We meet again old man

Last time I forgot to tell how there was this other place where some other people were fighting back against goat horns (Don't tell Dagger I called him that.) and his pet Lava demons and some people who looked not so much but kind of like him. We had to walk four whole hours to get there and by the time we did get there my legs bones felt like they were going to shatter into bits and pieces. The place looked like an abandoned village that looked like nothing but then it was straightened up and actually began to look like something.

I figured out that Callan was 26 years old, the guy who saved me two days ago from that lava demon, name was Malcom and was the girl named Alex's brother.

After a few days of being at that should, I called it a camp, I actually became friends with Malcom. Though his sister didn't like me much. Callan never talked to me about what he knew about the stone, the old man, or Dagger. And for the past few days, ever since i got here I've had the same dream over and over again. There were three pedestals with three stones on them and after a short time of staring at them the roof collapsed and rocks tumbled on top of me and then I wake up. Though every time I wake up there's this pain in my back and every time I have that dream it gets even worse.

Taking a break from my nightmares, my sister, Celia, already made friends with this boy. His name was Lewis. He had brown hair like my sister and green eyes. I can tell that if he were forced to fight something he would

crawl up into his imaginary turtle shell.

Anyways,I'll jump back to the present for you.

I was just sitting on a rock when Callan showed up out of nowhere and asked me, "What weapon would you prefer to use?"

"What?," I replied clearly confused.

Callan sighed, "If you were in a near death situation what weapon would you choose to save yourself?," he asked once again.

"O-oh ," I said stuttering, " Well I would probably go with a Three foot sword with a rough, rubber, hilt with an orange pattern. I don't know about the material though. What do you think would be best? I've got my pick on an iron fire dragon scale! I heard that some dragon scales are so tough that they can be forged into swords!''

Callan stared at me for a really long time. Then I realized what I had just said.

" Oh, gosh I'm so sorry I didn't realize that I went a bit over the question. I would use a sword, any sword. Ignore every extra detail That doesn't matter," I said.

After I finished my apology Callan just smiled, but after about ten seconds that smile faded.

" Your original answer was just fine. You seem to know alot about dragons, am I wrong?," he asked.

" No, you're not wrong, I got my interest in dragons from my uncle. When I was little he would always tell stories of legendary warriors defeating them," I replied.

" That's nice,'' Callan said with no expression on his face. "Well, that's all the information I needed from you. I'm assigning you a task with Alex, I'm sure you know her. I want you both to go get supplies. She'll be waiting for you. That's where you will pick out a horse, name It and call it your own. Then you'll go to the blacksmith and pick out a sword until you can get the one you wished for."

Then as soon as I blinked he was gone.

I did what he said and made my way towards the stables. I didn't know why he kept assigning me a task with Alex, though I wasn't that concerned to question it much.

When I got to the stable I didn't see a single living thing but about twenty horses and a bee buzzing around my ear. Then I heard a voice.

" I don't know what Callan sees In you but for some reason he told me to make sure you don't die on your first task," the voice said.

I looked where it was coming from and saw that it was Alex.

" Oh hi," I said.

" Just do what you came here to do," She said without looking at me.

I could tell she had a problem with me but I didn't really care at the moment. So I just did what I was told to do.

I walked around to see If there was a horse I liked or a horse who liked me. I couldn't find a single horse until I came across the last stall on the left. I've never seen a horse like it. It was White with a long red mane like the color of an apple. It's silver eyes gleamed in the little sunlight that shone in the stable. My hand slowly started to go towards the horse's muzzle but then Alex stopped me.

" I wouldn't do that If I were you," She warned.

" Why not? ," I asked.

" Don't do it unless you want to lose a hand," She said.

I was about to move my hand away when the horse Nuzzled on my hand.

" It bit the hand of every person who approached it but you. What are you the son of a king or something 'cause for some reason Callan thinks you're special and now the horse likes you just by looking at you. What's your secret?,"She asked with suspicion in her eyes.

" Uhm, honestly I don't even know what everyone sees in me. I'm just Likable," I answered.

" Yeah sure," She said, "What are you going to name it?,"She asked.

After I did everything I had to me and Alex headed out.

As we were riding our horses I decided to make a conversation with Alex.

" So uhm just to pass time maybe we should play a little question game so we get to know eachother better," I suggested.

She shrugged her shoulders.

"Ok I'll go first. Where are you from?," I asked.

" Same place you are I guess," She answered.

" That's weird I never saw you before."

" Yeah, I didn't really go outside much."

" Anyways, now you ask me a question,"I said.

" Do you know how to use a sword," She asked in a bored tone.

" I know how to do a couple of things," I lied. I only knew how to do one thing: The lunge. And I barely mastered that.

Alex looked at me like she didn't believe it.

"I'm serious, I can," I said with more lies.

" We'll see soon enough," She assured me.

We eventually got to the village we need to go to. Earlier when we were close I was so tired I almost fell off my steed.

I looked around and realized something about the village. It was the exact same one with the bookshop and the old man who owned it.

" I'm going to be right back," I promised alex as I began to run towards the shop.

" Where're you going?!," I heard her yell in the distance.

When I got there I hesitated to open the door. I was worried, scared? No, none of those words could describe my fear, frustration, or confusion. I had one million thoughts in my head. Jeez, I didn't even know why I was scared. But I let go of those complicated thoughts and opened the door like the idiot I was. As soon as I took about five steps in I turned around to leave.But then I heard his voice.

" I knew you would come back here," Mr. Raymond said.

I turned back around and stood there frozen.

" You found it didn't you?," he asked.

I quickly snapped out of my trance and took the stone out of my bag.

" What's the deal with this thing," I asked.

" You would know if you reached the end of the book you asked me to keep," he answered.

Instantly I took out the book he was talking about and started flipping through the pages. Then Mr. Raymond got up and took the book from me. I looked at him.

" You won't get the correct answer from that," he said. " You'll only get the lies."

" What do you mean?," I asked.

" I mean that this book," he said, taking it out of my hand. "Doesn't say the whole truth. Follow me." He started to walk towards a bookshelf. Then this absolutely crazy unbelievable thing happened. He slid the book he took from me into an empty space in the shelf then it turned to the other side and he went in and then it closed again.

For a minute I just stood there lost. Then, I walked up to the bookshelf and took the book out but nothing happened. I put the book back in and then that's when the shelf did it's whole transformation. With me being clumsy and all, when the transformation happened I tripped over my feet and fell, but I got up quickly before the man could see that I was on the floor.

The room was completely empty; it wasn't even that big.

" Listen here," Mr. Raymond said. He made some sort of movement with his hands and then these images glowing blue started showing up and went along with the story he was telling. " five hundred twenty one years ago there was a 32 year old man wandering in the woods. He was a hunter for his village. When he was hunting with his group he eventually got separated from them. He spent days trying to find a way back but he couldn't find his way back. The woods had tricked him. He was on the edge of death when he saw him: The eldest keeper of the stones: Aurora. She sensed that he had a huge amount of courage, kindness, and he had a family to go back to. The keeper put the man into a short sleep. The man woke up in his own bed with the five stones in his left hand. Just from the dream he had the next night he knew what he was supposed to do."

" There's only four stones," I said when he finished," You said he had five stones in his hand. I only have one, and I only saw three others in my dream."

"I-I don't have much time left," he managed to say, "I can give you the last of my strength, which will enhance your physical strength and let your body maintain the power of this one ston, but if you keep getting stronger you will be able to hold all of the stones power. This stone alone contains the power of healing and protection, use it wisely."

He put his hand on my chest and his body began to glow.

"Don't stop walking and become a true hero. As long as you have the will to live you'll be fine," he said as his skin began to fade until he was just a skeleton.

" I must say, you can't always count on friends. Take this," His skeleton hand handed me a black leather fingerless glove.

He started to turn to dust then the last words I heard him say were "happy birthday."

I forgot it was my birthday maybe because of all the stuff that's been going through my head lately. There was a lever on the wall near the entrance I came from. I pulled it and I came out the same way I came in. I looked around and found the whole library empty. Everything was just gone. I walked out.

I stepped outside for a while thinking of what I should do. Then I felt someone punch my shoulder extremely hard.

" OW!," I yelped.

I looked to see who did it and it was alex.

" You can't just disappear like that!," she scolded.

" I had to do something," I told her.

She stared at me with suspicion in her eyes but then she calmed down a bit.

We went to this small house with a sign that had the words AUNTY ADA'S INN. Me and Alex went inside. There was an old lady sitting in a chair with some type of arge furry reptile in her hands. I'm not an expert on animals but I was sure reptiles didn't have fur.

" Oh, visitors," the old lady said, " How long will you two lads be staying?," She asked.

"Just for the the night," Alex answered.

" Hold on so I can get you both a clean pair of clothes an wearing now."

" Uh, thats not ne

cessary. You don't have to," I told her.

" Oh, I do," She insisted, " You know if you sleep in heavy clothing like that you won't be comfortable enough to fall asleep. And how about a nice meal too, you both look really hungry," She said as she left to go get the clothes.

Alex seemed awfully quiet. Not that I was worried, it just seemed a bit unusual.

" Are you ok?," I asked.

" What exactly were you doing in that old shop?," she asked.

I tried to come up with a lie. The place was a library so I said the first thing that came to my mind.

" Just...looking at some books," I replied.

" Oh, but the shop was empty. Not a single book on the shelves."

That's when I started to Panic. Jeez, I thought. She can notice every little thing. I was starting to think she might be reading my mind right about now.

It seemed like I wasn't smart enough to come up with another lie, so I just gave up and told the truth.

I took a deep breath, " So about a month ago I came across that library and there was this old man I was just looking at these books and when I left there was this purple stone in my bag. Today, I ran back there because I was confused. About a week before today when I was back in Paxton, Dagger asked for it and when he touched it it burned his hand. So, when I got in the shop today I saw the old man and he brought me into this room behind a bookshelf. He told me this story of the first person to get the stones from the elders. I told him that he said five stones and I only saw four in my dream. Then he looked like he was in pain. He said he didn't have much time yet he put his hand on my chest and did this glowy thing. Basically I got a physical upgrade and the stones' power became a part of me. He said the stone's power was the power of healing and protection. And then he gave me a glove." I showed her the glove. " So yeah there you go."

She actually looked shocked. But I could tell she believed me.

" I expected an answer like that," She said.

" I wish it didn't have to come to that answer," I replied.

" Well, that's cool I guess."

I knew what she was thinking on the inside: Holy cow! This guy can't possibly be a soon to be hero. He acts like an idiot...and he looks weird. I would be surprised if that wasn't what she was thinking right now.

After a while the lady came back in with two fresh pairs of clothes, gave us something to eat, and clothes. The next morning we left, thought I wanted to put all this hero stuff behind me and stay there. That night we got back to the abandoned village hideout Malcom asked me like one million questions (Mostly asking about Alex and I which I didn't answer). My sister kept giving me looks.

I went to sleep that night and luckily this time I didn't have a nightmare.