped and fell backward, a cry of surprise escaping her. But she never hit the ground, she had not heard anyone enter but a pair of strong arms curled under her shoulders and grabbed her, setting her gently upright. The arms were iron hard, animal sinews and muscles standing out in sharp detail all along them to a pair of narrow but equally defined shoulders. She stared up at her catcher's face and threw herself from him with a cry, her hand covering her mouth in terror.

It was the face of a man, perhaps only a year older than her amalgamated with that of an ape, his feral grin showing a set of gleaming teeth, pointed all along the front. Behind him a tail whipped from side to side as he walked forward toward her, his shoulders gently swaying with his stride. She cried out again and backed off but he continued his advance, one hand rising holding something in its gloved grasp. She raised her hand, her magic flowing through her again. A concussion rocked the wooden construction as she sent a blast of power into his chest. He slammed into the opposite wall and the thing he had held clattered to the floor between them.

'If you didn't want to eat all you had to do was say.' The voice belonged to the Terran ghost she had just attacked. It was normal, not too deep but unmistakably male as he picked himself up off the floor. Dagger glanced down at what she had thought had been a weapon and saw a bowl of some kind of porridge lying face down between them.

Dagger's gaze snapped back to her captor as he stood again. He raised his hands in a placating gesture, 'Easy, I ain't gonna hurt you. That's quite a power you've got yourself there.'

Dagger tried to gain the upper hand and impress him further, maybe make him think that she was dangerous, 'I was taught by Lady Hilde of Lindblum herself.' If this failed then she could always tell him that she was royalty. That would certainly earn her at least a little leverage with him.

He stared at her for a moment more before a smile quirked his lips, 'Never heard of her, sorry. Still, now that you're awake, you hungry or not?'

Dagger looked at him in incomprehension and decided against telling him of her lineage, it was obvious that he at least had no concern with outside powers. But this was not what was supposed to be happening. He was not a terrible monster or a primitive savage, he spoke Alexandrian perhaps not perfectly but with eloquence, he seemed a normal young man except for his appearance. Her stomach growled and she decided to try and figure it out later, 'Er… yes, I suppose I am.'

He smiled again, this time Dagger able to comprehend the fact that the expression showed humour instead of malignant intent. 'Well, unless you want to eat off the floor you're gonna have to wait a bit. Jolan don't like breaking off in the middle of breakfast.' He shrugged, 'Says it gets cold which makes no sense considering he only eats fruit for breakfast. But I'll get him to swing by as soon as he can.' Dagger found herself unable to stop a smile from crossing her face as he spoke, he grinned at the sight.

'Before I go is there anything else you need?'

Dagger's mind ran over a hundred things; just ahead of a bath came the need for knowledge, 'Um… what happened to the people I was travelling with?'

The young man's expression darkened, 'We killed them. They dared to violate the resting place of the second summoner's stone.'

Dagger swallowed her fear as she thought of fifty heavily armoured knights being killed so easily, 'But… then, why did you spare me?' She dreaded the answer.

He grinned, 'Cause I was curious to know what someone who spoke Alexandrian was doing in with a bunch of Freidians.' His grin widened and he scratched at the back of his neck, 'Plus you're kinda cute.' Dagger looked away from him and hoped to Alexander that she was not blushing. 'Rest up a bit and I'll come back once Jolan's been round and given you Breakfast. By the way, I'm Zidane, and this place is Bramble, capital city of Terra.'

'Um… are your people… the Terran ghosts of legend?'

He let out a burst of laughter, 'They've got a legend 'bout us out there. Goddamn you people are weird.' He looked up at her, 'Er, sorry. Uh well, that might be what you call us but we call ourselves the genomes.'