the cursed star necklace

“I see someone,” Eric yelled.



“Get your head down,” Paul shouted back to his apprentice.



His face red with embarrassament, Eric slid deeper into the bushes where he was hiding.3



“Does it look like a good mark?” Paul asked.



“Yeah, I think so.”



“It’s human. Right?”



“Yeah, and he’s alone.”



“Does he look like he uses magic?"



“He just looks like some stupid old man.”



Paul raised his head from his hiding spot to look down the dirt road, but the rolling grassy hills prevented him from seeing too far.



“Stop him when he passes by. Remember, timing an opportunity is everything.”



Just a few minutes later, the unsuspecting victim was strolling by the area Eric was hidden. Suddenly, the young thief leaped from his hiding spot shouting out, “Halt!”



“What do ya want? Why ya gotta scare a guy, like that?” the old man snapped.



“You got to pay a toll to pass here, old man," Eric said with a smug look on his face.



“Toll? That’s silly. I didn’t see no sign. What are you talking about?” the old man replied, seeming confused.



At this moment, Paul, who had circled around to block the old man from behind said, “I guess we forgot to put it up, sir.”



The edererly traveler turned around at the sound of the new voice. Eric ripped a leather bag he was carrying, from his shoulder. “Damn it, nothing but shit in here,” the young thief said as he hastily tossed the old man’s belongings out.



“Stop that! Give me back my things,” the frustrated old man pleaded, reaching for his bag.



“Get away from me,” Eric shouted, pushing the old man down onto the dirt road.



“Stop,” ordered Paul, stepping between the old man and Eric.



“Why? He don’t got shit,” Eric asked.



“ I said so.”



Eric reluctantly backed down and waited, fuming. Paul walked over and helped the old man to his feet. “Are you ok?”



“Yeah, I think so. It’s nice to see one of you young men has some sense.”



“The boy gets ahead of things, sometimes.”



“The boy should be beaten.”



“Now let’s not go overboard. Oh, you have five minutes to produce something of value.”



“What?”



Paul now had his hands on the old man’s shoulders. “Or, I’m going to cut out your throat.”



“But I… I…”



“I’d suggest you stop stuttering and find something,” Paul said in a very pleasant tone.



The old man calmly straightened himself up and closed his eyes, for a moment.



“I see how it is. Well, I may have something of interest to you and your friend.”



The old man closed his eyes again, but this time when he opened them his pupils were black. Paul stepped back, in fear. The old man reached into his shirt and pulled out a golden star-shaped necklace and held it out in his palm. Paul just stared, speechless. The old man took the necklace and flung it up into the air.



“Curse these evil men,” the old man chanted, as the necklace ascended. The necklace reached its peak, but it just stopped in mid air for a few moments. “Curse these evil men.” Then the necklace seemingly exploded into a bright shinging light and then suddenly vanished.



The two thieves stared in shock an horror into the empty sky.



“What the hell?” Eric finally said.



Paul turned to the old man. “What did you do?”



The old man, seemingly oblivious to the thieves, began to pack up his belongings that had been thrown out of his leather bag. When a frustrated Eric was about ready to explode from being ignored, the strange traveler finally replied. “I gave you two that necklace.”



A look of confusion passed over both thieves’ faces, but the old man continued before either one could speak, “The necklace rests in a small cottage in Kala. If either of you can find it and place it around your neck, within a month’s time, that person will gain great power.”



“What happens to the one who does not wear the necklace?” Paul asked.



“Nothing,” the old man replied.



“Then why should we go after the damn thing?” Eric blurted out. "We do just fine without it.”



The old man, who had gathered all his belongings, to continue his journey. When he had taken a few steps, he turned and replied. “One of you must wear the necklace within a month, or both of you shall die.”



“How do we know you’re real? You’re dressed like a peasant. Lots of people can do a cheap disappearing trick,” Paul yelled at the old man.



The old man lowered the collar of his shirt revealing the branding of a crescent moon surrounded by stars. Both Paul and Eric stepped back in fear, recognizing the symbol as belonging to a powerful order of wizards.



“I like the comfort of the clothes.” The old man walked away, as the thieves stood silent for a spell.



Finally Paul spoke. “Eric, go. I’ll give you a head start.”



“What?” Eric questioned.



“You have no chance to beat me to the necklace, and you will probably die on the way. But I’ll give you a fighting chance.”



“I don’t want to.”



“What? Why?”



“I don’t want to die. I’ll stay with you and be your servant, if you allow me to.”



Paul let out a little chuckle. “All I’ve taught you and you pass up an opportunity like this. Well come on servant boy, we do not have time to waste.”



The mentor and apprentice gathered their belongings they had hidden at a nearby campsite. “Take only what you need, boy,” Paul ordered as he studied a map of the land.



“What about this stuff we stole?” Eric asked.



“Leave it.”



“But…”



“I said leave it.”



“We stole it for nothing.”



“We’ll barely make it to the necklace in time as it is. If you don’t shut up, I’ll leave you behind.” The angry leader rolled up the map and put it away. “Let’s go”.



Eric quickly strapped on his bag and ran to catch up. The thieves were now on their way to the necklace. The two thieves traveled silently for several hours. The countryside was easy to navigate and they made good time.



Feeling confident, Eric finally spoke up. “We’re making pretty good time”.



“Bite your tongue, boy. You’ll jinx us. We have to pass through two of the Cursed Lands to have any chance of making it on time.”



Eric turned away and walked silently, keeping to himself.



The land the two thieves walked, while mostly ideal, had a few areas the locals called, “The Cursed Lands”. These lands had animals and monsters found in no other place, not even the other Cursed Lands.



Several days passed. The thieves made decent time, stopping only to sleep a few hours and eat one meal a day. Finally they came upon a forest of gray trees and black leaves. They both knew this was the first Cursed Land they had to pass through.



“Can we go around?” Eric asked hopefully, as the pair approached the forest.



“No, we do not have the time,” Paul answered as he walked into the forest. The two thieves made their way through the forest. At first glance, it seemed lifeless, but it was just dark. The forest was alive and growing.



Paul and Eric kept quiet as they dredged through the forest.



Snap! They both turned toward the sudden cracking of a large branch.



Crack! Another branch broke in the distance.



The thieves began to look around when Paul spotted a pair of eyes, flashing in a treetop. But before he could give warning, a small monster looking like a cross between a demon and a small boy flew out from the tree. The monster swooped down toward the thieves, staying out of reach. Another monster, seemingly from out of nowhere, flew out and also swooped toward the thieves. Within a few minutes, several of the small beasts had come out of hiding and were plunging down toward the thieves then zipping back up, getting closer and closer with each fly by. They were zipping by so fast and from so many directions, it was hard to tell how many there really were.



Then suddenly one of the monsters flew by and clawed the face of Eric. The beast was back in the air before the young thief could even react. Another swiped the back of Paul. The bombardment continued, leaving cuts and bruises on both men. All of a sudden, Paul caught sight of one of the monsters diving right at him. He was able to anticipate the beast’s moves and nab it by the legs. He nearly threw the monster away but then he saw another one swooping in for an attack and used his captive like a baseball bat,bashing his attacker. Both monsters fell dead from the force of the swing.



“Over by me,” Paul shouted, as he scanned the sky for more of the demonic beasts.



The attacks continued, but now Paul bashed them away killing monster after monster until the onslaught finally stopped, and both men collapsed to the ground.



Paul glanced over at Eric and was surprised. He was less bloody than he thought his young apprentice would be. “I still remember when I first took you in,” Paul thought to himself.



It had been over ten years ago. Paul had been hiding in some shrubbery, waiting for a wagon he had spotted to pass by. He could tell it belonged to a farmer and figured it would be easy pickings.



When the wagon got close enough, Paul leaped out and knocked the driver off the wagon, grabbed the reins and halted the mules pulling the wagon. The thief figured that was it. He would take what he wanted and leave the disgraced farmer. Then, out of nowhere, the farmer's fist hit Paul on the side of his face. Paul barely got his hands up to block the next blow then caught the farmer with an elbow to the chin. Paul was ready to knock out the farmer , when he saw him reaching for something. The thief wasn’t sure what it was, but he caught the sparkle of a blade. He whipped out his knife. Paul preferred not to kill, but would if he must and had killed before.



The fight was a mismatch from the start, but when knives were introduced the farmer was as good as dead.



As Paul was leaning over to examine the fallen corpse, suddenly something covered back in the wagon began to stir. Paul yanked off the cover ready to kill again, but there sat a young boy. This was the first time Paul saw Eric. He was about to leave the boy, when he saw something in his eyes. The boy was scared, but there was also a look of hate in his eyes. Paul took Eric under his wing at that moment, and in a weird way, taught him a trade.



Now, over a decade later, the thieves sat exhausted from their fight with the flying demonic monsters.



“Get a drink of water. We don’t have time to rest,” Paul ordered.



"Yeah yeah yeah,” Eric responded as he took a swig from his canteen. The two thieves were quickly on their way. They hurried and made good time making up for the time they had lost.



“Eric, we’re down to a week, so we may not make it,” Paul said somewhere on the road, starting a conversation he had been regretting.



“Damn, we’ll make it," Eric said with a hint of frustration in his voice.



"Well if we do, I want you to go on your own.”



“I want to stay with you.”



“When I have the necklace I won’t need you.”



“I’ll be your servant.”



“I didn’t train you to be a servant, and you know you won’t be happy as one.”



The two thieves walked silently for a few minutes.



“Well, I’m by your side until you put it on.”



The two traveled silently, when they came upon the final Cursed Land, a cursed lake. It was a fog-covered body of water; they both knew they had to cross. Kala was on the other side and they were on their last day.



The thieves stood on the shore for a few minutes, contemplating how to cross, when a small elderly man approached them. “I’d go around, if I were you,” the old man stated.



"We need to cross,” Paul said as he continued staring out across the water.



“Well, I have a boat.”



"How much?” Paul asked with a smirk.



“Two gold coins now and two when we’re safely across.”



“Fine, get your boat.”



“It’s not as safe now we should wai...”



“I said get your boat. We cross now.”



The old man walked away to retrieve his boat.



“I’ll jump him when he comes back with the boat,” Eric said.



“No, wait,” Paul, ordered.



“What? Why?”



“It’s like I told you timing on opportuninty.”



The old man quickly returned with a small boat and the three oars. The three men were quickly in the water and rowing to the other side.



“We’ll be ok,” the old man stated, “if we don’t run into the ghost sea monster.”



“Ghost sea monster, what the hell is that?” Eric asked.



“Well, it aint a real ghost just a monster sometimes attacks people who cross. You won’t see it coming. If we are lucky, it won’t attack us today. But if it does, we’re in for the fight of our lives.”



“Well, Let’s hope we are lucky,” Paul said.



They were not so fortunate. A little over half way across the boat was attacked.



“What was that?” Eric shouted, as an invisible monster crashed into the boat.



“That’s the monster. Row!” the old man shouted.



The monster struck again nearly capsizing the boat.



“I’ll stab the damn thing,” Eric snarled.



“It just hungry,” said the old man.



“Hungry?” Paul asked.



“Yeah, it just needs to eat,” the old man responded.



Paul turned toward Eric. “This is your last lesson in timing and opportunity.”



Before Eric could respond, Paul grabbed the old man and threw him into the lake. The old man was under the water almost immediately. A few minutes later the once invisible monster, its insides now colored red by its meal swam away.



The two thieves made it across the lake and quickly into Kala. The place the necklace rested was easy to find. Knowing they were short on time the two thieves hurried to the small hut where their prize hung.



Paul spotted the magic piece of jewelry first, and was hypnotized, thinking of its power. He was lost in a daze. He forgot his surrounding. He forgot about Eric. The leader did not notice his student pulling out his knife.



“Timing and opportunity,” Eric said, as he stepped over Paul’s dead body for the necklace