| | | |
Man, I don't know where to start. After all that's happened..I don't even know who the heck I am anymore, where I came to be, and why. This is my first journal so I really don't know what to do. But if you think this is some "Dear Diary" or something then heck with it because all I'm doing this is for to someday someone will probably find this and read it. As I dip my feather quill into the ink, I try to recall everything. But before I get right to the situation, let me give you some info about me and my family.
My name is Blaze DragonFlame, a Master Pyromancer...well, right now anyway. I have a little brother named Brian ThunderSword, who is an Adept Diviner. My mother...I don't know much about her. She dissapeared long ago. My father's name is Dustin..he won't tell me his last name for some reason. He's also a Grandmaster Death.
Now you know that, let me tell you when one day changed my whole life forever...
So yeah. I lived on Earth, weird to put it that way but I didn't know that there were other worlds then this one. I wasn't that popular, sucked at sports, considered a freak. My uncle, Sean DeathSword, on the otherhand, was extremely cool. Whenever he came to visit me, he always brought some cool gadget. I've recieved a microscropic earphone, a 3D comic, a five foot long anaconda (really, I did!).
But my dad was always angry with my uncle. Before he left, they always argued with each other in my father's room. Once, I managed to eavesdrop but only got to hear one word: wizard. Wizard? I thought. Just then, the door opened and Uncle Sean stepped out. His serious face expression suddenly turned into a playful smile when he saw me.
"What ya' doing here chump? Eavesdropping I hope not."
I just smiled quickly and sat down casually on the sofa. My dad followed and they both sat down beside me.
"Blake (that was my former Earth name), we have to talk," said my father sternly.
I immediatly was nervous. In that kind of tone, I knew that either my dad wanted to tell me some secret or that he recently found out that I glued the teacher's seat down again. Either way, I knew this was serious.
"You know those times at school when you created some wildfire on the school building or managed to somehow quench a puddle?"
How did he know? I thought. I just nodded. My dad looked really confused, like he didn't want to tell me something. Uncle broke the silence.
"Show him the DragonSpyre armor and sword. Don't forget the dragon."
Dragon? Was this a dream? I pinched myself. Ow..not a dream. My father nodded and got up to the basement. I was forbidden down there. He came back up, holding some type of knight looking armor, a dark blade,...and an egg. He sat down.
I couldn't believe it. A wizard. Me? They actually expected me to believe that some dude called Malistaire is trying to destroy the planets..I mean "Spiral" and that I might be able to help stop him? I sat there, stunned. Sean stepped up and ruffled my hair.
"Sorry we had to bust you right now kid. But you got to realize that other kids your age probably have already accepted this fact too."
He had a point.
"Well, we better get you enrolled. The RavenWood School of Magical Arts should be better, I've heard that the DragonSpyre Academy can be tough," said my father.
Just as he was about to get up, my brother, Bryan, was charging out of his room.
"Dadddddd!" He yelled, even though my father was right in front of him.
"No need to yell! Just tell me what's wrong," he said.
"There's this old man wearing a goofy wizard costume. And it's not even Halloween yet!"
All Dad did was smiled.
"Aw man! Is he gonna get enrolled too?" I asked.
My uncle nodded.
"Enrolled where? I don't want to move again!" Bryan whined.
"You'll know later," I said.
Just then, there was a BOOM at the door. It flung opened and the old wizard man with the long beard floated, yes, I mean floated, into the living room. A snow white owl perched himself on our T.V.
"Sor-" The old man was cut off when a chunkful of our used to be ceiling nearly clammered our guest. He cleared his throat and said, "Sorry for that blast..and your door...along with your ceiling. But you know how Gamma gets impatient. He does this work everyday nearly hundreds of times!"
"Whoooooo!" chirruped the owl who I assumed to be Gamma, as if he was arguing.
"You don't usually appear yourself. I was just expecting Gamma," grinned Dad.
"Ah yes. We don't have much time Dustin. HE is coming! I came to warn you," explained the old man.
I stole a look at Bryan. His face was chalk white. But hey, I don't blame him. I was still pretty much shocked too. My father looked worried for a while. So did Uncle.
"Malistaire? He is back?" whispered Dad.
"Who's Malistaire?" I asked out loud.
I was immediatly replied with frantic "Shhhhh!"s.
"We never speak his name aloud!" Sean said.
"Ok, either this is just some bizarre dream, or you guys have obviously seen Harry Potter way too much," I exclaimed.
"This is no joke Blake. Focus!" My Dad hissed.
"We must hide now!" said the old man.
But we never got the chance.
Life. What is it? A turn of random surprises and events that controls your mind? Maybe. Maybe not. Well, life sure got me in to where ever I am now. Those twists and turns envelope so much around you, you hardly think, instincts jerk. And thats what exactly happened on that mysterious night. Let me pick up from where I left off.
The next thing I knew, there was another crash at the left. The whole wall was torn away. My dad, uncle, and the old man dodged to the right. I took Bryan with me and met the others.
"Come out where ever you are Wolf! I am waiting!" A low, grizzled voice said.
I peeked over the kitchen table and saw another old man but with a grayish mustache and long gray hair. He was tall, had a slim body, and wore a black and golden robe. In his hand carried a staff with a ruby gem atop and a snarling golden dragon figure gaurding it. But what really surprised me, was the freakingly huge black dragon he was riding! My dad and Uncle Sean immediatly stepped up, drawing two blades that they picked up from nowhere.
"Merle! Grab Blake and Byran back to Wizard City! Me and Sean will take care of Malistaire!" cried out Dad.
I continued to watch in horror when a battlefield sprung up and they began to battle. However, the evil lord so called "Malistaire", summoned two dragon like creatures that I soon knew as draconians, and ordered them to capture us.
"Come," ushered the old man with the white beard toward us.
But I couldn't. I wasn't going to leave Dad and Sean there, no, they were the only family I had left. The hermit dude however, had other plans. He took out a long staff and chanted some mysterious words. In a spark of light and stars, I felt my body began to rise up and found myself floating in a black cosmos, Bryan at my side. My stomach felt light but I soon began to enjoy myself and did a couple of somersaults. Unfortunately, just as I was about to land from another somersault, reality returned, and I found myself on the floor...face first. That knocked the wind out of me.
"Ohhh.." I moaned, standing up.
The old man then seated me and Bryan on an old fashioned couch. I finally got to take a look at my surroundings. The air was dry and musty with dust as if no one had lived here in a long time. It was a rectangular place, with a creaking wooden floor, and peeling red walls. Potraits of unusual looking humans as well as dogs, frogs, and fairys, were displayed over a nearby fireplace.
"Allow me to introduce myself," said the old wizard man. His voice startled me. "I am Merle Ambrose, Headmaster of Ravenwood School of Magic," he said with a bow.
A snow white owl flew in and whistled, "Whoooooo!"
Turning to the owl, Merle Ambrose said, "Oh, and this is Gamma, my pet owl."
"Glad to me you!" Gamma said in a warm, pleasant voice.
I jumped back in surprise. The owl could talk? Bryan was scared too.
He pointed at Gamma and cried out, "I-it can talk?" Merle nodded.
"Now..I've done this many times but let's just cut to the point. You two youngsters are wizards. Ok! Now let's consult your class and names in the Book of Secrets."
I just stood there. I knew what he meant about me and my little brother being wizards, but Bryan wasn't taking it so good. Afterall, Dad and Uncle Sean only managed to explain it to me. Leaving Bryan to sort things out by himself, I hopped over to the huge book that Merle was pointing to. I ran down the old, weathered pages. It was some sort of test to find out my element.
After I finished, a fire dragon's head tore out of the page! Surprised, I jumped back. The crimson colored beast caught my eyes, a fiery glare that shook my body all over. The scales bristled with energetic jerks here and there, it's long tail thumping the walls, since its body could barely fit through the small room. It was starting to breath heavily and suddenly, it roared out a huge blast of fire, all the while, managing to say, "FIRE!" As it said the very last word, a massive torrent of flames cricled around the magnificent beast, while letting out a horrifying roar. It disappeared soon after, leaving the faint scent of smoke lingering through the air.
I stood there, shock still. My element was fire? Merle Ambrose nodded in approvement and went over to a wooden closet. He pulled out a red and yellow robe, some boots, and a hat. He also unwrapped a paper mache' wrap and took out the egg my father had shown me earlier. That's when it hit me. Dad!
"Are..are Dad and Uncle alright?" I asked nervously.
The headmaster stopped abruptly. He sighed. We stood there for a while, the silence making the climactic moment impossible to bear. My little brother couldn't take it any longer either.
"Where's Dad?" He blurted out.
Ambrose finally said, "There is a good chance they could be dead by now."
The dreaded words filled up the room.
"Dead?" I asked quietly.
"Look in to my eyes, both of you," ordered the headmaster. "What ever happened is long gone now. If you don't face the true fact, you'll never be able to move on. Your life is like a river. Those impediments in your life are those huge, gaping rocks in the water. The only way to overcome them is to go over them or around."
We both nodded.
Merle handed me the clothes and I changed inside an empty room, while Bryan was taking the book test..thing, whatever. As I shoved on the clothing that seemed to fit me perfectly like it was made just for me, I realized they were extremely soft. I could tell they were made of linen and some type of wool. The boots were as soft as mocassins as well. Fully dressed, I looked at myself in a mirror.
"I look like a geek!" I muttered.
It was true.
The pointed hat made me look even worse, but I didn't mind because of how comfortable they were then my ripped jeans and over-sized T-shirt.
As I stepped out of the rec room, I heard a large gurgling noise from where Bryan was still taking the test. I glanced to the direction and my heart nearly exploded! A huge hand popped out of the old book! I heard a loud groan as the rest of the body pulled itself up. It was a muscular man, around 10 ft tall, a white beard traced in thunder bolts, crackling eyes, and a massive lightning bolt it held in his hairy grasp. I watched nervously as the god that strangely resembled the Greek Mythology God, Zeus, shoved his lightning bolt in the floor. I expected to see a long crack to form, like in those dramatic movies, but it just sounded like a thunder storm erupted. As a faint mist began to envelope the god's body, he shouted forth like the fire dragon, "STORM!" An electric bolt then shocked the air with a loud hiss..and the strange being vanished competely. I stole a look at Bryan, but he caught my eye, a wave of astonishment as well as fear clear through his brown pupils.
"These voices are beginning to weaken my hearing!" complained the headmaster, shaking his head while holding on to his stout ears.
He gave Bryan his clothes soon after, and when he came out, Ambrose then presented us with our very first wands. Mine was just basically a wooden stick with a ruby gem and yellow waves carved at the tip. Bryan's had a metalic grasp with a sapphire gem atop.
"Your names now will be chosen from the Book of Secrets," announced Headmaster Ambrose.
He opened the leather book, searching intently with his tracing fingers.
"A' ha!" he said towards me. "Blake, your name shall now be forever forth Blaze DragonFlame."
"Cool?" I said sarcastically.
He then turned to Bryan and said, "And your name, little one, will shall be forever forth Brian ThunderSword!"
My little brother looked confused.
"Still the same name?" he asked.
"Well, it is actually spelled with an 'ia', not a 'y'."
"Oh," he said.
Merle Ambrose then gave me the dragon egg still wrapped in the brown paper bag, while apologizing that he didn't have any time to show us around. So he suggested that we should start to tour around RavenWood our selves and meet all the teachers. We would then return to Ambrose. With a new goal in our minds, Bryan..I mean Brian ThunderSword and I, Blaze DragonFlame, set out to explore the rest of the many mysteries and questions that still lingered in our thoughts.
As soon as Brian and I stepped out of Merle Ambrose's office, we were completely engulfed with loud shouts of excitement, horses snorting, and bustling movement. We looked around in astonishment, the stone pavement, clear skies, a wide, glittering lake with a beautiful fountain seated in the center.
"Look out!" someone suddenly shouted.
Too late.
A young girl had collided into me and my brother on her flying broom. The impact sent colors and stars in my eyes. I heard Brian groan. As I pulled myself together, I helped my brother up, and turned to confront the girl. She had returned from retrieving her broom, a wave of excitement yet embarrasment on her face as she walked towards us.
"Sorry about that! I didn't see you two coming from Ambrose's office back there!" she apologized immediatly.
She was sort of pretty, with black hair, dark eyes, and a great smile. She wore a black hood that looked cooler than me, a complicated designed robe, regular looking shoes, and a wooden oak staff.
"It's ok," I said.
My head was still throbbing as I said that though.
"I'm Blaze DragonFlame, and this is my little brother, Brian ThunderSword," I said, introducing ourselves.
"Oh. My name is Autumn DeathFountain, Level 23 Necromancer," she replied.
"So, you guys new here?" she asked, studying us up and down.
"Yeah, just got enrolled," I said.
"Cool. Then you guys must be heading up to RavenWood to meet the teachers I assume?"
We nodded.
"Can I come?"
"Um, sure."
So the three of us walked towards where a large tunnel with a sign overhead that read "RavenWood" stood. When we were about to enter, a roar rang in my ear drums. A tiger had blocked our way, with a guy riding on top of it. He wore a wolf resembled helm that looked like the one that my father had shown me earlier, onyx colored armor, and medieval looking boots. In one hand he held a glittering sword and the other held the reins of the tiger.
"You guys want to enter? Then pay up, noobs!" he ordered sharply, then turned to the right and spat on the ground.
"Yeah!" shouted two other guys behind him that seemed to be his pals.
They both wore kinghtly armor trimmed with red and black, riding golden male lions.
"Leave us alone Matthew." said Autumn calmly.
"It's Matt beautiful." remarked the bully slyly.
Autumn simply sighed and tossed Matt a gold coin.
"Thanks toots. Oh, and if you ever need a real man than these two losers, come find me." he added as he kicked the tiger's sides and pranced away.
The other two guys did the same, while trying to keep up with their arrogant leader. Autumn just shook her head sadly and disappeared through the tunnel. Brian and I followed after her.
While still walking aimlessly through the tunnel, listening to Autumn's faint footsteps because of the pure darkness, I began to hear shouts of young children running around happily. Well, at least that's what I pictured.
We finally emerged into a bright light. As it cleared, I heard Brian gasp. I followed his eyes and gasped myself to see a huge (I mean HUGE! The thing was bigger than a skyscraper..ok maybe I'm exaggerating a little) tree gaping down at me. It seemed to be alive, a blue eye shifting uneasily with another empty socket. Large branches were toppled with green leaves, hiding the whole sky above with rays shooting out. Five massize buildings were perched around the great tree, with signs if the element. For some odd reason, I couldn't see the Death or Balance school though.
The whole sight was breathtaking, but Autumn impatiently was tugging at my robes.
"Come on, you got to meet all the teachers. And believe me, Professor Greyrose can be quite chatty!"
I reluctantly followed Autumn with Brian glancing around here and there, the sight too much for his eyes. We started walking towards the huge tree. I could just make out an odd brown figure standing by it. I soon made it out as not a human, but a dog!
"Hello young chaps! I am the balance instructor, all the way from Marleybone! They call me Arthur WethersField! But thats Mr. WethersField to you."
"Uhhh, ok then, " I said, still shakened by the thought of a talking dog as the balance teacher.
Autumn then led us to the left of the tree. As we were walking towards the building with a leaf symbol on it, Autumn began to explain to Brian and me about the tree.
"His name is Bartleby, " she said, "They say that he was the son of the moon, sun, and stars itself. They were his sisters. To show a token of their love for him, the goddeses granted him a pair of magical eyes that allowed him to not only see, but to be able to interpret the future and past itself!"
"Ok..but the last time I checked, he had only ONE eye." I said a bit confised.
"I'm not finished, " she snapped. But her face softened and continued, "You DO know the past teacher of Death, right?"
"Um..Lord Hades?" I asked, remembering the several chapters of Greek Mythology in class.
"No stupid! Where's your common sense? It's-" she paused off, looked to her left and right, then whispered to us, "it was Malistaire!"
As she said 'Malistaire', Brian and I noticed that she hissed the name, like it was too much for the right of the Spiral to be heard of such disdain.
"Oh..Malistaire..I see, " I said deep in thought as we entered the classroom. "So..what's his story?"
"Long ago, the Death teacher used to have a wife. Her name was Sylvia Drake, the used-to-be Life Teacher. She was gorgeous! Her blonde hair curls flying along behind her, the way her eyes glittered, the sweet tone of her gentle voice, " she said, a look of dreaminess on her face as she described the woman.
"Ahem?" my brother said, poking Autumn on the shoulder.
"Oh, wow sorry about that, " she said, her face blushing in embarrasement. She continued on, "Malistaire adored his wife, especially after she had bore him a daughter. I think her name was Keira. Anyways, all those good moments in your life can't always stay that way. It was when darkness enveloped the Spiral after Sylvia Drake died of an unknown disease. Malistaire was furious at the medical doctor named Adam LifesWorth. The rumor says that he murdered the Life doctor, ripped the whole Death School in an unknown region, and disappeared without a trace or fragment of soul."
I stopped in my tracks right after Autumn spoke the doctor's name. Where had I heard that name before? It was so familiar.
"Excuse me dearies," said a rather sweet voice interrupting our conversation, "I'm afraid you shouldn't talk about that type of subject while you're in here." I looked up to find a slightly angry, asian looking with make up cow glaring at us. That was enough to make me wet my pants. Thank goodness I didn't drink anything before I left.
"Sorry Moolinda. I was just trying to explain about, you know who and all," whispered Autumn, a look of shame across her face.
"It's no problem sweet heart. I understand about curious novice wizards," said the cow smiling. "And may I ask, who are you?" she inquired, setting her gaze on my brother and me.
I was cut off by Autumn. "They're new here, you know the usual business of meeting all the teachers!"
"Well you better hurry along now then, class is starting in less than a half hour, so I'd suggest you better do more walking than talking!" grinned Moolinda.
As we left the room towards the Myth School, I suddenly remembered the egg. I stole a look of fear at Brian. My 9 year old brother caught my glance and recognizing the situation, he silently revealed the egg in the paper mache bag. I left out a sigh of relief. It was the only token of memory of our father..and uncle. The three of us entered the Myth School to find ourselves face-to-face...err or rather face-to-back with Cyrus Drake, Myth Teacher.
"That's Malistaire's older brother," whispered Autumn to Brian and me.
The bald, but serious tall man, Cyrus, turned towards us, studying our faces with disappointment.
"What do you scums want with me? I'm a busy man!" snapped the cranky Myth Teacher. His voice was hollow and deep..but gave a somewhat peculiar ring to it. I opened my mouth to answer, but the man simply raised up his hand to stop me and said rather answering his own question, "Novices I suppose. No wizard I know wears that type of clothing much except for the newbies." He sighed. "You may leave." He turned his back to us again aiming his concern to a book he was reading.
I couldn't help myself as we walked towards the massive crater of what was left of the Death School with the Death student Malorn AshThorn standing next to it and asked Autumn about Cyrus. "Ok, I've met one or two people with anger issues in my life, but this dude gets the cake! What's up with him?"
"Actually, no one is really sure. Most of us think that he's in some feud with Malistaire. I actually feel pretty bad for Cyrus Drake. Everyone hates him because of his anger management problems. Well, except for his son John Drake. But, I haven't seen him around for some time," replied Autumn hastily.
After talking with Malorn and what-not, I finally got to meet my element teacher.
As I entered the room, I was dazzled by the bright red and orange of the decor. The painted pictures of flames seemed to flicker up and about, you know, when something pops out while your wearing 3D glasses or something. but the thing that caught my full attention was Professor Dalia Falmea herself. Her hair was interesting enough, curved at the top in the form of a flame. I assumed she used a lot of some type of ladies gel (is there even such thing?). Her robe that she wore was pretty much fire, flames, blah blah. It was sort of boring my imagination already (no offense Falmea).
"Hello! You must be one of my newest students!" exclaimed the hyper-genic woman.
We talked for a while about the whole concept of magic and fire. She was very enthusiastic about dragons when ever it happened to pop up in the topic.
"If you are interested in the Great Titans long ago, you can read the hirstory of the Fire Dragons at that book pedestal to my right..well to YOUR left also," she added with a rather smug smile.
So I read all about the Great Titans long ago. Vivid images and flash-backs sweeped through my mind as I read on how the Dragons tried to stop the war between the Frost Giants and the Tritons. My heart sank when I heard that the fire dragons were now into a deep, eternal sleep in the process, but it was pretty cool since our fire power gifts originate from the great flames of spirit still lurking within the dragons' hearts.
I recieved a new spell for my deck from my teacher before I left to find Brian. Falmea gave me "Fire Cat". She then taught how to trace the fire symbol with my wand.
"Breathe in, seperate yourself from the outside world..and search for the fire 'vora' within your soul," she whispered.
"Vora?" I asked.
"It is the center of your spiritual powers and senses. It controls your vital chain lines to your lower vora's; they have different names..but first I want to see you summon that fire cat."
Rather annoyed and confused, I took a breath, closed my eyes, and searched deep within myself. The journey, as I put it, was incredible! At first there was all darkness..but the voices and sounds surrounding me faded away, and I could see six faint lines with the 'vora', I assumed, in the center. I pushed in deeper with my will, and I noticed the lines were connected but differed in colors. There was a yellow circle in the outline of my head, a green one at my right arm, a blue at my right, orange at my left leg, and a purple at my right. All glowed bright, but the one that caught my eye was the vora in the center. It was a bright blood-red, and it casted off a white glow..as if it was calling me.
I was perplexed. But I needed to summon that fire cat if I ever wanted to get out of here. So I zoomed on the red fire vora and heard a cute but rather disturbing growl in my mind.
Miss Falmea must've known that I was confronting the fire cat by then, when she instructed, "Don't be shy, act bold, and call forth his true name."
I did what she said.
"Dwon (DEE-WUN)," I mumbled to the fire cat.
Dwon meowed pitfully back, and his true form began to unravel towards my eyes. I saw his six points of vora with his outline at first, but then the outside began to become clear as well.
I opened my eyes to the sound of Professor Falmea's coughs.
She was waving the air of smoke with her hand. I followed her eyes to the smoke spot still burning on the floor.
"Now that you have found favor in his eyes, there's no need to confront with his vora again. He will aid you in battle immediatly..unless you fizzle of course," explained Falmea.
I nodded. I was still confused about the whole "knowing it's true name" thing..but I had enough for today. I left the building and saw Brian stepping out of the Storm school as well. He ran up to me and exclaimed, "I learned 'Thunder Snake' from Professor Balestrom!"
"Hmm, you read the story about the Titans?" I asked.
"Yep. The Fire Dragons and Frost Giants were bickering about trival matters, so the Tritons were caught in the middle. It was such a sad story."
"Wait..what do you mean the FIRE DRAGONS and the Frost Giants were fighting? YOUR TRITONS and the Frost Giants were annoying each other! This doesn't make any sense!" I said.
Brian gave me a questioning look.
"Forget what I said," I mumbled.
Autumn just came running towards us then. She had a rather worried look on her face. My first instincts told me otherwise: Not Good.
"Umm..you guys might want to see what's happening at the Commons."
"What's the matter?"
She stayed silent for a moment.
"Autumn, what is the problem?" I asked sternly, suddenly becoming scared.
The Adept Necromancer bit her lip and looked hard into my eyes.
She then let out our worst fears yet.
"He's here. Malistaire is back."
| | | | |
|
