Inheritance
Chapter 4
Disclaimer inserted here
Sorry that I haven't updated in about five weeks, but I was unable to touch a computer for that entire time and as a result I haven't been able to write down the chapters that have been running through my head the entire time. However I shouldn't make excuses, this chapter has proved difficult to write out. Hope you enjoy and I'll try to update more often. Sorry to keep you hanging and thanks to all my reviewers, now you will find out the prophecy! (Lights out, flash of light, suspenseful music)
"High, middle, low; high middle low," the booming voice called out the blocks loud enough that all in the courtyard could hear his instructions.
Surprisingly enough though, the man was only teaching one student; he looked her over now and said, "Zoë, keep your arms more tense when you do the high block and make sure that your feet don't go out of position when you step forward."
The girl, Zoë, nodded and set to work, showing determination to get the blocks right in every action. Teacher and student worked for a little longer on the blocks before. The instructor asked Zoë to get out her staff.
Zoë would have shot her hand in the air if she hadn't known that the Shang Bear would be very mad if she behaved like that. Her foster-mother Eleni had worked very hard to get the Shang Bear to teach Zoë and Zoë wasn't about to give up that opportunity. Still Zoë had a wide smile on her face as she went to pick up her pride and joy, her ebony staff. It was a gift from Eleni and made out of costly sturdy ebony, tiny shots of copper were imbedded into the black wood. Zoë had gotten it this year, for her tenth birthday.
As soon as she was in position, the Shang Bear adjusted it and began the blocking drill.
"Alanna, do you think we'll make it," asked Aeril during one of the many rest stops, "Do you think we'll stay friends?"
Aeril hoped that Alanna wouldn't laugh; it had taken a lot of guts to ask a question like that. Aeril had mulled over the question for days and now that she had finaly spit it out she wanted a serious answer. Thankfully, Alanna answered seriously.
"To succeed we'll need to stay friends," she said, "Each of us will need to have someone who knows our secrets, someone who we can tell or troubles to without worrying that they will find out our secret."
Aeril seemed to think about that for a moment. She was thinking about what they could do to ensure that that would be the case. Suddenly she remembered something from one of the magic lessons that she had grudgingly attended with Alanna since she had something that was a magical ability, it wasn't however the gift. So she had gone with Alanna and apparently learned more than she'd thought.
"Alanna," she said quietly as if to make sure that Coram couldn't hear, "I know a way to bind our souls. We need to bind our blood."
Alanna looked a little lost for a second before remembering the spell that they had learned. She opened her mouth then closed it then nodded looking a bit uncertain. Aeril drew her belt knife out of its pouch than cut a slice on Alanna's arm. She flinched. Aeril then cut the line on her own arm; bringing the two cuts together they cried, "By the Mother and the earth; by fire and water; air and sun; let us be bound forever more." That was when Alanna found that her hand and her arm were on fire, looking at Aeril she fond her own the ground clenching her hand. That was when Alanna blacked out.
Zoë's muscles were just starting to burn when pain shot up through her hand and up her arm. Zoë fought to keep her weapon up remembering the first thing the Shang Bear had taught her. Finally she slipped into unconsciousness; her hands fell and with them her staff. The Bear hit her collarbone before he realized that she'd dropped her weapon. A snap sound filled the courtyard as Zoë's knees buckled.
A cry when out through the courtyard, "Get me George, tell him Eleni has a new patient."
Aeril finally woke up; to her surprise, between the marks of a scimitar and a staff a new mark lay, that of a sword. Curious, she touched it; but her fingers brushed the picture of the staff first and Aeril's view changed as she suddenly saw the inside of a house.
The house was pretty plain, but it was outfitted in a way similar to Maude's hut so Aeril guessed that it was a healer's workshop. On a bed lay a girl dressed in city clothes around which everyone was gathered. It appeared that the girl's collarbone was broken, but the woman who Aeril thought to be the healer seemed more worried about the symbol on the girl's hand, the same set of symbols that had just appeared on Aeril's hand, a staff, a sword and a scimitar all crossed. Aeril looked around and saw Alanna who had just made the sign against evil on her chest.
Suddenly the girl woke up and questions started poring from her mouth. It was obvious that the girl was scared about what had happened and that gave Aeril the time to wonder herself why the girl had suddenly had the missing symbol appear on her hand that morning (it appeared that the girl, who's name seemed to be Zoë, had already had the symbol of the staff and the scimitar on her hand). Aeril had to feel sorry for the Zoë, the only reason that Aeril could think of for the appearance of this symbol was that the binding spell had somehow affected Zoë, after all the additional symbols had appeared after the spell. Aeril shivered, what kind of old magic was this?
The girl seemed to be as confused as Aeril, what obviously made her more confused was the look of terror on the healer's face. Zoë then asked, "Eleni what does this mean to you?"
Eleni rubbed her temples then said, "You'd all better sit down, this is a long tale."
All obliged and Eleni started, "Before the coming of the immortals, there lived in this land a type a human like creature known as elves. They lived for centuries endless slayed. Legend has it that they were extremely intelligent creatures who could forge weapons of the finest steel and with the sharpest edges. They could sew the finest cloth and they could talk to trees, spirits and animals. Then one day they disappeared and the humans became the most intelligent of all creatures with the exception of gods. However, the goddess that they worshiped lives still in the divine realms. When the elf race fell she created a prophesy which would tell of the coming of the next era after the coming of the immortals. The prophesy reads the following:
Out of princess and king
Comes the Staff of stealth,
The queen, the rogue, the Tigress.
Out of the North
Comes the Sword of adventure,
The lady knight, the shinning brightly one, the Lioness.
Out of knight and prince
Comes the Scimitar of past,
The princess, the warrior, the Wolf.
Beware their three faults;
Pride, temper and Stubbornness.
They bear the triple crest
Of Staff, Sword and Scimitar.
Born of Gunapi is the Staff;
Born of the Mother is the Sword;
Born of Morigan is the Scimitar.
Together they face the demons,
The War,
The Sorcerer.
The Staff brings
The seed of freedom to conquered isles;
The Sword brings home
The jewel of legend;
The Scimitar uncovers
The old enemy.
Together they face,
The secrets of the lost race,
Bound together they
Make a legend,
Find a path
And stop the land from seeing the next vanquished race.
Or at least they can try.
Bound together they are the three sisters,
These children of Mother Flame.
Morigan is the goddess of the elves; her consort is Dallas, the wise man of the mountains. And I believe that Zoë is the Staff."
At this Zoë ran out of the room and Aeril and Alanna followed, being pulled by an invisible line along with her as the girl ran through streets climbed rooftops and jumped across gaps till she reached the roof of the building next to the courtyard where Zoë had been practicing earlier that day. She sat there crying and presently a man came to sit beside her. He had climbed up the roof as well. He treated her with a brotherly air and she obvious knew him well.
Zoë told the man about all her fears and finished off with, "I don't to fur full a prophesy, I won't to live a good normal life, George."
He answered back, "Hush and stop, we all have a part to fur full and you will do just fine lass; in fact I'll teach you along with the Shang Bear, I think that you will be a perfect bodyguard, now come run with me."
Zoë laughed and ran off with them, Alanna and Aeril began to follow, but both brushed the symbol of the staff and were jolted back to their bodies where they began to talk about the strange events that had happened.
The end of my newest chapter and isn't it existing. I hope this was worth the wait, though it probably wasn't. Sorry for the wait and hope the next wait won't be so long.
Brown-eyed Fencer of Conte