The Golden Orb

Chapter 1

They were walking along a small path, the night sky was a black colour, as deep as the fur upon a witches cat, as was the path, much of the world around them was black, all apart from a shimmering white light at the end of the path. The couple were walking towards the light, one of them was old and frail, and he walked with the help of the other, as he looked on Marty noticed that the 'frail one' was in fact a very old looking man. He leant over to one side and walked with a limp. Although, a walking stick and a young looking girl were helping him up. The girl was holding his arm and watching his steps carefully, she was quite short, but looked contented she was concentrating mostly on the man, but she glanced around every now and again.

Marty was leaning against a tall tree, watching the pair curiously; it was only when they had almost reached him that he saw that she was staring back at him. He jumped a little and spoke to her.

"Hi, I'm Marty, is he alright?" he asked helpfully. Marty was shocked at himself, he rarely spoke to strangers, and even then, it was because his Dad had told him to, but he had done and she responded quickly.

"Oh, hi Marty, I'm Charla, and no, he is not alright". The old man looked up at Charla and then at Marty, Charla was looking at him concerned.

"Charla, Who is this? Have you found 'him'?" he spoke slowly. Charla nodded at Marty and looked at the man.

"This is Marty, he was asking over you, I don't know if it is 'him' though," She said quietly.

Marty felt uneasy under the man's gaze and on being 'him', what did that mean? He thought.

"C'mere, boy I want to look at you," He whispered creepily.

Marty took a few steps towards the man and he placed one hand on Marty's shoulder and then quickly let go.

"Charla..", he said solemnly, "It is 'him', you know what I am to do now. Remember your duties. I must go."

Charla shot her eyes at the old man and she began to sob.

"Raiin, NO, please stay, Raiin please?" she begged.

Raiin held his arms to the sky and simply told her.

"You know what to do."

At that, she fell to the floor and held her arms over her eyes. Marty got to his knees and put his arm around her shoulder. He looked down on her and then up at the man, but he was nowhere to be seen.

He tended then, to the girl, she was weeping and Marty could see tears trickling down her cheeks. She wiped her face gently, lifted her head, and looked up at Marty. Her eyes were red and she looked pale. Marty looked her in the eyes, she looked back, studied is face and stood up with him.

"So, I guess I'm going to have to tell you" she sighed.

"Tell me what?" asked Marty curiously.

She looked at his hands he wasn't holding anything.

"Have you not found it yet? Ugh, well when you do find it, go to the café, and that's where I'll be." She said drowsily.

She walked off, and Marty looked at her. Find what? He watched as Charla walked to the café and got smaller and smaller, she was concentrating solely on the shop, Marty gazed to where Raiin had disappeared from and he began to think of how he had gone, and where he had go to? Was it heaven?

His mind began to wander as the golden sun broke out on the horizon, he thought about Raiin, and what had happened to him. Then he looked down onto his brass watch, it was 5.30 in the morning, and somehow he had been stood at the tree for almost 4 hours! Then he saw a glint of gold in a flash of sunlight. Marty knelt down and looked, the gravel under his feet was an orangey, yellow type of colour, and he did not see the plate immediately. Not until the sun came out from a cloud and another ray shot out at the golden plate, Marty saw it and his arm shot out, and he grabbed it in the palm of his hand. He brought the diamond shaped plate up to his elbow level and studied the plate carefully.

It was indeed diamond shaped, but the four corners were rounded off slightly. The plate had tiny symbols placed on the outside diamond about a centimetre from the edge. Right in the centre was a bezel with a clock type hand pointing at one end like a compass, the end was straight and it did not move, he noticed that he could turn the bezel and he began pointing it towards some of the symbols that caught his eye. He drew his eyes from the front of the front of the plate and turned it over in his hand, on the back was a church cross with a slight dimple on the two smaller angled corners of the diamond.

The plate enthralled Marty, and he marvelled at the objects true beauty. It wasn't until he had run his fingers over the symbols that were sticking out of the diamond slightly, that he remembered about Charla, and he began to take the path that she too had taken half an hour ago. When he got to the café, he felt suddenly at ease when he spotted Charla at the back of the café near the telephone box. He walked over to her, she was sat with her hands in her hair bent over a glass of milk, he smiled secretly, and sat down, without seeing him there she said "hello" and looked up at him. She closed her eyes for a few seconds composing herself and then said,

"So, you found it then?" Marty placed his hand in his pocket and drew out the shiny golden plate, Charla knew it oh so well, and Marty held it out to her, but she put her hands under the table and did not take it.

"Why not?" She sighed and he watched her every move, he wondered if she angry with him already, and whether she totally despised him, after all that Raiin person had died just after they had met him, maybe it was Marty's fault for his death.

"You have much to learn," she whispered wisely, to him alone, "you see, you are the holder of the plate, and there are rules that you must learn, and you really must follow these rules."

"Rules, What rules are they then?" asked Marty also whispering.

"Okay, now rule number one, only the HOLDER may touch, hold and use the plate. Rule number two, the holder and the Index must always stay together, and must not be more than five miles apart, else." She tried to finish.

"What will happen if we do part?" asked Marty hastily.

"I was just going to tell you, if we do go further than the 5 miles, I think Raiin told me that the plate breaks into a thousand pieces, or something like that." She said, being for the first time unsure.

"So, why did you choose me to be the holder?" Marty asked curiously

"I did not, Raiin knew for a very long time that you were the new holder and seen as he was dying I guess I was being drawn to you, so that you would not be far away if and when he died." She replied knowledgeably.

Marty thought about his next question hard, and then all of a sudden he thought of two at once, he decided for a more quizzical approach first.

"How did you know I was here? You may have been miles away when he died" he said.

Charla looked strangely at Marty.

"Raiin knew where you were, who you were, can you remember why you were stood by the tree? Especially at that time of night?" she quizzed him.

Marty thought about the question, and he realised he didn't actually have a good enough reason. "Um, well, I don't actually know why really" she stuttered.

"That's because Raiin called you, we have been making our way to you for two months now, and then as we got near Raiin feared that he could not go on much longer, and he did his last magic with the plate, and he summoned you nearer to us." She explained grandly.

"WOW," cried Marty in a shot, "What else can I do with the plate?" Charla laughed.

"Look at that plate," she instructed him, as he took it out and nodded, "Well, when you can read and understand each one of those symbols you can do anything, within reason of course."

Marty looked at the small plate eagerly, he looked at each of the symbols in turn in equal time and very carefully. Charla was watching Marty until he looked up and she focussed on the shelf above him. He smiled, it was obvious that she had been looking at him, but he didn't want to hurt her feelings, so he asked her another question.

"So, how do I read it?" he asked quickly. She looked back at him, his eyes were blue and she loved them they were bright and intelligent, well not his eyes, himself.

"I don't actually know, it was never my job to read it, I've only been Raiin's Index for six months, so I'm relatively new to the whole concept, I'm going to tell you everything that Raiin has ever told me, but of course, that will take another six months" she laughed.

"So, how old are you?" Marty questioned. She replied quietly, she was unsure of his age and she feared he would find her childish, but never the less, she told him truthfully and proudly.

"I'm fifteen, and how old are you?"

"I'm fifteen too" he replied pleased.

Then it was a fight to see who was the oldest, of course, they were both thinking it, but only Marty was male and it male instinct to be competitive so he sprung it upon her.

"I was born on the 2nd of June, when were you born?" he asked.

"Oh, I was born on the 22nd of September, your 3 months and 20 days older than me" she spoke knowledgably. With just a few minutes thinking time Marty came back with,

"That means I'm one hundred and ten days older than you, and your star sign ."

"Well done on the calculation, but your astrology could be better, I am a Virgo, it ends on the 22nd of September, though I do have certain Liberian tendencies, but enough of you, and me I have to teach you about that plate" Charla announced.

"You've told me two rules of the plate, there must be more than that" Marty presumed.

"Yeah, there are five in total, the third, if the Index dies, the Holder dies. So if I die we both die." She pronounced. Marty was shocked, he not only had to think about himself, but now he had to look after her as well, this was going to be tough.

"Wow, that's um, quite some responsibility" he remarked.

"I guess so, um, the fourth rule is, When the holder dies, it is passed onto a new holder," she declared, "I guess I've explained that already, with Raiin."

"Yeah, what's the fifth one?" Marty asked eagerly.

"The last rule is that we can only go where we want to go." She said looking rather puzzled. Marty thought that from the look on Charla's face, this was something that she didn't quite know herself, so he answered her look.

"I guess that means that if I want to go somewhere and you don't neither of us can go."

"Also maybe if we are told to go somewhere by someone else, we shouldn't go." She added.

"That's cool, we worked it out on our own, but um, why would anyone say we had to go somewhere?" Marty asked.

"Well, someone might want us to die, so they might set us a trap and kill us both to get the plate, or something." She indicated. They both then had the same thought. 'What is someone was going to try to do that? Why?

"Why?" they both asked together. Marty felt trapped then and he ordered them both two cups of tea. He had been concentrating so much on the plate that he forgot about his family, what would they say if all of a sudden he wanted to race of and leave.

"What about my dad, what will he say?" He questioned, more to himself than Charla.

"Your dad, why would he stop you?" Charla asked helping him to answer his own question.

"I know lets go and ask him." he concluded.

They drank their Tea, and got up, Marty's dad lived on the other side of the village and their walk was full of obstacles, on their way, Marty learnt a lot about his future.

"So, Where are we actually going?" he asked quietly.

"Wherever the plate takes us" Charla replied.

"But, how will I know?" he asked.

"I don't know, so far my only quest has been to find you, and now I've done it, it's all on you." Quest? Marty pondered what things he would be faced with.

"Raiin once told me that when he was a kid, they gave him easy things to do first, and then he said that it got harder." She declared. It was then that they reached Marty's home.