Dragonflywriting

Arienwan and The Crystal Artifact
By Jessica Rud aka Dur

Chapter One - Seduction and Pomegranate

Byu Ariz was off to seduce a girl. Or at least make her angry enough to follow him back to Bellan.
Ringast had said that the only way for him to get the Crystal Artifact was if she gave it to him. And the only way for her to give it to him was if she loved him.
Byu had choked a little at that and spluttered pomegranate juice all over the turkey, much to Ringast’s disgust.
“What?” cried Byu, wiping the red liquid off of his chin, “Come again?”
“The Crystal Artifact can only be given to one who the bearer loves.” Said Ringast, dabbing politely at his turkey with the table cloth.
Byu rose a few inches off his chair, “Ringast, I cant just go seduce a girl so she gives me something, and then leave with it, never to return.”
“Byu, no floating at the table.” Said Ringast tiredly, “Of course you can’t. That’s why you need to bring her here so she can use it.”
“What if she doesn’t want to come?” said Byu.
“Then you’ll just have to seduce her.” Answered Ringast, taking a bite of pomegranate flavored turkey.
Byu landed back on his chair with a whump. “I still don’t see how a crystal can defeat the Witch when all your magic can’t even stop her from entering the castle.” He said, testing the turkey, which wasn’t that bad, actually. It tasted like cranberries.
“Its very powerful.” said Ringast, “In the hands of a Magician, it can destroy whole countries. But it won’t. It’s bane to evil, and can only be given, not taken.”
So Byu had donned Earth clothes, which were actually very similar to Bellan clothes, and set off through the portal in the Door Room.
Now he was on Earth, and at the moment, stuck on a city bus. He was squashed up against the window by some old lady who smelled like popcorn, of all things, and he wasn’t sure he wanted to get off anyway, because that would mean walking past a group of high school girls who kept giggling and glancing at him, and were more likely than not going to jump on him and suffocate him the moment he came within three feet of them.
He shuddered and looked out the window. He was in some medium-sized city, right now passing an old brownish building that said Museum on it, but looked more like some Oriental Shrine.

It was in fact, an old Chinese building, relocated from China town and turned into a museum. But that was before Arienwan was born. As far as she could tell, the building had been built there and would stay there until the end of time. Or at least until the next Nuclear War.
Today had been exceptionally busy, school had started again and a whole throng of eight year olds had gone on a rampage (sometimes referred to as a field trip) through the museum. Now it was past seven, the museum had been closed for two hours, and Ari was still finding candy wrappers, and forgotten pencils and papers in the weirdest places.
She was just taking out the trash from the bathroom when her necklace started to glow. It actually did that a lot, she had no idea why. She assumed it was some kind of mineral that reacted with a certain chemical, or type of light or something. She didn’t know. She had never been big on science.
It continued glowing persistently for the rest of the evening as she closed down the museum and went to the back of the building, where she lived. It was small enough, with one bathroom, a kitchen/living room, and two bedrooms. She and her father had lived there for as long as she could remember, until he had died, unexpectedly two years ago, leaving her everything. She had been allowed to live there on her own, provided she checked in with the neighbors everyday. Now that she was eighteen, she didn’t need to anymore, which was a relief, since they seemed to view her as their own personal maid, who came over every day to clean the bathroom.

Byu decided he really was having an off day. It didn’t help that he was already quite hopeless at finding anything smaller than a castle, and he had trouble finding those too sometimes, depending on how big they were. He had spoken to three operators, called six places, gone to five schools, and talked to exactly eighteen utter morons. He was beginning to think that there really was no hope for Earth.
“Ari-en-wan La-taile.” He was saying to the secretary of yet another high school, “No, she’s eighteen, she’ll have graduated last year. I need to find out where she is.”
“Do you have her address?” asked the lady, as she doodled on her notepad.
“No! I don’t!” Screamed Byu, “Will you please just look her up?”
The lady blinked. “Sure.” she said in a stunned sort of voice, “You don’t have to yell, all you had to do was ask.”
Byu had to remind himself to breathe as the lady finally typed the name into the computer.
“Oh!” She said in a surprised voice, “Yes here she is. She graduated last year. You should have mentioned that.”
Byu gave up on breathing and just held his breath as she passed him the paper. “Thank you.” He grunted, and jumped out the window. She gasped, and he gave her his most charming smile before floating down to the street and hailing a taxi.

The necklace was still glowing. Now that she had turned out all the lights, it seemed even brighter, it lit up the whole room, and even closing her eyes couldn’t block out the light. Frustrated, Ari grabbed the crystal and pulled it from her neck. She threw it into her night table and slammed the door shut. It lay there pulsing slowly, the light still shining through the cracks.
Weird she thought as she pulled on her pajamas and got into bed. Its been a weird day. Its been a weird year. Two years.
She sighed and rolled over to block out the light. She must have fallen asleep, because when she rolled over again her alarm clock said 4:12. But she hardly noticed that because there were two green eyes staring at her.
Ari screamed, and blinked and the eyes were gone. She sat up, thoroughly freaked out and looked around the room. Everything seemed normal, except her night table drawer was open. The necklace was still there but it had stopped glowing. She put it on, glad, because it had been a gift from her father and it was very special to her.
Everything seemed slightly muted, like she was dreaming. That would make sense, considering the eyes, but she decided to make a cup of tea anyway, and maybe do some accounting, she was more than a little freaked out, and wanted to wake up completely.
She got up and pulled on her jeans. She looked in the mirror to check her hair, and screamed because there was someone standing behind her. She whirled around and he backed up into her bed. He fell onto it rather ungracefully and sat there looking at her.
He wasn’t very tall, maybe 5’5, but very good looking, with short spiky brownish-red hair and bright green eyes. He wore a red bandanna around his head, and what looked like cargo pants.
Neither of them spoke for a few seconds. Finally Ari said, “How did you get in here?”
“Through the window.” He answered. His voice was low, but not overly mature, and Ari wondered if maybe he was a little younger than her.
“The window...” said Ari, “I closed it.”
“I opened it.” He shrugged.
“What do you want?”
“Your necklace.”
Ari grabbed it protectively. “No!” She said, “Its mine.”
“I know that.” He said patiently, “But I need it.”
“No.” she said.
He sighed. “Then you have to come with me.”
“No!”
“Is that the only word you know?” he said, a little disarmingly.
“No.” said Ari.
He smiled, even more disarmingly.
“Look.” she said, staring at the wall behind him, “You can’t just break into my room in the middle of the night and demand that I give you my things, or else come with you.”
“Obviously, I can, as I just have.” He answered, standing and walking over to the window. “Come with me.”
He then did something that actually made Ari gasp aloud in astonishment. He seemed to float up and right out the window. Furiously rubbing her eyes, she grabbed a chair and pulled it up to the window, peering out after him as he floated in mid-air. “How are you doing that?” she yelled at him.
“Magic.” He answered simply.
“Magic.” She repeated, “Okay, so I’m dreaming. Does that mean I can fly too?”
“I don’t know.” He said, “Maybe.”
Well, fine, no harm if I’m dreaming. She thought, and jumped out the window after him. A second later, she landed face first in the mud outside her window.
He chuckled and floated down to help her up. He even gave her a scrap of cloth to wipe her face with.
“Maybe not.” He said, with a little apologetic smile. “Sorry, I’m Byu.”
She wanted to slap him, but she didn’t want to get mud on his face, so she said, “I’m Ari.”
“Arienwan.” He confirmed.
Ari looked up at him and squinted into his large, innocent eyes, “Yes, how did you know that?”
“I told you, I came to get you. You or your necklace. And I guess I can’t just get the necklace can I?”
“Why not?” she asked.
“Because you can’t give it to me.”
“I can if I want.” She said defiantly.
“Can you?” he said mysteriously.
“Well, I’m not going to give it to you to find out.” She snapped.
He suddenly grabbed her wrist and held it menacingly. “Thank you, I’ve had enough people snapping at me today.” He said and tightened his grip.
“Ow!” She cried, “You’re hurting me! Stop it!”
“No!” He said growled, “You’re coming with me, whether you want to or not!”
“No! Ow!” She cried as he dragged her into the bushes. Without letting go of her wrist, he drew a black ring from his finger. He threw it into the bush and spoke a word in a strange language. There was a flash and quite suddenly there was a door there. It was small and rounded on top, and opened into the trunk of a tree.
Byu pulled her to the door, and Ari could only think There’s no way we’ll both fit! before Byu dragged her in and there was a blinding white light.
Ari shut her eyes tight and covered them with her arm. Everything was loud and bright and windy. She thought it would never stop, until finally it did. She felt Byu’s hand pull her arm from her face, she opened her eyes and gasped.
“Welcome to Bellan.” Said Byu with a smile.

Chapter Two - Floating Pineapples and a Rather Large Griffin

There was a gigantic castle in front of them. If she hadn’t known for a fact that she was dreaming, Ari could never believe that she had imagined all this. The door they had just stepped out of was in a huge stone wall behind them. Ahead was a whole city, with a giant castle towering over it. The walls reached as far as could be seen, to the giant hillside that the castle was built beside They were at least fifty feet tall, and thick enough that she could see guards in red uniforms walking around on top.
To the right of the door they had just exited stood two more, so gigantic they could barely be called doors at all. They were nearly as tall as the walls, and only one of them was open. There were more of the guards standing at them and inspecting people passing in from a well-worn road that dwindled into the distance where a forest was visible. Behind the forest were huge white-capped mountains, under the brightest blue sky Ari had ever seen.
She turned back and saw that the area they were in was fenced off with golden rope. There was a booth at the front where a young well-dressed couple were paying the man in the booth with silver coins. They then walked toward the door, laughing and smiling as if on a regular outing. They both bowed to Byu as they passed.
Byu! She had forgotten he was there. “Why are they bowing to you?” She asked him quietly.

Byu shook his head, resolving to tell her later, and led her to the booth.
“The man bowed low. “Your majesty, productive trip, I hope?”
“Majesty!” whispered Ari.
“Shh.” retorted Byu, “Yes, thank, you, Tama. I’m sorry, I used up another one of your rings, I was in a hurry to get back.”
“Not to worry your majesty, It can be replaced, if there’s anything else I can do… any bit of help.”
Byu put his hand on Tama’s shoulder. He smiled sadly, poor Tama, always willing to help, “I’m sorry, Tama, but there’s nothing you can do. I’m afraid that Ari here is the only one who can help us.”
He glanced at her. She was silent, her face unreadable. Byu sighed and nodded to Tama. He grabbed Ari’s hand. “Come on, I’m taking you to the castle.”
They walked through the streets of the town. “Why are there so many people?” said Ari finally.
“They’re all refugees.” answered Byu, “from other towns and cities that the witch has taken over.”
“The witch!” said Ari, “There’s a witch now?”
Byu nodded, “The Witch Serena. She’s very old, and very powerful. Even Ringast, my tutor can’t stop her.”
“And you think I can.” said Ari, looking at him. Her grey eyes were troubled. “My necklace. It’s just an heirloom.”
“It’s our only hope.” sighed Byu, “I have to stop her.”
“So you can save them.” said Ari. When Byu nodded she continued, “You’re the prince, aren’t you? This all belongs to you. Or will.”
Byu nodded again. “Not by choice but yes. When I turn eighteen, I will be crowned as king of Bellan.”
“Aren’t you a little short to be a prince?” asked Ari slyly.
“Like you can talk.” said Byu, and he smiled and grabbed Ari’s hand and pulled her running down the streets, and afterwards, Ari couldn’t remember whether or not their feet had touched the ground.

“Oh you did bring her!” cried Ringast gleefully. He winked heartily at Byu who promptly became very interested in his shoes.
Ringast was circling Ari and studying her intently. “She’s a pretty one. Interesting hair. Who ever heard of a teenager with silver hair!”
“Um, its light blonde.” said Ari, also looking at her shoes.
Ringast blinked a couple of times, and then looked at the ground. He looked back up. “There’s nothing there.” he said slowly.
“Hm?” said Byu, “Nothing where?”
Ringast shook his head in a knowing way. “Oh never mind.” he said rather cryptically. “So, to business. You, girl.”
“Ari.” said Ari.
“Right, Ari. What magic do you have?”
“Uh...” said Ari.
Byu came to her rescue “She doesn’t Ringast,” he said, “She’s from Earth, remember?”
“Oh, right, right.” said Ringast, “But she must have some, surely her father…”
“I don’t have any magic Mr. Ringast.” said Ari, “If I did, I think I’d know.”
“You’d think you would.” confirmed Ringast, “But you never know. We might as well try and teach you a little.”
“Do you need magic to use the crystal?” said Ari, “What’s it do anyway?”
“Well, we don’t know yet,” said Ringast, “We have to find out. Come on.” And he led her into the castle, with Byu floating interestedly behind.

Sunlight streamed through the castle window, and fell on Ari, sitting cross legged on the bedroom floor with a book on her lap and a pencil between her teeth.
“Stop that!” snapped Ari to Byu, who was hovering over her head to get a good look at what she was writing, “I’m trying to concentrate. I get whisked away to a magical dreamland, by a prince, no less,” she glared at Byu, “and they give me homework. Homework!”
“Look all you have to do is match the types of Magic with their uses.” explained Byu, “It’s not hard. Why didn’t you do it last night?”
“I was tired!” cried Ari, “And it is hard when you’re hovering like that! Why don’t you do something useful? Like finding me something to wear! Do you realize I’m still in my nightshirt from 2 days ago?”
“Oh.” said Byu, “Yeah. Sorry. You don’t have to snap.”
“I know!” said Ari, “I feel like it! I didn’t learn anything all yesterday. You all have to face it. I’m not magical. At all. In any way. Sorry.”
“Just because you don’t have magic, doesn’t mean you can’t use it.” said Byu, “All you have to do is…”
“Find me a shirt!!!” cried Ari. She threw her pencil at him, and he dodged and jumped out the window. “Ever hear of a door?” she called after him, and went to look for a new pencil.

Ari wandered through the huge castle, looking this way and that. The sunlight was streaming through huge floor-length windows, and the whole place retained it’s dreamlike quality. I wish I wasn’t dreaming, I wish I could really stay here. She thought, Even if there is a witch, and magic that I can’t do, and Byu…
She walked around another corner, hardly remembering that she was looking for a pencil, and came into a library. But it wasn’t a library in the common sense of the word. It was more like a gigantic study, with huge bookshelves and tons of intricately carved chairs and tables. The room didn’t have the same timeless feel of the rest of the castle. It was old, decidedly so, and a bit stuffy, but in a cozy way. The light was different here too. Warmer, and slightly dusty, so that everything seemed tinged with yellowish-orange light.
Ari walked through the bookshelves and tables, looking up at the delicately painted ceiling, and the high bookshelves. She was so distracted she bumped into a chair. It was a moment before she realized that there was someone sitting in it.

Byu was doing homework too, but there was nothing simple about it. This was deep magic, studied only by master magicians, and those who wanted to know more perhaps than they should. He was in the main library, and if the one that Ari was in was big, this one was huge. Towering bookshelves reached as far as the eye could see, but there were no comfy chairs and tables here. Byu was floating up near the top of a bookshelf cross legged, his nose deep in a dusty old leather book. The ladder lay disregarded on the other side of the room.
He had given up on finding Ari clothes, but he had found himself a cool green trench coat, before Ringast had discovered him, and whisked him off to the library, telling him that he had to find out every thing that there was to know about the Crystal Artifact, specifically, its chain.
“Ari doesn’t wear it on a chain, she wears it on a braided string cord.” He had complained.
“I know.” said Ringast, “Precisely. Where’s the chain?”
“Who says there ever was a chain?” said Byu.
“There was one!” cried Ringast, “There was! Find it! Find out everything you can about it. Go!”
He had seemed so distraught that Byu had thought he had better just go. He hadn’t known why at the time, but now it was starting to make sense.

“Sorry!” gasped Ari, “I didn’t see you!”
The figure turned, and Ari saw that she was wearing dusty lavender robes, with the hood pulled up, and a piece of cloth of the same colour pulled over her nose and mouth so that all that was visible was her silver-grey eyes rimmed with dark lashes.
The figure cocked her head a little, and said in a soft, curious voice, “How did you get in here?”
“I- I just…” said Ari, “Was looking for a pen.”
“Well then by all means, have one.” said the lady, and handed her a dark purple and gold fountain pen. It looked like real gold too.
“I can’t take this.” said Ari, “It looks expensive.”
The strange woman laughed and said, “I have many things that look expensive, and many more that are. But they are not valuable to me. Keep it.” she said, “But I’ll want your name in return.”
“Ari.” said she, “Arienwan.”
The girl nodded, and Ari thought she might be smiling, “You’re the girl my brother went to find.”
“Byu!” said Ari, “He’s your brother?”
The woman nodded again, her eyes still crinkled into what Ari guessed was a smile, “Yes.” she said, “I am Lycoris, Byu’s older sister. Well met, friend of the prince.”
Ari bowed, it seemed the respectful thing to do.
“None of that.” Laughed the princess, “I do not desire to be seen as your better, Lady Ari, you bear the crystal, which holds ancient magic, and so you are more powerful than I.”
“I’m sure you must be very powerful.” said Ari.
“Nay,” said Lycoris, “My mind is powerful, but I have no magic akin to my brother and my father.” her eyes seemed to darken slightly.
“I don’t have any magic either.” said Ari quietly.
“Don’t you now?” said Lycoris, “Perhaps that is why Ringast cannot teach you to use it. Come with me, I shall teach you how to wield magic not your own.”
She gathered up her books, and walked toward a door in the back of the room, and even if Ari had had a choice, she would have followed her.

Byu snapped the book shut, almost glad of the distraction. He was reading through something that he knew ought to be very important, but he just couldn’t seem to focus. The cause of the distraction was a great shouting of men and loud uttering of subduing spells, along with some odd roaring noises of an indiscernible origin.
He floated up interestedly and placed the book on the top of the bookshelf where he was sure it would not be disturbed. Through the high windows he could see a commotion off in the distance. He dropped down to the floor and headed for the door of the library to discern the cause of the fuss.
The roars had been coming from a griffin. A wild one from the looks of it. It was flapping around, trying to take off, biting at the ropes that were tied haphazardly over it, as men threw more. The subduing spells were doing nothing more than to make it angry, and as the newest one hit it, the griffin let out a mighty bellow or pain and a stream of fire came out of its mouth shooting towards the man. At the last second, Byu tackled the man and threw him out of the way. The fire instead hit a large carriage that promptly burst into flames.
The men all stared in shock for few seconds and then snapped into action, running to get water and put the fire out. Byu was intrigued. He had never seen a griffin from so close before. It was a beautiful one, dark chestnut, almost black, with dangerous, amber-coloured eyes. Byu thought he saw intelligence in it’s eyes, as well as pain, and anger for it’s captors, and underneath that, wild fear.
He floated determinedly over to it, and brushed the ropes away, magically untying them as he did. The griffin tensed at his touch, but Byu talked soothingly to him. It was very large, its head nearly a foot wide, it’s back feet rested on the ground and its wings beat steadily, keeping its huge paws in the air. Byu hovered, just out of reach of it’s claws, his eyes level with those big amber ones.
The griffin snorted a little and looked quizzically at him, still afraid. “It’s okay.” said Byu, “No one’s going to hurt you now.” he held out his hand to the griffin, who slowly brought his magnificent beak to it. They stayed that way for a few seconds, the griffins wings beating rhythmically. Then Byu began to float to the ground, bringing the griffin down with him, until it’s large paws rested steadily on the ground, and Byu touched down lightly.
One of the braver men approached tentatively. He handed a black and silver rope to Byu, who put it lightly around the griffin’s neck. “His name’s Cobalt, your highness.” he said with a bow, “He was bred off in Creta, they were attacked by the witch and her bird-people last week. Some survivors just arrived, they managed to bring him with them.”
“Thank you, Mattin.” said Byu, “Let’s have Cobalt here some food, and a place to stay in the palace stables. The biggest one, I think.” He said, with a slight smile and a glance at the griffin, “I’ll come by later and check on him, since he seems to have taken a liking to me.”
“There’s an understatement, your highness,” smiled Mattin with another bow, “Where’s that Earth girl of yours gotten to?”
Byu frowned, “I have no idea. I thought she might have come this way.”
Mattin shook his head, “Haven’t seen her since yesterday when she threw a pineapple at the stable-wall after she couldn’t get it to levitate. Seems like something you’d do, Your Highness.”
“Hardly,” said Byu with another smile, “I wouldn’t see the point in levitating a pineapple.”

Lycoris and Ari were seated in two low chairs in front of a huge octagonal window which looked out over all of Bellan. It seemed like the highest point in the whole castle. The room was like another miniature library with bookshelves against all of the walls, except for one, which opened into Lycoris’ private bedroom. Only about half the books were actually in the bookshelves, the rest were piled and strewn on tables, many were placed it seemed indefinitely upside down to save pages, it seemed as if Lycoris was about halfway through reading most of the books in the room.
There were many more large, old books strewn at their feet, and Lycoris was in the process of speed-reading through what seemed the oldest one there. She was turning the old cracked pages at such an alarming rate that Ari was afraid that the book was going to turn to dust right there in Lycoris’ lap.
“Here.” she said finally, “Look. The Legend of Oayu, the Mighty Warrior-Magician of Bellan. He’s the one that created the Artifact. See?”
She handed the book to Ari who was startled to see a sketchy but completely accurate drawing of her necklace on the old yellow page. The writing was in flowing runes though, and she couldn’t read it.
“What’s it say?” she said, handing the book back. She wished Lycoris would take the mask off the bottom of her face, and wondered if she had some sort of disfigurement.
“It’s a long and very detailed account, taking up many pages,” said Lycoris, “But I know the story by heart anyway.” She thumped the book shut. “Oayu was a great magician, and a skilled warrior. He defended Bellan from many foes. But he soon grew old, and he knew that he could not defend Bellan forever, so he decided to channel all of his great power into a magical artifact.”
“This?” said Ari, lifting the crystal from her neck and holding it out in her hand for Lycoris to see.
“Yes.” said Lycoris, “May I ask how you came by it?”
“My father,” said Ari, “Gave it to me.”
Lycoris nodded, “Oh, yes of course, I met your father once, I thought you looked like him.”
Ari choked and stared at Lycoris, “How could you know my father? He didn’t know about this place! Even I don’t know about this place.” she cried, her voice rising, “I’m dreaming this all, I must be crazy!”
“Dreaming?” said Lycoris in a somewhat amused voice, “Is that what Byu told you?”
“No.” answered Ari, “He didn’t need to. It’s obvious that I am. Magic rings, and castles, and witches, and people who float...”
“Not all people can float.” said Lycoris, addressing the most mundane topic breached, either by design or random choice, “It’s quite hard, nearly impossible for most people. Byu simply has a knack for it, he picked it up when he was quite young. He probably inherited it. It’s said that Oayu could float, and we’re descended from him.”
“So he was a king too?” said Ari, “Is everyone in this world royalty?”
“Of course not.” said Lycoris, “Ringast isn’t. You’ve met him.”
“Yes I’ve met him.” growled Ari.
Lycoris’ eyes twinkled, “He can take some getting used to.” she said, “And you met him under unfortunate circumstances. He’s not bad really. Our father died when we were young, and he raised Byu. He’s like an uncle to him.”
“Who rules right now? If the king is dead?” said Ari.
“No one.” answered Lycoris, again flipping through her book, “The country is weak now, they wait for the day when they will have a king again.” she sighed, “Poor Byu.”
“Poor Byu?” cried Ari, “What? Why? Doesn’t he want to be king?”
Lycoris smiled, at least Ari thought she did, “Of course not. Byu hates being tied to anything. He’s too much of a free spirit.”
Ari nodded, “But wait a minute, he’s your younger brother, why can’t you rule? Is it because you’re a girl?”
“Of course not.” Laughed Lycoris, “Nothing like that. Genders are equal in Bellan.”
“Then why can’t you?” cried Ari, “It makes sense.”
“It does.” agreed Lycoris quietly, “But there is one problem. I can’t rule because… because I am dead.”

Chapter Three: The Fate of a Thousand People and a Seating Plan

“What?” Ari fell over in a clatter of books, “No you’re not, you’d be a… a…”
“A ghost?” said Lycoris.
Ari sat in stunned silence. Suddenly Lycoris laughed.
“There’s no such thing as ghosts Ari,” She giggled, “Everyone knows that.” she continued to chuckle.
“Of course they do.” said Ari venomously, as she climbed out from under An Encyclopedia of Modern River Sprites “Just like there’s no such thing as magic, or different worlds, or witches, or…”
“Yes, yes, of course,” laughed Lycoris, “Forgive me, I had forgotten that you are from Earth. I had no wish to startle you. What I meant was, I am believed to be dead.”
“That,” said Ari, “is very different from actually being dead.”
“Yes. I suppose it is.” concurred Lycoris.
“Why?” said Ari.
“Well.” said Lycoris, “The simple matter is that all of the royal family, for generations, has had some natural magical ability. Not so for me. Our father was… he was a good man. But he was not a strong ruler. When I was born, the first child, showing no magical powers… he didn’t know what to do. He was afraid that when the people discovered it, they would demand that I be taken away from him… or worse…”
“Killed.” finished Ari, “So he faked your death. That’s awful. So no one knows you’re alive?”
“Byu and Ringast know.” said Lycoris, “And a few of the maids. That’s all.”
“I’m sure...” said Ari, “I’m sure they wouldn’t do that to you, if you explained.”
“But they might.” said Lycoris sadly, “I am happy here. I have everything I need to live in peace. If they found out, then I might not. Would you take that chance, Arienwan?”
“I don’t know.” said Ari quietly, “I really don’t.”
“Come then.” said Lycoris, “Stand, show me your necklace, and I will teach you how to use what magic it has on its own. But first, we shall find you some clothes.”

“Ringast!” Byu burst into the magicians study, panting, “Its worse than you thought. That chain is everything.”
“Slow down, boy.” said Ringast quietly, standing and placing his hands on Byu’s shoulders, “I know that. Or I guessed it. But here, sit down and tell me what it is that’s gotten you flabbergasted like this.”
“It’s..” panted Byu, “What you said… about the crystal… being bane to evil… its more than that… It was created to destroy… destroy everything… not just evil… the chain… the chain is…”
“Sit boy, sit.” said Ringast pushing him into a chair. “Get your breath back. Then tell me.”
Byu sat panting for a long while. Finally he said, “When Oayu created the Crystal Artifact, he created it to destroy anything it was used against, not just evil. In fact the only way it can be used is if the person using it has stronger magic than the person they are using it against.”
“Byu, evil magic is almost always stronger than good magic.” said Ringast, “You know that.”
“Yes.” said Byu, “I do. It was a miscalculation on Oayu’s part. If you’re not stronger than who you use it against, you die instead. No, don’t worry.” he added to Ringast’s look, “I meant to say if the magic that you use isn’t stronger. You have to have magic in the first place, Ari is safe.”
“Then she can’t use it though.” said Ringast.
Byu shook his head thoughtfully, “Not to its full extent, she may be able to draw out some of its stored magical power. Nothing like enough to defeat the witch, though. And I can’t use it, I’ll as like end up destroying all of Bellan. And if it falls into the wrong hands…”
“What then?” said Ringast, “Why didn’t Oayu destroy it?”
“Because he found a way to make it work.” answered Byu, “Its chain. It was brilliant really. When the artifact and chain are used with powerful good magic, all the evil around it is destroyed. So you were right about it. Only it was a bit more complicated than we thought.” He stood up and began pacing.
“Right then.” said Ringast, “So all we need now is the chain. Do you know where it is?”
“That’s the thing.” answered Byu. “No, I don’t. But…” He stopped, “I think I know who might.”

“Easy now.” Coached Lycoris, “You’ve got it.”
“No I haven’t!” Cried Ari, “It’s slipping.”
“You’re not concentrating. Mind around the magic, like a sphere.”
“It won’t go into a sphere, it keeps melting.”
“That’s because you’re talking. Its distracting you.”
“Fine. Shutting up.”
Ari concentrated on the small haphazard sphere of light in her hand around the crystal. The sides of it kept bulging out and she had to push them all in. The worst of it was that as soon as she even thought of it melting, it did. She had to go about it in a strange backwards half asleep way, without thinking about it, and concentrating on it at the same time.
“Its so… damn… hard…” she muttered, “There, I think I’ve got it.”
“Good, now burst the side in the direction you want it to go.”
Ari did so, with much muttered curses. All at once a light came bursting out from the crystal. It whammed into a shelf, and books toppled everywhere. The whole room shook as they crashed to the floor. Lycoris managed to jump ungracefully out of the way, but Ari had a pile of books land on her for the second time in the day. She pushed books off of her and dug up from under the pile to see… Byu floating in the doorway, staring at her.
“What…” he began, then stopped, “Never mind. I don’t want to know. Is Lycoris around?”
“I’m here.” said Lycoris as she emerged from under a table, “What is it Byu?”
“A lot of things actually.” He answered, “Ringast wants a meeting in the throne room.”
“About?” said Ari.
“That.” answered Byu and pointed at her necklace. “I assume you’ve discovered how to work it, and that’s what caused…” he gestured around the room, “This?”
“Actually, most of it was already like that,” said Lycoris airily, brushing a strand of brown hair back under her lavender hood.
“I wish you would take that mask off.” said Byu.
“I would like to, Byu, but you know I can’t be seen. I look too much like our father.”
Byu was silent. He looked thoughtful, but beyond that, his deep, green eyes were unreadable.
“Well, I’m coming to this meeting.” said Lycoris, “There are some things that need to be cleared up about the whereabouts of that chain.”
Byu smiled, “Are you sure you don’t have spies Lycoris?”
“Of course I do.” answered Lycoris, “They are everywhere, dear brother.”
Byu shivered appreciatively.

Ari was finally out of her night shirt. She was still wearing her jeans, but they were now tucked into sturdy brown boots, and she wore a long, black, oriental-looking shirt, with a large dragon embroidered on the back. Gifts from Lycoris, thought Byu. She had also tied her long silver-blonde hair back into a tight braid, and she now looked much more presentable.
Her face was still unreadable. Byu had no idea if what she was thinking. He wondered if she really even cared about Bellan. Of course she cares. He chided himself, But does she care enough to help us?
“Only one who is without magic can lift the chain from its hiding place,” explained Lycoris, “But only one with magic can find it in the first place. There’s also a spell against the chain’s use, that can only be lifted by a non-magical person, so you’ll have to bring it back to me before you can use it.”
“Anything else we should know about? Dragons maybe?” Byu said it lightly, but his insides were squirming.
“Funny.” said Lycoris, “No. However there are some things that you’ll need to get past. I believe there are three challenges; physical, mental and magical.”
“Mental.” said Ari, finally saying something, “As in crazy, akin to this quest?”
“No.” said Lycoris, “As in a challenge to test your mind.”
“How do you know these things?” said Ringast from the corner.
“I spend all day in a library, Ringast.” said Lycoris, “And I do know how to scry. I know a few things.”
“Yes, I can see that.” answered Ringast.
“Alright.” said Ari, “I want to know who recommended me for this. Who decided that I had to go on this quest thing? Why is it my problem?”
There it is. Thought Byu, I knew she wouldn’t just agree to do this.
“Who said you had a choice?” said Ringast haughtily.
“Peace, Ringast.” said Byu, “Ari, do you remember when you first came here, and you saw all those people in the city?”
“Yes.” said Ari, “Of course. You said they were refugees.”
“They are.” said Byu, “From all over Bellan. You don’t fully understand how big Bellan is. Its not nearly as large as Earth, but there are thousands of people living here. Those people you saw are just some of them. The refugees are from the towns that just happened to be in the witch’s way to here. This is the capital of Bellan. The witch wants to kill all of us, and turn this city into a haven for her bird people. She wants to use this place as her foothold to take over Bellan and turn it into a place of darkness.”
Ari stared at him. He wished he could tell what she was thinking. “That crystal around your neck is the only way to stop her.” he said pleadingly, “It’s the only way to save us all. Please.”
She walked up to him so that her eyes were level with his, “I’m going to ask you something and I need you to answer truthfully.” she said.
Byu hesitated for a second, then nodded.
“Good.” she said, “If you were in my place, if it was Earth that needed saving and I was asking you to put your life in danger, do something that completely terrified you, to save a bunch of people that you’d never even met, would you do it?”
She stared at him, blue eyes piercing. Byu locked her gaze trying to think. Would I? He thought, Would I do what I want her to do? Would he? To save all those people…
And the answer came to him, suddenly, without any doubt whatsoever, like a lighting bolt of consciousness, “Of course I would.” he said, “In a heart beat.”
She stared at him a moment longer, as if trying to judge his honesty. Then she nodded and looked away. “I will go then.” she said, “But I won’t like it.”

Of course he would. thought Ari as she shoved clothing into a small bag, The question is, would I? Would I save them?
I guess I’ll find out. She thought as she slung the pack over her shoulder, and headed out of the small room they had given her.
Byu was outside with Lycoris who was masquerading as a servant girl. Instead of her usual sweeping gowns of pastel colors, she now wore a long dark leather coat, buttoned tight in spite of the heat, hood up, and a black cloth across her nose and mouth. Byu looked pretty much the same, he was still wearing that ridiculous green coat, and he had a medium-sized sword slung across his back. The two were busy packing a large bag of rations.
“Um…” said Ari, “I’m not good with horses, but I don’t think you’ll find one that’ll carry that.” she pointed at the bag.
Byu blinked. “Who said anything about horses?”
“What, so we’re walking?”
“No. We’re driving.” answered Byu, but it was quite obvious that he was being sarcastic.
Ari glared at him. Or tried to. She was no good with glares. Byu seemed to get the point though.
“We are riding a griffin,” he said, “named Cobalt.” Then he went back to packing the bag, as easily as if he had said “We’re taking the 3:00 flight.”
“A griffin.” said Ari.
“Yes.” said Byu, “named Cobalt.”
“Cobalt.” repeated Ari, “What kind of a name is Cobalt for a griffin.”
“What kind of a name is Arienwan for a person?” he retorted.
“It means silver in Welsh.” announced Ari.
“Ah.” said Byu, “I see the relevance now.”
“You do?” said Ari.
“No.”
“Its just a name.” she cried exasperatedly.
“My point exactly.” said Byu, and that closed the conversation.

Cobalt was huge. Ari thought it looked like a car that had decided it was tired of being a car and decided to be a griffin instead. Which made sense, if you thought about it enough. However, that can be said for most things.
Anyway, on seeing it, Ari had quite decided that she wasn’t going to ride it. Which she told to Byu.
“It’s a him.” he responded, “And he’s not going to drop you, look how big he is.”
“Exactly, what am I going to hold on to?” she cried, “And besides, it’s the principle of the thing.”
“Do you have a problem with flying?”
“No, there’s nothing wrong with flying as long as you’re close enough to the ground that when you fall, it doesn’t hurt.” said Ari.
“So you’re afraid of heights.” said Byu.
“What,” she repeated, “am I going to hold on to?”
“You can hold on to me.” he said, “I’ll sit in front.”
“And what if you slip off.”
“I’ll catch you.”
“And what if you miss?”
“You’ll fall and then I’ll catch you.”
“I don’t want,” said Ari, “to fall.”
“You won’t.” said Byu, “There’s a saddle.”
“It’s a good saddle.” said Lycoris, “Byu made it.”
Ari held back a number of mean things that she thought of to say, because the truth was, Byu was like a kitten or something, too cute to argue with for long. In any case, something about him mellowed her down, which was why, she supposed, she always felt like she had to be arguing with him. That, and he dragged me here. She reminded herself.
“I’m not riding it.” she announced yet again.
Byu just looked at her.
“I’m not.”
He sighed. “You said you would go.”
She opened her mouth to say something, but was interrupted by Tama.
“The Bird People are attacking!” He cried, running towards them.
Lycoris’ eyes went wide.
Byu jumped into the air, drawing his sword determinedly.
“No, Byu.” cried Lycoris, “You have to go!”
“What?” Byu stared at her, “I can’t just leave.”
“You have to save Arienwan! And the Crystal, its our only hope!”
Byu glanced at Ari. He seemed torn, worried, frantic.
Ari stared at him, not sure what she wanted him to do. She wanted to get out of there, far away from these Bird People, but she didn’t want to leave Lycoris, and all those people.
“I can take care of them!” cried Lycoris, seeming to read her mind, “Its not the Witch, its just some of her scouts, she can’t have gotten here this quickly.”
“Are you sure?” said Byu.
“It doesn’t matter.” Answered Lycoris. She grabbed her brother’s hands, “This is our only hope. You have to go, or all will be lost!” They stared at each other for a moment, both full of concern for the other.
“Go.” urged Lycoris.
Byu bit his lip, then nodded.
“Come on.” he said gruffly, and grabbed Ari. With a quick movement, he threw the bags onto Cobalt, then took Ari around the waist. They flew up quickly onto the back of the griffin. He dropped her, not very gently, onto its neck, and landed behind her. Ari fell forward and grabbed at the mass of feathers in front of her.
“Garta!” cried Byu kicked Cobalt’s sides. Ari’s stomach lurched as he took off running. His giant wings spread apart. Ari closed her eyes, but she still felt herself rise into the sky. Byu leant forward and put one arm reassuringly around her waist. She opened her eyes and looked back, then whimpered a bit. The castle looked tiny. She saw Lycoris throw her hood back and grab some sort of weapon. She saw the gate of the castle, and whimpered again. Something black was flooding the gate. Something large and black.
Then they flew over it and she saw that is was not just one thing but hundreds, big blue-black things, standing upright like people, but covered in feathers, with cruel, hooked beaks. “Bird people.” she whispered. Byu nodded. Then one of them saw her. It cried out, a cruel, piercing screech. Then all of a sudden a hundred feathers were flying at them. But they only looked like feathers from far away, and looked more like blue knives as they got closer. Sharp, hard blue knives.
Byu let out a cry and swept his hand toward the knives. There was a flash of green light, and the arrows fell back to the ground. The bird people screeched louder, and several of them took off.
“Damnit.” muttered Byu and urged the griffin, “Garta, garta!” it flew higher, but the Bird People were faster, and soon about five of them swirled around them. They entered a cloud. Every thing was grey and wet. Ari couldn’t see anything, but she could hear screeching. Black things flew towards them at odd intervals.
“Damnit.” cursed Byu again, “Hold on.” he said, and jumped into the cloud.
“What?” cried Ari, “Byu!”
Flash! Green light. Screech. Then a horrible noise, like something dying. Flash!
Something flew at her. She ducked and held onto Cobalt. The Bird landed on Cobalt’s head and Ari screamed. Black bulbous eyes, long sharp beak, but there was something disturbingly human about it. It seemed to smile at her. Then Cobalt roared, and twisted in the air. His talons cut into the Bird, and he cut into it with his own beak. Ari tried to hold on, but she was thrown clear. She didn’t have time to fall, though, before Byu caught her. His sword was out, and covered in blood. So that had been that awful scream.
“Get onto my back.” he ordered her.
Ari nodded and clutched at him, trying to maneuver around him. He helped her, and she managed to get behind him. Her legs were around his waist, and her arms around his neck, but he didn’t seem to mind. “Hold on.” he said.
“Sure.” she managed to gasp out, “No problem.”
She thought he might have smiled.

Byu held his hand to his face to block out the wind and water. Where was Cobalt? A Bird Person flew at them, and he slashed at it with his sword, then shot magic at it with his other hand. Flash of green light, another awful scream. Ari was silent.
“Are you okay?” he asked, concerned.
She nodded stiffly, “Uh huh.”
“Good.” He replied, “Just don’t let go.
They shot into the cloud. “Cobalt!” screamed Byu.
A huge roar answered. Byu altered his direction, and the griffin came into sight. It was being assailed by two Bird People, he assumed the other one was dead. Cobalt roared and shot a stream of fire at one, but the fire was quenched by the rain before it could reach it.
“Ari!” cried Byu, “I can’t take two with Magic. Take my sword, jump on to Cobalt’s back! Use the Crystal!”
“What!” she yelled, panicking, “Byu, I can’t!”
“You have to!” he yelled back, and didn’t give her the chance to jump, but threw her towards Cobalt, who swerved to catch her. He saw her scramble to sit up on him, and then one of the birds attacked him. It swiped at him with its claws. Byu hit it with his elbow, and then with his fist. He grabbed its neck. There was a slashing noise, and he heard Ari cry out.
He concentrated on his hand, and the bird exploded in a flash of green, at the same time, there was a large white flash, and a scream from Ari’s direction. But it was a bird scream.
He swerved around, and saw Ari collapse against Cobalt’s neck, blood streaming from her face. The remains of the Bird Person fell down into the mist and disappeared.

Chapter Four - A Revelation in the Form of Raindrops

“Ari!” cried Byu. He flew quickly down towards the griffin. He jumped on its back, and Cobalt slowly flew them down to a grassy plain. He could just see the castle in the distance. It was raining lightly. When they touched down, Ari rolled off of Cobalt and crouched on her knees with her head to the ground. She looked like she was about to puke.
“Are you okay.” He asked concernedly.
“I-” she said, “I killed it.”
Byu walked over to her and crouched in front of her. “It would have done worse to you.” he said, “The Bird People are not human, they are soulless. Every one dead is less evil to Bellan.”
She raised her eyes and looked at him quizzically. “You sound like your sister.” she said with a smile.
Byu chuckled, “Yes, I do that sometimes. But what about your face, are you alright?”
“Yeah.” she nodded, “Just a flesh wound.”
“What happened?”
“It bit me.” she replied, sounding slightly surprised, “Are you alright?”
The question caught Byu off guard. Was he alright?
“Uh…” He said, becoming aware of his body again, “Yeah, I’m fine. You should let me look at that.”
She shrugged her shoulders and he grabbed a pack from Cobalt, wet it with a water bottle and started cleaning the cut. It was one of those small things that bled a lot but weren’t very deep. It looked like it hurt, though. Ari didn’t make any noise as he washed and dried it, although she grimaced slightly. It had already stopped bleeding.
“You’re lucky it only bit you.” he said, “Its talons are poisonous.”
“Great.” she replied sarcastically, “I love them more already.” suddenly she started, “What about Cobalt?” She whipped her head around to look for the griffin. He stood there quietly, staring at them almost bemusedly.
“What about him?” said Byu.
“It landed on his head, it could have scratched him!”
Byu stood and walked to Cobalt, with Ari following interestedly. He grabbed her lightly by the waist and flew up to where he could examine Cobalt’s head. Ari grabbed his shoulders, and he ran his hands over the feathers on the large bird-like head. He parted the feathers behind one of the ears, and pulled out a bloody, yellow mass. Instantly, the wound seemed to shrink, and as Byu wiped the blood away, it closed into a small, slightly discoloured scar.
Ari gasped, but Byu nodded shortly and lowered them to the ground. “He’s a griffin.” he explained, “They’re special. But it’s not normal poison. I’m just… not sure. I- I don’t think he can make the trip. He needs the doctors in Bellan City. I have to send him back.”
“What?” exclaimed Ari, but she said nothing more. She knew Byu wouldn’t decide to send Cobalt back unless he really was in danger for his life.
Byu paced for a few minutes, then he went to a pack on Cobalt’s back and took out writing tools. He scrawled a note on it, addressed, Ari saw, to Lycoris, and tied it around Cobalt’s neck. He spent a few more moments arranging the supplies into two light packs for them. Then, with an apprehensive sigh, he sent the griffin running back to the castle. Cobalt didn’t fly, Ari noticed, but merely ran, holding his wings tight to his body.
“That’s that then.” said Byu wearily. He sighed and pulled out the stump he had extracted from Cobalt’s head. It was a full claw, broken off at the knuckle. Very rare. Very valuable. He handed it to Ari.
“Here. It might come in handy. Just make sure you don’t poke yourself with it.”
“I’ll try to remember.” she said dryly, “So we’re walking the rest of the way?”
Byu shook his head, looking frustrated, “The place where the crystal is supposedly hidden is up in the mountains. It can only be flown to, I can take us there, but I can’t stay in the air for long periods of time, like Cobalt. Which presents a whole new set of problems. I had planned to fly over the forest, but this means we’ll have to go through it.”
“Forest.”
“Yes, it should be over this hill, if we climb it we should be able to see it. Come on.”
He grabbed a his bag and began the trek up the hill, followed warily by Ari.

The hill was a lot higher than Ari had thought it was. They walked for hours. She had forgotten that it was still early, so much had happened since she had woken up that morning. She tried not to think of the noise that the Bird Creature had made as it died but it kept repeating in her head, along with Cobalt’s fierce roar.
As they climbed higher, she began to get a clearer view of Bellan and how large it was. To the west, she could see the castle, far away and silver, against the gigantic mountains, which swept in an arc to the south and disappeared into the east. She thought she could see more mountains to the northeast, and to the northwest, nothing but endless prairie.
Finally they crested the hill, and as Byu had warned her, a gigantic forest lay ahead of them, as far as she could see. She glanced at Byu, who looked worried. “I hadn’t expected to go through the forest.” he sighed, “It’ll slow us down, we don’t have that kind of time, the witch could be attacking the City at any time.”
“There isn’t anything… bad, in the forest.” said Ari, thinking of the books she had read.
“No.” said Byu, “Well, nothing worse than normal forests. It’s the Lynx forest to the north that’s odd. But we’re not going there.” he added to her look, “I want to, some day though. They say that there are fairies there.” He paused wistfully, “Lets eat lunch here, and we’ll head down to the forest. We should reach it by nightfall. We’ll sleep there, then head in, and we should reach the road in a couple of hours. I give us two days in the forest, then two days to the city.”
“Four days?” said Ari as they sat down to rest and eat. Her feet were killing her, but she didn’t want to say anything about it.
Byu frowned and ran his fingers through his hair, which was wet from the constant mist of rain, “I know. I didn’t expect the trip to take more than a day, maybe two.”
“Well, there’s nothing we can do about that.” said Ari, and stood up, ignoring her aching feet, “We just have to go as fast as we can.”
Byu nodded and stood, shouldering his pack. Ari took hers. It wasn’t overly heavy, and she couldn’t help thinking that Byu’s was probably a lot heavier than hers.

The trip downhill was decidedly easier, although Ari would have enjoyed it more if she hadn’t already been walking all day, and if it wasn’t raining. As the sun set, it also became colder, until Ari was walking with her arms crossed and her shoulders hunched. Byu, noticing this, gave her his trench coat to wear, even though he was only wearing a light shirt under it. He explained this away, saying that she had to walk, and he was floating, so that evened it out.
By the time they reached the forest, the sun had completely set, it was bitterly cold, and the rain was coming down in sheets. They collapsed under a tree. They were still being dripped on, but compared to before, they felt warm and dry. This content feeling lasted only long enough for the feeling to come back into their hands and feet then it was cold and wet again. Byu said that it was just a Bellan rainstorm, they usually only lasted about a day, and then it was sunny again. Ari said she’d believe that when she saw it, and went to sleep.
The next morning, the sun came up very early, and very bright. The whole forest was lit up with a golden-green glow of the sun streaking through the trees and onto the thick foliage on the ground. Everything dripped with last nights rain, and dew. Despite her predisposed bad mood, Ari had to admit that the forest really was very beautiful, with thick, fern-like plants on the ground, and tall deciduous and coniferous trees mixed together. Everything seemed alive and new, and even though she could tell that the trees were all hundreds, maybe thousands of years old, they seemed never to have lost their spark, and love of life.
Byu wasn’t there, so she sat down against the trunk of the huge tree that they had slept under. It’s bark was smooth, and its roots twisted away, above and below the ground. She didn’t know how long she sat there, just watching the forest, and listening to the sounds. She heard birds, and squirrels, and the patter of falling water, and something else too, or else maybe it was just the combination of all three. If she listened hard enough, she could almost think that the patterns of the drips and the birds formed syllables and then words, and before long, she was able to decipher words, and fit them into a strange song, although she couldn’t be sure if it was even in English or not. It sounded like:

Sing hey! The raindrops play,
Pat, pat, pat and the birds sing Hey!
Sing, play, they dance away,
And we all sing Hey, didle-dee, hey, hey!
Sing around the roses, and around the trees
Scare away the raindrops, no, no me!

And the whole forest dissolved into a fit of laughter. Ari was thoroughly confused. She had been quite sure that Byu had told her this forest wasn’t magical. But then, she thought as two rain drops fell out of the tree and hovered in front of her, perhaps he had just said that there wasn’t anything bad in the forest. She didn’t think he’d said anything about annoying.
“Ickle!” said the one raindrop, that was slightly purple in colour, “Human girl! Whee!”
“Human girl!” said the other one, which was green, “Yes, yes! Human! Special human, has special trinket! See! See!”
Ari’s hand went protectively to the crystal at her neck. The rain drops burst into laughter.
“Hee Hee!” said the purple one, “Silly human girl, she thinks we will steal her trinket! We can not lift silly trinket, Silly!”
“Silly Human girl should know,” said the Green one, “Crystal would glow, if Plints wanted to steal it, yes!”
“Plints?” said Ari slowly.
“Plints! Plints! That is us!” said the Green Plint, “I am Verdant, yes! This is Ingo! Yes, yes, Plints we are!”
Annoying you are. Though Ari, but she didn’t say out loud. “Where’s Byu?” she said out loud.
“Byu! Byu Ariz is in the forest!” they giggled, “We loves Byu Ariz. He is nice to us! And he is ever so handsome, is he not?!” giggled Ingo, who Ari decided was a girl Plint.
“We’re all in the forest.” said Ari, through gritted teeth.
“Not in the forest if you can see out are you?” tittered Verdant.
“I can’t see out.” said Ari.
“Bad eyes, has the human girl!” laughed Ingo, who seemed to think this was very funny, “Can’t see out cause you can’t look!” They both giggled again.
Finally Byu came crashing through the bushes. “There you are, Plints, I’ve been looking for you.”
“Why?” said Ari with a strong sense of foreboding.
“Because,” said Byu, “these two are going to be our guides.”
“What?” cried Ari.
“No!” said Ingo and Verdant, “We will not escort this silly girl. She is silly.”
“No she’s not.” said Byu.
“She is, she is!” yammered Verdant.
“How’s that?”
“She didn’t agree with me when I said you were handsome, she didn’t.” twittered Ingo.
“She doesn’t have to.” said Byu, glancing at Ari.
Ari held his eyes for a moment. Damnit, he is handsome. She thought. Then she quickly averted her gaze.

The Plints were almost unbearable. They twittered on constantly, singing their annoying little song and flying around in annoying little shapes. Byu wanted very badly to slap one of them, but the last time he had done that, he had ended up with a little pink stain on one of his gloves that constantly twittered at him and insulted him. At least he didn’t have to wear the glove all the time. He couldn’t say the same about his hand.
Ari walked along sullenly, staring at the sky, doing, it seemed, a much better job of ignoring the Plints than Byu was, it seemed.
“Uh.” he said finally, “Sorry about this. Its not for the whole trip, just till we get to the road. I can’t risk getting lost.”
“No, no! You will not get lost with us!” giggled Verdant, “We will escort you out of the forest.”
“To the road.” Byu corrected him.
“No!” said Ingo, “Out of the forest, we will protect you from many evil things! Weet! Haha!”
Ari was ignoring them.

Was a girl, stared at the trees!
Didn’t listen to our Weets!
She should listen or she’ll die,
By tripping on roots,
Cause she looks at the sky!

Sang Ingo and Verdant gleefully and then burst out into more laughs.
“Weets doesn’t rhyme with trees.” said Byu, “And furthermore, its not a word. And while we’re on the topic, shut up.”
The Plints pretended to be hurt. “Byu is mean to us!” they chanted, “He tells us to shut up! Should make a song about him, we should. That’ll shut him up, yes it will! Weet!”
Byu gave up, and mimicked Ari by staring at the sky. The Plints flew around his feet, trying to trip him.

After about three hours of walking, in which they both fell down a lot, (the Plints kept tripping them) they finally reached a well worn dirt road. Byu had traveled it before, but he had been on horseback then. He had never before appreciated how hard, and long it was.
The Plints, although they were obviously no longer needed as guides continued along with them. They had stopped singing, however, as they seemed to realize that as they weren’t really providing anything essential anymore, and Byu was free to do with them whatever he wanted.
After an extremely long day of walking in which the Plints asked a lot of dumb questions, which Byu consented to answer, because it kept his mind off of Lycoris and the city, they finally set up camp at a clearing at the side of the road, called Seekers Point.
Ari tried unsuccessfully to light a fire, before she consented to let Byu help her. “I always hated camping.” she said. Byu used magic to light it, and it burned green for a while before going back to a normal yellow colour. The Plints took off, afraid of evaporating.
“They’ll be back.” said Byu grudgingly.
“Hey Byu,” said Ari, “Have you ever thought, what would you do without magic.”
“Um.” replied Byu after a moment, “No, I haven’t. I mean, it can’t be that bad, Lycoris gets along okay. But she studies a lot too… I think that, if I wasn’t good at magic, I probably wouldn’t bother to learn it. I’m too lazy. But it bugs me sometimes. I feel guilty, you know, that I don’t have to work at it like some people.”
“So you’re like Atticus.” said Ari.
“No.” said Byu, “I still do magic. I’m not going to let it stop me because I’m good at it.”
“Do you think…” said Ari, she stared into the fire, “Do you think that… Lycoris ever gets jealous because you got all the magic in the family?”
“I-” began Byu, “I… don’t know. I don’t think so. I think she resigned herself to her fate when she was very young. She decided it was her lot in life and learned to live with it.”
“She shouldn’t.” said Ari suddenly, “She should fight for her freedom.”
Byu looked up at her, the firelight flickering in his eyes, “I think so too.” he said, “I’ve told her that. But she’s… I guess she’s afraid. You don’t like to think of your big sister being afraid of anything, but I guess it’s true. And I would be too, if I were her.” He threw a stick in the fire.
“But would you let it stop you, Byu?”
“I’d like to think it wouldn’t.” said Byu.
“We all would.” agreed Ari with a wry smile.
“Maybe that’s all we need then.” said Byu, “If we decide that’s what we would do, then that’s what we would do, right?”
“I don’t think its that simple.” said Ari.
“That’s because you’re a girl.” said Byu, and went to bed.

Hello, and congratulations on reading this far. You must really like either the story or me.
Hopefully both. (haha)
Okay, please continue on...

Chapter Five - Sarcasm Galore and Some Annoying Bagpipes

They started out again, painfully early, much to the protests of Ari’s feet. Byu explained that they wouldn’t have left so early, but the Plints had returned the moment the fire had gone out, and there was no way they were going to let Byu and Ari sleep, so what was the point? Byu told the Plints that if they didn’t be quiet, he would stuff them in a jam jar and put them on display in the Bellan library, right at the front desk. He also offered to carry Ari, but she declined, which she regretted later.
The walk was long, the road was hard, and rocky, so you had to keep concentrating on your feet so as not to trip. But the worst part, in Ari’s opinion, anyway, was how boring it was. She had always prided herself on being able to amuse herself for hours on end, but there was only so much to think about. The things she had wondered about and worried about all seemed so trivial now, compared to what she was doing, and since nothing else was holding her interest, the only thing she could think about was how much her feet hurt, and her bed at home.
There was only so much she could take before she thought she was going to burst. She had to think of something, other than her feet. So she quizzed Byu. It was amazing how much information he knew. As well as knowing an endless amount of magical theory, he also knew any piece of history, legend or speculation that had ever been reported in Bellan. He had sufficient knowledge about other worlds too, although he was most well versed in Earth culture, as he explained, the two were most closely connected, and Bellan had actually, at one time, been a part of Earth, until it discovered Magic, which branched it irretrievably apart from Earth.
“Sounds like Atlantis.” said Ari.
“Nope.” said Byu, “That’s a whole different story.” He was floating along beside her, and was holding her around the wrist, transferring a small part of his magic to her, so that her feet didn’t hit the ground quite so hard.
“So Earth doesn’t have any magic at all?” she asked, staring at her feet. The magic made her feel like she was going to slip, and she was afraid that she wouldn’t feel a rock there until it was too late, her feet would go out from under her, and she would fall on her head.
“Nope.” said Byu, “Not really. I mean, there are a few cases, but it’s not hereditary like it is in Bellan. Your father was magical. But then, he was a Guardian.”
Ari tripped. Her feet flew out from under her and she landed with a soft whump on the ground. “What?” she said.
The Plints giggled, then fell silent with a warning look from Byu.
He bent over to help Ari up. “You didn’t know.” he said. It was said as a statement, but she could tell he was confused.
“Uh.” she said, “No. Should I have?”
“He didn’t tell you when he died?”
“I wasn’t there when he died.” said Ari, “I was at school. He was in a car accident. He died before I got there. The nurse said he wanted her to give the Crystal to me.” She pulled out her necklace and stood fingering it quietly.
“I’m sorry.” said Byu, “I didn’t realize that…”
“Don’t be, he was happy.” said Ari, “At least, I think he was. I guess there’s a lot he didn’t tell me. I never knew he was keeping secrets. He never.. used magic.”
“He wouldn’t have.” said Byu, “He didn’t have any reason to. Or any professional tutoring.” He paused, “I’m sure he meant to tell you.”
“Tell me what?” said Ari, “What was he? What’s a Guardian?”
“The Guardian of Earth.” said Byu. He started walking again, and Ari ran to catch up. He kept talking before she could ask. “They go between the worlds. They’re peacemakers, mostly. They solve potential problems, negotiate, mediate, that sort of things. They do guard their world occasionally as well, so most of them are magical, the ones that aren’t, or have little power carry magical talismans, like that Crystal. Only it’s special, you know. Oayu gave it to the Guardian of Earth then, his wife, and she passed it down, along with the title.”
But something that he had said caught her attention. “So then…” said Ari, “Are we related?”
Byu laughed. “No.” he said, “They never had children, Oayu died shortly after that. His wife gave the Crystal to her nephew, who for some reason, had magical powers. You’re descended from that child.”
Ari nodded. It made sense, in a bizarre kind of way. Her father had told her he was an ambassador. Which he was. Just, not for a country.
“Who’s the Guardian of Bellan?” she asked Byu.
“Ringast.” said Byu, “Technically. But he lets me do it a lot.”
“Really?” said Ari, “You like doing it?”
“Of course.” said Byu, “Its fun. Don’t you think you’d like it?”
“I would.” said Ari, “I just can’t see you doing it.”
“It’s a whole lot better than ruling a country.” said Byu darkly.
“I don’t see what’s so bad about it.” replied Ari.
“If you’d spent all your life learning how to do it, you would.”

They had gotten an early start, so they reached the edge of the woods some time before nightfall. Byu wanted to keep going. He said if they walked for half of the night, they would reach a place called Altervast, where they could get lodgings, but of course, it was up to Ari.
Ari opted to stay in the forest for the night. The truth was, she had grown quite fond of it and compared to the vast openness in front of them, the forest seemed safe. She felt sure she would be more comfortable traveling over the plains if she could see a little further.
The Plints left, saying that it was too close to the edge of the forest. Ari almost felt sorry to see them go. She chalked this up to too little sleep. Byu agreed with her. She fell asleep the moment she hit the ground.

The next morning Ari was even stiffer (if that was possible) than the day before. They got up as usual, just before dawn, and when Byu offered to carry her, she didn’t refuse. It didn’t seem like a great inconvenience to him, so she spent the whole morning piggybacking. They reached the outskirts of the forest, with just a few orderly trees, shortly after lunch. Then she walked.
Finally they crested a hill and saw Altervast below them. It was at a forking in the large river running down from the north. The river split into three separate branches, and the city was nestled in between the first two. It seemed large enough, if somewhat flat, compared to the modern cities that Ari was used to, and Bellan City, which climbed up the side of a mountain. Also, it was not surrounded by walls, but branched off into farms, and what seemed to be fisherman’s cottages.
As they headed down towards the city, Ari noticed something strange about Byu. He was walking. She realized that she couldn’t remember ever seeing him walk before. Had it perhaps, been more of a struggle to carry her than she realized? She began to feel guilty.
“Tuck your necklace into your shirt.” he ordered her suddenly, “And wear this.” He handed her a long, shapeless robe-type thing, woven out of a brown material. She put it on, and he did the same with another one of the same make, although it was a little darker in colour, and stuffed his trench coat into his bag. He even removed the red bandanna that he wore around his head, so that his auburn hair fell a little looser around his green eyes. He suddenly looked more normal, and less conspicuous, although he didn’t look happy about it.
“Should I ask what we’re doing?” said Ari in a slightly guarded way.
“We’re being less conspicuous.” said Byu, as if it were obvious. Which, it was, but that wasn’t exactly the answer she was looking for.
“Why?”
Byu sighed. “People in Altervast are very superstitious, for one. They hate magic, and they hate anything that’s out of the ordinary. They hate it if anyone wears clothing that’s different than what they wear. They hate it if someone is too good-looking, or too ugly.”
“Sounds charming.” said Ari.
“If by charming, you mean oppressive and single-viewed.” said Byu.
“That’s what I meant.” said Ari, “Short on sarcasm today are we?”
“Oh, that’s another thing.” said Byu, “They hate sarcasm.”
“Brilliant.” said Ari, “I mean, damnit.”
“That’s better.” said Byu.
“Can’t we go around?”
“If you’d like to ford across the rapids, and sleep out in the middle of the plains for a couple of nights, then yes.”
“That was sarcasm.” said Ari, “Right there.”
“Shut up.” replied Byu.

They reached Altervast as the sun was setting. Trying to look inconspicuous, they made their way through the streets. People were staring at them anyway, Byu noticed. He fiddled with his hair, pulling it over his eyes to disguise their strange colour.
“That’s not helping.” observed Ari, “Now you just look mysterious.”
“What would you like me to do?” he asked her.
She looked at him for a moment, seeming to scrutinize him. Finally she said, “Huh. I dunno. You’re just… not normal looking, are you?”
“No.” he said, “It’s hardly my fault.”
“I didn’t say it was.” she replied, and they walked on in silence.
Byu led them to one of the largest buildings in the city, an inn called “The Inn”.
“Very original.” said Ari.
“Watch the sarcasm.” said Byu.
“Who said it was sarcasm? I meant its avant garde.”
“That is not what you meant.”

The bartender was a large man, with short cropped hair, named Annon. He
seemed to tower over Byu, more than he remembered.
“Byu Ariz.” he said conversationally, “What brings you to Altervast?”
“I’m just sightseeing.” said Byu casually, “This is my assistant, Ari.”
“Strange name.” grunted Annon.
“Actually, its quite common where she’s from.” He answered.
“And where’s that?”
“Um…” said Byu, backpedaling, “I meant…”
“He meant, it was quite common when I was born.” piped up Ari, “It was named the most common name of the year in Bellan, so my parents decided to name me it, just to be sure.”
Byu shot her a grateful look.
“Hmm.” said Annon, “Well, I’ve never heard it before. But if you say so. Anyway, what can I do for you?”
“We just need a room.” said Byu, “And dinner, if you don’t mind.”
“I’ll have something set up.” replied the innkeeper, “Unless you’d like to come down for dinner. We’ve got the dueling bagpipe brothers tonight at seven.”
“I’ll think about it.” lied Byu and dragged Ari upstairs.

Dinner came up at eight, after the wailing of bagpipes from downstairs finally receded. It was brought by a plain-looking young girl with long dirty-blonde hair, who dropped the plate of food on Byu’s foot when he opened the door.
“Sorry!” she wailed as Byu helped her up, “I didn’t mean to drop it.”
“Obviously not.” said Byu. He smiled at her, then remembered that he wasn’t supposed to be drawing attention to his looks, and stopped. But the girl smiled weakly back and said, “Are you really Byu Ariz?”
“Uh.” he said, “Who told you that?”
“My father” She said, “He’s the innkeeper.”
“I didn’t know Annon had a daughter.” he cried, unable to suppress his shock.
“I…” she said, “I lived with my mother, in Cardalan, until the witch…” she stopped.
“I’m sorry.” said Byu, “What happened?”
“The bird people.” she said quietly, “They captured her. I don’t know if she’s still alive.”
“Can I tell you a secret?” he asked her.
She nodded, eyes wide.
“My friend and I are on a quest to stop the witch.” he explained, “We’re very close to destroying her forever. So if your mother is still alive, I’m sure we’ll be able to save her.”
Tears sprang to the girls eyes, “You’d do that?” she asked unbelievingly.
“Of course.” said Byu, “Its my country, right? What’s your name?”
“Anla.” she said, “My mothers name is Arana.”
“I’ll try my hardest to find her.” said Byu.
He closed the door, and set the tray down on the table. “I shouldn’t be making promises that I don’t know I can keep.” he said, half to himself and half to Ari.
“All you said was that you’d try your hardest.” she said, “I know you will. How could you not?”
“I’m giving false hope.” said Byu.
“You don’t know that its false.” she replied, not touching the food. She was stretched out on the bed, staring at the ceiling, “When my father died, I- I didn’t see the point of going on when he wasn’t there. But, then I thought Heck, I’ll see him again right? And when I do see him, I want him to be proud of how strong I was. How I was able to go on, even though I didn’t know if everything was going to be alright, at least I tried. At least I could think about the good times that I would have again. That’s hope. And if you have it, how can it be false? How can it be anything that isn’t good? Its believing- it’s knowing that you are, eventually going to be happy again. Hope’s a decision, Byu, and a decision is something that you tell yourself and only you. So how can it be false?”
And Byu honestly couldn’t think of anything to say to that.

They were woken up, either very late or very early, by Anla. She burst into their room dressed in a nightgown and slippers and roughly shook Byu awake.
“What?” he asked her groggily, “What is it?”
“Bird people!” she cried, “They’re coming.”
Ari sat up suddenly, “What?”
“The city is under attack!” she yelled, almost in tears, “You have to get out of here.”
Byu jumped out of the bed and grabbed their bags. He had not changed out of his clothes last night, and he noticed that neither had Ari. They were totally packed in about fifteen seconds. Anla watched in silent awe, although part of that may have been the fact that Byu was floating again.
Ari grabbed Anla, Byu grabbed their bags, and they ran downstairs. Out in the streets, people were everywhere, running every which way, most of them dressed in house coats. To the north the sky was red with fire and smoke. The awful screams of the bird people reverberated around the city.
Anla covered her ears with her hands and doubled over. Ari put her arms around the girl and looked up fiercely at Byu.
“We have to do something.” she said.
Byu nodded. As much as it might jeopardize their quest, they couldn’t just leave these people here to die. “First things, first. We have to find her father.”
Problem solved, Annon came running towards them, out of the house next door. “Anla!” he cried, “What are you doing outside with these people?” he grabbed his daughter protectively away from Ari.
“What’s going on?” said Byu sharply.
“We’re forming a group.” answered Annon, “We’re going after those things.”
“What?” cried Ari.
“You can’t!” agreed Byu, “You’ll die!”
“And maybe our families can get away while we do!” cried Annon fiercely.
Byu shook his head frantically. “No.” he said, “No, I’ll stop them.” he turned to Ari. “You have to…” he began.
Her mouth fell open in shock, “No, Byu! I’m not leaving you here with them!”
“I can handle myself! You need to get yourself and all these people out of here!”
She glared at him, fuming.
“Get them to the forest.” he ordered her, “They can make it to the city. Call the Plints.”
“And then I’m coming back.”
“No!” he cried, “Its too dangerous!”
“Exactly! What about you?”
They were interrupted by a huge blast from up the street. Two bird people flew at them suddenly. Anla screamed. Byu held out his hand, and one was destroyed in a flash of green light. He turned to the other one, but too late, it flew screeching at him. At the last second there was another flash that enveloped them in a circle of white. The Bird was thrown across the road, and landed motionless in a pile of gravel.
Byu turned to Ari, who had the crystal out and a fierce look on her face. She glanced at him quickly, then nodded, “Be careful.” She grabbed Anla and Annon, despite his size, and pulled them towards the house Annon had come out of. “We’re getting out of here.” she told them, and they disappeared into the darkness and smoke.
Byu looked after her for a moment, and then shot off in the opposite direction, towards the fire and screeches.

Chapter Six - A Large Bubble of Magic, and The Return of The Plints

Ari burst into the small hut, Annon and Anla in tow. It was small, and dimly lit, about a dozen men sat around, pacing, and sitting impatiently.
“Annon!” cried one as she pulled him in, “Where are the others?”
Annon mumbled something under his breath.
“We’re going to get them…” said Ari.
“Hurrah!” cheered the men.
“We are going to get them.” said Ari fiercely, “And then we are all going to get out of here!”
The man who had spoken first stood and walked towards her. He was a big, strong looking man, football player-type, and he towered over her.
“Who are you,” he said, “And why should we listen to you?”
“I,” said Ari, “am an extremely powerful witch. And,” she continued, lying through her teeth, “If you don’t obey me and come with me right now, so help me god, I will turn you all into toads.”
About half the men laughed, and the other half looked scared. A few looked mortified at the mention of magic.
“It’s true!” piped up Anla, “I saw her do magic!”
“Don’t say that word, Anla.” ordered Annon, but more of the men had stood up, and the tall man looked at Annon curiously.
“Did you see her do magic?” he asked seriously.
Annon mumbled something.
“What,” said the man, “did you see?”
“She did something with that necklace of hers.” said Annon sharply, “There was a flash of light, and she killed a bird person. By- the boy she was with did it too.”
“He said we should get out of here!” added Anla.
“And why should we listen to these outsiders, witches and magic!” cried the man, “Its all wrong!”
“Toads!” screamed Ari, “I will do it! All of you go and get your families, anyone you can find, head towards the forest!”
No one moved.
“NOW!” she screamed, “TOADS!”
Every one scattered. Ari grabbed Anla’s hand and they ran outside.
“To the forest!” they cried, “Out of the city!”

Byu sped further into the city, towards the fire. Fire, he thought, Where did they get fire?
A Bird Person flew at him and he deflected it quickly with magic, then rose up as quickly as he could above the city. The bird people were swarming the northern border of the city, the fire spread from there. Byu shot himself forward, half-falling for speed.
He landed on the back of a Bird Person. It screamed and flailed, trying to shake him off. Byu pulled out his Sword and slashed off its head. It made that horrible dying noise as he did.
The Bird People shot towards him, and there suddenly seemed to be a lot more. Now he understood why they made that noise, to call the others. To let them know that there was something dangerous to kill one of them.
He slashed out with his sword, sending waves of magic into them. Then he tried Ari’s trick of sending out a wave in a sphere. The Bird People crumbled, but so did everything else. Byu was left floating in a circular crater. Then, like water fills up a black hole, more bird People shot in after him. There seemed to be an endless amount.
Byu slashed out at them, magic in one hand, sword in the other. He shot into the air. The birds followed him up. He threw more magic in a sphere. More bird people were destroyed. This time, the next ones didn’t come close to him, afraid to get too far into his circumference. Byu used the relative calm to pant a little. That trick used a lot of magic. This was the kind of time when a magical artifact would be helpful.
Ari needs it more. He reminded himself, and shot at the bird people again.

Ari flew through the streets, Anla in tow. Annon had gone on ahead. Her voice was becoming harsh from her repeated cries of “Get out of the City! Head to the woods!”
They reached the western edge of town. People had been sent into the city to get everyone that they hadn’t passed, but Ari didn’t trust them. She gave Ari to a woman with two other children, and headed back in. People had gone to the east and south of town, but what about the people to the north? No one had wanted to go near the Bird People. Well, I’ve faced them before. She thought, I’m not going to run off now.
She raced toward the fiery streets and ran in. Once a chunk of falling debris almost fell on her, but she narrowly dodged it. What am I doing? she thought, This is crazy, I could DIE. But she kept going, despite the feeble protests ringing in her head.
It’s a dream. She reminded herself, Don’t forget, its just a dream. She sighed. No, its not, and dodged another falling piece of debris.
A scream came from the cottage next to her. She ran to the door, but recoiled when she tried to touch the handle. It was hot. That meant that there was fire inside, which meant that the person there was in danger. Ari hesitated for a moment, then wrapped her coat around her hand and shoved the door open.
It was like being enveloped by a wave of heat. She actually staggered backwards from the force of it. Almost instinctively, she grabbed the jewel around her neck. She held it tight for a minute, and then yanked it off. She held it out in front of her and performed the tricky task of concentrating the magic within it. When she had enough, she pushed it out in a shield around her. White light spread from it, cool and smooth feeling.
The fire shrunk away in a sphere around her. Feeling slightly proud of herself, but more concerned with keeping the shield up and finding the person inside, she raced into the building.
Fire was everywhere. If not for the shield, she would have been enveloped. She was walking not on the glowing embers of the floor, but on the smooth, slightly slippery bottom of her magic sphere. I must be allergic to magic or something. She thought distractedly.
The crystal was glowing bright and cool in her hand. Although it seemed to be holding up without any change, Ari knew how much magic she must be using. On the other hand, she had no idea how much magic was stored in the Crystal, so best to keep moving.
“Hello!” she cried out, “Where are you?!”
She heard an answering cry from somewhere to her left, and raced that way. In an instant she was out of the fire, although thick, poisonous looking fumes swirled around her. She kept the shield up and looked around wildly.
“Help!” came the cry again. Ari looked up. Above her was a balcony of what had once probably been an upstairs room, but the ceiling had partly collapsed. A young boy with dirty brown hair was clutching a pillar for support. He had a cloth across his nose and mouth to keep the smoke out, and his eyes were shining with wonder with the sight of what he probably thought was an angel.
“Hi,” called Ari, “What’s your name?”
The boy stared at her.
“Alright, listen.” said Ari, “What I need you to do is…” she stopped. How was she going to get him down from there? Now would be a good time for Byu to show up. She glanced around for something, anything to help her get him down.
“Okay!” she yelled up at him, “I need you to jump down, and I’m going to use this white thing around me to catch you.”
He stared at her, then shook his head in a somewhat petrified manner.
“No- look…” she called to him, “Um… you just have to trust me…”
He stared. Ari decided to try a different tactic.
“Listen up, kid.” she said smartly, “We don’t have much time. I never liked kids, so I might just leave you here to die, would you like that?”
He shook his head, eyes wide.
“Didn’t think so. So listen, that roof’s going to collapse soon, so you can trust me and jump now, or…” she grimaced menacingly, “You can wait until that floor collapses, and I run around underneath trying to catch you.”
The kid was now thoroughly freaked out, but he began to inch closer to the edge of the floor. Ari took a cautious step towards him.
Suddenly the wood beneath his feet crumbled, and he fell. Ari dived after him, and the boy fell into the white sphere around her, and landed on her back. It was all she could do to keep the shield up. She sat up, and the boy toppled off of her.
“I thought you said this stuff would catch me.” he complained.
“I thought it would.” she wheezed, “I wasn’t betting on you not being evil.”
“Huh?” said the boy.
“Never mind.” sighed Ari, “Lets get out of here.”
There was a great cracking noise from above them. Ari looked up to see the roof crumbling, just as she had predicted. A huge chunk of wood landed on the top of the sphere and it wavered slightly.
“Oh no.” said Ari.
“What?”
“Nothing, we just need to get out of here.”
She picked up the boy and they ran towards where she thought the door was, dodging chunks of flaming wood and crawling over sharp protrusions, and upturned tables. She slipped on the smooth bottom of the sphere and it wavered for a second, long enough for her to bang her knee painfully on the burning floor. She thrust all of her concentration into the crystal, and raced towards the nearest wall.
“Close your eyes.” she ordered the boy, and exploded her thoughts outward as they hit the wall. The white sphere blew outward, in a flash of light, and the whole house exploded behind them. Light shot into the sky and out in a huge sphere, with Ari and the boy crouched inside. The sphere exploded in a flash and a roar, and then there was silence.
Ari stood. The ground was physically undamaged although everything else looked like it had been hit by a windstorm. Carts were overturned, whole houses had collapsed, but the thing that relieved her most was that there was no fire for about fifty feet in every direction.
“Which way is the forest?” she asked the boy.
He pointed silently to the west, and they shot off in that direction. Luckily they were near the edge of town, and they reached it without having to go through much fire.
There was a large group of people walking swiftly up the hill towards the forest. They jogged for about ten minutes to meet up with them. Then they walked silently. No one seemed to want to talk to them.
“Where are all the other people in that part of the village.”
“Those… things.” said the boy quietly, “They took them… A few people got away, but I hid under my bed. Then they set fire to the houses.”
“How did they get fire?” asked Ari pointedly, “Did you see?”
“They had this… thing.” It was big… it looked like a lion… or a bird… or something…”
“A griffin!” said Ari.
“There’s no such thing as griffins.” said the boy looking at her curiously, “That’s just a fairy tale, isn’t it?”
Ari whistled softly, “Wow, this is weird. I’m the one who was saying that a few days ago. Are you serious, that you live right in the middle of this fantastic magical place, and you have no idea about it.”
“My dad said magic was evil.” said the boy, “And to stay away from people who did it. But you helped me.”
“Yeah.” said Ari, “I did. So what does that mean?”
“I dunno.” said the boy.
“What’s your name?”
“Tib.”
“I’m Ari. Nice to meet you.”
“Nice to save me, you mean.”
“No, that part wasn’t nice.”
Tib looked back at Altervast, “What’ll happen to it?”
“Don’t worry. My friend Byu’s in there. He’s more than a match for those bird things.” said Ari with more confidence than she felt.
Tib was staring at her. “Byu Ariz?” he exclaimed.
“Oh you know him.” said Ari, turning to look at him.
“Of course I do, he’s the prince. My dad said he’d be king soon.”
“And it doesn’t bother your dad that he’s a magician?” said Ari.
“He is not.” said Tib.
“Yes he is.” confirmed Ari.
“Really?” Tib sounded flabbergasted.
“Uh huh.” said Ari, “Really, where did you all pick up this unhealthy aversion to magic?”
“I dunno.” said Tib, “I thought that’s how everyone acted.”
So Ari explained to him what little knowledge she had of magic. She told Tib everything that had happened to her since the night that Byu came to get her, how she had found out about her father’s past, and decided to go on this quest with Byu. Tib listened raptly.
“That’d make an awesome story, Miss Ari.” he said when she had finished with her running into the house to save him, “I wonder how it ends.”
“So do I.” she said quietly, “Guess we’ll just have to wait.”
“You’ll tell me what happened when you get to the end, right?”
Ari nodded. The moon was beginning to sink low in the sky now and there was a faint glow behind them. It seemed like they had been walking for quite a while. Ari talked with Tib to keep her mind off of Byu. She hoped he was okay.
Finally the forest came into view. Ari ran ahead quickly and dove into the forest, Tib right behind her.
“Verdant! Ingo!” she called, “I never thought I’d want to see you again, but I need you!”
There was some high pitched giggling, and the sound of the raindrop song, and the two Plints came bounding into view, followed by at least a hundred more, all colours of the rainbow.
“Why, it’s the silly human girl!” squealed Ingo, “Where is Byu, what have you done with him? Who is that?”
“It’s one of the village peoples!” cried Verdant, “They don’t like us at all silly girl. They never come near the forest! No, never!”
“Well they’re coming now.” growled Ari, “And I suggest you accommodate them, or I’ll evaporate you both.”
“Eeek!” squealed the Plints together, “Human girl threatens us, that she does. Should we help her, and her Plint-hating friends?”
“Please do.” said Tib, “I don’t know what else we’ll do.”
Ingo flew towards him and jumped around bumping into his cheeks. Tib giggled.
“Ingo likes this boy.” said Ingo, “We will help him.”
“We must then, us,” said Verdant, “take half to city in mountain, and other half, go save Byu, yes.”
“Yes! Yes!” all the Plints squealed.
“Not without me, you’re not going.” said Ari.
The Plints drew themselves around her, looking very pompous for multicoloured drops of water. “We will take the silly human girl,” said Verdant, “If she promises to be nice to us.”
“I’m nice to you.” said Ari.
“No.” said Verdant, “You are not.”
“Okay, fine. I’m not. But that’s because you’re not nice to me. I’m not a silly human girl. My name is Ari.”
The Plints scowled. Actually, they made a scowling sound, as they were not actually able to scowl, being raindrops.”
“Fine yes.” said Verdant finally, “We will call silly human girl Ari, and take her to Byu, if she is nice to us, yes?”
“Yes.” chorused the Plints.
“Ingo and Plints ones, take people to mountain city, Verdant and Plints twos, take Ari to river village, okay.”
And they scattered. Ari found herself with wet, almost solid things all around her, lifting her into the sky, and they were flying into the sunrise, towards Altervast, and Byu.

Chapter Seven- A Short Chapter with an Excess of Plints and A Floating River

Byu was lying hidden underneath an upturned trailer. He leaned up against the side, panting heavily. He swallowed and closed his eyes for a moment.
Suddenly the trailer exploded. Byu barely had enough to throw up a shield, but the heat still scalded him. He crawled out from under and grabbed his sword. A Bird Person was there, and it held a large chain in its claw-like hand. The chain was around the neck of a huge black griffin, much larger than Cobalt. It didn’t look evil though, just wild and panicked. Its huge sky-blue eyes darted around furiously, and it tugged weakly on the awful thick metal collar around its neck.
Byu stared at it a minute too long, and barely had enough time to block a fierce attack from the Bird Person with his sword. The sword slashed it’s long feathered arm, and deep blue blood flowed out. It screamed.
Byu cursed, and jumped into the air. He looked around wildly, but he already knew what he would see. They were coming for him. Blue-black shapes crept along the ground and flew up around him in a circle. They stayed that way for a split second and then shot at him, all at once.
Byu covered his face with his arms, and it was a good thing he did because immediately after, there was a brilliant white light that seemed to envelope him, and all the birds around him. He blinked, and saw Ari pelting towards him out of the sky, the Crystal held out in front of her. Several black bodies fell to the ground around them in a circle.
Whomph. Ari crashed into him at full force. They both went reeling. Ari began to fall and Byu was barely able to grab at a metal bracelet that she wore around her wrist. It cut into her hand as she fell, but slowed her enough that he was able to grab her around the arm and pull her up.
“Aah!” Ari screamed, “Damnit, Byu. What was that for?”
“I was saving your life.” he snapped back, “What are you doing here? I told you to stay in the forest.”
“Yeah right!” she said scrambling onto his back. “Because you’re doing so well on your own!”
She screamed again as another Bird flew at them, its talon narrowly missing her cheek. She ducked behind Byu’s head. Byu shot green magic at the Bird Person, and it screamed and fell down to the inferno that was the city.
“Well, now what?” he shouted, “I don’t suppose you brought reinforcements.”
“As a matter of fact…” said Ari and something wet his Byu in the face.
“Agh!” he slapped at it, and it emitted a high pitched giggle. For once, Byu wasn’t annoyed. “Verdant!” he cried.
“Hello Byu!” giggled Verdant, “We bring you human girl yes! And Plints bring the river! Smart Plints yes?”
“What?” cried Byu, “The river?”
“Yes, yes!” squealed the Plint, “The river! See? See!”
Byu turned and did indeed see the river coming at them.

“Whoa.” said Ari aloud. A great stream of water flew over the city, held in place by thousands of multicoloured shimmering droplets, blended together. Then a light caught the stream and nearly blinded them with colours. The sun was rising over the mountains to the East. Lights danced over the flaming city, dispersed from the river by the bright sunlight.
Some of the light hit the Crystal dangling from Ari’s bloody hand, and it started to glow. Ari looked down, amazed to see the cut on her hand closing as the light hit it, and felt power emanating from the crystal.
She looked at Byu. His eyes were flickering with soft green light as he watched the flowing river. But was it just a trick of the light, or could it be…
“Magic.” she said simply.
Byu nodded, closed his eyes and stood up a bit straighter in the air. “Those Plints.” he said, “They’re a surprising bunch.”
“What now?” said Ari.
She was answered almost instantly as the Plints began to spread out. The River of water became a blanket, that filled up the sky. The sun rose higher and the sunrise showed purples, reds, oranges and blues. The light catching the blanket in the sky was almost unbearable.
Then it began to rain. Light drops fell slowly from the sky. Most of it was clear, sparkling water, but every now and then, Ari thought she saw a glimpse of colour, and heard the snatch of a raindrop song in the patter on the rooftops below.
“Look.” said Byu, and pointed. Black, smoking shapes were emerging from the dousing fire, their screaming was somewhat muffled, as if it was being smothered. A black shadow seemed to flow out of the city and to the forest in the South.
“The Witch.” said Ari, “That’s where she’ll be, in the forest there.”
Byu, noticing the tone in her voice, said, “Not yet, Ari. We need that chain. That’s our first quest.”
“I know.” said Ari, “But we know that she’s there, why can’t we just go-”
“Get ourselves captured and killed.” finished Byu with a slight smile, “Its not safe to go near her with that crystal while she’s able to wield it.”
“I know.” said Ari, sounding disappointed, “But I hate sneaking.”
“Well good.” said Byu, now floating them slowly down to the city, “Because she knows where we are now. She probably won’t come here again, the Plints can keep her away, but the sooner we leave, the less time she has to make a decision, and an ambush.”
“Ambush.” said Ari, alarmed, as they touched down softly.
Byu nodded grimly, “No trusting anyone. I hate that.”
“So we should go then.” said Ari, “Plints!”
“Verdant appeared out of the air. He was almost indistinguishable from the rain except for his bright green glow, and annoying high-pitched voice. “Here human girl!”
“Can you get everyone back here and protect them from the bird people. Watch over them sort of.”
Verdant bounced up and down in a Plint nod, “Yes, yes human girl. Plints decide to liking city and people! We, some of us, stay here and annoy Altervast people, help them with stuff, yes!”
Byu shook his head resignedly, smiling in spite of herself. “I’m sure they’ll love that.”
“Plints will love!” said Verdant, “That’s what matters!” and squealing with laughter, he zoomed off.
Byu watched him leave, then turned to Ari, “I suppose that’s our cue to leave as well.”
Ari nodded, “I’ll say.”
Byu offered her his arm, she took it, and together they left Altervast, quickly and quietly, as if they had never been there at all.

Chapter Eight- In Which Ari Cleverly Gives Herself a Concussion

Byu was floating above the grass, lost in thought, the tops of his feet absentmindedly skimming the dewy grass. He glanced over at Ari, who was staring at the sky.
“What’s that?” she said staring at a glowing spherical object amidst the clouds.
“Magical Concentration.” said Byu, “You get them from time to time, usually after there’s been a lot of active magic in the air.”
“Like a rainbow?” said Ari.
“Sort of.”
“Oh.” said Ari and went back to staring at it.
Byu glanced at her discreetly. With the absence of her pack (they hadn’t been able to get to them through the ruins of the inn to find their things) she seemed airy and carefree, walking lightly over the grass, almost as if she was floating herself. But something seemed to be bothering her.
“Are you alright?” he asked, trying not to sound intrusive.
She glanced at him, and he noticed she was fingering the Artifact lightly in her hand.
“I’m fine.” she said, “I… I’m just…” she paused, “I don’t know. I feel like, my father, everyone… made…”
“A mistake?” said Byu, “From what I’ve seen they didn’t.”
“That’s just it.” said Ari, “From what you’ve seen…”
“I see a lot, Ari. More than most people.” she glanced at him again, with a slight smile. “I’m not trying to brag, or anything.” he said quickly, “Its just the way I am. And you… don’t… won’t see… yourself.”
He felt stupid the moment he said it, and wished he could take it back. There was an awkward silence. Byu dropped to the ground, and started walking, so that his footsteps would make a noise, swishing through the grass. Hers were silent.
“Thanks, Byu.” she said finally, “I know.”
Then she changed the subject, and got him to tell her more about magical concentrations.

“We’re sleeping in the open?” cried Ari to Byu, several hours later.
“The next city’s another day’s walk.” said Byu, “So unless you’d like to walk all night…”
“I wouldn’t.” said Ari quickly.
“Then we’re sleeping here.” said Byu, “Don’t worry, we’re on a hill, so we’ll be able to see if someone’s coming.”
“And they’ll be able to see us.” she replied.
“Maybe.” said Byu, “But its better than the alternative.”
“Slightly.” said Ari, “I don’t want to fight any more bird people. I’m tired of fighting. And I’m tired of being on a quest. Since when do quests take so long anyway?”
“Actually, I think they usually take longer.” said Byu as he lay down on the grass, “That’s how it usually is in books and stuff right?”
“Well, it doesn’t take this long to read.” said Ari, “How long have I been dreaming for now? And I still can’t fly.”
“You flew.” said Byu, propping his head up on his elbow, “How else did you get to me?”
“The Plints carried me.” said Ari with a shiver, “Don’t remind me of it.”
Byu gave one of his mischievous grins, “Why do you want to fly so badly anyway? I thought you hated heights.”
“Well, if I could fly on my own, I wouldn’t need to be afraid of heights would I?” she snapped, having him smile at her made her irritable, “Now if you don’t mind, I’d like to sleep. I have an exciting day of walking ahead of me tomorrow.”
“Right.” said Byu. “I’ll take the first watch then.”
“Watches.” mumbled Ari, half asleep already, “I hate watches. I won’t sleep all night, you’ll see.” and she promptly went to sleep.

Ari sat with her back against a rock. She was trying to stay as uncomfortable as possible so that she didn’t go to sleep. The hill they were on was rather high up, and the moon was almost full, so she had a good view of the surrounding land. There was a lot of mist lower down, and far off to the east she could see Altervast, and the forest beyond that. If she looked to the north, the forest met up with a high mountain range, and to the south, the forest dwindling, and disappearing into the plains. Bellan was very far away. Home was further. She took herself mentally back to Bellan, flying over the forest, and through that door at the palace gates. In her mind, she burst out of the tree and ran back, back to her room, her bed, her safety.
Then she forced herself to open her eyes, and she was back on that cold, misty hill, in a strange world that felt familiar, but at the same time, utterly strange. She glanced at Byu, who was asleep on the ground with his back to the large tree on the hill. Asleep he looked even younger, his face not reflecting at all the wisdom and knowledge behind it. He was so... safe. That was it. She trusted him, more than anyone she had ever trusted anyone in her life. Except maybe her father.
He's like him. She realized, Byu. That’s why I feel like I know him. The more she thought about him, the more similarities she noticed. The same determined selflessness, the same open kindness. Why hadn't she noticed before? I haven't thought of my father. she realized, Not for a long time. Not really.

Byu woke suddenly sensing her staring at him. He quietly opened his eyes, and found himself looking right at her. Instead of quickly averting her gaze, as she would normally do, she held it for a while, just looking at him. They stared at each other for a while, until he finally looked away, feeling slightly uncomfortable. His cloak slid off of him as he sat up.
"What time is it?" he asked quietly.
She shook her head, I don't know.
He watched her staring off into the distance for a moment. "You look tired." he said finally.
Nod.
"Is something wrong?"
Her eyes snapped back onto his. "No." she said softly, in a why-do-you-ask manner.
"Go to sleep." he said, "I'll watch for a while."
She nodded and crawled under the cloak. She was still staring at him.
"Are you sure you're okay?" he asked again.
"Mmhm. Sorry."
"Don't be." he said softly, but he thought she was already asleep.

"I'm just worried." was Ari's only explanation for the way she had acted the night before. Byu hadn't asked for an explanation, she had just given it, suddenly, as they trudged silently over the grasslands towards the mountains. Well, Ari was trudging, Byu was floating again. "I get... wierd," she continued, "when I'm worried. I'm sorry."
"You don't have to apologize..." began Byu, slightly taken aback.
"But I feel like I should." she countered, "For, you know, making you put up with me and everything."
Byu was silent for a few seconds. There were all sorts of things he could say to contrast her claim, but he wasn't sure any of them would cheer her up. "You know..." he said finally, "Just because you're worried... you don't have to get depressed. I mean, maybe you can't help it, but what about hope? We really can do this, you know. Get that chain, and go back there and stop the witch. We're half way there already. We can do this."
"But I don't want to!" cried Ari, "I'm scared! I just..." she closed her eyes and swallowed, "I want to go home."
Byu floated down to stand beside her, feeling rather awkward, and not knowing what to say. Truthfully, he was blaming himself for getting her into this mess, and forcing her to come, when he shouldn't have. He should have given Lycoris the Crystal, he realized now, and sent Ari home. But he'd wanted her to come. He'd been selfish, and it was him who should be apologizing all the time, not her.
He sighed heavily, "Look at us." he said finally, "We're both messes aren't we. A tiny bit of pressure and we lose it."
She looked up at him and he was embarrassed to see that she was crying. "You haven't lost it." she said accusingly.
"Ah, well, maybe I'm not quite as... subtle about it as you are, but I totally have." he assured her.
She stared at him for a moment, and then a small smile grew on her lips, "You," she said, "are so weird."
"It comes with being royalty." he agreed in a long-suffering voice.
"Must be annoying." she said, wiping her eyes. "All right." she said in an official-sounding voice, "No more losing anything. Except that jacket," she nodded at the offender; "You can feel free to lose that jacket."
"You don't like my jacket?" said Byu, pretending to be very much hurt.
"Its ugly." she said venomously, "It looks like the last person to wear it got thrown out of cadets for swimming in a lagoon with it on."
"Ouch." agreed Byu, "Okay then. If you can get it off of me, you can do whatever you want with it to dispose of it." and he jumped six feet in the air, just out of Ari's reach, and raced along the grass, with Ari chasing wildly after him.

"So," said Ari as she climbed over the rocks that had suddenly appeared on the plain, "Where are we going now?"
"Well," answered Byu as he pulled her over a particularly evil looking one, "The necklace is supposed to be up the mountain somewhat. I had meant to fly there, but up ahead there's a small trading village, called Sarin. I know a few people there, and we might be able to get a guide to help us up the mountain."
"Why can't you just fly us up there?" asked Ari.
"We can partly, but I can only stay in the air so long before my magic runs out."
Ari stared at him, "You've been floating for a couple of hours now."
"At a foot off of the ground." answered Byu calmly, "More altitude, more magic."
"Why?"
"No idea. Magical physics. Ask Lycoris."
"I will. You'll just have to... remind me..." she grunted as she climbed up a steep part. She put her foot down gratefully on the top of the rock and felt her foot slide out from under her. She barely heard Byu scream her name, and felt a falling sensation, before there was a dull thunk and everything disappeared.

She came to with a pair of large black eyes staring at her.
"Ah!" She shot up and then grabbed the back of her head, where she felt a bandage, as well as a considerable amount of pain "Ow! What happened?"
"You fell." came Byu's voice from somewhere to her left. She squinted, and he came into view, sitting on a table too her left, and looking slightly worried, she was pleased to see. "You had a concussion. How's your head?"
"How do you think my head is?" she fairly snarled.
To her astonishment, Byu burst out laughing.
"What?" she cried, "What are you laughing at?"
"Sorry," he said, grinning widely, "I was worried about you. I'm glad you're back to normal, is all."
"Hmph." said Ari, and looked around, despite the throbbing in her head. The black eyes that had been bent over her, she saw, belonged to a small figure, now hiding behind a large red armchair.
Sitting in the armchair was the most interesting man Ari had ever seen. He had very black skin, and very white teeth, which he flashed in a smile at her. A large turban was tied around his head, and he wore long, yellow and red robes. His beard was nearly as black as his skin, cut into a goatee, and his eyes were sharp and keen. He stood and gave a sweeping bow.
"Good day," he said, in a middle-eastern accent, "I am glad to see you awake. His majesty was very worried about you..."
"This is Ankh." said Byu, "An old friend of the royal family. And behind the chair is his daughter Keya."
A bushy dark head popped out, and Ari caught a glimpse of cute, but delicate features, on a very shy face.
"She's usually quite talkative." laughed Ankh, "You seem to have her infatuated."
"Or scared out of her wits." said Ari, getting up slowly, "It’s quite a bit more likely..."
"You're so negative." interrupted Byu, rushing over to steady her, "At least you're okay."
"Moderately." Ari agreed, "Where are we?"
"Sarin." said Byu, "A trading town at the base of the mountains. Ankh says he can lead us part of the way up the mountain."
"Okay." said Ari, touching the back of her head tenderly, "Lets get going."
Byu smiled widely, "I want to show you around first. This is one of my favorite places in Bellan."
Ankh turned to Byu, "If you don't mind, I'd like to take her to see a healer first. I'm afraid I'm not much of a doctor." He bowed low to Byu, who bowed back.
"Nor am I." he agreed, "Ari, will you go with him?"
"As if I have a choice." said Ari crossly.
"Well, I mean, if you'd like to take the chance of permanent brain damage, be my guest." said Byu, folding his arms and trying to imitate Ari's cross look.
Ari, Ankh, and Keya, still behind the chair, burst out laughing at his attempt.

Byu examined a jewelry booth as he waited outside the healers for Ari. As much as he wanted to stay here for a long time, he knew they couldn't. He was enjoying himself, but there was always that nagging feeling pushing to the front of his mind. Actually two. One was We have to hurry, the bird people are going to attack Bellan City. and the other was, We're so close... its just up the mountain. Everything we've fought for.
He shook his head to get rid of the worry, but it wasn't in his head. It was, at the moment, carving a deep pit in the bottom of his stomach. It felt like acid, burning away at his insides.
I need food. He thought, and bought a tiny dangling earring, which he stuck in his one pierced ear. It was tradition for Bellan babies to have their ears pierced, but when he had been three, the left ear had gotten infected and grown over. It had hurt him so much, that his father hadn't made him get it repierced, and Byu had just never worn earrings, despite it being so common. I can wear just one. He thought, People on Earth just wear one. Why do I care what people on Earth do? He shook his head again, getting used to the weight of the small jade crystal.
Ari emerged from the healers tent. She gave him a strange look.
"What are you doing?" she asked, one eyebrow raised.
"Shaking my head." he replied simply, as they headed back to Ankh's tent, "How's yours?"
"Fine." she said, still giving him the look, "Just a concussion. It hardly hurts anymore. Why are you wearing an earring?"
"Because I... felt like it." he said, "Why, does it look dumb?"
"Uh..." said Ari, "I guess not." and lapsed into silence.
"It looks dumb." he confirmed a few seconds later.
"No, it doesn't look dumb!" she cried, laughing, "If you think it looks dumb take it out!"
"I don't know what it looks like, I don't have a mirror." he said, "That’s why I asked you."
"It looks fine." she said, "I don't care what you wear, honestly."
He glanced at her. She was looking around at Sarin. It was a city of tents, and merchant’s booths. A conglomeration of artists and practitioners from all around Bellan and farther, the city was one of different languages, culture, and race. Set up against the large Bellan mountains, it was a beautiful, almost mystical place. But he wasn't paying attention to that.
"Are you acting weird?" he asked her, "Or is it just me?"
"I'm not acting weird!" she said defensively.
"Okay, okay." he reassured her. "You're not. It’s just me. I'm weird."
"Yes." she said, "You are. You seem nervous."
He sighed, and they walked on in silence. "I'm worried." he said finally, "About... everything."
She grabbed his hand lightly. He was a bit startled. They had held hands before, but it had always been for practical reasons, him helping her up and such. Now she was walking through the safe, peaceful city of Sarin, his favorite place in the world, and holding his hand, because... because she... wanted to comfort him?
"I'm worried too." she said. Or she wanted him to comfort her.
"Its gonna be okay." he said, "We've got our unstoppable hope right."
She laughed. "That’s right. You have an earring, and I have a concussion."
Byu grinned. This place was definitely his favorite in the world.

It was night, but the city was not asleep. Bonfires raged, and drums were being played in such a way that Ari thought she could almost hear a tune to them. She supposed that was the point.
She was walking around the city with the little girl, Keya, who was giving her an animated tour. Now that she was over her initial shyness, she was very happy and upbeat. Despite her aversion to young children, Ari found that she liked Keya very much, and didn't mind that Byu had already shown her most of the things that Keya was pointing out.
"Where is Byu?" she asked Keya after they checked out a booth where a man was selling richly coloured carpets.
"I don't know." said Keya, then she looked at Ari slyly, "You like him, don't you?"
"What?" said Ari, "I- I mean, of course I do, he's my friend..."
"Thats not what I me-ant." said Keya in a singsong voice.
Ari shook her head at the little girl. "You don't know what you're talking about." she said, "You're too young."
Keya stuck her tongue out and made a funny noise, "Then why were you holding hands when you got back?" she asked, but before Ari could think of an answer, Keya pointed and squealed, "Look there they are! Hi Byu! Hi Papa!"
He was sitting in the window of one of the mud huts, watching a lively play around one of the bonfires and laughing. Ankh was with him, and they were talking a bit, while still playing attention to the play. The fire danced in Ankh's dark eyes, and Byu's green ones, making it seem like the firelight was coming out of them.
They approached, Keya throwing herself into her father's arms and both of them smiling widely. Byu glanced at Ari and laughed.
"What?" said Ari sharply, suddenly self-concious.
Byu laughed again at her seriousness. "Its nothing," he chuckled, "Just the firelight is making your eyes wierd, like there's fire in them or something."
"Yeah, you too." she laughed.
"Really?" he smiled, and looked into the fire. Quite suddenly, Ari had a very strong desire to kiss him. She gasped and looked away quickly. What was that? she asked herself sharply, Its the stupidest thing you've thought since you got here, and you hate physical contact and...
"Ari." said Byu suddenly, suddenly making her look up guiltily, "What is it?"
"Um-" said Ari, at a loss for what to do or say, "Nothing. Or something, but nothing really important- I mean-"
Byu was looking at her with an almost amused, but concerned look. The wierd desire to kiss him was gone, but she still... liked him. Oh no, she thought, Keya was right. What do I do?
"I - don't feel good." she invented.
"Well, are you okay?" he asked, jumping down from the window.
"Oh, yeah, I'm fine, I just need to- sleep."
"Do you want me to take you back to the tent?"
Damnit, Byu. Stop being so nice. She thought angrily, Slap me or something, so I can be angry at you!
"Nope." she said, trying to sound chipped but tired, the result being that she sounded totally out of it, "I can find my way back." she said sternly.
"Um-" said Byu, "Okay, good, because I' m not sure I can."
She laughed and then suddeny bent over, actually feeling sick now. "Okay." she said, "I'm going." and she took two steps and doubled over, puking.

Okay, so basically, this is what the Crystal Artifact looks like, right now. The first one is the one that Ari actually owns, and the second one is what I thought it might look like.

I love you all. I really do.

Chapter Nine – Feelings of a Romantic Sort and A Big Glowing Door

Byu set Ari gently on the couch back in Ankh's tent.
"Will she be okay?" he asked Ankh, who was standing at the door, having sent Keya to bed.
"I expect she will be fine." he assured Byu, "She's had a rather trying time, I suspect. What with you dragging her all over Bellan and such.
"Yeah." said Byu softly, "I know that, thanks."
Ankh nodded curtly and said, "I shall be in the next room then."
As he left, Byu looked back at Ari's sleeping face and brushed a stray lock of fair hair off her pale skin. Despite the fact that she had just puked all over the road, he really wanted to kiss her.
If I were to kiss her, it would be best to do it while she was asleep. He thought, and leaned over her so that his forehead was almost resting on hers. Then, stunned momentarily, he drew back.
Don't be a jerk. He told himself firmly, That's like, harassment, and besides, what if she were to wake up?
He got up from the couch, and walked to one of the tent posts, leaning on it for support, and breathing heavily.
"I-" he whispered to himself, "Was not supposed to let this happen."
"Why ever not?" said Ankh, making Byu jump crossly. Apparently the old man had not left the room after all.
"Not what?" said Byu, not bothering to keep the annoyance out of his voice.
"Not-" said Ankh, "Kiss her? Is it a crime to like a girl, Byu?"
"For me it is." said Byu under his breath.
"What was that?" said Ankh.
"You heard me." answered Byu, not meeting the man's eyes.
"My dear boy," said Ankh, slowly and deliberately, "Are you punishing yourself for no reason?"
"Its not no reason." said Byu, struggling to keep his voice down, "Do you want to know something? When I was fifteen there was this girl I really liked, so I asked her out on a date, and then I kissed her."
"Yes, alright." said Ankh, "So?"
"Well, it turned out she didn't like me, she just went out with me because, I don't know, she thought I was cute, and felt sorry for me."
"Ah." said Ankh, "Well, it’s happened to the best of us."
"I wasn't finished." said Byu, speaking in a nearly emotionless monotone, "After I- kissed her... she..." he paused, then continued, "She decided that she did like me after all and..." he sighed, lowering his voice to a breaking whisper, "She said she was in love with me... but- you know... I don't think she really was..." and he looked up at Ankh, his eyes stinging painfully, "Do you?"
Ankh looked down, and then said quietly, "So it’s true is it? You can seduce girls."
"I can't." said Byu venomously, "Can't... or won't. It’s the same thing isn't it?"
"No." said Ankh, "It's not."
Byu gave a dark chuckle and began to walk towards the door.
"Wait." said Ankh, quickly, "Regardless of that, Byu, I don't think Ari is the same as that girl that you liked two years ago. If she does like you... then it's genuine."
Byu laughed again, softly, and without humour, "What's genuine?" he said sadly, "Not me." and he grabbed his jacket and walked swiftly out of the tent.

Ari awoke staring at the cloth ceiling of the tent. She had a horrible feeling in her mouth, and felt a bit weak, but she also had a really nice feeling, like you get when you wake up and remember that your holiday starts today, or you had a really great time the night before...
"Oh crap." she said out loud, "Byu."
"What about him?" said a little voice from beside her.
She jumped into a sitting position, "Keya!" she said in an involuntary scolding voice, "What are you doing?"
"Watching you sleep." she said, giggling, "Daddy said to watch you while he went out to get supplies for the trip up the mountain."
Ari sighed and lay back down again, she always felt groggy in the mornings, and this one was especially bad. The sunlight seemed to be filtering into a tent in a horribly annoying manner, just to offset her feeling of dread. It was like the Plints, only less wet.
"How did I get home last night?" she asked, looking back up at the ceiling.
"Byu carried you." she said, "Then he talked to Daddy a bit and left. He didn't come back, but Daddy said not to worry about him."
Ari turned her head so she was looking back at the dark-skinned little girl, "He's not back still?" she said, trying not to sound too worried.
Keya shook her head, kinky black curls bouncing, "No." she said quietly, then she smiled, "Maybe he's with some girl." she was back into her sing-song voice, "Would that make you jealous, Ari?"
"Shut up." she said, "No." She sat up and swung her legs off of the couch, moving seemed to help her head somewhat, "Where are my shoes?"

Byu was, in fact with a girl. But not in the way that Keya had been implying, as this girl only seemed interested in him because he was feeding her. Every now and then they would pass an early-morning booth selling bread or rolls of some kind and he would buy her some.
He had spent the night in a little patch of trees on the side of the mountain, sleeping on the ground, which he was quite used to by now. He had thought about going back, but he didn't want to talk to Ankh or Ari until he had sorted out his thoughts a little more, which he had never gotten a chance to do, because he had fallen asleep.
He had been woken up early by a light tugging on his sleeve, and had opened his eyes to see a little blonde girl with big, brown eyes and a tattered dress looking at him curiously.
"Do you," she had said, "Have any food?"
"Um..." he had replied, rubbing sleep from his eyes, "No..."
She stuck out her bottom lip, "Could you buy me some?" she asked, tilting her head a bit. She was obviously very good at this, and could easily get food from any stranger she asked, but he didn't really mind, and consented to buy her a loaf of bread. When she continued following him, even after the bread had been consumed, he had started a simple conversation with her.
"Where are your parents?" he had asked.
"Dead." she said, looking a little bit shy about it.
"Oh." he said, "Mine too."
"Do you miss them?" she asked, looking up at him, brown eyes shining.
"Yeah." said Byu, "Sometimes. What about you?"
She shook her head animatedly, "No." she said, "They died a looong time ago."
"Really?" he said, thinking that for her that could have been any time in her short life, "That’s too bad. Who do you live with then?"
"Oh." she said vaguely, "Just me."
"Yourself?"
"Yep." she said happily, "All by myself. Do you live by yourself?"
"Oh." he said, "No, I have... a tutor... and a big sister."
She shivered. "I don't like big sisters." she said, "They're always bossing you around."
"You have a big sister?" he asked.
"No." she said, still in the same chipper voice, "She died too."
"Oh." said Byu, he was starting to think that this girl was a little bit strange, "What’s your name?"
"Serena."
Serena. He had heard that name before. Why couldn't he remember where?
"What's your name?"
"Huh?" he said, snapping out of a daze.
"I said," she said persistently, "What's your name? I told you mine."
"Oh." he said, still a bit out of it, "Byu."
“Byu.” she repeated, twisting the simple word in her mouth. She seemed to think for a moment, and then looked up again at him happily, “That’s nice. You’re nice.”
Byu smiled back at the boisterous little girl. “Thanks.” he said, “You are too.”

Ari was eating breakfast when Byu finally returned. She was surprised to see him with a little girl.
“I thought you didn’t like children, Byu.” she accused through a mouthful of porridge. Act Normal, she instructed herself, you were not thinking about kissing him last night. No, don’t think about that!
“Well…” said Byu, “This one is following me around.”
“He likes me.” announced the girl, “He said so.”
“I did?” said Byu, but it was obvious that this was true. Ari didn’t blame him. The little girl seemed nice. Like Keya, only, more somber, in a way that she couldn’t place.
“Hi!” said the girl, skipping up to Ari, “I’m Serena! What’s your name?”
Ari swallowed a mouthful of porridge. “I’m Ari.”
Byu turned to her. Was she imagining that he looked somehow wary? “We should leave soon.”
Ari nodded, “Ankh says we’re ready to go. We were just waiting for you.”
“Yeah…” he replied, “Sorry about that. I just had… some stuff to think about.”
He obviously didn’t want to talk about it - which was good, because she didn’t either. She was almost certain that he had guessed about her newfound affection, and had been deciding on the best way to break it to her that he didn’t feel the same way at all.
“Where are you going?” asked Serena curiously.
Ari made eye contact with Byu, wondering how much she should tell the strange girl. He shrugged. Ari rolled her eyes, thanks for the help, and said, “We’re going up the mountain… to find something.”
“Oh!” said the girl, eyes wide, “Like a treasure?”
Ari nodded, relieved, “Yeah.” she said, “Exactly.”
The little girl smiled. “Okay!” she said cheerfully, “Well, have fun!” And she skipped out.
There was a momentary silence as they stared after her.
“How strange.” said Ari presently, “Byu, you attract the strangest people.”
He grinned, “Does that include you?” But she was sure he looked uncomfortable. Why did she have to be so obvious about it? Why couldn’t she hide her feelings? Why?
She groaned and dropped her spoon into the porridge.

Byu was on edge. He couldn’t talk to her. He couldn’t do anything. Watching her trudge up the mountain path next to him was torture. He wanted to scream out Ari, I like you! I know I shouldn’t, but I can’t help it! What do I do?! But he couldn’t. Even if he could make his mouth work, he could never say something like that.
Why not? Insisted a little selfish voice in his head, why don’t you deserve to have the girl you like? What’s wrong with being happy?
I won’t do it. He repeated, over and over again in his head, I won’t, I won’t, I won’t.
“Um, Byu? What are you doing?”
Byu looked down. In his frustration, he had been shooting little bursts of destructive magic from his hands without realizing it. The ground was littered with little holes where the magic had hit the ground.
“Oh.” he said, “Sorry I was bored.”
He knew what her normal reply would be. Well, then talk to me! Tell me about magical currents; tell me about other worlds… Tell me about you! But she didn’t say it. Instead she just hung her head and let out a demure “Oh.”.
He stared at her. Okay, so she doesn’t want to talk to you. That’s good. Leave it at that. But he couldn’t. Talking to her had become so routine, so normal, so wonderful… that to walk along side her, and not talk to her… It was… it was almost painful.
“Hey,” he said. She looked up at him, quickly, worriedly, but her eyes still took his breath away.
You are in trouble, Byu. Big trouble. Good luck getting yourself out of this one.
“Tell me…” he said, ignoring the voice in his head, “Tell me about your father.”
So she did.

He knew. It was obvious, thought Ari. He had been about to tell her, and then gotten scared, and stopped. She didn’t want to talk to him. She didn’t want to hear his polite interjections, and soft, gentle laugh. It was all too perfect, and she knew that too soon, it would be gone forever. She couldn’t stand it.
We’ll still be friends. She told herself firmly, we can always be friends. Why can’t you be happy like that?
But the trouble was, she knew exactly why not. It wasn’t that she didn’t like him as a friend. She did. He was probably the best friend she had ever had. But he was more than that… it was something different, that she couldn’t quite place- a sort of need for him, an ache in her chest that she wouldn’t have lifted for the world. Somehow, in some unfathomable way, she knew that if that ache ever left, it would have to be ripped from her, and it would leave a hole emptier than death- a hole where her heart had been.
Ari forced her thoughts out of the way, and concentrated on telling Byu about her father. She had known her father very well, all the nuances of his personality, his opinions on things had been second nature to her, but she now realized she had known nothing at all about what he did.
As her monologue fell short at the description of his career, Byu began talking. He told her more about being a Guardian, small things that she had never thought to ask, but were interesting all the same. It was a dangerous job, she realized, not something to be taken lightly, and yet- he had never talked about it. It was always just, How was work? Fine, how was school? Fine. Why had she never thought to ask him more about what he did? Why hadn’t she told him more about what she did? There was so much she hadn’t said, so much she hadn’t told him. She had always assumed that they would have forever to talk, forever to be there, together. Well, she wasn’t going to make the same mistake with Byu. Every moment in which he stalled in telling her his feelings, she was going to talk to him, to be with him. Even if it meant pretending nothing was wrong. She could do that, couldn’t she?

The trek up the mountain was long and perilous, but for the most part, possible. Until they reached the cliffs. The trail turned a corner and that was it. It ran headlong into a solid vertical wall.
“Huh.” said Ari, “On Earth, dynamite would have fixed this.”
“And here magic would have.” said Byu, “If this wall wasn’t the only thing holding the mountain up.”
“Oh.” said Ari, staring at the wall of rock, “Well, I guess, what’s-his-name didn’t hide the chain here for no reason, did he?”
“Oayu. Nope.” agreed Byu, shading his eyes and looking upwards. “Well,” he said, “I can see the top. That’s a good sign.”
Ankh laughed. “Yes, indeed.” he said, “But I’m afraid this is where I leave you. Unless you would like to carry me up as well.”
“No thank you.” said Byu, “But thank you very much for guiding us. I would have been lost tenfold by now if it weren’t for you.”
“It was an honour, your majesty.” said Ankh, and he turned and headed back down the path.
“Well,” said Byu after a moment, “Are you ready for this?”
“Um…” mused Ari, “No.”
“Me neither.” agreed Byu, “Too bad we don’t have a choice.”
“Ugh.” said Ari, “Can I close my eyes?”
“Sure.” said Byu, “Can I too?”
She mimed punching him, and he laughed, flashing her his dazzling smile. Well, she thought, At least now that I’ve decided I like him, I can look at him without feeling guilty.

Stop it. Byu told himself firmly, Stop trying to make her like you. Stop being so nice! Never mind, forget about it, concentrate on the cliff.
“You’ve been this high before haven’t you?” asked Ari, “When we were attacked by the bird people outside Bellan City.”
“That wasn’t this high.” he explained, “And it wasn’t for as long either. And I wasn’t carrying you the whole time either.”
“Are you implying that I’m fat?” asked Ari, examining the wall for cracks, “Can’t we climb?”
“Actually,” said Byu, “I was implying that I’m a wimp, and no, because I can’t guarantee that I’ll catch you, and you don’t want to anyway.” he raised his eyebrows at her, “Do you?”
“Do you know what I want, Byu?” she turned to him, placing her fists on her hips and cocking her head smartly.
He smiled at her, feeling guilty, “What?”
She hesitated, as if debating saying something. Then she shook her head, still grinning. “I want…” she announced, “Ice cream.”
“Ice cream.” laughed Byu.
“Yeah.” she said, “Vanilla ice cream. I haven’t had some in a while.”
“Well.” said Byu, “When we go back to earth, I’ll make sure to take you out and buy you some ice cream.”
She grinned. “Okay,” she said “Great!” Her smile was so overpowering that Byu knew if he didn’t look away, he might end up on his knees, professing his love to her right there… which would not be good.
“But,” he announced, struggling to act calm, “First we have to climb this mountain, and get that chain. All right?”
Ari sighed exaggeratedly, “All right…” she said slowly, “Don’t drop me.”
“Don’t worry.” he replied, I’d die before I let anything happen to you.
He caught the words before he could say them out loud. How lame would that sound?
Ari walked to him and climbed onto back, clamping her arms around his shoulders. She had done it several times before, and he had thought nothing of it, but now- suddenly, it was a test of willpower. It was all he could do not to collapse under her weight, to keep from touching her face when it was so close to his.
Concentrate. He told himself, You have to go all the way up the cliff face, with Ari on your back, and we’re at a high altitude. Concentrate.
“Okay.” he breathed, “Here we go.”
They began to float upwards. Ari gave a little squeal and clamped her eyes shut. Byu smiled at her for a second and then concentrated on his ascent. The cliff face was enormous, and they flew upwards for more than five minutes before Byu thought he could even make out the top. After another moment he said, in his best pilot’s voice, “And if you’d care to open your eyes, there is an excellent view of Bellan directly behind you. No, wait…” he spun around, “Now it’s in front of you.”
“Um…” said Ari, “Are we high up?”
“Don’t look down.” he commanded, “Just look forward.”
He felt her nod, and then heard her gasp as she squeezed her eyes open.
“Oh.” she said breathlessly. Then after a moment, “Is that an ocean?”
“Uh huh.” said Byu, “It marks the border of Bellan.”
“What’s past it?”
“The ocean?” he shifted her on his back, making her tense and grab his shoulders painfully, “Ow- Nothing, as far as we can tell. It’s just ocean.”
“Don’t you have like, planes and stuff?”
Byu shook his head, “Bellan’s not a technologically based world. It’s different from Earth in that respect. There’s a huge debate over the benefits of technology verses magic, and whether all the worlds should be made to accept technology, or magic.”
“That’s daft.” said Ari.
“Yeah.” said Byu, “The debate will never go anywhere. The mere thought of trying to get all the magical worlds to accept technology is hugely daunting, never mind the other way around. Can you imagine what people on Earth would do if they were suddenly told that they couldn’t use cars any more.”
Ari thought about it. “Yikes.” she said finally.
“Exactly.” agreed Byu.
“But…” said Ari, “That doesn’t explain why people on Earth don’t know about magic at all.”
“Ah.” said Byu, “Now that’s another large debate- one that’s a bit more logically based. In the scale of worlds, Earth is actually quite large, and because of its large population, and huge amount of charted land, it has one of the highest numbers of active portals. So, why doesn’t the general population know about the portals?”
“I guess…” said Ari, “I can think of a few reasons.”
“Right.” said Byu, “So can the Council of Guardians. As long as they can keep providing reasons why not to let Earth in on their secret, they will probably never be able to.”
“What about the guardian of Earth?” asked Ari, “Shouldn’t he have an important opinion in it?”
“He did.” said Byu, “But there hasn’t been a guardian of Earth in two years.”
“Oh…” said Ari, “Right… my dad. But… why doesn’t someone else do it now?”
“The next guardian is appointed by the previous one. Your father never appointed anyone, so they have some idiot filling in right now.” grumbled Byu, “He can’t really do anything professional though.”
“Oh.” said Ari.
“Yeah.” said Byu, “And now I need to concentrate.”
Ari didn’t say anything more and he gave his concentration over to the difficult task of elevating them up the mountainside.

After what seemed like hours, they finally reached the top of the cliff. Byu rolled over as they scrambled onto the rocky ledge and lay flat on his back, staring at the sky, breathing heavily. Ari stared at him for a few moments.
“Are you gonna be okay?” she asked finally.
“Yeah.” Gasped Byu, sitting up and smiling wearily, “Just give me a moment.”
Ari nodded, and proceeded to unpack the day’s lunch. She handed Byu a sandwich, and they sat in silence for a few moments, eating. Ari was trying to work up the courage to ask Byu the question that had been on her mind for the last few minutes.
“Um… Byu?” she began.
Byu looked up from his sandwich.
“Where are we going?”
Byu smiled. “Check the Crystal.” He replied and went back to eating.
Check the Crystal? Slowly, Ari pulled the white pendant out of her shirt. It was glowing softly.
“Lycoris said that the closer we got to the chain, the brighter it would glow.” Explained Byu
“Oh.” Said Ari, “How come I didn’t know that?”
Byu shrugged. “Should you have?”
“Well, what if something had happened to you?”
Byu looked taken aback. “I never thought about it.” He said honestly, “I’m sure I would have used my dying breath to inform you of anything really important.”
Ari rolled her eyes and finished her sandwich. Byu packed up the leftovers and slung them around his belt nonchalantly.
“Feeling better?” said Ari, eying him.
“Yep.” Replied Byu, “Just had to recharge. Good thing too,” he continued, “Because there are supposed to be a bunch of obstacles guarding the chain.”
“Obstacles...” repeated Ari.
Byu nodded and shrugged, “I’m sure after what we’ve been through, it’ll be nothing.” He said seriously.
“I hope so.” Replied Ari warily, “Still, I’d rather it just be sitting there waiting for us to take it.”
“It will be.” Laughed Byu, “Once we get past the obstacles. But if it was too easy, any old person might have come across it and taken it right?”
“And we’re not any old people?” replied Ari.
“Well, I’m not.” Said Byu, “From what I’ve seen you aren’t either.”
Ari laughed, “You haven’t seen much.” She said bitterly, “Just me trying to keep myself alive.”
Byu smiled, and looked down, as if he didn’t agree but knew it was impossible to change her mind.

“Is this it?” Ari looked up from her crystal, which was now glowing so brightly that it almost hurt her eyes to look at it.
“I assume so.” Replied Byu, walking up to the apparently solid wall of rock in front of them.
“It’s a wall.” Remarked Ari unnecessarily.
“Yes it is.” Byu nodded and began to examine the rock inch by inch. “It’s also the entrance to the caves we’re looking for.” He stepped back from the wall, grinning, and pointed to a small crack. Ari went to where he was indicating and bent over to look. There was a small, circular hole in the sand-coloured rock, just the right size for the crystal.
“Imagine that.” She said with a grin and Byu laughed.
Ari bit her lip and pulled the crystal from around her neck. It felt strange to not have it’s familiar weight resting there, and she gripped it tightly by the clasp as she inserted it into the hole. They both waited, Ari’s back cramping slightly from bending over.
“Um…” she said finally, “Now what?”
Byu strolled over and looked bent down to examine it.
“Dunno.” He said, “Maybe turn it on?”
“Yeah, you know… make it do it’s glowy thing.”
“Oh.” Laughed Ari, “That.” And she concentrated on the crystal until it glowed a brilliant white.
Immediately the glow spread from the crack to illuminate previously invisible patterns and writings in the wall. The words were in strange symbols that Ari couldn’t read, but that still looked vaguely familiar.
“It’s Bellanese.” Said Byu, as usual seeming to read her thoughts, “But it’s an extremely old form. I suppose it would be.”
“Yeah…” said Ari distractedly, watching the pattern spread slowly outwards from the crack until it formed definite outlines, and more cracks appeared, manmade this time. A magnificent door had appeared in the wall, of which the crystal was the centre- a fiery white flower that everything seemed to flow from and into.
Somehow suddenly knowing what to do, Ari grasped the crystal tightly and pulled it to the right. There was a grand, clicking noise, and the door swung open, revealing a dark, tomb-like interior. Ari glanced at Byu, who gave her a reassuring smile, and floated up behind her. Then, taking a very deep breath, Ari pulled the crystal from it’s keyhole, and holding it out in front of her for light, she stepped into the cave, with Byu behind her.

Chapter Ten- In Which Byu Cheats at a Test of Strength and Ari Cleverly Solves a Riddle

“So, what was it that Lycoris said was guarding this thing?” Ari wasn’t sure why she was whispering , but it seemed like a safe bet, all things considered.
“I think there were supposed to be three tests,” replied Byu, who was carrying her again. It felt safer to be pressed up against him, possibly because he was wearing a sword.
His voice echoed a bit down the long empty corridors and Ari jumped, almost falling off of his back.
Byu laughed, and grabbed her legs to steady her, “Um, not that you seem worried or anything, but it’s highly unlikely that there’s anything alive in here. Didn’t you hear that hissing noise when the door opened? That meant that the whole cave has been sealed since Oayu left it that way however many years ago.”
“I know that,” snapped Ari, although she had forgotten, “What about robots?”
Byu laughed again, “Robots?”
“Yes.” Said Ari, “Robots. Big giant ones that look like suits of armour, and don’t need to breathe air, they just sit there waiting for you to innocently walk by them and then they chop your head off!” she demonstrated by whacking the side of her hand into Byu’s neck violently.
“Ow!” cried Byu, “That hurt!”
“Not as much as the robots will hurt you!” whispered Ari, but she was laughing now, despite herself.
“Yeah, well I’ll keep my eye out” grumbled Byu, “But after dealing with you, I think killer suits of armour should be a breeze.”
“Oh thank you.” Said Ari, thoroughly miffed, “Thank you very much.”
“I meant it in a good way.” Byu assured her, but she gave him another whack, just to be sure.
“So then, what were you saying?” She said when he had finished complaining.
“Tests.” Replied Byu, “Three of them. Magical, physical, mental.”
“Excellent.” Said Ari, rubbing her hands together, “I can totally do the useless coward one. Oh wait Oayu forgot about that one. How inconvenient.”
Byu nodded, “It’s the physical one I’m worried about.” He said seriously, “I was never one for lifting weights.”
Ari bit her lip. “Me neither. What do you think?”
“I think we should just worry about it when we come to it.” Said Byu, “Which should be soon.”
“I hope so.” Said Ari, “I hate waiting.”
Suddenly she was thrown from Byu’s back by some heavy invisible force. The two of them were hurled in separate directions, hitting the rock walls on either side of the cavern and then sliding to the floor. Ari moaned in pain and tried to stand.
“No!” cried Byu, who was already on his feet, “Stay down. It’s a manifest, I’ll handle it.”
“A what?” gasped Ari, backing against the wall as Byu drew his sword.
“A manifest,” Said Byu, concentrating so that the sword was suddenly sheathed in glowing green light, “A magic monster.”
“Can you see it!?” cried Ari, sounding more than a little hysterical, even to herself.
“Yeah,” said Byu, dodging out of the way of whatever it was, “Look, just protect yourself from it, okay? The crystal’s magic won’t work against it.”
“I don’t even know where it is!” Ari sputtered, but Byu was hardly in a position to reply. He was fighting now, and although Ari couldn’t see his opponent, and it looked as if he was just fighting against nothing, it was obvious that he was good at it. He stayed in the air, hovering and dodging at different levels, every now and then striking and hitting something metal-sounding. Ari wondered if his unknown adversary had a sword, or if it was actually made out of metal. Maybe it was a suit of armour!
“Ari!” Yelled Byu, distracting her from her irrelevant observations, “Put up a shield or something!”
“Oh!” said Ari, “Right.” And she grabbed the crystal, molding it’s now familiar magic into a white, diamond hard sphere around her. As the clear magic passed in front of her vision, the manifest that Byu was fighting came into sharp vision.
It was ugly and beautiful at the same time, made purely of a dark blue, glowing magic. Its form was uncertain, it kept changing, its limbs and size adapting to whatever suited it at the moment. The moment Byu hit at it with its sword the blue form hardened and deflected it so that it hardly made a mark, and all the while it was swinging at Byu with it’s arms- at first big, lumbering things, and then slippery tentacles that Byu had to swipe at with his sword while backing out of reach.
Suddenly Ari figured out what needed to be done, “Byu!” she called out. Byu’s eyes flicked to hers to show that he had heard her, but he wasted no breath at speaking, “Use your magic!” she yelled, “You’ve got to get it from behind! But don’t let it know what you’re doing!”
Byu jumped to the ground, and rolled to the wall next to her, causing the magic thing to lumber across the room after him- it was too big to be fast as a whole. “What are you talking about.”
“You have to like, make a thing.” Said Ari frantically, “Like a magic thing! Behind it!”
Byu stared at her, glancing warily at the rapidly approaching monster, “I can’t…” he said, “I don’t know what you’re talking about!”
“Agh, Byu! Don’t you ever learn anything from Lycoris?! Like this!” Ari demonstrated by conjuring a small ball of magic behind Byu’s back and pelting him with it.
“Ow!” Byu flinched and glared at her, “Okay, I’ll try.”
Ari bit her lip so that it hurt and mentally crossed her fingers, wishing that she could help somehow.
Byu ran back to the monster and jumped into the air, pulling his sword out and hitting it so hard that he went flying backwards and landed heavily, but on his feet. The manifest swayed backwards, seeming slightly disoriented, and Byu took the advantage to summon up what looked like a huge amount of magic, his eyes glowing from the effort. In what seemed like hours, but couldn’t have been more than a few seconds, a huge, glowing ball of magic appeared behind the blue monster, crystallizing and pulling itself into being from what looked like the air around it, but Ari knew it was really Byu. As she watched, he raised his arms into the air, concentrated for a single second, and then threw himself backwards, pulling the magic with him and flipping over repeatedly, and slamming into the wall. Ari managed to throw out some magic to cushion the impact, but it still must have hurt.
She was concentrating on helping Byu, and she didn’t see the ball of magic hit the manifest, but there was a terribly loud splitting sound as it hit, and blue and green magic flew everywhere, pelting the sides of the cave, and bouncing off of Ari’s protective shield, and then falling to the ground in harmless dust and disappearing.
Ari waited a moment, to make sure it was really over, and then ran to Byu, who was sitting on the ground with a dazed look on his face.
“That was cool.” He said, grinning at her.
“Are you okay?!” cried Ari, grabbing him, and feeling for broken bones, for once not even noticing their close proximity.
“Yeah, actually.” Said Byu. He grinned again, “I must be getting better.”
“Yes.” Said Ari, “Or you’re in shock. Are you sure you’re not hurt?”
“Well.” Said Byu, shifting stiffly, “My back hurts a bit where you hit me with your demonstration.”
She hit him again.
“Ow!” he glared at her bemusedly, “Why do you keep doing that?”
“You deserve it.” She told him, “Come on, get up.” And she helped him to his feet. “What was that?”
Byu laughed, “Your suit of armour. Magic style. Magic manifests are just beings made of magic, created by a person, usually with only one function. In this case, it looks like it was to defend the crystal from any invaders.”
“So was that one of the tests?”
Byu nodded. “The magical one, obviously, because only people with magic can fight it.”
“Great.” Said Ari, “One down, two to go. How’s your magic holding up?”
“Okay.” replied Byu honestly, “Hopefully I won’t need much more.”
“Well…” said Ari after a moment, “That was the magical test.”
Byu nodded, “Yeah. Next up is probably physical.”
Ari gulped. “We’ll let you handle that one shall we?”
“Um…” said Byu, “In case you hadn’t noticed, I’m really good at flying off whenever something physical is going on.”
“Well then how on earth are we going to pass this stupid test?” cried Ari.
“I don’t know.” Byu sighed, and lifted Ari onto his back, “But it’s not as if we have a choice.”
“No, I suppose not.” Agreed Ari, and they continued down the tunnel in silence.
The crystal spread only a small circle of light around them, which Ari didn’t want to increase, for fear of draining it’s magic. It was eerily creepy, wandering along the musty dirt tunnel, with no view of what was ahead or behind. Ari tightened her grip around Byu, and if he noticed, he said nothing. He was walking now, to conserve magic, but he didn’t seem to have any problem with holding her up. He’s stronger than he admits. She thought, unsure of exactly why this made her so happy.
“You know…” she said after a minute, “I think weirdly around you, Byu.”
It was hard to tell, but Ari thought he might have stiffened slightly, before relaxing a bit and replying, “What do you mean?”
“I mean… you know. My thoughts get all weird and irrational. Random things make me happy, or sad…”
Stop it. Said a sharp voice in her head, Why don’t you just tell him you’re in love with him while you’re at it, eh? While at the same time time, another voice countered with, Yes, Ari. Why don’t you? Do you really think you’ll be satisfied just going through your whole life being his friend when obviously…
“Ari?” she was shocked out of her inner battle by Byu’s query, “Did you hear me?”
“Eh?” she said dazedly, “No… what did you say?”
“Just that I…” began Byu, then stopped, “Oh. Nothing. Never mind.”
“Never mind…?” repeated Ari, still a little dazed.
“Yeah.” Confirmed Byu, “It wasn’t important.”
“Okay…” began Ari, then broke off, and said suddenly, “What’s that up ahead?”
“I can’t really see.” Said Byu, “Looks like the tunnel gets wider or something.”
“I wonder…” said Ari and then they walked out into the open cavern and stopped, because all around them, torches were lighting up, on an impossibly huge cavern, made, not of dirt, like the rest of the tunnel, but carved stone, and bricks, forming huge arching pillars and rooms. Directly ahead of them, the floor cut off, and a huge pit fell into the darkness, so that the bottom could not be seen, although it was obviously a long way off.
“Hey, look!” pointed Ari, “There’s a big door over there, across the pit. That must be the entrance to the… you know, place where the thing is.”
“Yes.” Said Byu, “So we fly over. What’s the catch?”
They waited for a moment, but no catch presented itself.
“I don’t get it.” Said Ari, “Byu, how smart was Oayu?”
“I dunno.” Said Byu, “I always thought he was about as smart as Ringast.”
“Oh.” Ari thought about that for a moment, “Right, so we fly over.”
“I guess so.” Replied Byu, and they proceeded to do so.
The catch finally decided to present itself when they were about halfway there, in the form of a very large spike that fell from the ceiling. Ari screamed, and Byu dodged backwards as another fell from the sky heading directly at them. Byu flew backwards yet again, and they landed in a heap on the original side of the cavern, apparently safe from flying spikes.
“Oh.” Said Byu, “That was dumb.”
“You idiot.” Agreed Ari, standing up and brushing herself off, “Ringast is smart, isn’t he?”
“What?” said Byu, “What does that have to do with anything?”
“Oh never mind.” Snapped Ari, “How do we get across?”
“I honestly have no idea,” Byu replied, scratching his chin in a way that Ari couldn’t help but be amused by, “It’s supposed to be a physical test, right? So you’d think there’s be a bridge or something, so we’d just have to dodge…”
“Maybe we’re supposed to like, jump from spike to spike as they fall?” suggested Ari.
Byu stared at her, “You play way too many video games.” He remarked.
“I do NOT play video games.” Replied Ari, deeply offended.
“Right.” Said Byu and, folding his arms, proceeded cautiously towards the gap. Slowly he inched his foot out, until it hung over the edge of the precipice just slightly. Immediately a long spike fell from the ceiling towards it. Byu barely had time to pull his foot back before the spike whistled past.
“Well this is stupid,” he said exasperatedly, “They have to stop eventually.”
“I don’t get it though.” Ari shook her head, “Oayu wouldn’t have set an impossible obstacle. He wanted someone to get the chain eventually. Right?”
“Right.” Agreed Byu, “And furthermore, someone without magic, because the crystal was supposed to only be in the hands of a Guardian of Earth, who of course, would have no magic, and not be able to use the crystal.”
“Eh?” said Ari intelligently, “You lost me.”
“Wait, that makes sense!” cried Byu suddenly, not hearing her at all.
“What? What makes sense?”
“Oayu wanted to make sure that only the Guardian of Earth could get the chain, so that the witch, or anyone with magic couldn’t get it and use it. That’s the same reason only someone without magic can put the crystal back onto it’s chain. So that the Guardian can be the only one to decide if the crystal’s full power is needed, and give it to the person who will use it to destroy evil.”
“Okay, you’re sounding like Lycoris.” Said Ari crossly, “What are you going on about?”
“Only you can cross this, Ari,” said Byu, staring at her triumphantly, “because you’re the Guardian.”
“What? No I’m not!” countered Ari.
“Yes, you are.” Said Byu, “The Guardian of the Crystal. Your father appointed you when he gave it to you.”
“He did? But- Byu.” A scornful look crept it’s way across Ari’s face, “How am I supposed to get across that?” She gestured at the wide chasm, “Maybe if I could use magic but…” she trailed off.
“Um. I hate to say this, but I think it’s just above the chasm that you can’t use magic.” Said Byu testily.
“Yeah,” said Ari with a blank look on her face, “So?”
“Well… you can use it on either side of the chasm.”
“Uh huh. So?”
“Um… you might have to like… launch yourself across and then… catch yourself on the… other side.” Byu’s speaking slowed as he caught sight of Ari’s furious glare.
“You want me to do what?” she said in a low, monotonous voice.

Piczo