Chapter 1:
This is a story of hopes, fears, manipulation, cruelty, dreams…magic…..and things unbelievable. Things people never thought possible by any human. My name is Ryan Mercitsy, and this is my story.
I was born in a small town that was called Corner Street. I never knew why it was called that, but none the less it was in this little town that I was born and raised. I am 5 years old, and I have no friends. Today is the day that my parents were finally going to send me off to a place called school. I didn't want to go to school. I could hear the other kids in the neighboring houses sounding all ecstatic for their, "first day of school", idiots. I knew what school was about. It was about stuck up demanding teachers telling you what to d o in an attempt to educate you in something that you are not interested in.
They parked their jet black Honda odyssey in the flooded parking lot and grabbed my hand to take me up to the school to introduce me to things. I cooperated with my parents till we got through the front door. I waited patiently till my parents grips had eased, and then I made my escape. I ripped my hands out of theirs and took off through the strange and unfamiliar hallways of this place called school. "Ryan, get back here!" my mother screamed to me as I took off running out of sight around the corner. I ran, as fast as I could, looking for an alternate exit. I whizzed around another corner and saw a double door. I sped as fast as I could and plowed through these double doors. The doors hardly budged, but opened enough for me to get through. I weaseled my way outside… I was in a playground. There were other kids everywhere. There were swing sets and slides and a big jungle gym. "So this is how they plan to keep us all here. Trick us by telling us that we can play with toys and stuff", I thought to myself. How long did they plan for this little idea to work? I looked around for an exit, but this playground was surrounded by tall green fences. Suddenly I was picked up. It was my mother, with a very frustrated look on her face. "Did I do something unpleasing mother," I asked.
"You think," she replied
"No. I know," I smirked, sticking my tongue out at her. She carried me to where my class was and put me down in front of a strange red head.
"This is your teacher, Ms. Kristen," my mother explained
"This girl is my teacher? I have to listen to this girl? Mom, she has red hair, there must be something wrong with her," I retorted. The teacher gasped, putting her hand over her mouth.
"Ryan, be nice?" mother commanded.
"Why the hell should I?" I asked
"Ryan, don't use that kind of language," mother commanded.
"Why not!? I hear you and dad say things like that all the time," I explained
"Mrs. Mercitsy, do you really use such language around your 5 year old son?" Ms. Kristen question skeptically.
"No, of course not," mom replied.
"You're such a stupid liar, mom," I snapped back at her. Just then my dad walked in. just as I saw him, I bit my teeth so far into my mother's hand that she dropped me. I landed on my feet and took off, past my dad and out the door.
"Amanda, are you ok?" my dad asked my mom.
"Yeah, I'm fine. He just bit me again. He made me bleed this time," mom replied. I was peeping around the wall of the door way. Amanda turned and saw me, "Tom, get him for me please." Mom said delicately. Tom, my dad, ran after me. As soon as I saw his movement in my direction, I took off. Just as I turned around, I saw someone open up a segment of the large green fence. I rushed as fast as I could and raced out the fence before the person who opened the door closed it back. I did not stop for anything. I went off the school campus and into the nearby forest. I liked the forest. It was my favorite place to be when I didn't want to deal with being bored at home. I started to slow down after I got past the line of trees that was the border between the forest and the little town of Corner Street. I ran into the forest and began walking deeper and deeper into the forest. I was going to go to my secret hideout that I had in the trunk of a giant oak tree somewhere in this forest.
"Ryan! Where are you buddy!?" I could hear Tom getting closer to the forest. I ducked down and looked back. I could see him peeking into the forest from behind the "border". I kept quiet and started to crawl through the woods. I spotted my tree just seconds later and increased my pace. I looked back at him to see if he was following me. He must have seen me move because he started into the forest in my direction. I rolled into a bush and got as low as I could go. The fact that my parents had dressed me in very bright colors didn't help my cover very much, so I dumped several handfuls of mud and dirt on them to camoflage them. Then I lay motionless.
"Ryan! Where did you go buddy? Come on," Tom was very insistent, but I didn't move an inch. I was only about 8 yards from my tree. My dad walked past me without noticing anything. He kept on walking, shouting my name as he went. He walked past m tree and didn't stop. When he was about 12 yards past my tree, I started crawling again, very slowly, towards my tree.
When I got close enough, I dashed swiftly to my little hiding spot and stayed there, waiting for Tom to be gone. There were various little peep holes in my tree so that I could see outside from just about every angle. My tree was all hollowed out perfectly. Its inner walls all nice and smooth almost as if it was sanded to the liking of a wooden table for sale. I kept an eye on him through my peep holes till he gave up and exited the forest. I watched him leave till he was too out of sight to possibly come back and sneak up on me.
I left my tree, cautiously, and started walking deeper into the forest, looking for deer, bears, maybe a tiger or something. I walk as casually as possible through the forest making all kinds of noise for any aminals to hear. "Ryan, come to me. I need your help, Ryan." I came to a dead stop as I heard this ominous voice.
"Who's there!?" I asked in a commanding voice.
"Help me Ryan! Help me" this voice replied. It sounded like it was in my head or something, almost like it was a hallucination, like a figment of my imagination. Though it sounded like a voice that was in my head, I was able to tell where it was coming from. I took off as fast as I could into the forest where the voice was coming from. I was dashing my way around the trees, boulders and bushes, around hedges, over hills. I ran so far into the forest that I approached a really big hill. I began hiking it as fast as I could, falling to the ground as my energy dimmed to nothing. My breathing getting heavier, my muscles getting weaker.
I made it to the top of the hill and saw a young, snow white horse with grey strips along its sides, being chased by some wolves. They raced across the scene in front of me and I chased after them. The area on the top of the hill where I was running was a clear path, which made it a little bit easier to keep up but they were running too fast for me to keep up. I ran as fast as I could, but the chase was moving too fast. I couldn't do it. I started to slow, out of breath and out of hope.
"Don't give up Ryan. You can do it, just concentrate," the voice said to me. I started pushing myself past my limits. I entered fermentation as my speed increased little by little. My body was hurting, but I pushed my body onward, ignoring the intense pain that was growing throughout my entire body. I closed my eyes and concentrated on running. I gave myself a goal; to rescue that poor defenseless colt. I focused on that goal, and then flashed my eyes open. My mind and body set completely on that goal. I ran as fast as I could, faster than I had ever gone before. I was catching up to the chase. I was running at least 60 miles an hour, maybe even faster than that. I was astonished, but this was not the time to have my thoughts distant in awe.
I caught up to the chase and jumped from the hill, farther than I had ever jumped before and landed directly on top of the colt, standing up. How was I doing all of this? I turned to towards the wolves, put my hand out at them and yelled STOP! All of the chasing predators stopped in their tracks as the colt I was standing on slowed to a stop with a sense of security and turned around to face the wolves. They just stood there for a minute with wondering gazes, and then they just walked off.
I leaped, gallantly, off the horse and landed perfectly on my feet without hurting any part of my body, even with how small I was and how much of a drop I had jumped from. The colt looked at me with mystifying eyes. "Thank you so much for saving me Ryan," the voice said to me, sounding like it came from this horse.
"What the hell!?" I asked, "Are you, this colt, the one who has been talking to me through my mind?"
" Yes. I have. My na-"
"How are you able to do that?"
" My powers allow me to do many things, Ryan."
"So, are you a magic horse or something?"
"I guess you could say that, but I'm not a-"
"Wow… I just met and rescued a magic horse. So how are you able to talk to my mind like this?"
"One of my powers allows me to tap into the minds of anyone whom I choose. You have a special talent, Ryan. You can manipulate aminals. You can move faster than just about anything I have ever seen before. I also sense that you have even greater potential that has yet to be unlocked. That's why I chose to tap into your mind when I needed help."
"So, now are you going to just leave?" I asked in disappointment. There was a long pause as the horse looked down with a look of embarrassment in his eyes.
"Hop on my back," the colt finally said. I jumped from the ground right on top of his back without using my hands at all. I landed on the horse, standing up. Then I clamped my hands on the horse's neck and eased myself down on the horse to ride it the right way. As soon as the horse realized that I was securely on his back, he took off. His run was so graceful. There were trees everywhere, yet this amazing horse ran as fast as it could without even touching them. I had never seen or known of a horse to be able to stride through a crowded forest like this before.
"Where are you taking me?" I asked politely.
"To a mystical place, unknownst to any mortal human," he replied
"So, what exactly happened to me back there, and what's going on right now? I'm doing things that I never even thought possible. It just doesn't make any sense. Are you the one who gave me the ability to do the things that I can?"
"None of your powers are from my doing. You did all that all your own. You just needed something to trigger it."
"So what all can you do? I mean your powers can't be all the powerful if you were being chased by a pack of wolves and had to call for help."
"I am still young. My powers are still developing."
"Oh… I see… so what did you say your name was?"
"Oh, right. I started to tell you my name earlier, but you didn't want to listen. You interrupted me."
"Sorry. I won't interrupt you this time. I promise."
"Ok. My name is Elaris, and I am not a-"
"Hey, what's that?" I asked, pointing to a skyscraping pillar on a big hill with the tip of its top glistening with the light of the sun like a diamond.
"That's it. That's mountain peek pass."
"Mountain peek pass?" I asked in an extremely confused voice.
"yes."
When we got to the top of the mountain and were right at the bass of this huge pillar, Elaris stopped and let me jump off. I looked straight up at the pillar to gaze at the magnificent glimmer of light at the top of the tower in front of me. Then I looked down in front of me at the pillar and saw a very strange mark. It looked like the horn of a Unicorn coming from the center of a circle
"Put your hand on the middle of the symbol and ask the pillar for a 'pass to a new life'," Elaris explained. I did just as he told me. I places my hand delicately on the symbol and asked the pill, "Give me a pass to a new life. " the pillar lit up in a wave of light starting from the top where the glimmer of sunlight was and spread down through various paths of symbols and patterns all the way down to the symbol. All the paths of the light looped around the pillar to the symbol and the symbol flashed in a bright, illuminating light. The light flared right at me from the symbol. It was so bright, I couldn't help but slam my eyes shut, but I never removed my hand. I could feel the patterns of light continue, from the symbol, slowly through my body. It gave me a tingling sensation as it traced around my entire body and wrapped around to join in the center of my chest. After the tingling all around my body circled around and met in my chest, it started to ease, starting from my hand then followed the trails of tingling light then my entire body was relieved. The could see the light fade through my eyelids. I slowly opened my eyes and removed my hand from the pillar.
"Elaris… I feel very… different. What just happened?" I asked suspiciously.
"That is a question of which I am forbidden to answer. Come hop on my back. I'll take you home" Elaris replied.
I started walking towards him when we heard an omniscient ringing coming from the top of the pillar. Frightened, I rushed next to Elaris for protection. We both looked up at the shimmering diamond like sparkle at the top of the pillar. The light was pulsing as the ringing dimmed in and out like a police siren. Then the light from the peak shot up like a cannon and hurled back down to earth, splashing on the ground like a rain drop. There was an explosion of light where the droplet had landed and a figure from that light. The figure had no exact shape. It was more like a blob, constantly changing shape. As soon as the figure appeared, Elaris lowered her head in a sign of respect for this strange thing in front of us. I followed what he did and got on my knees to kneel down before this……thing.
"Elaris, what have you brought to our sacred Mountain peek pass? The law says no mortals. Why have you disobeyed this mandate of our people?" the strange figured asked in a loud, commanding and authoritative voice.
"Dioxy, cant' you sense it? This boy is no mortal human. He is very unique. He has magnificent powers, I just had to discharge his potential," Elaris explained, then went on in a hesitant voice from there, "With your permission, Dioxy, I wish for him to join our people," he finished and lowered his head farther, knowing that it must've sounded like an outrageous plan. There was a long moment of silence while the figure pondered this appeal.
"You dare request that a human join our group!? I should have you banished for even suggesting that. Absolutely n-"
"You don't even know him. You don't know what he is capable of. He could be a very valuable asset to our peop-"
"I have heard just about enough of you, Elaris," the authoritative figure said as he raised his hand out at Elaris and reached a limb out at him. I immediately lunged out in front of and knocked the limb away.
"You leave Elaris alone you big bully!" I commanded right before I bolted at the figure at breathtaking speed. I jumped in the air and went to kick this thing in where I figured was its face. There was an invisible barrier around the figure when I got to it because when I got close enough to hurt it, something stopped me, then hurled me back next to Elaris.
"This boy really does have potential. I really hope that you are making the right choice in deciding to bring him into our group. If you're dead set on it, then I'll allow it, but never again will I let you bring a human in to join our group," the strange figure explained.
"Yes. Thank you head master. I promise that you will not regret this," Elaris stated full of joy and thankfulness. Elaris bowed his head at the strange figure and I followed his example and joined him. Then the figure shot up back into the sky and made an arc from the ground and back into the glistening gem at the top of the pillar.
"So Elaris, what exactly happened when I touched that strange symbol at the base of the pillar?" I asked intensively
"It was an initiation into our group. The symbol of our tribe has now been engraved onto your body by the light from the sun," Elaris explained. I started scanning my body for these symbols, but saw nothing.
"Ok? So how can people…err… things tell that I am one of you?"
"The marks illuminate when in the sun."
"Wow, really?" I asked excitedly as I immediately went into the sun light and watched my body, not sparkle, but glow in a bright, illuminating light in the symbols of whatever tribe I had just joined. There were lines like vines stretching from my arms all over my body with circles, diamonds, and symbols shaped like suns coming off of these vine shaped lines. I took off my shirt to get a better view of this astounding phenomenon that had befell me and was astonished to see that in the center of my chest was a Sun, glowing as bright as the actual sun itself.
"So is this tribe like the people of the sun or something?" I asked
"Close. We are the organization of the light," Elaris replied.
"Oh, and let me guess. You…things bind together to destroy the darkness, huh?"
"Actually, no. the people of the dark are our allies. We fight with them, and they are very powerful."
"Oh, alright. So who do you guys battle against?"
"We battle against the Monsters."
"Monsters……………….so, when am I waking up from this wacky dream again"
"Ryan, this isn't a joke. I'm being completely serious. We battle against the Monsters."
"No, seriously. All of this has to be fake, I mean monsters? Common. Just how stupid do you think I am?"
"Well, in all fairness, you are only, what, 5 yea-"
"Don't even go there! I may be young, but I'm smarter than my stupid parents."
"You have an inclination to interrupt me qui-"
"When have I ever interrupted you," I said, agitatedly. Elaris just sighed and started walking away, back down the hill. "Hey, wait a minute. Where are you going?" I asked. Elaris turned and looked at me in a very odd way. Then suddenly I got really dizzy and light headed. My vision started getting cloudy till I could no longer see my hand in front of my face. I felt a thud on the front of my body. "What happened to me just now? Did Elaris do something to me? He did, didn't he! Ooooh, once I wake up, I'm gonna give him a piece of my mind! I'll teach him to mess with my mind."
I awoke where I last remembered standing. It was clear that no one had moved me; however, my shirt and shoes were gone. I looked frantically all over the hill-top, but they were nowhere to be seen. I glanced at the pillar that was still where it belonged right by the edge of the cliff. "What's going on now? Where are my clothes?" I asked, glaring up at the top of the pillar where the light was still radiating brightly, even though the sun had gone down. There was no sign of acknowledgment that the mysterious figure had heard me. Enraged from being ignored, I bolted right at the enormous structure and jumped on its side. My feet clinged to the side of the towering statue, and I began running up the side of the pillar to the top, intending to force the figure I had previously encountered to talk to me. About half way up, there was a minor explosion of light from beneath my feet. It loosened my grip and sent me flying off of the pillar, off the hill top and rolling down the hill side and back into the depths of the forest.
I was stopped involuntarily by a large boulder. My back ramming it like a diesel truck hitting a 30 feet thick concrete wall. The impact immediately stopped my body completely. I fell from the rock to the ground in immense pain. I slowly got back up to my feet and straightened out my back to make sure that it wasn't broken. By this time, it was really dark. The dark forest only being lit up by the light form the moon. I looked around, "I am so lost," I said to myself. Then I chose a random way to start walking and started wandering my way through the forest. I had never been out in the forest after dark. It was a lot scarier than I thought it would be. I was constantly hearing noises that sounded very suspicious and eerie. I didn't know what was going on. Why I was ditched by someone…… something that I thought was my friend and cared about me and my safety. I constantly looking all around just waiting for something to come out and attack me. I started to fear that those "Monsters" that Elaris was talking about earlier were gonna jump out of a tree and attack me because the decision I made to join this organization that I was now thinking of as stupid. I eventually found a burrow in the side of a tree, similar to the burrow in a tree that I had made by my parents house, except this one was obviously made by something else. The inside of the walls were all rough and rigged. It was a lot smaller than the one I had made. I scurried inside, fearing the darkness, the strange noises and what I couldn't see and got low enough to the ground to the point where I felt safe. I got as comfortable as I could get and tried my hardest to go to sleep where my fears would no longer exist. I eventually dozed off, despite all the strange noises that grew ever more clear and spooky as my ears got more sensitive. Alas I was asleep, well deep in the land of my dreams.