Prologue
Trapped! We were trapped within the flames as they rose higher and higher in the air, letting smoke muck up the sky making it unbreathable. We'd been lucky to find that strange man when we had; now we didn't have to worry about anybody else. However, we'd gone back to search for his brothers to make sure they were okay but now we were trapped within the blaze; searching desperately for a way out; any glimmer of hope.
We'd had to abandon my idea for breathing – two glass helmets that usually adorned the heads of world nobles – when we realized our brains would be cooked if we stayed in the heated glass. So now we'd switched to wet rags to keep from inhaling smoke. I looked around frightened but with a sense of duty and determination in my eyes. I refused to die like this when my life had barely started. I wanted my freedom and I sure as hell was gonna get it.
"Damn it, there's nowhere to go from here!" groaned the boy beside me with annoyance. "We should've headed to the forest first. At least in there the trees' foliage would block out the smoke and I'd know where we're going!"
The boy I was currently with was ten years old; five years older than I was. He wore a black open neck shirt under a blue jacket that had the sleeves rolled up and sporting a cravat from his shirt's neckline. He wore blue shorts for bottoms with a belt that had a flower design buckle representing his noble family and blood. On his head over his short curly blonde hair he had on a top hat that also usually sported a pair of blue goggles around the brim except now he was wearing them to keep the heat from tearing up his eyes. His face was covered in bandages from minor cuts and he was missing a tooth on the right side of his mouth. This was the appearance of my newfound acquaintance, Sabo. I coughed some to clear my dry throat.
"Maybe…'cough', 'cough'…maybe my compass can show us a way out of here," I suggested hopefully. I turned my attention to the golden compass hanging from around my neck. It wasn't a normal compass mind you. No it was a special compass that showed one to their heart's desire. The compass itself held its own spirit and consciousness and was known around the world as a mystic. It was a forbidden treasure that if it was sought after and the wrong people found out about it, then the seeker would be executed for treason against the world government. They were pretty much just as forbidden as the poneglyphs scattered around the world; stone tablets that bore writing from a lost era and could only be translated by people who'd studied them.
I pulled it up, the circular device with the intricate designs and writing all around its outside reflecting the flames that surrounded us. Once I opened it I began to pour my aura into the mechanism the way my grandfather had taught me and it responds instantly, the needle spinning rapidly around in circles. Finally it settles on a direction and the images fill my head with where we need to go. I looked up towards the direction.
"This way!" I called out to Sabo. Despite us barely knowing one another and him being older than myself; he trusted my judgement and so he followed me elsewhere from where we just were. I followed the path as best I could; the simplest route switching every now and again to make sure we avoided the flames. It took a while but we finally made it to the trees and burst forth, running from the fires that threatened to consume us.