"WOAH!" Hazel yelled, jumping up. "ROBIN! COME HERE!" she said, and she grabbed his hand. "Hold onto my shoulder!" she said, and he obeyed. Carefully, she slipped the ring back onto her finger. Once again, they were in the beautiful field.
Robin looked around in wonder, not letting go of Hazel's shoulder. "What is this place…?"
"I have no clue!" cried Hazel, lifting her hands in the air causing Robin's to slide off her shoulder. Both were still in the field. She began to run around, and she rolled in the soft grass. The sun was higher now, causing a soft white glow to wash over the beautiful field.
Robin was unsure how to react to this. He looked around for animals to talk to and spotted a deer. He started walking towards it. "Hello? Do you know where we are?" The deer stared at him blankly. "Can you understand me?" It simply blinked. "Oh no… I can't talk to animals here!"
"No," replied the deer. "But we can talk to you." it said, walking up. Hazel yelped, and yanked Robin back.
Robin breathed a sigh of relief. "Oh, thank goodness! You scared me for a second." He smiled at the deer
( I love Robin's attitude! He reminds me of Charles Wallace from A Wrinkle In Time! )
"Well…" Hazel breathed, letting go of Robin's shoulders. "Mr… Deer? Where are we?" she asked.
(Lol yeah, that was a good book)
The deer responded, "In the land of the ruby ring. Its name is not important. Many good things reside here, but as does a great evil." The deer shook his head mournfully. "Alas, this land is tainted with evil."
"The ruby- oh my gosh." Hazel whispered. "What… What sort of evil?"
The deer shook his head again. "We do not speak of it. It is very dark… And it is growing. If left as it is, it may even spread into your world soon." He turned and leaped away, having said what he thought was necessary
"Wait!" Hazel called, but the deer disappeared behind a hill. "Robin, this is… I think I should take the ring off." she said hesitantly.
"Wait! You heard what he said! Something about a 'dark evil' that could spread into our world! We have to stop it! I… don't really know how though…"
"Of course you don't know HOW Robin, you don't know what it is!" she protested.
Robin stepped away from Hazel a bit from her sharp tone, looking a bit sheepish. "Well, no… but we could find out, right? Surely we can do something?" Hazel was looking at him like he was an idiot and he looked away, suddenly quiet
Hazel's eyes softened. She hated when she made Robin feel bad. "Fine. We'll try and find another form of communication to tell us what happened." she said, placing her hand on his shoulder. "But if it gets to dangerous, we're leaving, okay?"
He looked back up at Hazel, nodding silently. He wasn't mad at her, he could never stay mad at anyone for long, but he felt as though he should be ashamed of himself, so he would probably be a little extra quiet for a while. Which would be pretty quiet, since he was already mostly silent
Hazel felt bad, so she grabbed Robin's hand and began to walk towards the sunrise. "Any idea's on how far help might be?" she asked him gently.
Robin shook his head. "There might be more animals?" He allowed himself to be led by Hazel, looking at the sunrise in front of him
Hazel nodded. Neither one of them spoke for a long, long time. The sun had gotten higher, and the temperature was just perfect. Suddenly she saw the end of the field, some woods, the trees filled with birds. "Hey, maybe they can help us!" Hazel cried, pulling she and Robin towards them. When Robin let go of her hand, they both started to run.
Robin wasn't able to keep up with Hazel completely, but eventually caught up with her near the trees, panting. He took a moment to catch his breath. "Do… do you know how we can find the evil in this land?" He asked the birds
A bird flew down and landed on the ground in front of them. "Humans!" it chirped.
"Yes, we're humans. Is there any way we can help?" Robin crouched down beside the bird
"The darkness." she bird said after a few seconds. "It's strongest in the north. You should go there." it said anxiously, then flew away.
"Well," Hazel said after a moment. "I guess we're headed for the north?"
Robin nodded, deciding to follow Hazel since he didn't know which way was North
Hazel started North, Robin's hand in hers. The sun was Hugh now, and the temperature still felt nice. "This is crazy," she muttered, and laughed slightly. "I'm just accepting orders from a talking bird that lives inside a ring." She smiled wide. "But it is fun, isn't it?"