Adventures in Moonlit Valley: Book One--The Protector of the Realm

An Unlikely Guardian

There he was just lying on his bed. He sighs heavily as he looks at the time on his cablebox. The time read 4:30 am. He gets up and stumbles over to the bathroom. He calls out into the house and waits for a response. Something he always does when his parents aren't home. When he didn't get an answer back he went in the bathroom and turned on the water to the shower.

"I need sleep?" He thought out loud. "But with this dream about a girl in magnificent armor standing in front of a burning castle, I don't think sleep is an option."

Haragold, or Harold appeared on the doorstep of the McGovern family eighteen years ago. A bright light appeared outside as he entered the realm of the humans. Lisa and Robert McGovern didn't know how the young baby got there, but knew where he came from.

When Harold got out of the shower he got dressed and made a cup of coffee and looked at the time. When he looked at the time (5:30am) he ran out the door and jumped on his bike so he wouldn't be late for school (7:00am). As he's riding he looks at the snowy landscape around him. Everything looks like a dream. Like a thick white blanket covering the land.

He stops. He closes his eyes and takes a deep breath. He smiles as the cold air rushes through his body and burns the inside of his nostrils. As he begins to ride again he can hear the sound of a familiar engine that belonged to the town bully Timmy Hudson rushing up behind him. He tries to speed up but to no avail; Timmy got beside him and jammed something in his tire which caused the bike to stop suddenly and throw Harold over the handle bars. With his bike ruined he walked to school and got there by second period.

"Mr. McGovern why are you late to my class." Mr. Bristol asked.

Harold looked over at Timmy who gave an icy stare. "I fell off my bike on my way here."

"Ugh, just sit down and take your seat." Was his reply.

As the period progressed Mr. Bristol saw that Harold was drawing a picture of a girl in magnificent armor standing in front of a burning castle.

"Harold, can you tell me the name of the event where the Japanese made their enemy POW'S run to their deaths?" He asked smugly, thinking he got the better of him.

"The Bataan death march." He answered correctly, not looking up from his drawing.

Mr. Bristol then took the paper away from him. "I would appreciate it if you would stop drawing these stupid drawings and pay attention to my class."

"My drawing might be stupid to you, but to me it's important!" He raised his voice. "And I get "A's" on my tests, quizzes, homework, I answer all of your questions correctly. So if by paying attention means not doing any of that, I'll start right away."

The whole class laughed as Harold got up from his seat, grabbed the drawing from the stunned Mr. Bristol and walked out of the class.

Less than half way through his walk home he saw dark clouds rush over him. Loud thunder crackled through the sky. Harold was stopped in his tracks as he saw an orb of different colors appear in the sky. A different kind of lightning struck the ground next to Harold. After getting up and looking around he saw a gold sword stuck in the ground.

Harold hears the ror of Timmy's engine approaching his direction. He stands in front of the sword as Timmy parked a couple yards away and got out.

"What do you got there Harry?" Timmy asked.

"Nothing." Harold said trying to block the sword from view.

Timmy then punched Harold in the face and threw him to the ground. Timmy pulled the sword out of the ground and held it to Harold's neck.

"Timmy what are you doing man?" One of his crew asked.

"I'm not gonna kill him, I'm just going to teach him a lesson." Timmy smiled.

He was about to knick Harold's neck when a dagger flew into his arm. Screaming in pain Timmy fell to the ground. Harold turned around to see a monster straight out of a nightmare walking towards them. The Realmling pulled out his sword. He walks to Timmy and raised his sword, but before the sword touched him the gold sword deflected it.

"Run!" Harold yelled.

Timmy's friends helped him to the car and drove away.

"You stupid boy. You think you can fight against me?" The Realmling's voice sent a chill up Harold's spine.

"No, but if I'm going to die, I might as well go out swinging."

Harold charged the beast. The Realmling simply disarmed him and was about to kill him when Harold's eyes started to glow with a bright light. He punched the beast in the chest, broke free from his grip, then picked up the fallen gold sword and decapitated the monster.

A portal then opened and sucked Harold into it and threw him into a strange but yet an oddly familiar land.