Chapter 1
Khai Imogen Wenston was the mayor's son in a small town called Bushton. He had bright red hair which he inherited from his mother. His temper came from her as well.
Khai was well known in Bushton, but in all nineteen years of his life, he had never made a friend of his own. He only had the sort of friends that were scared of him or respected him.
So now, at nineteen, he was in his room trying to form a speech for his candidacy to become the new mayor of Bushton.
He sighed and stood up from the desk. He exited his room and the town hall, deciding to take a walk in the nearby woods.
Khai found the tree where he had carved his and every previous mayor's son's name. He traced his name and climbed the tree.
When he had reached a reasonable height, he gazed out across the view of the woods and whatever was beyond that.
He ended up falling asleep and woke up near the dusk of that day. He headed home for dinner, unaware of his being followed.
Khai, restless, yet careful not to wake his family, climbed out the window and ventured to the abandoned and forbidden side of town.
The area had been forbidden for longer than Khai's lifetime, but he knew the story, and the reasons, for they had been drilled into his head by teachers and parents alike.
He strolled through the ruins of what used to be there and recited the story aloud to himself.
"When the war between the mages and humans began, the mages cursed the land of Bushton that was beyond Coral River. The land had already been booby-trapped by humans, should anybody invade," he said, smiling slightly, and picked up a stone which he threw, setting off one of the traps.
Khai sighed, and leaned against the remaining wall of a church.
A trap went off behind Khai, startling him as he turned around.
He saw that a net had captured what seemed to be a girl maybe a bit older than he, though he'd never seen anyone in town like her.
The girl cursed in a language that he didn't recognize, something old and likely long forgotten.
"Yakias!" she cursed, pulling a small knife out of a holster on her hip. She used it to cut the ropes she was trapped in.
"Um.. what language was that?" Khai asked, approaching her carefully.
"What are you, dumb? It's Druish." she glared at him, dropping to the ground.
"Wait- what? But the druids are extinct!" Khai exclaimed, but he did start to notice her elf-like ears, her green-tinted skin, and the collection of rabbit and squirrel skins she kept by her holster which she inserted her dagger back into.
"I'm the last one," she admitted reluctantly. She sighed.
"Whoa! That's cool. But why are you here?" He marveled.
"Because of you. Your stupid human aura of power drew me here." She muttered, clearly annoyed.
"Aura of- what? I don’t have any power," he said indignantly.
"No, you have something, it just isn't all there. Well, it reminded me of a druid's power, so I thought you were my kind," she said.
Hi "I-I'm gonna go- sleep, you know," Khai said, panicking slightly before running off, dodging traps.
The druid stared as he ran off and yelled, "My name is Vira!"
Khai eventually gave up on sleep. What had that been, a druid? No. A prank. It must've been. Druids.. the idea was stupid. They'd died out a thousand years ago.
In the morning, Khai's mother fussed over his tired appearance and got him peppermint tea.
"Thanks, ma," Khai said, taking the hot tea. He sipped at it, and soon enough trudged upstairs and collapsed on his bed. Khai dreamed of wild dragons and druids alive. He dreamed of Her. Eden, the creator, the magic one, the life-giver.
As Khai woke, he tried to remember the exact details of his and the girl- Vira's conversation. Nobody else had been there, and she didn't look like anyone in town.
He concluded it to be a prank and distinctly pronounced to never speak of the incident.
That was of course until he saw Vira for the second time. In town this time. Nobody noticed her except Khai, and nobody acted as if something were different.
Khai, confused and frustrated, ignored Vira, so as not to spit on his reputation among the tranquil townspeople of Bushton.
Vira, being a creature of hunting, could spot Khai through the rushing mob of people in the market. She followed him for what seemed hours to Khai, though the truth was it had only been fifteen minutes.
When Khai was tired of this cat and mouse game, he decided to go to the woods to rest and relax his mind from the new stress added to it with the knowledge of druids, and Vira.
Though he wasn't exactly shielded there, or at all. Not many ventured into the woods, and none as far as Khai, but Vira wasn’t human.
Vira found him easily and began to talk before Khai could protest. “You must be driving yourself crazy. But you left before I could explain further about this… situation.”
Khai could only gape at her. “Explain?! How do you explain being a druid? And why were you talking about my power?”
“Slow down, I’ll explain everything. Precisely not here. Too many people.” She said, “Do you know about the abandoned castle that’s northwest of here?”
“Castle- what?”
“Nevermind. Just keep up and try not to talk too much. Or ask questions. You know, just keep your riard shut.” Vira amended.
“What’s a riard?” Khai asked immediately.
Vira ignored him.
By the time they got close to the abandoned castle, it was nightfall and Khai’s legs burned with the pain of walking for hours with no break, and Vira wouldn’t share her water or edible flowers and herbs.
“When are we gonna get there?” Khai whined for the millionth time that hour.
“We’d get there faster if you
weren’t so slow,” Vira muttered, obviously used to traveling alone, without a whiny nineteen-year-old.
“Can I have an estimate?”
“Twenty minutes tops if you keep your mouth shut.”
Her method proved effective because Khai stopped talking and gave Vira some relief.
“You’re much nicer when you’re quiet, I must say.” Vira smiled, looking back at the exhausted boy.
Khai glowered in her direction.
True to her word, they arrived twenty minutes later at the towering palace that seemed to radiate in the moonlight above them.
This is the palace of the One King. Though there hasn’t been one for almost 4000 years. Longer than I’ve been alive. The palace is stunning. But there is a chance it’s haunted.
“What?!” he exclaimed, annoyed.
“Well, you didn’t ask. You never said-” she did a poor interpretation of his voice. “- is the castle haunted?”
Vira snickered.
“Ah, yes very funny-” Khai muttered, displeased.
