C3 A Mysterious Jade Crystal

Bran walked out of The curry's, the fifth eating house he had been to for the day, carrying an empty basket of fish. He waved his basket in the air to make sure there were no residue bones or scales left behind. As he expected, there were little to none, none except for a Jade Crystal which dropped from the basket and onto the rocky floor where it rolled around in the dust.

"What is this?" He gazed at it as it settled on a spot. The ray of the sun refracted off it that it pierced his gaze with images of a burning crown seating on top of a silent sea, which startled him. He lost the vision just as quickly and was left with the beaming image of the jade crystal resting on the dust.

He picked up the jade and examined it as if it were a piece of magical rock or a sildon coin. Furthermore, he raised it to the sun to check if the vision would return, but nothing happened. His gazed caught the image of the green petals of a burning flame which was etched into the jade.

"That's odd?" he gave the jade a hard tussle to see if anything would change, but when nothing did, he decided to toss it in with the clump of rudies he had on his left hand.

The young boy wondered what was wrong with him today, first was a ghost man now visions. "You need to get your act together", he beat his chest while he moved his basket to his right side where he clamped it down against his ribs. He knew he was a dreamer, he had often dreamt about things while on errands, and he never misses a good midnight dream. However, none of what he ever dreamt off was beyond what he wanted, hoped for or experienced. He had control of all his dreams most of the time, but not this time, it seemed.

With both hands, he sorted the rudies on his left in their different denominations, before counting to confirm how much he had just made. Once he was done, he folded the perfectly arranged bunch into a little purse he carried and slid the bag into his pant's waist buckle, where it was safely covered.

17 Rudy, 2 sildon coin and one mysterious Jade crystal he found lying around in his basket was all he made. That was better than most days he imagined, but not the best so far. A pie costs about 4 Rudy and his sisters' bracelets were 2 sildon each. He would do the math if he were good at math, but he was sure he wouldn't get cheated.

Like Mother said, "make sure you spend nothing more than five Rudy on the market and remember to always ask for balance".

He knew exactly how much the pie was sold, so he was confident he could pull this off. And maybe with a bit of luck, he could exchange the strange Jade crystal for some sweets.

>>>>>>>>>>>The Rosie's cakes'<<<<<<<<<<<<

His first stop was a small bakery by the west wing of the market, known to many as The Rosie's Cakes' (TRC). The two-room bakery, with a seat out platform for a capacity of not more than 5 people, was one of the very best bakeries in town. The shop was owned by a man known as Mr. Rosie and his three wives.

They were a jolly group with a reputation extended beyond the borders of Edrighton. Their cakes and sweets were one of the very best in town, and a taste was enough to convince just about anyone that this was the place to be.

Thinking about them made Bran watery in the mouth. Luckily for him, he seemed to be the first in line, in contrast to the crowd he always met whenever he came around. Today the stars shined on him, as even the pie he craved so much for was already in the oven waiting to be displayed.

Mr. Rosie: "Hello there, boy", "My Lucky first customer!"

The three wives: How may … we serve ..... You, today?

"Hello sir, mams'," Bran replied excitedly, "I would like a blueberry pie, a large one please."

Wife 1: did he just say A blueberry pie?

Wife 2: A blueberry pie?

Wife 3: Yes, he did say, a blueberry pie!

The three wives: Then why don't we get him a blueberry pie.

They sang in perfect harmony while they worked together. They were quite creative with words and could turn a simple word or sentence into an appealing melody. People also loved them for this, but not as much as they did their pastries and sweets.

He hummed and nodded to their tunes, but what was really on his mind was nothing apart from the pie he ordered. He could already smell it, feel it and taste it and, although it wasn't in his embrace yet, one could say he already had a slice of it judging from the smile on his face.

If only imaginations were real.

"Here you go, customer …"

"Bran" the boy replied.

Mr. Rosie handed him a pie, boxed up in the beautiful Rosie's cakes wrapper with a note which read 'Thank you for coming to Rosie's cakes, please enjoy your meal'.

Bran handed him the 4 Rudy he had with him as if it were just paper, before stepping aside to carefully place the pie into his basket. He was almost halfway gone when he realized he hadn't asked for his balance. His mother's word rang loud in his head; however, he was sure he gave just the right amount for the pie.

>>>>>>>>>West wing Tommy's Jewels<<<<<<<<

"Hello sir" Bran ran up to a man seated in the jewelry vendor shop, stationed just a few meters away from the bakery. The man sat in an enclosed wooden shed with an open front window and bared side windows. The only way in or out seemed to be through the door at his back. He had a table and a seat where he worked on jewels, and just by the window hung already finished materials and other materials for sale.

With his double framed glasses and a pair of tweezers, the olive skin man with roughly combed black hair, seated inside, worked on a diamond pendant. He was so engulfed in his work he didn't hear Bran call the first time, and for this the boy sort to put more effort.

"Excuse me sir!" Bran called out again, this time with some push from his lungs which abruptly called the man's attention, forcing him to fumble what he was working on.

"What in the Seven Calamities…" he tried to curse out of anger when his eyes met Bran's brown eyes.

"Oh, hello there, how may I help you?"

"I would like that two bracelets, the one with the blue and pink butterfly and a fairy wand as a buckle."

"Oh, nice choice, are they for your mum?"

"No sir, those are for my sisters".

"Oh, I see, wouldn't you want one for yourself?" the man inquired, hoping to get him to buy more from him. But Bran only shook his head at the offer reluctantly.

"Come on, try this." The shopkeeper pulled out a fancy bracelet, with giants and ogres and even a Bigfoot to try to sway him. But Bran was still reluctant to give in and continued to wave his head at him.

He felt defeated when Bran pulled out a single Rudy from his belt purse and handed it to him.

"Just the bracelet will do sir, I would like my balance if you don't mind."

Four sildon was the price, which meant he was supposed to give the boy six sildon in exchange, and this he didn't have at the moment.

He thought for a second, but couldn't find a solution for his problem. In that case, he imagined, He wasn't going to give up trying to sell junk to the boy. He quickly brought up a bracelet with a picture of the two kings on it. It was the most decorated children's bracelet he had, and he hoped this would do the trick.

"Hey, why don't you try this on for size, it's really spectacular, you know?"

Bran looked puzzled on seeing it, there was something about the piece of art that felt familiar, and this didn't escape the vendor's notice. A broad smile made manifest on the man's face before he cleared his throat for his next words.

"Don't tell me you've never seen this bracelet before–" he retracted the bracelet from the boy's face, "don't you know the bracelet of kings?"

"Kings?" Bran wondered.

"Yes boy, kings. And not just any king, but The two kings of our great kingdom, Edrighton!"

Bran gazed at him as if he were talking gibberish, he wondered if the man realized Edrighton had only one king. A king who sat in the palace and was admired by all.

"Ohh I see, you do not know the story of the two kings do you?" he asked, as if he too was shocked the boy was unaware of this.

"No", Bran replied, eager to learn what it meant.

Sparks lit behind the man's eye on seeing the boy's expression and on hearing his words. The bracelet told quite the story, and the man knew just where to start.

"A thousand years ago, the kingdom of Edrighton had just one great King. The king was the most powerful and wisest man alive. He ruled the kingdom with strength and wisdom and was worshiped by all, even by the five great neighboring villages who feared his prowess."

Moving on to the next image, he continued. "Seeing how powerful he was, the dark order felt threatened and banned together to infiltrate the first great celestial war, with Hope's of killing him off during the chaos it brought".

Over to the next image, "He successfully defeated them with the swipe of his sword and sent them back into the dark abyss where they belonged".

"But it was too late, as they had already cursed him. A powerful spell they said, one born from their sacrifice, swept over the king and consumed him. The king was therefore cursed never to have a child and for His kingdom to come to ruins in a raging, consuming flame once his time was up."

In the next image, "The King travelled far and wide in an attempt to break this curse, but no one could help him. He studied day and night, prayed and practiced all sort of sorcery, but nothing could help him".

"Then One day–", he moved over to the next image, "–he saw the dragon crystal a green jade in the mountain peak of Ekabor."

"It was said that the crystal bonded with his soul and blood and provided a way out from this curse".

"He was going to have children again, you see, but none of his children would inherit his gift of strength and wisdom. One generation would possess the gift of Strength, while the next generation possessed the gift of wisdom."

"Thus the two kings were born."

"The 1st king" he pointed to the left side of the centerpiece of the bracelet showing a man in a white robe and a golden crown with his hands raised to something that looked like a green flame.

"The peace/wisdom king (Uchendu).

And the 2nd king" he pointed to the right of the same centerpiece to show a man in a red outfit with the same posture and crown as the one on the left.

"The warrior king (Obiagu)".

Both kings looked like mirror images of each other and both raised their hands to the same green sun in the middle of the bracelet as if they worshiped it.

"It is said that both kings can never share the same lifetime and once one is born the other dies. It is also rumored that the first king is the one reincarnating in his different forms in every lifetime in other to protect his beloved city of Edrighton".

"And as the story goes, as long as these two kings continued to co-exist through time, the kingdom of Edrighton was safe and destined never to burn to the ground".

"What do you think about it, boy, do you want it now?" The vendor pestered on after giving his short story. However, the look on Bran's face was that of a bewildered boy and not that of a truly astonished one.

"Sorry, sir, what's that green ball at the middle of the bracelet".

"What green ball?" The man wondered.

"The ball that have the markings of a flame!" Bran pointed at it.

"That's the dragon crystal" the man replied impatiently.

"I have a crystal similar to that". Bran dipped his hand into his pocket to pull out the jade crystal he saw in his fish basket.

"See, it looks just like it."

"What is a dragon crystal, sir?"

The vendor dropped everything he had on his desk, just to slide on his two framed glasses for a proper look at the Jade.

"Where did you find this?" The man panicked.

"I don't know sir, I think a man bumped into me and dropped it in my fish basket."

"Can I take a closer look at it?" The man wondered, almost too scared to touch it. Bran nodded his head in acknowledgement and quickly passed the jewel on to him. The vendor's eye lit up behind his glasses, with his mouth open in excitement. He looked like a hungry man who just found a massive chunk of meat to feed on. The jade shimmered once again like it did before, but this time on touching the shopkeepers skin, it became so hot it burned his flesh which forced him to drop it on the window table.

Bran picked it off the table as the man screamed and cursed in pain, but didn't feel any heat emitting from the jade.

The look on the man's face changed as he saw Bran pick it up, that what was seemed like a sane mane looked like a possessed monster ready to devour the boy at anytime.

"What's wrong with your eye, sir, are you okay?" Bran asked, seeing the blue in his eyes turn black like the storm.

"Give me a second", the man thundered, his voice deep but quaky with his pupil dilated as if he was having some sort of seizure.

"Just a second" he turned around and fumble with the material on his desk, until he got an eye drop which he applied to both eyes.

"I'm fine now" he turned towards Bran who only looked at him like he was a ghost.

"The jade, give it back, I will give you any bracelet you want."

"No sir, I already have the bracelet I want. I will rather just take my balance now."

"Your balance, Of course."

"There's a little problem though, you see I don't have your balance with me here."

"But, but you can take the bracelet and the Rudy, in exchange for that dirty crystal, you picked up." He tried a pathetic attempt at a smile. "What do you say?"

"Uhm…" Bran thought about it for a second, he had planned to exchange the crystal for sweets which costs a lot less than a bracelet, but for some reason he didn't feel like letting go of it.

"Thank you, Sir" Bran opted to slide the crystal back into his purse as he had made up his mind to leave.

"Wait, Here you can have this," he offered the king's bracelet, but Bran was unmoved by the offer.

"Or, you can have anyone really, you just make your pick."

"No sir", Bran insisted, with his fist clenched around the jade crystal while he slowly drifted back from the vendor window frame. "I'm fine with just this two bracelets, sir, you can keep the balance".

"No wait!" the man uttered again, this time with a mellowed voice.

"Wait, I'm uhm…" He thought for a second.

"Okay, why don't I escort you home, that way you can tell me all about the crystal and that way I can tell you more about the two kings."

"I, I know, I can also help you carry your basket if you'd like, it looks too heavy for a young boy."

There was this sudden silence between both of them as they stared at each other for the next minute, before a rat ran across the man's feet to startle him. Bran took his basket of pie and ran.

The man set out to follow, but the door behind him was locked with a padlock. He tried jumping off the window, but by the time he was out, Bran had already cut corners into the next street.

Bran ran as fast as he could through the market square and even though he wasn't that smart he was athletically gifted.

The man ran into the market and was immediately swarmed by a crowd of people. "I will find you boy" he screamed into the crowd after he saw he couldn't pull through, which was very frustrating for him. "Mark my words",

"I will find you"

Bran couldn't care less, even though he heard his thundering voice behind him. He was finally going home and that was all that mattered.