If You Trust Me - An Onward Fan-Novel

◊ Prologue ◊

Long ago, the world was full of wonder...

It was adventurous, exciting, and best of all...there was MAGIC!

And that magic helped all in need...

But it wasn't easy to master...

And so the world found a simpler way to get by...

Over time, magic faded away...

...at least...that's what it seemed...

As it turned out, with a tiny bit of hope, there was a little magic left in the most unexpected of places...

Once upon a time—in the fantastical modern times—there were two teenage elf brothers who could not be more different...

The older brother—Barley—was fascinated with the old days and was determined to keep the legacy of those old days alive—whether it was by protecting ancient fountains from their imminent doom and destruction, or by simply having the knowledge.

The younger brother—Ian—was NOT into the old days. Instead, he was sensible and awkward, and wanted nothing more than to survive high school. But he also wanted to be bold, just like his father—Wilden Lightfoot—who had passed away before he was born. Unlike his older brother, Ian never knew his dad, and wished that he could have had the chance to meet him. But that's when the real magic happened...

On Ian's sixteenth birthday, he and Barley were given a special gift from their late father. It contained a wizard staff, a rare and magical artifact called the Phoenix Gem, and a spell that would bring their dad back to life for a full twenty-four hours! But those weren't the only things the Lightfoot brothers were gifted with that day...

Reciting the incantation for the spell out loud, Ian discovered that he possessed the magic gift necessary to perform the most magical of spells! So he, alone, was able to bring their father back to life!

Well...kinda.

Actually...just the lower half.

Since the spell only lasted for one day and ONE DAY only, the brothers needed to find another Phoenix Gem in order to perform the rest of the spell. And so...THEY WENT ON A QUEST!

But like learning magic, it wasn't easy...

Through it all, Ian and Barley sought out the mighty, but midlife crisis-filled Manticore, tangled with a group of gangster sprites, braved the dreaded Path of Peril, got chased by the cops, faced some deadly booby traps, and clashed with a great dragon assembled from a Guardian Curse!

It was the most epic quest they had ever dreamed!

And by the end of their journey, the quest was all that mattered...

Ian came to realize that while he never had a dad, he always had his older brother. And Barley had Ian. And so...all was well, more or less...

Thanks to the brothers and their quest, magic was starting to return to their world again. The citizens of New Mushroomton witnessed what hadn't been witnessed in centuries during that dragon battle, and were unsure what to do about it.

But Ian believed that with a little bit of magic in everyone's lives, anyone could do almost anything. It had always been by their side, they just needed to be reminded of it. The young wizard had become more confident in himself and his abilities thanks to his and Barley's quest, and felt like he was starting to become the new him that he had always wanted to be.

But is MAGIC all that it's cracked up to be? Now that's the question.

They say every story has a beginning and an end...

And that the ending grants everyone a happily ever after...

But sometimes, the ending is just the beginning...