Prologue:
Martin trudged wearily down the street, weary after a long day of painting houses. "There has to be more than this," he thought, "life is so boring." The sun had set and a storm had come up swiftly, drenching the area and making it hard to see. As he passed an alley, Martin thought he heard s scraping, clicking sound, as well as a growl. Having heard reports of wild animal attacks, Martin grew nervous, but peered down the alley. Seeing nothing but shadows, he used his "trick," to see better. Looking in a certain way and thinking of the eyes of a cat, his night vision grew sharper, and revealed a crouching creature that could be nothing but a predator. As it sprang at him he turned to run and it impacted his back, knocking him to the ground. Luckily it was unable to get a grip on his jacket and rolled on the ground a few feet away, turning to spring again. Looking into its eyes, Martin saw his own death in an explosion of pain and blood, but that vision was eclipsed by a figure in a long brown coat stepping between him and the creature. It sprang at the figure, who swung what appeared to be a freaking SWORD! The path of the creature and the sword intersected and the creature fell to the ground, its head split. The figure turned to Martin, "OK young magelet, get to your feet, there's more coming."
Chapter 1 (all written so far)
"Dear gods, these kids get younger every day, and how dumb is he to use the Talent in front of a stryyz! Is he trying to get himself killed," I asked. "Everyone knows they are trained to attack active spells."
"Well Ursa, maybe he did not know that magic was real, remember how shocked most of them are," replied Pokey, the assigned Guardian of the Mage to whom I had delivered Martin. "And you know that the Norms don't know about stryz, we have worked very hard for them not to."