Chapter 2
The next few days were wonderful for Crystal. She'd get up, walk to the shop, and stare at the dagger, until Thomas came in the shop looking for her. Sometimes accompanied by Minda, who found out quickly that Crystal and Thomas weren't just friends anymore.
"What's bothering you Crystal?" asked Alice, who kept watch on her with a curious eye. Crystal shrugged and sighed,
"I don't know. Ever since the first day I touched it, I've been so curious of why it reacted like that. I want to know what it means."
The bell above the door rang, and Thomas stepped in. He hugged her, and looked around to see she was at the cabinet again.
"Why are you so bothered by this?" He exclaimed, as she walked back to the cabinet. Shaking her head, she shut the cabinet doors and came back to Thomas. Looking up at him, she smiled,
"I feel something inside me telling me that this is something big. I'm trying to figure out if I should listen to those feelings or not." He held her close, feeling her warm body against his. "But lets not worry about it now, I'm sure the decision will come when it's needed." She added, then turned to Alice. "Thanks for letting me see it again, Alice." And with that, she left with Thomas beside her.
They spent the afternoon, as usual, under the apple tree in the fields. Then the sun began to decend and they headed home. Laughing, Crystal shoved him playfully then asked,
"What would you say, if I suggested that we take the dagger, with a good sword, and traveled to other parts of Tiberia? Minda could come also, if she wanted, and we'd get away from chores." Thomas gave her a craze look.
"You're serious aren't you?" He asked. She nodded with a grim expression, and he returned with a raised eyebrow, "And where would we travel, and if so, how would we defend ourselves if we bump into danger? I mean I was never trained with a sword, and it might takes days or even weeks to master it."
She looked at him in wondered awe. She had not thought any of that. Seeing her smile drain, he added "But if you are willing to, I will go through all this. It sounds great, what you asked. It's just going through what is needed before we leave." She brightened up and filled up with excitment, then embraced him in a hug. At the edge of Thomas' farm, she kissed him good-bye, then ran back down the street.
Running inside, she searched for Jane. Finding her in the guest room, she took her into the living room.
"What is it child?" she asked, wondering what this child is up to now. It took awhile for Crystal to calm down and be able to talk. But finally she asked,
"What would you say if I told you I wanted to travel? Go to other cities and towns. Get to know what is out there, outside of Thorn." Jane looked at her bewildered and shocked. Speechless, she tried to speak, but couldn't form words. "It's okay, Jane, I'm not searching for a decision yet, cause we have to prepare."
"We? I'm not interested in this wild plan of yours. When did you think of all this? And how do you plan on preparing yourself?" Asked Jane, still shocked. Crystal relaxed into a smile, and replied,
"No Jane, I wasn't expecting you to come. Thomas and I are planning on going, and maybe Minda, I haven't asked her, yet. I've been thinking about it for awhile. Actually for about a month. And Im not quite sure what I plan to do about preparing. Cause Thomas brought up a good point, we don't know what is out there. So we'll probably need to learn to defend ourselves." Jane looked at her in confusion, then got up and went back to the guest room. While she continued working, keeping all this in her head. She also thought about Crystal's last statement, 'So we'll probably need to learn to defend ourselves.'
"Dang it!" shouted Thomas, he dropped the wooden play sword in fustration. Walking over, Thomas sat down on a step. For weeks, Thomas and Crystal have been practicing with wooden weapons, preparing for the traveling though lands. Thomas decided to learn the art of the sword, while Crystal was preparing with daggers and knives.
They had asked Minda if she wanted to come along, but Minda's mother wouldn't allow it. So Crystal asked Jane if she would prepare the sandwhiches and meals, for their travels. Thomas has been practicing for a few hours down in Crystals' basement, while Crystal went to make herself, yet, another dagger. She hasn't been able to make the daggers thick enough without breaking.
Grabbing the water skin, Thomas took a drink, and mopped his face. He was taking another, when Crystal came down the stairs.
"How you been doing?" Asked Crystal, sitting behind him, plopping the akward dagger on the step.
"Good, but not better. It'd be good with an actual soldier. I'd be able to train with him." Replied Thomas, putting his head in his hands.
"Well it's suppose to be hard, I'd rather be prepared now, then learn on the road. You never know what you'll face. Atleast it's something." Crystal took the dagger and went down the steps toward the cruid dummy. Steading herself, she consentrated on her enemy, imagined facing a soldier with a will of killing her. Thrusting the dagger in the gut of the dummy, then she pulled back, turned around, and slashed the neck. Just as she was pulling away, a hand grabbed her wrist, and she kicked back at the shin of her attacker.
"AHHH! Geez!" Cried Thomas, grabbing his leg. Crystal realizing what she did, dropped the dagger, and rushed towards him. Surpressing a laugh she knelt beside him.
"Oh my goodness! Im sorry! Are you okay?" Asked Crystal, gathering down beside him. Sitting up, he looked at her with surprise,
"Damn girl. You got a powerful kick. You'll be good with just yourself. But you're doing good with the dagger, too. Better then I look." Said Thomas, getting up and picking up his sword. Crystal looked at him with patients.
"I think the sword would be harder to learn then just a dagger, daggers don't take a brainiac to learn. Swords, on the other hand, were given the message You're more dangerous to yourself then your enemy when not trained well. So, just keep practicing, plus you can probably learn even more while we travel." She grabbed her dagger, and went back to her dummy.
"I just don't know if she should go or not. I mean, she's learning to train with wooden weapons, and has absolutly no idea what's out there." Cried Jane, while talking with Alice at the shop.
Jane had accepted to take care of the meals, but still hadn't accepted Crystal going out of the town without an actual guard. Now she sits in the back of the shop with Alice talking about it with a glass of wine.
"I'm not saying you're wrong, but let her do this. Maybe she'll finally mature when she realizes the danger outside of her protective home. Her eyes are filled with love, and being out there with Thomas gets her free. Especially, from the watchful eye of that..." Alice glances out the window, "damn mage." Replied Alice with caring in her voice. Alice likes Crystal as much as Jane does, but always allowed Crystal the right to speak when wanted too, and never punished her for making her own choices.
"Maybe you're right." Said Jane with a sigh, "I'm making this more dreadful then it seems." Sipped the red wine, then looked at Alice more puzzled. "She came to me a few days before this sudden idea, that she came to this shop looking at your new daggers, and told me that one of the daggers reacted as if it knew her. I'm curious, whats of this dagger?"
With a grim face, Alice got up from the table and left toward the front of the shop. Taking a key from her pocket, she opened the cabinet. Searched for only a second, and came back putting a gold and black dagger down in front of Jane. She sat down and silently told her,
"I too, was curious when she said that. This dagger has seem to found it's owner, but it's more then a dagger. I believe it's got something to it that attaches itself to Crystal. I've been searching through the library about this dagger. I haven't found anything yet, but since it was not found in Recent Daggers it must be old." Jane listened, her eyes had widened, and she looked over the dagger, but is afraid to touch it. "I have the feeling she wants it, but I don't want to sell it to her, until I know what it is first."
It was a uniqe dagger, atleast it's handle and sheath was. The handle was woven in gold, then the sheath was decorated with a golden rose, and the stem and thorns woven down around the leather of the sheath. Alice took the dagger out from it's sheath.
"It won't hurt you for taking it out of it's sheath." She said sarcasticly. Taking it, Jane examined the blade. It was very sharp, to a point, and the edges were jagged, like teeth. It also had a symbol on the top of it with a blue gem.
"That's a saphire web. Different colored jewels, are put on a weapon, with a spider web around it, indicating the kind of magic it possesed. From my studies, the blue saphire was the symbol for ice, and a web is the symbol for it being magic." Said Alice, sheathing the weapon. She went to replace it in the cabinet, all the while, Jane thought over her decision.
'I don't like the fact that she's leaving, but I'll get used to it. That means there'll be lots more work at the house, and less companions to talk with. I will let her decide...' "Jane!" She was shaken back to reality, she looked up and found Alice shaking her. "Do you want more wine?" She asked. Coming back from her deep thoughts, she shook her head and replied, getting up,
"No thank you, I think that's enough for the day. I'm going to go back home, and check up on the two." Jane headed toward the front of the shop. "They're down in the basement training with cruid dummies. Thank you for the items and I'll see you later." Alice smiled as Jane left the shop.
Walking down the street, Jane continued to think more about what Alice and her descussed.
"You're starting to get much better. We should be ready in about a few more weeks." Said Crystal, with a look of glee towards Thomas. "Hey, lets take a break. We'll go cool off in the fields, it'll be much better then staying down here." Crystal put the dagger on the shelf, Thomas put the sword against the wall. Climbing the stairs, up to the kitchen, opened the door, and nearly bumped into Jane,
"Oh! Hey you two." Cried Jane, standing just outside the door. The two came out of the house, shining in sweat.
"Hey Jane. We're going to go cool off in the fields. But we don't plan to be too long. Still got to train more. We're getting good, we may be leaving sooner then we thought." Said Crystal, putting a hand on Thomas' arm. He smiled down at her, as they left and pat her hand.
They strolled down the street towards the edge of town. Going back to the apple tree, they snacked on the apples, while talking about their training.
After a couple of hours, Minda found them and joined them underneath the tree, and they shared their training. Minda was amazed so much that she was ready to run home and begin to really beg her mother to let her go. But realized she probably would just get punished instead.
"Hey, we'll bring you back different things from different places. It's probably not much different here, except for maybe they won't be ruled by a mage." Said Crystal, lying in Thomas' arms, eating a delicious red apple. Thomas put his hand on her arm as she was about to take another bite.
"We probably need to head back. It's getting late, and we told Jane we wouldn't be out that long." He told her, taking the apple from her. Getting up, Crystal and Thomas strolled back, with Minda, hand-in-hand.
"Well what if I just went with you, without telling my mother." Said Minda, with an excited jump. But Crystal and Thomas both shook their heads.
"You'd have the mage's assistant after you, and then maybe even the mage himself. He doesn't like people who break rules." Warned Thomas, with a raised eyebrow. Minda's excitement flared out, replaced with a frown.
"But you're suggestion with asking your mother again, wouldn't be a bad idea. I'm not saying beg her," he added quickly, seeing Crystals' eyes begin to grow dangerous, "I'm just saying ask her again, politely. Tell her that we're trained well, and you can learn herbing from Alice. So you'll able to help us with aiding. We'll need a healer. Then if you really want to, Crystal here can teach you a little with the dagger." Minda thought about it for awhile, then nodded in agreement, adding,
"Okay, she'll probably like the idea of learning herbing from Alice. Though you may have to ask Alice before hand, so that we're sure if it'll be okay with her too. You know, with the shop and all, she may be too busy."
Reaching a fork in the street, they said their good-byes and Minda headed home with a skip. While Thomas and Crystal headed back to Jane's for a little more training before it got too dark.
The next few days were wonderful for Crystal. She'd get up, walk to the shop, and stare at the dagger, until Thomas came in the shop looking for her. Sometimes accompanied by Minda, who found out quickly that Crystal and Thomas weren't just friends anymore.
"What's bothering you Crystal?" asked Alice, who kept watch on her with a curious eye. Crystal shrugged and sighed,
"I don't know. Ever since the first day I touched it, I've been so curious of why it reacted like that. I want to know what it means."
The bell above the door rang, and Thomas stepped in. He hugged her, and looked around to see she was at the cabinet again.
"Why are you so bothered by this?" He exclaimed, as she walked back to the cabinet. Shaking her head, she shut the cabinet doors and came back to Thomas. Looking up at him, she smiled,
"I feel something inside me telling me that this is something big. I'm trying to figure out if I should listen to those feelings or not." He held her close, feeling her warm body against his. "But lets not worry about it now, I'm sure the decision will come when it's needed." She added, then turned to Alice. "Thanks for letting me see it again, Alice." And with that, she left with Thomas beside her.
They spent the afternoon, as usual, under the apple tree in the fields. Then the sun began to decend and they headed home. Laughing, Crystal shoved him playfully then asked,
"What would you say, if I suggested that we take the dagger, with a good sword, and traveled to other parts of Tiberia? Minda could come also, if she wanted, and we'd get away from chores." Thomas gave her a craze look.
"You're serious aren't you?" He asked. She nodded with a grim expression, and he returned with a raised eyebrow, "And where would we travel, and if so, how would we defend ourselves if we bump into danger? I mean I was never trained with a sword, and it might takes days or even weeks to master it."
She looked at him in wondered awe. She had not thought any of that. Seeing her smile drain, he added "But if you are willing to, I will go through all this. It sounds great, what you asked. It's just going through what is needed before we leave." She brightened up and filled up with excitment, then embraced him in a hug. At the edge of Thomas' farm, she kissed him good-bye, then ran back down the street.
Running inside, she searched for Jane. Finding her in the guest room, she took her into the living room.
"What is it child?" she asked, wondering what this child is up to now. It took awhile for Crystal to calm down and be able to talk. But finally she asked,
"What would you say if I told you I wanted to travel? Go to other cities and towns. Get to know what is out there, outside of Thorn." Jane looked at her bewildered and shocked. Speechless, she tried to speak, but couldn't form words. "It's okay, Jane, I'm not searching for a decision yet, cause we have to prepare."
"We? I'm not interested in this wild plan of yours. When did you think of all this? And how do you plan on preparing yourself?" Asked Jane, still shocked. Crystal relaxed into a smile, and replied,
"No Jane, I wasn't expecting you to come. Thomas and I are planning on going, and maybe Minda, I haven't asked her, yet. I've been thinking about it for awhile. Actually for about a month. And Im not quite sure what I plan to do about preparing. Cause Thomas brought up a good point, we don't know what is out there. So we'll probably need to learn to defend ourselves." Jane looked at her in confusion, then got up and went back to the guest room. While she continued working, keeping all this in her head. She also thought about Crystal's last statement, 'So we'll probably need to learn to defend ourselves.'
"Dang it!" shouted Thomas, he dropped the wooden play sword in fustration. Walking over, Thomas sat down on a step. For weeks, Thomas and Crystal have been practicing with wooden weapons, preparing for the traveling though lands. Thomas decided to learn the art of the sword, while Crystal was preparing with daggers and knives.
They had asked Minda if she wanted to come along, but Minda's mother wouldn't allow it. So Crystal asked Jane if she would prepare the sandwhiches and meals, for their travels. Thomas has been practicing for a few hours down in Crystals' basement, while Crystal went to make herself, yet, another dagger. She hasn't been able to make the daggers thick enough without breaking.
Grabbing the water skin, Thomas took a drink, and mopped his face. He was taking another, when Crystal came down the stairs.
"How you been doing?" Asked Crystal, sitting behind him, plopping the akward dagger on the step.
"Good, but not better. It'd be good with an actual soldier. I'd be able to train with him." Replied Thomas, putting his head in his hands.
"Well it's suppose to be hard, I'd rather be prepared now, then learn on the road. You never know what you'll face. Atleast it's something." Crystal took the dagger and went down the steps toward the cruid dummy. Steading herself, she consentrated on her enemy, imagined facing a soldier with a will of killing her. Thrusting the dagger in the gut of the dummy, then she pulled back, turned around, and slashed the neck. Just as she was pulling away, a hand grabbed her wrist, and she kicked back at the shin of her attacker.
"AHHH! Geez!" Cried Thomas, grabbing his leg. Crystal realizing what she did, dropped the dagger, and rushed towards him. Surpressing a laugh she knelt beside him.
"Oh my goodness! Im sorry! Are you okay?" Asked Crystal, gathering down beside him. Sitting up, he looked at her with surprise,
"Damn girl. You got a powerful kick. You'll be good with just yourself. But you're doing good with the dagger, too. Better then I look." Said Thomas, getting up and picking up his sword. Crystal looked at him with patients.
"I think the sword would be harder to learn then just a dagger, daggers don't take a brainiac to learn. Swords, on the other hand, were given the message You're more dangerous to yourself then your enemy when not trained well. So, just keep practicing, plus you can probably learn even more while we travel." She grabbed her dagger, and went back to her dummy.
"I just don't know if she should go or not. I mean, she's learning to train with wooden weapons, and has absolutly no idea what's out there." Cried Jane, while talking with Alice at the shop.
Jane had accepted to take care of the meals, but still hadn't accepted Crystal going out of the town without an actual guard. Now she sits in the back of the shop with Alice talking about it with a glass of wine.
"I'm not saying you're wrong, but let her do this. Maybe she'll finally mature when she realizes the danger outside of her protective home. Her eyes are filled with love, and being out there with Thomas gets her free. Especially, from the watchful eye of that..." Alice glances out the window, "damn mage." Replied Alice with caring in her voice. Alice likes Crystal as much as Jane does, but always allowed Crystal the right to speak when wanted too, and never punished her for making her own choices.
"Maybe you're right." Said Jane with a sigh, "I'm making this more dreadful then it seems." Sipped the red wine, then looked at Alice more puzzled. "She came to me a few days before this sudden idea, that she came to this shop looking at your new daggers, and told me that one of the daggers reacted as if it knew her. I'm curious, whats of this dagger?"
With a grim face, Alice got up from the table and left toward the front of the shop. Taking a key from her pocket, she opened the cabinet. Searched for only a second, and came back putting a gold and black dagger down in front of Jane. She sat down and silently told her,
"I too, was curious when she said that. This dagger has seem to found it's owner, but it's more then a dagger. I believe it's got something to it that attaches itself to Crystal. I've been searching through the library about this dagger. I haven't found anything yet, but since it was not found in Recent Daggers it must be old." Jane listened, her eyes had widened, and she looked over the dagger, but is afraid to touch it. "I have the feeling she wants it, but I don't want to sell it to her, until I know what it is first."
It was a uniqe dagger, atleast it's handle and sheath was. The handle was woven in gold, then the sheath was decorated with a golden rose, and the stem and thorns woven down around the leather of the sheath. Alice took the dagger out from it's sheath.
"It won't hurt you for taking it out of it's sheath." She said sarcasticly. Taking it, Jane examined the blade. It was very sharp, to a point, and the edges were jagged, like teeth. It also had a symbol on the top of it with a blue gem.
"That's a saphire web. Different colored jewels, are put on a weapon, with a spider web around it, indicating the kind of magic it possesed. From my studies, the blue saphire was the symbol for ice, and a web is the symbol for it being magic." Said Alice, sheathing the weapon. She went to replace it in the cabinet, all the while, Jane thought over her decision.
'I don't like the fact that she's leaving, but I'll get used to it. That means there'll be lots more work at the house, and less companions to talk with. I will let her decide...' "Jane!" She was shaken back to reality, she looked up and found Alice shaking her. "Do you want more wine?" She asked. Coming back from her deep thoughts, she shook her head and replied, getting up,
"No thank you, I think that's enough for the day. I'm going to go back home, and check up on the two." Jane headed toward the front of the shop. "They're down in the basement training with cruid dummies. Thank you for the items and I'll see you later." Alice smiled as Jane left the shop.
Walking down the street, Jane continued to think more about what Alice and her descussed.
"You're starting to get much better. We should be ready in about a few more weeks." Said Crystal, with a look of glee towards Thomas. "Hey, lets take a break. We'll go cool off in the fields, it'll be much better then staying down here." Crystal put the dagger on the shelf, Thomas put the sword against the wall. Climbing the stairs, up to the kitchen, opened the door, and nearly bumped into Jane,
"Oh! Hey you two." Cried Jane, standing just outside the door. The two came out of the house, shining in sweat.
"Hey Jane. We're going to go cool off in the fields. But we don't plan to be too long. Still got to train more. We're getting good, we may be leaving sooner then we thought." Said Crystal, putting a hand on Thomas' arm. He smiled down at her, as they left and pat her hand.
They strolled down the street towards the edge of town. Going back to the apple tree, they snacked on the apples, while talking about their training.
After a couple of hours, Minda found them and joined them underneath the tree, and they shared their training. Minda was amazed so much that she was ready to run home and begin to really beg her mother to let her go. But realized she probably would just get punished instead.
"Hey, we'll bring you back different things from different places. It's probably not much different here, except for maybe they won't be ruled by a mage." Said Crystal, lying in Thomas' arms, eating a delicious red apple. Thomas put his hand on her arm as she was about to take another bite.
"We probably need to head back. It's getting late, and we told Jane we wouldn't be out that long." He told her, taking the apple from her. Getting up, Crystal and Thomas strolled back, with Minda, hand-in-hand.
"Well what if I just went with you, without telling my mother." Said Minda, with an excited jump. But Crystal and Thomas both shook their heads.
"You'd have the mage's assistant after you, and then maybe even the mage himself. He doesn't like people who break rules." Warned Thomas, with a raised eyebrow. Minda's excitement flared out, replaced with a frown.
"But you're suggestion with asking your mother again, wouldn't be a bad idea. I'm not saying beg her," he added quickly, seeing Crystals' eyes begin to grow dangerous, "I'm just saying ask her again, politely. Tell her that we're trained well, and you can learn herbing from Alice. So you'll able to help us with aiding. We'll need a healer. Then if you really want to, Crystal here can teach you a little with the dagger." Minda thought about it for awhile, then nodded in agreement, adding,
"Okay, she'll probably like the idea of learning herbing from Alice. Though you may have to ask Alice before hand, so that we're sure if it'll be okay with her too. You know, with the shop and all, she may be too busy."
Reaching a fork in the street, they said their good-byes and Minda headed home with a skip. While Thomas and Crystal headed back to Jane's for a little more training before it got too dark.