Chapter 1

Akeelay

Chapter 1

     I stood helplessly, tied to a tree, as the unicorn charged towards me, its pitch-black horn pointed straight at my heart.

Perhaps I should back up a little bit. Sorry for the rather abrupt beginning, but I had to get your attention. And, after all, that’s where my story begins. My name is Akeelay Pather, I am thirteen years old, and I live on the world of Mithden. This is not an ordinary world – at least, not by your standards. Yes, we have animals and plants and humans, but we also have magykal creatures, including unicorns, which, yes, they are evil. You would call these creatures “mythical.” Well, here they aren’t myths.

Our world is divided into kingdoms. I live in the kingdom of Rhellens, which is different than much of the world in its diversity of magykal creatures. Instead of having all different sorts, we only have horse-based creatures. The main ones are unicorns, pegasi, centaurs, and talking horses, or klates. There are a few others, but they are much more rare and aren’t important to the story. And you’ll want to hear this story.

These magykal creatures all have different levels of good and evil. Unicorns, as you’ve seen, are purely evil. They are always malevolent, mostly deadly, and only help themselves and, under certain circumstances, other evil creatures.

Pegasi, winged horses, are born evil. However, they can be switched over to the benevolent side with carrots given to them by a non-evil person. It takes a lot of carrots to get them to switch to the good side, but they can be switched back to the evil side with only a few, because that’s their natural orientation. They can swap back and forth infinitely until they die, but only once a day.

Centaurs, creatures with the head and torso of a human and the body of a horse, are much the same as pegasi, but they are inherently benevolent. Enough apples, rather than carrots, given to them by a malevolent being will cause them to flip.

Klates are always good. They are unable to be switched and would never think of betraying their side.

Those are the horse-based magykal creatures of Rhellens. However, there is one more type of magykal creature that lives in Rhellens and is vitally important to our story.

They are magykans (pronounced ma-jish-ins, not ma-jik-ins, which sounds like “my chickens”), and there are two types of them, wizards and sorcerers. These are the exact same thing; the titles are purely for distinction. Magykans have the ability to use the magyk in the air of Mithden for spells. They are the only type of creature who can use it for such varied purposes.

Magykans look exactly like humans. However, their minds work differently than humans’ do.

Wizards are magykans who use their magyk more than 50 percent for good, and sorcerers, conversely, use it more than 50 percent for evil. Most magykans have at least 90 percent black or white.. It is possible to change sides, but that rarely ever happens. 

Spells can be used for nearly anything. Emotions, large amounts of people,  other magykans’ magyk, and things as large as Mithden are pretty much the only things that are impossible to affect with any amount of magyk. If magykans are working together, they can combine their magyk to do something neither one could achieve individually.

Magyk is somewhat like a rechargeable battery from Earth. Magykans can use it for spells for a while, but eventually they’ll run out if they use too much in too short a time. However, they will get their magyk back after a certain time, depending on their original magyk levels and how depleted their magyk was.

That’s about all you need to know right now. So, back to my story. How did I end up about to die? Mushrooms. Yes, mushrooms.

I was collecting them for by best friend, Maybelle. She’s a wizard who works at the castle, the capital of Rhellens. We both live there, her because that’s where she works and me because I used to live near there, but all my family was killed in a dragyon attack when I was 2. So the castle kind of took me in. We don’t have orphanages, but I liked it better that way.

Now, of course, I wished she had come with me. But there’s no use wishing for things in the past.

But anyway, these weren’t ordinary mushrooms. They were magykal mushrooms, to be used in potions or something like that. Potions are a good way of making a held spell (A spell that requires constant magyk to hold, as opposed to a single spell, which is one shot.) without having to actually hold it. It takes rare ingredients and some magyk to make.

So I was collecting them for Maybelle. She normally would have done it herself, but she was out that day, doing something for the castle.

So there I was, shoving through the thick greenery of the forest right by the castle. Rhellens is a very forested kingdom.

I was angry that day. I don’t remember why, but I remember that it made me push farther through the forest than I normally would have. I walked deeper into the woods than I had ever been before. That was why I was surprised when I came upon a clearing in the thick woods.

Yes, it was a clearing, but it wasn’t entirely clear. A large fire flickered underneath a black cauldron, a ring of stones keeping the fire from spreading to the grass. A sorcerer stood over it, wearing the stereotypical black clothing of most sorcerers. The sunlight reflected off of his blond hair as I mentally sighed in relief that he was facing the opposite way. Looking around the clearing more, I noticed an undistinguished brown drawstring bag lying on the ground, bottles filled with multicolored liquid spilling out of it. As I took all of this in, I noticed the sorcerer was muttering to himself and strained to listen.

“Just a little bit more,” he said, dumping the orange contents of a small vial into the cauldron. “And, of course, a sacrificial victim for the unicorn…”

That didn’t sound good. I stood as silently as possible, frozen.

He turned slowly. “You’ll do,” he decided, dramatically, and I unfroze and ran.

I crashed through the trees, dodging bushes and ducking under branches, ignoring the leaves hitting me, my black hair snagging on twigs. He yelled a spell after me and I cursed. Not the magykal kind (I wish), but the normal kind. I hate sorcerers. That hasn’t changed at all since that day so long ago, unless it’s strengthened. But I ran as fast as I could.

It didn’t help. Magykally enchanted ropes wrapped around me from behind, and I fell hard to the ground. The rope started dragging me back towards the clearing, and I didn’t resist. What was the point? I had no chance against a sorcerer.

The ropes pulled me up and tied me to a tree on the edge of the clearing, facing across the open space. Forced to watch as the sorcerer packed his things, there was nothing I could do when he turned to me, laughing.

“I’ll be back for your remains in the morning. Don’t worry, you’ll have the unicorns for company.” He snickered once more and left, walking in the opposite direction from the castle.

A few more things about unicorns: They live only in forests, but in every forest in Rhellens. A sorcerer can put a spell on one to control it just enough to direct who it kills. Unless under the influence of one of those spells, the unicorns will only come out at night. Which was bad news for me, as the sun was quickly sinking. Amazing how time flies when you’re going to die.

I waited. Time passed. I was surprised that I hadn’t died yet. I had always been discouraged from, under any circumstances, venture into the forest at night. I had been led to believe that a single step into the woods, a single moment after sunset, would bring dozens of unicorns upon me instantly. That was my first time in a forest at night, actually.

I realized I was hungry. I realized I might never eat again. I realized…there was a unicorn coming out of the trees across the clearing! I held perfectly still, trying not to even breathe in hopes that it would go away. Unfortunately, the wind chose that time to pick up, blowing my scent straight towards it.

The unicorn charged towards me, its pitch-black horn pointed straight at my heart. And as it advanced across the clearing, I closed my eyes, and waited for death.