'Twas a Sunny Spring Day

In a Different World and Time

Where a Young Girl

Was Accused Of a Crime Instead Of Death

She Was Sent Away

To Find Others Like Her

And Dragons to Slay

Along With a Prince

A Bandit and Elvin Mage

They Will Become Legends

In Their World and Age

Chapter One: Finding Fate

"Excuse me, miss?" a man knocked on the desk in front of him impatiently. "I'd like to buy this book… hello?" he frowned at the girl, who was reading her own book right behind the counter. Snapping back to reality, she looked up at the annoyed customer.

"Oh, I'm so sorry!" she blushed and placed her book down. "May I help you?"

"Uh, yes." The man placed a large green book on the desk.

"Okay, three silver, please." Said the girl with a fake grin. The man placed the silver pieces on the table and left in a fit. The girl placed it inside her apron pocket, which covered her brown dress.

"I really hate the phony nice act."She thought as she picked her book up again. Reading on the job was the best. The sunlight in the store shone through the windows and reflected off the moats that were placed through the town.

"Celia!" yelled a scuff voice from the back of the store.

"What?" Celia yelled back.

"Were you being mean to the customers again?" the voice answered.

"Well, he was being mean to me…" she scoffed. "I don't get customers nowadays. They always seem so rude."

"And I don't get you, either." A man with a poor posture flung open the curtain from the back. His only support being his badly carved cane, he moved slowly towards his employee with a funny smile on his face. The gray beard hanging from his chin gave him that cute old man look that is rarely ever found in elders.

"I don't get you, you crazy old man." Celia smiled and shuffled the remains of the old man's hair. "When's break, Garr?"

"Right about now."

"Yes!" grinned Celia as she jumped off the stool and ran towards the back room.

"Not so fast…" the man blocked Celia's way by putting his cane up as a barricade against the doorframe.

"Now what, Garr? Its break time!" she tried to evade the old man, shifting positions trying to get into the room.

"I want you to clean the back room after you're done." An evil smile spread across his face.

"WHAT?" Celia peered into the almost un-cleanable storage area.

"Yes…" he said with a dark tone. "Clean the back room!"

"Fine." Celia said simply and smacked the cane out of the way. Garr laughed to himself as he sat on the front desk stool.

"When's the last time you cleaned this out anyway, Garr?"

"Let's see, when I was… forty." Garr yelled.

"FORTY? HOW CAN YOU STAND THIS MESS FOR SO LONG?" Celia stood up.

"Ha, ha. You have your mother's attitude, Celia." Garr smirked.

"Don't remind me of her." Celia sat on a chair and turned her head to the book.

"Why not?"

"Because they left without me, again." Celia rolled her eyes. "They're never here… always away on 'business trips'."

"Well, that's what happens when your parents are merchants." Garr said. Celia just scoffed at this and continued to read.

"Okay, breaks over!"

"But I barely got to read anything!" she growled.

"Too bad! Get to work." Garr grinned.

"There should be laws against this…" Celia said to herself and put her book down.

"I heard that!" Garr said from the front. Celia said nothing for a while Garr smirked from the front of the store.

"By the way Garr," Celia began her cleaning. "Thanks for taking me in on such short notice."

"It's alright, I have room for you anytime, Celia."

"I don't see why I couldn't have gone with them," she pushed the table to the middle of the room and placed the chairs around it.

"Maybe it was too dangerous."

"Garr, how can anything be more dangerous than cleaning the back room?" she pushed all the crates to one side of the room.

"Well, that's why I have you, right Celia?" Garr asked. There was a moment of silence. "Celia?" He peered into the room, where he found Celia pushing a small boulder out the back door.

"That isn't that heavy, you know." He leaned against the doorframe.

"Alright, strong guy, you give it a whirl." Celia backed away. Garr rubbed his hands and began pushing the boulder, which didn't budge. Next, he tried pulling it, and after trying for about a minute, Garr sat in a chair.

"It… wasn't that heavy… when I put it there…" he huffed.

"Yeah, but that was however many years ago, Garr. I can't tell how old you are… it's because you're too old." She frowned as she gave the boulder one last push out the door. "Besides, why did you have that thing here in the first place?"

"To cover that hole in the wall." Garr began, but Celia wasn't listening. "That hole had been there ever since I began working here for my father when I was seventeen. I didn't have time to fix it, so I just put that rock there. I've been meaning to fix that for a while."

"You've had a long time to fix that." Celia folded her arms in disappointment. "What's in here, anyways?" she asked and began to dig around.

"Nothing," Garr stood up. "I checked when I moved it in there. Hey, are you listening?"

"No." Celia dug around in the hole of the hollow walls. "Hey…" she eyed something in the dirt, and began brushing it off.

"What? What is it?" Garr peered into the hole. Celia's eyes narrowed as she squinted into the darkness.

"There's… something in here." She threw a small stone at the object. It bounced off and the small thud made an echo. "I have no idea what it is."

"Just pull it out."

"Alright." She squirmed, expecting to feel something moving. Instead, she felt something hard and warm, and quickly pulled it out. "It's… a case?" she examined the long, black dusty case that she had pulled out, and Garr's eyebrows rose in surprise when he saw it.

"Open it." He said slowly. Celia walked over to the table and set it down.

"Was this here when you last cleaned the back room out?"

"Nuh uh. I told you that. You weren't listening, were you?" He said. Celia glared at him, and Garr tried to ignore it. "Go on."

"Okay," she flipped the locks on the side of the case, and opened it in one quick motion.

"A…"

"What would this be doing back here?"

"Stand back, let me see it." Garr pulled a sword out of the case. Its blade was edged with blue, and shined almost to perfection. Its handle was golden, with a blue stripe down the middle, and at the top of the handle, was a sapphire bordered in more gold. It shone in the sun, radiating a mystical glimmer. Both were captivated by its foreign appearance.

"Garr, what does this mean?" Celia asked with a worried look.

"It means you found a sword."

"I figured that. Here, you take it. It's yours now." Celia handed the sword to Garr.

"Hmm…" the old man took it and examined it carefully. Celia thought she saw his eyebrows rise in surprise in a quick moment. "It's yours." He concluded. "You take it."

"No! Women can't have swords!" Celia said. "Unless you are a barbarian or an elf, it is illegal for women to have swords or any other weaponry." She held up her finger in an as-a-matter-of-fact way.

"An elf?" Garr asked. "You believe in them?"

"Yes!" Celia frowned. "And that's not the point, it's still against the law for women to have swords, so says the Order."

"That law is stupid, Celia, and so are all the other laws made by the Order of Martes."

"You shouldn't speak of the Order so brashly…" Celia whispered. "They probably have spies everywhere."

"Oh, who cares?!" Garr yelled. "I'm too old to be put in prison! But knowing the Order, they'd probably throw an old timer like me in there anyways!"

"Hello? Is someone here?" someone had walked into the store. Garr froze. "I'm here under His Majesty's order to buy a few selections of literature!"

"Oh, no!" Garr quickly peaked his head into the store. "Here, take the sword and hide it!" he handed it over to Celia.

"Huh? No! You take it!" she tried to put it back into his hand.

"No! You!" he wrestled it back into Celia's hands, who struggled to get it back in Garr's.

"WHAT are you doing?" the man had found his way back to the back room. "Sir Byrne! Sir Byrne! A girl is trying to murder an old man!" the gentleman had rushed out of the store.

"No I'm not!" she yelled after him. The man didn't hear Celia, and had returned with a knight.

"What's the problem here?" the knight had come into the back room. Garr and Celia had their hands innocently behind their backs.

"Oh, nothing sir." Celia said sweetly.

"Are you sure?"

"Yes, yes. Everything is just fine." Garr reassured.

"Hmm," Byrne paused. "Well, it seems to be fine." He concluded. Celia figured that this man wasn't very bright. "I'll take leave of you peasants. Good day!"

"Good day!" Celia and Garr waved goodbye. After he had left, she had taken the sword out from behind her back. "Now, what are we going to…?"

"I knew it!" Byrne came back into the room and had caught Celia with the sword. She took back what she had assumed earlier. He was a bit clever. "You are under arrest for carrying a weapon and attempting murder under the Order of Martes and His Majesty, King Vernon IV!"

"But..." Garr tried to explain.

"No need to thank me, sir." Byrne had grasped both of Celia's wrists in one hand, and had the sword in its case in the other. "I'm just upholding the Order." He had left with Celia.

"Garr!" Celia yelled while being dragged out of the store.

"No! Wait!" Garr yelled, but they had already left the store.