Short SnapShot of Book 2

When war from the outside world seeps into our home, and those who seek power that they do not deserve begin to march on the destined city, two sisters will bring us back to peace. These sisters, blessed with wisdom beyond their years and powers beyond what this world can fathom, will bring a new order to our world. Their order. Begotten by two of Pasis’s most powerful tribes, the destined set will enter this world on the night of the celestial moon in the annum of 1632. Lest they descend into the depth within their twenty-second year, Pasis will no longer be the world which we know. Heed their light. Heed their darkness. And long may their power keep us safe from that which we know not of.

I told her of our prophesy while we sat by the brook, and as I spoke she tensed more and more. The sun had shifted and we were no longer bathed in light. The leaves of the surrounding trees cast shadows over her eyes as everything began to sink into her own mind. I waited for her to respond, though what she said I did not expect.

“What do you think it means?” she asked.

“Exactly what it speaks,” I replied. “I know it is hard to believe, but we are the sisters that this prophesy is talking about. I do not know who wrote it, or when they wrote it. Father kept it in a room where he kept his journals. I was not allowed in that room, for obvious reasons, but I needed to know why he spent so much time avoiding me. Carolynn, he was not just absent from your life.”

“Then you were denied a mother and a father,” she spoke quietly. She was not tense because of me any longer. She was now tense because of what I had revealed to her. “I understand why you hate me so, now.”

“I do not hate you, sister,” I said immediately. “At least not in a way that you think. I am jealous that you were able to have a life with a mother that I never knew, and that father loved you so much that he sent someone to watch you and report back to him.”

“I am sorry,” she lowered gaze and I saw a tear spill to the rock below. She knew how I felt. She must have felt as I did when she found out that he had been watching her from a distance all her life. That he had been so close at times, and still did not go to her. Did not hold her like a father should.

“Carolynn,” I said slowly, and then waited for her to raise her eyes back to mine. “I am not angry with you. You have no need to apologize to me.” I looked up at the sky and noticed where the sun was. I stood and reached my hand out for hers. “Come,” I spoke as she took my hand and I helped her to stand. “It would be wise of us to keep moving. The noon day bell will toll soon. This forest is not safe for that hour.”

“What happens at that hour?” she asked as she matched her pace to mine.

“For the first hour of the evening, this forest belongs to the sprites and hobgoblins. If we remain here when they wake, they will not be kind. For the beauty that I have given this forest, the creatures that live within it are not an embodiment of that beauty.”

I quickened my pace, and watched as Carolynn kept her pace even with my strides. She did not speak again until we emerged from the forest, and entered the plains of my home. We reached the edge of Lorada just as the noon day bell began to toll. I turned and motioned for Carolynn to look back into the trees. When she faced the forest, her eyes landed immediately on the creatures that I was adamant to avoid.

Gruesome creatures with pointed ears, gnarled claws that scraped the earth as they walked, pointed teeth that gleamed with saliva as they sneered at us, and expressions of hatred and sheer death on their faces. Their hair was knotted as always, and their skin dirt covered. They were watching us as we watched them. Their black eyes landing on Carolynn, as if I did not exist. Then they did what I had not expected. They stepped beyond the tree line and knelt before us. I looked to Carolynn, and did not see the sister that I had known so far standing beside me.

She was standing straight, her hair blown back from her face by a non-existing wind. Her soft brown eyes, now glowed gold and her skin shown with brilliant, dazzling specks of light. Her arms were straight at her sides with her hands pointed so the palms were facing out. She opened her lips, and the voice that passed through them possessed power that I had only seen once, when I created the Wargens.

“Heed my words now, dwellers of the forest, creatures of the earth. Just as one may have power over man, one may have power over those that are half-breeds. Children of beasts and man, I will not bring you harm and you will not harm us. Passage through your land is mine to take, and I take what is mine. Remember your place, and I will remember my kindness. Forget that place, and my kindness will give way to violence. I hold the power and I will be obeyed.” Power radiated off of her as I watched in awe. Carolynn was more powerful than I could have imagined, and that power meant that I too held it. The forest dwellers backed into the forest and disappeared from vision. Once they were gone, the light faded from Carolynn’s skin and eyes and her hair fell back to place. She sunk to her knees and pressed her palms to the earth as she breathed heavily into the darkening air.