Legend of the Crystals The Beginning

Cana rose suddenly from sleep at the sound of someone knocking on the thick dark oak study room door. She had managed to fall asleep on her book laying on the white oak desk again after staying up most of the night working on her personal research. She scratched her head lightly before loudly complaining,. "Who is it?” There was an unusually long silence before they spoke up, "Um its Kenny, hope I'm not bothering you..." Cana laughed lightly and slowly got up out of the wooden chair and walked over to the door in her black flats. Even though she had taken her sweet time getting there, she still had managed to scare the life out Kenny when she swung the door in quite, which cause him to fall back, landing on his butt. "Of course you’re not bothering me, you actually did me a favor by waking me up." she said sarcastically with a sleepy grin on her face. Kenny, still wide eyed from the scare, quickly tried to get up and speak at the same time. This didn’t go so well but he managed to get out a few words out before ending up on the floor again. "Did I seriously just wake you up?” Cana stretched out her hand to him and Kenny took it. After pulling him up she answered lightly. "Yes, you seriously just did.” Cana sighed, "I was working on my research again.... I still haven't figured out a few things and I'm going to end up going back to Michael's bookshop again. I know he has what I need. And...." She paused only because the next part wasn’t going to be easy and may not be the best thing to tell Kenny at this time. But then remembering how they first met, she knew in time that she would be able to tell him:

They were both equals and carried a unique crystal on them. Hers was bright red, which represented fire and his was pale blue, which represented wind. She had given the crystal to him about a year after finding him running on the rooftops to get away from four bandits: She had just come out of the tavern late at night after talking to a traveler about joining a caravan to their next stop when she saw a flash on the roof to her right. The dim lighting didn’t reveal much but she couldn’t believe it when she saw a man jump to that roof from the other far off. She smiled at his jumping ability before the bandits, who had somehow kept up with the boy on the ground, ran right smack into her. She landed hard on the stone pathway, and scrapped her right arm and leg. She could tell they had clearly been paying more attention to the boy than to where they were going and this frustrated her. In response to being ran into, she swiftly jumped up and jabbed one of them in the face with her left elbow. It made direct contact and the bandit who toppled over in pain. Seeing one of their own get knocked over by a girl, the other three bandits had shifted their attention to her instead of the boy.

She then quickly grasped four throwing knives, having two in each hand, from her bag hanging on her waist, and threw one straight at the bandit to her right. However, it missed and the bandit managed to ram into her thus knocking her over. The other knives fell onto the ground just out of reach. The boy, who had remained on the roof above, then jumped down directly on the bandit to her left with a club in hand and knocked him unconscious when the club connected with his head. He then swung the club swiftly at the head of the bandit on his left. It made impact with a huge thunk; giving Cana the opening she needed to grab one of the knives and throw it at the final bandits back. The knife struck right in the bandits shoulder and knocked him down. The boy, wanting to get the final blow, slammed the club down on the last bandits head, thus killing him. Cana walked over to the boy and laid a hand on the club that was now above his head to strike him again. "That’s enough, he's dead!" She said firmly, "Thanks for helping me....." He jumped back swiftly as she was finishing and stared blankly at her for several moments before coming back to his senses. "Uh yeah, no problem." She looked at him curiously as he had caught her interest from the moment she had seen him jump to the roof above them.

Deciding to take a chance, she closed her eyes and focused her energy. A light silver glow surrounded her before she opened her eyes and looked at him. She could then see the aura around him, it was pure. She smiled at this and also saw a wind surrounding him. She knew he had a connection to wind, which explained why he could jump so well. Knowing this, she closed her eyes again and released the energy she had gathered. She opened her eyes to find him backed against the wall with a frightened look. "What... what did you just do?" he almost shouted. She began to walk towards him with her hand out stretched. "I am able to focus my aura, and I believe you can too." The boy knocked her hand away, but stayed where he was, he didn’t know what to think but wondered if he could truly do what she had done and maybe more. "Do you really think I can do that?" He asked uncertainly. "I do believe you can. I have seen your aura. It is pure and connects to the wind", she waited a moment to see how he'd react. Seeing a positive response she continued. "If you accept my offer to learn about the crystal I have here…." She showed him a small pale blue crystal in the palm of her left hand, "Then you will accompany me and I will be able to help unlock the power that’s inside you and you'll learn what needed to defend against an ancient darkness." Kenny thought about this for a long moment. This meant that he may stand more of a chance against not only the bandits, but against others that may attack him. Whether he knew it or not, there was going to be more to him accepting the crystal. He smiled having made his decision and then took her hand. "I accept, and I also realized I forgot to introduce myself. My name is Kenny." She smiled also at his acceptance, "And my name is Cana. From now on I will be your mentor" She moved to tie the crystal around his neck. "From now on you must keep the crystal safe and know that it is not the source of your power. It is to focus it, remember that!"

After remembering, she looked up to see Kenny lightly shaking his head and yet he was smiling while doing so. This told her that she didn’t have to say anything more and she then smiled. "Well I mainly came to tell you that if you wanted lunch, then you should get downstairs before the other guests eat it all up" Kenny said kindly before turning and starting down the hallway towards the staircase that lead down to the main floor.

Cana nodded even though Kenny had already turned down the hallway. She went back into the large study room with shelves of books going up to the ceiling and the large oak desk in front of the triple planed window for a moment to brush her waist long silver hair. Even though she usually didn’t care first thing in the day, she thought it would be a good idea since she wanted to let it flow instead of having it tied up in a pony-tail. She walked slowly to the desk and opened the second shelf which contained her simple hairbrush. After several minutes of tenderly brushing out any tangles threw her long thick black hair. Once she put the brush back into the shelf, she quickly walked back to the door, closed it, and then rushed down the moderately lightened hallway to the smoothed stoned stairs that led down to the kitchen. Her flats made a light patting noise as she rushed down the stairs. She came to a halt when she stepped into the kitchen.

She had been too late, as everyone had eaten and only the plates remained on the table. Alice, the housekeeper, shook her head at Cana. “Didn’t Kenny tell you to hurry? Sadly there is none left, but here, have a banana.” Alice tossed the banana to Cana with ease. Cana now wished she had just waited to brush her hair, but was also glad that she was able to get something at least. As she began to peel and eat the banana she turned to Alice, “Yes he did tell me to hurry, but I thought it best to brush my hair. We do have some important people here from time to time.” Alice sighed and began to collect the plates from the large table. “That is true, but just wasn’t the case this morning.”  Senna, having finished the banana, tossed the peeling into the trash bin, which was really just a wooden crate that was taken out once every one to two days. “Do you need any help cleaning up?” She asked lightly, even though Alice usually told her to go on. “No, I can manage”, Alice said absentmindedly, Cana expected, but she didn’t expect what she said next, “But I do need to tell you that a man came by not long ago. He was looking for you and Kenny. He told me that if I saw you to let you know he’d like to meet you two at the fountain in the courtyard around noon.” Cana thought about this for a minute, as this hasn’t happened before and she was curious. “Thank you Alice, I will go speak to Kenny about it. Don’t push yourself!” She said briefly as she had already bolted to the door. She had to meet with Kenny now as it was only about an hour till noon.

It appears that Kenny had received the same message because as Cana was walking down the gravel pathway to the main street she was knocked down with much force. She looked up to find it had been Kenny and frowned. “Now how about that, I was just coming to look for you.” She said sarcastically as she began to push herself up. With a flick of her hands she was up on her feet and thought for a moment. “Very weird, I was coming back to meet you. So I guess you know that a man wants to talk to us?” He asked even though he was pretty sure that was it. “Yes that’s exactly it. Now I suggest we go, there is not much time.” She said as she grabbed his wrist and tugged him to the main road. That’s when she let it go and began running down the mixed stoned street towards the main square where the fountain was located. Kenny quickly caught up to her and within a minute they had come close enough to the fountain to where they could see a man wearing a slim hat and a long brown coat. As they approached they went from a run to quick jog and then stopped a few feet away from him. The man raised his head and nodded in acknowledgement. “Hello there, my name is Henry. You two must be Cana and Kenny.” He stopped momentarily to watch them. They both nodded and he continued as before. “I have come to see you two because of a rumor that you were auric’s” Cana narrowed her eyes. “Yes that is true, but why is that important.” Henry sighed. “It is important because I need your help” Henry rubbed the back of his head. “There has been some trouble in my town a few days travel from here. An unknown magic has been causing much chaos and no one knows how to handle it. And many of our townsmen have already become injured during the week it has popped up. Will you help me?” Cana thought for a moment as she didn’t usually go far out to help those who can handle things themselves, but this was a whole new matter. This was magic, not the normal blades and bows attack that some bandits usually do. Whoever was causing this was trained and had to be taken care of. She looked to Kenny and nodded. He was thinking the same thing. Looking back to Henry she nodded with a serious look. “Yes we will help you. How soon do you need us to leave?” She asked as it was only noon and they could make it a decent way by nightfall and that’s after packing for the journey. “I’d like to leave again as soon as possible.” He said honestly. “Alright then” Cana said with confidence. “Let us pack and we will head out shortly!”