Chapter 2

There I stood in the middle of a chaotic battle raging around me. To my left was Elaina who was lying on the ground severely injured and unconscious. To my right was Noah using undead spells to summon zombies and other hideous creatures that I dare not explain any details of their physical appearance. Infront of me was a warlock that stood six feet tall holding a magic staff in his right hand.

I put my hand next to my ear and felt blood running down the side of my face. My legs felt numb. I couldn't feel anything.

Then the warlock lifted up his staff and pointed it at me. He began murmuring words that I could not understand. I assumed he was using dark magic.

Suddenly I woke up to the sound of a girl screaming in fear. It was Elaina. She was hiding behind a chair.

"What the fuck, Elaina," Noah said sounding irritated. "Why are you screaming so loudly."

Judging from the situation, I wasn't the only one who was awoken from a decent sleep. I looked in Elaina's direction and saw a bug about the size of a baby's pinky finger.

"You have got to be kidding me, Elaina." I said rubbing my eyes. "You're scared of a bug."

After a dramatic morning, Elaina, Noah, and I went out for lunch. As we ate our lunch, I couldn't stop thinking about that dream. Why was Elaina injured? Does Noah study dark magic? Why were we fighting a warlock? I had so many questions with no answers for any of them.

After we finished eating, we left the small town of Elin to cross Crystal Lake. Realisticly, it should've taken us around six minutes to cross, but Elaina refused to get her blouse wet, so I ended up carrying her on my shoulders. She isn't heavy by any means, but whatever was in her travel bag really killed my legs.

After twelve minutes of crossing the lake, Noah and I took some time to dry off. In the meantime, Elaina was playing around with water spells.

That is one thing I've always found attractive about Elaina. Her playfulness. It made me happy to see her enjoy herself.

Unfortunately her fun only lasted for a few minutes as we were now on the main road to Alarin, a fairly large town and an important place for the farming and blacksmithing industry. The city was packed full of shop and stores. Some sold farming supplies and food. Others sold weapons and armour made from blacksmiths.

We were walking down the road when I noticed something far off in the distance. I took an educated guess and guessed it was a farmer's house. I mean what house has a huge open field, and a barn next to it.

The more we walked, the closer we got, and the closer we got, the more I could see that I had guessed correctly.

The house was made of wood and had a dull gray color. Judging from the cracks in the wood, the house had to be pretty old.

Then the front door swung wide open, and a little boy came running out of the house with a ball in his hands. Following the kid was a man who I'd assume to be the father.

The man looked to be around thirty years old. He was tall and had black hair. He looked fit and capable of doing labor.

The kid came running down from the house and asked me, "Do you wanna play?"

I kindly replied with a no.

The father walked to his son and grabbed his arm.

"Come on Gabriel, don't bother these fellow travelers," he said. "I'm sorry for bothering you."

"No problem," Elaina said smiling. "He's still a kid and he just wants to play."

"He sure does," the man said. "He reminds me of myself when I was younger."

"That's nice," Elaina said.

"Anyways, where are you all headed to?" the man asked.

Elaina, Noah, and I looked at each other for a minute.

"We're heading to Alarin," I said.

"Oh, where are you from?" the man asked.

"Celestia," I replied.

The man stood in confusion.

Then he opened his mouth and asked, "You kids traveled this far on foot to get here? Do your parents know?"

I quickly responded with a yes. That was an obvious lie. If he found out, we would be in trouble. The man looked at us for a minute or two before speaking.

"You guys are lying," he said looking at us with a cold stare.

My body froze. I could feel the blood in my body turning cold. I turned my head to face Elaina and Noah who were also frozen in fear.

"N-No sir," Elaina responded hesitantly.

"By any chance, are you guys heading to the snowlands?" the man asked.

Noah and I looked at each other for a brief moment. Elaina stood in between us in fear.

"Come with me," the man said and we did as we were told.

He took us into his farm house and told us to sit down. Again, we did as we were told. The man pulled out a newspaper from a chest and handed it to me.

Pointing to bold print letters at the top of the page, he told me to read the article aloud.

So I began reading, "Three teenage kids go missing after attempting to find remains of Tomancy. One fourteen year old and two sixteen year old left their homes in Celestia to find the remainds of Tomancy."

"Holy shit!" Noah bursted out. "When did this happen?"

I checked the top of the page scanning for a date but couldn't find one.

"The date is scratched out, but this event happened when I was seven." the man answered.

"How old are you now?" Elaina asked.

"Forty-three," the man responded.

Our conversation ended there when the voice of his wife hollered from the kitchen telling the man that his dinner was ready. The man also allowed us to crash in his guess bedroom. I thought about it and came to the conclusion that he was worthy to trust. He had a wife and a child that he took care of, so Elaina, Noah, and I slept in the guess bedroom for the night.