The Carnival Land: Book 1: The Butterfly Ring

chimra922 · March 6th, 2007, 1:57 am

Chapter 1: Into Nell We Go

Jenifer was walking quickly home from school, her mind on tomorrow’s history test, when she noticed an abandoned carnival that she had never seen before. She started to think that she must have just not noticed it, but then she remembered the little dog that was always in the yard that should have been in that very spot. She instantly knew there was something different about the carnival, for instance instead of a sign proclaiming the name of the carnival, there was nothing. Petrified she tried to step away from the entrance but something directed her to it. Whenever she tried to step away from it instead she went towards it. To her the gate looked like a huge mouth ready to swallow her up. As if possessed when he reached the gate she broke of the lock which had been hanging from a rusted chain. When she stepped inside everything changed, when she turned around, she couldn't see the houses on the other side of the street, just a forest. When she turned to face the other way she saw a horse with a knight on its back galloping towards her. She instantly saw the sword glinting in the rider’s hand. When the rider reached her Jenifer saw her whole life flash before her eyes and felt her heart pounding in her ears. After she opened her eyes she found that the knight was offering her a ride. As she accepted, Jenifer thought, what am I doing, I should know not to accept rides from strangers! Then she realized that he might be her only way to civilization. So, after she had clambered up behind him, he asked “So where be thou from ". Jenifer, puzzled by this statement said” Excuse me, but what did you say?" he replied in an annoyed tone “Where be thou from, the land where thou be born.” “Oh, so that is what you meant. I'm Jenifer, I live in Maryland" said Jenifer. Than the man said “I be Baylig, from the land called Nell. Where be this land called Maryland?” To that Jenifer said "A long ways from here.” They were quite for a while until they finally saw a city, it was small yet, the castle in the center was enormous. Jenifer asked Baylig “Where are we?" baffled by this obsered question, Baylig answered “We be in Nell. And I be taking you to see the king." Jenifer was, of course, startled by this and asked, "Why would you be doing that!?", he then said, "My Lord asked me to be checking o'er by the wood, said that if I be findin' anybody’s out 'ere then I'm to bring 'em to him.". As they reached the castle gates Jenifer could not help wondering what the king would want with her.
The guards threw open the massive double doors leading to the throne room, revealing a magnificent room decorated in silver, gold, and precious jewels. Jenifer caught glances of the peasants dressed in rough looking cloth, wishing to tell their problems to the king. At last Jenifer saw him, sitting regally upon his throne.
When he saw her he asked, "Are you the one I sent Baylig to find?” unsure what to answer Jenifer said, "I guess, I mean, I was the only one there as far as I know". Then the king asked, "What be your name?”, “Jenifer" she answered. His eyes flew open at this, he said after a moment of thinking, "Come". Thinking it would be rude to disobey, Jenifer followed the king, not knowing that this would be the first chapter of an exiting and dangerous quest.
After walking down several corridors, lined with doors hiding items from the past, they reached an old, iron door. As they went into the room, Jenifer thought she heard something that was in there but it was just her imagination tricking her. Or that is what she thought; there sitting amidst a pile of books, was a little old man.
The little man jumped when the king said, "Hello Lional, would you be as so kind as to bring up the prophecy about the Butterfly Ring?” Lional clumsily bowed and went into the backroom. When he came out a few minutes later, he was carrying an extremely old looking scroll. "Please read it to me", the king said. Lional began to say something, but thought otherwise. This is what the prophecy read:

In a time of peril, a young girl from afar will come and restore peace in Nell.
She will be sent by the king to retrieve a ring.
This ring was originally owned by the first wizard, who, when he died he passed it down to the next, who passed it on and so fourth.
Eventually the ring had been lost, when every one heard this, things went into panic.
This girl by the name of Jenifer (Jenifer was startled to hear her name in the text) will be sent to find the Butterfly Ring. If the ring falls into the wrong hands, it will be chaos:

When he finished, Jenifer was still wandering what her name was doing in a prophecy. She asked, “But what does this have to do with me?” He then said, “I believe you are the one prophesized, you will be sent to find the ring tomorrow.” “Where will I sleep for to night?” she asked, “I think you will be comfortable in my eldest daughter’s room, she moved away a long time ago with her husband. You can also have some of the clothes she left, as they don’t fit her any more. You cannot be seen walking around in those strange clothes.” So a guard showed her the way. When Jenifer first saw the room she thought, wow, what am I doing in a room like this, dressed like I am, then she remembered that the king had said that she was allowed to have any of the clothes that she wants. She tried on each outfit carefully, taking her time to choose. In the end, she picked a light green dress, decorated with small embroidered flowers.
After about five minutes, a guard came and told her that she was to come and eat supper with the king. Wondering what the king would want this time, Jenifer followed. The dining room had huge double doors, not as impressive as the ones in front of the throne room. When she walked into the dining room, Jenifer saw before her, a dragon. Her amber scales glinted in the sunlight that streamed through the open windows. When she spoke, Jenifer could hear bells tinkling in the distance, “I am she called Sap,” the dragon told Jenifer, “I will be joining you on your journey”. “You…you…you can talk!” exclaimed the bewildered Jenifer. The dragon seemed to laugh at this “Of course I can talk silly human, how else would I communicate”. After this Jenifer just stared at her plate and the food that the servants had brought out during her conversation with Sap.
When dinner was over a guard took her back to her room and told her that she should start to put some extra clothes in her backpack. She looked around the room for some other clothes, and ended up with 5 tunics of different colors, two pairs of breeches, 4 shirts, 6 skirts, 9 dresses, and 3 night gowns. She was able to put it all in her pack, after taking out her school stuff. She was happy to get to sleep in the soft bed after all that happened to her that day.
When morning came someone came and knocked on her door. She grumbled at him through the door but got up and dressed. When she was dressed she opened the door she saw that there was a young man about 13, the same age as Jenifer, at the door. The boy said “Hello, mistress, my name be Fred. I be taking you down to the entrance hall to get ready to leave. You’d be best to bring your bag with you. We’ll be leaving as soon as the king desires”. “What do you mean we?” Jenifer asked “the king wishes for a couple of my friends and I to accompany you, is there a problem with that?” Fred replied. “Well, best not keep your king waiting” Jenifer said quickly and fallowed him to the throne room.
In the throne room, Jenifer saw an assortment of young men and women and thought, these must be Fred’s friends, and was right. All the girls soon introduced them selves as, Maddis, Deevon, Beckery, and Melsa. Then the boys, following suit introduced them selves as, Edd, George, Graylig, and Edward. After everyone introduced themselves, Jenifer saw that the king was not in the room. She asked Fred "where is the king" he said back, "He had some problems with the staff, he'll be back soon"

As Fred said this, far away a mother was telling her daughter what she must do. This girl is the last descendent of the evil witch, Esmeralda. The family had always sought the ring, yet had numerously failed. The mother knowing that her daughter was the one said, “Dearest Aangeelie, you must not fail your family, the time is upon us! A strange girl has come into the kingdom! The wizard is ill and needs the ring! If you fail, your ancestors will make sure you live in eternal damnation!” when Aangeelie was about to say something her mother added in a harsh tone “Do not, I repeat do not fail!” and pushed her daughter out of the house and slammed the door. As Aangeelie was walking away, her mother just remembered to yell “Don’t forget to visit the wise man and the cheiftess for further information.” Grumbling about how she has to do everything, Aangeelie walked away from her village hut and started off towards the hut that the wise man and the cheiftess shared.

Chapter 2: The Blue Egg

Fred was, indeed, right. The King came back just fifteen minutes later to see them off. He gave all the others gifts before reaching Jenifer. When he reached her at last, he handed her a small bag with provisions and medicines. “Use this with care, I shall hope you shall only use it to cut meat to eat” and handed her a small dagger with a gold and silver handle. Jenifer mumbled “Why give me this? I’d be useless with it. You should have some other person have it”, “Why Jenifer, I wouldn’t hand it to you if I didn’t know that you would be great with it. Now I want you to stop this folly and go questing!” the King replied with a tone of amusement in his voice, and he then, shooed the questers out the door. Once outside Jenifer had a feeling that there was going to be trouble on this trip. Suddenly a man came up from the stables with horse reins in hand. He gave each person a horse. Jenifer got a beautiful Arabian mare whose name was Astethiea. The stable man explained to Jenifer, “In the Elven language, Lartha, Astethiea means “Most beautiful’ which is down right true for this lovely lady.” Jenifer silently agreed with the man and thought with alarm, I don’t know how to ride horses! What if I fall? I’ll look stupid in front of all these nice people. Finally swallowing her pride, Jenifer said to Maddis,
“I have no clue how to ride a horse, just how to get on.” “Don’t worry,” Maddis said in reply, “these horses are great for beginners. The will follow whom ever is in the lead. You will do fine.” Somewhat reassured Jenifer climbed up onto Astethiea.
On the second night of their journey, as Maddis and Deevon were sitting together at dinner Jenifer saw that they looked somewhat alike. Jenifer decided to ask, “Are you two sisters?” Deevon answered, “Yes, and what comes to most peoples surprise, is that I am the oldest even though she is a good length taller that me.” Jenifer was indeed surprised at that Deevon and Maddis were sisters, even though you could see it really easily because they had the same fiery, red hair, and that Maddis was the youngest.
On the fifth day of the journey, the group came to a city. The gates were heavily guarded and the guards only let them in when Edward showed them the paper the king had given him. Upon entering the city they were greeted by a man. He did not talk for a while but when he did he said, “Welcome to Vanalia! I am Mage Nermainian. I hope you enjoy your brief, but relaxing stay. Now whichever one of you is Jenifer please follow me?”

As soon as Aangeelie walked into the hut the wise man thrust a piece of paper at her and said, “Take this, it is your instructions follow them completely.” Aangeelie nodded and waited for the cheiftess to give her instructions. When she finally did speak it was much shorter then Aangeelie expected it to be, se said “My dear,” she said in a gentle voice, “you are about to embark on a dangerous quest. Here is some essential items, such as the sword your ancestor, Esmeralda, used to slay the man guarding the ring. And here is some of the root of a ranganoot tree. It will heal any mortally dangerous wound, but use it wisely for this is all I may spare. May Marla guide you.” Using the Nellian term for the goddess of peace, quests, health, and luck. “And Berthian with you,” replied Aangeelie, using the god of good leadership, prosperity, wealth, and well being.
When Aangeelie went out the door, she was instantly bombarded by questions by her betrothed, Gildbon. “Why are they sending you? Where are they sending you? I am coming with you” he said all this before Aangeelie could reply. “I must go find a ring. Where they are sending me I have no clue. And I really appreciate you coming with Me.” she replied with a smile. So the couple set off on their journey together.

Jenifer walked slowly after Mage Nermainian. They walked towards a massive mansion. He ushered her inside and said, “You will be meeting up with Sap later, she has gone off to find a few more dragons. Now what I wanted to talk to you about is this, do you have a weapon, and do you know what to do? If you don’t, that is ok.” Jenifer was startled by the first question. “I don’t for either of them. Why?” Jenifer finally asked. Nermainian went into the other room and came back with a long box and a sheet of parchment. “This is a sword crafted by the finest there ever was. And this is a bow made of ranganoot wood, a very tough rare wood, a quiver full of phoenix feather fletched arrows, you will never loose them and you will never miss a target. The paper is your instructions,” then he added in a harsh tone, “Do not give them to anyone except your friends.” Jenifer nodded unsure of what would come out of her mouth if she opened it. She took the packages and headed out the door.
Jenifer saw her friends a soon as she walked out of the door. She hurried over to them and was asked my both Deevon and Maddis. “What’s in the box?” I replied “I don’t know, I think it’s a sword, a bow, and our instructions”. She then took the box, set it on the ground, and opened it.
In the box, there was indeed a sword. It was beautiful, gleaming in the sunlight. The blade was silver and extremely sharp. The hilt was golden with a single diamond carved to look like a rose. Underneath was a bow made of a red colored wood. “That’s ranganoot wood!” Jenifer heard someone gasp. Then she took out the quiver, she received even more gasps with the phoenix feathers.
She put every thing away then read the instructions to every one in a hushed voice,
“You will all be rewarded if you accomplish this,
yet greatly shunned shall you loose.
You will meet up with Sap, the dragon.
When you get to The Forest of Calmness
you will need all the help you can get.
It was misjudgingly named that
because at a first glance it is perfectly calm,
almost too calm.
The creatures will stir when you enter.

Before you even think of going in there
go to the Verticen Caves, in there you will
find the help you will desperately need.

After the forest, go to the city called Fenterall,
you will need to await your next instructions
at the tavern, The Denteralka Tavern.

May Marla guide you and may She
look after you and may She smote all
your foes.

Who is Marla?” Jenifer asked when she was finished. “Marla is the goddess of peace, quests, health, and luck.” Edward explained.
The little party left at dawn the following day. “It said that we need to go to the Verticen Caves first.” Maddis remarked, “Does anyone know how to get there?” Jenifer wondered. “We all should know that it is just a league from here.” Graylig said.

The Carnival Land: Book 1: The Butterfly Ring

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