Prologue
When I was a little girl I believed
in fairytales, I believed in monsters, heroes and the idea that good would
always win and evil will always lose. As I grew up and began to realize the way
of the world those fickle ideas began to change, I would begin to understand
what was so different not only about what I believed in those simple childhood
stories, but also what was so different about myself and my family. Have you
ever had a secret that seemed so out of this world that you never thought anyone
could ever believe it? Well in my case this was very, very true. I had been
brought into a world that I could not understand and I would probably never
understand because in my family the idea of monsters, prince’s rescuing
princesses and good overcoming evil was more real than I could ever understand,
and it was not nearly close to what I could ever have imagined. In my family,
not only could we make such things come true, we had to make them come true. Where
Scripters held the power and swayed the balance of the world in either
direction in order to keep our world safe. In order to keep the balance of
power swiftly in the direction of good we had to make sure that evil never got
their hands on the one thing that would tip the scales into their favor…. me.
When I came of age to find out who
and what I was, it would be a large burden to bear. I was only 5 years old when
I learned the truth behind what I had been seeing for 2 years, and still in the
breathe of innocence. A time in a child’s life when fairytales and myths were
so real it didn’t seem imaginable to think them false. As I would later come to
realize this innocence was my saving grace, the thing that kept me hidden from
my enemies for as long as I had been. What I would not and could never expect
was the world that I had been raised in has been and always would be a lie.
Nothing you know or see is true to the eye, all you have to do is look close
enough and you will see what is truly going on around you. Beneath the surface
of your perspective is a world I never thought imaginable, a place I thought
was only true in the vivid dreams I had as a child. I will never forget the
first time that I was finally able to grasp the truth of what kind of world I
live in and what I truly am. As I come into who I am, and my purpose in this
world, I am prepared to stand, to fight, to become the hero I was always
intended to be. I became ready to master the powers I had been given to not
only protect mankind but to protect the guardians of Halyconia. I will not fall
down at the face of fear, I will walk up to it, look it in the eye and make
sure that fear sees that I am not afraid but I am to be feared.
My future had been set into motion
by one child’s radical actions years earlier. I could never expect that my enemy
would be so dangerous or so well equipped to stand against me. All my years of
training would never be able to protect me against what I was about tog face,
the person who I never would have expected to face would be the one I never
wanted to. It is a battle of wits, of power, and of bravery. Without these I
would never have fully understood my potential, who I was meant to be and the
pain I would have to cause not just myself, but my family as well. The world I
had stepped into would be one I could never leave, a family, a life and a gift
that I could not simply give back. Be prepared, because everything you know and
cherish is about to be blown up and you will never believe in the same things
ever again. Welcome to my world, the world of Halcyonia, or as we know it
Earth.
Chapter 1
My life had always been a
complicated one, my family forced us to live on little and made sure that we
were ready to move at a moments notice, life was quiet erratic and as I got
older it only became worse. Growing up not knowing what I was became very
difficult to handle, my parents later told me the reason behind all the moving.
A child gains the ability to see a new world, i.e. Halyconia, and its
inhabitants at the age of 4 or 5 years old. It’s not a science, but between
this time children begin to see the creatures from Halyconia, whether or not
they like it. It became hard for my parents to ignore the signs that it was my
turn to gain the ability to see into this world, the first time I saw a
creature from this place I was 3 years old, much younger than anyone had ever
heard of. It was uncommon and very unusual for a child of my age to be seeing
these things, my parents knew for this reason that I was different. They never
could have guessed what kind of future I would have, what kind of power I would
have and how this would all affect me. It was difficult because it was no life
for a child, my parents loved me it was plain to see in their eyes, but you
could see the fear as well. For this reason it was hard to look at my parents,
to know that I was causing them pain but had no clue as to why I was causing
them that pain. Even at a young age I wanted to please my parents, but when
they left and handed me over to my aunt and uncle I wanted more than anything
to beg them to stay. I didn’t know that they were doing this for my safety and
I grew to hate them for this, it wouldn’t be till my 15th birthday
when I would fully understand the reasoning for them leaving.
When you are young and naïve you
never think that the stories your parents are telling you are true. In fact
many of us are told after they have finished that its just a fable, oh honey
its not real its only a story. My god,
what do parents take their children for, idiots? The story I am about to tell
you is the truth and against my better judgment and my parents’ wishes I have
decided to share the truth with you. The world around us is not what you
understand it to be; when I was a child I saw things that were so unreal I
would come crying to my parents because I was so afraid. Now this is not to say
that I am a freak, every child in our world at one point in time has the same
ability to see what I still see to this day. When I was growing up, I saw many
things that my eyes did not want to believe, I wanted to understand what I saw
and be courageous enough to stand up to what I thought were only nightmares.
You see, I saw monsters, demons, angels and anything else that is unnatural to
the human eye. They used to come up to me and speak with me as if I was nothing
unusual, it wasn’t until I was 10 years old that I truly began to speak back to
these creatures that I was so afraid of. At this age I began to realize that as
I became older I could not see them as often, they began to vanish and I was
worried that they were dying. I understood that I no longer believed in them
and therefore they would not be seen. At the age of 10 I had one friend that
continued to come to me, he told me about the world I lived in and what was
being hidden from my sight. I live on Earth in Manhattan, New York surrounded
by buildings and never understood what was really around me. My friend, Moggie,
told me that this world I lived in was not truly Earth, this place was called
Halyconia and it had been changed when the “world began”. When I say this, I
mean that in the sense of when civilization for humans began, long before human
kind or even dinosaurs there was a world where the supernatural reigned
supreme.
When Moggie first told me this I
was a tad bit terrified, of course I was only 10 years old, I wasn’t capable of
understanding why I could see these creatures. Moggie was different from
anything I had ever seen, he said that even his family was nothing like him and
he had no clue what to make of himself. He had branches for arms and hands and
his face was like a goat but much more human than you could imagine, he stood
on his hind legs covered in a bright as the sun golden red fur that he said
kept him warm in the coldest of weather. His hooves were what caught my eye, he
only had two legs but his “feet” were separated into four different hooves.
Each leg had four and it almost seemed like over kill; why would such a
creature even Moggie need so many hooves? Atop his head were a mighty set of
horns, each one curled around itself three times and went backwards behind his
head. He was as tall as an elephant and at times it was difficult to look up at
him. The most amazing thing about Moggie was his ability to shrink himself down
to the size of the person he is with as to not make them uncomfortable. He was
an amazing creature and my best friend.
One day I was walking home from
school and of course as usual Moggie was beside me talking up a storm, he was
insanely chattery and he loved to tell me stories of his family and his home
and how this “Manhattan” was polluting his garden so badly. As we walked down
the sidewalk to my house a young girl caught up to me, maybe a year or two
younger than me and asked me Moggie’s name. I was confused, I looked at Moggie
and back at the girl and to my fascination Moggie was smiling and shaking the
girls hand. Her name was Jezmena; she went to my school and was in the same
grade as me, 4th. It was a bit surprising because of how small she
was but she acted as if seeing Moggie was a normal thing. Out of nowhere she
introduced Moggie and me to her friend Alfren, a satyr who was as tall as a
tree. He seemed friendly, but I was not really sure how much I truly wanted to
know about him. He may have been nice, but Moggie taught me that all creatures
from Halyconia could not be trusted. In many ways Moggie was my protector,
every child has a guardian and even though they are protectors, they will only
protect their own guard; another child should not be put at easy at the sight
of a guardian. They are only there for one reason, to protect the child they
were assigned to as a child. It is very important to understand this, because a
child who attempts to “steal” or harm another child’s guardian can have very
bad results.
Once, long ago, something like this
happened, a child did something no one from Halyconia ever thought possible!
His guardian was never there for him, he felt trapped and angered by his
protector and in a spiteful rage took a dagger the Minotaur had given him from
Halyconia and killed him with it. Wesley was never the same after that
happened, he believed the land he was meant to be a part of had deserted him.
As he stood above his guardian, Wesley began to weep for he knew that the
protectors of Halyconia would hunt him for the rest of his life. It was a
terrible fate, but it was one that had been preordained by the Scripters. This
path that Wesley had taken was always meant to be. He knelt down and brushed
back the hair from his guardians face, laid the dagger on top of his chest and
laid his head for the last time on Ki’tan his “trusty” guardian. This act would
change the fate of both our world and the world of Halyconia forever. The
Scripters were losing control over the children of the guardians, losing them
to fits of extreme violence, and Wesley was only the beginning. The children of
the guardians were chosen to continue the path of the Scripter, they were
chosen because they had a distinct talent to create lively interesting stories
and make sure that stories did not go into the direction of evil, if a child
was ever detected to be going to the Qara, a Scripter would have to rewrite
that child’s future (in many cases, that child would be destroyed through the
written word, erased from anyone’s memory). This was the path that needed to be
taken with Wesley, he had murdered his guardian and became an unknown variable
in our world and no one knew what he could be capable of. Yet no one did
anything…. He sat there next to his guardian weeping like the child he was. As
he sat there, he finally understood his place in the world of Halyconia and in
our world as well, he was the anti-hero. He knew that he should not be alive,
that there was something big waiting for him and someday soon he would have to
face it. He looked at Ki’tan one last time, giving what little respect he had
left for his former guardian and headed towards his destiny… my destiny, the
future of our world’s rested on what would happen between Wesley and myself.
His path would be a dangerous and rough one but he knew that he was meant to take
down this world and to create something that was better.
5 years later
Walking
home from school, I knew I only had minutes till the unfortunate event would
happen. It was something that I could not get away from, this day had to be
over with I couldn’t take the people staring at me and pointing at me like I
was crazy. It had only gotten worse after what happened at school. No one
understood, they didn’t know about who or what my family was and even if I
tried to explain it to them they would be too scared. The only friend I had
been able to retain throughout this life was that little girl I meet 5 years
earlier…. Jezmena. In many ways she was a godsend because she understood what I
was going through, she knew because she was in the thick of it as well and I
would later learn part of my family; although a distant cousin, I considered
her my sister.
“Rhea, no one thinks your crazy. I
mean you do talk to me an invisible guardian in plain sight of other people but
most people just think that’s normal for you considering what they know about
your family.” Moggie was walking next to me as usually being extremely
unhelpful. Today was extremely different, it was the first time I had used a
power that I was told I would receiver as a Scripter. This was not okay,
especially since it happened in front of everyone I know. If they didn’t think
I was crazy before they sure do now. This was going to be difficult to explain
to Aunt Mara. I didn’t know what to do, my parents had left when I was 10, and
they told me that it was for my safety and that when I came of age they would
return. I received letters and pictures, as technology progressed letters
turned into emails, but nothing every changed they wouldn’t come back because
they knew if they stayed around me before I became of age terrible things would
happen. All parents of Scripters were told to leave their children at the age
of 10, it was a rule that I hated and thought to be useless. Children were to
be placed with a family member so that they could learn the secrets of the
Scripter heritage, each family was different and had powers that were
increasing in power as the family progressed. The Scripter families were old
and useless as well as being egotistical and only worried about how powerful
their next in line would be, and if that child would be the chosen one.
My family, the Writter’s, a one of
the most powerful in our community; so its safe to say that I their only heir
thus far is feared to be the chosen one. My Aunt Mara and Uncle Wren wanted
nothing to do with me; they never wanted to take me and continue the family
tradition of molding the next generation of Scripters after what happened to
their son, my cousin Micah. Micah, their only child and possibly the great
source of power our people had been waiting for, was killed when he was 14
years old; my parents were his guardians when he was taken away from my Aunt
and Uncle. My grandparents had died years before, I never knew them, but the
task of raising our offspring fell to my Aunt and my parents, Micah was
impetuous and felt the need to always try and prove how powerful he truly was
to my parents. I was only 2 years old when Micah died; my parents were so
distraught about what happened to him. My Aunt never forgave my father, her
brother, for Micah’s death. She believed that it was his fault that he did and
if they had done their job Micah might still be alive. The hole that was
created between my Aunt and father was never fixed, when I became of age, Aunt
Mara refused to take me she looked at me and only saw her child that she had
lost to a tradition she felt was ridiculous and outlandish for any parent to
do. But my Uncle Wren, who did not hold a grudge against my parents like Aunt
Mara did, let me into his home and always treated me like I was his own. My
love my Uncle for that reason, he never made me feel like an outsider because
of what happened to Micah. We all knew the risks, what could happen if a
Scripter child was not careful enough in keeping their powers secret, and Micah
paid the ultimate price with his death.
I don’t know why I keep drifting
into thoughts like that; I was so little I didn’t even know Micah. Its hard not
to tell her what is going on when my aunt acts sweet and loving one minute and
then strange and angry the next. I feel her pain, I really do but I don’t know
how to be around her, its hard to be near her without reminding her of her
beloved son being tore away from her when he was only 5. “Rhea, stop dwelling
on the past. I know you think I can’t hear what your thinking but I can. Don’t
put Micah’s death on yourself right now. Its not what you need to be focusing
on.” Moggie’s growing concern over my abilities is what scares me the most.
Only recently have we been able to hear each other’s thoughts, this ability was
never a known gift of any Scripter ever.
“I know I should be more concerned
about keeping the secret and staying hidden. But sometimes it is so hard to
stay focused. I didn’t mean for it to happen, I was thinking about Micah only
for a brief second. I was just trying to remember his face and the next thing I
knew the whole cafeteria was levitating. I can’t seem to control it.” I was the
only one on the ground everyone was just staring at me. It was so embarrassing
and I couldn’t think of what to do to stop it from happening. I didn’t even
understand how I was making it happen in the first place. As we walk home Mena
(her name is so long I prefer calling her by the latter half of her name and
she never seems to mind) catches up to us with Alfren right on her heels. They
seem worried as well.
Mena runs right up to me and drags
me down a side alley as if we are being chased. This is such an odd feeling
Mena never acts like this, she must be reacting to what happened in the
cafeteria today. As we get about halfway down the alley, she makes a sharp left
turn into a another alley behind a department store. She finally releases my
hand but doesn’t turn around to look at me just yet, I can feel she is worried
she wouldn’t be acting like this if she wasn’t. Finally she turns around to
look at me, her face full of sadness and worry staring me down. “What happened
today? Are you okay?” She walks up to me and tries to touch my arm but I just
can’t stand to be touched again at the moment. She takes a step back and waits
for my response.
“Mena, I am fine. I don’t know what
happened today, its just as much a surprise to me as it is to you. I was just
sitting in the cafeteria reading my book waiting for you and the next thing I know
there is silence in the cafeteria and Moggie was just staring at me.” I turn to
look at him again, the worry still written across his face, across Mena’s face,
even Alfren looks at me for this first time with fear.
