The Four Stones

Chapter 10

Chapter 10: A Star Filled Night

“Well, I guess we should keep moving….” Richard  said, extending a hand to Wysteria. She took it and stood up.

“Thank you.” She said shyly. Then her eyes wandered to the ruby ring on Richard   finger. ‘Wow… its even more beautiful as a ring’ She thought

“No problem.” Richard  said, smiling. “How far until the next tower, Malachi?”

“About five days. There is a village in between, though. We can stock up on supplies, and maybe gather information to see if Cyrus’ old followers are becoming active again.” Malachi replied.

“He had followers?” Jasmine asked.

“Yes, he was a good wizard at one time and had many students, but that was before he discovered necromancy. Most of his students didn’t stick around after that, but some stayed and became more powerful under his tutelage. He began cursing people and then using them as puppets after they were dead. His followers were the most powerful wizards at that time. They are nothing to sneeze at. If we meet up with one, we’ll have quite the fight on our hands.” Malachi said.

“So, he was good at one point….” Wysteria muttered to herself.

“So, how far until the town?” asked Jasmine.

“About a day’s walk from here, but if we are lucky we might be able to get there by nightfall.” Malachi replied. “Oh and when we get into town, no one is to speak of what we’re doing. Cyrus’ followers could be anywhere. We don’t want them to know what we’re doing. Is that clear?” the four teens nodded. “Good.”

    The group began traveling again. Wysteria saw many plants and trees that she’d never seen before. Jonathan noticed how she was marveling at everything, so he explained what some of the bootylicious plants and flowers were as they walked. He also told her which berries were safe for consumption, and warned her about the poisonous purple ones.

    After a while Jonathan went to talk with Jasmine. Wysteria watched them for a while. Jonathan was making Jasmine laugh. Richard  then fell into step beside her. She shifted her gaze to look at him and smiled.

    “You know….I’ve meaning to ask….Why do you have a lion tail and ears?” Wysteria asked.

    “I’m a lion fae. My dad is one as well. It’s like being half lion. I have some abilities that normal humans don’t have... like: I have night vision, retractable claws, enhanced hearing and smell, and I have slightly sharper canines.” He said grinning so Wysteria could see his teeth.

    “Wow...That’s so cool!” Wysteria said, smiling wider. “Before meeting you, I’d never met anyone like that.”

    “Really?...It’s fairly common here for someone to be a fae of some sort.” Richard   replied.

    “Not where I lived. No one looked like that. I think it’s really cool.” Wysteria said.

    “Yeah, I guess it is pretty cool.” Richard   replied, his ears turning red.

    “So, what are you two talking about?” Malachi said, suddenly standing right behind them.

    “Eeek!” Wysteria squeaked surprised by Malachi’s sudden appearance. Richard  jumped a bit, but otherwise seemed totally unfazed. “Don’t do that, Malachi!”

    “Sorry, I didn’t mean to scare you.” Malachi said, chuckling. “Now, what were you two talking about?” He raised an eyebrow indicating he knew something.

    “Wysteria asked about my tail and ears, so I was telling her about lion faes.” Richard   explained fiddling with his hands in a nervous gesture.

    “Mhmmm.” Malachi said, smirking mischieviously then walking ahead to talk to Jasmine and Jonathan.

    ‘He’s always so serious around the king and queen. It’s nice to see him like this.’ Wysteria thought. She and Richard   continued talking about this and that until Malachi signaled for them to stop and set up camp.

    “We’ll make it to town tomorrow. Let’s go ahead and build a fire.” Malachi said. Everyone nodded and went to do their separate jobs to set up camp.

    When everything was set up, they pulled out the food and ate. Afterwards, Malachi pointed out some constellations that Wysteria hadn’t heard of before. It seemed that Jonathan and Richard  seemed to know them and pointed out a few as well. Some were the more famous one’s like  Leo and Orion, but some were new ones like Yuko, Regen, and Lupo. They also saw some planets like Neptune, Saturn, and a new one called Saxet. Then a shooting star rocketed across the sky.

    “Make a wish everyone.” Malachi said.

    ‘I wish….’ Wysteria thought ‘I wish everyone happiness and rainbow piss’

    “And with that I think it’s time to sleep.” Malachi said turning on his side.” Wysteria can you take first watch? Wake up someone in a few hours.”

    “Sure I can do that.” Wysteria replied, sitting up.

    Half an hour later everyone was fast asleep, even Malachi was snoring soundly. Wysteria was sitting on a fallen tree with her head propped up on her hand watching the fire and poking it with a stick every once in a while to keep it going. Strangely enough, she was wide awake. All her senses were focussed on her surroundings. She could hear an owl hooting in a tree across the clearing, the babbling of a nearby brook, and a fox scampering through the undergrowth of the forest, glancing at her with intelligent, golden eyes.

    Wysteria sighed in content. It was a beautiful, peaceful night, and she had time to herself to think. She thought about how only a month or so ago, she and Jasmine were still living at the orphanage without a care in the world. Now she was a wizard in training, in the middle of nowhere with her closest friends hunting down four stones to re-seal the evil wizard who took her from her real family all those years ago.

    ‘Wow….I’ve come a long way….’ She thought, smiling. Before she knew it two hours had flown by. She tapped Jasmine on the shoulder and told her it was her turn, then snuggled into her blanket and fell asleep.

A/N- I have a lot of extra chapters now, so I thought I'd do a special update. Hope y'all enjoyed it! :)