4 Chapter 3

"Wake up!" Larissa shouted as she dumped a bucket of water on Alexander.

"Ahh!" He shouted as he jumped out of bed.

"Why did you do that!" He shouted at her.

"Because you wouldn't wake up. And this is being nice. Sleep in again and I make it worse each time." Larissa said as she walked out. "Your sister is already awake and training."

Alexander looked out the window to see his sister running at the edge of the forest surrounding the house.

Groaning Alexander got up and slipped on his new clothes designed for exercise.

As he walked down to the kitchen he looked more closely at the paintings along the wall.

The one that caught his eye was not very big, but was hanging over the fireplace. It was four people, each in a black cloak, with a mask.

The person on the left had on a mask of a wolf, the person next to them was wearing the mask that looked like a lotus blossom, the third person had a mask of a bear, the the last one had the mask of a crane. In the center, sitting in a chair was a young woman, a spear rested in her arms

"What are you staring at not?" Larissa said, startling him.

"Just this painting, it was very interesting." Alexander said as he backed away.

Larissa looked at the painting and muttered something under her breath.

"What?" Alexander asked.

"I said damn lazy kids!" She shouted. "No go run or no breakfast!"

"Yes ma'am!" Alexander shouted in panic as he ran out the door.

Running out side he soon caught up to Gwendolyn, who was barely sweating.

"Glad you could join me!" She said as she looked at him.

"How long?" Alexander asked, not knowing how long she had been running for.

"No idea, but I have done nearly fifteen laps around the inside of the forest line!" She said as they jumped over a trench.

"Any dangers?" Alexander asked as he dodged around a boulder.

"Not really! But up ahead is a rock quarry, and after that is a stream!" She said as she jumped over a tree root.

"Sounds easy!" Alexander said as he vaulted over a fallen tree.

"I nearly drowned in the stream!" Gwendolyn shouted as they reached the rock quarry.

"Why can't we go around?" Alexander asked as he climbed up the side of a boulder.

"When I tried that Larissa shot me with a blunt arrow!" Gwendolyn shouted as she followed Alexander.

"Then we dodge the arrows! Sounds easy enough!" Alexander shouted as he jumped over a rock.

"Tried that! Didn't work out so well! Don't be lazy Alex!" Gwendolyn shouted as she ran around a rock.

"Fine Gwen, where is the stream?" Alexander asked as they exited the quarry.

"Just up ahead there are rocks just beneath the surface so be careful!" Gwendolyn shouted as she overtook Alexander.

When the twins reached the stream Alex shouted, "I thought you said stream Gwen! This is a bloody river!" The river was 20 feet across and currents could be seen lurking in it's waters.

"Whatever you big baby!" Gwendolyn shouted as she jumped into the river, landing on one of the rocks just under the water. "Follow me!"

Jumping in the water, Alexander ran just the way his sister was. "Are we having fun yet?" He shouted at his sister.

"Are we? Of course!" She shouted back, jumping onto the shore. Alexander was about to jump ashore, when a fish leapt out of the water and hit him in the chest, knocking him over into the water. Gwendolyn stopped and laughed at him, until a arrow hit her in the back. "Ow! Those things hurt!" Gwendolyn shouted as she rubbed the spot the arrows hit. Now it was Alexander's turn to laugh at his sister. "Shut up!" She yelled at him then started running. "SLOWPOKE!"

Alexander grinned as he followed his sister. Jumping onto the shore, he caught up to Gwendolyn, soon overtaking her.

"Hey brats!" Larissa shouted from the house. "Get in here!" Then she walked into the house.

"Last one there is a rotten egg!" Alexander shouted as he started to run.

"Oh you're on!" Gwendolyn replied as she ran after him.

The twins raced to the house, neck and neck, closer, closer, closer. With a sudden burst of speed Gwendolyn overtook Alexander and reached the house first.

"Ha!" She exclaimed as she raised her arms in victory.

"Geez, running from your adoring fans gave you some crazy speed." Alexander said as he walked to the table.

"You are still too slow. If you want to be adventurers then you need to move faster than anything you may face." Larissa said as she slammed a stack of ... something ... on the table.

"What are these?" Alexander asked as he picked one up. It was black and brittle, and smelled something nasty.

"Halonia chips, eat, I am going to town tonight to but more food." Larissa said as she picked one up and bit down on it. "Well? Are you going to eat? That is all we have."

Gwendolyn picked one up and bit into it. Alexander followed her example and bit into the one he had picked up.

Gwendolyn spit hers out immediately, while Alexander slowly chewed. "Interesting flavor." He said as he put it down. "But not my taste."

Larissa shrugged, eating more of the Halonia chips. "Not surprising, these are Dwarven made. Great craftsmen, terrible cooks."

"Why do you have them?" Gwendolyn asked as she recovered from puking.

"They never go stale. And I don't have a sense of taste anymore." Larissa said as she frowned. "Your mothers cooking was supposed to be the best around. I am sorry she passed."

Alexander and Gwendolyn looked at each other, silently wondering if we should tell her about what dad said

"It's okay, we have survived. Father was a wreck. He started drinking at the pub more and more, until something happened. We don't know what, but we are glad it happened." Gwendolyn said as she walked into the kitchen.

"Where are you going?" Larissa asked as she ate another chip.

"Just watch." Alexander said as he looked at the picture over the fireplace. "Who are they?"

Larissa sighed. "The best of the best. The Hidden Four. The adventuring kings. Bane of monsters, purges of evil, beacons of hope. They have many names. But they prefer the Hidden Four." Larissa stood up from her chair and walked over to the fireplace.

"When I was younger I was an adventurer, one of my first missions was to cleanse a den of the resurrected, and slay the necromancer.

"When I got to the den I realized that I was unprepared, but went in anyway. Pride can make you do stupid things. Anyway, after slaying several of the undead, I came face to face with the necromancer.

"Before I knew what happened, he had paralyzed me, taken my weapons and armor, then left me to the mercy of an Cyclops."

Larissa shuttered as she rubbed her shoulder.

"I was there for weeks, being the Cyclops's play thing. I had given up hope, until they came." Larissa picked up the painting and brought it to the table.

"A few of my friends had noticed my absence, it was a low ranked mission, one that should take a week at most, including the travel time.

They had posted a request for information about my whereabouts, and the Hidden Four had been passing through the guild when they returned from one of there jobs, and decided to look for me.

"About a week before I left for my mission I met them at the local pub, and bought them a few rounds of drinks, then paid for it in full. Lots of money, about 200 gold pieces." Larissa let out a chuckle.

"Anyways, they felt like they owed me and looked for me. They obliterated the necromancer, then killed the Cyclops. They are amazing when they fight.

"When they brought me back to the guild they had a traveling artist paint this."

"Wow. I kind of want to meet them." Gwendolyn said as she walked in with a plate full of little rolls. "They sound amazing."

"Yes they are. But your chances of meeting them are slim, especially now, they vanished after the king was killed." Larissa said as she pushed back her grey hair.

"What happened to the king?" Alexander asked. "Father never told us."

Larissa put the painting back on the fireplace and walked over to the twins. "We will talk about history and the other races after breakfast. Eat then go wash yourselves. Afterwards meet me in the study."

With that she walked out of the room and walked upstairs.