• Chapter 2: The Wise Elder
    Robin awoke with a shiver. The moonlight that shone on her fragile body was discomforting, so she swept her arm and put it above her eyelids. Her hands where warm, yet it was night and the weather was freezing. She let out a small sneeze. “Wha-what happened?” she asked herself. She then peered to her left, and then to the right. The dimly lilted streets where empty, and not a soul dwelt on the pavement. Robin suddenly gasped. She slowly got up and shifted her head back and forth. “Wha-what am I doing in the road?” she asked herself. She then peered down onto the ground. Lying there was her curved wooden staff. It looked the same, except it was missing one thing. She shrugged and put her hands on her hips. “Hmm, what is that staff missing?” she whispered to herself. Suddenly, she yelped. “The orb!” she screamed out loud. She then let out a frown. “Aw man, it doesn’t look like it’s here” she complained. She then peered down toward her toes. A light fog surrounded the pavement. It was gray, and drifted among the deserted street. She then peered to her right, and then to her left. She looked down and then she looked up. “Hmm, where is my horse?” She then let out a small sigh. “Well, it looks like I’m going to have to walk to Justin’s house” she said. She then slowly leaned over and scooped up her staff.
    The sun was slowly arising. The birds sung as the clouds slowly drifted high in the sky. The dew on the fresh cut grass shone with the sun bearing down on it. The coldness suddenly drifted away and nice warmth entered Robin’s body. The church bells rung as a vast number of people exited their homes and came out to their jobs. The smell of hot, fresh bread entered Robin’s nose, making her stomach rumble. Robin sighed. “Well, it doesn’t look like I’ll be finding him any soon.” she told herself with a frown. She clutched her staff tight with her fist. Justin, where are you? She thought to herself. As the wind sped up, dust and debris swam up into the heavens. The dust swirled and swayed, but then disappeared out of eye vision. The store windows where lit up with a small bit of light shining out. Many houses and apartment windows where lit up as well. The light shone off robin’s hair, and reflected off, making her hair look slick. She then put her arms behind her back. “Hmm I wonder where my horse is now?” she said shifting her head left and right. The city was quite vast and the rooftops where large as well. She then put her hand upon her chin and rubbed on it up and down, obviously in thought. After a brief moment, she let out a deep sigh. “He could probably be anywhere” she said to herself. The thought of her having to now find two people overwhelmed her, making her obviously feel consumed with work. To add on to it all, the sun was beating down on her violently, making her sweat. The little beads of sweat drifted down from her forehead, and then onto her chin, and then would slowly collide onto the ground. She then stuck her tongue out, looking like a dog, and shifted her head left and right. “I need some water!” she whispered to herself, trying to tilt her head so the beads of sweat would drift into her mouth. She then peered to the far right corner of her eye and saw a large fountain, with luscious spring water dripping from its side. It spurred and spiraled its surroundings. Robin slowly licked her lips. The fountain was hard to resist, so she slowly walked toward it. The closer she slowly got, the more thirst grappled her. She then suddenly stopped from where she was at. In front of her, read a wooden sign, nailed deeply into the ground. She examined it carefully. It read: Do not drink out of fountain. Robin suddenly sighed. “Aw come on” she complained to herself. A sad expression suddenly came onto her face. “Aw come on! This sucks” she complained to herself. She sighed and then, sluggishly, walked away.
    Robin slowly crept up to a bench, and sat down. She then slowly put out her right hand, which had her staff in it, and rested it down among the pavement. She let out a depressing sigh. Her legs where aching, and her thirst was growing even more. The brutal summer warmth was beating down on her, making her sink down on the bench. Suddenly, and elder man with a wooden cane slowly crept over toward her. He had a warm smile stretched across his face. What does that old guy want? Robin thought to herself, lifting her red hood and putting it over her face. She examined him through the streams of light that crept through her hood’s tears and rips. What she could make out with him, he looked like a regular elderly man, with shaggy gray hair, and old, squinted, crusty eyes. His back was hunched over, and he had a fragile body. Every step he took, he would occasionally trip over his own foot or step on his own foot instead. Robin felt pity on the man, so she slowly took off her hood, and showed the old man a smile fool of warmth. The old man then peered to her and let out an old chuckle. “Hmm, you seem quite cheerful today, even though I can tell you’re troubled, what’s up with you?” he asked, slowly sitting onto the chair. She suddenly sighed. “How’d you know?” she asked silently, putting her head down and looking at the pavement. She clutched her fist tightly and then closed her eyes. The man glared at her in concern. “Well it’s quite easy, I can tell by the wrinkles in your face that you’re not feeling so good.” He said with a warm smile. She then opened her eyes and peered upward, toward the old man. “My…wrinkles?” She said with a confused expression on her face. The old man gave her a slight nod. “Yep, I can tell by the wrinkles on your face that you have been frowning a lot” He suddenly let out a surprisingly loud laugh. “I think I should know about wrinkles, being how old I am” he joked, pointing to his face and making an exaggerated frown. Robin suddenly burst out in laughter. The joke wasn’t that funny, but she still wanted to laugh at at least something, being that she was feeling down currently. The man suddenly stopped laughing and peered at her with sincere eyes. “But seriously, what’s wrong? Are you lost?” he asked kindly. Robin suddenly resumed the position she was in before, looking down onto the ground. “Well….I’m kind of looking for someone” she answered back. The old man suddenly let out another one of his scratchy chuckles (he obviously will laugh at anything). “So you’ve came over here for your boyfriend eh?” he said sarcastically, nearly flipping over the bench in laughter. Robin suddenly put her head back up and was tempted to slap him across the face, but she decided to resist that temptation and replace it with an evil glare. “He’s not my boyfriend! He’s my brother!” she corrected him loudly. He suddenly stopped laughing and then peered down at his blistered shoes. “Sorry, you’ve obviously been through a lot of hardships” he said softly. She confirmed his theory with a slight nod. “Yeah….my father just died a while back….” she said in a depressed voice. The old man gasped in shock. Then he continued staring down, and formed a tremendously wrinkled frown among his face. He felt a mixture of two emotions inside himself. He felt sadness and grief for the young girl, but, as well, felt a little slight happiness, being that he finally figured out what the child was sad for. He then peered back up, and rested his crusty hand upon Robin’s shoulder. She nearly jumped by the sudden movement of the elderly man; but instead, she held her head up high and then peered at the man. The man didn’t notice at first, but then, when he peered into her expected blue eyes, he found that they weren’t the same crystal color as they use too. They where red and bloodshot, obviously from a great amount of crying. He then sighed and slowly put his hand off her shoulder and laid it on his leg. “I know how it feels to lose someone important……….I lost my only child.” he spoke softly. Robin suddenly gasped. She then leaned her head down and peered at his saddened face. It was full of many wrinkles, obviously from a life time of sadness. It seemed as if they were the only two people at the whole park to Nicole. She then reached her hand out and gave him a slight pat on the back. “Its okay.” she said softly in a sweet, soothing voice. She was about to say something else when suddenly a ringing noise yelled out of one of her pants pockets. “Huh?” she said to herself, reaching into them. She searched and scoped with her hand and then finally, pulled out a wrist watch. “How long has this been with me?” she whispered to herself, peering at it in a peculiar way. It was obviously highly advanced, even for our modern time, and it blinked a bright red light. “What the….” she whispered to herself. She then felt a sudden urge to turn to the right and, suddenly, saw a bright red line upon the ground, going northward toward the city plaza. “This is weird……” she whispered to herself. She then, suddenly, slowly got up and reached over to her staff. She picked it up and then, slowly, took a step. Her feet landed on the red line and upon stepping on it, she felt a sudden urge to just laugh in merriment or hug a random citizen. “I don’t know what’s going on………” she said, peering down onto the old man. He then peered up to her. Unlike her, when he peered up, he did not have red eyes, but bright jade eyes, not normal for an elder at his age. The sudden shock made her jump and she suddenly jumped off the red line. Suddenly, all the merriment and joy that was inside of her went away, and she returned back to the way she was feeling before. She then peered back at the old man, expecting the same beautiful jade eyes, but when she peered down she only saw red, bloodshot eyes as she did before. She let out a quick sigh of relief. It must’ve only been my imagination. She thought to herself. She then slowly peered up onto the sky. It seemed less bright then it use to, being that she had just felt a lot of warmth before she leaped in surprise. “I’m sorry, but I’ve really have to find my brother” she said slowly after glaring at the sun for a great length of time. By then she had an awful sting when she returned her vision toward the old man. The man responded with a smile and then added to it “I understand.” She smiled as well, adding a lot of warmth into it. He let out a slight nod and then, with a bow, Robin drifted toward the red line, with, surprisingly, more confidence inside of her then before.