The Enchantments: Book 3 - The Key of Sorcen

Chapter 1: H... E... Double Hockey Sticks

The fire crackled brightly illuminating the faces of the five sitting around its warmth. They said nothing as they waited for the first light of dawn to appear over the dunes of the great desert, giving them the opportunity to move onto the next part of the plan.

"Is everyone clear on what they have to do?" Spoke a small girl with deep braids in her long blond hair, a deep furrow appearing across her brow as she waited for the others to respond.

"We've been over this a thousand times Simeneon," Another girl with dark hair stated, the same determination appearing across her face.

Simeneon looked with concern over at the girl, "I know we have Marlanda, but I don't want to see anyone gets hurt."

Marlanda sighed and poked around in the fire some more sending up embers high into the cool morning air.

Simeneon could see the wait was killing them but this part of the plan had to be done at the right possible moment or there would be a greater chance of failure. She stood from where she sat and stared quietly at the remaining members of the group. To her left sat Fin, her best friend and all around great guy. She had met Fin three years earlier as she was searching for an artifact known as the Key of Doultof.

She felt the pangs of loss as she thought about the disappearance of her parents just before she met Fin. During a routine archeological dig at the great Raheme pyramid, Simeneon lost her parents in a vortex that led to another Realm ruled by an evil god-like creature named Heldom. It was Simeneon plan to get the seven keys that would allow her to free her parents and put an end to Heldom's evil reign once and for all.

Fin had been with her on another search for the Key of Gandar and now they were starting on the third search for the Key of Sorcen. She hated to put her friends in harms way but as she had found out in the last few years they wouldn't have it any other way.

Simeneon began to stroll around the back catching a glimpse of Marlanda, a determined young girl with beautiful brown hair that many young girls that saw her were jealous of. That is until they caught a glimpse of her determined personality and hard-nosed demeanour. Simeneon had taken an instant liking to her and she found her equally as resourceful and sharp.

To her left another person she really liked since they day they had first met him. Shawn McNamara sat eating a melting marshmallow as Marlanda tried to tell him how he was doing it all wrong. Shawn was a medium sized boy with curly blonde hair that always stayed the same whether it was wet or dry. His small nose and soft green eyes, which always seemed to wash warmth over you were forever happy. Shawn was the assistant to Professor Tweedle a dumpy little man that had given her many clues in the whereabouts of the many keys of that would bring her that much closer to her parents.

Simeneon walked away from the group deeper into the dark and the quietness of the desert. The stars were incredible the farther away from the fire she got and the cool breeze from across the desert bathed her face. She closed her eyes and let the tingling sensation wash across her face as the breeze filled her with the calm she needed.

She opened her eyes and looked out into the blackness. Was there something moving out there? At first, she thought it was just an animal, but something inside told her it was something different, to her it was more like a small child. She tried desperately to focus through the gloom of the early morning, but the movement she had seen was gone.

Simeneon took one final look across the desert, sighed then walked back to where the rest of her group was laughing at Fin who had somehow got melted marshmallow in his hair.

The sun blazed over the horizon increasing the morning temperature from chilly to just downright sweltering. Simeneon walked up to the gates of the burial grounds and stared up at the decrepit sign of the Malistof cemetery. She peered through the gates to the stones that were now so old and faded that name and dates were now a distant memory. Although the cemetery looked quiet from this vantage point she knew there was defiantly something different.