Chapter 1
Boredom
Thantos was sitting on his bed, continuously throwing and catching his blue foam ball, with his headphones in his ears and music playing too loud and combing his medium length black hair out of his bright abnormally coloured eyes.
“This is so pointless. I need something better to do,” he said, scratching his extremely pale skin.
Thantos paused his IPod to hear a scream and girls laughing.
“What the- what was that about?” He asked himself, getting up from his bed and walking to his door.
“I’ll never know if I don’t go check it out,” he smiled.
Thantos walked down his stairs and toward his door and covered his ears as the girls screamed again.
He opened his front door to see a beautiful girl in a solid black bikini and another girl in a purple and pink strapless one piece.
“What’s all the screaming about?” Thantos yelled at them, laughing.
The girls screamed, looked at Thantos, then started laughing at there foolishness.
“First tell us who you are, then we’ll tell you why we were screaming,” laughed the girl in the one-piece.
“I’ll tell you who I am after you tell me who you are,” Thantos smirked at them.
The two girls looked at each other and smiled.
Both girls held out there left arm, palms flat facing him. Out of nowhere, water came shooting at Thantos, hitting him painfully hard.
“What was that for?” Thantos yelled, clenching his fists, angrily. “And how the hell did you do that?”
“Because we could. Isn’t that a total ‘duh’ factor?” The girl in the bikini asked.
“And how we did it is none of your damn business.” The other girl scolded.
“Just tell me who you are,” Thantos said, attempting to breathe calmly and not show his anger, but failing, miserably.
“My name is of no concern right now but… I might be willing to tell you if you tell me yours. We’ll tell you why we were screaming and both of our names if you only tell us yours. That is more than equivalent,” the girl in the bikini smirked, cocking her hip.
Equivalent? They know and follow the rule of equivalency? Then they must be from Eitri…Thantos said to himself.
“……Th-Thantos,” he stuttered, not knowing whether to trust the beautiful girls.
“Great! I’m Adomma!” The girl in the bikini said.
“And I’m Bronwyn,” the other girl said “Adomma’s older sister.”
“Well, why were you screaming? You told me you’d tell me that fact as well, and you were hu-” he was interrupted by a loud, powerful roar that sounded more like an extremely large dog.
“Thantos, get out of here, now!” Bronwyn yelled at Thantos. “Sister, we need to lead it away! We can’t risk exposing our world to anyone else!”
“It’s fine! I’m not human so, I won’t expose your world!” the teenage boy yelled back at Bronwyn, showing her the Eitri seal.
Bronwyn tugged did the same and turned to the beast, ready to attack.
“Do you know how to kill this and how powerful it is? Do you even know what it is?” Adomma queried.
“Judging the fact that it’s made of fire, I’d say that’s Hell Hound.” Thantos said, annoyed and offended that Bronwyn and Adomma thought him stupid. “And probably not just any Hell Hound. That’s the lord of all of them. He controls them?” Thantos said, as much a question as a statement.
“Yes but something is terribly wrong. He seems to be injured. His eyes may also be fire but when you look at them, they still tell what he’s thinking. Look closely and tell me what he’s trying to tell us,” Bronwyn said.
Thantos looked at the Hell Hounds burning eyes. “They look so…” he stopped and cocked his head and his angry expression softened “…so sad and pained.”
“Correct. He’s injured and needs our help. But there’s one problem, we can’t help him,” Adomma frowned, the words bringing sadness to her expression.
“Why not?” Thantos queried.
“Because, there are only two fire wielding dryads in the world and unless you are one of those two, which is highly unlikely, there is no way we can help without dying at the first touch,” Bronwyn frowned.
“Well we’re in luck. My brother and I are those two fire wielders so we can help this poor beast. Just one question, how do we know he won’t kill us after we do so?” Thantos asked.
“I can speak to animals and hear all creatures’ thoughts,” Adomma said, adjusting her bikini top, awkwardly.
“Great, then do so. Make him promise not to hurt or kill us if we promise to help him,” Thantos demanded.
“It won’t be that easy. We can either trust his word, and I should put in that Hell Hounds are compulsive liars, and help him and most likely lose our lives or be smart and not trust him, attack and if we loose our lives it won’t be because we were foolish and healed one of the most powerful beasts’ and one of the most compulsive liars ever and he killed us all when we were caught off guard. Is it just me or should we just attack?” Asked a voice familiar to Thantos.
“Damon! You’re home? Since when? I thought you were away on some sort of-” “I was away doing research on exactly these creatures. And if anyone is going anywhere near that creature it’s going to be someone with experience. None of you have any experience with Hell Hounds. God, all your ages, the only things you know about them is stuff you’ve heard in stories. I’m most likely the only one here who’s had any experience with them,” Damon said.
“Okay then mister tough guy, exactly how old am I?” Bronwyn asked, putting her hand on her hips.
“By the way you look, I’d say about 17,” Damon replied.
“Wrong. 20, exactly,” Bronwyn replied.
“I could use a bit of help over here. This thing is a real pain to keep still. He’s really happy,” Thantos yelled, laughing and holding on to the playful Hell Hound for dear life. “He’s gonna kill me if I let go!” Thantos laughed.
“What did you do? I said not to go near it! It’s going to kill you!” Damon yelled, angrily.
“Well, he’s happy, I don’t think he’s gonna kill me. I healed him while you two were so uselessly arguing. You’ll never believe what he has already trusted me with?” Thantos smiled.
“And what would that be?” Damon asked, with a sigh.
“He told me how to summon him which also happens to be his life source. If I translate the words into English, the words form the spell that ends his life. And I know exactly what the English translation is,” boasted Thantos.
“Brilliant, my younger brother has a pet Hell Hound master. Just what he needed, death by being so foolish as to befriend a Hell Hound master. Just so you know, when you know the words that must be spoken to summon a Hell Hound, they have a connection to your mind which means that they have a connection to your soul and can easily crush your life source. We have no choice but to kill it,” frowned Damon, rolling his eyes.
“Well when you put it that way…I’ll kill it now.” Thantos frowned, drew his sword, and raised it to strike the Hell Hound down, but was interrupted by an explosion of ice cold water.
“Oh my god, that’s cold! Why did you do that? My sword is gonna rust, not to mention, I’m absolutely freezing and you have made me unable to make fire!” Thantos complained, when he fell to the ground and started drying his sword with his clothing.
“You can’t kill Hell Hound masters. Not exactly. They’re made of one hundred percent fire so if you stabbed it with a sword, the fires would swallow it up but, the fires of a Hell Hound master, or, rather any Hell Hound can be extinguished with a single element, all the others will destroy it only for a period of time. If you get this wrong, I’ll be very disappointed because I made it easy for a reason. What one element can truly destroy a Hell Hound?” Tested Adomma.
“Isn’t it obvious? Water. Fire’s weakness is always water. You can’t fight fire with sparks so I wouldn’t really be able to fight it but, when you turn those sparks into large water droplets, your fire is out quickly,” relied Thantos.
“Correct. But there is one flaw with that theory. Do you know what that is?” Bronwyn smirked, tightening her one piece and flipping her brown (hair that was just down to her legs) out of her blue eyes.
She started rubbing her eyes and blinking them, vigorously.
“Stop rubbing your eyes! You’ll mess up the contact lenses! You’ll freak out everyone here but me and then who knows what would happen to both of us!” Exclaimed Adomma.
“Sorry. They hurt my eyes! I don’t they weren’t designed to wear day in and day out! There gonna give me pink eye…if that’s even how you get pink eye,” she said, more to herself.
“You can if you don’t clean them properly. But if you don’t keep them in, we may be accused for sorcery and I don’t now how the people here would react to that!” Scolded Adomma.
“And have you not noticed our abnormally coloured eyes? My family won’t mind that your eyes are abnormally coloured in the least bit so, you can take out the contacts, clean them and what not,” offered Damon. “Both our eyes are different colours. By the way Thantos, where are your contacts?”
“I didn’t put them in. I’ve been hiding in my room all day. Why don’t you girls come inside.” Thantos said, changing the subject, not want a lecture from Damon.
“I would like that a lot. Anything to take these things off! They are the most uncomfortable things ever!” Bronwyn fully accepted.
“Okay, hang on, let me tell my parents.
“Okay. You go right ahead and do that” Adomma laughed, admiring his kindness.
“While we are waiting for him to do that, tell me, why are you here and not back in your own world?” Thantos snapped.
“Hey, calm down. There’s defiantly no need to snap at me. I expect that we are here for the same reason you are. To find the truth. And the secret,” Adomma glared at him, threateningly
“Bingo! Maybe you aren’t our enemy. I’m here to find the truth as well as the secret. But do you know what the secret is the secret to?”
“Of course we do. We were sent to find out what it is exactly. You don’t think they’d send us and not tell us why his little secret is so important? Besides, I’m not daft, I put the pieces of the puzzle together long before they even told us why it was so important that it be kept until we have the whole secret and we have it translated into English,” Bronwyn laughed.
“Translate it into English? But it’s already in English, isn’t it? At least the copy I found is,” Damon said, confused.
“Then it’s not the…right…copy,” Adomma started, slowly. “It’s not the secret, it’s the truth. The truth of the kingdom. But we can’t figure it out properly until we have the secret because they’re both connected,” She finished.
“Maybe, or maybe it’s just to throw us off. We already know that,” Bronwyn stopped when she heard the door open and saw Thantos walk out, grinning from ear to ear.
“What is that look for?” Thantos asked, trying to hide a smile.
“Well for one, you are free to come in. And I have date set for tonight at eight sharp,” smiled Thantos.
“Congratulations, congratulations, congratulations,” laughed Adomma and Bronwyn together.
“Um, Okay. I don’t know what to say about that so I’m just gonna pretend I know what you’re talking about and say thanks,” Thantos replied, confused.
“It’s a silly line from a TV show called Fullmetal Alchemist,” explained Bronwyn. “If you say congratulations three times, you will have good luck.
“I’ve seen the first episode but got too caught up in a show called Death Note to watch any more of Fullmetal Alchemist but Thantos has seen every episode,” laughed Damon.
“I forgot about that line,” Thantos remarked.
“Let’s go inside, it’s too hot to be out here. I’m gonna melt,” complained Adomma.
“What? Are you crazy? It’s a beautiful day. Perfect for just sitting outside and enjoying the sun. I could use a small glass of water though,” Thantos said.
“Don’t forget that we’re water elementals and can’t stand the hot weather but you are fire elementals so you love the heat,” explained Bronwyn.
“Oh, right. Then, yes! Let’s go in so you don’t melt!” Thantos said, teasing Bronwyn and Adomma.
Boredom
Thantos was sitting on his bed, continuously throwing and catching his blue foam ball, with his headphones in his ears and music playing too loud and combing his medium length black hair out of his bright abnormally coloured eyes.
“This is so pointless. I need something better to do,” he said, scratching his extremely pale skin.
Thantos paused his IPod to hear a scream and girls laughing.
“What the- what was that about?” He asked himself, getting up from his bed and walking to his door.
“I’ll never know if I don’t go check it out,” he smiled.
Thantos walked down his stairs and toward his door and covered his ears as the girls screamed again.
He opened his front door to see a beautiful girl in a solid black bikini and another girl in a purple and pink strapless one piece.
“What’s all the screaming about?” Thantos yelled at them, laughing.
The girls screamed, looked at Thantos, then started laughing at there foolishness.
“First tell us who you are, then we’ll tell you why we were screaming,” laughed the girl in the one-piece.
“I’ll tell you who I am after you tell me who you are,” Thantos smirked at them.
The two girls looked at each other and smiled.
Both girls held out there left arm, palms flat facing him. Out of nowhere, water came shooting at Thantos, hitting him painfully hard.
“What was that for?” Thantos yelled, clenching his fists, angrily. “And how the hell did you do that?”
“Because we could. Isn’t that a total ‘duh’ factor?” The girl in the bikini asked.
“And how we did it is none of your damn business.” The other girl scolded.
“Just tell me who you are,” Thantos said, attempting to breathe calmly and not show his anger, but failing, miserably.
“My name is of no concern right now but… I might be willing to tell you if you tell me yours. We’ll tell you why we were screaming and both of our names if you only tell us yours. That is more than equivalent,” the girl in the bikini smirked, cocking her hip.
Equivalent? They know and follow the rule of equivalency? Then they must be from Eitri…Thantos said to himself.
“……Th-Thantos,” he stuttered, not knowing whether to trust the beautiful girls.
“Great! I’m Adomma!” The girl in the bikini said.
“And I’m Bronwyn,” the other girl said “Adomma’s older sister.”
“Well, why were you screaming? You told me you’d tell me that fact as well, and you were hu-” he was interrupted by a loud, powerful roar that sounded more like an extremely large dog.
“Thantos, get out of here, now!” Bronwyn yelled at Thantos. “Sister, we need to lead it away! We can’t risk exposing our world to anyone else!”
“It’s fine! I’m not human so, I won’t expose your world!” the teenage boy yelled back at Bronwyn, showing her the Eitri seal.
Bronwyn tugged did the same and turned to the beast, ready to attack.
“Do you know how to kill this and how powerful it is? Do you even know what it is?” Adomma queried.
“Judging the fact that it’s made of fire, I’d say that’s Hell Hound.” Thantos said, annoyed and offended that Bronwyn and Adomma thought him stupid. “And probably not just any Hell Hound. That’s the lord of all of them. He controls them?” Thantos said, as much a question as a statement.
“Yes but something is terribly wrong. He seems to be injured. His eyes may also be fire but when you look at them, they still tell what he’s thinking. Look closely and tell me what he’s trying to tell us,” Bronwyn said.
Thantos looked at the Hell Hounds burning eyes. “They look so…” he stopped and cocked his head and his angry expression softened “…so sad and pained.”
“Correct. He’s injured and needs our help. But there’s one problem, we can’t help him,” Adomma frowned, the words bringing sadness to her expression.
“Why not?” Thantos queried.
“Because, there are only two fire wielding dryads in the world and unless you are one of those two, which is highly unlikely, there is no way we can help without dying at the first touch,” Bronwyn frowned.
“Well we’re in luck. My brother and I are those two fire wielders so we can help this poor beast. Just one question, how do we know he won’t kill us after we do so?” Thantos asked.
“I can speak to animals and hear all creatures’ thoughts,” Adomma said, adjusting her bikini top, awkwardly.
“Great, then do so. Make him promise not to hurt or kill us if we promise to help him,” Thantos demanded.
“It won’t be that easy. We can either trust his word, and I should put in that Hell Hounds are compulsive liars, and help him and most likely lose our lives or be smart and not trust him, attack and if we loose our lives it won’t be because we were foolish and healed one of the most powerful beasts’ and one of the most compulsive liars ever and he killed us all when we were caught off guard. Is it just me or should we just attack?” Asked a voice familiar to Thantos.
“Damon! You’re home? Since when? I thought you were away on some sort of-” “I was away doing research on exactly these creatures. And if anyone is going anywhere near that creature it’s going to be someone with experience. None of you have any experience with Hell Hounds. God, all your ages, the only things you know about them is stuff you’ve heard in stories. I’m most likely the only one here who’s had any experience with them,” Damon said.
“Okay then mister tough guy, exactly how old am I?” Bronwyn asked, putting her hand on her hips.
“By the way you look, I’d say about 17,” Damon replied.
“Wrong. 20, exactly,” Bronwyn replied.
“I could use a bit of help over here. This thing is a real pain to keep still. He’s really happy,” Thantos yelled, laughing and holding on to the playful Hell Hound for dear life. “He’s gonna kill me if I let go!” Thantos laughed.
“What did you do? I said not to go near it! It’s going to kill you!” Damon yelled, angrily.
“Well, he’s happy, I don’t think he’s gonna kill me. I healed him while you two were so uselessly arguing. You’ll never believe what he has already trusted me with?” Thantos smiled.
“And what would that be?” Damon asked, with a sigh.
“He told me how to summon him which also happens to be his life source. If I translate the words into English, the words form the spell that ends his life. And I know exactly what the English translation is,” boasted Thantos.
“Brilliant, my younger brother has a pet Hell Hound master. Just what he needed, death by being so foolish as to befriend a Hell Hound master. Just so you know, when you know the words that must be spoken to summon a Hell Hound, they have a connection to your mind which means that they have a connection to your soul and can easily crush your life source. We have no choice but to kill it,” frowned Damon, rolling his eyes.
“Well when you put it that way…I’ll kill it now.” Thantos frowned, drew his sword, and raised it to strike the Hell Hound down, but was interrupted by an explosion of ice cold water.
“Oh my god, that’s cold! Why did you do that? My sword is gonna rust, not to mention, I’m absolutely freezing and you have made me unable to make fire!” Thantos complained, when he fell to the ground and started drying his sword with his clothing.
“You can’t kill Hell Hound masters. Not exactly. They’re made of one hundred percent fire so if you stabbed it with a sword, the fires would swallow it up but, the fires of a Hell Hound master, or, rather any Hell Hound can be extinguished with a single element, all the others will destroy it only for a period of time. If you get this wrong, I’ll be very disappointed because I made it easy for a reason. What one element can truly destroy a Hell Hound?” Tested Adomma.
“Isn’t it obvious? Water. Fire’s weakness is always water. You can’t fight fire with sparks so I wouldn’t really be able to fight it but, when you turn those sparks into large water droplets, your fire is out quickly,” relied Thantos.
“Correct. But there is one flaw with that theory. Do you know what that is?” Bronwyn smirked, tightening her one piece and flipping her brown (hair that was just down to her legs) out of her blue eyes.
She started rubbing her eyes and blinking them, vigorously.
“Stop rubbing your eyes! You’ll mess up the contact lenses! You’ll freak out everyone here but me and then who knows what would happen to both of us!” Exclaimed Adomma.
“Sorry. They hurt my eyes! I don’t they weren’t designed to wear day in and day out! There gonna give me pink eye…if that’s even how you get pink eye,” she said, more to herself.
“You can if you don’t clean them properly. But if you don’t keep them in, we may be accused for sorcery and I don’t now how the people here would react to that!” Scolded Adomma.
“And have you not noticed our abnormally coloured eyes? My family won’t mind that your eyes are abnormally coloured in the least bit so, you can take out the contacts, clean them and what not,” offered Damon. “Both our eyes are different colours. By the way Thantos, where are your contacts?”
“I didn’t put them in. I’ve been hiding in my room all day. Why don’t you girls come inside.” Thantos said, changing the subject, not want a lecture from Damon.
“I would like that a lot. Anything to take these things off! They are the most uncomfortable things ever!” Bronwyn fully accepted.
“Okay, hang on, let me tell my parents.
“Okay. You go right ahead and do that” Adomma laughed, admiring his kindness.
“While we are waiting for him to do that, tell me, why are you here and not back in your own world?” Thantos snapped.
“Hey, calm down. There’s defiantly no need to snap at me. I expect that we are here for the same reason you are. To find the truth. And the secret,” Adomma glared at him, threateningly
“Bingo! Maybe you aren’t our enemy. I’m here to find the truth as well as the secret. But do you know what the secret is the secret to?”
“Of course we do. We were sent to find out what it is exactly. You don’t think they’d send us and not tell us why his little secret is so important? Besides, I’m not daft, I put the pieces of the puzzle together long before they even told us why it was so important that it be kept until we have the whole secret and we have it translated into English,” Bronwyn laughed.
“Translate it into English? But it’s already in English, isn’t it? At least the copy I found is,” Damon said, confused.
“Then it’s not the…right…copy,” Adomma started, slowly. “It’s not the secret, it’s the truth. The truth of the kingdom. But we can’t figure it out properly until we have the secret because they’re both connected,” She finished.
“Maybe, or maybe it’s just to throw us off. We already know that,” Bronwyn stopped when she heard the door open and saw Thantos walk out, grinning from ear to ear.
“What is that look for?” Thantos asked, trying to hide a smile.
“Well for one, you are free to come in. And I have date set for tonight at eight sharp,” smiled Thantos.
“Congratulations, congratulations, congratulations,” laughed Adomma and Bronwyn together.
“Um, Okay. I don’t know what to say about that so I’m just gonna pretend I know what you’re talking about and say thanks,” Thantos replied, confused.
“It’s a silly line from a TV show called Fullmetal Alchemist,” explained Bronwyn. “If you say congratulations three times, you will have good luck.
“I’ve seen the first episode but got too caught up in a show called Death Note to watch any more of Fullmetal Alchemist but Thantos has seen every episode,” laughed Damon.
“I forgot about that line,” Thantos remarked.
“Let’s go inside, it’s too hot to be out here. I’m gonna melt,” complained Adomma.
“What? Are you crazy? It’s a beautiful day. Perfect for just sitting outside and enjoying the sun. I could use a small glass of water though,” Thantos said.
“Don’t forget that we’re water elementals and can’t stand the hot weather but you are fire elementals so you love the heat,” explained Bronwyn.
“Oh, right. Then, yes! Let’s go in so you don’t melt!” Thantos said, teasing Bronwyn and Adomma.
"Now who's gonna take care of Mike!" Jane screamed at the top of her voice. "Now how am I suppose to marry Dave! Now how am I suppose to become an archaeologist!" "Mike, marriage, archaeology?!" I said, confused. "Oh, I can't explain now! I just wish I listened to David." She sighed. "Don't beat yourself up. David has the gift, you can still talk to him." She forced a smile. "Gift?" Dave whispered as he entered the room. "More like a curse." "David, i'm so sorry I didn't listen! But I just never thought-" "Save it." He butted in. "Everyone I've ever loved ends up dead. I should have seen it coming." "But you did! You tried to save my life and I was to stupid and selfish to care." "Janet." He sighed. "I don't think I can talk to you anymore. Never again." She stared at him, her face appalled. "What are you saying?!" "I'm saying seeing you, like this, it just, it just breaks my heart."
"It's nice here. I don't know many people though..." Victor brushed his hair back, smiling again. "Well, by tomorrow, all of the kids at school will wanna be your friend." "Oh..." Jade turned slightly to see the raven haired boy deep in thought. "What is it?" "Hn? Oh, it's nothing. Oh, we're here." The blonde looked up ahead and saw her house. "Really? Cause my house is right there." She pointed, and Victor burst out laughing. "Haha-I live right next to you then..." The blonde looked at the house next to hers. It seemed normal. A little old fashioned, but definitely normal. "Cool! Well, I'll see you tomorrow then?" "Yeah..." The onyx eyed boy took Jade's hand, kissed it lightly, then walked off. "What was that?"