Chapter 1: A Room with a Weird Door
Caden walked along a dimly-lit hallway of Pyrano Palace, the residence of the Ruler of Xynexia – the Demon World. Caden had been walking down a corridor rarely walked for the past ten minutes, following its winding trail. Just as he thought about turning around and heading back, he came face-to-face with a huge door. A huge, purple door, to be exact. What kind of door is purple? Not only that, it was a monstrously horrifying purple.
Caden shuddered at the atrocious colour before focusing on trying to turn the doorknob but the room was locked. What am I doing here, anyway? Caden thought. It was a pretty simple question. He had came to get his younger brother, Caleb’s, pet cat and had followed the black creature through winding corridors just to find a door. A door that was locked, that is.
Strange…Caden thought, I didn’t see Blackie anywhere and he couldn’t have gone through the door…
Caden thought about setting the door and fire to open it before striking it out of the list of ‘how-to-open-large-locked-weird-coloured-doors’. Caden was able to control the two elements of Fire and Ice. However, he didn’t want his father to find out about the burnt-down door. Even though it was unlikely that anyone else was going to step foot into those hallways anytime soon, his father, the Ruler of Xynexia had the reliable ability to tell whether anyone had destroyed or damaged any of the walls in the Castle. That included this particular door.
Blackie shouldn’t be inside, but then, why didn’t I see him while walking here? Caden was worried. His brother loved that cat and would be heart-broken to find that he was gone. And crying eight-year-olds were not a fun thing to deal with.
“Blackie!” Caden called out. “Blackie! Blackie!”
He thought he had heard a faint mew from the other side of the purple door and his frown intensified. How could Blackie get into the room? He had trouble opening the door and he had hands. Okay, now that he knew where Blackie was, the only problem was how to get him out. Caden tried the doorknob again. No use, it wouldn’t budge.
What to do? Caden thought miserably. How can I get that stupid cat out?
Then, an idea struck him. He felt for something in his pocket and produced a paperclip. He fitted the clip through the knob and started twisting it. After a few moments, a ‘click’ could be heard through the silent walls of the corridors. Caden pulled the door open, revealing a pitifully mewing black cat at the other side.
“Blackie!” Caden cried out as the black cat instantly jumped into his arms. “Let’s go. Caleb’s been looking for you.”
The young demon prince slowly made his way back to his younger brother’s playroom, not noticing the black tendrils of magic shooting out from an object hidden under a piece of cloth in the mysterious room…
