Gvera Cross

Unexpected Meetings and Uninvited Guests

When Gvera awoke the sun was already up. The girl sat up in bed, the cloak sliding off of her, the sudden action made her feel dizzy for a moment. Even after a good night sleep she felt tired. Her stomach growled requesting food. With a sigh the girls got out of bed and searched through her back pack that contained her few belongings. Spell books, a necklace, a flask with water, and something wrapped in material. Gvera had forgotten all about it, it was a birthday gift from her father , he told her to unwrap it when she turned sixteen. She removed the material, inside it was a dagger. The blade was made of silver, enchanted with magical runes. It was beautiful weapon. She put it back into its scabbard and fastened the chain around her waist. On the very bottom of the bag was a piece of stale bread.

She forced the bread down with water. Now she was out of both. It was early September so finding food in a forest should not be hard, but finding water could be difficult. Putting her items back into the bag she thought about her mother. Gvera never knew her, mother left when she was just a baby and never returned. The girl would sometimes wonder what it was like to have a mother but a feeling deep inside her told her that this subject was best left alone. Still she noticed something, all those beautiful feminine clothes her father gave her, and the necklace with the spider and even the white streak in her hair were things connected to her mother. Things she left behind mostly, including the magical silver bracelet with a purple crystal that would turn red when danger was near. The girl didn't even know her mother's name, but she was sure that her mother was not an ordinary person.

The girl stared at the necklace- a leather string with three green scales on it. She suddenly remembered the scales were from a magical creature and they would glow when water was close. Putting it on she left the house. In the huge forest everything looked the same not sure where to go Gvera went straight walking along what might have been the remains of the old road. After a while she saw a couple of frogs hopping across her path.

"That's odd. What are frogs doing in a forest?" Gvera thought to herself" Don't they need water… Water"

She began walking at the opposite direction then the frogs. Soon enough the scales began to glow. "I sure hope it isn't a swam" the girl thought. Her father had told many stories about evil spirits that drag people under and drown them in swamps. The girl went to the opposite direction of the frogs. Soon enough the three scales started glowing- water was near. To her disappointment it turned out to be a swamp. She was about to turn around and leave when she heard a soft melody, like someone playing a flute. Suddenly everything became clouded with fog. Gvera was getting scared, maybe her father was right about the evil spirits. She turned around, and walked closer to the water, the fog slightly thinned, she could a person playing a flute, standing on water. She started backing away, just then the music went silent and the fog began to disperse.

What she saw a human boy around her age with shoulder length blond hair and emerald green eyes wearing a light blue tunic over a black shirt and black pants tucked into leather boots. He wore a blue cape with a golden snake stitched on it and golden snake shape earrings. Gvera felt calmer knowing she was dealing with a human and not an angry swamp spirit. She noticed he was standing on a rock, but when it was covered by the fog it looked like he was standing on water. The boy put the flute away into a holster attached to the belt around his waist. He jumped down and gracefully like a cat landed next to her.

"What's wrong? Cat got your tongue? " He smiled at her

He spoke the common tongue well but had a slight accent. Gvera finally came to her senses

" Who are you?" she asked him" Not a swamp spirit I hope".

The boy laughed :

" I am called Solean, I am a magician."

She looked at the boy suspiciously

" A magician? What's that?"

The boy looked disappointed.

" You haven't heard of us? Nobody here has. I'm from Kalmer. We all are"

She remembered hearing about such a place

"That's beyond the frozen sea isn't it? You're a long way from home. What are you doing here?"

"Just traveling, I guess. What about you? Walking the woods all alone."

" My name is Gvera Cross, I am a witch. I had to leave the clan since I'm the eldest, that's the law."

Solean gave a sigh

"You too, I thought we were the only ones?"

"What do you mean?" she asked.

" The Mother of the familia decides who gets to stay. I got kicked out since I'm not strong enough to be of any use to her."

"That's terrible"

"And the way they kicked you out isn't? All because of some stupid ancient law."

Gvera wasn't sure what to say, she still missed her farther and her clan. An uncomfortable silence fell between them. She had no idea how other magical communities lived, she only knew wizards, their clan had met another clan once or twice but they just spent the night in the same place and left their separate ways in the morning. Interactions between clans were minimum.

Finally Solean decided to break the uncomfortable silence.

" So. You been here long?"

"Only about a week" she replied.

"A week? I've been stuck here for a month. This is still better than the North but I'm getting really sick of this forest, you don't happen to know where the exit is?"

"No, sorry I'm afraid I don't, but I could help you look for it, if you'd like"

"Well, I guess traveling together is more fun, why not"

Gvera had found herself a traveling companion. For a while the two walked in silence, he was walking slightly ahead of her. "

So, do you like snakes?" the young witch asked after a while.

" Well, not really, it's just magician thing, you know, magical symbol. Isn't that spider the same?

"This? No, I had since birth, I think I belonged to my mother, I've never really met her ,my dad raised me."

"I don't know my parents either, I know my dad was a magician but my mother, I'm not sure. Probably just one of the meres that the Mother brought in for her prized steeds so they could give birth her a new champion.".

"You make it sound like it's just horse breeding" .

" That's what is, only with people. To keep the familia strong,;the strongest get to stay and sleep with all kinds of women or men that Mother picks, the weak get kicked out like me."

"I'm sorry, I didn't know"

the magician just shrugged:

" It's not that bad, at least now I can do whatever I want, and go anywhere I want."

"I guess you're right."

"It's getting kind of dark" the boy noticed

" We should find shelter" Gvera agreed

"We should find food. I'm starving" he added.

"Yeah" she agreed" I'm all out, so let's find some mushrooms."

"But what if their poisonous?" Solean asked

" I can tell those apart, we used pick them all the time for potions. "

" Then' I'll go and find some fire wood, lets meet by that giant pine tree later"

The sun was setting and a fire roared under the great pine tree. Gvera came back with a hand full of yellow mushrooms:

" Sorry ,that's all I found in the dark"

"Well, it's better than nothing" Solean sighed.

" I found some apples" she tossed him one" there are some wild apple trees nearby."

They sat on the roots of the tree eating apples, watching mushrooms roast over the camp fire. Solean tried to eat one

" This could really use some salt, can't you make any with magic?

"Sorry, I'm still a novice I can't do summoning spells yet." Gvera took a bite out of the mushroom" This is terrible"

" Gvera! the boy shouted" your sleeve! It's glowing "

Gvera rolled up her sleeve showing the silver bracelet with the magical crystal that had gone from lavender to pink

" If this urns read we are in grave danger, it's warning us that something dangerous is close. "

The crystal started darkening, turning crimson.

" Hurry climb the tree."

She grabbed her bag and started climbing. Solean was close behind her. They were pretty high when they heard a roar unlike any they heard before.A creature ran into the camp. It was all black and had no fur. It resembled a human walking on all fours but was a lot bigger, it had no eyes or nose but had a mouth full of sharp teeth and claws like razors.

"What the hell is that thing." Solean asked

" It's a creature from Death!"

"What? "

"I only saw a picture in one of dads books, but it is something a necromancer would summon. A creature from the other side, in other words from Death."

The creature howled and flames dripped from its mouth. It looked around and ran off into the night.

"A necromancer summoned that?" the boy gave her a questioning look

"I don't really know, I'm not a necromancer. But it said in the book that these things can't enter our world on their own. So it must have been summoned, and the only ones that can open the gate between the worlds of the living and the dead are necromancers. This isn't something that happens often in this place. This is something big"

"I believe you" he said "Let's stay here for the night, in case it comes back. We can figure this out in the morning."

Gvera agreed. Wrapped her cloak around herself and leaned against tree. Solean climbed a bit higher and stretched out on a large branch like a cat.