Quest for the Rose
Chapter 3
Lorraine walked through the garden, as she did many a July morn. The air was sweet and the sound of many fountains tickled her ears. She had loved this garden because Striker had made it for her. No servants tended to it. It was all his doing. But one fact bothered her. There were never any roses, her favorite flower. She stood next to a large fountain, one of her favorites designed by her mother. She looked over the entire garden. “What troubles you, my pretty maid?” She smiled, and turned to Eleazar. “Why are there no roses in this garden? Or any other garden for that matter?” He sighed a smiled still on his face. “I wondered that when I built this garden. I asked around and only found out a short while ago. No one knows why, but all the roses from here to Skoob are gone. But there must be one. You see, without roses, there is no memory. Roses mean remember. All the others are gone. Some say died, some say left. Still others say they were taken. Hidden.” Lorraine looked out over the garden, then looked up to their sons room. “I suppose we shall never know,” she sighed, leaving for her son. She always seemed to have a sixth sense about when her child would need her. Eleazar looked out past the garden, off to the mountains that had once been his home. They seemed to call to him. Begging him to help. For how long he stared, he knew not. But screaming interrupted his thoughts. He looked up to the window his wife had been looking to and saw a black form fly out, over the mountains he had just been looking over. He ran to the room, and found the crib turned over, blankets and sheets strewn about, blood spots on the floor, and at last, Lorraine, lying on the floor. “Lorri!!!”
Chapter 4
“Did you felt that?” Asked Lygia. Safire looked up and nodded. “As did I” said Sam. “Ken?” He nodded, “A disturbance in the force?” He asked, trying to lighten the mood. “Laugh it up, Ken. There is definitely something wrong… but not here.” Safire looked down to the pizza crust still left on her plate. “It… it was…” “Poema” said Sam looking out the window. “I think we should go back to Lorri’s house,” Lygia arose from her chair, taking her coat off of the hanger, looking to see if any one would follow. Sam stood, as did the others. “We are all in.”
A half an hour later, they came to the old empty house. Though many realtors tried to sell the place, all who lived around there thought it must be cursed. Amy, Dayna, Lorri and Lorri’s mother, called Lorraina, had all gone missing in that house. They walked up the stairs to the bedroom. There, on the wall, was painted a vast forest. Once there had been a painting of a dragon fighting a young hero, but they had some how been sucked into the painting and had watched as Striker, with the aid of Lygia, had killed the beast. “I haven’t been here for a long time” said Lygia as she looked over the wall, tracing the trees with her fingers. They all stepped back, as if waiting for some kind of magic to happen. It did.