Prophecies of Cavalon

Chapter 1: A New World

A New World

My name is Tobias "Tobi" Virani, and this is the story of how my sister Cadence and I found a whole new world.

We were out hunting in the backwoods of Wyoming, the trees thick with mist and the temperature just above freezing.

Most of the time we couldn't see more than eight feet in any direction, and as we came to the top of a hill, Cadence stopped me with a hand on my shoulder.

I looked back a she whispered in my ear, little more than moving air so as not to frighten any game in the area, "I don't know about this fog Tobi.

If we lose one of our trail marks we could get hopelessly lost.

You remember the stories dad told us of the missing hikers and hunters.

This is even the area where grandpa disappeared all those years ago"

I looked back at her worried blue eyes and her soaked blond hair under the camo gear we wore.

I could tell she was thoroughly spooked by this whole thing, even though no one had gone missing in this area for almost ten years.

Even at age nineteen she still had a tendency to get frightened, and therefore, as her older brother, it was my job to calm her down and help her through these things.

I would never admit it to anyone, but even at my striping age of twenty-two, the fog was beginning to send shivers up my spine as well.

I just hoped Cadence didn't see me shiver, or else all her worries might multiply.

The only way I could keep her calm was to be calm myself, at least on the outside.

"Don't worry about it." I whispered back, "We'll get back home in no time flat and still have enough light for a campfire."

I turned back forward, pulling down my hood so I could hear better.

The one thing that annoyed my about this fog was that the sounds of the forest became muted and hard to pinpoint.

My black hair became soggy from the mist in seconds, but I didn't care.

The only way I disliked the wet was when I had to take a shower, much to our mother's dismay.

Any other time I could be soaked to the bone and not mind a thing.

Suddenly, a slight sound caught my attention to our left, and I motioned with one had for Cadence to keep still.

A patch of fog lifted and through it I saw a huge elk standing in the middle of a grove of trees.

He had to have at least eight points on each side, and his coat resembled the color of soggy ashes.

This was a mature bull that was in his prime and ripe for the kill.

The two trees closest to us formed a perfect archway to frame the elk in, and had I had my camera I would have taken a picture.

Cadence started to load one of her arrows from her back quiver, but I put my hand on her recurve as she brought it up to firing position.

She looked at me with an unspoken question, and I pointed at the trees to the right of the huge bull.

Her gaze followed my hand and she spotted the pair of cows looking right at us.

Had Cadence continued to move, the cows would have seen us and alerted the bull to our intrusion.

We stayed frozen like that for a moment, until the cows looked away and began to graze farther into the trees.

I nodded to her and she pulled back to string, her loaded arrow pointed right at the huge bull.