Prologue
The laughter of children bounced around the deserted buildings on the outskirts of Munich, Germany. Three young children looking about seven ran around the abandoned roads, running from building to building. Among the three friends there was a girl of pale skin, pin straight dirty blonde hair fashioned in braids and brown eyes. The other two were boys, one with short pitch-black hair and grey eyes, the other with long blonde hair held in a ponytail with blue eyes.
The tapping of shoes from the three running in unison echoed through the alleyways in a game of 'Follow the Leader'. Lost in the heat of the competition all at once they stumbled upon a great building all most looking like a military base. The young friends all stood in awe looking up at the newly uncovered building rusting away in time. Seeing a new opportunity for more games, they all dared each other to walk into the frightening darkness beyond the front doors.
They all agreed to go in together and as one they all playfully skip into the crumbling structure.
The laughter of the innocent children echoed through the halls of a decapitating building forgotten by time.
The laughter of the children rebounded off the walls and loudly rang through the halls as they played tag, hide and seek and all sorts of games running between the dusty rooms. Then a small voice called from the middle of the last floor, at once the other two scurried down to see what she had discovered. Her finger shaking rapidly as she pointed to a design imprinted on the stone ceiling. The two boys gasped in unison at the amazing array. One happened to look down to see the same design imprinted in the floor. "Hey look!" The boy named Ivo; the one with black hair, shouted pointing to the floor, and in amazement they all gasped again.
I think if heard of these things before." The boy named Tibold who stood in the middle of his two friends commented. "It was used in the war to get to some other world, I heard. But those are just silly fairy tails" He laughed at how silly the thought of 'Other Worlds' sounded.
The last girl who was graced with the name of Haile sheepishly added. "My father and uncle told me tales about this magic called 'Alchemy'. They said that there was a whole world that used Alchemy in their every day lives. In one of the tales to use the magic people clapped their hands together and placed their hands on these circle designs. I wonder if this could be one?" She stepped to the middle of the circle and looked up to the middle of the once above them. "But I don't think it is because my uncle said that Alchemy only worked in another world, beyond this one."
"Couldn't hurt to try this 'Alchemy' thing. Come on!" Ivo chirped clapping his hands together and kneeling down to place his hands on the circle riddled with mysterious runes. Soon his other two friends caught on and they too, clapped their hands and kneeled, placing their palms flat at the edge of the design.
They all knelt there for almost a minute in silence when one of their small voices broke through the silence. "This is pointless! I'm getting out of here!" The moment Tibold removed his hands from the ring of runes, blue lighting shot from all the strange runes and connected to the runes in the ring above. The children stood dazed at the center of the circle, not sure what to do next. Before they could even make another thought the floor below then gave way and three fell into the gap in the floor.