Chapter 1
“The Past is hard to let go”
He sat by the river’s edge, listening to the rapids splash and engulf the rocks. He twiddled with the grass and the rocks, waiting for his mentor to return. The longer he waited, the more he felt like something was wrong. He should be back by now. Where is he? Did something happen to him? I knew I should have gone with him! His thoughts raced around him. He was feeling regret and fear that something had happened to him. He couldn’t lose him. It was all he had left and so much more to learn!
“That’s it, I’m going to find him!” He told himself. Determined, he stood up to leave the river and started for the direction of where their camp was. Without his mentor, he was almost defenseless. He didn’t have a weapon and his powers would only get him so far. He was on edge as he walked through the forests. It was the first time he walked alone. He felt uneasy about the situation. What if someone attacked him? He knew how to defend himself, but would it be enough? What if they had a sword, weapon, or stronger power than his? Once he reached the outskirts of their camp, his worries began to go away. He started looking around and checking inside the tents.
“Hello?” He called out, hoping for a reply. What if he wasn’t here? What if he was back at the river looking for me, I knew this was a mistake. I knew I should have stayed put!
“Neon,” he heard a voice call his name. Relieved, he turned to see it was his mentor. He started walking towards him, “Stop,” he started reaching, unsheathing his sword. Are we training now? He asked himself. “This was your parent’s sword, I was only holding onto it till you were ready,” He started holding the sword forward towards him. Neon carefully took the sword, examining the craftsmanship and trying it out with simple swings. He had a long silvery blade with a mixture of dark green and bright green hilt, “And this is the sheath,” He unclipped the sheath handing it to him. Neon carefully attached the sheath. It was just a plain leather sheath, but its value came from the fact that his parents and mentor used it. Neon stood speechless, carefully practicing sheathing and unsheathing the sword. “What do you think?”
“I-I love it! You really trusted me with this?” He stammered.
“Well, it’s yours, isn’t it?”
“I know, it’s just that it was your sword for the time being,”
“It was never my sword, I was only defending it; come, why don’t we find something to eat,” It was just past sun high and they still didn’t have anything to prepare to eat. He sheathed his new sword following His Mentor.
He followed in formation behind. Neon nealed down, as his mentor did in front of him. It was just a small squirrel up ahead, but it would almost be enough for the two of them. He looked forward to seeing his mentor pull back a bow, aiming at the small squirrel. Neon stood back, staying out of the way and keeping watch.
“Ow!”
His mentor released the bow in surprise, missing and scaring the squirrel away. He turned back towards him, “Now, why must you do that? Do you not wanna eat tonight?”
Neon scratched his head and sunk down, “A stick flew at me,”
“You just scared our only meal away because of a stick?” He had a stern and angry look on his face, but with a warning, his eyes widened, “lookout!” His mentor threw himself forward at him, pushing him into the dirt. Neon glanced up as an arrow split into a tree. He sat up, watching the log beside them float away towards their attackers.
“See, I wasn’t crazy!”
His mentor said nothing, staring at the two attackers with a sigh.
“Calamity,”
Neon looked at the other attacker. It was a young male, couldn’t have been much older than him. Why does he look familiar? He wondered. He followed his mentor’s lead, pulling his sword and taking a step forward towards the younger male. Just remember my training. Before he could teleport, a third attack came behind the male. A male wolf-human.
“Glad you could make it Storm,” It was Calamity, “You and Blade can fight this child, I come just unfinished business to attend to,”
“No!” He shouted, but before he could react, Storm slammed him to the ground. Quickly, he teleported behind, kicking him behind. He groaned, standing back up. So, that’s how we’re gonna play. Using his speed, he charged at Blade, but he jumped to the side pulling the same log in his path. Surprised, he quickly teleported away from it, tripping and tumbling onto the ground.
“That was a foolish attempt,” Blade aimed his sword down at him. In the corner of his eye, he watched his mentor and Calamity fight. He looked up, noticing that both Blade and Storm were watching as well. His mentor fought strongly, dodging every blow and swinging swift blows at Calamity. We could win this! He thought, but it was a childish thought. Calamity had struck his sword through him. He teleported out from under Blade’s sword. Instantly, both Blade and Storm spotted him beginning pursuit, but Calamity held them back. Calamity pulled back his hood, revealing an evil smile and a scar across his face. He hid behind a tree, shivering at his mentor’s limped body. Anger sent through him remembering Calamity’s smile. No, I’m not gonna run and coward, I’m gonna kill Calamity!
He pulled his sword, charging at Calamity. He sent a fury of constant blows towards him, but Calamity blocked each one. Anger whirled inside of him as each attack became sloppier with each blow.
“You have anger, use that anger, strike me down,” Calamity taunted. He started to tire with each attack until he let his guard down allowing Calamity to get a clean slice against his body. Neon gasped painfully, dropping his sword. And following onto his knees. Why didn’t he just kill me? “You have much to learn, but I can help you.” The Last thing he heard was Calamity’s voice. Neon’s mind began to blank. His vision began to get blurry, seeing the three of them stand over him before everything went dark.
