The Tale of Ezra: Book 1

Chapter 18: A Hero's Tale

We returned back to the North HQ. We didn't get much sleep as we would have to attend a ceremony held by Regalia in order to give us praise for saving our country. Luke had bought us all nice royal clothes for the ceremony. 
When we arrived at the castle and got out of the carriage, I saw Austin standing right there on the stairs leading to the castle's main entrance. 
"Yo, Ezra!" he said as he extended his hand for a dap. I looked back at my friends and let them know that they could go ahead and enter. 
"I'm proud of you bro." "Thanks." "Keep this up and maybe one day you'll become a captain" I just smiled knowing that it would be a million years before I would become a captain. 
"Oh, by the way, I meant to give you this necklace the other time." He pulled out a silver cross necklace from his suit pocket and handed it to me. "Keep it safe. Whenever you're feeling down use it to remind you to keep on fighting for what you believe is right." 
"Wow, thanks." I put on the necklace. It looked pretty nice. 
We both went into the palace where we would be greeted by some elders. 
"You must be Ezra" one of the elders said as he shook my hand. "Yeah, that's me." "Pleasure to meet you" 
The last time I was here, I was literally a nobody, no one here knew who I was. Now everyone knows my name and is greeting me like I'm some celebrity. We all sat down in the audience seats just before the throne. Me and my friends of course were sitting in the most from row. The queen had finally arrived and sat in her throne. Philip followed and stood beside the queen who was sitting. 
"Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen! Today we are holding this special ceremony in honor of the heroes of Regalia. May they stand up!" We all stood up and walked over to the throne where the queen was. We all bowed down and she stood up to present us with medals. 
"We do this in honor of these five brave children who saved Regalia and prevented war from breaking out" she said. She then put medals on each of us and we stood back up and faced towards the audience. 
The audience was clapping and cheering. This kind of reminded me of the time when I graduated as the top prospect. I felt kinda heroic now instead of wondering how I ended up in a position like that. After we were awarded with our medals, food was served, and it was basically just a royal party at that point. All the divisions were gathered, and it was a huge celebration. Some of my friends from Northbrook academy had come over to congratulate me. 
"Yooo Ezra!!!" Trey said as we dapped each other. "What's good man?" I said. "Whoever thought that Ezra would be able to prevent a whole ass war." Jimmy said. 
"Bro Ezra, have you done it yet? Have you asked out Anna? I mean she is in the same division as you and stuff so like you know.." Ethan said. "Nah I haven't" "What?!" all of them resonated.
"Bro you're so lame, you know that?" Jerry said. "You better ask her out before someone else does." Trey warned me. 
"Yeah, I know I just don't have the balls to do it" "Come on bro, it's now or never" Jalen said. 
I almost went to go tell her, but I saw that she was talking to Sarah and her other old friends from the academy. I decided to just leave things be. One day I would tell her how I really felt. For now, I would just take things one step at a time. 

After the party it was already 5 pm. Some of my friends were just outside hanging out but I saw Anna standing there on her phone. It was getting a little dark and I figured that I would walk up to her and walk her to the HQ or something. 
"Hey Anna." "Hey Ezra" She looked up from her phone immediately and put it away. I could see that her attention was fully focused on me. "Uh, so what do you wanna do tonight?" She looked at me puzzled like I was talking about something else. "Uh I don't know." I knew I had fumbled. I was trying to make a recovery from what I had just said. "I really had fun doing that mission with you" she said. My heart started beating faster. She had fun? I didn't know what she was talking about. 
"Oh same, yeah well it was stressful but fun being with you" as I said that I felt that I had given it away that I liked her, but she just smiled at me. "Do you wanna join me and Sarah for breakfast tomorrow?" OF COURSE, would have been my answer if Sarah wasn't come along with us. Things would just get awkward. But I couldn't turn it down, so I decided to accept. 
"Let's stay together, Ezra." she said as she hugged me. If I was white my face would of looked like a tomato. My heart was pounding so fast that I was sure she heard it. I didn't know what she meant by "let's stay together" but I didn't care. You can't say that she's just trying to be friendly. 
She then walked away. I stared at her for a good minute until I couldn't see her anymore. I was daydreaming about what our future life would be like with our kids and everything. My friends had saw what went down and came up to me and confront me. "Okay Ezra, I see you, my boy!" Trey said as he patted me on the back. "Bro, she literally wants you! Make your move!" Jimmy said excessively. 
"Don't worry boys, I'll do it sometime." "Come on man, why are you like this?" Trey said. They all walked away talking about how lame I was for not saying anything to her. I felt that it wasn't the time yet. 
I started walking to the HQ. On my way I saw Scott, he was standing there smoking a cigarette. "Hey Mr. Scott" I said as I walked up to him. "Ezra. How's things?" "Well, you know same old same old now that we've resolved everything." "Ah that's great." 
"I wanted to ask you a question earlier, but I didn't see you." "Yeah, what's up?" He threw away his cigarette as he knew that it would bother me a bit. 
"So this magic stuff...I think I'm able to use it." "What makes you say that?" "Well, I was able to do some of the things Nathaniel was doing when he wore the ring. Like stop objects in midair and pull objects towards me or push them. And this lightsaber thing..." I pulled out my pommel and activated my lightsaber to show him. 
He took a close look at my weapon and examined it. "Ah this is an ancient weapon that was commonly used during the ancient times of magic. The color of the light usually depends on the user's will and emotions." "Is that so?" I thought back to when my lightsaber had turned red, that was because I was feeling enraged at the time. It all started to make sense now.
"So how am I a magic user?" "I'm not sure, you may come from an ancient bloodline that uses magic, like the Maelstromgem family. But the only survivor of that bloodline is Captain Ezekiel, but even he doesn't possess any magic power." That was why Ezekiel was saying stuff like "you're using the same power my ancestors used." 
All this magic stuff was confusing and complicated, and I didn't want to get involved with it.
"But with great power must come great responsibility. You're probably the only magic user in this world right now. You must use your powers with great precaution and restraint." 
"Yeah, I will." 
I said goodbye to him and left and arrived at the HQ. When I was downstairs some people had recognized me and wanted to get my autograph and asked me how I did everything. I just said that I couldn't have done it without my friends. It was true, teamwork was the most important thing in this organization. I went up to our group unit. I saw that Finn and Jay were playing a race car game on the TV. Ariana was doing her hair as always. 
I decided not to say anything and went up to the boys quarters. I went to lay down on my bed and thought about everything that we went through. Traveling throughout the whole United States and finding a bunch of keys then getting betrayed by a close friend and having to fight him in a battle of death. I still couldn't believe that Nathaniel was the thief this whole time. He was one of the most trustworthy people that I had ever met. But I guess what they say is right, the people who are closest to you can hurt you the most. 
This had marked a new chapter in my life. From now on, I would be going on different adventures, my life wouldn't be the same. But I was ready to take on every obstacle life would throw at me, at least that's what I thought for now. 

To Be Continued in Book 2....