Alone No Longer

    Joseph sat in the broken one story house looking at his watch. The paint was peeling off the stained brown walls, the windows covered in old newspaper that were falling off slowly with age. He sat on the old broken couch in the dim light of the sunsetting, barely illuminating the small room. He was all alone on his birthday as he was for the past three, his family had been murdered in the war going on outside. There were fires all over outside, buildings, dumpsters, pretty much everything had been burned.
   
Joseph thought back to when his family was still alive, a single tears sliding down his cheek. His family’s familiars hadn’t been strong enough to protect them against the military gunning them down in front of him. He’d wished his family hadn’t been given weak familiars like birds or bugs, how were an ant, a hummingbird, and a toad suppose to protect his parents and brother, or his little sister? His brother was 16, and his little sister was 6 but that didn’t stop them from shooting them in front of him. He’d run off in fear and pain from the scene before him and had been running ever since.

He was two minutes away from being thirteen and getting his familiar, hoping he’d get a good one but knowing he wouldn’t and he’d soon be slaughtered like his family. He looked at his watch again, counting down the seconds, both dreading and anticipating the moment to come. One minute to go and he’d know what was sworn to protect him, he’d no longer be alone. He’d no idea how he’d managed to keep himself alive these last few years.

He heard voices outside his door as the seconds counted down and ran to the small bedroom, closing the door as quickly and quietly as possible, locking it and hiding in the corner. He sat in fear, hearing the front door being broken down, the seconds ticking by, ten seconds left. Things were being rummaged in the other room, footsteps getting closer. He squeezed his eyes shut, silently counting down the seconds as a hand grabbed the doorknob.

It was time. His fingers began to glow as he snapped his fingers, praying for anything but what his family had gotten. He felt the wind fly by his face and opened his eyes, shocked at the sight before him. A loud roar was let free from the creature’s mouth as the door was kicked open. Soft gasps came from the doorway but he couldn’t tear his eyes away from his familiar. He had a being with the body of a horse and the head, claws, and wings or an eagle, a hippogriff. They were thought to be extinct, so how did he get one?

    “We heard there was a kid hiding out here, are you okay kid?” One of the rebels said, slowly walking towards Joseph.
    All he could do was nod at the older woman, she reminded him of his mom. She knelt down beside him, noting he looked tired, pale and starved, and in need of new clothes. She motioned to one of her very small band of people to come over and pick him up. He picked him up gingerly and carried him out of the beaten down house, hippogriff following close behind them.