Quzil Scarlett & the Kingdom of Durkinbird

Chapter 1- The Fate of a Dreamer

There was once a boy named Quzil Scarlett, he was a twelve year old kid who had tidy combed black hair and dark black eyes. He lived with his mother in a house big enough for a small family in a village named Greenfall.

Quzil’s mother was a young beautiful woman with bright red hair and light green eyes unlike him. The favourite part of her day was to welcome Quzil home after he had spent several hours at the library as he loved reading very much. His room was filled with books he had read and books he was going to read later, and how he loved sitting out at night under the roof of stars like a dreamer, with his book in his hand, travelling to different worlds, meeting new people and experiencing fictional stories from their eyes.

If there was one thing that he wished for more than anything, it was to go on an epic adventure himself, to travel to magical lands, meet creatures of different forms and fight great evil but sadly he could only do so in his imagination for he was raised in a world where magic did not exist and people who believed in such things were deemed crazy by the normal ones.

One day when Mrs Scarlett was cooking in the kitchen, a dish that was a bit difficult to cook but was an absolute delight for Quzil, she heard a knock on the door.

“Ah!” she exclaimed. “My son has finally returned from his great journey to the library” she said to herself as she walked to the door.

“Welcome back Quzie!” she said with a wide smile on her face as she opened the door, only to find her son drenched in mud. He was holding the cover and the front few pages of a green book, it looked as if someone had torn it in half.

"Honey, what happened?” she asked, leaning down to him and wiping the dirt off his forehead.

“They did it again, mom” he said in a sad voice letting go of the book remains. “I was just returning home with my new book when they appeared in front of me, Tony and his friends!” he said with great rage in his voice, clenching his fists and almost making Mrs Scarlett flinch. He then stormed into the house and into his room and his mom followed.

“Wait, honey” she squealed but Quzil ignored her call. She was yet to know what had happened to him but only if he would let her in his room. After several minutes of begging and pleading he finally opened the door and let her in.

“What’s the matter, Quzie?” she asked.

“Mom, do you think I’m useless?” he said looking up at her and that was the moment Mrs Scarlett was triggered but she kept her calm.

“No sweetie why do you ask that?”

“Tony does, and so do his friends” he said sounding almost helpless, “I was just minding my own business when they came to me and started pushing me around and snatched the book away from me, they even called me names. They said that I was delusional and that I needed to live more in reality and also that reading books will only make me waste my time and that I was just a dreamer who thinks he’s going to get a chance to go on a stupid adventure and who keeps dreaming that it’ll happen someday and that I was as useless as a bone in a cat’s bowl!” he said in a rush without pausing at all and then put his head down and started sobbing.

Mrs Scarlett’s eyes were full of tears for this had not been the first time her son had been attacked by the villagers for liking books.

Few days ago, Mrs Garnel, an old fat lady that lived a few houses away from them suggested Mrs Scarlett to look after her dreamy son and to send him to the farm to work like others, it would do him good and that reading books would not help him in any way and would definitely not fill his stomach.

There was harshness in her words but also truth. Mrs Scarlett sold fruits for a living and found no difficulty running the house except during the winters, and as much as she would have wanted for Quzil to get a job she also didn’t want to disrupt his childhood. Quzil had never met his father and his mom always seemed to ignore him when he asked her about him but it never seemed to bother Quzil as Mrs Scarlett fulfilled both the roles perfectly. She slowly brushed him over his head.