Chapter One

An Draiodóir Agus A Dragan

(The Wizard And His Dragon)

Part 1

By: Trent Anderson

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Chapter One

Darren stood on the castle’s wall. He looked out into the distance, noting that the sun that was just beginning to rise. The wind was blowing from the north, across the distant valley and through the forest. Darren would have been completely taken by the view if his mind hadn’t been on other things. At the moment, he was thinking about something else.

His mind was spinning with thoughts of his girlfriend, Gwyneth. She had disappeared one week before. No one knew where she had gone or what had happened to her. Rumor had it that she had wandered outside the gates and had been eaten by the terrible monsters that lived in the woods. The truth was there were no terrible monsters in the woods. It was all a myth, and so was the belief that they were the only humans in those lands.

How did he know it was a myth? Well, quite frankly, because he had been outside the gates before. In fact, he went outside the gates often. It was completely against the law, but he didn’t mind it that much. Hey, they can only kill you if they catch you, right?

The king, Cerras the Fourth, was a strange old man. He spent most of his days in the uppermost towers. What he did up there was any man’s guess. He didn’t talk much, and when he did it was either to pass a law, sentence a criminal to death, or speak prophesies of doom. But the second one was very common; many people were put to death in Ardara.

That was the punishment for any crime in the city. The means of death, however, was left to the person being executed. There were several options: beheading, stoning, banishment into the lands beyond, or burning at the stake, to name a few.

Most of the criminals chose beheading. It was quick and to the point. Rarely did anyone choose the option of banishment or burning at the stake. Banishment would entail the criminal’s presence outside of the gates, which would inevitably lead to death, seeing as how they were the only humans in the land (or so they were told)... oh, and the monsters too. They might be a problem.

There was only one man who had chosen banishment. He was a young boy in his teens that had sneaked out of his house after curfew.

No one ever knew if he had died or not. Everyone was told that eventually someone living outside the gates would die but no one had ever come back alive to prove it. So in the sixty or so years that had passed, everyone assumed him dead, and were right to do so, for thinking hopefully or positively about those who had committed such crimes as breaking curfew was greatly frowned upon.

When one was stoned in Ardara, they weren’t completely killed. Instead, after the stoning they were thrown into the sewers beneath the city to be eaten by the blind, toothed fish that lived there.

The flag to Darren’s right tore slightly. The serpent emblem swung about in the wind. For a second it actually looked like it was moving; wriggling; trying to twist its way out of the hand that was holding it. Darren looked to his left. Another flag hung there. It had the same pattern on it; the same hand holding the serpent. That serpent wriggled as well, but the hand held onto it.

Darren breathed deep and let it out slowly. He was pretty stressed. His day had consisted of chores around the house; work at the blacksmith’s shop, lessons at the schoolhouse and more chores around the house. He needed somewhere to blow off his steam. He looked over his shoulder. The guards weren’t looking. The exit was clear. Maybe he could just slip out from underneath their noses and check in at the riverside. Breya would probably be waiting for him. She said to meet him there in half an hour, but he knew Breya. She would be early, doing"well, whatever it was she did by herself.

Breya was headstrong and confident, but she occasionally needed time to herself. It helped her put her thoughts in order and get a better perspective. Darren was always talking about one thing or another and proved to be quite a draining person to be around, especially when she needed to recharge. All the stress from the past two weeks had caught up with her all at once.

Once Darren and Gwyneth had told her about the two of them being together, it had made her so upset that she couldn’t talk to either of them for a week. Darren, not understanding women in the first place, couldn’t understand why.

He looked over his shoulder again. The guards were still looking away. So, all he needed to do was just slide over to the stairs and go down. No, no! They’d see him. No… he had a better idea. Watching the guards constantly, Darren walked around the corner. A peasant wheeling a cart full of suspicious-looking meat saw him.

The woman gave him a glance and, after assuring herself that Darren was just an innocent boy, went about her business of informing the entire world that she had something to sell that the entire world didn’t want.

He ran along the wall until he came to a small, wooden door. He opened it and went inside. A large blacksmith’s shop stood before him. No one was in sight so he ran to the other side of the shop. Yet another door was waiting to be opened. Just as he reached to open it, he heard someone coming. He jerked on the handle, stepped through, and closed it.

Safe! He turned around and looked down the long stairway that led out of the city gates. For a moment he was stunned. Breya had always told him about that place, but he had never gone. She said it was the best way to get to the woods, but he didn’t want to get lost out there… what if the monsters were real?

He ran down the flight as fast as he could. He finally reached the bottom, stepped out onto the dirt and looked around. Did Breya say that the brook was… north?

A bit disoriented in his sense of direction, he guessed that north would have been straight ahead. He set out in a jog. Fallen pine cones and brown needles covered the floor which made his passing rather quiet. However, the occasional crunching sound came about when Darren stepped on a dry pine cone.

The fires had swept through those parts not long ago. About two years had passed since the biggest of the fires devastated the forest. It had all grown back, however. Nature had an interesting, yet scary way of refreshing itself. From the city wall you could look out on the hill and see black spikes sticking up out of a black ground. The rains had come again and the area was recovering quickly, though.

He went deeper into the woods, moving swiftly. He passed in between the trees over large rocks. Soon he remembered the way to the falls where his current path and the path from the front gates intersected.

After several minutes of running, he could finally hear the sound of water. He came upon a small creek and followed it downstream. Not far downstream were the falls: the only waterfall system in those lands, or the only waterfall system that they had found in the woods. After all, no one had explored farther than the local forest, legally that is.

The falls were their favorite place to go in the summer. He could see them in the distance as he came closer. The sound of cold water splashing against the rocks calmed him. Before Gwyneth had mysteriously left, they would swim in the cold water and then sit on the falls to dry in the sun. Darren smiled as he thought about all the stories and secrets they had shared and the hours they wasted lying there, looking up at the clouds.

He ran to the bank of the brook and stopped. He looked around for Breya.

“I’m here,” she said.

Darren looked to where her voice came from. She was sitting on top of the waterfall, dangling her feet over the edge, letting the water group on them and form streams down into the pool below. Her brown hair flew in the wind, and covered part of her face. Her blue eyes somehow pierced the covering of hair.

Darren ran to a large pine tree growing next to the river. He climbed it and stepped onto the rock plateau. Swift-moving water rushed around and over the top of his foot. He could see minnows in the water being pulled over the edge, always swimming the other way but never managing to escape the pull of the waterfall.

“Come on,” she said. “What are you scared of?”

Darren stepped his second foot into the water. For a moment he lost his balance and slid on the rocks. He regained it and walked over to Breya. “It’s been so long since I’ve been out here.” He sat down with his feet hanging over the edge.

“We haven’t come out since"”

“Yes,” Darren cut her off and then changed the subject. “How long have you been waiting?”

“Not long… ten minutes or so.” Breya looked downstream as the water took a few curves, carving out the riverbed, and rushed over a tree that had fallen across it.

“How were your studies?” Darren asked.

“We learned how to double knit today.” She put her hand under the water and picked up a perfectly round rock. The scraped off the algae on it and brought it out of the stream. She dropped it down the waterfall. It landed in the pool below her, making a loud splash. “What is it, Darren?” she said, still looking down.

“What?”

“Let’s just get to the heart of the matter,” she said. “We’re friends. We don’t have to play around.”

“I’m not playing around. I wanted to know how your studies were.”

Darren looked at one of the trees. A squirrel and a bird were fighting over a pine cone. Darren was betting that the bird would win. Breya chuckled and tossed the rock down into the pool of water. “Come on. Let’s go swimming.” She looked at Darren with a devilish smile and slid off the edge.

He was going to protest, but soon slipped over the edge to join her.

Breya laughed as she came up to the surface. “I have to show you something. I found it while I was waiting.” She swam to the waterfall. Darren looked up at the water. Breya took his hand and stepped through. Darren hesitated for a moment and then went through.

“A cave?”

“It’s been here all along. We just never noticed it.”

“Gwyneth would have liked this.”

“Yes, she would have.” Breya studied him for a second.

Darren looked over and saw her. He smiled abruptly and moved out of the cave, Breya followed him.

“Where are you going?” She asked as she swam after him.

“Downstream!” Suddenly, a sense of playful adolescence took over and Darren quickly scrambled to his feet as Breya swam after him. The rocky bottom lent itself to Darren’s feet as he attempted to run through the water. The brook eventually got shallower as they, to the point where only Darren’s ankles were covered.

A downed tree sat across the brook. Darren jumped, attempting to miss it. But instead, his feet caught the tree and fell face first on the riverbed. His chin had sought the comfort of a large stone, and found that it wasn’t so comforting. Darren lifted his head out of the water and rubbed his chin, predicting that a large bruise would form on it.

By that time, Breya had caught up with him. She stopped and leaned against a white boulder that marked the turning of the stream. “It’s alright, you know.”

“What’s alright?” Darren asked, looking up.

“You and Gwyneth,” she said. He gave her a confused look.

“Was it ever not alright?” he asked.

“No.”

“Good,” he said, continuing to rub his chin. “I think I hit that rock when I fell.”

“You’re dad’s going to want to know where that came from.”

“I’ll make something up,” he said.

“It better make it good,” Breya said. “We couldn’t have the son of the chief guard breaking the rules, now could we?” She reached her hand down and helped him up.

“We should get back inside the gates. They might start looking for us soon.” She stepped out of the river and onto the land.

“Breya?”

“What?” she asked, turning around.

“Well-”

“Oh, Darren, come on!” A childish grin broke out on her face. “I have to show you something.” She took his hand and pulled him off in one direction.

“Where are we going?” Darren asked.

“You’ll see.”

She led him across the creek and up a hill. She stopped at the top of the hill. The view took Darren’s breath away. He could see the distant mountains, the plain before him. Everything was incredible.

“Is this it?”

“No. But this caught my eye on the way up. It’s over there.” She motioned for him to follow her. She turned to her left and went down the hill. She came to a point in the creek where the water pooled in a rock bowl about three feet deep. “This is it.”

“A pool? Did this catch your eye too?” He asked.

“Yes,” Breya said, “That’s why I came here the first time.”

Darren waited awkwardly.

“That’s not all, though.” She stepped in it and reached to the bottom. She found something that looked like a rock and brushed the dirt off of it. It seemed to glow a greenish color. “Then I found this and decided that it was prettier.”

“It looks like you were waiting a lot longer than ten minutes.” Darren stepped into the pool to get a closer look. “What is it?”

“Some sort of magical rock. Maybe an egg. See how it glows green? It can’t be an ordinary rock.” Breya’s gaze was fixed on it as she spoke.

“But magic was outlawed by Cerras the first over a hundred years ago,” Darren pointed out.

“-Which is exactly why someone would want to hide it where it couldn’t be found.”

That point made sense to Darren. He reached his hand out slowly and touched it. “It’s cold.”

“Of course. It’s been sitting in water for… for-”

“Up to a hundred years?”

“Or more.” Breya set the egg on the rock plateau.

“More?” Darren asked.

“That’s what I said.”

“Why more than hundred years? Someone would just sell it if magic was legal.”

Breya looked at him, “Would they?”

“What’s that supposed to mean?” Darren asked.

“Maybe it’s different than the others.

“What others?” Darren asked.

“The other… eggs!”

“Breya,” he said. “We don’t even know if it is an egg!” Breya picked at the algae with her fingernail. “And besides! What makes you think there are more of these?”

Darren ignored her question. “Careful,” he warned. It could be thin.” Breya looked at him, showing her annoyance. Darren stepped out of the pool and looked around. “I hope you know that if we get caught we’ll be pressed with going outside of the gates and sorcery charges?”

Breya just ignored him and continued scraping the algae off. “Do you want to help me with this or not?” Darren got back in the pool and took out a knife from his pocket. “Where’d you get that?”

“Dad.”

“Your dad?” Breya asked.

“Well, I wouldn’t get it from someone else’s dad, would I?”

“You know knives are illegal.”

“I do know that,” Darren said.

“Your father is the head guard! What’s he doing giving knives to kids?”

“He said that there are a lot of people that want to get back at him. I didn’t think it was a bad idea to keep a knife with me, so, I took it when he offered.”

“Well at least he knew what the consequences were when he gave it to you,” Breya said. Breya held the egg out to Darren. He unsheathed the knife and touched the egg with it. He started to scrape it but stopped as soon as Breya spoke- “Careful! It could be thin,” she mocked, but part of her was serious.

He scraped a little and brushed the algae away, gauging the depth of the cover. He carefully pushed the blade underneath the case and cut. He peeled off the algae and they both looked inside. The green marble-like egg shone even brighter than before once the algae was off. “Okay…” Darren said. “We should probably get back to the city.”

“I’m not ready to go back,” Breya protested.

“Look. We just discovered an egg… rock thing. And we went swimming in a river that we aren’t supposed to know about.”

“How many times do I have to tell you: rules are meant to be broken,” Breya told him.

“And some rules are for our protection. Do you know what happens when we don’t have protection?” Darren said. “We get eaten by things that think we taste good!”

“Okay, who’s been telling you all the horror stories?”

“What? No one!”

“Come on, Darren. Who’s filling your head with all these ridiculous fantasies about monsters… and... rules! And everyone knows that the monsters aren’t real.”

“Do they?” he challenged.

“We know.”

“We just found an egg, Breya,” Darren stressed. “A green, egg! I’m not sure we can go about calling monsters fake.”

“Is this about monsters or the egg?” she asked.

“Fine,” Darren said... wiping his forehead “We can’t leave it out here for someone else to find. “Where are we going to keep it?”

“We’ll keep it at my house," she said.