Trail of Embers

Chapter 1 - It Begins

Chapter 1 - It Begins

Fire, so much fire. "LUKAS, LUKAS. Where are you?" I screamed but no one could hear me.

A sharp gasp escaped Selina's lungs as she sat up waking from a nightmare. This one had become a reoccurring dream, that left her startled & covered in a cold sweat when she woke. She wiped the moisture from her brow then hugged herself for a moment trying to calm her nerves.

"It was just a nightmare. Just a silly nightmare," she soothed as she looked around her room. She couldn't shake the feeling that something bad was waiting for her in the dark corners. Once she had looked around for a few minutes and was still whole, still in her own body she laid back down, tossing and turning, trying to shake the sense of impending doom that engulfed her. It was a fitful night of sleep.

...

"Selina," Lukas whined. "Are you ready yet?" To his dismay, Selina continued her usual routine, and threw her hair up in a bun. Selina and Lukas never fought but being a fourteen year old boy he wasn't the most patient.

"You can't rush perfection," she said taunting him as she applied a little moisturizer under her eyes looking at the bags left from restless night after night. She applied a light gloss to her lips and smacked them together.

"Ha Ha," He faked a laugh, "you think you're so funny, S, LETS GO."

Selina knew why he was so excited and she couldn't wait to get out the door either. The Great Peace Festival was that day. The celebration of 100 years of Peace between the magical world and the modern one. There would be all sorts of magical creatures in attendance and neither of them wanted to miss a moment. Magical creatures had kept their existence a secret since the beginning of humans. That was, until 100 years ago when some sneaking, snooping humans wouldn't drop the subject. Up until them most of the human beings had just written the odd occurrences off, chalking all the stories up to folk lore and moving on. Merfolk dragging fisherman off to their deaths, odd disappearances in certain forests. That kind of thing. There were a select few believers who assembled and formed The MCEA (Magic Creatures Exist Association).

Their persistence paid off and they proved the existence of the Myth's. It started out small. They showed the pixie they had caught to anyone who would, eventually someone offered them a price they couldn't refuse and he was sold into a carnival. The carnival travelled around the world and from there it got out of hand. People were constantly traveling out into the woods, sailing the seas trying to find some sort of magical creature. That lead to some species being hunted close to extinction. The Myths had wanted to avoid human kind all together due to the violent and volatile nature they were so prone to.

They had watched humans hunt, attack, and kill anything that was foreign to them, anything less "worthy," but once the "Myth was out of the bag" so to speak, there was no putting it back, and allowing things to continue as they were, put more humans and more Myths in danger. Thats when King Indomium, Queen Berethia, & their council decided to call on the leaders of the humans and ban the hunting and trapping of magical folk. It wasn't an easy bargain to strike. Our worlds were so different and human leadership couldn't see how it benefited them, proving the selfishness that the Myths already knew festered in the human race. The only thing the Myths had to offer in exchange was a limited use of magical power, and so they did, on March 17th, 2012 our world changed forever.

It was a momentous day when Myths stopped hiding all together. Some even integrating into our human world. We loved the magic, and they loved technology, it seemed like the perfect fit. Though, the bargain definitely didn't stop poachers from poaching, or the more dangerous magical creatures from attacking an unsuspecting human. For the most part it kept the peace. From then on the day was marked as a national holiday and all of the big cities threw a gigantic celebration. Humans & magical folk all attended in droves. That's where Selina & Lukas were headed in such a hurry. It was supposed to be an incredible festival with lots of magic, a plethora of unique foods, and of course Myths.