The Demise of the World, Book 1: The Twin of Skies [ON HOLD]

Chapter 1

Up, up along the rocky path, then over the little stream that is so small, that it does not need a bridge. Then on some, and down the small hill, following the gentle breeze as it stirres up the blades of grass in the sunkissed meadow and ruffles the leaves on the small clumps of bushes and trees at it's edges - a boy.

His small hands are pressed tightly to his eyes (''No peeking!'', his father had said) and his brown hair is being blown about by the occasional gust of wind - not yet long enough to be braided.

He is counting.

His voice - soft and shy, but when he lifts his hands from his face, there is a sparkle in his large brown eyes, and a smile on his lips.

The hunt beginns.

He is sneaking along his path, checking carefully behind bushes and trees, as he passes.

He doesn't make a noise.

He is good at that.

Movement catches his eye, and his smile broadens a little.
There, behind that large outcropping of rocks.
He approaches, crouches down, and then with a soft giggle jumps out at his father hiding there.

But the space behind the rocks is empty.

A look of dissapointment crosses his face, but doesn't stay.

The game is not yet over, and the smile returns.

His father is not behind the shed either, but will soon jump out, to suprise the boy, and then will pick him up, and carry him home.

But no one jumps out.

There is no one hidden among the big trees either, and there is no one waiting around the bend.

And when the boy starts calling out, no one answers.

It is very dark, and well past dinner time when his mother comes to take him home. The little boy has long since stopped smiling or calling. He just sits there, very quiet, and very alone.

His father comes home from the tavern very late that day.

Very drunk, as always.