Chapter 2:
The first thing Miyo saw when her eyes opened was a clear blue sky. She laughed to herself and put a hand on her head, she could not believe she had got so worked up over nothing. Miyo sat up and gasped at what her eyes saw.
Before her was a vast area of tall green grass, in the distance she could just make out a range of mountains. Her eyes grew wide as she rose to her feet to get a better look of her new surroundings. The grass ran everywhere and in a few places she observed, to her wonder, blue and white flowers in full bloom. Miyo wanted to look at everything but at such a level all she could see was grass, flowers, and the mountains.
She began walking up the slight slant of the land towards them as she thought to herself, “I must be dreaming, or still hallucinating.”
Miyo figured that in addition to seeing more of the land if she could get to higher ground she could then see where she should go, if there was any place to go. She smiled to herself once more; she was loosing her senses again.
As she got closer to the base of the mountains she heard something that sounded like conversation. When Miyo came over the little hill she was walking on she saw two men talking to one another. Both were wearing some sort of black and gray armor and what looked like swords at their sides.
Against her better judgment Miyo called out to them, “Excuse me, can either of you tell me what’s going on or where I am?”
The two shot their attention to Miyo instantly and drew their swords, neither one making the slightest movement. To Miyo they seemed a little too serious, and their swords looked very real.
The first called to her, “Who are you? Name yourself!” He had long flowing hair that shimmered silver in the afternoon light and bright blue eyes that never left Miyo.
At that moment something told Mito that she was not dreaming and that her current situation was very real indeed.
~~~*~~~*~~~*~~~
Tisha’s eyes fluttered open to see Chase looking down at her with concern.
She gasped as she sat up and asked, “What happened?”
Chase looked around and replied simply, “I don’t know.” He put a hand out to help Tisha to her feet and continued, “I don’t even know where we are.”
Tisha looked at him and questioned, “What?”
As soon as the words left her mouth it fell open as she finally started taking in her surroundings. Around them Jase and Tharin were sitting on a rather large rock, their eyes hard with confusion and disbelief. It seemed that they were in a town of some sort, but there were no people to be seen and all of the buildings were either burnt beyond recognition or had fallen over due to age. The land was in ruin; nothing was growing anywhere in or around the town from what they could see. Chase and Tisha walked over to where Jase and Tharin were sitting and took a seat next to them.
For some time no one said a word until Jase broke through the silence with, “Do you think Miyo is here too?”
Tharin looked up to the sky and said almost to himself, “This is a dream, it has to be. This is impossible.”
Chase shook his head and stated, “No, this is real. As much as I hate to admit it I’m pretty sure that we aren’t dreaming.”
Tharin looked at him hard and demanded, “Then how do you explain this? I’ve never seen this place in my life.”
Chase shot him a glare then replied, “I can’t explain it, but something tells me that this place, where ever it is, is very real.”
“So what are we going to do? We can’t just sit here for hours on end.” Tisha asked looking around the desolate land.
Chase pointed to a large mountain rage in the distance and said, “We’ll go there, I think if we get to some higher ground we’ll be able to see where to go from here.”
As they got up to leave Jase questioned again, “Do you think Miyo is here?”
“I don’t know Jase, if she is she’s not around this area.” Chase replied.
As they made their way up a slight slope towards the mountains Tisha paused and looked behind her across the land and said, “Chase, there are mountains over there too.”
“Yes, I know.” he said without stopping, “We’re closer to these mountains though so I figured it would be better for us to climb these first before we went to them, or had to any way.”
Tisha nodded and began walking with them again. They had only walked about five miles before Tharin stopped and turned around.
“What’s the matter?” Jase asked stopping and turning himself.
“Shh, listen…” he said in a whisper.
Everyone stopped and after several seconds Jase whispered back to him, “I don’t hear anything.
“Hush! Just listen.” Tharin snapped.
Jase was about to snap back at him but all of a sudden a faint sound echoed through the air, and it was getting louder with each passing moment. They all snapped into action and ran to the nearest bolder for cover. They ducked behind it and prepared for the worst.
Jase whispered ever so slightly, “It sounds like horses, or something like horses.”
“Yea,” Tisha answered, “it sounds like they’re running.”
The four slowly peered around the bolder to see, to their surprise, two men on horseback riding at a constant speed up the slopes of the mountain towards them. They were both on white horses, the first had short blond hair and the second had wavy black hair. Tharin stood up and was about to yell out to them when Chase shot up and covered his mouth with his hand, pulling him back down.
“Are you out of your mind?!” he hissed
Tharin pulled Chase’s hand away and whispered, “Maybe they can help us.”
Suddenly the riders stopped and shared a look with one another. They then dismounted and walked cautiously up the slope towards the bolder they were hiding behind.
~~~*~~~*~~~*~~~
Miyo put her hands up and replied, “Please, my name is Miyo. Can you tell me where I am?”
The second man stepped up, he had blond hair and was a little shorter than the first man, and he shouted, “Silence!” Miyo flinched at the rage she detected in his voice as he continued, “It is we who will ask the questions!”
The first man walked up to Miyo, his blue eyes filled with rage as he ordered, “If you move or use any form of magic be well aware that we will kill you without hesitation.”
Miyo’s eyes grew wide as the words rang through her head. The second man walked up to them, he had hazel eyes and they were filled with the same amount of rage as the first man’s. The silver haired man with the blue eyes sheathed his sword and began searching Miyo as the blond haired hazel-eyed man kept his sword pointed firmly at her chest.
“ She does not have anything on her, not even the smallest of weapons.” The blue-eyed man informed his partner.
The blond sheathed his sword and spoke a language that Miyo did not understand. A bright red light flashed before her and was gone in the next instant.
“It would seem that she does not have anything magical on her either.” the blond said.
The blue-eyed man furred his brow and asked, “Do you think it wise to bring her to the Prince?”
After considering the options before them the blond nodded and stepped up to Miyo and said, “If you resist in any way you will not live to see another day, do you understand?”
Miyo looked at him and nodded, not daring to say a word. He proceeded in taking out a long silver chain with two cuffs attached to both ends. The blue-eyed man grabbed Miyo’s wrists forcefully as the blond closed two of the cuffs around them. She winced at the instant pain she felt from the tightness of the cuffs. He then attached the other two cuffs around her ankles; they were looser than the wrist cuffs and did not cause her as much pain.
“We will now take you to see the Prince.” the blue-eyed man said.
“Prince?” Miyo asked.
Neither one answered her, or even hinted that they had heard her as they turned and began walking up the mountain. She dropped her head and gazed off to the right, reluctantly following after them slowly. She did not think she had done anything wrong, and now she was being treated like a prisoner. Perhaps the Prince would see to it that she was a prisoner or even worse. Miyo suddenly stopped walking as the realization set in that if the Prince’s guards were this cold then maybe the Prince was worse.
The blond was holding the chain and he pulled hard without stopping and commanded, “Keep moving!”
The sudden pull forced Miyo forward, making her fall to the ground. The silver haired man put up a hand and they both stopped walking and turned back to Miyo. She rose to her hands and knees looking up at them, trying her hardest to hold in the tears forming in her eyes.
The blond looked sternly at her and said, “Get up, we do not have time for petty things like tears.”
Slowly Miyo got to her feet, a small pool of blood was soaking into the ground where she had fallen. Both legs to her pants were torn at the keen and her right knee was bleeding moderately, as was her left arm and both of her wrists were dripping with fresh blood. Without warning rage ran through Miyo but within seconds disappeared as quickly as it came, leaving her with immense pain. She started walking again, trying to ignore the blood dripping down her leg, arm, and wrists.
The two men looked at one another then began walking again before Miyo could catch up to them completely. Tears began to form in Miyo’s eyes once again but she held them back, she would not give them the satisfaction of seeing her tears. She glanced down at herself and saw that the bottom of her left pants leg was slowly turning red, her wrists burned with pain. Miyo looked up again and bit down gently on her lower lip, if her suspicions were right then she would have to endure more than just bloody knees and wrists.
Soon an enormous castle came into view, Miyo glanced up at it for a short second then turned her attention back to the ground. The men and her had walked a total of nine miles and she had been limping for six of those miles. To her relief her bleeding had stopped but her wrists still burned in pain from the metal cuffs. They stopped at an old wooden gate, it was dark brown and had several symbols carved into the center.
“Who comes?” a voice called down from above the gate.
The man with silver hair replied, “It is Abel and Alister, we bring a stranger to see the Prince!”
“Ay!” the voice called back.
The blond turned to Miyo and said coldly, “Do not say a word to anyone we pass in the castle, and do not speak to the Prince unless he wishes you to do so. Do you understand?”
“Yes…” Miyo said quietly.
The wooden gate creaked opened to reveal a beautiful garden full of lush grass and yellow and blue flowers that looked like the same type of flowers Miyo had seen earlier. There was a small fountain in the center of the garden that caught Miyo’s eye, it had a stone creature in the middle of it that looked like a large bird but to her it seemed like fire emanated from each and every feather. The water fell from a large stone spout a few inches above the bird and it poured around it in a gentle flow.
“Welcome back Sir Abel and Sir Alister.” the voice called down to them.
Miyo only caught a glimpse of the face talking as the two men, Abel and Alister, began walking again. It looked like a man but it’s face looked like it had been through a paper shredder. The man, or creature rather, was quite tall and it had blond hair.
For fear of being pulled to the ground again Miyo walked after so fast that she was almost walking on their heels. Around her she saw a variety of different guards and soldiers, but none of them had the same style of armor as Able and Alister. However all the armor she saw had one thing in common, it was all silver. They walked around the garden and opened a large wooden door and walked into the castle.
They walked up one flight of dark gray stone stairs, down two flights, and then up three more flights before coming out to a courtyard. Abel and Alister walking Miyo out to the center of the courtyard and tied her chains to the middle of a stone platform. The courtyard was very large and all around the same dark gray stones found inside the castle could be seen in the stone pillars. Miyo stood on the platform and waited, dreading what was to come next.
~~~*~~~*~~~*~~~
“Now look what you did, they know we’re here now.” Chase whispered in anger at Tharin.
The man who spoke had blond hair and a vary calm but demanding voice, “We know that you are there, come out slowly and do not try to attack us or you will regret it.”
As soon as the words left his mouth both men unsheathed the swords hanging by their sides.
“What now?” Jase asked nervously.
“Oh for Heaven’s sake.” Tisha said as she rose to her feet and walked out from behind the boulder. Upon seeing the swords Tisha’s hands shot up as she said, “Whoa you guys, calm down.”
The second man had black hair and he demanded, “Who are you, what are you doing here?”
Tisha slowly put her hands down as she relied, “I’m not really sure why we’re here, we were walking home from school when the next thing I know we ended up here.”
The two men shot each other a glance before the man with black hair questioned, “We?”
Tisha looked behind her and shook her head. She turned and walked behind the bolder forcing the others out into the open.
“Sorry,” she said with a small smile, “they claim to be men but they act more like little boys.”
The man with black hair sheathed his sword and walked over to Tisha and the others raising a hand saying, “If you please, we need to be absolutely certain that you are not working for the enemy.” A shining white light flashed before them and was gone in seconds. The man smiled and said, “Forgive us, it would seem you are truly on the side of good. Although I did sense an odd power within you all it is a power of light.”
He walked back to the blond as he too sheathed his sword. Both men looked at them and bowed as they introduced themselves.
The man with black hair introduced himself first, “I am Waz.” followed by the man with blond hair, “And I am Silver, we are guards of the Prince.”
Tisha introduced herself and the others in turn. “Prince?” Jase questioned after the introductions were finished.
“Yes, Prince Will to be exact.” Waz answered.
“Wait a minute, princes and castle guards? That doesn’t seem to believable to me.” Tharin said coldly and crossed his arms.
“Tharin!” Tisha barked.
“Please, it is all right.” Silver said with a slight smile. “If you are truly not from our land than the Seer was right.
“How did you know we weren’t from here, and can you tell us what’s going on? Why are we here?” Tisha asked.
Waz and Silver shared a glace and frowned. Waz stepped forward and relied, “Forgive me, but your cloths do not look very familiar to me. I think it would be best to ask the Seer your questions instead of us.”
“You see, the Seer foretold your arrival but did not say how or when you would arrive.” Silver continued after him.
Tisha nodded and turned to the others and asked, “What do you guys think, should we go with them?”
Chase nodded and said, “Yeah, we don’t really have any other option right now. We can’t stay out here much longer or we’ll be wondering around in the dark.”
Jase and Tharin nodded in agreement and Tisha turned back to face Silver and Waz replying, “Okay, take us to see this Seer.”
Waz looked out to the horizon and stated, “You must understand, the Seer is a difficult person to talk to, but even before you get the chance to talk to him you must get permission from Prince Will first. Come, we will take you to the castle.”
Waz and Silver walked with them up the slopes of the mountains, their horses walking beside them. Silver had asked Tisha to tell him and Waz everything that had happened before and after they entered their land. She told them every single detail she could recall up until he and Waz had found them.
“Your friend Miyo, it would seem that she might be here as well.” Waz said thoughtfully.
“Yeah,” Jase said, “I was afraid she was but we couldn’t find her anywhere around where we ended up.”
They walked in silence for a few minutes before Chase said, “Miyo was standing a few feet away from us.” He stopped and looked back to the other mountain range. “Maybe she ended up over there.” he continued.
The others stopped and all looked back as well; the sun was beginning to set behind them and an ominous wind began to blow slightly.
“I pray that she is not.” Silver said quietly as he turned away.
“Why, what’s over there?” Jase asked sternly.
“That entire area is Blake’s territory.” Waz said as he and Silver continued up the mountain. The others followed after them shortly after.
“Who’s Blake?” Chase asked.
Silver sighed and after several seconds replied, “Maybe you should save that question for Prince Will.”
Jake and the others shared a look of concern.
Waz put a hand on Silver’s shoulder and continued for him, “ We do not talk much about Blake on orders from our Prince but since you are bound to learn of him soon anyway I will tell you this; Blake is know to his followers as Prince Blake.”
“Blake is a prince too?” Tisha asked.
Waz nodded and continued, “Yes, and Blake is also Prince Will’s twin brother.”
“Isn’t that a good thing? I mean if they’re brothers and Blake finds Miyo then we wouldn’t have to go look for her if she is here.” Tharin stated smiling.
Silver shook his head as they came upon a giant castle, “No, it would be a very bad thing.” he replied, “Blake is evil and would not hesitate to kill a defenseless girl who had no idea where she was.”
No one said a word as a voice called over the castle gates, “Who comes?”
Waz looked up and answered, “It is Silver and Waz! We bring the Seer’s visitors to see Prince Will!”
“Yes sir!” the voice called back. Soon the gates opened and pure white stones glistened in the setting sun.
“Come, we will show you to the prince.” Silver said stepping through the gates.
The others stepped in while the gate closed slowly behind them. Silver led the way into the main part of the castle taking them to a huge white and golden door.
Before Silver opened the door he turned and said to the group, “Now before you see the Prince please keep in mind that you will be talking to royalty.”
Waz nodded and added, “Even though you are our guests we will not think twice about throwing you out of the castle if Prince Will orders it.”
They all nodded in turn and Jase said, “We understand, I think I speak for everyone when I say we’ve never met a prince before, but we will be on our best behavior.”
Waz and Silver nodded in approval. Silver grasped the door’s golden handles and added, “And do not bring up the Prince’s brother unless he brings him up himself.” Turning his attention back to the door he pulled it open reveling the gorgeous white throne room.
