VROXEN

VROXEN

Chapter 1

The islands were bathed in sunshine. The heat of the day warming everybody as they got on with their lives. It was lunchtime and Josef was home, he played on his computer whilst his mother prepared the meal. He was very pleased with himself he was only 15 yrs old and he had a job. Some people would say it was not much of a job, helping the herdsmen look after the camels up on the mountain, but Josef was happy with his life. It was a thriving tourist industry, at least 200 camels provided rides for tourists every day. He knew that when he worked during the day he would earn much more but just now he had to be content to work at night staying up on the mountain whilst the camels slept.

The island where Josef lived was set in the ocean in the tropics, it was only one of a group of islands that had once been a tropical paradise until one terrible day many years ago the volcanoes had erupted, spilling burning lava and rock, killing every living creature in its path. Nobody was left alive. It changed everything. The beautiful jungle, beaches, trees, flowers, nothing was spared. In their place the island became a chilling black empty space, a landscape of cruel black rock which covered the island. White ash had fallen like snow after the volcano had ceased to heave its devastation on the ground below, giving the island a strange uncanny look. The beaches had lost the beauty of their creamy velvet sand and in its place were dark stones hard and sharp. The only thing that remained unchanged was the deep blue sea that continued to splash on to the island as if nothing had happened.

Hundreds of years passed and gradually the island was borne again, very slowly it regained a different kind of beauty, the blackness remained but the trees returned, flowers blossomed, birds found the island and settled and along with the birds people returned to make their homes as before. The islands once again thrived and gave life and prosperity to those that chose to live there.

Legends and fantasy tales have always been part of all our lives and the island where Josef lived was no exception. We all secretly love to be frightened by the stories told by our parents and as long as we feel secure and safe with the knowledge that whatever happens no harm will ever come to us it is an enjoyable part of our childhood. But there was one legend that even the adults on Josef's island paled at the thought of. For centuries the story of the VROXEN had been handed on down the generations. Stories of monsters that lived beneath the volcano fire. Monsters that came to the surface during the darkest night and stole children from their homes.

It certainly was a fact that over the years children had gone missing but nobody alive had ever witnessed the appearance of these evil volcano creatures and the children of the island grew accustomed to the odd remark telling them to beware at night of the Vroxen that would steal them away. Josef certainly had more on his mind than to worry about a silly monster tale.

The many volcanoes scattered around the island dominated the landscape and loomed up above the many small villages and towns. Their huge presence commanded respect from the islanders who knew that underneath their smooth surface lay a boiling flowing mass of lava ready to explode on to their life as it had done in the past. They knew it was uncontrollable once it started and they were grateful that with modern technology the giant hills could be monitored and the red pools seen from the sky were checked regularly by planes that scanned the skylights showing up from the tip and sides of the volcanoes.

And so this was the life that Josef knew. He was old enough to know that he lived on a volcanic island and the uncertainty it held and he would often watch the small plane as it circled above and dreamed that one day he would to be a pilot flying thousands of feet up in the sky.