Dusty Red - Instalment Twenty-three

I almost forgot it was Thursday this week...almost. But luckily I did remember, so that's all good. :D
At the beginning of writing this, I was just typing the completely random things that came into my head and hoping that they made some sense. But after a while I began to see snatches of clarity through the fog in my mind and it got slowly easier. By the end I was going on fine. Actually, I had trouble stopping! 

Option three won the vote by one, so it was a close thing. I'm hoping I didn't put too much of 'glowing blue stones' in it as that one wasn't voted in. I didn't even plan to put it in...it just...happened...
I nearly deleted it but then I was just like, "Nah, I'll keep it. It doesn't really matter anyway. It's better than nothing." So I kept it.

And here is the result of my thinkings and writings/typings: Dusty Red Instalment Twenty-three. I hope you enjoy!

A pedestal about a meter in height stood in the middle of a circle of stones. Resting on top of this stand was a large crystal rock, glowing with an unearthly silver light.

Flicks’ heartbeat quickened. “Is it magic,” she breathed, her voice barely audible.

Skilf shook her head, enraptured by the sight of the stone. “I dunno,” she replied before falling silent once more.

Larzik was trembling all over and seemed to be trying to say something but he only managed a squeal and then dived to the ground, hiding his face in his hands.

Flicks blinked and pulled her eyes from the stone. “What’s wrong,” she asked, kneeling down beside the quivering Imp-Goblin.

“It mustn’t be, it can’t be, it shouldn’t be, it couldn’t be, IT CAN’T BE!” Larzik shouted at the ground.

“What can’t be?” Nainsi asked.

“The Stone,” he moaned softly. “I have looked upon The Stone and now I must die.”

“Why should you die?” Flicks urged him. “What do you know of this stone?”

“It is The Stone,” he groaned pitifully. “And I looked at it, therefore I will die.”

“What stone?” Nainsi, Flicks, Fred and Skilf asked together.

“That stone,” Larzik raised a trembling finger and pointed at the glowing rock on the pedestal.

“But what is that stone?” Skilf asked, staring closer at it.

Larzik squealed again. “Don’t touch it Miss Skilf! Or surely you’ll die instantly!” After a pause in which Skilf took a hasty step backwards, he continued, “It is The Stone. The Touch Stone. The most powerful thing in the world.”

“That sounds dangerous,” Flicks murmured. She straightened and looked back at the Touch Stone.

“I think there’s at least some truth in what he’s saying,” Fred said slowly, flying up to her perch on Flicks’ shoulder.

Larzik lifted his head. “O’ course there’s truth in it!” he said shrilly. “It’s all truth.”

Nainsi endeavoured to frown and raise an eyebrow at the same time. This amounted in an expression of mystified confusion.

Flicks looked up from the stone and turned around. “Larzik,” she said. “You just replied to something Fred said.”

Larzik sat up. “I did?” he asked in wonderment.

“You did,” Fred said, yawning widely.

Now Larzik leapt to his feet. “I ‘eard her! I really did!”

“Would anyone care to explain?” Nainsi asked.

“I can ‘ear Fred talking!” Larzik exclaimed. “I couldn’t afore, but now I can!”

“I told you you’d be able to do it if you actually tried,” Fred pointed out almost smugly.

“What are the smaller rocks around the table thingy?” Flicks asked, leaning over to study them more closely.

Skilf joined her and her eyes widened. “They’re – no I don’t believe it! – they’re the Magic Rune Stones!”

“The ones you buried?” Flicks asked.

“Aye, just those ones,” she stopped and tilted her head to one side. “But I wonder why they aren’t glowing.”

Nainsi drew nearer. “These are the Rune Stones?” she asked.

“Yup,” Skilf agreed, picking up one of the smooth white rocks.

Larzik moaned and buried his face in the ground once more.

Flicks too, picked up a rock and turned it over in her hand. A strange rune had been carved on the surface of each rock, thus gaining them the name Magic Rune Stones. “Is one missing?” she asked Skilf. “Maybe that’s why they’re not glowing.”

Nainsi picked up a rock, tossing it in the air and catching it again.

Flicks glanced over to her then jumped backwards, almost falling over. Nainsi’s leather pack – which she’d somehow managed to retain – was glowing blue. Ever so slightly, but it was glowing.

So was the stone in Flicks’ hand.

Nainsi dropped her stone and stood abruptly. Skilf too had noticed the faint light. She stared at Nainsi. “Is there one in your pack?” she asked levelly.

Nainsi spread her hands. “I certainly didn’t put any in there,” she replied. 

“Then why was it glowing?” 

Nainsi shrugged. “I’ve no idea,” then, seeing that Skilf looked less than convinced she continued. “You can look through my pack if you like. I don’t care. I didn’t put any rocks in there.”

Nainsi placed the pack on the ground and opened it invitingly. Skilf still looked uncertain, after all, Nainsi had been her friend ever since she could remember and she didn’t want to change that now.

A cream-coloured bundle of fluff stirred sleepily and jumped from the backpack. Skilf jerked back in surprise and Nainsi grinned. “Don’t worry, that’s just Ciara, my Phenik fox.”

Skilf raised her eyebrows. “I didn’t know you had a fox,” she remarked.

Ciara tumbled around the ground, chasing her tail, completely oblivious to her audience. Then she stood up and trotted over to Nainsi.

In doing so she passed quite close to the Rune Stones and Flicks yelped in surprise. “It’s her!” she cried. 

Skilf stared blankly at the young fox, and then picked up a Stone. She picked it up then extricated Ciara from Nainsi’s arms and put the fox down right next to the stones.

Again, they began to glow with a brilliant blue light. Ciara, too, began to glow. Nainsi started to laugh. Flicks joined in.

“Oh,” Nainsi said between giggles. “That is the funniest thing I’ve seen for ages. I think—” she couldn’t go on again for some time because of laughter. “—I think she swallowed one!” At this Nainsi collapsed on the ground in howls of laughter.

Flicks pressed her hand to her mouth and mastered herself so she could speak. “Oh, Skilf, let Ciara move away from the rocks. Please,” she managed before her control broke and she returned to her laughter.

Ciara, on being released, bounced away from the rocks and both stopped glowing. Nainsi struggled to her feet, wiping tears from her eyes. Ciara wiggled her overlong ears and ran to her mistress, yipping with pleasure. 

“What do you think the Touch Stone’s doing here?” Flicks said, hiccupping from her mirth.

“I don’t know,” Larzik said. He seemed to have regained his spirit again and was now feeling brave enough to look at The Stone again. “It is said in Esueño that it is kept in a safe place, guarded by,” he hesitated then continued. “No one knows what.”

Flicks looked around, suddenly nervous. The trees on this side of the wall were just as thick as on the other, and a wind stirred the upmost branches. The shadows beneath the trees moved with the branches, as if they themselves were being blown by the wind.

Wait! Was that just her imagination or was that shadow darker than all the rest? Flicks blinked and narrowed her eyes, but the shadow was gone.

“How d’you know it’s even guarded at all?” Skilf asked after a surreptitious glance around.

Nainsi looked sidelong at her. “If you had possession of the most powerful and dangerous rock in the world would you leave it unguarded?”

Skilf opened her mouth to reply but then realised that there was nothing she could say back to that and decided it might be better if she kept it shut.

“I have a strange feeling,” Flicks said, interrupting the conversation uncertainly.

“What do you mean?” Skilf asked, glad of any distraction.

“I feel like...Like we’re being watched,” Flicks furrowed her brows.

They all glanced around but saw nothing. “I can’t see anyone,” Skilf replied.

“But that doesn’t mean there’s not someone there,” Nainsi added. 

“You’re probably just imagining it because of what Larzik said,” Skilf said, concealing her own nerves beneath confidence. 

Flicks wasn’t listening though. Her eyes were scanning the tree line. “There!” she cried. “Someone’s right there!” Or should that be something? she wondered.

~

1. “What are you doing here, of all places?” the dark shadow asked tiredly, his voice reaching them easily across the distance.

2. Sensing her Mistress’s fear, Ciara stiffened in her arms, the hair on her back rising. She growled, baring her teeth in the direction of the shadow. 

3. A throaty growl rumbled out from the forest and the blood drained from Flicks’ face. She realised that whoever had left the Touch Stone here certainly hadn’t left it without a guard.

~

Now, along with voting this week (This question is completely out of curiosity) it'd be really cool if you could tell me who you think Trancos is. (I've been meaning to ask this for a while.) Just any random ideas of who he might possibly be....I think I'll be quite interesting to find out what you think of him.
But for now...

Fare Thee Well!