Morning Glory – Jewel Riders Two Ch. 2

Summary: Gwenevere’s daughter Allura must lead a new generation of Jewel Riders.

Archival Note from The Jewel Riders Archive: This story is presented as it was originally published on Stormy’s “Avalon” fan site in the late 1990s and early 2000s. It is presented for archival purposes and for the enjoyment of the Jewel Riders fandom. If you are the author of this story and wish to have it removed from the Jewel Riders Archive (or wish to share more!) please email us at archivist@jewelridersarchive.com. Happy Reading!

Jewel Riders II

Chapter 2:  A New Path

A pair of hands waved around a crystal ball with a misty figure floating

inside of it.  It appeared to be some type of male ghost, who looked very

annoyed.

“Can’t you find a new body for me to inhabit any faster?” he asked the

owner to the pair of hands, which were conjuring up images in the same crystal

ball, causing very cramped spaces for the creature inside it.

“I’m working as fast as I can…” a female voice said as the young, dark

skinned woman showed her face, “The potion’s effects haven’t worn off yet…

after I drank it, it sent a part of my life to your dead soul so that I could

bring you back here, alive… or whatever you would call what you are right

now.”

The spirit figure stopped for a moment… he pondered her words and began

to think:

“Does she really think that much of me, to give up some of her life?”

***

A young, pure white winged unicorn pranced around the meadow late at

night.  He was so amazed how graceful he had become in just a few days.

“Helios!” a non-human voice echoed.

The young boy pricked his ears up and looked toward the direction of the

voice.

***

Vesta conjured up another image of the unicorn boy prancing toward the

voice.

“See him?” she asked the spirit floating inside her crystal ball.

The spirit pushed his way through the misty pictures to see the dark

skinned woman.

“Of course I see him.” he said, still annoyed and in a louder tone than

before.

Vesta jumped up and threw a potion bottle at the crystal ball, causing the

contents to splatter all over it, only to have to clean the mess up later.  But

her fit served it’s purpose when it made the spirit creature jump.

“DON’T YOU EVER GET THAT TONE OF VOICE WITH ME!!” Vesta screamed,

outraged, “DO YOU HEAR ME?”

“Yes, I hear you.” the spirit decided that he would just shut up from now

on.

Vesta went back to describing what the unicorn was useful for.

“That is the princess’s unicorn.  He looks grown, but it is only because

Merlin has made him grow for the time being.  He still has no real sense of the

world, because he is still a child in his heart and mind.  If you inhabit his

body, I’m sure we can make the princess do anything for us.”

“May I make a small remark?” the spirit asked.

Vesta nodded.

“Why is it I can only inhabit animals?”

“Because you’re human soul and body has died.  When Morgana was blasted

into the wild magic, a part of her died, and it was her body, because she lost

her jewel, and her soul is punished to roam the wild magic forever now.  Since

she and you are somehow linked, when her body died, you died.”

***

Helios kept following the voice.  He finally began to think that he didn’t

recognize it.

“Allura?” he guessed.

“Yes.” said the voice.

Helios thought a second and replied to the bogus Princess voice.

“Um I don’t think so.” he answered.

The voice turned from a calm maiden’s voice into a raging sorceress voice.

“I WILL HAVE YOU HELIOS, YOU CANNOT RUN OR HIDE.  I WILL HAVE YOU WHEN THE

TIME IS RIGHT!”

Helios gasped as he saw thunder clouds forming in the sky and he quickly

turned tail, galloping as fast as he could from the voice.

***

Meanwhile, Princess Allura, Theia, and Haliae, the Jewel Riders, were

listening to a speech made by Merlin concerning the threat of the new dark

sorcery he sensed after the defeat of the Black Dragon.

“Jewel Riders, there is some other evil force behind all of this, the

Black Dragon was only a pawn of it’s power.”

The girls, led by the Princess all gasped and suddenly burst into

questions.

“You mean we didn’t defeat him?”

“There’s something else?”

“How can that be Merlin?”

Merlin frowned and explained about evils.

“I know that it seems hard to understand… but evil always returns

through time… sometimes its the same evil, and sometimes its a different evil,

as it is now.”

“But…” the Princess began.

Haliae quietly hushed Allura.

“By what I can tell, each time an enemy comes back, they somehow become

more and more resistant to the power of the Enchanted Jewels… so I am afraid

that now, the Sun, Moon, and Heart Stone might not be powerful enough to defeat

the new evil by themselves.”

The three girls all looked at each other and wondered what drastic

measures they would have to take.

Merlin thought on the problem at hand and decided that it was time to

bring out the big jewels.

Merlin swung his staff and brought up an image of three legendary

goddesses.

One burned with fire in her eyes and in her hair, another flew with

eagle’s wings, and the last was beautiful with flowing hair and a magical love

aura surrounding her.

“These are the spirits of the Enchanted Jewels… they are what will give

your jewels more power.”

The girls again had more questions.

“But I thought that the wild magic gave the jewels that power.” Allura

spoke up.

“It does, to some extent.  But like I said, the new enemy has evolved to

resist the power of the Jewels now.  To find the spirits of these goddesses, you

must find the three Spirit Stones.”

“Spirit Stones?” the three girls chorused.

“Yes, they conjure the power of the goddess to make you’re jewels

stronger.”

Merlin felt like he was going around in circles.

“Allura… you’re mother can help you locate the stones.  Ask her to help

you, for that is all I know about the Spirit Stones, I did not forge them, like

I did the Enchanted Jewels.”

With that the wizard disappeared.

“I think we made him mad,” Theia whispered to her fellow Jewel Riders.

***

Queen Gwenevere was bustling around the Jewel Keep, trying to find

something on the Spirit Stones.

“I don’t believe Merlin ever told any of us about the Spirit Stones.” said

the Queen, referring to her Jewel Rider days, “But of course there are many

things Merlin never told anyone.”

Allura unrolled an ancient map of Avalon.

“Would the Spirit Stones be in Avalon?” she asked.

The Queen thought on that for a second.

“I don’t think they are, because the wild magic tracker would have picked

them up.”

Haliae and Theia joined the Princess looking at the map.

“I wonder what all this stuff means,” Theia spoke up and pointed to some

ancient symbols.

Gwenevere turned to look.

“Most of them just tell about the directions and the different winds

really…”

The three young girls looked at her with odd faces.

“It’s true, you’d think that they would tell where treasures and enchanted

jewels were found, but they are nothing more than a compass key or telling what

the wind was like on the day the map was made.  Pretty funny huh?”

Allura giggled softly and the three nodded their heads in unison.

The Queen picked up an older scroll and unraveled it.  In a few glances,

she motioned for the girls to look and she spread it out on the counter of the

jewel keep.

“And there are some…” she began, “that do mean something… perhaps like

this one.”

The girls looked but none of them could decipher the ancient language.

Allura picked the scroll up and put it under Merlin’s orb projector.  This

time, instead of a regular map of Avalon, it showed different places in the wild

magic.  When they moved the projector over the jungle, it showed a land far away

in the wild magic which was also a type of jungle, and this was so for each of

the seven lands of Avalon on the map.

“Wow, did you see this?” Allura asked.

“Wonder if there is something like the ocean?” Haliae asked.

Allura shrugged, but then moved the orb over the Sea of Avalon.

The projector showed an alternate ocean world.  Just as Allura began to

move it again, something sparkled in the corner of the projected image.

Theia blinked.

“Did you see that?” asked the Tree Nymph.

Allura and Haliae looked at each other and shook their heads.

The Princess moved the orb back over the ocean and left it there.  The

image began to sparkle again and then images of the sun, moon, and heart stone

appeared.

“I’ve seen this before!” the Queen piped up.  “Hold your magic jewels up

behind the image.”

The young Jewel Riders took their Enchanted Jewels from their belts and

held them up as the Queen had said.

Sure enough, the image flashed and showed a yellow lady walking along the

beach.

Allura blinked and looked again, the image of the lady was very faint, but

the beach was crystal clear.

“What does that mean?” she asked.

“What does what mean?” Haliae turned and asked back.

“That!” the Princess pointed to the image of the lady.  “See how it’s so

faint and the beach is so clear?”

Haliae nodded.

“Look at what she is carrying!” Theia pointed out.

The girls looked and saw the yellow lady carrying a small orb type jewel

with a dove flying around a Heart Stone which was floating in the middle.

Haliae pointed at the image and then pointed to her.

“That must be MY Spirit Stone!  But that lady has it!”

“She looks familiar…” Theia said as she looked at the lady closer.  She

saw the magical love aura surrounding her.

“LOOK!” she said.  “She has the love aura around her like that image that

Merlin showed us!” the Moon Stone rider called out.

“So that must mean…” Allura started.

“She is Aphrodite, the spirit of the Heart Stone!” Haliae finished.

Theia and Allura looked puzzled at her.

“How do you know that?” they asked.

“She is the goddess of love and she is the only goddess with the love

aura.” the Heart Stone rider replied.

“Makes sense,” Theia commented.

“Perhaps it’s telling you that you are the first chosen to find your

Spirit Stone, Haliae…” the Queen suggested.

“Me?” Haliae squeaked.

She was only a Jewel Rider for about a week now… she couldn’t believe…

“But, but but…!!!” she stuttered, “I can’t!  I don’t know enough about

my Heart Stone yet!”

“Of course you can!” Allura helped with motivation and was trying to help

with moral support.  “I’m sure you and Cytherea can get through it just fine

now!”

Haliae looked to the ground.

“But, it is your choice, Haliae,” Theia reminded.

“I’ll do it!” Haliae said, gaining confidence.

The Princess and Theia exchanged smiles as the Queen bid Haliae good luck.

***

Lady Haliae packed two saddlebags of supplies and rations that both her

and Cytherea would use on the trip.

“Are we ready to go?” a sparkling musical type voice asked the Lady.

Haliae spun around to see her little blue unicorn standing behind her.

“I suppose we are…” Haliae answered as she strapped the leather

saddlebags to Cytherea’s jeweled saddle.

“Good luck Haliae!” said a familiar voice.

The Princess, accompanied by her two unicorns, walked out from the palace

to where Haliae was standing.

“You will do well.” Sunstar assured Cytherea.

The feather-footed unicorn smiled.

“I hope for a safe return,” Allura ordered jokingly.

“Thank you Allura, I will do my best to return unharmed.  Goodbye!”

Cytherea jumped into the air and soared away, into the blue Avalonian sky.

Haliae looked back and waved just before they flew out of sight.

Thus the beginning of a new path for the new Jewel Riders.  Ahead lies a

test of Haliae’s ability to use the magic of the Heart Stone… will she pass?