The Dragon Stone

Chapter 3

      Kalin dropped the stone.

"Guards!!" Yelled the King wanting Kalin's head.

"Prince Darion, are you alright" shouted Pyria and jumped towards the prince.

The Professor gasped and the archer strung an arrow on his bow.

The Mage held his hand out and lit the room with a very bright light. Which stopped everyone in their place. "Stop!!"

Everyone looked at the Mage with shock. He calmed his nerves and said, "It was not her fault, can't you see how surprised she is and she never touched this stone before today." The group looked at Kalin. She was still in shock looking at the prince, as she had felt no heat nor pain but obviously caused great pain to Prince Darion.

"Are you alright Prince?" asked Pyria again?

Darion looked up still shaking slightly and said slowly, "That was the most painful feeling I have ever felt in my entire life. It felt as if it went straight to my soul." He stood slowly with Pyria's assistance.

They all looked at the stone on the floor and then looked at Kalin. She stepped back from it and said, "I do not want that rock. You can have it back." Looking at the Mage and Professor.

"Well, I do not believe he nor I can touch that stone any longer." The Professor said. "None of us can. It is your stone now."

Kalin was not happy about it, but she picked up the stone with her left hand and nothing happened. "Curious", said the Mage.

"What?" asked Kind Ned.

"Nothing, just strange that it only affects her when she holds the stone in her right hand."

They all looked at Kalin with realization.

Kalin looked at both the Professor Elmar and Mage Orist. "What is this stone? What were you doing with it?"

Orist looked at the Elmar then said, "We really do not know. The stone found this in his father's belongings after his father died. It had a note under it with just the words, The Red Dragon Tombs."

Elmar then added, "We were looking at the local book stores but could not find the Tomb. It is a very rare book apparently."

"Yes, the last seller, Hastos, told us that he knew of one copy but it is kept at the Red Keep.

"NO", King said instantly.

Everyone looked at King Ned. No one has been able to travel from his kingdom to the Red Keep for weeks. King Ned had all stopped travel south over the bridge to Homond Island, for no apparent reason. There was talk about a prophet in the dungeon but no one knew for sure.

"I will not allow travel to that Island, No!!!" King Ned said with passion.

Everyone was quiet for a long pause. "Mage Rendill and I were discussing our options when we had our run in with Kalin." Elmer said. "We were discussing possibly going to see the Oracle to see what she had to say on the matter."

The group looked around at each other knowing that the trip to the Oracle would be long, tedious and dangerous. The Oracle lives in a faraway forest called Wolfthorn where she lives alone. Well, not completely alone, she lives with the animals and creatures of that forest. She did not care for intruders or any visitors. Not many people knew exactly where she lived and many went missing when trying to finder her house.

Orist looked at the group and said, "Well, when do we leave?"