The Immortality Stone - The Cardinal

Chapter Four - In a Land Far Away

Sameeca groaned and opened her eyes. Staring through the foggy restraints of the seeing part of her head that refused to focus,and had gone on strike, without as much as a warning, she glared at the bright green wallpaper.  

“What an awful coloured wallpaper for a nurse’s office!” she thought swinging her legs off what appeared to be a log of sorts. 

“What sort of Nurse’s office has trees in it?” She wondered as she went to put her feet on the bright green floor that coincidentaly matched the bright green wallpaper, and went crashing to the ground. During the flight (hindered by thirty branches, severe cursing and a crisis of conscience, in which she considered if it was the falling or the sharp sudden stop at the bottom that bothered her most), she arrived in an undignified heap at the base of a tree. After spitting out various debris and leaves from her mouth, and removing other offending particles from her body Sameeca threw a branch at the felonious tree. 

“Of all the places to put a stupid tree! OUCH” she cried as the branch bounced off and hit her. 

“That wasn’t a very nice thing to do! Especially after I saved your life!” the tree replied. 

“I must have hit my head harder than I thought-I’m hearing things-tree’s don’t talk” a bewildered Sameeca thought aloud. 

“We don’t?” the tree replied confused. 

Then-much to Sameeca’s surprise-the trunk shifted into a face, it was a cross between an owl, a lizard and…well…a tree. In fact, if you squinted and turned your head exactly 20 degrees to the left with the right eye closed, or if you had no imagination-it might be mistaken for a knothole. Unfortunately Sameeca had both eyes open and possessed an over whelming amount of imagination; 

“AAARGH! TREE!”  

“AAARGH! HUMAN!” 

In addition, with that Sameeca sped off into the forest. 

~*~ 

Meanwhile, in another part of the forest two young men were searching for something. One was wearing a long black robe bedecked with star shaped crystals and silver thread-he had long black hair tied back with amulets and other shiny things attached. He had keen blue eyes and a feminine face, which he tried to hide behind a neatly trimmed beard, that trailed along his jaw line and grew into a moustache, and thicker beard around his chin. In his hand he carried (or rather he propped himself on) a staff also adorned with herbs, skulls, amulets and pieces of bone. He was scrawny and seemed to be made out of umbrella spokes and elastic bands.  If you had not guessed already-he was a wizard-well an apprentice one.  

The other was a warrior. While the wizard was clean shaved and relatively neat and tidy (as well as you can be after spending a night in a forest and being lazy by nature) this other man was dirty and rugged. He was a head taller than the wizard was-and broader-with muscles that looked like he knew how to use them. He had thick unruly wavy brown hair that looked like it had never been brushed, and most likely had not,which was tied back into a loose ponytail. No real warrior ever has his hair down whilst travelling-it blocks your vision and the last thing you need during battle is something in the way of your eyes. Many a brave warrior has died, by leaving their hair down during war. Better yet, cut it off altogether, although it can keep the ears warm during the winter months. He had a steely grey glance of ice; most of the times he need not even fight just fix the offendees a stare. A rugged beard that looked as if it had been hacked off with a dagger in the dark, which it probably had, sprawled across his square jaw. He had a tunic of indistinguishible colour over his once beige leggings and a belt with an assortment of daggers decorating it. A broad sword hung across his back underneath a black ragged cloak. His strong feet were clad in leather boots and he walked silently like a cat. He looked like a warrior-but he was actually a thief.