Darius was a seemingly ordinary boy, he had no magic or any special abilities. He grew up in an orphanage located in the isolated village of Kroesstan, a place where magic was a bed time story told to children to fill their dreams with wonder. Kroesstan was isolated from the rest of the world, surrounded by an ocean on one side and a forest full of beasts on the other. To the people there, magic was nothing but a story. That all changed the day that Darius turned eleven, Every orphan in the orphanage had the same birthday so that it was easier to keep track of when to celebrate. Darius had been excited for his birthday for days, he kept talking to the nun who ran the orphanage, Sister Winefred, about the party and pestering everyone about what they were going to get him. When the day finally came Darius had been playing outside with the other kids while the Sisters set up the party. The children were running around and playing when Sister Winefred called out "It's time, come on inside!". The kids ran towards the door excitedly rushing into the cafeteria. Darius stopped by Sister Winefred looking up at her and smiled, "Thank you!", Is all he said as he ran after the other kids. A few hours went by, the kids were all having fun and playing with their new toys when the door to the Orphanage burst open.
The baker was standing in the doorway, a look of complete and utter excitement on his face "There's an outsider in the town!".
Sister Winefred gasped and turned to the kids "All right kids, to your rooms!".
The kids reluctantly walked towards their rooms, it was early but they knew not to ignore the Sisters orders. As Darius lay in his bed he slowly drifted into a quiet sleep. Hours later he was woken with a start, Sister Winefred was screaming at his door “Get up, get up!”. Darius, still groggy from sleep rose from his bed running to Sister Winefred,
“What’s going on?!” he asked as he saw the smoke coming from the cafeteria.
“There’s a fire we need to get out!” She shouted over the noise of the other children crying around them.
Sister Winefred led them out of the orphanage into the courtyard, trying to calm the children down as they went along. Darius clung to Sister Winefred, walking along with her sobbing as he saw the entire village burning around him. As everyone gathered in the center of town wailing and crying while they tried to find out how it had all started.
An idea suddenly dawned on Darius, he started looking around and shouting “Where’s the outsider?!”.
After a few moments everyone started shouting, some with concern and some with anger, all of them wondering where the outsider was. A strange laugh began to echo from the air around them.
“Wonderful, so wonderful. This is all just so wonderful!”. The voice seemed to be coming from high above them.
As the people of Kroesstan began to look up they all gaped at what they saw, a figure hovering in the air a giant ball of dark red flames hovering above them.
“You’re all so weak… It’s wonderful, I can do whatever I want and you can’t do anything about it.” As the man was speaking the ball of flames began to fly towards the villagers, aimed directly as the center of the group.
“This is what happens when you are forsaken by god!” The man screamed to the villagers as the flames burst around them, causing a massive explosion. As the entire village was consumed by the flames the villagers began to scream once more. The pain that had overtaken them was so incredible that most of the children died instantaneously. Except for Darius, much to his own dismay Darius stayed conscious until his last breath. He thought of nothing but the feeling of the flames consuming his body. After minutes of complete agony, which felt like an eternity to Darius, his consciousness finally slipped and he was out.
