I desperately pedal my bike, trying to distance myself and my troubles as much as possible. I fumble with my phone, searching for a GPS to guide me to safety. Suddenly, a deafening roar interrupts my frantic search. A massive red pickup truck barrels down the road, careening straight toward me. When I finally look up, I see the truck only a few yards away. Panicking, I swerve and lose control, tumbling headlong into a deep ditch. Everything fades to black. I open my eyes and start to panic, I can't remember what happened. I can't breathe. I feel swelling in my right leg. I notice the odd bend of my leg. Despite this, I try to get up. I feel a sharp pain shoot through my leg. I feel faint. My head feels like it's being split in half. I smell the sweet smell of fresh snow mixed with the putrid scent of exhaust fumes and oddly metal. This smell... It smells oddly familiar... as if it's important to me somehow. The memory feels... distant. I start to remember why.
I may have a concussion! But what can I do? Other than sitting here waiting for death. My backpack... I have a first-aid kit! It's lodged between my bike. I need to get over there. I start to feel my vision blurring. NO! I can't blackout again! I have to endure! I grab at the snow-covered grass and drag myself to the bike, staining the white snow red with my blood. My leg hurts worse than anything I've ever experienced, but I keep going. I see the backpack. It's lodged between a rock and the mangled heap that used to be my bike. I reach in and try to grab it. I get cut all over my hand, but I finally got the bag. I rummage through and find a granola bar. I just now realise how hungry I am. I unwrap it and shove the granola into my mouth. It tastes amazing. I see my phone in the bag. I excitedly pull it out and try to turn it on. It's dead. I pulled out the first-aid kit, which I went through all that trouble for. My dizziness intensifies. I start pulling out the bandages, but I'm too weak to do it. vision begins to fray. I try to fight it, but I've lost too much blood. As I lay there on the brink of death, I tried to remember how and why this happened. What was I running from that was worth this!?
"...How dare you bring one of them into our home!" I hear a voice say as I wake up.
"How can you say this?! He would have died without us!!" A second, younger voice says. I kept my eyes shut as I heard the first voice yell, "Remember what happened the last time we let one of them in here!" The first voice says, "They are completely untrustworthy! He's even listening in on our conversation!" They're arguing about me! My fear begins to grow. How do they know I'm listening? Who are they? What do they want from me? Panicking, I scream for help. Both of my captors stopped arguing and turned to look at him.
I opened his eyes and saw his kidnappers for the first time. The older one on the left looked relatively young. He had long blonde hair. He wore a light beige suit. The younger one looked about 12, he was wearing an ACDC shirt, had a guitar strapped to his back, and a pair of ripped jeans. His hair was a dirty blond, but the one thing they shared was a pair of pointed ears. "Y-your e-e-ears!" I stammered.
"We may as well tell you, after all, we'll wipe your memory after we interrogate you," the younger one said. "We're Elves."
"That's insane," I said, chuckling. "Where's Santa?"
"Does this look like the North Pole to you?!" The adult said angrily. "We aren't even nearly as short as Northern elves."
"Calm down," the younger one said. "How can you expect him to understand right away? He's handling it pretty well compared to most people. "
"He still doesn't believe us," the old one said
"Well, why don't I fix his leg first? I can't imagine his pain," the younger person said. I felt a sharp pain in his leg and heard a loud pop. He screamed and turned to see his leg. It was fixed! "H-how d-did y-you d-do t-that?" I stammered. "Can you fix my head like that?"
"Your head," the young one says, confused, "What's wrong with your he-"
The younger one suddenly falls to the floor. His eyes glow a bright white. He shrieks in agony while his body violently convulses. I am frozen with fear. The older man ran to the boy, scooping him into his arms. "What have you done!" He yelled. "I-I didn't d-do it." I stammered. The boy starts coughing up blood. I feel something hard hit me in the back of the head. I'm beaten until I pass out again.
I wake up to a blinding light. I hear an EKG. Panicked, I look around. I see rows of beds similar to mine. Instead of the blue jeans and faded T-shirt I was wearing before, I'm in a blue gown. I've got a splitting headache. I feel the back of my head. I feel stitches across it. A nurse walks in. I notice her ears immediately. They're pointed.
"It looks like you've finally woken up," she says, "We had to give you stitches,"
"Stitches?!" I say, surprised.
"With your injuries, it was the only option," She replies. "The guards shouldn't have been so violent with you."
"What happened anyways?" I ask, "Why was everyone so panicked."
"Honestly, it's super boring, but if you want to know I'll tell you," She says uninterested "After the last human we let in started a literal civil war, that's still going on years later, some rando prophesized that the next one we let in will stop it and unite the humans and elves." The initial shock of all this has worn off, but after this revelation, it's all back. "Don't worry, you're not special, at least I don't think so. The elven community is split over who believes the prophecy and who thinks it's fake." Right as I get ready to ask another question, she is pushed out of the way. It's the boy from earlier.
"Why are you here, Ivy," He tells the girl. "You don't even work here or believe in the prophecy. Don't tell me you're doing it again."
"Doing what?" The girl, Ivy, says with false innocence,
"HITTING ON HIM!" He yells, "Every time I meet someone, who might be able to become my friend, you start dating them in like a day!" By now, I'm really uncomfortable.
"That is not fair! Most times, they're not twelve year olds! I have standards," She says.
"Anyways," I say to the boy, trying to redirect them. "Do you believe in this prophecy thing?"
"Yeah, duh," He says as if it's obvious, "It's about me! And even if it wasn't, Father wouldn't allow me not to. Can you imagine the prince of an entire nation not believing in the thing that gives most of them hope."
"Oh yeah, I forgot to tell you, he's in it. I don't know why it couldn't be someone more mature, like me," Ivy tells me.
"Are you better yet?" The boy asks me.
"Yeah, I guess," I reply.
"Then we can finally start our quest!" He has a huge smile across his face.
"Quest!?!" I say shocked, "I didn't sign up for a quest! I don't even know your name!"
"Micah Barlowe, at your service," He says enthusiastically, shaking my hand. "Now that you know who I am, we can go!"
End of Chapter 1
Author's note: IK i said I would revise the chapters in the second authors note, but im not changing this from present tense to past when I could be working on revising the other chapters.
