Chapter 1

Pony Talk

Cara walked around the camp with her glarter in one hand and the book in the other.

The old Raona woman had given her the small leather book convinced that Cara could do something with it. The people had also given her the battle gown that the Misty Islanders wore, to protect herself.

However at fourteen there was not much protecting she could do for herself, she was tall for her age and should have been in grade nine however due to an unfortunate death of her mother she was too distraught to do her grade three year.

She looked around the Nomadic Camp; it had been exactly five weeks since she had been in her own world with Kade in the girls change room when the power went out.

She and Kade had found themselves in the Western Border Forest, of Cara’s made up world. She was shocked and terrified to find herself within her own story however she soon lost herself with the book.

Kade had trailed after her keeping up the idea that the two were from a land just past the Western Border Forest called Emeet.

They had met the Lady Helen in the Salty Woods, a strange Immortal, and were introduced to the idea that Cara was a Storier. Someone who was from another world, their world, who could right about a different one.

Cara had to tell the Raona that when she got to them, for the Nomadics to accept her and Kade in and in doing so she proved to her friends that she was lying to them.

Cara sighed, she had talked to her three friends from this world but it wasn’t the same. BlackFox wasn’t that much different, still quiet and gave Cara the impression that she knew before Cara had confessed to the council but was still keeping a respectful distance.

Standing Feather had given her the glarter to go with the battle gown however had not said much to her otherwise.

Kip was the hardest however. She had to go talk to him after telling him that she knew his whole story, for he was the main character of her story, The Lay of Kip.

Cara walked straight into a little girl about the age of eight. She looked at the Nomadic girl. She was tall and lanky with dark hair in braids like most of the Raona People.

“Hello,” Cara said. The girl smiled bashfully at her, “what’s your name?” Cara asked her.

“ShyRobin,” the girl replied.

Cara smiled, “that’s a pretty name.”

The girl smiled, “you’re the westerner, right?” she asked, “and a writer?”

Cara paused, unsure whether or not she should say but she made the assumption that you could be a writer without being a Storier.

“Yes, that’s me, my name is Cara,” she replied.

ShyRobin smiled, “do you want to see my pony? I just got him.”

“I would love to.”

Cara followed the little girl to herd of ponies and felt the fear that always came with horses.

ShyRobin took her hand, and Cara left the glarter on the side of the fence. The little girl lead Cara through the many horses and Cara tried hard not to squeeze the girl’s had in fear.

Cara looked carefully at the creatures around her, they were smaller than most horses that she had seen before, she remembered that they were called ponies and thought perhaps meant that they were always smaller than regular horses.

The fear that possessed her when around horses seemed to diminish slightly. These ponies were gentle the just moseyed about taking no notice of the girls walking through their midst.

“Where is your pony?” Cara asked.

“He’s just up here,” ShyRobin replied, “my mummy is working with him.”

“What is your mothers name?” Cara asked kindly striding to keep up with the girl.

“SweetBrook,” the girl replied, “there she is!”

Cara followed through the rest of the ponies to a short squat woman who was thoroughly inspecting a dappled grey pony.

SweetBrook looked up at her daughter running towards her, smiled then moved her glace to Cara who was walked carefully through the grass.

“Hello,” SweetBrook called.

“Hello,” replied Cara speaking their language.

“I assume my daughter has dragged you off from your usual plans to see her pony?” the woman said kindly, “she does that a lot.”

Cara laughed, she couldn’t help it and she found it amusing that, after everything, she loved this moment most.

“I did agree to come,” Cara said.

SweetBrook smiled, “I was under the impression that the westerners that were visiting much older than you, after the tales that have been told,” she said eyeing the small book in Cara’s hand.

“Yes well, people exaggerate,” Cara replied looking over the small horse carefully.

“Are you a horsewoman?” asked SweetBrook watching Cara’s eyes.

“No, I was afraid of them most of my life,” Cara confessed.

“Oh you really shouldn’t be,” said SweetBrook, “they are gentle when you are gentle. If you fear then they will fear you.”

Cara nodded and patted the pony’s head. It looked up at her with lazy eyes and allowed her rub under its nose and chin.

“He’s brilliant, isn’t he!?” ShyRobin said hugging the pony around the neck.

“Yes he is,” Cara said looking into his eyes.

“So my dear, I hear that you are traveling with Kip, and Standing Feather and BlackFox,” SweetBrook said.

Cara looked up, “yes that’s true, we came from Rl’sa.”

“I see,” said SweetBrook, “no doubt your delegation for Emeet was to meet with Neareüs, was it not?” SweetBrook smiled at her.

“Yes how did you know?” Cara asked.

“Well, they has been as many people coming from Emeet as there are from the Lost Isles,” SweetBrook explained, “I suppose that Kip got you out of Rl’sa as soon as he heard you were heading for Neareüs.”

Cara swallowed and nodded.

“Well, naturally you had to go, with Bäldassare running about.”

“Don’t you fear him taking over? I mean hurting those in the Raona or others?” Cara asked.

SweetBrook shrugged, “he may have taken over but he’s not that bad.”

Cara stared at her, “how can you say he’s not that bad?!”

“He spends all his time locked up in Ytheron, or Kalerik, never goes out to the cities he’s conquered, he hasn’t even changed anything. Just worries about that blasted book and the Oracle,” SweetBrook grumbled as she began brushing away the dirt in the pony’s coat.

ShyRobin was talking to the animals around her, not interested in the conversation that Cara and SweetBrook were having.

“But he has segregation happening, splitting people by blood, taking huge taxes, ruining your farming land, as well as capturing your people for slaves. He keeps the poor, poor and the rich, rich. He’s a monster,” Cara exclaimed.

SweetBrook glanced her sparkling brown eyes at Cara, “tell me what king have we had that doesn’t do that?”

“Ah-” Cara stopped as she thought about, that’s what most of the Kings had done in the past of Lerien’yth, yet she had skimmed over those facts with the others and made them terrible crimes for Bäldassare.

“He murdered his family,” Cara said quietly.

“Yes that was odd of him,” SweetBrook said, “nothing like that had ever happened before, except perhaps with Zytan.”

Cara paused; the name was familiar to her.

“Zytan?” she asked.

“Yes, he was a warrior, couple hundred years ago he lived, he was said to slay the Great Olidérec,” SweetBrook said doing the finishing touches on the pony’s coat, “now Olidérec was an evil king, would kill you as soon as you looked at him wrong, was greedy and thought nothing of the population under his control, except that they were under his control. Death was everywhere and disease ravaged everything. Olidérec burned countless villages with the occupants still inside to stop the sickness from spreading. When everyone inside the village was dead he had the soldiers that over looked the fires burned for fear that they were contaminated.

“It was dreadful, there was almost nothing left to see, ever inch of the mainland was blackened with ash. However Ytheron-city was a dazzling place. Every luxury you could afford. That is the palace was like that, and the very richest. Everyone else was nothing but dirt on the ground. Olidérec didn’t bother to segregate, or tax, he just took it all and left people to live in squalor,” SweetBrook looked closely at Cara she was drinking in every word.

“Do you not know this story?” SweetBrook asked.

Cara shook her head, “who was Zytan,” she pressed.

SweetBrook smiled, “his son.”

Cara looked at her shocked.

“And he killed his father?” Cara asked surprised.

“Of course,” SweetBrook explained, “with his sword, and he killed his older brother who showed the same sort of brutality.”

“What happened then?”

“Nothing too much, Zytan took over, fixed as much as he could and was a good a king as it could get,” SweetBrook said.

“Though it was at the end of his reign that he disappeared, he went away, far away and left everything behind, except his sword which is rumored to have magikal powers,” SweetBrook continued.

Cara was totally lost in thought, Kip was supposed to have that sword, but she had not thought of Zytan much, he was merely a warrior that floated in the back of her mind, something that merely gave Kip a magikal sword.

But now she thought of it, because of its history, it had special brutality. It had given its master the strength to kill kin.

“Are you alright dear?” SweetBrook asked, “You look a little pale.”

“Sorry, what was the magik that this sword could do?” Cara asked.

“I haven’t the foggiest,” replied SweetBrook, “something important no doubt.”

“I see,” Cara replied.

“Cara!”

She turned to see Kade standing at the edge of the pony herd.

“Come on, we’re needed,” he called her.

Cara turned back to SweetBrook.

“Thank you,” she said with a small bow.

SweetBrook bowed back, “It was nothing but a fairy tale, but I was happy to tell it.”

Cara smiled and walked to the exit, waving goodbye to ShyRobin and met Kade.

“Why are we needed?” Cara asked.

“I’m not too sure,” Kade answered as Cara picked up her glarter and they began to walk.

“That’s helpful,” Cara mumbled.

“Well, Kip did say something about the Sword of Zytan, but I’m not too sure what he was talking about, but I’m not the expert of this world,” he stopped talking when he realised that Cara was no longer beside him, he looked back to where she had stopped in her tracks. “What’s the matter?”

“You said the sword of Zytan?”