• Chapter 1

    The young girl woke up one morning. She looked around her looking this way, that way, and back again. She sat up slowly and glanced at her wrist. She could see a scar. It must have been left from that awful man, she thought. She remembered everything that happened perfectly.
    She rides up to the village, wondering where everyone is. She sees house burning and horses lying dead. She looks to her right and sees a pile of bodies. A gasp escapes her mouth as she notices three familiar faces among the bodies. “My father” she cries “Oh! And my mother!” the third was probably the most disturbing to see, “J-J-Jimmy?” She stammers. “No! No! Not Jimmy!” she practically yells. Then she looked a bit closer and noticed that it was not really Jimmy. She wonders why Jimmy made a fake wooden person of himself and why it was in a pile of dead people. She abandons her thoughts as she hears voices off to the left of her. They sound like men, she thought. Although she knew every man’s voice that had once lived in the village. They were upon her in an instant. Everything was a blur as it happened. Men were speaking in other languages now. She had no idea what they were saying. As one man was muttering she thought she could see something coming out of his hands, or more, out of thin air. The object, she figured, was of similar resemblance to a rope. Although, she had never seen blue ropes before. For a split second the man looked at her, than he said something different and everything went black.
    She tried to sit up but something was holding her back. She groans and remembers the blue rope. As she looks down her body she sees that the rope is not blue anymore. As she wonders what is going on something Jimmy, her best friend, had said popped into her brain.
    “One day maybe I will tell you, but now is not safe. Just be careful, the world is not all it seems to be.”
    She shudders. What could he possibly mean by that? She knew that some people believed in different gods and such but somehow that did not seem like what Jimmy was trying to get at. She lied down wondering who the voices outside were belonging to. She tried to think of more things form the past but her mind just would not work the way she wanted it to. All she knew was that she wanted to get out of here. All of a sudden she remembered the sack that Jimmy had given her. She was still wearing it. Inside was a kind of orb type thing that he had said belonged to her ever since she was born. She always thought it was just beautiful. Maybe it has some significance. She thought. Like some lockets have things inside of them, maybe there is some sort of note hidden inside of this orb. She struggled to get out of the ropes but abruptly stopped when she heard footsteps coming towards the tent she was tied up in. A man of medium build and brown hair walked into the tent followed but a man that was dressed like a king. She knew the king, and this was not him. Why is he dressed so gallantly? She wondered to herself. The man with brown hair walked up to her and pulled out a dagger. She tried to move but the ropes held her tight. The man walked closer and as he did she was thinking of death and how she did not want to die. The man lowered himself down to her level and began to cut the ropes that bound her. She could she that the cutting was doing nothing to the ropes. Down in the bottom of his throat the man said something that, to her, sounded like pure gibberish. All of a sudden the ropes seized to bind her and they fell to the ground. The kingly man walked briskly over to her and started talking in what sounded not like gibberish. It was put together well, but she just did not know what he was saying. The man of medium build turned and walked out of the room leaving the girl and the kingly man sitting alone.
    “What is your name child?” the man asked in what seemed to be a harmless tone. She knew better than that though. He was the man who had ordered an attack on her whole village! None the less she was afraid and when she is afraid she always does silly things.
    “M-M-My name is Anola s-s-sir.” She managed to get out.
    “Hello Anola I am Ganal. I am the king of the Niorns and I would like o know what you are doing here.”
    “I don’t know, I don’t remember coming at all” She whispered. “All I know is that I got back from the market and everything was gone. My parents, my friends, all the townspeople, Jimmy was not there-” At the sound of the boy’s name the king stiffened.
    “Jimmy, as in Jimmeroel, the son of Sadath?” He asked in a gruff voice.
    “Yes, I mean, I believe so.” Ganal stood up swiftly and spoke in a loud voice.
    “Take her to the dungeons.” When the man came in to seize her they found no one there.
    “Um sir” One of Ganal’s henchmen called. “The girl, she is gone.” Ganal strode back into the tent.
    “What do you mean she is gone? I told you to take care of her! Now go find her before she finds out more!”