Soul Riders ~ A Forgotten Secret

Chapter One: A New Star

As the sun sets, it had casted golden beams of light upon Goldenhills Valley, especially onto Cape West Fishing Village. At the center the town, the people had started to head back towards their homes, the grownups had gotten back from work and the children had started playing on the gardens or sidewalks. Sea gulls had started to cooing and flying off to find their nests. A single fifteen year old girl was watching it all from the building she was standing next to and smiled as she quietly listened to the rhythm of the village.
She walked into the middle of the town square and started admiring the beauty in her hometown. A few feet away, little kids played tag in the center of town. At a nearby café, half of a dozen of people sipped coffee and having dinner in the shade of the roofs. The only pedestrians were a few families enjoying the late, slightly chilly evening.
The square itself was wooden, edged with other houses. In the center stood a grand and beautiful statue of a reared horse sparkled in the sunlight in the rich shade of gold. The statue had been set up above a water fountain in the center of the town, it represents the heroic steed of the past and its rider is unknown.
The girl started looking around, curiously and warily, before she continued walking by herself. She yawned and stretched out her long, graceful legs. The evening air had started to make her feel drowsy. The girl looked around and smiled when she saw the townsfolk had started to finishing up their jobs.
She saw a few people were dressed in everything from dirty shirts to richest suits. Their styles ranged from the severe suits of men to the colorful dresses of women of Jorvik. Four drivers with cars jostled each other to get closest to the richest passengers with the most luggage. A few porters with stooped backs took remarkable quick steps under the heavy burdens of trunks and bags.
Farther inland, the girl could see stands of stands displaying fruits, meats, fish, clothes, paints, and so on. The girl fed off the noise and the calming, but slightly anxious energy of the town as the girl made her way through the winding streets.
A cheerful old woman nodded in her direction as she passed by, wishing her a good evening. She saw a milkmaid was placing her basket of milk into a small milk truck. A young man was making a vase made of clay. A young woman was holding a bouquet of lovely flowers in her hands and started fixing the flowers for the sales. She saw a few riders rushed past towards different roads towards the mall or deeper into the city. She was extra careful as a few playful children accidentally wandered in the way and were soon pulled out of the way by their family. But she raised her head proudly with dignity in the sunlight when she caught a few kids whispering, eyeing her nervously.
The teenage girl had walked out of the shadows and looked up at the sun, golden gleams of light shimmered across her long and wavy sandy-blonde hair. When the sun had set into the dusky sky, the girl's long, wavy hair shimmered like the sunlight. Her dark blue eyes caught the dusky light and sparkled like the sea, but what stood out the most was a scar marked over her eyebrow from a past accident. She was dressed in a green jacket with a blue t-shirt and a silver amulet both peeking out of the neckline as she continued walking by herself. She also has blue pants that's folded at her dark brown, ankle-length boots. Her name is Marina Wiseheart. But to everybody else within the town, she's a total mystery.
"Watch out!" hollered a driver.
Marina yelped in surprise and jumped out of the way. She knew she should of least looked both ways before crossing the road, but something had caught her eye and saw a group of friends laughing and chatting with each other. Marina was all alone and she felt the familiar pang of loneliness creep into her chest. One would think that after traveling alone for years, she would get used to waking up by herself...but she never did. The way the performers stand together is something that she had longed for so long: friendship.
"Hey. Are you Marina Wiseheart?" asked a new voice.
Marina spun around quickly and looked over her shoulder warily to see a teenage boy around her age standing there. He's around two or three years older than her. He has lightly tanned skin that reveals his time under the sun. He has wavy black hair that's parting to his right and revealing his warm hazel eyes. He's wearing a dark brown letterman jacket and under the jacket is a deep blue t-shirt, he also has brown pants and dark brown boots. She stepped back warily and asked him, "That depends. Who's asking?"
"I'm Justin Moorland," said the boy.
"I guess you already know my name then," stated Marina as she eyed the boy warily. "What brings you here?"
"Your parents were friends with my parents," Justin explained softly to her. "But after the separation, we weren't sure what had become of you." Justin fell silent before he continued. "Till one of girls from the Bobcat Club had caught sight of you and had snapped a picture of you."
Marina remembered that day, though it happened three weeks ago. She was helping the town's best gardener plant some flowers when she heard a snap and a brief flash of a phone in the mode of a camera. Marina had turned around to see a girl dressed in fancy magenta and white riding clothes had taken the picture of her before she had taken the bus back to the countryside. But Marina had thought the girl was taking a photo of herself and not Marina.
"Figures those fancy girls had decided to take a picture of me without me noticing," muttered Marina as she crossed her arms and rolled her eyes with annoyance.
"Don't worry, I had a good word with them," Justin reassured. "Though, where are you planning to go?"
"I'm planning on handing towards Jarlaheim and living with my aunt there," said Marina. "I'm going to be working in Jorvik Stables."
"Justin!" called somebody.
"Coming!" Justin looked at Marina with an apologetic smile. "I have to go now. Goodbye for now Marina."
"Bye Justin," whispered Marina as she watched as Justin boarded the ship back to the countryside.
Marina had went back to her temporary apartment and watched as the children headed back towards their families, every family reunion she had seen or anything related to that had gave her a heartfelt pang. She watched as everyone had disappeared into their homes and Marina could see a few lights have been turned off for some reason.
She looked up at the night sky, Marina had never seen anything like this before. It was so stunningly beautiful. She could count more hues and shades than in the box of paints and watercolors that she had gotten a few years ago. Shades of sapphire, violet, magenta, and amber shimmered and shined, like a giant rainbow had blanketed across the sky, and had stretched out over the land and sea.
It was approaching evening, but the stars were so bright and clear like distant diamonds on the dark velvet. As the sun started to set, it had caught the colors of a fading ember as it set seemingly set into the west. The stars sparkled like distant diamonds in the sky, while the sky is like deep sapphire blue velvet that sparkled with the beautiful constellations overhead. As the clouds cleared, a silver circle of the full moon had also appeared in the night sky and had casted its soft silvery beams of light over the land.
Marina remembered those years of her life with much more clarity than most other children.
She remembered that she was born in Silverglade Village and was probably blessed by Baroness Annabelle Silverglade, the visiting Druids, family members, and family friends as a baby before she could recall her memories.
She remembered the Jorvik lullaby that her mother had used to sing to her in the apartment and the books that her mother had used to read to Marina about Jorvik legends and myths, though Marina's favorite story was about a goddess and her godly steed filled with both love and light to the island of Jorvik.
She remembered the games she used to play with her father when he was done with work. He used to take her to the countryside to visit a few friends of his and let her pet the horses, who were curious about Marina and seemed to be excited whenever Marina petted one of them for some reason. She sometimes hitched piggyback rides on him and pretended that he was a pony.
She remembered when she visited the countryside with both of her parents, Marina had managed to sneak into a huge paddock with ten partly trained horses and the head stallion took her into the center of the herd to be cared for by the motherly mares. It had almost gave her parents a heart attack and a nervous breakdown to boot. It took both of her parents to talk to the protective horses into giving Marina back to them, much to her amusement.
She remembered watching her grandmother cooking delicious sweets in the kitchen that Marina used to assist in and had cooked spicy food to keep both her father and grandfather out of the kitchen. Marina, her mother, and her grandmother had laughed at the startled expressions on their faces before they start running around in circles and Marina quickly gave them two cups of cold milk to help them.
But unfortunately, Marina remembered that her parents had to work overseas and her grandparents have to stay in Firgrove, due to their elder years. She heard her parents and grandparents talking outside of her room about leaving their separate ways. Her mother had came into Marina's bedroom by the next morning and took Marina to the rental apartment in Cape West Fishing Village with a suitcase and a duffel bag filled with Marina's things. But when they were gone over seas and her grandparents halfway across the country. That's when Marina had made herself stay at the apartment and had decided to signup to work for Jorvik Stables to rekindle her love for horses again.
Marina sighed softly and looked up at the night sky, the moon shone in a circle of silver and the stars glittered like scattered diamonds. Marina's smile soon became an uncertain frown and looked down at the town she was raised in. Marina gave a weary sigh as she went back towards her temporary home. She soon gotten herself ready for bed, but she kept her necklace on. She laid down on the bed and crawled underneath a purple blanket before she fell asleep. But Marina didn't noticed that her amulet had gleamed like a small star in a magical light.