The Desert Keep

Once upon a time in the land of Atheria, there was a Princess Nea and a Princess Lulu and they went on the most amazing adventures. Nea, Lulu, Darius, Rose & Flix had just left the fairy village in search for Fiamma, a fairy that spent a lot of her time in the woods and who Darius was supposed to find so he could get some magic Orgrown Wood for Tuck.

They walked away from the fairy village of Hummingwood and noticed the village slowly disappearing again, for while it was under a bad spell, the fairies had forgotten how to keep it invisible. With the fairies now healed, thanks to Darius’ white crystal, the village was now hidden again. 

Even though Nea and Lulu had traveled all over Atheria, they’d never reached this far beyond the Boxley Wild. They followed the path out to the western wood and made it to a small grove in the clearing. 

“Now we’re getting closer,” Darius said pointing out the trees. 

They stopped and rested, then heard another traveling party nearby coming closer and talking. It was a mixed group. There a troll, an elf, a boy and an ogre traveling together. Quite an odd group of travelers in Atheria. Before they could see Nea, Lulu, Darius or Rose the group ducked behind a huge growth of bushes. 

“Hazel, I’m getting tired. Can’t we stop for a rest?” the troll said.

“We’re almost there. Can’t you hang in there for just a little longer?” Hazel, the elf, responded.

“We’ve been traveling all day!” he complained back. 

“Yes, and we need to find that crystal. We can’t lose another one!” 

“You mean YOU can’t lose another one.” The boy responded. 

The tricky girl elf scowled. 

“You elves are always making everyone else do all the dirty work. While you dance around in your pretty grottos.” The ogre chimed in. 

“Fine, we’ll take a rest in this clearing. But this has to be our last break. We’re almost at the Griffin Keep.”

The ogre stood there quietly, while the elf, the troll and the boy sat in the clearing, where moments ago the group had sat. 

“Flix,” Nea whispered.

“Can you follow them? I mean, stay invisible and see where they’re going? Then maybe we can find out who stole the crystal from the queen and get it back!”

“I don’t need to follow them. I know exactly where they’re going.”

“You do?”

“There’s an old Keep at the edge of the western wood. It’s been there since before Hummingwood, but it’s abandoned. Legend has it that it used to be some kind of elf outpost. It’s said to be magic but we fairies have never seen it be anything but old and musty. Well, old, musty and inhabited with sprites. They’ve always been interested in it.” 

When Flix said the word “sprites” he said it in a nasty tone. Because sprites and fairies didn’t get a long. In fact, most races didn’t get along with sprites because they were clever and sneaky. They enjoyed playing tricks and telling riddles and teasing. Not in a fun way that your brother or sister might do, but in a mean way. They only seemed to feel good if they felt smarter than you. 

The team agreed to stay together and followed behind the party very, very quietly. Nea and Lulu realized that the elf that was leading the pack was the very same tricky elf that had stolen the purple crystal from them after they stole it from the King Bealock, the ogre king. 

They followed behind and noticed some very unique sign posts along the way. There were signs written in elfish writing, but all with an image of a carved griffin on them. They came across these signs every hundred feet or so on their way to the Keep. 

Now a griffin is a fantastic winged animal with the body of a lion and the head of a hawk. And they can be very, very dangerous.

When they got to the Keep it was just a castle of sorts, out here on the edge of the Boxley Wild. Two large towers, not even enough to really be called a true castle had you asked anyone. There was no sign of the tricky elf, the troll, the boy or the ogre. 

The tower had a large crest of a griffin high above a very large doorway. The same griffin shape they saw on all the signs as they walked through the western woods.

“What do you think that griffin means?” asked Nea.

“Maybe the elves who lived here had griffins.” Darius guessed. 

Flix, now invisible, just nodded. 

“Do you think we should just go inside?” Asked Darius.

“Flix, can you check it out?”

“Yeah, I’ll take a look.” And he zoomed inside, through a small window off to the left. 

A minute later Flix returned. They were starting to get used to hearing him now and recognizing the sound of his wings.

“Fiamma is in there. She told me to go away, there’s a dangerous monster, she says. I told her about the elf, troll and ogre but she didn’t listen.” 

“Did you see them?” Asked Lulu.

“No, there’s no sign of them.” 

“Well, let’s keep our eyes out.” Nea said, heading in.

Walking in, it was clear that this keep had been abandon for a very, very long time. All the tapestries that were hung were torn and all the furniture was beat up and dusty. 

“Hello!” called Darius.

Then they heard it. The buzzing of a fairy whizzing by their ears. It was flying fast around each of them. It sounded like a loud fly buzzing around and around them. 

“Fiamma!” called Flix.

“You have to leave! Quickly! There is a big angry griffin. Not a nice one - an ANGRY one!” Fiamma, then revealed herself.  

When they saw Fiamma, she looked very scared, very sad and very weak. Her wings, while fluttering, looked tattered. 

Then they heard it, coming from the back room. A huge crash, crash, like the sound of a large hammer being swung at the floorboards of the keep, shattering the wood. And a thump-thump-da-dump-dump patter of large heavy cat. And then they saw it coming through back room, a large dark griffin. A huge animal with the body of a lion and the head of a hawk.  

Thump-thump-da-dump-dump, it’s paws went on the ground as it raced towards them. 

When they looked back over, Fiamma was gone. She’d disappeared. 

With every second the griffin was coming closer and closer to the party. Rose, in response, stood up on her hind legs ready to attack. Darius, still mounted on her back, flipped himself parallel with her and reset his harness. Apparently they had a “vertical mode” for it. 

At that same moment, Lulu had an idea. If her magic flute could calm a giant to sleep, then maybe, just maybe, it could put a large, wild griffin to sleep as well. So she pulled out the flute and played the magic tune that the dwarfs taught her in the frost caves and closed her eyes.

[Calming tune.]

As the large beast flung its way towards the princesses (and Darius and Rose and Flix, for that matter) it slowly started to shrink in mid-air. With every flap of its mighty wings, it got smaller and smaller and smaller. It’s wings started to look less and less like huge hawk wings and more and more like tiny fairy wings. They changed from black to transparent and then they saw the griffin’s tail shrink until it completely disappeared. 

It started fumbling through the air as it’s body morphed from a lion body back into it’s original form - the fairy body of Fiamma - until she landed just inches away from Rose’s toes. 

Rose looked over at the princesses confused. 

How did the fairy get from the entryway to the back room so fast? But that didn’t matter right now.

Fiamma laid there sad, tired and weak. In her arms she clung to a black Devorian crystal. The black power crystal. Because fairies are so much smaller than humans, the crystal looked very big for her. 

At the same time, there came a loud crash from the side room and the elf and boy appeared out of the doorway. 

“Why thank you very much.” Said the boy.

Before any of them could respond, the troll appeared holding a bright, glowing crystal - a gray Tornadian one. As soon as he saw them, he closed his eyes and a strong gust of wind lifted the adventurers off the ground, holding them in mid air. 

Lulu tried to reach her magic flute but the wind had already pulled it away from her grasp and too far for her to reach. Darius, being pulled up with Rose was stuck in such a way where couldn’t reach his own white crystal. 

They hung there in the air while the troll used his magic crystal to lift up the black crystal from the ground and, with a gust of wind, shot it back over to the tricky elf. 

Only she wasn’t ready for it and it bounced off her hand and landed right in front of the ogre, where it started to glow brighter and brighter. 

“Well isn’t this interesting, K’Orloch.” The boy said nervously. “Don’t get any funny ideas.”

The ogre picked up the crystal, now a burning bright black and gave the elf a dirty look. He then marched past the adventurers and out of the keep. The elf, troll and boy scurried behind him.

A minute later the gray crystal’s magic wore off and they all dropped to the ground next to Fiamma. 

By now, Fiamma was starting to stir. When she woke up she realized that she no longer had the crystal and the magic pull of the Griffin Keep was wearing off.

“Do you have the crystal?” she asked, almost relieved.

“No, we don’t. We were ambushed.” Said Nea.

“I thought I’d keep the crystal for myself. I didn’t realize how powerful it was and how intoxicating it would feel. At first I saw what Queen Ignea was going to do with it and thought I’d protect it. Then realized how powerful it was and thought to get rid of it. Only something else came over me and before I knew it I was here at the abandoned elven keep.” 

“Well, let’s get you back to Hummingwood and get you some rest.” Said Lulu. 

And they brought Fiamma back to the fairy village where she began to heal. 

The end.