Shay+Knutson

 The Stone Bearer

“You can’t run forever. . .” said the thundering voice of the furious barbarian, yelling at the thief who had run off with his stone of truth, “I will find you!” he said stomping around with anger. For centuries the stones of truth have been stolen and pondered on, the stones have been said to be made by the gods for one person destined to rule all of the land, the stones are said to give off a power that could make any army kneel before the holder of the stones, four stones of truth have been found through the centuries. Now one of the stones was in the hands of a terrible thief whom everyone calls by the name of Rat. Rat was a devious little man who played tricks on anyone, he is the kind of thief that turns you eye towards something while he is taking your money from your pocket. Rat never stopped running until he got to the town of Mercantis a town of cheats and liers, yet it was still the town where you could find anything, so it had a real big influence on the economy of the empire. Rat had many ties to some merchant who would spend a great deal of money to buy one of the stones of truth and he knew just who to go to but when he was just about to meet up with his contact he was stuck on the head from behind. A young man by the name of Thal had discover Rat walking through the back alley ways and decided to ambush him for payback. Many years ago Rat had tricked Thal’s mother into helping him get back onto his feet, while the whole time Thal’s mother was helping the thief, he was stealing all the money the family had they were left with nothing. Thal quickly search the thief for any money he could find he had found thirty coins, a knife, and the stone, but Thal didn’t think much of the stone he just took everything he could find thinking he could get money of anything it was Mercantis after all. Once he had everything he could find in thief’s pocket he rushed backed to his home outside of Mercantis. His family lived in a small farm house where money had grown scarce, with no help from Rat. It was just him, his mother Kinshi, and his little brother Lex. Running into his house with excitement he had scared his mother almost half to death. When he told her that he had ambushed Rat in the alley ways in Mercantis and regained some of their money she got an angry look on her face. She then walked up to him smack him up side the head and said “What were you thinking getting yourself into that kind of trouble. Now that thief will be looking for the person who stole from him and if he finds out it was you i will. . .” “Mom he won’t I snuck up behind him” said Thal interrupting his mother “Look what I got from his pockets; thirty coins, a diamond, a knife, and this weird stone.” Immediately after Thal showed his mother the stone her eyes became wide-open, “You found this in Rat’s pocket?” she asked “Yes...” Thal said with a bit of curiosity in his voice “Why what is it mother?” he said with a bit a fear. She did not answer she just ran to her room and started packing her this and yelled at Lex to do the same. In a really confused state Thal just stood in the front hallway of the house, after coming to his senses he bolted to his mother and asked why she was packing. She said “Pack your things Thal and I will explain on the way to your uncle’s house” “Why are we going to uncle Theseus’s house?” Thal asked his mother when they were running out the front door of their house. Thal’s mother did not respond until she thought they were a safe distance away from Mercantis “I’m sorry for the confusion my son but you will learn soon enough what is happening and why we are going to your uncle’s house.” she told Thal. Thal’s uncle Theseus was his father’s brother and they had fought in the great war together but when Thal’s father was killed during the war his uncle vowed to give up fighting for the rest of his life. When they got to Thal’s uncle’s house in the distance village of Hemorstein there was so much confusion for the first three hours. Then Thal’s uncle sat him an his mother down in his kitchen. “This stone is one of the stones of truth...” he paused right as Thal’s mouth dropped open. “Why would Rat have it then?” Thal said quickly, “I don’t know why that thief had it but I’m guessing he stole it from the leader of the nomadic barbarian tribe. There were rumors that the tribe had the stone and now we have it.” said Thal’s uncle. Thal just sat there in deep thought. They later all went to bed. Thal woke up in the middle of the night thinking he heard foot steps out in the hall, then he heard them again, he then quietly tip-toed towards the door way there was an ominous figure in a black robe walking down the hallway towards his mothers room he followed the figure as best as he could. The figure then went into his mother’s room and when Thal peeked in on the intruder what he saw astonished him. His mother and his uncle Theseus were sitting in the room talking and then the figure took of their black robe. It was a woman not much older than Thal and she was gorgeous an yet she was also armed to the teeth with weapons. Thal’s mother, his uncle, and the woman all started to talk, they were talking about the stone and what they should do with it. Than the woman abruptly stopped talking and with one swift movement the woman quickly drew a knife from here belt and hurled it at Thal. Seeing her actions Thal ducked in fear and the knife stuck into the wall behind him. “Don’t hurt him!” said Thal’s mother “It is only Thal, my son!” Thal’s mother rushed over to him and helped him up, and with anger Thal screamed “What was that for, and who do you think you are?” “She is Alayla one of the best assassins in this land” said Theseus. “I didn’t know it was you Thal, I’m sorry, I expected you were a spy.” said Alayla. Thal turned away and went and sat on his mother’s bed. The talking went on for a few more hours, they were basically talking about what they should do with the stone and should they go looking for the others but be fore they made their decision Thal had dosed off and fell asleep on the bed. When he woke up, he could smell breakfast downstairs and he also heard some tlaking and laughing. When he got down to the kitchen he saw his mother making breakfast and his uncle Theseus and little brother Lex were sitting down at the table laughing. It all seemed like a dream to him. Once he turned around and was about to head up stairs Alayla walked down them. Thal just stared at her, when she got to the bottom of the stairs she turned to him smiled and said “Good morning” Thal was still in a trance and all he got out was something that sounded like yep. Alayla walked over to the table and sat down right next to Lex. Lex did not think anything of it and kept talking and laughing with uncle Theseus. After breakfast they all decided to go do our separate things. Thal went to talk to his uncle, he wanted to get more information on why Alayla was here. “She is here to protect us for any danger that might come our way the stone and our family are at risk, we needed protection. I met Alayla a few years ago when she was traveling the country side and at first I had no idea she was an assassin. THen later she got into a little trouble and I saved her. So she is here helping me so she can repay her debt to me.” said Theseus. Just then Alayla stepped into the room and asked to talked to Thal. “I’m sorry for what happened last night.” she said “It’s alright, you were just doing your job, no hard feelings.” said Thal. Alayla smiled and walked away, Thal watched her walk away he could feel that he was developing feelings for her, and yet he still did not trust her.