Author's note: What inspired me to write this novel was from a film I had recently seen entitled "Spirited Away"... Show full author's note »
Yume laid there trying to catch his breath from the monster’s painful grip. He looked at Karasu with hazy eyes looking around trying to figure out his surroundings. He rose up to his feet and saw that his wand was knocked out of his hand. He reached for it and grabbed the wand and rose up to his feet. He looked at the beast that started rising from the ground hissing harshly.
“Foolish human, you honestly think you can destroy the mistress that now perceives over your throne?” He hissed slightly lurching forward snapping its large fangs towards the boy’s shoulder hoping to sink one of its fangs into his flesh.
“I am no prince,” Shrieked Yume dodging the snake’s attack as he closed his eyes and took hold of the wand feeling a strange energetic pulse flow through him. His eyes opened wide as his breath became even and he raised his hand into the air. Suddenly thousands upon thousands beams light began to form ribbons out of his from his fingers and began wrapping around his wand.
“Use the ancient Wiccan magic!” Shouted Karasu grabbing hold of his own staff, doing the same thing as Yume, suddenly something unusual began to happen, both of their lights intertwined with each other and changed to a bright silver color that began to fill the darkness, suddenly a loud crack of thunder echoed and both Yume and Karasu flew back and slammed up against the wall of the building and fell into darkness, the creature shrieks loudly in pain, and its body falls upon the black surface of the ground dead. A few moments of silence passed, and its body turned black and slowly began to evaporate into ash that flowed through the wet air.
Yume awoken, his body ached with throbbing pain as he tried to figure out where he was. He was in his room, and the morning sun’s light filtered through his curtains. He sees floating dust particles hovering around. Did he just have another dream again? His eyes looked around his room, and there was Gray, his big round blue eyes staring at him with concern. He laid back his head and sighed in frustration, it wasn’t a dream.
“Hey lazy head the train will be here soon, you don’t want to miss it, you have to meet with the council of the seven lords within two hours,” Came Karasu’s voice as he smiles at him
Yume sighed, why could he not have woken up with a normal life? He rose up and walked towards his closet and dug through his cloths to find something suitable to wear. H placed on his former attire which was a black suit and a pair of black pants.
“Hey we aren’t going to a funeral you know,” Said Karasu laughing as he left the room.
“Grandmother, why can’t I come along too,” Complained Yume’s little brother as he ate breakfast feeding Gray the bits that he did not like.
“Because this is Yume’s destiny, he has to go and awaken the guardians whom can awaken the Gods to release the world of its burden,” Said Grandmother’s voice laughing slightly.
“I HAVE TO DO WHAT?!” Yume shrieked in shock and horror.
“Oh dear,” Grandmother sighed softly rising up out of her seat.
“Yes dear, you have to awaken the Guardians of the other realm; they may be the only hope in awakening the Gods,” She reassured him.
Yume sighed and sat down placing his hands upon his face groaning. What else was going to happen?
“Come on Yume, we have to hurry the train should be at the station any moment,” Said Karasu grabbing him and drug him out of the house.
“GOOD LUCK YUME!” Shouted his Grandmother sniffling softly.
Yume got away from Karasu’s grip and walked towards his Grandmother.
“Aren’t you coming with us?” He asked pleading silently with his eyes.
“As much as I long to see the realm of Seishin-Sekai, I have to look after your brother,” She said smiling softly.
“I understand,” Yume said frowning slightly and walked back towards Karasu.
“Are you ready then lad?” Karasu asked looking at him with that same smile that he had seen on the first day he had met him.
“You’ll need this,” Said his Grandmother walking towards the her Grandson and took out a pendent and wraps it around his neck. What now rested against his chest was a smooth metallic pendent with strange symbols around it that were hard to describe.
“What is it Grandmother?” He asked holding the amulet in his hand examining each of the strange symbols.
“This artifact was worn around the neck was King Solomon, the mighty hunter of evil spirits and demonic forces of our realm, it will protect you from harm, the inscriptions are unknown, but I believe it is Celtic,” She said.
“We have a train to catch,” Said Karasu aggravated as he tapped his foot upon the ground.
“Good luck, and be weary of anything suspicious,” She said nodding.
Yume hated leaving his Grandmother, he hated leaving his brother, he did not want to leave at all for he still thought that all of this was a dream, and he longed to wake up. The wand weighed heavy in his back pack that he had slung over his shoulder containing a few changes of cloths, and a photograph of his parents and some reading material just in case. He looked towards the cottage once more, before descending into the woods.
At first Yume said nothing, hearing the songs of the birds soothed him somehow. He looked around and smelt the cool fresh air, as if he were never going to smell it again.
“You have a choice ya know,” Spoke Karasu looking towards Yume smiling softly.
“What do you mean?”
“Well, when you defeat the evil queen and regain your throne, you can either stay, or come back here,” Said Karasu looking around for a place to summon the enterance to the platform.
“So I can come back whenever I want to?” He asked light inside his eyes.
“Yes,” He said.
“As long as you believe,” He added. He walked towards an empty space near a group of sleeping spruce and rose his hand in the air. He notices that there were three particular spruce that seemed to form a small circle around each other. He walked towards them and placed a hand upon one of the tree’s bark and felt it.
“What are you doing?” Yume asked Karasu with puzzlement.
“I’m trying to find a good healthy location to summon the platform, I want it to be clean of negative energy because evil can trace down the last time the doors of the platform opens,” He said sighing softly.
Soon they came upon the same opening in the woods that was in his dream. He looked towards the open space and saw the ruined chapel that was in his dream. The ruff was rotting, and the walls were falling apart, he looked around making sure that there was no monster in sight. He knew his dream was coming true, it felt exactly the same, the atmosphere, everything.
Suddenly the air grew dense, and then BAM!!! The sound of cracking thunder breaks the silence that lingered. Everything was in slow motion when the purple lightning slammed into the ground. Both Karasu and Yume were sent flying to the ground after the sonic boom.
“What the hell was that?” Gasped Karasu as he used his staff to help him get up. His eyes looked around in wonder, and gasped when saw the hole in the ground.
“Get back!” He shouted when suddenly the forest floor began to shake, as if an earthquake had been triggered.
Yume looked around, and then saw a woman standing there in the midsts of the forest, a grin upon her face.
“Well, planning on visiting the platform are we?” The woman asked smirking slightly, she also obtained a staff, but this time it was pure black and had dragon like spikes on top of it with a jagged purple crystal on top.
“You!” Shouted Karasu as he looked at the woman.
“You,” Mimiced the woman in response, her eyes flash slightly as if a beam of light flown by them.
“Who are you?” Yume asked looking at the woman.
“Don’t talk to her, she’s an enchantress,” Warned Karasu.
“And you’re a powerful wizard,” Said the woman grinning.
“What do you want?” Karasu asked clenching his hand around his own staff.
“Oh lets just say I was sent by someone to stop this tragedy from coming to our realm,” Said the woman lifting her black staff into the air and then slammed it into the ground. Suddenly large cracks began to take form upon the ground, a fowl sound began to submerge from within the earth, a rasping sound as if something were breathing, at first Yume thought it was the wind, but there was no mistaking the breathing…
“Prepare for battle,” Said the woman laughing slightly as she jumped into the air and landed on a near by tree branch watching from below as then the small hole began to fall apart and the ground began to cave in, soon a large massive head began to present itself through the ground, soil covering it’s scaly body, Yume’s eyes nearly popped out of his skull as then two large paws came into view helping support the monstrous beast that towered over him.
“Oh…my…god,” Muttered Karasu as he fell over backwards. The large beast took the shape of a canine, baring large jagged fangs inside its muzzle that dribbled with drool, its body was that of a lizard, its hind legs were spiked, and his scales were shimmering in the sunlight. The beast looked towards Yume and growled, its eyes black as darkness.
“RUN!” Shouted Karasu waving his staff into the air as a bolt of lightning shot through the air towards the creature, however the creature growled and batted away the bolt of lightning with a single swipe of its paw. It slashed its long snake like tail breaking the nearby trees into splinters as it began walking towards Karasu, each step caused the earth to rumble light loud thunder.
Yume gasped and darted past the beast’s legs and sprinted towards the chapel, it was getting hard to breath for some reason; it was as if something was gripping his throat. He soon found himself lying upon the ground and the woman in front of him looking down upon him.
“Going somewhere?” She hissed holding her staff in her hand, as she did Yume felt the tightness around his neck get tighter as he started choking.
“Well, you’re not so strong are you,” She said ashamed as she shook her head, she lifted up her rod and the choking sensation was removed.
Yume forced himself to take in a lung full of air, he quickly rose up to his feet and took out his wand that his Grandmother had given him, but he was feeling weak for some reason.
“Who are you?” He asked looking at the woman and then looked towards the doors of the chapel, he was trying to calculate the distance and how fast he’d have to run to get there without having her cast a hex on him.
“Who are you to play God,” Spat the woman looking at Yume hatred burning in her eyes as she rose her staff into the air. Before she was capable of slamming the bottom to the ground he took out his wand and shouted as then he swung it into the air, for a moment, silence began to weave itself into the air, and then beams of light submerged from the tip of Yume’s wand. The Celtic symbols began to glow brightly, as then the beams of light flung themselves onto the Witch making her fly backwards slamming against the tree.
“RUN NOW!” Shouted Karasu’s voice as he dodged another attack from the beast, the creature reared up and slammed its front paws onto the ground roaring, its roar was so loud that the chapel shuddered and threatened to collapse at any given moment.
At this moment, Yume felt a surge of courage flow through him, he soon took off in full sprint towards the doors, he felt a stab of pain in his arm, but he paid no heed to it as he thrust himself forward, he crashed through the doors as they opened for him without hard ach and he fell towards the hard concrete ground grunting slightly in pain. The large doors slammed closed behind him, and darkness plagued the chapel.
He rose up from the ground and looked around breathing heavily. The air seemed mild, not like the autumn air outside. Time seemed to have come to a standstill, he had no watch to look at so he wouldn’t know. He still clutched his wand in his hand that was shaking from fear, that beast, was it killing Karasu?