The Realm of Crystals

Chapter 4

*Rowan*

We travelled deeper and deeper into the forest, following the odd looking couple who had so easily taken down eight people.

“What do you think they are up to?” I asked Eron, “Do you think they could be thieves?”

“Well they definitely are not normal, but somehow I can tell they aren’t thieves.”

“Why do you say that?”

“Well, they didn’t kill any of their attackers. They only did what they had to in order to win the fight.”

“True.”

“I wonder what’s up with that masked guy.”

“I don’t know… but he had a pretty small body for being so strong.”

“Well not everyone can look like me,” Eron said, puffing out his chest.

“You are so full of yourself.”

“Why, thank you,” he said as if my comment was a compliment. “Stop your horse,” I whispered suddenly to Eron.

“Why?” But then he realized what I had noticed: the two girls had stopped their horses.

“I think they are on to us.”

*Rayla*

“There is someone trailing us,” Malan said suddenly.

“What are you talking about?”

“Look behind us.”

Sure enough, she was right. Behind us, I could see two horses half-hidden amongst the trees. “What do you suppose they want?” I asked.

“I don’t know, but it can not be good.”

“What should we do?”

“Let’s dismount,” she suggested.

I swung down from the saddle and grabbed my horse’s reins. Malan started walking towards them, with her hand on her sword and I followed suit.

*Rowan*

They were walking towards us and I could tell they thought we were their enemy. We sat quietly on our horses as they approached.

“What do you want?” the masked man yelled from a distance.

“What do we want?” Eron whispered.

“I don’t know!” I whispered back, “This was your idea in the first place.”

“We saw your fight,” Eron yelled back, “We admire your swordsmanship.”

The two strangers looked at each other. They put their swords back in their sheaths and came forward.

As they came into full view, I could their full appearance. The girl had long dark hair and dark brown eyes. Her skin was pale, but she had full red lips. Her eyebrows were highly arched but her overall appearances seemed kindly. She wasn’t very tall, standing at about five-foot-four-inches.

The masked man was mostly a mystery. The mask had what appeared to be a crescent moon in white with a contrasting black background. For a man, his hair was long. It was red and braided and came down to his mid back. Even though he was a little taller than the girl, he was short for a man.

“My name is Rowan, and this is Eron.”

*Malan*

“I’m Malan and this is Rayla,” I introduced. There was an awkward silence.

I studied the appearance of the two in front of me. Eron had shoulder length, wavy brown hair and dark grey eyes. He had tanned skin and was fairly well built. He looked older than the other boy Rowan.

Rowan seemed to be completely opposite in appearance to the other man. He had blonde hair, a fair complexion, and blue eyes. He was obviously younger than Eron, but I guessed he had to at least be close to twenty.

Both of them rode fine steeds, but as I studied Rowan’s horse, something caught my eye. Embellished on the middle of the horse’s chest strap, was the Red Griffin symbol.

I whipped out my sword and pointed it at them. “What are you trying to pull?” I said suddenly.

“What are you talking about?” Rayla said looking confused.

“Look at the crest on his horse!”

I watched her look at it and I could see when it dawned on her; Rayla’s face clouded over with anger.

“Whoa, wait a second,” Rowan said, “We are not here to hurt you. We are only runaways from Omakar. We support the Alisarian cause.”

I softened a bit at hearing this. “You have no business following us anyways,” I said sternly.

“We have no where to go. We thought we might be able to help you,” Eron said.

“Who says we need help?” Rayla said with her hands on her hips.

“Look,” Rowan said, “I know I’m Omakaric, but I want to help the Alisarians. If all of the seven crystals get into their hands, who knows what could happen, but if Alisar has all of them, peace will reign.”

“You know about the crystals?” I asked in shock.

“My father… well let’s just say he was pretty obsessed about finding all of them.”

“What are you both talking about?!” Eron asked, suddenly butting in.

Rayla, Rowan and I all exchanged glances.

“You mean you’ve never heard of them?” Rayla asked.

“How am I supposed to know?” Eron said with a shrug, “I’ve been locked in a cell for over two years!”

“Let’s set up camp and then I’ll explain it to you.”

***

“For many years, a legend has been passed down about seven colored crystals, one for each color in a rainbow,” I explained, “No one really believed the crystals existed till about a year ago. That was when the Alisarian kingdom found the first crystal, the blue crystal. Soon, Omakar learned of the blue crystal’s discovery and they sent out search parties for the others. Within weeks, they had the green crystal in their possession.”

“Okay, so the two kingdoms are fighting over crystals,” Eron said, “So what, they are just fighting over having the most crystals?”

“No, these crystals are rumored to have indefinable power,” Rowan continued, “No one knows exactly what this power is, but both the Alisarian kingdom and the Omakaric kingdom want to be the one to find out first.”

“Well we should find these things then!” Eron said.

“It’s not that simple,” Rayla said, “There are only two crystals left and they are the most difficult to find. They are the red and violet crystals, the alpha and omega of the rainbow.”

“Well shouldn’t we find them before the dingicks find them? No offense, Rowan,” he threw in.

“That is true,” I said, “In fact, that is my quest. I vow to find the last two crystals for Alisar.”

“Then I do too,” Rayla said with a smile.

“And we shall join you,” Rowan added. Eron just nodded.

“Looks like we’ve got a team then,” I said with a confident smirk, “And we will find those crystals and bring peace to the land!”