Brook felt the darkness closing in on her, as the shadows steal the light.  A huge black lumbering cloud rolls across the sky blocking out the sun. 

     “This shouldn’t be happening,” Brook screamed inside her head.  The cloud had appeared out of nowhere.  The day had been full of splendor and sunshine.  She suddenly felt pursued as if something or someone was looking for her.  She felt so insecure and alone.  Even her hut in the jungle felt forbidding.  She soon found herself running through the dense jungle.  She had started out jogging and now she was sprinting with the leaves and grasses scratching at her legs and face as she ran by noiselessly.

     Brook was a medium height for an elven-girl at the age of seventeen and quite slender.  Brook lived by herself in the jungle since the age of ten when she witnessed the deaths of her parents and brother, as some bandits came across their hut.  Brook still wonders how they found it, why they were so deep in the jungle and why nobody in the family could tell that they were coming, since they all were trackers and seekers. That is why Brook has developed the skills to live by herself, isolated from civilization.

     Brook now came to her senses, so she ducked behind a tree in a blink of an eye, to see if she was really being pursued.  Her sharp elven ears told her that her senses were right.  A faint heavy breathing and the pounding of the earth told her that, the thing was tracking her, so she should go and go fast because it was coming at a high speed.  

     Now, it wasn’t bothering to hide its presence but was crashing down the trees and shrubs that got in its way as it pursued Brook. Again Brook was off at full speed, starting to run for her life.  Soon at her feet stood a cliff.  She dared one last look over her shoulder and saw that what was chasing her was a monster. It was running on four
feet and had fangs as long as ones finger, with red stained teeth.  Its brownish blackish fur was shaggy and gruesome, as its claws ripped the ground beneath it.  Brook lifted her feet one last time as she jumped down the 30-meter cliff.

     Lazord stood high in a tree as he watched the elven-girl fall from the cliff.  He knew that this was his cue to shoot the dust from his cane. He called it his cane but it was filled with dusts with carvings up and down the oak wood. The dusts was magic particles which each contained a purpose.  The dust shot up into the sky, which made the black cloud, disappear and with it went the four-legged beast.

     Brook woke up in her own hammock made bed and found everything as she had left it.  But oh, did she have a headache, and what about the dream she had?  No, it wasn’t a dream, but her thoughts were interrupted by an unusual smell. She got up and found a man at the age of 40 tending her fire with her pot making some unusual liquid.

     “Oh, you’re awake,” said the man, as he handed her some soupy liquid. “You sure had a nasty fall from that cliff.”

     Brook took the bowl but sniffed it to be sure it was all right to eat. She recognized the herbs when she had them as a little girl to relieve pain. But before Brook could say anything the man continued.  

     “That animal that was chasing you, was no ordinary animal.  It was a Lipstad. Which means that it is made by magic.  It was looking for you for a very long time wanting you because you are a threat to his species.”

     “I know it wanted me,” snapped Brook annoyed that this stranger knew so much, “but the question is, why?” 

     “It wants… it wants… the bag you hang around your neck, with the three rocks inside.”

     “Why would he want them, because the are only rocks?” Brook said.

     “No, that is what they are camouflaged to look like, but those are the rocks that can destroy black magic, which means that they can destroy the Lipstads.  The three rocks stand for the mind that conceives, body that believes and the spirit that achieves and when you brings those three together then they can defeat.”

     “How do you know so much?”  spouted Brook.

     “My name is Lazord, I am a type of sorcerer but more of a wizard.  I have been given the gift of knowledge and for telling the future from my father.  And you, Brook, have been given the gift of the stones that you hang around your neck from your parents.  That is why they were killed. The Lipstads have been looking for them, but your parents and brother sacrificed their lives for you to destroy them.”  

     Here Lazord paused and took a deep breath and continued.  “Right now they are destroying our world.  They are poising the land, so all creatures would die and they
would rule.  They have been living in the depths of the universe, unknown, growing stronger and stronger and weakening us at the same time, but you, Brook,” he said gazing straight into her eyes, “possess the power to destroy them.”

     Brook’s mind was wheeling and turning.  She felt so dizzy and emotions flooded through her like they never did before.  So she got up and left to think things through.

     It had rained that previous night and Brook could still feel the dampness in the ground.  It was such a pleasant day; the whole jungle was alive, like it was every day with the buzz of insects and the noise of the animals communicating in so many different ways.  Brook sat down on a rock beside a stream and watched the water chase itself down.  She dipped her hand feeling the coolness on her skin.  How could such a wonderful place be filled with so much evil, Brook thought?  

     Lost in her thoughts Brook didn’t notice that the sun had gone down.  All of a sudden she felt a burning in her chest but soon found out the burning was coming from the pouch she carried the stones in.  Brook dumped the stones into her palm and felt that it was just the most natural thing for them to be there.  No sooner did she feel this but her senses told  her that something was very wrong.  This was the same feeling she felt yesterday, as it came back to haunt her.  She did not run, for her feet would not let her.  

     Out came her attackers.  There was a whole army of them.  Every Lipstad stood before her out for blood, as they circled around her.

     “No!” Brook whispered under her breath.

     “Use the stones,” came the voice of Lazord, “use the stones!” he seemed to scream inside her head.

     It all came to an understanding to Brook as she remembered her conversation with Lazord earlier that day.

     “The stones stand for the mind, body and spirit, then they can defeat. Mind, body, spirit," Brook repeated in her head, "mind, body, spirit."

     Everything came into slow motion as a Lipstad, probably the leader charged toward her.

     “Mind, body, spirit” repeated Brook out loud, “mind, body…”

     A blue light flared from her hand, enveloping her, she allowed this power to take over her.  The blue fire spread and spread eating anything and everything in its path.  In the back of Brook’s mind she heard the howl of the Lipstads as they tried to run from the fire but it was to late for them.  They all were turned instantly to ash, the whole army. The power of the stones over took her; she had this whole feeling over her that was unexplainable but terrifying.

     “No, what am I doing?” Brook screamed, as everything all around her was ash.

     She reached out and grabed the fire back to the stones.  It disappeared and instantly Lazord was at her side.  She knew that she had done what she had to do, as she collapsed in Lazord’s outstretched arms.  The stones would not be needed again, at least for the time being.
 

The End