The Stone Of Anidem - Miscellaneous - http://maxpages.com/emilysrealm/The_Stone_Of

This is an original story by Emily Blythe:

I’ve always loved to read. My mother used to read me books when I was little and I think that’s the reason I love to read so much. My favorite books have always been about fantastical things. Wizards, witches, talking animals, magic. Sometimes I’d imagine that I was part of the stories. I’d put myself in another characters place and go from there. Then, on April 15, my cousin Beth and I found a bright red stone-
We found it in the small wood that’s behind my house on Smokerise Drive. I had tripped over a big tree root in the middle of the path and found myself face down in the dirt. Before I could get up, I noticed something shimmering beneath the surface of the ground. I would never have seen it if my face hadn’t been less then two inches from the ground. I quickly dug where I saw the light, ignoring Beth’s questions about what I was doing, and came up with a small red stone. It really looked more like a miniature red marble, to tell the truth, it was that small. But it just didn’t seem right to call it a marble. Almost disrespectful, even.
This stone was less then an inch in diameter, I’m willing to say it was just about a centimeter. In the center of it a white mist circled, and inside this mist there was a large shadow that looked sort of like a castle. I remember the conversation we had over it.
“What do you suppose it is?” Beth asked me.
“I haven’t a clue. How do you suppose it got here? Do you think someone lost it?”
“If they did we should turn it in to the police so they can try and find the owner. It’s obviously valuable.”
“Yeah, I know. But who would have come back here to loose it? This is private property.”
“Search me. Maybe it’s been back here for years but no one’s ever found it.”
“I guess that could be it. Do you think we should keep it?” (JThat’s me talking.J)
“I haven’t got a clue.”
“Well, put it in your pocket and let’s go home. Maybe we’ll think of something on the way.”
Beth put the shimmering stone in her pocket and we headed towards my house. It was a good quarter mile walk, but we didn’t come to a solution on the way. We had no clue of what to do with it. The stone was certainly valuable, I’d never seen anything like it and I haven’t seen anything like it since either. With that mist in the center and the shadow inside of it, it was definitely rare. Beth and I knew next to nothing about precious stones and we realized this.

I’m ashamed to say that both Beth and I forgot about the stone for a whole week and we went about with our normal, everyday business. But on the Monday a week after we were both out in the woods again and Beth was wearing the same jeans she had put the stone in a week before. Thinking about it later, both Beth and I wondered how the stone had survived the washer and drier.
As we were walking, Beth reached into her pocket to get something, I forget what it was now, and as she was taking it out the stone came out too. She dropped it before she realized what she had in her hand and it went rolling toward a small, relatively deep pond. We both ran after it when we realized what it was but we weren’t fast enough. The stone rolled right into the pond. For a few seconds, we mourned the loss of such a valuable object, because we realized how much it had to have been worth, but then we saw all of the water in the pond dry up. We were looking down into a very deep hole.
“Well,” Beth said to me. “Go on.”
“Go on what?”
“Go on down that hole.”
“Are you out of your mind?” I practically yelled at her. “If you want to find out what’s down there why don’t you go yourself.”
“Are you nuts?”
“You’re willing enough to make me go down there,” I yelled. I was getting pretty annoyed with her by this time.
“I know,” Beth told me. “Let’s jump together.”
“How can you be sure we’ll live through the fall?” I asked her. “What if it’s just a really deep hole?”
“What purpose would there be for that?” Beth asked me.
And with that, my cousin grabbed my hand and pulled me into the seemingly endless hole with her. The hole seemed to expand while we fell, which was for quite a long while. For at least three minutes we were tumbling through empty space. I was getting quite worried about two and a half minutes into our trip. I didn’t see how there was any way Beth and I could possibly live through a fall like the one we were having. But then we both came out of the hole suddenly and plunged into freezing cold blue waters.
Luckily, Beth and I are both good swimmers. We took lessons together at the Y until we were twelve years old. We both saw the island to the west of us, opposite the sun that was rising in the east, and started to swim toward it. It didn’t take us very long, about ten minutes at the most because we’re both really fast swimmers. We climbed onto the sandy beach and just sat there for a minute or two without saying anything. Then Beth broke the silence.
“I told you it went somewhere,” she told me.
“Yeah, but where exactly is somewhere?” I asked.
“A beach.”
“Oh wow! Good detective work Sherlock.”
“You don’t have to be so nasty. We’re going to get out of this just fine. There must be somebody on this island. We’ll just find them and ask them how to get back home. But you know, it’d be a shame to leave without doing anything. Don’t you want to explore first?”
“I suppose we could stay for a few hours. But we can’t stay very long. Our parents’ll notice if we’re gone longer then that.”
“Oh, yeah,” she said disappointedly. “I guess we can’t stay longer then a couple of hours,” she paused for a minute, and then got her old enthusiasm back. “So come on! Let’s get started! I don’t want to waste any time.”
We both got up and brushed the sand off of our clothes. Then I noticed something strange.
“Hey!” I yelled in surprise. “Our clothes are dry!”
”You’re right! But how did they dry so fast?”
“Search me. I guess it’s hotter then we realized.”
“Guess so. Well come on, let’s go.”
“Where are we going?” I asked. “North, East, South, West? What do you propose?”
“How does north sound to you?”
“Why north?”
“It’s somewhere to go.”
“Okay,” I agreed, and we set off.
The place Beth and I walked through has got to be one of the strangest places I’ve ever been in my life. Everything seemed to have been switched around. We were walking on blue ground with white, fluffy clouds everywhere and were looking up at green grass. There were several birds walking across the ground and many snakes seemingly suspended in midair. There were also a lot of fish flying through the air and, in a small pond we came across, we saw an eagle swimming underwater.
After about an hour’s trek through this strange country, we saw a very large castle in front of us. It was made of solid brick. There were turrets and towers and baloneys and doors and windows all over it. The large front doors had to be at least fifty feet tall and they were guarded by two dragons that were even larger then themselves.
“Do you think there’s another way in?” I asked Beth nervously. “I don’t want to have to get any closer to those dragons then I have to.”
“Me neither. Maybe we could just skip by this place altogether?”
“No. There might not be anyone else on the island and we’ve already been here over an hour. We’ve got to get back.”
“I guess you’re right,” said Beth told me slowly. “Well, come on. Let’s get this over with.”
We both started walking towards the large castle rather reluctantly. I don’t know about Beth, but I was scared to death. Those dragons were easily five times bigger the both of us. I had no doubt that they could kill us very easily. As we got closer, I was able to see exactly what the two dragons looked like. The one on the right was white with green spots and the one on the left was green with white spots. They both had bright red eyes and mouths full of large, sharp white teeth. That almost sent me back the other way, no matter what I had told Beth. We were about five feet from the dragons before they finally spoke to us.
“Who are you and what business to do you have at King Nadroj’s court?” asked the dragon standing on the right. I noticed that he was quite a bit bigger then his partner.
“We’re, well, we’re travelers,” said Beth.
“Yeah,” I corroborated. “We’re travelers. We come from, um, a far away land and we need to, um, ask King Whats-his-name for help.”
“What sort of help?” asked the dragon standing guard on the right.
“Help to get back to our far away land,” Beth answered.
“Where exactly is this far away land?” asked the larger dragon suspiciously.
“Just, um, just down the, er, Yellow Brick Road,” I said. Not sure if that explanation was going to work. It just seemed like a good answer because it was something in a fantasy story and the situation we were in seemed quite like a fantasy story to me.
“Oh, you live in Oz?” asked the smaller dragon.
“Yeah, that’s right,” Beth told him.
“Why did you leave?” asked the larger dragon.
”Why shouldn’t we?” I asked him. This question sort of confused me.
“I’ve heard that no one ever leaves Oz,” the larger dragon explained. “It’s supposed to be perfect in every way and everyone who is lucky enough to get into it never leaves it.”
”Oh, well,” this statement sort of threw me. I wasn’t exactly sure what to say. “Um, we decided that we wanted to see the world while we’re still young enough to do it.”
“Really?” asked the smaller dragon. “Are you sure you weren’t exiled from Oz?”
“Of course we weren’t,” said Beth. “Now would you please just let us in the see the king?”
“I’m terribly sorry,” said the larger dragon, in a tone that plainly said he wasn’t at all. “We don’t allow exiles inside the palace. They could harm the king.”
“We’re not exiles!” Beth said.
“You have to be if you come from Oz,” said the smaller dragon. “Nobody ever leaves Oz for any other reason.”
“We’re not from Oz,” I said irritably. “We lied, all right?
“You two sure changed your story fast,” said the smaller dragon.
“So where are you really from,” asked the larger dragon. “Please hurry up with your answer, I can hardly stand the suspense.”
“Ohio,” I told the dragons irritably.
“There is no such place! You must be exiles.” Said the larger dragon.
“Ohio does so exist,” Beth practically yelled. “Just because you haven’t seen something it doesn’t mean it’s not there.”
“Ohio does not exist,” said the smaller dragon with a calm that annoyed me. “My partner is right. You must be exiles. I must ask you to get off the castle ground before we have to throw you out.”
“WE ARE NOT EXILES!” Beth and I both yelled.
Both dragons gave a high, sharp whistle. For about a minute nothing happened. Then I saw four guards appear from nowhere. I still think that they just popped out of the ground. They all headed toward us in perfect step. It was like an army marching, but a very very small army.
They came right up in front of us, two for Beth and two for me, lifted us up off of the ground, and carried us back through the field we had come from. About five hundred feet from the castle they dropped us, turned around, and headed back, still in perfect step. I stared after them and watched them go past the dragons and into the castle.
“What are we going to do now?” Beth asked me.
“Search me. Maybe there’s another entrance into the castle that isn’t guarded, but I doubt it.”
“So do I. But I think you were right before. I don’t think there are any other people on this island. We have to get into that castle and talk with someone who can help us get back.”
“D’you think we can sneak into the castle?” I asked.
“I doubt it. There aren’t any trees or anything we can hide behind, just flat fields. They’d see us before we got within a mile of the place. And we’re already closer then a mile. Those two idiot dragons can probably see us right now.”
“Yeah, you’re right. How are we going to get into that place?”
“Maybe we can find another door that’s guarded by two more friendly people, or dragons, as the case seems to be.”
“Sounds good to me,” I said.
So the two of us set off around the castle. It was quite large so it took us a while to get to the end of it. Almost fifteen minutes. After we got that far we headed toward the castle again, getting there in about five minutes. We walked down the side of the castle for about ten minutes before we spotted another door. This one was much smaller, about the size of a regular Ohio door, and guarded by two men. There didn’t seem to be anything to do but go up to them and ask them to let us in, so that’s exactly what we did.
“Halt!” one of the men yelled. He was quite young, he couldn’t have been more then seventeen, with black hair and green eyes. He had a friendly look about him, as did his partner, who was seemed to be about his age with blond hair and blue eyes. “What business do you have here?” the black haired boy continued.
“We need to speak with your King,” I told him.
“Of what do you wish to speak?” the blond haired boy asked us.
“We need help to get back to our home and we were hoping your King could tell us how we can get back,” Beth said.
The two boys hesitated for a minute and looked at each other. It was obvious that they hadn’t been doing this for very long and weren’t sure whether they should let us in or not.
“Please excuse us for a moment,” the black haired boy said and they moved to the side a little and lowered their voices. I noticed that the door was open a bit, showing that it was not locked, and telegraphed with my eyes to Beth, but we decided not to just go in. They two boys seemed friendly and we didn’t want to get them into trouble. And plus, I wasn’t sure the King would speak with us if we broke into his castle. Instead, I fastened my attention on the two boys’ conversation.
“D’you think we should let them in Mendal?” asked the blond haired boy.
“I don’t know Lakem,” said Mendal. “They certainly don’t seem like they could be a threat to anybody.”
“No they don’t, do they?” said Lakem. “I don’t suppose it could hurt to let them in.”
“But what if we get in trouble?” said Mendal nervously. “You know Menkarden said that we were only to let in people who had notes signed by the King.”
“Oh, yeah, that’s right. I guess we can’t let them in.” said Lakem.
“Yeah, we can’t.”
Both boys turned back to us, their smiles both wiped from their faces. They were obviously not happy about telling us that we couldn’t come inside the castle.
“I’m sorry girls,” said Mendal. “But we can’t let you in. You have to have a note signed by the King saying you may enter before we’re allowed to let you into the castle.” Lakem nodded sadly at this.
“But we have to find out how to get home!” wailed Beth.
“We’re sorry,” said Lakem, and I could tell that he really was sorry, unlike that horrible dragon.
“Are there any other people on the island?” I asked desperately.
“No. The castle people are the only ones on the island,” Mendal told us.
Both Beth and I just stood there for several minutes, not saying anything, both lost in her own thoughts. I don’t know what Beth was thinking but I was thinking about being stuck on the island, all alone, for the rest of our lives while everyone back in Ohio thought we’d been kidnapped or killed.
“You just have to let us in,” I said in desperation. “We need help to get back to our home.”
“Well,” said Mendal, “If you knew how to get here there isn’t any reason you shouldn’t know your way back.”
“But we don’t know how we got here,” Beth told them.
“Yes we do,” I snapped. (I was very annoyed by this time.) “We got here by that stupid red stone. And I might remind you that it is your fault that we’re here in the first place.”
“My fault!”
“Yes, your fault! You’re the one who pulled me after you into that big hole!”
”Well, if you hadn’t tripped we wouldn’t ever have found the stone! You should have been watching where you were going.”
“You’re trying to blame this on me?”
”Yes, and you don’t need to sound so mad about it. You’re doing the same thing to me.”
”But it was your fault!”
“Was not!”
“Was so!”
“Was not!”
”Was so!”
“Was-“
“Girls!” said Lakem. “There’s no need to fight about it. I’m sure we can work something out. I’ll just go inside the castle and ask the King to see you, and I’m sure he will, after he hears about the special circumstances. Don’t worry.”
And with those comforting words, Lakem turned around, opened the door, and walked into the castle, leaving Mendal to guard the door by himself.
“Do you think we’ll be allowed in?” I remember Beth asking Mendal.
“Of course. The King isn’t a bad person, really. He’s just a bit off.”
“Off?”
”Yeah, it’s my opinion, (And several other people’s) that King Nadroj lost quite a few of his marbles early in his life.”
“You mean he’s crazy?”
“Not crazy, really,” said Mendal slowly. “Just a bit- off.”
“How’s he off?”
“Well, he changes his mind a lot. He’ll lock someone in the dungeons for the rest of their life and then free him after ten days to become his royal advisor. And he talks in the strangest way. He’ll just skip to a whole different topic in the middle of a conversation so it’s impossible to follow what he’s saying.”
“How did he ever become king if he acts like that?”
“Well, the old king really didn’t have any choice.” Mendal paused a moment after this but when I looked at him quizzically, he continued. “You see, about five years ago, King Salazar’s daughter Cire was kidnapped by an evil old dragon named Smageron. Cire was Salazar’s only child, and so she was the only heir to throne. On top of this, Salazar was really very found of his daughter, so he put up a royal notice that said, ‘If any man defeats the evil dragon Smageron, and so frees my daughter, he shall receive half of the kingdom and my daughter’s hand in marriage.’ This made just about all of the young men in the kingdom go off to defeat the dragon, but none of them succeed. Most of them didn’t even fight, they just ran away after their first glimpse of the beast. The ones that did stay and fight, which were few, were killed almost before they started. Then Nadroj came along. He didn’t have any fears about fighting the evil dragon. At the time, people thought he was spectacularly brave, but afterwards they found out that he just wasn’t aware of the danger. To him it was just a game. Anyway, Nadroj killed the dragon, nobody knows how, as he doesn’t have very good dueling skills, but kill him he did. So when he brought the Princess Cire back alive the good King Salazar had to give him the reward even though he didn’t want to. You see, King Salazar realized the Nadroj wasn’t all there and wouldn’t make a good ruler, but he couldn’t go back on his word so he had to give Nadroj half the kingdom and Cire’s hand in marriage. Well, the kingdom part worked out all right but the marriage didn’t work out so good. You see, Cire wasn’t very happy about marrying Nadroj. She actually said she would rather have been killed by the dragon then be married to him. So when her father refused to change his mind about the marriage, she ran away. No one’s ever seen her since. King Salazar lived only three months afterwards and so, there being no other heir to the throne, Nadroj took up the Kinghood after his death.”
I was about to ask another question when Lakem returned from his visit to the king. He was smiling and looked very pleased with himself and the way things had turned out. We found out why a few seconds after he returned.
“You may go in and see the king,” he told us with as much dignity as he could muster.
“Really!”
”Wow! That’s great!”
“Thanks a lot!”

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Page Updated Sat Sep 30, 2000 2:16am EDT