《Stories from Paxsalam: The Orb of Wishes》


 Chapter 1: Paxsalams Despair

    Claude was disturbed by the news.


    He always stood at the tower, looking over the Kingdom of Paxsalam every night, waiting for his parents return. He tapped his magic staff on the ground nervously, thinking about his parents'' advice before they left.


    Claude is the prince of the king and queen of Paxsalam. He also had a six-year-old brother, Edward. He remembered that his mother and father had told him that they were going to an island located south to discover some new herbs that could help their kingdom against unknown plagues.


    "Brother?" Claude had heard his brother''s voice from his bedroom. He took his staff and headed towards the room. "I''m here." Claude said in a gentle and calm voice (which was definitely not calm now) his staff and headed towards the room. "Is there anything you need?" He asked with a gentle smile.


    "When will mummy and daddy come home, big bro?" Edward asked.


    Claude had heard that question every night after his parents went on their journey. And he wished he knew the answer. Despite being a prince, he was a brilliant magician. He had chosen the ice element for his powers. Claude was able to do many things with his ice magic. But still, he could not foresee the future with it.


    "I don''t think that today will be that day, Edward." Claude said. "These herbs that mummy and daddy are finding are extremely rare. "It could take a few more days to find them." "I hope they find it soon." Edward said. "I just... miss them." His voice sounded like he was about to break down in tears; he just wasn''t used to not seeing Father and Mother for four days. "Hey, brother. Let me show you something." Claude raised his staff and spun it in a circle.


    Shards started to form in the air. Edward gasped. "They''re beautiful!" Edward reached out his hand to grab one of them; the shards sparked purple in the room, brightening it up. "That''s so cool! They just formed right out of the air!" Claude smiled, as he had lightened up Edward''s mood and presumably his as well.


    "Well, correction. It freezes the water particles in the air, which allows me to create ice and-" Edward stared at him and blinked in slow-motion, his child brain trying to comprehend Claude''s words.


    He sighed. "Don''t worry. I''ll explain it when you''re older."


    "Hey, since you like magic so badly, would you like to learn how to use magic?" Edward gasped with joy, his face turning red. "Yes! Yes!" He jumped each time he said it. "Please! Teach me!" Edward rolled off his bed and started to bow at his brother.


    Claude chuckled. "Alright then! I''ll teach you." He patted his brother''s head. "When you''re ready, I''ll teach you magic. And now that it is actually past your bedtime, I''ll advise you to have good dreams now, alright?" Edward nodded, and he crawled back into his bed and pulled the covers over his body. "Goodnight, Edward." Claude pated him one last time before leaving the room.


    Well, that had made him less worried every single time he did it. When Claude had used magic, he somehow felt that every despair and horror in this world had vanished for a moment. He had thought that magic was a weapon for evildoers who use it for destruction and murder, but after what his mistress had taught him, he looked at magic with a different point of view. He learned that magic is not evil, and it will only be evil if its users are power-hungry, homicidal, and humorless.


    He took a stroll across the palace. He stumbled upon a water dispenser that was leaking water the wrong way. Claude sighed. "This is the third time today." He tapped his staff, and the leakage had been sealed. He continued walking, trying not to think about negative thoughts, but what if something had really happened to his mother and father?


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    Claude shrugged those thoughts off.Positive thinking,he told himself. "No way! That''s what happened?!" He heard some people talking in the distance. "Yeah! That''s sick, right?" Three servants were walking out in front of him, giggling as they chatted. It didn''t take long until they noticed Claude.


    They bowed immediately, and their giggling and chuckling had stopped. "Your Highness." They spoke in unison. "Sorry, Your Highness, we were too busy talking that..." "It''s alright, it''s alright." Claude replied. "Just continue your conversations." The three servants nodded as they stood up and continued walking, laughing again.


    Claude strolled off into the Hall of the Monarchs, the place where he will usually be when he has nothing to do. It was filled with portraits and pictures of the former kings and queens of Paxsalam. He stared at the latest picture, which included both his father and mother, Edward and himself.


    People find it odd that to why Claude even hangs out here in the first place, even he himself doesn''t know why... It could be because he admired the people who held the throne long before his parents.


    He spun his staff and pointed it. "Element of Ice, First Position, Snowball."He casted, and a snowball appeared from the ceiling and fell right into his arms. Claude proceeded to throw it into the air and caught it. He continued to do this for... Until he managed to stop worrying about his parents.They''ll be fine.He thought.Our mother and father will not go down without putting up a good fight.


    "Your Highness!" Claude heard a voice echo in the halls. A tall man who was covered in gold armor rushed towards him. "General Kano." The snowball fell, but Claude didn''t catch it this time; it hit the ground and splattered. "Is there anything wrong, in general?" He asked. "It has something to do with the King and Queen. "Claude''s eyes widened; the news had finally arrived, and his parents could finally return to their kingdom.


    But he wasdeadwrong.


    Claude collapsed to the ground as he heard the news. He couldn''t believe what Kano had just said. "No... This can''t..." He sobbed. "I''m sorry, Your Highness." Kano said, his face flooding with tears. "The King and the Queen... of our beloved kingdom. Aredead."Everyone in the room was tearing their eyes out. The king and queen of Paxsalam, who ruled for over fifteen years, are suddenly dead... "What happened?" Claude asked. "How did this happen?" "Their ships were raided," Kato answered. "By... the witch, Melantha..."


    Melantha... Claude was disturbed when Kato mentioned that name. His and Edward''s parents were murdered by Melantha the Dark. "Melantha had aborded the king and queen''s ship and sunk it, with forty crew and our rulers as well." Kano said. "But, for some reason... She was caught in the sinking ship too. And barely escaped... But I think she will succumb to her injuries soon," Claude sniffed and wiped the tears from his eyes. "Melantha the Dark is a powerful and intelligent witch. She will definitely find a solution to heal herself." He said. "Are there... any other survivors?" Kano shook his head.


    "Brother?" They turned to see where the sound was coming from. Edward stood on his spot, tears falling from his eyes. "Is it... true?" That mummy... and daddy..." Claude doesn''t want his brother to know the truth, but... the situation is already high. "Y-yes," Claude managed. "It''s true."


    Edward started to let out a scream, and Claude now knows he has a pretty strong kick for a six-year-old.


    Edward scanned a nearby chair and kicked it aside, sending it falling over; he then did the same towards the other three chairs that were the closest to him. Claude didn''t blame him for that, he can''t lie him that it''s okay or everything is going to be alright.


    They just lost their parents, the kind people who raised them, andnothingcan reassure them that everything will be okay.


    After letting out his steam and frustration, Edward collapsed and slammed his fists on the floor and let out a scream as he began to tear up.


    "They promised!" He shrieked. "They promised that they''d come home!" Claude rushed to his brother and embraced him in his arms.


    "I''m sorry, Edward," Claude managed. "But mummy and daddy. can''t be with us anymore." Edward threw his arms around Claude and said, "I''ll learn magic, big brother." Edward spoke underneath his tears. "And I''ll find the person who did this to mommy and daddy. And I''ll avenge them!" His voice was filled with rage; his tone sounds serious and, surprisingly, a bit confident, like he has stated that this will happen in the future. Edward was desperate to learn magic.


    "When you''re ready, Edward." Claude replied. "When you''re ready."

 Chapter 2: A New King Arises

    My brother looks awesome with that crown.


    It has been three days since my parents had left us. And now, our kingdom will have to be ruled by their next heir, which was my big brother Claude.


    Claude received the crown and the throne, and had become the new king of Paxsalam. But still, all of us were not in the mood and many of the citizens mostly cried when he wore the crown. My mother and father were very excellent monarchs. Okay, I''m not saying that my brother is not a good king, it''s just that my parents were helpful and kind rulers. And that everyone loved them like they were their children.


    But now, they were gone. And everyone was in despair, and felt that they had no hope without their king and queen. But hey, they loved me and my brother too. I know that my brother will be a great ruler, and we will be back in our normal state in no time... Right?


    However, we were pushed through a deeper depression when we all prepared for our parents'' burial. We wore our most respectful clothing, which was quite uncomfortable for me, but I don''t care. It''s a funeral, we shouldn''t care about how comfy our clothes are right now.


    We stood by our mother''s and father''s tombstones, which I heard that there were no bodies down there since they got disposed in the deep ocean. We spoke our blessings, wished them to find peace in the afterlife. We placed our flowers on the tombstones, the good old times washed over me when I placed mine down. I remembered my mother used to tell me bedtime stories at night before she left, and my father had always played chess with me, which I mostly lost because of my confusions on the game.


    I can''t have those times again, because someone had took times that away from me. That witch, Melantha or something, had added my parents into her kill count. I don''t get it... What did my parents do to deserve such a fate? They didn''t do anything wrong... Well, except for that time when they pulled a prank on me with a cockroach toy on my fifth birthday. And I have feared roaches ever since.


    I remembered the night when we heard the news, I swore I''ll avenge my parents. And that was not some child anger issues. I will not let my parents, and the other people that Melantha had murdered to die in vain.


    After an hour or so, the people left the graveyard, leaving Claude and I alone, staring at our parents'' graves. "Hey bro?" I looked at Claude. "What is it?" He replied. "Do you remember? That I said I want to learn magic?" Claude managed a small smile. "I always remember everything you say." "Yeah but, when will I get to learn magic?" Magic. A powerful source used by magicians to help them in various ways, to help them get over bridges, to help them solve some difficult issues, to help them commit a horrible crime...


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    No. Do not think about that. I told myself. I will use magic to help people out, and I will use it to make this world a better place. "I''ll teach you when you''re ready brother." Claude said. "And don''t complain when you can''t perform a perfect charm okay?" I thought about that, me throwing a tantrum (which I never did in my life, for now) because I can''t pronounce abracadabra correctly.


    "Your majesty." A voice said beside us.


    We turned around, and a man in his 40s just materialised in front of us, I mean, literally he wasn''t there before, and he just appeared there like he was invisible. The man wore a sandals with, are those wings? He wore a cap that has two wings on it, and held a staff with two snakes entangled in it.


    "Hermes." Claude said, and he bowed, as well as forcing me to do it as well. Hermes, I heard that name before. I think, according to memory, he is the Greek god of messengers. He is also responsible for bringing the deceased souls to the afterlife.


    "Transported my parents and the people on that ship?" Claude asked politely, and I ask you all to better be nice in front of a god, no matter what  you don''t want to know what will happen if you disrespect one. "They now rest peacefully in the Elysium." Hermes said. "I ensure you both that. And I am also here to deliver a message."


    A message?


    "What is it?" Claude asked, in a calm voice like he always does. "It''s from your parents'' ghosts." Both of our jaws dropped. A message from our mother and father... "What did they say?" I asked. Hermes cleared his throat. "They had said that they are doing well in the Elysium, and they told you that you should not be worried about them, because they said, that life must go on. And they said that they love you with all their heart."


    I feel like tearing up again, this are literally the words of our parents... They told us that they''re doing good and we should not be worried about them. "Thank you Lord Hermes." Both of us said at the same time. "And I wish you all a pleasant day." Hermes replied. "And don''t feel despair over their deaths for too long. Everyone will pass on one day, you just have to accept it." After that, the god of thieves went invisible again .


    After we walked out from the graveyard, I''m confused by Claude saying that ''when I''m ready''... I don''t know that, I have a feeling that I''m already prepared to learn magic. "Hey bro." I spoke. "When would you think that I''m ready?" Claude looked up at the sky, which was surprisingly sunny and cheerful, despite us losing two people so important to our lives. "If you want to learn it so badly, I can teach you the easiest part of it first. Then we''ll move on to real magic." This is it; the time has come; I will finally get to know magic. Even though I think the first part are probably related to books. "So... When is my first lesson?" Claude pated my head. "When you''re free, and also when I''m free." A guard nodded at us from a distance, Claude nodded back. "And it''s time for us to honor the fallen people who were on the ship on that day. Let''s go, Edward."


    I nodded, despite today being the worst day of my life (so far), my mental self smiled with delight from Claude''s response to me. And I don''t think it''s right for me to smile, even mentally, on a funeral.

 Chapter 3: A Story to Hear

    You guys remember when I asked Claude when will I be ready to learn magic?


    Well, it has been a few months since our parents'' passing. And despite we''re possibly still mourning for them, I kept asking my brother about when I be ready for magic.


    "I told you, for the forty-seventh time, I''ll teach you how to cast one when you are ready." He answered every time I asked him. I am quite obsessed with learning it right now. And I might ask Claude these questions in quite abnormal places; like in the Hall of The Monarchs (I don''t know why would I be there), in the dining area when we were alone, and even in the restrooms while we were minding our own business (long story).


    What does he mean "ready"? When I''m old enough? When I get to do something to impress Claude? I just don''t get it... Does every magician in this world has to be "ready" to learn magic? Like, how old were they when they first learned it? I think I can manage it well... It''s just like saying a word and cast it or something like that.


    A few days later, I would try to find Claude to ask him about this "ready". Okay, I am starting to get a bit annoying... But who gives a heck about that? I was figuring out where Claude will most likely be right now. He could possibly be in the Halls right now. I figured out to check the Halls of The Monarchs first. However, my brother himself appeared behind me.


    "You want to ask me again, don''t you?" He stared at me with an irritated look. "Maybe..." I managed a reply. Claude sighed, and closed his eyes. He must have been thinking to whether to answer my question or not. He opened his eyes, "You aren''t ready yet." Okay, well, this "ready" word is driving me insane, what is the meaning of this?


    "But, I think you are able to understand it before you cast a real spell." I looked at him, my eyes wide open. "Does that mean..." "I will teach you the origin of magic first, are you fine staying up late?" "Yeah I am!" I was so excited that I can actually learn details about magic. "I can burn the midnight oil!" Claude pated my head. "Alright then, meet me at the library, at 9."


    I almost died while finding the library.


    You see, I''m not actually a bookworm. So mostly, I never entered the library before. And also, it took a lot of flights of stairs to get there. I mean like, whose idea was it to build a library on a really high floor? Why would someone send a child to walk up hundreds of flights of stairs, just to reach a library? I can''t feel my legs now, I have to inhale more oxygen, I feel like I was about to die. Mother, Father, I think I might see you guys again... But my death might more frustrating than yours...


    I couldn''t take it anymore... Instead of walking, I crawled on all fours due to my exhaustion. I finished a climbing up a flight of stairs, and I saw a door waiting at the end. "I-I-I''ve m-m-m-made it..." I got up, which is hard, all thanks to those many flights of stairs I needed to climb to get here. But still, I''m here, top of the world.


    I opened the door, and silence filled the entire room . The library was filled with shelves of tens of thousands of books. Some tables with four chairs lined up in front of the shelves. There were some maids and servants sitting on those chairs, reading books that I don''t know what they were. They might be good books or something, since they were so hooked on to them, or... it might be something too frustrating or inappropriate that it is best for a six-year-old to find out.


    I searched through the shelves for my brother. Which I had to do a lot of times due to there being so many shelves. Also, why would they need a lot of books? I know that there are people here, but it''s not like providing books for the entire continent or something. "You''re here." I turned to a shelve, and saw Claude, with a load of books related to magic with him. "It''s about time, Edward."


    We found a spot and we placed our books on the tables, and sat down. "It''s so... disturbingly quiet here." I whispered. "Yeah, libraries have to be quiet you know." Claude replied. "So... Which book am I supposed to read right now?" I asked. Claude took the first book, and its title read; ''The Origin of Magicians.'' He opened the book, "Before you officially learn magic, you need to understand the history about magic first."


    I looked at the pages, and saw two beautiful women with magic staffs and a bit of revealing clothes, one of them wore a white cloth, and the other wore a black one. And I wondered are those something to age-restricted for me. "These two women you see here, are known as, The Enchanted Sisters." Claude said, pointing his finger on the picture. "Because they were the reasons that magic existed?" I asked. "Precisely. Let me begin the story." Claude cleared his throat, "Is it like one of those bedtime stories you tell me?" I asked again. "Kinda, but... This is technically learning."


    "Thousands of years ago, these two sisters were just ordinary people, who worked as servants in a kingdom. However, they were constantly abused by the other servants who worked there. They often beat, harass and send death threats to the sisters out of mockery of the sisters'' dark past." I stared at the pictures with sympathy. "That''s horrible..."


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    "Those people were truly despicable." Claude agreed. "And one night, the servants had decided to truly get rid of the sisters and began to chase them out of the kingdom and then hunt them down in a nearby forest. And there were some different theories about how they escaped; some said that the sisters found shelter in a nearby cave, and others said that a mist engulfed them, safe from the rogue people."


    "But anyways, once they were safe from them, a figure appeared in front of them; and like how those theories on how they escaped, people argued that the figure was Circe, the Greek Goddess of Sorcery, or Heka, the Egyptian God of Magic. Circe/Heka, who had sensed their despair and tragic past, had offered to give them a better life by giving them two gems." "Gems?" I interrupted. "Yes, gems. But these aren''t regular gems, they were capable of magic. The two sisters thanked the goddess/god for the gems, and in the morning, when the servants gave up on the chase, the sisters ran out of the forest and from the kingdom."


    Claude pointed to the sister with white robes. "The nice sister used her power of magic to help those in need and the ones with the same tragic lives like hers. She was loved by basically anyone she came across. But." Claude shifted his finger to the sister with black robes. "The other sister was consumed by the power she had, and she murdered the servants who had abused the sisters for years in revenge. But like her sister, the other sister also wanted to help those in need. However, the other sister would use questionable and horrific acts like manslaughter and terrorism to do so."


    Claude took a deep breath, probably exhausted from reading all those sentences. "The other sister would enter villages, towns or even kingdoms, most which were ruled by power-hungry and evil chiefs and emperors, and she will start killing them all in-" Claude paused, he made an ''aha!'' look, and continued. "Creepy manners. Edward, it''s best that you avoid the descriptions of the deaths of these people." I nodded. You see, my curiosity has standards, I know when to be curious, and when to be not. And after Claude said creepy, I decided it''s best to leave it aside. "And if the other sister was being merciful, she would imprison those rulers in a prison that she had created, which was located in the Greek abyss, Tartarus."


    "The nice sister, who was kind and helpful, had heard of her sister''s crimes and went to see her in person. She had talked to her sister to stop her madness and said that killing people and causing destruction is not the answer to everything. But the other sister, told her that the world was ruled with cruel people and that she was just getting rid of them. And, the two sisters, who had been through everything together, clashed in a battle that will conclude this situation. And this battle lasted for five months." "Five?!" I yelped. Claude placed his index finger near his mouth, signaling me to keep quiet. "Yes, five long months. And, the other sister, was defeated, and the nice sister, knowing that if the other sister was spared, she would not learn from her mistakes and would continue to harm other innocent lives."


    "In a tearful conclusion, she casted the other sister into the prison that the other sister had created, for eternity. But before that, the other sister told her sister that ''One day, you will understand why I have to do this'', and curses that once in a century, she will possess a pawn to fulfil her duty..." Claude turned to the next page, and pointed at a mark; a circle with the face of an woman embedded into the center, with flames surrounding the circle. "Her pawn is stated to have this mark. And they are capable who making a curse to the person that they hate the most in their life just before dying." Chills were sent down my spine as I heard those words.


    "I''m sorry if the story had scared you. Let me switch back to the nice sister." I have never been so relieved to switch to another part of a story. "After the battle, the nice sister would correct her sister''s wrongdoings; she would help to rebuild the damaged buildings, she would help people who were victims of her sister''s rampage, and she will release the rulers from her sister''s prison, and she made them promise that they redeem themselves. The nice sister was a heroine in almost everyone''s eyes, except for herself, who couldn''t forgive herself for imprisoning her sister."


    " As the nice sister passes on, she will split her powers into eleven elements." He pointed to a symbol with eleven different icons. "Those elements are fire, water, wind, earth, thunder, ice, steel, dragon, fairies, shadow and spirit. And the element we have is, you know ice. And anyone can have those elements as their main source of magic." "But brother, which of the eleven elements are the strongest?" I asked. "If I were to avenge our parents, I would need the strongest element possible, right?" Claude pated my head. "If you were to talk about the strongest, all the elements are equal, it will have to depend of their user to see how strong they are."


    "And, if you want to learn magic, you will have to be at least nine years old to start learning it." He looked at me. "That''s what I mean ready." So, he meant that ready is when I''m old enough. "And if you want to be an official magician, you will have to participate in The Magician Games. Every magician will have to participate in this exam if they want to graduate." "Everyone?" I asked, my eyes widened, "Even..." "Yes, even her." You see, after our parents'' deaths, we decided to not use the name "Melantha" as it will make us think about their passing again.


    "And when will I be ready to join The Magician Games?" Claude tapped his staff on the floor softly. "That, my brother, will depend on their trainings with their master." He pated my head again. After that story, I can''t wait to turn nine so that I can learn magic for the first time. Claude looked at the clock, which was pointing at ten o clock.


    "Oh. It is way past your bedtime." "Oh yeah." We were too focused on the story, that time passed so slow around us. "You should return to your bedroom." "Goodnight brother." I gave Claude a hug and walked (quietly) out from the library. When I stepped out, I started to remember what had happened when I got here in the first place... That means... I have to walk down these stairs to get back to my bedroom.


    I took a sharp inhale and muttered. "Great," and walked down the stairs, where I will suffer again.

 Chapter 4: History of Magic

    A magician can start their training when they are at least nine years old.


    Those words were stuck in my head; it''s starting to get a bit annoying. Nine years old... That''s three years away, and then I can finally cast my first spell.


    But, however, I still have to get to the library for Claude''s lessons. And I was starting to not like books because of those experiences. There was one time when I almost fell to my death off the railings when I decided to lay on them for a break, and once, I even cried like a new-born infant on the stairs due to my exhaustion (long story).


    I was starting to get fed up by those monstrous mountain-climbing stairs. There must be a shortcut to it... I asked many people for faster (and safer) ways. I remember asking some maids about it, and they said that they didn''t know since they had never been to the library. Then a guard replied that he had never known we had a library. "What''s a library?" he asked. It''s strange, you know. Who doesn''t know what the heck a library is? I mean, unless people were that book-intolerant (I am not one of those people).


    "I remember there is a lift to it." General Kano answered when I asked him about it. "But I don''t think children like you should use it without an adult." Well, I get it. There would be too many buttons on it, which is frustrating even for a six-year-old prince.


    I had another idea, and I only came up with it now because I was stupid. How come I had never thought of this when I came to the library for the first time? I decided to follow Claude to the library. And why did Claude arrive there without a sweat? He used the lift that General Kato had mentioned.


    I had learned more than just the origin of magic; there were more things to understand too. Magician legends, mythical creatures, and the one I found the most interesting were the elements of magic. All of them were fascinating and unique in their own way. If I were to use magic, I must have started to choose which element to use now.


    I had also learned about how magic had affected us humans, both positively and negatively. Claude had told me this story: "Centuries ago, magic was mostly despised by people; despite the legend of the nice sister, people believed that magic was a curse, and magicians were evil witches and wizards who used their power for evil." "Well, that''s not true, right?" I interrupted kindly. "It''s not entirely true." Claude agreed. "Even though there are some people who do use magic for nefarious purposes... People hated magicians so badly that they decided to hunt them down and execute them in horrific ways, like burning them alive, crucifixion, drowning them, and forcing them to swallow molten gold." I gulped; this was definitely some information that I regretted learning about.


    Claude looked at me apologetically and said, "I think we should bring your teddy bear the next time we come here."


    "But this had changed two hundred years ago; a king and his son were heading to visit a neighbouring kingdom; in order to do so, they had to cross a mountain with dangerous edges. When the king and his son were passing through... The prince made a wrong move, and he slipped off and plummeted down the cliff. Before the prince could hit the ground, a miracle appeared. The son was incased in a bubble of water, levitating in the air. A magician had saved him, who had used the element of water. The king was grateful for the magician''s heroic deed, and once they had reached the nearby kingdom, he told the emperor who ruled there about this incident."


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    "The news spread like wildfire, from kings to queens, from merchants to traders, and they knew that some magic can be used for heroic purposes. And this ''burn-the-witch-or-wizard'' had died out. And magic is accepted by everyone out there." I gave a quiet clap of applause. "So, because of that dude, magic can exist in peace?" Claude nodded. "Yeah, if it weren''t for him, fewer people would want to become magicians, or worse, magic could go extinct. And out of the twelve elements, water is the most favourite of every magician and is used by many." That was an interesting story, and I can''t wait to turn nine in order to learn magic.


    We repeated the same thing over and over again. And I had learned more new subjects about magic, and they were getting more interesting as we progressed. I had learned about more legendary magicians; there was one who had escaped the Underworld when he accidentally slipped into it; there was one who had been raised by a werewolf; one stopping a war just by creating a vaporizing the enemy''s weapons; one who had tamed a thunderbird (which no one had ever done); and so many more, and each of those stories had raised my spirits about becoming a magician.


    When I was in bed, I would often pray to the Olympians, the Asgardians, or other gods that I recognised to speed up time so that I could turn nine way quicker. But I think I should respect time, as I don''t think the gods will speed it up just for one person. Claude also decided to have these lessons for four days, since he knew I must be tired of learning these things non-stop. But that didn''t stop me from waiting to become nine.


    Who knows what I will become when I am finally a magician? Maybe I will become a legendary figure for generations to come. Oh, it must be nice for those legends to be famous even after death. My seventh birthday has arrived, and that has made me even more impatient to become a magician. But I can handle it; it''s a waiting game, and I''m used to playing waiting games before...


    Before I knew it, it was time.


    My ninth birthday has finally arrived, and excitement flowed through me when the citizens of Paxsalam cheered for me. I was so delighted that I could have gotten a mental breakdown. "Happy birthday, brother," Claude said as I blew out my candles. "Thanks, bro, and..." "Yeah, yeah, you''re nine now, which means you can finally learn magic." My face cast a huge smile and squeaked. Yeah, somebody needs to apply my name to a mental asylum now.


    There were a lot of things I needed to ask my brother, but I couldn''t keep my cool. "So, when will my first training be?" I asked. Claude took a bite from my cake and said, "Anytime you want." He replied with his mouth full. "It can be today, you know!" I was so hyped up to finally cast a spell. I hope there will be one to make all staircases vanish and replace them with elevators. "It''s your birthday today; I think you should relax for now." He does have a point; birthdays are meant to be relaxing, but learning magic is even more relaxing to me!


    "And also, have you decided on what element to use yet?" Claude asked. The joy I had almost faded away. For three years, I haven''t decided on what element to use yet. I once planned on using the element of insects, but due to my phobia of roaches, I scratched that. I also decided on using the element of thunder, but I''m not an electrician and have very poor understanding on lightning, and I don''t think I like the idea of zapping the lights out of some poor soul; no one likes to be electrocuted. "I''m... I''m still deciding." I managed. "It''s alright, take your time." Claude replied, "You can even think about it when we are on the way to the Cave of Elements."


    "Huh?" The Cave of Elements... That''s something that I remembered learning from one of the books. It is the place where all magicians choose their elements before they train. "Are we going there now?" I asked, and an idea ran through me immediately when I thought of the cave. "If you want." Claude answered. "Alright, brother, let''s go to this ''Cave of Elements''." I said just after Claude had finished, "I think an element can be a perfect birthday gift.

 Chapter 5: Felix and AIsha

    Going to a magical cave is not what I had expected.


    I thought that the Cave of Elements will be located somewhere on a island in the Pacific Ocean, and we will have to get through harsh obstacles and play mind games just to get into a cave that provides the sources of elements.


    But no. All we have to do, is just to board a subway.


    A few days after my birthday, Claude had brought me along with three guards; including General Kano in case some freak wants to assassinate my brother. I had rarely left the kingdom before, so I was awestruck by mostly everything I see in the city.


    There were so many citizens out in the streets, and we have to squeeze in through the crowds, which wasn''t many times since Claude is the King of Paxsalam, so many people will show respect and give way. The buildings, the tallest being at least thirty meters high, were lined in a row along the streets. Mostly stores had occupied the ground floors, and who knows what you might be able to purchase in there.


    There are cars and buses here, driving on the roads, they are a quicker way to get to the driver''s destination. But I don''t know why doesn''t Claude use a car since many people have it...


    We walked for like, forty-five minutes. And we walked down a staircase (which brings back disturbing memories) that leads to underground. I saw a sign above the stairs that read, ''Paxsalam Subway''. Claude led us to the waiting area, with chairs that mostly taken by other people, so we had no choice but to... lean on walls.


    "Brother?" I shook Claude''s hand, he turned to me and smiled. "What is it? Not used to being underground?" He asked. "I''m fine with being underground, but... what is this place?" Claude pointed at the road that seemed to have some sort of tracks on it. "We are in a subway now, it is a place where people would travel to places, way much quicker on cars." That must be nice, there''s a vehicle that can move way faster than cars, we can get to the Cave of Elements way faster. "But, what would be taking us there?" I asked again. "We''ll board a train." Claude replied. A train? Under the surface? I really need to get out from the kingdom more.


    Click, click.


    Those sounds keep repeating itself at a very fast pace. And there it is, the subway train rushed past and came to a halt, with people coming off and boarding it. "That''s our cue, Your Highnesses." Kano told us. "We should be going."


    We were lucky this time. All of us managed to find a place to sit. After a few moments, the doors had closed. And I felt like the surroundings were moving, which they were. Because, the train had started moving. I am confused on why isn''t moving as faster than I had expected... Or it probably was, we just don''t feel like it.


    The train had stopped a few times, where the sign above the doors flashed the name of the locations, and some people had come off as well had some came on again. For now, none of those locations are related to the Cave of Elements.


    The train kept going and stopping like forever now. And I still don''t know for how long will we be reaching the Cave of Elements. The train stopped again, and the sign flashed: ''The Hole of Sorcery''.


    This was it, I guess.


    It is obvious that it is the Cave of Elements, due to the name having the word ''sorcery'' in it. You know, the word sorcery definitely means magic.


    The doors opened, and the five of us stood up. Which was quite awkward and a little disturbing since we were basically the only ones who wanted to come here. After a few moments we exited, the doors closed, and the train moved on.


    It was quite creepy in the darkness, especially in a cave. But Claude and the others waited patiently, so I guess that I should too. "So, have you decided yet?" Claude asked. Oh no. I thought, I haven''t decided on what element to get yet... The good thing is, I already have some options. "Well, not yet. But, I have some choices about it, I want my element to be something more peaceful-like." "Alright. And after we see the guide, please be respectful. Hold my hand tightly if you''re scared." After Claude finished his sentence, the cave lit up, revealing some staircases that heads down. "We must get going."


    After we see the guide, please be respectful. Thanks to those words, I''m starting to regret a little about coming here. The guide must have been someone that will make someone panic. Maybe the guide had tortured people who disrespected them? Or their appearance might look like something straight out of hell?


    Now, I''m starting to panic a little. We almost finished walking down, when a tall figure stepped out in front of us. It started to walk out from the shadows, and the figure revealed its, well his face. He had worn clothes that a normal blacksmith would had worn, his hands had scars as if a hammer had caused them, his face had a black beard and he had an owl, which looked more machine-like than animal, on his shoulder.


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    "Good day to you Hephaestus, may we enter the cave?" Claude said as he and the guards bowed, and I did the same thing as them.


    I know who Hephaestus is. He is the god of the forge, also the god of fire. But, I don''t quite understand why the God of Fire would be here...


    "Yeah, welcome to the Cave of Elements." Hephaestus said as if he had repeated those words many times already. "Who''s the lad who wants to be a new magician here?" He looked at each every one of us. I raised my hand nervously, "Um, that would be me." "Alrighty then, now come along." The god of the forge went down deeper into the cave. I started to follow, but I realized something, Claude, Kano and the guards are not following... "Um guys?" I called out, "Come on!" "Edward." Claude replied. "You must go alone, it is the rule here, only people who want the elements are allowed to enter the cave." Alone? well, I''m no stranger to being alone, and besides, a literal god is with me, I have nothing to fear (except for Hephaestus''s anger) . "Okay! Wish me luck." I replied, as we marched down.


    It took a while to catch up to Hephaestus, it''s probably because of my legs for walking down a lot of times. "So, Lord Hephaestus, sorry for any offense but, why would you be here?" I asked, I feared that he could had scorched me to death or something for asking that, but the god sighed. "No offense at all, everyone asks that when they first met me here." Hephaestus replied. "I was casted down here because" He shrugged, "The other Olympians were getting adapted to this new modern world. And many of them had convinced me to do the same, to try something new. So, I decided to be here, to give out these elements to new ''magicians''. instead of building new automations."


    "I see..."  Just as I finished those words, we finally made it to the cave.


    The cave was filled with crystals so beautiful, it made my eyes hurt. They shined with different colors, that lit up the entire room. There are also other children here, all of them about the same age as me, with some either younger or older ones, talking to each other, which they were probably discussing about what elements they are going to have.


    "Is this it?" I asked the god. "Where I''ll get to choose?" Hephaestus nodded. "Yes, young lad, this will be the place where you get to pick your element." I rushed down, the view of the from looks more breath-taking from down there, but I was finished being dazed from the scenery when...


    "Fairy?! But why!?" I heard someone yell from across the room. It was coming from a boy with a black jacket, about two years older than I am. I was worried those words were meant for me, but thankfully, or more appropriately, unfortunately, that was aimed at a another boy, with a girl by his side. "Because my... Someone important to me has used the Fairy Element?" The boy replied.


    The older boy stepped closer to them. "You can''t use the Element of Fairies! It hurts the people that you care about! It''s a curse!" The crowd starts to look anxiously at the scene, with a look of concern in their eyes. "Knock it off!" The girl yelled. "Whatever element he chooses is not worth your business, got that?!" The black clothed dude turned to her. "Not my business? Hey, I''m trying to help this person!" He pointed to the boy, who gazed at the floor, with fear in his eyes.


    I looked at the crowd, they all just stood there, watching the dude in a black jacket ranting about curses that the Fairy Element will bring in front of the other boy, possibly crushing his dreams of getting the Element. The girl by his side tried her best to defend the boy, but the older boy just ignored her counterattacks (don''t worry, the counterattacks are verbal, not physical). But none of the crowd has the desire to help the poor boy (except for one red-haired girl, she looked like she was about to bolt into the scene and stop the older guy, but she looked too scared to do that).


    I felt revolted by the crowd''s actions, that they are okay with letting this happen. This is just like those people who would just watch a fight on the streets, not even bothering to break up the fight or at least yell ''Stop!''. I took a deep breath, if no one, with the exception of that red-haired girl (thank you young lady, for at least having the urge to help) wants to help that boy, I guess I''ll have to do it instead.


    "Hey you!" I yelled as I walked calmly towards the scene, the three people now turned their attention towards me, "Excuse me," I said, my voice more softer this time. "Why are you saying that kind of stuff to this poor guy? That, the Element of Fairy is a curse?" The older guy blinked. "But it''s true. It does bring misfortune to the people who use it." I crossed my arms, in hopes of making myself more threatening.


    "Dude, don''t you realise what you''re saying is hurting this guy''s feelings?" I then turned to the crowd and waved at them aimless, like I was showing them a collection of my chemistry sets. "As well as those in this room that also wants to use the Fairy Element? And even if you''re sayings are true, would you like can you prove it to everyone here?" The guy blinked again, and glared at me. "I-"


    He was interrupted by Hephaestus, who had decided to dig his fingers into a blackboard that he had possibly created out of thin air (he''s a god, they can obviously do something like that) and the god scratched it. The sound echoed across the room, with everyone of us covering our ears and cringing at the sound of the scratching.


    "Okay! That''s enough with the drama! Now move along!" The older boy sighed, he looked at his surroundings, and he must have realized that he was making a scene. He put on his hoodie over his head, and walked towards the corner of the room, finally leaving the boy and girl alone. "Now with that''s over, it''s about time that you get your elements." The crowd starts to go wild, and they began to talk about their desired elements, with others giggling in response.


    "It''s alright, take your time to let out your joy before you get to choose." The god said. I stretched, proud of my heroic actions just now. "Hey man." The boy who I helped said. "Thanks for backing me up there." I nodded. "When someone is getting berated, of course I will not step aside and watch." The girl pated my shoulder. "We really appreciate that." She said. "No prob." I replied. "So by the way, it''ll be nice to know your names." I said. The two looked at each other. And replied at the same time. "Felix." The boy said, and "Aisha." The girl said.


    I nodded again. "Well, you''re welcome, Felix and Aisha."

 Chapter 6: My Element Is...

    "Alright lads! Now please get into a line and settle down! Because the time has come that you choose your elements!"


    Hephaestus yelled and got all of our attention, you know you can''t ignore everything a god says. We formed a ''perfect'' line and the god snapped his fingers, and the walls of the room opened, revealing some abnormal crystals that glowed in different colors.


    Those must be the elements. I thought.


    Hephaestus turned to us, "Now, who would like to volunteer to go first?". Everyone looked at each other with excited looks and began to talk, and their voices were so quiet, it makes my ears hurt for some reason. Every one of them raised their hands, but Hephaestus interrupted, "One at a time!".


    They halted and began to back off, which left that jerk that was berating Felix not long ago. The boy sighed, and began to follow the god into the room. Hephaestus snapped his fingers again, and the door slammed shut.


    "Aisha, what element would you want to get?" Felix asked. I already knew that Felix, wanted to choose Fairy as he mentioned that someone important to him had used the Element of Fairies, and I was also dying to know what element Aisha would like to choose.


    "Probably, the Element of Water." She replied. Felix nodded, I whistled "inspired by that story huh?" Aisha stared at the walls. "I only wished, that I can become a kind person like him too." Well, I believe that she can be that person, since she has a cool personality.


    The doors eventually opened, Hephaestus and that fellow walked out of the room, with the latter holding a crystal, which was reptilian in appearance. The black jacket fellow later walked back into his corner, trying to avoid eye contact with everyone in the room.  "Welp, congrats! Now next one, step forward!" After saying that, many people began shuffling against each other, squeezing their way to be the door. "Alright! You know what? Fine! I''ll choose!" Hephaestus yelled in annoyance, and the struggling died out. "You there! That girl with red hair! You turn!" The god pointed to the girl he mentioned, according to my memory, she was the one that looked like she was planning  to help Felix when he was getting assaulted not long ago, but was too scared to do so.


    All of us stared at the girl, who looked at each and every one of us, confused on why were we staring at her as if she was a pop singer or something. Hephaestus sighed, "Your turn, come on!". The girl gasped in realization, and rushed towards the room, the door closed again once Hephaestus entered it with her.


    While waiting, people started to come up with conversations, like what element would they like to choose, where were they from, or when would they like to begin their trainings. "So Edward, may I ask that where''s you''re from?" Felix asked, "Hmm? Oh! Um, yeah." I gestured them to lean in closer so that I can whisper it to them. "I am actually the prince of a kingdom called Paxsalam." I replied. Felix and Aisha looked at each other in amazement, like they can''t believe that a guy like me is actually a prince.


    "Wait, you''re that Edward?" Aisha shook her head in disbelief. "So, a literal prince stood up for me..." Felix looked like he was resisting the urge to kneel before me and chant ''Thank you Your Highness!''. But thankfully, he managed to resist it. " May I ask that is it true, that your parents were?" I nodded, "Yeah, please don''t try to bring that up, it just-" I closed my eyes, trying not to tear up, which I did that every time when I remembered that.


    Moments passed, and the god of the forge called out people by their appearances, and one by one, folks entered and exited with crystals in their hands. Eventually, it was Felix''s and later, Aisha''s turn. They came out from the room with the crystals, Felix''s crystal is violet and has wings like that of a dragonfly, or more specifically, a fairy. While Aisha''s crystal looks colorless and I can see through the insides of it, just like water.


    You guys want to know what Hephaestus had described me as? The boy who looks like a younger version of Rick Astley with blue hair.


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    It was eventually my turn to enter, which I was the last one remaining for some reason, Hephaestus literally called me out by that description in front of the crowd. My eyes widened, do I actually look like the Rick Astley? I tried to picture my appearance, trying to find any details that resembles the singer, but I look nothing like Rick himself.


    The crowd began to laugh at that description (it even got that black jacket dude''s attention, and he started to hold the urge to laugh along with the crowd), Felix and Aisha giggled and gave me a ''Sorry man, it''s just too comedic, we have to'' look.


    I sighed, and walked into the room, ignoring jokes yelled out by the folks like "Good luck man, choose a element that will never give you up and let you down!" or "Don''t worry, I''m sure that your element will not run around and desert you!" or "Hope that your element doesn''t make you cry and say goodbye to it!" and "Just don''t tell lies and hurt your precious element!"


    Once the door closed, the jokes and giggles faded away, leaving us in the cold room with the crystals being the only light source.


    "Now, which element would you like?" The god asked. Oh crap, I remembered. I haven''t even confirmed my elements... Don''t panic Edward, you have three options. And those were; fire, wind, or ice. I started to get into deep thought, which one of these three elements would suit me the most?


    I kept analyzing the benefits to me if I used these elements. Okay, so if I had used fire, I can set my opponents on fire, or literally burning away their clothes. That idea made me smile, but... a dark thought gloomed inside my head; What if I can''t fully control it? What if I screw up, and ended up burning my opponent to death... Stop it, I calmed down, so I don''t think fire will be my type. Next one.


    What if I used the Element of the Wind? What good will it bring? I can''t think much because I don''t understand wind, the only thing I know about wind is that it is the movement of air caused by the Earth being heated by the Sun. But I don''t know what can I do with it... Blow things away I guess? Okay, so not wind. So, should I use fire? I''m sure that Claude can be a good magician lecturer and hopefully I am able to play with fire.


    Just as I was about to confirm it, a memory surfaced in my mind.


    I was six, in my bedroom, wondering when my parents will return. Claude had entered the room, and he calmed me down by... using his magic to produce ice shards in the air to cheer me up. That was one of the happiest moments in my life. I recalled that I wanted to do that too, and the only way to do that is...


    I made up my mind.


    "Lord Hephaestus," I bowed, "I would like to have the Element of Ice." The god nodded, "You don''t need to do that you know, ice huh?" Hephaestus teleported to the shelf with crystals that all looked similar, he took one out and teleported back to me. "I, Hephaestus, the fricking God of Fire and Forgery, grants you, The Element of Ice."


    When I held the crystal in my hand, I expected it to be freezing. But, it was freezing, but it''s not like it will give me frostbite or something. I bowed to the god, "Thank you my lord.", (which he replied that it is unnecessary to do that). He snapped his fingers, the door opened, the others were looking at me as I walked out, I didn''t hear any jokes from them and it seems like they had forgotten that I had existed.


    "That''s all for today!" Hephaestus said. "I hope that you will use your chosen elements well!". And after that, everyone started to head out from the room, which signifies that the ceremony is over. I was chatting with Felix and Aisha while we were on the way up, I was so delighted to have these two by my side. I had never made any friends before, due to spending most of my life in the palace. And Felix and Aisha might be my first two friends...


    "Element of Ice? That''s sick dude!" Felix elbowed me. We discussed on what cool things we can do with our new elements, like maybe I can create an ice sculpture, Felix can help children by doing, stuff that fairies do (he himself doesn''t know what a fairy does too), and Aisha can do something that can save people''s lives with her Water Element (probably cushioning people''s falls and blowing gangsters away with blasts of water).


    We laughed as we told jokes about our elements. "You''re back Edward!" We heard a voice form the top of the stairs. It was my brother Claude, waving at us from the top. "Oh, that''s my cue guys." I told them, I held out my hand. "Hope that we can meet again soon someday!" Both of them shook my hand. "See you later!" Aisha called out, "Make some snowballs for me!" Felix added. I laughed as I waved back at them, and I rushed to Claude and the guards'' side.


    "You look happy." Claude noted, "I''m glad that you had made some new friends already." "Yup, their names are Felix and Aisha." I nodded and replied. "So, brother. When will be my first training?" I asked. Claude pated my head, "Fine, we can start whenever you want." The subway train eventually arrived, and we all boarded it, retuning to our kingdom.

 Chapter 6.5: Dear Mother and Father

    When we got back, the first thing I did was unexpected.


    Before I celebrated about getting the Ice Element. There''s actually one thing I wanted to do before that. I head over to the most depressing place in this palace; the Cemetery Of the Monarchs.


    The place was exactly as I remembered. Tombstones were aligned perfectly in rows, the most oldest of the tombstones were in the back rows, and the youngest ones were in the first rows. And that is where I''m heading.


    I forced myself a smile as I was getting closer to the youngest tombstones, trying to shake away my most depressing memories. I hid the Ice Element in my pocket, as if I were to present it as a surprise to someone. And you know what? I am about to do that.


    I have finally made it. The two tombstones still looked good as new, even after three years. I turned to the first tombstone, with the name:


    King Alfred Clifford III (1976-2011)


    I smiled and said "Good afternoon, Father.", and turned to the second tombstone, with had the name:


    Queen Esther Clifford II (1975-2011)


    "Good afternoon, Mother." I took a deep breath, "Guess what?" I waited for a moment, trying imagine my parents'' ghosts asking "What?" I held my hand into my pocket, and took out my Ice Element. "I got it. Mother, Father. I got my Element. I get to use magic!" I now imagined my parents smiling at me and patting my head and saying things like: "That''s so nice Edward!" or "I''m so proud of you, my son."


    I blinked back tears as I imagined those scenarios, I also wondered if my parents were actually doing the exact same thing in the realm of the dead, being extremely satisfied about me getting my element. I knelt before my parents'' tombstones with respect, and continued. "You know, I chose the Element of Ice because Claude also uses the Element of Ice. You both can say that I was inspired by him."


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    I told them everything that happened at the Cave of Elements: The God Hephaestus being the warden of the cave, making two new friends after I saved one of them from a delusional Kevin in a black jacket, and being referred to as a young Rick Astley with blue hair. I can imagine that my parents would be interested in my story and will be satisfied that I had made two new friends. And I bet they would be laughing that I was being referred to as Rick Astley''s younger self.


    I took a deep breath, and went on to the more serious part. "Mother, Father." I turned to the sky, "And those who had fallen on that night, don''t worry. I will not let your deaths be in vain. I promise." I clenched onto the Ice Element. "Melantha will not get away with her crimes. And with the Element of Ice, I will bring justice to the Dark Flower, and I will avenge you, all of you."


    I sound pretty confident about that, even though I was not sure about how do I defeat Melantha, or the whereabouts of her location. But, that wouldn''t stop me from letting her get away from her karma. And dear readers, I promise you all, that one day, I will bring justice to the Dark Flower.


    I got up, and looked at my parents tombstones one last time. "This is farewell for now, Mother and Father." I bowed to the tombstones, and began to exit the Cemetery Of the Monarchs.


    "Good luck, Edward." A ghostly female voice whispered right next to my ear.


    And just as many people would react, I yelped and turned around. But I found no sign of the whisperer. But that voice, I recognized that voice. I haven''t heard that voice in three years... that voice was my mother''s.


    "We wish you all the best." A second voice, a male''s, whispered next to my other ear. This time, this voice was my father''s. I turned to my parent''s tombstones, but I saw nothing, no spirit forms of my parents, waving and smiling at me. Was I just hallucinating those voices? Or did my parents actually decided to show up and wish me luck?


    Nonetheless, I nodded. "Thanks Mother, thanks Father." I bowed to their tombstones one last time, and I left the cemetery, with a confident smile on my face.

 Chapter 7: Brothers in Training

    A little friendly reminder: getting hit by a snowball in the face is not cool.


    I waited so long for this moment, and I can''t believe that it would happen. Today would be the day of my first training.


    After a few days after I got my Ice Element, I kept waiting until Claude''s mood would signify that it would be time for my first training. I can''t keep the crystal out of my sight; it is the most precious thing now, and I can''t let it go missing. I kept keeping an eye on it for every ten minutes, and sometimes, even when I''m minding my own business, I have to take my crystal with me.


    And till today, Claude had agreed to take me to a place for our first training. I was so excited and nervous that I leaped every time we walked. I followed Claude as he took me into a forest that I had never known existed.


    The trees were abnormally tall¡ªat least eighty metres for the tallest ones. Once we entered, it went silent, with the only noises being the chirping of birds and insects and the calls of primates from miles away. Light barely shone down on the forest floor due to the huge trees; the plants here were barely the height of my ankles.


    I felt nervous about this place, and I''m worried that a wild beast will leap out from the shadows and tackle us. Claude seemed to be reading my thoughts as he said, "Don''t worry, brother, there aren''t many aggressive beings around here; the only things that are dangerous here are probably tigers and elephants. And sometimes, there will be some migrating dragons."


    "Tigers and dragons?" Just after I had finished that sentence, an insect just flew past my face and landed on a tree. In a heartbeat, a gecko just appeared out of nowhere, caught the insect in its mouth, and started crunching on it. And again, a small figure appeared from the branches¡ªa mantis. The larger insect then snatched the gecko with its pincers, and it started to bite the poor reptile.


    I panicked, fled the unsettling scene, and caught up with Claude. "Why do you have to bring me to this place? Can''t we just go to the garden instead?" I asked, not wanting to be involved in another predator and prey moment again. Claude already had an answer for that, as he replied instantly, "You know, this place. It''s a sanctuary that houses many endangered species of animals and plants. It was a project that our late mother was dedicated to. You know, Mother was actually in love with all kinds of animals. And she and Father agreed to help the World Wildlife Fund by opening a sanctuary for conserving many kinds of endangered wildlife."


    I never knew about this place, and it is interesting to know that our parents built this sanctuary to help the WWF. "And you know, this is just the rainforest biome. In this sanctuary, it includes all the biomes on this planet, like the tundra biome, the savannah biome, the desert biome, etc. We can look the rest up. And all of them house many endangered species that are native to those biomes."


    As we were walking around with Claude telling me more facts about this sanctuary, Claude changed the subject. "Yeah, we''re almost there." I gasped with delight. "The place that you''ve been talking about?" "Correct. I used to practice magic here when I was about your age, and I would like to introduce you to this place." We came out from the forage, and I was surprised to see what was in front of me.


    A temple.


    There stood a temple made out of rocks; it was at least seven metres tall, and it must have been hundreds of years old. We stepped in, and light shone down from a hole in the ceiling, blinding me for a moment as I didn''t see much light in the forest. And in the middle, something that looked like a staff was laid on the floor.


    Claude stepped forward and took the staff, "Before we begin, you would need a magic staff, and I had prepared one for you." He tossed the staff, and I caught it. "Hope you liked it." The staff looked like it was made from bronze; the head of the staff was the head of a tiger (don''t worry, it''s not the head of a real tiger). It felt a bit heavy, but I can still lift it by barely using my strength. "Yeah! It''s awesome!" I called out.


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    Claude nodded and smiled. "As for your knowledge, brother, there are seven positions for the element of ice. To form each position, you will need to concentrate." I scoffed, "Concentrate? Bro, you know I am a pro at concentrating." "Yeah, yeah." Claude replied. "But for this, you really have to concentrate on your potential." He raised his staff, closed his eyes, and spoke out, "Element of Ice, First Position, Snowball." The eagle head of Claude''s staff barfed out a snowball, and my jaw dropped.


    "Oh. My. God," I muttered. Claude took the snowball and began tossing it in the air, catching it every time he threw it. "Now, I would want you to concentrate, remove every thought in your head, and only think of..." He showed me the snowball. "A snowball."


    I don''t think it was that hard to concentrate, and I was thinking only about snowballs. I took a deep breath and said, "Element of Ice, First Position, Snowball." Nothing happened. I looked at Claude, confused. What could I have done wrong? "Aw shoot, I forgot." Claude said, "Do you have your ice element with you?" "I always bring that thing along wherever I go." I replied, held my hand in my pocket, and took out the crystal.


    "Alright, now turn your staff to the back, and you might see a hatch there." I did exactly what Claude told me, and I saw a hatch and the back of my staff. "Found it." I replied, "Now open it." I opened the hatch, and I saw something in there, and that is nothing. I don''t know what I can put in there, but the size seems similar to... "Now place the crystal in there." I took the crystal and put it in, with it fitting just right in there. I closed it and turned to my brother. "Good, now try again."


    I concentrated, I took a deep breath, and I spoke again. "Element of Ice, First Position, Snowball." I looked again, but still, nothing happened. "Huh?" I asked. "I don''t get it, brother; I had already concentrated; did I make an-" As I spoke, a snowball bounced out of my staff and landed on the floor. I gasped; I did it¡ªmy first spell!


    "Oh, that, um. For beginners, it might take a while to cast your first spell." Claude added, "But hey, that was your first spell! Congratulations!" I smiled, pleased with myself. "Now, let''s start our first lesson."


    "You will need to defend yourself when you face threats. For your first lesson, you will need to learn how to fight with magic." Claude said, "As for today, how about let''s play a game?"


    "A game?" Seriously, what do games have to do with magic?"


    "You know dodgeball?" I nodded. "Okay, but instead of using actual dodgeballs, we would be replacing that with snowballs with our magic." This got my attention. Dodgeball? With magic? Oh yeah, this can actually count as training. "Could it be just like actual dodgeball?" I asked, "Just like actual dodgeball." Claude agreed. "Now, shall we begin?"


    We took our corners, nodded at each other, and raised our staffs. We both cast a snowball and threw it at each other. However, Claude easily evaded my snowball by doing a backflip over it (teach me that sometime, brother!). But me? I failed to react in time, and Claude''s snowball splattered against my face. Well, it doesn''t hurt at all, but the temperature of the snowball was freezing. "Arggh! Gah! Son of a-" I shivered from the cold of the snowball. "Are you alright?" Claude asked, "I guess..." I replied, "Dang, that''s cold!"


    And guess what? We have to repeat it again and again. And honestly, it''s fun to do this. But on the other hand, I don''t like it when it hits me on any parts of my body; the face was bad enough, but getting hit in the arms was even worse, and we don''t talk about getting hit in the stomach. And I can''t even land a hit on Claude; even if I managed to throw one in his direction, he just evaded it almost instantly.


    Time passed, and it was sunset before we knew it. I was trembling from the cold of the snowballs, and I collapsed on the floor, panting. "That," I said, "was awesome! Except for the hits from the snowballs. Those things are cold." Claude laughed. "Yeah, it does not feel good to be hit by those." He sat down and placed his staff down.


    "So, brother, do I have to train until I''m ready for The Magician Games?" I asked. "Yup." Claude answered. "And how long will this take?" "For me, it was about three years." "T-three years? We have to play snowball fights for three years."


    "Not for the snowball fight part, but yes. Practicing magic might take several years to do that, but it depends on their users and what training they did, as well as what position they are learning." Oh gosh, I don''t know whether I can handle magic or not; if it was three years for Claude, it might be four years for me.


    "Well, can we go back now? I''m exhausted." Claude must have understood how tired I am. "Sure, let''s head back." He lifted me up and assisted me as we headed back to our palace. And I was thinking about magic: will I actually master the forms of my ice element?

 Chapter 8: Time to Relax

    This is really a nice caf¨¦ to cleanse your worries.


    After I gave them my phone number on the day that I got my element, Felix called me and told me that he wanted to arrange a hangout together. And obviously, I wouldn''t want to miss out on an event with my two friends.


    On a warm and relaxing day, I convinced Claude to allow me to take a day off from my training so I could venture into the city to have a hangout with Felix and Aisha.


    We decided that we would meet at a popular caf¨¦ in the afternoon. Since it was a hangout, I decided to wear clothes that are a bit more... fancy. I looked in the mirror, deciding which clothes would suit me the most.


    I thought of covering up my blue hair by wearing a cool top hat on my head. I planned to wear something that didn''t look that royal-like. Why? Well, for two reasons: One, I''m worried that the citizens would recognise me as the prince of Paxsalam and would want an autograph from me. Secondly, I need to steer clear of any potential assassins seeking to harm the new prince.


    It was almost time. I decided what I''m going to look like. I''m going to have a top hat, a pair of regular green jeans, and a turquoise-blue shirt with a white jacket. And my appearance is, wow, I look awesome! This new look is definitely my new style.


    Claude had told me to take the nearest subway station, which wasn''t that far from the one that we had taken to the Cave of Elements. It''s also because Claude was also a bit lost in the city. And there, I was alone for the first time. But, no worries, I''m not even scared of going alone; it would embarrass me in front of Felix and Aisha for bringing along some company, even if it were for safety reasons.


    After a few moments, the subway train had stopped at my destination. I hopped off and walked towards the surface. Now, I would have to find a caf¨¦ named ''Retro''s Caf¨¦: Let all your worries be cleansed! Which is probably going to be difficult since there are a lot of cafes here... And it''s a good thing they have a map.


    Maps are technically easy to use to navigate to places you want to go, and it is definitely important that everyone learn how to use one. Otherwise, you might end up being a lost and clueless soul like me. I managed to find one in the Paxsalam souvenir store, and as I opened it, I was shocked that I didn''t know that we had such a huge city in our kingdom. And by the fact that I have to navigate through all this,.


    Being a prince doesn''t mean that you''ll be good at everything. I got confused multiple times just by looking at it. I first used the easiest method: to search for restaurants (caf¨¦s are technically restaurants, right?). When I found Retro''s Caf¨¦, I turned to find the word on the map. Even though finding the place was easy, navigating there is the complete opposite. From my place, I would need at least 20 minutes to reach there, longer if I screw up...


    Calm down. I told myself. I started to memorise the routes and started following them. If only Elements were able to allow people to teleport to places without ease... Seriously, did Circe or Heka actually think of that before giving those two sisters their elements?


    After a lot of twists and turns and some minor mess-ups, which involved ending up in backways, ending up in the wrong cafes, and even getting back to the place that I had been before, I''ve finally made it.


    The sign, ''Retro''s Caf¨¦: Let all your worries be cleansed!'', was hanging above the caf¨¦, and guess what? Aisha and Felix were standing at the entrance, waving at me. I smiled as I waved back and rushed towards them. "It''s about time, you know!" Aisha called, "We were waiting for about half an hour!" "Sorry!" I replied, "I had some miscalculations with the map." Felix grinned playfully. "Not used to maps, huh?" I nodded. "They''re really confusing." I admitted. After a short while of greeting each other, we finally decided to head into the caf¨¦.


    It was quite cold inside, since there are lots of air conditioners. The caf¨¦ was crowded; almost every table in the caf¨¦ was occupied, and radios blasted relaxing and dance-worthy caf¨¦ music, which can contribute to the cafe''s motto. The scent of pastries and coffee filled the air, which is extremely pleasurable, and I automatically thought of food as I kept inhaling the scent.


    Felix and Aisha must have been telepaths or something, because they have the same thoughts as me. "Ah, the classic smell of cafes." Felix said, "So refreshing, so enjoyable." "I think I''m about to drool." Aisha joined in: "And this is from a girl who has never drooled in her entire life."


    We were lucky to find an empty table that is right next to the cafe''s window, especially in a near-full-house caf¨¦. A waiter came to our table immediately after we sat down. "Good day to you kids! Anything from the menu?" He asked, and he placed down three menus for each of us.


    Stolen novel; please report.


    We found our desired delicacies and returned the menu to the waiter. I turned to my friends and observed their attire; Felix had worn a purple buttoned shirt along with an orange scarf. Aisha had an aqua-coloured cloak (a colour that people don''t seem to recognise and often mistake for light blue) and a shirt that was emerald green. They must have had the same thoughts as me before meeting me here too.


    I can''t wait to tell the two about my first training; they got interested as I kept on, and they giggled when I told them how I reacted when I got hit by the snowballs. (Thanks a lot, bro.) Then, our meals arrived. They were simple, like those regular things that you would order at a typical caf¨¦. Felix had ordered a cheesecake, Aisha had chosen a mushroom stew with some garlic bread, and I had selected a chocolate cake.


    Felix and Aisha had told me about their first training, too. Felix mentioned that he had used the first position of the fairy element to make a rock levitate, and that rock must weigh about hundreds of kilograms. And that is more interesting than snowballs. "Element of Fairies, First Position, Elusive Floating." Felix replied when I asked him what the position was called. Aisha continued that she had learned to create some pretty sick stuff with the first position of the water element. "I even made a usable rifle!" Felix and I were awestruck when she said that. "And if you''re wondering, it''s called Element of Water, First Position, Aquatic Forgery." Aisha said.


    "So, how long do you guys think that you both will be ready for The Magician Games?" I asked them. Felix and Aisha looked at each other. "Well, in probably three to four years." Felix replied. "It also depends on our progress in our training." Aisha added. "Alright." I said, "When that time comes, let''s just hope that we''re ready to pass. And the representatives of those magic jobs will notice our talents." Both of them nodded. "Yup, it will be fun when it happens." Felix agreed.


    After a few more minutes of talking, we decided that it was time to leave. I gave both of them a fist bump and waved at them as we parted ways. And now, to go back... I had totally forgotten about how to get back to the palace. "Aw nuts." I mumbled, I guess this could topple stairs over the title of the things that can strike stress into me. I sighed as I began to retrace my steps.


    The next training was insane.


    I would have to do laps on a dirt road in the rainforest, and at first, I was wondering what could go wrong. I could just blast snowballs at anything that came to harm me; I''m sure they can''t stand the cold. However, it doesn''t work out that way; it was revealed that Claude had set some traps in there, and I would be an easy prey for the traps. I remembered almost getting swiped away by an incoming log, then a boulder came falling straight at me when I stepped on something that activated the trap, and I remember falling into many pit traps.


    I came back to Claude, panting and limping from my injuries. "Whoa, that''s something." Claude said that once he noticed my leg, he rushed towards me with a medical kit. It looks like he was expecting this to happen. "Bro, I have two questions." I said.


    "Which is?"


    "WHY IS THIS TRAINING SO DANGEROUS!? ARE YOU TRYING TO GIVE ME A DEATH SENTENCE?!"


    Claude hushed me, "Please be quiet; you could disturb the animals here. And bro, that''s how magic training works; you would need to go through insane training." I groaned, wondering what kind of more harsh training I must go through to master my element.


    "And the other question is?" My eyes widened; I had forgotten that I had mentioned two questions. "Since this is a sanctuary, why is it a good idea to design these traps? There could be probabilities for the animals to get killed."


    "Well, those traps are set on an abandoned dirt road that we built for some vehicles to transport some necessary items for the animals, and it was abandoned due to the poor design." Claude replied. "And don''t worry, no matter which biome, all the animals here know to avoid all the roads in this sanctuary."


    Well, that was a relief. I guess the animals would be safe from these traps, and the only animal that would fall victim to the traps would be a young little prince, which is me.


    The other positions were also more tricky to practice than the first one; I would need to fully concentrate, which involves ignoring anything that would disrupt me. Claude would decide that we meditate in front of the temple. I mean, I don''t hold any grudges against meditation, and you can say that I am good at it, but it is annoying and horrifying that some animal will disturb us, or worse, decide to think of us as a threat and lunge at us.


    As an example, there was one point where a band of mountain gorillas appeared from nowhere and came closer to check us out, which also caused me to lose my concentration. "Calm down; avoid eye contact with them," Claude whispered in a barely audible voice. "Try not to make any sudden movements." I initially wanted to object to him and flee, but since this was coming from Claude, it is wiser to obey him. And after the gorillas lost interest in us and left the area, and once Claude said that we''re safe, I let out a scream of relief, which caused a variety of birds to fly out of the canopy. I hoped that this would be the last time an incident like this would happen.


    I still have to go to the library to learn about more facts about the history of magic, which involves even more books to read and more stories to listen to. However, I have gained an interest in books now thanks to those times in the library, and you can say that I might have become a bookworm.


    I kept having snowball-fight training or games with Claude, which involved me losing every time. And after a few more weeks of training, Claude decided to teach me the second and third positions of the ice element. I started to get the hang of the second and third positions, and by getting the hang, I mean more messed up, incomplete forms. I still need to do laps in the rainforest, and I need to evade more traps. Do I need to suffer even more? I wondered, but if it was for the sake of magic and avenging my parents, that would be worth it.

 Chapter 9: Chris the Dragon

    Four years later...


    Time does fly when we''re having fun. Before I even knew it, I had turned thirteen a few weeks ago. We celebrated my thirteenth birthday, and we announced a public holiday for the citizens of Paxsalam on my birthday (I know, I am a really generous prince). I received some gifts from Felix and Aisha; they might not be fancy like the other gifts given by other ruling monarchs from other kingdoms, but I don''t mind that, and I''m actually heartened that my two BFFs sent something to me.


    However, I still have to run laps and avoid traps in the rainforest biome of our sanctuary. But I''m getting used to it now, and the traps are easier to avoid since Claude gave me a tip after four flipping years: "Some of the traps can''t be seen. You will have to rely on your other senses and common sense to locate them."


    Well, thanks, brother. That advice actually helped, and I''m not being sarcastic here.


    I tried to use his advice in my next training. On one curvy road, there were logs that would fly at me when I was close. And they make a huge ''whoosh'' sound when they''re close. To counter them, I used my trusty hearing to detect where the sound was coming from, and when I confirmed the location that they were coming from, I leaped back, rushed forward, or dove before they could land a hit on me.


    And there were a group of wooden statues; they were designed to look like a Chibi version of a soldier, and they would fire small rocks out of their wooden shotguns at me. You guys might ask, but Edward, they''re just some tiny pebbles; what harm can they do to you? But dear readers, those wooden statues can actually fire those stones at a trillion kilometres an hour, and I remember getting a bruise from one. But there''s a catch: to deactivate them, I will have to launch something at the statue''s centre to shut them down (I know that thanks to an obvious red circle embedded on the statue''s chest).


    And that will be perfect for my training with magic as well as my aiming skills. I will use the first position to launch snowballs at the centre of the statues. The statues were preparing to fire those stones at me, and I have to act fast. I concentrated, aimed, and fired the snowballs, six at a time. Some of them did manage to hit the centre of some statues, and the statues that were hit had stopped shooting at me.


    I tried to repeat the same thing again, but it was more difficult since the remaining statues had started to fire at me. And it was obviously more difficult for me to concentrate as I was getting hit. Come on, Edward, I told myself. Focus; the element won''t work if the user isn''t concentrating. I understand why Claude wants me to do those meditations; it''s to make me concentrate and to ignore every disturbance in my surroundings while preparing to cast a spell, like statues firing stones at me.


    I concentrated, ignoring all the pain in my body. I aimed my staff and the statues and fired the snowballs. They collided into the centre of the remaining Chibi soldier statues, and they stopped firing at me. I sighed in relief. I had deactivated all the statues; this is a major improvement for me!


    I continued to run, and I recalled that this was halfway through the course. And the traps will get more irritating every time I am about to reach the end. All of a sudden, the ground beneath me collapsed, and I realised what it was: a pit trap. The depth was about three metres, or slightly deeper; they were almost impossible to discover until you stumble upon one, and I''m not sure whether I can climb out from there.


    Time seemed to slow down as I fell slowly down the pit. And then, I had an idea. There''s a position that can help me out of this. I aimed my staff towards the ground, which was the air at this point, and I chanted, "Element of Ice, Second Position, Freezing Point!". After I''d finished chanting, I landed in the pit. There''s something different; the ground was cold. I looked down and saw that I was standing on top of a layer of ice.


    "Yes!" I cheered, satisfied with myself; I had totally nailed it with the second position. I looked up; the surface wasn''t that high, and I managed to climb out in no time. I kept on, prepared to face the other traps that lay ahead.


    And... There were more pit traps. It was getting more annoying, falling into every single one that I''ve encountered. I would have to repeat the second position to avoid falling fully into the bottom of the pit. And eventually, I gave up on the ''freeze and get out'' tactic; it was getting less efficient.


    I stopped for a while and started thinking. How do you detect something that is almost invisible to the human eye? My senses can find the ones that were coming for me, not the ones that were waiting for me. With common sense, I remembered Claude''s words on the tip that he gave me. I observed the ground, checking for any detail that I could use. I''ve noticed something: some parts of the soil looked jagged, while the other parts looked smooth. I turned back and realised that the soil for all those pit traps was jagged too.


    I got it!


    I started to walk slowly, walking only on the smooth parts and avoiding the jagged parts as much as possible. Yeah, it''s way better and more relaxing this way, and I don''t need to use any magic. After a few quiet minutes, I''ve managed to walk out safely from the pit trap field. I convinced myself that it''s safe, and I had already passed the pit trap level.


    I continued to run through the forest. After evading a few more traps, I stumbled upon a small group of conservationists. They all wore white coats, greyish long-sleeved trousers, and brownish hats. They kneeled and greeted, "Your Highness." I nodded, as I did when the servants in the palace submitted before me. "Rise." I said, and the conservationists did exactly that.


    One of the conservationists stood forward and stared into my arms. "Your Highness, you''re injured." I looked at my right arm, and I discovered some nasty cuts. I must have gotten them from those stones. "Don''t worry, it''s just a cost of training." I reassured her, "I get cuts like these most of the time during my training." The conservationist nodded. "Your Highness, may we have your permission to tend your cuts?"


    I allowed the conservationists to heal the cuts on my arm. They took out their medical kit and took out some bandages; they must have known that medical supplies would come in handy, especially in tending to the to the wounds of a prince. "Your Highness, you should try to be more careful in your training. Injuries can get infected if they''re left exposed." The conservationist said this as he placed a bandage on my arm.


    I nodded in response, "Sir." "Professor, actually. Professor Burton." The conservationist corrected, "Right, Professor Burton. What brings you and your team to this sanctuary?" "Ah, I''m just introducing these newcomers to the sanctuary. Let them help me out by checking on the wildlife''s'' health and to make sure that the herbivores eat the endangered."


    Unauthorized use of content: if you find this story on Amazon, report the violation.


    "RWAAAAAHHHHH!!!!!!"


    A bellowing cry in the forest interrupted our conversation. It was a roar in pain, and it was coming from the trees ahead of us. I froze from the shock. What could be making that roar? And should I check it out? That creature must be in serious pain right now, and I''m not the type of person who would leave someone or something to die. Without a second thought, I followed the cry into the forest. "Wait! Your Highness!" I heard Professor Burton call out from behind, and he and his team began to follow me.


    The animals are making me freak out even more.


    Flocks of rainforest birds soared overhead, a herd of deer rushed past me to avoid the location of the roar, and I barely managed to avoid them. The creature must be a fearsome beast, as the animals were panicking in a hurry. What if it was a carnivore and it was letting out a hunt roar? Should I continue? Or should I turn back? But the creature really sounded like it was in pain, and it could need help. And as I mentioned before, I would never leave an injured person behind.


    I kept on, but I decided to tiptoe in case my predictions were wrong and to avoid letting the unknown creature notice me. "RWAAAAAAHHHHH!!!!" The creature roared again. Okay, how about... I decided to crawl towards the sound; this is making my heart race. I feel that crawling is a safer way to approach this being. "Your Highness." I yelled and turned in the direction of the whisper. I sighed softly in relief when it was Professor Burton, and like me, he and his team were also low on the ground.


    "Your Highness. You should go back; you could be approaching a very hostile creature right now." Burton whispered. "Go back? But the creature sounded like it was in pain. We should go and check it out first; it could be injured." "Tending wounded animals is our duty. So-"


    "IT HURTS!!!!!!!" Our conversation was interrupted yet again by the creature. And wait, did it just speak? The creature spoke. I was lost in my thoughts, and I didn''t realise that the creature was right ahead of me. And I was awestruck by how beautiful it is.


    The scales glowed with the colours of a rainbow when sunlight shone onto them, acting like a prism. The tail was covered with spikes, suited for defence. The creature was at least fourteen metres in length. The head was similar to that of a monitor lizard, and the wings resembled the ones you see on bats, and it was at this moment that I knew what this was.


    I was staring at a dragon.


    "RWAAAHHHH!!!" The dragon roared. I don''t know whether it noticed me or not, but I have to check on what was causing it so much pain. There are many species of dragons in the world. And there''s this one, the Indian Quarterback. It is known as an intelligent dragon; it is one of the few dragons that are capable of human speech. I remembered these words from Claude''s lessons about dragons. And he said that this is also one of the few dragons that are herbivores.


    "A Indian Quarterback..." Burton said, awestruck by the appearance of the dragon. "It must be a migratory dragon that migrated here." The dragon has its eyes on me; it started to back up away from us, as if it were afraid of me. I also recalled that Indian Quarterbacks are also extremely shy and will retreat when they see, well, almost anything they think will harm them. It shivered, "No, no." It spoke, and it limped a few inches from where I stood.


    Wait, it limped?


    I started to notice the injury; there''s a sharp object, and it is impaled through the dragon''s thigh. It will definitely hurt when you have something impaling your leg. I can''t let the dragon have this thing stuck in its thigh. But it always backs up every time I get close to it; it thinks that I''m a threat... I knew I would have to convince it that I''m harmless before I could heal its thigh.


    I took a deep breath and spoke in a calm and friendly manner, "Hey big guy, it''s alright." I held my hand in the air to show that I''m unarmed with weapons. "See? I''m friendly. I''m here to help." The dragon is staring at me; however, it seemed to see something in me that could be dangerous... I stared at my body. What could be potentially dangerous to me?


    Oh, that must be what''s causing the dragon to be nervous.


    I took my magic staff and placed it on the ground. Okay, now I''m fully unarmed, and if it attacks, I will have no defence... but this is for the best. "Okay, no scary staff now." I started to approach it slowly, but the dragon still backed away. I turned to Burton and his team. Two of his members were holding tranquillizer shotguns. I gestured for the two to lower their weapons, and after a few seconds of hesitation, they placed their shotguns on the ground.


    I tried to approach the dragon again, and this time, the dragon didn''t back away. Alright, it seemed to have calmed down after I removed my staff. I looked at its thigh with the object impaling through, and as I began to approach the injured leg, the dragon backed up again. "No, no," it said.


    Great, now what should I do to convince it to let me take the thing out?


    I stood there and started thinking about some ideas to make it chillax when I pulled the thing out. Well, I guess I should go into full kid-friendly mode. "Big guy," I said, and I put on my most heartwarming smile, "I want to help." I did some hand gestures (which I''m horrible at) to make it understand me even more. "Help?" The dragon asked. I nodded. "Yes! Help; I want to help you." I stepped closer as I spoke, and I made sure I tried not to make some heavy steps that might spook the dragon.


    "Let me help, please." I asked calmly, and the dragon titled its head curiously. "As friends?" I stepped closer to the dragon. "F-friends?" The dragon asked, and it didn''t back off when I said that. "Yeah, we can be friends." I replied. "And friends, always help each other out." The dragon started to walk towards me, and for a second, I thought it was going to roar at me and bite our heads off. But instead, it showed me its injured leg.


    There we go; it has fully trusted me. I examined the thigh, thinking about a way to get the thing out. And I can only think about one, which is to pull it out of the wound, and it can get dirty. "Okay, big guy, this will hurt." The dragon looked at me wide-eyed. "Hurt?" "Yes. I will want you to hang in there." I inhaled sharply and touched the object. The dragon stumbled, but it didn''t back off. "Okay, now, on the count of three to one. Ready?" I asked, "Ready?" The dragon replied, but it seemed more like a question than a reply. "


    "Three."


    "Two."


    "One..."


    With all my strength, I pulled the object. The dragon grunted in pain. "Hang in there, buddy." I reassured it as I kept pulling, but I''m not strong enough to get it out. Then, with extra hands held onto the object, Burton and his team decided to help me pull the object out. "Together." Burton said as we all pulled the object with all our strength.


    And thanks to our teamwork, we managed to pull the object out of the dragon''s thigh. We all collapsed from our efforts, but we did it; we helped the dragon. The beast looked at its thigh, and the wound healed almost instantly. "There you go, bud." I checked the object out, wondering how the dragon had gotten this stabbing through its thigh, but it doesn''t matter as long as we get it out.


    "Thank you." The dragon said, and it bowed. I nodded, "Your welcome buddy,"  with Burton and his team bowing to the dragon in their form of "Never hurts to help." Out of nowhere, an idea materialised in my head: what if I gave it a name? Like a cool name for a friend?


    What name would suit this dragon? Think. The dragon''s voice sounds masculine, so a male''s name would fit this guy. But what? I should name it after something I like, like the name of a pop singer, like Justin? Like the guy Justin Timberlake? Or... Elton or John? Like Elton John? But I am interested in this singer more, Chris Brown... Yeah, Chris.


    "Hey, bud, would you like a name?" I asked the dragon. "A name?" The dragon asked. "Yeah, it''s like what other friends call you; do you like the name, Chris?" "Chris." The dragon replied, and, well, he seemed to say the name as if he liked it. "Yeah, Chris, Chris the Dragon." "Chris the Dragon..." The dragon repeated. "Chris, Chris! Yes!" Yeah, the dragon sounded delighted by the name. "Alright, it''s Chris then." I said, "You''re welcome, Chris."

 Chapter 10: Trials of Impressment

    A Chinese restaurant.


    That''s what this mysterious person told Abisai to meet at. They were supposed to meet at this Chinese restaurant called ''Nian Qin Cai Fan''. As Abisai recalled, it was located on a mountainside, and the views were breath-taking at dawn.


    But Abisai does not have time for that. He has to be there by at least three o''clock. He took his scimitar, in case he encountered some people who were told to hunt him down, and wore a black cape to cover up his face. After settling everything, he held on to his scimitar and whooshed off.


    Abisai was used to travelling at the speed of the wind, as he used it to escape the scenes after he had assassinated those corrupt officials. He had honed this skill over a span of approximately two decades. Sometimes, he might stop by to read signs to the restaurant, and Abisai will vanish as soon as he verifies his location, and who knows what the nearby people would see¡ªmaybe a guy who glitched in a split second?


    After a few minutes of speed travel, Abisai was at the restaurant''s ''WELCOME!'' mat.


    It was designed like a Chinese building, with yellow blazing roof tiles; the door looked like it was hundreds of years old; and Abisai can see the red lights glowing inside the building. It looked like a good tourist attraction, but Abisai was no tourist; he was a public enemy number one.


    "Ah! You''re here, Abisai-San!" Oh, great, Abisai thought. He turned to the sound of the voice and saw a man. He wore a black kimono with huge red flowers on it. The person smiled at Abisai; that smile... when he smiles like that, people would mistake him for being a nice guy, but Abisai knew what this person did during his free time, and it is too disturbing even for the toughest of his comrades. But even though Abisai doesn''t like this guy, he is still his ally.


    He sighed, "Good day to you, Akumu; it looks like the person had invited you too." Akumu giggled and smiled. "Well, you will definitely need backup if the people who are after you are here." Abisai took a deep breath and facepalmed himself. "I told you, even though they''re members of the Twelve Protectors, I can still take them on. And what will happen if they prefer to fight in broad daylight?" Akumu giggled again. "My, oh, my Abisai-San! You really know me that much, do you?" "You''re a vampire; you''ll burn to particles if you reveal your true form right now." The vampire nodded and patted Abisai''s shoulders as he spoke. "That''s the right answer! You really are a vampire expert!" Abisai stood there silently and started to speak again. "He must be waiting; let''s meet him."


    Once they opened the front door, the scent of mouth-watering delicacies filled the entire room, and perhaps the entire building. A woman, who is definitely a waitress, ran up to the seemingly innocent duo and spoke. "Huan Ying! Huan Ying!" Abisai doesn''t understand what she just said; he can speak in many languages, but Chinese isn''t one of those languages. However, he can tell that the waitress was welcoming them.


    "You, Zi Wei?" The waitress asked in Chinese again. Abisai does not have a clue about what she was saying, but Akumu cleared his throat. "Liang Wei." He replied in perfect Chinese. Well, I guess the vampire can be a good translator to some other foreign languages. "Hao de." The waitress said, "Wait." Abisai stopped her, the waitress turned back, and she spoke. "What is it?" And now he knows that the people here do speak English, and speaking Chinese is a part of their job.


    "We are invited by someone." He took out a piece of paper¡ªthe same paper that the person had given him a few days ago. "Our seating is at Table 33." "Alright, follow me." The waitress had brought them upstairs and to a table with curtains closing it. "Over here." The waitress said, "Xie Le." Akumu said and bowed. And the man was there when they entered.


    He was feasting on a dish of meat, which was possibly pork; a hood was covering his head, and his face was barely visible. "Ah," A voice in the hood spoke. "Both of you have arrived; please take a seat." Abisai and Akumu sat down at the opposite table. "I had already ordered your meals." The man spoke. "And I sincerely apologise if they are not your type." "It''s alright." Abisai replied. The man continued to pull out pieces of meat from the pork and throw it into the hood, which was an odd way of eating.


    "So, about this deal." The man said, "Yes. This deal." Abisai replied. "We would want you to steal something for us." "Steal? Steal what, exactly?" The man asked. "It''s being heavily guarded by one of the Twelve Guardians." Akumu answered. "How heavily guarded?" "We''re not sure about how powerful the defences are. But the lady needs someone who is swift enough to avoid the traps in there. And strong enough to defeat any guards We think that you''re the right species for this."


    The man laughed an uneasy and childish laugh. "Oh me?" Two pale, small hands popped out from the hood, and then a head with a sharp pointy noise and ears and eyes like the ones on frogs. "A goblin? For this job?" "Are you able to do it? How much do you want? The lady can give  you The goblin chuckled and bashed his hands onto the table, as if someone had just told him a hilarious joke. "Money? I''m not into that kind of stuff! I want to know, how fun is it?" For fun? This goblin steals for his own thrill.


    Akumu smiled, "Oh, it will be fun! Just think about it: the excitement of dodging poison darts, the intense moments of walking on the right tiles, the fun of doing parkour over slumps!" The goblin turned to Akumu with a curious smile on his face. "Go on." He urged the vampire. "Who knows, there could be some strong people there for you to fight! And think about it; you could become so dangerous that you could get the attention of the Twelve Guardians!" The goblin shrieked with delight; he snapped his fingers, and screaming can be heard from downstairs.


    That can''t be good.


    Abisai and Akumu rushed down the stairs, but they made sure that they weren''t in view. And their eyes widened at what had just happened. They saw a man who was on fire. He screamed in pain. The people around him rushed to help him; they grabbed a fire extinguisher and sprayed it on the man. The fire was put out, but the man was burned alive, and the only thing to prove his existence were the ashes left on the seat. "What are you doing?!" Abisai hissed at the goblin. "That was an innocent man!" "Oh no," The goblin replied, "I often do this when I''m excited." The creature snapped his fingers, and they heard more wailing. More people had been set on fire.


    As the goblin snapped his fingers, more customers, cooks, waiters, and waitresses had been set ablaze. And in a few moments, all the people (excluding the goblin, Akumu, and Abisai themselves) in the restaurant had been reduced to human ashes. "It''s a deal!" The goblin said, "What is this precious thing that I must take?" Abisai turned to the goblin. He was not cool with the goblin for incinerating a bunch of innocent civilians, but the item that they need is really important for the lady. He sighed. "Alright, it''s settled then; the lady would want you to steal The Orb of Wishes."


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    The goblin cheered as he jumped up and down like a monkey. "Alright! The Dark Witch will be impressed by my skills when I come back with ''The Orb of Wishes''! One last thing, where is this orb located?" "It''s in the palace of Paxsalam." Akumu answered. "I''m not sure where exactly it is in the palace. But I''m sure that you''ll figure it out."


    "I see... I guess this deal is actually worth it. I''ll best be going and finding information about the orb. I promise, I''ll come back with the orb within a week; count on it. Sayonara for now!" The goblin snapped his fingers and lit himself on fire, and as the fire vanished, the goblin disappeared along with it. "So much for an Asian cuisine." Akumu sighed. "I bet even the chefs were fired as well."


    . . . . . .


    At first, Claude didn''t believe me when I told him that I had gained trust from Chris the Indian Quarterback, but he was speechless when he saw the dragon with his own eyes.


    "How? How did you find him? Indian quarterbacks are very shy creatures! And I don''t remember seeing one in this sanctuary!" Claude was fascinated with the dragon. "Well, there was something impaling through its thigh, and me and a group of conservationists helped him by pulling the object out!" I replied. Claude just stood there, staring at Chris eye-to-eye. He was silent for about a few minutes, and I don''t know what he was going to say. Maybe he was going to yell at me for risking my life? Or he might congratulate me for helping a magnificent beast?


    "I see," My older brother turned to me and nodded. "That is a very noble thing you just did. I knew it was in your nature to help those in trouble. You named him; what is it again? Chris?" "Yup." I replied. The dragon tilted his head curiously at us. Claude stepped closer to Chris and gently pated his snout. "Alright, Chris can stay." Claude said, "Hey! He''s not a pet or something! He''s a friend!" "P-pet?" Chris asked, clearly annoyed by that word. "Um, yeah. It''s an animal that we humans keep for" I tapped my feet, trying to think of a word that wouldn''t get on Chris''s nerves. "Company. Yeah, company."


    My training was getting tougher. Since Claude had decided that I do more practice in battle than running around in the forest and concentrating and ignoring anything in my surroundings, even though they might be more threatening to me,.


    I had only learned three positions for now, and they weren''t so good; my best one is probably the first position. I still have to do those snowball fights with Claude, and things barely changed these years. I did manage to dodge some hits, but some snowballs will still splat me in the face. And it still hurts from the blows due to how cold those snowballs are.


    But I did get a little hang of it. Claude mentioned that we must concentrate and to always aim at your opponent before I fire. I took that advice, but my brother fires snowballs and aims way better than me.


    I do hang out with Chris every afternoon, and I will often teach him how to speak with more vocabulary since Chris only knows those words that an eight-year-old would say. So, I taught him more interesting words, which fascinated the dragon since he had never heard those words before.


    Chris, in return, did make me understand a few things. Chris told me that there''s a strategy to evade Claude''s snowballs. "In home... there were giants... Boldors." I listened closely to Chris''s story. "The Boldors... they stay near my favourite plants. Every time I got near those plants, they threw rocks, big rocks, at me." Chris whimpered as he finished that part. I sympathised with the dragon; from my experience, getting hit by circular things (especially snowballs) always stinks.


    "They always tricked me. They once tricked me into flying to the spot to throw rocks by pretending to aim at the other spot... Your training is with me, brother. You can use that trick." I understood what he meant. He wants me to use that tactic. This is a perfect move.


    Claude and I met at the temple, we bowed, and we moved to our places. "Ready?" Claude asked, and I nodded in response. I took a deep breath and charged towards the center. Like Claude said, this would have the same rules as dodgeball. Now, we are rushing to the centre to decide who will get to fire their snowballs first. Sadly, Claude was the one who reached the centre first.


    I cringed at my loss and clenched my fists. We went back to our positions, holding onto our staff. We bowed to each other, and Claude raised his staff at me. "Each of us gets twenty shots each; are you ready?" "I have a plan up my sleeve, bro." I replied, "This time, I won''t be going down so easily!" Claude chuckled. "Not bad! You''re getting more confident this time! Good luck!" He began to fire.


    I just realised that I am getting better at evading the snowballs. It must have been thanks to those laps in the forest that I did for the past four years; those trainings actually weren''t in vain! I used another tactic that Chris had told me (in his eight-year-old child vocabulary): read the opponent''s posture before they fire objects at you. I did exactly that; I eyed the way that he held his staff, his standing position, and where his staff was pointing. After doing all that in a matter of seconds, I knew where to go in order to evade the snowballs.


    I kept evading them, but Claude just kept firing. I did manage to dodge them, but barely. My heart pounded against my ribs, and it skipped a few beats when I was almost hit. This was getting really intense. Claude said that we''d get twenty shots each, but it feels like he shot over fifty. And then Claude stopped. He bowed to me, signalling that it was my turn. I took another deep breath and began to fire my snowballs.


    Claude is amazing at evading snowballs; once I fire, he will be on the other side of my direction. He''s really fast, but it''s my plan put into motion. I''ll just pretend to fire in one direction, which would hopefully trick Claude into diving in the opposite direction. I would then fire my snowballs in his direction. But what if Claude saw through my plan? And he knew what I was doing, and my plan would fail before I knew it.


    No negative thoughts; I ordered myself; whatever happens, I have to try. I fired from the opposite direction, and Claude turned in the other direction to avoid it. Yes! It worked! I launched in the direction that Claude was heading. I caught him off guard, but he still managed to evade it. But I did something; the snowball had knocked his staff off, hit the ground, and spun, making clanging sounds, and then it came to a halt, silencing the temple.


    Does that count as a win? I wondered. Claude stared at his staff and turned to me. He grinned and chuckled. "I''m currently using my weakest strength here, and you, technically, have beaten me in four years!" He patted my head. I always liked it when he did that. I smiled, satisfied by my performance today.


    We headed back to our castle, and that will be it for my training today. "So, Chris showed you how?" Claude asked, and I nodded as an answer. "Yeah, they are really intelligent creatures. And Boldors are a species of giants. And they do throw rocks at their intruders; Chris must have a hard time dealing with those giants." We made it back to our palace, settled everything down first, took a bath (not in the same shower chamber, I promise), and assembled in the dining hall for dinner.


    "That was really something you did back there." Claude said, and I slurped up my bowl of mushroom stew and replied. "So... do I get a gift?"


    My brother smiled and said, "You really showed me your potential back there, and you had improved a lot. So, yeah, you''ll get a gift." I cheered, "What is it?"


    Claude took a bite of his vegetarian pasta and spoke, and those words struck me like a snowball to the face. "I, Claude Clifford the First, will allow you, Edward Clifford the First, to participate in The Magician Games."

 Chapter 11: The Day has Come

    My response to those words? "Please stab me."


    Did I hear him right? That Claude has allowed me to join The Magician Games? Okay, I knew that I had improved in the past three years, but I didn''t know that I had improved that much...


    "No, this is not a dream." Claude answered, probably to make sure that I don''t stab myself to make sure that I wasn''t dreaming. "I''m really impressed by your performance back then, you did improve a lot over the last four years. Do you remember the first time you started? You were so horrible at almost everything, but today... You climbed the ladder man." He pated my shoulder, "That''s already enough for someone to participate in the Magician Games."


    I slammed my hands at the dinner table, and I started to scream at the top of my lungs,  "Oh yeah!" I cheered, " I can finally, in my whole life, get to participate in the Magician Games! Thank you brother! For giving me such an opportunity." I''m on the verge of shedding happy tears, all those intense trainings, had paid off! Wait... but there''s one thing I need to ask about The Magician Games.


    "Claude, what events are in The Magician Games?" I asked, "I''m sorry, but the events change every year and every time." Claude replied. "But, are they dangerous? Or lethal?" "Um... I won''t answer that to make you even nervous..." Oh joy, I thought. "So, in conclusion, I''m just participating in a tournament, which I don''t even know what it''s about?" "It''s the rules, sorry brother."


    Now, I don''t know that should I be excited or nervous by the fact that I will be participating in The Magician Games.


    "But, don''t worry." Claude said, "It''s going to be alright." "I looked at him, "Is only knowing three positions enough?" I asked again. "It depends on the situation." Claude replied. So okay, maybe it won''t be that bad. "And it''s going to start in about a week." He added, "Don''t get nervous, you''ll pass." Well, that''s comforting. On the bright side, maybe I can pass... But, what if I don''t? All of the hard work, all my blood, sweat, tears and other body fluids, would be for nothing...


    But Claude''s right, don''t overthink it.


    I asked Claude do I still need to train to prepare, and he answered that of course I need to as it would be a challenge. In the next few days, I had repeated the same things over and over again; running through the trap-filled track, practicing my three Ice positions, teaching Chris the Indian Quarterback some new vocabularies.


    The newspapers have some really chilling news these days, there''s one incident that all the people in a really popular Chinese restaurant went missing, and there were piles of ashes all over the floor, and the police department had confirmed that those ashes were human... "What or who could have done this?" I whispered to Claude as we were reading the paper. "It''s probably some dark magicians, or an aggressive creature." Claude replied, "I think I need to inform one of the Twelve Guardians about this incident." He mumbled.


    I fell off my chair after Claude had finished. "Wait, Claude. Did you just mentioned, The Twelve Guardians?" I asked as I struggled to get back on my feet. "Yes, I did." I gasped for air, I felt the same excitement when Claude had revealed that I will be participating in the Magician Games.


    For your information, THE Twelve Guardians. They are a group of very powerful magicians, dedicated to protect the innocents, and to defeat any evildoers who poses a threat to society. Those guys are the heroes of the magician world, everyone (including me, of course) loves them, and I loved them even more when I realized that Claude, not some random Claude fellow, but my older brother Claude, is one of the Twelve Guardians.


    "Anyways, Edward. I''ll be heading over to the Chinese restaurant to investigate the incident with another member of the Twelve Guardians." Claude stood up, and collected his staff. "Good luck, brother." I said, Claude nodded and gave me a ''I got this'' smile, and began to walk out from the room.


    And these days were really wild and weird, as if all the Gods were toying around with this week as my time to enter The Magician Games is getting closer. Fascinating and weird news were going on lately; A prince of a French kingdom had succeeded the throne of his mother, someone has created the world''s largest jelly (why would they want to do that?), and there was a woman who was sent to the hospital because she fell out from her house''s window. Why? Because she was startled by a gecko while she was wiping the window. (she''s fine, don''t worry readers)


    Time passed so quickly and eventually, it is already time for the Magician Games before I could say the word bummer.


    I should put on a fancy outfit for the event, I got my trusty top hat, wore my white jacket (but bigger), light blue jeans (but bigger) and a green T-shirt (guess what? it''s bigger). I took my staff, and I did something that I always wanted to do: to spin my staff and hammer it to the floor. I spun it, and I had failed it miserably, I got an injured leg as a consequence from that.


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    I took a deep breath, and stepped out from my palace. Claude agreed to follow me on my way there. He too, wears a top hat, and I can''t see his clothes because he was wearing a clear white cape, which was covering his entire body. "Nice cape." I told him, "That''s a cool jacket." Claude replied, "Trying to impress someone?" I grinned as I walked around a circle around my brother, as if I were doing a catwalk in a fashion show. "My friends, Felix and Aisha, of course." I replied, Claude narrowed his eyes, "You sure it''s just them? Don''t you have someone special to impress with that outfit?"


    I immediately understood what he meant, my own brother seriously think that I have a, person that I like? Well, it''s not the ''family and friends'' like, but the ''have the desire to kiss and marry'' like. Ugh! The idea of that is making me cringe! "Whoa, whoa, whoa. Claude. I reassure you, that I don''t have a crush on someone." Claude snickered, "Yet." He teasingly added.


    I choked at that word, why won''t Claude believe me? I''m literally telling the truth right now. "Okay, this is getting weird. We, should be going. It''s best that we should be there before it gets crowded." I immediately began to scurry ahead, with Claude following behind me.


    This may be the longest journey in my life as well.


    Not only we have to take a subway; we have to take more than one subway! We would have to stop at another station, and get onto another train. But not only that, we would have head to the surface, and stop at a bus station to board a bus. I''m still not as used to be cramped up with lots of people, so Claude decided that we sit at the back seats, a.k.a. the empty seats.


    "Don''t worry, we''re almost there." Claude said. "Alright." I replied. I had lost time about this journey, I remembered we went out at least seven in the morning, now it looks like it''s nine. And I had also forgotten about how many subway stations do we have to board for this.


    And finally, this hell is over when we had arrived.


    There''s something worse, there''s even more people here, and I bet most of them are the participants since most of them are bringing their magic staffs with them. "Whoa. It''s like a night market here, except for the fact that there were no stalls." I clenched onto my staff, "Brother, w-what if I lose in the Magician Games?" I asked, "If I did lose, my trainings will all be for nothing... I''m getting nervous brother." "It''s okay." Claude said, and he pated my shoulder. "It''s totally normal to feel nervous in competitions. You''ll do fine." After he said that, it made me calm down a bit. "Thanks man, you''re right, I''ll be fine."


    Overhead, there''s a huge flight of stairs that goes straight up to... I just realized what I had just saw... Oh, crap. Stairs...  Why does it have to be stairs? The bad memories! NO!  Everyone just kept on walking, do they even feel exhausted from all that? Claude doesn''t seem to break a sweat from climbing all those stairs, and plus, he has to assist me up due to my fear of stairs that is overwhelming my desire to walk.


    But still, are these guys that athletic? They aren''t even complaining about how many flights are there... are they fine with this? Do they have lots of stairs in their homes as well? How high is the this place anyways?


    "Oh my god! Edward! You alright?" Oh, that voice...


    I dropped myself to the ground, I turned back, and saw two familiar faces. "Are you injured?" Felix asked, he seemed to be very worried about me. "Oh! Um, yeah!" I got up to my feet right away. "I''m good! I''m just, um, I have a phobia of... stairs." My two friends paused, and blinked. "P-p-phobia of stairs?" Felix repeated. "Is that even a thing? How did you get that anyways?" Aisha asked curiously. "Long story," I answered, not wanting to remember the horrors of climbing those stairs to my palace''s library.


    Felix wore the identical clothes to the ones that when I had last saw him, except that he doesn''t wear that orange scarf. Aisha too looks almost similar as well, but her green shirt is now a buttoned-type. "You guys are here to participate too?" I asked, "What else do you expect us to be here for?" Felix replied,  "Our master was impressed by our improvements in the past three years." Aisha added. "So... Is this the ''Felix'' and ''Aisha'' that you told me about?" I was so focused on my pals I had almost forgotten that Claude had existed.


    "Yeah! Hey guys, this is my older brother, Claude."


    "Wow," Felix squeaked, "So, you really rule this kingdom Paxsalam? As well a member of the Twelve Guardians?" Claude nodded as an answer. Both of them gasped, and started to shake his hand, saying things like "I''m a huge fan." and "Can you sign my autograph?" To be honest, I would do the same thing if I realised that my friends'' parents were billionaires who were developers of some cool mobile game.


    I cleared my throat to get their attention, "You guys ready for The Magician Games?" Aisha scoffed, "We got this in the bag." "All three of us are going to nail this tournament." Felix said, "I hope they have some battle-related rounds there!" "Wait, we have to fight each other?"


    All three of us stood there in a moment of silence, ignoring everything and the people around us (including you, Claude, sorry). "Well, possibly?" "Wait! Wait! Wait! I don''t want to hurt you guys! I only know three positions for now!" I exclaimed, "Oh that''s fine." Felix replied, "You''re at least better than me, I only know two, and Aisha only has mastered the first one only!" "Zip it!" Aisha hissed. "You know, I can still create a crossbow and shoot arrows at you guys!"


    "And, she has an aim that rivals that of the Star Wars Stormtroopers." Felix added teasingly. Aisha looked like she had been shot by an arrow, she growled and mumbled inaudible words and stomped as she admits defeat.


    Felix and I, on the other hand, giggled like five-year-old kids at her reaction, it actually feels good to laugh like this with my friends.

 Chapter 11.5: Investigation

    Claude''s POV


    It took ages for me to arrive at the restaurant. Even after taking two trains and a bus, it was about one in the afternoon when I had finally made it there. I knew it will take some time to get there, but, I never knew that it would take a few hours.


    The entrance to the restaurant was blocked off by barricade tapes with the words ''POLICE LINE. DO NOT CROSS''. And also by the entrance, four police cars were parked in a perfect line, and by perfect, I mean, terrible, to the point that I have to climb over one of them to enter the restaurant. I really apologize if you find this offensive, officers, but you guys really need to learn how to park your vehicles.


    Overall, excluding the vehicles and the tapes, the restaurant looked like a pretty nice place, except for the fact that a case of mass killings had occurred here about a few days ago.


    As soon as I got to the entrance, a police officer shouted from one of the vehicles. "Hey!" he ran towards me alongside his partner, they wore black t-shirts, black trousers, black boots, black custodian hats. To make it simple, their whole attire is black. They had taser guns at hand, probably in case they need to zap someone, which in this case, that would be me.


    One of the officers had a athletic build, with blonde hair, brown eyes and a fake orange moustache. His partner, was surprisingly (forgive me, sir), short for a male, I can tell that Edward is taller than him by four to five centimeters. This officer wore a pair of spectacles, he had black hair, except for the sides of his head, with were dyed blue.


    "Hold it right there, sir." The officer with the fake moustache said, now aiming his taser gun at me. "This building is currently under police investigation, and citizens are not allowed to enter this building. This is my first and final warning. Please-" "Whoa, Jeremy." The officer with spectacles interrupted Jeremy, he narrowed his eyes as he stared at me. His eyes later widened, and he elbowed his partner Jeremy. "That''s no citizen, That''s Claude Clifford! The current King of Paxsalam and the Ice Guardian!"


    Jeremy lowered his taser gun, and rubbed his eyes, like he was trying to make sure that he wasn''t hallucinating. "Oh, Y-your Majesty." He started to bow, he glared at his partner, who isn''t doing the same thing. "Hey Axel, shouldn''t you be submitting to him as well?" Axel yelped and straightens his glasses, "It''s alright, officers. You may rise." I replied, as Jeremy rose up.


    They told me that they were expecting someone like me to arrive, since the investigators can''t find any evidence on how all of the people in the restaurant managed to be burned alive at the same time. And they said that the only possibility, is that someone else had used magic to commit this crime. "May I have your permission to enter the restaurant?" Jeremy and Axel turned to each other, and nodded in a silent agreement. Jeremy took out his walkie-talkie.


    "Chief. This is Officer Brown speaking. Uh, one of the Twelve Guardians is at the crime scene right now." The chief spoke some unintelligible words from the walkie-talkie. "Yeah, Officer Rogers and I am with him right now, and he is asking permission to be let into the restaurant." More unintelligible words. "Okay, I see. Yes sir." Jeremy turned off his walkie-talkie, and turned to me.


    "Okay, Your Majesty. The chief has accepted your permission to enter." Jeremy confirmed, I nodded and the two officers began to remove some of the tapes at the door to let me in. "And, one last thing, I did inform one of my teammates to arrive at the crime scene. If he or she has arrived, can you let them in?" "Your wish is our command. Your Majesty." Jeremy and Axel spoke in unison.


    The place was quite dark, even when it''s afternoon.


    There were even more barricade tapes around all the tables, and even some on random spots. I could tell why; there were piles of ashes on the floors of the table, and some on random places like the counter. I stared at all the piles with sympathy, knowing that those piles of ashes were once human, who had normal lives, before someone had the nerve to take it away from them.


    "Don''t worry." I said to the ashes, knowing that they will never hear my words. "I will find the person who did this to all of you. And I''ll send them to justice, I promise." I continued to investigate the building, where I find more areas with more piles of ashes lying on the ground, as well as more company.


    "Yo." A familiar voice spoke behind me, I turned to the voice, and smiled. "Good afternoon, Clovis. The Water Guardian" I greeted, Clovis smiled back and bowed. "Afternoon, Claude, The Ice Guardian." Her attire was exactly as I remembered during the last time we met; she wore a royal golden dress with a scarlet-red cape attached to the back, a silver necklace was tied around her neck and she wore some silver bead bracelets around her left arm.


    Even though her attire does make her look like a queen or a princess, Clovis actually wasn''t a member of a royal family. It''s just her, hobby to wear dresses like that. "So... found any evidence yet?" Clovis asked. "I just got here, but so far, none for now." I replied. "I see. Well, I just talked to the police officers outside, and they said that there is a small group of investigators upstairs right now, we should go and meet them." "Agreed."


    The investigator team were shocked (they didn''t know that two had suddenly entered the restaurant) and awestruck (by the fact that two members of the Twelve Guardians are standing right in front of them) when we made it upstairs. They immediately greeted and submitted (to me), some of them squealed silently, excited to see us in person.


    One of the investigators, a man in his mid-fifties, stepped forward and shook our hands. "Greetings to you two. I''m Nicolas. I''m the lead investigator for this case, and I had a theory that all the victims in this restaurant were incinerated by someone or something who has access to magic. May I ask that, do you two have any idea on who or what could have did this?"


    I started to brainstorm on the possibilities, there were so many I could think of, I should start with the most basic first. I cleared my throat to get everyone''s attention. "Even though we just got here, I think I have some ideas. Firstly, the killer could be a Magician, who has the Element of Fire. The theory is that a Magician had entered the restaurant and killed everyone with their Fire Element. There are positions in the Fire Element that can burn individual beings. However, if that were the case, then the objects around the victims would be incinerated too, since the flames from the Fire Element is way more powerful than that of a flamethrower. And the whole restaurant would be burned down."


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    "Or an alchemist." Clovis added. "Since alchemists are able to manipulate the properties of matter, they can use it to cause people to disintegrate. And it might have nothing to do with fire." The two of us waited for the investigators to say something, they just stood there, watching us with awe, probably impressed about our knowledge on magic.


    "I-I think that Claude''s theory does make more sense... Sorry, Clovis." Nicolas said, rubbing his eyes. "Since we did find a fire extinguisher lying next to a ash pile, we think that a person was trying to save someone who was already on fire. But Your Majesty, if your theory is true, then, what else could have caused this?"


    I began my second theory (third actually, Clovis can be a mind-reader). "A magical creature, obviously the ones that can use pyrokinesis." I began to walk around in a circle, "Fire-breathing dragons or chimeras can be major culprits of this tragedy. But, their flames are more destructive than the Fire Element. So, I suggest that it might be a creature that has high intelligence." The investigators started to chat amongst themselves, one of them raised their hand in question.


    "How intelligent? Like the ones with an intelligence that rivals that of crows? Or the ones that are as smart as, us? And, what makes you think that they are intelligent creatures?"


    Two good questions, I thought.


    "And please do not reply ''it''s just a guess''." Nicolas added. "It''s because that I believe that the creature is able to manipulate it''s own flames into burning only the person themselves, normally, any creature that can breath fire tends to just, let it all out, they don''t care about the size of their flames, or what is caught in the fire, they only care about getting rid of the particular thing. But, more intelligent creatures, prefers to burn only the desired object that they want to get rid of, they can understand that they can draw unwanted attention if they choose to go all out."


    "And, we''re not sure how intelligent these creatures are." Clovis added. "The culprit could be anything, fire-breathing foxes, goblins, or even fire giants, the creature could be anything." After she finished, the entire area was silent. The investigators were already writing down all the clues and theories that we had mentioned. "I wish this place had installed security cameras." One of them muttered.


    I remembered a question that I had forgotten to ask them. "By the way, were there any witnesses to the crime?" "Yes, there is one. A waitress, the sole survivor of this incident." Nicolas replied. "Did she say anything? About what happened?" Clovis asked, "Well, she said that before the incident began, she went to take a restroom break. Then she heard screams and wails from outside, and she said that she was too scared to take a look outside. And by the time she managed to get the courage to get out and have a look, all the people have been turned to ashes..."


    "But, she did mention that after the massacre, she heard a conversation between two people. She said that they were making a deal or something, but she was too traumatized to hear out what they were saying. That''s all she said to us." Clovis and I looked at each other, and turned to the investigators. "May you tell us her location?" I asked, "We can try to talk to her, maybe see what else she knows?". All of the investigators shook their heads in unison.


    "She''s currently in a hospital, under the name of ''Imperial Medical Centre''. But, talking to her will be an obstacle though. The doctors informed us that she was too mentally unstable to communicate with." Nicolas said, sighing a moment after. "Don''t worry. I can try." Clovis said cheerfully, "But, I already said that-" "Yeah, Clovis has been through hundreds of psychiatric hospitals." I backed her up, "She knows many ways to calm down even the most aggressive patient. I''m sure she can cheer up a waitress."


    Clovis''s eyes glittered, and she gave me a ''thanks man'' look. "I see, I wish you luck. Water Guardian." Nicolas said, "And please inform us once you got valuable information. And thanks to you too, we are getting close to getting a lead in this case. So, thank you. Guardians." He and the rest of the investigators bowed with honor. After the meeting, the investigators all wanted autographs from both me and Clovis, which we agreed to sign it for them, they all giggled with joy after they got our signatures.


    Since the investigators convinced us that we should now leave the rest of the case to them, I knew that our job here is done, for now.


    We bid farewell to the investigators, and went downstairs. We paid our final respects to the human ashes, and exited the restaurant. The two officers, Jeremy and Axel, were still present at the doorway, now playing some video games or texting on their phones. They noticed us, they immediately placed their phones back into their pockets, and saluted us, the ''Devote your Hearts'' style from Attack on Titan.


    We smiled and saluted back, the two officers later fished out their phones from their pockets, and continued to do whatever stuff they were once doing on their phones once we left the place. We stopped at a nearby bus station, and I sat down, waiting for a bus to arrive. "It''s been a while since all of us Guardians are reunited, huh." Clovis said, trying to ignite a conversation with me.


    I nodded, "When was the last time since we all last met? About, six to seven years ago?" "I think it wasn''t that long ago." I tapped my staff to the floor, "I might have lost track of time. But nevertheless, I can assure you, that has been a long time since all of the Twelve Guardians are reunited."


    Clovis started to toy around with her beads. "By the way, how''s Edward?" I stretched my legs, "He''s doing good. I actually got him to join this year''s Magician Games." Clovis had stopped on whatever she was doing to her beads. "That''s great! What did he do to make you that impressed?" I told her about Edward defeating me in a game of dodgeball, with our snowballs instead, and he had listened to an advice from an Indian Quarterback on how to beat me.


    "Did he beat you at your?" I shook my head, "Nope, I was using my weakest strength." "And, I don''t remember your mother mentioning any dragons in Paxsalam''s sanctuary." I closed my eyes and sighed, which I always did when someone mentions my parents. Clovis seemed to be saddened by my reaction, "I''m sorry. I didn''t mean to hurt your feelings." She said, I turned to her, and smiled. "It''s alright. We''re starting to accept it. And, yeah. Some migratory dragons do take residence in our sanctuary. Mainly the rainforest, the savannah and the temperate forest biomes. And to prevent them from preying on the endangered animals there. The conservationists had built some towers with meat slabs, so that the dragons will go after the meat instead of the animals."


    We started more conversations with each other, even telling jokes and sharing experiences (including Edward''s reaction to getting hit by snowballs). After minutes of chatting, we decided to call it a day. "I''d best be heading to the Imperial Medical Centre to talk to the waitress." She began brought out a round metallic object from her purse, a warp gate. "Till we meet again. And if you happen to encounter one of our teammates, please tell them I said hi." I nodded, "You do the same for me."


    Clovis threw the warp gate to the floor, and chanted silently, which I can that she was saying the words ''Imperial Medical Centre''. After chanting the words five times, the warp gate opened and formed into a violet portal. Clovis got up and she gave me one more smile, before entering the portal, which immediately vanished once its user had entered it.


    Now, I''m having regrets on not bringing out a warp gate with me, and I don''t even know when will the bus arrive. I sighed, knowing that it can take hours for me to get back to my palace. I began to tap my staff, now playing the waiting game for the bus.

 Chapter 12: The First Game

    So many familiar faces.


    I saw so many people from the time when I had received my Ice Element here. I remember the girl with red hair, a pair of triplets wearing the similar yellow outfits, a boy whose appearance obviously resembles that of an Egyptian Pharaoh (he could be a prince like me, we could''ve been buddies!), and... oh nuts.


    Someone had caught my eye, it was the dude that with the black jacket. That same dude... who ranted about Fairy Elements being curses at the Element-receiving ceremony, I must had triggered him hard back then, and he must had not made amends with me yet, well it''s probably because that we never saw each other again. Until today...


    There was a man with him, who is definitely his father due to their striking resemblance, he wore a fiery-orange outfit, and seems to be bound to a wheelchair. "Hey Edward, what a-" Felix''s eyes widened when he turned to see where I was looking, "Felix, it''s alright." Aisha comforted him, and started to pat her friend on the shoulder.


    The dude''s cyan eyes suddenly started turning towards us, and his eyes widened, filled with shock, and I can get the message from his glare, ''Really? You? Here? Now?''. I saw his father talk to him, and turned to check out on what the dude was so interested at, he gasped, and called out excitedly. "Claude!"


    My brother must had heard him, because he turned to the direction of the call. He called back, "Trad!" and rushed towards him. It seems that these two must have been friends, since both of them were so excited to see each other. They shook hands, and started to chat. "Good day to you! I haven''t seen you since the last meeting of the Twelve Protectors!" Trad said, "Yeah! Your legs getting better?" Claude asked. "Oh, it''s not getting any better for now. Guess I''m bound to this wheelchair for a few more years."


    "Which is why Mother always advised you to see a doctor every month." Trad''s son mumbled to his father.


    Their loud voices seemed to attract the attention of the crowd as they turned towards them, they stood there, wide-eyed with, joy and excitement. "It''s Trad, and Claude..." One of them spoke, "Two of the Twelve Protectors! Right here!" Another one shrieked. "The Twelve Protectors rarely show up in public, why here?" The red-haired girl asked, "They must be here to examine our performances." The Egyptian-Pharaoh clothed boy answered, but I think he''s talking to himself than answering her question. "Whoa! We''ve been waiting for this moment!" One of the triplets spoke, "Let''s get their autographs!" The other triplet added.


    "And hey! Isn''t that Claude''s younger brother? Whom the Greek God of the Forge nicknamed him as ''Younger version of the singer Rick Astley'' back at the Element-receiving?" The final triplet asked, loudly so that not only the triplet brothers, but the other pedestrians around us could hear him. They all turned their eyes from Claude and Trad to me. I stared at every single one of those people, who are staring back at me with curiosity on their faces. I cleared my throat, I had prepared myself for this moment.


    "That''s right! It is I, Edward Clifford. Brother of Claude Clifford, the current King of Paxsalam as well as a member of the Twelve Guardians!" I said like a spokesperson, I took off my top hat and bowed to my audience while giving them a pleasant smile. "And would you all be delighted to allow me to sign your autographs too?"


    I expected the audience to cheer and beg me to sign their autographs. Instead of doing that, they smiled awkwardly. "He''s a cute guy." They all cooed in unison, they all turned their attention back to my brother and Trad and rushed towards them while screaming with joy, while leaving me behind in the dust. My smile slowly fades away into a disappointed frown, I didn''t expect people to be not be excited when a literal prince offers to sign their autographs...


    "Oh, boy." Claude said, "We should have done it more privately. We''re probably drawing lots of attention now..." "Oh, never mind. I''m used to these." Trad replied. The crowd started to talk to each other excitedly, with topics like getting my brother''s and Trad''s autographs, or fangirling about their heroic deeds. Whoa, I always knew that my brother was famous even outside Paxsalam, but I didn''t expect him to be this famous.


    "Oh! And Claude, your younger brother is participating right?" "Oh yeah! He''s here!" Claude turned to me, and waved at me to come over, my eyes opened wider, Claude must have wanted to introduce me to Trad, and his son... I started to walk confidently towards them, and stood by Claude''s side, further from the fellow.


    "Trad, this is Edward, my younger brother." Claude said, I decided to wave nervously at Trad, and I''ll try my best to not ruin my brother''s mood. "Pleasure to meet you, Edward." Trad held his hand out, ready for another handshake, well, what could go wrong? I shook his hand, "It''s also, a pleasure to meet you too, Mr. Trad." Trad laughed, "No, no. Just Trad. And here is my son, Gunther."


    Oh, Gunther is is his name. The black-jacket boy, now known as Gunther, looked at me, with disgust and fear as if I were an ugly and foul creature, ready to pounce on him and tear him to shreds. But it''s a good thing he has a sense of respect, he   "Gunther, shake the prince''s hand, please." Trad told him, wait, shake his hand!? There''s no way I''m doing that! And dear readers, I am really sorry for this sudden outburst. First of all, this is the same fellow who made an angry rant about the Fairy Element, which would frighten my pal Felix, as well as many of the others who wanted to chose the Fairy Element.


    Thankfully, I didn''t say that out loud, Gunther must have the same thoughts too. Instead of shaking my hand, he stormed off, and went up the stairs. "Gunther! Where''re you going?" Trad called out, "Just continue without me, dad." Gunther replied, "I don''t want to be late. Just find me whenever you''re done signing your fans'' autographs." But, it''s only nine or something, I wanted to call out. And according to Claude, it doesn''t start till twelve. Trad sighed, "Sorry bout that, buddies. He''s always been like this, ever since that... traumatic incident."


    Great, more climbing to do. I don''t know how Trad is able to manage this, since he sits on a wheelchair... but now he did fine thanks to Claude helping him. The crowd was still talking about the two, and it''s starting to get irritating now, and know they know me too, and I don''t understand why they don''t want my autograph.


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    It took a while to reach the top, this actually took us thirty-plus minutes just to get to the top, and the sights, were worth it. I did not expect the Games to be so carnival-like... there were stalls all over the place, and the air was filled with the scent of food. "You''re here!" Claude called out. "Now, do you see that huge line over there?" There was a huge line of people lining up towards a stall, no wait, it looks more like a counter. "You three must line up to get your numbers." "Numbers?" I asked, "And this line, it might take a few hours for this!" "That''s the reason why we came out this early." Claude replied, "And if you want to participate, you have to do it." "He has a point, you know." Felix said as he and Aisha started to follow the line of people, I sighed, and followed them.


    It really took a few hours for this. The line was seriously long, and it took at least a minute for one person to have their number with them. And as we took a few steps, which measured at least sixty centimeters and the line barely changed! I almost fell asleep a few times already, and Felix would have to shake me to wake me up (which I would do the same thing when it was Felix''s turn to fall asleep).


    After maybe one or two hours, it was my turn. Finally, I mentally told myself as I stepped forward to the counter. "Name and surname, please." I heard the person at the counter asked, this should be easy, it''s just answering questions. "Edward Clifford." I replied, the person started to write, slowly, like one letter per five seconds. "Age." "Um, thirteen." The person noted that down, "Gender." "Um, I''m a guy?" Dear readers, is my gender that confusing? It''s so obvious that I''m a boy. The person ticked a box or something, he then took something that resembles a card and handed it to me. "Next!"


    I looked at the card, and the number ''11'' was written on it. "So, what did you get?" Felix and Aisha rushed to me once they saw me, "An eleven" I replied, "Twenty-three." Felix said, "A hundred and six" Aisha added. "What are the odds?" I asked, "All of us got numbers, but they aren''t continuous from the person before us..." Aisha replied, "What do they mean?" "Is it a pattern or something?" Felix wondered. We were so busy getting theories, that we didn''t know what was happening around us.


    Everyone else was frustrated about the numbers they got too, except for one, who was busy giggling on the fact that the number he got was sixty-nine. Do the numbers mean anything? Is it a sign? Is it edible? "Good morning boys and girls!" We heard a voice spoke. A man was wearing a pair of sunglasses, and was wearing an unbuttoned shirt which exposed his six-packs. "Yeah, the numbers can be confusing. But don''t worry! It''s not a code for you all to solve!" The man said. "Wait, that guy looks familiar." I said, now, the muscular guy is the one who got my attention, not the ''11'' card.


    "Wait, that''s Owen Adamson!" Aisha said, mostly to herself, "Whoa, three of the Twelve Protectors in one day? And, look at those abs..."


    Aisha, along with many other female contestants were staring at Owen''s muscular body, many of them were starting to blush and giggle at the sight of it. Owen smiled at us, which caused most of the girls to giggle and some of them to faint out of joy.  "Now! Please remain calm, and all of you, please follow me!" All of us, which includes about two hundred people, followed Owen across the stalls.


    And he led us to a harbor for a huge lake, I mean like, it''s probably the largest surface of water I had seen for now, it stretches for kilometers, and by the look of it, it seems pretty deep. And in the middle of the lake stood a tower, at least fifteen meters tall, and in front of the tower, stood three seating filled with people, all facing towards the tower. There were many yachts waiting at the harbor, and Owen instructed us to board the yachts, they were moving quite slowly, but there were still some people who still got seasick, wait, does seasickness only works at seas and oceans or does it work on any body of water?


    The tower looks way bigger up close to it, and since there were so many participants, we will have to wait for another round to get up there. And from up there, it looks like we''re hundreds of meters above the ground. The tower was now filled with hundreds of us, and despite us being separated into lines, it doesn''t make me comfortable. Owen stood in front of all of us, he was holding a microphone, he held it close to his mouth, and spoke, with an ear-shattering voice.


    "Good afternoon! Ladies and gentlemen! Boys and girls! I''m your host, Owen Adamson from the Twelve Protectors, and I would proudly announce, that it''s time for this month''s Magician Games!" It must be connected to some loudspeakers, no wonder my ears were about to explode. "Now, are you all ready for the first game!?" The crowd cheered and roared, which was equally loud as Owen''s voice. "And I''ll also be featuring our special guests," Lights shone onto two figures, they seemed to have their own special seats as it was located indoors. "My comrades, Trad and Claude from the Twelve Protectors!" The crowd cheered even louder at the sight of my brother and his ally.


    Owen turned to us, and spoke with his loudspeaker. "All right participants! Now here''s your first task. Introducing, The Drop! In order to move on to the next task, all of you will fall from this tower!" What? We have to jump off this tower?! But that''s suicide! And I don''t think the lake can break our fall... Everyone had must have the same idea, we all stood there, staring at Owen and trying to comprehend on what he was saying. "Nope!" Owen said, as if he were reading our thoughts, "You guys are not going to die. We had prepared a special enchantment that will save you from your fall." Me, along with many others, sighed in relief. "Now, here''s the thing, all you guys will have to do, is to use your magical positions to break your fall, or to prevent the enchantments from activating, and failing to do so, and you''re out! Understand?"


    We nodded as an answer, but I don''t think everyone has the guts to do it. "And, for your numbers, they represent you for this game! Now I''m going to call out a random number, like... one-hundred-and-seventy-nine! Step right up!" A fellow with a pretty, please forgive me... ridiculous haircut stood out from his line. "Alright kid, now I would like you step on this plank." There was a board, about two meters wide, hanging above the lake, and it leads straight down. The fellow stood on the plank as ordered, "You ready?" Owen asked, the fellow didn''t respond, he just stood there, staring at Owen blankly. "It''s okay, kid. You''ll do fine." Owen promised, "Now, on the count of five!"


    Everyone began to chant. "Five!"


    "Four!"


    "Three!"


    "Two!"


    "One!"


    Owen raised his staff, with the head of a bat, and aimed it at the plank. A shadow pit formed under the plank, and the board was consumed by the shadow, leaving the poor dude suspending in midair, which didn''t last long as he was sent falling into the lake, screaming like a girl as it happened.


    All of us rushed towards the edge to see check on the boy. The boy used his staff to create some violent thunder-shocks, but sadly, they didn''t do anything to break the dude''s fall, the boy was only a few centimeters above the lake''s surface before the enchantments kicked in, it caused the dude to suspend in the air (again), but after a millisecond, he fell into the lake with a splash. Owen stared at the boy with sympathy, possibly due to the fact that he had jinxed the fellow. "Number one-hundred-and-seventy-nine, you''re out!" He then turned to us, "Next up!"


    I gulped in shock, this is going to be more trickier than I thought...

 Chapter 13: Making The Drop

    "Number one-hundred-and-thirty-seven, you''re out!"


    More people had been chosen to make The Drop, and most of those poor fellas didn''t make it. But thankfully, like Owen said, they didn''t get any broken bones, or broken necks, or broken arms or legs, or any other broken body stuff.


    I don''t want to be eliminated in the first game... I really need to think of something, something that can help me break my fall before the enchantment does. Alright, why can''t those guys break their fall? We saw them have their staffs, and they have enough time... wait, they were falling at a very high speed, you can''t strategize as you are falling that fast.


    "Number fifty-six, you''re up!" Owen cried to the crowd, and that person with that number stood forward, and that guy, was Gunther, the son of Trad, one of the Twelve Protectors. He stretched his arms in an abnormal position, and spun his staff perfectly. Dang, I wished that I can do that without dropping my staff or getting a bump on my foot...


    He walked forward, but unlike the others, he didn''t stand on the plank, he stopped on the edge instead. "I''ll accept that..." Owen mumbled, "Alright! Now, ready? Set!" The crowd started the countdown, now that is making me nervous, cause after that, you will decide on whether you can make it or not...


    Ah! This is actually giving me those feelings similar to those final-year high school students before they take their final exams!


    "One!" The plank vanished into the shadows, and Gunther rushed towards the edge without any hesitation. Most of us walked to the edge, the ones with handles to hold onto, and watched him fall. We saw a glimpse of Gunther raising his staff, and a watery dragon materialized from his magic staff. The dragon roared, and engulfed its summoner, turning into a huge ball of water before they plummeted into the lake.


    Once Gunther had resurfaced, the dragon had completely vanished. "The enchantment didn''t break his fall, and he landed safely in the water, so that means, number fifty-six, you pass!" Owen exclaimed with his trusty microphone sidekick, the crowd roared and cheered for Gunther, who is now the only person for now to pass ''The Drop''. However, Gunther''s expression was not an impressive nor a satisfied one. He doesn''t seem to be proud of himself for completing the first game for some reason.


    "Now, number fifty-six, you must now swim toward that yacht with the green flag over there." Owen pointed to one of the two yachts that are close to the tower, and Gunther began to do exactly that.


    Gunther''s turn seemed to serve as a leap of inspiration to the other contestants, as more people started to pass after him, like Felix, who made himself float in the air, which it lasted for about a few moments, and Aisha, who created a trampoline out of water above the lake, which made her bounce so high in the air, it made me worry about her for a second. I was still thinking about which position should I use... I should use something, that can break my fall. Should I freeze the waters'' surface? Wait, that could be a terrible idea. Cause if I did that, then I could possibly be the one that will get broken body parts... Then...


    "Next, number eleven!" That sentence broke me out of my thoughts, it''s already my turn... I have to do it, I need to get to the next level. Alright, I got this, hopefully... I managed to step forward, and stood on the plank, "Right! Ready?" "Wait!" I exclaimed, I turned to Owen, there''s something I have to do before I take a swan dive into the lake. I took my top hat off, and gave it to Owen, "Please take care of my top hat, sir, and please return it to me once I''m done."


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    What? You guys know that I can''t let my favorite accessory get wet, right?


    "Don''t worry, kid. Your hat will be safe in my hands. Now! Ready? Set!"


    The crowd started to count, I need to think of a position, which is the most suitable one for this?


    "Three!" One position had come to mind when it comes to situations like this... That''s it! I''ll use that one! But I don''t know whether I can make at least one that works...


    "Two!" I need to calm down, it''s time, this is it. I took a deep breath, ignoring all sounds that will distract me, the crowd''s loud cheers and roars, the other contestants wishing me luck (I really appreciate that guys, but I really need to concentrate and calm down right now), and the waves crashing against each other from the lake below.


    I got this.


    "One!" The plank below me disappeared into the shadow pit, and I fell at high speed.


    The feeling of falling was, terrifying, despite the fact that you won''t die in this fall, it was still horrifying to fall from a great height. I still have to concentrate, I calmed myself down and tried to ignore the fact that I was falling.  I took another deep breath, which was quite hard while plummeting into a lake, I silently chanted, "Element of Ice, Third position, Zero Creation!"  If you guys don''t know what this position does, it creates things that the user wants, only besides the fact that it is all made from thick ice. So, in this case, the object I would like to create would be a; "Ice Slide!"


    A slide, but all the properties of it were made from ice, materialized beneath me, and I slid down. After those few seconds of horror from falling, sliding down an ice slide was actually, fun. I had rarely used the slides in my palace during my childhood, and this brings back some good old memories.


    I continued sliding down the slide, what I didn''t know is, I never thought on the slides'' end. Here''s the thing, if you use this position, let''s say for example, you want to make a sword, you must imagine the entire object in the form or shape that you want before creating it. If you don''t do that, well, the object will just take up a random form, and it won''t be the form or shape that you want. And now, this is my problem, I only thought of a slide before I created it, and just that.


    Now, thanks to that simple mistake, the slides'' end would aim upwards, which would also send me flying.


    "Oh boy," I mumbled to myself. But, in my defense, I was actually panicking and I never focused on imagining the structure of the slide. I was about to reach the end of the slide before I asked myself;  just how high will I go? Can the lake break my fall? Will the enchantment save me, at the cost of me being eliminated?  Well, all of those questions will be answered, right now.


    After the end of the slide, I flew up into the air, and I embraced myself for the worst to happen. I plunged into the water. Every part of my body hurts, now, I learned that, water might not break your fall perfectly... "The enchantment didn''t activate, so that means... Number eleven, you pass!" I heard Owen yell from above, the crowd cheered once again on my success. I sighed in relief, I had managed to slide down into the lake without the interference of the enchantments.


    After Owen had instructed me to do the same thing that every winner of this game had done, I started to swim towards the green-flagged yacht, where many people who had passed this round await. "Nice! You made it!" Felix cheered, "Thanks!" I replied, as they helped me to get onto the yacht. "That was awesome! I was actually worried that you were gonna fail back there!" Aisha praised and gave me a dry towel, "It''s alright, I passed right?" I reassured her, "I just hope that Claude is impressed up there." I looked up, to the direction of the booth where Claude and Trad reside in.


    "He will be." Felix promised, "I''m sure that he''ll be so proud of his little brother for completing the first game of this year''s Magician Games!" "And besides, I think that he''ll be even more delighted when you pass the other games!" Aisha added.


    Well, they''re right, I bet that Claude is now silently shedding tears of joy in that booth. Now, the only thing I will need to worry is the next game.

 Chapter 14: Clues

    "Number four, you pass!"


    We just watched a fellow just blocked his (or her? It''s quite hard to tell from this distance...) broke his/her fall with a splendid spark. "And, that''s all of them ladies and gents!" We heard Owen shout from the platform above, and the crowd applauded. "Congratulations for those who passed! And for those who failed," All of us, turned to the yacht, with a red flag, is where the fellows who failed the test were supposed to swim to.


    "It''s alright! You don''t need to be saddened over your loss! There is always a next time to try again!" Owen said. "And now, that is it for the first task! Please head to the arriving yachts to leave the platform!"


    "Man, that was not as easy as I expected." I said, "Say, what do guys think that the next game, or match, or task, or... whatever, what do you guys think?" Felix scratched his chin, and replied. "Who knows, these events are mostly from the Magician Games in the past years. The next could possibly be the same too."


    From the Magician Games in the past years. "Do you two know what the, past events were?" I asked again, Felix and Aisha stared at me blankly, and I think that shows me... "Oh, we know a lot of them." Both of them spoke simultaneously. "You want us to list them?".


    After hearing them list down so many games like The Man with an Umbrella, which is to solve a puzzle starring a man holding an umbrella within an hour, and it involves many pieces and many of them look alike due to ''The Man'' wearing an entirely black suit. Or The Missing Symbols, which you will have to find the symbol that represents the Twelve Greek Olympians around the area and place it in that god''s or goddess''s hand (they''re aren''t real, they''re statues), I knew that I''m pretty much screwed in the next games if these were the case.


    "Please, don''t let it be ''Who did it?''." Aisha prayed. "It is a game that tests our detective skills." She explained to me. "Where we would have to solve a murder, and the ''killer'' would be among the contestants. And don''t worry, it''s not a real murder case, the killer won''t put an end to our lives." I sighed in relief when she had corrected my thoughts. "And, when one is being ''killed'', they will be transported in an empty room with the ''killer'' and they''ll engage in a Element duel."


    "And, this game happened two years ago." Felix added. "Almost all the contestants were eliminated! And that was just the first game!" I shivered at the thoughts of that, looks like The Drop is way easier and simpler compared to this one, Who did it?. Felix sighed, "Hopefully it won''t be appear in this year''s Magician Games. It would be way too hard for the beginners."


    Aisha and I nodded in agreement. But I would admit that, being a detective would be interesting, however, a game like ''Who did it?'' should be reserved for more experiences people.


    The yacht has finally reached the harbor, and the people onboard started to get off the yacht. We made it through this one, but I bet everyone is thinking that it will not be the same for the next one. And just as we walked a few metres away from the harbour, Owen, was standing in front of us, and there were two people beside him, and those are: Claude and Trad.


    "Greetings! Fellow winners!" Owen greeted us and took a bow. "I don''t think that was... necessary." Trad told him, Owen have him a look, which probably meant: It''s a tradition, dude. He turned back to us, and continued, "Before you guys go for lunch, let me give you all something, everyone, held out your palms." We did exactly what he told us to, and he took his magic staff, and tapped it to the ground. A piece of paper appeared in our palms.


    "Now, if you guys want to know the next game, you must solve this clue! Or riddle for some of you." Owen said, "Good luck guys!" The rest continued to walk ahead of them, as I was about to, Owen spoke. "Number eleven." I halted on the spot, and turned to them. "Y-Yes?" I asked nervously. Owen stepped closer to me, "Here you go kid." He said and gave out something, and I immediately realized what it was. "Oh, my top hat! Thanks Owen!" He gave me my top hat, and I wore it on my head, and I started to follow the others back.


    "Wait!" I heard Claude called me from behind, and turned back, and I can''t believe what I was seeing; my older brother was giving me a proud smile. "Well played back there." He said, I can''t stop smiling back, Claude was proud of my performance back there. I waved at him, and ran off, with a huge smile on my face. "Good luck with your next game!" I heard him calling behind me.


    I finally managed to catch up with Felix and Aisha, "Hey! Where have y- Why are you smiling like that?" Aisha demanded. Oh nuts, I''m still smiling after that moment. I slapped myself, and answered. "Oh, um, yeah, my brother praised for passing the first game." "Yeah, it will be a once-in-a-life time experience to get noticed by a member of the Twelve Guardians." Felix agreed.


    Stolen novel; please report.


    "Oh, I thought you had found your first love or something." Aisha said teasingly. I glared at her and let out a sigh, "Come on, you two know that I don''t have, a special person." Aisha snickered, "You don''t have one yet." She corrected. I groaned, but thankfully, Felix came to my defense, he grinned, and said. "Well Aisha, you don''t have one yet, too."


    Aisha''s eyes widened at his response. "Okay, this is getting weird." I decided to say. "Let''s head to the cafeteria, before we start accusing and teasing each other on having crushes."


    We noticed it was one o'' clock, exactly the time when we received our lunch. As we lined up at the cafeteria (which was for the contestants only, and that makes us VIPs), we can hear the others gathering conversations, however, they include lots of "Ums" and "What" and "Huh". We didn''t know what they were talking about until we remembered Owen''s words: you must solve this clue!


    I remembered keeping the small piece of paper in my top hat, which to me, it''s safer in case somebody takes it... which it will be disappointing if the thief realises that it is just a paper with a riddle to solve instead of a million bucks. I took it out from my hat and opened it. There were words implanted into it, and the words were:


    Hidden from the public eye.


    The starting lines and finish lines are on all corners.


    With many opportunities and dead ends.


    Man, it would be easier if you stick with your friends.


    I stared closely onto the paper, with a look of confusion on my face. I turned around to look at the other contestants, they were all as confused as I am. Even the emotionless Gunther, had a look of frustration on his face. "Um, Edward?" Felix and Aisha were now standing by my side. "Any hints on what this could be?" Felix asked. I shook my head, "Sorry, I got nothing for now."


    "Hidden from the public eye?" Aisha mumbled, and snapped her fingers. "Does that mean that the next game will take place where the viewers can''t see us?" "Starting lines and finish lines... A race perhaps? We just have to race to a corner of the arena?" Felix guessed. "But I don''t think that races have dead ends." I said, "Stick with your friends... it must be a game of teamwork..."


    "Okay, to recap." I clapped and began to list down our ideas on what the next game could be. "So, all we know for now, is that it is a game that requires teamwork, there are these opportunities and dead ends, there are starting lines and finish lines, and they are located in corners-"


    "Excuse me, can you three move along please?" A boy spoke behind us, we were so focused on solving this clue, and we didn''t even notice that we were in a line, and we were stalling those behind us, who were waiting to get their lunches. "Sorry guys!" We apologized to the people and began to move forward.


    "Where were we?" I asked, "Our ideas." Aisha said. "Oh, right. So, there''s teamwork, opportunities and dead ends, starting lines and finish lines, and it''s hidden from the public..." Wait, hidden from the public eye. What part of the next game can be hidden from the people? I started to brainstorm this riddle.


    "Edward?" Felix asked, concerned about me suddenly silent. "Guys, let me think about this for a while."


    I thought of the second line, the starting lines and finish lines are on all corners. According to the line, there must be at least an entrance and an exit in this game. The third line starts to give me a hint on what it could be, with many opportunities and dead ends. What object or place has opportunities and dead ends?


    And thanks to my quick riddle-solving techniques, I found out what the second game is.


    "Guys!" I exclaimed to Felix and Aisha, which spooked them since I was being quiet for some time. "Edward, jeez. You startled us!" Felix complained, "What is it that you want to say?" "I think I know what the next game will be about." This got their attention, Felix and Aisha leaned in closer to me, "Well?" They asked. I took a deep breath, and told them the great news.


    "The next game, will be about a maze."


    I explained to my two friends on how I got the idea on the answer being a maze. "For the first line, the interior of mazes can''t be seen from the outside, which is considered the public eye. The second line, well, for some mazes, the entrances and exits are mostly located in the corners of the maze." Felix and Aisha listened in closely, including some other nearby people who were just passing by.


    "The third line, obviously mazes do have dead ends, but the opportunities must mean they are the paths that lead to the way out. And the forth line, means that people will have to stick together in order not to get lost, as well as working together to exit the maze."  I had finished my theory and looked at Felix and Aisha, as well as the other people who were eavesdropping on me.


    "You''re welcome." I told the others, which caused them to nod at me and go back minding their own businesses. "Okay, that actually makes sense. Edward." Felix praised. I gave him a thumbs up as a ''thank you response''.  "Now it''s time to think about strategies for the next game."


    "Okay, since this is The Magician Games there could be traps that are hidden in there. To test our Element skills." Aisha said, "So, I say that we team up and so that our chances of winning are higher. Heck, we can even tag-along with other people or ask them to join us." "Good idea," Felix replied. "And since there could be traps or obstacles, but what could they be?" He added.


    His words got me thinking, that is a really good question, so teaming up with other people is actually a good idea, and don''t worry, I have plans for that.


    "Whatever the traps are, I think we should all work together think about what moves to use against them." I said, "Like, if there is an abyss that is in the way, maybe Felix, you could your Fairy Element to make us float, or I could use my Ice Element to make a bridge for us to cross, or Aisha could use her Water Element to create a slide for us to get to the opposite side."


    Felix and Aisha looked at each other, I think that they were thinking that I do have a good point. "Those were nice points, Edward." Felix patted my back, since he was the closest to me. "Let''s just hope that our Elements have uses to the obstacles or traps we face."

 Chapter 15: The Endless Rooms

    It''s settled then.


    We decided that, according to the riddle, it would be a maze (Felix and Aisha are going to strangle me if I were wrong here).


    We''re also not clear on when the next game will begin, and we''re going to cherish these few minutes we have, to plan up something that could help us during the game resides. And hey, my palace does look like a maze, and there are lots of cases that some servants got lost at some points, I bet that there are still some parts of my palace that I never knew had existed.


    I''m no expert at mazes. After finishing our lunches, we decided that we need to think of something to reduce the chances of us getting lost.


    "And, since this is a tournament. Do you guys think that there will be a time-limit for this? So that, it would stress us out and would make us want to complete the game as fast as possible?" I asked, "Maybe, or maybe not." Aisha replied. "But I think you might be right though, I don''t think the organizers for all Magician Games are evil enough to let groups of kids and teenagers to navigate a maze for all of eternity."


    "What you''re saying is, that they would give us a difficult maze to complete, in a few minutes?" Felix said, "I... guess so." I think that I''m making too stress-worthy predictions for the next one, I can actually think of running around in circles in a maze for hours. "Any tips on navigating mazes?" I asked, just to be sure that we can make it through together.


    "Guys, remember the riddle: Man, it would be easier if you stick with your friends."  Felix said, with a confident boss''s voice. "I think there''s more meaning to that other than to stick together. so besides from saving each other from any obstacles in this maze, we should help to check for dangers for each other."


    "Isn''t that the same thing as to order someone put themselves in danger to check whether the threat is present?" Aisha asked. Felix slammed his head, face first, to the table as a response to Aisha missing the point. He raised his head, "No Aisha, that''s not what I meant. What I was saying is that, we should help others to check for traps and dead ends. Like, to protect them. And not to waste time trying to check the same room again."


    Just as I was about to agree with Felix, we heard the sound of a satisfying ding from a bell.


    A man in a white shirt with a red tie, walked towards the us, and said, "Contestants of The Magician Games, it is time for your second game, please follow me." He bowed after finishing his sentence, and as he started to walk back from the direction that he came from, we all started to follow him, like everyone at once. I hope that the guy won''t feel nervous or awkward with a bunch of teenagers following him as if we wanted his autograph.


    We followed him for a while, and he l us downwards and we stopped. And I saw what was in front of us, a door in a tunnel. Is this it? Is this the maze? But it''s so, dark... with the only light sources being the torches in there, and they''re only slightly lit.


    "HELLO! MY FELLOW CONTESTANTS!!!" All of us covered our ears, which could bleeding on the insides due to how loud that voice was when he spoke. "Oh! Sorry about that!" It was no other but our favorite announcer and Guardian, Owen Adamson. He did some adjustments to his trusty microphone and spoke again, "Yeah, I apologize about that..." He cleared his throat, and spoke again. "Hello! My fellow contestants! And the ladies and gentlemen who are watching this from behind the scenes. How are you all doing? And welcome to the second game of The Magician Games!"


    "And now, let''s introduce, The Endless Rooms!" Sadly, we can''t hear any cheering since there aren''t any viewers as they are watching this somewhere far away from here, and the name, The Endless Rooms... to be honest, it sounds creepy. And the door leading us into the dark unknown approves that. "According to the riddle that I gave you, the answer for the riddle, is... a maze!" So he was the one who made this riddle, no wonder there was the word, man, in it.


    "All you have to do is to navigate through the dark maze and reach the end! But there''s one thing, you will have to escape the maze in one hour and forty-five minutes!"


    As I predicted, there''s a time-limit for this, but through this? We have to navigate through a maze, with only torches as the light sources? It''s going to be very dark there, and I don''t like dark stuff... "Now! Contestants! Are you ready?" Owen asked with his loud microphone. We stared at him blankly, and we all gave him a blunt ''yes''. " Now! Good luck everybody!" I saw Owen mumbled some words, possibly a move for his Element, and he tapped his staff to the ground.


    We all plunged into our own shadows, and re-emerged to somewhere new.


    The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.


    I looked around, and saw that all of us were in a large dark room that is able to hold all of us, and there''s still lots of space. Torches illuminated the surroundings, there were three doors in front of us, and to the left and to the right, three doors appeared as well. "Okay contestants!" We heard Owen''s voice, it seems that it was coming from a loudspeaker somewhere, this guy really like loud noises. "And now, it is time, for you to escape The Endless Rooms!"


    "All of you can choose any door that you see to begin!" Did he say that we can just choose any door? Does that mean that, any door is safe for us to enter? We just need to hope that there''s no traps waiting us in there...


    Tick. Tick. Tick. Tick.


    We heard the sound of ticking, like a clock or something. Escape the maze in one hour and forty-five minutes! It has begun. The time for us to escape has begun. Now, which door should I choose? We can start from any of them, but I want the one that can lead us to the end much quicker. "I think we should take the middle one." I heard Felix whispered to me, we turned to the middle door, and saw that Gunther has just entered it. We just noticed, that half of the people with us has started to open doors and enter it.


    We can''t waste a minute or two anymore, we rushed towards the door in the middle, and we stepped into another room. There is one door for each side, and there were a few others with us. Okay, this is where the fun begins, we have to start choosing. "Guys, I have an idea." Aisha whispered to us, we leaned in closer to hear her out. "I''ll go in one first, to check whether it is safe or whether it is a wall or a dead end or something." "Sounds good." I replied, "Good luck."


    Aisha decided to enter the door on the left, we watched the others enter the middle door or the right door while some had decided to follow Aisha. "Alright guys!" We heard her call out to us. "I think it''s safe!" And so, we entered the door and into another room. There were surprisingly lots of other fellows in here with us, I remember seeing some of those guys just entered the door next to the middle. "Oh, this is, the room next to the other door." Felix said, "But, we''re fine for now..." We turned to the doors on the middle and to the one on the left, now which one should we choose?


    I thought for a moment, the ticking of the timer is really loud and is disrupting me from my thoughts. I think I have an idea, but it won''t be effective. "Let''s try the middle one." I told them, I opened the door and rushed in, followed by Felix and Aisha and maybe the rest of the people. "Now, maybe we should take the one to the right..." And we did exactly that, I made a little rhythm about that. I decided to we take the middle door again, then the left door, and then left again and...


    We discovered our first dead end.


    Once we turned to the second left, it was a room, but this one doesn''t have doors besides the one that we had used to open, so this must be a dead end. I apologized to the people that put their trust in me, and I chose another door. And I had also learned something from that mistake; when you find a dead end, it will not be the first and last one that you will find.


    We ran into multiple rooms without any doors, and sometimes, there are two doors that will lead us to two dead ends. This is starting to get on my nerves, we are probably also wasting time just to enter a dead end or more. "Alright contestants! You have one hour and twenty minutes left!" We heard Owen''s voice from a loudspeaker from somewhere. We had already spent  minutes running into dead ends, we can''t afford to lose just because we had kept running in circles or into dead ends.


    The others, probably tired of me leading them all to dead ends and wasting our precious time, had decided to make a vote for our group''s new leader. Felix, who got the most votes, became the group''s leader. Despite me being a prince, Felix is actually a better leader than me, as he made better plans. He told the group to wait as he and someone he picked (mostly me and Aisha) entered doors and we will call out for them once he''s done checking them.


    We would then tell them about what we saw behind the rooms we had entered, like how many dead ends and other rooms are there. Felix would then decide on which side we should go through. We did this for every three rooms that we entered, Felix might enter a few dead ends, but I realised that we had encountered fewer dead ends than I did.


    The plan was going smoothly, that is until we had met our first trap.


    We had entered a room, but this time, it was a long corridor instead, the width isn''t wide, there were only two tiles for the floors. "I have a bad feeling about this." I heard a person spoke behind us, "Corridors are always the places for bad stuff to happen." Another replied. "My claustrophobia might be starting to kick in." A person added.


    "Alright guys!" Aisha announced, "You all might be right, there could be traps here. Anyone who is claustrophobic, please calm down. We''re going to be alright. Let''s-"


    No offense Aisha, but I don''t think you should talk and walk and the same time, cause you won''t be paying attention to what is going on outside your conversation. As she walked forward and she stepped on one of the tiles, and it collapsed under her feet.


    "Aisha!" Felix and I called out as the others gasped.


    "Element of Water, First position, Aquatic Forgery!"


    We heard her chant from the tile,  which was now currently a pitch black hole. "Alright guys! I''m good! Pull me up!" We rushed forward, and saw that she is suspending in mid-air. No, she created something big enough out of water to make a floor in order to stop her from completely falling to the bottom, we reached out for her hands and pulled her up, and the floor that she created melted back into water and disappeared into the darkness.


    We collapsed to our feet after we managed to save Aisha, with the others rushing towards us to help us to get up. "You alright?" Felix asked, "I''m fine." Aisha replied and panted, "Thanks for helping." We looked ahead, with steps to cover in order to make it across the corridor. "Great." I mumbled, "This is going to suck." Everyone else nodded in agreement and we all sighed.

 Chapter 16: Now What? Your Highness?

    "Two... Four... Six... Eight... Ten... Twelve..."


    Felix started counting the tiles of the corridor that we need to pass, which one of the tiles just broke for the first row, and there''s still more rows that we need to cross.


    "Alright guys!" Felix made an announcement to our group. "There''s a total of twenty rows that we need to cover." Felix told us. "Twenty?!" A guy exclaimed, which I did recognize it from somewhere before. "What you''re saying is," I heard another voice spoke, which is sounds similar to the first one, "That we need to make it through this corridor," A third one said, "With the risks of falling through like what happened just now?" They spoke together in unison.


    I immediately recognized them as that pair of triplets that I had seen when we are on the way to register ourselves, and I will never forget that they are one of those fellows who ignored my offers to sign their autographs.


    "Yes." Felix answered, it went silent for a moment, with the only sounds being the timer ticking. "Oh man, oh man," The second fellow said, "I have a dark thought here, I think one of us needs to sacrifice themselves to reveal the correct tile." He buried his face into his palms. "I don''t want to sacrifice anyone here man."


    "Don''t say that, Jeffery." The first fella comforted the one named Jeffery, "We can probably figure this out. Right, guys?" The rest gave the triplets looks of hopelessness, the triplets sighed with despair in response.


    But he''s right, I thought. There must be a difference between the ''nice'' tile and the ''not so nice'' tile.


    Now that we are now a group, I don''t want their hopes to get crushed. I need to do something, something that definitely won''t involve sacrifice and sadistic choices.


    "Okay ladies and gents." I announced, and the others turned their attention to me. "I''ll go first, and I''ll try to find the differences." "Edward?" Aisha asked, "Wait, y-" "I''ll go first," I repeated before she could finish her sentence. "And there''s only two tiles for each row, so we have to go one by one." The others stood there, making no responses at all.


    Did I mess up? Do these guys trust me? I hope I can lead these guys out of here, I''m a prince after all, a prince who could be the ruler of Paxsalam eventually... But first, I need to encourage everyone to put their trust in me.


    I cleared my throat, and began to make a motivational speech. "Guys, I know that I messed up before; I led you all to many dead ends, which wasted our time. Now, let me try to redeem myself in this one. I''ll go ahead and try to find any hints and differences for faulty tiles. I''ll let you know if it''s safe."


    The others turned to each other, giving looks of concern (a natural reaction when a thirteen year old prince is about to do something that could get him eliminated from a tournament), and relief (probably because someone finally came up with a idea). Felix and Aisha looked worried, but eventually they manage to say. "Good luck, Edward." "Don''t stress it, dude." The triplets said in a comforting tone.


    I took the first step, the one next to the tile where Aisha had stepped on. One down, nineteen more to go. I looked forward, to the two tiles laying ahead of me, one of them is the one that can''t be broken, and the other is the one that can collapse under a single step... I thought for a moment, and remembered the hole traps during my trainings in the good old days. I raised my staff, and tapped the tile on the left.


    Creak. Creak. Creak.


    The sweet sound of wooden floor echoed the area as I tapped on it. I turned to the one on the right and did the same thing. Creak. Creak. Creak. Wait... I raised my staff, and tapped on the tiles again. The same sound emitted from its. Damn it, I silently cursed, not only do they look similar, they sound similar too. What now? What else can I do?


    Hold up, I have a plan, but I could accidentally destroy both of them. I just need to hope that the right one can withstand it.


    I raised my staff again, and chanted softly. "Element of Ice, Third Position, Zero Creation: Ice Hammer." A hammer, forged from ice, appeared in my hand. I wielded the hammer, raised it, and smashed the tile on the left, after I smashed it, a huge dent was embedded on it. I repeated the process to the one on the right, unlike the tile on the left, there''s not even a dent on it. Okay, here I go.


    I leaped to the tile on the right, and I closed my eyes as I expected to the tile to break underneath my feet. But to my surprise, it didn''t break.


    I turned to the others who were watching me from the back, "Alright guys! One of you can start to follow me!" I announced to the crowd. They all looked at each other, expecting someone to go next. One of them stood forward, it wasn''t Felix, nor Aisha, it was one of the triplets who had complained that there were twenty tiles ahead of us. "Jerome?" One of the triplets asked. "You sure about that?" The triplet named Jeffery asked.


    "Jeffery, Jeremy, just follow my lead." The triplet, now named Jerome called back. I admire their sibling relationship and it reminds me of my sibling relationship with Claude... "Sorry to interrupt, contestants. All of you still have forty minutes to escape the Endless Rooms." Owen''s voice echoed across the quiet corridor, "Owen out!"


    I kept repeating the same thing, hammering the tiles to check whether it will make a dent on it. And if I did manage to get the safe tile in my first try, I would make sure to make a dent on the other faulty tile to ensure that the others won''t step on it if they lost track on the pattern.If you stumble upon this tale on Amazon, it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it.


    I need to make this quick, I want every single one of these guys to make it out with me. And sometimes I would have to make a new hammer just because of the cold. Hey, even though I have ice magic, it doesn''t mean that I''m immune it''s freezing temperature. And making a new one did cost us a bit of time.


    I looked back, just to check how many people are following me now, I saw Felix and Aisha just behind Jerome, and there''s the other triplets Jeffery and Jeremy were at the first and second tiles. There were about eleven of us, and there''s only two and the starting point. I have to speed up, who knows what else could be waiting for us at the end... "Element of Ice, Third Position, Zero Creation: Ice Hammer." I created another hammer for the third time. There''s just one more tile ahead of me, "Participants, you have one hour left!" Owen''s voice echoed. I smashed the perfect tile, and I made it across.


    "Everybody! Now''s your chance!" One by one, they made it across with me. The others cheered in relief. The JJJ (Jerome, Jeffery and Jeremy. I apologize if this nickname sucks) triplets patted me on the shoulder, "Good one man." Jerome said, "Thanks for leading us." Jeffery added, "We couldn''t have done it without your strategy," Jeremy agreed, "We could have been eliminated without your help." I smiled, I actually managed to help out people for once. Everyone in the group began to give me a warm hug as a appreciation for my deeds.


    We kept on, encountering more traps in the process, like there were some hidden riffles that shoot out balls, about twenty at a time at us when we get too close (and obviously, it hurts to get hit by it) "Element of Fairies, First Position, Elusive Floating." Felix chanted as he made contact with everyone in the group. We then found ourselves floating above the riffles, which we were too high for the balls to reach us. However, despite me floating midair, I still managed to trip over a ball. Bad luck, perhaps?


    Then there was this huge gap between us and the other side, about fifty meters in length. Aisha manages to create a bridge made from water to the other side. "Where are the handles?" Jeremy asked, "Huh?" "Where are the handles?" He repeated, "Don''t all bridges are supposed to have handles to hold on to?" "I don''t think we don''t have t-" "If there aren''t any handles, it won''t be safe for us to cross." Jeffery agreed with his brother.


    "Ugh, for the love of-" Aisha then decided to create handles for the bridge, she turned to Jeremy, "Satisfied?" She hissed. "Fair enough." Jeremy replied, and he started to cross the bridge.


    "You have fifteen more minutes!" I have a feeling that we''re almost there, since we ran into so many dead ends and traps and obstacles... and the final obstacle, is the part where I sadly, ran out of ideas.


    We all stumbled upon six animal statues, which includes a snake, a rat, a bull, a crow, a fox and a hawk, all standing together in a line. They were surprisingly small, as they were at least a meter tall. A table with two levers stood before us, we gave each other looks of confusion and suspicion. That was until Felix stood forward and pulled one of the levers.


    A voice spoke from the speakers, and it wasn''t Owen''s voice this time.


    "The rat and the viper are foes, it would be chaos if they were to sit together.


    The bull and the crow are best of friends, they will hang out together till the end of time.


    The hawk totally loathes the rat, but would flee at the sight of the bull.


    Alas, the poor fox has to break up all the fights between the hawk and the viper.


    Sometimes, friends would have to split up to protect something  precious."


    "Uh... what?" Felix asked in confusion, as well as reading out my thoughts at that moment too. The others looked even more confused than before, except for the JJJ triplets, who looked excited. "Ah yes! A riddle!" Jerome exclaimed, "Now it''s our turn to help you all!" Jeffery added.


    They made a recap to us on the riddle. "So, we have to arrange those statues in the perfect position according to the riddle." Jeremy said, "You guys got any clues from the riddle, ladies and gents?" He asked in the way a lecturer would. I raised my hand to answer. "We shouldn''t put the rat statue and the viper statue together. Like it says, they are foes, so they obviously can''t get along."


    Jeffery snapped his fingers, "You got it! Mr. Astley!" He praised. "It''s Edward actually." I corrected. "Ten minutes left for you to escape!" Owen''s (loud) announcement echoed across the room, we got to hurry up and complete this riddle.


    "What''s next?" Aisha said as she rubbed her temples, she clapped as a way to show that she had a idea. "Then it would be exact opposite for the bull statue and the crow statue!" "And like the viper, the rat statue can''t be next to the hawk." Felix added. "So the rat should be next to the bull, since the riddle says that the hawk would flee when it sees the bull."


    "Good! Good!" Jeremy praised us. "Let us take it from here. So, according to the riddle, the fox would have to be somewhere in between the hawk and the viper!" "So let''s put this arrangement together." A guy concluded. "So the arrangement of these statues should be: the hawk, the fox, the viper, the rat, the bull and the crow."


    We all began to lift up the statues and place them in the order that the guy had mentioned. "Five minutes left!" We began to pick up the pace, and we were done with the arrangements. But... something seems off...


    The rat is right next to the the viper.


    "It seems you guys forgot something." Jerome said, "Remember the last line of the riddle?" I tried to make a recap on the riddle: Sometimes, friends would have to split up to protect something precious. Wait... does that mean we should, rearrange the positions of the bull and the crow?


    "The bull and the crow are friends. And the rat obviously needs to seek protection from the hawk and the viper," Jeffery explained. "So the bull and the crow must split apart to protect something precious, which is the rat. And what''s more, the bull should be next to the hawk to scare it away, and, we don''t have much time left."


    I had forgot that we still have five minutes left to escape this maze. We carried the bull and rat statue so that the rat would be between the bull and the crow. "Now pull the other lever!" Felix ordered. I rushed over to the table, and I did what he had told us to do.


    A light bulb lowered in front of the statues, and it proceeded to scan the line. After a few moments, it turned green. And a door in white materialized at the end of the room.


    We had solved the riddle.


    "Hey guys!" Felix called out to us, "Is that it?" He pointed to the door in white, white always means good stuff, right? And besides, we''re running out of time. We rushed towards the white door, as Aisha opened it, and we all rushed through. What appeared before us, is a bunch of other contestants, about thirty of them. And we knew, that we had managed to escape the Endless Rooms.


    We sat down together, and I just realized how much sweat has been dripping down from our faces. We received some water and a few other cold drinks, and water tastes better when you''re exhausted. "We made it." Felix said, "We passed again." A few people fist-bumped each other, some gave each other a hug, which is quite awkward and gross since we''re all sweating.


    I looked at the sky, and sighed with relief and exhausted. I heard that the third game is the last game, and the last ones always means the most trickiest ones.

 Chapter 17: The Hill of Perils

    "No! Caroline!"


    The woman shrieked as she watched her roommate collapse to the floor, with a knife plunged into her neck. Caroline gave her roommate a terrified look, before closing her eyes for the last time.


    "Sorry for the rude entrance." The cloaked man at the door spoke as he entered the house. He closed the door behind him, and locked it. He turned to the woman, who was trembling with fear. "No... please..." She whimpered.


    The man calmly approached the woman, which obviously caused her to take a few steps back. The man lowered his hood, and this terrified the woman even more than before.


    The man, no, a goblin, stepped out from the cloak. He may have the height of a six-year-old, but the smile that the goblin makes shivered the woman to the bone. The goblin took a bow, and grinned.


    "Good afternoon, madam." He greeted.


    "W-w-what d-do you w-w-want?" The woman asked, with tears streaming down her face. "Please... I-I''ll give you anything. Money? D-do you want s-s-some m-money?"


    The goblin narrowed his eyes, and chuckled. "Sorry ma''am. I''m not interested in cash."


    He leaped and landed in front of the woman, she yelped and fell onto the floor, cowering as she covered her head. "I just want some information." The woman turned to face the goblin. "I-information?" She repeated.


    The goblin smiled as a response. "I heard that you were a former servant at the... palace of Paxsalam. Is that correct?" The woman nodded. "Good! Now, I would want you to be a good girl, and tell me: Are there any secret entrances to the palace? I got some business to do in there."


    The woman started to calm down, maybe if she were to tell this goblin about the palace''s secret entrances, the goblin might let her live. She choked back a sob of fear, before answering.


    "T-there is an opening to the p-palace''s ventilation s-system, on the t-third f-f-floor." The goblin hummed. "And?"


    "The v-vents, they c-cover every single part of the p-palace. Once you entered the vents, you c-can go wherever you want."


    The goblin has heard enough.


    He clapped his hands. "Alrighty!" He gave the woman a reassuring smile, which slightly made her calm down. "Thank you for your co-operation, madam!" The woman sighed with relief, and she started to sob.


    "And now, you are free!" He turned to the woman and gave her a menacing stare. "To reunite with your friend in Heaven." He snapped his fingers.


    Before the woman can comprehend on what the goblin had said, the spot that she was laying on started to get hotter, and in a few seconds, she was set ablaze as a wall of flames burst through the spot that the woman happened to be laying on.


    The goblin watched with amusement as the woman was scorched alive. After another twenty seconds, the fire died out, and what''s left of the woman; is a pile of ash. The goblin whistled as he went to collect his cloak. "Orb of Wishes, here I come." He said as he wore his cloak, he went to open the window, and leaped out.


    . . . . . .


    Do you guys hate early dinners?


    Because that''s what happened to us, after taking good, long showers, we were all told to have dinner at five in the evening. I know there will be a few of you folks that do have dinners at early times like at five or six. But you can do so much during those times instead of having dinner.


    I remembered that Claude and I were also forced to eat early sometimes when I was at a really young age. My mother would mostly call us to be at the dining area in the evening, which I would mostly play with balls with Claude at those times. "Come on! Mother! Just three more minutes!" I would usually shout these back at her, but they would still refuse to give us those precious three minutes and... boy, I do miss them very much, our whole kingdom does.


    Again, I sat with Felix and Aisha, and we were discussing (quietly) about what the final game could be. "Whoa!" Aisha exclaimed as she turned to her right, there were a group of girls sitting together, chatting and laughing at jokes that they told each other. "We have the same meal! How is that..." "Is it wrong?" I asked, "Like, it''s illegal to order the same dish?" Aisha turned back to us, "What? N-no! It''s not wrong! It''s because that it''s so awkward and confusing and..."This story is posted elsewhere by the author. Help them out by reading the authentic version.


    Her eyes widened as she saw what''s on Felix''s and my trays: a bowl of mushroom stew, two mashed potatoes, a plate full of salad, and a glass of watermelon smoothie; all these items were on both Felix''s and my tray. "So... it''s wrong?" I asked again, Aisha didn''t answer, she just sat there, staring at us as if we were cannibals or something. "Sorry Felix, guess we shouldn''t have ordered the same dishes." I apologized to Felix, "It''s okay dude, so one of us has to order another dish then." Felix replied.


    "Who''s going to do it?" I asked, Felix looked at his watermelon smoothie, and he replied. "Well, I''m not a huge fan of watermelons, and I rarely take mashed potatoes, so I guess I''ll have to go to the counter and order another dish. And I''m not going to throw these away since I don''t to waste such a good meal, maybe we''ll have to find a homeless guy and g-" "Okay!" Aisha interrupted, and sighed. "The food can stay. Now stay on subject guys."


    We sighed with relief, I always wanted to order the same meal with my two buddies, and Aisha was kind enough to let us do it. But that doesn''t matter for now. Right now, we will have to think of a plan for the next, a.k.a. the final game. "Wait," Felix said, "Why do we have to eat our dinners this early?" I stopped slurping my watermelon smoothie, he''s got a point. "That''s strange..." I replied, "Maybe we need more energy for the next game?"


    "Maybe, it does have something to do with the next game." Aisha said, ''What if, the next game will take one whole night?" Time seemed to stop around us, "One whole night?" Felix asked, "So, what you''re saying is, that we will be playing a game for one, fricking, night?" Aisha nodded nervously, "Possibly, since we''re having our dinners this flipping early."


    Felix''s eyes started to twitch, "Seriously?! I have plans for the three of us for tonight! And there''s going to be a GAME that will take one night?!"


    Felix''s ranting must had gotten everyone''s attention, because they were all staring at us. "Dude, you seriously need to calm down." Aisha said, "I thought that you were hyped for this." Felix stopped, and turned to Aisha. "I am, I''m just freaking out that we will have to cancel our plans for this." Both of us stared at him, "What are your ''plans''?" I asked. Felix sighed, "I have plans that we hang out after the games."


    But before he can continue, we would need our own personal space. I stood up, and spoke, "Alright guys! Nothing to see here! Alright! Back to your normal businesses please!" The people around us had started to pretend that we didn''t exist, the JJJ triplets gave me three thumbs up before minding their own business too.


    Felix continued. "I, just had some ideas that we hang out at some caf¨¦ tonight, after the games, but if it takes one night, then we will be too exhausted after the games end, and we won''t get to see each other for another... like what? One and a half months?"


    Aisha and I sat there in silence, and who knows what will happen if I didn''t break the silence... "Dude, you know that we can meet each other at any time right?" I said, "We can go to like cafes or anywhere else anytime." "Yeah, but we can''t find any good topics to talk about there. I felt like we can have a good conversation about the Magician Games after we''re done... and it feels good to talk about it just right after it happened."


    Man, I do feel the same thing, and I bet that Aisha feels the same too. "Hey," Aisha said, "I don''t think we can do this since it will be late into the night. However, we can still meet up a few days later, right? We''re going to be still fresh from the games and we can still feel excited about it!" Felix seemed to calm down, "Why didn''t I think about that? Gosh, I''m such a dimwit." Felix said, I pated him on the shoulder. "Don''t worry about it, we can still find something cool to talk about!" Felix started to smile, "Sorry for be-"


    The familiar ding rang again. The same man that brought us to the second game came to us again, "The remaining contestants, please finish you meals and follow me to the final game. Thank you." He told us and bowed.


    The final game.


    It''s happening, the last game... I don''t know whether I can pass this or not, guess I''ll have to try. We did the same thing: follow the guy, he''ll lead us to the next game, and boom, we''ll have to play the game. This time, the man brought us to a forest, with more huge trees looming over us. The forest seemed to go upwards, about two hundred meters in the air. Is this some magic or... wait, this isn''t a forest... it''s a hill.


    "Welcome. My fellow contestants." We looked ahead, and Owen Adamson stepped out from the forest. "To your final game." He sounds more serious this time, which is weird since he always sounds cheerful when he speaks, and I kind of liked his humorous voice instead of his stern one. "This hill in front of you, is a sanctuary for many endangered species beasts, big and small." Owen said, "And it''s called, the Hill of Perils."


    Great, another weird and creepy name. Will the next game be even more horrifying than before? "For your final game, all of you will have to reach the bottom of the hill by tomorrow morning." Wait, did we hear him correctly? By tomorrow morning?! The sun is already setting now, and Owen said that we will have to reach the bottom by tomorrow? That will take us one entire night! "You will definitely encounter many creatures there, and yes, most of them will have intentions to kill you."


    Everyone gasped. "Never fear, my friends!" Owen reassured, in his usual friendly tone this time. "Before the creatures attack, a barrier will appear between you and them. But sadly, that will also signify that you are eliminated." Owen continued. "But don''t worry! You can use your Elements to defend yourselves against them, and note this, you can only injure them, and if you were to fatally wound or kill one of these endangered beasts, you are eliminated."


    We all stood in our spots, speechless on what''s going to happen. "Well!" Owen said, "Good luck to all of you! And there will be food and drinks while you''re in there! Good luck contestants!" Owen tapped his staff, and in a blink of an eye, I found myself sinking into my own shadow, and resurfacing in an area surrounded by trees, the same trees from the Hill of Perils.


    The games had begun before it even started. Great, I thought. Now, we are stuck in this forest with a bunch of bad-tempered animals, what could possibly go wrong?

 Chapter 18: Survive the Night

    "What do you think of Edward''s performance, Claude?"


    I was sitting on a special seat next to Trad. Which the seats were reserved only for the members of the Twelve Guardians, and hey, that''s me.


    "You''re his master, right? Trad asked, "Do you think he will be able to handle the pressure that is waiting for him?" I spun my staff once, and turned to Trad. "Trad, that, is the future, no one knows what will happen in the future. The future is yet to happen, we should focus on the present."


    Owen scratched his chin, "Alright then, you don''t have to give a mini-speech about that." "I don''t mind that." Trad said, "Your speeches are mostly the ones that will give all of us motivation. After all, you are the King of Paxsalam." Trad raised his mini-binoculars closer to his eyes, and focused it to the screen. "Now, let''s see what these newcomers got up their sleeves."


    I, too raised my mini-binoculars, trying to see whether Edward is visible. Do you think he will be able to handle the pressure that is waiting for him?  Well, I''m not sure about that yet, the training that I gave him was easy. Don''t worry, I told myself, Edward is the type of person that will observe his problems really well, he can handle it, I believe in him.


    "I''m back! Dudes!" Owen exclaimed as he entered the room. "What did I miss?" We turned and greeted the Shadow Guardian. "Other than a team of five contestants getting ambushed and eliminated by a tapered panther." Trad replied.


    Owen sighed with sympathy. "That experience must have been nightmare-fuel for them." I silently agreed with Owen. Tapered panthers were magnificent beasts, and are sadly an endangered species. Like normal panthers, they are usually nocturnal and will stalk their prey while moving silently and freezing from some time to avoid detection.


    But here''s the difference: Tapered panthers love to strike fear into their prey. They will usually let out a soft but echoing growl, and it will sound like the growl is coming from every direction, which would mask the panther''s location. Once their prey is confused, the panther would make more noise to startle them, which includes scratching trees, shaking nearby vegetation, and more soft growls.


    Once the prey is still trying to figure out its location, the panther will leap out, mostly from the back, and will give the prey one final fright by pouncing on them and roar at their faces.


    Yeah, that experience is going to be nightmare-fuel.


    "Oh! And guess what guys?" Owen fished out his smartphone from his pocket. It was ringing cause of a call from a familiar phone number. "Clovis is calling us, and she said that she has news from a patient from the Imperial Medical Centre, let''s hear her out!"


    .  .  .  .  .  .


    Edward''s POV


    I gotta stay quiet, I told myself.


    I am now trying, to try and avoid whatever the heck is lurking in this forest, I will not want to waste energy on fending off some really territorial creature. And I will want to make it out of here as quickly as possible. I tried to minimize the times that I will step on a stick or anything else that will make a crack noise (which is why characters keep getting killed in horror media) to avoid being noticed, by the creatures, or even other contestants, if battling each other is legal.


    I don''t see Felix nor Aisha anywhere, and the sun is starting to set, and the surroundings is getting darker every moment. There isn''t any creature in sight too, and that''s a good thing, I can save my energy from fighting. But my memories of the lessons that Claude taught me started to came back for no, okay, good reasons.


    I remember that there will be some species that are nocturnal, and I don''t know how many... I would need something to make light when night comes, but what... oh, I have an idea.


    I decided to find a really nice piece of wood, and two cool stones. I can make a torch with these, don''t worry, I know how to make one. I started to swipe the stones together, that will hopefully make some sparks that will land onto the wood, which will burn it, and that would eventually become fire. It didn''t work after many tries, I''m not sure on what did I do wrong, I was sure that you just need some wood and so I guess that I will have to try again, this won''t take long.


    Four hours later.


    I was wrong. Nothing happened. No fire. This has been going on for hours, I am now surrounded by the darkness of the night, and I still can''t make fire, what''s wrong with this? "Why?! Can''t I make a! Spark!?" I grumbled, I need to make some light, even if it lasts for only five seconds, that will be satisfying for me. "C''mon, Come on!" I started praying quietly, "Hephaestus, Ho-musubi, Aetna, all Gods of Fire, please! Please give me some good flames on my journey!"


    Sadly, no one heard my pleas. There are some minor bruises on my palm due to my hard work. I sighed, I feel like giving up, I had wasted too much time on making a torch. Well, guess this won''t work for some weird reason, I will have to find another way...


    Grr...


    A sudden growl broke me out from my thoughts. I dropped my ''trusty'' stones and I turned to the location of the growl. And now, in front of me, stood my first, magnificent and deadly obstacle.


    It was a fox, which I suppose is a fox (since its dark, it could be something else), with two horns on each side on its head, and more spikes are ridged on the fox''s back, by the look of it, those horns can do some ugly damage. The creature snarled at me, revealing its sharp and pointy fangs. I remembered that Claude had gave me some lessons about the magical creatures out there. And I clearly remembered that he did teach me about this beast.Did you know this text is from a different site? Read the official version to support the creator.


    A tenghuang.


    It is a creature based from Chinese mythology, and rumours said that if a person manages to eat its liver can achieve a wealthy and blissful life, so hunters all around the world started to hunt its species for this reason. So, this hill must have been used to offer them sanctuary. And it is notorious for attacking anyone, or anything that enters its territory.


    Well, I don''t know am I in its territory, or did it stumble upon me.


    The tenghuang snarled again, and took a step closer to me. I took a few tiptoes backwards, it snarled again. There must be a reason why it''s doing this, I thought. Since this tenghuang didn''t attack me immediately after seeing me, and it just kept on snarling at me. Is it giving a warning to me? To get out from its territory? Or does it want to make me properly terrified before tearing me apart?


    I decided to go with my first theory. The deadly fox snarled, but it sounds more threatening this time. I stepped backwards a few more times, and the fox looked less aggressive when I did that. So, it is a warning sign to tell me to back off. I kept moving backwards from the tenghuang, and I made sure to not turn my back on it, which could be a sign that I''m weak (which I probably agreed on).


    The fox''s expression turned softer as I kept my distance away from it. So, I was right, I was in its territory. And I knew I have to leave it as soon as possible.


    The tenghuang is almost out of sight now, and I think it is safe to turn my back and move on now... I''m not sure on whether it will chase me when I''m doing that, but from the way it calms down after I backed off, I don''t think it will do that.


    The good news, is that nothing happened, which means that I''m safe. The bad news? I don''t have anything to make a light source, I have no choice, but to move on and find some better stones to swipe. It sucks to navigate in the dark, you know. It''s almost pitch black out here, and sadly, I don''t have fire, a torchlight, nor night vision.


    At every fifteen minutes, I will guarantee that I will bump into a tree or a boulder. At least that''s better than bumping into some beast or someone that won''t be happy about it. The others must had made fire by now, maybe I should try to find someone and team up with them, since Owen didn''t mention that teaming up or forming a group is illegal.


    "GAAAAAHHHHHH!!!!!!!"


    A girlish scream echoed in the distance, and who doesn''t get startled by someone screaming out of a sudden? I hear footsteps, and they are getting closer to where I am right now. Whatever this is, it is not like the tenghuang, it acts more agitatedly.


    I have to be ready to defend myself. I raised my staff, and looked at every corner of my surroundings, expecting something to pounce on me. To my left, I saw a light glowing every five seconds, is there a creature that has bioluminescence here? The light glowed again, "Aah!" I heard a feminine voice from the direction where the light is glowing. "Do something!" Another voice, a male, ordered. "It''s not working!" The feminine voice replied with frustration and fear.


    I began to hyperventilate, those were people. I need to go and help them! But wait, I remember learning that some creatures are able to speak (give a shout out to Chris guys), or at least are able to mimic human speech. I''m afraid that this could be one of those creatures, possibly mimicking the voices of its previous victims...


    The footsteps sounded more louder and closer, I pointed my staff towards the darkness, where the voices were coming from, I was ready to fight, I chanted "Element of Ice, Second Position..."


    Dear readers, listen closely, and hear my advice: it is rude to almost turn a girl''s face into ice.


    A girl, with long, crimson red hair appeared from the dark. My eyes widened, and I pulled my staff away from her face. She collapsed on the ground, gasping for air. She held a staff with the top shaped like a type of bird''s head, she wore a grey dress shirt and a pair of orange trousers. She was about the same age as me, and the thing about her that shocked me is, that there is a cut on her leg, and there''s blood oozing out from it.


    And then seconds later, a boy, dashed out from the same direction as the girl. He wore a pair of glasses, a brown jacket, brown jeans, and a pair of white Nike sport shoes. He collapsed and panted with exhaustion and fear.


    I rushed to help them up, "Hey, are you alright?" I asked the girl, she turned to meet my face. "W-what are you doing?" She asked back. "Um, I''m trying to-" "Leave me! You have to get out of here!" To be honest, I don''t like it when someone interrupts me when I''m talking, but she sounds horrified, I think I she has something to warn me about. "There''s something coming, it seems to be resistant to fire!"


    Resistant to fire.


    That explains the light glowing in the dark, she was actually using fire as light source as well as to defend herself. Now, I would need to calm her down, "We will get out of here." I promised, and for some reason, I started to look at the cut on her leg, I don''t like bloody images, but this time, I can''t cringe at the sight of it. "And, your leg, it''s b-bleeding. You would need to-"


    BOOM.


    The trees behind us toppled, and a three-meter-tall rhinoceros charged out from the darkness, it trumpeted so loudly that my ears could burst. Regular rhinos aren''t this big, and I don''t remember them being that ferocious.


    But this isn''t a regular rhinoceros.


    It looks like your ordinary safari white rhino, but this one has sharper horns and much larger hooves. I learned about this fellow before, this is a Pyro Rhinoceros, which, like the girl mentioned, is resistant to fire. There''s fresh blood dripping from its smaller horn, which is proof that it is responsible for the cut on the girl''s leg. The rhino trumpeted again and it charged at us.


    I did what I have to do, I held the girl''s and boy''s hand, and dived into the bushes. The rhino just missed us by a few inches. But as soon as we managed to hide in the bushes, the boy let out a soft, girlish whimper and dashed (quietly) away from the threat, as well as from us.


    "There goes my damsel whom I''d saved and got this cut for." The girl sighed, with disappointment and relief.


    I took a small peek from the bushes to check on the rhino, the herbivorous beast seemed dazed and confused, as if we just vanished into thin air before it can ram into us. It turned its head at every direction, trying to find us. I remember that rhinos don''t have good eyesight, and they aren''t the brightest organisms out there too. Maybe the Pyro Rhino is similar to regular rhinos.


    Even though I can outsmart the rhino, I shouldn''t underestimate it. This beast is literally way bulkier than an elephant, and it is way quicker than I expected. This girl can''t do anything against it, and she already has an injured leg. And the boy just ditched us a few minutes ago.


    I won''t allow the Pyro Rhino to inflict more huge cuts and injuries to her, I will protect her from it. That''s what kings do, we must protect our citizens and kingdoms from harm''s way.


    I turned to the girl, "Hey, what''s your name?" She blinked with slight confusion, like no one had asked for her name before. "Eloise..." "Eloise, nice name by the way." "Thanks." "Now, I will need you to hide in these bushes," I took another peek out from the bushes, the Pyro Rhino still seems confused, but it still won''t give up on pulverizing us. "I will go and distract it."


    Eloise seemed hesitant on letting me out, but she winced in pain again. More blood was leaking out from her cut. The rhino sniffed the air, and it glared to the direction of the bushes that we are hiding in. "I think it knows where we are now." I whispered, "It''s fast." Eloise replied, "We can''t outrun it." "I''m going, I have an idea. And I admit it, it''s a insane one."