KRIKKIT’S SHOES : D’ARRAGON PROPHECY
Chapter 11

Each holding their breath, the princes waited in anticipation while Krikkit opened the trunk. A silvery shimmering cloth floated over the contents. The cloth was covered in the same images that had been carved into the trunk and the wooden box Krikkit had found.

“Wow!” exclaimed Krikkit. It’s magic!”

“Lift it up, Krikkit. Can’t wait to see what’s in there,” said Ivan.

“Yes, hurry,” said Quinn, as anxious as his twin to see the mysterious contents inside.

Krikkit touched the cloth, feeling a tingling sensation in her hand as she did so. There were several objects inside, each wrapped in pieces of the same shimmering cloth.

Not waiting for Krikkit, Quinn lifted out a round solid object, removing the silvery cloth.

“It’s a glass orb,” said Krikkit, admiring its beauty.

“That’s crystal, Krikkit, not glass at all. Much thicker than glass,” Ivan informed her.

The object was made of dark purple crystal. On one side were words engraved into a silver plate.

“Orb of Syntaba, Sorcerer, Wizard to D’Arragon Kings,” read Krikkit, slowly, stumbling over the unfamiliar words.

Everyone became silent, the meaning of what Krikkit read astounding all of them.

“So, this is Syntaba’s trunk,” mumbled Ivan in awed tones.

“Awesome,” said Quinn.

“Stupendous,” said Krikkit. She loved the word, using it often to describe something wonderful. She recently learned this word and its definition in her reading class at school. It described everything she felt about the orb.

Ivan opened the next object which turned out to be a small book. “For Wizards and Sorcerers only,” he read from the front cover. That was all he was able to understand. He thumbed through the pages. “It’s in a strange language I have never seen before,” he informed the others. The princes’ studies and duties included the learning of many languages, however, this one was unknown to them.

“Neither have I,” said Quinn, taking the book from Ivan. “I don’t understand one word.”

Returning to the trunk, they removed and opened the remaining objects. Most of them were similar books with the same message and unfamiliar language. At the very bottom was a spare piece of the shimmering cloth. It was crumpled and torn.

“Maybe that’s the piece that was wrapped around the shoes,” guessed Krikkit.

“So what do we do with these things?” wondered Quinn. “Can we use them to replace our parents?”

“I don’t see how,” answered Krikkit . “We have to get going soon as Jara and Keeper will be worried. We better put them all back. Remember, these belong to Syntaba.”

The children began to replace the items from the trunk, carefully wrapping each one in various pieces of shimmering cloth. They were almost finished when the shimmering cloth that once possibly covered the shoes, floated across the cave. Quinn ran to get it, stuffing it into his pocket.

“Now it can’t move until I get it back in the trunk.”

At that moment Ivan discovered a door to the cave. “It’s damaged down one side. Anyone could get in here. We could follow that path,” he suggested, pointing at a narrow little trail they could see through the opening.

Suddenly, Quinn yelled, “Ivan, help! I’m moving!”

Krikkit and Ivan looked back to see Quinn floating off the floor of the cave, his hands clawing at the air around him. Reaching out to his twin, Ivan grabbed hold, trying with all his might to pull Quinn back to the floor. Ivan also began to rise off the floor. Both hovered, then drifted to the cave door and through it.

Krikkit, amazed and bewildered, ran after them.

“Let go, Quinn!” she yelled.

“I can’t!” yelled Quinn, his voice faint as he ascended even higher, still holding Ivan’s hand. “We’re stuck together!”

The princes’ voices grew fainter and fainter as they continued to rise toward the sky. Within a few seconds they had disappeared from Krikkit’s view.

She sat beside the trunk, unsure of what to do next or where to go. Krikkit fretted fearfully for the twins. Where would they end up? Her own efforts to protect them did not work after all and she felt it was all her fault.

Feeling rather miserable, she started wrapping the remaining objects they had taken from the trunk. As she reached for the large orb, it suddenly glowed with a purple brilliance which lit up the cave. Krikkit watched with astonishment.

“Stupendous,” she breathed.

The globe became clear and she could see something inside. Peering closer, she got the surprise of her young life. It was Ivan and Quinn! Bewildered, she stared into the orb. How had they managed to get inside it? How could she get them out?

“Ivan! Quinn!” she called. “I’m here.” By some magic, they heard her.

“Krikkit?” called out Ivan, is that you?”

“Yes, it’s me, Krikkit. What are you doing in the orb?”

“Is that where we are?” asked Quinn, looking around in bewilderment. “But that’s too small for us to fit into.”

“You must be wrong, Krikkit,” said Ivan, peering at the wall of the globe.

“But I am looking into the orb right now,” she insisted. “I can see you in it.”

“We can’t see you, Krikkit,” said Quinn. “But we can hear you quite well.”

At that very moment the radiance vanished and she could see nothing in the orb at all. Calling their names over and over again, she received no further response from the twins. Krikkit shook it, desperate to see the twins again. However, the orb remained dark and the princes were lost to her for the second time that day.

Alone and perplexed, she wondered what to do, wishing she had never opened the trunk. Still clutching the purple orb, Krikkit stepped outside the cave, hoping that somehow the twins had returned. There was no sign of them, however. How she wished Jara was there. She missed the ram terribly.

“Jara,” she called out to the clear blue sky. “How I wish I was still with you, wherever you are.”

Immediately Krikkit felt her whole body jerk and sensed the shoes pinching her toes. She began to rise toward the sky, a cloud of the now familiar purple mist surrounded her. The crackling white light burst its way through the misty cloud as it had before.

“It’s the shoes! They’re doing it again, all by themselves!” she cried aloud.

At that moment she felt the orb being pulled from her hand and it slipped away from her, as she tried desperately to retain her hold. She caught only a glimpse of the same purple glow as it zoomed off and totally vanished. “Oh, no!” she cried out. “I have lost the princes!” Her voice went unheard and the descent began. She called out in frantic panic for Jara. Feeling completely helpless, she prepared herself to land on the forest carpet below.