Children of Prophecy

Basil: Chapter 4

"Wake up!"  Who would disturb my precious sleep; it's still so early in the morning. "Wake up!!"  "Five more minutes and it's still early" I mumbled turning around. I listened as the footsteps went away and get back with something else, something making a clinking sound. No matter, I will just go back to my peaceful sleep. That is until I felt something cold wash over me. I sat up the bed screaming and shivering, I looked to my right seeing a laughing Tabitha and a smiling girl who I presume was Astra, since I was bad with names.

I glared at them, but Tabitha laughed more while she clutched their stomach with tears coming out from her eyes and Astra smiled deviously to me. I got a chill up my spine saying that she is planning something. "Come down stairs and eat, don't think that if you stay here you will not do any work" Astra said obviously having something in mind which creep me out even more.

I watched them walk out of my room and I stood up to prepare myself for the day. I just hope that I would at least survive this day. I went down the stairs to eat breakfast with them. There was an awkward atmosphere around us since it was quiet, too quiet. Astra drank her juice and faced me saying, "Finish up your food and we will start working at once". I finished my food and everyone stood up and went to the counter to place the dirty dishes on the wash. 

Astra left outside and began working as I got a paper with a list of 'to do' chores. I unravelled the paper which made me stare at it with wide eyes. I thought it was a small list, but it was a long list that rolled until it was a bit below my knees. I looked up the ceiling and thought about why I deserved it again. I snapped out of my thoughts as I heard Tabitha telling me to start now or I would have to work until night.

I did as the list told me to, but I still think that Astra is trying to kill me or something because of the list which said: feed the 'cats', brush the dragons’ teeth and other life threatening chores. Some were easy though, like: wash the dishes, dust the library section or sweep the floor which gave me a major back ache of not being used to sweeping so much, especially sweeping the whole hut.

I finally managed to get to the bottom of the list after working for my life until sunset. As walked through the forest trying to find the behemoths cave to give back something they lost, I was tackled by something or someone. It was one of the knights sent to supervise me, then the nearby bush rustled and out came the other two knights. The knight on top of be stood up and bowed apologising. They stared at me and scanned me from head to toe seeing as I was full of dirt and clothes which were a bit tattered and burned because of the chores. 

The knights bombarded me with questions considering my health or what I had to go through to look like this. I laughed it off nervously. One of the knights then said, "Your highness, we have found the lake Blancnoir and it seems that we do not need to kill it's guardian in order to obtain the power". I felt relieved to not kill someone, but it went away as the knight continued and said, "We must take the substitute core of the lake which is accessible and hidden in the lake bed". I was speechless as I recall Astra's words:

"If you so much as try to steal try and find the 'light' or take the substitute core of the lake, I will personally see to it that you will suffer." Astra said as she glared then continued sighing. “The substitute core also grants power, yet it is not as strong as the 'light', but its main purpose is to maintain the balance of the forest"

The knights then dragged me to the lake, but I couldn’t dive into it thinking of what would happen to the creatures that lived in the forest and what would happen to Astra and Tabitha. The knight had enough of waiting and dived into the lake instead to retrieve the core.

As he came up the surface of the lake, a beam was shot. It was Astra, she looked angry and glared at me and the knights. The knights ran trying to drag me with them, but I pulled myself away and tried to get the core back. The knights looked at me shocked that I was going against the king’s order. They smirked as one of them threw an open vile with black liquid falling out of it to the lake. 

I tried to catch it, but it was no use. The vile sunk into the lake, poisoning it. Astra came up to me running as I tried to apologise for not acting sooner. "It's ok, what's done is done" she said kneeling beside me looking at the lake. I looked around me to see that the forest was slowly losing its glow and life. Astra put her hands on the surface of the lake muttering in an ancient language trying to heal the lake, but it was not working. The lake turned pitch black as the plants around it died.