“It matters, it matters greatly. You are of royal blood, yes royal blood… yes. You have a secret kept from even you, about you, yes you. I can see it; I can see what you really are!”
Before Arisa could answer she was shoved to the ground by a man. He ran for the crystal, but the faun charged at him. He immediately fell back and without thinking lunged for Arisa. Not her finest moment; losing her guard, being taken hostage. “Let her go, let her go!” The faun started to hiss at the man; coming closer, and backing into the shadows, and closer again. In all the fuss, Arisa had dropped her sword, and she pulled at the man's arm trying to loosen his grip on her neck.

“The crystal heals doesn’t it?! It heals! Answer me, or she dies.” The man said. Arisa could tell he would not kill her, for his grip did not tighten.
Arisa cried out his answer before the faun could. She had a plan in mind. “Yes! It heals. So I’ve read. Explain! The faun can explain.” She winked at the faun and she thankfully caught on.

“Yes, yes… it heals, it heals. Depending on your ailment. What is your ailment?”

“Silence!” The man yelled. “Let me to it!” The faun bowed and stepped back, giving an evil smile. He edged his way towards the crystal and grabbed it with his free hand. The fairies circling the crystal vanished and the crystal did nothing in his hands. He let go of Arisa and stepped back. Arisa went to reach for the crystal but the faun grabbed her arm.

“Wait, princess, wait… watch.” She knew something they did not.


Arisa jumped back towards Faun. She held firmly to her sword and stared at the terrible beast before her. How could this be? Many creatures were alive this day, but also many were growing thin in survival. She thought for sure that the werewolf was one of them. It threatened her every being; with his stance, his slight movement, even his snarling. She would not pretend that it did not spook her, but she would keep her ground firm. “What happened?!” She said keep the point of her sword in the direction of the werewolf’s throat.

“Is it not clear, my princess? Of course you may not know, of course, forgive me, and forgive me!” She bowed low; she seemed to take no heed of their danger. It would be quite amusing if Arisa was not fending for her life at the moment. “The crystal of Shoka has many powers, many indeed! It can do so much, so much, it is hard to share how much it can do.”

“Thanks you, but please, with all do respect, get on with it, please!” Arisa said moving around a bit on her feet. She was very anxious.

“Yes, yes of course! This magic is revealing his true nature. Only those clean of heart can touch the crystal unharmed!”

“But then how can I touch it, nothing has happened to me! Nothing!”

“Silly princess!” The faun hissed a bit, “You are of noble blood. I said clean heart not pure. Yes many sins in a human’s life, but clean your heart is of any evil! He is indeed a man. A werewolf has bitten him long ago. His evil shines now! The werewolf is not his true nature.” She gave a somewhat evil smirk and stared at him.

Arisa somewhat lost her instinct and jumped straight to thought. She was trying to comprehend everything the faun had just said. The werewolf was not as dumb as she thought and took advantage of her lapse of attention. He lunged for her, but fell into the ground, for the faun had leaped towards Arisa. The victor was clear, for instantly the faun had shoved Arisa away from the charging beast; they ran through the labyrinth, Arisa being dragged behind.

“Faun, we can’t just leave him like that. We have to help.” She turned around and held her sword, waiting.

The faun turned with her and smiled. This was what she truly meant by clean heart. Arisa had one indeed.







The pair had turned around, Arisa leading the way. They ran for the wolf man with no plan in mind. The wolf man advanced towards Arisa but he was stopped by a stinging pain in his leg. The faun had stabbed it, aiming for the heart, but the blow from before had caused her to stumble; Arisa was happy though for she would have much preferred the werewolf live. She felt the innocence of the man underneath, the lost soul that could still be found. As the werewolf cried out in pain Arisa leaped towards him. She had no memory of what to do but all that mattered was holding the wolf down. His game was quicker then hers for as she lunged towards him, he leaped at her. He grabbed at her and threw her to the ground and lunged for her with his claws! She rolled to the side and his big paws hit the ground; she barely got to her knees when she was tackled to the ground once more. She turned onto her front and tried to crawl off but the wolf tore and clawed at her body. She screamed out in pain as she clawed her fingers at the ground, praying for some kind of sudden idea to fix this situation. The wolf was knocked away by the faun; she had leaped into him and they both tumbled to the ground.

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“For every beauty there is an eye somewhere to see it. For every truth there is an ear somewhere to hear it. For every love there is a heart somewhere to receive it."
Ivan Panin

Beauty From Your Pain
*Coming Soon