A Hero's beginning

Chapter 23

The carnival was already fully built. Tons of carnival games, food stands, photo booths, and rides filled up an area the size of two football fields. A giant ferris wheel was in the center surrounded by other carnival rides, game booths, and food stands. The carnival was just opening but there were already a bunch of people there. "James! Jackson!" I turned around and saw Madelynn running towards us. "Hey Maddy." I said as Jackson nodded. The three of us talked for a while while we waited for the rest of our friends. Finally they arrived and we ran inside the carnival. Grace ran over to a ring toss booth and manipulated the air to get the ring around the bottles while David annoyed- er, distracted the carnie. Jackson was at the horseshoe booth manipulating the metal horseshoes so they went around the stake. Trinity was at a booth shooting water guns at plastic birds. Madelynn and I were throwing darts at balloons. The six of us met up with our prizes. Madelynn was carrying a big plush lion, Trinity had a plush goldfish, Grace had a charm bracelet with a lightning bolt charm, David had flame shaped sunglasses, Jackson had a little balloon dragon and I had a black eye from when i threw a baseball at some rigged bottle and it hit me in the eye. The six of us ran over to the photo booth. After taking some pics we each grabbed one of the six photo strips. Unfortunately right after that an explosion rang out through the fair ground followed by screaming. Just my luck, I thought. A vortex of black smoke arose in the distance, though it was hard to see since it was dark out illuminated only by the stars and the full moon. Just then a group of people cloaked in all black with crow masks walked through the crowds who were running away in fear. "Shadow bringers..." I muttered. Shadow bringers were people who believed that Eclipso isn't dead and will soon return. They have been around since the fall of light. The year 1 A.F.L. (After fall of light) to be exact. The group marched through and my friends and i started to run before a few of the Shadow Bringers raised their wands towards us and instantly our legs and arms were tied together with rope. I summoned my dagger, cut my ropes and scrambled to my feet, brandishing my dagger. Just then a scrawny kid who was probably about two or three years younger than me materialized out of the shadows in front of the Shadow Bringers. He had shaggy black hair and a gold mask shaped like a jackal's face hiding his entire face except for his dark brown eyes. He was wearing a white t-shirt under a black biker jacket, fingerless black biker gloves and gray jeans. He unsheathed a dagger with a hooked blade like a khopesh. He raised his hands and started chanting in a strange language. Instantly, skeletons in full armor crawled out of the earth and attacked the Shadow Bringers. He turned around, pointed at me then at my friends. "Oh! You want me to cut them free!" I realized. I ran over and carefully cut my friends free from their ropes. Unfortunately for him, one of the skeleton warriors knocked a staff out of a Shadow Bringer's hand and it hit the back of the jackal boy's head. He lay on the ground, hopefully just unconscious. The skeleton warriors advanced and forced the Shadow Bringers to retreat. Jackson and I carried the jackal kid to my place so we could help him.