Chapter 1: Dominaria Awaits

Dear Journal,

Ahhhhh!!! I'm going mad here in this wretched city! I hate sleeping on a cold wooden bed, eating strange foods, and having to learn about magic day-in and day-out. Well, the part about learning magic isn't so bad. It does get tedious when Master Angelica explained the various theories of magic. Sometimes, I wish I could tell her that I know all the theories already from reading the many Magic: the Gathering books, and I also know more about Dominaria than she could ever imagine. She babbles on and on about how we should prepare for the day when Phyrexia decided to invade Dominaria and we should not let it destroy our new home like they destroyed Serra's Realm. I know too well about the Phyrexian invasion, but what I fear is I will still be in Dominaria when it happens. If I remember correctly, the Magic book said that the invasion will happen in the year 4205 A.R. which is only nine years from now. What's worst is…damn, my roommate will be here soon. That's it for now journal.

Josh Mitchell

The heaven was clear of all clouds and the wind was blowing a soft breeze through Josh's hair. On a nice day like this, he normally go for a jog and then return home to get ready for work. However, on this day his thoughts are all on his roommates, Jason and Jared, who mysteriously disappeared five days ago. Josh and Jared have been friends since they started college together. And through a game of "Magic: the Gathering," they became friends with Jason.

During Josh's junior year, his mom passed away. He could no longer afford his rent and stayed in college with the salary of his part-time job. It was Jason's idea that all three of them should rent a house together to save money. Jason being afraid that his friends would not accept the offer, he even offer to pay their first three months rent. College life is rough for poor college students like them so Josh and Jared readily agreed to live together. All of them were avid magic players and they each have their own style of play. Jason can be described as a red mage, for he played with a hot temper and likes to do direct damage. Jared's style is the style of an opportunist. He likes using blue magic to pull off tricks and he only attacks when the time is right. Josh is the only one in the group who never really planned ahead. He just used whatever he had and go with the flow of the game.

Through their years living together, Josh found out a lot about his friends. Jason originated from Austin, Texas and his family is filthy rich. Most of his life he had been on his own because his parents are too busy with business. Unlike any of his rich friends, he was caring and would do anything for a true friend. Jared on the other hand always carried a smile on his face. Regardless of the situation, he always seemed very calm and collected. But in truth, he was struggling with trying to work and study at the same time, but he never let it affect those around him.

After all of them graduated, they still decided to live together and continued their weekly magic game. After two years, Josh decided he should consider moving out mainly because he wanted to have a place of his own. These guys are fun to be around, but he felt that those two had their own secret world and he was left out. He had already found another apartment, and he was going to move out at the end of the month.

Five days ago, when Josh came home from his morning jog, he found their house a totally wreck. It looked as though a tornado tore through the inside of the house but left the outside spotless. There was a scent of fresh cut grass in the air but that scent was being overwhelmed by the odor of burned flesh. Josh started to panic and ran for the phone in the kitchen. When he arrived, he saw the most horrific image in his young life: a burned human corpse.

The cops were quick to arrive to investigate the scene. The burned body was given to the morgue and its DNA was taken for identification. The next day, detective Wong dropped by and told Josh that the body was not his friend's, for the teeth of the creature did not resembled human teeth. Josh was confused but he was already too shocked to fully understand what the detective was saying.

"Josh, don't worry, we'll find out what happen to your friends," said the detective. "I'll keep you informed of any changes." And he left.

Josh was alone again. He decided it was best that he took a walk through the woods to clear his mind. The woods were very peaceful and it slowly helped him move through the shock of his friend's disappearance.

When he finally decided to return home, the sun was already setting. He only walked a few steps when he heard a woman scream. He quickly raced toward the sound and found a lady in her late 20s being attacked. He couldn't believe his eyes when he saw the attacker. It resembled a man but it had long thick brown hair like a wolf covering its whole body. As he stared at the creature, he could tell it had very sharp claws, which were about to strike the lady. Josh's instinct took over as he reached for his gun and shot it.

Never in his life would Josh even think of shooting anyone. However, the events of the past few days taught him to protect himself. The best protection he could think of is the feel of the cold metallic surface of a gun.

Josh managed to fire three shots before the wolf man was able to react. In an instant, the creature was on top of him, biting a big chunk out of one of his legs. He tried to knock the creature off of him. The creature simply ignored his blows and slashed him from his face all the way down to his navel. The wounds were deep and Josh began to fade out of consciousness.

**********

The ground was not quite sand. The sky seemed like it was in constant pain for it raged endlessly. Lightning and thunder poured out continuously from a heaven that only shown black and gray. In front of Josh stood the young lady he tried to save.

"Where am I?" he asked. "For that matter, who are you?"

"Why ask questions that you already know the answer to?" She responded.

"Damn you! Give me a straight answer!" He snared.

"What place does this look like?" She asked calmly.

"It looks like the plane of Rath to me," he chuckle. "If this is Rath, what are you suppose to be, the Oracle en-Vec?"

"See, you do know the answer." She said smiling.

Raising an eyebrow, Josh said, "Rightttt! So what can I do for you Oracle?"

Holding his hands, she told him to remember:

From plains to seas, from seas to ground

With Earthly might, freedom is found

When death rampage, she is to blame

Blue is the bridge to speak his name

Northern furies melt heart of stones

Your past awaits for you alone

Sanity is short in those so strong

Trust your friends when things are wrong

Those most innocent you cannot trust

For their madness begins at dusk

The end you think yet it just begun

A legend waits where there's no sun

Josh awakened the instant the Oracle finished her prophecy. He did not know how long he was unconscious but when he woke up, the sun was directly over him. Then he remembered all the wounds the creature inflicted upon him and he reached for his face. To his surprise, the deep wounds weren't there on his face or his chest. With the exception of a few scratches, he was whole. He tried to concentrate on what had happened but all the yelling made it hard for him to concentrate. He was still a little groggy but when he looked at his surroundings, he was more shocked than anything.

"I don't think we're in Kansas anymore," he joked while surveying the war torn battlefield in front of him.

Never could he imagine anything remotely like the scene in front of his eyes. There were warriors in armor with big swords and other weapons slashing and killing each other. There were also fires and explosions all around him. For a minute, he thought he must have still been dreaming. That thought seized to be when an explosion knocked him five feet from where he was. The aches and pains in his whole body confirmed that this is no dream.

His mind was still in a daze when an armor-clad warrior charged at him with fury in his eyes yelling, "DIE SERRAN! DIE!"

In seconds, the warrior was on top of him, ready with his sword for a killing blow. Out of the sky dropped what could only be an angel. The male angel landed directly on top of the warrior knocking the warrior flat on his face. With one smooth motion, the angel drove his magna sword through the warrior's armor and into his back, killing him without mercy.

The angel then turned to Josh and said, "wizard, if you got any spell left, now is the time to use it!"

With a quick spin, the angel was able to decapitate the warrior that charged him from behind, but he was too slow to defect a spear heading right for him. The spear drove hard into the angel's shoulder. Josh didn't know how he got the courage to do what he did next, but he raise his hand and fire a single bullet directly into the attacker's head.

"Impressive!!" smiled the angel and he continued to fight the horde of the charging warrior.

Josh finally managed to utter a response, "What is going on here? Who are you people?"

The male angel turned with a look of disappointment in his eyes. "Damn, we better get you out of here then." He raised his head up and yelled, "Karra! Get down here and pick up this wizard!"

From out of the sky swooped down a beautiful female angel. She wrapped her arms around Josh's chest and lifted him into the air before he even had time to protest. A second later, the male angel was airborne following them to some unknown location.

It took but a second for the male angel to catch up to them. It was then he looked directly at Josh and said, "We know everything might seem strange to you right now but everything is well. My name is Roran Lawbringer and the angel carrying you is my sister Karra."

"We received word that our foes had cast a powerful spell causing amnesia among our wizards. We were ordered to remove our spellcasters from the battlefield before the spell fully takes effect. It seems you were among those being affected! We are truly sorry!" whisper Karra.

For the first time since Josh woke up, he noticed that his clothes were not his own. He was wearing some kind of white robe with a bright sun symbol in the middle of his chest. He was about to tell the angels that he is not who they think he is but he decided against it. He remembered all the chaos and destruction he was in. If he told them he is not who they think he is, he could be drop back in to the war. He had no desire to go back in to war. So he simply remained quiet for the rest of their trip.

Josh was taken to a camp south of the battle. There were others dressed like him and they truly looked confused. It was then that Roran receive words that the battle was over and they have won. A loud cheer went through the camp.

"Serra! Serra! Serra!" was the chant on everyone's lips. Josh thought it would be wise to join in the cheer.

**********

Once the combat medics check over Josh, they ordered him to drink some herbal medicine and told him to rest. Roran and Karra dropped by to visit a few hours later. Josh knew that he needed to keep up his act if he wanted to stay alive in this strange environment. He spent the next hour asking Roran and Karra everything he can think of. Most of the information the angels gave him was useful but the most useful information was when Karra told him about this world.

"We are about ten leagues outside of our city and about 33 leagues away from Zhalfir." Hesitantly, Karra continue, "this world is called Dominaria and we are the Serran. Our lady Serra created us long ago and we lived in peace in Serra's Realm before the Phyrexians attack our home. We were forced to flee to this world."

That is all Josh needed to know to conclude that he must be insane. The world of Dominaria is fictional and the stories of Phyrexians are make-believe. Despite his doubts, Josh spent the next three days contemplating the possibility that this is all real. He spends the five days matching with the Serran army to their home considering what he needs to do next.

When they finally arrived, the wizards that had amnesia were put through various memory tests. Josh was asked to recite the history of the Serran. Josh decided to take a gamble and tell of the Serran exodus from Serra's Realm exactly as how he remembered it from the "Magic: the Gathering" book. He recounted every detail of how the Weatherlight ship came to Serra's Realm and how Urza's and Barrin fought off the horde of mad angel. He even went into detail of how Urza almost died at the hand of the mad archangel, Radiant. This impressed the wizard guild. They spend the next few weeks trying to locate his family members, but Josh was not surprised then when they couldn't find anyone. It was then they decided that he might be an orphan, but regardless, he was reintroduced back into Serran society.

The mage guild was very generous in helping him find a place to live and helping him "relearn" his magic. He was very lonely in this strange new world until Roran asked Josh to live together. Josh happily agreed mainly because he did not really know anyone at all. Roran later revealed that he just wanted to get away from his family. His father wanted him to become a warrior angel but what he really wanted to become was an archangel. His father constantly reminded him that each Serran have their place in society and they should not strive for a different position. Roran had no choice but to leave his family and try to prove his father wrong.

In the next year, Josh spends his every waking moments studying magic. Master Angelica was very harsh on him for she expected him to know all the detail of magic already. Her intention was good Josh supposed, after all, she just wanted to jog his memory. Though the Serran were good to him, and he did learn a lot more than he ever did, he didn't like living on Dominaria. It was too primitive for his taste, being the high-tech person that he is.

At the same time, Josh and Roran had become best friends. Roran enjoyed Josh's American idealism of always trying to be the best one can be. His way of thinking is nothing like most Serran Roran had ever known. Karra often visited her brother mainly to try and heal the rift between him and their father. Karra was content with her role as an angel of mercy. She couldn't understand why her brother would want to disobey their father and go against the teaching of Serra herself. She often thought of Josh as a bad influence. She didn't like his idealism very much, but she does admire his personal growth. In a year since Josh was rescue by her during the final battle against Kaervek's army, Josh's magical skill had grown exponentially. She often wondered what secrets he might have up his sleeves but she would not want to try to learn all the colors of magic like he did.

Josh was indeed very proud of himself for in 3 years, he had become a rainbow mage. Though Serran magic is mainly white, Josh was able to acquired many spell books of other magical colors from the their neighbor, the Zhalfirin. His magical growth was also contributed to the fact that he was a magic player. Using the cards he remembered as a template, he was able to increase his trove of spell drastically. The only thing Josh really needed now is a large cache of mana. The Serran city is on the Daraja Plain, which means he can draw vast amounts of white mana from it. His problem then is how to draw mana of the other four colors of magic. He decided to convince Roran to venture with him to Kukemssa Sea then to the Mwonvuli Jungle. Roran loved the idea. He was very bored and longed for some real adventure. Together, they set off to see the world.