9Dark Angel
Part 1: Memories
Prologue- Rain One
Austyn crawled into bed and pulled the sheets up to her chin. Her blond hair was tangled and her ocean blue eyes sparkled with excitement. "Mommy, tell me a story!" Her mother came and sat beside her and nodded her head alright.
Long ago in Sandar when there still lived mythical creatures, there lived nine powerful sorceresses. When these sorceresses were young they were outlawed by the King because he was afraid they would take his throne. The young sorceresses went to live deep in the Sandar forest where they lived happily together and created a small little cottage with great fields of corn and rice-paddies behind it. There were apple trees, strawberry patches, and grape vines. Together they practiced their magic and each spell they came up was written in a large leather bound book they kept in a small room at the back of the cottage. They came up with challenges to test each others skill, power, and abilities. Because the sorceresses practiced so much, they became very good at magic.
One night, while they sat debating who would make breakfast the next morning, the oldest of the sorceresses, Monica, came up with a new challenge. It was by far the most exciting and dangerous challenge that had been suggested so far. The challenge was this: each sorceress had to find and catch a dragon and then train it. All night, the nine sorceresses stayed up late talking. They came up with several plans and ideas on how to accomplish this challenge for no one had ever caught a dragon before. Then, the next morning, the sorceress rode their horses to the Mountains of Calvier where most dragons lived.
The sorceresses watched the dragons for days until they had each picked a dragon that they would catch and train. For the next several weeks, all the sorceresses were bent on figuring how they could bond with a dragon. One night while Monica was mulling over several different ideas on how to work with a dragon, she noticed a small orange yellowy stone lying on the floor nearby. Monica bent down to pick up the Poppy Jasper when an idea suddenly sprang to mind. Each dragon had two opposite powers. If she could find the two stones that matched her dragon's two powers, then with the right spell they could bond. Monica excitedly ran through the cottage yelling that she had found out how to do it. She knew how they could bond to dragons.
Austyn sat up excitedly. "What did they do next mommy?" Her mother stood up and pulled a book from the nearby bookshelf. "They found the stones that matched their chosen dragon's powers. See." Austyn's mother opened the book to the front page and showed it to her daughter.
1. Monica- Day/Night Poppy Jasper/Hematite
2. Anne- Hot/Cold Baltic Amber/Iolite
3. Julia- Lightning/Water Yellow Diamond/Sapphire
4. Alexandria- Life/Death Carnelian/Jet
5. Cyril- Fire/Ice Fire Opal/Aquamarine
6. Catherine- Winter/Summer Silver/Gold
7. Juliet- Sun/Moon Hessonite/Howlite
8. Veronica- Spring/Fall Peridot/Tiger Eye
9. Margaret- Light/Dark Diamond/Onyx
Bonding Spell for Dragons
Timing: Midnight on the fourth day of the waxing moon.
Six candle:
One white
One red
One purple
Three light blue
Six pinches of Ginger
Painting of specific dragon
Dragon stones
Arrange candles in a circle thus: white, blue, red, blue, purple, blue. Put a pinch of ginger in each candle and light them. Sit in the middle with the painting of your dragon on your lap and recite:
On the wings of the Gods, under the star's guiding light,
I call upon the moonlight to help perform this deed,
I call upon my chosen dragon to bond heart to heart,
To learn the ways of magic much beyond my own,
On this night, I bond with thee, body, heart, and soul
From this night on, we together shall live for all eternity to come
Austyn clapped her hands in delight. "The story's real!"
Her mother frowned. "Parts of it are true."
Each sorceress preformed the magic spell on the same night in separate rooms. To their delight the spell worked. They had bonded to the dragon of their choice. They could each talk to the dragon, feel the dragon's excitement or sadness, and over time use the dragon's magic. Over the years the sorceresses and their dragons became family.
Margaret and her dragon Amadeus were the closest. They would often go of together under the moonlight and walk through the forest for lack of anything better to do. But the King found out about the sorceresses and their dragons. His fear that they would take his throne increased, and so he sent out the fifteen best dragon hunters after the nine dragons. Exactly two weeks later, six of the hunters returned to confirm that the job was done. The dragons were dead.
The nine sorceresses were heart broken and for weeks on end the weather did nothing but rain. However, the magic of the dragons stayed with them. The years went by and the sorceresses stayed in their cottage practicing their magic and tending their gardens until one day a messenger rode up. The King had died and his son had taken the throne. The new king was imploring the sorceresses to help fight against the Aclins who were invading Sandar. The sorceresses agreed to help Sandar and returned to the capital to fight in the name of King Andrid.
The battle lasted for six more years and Sandar was losing.
One night, the Aclins attacked the capital and Margaret got trapped outside the walls. As the general of the Aclins approached, his sword ready to deal the killing blow, Margaret thought of her dragon and their midnight walks. She looked longingly up at the moon above her and wished fervently that her dragon was with her. No one knows exactly what happened next but the legend says that Amadeus appeared and the light of the moon turned black blinding the general and his army. Amadeus then struck down on the weak enemy destroying the general and his entire army in one strike. Then as quickly as the dragon had come he vanished, but the sorceresses realized that even though the hunters had killed the dragons, the dragons were still bonded to the sorceresses and as long as the sorceresses lived the dragons would live on inside of them.
As the years went on, the sorceresses, who were know the guardians of Sandar, married and each had a single daughter. When the daughters of the sorceresses turned sixteen, they each preformed the bonding spell in the little cottage and so the dragons of the nine sorceresses passed down to their daughters who then became the next guardians of Sandar.
Austyn snuggled into her bed while her mother put away the book. "What happened to the dragons and the guardians?"
Her mother came and sat down beside her. "There are no dragons, but the descendents of the nine sorceresses still guard Sandar from the evil that lurks outside our country. And when you turn sixteen, you two will use your magic to protect Sandar and its people."
Austyn gasped, "Really?" An excited grin spread across her face when her mother nodded, and she fell asleep that night dreaming of all the adventures she would have when she was older.
7 years later
The front door creaked open late that night and Austyn's father entered the room with slow uneven steps. He walked over and sat beside his wife who had stayed up waiting for him. He sighed and turned to her.
"Mark went missing about an hour ago; no one seems to no where he went. His grandfather is dead and his house was burned."
Anna's head shot up. "Where do you think he went?"
Christopher shook his head. "I'm not sure he got away."
"You think he's dead."
Christopher nodded. "What are we going to tell Austyn?"
The boy ran as fast as he could away from the two men following him. His breath came in short gasps, and his body ached from head to toe. He was beginning to slow down, and the men were catching up. He turned and looked back over his shoulder. He was almost out of the forest. From there it would only be two miles before he made it to the safety of the nearby village. His only light was from the half moon that hovered high in the middle of the sky.
In the dark he didn't see the tree root sticking out from under the soil. He tripped and landed hard on his right shoulder. All of his earlier momentum caused his small body to roll quickly down the small hill and over the nearby cliff. With a last desperate fling of his left arm he caught hold of a tree root that jutted out from the side of the cliff.
The two men appeared above him and reached down to bring him back up. The boy only hesitated a couple seconds before letting go of the root and falling three hundred meters into an ice cold river. He hit the river with a loud splash and slowly sank to the bottom as a cloud slid across the moon's light. With a soft splashes the rain fell from the sky.
Austyn woke up early the next morning to the soft splatter of rain on her window and meandered down the stairs. She sat tiredly at the kitchen table humming a song she had learned only couple days ago while fingering a half moon pendant around her neck with her name written in neat letters across it.
She jumped when she heard the door open. Her mother walked into the drawing smiling followed closely by her father. "Happy Birthday sweetie," her mother said and handed her a large box covered in dark velvet clothe. Austyn happily opened the box to find a gorgeous blue gown inside. Her eyes lit up in delight. "Thank you," hoping of the chair; Austyn gave her parents quick hugs.
After Austyn finished breakfast she looked expectantly up at her parents. "When's Mark going to get here? He said he would come today."
The room went dead quiet.
Anna took a deep breath and pulled her daughter into her arms. "Honey, Mark's dead. Two men chased him off a cliff. They found pieces of his clothes on the side of Kenyon Cliff." Austyn froze and stared in shock at her mother. Her mother continued, "His house was burned down but we found this in his room." She pulled a small slightly burned box off the table. On the top, "Austyn" was written in messy handwriting.
Austyn slowly took the box into her hands and opened it. Inside was a silver necklace in the shape of a half heart with "Mark" written neatly on it, Austyn let out a shudder. She knew that there was another piece to this necklace. The other half of the heart, with her name written on it, the other half was with Mark.
Austyn tore away from her mother and ran upstairs. She slammed her door behind her and collapsed onto her bed. Her parents followed her quickly up the stairs and when they opened her door they found her sobbing loudly onto her pillow. The only sound was the rain which slowly lulled her to sleep.