A Hero's beginning

Chapter 7

Since the nurse in the infirmary said I was healthy enough to leave, I decided to explore the island. On the left were 3 private bathrooms that I'm sure weren't there before. After changing into a t-shirt and jeans, I strapped my dagger and wand to my belt. I walked out of the castle and immediately ran into Madelynn. "We gotta stop meeting like this" she said, "Where are you going?" she asked. She was wearing jeans, and a black shirt with the silver and gold school logo of a golden lion head who's mane grows into a howling silver wolf. After a half hour of exploring the woods we suddenly got separated. I looked around me and Madelynn was nowhere to be seen. The trees had changed completely, they had black bark and dark green leaves. I took the silver hand mirror out of my pocket but the glass was pitch black. Glowing red letters appeared in the glass: no connection, try again later. "Great," I muttered. "Just great." I looked around and saw someone lying on the forest floor. I ran over and took out my wand. "Lampen." I said and the tip of my wand started glowing. The person was laying face down and there was a strange knife in their back. The red blade seemed to be made of pure energy. I carefully rolled the person onto their side and there, lying in front of me, was Luke. His brown eyes staring blankly out into space. "No! No, no, no, no!" I muttered as I looked around for someone, anyone, who could help. As I stood a snake lunged towards my face and I quickly unsheathed my dagger and slashed it in half, making it dissolve into a pool of darkness. I noticed another body lying not too far away, this one was on fire. I ran over and discovered that the flaming body was David. I held out my wand and shouted "Aquasi raya!" A stream of water erupted from the tip of my wand and extinguished the fire. There were several more bodies lying around me. I walked over to the two closest bodies and collapsed to my knees when the light from my wand illuminated their faces. The man and woman were holding hands, they looked peaceful as if they had accepted that they were going to die. The man on the left had Mediterranean features like me, he had dirty blonde hair and bright blue eyes. The woman on my right had gray eyes and dark brown hair that laid around her head like a halo. My eyes welled with tears as a memory of a two year old me running out from behind a six year old Luke and Kayla and shaking my parents who were lying on the floor. I was sobbing and trying to wake them up while Kayla and Luke wrapped their arms around me. But deep down I knew that there was no way I could wake them up. As my flashback ended I wiped the tears from my eyes and looked around. The bodies had disappeared and there was a figure standing in front of me who was cloaked in shadows. I raised my wand and scrambled to my feet, backing away from the figure. "Hello James, it's nice to finally meet you. I knew you would be powerful. That's why my soldiers tried to kill you. But your idiotic parents got in the way." The man's voice was raspy, as if he was asleep and had been for centuries. His last sentence filled me with anger. "My parents weren't, idiots! LAMPEN RAYA!" I yelled and a beam of light shot from my wand and the man dissipated into a puff of black smoke and the shadows retreated, making me appear in a clearing with normal trees.

"James! Thank the gods!" I lowered my wand as Madelynn ran over to me and hugged me, tears streaming from her eyes. I awkwardly put my arms around her. "It's, it's ok. You're safe. You saw the visions too?" I asked. She nodded and pulled away. "I saw my dad... h-he died a few years back." she wiped a tear from her cheek. "I-Im so sorry... I saw my parents and my brother, Luke." I said. "I don't know why I saw Luke... but my parents were killed when I was pretty young." She walked over and hugged me again, this time it felt less awkward. "I'm sorry James. L-let's just get back to the academy." she said as she pulled away. I put my wand away and we started walking back in the direction of the school. After a few seconds of walking Madelynn held my hand. I looked over at her. "So we don't get separated again." she said while blushing. The two of us walked back to the academy and as soon as we exited the woods we saw David, Jackson, Trinity, and Grace standing at the edge of the woods as if waiting for us. Madelynn and I quickly let go of each other's hands. "Well, well, well. Where have you two been-" Trinity started but then she noticed a tear trace itself down Madelynn's cheek. "Maddy, what happened?" she said as she rushed over to Madelynn's side. "We got separated in the woods and- and we got lost in the dark forest." Madelynn said. The realization hit me like an angry rhino with a caffeine addiction (don't ask). Luke had told me that the dark forest manifested your worst fears, your future and past tragedies, making them reality. It can also show you dark future visions. "The dark forest is pure shadow magic... that's why we appeared in the clearing after I cast Lampen raya." I said. Madellyn and I explained what we had seen and I had to hold back a sob while I was explaining. "Dude..." Jackson placed his hand on my shoulder. He had been one of the only people who comforted me when my parents died. Well, one of the only people who actually cared about me who comforted me. The six of us walked inside and split up. As I was about to walk in the direction of Luke's dorm when Madelynn ran over to me. The others had gone off in other directions. "Hey James, thanks." she said. Then she did something that surprised me, she kissed me. Since she was a few inches shorter than me she had to get on her tiptoes to do it. "I- uh- um-hum- muh." I said, staring at her in shock. She ran off in the direction Trinity had gone. I walked to Luke's private dorm. As co-class presidents he and Catherine get their own private dorm rooms. I knocked on the door and it swung open. The room looked exactly how I imagined. There was a canopy bed with blue drapes that looked like water in the far center of the room in front of a window that took up the entire back wall. There was a desk with a bunch of papers in one corner and a closet and drawers in the others. There was a circle of couches in the middle of the room where Luke was sitting, that had a circular coffee table in the center. "Hey James, need something?" he asked. I walked over and sat down next to him. I explained to him everything that happened except for the part about Madelynn kissing me. "Oh man, so does this mean I'm gonna die? If I die Cathrine's going to kill me!" Luke said as he paced back and forth. "Luke! Chill! It was just a vision from the dark forest! Now let's focus on the more important matter, the guy cloaked in shadows said he's the reason mom and dad were killed. And then we can focus on the even more important matter of Madelynn kissing me!" I said. "Woah, woah, woah. Back up. First of all, who's Madelynn and did you say she kissed you!? Second of all, maybe the guy cloaked in shadows was one of E-c-l-i-p-s-o's soldiers? It's said that high ranking shadow soldiers often send out shades to do their dirty work. Now back to the matter of the kiss, when are me and Kayla going to meet this Madelynn girl?" he said with crossed arms. "Is she your girlfriend?" My face turned red. "No, she's not my girlfriend. And you already met her. Yesterday. Before the boar attack." I said. "Oooohh, that blonde girl?" he said. After an hour of talking I finally decided to go to my room. I lay down in my bed and drifted off into a peacefully dreamless sleep.