The Adventures of Isabel

Saviours Forgotten

Part 1-The Bear

It was a dilapidated old house, the one on the corner of the Snake Way and Port-wine Road; it had been that way my whole life and probably all my parents lives too. There were rumours that a crazy old lady had lived there. Everyone thought that she had probably died, but no-one really wanted to go up and check. I had walked past it every day since I was a child and I'd never seen her. It was old fashioned and out of place against the modern houses.

I stood at the front of the house now; the sky was dark and the weather cold. It seemed like a scene from one of my uncle's horror stories, I considered coming back on a sunnier day, but I decided against it. This couldn't wait.

The pale blue paint was worn and in places peeling off. I walked up to the gate that had half rusted off its hinges, the picket fence had in some places toppled over. I poked the gate open slowly and stepped in. The grass was uncut and there were weeds taller that I was. The windows had a layer of dust over them. I stepped up onto the porch; the rough, ancient wood creaked under my feet. I looked for a doorbell but there was none. So I knocked on the door, no answer, desperately I knocked louder and harder, so hard that the door shook under my attack. A light came on I stopped knocking. "What do you want!" a voice bellowed, it sounded old, and annoyed.

"Mrs Garland, is that you?" I called a glimmer of hope igniting, the house was registered to Elanora Jane Garland, and it was her I wanted to speak to. I heard a grunt so I pressed on, "My name is Julius James, and I work at the office of records in the town centre. I would like to ask you about your connection to the forgotten holiday 'Saviour's Day'."

I heard the scraping of a dead bolt unlocking, and the door swung open. Standing in the door way was an old lady; she looked like she could have been a hundred years old. Her hair was white and curly, and she wore it pulled back in a low ponytail, but it was so long it reached her knees.

She stood with the aid of a walking stick, and she was slightly hunched with bowed legs. She wore no shoes and a white dress with red roses embroidered along the bottom. Her skin was so pale it looked blue, she raised a frail shaking hand and pointed it at me accusingly, "Go, this is another trick, they do not care about us anymore."

"No, please Mrs Garland I would like to know, all the records are missing about what happened that day. It was like they were trying to cover it up; the only information is that they were honouring three great heroes, Leo Dragonstare, your name, and Isabel Arcane." I pleaded to her. I was new records keeper and I wanted to replace the missing information, I also wanted to know why they would get rid of it in the first place.

She looked at me with jade green eyes, wizard eyes, nervously I licked my lips, these days most wizards had been run out of town by the newest king. That was his first declaration that wizards were dangerous. He had killed all who put up a fight, tore down their schools and the great wizard keep, where the grand wizard and the wizard council used to meet, but that had all happened forty years ago. That was a big stepping-stone in our county's greatness, or so we were taught in school. I, on the other hand had read some of the oldest records- the few that still remained- they showed a great friendship between our kinds. But most of the documents were long gone, destroyed by the king.

I also suspected that the information connected with Saviour Day had something to do with wizards, and if the holiday was rejoicing wizards it wouldn't be good for the king's argument. That was exactly why I was here; I wanted to know if what he'd told us, had drilled into all the younger generations was true. And this woman was the only lead I had left in the whole country.

She continued to search my blue grey eyes like she was trying to pluck information from my mind. Abruptly she smiled warmly, "You tell the truth, but I'm not one hundred, only ninety-five. Come inside and I'll tell you what happened and everything else you wish to know." She waved her hand, then turned and hobbled back inside, I got the feeling that she hadn't guessed what I was thinking but she'd actually read my mind. I gulped and followed her in, I was now breaking the law, association with a wizard was punishable by death depending on how powerful the wizard or witch was.