Discovery

This is just the first half of the chapter "Discovery." This one is kind of long, so I split it up. Don't worry, the second half is coming. Promise.


Atrianna wasn't sure how long she sat there weeping before her tears finally ran dry, but when she looked up the sky was dark. Sparse stars peeked through the clouds overhead, looking cruelly peaceful compared to the turmoil Atrianna was feeling within. A cloud passed in front of the waning moon, blocking out its faint light. Even in the dark, something seemed to glow. Atrianna looked around, searching for the source of the blueish light. She looked toward the sky, but saw nothing. Perplexed, she looked down at the ice beneath her and realized, to her utter amazement, that the ice itself was glowing. She blinked, rubbed her eyes, shook her head, and looked again; the glow was still there. Atrianna simply stared. Why is the ice glowing What is in there? All her previous worries were gone in an instant. She looked around her for some branch or rock or something that she could use as a tool to dig through the ice toward the source of the glow. She found nothing. Disappointed, she knelt back on the balls of her feet, staring at the glowing patch of ice.

A chill breeze blew across the lake, passing easily through Atrianna's thin tunic and sending goose pimples across her skin. She realized how late it had gotten - her family would be worried. After the news they heard this afternoon, she knew her mother would be frantic with worry. She knew she should get back, but was reluctant to leave the mysterious glowing ice patch. I'll come back tomorrow, she decided. Ercon has to see this...

* * * *

"Atrianna, where are you taking me?" Ercon asked the next day as he was being led, blindfolded, by Atrianna down a winding forest path. She had come racing into the bakery, babbling some unintelligible nonsense about Widow's Lake and the bloody merchant to him this morning. He grinned as he thought of how eccentric his friend could be. She often came running into his papa's bakery, eyes wide with excitement, yelling "Ercon! You'll never guess what I heard!" or, "Ercon, you have to see this!" So when she appeared in the bakery this morning, wide-eyed and grinning devilishly, he knew today would be interesting.
Atrianna sighed as she said, for the thousandth time that morning, "I told you. You'll see when we get there."
Ercon could hear the laughter in her voice, and, knowing he would get no more information out of her while she was in such a mischievous mood, dropped the subject - again.