The Shadow of Amulets

What Is It?...

Link's POV

I woke up the next day just before 10 am. I brushed up got ready and put on my gear and stepped outside. As I was walking down the hallway I was remembering the crazy day I had experienced yesterday. Meeting Elvia, to finding that rather strange stone, to being kidn*pped and then escaping. It was definitely a crazy experience. And also sneaking back into the castle wasn't easy. I was saved thankfully by Alaan who kept me under the radar for the day. Just as every day I had sword training with Sir Vivian and Alaan. I and Alaan would normally spar at training but Alaan would always beat me with swords. He was very talented with them.

Flash forward a few hours and Alaan and I had finished our training for the day.

"uggghhhhh that was tiring 'Vivs never gives us a break," Alaan says exhausted as he stretches his arms. " Come on it was nothing," I say with ease. "I don't know how you're not even exhausted," he said.

We were hanging around the castle while I told Alaan what happened yesterday.

"So basically you were getting weird dreams of some stone and it told you to come to the forest where you lived and you ended up finding it and when you found it, it shot out an insanely bright green light into the sky.," Alaan said with a confused face. "Yeah that's pretty much it, and here's the stone," I say as I hand it to him. "Woah it's green. It's like uhh, like an emerald gem! What does it do?" he said amazed. "You see that's the problem..., I have no clue," I say frowning. "So you had dreams that told you to get this stone. This has to be special. And if this stone is special then it has to have existed at some other point in time and if that is true then it has to be in the tapestry dungeon. That's where all the texts from every part of history and tales are" Alaan nudged me. "We have to go there, it's our best shot" he added. "Alright then...can't hurt to try," I say as I follow him. "Alright! Let's hurry, I'm excited!" he shouted.

We made it to the tapestry dungeon and started looking for anything related to magical stones or green rocks. "I found stuff on some ancient sword that was used by a fearless Warrior long ago but mysteriously went missing after he died and hasn't been seen since" Alaan explained with such interest. "Alaan were here to find information on this stone," I say feeling the urge to give up. "Oh yeah sorry bro, got a bit carried away there" as he started to sift through more tapestries.

We kept on searching for the next hour and found absolutely nothing until Alaan saw something... 

Suddenly he stumbled upon a couple of pages tied together. The front page said 'The history of the Amulets of Xadia'. "Amulets," Alaan said confused. We begin to read the tapestry and it mentioned certain Amulets being used throughout history to help with conflicts at the time. "Do you think this is an Amulet"? I ask with shock. "Yeah, it must be.

Look at the drawings of the Amulets. They look pretty close to your one" he said." Seems so" I say. We continued to read on until it came to a close as the rest of the pages were missing. "What! That's it. Come on, really!" Alaan said with disappointment. "I think there are extra pages but they are missing. Take a look at how the last page ends. It says 'the Amulets were used for good until...', There's clearly more to this tapestry" I say in deep thought. "I know what to do hehe. Let's ask my dad. I'm sure he knows something about this stone" Alaan said. "But we don't even know what this stone or Amulet is. I mean what if I found something totally evil" I say trying to defend my argument. "I'm sure my dad won't do anything. He's totally cool. He will know" Alaan says with a big smile. "Fine," I say with slight regret.

We head to the Palace where the King aka Alaan's father is. The guards let us in and we tried to find him.

"Oh hello, son how are you. And how are you Link" King Arthur said. I and Alaan both said we're fine and after 5 minutes of catching up we come to our desired conversion.

"So what is it you wanted to talk to me about?" Arthur said curiously.

Alaan looked at me and I took out my Amulet from one of my side pockets.

King Arthur saw it and paused for a moment. He looked at the stone and smiled. "That's quite a strange stone you have there Link. Where did you find it?" He said moving closer. "I found it in Oaklore Forest. Do you know anything about it?" I replied. "Well I'm sure it's a special stone of some sort"--- Just then he saw the stone emit a slight glow. His face then turned pale.

There was a pause for a moment and then he started to speak. "What was it. What was it? Magical stones... I remember this" he spoke out loud very deep in thought. Alaan looked shocked even though he didn't know what that meant. "Sooo, what's this mean then? Link has the ancient power of an Amulet of Xadia? That means he's unstoppable right?" Alaan said with a bright face.

"There is an old tapestry talking about the history of the Amulets. It's somewhere around here" the King said as he started looking through each of the shelves in his study. After 10 minutes of looking, he found the pages which seemed to be the ones missing from the dungeon. "Here it is. I haven't seen this in decades. This is one of the oldest tales in history.

It is believed humans have used these stones or Amulets for many things. No one knows how they were discovered only that it brought good fortune to the people. These passages speak about the disappearance of these so-called Amulets and how they were wiped away from humanity. Many thought they disappeared because the Amulets brought more destruction than help" The king explained. "Why would these Amulets bring misfortune to others". I replied. "Word reached throughout the land of these magical stones and naturally that intrigued certain rulers at the time. Most of them wanted all these strange Amulets for themselves so they could command mankind and from there came disagreement which was to be expected. The many different rulers started waging war on another kingdom for their respected Amulet. From there on it was war after war. Neither side would give up" he said slowly. 

"It's just an Amulet guys haha" Alaan laughed.

"Why would the rulers start a war just to get these stones. I mean what's the point?" Alaan questioned.

"I'm guessing that since no one knew where these stones came from, that made it seem that much more holy to them and that temptation eventually turned into greed and then war," said King Arthur.

"The last part of the tapestry speaks about the sudden disappearance of the Amulets and how they vanished from humanity which then would, in turn, stop the violence. It is said at the time no one knew why they disappeared and is a question still unsolved to this day" He finished putting the tapestry down. "I wouldn't be surprised if this is treated as a fairy story to people today," I said smirking. "Oh most definitely. There wasn't much evidence of the Amulet's existence from that period in time and so it caused everyone to believe less in it until it became folklore." He replied. "Then that means we just found the first long lost Amulet!!! Alaan shouted. "SHUSH!!!" both I and the king said as we didn't want anyone to hear. "Also I wanted to tell you that when I first found it, a huge burst of green light emanated from the stone and shot right into the sky.

"What did you say! " King Arthur said quickly as he looked back at the pages and a certain drawing caught his eye. "Did it look something like this?" he said as he showed us. The picture showed 5 Amulets with coloured light emanating from them. "Well It was just a blazing green light not a coloured light, but it looked the same..." I said shocked.

"Then there's no doubt about it. You have found one of the Amulets of Xadia. 

"But...I mean... This is insane. You're saying I somehow found one of the magical stones that were erased from existence for hundreds of centuries and now they just somehow appeared" I say sarcastically.

"Well duhh Link, we're you even listening to him," Alaan said laughing. "You believe this too Alaan?" I say with disbelief. "Cmon Link. After everything that's happened so far, you still don't think this stone is legit. It shot light to the skies, that's enough for me. Heck, you even dreamt about it bro " Alaan answered back while patting me on the back.

"You dreamt about it?" King Arthur asked me. "Well... Something like that" I replied. "I think you were meant to find this Amulet Link," he said with a serious expression. "Well now that we have this, what do we do now?" I ask looking for an answer. "Well, we certainly have to keep this a secret between the three of us. If word got out that the Amulets have returned, that would be the worst-case scenario" the king said while thinking.

"For now we must keep that stone hidden and in time we will figure this out. Link, keep it secret, keep it safe" He said with a serious face. "Sure thing, that won't be a problem," I say assuring him. "You can rest assured dad, the stone will not be found!" Alaan shouted. "SHUSH!!!" both I and King Arthur said while covering his mouth. "That should be enough for today. Get some rest the two of you and don't worry about it too much" the king said.

We nod as we head out of the Palace. We were sitting in the 'Green Dragon' (a social place for eating and drinking) discussing what's the next move. "What I'm confused about is how did I find this Amulet and what has it got to do with me?" I asked Alaan looking for an answer. "You seem sad for a guy who found an insanely powerful artefact," Alaan said being brotherly by putting his arm over my neck." I mean...I can't stop thinking about the ramifications of me finding this Amulet. What does this mean and most importantly where are the other Amulets?" I say weakly.