The Difference In Capital Letters

New Life

  So, my brother - I've decided I'll nickname him Nico - gives me a quick starter on how to get about the place. He whistles and a shadow horse speeds towards us, I whistle and another follows.

  Darrorsows (the horses) can speak but often choose to ignore us and seeing as I have no idea what language they speak I don't try. I see a floating shadow apple to my right and feed it to my darrorsow, he seems to like me now and I love riding through the air like this. I'm guided to my room after being shown the way to the kitchen (and so on).

  Keoki sits down on my black bed with me, and we catch up. I feel like I know him and I sense that he does know me but I'm certain that I've never seen him before. We're soon talking like proper siblings, it turns out we're actually really similar, he's read the same books as me and seen the same films - I explain how I want to call him Nico and he agrees.

  My room is perfect, yes it is all black, but the shadows shift their shape depending on how I want it or just to give the room a new look. I quite like vintage stuff so right now I have a lovely double bed with four posts and curtains from the roof of it,  I have a lovely chandelier and a candle at my bedside but there is no fire. We can't have fire here, we aren't allowed fire, ice or water. Keoki won't tell me more now but I sense that I'm going to be breaking those rules at some point.

  I notice the door opening a tad as the darrorsow I was riding earlier enters, the shadows shift quickly to make room for a comfortable stable and I give him another apple. That's when I hear a voice in my head:

'I like you, you're nice, I'm Agripin, thank you Verity. Do you mind if I call you 'boss'?'

'I don't mind thank you, do you mind being called Blackjack?'

'I see you like the Percy Jackson books, and no I don't mind - it's nice to use names and words that aren't in Greek sometimes.'

'Are we talking in Greek then?'

'Yes, although you're special - I've switched to Latin now and I know you can still understand me, that means you're a child of Light.'

'What's that mean?' It sounded rather Greek to me. Excuse the pun.

'I'm not in the position to tell you, ask Keoki, he is a fine brother for you and will explain all you need to know.'

'Thanks Blackjack.'

'Anytime.'

  Our conversation ended there as Keoki gave a slight cough and gestured for me to follow him. He smiled and explained that we are two of the only children of Dark that have become friends of the darrorsows.

  I decided the question of 'child of Light' and 'child of Dark' could wait for later. Agripin followed close behind as I sneaked him another apple. Keoki led me to another ledge near my room and whistled - I recognised the darrorsow as the one he rode earlier, I suppose they've bonded like I have with Blackjack. We quickly arrive at the heart of the castle and I suddenly become nervous, I knew in my head I was meant to fit in and belong there but my gut was pulling me away.

  Agripin could sense my nervousness and urged me forward. He stood close by my side whilst Keoki went slightly ahead of me. We entered a long throne room and I noticed a tall dark figure at the front.