Chapter 1: To Help or To Not Help, That is the Question

Prologue

Two worlds that exist in different dimensions, one called Earth which was populated by normal humans and animals. In the other dimension was a much different world called Magicia and this world was very special because this world's humans were born with magic powers. The anthropomorphic creatures that live there were known as monsters who were also born with magical powers.

Despite being called monsters, they weren't evil beings, but that was not how the human Magicianians thought about these creatures whom they thought were savage beasts sought to destroy all humankind and that put the Magicianian humans and Monsters at constant war that lasted for several centuries.

The monsters defended themselves the best they could, but as time went by, more blood was spilt and they were losing hope of living free from all harsh judgment and unfair slaughtering.

One day, in the early 20th century, a wise white owl discovered an old book that had been buried for centuries, telling the a prophecy of a warrior who would wield a magic flaming sword called the Phoenix Blade and put an end to the war forever.

The monsters' hopes began to rise as they waited for the warrior to come and free them from unmerciful bloodshed. Although, the monsters didn't stop to think that the prophecy never mentioned whether the warrior would be a monster or not...

OC's Point of View (POV)

In the year of 2014, life on Magicia was slightly like Earth. People lived in villages, but everyone had electronics which was powered by magic. In one village, there was a trail leading out to the forest five miles away, but no one dared entered in there.

Reason being was because people feared those dark woods filled with unknown things. Not to mention, the castle deep in the shadowy forest, the owner completely unknown to the villagers.

A mile away in the southeast of the castle, there was a young adult human woman named Aurora with long red hair and blue jeans and a large black T-shirt and white sneakers, sleeping under the shade of the trees.

That woman was me.

I moaned and shifted in my slumber, then I lifted my head up to find to my complete shock to find myself in unknown territory.

"What the heck?" I asked as I sat up, looking around the dark woods. "...Now these are not the woods I know."

I did have a house with a forest outside my backyard, but the forest I knew and loved didn't look so...scary like the woods from the Disney movie Beauty and the Beast.

I shook my head in confusion as I asked in my mind, "How did I get here? Who brought me here and why? Was I kidnapped? ...No, I couldn't be or else I'd be locked up."

I felt something in my right pocket to discover my iPod whose case had hearts and butterflies on it. I looked on my left hip to see my special weapon: A metal staff that I could make longer or shorter which makes carrying it easier. I had learned to use the staff in case I would have problems.

"Well, whoever brought me here, if this is their idea of a joke, I'm seriously gonna give them problems," I said with bitterness, shaking my short staff in my left hand as I stood up.

I looked around the unfriendly woods, wondering if there was anyone around. I debated whether to call out or not, then I decided not to and walked to the northwest in hopes of finding help.

"Just where am I?" I asked myself softly as I walked past a bunch of dark trees until I found to my amazement a castle surrounded by stone walls and a tall metal gate at the front.

"Well, this just gets more interesting by the minute," I remarked, my left hand on my head. "Wonder who lives there? And will they help me?"

I was tempted to go up to the gate and ask for assistance, but...well, looking at the dark castle gave me the feeling that I wouldn't be welcome. I didn't like to judge by appearances, but I honestly just didn't have the courage to go over there.

"Guess I'll go somewhere else," I decided as I turned around and walked to the southwest from the castle. As I kept going, I pondered about that castle. "If there's a castle in these parts, then...this can't be North America because there aren't any castles there. So...am I in another country?"

"Hang on just a darn minute here! Who would take me from America to this land?"

"What could anyone want with me? I don't talk to anybody at all. I live in complete isolation, no neighbors and..."

And I didn't have any friends, but that wasn't something I wanted to think about at the moment.

"So, if I don't know anybody, then nobody should know about me," I declared. Nothing about this made sense. All I wanted to do was find help and get home.

I walked up a hill to get a good view of the forest and I could see the castle, but in the opposite direction I could see a village that looked like it was five miles away from where I was standing.

"A village? Well, at least I know there are people. I hope they'll help a foreigner like me."

I walked down the hill and ran through the woods to my destination. Unfortunately, to my shock and horror, three figures jumped out of the trees and landed inches away from me.

I eyed them cautiously, noticing their clothes were the same. They were wearing red bandanas on their heads and green sleeveless shirts and red pants. I looked into their eyes and I could see greed and violence.

"Just my luck," I thought sourly.

"Well, look what we have here," a man with short dark hair remarked as if he was looking at a delicious piece of meat.

"Ain't you a pretty one," another man remarked, his brown hair messy and his teeth yellow. Obviously, he never heard of toothpaste.

"A dame like you must have somethin' valuable on ya," a man with light hair, his hair that looked like it was being pulled backwards.

"Who's his hairstylist," I wondered sarcastically. However, I had to keep my guard up because I knew they were bad news. "I'm afraid I don't have anything you'd like to have, boys," I said, trying to keep calm. "I have no money at all, no jewelry."

"Maybe, but perhaps you could empty your pockets, just to prove to us you are broke," the light-haired man suggested, his hands on his hips, a scary smirk on his face.

"Very well, then," I accepted, showing them all I had was my iPod and my weapon. These two things were very precious to me, but I wasn't going to risk my life for them, so I had to give them up. "All I have are these."

"What on Magicia is that?" the brown-haired man asked as he eyed my iPod.

"Magicia? What's this ugly bozo talkin' about?"

"It's..." I started to explain, but the light-haired took it out of my hand. "It doesn't matter. It looks pretty enough, so we'll sell it easily."

"What's this?" the dark-haired man asked, looking at my short staff. He fiddled with it until it became longer. "Whoa!" he said in delight.

"There, now enjoy them in good health. If you'll excuse me," I pronounced, starting to head to the village, but the smirking light-haired man put his right hand on my right shoulder to stop me.

"Hang on, now we'll take these things off your hands, but we can't just leave you all alone in the woods," he said with a smile that gave me the creeps. "Why don't you come with us?"

"Thank you, but no thank you," I replied with a calm grin. "I'll be just fine on my own."

The light-haired man then wrapped his left arm around my waist, pulling me close to him to my complete dismay. "Sorry, but we just can't let you go. Come with us, I insist."

I hated where this was going, so I decided to improvise. "Oh, well," I said, acting pleasant as I put my hands on his shoulders, making him surprised but pleased. "Aren't you gentlemen protective? Any girl would appreciate that in a man."

"Why, of course. We're practically the knights of this forest."

"However," I went on, "I must be frank with you..." Summoning all the strength I had, I stomped on his right foot that made him let go of me and hold his foot and jump up and down.

"Ow, ow, ow, ow!"

Then when his two friends were focusing on him, I took my staff back and knocked the dark-haired guy down and bonked the light-haired man hard on the head, making him kneel down and hold his noggin.

"I'm so not interested," I said with disdain.

"You wench!" shouted the brown-haired man who tried to make a grab for me, but I stood aside and swung my metal staff in the face, pushing him on the ground.

I stood still as I waited what they would do next. The dark-haired man growled as he got up and ran straight at me like an angry bull, but I stood aside and poked my staff in his left side, making him grunt and fall on his right side.

I had to be honest, I was enjoying this, but I wasn't out of the woods yet, no pun intended. I turned my head to the other two chumps. The dark-haired guy was still on his back, moaning in pain, but I couldn't see the light-haired man.

Suddenly, I heard something click and felt something cold on the back of my neck. "Tsk, tsk, tsk, such a naughty girl."

I knew instantly the light-haired man had a gun. What a coward, using that against me like that, but I knew I was trapped.

"Now, why don't we try this again?" he suggested. "Drop the stick."

"It's a staff, you moron," I said sourly in my mind. Of course I knew better than to say that out loud and I had no choice but to let go of my staff.

"That's better. Now, we're gonna take you home with us and you're gonna do what we want you to do..." he went on, pushing the gun on my neck, "...all right?"

"You disgust me," said a male voice, but I knew it wasn't from any of the three thieves, so that meant...a new guy was crashing the party.

Back in the castle before the girl ran into trouble

In the dark castle, there were plenty of rooms for many people, meaning there had to be a lot of guests and servants. However, this castle only had one resident who was the owner of the castle. He lived all alone and no one from the village ever saw him and there was a reason why.

In a study room where standing in front of a large wooden desk was a tall, gray lizard with black hair, dressed in a black suit and red tie, his yellow eyes focused on maps of the different lands of Magicia. When he was done looking at the maps, he stepped up to the window with his hands behind him, looking at the partly cloudy sky as he calculated stuff in his head.

He looked down to notice someone on a hill in the dark forest. Suspicious, he pulled out a gold-colored telescope to get a better look at the person who looked so odd.

She was a young human woman with long red-hair that was held in a ponytail, but it was her clothes he found most curious. She was dressed in some kind of blue pants and a large black shirt with sleeves covering only her shoulders and some kind of strange white shoes. Not to mention, there was a shiny silver stick-like thing dangling on her belt on her left hip.

"Who could she be?"

He wondered if maybe she was from a foreign country because of her type of strange clothing. He noticed she saw the castle and he was concerned if she would come to his home, but instead she went for the village.

He relaxed a little when she did, but he was still pondering about who she was and where she could be from because no one in the village dressed the way she did.

He was beginning to think that it didn't matter as long as she didn't come to his castle, but then he noticed she had been ambushed by three men. She took out two things for them to take: some strange purple device and that metal stick that grew longer in the dark-haired thief's hands. But as she tried to walk away, the light-haired thief wrapped his arm around her to keep her in place.

The lizard man knew she was in trouble, but he pulled his face away from the telescope and shook his head, telling himself that it wasn't his problem. Why should he care about a human girl? He thought it was her fault for coming into those woods, anyway. Why should he be concerned for a foolish girl?

But then...he ended up looking through the telescope again to see her putting her hands on the shoulders of the light-haired man, making the lizard man feel sick she would flirt with him, but then he noticed to his surprise that she stomped on the thief's foot and took her metal staff back and gave the three thieves the beating of their lives.

The lizard man had never seen anything like it. The human girl was defending herself with a metal staff and she was doing it well. But why wasn't she using any magic?

Suddenly, he noticed the light-haired man was turning invisible. The lizard man knew she was in danger now...

"No," he told himself softly, his eyes closed. "No human is any concern of mine," he repeated. However, his conscience wouldn't leave him be as he wrapped his hands tighter on the telescope.

"Why? Why should I help her? She's human. Humans are not worth helping..."

After a long moment of debating with himself, he groaned in frustration.

"I can't believe I'm doing this," he muttered.

He took a long black cloak from a coatrack before pulling out white powder that he blew, making the powder circle all around him until he found himself in the dark forest.

He heard a voice a few feet away from him. He put on the cloak, covering his face with his hood as he followed the voice that said, "...take you home with us and you're gonna do what we want you to do."

The lizard man got close until he could see the girl holding herself still, a gun that looked like it was floating, then the light-haired man became visible again, holding the gun himself.

The lizard man's frowned in displeasure. "You disgust me." The light-haired man blinked in shock before he saw a tall person in a black cloak. "Threatening a girl's life to make her do what you want."

"Hey, you stay out of this," the light-man haired man hissed, pointing the gun at the cloaked figured, his right arm wrapping around the girl. "This dame's ours."

"Is that something she agreed to? Though, I hardly doubt it."

"Hey, I'll tell you one last time: Beat it."

The girl could see the cloaked man's teeth when he grinned under his hood. She then had a shocked look on her face when she saw what he really was.

"You're a lizard," she mouthed which he noticed.

"She can see my face?" But the lizard man didn't waste any time and responded to the light-haired thief's warning. "'Beat'? Why, that's a good idea."

He moved as fast as lightning, grabbing the gun from the thief's hand, breaking it in two pieces. The girl smiled in amazement and gratitude before she gave the thief a sharp poke with her left elbow, making him grunt and let go of her.

The lizard man punched the thief's face as the girl picked up her staff. The other two thieves got back up and gasped in shock to see a tall man in a dark cloak, but they didn't care who he was as they both became invisible to the girl's utter bewilderment.

Both the lizard man and girl listened closely for the thieves. The girl could hear someone coming at her and she timed it perfectly when she swung her staff to hit the invisible dark-haired man on the left shoulder, making him grunt loudly before she turned her back and poked her staff in his abdomen then she hit her staff on his right shoulder, making him visible again and stuck in place.

"I...I can't move!" the thief cried.

The lizard man was astonished by this girl's fighting style, believing she was using some kind of magic with her staff.

He didn't have time to think more about it as he listened for the brown-haired thief whose footsteps he could hear crunching the grass. The lizard man shoved his elbow hard on the invisible thief's chest, making him visible again before the lizard man punched him in the abdomen, making the thief kneel down.

The light-haired thief pulled out a large wooden club before turning himself and his weapon invisible. The girl saw him and heard him running for the man in the dark cloak whom she pushed out of the way to the lizard man's surprise. The girl then felt a hard hit on her head, making her dizzy and land on her knees.

The lizard man saw the girl's head bleed to his dismay, then he heard the light-haired man running for him, but the lizard man was well ready. He grabbed the light-haired man by his shirt and threw him on the ground, making the thief visible again as well as his club.

The lizard man grabbed both the light-haired and the dark-haired thieves and threw them by the brown-haired thief who looked in terror at the cloaked man.

"If you dare come into this forest again, you'll all lose your heads. Not that those empty skulls have done the three of you any good in the first place," the lizard man hissed before he blew more white powder that made the thieves disappear, taking them far away from the forest.

The lizard man then turned his attention back to the wounded girl, the left side of her head dripping with blood. He knelt down and rolled her on her back. She opened her eyes slightly to get a good look at her cloaked rescuer's yellow eyes.

"Thank you..." she whispered with a smile. "You're a good lizard."

His eyes widened. She did know he was a lizard, after all... And she pushed him out of harm's way, taking the hit for him?

He wanted to know who she was, but he knew she was starting to lose consciousness from her injury. He questioned whether it was a good idea to take her or not... He looked at her for a long moment, taking in the thought that she did protect him despite what he was...

"If she knew I was a monster, why would she help me?"

He decided if he wanted the answers, he would have to ask her which meant...he would have to take her.

He slid his left hand behind her shoulders and his right hand behind her knees and picked her up bridal style. She moaned from the pain in her head, making him lean close to her ear.

"Shh, I'll help you. Don't worry," he whispered.

The girl decided to trust him and leaned her head against his chest, losing all consciousness completely. He stood up and was about to take her home until he spotted that purple device the thieves dropped. He thought that she would want it back, so he grabbed it with his tail and stuffed it in his cloak pocket and used a handful of the white powder that teleported the two of them away from the forest.