Chapter One: Introduction

Introduction: The Beginning


The distance between each pace of mine was deepening, making each foot almost unable to defeat the other, filling every pace with frustration and fear. The wind gushed through my mouth as my lungs over-powered the air to force down my throat. My heart exploded in every heartbeat, each pulse feeling as if it were ripping me open. The loose gravel slid beneath me, being the only connection between the earth and me, now whirling and smashing on the ground in frantic circles as I raced through it. As scary as this moment felt, I couldn't give up. I couldn't let the ferocity of fear defeat me.

Impossible as it seemed, I picked up my pace, prizing my legs of distressed muscles open, forcing each step to the racing floor, accelerating stronger, harsher. The force of breath which left me from each batter of my lungs, delivered my stinging eyes with bitter fear.
There was no possibility of stopping now, especially when I didn't know how. I kept my mind focused, completing the track to my desired place. The wind was clinging all around me, breaking every part of my skin it touched. The gravel spun deeper and became lost in the maze of panic, becoming foreign. The sun scorched its personal autograph along my shoulder blades, making another part of me beg for surrender.
But I would not surrender; I continued to race past the world, barely in contact with the floor now. That's when I finally had the courage to look up and face my destination in its eyes - the edge of the cliffs.
  
I prepared my body for the terrifying break off. I flung my whole weight of burning limbs down toward my feet, and with my last ounce of untouched fear; I sprang up, leaving the smashing gravel on the floor behind me. The wind instantly struck me, but was not sharp enough to take my balance.
Finally, I was able to luxuriate in the moment that I had thrived so hard for; I spread my arms open and evenly balanced out my fear. With a clenched jaw, I opened up my eyes to the clear sky, and there I was, gliding off the tip of the cliffs into the cover of blue. I was flying.  
              I endured the freedom of the wind, gliding further away from earth and the painful connection to reality, falling into my own delicate, private world. I consumed the power over the wind; I destroyed the fear that burnt in me, I let the supremacy of my body rip through the sky.
              No one could catch me; no one had the possibility of cracking this dizzy world I was flying in. I was unstoppable. My head spun as I focused my preparation for the mighty sea beneath me, I had won and now it was time to surrender to the darker tone of blue. The water was crystal clear, sparkling with temptation. I could feel the water thriving with anticipation, waiting to feel my presence and force spread throughout it. I closed my eyes, absorbing in those last seconds of creativity and adrenaline.
The water flooded through my nose, stinging me with curiosity as it weaved inside me, feeling the intruder that had disturbed the world of calmness. The water spilt down into my lungs, I began to choke, being forced to watch my world dissolve into nothing but black and white. I was too drained to have the will to fight for salvation.


*****
"Finally, he is exploring his talents." I heard mumbling, "This is exactly what we have been waiting for, now we can finally invade." The muffled words continued,
"Ah – You see I told you he had more power within him, you misjudged the will of the boy's talents."
What was going on? Was this a dream? I was blinded and choked in black, with my sore back chained to something frozen.
"You must take it easy with him; – he is the most important piece. You must remember if we destroy or lose him, – we lose everything!" a voice hammered on to the others. The more I concentrated on what was around me, and the more that came uncomfortably into focus scared me. A weak breeze carried the surrounding voices to my ears.         
"Master, look! He is awakening!"
"What? How? Well, remember this is going to be a very frightening time for him." This voice definitely belonged to an older man and was filled with concern. Unexpectedly, someone grabbed me from beneath my armpits, forcing me to my feet. Why didn't I just have the strength to open up an eyelid? It must be a dream, because my body could never be this delicate and drained; I could never allow it. The creepiest thing was that whatever was holding me still in place – I couldn't feel it. No pressure was being applied to my body; it was like the air was holding me frozen, except there was no ice. This made me too hazy to decide if this was a dream or life. The voices continued.
"He can hear us too," another voice joined in.
"Hear us? Don't be ridiculous Chico! The whole point of the trance is for him to not be aware of us entirely!" This voice was speaking with attitude and in a younger tone.

"But you should know the tricks of this trade – anything can happen, and besides, we still don't know how strong he actually is." The concerned voice replied, "Let's finally settle this and properly greet him shall we?"
             Shafts of light gently began merging into my eyes; I watched each beam sneak into my eyes, before they were snatched back up by the darkness, the light pulsated through me, within seconds, enough had escaped from the light thief was sparkling brightly all around me. It took over everything. I tried so hard to close my eyes again, before the light could continue brining at my senstive pupils.
              "Who are you?" I screamed out, terrified of becoming blind, "Why won't you help me?" Tears started to drip down my cheeks, it was not from fear but from pure irritation. "Make it stop. Whatever this is, I don't understand? What is happening to me?" The more word that left me, made me realise how terrified I was actually becoming, from the breaking of my voice.
"Do not panic, everything is about to get explained to you. But I need to ask and guarantee one thing from you?"
"Yes! Anything!"

"What we are about to unleash to you, will be so extremely valuable and precious, it can not be repeated to anyone!" The volume of the voice increased, "If you fail this, then you fail everything and don't think you will see consequences."
"YES!!" I had landed on my knees in the pit of desperation.
              The stress from not understanding all the confusion and the glare from the blazing light was tormenting! I needed to see the faces that were talking to me. I needed the heat and irritation on my eyes to stop. I needed to stop feeling so vulnerable and to grasp my understandings on where I was. The torment was mind ripping and heart puncturing. A blue burst of fire exploded in front of me, and again I could not move as all my natural reflexes let me down. The flame began to twist and turn within its self, slowly fading and turning into dust. No, it wasn't dust. It was like glitter. Blue glitter was fluttering and floating around me, landing elegantly and lightly on to my cheeks, my lips, my hair, my shoulders and my arms. As each tiny fragment touched me I could feel a small part of energy flow through me.
              Each tiny fragment felt like a little fairy caressing the stinging of my muscles, soothing the burning of my skin, darkening the beam in my eyes. As more gentle fragments rested on me, I flared open my nostrils and sucked in the air. The air was so fresh and soothing, I stole more. Each breath worked on bringing my heart back into action, waking up each individual vein and capillary which constructed my body. I finally felt moderately alive again.
              "Are you ready?" The voice asked sounding very intrigued.
As I absorbed in more fragments and inhaled one deep air full of fuel, I nodded stiffly.  

              The beam finally darkened gently as all the fairies absorbed into my skin, the surroundings I was contained in slowly focused into prospective.  I was looking at the floor. My instincts were correct as the cold, hard thing against my back was a slab. It was part of the floor, which was lined and settled with thick, grey slabs. Slabs that looked so ancient they could crumble with a whisper, but yet looked so powerful they were capable of breaking through gold.  As the light continued to darken I could see what was lying on top of the slabs. Feet. In fact, a few pairs of feet stared back at me.
              Each pair, looking identical to each other - thick, leathery shoes, dull in colour from no effort of shine in them, lined with thick deep soles. The shoes came to a sharp point at the edges and were wrapped with bundles of black laces. I had never seen shoes before like this. As the light was finally able to break through the room without causing irritation to my eyes, I tried to move, again I failed. There was not a single muscle that would respond to my orders; they were acting like lazy soldiers.
I counted up the pairs of the shoes... one... two... three… four...Who where these four people? Could I even call them people if they had the power to seize me and control the actions of light? I felt a sudden crave, I so badly wanted to stare into the faces that were putting me through this torment. Look deep into their eyes to see what they are made of.


"How long are you planning on keeping me like this then?" My voice shattered the empty silence, "I mean, you want to introduce yourselves to me, but I find it very offensive greeting somebody without even giving eye contact!" My voice started to fill with smugness. "Or are you all just cowards and like to witness a lad suffer...?"  
"Are you done?" A voice interrupted.
"Well it all depends if you have finished messing with my head or not!" My confidence was easily showing within my voice. Where it came from I couldn't understand.
"We just want you to remain calm; all we are asking for is a civilized conversation with you. Honestly, as difficult as it may seem to believe me as I tell you this, we really are trying to help you right now. Trying to help almost everyone." The voice again was instantly filled with concern and almost sympathy. "But I already know that inside you, you can sense we are no danger to you. In fact, you have been seeking for us for the past few years of your life. We are just not exactly the answer you were looking for."
"You don't know a single thing about me!" I challenged as I spat the words out. "What gives you the right to start unravelling into my life and my feelings when you don't even know my name?"
Without hesitation a voice riffled back at me.


"Your name is Auro, born on the seventeenth of December nineteen eighty nine in St Lutras hospital. At the age of two you moved to Krillgo, and again at the age of seven just you and your mother decided to go to Umbria. This is where you having been staying for your past twelve years. Except it wasn't how you both planned it. Each year has just brought you up with more problems and struggles. We know that you have killed somebody, and it was only two years ago when you attempted to end your own life!" This voice sounded like the stern one from earlier, except this one was gloating with triumph.
"Chico. Enough!" The older voice cut out, assisted with the twitching of his feet. I burst out laughing; it must have been from fear.
"What the hell is this? How do you know my name and my date of birth? How do you know things that I have so desperately tried to cover up? How do you know things which only my eyes could tell you?" Tears started welling up in my eyes. Were the tears even able to move and drop in escape or would they also be controlled and left frozen on my cheek. Suddenly my whole body collapsed to the ground.
"You can get up now and face us."
I was out of breath. I heaved in a few deep nostrils full of oxygen and let my heart pump it around my body. I was able to slowly move again but as much as I tried to pump, it left me with little result.
A hand rose out to me. "Here, let me help you."


A flock of long grey hair poured down over me creating a small breeze across my face. In response I grasped the hand tightly and stood up onto my feet. His hands felt warm and friendly. This man was right; I did know in my instinct that these were no threat to me. Not just the instinct that you feel through the atmosphere, but the type of instinct that is carved into your DNA, the type that lies in the pit of your stomach. That was the only thing stopping me from panicking that these were seeking out revenge for the death of the person that I killed.
              My eyes followed up along the long grey hair, despite the colour, each strand looked boosting of health and strength. Behind the hair stood a pure white cloak, wrapped around in neat black lacing similar to the lacing seen on the boots. This man had a very different look about him. As I continued following the flow of hair upwards I could feel my eyes searching every inch of him. A chin came into vision. This chin looked like it belonged to somebody old, in fact very old, it was so deeply dented and creased with wrinkles. From the shape of the chin I could tell the face was smiling.


              Once I gained full balance and collected myself together, I raised up to the face the mysterious man. The rest of the man's face did not match his wrinkled and creased chin. His chin wasn't covered with age but attacked by scars. They looked very painful. I searched across the man's face to reach his eyes, and how wrong I was when I realized that the man was not that old at all. He definitely had years of wisdom and strength contained within him though. The man's eyes were electric blue and faded around the outsides into a deep green, they looked exactly like mine.  A wide smile emerged onto the face.
"My name is Depli."  The voice matched the steady shaking of my hand, full of respect.
"Well it looks like you already know my name," I laughed with sarcasm.
"That's not the only thing we know, as you can already tell." The man's voice was rather friendly, "since we found out about you, we have been watching most of your life. Auro, we have spent a lot of time deeply wanting to help you."
"Help?" My voice came out just above the sound of a whisper, "with what?"
"With your life Auro! We have seen you struggle, cry, and fight, beg, and kill. We have seen everything!" The voice remained calm; it worked very well at preventing myself from lashing out at him with self-pity.
"So how do you think you can help me? What is so special about you to be able to do such things? Nobody else has been able to step close to me, as my bite is very deep. So how can you doge my protection from exposure? " My voice started to challenge again, I was very foolish to think it would help me get my way.
"Because we have the answers you have been searching for, living for, breathing for." Depli's teeth stood steady and confidently in his mouth, feeding each word to be with power.
"Then why only finally decide to help me now?" I yelled. My knuckles clenched up instantly and I could feel the reddening of anger creeping up on my face. Why did I always get so angry so fast?
"Because it is only until now you have asked us. Begging, fighting and crying will never possess you of an answer, it will only provoke trouble. But now you have started to accept who you are, and you are not trying to fight it. You are beginning to feel proud that you are not the same as all the others who are around you, and for the first time in your life Auro, we can tell that you are willing to explore your differences."


              "Differences...what exactly do you mean by that?" I laughed in confusion.
"Come on you already know the answer to that question. You know that you possess a talent, you are aware of your mighty strength and speed, the perfect balance to be able to fly. But there lies something else behind that, something which you are not letting your eyes adapt to."
Fly, that's when everything sprung back to me. The stinging of the water gushing through my nose woke back up into my nerve cells. I shuddered, remembering that was the last thing that happened to me - jumping off that cliff!
              "You didn't jump! You flew!" Chico intruded into my thoughts with utter laughter. "You actually flew! You were soaring through the sky Auro! Incredible!" He clumped his hands together steadily into a rewarding clap.
I instantly followed Chico's voice to see who annoyingly kept finding the need to intrude in the conversation. Stood in front of me in the exact same clothing was a young lad. He looked around the same age as me, he had a cheeky open smile doodled all over his face outlining a gleaming pair of white teeth. Scruffy, blonde hair draped over his face, with mixed directions of small spikes here and there. Somehow, I liked this lad already. His brown eyes looked as if they'd experienced many occasions of fun. He raised his hand up high to his forehead playfully and struck out two fingers and lined it across his forehead into a salute.
"Chico." The lad winked. I was still in fascination, as I had no idea who these people were "Ignore Chico's smugness from earlier on, he is really fascinated by you. He has watched you more than any of us. He loves the way you live your life, the way you feel and the way you explore. You are sort of inspiration to him. So don't take him to heart." Depli gently smiled.


Chico walked over and playfully punched my arm. "Relax Auro; we aren't going to hurt you!"
I felt weird talking back to these people. "Okay, look despite your eagerness to 'help' me; I have no idea who you are. Fair enough you have told me your names, but I can't just place trust on a name. You need to stop leaving me in suspense here and start telling me what exactly this is all about." I started to get demanding. Chico took a step back, and by the expression on his face he wasn't in such a playful mood any more. I felt bad. But that wasn't the point. I had no idea where I was even standing, and who these strangers surrounding and controlling me were.

"I'm afraid we need to give you a little more time Auro, before we can explain things. We are very important. But you are even more important. This has to be taken very professionally and seriously, because when we tell you..." he paused unsteadily and lifted his eyes away from me, "You are going to be terrified."  The man's words sent another shiver jolting up the nerves of my spine. Sickly nerves, which felt like an old possessed witch was digging her nails into the back of my neck, slowly dropping down each vertebra like a stinging needle.
"Auro, we are sending you back home. Choose what you do with your time wisely!" The man turned his head and nodded at Chico. Before I had time to open my mouth and allow a huge indication of how scared I suddenly felt, a massive wedge of embarrassment sewed my mouth shut.  Chico nodded back instantly, turned and smiled with a mischievous glare. In less than the fracture of a heartbeat – they were gone.