The Golden Hexagon

CHAPTER 6

She walked into the forest, farther than what most people would explore and found a clearing. She sat on a stump and looked around. The trees were so more densely packed than from outside the clearing, no one would know that there was a clearing that lay beyond it. She gaze at the moss covered ground, and the high looming trees. There were a few logs of rotting wood nearby.

Everything looked so poetic.

She tore her gaze off the bottle green leaves of the tree, and unslung the bag her mother had packed for her. She unpacked and saw what was in the bag.

There was a small wheel of cheese, dried vegetable sticks that were tied together by a coarse thread, a few slices of bread, two loose, brown tunics, a sleeping bag, a water gourd, a strange stick like object which she had seen her mother put in the bag, a pair of slippers, an old, brass compass, a map, the container with the food the two of them had made in the morning, the book Aurora had brought from the library, and the letter which her mother had mentioned.

The food would last for about a few days, but she would have to find a source of water soon.

Seeing Kaira nowhere near her, she opened the book, and turned the pages. The writing on the books were with so many elaborate flourishes and curves, that it took her a moment to identify the letters. She closed it once again, and tried reading the name of the book. The history of the Golden Hexagon, it said. She opened the first chapter and took a moment to look at the pages.

The Six Maidens

The six Maidens were born out of His mercy and kindness. The six of them - the Maiden of Trees, Wind, Air, Snow, Water, and Earth were sisters. And like all sisters, they fought very often as well. The Maiden of Trees and the Maiden of Earth often calmed them down. With time, they became wiser and more mature, and after a few hundred years, they decided to part ways.

They each created a town, and joined all of them with golden roads, thus forming the Golden Hexagon. All was peaceful, and it was a time of prosperity.

One day, the Maiden of Snow was gazing at her fair skin in a pond, looking at a small mole on her nose, when the Maiden of Water, one of whose Powers was to see anyone through the water, saw her gazing at her reflection. Being the one who jested the most among the six, she took the opportunity to tease the Maiden of Snow.

The legend goes that the Maiden of Snow plucked the mole out of her face and threw it as far as she could in the ocean, forming a small island where all those with evil minds lived. A few years passed, when the people from that island, who had named themselves the Black Hole, attacked the Maidens. The Black Hole was easily defeated, but before they left back to their island, their leader, Gar'eka swore that he would be back, this time, overcoming the Maidens.

The Maidens were about to return to their own towns, when The Seer, a wise old man, with a beard as long as the length of his body spoke to them, warning them that the Black Hole will come back, but the Maidens could not defeat them. It was their Descendants who would.

This event deeply disturbed the six Maidens. They left their towns, leaving it to their Descendants with special Powers, and journeyed to Koralana - the geographic center of the Golden Hexagon - to reside with the residing Goddess and the One Who Created them, only to go dormant a few hundred years later, unable to bear the amount of evil emerging in the world.

Scary. So this was what the Black Hole was. These were the people attacking them. Aurora was tempted to read the next chapter as well, but decided against it.

Aurora gulped a mouthful of water and looked at the pages once again. There was an old painting of the six Maidens on the left page, but despite being a painting, their eyes seemed to bore into Aurora's. The colors were so vivid, that it was as though she had seen them in real life. All of them had differently colored slanted eyes, and limbs that looked like they were carved with perfect proportions.