《The Blue Wizard》


 Jesús

    In a deep mountain valley, where the sugarcane was at its peak growth, there was a 17-year-old boy, sitting against a tall trunk of a tree with luscious green foliage. The young boy was, oddly enough, reading a book, scanning every page with great care. It was odd because a boy like Jes¨²s would often be playing sports or hanging out with girls. But a little look into Jes¨²s¡¯ past, might tell why he chose to read¡­


    It was late afternoon and there was a warm breeze, filling the valley with life. It happened to be very sunny on this particular day. Jes¨²s had a shady, straw hat on his long, black wavy hair. He kept it long because he liked it that way; it just completed the feeling of freedom. He thought he was free, but he needed reassurance every once in a while. He had observed, through history and books in general, that sometimes people think that they are free and end up hurting themselves, Jes¨²s was afraid of that, to keep his fears down he needed a symbol, like his hair. It also went along with his dark eyes and dark, tanned skin. One would say he looked like a native Indian, of the Latin America sort, Jes¨²s would agree.


    As for the valley in which he now lived, he loved it. He enjoyed looking at the blue-tinted mountains in the distance, also enjoyed the wind that occasionally whistled in his ears. The wind always smelled fresh and calming, except when it rained. The smell was different when the rain started to fall, it stirred the air with dust, which can be picked up by the nose. As it continued, it fell so hard and fast sometimes, you might as well be standing in it, taking a shower with soap and all. But for Jes¨²s, that''s something he wouldn''t consider because along with rain, was the making of mud; he would be dirtier than he was when he first steps into the rain. During rain time, Jes¨²s would always stand, with his arms crossed thoughtfully watching the rain or while laying down in the small mud hut he called home, which he had built for himself a while back. Since the rain made the wind cold, he always ended up shivering.


    The book Jes¨²s was reading, was the third book of the Eragon series, Brisingr, by Christopher Paolini. He owned the first book, which had gotten Jes¨²s addicted and left him wanting to read more. Jes¨²s got the book, as a birthday present, from a very nice librarian on January fifth. The name of the librarian was Mrs. Locatelli. To Jes¨²s, she and her husband were very nice people; they always helped him if he needed anything. He had acquired his ability to read from Mrs. Locatelli herself, she had lots of patience while teaching him and pushed him. This meant she would let him try things by himself and often helped if he got stuck. So basically, he was being home-schooled but learned the things he wanted to learn.


    The Locatelli couple had moved from Italy to a little town we called Convenci¨®n, in the fine country of Colombia. They had bought a house in town on January the sixth in 1993; one day after Jes¨²s was born. The Locatellis are important to Jes¨²s in that they helped him shape his life in their own little way. Without them, Jes¨²s wouldn''t know what he would be doing at this point.                           You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.


    Jes¨²smet Mrs. Locatelli when he was nine on the 16th day of March in 2003. On that same day, however, a tragic scene occurred that would change Jes¨²s¡¯ life forever. It was sunny, at one o''clock in the afternoon. Jes¨²s was at the store with his parents, buying food, when he saw a man in a black, torn woolen coat. Jes¨²s immediately got scared, he then turned to his parents and informed them that this guy was looking at them.


    They looked, and their faces turn dark as if they knew, who this guy was. His parents quickly said they must go.


    He asked why.


    They said, ¡°there is too much to explain and little time too.¡±


    They quickly ran toward the exit door, but when Jes¨²s looked back, his parents were screaming along with other people. The guy in the coat, holding both his parents¡¯ shoulders, took them, and then suddenly the man turned into a bird-like animal with golden claws and color full feathers. The thing had very red, glowing eyes, and moved its head all around the site as it looked around suspiciously, expecting to be challenged. At this point, it was outside of the store door. The bird-like animal flew away with his parents.


    Jes¨²s was yelling to put them down as loud as he could, then something weird happened, Jes¨²s¡¯ vision turned blue for a second and the bird dropped his parents. Then it quickly grabbed them and flew away.


    Then all of a sudden it was like the whole world turned upside down and everything turned misty, and then he saw a feathered serpent.


    It spoke, "I am an ancient Mayan god, known as Gukumatz, I command the four elements, earth, fire, water, and air, as for you Jes¨²s, you are the chosen one, when the time comes, you must defeat a dragon, and save your parents."


    Frightened but a little curious, Jes¨²s then asked, "What would happen if I fail?"


    The god answered, "If you fail, the world will be at risk, to get you started on your journey, seek a magical being known as Scott"


    Ok then, Jes¨²s thought, and then asks one more question, ¡°Where will I find this so called magical being?¡±


    The God knowingly answers in a classic way, ¡°You will know when the time comes.¡±


    After he said that the world turned upright, and Jes¨²s was just standing in the street. He was left to wondering if that extraordinary unusual event had really happened. His parents weren''t by his side, the logical conclusion was perhaps yes, for the sake of going home, he did so, but in a running fashion.

 Scott

    ¡°Jes¨²s lost his parents and he doesn''t know what to do." Scott said sadly.


    Rob, who was sitting across from his standard wooden office desk, nodded.


    Scott continued "I wonder if that god sensed that I know what Jes¨²s is doing every second of his life, you know kind of like Santa Claus, but of course, he is a god, why wouldn''t he?" He asked curiously."Just because the god didn¡¯t say Scott, stop stalking the child doesn¡¯t mean the god wasn¡¯t aware of me." He said answering his own question.


    Still continuing, Scott said, "Now that Cara Muerta came and took his parents I''m thinking I should help him get his journey started. He is the most powerful wizard child ever born in years."


    Scott frowned, "But there is something very curious, every powerful child I have seen has always had trouble starting their destiny, it''s very odd, one would think that if they are the most powerful child in the world they could start their destiny easily."


    With a sigh, he added, "However I will help him, don''t want him to go crazy when he sees monsters attacking him, out of nowhere."


    Making up his mind,"First though, I won¡¯t put this upon him just yet, he is much too young, I will let him grow up a little in hopes that he finds his identity, build up some character, or at least some of it, one shouldn¡¯t be expected to do so in a short period of time."


    Looking directly at Rob, he asked, "Wouldn¡¯t you agree Rob? Am I not right? You have observed humans way longer than I, I¡¯m just an amateur compared to you.¡±


    ¡°Of course sir, your conclusion is correct, but please don¡¯t ask me this things, I don¡¯t share the same interest in philosophy as you do.¡±


    Rob paused, and then added, ¡°Also, I like helping the humans, I really do. Of course, that has brought along some consequences, as well as good things in the world. In the end, I¡¯m just a helper, in the defeating evil area. That is all that I want to be expected from me.¡±


    ¡°I agree with you.¡± Scott Said, ¡°Please accept my apologies, I never intend to bring bad feelings to you in any way.¡±


    Without, a word more, Rob got up from the office chair, turned around and walked away and out of Scott¡¯s office¡­


    Scott leaned back in his comfortable chair with wheels, with his hands locked together behind his head thinking.


    He was thinking about his life, he joined the team over two centuries back. His powers were not that amazing but he could get visions of anything he wanted on demand. So naturally, he was given the boss man position.This narrative has been purloined without the author''s approval. Report any appearances on Amazon.


    The leader before him, whose name was Devon, was tired of his position, so he gave it to Scott. Devon was at the frozen age of 23 back then and still is. He currently lives in the United states somewhere in Kansas City, so far as Scott can tell, he works at a Wendy''s restaurant as one of the managers.


    Being a leader to Scott can be rough sometimes, always trying to keep the peace in the world. It never seems to end.


    Once in a while, Scott gets rare visions of the future, from what he has seen, his life is doomed. He can''t exactly see how or when but it''s lingering somewhere in the future.


    Wanting to get his spirits up, he goes out of his office to the kitchen to get a cup of tea. After that, he goes outside and walks along a road towards town.


    He arrives at a library that is not open for regular human beings. Only magical beings can find it. Scott sends his magical beings here once in a while if they want some sort of education from the Locatelli family.


    Scott walks into the library, looking around. He sees Mrs. Locatelli at the checkout counter reading some sort of book. He then sees her children nearby, Alexandra who was eight, and her little brother who was four. They were playing with lego pieces, unaware of the world around them.


    He walks up to Mrs. Locatelli without speaking.


    She looks up, "Can I help you?"


    Scott smiles, "Yes, I would like to know what your husband does to support your family and the library."


    "Well stranger, my husband is in the business of selling magical tools, to those who don''t have enough power to see their future or to find their loved ones. Any tool that makes life easier in a supernatural way." She informed. "And if you are wondering what I do, I''m a librarian with the ability to restore memories for anybody."


    Mrs. Locatelli paused, and looked at Scott curiously, "Tell me, have you lost your memories? If so, I can fix that, you should already know what my husband and I do, two times over actually, and I didn¡¯t even need magic."


    Scott moved away from Mrs. Locatelli and as he paced back and forth he said, "No need, I was simply getting your hopes up. Since apparently, you don''t get to use your powers often."


    She made a disappointed face, set down her book, picked up a pen and threw it at his head. It hit him hard on the forehead.


    "Ouch." Scott said as he looked at her accusingly.


    Her kids looked up with questioning faces, then lost interest and went back to playing.


    "So, what do you want?" Mrs. Locatelli asked as she picked her book back up.


    "Nothing really, I simply stopped by to let you know that the boy I told you about, might be stopping by soon." At this time he was standing by a bookshelf, with his hands held together behind his back. He was looking a certain section, ¡°wow, you have a surprising amount of manga, is this necessary for education?¡±


    Ignoring his question, "Did you see that in one of your visions?" She asked.


    "Indeed I did." Scott walked toward the exit door.


    "Ok." She said.


    Before exiting, Scott stopped, looked over his right shoulder, and asked, "How curious, no goodbye? Farewell?"


    Mrs. Locatelli looked up from her book again, rolled her eyes, and said, "You don''t deserve it."


    Scott smiled and walked back outside.

 Strangers

    Jes¨²s arrives at home running from town, he enters below the barbed wire fence that mostly surrounds his house. He took a few steps and just stared at the welcoming home.


    Finally, feeling his legs weakening, he all of a sudden, felt a great, heavy burden within his heart; it was the pain of devastation.


    Jes¨²sdropped down to his knees before falling on his side, wincing as he felt his ribs hit the hard, packed dirt beneath him... and began crying silently. He did that for a few hours (or at least that was what it felt like to him.)


    Jes¨²s stood up with dry tears on his face and what he imagined, red eyes, from crying so much, before contemplating on what he was going to do next. Contacting family members was not an option for him, because, technically, he had no more family, his grandmother had died of natural causes in 2002.


    He felt so saddened his throat hurt; which was not a new feeling, his throat hurts every time he was truly sad. As for his aunts, uncles, and cousins, they had moved to C¨²cuta Colombia 2 months earlier before this event. The reason for their departure is a little vague; all he knows is that there was some big job opportunity that paid more than they were ever going to be paid by working in Covenci¨®n.


    As for the jobs they held before, he doesn¡¯t know, except for one of his uncles, he had worked for the public bus company cleaning buses. Jes¨²s also had another aunt who left right after his grandmother had died, his aunt was dependent on her, she couldn''t live by herself because she was a drug addict... she took lots of pills and he didn¡¯t know where she got a hold of them. His family had called her "crazy" because of that. When she left, she took to the streets; he hasn¡¯t seen her to this day. She did have a kid though but he went with the "job opportunity" party.


    What a life, ¡°what can I do now?¡± For no particular reason, Jes¨²s decided to go back into town. When he got there, he just wandered around. Jes¨²s walked until his legs started to hurt. Then he stumbled upon a library that he hadn''t seen before. So he went in to see what was in there, that''s when Jes¨²s met Mrs. Locatelli...


    Jes¨²s just finished his Eragon book. With a pained effort, he stood up from leaning against the tree; his neck muscles hurt the most from reading his book on his lap. He heads towards his 12 by 12 and 7 feet high hut to put the book away.


    The hut is made of dried mud mixed with straw, reinforced with long, branch sticks tied together with thin vines; the walls are about 6 inches thick. The roof is just sheet metal that he found near a sugar cane processing factory nearby. The sheet metal is to protect from rain obviously, especially the walls that erode if there is too much water.


    After setting his book down, and tossing his straw hat towards the area where he sleeps, he heads back out, taking a shovel with him. He walks up to a steep trail dominated by tall grasses and trees on each side, towards the road that heads to town.


    Jes¨²sgets there, stops and looks around for human feces from passing travelers, why they do it here, he doesn¡¯t know.


    If he doesn¡¯t take care of the problem every once in a while, it would stink bad, he could leave it to nature but it''s just a slow process, so he move the feces away from the trail and bury it.


    The trail itself is about 2 miles away from his parents'' house, which puts him farther away from town. He doesn¡¯t mind that, it doesn¡¯t hurt to walk more.


    After he finishes with his chore, he starts to walk back down to his hut when he spots two figures coming down the road from the direction of town. Nobody visits him so he thinks they are just strangers. Strangers though are usually in cars or taxis; they don¡¯t walk except for a random drunk here and there, the usual stuff.


    He wanted to know what they looked like. Where he was standing, it was just a small mountain of dirt covered with wild grass. He decides to get on his knees so they wouldn¡¯t see him, he doesn¡¯t like to attract attention to himself. So he waits and the figures came closer, they were two teenagers about his age, a male, and a female.


    Normally if they were two guys, he would become nervous at this point. Guys from town are bullies; a long time ago they took his money and ran away, money that various generous people gave him because he was poor. Other times they spread their arms out to block him and keep him from going home, they laughed at that. He had to trick them by pretending to go one direction and instantly switching to another, he was smaller than them so it was easy to get by.


    The two teenagers by this point were close enough to see their faces and hear them. They were talking but he couldn¡¯t pick anything up. It sounded like English, he knew because his mom told him what English sounded like, by saying ¡°Hello¡±, ¡°Goodbye¡±, ¡°good morning¡±, and so on, simple words. Of course, the teenagers were not saying those kinds of words but he picked up the style.


    Then something surprising happened that made his heart race, they stopped just below his hiding place on the side of the road. They both got quiet, Jes¨²s was contemplating on whether to sneak away and run back to his hut or just stay where he was to wait and see what would happen.


    The female made that decision for him, she was a head shorter than the guy, she looked a little muscular, it seemed like she was capable of beating up anybody. Her skin was pale with barely perceptible green eyes and short light brown hair that touched her shoulders. She raised her small pale hands toward the sky as if she was summoning powers.


    Then all of a sudden his vision went dark like a camera losing power and still trying to hang on. Jes¨²s was afraid because he had a sudden thought that he was going to faint. But it was over in a few seconds, his vision returned but he had a slight headache. Surprisingly, he could finally understand the guy, who was also muscular ¡°can he understand English yet?¡± He asked pretending to be impatient and smiling.


    ¡°My spell should have worked, why? Are you doubting my powers Nick?¡± she answered smiling back.


    ¡°No Casper, I would never doubt you, you should know that.¡±


    Casper shook her head at their situation and directed her voice at him. ¡°Jes¨²s, we know you are hiding and watching us, show yourself.¡±


    Ashamed at himself, he did as she bid; he got out of his hiding spot, walked down the small incline and faced them.


    ¡°Hello, Jes¨²s.¡± Greeted Nick, he had dark brown eyes, dirty blond hair that was almost curly and light skin. With a grin, he held out his right hand, Jes¨²s took it and shook it. ¡°Well, apparently you already know our names, you must have heard us.¡±


    ¡°As a matter of fact, I did,¡± I replied a little surprised; I must have spoken English too because I saw that they understood me. ¡°What brings you to these here parts?¡±


    Casper replied, ¡°Do you remember Gukumatz the god? The one that showed up after your parents got taken away?¡±


    Jes¨²s nodded his mind recalling how confused he was, the most devastating day of his life.


    ¡°Well,¡± she continued ¡°he mentioned ¡®a magical being named Scott¡¯, we are here to take you to him.¡±


    Nick added ¡°In a way we are recruiting you, being that you are the most powerful wizard in the world right now. Also, you have a chance to save your parents, they are still alive.¡±


    "Really? how come nobody told me about this?" Jes¨²s asked angrily, he couldn''t control himself, Jes¨²s yelled, "Why was it kept from me?!!!!"


    Calmly, Casper replied, "Scott couldn''t let you know because he was afraid you would do something that you would regret. Maybe even end up killing yourself."


    Nick, just as calm added, "you were young Jes¨²s, a 9-year-old can''t be let loose to fight. It was too risky."


    "Now, Scott has decided at this time to let you know, because you are more mature. Naturally, it wouldn''t as risky, you can go and save your parents now." Casper said, waiting for some other reaction.


    Taking a deep sigh, Jes¨²s replied, ¡°I guess I don¡¯t have a choice then, what¡¯s this wizard stuff anyway, I don¡¯t have any powers that I know of.¡±


    Smiling, Casper said, ¡°That¡¯s the main reason we are taking you to Scott in the first place, you powers are not activated per say, or at least they are not at their full potential, he has a friend with the powers to do so, once your powers are activated, you must use them to save your parents and defeat an evil dragon, Gukumatz mentioned that also I believe.¡±


    ¡°What does this evil dragon have to do with anything? Apart from being evil, what did it do wrong?¡±


    ¡°According to our intelligence, he was the one that ordered the kidnapping of your parents, his name is Stephen, his goal in life is to destroy and kill every magical being in the world, so evil, and himself can rule the world, we are afraid that he will make everybody his slave, in a way it would be like hell on Earth.¡± Nick replied sadly.


    ¡°Well that sounds terrible, especially with my parents as prisoners, fine I will help you defeat that dragon, for the sake of my parents, and the world if what you say is true, and I¡¯m guessing you guys are magical beings too unless I am truly imagining things.¡± Jes¨²s said.


    ¡°You guessed right, we are magical beings, we belong to a secret organization called Kanan Kuxtal, and it¡¯s Mayan for protecting the life.¡± Casper informed.


    ¡°Ok¡­ so then how do the Mayans relate to this secret organization of yours?¡± Jes¨²s asked Casper a little confused.


    ¡°The Mayans were the ones that started this organization in the first place, we are just carrying on their work.¡±


    ¡°why¡­¡±Support the creativity of authors by visiting Royal Road for this novel and more.


    Nick interrupted ¡°look Jes¨²s, Scott will answer those questions for you, right now we got to take you to him. We can¡¯t linger around here long, Will, Stephen¡¯s sidekick, can detect unusual concentrations of magic depending on where he is, he is a real trouble maker if you ask me.¡±


    ¡°Yes,¡± Casper agreed, ¡°We must go.¡±


    ¡°Then off we go.¡± Nick declared.


    Then all of a sudden, Nick blurred a little bit and transformed into a bald eagle. It was a mighty one, three times the size of himself. Majestically, he jumped into the air and gained altitude. He soared a few times and glided back down at a high speed. In a swift move, he grabbed Jes¨²s¡¯ arms with his rough talons and found himself in the air.


    It was scary because he felt like he was going to fall at any moment, Jes¨²s decided to look down at the road below him that Nick seemed to be following.


    He saw Casper running at a great speed like a car, I knew because there happened to be a car traveling closely behind her. He yelled up at Nick ¡°Hey! Wouldn¡¯t people get scared if they saw Casper running that fast?!¡±


    ¡°No¡± he spoke to him mentally ¡°she has a spell on her that makes her undetectable by non-magical humans¡±


    ¡°Geez I got to get used to this magical stuff¡±, this morning Jes¨²s woke up thinking everything was normal, in a non-magical sense of course, apparently he was wrong.


    They had just passed a house next to a bridge below, soon after nick started circling an unusually thick clump of trees at the base of a large hill, where the road turned sharply right. After several passes over the trees, Casper caught up to them and without stopping, disappeared into the clump of trees.


    By this time, Nick started descending, when Jes¨²s was five feet above the ground, he unexpectedly dropped him, Jes¨²s fell to the ground with a thump, rolled a little and ended up on his back. When he got up and looked around, Nick had already transformed back to human and was heading toward the trees.


    Jes¨²s figured he should follow him, since he bothered to carry him all this way. He strolled into the trees and it felt cool in there, although some sunlight seeped through the branches above. He looked around, nobody was around, so Jes¨²s decided to walk deeper into the trees, and he was following a none-too-worn-out path with trees on each side. This led him to believe people didn¡¯t walk through here much. When Jes¨²s got around a bend in the trail to the left, he came upon a pool of water, since it was clear he could see to the bottom.


    To his left, Jes¨²s was hearing a trickling of water and so he turned his head. Casper and Nick were both standing next to a circular basin carved out of rock. The hot tub sized basin was overflowing with the trickling of fresh water from the mountain, which filled the pool he saw earlier. Casper and Nick were both smiling staring at Jes¨²s, which looked like anticipation.


    After a few seconds, Casper spoke up, ¡°Hey Jes¨²s, glad you made it through the forest of trees.¡± She said with sarcasm in her voice. ¡°If only what you are about to do next were as easy that.¡±


    ¡°As you know Jes¨²s we belong to a secret organization.¡± Nick added, ¡°which leads us to creating a system to entering our hiding place. Every new member must pass a worthiness test.¡±


    ¡°Ok¡­ what am I supposed to do to test my worthiness?¡± I asked.


    Pointing to the pool, Nick explained, ¡°You are supposed to jump in there and grab a snake that swims around at the bottom, it¡¯s a magic snake so when you grab it, it will vanish. Once that happens, you pass the test and you are permitted to our hiding place. Since Casper and I have already done the test, we usually enter automatically but with you around we can¡¯t enter.¡±


    ¡°What will happen if I am not worthy?¡± He asked just to hear the answer.


    ¡°The snake will bite you and swim away, thus we would have wasted our time on you.¡± Casper informed.


    With that said, he stepped toward the pool, looked around the bottom and as expected, Jes¨²s saw a normal looking snake with the color of light clay. He watched it for a while to pick its swimming pattern. As it turns out, it was doing circular laps at the bottom.


    ¡°Well that¡¯s easy enough, since its doing laps, I could just intercept it and grab it. What is so hard about that?¡± He asked turning to Casper.


    She smiled again and said, ¡°The fact that you have to swim all the way to the bottom, wait for it far enough away so you don¡¯t scare it, capture the snake then resurface all with the time you can hold you breath.¡±


    Jes¨²s smiled, ¡°Now that you put it that way, it is hard.¡±


    ¡°Yep.¡± Casper replied.


    Jes¨²s had blue shorts and a white t-shirt. He decided to jump into the pool with that on just because he wanted to get the test over with. Jes¨²s waded a little bit taking deep breaths, and then he started his struggle swimming downwards toward a calculated spot, with as much air as he could possibly inhale.


    When he got to the spot, he already wanted to breathe. However he didn¡¯t have to wait long, through his blurry vision under water, Jes¨²s saw the snake closing in. He extended his right arm and got ready to strike. When he got the chance, he struck the snake as fast as he could and grabbed at it near the area of the head. As soon as he did that, there was a slight tingle all over his body, which lasted for about a second. Right when the tingle disappeared, so did the snake, as if it never was in his hand in the first place.


    With an extreme longing for air, Jes¨²s made his way back up to the surface and clung to the side of the pool gasping for air. Before getting out of the pool, he waited for his breathing to get back to normal.


    As Jes¨²s made his way toward Nick and Casper, his clothing clung to him as water dripped down to the ground. When Jes¨²s looked next to them to see the basin, it had risen about six feet along the wall where water was running down to it. Below the basin, there were carved out stairs leading down to what appeared to a wooden door.


    ¡°You guys don¡¯t happen to have extra clothes do you?¡±


    ¡°First of all, congratulations on passing the test, and second you don¡¯t have to change your wet clothes.¡± Nick informed like it was an everyday thing.


    ¡°What do you mean I don¡¯t need to change my wet clothes? Walking around in them is quite uncomfortable.¡±


    Cheerfully, Casper said, ¡°If you would follow us down the stairs, you will find out what he means now come on! There are people to meet!¡± She said with excitement, "And remember to be yourself! Don''t be nervous."


    ¡°Ok then.¡± And Jes¨²s followed, when he started stepping down the stairs, his clothing was instantly dried. Another one of those weird magic things, by this time, he didn¡¯t think he would be surprised of anything magical from then on. ¡°I see what you mean Nick.¡±


    When Jes¨²s went through the wooden door after Nick and Casper, he didn¡¯t know what to expect. The room he found himself in was round and white. Around the entire room were white doors including the one he just entered, except that door had a red exit sign above it.


    The number of doors was about a couple dozen he thought, Jes¨²s didn¡¯t bother to count. The eight foot high ceiling illuminated the room with five pairs of florescent lamps, fifth one being in the middle of the room above a round wooden table.


    Seated around the table were eleven people, they seemed to be about his age or younger. The group was playing what appeared to be Texas Holdem.


    He couldn¡¯t help but smile as he commented to them, ¡°Well, well, I didn¡¯t know the Knights of the Round Table played cards.¡± All but one directed their eyes at Jes¨²s; apparently they didn¡¯t seem to be as amused as he was at his own clever joke.


    The one who wasn¡¯t looking at him stood up all of a sudden pumping her arms up and down and exclaimed, ¡°Yes! I win!¡± Apparently she realized that she had the best hand of cards. She stopped celebrating and looked around surprised, and then understanding showed itself on her face ¡°Wait¡­ Jes¨²s is here isn¡¯t he.¡±


    Without waiting for an answer she looked directly at him and said, ¡°Welcome to team Kanan Kuxtal Jes¨²s, we have been looking forward to meeting you.¡± She sat back down with an almost embarrassed smile, probably from being the last one to notice him.


    Another of the eleven people around the table stood up from his seat. The guy was a little taller than Jes¨²s and around his age, his eyes appeared greenish from a distance but then again Jes¨²s wouldn¡¯t care what color they really were. His hair was sandy blond and it was short.


    He made his way toward Jes¨²s and then held out his hand, Jes¨²s of course shook it, ¡°Greetings I am called Scott, I am sure you have already heard of me Jes¨²s, as we know about you as well. I will introduce you our little team here and then you will go to my office with me and I will answer any questions you may have.¡±


    Scott turned toward the group of people and spoke up louder so they could hear him, ¡°Alright, come on you lazy bums! I need to introduce you all to Jes¨²s¡±


    They all got up with groans; as if they thought it would be better to be introduced while sitting down. The first person that came up was about Scott¡¯s height, with dark brown hair. He reminded me of the main character from Nacho Libre, Jack Black I believe was his name, the person in front of me just looked like a younger version of him.


    Scott put his left hand on the guy¡¯s right shoulder and said, ¡°This guy is Zanithos, or Rob as we prefer to call him. He is an immortal daemon, born of another universe that is different from ours, it currently does not exist. Because of that, he is older than this universe. His weakness is magical objects, they could kill him.¡±


    Rob looked like he would rather be doing something else, like back to playing Texas hold ¡®em perhaps. When he saw that he was done being introduced, he nodded and went back to the round table.


    Next up was the girl who jumped up and announced she won; Scott of course informed me that her name was kali, her powers are unique in that she can take powers away from people and use it against them if she wanted to.


    Kali smiled and went back to the table to sit next to Rob, his mood seemed to have been improved when that happened.


    Next person was Vincent, he was a little shorter than me but he was tough looking. Vincent was an African American; he said that he has been living in the U.S. for most of his life.


    I noticed that he was holding a red cooler with ice in it, he took of piece of ice and magically molded it into a goblet. Next he took another piece of ice and melted it with his hand that had turned bright red, the water should have fallen to the floor but it had been held suspended in the air, Vincent played around with the water swinging it around, then he let it fall into the goblet he had made earlier.


    Vincent took a drink of the water then smiled and said, ¡°How is THAT for an introduction.¡± Vincent melted the goblet until it had turned into steam; no water had fallen to the floor.


    After that he said that he could also make ice using the moisture in the air but he liked carrying the ice around, but he showed the process by recovering the steam he put into the air, it was basically a mini winter on fast forward until he ended up with ice on his hand, he put it into the cooler and walked away back to the table.


    The fourth person, was a girl named Sehrish, she was fairly tall, with medium brown hair, and skinny. She was quiet, with intelligent brown eyes. Her special contribution it turned out, was that she was a vampire, the type that feeds on blood, runs at a high speeds and can¡¯t be in the sun because she would die.


    Right after that, I found out that vampires of her species could be revived via magic. The fifth was an Asian girl shorter than I, her name was Alina and she was Vietnamese, and she had ¡°ninja powers¡±, which means she uses magic to put up a good fight.


    The sixth person had the same powers and she too was a girl, short with long brown, straight hair past her shoulders, her eyes was hazel looking, and her name was Brooke.


    The next person after her was Gabe, he could control earth and minerals, he was a big dude, with short dark hair and huge side burns, the rest of his face was shaved.


    Next up were twins, they came up together side by side, and their names were Walker and Witt. They were both dragons, they couldn¡¯t change into dragons because they were too big for the room we were in.


    The last person was Dobby; he was an American with dark brown and was about my height. He could morph into any animal he could think of, his favorite animal to be was a raven.


    After everybody was introduced, I looked around for Nick and Casper; they were nowhere to be seen. I asked Scott and he said, ¡°Your escorts are in their rooms, they will be out any minute.¡±

 Alexandra

    Jes¨²s heard the sudden opening of the door behind him. He turned around, his heart skipped a beat and his eyes widened.


    A beautiful figure had appeared before his eyes. It was Alexandra, the older of the two kids in the Locatelli family; her little brother''s name being Marcello.


    Alexandra''s hair was black and almost curly, the result of hair styling, it touched her shoulders, swinging back and forth with the movement of her head. She had pretty dark looking eyes, and her smile was that of a doll''s.


    She closed the door behind her and announced, "That magical drying entrance is way better than my blow dryer! It is almost not fair." she said with a slight frown.


    All of a sudden Scott stepped next to me and said, "She¡¯s been swimming in the pool out there, she does that once in a while when she arrives."


    Just then Kali spoke up, "Alexandra, I thought you were a witch, you can do that kind of stuff can''t you?"


    Alexandra smiled sweetly and said, "Well that''s true, I just can''t do that stuff when regular humans are close, you should know that Kali."


    Then Kali answers, ¡°Well screw those rules, I do whatever I want!" she said that with a joking tone.


    At around that moment, Alexandra noticed Jes¨²s, ¡°I see our new team member has arrived.¡± She said that with a broad smile.


    She came forward toward Jes¨²s with the intent of a hug, he, of course, realized that and stepped toward her. When they hugged, it was the most wonderful feeling in the world to Jes¨²s, hugging someone who he was in love with, but he was also pained because she probably did not know he loved her, and he was not even sure if she loved him back.


    When it came time to let go, Jes¨²s did not want to, he wanted to hold her in his arms forever, but he had no choice in the matter. Alexandra was staring at him with her beautiful, dark brown eyes and a sweet smile that always captured his heart, like a fish being possessed into biting a fish hook with no apparent reason in mind.


    At that moment, Nick and Casper both came up next to him. Nick asked both Alexandra and Jes¨²s, ¡°Have you guys met before?¡±


    Scott, who was lingering by answered Nick, ¡°Yes they have, now you best leave them alone, you too Casper.¡±Royal Road is the home of this novel. Visit there to read the original and support the author.


    Casper walked away with Nick with a fake frown on her face, which was amusing to Jes¨²s. He turned and faced Alexandra again and asked her, ¡°How have you been? How is the family?¡±


    She answered, ¡°My family is good, and I am great!¡±


    Jes¨²s then asked, ¡°Do your parents know of your magic abilities?¡±


    She answered, ¡°Yea they do, it is hard for them but they approve.¡±


    Jes¨²s then said, ¡°Well I am sure they will approve of me too, I apparently have magic powers also.¡±


    She asked, ¡°Have you tried them out yet?¡±


    Jes¨²s answered, ¡°No, not yet, it¡¯s kind of scary to me, all this magic stuff.¡±


    Alexandra says, ¡°Oh you will get used to it, I kind had the same problem.¡± She said with a smile.


    Jes¨²s felt a tap on his right shoulder, it was Scott, "When you are ready, follow me to my office, so I can answer any of your questions."


    "ok," Jes¨²s replied as he turned to look back at beautiful Alexandra.


    She gave a sweet smile at Jes¨²s and said with amusement in her eyes, "You can go with Scott, I will go ahead and hang out with those silly people who call themselves a team."


    Jes¨²s laughed as she was pointing to the round table with her right thumb.


    Alexandra crossed her arms as she gave one last smile to Jes¨²s and walked on over to them.


    Jes¨²s looked toward Scott to signal he was ready. Scott opened one of the doors to the left of the room and entered, Jes¨²s followed.


    When Alexandra got close to the table, she looked back to see Jes¨²s disappear into the office, closing the door behind him. She had observed this with longing, slightly biting her lower lip as she went through some special emotions.


    Alexandra looked back to the group, surprised that they were all staring at her with amazement and curiosity in their faces.


    "What?" She asked, confused.


    "You are in love with him aren''t you." Kali said that as an observation, not a question.


    "What makes you think that?" Alexandra challenged.


    Sehrish giggled and said, "We all saw the way you looked at him."


    At this point, Nick and Casper were sitting at the table also, they both nodded their heads. So did everyone else.


    Embarrassed, Alexandra sat at the table without looking at any of them, in between Vincent and Dobby.


    They were all silent, surprisingly none of them were making jokes, to give her a hard time. She appreciated thatbecause it gave her a chance to pull herself together.


    After a moment, she looked up and asked, observing all the cards on the table, "So, what game were you guys playing?"


    "Texas hold em''." Rob let her know.


    "Ok, cool game lets play!" She said gathering up excitement.


    And so they all played.

 History

    Scott and Jes¨²s were sitting opposite each of other in Scott¡¯s office. There was silence for a moment, the uncomfortable type. Jes¨²s decided he should break the silence; the sooner it¡¯s commenced, whatever it is, the sooner it ends. ¡°Why don¡¯t you tell me who you are, I know nothing of you. Only that I heard your name from that one Mayan God.¡±


    ¡°Gukumatz you mean, he commands the four elements, earth, fire, water, and air.¡±


    Scott paused for a moment. ¡°Let¡¯s see, I guess I should start off with how old I am.¡± Closing his eyes and taking in a relaxed breath, he leaned back in his office chair with wheels and said, ¡°I am two hundred and eighteen years old.¡± His left eye opened to see if Jes¨²s had any sort of reaction, ¡°Any questions?¡±


    ¡°Why so long? Have there been any leaders before you?¡±


    ¡°You catch on fast, impressive¡­ well, the reason for such a time is because every time a magical being such as myself gets to lead the Kanan Kuxtal team, we get our age¡­ frozen, I guess my biological age would be around eighteen years old.¡± Scott sits up and rests with his arms on his desk, hands clasped. ¡°As for the leaders of the team, you could say they come and go as they please, the last one¡¯s current name before I took over, is Devon, he lives in America now, his age is still frozen at twenty-three.¡±


    ¡°Can he ever change that? Go back to regular aging?¡± Jes¨²s was a bit intrigued.


    ¡°He could if he so chose to¡­. But in reality, would you really go back to aging like everyone else? It¡¯s like trying to choose a muddy slippery road over a maintained, clean highway. Do you know what I mean?¡±


    ¡°I guess I know what you mean, like ones you are in that situation, there is probably no need ever counteract it. Could he die via other methods?¡±


    ¡°Actually yes he could, it just depends on his true destiny. Speaking of, you must be wondering what my power is, am I wrong?¡±


    ¡°Yes you are wrong, I was not wondering about that at all.¡±


    Ignoring the statement from Jes¨²s, Scott continued, ¡°I have the ability to see anything and everything around me at will, with occasionally privileged visions of the future.¡±You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.


    "How fun."


    "Not so fun when you eventually figure out you are good at being a coward."


    "How modest."


    Scott shrugged his shoulders and without expression, he asked, "would you like to know some history?"


    "Why not."


    "Once there was a secret Indian tribe, and this particular tribe found out that with science and magic, they could create the greatest force in the universe¡­ magic beings."


    "How did they figure that?"


    Scott smiled, "They had help from our very own Rob orZanithosas he was known at the time. As you may recall, from our earlier introductions, he is an immortal daemon, born of another universe that is different from ours, it currently does not exist. If I may, here is how the story goes... A long, long time ago, in a random, alternate universe, peace unknown to us existed. That unbelievable concept was allowed to happen because of a god. His thinking, when aligned to our own universe''s standards was unique. His vision was indeed, everlasting peace. This god was the organized sort and a deep analytical thinker, so peace to the god wasn''t at all impossible. Of course, not all gods are missing those capabilities, they just have different styles of ruling a universe. As for the alternate universe, the god allowed magic to exist in a universally known way, because of the advanced peace. With that in consideration, power was never abused in the sense of evil doings. The god who wasknown to the daemons as Arambeya, eventually saw too much evil in his universe, the daemons ruled everything, the god was depressed so as a last resort, he ended that universe. Nothing remained except a cluster of colorful lights that looks like a nebula, except that the nebula will never change unless the god wills it to change. Within the nebula, all of Arambeya¡¯s souls from the old universe dwell in their heaven, once in a while, if you stare into the nebula, you can hear Arambeya speaking to his souls. In fact, the nebula exists outside this current universe separated by a long stretch of darkness. The only reason our current universe exists is because according to the laws of conservation of energy if a god stops a universe from existing in the physical world, a new god will spontaneously exist who will create another universe. Also, space is so vast, those other universes exist beyond any senses, even a god¡¯s senses."


    Intrigued Josh said, "Wow, what a world we live in. How did Rob help those Indians?"


    "Rob told me it wasn''t that hard, magic exists everywhere. Earth magic just needed a catalyst, and since Rob was already magical, he was the key. Also, magical abilities are passed on all over the world to those who are receptive, new ones are made through genetics, and words can be enchanted to perform a certain task given from said subject."


    "Wait you said the ancient daemons were evil right? Shouldn''t Rob be inherently evil as well? and how did he survive his world''s destruction?"


    "Great question Jes¨²s, as it turns out, the daemons of old had genes that gave them the ability to go through a speedy evolution, that''s why they ended up ruling their universe. Rob at the time had an instruction in his DNA that allowed him to temporarily disappear out of existence, so nothing, not even a god could touch him. When his universe was destroyed he was excluded. Eventually, Rob popped back into existence but he was in complete darkness. He floated around for a really long time, for ages, until he witnessed the creation of our universe. Even then, he was still alone. Then at one point, he stumbled upon young Earth, there were no lifeforms at the time but he stuck around because he was tired of floating. He got to witness the beginning of life, as well as the destruction of which he had no hand in. I guess that''s why his heart changed, he turned his back on evil and followed the ways of a saint."