Maggy and the Quest for the Unknown Jewel

ch. 3

Now, we had a plan, many more supplies, and a better chance to finish the quest. Ifor was our best and only chance to figure out why and how this quest became mine. All night, questions were popping into my mind. If you were in my position, you would understand what it’s like to “fulfill a prophecy”. I had no idea what to do until my friends came along and look what it has done for me. If Adeline wouldn’t have walked into the mineshaft, i would have never heard about the prophecy. We walked all day and when the sun began to set, Ifor found a building he remembered from before. We walked in and stepped up to the two women at the desk. Ifor looked at them and said “If the sun rises, you will fall.” which was some sort of code. The ladies nodded and lead us to two different rooms in the back. Adeline and I stayed in one and James and Ifor stayed in the other. It was nice to know that we would have somewhere to stay, but it made us think about how often he had done this.

We stayed at the home for two days because they wanted to make sure we were well fed and rested before we left, the only problem was that Ifor informed us we only had one month to complete the quest. Two  nights into our journey, I spent time talking with Ifor. I had many questions to ask, but the only he answered was that we were headed north towards Gegh Hideout, a cave that was home to the dragon, Cedric, whom was sometimes friendly and sometimes posses an evil spirit. From there, we would head west and cross over the bridge of Ak, the ogre. We would get directions from him in a riddle. Many never made it past this because they either ran out of supplies, or could not guess the riddle. It was a good thing that Angelia was well educated because neither James, nor I were trained in riddles. It took us about fourteen hours to make it to Gegh Hideout, and when we arrived, we closed our eyes and wished that Cedric was in a good mood. Thankfully, our wishes came true. We walked into the cave and stood right in front of a, friendly, dragon.

"This is fake! We do not like in a fairytale Margret! Get your mind back on earth and realize that these sort of things just do not happen around here. Especially not to some poor peasant's daughter like you. " Adeline bursted out in a last chance to make it all about her.

That is the thing about Adeline, everything had to be about her. After a while, we learned to just ignore her, but at first it was rather unpleasant. when we first met Cedric, he was also not fond of Adeline.

The first thing Cedric said to us was, "Will the keeper of the jewels please step forward?"

Not a single on of us moved and that was when he replied, "Maggy, I am talking to you."

I stepped forward, partly in awe of him and partly in anxiety of what would happen if I did not do as he asked. I looked him straight in the eyes with a blank face and listened carefully to what he said to me.  He told me where to go and what I would encounter. Then, he pulled me aside of the group and took be farther in m to the dark, musty cave. He handed me a red jewel and told me what it meant. The red jewel represented friendship and truthfulness, it was part of the other emotion jewels. Maggy got this set for a reason. What was it? Perhaps she got it because of her mother's recent death. We went back to the entrance only to find that James and Adeline were asleep on the cold ground... holding hands.  Maggy, disgusted, hoped it was for warmth. They woke up and immediately pulled back their hands. Cedric then gave detailed instructions to Ifor about how to get to Ak's bridge and sent us on our way. We had one more piece of the puzzle, but sadly we were no were close to solving it.

We were on our way to Ak's when we all had to stop on the path because Ifor was getting too tired. It was day seven of our thirty day journey and we were losing perseverance, supplies, and energy very quickly. At this rate we would have to walk nonstop just to make it to Ak's bridge within the next two days. We took a short rest and then we walked for around two more hours. Finally, Adeline shouted,

"You can not make me do this! I have been treading through mud for the past week and all we have gotten is some silly jewel for Maggy. It is time that I get some credit!"

At that point, I was tired, and was done with Adeline's hateful attitude! "Adeline, who are you to talk? You begged me to come, I am the one that lost my mother five months ago, moved in to the castle, and has to put up with you all day long! Do you think it is easy being a princess? The answer is no! Adeline, if you think you have it hard, spend a day in my shoes. Everything is about you! This was the one thing I could figure out on my own and no one would know, but you are here now, which means you get all the credit."

As for the rest of the night, everyone sat silent. No one talked, and we all thought to ourselves. I knew that I could not have said it, but I needed to. James and I think that it is something that she needed to hear. We put Ifor in an awkward spot though. He did not know what to say, so he too sat quietly. It was a cold night, but I was not sure if it was because of the weather, or because of all the sharp words that had been said. It took a while for me to fall asleep, but when I did, I slept like a rock. Then, I remembered something. I pulled out the entire bag or jewels, along with the map. The current jewels I had included a ruby, a sapphire, a topaz , and an opal. I was missing turquoise, peridot, and topaz. What I needed to do know, was find out the emotions all of the jewels represented. This was a clue, if I could figure out the emotions, I could tie them all together. There was just one problem with this plan. How was I going to figure put these emotions. I had no book, or school house to go to. What about Adeline? she was the most educated out of us all, but would she still want to help me? Maybe she would if I give her all of the credit. It was my only hope. I must talk to her in the morning.

I woke up early and got all the together. I grabbed a piece of paper from the bag I had carried with me. I grabbed a quill, and took it over to Adeline. She was already awake and alert in case anyone tried to take any of our valuable things. When I came to her, she looked up, then looked back at the ground saying no words.

"I....I didn't mean what i said last night. I was just tired." I said with a blank look on my face.

"Maggy, I know that you meant it, I needed to hear that. I always take things for granted but i have never been through what you have. What is in your hand?" she reached out and grabbed it.

"We have four jewels. We are missing three, but Cedric said that they all have a connection. If we can figure out what emotion these all stand for, maybe we can make a connection." I paused, caught my breath, and then replied, "I don't know anything about jewels, and I was hoping that you do."

"Well, like many areas in my life, I happen to be very knowledgeable about sparkly things." she chuckled and took a look at all four jewels. 

Adeline carefully examined all the jewels, and then handed them to me one by one. Topaz, it means love and affection. Sapphire, it shows power and the ability to make wise decisions. Opal, it means inspiration. Now, we needed three more. We will have to wait to find out what they mean as we get them. Now, it was time for the big question that was in both of our minds. How were all of the jewels and emotions related?  We did not have much time to thin k about this because when Ifor woke up, we were on our way. We headed west from the rode, and continued on to the bridge of Ak.