For days the storm had raged. Staff in hand, Freinz ploughed on to his ultimate destination. Squinting slightly, he looked on ahead to see if he could perhaps catch a glimpse of the huge mansion that lay ahead of him.

“Stupid mist…” he muttered, wiping the sweat off of his brow, rather unnecissarily as seconds later he was drenched once again in a flood of rain. No monsters had appeared for an extremely long time, which Freinz thought very suspicious. Not usually being the suspicious sort of person, this worried him as he knew he must be walking into some sort of trap.

He froze. Through the thunder he swore he heard a sound most unfamiliar to the crash of thunder or the tap of rain upon gravel and mud.

Arching forward, he lowered his staff in hopes to hear the sound again. Nothing. He crept on, wary of the danger that was likely to commence. Minutes went by with nothing but continuous rain fall and thunder.

The urge to stop had overcome Freinz once again. Although nothing was heard, he could feel something close by. The path had become more solid now, he could see faint outlines of a structure in the distance. He knew he was now very near to where he was scheduled to be.

CRASH

Freinz stumbled, a great force knocking both himself and his staff a few feet forwards. Landing on his stomach, Freinz lunged out his arm to meet his staff, but instead his hands rested on a book. Quickly snatching it up, he hurled it in the direction of the force, hitting a middle aged person in the chest. Stepping backwards slightly, the man straightened his glasses and began to speak.

“Sorry young man, didn’t know you were still there. Awful weather tonight, my glasses were misty. Ever so sorry. Here, let me give you your book back.”

The man crouched down, picked up the book, and stretched out his arm in a gesture to hand it back.

“I’m sorry. What?” asked Freinz in a blaze of confusion.

“Your book. I saw you reading it from across the road a while ago. You must have dozed off and dropped it on the floor. Listen, It’s a horrible night and I know what you’ve been through these last couple of months, would you like to come over to my house for some hot chocolate and biscuits? I can try drying your book too.” the man replied.

Staring blankly for a few seconds and carefully taking in everything the man had said, Freinz suddenly looked up at the sky, then at the street and finally back up at the man. It was after about a minute Freinz realised he had just switched between dream and reality without realising and how it must feel to have a book thrown at you.

“I’m sorry for throwing a book at you Mr Feldman, I didn’t know it was you.” Freinz explained in a rather embarrassed tone.

“No worries at all. Its getting wetter and windier by the second, would you like to come in for hot chocolate and biscuits?” Mr Feldman repeated.

Freinz accepted his generous offer and followed Mr Feldman into his house.

It was a warm, cozy house with a lit fire in the lounge and extremely comfy seats. At first, Freinz was hesitant about making himself feel at home, but the pleasant crackling of the fire calmed his mind. Freinz helped himself to a spot of carpet near the fireplace. He let the warm glow dry his tangled hair and shut his eyes momentarily.

In spite of the recent events that had occured, Freinz cracked a gentle smile. His birthday was in three days. He was going to be 11. Carefully letting his fingers slide down his damp hair, as if to comb it, Freinz thought about how generous everyone in the village had been, including Mr Feldman. Drifting into a temporary daze, Freinz thought about his father.

Opening his eyes suddenly, he came to a conclusion about what he was going to do. He decided to organise a birthday party for himself. He was going to invite the whole village, as everyone knew him, then he was going to find out as much as he could about “Victoria Island”. If he were to avenge his father, he was going to start as soon as he could.

Two long days has passed since Freinz made his decision. Mr Feldman had let him sleep in his home, as he was uncomfortable with Freinz living on his own in a vacant house, even though he was more than capable. Freinz, having nothing to do, lazed around in bed, watching the sun slowly drift out and into the horizon from his window. Freinz shut his eyes for the final time that night, letting sleep enter his system.

Freinz awakened. To his surprise, only darkness greeted him. Holding out his hand in front of his face to make sure he had infact opened his eyes, Freinz had the feeling he was no longer on the cosy bed in Mr Feldman’s house. Sitting up, he looked around his new environment. He was sitting on dark grey stone which extended to beyond the end of his vision and the only source of light came from an odd looking alter directly infront of him, about ten metres away.

After slowly standing up, Freinz walked towards the alter cautiously, noticing a shiny purple material shaped like a crystal floating calmly in the middle of the pillar-like alter. By the way it reflected the purple hazy light surrounding it, Freinz guessed that it was some form of metal. Below it was a metal sign that had been screwed into the alter, with markings etched into it. Squinting slightly to read what the sign said, Freinz mouthed the inscription as he read it.

“The Orihalcon of Souls”

Diverting his eyes back to the Orihalcon floating in front of him, Freinz suddenly had the urge to take it from the alter. Nervously edging his outstretched hand towards the metal, Freinz felt the earth tremble under his feet, causing him to stumble backwards. Suddenly, an unseen force blasted him backwards. Instead of stopping when he reached the ground, the impact caused the stone to smash like a thin layer of glass. Wincing slightly, Freinz felt stratches and cuts appearing on his back as he fell through the dark nothingness.

This feeling was quickly replaced by a huge thud. As he hit solid ground he felt something fall on top of him and a rush of light and colour entered his eyes. Following this immediate flood of colour, Freinz instinctively slammed his eyes shut. Eyes still closed, Freinz felt someone climb off of him and vagually heard them sigh. Reopening his eyes now that he had gotten used to the light, Freinz found that he was in the garden of Mr Felman’s house and that the boy who had earlier read the letter explaining that his father had died was standing over him.

“Freinz get up, we’ve got to get out of here!” the boy commanded.

Staying on the ground, a slightly irritated Freinz tried to make sense of the situation.

“You keep calling me Freinz, but you haven’t told me your name yet.” he explained bluntly.

Growling slightly, the boy grabbed Freinz by the shirt and dragged him up with an unnatural strength and gragged him away from the garden.

“Hey! What are you -” Freinz started, but got interrupted by a loud rumbling of the ground, followed by an explosion of fire flaring out of the window Freinz has just fallen through. Wide eyed and staring at the crumbling house he was in just a few minutes before, Freinz tried to struggle out of the boy’s grip. This caused the fourteen year old to lift Freinz up and carry him horizontally on his shoulders.

“Please shut up and stop struggling so I can take you away from here to safety!!” he snapped.

“Ha. You got told.” a voice in Freinz’ mind sneered. Grumbling, Freinz ceased resistance so the other boy could run quickly away from the crumbling pile of buildings. It was apparent that a fire had broken out in the town somewhere and had spread to the whole area. After a safe distance, Freinz was dropped.

“Ugh, I can’t carry you anymore, I’m too hungry.” Freinz heard as he staggered up.

“Are you hungry for anything in particular?” Freinz asked conversationally, brushing dust and grass off his jeans.

“Yeah. I’m hungry for pizza.” the boy replied. Slowly turning on the spot, both watched as the small village infront of them burned up and eventually fell into a pile of firely rubble. Freinz watched the boy out of the corner of his eye, then turned to him.

“First, I want you to tell me your name.” Freinz explained. The other boy nodded.

“Then, I want you to tell me…” Freinz paused and an image of the purple material flashed in his mind.

“I want you to tell me all you know about The Orihalcon of Souls.”