brknkybrd

Yeah, I'm crazy enough to try writing this... hopefully updating several times a week...


It needed but one final touch, Anton thought as he turned the carving over in his hands. Cradling it in his right hand, he reached into the small brown bag to his left. Pulling the tiniest of his carving blades from the bag, he scratched an intricate symbol into the back of the feminine figure. Elys, it read, sounded out in the Ancient Script.

There. Putting away the blade, Anton admired his handiwork. A tear gently ran down from his eye as he ran his fingers over the likeness of Elys Harper, his mother. He placed the figure next to two others before him, in the centre of the grove. The others were her parents, and were his first successful attempts at summoning the images of good people from raw wood.

The grove was quiet, not a single bird or insect chirping came from the thick wood of birches around him. Anton sat, deeply breathing the crisp air as he looked at a strange pile of stone set in the soft dirt ahead of him. The same stone he had watched carefully, at every visit to this enchanted grove over the last 15 years.

He watched for her. A strange woman had once appeared before Anton. He had been only a small child then, carefully watched by his mentor, Serriah. Serriah had been standing behind him when the ghost arrived; a beautiful, fragile figure of a woman, with long black hair and large almond eyes. The ghost had merely smiled at him, and then she was gone. Sometimes, Anton had seen her again, but only in his dreams, or for a few fleeting seconds here in this grove.

Suddenly, Anton's hopes were fulfilled as a familiar figure materialized in the air before him. Gracefully floating before him in an intricately woven gown was the image of a beautiful, young woman. She put her smooth, tan-skinned hand to Anton's forehead, gently pressing her fingers to him. Though he couldn't feel the touch, there was a sudden surge of energy through his body, a strange sensation of power filling his muscles.

"Strength, Anton," the voice whispered through his mind, a soft, yet strained voice, as though the girl was struggling with his language, "You have a long journey ahead, and at last, I can tell you..."

"Who are you?" Anton carefully watched the apparition, lost in her eyes as he spoke.

"Jeong-Mi," the name was pronounced very carefully in Anton's mind, "I know you. You don't know me, yet... You will...." There was a sense in his mind, somehow, that she wanted to say more, yet could not.

"How do you know me?" Anton asked.

"Time... There is no time, Anton," her voice grew louder in his mind, "Jeong Shin Sa Won... you must find the Temple before <i>she</i> does."

Just then, as mysteriously as she had come, the strange, beautiful girl was gone. Anton looked carefully around. The grove was the same around him; he felt as though the apparition and the otherworldly conversation had been nothing but a dream.

Yet, it was more, something in the back of Anton's mind told him. Jeong-Mi had never spoken to him in any of his visions; he had only learned her name now, after so many years of seeing her. She had told him to find something; <i>Jeong Shin Sa Won</i>. The strange words echoed clearly in his mind.

Quickly, he gathered up the carvings before him, carefully placing them and his carving kit in his specially padded backpack. Rising from the ground, he quickly made his way out of the grove. There was one woman who might understand, Anton thought as he walked, and her house was not far from here.

Serriah had been watching, Anton thought to himself as he ran along the path through the thick wood. She had seen Jeong-Mi, and had not been surprised when the ghost girl had appeared on that long-ago winter day. That evening, in the warmth of a small fire in Serriah's fireplace, Anton's kindly mentor had told him the story of a young Empress in the time of the Ancients.

The Empress had witnessed the appearance of a Prophet, the story went, a strange man who was very different in appearance from the Ancients. When he appeared, she knew it was the foretelling of doom for her people. Yet, she came to love the Prophet, and begged him to become her groom and aid her in protecting her people from their many enemies. Together, she and the Prophet tried to stop an enemy army from reaching the capitol of her Empire. Their efforts proved fruitless, however. The enemy stormed the Empress's castle, leaving no man, woman, or child alive, save for the Prophet. When the enemy slew the young Empress, she had made a final lover's promise to the Prophet - she would return someday.

The sun was hanging low in the sky in front of Anton, as he rested on a boulder in a large clearing of the woods. As he considered Serriah's tale, he pulled a small, deerskin canteen from his bag. Anton drank deeply, rising from his seat as he prepared to finish his journey to Serriah.

Just then, from the woods ahead of Anton, a man desparately ran toward him. The slender, weary man stopped, carefully eyeing his surroundings and Anton's shocked expression. After carefully meeting Anton's eyes, the strange man spoke.

"Five men are after me, good Sir," the stranger said, "They will not stop until I lay dead. Is there a safe haven in this area?"
Sensing the man's urgency, Anton did not ask any of the score of questions racing through his mind. Instead, he merely indicated a narrow dirt path branching off from the main path in front of him: the path to Serriah's house.

"This way, stranger," he said, leading the desperate man down the path.

As the two men ran, five large, heavily armed brutes emerged from the woods, watching as their prey fled with the stranger.

__________________
Normal is overrated.

KellyC

I just love this line...
Please post more soon, I'm anxious to find what happens next

btw, is " Jeong Shin Sa Won" Korean??

__________________
Him: Ok, I have to ask, what do you believe?
Me: Shit happens.

heather99

Hi, I would like to read more too. Is it written or are you still working on it? Do you have other stories?

SSJwrestler

This is a really good start man. Keep it coming.