The Secret of the Stone

“We have a problem!” said Nayr to Census. He and Cordum had been a few meters up a head. “Be careful.” they warned as we reached the edge of what seemed to be a bottomless canyon. “How are we going to get across it?”

We were examining the canyon when all of a sudden we heard growling behind us. We turned around to see that we were surrounded by four wild dogs on one side and the cliff on the other. The dogs growled at us ferociously with slobber dripping down their mouths, sharp teeth protruding as they approached. They back us up to the edge of the cliff.

“Oh, No!” I gasped. Cloud came between me and the dogs. The others pulled out their weaponry to prepare to fight. Cordum had two axes, Nayr a bow and arrow and Census a long staff.

“Who are you?” growled one of the dogs. His voice echoed down the canyon. “And what is your business here?”

“I am Census of Nevele.” said the captain cautiously ready for the hounds to make the first move. “We are looking for a man that is rumored to live in these hills. Do you know him?”

“Ha, ha, ha,” laughed the hound.” Census of Nevele!” he repeated. “Tell me why I shouldn’t destroy you and your friends where you stand, my enemies!”

“We have no quarrel with you. If the man by the name Jailan is not here we will leave.”

“You assume too much Census of Nevele. You see I am the ruler of this mountain and you will leave if and when I say.” The hound turned his attention towards me. “Now, who is this here?” he came towards me. Cloud pounced in front of me thumping his back legs shaking the ground that echoed through the canyon. “Hee, Hee,” laughed the hound.” I don’t have much taste for man but rabbit is my absolute favorite.” He warned.

“Your threats don’t scare me.” said Cloud.” You come near her and I’ll….”

“You’ll do what?” The hound challenged him.

“Enough of this!” said the captain. “What do you want?” The hound smirked at Cloud before he began to circle around Census.

“The question is why do you want to speak to Jailan?”

“We have reason to believe he has some information we need.”

“And why would he give you information, his enemy!” The hound signaled to the other hounds and two of them ambushed Cloud. While the others were distracted the remaining dogs surrounded me. I tried to run but the hound growled at me, his vampire teeth vibrating and salivating. “Now,” he continued. “You will do what we say or you’ll never see this girl again.”

“Let her go!” Census demanded.

“Put down your weapons,” demanded the hound. The captain hesitated. The dog behind me jumped and pushed me down to the ground with his paws. I screamed. The captain and the others put their weapons on the ground. “Now come with me.”

The dogs led us inside a cave at the top of the mountain. It looked like a make shift throne room with a large stage and a huge chair on top of the stage that was in serious need of repair. We were in the center of the room when a huge cage dropped over us from above.

“Let us out of here!” The captain demanded. But the talking hound only laughed and left the room leaving one of the dogs to guard the cage. Through the night the dogs took shifts guarding us. We did not see the lead dog but we heard a tumult in the adjoining room of howling and carrying on throughout the night.

“Why did they put us in here?” I asked.

“They are probably holding us here to feed on us one by one,” said Cordum. My heart melted.

“Don’t scare her,” said Nayr. “Don’t worry we will find a way to get out of here. We have been in worse fixes than this.”

“If we could just get that rope in here we could use our combined strength to pull the cage up,” Cloud whispered. The dog that was guarding the cage was sleeping. One of the other dogs entered and walked over to our cage.

“Our master would like to speak to the girl.”

“She is not going anywhere with you,” snarled Cloud.

“If you would like to join them I am sure there is room on the dinner table.” The dog threatened. He then kicked the sleeping guard.

“Bring her.” he instructed the sleepy guard.

“No!” said the Captain standing in front of me. The two doges began to growl at him.

“It’s okay.” I said. I could not believe what I was saying. “I will go with them. I just don’t want anyone to get hurt. I’ll come with you.” I told the dog.

“No Violet!” Cloud protested.

“Cloud, it will be okay.” I reassured him. I followed the dog into another area of the cave. The main dog was sitting waiting for me in the middle of the room. I looked around and saw that the room was filled with things; a table, some clay pots, weapons and even clothing although it looked old and torn. They were probably all that remained of anyone who dared to venture into these woods. I was shivering from the cold of the cave. The leader of the hounds walked towards me in fear I began to back away. He stopped about a meter and a half in front of me.

“Are you afraid of me?” he asked he began to circle me like a shark.

“Yes.” I declared. “What do you want from me?” I asked my voice was shaking.

“Why does the captain want to see Jailan?” He asked. “You had better tell me the truth girl.” He said roughly.

“The truth is,” My voice was still shivering. I swallowed to gain some composure. “I was the one who actually wanted to see him.”

“You.” He snickered surprised by my answer. “What for?”

“I’m not sure really, a friend told me that I should come and see him that he could help me.”

“Ha! Ha! Ha!” The dog laughed. “You came to get help from Jailan.” He said with disbelief. “Jailan is not in the business of helping others.”

“So you know him? If you know where he is?” I said. “You can tell him that no one is here to hurt him. We just want to talk to him.”

The dog circled around again as if he were thinking. Then he stopped and looked at me curiously. “If I let you speak with him you would be assuming a great risk. If he finds deceit in you he will destroy you and you will never leave this mountain.”

“It doesn’t look like we are going to leave this mountain anyway.” I replied.

“That is true.” the dog chuckled. “You may leave my friend.” he signaled the other dog to leave. Then before my very eyes the dog transformed into a man. “I am Jailan!”He declared.

He was wearing a long dingy cloak and old torn clothes. His face was scarred and bruised from burns. I was amazed and speechless.

“Now what did you want to ask me before my patience runs out?”

I took another hard swallow before I began to explain to him how Celestia had come to me in a dream and had instructed me to come and see him. I couldn’t believe that Celestia was friends with such a miserable, disgusting man.

“So it has begun.” he said when I finished telling him the story. “And Celestia is this friend that you mentioned?” he turned away from me deep in thought.

“Do you know where your brother is keeping Celestia?” I asked.

“I warned her that this would happen. She waited too late.” He said angrily.

“I don’t understand. If Julian is your brother why did you warn Celestia about him? Why did you betray your own brother?”

“Betray my brother! He flew into a rage. Look at my face!” “It was he that betrayed me!” he shouted in a loud voice. He then howled with a cry loud and painful. He picked up a pitcher from the floor and threw it across the wall shattering it into pieces.

I wanted to run. I searched for a way out. I ran towards the door but it would not open. I turned around and watched the monster who stood still starring at the broken pitcher. His hands in the air his fingers curled displaying his long sharp fingernails. I was breathing heavily waiting in anticipation for what he would do next. Then there was a long pause. He turned again to me as if nothing had happened. “Sit down, Violet and I will tell you what you need to know.”He said in a calm voice.

I hesitated before creeping slowly to the table. I sat down at one end of the table and he sat down at the other. “I suppose we should ask the dear captain to join us.” He said.

He barked some instructions to the hound standing outside and a few minutes later the captain and the others walked into the room. Cloud and I ran towards each other and embraced.

“Are you alright?” he asked as he licked the side of my face.

“I feel better now.” I sighed at the sight of my companions.”This guy has a couple of screws loose,” I whispered to Cloud.

“Alright!” Said Jailan as we all sat down around his large table. “My brother must be stopped!” He began. “He thinks that he is conquering Enos but in the end he will destroy the entire world. The stone that he possesses, the tourmaline ring is very powerful and very dangerous.”

“How did Jailan get his hands on a weapon so powerful that it could overpower the heir of Enos?” asked Cloud. Jailan then began the long story.

“The princess wheels the greatest power on this planet indeed, but she is only able to access a quarter of that power. It is enough, under normal circumstances, but the tourmaline ring, ah, my brother and I found it on an expedition. The legend is the stone belonged to the Rangian the first settlers of our world. Though it is not as powerful as the stones of Enos, it is more powerful than the power that Celestia can control alone. I once thought of using it myself,” he laughed, “but I knew that I could not control its power. I understood the danger. My brother thought I was weak. We argued many nights about it. I thought I had finally convinced him that it was too dangerous, but I was a fool.”

“So he took the stone,” asked Nayr.

“He went back and took the stone from its hiding place,” said Jailan sadly.”When I confronted him he cursed me to this mountain to be king of the dogs. He then went to Enos and pretended to want peace between the Yar and the Enocians. He lied to Celestia that I was the one who prevented it. Though I was cursed to this mountain, I was able to get a message to the princess and I revealed his plan. Celestia pretended to go along with his plans for peace to stall him. She had to find out how to gain access to the power of the subsequent Enos stones.”

“Celestia needed me to access more power?” I asked.

“You can access the stones power and both you and Celestia together must use your combined strength to defeat Julian.”

“But I don’t know how to use the stone.” I protested.

“If that is true we are all in great peril.” A chill came over me. “Hopefully, when the time comes you will know what to do. But know this, the time will come!”

“Well we still need to find the princess to make the plan work. Do you know where your brother is keeping her?” asked the Captain.

“I don’t know, hopefully you will find the princess while you are in search of the Crystal Casing.”

“The what?” asked Cordum.

“The Crystal Casing must be used to entrap the tourmaline ring. There are three parts to it and you must find it or you will not be able to defeat Julian. I began searching for the casing to try and stop my brother before it was too late. That was before I was cursed to this mountain. I have however recently learned that there is one who may know the location of one of the parts.”

“Where can we find him?” Cesus asked.

“In the Kingdom of Ruof, his name is Temy. You will most likely find him at the local gambling establishment but he may not be cooperative. You can stay here for the night.” said Jailan “These hills are too dangerous to travel by night. My hounds will escort you safely through the forest in the morning.” He then stood up from the table. “When you find Celestia tell her to remember the promise she made to me.” He walked out of the room.

“Do you trust him?” Cordum asked the captain. “After all Julian is his brother.”

“No, but at the moment we don’t have any other choice,” he replied.

“Well, he does have a motive for helping us.” I added. “His brother did put a curse on him. I wander what promise he is talking about.”

“Yes, that is strange,” said Cloud curiously.

“This place gives me the creeps. I wish we didn’t have to stay here.” I complained.

“We’ll your highness.” said the captain.” I am sorry the accommodations don’t meet your approval.”

I gave him a hard look. Just when I thought that we were on the same side. I knew that the captain would take great joy knowing that I was going to be terrified and unable to sleep all night. And no doubt follow up with more antics tomorrow.

“Don’t worry Violet. It doesn’t meet my approval either.” said Nayr disgusted by the mess left by the dogs. “We made our beds in a clearing on the cold rocky floor. Forming a circle we tried to get some sleep. The dogs no longer came in to disturb us, never the less I couldn’t sleep a wink. I began to think about my mother and how worried she must be. When all the others were fast asleep and Cloud was snoring peacefully nearby, I got up and sat near the stone wall. I felt helpless and trapped on this planet. I wandered would I ever get home. I laid my head in my arms and began to cry. I didn’t hear someone walking towards me.

“You had better try and get some rest.” The voice startled me. It was the captain he kneeled down beside me.

“Oh, it’s you. Leave me alone.” I wiped my eyes embarrassed because he had caught me crying.

“There is no since crying like a little girl. You are going to wake the others.”

“Just go away. I realized that you don’t care if I lived or died. If it wasn’t for Cloud you would have gladly given me up to those wild dogs.”

“Don’t be so dramatic, “he chuckled.

“That’s right! Keep laughing. Do you think I want to be here either? I have family too you know and they are worried about me and I don’t know how I am going to get back home, but I know you don’t care about that. You have made that abundantly clear.” He had stopped smiling.

“Hey, look, I guess I haven’t been very understanding to your predicament. Celestia and I are very close. I’m just worried about her.” I was taken back. He actually sounded warm and tender much different from the egotistical jerk that taunted me all the livelong day.

“Do you love her?” I asked.

He hesitated for a moment. “Yes, I love her.” He admitted. He sat down next to me on the wall. “She is a little older than you. But you look so much alike, like sisters.”

“Were you going to marry her?” He paused again before answering.

“You had better go to bed,” he said uncomfortably.

“I was just asking,” I said as I stood up and began to walk back to my mat.

“And Violet,”

“Yes.” I replied.

“I know that everything will work out. You’ll get home soon.”

“Thanks.” I replied.

We did not see Jailan again his hounds escorted us through the forest the next morning and led us to the road to Ruof.