Prologue - Part Three

The beginning of it all

Winding around his left arm was a transparent bracelet that spiraled around and up from his wrist to his shoulder. It wasn’t large but it was hollow and held water inside. His foot rose, and the water around his arm started to move and transform into a thick black and silver muck. His foot stomped back down to the ground, the shock wave sending everyone in the area flying.

Painfully, everyone fell to the ground, a fair distance between them. Everyone turned to look at Marco. The fight from before was forgotten, everyone was angry at Marco’s little magic trick. A smile inched to the corner of Marco’s mouth, he had enjoyed watching them fall down and was not ashamed to show it.

“Well don’t just sit there, get up. My goodness, we’re wizards! If we don’t use our magics to solve problems then what are we to use them for? You’re all idiots. The only one who can fight is the she-dwarf, and she was part of the fight you were trying to stop,” Marco raised his eyebrows, waiting for an answer of any sort.

“You w***e licking, self centered prick,” Donati’s face was stone, his voice like ice, the corner of his eye began to twitch in his anger. That put a faint grin on Ruth’s face. She knew Donati hated the man but they had all been together so long at this point even Marco was considered family.

Don’t kill him; whatever you do don’t set a single finger on the b*****d. Don’t give him the satisfaction, Ruth silently begged. Forese opened his mouth to speak,

“If you wanted to wake me, out of all people why did you choose the midget? She’s a woman,” He mumbled. Spit trickled down the center of his lip; he struggled to reach his chin to wipe it off but somehow he ended up flailing on his back, rolling helplessly from side to side.

“And what was that meant to mean?” Beatrice said, trying to keep the amusement off her face. She failed to do so. She circled her arms around what she could of Forese, and attempted to hoist him to his feet. Ruth decided to help as well. She couldn’t help it, she pitied him.

His face and vast neck were red from embarrassment but he didn’t refuse the help from the women. Marco jumped up onto a rock to look down at them all. He started dancing around like an idiot, swinging a stick around as if it were a sword. Donati just watched from the corner of his eye, willing him to fall.

“I fear that your time has ended, fat man with a beard. Women pity you and nothing loves you, fat man with a beard. Your blood is thicker than the lard we feed the peasants, fat man with a beard. You have no neck and you have no mouth, fat man with a beard. You cannot walk, you cannot talk fat man with a beard. You- “. Marco sang jumping and swinging his stick from side to side.

“What is the point you’re trying to make?” Donati said but he did not look up to Marco. Instead he looked at his brother Forese, watched as a tear trickled down his cheek. The women froze as they looked between Donati and Marco.

“I’m saying that until he can walk faster than a woman, he cannot judge them. Soon enough they’ll be using him as a Dicaball, whipping his a*s for him to move faster.” Marco’s stick was pointed at Forese as he said this. Forese, despite his temper, had no strength to defend himself. Hopelessly he looked at his brother for help.

“Your words are hollow, you know nothing,”  Donati’s voice was low, and husky " there was a tearing sound deep inside his throat. He decided the time for playing and fooling around  was over and Ruth was quickly by his side in agreement; allowing Forese to fall to the cold, dirty ground dragging Beatrice with him.

There were four Dicaballs on the outskirts of the camp, almost one for each wizard. Marco preferred walking than riding one of the smelly beasts. Ruth did not have one either as she preferred to walk and strengthen her fragile looking legs. Despite their frail appearance her legs were strong and in any fight she would be the one coming out on top. Of all of the group Ruth was the only one who had the strength to settle things with, and without magic.  

Forese escaped Beatrice’s grasp and succeeded in rolling to a nearby tree to hoist himself up onto his own two feet, it was a miracle they hadn’t collapsed yet under his weight.

A Dicaball had began to walk forward with the others following behind. Some had ten thick, broad legs; others had ten eyes, or ten tails " maybe ten hearts but nobody was entirely certain. With or without riders on their backs they trailed behind the leader, a Dicaball was not an animal known to be loyal to its master.

Everyone started to move, Donati leading the group though Marco didn’t join them. Even Forese had managed a way to drag himself along quickly enough to jump on his personal unloyal Dicaball. He knew which one was his, the one with ten legs " it was the only one that could bear his weight. The girls followed, leaving Marco behind.

“You can’t leave me here!” Marco snickered, but it wasn’t friendly. The excitement was over, no one turned to acknowledge him. There was a silent agreement throughout the group that he was now Donati’s problem.

“I was sent to discover something priceless, and bring it back to the dying kingdoms. There was no part of the agreement that said I had to babysit you, or bring you back with me,” Donati said, still facing forward, “If you die, that’s one less person to have to pay.”

They had made it far from their camp before Marco realized they weren’t coming back to get him. It took some time for him to catch up with the others. It was difficult navigating the twisted, uneven trails of a forest that many weren’t meant to enter or survive all in one lifetime.

Marco lost his balance, “you would leave the smallest man behind! You are half of Forese’s size, and I the half of you.” He shouted. He wasn’t far behind them now, but they didn’t seem to hear his voice " or they were simply ignoring him which wouldn’t have been a surprise.

“We can’t go near that it’s too dangerous, we don’t know what that is " these things aren’t meant to still exist.” Beatrice’s voice was high and annoying and slightly panicked.

“I’ve seen these before marking before. . . .  It was after you left of course Donati.” Forese said, straining to open his jaw against the pressure of the fat that invaded his neck and chin. He nodded his head in Donati’s direction when he said his name, yet his eyes stayed to the object in front of them, “father had met this man,  he had a cloth " it was nothing that I found very significant let alone why it would be useful for the family, but the markings that were on that cloth were . . .  abnormal, like these ones” Forese squinted in deep concentration.

“I believe the word you’re thinking of is ancient” The sarcastic voice came up behind them, Marco threw his arms around Donati’s and Beatrice’s shoulders. Beatrice and Donati were the only ones who remained standing, both Forese and Ruth sat on the ground, watching.

“What are all of you idiots looking at anyways " what abnormal markings do you speak of?”

Marco finally brought his eyes up. For the first time since they had been stuck together, Marco was struck silent. He wasn’t ashamed as fear invaded his features. No one spoke. They gave Marco time to process what he was seeing.

The group was in shock, they knew “rare” was a completely different category than “impossible”, but this was out of their range of expertise.

In front of them stood seven stones " each a different color; with a faint mist moving around inside. They were surrounding a single gem hovering in the center much larger than them all, at least as tall as Donati. It had a grey pigment, dark enough to know it was meant to be black, yet light enough to know that it was incomplete in its color, it appeared to be made of hollow glass.

On the ground in between the circling stones, were the markings Forese mentioned made from a thick black soot " some outlined in the colors of the gems, others in a rotting grey. As the design wound around the stones it formed a perfect circle, not a marking out of place.

“What does it mean?” Beatrice’s voice was full of fear. She fell quiet and fell back into the stare they were all caught in when she realized nobody was going to reply. A strange disembodied voice began to whisper in their minds.

Author's Note

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