Enercarian Chronicles -Chapter 1: Riddles and Cats

“Azeta, are you still reading in there?”

Azeta closed her book and shoved it under her bed. Yanking up the covers, she pretended to be asleep. Her mother came in the door and after a glance around left the room. Azeta sat up and grabbed the book again.

“I’m so close to the second rune, I can feel it.” she muttered in frustration.

Her tail twitched from side to side as it often did when she was irritated. She read the riddle again.


Away from this world of your own,

Lays a rune of power unknown.

Near the cliffs of the Opar's kin,

The gates to there do lie within.

If you look for this rune renowned,

Make sure you want it to be found.

For if you find the magic gates,

It will forever change your fate.


Although Azeta was concerned with the warnings in the riddle, She still had to find the second rune. Her brother Feran and her had came across the first one when their family's caravan had been attacked by bandits.

The bandit's camp was in a deep mountainside cave, where deeper inside there were many different crystals that the bandits had mined. On one side of the cave Azeta and Feran had were tied up.

One night the two bandits on guard had fallen asleep and Faren was looking at the nearest pile of crystals to see if he could cut himself free with one. Instead of finding a sharp crystal, he saw a small shard of stone with a strange marking on it. Azeta now knew that it was in the old language of Enercaria, called Veirkyn. The symbol that was carved on Faren’s stone meant to discover or seek.



The rune had magic in it and bonded with Faren's Sumei, his inner fire. Azeta and Feran used its magic to escape that night. She could still remember the flashes of lightning that had came from the stone.

First they had knocked out the guards in their cave and took their weapons. At first it seemed pointless to Azeta; why not just use the stone on the way out too? But Faren said that they shouldn't use the magic around mom and dad.

Crashing into the next cave, they had fought their way out. Ever since that night, Azeta and Feran had been searching for anything else on the stone. They had found out that there were more and that they had a name. Runes. Now Azeta was searching through all her books and scrolls trying to find something on the second rune in the riddle.

Azeta let out a huff of breath and flipped the page of the book. It was a page that was about the hidden portals to the out world.

The portals actual locations are unknown. However, their magic is great enough to transfer someone to the outer world with certain keys. It is believed that these keys are quite possibly the runes. Which ones can unlock it are unknown since these portals are only known by the few who have coincidentally came in contact with them. The runes locations are often thought to be in close proximity to the portals because they were often used as keys in the legends of the sky circle. The portals are thought to be weak spots in the energy field between our world and the out world. The elevation of the ...


‘Oh it's hopeless!  Feran and I are never going to find them this way.’

Feran had said it would be too dangerous and Azeta agreed. Who knew what would happen if the rune they did have got into the wrong hands.

Angry with the book, She tossed it on the desk. The book teetered on the edge and then fell to the floor. Azeta sighed and bent down to pick it up. She stopped. Sticking out of the back of the book was a neatly folded piece of paper that had been justled out.

The parchment was clearly yellowed and tattered. Azeta picked up the paper and slowly unfolded it. It was a map of Enercaria. This one was roughly drawn though, not made like the ones from the professional map makers. It had several points on the map that were circled in red ink.

‘These must be the locations of the portals.’

It would be hard to find out exactly where the portals were but at least they knew where to start looking now. She hoped that the portals might lead to more runes, since the book said they were connected. The familiar whisper of questions ran through Azeta’s head.

‘Why do I want to find them so badly?’

‘Why do I get a strange feeling when I only think of them?’

Azeta's first instinct was to run to Feran's room and tell him what she had found. Surely he would be as excited as she was.

‘He would be asleep by now. Maybe I should wait.’

She laid back in bed and gazed out her window at the moon outside. Slowly, she let her thoughts wander, and her mind drift to to sleep.



*



To Azeta’s own surprise, she wasn’t the one to wake Feran, but he was the one to wake her.

“Azeta. Azeta wake up.”

Azeta’s eyes fluttered opened and saw sparkling excitement in his brown eyes.

“Good you’re awake.”

“Yeah now I am.”

“Sorry, I just couldn’t wait. Now about what you were saying about asking someone else about the runes.”

“What about it?”

“I was thinking, maybe we could ask Parkun about the runes.”

“The old Anth that runs that medicine shop outside of town?”

“Yeah, that guy.” Feran said, nodding his head.

“I don’t know, that guy kinda gives me the creeps.”

“Well, that’s why I want to ask him.”

Azeta stood up and looked him in the face. Being shorter than him it was hard to get the superiority she wanted.

“Are you sure? Because I think I found a lead.” Azeta said excitedly.

Feran’s ears perked up and she could see his tail twitching happily.

“What is it? What did you find?” He asked.

“See for yourself.”

Azeta walked across the room and picked up the book and the map off the old desk by the window. Then handed them to Feran.

“Is this a map of where the runes are?” He asks and begins pacing around the room while looking at the map.

“Well, no.” Azeta said disappointedly. “But I thought we could look there. They’re the locations of the portals.”

“What portals?” Feran asked as he looked up from the map.

“The portals to the outworld. The book says that they’re supposed to be connected to the runes.”

“Aren’t the portals just a myth though?”

“Well the runes were supposed to be just stories too.” Azeta argued.

“Ok then, we can go look at this one by the old cliffs later. But we need to-”

“Wait what did you say?” Azeta interrupted.

“That we can look later.” Feran answered confused.

“No, no. Before that. Where we are going to look?

“The old cliffs. The ones where the Opa used to live before it flooded.”

“That’s it!” Azeta shouted. “That’s what’s in the riddle.” She grabbed the book from Feran and flipped to the page she had marked.

“I still don’t get it.” Feran said looking at her amused. Azeta was often like this. Her mind working around puzzles better than anyone in Enercaria.

“Don’t you see? It’s the line from the poem. Near the cliffs of Opa’s kin. The rune has to be there somewhere.”

Without saying anything else. Azeta and Feran left her bedroom and were heading down the hill. Ready for more of the precious magic to be found at the ancient cliffs ahead.