The Crystal

Saureia stood on the castle balcony and admired the rainbow waterfalls falling gracefully across the plentiful hills that emitted their beauty every morning. She had lived here as long as she could remember-- here, in the castle, with her sisters and mother. Her mother was the queen-- which made Saureia a princess, technically, but she quite disliked this term. Too frilly for her-- What she enjoyed was books. Pages and pages of entertainment and learning to be explored when people waste their time with...violence. She gazed over at the several warriors battling monsters or dummies, and people learning magic in the training yard. There was violence everywhere you looked.

"Help!" a voice called. Saureia turned toward the castle and ran as fast as she possibly could to see what had happened.

"Hey!" A guard exclaimed, Saureia having accidentally stepped on his foot as she stumbled quickly through the castle.

She stumbled out of the castle doors and hid behind a pine tree when she discovered a monster in the village. It was a scraggly-- a tiny but fierce beast that could be tamed and kept as a pet, but until it was, it was rather hostile. It bared its fangs at a poor mother with a young child and a baby, both cowering and backing away as the furry creature approached. The very, very furry creature. But not in a good way, like a cute fluffy bunny-- more like a big, hairy spider.

"Mommy, he's so cute!" The young child said gleefully. "We should keep him." She reached out to touch the monster.

The mother panicked, moving her child's hand away-- but it was too late. The monster bit down on the mother's arm and she screamed.

Saureia was infuriated. Where was the duty patrol? What were those goofballs doing? Well, sure enough, they were playing soccer ball in the field. Nothing had ever made Saureia so angry-- but she would deal with them later. She had to rescue the mother and her children.

She ran over, stepping on the scraggly's tail. This was its weak spot, and it causes them to stop and screech in pain, which gives you time to kick it and knock it out. This was an essential strategy for warriors to learn, in case situations like this come up.

"Hey!" The child cried, heartbroken, "You killed him!" She began sobbing into her mother's skirt. Saureia almost felt bad, and she would have if that creature hadn't tried to kill them.

"Thank you," the mother told Saureia through her pain, "I am so grateful. You saved both my daughters' lives."

"Absolutely," Saureia told her, "I couldn't let anything happen to an innocent family."

Two more people emerged from the woman's house who seemed to be more of her children. They both had jet-black hair, and one looked six while the other was about eight. They both came and hid behind their mother.

But Saureia had not noticed the large sea of scragglies emerging from the woods before. Now she saw them, clear as day-- a scraggly infestation, the first one in decades.

But what ticked her off the most was that the two duty patrol guards were still playing soccer.

Unable to control her anger, Saureia marched over to them. She would RIP THEIR HEADS OFF for not doing their job. It was their fault a poor family had been attacked. Their fault that a hundred scragglies were coming out of the forest, preparing to attack the poor villagers.

But before she could do anything, she heard a bloodcurdling scream ricochet across the entirety of Magicia. Saureia ran like her life was in danger towards the sound, and her heart nearly stopped when she saw what had happened.

The mother of the two children was lying dead on the grass in front of two gleeful scragglies.

Saureia's whole world collapsed. This was her fault. She never should have left her side.

Trembling, she scooped the wailing baby up and soothed her. Then she knelt down and spoke to the little girl.

"What is your name?" She asked kindly.

"Why is mommy not waking up?" she asked through her tears. "Is she asleep? Or..."

"In a way," Saureia replied. "I'm Saureia. Who are you?"

The trembling child responded, "Sarah."

Sarah had jet-black hair, and she looked no older than 5, if not younger, and had an ambitious spark in her eye that made Saureia get the feeling that this little girl would change the world.

"Hi, Sarah," Saureia told her gently. "I'm going to be your mother now."