SkyEarth Book 2: The Ethaerium Keys

Prologue: The Tale of Nicole Part 1

"Mommy! Daddy! Look what I can do!"

Little Nicole was climbing up a tall willow tree in the forest near her family's cottage, her long black hair whipping in the wind. She was clinging to the branches tightly and deftly moving her hands from branch to branch with the skill and grace of a monkey. Her parents were carefully watching her from the porch, smiling happily. The day reflected the whole family's mood with an open blue sky and the warm bright sun shining over the forest clearing where the cottage stood.

They were a very happy family.

The father, Andrew, worked as a local doctor for the denizens of a town near the forest, the mother, Sarah, provided her husband's patients with the right herbal medicine, and little three year old Nicole helped her parents the best she could. Their small cottage stood in the middle of a clearing in the middle of the woods, very open to the sky. The quaint little abode was boxy in shape, the walls made completely of yellowish stone, the roof made of red clay tiles, square windows with green wooden shutters and plant boxes full of medicinal herbs, and a red brick chimney.

There's also a garden at the back in which Sarah and Nicole grew vegetables and other herbs for medicine. In warm days like this the mother and daughter would get their hands dirty in the garden, watering the vegetables and digging through the fertile soil. Sometimes Sarah would get a bit mischievous and dabbed some small bit of earth on her daughter's face, and she would try to get dirt on her mother's face in return.

Life for the family in the forest had always been simple, quiet, and peaceful.

That was until two burly thugs tore the family apart one night.

...

"Sleep my precious Nicole..." Sarah sung softly to Nicole who lay curled in her bed upstairs in the roof. "Good night, you feathery little soul, Hope you dream of wonderful things, Listen to this soft voice sing, And may tomorrow be full of more wondrous times to come..."

Little Nicole whimpered softly, her lips curled into a soft angelic smile. Sarah couldn't help but smile in return. Nicole's smiles were always very contagious, she had thought. Her daughter was so very friendly to anyone she meets and she never fails to make anyone's day as sunny as her disposition. Sarah pulled the blanket over her little girl. Little Nicole looked so cute when she's sleeping, her hand clutching to her little stuffed doll of an owl. Sarah brushed a kiss on Nicole's forehead before going down the ladder to the first floor of the cottage. Andrew was sitting at a dining chair, reading a leather-bound medical journal. He smiled when he saw his wife climbed down the wooden ladder.

"Sleeping soundly, our Nicole?" asked Andrew, pushing his glasses back over the bridge of his nose.

"Sleeping peacefully as an angel." replied Sarah smiling, her deep black eyes shining like the midnight sky.

"That's good." said Andrew, closing his journal and laying it on the table. "We should be getting to bed as well."

"Yeah." said Sarah. "The herbs should be ready for picking at dawn so Nicole and I should wake up early for picking."

The couple walked together to their bedroom just below Nicole's. There was only a bed for two, two side tables with a lamp on each side of the bed, a closet and mirror, a desk and chair with books, papers, and pens, a door that leads t a small bathroom, and a window where they could see the stars. Once they got in, Sarah and Andrew change into their sleeping clothes: the husband had took his glasses off and wore a white cotton pajama top and blue striped bottoms, and the wife a beige frilly nightgown.

As they were getting to bed, Sarah felt an icy sensation creeping up her spine and shivered for a second.

"Hm? Is something wrong, honey?" Andrew asked when he noticed his wife shudder for a bit as if a cold breeze brushed her skin.