“Aahh!”
“Hold still!”
“Stop!”
“I can’t. It’s almost over.”
“Make it stop. PLEASE!” David pleaded. The old man was rubbing an airy substance in David’s eyes, and he wouldn’t go through with this. He attempted to sit up, but he was forced back down again. Wasn’t the pain supposed to “fleeting and momentary”?
“Done.”
“It feels like fire!” David bellowed. His screams echoed off the cavern walls. His cries of agony were ignored, and soon, the man came towards him. He was holding a mirror. What was the man going to do with a mirror?
When David stared at the glass, he forgot about the pain and only had eyes for the image formed on the mirror. Nothing could prepare him for this.
What he saw was a breathtakingly beautiful woman with ice blue eyes. One moment they looked like ocean, another they looked like newborn stars. The woman was leaning over a bowl filled with water. An image formed on the water’s surface and he saw his own reflection. She could predict the future through the water’s surface. Scrying was a very rare talent, so each kingdom had chief scryer. Did this mean the woman was her country’s scryer? What could this mean?
The image blurred to a scene where many people were inlaying stone in a marvelous palace’s marble floor.
The image changed again to the same woman scrying and sobbing at the same time. In her scrying bowl David could see a small, wriggling baby with ice blue eyes. In the next, he saw only darkness.
He looked at the man with incredulity. What was going on? What did this have to do with him? He was only trying to find his father.
He saw the old man look at him with pity. Why?
“Do not tell untrustworthy ones your name. I see you already have. At least she doesn’t know your true name,” he said, half to David, half to himself. “She thinks you know your true name. But you do not. Still, you must make sure she doesn’t tell others. Go back and save your horse. Leave this place now, don’t look behind you, and avoid the cottage door,” the mysterious person said.
“Why? Why do I have to go back?” David asked.
“Starlight.” And with that, the man started to look less solid, until David realized that he was changing into fog. He was quickly becoming more transparent, and David didn’t want him to leave. Without this man, he didn’t feel safe. With him, there was security. He had a plan. David himself had none.
“Wait!” he yelled. “Who are you?!” with that, the elderly man smiled.
“I am Eurchess.” Then he disappeared.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
David was running. He had never pushed off the soles of his feet so hard. He never ran so quickly. His foot found the root of a tree, and he flew through air and fell heavily, landing painfully on his stomach. He felt the wind knocked out of him and felt the bruising pain of the ground beneath him.
“David!!! I’m here! Help! Get off! Help!!!” the voice came like out like a lofty high voice that was so eerie that David had to wince. A shudder ran down his spine. He shivered, but not with cold. He felt the fear bubble in his chest, erupting inside him. He couldn’t look around, at all costs. It didn’t matter who was calling for help. It might be a trap.
He saw the door and was relieved. He ran forward, towards the closest path, yet he fell flat on his face.
He thought it was just another troublesome tree root. It wasn’t. David felt quite bruised up already and was determined to find Starlight.
He looked up and saw a tall, fair haired man with bright green eyes, and a graceful but muscular build standing above him. The man was holding a spear with curious markings on its blade, but the matter that David was more concerned about was the fact that the man was holding the spear in front of his nose. David noticed that the leaf shaped blade was silver and that the engravings were a blue design that showed curved lines at the edge of the blade and in the middle of the blade was a blue circle. David didn’t examine the blade because he wanted to admire it, but because the blade was dangerously close for comfort. The man stood silently over David, and David was helpless.
He was only an unarmed youth of thirteen summers, and he stood no chance against this man. What could he do? He didn’t even know how to parry or thrust with a sword. He didn’t know the difference between a rapier and a broadsword.
It seemed that he always made the wrong decisions. Even though he loathed the idea of causing pain and handling weapons, he still should have learned to defend himself. The man’s piercing emerald eyes, two shining gems, bore into David’s own eyes. What did this man want from him? Would this man simply kill him? Was it how his fate was arranged?
“Bring him inside. Put him next to that bronco.” A female voice said. David tried to turn around, but felt a sharp, stinging pain coming from his back. From the warm blood trickling down his back, David knew the silent warrior had prodded him with his spear, drawing beads of blood. David then realized that he had no need to turn around. He already knew who it was.
He felt his skin being stretched to the verge of pain, and smelled a stench in the air, heard muffled voices, and felt his scalp scream in agony as the man dragged him by the roots of his hair. He then saw the cottage again when he was being unceremoniously dragged. The cottage had a hidden door behind the table and chair set, and David was thrown in, and reunited with Starlight.
“Starlight! Oh goodness! You’re here!” David gasped. “What happened?”
“Well, since you ran off, I was captured,” the horse stated simply. David wasn’t prudent enough to notice that the stallion didn’t want to talk about it, and continued trying to wring some more information out of his friend.
“I don’t want to talk about it, alright?!” Starlight exclaimed angrily.
“What’s wrong with you today? You were just fine earlier.”
“Well, maybe it’s because earlier we weren’t captured!” the horse was glaring at David and it seemed that his gaze was resentful enough to stop David looking boldly into his eyes, but David continued to hold his gaze.
“It was all your fault! I told you not to come in here, I told you I had a bad feeling about this, I told you everything. Yet you chose not to listen! I need to go to Oppol to tell them the Illia are back. You kept me from them on this quest of yours.” Starlight paused, and turned his head away from David, then looked at the boy straight in the eye. Starlight dropped his gaze and looked down at the floor. His mouth was firmly closed.
“I-I’m sorry.” David said simply. He didn’t know how to express it otherwise, and awkwardly patted the horse. He was glad that Starlight’s face was in shadows.
“Do I sense the presence of tears, of sadness?!” the sorceress exclaimed. She burst into the small cell and in her arms were several writhing green snakes. “I think these will help you fare better, will it not, you useless nag?”
“I’m not a nag. I’m a stallion. A warhorse!” David was glad to see Starlight fighting back, and smiled.
“Maybe your friend needs some kind of reminder of whom he is so rudely addressing,” the sorceress said. Her smile did nothing to comfort David. She drew out a snake, and let it curl and extend from her hand to Starlight’s mouth. “See? The snake likes you. Do you not like its attention?” Starlight recoiled. “Maybe you’ll like its little poisonous nibble,” she said quietly, her voice ominous.
She chained both prisoners to the wall and carefully draped the snakes around their shoulders.
“Good night,” she crooned, and planted a soft kiss on David’s cheek. Where she kissed him felt cold and lifeless and it sent a shudder down his back. She left.
“Horrible form. Kissing the enemy? I think not!” Starlight criticized. One of the snakes on his shoulder hissed, apparently not appreciating the insults directed at its mistress.
“I’m sorry.” David said. He knew Starlight was trying to make him feel better. He told his friend about his rescuer, Eurchess, and how he had forgotten his advice. “Well, I suppose I shouldn’t have made you come into the cottage with me.”
“We all make mistakes,” Starlight said simply. David was under the impression that he was still angry, but knew David was not prepared for this kind of “quest”. And with his furious silence, David’s words exploded from his mouth.
“For the love of the gods, I got us in this mess!” David burst out. “I should have stopped us from going in. I should have dragged you out of the house before she came.
“You belong in the battlefield, gaining honor and valor. And me?” he paused. He didn’t know what he wanted except to find his father. But wasn’t it all a hopeless cause? What could one boy do to save all of Yura? He continued anyways. “Never mind me. But we won’t ever be able to- for the love of the gods!” David kicked the wall to which he was chained. His three snakes didn’t like the disturbance and opened their mouths, exposing their long fangs.
“David, you can’t take all the blame; and stop saying sorry!”
“I’m sorry.”
“Didn’t I just say-”
“I forgot. So-” and they hung on the wall. Hours passed with only silence whispering in their ears, and David could no longer feel his arms. He was starting to go numb in his shoulders.
“What’s wrong with your finger?” Starlight asked, breaking the hard quiet.
“What finger?” David asked, trying to get a glimpse at all his fingers to make sure none of them were turning purple or falling off.
“Your pinky … on your right hand.”
“Oh. I was just born with it.” He wiggled his right pinky, which was the same length as his ring finger. “I think it runs in the family. I’m not sure though, since my dad left.”
“Who is your dad?” Starlight asked quietly.
“The ex-Officer Harold.” David paused. “I have to find him. My mother told me that he’s the only one who can solve this mess.”
“How? How can one man save all of Yura?”
“I don’t know.” He didn’t admit to his friend that he had been wondering the same thing himself.
Silence reigned again.
Then the quiet was conquered. Something like music flowed through the air, flowing into the ears of the two prisoners. Its sweet song filled the room. It was a piercing melody that seemed to slice through the air since it was so clear. It was unlike the sound of David’s flute, but sounded almost like singing. It was coming from strings! It was beautiful.
It made him feel a desire to not give up. And with that, he threw off the writhing chains. Except they were already off him. David would’ve blushed out of embarrassment of his cheesy mistake, but this was far from ordinary. The serpents were uncoiling themselves from the two captives, and were slithering away with all speed, their scales scratching against the floor. David then wondered why one of them stopped moving.
One after the other, every snake froze suddenly, in the embrace of death. Each passed away suddenly and quickly, with not a sound. However, the last snake gave out a long, drawn out hiss.
It had committed its last act, for soon, its head dropped on the floor. The song was getting ever louder.
David started to wonder if this music was deadly not only to snakes, but to Starlight and himself.
As soon as this thought ran through his mind, the sorceress burst through the doorway, her hair flying. She spread out her arms, and attempted to summon forth some pulsing light from her palms. When this was done, she tried to release it, but the ball of magic burst in mid-air, like shining glass. One scraped her cheek, and that part of her skin started to turn brown and rot. Soon, this manifestation spread to the rest of her body, engulfing her. She sank to the floor, and her head hit the cold floor with a thud. She gave a twitch and a hiss. She attempted to sit up, but it seemed she was being pushed down to the floor, for she fell again. She grunted with the exertion, and screamed. She was still.
David was astonished beyond belief. In his entire school library, there was no information of what had just happened. He tried to speak, but no air made his vocal cords vibrate. He gave up and closed his mouth again.
Starlight was just as mesmerized by what had just happened. He trotted around the room, while David was staring at the wall in front of him blankly. Wow.
“Doesn’t something not feel right?” Starlight asked.
“Yeah,” David replied. He knew exactly what Starlight was talking about. It felt like something was missing. Then the answer came readily to his lips. “The music. It’s gone.”
“Yeah, it’s-” but at that moment, the wall behind them transformed into a door. Until that point, David had been flabbergasted, and couldn’t explain any of the following magic, but this appearance of the door made him realize that it was a door of destination, therefore, it was an anchor of knowledge to David in this strange new adventure.
David knew that some user was trying to come here through the door. The door of destination then explained the side effects of bringing the precipice of another region with it. David only knew that the doors were theoretically supposed to transport them many or few leagues away. Except his textbooks never mentioned how you work one, or how it takes you to your destination. However, he had no time to continue his contemplation, for on the other side of the door came a light polite knock.
So many bizarre things had happened to him, yet this seemed among the strangest. He looked at the wooden door, and looked at Starlight questioningly. The horse shrugged. David knew that this door was going to change his life. He just had to know whether if he had the strength to accept it. It was based on a hunch. Little did he know that this decision would change the entire nation’s destiny forever.
He opened the door.
Nightshade by Phoenix is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.
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