Waldo Potter and the Purple Planet

by Tridentwatch

A small albino boy is thrust into another world of magic... and evil. Can he defeat the evil monsters and return home? When he returns home will he help Harry Potter the headmaster of Hogwarts in defeating a new evil that is arising?

Author's Note: Fifty-five pages of this story written in a short 4 days. I used a journal when writing this; if anyone's interested it's at the bottom.

Waldo Potter and the Purple Planet

Summary: A small albino boy is thrust into a world of magic… and evil.

Chapter One: Lightning on the Lake

An albino boy peered out the window of Little Willfer orphanage, out the lake. It was his birthday today, October fourth, and he wished he had his parents. Other orphans didn't have their parents either and that gave him some sense of satisfaction almost, because he hated the other boys and girls. They ranged from ages six to thirteen, at thirteen you went to the state home, and children usually came here at the age of six.

If he had parents, they would comfort him from his nightmare he just had. In it, there was a figure shrouded in black robes, carrying a scythe. A hood was over his head, also black and all he could see was those red eyes of his on his face. They were in a circular room, facing each other. The figure said, "Come to me boy, come with me. I will show you… greatness."

Then the red eyes glowed with increasing brightness until they filled the room with red light. He raised the scythe and brought it down on Waldo as if meaning to kill him. But he didn't kill; he tapped the scythe onto his shoulder, then onto the other shoulder like he was knighting him. "You will be the greatest of my knights boy, remember that. You will be great… accepted, only if you come to me." The room faded away like rain fades away chalk drawings.

He woke up, covered in sweat, wondering what the heck was that dream. He had been having the same dream over and over all week. Sighing softly, he put it out of his mind as he stared out the window.

Waldo had been here all his life, ever since he was a little baby left on the foot of the orphanage home with a little note scrawled in deep blue ink that said, 'His name is Waldo. Take good care of him.' There was no signature.

The orphanage was located near a small lake the size of three full sized gymnasiums in the local school. Waldo had lived here along with the other boys and girls, but he got no sense of companionship. He was an albino, and albinos lived alone, with their freakish white hair, pale vampirish skin and blue, almost grey eyes they were much feared for no real reason. It was just a genetic disorder but the matron was a big superstitious woman who believed in ghosts and bad luck. The other kids thought he was a freakish little boy and stayed away from him so essentially he was a loner.

He liked it that way after some time, he liked being alone .None of the other boys were willing to bunk with him so he got his own room, a nice view of the lake, and the storm outside as well.

His room was small and cramped, because it was a room for a single person, few rooms were for single people because most had two or three people cramped in. He considered himself lucky. He had one table, one chair, one wastebasket, a bed in the corner and a window. That was all.

He also had some books to read but he didn't like them that much. They were old and fat books, books that he didn't really enjoy. He liked his window better.

On this early morning time, his favorite time in fact, he was looking outside, and on the mirrored surface of the lake he noticed the storm clouds brewing up in the sky. He looked up, they were grey clouds. He smiled; this was his favorite weather, all rainy and stormy. He opened his window and took a deep breath. It smelt of burning wood.

Rain poured, gently at first then harder and harder. Thunder rumbled overhead. Lightning might strike soon, and lightning striking the lake was really something to see. Waldo had seen that only once before, he barely remembered it, only the awe that came when the lightning struck the calm surface of the lake. That had been one of his favorite moments.

Within minutes the rain started pouring down, harsh and unwavering. He could see the rain drops making circular waves on the lake surface. For no reason, except perhaps curiosity, he decided to go outside. He put on his shoes and coat and went downstairs through the kitchen and out the backdoor, to see the lakeside. For a moment he wondered why he was doing this, he didn't like the sun and never went out when the sun shined. The skin burns were horrible. He loved the rain like a boy loves a tiger. From afar. So why was he going outside? He never went outside.

No answer.

He went outside anyway, slow and careful steps through the mud until he came to the very edge of the lake. The wind was blowing his white hair toward the lake. Then he saw what he always wanted to see once more: lightning.

Only this lightning wasn't blue like he thought most lightning bolts were. It was purple. A deep almost crimson purple bolt of lightning shot from the sky and toward the center of the lake, making the water fly up as if someone through a boulder into it. Then another lightning bolt struck the lake surface, and another and another. It struck nowhere but the lake, not the forest behind the lake, not the lightning rods on the roof, just the lake surface. More and more, over and over until all Waldo could see was a shower of lightning bolts.

He watched awestruck, his heart thumping madly and decided at once to go back inside where he could watch safely from the window. Not so close to danger. He turned, or tried to.

He discovered he couldn't. He couldn't move. He was frozen to the ground and try as he might he couldn't even twitch a finger. Then as if he were a puppet on strings, he felt himself moving but not backward to the orphanage.

He moved onward, toward the center of the lake where most of the lightning was striking. He took one step onto the water, his mind screaming, "No, what are you doing? You'll drown!"

His foot sank in the water, sinking slowly like quicksand. Then it stopped, the water coming only a few centimeters up his shoe. Around him the lightning struck even faster, a torrid of bolts striking randomly. He started moving against his will, walking forward on the lake as if it were made of cement or glass. The lake was still then and for a second the bolts stopped.

Then they started again, around him, escorting him to the center of the lake. He wondered how come he wasn't getting electrified right now. Shouldn't he? Wasn't lightning electricity?

But this lightning was different. It was purple lightning.

Soon he was at the center of the lake, the lightning striking in fury all around him, in a circle as if making a shield… or a cage.

All Waldo could see now was purple bars, like a prison door, and through it a black cloud forming on the lake. He shuddered in fear and tried to run, but couldn't move.

A black figure came out of the cloud, his face hooded, his eyes glowing red. He was holding a scythe.

The man from my dreams! Waldo thought, and tried even harder to run but he still couldn't move. The black cloaked man came closer and closer. The lightning bolts grew thicker as if forming a cocoon around Waldo.

The man raised the scythe and swung. Waldo clenched his eyes shut but opened them almost at once when he heard a sound like glass breaking.

The lightning bolts were gone.

"Boy," The cloaked man said. "I am Lord Septh the Mighty. I called for an alliance between us through the astral plane. What is your answer? Will you come with me?" His voice was songlike, almost hypnotizing, like his eyes which glowed bright red, and then dull, then bright again like a pulsing heartbeat.

"No," Waldo tried to say but his tongue was stuck to his mouth. The figure in front of Waldo scared him. He reeked of… evil. He couldn't really explain how he felt, and he had never felt anything like this before. His stomach was doing flip-flops like he was about to vomit, his nose registered the stench of spoilt meat (or dead bodies) and teeth hurt.

The dark cloaked man reached a hand out to touch him. It was completely black, a bit hairy, and big. The nails were black as well, sharp and pointy. Then just as it was about to touch Waldo on the head, it jerked back as a bolt of purple lightning hit the hand. It didn't come from the sky.

Waldo felt he could move again like chains were off him. He turned around, and saw a tall old man draped up in a bluish cloak with a little insignia of a purple eagle on his chest. He had gray hair that reached his chin, a long moustache and a neatly trimmed beard that reached the eagle insignia on his chest. His eyes were purple, no pupils, just plain purple like the evil man's red.

"Get away, Septh." The man said in a loud booming voice. "He is not yours to take."

"Lies! He is a Randomer, my heir. He is mine." Septh said. His voice was high and cold pitched, a direct contrast to the old man.

"It is not lies. It is the Law of the Nur. The boy will come with me." The old man said.

Septh's red eyes glowed even brighter than before as red sparks surrounded his body. Waldo noticed they were both floating on the water.

But so am I, his mind told him. It felt like was in some sort of dream. He pinched himself on the arm, no dream.

The waves at the foot of each figure crashed against each other, right under Waldo who was jerking his head back and forth. Purple and blue sparks were around the old man, and red and black around Septh.

"It is a duel then." The old man said. "On three?"

Septh growled. "Asep, you are a fool to challenge me to a duel." With great speed he lifted his hand and made a complicated circular motion with his hand. A bolt of red and black lightning shot out over Waldo as he rose in the air. The bolt was heading toward the old man.

The old man was ready and made the same complicated motions as he too rose in the air and matched bolt for bolt, a bluish purple one. They fought some sort of battle for strength. It was clear that the old man was losing. He was struggling hard.

Waldo wanted the old man to win. Septh scared him. What a weird name as well, almost… Egyptian. The two figures were floating over Waldo as they fought their battle, both of them struggling hard. Then thunder rolled overhead, more lightning flashed down on the lake around them, as Waldo stood transfixed. Then out of the grey clouds more figures floated down, all dressed in white robes with purple eagle insignias on their chest. They were younger, in their twenties, Waldo guessed, and a grim look on them as if they were preparing to die.

Septh gave a cry of rage as he stopped his bolt. The old man's purple beam shot toward him but he dodged and flung a small round ball of black energy straight at Waldo, then floated into the black cloud on the lake… and then disappeared.

The black ball of energy swooped down at Waldo. He tried to run, expecting his body frozen, but strangely it moved, and fast. The ball of energy missed, but sent a great splash of cold water that soaked Waldo to the bone. The white figures floated down around Waldo in a circle, stiff and ungainly. "Are you alright, boy?" One of them said harshly.

"He's fine, Jake. Get Asep down here." The other one said. There was a whole band of these white robed people, and they stared at Waldo as if he were a six legged dog, whispering among each other. He was used to it though, being an albino and all. He looked up to the sky, and saw the old man floating among the clouds, looking absentminded and lost, and most of all sad. He turned his head done and flew downward to Waldo.

The old man wore a kind expression on his face as he stretched his hand out toward Waldo. "Septh will return soon enough. Would you like to come with me?"

The purple of his eyes faded down until it was mere pupils. His eyes still creeped Waldo out. They were bloodshot red, like he had never slept, and the purple pupils were certainly strange enough.

Still, he reached out, and grabbed the palm of the old man's hands, hesitantly. What did Septh call this man, Asep? "Asep," Waldo said. The old man nodded with a slight smile. Waldo felt a sense of safety with this old man, the same way he felt around the police. They didn't look at you with horror and disgust, they were neutral. Most of them anyway. He noticed that the others that had come after the old man were wearing expressions of disgust, clearly etched on their faces.

Asep stood still like a statue, kind smile, friendly. Not many people looked at Waldo like that. He grabbed the old man's hand and the world spun around him as he did so. He was unconscious before he knew it.

Chapter Two – The Bubble of Transportation

When Waldo woke up he discovered he was in a room just like his old one at the orphanage, window and all. With a sigh, he decided he was in a dream, sat up and looked out the window. Stars flew by against the night sky. He fell back, shocked. This wasn't the orphanage after all.

Then that meant the dream was true. That meant there were people who floated down the sky and shot lightning bolts through their palms. That meant there was somebody named Septh, who had a scythe and red eyes and….

The door opened. Waldo jerked his head, eyes wide. Asep entered, looking old and weary as ever though his purple eyes shined with hidden delight. "Hello there, young man." He said happily. "How are you this fine evening?"

"Where am I?" Waldo whispered.

"You are in my transportation bubble. We are going to the homeworld now, it is magnificent. I am sure you will love it."

"What?"

"My homeworld – The purple planet." At Waldo's confused look, he sighed and sat down at the edge of the bed.

"I suppose I should explain more." Asep said, "You were picked as the Randomer this time, completely on random, to journey to our planet and enter our civilization."

"You kidnapped me?"

"No, that was what Septh wanted to do. You were picked. Its not kidnapping, its…" He seemed at a loss for words. "Destiny. Its destiny."

"How was I picked?"

"Through the Picking Ritual back at the Castle Under the Sea. Its all simple, you will learn about it soon enough." He said. "I am an Elder, ranking first, by the way."

"What's that?" Waldo asked, more confused than ever.

"Every one of us has a ranking, it shows what our position in society is. Your world doesn't really have that, very backwards in almost everything," He said frowning.

"Wait. Who are you?"

"Who? I thought I already told you Pay more attention boy. I am Asep, Elder, ranking first."

"No not that," Waldo said, more flummoxed than ever. "What is - who are you people?"

"Ah, that." He breathed deeply. "That is a long story fit for another day." He waved his hand and a plate appeared, four slices of bread on top and a mound of cheese. "Here's dinner." He said. Then he scratched his beard and waved his hand again. A glass of milk appeared in his hands. "To wash it down," He said and waved his hand again, conjuring a piece of cake on the plate.

"How did you do that?" Waldo asked, wide eyed. This was amazing. This was almost… magical. But there was no such thing right? Then again, there was no such thing as people who shot lightning from their palms either.

"Science, boy. Pure science."

At Waldo's incredulous expression, he added, "The science of magic that is."

"Oh. Can you teach me?" Waldo asked hopefully.

"No time for that," He said. "I need to steer the ship away from the Knights."

"The Knights?"

"Septh's knights. They journey through the universe, hunting down any Nur transportation bubbles. You wouldn't know much about that, being from Earth and all."

"Are you… aliens?"

Asep laughed. "Heavens no. We are the Nur, just like you except a long time ago… we… it's too long a tale to tell. And I wouldn't want to ruin the surprise. You'll see."

"No wait," Waldo called out as Asep stood up.

He gave Waldo a sad smile, "Good luck boy. I don't expect we will meet again, but if we do…" He sighed. "You are in for a lot of trouble when we get home. Good luck." With that he waved his hand and faded away to nothingness.

"Wait I have more questions!" Waldo exclaimed but he went unheard. He began to get nervous, and then he started to cry. He was all alone in some sort of transportation bubble, kidnapped by lightning throwing magical aliens who were going to take him who knows where, and on top of that-

He caught a glimpse of a big metal dragon out the window. Alarmed, he looked and saw that it was indeed a dragon. A silver dragon with red eyes, the same as Septh's and on top of that dragon, there was a spiky metal creature with a sword, all black.

No, not quite a creature. It couldn't be a creature. It was dead! A skeleton in armor, breathing some sort of blue smoke. It came side by side to Waldo's window, and turned its head. It nodded and waved a bony hand. A sort of mist began to form around his hand, blue like the air he was breathing. The mist coated around the hand like cotton candy, and then the skeleton thrusted his hand in Waldo's direction.

The mist was a heavy ball of energy. It launched itself toward Waldo's window and hit the glass. The glass started to crack as he felt the room jerk to the side, bed falling downward like his room was on a slope.

A booming voice called out from around him, "All units to position. We are under attack!" The voice was Asep's, Waldo realized.

He glanced out the cracked window again, at the skeleton on the dragon. That was the knight Asep must have been talking about! That was one of Septh's knights.

That evil man in the black cloak was after him for sure, Waldo thought, and now he was going to die.

This isn't fair, he didn't ask to come on this ship. He didn't ask to be kidnapped, he didn't want to get killed, he didn't want to-

"Will you shut off your telepathic screaming? You're givin me a headache." A voice said from below, on the floor. Waldo glanced down, surprised. It was a small bird the size of his fist, only scaly like a reptile or a… dragon.

"You're a dragon?" Waldo asked in shock. Then… "You can read my mind?"

"Well of course I can. Everyone can. What, you're ten years old and you still haven't learnt to block your mind?"

"I, uh, I'm not from around here." Waldo said at last.

"Well of course not," the bird said. "You are from Earth." His eyes were like diamonds, the way they glittered maliciously in the light. "You are nothing but a stupid little boy, aren't you?"

Waldo turned red in anger. "And you are nothing but a scrawny worm," He shot back, then regretted it at once.

"What did you say to me?" the dragon said. "You little brat, I can crush you like a-"

Waldo laughed, he couldn't help it. "You? At your size?"

"I can grow," the dragon snapped and took in a deep breath. It started expanding, its scales green, turning silver.

"You're the dragon from outside!" Waldo exclaimed, gaping.

"No, that's a bigger dragon than me," the dragon admitted reluctantly, now twice the size of Waldo. "You see, I am bigger than you, and I can crush you."

"No, stop, I didn't mean it." Waldo said. "I was just joking around, that's all."

The dragon snorted, little puffs of fire coming out. "I won't kill you, yet." He shrunk back down to his original size.

"By the way, I'm a she," the dragon said.

"Oh," Waldo said. Then he sighed. "Look I don't know what the hell is going on. Can you please explain things to me."

"Well alright, since you are the only Randomer around here that can speak firetongue I guess I could talk to you." The dragon said after a moment's silence.

"Fire tongue? What's that?"

"The language of the dragons. Only Septh can speak it, or so everybody thinks. Seems we have a new fire mouth, huh?"

"The language of the dragons?" Waldo asked.

"Yeah, the language we are speaking right now. What are you, stupid?"

"But that's ridiculous, I am speaking English, not-" Then he noticed what he was saying, really noticed. It sounded like a lions roar. "Cool," He said in fire tongue. "This is something alright."

"Well don't get so full of yourself, most Randomers can speak fire tongue. That's why they are a Randomer."

"What's a Randomer?" Waldo asked the dragon. "And what's your name?"

The dragon puffed out its chest, "My name is Belitta," she said proudly.

"Okay, so what's a Randomer?"

Belitta leapt up onto the bed and stared at the plate of food on Waldo's lap. "Food for information. Deal?"

Waldo's stomach grumbled. He looked from the plate of dinner, to the dragon, back to the plate, and then finally sighed. "Okay," he said and pushed the plate toward the dragon. "Now tell me what's a Randomer."

"Now you know all about Nur I suppose, so lets-"

"But I don't." Waldo said.

Belitta glared angrily, "Fine I'll tell you." She snapped and took a deep breath. Waldo thought she was going to puff up again but she didn't. "I'll tell you the whole tale, right from the beginning so listen carefully because I'll only tell you this once."

"Okay," Waldo said. This felt like some sort of weird dream, but deep down he knew this was real. He wished it was a dream, but he never had exciting dreams. Once he had dreamt he was making a sandwich.

"Alright, back in the old days there was a nation on Earth called Atlantis that-"

"I've heard about that before!" Waldo exclaimed.

"Will you shut up?" Belitta said.

"Okay, sorry," Waldo muttered.

"Now, Atlantis was a very successful civilization that learnt and practiced magic. They made runes, spells, potions, all that stuff. One day, someone screwed up and conjured a big ugly demon that demolished half the continent of Atlantis. The survivors invented transportation bubbles, packed up, and left the planet in search of a new home."

"What? Why didn't they fight the demon?"

"Maybe because it was invincible, ever thought of that, stupid boy?"

Waldo felt like grabbing the dragon and smashing her against the wall.

"Now, on with the story. There were some people who stayed and put the demon under binding charms and trapped the demon in the middle of the ocean. They died though. As for the survivors who packed up and moved away, well they were a bunch of useless cowards weren't they?"

"Sure," Waldo agreed. "Useless cowards who can shoot lightning bolts."

"That's magic," Belitta said. "Not lightning bolts. The people who packed up found a new planet to inhabit, ten times the size of Earth. They were only three hundred then, and knew that they couldn't survive forever. Not with only three hundred. So every hundred years they came back to this planet and randomly picked humans in childhood to take with them."

"So they randomly picked me?"

"Yeah. You are nobody special. Just a stupid boy who got picked on random."

"I can speak fire tongue though," Waldo said.

"Sure and I can catch flies with my tongue while hanging upside down from the ceiling but you don't see me bragging about it."

The urge to pick her up and bang her against the wall proved almost irrestable. But Waldo needed more information.

"How many Randomers get picked beside me?"

"Nowadays? Only one."

"And Septh, he was saying something about me being his heir… what was he talking about?"

"Can't you figure it out by yourself? He was a Randomer too, and quite an intelligent one. The smartest out of all his peers, the bright star against the dark sky of ignorance, the-"

"Look, what happened? Why does he want to take me away? Why did the old man in the white robe save me? Why did-"

"Some people just never shut up do they?" Belitta muttered. "Septh was great, too great and too powerful. He grew arrogant, broke the first rule of the Nur – that's what we call ourselves, Nur – and was banished."

"What was the rule?"

The dragon regarded Waldo with intense seriousness. "One must never ever dwelve in demonology. He summoned a demon, that's what he did."

"Did the demon destroy the planet?"

"No, actually. Septh conquered the demon and stole its powers. That's why he's so damn powerful. He can go toe to toe with an Elder. An Elder!"

"What's an Elder?" Waldo asked, eagerly swallowing up the information.

"An Elder is someone who has trained themselves in the arts of magic for a thousand years or more. And Septh is just a hundred years old. A little puppy compared to the rest of the warriors but he can fight like a maniac when he has to. I once watched a duel with Septh and the Lord Guardian himself… It was astonishing."

"Why does Septh want me though?"

"Isn't that obvious? He wants to steal your soul."

"What?" Waldo shrieked. "Steal my soul?"

"Yes, steal your soul and get your powers-"

The room jerked to the side again. Waldo looked out the window; the skeleton knight was staring straight at him. He had forgotten all about the skeleton knight. Around the knight, several white robed men and women were fighting him on little green dragons, hurling bolts of energy at the skeleton. But the knight was holding his own against the group though and seemed to be having fun, if a dead man can have fun that is.

"Can we…" Waldo said as something occurred to him. "They all must be outside battling the knight. Can we explore this-?"

The dragon chuckled. "I like how you think boy," She said, eating the rest of the food on the plate. "Follow me, I'll show you around." She jumped off the bed and waved a talon at the door. The door swung open on its own. Waldo had too many shocks for one day. A little green dragon doing magic was nothing to gape about, not after what he had seen and heard about so far.

"This room where you are staying in probably looks like your house on Earth, right?"

"Yeah," Waldo said, "I've been wondering about that."

"Its Asep probably. Wants you as comfortable as possible."

They closed the door behind him and entered the bright hallway. There were small round windows all around them, showing the battle outside. It seemed there were more than one knight, there were two, and they were both battling different groups of white robed men and women.

"Now, this hallway right here will take you to the big bubble. From there, there are hundreds of rooms you can go to. Do you want to see the kitchens?" She asked hungrily.

Waldo's stomach rumbled again. "Yeah sure, that would be nice."

"Okay," she said. They ended up in front of a large door ten times the size of Waldo. It was made of old wood, and on the front of it there was a big eagle etched in with care and precision. It was purple. 'This must be the symbol of the Nur.' Waldo thought.

"Right you are, Waldo, now block your mind. Its extremely rude to project your thoughts."

Waldo was about to ask how to do so when the metal door swung open, revealing a small room that looked more like a globe. It seemed to be made of glass. "Come on," the dragon said, striding in. Waldo followed her.

Suddenly in front of the two, little boxes appeared, all had different markings on them. "Kitchens," the dragon said and pressed a box. Her talon went through, it was a sort of hologram.

"Password?" A woman's voice said. If Waldo didn't know any better, he would have thought it was computer generated.

"It is," the dragon said, reading his mind again.

"Stay out of my mind," Waldo snapped.

"Learn to block your thoughts in then, stupid boy."

Waldo's retort died away at his lips as the bubble disappeared and was replaced by the kitchens. The walls were spotless white, there were two porcelain counters and on them a set of knives, forks and spoons. There was a giant white box just to the side, and all around there were small metal robots, chopping away at vegetables, fruits and meats.

"What is this?" Waldo whispered, awed.

"This," Belitta said, "is the heart of our civilization."

"They are robots. Don't you have magic to do this?"

"Magic comes with a price, stupid boy. Remember that next time. It's not like we have unlimited energy. An Elder named Leonardo Da Vinci designed these ingenious devices. He passed away a few hundred years ago. All these devices operate with human like intelligence and are powered by magic, not like your Earth where you use electricity (she sneered as she said this). Very expensive to create, but no expense is too great for a transportation bubble carrying a Randomer."

"Robots… robots cooking food," Waldo said in shock.

"Sure. Oi, can I get a mutton soup here?"

The robots were metal boxes with wheels on the bottom and hands to the side. The head, a round metal ball on top of the box, had one eye sensor that emitted faint blue light, and a mouth speaker. They chopped and cut in a special rhythm, Waldo noticed. One of them rolled forward toward Belitta and said in a chipped and very formal voice, "Good day, ma'am. What would you like to eat tonight?"

"Mutton soup, are you deaf?"

"No madam. I must remind you that commands have to be issued in close quarters for our sound sensors to pick up. I will have the mutton soup ready in three minutes and twenty seconds." The robot said, taking no offence. "And you, good sir?"

"Err, I'll have a sandwich." Waldo said.

"We have an excellent selection of sandwiches. Would you like one of each?"

"Sure," Waldo said, feeling like he could eat one of the big silver dragons that was attacking the ship outside.

"Your forty five sandwiches will be ready in thirty three minutes," the robot said.

Beside him, Belitta groaned. "You just have to be greedy don't you, boy." She turned to the robot, "Don't send them all at once. Send them in as soon as they are done."

"Very well, madam. There is a one minute three second interval between each sandwich. Is that acceptable?" The robot asked mechanically with indifference.

"Yes," Belitta said.

"Excellent. Would you two like to wait in the dining area?"

"Anything to get away from you," Belitta muttered and spread her wings. She flew up in the air toward two double doors made of the same type of wood that the entrance to the bubble room seemed to be made of.

"How can you speak fire tongue?" Waldo asked the robot.

"Our language selection extends to over two thousand in all." The robot said. "We can converse with any known creature in existence, human, beast, and demon alike. It's in our programming."

"I thought only Randomers could speak fire tongue. Was Leonardo Da Vinci a Randomer?"

"Yes he was." The robot said, "Like all Randomers, he was a man of greatness, with many inventions, ideas, and books to his name." He sounded as if he was quoting an essay.

"Come on, Waldo!" Belitta called.

Waldo followed in a hurry. They went back into the transportation bubble. The boxes appeared again. There were thousands of boxes all around them, floating in air, like holograms. "The Dining Room." Belitta called and flew over to touch a hologram in the corner of the bubble.

Waldo discovered he could float in the bubble. The gravity was practically nonexistent. But before he could enjoy his discovery, the bubble shifted and disappeared. They were now in a large hall filled with chairs and tables, all made out of old red wood. There was a strong smell of apples here in the dark hall, and soft violin music played in the background.

The dragon flew around the hall, getting bigger and bigger. "Finally a chance to test my wings," the dragon roared.

The place jerked once again, like an earthquake was taking place, then a voice said, the same voice that announced a message earlier, "Transport bubble secure. Entering known Nur Space in Four… Three… Two… One…

"Aww," the dragon said as it landed beside Waldo. "We're here now."

A robot came crooning down the hall, a tray of sandwiches in one hand and a big metal bowl of steaming soup in the other, all perfectly balanced.

"Come on, we can finish the food before we land." Belitta said as the robot set the tray on the table and soup bowl on the floor. The dragon started eating the brownish soup. Waldo picked up a sandwich and took a bite. It was cheese and turkey, or something that might have resembled it. Most of the sandwiches on the plate (there were about ten) were yellow cheese, two slices of white bread, and some kind of sliced meat of some sort. Who knew, maybe this was dragon meat, Waldo thought with some satisfaction.

Then down the hall, through the same door that the robot entered, came Asep and two twins, all of them looking tired. "Ah, Waldo?" Asep asked, as he neared the pair. "Oh, and Belitta." He let out a sigh.

"The two knights who attacked our bubble retreated. We were able to resist their attacks long enough to enter friendly space but took heavy losses." He sounded as if he were making a report. "Twelve of our number is dead, and their dragons lie dead with them."

"What?" Belitta shrieked. "My babies!"

"I am sorry, Belitta," Asep said. "Your childrens' lives were not spent in vain. We have the Randomer now, and that will make all the difference against Septh."

"But why! Why did they have to die? Why couldn't they come back to the bubble?"

Asep sighed again. "The Knights are getting stronger day by day, and we can do nothing to kill them. The Randomer is our only hope, I think, though others believe differently…" He had a far off look in his eyes. Then he shook himself.

"Waldo, you do not know how to speak our languages, or our dialects. We have to converse in English for you, or fire tongue."

"I thought only Randomers could speak fire tongue…" Waldo muttered.

"They can, naturally, the rest of us have to learn it." Asep said, "The most complicated language in the world is fire tongue. You are a lucky child."

"What are you talking about? He is a Randomer. The path that lies before him will be the most difficult of all paths. You know that, Asep." Belitta said.

"Yes I do. Not so lucky then," Asep said with a light grin. "That's life though. Now Waldo, since you don't know our languages, and since most people can't speak fire tongue, you'll-"

"I want to go home." Waldo said. It was true, even though learning magic was enticing; he wanted to live first and foremost. He didn't want to die battling knights or dragons or whatever the hell there was.

"That is no option, Randomer." Asep said stiffly. "The others won't like a coward. Refrain from saying that ever again."

His expression cleared and became friendly once again. "You will need a translator stone to assimilate in modern society. While fire tongue is the language most preferred by scholars, it is not optimal for the Academy of BasiCs (ABCs for short)."

"Where can I get one of those?"

Asep shrugged. "Beats me, they are really rare."

"Quit joking around," Belitta said. "All the robots have one, just steal one of theirs."

Asep glared. "Stealing is forbidden by the Nur Laws, you know that."

Belitta shrugged. "I'll do it then." The robot who was waiting for the pair to finish their food abruptly turned around and started rolling away. Belitta took a deep breath and increased her size to inhuman proportions, almost as big as the dragons the knights had been riding. She trampled across the room, scattering away tables and chairs, and then pounced on to the robot and ripped it apart. Letting out a breath, she shrunk, and gingerly picked up a pearly grey stone that was in the middle of the circuits and wires.

She walked back to Waldo, waved her talons and conjured a necklace, to which she attached the stone. Then she handed the necklace to Waldo.

"If any other dragon tried it beside you they would be banished at once," Asep remarked.

"Let them try to banish me," Belitta said, scoffing. "They're mere dogs compared to me." She roared and let a jet of fire out from here mouth toward the robot, melting the metal.

"Go on, put the chain on."

"Thank you," Waldo said and put it on. He noticed no difference. "Nothing's happening."

"You wouldn't notice it, not yet. After enough practice you won't even need the stone anymore." Asep said, stroking his beard.

"Say, Waldo, its been a while since I took on a rider. Do you want to be my rider?" Belitta said.

"Who was your last rider?" Waldo said.

"Septh," Belitta seemed to be a bit angry, and a bit sad. "He betrayed me by summoning the demon and brought me much shame and dishonour. I hope you won't do the same."

"I-" Waldo was at a loss for words.

"I suggest you accept the offer," Asep said. "It is not everyday that the queen of dragons offers someone the chance to be their rider."

"Okay, I accept."

"Wonderful," Belitta beamed. "I'll teach you everything you need to know on how to defeat Septh."

"Why do I have to do it?"

"You don't," Asep said at once. "Leave it to the council of elders please. We'll take care of it."

"Bah, you couldn't take care of a-"

"Belitta, there are limits, and insulting the council is going dangerously on the edge of the line."

"Bunch of pompous fools," Belitta muttered.

The other two Nur warriors behind Asep were silent and still. Bodyguards, Waldo thought.

"And I'll show you how to block your thoughts in, stupid boy." Belitta snapped.

Asep smiled a bit, before clearing his throat. "Now that you have the translation stone, you can begin your education at the ABCs. You have your dragon, and you'll need money for your supplies. I suppose I can lend you a few thousand lagars."

"Money?"

"Yes money," Belitta said. "Better give that to me, Asep."

"I don't think so," Asep said as he reached into his pockets and pulled out a small fist sized bag the color of Belitta's scales. "Don't ever let Belitta get her greedy little talons on that money. If that happens you will never see it again."

"Asep, there are limits and insulting the queen of dragons is treading dangerously close to them." Belitta said with a smile.

"Pompous old bitch, aren't you?" Asep said before walking away.

Belitta growled as Waldo chuckled. "He's right you know," He said as he finished his sandwich.

"Careful boy or I might take back that offer."

Chapter Three – The Planet of the Purple Eagle

The Transportation Bubble looked like a giant bubble from the outside. From the inside it was sort of like that except in this bubble, custom designed, there was an odd tower sticking out like a submarine's periscope. This was Waldo's room, protected with runes and charms placed on it solely for the protection of the Randomer.

"Septh must have known it would be a futile task to try to capture the Randomer now." Belitta explained. "That's why we are safe, and besides this is friendly territory now. You can't see it from that window you seem to be glued to, but there are thousands of guardian bubbles protecting this territory."

"When are we going to land on the homeworld?" Waldo asked.

"Soon," Belitta said. "Very soon, and then you will be in for a surprise I bet. Its nothing like Earth. Its much greater than that, much more fantastic than boring old Earth."

"I just want to go home," Waldo said.

"Oh quit whining. You sound like how Septh sounded when he came here. Hopefully you won't try to summon a demon and absorb its powers. That's what happened on Earth, some lunatic tried to do it and failed."

"Where are the demons?" Waldo asked, curious. He wondered what they looked like, maybe like the ones in those movies he got to watch with the other kids every Saturday night.

"They usually live on the Astral Plane," Belitta said. "Very dangerous place. Not even Elders go there, too dangerous. Septh is practically king there though, so that makes it even more dangerous."

Waldo closed his eyes, this was getting to be too much to take in. Everything was going too fast. He needed to sleep, he needed time to think about things, to accept the situation he was in. He was always a slow thinker, and now was no different. He wanted some time alone, but he wasn't sure he was going to get it. Not now.

"Hey do you want to see the Purple Planet from the outside?"

"That's what you call your home world, the purple planet?"

"Don't laugh, I didn't make the name." Belitta said. "Come on, let's go back to the Randomer Tower." At Waldo's confused look she said, "Your room."

"Okay, sure." Waldo agreed and they went back to the Bubble room. Belitta said, "Randomer Tower," and they were whisked away to his room again.

"Look out the window," the dragon said, her diamond like eyes glittering. Waldo went over to his bed, and sat down on his knees. He looked out and almost fell backwards with shock. There was a humongous purple ball right in front of the space ship. It was very very big, stretching for thousands and thousands of kilometers. "How big is-"

"Ten times the size of Earth," Belitta said proudly. "Isn't it just grand?"

"Yeah," Waldo croaked out. "Yeah it is."

"We are going to be landing at the loading docks now," Belitta said.

"For the transportation bubbles?"

"Yes," Belitta looked slyly at Waldo for a second. He didn't like that look. Then it was gone.

"Listen, when we land what do I do? Where do I go?"

The sly look was back again, making Waldo uncomfortable. "You come with me. I'll take you to the ABCs where we'll get you a room, maybe."

"Okay," Waldo said at last, wishing once again he was back at home. He didn't like change much; new things scared him. He liked order and sameness every single day, not… adventure.

They were going closer and closer to the Purple Planet. The purple colour, Waldo realized, came from the trees. The leaves were purple. The transportation bubble made its way down to a large encampment of hollow globe shapes. It was like a box where you put your eggs in. The transportation bubble carefully landed on the hollow globe shape and stopped. Waldo heard the silence distinctively now, before there was background humming noises he hadn't ever noticed, but now everything was silent. Then the ceiling opened above, and a small door appeared on the floor of Waldo's room. There was a ladder; people were climbing up, maybe to get out. Asep was leading the line. He climbed up into Waldo's room and waved his wand. All the furniture disappeared. Even the window that once overlooked the lake had disappeared. Waldo wasn't very surprised; the room was probably a fake anyway.

"Come child, we need to get you out, and face the reporters as well."

"The reporters? You have newspapers here? I don't want to do an interview," Waldo protested. But inside he did want to do an interview; he did want the fame. After years of living in the orphanage where he was hated, ignored, and ostracized because of his albino condition, getting attention felt good.

"Okay Waldo," Asep said, sighing a bit, "I'm only going to tell you this once again. Nobody likes a coward. In fact, around here, we hate cowardliness, so never ever show yourself to be a coward, you hear me?"

Waldo bit back an angry response as he nodded wordlessly.

"Good." Asep said. He waved his hand again and a ladder appeared, floating mid air, leading out of the hatch on the ceiling. "Climb up, we'll get out of here finally. It was a long journey."

"It was only a few hours," Waldo muttered. "Do you have light speed or something?"

"Oh we go faster than that since we are powered by magic," Asep said. "But most journeys barely take a few minutes. Earth is a long way off."

Waldo had too many surprises for one day to gape again, but him being a bit of a science fiction nut (he listened to those sci-fi shows on the radio all the time) he was a bit amazed.

He decided not to respond as he climbed up the ladder and pulled his head out for the first time out of a transportation bubble. The air smelt hot and putrid, a stench of stale eggs lingered in the air. He could see fumes, grey smoke, everywhere. They were coming from the transportation bubbles. Waldo started coughing as he jumped down from the hatch to the metal-coated floor. The sky was clear, and sunny. This wasn't good for his skin. He wanted to get out of here.

"Waldo! You forgot your air helmet!" Asep called out. There was a slight shimmering around his head, Waldo noticed. The old man waved two of his hands in elaborate patterns that Waldo had never seen before, except maybe in a kung fu movie. A bubble appeared around Waldo's face. He discovered he could breathe again. Pure oxygen. It was making him feel alert.

"This is the secret to our long life," Asep said. "If only you people on Earth had this, then your life spans won't be so short. Pure oxygen, Waldo. Y'hear?"

"Pfft, weak humans. We dragons don't need that." Belitta said as she jumped down from the hatch.

"That's because you practically breathe fire." Asep said with a smile. Then his smile fell off his face as he gazed over Waldo's head with a far off look in his eyes. "Uh oh," he said.

"What is it?" Waldo turned around and saw a mob of fifty or so people running down toward him.

"There he is, there's the Randomer!" They were screaming.

"Ugh, the reporters," Belitta said with a groan.

"They are the reporters?" Waldo said, wide eyed. "How many newspapers do you have?"

"Lots and lots, lets leave it at that." Asep said as he rubbed his eyes tiredly. By now the crowd had caught up to them.

"Lord Randomer! Lord Randomer! What are your plans on defeating Septh?"

"What are you going to do now that you have returned to the homeworld?"

"Where are you going to start your magical education?"

"Randomer, are you going to summon demons again like your predecessor."

"Why are you accompanied by one of the council? Have you not heard of their corruption?"

"Why is the queen of dragons beside you? Is she going to be your pet?"

Waldo was stupefied. There were so many and they were blurting out questions at a frenzy. He did the only thing he knew how, something he saw in a movie, "One at a time please."

They stopped, quietened. Then somebody asked, "What is your name?"

"His name is Waldo, and he won't be answering questions right now. I heard what you said about the council, by the way, Jonathan Miller." Asep said frowning, "Might I remind you that you work for the Council Herald?"

"Oh sorry, sir," Jake said with a grin. He was a young man with black hair and brown eyes, and a big smile on his face. Waldo thought he looked like a bat because of his big floppy ears.

"Waldo, who are you going to pick as your guardian?" A woman said this time. She had red hair that looked like straws, and green eyes that glittered almost as much as Belitta's.

"I am going to be the Randomer's guardian," Belitta announced. "Any problems Waldo?"

Waldo shook his head, he liked the queen of dragons as company for some reason, though that urge to throw her against a wall hadn't yet packed up and left.

"Sorry but we have to leave, get his admission in the ABCs." Asep said, and waved his hand, ignoring the shouts of, "Wait! One more question!"

They rose up in the air like helium filled balloons. Waldo noticed from the corner of his eyes Asep was making weird insignias with his hand. He had a sudden urge to close his eyes, and when he did he felt a sensation of vertigo. He opened them again and saw that they were in a great big room with red carpets, brown walls, and a fireplace that was the only source of light. It was dark and dim.

"Hello there," A voice called out. It was slow, precise, and cold. Very cold.

"Headmaster Zamon," Asep said cheerfully.

"Oh, its you. I remember teaching you basic Runes when you were a little boy. Quite the intelligent one, you were. Now a council member I see…"

"Right," Asep said.

"And Belitta, your act is getting old." Headmaster Zamon said. He was covered in shadow. Waldo couldn't see his face. But he could see the eyes, turquoise; they glowed softly.

"What are you talking about?" Belitta shrieked.

"I am merely commenting on the fact that your outside appearance is getting old. Why don't you show the young Randomer your true colours, Oh Evil One." Zamon said softly.

Waldo glanced at her, alarmed. Evil One? She was evil?

"Oh yes, she is, why in her childhood days I remember how she was having so much fun… killing my son."

"That was on Septh's orders! It wasn't my fault." Belitta protested.

"I am sure it wasn't, but I could detect such an aura of happiness coming from you. Quite astounding." Zamon said, as cold as ever.

Tears were leaking from Belitta's eyes, "I'm sorry okay, I didn't mean to-"

"You have told me this many times, but the end fact is… I don't trust you, and I want you out of my school."

Belitta puffed up her chest, "You can't make me leave, I'm the queen of dragons."

Now Zamon's voice was hard, like cutting glass. "If you don't exit this building in three seconds, I will kill you."

Asep's eyes widened, "No Zamon, you can't-"

"Stand back, Asep. If you interfere, I will kill you as well."

The colour drained from Asep's face. "I am a council member, an elder…" He croaked out.

Zamon started laughing. Waldo still couldn't see the look on his face. "And what was I?" He said.

"Lord Guardian…" Asep muttered.

"Yes, but I stepped down didn't I?"

No answer.

"Come on, what happened to your tongue?"

Waldo saw Zamon's hand wave in the air and then slink back into the shadows. Asep started talking, forced into it, "You stepped down," He said. "Because the council didn't let you kill the Randomer, Septh and his pet Belitta."

"Good, you remember. Now Belitta," His turquoise eyes glowed brightly. "Get out of my school. NOW!" A bolt of white lightning struck Belitta on the chest. Belitta cried out, in obvious pain. Waldo wanted to do something, he wanted to help, but he could do anything because he was just a boy. He didn't know how.

"No, don't leave." Waldo said desperately.

Belitta scurried away with haste, "I'm sorry, Waldo," She called out as she left the room, giving Waldo one last glance of tears filling those diamond eyes.

All at once, Waldo hated Zamon. His first… friend, he supposed he could call her, now gone. So what if she had done some bad things in the past? Forgive and forget, right-

"She killed my son!" Zamon screamed surprisingly. Then he cooled down at once. "You need to learn to block your thoughts in, its very rude to project them out loud."

Waldo ignored this. "Where am I?"

"My office in the ABCs. I am the headmaster, in this school we learn the basics of magic, do you understand?"

"Yes," Waldo said. "I understand."

"Good."

Waldo was itching to get out of his presence. Headmaster Zamon was scaring him.

"Your appearance is… strange."

"I am an albino," Waldo said. "It's a genetic diso-"

"I know what it is, boy. I am the headmaster for a reason you know," Zamon said from the shadows. The fact that Waldo couldn't see the headmaster unnerved him terribly but he tried not to let it show.

"So what do I do?"

"Nikon! Nikon!" Zamon shouted. The door of the office opened and a little short lady entered. She was young, in her twenties with chestnut hair and bright green eyes. She had a big smile on her face, Waldo wondered why. What was there to be happy about in this place, with these people.

He wished he was back home, where he could sit in the corner and watch the lake by the window, where he could read a book, watch a movie, or do his homework. He was homeschooled, and quite adept at studying. It relaxed him. Still there was something good about this place, the people here didn't seem to be freaked out about his albino condition. They hardly noticed it for some reason.

"Hi, my name is Nikon, what's yours?" The lady asked as she held out her hand. Her nails were polished blue, her hands soft and milky. Waldo shook it slowly. "My name is Waldo," He said.

"He's the Randomer," Zamon added.

"Ah," Nikon gasped as she let the hand go with a flinch. "The Randomer? You?" Waldo frowned. What was going on? She looked like the foster parents did when they caught sight of him. Disgusted and freaked out, and… scared. She was scared of him, but why?

"Yes, me." Waldo said angrily. He hated it when people did this, when they thought he had some kind of contagious disease.

"You will show the Randomer around the fortress of ABCs, ring him up a time table, and give him his own room. I daresay that the other students wouldn't want to share a room with him."

It was just like the orphanage, Waldo thought. He would have no friends, not that he minded (but deep down he kinda did) and he would be secluded. Maybe he could see the sights of the Purple Planet like a tourist. Yeah, just think I am on a vacation and everything will be alright. He said to himself in his mind.

"Okay," Nikon said, sighing a bit. "I suppose I could show you around. Just don't…"

"Don't what?" Waldo said.

"Don't kill me," She said lamely. Waldo frowned, kill her? What did she mean?

Then he realized… They probably think I am evil like the old Randomer, but I am not. I better tell her that. "I won't kill you." Waldo said.

"Promise? On your magic?"

"What does that do?" Waldo asked. "If I break the promise I lose my magic or something?" If he lost his magic, he could go home right? Away from the evil man with the scythe, away from the skeletons riding dragons and hurling balls of blue energy at him, away from a headmaster who no doubt hated him.

"Yeah," Nikon said. "Promise that you won't kill me, ever."

"I promise," Waldo said. She grinned happily. Then he thought about it… what if she tries to kill me? "As long as you don't try to kill me first." Waldo said. Her grin faded to nothing. Waldo felt a tingle go up his spine as the oath settled in place.

Zamon chuckled. "Your scam didn't work there," He said.

"Scam?" Waldo asked.

"Yes, boy, scam. She tries to make every child who comes into these halls of ABCs to take an oath, so she will be practically invincible, no doubt." He laughed again.

Nikon glared, then frowned. "Septh didn't take t he oath either. Do you remember?"

His laugh instantly silenced, snuffed out. "Yes, I do," He said seriously. "He was strange on the inside, not on the outside like this Randomer."

"He killed how many students?" Nikon asked.

Zamon's turquoise eyes glowed furiously. "Shut your mouth girl."

"Sorry," Nikon said, her head bent down in remorse. Waldo felt instant pity for her.

A bolt of hot white lightning shot out of the shadows where Zamon was. It circled the girl like a lasso. The lightning made faint humming sounds like an engine. She screamed. "Please stop, I'm sorry."

"I won't have you playing your little games with me, understand?"

"Yes, yes, oh god please stop-! " The lightning disappeared. Nikon glared at him. "Come on Waldo, let's go." She said in crisp tones.

Zamon was dangerous, almost deranged, Waldo guessed as he followed Nikon out the door. They entered the hallway. It was dim and dark. Waldo walked two steps forward when a long green snake jumped up at him and tried to bite his face off.

Chapter Four – The Halls of ABCs

Waldo grabbed the snake reflexively as it hissed in his face, little balls of spit hitting his cheeks. He flung it away. It hit the ground and seemed to narrow its beady black eyes in menace. Then the snake tried to slither toward him again. Waldo took a step back.

The girl, Waldo noticed from the corner of his eye, was doing something with her hands. She was making a pattern in the air. A hammer appeared in her hands. She sighed and flung the hammer at the snake, her aim true. The hammer hit the snake on the head, and squished it.

"Snakes are everywhere around here. Nasty little buggers, if you see any kill them because they will try to kill you." Nikon said.

"How-" Waldo gasped, "How did you do that?"

"What do you mean?"

"How did you summon the hammer? How did the headmaster make lightning appear? How did Asep make a ladder come in mid air? How did-"

"Oh you mean magic," The girl said, nodding her head. "You are from Earth right, they don't have magical training there, I heard. That's horrible."

"Well, how do you do it? Can you show me?" Waldo asked. He really wanted to be able to do magic. Much more than he wanted to block his thoughts in, because other people, like Headmaster Zamon for example, reading his thoughts made him uncomfortable. But magic, wow… magic!

The girl laughed. It was a high pitched laugh that sounded almost like a scream. "You learn that in class, dummy. That's why you're here at the ABCs."

"You mean I can do this stuff too?"

"Sure, as long as you have the M gene. Some people are born without it, poor bastards. I can't imagine being without magic."

"Do people on Earth have magic?" Waldo asked. They walked side by side in the hallway, now it was deserted. But Waldo kept a sharp look out for any snakes around. The walls of the hallway were blood red. Or at least, that was the color Waldo could see of the walls. Most of the area was covered in tapestries, showing scenery and what looked like battles with those skeletons riding dragons and the white robed, purple eagle insignia on their chest, men and women. There were windows, about ten meters apart, but you couldn't see anything through them. They were covered in black mist. The floor was made of wood. Their footsteps made thumping noises on it as they walked.

"Sure they do," Nikon said. "Just don't know it I expect."

"So you are saying I can do magic?"

"Of course you can or else you wouldn't be a Randomer now would you? Look I am sorry about what I did back in the office but that's pretty much what you are going to have to expect…"

"What? Why?" Waldo asked, even though he already knew the answer.

"Being a Randomer is really a very honorable thing to be, or used to be, but ever since Septh came along, well… He was psycho, you see those windows to the astral plane?" She pointed at a black window.

"Yeah, what about it?"

"Well, he used to stand before it and talk to demons. Really freaky, he would talk for hours, and you couldn't really hear him either."

"Why not? Did he speak firetongue with the demons?"

"Yeah, good guess." Nikon said. They reached a fork in the hallway. Would they go right, left or straight ahead, Waldo wondered. They went right. "Septh has a bad reputation, really notorious. Some of that is going to rub off on you, so if you see anyone looking scared of you, well…"

"Yeah, I understand." And he did. He didn't have to go home after all; he had it all right here. The scared and disgusted looks, the single room because no other child wanted to bunk with him, the danger… well there was danger back home too. Waldo was always scared of the older kids. Sometimes they would chase him with baseball bats when he used to go outside in the rain to watch the lake a bit. That was when he was seven years or so. He tried not to go outside ever again.

I should have stuck with that, all this happened because I went outside in the rain again, Waldo thought. The hallways seemed endless. They lapsed in silence. Waldo wondered what would happen if he asked her to teach him a spell. He was curious. He wanted to learn. Just one teensy tiny magical spell. He glanced at her from the corner of his eye. Would she get mad?

He decided to risk it. "Nikon, can you show me how to-" He paused as he wondered how to phrase it. They stopped walking. "Can you teach me a spell?" There, it was finally out. His heart rate sped up, would she do it?

"Hmm…" She said, "I guess I could. But you owe me okay?"

"Sure," Waldo said with a smile.

"Okay basically all you have to do to do a magical spell is to make shapes with your hands and for the beginners say a power word."

"A power word?"

"A word in firetongue, the language of power. Should come naturally to you, lucky brat."

"Don't you have a translation stone or something?"

"You have a translation stone?" Nikon gaped. "Wow, the council must be giving you loads of money…"

"No, Belitta gave me that," Waldo said at once. "Asep only gave me a pouch of money."

"Well that sucks. Ask the Council for more. I'm sure they'll do anything for a Randomer.

"Oh okay," Waldo said. He was uncomfortable. "What kind of shape do I make?"

The girl laughed, "Anything you want I guess. Depends on the spell, really, but if you are going to be making random shapes with your hands you should know how dangerous it is."

"Show me a shape for a really easy to do spell," Waldo demanded. Then added, "Please."

"Okay, why not. This one's for changing your hair colour. White is just not in right now in the fashion world."

"Wow, magic can do that? Show me." Waldo said eagerly.

"Alright, make a triangle with your hands," The girl showed Waldo how. "Now blow a big puff of air into it, and say the world for hair in fire tongue."

Waldo made a triangle shape with his hands and blew a big puff of air into it just like Nikon said. As he did so, he said the word for hair in fire tongue. It sounded like a coughing noise, but he understood it perfectly.

Wind blew into his face, his eyes tingled, his skin burned, his stomach dropped, and his spine turned into a big rod of ice as he felt the spell taking effect. Beside him, Nikon was making her own spell, but for what?

A mirror appeared in her hands, which she handed to Waldo. "Here, see how you look," She said, a smile tugging her lips.

He looked in the mirror and felt his jaw drop. His hair was… was… turquoise. The same colour of Headmaster Zamon's eyes. Nikon chuckled, "What were you thinking of when you did it?" She asked as Waldo waved a hand through his hair.

"Nothing really…" Waldo said. "This… wow, my hair isn't white anymore." Surprising himself, he hugged Nikon, "Thank you, thank you, thank you," he said. "I always wanted colour in my hair."

"Okay, you're welcome. Down, doggie." She said, laughing. Waldo grinned at her, a bright smile on his face.

He did the spell again, made a triangle shape with his hands, blew in it, and said the word for hair in fire tongue. This time he was thinking of the colour black. He felt his stomach drop, his spine tingle; it wasn't as intense as his first spell though. He grabbed the mirror and looked.

His hair was black.

"Congratulations, Waldo, on your first spell. You'll always remember this moment, always. I remember my first spell too…" She trailed off as Waldo ignored her and tried the spell again. Just as he was about to blow in the triangle shape a green eye like that of a cat, with slit pupils, looked out through the window in front of Waldo.

"Well, well, well," A deep roaring voice said as a harsh storm wind blew from the window toward Waldo. Nikon was blown away. She smashed on the opposite wall, hit her head and slumped unconscious. Waldo took it with fear. "A Randomer has finally appeared. It has been one hundred years since I conversed with a Randomer."

"Who-who are you?" He asked, but he knew already. It was a demon. A demon from the Astral Plane - whatever that was.

"Me? Me?" The voice laughed. "I am Nelagar, Guardian of the Astral Plane."

"Nice to meet you," Waldo said cautiously. "I hear its nice out there in the, uh, Astral Plane."

"Boy," The eye narrowed. Waldo looked into it and was almost lost, it was mesmerizing.

"You have no idea where I am or what I've been through."

"Do tell," Waldo said as he inched away.

"Very well, Lord Randomer. I suffered from a coup; do you know what that is?"

"No," Waldo said, inching backwards slowly. He was preparing to run, get away from the demon, run back to the Headmaster's office. He didn't much like Zamon, but the headmaster would help him against this demon right?

"The previous Randomer took control of all my forces and kicked me out from my position. That is a coup."

"Oh," Waldo said weakly.

"He put me in a prison made of solid ice, where I have been stuck in for thirty five years. Now you come along and this is my chance."

"What do you mean?" Waldo asked. Was the demon going to eat him?

"You can free me. Since you are a Randomer, you know fire tongue naturally, so all you have to do is say what you want, and make the hand signs that you humans make, and I'll be free!"

No way, there was no way in hell Waldo was going to free a big ugly demon.

"Right, what do I have to say?" Waldo heard himself saying.

"Say this in firetongue, 'I, Lord Randomer, hereby free Nelegar from the prison of the ice.'"

"And the hand symbols?"

Waldo felt the demon shrugging, even though all he saw was that big green cat eye. "Whatever you want, really," The demon said. "Hand symbols are mainly used as a focus, not necessarily required."

Waldo thought of a cunning plan. "What do I get in return if I free you?"

The demon stayed silent for nearly a minute. Waldo was sure it wasn't going to answer again. Then it did.

"I will serve you faithfully and do whatever you tell me to."

"Okay but for how long?" Waldo wondered when the headmaster would come barging down the halls and save him. Surely a powerful being like Zamon, who made Belitta the Queen of Dragons cry, and Asep, an elder and a council member to boot turn white with fear, then he would know what was going on here, right?

"For… for…" The demon sighed. "For however long you wish me to. I am that desperate for freedom. You don't know what its like in here, boy, you don't know!"

"What happens if I refuse?" Waldo asked.

The eye turned cold. "I will do my best to kill you," The demon said.

Well, that put a damper on things. Now what choice did he have, and beside maybe having a demon following him and dong whatever he told it to do would be kind of nice… like having a friend except this friend was really his slave.

And maybe they will take me back home because I summoned a demon. Banish me out.

Waldo took a deep breath and gathered up his nerve. "Okay deal, but when I free you, you will have to do everything I tell you to, okay?"

"Yes. FREE ME!" The demon roared.

Waldo was about to make a bunch of nonsense hand symbols and say the words in fire tongue when Zamon came bounding down the hall. "No stop, idiot boy, stop!"

"HURRY, FREE ME!" The demon said. Waldo turned curiously to look at Zamon, never having seen him since he was covered in darkness in the office.

He wore a black robe, no eagle insignia on his chest, and had stubble on his cheeks like he hadn't shaved. His hair was black and dirty looking, a hawk nose and a square jaw. His lips were set in a snarl, showing yellowish teeth, and his eyes glowed madly. He raised his left arm in a fist. Waldo flinched instinctively as a bolt of white lightning shot from his hands and into the window.

The demon shrieked with pain. "I'LL GET YOU FOR THIS, RANDOMER!" Then the eye disappeared and the window turned pure black again.

"You stupid stupid boy," Zamon said, panting hard. "Stupid boy…"

"It isn't my fault. The demon was going to kill me if I refused!" Waldo snapped.

Zamon laughed, "Waldo, demons can't come from the Astral Plane. They can only enter if someone summons them." His eyes narrowed. "What were you two talking about?"

"He said he was Nelegar, the Guardian or something, and that Septh had taken over his job."

Zamon looked stricken. "Oh no, he controls the astral plane now? Oh no, no, no, this is not good. I'll have to inform the council about this at once-" He stopped and looked at Waldo carefully.

"What else?"

"He said that he was trapped in a prison, and wanted me to free him." He conveniently left out the part where the demon offered to serve him forever, faithfully.

"Thank goodness you didn't go through with the deal," Zamon said. "I know what you were thinking of course. You thought that it would be fun to have a demon serving you, huh?"

"Quit reading my mind," Waldo said.

No answer on that one.

"Well if you went through with the deal, you would have brought him here. Don't you know, boy, that demons never speak the truth. They lie, always. Bunch of crooks is what they are. Now if you ever, ever, in all your three years at this school, ever talk to a demon again, I will kick you out, council backing or no council backing. You hear me?"

Waldo nodded.

"What the hell happened to Nikon," Zamon grumbled in frustration as he made hand symbols with his right hand and pointed to Nikon. She awoke with a grumble and rubbed her eyes with the back of a clenched fist. "Huh, what? Where am I?"

Waldo told her what happened.

"No way, you talked to a demon? That's incredible."

"Stop encouraging the boy," Zamon said.

"Sorry," Nikon said. "But still, you talked to a demon? A real demon!"

Zamon sighed. "The demon's not going to forget you, Waldo. Or forgive for that matter."

"What can he do? He's trapped in a prison remember?' Waldo said. He wasn't as scared of Zamon now; in fact he kind of liked the headmaster.

"Never underestimate demons, boy." Zamon said. "Now come on, I'll take you down to your dorm room. It's past bed time, and you'll need a good nights sleep for tomorrow."

They walked down the hall and came to a long circular staircase, made of marble. They walked down two floors, while Zamon was describing the fortress.

"This fortress was built hundreds of thousands of years ago, you know. There are eight floors, most of them dorm rooms because there are hundreds of kids coming here, maybe thousands. They come almost every day, its hassling." Zamon said with a sigh. "The kitchens is downstairs, you get breakfast, lunch, and dinner. You'll need school supplies and your timetable. I'll get that done for you tomorrow, and you better be goddam thankful too, because I hardly ever make personal time tables anymore."

"Thanks." Waldo said tiredly.

"Sure kid, sure." Zamon said. "All classes are held outside, in the Forest of Eternity. Nikon will show you tomorrow. Won't you, Nikon?"

"Yes I will." Nikon said.

"How old are you Waldo?"

"I'm ten years old."

"Say sir, show some respect to your elders, Waldo."

"Yes sir." Waldo said.

They entered a narrow winding corridor, mahogany wood doors on either side, with golden plaques that had names on them. Three names per plaque. Weird names Waldo had never seen before like Erytoniza Xiomyghn and Lioxertouyon Buyti. Most were normal English names, or were they really?

He took off the translation stone for a second and suddenly the names changed to incomprehensible spider lines. He put the translation stone back on, and they became proper again.

"Here's your room, right on the end. There's a nice window that overlooks the river." Zamon said.

Waldo grinned. It would be just like home now, he supposed. Except with magic. He didn't feel like going home anymore. This place was much more interesting. As Zamon opened the door, Waldo felt his jaw drop.

Inside the room was enormous; at least as big as the lake near the orphanage Waldo had stayed before. In it there was a vast expanse of space, couches, tables, and chairs were there by the dozen. There was rich fluffy carpeting, maroon colour, laid out on the floors, and the ceiling was a circular dome, brown colored. There were also strange objects, like crystal balls that floated in the air on its own, cloudy on the inside, and a row of knives and swords hanging on nails on the walls for some reason. There were also lots and lots of papers and books scattered around the floors and tables, and even the chairs. The inkpots for the fountain pens were spilled and dried, dark blue ink. They had numbers on them, graphs and numbers, and a few sketches of what looked like monsters or beasts.

"This is amazing," Waldo whispered.

"It is, isn't it?" Zamon said. "This was Septh's room, he enlarged it and made it himelf. We never cleaned it so there might be a few things around here of his." He looked apologetic.

"He made this?" Waldo said, awed.

"He was a prodigy. A genius student gone wrong," Nikon said, sighing. "You shouldn't compare yourself to him though," She added. "He was different."

Waldo didn't compare himself to Septh. He didn't really care. What he cared about though. He walked into the room and looked out the window in the far corner, after the kitchen and the laundry. The room was a giant hall with all the necesseties. A wall sized window stood on the end, overlooking a forest of tall trees; trees Waldo had never seen before. It was dark out, but there were five moons in the night sky and they gave enough light to see.

The bark was very dark, almost black, brown. The diameter was at least ten meters. That was just one tree. There were thousands of trees scattered around as far as the eye can see.

At the foot of the trees however, there was a fast rushing river of pure black water. Smoke rose from the river. The river was very narrow, about the size of a full grown man, but it seemed to go on for ever, just like the forest. Waldo could see bridges far off, leading into the forest. Behind him he heard the footsteps of Zamon and Nikon coming behind him.

"I am going to have my lessons in there? In the forest?" Waldo asked.

"Yes, but first you have to cross the river. It's a real challenge, that one is," Zamon remarked. He seemed to have warmed up to the Randomer. He wasn't as cold anymore.

"Really? Why? Can't you just cross the river using the bridge?"

"Oh no, boy, that's cheating. And cheaters are never happy, y'hear?" Zamon said, looking outraged. "You have to walk on the river, walk across."

"I walked on the lake near my orphanage," Waldo said.

"That probably wasn't the same thing. Hell you don't even know how to do spells yet," Zamon said. His eyes turned grim. "A word of warning to you, boy. Other students know all about magic before they come here, their families taught them. And these students… they will hate you, they will try to take their anger out at you. Septh killed many of the Nur's people, and most of the boys and girls have lost loved ones…"

Waldo gulped. "They… I don't…"

"You better be ready. I cannot help you, well I can but I won't. Self reliance is what will make you strong. You will have to deal with it yourself."

"Okay," Waldo said faintly, but in determination. "Okay I will. How do I cross the river though?"

"That, Waldo, is something you have to figure out by yourself." Zamon said with a glint in his eye that Waldo didn't really much like.

"Come Nikon, let's go and leave Waldo to his beauty sleep," Zamon said. "I need sleep as well."

"Bye Waldo," Nikon said as they left.

Waldo turned and found his bed. He slumped in miserably, wishing once again he was home again. At home, the bullies were too scared to go too far. They were scared of him, because he was an albino (with black hair now). He felt small, small and getting smaller. Here, the children hated him!

He felt all the hate inside him, the hate for the other children who hated him without reason, and decided right then and there that he would fight back. He had to… for survival.

Ten years old, and he already felt grown up. He pulled the switches near the door, guessing they were for the lights. He guessed right. The ceiling glowed bright white, and then faded to a pale yellow. He could see the room perfectly though.

To defend himself he would have to use his nut. Had to use his brain, which was what he had to do. He wondered how though, he knew nothing about spells… Then a thought struck him. Why not make one?

The thought brought shivers up his spine and goose bumps on his neck and arms. He deliberated a while, would a demon come again? He decided to take the risk. He removed his translation stone and threw it on the bed. Then he started making random shapes with his hands, a circle with his left and used his right index finger to make a point in the middle. Then he said the first word he could think of, hoping it was in fire tongue.

"Boom." He said. He didn't know however that he was pointing at an empty dresser table. The dresser table exploded with a bang, sparks and slivers of wood shooting out all over the place.

He grinned and tried a few more. They didn't always work, and they were weak too, but it worked, a bit. He was exhausted at the end of the practice though. He switched off the lights and went to sleep, a happy smile on his face.

Chapter Five – First Encounter

Waldo woke up at the crack of dawn, sun shining brightly in his eyes from the giant window. He looked into a few closets and found black robes with a purple eagle insignia on the chest. They must be uniforms, he decided, and after showering, put one on. He remembered Zamon saying the kitchens were downstairs. He went out the door warily, afraid children would jump him, but nobody did.

Everywhere he looked there were children, wearing serious and grim expressions, hauling great big bags filled with books of all sorts, and all dressed in black uniforms just like Waldo's. He fit in perfectly, for now.

He followed a group of four boys, laughing and playing. "Hey, where's the caf?" He asked the biggest, fattest one, who looked to be the leader of the group.

The boy had blond hair, grey eyes, and a sharp chin. He glanced at Waldo with contempt. "Who the hell are you? A newcomer?" He jeered.

"Yeah," Waldo said, frowning.

"I'm Blake," the boy said, "you are?"

"Waldo," he replied.

The boy laughed, "Hear that guys? His name's… Waldo!" He broke out into laughter again. Then he stopped and poked Waldo in the chest. "Listen up, around here there is something called a food chain. I'm on top, and-"

No, I am on top. Or I will be, soon. That was Waldo's goal. That was what he was planning. To be on top. If he were, then nobody would bother him, right?

This was what he had practiced for last night. Here goes, and if I get killed… well I'm only an albino boy right? He smiled a bitter smile.

Blake stopped, surprised.

Waldo was making symbols with his hands in frenzy.

"Hey what are you doing? No stop-!" Blake was thrown down the stairs and hit the ground with a loud thud. The stairway was quiet now. Everybody was watching him. Blake's three friends looked startled, then started making their own hand symbols and chanted something.

Waldo stood, eyes closed in concentration, palms out. He was chanting, repeatedly in fire tongue, hoping it would work… but he doubted it for some reason. "Shield, shield, shield, shield, shield…"

Three jets of purple lightning, very small and skinny, rushed at Waldo, who smirked, he was ready.

A big blue cocoon popped up out of nowhere and wrapped Waldo protectively. The jets of purple lightning hit the shield, and then dissolved instantly. The three boys looked at Waldo with terror, then turned tail and ran.

Waldo grinned. Waldo 1, World 0. The children around him started cheering. Someone clapped him on the shoulder, "Well done, lad." He said with a thick Scottish accent. More children congratulated him. He basked in the fame, knowing sooner or later they would learn of his true identity… and then, there would be hell to pay.

Chapter Six: Breakfast and Classes

Waldo went downstairs with the rest of the children. There was a huge hall, and a line up as well. One had to pick up a tray, like at a buffet, and go around the tables (which were set up in a square) and put the food on. Waldo took what looked like three boiled eggs, a sandwich, a piece of cheesecake and a glass of milk at the end. Then he went alone to the courtyard. There were benches scattered at random. He sat on the corner bench, ate his food, and cursed his stupidity.

Why did he attack Blake? He should have just, well, not done anything, right?

No, that is not what I have to do.

Then what is?

I have to be on top, Me, Waldo, I have to show them all that I am more than Septh or anybody else-

But why?

For that he had no answer.

He just felt like being on top, that was all. And magic seemed so easy to do, even though he was exhausted beyond degree after any spell he performed. He had an advantage over the other kids. He could speak fire tongue naturally. They had to learn it.

But how could he speak fire tongue?

Because he was a Randomer? So what? All that meant was he was just a random boy taken from Earth. It could have been anyone. Did that mean that anyone on Earth could speak fire tongue?

If so… then, why couldn't they?

Something isn't right here, Waldo thought, something seems off and I have to find out what. Find out, or…

The thought brought shivers and goose bumps. That thought frightened him because he did not want to die. He just wanted to live, be happy, was that too much to ask?

He finished his food and set the tray down beside him on the stone bench. Now what to do? Should he try to cross the river? Now? How? Without a bridge? Impossible. But you can do magic right?

Waldo thought about it.

He would have to make a spell to cross across… or something. How did the other kids do it? He glanced at the river and saw the kids crossing the bridge.

Lucky.

Just then, something in the sky caught his eye though the other children paid no notice. A shimmering dragon, purple colored, obviously magical because it looked like it was made of lightning with its sparks shooting out all around its body, came at him.

In it's mouth, it clutched a white square piece of paper. His timetable! But what a way to deliver it, Waldo knew then and there that he would have to learn this spell.

And all spells.

His curiosity was ignited, nothing could stop him now. He would learn the spells, learn everything he could about magic, and then go home to Earth and share that knowledge. Why not? What harm could it cause?

No Waldo, don't think like that.

What good could it cause?

His heart was raised, bright smile on his face as the dragon came closer and dropped the letter on his lap. Then the dragon shimmered away to nothing, proving that it was indeed magical.

The letter was indeed a timetable. It said:

Waldo Randomer – Time Table

Classes for you will not start until you can cross the river without using the bridge. That is the preliminary test. If you fail this, you must go home.

Mornings: Animal Taming – You must pick an animal from the forest, capture said animal, and tame them to follow your each and every order. The animal you pick will make a good companion for you in all your adventures, particularly EXPLORATIONS CLASSES that comes in March.

Afternoons: Dueling in the Courtyard – This is a mandatory course where students will use a staff (and spells) to try to knock the other students unconscious. This is a free for all, so you will have to use every ounce of cunning and wit in your body to survive and win. This is the only course, except the special courses, that is not done in the Forest of Eternity.

Early Evenings: Brewing – A dangerous art where you pick your own ingredients from the forest and make potions, poultices, drinks, stimulants, medicines, and more. Picking your own ingredients from the forest is optional – you can buy ingredients from the market if you have money.

Late Night: Runes – This subject deals with making stationary wards and protections on objects, pieces of land, and structures like the fortress of the ABCs. This class also teaches you to break runes and wards. Runes is a very complex subject requiring the utmost attention. A slight mishap might result in death. Taking a stimulant before attempting this subject is recommended.

SPECIAL COURSES:

1. MENTAL ARTS – Every Saturday night you have the option to learn the mental arts – how to block your thoughts in and peer into other minds. As most of you already know how to do this, it is optional. For the magically challenged, taking this course is recommended.

2. SPELL CREATION – This course, done all day every Saturday, outlines how to make and break spells of all varieties. It is an optional course, but highly recommended to the ambitious.

3. EXPLORATIONS – Two thirds of this world still has not been explored. In the month of March you journey with an adventurer and map out unexplored regions. This class is highly dangerous and mandatory. The requirement to enter is graduation of three other classes.

Sundays are holidays for the students and give them the opportunity to journey to the local cities and market places to buy supplies or catch up on homework. Use this day wisely.

Classes are self-paced. You can breeze through classes as fast or as slow as you prefer but you must keep in mind that you only have three years of admission into ABCs. At the end of the three years, you must have completed all the courses. If not you will be booted out, and will have to reapply once again. Students can reapply for a limited number of three times. Remember, there is a long waiting list, so don't waste any time fooling around.

There are three sects in this school: Alpha, Beta, and Gamma. Your goal is a student is to get into the Alpha sect which is the best of the best. Beta sect houses the second best students while Gamma houses the worst. Those in Gamma have three weeks to get out, if they don't they will be expelled from the school.

Then scrolled in red ink below that final paragraph was a personal note from Headmaster Zamon himself. Waldo read it with trepidation.

I heard about what you did on the stairwell this morning. Good job, you are learning the ways of the Nur, and will soon have all the qualities a good Nur Warrior possesses: ruthlessness, independence and self-sufficiency.

Good luck with the duel – everyone will target you. I hope you survive, but if you don't, no big loss.

-Headmaster Zamon

Somebody likes me, Waldo thought sarcastically as he crumpled the letter, and with a second thought stuffed it in his right robe pocket. Then he got up and went to the edge of the river, where the rocks were sharp and pointy, where there was a slippery slope to the rushing black water that kind of scared Waldo. He wondered how to cross it, should he walk across like he did on the lake?

He wasn't sure it was him doing the walking on the lake, remember how you couldn't move Waldo? He did remember, and he knew that it wasn't him doing the walking back then. So he would have to do the walking here himself.

Not on a still lake surface either, but on a rushing river… of black water. The smoke rose in big puffy clouds from the river, grey smoke that smelt like rotten eggs and spoilt milk. He scrunched up his nose and walked back a bit.

He spotted a passing girl about to walk on the bridge and caught her arm. "Hey, 'scuse me," Waldo said. "Can you help me?" She had carroty red hair, black eyes, and a pale complexion.

The girl stopped, looked at Waldo carefully, and said, "Okay. What sect are you in?"

"I just started," Waldo said.

"Oh a new student," the girl said. "My name is Gwyn, house: Beta."

"I'm Waldo," Waldo said. "Look I want to know, how do you cross the river?"

"You mean the preliminary test?" Gwyn asked.

"Yeah," Waldo said. "Can you help me?"

"This is easy, just use the bridge."

"But you can't, that's cheating," Waldo said.

Gwyn laughed, "It's a trick. The whole point of this exercise is to root out the stupid ones who follow the rules. See, the school is too overcrowded as it is and if you try to cross the river… well you will die, simple as that. But if you use the bridge, it's easy."

"Oh… well thanks," Waldo said and gingerly put one foot on the bridge. Nothing happened. He walked on it to the other side, chuckling. "Good trick," He said and looked back.

Her eyes were wide with terror, her mouth gaping, the bag in her hand had dropped to her feet. "Y-you are the-the RANDOMER!" She screamed out the last part and turned tail and rain.

Waldo sighed. So this was the sort of reaction to expect, okay I can deal with this, he said to himself and walked forward into the forest. Where were the classes though? He had animal taming first, right.

The forest trees looked all alike. They were big and looked scary. He walked in the cobblestone path that led deeper into the dark forest, heart thumping wildly. This place freaked Waldo out. The trees seemed to be staring at him angrily. He walked faster. As he went deeper into the forest, the darker it became.

He stopped. I need some light, he thought desperately. He could barely see his hands. He closed his eyes and said in fire tongue, "Fire" while pointing at a bundle of leaves near the foot of the tree.

The leaves burst into flames, black and blue flames that started licking at the foot of the tree. Waldo heard a shrill scream coming from all sides. He clutched his ears in pain, the scream was coming from everywhere, inside his head, outside his head, from the… the…

The scream was coming from the trees. They were alive!

Chapter Seven: Animal Taming

No not the trees, just the tree that was on fire that screamed in pain. The branches were alive as it chomped at the flames, over and over until the fire was put out. Then in a deep thundering voice, it asked Waldo, "WHAT IS THE MEANING OF THIS?"

"I'm sorry," Waldo blurted out. "I just wanted light."

"STUPID BOY, YOU COULD HAVE KILLED US ALL!"

"I said I was sorry," Waldo said, a bit annoyed. "Look, do you know where the animal taming classes are?"

"YOU COULD HAVE JUST ASKED, NO NEED TO BURN US ALL!"

Waldo said nothing, not trusting himself to give a diplomatic response.

"GO STRAIGHT AHEAD UNTI L YOU HIT THE FORK IN THE ROAD, THEN TURN LEFT AND YOU WILL REACH A CLEARING WHERE THE ANIMAL TAMING CLASSES ARE HELD."

"Thanks," Waldo said. "Wish I had light though."

"WHY DON'T YOU JUST CONJURE SOME?" The voice was deafening.

"How?" Waldo asked.

"SNAP YOUR FINGERS AND SAY THE WORD FOR LIGHT IN FIRE TONGUE." The tree said.

"Okay thanks," Waldo said. He snapped his fingers and said the fire tongue word for light." A ball of light appeared in front of Waldo. It was blue. As Waldo walked forward, he found that the ball always stayed a meter or so in front of him. He could see clearly now. The path was curvy and winding, like a lone spider thread. It seemed to go on forever, shrouded in darkness. The trees overhead covered Waldo with their leafy canopy. Waldo felt eyes on him. Eyes from the trees. It was unnerving.

He reached a small sign post that said, "Fork in the Road: Go forward at your own peril."

There were three paths he could go now, forward, right and left. The tree had said to go left so he turned left and walked, getting more unnerved by the second. He didn't like that tree at all; it had a slight menacing quality around that scared Waldo for not much reason.

After a few more minutes of walking, he saw another sign, "ANIMAL TAMING – ALL WELCOME." He started forward and saw a light pink barrier before him that he couldn't see around. Without a second glance he walked through it and came to an enormous clearing.

It was daytime here, full of light. Waldo was in a zoo of some sort because there were animals in cages EVERYWHERE. There were eagles, falcons, dogs, cats, and some of the more… unique variety. There were griffins, unicorns, dragons, hypogriphs, chimaeras, long snakes ten times the size of Waldo with evil red eyes and gleaming white fangs, horses with wings, gigantic toads with three eyes and much more. They all snarled angrily and banged on the cage but the students took no note of them. They had their notebooks out, and with a fountain pen they were scribbling away.

The maze of cages stretched on for ever on grassy plains. The students seemed very serious. This must be a hard class, he thought.

Waldo nervously went forward, and leapt back when a large fat woman with beady black eyes, short pig like nose, and a square chin came bounding toward him.

"Hello dear," She said in a loud voice. It sounded like Heeeeeloooooo Deeeeeeer. "A new student I see," She clapped him on the shoulder and led him forward. "Now, if you'll just get a notebook from a table, and write down notes on all the beasts-" She stopped abruptly.

"The Randomer!" She gasped. Heads turned. "Why-what is your name, boy?"

"Waldo," He said.

"You-you're the Randomer?"

"Yes," Waldo said, seeing no reason to hide the fact. They already knew. The kids started whispering amongst each other -

(he's the one who killed Blake!) I killed him?! Waldo thought. No I didn't, he's probably in the hospital. Waldo wanted to deny it but somehow he knew that he had indeed killed Blake. The thought shocked him, and filled him with remorse. He put it out of his mind and tried to concentrate on the other whispers.

(The Randomer? Probably in cahoots with Septh.) No I'm not, though he did offer, Waldo felt like saying, but he didn't.

(What's Zamon doing letting a Randomer into our school?!) Waldo thought he knew the answer to this one. Zamon is doing it because the council is making him do it, simple as that.

(Let's kill him! Septh killed my grandma. He must be evil just like-) and this was the worst part, the children would try to take revenge on him. He had hoped that by attacking Blake, he would scare them away. That was not to be true, it seemed.

- And then stopped as the woman cleared her throat.

"My name is Rosetta Clayborne, I'll be your instructor for Animal Taming." She said, her voice cold, not having a trace of warmth like it did before. "Your goal in this class is to pick an animal, research it thoroughly by recording it's habits and behavioral patterns – which you will be doing for at least a month – and then release it and tame the animal. You will find notebooks at the front, along with pens if you don't have any. Good luck, and if you have any questions don't hesitate to ask." She sounded like she would prefer it if Waldo did hesitate.

"Uh, thank you," Waldo said. The children stared at him like he was some bug-eyed freak.

"Right you are, children, back to work!" Rosetta called out and clapped her hands. Waldo went to the front, a long ten-minute walk made even slower by his awe at the animals' strangeness. There was a pile of black leather bound notebooks on a large mahogany table. A tray of pens lay next to the leather bound books, and next to that there was a colorful collection of manuals called, "Guide to Known Animals of the Purple Planet."

Waldo picked one of each and went to the first cage. What they were doing, Waldo guessed, was recording the appearances and habits of each animal, day in day out. He decided to stick his head down and not bother anyone, and hope they didn't bother him.

The first animal Waldo went up to was a blob. That was all it was, a small looking red blob with two eyes that looked sadly at Waldo.

"Err, hello." Waldo said, trying to see if it would talk. He had the translation stone, right? Might as well use it.

"You are the first one who has spoken to me in all my time as a captured animal," The blob began. "Who are you? What do you people want from me? What-"

Waldo walked away, hastily. He scribbled down the description of the blob, and in the habits column (there were two column on each page) he put, 'Prone to Moping.'

Like this he went around each and every cage, and tried to talk to the animals. Some cursed at him and swore at him, yelled at him to release them. Some went on and on about themselves in a boring monotone, some gave him interesting tidbits of info like: (When Waldo asked about the trees) "Don't worry about the trees here in the Forest. They are all friendly people, but never put anything on fire near them… they don't like it." The two-headed lion said this with a bit of a shudder. Or… (When Waldo asked the snake about the demons) "Demons… powerful… Astral Plane… trapped in there… hate all living creatures… Septh… controls… demons… uses… ice… shells…" Then the snake stopped and try as Waldo might to cajole it into talking again, it spoke not a word more.

He tried to keep his head down, and make zero eye contact with the other students, and it seemed to work. They flinched away from him, but they stared, when they thought Waldo wasn't looking they stared at him with greedy hunger. Hunger for revenge, Waldo thought. He was dreading the duel in the courtyard now.

As he walked he worked out a plan, for the duel that is. It was a simple and effective plan that should prevent him from getting hurt, or at least Waldo hoped it would do that.

When class was over, Rosetta gave a shrill cry of, "Gather up children!" and everyone moved to go where Rosetta was, in front of the purple barrier that when crossed, led back to the forest of eternity.

"Today you have taken notes, and tomorrow you will take notes, and the day after that. Some students opt to take notes for at least a year before attempting to tame an animal. Now, there are students that are taming animals as we speak, and they will give you a little demonstration before your duel in the courtyard. These are all alpha students by the way," Rosetta said.

The students gasped and started whispering to each other. Waldo stood silent, in the corner, wishing he had some friend to talk to. This was just like the orphanage where he would be secluded… it used to be because he was an albino but here they didn't really care about appearances since you could change them with a simple spell.

But they cared about your legacy, your rankings. Already Waldo could notice the children were grouped in three different parts, self grouped because Rosetta didn't do it. There was the alpha, with their snotty looks, the beta, who seemed very friendly and the scowling and most unhappy Gamma. Then there was Waldo, who was a group by himself.

There was one thing common between the three groups; they kept sneaking hate filled glances at Waldo, who tried his best to ignore them. He was startled out of his thoughts by Rosetta, clapping her chubby hands together and whispering, "Here they come. Get ready children."

Three tall boys strode toward them from the pink barrier, and one girl to the side. All four wore their black robes, with the eagle insignia on their chest of course. But they, like all alpha, wore a red cap. Waldo noticed it just now; all the alpha wore bright red caps. The beta and the gamma did not.

From right to left, the first boy was bald headed, his face looked like an egg, his eyes were round and glassy, grey colored pupils. The second boy had short hair, and a scowl on his face as he stood with his arms folded, scrutinizing the crowd almost angrily. The third boy was really short, and fat. He had a bright smile on his face as he waved, and Waldo noticed he was the only one with a smile on his face. The girl looked cranky with her black boyish length hair and green eyes. She looked like Nikon, except had a longer nose.

"Right, we are alpha students, and have almost graduated from the course," The fat boy announced. "My name is Johnny, baldy over there, his name's Prenon, and this one's Pete. The girl's name is Sarah, you remember Nikon right? Assistant to the headmaster?" There were a few nods, "Well this one's her sister, and they're almost twins."

"Shut it Johnny," Prenon said. "Our animals…"

A large hawk like bird flew from the barrier and over Waldo's head, circling the students. It had rose colored feathers, and wings at least as big as a tree. The bird crooned, a sharp metal striking against metal kind of sound.

That was only the first animal, however, and Waldo's attention was soon taken up by a horse bounding across the barrier. It looked like a normal horse from Earth, except his fur was purple like the eagle insignia on the uniforms.

:A large snake slithered behind it, hissing at everyone and everything. It was pure black, with a few silver streaks. The snake stopped and its sharp catlike eyes locked dead on into Waldo's. Waldo shivered.

Then a small fat pig tumbled along behind the snake to many chuckles and laughter. "That one's mine," Johnny said, laughing along good naturedly.

"Who else would have a pig as a pet?" Sarah jeered. There was more laughter, but Johnny looked like he was having fun.

"Anyways, we picked the animals about a year into the course, and tamed them for two whole years." Johnny said. "We can communicate with them mentally and when we give them commands, they follow. Watch this, Piggy, sit down."

The pig sat on its haunches, staring dumbly at Johnny.

The class laughed, and Waldo chuckled along too. "Right," Johnny said, "See? Now the bigger and more aggressive the animal, the harder to tame, right Sarah?"

"My snake was without a doubt the hardest to tame," Sarah said proudly.

Waldo thought she was arrogant, not like her fun loving sister Nikon at all. The other two boys stayed silent but were scowling at Sarah.

"Once you think you got your animal tamed you have to do your test. Madame Rosetta will tell you more," Johnny said.

"Wonderful presentation Johnny," Rosetta beamed at them. "Full marks for all of you. Now time's running short, so all of you skip off to lunch. We can all meet up at the duel in the courtyard." Rosetta said.

The duel. Waldo thought with dread. He had a plan though but he could only hope it would work… and he could only hope Zamon wouldn't stop him. If he was fast enough he could probably pull it off.

Chapter 8: The Plan

Waldo staggered behind the kids, relatively in the back. Others, mostly Gammas, staggered in the back too, but Waldo was at the end, deep in thought. Would his plan work? What if something went wrong?

Still, his plan was better than getting ganged upon and being murdered right? And besides he had never asked to be kidnapped here, it just happened. It wasn't his fault, so he had perfect right to execute his plan.

Right?

Right.

The fortress of the ABCs was quite tall, about eight floors, and wide. The compound was surrounded by the swift black river, so it was on an island. After the river was the Forest of Eternity, which stretched on for as far as the eye could see… which wasn't relatively far considering that the Purple Planet was ten times the size of Earth. Waldo wondered why it was called the Purple Planet… sure it had purple clouds, but Earth had blue clouds and you don't call Earth the Blue Planet do you? No you don't. And the purple eagles, what did they stand for?

If I ever get out of this mess, I'll find out, Waldo thought to himself.

Around the fortress was the courtyard. It wasn't square like the courtyards of the medieval castles back home, but it was rather… everything. The land was very flat though at the entrance of the fortress, after the two doors twice the size of Waldo, were benches where students ate and sat and talked and did homework (they could do that in their rooms as well, that was optional).

The Dueling Tournament, Waldo guessed, would take place around the fortress, and since it was a free for all, last man standing wins. Waldo wanted to win, so he would have to make sure he was the last man standing, using any means possible.

He doubted Zamon would see it that way, but oh well. And if they expelled him, it didn't matter, he would just go home.

He knew fire tongue, somehow, he would still have to find out how, and so he could make up any spell he wanted right? He didn't need this Academy of BasiCs, or ABCs. Though exploration in particular sounded dangerously fun, what he needed to do was get back home, back to his orphanage. Why not? Sure he wouldn't have friends there, but then again, he didn't have friends here. But back home, at least he wouldn't get killed by other kids… and he would be the only one able to do magic. That had to be spectacular.

He walked over the bridge, glancing uncomfortably at the swift black waters. When he came to the other side, he saw a lightning dragon, like the one who had delivered his letter this morning but smaller somehow, and sleeker. It was black coloured, looking grim, staring straight ahead emotionless, sitting stolidly on a bench. He went toward it. The dragon jumped into the air, handed him a thick newspaper, and shimmered away.

Waldo glanced down at the newspaper. This would be a good way to get to know more about the Purple Planet. News! Why didn't he think of this before?

There was a note attached under the string that held the whole bundle together. It read,

Randomer –

Consider this one of many forthcoming gifts. Hopefully you will see what the council is trying to hide…

-A friend.

Who was this? Who wrote this note? Waldo was full of questions right now. He took a deep breath, and let go. Don't think about this now, just let it flow naturally, Waldo said to himself.

He ripped out the piece of string and started reading the first page. The paper was very thin, and yellow. It was written in solid blocks of letters that was easy on the eyes. The headlines read, to Waldo's jaw dropping amusement, "Randomer Sets Foot on Purple Planet: Great Honour!" There was a picture of him, climbing out of the transportation bubble, with Asep and Belitta behind him.

RANDOMER SETS FOOT ON PURPLE PLANET: GREAT HONOUR!

Or is it?

By: Jonathan Miller

Once again the council proves holds its corrupt weight, here is the innocent young Randomer who knows nothing about our civilization carted off to ABCs. We have long known that the council only looks out for itself, so this doesn't hold much shock. Why should it? A Randomer forced to attend the most rigid, ruthless school around, where education levels are horrid? You'd think that the council would learn from their mistakes, right? Look how Septh turned out after going to that school. Look how the majority of the Nur Law Breakers are ABCs graduates.

Are we going to have a repeat of Septh? Randomers are supposed to put fresh blood into our civilization, to renew and refresh us with new ideas, but how can they when they are forced to attend a school known for its yearly deaths that number at least in the hundreds…? The fact is, I wouldn't be too surprised to find the Randomer dead soon.

The thing to do here is to overthrow the Council. Enough with their tyrannical laws and the high taxes. What will the non magical person do when the council has outlawed working for them? What will they do when the council tries to tax them at the same time? And people wonder why they follow Septh so faithfully.

Many of you have lost loved ones to Septh but consider this: is he the greatest evil? Or is it the council? Consider this: would Septh have tried to summon the demon if the Council hadn't set out an arrest warrant for him?

I do my civil duty in revealing these little known facts – and I know that I am not going to be able to hold on to my job for much longer.

Who knows, maybe the Council will issue an arrest warrant for me? Then we'll see if I try to summon any demons.

Waldo turned away from the newspaper. He heard a booming bell sound and an announcement from the fortress: "ALL STUDENTS REPORT TO BACK COURTYARD TO GET YOUR STAFF!" Waldo jerked up to his feet and threw the newspaper away. He had to do it now, no time to waste. He had to put his plan to action.

He ran up to the double door entrance and pushed the doors open. They creaked and groaned and all Waldo could think of was, "Hurry up! Hurry up!" He had wasted too much time reading that article.

The doors opened with a struggle. Waldo went in toward the stairs and climbed to at a time, straight to the topmost floor where the windows were located.

The tainted windows.

It took at least ten minutes to get up there, and when Waldo arrived he was panting hard. He went to the first black window he saw and spoke hastily in fire tongue, "Guardian of the Astral Plane – Nelegar! Come! I want to free you!"

The green cat eye peered through the window. "You are back?" He rumbled.

Waldo leapt back, a bit surprised. "Yes, quickly tell me what to say, and I will free you if you agree to obey my every wish and command."

"Agreed." The demon said. "'Say this: I, Lord Randomer, free Nelegar from his prison.'"

"What will this do to me?"

"You will be exhausted," the demon admitted. "Too exhausted to do much, but don't worry about it. I will help you gain strength again, and give you some of my own if that is what you wish, anything really to get revenge on Septh."

"Okay," Waldo said and took a deep breath. "I, Lord Randomer, free Nelegar from his prison."

He felt his stomach drop, and his eyes almost pop out of his skull as a black ball of energy shot from his body toward the window. The window cracked like an egg, and a giant hand reached out. It was a scaly hand, and very small as well. Another hand reached out. The demon pulled itself from the window, and snapped his fingers. The window reverted back to its original state.

Waldo gazed at the demon in undisguised disgust. It had no hair and was extremely scaly, had big green eyes, snake like slits for a nose, and a triumphant smirk. "I am back," Nelegar said. "I AM BACK!" His teeth were sharp and pointy, his eyes held a maniacal glint to them.

"You said, you said you will obey my every command." Waldo began nervously.

The demon scowled. "What of it?"

"Well, I want you to… err… become invisible and follow me to the courtyard. I want you to help me win the duel while making sure nobody is aware of your presence. Can you do that?"

The demon leapt forward right up against Waldo. He hadn't even seen the demon move! That was how fast the demon was. "Boy," The demon said, "how will this help me defeat Septh and regain my throne?"

"Why does that matter?" Waldo asked, "You said you would obey my every order."

"And I can disobey just as easily," The demon said. "I thought we had a deal, a pact, you help me defeat Septh while I obey your every order."

Time was running short. "Look, do this for me now, and then I will think about it. I will figure out a way to defeat Septh."

"Very well, Randomer. It is a deal." The demon said. He snapped his unnaturally long fingers, and turned invisible.

"Follow me," Waldo said, and walked down the marble staircase. While they were walking (Waldo heard the demon's loud footsteps behind him), Waldo told him exactly what to do.

"Don't kill anyone, okay? Just knock them unconscious and make it so when I do a particular hand motion, it works and they fall unconscious or something happens. You will be the one doing the spells, not me, but it will look like I am the one doing the spells. Do you understand?" Waldo said.

"Why can I not kill?"

"If you kill, it will look like I have killed. I don't want suspicion to fall on me, do you understand."

"I see," the demon said. "In that case, you should just lose this tournament."

"But… I might die!" Waldo said a bit shocked.

"That is your problem. Good bye, Waldo Randomer, and thank you for releasing me."

"Wait, what?" Waldo was confused. "No, are you leaving?"

No answer. The demon was gone, and Waldo was alone once again. Now what to do? He sighed and wondered if he could just skip.

That option was cut off when he heard a shout from the courtyard, "Will Waldo Randomer please come down to the courtyard? The duel is about to begin."

Oh man, Waldo thought, I'm going to die!

I'll just have to do my best, Waldo said to himself firmly and started down the staircase once more.

And if I fall unconscious, it doesn't matter, because then they'll stop right?

Hopefully.

He walked out of the double doors and jogged to the back of the courtyard. The children all held long wooden staves and were pacing around in random directions. They seemed to be relax, but when Waldo came, everything stopped.

Zamon came and handed Waldo a staff, then he went to the sidelines in front of the black walls of the fortress. Him and Nikon were the only ones supervising.

"Good luck Waldo!" Nikon shouted.

Waldo tried to smile, but inside he was scared stiff.

"Okay class, you know the drill – Free for all, everyone for themselves, aim to knock unconscious but not to kill. Last man standing gets admission into Alpha." Zamon said.

"Now on your mark, get set, go!" Zamon blew the whistle.

The children eyed each other and immediately moved into three groups, almost like they didn't notice they were doing it. Alpha Beta and Gamma all staring at each other with hatred. Waldo was ignored, almost.

Then the fighting started, it was chaotic when everyone started scrambling at once, hitting here, blocking there, getting hit in the leg here with the wooden staffs. There were no spells, it was almost fun. Waldo lost himself in the fight, nobody teamed up and decided to play 'Kill the Randomer.'

For three or four hours they fought, Zamon shouting tips from the sidelines: "Back straight! Keep that staff low, eyes up ahead. Keep moving those feet, never let it rest!" Stuff like that.

Nikon magically pulled out the unconscious ones to the side and gave them medical attention. They were good to go back into the fray within minutes.

Then three hours later, when they were all sweaty and bruised, Zamon called them up in a row.

"Good job, children. We'll do the same thing tomorrow." That was all. Then, "Dismissed!"

They trudged back toward their dorms to clean and change up, single file. Waldo found it wasn't that bad.

The only bad part had been him summoning that demon.

Chapter Nine: The Demon's Return

The Astral Plane was like no other. It was basically a land of the spirit world where the demons ruled, a vast expanse of hot desert and dry storms. A place where the demons ruled, where they lived and died. A place of terror and solace at the same time.

There were no buildings or any sort of structures in the Astral Plane when Septh had come. After he had killed the demon (a smallish one not too powerful) and had absorbed its powers, he could gain entry into the astral plane. Then for thirty long years, after he had been exiled of course – that was inevitable – he had battled the demons one by one, stealing their knowledge and powers.

Thirty long years of intense struggle, one man against an army of demons, running and hiding from the big demons, defeating the small demons after a big chase, and slowly he had worked his way up the ladder. It seemed like a long time to him but to the demons, who thought that hundred years was just a blink of an eye, his advancement up the rankings seemed to be like lightning.

That was not true. It had taken a long time to get where he had, for him at least. And when he had finally started killing off the big demons, one by one, then the Lord Guardian of the Astral Plane, which was basically a title that said "Biggest Demon Around" started taking notice of him.

Then things got hard, while he was fighting one demon, another would come to rescue his prey. And then he would have to retreat. But he used cunning and traps that he had invented. For example there was a very large tunnel underground that led from one end of the earth to the other. Demons would travel along the tunnel searching for prey. He put a magical web there, like a spider's web, and to his surprise it worked. The demons got caught by the bucket loads. He would quickly go down the web and pull them away, over to the ground where he could safely absorb their powers. He did this over and over, until soon he could contend with Nelegar himself. And so he did. He wasn't, and probably never would be, strong enough to completely eradicate Nelegar's presence from the Astral Plane, but he had trapped the demon.

And so he had won, and all the demons around bowed down to him. He ordered them to build him a great big castle which he dubbed the CENTER. He ordered them to build machines of war, Siege engines, towers, catapults, flying machines, submarines, cars and trucks, all according to his plans and all powered by magic.

While this was going on he was also searching for the Medallion, Leonardo Da Vinci's most famous invention before he had returned to Earth. It was said that the Medallion would give the wearer the power to see the truth in all things. But the Medallion had been lost forever. Nobody alive had ever seen it.

Septh saw. Only one piece though. He had one piece of the great medallion, one of seven valuable parts. Nelegar had it chained on his neck and Septh took it, spoils for the victor. Now he sat on his throne in the big castle, deep in meditation… He looked with his mind's eye all across the universe, searching for the medallion. He knew in time he would find it, but the search took so damn long.

Still once he had the medallion, he would be powerful enough to come down with his demon army to the Purple World and finally conquer it. That was his quest, to conquer the Purple Planet, and their arrogant and snotty council too.

So he did not know about Nelegar, or how he had escaped thanks to the new Randomer… yet.

But then the thumping on the door started, slowly at first then an intense banging. Septh looked up in annoyance, "What do you want? I told Morgi to guard the doors and not have anyone disturb me!"

Then the metal doors sprung open and… Nelegar walked into the empty chamber, right in front of Septh's throne with a squad of demons following him in neat lines.

"Its been a while, Septh."

His red eyes widened under the cloak, Uh oh. He thought, his heartbeat trying to outrun itself. He jumped down to the floor, thinking and calculating plans instantly. Nelegar had escaped! But how?

And… he had the demons' loyalty. Well of course he did, what with Septh humiliating them and all, one human in charge of all the demons? Preposterous. So yeah, Nelegar had their loyalty.

He would have to cut this off at the head, should he attempt a preemptive strike against the demon? No too risky, not yet. Let's see if he will talk, tell me how he got out first. Nelegar was a dangerous demon, very cunning. He was the hardest demon Septh had ever faced, and he did not particularly want a repeat of that conflict.

Should he try to escape?

Plans rushed into his mind. He pushed them away and smiled slowly, his red eyes glowing brightly.

"Well, then, Nelegar," Septh began, 'You seem to have escaped. Mind telling me how?"

The demon rumbled with laughter that sounded like he was choking on something. "No, Septh, I don't mind. I'll tell you how I escaped… or how a certain Randomer freed me…"

Septh's red eyes narrowed. "The new one?" He asked harshly.

"Yes, the new one." Nelegar answered. "Now it is time for you to die. Thank you for keeping my throne warm but your services will no longer be required." He raised his hands and started making hand seals as he spoke words in fire tongue. He was doing a rather large spell, or something, Septh realized.

"…Demons be free! Fight the chains and be free, free to roam the world once again, skeletons in chains, be free! Go back to the land of the dead, remove the shields of the Randomer, and begone!"

"No," Septh began, startled. "Stop, Stop, Stop, Stop!" He said in fire tongue.

Nelegar stopped, scowling angrily. Septh moved quickly. He raised his scythe and flung it at the demon. The demon dodged, but Septh was already running out the doors. Flying out, really.

------------

Waldo Novel Journal.

Keeping journal to record progress with novel writing.

july 24/07 – wrote 7k words with ease. Already have some things planned out. Planning to write 7k words everyday. Think of more ideas to use in story.

July 25/07 – wrote another 7k with moderate difficulty. At 9k-word count, felt bit of hopelessness and desire to start again. Reminder: don't look back much. Word count: 14k.

July 26, 2007 – feeling writer's block. Will make a few new ideas and write background about instructors. Word count so far: 1,350. Need seven thousand words. Update: managed 6,400 words. Final word count: 20,415. It was a big struggle to write so much and quality is bad but hopefully with more reading it will improve. Story not so good either, having doubts, thinking of ending it early. Need to not do that and keep going. Planning 50k after all.

July 27, 2007 – managed 700 words. Lost enthusiasm in writing. Hoping for lots of reviews to encourage me. If not this project is abandoned.