River Grimes and the Ancient Awakening

Chapter 1: The Orphan Boy

River Grimes of New Dawn Orphanage, dreaded normalness, thank you very much. He was the first person you'd expect to get into trouble, or somehow find his way into a sticky situation. He always chased after mystery's or anything strange.

He even considered himself strange to say the least. He was a bit taller than kids his age, lean and agile. But most importantly was his looks, he took great pride in his looks. Not because he thought he was handsome, quite the opposite in fact. It was because of his jet-black hair, and bright amethyst purple eyes. His hair always seemed to do it's own thing. Mama, the Orphanage caretaker. Was very strict, and wanted her kids to look their bests, when a newly hopeful family came to find their new son or daughter.

She was an elderly woman, with tightly tied up silver hair, and a smack that would have you question if she really was elderly. She had a thin and wrinkled face, often wore a flowery moo-moo day to day. But would break out one of her good Sunday best dresses for an adoption appointment. She was mean, and hard on the kids. And often put them to work on hard chores, like re-tilling the bathroom, or putting new shingles on the roof.

River and Mama do not get along, suffice it to say. In fact, he was her favorite target to pick on. She along with the Orphanages resident bully, a 13-year-old boy named Chaz. Made it their mission to make River and everyone else's life more miserable than they already were. And being an orphan in a run-down orphanage living in a room with 20 other parentless kids was not such a glamours life. Especially when you live in a such a small town, you could blink and drive past it. The towns name was called Garibaldi, Oregon. Tucked right on the coast of Oregon, less than 1,000 residents.

But that didn't stop River, from breaking out and often exploring the town. His favorite places he likes, is a Junkyard a little out of town, and the lighthouse. River had run away before, but the police always caught him, and brought him back to New Dawn.

One day, River was laying on his double decker bunk bed. His bed was the top one, and the last bed on the right. He was laying their reading the one thing he had gotten from his real parents: A single letter. A few words scribbled on a sheet of paper from a notebook. Written in blue pen, with good handwriting. Stained with small little wet spots, that made the ink warp in some places. The page was wrinkled, from River's constant re-reading, crumpling in anger, then unfolding.

Dear River,

I don't know how to say this, but... Your real Mom and Dad, had you when we were really young. We didn't know better, and thought it would be easy. And at first, it was. But then something changed. You started ending up in so many different dangerous situations. Once, we found you on the roof of our little house. Another time, you were sitting in the middle of your room, while it was in flames. And your eye color... it didn't match ours at all, how is purple even a normal eye color?

More and more of these weird situations kept happening in the few months we had you. We feared for your life, and ours. The final straw was when we found you crawling up the walls. Literally... We had enough then, and tomorrow we are dropping you off at the fire station in Garibaldi. We are so sorry this had to happen, you'll probably hate us for the rest of your life and I under stand. I hope you can forgive us someday.

They'll probably tell you this, but your birthday is May 2nd, 1998.

Love—Mom, Ally aged 17. And Dad, Austin aged 17.

River sighed, and crumpled up the letter once more. Then, unraveled it, never getting the nerve to toss it in the trash. Like his parents did to him.

"Reading this again, loser?" Chaz snatched the letter from his hand. Chaz was taller and older then all the kids. Even though River had been at the Home longer than everyone, Chaz decided he should be boss.