Oliver's Tale

By

Dream Angel

April 2001- ?

Not long ago,

When man regained his magic,

Chaos ruled

Over the once peaceful land.

Two childhood friends

Were to determine

The fate of the land.

And a Goddess was summoned

To save them all...

Chapter One

"Are you sure this is going to work?" I inquired yet again.

"Yes, I am quite sure this is going to work. It has before, so I see no reason why it should not now," The elderly man replied. I had asked him this several times and he replied several times, much in the same way as he had before, but this time there was an irritated tone to his usually calm voice.

He turned back to his tattered, old book and started to chant the very long chant that just happened to be in a language I did not understand. If it was a real language and not just total nonsense, it was most likely Latin.

The trip to this tower, Orinosin Tower, took a very long time. For three weeks (and then some) we traveled from the peaceful town of Doran, to the extremely dangerous Field of Dreams, and then to here.

The town of Doran was where we met the elderly man, who said his name was Gareon. Rose, my friend, and I was there for a vacation for a weekend to get away from the stress of work. Suddenly, Gareon came to us saying he needed help to end the Magic War. Rose and I had been wishing for the war to end soon, but this seemed a little too odd for me, but so had the idea of magic and I was wrong about that. Well, anyway Rose agreed, and since we had been friends since we were children, I trusted her decisions. I also agreed. We were then given a few days to pack and then we would be off. I thought I would probably lose my job for being gone for so long, but I hated my job anyway, so I didn't care too much.

The most dangerous place we passed through, or rather ran through, were the Field of Dreams. Carnivorous monsters were swarming all over, like mosquitoes on a hot summer day. We rushed through the area, which was huge, in a little less than an hour. I can say that was not a minute too soon. I didn't have much time to soak in the scenery, but of what I saw, it was mostly a sea of dead grass, a few living plants scattered far and few, and every once in a while there was a tree, which was a rare sight indeed. It certainly did not look like all the pictures that had been drawn, painted, or sketched of it a long time ago. It had once been an extremely beautiful place. The whole place was once very green, with colors scattered all over from the vast amount of plant life. There were also no monsters there, either.

And after all that, we arrived here. This place used to be many large, majestic towers that made a place called Elsang. When all the towers were whole, the place covered several acres, but now only a solitary tower remained, and that was Orinosin Tower. The rest were just shambles, which is probably the result of the last war we fought many, many years ago.

Orinosin Tower had quite a dreary atmosphere to it. It was dark except for the small shafts of light that managed to squeeze their way through the millions of tiny cracks in the wall. There was a lengthy spiral staircase that seemed as if it stretched on for all infinity, but lucky for me it did not. At the top of the staircase there was a door that led to a fairly large room. The room, though a decent size, seemed so empty. There was a bookshelf, from which Gareon took the book he needed for his chant. There was a pedestal where he placed the book. The last thing in the room was a stone ledge ejecting from the wall. That was all that was in the room. Possibly this room had a very meaningful purpose, and the tower was built sturdier than the others to ensure its protection. Maybe that's why this tower is the only tower standing. But, these are all just guesses. It could be just pure luck that it didn't meet the same fate as the others around it. I mean it did stand almost exactly in the center of all the towers.

"I am tired now. I shall finish everything that I need to tomorrow," Gareon told Rose and me.

He must have been very tired, for he fell asleep almost instantaneously. I wasn't really all that tired at the moment and had nothing better to do at the moment, so I just stared at the cold, stone ceiling.

I heard Rose turning over every few minutes. From this, I could tell she was not asleep. Over these three weeks, I started to pick up on people's habits, which could help me learn more about them than they were willing to tell me. For instance, whenever Rose would lie she would either not look you straight in the eye, or she would slightly pause before answering.

"Rose," I called out. There was no reply.

"Rose, I know you are still awake. You are not fooling me."

"Fine, so I am awake. If it weren't for you though, I might have almost been asleep. To make it simpler for you, Oliver, this better be important," Rose replied.

"I have just been wondering something ever since we started up this so-called 'adventure'. What exactly made you want to go on this trip? It's not like you to just say 'alright' almost immediately."

She paused for a few minutes. She was going to lie.

"I don't know. It really wasn't so sudden. I did think it over for about a week."

"Now, the truth please."

"Whatever do you mean?"

"You know perfectly well."

"Fine, fine. I just want to help out people."

"And?"

"And what?"

"There is more to it than you just want to help out people."

"How exactly did you know that?"

"First of all, you are an absolutely horrible liar, and second of all, you just aren't the heroic type. It must be deeper than just 'I want to help out people'. So please, just tell me already."

"You'll laugh if I do tell you."

"No, I won't."

"Do you promise?"

"Yes, I promise that I will not laugh at you."

"All right. Well, do you remember that little fairy tale our moms and dads used to tell us? The one where a Goddess is summoned and she and the two people who summoned her save the land, plus, even through all that she managed to fall in love and live happily ever after? I think the tale also took place around two hundred fifty years ago. Do you remember that one?"

"Oddly enough, I do remember that one. If I remember correctly, I think that was your favorite story in the whole entire world when we were younger, so we heard that one quite often."

"That's true. Oh, and thanks for not laughing at me and my silly motives."

"We're friends. First of all, it's rude to laugh at your friends for their ideas, and second of all, it was not really all that all that funny."

"You're right, yet again, but thanks anyway."

We sat in silence for a short while before we agreed that we both needed our rest. She quickly fell asleep, so even if I had wanted to, I couldn't talk to her. I wasn't really all that tired so I turned to my thoughts for some means of entertainment.

When had Rose and I first become friends? I don't even remember, it seems like things have just been that way since the beginning of time. Both our moms and our dads were the best of friends, so we might have even known each other since Rose was born. Rose was slightly younger than I was. She was twenty-four, while I was twenty-five.

We both lived in the woods when we were younger. Our houses were only a short walk from each other, so we would usually see each other every day. There was much we could do any given day of the year. We had a lake by our houses, so we could swim on those scorching, humid summer days. We could climb one of the many trees that surrounded us on the fair spring days. We could have snowball fights on the freezing days of winter. And we could watch the leaves in fall, and chase after them as they fell. There was always so much to do, but I think what Rose loved best was listening to the stories one of our parents would tell us.

I remembered how often stories would be told to us when we were younger. Whenever stories were told, she would just sit there and soak in every word that came out of storyteller's mouth. I don't think she ever gave up the opportunity to hear a tale be told. Oddly enough, I think she believed every word of them, no matter how farfetched it seemed.

My mind wandered back to the story about the Goddess. A conflict had been taking place then, I

remember it all correctly. Except in the tale everything had turned out so... right. I truly doubted that this

would turn out 'happily ever after'.

This whole conflict had started when two people from different families, the Sungars and the Fillians,

had come across a rather large cave that was northeast of Doran. The cave had never been explored

before, so the two people from the Sungars and the Fillians decided to search through it. Most

unfortunately, the families had found two ancient books containing a few magic spells of the elements. These two books had been the start of the most recent fight they have had. Of course, this was not the first

battle that had raged between the families. In fact it was probably far from the last.

I truly wonder if even the families themselves know what the fighting is truly about. Does any of this fighting have a real purpose anymore, or is it more of a game, a competition they try their hardest to win when all the reasons for it are groundless. Maybe now it is just a fight to see which of the two families is better.

My thoughts had found their way back to the Goddess yet again. If I remember correctly, Gareon said he would summon a Goddess to help us, or rather we were to help her. I wondered what she was going to look like. In the childhood stories Goddesses wore elaborate dresses with bell-like sleeves, the finest of fabrics with an intricate design printed or sewn on it, and lace or ruffles on the bottom of the dress. They usually had priceless diamond necklaces adorning their necks and fine earrings to match. They sometimes even had tiaras that would be on top of their heads. But, I guess in time I would find out what she looked like, so I wouldn't have to guess.

Thinking back on the Sungars and the Fillians, I wondered how their first well-known conflict had started. If I remember correctly, I think it all happened two hundred fifty years ago. A lot of things that would probably happen in the near future had already happened then. A fight had happened over which family was going to help a town defeat a beast that had been disturbing the town of Sarona for quite a while. With the two families feuding, the beast still was terrorizing the town. So, a Goddess was summoned to rid of the beast. In the end the beast was defeated, the families were forced to stop fighting, and the Goddess was to remain with her companion on the trip, who she had fallen in love with.

Well, it was very late. I should have been asleep for at least an hour already, but I guess it was too late to think about that. We would be waking up early tomorrow, so I'd better get as much sleep as possible.

Chapter Two

"Rise and shine, sleepyhead!" I heard Rose exclaim with a huge smile spread across her face.

"You're very cheery today," I told her. "And you are also up early, which is unusual for you."

"No I'm not," she said tapping the face of her watch. "It's already eleven- fifteen. You don't normally sleep this late. Are you all right? The last time you slept this late, Oliver, was when you were coming down with the flu."

"I'm perfectly all right, Rose. You don't have to worry about me. I was just thinking last night about this whole trip, you know, and I stayed up longer than I should have. That's all."

"Well, whatever you say. Anyway, Gareon is still trying to finish that spell of his."

"Or it could be that he just cannot get that chant of his right."

"Oliver, that is so mean. How can you say such things when he is trying to help us out? He will get it right. I'm positive."

"I'm sorry Rose. I was just kidding around."

Just as quickly as it had come, her anger faded away.

"Oh I'm so sorry. It's just that Gareon said we could stop the Magic War and that is a huge responsibility, so I'm kind of nervous and all, you know."

"I completely understand how you feel. It is an enormous responsibility."

She was still obviously frightened. I couldn't help but chuckle softly to myself. The last time I had seen her this frightened was when we were still quite young. Our friend John had climbed up nearly to the top of a nice sized tree. She was scared he would fall out or get stuck in the tree. Of course, nothing bad happened to him, but I think she had a small crush on him, so she was frightened for him.

"And what are you laughing at, Oliver"

"Nothing. nothing at all. I was just thinking about something, but it is nothing important."

"Whatever you say."

"So anyway, how long do you think it will take Gareon to finish that spell, or chant, or whatever it is finished?"

"Well, I don't really know," She replied. She let out a long sigh chuckled softly to herself. "But, I do know one thing. If he keeps at the same rate he's going at now, he'll finish by the time we turn old and gray just like him."

"Oh, and I'm the mean one who is saying such horrible things about him when he's helping us out?"

"Yep, I think you finally got it right. Oh yeah, I almost forgot, I need to get out of this extremely dark tower, so will you go on a walk with me?"

"And climb down all those stairs again?"

"Well, there is another way."

"And what would that be?"

"You could always jump."

"No thank you, I think I'll be just fine with walking down all those millions and billions of stairs, if that is all right with you."

The walk down the seemingly never-ending stairs was long and tedious, not to mention extremely tiring. Well, at least that was a lot safer than jumping down. In other words, I was still whole. There was nothing new to look at, and soon everything was just an endless sea of gray.

Every once in a while we would both stop to rest for a short amount of time. During those rests we would often talk about what was on our minds at that point in time whether it was about the weather, how we thought the Goddess would act, or just about things in general. It was actually quite amazing that we never ran out of things to say, considering the walk down took at least two hours.

After a long while, we finally saw the cerulean sky again. There were several white, puffy clouds that hung in the sky, taking no specific shape. It took me awhile to adjust to the sudden, drastic changes of light, but after blinking rapidly for a while I finally got used to the brightness of the sun. Everything seemed so much cheerier out here, even though there were ruins from old towers scattered at random around Orinosin Tower .

"So, isn't it so much nicer out here than in that dark, cold tower?" Rose inquired.

"I suppose so," I replied. "I truly do not remember it being all too cold in there, though."

She sighed, trying to play as if she was annoyed at me, but her small, suppressed giggles told me she was just acting.

"No really Rose, I would much rather be out here under the nice warm sun than in a dark tower any day, it is just I am not looking forward to the never-ending stairs that I'll have to climb back up."

"It's a really nice day don't you think?" I just nodded and she continued. "I mean the sun is out, there are some wildflowers starting to bloom around here, it is the perfect temperature out, and the sky... I don't think I've ever seen it so blue. Maybe it's just from being in that dim tower for way too long. What do you think, Oliver?"

"I think it is just the lack of light, but I could very well be wrong. It would not be the first time, and definitely not the last time either."

"You've got that right."

"Hey!" I said, trying to act as if I was cross. "You are not supposed to agree with me. You are supposed to go and tell me that it doesn't matter if I was wrong, because I'm your friend, well at least that was what I thought until a moment ago. Oh, and thank you for insulting me."

"You're welcome, anytime."

I laughed while Rose was nearly choking with laughter. I truly enjoyed the light- heartedness of this moment, just being able to relax and joke around with my friend. I wasn't really expecting to have many more times like this once the Goddess was summoned, for that was a serious matter we would be dealing with.

"Well, to change the subject entirely yet again, what do you think the Goddess is going to look like?"

"Oliver, I don't exactly know, but I think she'll probably have shiny, raven colored hair, fiery, red hair, or golden hair that will be as beautiful as the rays of the sun. How poetic, right? Well anyway, she'll have to have a gorgeous gown that will flow past her feet and will be prettier than I'll ever be able to imagine. She beautiful eyes too, that's a given. What do think she'll look like?"

"I was thinking something along the same lines as you."

"Well you know what they say, great minds think alike."

"Or maybe after knowing someone for almost your entire life can make you think alike, also."

"That could be."

We didn't talk very much after that, but we were comfortable with the silence. I was content with just soaking in the scenery for now, so there was no need for words.

I spotted a flower growing right near my feet. It was so very simple, but it was still so beautiful. The base color of it was a snowy white, and there were tints of brown lining the edges of it. Surprisingly enough, the brown did not give it a deadened look, but more of a subtle look, so it blended in more to its surroundings. Near the center of the flower there was a very pretty grayish-blue, giving it a little bit of life. I thought for a moment and decided not to pick it, but rather let it live for as long as it possibly can.

Rose and I decided to head back to the Orinosin Tower with quick and simple nod. Our walk was now getting harder and harder each passing moment, for the piles of rubble kept rising and rising. There were also pieces of stone that had strayed from the piles, which were quite easy to trip on.

Gareon told us he would soon be done with his spells. He also mentioned that they were a series of spells, which all proved to be quite long. He allowed us to look at them, which showed they were extremely difficult to understand. I guess that meant it would be awhile before the Goddess appeared, for he was only a fraction of the way through.

I guessed it was becoming night because the small shafts of light that had squeezed through the miniscule cracks in the wall were nearly gone. I laid out a sleeping bag on the floor and put a thin sheet over it. This would have to serve as my bed as long as we were here and however long it took us to complete this trip, or adventure, as Rose calls it. It was a horrible thing to sleep on. Sure, it served its purpose of keeping me warm, but it sure did not keep me comfortable. By the time the trip will end, I will have the biggest backache in the world from practically sleeping on the ground all this time.

I laid down on the so-called bed. I wondered how long it would actually take for the Goddess to arrive at Orinosin Tower before my eyes. Gareon had told Rose and I earlier that even when he finished the spells, that she would not arrive right away, but rather we would have to travel to somewhere called the Sidia Plains. There we would find the Temple of Kinsigo where we would find the location of the cave in which the enchanted books were found, and another book to finish all the spells so the Goddess would come. Saying that doing all this just to get away from work for a few months was not such a great idea would have been an extreme understatement.

"Oliver," Rose whispered. "Are you awake?"

"Yes, Rose. What is it?" I replied.

"Do you think it was worth all this trouble to summon this Goddess?"

"To be quite frank, I would say no. So far, all we did has amounted to nothing, so it has just been a waste of time. Plus, we do not even know if this will end up working or not . A part of me says that it is not going to work, while another part of me assumes that it just has to work, because some one would not lie or go through all this trouble just for a foolish prank."

"True, very true. But still, so much has changed lately. I mean this whole war we're trying to end is over magic. If somebody told me a few months ago that magic actually existed, I probably would have just nodded my head and laughed, while I told them that magic only existed in fairy tales. But now... everything we believed about magic was proven wrong. No one ever thought it actually existed in the real world, and now it's hurting people, maybe even killing them. I just can't sit there and watch people get harmed. It might even hurt me more if I did that, knowing that they might have not have had to go through the pain if I had done something about it. I don't want anyone to feel pain. I want to try to help them. That's why I think that I wanted to come on this trip."

So her reasons had been more than just her love for fairy tales, in fact it had been much more. It was a serious reason that might even save people's lives. Maybe all our efforts so far will amount to something, and we didn't waste all our time just wandering from place to place.

"We will succeed. No one will suffer because we did not choose to do anything about the war. You do not have to worry, we are trying our hardest. We can save something or some one. We might save a child from having to see the treacheries of war, so they can keep their innocence, we might save a town from being destroyed, we might even save the people of this country," I told her.

"Maybe you're right, Oliver, maybe you're right. But still, we can never be sure we can succeed."

"We can never be sure that we'll fail either."

"You're right. I'm getting tired now and we have a big day ahead of us, so we better get some sleep. Goodnight."

"Goodnight, Rose."

Chapter Three

We left Orinosin Tower at around noon. The weather was beautiful, for the sun was shining brightly, the sky was the most brilliant shade of blue, and it was the perfect temperature. Even if it was a nice day, I could have done with out all the traveling. We would be helping people though, so I kept journeying anyway, instead of heading back to home.

After around three hours we reached the Sidia Plains. We stopped there for a while for lunch. I was just happy that there were no monsters there, like in the Field of Dreams. It was very nice there. There were plenty of trees that provided shade, the grass was mostly alive and green, and there were small flowers scattered here and there, mixing in with the grass.

Soon after lunch, we reached Temple of Kinsigo. I do not what was more amazing, the exterior or interior. The exterior of the temple had ivy growing up the walls, but did not completely cover the walls for you could still see the stained glass windows and the stone that made up the walls. There were also small flowers surrounding the stone building. On the inside of the structure you had a better view the stained glass windows, which showed small pictures of a person who I did not recognize. It was well furnished. Most of the furniture was made of mahogany wood and had intricate carvings covering them. There were still no beds in the building, though.

It was getting late so I got ready for bed. I was going to have many long days, or weeks, ahead of me. Maybe if Rose wanted to, I could talk to her tonight. At least I could have my own room tonight, for this temple was divided into many rooms.

I strode over to Rose's room and knocked lightly on her door. She opened the door after a matter of a few minutes.

"Oh, hello Oliver. I was expecting you," Rose said.

"And why is that?" I inquired.

"Well, you have been talking to me every night since this journey started."

"That is true."

"Well anyway, are you just going to stand out in the hall all night? Come on in and have a seat."

"All right. So anyway, what has been on your mind lately?"

"Nothing much. I've just been wondering where exactly are we supposed to find the book to finish the spells with. And just what are we looking for that will tell us where to go next?"

"I truly do not know. I am just hoping that Gareon knows. If he does not, I don't know what we will do."

"Well, if he doesn't know I'll just have to find it, Oliver."

"What about me?"

"Are you kidding? You are the worst at finding things."

I pretended to be taken back by her words and placed a shocked and disapproving look on my face.

"Now Rose, that is just plain cruel. Plus you're worse than I am."

"Fine so we both admit we are horrible at looking for things. So, we will just have to make Gareon look for everything, now won't we?"

"But Rose, that would be rather rude, now wouldn't it?"

"Perhaps, but I'm sure he has to be a better searcher than even the two of us combined. Am I right?"

"Possibly, but there is no real way of knowing."

"And there is no real way of not knowing, either."

"You're right. I am getting tired now, so I am going to bed now. Goodnight."

"Goodnight, Oliver."

And with that, I left her room, went down the hallway, and then to sleep.

I woke up early, as did Rose and Gareon. Since there were actually windows in this temple, I was able to see that it was a nice day, for the sun was high in the sky. I was actually quite lucky because the weather was always fair as I traveled on this journey, which was once supposed to be a relaxing vacation to get away from work. Ever since I remember I have hated my job, but when I get back to it... let's just say I would definitely rather be somewhere else.

Someone started to knock on my door. Actually, it was more like some one was trying to knock my door down.

"Wake up Oliver!" Rose shouted from behind my closed door. "I know you must be awake by now so just answer me."

"I'm coming, Rose," I called back to her.

I sluggishly lifted myself from my bed on the floor and opened the door just a tad bit faster than it had taken me to rise a few moments earlier.

"Well, Oliver, nice to see you're finally awake."

"It had only taken a few minutes for me to answer your calls. Try to be more patient."

"I don't have the time to just sit around and wait for you to decide whether or not you should wake up. I have to help Gareon find that spell book. It is quite important, you know."

"Okay then, have fun and tell me how it goes."

"I'm not going to be the only one looking for that book."

"You are right, you said that Gareon would also be looking for it."

"You know what I'm getting at, so why don't you just make it easier on yourself and start searching already."

I let out an exasperated sigh and just did as she pleased.

Since there were three floors to this temple, and the first two were already being searched, I chose the third floor to start my hunt. When I got to the right floor, I found it was a library. It was just then that I remembered it was a book I was supposed to be looking for. This seemed almost impossible. How could anyone possibly find a book in the midst of all these other books?

I searched a little over an hour for the spell book, but all I found were fantasy books that have now become a reality. After I scanned through yet another book that turned out to not be what I was looking for, I spotted an unusual looking book. It had gold lettering up its spine that just happened to be in a language I did not understand. I opened it up to find that the whole book was written like that. Oddly enough, I felt that this was the right book so I headed down the stairs to look for Gareon.

To say the obvious, Gareon and Rose were extremely exited that the book I had found was indeed the correct spell book. It was also the book that would tell us what to do on our journey when the Goddess arrived. I was just exited that we would soon start. The sooner that we start our adventure, the sooner it will be finished.

Rose was practically jumping around the room she was so exited.

"Can you believe it Oliver?" Rose asked. "We're finally going to be able to start our adventure!"

After a while I just nodded my head in response to whatever she said. She had started to talk more to herself than to me, in fact, she might have forgotten there was anyone else in the room she was so overjoyed.

Gareon, on the other hand, had a gigantic grin that stretched across his face. It was not hard to tell he was happy, but it was easier to tell he was from the look he had in his eyes.

As soon as Gareon had wiped the silly smile off his face, he told us that we would stay at the Temple of Kinsigo for tonight, for it was getting dark out. I did not mind this, even though I did want the journey to go as quickly as possible.

"Rose," I called out. "It is time to go to bed now."

"Hmm? What was it that you had just said?" Rose asked me.

"I said it is time to go to bed now. It is getting late and we will most likely have to wake up early tomorrow."

"Oh, thank you Oliver."

At least Rose was calming down now and was not all that hyper anymore. She had a tendency to change subjects often when she was like that. In fact, one time when she was overly exited over something I stopped listening to her for a few moments and had no idea what she was talking about. One minute she was talking about how she forgot to bring her book home to study for the upcoming test, and the next minute she was telling me how much she loved the wildflowers that grew near our houses. It was frightening to say the least.

It didn't take me long before I had laid out my bed for the night. I decided that tonight I would visit Rose's room and talk to her like always. I hoped that we would a good topic to discuss tonight. After all, I have been talking to her every night since we started this journey.

I strode out of my room and shut the door tight behind me, even though I didn't have to. I then walked down the hall that led to her room and knocked lightly on her door. It did not take long before she answered it.

"Yes," Rose said. "Oh Oliver, it's you. I should have known. Well hello anyway."

"Hello, or rather good evening. So anyway, may I come in?"

"Sure," she replied as she went back inside so I could enter her room. "So...the Goddess is going to be coming soon, isn't she?"

"Yes, but you already knew that didn't you?"

"Yes, I'm just a little anxious about her coming, that's all."

"Now why would that be, Rose?"

"I don't exactly know why. I guess it's because she must be powerful. I mean, we are summoning her to help us stop the conflict over magic between the Sungars and the Fillians. She must be strong enough to stop them from fighting. Also she was summoned before, so she must have been strong enough to finish the task she was assigned last time. Otherwise she would not have been summoned again. Another thing is that she might choose not to help us at all, so all our hard work would have been for nothing."

"It could happen. I will not lie to you and say that there is no possible way of anything going wrong, all I can say is I have a feeling that most things, if not everything, will turn out okay. I hope that might be just a little consolation to you."

"We will just have to wait and see what will happen, now won't we?"

"Yes," I replied. "I don't think we have any other choice."

"No, I suppose we don't. Well anyway, I'm getting tired and we have to wake up early tomorrow, so I'm going to go to bed now. I advise that you do the same."

"Well, goodnight then."

"Goodnight, Oliver."

Chapter Four

Rose, Gareon, and I all traveled to Orinosin Tower again. The only difference about this time and the last time we were here will be the amount of time we stay at the tower. Last time we were all here we stayed here for four, or possibly five days. I think that this time we will only stay here for a day, or at most two.

The trip back to the tower was enjoyable. Gareon spent most of his time walking ahead of us, so Rose and I spent most of our time conversing with one another. It was peaceful just ambling along and discussing whatever happened to come to mind with one of my closest friends. It would probably be one of the few times I'll be able to do something like this for a long time because the Goddess would be arriving in a very short amount of time.

I hoped that the Goddess would be a kind, sincere person. It would be hard to travel with her if that was not the case. I truly hoped that Rose and I would befriend her or, or at least could be on friendly terms with her.

When we arrived back at Orinosin Tower Gareon talked to us for a short time, telling us what we should do after the Goddess arrives and where we would find the books. Rose and I wrote down all the information that he told us, but the hard part was that I didn't know where at least half the places he said that we would have to go to were. After he told us all the information he said we would need and informed both Rose and I that the Goddess would most likely know where all the places he mentioned were, he went back to reciting the chants from his book.

For the journey, Gareon told us that the first town we would have to travel to would be named Farin. He said it was still much the same as it had been many years ago, so maybe the Goddess might be somewhat familiar with it. He said the houses were mostly tiny houses made of bricks with little gardens in the back where people could grow some food or flowers if they pleased. He also mentioned that there really wasn't a high population there either.

The next major place that Rose, the Goddess, and I would be stopping at would be Marians. I had heard once before that it was a wonderful little town. It was a buying and trading center bustling with daily and nightly activity. In the morning merchants set up their stands getting ready for trying to persuade travelers or the inhabitants of the town to buy some of their goods, and that their merchandise was much better than the stand's right next to theirs. The night was equally as busy as the day when people went around the town to see the many forms of entertainment shoved their way. Of course that wasn't exactly how Gareon had described the town. He had said it was nice, and slightly busy sort of town.

Gareon told us of dozens of other towns of a wide range descriptions that we should go to for the safety of not getting extremely tired at an incredible speed. I truly only really listened to the descriptions of the first two towns, for those were the most important to me now. If there was anything that was really significant that I should have been paying attention to I just hoped that Rose took note of it.

The only other place that I remember is Coren, which is the cave in which we are to find the books of magic. It would be a long while before Rose, the Goddess, and I would reach the area so I did not want to have to worry about it now.

Gareon was nearing the end of his chant which made me start to get exited. I knew he was because he had allowed me to look through the book and I decided to memorize these words so I could know just about when the Goddess would arrive. I whispered them a few times quietly to myself and then almost repeatedly in my head. In fact, those words started to form a beat in my mind. For a moment, I even wondered why I kept chanting them until Gareon began to draw near it.

Gareon finished his spell and almost immediately after a flash of blinding light filled the room. It left almost as quickly as it had come, but since it came so suddenly it surprised even me.

On the stone ledge where nothing had been placed before, rested a young woman. She had dark brown hair a few shades lighter than my own that went down a little past my shoulders. She was dressed in a simple white dress with a scarf tied around her waist. She appeared to be around my age, but she couldn't have been. Could she? She scanned her new surroundings with a confused look placed on her face.

Surely this was not real. My eyes must have been deceiving me. I came on this trip expecting it to be simple sort of trip to get away from work. I never expected that what Gareon had told us was the truth. The childlike side of me told me that this was all real, but my more mature side said that this was all a dream or an illusion of some sort and I should not believe that it exists.

Gareon shooed Rose and I out of the room and onto the stairs. While he was in the process of doing that though, I looked back at the young woman, possibly the Goddess, and she had still remained on her stone ledge.

"Please tell me this is all a dream that I will soon wake up from. Please, I beg of you," I pleaded to Rose.

"See, fairy tales do exist, Oliver," she replied with a slight smile.

Those were the last words spoken for the remainder of the night.

I was woken up in the early morning by Rose gently shaking my shoulders.

"Come on Oliver, wake up. We should probably talk to Gareon. You know, about the Goddess. She did appear last night, you know. Maybe you had a brief amount of time where you had a chance to look at her," Rose said.

"Yes, I know that she appeared and I also got a chance to see what she looked like."

"Good. I thought that you might have mistaken last night for a dream."

"She looks so very...plain, don't you think?"

"Well, she doesn't look quite as I had expected, but it's really odd that she still looks sort of pretty even though you're right, she does look very, very plain," Rose said.

"And how were you expecting me to look? Did you really think that I would be dressed in the finest of clothes and diamonds?" a new voice chimed in.

Rose was too dumbfounded to do much more than stutter and I didn't know quite what to say so I just kept quiet so as not to make a fool of myself as Rose was doing at the present moment.

"Well, it would be nice if some one would answer me, but I could just talk to myself," the same person said. She was the girl I had seen before that I presumed was the Goddess.

"Umm... yes...no... I mean...umm...maybe?" was all that Rose could manage to get out at the time.

"I know that this is such an interesting topic, but I have to change the subject. My name is Fiona. What are your names?" Fiona said.

"I am Oliver Serife and my friend is named Rose Epert," I replied for both Rose and myself, for Rose was probably still speechless and I would not want Rose to make an idiot of herself.

"Well now that we know that," Fiona said.

"I really don't mean to be so blunt about it, but you are the Goddess, right?" Rose inquired.

"No, of course not! I'm just one of her servants. If I help her out for a while, I'll be able to live much longer. Which is a good thing if you ask me," Fiona replied.

"Just great," I said. My tone was a little more sarcastic than I had meant it to be at the time, but I guess I could be excused for. I mean I had been trying for quite a while to get the Goddess to appear, not just one of her servants who probably only knew how to serve drinks or food.

"I can see that I'm wanted here," Fiona said matching my sarcasm. "Truly, I can't believe you actually thought that the Goddess herself would appear. I mean, she is very, very busy."

"I am so sorry that I actually thought that someone that could do something other than spend their whole entire day making sure the Goddess is never thirsty or hungry would come here!" I replied just barely keeping myself from screaming.

"You actually think that is what I do all day? Sure, I help her with her daily needs, but she also helps me out!" Fiona said, or rather screamed.

"And how exactly does she, or how could she, help you out in any way!" I screamed back at her. I really hoped she got the point that I was angry.

"She helps me learn things such as magic that will end up helping you out. Oh, just to let you know, you better not be like this the whole entire trip because you are already making me hate you," Fiona replied through gritted teeth.

"Okay, now that we have all met each other we should either talk to Gareon or start our journey off and get supplies," Rose said.

"Actually Gareon left so all we can do is start the journey. We should probably rest here for the night to make sure that we are ready for the adventure that lies before us."

"Good idea," Rose said. "Until night we can chat about whatever comes to mind."

And we did just that. Rose, Fiona, and I all told each other about ourselves and how we ended up where we were at the very moment. When I heard what Fiona had to say I decided that it was probably just my fault that we had already had an argument, but I couldn't just tell her that I'm a very mean person when I first wake up in the morning.

Even though Fiona told us about herself, she told Rose and I very few details about her past. She did not tell us anything at all about her childhood. In fact, all she happened to tell us about was when she started to help the Goddess. It almost seemed as if she was hiding something, but I was not really sure so I didn't want to accuse her if there was a great possibility that I was wrong. But still, I couldn't help but wonder if I was possibly right.

When all of us began to get sleepy we all retired to our separate rooms. Of course, Rose and I had to find Fiona a room for the night before we went to our own rooms, but it was an easy task to accomplish. Rose and I decided not to discuss anything tonight because we both needed to make sure we got plenty of sleep before the trip started.

I was surrounded by gold tinted walls that were bathed in the sunlight that poured through the two open windows. There was a wooden table with a snow colored cloth draped over it. The table had three dishes set upon the it with napkins and silverware placed to the sides of them. In the center of the table there was a vase with two tiny handles placed on the sides for decoration. The vase was filled with beautiful daffodils that made the room look more home like.

I turned a little to my left to see what I assumed to be a mother and a child. The one who I assumed to be the mother was washing the dishes by hand while the one who I assumed to be her daughter helped her and kept her company. They both seemed to be enjoying themselves for they were laughing and had wide smiles stretched across their faces.

"Come on, wake up Oliver," Rose said.

I waited a few moments before sitting upright and yawning like a beast.

"Well, it's good to see that you're up now. I bet that you didn't know that was the fifth time that I told you to wake up," Rose informed me.

"No, I was not aware. I'm sorry," I replied.

"No, it's all right. I never knew you could be such a heavy sleeper, though, Oliver."

"Oh, I just didn't get a lot of sleep last night, that's all."

"It's fine by me, though Fiona was getting quite impatient with you. I guess that she just wants to start the journey as soon as possible or she just wants to get away from us. I tried to hold a conversation with her this morning and she seemed like she didn't want to tell me anything about herself until the time after she joined the Goddess and even then she said a few things on the matter," Rose told me.

"I'm pretty sure that if she chose not to tell you very much on that subject it had nothing to do with you so just don't worry about it. By the way, when we get to our second town, I think it's name was Marians, we should buy Fiona some new clothes. She doesn't quite fit in with her scarf tied around her waist like that. Maybe we could get her to fit in if we persuaded her to just wear her white dress but it still isn't quite fit for traveling. It might hinder her if we had to run somewhere for some reason or another. Also those are the only clothes she has with her," I said.

"You're right, but why can't we just buy her clothes in the first town?" Rose inquired.

"The first town we'll be going to, I'm pretty sure Gareon said that its name is Farin, is a small town so they probably wouldn't have apparel suited for traveling."

"I guess you're right. Marians was the town that Gareon described as a busy trade center, right?" Rose asked.

"Yes," I replied, "that's one of the few towns that I actually remember its name and description."

"May I ask you a question?" Rose inquired.

"Sure, you just did." I told her.

"Oh, ha ha, very funny. No really, were you actually listening to what Gareon had to tell us about the different towns we were supposed to go to?"

"Not really. I mean, I listened to the first few town descriptions and took a mental note of it, but I sort of tuned Gareon out after a little while. He can just drone on forever. Did you listen to him?" I asked Rose.

"Lucky for you I did listen. I don't remember all of what he said, but I did write down notes. You really shouldn't stop listening to people even if they do bore you. What if someone told you something that was so important it could be the difference between life and death and you just decide they're too boring and you tune them out? Then what will you do?"

"I don't know. Oh, I thought you said Fiona was getting impatient, but if you would rather lecture me instead you could just get her angrier at the both of us." I said nonchalantly

"Oh my gosh! I forgot all about her, Oliver!" Rose exclaimed.

"Well I'm sure she'd be happy to hear that"

"Come on Oliver, we can't keep her waiting any longer than we already have!"

And with that she grabbed my wrist and dragged me out of the room to where Fiona stood tapping her foot and her arms wrapped across her chest.

"Well Rose, it took you long enough to wake Oliver up. I could tell from before that it was hard to wake him up, but really now, I never thought it would take that long." Fiona said.

"We are both so sorry. We lost track of time, that's all." Rose told Fiona.

Fiona let out a long sigh and shook her head. She wore a slight smile on her face so I knew that she wasn't angry with Rose and me.

"I really hope your not going to be like this the whole trip. Both of you are constantly forgetting what we're supposed to be doing and just wander off to talk somewhere. I really hope that I'm never attacked by a monster while on this trip because while I'd be screaming for help, both of you would be talking about what you thought the next town would be like!" Fiona exclaimed.

"We're both really, really sorry, we really are!" Rose said.

"I'm just kidding," Fiona replied. "Anyway, I think that we should be starting our journey. Let's go."

And with that, we started our way down Orinosin Tower's stairs, and so our journey began.