Rune Slinger

Rune Slinger Test Run

Hi I just wanna say any errors are temporary think of this chapter as a pilot almost. Suggestions are welcome but this is a test run so I can turn this into a comic hopefully it could also stay as a written story.
-British Biscuit

Ignatius woke up, daylight from the sun shining on his face through the orphanage window. He sighed, threw on a shirt, some leather pants and grabbed his boots and satchel. He glanced at the porridge being served at the table of the orphanage and walked out the door. It was his 14th birthday, he could now leave when he wanted. He still needed to come back for curfew but hey four years of freedom before he aged out. He was going to go out to the field to fill his satchel with rocks and cool objects. He ran down the stairs before he felt a hand grab the back of his shirt collar.
"Where do you think you're going?" said a woman. It was Mrs. Willow. "You really thought you could leave without saying goodbye?" Mrs Willow was the one who gave Ignatius his satchel when he was 9 years old. After he was rejected by a family she gave it to him for his rock collection.
"Goodbye Mrs.Willow," Ignatius leaned in for a hug.
"Now I'll only let you skip breakfast this once. Tomorrow you're going to have to finish a whole plate and be back before sundown," Mrs. Willow replied.
Ignatius ran off to the field with the stone arch in the middle right next to the town. The lone arch was made of stone brick and had a bell in the middle of it. Ignatius walked around grabbing cool rocks until one caught his eye. A beautiful dark blue like the ocean. It reminded him of Lily, a girl who was adopted yet he still hung out with. He picked it up to give to her. Maybe today he'll tell her how he felt. As he put it in his bag two boys from town came up to him. "Hey weirdo, looking at rocks again?" He rolled his eyes. They then grabbed his satchel and the blue rock fell out. He shoved the boys away and grabbed it.
"You know you hanging around here is really creepy. That's why no one likes you. They say if you walk through that arch you'll die and never be seen again." Ignatius ran off to the arch but the boys grabbed him and started pushing him in it.
"Oh come on don't you want to see?" there was a clear film wrapping around his face.
"Hey quit!" said a voice from behind. It was Lily. She threw a rock at the boys and they ran. Ignatius sat up on a big rock by the arch and talked with Lilly.
"Hey Lilly, I wanted you to have this," he handed her the blue rock. "It reminds me of your eyes," he looked away blushing. She pushed him over and laughed
"Whatchya looking at my eyes for creep? Jeez." Ignatius panicked and said,
"Wait what, no it's just that they are very nice and hard to not notice."
"Wow I was joking, no need to get so flustered. It's okay plus I've known the whole time."
"And you didn't say anything?"
"I was waiting for you to have the balls to do something doofus." she kicked his leg with her foot.
"So are we-"
"No, ha. You still have to actually ask me out first. Anyway it's time for me to go. My parents wanna get some stuff at the shop and I'm going to go help them out. And don't listen to what those boys say."
"They wanted to kill me. They said I'd die if I went through the arch."
"Oh come on everyone knows that's fake, even those idiots."
"Yeah it's fake" Lilly stood up and gave him a kiss on the cheek. He blushed hard. She giggled at his embarrassment and ran off.
"See you tomorrow Iggy." Ignatius stood up looking at the arch. He took a rock from his bag and threw it through the arch. It came out on the other side as it should have. Of course it would, it was all a myth. He brought his hand through the arch feeling that film again. He pushed more and his hand disappeared. He thought he might have to put his whole body through before it killed him so he stuck his head through and saw a whole different world. A huge forest with people with pointed ears all over the place. They had pet deer and raccoons. There were banners green encrusted with gold, a symbol of deer antlers being surrounded by laurel. He kept his head though until a boy around his age pointed at him.
"Hey you there!" He ducked his head back and he could now see a blue cloudy mass in the middle of the arch. He kept looking and the boy walked out and startled him. "You're human right?" asked the boy.
"Umm yeah? Are you not or something?"
"No, I'm an elf from the stagrunner clan. Let's see blonde hair purple eyes,"
"Wait, my eyes aren't purple, they are brown,"
"Yeah yeah that's normal for you don't worry."
"What do you mean that's normal!"
"You are his son, you are an Arcanichor."
"An Arcanichor?"
"It's your last name, how do you not know that?"
"I'm an orphan, my shitty father abandoned me at the orphanage and only gave them my first name."
"Ah yes names I forgot, my name is Spriggan and you are?"
"I'm Ignatius."
"And your father is not shitty, he helped my people through all his time here. Nobody knows what happened to him though."
"Then why did he abandon me?"
"That is a question I can't answer, but may I ask how old are you?"
"I'm fourteen."
"Perfect. You can start school here. The headmaster surely knows. Although, hmmm. We're gonna have to hide you, the way things are people probably won't like you being here. After your dad disappeared some people have grown to hate him and a group has gained popularity. They hate humans for being the reason we ended up making this world."
"Wait what hold on,"
"I'll get you something." The boy vanished through the arch. Ignatius waited for 2 hours and Lilly showed up.
"Oh my god Lilly I want to tell you something, the arch-"
"Dude I told you it's fake. My parents finished early and I wanted to see if you were still here."
"But it's not! Well it is but,"
"Come on, you're supposed to ask something."
"Lilly please just listen! I need to make sure I'm not crazy, there is this elf-"
"Wait Iggy are you feeling okay? You're talking nonsense and you're eyes they, they turned purple."
"That's what I'm trying to tell you. I'm like some special person or whatever he's trying to take me to another-" Ignatius felt a hand grab his arm and pull him through the arch "-world!"
"Dude what the hell I was talking to someone."
"Here put this on." Spriggan threw a cloak at him.
"No, I'm going back."
"You will stay with me for 3 weeks before school starts. You are the only human able to rune sling and you must maintain the balance between worlds. But you can't do that if you don't know how to rune sling or know the history."
"But-"
"You're safe with that off here but just put it on. We will go to my room" Ignatius put on the cloak and pulled up the hood. He followed behind Spriggan who led him to his house. Ignatius pulled down his hood and followed Spriggan upstairs. "Now, first lesson. There are 26 elements and 9 shapes of magic. All of these have runes to them and that's how we cast, or rune sling." Spriggan sat on his bed.
"Next, not everyone in this world is a rune slinger. It's an inherited trait or in some rare cases a rune slinger will be born from non rune slinger parents like myself. And if one parent is a rune slinger while the other is not you cannot be born a rune slinger. Well, except for you because of the nature of your blood line." Spriggan grabbed a bottle of purple blue ink, a quill and a piece of parchment.
"Now this is the fun part, practice. Spell this, it's a spell you can cast to practice your magic." Spriggan dipped the quill and wrote down two symbols, one that looked like a weird capital A and one that looked like a very jagged 3. "Fun fact our spell runes were actually the base of the human alphabet." Ignatius noticed the similarities between them before he even said that it was pretty obvious. "Anyway this spell is used to make a wind blast. We should probably do this outside. Follow me, we'll be in front of the door."
Ignatius sat at the door with Spriggan. "Watch." Spriggan ripped the paper so he only had the runes and he balled it in his hand. Wind blasted everywhere making the grass and trees sway. "Okay your turn." Spriggan used normal ink to watch the rune for Ignatius to look at as he etched. His etching looked perfect. He went to cast. He balled the paper and focused his mind on the runes. It felt like his energy went from his hand and burned the runes. He could feel the exact symbols in his hand and it was hot. Then he opened his eyes and felt the gust explode out from him. This was rune slinging.
"Wow that was impressive." A gruff voice said from behind. "I haven't seen magic like that in ages." Ignatius noticed his hood was down. Must have been blown off when he cast the wind spell. "Haven't seen magic that strong in ages, who are you?" Ignatius turned around. The man saw his ears were different and looked into Ignatius' purple eyes. "You're the archichor kid."
"Dad, I found him. The prophecy was right! He would come back today."
"And in our territory. I'm glad you found him. I'll notify headmaster Tundra. Hear this kid, you're going to be a rune slinger. One of the most powerful ones we've seen in about a decade."