IGNITE

I

     Nate snapped his fingers again.

     "Come on...." he said.

     When the fire finally lit in his hands, he breathed a sigh of relief, he'd been trying to light it for a few hours now, but when he finally lit it, he noticed something different.

     "Hey, wait a moment, this one's green. The last time I did this the fire was orange.", He muttered to himself.

     Several passers-by stared at him and the flame in his hand. But Nate was used to that, he had gotten stares like that ever since the Cleansing.

     Nate Eldris had lived, well not comfortably, but not poorly either. His parents had died before he could even know them, with his only memory being a warm glow.

     A good friend of his father's, Clanestine Haas, took him in and for the past 15 years, he'd been living in Haas Manor.

     He hadn't really been asked for anything. He could wander around Hundre as he pleased and was only tasked with the occasional errand. That was of course, until the Cleansing.

     When this dirtbag Klaus Schneide became the King, he tasked the Imperial Guard to cleanse the city of the 'impure'. Essentially, every non-human resident in this city was to be given the boot.

     "These beasts have seized control of our city, and they probably intend to attack soon! If they attack us at full force with their sorcery and voodoo, we stand no chance! That's why we must strike before them. . . . .", Schneide's own words.

     Nate was half-human, but that didn't stop the Imperial Guard from trying to give him the boot too. Luckily, he managed to escape. Exactly how, he didn't remember either.

     But that didn't mean that he was free from the law just yet, in fact he was surprised that his little hideaway in the middle of Grace Alley hadn't been found yet.

     With the amount of people that saw him get in, he was sure that most of them turned a blind eye to him. It was common knowledge on the streets that most people, even the aristocrats, hated the King.

     Thank you. Nate thought every time he entered his little house and found out there was no Imperial Guard there.

     Word on the street was that he was one of the last non-humans, or Impures, in Hundre, half-human and otherwise.

     He didn't know where the other Impures where, or how the hell they were evading capture, but he did know this, they had some sort of secret society, because he had heard the guards talking about it when they brought him in, or tried to, anyway. Meloductos, or M for short, they had called it.

     Nate was jolted back to the present when a man was shaking him awake. He'd realized he'd fallen asleep in his memories.

     "Hey kid, you ok?", the man asked.

     "What's it to you?", Nate snapped at the man. He had learned early on that if you had a sort of mean attitude, people would leave you alone, which was hoe you generally like it.

     "I dunno. . ." the man shrugged before offering him some moldy bread, "want some bread?"

     Then it occurred to Nate that this balding man with yellow crooked teeth was generally trying to know him. Without the backstabbing that came with it. Huh

     "Nah, I'm fine." replied Nate. He didn't want to cause trouble for this man. If the Imperial Guard knew that he had made contact with him, this man would be in trouble... . . but then again, he could be working for them. . . .

     "Ya part ov M?", the man asked, having bitten into his bread.

     "N...N..No"

     "Oh, serri, thought yer was a part of et." He nodded to the fire in his hand.

     "Ah." he replied cautiously, quickly extinguishing the fire in his hand. The next thing you know, this man would be running straight to the Imperial Guard.

     "Well, at lest I knew wer te find yer", said the man, finishing his bread, "me name's Ronald. What's yers?"

     With those last words, Nate's gut immediately screamed No! Danger! Bad!.

     But he couldn't help himself. This man-, Ronald had revealed his name to a complete stranger, exposing himself to the world of blackmail and theft in the process.

     "Nate, that's ma-my name," he sputtered, inwardly cursing his own stupidity.

     "Well Nate, I'll see yer around!" said Ronald with a crooked smile.

     "Wait! Where are you from!?!" He screamed as Ronald started walking away.

     "Well, yer see, I'm from Meloductos," He said with a wink.

     That name seemed familiar. Where have I heard that again. . . .

     Oh well. And with that, Nate decided to go to sleep early.

     His dreams were strange. In them, he could see a man who looked strangely like Ronald fighting through a crowd of people, with a sword. Then, everything and everyone suddenly got engulfed in a fiery explosion of green wisps, strangely like the ones he could make. He woke up bathing in sweat.

     The next day, Nate expected the Imperial Guard to come running down the street to the place where he was sitting yesterday, and he'd have a nice view of it from his little hideout, but they didn't.

     Huh, I guess he wasn't such a bad guy after all. He thought. Maybe he won't rat me out to the Imperial Guard. Maybe it won't be such a bad day after all.

     Oh, he didn't know how wrong he was yet.

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     Somewhere hidden underneath Hundre, they were watching Nate, when they saw the green fire, it all made sense. They knew he was getting  stronger. They had seen enough proof of that when they saw the damage the 'green firestorm' had done.

     They were convinced he was the One. The elder sent for the Pythia. The trainees ran to the lustrous chamber at the end of the hall and convinced the old lady in the chair to come with them. When she saw him, she was overcome by the voice of the Eicyd Pythia, and in her deep raspy voice she said. . . .

     "He is the One."

AN: Heh, my first one. Heh, plz don't kill me. Hhhheeehhhh.