Dang! Your still reading? Maybe this isnt garbage after all! My dear reader if u just read dat sentence and dissagreed then i strongly urge you to hit yourself in the head with a shovel. If not, then pretend the intro hasnt gone for way too long and keep reading.
I awoke, my family was nowhere to be seen, and what used to be my house was now a broken pile of rubble around me. I could see broken remains of things I’d once known, there’s a wing from a model airplane my dad had once bought me. There’s my sisters hairbrush, embroidered with fake gems and now buried in a coat a dirt.
The brush had once been my mothers. But my father had given it to marcella after her passing. I smiled nostalgically at the memory. Marcella had taken that thing everywhere. One time she lost it at school, and she refused to come home until it was found. she cried and cried for what felt like hours. I don’t remember most of the things the teacher said, but i just remember my dad had gotten on one knee and put a hand on her shoulder,
“You like that brush don’t you?”
She nodded and “mhm”ed under a wave of sobs.
“Mom wanted you to have it, but more than that she wanted you to be happy. We’ll find it. I promise.”
So she calmed down, and took off her backpack and tossed it through the door then sat in the car herself. And as the backpack hit the floor, guess what fell out of it?
“My brush!!!” She exclaimed with a huge grin as she snatched it up off the floor.
I now picked it up and held it close. How sadly ironic…she once lost her brush, and now I have the brush. but I have lost her.
It was the last thing I had of the 2 girls who made up my life. I tucked it safely in my pocket.
My father had left me this sword. No idea why. But I decided I had to keep it. And not just to defend myself from homicidal santas.
I could hear a cold breeze passing overhead, an October wind carrying leaves into the distance. Against their will; the will to cling to their branches. I wondered if the trees ever missed their leafs, if they ever cry when they’re taken away from them.
They dont. Because theyre trees. But i felt like i would… I would miss my leafs. I would want my leafs forever.
Then I heard someone clear their throat. I wasn’t alone after all. Unless- was the spirit still there? I turned around ready to shank the son of a biscuit. Instead stood a guy maybe 2 or 3 years older than me; dark brown hair, blue leather jacket and jet-black Levi’s. He was …familiar. Yet i couldn’t quite place his face.
“Bad time?” He said with a kind smile, his hand extended my way. I reluctantly let him help me up.
finally I placed his identity. He was one of my cousins, but it had been so long and frankly the day was so confusing that I didn’t recognize him at first.
“R-Ryan?”
he nodded solemnly. It was hard to be cheerful in a place like this, when darkness and the cold hung so prominently in the air.
So he remained relatively quiet.
Naturally I revved up my motor mouth, it was sort of my way of relieving stress. If i was talking, then i couldn’t be thinking as much.
“Where did you come from? What happened? How did you find me?-”
He looked at my sword, which still felt warm in my hand.
“saxrijoqab…” he admired. “Where did you get this?”
“My father gave it to me…” i said, my voice trailing off in despair.
He pursed his lips but didn’t say anything.
“So what does…snack.. sacksr… “
“saxrijoqab” he corrected.
“Yeah, sack ridge crab whatever, why is it so important?”.
“Its one of the most powerfull weapons in existance. Its like…” he paused trying to think of a way to put it. He settled on something more my style. “Its basically a magic fire sword. Youve probably seen enough movies to know what that entails.”
I nodded. Usually id be more excited but…. Dead family.
“let’s get you outta here… take your mind off everything. I have an old washing machine you could sleep in.
“WHAT!?” my eyes widened.
He laughed.
“im kidding. Now are you just gonna stand there or follow me?”
My brow furrowed, how could this guy be joking right now?
He lead me to a house, by normal standards it was just another house. By rich people standards it was a crusty pile of crap.
“Nice pile of- i mean, nice home you got here Ryan.”
He rolled his eyes and shut the door behind us.
“Now let’s have The Talk. The your-world-is-actually-filled-with-magic talk.” he explained where my sword came from, how my dad had stolen it from the tomb of some dead guy to save my mom. But when i asked how he knew all this he simply waved it off as if it where unimportant. He looked me in the eyes.
“Now, I’m sure you have a lot of questions,”
Then without elaboration he walked away.
“HEY WHAT ARE YOU DOING!?”
“Leaving.”
“You can’t just leave!!!”
“Watch me.”
I was steaming (Not literally). more than anything i was just confused. Like what kind of person would just walk out like that? He almost looked….scared. No, i was just imagining it. Right?
He grabbed his jacket and started going to the door. I held up my sword and concentrated, I hoped that my sword would shoot a huge column of fire like in the movies, but nothing happened. So for a few seconds i just looked like a very angry very constipated boy with a sword. He laughed.
“Cage, tsk tsk tsk. You can’t expect for anything on the first try. It’s much more complicated than that. Anyway, good luck with your cursed sword. Try not to die-”
suddenly a warm tingling feeling shot down my arms into my fingertips and the sword crackled with sparks. A billowing burst of flames erupted from the blade. The smoke cleared, and his eyebrows were singed off. I really hoped he would decide to give me a shot like in the movies: try and train me and stuff.
Instead he gave me a thumbs up and walked away.
“Ryan!!!” I stormed after him.
“Thats my name. Please go away.”
“C’mon, we could be like some sort of magical duo!”
He paused to think
“Hmmm, you know what?”
“Yeah?” I grinned.
He grinned back at me.
“I think I’d rather die.”
“Please? You saw what I did. Please? Please? Please? Please?”
“AGH!” he threw down his tattered jacket.
“Fine! Just…. Please…. Stop.”
“Yes! Thank you!”
‘But i have rules.”
“Okay, is the first rule to have fun?”
“Rule number one, don’t talk too much.”
“But-”
“TWO” he interrupted “never blast me in the face like that again.”
“Ok.”
“Three, don’t talk too much.”
“But you already said-”
“YOU JUST BROKE TWO OF MY RULES CAGE!”
I gulped.
“Oky dokey then.”
We walked in silence for a while. But If we were going to be friends…we might as well try to actually like each other. I cleared my throat.
“So…. you got a magical sword?”
“Yes.” He answered dully.
“Cool, so what’s that like?”
“ it’s not a sword.”
“What is it? It have a cool name? Ya-know, you look like the kinda guy who would wield a steve into battle doncha think?” he shook his head. And here i was thinking i was funny.
“It’s not named steve, i named it Sma-ibkhep-esh. it joins my burning soul to the blade, it keeps me alive.”
“Oh …thats neat. Sort of like my grandma and her contagious rash medication.”
That ended that conversation pretty fast.
“We’re here” by here he did in fact refer to the tiny little house in front of us. It was a small little cot, adorned with an old and rickety shackled roof. If anybody lived in there, I didn’t want to meet them.
“Go on” he said.
“Go on what?”
He shoved me forward and rang the doorbell. Strangely, the closer I got to the house, the more comfortable I felt. the sword felt lighter in my hands. I saw more clearly. The door opened and a girl who seemed to be about Ryan’s age glared at me.
“What do you want?”
“Hey lena.” Ryan Said actually sounding pleasant. The girls snarl disappeared.
“Oh! Ryan, what are you doing here?”
“ we found a… a very special item.”
I lifted my sword, assuming by “special item” he didn’t mean me. Her eyes widened.
“Saxrijoqab…” lena said shaking her head with astonishment.
“ you’d better come in, get comfortable.”
“Oh, thank you.”
“I was talking to Ryan. You don’t touch anything.”
I walked in, it wasn’t anything much.
“Where did you find it?” lena said gesturing to the sword, avoiding any small talk whatsoever.
“My dad stole it, he gave it to me.” I said matter-of-factly. I felt strangely vulnerable talking about all this. I didn’t like it.
She nodded and looked into my eyes, not at all easing my anxiety.
“Oh I see…your a Cabell. ah… “ she leaned closer. “yes, You have that same fire in your irises, though your pupils hardly hide it as well as Ryans.”
She looked at Ryan And… smiled? It was too fast to tell. She looked back at me staring more intensely than ever. Very intensely. To the point where it was uncomfortable. I tried to focus on something else. On her fridge was a mickey mouse magnet which I gladly stared at instead.
“Have you figured out the sword yet?”
I didn’t look up from the magnet.
“Once, but I still don’t really understand the mickey magnet- i mean the sword.” she stopped with the weird stare.
“You’ve never used a magical sword before?”
“No, not really. My understanding of swords is pretty straightforward: wack people with it until their dead. If they get back up whack them again. Repeat as necessary.”
She looked at Ryan As if to say your friend is an idiot
“Look, Cage, this sword is one of the most powerful weapons in existence… when used properly of course.” basically she was saying i couldn’t mindlessly wack things with it.
“Then… how about you take it?” I said. But then again, I wasn’t sure I wanted to directly disobey my dads dying words like that. I could still hear them, permanently engraved into my brain:
“Cage, you must never let anyone deprive you of what is ours, you must never relent…take this sword! let it be our family’s beacon of hope.”
I was still confused on what that meant exactly.
What was ours? The sword? I hardly considered it mine. Maybe he meant something else…
She laughed.
“Oh I could never use it, for obvious reasons.”
She did not elaborate; simply changed the subject as she looked to Ryan.
“You must protect him. Should the sword fall into the wrong hands like last time…”
“Of course. That would be catastrophic.” he agreed.
“Yes of course…. What happened last time?” I asked.
They both ignored me.
“Don’t let him out of your sight, without a doubt they’ll be after him. Besides,” she turned to me with a knowing smile.
“I think you’ll grow on each other.”
Ryan Obviously wanted to object that i was a drainy sack of annoyance, but she didn’t give him the chance.
“Now leave, i have some magic crap to deal with.”
She shooed us out.
“Well… she definitely likes you. Wink wink nudge nudge.” I said with a smirk.
“Shut up. Stop talking, i hate you.”
I didn’t plan on letting the whole Ryan x lena ship go but I shut up.
“She said they’ll be after me, who exactly is they?”
“Well, mostly your usual demonic spirits, magical assassins, tax collectors, and if you’re unlucky…” he cleared his throat.
“Dragons, but we won’t see any of those, their exceptionally rare.”
“Say we do see one… what do we do?”
“Oh you wouldn’t have time to do anything, you’d be sliced up to bits or burnt to a crisp before you could escape. So um…..I don’t know, you can stop drop and roll or somethin” My eyes widened.
“But… like I said, we won’t see any of those…”
“Well then,” I said, changing the subject. “what now?”
“Well , we are gonna have to work on your swordsman skills… which are so far nonexistent.”
He took me back to his “house”.
Chris HemsWORTH IT!!! 