The True Meaning of A Warrior

Chapter Three: The Book of Secrets (EVE)

When I glimpsed Zara's shadowed, dulled eyes, as she stumbled into the sword-arena practicing area, I froze. My sister took up the opportunity to zap me with lightning, but lightly, and I stumbled to the ground with an "oof". Dust clouded up all around me and I waved my hand through the air to clear it.

"I win!" she said joyfully, pointing her sword down at me.

"Okay, yeah," I said distractedly, knocking her sword to the side with my own. Clank! "You win."

A wide smile spread across her lips, but then she seemed to read my anxiety. "What's up?" Edera asked friendlily. "Thorn caught in your shoe? Ouch."

"I don't know either," I replied nervously. "Zara's here, looking...like, really stressed out. I'd better talk to her, and besides, I'm pooped." I dodged her blade and dropped myself back onto my feet, before slipping my sword back into the sheath. "You can go home."

My sister's brows were knitted together, but she nodded nonetheless, her hair bouncing energetically along her shoulders. "That's what I call a Monday," she said simply, sliding her sword into its own sheath and shuffling away, circling up clouds of dust to rise behind her.

When Zara entered the arena, she was huffing and puffing, her cheeks rosy from a definitely long run. "Sit down," I offered, and we both sat down on the lush, dew-strewn grass to talk. "So, what's up?"

Zara quickly told me about my mother's response to her pleas to know the truth of why our ancestors moved us. "...Mysterious to you, too, right?" she finished, and her huffing pants slowly decreased and turned into normal breathing again. "I mean, I'd always thought of it like, Who cares archery matters more, but..."

"And swordfighting matters more than archery," I finished, my voice jokingly firm, as if that was the answer to a lingering question.

"Gosh, Eve. I know you want to know the truth, too, here..."

"It's dangerous."

"I want to know."

We sighed simultaneously, both out of being so flustered.

"Do you want to go explore mine or your libraries?" I interrupted the awkward silence that was held after those sighs.

"How about yours? Your library is the best," Zara smiled. "Let's head over there."

I nodded briskly and we both rose to our feet, kicking up dust as we headed out of the sword-training arena, making only a little bit of irrelevant small talk. We slipped out of the arena, the door clanking closed behind us and latching itself into place with a satisfying click!

The walk back home was pretty simple-the evergreen trees swayed in the warming spring woods, ruffling the petals of lush white daisies that skittered at our toes as we headed into the library of the Silverwell's.

We opened and then closed the front door, slipping into the cave, and journeyed into the cave's depths. Zara and I ascended the small staircase and went into the Silverwell family's great library. Well, not exactly massive-big, but big enough for a cave that rested out in the wilderness in the middle of nowhere. Glowworms and oil lamps lighting the room, the library had a homey, musty-ish sense to it. Great, winding shelves covered every inch of the wall in the ten-meter-by-ten-meter library. I used to go to this room every day, when I was young and didn't have to hunt and pick foods so much, and explore.

We followed the winding bookshelves and reached the old section of the library. A softly illuminated oil lamp lit this part of the dark, dusty room.

"Let's go explore the forbidden room!" Zara exclaimed suddenly. Basically, when I was young and exploring the library, I decided it would be a lovely idea to climb onto the bookshelves. So I did exactly that, and tipped one of the shelves over, and behind the bookshelves revealed a camouflaged, trapdoor-like hidden door. It was small and squat-a square three-by-three feet door. But I'd been too scared to open it, so I re-covered it with the bookshelf and left, sort of spooked out. Zara and I call the secret room the "forbidden room".