Krystelyna

The two girls walked out of the village, heads held high, leaving everyone in silence. When they reached a clearing in the forest, they sat down and just started crying. The girls sat there for a long time. Each was drawn into her own little world of thought. Finally Dawnetta sighed out loud as she surveyed their surroundings. "Not doing a very good job of taking care of us, am I. I lose my temper and control of my mouth and look where I get us. Sitting on the ground in the middle of the forest. We can't go back nor do we know what lies ahead." Dawnetta started to cry again. Krystelyna went over to her sister and put her arms around her. "Well, we could always look at it this way, we have no beds to make and you can't yell at me for not cleaning my room." Krystelyna started laughing. Soon Dawnetta started laughing too. "Oh my sweet little sister. Leave it to you to find a reason not to make your bed or clean your room." The two girls laughed together. Krystelyna started to stand up when she saw a movement out of the corner of her eye. She looked at her sister and whispered, " There is someone or something watching us. You keep laughing and act like you are going to get something to eat. I'm going to try and sneak up behind it." Dawnetta shook her head yes in response, never losing the smile on her face.

Krystelyna headed for the stream and started following it. When she was just out of sight, she ducked into the forest and headed back towards where she had just been. Silently she crept towards where she had seen the movement in the forest. She found a tree just behind the edge of the forest. Slowly she looked from around the tree and saw someone crouching down behind a bush. Not knowing who it was, she decided that the best thing for her to do was to just jump on them and hope for the best. She leaped from her hiding spot behind the tree and in one jump was on top of the person, swinging for all she was worth. The person was yelling, but she couldn't understand them as she had their face in the dirt. Dawnetta came running to help her sister. Just as Dawneta reached out to grab the person, their face came up and the two girls could finally understand what the person was saying. "Krystelyna!! Dawnetta!! Please don't hit me anymore!", the voice was crying. Krystelyna rolled the person over to see who it was. Much to her surprise she found herself looking in the muddy, tear-streaked face of her only friend, Ulis, the boy without a home.

The two girls stared for a second at Ulis and then they began to laugh. Ulis looked at the two girls and said in a small, hurt voice, "I see no reason for you two to laugh at me. I was just watching you to make sure that you didn't get hurt." This caused the girls to start laughing even harder. Ulis turned and stomped off. "Ulis!! Wait! Don't go!", called Krystelyna. Ulis stopped and turned around to the girls, who were desperately trying to keep their faces straight. "Ulis, we are very grateful that you are keeping an eye on us, but what about the villagers? Does anyone know where you are?", Dawnetta asked. Ulis looked down at the ground. "It wouldn't matter if they knew or not. They wouldn't care. The villagers have always acted like I was just in the way. I want to come with you. I have never had a home back there and you two are the only ones that have ever cared what happened to me. So the way I look at it, why should I stay somewhere that I'm not really wanted."

The two girls looked at each other, then at Ulis. "Ulis, do you know where we are going?", asked Krystelyna, "I mean it's not that we wouldn't love to have you along, but we aren't even sure what lies ahead for us." Ulis looked at the two girls and said, "I guess I should have known that you wouldn't want me coming along, I guess I was just hoping to have a family for once in my life." Krystelyna looked at Ulis with tears in her eyes. "Ulis, you know we love you as our own brother, but we just don't want anything to happen to you. You've heard the stories about the Lady in the Cave as well as we have." Ulis jerked his head up. "I don't care about what the people have said! I just wanted to be with the two of you. I won't get in the way or get hurt. I promise! Please don't send me back! Let me go with you!" Ulis looked from Krystelyna to Dawnetta, pleading with his eyes. The girls looked at each other and shrugged. Dawnetta said, "Ok Ulis. You may go with us, but on one condition. You stay with us and listen to what I say. No wandering off into the forest or anything else like that. Deal?" A huge smile covered Ulis' dirty little face. "It's a deal!" And with that Ulis grabbed the two girls and started hugging them. "Ulis! You're going to get us all muddy! Now off to the creek with you and get cleaned up. We want to get to the Caves before nightfall.", Dawnetta said with a smile on her face.

While Ulis went to clean up, the two girls began cleaning up the area where they had been sitting. "Do you really think it is a good idea to bring him along?, asked Krystelyna, "Afterall he is so young and we don't even know what is going to happen to us when we get there." Dawnetta turned to her sister and said, "I really don't think it will hurt anything. We can't send him back. If we leave him here, he will just follow us anyway. So we may as well take him with us, that way at least we can keep an eye on him. Besides, what do you mean he's so young? He's about as old, if not the same age as you." Ulis was coming up from the creek about this time, so the two girls let the subject drop. They finished packing the donkey and they all headed off towards the mountain where lay the Caves.

The three of them walked along a path as far as they could follow it. Then they headed off into the forest towards the mountain. The forest was very quiet as they walked along, with only the breaking of twigs as they stepped on them, breaking the silence. Finally they came to the path that led up the mountain to the Caves. Here they sat down and ate some fruit in silence. None of them wanting to say anything for fear that someone would hear them. They finished eating, cleaned up the are and proceeded to climb the steep path to the Caves. All of them were beginning to get very scared, as each remembered the different stories they had heard about the Lady that lived there. They reached an area where the ground leveled out and it was easier traveling. They walked for about another hour before they reached the Caves. They looked at each other without saying a word. Krystelyna stopped and looked ahead of her. "Look.", she said, pointing ahead. When the other two looked to where she was pointing, they saw three huge cave openings. "Which one do we go into?", asked Ulis, in a tiny voice. "I don't know.", said Krystelyna. She too was trying to decide which cave they needed to enter. The three of them started forward til they came to the entrance of the Caves. Krystelyna said in a dazed voice, "We are supposed to go in to the one on the right." Dawnetta and Ulis looked at her with puzzeled looks on their faces. "How do you know?", asked Dawnetta. But before Krystelyna could give her an answer, they heard a voice coming from inside the cave. "Welcome to my home, Krystelyna. I have been expecting you. And you too, Ulis. I'm so glad you're here, too."

The Beginning? -- chptr 1