Chapter 1

Spring Begins

The sun rose on a new day in Avalon bringing with it the smell of wildflowers. This marked the start of spring and the start of the long deserved break. Princess Starla awoke from what had been a dazzling dream; She had been riding through the meadows on Sunstar and Drake was there beside her on Thunder. The two of them had been alone with no one to interrupt their perfect moment, however Fallon had rode into the picture on Moondance and the next thing she knew Drake had turned direction and began to ride towards her.

The Princess gazed over at her sleeping companion and a rush of hatred rose inside her like an angry monster, she wanted nothing more than to hurt Fallon badly for stealing her one true love. Fallon stirred and turned over to face her as if she had sensed it, “morning Starla” she said brightly, rubbing her bleary eyes.

“Good morning” replied Starla, even though for her it was not a good morning at all.

“Sleep well?” questioned Fallon as she got out of bed and went over to the wardrobe,

“Oh, it was fine until you messed it up” Starla muttered to herself. The angry monster inside seemed to be controlling the words that came out of her mouth,

“What was that?” Said Fallon turning towards her friend

“Oh nothing. Just that it could have been better,” then before she could stop herself, “Fallon are you and Drake serious about each other?” Starla blurted out,

“What do you mean, of course we are” Fallon replied suspiciously. But before either of them could say another word Tamara awoke and looked up at her fellow Jewel riders.

“You two are very t-talk-talkative this morning,” she said, fighting down a yawn. “I suppose you’re excited about the fashion show we shall soon be holding too,” she looked at the strained smiles on their faces and sensed the awkward vibe in the room. Tamara didn’t know whether to say anything or not, but decided not to say anything encase she made it more uncomfortable for them. Fallon noticed that Tamara was suspicious to their behaviour and relaxed her smile a bit,

“The fashion show is gonna be great, and the outfits we’ve got are gorgeous” Fallon said trying to sound excited but a hint of anger came into the speech. With that she turned her back on the rest of them and began to change into her jewel riders uniform,

Starla began to do the same. There was a buzzing silence throughout the room as all three Jewel riders got geared up, when all of the group were ready they left for breakfast and dragged the silent shroud with them all the way down the stairs.

Meanwhile on the top of a peaceful hillside the inhabitants of Heartland Farm were being terrorised by Kales evil minions, the dweasels. These were two lizard-like things; each of them had a collar with the Darkstone on it, this allowed them to communicate with their evil guardian.

Kale had sent them there to set a trap for Tamara. The two were nearly finished; they had paralysed Doc and Charity and hidden them in one of the outbuildings, they had kidnapped Shadowsong to use as bait and they had set the trap for Tamara. All in all they thought they had done a good job, however they left a vital bit of evidence behind.

Back at the palace the jewel riders had finished breakfast and were down in the friendship circle setting up the catwalk ready for the Fashion show that was being held in three days time, Fallon and Starla were now back to their normal selves though The princess had devised a plan to win back Drake and even though it could mean losing one of her best friends she was prepared to do it as she did not want to see Drake with Fallon any longer.

During the preparations a messenger was sent down from the Crystal Palace to inform Tamara of Shadowsong’s disappearance and that he had turned up at Heartland Farm, “I had a feeling he would be there as he has gone missing before” said Tamara once she received the message. Tamara told the rest of them that they would have to try and set up without her as she was going to have to go back to Heartland farm to bring him back to the Palace.

“All right Tammy we’ll see you later” Starla bid farewell to Tamara and left to continue setting up, “we’re going to have to work extra hard with Tamara gone” she said to Fallon,

“I don’t mind as long as it actually goes ahead a bit of hard work is fine by me,” replied Fallon. With that she left to continue organising the stage curtains, she also was in charge of lighting now that Tamara had gone. Starla was left to assemble the bouquets of flowers and the seating arrangements, with Starla doing the seating she could make sure that Drake sat by the entrance so she could keep an eye on him.

The journey to Heartland was a fairly long one, as Tamara knew all too well. However as she had travelled to Heartland Farm so many times she knew lots of different short cuts, Tamara used this to her advantage and took the path which led to The rainbow Falls but instead of following it to the falls she took a detour down another small path. This meant she only had to keep going straight on for about an hour to reach the farm. A dull thud in the back of her carriage caused her to turn around only to find that Spike, Sugar and Cleo had sneaked in. “umm, hello Tamara” said Cleo, she was upside down. Cleo was a very cute purple unicorn with pink hair; one of her favourite things to do was to pretend to be princess of the unicorns, as she absolutely adored Moondance. Sugarwas a baby green dragon with wings, and although he was usually very cautious half the time curiosity usually got the better of him. Spike was an adorable but feisty blue pantherHe was very protective of Tamara, and despite his size he was still very brave.

“Cleo what are you all doing here?” said Tamara looking at each of them in turn,

“We came along to protect you on your journey, I mean we didn’t want you to get hurt” replied Spike

“Well I appreciate you wanting to help honey but I was only going to be gone for the day, and besides no one’s going to hurt me at Heartland,” Tamara smiled at them all and decided that they had to come along now as they were to far away from home to take them back.

“Could you hurry up with those curtains Fallon as I need to put these last two bouquets underneath them!” commanded Starla, “Fallon?” Fallon had not responded but the reason for this had become quite clear to Starla when she went round the back of the stage, as there were Fallon and Drake with their mouths firmly locked together. “Excuse me Fallon, but you are meant to be working here” said Starla, she would have liked to have gone up to Fallon and hit her right now but decided not to as she was going to hurt her emotionally not physically on the night of the fashion show.

“Sorry Star, I’ll see you later Drake” Fallon waved goodbye to Drake as he left. ‘Why is he kissing her in front of me?’ she thought to herself. ‘After all, it is I who is to be his bride, not her. What does he see in her anyway? I mean, she’s not even pretty.’

“Now that you have finally torn yourself away from your love life maybe you can think of helping” said Starla frustrated,

“Sorry” replied Fallon moving over to finish off the curtains, once she was done she moved out of Starla’s way and began work on the lighting.

“Finally, Heartland Farm” exclaimed Tamara, “You guys we’re here” she called to the Babies.

“Get off me Sugar” said Spike “MEOW! Cleo you’re standing on my tail!” a mangled cry escaped the little panther,

“I’m sorry spike” apologised Cleo looking back at the her friend

“You guys stay here, and try not to hurt each other or cause any mischief while I’m gone” pleaded Tamara. She gracefully lowered herself from the carriage and began to walk up the path towards the Farmhouse; she passed the beautiful rose bushes that her father Doc had spent so long tending to and saw in the distance the outbuildings where her mother, Charity, spent her time looking after sick and injured animals. It had been such a long time since she had been here but yet it seemed like yesterday, Heartland Farm was a breathtaking place and Tamara had made many wonderful memories there. However despite being very welcoming on the outside when Tamara reached the front door and stepped inside the scene that greeted her was one of complete carnage; the beautiful handmade furniture was destroyed, the pictures on the wall were smashed, shards of ornaments and broken glass swamped the floor but worst of all, in a tiny corner of the room curled up and shaking with fear was Kit the primfox. Kit was a tiny creature that resembled a crystal fox cub. Tamara rushed over to him; she gently lifted him into her arms and felt him tremble against her, he whimpered and hid his face under her arm. Tamara could see that his crystal paw was chipped and there was a dent in his ear, “Kit it’s all right, its Tamara. Who did this to you Kit and where are my parents?” She said softly

“They took them, those beasts took them. They were horrible to me,” replied the miniature fox

“Who took them Kit?” asked Tamara urgently, “has Shadowsong been here?”

“They took her too, those things that work for Kale” Kit snivelled

“Dweasels” muttered Tamara furiously, her eyes flashed dangerously. This was one of the rare occasions that Tamara got angry; she picked up kit and began to make her way to the door when from behind her the dweasels jumped down on her with a net that had been cursed with dark magic, “Kit run to the carriage and get a message back to the Crystal Palace, hurry!” Tamara ordered. She grabbed her Heartstone from her chest and transformed into her jewel armour, “By the magic of the Hearts-” but before she could finish the dweasels stopped her,

“Do not bother pathetic jewel rider, great witchy one has made this net indestructible with the mighty Darkstone” The dweasels roared with laughter as a helpless Tamara struggled to break free and as she struggled she managed to kick one of them in the head, “quick give me the Rictemshant” ordered the red dweasel; the green dweasel fumbled around in a bag and pulled out a bottle of sickly smelling amber liquid. He passed it to his accomplish who poured it over Tamara, She tried not to inhale or swallow the liquid but to no avail and before she knew it she was falling deeper and deeper into the blackness of her mind. All around her she could hear screaming and crying, then there was silence and she was lost in blackness.