Chapter 1: Rain and cherry blossoms


I still remember the day it all started. It was a mid-spring day and Neisha was as beautiful as ever. It was around 75 degrees with a soft breeze. I lived in Berium; a small town just outside the capital city. I could see the palace from my bedroom window. The view was great. Most girls my age dreamed of living in the there. They wondered what it was like to have servants and power. They all seemed to think that they would be the one to marry the prince. It was like the setting to a bad fairy tale.

Not me. I was happy with what I had. I had realized what those girls did not; the life of a royal was a lonely one. My mom had died when I was very young, so I had to grow up fast. I had no time for friends, boys, or anything. I had to work hard to keep me, my brother, and my father happy. We were not rich, not poor either, just on that line between the two. Working gave me something to do. I would go crazy living in a place like the palace.

Nevertheless, I loved my country, and--more then anything--I loved the cherry blossoms. I know this might sound stupid to you. But, if you would just try to see it the way I did. At this time in the year, they made Neisha beautiful. They were more to me then just flowers. They were so light that when they fell from the cherry tree, they would get caught in the wind, and the wind would carry them for miles. In the spring daytime, it was very rare to not see blossoms entwined in the wind. And at night, no matter where you went in this kingdom, the streets would be completely covered with them. These cherry trees only grew in two known places, Neisha and Japan. And that made them special. Everyday I would stop and watch them.

I had a few friends. None of us had much time to hang out, but when we did; we made up for it. However, before I met Arik, my life was a solo act. It seems weird to me how I made it before those later days. You'll know more about that as the story progresses.

This was Neisha's golden age, at least for me anyway. Without being there the way it was; you could not possibly imagine the beauty. This is how I remember Neisha, in all it's glory. No one ever dared defy King Galeon. He controlled the entire planet. There were many lesser kingdoms under him. But he was the world power.

I never felt insignificant, though I was.

Everyday had been mellow and serene. Why should that day be any different? I lay on my bed in my second-story bedroom and listened to the rain pour. The rain was like magic to me; turning everything it touched into lovely silver. I stood up and watched it through the window. After a few minutes, I walked in front of the mirror. I ran my brush through my long, raven hair as black eyes stared back at me.

I was about to get dressed for sleep when an immense sound broke the silence. I didn't know what was happening at first. I don't know why seeing the floor crumbling didn't clue me in. The candles on my bureau and table started shaking and then fell onto the floor. I screamed and jumped backwards, which was not a smart thing to do. The entire floor started to break apart and finally gave in.


"Uh..." I pushed some junk off of me and slowly stood up. I winced at the bright sunlight. I pulled my icy-blue strands back and looked around. It wasn't that bad. It seemed like just a normal quake. Lately, there had been so many that it was almost a normal thing for us. But, I did think it was odd that the first quake that Neisha ever had was only last year. Before that, this had never happened. This one was worse then the others I had been through, though. My house literally laid at my feet.

"Angela! Are you okay??"

I turned around to see my brother walking towards me. I smiled, "I'm fine, Teva." My smile faded, "Oh & no. When is dad coming home?"

Teva answered, "Next week." Teva's features were not like mine at all. His dark-red hair was cut at the shoulders and held back, as were a lot of men's hair of this time. He stood at about 6' and his big, blue eyes seemed to see everything.

I thought for a moment and then said, "A week & that is not enough time to re-build the house & "

"Re-build?! Why? So it will be leveled again by another quake? We can't do that, Angel," Teva replied.

I stood silent for a moment. "Teva, what are we going to do then?", I asked.

Teva obviously didn't know. He answered, "Uh & I guess that we just wait for dad to get home."

"And until then?", I asked.

"I don't know," Teva replied softly, "I guess we have to stay with friends until dad gets home," Teva replied, starting to walk away, "Bye, Angel."

I gathered some of my belongings in a black, leather bag and walked out to where the stables used to be. The horses were walking around loose. I called Nova, my horse, and started towards town; I arrived there thirty minutes later.


"Angela!"

I turned around to see a girl with ear-length, light-orange hair and emerald eyes walking towards me. She grinned, "Hey, where are you doing in Berium.. on a Wednesday?" The girl was wearing a traditional female Irish outfit (a short, plaid skirt and a tight, red mid-rif top) and was holding a carved and jeweled staff that's upper half was a sword blade.

I smiled and said, "Hey, Tobie. I need a place to stay for awhile, would your parents mind if I stayed with you?"

Tobie had a blank look on her face and asked, "Why?"

"My house was leveled in the quake," I replied, not knowing why it wasn't obvious to her.

Tobie looked confused. She touched her lip with her finger and asked, "What quake???"

"The one last night, duh," I replied.

Tobie continued to look blankly at me. She muttered, "Huh??"

I threw my arms back in frustration and replied, "Ugh, the quake early last night that totally moved the ground and destroyed my house; it had to be felt for miles. You had to have noticed it!! Even a little?"

Tobie was silent for a moment and then replied, "Sorry. Haven't heard. But if it was as big enough to do that to your house, then it should have been felt here, too. Unless it was a god or something."

I sweatdropped, "A god?!? What have I done to upset a god?"

"I don't know, that does sound a little silly. How can those Earthlings believe in something that they have never really seen or heard? It's all based on stories anyway," Tobie replied.

"Well?", I asked.

Tobie adjusted the strap of her bag. She asked, "What, Angela?"

I replied, "Do you think that I can stay or not?"

Tobie still looked out-of-it. She replied, "Uh.. I guess. My parents won't mind." She paused and then continued, "I was going to go find Asabeth. Do you want to come or go ahead to my house?"



"I guess that I'll come with you. I need to buy a new dagger anyway," I said, tugging on Nova's reins. I tied them onto a near-by wooden bar that was outside a tavern for the customers' horses. The owner's daughter was a friend of mine, so he wouldn't care if I left Nova there for awhile. After I was sure that Nova was secure, Tobie and I continued towards the street market. For a few minutes, we were both mute. Tobie kept her eyes ahead of herself and said, "Knowing Asabeth, she's probably somewhere stalking that profoundly cute guard.. Xavier I think is his name."

"I Have no idea what his name is," I replied. I was uninterested in what Tobie was saying as I aproached an fascinating weapon shop. My eyes scanned over the daggers on the table. Tobie, meanwhile, was looking at a dragon staff. I picked up a small, boot dagger that had a griffen carved on it.

Tobie took her attention away from the staff and briskly glanced at the other weapons. "Come on, we got to go," Tobie urged.

I paid for the dagger and put it into my bag. I asked, "Where does Asabeth normally go?"

Tobie thought and then answered, "Well, she's usually stationary, where ever that Xavier guy is. Unless he's on duty somewhere, then she's with friends."

"That doesn't really help. She did say she would stay in the market, didn't she?", I asked.

Tobie yawned. "Yea.."

We wondered around aimlessly. It wasn't that the market was very big (it was made up of one main street and several allies), it was just crowded. "There," I muttered as Tobie and I walked at a leisurely pace towards a shop near the end of the street. We stopped and waited for Asabeth to notice us.

Asabeth was standing on the far side of the table with her blue eyes fixed on a boy around the age of seventeen. She was wearing tight, black leather pants and a loose, sky-blue shirt. She twisted a curl of her brown, waist-long hair around the index finger of her left hand. She grinned, "You know, you should realy get your sector leader to give you a day off." She glanced up at us and raised her left eyebrow at me. She looked back at Xavier and said, "Sorry, but I have to go."

"That's okay, Beth," Xavier replied. He brushed back his chin-length, sandy-blonde hair. "See you soon?", he asked.

"Yea, soon," Asabeth muttered. She started towards us. "Why?", she asked as she approached us.

"Why what?", Tobie asked. She crossed her arms and shifted her legs. "I wanted more time with that babe, Xavier," Asabeth replied. She looked at me questionally and smiled, "Hey Angela."

"We're not stopping you. Do what you want," I said. I sat down on a broken tree trunk on the right side of a odd building.

"But waiting for Tobie was my excuse. If I stayed longer, Xavier would think that I was incovencing Tobie. He would have been the one to say I had to go," Asabeth explained as she sat on the grass left of me.

Tobie put her stuff on the ground but remained standing. She leaned against the side of the building and crossed her arms and feet.

The three of us rested there for about fifteen minutes. Tobie pulled away from the building and looked at it. "What's with this place?", she asked, "I see it whenever I come to the market, but I've never known what it was."

Asabeth glanced at the building. "It appears to be abandoned," she said. She sprung up, "Let's go in." She looked at Tobie, who had a blank look on her face, and then started towards the front. I stood up and walked in front of Tobie, behind Asabeth. Asabeth stopped in front of the door and stared in the window. "There's something is in there.."

"Duh, I can see the burning candles from here," Tobie said. She came forward and reached for the door knob.

Inside, it was dimly lit by a few candles. A round table sat in the middle, seperated from the rest of the room by silk, cloth walls. On either side of the room was long, rectangular tables. Sitting on these were many objects, including weapons and jewelery.

Tobie was the first to walk inside. Me and then Asabeth followed. "What the hell..", Tobie muttered as she stopped a few feet in, "Where are the shop keepers?" Neither of us replied. Instead we walked ahead of Tobie in separate directions.

"This is weird," I muttered as I picked up an old book.

"Angela, what is that?", Asabeth asked. She began to walk towards me.

"I don't know," I answered as I opened the front cover.

"Perhaps I could help you girls," a voice said suddenly.

I nearly dropped the open book in my hand. We all looked towards the center of the room. The source of the voice was a female with a long, chocolate-brown pony tail and brown eyes. The woman was clutching a cat in her arms. For some reason I noticed the cat right off.

Tobie looked frightened for a moment, but then seemed to calm down. "You're the shop keeper, right?", she asked.

The woman smiled. "Yes, I'm Sammi," she said, friendly enough.

"I'm Asabeth," Asabeth replied. She motioned towards me and then Tobie as she said, "And Angela and Tobie." She held her right arm with her left hand in front of her.

"What can I do for you, girls?", Sammi asked. She pulled back the silk walls of her table and sat in an chair. She released the cat and it scampered away.

"Well," I began, "We were just wondering about this place." I walked forward, slowly holding out the book. "Um, could you tell me what this is?", I asked. In the dark I knocked into a unseen table and it fell over. "Oops.."

Tobie was the only one startled. "Angela!! Be more carefull!" She began to walked forward towards me. "Anyway, Angela found this book," she said as she took the book from me. She opened it and her eyes scanned a random page. She looked up at Sammi, "What is this about? It's in our language, but I don't understand it."

Sammi smiled from her table. "Only the one meant to have it will understand. Take it, just in case. You will realize what it is later. I promise."

Asabeth stood silently with her arms crossed. She felt a soft, warm material rub against her legs. She looked down. "Ahh, a sweet kittie cat," she said as she knelt down and picked it up. The cat was a medium sized male with white fur sploted with orange.

Sammi stood up. "Shop is closed. Have a nice day girls." She opened the front door and smiled. All three of us left silently. The cat watched us and then ran after us. Sammi shut the door behind them and laughed wickedly. "I think they are the ones..."


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