The Sword Wielder

Chapter 1

I sighed as I woke up thinking about the recurring dreams I had been having of late.

It felt like a warning. It all felt strangely familiar. The place, the man who held me in his arms singing me to sleep and the the woman bidding me a tearful goodbye like a mother would say when parting with her child.

But the woman could not possibly be my mother. My parents died when I was a baby, barely a few months old but I never came to know how they died. My old uncle,who took me in after my parents death, told me that they died in a car accident but I know he was lying. His eyes wouldn't meet mine whenever I asked him anything about my parents or my past.

This is one of the reasons I don't know much about my parents. Other than my uncle I don't have any family. We live in a small city called Kirkland in Washington.

I really like living with my Uncle George. He's a really nice person though he's a bit secretive. Whenever I went to his study to call him for supper or tea he would be poring over old dusty books and when he saw me he would get paranoid and send me away. Once when I went into his study I saw him looking at a book with pictures of swords and people and maps though they were not the maps you normally see in an Atlas but rather the kind that fantasy story writers drew to give readers a better idea of their story.

When I tried to ask Uncle about it though he just walked away saying something about protecting me. After that I dropped the subject but occasionally I wonder what that book contained that could harm me.

I dismissed these thoughts from my head and got up to take a shower and get dressed for school. Today we had a half day school as school was closing for the winter vacation. After getting dressed I went down for breakfast and saw a note on the table that read "I will not be joining you for breakfast today. Have a good day at school, honey - Uncle"

I kept the note aside and made some toast and left for school. There was utter chaos in the school that day. Everyone was discussing their plan for the vacation. I barely heard my friend Melissa's voice above the cacophony of voices in the room.

"Celine", she yelled as she pushed her way past the hundreds of people in the hall "you got anything planned for the winter?" she asked.

"Nope. Just planning on sitting at home doing absolutely nothing other than watching T.V and I'm going to catch up on some reading. What about you?"

"Umm same plan though I think I might go to Florida for a few days my Aunt has invited us over for Christmas and my........."

The bell that signalled the beginning of the first lesson drowned the rest of her words.

"Okay Mel see you later." I yelled as I ran in the opposite direction for my English lesson.

Lessons were basically talking lessons rather than teaching lessons as most people were busy discussing their holiday plans. After a while the teachers gave up trying to teach as nobody was paying attention anyways . Finally the bell signalling the end of school and the beginning of our vacation rang sending everyone in a wild frenzy. Books were thrown and numbers were exchanged along with goodbyes.

I simply walked out of the classroom. I wasn't very popular and I didn't make it a habit to mingle with people. In other words I was an introvert.

I spotted Melissa waiting for me at the school gate and we walked home together while she continued talking about her holiday plans. Melissa lived a few blocks away from where I did,and we often walked home together.

In truth Melissa was the only real friend I had. We had been friends since childhood.Maybe it was her sweet bubbly nature but she was the only one I ever openly talked to. She exuded a kind of aura which made you feel comfortable and made you feel as if you could trust her with anything.

When I reached home the door was locked as I had expected. Since I had not told Uncle that I would be home early. I picked up the spare key that lay below the doormat and opened the door. I then kept the key back and went inside to enjoy my first day of freedom.

I was walking to my room when I crossed the basement door which was where my Uncle's study was located. I slowly opened the door half expecting Uncle to scold me and send me away. My heart was beating in my chest with a speed I thought was impossible. I'm sure if someone was there in the house right now they could hear my heartbeat. I knew that what I was doing was wrong but the curious part of me won and I found myself slowly making my way down the stairs.

I opened the old cupboard which creaked so much I thought it was going to break. It was filled with old books and maps as I had expected. I slowly and carefully took out the book that was kept on top and opened it . The pages were crinkled and yellow,covered with paintings of people. On the last page of the book I saw the face of the man and woman whom I constantly saw in my dream. I kept the book and decided that my imagination was getting the better of me .

I went through some other books but they mostly contained pictures of weapons and I had absolutely no interest in learning about war. In my opinion war was just a way for kings of old to earn glory which they had earned by shedding the blood of innocents.

Then I saw something that caught my eye. It was an old leather bound with some words engraved in gold lettering. I opened it expecting to find another book on people and weapons but was instead greeted by pages full of incomprehensible words. I looked at the first page and tried to mouth the words.

I tried speaking it out loud just to understand what it felt like to speak gibberish. I was going to go onto the next page when I felt a sudden surge of wind. I looked around trying to find the source of wind in a basement.

I was about to go back to reading when I felt the ground shake beneath my feet. Fearing an earthquake I quickly ran to take cover but a sudden burst of energy jolted me to the ground.

Golden light was emanating from the ground beneath me. I crawled to the corner of the room. clutched my knees together and squeezed my eyes shut as I felt a salty liquid crawl sown my cheeks. I cried out for help but the gust of wind had become a hurricane causing things to fly everywhere.

I saw the the ground beneath me crack open and blacked out