A/N: Welcome to the Magic chapter. Oz does not belong to me. He belongs to a Portal Master by the name of Martyn. Let me know if I did him justice. Enjoy.
Oz looked out the window of the orphanage he's called home for his entire life, wishing he was anywhere but there on his rock-hard mattress. Jonah, his daily tormentor, snored in the bunk beside him, making Oz want to cover the bully's face with a pillow. Oz shook his head free of the dark thoughts plaguing his mind, fingering the silver dragon ring around his neck to busy himself with something. He glanced at the table next to him, the crystal he found earlier sitting there as if inviting him on some fascinating journey. Oz reminisced on the day's events, all leading up to where he sat.
The day started normal enough, with all of the children marching down to a quick oatmeal breakfast before splitting off to complete the daily chores. Of course, within the first ten minutes Jonah was shoving Oz into furniture and generally being a giant pain in the rear. Oz took it in stride though, not daring to complain as everyone in the orphanage knows, if you complain, you get punished. Last time Oz made the mistake of complaining about Jonah's actions, he was smacked and sent to bed without supper.
After chores were done, it was time for lessons with a no-nonsense tutor provided by the government. Everything went well until dinner, when Jonah was being especially harsh towards Oz. The rotten oysters served, though unappealing in all but sound, was considered a normal meal for the orphanage. Oz cracked his open and saw what appeared to be a pearl sitting in the shell instead of oyster meat, but Oz had a feeling that the pearl wasn't real. Jonah noticed the glittering jewel and attempted to snatch it out of Oz's hand, failing as his target moved away from him.
Jonah growled and tried again, with the same result as before and this continued in a cycle for about ten minutes. By that time, Jonah had managed to grab the dragon ring hanging around Oz's neck and held it up triumphantly, grinning like an ugly baboon. Oz saw the ring in his bully's grasp then looked to his bully's face and once that happened, something inside Oz snapped. With blood pounding in his ears, Oz grabbed Jonah around the neck and threw him with a strength none had ever seen the boy possess. After Jonah crashed to the ground, Oz started raining blow after blow on his bully's face, getting himself and Jonah's face covered in blood.
The aides who make sure nothing goes wrong started to pull Oz away from Jonah, but not before Oz took back his necklace and gave a couple of kicks to the bully's abdomen. In the scuffle, the pearl had broken and a crystal appeared in place of the pearl. After he was separated from his bully, Oz was punished harshly in a way mot seen in the orphanage for many years. With a sore bottom and the dragon ring and pearl in his grip, Oz was sent to bed and warned that another slip-up would earn him a one-way ticket to juvenile detention. Before the other children were sent up to bed, Oz decided to take a quick nap so that he could recuperate from the legendary beating.
Unfortunately, Oz had forgotten that he seemed to be cursed to have the same nightmare every time he falls asleep. Oz was standing on a floating island surrounded by a swirling mass of blackness, screams and other floating islands all around him getting swallowed up by the blackness. A malicious laugh that seemed to come from everywhere was heard as tendrils of the blackness started to grab at Oz's legs, while Oz tried to move away but the island he was on was extremely small so he couldn't move very far. The tendrils finally got a strong hold on his legs, dragging Oz towards the edge of the island before seeming to stop. The blackness rose instead and swallowed the island and the bottom half of Oz before continuing the rest of the way, the nightmare ending the same way as always, with Oz drowning in the blackness and then him waking up in the real world.
All of these events have led to Oz looking at the crystal held in his hand, wishing he could leave this place and go on a fantastic adventure. Suddenly, the crystal started glowing before pulsating and releasing a visual message from what appeared to be a purple dragon and a wizard with a white beard. "Portal Master of Magic, this message is meant to guide you to Skylands, a fantastical world of wonder and adventure. I am Eon and this here is Spyro. To get to Skylands, simply open a Portal. It may seem like a dream, but I assure you, it is real." The purple dragon, Spyro, started talking. "We'll be waiting for you, Portal Master. Once you get here, I can show you and the other Portal Masters around."
The message ended, but the crystal continued pulsating in a purple color. Oz then thought of his nightmare and realized that, in the dream, he was in Skylands. Keeping that mental picture locked in place, Oz closed his eyes and imagined a Portal that would take him to Skylands and away from his current situation. When Oz opened his eyes again, a swirling Portal had appeared at the foot of his bed and Oz smiled, happy that he did it first try. Before going through the portal, Oz grabbed his wizard hat and made sure he had his dragon ring and the crystal then jumped through the Portal.
Oz ended up in front of some sort of Academy and in the midst of a battle. He ducked behind a wall and watched the battle from afar for the moment before looking at his hand and seeing that the gem had transformed into a staff with the crystal at the top with two small, spire-like pieces of the staff on either side of the crystal. Instinct then took over and Oz leaped into battle, summoning explosions and beams against what looked like trolls or maybe goblins. Oz fought for a few moments before realizing that there were other people fighting the strange creatures. The question Oz asked himself was: are they friendly or like Jonah?
A/N: Well, here's the Magic chapter. Hope you all enjoyed it. Oz's backstory will appear in a later chapter. Reviews are below. Thanks for reading!
D.J. Scales: Thank you very much.
MaMcMu/Martyn: I hope you're satisfied with how I wrote Oz.
See you all in the next chapter! Eight elements down, two to go. Next Chapter is a double chapter.