Chapter 1: Partners

A Chapter by Akkastara

The story shifts to a young boy named Lotus, who lives a boring, dull life. That changes, however, when he finds a ring in his front yard.

Chapter 1: Partners

There once was a young 9^th grader named Lotus who lived on a hill with his grandmother. He was just an average boy who didn’t believe in destiny or magic. Every day, he would walk by himself to the train station to go to school. He was one of the most independent yet boring 9^th graders Laila had ever met.

“Hey Lotus!” Laila called out, waving with excitement as she hauled her large backpack over her shoulders.

He waved back.

“I’m glad to see you’re back at school, I was really worried about you! Were you sick?”

“Yes, I had the flu.”

“That sucks!”

“It sure does.”

She looked down at his hand and noticed a small ring on his ring finger.

“Already collecting rings? I thought you didn’t believe in that sort of thing.” She said.

“Well, this one is just a ring. I don’t have an instrument, so I’m just wearing it as an accessory.”

“Whatever you say!”

“I really do mean it! It’s nothing special. It’s just a ring I found in the grass last night.”

“It must be useless then. Definitely not as cool as my Kala!” She smirked, pointing to her pink, plastic ring, “This ring has the ability to summon Kala, my familiar, whenever I play my flute!”

“You got another ring? I didn’t notice,” Lotus said.

“Geez! You never notice anything, you blockhead!” She laughed as she patted his head.

“Hey, cut it out! You’ll mess up my hair!”

“Yeah, yeah!”

The bells rang, signaling the children to get to their classes.

“Alright, see you later, Flower Boy!” she said.

“Yeah, see ya.”

He looked down at the ring, thinking to himself, maybe this is just a piece of junk. I wonder what gave me the idea to wear it today.

Then, without warning, a female voice echoed in his head: Maybe you just wanted to impress her.

“Who said that!” Lotus looked around, frantically. “Geez. This ring is driving me nuts! Ever since I found it, I’ve been hearing strange voices. Maybe I’ll just sell it to some idiot in my class.”

As Lotus walked into class, he looked around until he spotted the perfect idiot to sell his ring to.

“Hey, Jeremy,” he said, “Do you want to buy my ring?”

“Your ring? I thought you hated rings!” Jeremy exclaimed.

“Yeah, well, I like money, so take it and give me twenty.”

“I only have five dollars.”

“Well, I guess I could lower the price. Here you go.”

“Gee, thanks Lotus! I’ll test it out right away!” Jeremy said as he gave him the five dollars.

“Go nuts,” he smirked.

Everybody sat down as the teacher came in and said, “Settle down class.”

As she droned on about homeroom rules and studying hard, Lotus began to drift off into a deep sleep. In his mind, he saw a vision of a young girl with white and blue hair. It was long and shiny, like in hair commercials. Her skin was a milky apricot color that looked soft to the touch. Her eyes glowed like turquoise rain, fierce and excited. She called out to him.

Lotus… Lotus… Lotus….. She called, her voice getting louder each time.

She came closer and closer to him until she had her arms wrapped around his throat like a snake. Lotus began to lose his breath as she continued to strangle him.. He kept hearing her voice, chanting his name over and over again, sounding angrier each time.

I WILL TEAR YOU APART!

“GAH!” Lotus screamed, lifting his head up from his desk quickly. A piece of paper stuck to his forehead made him look like a dork.

“Lotus, one more outburst like that, and you’ll be in the principal’s office with a detention!”

“S-Sorry Ms. Falion.”

For the rest of the day, Lotus was haunted by his nightmare-like vision. The voice, however, remained silent. With luck, he made it to the end of the school day. He began to walk to his locker, but he ran into Jeremy instead.

“Hey… Lotus, I want my five dollars back. This ring is a piece of crap!”

“Wh-What? Really?!”

“Yeah, I tried it with several different instruments and it didn’t summon a thing! Here, take it.”

Jeremy put the ring in Lotus’s hand, and Lotus was forced to give him back the five dollars.

“See you later, Lotus,” Jeremy said.

Lotus looked down at the ring and said, “I’ll get rid of you somehow.”

Sitting on one of the branches of the old oak tree near his house, Lotus stared at the ring with frustration. He had tried everything. He threw the ring away, but it somehow found its way back to him. Offering the ring to Laila was a bad idea, because she believed that it was destiny that brought him and the ring together.

“What am I supposed to do?” Lotus asked himself as he ran his fingers through his thick, black hair, “Now Laila wants to take me to an instrument store. This is insane! Jeremy already said that the ring doesn’t work, so it’s pointless.”

He sighed as he lay down against the tree trunk, staring at the ring. He closed his eyes and began to hum to himself without thinking. His soothing voice triggered the ring, making it glow bright turquoise. The heat coming from the ring burned his hand, causing him to open his eyes in confusion.

“Ouch!” he shouted as he dropped the ring into the grass. “What the..?”

A bright light flashed, and from the ring transformed this beautiful girl from his vision.

She looked up at him with her graceful eyes. He was stunned by her transformation, and just when he was about to say something, she suddenly glared at him and shouted, “How dare you drop me, you jerk!”

“Who the heck are you?” he asked, ignoring her anger.

“Who am I? How could you possibly not know?! I am-“

“AKKASTARA!”

She turned around to see Reverend, who shouted her name loudly, along with his assistant, Poe.

“Wow, she’s pretty,” Poe blushed.

“We’ve finally found you!” Reverend cried tears of happiness as he leapt to hug her.

“What do you want, old man?” she asked in an annoyed tone.

Reverend paused, then curled up into a ball and began to cry.

“What in the world is going on?!” Lotus asked, “Who are you people, and what are you doing here?”

Nobody answered his question because Akkastara was focused on the annoying presence of Reverend, Reverend was crying, and Poe was trying to console Reverend.

Lotus jumped down from the tree and walked over to Akkastara.

“Did you really come from that ring?” he asked, pointing to the ring on the ground.

“Duh.” She answered, “are you my ringmaster?”

“No way,” Lotus replied, folding his arms.

“Then whose ring is that?”

“It’s mine, I guess. I found it.”

“Then that means you’re my ringmaster, idiot.”

“WHAT?” Reverend shouted in shock, “Boy, listen to me. Akkastara is dangerous, I’ve never even dared to use her power! Return her to me at once.”

“Dangerous…” Akkastara muttered under her breath.

“Go ahead and take her.” Lotus said.

“What?” Reverend looked surprised.

“I don’t care who you are, or how you know her. She’s not mine.” he picked the ring up off the ground and handed it out to Reverend, “Go on and take it.”

“If you’re willing to say that, then… Let’s battle!” Reverend challenged Lotus.

“B-Battle? How can you expect him to battle you, Sir?” Poe asked.

“Stay out of this, Poe. Trust me.”

“Battle?! Didn’t you hear what I said? Just take her and leave!.” Lotus shouted in frustration.

“Go on, boy. Grab your instrument.” Reverend said.

Poe whispered into Reverend’s ear, “He’s offering the ring and the girl to us, shouldn’t we just take them and leave? What’s the point of battling him?”

“I see a spark in his eyes that I cannot just ignore. I have make sure he’s the real deal.” Reverend whispered back.

“Real deal?”

“You’ll know what I mean when it happens,” Reverend said, “We’re waiting on you, boy!”

“My name is Lotus! And I don’t have an instrument!” An annoyed Lotus replied.

Reverend stood there for a while, thinking to himself. Then he asked as if he already knew the answer, “How in the world did you summon her, then?”

Lotus thought about it for a moment, and came to the only possible conclusion.

“My voice.” Lotus said.

“What?” Reverend asked as if he was confused.

“My voice is my instrument.”

“I… I’ve never heard of.. such a thing,” Reverend said, pretending to be shocked, “Not since…well, y’know…”

Lotus stared straight into Reverend’s eyes, barely blinking. Reverend’s left eye twitched twice before he admitted defeat.

“Alright. I have a proposition for you, instead.”

“Yeah? What is that?”

“I’ll take you under my wing, and you’ll learn from the greatest RingMaker of all time!”

“Not interested.”

“WHAT? Do you even know who I am?!”

“Nope. And I don’t care.”

“How dare you!”

Lotus began to walk away, but his shirt collar was tugged on by Akkastara.

“You should care.” She said.

“Look, I don’t want anything to do with you people. Just go home already.”

“How can you say that?!”

“I have the right to say what I want.”

“Are you going to just sit there and do nothing with your life?”

“No! Of course not! It’s just…”

“Oh, you’re afraid! Is that it?”

“N-No!”

“Then tell me why you won’t come with us? From what I can see, you have no sparkle in your eyes. Not a single drop of passion lies within you! You probably just waste your time going to school and sleeping! What kind of life is that?”

“It’s not that great, alright? But it’s the best this world has to offer me…”

“You could do so much better,” she said as she pointed to the sky, “Do what you were made to do. The stars; they were made to shine. And you? You still have yet to find your purpose in life. Lotus, this is destiny.”

“You sound like my friend Laila.”

She stared at him in silence.

“What do you want me to do? Just abandon my home and my grandmother to come with you guys and go on some crazy adventure?”

“Basically.”

He thought about it for a moment, then said, “You’re not going to give up, are you?”

She smirked.

“Fine,” he sighed, “I’ll do it.”

“Then take my hand, and let’s go on a journey.”

With hesitation, he reached his hand out and placed it in hers.

I’m going to regret this…

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AA (Author Akkastara): I hope you enjoyed Chapter 1: Partners!