Here's a novel that I'm working on currently, mainly because my boyfriend wants me to, but I do enjoy working on it. It's not all done, but I have like a chapter and half done. I'd like your opions please.:

Blaze walked down the street of the strangely beautiful town. Her footsteps echoing in the empty streets as well as the sound of rustling fabric, which came from the deep green gown she wore. She saw tall buildings all around her, supported with marble pillars, all elaborately decorated with a variety of precious green gemstones. Around the great pillars were silver sculptures of wonderful serpents, each with so much detail they appeared life-like. As Blaze neared one of the sculptures to admire its beauty, she noted that the light reflecting off of it made it seem like the serpent was moving. As she continued to study it, she realized that is was indeed moving. She stood upright and looked around her as she begins to hear soft hissing surrounding her. Her eyes grow wide as she watched all the exquisite serpent statues coming to life and being moving towards her. Blaze tried to move, but her body was froze, not fear, but awe and as the snakes began to reach her...

Blaze sat upright in her bed as her alarm clock went off. She quickly turned it off and looks around. Breathing hard, she realized that she was in her bedroom and the city before was nothing but a dream.

This was not the first time Blaze had that dream. She has been dreaming the very same dream for as long as she can remember and at the age of nineteen, the beautiful dream city still lingered in her dreams.

She looked at her alarm clock, wondering why she was getting up so early and then she realized that she was suppose to go on her fieldtrip with her wildlife biology class. She quickly jumped out of bed and, shaking off her thoughts of the dream, she quickly put on a simple green t-shirt and a comfortable pair of old blue jeans with her old brown boots. She grabbed her bags that she had packed the night before and ran to the kitchen to grab a donut and ran to the door. She was about to step out when she realized she forgot something. She dropped her bag and quickly ran inside grabbing her snake charm necklace.

The necklace was made of silver and was sculpted in the shaped two snakes intertwined together in a very complex knot. It was very difficult to tell where one snake started and the other one ended.

She ran quickly back out the door, picked up her bag and began to make her way to the meeting point with her class. She ran out of her building complex and went right into the alley next to it. She quickly passed trash cans and ran under clothes lines. As she reached the back of the alley, she climbed over the brick wall there by climbing on top of some old wooden boxes the local kids like to play with. She took many more twists, turns and jumps before she finally reached the destination of the park where the bus was already waiting.

Generally Blaze wouldn't have taken a path that seemed to be more of an obstacle course, but she was in a hurry today. Blaze was a very attractive young woman with a fit body and lightly tan skin. Her full, long, red hair reached down to her waist and she had exotically shaped green eyes. She always managed to get the attention of men and was usually stopped by a few of them to be asked for a date, which she usually refused for reasons of her own. Today, she didn't have time to put up with such foolish things, so she took the back way to the park.

In front of the bus she noted that her two friends, Jade and Isis, were already waiting for her.

"Hurry up Blaze," Isis called, "the guys are already saving seats for us." Said Isis, who was shorter than Blaze, had fair skin, with deep blue eyes and short, golden blond hair and was wearing a pink shirt with faded blue jeans. As always, she had a warm and friendly smile.

"Yeah, including you admirer," teased Jade. Jade was the tallest of the three girls with black hair down to mid back and eyes that changed colors for a variety of reasons. She was wearing her customary black pants with a black t-shirt that she had picked up at one of the concerts she had gone to. Today, her eyes were and olive green.

"What? I thought he couldn’t make it," she said as she rolled her eyes, "now I have to put up with him making googely eyes at me all week long."

"Oh Sage isn't that bad. He's a real cutie and you two have a lot in common," Isis commented.

"That's not the problem. I just don't like the way he obviously likes me, but doesn't say anything about it and if I just try and approach him as more than a friend, he gets all tongued tide," Blaze said as she loaded her bag into the bus's side compartment.

The three girls went in and walked towards the back of the bus. There were three young men waiting for them at the back.

“Hey Blaze! What took so long?” shouted Lance who was a short thing guy with pale skin and light brown hair and eyes. The high hairline on his forehead made it seem like he had gone to seed a little early. He, like Jade, was wearing black pants and shirt.

“I was wondering if you got stopped by another mob of guys. I was getting ready to bring put my axe and rescue you,” laughed Gell. He was the largest of the group, towering over the rest with broad shoulders, strong arms and hands and thick legs; he was quite an imposing sight. He had light skin, red hair down to his shoulders and a beard to match. On his friendly face, he wore a warm smile. He, like the others, had his own favorite mode of dress. He was wearing a forest green t-short with a deep blue pair of jeans.

“Don’t tell me you brought that thing,” Jade said with amazement.

Gell laughed, put a finger to his lips and winked.

“You should know our friend here brings that thing with him, no matter where he goes…besides, I’m sure you have your bow and arrows in your bag somewhere,” Lance said slyly.

“Well, if you’re going to put it that way…” Jade responded with a laugh.

“I though as much, now if you excuse me, I must go see a man about a horse,” he said getting up and walking out of the bus.

“You didn’t have to share!” Jade shouted out after him.

“OK, just so we can know,” Isis said, “Who brought their weapons with them?”

Everyone raised their hand with a broad grin on their faces; that is all but one.

“Well Sage? Didn’t you bring your staff with you?” Blaze asked the silent young man. He had dark skin and strange looking eyes. He had his long dark brown hair pull in a neat ponytail. He wore a brown t-shirt with black jeans and a necklace, of which only the chain showed from under his shirt.

“I did,” Sage responded in a quiet voice, “I just don’t think we should announce it, Ms. Mitchell might get mad at us.”

Blaze laughed and said, “You know she won’t get man, I mean, she even carried throwing daggers with her.”

At that moment a woman appearing in her mid thirties walked into the bus. She was without a doubt she shortest person there, but she stood as if she were the tallest one there. She had short, dark brown, almost black, hair and her eyes were a deep brown. She wore a maroon sweater top and jeans with black low heel shoes. She looked at the strange group and smiled.

“Well, it’s finally happened,” she said, giving them the mysterious smiles she always had when she watched the strange group of friends.

“What are you talking about Ms. Mitchell?” asked Isis, a confused look on her face.

“You have been seen as entirely too strange and scared everyone away. Look around you guys, we are the only ones in the bus,” she said as she starting laughing her warm rich laugh.

The group looked around and saw that she was right. They were all so busy talking to each other that they never noticed that nobody else was on the bus.

“Is the trip going to be canceled now?” asked Blaze in a worried tone.

“No, we have just enough to still go," she smiles at them, “but since it’s us and you are all my favorite students, you can call me Colleen while we are on the trip. Let’s get going. We don’t want to be late.”

Colleen set down her bag in an empty seat and then, to everyone surprised, she sat down at the driver’s seat.

“The college is on a budget,” she said without even turning to look at the groups confused looks.

The group then got up and moved back up to front since it was pointless to be at the back of an empty bus.

Colleen starts the bus and begins to drive towards the trips destination.

“Aren’t we forgetting something?” asked Jade.

“I don’t think so, we all have our packs and things,” Blaze said, trying to think if she didn’t forget anything.

“Even if we did, it must not be important since we can’t remember it,” said Isis.

”Well, it’s too late now, we are already driving off,” added Gell.

They stay silent for a few moments and the silence is broken by a soft chuckling from Gell.

“…does anyone else hear that?” asked Sage.

“Yes,” said Gell, still laughing to himself.

They all listen intently and they hear a faint voice behind the bus.

They all get up and move to the back and see Lance running behind the bus. They all look at each other and begin to laugh.

“Shouldn’t we stop the bus?” inquired Isis.

“Nah, the exercise will do him good. He’s been getting flabby lately anyways,” Jade says still laughing.

“Be nice,” Blaze chided and turned towards the head of the bus, “Colleen, stop the bus, Lance is chasing the bus.”

Colleen laughs as she puts the break on the bus and opens the doors. Lance stumbles into the bus out of breath.

“Why didn’t you wait for me?”

“Honestly, we forgot about you,” said Jade, trying to control her laughing fit, “But don’t worry, we still love you.”

Lance glares at her and begins to mutter to himself.

Everyone came back to the front and took their seats as Colleen started the bus again. Lance and Jade sat together and across from them sat Isis which her bag of crafts filling the rest of the seat. This left her to sit next to Sage. She cast a quick glare at her friends, all of which were grinning impishly at her, except for Gell. Gell sat by himself in the seat in front of Sage, with his black, worn out bulky backpack next to him. Without much choice, as seeing what her friends were trying to do, she sat down next to Sage and though to herself, “Well, maybe at least I can try and improve things between us. If I’m lucky, I can get a boyfriend out of this trip.”

The group was quiet, which was very rare with them, but none of them really had the urge to speak. She could tell by the way Lance, Jade and Isis were looking out of the windows that they were all excited. Even Colleen seemed happy as she cast occasional glance towards them through the rear view mirror. Gell on the other hand, just sat alone in front of her and Sage with his head down, probably asleep.

By about noon, the bus was well out of the city and into the highway leading up into the wilderness. Up ahead they could see the vast forest growing as they neared it. Soon enough they went off the highway and into more secluded roads surrounded by trees. The group all looked outside with awe at the beautiful sight of nature untamed by man.

“This is how nature should be,” Sage said quietly.

The rest of the group, excluding Gell who still had whose head down, turned and looked at him since he was the person they least expected to speak.

“What do you mean?” asked Blaze.

Sage blushed at the fact that the object if his admiration spoke to him. It was embarrassing enough to have to sit next to her. He wished he could tell her his feelings, but he always trips over his own words. He knew that she was aware if his feelings, but still he could do nothing. There was something about her that always got his attention.

“Well humans always try to tame things, including Mother Nature, but that doesn’t mean it’s meant to be tamed. Nature should be allowed to grow free and not have to worry about being destroyed. There is so much beauty in the wilderness, but most humans do not see it, they are too caught up in their greed,” he responded, all while looking at the forest outside.

Gell grunted an agreement. Apparently he wasn’t asleep.

The bus continued along the trail. As it rolled along, Blaze shifted her gaze from the scene outside to her friends.

Her eye first wandered to Isis and Jade. Her two oldest and closest friends. She has counted on them since high school when they first met. The three of them had created a close bond between them that seem to withstand whatever life threw of at. Blaze had gone through so much with them and her friendship with the two girls would probably never break.

Her eye then wandered to Lance. Now there was an enigma. She has been asked why she was his friend and she usually couldn’t answer that question, not even when she asked herself the question. Perhaps it was just his unusual personality that drew her to him. She smiled as she thought that even though he might have a bad tempered, he did have an overall nice personality.

Then she looked at head at her teacher, Colleen Mitchell. She laughed to herself at the memories she had with this one teacher. She first had her in her high school biology class. It was an early morning class, so she would joke about how Blaze was the only one awake in the class. The next year, she became a student aid and volunteered in her classes. She was so sad when she graduated until she reached her first college biology class and saw her standing at the front, ready to teach. Now Blaze joked that the teacher was stalking her, to which Colleen only smiled.
She then gazed at Gell. She smiled warmly at the thought of her friendship with this gentle giant. When she had first met him, she wasn’t intimidated by his size as more people are; she seemed to see beyond his outer appearance to the sweet person inside. Whenever she was troubled, be it from school, or from a fight with other friends or anything, no matter how diminutive, he was always there to lend an ear to listen, a hand to hold and a shoulder to cry on. They had a very close relationship and she knew that as long at Gell was around, she was safe.

Blaze smiled and she turned towards the window. On its glossy surface she could see the reflection of Sage. Along with the girls, she had met Sage in high school. They never spoke much, but usually ran into each other between classes and spoke one or two sentences each before dashing off to class. However, they both considered themselves friends, which became obvious when they began to hang out with each other once they were in college. She was aware of his feelings and she had to admit to herself that she was attracted to him, but as of now, they stay just friends.
The bus turned off the road and stopped. Colleen got up in front and faced them.

“OK guys, let’s get started. We have to walk the rest of the way to the camp sight, but before we get there, we have to stop by a place I want to show you,” she said and smiles mysteriously as she got off the bus to open the side compartment.

The group filed off the bus and grabbed their bags and began their walk down the forest trail. The vast forest made Blaze speechless. She was not prepared for the serenity they were washed over as they carefully treaded through the deep forest. As they walked deeper into the forest, she grew calmer. Still in awe of her surroundings, she looked to judge her friend’s reactions.
Jade and Isis wore identical faces of awe and wonder. They turned and gazed in opened mouthed wonder at everything around them. Lance seemed to be in the same state. Sage was wearing a look of deep reverence. Even Colleen had a slightly dreamy look about her. Gell walked a little to the side of the group. He looked calm and at peace. She remembered that Gell, unlike the rest of them, didn’t grow up in the city, but grew up in the woods. This forest seems to be reminding him of home.

Blaze was in deep wonder as she walked along. As she would pass by a tree, she would put a hand tenderly on it and wish the entire world were like this.
After about an hour or so, Blaze saw something strange among the trees, but couldn’t see what it was because the rest of the thick trees were in the way.

“Colleen, is that what you wanted to show us?” she asked, trying to peer through the trees to better see what lies ahead.

“Yes. It’s some old ruins of sorts. They are very odd. Anthropologist have come far and wide, but they can’t seem to identify them to any culture of this world,” responded Colleen.

As the group continued on, they saw that the ruins were much bigger than they first appeared to be. There were all sorts of statues half buried, as well as a circle made of stone. Behind this was a huge temple made of white stone. What really stood out was that eve though all the surrounding stone sculptures were dirty and worn looking, the temple itself appeared to have practically no damage or dirt on it all. It looked as if it was abandoned only a few days ago.

The group all became hushed as they observed the temple from a far, all but two. Blaze and Sage.

The two friends walk towards the temple in a sort of trance, almost as if they were being called. The rest of the group looked at each other, confused about what to do. Finally they decided to follow, but Colleen steps in front o them and shakes her head as Blaze and Sage reached the temple.

When they reach the temple, it was much bigger than it appeared. There were intricate, ribbon-like patterns engraved in the marble that made up the temple. The temple seemed to be made entirely of white marble, except for the two giant doors, which Blaze and Sage stood before. The doors were made of a deep green marble and had two large golden snakes on them. The way the two snakes intertwined together, they seem to lock with each other and held the temple doors closed.

Upon close inspection, there could be seen two imprints of sorts on the lower part of each door. They were a familiar shape and it seemed as if something belonged there. Blaze and Sage were still in a half daze as they turned to each other and nodded in agreement. The rest of the group had inched closer to the temple and watched in confusion, wondering what was going on. From the slight smile on Colleen’s face, she was the only one who knew what was going on.

Both friends reach to their necks and each removed their necklaces from around them. The stepped forward and seemed to place their necklaces in the imprints on the giant doors.

As the amulets were put in place, there was a faint click, but the sounds was enough to have the forest fall into absolute silence as it echoed for all to hear. Blaze and Sage then removed their amulets and stepped back and looked up at the great intertwined snakes. A hissing sound seemed to come from the snake lock as they began to move, unwinding from each other.

The great marble doors opened without a sound and it was pitch black inside. The rest of the group came up behind them as Colleen walked towards them. They all stood in silence as they tried to figure out what just occurred.

It was Lance who finally broke the silence. “What the hell just happened?”

Blaze and Sage shook their heads as if clearing a fog in their minds. Then they looked at each other and then at the open temple doors.

“I… I don’t know, it just happened,” answered Blaze.

“It was almost as we were being told to open the temple,” added Sage.

“Told? Told by who?” asked Jade.

“I don’t know,” said Blaze, “but the voice sounded familiar to me.”

“Same here,” Sage said.

Then there was a howl off in the distance, which startled the group. As they looked around, they noticed that night had somehow crept up on them.

“We’ll make camp here for the night here since we don’t have time to reach the other spot,” Colleen said, while taking out her tent and setting it up, not giving anyone a chance to argue against her.

The others did the same, even though their faces showed their lack of enthusiasm for camping so close to the eerie temple.

They were camped in the clearing just in front of the temple. Gell got a small fire going and sat tending it. They ate a simple meal of cold sandwiches and water. Colleen sat wrapped in a blanket in front of her small tent. She looked as if she were considering a problem, but before any of them could get around to asking her what she was thinking she declared that she was going to bed and suggested the others do the same. She then crawled into her small tent and tied the flaps behind her. They all followed her example. Lance and Sage shared a tent, as did Isis, Blaze, and Jade. Gell, after setting a few more sticks on the fire, simply set down a d bed roll and using his pack as a pillow, he wrapped himself in a blanket and settled in.

As the night crept in, everyone eventually fell asleep…that is, everyone except Blaze. She had walked out of her tent carefully when she could not fall asleep. She stood at the edge of the light cast by the dying fire, gazing at the temple. A sudden wind gently began to blow and she shivered as the cool breeze hit her skin. Suddenly she felt something warp around her. She quickly turned around to see what it was. Gell was standing behind her. He had just wrapped his blanket around her shoulders, and was looking at her with concern. “You shouldn’t be walking around without something to keep you warm.”

“Thanks… what are you doing up?” she asked as she tightened the blanket around herself.

“Making sure you’re ok,” he said. He gave her a look of deep concern. “What’s wrong?”

“Nothing,” she said quickly.

He nodded slowly. She could see in his eyes that he didn’t believe her.

“I’m serious. Look, I just wanted to do some thinking and my tent was a bit stuffy.”

He gave her a concerned look and nodded, saying, “Alright. Just keep yourself warm. If you need anything, I’ll be happy to help.” He gave her a warm smile, turned and moved silently back to his bedroll. She watches him as he stirred the embers, and place a few more sticks and twigs in the dying fire and- this time without a blanket- settled back in to go to sleep.

As soon as she sensed everyone sleeping, she silently walked back to the temple’s doors. She just stood there, staring at the temple, trying to peer into the darkness. There was a sound of rustling from behind her. She quickly turned to see a figure coming from around a tree about ten yards.

It was Sage. “Couldn’t sleep either?” he asked, looking at Blaze.

She nodded. “I keep thinking about us opening the door. The voice that spoke to us sounded so familiar. I keep thinking about m childhood, which is odd considering that I really don’t remember anything earlier than the orphanage. The only thing I have of my past is-“

“Your amulet,” Sage finished.

She looks up in surprise. “How do you know that? I’ve never told anyone about it.”

Sage takes out his amulet from under his shirt and shows it to her. She carefully takes hold of it and examines it.

“It’s almost like mine,” she said

“Almost, but not quite. I grew up the same way you did. In an orphanage, not really knowing my past, just this amulet. I never really felt like I belonged anywhere because of that. Well that is, I never felt at home anywhere real. There is this dream where I am in a great city decorated in the silver and green. There are sculptures of snakes everywhere that are so life like that-“

“They come to life and begin to surround you,” Blaze finished, “I have the same dream for as long as I can remember. I think that are past are very closely intertwined.”

They both look at each other, feeling closer than ever before, wondering what connection they had with each other. As they stood there, before the great doors of the grand temple, they both hear something. Blaze jumped slightly and unconsciously held on to Sage.

“Did you hear that?” Blaze asked; her voice slightly frightened.

“Yeah, it sounded as if someone was calling us,” he said, slowly putting a protective arm around Blaze, feeling more scare of how she would react to this action than of the voice, “It sounded like the same voice that told us how to open the doors.”

“I just wonder who it is.”

They both fall silent in the darkness of the night. They look at each other and then turn their eyes back to the massive open doors of the temple. Blaze breaks the silence.

“I say we go and see who this mysterious voice is.”


“What?!” Sage stares at her, removing his arm from around her, “Are you crazy? We don’t know what’s in there.”

“Yes we do.”

“We do?”

“Out past. I know that whatever questions we have about our past will be in answered if we go into the temple. I won’t make you go, but I do. I need to know who I am.”

She turns to him, her eyes sincere as she speaks. The flames of their campfire reflect in her green eyes, intensifying what she says. Dusk just looks at her for a moment.

“I’m not going to let you go alone and you know that. Besides, I want to know my past as well, but I think it’s best not to take the other along. There is no need to put them into any danger we might come across.”

Blaze nodded in agreement. “Right, let’s grab our stuff and go.”

The two quickly grabbed their stuff from their tents. They move silently as not to alert their friends of their departure.

As Blaze walks over to the temple, where Sage waits for her, she stops for a moment. She removes her scimitar from her pack and sets it on her side on her belt. As she walks, the scimitar gleams in pale moonlight and the campfire’s dying flames.

When she reached Sage, he turns on a flashlight and leads the way into the strange temple that seems to beckon them to explore its interiors.

As they walk in, the temple was pitch black and Sage’s flash light doesn’t really seem to help. Their every steps echoes slightly in the vast temple. Blaze tried to look around, but saw nothing but darkness. She kept walking until she ran into Sage who suddenly stopped.

“Hey! Why did you stop?” she asked in a whisper, slight annoyed by the sudden stop.

“I think I see something up ahead,” he responded in whisper as well.

“What is it?” Blaze asked, moving her hand to the hilt of her blade.

“There is some sort of pedestal in the middle. I think I might be able to light it,” Sage said, as he started to go towards it.

Blaze let out s sigh of relief, echoing louder than expected in the large temple. She jumped slight and quickly began to follow Sage. She walked very close to Sage, so close he could smell the sweet scent of her perfume, which seemed to distract him a bit. He shook his head to shake it off and continues to approach the pedestal. When they reached it, Blaze once again broke the silence.

“Well? What are you waiting for? Go ahead and light it. The flashlight doesn’t seem to give off much light and I can’t see a damn thing,” she said. Her voice sounded either annoyed or nervous, Sage couldn’t tell which.

“I don’t have anything to light it with,” he said, feeling slightly foolish for just standing there as if the pedestal would light itself.

“Here, give me that!” Blaze said, snatching the flashlight from his hand.

She walks up to the pedestal and takes out her matches. She takes a single match and striking it against the box; the rasping sound echoing loudly thought the dark interior of the building. She drops it into the dish at the top of the pedestal and as soon as it hit the dish, there was a blinding flash and the temple was washed in a bright light.

When they two friend adjusted their eyes, they looked around and noticed that all the torches along the walls were lit. Then, after the shock of the light was gone, they noticed the temple itself.

“Oh my goodness!” she said in an awe filled tone.

“You can say that again,” Dusk agreed, his face filled with wonder.

The temple was even more vast than its large exterior suggested. The walls were made of a white marble, divided into equal section by large pillars of green marble. The floor was made of black and white marble, with a large mosaic picture in the middle, some of the small colored tiles out of place and others missing. Blaze walked over and tried to figure what it was showing.

“What is it of?” Blaze asked, cocking her head to a side, trying to look at it form a different angle.

“I can’t tell, this seems to be the only part of the temple damaged, there are pieces of the picture missing. Come on, let’s keep going.”

The two kept walking down the center of the temple towards an alter at the front. On the raised alter, there were only two things: an empty stone table and a grand statue of a silver cobra behind it. The statue almost seemed to be made entirely of sliver and had amazing detail, every scale on its long body visible and its sharp, beady eyes sparkled green, made of smooth jade.

“Have you ever seen anything more beautiful?” Blaze asked, as she quickly approached it.

As Sage watches Blaze tenderly caress the magnificent statue, he thought “Yes, you,” but when he tried to speak the words, they seem to stick to his tongue as he approached the statue, just like every time he tried to complement her beauty.

While Blaze inspected the giant sculpture, she noticed a fine line on the sculpture. She traced it with her finger and realized that there seemed to be some sort of door in the statue.

“Hey Sage, come look at this. There seems to be some sort of door here.”

He walked right next to her and leaned in and began to examine it. He tries to see if he can’t find a way to open it.

“I don’t think we can open it, there is no handle,” he said, standing up straight form his inspection.

“There had to be, why would anyone put a door that can’t be opened,” she says, “maybe we can pry it open.”

She looked around for something to aid her with the door.

“You sword maybe?” Sage suggested, “Maybe not. This looks like it made of solid metal and your scimitar is thin, so it might break.”

Regardless of what Sage just said, she took removed her scimitar from her side. The curved blade reflected brightly in the torch light of the temple and its keen edge seem to twinkle. She smiled as she looked at it.

The people at the orphanage looked at her oddly when she wanted to learn how to use a sword, but after much persistence on her behalf, the found someone to do so, thinking perhaps she would outgrow the enthusiasm to do so. To everyone’s surprise, she learned very quickly and soon enough she even out did her instructor. She was so happy later on when she met her friends. Each of them had also learned the skill of fighting with a non-firearm weapon. They, like her, just had an urge to learn their specialized weapon and didn’t really question it, but were happy just learning.

She never used it on anyone, aside from an occasional sparing tournament, but she knew that her blade would never let her down when she needed it. She braced herself as she put the edge into the thin gap and almost fell forward when she pushed since the blade slid in easier than she thought it would. She then pushed against her blade and prides the door slightly open. She removed her scimitar, undamaged to her surprise and she and Sage pushed open the door wide open, revealing a dark room.

“Come on, let’s go,” she said, placing her scimitar back at her belt.

Sage eyes the strange room and takes out his two piece staff and places the brace to carry them on his back. He looks down at his two sticks. He traced the runes along them with his eyes and smiles. He had made this staff with his own two hands and carved the runes into it himself. He smiled as he remembered the many hours he spent training with it. In his early years, this was his only friend. He took both pieces and puts them together and screwed them into one long staff. After checking it over, he took it about and places them into the brace and walked in, Blaze at his side.

“I can’t see a thing,” said Blaze.

“Let’s keep going, maybe we can find another pedestal to light,” said Sage as he put an arm around her shoulder and gently guides Blaze through the room .

As the two kept walking, Sage tripped and slides down a slope that they couldn’t see. Blaze hears him sliding down as he yells.

“Sage!” she yells after hearing the noise, “are you ok?”

She drops to her knees and feels ahead and feels the slope and carefully slides down and quickly makes her way to Sage, she was making sure he was ok, and then suddenly stops.

“Wow! Is this still the temple?” she asked, looking around.

Sage sits up and looks around and realizes that there is a dim light in the cave; lighting is enough for them to be able to see more detail than before. He looked around, but couldn’t see where the light came. It almost seemed that the light seem to be coming from the walls themselves.

Blaze walks to one of the wall and runs her hand against the cave wall.

“The wall here is very rough and it appears to be made of natural rock, like the inside of a cave,” she said as she continued to examine the wall.

Sage was only half listening because his eyes were upon a strange structure at the far end of the cave-like room and he bag to walk towards it.

“Hey Blaze, look at this,” he said as he moved forward towards it.

Blaze looked away from her examining and followed him.

The structure before them was a large stone circle laid flat upon the ground with some tablet of the same material erected upon it other tablet laid horizontally across them, making a simple tables of sorts. There was a ramp up to the stone circle where the tables were. It all seemed to make of the same gray rock material. The tablets which were set horizontally had carving in them in some strange alphabet. Behind the stone structure there were two large rectangular shapes, both draped in cloth.

Sage stepped onto the strange circular platform and began to study it, running his fingers across the cool stone, tracing the strange markings, attempting to make sense of them.

Blaze passed the strange structure and towards the rectangles on the wall. She reached up and pulled the cloth from the left rectangle.

She gasped.

“What is it?” Sage asked, quickly turning in her direction.

Blaze just stood there, her hands over her mouth and her green eyes wide as teacups and stared at what laid before her.

Sage looked to where her eyes looked and understood her reaction.

The portrait was of Blaze…no, someone who looked almost identical to Blaze, but there were slight differences. The woman appeared to be older and her long red hair seemed fuller. She wore a beautiful velvet green gown with silver brocade and around her neck she wore a silver necklace from which hung a serpent amulet identical to the one Blaze wore. There were other differences as well, but only someone who knew Blaze well enough could detect them. Sage knew her well enough. He saw that this woman was wise, but lacked the care-free air and friendly aura that always surrounded Blaze. He shook his head and turned back to Blaze.

He saw Blaze was pale as she continued to gaze at the portrait. Almost reluctantly, Sage walked over to what was probably another portrait. He reached up to the cloth, his hand trembling, knowing, even fearing, what was behind it. He grabbed the cloth and pulled it off in one swift movement.

Sage’s eyes widen as he sees that the portrait he just revealed looked remarkably like him. His hair was the same dark color, but it was even longer than his and was pulled back into a neat ponytail, tied at his neck with blue ribbon.

His built was slightly muscular, which seem t indicate this man had greater strength than one would think. He wore a white sating shirt, laced up from half-way down the shirt and black leather trousers that seemed to be weaved together. He too wore an amulet, the same as the one Sage wore at that moment.

Blaze looked at both portraits and then at Sage. Sage noticed that some of her color had returned back to her face and that she had a face full of wonder and curiosity.

“What are out picture doing here?” he asked, realizing how stupid his question was.

“It’s not us. Those people are slightly older. Besides, I know I never had a portrait of me painted,” Blaze responded.

“Then who are they?” he asked.

“I…I…I think they’re our parents,” she said quietly.

“Wait! Are you saying we’re related?” he asked in a shocked voice, feeling slightly sick at the idea.

“No, no, no. I don’t think so. I think that’s my mom and that’s your dad, she said, studding the portraits even more.

“What makes you think that?”

“I don’t know, I just sort of feel it,” she said as she finally pulled her eyes off the portraits and looked at the stone structure.

“You think that thing has something to do with us?” she asked, waking towards it and then onto the middle.

“More than likely. I mean, how can it not be?” he said as he joined her in the middle of the circle, “We both hear a familiar voice, our medallions unlocked the temple doors and there are portraits of two people who are probably our parents.”

As he reached the middle, the symbols on the stone panels began to glow.

“What’s going on?” Blaze asked, jumping slightly at the unexpected lighting.

“I don’t know, but look,” he said pointing to his left.
There was another imprint like the ones on the temple’s entrance doors. She turned to her right and saw another one, only this one glowed red while the one on the left was glowed blue.

Blaze looked over at Sage, her face perplexed.

“Maybe we should use our amulets again,” she said, “It worked for the temple doors. It’s worth seeing what happens.”

Blaze began to move towards the glowing red symbol.

“I’m not sure about this Blaze. I mean, think about it. Here we are in some temple we know nothing about. It could be dangerous, especially since nobody knows we’re in here right now.”

Blaze stopped for a moment and thought. “Gell is so going to kill me when he finds out we were in here…but that doesn’t matter. I’m willing to take the risk,” she turns and face Sage and looks him in the eyes, “look, all my life, I never felt like a belonged anywhere. This could help me solve that mystery. I’m not going to drag you along if you don’t want to come, but I'm going to risk it.”

Sage looked at her. He saw a determination in her eyes he has seen only a few times since he met her and nodded.

“You’re right. We should, we might regret it later, but if we don’t, we will regret that more. Let's just try and be careful.”

She smiles at him and a turned to go to the red symbol as he went to the blue. They both kneeled down to connect their amulets to the glowing imprints. As the amulets fell into place, a large swoosh sound is heard.

Blaze screamed once as a bright light flashed once and everything went dark.

Unaware of the time passed, Blaze began to gain consciousness. It took a few moments for her to realize she had passed out. As she opened her eyes and pondered what had happened, she propped herself up into a sitting position.

“What happened?” she asked Sage, turning to him, but saw the he was unconscious.

She quickly tried to get up to go help her friend, but yelled, as pain shot through her legs. Her leg throbbed with the pain and they felt exhausted, as if she had walked a great distance.

She then pulled her pulled herself over to Sage’s limp body, grunting in pain as her legs dragged across the stone. His face was pale and Blaze feared the worse. She found both, still strong even though his skin was cold.
She looked around frantically. She felt desperation and anxiety. She felt tears forming in her eyes. Finally, not knowing what else to so, she yelled for help.

“Help! Guys, help! Gell! Jade! Anyone! Please, help!”
She suddenly stopped as she heard footsteps walking towards them. She wasn’t sure if she was relieved on scared.

She saw a group of seven robed figure walking towards them. Six of them were standing in two lines, next to each other and they wore brown robed with two sets diagonal lines, one on each side. The seventh figure was leading the two lines and wore and emerald green robe with silver trim on the hood, sleeves and hem.

Wow, you posted it. Yay, now I must bug you to write more or I will poke you.

More... good story, I want to see what you're going to do with this, I know a bit, but yeah, I want to know more.

LOL, knew you would post here. 'll get around to writing more eventually. I have some written out, but just haven't yped it up.

Also, to others who read this? Any favorite charcters yet?