Amargon's Sage | Book 1 (The Amargonian Series)

Chapter One: Family Ties

Present Day, Earth

Sleep was once again an elusive concept for Trinity Taylor as she woke up drenched in sweat and short of breath. It took her several minutes before she regained enough composure to know she was back in the land of reality. Away from the place her mind seemed insistence to place her whenever she slept.

She sighed heavily as she flopped back on the bed, wondering if she was qualified to know what was real and imaginary anymore. She was used to her mind being plagued by unpleasant dreams, but this particular one had been consistently terrorizing her since she was a young child. A man and some sort of creature fighting for whatever reasons they had. The fight would continue until an explosion rocked her back to the land of reality.

The first time it happened, she was but a child. Around six years of age if she could remember correctly. It terrified her how vividly she remembered the creature that the man was battling with. Her features shaped like a human, but her very essence was anything but that. But ten years of reliving the same battle in her dreams at night and retelling it to the school counsellor by day made the term 'nightmare' seem normal to her.

A quick glance at the bedside clock had her sighing again as she threw the covers off her body and stood to head for the bathroom. The hour displayed was acceptable for her to prepare for the day ahead. The bathroom mirror revealed just how badly she had slept the previous night. Her raven black hair probably the best indicator of this as it stuck out in every direction it could venture. Her jade eyes were riddled with heavy eye bags that would no doubt earn her a trip to the councillor's office today. The colour of her tawny beige skin seemed lacking in intensity. Most of her peers had advised numerous skin products to remedy this but Trinity neither had the time nor the interest to venture in the world of makeup.

A long shower and a nice combing would eliminate most of these issues she was seeing in the mirror. The real issue she couldn't change was her mindset. Mr Buck, the school counsellor, had given up trying to understand her when she only offered answers to questions she deemed necessary for him to know.

But she had a handle on her sanity. Most of her worries translated to the imaginary world she conjured every night. And that both scared and comforted her in equal measure.

A hot shower and a nice outfit later had Trinity thinking she looked ordinary enough to venture outside her room. Most people in her school steered clear of her. She didn't blame them when she courted the silence that came with being friendless. Sometimes she felt safe in the monologues she had in her own head than real people.

The outside world felt alien to her... like she was operating on a different frequency than everyone in this world. People just didn't get who Trinity Taylor was other than Trinity Taylor. She did absolutely nothing to amend this and that might have been a contributing factor to her situation, but she didn't particularly care about it.

Trinity was downstairs and the clinking of cutlery emanating from the kitchen had her amended the last thought she had. The woman in there knew way too much about her that it was a bit creepy sometimes.

The aroma from the kitchen as Trinity entered was a testament to how extraordinary Melanie Taylor was at cooking. Trinity was competent in the craft that she could serve food children below the age of ten were allowed to eat, but that was only because of the teacher she had. Normally, Melanie's food put Trinity in too much of a good mood to observe anything else in the vicinity but she couldn't ignore the two-tier cake that sat proudly at the centre of the island counter with the words "Happy Birthday, Trinity" written elegantly in blue icing.

"Do you enjoy making my life unbearable, Mom?"

"How mean. And to think I spent the last five hours decorating this cake for you."