Trees In The Storm
Christine McDonnell
Copyright 2012 Christine McDonnell
It was just another boring day at school. Or at least it started out that way. My elementary school sat at the beginning of the never-ending forest. The part of the forest closest to us was sparse and where school officials had put in a playground. Off to the right of the playset were some houses that marked the beginning of our town, Scuric.
My father, Lord Morgan Gallager, was the current Realm Leader. The number of his enemies grew by the day. While he had enough allies to help him, it was my safety he was worried about, as I, Lucian, was his only son and heir. He’d taken intense measures to cover all his bases.
While in public, my name was Luke Daniels, a normal, seven-year-old Ascential. Most Ascential children knew the Gallager name, so if they found out who I was, my cover would be blown. I’d become really good at suppressing my magic, which was a skill I needed if I was going to succeed my father. While my fellow classmates were also Ascentials, even their magical, part-demon blood couldn’t register who I was.
“Luke!” I was jerked out of staring out the window by Halden, my new best friend, shoving me with his shoulder. We’d been through a lot together. He’d been my daemon bodyguard for about six months, and we grew really close during that time. I mean, when you’re being targeted by enemies of the Realm Leader, it’s good to have someone to back you up, right?
We’d fought off lots of magical beings out for my blood: pixies, vampires, werewolves, Shadow People… the list goes on and on. Most of them were rebels of their kind, cast out and looking for their so-called revenge on my father. While I knew it wasn’t my father’s fault for their troubles, they didn’t seem to think that way.
As I opened my mouth to snap at Halden, the shrill sound of the school bell rang in my ears, making me flinch. Sucks to have finicky super-human hearing sometimes. Not to mention it made my growing headache worse. Luckily, school was now over. My head still ringing from the bell, I wobbly stood up and put my backpack on my back.
Before I could take a step, Kimberly walked up to me. She was pretty and cute, with long hair similar in color to Halden’s multi-toned brown hair and eyes like emeralds. In addition, not many people could beat her during the advanced training class we were in together. Halden and I had yet to fight her, but we had no desire, due to the fact she’d faced four seventh years and knocked them flat on their butts.
Kimberly asked me, “So, Luke…” Her hands shot behind her back as she rocked back and forth on her heels. “I was wondering… You know that school dance tonight?” She averted her eyes and bit her lip. Her anxiety was kind of adorable. “Well, it’s girls ask guys, so I was kinda wondering if, maybe, you might like to go with me?”
I straightened up. I knew that the two of us were good friends and that I had a crush on her, but this was completely unexpected. I figured she would have asked someone else. She was popular, and I was the class bookworm. Of course, if I didn’t have to hide my true identity, I would probably be really popular too.
I pushed up my reading glasses and smiled sweetly at her. “I’d love to go with you, Miss Kimberly.” Then, I took her hand and kissed it, like my father had taught me. He believed in respect, especially to people you cared about.
Kimberly giggled, “Okay!” Turning back to her chair, she swung her backpack behind her, kissed me on the cheek, and skipped out the door.
I stared after her as she left, in kind of a daze. Kimberly Garibaldi, the most popular girl in my grade, had asked me to the end of year dance! Feeling hot blush rise to my cheeks, I started thinking about what I was going to wear to impress her. I knew her friends didn’t like how she hung out with me, because I was a little geek to them. So, I’d need to do a good job of winning her over.
Snapping me out of my thoughts, Halden asked, “You sure your dad will be okay with that?”
“What?” I murmured. Then my thoughts cleared, and I replied, “I’m sure a social event where I can bond with my peers would be fine with my father. It’ll help me make connections for when I grow up.” I winked at him, and a smile crossed his face.
Suddenly, a prickling in my forehead started making my headache even worse than before. Pressing two fingers to my temple and massaging it, I tried to suppress the magic that desperately wanted out. I couldn’t let it out. It would compromise my identity and put people close to me, like Kimberly, in danger.
Halden eyed me curiously. “Are you okay, Luke?”
I nodded and replied, “Yeah, Halden. I’m fine.” Plastering a happy smile on my face, I started walking out the classroom door. As we made our way down the hallway, I told Halden, “My father said he was going to be late. Something about a search party.”
“Oh, are they looking for your mom?”
I grimaced. During a dignitary dinner party a week ago, my mother, Lady Karie, had disappeared. She’d looked pretty in her sparkling red cocktail dress. But, as soon as my father and I looked away, she’d disappeared. No one knew what had happened to her.
“Yeah, Halden. I’m positive of it. He said to wait right inside until he got here.”
At that moment, we made it to the front of the school and sat down on the bench outside the office. I kicked my legs back and forth while Halden fiddled with his cross necklace. I’d given it to him as a symbol of our friendship and as a magic suppressor. Daemon children like Halden weren’t used to being in an Ascential school, so it could be overwhelming to them.
Suddenly, I heard a sharp, high-pitched scream. I recognized it immediately. “Kimberly!” I yelled.
Halden was on his feet running before I could even stand up. I threw my bookbag off my shoulders and bolted for the front doors. I ran through them and stopped at the corner before the new playground. Peeking around it, I saw Kimberly and a bunch of her friends pressed against the brick wall of the school, terrified of the monstrous werewolf looming towards them. I caught Halden’s eye and knew what the sharp glare meant: “Stay there.”
My friend ran in front of the girls and spread his arms wide, protecting them. “Go!” he hissed to the girls. Nodding, they ran around the same corner I was behind. They bolted for the street, all except for Kimberly, who ducked behind me, watching the events same as me.
“Luke, why are you here?” she asked, quiver in her voice.
“Halden’s my godbrother. If he’s gonna fight that werewolf, I’m gonna help him.”
The beast loomed closer to Halden, who was standing his ground. The werewolf’s deep growl snarled, “You smell like Master Lucian, kid…”
“You don’t scare me, wolf!” he barked in response.
From my position around the corner, my eyes narrowed. I couldn’t just stand there. As the future Realm Leader, I needed to show beasts like him who I was. I ran out from around the corner, not listening to Kimberly’s pleas. Halden spun around to face me when I felt it: malice. Suddenly, Halden tackled me, both of us tumbling across the dirt. When we stopped, I saw my friend in a magic-induced daze.
“Well, well,” a voice said, “If it isn’t young Lucian Gallager.”
I heard a collective, quiet gasp from the classmates still there at my real last name, but hadn’t cared less. I got to my feet, standing between the new stranger and Halden with arms spread wide. The wolf started running away, but I hardly acknowledged it. I sized my new opponent up, knowing immediately that he was an Ascential. Why would any Ascential attack the Realm Leader’s heir?
The man cocked his head as my hands clenched into fists. Then, a wide smile spread across his lips. “So brave for one so young. What you gonna do, Lucian?”
&n
bsp; My eyes glanced back at Halden, still dazed in the dirt, then darted back to the stranger. “I’ll show you what I’m gonna do!” I roared, running for the man. Swirling my hands around each other, I shouted, “L'aigua del remolí!” Water started forming and following my twirling hands.
As I approached the stranger, I leapt high, flipping and landing right behind him. Before he could react, one of my hands shot out and sent high-pressured water at his back. The man fell flat on his face. His head lifted up to grin at me as my magic water continued to swirl around my body, my eyes narrow.
“Well now, that wasn’t very nice, Lucian. Didn’t your father teach you any manners?” the man chuckled, “Besides, you really want to make me mad, being the one person who knows where your dear mother is?”
I froze, my focus disappearing in an instant. Since my concentration was gone, my magic water splashed to the ground around me, splattering my whole body with wet speckles. But I didn’t care.
I watched the man stand up and start running. In an instant afterward, my worry and anger increased. If that man had done something to my mother, he would pay with his life.
“Luke…” I heard Kimberly’s quivering cry, but ignored it. Acting quickly, I ran off after the man. For a kid of seven, I could run very quickly. My father had trained me well. The colors of the forest were all a blur. As I ran, leaves ripped from the branches of the trees from the force of my dash. Very soon, I caught up to him.
Throwing out a hand, I yelled, “Empenta!” The force of my psychic thrust sent him somersaulting through the forest. Finally, gravity slowed his body to a stop. I skidded to a stop a few feet from him.
The sound of sadistic laughter filled the air, coming from the man. I was about to kick him, when he lifted a finger and pointed one direction through the forest. My gaze followed and I saw a single person sitting against a faraway tree. I couldn’t make out anything but black hair and a red cocktail dress.
The same dress that…
“Mom!” I screamed, running in her direction. I may have been quickly running out of energy, but I didn’t care. Soon, I was falling to my knees at my mother’s side.
Shaking her shoulder, I whispered, “Mommy?”
Her eyes fluttered open, and a small, regretful smile appeared on her face. “Lu… cian…” Her hand lifted up and brushed my face. Why was she acting so weak? That’s when I noticed her wet blood soaking my jeans. I felt tears coming to the edges of my eyes.
“Mommy, you’re gonna be okay! I promise! I’ll go get Dad.”
As I lurched to stand up, she murmured, “Don’t bother… Lucian… It’s too late. Get… out of here…”
I dropped back to my mother’s side. “I’m not leaving you, Mommy!”
“Lucian… it’s a trap… for your father…”
My eyes widened, and the water forming there ran down my cheeks. What should I do? My mother was dying, and my father was running into a trap for us. I couldn’t leave my mom to die, and I couldn’t let my dad come into this trap.
My mother apparently made up my mind for me. Her hand ran through my hair, stroked my face, and ended by cupping my chin. “It’s your duty to protect your father, Lucian. Young Protektor.”
As I pondered that last bit, my mother’s hand dropped to the ground. I stared into her lifeless eyes, my chest seizing up with sobs. When I heard movement, my gaze snapped to the stranger, who was walking toward us. My eyes narrowed as my despair mixed with fury.
“You killed her!” I growled, my voice mixing with another. It sounded kind of weird, but I was too wound up to care.
The man’s eyes widened, and he shook his hands. “No, that wasn’t supposed to happen! Honest!”
Yanking off my glasses, a deep growl emerged from my throat, and I stood up. Then, I blinked and suddenly found myself aching and sitting against a tree. I lifted my heavy head and saw my father fending off the stranger with his energy blade.
“Lucian, run!” he roared. The man shoved my father, who stumbled a few steps back. Fear consumed me. What just happened? One second I was mad and about to attack that man, the next I was laying against a tree. I tried stretching my achy joints, and suddenly enormous pain shocked me frozen. I looked down to find my shirt gone and my chest with crisscrossed, bloody slashes.
“Halden!” My father yelled as he fought the man, “Get him out of here!”
A hand wrapped around my arm and yanked me to my wobbly feet. Halden pulled me onto his back and started running. I guess that’s a good thing about having a daemon bodyguard: strength and speed.
“Wait, Halden, I need to help him!” I squirmed and tried to push off his back, but he held me there securely.
“Lord Morgan’s got this, Lucian,” Halden growled, “He can handle himself. After all, you scared off the rest.”
“What? How did I scare off the rest?”
Halden finally came to a stop at the edge of the forest and put me down. Turning to me, he asked excitedly, “How did you do it?” I stared blankly at him as he continued, “That raw power! The ferocity! I knew you were strong, Luke, but it was like you were a whole different person!”
As I ran this data through my head, a mass of brown hair bashed into me and tickled my face. Her tight grip was surprising but very comforting. What had just happened ran through my head again, tears welling up. Finally, I wrapped my arms around Kimberly and started sobbing.
My mother… She’d taken care of me forever, doted on me, spoiled me when my father didn’t, showed me the world in a whole new light. And now, she was dead. I’d witnessed her last moments on this earth, and I couldn’t bear it!
Kimberly said nothing, just rubbed her hands consolingly across my back. “It’s okay, Luke,” she murmured in my ear. My legs started shaking from exhaustion and depression, and I crumbled to the dirt floor. She knelt down and continued to hug me.
After a few more seconds, I heard heavy breathing coming from the forest. Looking up, I saw my father limping toward us. Blood covered his body and sword. By looking at my father’s face, I could tell he’d finished the stranger off. My father was a naturally kind and caring person, but as Realm Leader he needed to have a fiery determination and be a fierce, unyielding defender, or the Realm would fall to ruin. When he got closer, I saw the terrified expression on his face. I stood up and ran to him.
“Dad, what’s wrong?”
My father sucked in a few shaky breaths. “Halden, go get your father.” My friend looked at me first, then nodded to him, running towards town.
My dad then turned to me. “Lucian… those guys were working for the Seeker.”
My blood ran cold. The Seeker? I knew enough about the history of the Realm to know who he was.
“The Seeker?” Kimberly’s quivering voice murmured. I turned to her with wide eyes. How did she know about the Profecia? “He’s… Isn’t he the one who wants to rule over the world and destroy it in the process?” When my mouth was practically wide open, she blushed and giggled, “Luke, honestly, my father’s a former guard for Lord Morgan. You honestly think he wouldn’t teach me the Doble-Filo Profecia?”
Her short laughter, complimented by the sun shining down on her like she was an angel, made blush rise to my cheeks as well. I averted my eyes so she wouldn’t see it. I didn’t know if she could tell I was crushing on her, but when she walked up to me and grasped my hand tight, I knew that she was special.
I mean, how many seven year old girls could see their leader covered in blood and still remain calm enough to comfort a friend?