Secrets Of Philmar

Queen of The Ar�edon Sea

She awoke to the new fresh day ready to begin finding the mermaids. She followed the shore on the left side of the river where there have been many sittings of mermaids. It’s a place called Egan Cove. It’s said that the mermaids like to lie out on the warm rocks and they even laze around brushing their hair there. 
I’ve never seen a mermaid before I’ve only read about them in books, that they like jewels and absolutely love music.
So Gabby once again started walking along the shore, which she preferred and enjoyed a lot more than the Rdoni Forest.
It had already been about seven days, and her legs weren’t sore anymore since she had already been walking so much for so long. But she did still have the deep cut in her arm, which she kept wrapped tight with the ripped cloth from her blanket.

After quite a bit of walking, she came to a cove filled with huge rocks and the clear blue water felt soothing and warm. Gabby placed the necklace on a massive rock were she opened the locket releasing the sweet lullaby but from behind the rock she still held on to it by the chain. Never wishing to let go of it.
After what seemed like seconds something tugged on the chain Gabby jumped up in surprise, were a beautiful mermaid held on to the locket. Gabby snatched it back from the mermaids grasp.
 
The mermaid had a truly beautiful face, long stringy ebony hair with natural sapphire blue streaks. Her upper body was perfectly long and slender. Then blue corral like shells clung to her chest. But what took Gabby’s breath away was her beautiful tail. The scales were all different shades of blue sapphire and magenta purples, which sparkled with her every move. Gabby noticed white pearls wrapped in her hair and forehead along with a hair pen decorated with tiny glorious plum colored shells of all shapes.
“Give me my necklace back,” smirked the mermaid rudely.
“What its not even yours its my sisters,” responded Gabby angrily.
“Speaking of my sister I believe that you know were she is, a wise source told me so,” pronounced Gabby.
“Why do you speak to me the Queen of The Ar’edon Sea so boldly? And yes the girl with your same face, I do know where she is,” Replied the mermaid coldly.
“I am sorry Queen, but could you please tell me were she is?” begged Gabby
“Its not just the queen, its Queen Urnada and I will tell you ONLY if you do me a small favor,” replied Urnada smirking.
“ Okay what’s the favor?”
         “You, go to the Oniant Mountains, when they come in view climb to the top of the highest one, there you’ll find the great siege’s cabin, give her my hair clip and she will give you a potion for me. Then meet me back here and I’ll tell you were Alea is,” summoned Urnada, pulling the hair clip from her hair and handing it to Gabby.
         Then with a splash she was gone. But sitting in Gabby’s palm sparkled Urnada’s enchanting hair clip.
         Gabby really didn’t want to go so far with the possibility of Urnada breaking her word, but she had no other choice.
Gabby planned on going to the kingdom of Garosia which her father had discovered after the disappearance of King Philius, which was a short walk from there and she could be there before sunset. There she could buy more food (since she had eaten the last of the bread) and have a warm place to stay for the night.
         As she strolled down the beach her mind was in great thought. She decided that she couldn’t be seen as Princess Gabrielle, because her father might have announced her missing and if so there would be a high reward for who ever returned her to him. So her new name was Sudaria Felondie, a girl on her way to meet her dad in Marossa, a small town of Dumond.          
         Then she came upon a cleared path traced with many trees; she followed it hoping it would lead to Garosia.
After walking many miles threw trees and brush the path lead up threw many hills and then in the distance an extremely tall stonewall came in to view.
The wall was covered in stringy vines and deep cracks reviling how ancient yet strong the wall really was.
Gabby had always heard how glorious and rich the town of Garosia was but the old rigged wall brought a look of ruins and despair. 
Finally she had reached the town. The guard at the gate questioned her, “ Whatss a young gurl like you do’n wonder’n threw these dangerous woodss?”
Gabby quickly answered saying, “I’m Sudaria Felondie, I was traveling with my father, we were on are way to see my grandparents, but were separated when attacked by wolves, so I’m going to Marossa in Dumond to look for him.”
         The guard was convinced and replied, “Well, I hope you find you’r father, I’ll let you in, ohh and if you need a place to sleep go tu the Royal Inn, they should treat yous real good there.”
          He then gestured to another guard and within seconds the great metal wood gate began to be lifted up into the wall, were it disappeared as if it never had existed.
As she trudged threw the gate the sun began to slowly set behind her painting the sky with soft pastels.
         
As soon as she walked in she was bewildered to find the town so elegant.  She paced walls of fine wood and stone decorated with fantasy creatures such as dragons and gryphon’s of gold and silver. The houses were short but very wide with roofs of colorful slate shingles.  She strolled happily across the cobble stone streets, the town was much like Amosville so she felt at home, and she was happy to be surrounded by people again, instead of trees and the eerier dark.
         The people in the streets wore expensive finery and walked with authority but yet they seemed very friendly.
         She decided she was going to find a good place to eat and then search for the Royal Inn the guard told her about.
         As she walked past a massive high building of white royal stones and realized it must be the church from the striking gold cross towering from the top.
         Other buildings started to scare her as everything went dark. The sun disappeared and bright stars covered the sky, one building had silver gargoyle statues haunting the top of the tower and as she walked she felt as if there eyes were following her every move. Then from beside a dark hut Gabby met with two glowing eyes, one was sage green, the other aquamarine blue they stared into her as if reading her thoughts then slowly disappeared.
She quickly slightly frightened searched for a place to eat; she soon found a small tavern with a fancy sign hanging from the walls called The Red Orchid. She raced in as the aroma of cooking meat filled her nostrils. She walked up to the counter were a red bearded buff man stood cleaning a glass that already appeared perfectly clean.
         When he saw her walking up he asked, “ Miss, your not from this town. What brings you here? Are you alone?”
She explained to him the same story she told the guard and he seemed sympathetic and asked what she would like to eat.
She asked for fish with fresh vegetables, and then paid with a gold coin from in her bag, which she took from the cave.
Then sunk into a seat at one of the tables in the corner of the room with the hot fresh meal sizzling in front of her. She quickly began to devour the great food forgetting all her etiquette lessons creating a big mess.
Then two men walked into the tavern. You could tell they weren’t as wealthy from there rough appearance. One had curly brown locks the other was completely bald. They walked up to the bar and sat down asking for a glass of beer, plopping coins on to the counter.
Gabby over heard the bald one saying, “Did you hear about King Avin’s daughter? She ran away from the castle, their say’n she went a little insane after her sister died.”
The other one replied, “ yes sir, he sent out announcements to all of the towns saying if you find her and bring her back to him he would hand you one thousand gold coins as a great reward… if you think about it, the royal family is slowly disappearing. I fill great sorrow for King Avin; first his brother died, than the queen and now his two daughters.
The bald one butted in saying, “well Princess Gabriella hasn’t died yet but if she went in to the Rdoni Forest she might as well have.”
What caught her attention was the fact that her father had a brother; her father had never mentioned that she had an uncle. Gabby felt angry, because all of a sudden to complete strangers mentions an uncle that her own family had kept a secret from her, but why?
With anticipation she kept listening only to hear them talking about caves in the forest filled with all kinds of treasures from when King Philius rained and also about the dragons that got away and are still hiding in the caves from when her father took back Philmar.
She realized she had been in one of those caves and explored all the wonderful treasures. And even killed a Spiny Blood Skull dragon, there not like any of the other dragons there dumb and kill for pleasure. So for her to have survived she is very fortunate.
          
After filling her stomach with more than it could hold, gabby felt her eyelids starting to take control. 
         She went back to the counter asking the bartender were she could find the Royal Inn. He told her just to keep walking strait and it’s the big building painted with patterns of jewels.
         As soon as she stepped out of the tavern she saw the big building ahead and raced for it dazed in all its beauty.
         After wobbling inside now full of food, she begged the lady dressed in a royal gown behind the counter for a room, placing six gold coins in her hands. Happily the lady said to wait for a moment while she retrieved the key to the best room in the inn, and then she slipped away into a distant hallway. As Gabby stood patiently waiting she noticed a beautiful map resting on the counter. Startled to hear the footsteps of the woman, she gently tossed the map into her bag, just in time.
            The lady gestured for her to come to the hallway. Gabby with a half smile followed her down the dark hall lit with beautiful gold torches, glowing with jewels of moonstone. The lady stopped at the last door cramming a long awkwardly toothed key into the door handle. When she opened the door Gabby grined to find a room of great elegance fit for a true princess, Gabby felt right at home.
            When the lady left gently closing the door behind her, Gabby jumped on the huge bed up which was against the wall in the middle of the room. She was swallowed inside all the silk and cotton. As she laid there in all the comfort she remembered the map she had stolen.
              She gently pulled out the map and began unrolling it. On the withered ancient paper was the whole kingdom of Philmar sketched out to perfection.
            The bottom of the paper was the Ar’edon Sea and the rest was mostly land. On the left bottom side was Gabby’s home Amosville with the Hills of Nimm, then the Aror River that ran from the great lake Tilidoson. To the right of her home was a big swirl of The Rdoni Forest and at the bottom were cliffs to the ocean, then the Egan cove were Gabby had seen Urnada. Beside the forest was her current location, Garosia. Above that was a huge bare area marked the Flamtius Dessert that blocked the kingdom from Dumond. Gabby found The Oniant Mountains surrounding the top of Amosville all the way to the dessert, in the middle was the biggest arch labeled Mount Orek. That’s were she needed to go.  She would have too cut threw the Rdoni forest, cut across a river that ran down from the far side of the mountains marked the Monie River, go between the to mountains below Mount Orek than she would finally be at the bass of the great mountain. It was only inches on paper but in life it would take many, many days.
          Anticipating the new journey she put the map away and slipped under the covers were she quickly fell fast asleep.
             
The following day she awoke rubbing her eyes, from the best sleep she had had in a long while. She counted her change to find she still had forty-three gold coins, plenty for all the supplies she wished to buy. 
As she was washing up, she noticed her arm still wrapped in hard bloody rags. She unwrapped it to find the deep cut about six inches long starting at her shoulder and ending at her forearm, luckily it had begun to heal forming a scab.
She washed and brushed her gorgeous long hair that had been knotted and nappy from the long journey, but now she felt a whole lot better and freshly clean.
After rewrapping her arm with freshly cut rags and putting on her old dirty clothes, she packed her belongings in her bag and slowly closed the door behind her already missing the comfort of her room.
As she walked out on the cobblestone street the sun glared into her eyes causing her to squint, but brought warmth to her skin. She followed the path to the open part of the town filled with stands full of food, jewels, and anything you could ever hope for. There were so many things, not all were so wonderful one man was selling snake bones on chains, which were to bring great luck to the person who hung it around there neck.
Before walking away she saw a silver canteen with a perfectly lifelike painted dragon on it with sapphire gemmed eyes. She admired it for some time and then decided to buy it knowing it would come in handy.
She walked up to a counter filled with baskets of fruit were she bought some bananas and apples. Then she followed the sweet aroma of fresh baked bread to a small bakery were she bought two blueberry muffins and another loaf of bread. She placed all the food into her bag, actually looking forward to eating it.
Before leaving she asked the cheerful plump baker were she could find a place to buy new clothes he told her to go to the far end of the town and you’ll come across three connected buildings and it’s the one in the middle, you cant miss it.
As she followed the path she found her self separated from all the people, you could hear all the noise of the town behind her.
She finally found it and the baker was right you couldn’t miss it. There stood three buildings, the big elegant one in the middle, than two really small dark huts. The middle one was breath taking, the roof arched up with bright morocco red shingles, and the walls were made of royal white stonewalls. Gabby walked up the towering steps to find the perfectly carved wooden door guarded by to majestic gold lion statues.
When she stepped threw the doorway she found her self surrounded by gorgeous flowing gowns. She walked threw a golden archway were her eyes met with the most beautiful gown, just hanging there as if she was meant to see it. It was long and puffy made of maroon silk covered with black medieval hexagons of sparkling gems. The top V’d down and the sleeves puffed up at the shoulder than floated to the waist.
Her heart sank as she realized she couldn’t buy it, that all she needed was a simple leather robe and cloak. So she told her self I will be back and I will buy that gown for me and with that goal set in her heart she set off to look for the less royal clothes. Then she noticed a small wooden door up against the wall almost hidden, she opened it hoping to find peasant robes.


As she walked threw the door she realized she was some were she shouldn’t be. The room was dark and it took a few seconds for her eyes to a-just. A mist of fog hovered threw the room, as if hiding what she wasn’t yet meant to see. It was some sort of store, guessing by the counter and shelves of mysterious items.
She crept in to the room full of curiosity, pacing the rows. On the shelf in front of her sat a shrunken shriveled bat, it stared at her with dead piercing black eyes, next to it was a jar of extremely large hairy spiders crawling around with anticipating fangs. They made Gabby’s skin crawl.
She stammered back with fright and disgust, finding her self brushed up against sharp medal. She turned around finding herself facing dangerous weapons used for evil brutal killing. There were swords but not honorable ones that you see in the hands of good and brave knights, but ones you hang your head down with sorrow for the innocent victims. The handles resembled immortal forms of demons, vampires and others of that sort, almost lifelike. Also hanging upon the wall were huge axes and then Gabby shuttered at the site of a huge whip with sharp animal teeth, bones and glass entangled in the many leather straps. 
         Then she was startled from a hideous thought, by a deep handsome voice. 
“What are you doing in here, you look to me like you have no want for my fine merchandise.”
When Gabby turned around there was a young man leaned up against the counter.
His pale face emerged in the faint light; you could tell he was masculine built even under his draping black robe. Gabby felt as if she was under a seducing trance as she stared in to the strangers face. He had a wide chin, a long pointed nose and big silver eyes to match his shaggy grey hair.
         Gabby spoke strongly, “The only reason for me being here is by mere accident…”
Gabby fell silent when she noticed that the young man was cradling a creature in his hands just under his cloak. The same two glowing eyes from beside the hut the day before glowed from the shade of his cloak.
         Gabby finished saying, “ but know I see that there are no robes in here so I must go. You know this is a bad area for a store like this.” With that she ran boldly and slipped back threw the doorway, as she felt his cold stare piercing threw her back.
         She ran threw the door entrance were she quickly found a small room way in the back of the building with hundreds of simple yet good leather robes. She grabbed a black leather one and a matching cloak quickly handing the storeowner two gold coins and hurried away from the building, with the horrible murder weapons still boiling in her mind.
         




It was about midday when Gabby finally headed out the gate. Missing the luxurious town.
After walking for what seemed like hours she came upon the path that cut threw the Rdoni Forest, and lead to the mountains.
She hesitated to go back into the horrible place, where she had fought all the fierce beasts and the bad memories tossed around in her thoughts, but then she remembered why she was doing the entire horrible task. So with Alea on her mind she disappeared into the shade of the trees.
As she climbed over emerging roots, the smell of rotting wood floated in the air. Gabby once again felt isolated from the world and alone. She walked following what she could see of the path, hoping not to stray off of the trail, for the fear of never finding it again. That would be an ugly situation.
As she was walking she felt as if some one was following her but it wasn’t a foul presence, it was kind of comforting. She looked around with curiosity and caution only to find her self-alone in the fog.
She had been walking over two leagues in distance, and her legs ached with fatigue, so when she found a huge dead log clearing her path she collapsed on top of it, not caring about the squirming bugs inside.
After resting for a short time she lifted up her bag excited to eat, she pulled out an apple and the canteen that she had filled with sweet water before leaving Garosia. She lifted it to her dry lips trying to satisfy her great thirst. Then happily chomped at the skin of the shinny red apple.
Trying to get comfortable she spread out her aching legs stretching but found her self in shock, as two familiar eyes glared into hers from in the brush. One was sage green and the other was blue. It was the animal that had been lurking by the hut and the same creature that was being stroked in the hands of the creepy storeowner.
Not knowing what to do Gabby just stood there not even breathing out of fear.
The creature’s eyes stared into her for what seemed like hours. It seemed as if it had entered her mind and was reading her every thought.
         Then Gabby almost smiled when from the creature’s direction she heard a sweet cry with the characteristics of a feline. Then the eyes emerged from the dark reviling a large shaggy cat. It had a gorgeous full coat of silvery grey and snowy white fur on its chest and paws and white was painted down its forehead and around its snout.
         It purred deeply as it rubbed at her knees, enjoying the company Gabby cautiously stroked its soft flowing fur. After awhile the cat crept away looking back for her to follow, Gabby stayed in the same spot on the log wondering if it was a specter. When the cat realized she wasn’t going to follow it looked at her with a troubled expression and disappeared in to the brush.
Gabby realized it was already night again, as she caught a glimpse of the stars out of a few inches of clearing between the trees.
         She decided to rest for the night and crouched under the log were she put what was left of her blanket over her and fell into a light sleep.