Chapter 1

"Ameloney.. wake up.." He shakes her trying not to wake the other girls sleeping in the beds close by.

 

          She opens her eyes and looks at the kid, he is wearing blue pajamas and his long brown hair is almost covering his eyes "Eldin, why are you here? go back to sleep.."

 

          "The bird man is here" He pulls on her arms and tries to pry her from her bed.

 

          "How do you even know it's the bird man?" she gets out of bed and walks over to the barred off window, she pulls away the large black curtains and looks out. Flying toward the dock she sees a large flying blimp and it's boat like structure hanging below the length of the balloon. The large balloon has a red symbol painted on both sides that resembles a bird head with wings on either side. "That's him Eldin, it's the bird man's airboat!"

 

          He stares at her blankly "Yes I know, but keep quiet or you will wake everyone up." He follows her out of the room and down a long hallway passing many rooms until they reach the door at the end of the hall.

 

          They slowly open the door and pass through a kitchen with wooden cutlery, pots and pans hanging all around. At the back end of the kitchen they pull a door open part way very carefully and remove a piece of folded paper from around the hinge used to keep the door from closing completely. The door opens to a fenced in area with a large gate, they place the paper back in the door so they can get back in before running over to the far side of the fence.

 

          They crouch down behind some crates up against the far side of the fence, from where they are crouched they can see the bird man's airboat landing into the water next to the end of the dock, they can also see another man standing on the dock "there he is" Eldin points to the bird man walking across a board that was just lowered to span the gap between his airboat and the dock.

 

          "Yes it's him alright, but be quiet and maybe we can hear what he is saying" She watches as the bird man approaches who she now recognizes as the headmaster of their Orphanage school.

 

          The bird man has large wings tucked in against his back and a large beak where his nose and mouth should be, and feathers from his head down his back and legs to his talons where his feet should be; he is only wearing a tight brown pair of pants held up by a belt and otherwise is covered in well groomed white and brown feathers. "I only have three this time headmaster" the bird man hands the head master three large envelopes.

 

          "Do you know anything about them?" the head master holds the files at his side.

 

          "Everything you need to know about them is in their files like always, but personally I don't know much about them except that they were taken from their parents at birth and they aren't related to each other."

 

          "Alright well thanks again, I guess I'll show them to their rooms and give them a tour in the morning. They will fit in with the rest of the children very well."

 

 

 

          "How long ago was that?"

          "That was 10 years ago, Eldin and I always watched the bird man fly in on his airboat and drop off new kids" Ameloney says.

 

          "How do they get away with things like that?" Talber leans over the balcony and looks out at the water.

 

          "Get away with what? you mean taking kids away from their parents at birth?" She pulls some of her black hair blowing in the wind and tucks it back behind her ear "It's just how it has always been, our parents never own us, we all belong to our city and province that we are born in, by law our parents have no ownership over their children."

 

          "We end up being given to the bird men to see what type of magic we may be gifted with" he looks back at her.

          "Essentially yes, and just so you know, bird men is offensive to them they prefer Iros" She pats him on the back and smiles."

 

          "How did you learn so much?"

 

         "Well the orphanage school claims to be a place of education but they don't teach us anything, they only put us to work until we find out what magic we possess. I learned everything from my older brother, he got to travel a little bit and he told me so many stories."

 

          "Will I get to meet your brother some day?"

 

          "Unfortunately he left a long time ago and has yet to come back but hopefully some day he will come back and you can meet him" her smile slowly fades.

 

          "I will look forward to that day!" he smiles back at her.

 

          She smiles back "Well anyway like I was saying, they sell us to the Iros while we are young and once the Iros determine how gifted we are, they sell us to another city or province" She looks out at the water "We will probably be here our entire lives, trapped in this city surrounded by cliff faces with the open sea as our only view of the outside world."

 

          "It's kind of sad, what happens when they find out what magic we have and when do we find out?"

 

          "Everyone's magic shows itself at different times, there is no way to know until it does and the bird man will show up every month or so to check and see if anyone's magic has shown itself. All I know is that there are plenty of people around here with magic and there are a lot of people sent away, I have my theories but I don't think you want to hear them" she laughs.

 

          "Of course I want to hear your theory, what do you think?" he looks at her.

 

          "Well ok here is what I think, I believe that there is a secret war happening out there somewhere, and they send people with useful magic for combat away over seas into battle. The ones that have magic that isn't useful for combat they just keep here and are none the wiser. It's only a theory but I think it makes perfect sense, we know absolutely nothing about what goes on in the world." She looks at him "so what do you think?" she smirks.

 

          "It's definitely possible.." he smiles "seriously I can tell you think I don't believe you but it makes sense. What type of magic do you know about?"

 

          She looks in the open door behind her but no one is there "Well, you know the headmaster..?" she looks around again "He can live forever.."

 

          "What!? what do you mean live forever!? seriously?" He leans back against the railing.

 

          "Keep it down! I don't think anyone is supposed to know that.. my brother told me that he has known other people with this power and the headmaster hasn't changed since he was small."

 

          "What else do you know?" he walks in front of her and away from the railing.

 

          "The bird man and the other Iros have the ability to sense people who have magic powers and they can tell what powers they have. My brother can mentally control water, he can move it around through the air with his mind, but only water. She pulls him close "is that enough secrets for you? you know just as much as me now, do not tell anyone" she smirks.

 

          "I promise I won't tell anyone, the only people I talk to are you and Eldin."

 

          "Ameloney and Talber, how are you both today?" he walks out of the doorway behind them.

 

          She jumps a little "Headmaster, we were just looking at the ocean."

 

          "Mrs. Ardensay could use help fixing her roof, we are supposed to get a lot of rain in the next few days" the headmaster walks past them and places his hands on the railing.

 

          "Eldin is already helping her but you're right, they could use some help so we will get right over there thank you.." She laughs a fake laugh and grabs Talber's hand pulling him toward the door.

 

          The headmaster turns toward them with one hand still placed on the railing and watches them walk down the wooden stairs "Don't take too long, you only have until the end of the day."

 

          "Yes headmaster!" she shouts from the bottom of the stairs.

 

          She pulls Talber by the arm down a side street "let's take this way, less people in our way" she smiles "we can talk more."

 

          "I don't want to be here forever.." he looks at the dirt road beneath his feet.

 

          "Careful where you say things like that, they don't like that kind of free thinking here. You're right though, and I don't want to be here forever either but, there is no way to leave and everywhere else is probably the same way" she sighs.

 

          "I have a secret I would like to share with you as well Ameloney."

 

          "What is it? you can tell me anything, I will keep it a secret" she looks at him while pulling her hair away from her face.

 

          "I have magic, I felt it since last week."

 

          She seems speechless.

 

          "What is going to happen to me Ameloney?"

 

          "Do you now what your power is?"

 

          "I can't tell for sure, I know how to use it but nothing seems to happen when I try."

 

          She still seams relatively speechless.

 

          "What is going to happen to me Ameloney!?" He stops suddenly.

          She turns to him "I'm sorry, I'm thinking" she runs her hands down her face "the bird man will be able to tell for sure.. I guess it's up to him and the headmaster what will happen to you.." she wipes away a single tear running down her face.

 

          "We can't let them take me Ameloney" he looks angry "I won't leave you and Eldin behind."

 

          "We have to tell Eldin, he has good ideas, he may be able to help us and he may be able to figure out what your power is."

 

          "Ameloney we need to do something a little bigger than tell Eldin."

 

          "What are you saying?"

 

          "I don't know! I just know that we need to act, we can't just do nothing.. " He falls to his knees and plants his fists into the dirt road.

 

          "I promise you we will do something, but first I think we need to ask for Eldin's help."

 

 

 

 

          Ameloney pulls Eldin into a back street near the house he was helping to fix "Eldin, this is very important, Talber and I have something to tell you."

 

          "I understand, what is it?" Eldin pulls his hand away from Ameloney's and runs his hand through his medium length brown hair, pushing it back.

 

          "I have magic Eldin, and I need your help so the bird man doesn't take me away."

 

          "I see.. what power do you.."

 

          "I don't know, I can't use it."

 

          "You're thinking we need to find out what it is first aren't you Eldin?" She looks at him.

          "We would know if we have anything to worry about at all" Eldin looks behind and then back at Ameloney "We should talk about this tonight before curfew, or after curfew.."

 

 

 

 

          "I wish this place had books so we could do some research and maybe figure out which power you have" Eldin leans back slowly against the door he just closed.

 

          "There isn't much we can accomplish by ourselves" Ameloney looks at Talber.

 

          He smirks "I think I know how to use my power. I was walking through the market earlier and I saw the headmaster and I could feel my power doing something. I don't know exactly what I was doing but my power was definitely working."

 

          "Well what do we know about the headmaster?" Eldin asks.

 

          "It's ok Eldin I already told Talber everything my brother told me."

 

          That information was never supposed to be told to anyone, it's way too dangerous for someone to know what we know "Alright Ameloney I trust your judgment."

 

          "So if my power only seemed to work on the headmaster then that means I was doing something with his magic!" He says excitedly but then immediately quiets down.

         

          "Did you notice anything physically happening?" Eldin asks Talber.

 

          "Not physically but I could see strange images in my mind. Not literal images but just colors, almost like colored mist."

 

          "That doesn't help us, we need you to try it again" Eldin yawns "It's getting late and I think we have everything we need, let's get some sleep and talk about this again tomorrow."

 

 

 

 

          "Good morning headmaster" Talber smiles at him.

 

          "Why are you up so early Talber? I don't give the wakeup call for a short while."

 

          "I hope you don't mind, I need to talk to you in private."

 

          "Yes that's fine Talber, step into my office and we will talk."

 

 

 

 

          "We don't teach the children about magic and we never will Talber, do not ask me about it again."

 

          I can feel my magic working on him again, but what is happening? I need more time "I'm sorry headmaster it won't happen again but please I have more questions. Is there a place in town where I can read about the world? maybe an atlas?"

 

          "Talber, you get out of my office and go make yourself busy, there are a lot of things that need to be done today."

 

          This isn't buying me enough time "Is there anything specific you would like me to get done today?"

 

          The headmaster rips his hand away from the table and puts it in his pocket "Talber you get out of my office now or you will get cleaning duties for a week!" he slams his other hand on the desk.

 

          Talber jumps from his chair and backs away noticing the headmaster's hand on the table What did I do? why is he freaking out? "I'm sorry to bother you headmaster" He walks quickly out of the office.

 

 

 

 

          "You did what!?" Ameloney yells.

 

          "I thought I could figure out what my power does" he whispers trying not to bring themselves to the attention of everyone else eating in the cafeteria.

 

          "You were extremely lucky the headmaster didn't figure you out" Eldin takes a drink of water from the cup in front of him on the table.

 

          "I feel that it is very important though, I need to know."

 

          "You have to be careful, if he finds out.. well I don't know what he would do but I wouldn't want to find out" Eldin looks around the room "Are you sure that your magic won't work on anyone else?"

 

          "Well I'm not sure actually, I guess I'm just excited that I'm this close to figuring out what my power does" He plants his face into the table "I guess this is it.. some day soon the bird man will come and take me away.."

 

        Ameloney stands from her chair and places her hand on the table "That's not going to happen! Eldin and I won't let it!" she yells loudly and grabs the attention of most of the people in the cafeteria. She laughs and turns red "oops.." She sits back down in her chair.

 

          Talber lifts his head up from the table and everyone else in the cafeteria goes back to what they were doing. "Eventually he will find me, I can't hide it forever."