Ben Blazze and Heimdall's Orb

Chapter 1: Arriving

Benjamin acted like ants were strolling inside his pants. He dried his hands on his battered jeans for the umpteenth time since leaving the airport. The boy rechecked his sneakers. He was wearing his best pair, which only had one hole – through which his big toe would occasionally pop out of to say "hi" to the world.

He shared the backseat of the car with his paternal grandmother, Maria de Paula Blazze, and you could hardly imagine a more contrasting pair. Ben looked like a forgotten trash can beside a decorated table in a fancy restaurant. Maria de Paula was offensively elegant. Tall and thin, very well-groomed gray hair and a perfect posture. She was wearing a hat, and Ben found that strange. He'd never met a woman wearing one before, at least not personally. He looked at her discreetly for a couple of seconds. Am I dreaming? he thought.

It wouldn't be new if he were.

He was 12 years old, and for the past three years, he had felt at peace only during sleep. Even so, he was invariably torn from his dreams by his stepfather – the Jap – screaming the place down.

"WAKE UP, YOU BRAT! I'm not here to support bums like you! Make my coffee and clean the kitchen! Get up now!"

So began another day when the funniest part would be to get bullied at school.

Ben rubbed his eyes and kept them closed for a while. He took a deep breath. He exhaled and looked around. No, this wasn't a dream. Everything there was real. From the delicious leather upholstery smell, the car's beautiful trim details, the soft vibration of the tires on the asphalt, to the sun coming in through the windows, giving a hint of the heat outside.

So..., he thought, it looks like I'm rich now.

Rich. Could it be? Ben didn't understand nor care about these things. Don't get beaten up, that was his permanent concern. His only contact with wealth was in television soap operas.

He had lived until the day before in a small town in the middle of the Amazon jungle. The name was Castelo dos Sonhos (Castle of Dreams) – a district of Altamira County in the state of Pará. No, it was not a castle, much less of dreams. It was far from everything. It lacked everything. To survive a heart attack there, you would have to rush to the nearest hospital two days earlier. And, as they say: "there's no such thing as a small problem," it was also violent. Brutal. It was so savage that the locals joked that "there are no drug dealers because they are afraid to come here." Miners, loggers, farmers, and indigenous tribes lived in an endless struggle for territory and power. In short, it was an end of the world with violence. Apocalypse: that would be a proper name for it.

"You look agitated," said Maria de Paula, bringing Ben back to the present.

"I'm fine," he lied, forcing a smile. Then he ran a hand over his straight brown hair – the definite sign that he was tense.

"No need to worry, honey. Everyone will treat you very well," Ben's grandma replied.

He nodded his head. Well, I don't think there's any way to be treated worse than by Jap, he thought, lowering his eyes. The boy then saw the black pendant around his neck and grabbed it. He remembered the day his mother gave it to him: his ninth birthday, a few months before the illness took his mother. He sighed and saw that his grandmother was watching him.

"May I see that?" she asked.

"Sure," he said, removing the pendant from his neck.

She looked closely at the object for a few seconds, turning it at various angles. It was a small matte black solids compound, rounded and broad at the top, and gently narrowed down to a flat hexagonal base. Ben enjoyed balancing it upright on the few occasions when he took it off — usually just for a shower. The little inverted 'tear-drop' had no inscription or junction lines.

"It's peculiar," she said. "Where did you get it?"

"My father left it to me," he said, pretending to know what "peculiar" meant.

"Didn't Arthur disappear before your birth?"

"Yes," answered Ben. "He handed it to my mother on the day of the camp attack. When the bad guys fought their way in, he dragged my mother to a safer place and ran to help the others. He made her promise to give it to me when I would get older, but he didn't explain if it means anything."

"I see," she said. "It's made of a strange material. Looks like metal, but it's too light," she said as she handed it back to Ben.

"It's tough, too," he added. "Never suffered a single scratch or wrinkle." Ben held it high so his grandmother could check the unspoiled surface of the object.

"Interesting," she said. "I've never seen your father with this, but I'm not surprised," she sighed wistfully and then looked the other way. "Your father and grandfather were full of secrets..." she said, almost whispering to herself.

"I'm glad it doesn't look valuable," said Ben, "otherwise Jap would have taken it and sold it already. That is the only thing I have from my father."

Maria de Paula looked at him again and gave a godly smile.

"Honey, you now have a house full of your father's things," she said. "Was your stepfather that bad?"

Ben thought for a few seconds before answering.

"Sometimes, I think he didn't know my name," he said.

"How so? How did he address you?"

"Usually using something like 'brat,' 'tramp' or 'naughty,'" he replied. The grandmother looked at him with pity.

Ben had no intention of leaving the lousy atmosphere hanging. Then he added: "But when he was in a good mood, he liked to make up nicknames for me too, like 'cricket chassis,' 'bottle brush,' and 'map of Chile,'" so that his grandmother couldn't contain her laughter.

Ben laughed too and then turned to watch the landscape parading through the window. They were on a jam-packed highway.

"What road is this?" he asked.

"This is the BR-153 highway. It was far from Goiania at first, but then the city grew and 'swallowed' it." She paused and then asked: "You have never left Castelo dos Sonhos before, have you?"

"Never," confirmed Ben. And I will never go back there, he thought. He didn't know that the Universe doesn't give a shit for what we want and is especially happy when it can be ironic in the process of doing its thing.

The driver took an exit off the highway, near an intersection, entering the city once and for all. Ben leaned toward the window, staring admiringly at the wide tree-lined avenue. He wondered if the whole town would be so beautiful. The sky was utterly blue – not a cloud in sight – unusual during February in the Midwest of Brazil.

He observed, awed by the buildings they passed - hypermarkets, a mall, car shops, office buildings. Everything was new to him. The movement of the city, cars, buses, pedestrians on the sidewalks. Things that fascinate the countryside people and make those from the capital want to escape inland.

A few minutes later, the car turned left and then right, taking a narrower street. This street, like the entire city so far, had many trees on either side, casting shadows all along its length and breadth. Ben saw several beautiful houses on the right side, but on the other hand, only a tall wall entirely covered with vines. They continued making a sharp left turn, still bordered by the wall until they came to an imposing iron gate where the car pulled up.

"Here we are," said Maria de Paula. "This is your new home. Welcome, Ben."

The driver used the remote control, and the two sides of the gate folded inward, revealing a narrow, cobbled road, cutting through a beautiful enclosed grove with tall trees. The entire length of the wall he had seen outside, the whole block, was the grounds of the house where he would live. The car drove slowly through the woods. Just beyond the entrance was a fork in the road. They remained on the left and ahead made another right turn. Shortly after the forest ended and then Ben saw it - a huge house! He held his breath as the car skirted a circular garden and stopped right in front of the front door.

Correction, he thought, it seems that I am stinking rich now.