Legend of Kataria | Outcasts Book #1 (NEW VERSION)

Chapter 2

Blake did not believe in magic.

Magic was not logical. It could not be explained by science or mathematics. Spells and sorcery only appeared in fairytales designed to frighten disobedient children into submission. He was no naive juvenile. He had long outgrown the youthful belief that fairies could make someone fly or a princess could kiss a frog and transform it into a prince.

Life was no fantasy and he knew first-hand that, here, dreams did not always come true.

It was better that way, he had decided a long time ago. This was Griffion; the kingdom of fact and reason, the place where everything made sense and nothing was left unexplained to chance. There was no need for powers or secrets here. The universe had gotten along just fine without it for thousands of years.

Griffion didn't need a magical healing solution to repair all of its problems and neither did he.

"But don't you want to believe there could be something out there that you can't explain?" his best friend had once asked upon discovering his dislike of all things fantasy (or fun, she also claimed, but that was simply not true. He had fun sometimes, just not in the way that others would describe it).

"No," he'd replied, not bothering to look at her from around his physics textbook--an odd sight for a first-grader. "There's no purpose for any of it. Princes don't get turned into frogs and rescued by princesses and true love's kiss. Why would anyone want to turn someone into an animal in the first place; especially a frog? What's wrong with frogs, anyway? Amphibians are some of the most adaptable creatures on the earth!"

She'd raised an eyebrow. "Would you be saying the same thing if an evil hag turned you into something that could croak?"

"Well, once again, you forget; your point remains irrelevant because there's no such thing as magic."

"But you know Tapushians have magic, don't you? They used to come to our planet all the time and their powers were very real! How can you not believe in magic when you see something like that?"

"Tapush is a faraway planet," he'd reasoned. "Just because they like to think they can do fancy tricks and illusions doesn't mean they actually can."

She looked disappointed. "You don't think they are magic?" She had seemed heartbroken, but what was he supposed to have said? He knew it was all fake; a half-bitten attempt to rival their enemies' mechanical genius with something that Griffionites could not comprehend. Something that did not--could not--exist.

"No," he'd said again, very certain of himself this time. "I don't."

And to this day, he knew every claim to genuine magic was fraudulent. It had to be for there was no other scientific explanation.

His phone vibrated and he paused, the music pulsating through his headphones long enough to draw the device from underneath a stack of folders and hit the decline button. With that, his concentration was shattered and he suddenly became aware of the dozens of feet and screaming voices roaming the outer corridors. That was that then; class was out for the day.

The last day before spring vacations truely began. It was time for freedom, barbeques, and fun.

There was actually nothing he hated more.

Two and a half weeks of complete disorder where no one would be learning anything and the entire educational balance would be thrown off kilter. It was just disgraceful.

The phone rang again.

He sighed. No doubt the girl on the other end was having the exact opposite thought.