Rise of the Dark Ones (Book 1)

Chapter 2, Time of Change

After hours of travel, the six had the gates of Bloopers in sight, this fueled some anxiety in Melody. She wasn't sure how everyone would react, if they would be happy... or start a riot.
As they rode through the gates, Melody could hear the gasps from others. They all went over to the stables and put the horses away, Melody took a look around.
"Wow," She said.
"What?" Nyan asked.
"This place hasn't changed at all," Melody said with slight disgust, "Did Laurance really not do any work on the village?"
Nyan frowned and looked around at the village, "Laurance doesn't do anything unless it favors Laurance."
Suddenly, a male voice popped up, "I heard my name."

The six turned to see a man with brown hair and brown eyes, glaring slightly at all of them.
"Well, well, if it isn't Melody Ann Rogue," He smirked, "What are you doing so far from the Snowy Mountains?"
Melody could feel a rising anger in her, she couldn't quite place it, but this feeling... It made her think of some rash decisions.
"I've come back to take Bloopers from your failure to make Bloopers the village it's supposed to be," Melody glared, "You have ruled without repercussions for too long, Laurance."
"And you think that you have what it takes?" Laurance laughed, "You will never live up to your fathers expectations. You failed six years ago, what makes you think you won't fail again?"
Melody clenched her fists, and Laurance continued, "At least I have never gone into a blind rage and killed-" Laurance was cut off by Melody throwing a small dagger right past his face, stabbing into a tree, "You will never be half the Lord my father was! You are a disgrace to the name!"
"Yeah Laurance, using her past mistakes as a ploy to keep your position? That's just sad," Chiron crossed his arms, glaring.
"Chiron... Of all people, I never thought you'd be okay with this," Laurance shook his head in disappointment, "Think about Trevor, Chiron... He wouldn't want this for Bloopers."
"Shut up, Laurance!" Someone shouted.
Laurance turned slowly towards the new formed crowd, "Excuse me?"

A man emerged from the crowd, everyone went silent when they realized who it was.
"S-Sub?" Laurance's eyes widened, which turned into a smirk, "Sub Killinger... Back from Mi'ki so soon?"
"I was made aware of a situation that requires my attention," Sub explained, "Now, is there a problem here?"
"Of course not, just a former Lord who's lost her way," Laurance turned back to Melody, glaring.
"That's funny. Because I was the one who sent for Melody, this situation requires her, your services as Lord of Bloopers are no longer needed," Sub walked up to Laurance, "I suggest you pack your things and go back to the Highlands where you belong... You wouldn't want things to get... Violent? Would you?"
Laurance scoffed, "Fine. I wish Bloopers luck with her as Lord again."

He walked away from everyone, the crowd began to cheer, happy that Laurance was no longer Lord of Bloopers.
The crowd began to disperse and Sub walked up to Melody, "Hey Mel, it's been awhile."
Melody smiled brightly, she hugged him tightly, "I missed you, my friend..."
Sub was taken back a bit, but hugged her back as well, "How are you?"
Melody pulled away and shrugged, "It's good to be back... I think."

The crowd began to scatter, not paying attention to Melody, Sub turned to them all, "We have things we need to discuss. I assume Mel's fathers meeting room is still intact."
"It's probably really dusty, no one has been in there for six years," Chiron assumed.
"Well, let's go," Sub looked down at Melody, "Lead the way... M'Lady."
"You know I hate formalities," Melody smiled at him.
Sub shrugged, "You're the Lord now, you'll have to get used to them again."

The seven made their way to Melody's old home, it was surprisingly still intact after no one had lived there for over six years. Melody opened the door slowly to see a room that was only lit from the windows.
Melody sighed, she twirled her hand and pointed her hand into the room, "Lumen," as she spoke, the lanterns in the house lit up.
"Nice," Paige gave Melody a high-five.
Melody smiled awkwardly and walked further into the house. She walked up to a large table covered with a sheet.
She ripped the sheet off the table, uncovering a large map of the region, with every village on it.
"Wow... I completely forgot this was here," Chiron walked up to the table.
Melody smiled at the map and ran her hand across it, "My Dad got this for me on my tenth birthday. He told me that when I became Lord, I'd need it to explore the regions and fight the evil that plagued our world."
"That's kind of dark for a ten year old," Ryan said.
Melody looked at the others, "Enough about that, what exactly do we know about this situation?"
They all sat down around the table as Sub spoke up, "I have come up with a few conclusions as to how this could've happened."
"Care to elaborate?" Aaron asked.
"You have to think of a barrier spell as if you're sharpening a sword, you have to keep it polished and sharp or it becomes weak," Sub began to explained, "Mel, you haven't been to the island in years, and seeing as you were the one who created the barrier, you weren't there to re-polish it every once in awhile. So, it began to diminish-disintegrate if you will. So, Insane had been weakening the barrier from the inside for years and whoever helped him escape, put the final blow and took the barrier down completely. Allowing Insane to escape the island."

Melody looked down, "So it was my fault..."
"You didn't know, Mel," Sub said, "This isn't your fault. So please, stop blaming yourself."
"Sub is right, Melody," Chiron said, "We didn't know that the barrier would start to vanish. We should think of this as a lesson learnt, now you know for next time."
Melody sighed and stood up, she looked out the window, staring at the ocean, "So what do we do?"
"I suggest we go to the island and see what we can find," Sub said, "There is bound to be something there that could help us."
"That sounds like a good idea," Paige smiled.
"Okay, well let's get a ship ready and we can set sail tomorrow morning," Sub suggested.

Everyone nodded in agreement and soon, they all left Melody alone in her old home. She stood there and looked around, remembering the old memories she had there. As she walked into her old room, old memories of her childhood began to flash. The memories faded and she took a deep breath, sighing.
"Times have changed, it's time to forget the past..." Melody said to herself, "And look forward to the future..."