Long Ago

Chapter One

"Long ago, there was a time when everything was filled with magic." My grandfather began, "Where you could feel it dancing around on the midday breeze. When not only could you feel it, but you could see it. It shimmered and shone throughout the world, everywhere you looked, there magic would be. " He smiled at me as he blew sparkles from his hand into my face. I giggled and batted it away with my small hand. "I remember the days when there were creatures of every kind and shape in the world. I remember playing with the fairies and swimming with the mermaids. I remember having to come inside at night before the trolls came out for feeding time. I remember seeing a dragon breath fire."

"You saw a dragon?" I asked in awe. My little green eyes lit with wonder and joy.

"Yes, Bean, I did." He said smiling as he flicked my tiny freckled nose. "I saw many dragons in my long life of living. They flew wide over the mountains and soared high above the clouds in the sky." He stretched his crinkled hand over his head, to show how the dragons flew. "They would glide over the world and land on their tall mountains. Returning home after their long day of flight. Oh, Bean, if only you could have seen it." He shook his head, his light grey, shoulder-length hair moving with each pass. "I wish I could see a dragon once more before I die." He took a deep breath. "But no, I cannot."

"Why can't you grandfather?" I asked placing my small hand on his arm. His skin cold and scratchy.

"Well, Bean, there are no more dragons, fairies, trolls, or mermaids. They are all gone. They were hunted down decades ago. Your grandfather was only forty-five when they were wiped off the world. I was only forty-five when magic disappeared. Half my life ago."

"Where did it go?"

"No one knows. Some people think it went to sleep. Others think it just... died."

"And what do you think grandfather?" I asked as I tilted my little head, my frizzy brown hair falling across my face like window drapes.

"I think that magic was taken." He curled his finger to call me closer. I gasped and leaned forward to hear him whisper, "I think the king hunted all those poor creatures to take their magic. I think he stole the magic to further his own plans and desires. Listen closely, Bean, the king is not good. He was young when he ascended the throne, and he is ill-fit to rule. I think he is planning something... something horrible and cruel. Something that will..."

He began coughing and hacking, his whole body shook with the force of his choking. "Grandfather?" I cried out, placing my hands on his shoulders. I looked over my shoulder at the door and wailed, "Mother! Father!" I began weeping as my mother burst through the door and pulled me away from my grandfather's bed. My father leaned over him whispering kind words of soothing comfort.

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I woke up with a start, jolting up in my bed. A dream, it was just a dream. But no, that had happened. It had happened eleven years ago. The day my grandfather died. I never found out what he was about to say. I'm not sure I even want to know how he was going to finish that sentence. It was all foolishness anyways. Just a theory he had spun in his old crippled mind. Or at least that's what my father had told me when I spoke to him of my grandfather's last words.

I laid back down in my small hard bed and released a sigh. I closed my eyes and tried to fall back asleep.

I had laid there for an amazing total of ten minutes. But before I fell back asleep, the grand clock in the main square sounded. The loud clang to awaken the entire village. And so began the day. I groaned as I sat up and placed my bare feet on the cold wooden floor. My mother burst into my bedroom and began pulling out clothing for me to wear. "Good morning dear." She chirped, setting the clothing she'd assembled onto my small dark desk. She marched over to the window and pulled open the drapes. Sunlight flooded the room and burnt my eyes.