The first chapter of our combined stories J! It's quite (QUITE) a bit longer then the rest, but hopefully not to boring. Reviews greatly appreciated!
Thepenmage: Our sign in name? Hmm well its linked to the story, and I just thought it sounded kinda kewl. I'll go check our ur TP story! J
Chapter 1: In Which Too Many Things Happen
The now increased company walked away from Morwen's cottage. Bidding farewell to the witch and magician they headed in the direction of the Mountains of Morning. The way was long but time passed quickly for all three as they began what was going to be a life-long friendship. Shera, it seemed, had run away from her castle and decided to become a saleswoman.
"Never would've thought of that one," Daystar commented with a smile.
"Yes, well it was awfully cliché to go out on a 'quest'. Besides I figured I would eventually need money. Being a saleswoman would be an interesting way of making a living. Not to mention the chance to meet new people." She turned to Gavin. "How about you? What set your course to the Enchanted Forest?" Gavin deliberately avoided her blue eyes and felt the tips of his ears heat. Almost on the verge of mumbling, he launched into a brief re-telling of the events that took place regarding his quest.
"Nothing like yours" he said with a shrug, "Quite ordinary... although now I have a feeling this isn't going to be like most quests."
She nodded, "Yeah… I wonder what Kazul is like. The Mountains of Morning was my next site after the Enchanted Forest."
"I'd tell you but it'd ruin the surprise," Daystar said as they came to the end of the Enchanted Forest. "She really isn't what you'd imagine to be the King of Dragons."
"She?"
Daystar nodded, "Yep she-"
Daystar stopped abruptly as the dry-earth of the pathway swirled in a sudden wind. Tiny granules of sand whipped at Gavin's eyes and he squinted to see what looked like a mini-tornado spun madly towards their direction. Reaching them, it shrunk into the shape of a cloaked figure. It held a staff. Gavin grew increasingly apprehensive at its billowing robes and mysterious appearance, but when he looked at Daystar his friend seemed to be nonplussed.
"Wizards are pests I tell you. Why does this always happen to me?" the prince said shaking his head in irritation. Pointing a finger at the person before them Daystar spoke sharply, "Argelfraster!" Gavin looked at the wizard in expectation but nothing happened.
The cloaked figure laughed menacingly, revealing it to be a man. "Your puny spells do not harm me, princeling. I have come to take the Guardian! None shall stop me for I am invincible!" He cackled evilly.
Daystar was really frowning now, and he repeated the spell but still nothing worked. The wizard pointed at Shera and started weaving a pattern with his staff. Gavin's mind was working frantically, there had to be a way to stop this wizard! He was no sorcerer but surely there was something he could do. The stone in his pocket started to heat up, he could feels it's angry pulsing. Slowly, watching the wizard with hawk eyes, he drew the stone out of his pocket and hid it behind his back. He could see it was glowing a dull red.
The wizard had finished spinning his web of spells and thrust his staff forward, pointing it at Shera. A large gray web-like net shot out of its tip. Gavins mind wheeled, trying to think of solutions but none came.
Frowning with concentration, Shera watched the web coming towards her. Then at the last possible moment, she dodged by jumping sideways. Her eyes widened in surprise as she tripped on Gavin's foot and they went crashing to the ground. In the flurry of confusion Gavin had accidentally released his hold on the stone. He searched around frantically for it and his heart thudded dangerously when he saw the stone rolling towards the wizard. It was still glowing red.
"No!" Gavin cried.
Through the darkness of his hood, Gavin was able to see the flickering of the wizard's eyes turn in the stone's direction. He struggled to get out from under Shera but she seemed to be temporarily dazed. She must've hit a rock.
"Daystar! Get the Stone!" Gavin yelled to his friend.
Suddenly the wizard looked at him, "The Stone!" he glanced at the prone form of Shera, "She is the Guardian!" Daystar had barely taken two steps toward the wizard when the Stone came in contact with the wizard's staff. A bead shaped form seemed to slide up inside the staff. The ground beneath them rumbled and the wizard watched in horror as his staff began to shake uncontrollably. Then - Gavin could think of no other way to describe it - it convulsed and burst into thousands of little pieces, splinters of wood grazing everyone in the face.
Letting out a shriek the wizard started to tremble. "Argelfraster!" Daystar shouted, once more pointing a finger at the wizard.
"Nooo!" he wailed, and to Gavin's intense amazement, he started to melt, "I'll get you for this! I'll - Aaaaagggggggggggghhhhhhh!" The wizard sunk into a puddle of goo.
Daystar sank to the ground, his breathing quick and harsh. Gavin could see him shaking as he placed his head in his hands. Finally able to free himself from Shera (who was starting to recover), he shot a worried glance in Daystar's direction as he walked over to the pile of goo. Picking up the Stone, which was glowing a smug shade of blue, he placed it back in his pocket.
Shera groaned and muttered a few choice curses as she felt an increasing bump on her head. She gazed around her in mute surprise and did a double take on the sight of the wizard's sodden robes. "What… happened?" she asked hesitantly.
Gavin was scowled, staring at the mess underneath him and forgot to get nervous at talking to a princess. "I don't know… After you dodged that wizard's spell, the stone rolled over to him and touched his staff. The staff blew up," he touched his cheek gingerly and winced, "and then Daystar did this spell to make him melt."
Shera looked at Daystar, "Are you alright?" she asked him.
"Uh huh, just give me a moment," the prince took a deep breath and lifted his head off his hands. He stared at the brown guck with distaste. "That was a powerful wizard, more powerful then I've ever seen. He tired me out… I've never known a wizard to do that, not like this."
Gavin and Shera exchanged a worried glance.
Daystar shook his head as if to clear it and then stood up. "You have the stone?" he asked intently. Gavin nodded. "That thing's more powerful then I thought. It takes a lot to explode a wizard's staff. They're pretty durable, I only know of a few people who have broken one. Not like you did though, there's not even a piece bigger then your finger left."
Shera shivered, "Well I have not idea how that stone did what it did and I don't know about you but I am most definitely not going to stay here much longer." Gavin wholeheartedly agreed with her.
Daystar grinned, color coming back to his face. "We're close to Kazul's cave. It's just up there," he said pointing to the top of the mountain.
"Just up there?" Shera scoffed. "That's a pretty steep cliff, that is."
Lucky for them it was nearing nighttime; otherwise the pleasant trek up the mountain would've been a hot scorching one. They talked the whole way up, discussing possible powers the stone must have to be capable of destroying the staff, Gavin directing his comments toward Daystar. As an hour or so passed, they neared the cave of Kazul. Beside it was a dusty old sign: WELCOME TO THE CAVE OF THE DRAGON KING; PULL HANDLE TO RING BELL. Neat red letters painted below read: ABSOLUTELY NO WIZARDS, SALESPEOPLE, OR RESCUERS, THIS MEANS YOU!
Shera regarded the sign with amusement, "Do you suppose they'll make an exception to the rule?" she asked speaking of the 'no salespeople' part.
Daystar laughed, "Oh that. Mother wrote that when she was Kazul's princess. And you wouldn't really be an exception to the rule as I don't think you're selling anything." Leaning forward, the prince followed the sign's advice. After a short pause he pulled the handle again.
"Ok, Ok, I'm coming!" a young woman shouted from behind the door. "Yah?" she said, opening the door. Gavin immediately noticed her flaming red hair, which was a bit of a mess, and her cheeks were covered with chocolate fingerprints. "Daystar!" the girl exclaimed, her tone of voice changing noticeably. "I didn't know you were coming!"
"I'm sorry for the short notice. We had a few unexpected things pop up." Daystar turned to his companions, "this," he introduced, "is my friend Shiara; Shiara these are Gavin and Shera, a prince and princess, but not related or engaged or anything. We really need to talk to Kazul."
Shiara nodded. Gavin noticed her eyes remaining on his own bright red hair, "As much as I'd like to be, I'm not a firewitch," he said answering her unspoken question. He had realized that Shiara was the girl Daystar was talking about back in the forest and for some odd reason he didn't find himself embarrased to talk to her... well not too much anyway. Shiara was quite attractive.
"Oh," she said, looking a little disappointed, "Doesn't matter, I've just about given up on the dam- darn thing. It's not like you'd know how to anyway."
"Sorry," Gavin said, unsure what he was sorry of.
"It's not your fault," she gave Daystar a glance, who coughed guiltily. She rolled her eyes when a boom rocked the cave, making small pieces of rock fall from the ceiling. "Not again!"
"Uhhh… Shiara…" a familiar voice said nervously, "I think I did something wrong." Walking swiftly into the kitchen, with her entourage of guests following her, the fire-witched scowled at the sight of what must've once been the ingredients of flambé all over the walls. There was a charred smell in the kitchen as well.
"I told you not to put an emphasis on the O. It's P-y-roanosis not Pyr-o-anosis. Now we've got to clean the whole dam- darn kitchen!" Shiara shot daggers at the pretty brunette covered in chocolate.
"Well I wasn't the one who put salt on the chocolate pudding yesterday!" The young girl who stood in front of the stove snapped back.
"I didn't do it on purpose!"
"Well you think this is intentional?"
"Umm, Shiara?" Daystar asked hesitantly, "We really have to talk with Kazul."
Suddenly everything snapped into place, "Princess Aerida!" Gavin cried in amazement. "Is that you?"
The brunette stared at the young Lledor prince. She blinked. "Prince Gavin? What are you doing here? I've only been here for two days! I'd at least expected you to take a week to prepare properly," she gave his companions a curious look, "and come by yourself." Aerida placed her hands on her hips, "by then I would've been ready to place some hex on you."
"Excuse me? A hex? I'm the one supposed to rescue you."
"Well who said I wanted to be 'rescued' in the first place," Aerida retorted. "And even though I don't know any hexes yet I can make you… into… well… I can… well I can think of something!"
Gavin scoffed, "I could turn you into a donkey in the blink of my eye! Last time I saw you, you could barely lift a sword."
The princess rolled her eyes, "I was four years old, Gavin! I don't care what my fairy godmother says. I don't care if I'm betrothed to you, there is no way you are going to rescue me."
Folding his arms Gavin retorted, "well I didn't come to rescue you!… well that is, not only to rescue you... and if you want to stay here, fine with me! You can live here till some air-headed prince comes along, see if I care."
"I don't have to wait for an air-headed prince," Aerida shot back, "he's standing right in front of me!"
Gavin furiously opened his mouth, ready to- "Gavin!" Daystar interrupted, "stop it! You and… and er, Princess Aerida can.... deal with this later. We have to see Kazul." When the prince didn't reply but just continued glaring at Aerida, who was glaring back just as fiercely, Daystar poked him in the back, "The Stone Gavin! Remember the Stone?…"
"Ow! The.. oh.. oh yeah, right."
"Good," Daystar said. Frowning he turned to Shiara, "Can we talk to Kazul? It's really quite urgent."
"Yeah, I'm pretty sure you can. You can all wait in the library, I'll go get her." She turned to Aerida, "Would you mind starting the clean up? I'll come back to help you once I bring them to Kazul." Aerida nodded, refusing to look at Gavin who was doing pretty much the same.
Following Shiara out of the room, she led them to a shelve-filled room. Hundreds and hundreds of rows were filled with books of every shape and size. "The library," the firewitch stated uncessesarily before she left. "I'll go see Kazul."
"Wow!" Daystar said, "Mother must've been really busy fixing all these books."
"Your mom was Kazul's princess, right?" Shera asked. When Daystar nodded she continued, "then what would she be doing repairing books?"
Daystar grinned, "Well mother didn't want any princes rescuing her, so she changed her title to 'Head Cook and Librarian' because she figured that it didn't sound like such a prize to rescue." Shera was greatly interested in Daystars family, as one of her tutors spoke much about the unorthodox ways of the Enchanted Forest. Naturally Shera had wanted to find out all she could about it.
Gavin was only half listening, mostly wanting to forget about Aerida. She had really changed since the last time she had come to the castle. Now she was... how old? Oh yes, she was the same age as him: 17. Her wavy raven tresses had grown much longer then he remembered, and she had gained a dagger-sharp mouth to go with it. He grimaced, he didn't want to rescue her; he didn't want anything to do with that annoying princess! He sighed. At least she wasn't as stupid as he remembered her to be. A hex… was she really learning to do magic? It was possible of course; Cimorene had learned dragon magic when she had been princess here.
"Stop!" he mumbled to himself, "stop thinking of her." Furiously he grabbed a book out of the shelf at random. Opening it he turned to look at the pages. It was all about the Enchanted Forest. It told about its magical sites, monarchy, weapons like magical swords and jewels and kinds of magic. It was by a man called Dharallon who had lived long, long ago. "Look at this!" Gavin called out to the other two.
"What?" Shera inquired.
"It's a book about your forest," he said to Daystar. "All about it, they've got so much stuff. Like about its magic peoples, the castles and it's basic magical principles, which are unique to the forest. It's even got information on blacksmithing and magical scabbard making!"
"Hey you guys," Shiara called out making each jump somewhat. "Kazul is free to see you now."
The four followed the fire-witch through well-lit tunnels though the light from the torches caused strange shadows. Gavin Lleldor had to admit to himself that he was rather nervous. All the tales Berald had placed in his head from a little boy rang through his mind… dragons are dangerous and would kill you without a second thought… cold… ferocious… slimy… he shook his head to clear it. Daystar wasn't afraid of them, neither were Cimorene and Shiara. And from the looks of it neither was Aerida. He glanced at Shera, she was looking a shade paler then usual. How does one approach a dragon? How does one address one? Deciding on a formal, courteous approach, he took a deep breath. Focus. Calm. Cool. He snorted inwardly. He most likely looked anything but cool and he could feel his clammy hands and his face felt flushed. Focus. Calm. Cool. Those three words were all he needed to think of. Focus. Calm. Cool. With them I can achieve anything... Focus. Calm. Cool. Focus. Cal-
Gavin jerked away from his thoughts as Shiara pulled open a pair of heavy-set wooden double doors. In it was lounging the most enormous dragon -actually the only dragon- Gavin had ever seen. Her green scales were just turning grey around the edges- most likely a sign of age. Her eyes were the color emeralds and sparkled with a goldish tint. Her jade scales glittered as the torchlight danced across her body and her claws glinted dangerously.
When they entered Kazul turned her piercing emerald eyes on Gavin. Her gaze made him very nervous. She smiled. That made him even more nervous. Frantically recalling that he was forgetting his manners, Gavin bowed low. From the corner of his eye he saw Shera and Daystar do the same.
"Hello Daystar," she said, "What brings you knocking on my door?"
"Actually, mother sent me," he replied. "But I had better introduce to you my friends." Daystar introduced them both in turn, and they bowed (or curtsied) their best. Gavin didn't know about Shera, but he certainly didn't want to offend the King of Dragons. After the introductions were made Daystar launched into a semi-detailed explanation of the time he had met Gavin all the way to the strange and powerful wizard. "Morwen said that you would tell us about this 'prophecy'. She refused to tell us all of it. Said you knew best."
Now Kazul, to Gavin's intense relief, placed her gaze on Shera. The princess swallowed visibly. Then the dragon's eyes swiveled to our redheaded prince. Gavin could feel his pulse speeding but he tried his best not to show it. "Hmmm," Kazul commented, "perhaps..." Her oval eyes took on a distant look. "The Prophecy," Gavin heard her whisper, "Ah yes… Behold the coming of the needed, for it shall be marked by reunion of the lost. In the time of its greatest need, the Forest that is Enchanted shall have its defender. As long as the Trinity doth remain intact, -the Core- hope shall remain. However, if the Core doth fall into the hands of the unjust, beware! For the Evil shall unleash a reign of terror unknowest to man's limited comprehension…" Kazul's eyes regained its usual sharpness. "That is all I know. I stumbled across it a few decades past. It seemed quite interesting so I memorized it. It was quite intriguing that Morwen and Telemain did as well."
All three humans were frowning. "What does it mean?" Shera asked. "I mean, what is the 'needed' and who is the 'Core'?"
"I believe you have that in reverse. As to the Core, I have no idea. The needed however, I believe are people, beings who will come to save the Enchanted Forest."
"And who are these 'beings'?" Shera inquired.
"Well, Morwen and Telemain, as do I, too, share the same belief – it's you."
No one spoke. Faint crackling of the torches was the only noise. That and the muted conversations of nearby dragons. "Me?" Shera was able to say at last. "You think I'm one of these 'beings' that the prophecy was talking about?" her frown deepened. "But there's more then one? Are there others?"
Kazul nodded. "Yes. I believe so. Originally, when Morwen stumbled across you, we thought there was a slight mistake in the prophecy. Perhaps the scribe misspelled it. Instead of 'beings' it was supposed to be 'being'." She stared at Gavin then. "But then this young man came in."
Gavin couldn't repress a shiver. This was way, way too much for him right now.
Kazul returned her gaze to the princess. "So since Suz brought him to Daystar's castle with his Stone, I have had second thoughts about you being the only one."
Gavin cleared his throat, "So- so you're saying that I could be one of the 'needed'?" Kazul nodded. "What does my stone have to do with this?"
"I believe it is part of the Trinity," Kazul stated. "The Trinity," she continued, "Is three elements which will save the Enchanted Forest. We believe that the people who will save the forest will bring the objects with them. May I see the Stone Gavin?" The prince took it out of his pocket and handed it to Kazul.
The usually foggy-white stone flared green when it came into the clawed palm of Kazul. It turned into a happy bright green afterward. "It's a diamond." She stated once she started examining it. "A chameleon diamond. It changes color… strange though," she muttered after a few more moments of speculation, "Chameleons do not usually have this wide range of color, of course it is a magical stone." The diamond changed into a proud blue.
"What do Shera and I have to do?" Gavin asked as Kazul turned the stone over in her palm.
"I believe this stone mounts on something. Maybe a crown or a dagger, perhaps even a ring. This is only one part of the Trinity, two other parts must be found." She took her eyes off the diamond, "That," she said, "Is what you have to do, Gavin You must find the other two thirds of the whole. Do this before the 'evil' has time to strengthen. I believe it is only now starting to show its presence."
"But Morwen said the 'needed' is late by fifty years; or at least about eighteen. She said that they were supposed to come when the wizards had the battle with the Enchanted Forest," Daystar reminded.
Kazul nodded, "yes that is her, and Telemain's theory. However, I believe that you came at just the right time. I think that particular obstacle was not enough. This one is great- too great for the Enchanted Forest and the Mountains of Morning to deal with alone."
"And the prophet who saw this thought the best hero the world was me?" Gavin asked. "That's not very encouraging. I can barely use a sword!"
Kazul laughed, "You are the best for your particular purpose."
"We know what Gavin is supposed to do," Shera put in. "But what about me?"
The dragon's frown returned. "You I am not so sure about. You brought no weapon, no object that is part of the Trinity, yet you came into Morwen's house."
Shera looked puzzled.
"You do not think it is so easy to get past a witches spell? Especially one so powerful as Morwen? From what you have told me, you seemed to have simply popped into her garden, not something mere fairy godmother's powers could accomplish. I think a journey is in hand. You must travel until you meet or see something or someone who will aid you in discovering what your part in all of this is. But never doubt that you are important. A part of this prophecy is your job to fill and also to find out how." She gave them all a meaningful stare. "Now is the time for rest. All of you need your strength for the events that lie ahead."
Wooooow… it did turn to be kinda long, huh? I hope you weren't falling asleep with it all… tell me! You love, you hate? You know what's gonna happen next? And you know what I'm going to ask you to do rite? If you guessed review, you're right! So click to it!
Stef's gonna post her chapter next. Don't forget to tell her what you think of it too.