Chapter 1

"I just wish I was gifted with the Touch of Sight" Calen breath to Meg, his best friend who is the third princess of Trelian. They were walking through the woods, hoping to find their way back home.

Calen were tasked by Serek to look for more ingredients for a healing potion and some medicinal herbs. Meg tagged along when she spotted her friend before he exits the gate before the second bell. The herbs were rare enough that could only be found on the boundary of the King's land. Specifically, the boundary between the forest of Trelian and the river going to Lourin, land of King Gerald. Although they are not in war with this kingdom but they are territorial if given the chance. So Meg and Calen stayed just outside the other kingdom's boundary but far enough outside Trelian. After getting some needed herbs for wounds and cure the poison sustained by the soldiers during the fight with a slaar -a disfigured reptile like creature that has poison in their talons and a screech that could damage your eardrums even a mile away – they found themselves lost in the woods. They didn't realize they strayed from the path until Calen pointed out that he doesn't recognize the surrounding plants and trees any longer.

"How come?" Meg is a smart 14 year old princess. She knows and somehow read what was her friend was thinking. She could read him like a book, literally. But there are times that Calen's question are out of the blue so to speak that it became vague and seemingly unrelated to the topic at hand. Just like now.

"Well, if I could see the future then I would know whether or not to go to this path so that I know that we are going to loose our way home. Or I would know if whether we can find our way back home or not in some time in the future. Sometimes I wondered… " Calen started to babble.

Meg usually use a reproachful voice to stop Calen from babbling and cut him off before she could die from exasperation, then force him to go straight to the point. But right now she just allowed Calen to babble endlessly since she has nothing better to do other than being lost in an unfamiliar forest once again.

"Calen, are we close?" Meg became tired after long hours of walk around these trees.

"Yes we are. I could see some plants that are unique only to Trelian. I think I thought so." Calen began to catalogue his knowledge about plants and trees that were spent hours and hours of memorizing these boring names under Serek's apprenticeship. At least it became useful.

"Then lets go" She could not take it any longer. Her hunger and tiredness became her driving energy to go faster and bolted towards her home, grabbing Calen's forearm then yanked him forward painfully, dragging him across the forest to the safety of their homeland.

Before both parties could go any further, Calen tripped on something. He cut his ankle and tumbled forward taking the feisty impatient girl with him.

"Calen, what-" Meg tried to scold him for not looking where he was going despite yanking him forcefully. She cut herself not because she saw he was bleeding profusely but because he was staring at the object that tripped him in an eerily strange way. His face was expressionless. His eyes are distant. His posture relaxed, and his breathing were deep. It was calming, but it was at the same time unnerving. She tried to call him.

"Calen"

No response from the boy.

"Calen!"

Still he did not move.

"CALEN!" she approached her frozen friend and shook his shoulders, trying to coax the boy to respond.

"Huh?"

Meg released her breath she did not know she was holding when she heard his response, albeit a dazed and unfocused one.

"What's wrong?" She looked at him worriedly. "I don't know. I just…" He still looked daze but he shook his head to rid of the weird fog that wrap his mind with. He crouched forward to pull the object from the ground. It was surprisingly small that could trip a preteen boy. It was barely the size of Calen's palm. It has a semi circular edge with distinct chips and nicks around the pointed area. It was conical and flat. Its shaped like it was a piece of something much larger, and it look so ancient.

"I just…" Calen repeated. He doesn't know what was wrong with him. I just feel that I've seen this before. He shook his head once again and smiled at his staring friend. "I'm fine. Nothings wrong" He saw that Meg wasn't convinced. He just have to try harder then. So he have to distract her long enough to drop the subject "I just wondered how a piece so small could trip me". Although its purpose was for distraction, his disbelief is genuine. He furrowed his eyebrows and stared intensely at the object at his palm wondering why the symbols that look like dancing snakes, that he could read it somehow. He held a silent gasp at the markings became readable, or rather recognizable. He narrowed his eyelids then concentrate-

"Calen! You can continue giving that object a hard scolding later, but right now we need to go home. I need to eat and you need to patch that wound of yours." Meg called out from her shoulders. Calen looked up and saw she was good 10 feet away from him. "Coming!" He pocketed the object and ran, catching up with his friend.

Wait, what wound?

He about to ask but she was far away now. Too far for his liking. He redoubled his effort and ran faster.