[Rocket Sheep]

Chapter Two - Inheritance

Adrigan spun about and there beside him was his 6 year old grandaughter Magenta. He gasped. The child was too young. There was no way she could stop the massive beast that was bearing down on them both.

Magenta's face was eerily calm as she stepped forward and held up her hand. From the corner of his eye, Adrigan could see the massive shadow bearing down on them both had not slowed. The pillar had been wrong to choose her so soon. The ground shook as Adrigan lunged forward with strength that surprised him and threw his beloved Magenta out of the path of the great beast.

"Run!" he screamed as his breath was crushed from him. He tried to draw another breath but nothing happened. Looking down, he could see a body he no longer recognised, flattened and twisted in ways human bodies should not be. Panic rose but he quashed it and looked for Magenta. He knew he had moments left. Magenta was picking herself up and brushing herself off, so innocent. Did she not realise an evil beast was at this moment whirling around to take another run at her? She was too innocent, too young, this was not right. He tried to speak, to warn her, but without air his voice only croaked.
"Ganny," Magenta scolded, using her pet name for him. He loved that name. In a perfect world the last thing he would hear should be that name. But then she looked at him. "Ganny!" she wailed.

The ground pounded, the sound of massive lungs pushing air through massive nostrils sounded and Adrigan cursed the world he left behind.

[Iskaral Pust]

"GANNY!!!", sobbing, she tugged at the lifeless arm of her grandfather. Behind her the snorts of the Pink Elephant echoed throughout the valley, but she cared little, only Adrigan held her attention. The lines that marred his forehead were easing now, death giving him the reat he had always deserved.
The ground around her seemed to temble as though it too feared the dreaded avatar of death and war. Whirling around she shaped her Pillar, letting huge amounts of power flow through her - too much power. Unable to hold it waves of incanescent light broke from her tiny body. Plants withered and died, what remained of the villiage she had grown up in blew apart. Magenta herself rose off the ground, pain ravaged her features. Though that horrible surfeit of pure power the Elephant had stopped and was regarding her with all too human interest.

[Rocket Sheep]

Magenta lowered herself to the ground and took a deep breath and held it for a second.
The great pink shaggy beast tilted its head to one side.
Magenta summoned all her courage. "What you did was bad! Very bad!"
The elephant shook its head and looked at her sideways.
Magenta stomped a tiny foot. "Very bad! Do you hear me? You hurt my grandfather until he was dead!"
The elephant looked surprised and stepped back.
"You're a horrible elephant! You're evil. I hate you!"
"But..." the elephant said awkwardly. "I am a good elephant. I protect the land from evil. There is an evil force here. I must protect all elephants from the evil force and that man, he had a force and now... and now... you have a force." The elephant eyed tiny Magenta up and down warily as if she might leap at him and chew his ankles.

[Evil Agent]

Nearly consumed by the Pillar of fire that blazed through her tiny body, Magenta's mind wandered strange paths. Glimpses of her parents who she never knew, kindly faces of strangers looking down on her with pity, and the weathered faces of the family who raised her all passed before her eyes. She was too young to understand why, but she knew that Ganny had brought her to this village to be safe... Safe. And now he was gone. He was gone.

With that thought, an unholy fury boiled up inside of Magenta, a fury that no child should know. The fire in front of her eyes faded, and she found herself once more in mid-air. The Beast that had just destroyed her village and killed her Ganny was charging towards her. Never mind it's lies, never mind that it said it was a good elephant. In its charge, Magenta saw it once more trample over Ganny's crumpled body, and that was all that she needed to act.

A scream belonging more to an animal than a child ripped out of her throat, and Magenta flung her arms out towards the Beast. Fire swirled and crackled through the air, in columns that seemed to mimic the titanic well of the True Pillar.

If there was one scream in the land that could rival Magenta's, it was that of the Beast as it was engulfed in fire. It sizzled and popped, and the entire valley of the ruined village was filled with a foul smoke and the stench of burnt flesh. It still lumbered forward in its agony, intent on reaching Magenta. She could see it's wild eyes spinning and the loose flesh of it's skull bubbling.

She was still eye-level with the monster, borne upon wings of Power, when the Beast crashed to the ground.

[Evil Agent]

Chapter III - A Child Alone

[Rocket Sheep]

Magenta, frightened by the results of her fury ran. She ran and stumbled until dusk cast long shadows over the land then she huddled in a hollow tree. Her mind, a vortex of hideous images, refused to give her peace. It replayed her grandfather's mauling, it replayed the frightening fury, the way the elephant crumpled before her and its snuffling words: 'There is an evil force here'.

By dawn, Magenta had convinced herself that the evil force was her.

Two more days she wandered, delirious, raving, until a farming family intercepted her staggering across their fields. At first she was frightened.
"Stay back!" she cried. "I might hurt you! Leave me!"
But the family kindly persisted in their advances. Offering her food and help to find her way home. She was too tired to resist and when a young woman's hand fell on her arm she was surprised the woman didn't collapse dead. At that moment, Magenta, vowed to keep her terrible power a secret.

By the next dawn, Magenta was clean, rested and fed but the family were still talking of helping her home. Magenta liked the family but that evening she slipped out quietly and left.

Like all small girls with deep terrible secrets, Magenta felt she had to spare those around her from herself. She found work at a farm further down the valley sorting fleece for the market and further still picking marrows and so she went on. Lugging her dark secret from job to job. The work was hard, her small limbs ached and she slept rough a lot of the time. People were cruel and took advantage of her youth. She was forced to flee again and again, but Magenta felt she deserved no less and in this way Magenta grew, like young girls do, to become a young woman.

[Iskaral Pust]

It was a cold winter's afternoon. Snow drifted down in light flakes, beautiful yet delicate. Magenta had been staying with the same family for nearly two months now. The farmwife ruled with an iron fist, terrorising her husband and children into work, but she had a kind heart and often baked delicious buns for Magenta on days such as this.
Two riders had stayed the night, paying gold, and were breaking their fast as Magenta entered the cottage. One was a small, plump woman dressed in a purple robe. She had a motherly smile that made Magenta feel safe and comforable. The man, tall and slender, wore deep green robes. He showed obivous submissiveness to the woman, but when he looked at Magenta he felt as though he undressed her with his eyes. Shivering at the thought of him she set down the pail of water she had spent all morning gathering, for the lake was frozen over with ice as thick as her leg.

[Evil Agent]

Magenta went about her few tasks, trying to ignore the gaze of the man. The guests said nothing as they ate, and they had exchanged only pleasantries with Magenta since they arrived, but she could feel him watching her like an owl watches a mouse.

The next night, Magenta was returning to the cottage from yet another day spent gathering water from the frozen lake; Water that was more work than it was worth. She stood just outside the cottage, and watched the smoke rising from the chimney in slow spirals. The woods behind the cottage were blanketed and silent. The whole farm was silent, so that Magenta almost felt she could hear each individual snow flake as it touched down on the ground.

Had it already been 10 winters that she had been floating from farmstead to farmstead, like one of the snowflakes in front of her face? It had. And it was on winter nights like this that she most often remembered where she came from... and all she had lost.

It's my own fault. I'm dangerous. I'm a monster.

Magenta already felt she had been here too long, and it had only been two months. She had recently felt the urge to move on, to float away, to be a snowflake again, but then something had caught her interest. Something that felt familiar.

The two guests. They had arrived two nights ago, looking for shelter from the snowy night. They stayed now in the cottage with her and the old farmer couple. Although the young man, close to her own age, made her feel slightly nervous with his lingering gaze, the woman that he had arrived with made her feel... not so alone. She couldn't explain it.

Madry, she called herself. Madry and Gilean. But as to who they were, she had little idea. Mother and son? That seemed most likely. Lovers? She guessed it was possible, although Madry was much older than Gilean. They had not said more than that they were tired travellers, despite the farmwife's repeated questions.

Their cloaks, one purple and the other green, were deep and rich, and made Magenta want to reach out and run her fingers over the fabric; Feel the warmth on her hands. Gilean's eyes, as green as his cloak, had much the same effect...

A snowflake landed on her nose, and she felt the icy crystals melt against her warm skin. It brought her back to herself. She picked up the bucket of water, and entered the cottage.

I wrote a few more than 25 lines! Sorry, couldn't help it! The story is taking on quite a nice shape!!!

Chapter IV - Owl and Mouse

[Iskaral Pust]

The kitchen was missing Fat Grenda, the owner of the cottage. So used to seeing her bussling about, was Magenta, she started. In her place, seated at the oaken table, hands clusped together, was Madry.
"Sit down, girl," she said softly, smiling warmly. "Take a warm drink," she indicated to a steaming cup placed alone on the table.
"Where's Grenda?" asked Magenta, uneasy at the silence through the house.
"She's upstairs," now, please, take a drink. Magenta slipped into the chair opposite her. Taking a slow sip, Magenta gasped at the heat. "We'd like you to come with us, on a little journey."
"What? Where? Why? I don't want to go anywhere," Magenta stood up as she said this, feeling slightly dizzy.
"Unfortunately, dear, we can't give you that choice," that kind smile came again, even as the floor came up to meet Magenta as she slumped. That kind smile, floating in front of her. Everything else slurred, blackness overcoming her, but through it all she saw that kind smile.

When she awoke she was thumping along in a saddle.

[Evil Agent]

She found herself on a large, gray horse with a silver flowing mane. Her initial fear subsided, when she saw Madry riding beside her with that ever present smile still on her face. Anger rose to replace that fear. "Where are you taking me?" Magenta demanded. "How dare you? What did you do with Fat Grenda?"

"Child, be calm," Madry said with a chuckle. The eyes of the white horse she rode seemed to mirror Madry's amusement. "We mean you no harm. In fact, we want to protect you... from others, and from yourself. Grenda is right now in the middle of the most relaxing sleep she has ever experienced, full of warm and comforting dreams. I have no reason to lie."

Magenta tried to hang on to her anger, but she found it slowly fading. She could feel the truth in Madry's words, and despite her shocking bluntness, Magenta was helpless against the blooming affection she felt towards this motherly woman. She tried to sound righteously furious when she spoke, but it came out sounding childish and lame, "Well you still haven't said where you're taking me".

"I can answer that, m'lady," spoke the smooth, deep voice that had been in her dreams last night. She spun in her saddle to find Gilean riding towards her on a powerful black war horse. His green cloak billowed behind him in the night wind, and his green eyes reflected the light of the moon. A deer lay across the back of his saddle, its neck dangling limp and bouncing in time with the horse's gait. "Madry," he said, "is a fine Master, but a little insensitive at times." He grinned at Madry's reproachful glare, so different from her kindly smile. "Take it from me, I'm her Apprentice".