A long time ago…

Two eyes of a child peeped out of swaddling darkness, focused steadily forwards at what they saw ahead. They were young, keen, but nearly blind in the stone catacomb they'd found themselves in.

A single ghostly light shone down into the midnight chamber's abyss. It twinkled with an almost silver glow and illuminated the path just enough for the child not to be entirely lost in such a desolate place.

In the light's center, a figure sat perched atop a large stone throne. Long, almost skeletal arms spread out across its surface with thin bent knees poking up like jagged sticks. It was draped in tattered robes, obsidian cloth that seemed to absorb the spindly figure like a shroud. The stone helm was faced away from where the child stood, concealing the figure's face.

"Come forward, child," an emerald voice called from the perch. "I know you are there."

The child gasped in surprise, prompting the voice to chuckle coarsely. "Do not be afraid. I am happy you have chosen to visit me, contrary to your father's wishes of course."

The child stepped out into the light, revealing the short body of one not a year past twelve with a head of ink-black hair. "He said you were ill, that you needed to be left alone," the child looked away, "that you were dying."

"And yet I still live. But what he told you is not entirely untrue, child. I am fading away. My magic can keep my form alive only to a point. If you were to look upon my body in its entirety, you would see that of a walking corpse, kept together only by the soul's will."

The child looked down at the floor sullenly. "Is that why Father has you stay down here in the tombs, to hide yourself?"

"No," the figure said as it brought an ancient hand to the child's shoulder. "A being of my years has no right to walk among the living. This darkness this mausoleum is where I belong. And once my final plight is completed my body will finally rest among the truly dead."

"Plight?" The child echoed. "What more do you have to do, grandfather?"

The figure reached into its sweeping garments and gradually pulled out a small trinket deep within the robe's folds. It was golden in color, metallic in texture, with what appeared to be two small pyramids sealed together at the bases. It was threaded through with a thin chain that wrapped around the figure's bony fingers like water. He held it out for the child to see. The precious object glimmered in the pale light.

"Hold out your hand," the figure commanded gently.

The child did as they were told. The thin, ghoulish fingers dropped the trinket into the child's palm and closed their grip around it.

The figure sighed deeply. "It is now yours."

"What is it, grandfather?"

"A legacy, both mine and yours. I held it with me when the Great Barrier was sealed over Ebbot, when the greatest threat to our world was extinguished forever. I clutched it so tightly that day the marks it left are still evident across my hands. Ever since then I've always kept it with me, always made sure that not another soul would come into possession of such a thing. But today that changes."

"I don't understand, grandfather. Why give this to me? Why not my father? Or my siblings?"

"Because unlike them I have sensed the potential within you. When I pass, magic in humanity will too. But within you, somewhere, I can tell that it still festers, too stubborn to disappear entirely from our veins."

The figure tapped the child's still closed palm. "This is the key. Never, no matter what the cost may be, lose what I have given you. With it, you carry the destiny of wizards." He pointed an ancient finger out into the darkness. "Now go, child. And do not speak of this encounter."

The child nodded their head dutifully and clamored back out of the light. However, just before they entirely disappeared, they turned back around. "Grandfather...is this goodbye?"

"No child," the figure called from a great distance, his voice growing fainter and fainter, "I'll always be close."


Present day

"ME-OOOOWWW!"

Croix was awoken to the horrid cry of what he initially thought was a cross between a waterborne cow and the chattering crackle of a sentient robot entertainer. But, as his still groggy mind began to piece together the plans that had been made earlier in the week, a small, golden glowing smile of recognition appeared on his shadowy face.

His large, equally glowing monster eyes blinked rapidly as quieted excitement began to overcome his small frame. The dark brown cloth that accounted for his body and as well concealed his shadowed form, minus his face, wiggled in anticipation as another escapade was about to begin.

Pushing the bedcovers off of himself, he floated across his darkened bedroom floor to the window beside his dresser. Opening it carefully, he peered out at his moonlit front lawn while searching keenly for the source of the twisted but telltale signal.

"ME-OOOOWWW!" The bellow sounded again from just below him. Looking down, his eyes met with that of a smiling human boy standing by a parked bicycle.

Without a word, Croix evened himself past the window sill and slid the rest of the way out, hovering gradually to the blue-black grass below without even the slightest bit of effort or strain. He landed a few feet away from the human, who seemed to jitter in enthusiasm the moment he touched down.

"How'd you like my cat call?" the boy asked eagerly. "Pretty convincing, eh?"

The human was of equal age to Croix with the markings of childhood youth clearly written across his fair-skinned face. His hair was a brightened shade of chestnut with sapphire eyes that could just barely be made out in the relative darkness. He was dressed for an early autumn night, long pants complimenting a simple grey t-shirt.

"Not really," Croix replied in a calm but kind tone, one that emulated a certain level of gentle introversion. "I could still tell it was you, Landen."

Landen seemed undeterred by this and just shook his head in happy defeat. "Ah well, maybe I'll get you next time." He walked over to the standing bicycle and perched himself on the seat, patting the handlebars with a quick look to his friend. "Hop on. Orne is probably almost done setting up."

Croix moved over to the bike and sat atop where he'd been motioned to. Normally, the human would've had trouble seeing over somebody who was in his direct line of sight. But Croix's minuscule height made travelling by bike all the much safer for them as well as convenient.

"You ready?" Landen asked with a glance over his friend's shoulder.

Croix gripped the metal rungs of the handlebars with both sides of his cloak and nodded. "Ready."

At that, Landen began to vigorously pedal across the short lawn and onto the adjacent sidewalk, propelling the both of them into the night.

Landen whizzed down the darkened residential streets, the sleepy treelined neighborhoods dimly lit by the occasional hazy orange streetlight. No cars were out at a time like this which gave them variable freedom whenever crossing an intersection or one-way road without even a forethought of checking if anybody was coming.

"Orne's been working on this one for almost a month," the human shouted over the whirl of their speed-induced wind. "It was real hard for him to get ahold of all the right wires and stuff. Had to buy a lot of it off the internet."

"That must have cost him a fair amount of money," Croix said at a raised speaking voice. "How does he keep on being able to afford all this?"

"Babysitting mostly."

"What about all the money he got when he worked at Cesare's?"

"Gone. Spent all of it on either projects he never finished or his girlfriend." He shrugged ironically. "The life of a former minimum wage supermarket juicer is a tough one after all."

Croix laughed. "Yeah, I would think so."

It took a few more minutes of rapid pedalling before they were able to reach their intended destination: Crystal Bay Beach. The sleepy town's beachfront was known as one of the highest quality public spaces in the county and was home to some of the most fun any paying customer could hope for.

But now that it was Autumn with the temperature rapidly decreasing the only highlight the space held now was the massive pavement hill that sloped down from the park up above to the sandy beach down below. 'Real' bicyclists had long used the hill as a training ground for proper conditioning and exercising, careening down the paved mountain with the only intention of getting back to the top.

The kids of Crystal Bay were much more knowledgeable to the slope's real purpose. A geographic landmark of that design was meant to be sped down, meant to be travelled at the greatest possible velocity with an utter disregard to the consequences. Control and timing was what made the hill so safe and only a handful of the less-experienced younger crowd wherever the ones that got hurt on such an obstacle.

Bounding across the parking lot, Landen took a hard left past the entrance gate into the beach and straight down the waiting slope without preamble.

The blasting wind was incredible, the rushing landscape exhilarating. It was like being in a vortex but still travelling forwards. It was like flying but still being grounded. Despite going down the hill numerous times in both their lifetimes the two boys never quite got over just how amazing it was.

"Maybe we should slow down," Croix said finally as he noticed that Landen wasn't even pressing on the brakes yet.

"What?!" the human called back.

"Brakes."

"I have brakes!"

"I mean 'hit the brakes'. We're almost at the bottom."

"What?!"

Rolling his eyes, Croix reached over to the twin set of brakes on each side of the handlebars and pressed down firmly, making sure to tighten his grip on them as the inertia began to whip at them.

Slowly but surely the bike came to a halt at the hill's end, rubber hissing as they pulled up at the twilight beach before them. Kicking the stand up, Landen hopped off the bike and immediately began to inspect the tires.

"I think we were going too fast," he stated without irony. "Looks like some of the rubber got peeled off when we braked. I'll have to ask Orne to fix those. Speaking of which..." he peered down the almost vacant landscape save for a single shadowed silhouette at its edge. "There he is now."

The two made their way across the sand over to the dune's center point, where a small wooden ramp had been hastily constructed with its front pointed out towards the calm water. The silhouette stood by the construct with two items clutched in its hands while it fumbled with a third between its forearms. Alerted to their presence, the figure immediately dropped its materials and turned around to the face them.

"Well-well-well, nice to see that you two could finally make it," a tall, lanky human remarked with a smug smirk. "I was just about to fire off the first test launch before you guys decided to get here."

"That isn't what it looked like to me, Orne," Landen responded flatly to his brother.

"Looks can be deceiving."

Orne, while sharing several of the same facial characteristics to Landen, was still significantly different to the observer. His body type was much lighter than Landen's with several additional inches triggered by both him being the older of to two but as well as his differing proportions. His facial complexion as well was much redder, especially around the cheeks, displaying the quality of an almost perpetual sunburn that refused to heal. Another noticeable quality was his head of quite curly dirty-blonde hair, a stark contrast to the uniform brown and waviness of his brother.

Landen crossed his arms at his brother's lack of progress, evidently expecting the exposition to be ready once they got there. "Are you even close to having everything set up?"

Orne swiped two of the three objects off the ground and brandished both for them to see. One was a standard RC remote controller. The other was a heavily modified miniature electric car that had a large metal turbine crudely welded to the back.

"I was just making some last minute touches on the rocket car," he explained. "The signal between the controller and the battery has to be just right for the engine to properly start up. If not, we'll have a dud, and I'll have to buy another set of transfer wires for the current to be received."

"Is that a car battery?" Croix asked with a gesture down to the third, blocky object at Orne's feet.

The human nodded. "Yes, yes it is. It's the only thing that I could find that has enough power to spur an engine of that size in such a short period."

"Or the only thing you can afford," Landen muttered. "But how exactly is this all gonna work, though? You said it'd be able to take off all by itself."

Orne grinned. "It's funny that you ask that. How about I show you?" He took a few steps toward the ramp and held the remote controller up for both of them to see, motioning to a large red button at the center of the panel.

"Now, I won't blind you with science, so I'll try to keep this simple for you two." He cleared his throat. "When I push this button the car battery," he gestured to it, "will send a massive surge of electricity into the car's engine, here. This surge of electricity will ignite the fuel inside the engine and propel the car out into the water at least by a mile. Now, are you kids ready?"

Croix and Landen instinctively took a few steps back. Landen gave him a thumbs up.

"Do you think that thing is safe?" Croix asked with his gaze fixed on Orne as he began attaching wires from the battery to the car.

Landen shook his head. "Probably not."

"Maybe you should warn him then."

"It wouldn't do anything. He's come this far; he's not about to change his mind. Besides, the worse he's ever gotten out of his projects was when he got synthetic sand stuck in his eye, and the ophthalmologist was able to get that out pretty quick."

"Okay..." the monster said without any further objection.

"Alright!" Orne announced in triumphant. "She's ready!" He hovered his finger over the center button. "In 5...4...3...2...1..."

At the moment the button was grazed the rocket car exploded in an instant, knocking Orne back several yards from the resulting shockwave and sending out a small puff of grey smoke as it was vaporized instantly. The sound echoed across the water like a thunderclap and giving the impression that a bomb had just gone off.

"Oh my gosh!" Landen yelled as he sprinted over to where Orne lied, Croix close behind him. As they ran, they could see Landen's brother gradually rise from his sprawled position and dust himself down, ignoring their approach and instead focusing on the black spot of ash where the car had once sat.

"There goes seventy-six dollars of work," he lamented stoically. "I was sure that'd shoot off. I wonder what wrong?"

"Orne, are you okay?" Landen said while looking his brother over for any sign of injury. "That explosion was pretty loud..."

"I'll be okay. The loudness of explosions doesn't determine effectiveness anyway. I read that online." He sighed. "But I'll just clean up and head home. And, uh, Landen...will you promise not to tell Mom this happened?"


"Well that was a little disappointing," Landen remarked as he pedaled back to Croix's house.

"Maybe it'll work next time," the monster suggested in subdued optimism.

"I doubt they'll be a next time. Orne's probably moved onto another project he hasn't told me about. My brother's a lot of things, but sneaky is definitely one of them. He's been doing stuff like this for years and my parents still haven't caught him."

"He must be pretty good at hiding them then. I know Tacit would've never been able to pull something like that on my parents."

"How is your brother by the way? It's been awhile since you talked about him ."

Croix shrugged. "He's called a few times, but he's mostly been sticking to himself after he left for college. He's supposed to be coming home for Fall Break. I'm not sure when that'll happen."

Tacit was Croix's significantly older brother, so old in fact that he'd gone off to college just before the start of the school year. He'd never been as adventurous or intuitive as Landen's brother, but he was an insightful, somewhat cautious sibling who'd been with him since before he was born. It'd been tough getting used to such an empty house after he left and Croix was still having difficulty reminding himself that his brother would be back soon.

"Well, looks like we're here," Landen announced as he halted the bike in front of Croix's house. "Sorry for this not being everything we'd thought it'd be."

Croix floated off the handlebars. "You don't have to be sorry. We still had fun. I'm more concerned with how Orne is actually."

"He'll be fine, don't worry. If something is serious, I'll get him to come clean with our parents and they'll take him to the hospital. But trust me, Orne's a pretty indestructible guy."

The monster flashed a small grin. "That's what I'm afraid of."

Landen began to pedal forwards while waving goodbye. "I'll see you at school tomorrow!" he called.

Croix watched as the human sped off down the street. A few moments later he made a turn at the nearest intersection and was out of sight. Smiling to himself, the little monster floated back towards his house, content with another well spent evening.