Rose Curse

Chapter I

A green-eyed blond slid into a school bus booth next to his friend, boredly propping his chin up in one of his palms. The taller blond he had sat down beside him threw an arm around his shoulders, the green-eyed blond turning his head with a bit of a confused expression. 

"You look so bored already, and we haven't even left school yet, Stan." The green-eyed blond just sighed quietly.

"I'll be bored when we get there, Derrick. It's some boring mythology museum we're going to, right?" A nod from the taller blond, Derrick, as he pulled his arm back from Stan's shoulders.

"Well yeah, but it's better than sitting through math. Or World History. Or-." Derrick was cut off by one of the shorter blond's hands over his mouth. Stan quickly withdrew his hand with a disgusted noise, wiping off the sudden wetness on his friend's shirt. 

"Did you just lick my hand?" 

"Yeah." Stan just rolled his eyes at his friend's mischievous grin.

"Thanks. I totally needed your saliva all over my hand." 

The rest of the bus ride was rather uneventful, despite being nearly an hour and a half long. Nera spent most of her time turned around in her seat, talking to the two that were in the seat behind her and Jasmine, those two being Jack and Joel. Meena was sitting behind Derrick and Stan, a six-year-old named Billy fast asleep beside her with his face pressed to the window. Billy wasn't supposed to be on the trip at all, but Jack had managed to convince a teacher to let him come along. Behind Meena and Billy sat Allison and Robert, the lighter-haired blond fast asleep, her head rested against one of Robert's shoulders, the dirty-haired blond glaring out the window with his arms folded over his chest. Other random students filled the rest of the seats of the bus, each of them doing things along the lines of reading, yelling at their friends across the bus, sleeping, or listening to music. 

The bus eventually pulled up in front of the museum, most of the students toward the front moving to get off of the bus. Allison lifted her head as Robert shook her awake, the blonde female quickly apologizing for falling asleep on the other blond before the pair got off of the bus, followed by Jack, who was carrying a still sleeping Billy, Joel, and Meena just behind them. Stan and Derrick were the last two to get off of the bus, and therefore ending up at the back of the crowd of students. A teacher in front of the group was talking rather loudly, giving orders to the crowd of students. 

"All right, students. You all have until one-thirty to explore the museum. Meet back out here for the buses at one-thirty or you'll have to walk back to the school, unless you can get a parent to pick you up. Just remember Harline is a four mile walk from here." A couple of chuckles from the other teachers who had come on the other buses. "You're all free to go on inside." 

The group of students slowly made their way inside, the green-eyed blond staring blankly ahead, not moving from his spot. Well, he hadn't moved until his best friend had pushed him forward slightly. 

"Come on, Stan. You can't stand outside all day." Stan glanced back over his shoulder with a small nod, waiting for Derrick to step up beside him before the pair headed inside. The green-eyed blond walked forward, standing slightly off to the side to look around the main entry way of the museum, a few paintings of what looked like evil creatures from various forms of mythology catching his attention the most. Paintings of warriors fighting with wolf-like creatures, seemingly living statues, dragons, demons, and many other monsters of the sort. Stan then lowered his head, looking around for the classmates of his that he knew. 

Jack and Joel were standing before a statue of a bearded man in a toga, one arm lifted into the air, as if in victory. The boy Jack had been holding earlier, Billy, had woken up and was leaning slightly against Jack's leg, gazing up at the statue along with the two older boys. Allison and Robert were standing before a set of what looked like centurion armor. Robert seemed to be going on about something related to the armor, Allison just nodding her head before giving a small yawn, obviously bored with what Robert was saying - or maybe she was still tired? Who knows. Jasmine, Meena, and Nera were looking over a glass case full of what looked like jewelry, though Meena and Nera looked much more interested in it than Jasmine. Stan then glanced back in the direction of Jack and Joel, sighing at the fact his friend had left him to go be with his cousin. Stan then just slowly walked forward, his gaze flickering from painting to painting with some interest. 

He paused in front of a painting depicting a man being struck down by lightning from what looked like a large, white dragon sitting in the dark clouds toward the top of the painting. A small plaque stands beneath the painting. Stan leaned forward to read the inscription. 

One day, an angel came to earth from heaven and fell in love with a human.
The dragon god in which the angel served was displeased to hear such news
and struck the human man down. The angel, even in her grieving state, 
managed to give birth to a healthy baby. She was not allowed to keep her
child and delivered the baby to a reclusive human village in attempts to keep
her child safe from war and monsters. 

"Huh," Stan spoke aloud, yet quietly to himself. "To think, even gods can be racist and genocidal." 

The blond walked over to the next painting, examining it over. The shadow of what loosely resembles a door is cast upon a run down cement wall, a few yellow sparkles floating around the outline of the shadow cast upon the wall. From the rest of the painting, it appears to be set on a hilltop in the dead of night, dimly twinkling stars dotted above the rugged wall. A plaque also resides under this painting, which Stan read through as well.

The Moonshadow window appears but once in a human's lifetime. The magical
elf who resides behind this shadow created door uses the memories of the past 
to grant such wishes. His music alone is enough reward for most travelers who
happen to find the Moonshadow window. The most common place for the 
window to appear is called Wisher's Peak. No one knows where this location is
other than the moon prince who resides behind the window.

"Pfft." 

"You okay, Stan?" the blond male turned his head to look at the pale, teal-haired girl who had come to stand beside him. 

"This myth is hardly believable. Wishes coming from memories? How does that even work?" Meena leaned over, skimming through the words on the plaque.

"If no one knows where it is, are you sure it's just a myth?" 

"I said it wasn't logical. Not that is was fake." Meena just shrugged, glancing over as Nera called to her. Stan just gave a soft sigh. "Go to her." The tealette nodded before quickly walking over to Nera, leaving Stan to look at the next painting. 

A stone castle stands beneath a thick layer of purple and black clouds, thick, thorny vines piercing into and out from the walls of the castle, a bolt of orange-colored lightning crashing down behind the western wing of the castle. A soldier stands with his back to the viewer of the painting, Stan, though he can see from the detail that the soldier's arms and legs had been turned to thorny vines, like those protruding from the castle. What luck! A plaque sits underneath this painting as well. Stan leans in to have a closer look.

A treasure spoken of in lore resides in a sealed chamber of a once great
castle. This treasure, the Rose's Fury, is a brooch with unimaginable might, 
enough to cause the whole castle to be ensnared in thorny vines, and to turn
every living thing in the castle to thorny plants, their expressions frozen in fear.
A lone soldier and the cursed royals of the kingdom leave to find a way to 
reverse the curse, but never returned.

"Rose's Fury. . ? I've heard about that. I think this museum even has it on display somewhere." 

Stan moves on to the next painting. A monster in the shaped of a human, but built of bricks, stands before the gates of a wavering village, the imagine distorted, as if a reflection of rippling water. A young warrior in armor stands before the monster, his sword raised and ready to strike the beast as it throws a punch in his direction. Another plaque.

A golem created by a dark magician to protect a village that doesn't 
exist for no other purpose other than to hide the entrance to his workshop, and 
a warrior who wishes to force his way in to defeat the dark magician for
casting a curse upon his home town. Upon being the golem being defeated,
the sight of the village disappears completely.

Stan rested a hand on his chin, pondering the thought of it. "Creating a monster and a whole fake village to protect yourself? You must have done really bad in hiding what you did." 

"Hey, Stan!" The blond turned away from the painting, dropping his hand from his chin as a purple-haired teenager and his navy blue-haired buddy walked up to him. 

"Clyde, Darius. You need something?" The purple-haired teenager rolled his eyes.

"Why do you always assume Darius and I want something from you?"

"You don't talk to me otherwise?" The one with the navy blue ponytail laughed quietly. 

"I guess you're right. We're just telling you that everyone's moved on to other rooms without you." Stan glanced around - they were right. Everyone was gone from the front room at this point. Stan gave a quiet sigh, turning his head back to Darius and Clyde. 

"Thanks. I'll catch up in a bit." The two older boys nodded before heading off, Stan slowly walking along after them, pausing once an artifact on display caught his eye. He turned toward it, reading the inscription underneath that was attached to its pedestal.

Rose's Fury. 

". . .! That's it?" Stan leaned closer to inspect the small brooch, his green gaze flickering over the delicately carved petals of the pink rose, the dark green leaves under it looked almost life-like, as did the thin, thorned vines at the bottom of the piece. Stan reached out and ran one of his fingers over the piece before lifting it into the palm of his hand, nearly forgetting that it was an artifact - which weren't supposed to be touched. Stan reached out to put it back but stopped himself, the blond pulling the brooch back toward his face to examine it further before quickly pinning it on the inside of his jacket, zipping it up afterwards to hide the Rose's Fury.