The Necromancer

Chapter 1

I was running through a forest. It was absolutely amazing. There was not a single soul in sight and I could finally let go. Everything seemed to be a blur in my speed, but I could still make out my favourite pine trees and eucalyptus trees. The frigid air was biting at my skin. I loved the feel of it. Nothing made me feel better save a cold forest in the hills. It was nearly thick enough to be a jungle.

A girl nearly overtook me. That was not going to happen. I ran faster. A part of me knew that it was just a dream, but I swear that I could feel my legs straining and my breath hitching and that air and the wind that was drying my eyes. She was the only one I had seen in the forest so far. We both were trying our hardest to overtake the other, but soon, I lost her in the forest.

She could be anywhere, even ahead of me. And there was no way that I was going to lose this race. Suddenly, I spotted a clearing. Fortunately for me, I stopped. The clearing was only three metres long after the forest and ended in a cliff. When I looked around, I noticed that the clearing extended on my left and right sides, but I couldn't make out where it ended. Just the way I couldn't make out the drop just a second ago.

I peered down. Sure enough, the people who had finished this run were there, on a meadow. They looked like they were stuck. But the meadow seemed never ending. There had to be a way of getting out of there. Only two feet to my left, I found a concrete pole. It had to be more than a kilometre long. It reached all the way down to the meadow. It connected the meadow to the cliff at a forty-five-degree angle, approximately. It wasn't the regular spherical pole; it was rectangular. I recognised it instantly.

When I had a parrot, we had a similar concrete pole near our garden, but that one slanted in thirty degrees. Its width was about five inches and it wasn't straight flat on top. It was flat, but the thing was slanting to the right a little. This longer pole was no exception. Only, this one slanted a little to the left because I wasn't climbing it; I was descending it. But I knew that soon, I would be climbing it and I felt sick.

Not only would I be climbing it, but I would be climbing it with someone who didn't know how to do this stuff. And the thing was, I only assumed the pole was a kilometre long for my sake; it was never ending because although I could see the meadow, I didn't know how long it would take to reach it. And dreams have a way of driving you crazy.

With a shaky breath, I stepped on the pole. I nearly fainted. I'm not afraid of heights, but try climbing down that pole yourself! I was a metre away from the cliff and I was doing fine. Only nine-hundred-and-ninety-nine more to go. I relaxed the slightest bit. Nowadays, I got dizzy often and it was a relief that I was in control of that. But suddenly, I nearly missed a step. I tried to move back to the safety of the cliff and only made it two steps before I was falling.

My eyes shut in terror. Even now, I couldn't scream. I had the urge to scream, but no matter what, it wouldn't come out. I felt someone hold my wrist tightly and I opened my eyes to see the most beautiful thing ever. There was a boy leaning over the rail - which hadn't been there a second ago, but dreams are weird - and holding my hand tightly. For a millisecond, I forgot that I was about to fall and the only thing I could concentrate on was the boy. He looked to be fifteen, but he looked stronger than most fourteen year olds. His face was blocking the sunlight and a few strands of his midnight black hair caught the rays of the sun. I had a strong urge to run my fingers through his hair. I finally looked into his eyes. They were stunning. They kept changing colour by the second.