Equinox- Chapter 3

"Where do you think your going?" Anneliese accused Darith who was trying to sneak out of camp. Darith, startled that he was caught, turned around slowly with a sheepish look on his face.





"No where... I had to go releave myself.." He said gesturing to the forest.




"Sure. And why do you hafta bring your horse with you?" She continued crossing her arms.




"Oh, geez. Wow I didn't realize I was bringing him with me. Oops." He said as he dropped the reigns, running his fingers through his hair.




"Back to camp."




"But I really hafta go!"





"Then you can either do it right here, or you can hold it. " She said fiercely raising an eyebrow. He closed his eyes sighing as headed back towards camp.




"I'll hold it."




"Thats what I thought." She said smirking. Score one for Anneliese, zero for Darith. What a sucker.




~.~





"Where do you think your going?" Serena's mother said as she walked into her daughters chambers to find Serena packing.




"I hafta go back to Tarigot." She replied nuetrally.




"You can't! It's not safe! I'd go with you but you know we physically can't!" She said looking scary for a moment. But that didn't phase Serena, who continued packing. Agravated her mother stood in front of her, sitting down on top of her bag.




"Please move." She said fiercely. "You know I can't stay here doing nothing! I hafta save my people."




"We are your people!"




"But you aren't the people I grew up with." She replied back. Stunned her mother thought about as she slid off of Serena's pack.




"Your right." She answered solemnly. "Go. We will help you as much as possible." She said looking at her. Serena looked up with tears in eyes.




"Thank you." She said, then she finished packing. "I will ask Xarieth, Valance, and Qaries for help, to get there faster." She said as her mother left the room. Her mother sat there as she watched her daughter walk out the door, wishing only that there was anyway she could come with her. Knowing that it was impossible.





Serena walked out of the chambers area slowly, as if her pack was weighing her down. But there was more that was on her mind, when I do get to Tarigot what am I suppose to do? It's not like I can just march in there and kill the aliens. She shook her head pushing all the negative thoughts to the back of her head. Continuing on to the back entrance to the faeries world. Yes, there was a back entrance that was way more easier to get in this whole time. There was no reason to attempt entering the emotion sensitive wall in the front. When the whole time there was a back door. Sheesh.




She pushed a button, after scanning her hand print. Then a new scanner popped out, examining her iris, then the door slid open into an elevator. She stepped in then enter an 8 digit passcode to go down the mountain to the great wyrms lair. Man, it sure takes a lot just to go downstair for a visit, Serena thought as she stood waiting in the elevator. Finally there was a ping, allowing her to know that she had arrived. Before exiting the elevator she put on her glasses, so her eyes would adjust to the brilliant and ever changing light in there wyrms cave.





"Hello? Is anyone there?" She asked looking around. This was odd, usually Xarrieth was at the door awaiting her arrival. "Is anyone her? Guys this is no time to playing games! I'm seirous." She said putting her hands on her hips. Thats when it hit her, they weren't there, they must have left. But the question was why, because they rarely left their den. Only if there was trouble going on somewhere in Tarigot. She dropped her pack on the ground and made her self at home. They were never gone for to long. 2 days atleast, maybe this was a good thing. Allowing her time to straighten out her thoughts, and decide how she was going to settle everything. Her eyelids drooped as she plopped down on one of the numerous amount of beds that the wyrms had stolen, back in the day.





~.~





Darith was sound asleep when he was awoken carelessly by a great bust of hot wind. His eye's fluttered open slowly, but they soon popped open wide as he jumped off his blanket nearly peeing on hisself. There in front of him was a large scaley beast. He quickly grabbed his sword.




"Back off foul creature! I'm not afraid to slay you!" He threatened point his sword at it. The wyrm tilted his head to the side and started laughing a rough loud laugh. "What the-?"




"Darith! Put the sword down! Qaries prefers not to be threatened." Eric said pulling the sword out of Dariths shocked hand. Darith swirved around to face Eric, his eyes sending daggers.



"What the heck was the for?"



"I said put down the sword." Eric said fiercely. "This is Qaries, one of three great wyrms, they came here to pick us up to bring us to their domain."



"Why can't we just ask them for advice here?"



"Because its easier for them to communicate with humans in the desert." Eric sighed, getting tired of Darith's endless amount of snippy questions.



"That make's no sense! If they are as great as you say they should be able to give us advice here!" Darith said continuing on and on with his endless rigmarole.



"STOP TALKING! If you don't i will cut out your tongue and give it to Qaries to eat! And believe me he would just love that." Eric snapped at him. That kept Darith quiet for awhile as the rest of the group picked up their small camp. He sat near his horse looking around at the large scalely wyrms surrounding him. Once in awhile one would come up and sniff him, then turn around with a disgusted look on there faces.



"Come on Darith! It's time to leave!" Bard called over as he tied down the rest of the provisions and staples onto one of the larger wyrms backs. Getting up he started pulling his horse along with him, when Bard called back out to him.



"Uh uh! Tie the horse over there with ours! We can't bring him with us." Bard said pointing over to a tree.



"But they'll starve! And his coat must be brushed everyday!" He started contradicting.



"There's plenty of plant life around there for them to eat. We shouldn't be gone for to long anyway. And there is plenty of rope allowing them to run around." He continued. Darith hesitated for a moment but eventually he tied up his horse. As he walked over to the rest of the travelers he thought of something.



"Wait.. we are going to ride the dragons? I mean wyrms?" He asked his mouth dropping.



"Yes, how else do you think we were going to get there fast enough?" Anneliese said rolling her eyes. Darith shook his head, his staring at the floor. He climbed up on top of the wyrms slowly.. being careful as to not anger the wyrm or anything.



"Okay, let us GO!!" Eric said laughing, as Darith fell back words on the wyrm when the took off flying. If he had not strapped himself on, he would have fallen off, being a goner for sure. the rest of the group looked at him laughing, as they headed off into the sky nearing the desert, Taroole.

Equinox- Chapter 2

Serena woke up with a start again, however but she not so much as to awaken her mother. Looking around she slowly got out of bed tip toeing to the door. Waving her hand in front of the sensor to wake up the program to scan her hand print to let her out. Security was tight here, even though there was nobody else outside the faeries and her that lived her. Sneaking out she turned and ran down the hall way to the library room. At least thats what she called it, really it was just a giant computer where anything you could ever know you can look it up. Allowing the scanner to copy her hand and unlock the computer, she slid on her glasses. Glasses were something new for her, they helped her see better. Back in Tarigot they only had spectacles that didn't work very well in the first place, plus they weren't very pleasing to everyone elses sight. She looked up to the bright screen popping up. A keyboard slid out, containing buttons of a totally different language. Serena had mastered this language quickly, however she was still figuring out how to write and read in it. She typed in "dreams" into the computers data base, trying to see if she could find anything on dreams. Being basically a super computer, 500,307 suggestions popped up. The database was called Goggle, what a strange name Serena thought at first. To many suggestions she thought, then she quickly tried a different search database, Bong. Only 300 suggestions showed up. Ah, much better, she thought smiling. Looking on for nearly 2 hours she read about dreams, and what else they could mean. But nothing new about her dreams, and what they could mean. Her eyes were beginning to hurt, as she closed her eyes for a moment, but was suddenly awake once again when she sensed another figure present in the room.





"Did you have the dream again?" Her mother asked coming through the door.




"We reall need to put a siren or something in to warn me when you are coming out of know where." Serena said looking behind her, her eyes blood shot. Her mother smiled as warmly as her dark face could look.
"How did you find me in here?" Serena continued on exasperated.





"It wasn't that hard to find you, being an alien and all." She started. "And we also have cameras in ever room in this place." She finished smiling.




"Dang it. I forgot about those." She said grumbling, closing off all her database search.





"When are you going to tell me your dream?"




"Do you really want to know?" She asked sighing. Her mother nodded, looking straight into her eyes.




"It was about my kingdom being destroyed by a force of some sort. And there was nothing I could do about it." She said looking to the ground, studying it intensly. "Whatever was destroying it was taking my friends and hurting them, they struggled. But they were to weak to do anything about it all." Her mother's usually calm slanted red eye's became big. She gasped.




"What is it?" Serena said surprised.




"That force- it was.. it is.." She stammered.




"What is it? WHAT IS IT? There's something your not telling me!" Serena said standing up from the stool she was sitting on. Jumping up so fast her stool fell over.




"That force is another race."




"What..?"





"Another alien race. Did you think there was just us? We had enemies you know! That was actually our mission in the first place. To go out and explore other galaxies to find another safe place to live away from them. I guess they have found us and are now taking it out on Tarigot."




"WHAT! We hafta do something! What if they have already attacked and tortured my friends." She said getting up running back and forth not knowing what to do.




"No, they haven't arrived yet. We would have noticed there presence."




"Do you know how long we have?"




"No, but I know we don't have long. You need to go back to oceanus to warn everyone. We must get them out of here. We must get everyone in Tarigot out of here." Her mothers said, her eye's lighting up intensly."I'll go warn the militia." She said running out of the room. Serena crumpled down onto the smooth metal floor, leaning against the walls. How could this happen? Everything was fine until the stones disappeared. Why did they disappear anyway? That question had still been un-answered these many long months. Taking off her new glasses she runned her eyes. This can't be happening, what has Tarigot ever done to this other race? Was it only because my alien race was enemies? Or is there something more behind it all? She slowly got up, looking up she slid her glasses up, allowing the scanner to scan her hand, allowing her to leave the library room. She slugged to her chambers slowly, allowing all that had recently happened to sink in. Once she entered her chambers she started packing her things. She didn't know what she was going to do, much less what was going to happen. But she started packing anyways. I wish there was someway to contact Anneliese, Eric, and Bard somehow. Somehow to warn them of the deep trouble they were going to be in.





~.~




"Why must we leave at such an early hour? It's not like we are in a hurry or anything, just going to ask advice from so silly ole' dragons." Darith complained rubbing his eyes.




"WYRMS!" Anneliese, Eric, and Bard said in unison. They were already tired of Darith's tiresome chatter, and it had only been half an hour.





"Oh for cyring out loud, do you ever SHUT UP?" Bard said rudely rolling his eyes, when Darith gasped shocked that he was spoken to like a low life peasent.




"I'm insulted! If you were a servant on my manor and I was spoken to like that he would be fired immediately." He sniffed continued on to the head of the group.





"Geez- why can't we just let him take over the kingdom while we are gone instead of bringing him along? When we bring Serena back she'll just kick his butt and he'll whine and leave." Bard said.




"Sorry, as much as i wished that we could- we can't" Anneliese said, who had most recently considered the thought herself earlier. After they endured a couple more hours of quibbling between Darith and Bard, they stopped in the middle of a large field that was hours away from anywhere. Nobody could seen anything but plants and the occasional squirrel for miles around.




"Why are stopping here? There's nothing here!" Darith said starting out on one of his temper tantrums.





"Hold it!" Anneliese said, who was digging through her bag. "Ah here it is." She said smiling. Jumping of the horse, she was holding a wyrms scale.




"Wait what are you doing with that?" Darith said who also jumped off his horse.




"Stand back!" Anneliese said as she placed the scale on the ground and poured wine over the scale. "We need your advice!" She shouted towards the stone. The group laid back and waited. Soon they set up and small camp leaving the scale where she had set it orginally. Darith questioned everyone, wanting to know what was happening, but no one said anything. They wanted it to be a surprise.

Equinox- Chapter 1

It has been 3 years since Serena had lived with the faeries. Anneliese, Eric, and Bard returned to Oceanus safely, but not with out causing a commotion when they came back riding wyrms. Everything seemed to progress slowly as the people of Tarigot adjusted to the fact that the stone's were no source of help at all, it was just that their reliance on them was what kept everything going. Finally it seemed like finally everything was going right, until King Garmon died suddenly. It wasn't that big of a shock to the people, because he had been on his death bed from infections in the wounds for the last 5 years. But the big question was who was going to take his place, and rule Oceanus. Everyone, except those associated with the Peregrination, had been told that Serena had disappeared on the trip. So they thought everything was going to be doomed. Anneliese tried to keep peace with everyone, she was in place of the Dauphiness. But there was another who was in line to take the thrown. His name was Darith, even though he being only 21 years old, he had knowledge of monarchy beyond many in the parliament there. He had plans on reforming the country, leading up to the domination of all of Tarigot, which kept everyone wanting him to stay off the throne. However, the only person who was in his way to become king was Serena. But since Serena didn't die, he isn't able to take the crown. That was when Anneliese called a meeting with the original group.



"I have called this meeting because of center person's who threaten the future of Oceanus and eventually Tarigot if they come to throne." Anneliese said. As Eric and Bard entered a secret chamber hidden in the castle. When they had returned to Oceanus after leaving the faerie's world, Eric and Bard had been knighted up front.



"This is awful," Bard said, "What are we going to do to keep that butthead away from the crown?" As he sat down, smushed into a tight corner. The secret chamber was very small.

"I know, and I'd hate to say this and disturb Serena's happiness, but I think that we are going to have to contact her and bring her back. As much as I don't want to. I realize how important living with her mom and the other faeries is to her, but I'm sure she would want us to do this right?" Anneliese asked looking worriedly up to the young knights.

"Of course. But how are we going to contact her? I don't particularly want to go throught the Forbidden Forest, or the desert again." Eric said, as he pulled his knees up into his chest.

"Well remember that scale of a wyrm, the wyrms gave us? Well I have been doing some research and apparently you can use the scale to contact them. And I was thinking about trying to get them to give us a lift back to the faeries world. However, it's going to be a trick to get back into the world." Anneliese said as she pulled out a perfectly white scale that was 2 inches thick and tapered at the sides.

"How do you use it though? Do you just hold it up to your ear and go "Hello? Yes, I would love it a lot if you could give us a lift!" Bard said sarcasticly.

"NO!" Anneliese said irriated, "What you do is you put in a fire and it awakens something in the scale of some sort allowing a portal of some sort so we are able to talk to the wyrms." She finished, passing the scale around.

"That could work, but that still doesn't explain how we are going to be able to get into the faerie's world again." Eric said examining the scale, he ran his finger down the side slowly, cutting his finger at the tip. "Ouch!" he muttered sucking his finger.

"I haven't quite figured that out, but I'm sure the wyrms would have something to help us out!" She said, trying to be optimistic.

"Okay, BUT.." Bard started

"Oh come on! Not another but!" Anneliese said exsperated.

"Who is gonna stay here to make sure Darith doesn't decide to waltz in and claim himself king?"

There was a silent moment, as each thought about it.

"I honestly have no idea, I mean I hafta go get Serena, however i'm the only one keeping from taking the throne." Anneliese said thinking hard.

"Ha ha," Bard laughed.

"What is it now?" Eric said tiresomely.

"Why don't we just bring him with us? That way we can keep out of trouble." He finished laughing it off. To be honest with you guys, I seriously don't think it was all that funny (author's note)

"You know what.. that could work!" Anneliese said.

"WHAT?!" Eric and Bard said unison.

"We couldn't let him know where the faeries are stationed! If he knew he would use them and their power to take over Tarigot, like that!" Eric snapped.

"No! Of course we wouldn't bring him with us to the faeries! We would leave him with Xarieth, Valence, and Qaries. They would watch after him carefully" She said grinning crookedly.



"Ooo, You got a point there." Eric said, as a mischevious looked crossed his face.



"BUT.."



"Oh come on Bard!" They groaned.



"Just let me finish! How will we convince Darith to come with us? He obviously isn't going to come if he knows we are going to retrieve Serena!" Bard said.



Now that was something to ponder about, the group thought. How are we going to convince him to come?



~.~




Serena woke up with a start, this was the 3rd night in a row she has had a nightmare.



"Whats wrong?" Her mother asked looking as concerned as a alien could. Oh, excuse me for those who weren't smart enough to figure out that the faeries are actually aliens from the last sentence in part 1. Well surprise! They are aliens, and to continue on..



It turns out that the Sophia Stone's had actually come from a different planet, from another galaxy. They came through the world portal along with the aliens, faeries, whatever you want to call them, when a mission went bad. The stones on the alien planet was a source of power that kept everything going. The aliens were on their way to another galaxy when they started getting sucked into a black hole, when their means of transportation malfunction making the stones die quickly, so the head captain removed the ones that retained any power quickly. They were sucked into the endless emptiness of the black hole, where they thought was their end when they entered an area of bright light, which brought them to a steel gray world. It was metalloid elements that were retained there. So they built a new kingdom out of them. After awhile some of the aliens went outside that world to explore the world around them, thats when they found Tarigot. Apparently Serena's mother was one of the adventerers and when looking over Oceanus she fell in love with a young a prince there, King Garmon. So she stayed there. But in order for her and the other faeries to live outside their metal world, the stones had to be placed outside through out Tarigot. So when the stones went back to their home planet, because they were summoned by the Emporer aliens, the aliens had to come back to their world that they had created. When the aliens first ventured out, the people of Tarigot didn't know who they were, but from their old folk legends they thought them to be the creatures their imagination thought up called faeries. So thats how the name stuck.



It took her mother a long time to explain this to her.. in a way she could understand. This whole story was beyond Serena's thought process. Humans, only use 10% of their brains. Aliens use all of their brains and beyond, making them a very advanced and civilized race.

"What's wrong" Her mother asked looking as sympathetic as a alien with red eyes could.

"It's nothing," Serena said rubbing the crust out of her eyes.

"Did you have a nightmare again?"

Serena hestiated for a moment before answering. "Yes." These dreams had been happening for the last couple of days, picking up where they had began. She could barely go to sleep at night, with the thought of them coming back. The nightmares had always came on and off for her, since she was a young child. But never as this consistant and vivid.

During the peregrination that was held 3 years ago, that was the last time she had had a dream, or a vision per say as vivid as these were. She had began researching dreams, and visions, noticing that most of her dreams were representation of something that was going to happen. That was what frightened her the most.

Her most recent night-horrors involved a kingdom burning in flames of blue. All the people being burned alive, melting to their doom. In her dream she was the ruler, the head in monarchy and there was nothing she was able to do. No matter what, whenever she tried putting out the fire that had started, the fire wouldn't go out. She tried beating out all the flames, but once she thought she had put them out they would come back.

"What was your dream about?" Her mother asked looking straight into her eyes. One unique thing about aliens was the fact if they are able to look straight in between the iris of the humans eyes, into the pupils they are able to read their mind. However, Serena being part alien her self, prevented her mother from reading her clearly.



"It was nothing.. Its all a blur. I don't remember it. Really! It's all over. Let us go back to sleep now." Serena said, her fake smile concerning her mother.


"Okay.. if you are sure." Her mother replied, going along with her daughter.


Yeah, I'm sure. Serena thought as she laid her head back down on the silver square for a pillow. It may look like just a block of metal, but it was made out of smart matter, allowing the pillow to adjust to its users needs.


Are my dreams about what I think it is about? She thought, as she slowly nodded back into sleep, hoping to not hit the REM cycle.


~.~


Anneliese had ordered a meeting amongst all the knights, lords, and other young monarchy in the kingdom. She knew that naturally Darith would show up. Many young Duchess's gathered in a group gossiping about Darith, giggling behind their fans.


"Ladies! Would you please be considerate of other people? Please get your pea brains out of the gutter while your at it!" Anneliese snapped at the Duchess's. Sniffing, being the divas they were they walked out of the meeting and went off to talk such rigamarole somwhere else.


"Okay, thank you all for everyone joining us here today. We have some important matters to discuss." Eric started, standing up projecting his voice over the crowd.


"Come on! Please hurry up with it all," Groaned Darith, fixing his hair. " I have a joust match at 3." He said glaring straight at Eric.


"Well because of the monarch crisis that has been going on, we have decided to go visit the great wyrms again, to ask for their advice. We would like volunteers to join Anneliese, Bard, and I." Eric finished.


A wind of whispers came up through the crowd. 'No way! I have enough on my plate already.' 'Hmm.. that would mean eternal glory right?' ETC.


"I will join." Darith said. "I'm not afraid of any ole' dragons." he sniffed, smiling snobbily.


"They prefer to be addressed as Great Wyrms, Darith." Bard said, defending his friends.


"Whatever, I'm coming anyway. When shall we set off?" He said dragging his hand through his hair again.


"That will be discussed later. Everyone is dismissed!" Anneliese shouted over the now loud crowd. Darith started sneaking out to his Joust match when Anneliese caught him. "Oh no you don't! You hafta stay here with us to help plan our journey." She said smiling crookedly. Their plan had worked like a charm. Darith, not being to bright in the first place, had taken the bait and is now stuck with them on the journey. One might think, What about all the other young monarchs that might have thoughts about taking over the kingdom while the ones protecting the throne are gone? Well honestly, those teens are to obssessed about wordly things to care about it. Much less even consider and plan out a way to take the throne. So there was no reason to worry about them.





"What's so important that's going to make me late for my jousting match?" Darith said pulling back the arm that Eric had grabbed and dragged him to the back corridor with.




"We need to discuss plans, schedules, and packing preparations, you goon." Anneliese said more sharply than expected.




Darith settling down, rolled his eyes. "Is that all?"




"Yes. Now you are only allowed to bring one horse, no bodyguards, it's going to be only us 4..." Eric said, the list went on and on.

A Note from the Author

Hey guys! I Just wanted to make a quick update saying that Peregrination, even though the book is completed, but it is the first draft. I still have LOTS of editing to do. :) And now coming up is Equinox! I suggest that you read Peregrination first, inorder to understand Equinox. :D Thanks for reading!
~M

\m/(^_\\)\m/

Peregrination- Chapter 13

Serena returned to the faerie world in a bang. She got up looking around seeing she had entered a collessium of some sort. Thats when she spied he friends cornered by a group of tall faeries surrounding them, looking intimadating with long spears with poison tips.

"Hey guys!" She started but she soon realized that that was not a good idea. The faeries turned around and started charging after her. "Guys-? Whats going on?" She started racing toward the other end of the stadium where she saw an exit when she tripped. "Ugh,". She would have thought that this was her end, if she had not just gone throught death its self earlier. But still being human she sheilded heself with her limbs as she curled up into a circle. However, there was no need for that, her mother came out of nowhere talking fiercely in an ancient tongue to the other faeries. The warrior faeries slowly backed away bowing to her as Serena got off the ground with the help from her mother.

"What was that all about?" Serena asked as she and the faerie walked to her friends, as the closed the gap between each other.

"They are warrior faeries, they were questioning your human friends. Deeming them worther or not to live. Luckily we have come just in time to keep them alive." She replied.

Eric raced ahead of the others heading toward Serena,

"This boy, does he like you?"

"What-?" Serena said surprised. "Oh come on mom." She groaned, with a hint of laughter.

"Stay away from her! Serena are you hurt? What has happened, what is happening right now?" Eric asked out of breath from his andrenaline burst of speed.

"I'm fine." Serena started. "Eric, I would like you to meet.. my mother." She introducing him.

"Your what?!" Eric said startled. "I knew you had faerie blood in you after what we heard what the nature magician said, but I figured it was like a distant relative, cousin maybe... But your mom?" He finished stunned.

He looked at the tall elegant, yet highly scary faerie that stood in front of him. She looked nothing like Serena. However, there were some similarities. But what? This is not the time to think about that right now. He said shaking the thought away.

"Serena! We were so worried about you!" Anneliese said as she ran in huggin Serena.

"Yeah, when we weren't to busy worrying about ourselves. Man those guys are scary." Bard said, as he stepped back running into Serena's mother. "Oh geez! You guys are everywhere."

"Annelise, Bard, I'd like you to meet my mother. She is a faerie, as one can easily see. When the stones disappeared all those years ago, she came back here to live with the faeries where it was easier to live.." Serena said.. but she faded off.

"Mom, the stones weren't there." She said looking up into the bright red eyes.

"I know."

"WHAT? You knew this whole time? "

"Of course, we knew that the stones had no impact on Tarigot. They were just another thing for humans to put belief in for them. We should have disposed of them long ago." She said he face hung.

"But when they disappeared all the faeries came back here, but the world portal said that they had no affect whatsoever. Why did you leave?"

"It has no affect over Tarigot, and the creatures that had come to be born there and live there for the rest of their lives. We are not from here." She said, as all the groups jaws dropped.

Thats when it all hit Eric, "So the stones don't mean anything? They are simply just there for us to believe in?"

"No. They weren't made for us to idolize, we made them our idols." Serena said. "They wre just there, we just thought they kept the peace in Tarigot, when really we were the ones the whole time. With the stones not there everybody figured that everybodys quibbling was the cause of the stones disappearance."

They stood there quietly, allowing it all to sink in. So the stones were there for no reason? They were just simply there? We justed wanted something to protect us, because we were to lazy to do it ourselves.

"So this peregrination was useless?" Anneliese asked.

"No, I don't believe it was useless." Serena's mother cut in. The group looked up at her with a quizzical look on their faces.

"You guys would have never learned anything from this, if you had not came on this expedition, or peregrination if you will."

"True," Serena started. "But what are we tell all of Tarigot, when we come back with no stones?"

"If they believe in something other than the worldy stones, they will believe you."

"So this is the end?" Eric asked.

"I guess so, we should probably head back soon. Mom is there anyway you can come with us?" She asked.

"No, because of the disapperance of the stones our kind does suffer. So I will hafta stay here. So you guys won't hafta go through the forest again I will prepare you a way home in a different means of transportation." She said. "However, you will not leave now. YOu shall depart tomorrow morning." That was all that was said. Everybody was shocked. It was over, that was it. They didn't even realize how they got to chambers where they took rest that night. They slept for more than 14 hours, gaining much needed rest. It had been a long time since they could sleep at ease. However, Serena didn't sleep with quite such an ease as the rest. She had a thought that had been bothering her the whole night. When it was a decent time to get up, she looked around for a long time until she found her mothers chambers where she talked with her until her peers awoke.

The morning was dark, but still brighter than the evenings there. When everyone was awake and moving they took their breakfast and gathered there few belongings together to prepare for their journey back.

There was a surprise in store for them when they were about to leave.




"Guys," Serena started.. choking back tears in her eyes. "I'm not coming back with you."




"WHAT?" The threesome said in unison. "You hafta come back though! Who is going to take over the kingdom? You are the Dauphiness!" Anneliese protested.




"Why are you not coming back with us in the first place?" Eric asked slowly.




"I have decided to live here with my mother for awhile, to learn about who I truly am. And when Tarigot needs me I will come back." Serena asked as tears streamed down her face. She grabbed Eric hugging him, as he heald her back. Annelise came in, who had also started crying. "But we will miss you," She said..





"Who will I bother now, since your not going to be here?" Bard asked coming into the circle.




"Anneliese," She replied with a hint a humour in her wavering voice.




"Hey!" Annelise replied back.




They stood for a moment, all close. It seemed like it came to an end to short, especially when they were interrupted when a faerie came in and told them that their ride was ready.





"Are you sure you don't wanna come back now?" Anneliese asked one more time.




"Yes, I believe this is what I need to do right now, but i promise I will return." Serena said as they finished their farewells.




"I'll take that to word," Said Eric, winking, as they got on to their ride, a Wyrm. The wyrms had generously offered to fly them back.




Serena stood there watching her friends fly off into the distance, her mom coming up behind her putting an arm around her shoulder.




"You did the right thing." She said. Her red eyes looking down on her daughter.




"I know," Serena said smiling up. "When will my questions be answered?"




"Ask a way,"




"If your people came from the same place the stones came from, where are you exactly from? And are you faeries or not?" She asked quizzically.




"The Sophia Stones had came from another galaxy itself, we are not from here.."




"What are you then? No lies, I know you are not what you say you are." Serena said as they started walking back to their chambers.




"How do you know we aren't faeries?"




"Faerie's aren't affected by anything."




"Have you ever heard of the term extra terristrial?"

THE END

Peregrination- Chapter 12

While Serena was learning more about her past and future. Bard, Eric, and Anneliese quivvered in fear, for they were about to be judged by the faeries.. in order to deem them worthy enough to live.


The tall silhouttes loomed over them. Coming closer at each breath. What are they gonna do with us? Looking up they saw that chairs and balconies of the colloseum started filling up the tall, tapered creatures. Looking around the whole room quickly, they saw that they were all darkly colored creatures, with pale skin.


"There's no way these could be faeries." Bard said looking around.. "Faerie's have always had a light colored scheme."


"I wonder if their change in colors was affected by the disappearance of the stones." Eric said.


Silence.


The group stopped talking instantly, as not to anger the already seemed ticked off faeries.


Your time for judgement has come.


~.~


'Where is this portal exactly?" Serena asked.


"It's closer than you think. Remember that big ball of light that you were in? Well it was a penumbra, an eclipse."


"But I thought eclipses were when the moon is right in front of the sun, allowing no light on the world."


"True, but in our World, the light that was hidden from the Eclipse comes here, which allows one to travel by it. That's why you were floating endlessly."


"But that doesn't explain how we reached the 'walls'. Light doesn't have an end."


"There are things past the science of this world that we don't even know of."


"So this, penumbra, how does it exactly help us get to the world portal?"


"Because it is the world portal, and the only way to access it is during the penumbra, which only comes once a year here."


"So it's to late then? We are going to hafta wait a whole year before we can even get a chance to retrieve the stones?"

"There is actually a way to start the penumbra again, but its very risky and messes with the balance of time."

"By the time the next eclipse should come around, it would be to late for Tarigot." Serena said seriously, realizing basically Tarigots future was now resting on her shoulders."I'm going to take that chance." She said firmly looking up into her mother, the faeries eyes.

"I understand. In order to perform a task of such feat would take time traveling."

"Time traveling? That actually exists?" Serena said as her jaw nearly dropped to the floor.

"Of course! Naturally, how else do you belive we came to be here?"

"What do you mean-?"

"The rest is for you to find out eventually." Her mother replied.

"When and how will this time traveling take place?"

"Now."

"What-?" Serena started but was soon cut off, with a blinding flash of light that took her away into itself. She kept winding around and around and around. Becoming every dizzy, nearly causing her another fainting spell, but she knew she had to takes to bring back the stones. Tarigot was counting on her. The lives of all the people Tarigot contained were counting on her. The light that had gathered from the eclipse started spinning faster and faster, when then. Silence collected around her as she fell slowly in what seemed an endless black. Is this the world portal? She thought. It just seems like nothing, how is this suppose to get me anywhere?




'I thought you would be here soon,' said a familiar voice.




"huh?" Serena said as she jerked around seeing nothing, there was nothing in this endless abyss.




'Please, Serena, can you not tell it's just me?' Said Eric as he popped out of nowhere.




"What are you doing here? Your not physically able to be here!" Serena questioned him, more scared than puzzled.




'Is that what that faerie told you? You trust her why? Did she not appear to you in a dream? In that dream did she not try harming you?" He asked as he started pacing around.




"You are not Eric," Serena continued.




'Why do you think that? How can I prove it to you? I was impersinated by a nymph, in the Forbidden Forest, he lead you into a bed of Scares. You were the only one considered 'worthy' enough to communicate with dragons. Is that proof enough for you?" He smiled crookedly.




"NO! Your not him! What are you?!" Serena shouted taking a swipe at Eric, whom her hand went through him like he was air.




'How do you know its not me?!'




"Because I never told Eric what happened in my dream! You are not him!"




"Ah, you are smart child," Started the Eric impersinator as he melted away tranforming into a black mist almost as dark as the emptiness that surrounded her.




"What are you?"




"I think you should know. Think about it, Serena, really think about it."




Serena closed her eyes slowly, she thought deep and hard. Remembering all the times that had happened during this Peregrination.





"Fear." She said opening her eyes as the darkness became closer suffocating her. "You are fear, and I shall not let you take over me." She said choking as she said it. Fear had turned into a mist, filling up her lungs nearly suffocating her, as she died.





There was a bright light, Serena, saw as she opened her eyes. However she did not flinch from the quick change from pure darkness to the purest light.





"Where am I? What happened?"




"You are here. The world portal." Said the light whispering back to her. "The darkness had taken over you, but you had resist, allowing it to kill you. You were dead."




"Where? I am alive now? Why was that fear there?"




"To turn you astray from your goal, to retrieve the Sophia Stones to save Tarigot."



"The world portal? So that emptiness back there wasn't the world portal?"



"No, that was a black hole."



Serena's brain felt like it was nearly about to explode with all these new ideas, and explorations going through her heads. Fear? Black Holes? World Portals? But then she cam back to herself, remembering what she had to do.



"Where are the Sophia stones?"



"They have returned to where they have came from."


No one knew where the stones came from, nor did anyone know what source of power the stones contained.



"But only two disappeared, the Oceanus stone is still in Tarigot."



"True, but it is soon fading, so it will return soon too."



'How can i prevent this from happening?" Serena said to the light. "Tarigot depends on those stones! Thats the only thing keeping Tarigot alive!"



"Tarigot has become foolish."



Serena straightened up, surprised. "What do you mean?"



"Tarigot has grown to attached to worldly things, allowing stones to do the work. Thinking that they can easily just live off them. If you honestly tried, Tarigot could live in harmony easily amongst everyone." The light said angrily.



"How did this happen?" Serena said. "Have i also become attached to these stones?"



"Yes, you are also committed to them, for you have the desire to bring them back and protect your world. Laziness, sheer, laziness."



"So, you know that Tarigot can easily get into harmony if we just try?"



"Yes,"



"How am I to get back?"



"We will send you back to the faerie's world." The lights started to swirl around her faster and faster.



"Wait! Before i leave, I must know. Where did the stones go? I must know!' Serena said her voice rising over the lights.



"You will find this out in the future," They replied. Then everything turned dark. As Serena floated through the black hole, back to the faeries.

Peregrination- Chapter 11

It was still very bright, even though they had finally gotten out of the room of light. So they could barely make out the figure that the voice had come from. However, they were to busy trying to get out of their stuck positions and trying to get to the recently fainted Serena, to notice. The figure approached Serena and picked her up in its arms and carried her away, as the rest of the group screamed: "BRING HER BACK!" "What do you want with her?!" "Can you get us un-stuck?"


The creature continued on leaving them dangling, when more of the creatures appeared, saying something in some sort of ancient language, where the rest of the people fell to the ground. Thats when the creature's picked up each person and carried them off in the opposite direction. Eric struggled trying to break free, but the figure's grip just grew tighter until he finally gave up. The walk didn't take long, they soon arrived into what was the faerie's castle.


The castle, didn't look like a castle. It was as silver and metallic on the inside as it was on the outside. What was interesting though was that the outside of the building made the faerie's domain look very small, but the inside was very large. Almost as if it was a whole different world, it even had a sky that seemed as if it would never end, but no clouds or sky, just a never ending light. Dark gray buildings shaped in geometric shapes were placed in an orderly pattern, which surrounded a large sphere building which was the faerie's castle.


Once inside the castle the group was dropped onto the floor of what looked like a collessium of sorts. It had chair that surrounded the circular room, going all the way up. Then there was a balcony the lipped over which contain big chairs. The floor was as smooth as glass and as black as pitch. The group, dizzy from being hung upside down for most of the trip over there layed on the ground for a minute before getting up.


"Where do you think we are?" Anneliese asked laying on her back looking around her.


"I'm guessing this is almost like a parliament meeting house, or something of that sorts." Eric said who sat, holding his head.


"Did any one catch a look at the.. faerie's? If thats what they are.. right?" Bard asked.


"No, it was to bright to see them."


"However, if they come in here we might get a chance to see them. Since its darker."


"What should we do? Try to make a run or something?"


"No. We shouldn't do anything to anger them. I have a feeling they aren't what we have always thought they were." Eric said slowly, as 3 faeries started walking towards them.


~.~


Serena, had been unconcious for about 2 hours now, ever since she saw the creature that was in her dream. She woke up, looking around her. It was a dull gray color. She was lying in some sort of gray matter (ha), which engulfed her body in, and was what almost seemed like was reviving her, giving back her strength. She looked around the room. Everything was in the same color scheme, grays, blacks, and whites. When in the corner she saw the tall black figure that had carried her here. She closed her eyes trying to forget about the creature, thinking that it was only her mind playing tricks on her. Her eyes flicked back open to find the creature standing right next to her.


"Serena." The creature said.


Serena looked up slowly, fear in her eyes. She made out a face, it was white as a sheet, having a long nose of some sorts. Its eyes were large with red irises and no eyebrows. It mouth had full lips that were the same color as its skin. It had long black hair reaching to the back of its knees.


"What are you...?" Serena asked carefully looking at the creature straight in the eyes.


"You know who I am," its replied. Serena thought about it a deep while, when her eyes popped open when it hit her.


"Your my mother aren't you? You are a faerie!" Serena said excited.


"Yes,"


"Why did you leave? Why did you leave ME?" Serena said getting up her and her clothes covered in the gray slime. Her mother took one of her long fingernail less fingers and put it on Serena's forhead giving her all the answers to her questions.


A world that was similar to the world of faeries now, but with color appeared in the scene. All the faeries were even happy looking then too. Then the happy world started turning gray, the faeries turnining grim as well. It showed her mother, living in Oceanus with her a baby, she was beautiful, long blonde hair, slightly pointed ears, with gray eyes. But that was soon all to change, when the stones mysteriously disappeared on a night during a lunar eclpise. These stones were the only thing in Tarigot that kept everyone alive.

That was when Serena saw the future of what would happen. She started crying and writhing in pain, when her mom lifted her finger from her forhead allowing Serena to fall back into the gray mess.


"You are the only one who is able to retrieve the stones."


"Why must it be me?"


"Us faeries can't get through, because we are faeries, and humans can't get through since they have not any powers or immunities to protect them from whats in there. You, my daughter, are both, allowing you to get in."


"So I'll hafta do this on my own?'


"We will give you as much assistants as possible, until the portal. Are you willing to do this task?"


Serena thought about it for a moment.


"It's what I must do, to keep from all of Tarigot from slowly disingrating." She replied.

Peregrination- Chapter 10

It seemed like the darkness would never end. On top of that, it was cold, we atleast to Serena it was cold. It seemed like everybody had a different point of view of the cavernous tunnel. It seemed like they were going nowhere, their little bit of hope that still had existed was crushed. They all were discouraged. Serena sighed as she walked on, the cold seemed to get worse, but that was probably just me she thought. Nothing had changed in the tunnel since they had began walking nearly 5 hours ago. Then suddenly, Serena had a thought. What if we are walking in circles?!


"Guys wait!" Serena shouted.


They came to a sudden hault.


"What is it?" Eric asked trying to make out her face in the dim light.


"What if we are back to where we started? What if this whole time we have been walking in circles? Most likely there is a exit on the sides! We need to go to the sides of the tunnel!" Serena said as she walked over to the wall feeling along it. Shrugging, the group scattered among the wall feeling as they started walking again.


Anneliese was soon getting bored of this, she was about to put her arm down when she felt a bump.


"Hey guys! I Felt something over here!" She said excitedly.


"What do you think it is?" Anneliese asked as she stepped out of the way allowing the rest to feel for themselves.


"Its almost like some sort of knob or something," Eric noted, as he tried twisting it, then pushing it.


"Here lemme try," Serena said who started to pull the knob. Thats when a sort of door popped open allowing the group to go through it.


"I was sure I tried pulling it," Eric said to Serena.


"I thought you did too." Serena said allowing her eyes to once again adjust to the new light that was coming through the tunnel.


"I may have seemed unconcious when we were at the nature magicians lair, but I heard everything they said about you being part-faerie.. do you think its true? That the only reason you were able to open the door was because of your ancestry?" Eric asked looking down at Serena who was still confised herself about everything that had happened so quickly. Back in Oceanus, she would live day by day waiting for something new and interesting to happen, now on this journey nearly everything she had only dreamed about (not being attacked by the scares and such part) was blowing by her so fast. She almost wished it would slow down.


"I've pondered upon that subject myself." Serena answered looking up firstly ahead watching Anneliese and Bard running off into the distance, then looked up at Eric.


There was silence as they continued on.


"Can I ask you something?" Eric said breaking the quiet.


"Yes?"


"What exactly happened in your dream that frightened you so much?" He asked slowly.


Serena gulped, and became quiet for a moment trying to recall the nightmare. When suddenly she started screaming, falling down to the floor she started having convulsions, her eyes started rolling back. But before rolling back they turned into a bright red.


"WHAT ARE YOU??!! GO AWAY!!" She started screaming as she writhed in some sort of invisible pain on the floor. Eric fell to his knees trying to hold her down.


"Whats wrong? Stop it!" He started yelling at her. She started slowing down, when her eyes turned back into their orginal state. She laid there on the ground breathing heavily.


"What.. what happened?' She said trying to regain her breathe. Her face was pale white, her forhead bleeding from where she had hit her head on the ground. What HAD just happened? Thought Eric.. did her fall cause some sort of concusion causing her to go into convulsions? What was happening to her eyes? Why and how did they change so suddenly?


"What happened?" Anneliese said as she raced back to Eric and Serena, with Bard at her heels.


"Yeah, and why are you on top of her?" Bard asked quizzically.


"What-? OH! Crap," Eric said, getting up from his position over Serena, which he had taken when trying to stop her from hurting herself.


"I'm fine guys, I just fell, and Eric tripped over me." Serena said covering up the episode that had happened previously. She stood up dusting herself off. "I believe we are almost there, lets continue on." She said taking the lead.


Eric and Serena didn't talk at all through the rest of the journey down the small tunnel, however Anneliese and Bard chattered and quibbled constantly the rest of the way.



The light gradually got brighter when the group finally arrived at what they thought was their destination. It was just basically a room of light, making it seem like there was no floor, or ceiling or walls. It was as if they were actually IN the light. Or were they the light itself?


"Whats going on? Is this a type of dead end?' Bard asked looking around.


"Its almost as if it was a test of some sorts. To see if we are intellectual enough to figure out this, if we are we are considered to meet with the Faeries." Serena said, suprised that she knew that, but she didn't know where from. Sigh, its probably because I have supposed faerie blood she thought. She shot a sharp look at Eric making sure he wouldn't say anything about her being part faerie.


Oo. Whats that cold breeze thats bearing into the back of my head? Eric thought. (haha)


"Hey everybody try spreading out to see if there are any sort of walls, i'll go this way, Eric you press that way, Bard you go that way, and Anneliese head that way. Now people lets walk!" Serena said as she walked to her side with her arms in front of her, at a slow and steady pace. It seemed that they kept walking on and on, but they never got anywhere.


"I don't think this is working, Serena!" Anneliese said irritated.


"Your probably right-! UGH!" Serena said as she ran into something. It was what seem like a wall, then suddenly everybody else found walls on their side.


"We found them!" Serena said happily.


"Yeah, but what are we to do now?" Anneliese asked as she started kicking her wall.


"Well for crying out loud don't kick it! All you'll get out of that is a sore foot!" Bard said.


"Bite me."


"Well what are we to do now?" Eric said who was still pressing on his wall.


"Lets keep pressing, maybe its a sort of a puzzle. One has to keep enduring, also what else are we going to do? There is no way to get out!" Serena said, pushing harder than she had earlier. Then something popped, and the wall seemed to fall through, with the group falling through it as well. However, they didn't fall. They were floating.


"Whoa this is awesome!" Bard and Eric said in unison. But the awesomeness soon ended, when everyone came to a sudden stop.


"Crap, are we stuck or something now?" Bard said as he was stuck in a starfish position.


"LEAVE! you have no business here!" Said a slick voice said.


"Umm, Bard I think we have just entered the faeries domain." Serena said as she fainted.

Peregrination- Chapter 9

They continued walking into the belly of the great wyrms cave, still fascinated with the ever changing colors. The color sequence didn't follow the normal rainbow of colors, there were colors that nobody has even seen before.

Snap out of it, your going to soon hate it. Valence said as he sat down upon a tiny hill of what looked like smooth white stones.

Wow those stones are beautiful! What type are they? Serena thought.

Ones that control the energy in here, have you yet to think how it keeps changing colors?

Oooo.

Sigh. Okay your boring me, please just come out and ask for what you want knowledge of before I decide to kick you out.

Oh! Serena thought. "Hey guys I'm going to ask them about our peregrination." The group nodded in agreement as they sat down to watch the reaction to the wyrms.

Do you know how to find the faeries?

Yes.

Can you tell us how to get there?

No.

Oh for crying out loud why not!?

One question per customer, thank you for coming to Great Wyrms R Us. Please come again.

WHAT!?

Valence! Stop that! Sorry about that, yes we could tell you how to get there, but you must do something in return for us. Xarieth said.

Like what? I swear we will do literally anything! Serena thought back. Maybe there is hope for Tarigot!

We want you to leave Weather with us.

Umm why? For what? Dinner? Serena joked.


Haha. You make me laugh. NOT. Of course not you imbecile! We don't trust her with the secret to find the faeries. Did you see how easily she let her lips fly? Even with out the impression of spirits in her system?

Their right! Serena thought. How are we gonna break it to her that she can't come along?

We'll keep her drunk for awhile longer that should give you enough time to allow you to head to your destination with Xarieth and Valence as your guide. Said Qaries.

When do we set off then?

Now. Gather provisions from anywhere in the cave. We will leave once you have readied yourselves.

The originaly group set out on a scavenger hunt to find the staples needed to go on. But then they got distracted, the guys found ancient and famous weapons at one end of the dave which they started sword play with, while the girls found gowns sewn with gold thread. Actually Annelise fawned over them while Serena was eyeing the weapons which the guys had claimed theirs. But soon she went along looking out for biscuits and jerky. When finding those she also found water skins that were pretty sturdy. But then she nearly dropped her mission when she saw a pile of books about nearly everything she ever could have wanted to read.

Hello? Whats happening? The lights are off, the colors are gone. Hello is anyone here? Serena shouted as her voice echoed through out the cave. A silhohett of a figure that was very tall, thin and ery looking started coming out of know where, approached Serena. As it came closer, Serena saw its bright red eyes. She started backing out of the nook she was in and started running to where she last saw her companions. "Guys! Where are you?" Then she realized she was alone. She turned around to find the figure only 3 feet away from her. "Who are you?!" She screamed. The figure came in closer extending a hand which had 6 long tapered like fingers ending in points, no nails. "Serena....." Said a dark whispy voice. Oh my gosh, Serena thought. Is this the end? Who is this thing and where did it come from? The supposed hand of the creature grabbed her arm. Serena screamed until she passed out.

Hello? Are you dead?

Wha-? No! I was just gathering supplies when I saw these books and I thought it would be okay to take a small break and read for a little while. What time is it? 'Whoa what was that. Serena thought to herself. She found herself sweating from the awful dream she just had. Her body feeling very cold. It was just a dream, it had to be.'

It has been 6 hours, you had fallen asleep.

WHAT! We should have left long ago! Serena thought! "Guys we hafta go now!" She said jumping off grabbing all the staples she had collected.

"Man! Where have you disappeared to?" Eric said as he came out of nowhere holding onto a sword he had chosen.

"What are you talking about I've been here the whole time!" Serena said pointing to the pile of books.

"No you weren't you liked disappeared for like 6 hours man!" Eric said.

"Thats impossible! I simply fell asleep, I had a dream and everything!" Serena said, but had second thoughts. What if it wasn't a dream? That creature-thing is real? She shivered, nearly in tears at the thought. But I was in the cave I didn't leave or anything, but nobody was there.. She thought.. losing herself in fear in a train of thought.

"Serena are you ready to go?" Anneliese said touching Serena's arm. The same arm the creature had grabbed. Serena shoved the arm away jumping backwards.

"Whoa! Are you okay?" Eric said grabbing Serena from behind who starting thrusting screaming. He held her down and brought her down to the grown to sit. He sat there with her in his arms for a couple minutes as she settled down. Her tears slowly quit running, he let go turning around looking at her. "Are you going to be okay?'

"Yeaasss..." She said still in a sobbing voice. She got up slowly. "Really guys I'm fine!" Anneliese gave her a look saying 'Thats so not true but i'll go along with it."

They group of 4 original travelers and 2 wyrms set off to where ever the faeries may be. The whole time she quietly walked in silence. She barely even noticed the ever changing scenery around her. She didn't notiice all the hours pass by, the thought of that creature still haunted her.


"Serena?"


Huh? She looked up, seeing the whole group staring at hear including the wyrms. "What is it?"


"We are there!" Anneliese said happily.


"Already? I Thought it would have atleast taken days!" Serena said shocked.


The faeries are practically our neighbors, but we don't ever get together much. Valence said with an odd tone of fear in his voice.


What do you mean? You sound like they are recluse or something. Serena thought back.


They are a form of recluse, with good reason. Now tell your friends this where we leave them.


What! You can't leave us here! How are we suppose to get in.. whatever it is? Wait a minute... where are we?


Have you not learned anything? Take a second glance.


Serena closed her eyes and looked again, seeing a tall silver building that was basically one straight vertically rectangle. It's finish was metallic, there were no doors or windows. How are we suppose to get in, she thought.


The group examined the the building looking for an entrance. Serena weary from crying and traveling leaned on the silver spike like buildings side and slid down into a crouched position, her head in her arms.


"Hey?" Anneliese started, "Are you okay? What happened in your dream?"


"It's nothing," Serena answered quietly.


"It must of scarred you immediately because you haven't been your usual self at all since we found you earlier." Anneliese said kneeling down to Serena's level.


Serena faced Anneliese looking at her straight in her eyes, then she looked away turning her head to the ground. She stood up turning to the side of the silver building, hitting it as hard as she could with both fist.


"For the love thats all good in this world, why don't you open up!?" Serena screamed.


Then suddenly she fell through the side, as if it dissolved. 'What-?" She said as she fell down. It was pitch black. She started feeling around the side of the door to find a way to get back through. When Anneliese fell through, ramming into Serena.


"Ugh. What happened?" Anneliese said as she got up slowly, allowing her eyes to adjust to the darkness.


"I think the door responds to extreme emotion, allowing people through." Serena said, having no idea where that idea came from.


"Hey guys where are ya? Are you okay?" The girls heard Eric call through the door.


"We are okay!!!" Anneliese said shouting back. "We fell through the side, something of that sorts."


"How are we suppose to get through then?" Eric shouted.


"What are we going to do, Serena?" Anneliese asked Serena who was staring out into the darkness, the gears in her brain turning.


"Hey Eric!" Serena shouted.


"Yeah?"


"Your an idiot! You and Bard both! Can't you easily see how to get in here? Geez, boys can be so stupid!"


"What-?" Eric started, his blood starting to boil, when Bard joined in saying: "What the heck was that all about?" GAH! He said kicking the side, only to fall through where the girls were.


"Geez! Eric, sure Bard can get through, why can't you?" Serena said taunting him again.


"For crying out loud!" Eric said charging at the door, not expecting to go through. Going through he tripped over the group, having them all falling to the ground.


"What the heck, was that all about, Serena?" Anneliese asked.


"For some reason the building responds to strong emotion in the air, allowing a person to get through." Serena said as she feeled around for he bag, looking for a match.


"So you weren't serious about what you said?" Eric and Bard said in unison.


"Naw, yes, boys are stupid, but I wouldn't mock you out loud, you need to keep whatever dignity you have left." Serena said, finally acting like her old self.


They groaned. Serena lit a match giving light. The quartet saw an almost never ending tunnel leading, to what it seemed like a bottomless pit.


"What are suppose do now?" Bard said looking at the group.


"Lets started walking." Serena said making a torch, then lead the way down the tunnel.

Peregrination- Chapter 8

After the attempt of keeping up with the dragons, the group nearly gave up until the smaller of the dragons offered them a ride. But it cautioned that it would be hot. At this point the weary travelers honestly didn't care. However, lets just say at the end of the ride they started to care when they arrived, their hands blistered from the heat.

We have arrived, Serena. The friendly voice from earlier said.

Thanks for letting me know, Serena thought back.

"Hey guys! They said that we are here.. wherever here is" Serena said looking around only seeing sand and dust.

Hey, she thought, where are we exactly?

You can't see it yet because your eyes have yet to adjust to it.

What does that mean?

Take another look.

Serena looked up and gasped, she saw a large mountain, green with plant life. Puzzled she asked, how did I not see that in the first place?

The light bends around the mountain to make it invisible to those who are unwanted here. Most people won't look twice in a desert.

Wow. "Hey guys! Do you see it?" Serena asked.

"Umm. No" Eric said squinting.

"Take another look!" She urged on.

"WHOA!! I can see it!" Bard said as he skidded of the dragons back, running towards the mountain.

"Hey what happened to Weather?" Anneliese asked as she looked around.

"Great, we lost her already." Serena said, "Wait! There she is! She is already half way up the mountain!"

How is that? Is it because she is a pixie? Serena thought.

Yes, pixies, faeries, and enchantress' are the only ones that can see this from far away.

Then how come Weather didn't say anything the first place!

Obviously she was asleep on my back. Would you be so kind as to whipe off her drool?

Umm, okay. Serena thought, pulling out clothes of Weather's out of Weather's backpack. Ha! Take that for falling asleep and drooling on the dragon!

We hate the term dragons, its undermining, making us seem like only innocent reptiles. We prefer the term Great Wyrms, thank you very much.

Ooops! Sorry, so I shall address you as Great Wyrm, or do you have a name?

My name is Xareith, I'm the only female of the Great Wyrms left. The oldest is Valence, he is the leader of the group, and the other one is my brother, Qaries.

Oh okay cool, Serena thought back.

Let us go on up. But this time you guys are walking.

The group struggled on up the mountain, trying to keep up with Xareith, with no success. Several times they got lost (note: one might say how can they get lost if all they hafta go is up, however my friends this mountain was made to confuse a person which way was up and which was way down.) And it didn't help them any by taking a break.

"Sheesh, whatever happened to Weather? She is an awful git for leaving us here to figure our way up by ourselves!" Bard said leaning down under the tree.

"Ugh, and I'm starved!" Anneliese said who was eyeing some berriess that grew on the tree. As she reached up to pick some, the middle dragon, Qaries, came out of know where and started growling at her. "Geez! What? I'm starving!"

Tell that imbecile not to eat those berries, they were put there as a trap in order to confuse travelers why they were headed up the mountain in the first place, sending them back down the mountain.

Serena told the group what Qaries had said.

"Whoa, seriously? I wonder who would have created such a plant!" Anneliese said outloud, tossing the berries.

Gee I dunno why don't you ask that idiot nature magician of yours? I'm pretty sure SHE would know. Now stop lollygagging, follow me! Qaries said as he turned and started heading up the mountain at a slow enough pace so the group could keep up.

After enduring many more hours of climbing, slipping, and falling, over and over. The group made it to the top where there was a large cave. They started the toward the entrance when Qaries flew over them and guarded the door.

Serena, tell them that they hafta ride on my back inorder to get in. We are going down, no straight.

Umm, okay. Serena thought. "Hey guys! We hafta get on his back!" The group clambered onto Qaries back.

Hold on tight, I'm serious.

"Hey guys, hold on tIGHTTT!!!-" Serena started but was quickly cut off as they went down into the deep depths of the cave. After the long drop and the hard thud they looked around seeing a bright gold light which slowly changed to a warm orange then to a bright red and then it morphed into pink, then dropped into a deep purple, whihc instantly flipped into blue, lightening up slowly into a green, turning into a brilliant yellow and back to gold.

"Whoa," Serena said as she slid off of Qaries back. "This is amazing! Is it like this all day?"

Yes it is, but you will soon tire of it. The only reason we still live here is because we are color blind so it doesn't effect us.

"This is quite amazing isn't it?" Weather said popping out of know where with a cup of something warm. "It's great to see ya'll again!" She hiccuped taking another slurp of her drink as she threw her arm around Serena's shoulders.

"Whoa dude what are drinking?" Serena asked coming into look what was in her cup. Spirits.. great.

Guys! You gave her spirits?!

She was making us crazy with her constant chatter, so we decided if she was going to talk she might as well amuse us so we gave her something to drink to get her loose. You even hafta admit that it is pretty hilarious. Xarieth said, with a dragon like smile on her face.

Okay yes it is a tad funny! But no more alcohol is to be given out amongst us- especially to the drunk pixie here. Serena thought with her semi serious, trying not laugh face on.

Fine, be that way.

Peregrination- Chapter 7

After two weeks of recovery, Serena stated everyone well enough to return on their Peregrination.


This time around they went around carefully through out the woods, with Weather and Anneliese as their guide.


"NO! We need to go this way! The land will lead us straight to the desert if we cut through here!" Anneliese said arguing with Weather.


"But if we go that way we will run right into Nettle Thistle nymphs! Do you value your life at ALL?" Weather replied arguing back.


"UGHHH! It will be quicker this way!"


"It will be safer this way!"


"SERENA!!" They yelled in unison.


"What?" Serena said cautiously.


"Which way should we go since your the leader?" Anneliese said, gesturing towards the way she predicted to go.


"Umm, well we want arrive alive don't we? Even if it does take longer." Serena said slowly then blocking herself a ready to attack Anneliese.


"HA! Told you, Annie my friend! This way we go boys!" Bosted Weather as she leaped towards the long way.


Anneliese gave Serena the evil eye for the longest while while traveling..


They approached many challenges during their expedition through the woods, encountering disturbing dryads, of which Bard got hypnotised again, and nearly got lead off by a nymph. It took them 2 weeks to get to edge of the forest, where it meets the desert.


"We made it through the forest, ALIVE. Who knew," Serena said out loud to herself. When entering the forest she had had her doubts about making it through alive, or just backing out completely to go home. But she knew this mission she had to complete, or die trying. However, she would prefer not dying. What is in store for us now? What sort of dangerous will we come upon in the desert? All we know that lives in the desert is the faeries, great wyrms, and the world portal. It's oging to be nearly impossible to find the world portal, even if we do we are going to need a faeries help to navigate through it.


"Serena," Eric asked, interrupting her thoughts.


"Huh, yes? Sorry, I was just trying to organize my thought process for the moment there." Serena said.


"Forgive me for interrupting, but what shall we do now? It seems like we are at a dead end even though we have the whole mass of a never ending desert in front of us."


Serena had yet to consider what to do yet, she thought that at first that they should go quickly to find the mountain, on which, the faeries reside on. Then again, maybe they should visit the Great Wyrms, because they could be useful later on. "Lets camp here tonight, so we can discuss our options."


After the had prepared a meal of plants (that were safe to eat), and everybody had pretended to eat the strange looking salad, except Weather who ate it up. They sat around the small camp fire they had made and started to debate upon what they should do next.


"I think we should go to the Great Wyrms and ask for their aid in combat and their wisdom in other such matters!" Eric stated, Bard agreeing with him.


"We should find the faeries! That way we can go straight to the world portal!" Weather argued.


"Who knows how long it's going to take to find them?" Anneliese replied.


"May I suggest something, my fellow travelers?" Serena said clearing her throat to gain their attention. The group quieted down to listen. Standing up on a rock so the group could see her clearly she said: "We shall go visit the Great Wyrms, that way we can gain their alliance, and possibly they will have an idea where we can find the faeries."


"I Second the notion," Eric stated standing up.


"Me too," Bard said getting up to stand by Eric.


Anneliese also stood up to go stand with the guys. Weather however was still sitting, pondering whether or not to go along with. Slowly she got up, saying: "Only because thats whats everybody is going to do anyway, so I might as well go with it."


Serena smiled, "Atleast we have came to a conclusion, let us depart tomorrow morning. Good night."


~.~


It was a very solemn morning when they set off, not that anyone was mad at each other or anything they were just very tired. The silence of the group seemed very peaceful, so nobody wanted to be the one to break it first. So no one even spoke until lunch time.


"Does anyone have any idea where we are going exactly?" Weather asked, of course she would be the one to break the calm silence. The group looked at each other shrugging, when they turned to stare at Anneliese.


"What?!" Anneliese said, who was in mid bite of her jerky.


"Your suppose to be out navigator! Do you know where we are?" Eric enquired.


"umm, yeah. We are approximately, like..." Anneliese started as she pulled out her map collection. Thumbing through several maps she found the one she needed. Going along the map with her finger she passed the Forbidden Forest, going down along a dark brown area. "We are about an eighth into the desert, so we should be headed near the area where the Great Wyrms inhabit." Anneliese finished, wiping her brow. Whew, she thought, for a moment I thought I had gotten us lost.



The group continued on into the desert, after lunch, everyone started getting tired and grumpy, quibbling was soon to take place.


"UGH! It's so hot!" Serena complained, Anneliese agreeing with her.


"This is the usual weather for me," Said Weather, leaning her head back as to soak in the heat.


"Hey! Remember we live by the ocean so we are use to cooler weather!" Bard said.


"Boo hoo hoo, you wimps! If you can't take a little bit of heat, who do you expect to be amongst the dragons? They are HOT!" Weather laughed.


Oh yeah, Serena thought, I forgot about that. Wyrms, breathe fire. Of course they are gonna be hot.


"Wow, guys you know something?" Weather started, beads of sweat starting to form on her forhead. "It is kinda hot out here.." She said starting to breathe hardly.

Then everybody started to notice it too.


"Wow! Why is the heat even mroe intense than usual?" Eric said as he started sitting on the ground, becoming drowsy with the heat.


"I think I know why," Weather said who also sat down on the hot dirt. "DRAGONS!!!!" She yelled pointing ahead of us. And sure enough there was a dragon, not one but 3 of them!"


There was a reason the dragons were called Great Wyrms, was because the were great! In size that is, they had yet to prove themselfs in wisdom. The smallest of the dragons were atleast the size of 3 elephants. The largest of the group was about 3 times the size of the smallest, so 9 elephants.


As the group drew closer, the heat became nearly unbareable.


"Ugh.." groaned Anneliese, as she started crawling on the ground to become closer. When she started coughing from all the sand.


"We hafta keep going guys!" Eric said as he and Bard took off their shirts which were drenched in sweat.


I hate you, thought Serena over and over in her head, since obviously she was drenched in sweat and couldn't take off her shirt. But that thought soon left her head when she felt something, almost like a cool breaze. She looked around trying to see where it came from, when she saw the dragons blowing cool air onto them allowing them to get closer. Slowly the group got up, they started walking to the wyrms cautiously. When suddenly Serena heard something, but she didn't hear it with her ears, but it was as if it was in her brain.


Why do you come here, Serena, Dauphiness of Oceanus?


Whoa, yep, I'll give them credit for being wise too. How could they know my name? Serena thought staring at the dragons, trying to guess which one said it.


Are you going to answer my question or not? Said the voice again, when out of know where a higher pitched voice came in.

Hey, Marty! Your scaring the kid! Hey sweetheart are you coming to ask what we think your going to ask?


What the-? Serena thought, then she shook that out of her mind, then she thought: Yes, probably.


Well then come with us then, said the friendlier voice.


Okay, thought Serena.


"Hey guys! They want us to follow them!" Serena said guestering to the dragons.


"Are you sure they just don't want to eat us or something?" Weather said, shivering at the thought.


"No! I'm serious! Come on guys!" She finished as she trotted off after the dragons, who were not to mention pretty fast for their vast size.

Peregrination- Chapter 6

"Serena! Eric!" Anneliese cried as she and Bard ran into the room.


"Oh my gosh, you guys, how did you escape? Are you all right?" Serena asked excitedly as she jumped at them.


"Well once Anneliese was caught, I started cutting off the Scares, a large one attacked me at my leg pulling me off. Thats when she became slightly concious again and cut the rest of the vines off her and came after me. It was terrible! Once we got set free, we followed the blood trail inti the woods, we saw where you had hit your head on a tree root!" Bard finished. Wow, Serena thought. Everybody since the day of this journey has been injured. It's only have been three days! Should we continue on? We have to! Oceanus is depending on us. Plus, how would get back anyway? We have come to far into the forest, plus I'm pretty sure Anneliese isn't quite sure where we are.


"Serena," Anneliese said. Serena shook out of her thought process to turn her attention to their guide.


"Yes?"


"Are we going to continue on? I thought I knew where we were going, but the forest is constantly changing so its hard to mark."


"Yes, we must. Tarigot is counting on us." Serena replied.


Anneliese bowed and went back into a different chamber, with Bard tagging behind. Eric started to stir, then his eyes popped wide open.


"WHERE AM I??!" He said sitting up, then falling back down on his bed again in pain.


"Oh no he popped his stiches!" Weather cried running over to put them back in.


"What happened?" Eric asked painfully, squiming from the new stiches Weather was sewing in.


"You were lead by a nymph into the Scares where you were attacked, and luckily i was there and i got you back to the dug out." Weather replied.


"What about the others?! Bard, Anneliese, and Serena?"


"We are fine!" Serena said as she walked over to where Eric was laying. "A nymph that disguised itself to look like you lead us into the Scares pit! We were all attacked, Annliese and Bard not quite so much. We are all fine."


"Those scars on your face.. did those plants did that to you?" Eric asked.


Scars? On my face? Serena hadn't even looked in a year in the past week, much less today. She ran over to a small piece of mirror and saw all these smal white scars that covered one side of her face. She gasped.


"The vines got a hold of your face, when you hit your head leaving an open wound. They would have attacked your brain if we hadn't gotten there on time."


"These scars will go away won't they?" Serena said checking herself for any new scars she seemed to miss.


"No, scars that from the Scares, stay forever. Thats how the Scares got their name. I'm sorry to say but you seem to have a lot of them. Especially on your back, leg, and face." Jareth said melancholy.


Forever scared. These scars will be a constant reminder of what had happen to all these people. Because of my urge of this peregrination. Serena thought blaming herself. Weather came up to her saying, "Don't worry though! They will fade away on you eventually, leaving just tiny lines!" Trying to cheer her up.


"It's not me, it's them now they are scare too!"


"Serena," Eric started as he tried sitting up once more. "it's okay! Really! Besides the scars make me look more dangerous don't you think?" He continued showing off his arms, where large white scars stood out amongst his tan skin.


"I shouldn't have forced ya'll to come with me!" Serena said her face turning as white as the fading scars on her face.


"You didn't force us!" Bard said butting in.


"We came on out own will, because you know I wouldn't have come if I didn't want too." Anneliese said. "And honestly, Serena, in the beginning I was coming only because of me because my father had me betrothed to an old duke and I didn't want to marry him, so I came along on this journey to get away from it all. I think we all did, and we would have never thought about coming if you hadn't came in and made it happen." She said finishing.


Serena sat down on her cot thinking about what has all been said. Then replied, "As soon as everyone has recovered fully we shall set off again, no matter what sorts of carnivorous plants we come upon." Serena said laughing at the thought of being eaten by a plant.


"And I," The pixie like voice jumped in, "am coming with you! What if you guys DO get into another sticky situation like that? Who is going to get you out other than me? I know these woods better than anybody (except Jareth of course) and have lived here for 2000 years!"


Serena started to object, but new it was no use. Who has ever been able to change a pixies mind?

Peregrinatino- Chapter 5

They started through the oddly colored clearing that was tinted a gray green color. It looked like it was almost moving by itself.

'Hey are you sure you know where we are going, Eric? This is not the time to be playing games man!" Bard said as his feet started sticking to the ground.

"Of course I know what I'm doing," Eric replied in a raspy voice.

"Wait a second," started Anneliese "THATS NOT ERIC!" She shouted. What was supposedly suppose to be Eric started turning a light green color, his eyes turning red. His hair basically a patch of green leaves.

"It's a nymph! He is portraying Eric! What have you done with him?" Serena shouted pulling out her sword.

"He is in a better place," The nymph smirked as her disappeared amongst the brush at the sides of the clearing. Once he disappeared, something was happening. The ground started moving.

"What's happening?!" Screamed Anneliese as she fell over into the viney ground. But they were soon to find out.

These gray green vines started popping out of the ground attacking Serena. It grabbed onto her leg, thorns popping out of the vine as it attached it self to the skin on her leg and started crawling up underneath. All the was understood was the screaming of torture. The horses had been long gone by now, having only been nymphs betraying them. Bard went after the vine that had attaclked Serena trying to pull it out. But Serena knew better, taking out a dagger on her belt she cut open the skin where one could see the vine was. Blood spilled out everywhere as she pulled it out in agony. She also had to slice off a vine that had attacked her arm and was pulling her down.

"Guys cut open there areas the vine has affected you!" Serena said frantically tossing a dagger to Bard who was furiously attacking the vine that had attacked itself to his leg. Serena limped over to Anneliese, helpless with 5 vines feeding off of her. Taking her sword she steadily cut open the areas where the vines were on her. Anneliese screamed and fainted at the site of all the blood and horror of it all. Bard, finally freed came over to help Serena with Anneliese. When Serena was suddenly dragged off into the brush area by a large particularly thorny vine. Screaming as she was dragged into the woods. Bard got up to help but Anneliese started going under so he stayed to help her wake up and bandage her wounds.


Serena screaming soon came to a stop when she got in hit in the head while being dragged by a tree root that was pertruding from the ground. All went black. When she became concious again she didn't know where she was. All she could see was dirt. Dirt everywhere. She tried standing up but she was to weak from the loss of blood. Then she heard a grackly voice saying: "Lay Down, everybody is weezy and worn after being attacked by the Scares."


"What-?" She started but then she fell back into sleep. She woke up soon after feeling sore, but then a sharp pain on her back where the main vine that had dragged her off attached itself and took her off. "What the heck happened?" Saying outloud to herself.


"You were attacked by Scares," said a light friendly voice.


"Who are you? Where am I?" Serena said, sitting up and looking around when she saw Eric. The REAL Eric laying on a cot across the room from her.


"Eric!" She exclamed while attempting to get out of bed. She couldnt because of the pain. Laying back down she asked out loud: "What were those terrible things you called 'Scares'?"


The pixie like voice answered again: "Scares, are a type carnivorous plant that attach themselves to a warm blooded animal and goes underneath the skin, hitting the blood stream, traveling up it into the brain to attack the main nerve system so to prey will be easier to eat. Nasty things arent they? Your lucky that your a half breed of a faerie, or you would have never survived. The last one had attached its self on your back and wrapped itself around your vertabrae."


"Faerie? I'm not part faerie! I'm Serena Starfire, Dauphiness of Oceanus, of the European region, daughter to King Garmon and Queen Lesiel."


"How long has it been since you've seen your mother?" Asked the grackly voice from earlier.


"I havent seen her since i was 4. She..umm.. disappeared of some sorts."


"Well I guess thats something your gonna hafta learn on your own."


"Hows Eric? DId those Scares get him?"


"Sadly yes, but you were worse off then him. He was tricked into that area by a nymph. But we were able to retreave him." Said a pixie like girl with bright orange hair that was but in all layers.


"Whoa, what are you?" Serena asked staring at her.


"I'm Weather, I'm a nature magician."


"I thought they quit taking apprentices a long time ago?!"


"What are talking about man! We are the original nature magicians!"


"OH my word, your a pixie! Thats why you look so young!"


"Cha!" Weather said taking a small leap to Serena.


"Your lucky that we got your friend here before another Scare got to him! He was partly dead when we got him!"


"WAIT! What about my other friends? Bard and Anneliese?! they were attacked too!" Serena said standing up then screaming as she layed back down again.


"Chill, they are in a different chamber in the Underground right now taking care of the horses. They werent attacked as much by the Scares as you guys were."


Serena let out a sigh of relief. Eric started mumbling something in the cot across the room.


Serena attempted one more time to get up.. surprisingly successfully. "How am I able to do this now? I wasn't able to earlier!"


"Because you are part faerie, you were able to heal easily!" Weather said as she was putting a sauve on Erics wounds.


"I'm not part faerie! It can't be. My dad is a normal humam, as so was my mother..." Serena said pondering the thought..


"Ah, your thinking about it hard now!" Said a old man with a long white dirty beard.


"Theres a chances she was part (gulp) faerie?" Serena asked the older man.


"Ah I see that you can figure things out fast," The man replied. "My name is Jareth, and I'm the nature magician master."


Serena looked at the scragally bearded man, she thought she had recognized his voice, but she just didn't know where from. Then suddenly it hit her, "You use to be part of my father's court weren't you? You helped Oceanus keep all the aquatic animals in line! But soon after the disappearance of the stones you disappeared also, like my mother..." She finished fading off. The Man nodded as he walked off to small cupboard and started grabbing some strang looking ingrediants.


"Yes I did leave the court, part faerie's cannot stay in one place for very long with out the precense of the stones. We actually live off the stones, basically, but if they aren't there we hafta go back to the mountain where we live orginally."


"Wait, if I'm part faerie how come I don't have the urge to go to this 'mountain'?" Serena said jumping up nearly hitting her head on the dirt ceiling.


"You just happen to have the tiniest drop of faerie blood, allowing you to live amongst the humans and faeries, which is rare." Jareth answered as he added some special looking spices onto Eric's wounds.


Serena pondered back and forth, her thoughts all scrambled as she tried to sort things out. My mother was part faerie? How is it possible? Why didn't my father tell me? Did he even know? She sat back down on the bed and soon fell asleep, he brain in overdrive.

Peregrination- Chapter 4

The Forbidden Forest looks innocent when on the outside, but once you enter you can see the evil coming out of the trees. The Coppice Sophia Stone, had made all the trees, nymphs, dryads, and carnivorous plants live with each other in unity. That was when the elfs still lived in the forest. When the stone was stolen, the elfs moved out forseeing that nothing good was coming out. The spores in the poisons plants would never reach any living animal or human when the stone was still there, but now everyone was dying from ailments caused from the plants. To each person his own soundtrack came from the forest, to some it would be loud noisy and awful, to others it would be silent.


There are three stages to the Forest, one, was you had to get through the nymphs and dryads domain; two, you had to get through carnivorous plants; three, you had to get through the area where there were quick sand and trap doors into vine plants where one would suffocate and die. Our group was about to now enter the nymph dryad's area.


Everyone felt there presence of something.. not of their species when they got deeper into woods. The whispers of the nymphs whispering sent chills down the veratbraes. Every single crack or snap of a twig left them on the edge of their sattles, they were all holding on tightly to their weapons, like they would help. Dryads that one could barely see unless one would look for them were hoping around from tree to tree, glaring at strangers with their evil yellow eyes.


Hisssss......

They sound came over from a large willow tree where a old gray dryad was sitting underneath it. The dryad nodded toward them to come closer.


Beware! You should have never entered these woods! the dryad whispered.


"We had to come."


I know, I know and I knew everything.


The whole group sucked in there breathe, when suddenly Serena felt something grab her arm and pull her into a tree. Screaming as loud as she could, but for some reason known of the company could hear her. Then thats when it dawned on her, that the yellows eyes of the dryad hypnotized them.


"HEY GUYS! Look over here! ugh-!" She shouted as she was being pulled farther and harder against the tree. "GUYS!!" She kicked a stone towards Eric which hit him on his head making him flinch shouting "OUCH! What the heck was that for?" Then he turned aroundn seeing the situation Serena was in. "GAHH!" He said as he jousted the tree with his sword, dropping Serena from the tree.


"Are you okay?!" Eric asked urgently. "Don't worry about me! Get Bard and Anneliese! Watch out for the dryads eyes they hypnotize people so they can become dinner!"


Taking a large rock Serena threw it over towards the dryad who turned on her and was charging at Serena when she stopped, because she couldn't go any farther because the shadow of the tree was as far as a dryad could go. "Hurry get them over here!" Eric started dragging Bard as Serena grabbed onto Anneliese.


You will never make it out of the forest alive!! The dryad said as she disappeared into the willow tree.


"whoa what happened?" Asked Bard as he shook his head trying to get out of the daze. Anneliese took a little bit longer to rouse out of hypnotise.


Once she arose from the coma like hynotise, which took awhile since she had already had dramatic shock from earlier that day from the griffin. But once she got up she as ready to do anything. She understood that she had to get as far away from the tree as possible. Scurrying over to where the rest of the quartet was standing.

"What happened?" She asked panting, her face pale white.

"You were hypnotised by the elder dryads eyes." Said Serena who was panting heavily.

"Wait where did Eric disappear too?" She asked looking around. No one noticed his a disappearance when he came out of know where leading the horses that had fled when the dryad appeared.

"Oh there you are! Thank goodness you got the horses before something else did." Serena said thanking him.

"No problem," he said wearily. He was acting very tired and strange, but that was probably because of all that has happened in the last 5 hours. "Shall we continue on? When catching the horses i saw a path though there that looked safe." Eric said pointing through a clearing.

"Brilliant! That would be perfect! On ward company! We need to get through this forest so we can camp for the night. It would be dangerous to do it in the woods." Serena noted as they set off once again, with not quite so much as a bounce in their step as before.