Tomaman

Prologue

"This can not be safe," Tyrell muttered. little eyes darting around the room with fear. Oppy rolled his eyes and grinned, pulling to the next page of the book with pudgy fingers.

"You need to live a little, Tyr," he giggled while his companion continued to look around warily.

The two young boys sat in their Secret HQ, mostly know as the Rowan Magic Academy supply closet, surrounded by cleaning supplies and darkness. Class must have had commenced over an hour ago, but the boys had taken the huge risk of ditching. It had taken a lot of effort to avoid Surveillance Shadows and they were by no means athletic, but a little cloaking magic and intense running had managed to avoid getting caught. Stealing the book from Old Frostmouth's room had been even harder, but with the help of Ganos , the school delinquent, it had been made possible.

"You owe me, Piggy and the Brain," he'd snorted in disdain before handing them the book and trailing back into what ever horrible darkness he had come from.

"What if we get caught?" Tyrell, also known as 'the Brain', asked, placing a hand on the chubby boys shoulder. Oppy shook his shoulders free of the other boy clammy hands.

"We won't," he consoled Tyrell. "Old Frostmouth won't notice it's missing for days, and that's even if he's sober, and by then our goon would have replaced it. Oh, look, here's the story of Opium! The legend is true!"

"Wow," Tyrell looked over the boys shoulder at the opened book. Although the paper had turned a deep yellow, the text and illustrations were still legible somehow. The legend was mostly true from what the paper read. A story of a demon boy who had near wiped out Rowan Magic School in an attempt to stop any other magicians surpassing his power. It had taken the Head Teacher Polan and Old Frostmouth and Poppy the Fox to subdue him while the Slayer Toma VI Sacrates had sacrificed himself to subdue the rampant demon. It was said that he was sealed within the book Old Frostmouth kept and that magic words which were written in said books would set him free once more.

The two boys held a strong grudge against the school, which had been rooted on the first day when an older student had set a ravenous wolf after the two of them at lunch. They had both run faster than ever before and soiled themselves in front of the whole school, only to later realise that the beast was an illusion when Oppy had collapsed in exhaustion and the wolf had walked through him. Tyrell had assumed it was a ghost ravenous wolf and had fainted not too long after, earning them the nickname of the Puddle Pair.

It had only gotten worse as the years had passed. Oppy had suggested that by showing their expertise in magic and showing off, the other students would come to fear them. However, the effect had been the opposite and their fellow students had began to view them as 'teacher's pets' and 'suck-ups' and they had earned a new, an much worse, nickname; Piggy and the Brain. It wasn't hard to tell who was Piggy and who was the Brain. No mind erasing magics would work on the bullies, nor illusion magic to make them be seen as handsome movie stars and so they had moved to drastic actions. Destroying the school and all within.

"Here are the words," Piggy pointed to a set of words at the bottom of the page. He squinted his eyes. "Opium je fa, je fa, durem."

"Hey, man, don't just say that!" Tyrell blurted, eyes wide in panic. He looked around, half expecting to see a winged demon racing towards them to eat their souls.

"Well that sucks," Oppy frowned with his pudgy brows. "And there I had high hopes. Opium je fa, je fa, durem! Opium je fa, je fa, durem! Dang it, work! Say it with me, Tyrell!"

"Opium je fa, je fa, durem!" Tyrell reluctantly joined in on his chanting. It must have been ten minutes of constant chanting when the supply door burst open. The boys shrieked in horror as Old Frostmouth stood above them, white beard full as ever and cheeks red with drink. Ganos stood behind him with his eternal smirk on his slender face.

"What do you think you're doing, stealing my stuff?" Old Frostmouth's deep voice boomed and the two boys jumped at the sound. They both had to try very hard not to wet themselves. The old man reached out with a large muscled hand and Oppy flinched in fear of being hit but the old man just grabbed the book. "What were you thinking?"

"I'm sorry," Tyrell cried. "It was stupid, we wanted to summon the demon and-"

"-from a children's book?" Old Frostmouth asked. Both of the younger boys felt their mouths drop open.

"Children's book?" Oppy managed at last. "What do you mean, children's book?"

Ganos pointed at the cover of the book with a taunting smile. It read in large letter 'MAGIC STORIES FOR MAGIC CHILDREN'. "You guys are a couple of idiots, you know that?"

"B-but, the magic words-"

"What magic words?" Old Frostmouth opened it to the Opium page and read it over.

"Opium, je fa, je fa, durem," Oppy said, a tinge of hope in his voice. If he was going to be expelled, he wanted the reason to be for plotting to destroy the school, not stealing a children's book. He didn't want to imagine what the nicknames would be like then.

"This? Boy, this is the name of the publisher. And its Jefajefa Durem, a popular publisher of recent events and the such. Have you not been in this school long enough to here of them, or are you just plain stupid?"

Oppy felt tears well in his eyes. They had failed and in the process made bigger fools of themselves. They would never live this down. Their lives were over.

It was then that they saw it. When they did, Oppy had finally lost control of his bladder and he felt a familiar warm liquid run down his legs. He could hear dripping from Tyrell too. Old Frostmouth opened his mouth to say something but only blood came out. The huge man fell to the ground, shaking the ground around them. Ganos' eyes widened in terror and he ran away, to where the two boys didn't know. Unfortunately for them, the shadow blocked the entrance, still holding the bloody blade.

"Revenge is sweet," the voice sounded as if it belonged to no gender, not female or male, not even human. Like if some horrible and ferocious animal could talk, and it was...happy.

"Well, thank you boys," the shadow said as it glowed black, taking no specific shape but a dark cloud. "You made getting that old book a lot easier than expected. Frosty over here never leaves his office, who would have know a couple of losers like you could send him running. Ha! Now, I wonder where the fox girl is. And the Head Master. Oh well, their times will come eventually. For now though, I'd best find Necroboy and regain my body. Oh, that will be so much trouble. And..."

The boys had never imagined that the great and powerful and evil demon Opium would be so talkative and so boring. Despite it all, Tyrell found himself dozing off after ten minutes of meaningless speech, but from what they'd picked up here and there, he was planning to destroy the whole school in a splendid display and then become the most powerful wizard and also increase his patio in between. None of it made sense though...how was the great demon Opium right there, unless it wasn't...

"...I wonder if my dog is still alive. I haven't fed him for a couple of years. Maybe Necroboy has been feeding him. Fat chance, the man boy could barely feed himself," the shadow laughed a guttural series of grunts before beginning to float away. "Do me a favour and tell everyone about this. Apart from the stuff I said about my ulcers. That's pretty embarrassing," and with that the cloud was gone. The two boys glanced at each other in a mixture of confusion and fear.

"The Puddle Pair strike again!" they looked up to see a crowd of people around them and despite it everything that had just happened, they blushed.