The Ancients (Book#1)

Ch.12- Twisted Love

Rhea was ahead of him, walking past many demi-beast, all smiling as they saw her. Thinking to himself he wondered why they loved her so much, why he even opened that door this morning, why he even let her touch him, he could have broken her arm in a single word of his magic.... So why didn't he. Just like watching a prey from a distance he could see Rhea through the crowd, thinking of course that he was still following her. But the erg to see what was beyond that stone wall, it made him itch with excitement actually, just the thought alone made him want to tear down that wall and see beyond it. So he closed his eyes, waiting, seeing, to know, if his body would move on it's own, but in an instance that feeling fled away when he met the eyes of a small, delicate child with pointed ears, like a dog, wagging her tail in front of him.

Kneeling down to the young girl in front of him she held out her hand, as if she wanted to give him something. Holding a hand out to the girl, she placed a stone, a red, jet black stone on his palm. She just smiled and ran off as he closed his hand around the stone. Stuffing it into his pocket before he saw Rhea storming towards his.

"I don't want you getting lost so now i'm just gonna hold your hand!" Her voice was rough and seemed to be excited though. Again he couldn't wrap his head around the thought of why he let her do so. Walking through the crowds of demi-beast, he looked at her hand, her hand seemed normal enough as did the rest of her, he'd seen that morning.

Can I ask why you don't look like your." He paused his words as if to think about how to phrase it. "Demi-beast companions..." All she did was let out a long sigh, looking at him with a smile, of peaked interest in his question it seemed.

"I'm a shifter... a gift only given to those who know magic, in my kind." That one statement alone peaked Clay's interest, indeed it did.

"Will I be able to ever see your other form then?"

"Oh! You do know of magic then, I was going to explain to you what a shift was, but it seems to my best knowledge that you know very well what a shifter is."

"Yes, I very much do know what a shifter is, in fact I faced one plenty of times before coming to meet your people, hunt me down... that is." She laughed, but how could she know, that he himself was a shifter, back in his days of being a king that is, but he didn't lie about seeing one every time he looked in the mirror, he could see the eyes of someone else, no something else.

"Well thank you for saving me the trouble." Before he knew it he stood in front of a temple, well that's what it looked like. "This is the entrance to the lost kings temple." His long stare at the building gave him away. "I know, it's crazy that it would be sitting here of all places." Placing a hand on the door, before he could even notice his body do so. It glowed a bright white in the ancient letters written all over the two giant stone doors, but it stopped and he knew why too.

"I can't open it, if that's why you brought me here, I can't open it." Rhea gave him a long look but it changed in an instant.

"I didn't think you would..." Behind those words it seemed to have anger behind it but he kept that thought hidden behind a straight face.

"Sorry, it's just that I don't have enough magic yet... at least not for awhile... and I know that to the best of your knowledge that the legend states..." He paused before saying it, it hurt his soul just saying it. "It states that I need to have found love again..." His straight face changed to a long yet scarce one. "Love... is in beauty.... But it is also found in chaos... that's what it says." She looked at him dumbfounded, and he let out a slight laugh. "That's what it says on the door. I didn't think you would be so surprised by that sentence." She gave him a soft, but hard shove on the arm as she wrapped her arm around his.