A mushroom cloud of black smoke billowed from the pit and even managed to lighten up several tree branches.

Waverly took calculated steps toward the smoke, subconsciously waiting for Gruggun to surface, but all was silent and still. The thick blackness continued to rise into the sky.

From behind her, light footsteps approached as if with caution. She did not need to turn to know that the men had all come back. She watched the smoke in shock, unable to believe she had just overcome a powerful giant with a mirror and a pit full of flaming crude oil.

"She's done it." Waverly heard FluffPick say from behind her. His voice was so quiet it almost quivered.

"SHE'S DONE IT!" FluffPick yelled triumphantly.

A wild cheer erupted from a massive crowd that Waverly did not know had gathered behind her. When she finally turned, she saw them - men, women, children - jubilating and crying for joy. Jonah came forward and almost pulled her hand off with a handshake.

His face was covered in joyful tears. "Thank you. Thank you, my dear. You saved us."

The rest of the town swooped in on Waverly and lifted her above their heads. Someone placed a golden laurel on her head and another provided her with a beautiful bronze rod (which she later set down on a market table). They chanted her name so loudly that Waverly could no longer hear herself breathe. FluffPick stood at a corner, a glad smile plastered on his face, clapping along with the rest of the town as they clapped and dance and sang happy songs. The celebrators left the forest with Waverly in their arms. They trailed into the town, jumping and somersaulting. More people joined in until Waverly could no longer spot any familiar face. When they finally put her down, it was on the concrete front steps of the town square.

Jonah came forward with six other men, FluffPick included. He waved a hand to the crowd to get their attention and it took a long time before they quietened but at last, they did.

Jonah grinned from ear to ear. He cleared his throat and spoke clearly, his loud voice strong and confident and entirely different from the one he had used during the meeting. "My fellow townsfolk, rejoice and fear no more. Gruggun is gone forever."

The crowd went wild; women wiped their crying eyes with the hem of their dresses, men cheered aggressively, children stretched their heads to have a better look at Waverly, waving and standing on their tip toes in an attempt to get her to notice them.

Jonah tried his best to calm the crowd. He succeeded a second time but it took even longer.

"Behold. The crafty Zanaan, Waverly, who has freed us from the terrors of Gruggun. Her name and her incredible deed will be remembered by RenderMore for as long as life exists on earth. Freedom is ours for eternity."

The town went into full celebration mode afterwards. Waverly managed to sneak away from them after a couple of artists insisted on making sketches of her. She discovered that it would take them half the day to complete their sketch and she did not have that much time to spare. She found FluffPick conversing with a woman who attempted to bow to her when she joined them. She dragged FluffPick with her and they began to head away from the town.

"You can go back to Crysoton now, right Fluff?" Waverly asked.

FluffPick nodded happily. His red scarf had been rendered from his body so he looked more at ease. The cold weather had ceased and it was late evening already. He accompanied Waverly all the way to the top of the rise where the town spread before them, black smoke still billowing from a part of the forest to indicate Gruggun's defeat earlier on.

"I will tell Her Majesty, the Lady Maddei all about your victory today. I know she would very much love to meet you in person someday soon." FluffPick said.

"I will try to look forward to that."

FluffPick frowned. "Why do you say such?"

Waverly heaved a sigh and looked about but there was no sign of Desi yet. She wondered if he was delaying himself because she was speaking to FluffPick then remembered that the god had no such courtesy.

"My Trials are not yet complete and i have since lost track of time, all i have been doing is guessing. I am afraid that my next Trials would prove impossible and even more difficult."

FluffPick nodded in agreement. "You have that bit correct. You know Lord Desi makes up these Trials as he goes along. Each time he leaves you, he travels across the seven realms searching for a new test to bring up."

"I suspected that the Trials were not all set in stone." Waverly muttered angrily.

"Oh, most of them are, temporarily. See, like Gruggun. This particular Trial has never been passed. Each time someone fails a Trial, it is left behind for a new tryer no matter how many years it takes for a tryer to surface. For every Trial you succeed in, well, Adunar just makes up new ones for the next tryer. It is strangely almost like a game."

"A really long and hurtful game." Waverly muttered, taking the golden laurel out of her hair. "Is that why he is taking so long because he has not found the next Trial for me?"

"Quite possibly." FluffPick agreed. "Now, my dear. I should make ready to return to Crysoton. First, i must change back to my original form if you do not mind."

Waverly was dumbstruck for a moment, her mouth hung open. "Your origi. . . ? Oh, oh go ahead then."

FluffPick smiled and began to glow warmly like the butterflies in his jar. As Waverly watched, she saw his features shrink until he became no bigger than a speck of light. In fact, he looked no different from a firefly but his light was not entirely yellow. It was a yellowish sort of pink color Waverly had seen on a limestone once.

"Fluff? Can you hear me?" She shouted gazing at the speck. Fluff zoomed toward her and left a trail of blue crystal-like stream behind him. When he hovered longer, the stream collected until Waverly was staring at a lump of crystal the size of a fist. The crystal dropped from the air but she caught it just in time to keep it from shattering to pieces.

"I can hear you, yes, louder than i would like to." Fluff replied. His voice sounded the same only smaller and with a higher pitch.

Waverly stared at the shimmering crystal in her hand. It was in the form of a sphere. FluffPick moved and another crystal dropped toward the ground. Waverly also caught this one. She could not help but imagine that what she held was crystal poop.

"Is this why your kind are called Crystal Fairies?" Waverly questioned looking at the spheres in her hand. Another one dropped again. Waverly thought that if FluffPick kept hovering, she would have an armful of crystal spheres within minutes. She knew just how valuable crystals like these were in her small part of Bremeton. Gypsies used them as shew stones to tell the future or someone's fortune. They were almost always incorrect but still, it brought them good coins.

"No, no. Good heavens. We only adapted the name Crystal Fairies because the very first Elf who encountered us witnessed this very crystallization that you have. He immediately called us by Crystal Fairies. We are only known to ourselves as Crysotoni which means light folk or kindle race in our native language."

Waverly pocketed the crystals. "Oh, that is interesting. Your kind does not have any problems being called the name by the rest of the realms, do they?"

Fluff laughed. It sounded like a tinkle. "Of course not. We accepted it even so. It was a nice name and still is. Only, we have zero contact with the other realms unless on special occasions such as this."

"Why do you not have contact with us? Do you hate us?" Waverly asked. She discovered she had liked Fluff the minute he pulled her into his house.

The rest of his kind would be kind just like him, Waverly thought.

"Oh, no. Do not think such, Waverly." Fluff's voice sounded panicked. "We only live by the laws set by our matron goddess."

"Juniper." Waverly stated.

"You know her?" Fluff asked in surprise.

"Well. . ." Waverly kissed her teeth. "Not personally, but yes i do. Everyone knows Mother Nature."

"Certainly. She strictly warned us to remain neutral. Avoid physical contact with the other realms. My Lady Juniper can be very possessive, she does not always like it when she has to share her very dear things with others and Crysotoni are very very dear to her. We promised we would heed her and ever since our creation - we have."

"Is that not being selfish? I mean, Crysotoni can be of great help to the other realms."

"You have Elves." Fluff offered.

"Yes but you lot are the best healers, the best warriors. Your kind taught the first Elves the art of battle combat."

"Indeed we did and i am quite proud that you know this much about us but know one thing Waverly, the worth of a creature is not only weighed by how much faith he shows in himself. It is also weighed by how much he shows in others. Crysotoni taught the Elves battle and we believed they would evolve into the most excellent fighters there ever was and well, they did. No Man can best an Elf in a fight now. We trusted Daks with our healing skills and now the greatest healers are Shades. We invented silvering and now the best Human mirror makers live in RenderMore and beyond. All we had to do was teach and believe and the rest was left for them."

"What are you saying?" Waverly asked, her eyes reducing to mere slits.

"I am saying child. . . that it is time for me to go." Fluff replied. His light began to shimmer much like the crystal sphere. "Farewell and good luck, brave one."

The light faded into nothing and Waverly was left standing alone on the rise.

She looked at the town and felt like she had only just gotten there. The celebration was still ongoing and was evident in the lights and the music, the noise and fantastic smell of food. Waverly wondered if afterwards the people would question themselves on the whereabouts of Fluffpick but then again, he was a magical creature and could have made them forget they ever knew him.

Just then, a gentle wind whooshed behind her.

"You are late." Waverly stated and turned but the newcomer was not Desi. It was a woman.

"Indeed he is." The woman contributed. "I have asked him to let me speak to you shortly."

Waverly wondered where she had come from and also if she was a deity. If she was,  she did not look the part at all. A transparent green shawl masked her shaggy brown hair and a brown hand-knitted dress was all that draped her. Her brown eyes were dull yet intimidating, like weak sparks of a flame. Waverly felt that the woman's gaze would be powerful enough to ignite the whole world should she get triggered. When she stood up straight, Waverly could still see right over her head. The woman was very short.

"Who are you?" Waverly asked calmly. She was not entirely friendly with the gods but she knew better than to start off meeting one on a bad note.

The woman's shawl fluttered in the gentle breeze. Her face crumpled into a slightly sad one. "Why, you have forgotten me almost as quickly as you had me."

Waverly was muddled. She fidgeted. "I-I had you?"

"Yes. All your life. You had me and now you have forgotten me because i am not presently of any use to you. You have abandoned me."

Waverly tried to recall if she had met a woman like this in town but she hardly ever forgot a face and the woman's face was definitely one she had never seen before.

She stepped back.

"I am terribly sorry, My Lady, but did my mother send you because i do not recall meeting you before now."

The woman glared at her dottily, a flicker of disappointment passed through her doe eyes.

"I see. Well, since you do not remember me. I will depart from you then."

With that, the woman disappeared. In her place, glaring at Waverly as though he would rip her to shreds was Adunar. He looked very unhappy.

"I was hoping you would not make it back alive." He growled.

Waverly raised an eyebrow. "I thought you wanted people to pass your Trials and not fail them."

"If people kept succeeding at them, then they will not be legendary. Now be quiet and come with me." Adunar's dangerous tone warned Waverly to keep shut. She followed him and the world rotated around them again. She wondered if everyone else felt the change or at least saw it then suddenly, she found herself in the greenest jungle ever. She had never been in a jungle but had seen them in books enough to recognize them. It was twilight there and the trees gleamed under the soft light of the sky making the jungle look utmostly serene.

"This is Yena Urwald. It is located in. . . ." He paused, contemplating.  ". . . does not matter the location. This Trial will be counted as two in one. You are to capture The Twin Jinn."

Waverly almost chuckled, but his grave expression warned her to keep a straight face.

"I am to capture a twinging? How do i capture a twinging?"

Adunar glared at her again, but this time in a way that suggested he was truly going to attack.

Waverly felt herself shrink into an invisible shell.

Violent flames licked around the god's face at a very unpleasant angle. "The Twin Jinn not a twinging."

To Waverly, both words sounded exactly the same. "Can you please spell it out?"

He growled and barked. "No! Capture those animals and we can proceed."

The god vanished in the wake of a violent gust of icy wind, a really nice comment aimed at Waverly echoing in her ears.

"Stupid girl!"

Waverly sighed and looked about the jungle. All she could analyze was that it was wet, green, very wet, very green and very very vast.

"Capture a twinging?" She complained when she began to walk, making faces as she muttered angrily to herself. "How many people has he met that can capture a twinging? Everyone knows it is not a thing you capture. You suffer or feel a twinging. You can also give a twinging. You do not capture a twinging. That is utmostly ridiculous. Pa could strike him upside the head with a wooden scoop for confusing words like that. Stupid Trials, stupid twinging, stupid jungle!"

She marched across the moist earth, kicking things as she did - stones, sticks, twigs, fallen branches and fruits. She also made sure to pick some fresh and ripe ones to eat as she was terribly starved. Fluff's food had digested fast after all that running away from Gruggun. She climbed atop a tree stump and jumped off it. Her boot connected with something hard on the ground, sending her sole into instant pain.

"Argh!" Waverly yelped as her leg twisted and she fell. She examined the leg and thankfully it was not broken. Her gaze moved to the object she had stepped on. It was a metallic thing that shone like stainless steel. Waverly reached for it and picked it up. It was an old horseshoe.

Waverly thought it was the oddest thing ever - to find a horseshoe in a jungle. Horses were bred and used on fields by Humans. There was never a horse she heard of that lost a shoe in a jungle. It was at that time Waverly saw it - saw them. Two metallic figures were headed in her direction.

She darted toward a tree to hide in hopes that they had not seen her at all. Although they looked quite harmless and unarmed, the sight of them was enough to make even an adult run away. The human-like figures were pure gold, like a pair of armor that could walk. They moved rather flawlessly for a pair of inanimate things.

Waverly watched from behind the tree.

The figures had plain faces; no nose, eyes, ears or a mouth. But they had arms and legs.

She wondered who had released them into the jungle and if they were protectors of the jungle, out in search of kids picking up horseshoes that did not belong to them. Her heart pounded in her chest as she peered at them under the dimming light of the evening.

Then the strangest thing happened.

Both figures slowly bent down on all fours. Halfway to the ground, their bodies elongated and transformed into the grandest horses Waverly had ever beheld in her entire life - majestic stallions half the size of fully grown wild elephants.

Their coat was a glossy black and their mane was rich and brown like wine. A single line of maroon ran from the end of their mouths, along their powerful bodies down to the very end of their bushy tails. Their forelegs had one gold horseshoe each and their eyes were maroon like the line across their bodies.

What struck Waverly the most were the wings - blacker than polished coals. When they lifted, the maroon line rippled, creating an imagery of ocean waves.

Waverly gaped at the animals. They were beautiful flying horses and what was more - they looked exactly the same. She could not tell them apart.

"The twinging!" She gasped.

Lord Adunar had only said they were animals. Perhaps his aim had been to  confuse her into going to look for squirrels or bunny rabbits so that she would not pass the Trial.

The horses stretched themselves out. One neighed and nosed the other then they both began to run.

Waverly's feet had never been so confused in her entire life of using them. She lingered and yet tried to move, her own indecisiveness infuriating her to a standstill. She had one job - capture the twin horses.

She grunted in exasperation and ran after them. Waverly understood that whenever Brijjet ran, he became somewhat invisible thus making it difficult for anyone who would try to chase him to get annoyed. The horses were different. They were fast but it was not obvious. They only trotted ahead of Waverly but no matter how hard she ran or how fast she sprinted, she never even came up close enough to touch the end of their tails.

Waverly paused for a second to catch her breath then continued her chase. The twins led her on. The jungle itself seemed to enjoy the race and so it stretched on and on. Waverly did not come across water even once or an open glade or somewhere she could call a time out.

The race was endless.

One of the horses soared over his brother's head and came running a few feet in front. The other one did the same and outran the first. Waverly suddenly realized that the horses were completely oblivious of her presence. They were not trying to escape her at all - they simply ran because they were having fun with themselves. This angered Waverly even more than the fact that she could not catch them.

She increased her pace but it only caused her to tire faster. The horses sometimes paused in their run and because Waverly was exhausted, she would pause with them to rest. Then they would run again and she would follow. At intervals, Waverly would find herself sprinting past certain creatures - some even more mystical than others - lounging around in the jungle. She even thought she caught a short glimpse of the Queen Cat Minette - the sacred animal of Deusa, goddess of the dead. The feline was as large as a pony with streaks of gold fur in her black coat and pitch black eyes. Her tail was a magnificent bush of dark colors that spread out behind her like the extravagant feathers of a peacock.

But Waverly could not stand and stare at the beautiful animal - she had a pair of problematic, annoyingly huge, fast equines to catch.

The chase went on for quite a very long while until night fell properly. Thankfully, the full moon was out and it helped Waverly navigate her way through the dark jungle.

During her childhood, Waverly used to have a silly belief that the moon followed her wherever she went and this had made her feel very special until Judson revealed that the moon also followed him. HalfHyde revealed the same thing and so did about twelve to twenty other children she asked. This made her sorely jealous. She stopped feeling special. She wanted the moon to follow only her. Of course this was a stupid thing to think but she had only been a child.

Sometimes, she would yell at the moon to stop following everyone else and sometimes, very few certain times, she found that it would obey without anyone else noticing.

Now, that memory seemed to come alive fresh in Waverly's mind and she immediately knew the reason. She released Calaire and it materialized into a long whip. As she ran, she stretched her hand towards the horses and pretending to catch the moonlight, she closed her fist and pulled her hand back in a seizing manner.

All the light that shone in front of and around the animals shifted backwards, plunging them into instant darkness. In their sudden panic, they stopped running. Waverly increased her pace and lashed out her whip. The rope lassoed across both animals, fastening across their necks like reins.

"Yes!" Waverly muttered but her victory was short lived.

The animals shook themselves out of their surprise and began to run again despite the darkness. This caused Waverly to be thrown to the ground and dragged along. She hated that she had to realize just how fast the horses were by the violent way the ground scratched across her face. Sand spilled into her eyes, grasses and leaves found their way into her mouth as her belly scraped across the ground. She struggled to find her footing but it was like trying to place one's feet on the ground whilst inside a speeding carriage. Waverly jerked her head sideways to prevent her face from getting flattened.

The grasses under her stomach suddenly turned to stone. Waverly yelped in anguish but the horses continued to run. The burning pain from the friction under her tore her clothes and gave her skin millions of nasty bruises.

Waverly knew she had to let go or her skin would come off entirely but she also needed to capture the twins. She managed to look ahead and saw that the ground was now sloping upwards. Her eyes widened. The horses were racing directly towards the edge of a cliff. Waverly willed Calaire to shrink back into a crescent.

At the last minute, the reins disappeared and Waverly found herself tumbling roughly until she was hanging only a few inches away from the edge of the cliff. The horses leaped into the air and soared higher and higher into the night like big black eagles.

Waverly's chest heaved with quick and exhausted breaths as she laid still on her back, watching the full moon, until Adunar appeared at the very edge of the cliff.

"I cannot have you lie there all night. Get up and let us proceed." He snapped.

Waverly sat up; battered, bloodied and bruised, with tears streaming down the side of her face, and followed the god.

The Honor of Light|
Book 02