Fan Fiction ❯ Journey of Hope ❯ Journey part 2 ( Chapter 2 )

Journey of Hope
Written by VegetandAru (lord of the underworld)
Everything is my own, Please be nice as far as criticism goes, however if you do have something about it that you don't like then don't flame, just tell me about it if you would.

This was written quite a few years ago now, but I just stumbled across it on my hard drive and I've began to patch it up, it's still not finished but I'm working on it.

Yours VegetandAru (vegetandaru@yahoo.com)

<o0@0o>

'To the world you may be one person,
But to one person you may be the world'
(anonymous)

<o0@0o>

Torrential rain lashed against the windows and roof of the house of Loi. Thunder rolled, booming loud in the girl, Lee's, ears, like the drums of a funeral march, and the crack of thunder, symbols playing her to her grave.

The lights were down low in the shrine she was in, only a dim glow by which she had to see by, punctuated occasionally by lightning striking the ashy ground outside of her home, and flashing in through the small round window in the roof.

Weather worn and sun burnt hands, no stranger to a fight or the harshness of a days hard work, were resting on the wooden pillar, stained deep brown, almost black in colour so many years ago and still in immaculate condition. Resting on the pillar also, in between her hands, lay an open, almost unnaturally metallic, silver box. A deep purple velvet lined the insides like in one of those tacky tin boxes you get in souvenir shops when you go on holiday. However, this one was beautifully designed, silver vines and flowers covered the outside of the tiny treasure chest and minute words of prayer and hope were etched into the precious metal, seeming to move so that it was hard to read them, writhing and swirling just under the surface, thrumming with a ancient and long lost magic, enchanting it right down to the perfect little lock keeping it shut from any but her brothers hands.

This place, this incredible, beautiful, perfect , little room had once been home to the most powerful object on the whole of Gillis, that same object now lay broken, irreparable, in the palm of her left hand. Stained with her blood and cracked into three shards, magic lost and sizzling with raw, unharnessed power. The weight of it in her palm made tears stream down sun bronzed cheeks to splash to the ground in frozen droplets.

Where once the feel of it had been a comforting weight in her palm it now burnt with an icy fire against her skin, turning her hand to lead.

Clenching her fist around the broken stone she lifted her hand to throw it to the floor, only to find that she could not do it. With a dejected sigh she lowered her hand to come to rest above the intricate silver box and tipping it to the side she let the three broken pieces slide from the coarse skin of her hand and onto the velvet cushioning inside of the delicate box. It no longer snapped quickly closed like she was used to.

She gave a choked up sob and wiped tears from storm grey eyes with the back of her hand, letting them drift to the window in the roof, ash filled the air in Gogoln, it would burn your skin if you stayed out for too long, especially in the constant black smog of the atmosphere at the Lava Lake where her beloved elder sibling had gone, some long three hours previous. She prayed with all of her life hardened heart to every Overlord, God and Nymph that she knew, with the foolish hope that he might still be safe.

"Where are you Trayant; my brother. You should have been back by now. I pray that you are alright."

She heard her baby sister, Falla, crying in the front room, and walked out of the shrine to her crib, taking care to pull the deep purple drapes to over the doorway, after her.

She leant over the little pink crib that had been hers before falla and reached down with weather calloused hands to lift her sister up under the armpits, pulling her against her chest and rubbing her back to soothe her.

"Their, their Falla. At least the ground has stopped shaking." That was true enough, she hopped dearly that it was her brothers doing. "Trayant should be back any time now." She had said it more to reassure herself but it seemed to work anyway, the wailing child in her arms closed its little mouth and laid its head against her bare shoulder.

Lee began to come to her senses. Just because Trayant wasn't there then did that mean that Falla should have no bottle and nobody to tuck her in at night? Did it mean that Tomato and Baloo, the once powerful Loi family griffins should go without food, water and exercise? No, of course it didn't. She had to be sensible at a time like this.

"You're fifteen Lee, you're not a baby anymore. If Trayant isn't here then fine, you are more than capable of looking after everyone yourself." she berated herself in a desperate attempt to steady her quaking nerves. She made sure her sister was warm, fed, clean and safe before placing her back into the crib with her teddy bear and dummy and tucked her in in a motherly fashion.

Leaving the room and turning the lights down just enough to get her baby sister back off to sleep with she left the room and pulled the old oak door ajar. In the entrance hall she switched on the light and peered down affectionately at the two tawny feathered griffins, curled around each other on the rug, just beginning to wake from slumber as the light and the sounds of her footsteps penetrated their sleep hazed brains.

Picking the two leashes from off the side she rattled them gently to get the two griffin's attention before walking over to the front door.

"Tomato, Baloo! Walkies!" Fully awake now, the two Loi family griffins ran over to where Lee was standing with their leads, nipping friendlily at her hands and legs with their bird like beaks in an affectionate manner. She reached up and clipped the leads onto their matching green and red collars and opened the front door out into the piercing night.