Chapter Four

The Thief

The wind whistled through the tree's branches and blew through Crystal's hair. She sat silently, keeping to herself sitting about a mile away from the willow where she met Aiden. On an old rock overlooking a gently trickling brook, Crystal scratched away into her diary of all the things that had happened that day. The sun was setting, creating a beautiful sea of purple, oranges, and reds and Crystal wanted to finish writing before it was completely dark. A glint of gold was seen from a knapsack next to her. She rubbed her chin with the opposite end of the pen that she was writing with as she thought. So far, she had written:

Dear Diary,
It seems as though things keep getting more and more strange. Yesturday, on my birthday, my mother was not only killed by my father, but then he turned around and threatened me with the knife. When things seemed hopeless and suicide was the only solution, I noticed a strange portal that traveled me to a very beautiful and diverse, realm. After being scared to hell by something, I met Aiden, the most charming dork I have ever seen. Now, that means a lot although I haven't seen too many dorks... Aiden lifted me away from whatever attacked me. Then, I woke up to him staring me in the face. His eyes, were so green that I can't even describe them adequately. And his smile was so bright and comforting. After leaving him, I walked for a while and obviously lost track of my directions. So, I screamed like a baby until I realized that no one was around to hear. I just shut my trap and walked alittle more. After a while, I found a path.
Suddenly, I heard yelling, and footsteps coming from one end of the path. I dashed out of sight and hid behind a tree while Aiden ran past me. He seemed to be holding something and a whole bunch of people ran after him holding random weapons like rolling pins or loaves of bread. They were all yelling, "Come back here, you stupid rat!!!" or "Give it back, rat!" Of course, like anyone with a sense of curiousity, I chased after the crowd and managed to stay out of sight. Finally, I was close enough to Aiden. I noticed that he was holding an egg of some sort. It was scaley and gold and absolutely beautiful.
Thinking as fast as I could, I ran up the path farther and readied a trap. It was mediocre and not original at all, but I figured it would work. I tied a piece of vine that was hanging off of a tree near me to another tree across the path. I pulled hard and waited for Aiden and the angry mob to come. Has he approached, Aiden noticed the trap and jumped over it. And to my complete surprise, he stopped. I tried not to open my mouth with shock when the crowd stopped as well. They both faced eachother, face-to-face, a piece of vine between them.
For a moment, the crowd stood dumbfounded that Aiden was staring at them and then another few minutes past as they wondered why they weren't killing him. I couldn't stand it but I kept my silence behind the tree and watched the crowd with puzzled looks on their faces.
Thankfully, Aiden broke the silence and said, "Well, then. We do have a problem don't we?" while cracking a smile.
One person on the other side of the vine almost turned purple with rage and "No YOU are the one with the problem. You are going to be hit to death by a loaf of bread!" he said and lifted the bread.
Aiden laughed mockingly, just like he had done to me when I said that I was chased by a monster. "Ah! You you think that you can kill me now, do you?" The other man scowled and wondered what Aiden meant by that. "Yes. In fact, I should ring your neck instead!"
Tossing the egg aside into a soft patch of grass and he readied his hands. "You misunderstand, my good man. What we have here is a real problem!" The man cocked a brow and asked "What problem?"
"Why, the problem that if you pass by this vine here," Aiden said and pointed to the vine.
I could not help but laugh when he said this but quickly muffled my laughter with my hands.
The man glanced down at the vine and scowled again. "What would happen if I stepped over it?" he asked. The other people that stood behind this man began to look frightened.
Aiden gave him a solem look. "Your organs would twist and your bones would crinkle until your brain is splattered everywhere."
I looked up at Aiden in disbelief.
The man stood contemplating his next choice. What if Aiden was right? The others behind him laughed and mocked Aiden. "And we are ALL going to die! bah! He is bluffing, Mark!" Another one chimed in, "He is just a lying rat!" My eyes widened. They were not buying it and I became very frightened for Aiden.
Laughing with the others, the man whom Aiden threatened took a step over the line and as his foot hit the ground, nothing happened.
Aiden backed up alittle and a look of horror shone in his face.
The man lifted his other foot and placed it over the vine and his foot then hit the ground.
I almost screamed as I thought Aiden would be killed for pulling a stunt like that.
"That was a big mistake," Aiden said suddenly smiling a devilish grin. The crowd on the other side laughed at him and the man that walked over began to laugh too. This time, being cut off by something. He began to choke and held his stomach as he doubled over in pain. The crowd on the other side watched in amazement.
I blinked my eyes to see that they were seeing correctly.
The man began to melt into a puddle on the ground and lost shape completely. Aiden looked down at him. He smiled and looked up at the others who ran away screaming and then shrieking at each vine that they walked underneath as they ran past the trees.
I finally came out from behind the tree to see Aiden. He turned his head towards me and smiled.
I am not sure why I did it, but I ran up to him and threw my arms around him. He seemed surprised that I did it also but after a moment he wrapped his arms around me.
With a soft chuckle, he said "I did my spell wrong..."
I laughed at him and then quickly realized that I was hugging him and quickly pulled away. "I am sorry," I said to him.
Aiden gave me a sincere grin and replied "It's alright."

I walked over to the egg lying in the grass. "You wanted an omelette so badly that you stole an egg from those people and then killed one?"
Aiden caught up to me and glanced down at the egg. He then looked me right in the face and lifted an index finger. "First thing, I didn't kill him. I turned him into water. Second, I stole it from them because THEY were going to eat it."
Of course, I was curious what he meant by that. So I asked him what he meant. He replied, "It is a dragon egg. Not only a dragon egg though. A white dragon egg. Only the fairest and purest of hearts would be able to see let alone ride one. And only Sinister would want his minions to kill them. Sinister only likes black dragons and if he had it his way, there wouldn't be any white dragon's left. I think that Sinister should stay in his own kingdom."
"So, those people that you stole the egg from, they are Sinister's minions?" I asked.
Aiden smiled. "No, Sinister's minions are beasts. They are monsters! Those people that were chasing me were merchants trying to sell that egg to one of Sinister's minions."
So, diary, I am still not exactly sure who "Sinister" is but it seems that Aiden hates him a lot.

Crystal lifted her eyes from her diary to see Aiden walking towards her. He had a few long wild flowers in his hands.

"I picked these for you," Aiden said and handed the flowers to her. Crystal held them tightly and smelled them. They were not like any flowers that Crystal has ever smelt. They smelled a lot of honey and vanilla. The flowers looked like opened roses but the colors were miraculous. There were blues, and greens, and purples all mixed into one and every time she turned them a different way, it looked like a different color. It was beautiful she thought and smiled at Aiden. She wanted to hug him again but felt awkward thinking about it.

With a small groan, Aiden climbed onto the rock that Crystal was sitting on and sat down next to her. He glanced at her diary and said, "You like to write?"

Crystal quickly closed the book and blushed. She did not want Aiden to read it. "I actually let my diary take me out of my world and into another one on occasion when I was a child. When things went wrong, I opened it and tried to describe the event the best way that I knew how and quickly learned how to read and write. But, I mainly would write when my parents-" Crystal abruptly stopped. She did not want Aiden to know about her parents.

Aiden sat intently, listening for her to finish her sentence. He was looking straight at her with those intense green eyes and that made her think about Chad. Chad had never really listened like Aiden was.

"...When my parents..." Crystal thought quickly, "gave me gifts." Crystal felt bad for lying to Aiden and was again reminded of her parents and how badly they treated her.

Aiden looked to the sunset. "I wish I had parents when I was a child."

Crystal looked to Aiden and listened as intently as he had.

"My parents both abandoned me when I was an very small and I ended up living off the streets of Salcurien."

Crystal felt great sympathy for Aiden and comforted him by leaning over to him. She rested her head on his shoulder and allowed Aiden to put his arm around her.

For a moment, for the first time in her life, she felt like she belonged somewhere, that she had a purpose instead of just existing. Crystal smiled and kept her head on Aiden's shoulder listening quietly to his breath and enjoying every moment of his touch.

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