Amaranth: A Maerith Kingdom Novel - Chapter 1

Dark ominous clouds followed Evatius, the centaur, out of the forest as he galloped toward Oldirrim, the white barn owl, and Zyrsit, the miniature bright green dragon.

They sat on a boulder overlooking the grassland from outside the Rissingshire Castle. The clouds swirled around the three creatures. As the clouds cleared, Oizu, the black dragon, was standing before them.

With a deep and raspy voice he says to the three, “I have come to give you warning of things to come. The days of the Maerith Kingdom are coming to a close. Dark days are ahead.” He flapped his wings and was gone, along with the dark clouds.

Oldirrim looked at Zyrsit with wide eyes and shook his head. They both sat there for a few minutes in bewilderment. Neither knew what to think or do.

Evatius broke the silence when he stomped his hoof into the log, splitting it into two and said, “These dragons are always trying to stir up trouble. There’s no way the Maerith Kingdom is coming to a close. It’s too big to fall.”

They were quickly joined by dozens of mystical forest creatures. All the creatures, including Evatius, Oldirrim and Zyrsit were gathered in silence when the drawbridge slammed down as it opened. A white carriage sped out being led by six Pegasuses. The carriage flew into the sky above the forest and disappeared.

Zyrsit looked at Evatius and said, “Well, Amaranth is certainly in a hurry,” while raising his eyebrows and smirking.

The sky grew dark as the black clouds rolled in darkening the skies over the castle, grassland and forest. A mist formed and brought thunder and lightning. The forest creatures scurried back into the trees to seek shelter. Howling through the branches, the wind kept getting stronger and faster. Soon it was encircling the castle.

Above the castle rose Odulore the wizard in his purple and gold robe. With his arms outstretched he shouted, “Alterenim Serpenerous!” Amber dust flew from his hands covering the dark clouds until they disappeared.

In the far distance you could faintly hear Crumazz the evil wizard threaten, “I will be back and you will be sorry.” His evil laugh filled the shadows.

Odulore went back inside the castle to his study, where there were countless shelves of books of all shapes and sizes. He sat at his desk with his writing book open and quill in hand writing furiously.

Oldirrim flew in and sat on his desk, tilting his head back and forth while blinking his dark eyes. A short time later Ash, a brown barn owl, joined him. The two sat there quietly when Narella came prancing in and up onto the desk. Narella sat down on the book right under Odulore’s nose.

“What are you doing Narella, you crazy cat?” he questioned.

She looked up at him with her bright orange eyes, rubbed the side of her head on his arm, laid down on his book and started purring as she closed her eyes. He picked her up and put Narella in her four-poster bed, adorned with a wood carved headboard with her name engraved on it.

“Now stay there while I get some work done,” he said to her, and he sat back down at his desk to write.

Not even five minutes later the chandelier in the entryway started to sway back and forth before falling to the floor two stories below it. The crash startled Odulore and the owls. They all took off out of the study to the entryway. There was no one there. A broken chandelier lay on the floor along with pictures and paintings hanging in skewed positions on the wall.

Amaranth flew into the outer courtyard with the carriage and Pegasuses. “I am back!” She exclaimed.

Ash flew out to greet her and landed on the back of the first Pegasus. She walked up to him, petted him on the head and floated into the entryway, “What happened?”

He looked up at her, “I have no idea.”

“Glurx! Glurx! Come here! Where is that goblin?” she yelled.

Glurx came sauntering in with his eyes fixed on the floor, “Yes?”

“You need to clean this up this instance,” Amaranth told him firmly.

He proceeded to go back into the other room to get a broom. His feet slowly shuffled along at a snail’s pace.

Amaranth stood there with her arms crossed and brow furrowed. With her blue eyes blazed, she turned her head to the wooden front door. Moments later there’s a loud bang on it.

The dragons, Pymmut, Gairrulit, and Irreineot, flew up and circled over the castle. Pymmut, the dark green dragon, landed next to Amaranth. Putting his wing around her, he said in a deep voice, “The darkness has come to the door. If you let it in, no one is safe. If you go out to it, the castle will be safe but you will not.”

With her blue eyes she looked into his dark eyes, a tear ran down her cheek, “Why me?”

“Your mother had caused great distress throughout the Calegan Forest. She left behind a legacy which can no longer be allowed to continue. The darkness has come to take you back,” he explained.

Irreineot continued for him, “You will no longer reign in Rissingshire Castle, but you will go to the Crystal Crypt. This is your destiny. You will go with Gairrulit, and he will take you there.”

She looked at Irreineot, shook her head and stomped her foot, “I will not go! I belong here.” Flipped her hair back and glared ahead.

“You can make that choice, but remember that your choices have consequences. The consequence for this choice will be that the darkness will come in here and take you away. It will also destroy anything or anyone that gets in it’s way. So, you can choose that, but you are choosing destruction for your friends,” Pymmut whispers in her ear.

Jumping away from him, she squinted her eyes, raised her hands and shouted, “Alterenim Serpenerous!” However, nothing happened for her, like it did for Odulore. She yells it again, “Alterenim Serpenerous!” Nothing happened again. Spinning around she glared at Odulore, “Why is it not working?”

He shrugged his shoulders and said, “Well, it worked for me. However, you are causing all this chaos. It must not work if you are the cause. Go with Gairrulit. See what needs to be done.”

Her eyes widened and her jaw dropped, “Are you insane? They want to take me to the Crystal Crypt. I’ll never get out of there. My mother went there and never returned.”

The dragons took to the air once again circling overhead. The owls joined them. Soon there were other birds and winged creatures circling above the castle. Gairrulit swooped down, grabbed Amaranth with his wing and took off into the darkness.

The birds and winged creatures followed him. Oizu flew over the wall and into the castle. He landed close to Odulore, “You have done well. She will be far away and her evil will not transcend on this castle.”

His eyes widened and eyebrows lifted up, “I did not realize how evil she was. She was devious at times, but never truly evil.”

The dragon shook his head, flapped his wings and off he went over the castle wall and left behind Odulore. The owls landed at his feet and looked up at him, and tilted their heads to the side.

He walked back to his study and sat down at his desk. This time he didn’t start writing. He just sat there thinking, “How could I be so wrong? She said that her mother had left her many years ago, but never said why. I figured she didn’t want to talk about it.”

Oldirrim and Ash flew in and sat on his desk. Both were blinking their eyes and tilting their heads side to side in unison. Odulore looked up at them and shook his head.

“She comes from a long line of evil. There is no good to come from her. We know you love her, but you are going to have to let her go,” Oldirrim told him while Ash sat there and nodded his head no and then yes.

Glurx strolled in and stood in front of his desk, “The castle will be much better without her. She was never nice to me.”

Odulore nodded and grimaced. Then picked up his pen and wrote down his thoughts in his notebook.

The mystical forest creatures slowly gathered in his study and out in the hall. Zyrsit flew above them and landed on his desk, an advantage of being miniature he could get through the crowd easily. Although the room was now crowded, not a one spoke, but just watched him write.

Continue to Chapter 2 here.