PROLOGUE
Their eyes glowed in the darkness as they searched for food. These wolves had all gone beyond the Unknown Territory forcing them to hunt for food further out into the land. They came to the border of Sovorotskina and spied some men marching toward them.
The wolves’ mouths watered at the thought of fresh kill. They salivated as they got closer to this new food.
The Parotovinan guards were on their way to Sovorotskina to bring back the shepherds and sheep and King Gateskin’s daughter, Serena, per the request of King Kaposkaran. They had no idea what was living in the UT and that they would meet their fate in such a horrendous way.
The man in the front of the group spotted something ahead of them. He pointed and pushed his men back when he saw what it was! “Move back and flee for your lives, men!”
His scream and the screams of his men reverberated across the forest of the Unknown Territory.
Only the Sprites heard the cries. They were up in the trees bordering the Unknown Territory and hurriedly spread word to all the other Sprites about the carnage. They needed to warn one and all of these creatures and contact Abason, their leader.
“Are they a new breed of wolves?” Abason asked when word of the carnage reached him.
“We are not sure, Abason. The other Sprites who witnessed this said, “They are larger than dogs and much fiercer.”
“Thank you for the warning. Tell the Sprites to keep watch over these creatures and report anything further to me. Tell them to stay away from them and don’t let them see you.”
“Yes, Abason. I will.” The Sprite flew up into the neighboring trees and started spreading Abason’s message throughout the rest of Sovorotskina.
***
Sovorotskina was a beautiful village, green and lush dotted with many farms with hardworking farmers who toiled on their land and appreciated their blessings. The farmers had welcomed the new citizens to their land and helped get them settled. The new citizens of the Land of Light, Sovorotskina, appreciated the warm welcoming they had received from the villagers and the King and Queen of this wonderful land of plenty.
They were now all settled in their homes built by King Gateskin, his guards and the other villagers. They were happy to be away from the Land of Evil, Parotovina. Now they could bring up their families in safety and freedom. They toiled on their new farms and cared for their homes and family.
Peace was here for now, but for how long, they did not know. King Kaposkaran of the Land of Darkness, Parotovina, was not happy he had not received any Taken Ones from the other villages to replace the ones who escaped with the help of King Gateskin. His men had been unsuccessful but he had a new plan. He had sent twelve guards to capture King Gateskin’s daughter, Serena, and the shepherds and sheep that had escaped from Parotovina. His Wizards had been sending Serena messages of evil and images of the Gatekeeper’s dead and tortured body. He knew if his Wizards could continue to do this, he would be successful in turning Serena to his evil ways. This feat would enable King Kaposkaran to gain control over King Gateskin who would be helpless over losing his daughter.
What King Kaposkaran didn’t realize was King Gateskin was using his own powers to protect his daughter from these messages. King Gateskin was now the recipient of the messages instead.
Gateskin refused to let the evil king harm his daughter. He would continue to deflect these messages until he could come up with a spell to stop them completely.
He turned to his brother-in-law, Hotenfaran and his own wife, Queen Solinara. “I need your help, Hotenfaran and Solinara, to erase these evil messages I am receiving instead of Serena.”
“Yes, Gateskin, I have been working on this very thing with my sister. Solinara always gives me credit for everything we do together. She is entirely too modest.”
“That I know already. She feels as if she needs to give credit to everyone but herself. It is the only flaw my beautiful wife has,” Gateskin guffawed as he winked at Hotenfaran.
“I agree with you there, my King!” Hotenfaran laughed along with Gateskin but never stopped working on his current project.
Queen Solinara listened to the exchange but didn’t respond. She did, however, look over at her husband and brother, smirked and raised her eyebrows at them.
She was content now that she had become close once again with her brother, Hotenfaran, since the return of her family from the clutches of the Parotovinans. She couldn’t thank her brother and his wife, Procelina, enough for their part in saving her family. She felt like a kid again as she and Hotenfaran set up a large shed a short distance from her home to house the materials to develop new spells to protect their village and all the other neighboring villages against a new threat which was coming their way.
They had herbs drying above their heads and on the walls of the massive shed. All kinds of tools, magic elixirs and spells were bottled on multiple shelves at their fingertips.
They spent hours daily working to create whatever they could using the Staglemite and other herbs and wild mushrooms along with a little of their powers mixed in to protect her daughter, Serena, from the evil King Kaposkaran who continued to send his vile messages their way. Solinara knew her husband Gateskin was taking on these messages and was becoming quite upset by them. She noticed he had become quieter the past few days. Solinara didn’t like the look on his face, which was pale and troubled.
Hotenfaran had nearly perfected a new spell to prevent Gateskin from becoming ill. He had developed some interesting incantations using the Staglemite found in the Cave of Crotesia Mountain when they were last there to rescue King Gateskin from the Parotovinan guards.
This Staglemite prevented and blocked messages from coming and going when a person was surrounded by it as in the cave. Hotenfaran discovered that if he held a small piece of it in his hand, he could enclose a message and send it one way for an individual to receive it without others hearing it.
“Time is of the essence since evil doesn’t wait,” Hotenfaran said as he discussed what the next step would be with his sister. “Dear Solinara, we must try out this new spell to see if it is effective. Who do you think we should use it on? It has to be someone who you do not completely trust.”
Solinara responded without thinking, “I know just the person we can use.”
She decided to share what she knew about Botular with her brother. After all, he needed to know why she did not trust this man.
“Hotenfaran, I need to share some things about this man I have chosen to experiment on. His name is Botular. He is known to be the eyes and ears of King Kaposkaran. Botular was found inside the Cave of Crotesia by my children when they were on their journey with you and Procelina to bring back their father from the clutches of King Kaposkaran. This man had blended into the cave walls and Catalina, had stumbled upon him. Gateskin had brought Botular back with him to Sovorotskina so he could keep a close watch over him.”
“Yes, I did see this man with Gateskin when we arrived back in Sovorotskina,” Hotenfaran stated.
Solinara nodded and continued, “Botular professed to turn away from his evil ways and became a citizen of Sovorotskina. He told us reluctantly he had sent a message, before he arrived here, to his king about capturing my
