"I did go fishing early on." Alastair explained, "These plates are so thin, I didn't expect that, so they are not heavy at all. But what that Frah explained to me is that they will work effectively to sealing a gate to another separate realm, and I should take it that any gate ogres come through can be stopped."
Valeria smiled as she herded Alastair telling her he had gone fishing before. “Well, when we get home again would you like to go fishing with me to show me how good you are at fishing? I think it would be a nice way to go out on a date together. Oh, also are you good at hunting for animals? I ask because I know one thing about Zad is that he likes to hunt and that may be one of his tasks he has for you to do. Now do you have any more questions you want to ask me about Zad?” she asked as she studied his face for a few minutes.
After a few minutes go by Valeria sees Alastair pick up one of the plates and studies it closely. Then as he hands it over to her, he starts to explain how the plates worked to seal a gate off to another realm and that it could stop the ogres from coming through to their realm. But as Valeria studied the plate and was about to say something to him suddenly Zad appeared right behind her and as he does, he grabs both of her arms and pulling her up against his chest he holds her there.
Now when Valeria felt this she screams out and tried to pull away. But as she did Zad put one of his hands over her mouth and started to laugh out. “Now Valeria why do you scream out when you know I won’t hurt you? Yes, I know you are wondering why I have come back; well, it is because I have changed my mind and I want to talk to Alastair now instead of later on.” he said as he looked over at Alastair then back at Valeria and then continued to talk.
“Now Alastair I will make a deal with you. If you are willing to take a walk with me right now and talk about what you are willing to do with Valeria I will let Valeria go and not hurt her, but if you refuse to talk with me now and want to leave instead I will then cast another spell on Valeria and put her to sleep until you have completed all of the task there are to break the spell that is already on her.” he said as he laughs again and tightens his grip on Valeria’s mouth.
As he does this several tears start to roll down Valeria’s cheeks as she stands there with wide eyes looking over at Alastair. Now when Zad felt the tears hit his hand he shakes his head. “Well Alastair if you truly do love Valeria that much what is your answer going to be now?” he asked as he let go of Valeria’s arm and started to lift his hand up in the air as if he was going to cast a spell on her right then.
Even if Valeria could not say anything to Alastair at that moment her eyes spoke for her. As she held her gaze on Alastair face, she waited for him to answer Zad. She knew he loved her and that he wanted to make sure she was safe, but oh now she hoped he would agree to talk with Zad so they could both leave this realm without any more trouble.
Alastair said, "Of course, I will certainly go with you Zad and have you talk with me, but let Valeria go and leave her alone now. Doing anything with her will not have anything to do with me agreeing to go along and have you say things to me." He said then to Valeria, "Go on now, go through here, and get to our home world. I will catch up with you a little later, as soon as I can. Take the plates along as they are not too heavy. But just take the gate on the right after passing through here, to get back there. The other gates are not for us and will not have us get to our home world again."
When Valeria heard Alastair tell Zad he would talk to him if he would let her go, she held her breath hoping Zad would let her go. Now when Zad heard this he laughed out. “Well of course I can do that.” He said as he took his hand off of Valeria’s mouth and quickly slapped her on the side of the face and then he gave her a big push sending her flying accosted to land in Alastair's arms.
As Valeria felt Zad slap her on the face she screamed. But as she landed in Alastair’s arms she started to cry as she put her head on his chest. But she did not cry for very long because she heard Alastair tell her to go ahead and go through the hole and go to their own home world. When Valeria heard this, she looked up into his face. “Oh, Alastair please be careful with Zad if I am to leave you here. But when you do return home, please look for me in the meadow where I will be waiting for you at.” She said as she placed her free hand on his face and gently pats it.
Then looking over at Zad she gives him a frown as she shook her head. “You better not do anything to Alastair because I love him.” She said as she looked back at Alastair and lean forward to kiss him on the cheek. Now Zad did not like what she had said to him and started to laugh. “Oh, we will see about that. Get out of here now before I change my mind about you leaving. he said as he waved his hand in the air at her.
Valeria nodded her head as she looks back up into Alastair eyes one last time and smiled. “I love you Alastair, now see you soon.” She said as she turned to go through the hole. But as she did a couple tears ran down her cheek. As she started to step into the hole she stopped and looked back up at Alastair one last time and smiled.
Now as Valeria disappeared into the hole Zad made his move and came over to Alastair side and put his arm around his neck. “Ah well now Alastair now that we are finally alone let’s do some talking. Now tell me how much do you love Valeria to be willing to break the spell I put on her? Are you also willing to do four tasks that I have for you that will break the spell? Now these tasks won’t be easy tasks that I will be giving you and you must do them all by yourself. They may take you a while to do them all, but I will let you go back to your own world and do them there. After I tell you the tasks you must do them all in order or they will not break the spell. Now if you are ready and don’t have any questions, I will tell you each of the tasks now.” He said as he gave Alastair a hard slap on his back.
Now as Valeria entered the hole all of a sudden, all the wall in the tunnel went black but there was still light in there. As she started to walk along in the tunnel all the things she had done with Alastair over the past few days started to flood mind. Now as she thought about each of the things she kept walking. When a good thirty minute had gone by of walking, she saw two new gates up in front of her. When she got to the two gates, she stopped walking and stood there looking at both of them for a minute to try and remember which one Alastair had said to go through. Then after thinking for a minute, she remembered that Alastair had told her to take the gate on the right.
She then smiled as she turned to go through the gate. Oh, she had been longing to be back home for a long time and now she was going to be there finally. Then taking one step to enter into the gate opening she steps through it and as she does she gasp as she feels cold rain hitting her on the head. Oh, it was so good to finally be home and to find it raining as well. As she took off running down a hill she started to laugh because the rain felt so good.
When she had been running only for a few minutes she came upon the lake that she had grown to call her home. As she got down to the water edge, she took a big jumped in the water and as she did her legs disappeared and her tail reappeared. She then started to swim it had been a long time since she had been in water, so it felt good to finally be in it again.
As she dived under the water and swam around, she started to think about Alastair again. Why had Zad wanted to talk to him before they had gotten back to their own world? She hoped he was not planning to hunt Alastair in any way. She wanted him to be here with her right now so he could be holding her in his arms. No, he was not here with her, and she had no idea how long it would be until she saw him again. She did hope Zad would not keep him there too long and let him come home to her.
Now Valeria swam around in the water for a long time and when she was finally refreshed enough from swimming she got out of the water and lay herself out on the rocks and soon was fast asleep.
Valeria went that fast through the opening, Alastair saw, and both the plates were left where they were, still. He would have to be sure he would take those, himself, when returning through the opening to return to the world that he, and Valeria, were from. They were really that important.
Alastair then turned to Zad, he answered, "What else can I do? Valeria wants to be restored to be herself as she is meant to be, as she should, and I love her in fact and know she should have that. Making demands does not change any of that. So say what you will, and I will do all that is possible, Valeria still should be restored to being herself, as she needs to be. That is only right. I would not be able to live with myself if she wasn't just because of any failure on my part. I do not know how you could go on, with leaving things left like that. What is it that should be done?"
Now after Zad heard Alastair answer his started to shake his head and laugh. “Oh young man I knew when I saw you for the first time you were going to be a hard one to work with.” he said as he kept shaking his head. “But my name would not be Zad if I could not handle you.” he said as he looked Alastair over. Then Zad smiled. “But since you have told me you love Valeria and want to see her restored to her own self I will be nice to you and let you off this time. Now walk with me to a small cave I have made and I will then tell you a few more things before I tell you the four task you must do.”
As the two men walked a little ways to the cave Zad never took his eyes off Alastair. Now when they reached the cave Zad held out his hand for Alastair to go into the cave first. As he want in Zad snapped his fingers and made water and fresh fruit appear for Alastair to eat. “Help yourself to the fresh fruit young man because I know you have to be hungry.” he said as he took a seat on the ground in front of Alastair.
When Zad sat there he watched him eat for a few minutes then he spoke. “Aright Alastair I have a few things I want to tell you before I tell you the four task.” Zad said. “Okay the first thing is about Valeria. Well I was not going to let you see Valeria when you were doing the task but was going to lock her up, but since you told me you loved her I will let her stay with you as long as you will not let her out of your sight. Oh she is not allowed to know this either. But you can tell her any of the tasks you are doing.” He said as he waited for Alastair to nod his head.
Alright now we can move on to the second thing I want to tell you. This will have to do with you after I tell you the four tasks. You are allowed to do the first three tasks in any order as you want, but you must complete each one before you move on to the next one. Now the fourth task you must do last otherwise it won’t break the spell on Valeria. You will understand why after I tell you what it is. Oh Valeria is allowed to be around you when you are doing each task, but not allowed to do any of the tasks along with you.
Alright the last thing you must know before I tell you the tasks.” He said as he stopped talking for a minute. “Okay the most importing thing you must remember to do after you finish each task is take Valeria in your arms and hold her close to you and tell her how much you love her. Then you must kiss her on the lips and if she returns a kiss to you then you have completed that task. Now if you forget to do either of these things each time you complete a task I will then come and take Valeria way from you until you are able to complete two more much harder tasks. But if you can remember to do these things Valeria will stay with you and then you can complete the last task to break the spell. Now if you fail to complete any of the tasks Valeria will remain the way she is the rest of her life and I will come and take you way from her and lock you up in a dark cave where you will live the rest of your life.
Alright Alastair now that I have told you all these things do you understand everything I have told you or do you have any questions about anything? If not I will then tell you the four tasks.” Zad said as he waited for Alastair to answer him.
Alastair swallowed a bite, and said to this Zad, "I agree, to do all that Valeria would be restored, and threatening me is not effective to change anything. I must do what would be the surest way for her to be restored as she should be, I do not even understand why any would not want that, but I must avoid failing her for that. I understand most of what you said, but yes I do need to ask, to be clear about it. I heard you say I can tell her any of the tasks I shall do, but with all the restrictions, I must know if you were meaning that I can't tell her, that I would not fail her for any misunderstanding there."
Alastair saw that this Zad, the wizard that troubled them both, himself and especially Valeria, was now gone. He had yet to go through the gates, where Valeria had already gone. He picked up those big plates that were for covering and sealing such gates, yet they were thin and not as heavy as they seemed they could be. He then maneuvered carefully through that first opening.Now Zad was pleased to hear that Alastair had agreed to do everything he had just told him. “Very good I am glad to see you have agreed to do everything I have just told you.” But when Zad heard Alastair say he needed to ask about something he was not sure about. As Zad looked at him he gave him a frown as he listened to him talk about his problem.
When Alastair was finished talking Zad nodded his head. “Ah, yes we do not need any one to misunderstand what has been said.” he said as he thought about what to say to Alastair. “Okay let’s see first of all yes that is right you can tell Valeria what three of the tasks are but the fourth one she must not know about it. Now after you tell her what they are you can also tell her that there were some restrictions for you only to know and she does not need to worry about them. If she keeps insisting you tell her what they are tell her Zad will just make it harder for you to do the tasks. Oh also remember I am watching what you two are doing so if she keeps giving you a hard time about it I will pop in and talk to her.” he said as he wondered what Alastair would say about it.
As Zad waited a minute to see if Alastair had anything to say to him he got up and started to walk around the cave. Then turning to face him again he spoke. “Alright Alastair now that we got that out of the way let me tell you what the four tasks are.
"Okay the first one could take you a few days to do it. You will have to kill seven wild pigs and bring them back to me one at a time. But you are only allowed to kill one pig a day. If I see you have killed more than one pig a day I will not take those pigs from you and you will have to start over again. Alright do you have any questions about this task?" he asks as he watched Alastair.
“Now here is the second task. You will have to steal two bottles of some kind of magic potion from a medicine shop and bring it back to me without getting caught. If you get caught you will have failed that task. Do you understand what you have to do?” he asks.
“Now here is the third task. It will most likely be the hardest one you have to do. You will have to travel some for this one to find me a woman named Yamira. When you find her you will bring her back to me. You will find her living on an island that mermaids live on. Now Valeria has met this woman before so I will allow her to help you find her. But when you find her you must be the one to say these two words to her. Here they are “Love Bird” and if she responds to you with the words “Fly Away” then it means she is willing to come back with you. But if she responds with the words “Stay Close” it means she has refused to leave the island. You will then have your work cut out for you because you will then have to try and convenes her somehow to come with you. I don’t care how you do it but you must not tell her I ask you to come find her and you cannot say my name to her.
"Okay here is the fourth task you must do. This will be the task that will break the spell. You must get down on one knee and ask Valeria to marry you and she has to say yes to you, then you must kiss her two times on the lips. When you kiss her both of you must be in the water for the spell to be broken. You will then know the spell has been broken when Valeria tail disappears and her legs come back. But remember you cannot tell her this is one of the tasks to break the spell.
"Alright Alastair I have told you all of the tasks you must do. I will now let you get back to the other world to find Valeria, because I am sure she longing to be with you right now and you don’t need to keep her waiting any longer. Now go Alastair,” he said as he gave Alastair a slap on the back and then disappeared before he could say anything to him.
There was a wide space there bound along the sides by a stony wall which above arched over above him. He saw the gates ahead, open for passing through, and he knew he could never go back if he took any way other than the one on the right, as that Frah, the high phoenix, had told him. Did Valeria go that way? She was supposed to! And he had to find her. Their only hope would be with her also having gone that right way. Once again maneuvering with the plates he carried to bring them through, he went through that right gate.
Here he could not tell the time of day, it was overcast above and the ground with grass, herbs and shrubs was all noticeably damp. He could not see where Valeria was. He then looked ahead, and saw where the fortress stood.
Yet where was Valeria? Why was she not near, waiting for him? Did she take the wrong gate after all? That thought troubled him much, he dare not think of it still. He must go do something.
So Alistair carried the plates along with him, going that distance until he came to the fortress after a good walk, still with looking back, to spot the open gate that he had come through, seeing where it was with the area around it.
He knocked on the great door there. His superior opened. "Alastair! You are back! We were not sure you could return!"
"I found Valeria, and sent her ahead, and then I came. Did she come here? I must find her!"
"That woman many here are saying must be the mermaid that some around this area are talking about? She might be at the inlet shore."
"I brought back these plates that can effectively seal a gate that ogres come here through. I might go with any from here to confront any ogres, find that gate, and seal it. But I must find Valeria! I am also on a quest, that I had to return with. I must find where there are wild pigs."
"Wild pigs? There are none in this area at all."
"I was afraid of that."
"Leave the plates here until you are ready to go, I will find others to accompany you. Go now toward that shore and see if you find that woman there."
Leaving the plates there with his superior officer, Alastair hurried that way then.
Reply With Quote
Bookmarks