The pouring, cold rain outside was coming down like hail, almost. Peter and Elizabeth had an extremely small fire, with a flame just as big as a candle. Both of them were waterlogged and freezing. The heat of the fire was barely anything at all. They were sitting criss-crossed in a cave by themselves in the middle of nowhere. They became lost in the rain on their horse ride.

Suddenly, Peter got up to look outside of their small cave.

“Did you see that?” Peter eerily said.

“No. What?” Elizabeth replied.

“No. No. It’s nothing. Probably just the wind,” Peter said. “Wind makes a lot of weird noises.”

There was a thump noise outside.

Peter got up slowly and grabbed his knife from his satchel bag.

“Stay behind me, Elizabeth.” Peter said.

Peter slowly walked to where the rain was pouring, getting drenched in the process.

There was a sound like metal clanged on a rock slab.

Peter turned around instantly to look behind him.

There was a man there. He had no hair, a long, white, bushy beard, bushy, white eyebrows… and a knife.

“Who are you? What are you doing here?” Peter yelled at him, grasping his knife extremely tight.

“Hey hey hey, I mean no harm, kid.” The man replied, dropping his knife and holding up his hands.

Peter immediately got less tense, but he still held his knife in his palm.

“I saw a fire and I needed to check it out. I’m a castle guard.” The man said.

Peter immediately got suspicious.

“You certainly don’t seem the type.” Peter said.

The man turned around, grasping his chin like he was thinking of something to do. Peter immediately grabbed the knife again, harder.

Elizabeth let out a scream, as she grasped her leg tightly.

Peter immediately dropped the knife and ran over to his sister.

“Whats wrong? Did he do something to you!?” Peter panickily said.

Elizabeth was grunting, on the edge of an extremely loud scream. She held her left ankle extremely tight while blood was oozing down from where she was holding it.

Peter panicked.

He turned around to lunge at the man who suddenly out of nowhere hurt his sister. As he grabbed the knife, he looked up.

The man was gone.

And what was left in his place… was an emerald.