Chapter One
IRIS RAIN FROST
My eyes were open, my heart racing, and my mind blank... But I couldn’t think of a reason why. Instinctually, my fingers grazed the dirt, expecting the leather face of my backpack. The leather never met my hand, instead specks of dirt stained my fingers. Panic began to invade my mind, ridding the peaceful nothingness that inhabited it before. In my silent desperation, I became aware of the absence of my best friend. My lips parted and a hesitant whisper escaped them. “O-Owen?”
A hand whipped around me, their palm pressing against my lips as someone’s arm wrapped around my waist. I was tugged from the ground, forced to stand behind a small wall of rocks. My captor’s warm breath brushed past my neck, leaving me in a frigid position. His lips neared the back of my ear. “Shh, someone’s here.” Although the words were alarming, the familiar warm voice was calming.
I watched as Owen slipped away and moved towards one of the openings of the tunnel. His hand began to reach behind his back for his dragon-scale sword. Just as his honey-colored fingers began to curl around the hilt, the sound of footsteps dulled. His hand retreated, no longer reaching for the sword. He turned around, meeting my eyes for a split second before reaching past me.
“They’ve slowed down, let’s go.” His voice came faintly. Owen stood and stuffed my missing bag in my arms. My brown leather tool belt hung from one of the straps of my bag, swinging back and forth as we ran.
“Wait!” A familiar feminine voice bounced off the stone walls of the cave. “I’m not a guard!” I was tempted to turn and look for myself, but I couldn’t risk being tricked. Without a word, I casted a spell and sped forward. “God damn it, it’s me! Stephanie!”
I skidded to a stop, leaving a trail in my wake. “Steph...?” I turned slowly, not fully sure if I believed what I was hearing.
My eyes met a girl slightly shorter than myself, bent over and panting. Her dirty blonde hair fell forward, bouncing in its natural waves. Just the sight of my sixteen-year-old little sister rendered me speechless.
A burst of wind wisped past me and before I knew it, Owen had engulfed the girl in a hug. “Steph, it’s been so long!” Her feet left the ground as Owen spun her around.
“Hey, Owen!” The girl grinned happily. My eyes were fixated on her, but I couldn’t see her move in my direction. I couldn’t comprehend what was going on until her arms wrapped around me. Her thin, pink lips curled up in a smile. “Hey, sis.” She buried her head in my chest, pulling me out of my shock.
“Hey, Steph.” I wrapped my arms around her small frame, emotion rushing through my body, like a wave in a storm. “I haven’t seen you in so long.”
“Missed you too, Rissie.” Unwillingly, she pulled away from the embrace, bearing a sad smile. “I can’t be here for long. I have some important news.” The excitement that had brightened her joyous sky-blue eyes had now faded.
Owen’s smile seemed to melt away. “If it’s important, we can’t talk here. Guards are going to start their rounds in-” He lifted his wrist and studied the black leather watch sitting on his skin. “ten minutes.”
I grabbed my backpack and detached my tool belt, clamping it around my waist. I took a small plastic bag in my free hand before checking to see if Owen had all of his things. Our eyes met, allowing a brief moment of calm to wash over my mind. “Let’s go,” I hummed softly, taking a step forward.
“Come on, guys!” Steph called out from up ahead, giggling mischievously. I laughed softly and smiled, taking off behind her.
The sound of metal hitting the dirt could be heard a few meters off the side. Guards were near. I concentrated on the one spell that had proven to be the most useful yet, a speed spell, and shot through the tunnel.
I stopped just outside of the tunnel, next to Steph, but Owen zipped out of the tunnel and straight into the forest. Steph and I looked at each other, shrugged, and followed after him. We ran deep into the forest, almost reaching the Starryoak Wall. I looked up at the sky; orange and red streaks ran into the horizon. The tips of the sun peeked over the tops of the trees. What I didn’t see, however, was the one tree waiting for me to smash into it. It was my nose first, then my chest, lips, and lastly my stomach.
“Uhm, you okay, Ri?” Owen asked as he held back his laughter. Steph, meanwhile, had toppled over laughing at my misfortune.
My body peeled off the tree, falling backwards into the dirt. “Does it look like I’m okay?” I gripped my nose as blood seeped out of the spaces between my fingers.
“Let’s get that checked out.” Owen helped sit me up before prying my hand away. He smiled softly and examined the small bruise forming on my nose. Shrugging off his backpack, he sifted through the front pocket until his hand found the packaging of cleansing wipes. He carefully wiped the blood off my nose, the chemicals burning my skin.
“Ouch!”
“Sorry, Ri. It’ll burn a little.”
“It’s fine.” I smiled slightly as he dabbed at my nose with a dry rag. “Is there something wrong?” I asked, noticing that his eyes were lingering on my nose.
“Oh, no, nothing wrong. It’ll take maybe a day to fully heal.” He packed up his bag and slung it over his shoulder, standing back up. He looked over at my sister, a smirk etched onto her face. Owen rolled his eyes, a slight blush discoloring his usual honey-like skin. “Just-Just get on with it, Steph.”
“Fine.” She purposely prolonged the ‘i’ in ‘fine.’ “Audelia and Ethel told me to give you a message. You have to stop Prince Felix from using the Goblet of Dragons.”
“Wait, what? Isn’t that just a legend?” My voice rose with confusion and anger. “Doesn’t that idiot know it could destroy the entire kingdom?”
“I don’t know.” The girl sighed, “All I know is that they found out through some inside source.”
“Aiden.” Owen and I said in unison. Steph gave us a curious look.
“Who’s that?”
“One of the members of the organization, a good friend. You met him as a kid, but he’s not around too much.” I explained without giving away too much about his work. Owen nodded, almost as if he was approving of my answer.
“Alright, well... I have to go.” She bent down and hugged me, then got up and hugged Owen. “See you guys soon, okay?”
“Okay, hon.” I smiled and waved her off. She used a flight and speed spell together to reach the closest teleportation point for The Association of Magical Creatures and Wizards. The AMCW is a group of Wizards, Nymphs, Fairies, Elves, Witches, Warlocks, Goblins, and more. We’re like a big family, all of us with different pasts, ages, and powers. We go on missions, but mainly, we try to stay safe in a place that wants us dead. If any normal humans found out about us, together or not, we’d be decapitated for using magic. It was the law, after all.
“Let’s form a plan, then we can start moving.” Owen leaned over his backpack, shuffling through its contents.
“Okay. I’ll get my map.” I spotted a rolled-up paper in his hand, but he quickly shoved it back into the bag.
“Sounds good.” He pulled out a water canteen instead and closed his backpack, resting it against the tree I ran into.
A small smile tugged at my lips as I pulled out my crinkly, old map. “He’s too sweet.” I couldn’t wipe the smile off my face as I walked over to him.
“Sit down.” He sat cross-legged on the dirt, patting the space beside him.
I grinned even wider. “Okay.” I plopped down, slightly hurting my butt. I sucked in my breath and didn’t say anything.
“Imma bet that hurt,” Owen laughed in amusement.
I rolled my eyes and smiled again, “Oh, shut up.” I rubbed the back of my neck, “We should get working.” I rolled out the crusty, tan paper and pointed to where we were: next to the southwest corner of the Starryoak Wall. I looked around the map for the easiest route to the castle. “We can go to the town of Raybourne, then head through Newport.” I paused. “Ugh, we have to go through a city.” I groaned at the thought of walking through Newport.
“I know, but it’s the quickest route, isn’t it? How long will it take us?” Owen asked while looking down at his watch.
“About eleven hours to get to Raybourne, six hours and thirty minutes to get to the castle wall. This is assuming we won’t sleep, eat, or drink.” I gave a silly smile.
“So, if we take naps every thirty-minutes in short increments, it’ll take us an extra nine hours. In total, we’ll be traveling for twenty-six hours.” I nodded, finding his conclusion reasonable. I grabbed my bag and swung it onto my shoulder. “We should get going.” He hummed as he zipped up his bag.
“How much food do we have?” I asked, while peering at the map in my hands.
The sound of his hands ruffling through a bag lit up the quiet forest. “Enough for… about two days.” Owen sighed dejectedly and pulled his hands out of the bag. He handed me the small plastic bag and took our small duffel bag, so I didn’t have to carry it for so long. I hadn’t even noticed the larger bag when we were escaping the tunnel.
“Alright, well, that’s enough to last us.” I sighed.
He gave me a kind of hopeful smile, “That’s okay. It’s all we need for now!” He tried to give me a bigger smile.
I shrugged a bit and nodded, “Yeah... Yeah, you’re right.” I smiled a little.
He gave a slight nod before crouching down. He gently grabbed the untied laces of his old, worn down black hiking boots. A look of defeat dawned his face before he had even started tying the dirty laces. He sighed as the laces kept coming undone. “Need help?” I smiled softly, getting down to help tie them. “Here, watch this.” I did one of his shoes and allowed him to try and do the other. “Just, keep practicing and you’ll get the hang of it.”
“That’s what you always say and I still can’t do it.” He sighed as the laces came undone once more.
“One day, Owen. Just... not today.” I looked back down and tied the shoe for him.
He just let out another sigh and began walking. I followed after him, staring at the trees around us, hoping to see the light showering them from above. Just then, sunlight peeked through the leaves, dancing in the breeze. However, my dark-brown hair seemed to be insistent on blocking my sight, despite the fact I kept pushing it back. “Ya need a hair band?” I could hear Owen snicker at my torment.
“Oh, shut up.” Annoyance dripped from my voice as he handed me a black hair tie. I glared at him before roughly grabbing my hair and pulling it into a bun. ‘Why do writers always make their girl characters have messy buns?’ I thought, surprising myself with the randomness of it. ‘I really need to stop reading that book.’ I stifled a little laugh.
“What’re you laughing about?” Owen asked curiously, slowing down to match my pace.
“Oh! I was just thinking about how writers always make female characters have cute, messy buns, but if I tried, it would end up an actual mess!” I giggled a little bit more, realizing that what I had said wasn’t actually funny.
“You really need to lay off that book.” He rolled his eyes at me with a playful smile.
“You know I hate reading! This is like, what? The fourth book I’ve read in three years.” I paused. “Oh, and let’s not forget about you! You read all the time! You are the one who introduced me to the book.”
He laughed and threw his arm around my shoulder. “I love you,” he said softly, his sparkling sapphire eyes resting on me as he smiled.
“Love you too, idiot.” I grinned brightly.
Owen and I had been best friends since we were kids. When Owen was a little boy, around the age of six, he had lived in the woods. He had woken up there and didn’t know where he was, or why, but he did know that some knights from the castle had caught and killed his parents. He had to learn how to take care of himself. He used to take shelter in a small, wooden cabin he found in the woods. He trained all of the time, strengthening and enhancing his magic, so he could protect himself from any people loyal to the king or, as we used to say, “mean” humans.
When he turned eight, he found work as a paperboy. That job made him three gold coins, which was basically equivalent to nothing. He could barely afford a loaf of bread. At the age of twelve, he saw eleven-year-old me laying on the grass, watching the stars. He was shy, so I was the one who said hi. He didn’t reply at first, but then he waved. We got to know each other, and once my mother realized he wasn’t a figment of my imagination, she started having him come up for dinner.
My mother was aware of Owen’s situation and she tried to help him as much as she could, but she just didn’t make enough to take care of me, my little sister, and Owen. I knew she always felt guilty about it. It wasn’t like Owen had asked to move in with us or for my family to help him, but we cared about him and we hated seeing him live off scraps. Not only that, but my mom would always give him any extra money she had, but he would always sneak it back to her. He refused to take it. He would always say that he needed to take care of himself. Be accustomed to the loneliness and the silence, so he’d always be okay, no matter what. My family always thought that was a load of junk, but we never could change his mind.
“Hey, we’ve moved along enough for you to take a nap.” His voice ripped through my mind, shattering my train of thought. I nodded and pulled out my black sleeping bag. My thoughts had kept me so distracted; I hadn’t realized that we had walked for almost an hour. My mind was still groggy from waking up in a rush, so a break was refreshing. I spotted Owen sitting at the edge of a lake. I knew it wasn’t one of the bigger lakes, like Lake Leah, because we hadn’t gone far enough to reach something so remote.
This lake was far too insignificant for the King to name it, so we did. We called it “Lake Orion.” That was because the day we stumbled across the lake; the constellation could be seen perfectly in its reflective water. We had to remember where it was because it wasn’t on the official map, which was really disappointing.
I felt bad letting him stay awake while I slept. He always stayed up to make sure I was safe, even though we were supposed to have shifts. When it was my turn to take watch, he would just continue watching and never wake me up. I used to get mad about it, but after a while, all I could think was how badly the lack of sleep must be affecting him. I climbed out of the sleeping bag and walked over to him. I took off my shoes and socks, pulling the bottoms of my pant legs up a bit before sitting down and dipping my feet into the cool water. “Hey.”
“You should be sleeping,” Owen whispered, echoing my soft voice.
“No, you should be. You’ve been running on nothing but determination, lately. You’re gonna get sick.”
“I’ll be fine.” He smiled softly, trying to reassure me.
I examined his face. Although he was handsome, there were bags under his eyes and fatigue plaguing his features. “You aren’t fine, go get some sleep.”
“You need it more,” he protested.
“You’re running out of energy, which means you won’t be able to use your magic if something happens!”
“How about we both just relax?”
“Fine,” I huffed, leaning my head on his shoulder. We sat in a comfortable silence, staring at the lake as the air glazed the surface. After a couple minutes, I felt Owen lean his head against mine. His breathing had evened and his body had gone limp. I smiled, gently shifting him so his head could rest in my lap. I needed to keep watch so no one jumped us, but it was nice seeing him sleep so peacefully.
For a while, I watched the lake shimmer, the sun’s rays illuminating all the colorful fish. I sighed contently. Everything seemed so perfect. There was nothing wrong, there was no evil, there was no king, or any quest. It was just… perfect.
