The Chronicles of Time - Book 2: The Book of Flames

Chapter I: Cloud Over Matters

Copyright © 2014 by M.D.A writing as Tom Fraust

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All characters appearing in this work are a work of fiction. Any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, organizations and items is purely coincidental or is/are used fictiously.

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The Chronicles of Time - Book 2: The Book of Flames

By Tom Fraust

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Chapter I: Cloud Over Manners

If there was any award for the most un-cliché wake-up intro, this'd be it.

There are many ways to wake up in a bad mood. There's one when you're startled awake by an alarm clock basically telling you, "Hey! Sorry to interrupt your beauty sleep, but YOU HAVE SCHOOL." Another is waking after having a nightmare, where you wake up clutching your matress and blanket in fright; another is waking via getting water poured on your face and another is waking to the smell of pegasi manure and having that rancid smell dance around you, which is another long story. Of these four horrifying ways, none can amount to waking up to war. Trust me on this one: waking up with war going on around you will always get you up in a bad mood.

It started with the fart music. Well, I thought it was fart music before knowing the source. More on that later. Anyways, it was the sputtering sound of repeating farts that woke me up. It was making a fine job of recreating a remix version of Twinkle Twinkle Little Star and explosive diarrhea.

Skye was first to wake up. Okay, whoa, why was Skye in my hospital room? It was because she had this delusion that something bad might happen to me if I was to be left unchecked. The funny thing was that the war occured less than 24 hours of her saying that she'll "watch over me sleep so I'll be safe."

"What was that?" She sat up in the darkness. "Anthony, you up?"

Being half-awake, I uttered a very inhuman word: "Uurgh?"

She ignored me, stood up and called Sophia, her hawk Edheros from the window. In the darkness, I heard a fwoosh and the flapping of wings and the sharp smell of bird feed reeked in the room.

"Yep?" Sophia said.

Skye held out her arm and Sophia flew to it. "Can you check what that sound was?"

"Oh that was the war horn."

"War...horn?" I mumbled, coming around. "It sounds like someone is having stomach problems...and then they decided to put it on loudspeakers."

"Haha, you're so funny!" Sophia said, laughing. Well she sounded like she was laughing, having short bursts of hawk-screams. "Anyways, I better check it out!" And she dove out of the window and flew in the dark, starry sky. In the horizon, I saw the big expanse of the sea, shifting and curling underneath the night sky.

Skye sighed as she slumped back to the sofa, where she was sleeping, and announced, "It's two in the morning. Ah...now I'm gonna be a zombie tomorrow."

"Like you're going to do something tomorrow?" I asked, sitting up from my bed. In the moonlight, I could see Skye's outline, which was easy because her long white hair practically lit her up. Her eyes were closed.