Naga Chronicles: Jeremy and the Staff of Reckoning

Chapter 1.

Things Get Weird

"Jeremy! Let's go! You're going to be late for school!"

My mom is yelling up the stairs at me, but I just don't want to move. I'm tired. I had a bizarre dream last night. It felt like I was actually in it, instead of dreaming. Slowly, I roll out of bed and I stumble around my room trying to find some clean clothes with my eyes half open. "Good grief I need to clean my room. I can't find anything clean to wear." I groan to myself.

"I'm coming" I mumble back to her through the crack in my door.

Finally, I find a pair of jeans that don't look too dirty and a black t-shirt. I tentatively sniff it. Amazingly, it smells clean.

I fumble my way down the stairs with my shoes untied and my pants barely buttoned and into the kitchen. Mom has made me eggs and toast today. I'm grateful for that because I'm gonna need the energy, I'm exhausted. So, I scarf down my breakfast and look at the clock. It's 7:05 am. I am right on time. I grab my book bag and head out the door and begin walking to school.

I like walking to school. I get in some much-needed exercise, I get to think, so my head is clear when I get to school, and I don't have to worry about people trying to talk to me. I'm a loner for the most part, so I only like talking to my best friend, Ryan.

As I'm making my way to school, I begin to realize just how tired I am. I'm dragging my feet, my shoes still untied and I'm not paying attention to anything around me. I usually walk briskly and look at the houses and their neat yards, but today my eyes don't want to leave the ground. I can't stop thinking about my dream. It was just, so, real.

I was in this world where magic was a normal thing. How I know that is beyond me. I was being chased by this ugly old witch and her mangy looking cat, his greyish brown fur was missing in places and he was scrawny like he'd been starved. I really think the cat use to be a human; it just seemed more intelligent than an average cat.

I don't know why she was chasing me, but she was and when I tried to lose her the cat would cut me off, pushing me back in her direction. I was scared out of my mind, but I kept running. As I was running, I felt something on my back, turns out it was a backpack. However, as I noticed it more, I realized it wasn't empty. It was kind of heavy and made running quite a bit harder.

Finally, I came to a stream in the middle of the forest I was running in, which is odd because I started out running in a field. Anyway, I ran through the stream. It was too big to jump. My shoes and pants got soaked from the icy water. So, now I was running with squishy shoes and socks, and a heavy backpack on my back. I didn't think things could get any worse. I was wrong.

After slogging my way out of the icy water, I climbed a hill towards what looked like the side of a small mountain. It wasn't a mountain, but it wasn't small enough to be a large hill, but in the side of it, after running about a mile once I got out of the stream and up the hill, I came across a cave opening. It was dark and creepy, but I ran in any way. I stopped once I couldn't see anymore. I put my backpack down to see if I had a flashlight or some different shoes or even some water because I was thirsty from all the running. It was heavy enough, it should have something useful in it.

Without another thought, I opened the pack, and a bright light blinded me. I immediately closed it back so I could blink away the stars flashing before my eyes. Leaning my face away from the opening of the bag so I could try to adjust my eyes and see what was making the light I slowly opened it again. Unfortunately, I didn't get a chance to see what it was. Right then the floor opened beneath me, and I started falling. That's when I heard my mom yelling up the stairs.