Here it is. Sorry about the page breaks, I tried to make them smaller but it's kinda hard on this kind of program.
The secret of Hornas
By: John Pierl
Prologue
Aaron (the first character you will see if you actually are interested enough to read to the first chapter) was a normal kid. And I know that's what they all say but it's true, as if the term normal applies to someone who gets D's in two major classes at school, has a younger brother who, to be honest, is an absolute pest, is an okay football player, and has divorced parents. If indeed that is what you consider normal. But anyway, Aaron is one of those guys who doesn't know if he's going to see past 30 years (and no he's not emotional and doesn't intend to commit suicide). He just kinda sort of doesn't know where his life is headed and why he would want to go through so much suffering for so long. But this is all soon to be altered.
Chapter 1
Bzzbzzbzzzzzzzz. Uggggggg! Just shut up for like two seconds will yah, you dim-witted piece of pre-historic garbage called an alarm clock. Aaron thought grudgingly. He reached for the snooze but awkwardly lost balance on the side of his bed and slammed into the floor. Bzzbzzbzzzzzzzz. Growling at the shock of the fall and the fact that his bothersome alarm was now increasing its volume with every ring, Aaron shoved himself against his night-stand causing the alarm clock to fall off of its perch and hit him in the head. This in turn made him tremendously angrier and caused him to begin shouting at the clock and beating his fists into the side of his bed. This whole time he had been fussing around and had not noticed that he had been moved to a different room than he had begun sleeping in the past night. He pulled himself up and looked around; the walls were painted a Columbia blue, matching the pillow and sheets on his bed. There were some posters of old movies, a computer, and a TV set. "This must be one of the rooms in dad's new house." Aaron considered. He opened the door and found a carpeted, empty hallway with stairs at the end. Wandering around he found a red travel bag and opened it to find his packing stuff. He thought of brushing his teeth and washing, but he would usually do that after breakfast.
Venturing down the stairs Aaron found his dad eating cereal on the kitchen counter and reading the newspaper. "Hey dad" Aaron said, trying to make the morning light. He waited and found no reply.
"Soooo, this is your new house, eh?"
"Yeah," Mr. Mason replied, avoiding eye contact.
"Cool..."
Aaron then decided to stop the non-advancing conversation and find some breakfast. Opening a cabinet he found three boxes of cereal: Cheerios, Captain Crunch, and Frosted Flakes. What am I, a toddler? Aaron pondered why he had to choose a cereal from three such hackneyed brands of breakfast meals. As if knowing what he was thinking about Mr. Mason commented "There are waffles in the bottom cabinet to your left." Wow! How does he do that? He thought in overwhelming admiration for his father. It seemed that every time he was dumped at his dad's house it seemed that he always found his old man to know exactly what he wanted. In fact, waffles were a part of his dream last night. But who's crazy enough to think about that right. Anyway, Aaron found the pre-frozen waffles and a toaster and went to work heating them up and finding what types of sweet things to lather on top of his tasty treat. In the end he had compiled syrup, whipped cream, sprinkles, caramel sauce, and a cherry. "Perfect" he sighed as he dug into the overloaded toaster treat. After eating he washed up and went back into his room to watch TV. But, seeing that it only had about 5 channels he set outside to see if he could find something to occupy him for the summer.
Looking around he found a shack in the backyard and, being as curious about it as anyone would be, he ventured inside it to find that it was only a normal shed containing a push mower, weed-whacker, and the basic gardening utensils. Bored as ever, Aaron sat in a lawn chair on the front porch to watch the casual car, truck, and van roll by. "Oh, wow! A red truck" said Aaron sarcastically "and look at that a grey car, fascinating. Such a great way to spend the summer," Then something in the middle of the road caught Aaron's eye. It appeared to be just some litter or junk or something, but it was enough to make him curious. He wandered out to the edge of the road and could make out that it was some kind of stuffed toy. This, of course, was not enough for Aaron. Looking both ways to make sure that there were no vehicles coming around the curve, he strolled out into the road to find that it was a doll, A rag doll to be exact. But, as soon as he got the chance to bend down and look at it he heard a roar getting louder and louder and turned to find a large truck driving at an abnormal speed in his direction. Before he could jump out of the way, the truck was on him (not literally). Knowing that he had no chance Aaron ducked down to the side of the road as far as he could go. Then, right as it was about to hit him, the truck veered away into an oncoming car, and another car crashed into the mix creating a dog-pile of steaming massed vehicles. Aaron, still on the ground, looked up to find that the entire mass of vehicles, the road, house and everything that had been there before was now gone. Unable to stop himself Aaron voiced his thoughts.
"Is this heaven?"
"Far from it," replied a voice behind him.
Aaron turned to find a stranger standing a few meters away from where he stood. The stranger was a midget of a man, about five feet tall, and wore some type of cloak that reached to the ground. He had an extremely large beard that hung past his chest, and carried a battle-axe that was almost bigger than the man himself. Before Aaron could say anything, the man spoke again:
"The name's Baroin."
"That's a peculiar name." Aaron said not knowing what else to say.
"So is Aaron."
"How do...?"
"I'd rather not explain right now, because I'm in a rather big predicament at the moment, and so are you."
"I'm in…?"
"That's right, and we're not exactly safe here."
As if proving the smaller man's point, hundreds of little hatchets, similar to Baroin's, nailed into the ground all around them. For the second time in a row, Aaron had come so close to death that he was almost paralyzed. Jaw dropped full open, eyes bigger than golf balls, Aaron stared at the hatchets as if they had pierced his flesh to the bone. Baroin, in the meantime was throwing the hatchets back at the invisible foe, who were really only concealed by trees. "Aaron we gotta' get out of here! Follow me." But seeing that Aaron was stock still in awe and terror, he decided to make things forceful. He grabbed Aaron by the arm and forced him in front still picking up the little hatchets and throwing them back at the on comers. Aaron finally managed to break free from the Baroin's iron grip and, terrified, he ran for his life not knowing where he was going. Seeing this, Baroin gave up throwing the hatchets and ran after him. The enemy pursuing them was no match for Aaron's ever strengthening acceleration, as horror gave speed to it. As for Baroin, he was having trouble keeping up with Aaron, but he managed to out-match them. After a while of prolonged running Aaron came to a stop. "Where… are we?" He gasped barely able to mouth the words. "Somewhere… outside of the Kingdom... I think." Baroin, trying not to hurt his image, made these forced tones as if he was in shape.
Up ahead of Aaron and Baroin were two roads that lead of in different directions. The sign read: Left- Ahmorai village
Right-Tuetanlient forest
"Right" Baroin said, already heading that way himself. Along the path they came to another fork and again they went right. This eventually led them to a little cottage surrounded by trees and streams. The forest hut was made out of wood and solid stone, along with some straw for a roof and clay chimney.
"Welcome to my home." Baroin said in a cheery tone.
"Why is your roof made of straw and not some wood planks or something?"
"Straw? That's lomondice, and it happens to be a very strong weed. Besides, the forest creates enough shelter if ever it rains."
"Ahhhh, lemondice.
Never heard of it."
"Why would you? You humans make your homes out of metal and have no cares for the woods growing outside them."
By then Aaron was at a lost for words and did not intend to fight back. After all he had absolutely no idea what he was doing here and how this place even existed. Maybe it's all a dream, Aaron thought maybe this little man is just in my head. He began pinching himself. Nope, definitely not a dream. He soon entered the cabin to find that it was almost empty. There were no ceiling drapes and no decorations just a chair, shelf, and a fireplace with a boiling pot hanging in the middle. Aaron walked around to find that there were a few old books on the shelf, and a large colorful stone in the pot of boiling water. "What's this?" asked Aaron, poking the stone.
"An egg." Baroin answered.
"An egg?"
"Yes, a dragon egg," replied Baroin quite casually.
"Ha," Aaron laughed. "Where'd you get it, Toys R' Us?"
"The Black Market actually."
Aaron was starting to get a little scared, even though what Baroin was saying was nonsense, the way he had said it was so calm and even that Aaron was starting to believe him.
Just then, snap! He looked down to see a small dent at the top of the ‘egg' leading into three little cracks, crackle snap! The cracks were getting longer and splitting into more and more cracks into the crust. One of the top pieces of the egg flipped off and into the boiling water. Aaron could then see that, inside of the egg, there were two pale blue eyes staring evenly back at him.
Chapter 2
For a moment, and a moment only, Aaron lost all train of thought. It was as if he was not on earth, which technically, he wasn't. The two sets of eyes were locked for what seemed like a century, and then the creature spoke.
"Da"
Though it was just a gesture that probably meant the baby dragon needed food, but Aaron thought differently. "He thinks I'm his daddy" he giggled as the mortal was attempting a climb out of the egg. "Wheellllllll. I hate to say this kid, but… you are."
"WHAT?!?!?" Aaron exploded, even though he liked the thought of being a dad.
"According to my manual here, the first being that a new born fire drake looks upon and finds trust in (don't ask me how) is the temporary mother or father.
Topic: Writing workshop (Read 2708 times)
