Chapter 1: Fire

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“Eric...Eric, quick get inside, it looks like that’ll be all you get done today.”

A storm, dark and menacing could be seen along the breadth of the horizon. The clouds moved thick and fast in over the plains of Abu. A boy of sixteen, in the neighbouring field lifted a stack of hay onto a cart his muscles stretching the dirt covered shirt he wore tight against his skin. “Ok I’ll be in soon, just let me finish getting this hay in the barn” he replied.

 He had striking blue eyes, childlike but at the same time filled with an ancient knowledge.

Eric led an old mare in the direction of a large beech framed barn. Inside to the right of the entrance stood a battered bench, above which hung a selection of carpenter tools. To the left was the horses stable and most of the back was stacked up with hay already. After Eric had finished putting the hay and horse safely away, he ran across the path separating the house and barn ruffling his short brown to get whatever loose grain had got caught in it.

 Inside the house was small but larger than most of the other houses in the Abu lands, made up of two bed rooms and a slightly larger room which Eric and his parents used as the living area. Eric entered the house to be greeted by the warmth of a crackling fire.  He shut the door quickly, to keep the heat in.  As he did so the fire swirled attentively.  

His mother looked up at him smiling. She always smiled, never seeing the flaws of the world only its beauty.  If only she knew her only son was a Dokumacilar, how would she react then? Not with a smile as far as Eric was able to conclude.  Eric had thought of telling her multiple times but decided against it, no need for her to worry over something he had total control over excluding the dreams, no they don’t count everyone has them, even if they are recurring ones.                                                                                   

“There’s some bread on the table for you” she said warmly. Eric scampered to the table. He pulled out a stool from under it and began tearing apart the slices of the freshly baked loaf as his mother returned to chopping some leeks, her bracelet jangling as she did.

The bracelet was the only piece of jewellery his mother had left after a group of Dokumacilar bandits’ raided and blundered the village. The Dokumacilar are hated throughout Saladonia and the rest of the seven continents and it no wonder after all the stories the travellers tell people when they pass through.

“One of them placed a pelage on the village of Glacstin because he felt like it”

“Aye and I seen this one poor man that lost his legs because his wife turned out to be one of the witches”.  Every time the travellers would tell a horrible story that would stir anger and fear among the villagers which only added to Eric’s own fears of what the village would do if they found out but what frightened him the most was what he might become. 

Since the raid as far as Eric knew the bracelet had never left her wrist as his mother said it reminds her of how fortunate they are to still be alive. Still alive, they were that and so was the rest of the village to.  In fact no one even lost a hair the day of the Dokumacilar raid.  This is the hope that Eric holds onto that not all Dokumacilar and roofless and cruel even if they are misguided.

The bracelet was made of seven crystals, six white and a large blue opal, laced together by small silver links. Eric’s mother said that they represent the beauty of the world and the courage it takes to stand against the people who seek to destroy it.

“What’s tha eek’s for” Eric asked between mouth full’s.

“The “leek’s” are for the soup.”  She replied. 

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