Preface

The Greatest enemy of knowledge is not ignorance, it is the illusion of knowledge. ~Stephen Hawking~

Preface

 

I sighed as I rolled the rock into a ditch in the ground. Too bad I hadn’t developed any powers with my new look. This cave was strange, but gave me strange comfort as I left it and returned with arms full of sticks to use as firewood. I shut my eyes and held out my hand, palm down, to the sticks after I arranged them around the rock.

“Fire,” I breathed, squeezing my eyes shut. Nothing happened. I even opened one eye just to make sure, but….Nothing. “Oh come on!” I exclaimed, kicking the rock with my foot. I cried out in pain as my toes made impact. I wasn’t wearing my Combat boots anymore.

I fell backwards, my feet stretched out in front of me; with a sigh and sob as tears started to fill my eyes and cloud my vision. I wrapped my arms around my chest, wishing I wasn’t totally helpless and powerless. What good was being magical when you couldn’t do anything?

With a sigh, I hit the back of my head against the cave wall, letting out a large ‘oomph’ sound as I did.

I sat like that for a while and then gave up, moving closer to the fire I resorted to ‘caveman’ antics. I put a leaf on a rock and twisted a stick around in the palms of my hand to try and cause a fire. I was like that, for close to an hour and my stomach started to rumble. When I could smell smoke, I quickly leant down and blew gently, causing a flame to erupt and the small flame to ignite against the other kindling.

Now I had warmth.

Scrape…

Rattle…

Tap…

The sound was quiet but it was enough to make my head snap up and make me jump. I looked around, but there was no source of the sound. I walked out the front of the cave but there was nothing. No animal, not even a breeze that could have caused it.

Hesitantly and on my guard, I re-entered the cave and sat by my fire pit. I crossed my legs and sighed.

Scrape, rattle….

Rattle, tap…

I looked up again and this time, it was like I had x-ray vision. The giant round object I had pushed into the centre of my fire pit was glowing from the inside. A fait yellow colour with veins like fruit cells surrounded a darker shape, with wings. The wings themselves were almost transparent and bat like.

My mind was reeling and I heard a creature of some sort howl outside, not too far from the cave. I scooted closer to the fire and sat there, staring at the silhouette until I couldn’t anymore. My stomach growled again, shifting my thoughts very quickly.

This creature was a baby of some kind, and this rock was its egg. If it was a baby, it would be hungry, and I had no food, or water and this creature would not know how to hunt; but it would find a small frail part-human part-faerie with no powers, and find it an easy food source.

 

Author's Note

This is the Preface for Aldrose.
I would really love any Criticism, good or bad.
Thanks a lot.