Chapter One Part Two
Arithal
(To read Part One- here is the link: topic56812.html)
I ran to the creek. A small time passed. I knew must go meet the queen. I went home and brushed past my Mome. I wished I had a Father to comfort me, but he had gone missing many years ago. I put on a gold dress, and then ran to the queen’s palace; I was there in only a minute.
“Good, you have come.” She said, as if I might not, “Now as you know Star Hound has been killed, along with her companion. You must finish the mission she was given, to save her people by defeating Dark Hunter. North Wind, you will travel with this bag. It contains 167 gold coins, enough, I believe. You will also carry this book of spells for magic beyond your reach.” She looked at me, “Silver Blade, come with me, for I have something for you.” She led me through her grand halls, and many rooms. Each room was more magnificent than the last.
Finally she came to a sealed door, covered in vines and in the middle, her symbol. It was a snake around a flower, representing kindness and the opposite, hate. She pressed her palm to the door, it opened slowly. On the in-side was a small box. It was just a plain wooden box, and I didn’t know why it had this kind of protection. She looked at me wordlessly, and then opened the box.
Out of it she lifted, obviously too big for the box, the most magnificent sword I had ever seen. On the hilt was a pattern of diamonds, rubies and stones unknown. On the blade, below the hilt was carved, in the original tribal language, Thal se Ess, Blade of Elves. I was looking at the original blade, carved so many years ago by one un-named. The Queen put the blade in its sheath, and gave it to me.
“It is yours now.” She said simply, “You must re-name it for it to fully do your bidding.” It was custom among the elves to name our swords, for most people only had one or two in a lifetime.
“You are giving me Thal se Ess?” I asked.
“Yes, but it will not be called Thal se Ess once you rename it.” She said.
“I will call it,” I said, choosing my words carefully, “Bael Avel, Guardian Sword.”
“Not the most original, but powerful,” As she said this, the wording below the hilt changed.
She walked out of the room, the door sealed behind her. We walked to the room where Simketh was. The sword was in the sheath. The queen sat on the throne. “Now, as trouble faces our kingdom, I do not have time to go through the original coronation for the warrior and companion. Therefore I will just give you the gift, which few posses, of life until murdered. You can only die if slain by magic or sword.” She put on hand on each of us, and then the world went dark. It was spinning, or rotating, I wasn’t sure which. Then I saw again. The world was clearer than before. Everything was sharp and true.
The queen was even more beautiful than ever, light skinned with golden hair.
She was still standing in front of us, “Along your journey you will meet all sorts of creatures, other elves, grotesque dwarfs, possibly the phoenix people, and/or the awful humans. Reveal your true identity to only a few people. Otherwise you will be Fisae, or Light Whisper, and Dhoam, or Falcon Strider.
Your mission is to just simply kill Dark Hunter. Use your gifts wisely, help each other. Leave as soon as possi-ble. May you magic never fail and your swords be sharp.” She walked up to her throne. We bowed and left.
“No wonder she is called Rose Wisdom. She is intel-ligent as they come, and also very pretty.” Simketh said, “Worthy of someone like me.” He licked his lips. I wanted to slap him. Being a warrior had gone to his head already.
I first went home to pack what I would need into a saddle bag.
Apparently my mother had heard what I was going to do. I had done a lot to keep this from her, and I could almost predict what she was going to say, “Arithal, you are too young. You will get yourself killed.” She said, worried, as always.
“Age is but a number, your true age is shown by your personality and maturity level.” I said.
“Fine but when you end up dead don’t come crying to me!” she huffed and walked out.
I took two robes, a long cloak, a shawl and a poor girls dress was all I could fit, besides my knife in the outer pocket. I put on one of my ordinary dresses and wrapped a second cloak with a hood around my neck.
Simketh and I went to the stable master. “Two of your best horses,” I said to him.
Surprisingly, he said, “Queen Clahar has been here already, your horses were paid for by her in advance. Go pick two out.” I walked among the horses, then I saw one, she was perfect. She was a beautiful black barb horse. Strong and majestic, I knew she was the right one.
“What’s her name?” I asked the stable master.
“Kather is her name, she’s a beauty.” He said. Sim-keth took a brown stallion. We led the horses out of the stable, and then got on them.
“Where do you suppose we go first?” I asked Sim-keth.
He frowned, and then said, “We will travel to Gys-sarnith, to the outlying areas, for he will most likely be there.” I disagreed, thinking he would be nearer to us, try-ing to kill us, but I said nothing.
He was the warrior, he knew everything. We set off towards Gyssarnith. Between us and Gyssarnith was 3 towns, and one was an unfriendly town, a rival weak, but enough, to kill a few travelers.
Our first day of travel we encountered nothing much but woods, woods and more woods. There was the occasional animal, but if we wanted to make it to Gyssar-nith within a week we didn’t have time to stop and pet the animals. When dusk came we stopped by a brook to make camp.
Simketh put a small rag on the ground, and then opened the queen’s spell book. He said a few words over the rag, and it turned into a small camp, complete with a fire and two small tents. I went inside the smaller tent.
Inside were only a small cot, and a box. I went to the box and opened it; on the inside was a multitude of pretty doll sized dress, from a peasant dress to that of a high queen. There were also three robes. I took one out, and it expanded before me to my exact size. I took one more look in the wardrobe, and exchanged my dress and cloak for a green robe with a belt of which a sheath was attached. I stuck the sword in the sheath then went out-side. Simketh came out of his tent.
“I love this, the only problem these trees do not support fruit.” He said.
I replied timidly, “Does that mean we will have to… hunt… for meat.” It was considered terrible to eat venison or fish unless in dire need. Then I thought and said, “Wait, give me your spell book.”
I opened it, Simketh stood back cautiously. I touched the sword hilt for support, and said a few words. The tree in front of me turned onto an apple tree. The apples were up high though, and the branches would be hard to climb. I said to Simketh, “Did you bring your archery kit?” he went inside his tent and got it. I took it from him, and aimed the bow at an apple I shot the ar-row at the apple; it sliced it clean through the middle. The apple fell from the tree. I took the arrow out of the apple, and did the same thing to get five more apples. I gave each horse on apple, then took one for myself and gave one to Simketh.
“Good job.” He said reluctantly. I rolled my eyes. He was so self absorbed. I retired to my tent, and sleep came over me.
I woke up at dawn, to a beautiful day, as was eve-ryday in my home kingdom. I put on a simple dress and brown cloak.
Simketh was up a short while later. “We might be able to make it to Arkenia today, if we hurry.” He said. As if commanded, the whole camp turned simply into a rag. We gave the horses an apple breakfast, and then turned the tree back to normal so that no one would know we were here.
The sun told us it was only about ten o’clock before we set out. We ran the horses, so they were galloping. We again met no one on the road, for it was too early. Due to the fact that we started early, and we ran the horses, we arrived at Arkenia before dusk, though the sky was begin-ning to color. We walked the horses through the town, ig-noring the stares of the people, until we reached a small inn. We hitched the horses outside, and Simketh locked the reigns to the pole with magic so the horses could not be stolen. We walked into the inn. I put the hood of the cloak over my head to keep the stares to a minimum.
We walked up to the Innkeeper, and Simketh said, “We need two rooms, the best you have.” The innkeeper whispered the price in Simketh’s ear; Simketh took out a few coins and gave them to him. The innkeeper went over to a serving lady and she came over to us, and in a thickly accented voice said,
“Welcome to ze fox n’ hound inn. I’ll be showin’ you to yer rooms.” She led us up a flight of stairs, and through a hall, until she reached two identical doors. “Ere be yer rooms.”
I went in the one in the left. The room was simple, but nice. It had a soft bed, a washtub and sink, as well as a nightstand. I reached in the saddlebag and got out a sim-ple white dress I put on, as well as a pair of white boots.
