The Fox Fire Ring: Chapter 3: Memories of the Silver Cross
P.O.V
Terry
Gotham City
I woke up to a throbbing headache. I never remembered having a migraine this bad before. Come to think of it, I didn't even remember where I was or why. I moved my head to get a look around, but regretted it, because it just caused my head to throb even more. Suddenly there was the feeling of a cool, damp cloth on my forehead, and managed to turn just enough to see Emily, worrying and fretting over me. Then I blacked out again....
...
P.O.V.
Emily
Gotham City
A few hours later Terry woke up. He moaned and held his head. I could tell he had the worst migraine in the history of forever. Not that I didn't think he would. Drinking, or eating, whichever it was, what he did was like posting a billboard saying "Kill me! Kill me please!" The idiot.......I just hoped he was ok......
After I brought him back, Bruce took a blood sample and had the computer scan it. He had heavy doses of poisons I hadn't even heard of. Ink, turpentine, anti freeze, rat poison, and Deadly Nightshade root, to name a few. Why would Terry eat, or drink, or whatever, something like that? It didn't make sense. I mean, I know teenagers have there dark days cause I'm one of them, but no way would MY cousin do something like this!
"Welcome back, scuz ball," I said. Sure that was harsh, but there was something Terry wasn't telling me, and I was mad. "Something you wanna share with us?"
"Wha?" he said.
"Like, for instance, why you tried to kill yourself?" I was as cold as stone, but my heart was secretly praising God that Bruce had some all purpose antidote, and that Terry got it in time.
"What do you mean? I wouldn't poison myself," he replied.
"That's not what the blood test said," remarked a solemn Bruce.
"What are your guys talking about?"
"You blacked out on me moaning something about Nightshade." I replied. Terry's eyes went wide with fear. I'd never seen him scared before and it worried me. "What, did I say the secret word?"
"Where is she?" asked Terry.
"Who?" said Bruce.
"Nightshade! Where is she?"
"I hate to break it to you, but Deadly Nightshade is a plant, not a person," I said
"She's deadly all right, but she's a person. Or at least, she looks like one."
"What's going on Terry?" I was really starting to not like the way this conversation was going.
"A few nights ago I met this lady in the park...."
"What were you doing in the park?" I asked.
"It's complicated," he responded. "Any way, she gave me this black juice stuff, and told me to drink it. She said if I did I'd be happy. I guess she like, hypnotized me or something, cause I drank it. But I spit it out again."
"That would explain why your not dead," said Bruce.
"But those other people drank it too!" I exclaimed. "They could be dying!"
"So how are we gonna stop her?" asked Terry.
"I got a good look at her. She wears a necklace that glows when she's about to do something. And she used to wear a ring. A copper ring."
"Used to?" asked Bruce. I dug the fox ring out of my pocket and showed them.
"There's something familiar about it," I said.
"Looks like an ordinary ring to me," said Bruce.
"We'll see," I said, then stretched and yawned. "I'm exhausted," I said. "I'm heading to bed. I put the ring back in my pocket and went up stairs.
I stumbled onto the soft bed and grabbed a pillow. I smashed it against my face with a deep sigh. Bed. The word never sounded closer to heaven. I felt something poke my side, and realized I still had the ring in my pocket. I dug it out and looked at it. The berry emblem was obviously pure silver. I could tell.
.....Emblem...... Something struck me about that word. Something I was supposed to remember. All of a suddenly I knew exactly! The book pages!
"Knock knock." It was Terry, rapping at my bedroom door.
"Yo," I said. He opened the door and smiled. I could tell it took all the effort he had, because he looked wiped.
"Heading home now. See ya," he said.
"You sure your going to be all right McGinnis?"
"I'll be fine. Really," I gave him a skeptical look and sighed.
"Fine, but call me on my cell if you need me."
"I will. Night," he said, and left.
"Night," I said to my closed door, then whispered, "Terry, be careful....." Then my brain reactivated itself and I remembered what I was suppose to be looking at. I flung my hands into my book bag and dug out the five pages and read aloud to myself.
"Amethyst stones are recognizable by their deep purple with occasional white veins. These stones have been used for centuries to strengthen spells or even people. So that's why she was handing them out!" I said. I skip read the rest and turned to the next page. The ring! The ring I had looked exactly like the picture on the page!
"The Fox Fire Ring is one of five magic rings. Each are recognizable by the image of a fox. There are five basic types, starting from lowest, to greatest. Fire, ice, silver, gold, and the universe ring. If you try to forge a ring then a piece of silver from a Fox Universe ring must be used. No matter what you do, it will always become a fox fire ring. Only by hard training can the ring advance, along with it's owner, to the next stage.
Only people with certain souls can use a ring, and it's full potential can only be used for good," and then it listed some different spells or whatever for certain effects. Without knowing what I was doing, I began memorizing them and how to use the ring. Then I slipped it on to my finger and whispered an incantation and a glove appeared over the hand the ring was on. It was a bright rusty copper color and a small was bursting from it!
"Ahh! Uumm...umm...Fox Fire Ring off!" I cried out, in shock. And the glove disappeared and so did the flame. "Whoa!" I decided I better read more about this thing.
"Even those with the right souls can't always harness the power, and it can destroy them, and up to a mile around them.
The ring can become sort of a part of a person. It can help a person read minds, figure out complex problems, and create a protective shield around the person, if endangered, as well as whatever other powers it possess.
The ring can only have it's power drawn out by a silver emblem on the ringlet connected to it." That explained Nightshades silver berry. I took the berry off the ringlet and tossed it out the window. I dug in my book bag for something else, and finally found it.
It was a bible. I got it when I was little, and in it was a pocket that used to hold two tiny silver crosses. I took the only one in there and slid it onto the ring's ringlet. It glowed for a moment, but then returned to normal. I put the rind down and held the bible for a minute.....Thinking back......
When I was little my parents took me to church every so often, but stopped taking me after the pastor said something political that my dad didn't agree with. When I was there once, I won a prize. A red bible, and in it, it had a pocket with two silver crosses in it. After I was awarded my bible, the pastor knelt down next to me and started to talk to me.
"Jesus died on a cross so you would live. Whenever you look at that bible and these crosses, think about that. Ok?" he asked. I nodded and he patted me on the shoulder.
After we left Gotham when I was twelve I dug out that old bible and remembered what the pastor had said. I took the bible into the park and began to read it.
While sitting on a park bench, reading, I saw one of those bible school groups walking in the park. One little girl stood out to me because she was different than the rest. All the others had on well fitting cloths, were clean, and kind of dressy. Like their parents were proving they were good christians or something. But that little girl had only a colorful piece of string for a necklace, was dirty, and her cloths didn't quite fit.
I got up, and walked over to the group. "Excuses me a minute," I said to the councilor and bent down next to the little girl. I took out one of the crosses, asked for her string necklace, hooked on the cross, and tied it back around the girls neck. She looked at me like I'd just awarded her a million dollars. "Jesus died on a cross so you would live. Whenever you look at that cross, think about that. Ok?" I asked her. She nodded and I smiled, and walked back towards home.....
I smiled to my self, thinking of that. I opened the bible, and began reading it.......
To Be Continued...