The Dreaming Spring: Legend of the Kingdom Beyond the Veil Intro
The gnarled branches above blocked out the sky, casting deep, twisting shadows across the forest floor. The silence was absolute—no birdsong, no rustling leaves, not even the whisper of a breeze.
"What do you think about setting up camp here?" Queen Jasmine of Deltora asked, pausing as she adjusted the strap of her pack. She glanced around at her companions: Will Vandom, Prince Phobos, and Edmund Pevensie. "I don't know... the trees are so silent. It's like they're dead."
Edmund rested a hand on the hilt of his sword, his eyes scanning the looming trunks. "Silent or not, night is falling fast."
Before Jasmine could scout further, a faint moss-covered stone marker caught her eye. "Hey, look. What is that sign?"
Will stepped closer, brushing away the clinging vines to reveal ancient, carved lettering:
"Dreaming spring, drink gentle stranger; however, all of evil, beware."
"What does that mean?" Edmund mused, staring down at the crystal-clear pool bubbling gently beneath the stone. "So if an evil person drinks the water, they'll die?"
"I guess that's that," Jasmine muttered, taking a cautious step back. "The knights must have been our psychic invaders."
"I don't think so," Will interrupted softly. She pressed her knuckles to her temple, her expression tightening. "That melody from my dream... it's still playing."
Will turned to her siblings, Queen Elyon and Prince Phobos, who stood near the tree line. Despite sharing royal blood with the ruler of Escanor and the former tyrant of Meridian, the bond between the three siblings had always been strained, stretched thin by dark magic and long-kept secrets.
"Pay no attention to the psychic invader behind the curtain," Will added, addressing Elyon and Phobos directly. "She was in the shadows, making us dance to her tune like marionettes. She must be the one pulling the strings... she's behind all the trouble in Kandrakar lately."
Before Phobos could reply to his sisters with a scathing remark, a sudden, low rumble echoed through the earth. The ground shuddered beneath their boots, making the dead-silent trees groan in protest.
Jasmine gripped her dagger, her head light as a familiar, golden echo reverberated in her mind.
“Tell me the signs, child. Tell me the signs... what are they?”
It was Aslan. His voice was a gentle, majestic whisper rolling across her thoughts like thunder over distant hills.
Easy for him to say, Jasmine thought, trying to steady her footing as the ground rocked again. Nothing is easy to figure out these days.
"Well, we know it's not an earthquake," Jasmine declared aloud, snapping back to the present as she looked toward the horizon. The dark, jagged peaks looming in the distance seemed to swallow the last rays of sunlight. "It must be the Shadow Lord. But how...?"
Will exchanged a lingering glance with Elyon and Phobos before looking toward the jagged horizon, the Heart of Kandrakar faintly glowing beneath her cloak. "The mountain range there... you should find the key, and the road beneath the earth."
Comments
Post a Comment