Chapter 1, A Dream Unravelling:

Jacob was startled out of his sleep by the alarm he set the night before. Unable to fall back asleep, he tossed back his bed-sheets, rubbed his eyes, and stumbled out of bed. He grabbed his watch off the bedside table and made his way into the hall. Jacob Johnson was an eighteen-year-old guy who lived in the Hennepin County, Minnesota. He was tall, had dark brown hair, and had bright blue eyes. He was tall like his Dad and as much of a morning-person as his Mom was (which is to say, not at all). Jacob slept in the second bedroom on the left-hand side of the upper floor hallway, right next to the guest bedroom. His parents' room was further down the hall, but they were both still fast asleep. He trudged past pictures hanging on the wall before walking down the stairs to the main level, which creaked and cracked in the silence of an early morning.

Just last week, Jacob had graduated from Centennial Park High School with flying colors, and just yesterday, he had celebrated his graduation with his family and friends at his Graduation Party. As he trudged into the Living Room, he saw that it was still filled with the decorations, limp balloons, and the various other things from the party. He had stacked up all of the letters he received on a small table near the fireplace, but they had fallen over during the night and were in a jumbled mess all over the floor. Jacob tip-toed through the mess and straightened up the pile. As he picked up the cards, he noticed that one of them was from Mrs. Eversol, their next-door neighbor. He didn't remember seeing her at the party last night, but he didn't mind. Any sort of money helps. The last card he picked up had fallen between the table and the couch. He wouldn't have noticed it there if it wasn't for the shimmering stamp stuck in the top right corner of the envelope. As he pulled it out and saw who it was addressed from, he sighed. Of course it was from her. Why wouldn't it be? The name read: "Andrea Hunter", one of the few people that Jacob had been trying his hardest to forget about. She was the one person in his life that he never wanted to see again. The image of him standing with her on the bridge flashed across his mind, as well as the tears that had run down his face. Before all of the pain could flood back into his heart., acob shook his head and forcefully slapped the letter down onto the table. He then walked into the kitchen to start making his breakfast.

He opened one of their cupboards, pulled out a small plate, and set it on the counter. He then turned towards the loaf of bread on the counter, grabbed a piece of bread, and slid it into the toaster. As he waited for his bread to be toasted, he gazed out their kitchen window above the sink. He sighed with contempt as the pain of Andrea's rejection faded away. Jacob loved the rain. There was just something about the steady pitter-patter of rain on a window that calmed him down. When he was younger, he'd always run out into the backyard when it was raining, and do his best to find the largest puddle. His parents would then rush him back inside, dry him off with a towel, and wrap in a warm fuzzy blanket while he watched cartoons.

Those were the days. The days when he didn't worry about every little thing that he did, or what other people thought of him. When he could just enjoy life more than he had to worry about it.

Jacob poured himself a glass of orange-juice. Not long after that, Jacob could hear his parents walking around upstairs. His parents still supported and loved him as much as they did when he was a kid, and he was thankful for that, more than any amount of words could describe. Especially now. As more and more people you love and want to love reject you, you start to wonder if there's something wrong with you. That maybe you're just not attractive enough, that you're boring to be around. The pain of rejection becomes a common feeling, one that whittles down your self-esteem until you have almost nothing left. Jacob remembered, one night, he asked his parents:

"Is there...something wrong with me?" And they replied with...

"No, you're exactly how you're meant to be, and we love you for it...more than you'd ever know"

"Good morning!" he said to them with a grin. They both smiled back at him and his mother hugged him.

"Good morning my wonderful son!" his mother told him as she squeezed him tight. "Did you sleep good?"

"Yep!" he replied. His dad patted him on the back with a smile before walking into the kitchen. Both of them were already fully dressed, but it was only nine-o'clock in the morning on a Saturday.

"Whatcha doing?" Jacob asked them.

"We're getting ready to head up to the cabin" his mother replied. "Some friends of ours will be staying with us for a couple of days. I thought we mentioned this last night after the party?" Jacob thought about it and then nodded.

"Oh yeah! That's right. When will you guys be coming back?" His Dad slid his coat on before replying.

"We'll be home sometime on Monday" he grabbed the keys from where they sat on the kitchen counter. "Make sure to go to work Jacob" he then smiled and wagged a finger at Jacob before winking. "And don't be throwing any parties while we're gone!" Jacob laughed.

"Yeah yeah… Don't worry! The house will still be standing when you get back" He winked, smiled, and stuck out his tongue. Both of his parents laughed before saying goodbye to Jacob. They then promptly walked out into the garage and left, leaving Jacob alone to his thoughts.

After having such a big party the night before, Jacob was tired, and had no desire to clean up the mess. So he got up from where he was sitting, put his dishes away, and sat down in front of his computer before idly scrolling through Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and his subscriptions on YouTube. Nothing new or interesting has happened yet today, so he turned towards his phone, which was charging in the wall next to him. As he pulled it out and opened his texting app, Jacob began scrolling through his texts until he reached the Group Chat that he and his friends were using.

"Hey" Jacob typed out. "You guys free today?" He pressed send and then waited.

Nothing happened. No reply came. He waited a bit longer. Usually, one of them would've gotten back to him by now. A feeling of isolation slowly creeped into his heart as thoughts about Andrea creeped back into his mind. Again, Jacob shook his head, trying to drive the thought from his mind. He then waited for the next half-hour. Sighing in defeat, he went back upstairs to his room, set his phone down onto the small table next to his bed, and left it to charge before getting dressed to exercise.

Jacob slipped his wallet into his pocket and slid on his running shoes. He then stepped out of the house, locked the door behind him, and walked down the driveway and onto the street. He took a deep breath in and back out again, happy to get a nice whiff of fresh air so early in the morning. He then stretched, started his stopwatch, and started running off down the street.

Jacob's family lived at 3206 Dragsburg Lane, a two-story house situated in a community known as Edinburgh Terrace. Edinburgh Terrace was located in a hilly part of town, where streets ran up and down the hills as they weaved among the many trees that dotted the community. Jacob ran down the street, past Mrs. Eversol's house and towards a small asphalt path that ran off into the forest at the end of the street.

Soon enough, he was surrounded by trees on every side. The only sound he could hear was the steady drumming of his feet on the black, asphalt pavement as he ran. He ran by paths that branched off into the woods and towards other parts of town, but Jacob stayed on the main path. Just as he reached the heart of the woods, Jacob had grown bored. So when he noticed a small dirt path that led off deeper into the woods, one that he had never noticed before, he jumped at the chance and ran off down the path without a second thought.

The further Jacob ventured down the path, the more wild and rough it became. Tall grass whipped at his shins and bits of sand and dirt found their way into his shoes. After running for a while, he ended reach the middle of the forest. There sat a small glade of birch and oak trees surrounding a large patch opening. In the middle of the glade was a large tree-stump that had been worn down, almost as if someone had sanded down all of the rough edges until it was completely smooth. Jacob was amazed that something like this was hidden in the forest. As Jacob approached the stump, however, he was stopped in his tracks by the most peculiar sight.

By the stump sat a small blue bowl filled with water. It looked like a dog-bowl, but the name plastered on the side of the bowl had worn off. Behind the stump was a large pile of wood. Picking up a piece of wood off the top of the pile, Jacob recognized it immediately. He had seen enough of them up at his family's cabin to know that what he held in his hand was the handle of an axe. As he kept picking up more and more pieces of wood, he realized that this was a pile of axe-handles.

Suddenly, a loud bark echoed throughout the clearing. Jacob jumped and turned towards the sound. He listened closely to the forest around him, which had turned eerily quiet. He heard the bark again and ran back towards the path and jumped into the forest before hiding behind a fallen tree. He didn't want to get caught trespassing on private property, if that's what this turned out to be. A voice then drifted towards him and the forest began to rustle off near the clearing.

"I know I know…" the voice said. "But seriously… I feed you a red oak axe-handle one time and you turn as sour as a bad bottle of Fire Whiskey!"

The dog barked in reply.

"And when I take you to Scolopax Inexplicabilis Pet Hospital all the way in downtown St. Paul, all they do is tell me that you were just so disgusted by eating a red oak axe-handle that you kept trying to throw it up. You weren't sick at all...you goofy dog!"

His dog whined in protest.

"Oh come on! I love you to bits Consumen. I come out here to your favorite stump, fill your water bowl, and bring you a steady supply of axe-handles every day. Only one of those have been red oak. You gotta cut me some slack! Uff da…" he muttered.

Jacob could just see through to the clearing. A man and his dog had entered the clearing. The man wore a pointed hat with a wide brim. He held a walking stick in his hands and an axe-handle in the other. He had white, scruffy hair and a long, thin purple scarf that reached down to his belt. The dog, however, was too short for Jacob to see.

"I gotta head out soon though, Consumen. I've gotta catch the Quidditch Game on the radio. The Kensington Kestrels are facing off against the Red-River Rams from Idaho, but the Rams' Seeker, the famous Jason Owyhee, is out with a case of Dragon Pox! That means we might have a chance of beating them! Us Minnesotan teams never win anything...I swear, Wisconsin's team must've put some sort of curse on us when we weren't lookin..."

His dog barked in reply.

The man scratched his dog behind its ears, bid it farewell, and walked off into the forest and out out of sight. It wasn't until the rustling faded away that Jacob dared to move from his spot. He quietly stood up and walked back onto the path. Looking back towards the glade and saw what looked like a tan axe laying down on the stump. There was no dog to be seen. Or at least, that's what Jacob thought.

As he approached the stump, he realized that the axe was snoring. It was also wearing a collar and had four feet. Jacob eventually stood directly above the axe/dog and saw small beady eyes and a small tongue that stuck out of a set of razor-sharp teeth. There it sat, fast asleep on a stump. The dog itself was about the size of an axe and covered in bright cream-colored fur.

Jacob, not knowing what to make of it, ran back home, faster than he had in a long time. As he ran back up the driveway, he quickly opened and closed the door. He slipped off his shoes, walked back into the Kitchen, and put his head into his hands, still shaken by what he had seen. Just then, his Mother called him on his cellphone, which he slid out of his pocket. She gave her phone over to their friends, each of which congratulated Jacob on his graduation. As he smiled at all of their kind words, the thought of the axe-handle hound left his mind and was forgotten.

Jacob woke up that night drenched in sweat. His breathing was heavy, and his limbs felt like blocks of concrete. He laid there, alone, shivering aggressively for a while before he finally managed to open his eyes. His bedroom was dark and silent. With a great effort he turned his head towards his clock, but to his surprise, the numbers made no sense to him and were flickering rapidly. Panic began to envelop him, and he tried calling for his parents.

"Mom!" he said, "Dad!" He tried yelling for them, but all he could manage was a weak whimper before he remembered that they were long gone. His stomach started to feel queasy, but as quickly as that feeling came, it faded away. The overwhelming chills that he felt were suddenly replaced by a wave of unbearable heat. He began to moan as rain began pounding his bedroom window.

"Oh no…What's happening to me?!"

Suddenly, Jacob's head grew tight, as if he had a headache. He clutched his forehead and clenched his eyes shut, but both Jacob and his bed-sheets slowly started to rise up into the air. As he just got close enough to touch the ceiling, the pain in his head reached its peak and he started to slowly fall back down onto his bed. As he finally came down onto his mattress, he began to weep.

When Jacob opened his eyes again, however, he found himself lying down in a large field filled with tall grass as far as the eye could see. Mountains stood out on the horizon to the east and there was a great forest to the west. The stars of the night sky shone down onto him and the sound of water crashing onto a distant coastline echoed in the night. Panic, strangely enough, eluded him. Instead, Jacob felt a strange sense of awe wash over him, egging him on to explore.

A little while after he started walking off into the field, he reached a long path that stretched out in either direction from the forest and to the mountains. The forest felt too familiar to Jacob, as if he knew every path, every rock, and every tree as well as he knew the back of his hand. The mountains, on the other hand, felt new and exciting. Gazing at their snow-capped peaks, he wondered what was hidden beyond them, what secrets they held. He decided to leave the forest behind for the mountains, but in his heart he felt sad to leave something so familiar to him behind. He knew that if he went back to the forest, he'd never see the mountains again. At the same time, however, he knew that if he went to the mountains, he'd never get a glimpse of the forest again for the rest of his life. Turning his back on the forest, he started making his way towards the mountains on the rough dirt path.

The path led to a great gorge and a broken bridge that had once allowed travelers to cross the gap. The bridge was made of stone and appeared to be ancient, almost as if it was a remnant of a distant time that none now remembered. He approached the edge of the gorge and gazed downwards. The gorge appeared to be bottomless, and it looked to be too wide to jump across. Jacob, however, still wanted to cross the gorge and see the mountains for himself. A broken bridge wasn't going to stand in his way. It was as if a fire had been kindled in his spirit, in his soul. As he backed away from the edge, he began to hear voices, whispering voices that sounded confused and jumbled, as if these spirits had tried to cross the gorge themselves, but struggled to find a way. The more he tried to listen to what they were saying, the more jumbled and disjointed their voices became.

Regardless, Jacob backed up from the edge of the gorge and tuned out the voices as he prepared to jump. Digging his heel into the dirt, he darted forward at an incredible speed, running much faster than he ever had before. As the edge of the chasm sped towards him, he braced himself and leapt high into the air. The wind howled in his ears and blew through his hair, filling Jacob with excitement. Suddenly, doubt crossed his mind, and the thought of him falling short, missing the jump, became a frightening reality.

He missed, and the edge quickly rushed past him. Thankfully, Jacob had stretched out his hand and grasped onto a small edge below the edge of the gorge.

A jolt of pain shot through his arm and into his shoulder. He slid his feet across the rock-face as he tried to steady himself. Jacob quickly glanced down into the abyss as he kicked small bits of rock and pebbles down into the darkness. He turned back up to the cliff edge above him, struggling to hold on. The voices he had heard earlier were silenced, as if they had seen all of this happen before. To Jacob, it felt as if they had no faith in him. That he wasn't good enough. That no matter what he did, he would always fall short.

"No!" he muttered. "I won't fail!" As determination filled his heart, he began to pull himself upwards with all of his might. He took his other hand, which had been dangling in the air, and grasped onto the rock-face before starting to climb. His arms felt as if they were screaming.

"I am strong… AND I'LL PROVE IT TO ALL OF YOU!" he yelled as he slowly struggled upwards. Eventually, his hands grasped at the grassy ledge at the edge of the gorge. He struggled up onto the other side of the gorge, victorious. There he stood on the opposite side, beaten and battered, but alive. As he started to laugh for joy, his legs buckled underneath him, and the ground rushed to meet him. Everything faded to black, and he remembered no more.

Magical Creature Profile, The Cable-Cleaning Croppie:

The state of Washington was once home to many varieties of strange and exciting breeds of magical fish and marine life. Since then, many of those creatures have been disbursed throughout the United States due to the improper cleaning of boats, which allows these hitchhikers to hop from lake to lake. While many invasive species of non-magical aquatic life can cause harm to their new homes, most aquatic magical creatures cause no harm to their new homes. Instead, having them come one's lake is often seen by many witches and wizards as quite beneficial. One of the magical fishes to come out of Washington state is the Cable-Cleaning Croppie. This fish, which is only about two feet long, is known to be immensely strong, lifting as much as two tons its long thing claw that protrudes out from just under the maw of the fish. While it is immensely strong for its size, it is quite docile and only eats the muck and grime off of docks, anchors, and (most notably) cable-lines. Eggs from the Cable-Cleaning Croppie were used in Strengthening Potions in the early 1900's, but their eggs have now been defined by MACUSA as Class A Non-Tradeable goods.