Hi everyone, PenNPaper here, it's been quite a while since I posted a story here. This is a new one, please be honest and tell me how I can improve this piece of work.
Silence, only silence. The dead silence of the night. I crawled through the bushes, hoping to find some fruit buried underneath the soil. I dug furiously with my hands, nothing. I cursed, my hands were tired and so were my knees. I tried to stand up, I couldn’t. I had been crawling for over an hour, I was starving. I couldn’t return to the tribe without any food. They would laugh at me; say what a useless boy I am. I considered my options, I was weak from hunger, I couldn’t last more than fifteen minutes. Giving up, I decided to crawl back to camp.
I crawled back slowly, stopping only to wash my mud stained hands in the river. Then I continued. By the time I reached the tribe, everyone was already having breakfast. Everybody started at me, especially my empty hands. I clenched my fists, and walked slowly through the crowd. I almost reached my hut, only to be stopped by Hakan, one of the older boys who always picked on the small and decent boys like me. He loomed over me like a giant.
“Look, here’s Midaka, looks like you didn’t bring any food back, your family’s going to starve,” he sneered, his onion like breath almost forcing me to puke.
I looked up at him, into his dark eyes, I stared at him. I had grown sick and tired of him bullying me. If I could defeat him in a battle, my family’s power would grow.
“I challenge you to a fight,” I said, pointing a finger at him.
He burst out laughing, and then stared at me with a look of venom, instantly I knew I had made the wrong decision, I was going to be crushed.
We walked to the arena, slowly, with the whole tribe watching us. my legs were trembling, they felt the like jelly. Hakan stood proud and tall, his muscles were about the crush me.
We reached the arena, it was a huge circle, in the middle of the camp. We stood back to back, as was the common way of fighting. We turned to face each other slowly, and by that time I had lost all my courage. I glanced at my family, my mother, father, and young sister. I was the oldest child, and had a feeling I would never get to see them again.
I knew the match had started, from the moments the drums sounded, it was already too late. Ah well, I’ll just give it my best, I thought.
I bent my body sideways and charged towards Hakan, the next moment I was falling down. I got up, my eyes narrowed as I focused my gaze onto Hakan. He was still there, grinning broadly, as if he had won the whole world.
He turned to face me, and sneered. Obviously he thought it was impossible for me to win, and I wanted to prove him wrong. I got angry, my jaw tightened and I pressed my teeth together. I clenched my fists firmly as I brought them up in a pose.
Hakan looked at me in surprise, he hadn’t been expecting this, he had thought I would give up. He sneered once again, clearly to show me that he had no form of any respect for me. He flexed his muscles, getting ready to change from defence to attack. Then he ran towards me, swinging an arm behind him, getting ready to hit me with full force. He brought his hand forward, to me it was slow, I raised my hand to halt it, even though I knew it was impossible. No one had been able to match Hakan's strength.
Then something happened, as soon as he hit my palm, he stopped. He looked at me with a shocked expression, which changed to a furious one. I smiled, then let go of his hand.
“How the heck did you do that you little brat?” he snarled.
“I don’t know,” I replied, pleased with my new growth in strength.
He didn’t give up, I didn’t expect him to. He tried to kick me in the stomach, but I easily dodged. Thinking that it was time to me to retaliate, I punched him hard under his chin. He gave an oomph then fell flat to the ground. I grinned, beating up Hakan was fun.
“You little brat!” he yelled, as he got up and tried to pounce on me.
Too bad, I gripped his shirt and easily held him with my two hands. Then I tossed him away, out of the ring.
The crowd looked at me with utter amazement, we hadn’t expected the outcome to be like this.
Hakan was now back on his feet, glaring at me, his eyes ablaze.
“He cheated, he couldn’t have that much strength, it must have been black magic!” he shouted to everyone.
Everyone looked at him, then stared back at me. The crowd closed in, apparently they trusted him.
“Kill him, he is a threat, he will kill us all,” Hakan continued.
Kill me? I froze with fear. No doubt, I could handle Hakan, but the whole tribe, no way. I cursed, there was no other exit for me, unless I could charge my way out. I looked around, they were closing in on me, I panicked.
“Please, stop this,” I begged.
“Don’t listen to him, he is evil, kill him!” Hakan shouted.
“I don’t mean any harm to you, Hakan is lying, he is jealous that I defeated him,” I pleaded furiously.
“Midaka is lying, he wants to kill all of us, charge, kill him!” Hakan yelled.
Oh God, please help me, I pleaded silently to the heavens.
Then, something happened, I seemed to grow taller. I looked down at my feet, no, I was flying. I flew higher up into the sky, I couldn’t control my body though, I just went with the flow. Hakan was really furious now, swearing and trying to bring me down. The tribes people looked at me in shock, not knowing how to react.
Hakan grabbed a spear, then with a practiced aim, threw it at me. I winced, expecting to feel the pain, it never came. The spear bounced off my body as it neared. Everyone looked in amazement, I felt my body rising higher and higher. Then my body tilted to the right and the next moment I sped up. I was heading for the mountains, where it was freezing cold all year round and where there were lots of wild animals ready to pounce on you the moment they saw you. After what seemed like hours of flying high in the air I landed near the top of the mountain. My body went back to normal, and I stretched my muscles gratefully.
I looked around; there was nothing much except for snow and rocks. I walked over to the edge and peeped down. I was high up in the mountains. Just then I realized how hungry and cold I was, I cursed for being stuck up here with nothing to eat. Although I had escaped the tribes fury and wrath. I buried my hands inside my armpits and tried to find some shelter, a small hole probably, where I could rest. After that I would consider my options.
Snow started falling heavily, I was freezing. My fingers and toes had gotten frostbite. I was about to die. My teeth chattered uncontrollably, I felt myself losing consciousness and then I drifted off into sleep.
I opened my eyes sleepily, I couldn’t see anything, it was dark. I groped around, I felt myself covered in something warm. I saw in the distance a faint light, it got closer and closer. It looked like there was somebody holding that light. Male or female I didn’t know. I could vaguely make out a white beard, it must have been a man.
The person entered my view, he was an old man. He was carry some meat and a bowl.
“Eat up,” he said.
I grabbed the meat from him and ate hungrily, he set a bowl of water beside me. I quickly grabbed and poured the water down my parched and thirsty throat.
“Slowly, don’t choke,” he laughed.
It was a few minutes before I finished my meal, then I spoke.
“Thank you for rescuing me, may I know who you are?” I asked politely.
“You may call me Nazuan, I live here in the mountains, but I want to know how you got here. You see, few people make it all the way up, and even they need to be very strong,” he replied.
“I flew,” I replied, wondering if he would believe me.
“Hm. . .I see,” he said.
“You believe me?” I asked.
“Why not?”
“I mean, don’t you think I’m lying?”
“Tell me then, are you?”
“No, I’m not”
“Then I believe you on that too”
“I don’t think you get what I mean, I wasn’t flying in one of those huge birds they called planes, I was flying on my own”
“Then I believe you even more”
I stared at him dumbfounded. He caught my expression and explained.
“Magic, you have magic,” he said.
“But magic doesn’t exist,” I protested.
“Yes, it does, but only some have it. They say magic was created, by the elves. Then the elves taught others about it, slowly, more people came to know about it. That was in the past. One evil mage, he used the magic to do evil, since then the elves have not agreed to spread the knowledge of magic. Only those worthy of it would be given the power,” Nazuan explained.
I thought about it for a long while, not ready to accept the fact. Magic has always been called black magic, by our tribe. Those that practiced it were either banished or killed. I had never heard of this magic that came from the elves. Elves were said to be fake, that their magic was a curse to us. I had been warned not to deal with magic. Now I realized that there were two types of magic, one good and one bad.
“Do you magic?” I asked.
“Yes, I do, and I have some news for you,” he replied.
“What is it?” I asked.
“You need to undergo the test, but before that you have to train”
I asked him to explain.
He told me that once magic was discovered in somebody, they were separated away from the normal people. They were trained by the elves and then had to be tested. If they failed the test, they would undergo the training again. There were people called the Helpers, like Nazuan, who would guide the trainees through their training. After they passed the test, they would be presented to the Chooser, who would pick one of them as the champion. The rest who were not chosen would assist the chosen one in his or her quest.
At that point I asked, “What quest?”
“It is one that you will know once if you are chosen or have passed the test,” Nazuan replied. “Now, you will have to go and enter the world of magic”
He led me to the back of the cave, there was a gate which was locked. He handed the candle over to me and conjured a staff out of nowhere. He asked me to put the candle at the front of the gate.
He started to chant, “Frumar, Honlo, Rousvan, Jan!”
The candle went out, then burst into a green flame. He picked up the candle again, and lighted the lock. Slowly, the lock melted, and the door opened. Light entered and I was blinded for a moment, then the light dimmed, and there was darkness.
“Step through the door, I will follow behind,” Nazuan instructed.
“Must I go first?” I asked, I was scared of going alone.
He nodded, his face green in the light. I summed up my courage and slowly took a step towards the door, and another. I stood before the darkness, willing myself to step in. I took a deep breath, made my decision and went through.
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