Lost and Found (Slow Update)

Chapter 1

After long-hour work, Derrick dragged his tired body home. The night air was cool, the breezy wind blew by. The gravel under his feet made rattling sound with echoed loudly. With every step he took, the sound advanced, the echo went on and on and reached his home. His home was small, it set unnoticeably at the end of the dark lane. The light on the side of the lane fainted away one by one like darkness finally took control of the world. He looked up to the sky, the stars hid their faces behind the thick clouds. He pulled out the keys and opened the door. He sat awhile and thought of his life. His life must be the most boring one you have ever known. The life routine was, waking up, eating, working and sleeping.

The village was full of boredom, their minds were restrained. ‘The outside world is dangerous! Don’t ever step out of our land,’ was what they talked about every day. Everybody was living in a cage, their hands never touched the other end of the sky.

‘I despise this place from the bottom of my heart,’ Derrick murmured. He could not escape from this place. The reality was always a burden, he lacked many things. Reality successfully kept his mouth shut, kept him working and kept him complaining.

Lit a candle, he randomly picked a book, it was ‘Fairyland’, the pages were already loose, the cover page was torn, it looked like it would turn to ashes by a touch of the hand. At the same time, old memories rushed back into his mind. When he was young, his mother used to tell this story as a bedtime story. The fairy tales were like magic, everything in it was mysteries and far from reach. Softly he hummed a song

Upon the clouds,

Where dreams are settled down

Gently it rain,

Hope is the only sound.

The song was soon interrupted by the di-da rain, raindrops screamed when they hit the roof. The rain was pouring down on the window, they scrambled down, just like tears. The traces of the tears were everywhere. Through the raindrops, the image was twisted, still, the light of the world was in its tiny body. Derrick wondered why skies cry so often. Still, the sound never ended. He blew off the candle, the smoke swirled up, different shades of white added together, and those graceful veils gradually vanished in the air. Closing his eyes, he slowly drifted to sleep.

Chapter 2

The knocking sound continued, just like the rain outside. Derrick got out of his bed. He opened the door, murmured, ‘It so late. Who on earth will come to this very house?’ He couldn’t finish his sentence when he saw the scene. Two dripping people wearing black clothes standing outside.

One of them immediately said, ‘Do you know what the name of this place is?’

‘It is Nacious Alloh,’ Derrick replied sleepily.

‘Pardon?’ The stranger asked. The voice was clear like the rain.

‘Nacious Alloh.’

There was a pause, ‘Do you know where Glorious Mountain is?’

Derrick remembered a wanderer talking about this place. As he was curious about the world outside, he couldn’t help but listened and remembered everything he told. ‘West 10 miles, then North 10 miles. Mountain will jump in front of your eyes like a ghost.’ Derrick joked.

Two strangers chuckled, the laughter filled the empty street. The rain stopped pouring.

‘Thank you for the direction. Oh!’ The stranger gasped. ‘Your necklace is beautiful! Could I see it?’

In the night, the stars reappeared as the sky cleared. He could see the eyes glittering, with pure surprise.

‘Yes, sure,’ Derrick said hesitantly.

Derrick untied his necklace. Silver necklace held the moonstone carefully. A moonstone laid peacefully on his palm. The surface was smooth, like silk. The stone was warm and soft, it seemed to melt at any time. Blue lights glowed in it, it was magical but yet beautiful.

‘How did you get it?’ The other stranger asked. His voice was deep and raspy. Derrick almost forgot his presence.

‘My mother gave it to me,’ Derrick told him.

‘You are the one. How lucky we are! We found you before others do. How lucky we are! Please pack your things and wait for us before daylight. We are leaving tomorrow. I know it is really confusing, but you must listen, for the sake of your life,’ words stream out like the river, and Derrick almost drowned.

‘What?’ was all Derrick could say.

‘We don’t have much time. Listen to us and do what we told you. Tomorrow you have to leave,’ the deep-voiced stranger demanded.

‘What are your names, then?’ Derrick felt extremely uneasy now. Things were happening too fast.

‘I am Rosalind,’ the clear-voiced girl replied.

‘And I am Lucian,’ the deep-voiced boy said. ‘And you?’

‘I am Derrick.’

Then, they left.

The first second, Derrick’s mind went black. The next second, he came back to conscious. The third second, he rewound the events that just happened. The fourth second, everything fell off the balance again, his mind was clouded, as it all seemed like a joke. The fifth second, he decided to throw everything away.

‘I am going on for an adventure?’ He screamed inside his mind.

‘Yes,’ his mind replied.

‘Awesome. I am finally breaking free.’

With these thoughts, Derrick drifted to his dreamless dream.

Chapter 3

Derrick was awakened before the sunrise. The sky was grey. Not a sound was heard. He sat still, looking over the window, doubting his decision.

‘What if they are kidding? What if the adventure is tough? What if they are bad guys? What if I cannot survive?’ Millions of ‘what if’ rushed through his head. He rejected all of them for one reason: the chance don’t come easily, once you lose it, you lose it forever. The sun slowly raised upon the horizon, the whole place was overflowed by white light. The sun was like glass, very fragile like it could break as it was raising up. The familiar knocking came into his ear. He opened the door and was greeted by two warm smiles.

‘Are you ready?’ Rosalind asked.

‘Absolutely!’ Derrick smiled half-heartedly.

‘Time is running out,’ Lucian said, ‘Let’s get going.’

Once again, Derrick forgot about Lucian’s presence, Derrick blamed himself. They set off after Derrick gave the last glance of his ‘home’. The village was quiet and motionless.

‘Why should I trust you?’ Derrick asked.

‘Because you are special! And we are here to save your life. Well. It is a long story. I will have to start from the Destroyed Age,’ she paused a long time, her expression showed pain and uneasiness, the light vanished from her face.

‘In the Destroyed Age,’ Lucian helped her to start. ‘There’s a very strong dark power, which was developed from the Holy power. They held strong power but a hideous mind. In that Age, they decided to go against the Holy power and took over it. There was a war. And great destruction was made in the Witch Kingdom. The King used Clastal and Moonstone to destroy them, the power was so strong, the Dark power had to give in, still, some power remained in the world. ’

‘But, recently we found that Clastal is missing. Clastal can be used by anyone, as long as you know the spell.’ Rosalind said. ‘Your Moonstone can help us to find Clastal. If we didn’t take Clastal back, the world will be chaotic. The days will be darkened. Blood will be everywhere, the rivers will be red. If you don’t want these to happen, you have to help us. ‘

Derrick was shivering and his heart sunk. The wind beating on his skin was colder than ever.

‘But why me?’ Derrick asked.

‘Moonstone finds its master. And the chosen one must be the best it could find, and Moonstone is always right,’ Rosalind looked at Derrick.

‘And you are witches?’ Derrick was slowly processing of all the information.

‘Yes, we are. Witches, we, get our power from nature. Like the fate picked it for you. Lucian controls the five elements and I focus on healing.’

Question marks were all over Derrick’s face, more information came, but the view didn’t get any clearer, to be honest, it was more and more confused.

‘I hope we can climb the mountain today, please be quick,’ Lucian said.

‘Believe in yourself. Everything comes and just let it be,’ Rosalind encouraged. Derrick felt like his life lightened up a bit.

As they march, the greenery was fantastic. Flowers beamed at the precious sunlight, dews on the leaves, rolling furiously until it hit the ground. Sun rays spread generously, everything was yellow in colour, and shadows were nowhere to be shown. Derrick’s eyes followed the waving of grass and reached layer-upon-layer Mountain, spreading out like infinity. Birds chirped happily in the trees, their sweet notes filled the mountain. Derrick smiled at this pleasant sight, thinking what creatures are living in the places that he cannot see. They went on and on until the night fell. Lucian suggested a cave stay in. When they were settled, the night air became chilling.

‘Can you start a fire?’ Derrick asked.

‘No, that will attract something we don’t want to see.’

A cold reply. Derrick could help but think of his warm little home. The sight became blurry and things heavy, Derrick fell to sleep.

‘Wake up!’ Rosalind whispered in Derrick’s ear.

The night sky was still in pitch-black. Derrick waited a moment to adjust.

‘What’s the matter?’ Derrick woke instantly as the night breeze blew into his face.

‘I want to reach the Meadow by the sunrise.’

Packed their things, they were off again. Derrick was careful with each step he was taking, careful not to fall. His other senses became more sensitive, he could hear something was crunching. Derrick shivered. They were no longer marching but speeding up. Rosalind suddenly stopped and handed Derrick a knife.

‘You know how to use it, right?’

‘Of course.’

Derrick chopped woods back in the village, sometimes, he would throw knives with other workers and had a nice day. Soon, they were off again. On the half way, a pair of yellow eyes strikes out of nowhere. A long howling sliced the silence in half. More pairs of eyes appeared instantly, light up the dark like candles. Lucian burned the grass next to wolf pack, as a threat. However, they didn’t withdraw but showed their fangs in advance, saliva dripped from their mouth. From their body shape, Derrick was pretty sure that they were starving. Starving wolves were the most dangerous. They are testing and deciding whether to attack. The flame lit up the night and illuminated their faces, aggressive and dangerous. A wolf suddenly jumped high into the air and the attack started. Derrick was paralysed as he watched Lucian slain the wolf.

‘YOUR BACK!’ Rosalind shouted breathlessly.

Derrick did a fast spin and spotted a wolf coming straight towards him. His blade entered the flesh, he dug deeper until the creature stopped moving. He quickly withdrew his knife and hunted the wolves one by one. He felt stings on his body and claws trying to slice his body. Lights of blade and whiteness of the claw and fangs collided. Red was all he could see, the heat was all he felt upon his skin. Rosalind yelled in satisfaction when she thought she finished the last wolf, while the other wolf was waiting behind her back. Derrick quickly ran to her planted his knife on its neck, with a twist, it fell to the ground. Rosalind twisted her body and saw what happened. The whole place was a mess. Blood spattered everywhere.

‘Go, quick. Others will come soon. GO.’ Lucian demanded.

The sun was rising up. Lights landed on those dead body. Expose the whole ugliness to his eyes, he felt disgusted.

‘Thank you,’ Rosalind said to him, he forgot about everything for a moment.

The Meadow was not far away. It was warm and waiting for their visit.

Chapter 4

By afternoon, they already reached the bottom of the mountain. Once they reached the Meadow, Derrick couldn’t believe his eyes. Long grass wavering, stretching their head and dancing to the rhythm of the wind. They rise and fell like waves, later pushed former. Green with a bit colour decorated the whole picture. The sky never felt so blue in his life. Clouds lingered in the sky, puffy and cute. Life screamed its name to the world.

‘What a blissful day!’ Derrick ejaculated.

His company nodded. Derrick brushed his hands through the long, soft grass. He pulled some blue flower and knitted a crown. Then, he put the crown on Rosalind’s head.

‘Rosy! You look great with flower crown on!’ Lucian shouted.

Rosy – Rosalind – blushed. Her features were sharper. Her blue eyes were glistening in the sunlight, they were like oceans. Her mellifluous red lips curved into an elegant smile. Light brown hair being pushed behind her round face. The flower crown set lightly on her head. She was so beautiful. Lucian was smiling aside, appreciating the piece of art.

But to Derrick, Lucian had the opposite side of beauty. Light brown eyes giving out a calming vibe, like the tree’s bark. His lips curled into a grin. He alwasys seem to be ready to give commands, but now he was absorbed into the graceful person. The light brown feathery hair went to all direction, jumping with every steps he took. He was thinner than Rosy, so his cheekbone stood out more.

Then, Rosy pulled a face, we all burst into pearls of laughter. When they stepped into the old house, an old man greeted them with warm smile. The old men held a pipe and smoked white rings out.