Yazen (Ponith) (11 page)

“Did Calina come speak to you?” she asks me while crossing her arms. I don’t want to lie to her and my facial expression probably gave it away already …

“Yeah
,” I tell her with a grim tone to my voice.

“Wait until I talk to her, she’s dead. Please don’t listen to her. She’s just being overprotective. She can get that way. Will you please still talk with me and hang out with me?” she begs me.

“Please don’t tell her that I told you, Narissa. I don’t want her to get mad at me. I’ll still talk to you and hang out with you. I promise,” I tell her while grabbing her hand. I really don’t want Calina to be upset with me. I can’t help it though; my feelings are really strong for Narissa. Yazen has not been as much fun while trying to stay away from Narissa.

Narissa smiles at me, and we both lay
down on the rock in silence. It’s still such a nice day and it feels great to do nothing.

“Let’s go,” Jenn shouts while throwing her wet towel up at us. I can
’t tell she is disgusted that I’m with Narissa or something else is up. She starts to walk back to Alex. “I found them,” she says sarcastically with her back turned toward us.

I throw Jenn’s towel on the rock to dry, and Narissa and I follow behind them. We head back to our room, trying to figure out what we’re going to do for the rest of the day.

Narissa, Alex, Jenn, and I all sit at our table. I really want to know more about Yazen. We have not left the Deeproot Forest at all, and I’m curious what else is out there.

“Narissa, can you explain the Dwarven traders to us?” I overheard Ariki talking about it back at her shop.

“Yes, I would really like to know about that as well,” Jenn chips in. I know it is because she wants to wear something else and probably some jewelry as well.

“The Dwarven traders are some Dwarves from the Mistpeak Mountains. Once every week, we meet with them at the edge of the
forest and trade with them. We bring items that they request plus extra items to try and sell, and they do the same for us,” Narissa explains.

“What kinds of item
s do the Dwarves have for trade? Do they sell stuff for money as well?” Alex asks.

“They do sell stuff as well as trade.
Money?” Narissa asks.

“Money is a type of currency to pay for stuff. I guess you can consider it like gold and silver
minting,” Alex says while pulling a dollar out of his bag. He hands it to Narissa and she examines it. It looks like she’s never seen a dollar bill before.

“This is odd and very detailed.
I have never seen anything like this type of paper. I bet the Dwarves would love to trade for it. Yes, they normally will sell stuff for gold or silver, but I’m not sure about mint; we grow some in our herb gardens,” Narissa says while Alex gives her a bit of a blank look.

“We don’t have much in terms of gold and silver though,
they get most of it from mining the mountains and we don’t really have much practical use for it,” she continues on, “The Dwarves have many things for trade. They have types of armor, weapons, clothes, furniture, jewels, jewelry, umm … medical kits, animal traps, soaps, and different types of food, furniture, and other stuff. Those are the main things that I can think of off the top of my head,”

“When do you see the Dwarven traders again? Is it soon?” Jenn asks excitedly. I have a feeling Jenn brought money with her and that she wants to buy
some things.

“We meet them in two days,” Narissa says. I’m glad that Narissa and Jenn are finally getting along. I hope it
stays that way.

“So can you show us around outside of the
Deeproot Forest?” I ask Narissa. I really want to go and explore.

“I can tomorrow. I have to get Laderic or Drakoe to go with us for safety reasons.
It’s too late to venture out today. I can show you the West side of the Deeproot Forest since you have already seen the East side.

“That sounds good, thank you. I
can’t wait to see the West side,” I say to her.

“What should we do for the rest of the night?”
Alex asks. I have no clue what we are going to do.

“How about I teach you how to hunt with your new bow and arrow?” asks Narissa. “Let’s try to catch some food for our cookout tonight?”

“That sounds great!” says Alex. I know he’s been waiting to go hunting ever since we got our new bows. I don’t know how Jenn will do hunting. I hope she doesn’t freak out.

“Will you go hunting with us
, Jenn?” I ask her anyway. I see her looking at her bow as if she is deciding if she really wants to go.

“I have never been hunting before, so I’m
not sure what to expect. I don’t know if I can do it. I will try, though,” she says.

“
You don’t have to kill anything if you do not want to Jenn. It is just good to practice in case you ever get in a situation need your bow to survive,” Narissa says.

We all grab our bows and head downstairs. We wait for Narissa to go get her bow so she can show us where to go hunt. We stop by the archery
range to grab some arrows. We each grab a handful so we have enough.

We walk about a mile away from the archery range and then we come to a stop. We try to be as quiet as we can so we do not scare away the animals.

“It is very important that we stay very quiet and move very slowly. If we make too much noise, we’ll scare away all the animals,” says Narissa.

We decide to stay in one area for a while, keeping an eye out for any kind of animals. We hear a rustling noise in front of us, and
Alex decides to get his bow and arrow ready first. He’s aiming at the bushes in front of us, waiting until he sees his prey. After a few moments, a rabbit comes hopping out of the bushes. Alex takes a deep breath and aims his bow at the rabbit. He lets go of the arrow and watches it fly. He ends up missing the rabbit as the arrow flies over but he got very close. The rabbit takes off as fast as it can, away from us.

“It’s okay, you’ll get it next tim
e; you came very close. Everyone keep your eyes out for any other movements,” Narissa says.

We decide to walk a little further from where we were standing to see if we can find any other animals. Normally we see animals everywhere, but
now that we’re looking for them they seem difficult to find.

I look over to my left and I see a squirrel on a tree. I decide I want to try to hit it, so I get my bow and arrow ready. I pull my arrow back and aim it at the squirrel. I let go of my arrow and watch it soar through the air. It hits the squirrel
dead on and the squirrel falls to the ground.

“Good job, Zac, you got it. I will go grab it and bring it back,”
Alex says while running to the squirrel. I look over at Jenn, and she looks like she’s going to get sick. I don’t think she’s going to be trying to kill any animals today.

“You have a very good aim, Zac. I’m surprised that you were able to hit that squirrel from so far away,” Narissa says while patting me on the back.

We decide to head back after another hour of fruitless searching and I bring the squirrel back with us. They already have the bonfire lit. I give the squirrel to Laderic and he skins it to cook it.

We have a small dinner tonight.
Squirrel, potatoes, and corn. It is very tasty and after we finish eating dinner, we sit around the bonfire and listen to stories.

“Drakoe, will you go
with us to explore the West Plains tomorrow? I told Zac that I would show him around, and I want you to go with us for safety,” asks Narissa.

“Sure, it will be fun. I haven’t been out there in a while. We
’ll introduce you to some new people,” says Drakoe. I’m curious who we’ll be meeting tomorrow. I hope they’re as nice as the Wood Elves. We head up to our room for the night. We’re all excited about exploring tomorrow but I’m quite tired, and I fall asleep quickly.

I actually wake up early this morning before anybody comes to wake us up. I decide to wake up
Alex and Jenn to get them ready for our morning chores.

We walk out to the crops, and we each grab a banana to eat for breakfast. Then we grab our baskets and begin to fill them with food. After we fill our baskets and our two hours are up, we go to our routine wash at the lake.

Narissa and Drakoe pack up some bags of food to take with us so we can eat when we get hungry. We take our bows with us for protection. Then we head out to the West of the Peaceful Forest.

When we get to the edge of the forest we see open land for miles. It looks like it’s deserted.

“What’s out here?” asks Jenn. I’m just as curious as Jenn is because it looks like nothing is out there.

“It’s miles away, about a six
-hour walk, but the Halflings live out there. They’re very nice once you get to know them,” says Drakoe.

“Are you guys ready for your journey?” asks Narissa. We begin to head straight, which seems desolate.

“As ready as I’ll ever be,” I say. It’s a very hot day today and it feels like we’re walking for hours. We finally stop and take a break to eat some lunch. They packed us some fruit to eat.

After we finish eating, we start to walk again. Time passes rather quickly
and, as I look around, all I see are open fields of grass. There are very few trees scattered around with a few rocks. We start to come up to a small village.

It’s exciting to see some sort of living activity again. From a distance it looks like children walking around. The closer we get, I begin to realize that these are not children – they’re small
-set people.

“This is the home of the Halflings. They have a small town here which they call Turnip Town. They’re very good friends of ours. Luriss and Deree are in charge here. They’ll trade with us once in a while. I brought you here to meet them, but we won’t stay long,” Narissa tells us.

As we walk through the town, all of the Halflings wave at us. They resemble humans but they only come up to our stomachs in height.

We walk to the middle of the town, and come to a fancier
-looking house. It reminds me of an over-sized doll house. We stop in front of the house and two Halflings exit the front door.

“Hello, Narissa, it has been a while since we last saw your family. How is everyone doing? We didn’t recognize you at first. I didn’t know that you were coming.” Luriss says. He has a really big nose and wavy, light brown hair.

“Everyone’s doing great. We wanted to stop by and introduce you to our new friends. This is Zac, Alex, and Jenn, and they’re from the planet Earth. They wanted to meet you and your people,” Narissa replies to them.

Luriss puts his hand on his chin, slowly walking closer to us, as he’s examining us. Deree follows closely behind him, peering around her husband. She has a large nose as well, but she has dark brown hair, up in a bun.

“Why did you want us to meet them? There doesn’t seem to be anything special about them to me,” Luriss asks.

“They are very speci
al indeed. Zac here has brought with him the Unicorn,” Drakoe replies.

“Are you trying to tell us this boy is bound to the Unicorn?” Deree asks softly, still peering around her husband.

“Yes indeed, Deree, he’s Unicorn bound. He’s here to help us fight the Dark Lords and the Dark Elves. We may be getting Yazen back to ourselves, free to roam wherever we please,” Narissa says excitedly.

I can feel myself getting embarrassed as the heat passes through my cheeks. I wish they would quit telling everyone that I’m here to save their planet. I just want to find the Yazen gem so we can go back home
, not start a large-scale conflict.

“Son, I apologize for being rude
; you’re welcome here anytime. Zac, are you going to help us claim our world back?” Luriss asks me.

Alex
, Jenn, and I are all standing there staring at each other. We have no idea what is going on. Did they just bring us here to show us off? I don’t understand how I’m supposed to help them claim their world back.

“I’ll try my best to help you out, but to be honest I have no idea what you mean. We’ve traveled here from Earth, and now we’re on a mission to find the Yazen gem so we can activate the portal and go
home,” I tell him. I see two small children walk up behind Luriss and Deree.

“These are our children, Wensley and Middy,” Luriss introduces us. Wensley looks older than Middy. He has a smaller nose, but has dark curly hair. He has loose brown pants and a white vest on. Middy is shorter than Wensley with a bigger nose, but she has lighter brown hair, in pigtails, with a pink dress on.

“Daddy, is he the one who will fight the Dark-skinned people?” Middy asks her father.

“Yes
indeed, but both of you go back inside while we talk to these nice people,” he tells them. They run back inside, cheering the whole time.

I hope we leave soon
. I’m tired of everyone thinking that I’m someone special and this is quite awkward. I don’t understand what they want me to do. It’s not like I have magical abilities where a snap of my fingers and everything is solved. I don’t even know how I’m going to get the Yazen gem back. I don’t even know if we’ll ever go home. It’s starting to get late and I wonder if we’ll be heading back to Deeproot Forest and be able to make it back in time.

“We’re not going to take up much of your time
; we just came by to introduce Zac and his friends to you. We have to head back home to get ready for our trade tomorrow with the Dwarves. Do you need any supplies?” Narissa asks.

“We are doing
okay for now, but thank you for asking. We definitely hope to see you again soon. We would like to get to know you better, Zac, if you could please visit us again. Safe travels,” Luriss says.

I’m glad that our trip is over. It’s
nice to see what else exists here on Yazen. We have about an hour and a half walk back to the forest and it’s a quiet walk; no one is really talking. Alex’s admiring his bow as he walks and Jenn looks like she’s very tired and bored. Drakoe and Narissa travel well together and seem to know their way around pretty well.

Once we get back,
Alex and Jenn stay outside and eat with the Wood Elves. I head straight back to my room. I’m starting to miss home, and I wonder if I’m ever going to see my grandpa again. What if we can’t find any way of getting the Yazen gem? What if I can’t get my friends back to their families? The stay with the elves here has been a nice distraction from that fact, but I’m starting to worry a little. I can’t help but think of home and I pull out the last two breakfast bars that I have and eat them for dinner.

I decide to go ahead and go to bed early beca
use I want to go and watch the Wood Elves trade with the Dwarves. That night I dream that I’m all alone stuck in the portal. I feel like I’m on a roller coaster nonstop. I wake myself up screaming from the dream.

“Are you okay? What happened?” asks
Alex. He has rolled over to check on me.

“I’m
okay. I’m sorry for waking you; it was just a bad dream,” I say to him. Jenn must be in a deep sleep because she did not even stir.

I fall back asleep pretty quickly and before I know it Laderic’s waking us up.

“Good morning, I just wanted to let you know that your chores today are going to be different than normal. I’m going to have you help me gather all of the supplies that we need to take for our trade with the Dwarves. It should be for fun and a new exciting experience for you guys,” Laderic says.

“Am I allowed to bring some of my own items to trade with the Dwarves?” Jenn asks.

“You can bring a few things with you, but I’m not sure if they will trade with you or not. Let’s give it a try,” Laderic tells her.

All of us look through our stuff and grab a few things that we would like to trade just in case we see something that we would like. And we head down and help everyone start stocking supplies in the wagons. They
end up with four wagons full of items for their trade. Two of the wagons are filled with food, and the other two are filled with mostly leather clothes and wooden sculptures.

Once we get everything packed, we sit down and eat some eggs for breakfast. We eat rather quickly and then we head out to the trading post. It’s about a
three-hour walk until we finally get there. We have beaten the Dwarves there, so we begin to set everything up so it’s easy to look at.

Not long after
, however, the Dwarves show up. They have four wagons full of items plus an additional two empty wagons to fill with supplies they get. I wonder why we did not bring any empty wagons.

The Dwarves are short, similar to the Halflings but
just a bit taller overall, but they are very dirty and ugly. I notice most of them have beards and wear metal hard hats.

“It’s a pleasure to see you Ovvar, Vondek, Dolgar, and Felldar. How are Morreen, Azbela, and Erla doing?” Laderic asks.

“They’re doing well, thank you for asking. Did you bring us some freshly grown food?” Ovvar asks while looking in our wagons. Then he sees Alex, Jenn, and I. “What are these creatures that you brought?” he says in a distressed voice.

“They’re friends of ours, and they’re staying w
ith us for a while. This is Zac and with him came the Unicorn once again; it seems to have chosen him. They brought a few of their items and wanted to know if they were allowed to trade as well?” Laderic says while examining their wagons.

“Oh, really,
interesting. Zac was your name? Unicorn bound, huh?” Ovvar asks while looking me up and down. I haven’t seen the Unicorn around us for a while, yet I’m still introduced as being associated with the Unicorn instead of being travelers from Earth.

“Nice to meet you, too. These are my friends
Alex and Jenn. We brought a few of our items from Earth and were wondering if you are interested in trading with us,” I say to him.

Jenn starts to pull out her wallet and shows Ovvar a dollar bill. Ovvar takes it and begins to appraise it. His eyes light up, he has a crooked smile, and he looks at Jenn and I, “I will take you up on your offer, I think we should do some trading.”

Jenn begins jumping up and down in excitement. She runs over to clothing, looking for something more fashionable, I’m assuming. Alex heads over to the weapons and armor. I decide to look for some more clothes and maybe get a weapon or two.

As we are looking through the items, we hear a loud thumping noise. “What’s that noise?” I ask. It almost sounds like a herd of horses running.
Drakoe and Ovvar both look around to see where the noise is coming from.

“The
Dark Elves are coming, we have to hide,” Drakoe yells. I have no idea where I should hide. I just see everyone scatter in different directions while leaving their merchandise there.

I run into the
a few trees off to the side with Alex and Jenn. We decide to climb up a tree. Alex goes first, and then I help Jenn step up onto my back while Alex pulls her up into the tree. I climb up behind them with their help. We sit quietly and wait as I watch Drakoe, Calina, and Laderic hide behind some rocks. The Dwarves hide inside some bushes. I notice that Narissa never ran away; she’s hiding near the wagons.

I see a huge group of
Dark Elves come riding in on horses, and there looks to be around 30 of them. They ride into the trade center and stop, surrounding the wagons. I watch as some of them get off their horses while the others stay mounted. Narissa’s hiding underneath one of the wagons that we brought.

I overhear one of the Dark Elves talking, “Well, well, well, what do we have here
? Look at all of these supplies just sitting here with no one around. This must be our contribution for letting these pathetic creatures stay on our planet. Let’s start hooking these wagons up to cart back to the castle. I wonder where everyone has gone.” He’s walking toward the forest, looking around. We’re all trying to be as quiet as possible.

The
Dark Elves have dark black- and purple-colored skin, and they all wear different types of black clothing with chain mesh armor. A few of the Dark Elves have gold trim on their armor and most of them have white hair, and the others have black hair.

The
Dark Elves begin to attach the wagons to their horses and prepare to take the merchandise. I can’t believe no one is going to stop them! They’re going to take everything. I watch as Narissa crawls on the ground, trying to stay hidden under the wagon.

“Look at what we have here
… a guest,” one of the Dark Elves shouts out while pulling Narissa out from under the wagon. I see Laderic, Drakoe, and Calina all start to reach for their bows.

“Look
… she’s one of the special ones with the tattoos,” one of the Dark Elves says. I notice Narissa is grabbing her emerald necklace while trying to break free and her tattoos begin to light up faintly.

“Oh no you don’t,” another Dark Elf replies and rips her emerald necklace off of her, putting it into his pocket.

“I think we’re going to take you with us; we could use you to do some work for us,” the Dark Elf says while laughing. They begin to tie Narissa up with some rope and throw her in the wagon. The entire time, she’s fighting and screaming for our help. I can’t take it anymore. If no one else is going to help her, then I am.