Children of the Glimmer Pool by Obstinate Anarchist (book series for 10 year olds .TXT) 📕

"Can we get through?" Iris asked quietly, hoping that she had not just locked them in the inn's room.

"We should be able to," Nova replied, a grin stretching over her features. "There are metal bars here but they're old and rusted and the sand has worn them down, I think. I could break them away with my hammer," she decided, already going to work with her tool.

Just as she said, the metal bars were rusty and well past their time. Nova had to only give the tops and bottoms a rough tap before they had torn away from the window and soundlessly fallen into the sand where they would rest for who knew how long.

Nova turned back to look at Iris, who had resigned to touching up her wooden dog sled.

Noticing that the other girl had finished with the window, Iris stood upright, smiling sheepishly. "We can go now?" She inquired, taking a small step forward.

"Yeah. I think we'll be fine now. Let me go first, though, just in case," Nova said, already figuring how to go about getting through the window. At last, she decided she would go hands first, slipping her upper body through the window effortlessly. Her hands sunk into the warm sand a little, but after pulling herself through the rest of the way, she pulled herself into an upright position and peered back into the window.

Most people would have denied letting someone they had met only just yesterday go first, especially under such strange circumstances, but already Iris had felt that she could trust Nova. After all, it had been Nova who had even warned her of something so important. Iris abruptly grabbed her small dog sled and managed to fit it through the window. Of course it had taken some work, but the sled got through. Now it was Iris' turn.

Staring intently at the window, debating on whether or not she should follow Nova's lead, Iris frowned. She decided to go the opposite way and awkwardly shimmied her legs through the window first. Iris landed on her feet and then limboed her upper body through afterward. She grabbed the rope tied to the sled and grinned at Nova. "Where to, friend?"

Nova was a little putoff by this and grimaced. She grabbed for her tool belt again and opened a pouch, pulling out a folded up piece of paper. After she unfolded the paper, it came to be clear that it was a map. It was divided into four sections, more or less, each one classified by a color. The Arctic Village was a pale blue color, the Mountain Village a lavender color. The Forest Village was a light green and the Desert Village an red-orange.

They were much closer to the western part of the Desert Village's territory, meaning they were nearing the cave of Frederick's tale. There, they could go into any of the other Villages because that was essentially where the other territories met.

Nova set her expression into a rather pleasant one before turning to look back at Iris. "We'll go to the Mountain Village," she decided.

And with that, Nova and Iris started away from the inn they had been staying in, making their way westward, toward their home village.

"What's your favorite color?"

"I don't know, different shades of blue, I guess."

"Do you like dogs or cats better?"

Nova let out an exasperated sigh and had to resist throwing up her hands in annoyance. "I don't know, Iris."

Since their departure from the Desert Village's inn, the blonde haired girl had constantly pestered Nova with questions. Most of which pertained to things that were either out of the ordinary or ridiculously childish.

The dark skinned girl grit her teeth. How could this girl keep up her non stop chattering for nearly an hour and a half? Nova was beginning to get a sinking feeling in her gut. Perhaps she should have just left her to the village leader and the strange innkeep? No, that would have been terrible, even for her.

"-va. Nova? Nova! Are you even listening to me anymore?"

Iris' complaining tone snapped Nova out of her thoughts. She jerked her head to look at the other girl and rose her brows in questions. "Huh?"

The blonde girl groaned and dragged her hand over her face rather dramatically before repeating what she must have asked while Nova was too busy in her own mind. "I asked you what you thought of me," Iris smiled up warmly at the brown eyed girl, awaiting an answer.

Nova stared dumbly at Iris, brows furrowed in confusion. "Excuse me? Are you coming on to me?" She asked, her eyes widening a bit. She was having second thoughts on this new friendship. More like seventh thoughts, but it's more or less the same.

Iris' own green eyes widened and she hastily tried to correct Nova. "Woah, woah, woah, hold on, that isn't what I was saying. That's not what I meant, I swear. I was just wondering if you thought we'd end up being, you know, friends," she explained.

Relaxing, Nova shrugged her shoulders. "I don't know. i met you, what, a day ago? And even then, it was just a brief encounter in the hallway of an inn we both happened to be staying. You can't just base a friendshi-"

"That's not what I meant, either, Nova," Iris insisted, green eyes briefly flickering to the taller girl. "Do you think we could get along for a long period of time? You know, if we ever have to go on a journey?"

"What makes you think we'd be going on a journey?"

"I was thinking maybe we could-"

"No."

"-search for Frederick's Ring-"

"No way."

"-and set things right-"

"Hell. No."

"-in the villages."

As soon as Nova's mind put together that Iris wanted to search for Frederick's Ring, she immediately set her decision. Frederick's Ring was no concern of her's, let alone Iris', and the fact that this girl she only just met wanted to include her in some sort of fictitious epic journey that would end in a disaster was more than ridiculous.

"That's stupid. The entire idea is ridiculous, Iris,"  Nova stated firmly, her brown eyes boring into Iris' very soul.

Iris seemed offended by Nova's answer. "Pardon?"

Nova let a long, drawn out sigh escape her. "What would make you think you'd even find Frederick's Ring in the first place? And in addition to that, it isn't your concern. It isn't your responsibility to retrieve something the ignorant Village Leader's couldn't keep contained. If the villagers rebel against them, it serves them right. What kind of idiot can't keep something like a ring safe? If it was so sacred to them, why didn't they just make sure it didn't fall into the hands of another moron?" She reasoned, hoping that perhaps it would change the girl's mind. It wasn't that she had intentions of befriending Iris, it was just that trying to retrieve some ring that was probably lost forever would be a waste of time.

"How can you say that? Th-"

"Shh."

"Did you just 'sh' me? Nova, tha-"

"No, seriously, be quiet. I thought I heard something," Nova whispered quietly, stopping dead in her tracks. This caused Iris to stop, too, though she seemed to be rather uneasy.

Nova suddenly took hold of Iris' arm, just above the elbow, and dragged her toward a rather large oak tree that somehow managed to survive in the desert's nutrient lacking soil. "Stay right here," she commanded, releasing the blonde girl and reaching up to grab one of the limbs of the tree.

In only a few moments, Nova had completely disappeared from Iris' sight, hidden among the leaves in the tree. The brown eyed girl scanned the branches, seeming to be searching for something. They fell on a strange shape peeking out from behind the wide trunk of the tree. It was axe-like in shape, but as Nova pulled it from its hiding place and into her lap, it became clear that it was actually a guitar. The neck appeared to be the handle, but the base of it was more like a double edged axe. Wrapping her hands firmly about the handle of the bass-axe, Nova began to descend from the tree.

Iris let out a yelp of surprise when she saw the sharp blade and jumped back a few feet when Nova's feet hit the ground. She slung the weapon-instrument over one shoulder and glanced at Iris. "Just in case we meet some sort of foul enemy," she explained.

Nova's poor reasoning did not soothe Iris' frazzeled nerves in the slightest, but she nodded her head nevertheless. She let her hand fall to her dirk and she patted its handle almost affectionately. "Can we please get back on track now?" She asked tentatively, feeling that she should watch her words now that Nova was supplied with a potentionally fatal weapon.

"Yeah, fine," Nova sighed in resignition, starting back the way they had come. Iris trailed right beside her. "I was just getting it because I thought maybe we would need it fo-"

"Protection? From who?" A higher pitched voice interrupted Nova, effectively silencing both she and Iris. The voice sounded rather amused as it continued, "Are you scared of the woods?"

Nova grit her teeth and immediately swung the instrument-weapon from her shoulder, preparing to start hacking away at who or whatever she needed to. "Scared of the woods? What kind of idiot do you take me for?"

Iris, completely unprepared, blindly groped for her dirk. She successfully grabbed the handle and unsheathed it, defensively holding it out before her.

A rustle in the oak tree behind the girls caused them to become slightly startled before the two spun around to face it, assuming this was the voice's hiding place.

"I don't take either of you for an idiot." A girl dropped from one of the higher branches up in the tree to one of the lower ones. Her eyes, an intricate brown color with a gold ring around the outer edge of the iris, locked onto both girls quite innocently. She swung her feet back and forth as they dangled from the tree limb. Her hair was a darker shade of brown hanging loosely in two looped pigtails. "Are you guys going on an adventure?"

The darker skinned girl snorted and, deciding this small girl would be of no threat to them, let her bass-axe go back to her shoulder. "Our motives are none of your business, kiddo," Nova replied, turning on her heel as she started back the way she and Iris had been heading.

Iris obviously hadn't caught on that they should be leaving because she just stood in the same spot, smiling as friendly as possible at the shorter girl. "Oh. No, not just yet. Actually, we're going to the Mountain Village," the blonde explained, sliding her dirk back into its sheathe before approaching the base of the tree and looking up at the brown haired girl.

"Iris!" Nova hissed, whirling around. Not only was the other girl a little annoying, she was also a little daft. She could hardly believe Iris had