The Elitra: Book One

Chapter Ten

Airena made her way through the woods carefully. She picked her path, weaving through thick trees, having to squeeze by when the growth became denser; she slipped down an embankment and almost fell into a brook. She'd luckily been able to save herself by grabbing the edge of a tree branch to keep her from spilling into the water.

She was finally able to get a grip with her feet. She took in deep breaths and tried slowing her heart.

She tread more carefully as she eased herself down the rest of the bank and used a couple of the rocks to cross the moving water. She hopped the last of the brook and parted a patch of blue flowered bushes. She climbed through, a few of their branches swiping across her face and arms.

She kept going picking her way through. The forest was quiet with only the chatter of animals, squirrels that ran across tree limbs, birds that perched and flew through the leaves singing as they went.

She shifted the pouch of gemstones on her shoulder again, the heavy bag dug into her shoulder blade. She tried shifting the sharp edges again when she suddenly heard the hissing whispers again.

She stopped and looked around. At first she thought it was just the rustling of leaves in the winds, but as she stood listening carefully she remembered she'd heard it coming from the strange black sphere she'd picked up between the walls.

She dropped the heavy bag from her shoulder and opened the drawstring. She peered into the shadowed depths of the bag and reached in feeling for the smooth orb.

At the opening of the bag the sound was even louder with her ear right next to it. Her hand wrapped around it and pulled it out.

She let it roll to the center of her palm and she stared at its grey and black pattern. It was a beautiful stone. She'd just never heard of one like it.

"What are you, I wonder," she muttered and turned it over. There were no embellishments or flaws in the stone's hard surface. It was perfectly round and a gem cutter's dream.

Elitra

She swung around almost dropping the stone at the sudden voice she'd heard. But looking around no one was there.

Her face scrunched as she stood confused and then looked back down at the stone in her hand. The voice had been so strange. Far away and distant, with a hissing angry sound to the word. But this time she had heard something specific. It had said Elitra. She didn't know what it meant but at least it hadn't been another whisper she couldn't understand again.

She starred at the orb in her hand, becoming transfixed with its perfectiveness. She shrugged and shifted her weight as she put the stone back in the bag. She hefted it back on her shoulder and continued on.

But while she had put the stone away and closed the bag the hissing whispers returned. Almost immediately after the drawstring pouch was tied shut again. She had to siddle around trees and squeeze through boulders but still the voices followed her.

They were becoming angrier it seemed, as the hissing increased. She felt as if she were being followed by a pack of hissing cats, except the noise was originating from the pouch at her back.

She came to a tree that grown with five separated limbs that had then grown into a massive five-headed monster. She sat down at the large tree's base, between where two of the trunks melded together.

She needed a rest anyway and slid her back down the bark until she was sitting where their fork met the ground of orange pine needles.

She dipped her hand back into the pouch and searched for the orb. She felt a heat before her fingers found the actual stone.