1 Chapter 1

Here in London, it's cold and freezing in winter, but the love and kindness of people still remains warm. The snow starts to fall in mid December and it is one of the most beautiful sights to see. The people work on usual times and go to their beloved ones after their done with their work. We all are quite committed to our work and love doing it.

My name is Duero Linndon, Son of Roger Linndon and Clara Linndon.My friends call me Due or Due Linn, townsfolk call me Mr. Linndon and some even call me Linndon from London. It is an unusual name, but I like it. My parents decided to name me after my grandfather on my father's side, and I couldn't be more honoured to accept his name. My grandpa was a world renowned blacksmith, forging things like gates, grilles, railings, light fixtures, furniture, sculpture, tools but what he most liked was forging weapons and he was well known for it. So was my dad, they were all great blacksmiths and I couldn't have chosen any other path other than blacksmith because I love my family job. My great grandfather started The Linndon's forge, it started in the 19th century and it got its name from our unique way of making things. The skills and techniques have been taught from generation to generation, the library at my house holds the books written by my great grandfather and I was to read this when I was young. It's been too many years and only recently have I finished learning all about it. This year I turned 48 and I can't believe how long my great grandfather's knowledge was, the books and techniques were just overflowing with his great wisdom. But then again it was that long because no one should reach the end.

My family holds many secrets, one of them is that our family members go missing. It is indeed a strange and weird phenomenon to ordinary people but to our family it's more or less like an inevitable fate. My great grandfather and grandmother went missing, my grandparents went missing and later so did my parents. My parents went missing when I got accustomed to the family job, as if they were waiting for me to take over The Linndon's forge....and they were indeed waiting. I was surprised but I knew they did it at their will and the answers were beginning to be clear as I kept on reading and reading the books of my family and since I was able to live on my own the whole house was mine and the ownership of The Linndon's forge was given to me. It was at the 44th year of my life that I got into learning about the 'Linndon crystal'. When I became 47, I was fully aware of this crystal and what it was capable of. The crystal was a path or portal that connected worlds unknown to mankind and it sounds stupid and idiotic but if it weren't for the family books I wouldn't have believed it either. The crystal is broken and given to the next generation, one part is for the older generation to go to another world and the other is for the next generation to use when the time comes. So it's basically like a retirement plan but instead of earth it's someplace else. My parents went through the portal and is now in another world, so for the people on earth they are dead but in reality, who knows, they might be living happily. They gave me the crystal and it couldn't be broken anymore, which meant that the next generation can't go to another world. I'm okay with it. Why, you ask? I'm not married nor do I have any kids. It's not because of this that I haven't got married, it's just that I focused too much on my job that I forgot about getting me a wife and besides I am not interested in getting married, all I can think of is working as a blacksmith at my family's forge and making the customers happy. So to just about sum it up, the Linndon family comes to a halt with me and I knew this was going to happen for the last couple of year. People might say that I'm missing out on many things by not having a wife but they don't understand how happy I am working here, everyday working, forging different things, taking orders and even just about showing up to work makes my family proud and I'm content with all that.

For the last few years I've been training the workers at my place to be my replacement and to take on the forge. The workers here at the factory are really talented and hard working, the things they forge are top tier and if they were to go and look for other jobs to take on, they would be paid a lot but they refuse to leave the forge. They say that this place is like a home to them and they are happy to work here and that just fills my heart. Teaching some of the promising workers my techniques, skills and knowledge was tiring but I enjoyed every single bit and I couldn't be more proud of them. Tomorrow I'm going to be giving my job to someone that I found to be quite worthy of the position and would do a pretty good job and I'm going to be retiring from it. I got to say that I'm a little sad but it has to happen one or another. After a few days of retiring, I'm going to open the portal and disappear from this world. It's a good offer, it's adventurous and I want to know what lies beyond. My family prepared me for this my entire life and to do this is to make them proud. Taking a step through that portal and following the path into another world, would be what my parents wanted me to do.