THE
CRYING STONE
CHAPTER 1: THE LIVING STATUE
by Ashe Rhyder
Cerina was the adopted daughter of Ryuusuke and Shouka Esrevni. She had
bright red hair and ruby red eyes, a slender figure and wry build. Her foster
parents loved her dearly and showered her with affection and praise. She was
highly intelligent, and for a while studied magic, but for some reason she
couldn't make _any_ kind of spell work. Her teacher, after much research, came
to the conclusion that there was a leak in her spiritual energy which, although
not dangerous, did not allow her to concentrate her chi into spells. So she bid
her parents farewell and embarked on a journey to the city of white magic,
Sairoon, to see if she could learn more about her condition there.
And so the story begins...
It was five days into the journey when she decided that she needed a
break. The grueling pace she pushed herself to was taking it's toll, so she set
down her pack and looked around for a good place to rest. It was late autumn,
but still incredibly warm. She picked a satis factory spot on the east shore of
a small lake, and was nearly asleep when she noticed the rather unusual
landscape of the small island in the water. The willow tree, still as green as
the fresh grass, stood out rather abruptly against the golds and reds of the
fall. The statue of the man kneeling with his sword plunged into the ground
wasn't quite normal either. Searching further, she discovered a path of white
stones just large enough for her to skip across.
The rational part of Cerina's mind was screaming warnings, until it
noticed the heaps of gems at the stone's sides. That shut it up for about a
minute before rational thought realized that it was a bad thing for there to be
valuables in such and eerie area, and started screaming again.
The red head easily crossed the watery boundary and approached the statue,
admiring the craftsmanship. Whoever had carved this must have been a master, for
the rock creation was extremely life-like. One wouldn't be surprised if the cape
fluttered gently on the breeze or the delicate wisps of hair hanging over his
right eye were pushed aside by the slender hands.
*Wonder why someone would leave such a beautiful work of art out here in
the middle of nowhere?* She thought, then bent to pick up one of the gemstones.
An icy hand losed over her wrist, and she followed it up the arm to see
the owner. The blue skin as enough of a shock in itself, but for her to find the
statue had moved...!
"No." A soft tenor voice that sounded as if it hadn't been used
in years growled.
Cerina drew in a sharp breath as the stone figure turned his head and
slowly opened his eyes. The scream died in her throat as a pair of sapphire blue
eyes opened and blinked in the afternoon sun.
For a moment, the two stayed frozen in that position; his hand on her
wrist keeping her from moving back, and her ruby red eyes holding him in place.
Finally, his jewel-hard gaze softened to an ocean of sorrow and relief.
"Lina!" With a hoarse cry of joy, the rock being threw his arms
around her and buried his face in her shoulder.
