Embers Chapter 1

I don’t know where I am. All I know is that I opened my eyes, and I don’t see anything. There’s nothing but black everywhere I turn. “sam'e'mor” I whisper. I feel a small spark sting out of my left hand. I look down and I’m blinded by a white ball of light hovering in my palm. As I look down, I see the ground I’m standing on ripple, like touching water. “What is going on?” My voice quivers. I put my right hand against my forehead, wiping the sweat away. I lower the ball of light to the ground, then it starts to flicker. I yank it back up to my shoulder, but it looks like it’s covered in a black liquid. It feels dark, almost insane. The ball of light continues to flicker, then burns out, leaving me alone again in the darkness.

A low snarl echoes around me. I feel the ground shake under me. “Who’s there?!” I shout. Who would answer me anyway? I’m too scared to move. Something’s here with me. I don’t know what it is. “sam'e'mor!” I try to summon another ball of light. The white sparks form in my hands, only to flicker out like before. The growls get closer, followed by wet splats. Like flesh stomping in mud. I can hear the ground squish below it’s heavy feet as it circles around me. “Ri’sesh’og!” A barrier forms around my body. The bubble pushes away the black liquid below me. The creature surrounding me stops moving, it crashes against my barrier. For a fraction of a second, I see gigantic sharp teeth slice into my bubble. The same thing that happened to my light starts to happen to my barrier. I look up and see the bubble around me start to dissolve into the ground. I move my legs behind me, trying to find any speck of light.

Digestive gurgles echoe behind me, then stop. Wherever that creature is, I don’t think it’s behind me anymore. A numb sting pierces through my stomach. I feel my body lift into the air. I look at my shirt and there’s a pitch-black hole in my chest. The pain isn’t as bad as I thought it would be. I instantly regret thinking that as the claw rips out of my chest, throwing me away from it into a pond of slime. My eyes can’t open at all, neither can I move my body. A victorious growl blows air on my face. I feel it’s teeth touch my neck, the sharp canines poking into my nape. “LOBEN!” three different voices shout before I hear the creature close its mouth around my head.

Chapter 1: Loben Rox

I scream as my body flies out of my bed. Strands of hair stick to my forehead. “Just a dream, Loben.” I put my hand to my chest, trying to calm my rapid heartbeat. I look around, seeing the light peek through the brick, the smell of mushrooms breeze through the open window. I stumble through a door and look into the mirror on the wall. “Ok’arshak’es.” I breath onto the glass. When the fog clears, I see just how sweaty I am. Whatever that nightmare was, it scared me too much. I chuckle at my damp clothes, how their natural brown cloth looks like it’s melting off my body. I see bushy, untangled pink hair around my head and ears. “At least now it matches this.” I scratch my beard, patches of pink shining brighter than others in random areas of my chin. I sigh and I grab a small comb near my hand. I pull the comb through my hair, trying to at least make it less fluffy. Just like everyday, my hair poofs back to an afro almost instantly after combing it. I turn to the side of my sink and spot a change of clothes. The trim on the blue tunic is almost gold-like. A plain pair of dirty slacks lay under them. “They’ll do,” I sigh, replacing my sweaty clothes with the new ones.

As I walk out of my washroom, I hear a hollow thud from the main room. When I enter, I stumble over a wooden frame. It was a giant painting of my grandfather, Vetrix. His small body looks identical to mine. He may be short, but he had a lot more muscles than I do. His hair is almost a dark berry pink unlike my bright hair. In the painting, Vetrix is riding his manticore, Rom, a white lion with scaly wings and a stinger on the end of his tail. A sword and a shield lay on his back as Vetrix was riding Rom into combat. They used to be the guardians of my village, but one day they never came back. I pick up the painting and hang it back onto the wall, where it stands taller than anyone who looks at it. “I’ll make your tea, grandpa.” I say to him. I walk over to a small crack in my wall covered in dirt. “Esam’erok’is.” I wave my hand over the dirt as a mushroom sprouts unnaturally fast over the soil. I pick the fresh mushroom and place it inside a pot of water.

When I finally sit down, I hear someone knocking very loudly on my front door. “Coming!” I shout. I turn the handle and a heavy body knocks me to the ground. The light from the ceiling spins around me. The ringing in my ears are only muffled by a loud yodel. “Heya Loben!” My head starts pounding. My vision returns to normal and I sit up in my lap. I see a young man, his blonde hair falls to his ears and his beard down to his chest. The deep red tunic stained with mud and sweat. Something’s different about him today. He is carrying a satchel around his neck, the bag on the end looks burnt. “Someone very tall came into the village today. Guess what? It was a HUMAN! Anywho, he tossed this bag at me saying this is for Vetrix Rox.”

“Gault” I clear my throat, trying to stand back up. “My grandfather hasn’t been seen for a long time. He disappeared around sixty years ago, then Rom destroyed the passageway to the human world during the rampage. There can’t possibly have been a human in our village.” Gault shrugs and tosses the satchel over his shoulder at me. It flies over my head and lands directly on my pillow. I hear the bag rip open, letting whatever inside thump onto the bed. “Anyway,” I scratch my fuzzy ears, walking to the front door. “We have an important class today. Isn’t it time for the town’s guardian to be chosen?” Gault’s eyes sparkle bright yellow as he mutters, “Rek’I’shog!”

The next thing I knew, I was standing outside my house, Gault’s hand wrapped around my wrist. I look over at Gault, his eyes dim to dark yellow and he giggles like a madman. I feel a little uneasy, like there’s someone staring at me. “C’mon!” He tugs my arm, snapping my attention to him. “If the guardian is being chosen soon we have to get going don’t we?”

“Most likely they’ll be talking about the previous guardians for a while.” I huff, trying to keep up to him dragging me. Gault just laughs. “That’s the best part! Start naming them, pop quiz style.”

“Alright,” I find my footing and start running beside him. “Who was the genius who not only created Mushroom magic, but made the craft into a sacred art?” I smirk as I look into Gualt’s eyes sparkle. “Easy,” he grins. “The first guardian, Patra Pod. My turn, not only did Mushroom magic become perfected, who was the first person to use it like a conjuration art?”

“That’s just giving me the answer.” I frown. “My grandfather, the third guardian, Vetrix Rox. Seriously that wasn’t hard at all.”

“Fine.” Gault starts to sprint ahead of me. “There were a couple of different ways to heal wounds, but this guardian used his unique ability to create a tea to not only cure minor injuries, but calm the nerves and mind.” I sigh and start speeding past him. “Stop talking about Vetrix! Before he can give me another question we arrive at a red, stonelike building. We stop in front of the door and try to catch our breaths. I feel a little uneasy, just like how I felt back outside my house.

“Oi Loben,” Gault taps my shoulder. “You alright?”

“Uhh… Yeah.” I shake my head, trying to focus on the hall in front of us. “Just tired.” I look around and see some gnomes gathering around the door, but I don’t see anyone unusual. “Oi,” Gault spins me around. “We gotta go in. We should get some good seats for the announcement.” He pulls on my arm, dragging us into the town hall. Inside, there’s some students from the university, others are farmers. In the front area, I see a couple of well dressed gnomes, their tunics pinned with rare flowers and mushrooms. “Sorry,” Gault booms through the crowd, pushing me in front of him. “Coming through. C’mon Loben we gotta go if we want a good seat.”

“That’s him?” Someone says. “I heard he’s the grandson of the third guardian.”

“But hasn’t Vetrix been gone for 60 years? Loben must be the only one left in the family.” They continue to gossip about my life and habits. I sigh, the only thing I knew about Vetrix is that he was the village Guardian, and his companion Rom. I remember Rom being there when I was a child, but I was too young to know why he left. I sit down in a chair next to Gualt somewhere near the center of the room. He giggles and bounces in his

seat.

Shortly after we sit down, a gnome pushes open the doors in the front of the hall. His white hair shooting from his head. One of his eyes is grayed out, almost translucent, while the other one a dark orange. There’s no doubt about it, that’s Orin, the fourth guardian of my village. He took the position when Vetrix disappeared and held the position for this long. I watch as he waves his hand and all the whispering stops. “Hello Sanctuary Woods.” His voice croaks. I hope he isn’t shouting. I can barely hear it. Orin reaches into his white tunic and pulls out a mushroom. The shape seems to be in a hollow cone, extended outwards on one end. He holds the small end up to his face. “As you know this village hasn’t had any events happen in almost 40 years. The last recorded event of violence was when we shut the gate to our woods. To ensure our village’s safety, there must be a guardian, to lead us through battle and support us in growing our small nation.” He pauses and his eyes gaze towards me. I smile at him and he faces the rest of the people. “Now, our new guardian won’t just be a warrior or a farmer. He will be a symbol for our people as we grow, blooming into a mushroom that won’t be crumbled.”

“Sir Orin?” a voice speaks behind me. I look behind me to a black cloak that seems to absorb the light around it. Orin looks up to the gnome. “I was wondering why you haven’t told us about the latest event in this village's history?”

Multiple people start whispering again. “What is he talking about?”

“Yeah. There hasn’t been anything that has happened in decades.”

“Yes, you may be right.” The cloaked figure laughs. “Ha ha HA, but this event has just happened. It’s called the assassination of the Sanctuary Woods!” My eyes widen as Gualt pushes me to the ground. A blast of energy shoots right above us, aiming towards Orin. I stand up and see a wall of white mushrooms. The black energy absorbs into the wall, making the mushrooms start to rot and decay in seconds. Orin appears behind the wall, he starts reciting an incantation while the cloaked figure starts laughing. “Who are you?” Orin demands. His hands start to glow a soft yellow. “Oh me?” The cloaked figure’s voice seems to lower. “I’m just a mage who wants to have a bit of fun!” The voice starts to croak and beeb, almost like the entire body is changing. The figure turns to me, “Loben Rox correct?” the words creep into my ears. “I remember fighting your grandfather, and how he screamed as I ripped him apart.” A sharp tongue extends out of the cloak and slips from one side to the other. I hear the sound of bone snapping. I Look around and see everyone has fallen to the ground, motionless. “I won’t tell you again,” Orin’s voice filled with rage. “Who are you?”

“I’m the beast of the night.” The figure cackles. Orin pulls his hands in front of him, the glow starts to brighten. “Eksa’reer” he shouts as a blast of yellow energy shoots towards the figure. The beam of energy seems to go right through him and the cloak falls to the ground. Orin falls to his knees, panting. I look down at Gualt, his body laying in front of me. “Gualt?” I whisper. His body tenses up and I sigh. “We need to get out of here.” I grab his hand and start to pull him up. “Loben,” he coughs. I feel his hand get heavy. “I don’t think it’s over.” he points towards Orin. I can feel my body shake as a human stands behind him. His dark smile is all I notice until the squishing sound of flesh rips through my ears. Orin gasps and coughs as a hand tears through his chest, leaving only a ball of black energy. “I wished you were more entertaining than Vetrix.” The human giggles. “I really wanted to have more fun today. I guess I might indulge myself in another kill.” I see his pure black eyes look up at me. He licks his lips one more time and starts to skip around the room. I need to get out of here. I try to move my legs but I’m not leaving. I can’t seem to move. I’m frozen, staring into those black eyes. almost like my dream.

A dark aura emanates from his cloak, what looks like slime falls to the ground. It crawls along the floor, devouring the corpses in the halls, slowly creeping towards Orin. He blasts another beam of yellow light, but it seems to flicker out and disappear inside the ball of slime. What is that? I keep trying to pull my body from the ground. Then, I hear Gualt grunt as I’m lifted onto my feet. “Loben,” he coughs. “I’ll give you a boost, just make sure you get out of here okay?” he coughs again, this time blood splashes on the ground. I shake my head, “Gualt, you can’t fight him.” my hushed voice hissed. “I’ll hold him off, you need to get yourself to safety.”

“Now isn’t the time to play guardian, Loben.” he groans. “ You may be the descendant of Vetrix, but you just saw what happened to Orin. Neither of us can win against that mage. You have to run.” Gualt’s eyes send a small sprinkle of yellow light as his magic transfers to my body. My arms and legs warm up and start to tingle, like all my strength has returned. I can feel Gualt do more than just enhance my magic, but he’s fully transferring his power to me. “Gualt you can’t do this.” I try to halt his enchantment but all I see next is the black cloak hovering over us. “Now if you two are done,” the giggles grow deeper and echo in my mind. “I’ll be killing you now.”

“LOBEN!” Gualt pulls himself in front of me as the stream of black ooze sticks to his body. My feet bounce my body backwards, stumbling myself out of the way. The black energy surrounds Gualt’s body, enclosing him into a ball of slime. The mage starts to cackle, the pitch deepens and raises drastically, wavering off the stone walls. My ears feel like they’re going to break. “Oh,” The mage inhales so sharp it cuts the air around him. He wiggles and casually skips towards me. “Come on Loben. I would love to have some more fun!” There must be something I can do. “Meok’ahe.” I shout. My feet glow and as they slide across the ground I can feel it shake. It cracks, letting the plants under the concrete break through, weaving into a wall.

My feet stop glowing and I start to use Gault’s power. My body tightens and my legs shine a yellow light in front of me. I take my first step then I feel my legs slam into a wall. Shaking my head I realize I’m on the other side of the room. I look behind me at the wall of mushrooms I created. The center sizzles, black liquid squirts out and burns a hole straight through. The mage’s cloaked head starts to crawl out of the hole. He snaps his fingers, and he’s standing a foot in front of me. I can see his fanged smile under his hood. My mind flashes back to my nightmare. How that beast tore me apart with its fangs. What can I do? His hand starts to squirt out black energy. My vision blurs, feeling an unknown source of magic enter my body. The laughter fades, the world around me fades.