Majoran Kingdom III

Upon nightfall, the princess woke Kames as she never slipped off to a deep sleep herself, stirring at the slightest sound of movement. About two hours after their tryst, Majoran scouts went by looking for them, then all was quiet except some prowling woods' pumas that came sniffing about as the sun was setting.

Luckily the beasts ran off when they couldn't locate the scent of human prey and chubby hares were sensed in the distance. Luckily, the couple didn't encounter any silver-toothed wolves, giant bark-bears, or unlawful brigands since the forest was unusually calm.

Sky spent most of the day studying spells from the old Zubian Spell Book that appeared in her bedroom when she was a child. She never told anyone about the ancient text, and no one asked her about it if they did spy it. They knew she studied to be a sorceress, and sorceress secretes were sacred. Sky remembered the night when she was eight years of age, awaking before dawn as icy winter air filled her bed chambers from the opened casement.

When she rose to shut it, there was the mysterious and shimmering black, grey, and silver book on the Jaipur-rug below it. Despite its centuries of existence, it somehow retained its strength and durability, remaining perfect as if it were created the day before.

It is said the Zubians forged their texts from the strongest and most primordial trees from their ancient antediluvian-forest home. The elder of their order sacrificed his or her own life for the primal tree's parts to be cut and recycled. One of these magnificent old trees was used in whole for just one book.

This put a magical enchantment of defense against elements on it, therefore nothing damaged or ruined its pages for eternity, and just two of these spell books were ever written. Unfortunately, the Zubians didn't survive the ambush on their homeland and sanctuary from thousands of Smiggs that raided them two decades earlier.

It was one of the worst massacres recorded in the history of Zubyan. The entire primeval woodland that was the Zubian dwelling burned to the ground. The spiteful, vicious, and mindless brutes caused the dreadful end of the Zubians who never had enemies and never committed acts of violence or malevolence against any group of creatures.

This made them perfect for the Smiggs to attack. Although most creatures all believe the Smiggs couldn't be overcome, some say that the Zubians should have easily defeated them. They believe the Zubians sacrificed themselves to attain existence upon another universal plane. And after the attacks, the Smiggs were never quite the same, dying off in great numbers from mysterious diseases and only occupying small strongholds in Zubyan since.

"We should be off now. I hope we can make it to the Outriders' stables at first light. They should have a couple of spare chargers to sell." Kames said while wearily stretching, shaking the sleep from his bones, and kissing his beloved princess gingerly on the forehead.

Sky simply nodded in compliance as she frequently did when her thoughts were abundant. The Outriders were the famous mounted warriors from the former Chilvarious Empire, overrun and taken by the evil witch, Hazjarid. While the Outriders were away from home, Hazjarid and her unknown Horde of Ghoells struck, completely by surprise, and took the entire empire as her own in a rackingly callous attack on the citizens which led to the emperor's surrender and the near genocide of the population.

They traveled down the path with the three moons all in the darkened phase which caused the pitch of blackness; the most likely time wickedness crept out to participate in iniquitous acts. Everything was unobtrusive, however, except for the occasional hooting of a great owl.

Neither of the companions said anything as they crept through the incredible darkness. Kames led the route since he owned heightened detection skills and footing. So much so, it had been said by the Majoran soldiers he had night vision. It was his highly-sharpened feelings and sense of the surroundings that guided him; the abilities of a natural-born ranger.

As he drifted along with a strange and welcoming calmness all around, his thoughts were on how he met Sky. That first day, he felt a wave of comfort when he found her again. Sky and Kames had lived multiple lifetimes with each other. In each of their past lives, their births and deaths were on the same day, same time, same minute, same second. In every life, they came back as a male and female human.

No matter where they were conceived, they always crossed paths, whether as children, or adults and always ended up together as lifetime mates. They read about many myths and legends of couples in the past who had similar experiences, but they could never be sure of exactly what they were, for their age was still too young to recall their past lives' memories.

Information per Zubian texts spoke of timeless clones, a pair of souls forever joined to each other, never to be broken apart in any lifetime. They read about being alive and constantly being reincarnated since the beginning of man with each past lifetime of memories still lying hidden in the back of their minds. They could be drawn upon when needed or through serious meditation.

Through a life of hard thought and reflection, they could attain the useful memories in their current existence; yet neither had the guidance to make such a grand effort. The one flaw in this possibility was the fact they found nothing mentioning their similar appearance, especially the color and consistency of their hair; which was a rich, shining shade of gold and unique in all of Zubyan.

In this lifetime, when small children five years in age, Sky had wandered away by sneaking from her father's sentry and handmaidens outside the Majoran camp. She ended up in the middle of the Vaverbeus Corn Field. This wasn't far from Castle Feanchiane which was the conquered Smigg home called Castle Smug at the time. Kames had run from his abusive father in the Greshem Village some fifty leagues away the night before. He ended up in the middle of the same field, in the same place at the same time as Sky.

They knew each other immediately at first sight. The handmaiden, Jeena, had found them and was amazed at Kames's similar appearance to Sky. No sooner they began to make their way back to the camp; two drunken Smigg soldiers who had decided to drink their weight in muck-brew saw them.

Fate granted them the Goblarian who was there at the castle to save them. Now they needed to find him desperately because he was the last hope for all free-folk, no matter of what race, to find and defeat Hazjarid. Making matters even direr, the witch was about to release the most awful and powerful plot imaginable: Unleashing the Nether World Manticores!

The intense and exhausting study it would take to recite the incantation slowed Hazjarid down. It was of six-hundred and sixty-six pages in length, written in ancient Zubian tongue. This took an extraordinarily long amount of time to decipher since ten words of the incantation would equal just a single of the common language.

Sky gained knowledge of this plot while in meditation when the ancient Zubian Prophet, Rasuel, appeared to her in a vision and told her of Hazjarid's atrocious plans. Sky knew her father would never believe her, yet Kames would. After telling him they decided to find the ancient Goblarian.

"First light is approaching; we should head down to the gates. This could be a short journey if Armenious's men made it here ahead of us." Kames said after hours of silent walking."

If the outriders had any unmanned horses for sale, they would surely sell them to Kames and Sky, especially with the amounts of gold and silver the young couple harbored. Kames hoped the scouts sent out to locate them hadn't already arrived and paid for the help of their capture.

"Yes, and if they aren't already there, they'll surely be riding and reach here by midday. We need to make haste!" Sky replied. Her compassion was all about the task at hand now, almost seeming cold. Kames was used to this mindset, however, and not bothered by it at all.

The couple reached the motte and bailey of the bastide surrounded by a large keep and noticed the watchmen on top of the fortification armed with arbalests and throwing spears.

Suddenly, the large oak doors of the keep swung open before they announced their presence and as they walked cautiously inside, a booming voice yelled out,

"Whoa there! For the Majoran Princess and one of King Armenious's own personal guardsmen need to state their business before entering!"

"They've been waiting for us!" Sky exclaimed.