The Key

Chapters 1

Chapter 1

I knelt there, my back touching one of the walls of the ship. It lurched violently. My bonds were cutting deeper into my wrist. I knew there was no point in struggling, every time I moved the bonds would tighten. My captor strode up to my mother, bonded next to me. He was masked. On his mask was dried blood and bleach stains. I looked at my mother; she was crying blood after our captor (who referred to himself as Rorak) poured acid into her eye sockets. My father lay dead in front of me, a hole ripped in his chest. Rorak towered over my mother “ where is the drapion key? I KNOW YOU HAVE IT!” he screamed into her ear. His voice was deep and eerily soothing. She didn’t respond. But Rorak was losing his tolerance. He took a needle out of his pocket, and jabbed my mother with it. She died screaming my name ’Kral …”.  He looked at her body for a second before striding over to me.

“You are of no use to me boy, your magical abilities are impressive though… I will have to kill you as you could pose a threat.” He said as if mocking me. He grabbed me by the hair and dragged me up the white, blood stained stairs that lead to the port bow. It was windy and the wind screamed. He laughed maniacally as he threw my tired and weighty body into the vehement ocean. I gasped trying to keep my head above the mountainous waves. I struggled for what seemed to be forever but the waves were too powerful. I was dragged underwater and could not get back up. I was being dragged deeper. I could feel my consciousness drain and death gripping me. My eyes were closing slowly. My vision blurred. Death had overcome me.

I woke up sweating. I rubbed my eyes and let my long hair fall over my fingers. Wait a minute… I don’t have long hair. I looked around; I was sitting in the bedroom of a teenage boy that has a taste for heavy metal music. Posters of bands such as Metallica scattered along the walls. I got up. I was taller. A lump formed in my throat. Who am I? I walked to the door and peered out into the hall. The coast was clear. I placed my foot onto the soft blue rug and began to walk to the bathroom. The house seemed normal. It was single story in the shape of a rectangle. The walls were painted white and the blue carped covered the entirety of the house.  I walked over to the bathroom and flipped the light switch. I looked in the mirror and saw ‘my’ face. I had long dark hair and dark green eyes. I looked about 17 years old. I had a surprisingly spotless face as apposed to my face in my other body. I shivered at the thought. Suddenly the thought occurred to me, what if I couldn’t do magic anymore. I clicked my fingers to summon an energy ball. To my surprise the emerald sphere appeared and bigger than it usually was. I cut the power to my hand the ball disappeared. I sat on the toilet seat and though about what could have possibly happened. I found a crumpled up newspaper next to the seat and picked it up. On the front title it read ‘FAMILY OF THREE DISSAPEAR, more on page 9’. Intrigued by this I flipped to page 9 and saw a picture of my family and I. A boiling hate started to brew inside my heart. The newspaper erupted in emerald fire. And I remembered a name. Rorak.

I left the house as soon as I had read the article. I knew where the publishers, R and c publishing, were stationed. I began walking there. Anger was raging inside of me, like a rabid animal in a cage. I didn’t notice it but my hands were glowing. I had to contain my anger if ever to keep the wizard world a secret. It was a world of monsters and secrecy. I stopped to calm my self down then I continued walking. People were starting to emerge from their homes as the sun rose over the horizon. But I didn’t care about the chatter being stirred up about a teenager in his pyjamas out wandering the streets at 6am. After two more hours of non-stop walking I found the office building. I approached with caution. The door was left hanging open. I peered inside warily. Without making a sound I entered the room. It was small with two desks in the middle, both of them papers staked high. I noticed a small patch of blood on the ground. Fresh. I walked into the staff quarters to find a man sprawled dead on the floor and Rorak looking over him. I let the anger get the best of me. I attacked, both my fists landing punched in his back, but he was quick to return with a leg swipe, knocking me off balance and onto the ground. He stood over me, his mask gave him a creepy quality. He took out a knife as if to stab me, but I was quick too and rolled far enough for me to regain balance. Then I started throwing energy balls at him, but he deflected with a ragon shield. Wait a minute only a member of the minister of Krav’s personal guards had those shields. As I thought that he retracted the shield and landed a punch to my face. My head hit the wall. The taste of blood filled my mouth. I felt sleepy, but I knew I must remain conscious. I got up, a bit drowsily and turned to face him, but he was already gone.

The wall shook as I hit it in anger. Where did he go in such a short time? I let him evade me. I felt tears well up in my eyes. I knew I needed to train and hone my new abilities if I ever wanted to catch him. I turned to the body. Why was he targeted? He wore a blue shirt, stained red with blood, and black shorts. I strode over to the body, avoiding the pools of crimson blood lying next to him. It looked like he was killed with a Poloris spell; the user pours his raw power into a small beam of energy. I knew that spell, my mum, well my old bodies’ mum, had taught me that spell in defence 101. I searched his pockets, finding nothing but a tissue and a card. I read the card. it belonged to an alchemist. Never trust an alchemist my father used tell me. On the card it said a name, Arias, and it said in a scribbled writing, contact 1. I burst out of the office, adrenalin pulsating through my veins, making me faster despite my exhaustion. I as the breaths left me, so did the people heading home like ants of the same colony. The clock reached 12am and I was fatigued, but I could not stop. My muscles felt like they were on fire and I was grasping for breath by the time 5am came around. I had to rest. I spotted a broken sign saying ‘The Park’. I walked in through the hedges at the side of the highway to find a beautiful forest. In the centre of all the tall fur trees was a white outhouse. I strode over to it. It looked deserted but I didn’t know why. The inside was small, 2 rooms I think, the kitchen is connected to the living room and the living room has a lovely red carpet and a small wooden coffee table stacked high with tablet magazines. I twisted the handle and pushed the door, but it didn’t budge. Locked. Great I thought and kicked the flowerpot. It broke against the pillar and out of it came a small and rusted key. Suddenly my spark of hope became an inferno. I took it out of the rubble, my hands shaking from pure exhaustion. I ran to the door, twisted the key, locked it from the inside and collapsed onto the sofa. I woke up to a dreary sunset, followed by a deep purple rock in front of my face. I didn’t put that there I thought. I stood up, weakly, but strong to kill an intruder. They seemed to have left. Just to be sure I walked over to the window. Nothing left just like it was yesterday. That was strange, I thought. I strode over to the rock a little bit confused. Maybe it was already here I just disregarded it because I was so tired. I picked up the rock; it was big but surprisingly light. Suddenly it began to shake like it was an earthquake, I dropped it onto the table in shock and only had time to generate two small energy balls. Out of the rock, egg or whatever it is came a dragon. It was small with two wings the size of toothpicks and a snout no bigger than a ketchup bottle. It had two black. It was black with gray eyes. It looked at me, staring into my eyes, judging if I am a suitable companion. Then it just curled up into a ball, closing its tiny eyelids. I knew that I couldn’t leave it here, so reluctantly I picked up the ball of dragon and put it into a backpack that I found in the house. Then I started my trek to the Alchemy Square.