Black

Chapter 1

Little Leonard ran out of the house and into his little garden. He stopped by one dying flower and crouched by it. "Awwn", he whined, " the flower's dying". He put his hand round the plants stem and then exhaled. At once, his eyes glowed ominously with golden light and the plant immediately blossomed. It was then he noticed his mum watching him. She leaned out through the kitchen's window and beamed him a smile. Without even intending to, he smiled back.
    "Lunch is ready", she called out.
    " coming ma!", he replied. On his way back inside he made a few stops at other withering plants and performed his magic on them. Finally at the doorstep, he turned and then noticed a hive of bees humming hungrily around. He took a few deep breaths and then moved both hands down from chest level to his knees, all the flowers immediately imitated his hand movements by withdrawing their petals into a fold. He then raised his hands back to chest level with his eyes glowing alongside. The flowers responded again by stretching their petals back out. The movement caused an abundance of nectar on the petals.
    "That's enough magic for the morning", his mum called instructed while setting the table. " come in its time for lunch, and don't bring in mud!", she added.
    Leonard obediently shook his sandals before running over to his mum.
    "Remember, no magic at the dining", mrs black instructed before slipping away into her thoughts. From birth it was obvious Leon was no ordinary child. He was born with magic all right but even at that there was something else about his magic. He was just seven but yet could perform spells that took tons of years to master in seconds and he wouldn't even speak any words. He didn't need to memorize the spells like other wizards did. He would just will it to happen and bam! His eyes would glow golden and it would happen. She wouldn't admit it but she was scared. The only thing that kept her mind at bay was reassurance in the way she trained her son. From his conception till date, Leon had only used his magic to help. He helped injured people and animals, dying plants and insects and the lot. His heart was too pure she thought. A chuckle from the boy snapped her out of her thoughts.
                                      ★
    King George followed his magician down a deep tunnel."peter", he called. "Are you sure we're on the right path?".
    The magician reassured the troubled king." We are my lord". They both walked down for a while before finally hitting a dead end. The magician chanted a spell and the end disappeared to reveal a magical prison, inside it sat a young lady. She smiled on seeing them.
    "Jade!", king George called out.
    "I'm here as usual your majesty", the lady in the prison mocked.
     Peter the magician held his wand  tight.
    "Oh you don't need to, I just want to talk", king George remarked calming peter down. "Jade, I'm running out of patience with you. Pledge Allegiance and I'll set you free".
    Jade shot the king a sinister look.
"No deal", she remarked curtly.
    "You've been imprisoned since the days of my grandfather. Now I'm offering you freedom in exchange for your loyalty and you say no deal?". King George asked.
    "Yup. Why give you my loyalty for freedom when I can get the freedom free in like let's say uhmmm... Twenty seven years". Jade answered.
    "I told you she wouldn't bulge", peter remarked.
    The king moved closer. "You're willing to wait twenty seven years to get your freedom free?".
    "Yup. You know the best thing about this prison?", she asked. She answered when the king refused to. "Time never passes in here so that said, see you in twenty seven years".
    "What do you think you know?", Peter asked challengingly.
    "Just what I saw in the future", jade answered. She laughed and then turned her back to the king and his magician who later left when all efforts to get her to talk proved futile. They joined the other officials of the round table who were already waiting in the throne room.
    The officials of the round table consisted of top ranking officials of the court who helped his Majesty in making decisions. The group consisted of; Larin Boyles the army general, Peter farn the head wizard, Dely hormes the head doctor, Dan fojik the finance minister, Agravaine maone the kings advisor and no one other than king George the second king of forever land. He declared the meeting open as soon as he was comfortably sitted. "My lord, I believe that higher tax be imposed on people of wealthier status than the average people", Dely suggested.
    "Are you saying we violate the equality code?", the king countered.
    "Its worth a try my lord, there are people in this land who can't afford to pay taxes and there are some who can pay in threefold. I suggest we take part from those who can't pay to those who can pay threefold".
    King George seemed to be brooding over it. Amidst the debating, a royal guard burst in, ran over to Larin to whisper in his ears and then ran back out on Larin's signal.
    "What was that about?", king George asked.
    Larin stood up and walked smartly towards the king. He rested a hand on the hilt of his sword. " ogres have been sighted my lord".
    King George laughed. "They dare not approach us", he dared. "Even the elves which were way smarter tried it and lived to forever regret".
    Larin walked over to one of the windows in the room. The castle was built in the highest point of the land and the throne room was at its top so one could get a pretty good view of the entire land from one of the windows. "My lord, I think they dared".
    King George walked over and glanced through the window and true enough an uncountable number of ogres were slowly approaching. As vast as the outskirts of the land was, the army covered it twice as much. It was like the ogres were even competing for space. "What in the name of -".
    Larin didnot  even await orders before Dishing out orders to his soldiers.
    King George stared out captured by awe. "They dared. They really dared".
                                         ★
    Leon licked off the last of the soup off his spoon and then smiled at his mum. "This is really good mum". He complimented.
    "I know, I made it just the way you like it", she replied. "Do you hear that?", she asked.
    "Hear what?", Leon asked in reply still licking his lips. There was no time for regrouping. In an instant ogres burst into the compound. They were armed heavily from hair to toe.
    "Leonard! Run!".
    The ogres invaded the land with no mercy. They made their way to the main citadel slowly while killing every thing living in sight. Leonard and his mum luckily escaped the wild pack that burst into their home. They were over the fence and unto the path leading to the main citadel in seconds. Amidst the helter skelter Mrs black fell. She struggled to get back to her feet and caught the eye of one bloodthirsty ogre who ran over and raised his axe high to behead her. All of a sudden and just in the nick of time, Larin appeared out of nowhere. He parried the ogre's axe skillfully and then dug an elbow into one of its eyes. Before the ogre could regain its self, Larin dug his sword into its torso. He pulled out the sword and helped Mrs black back to her feet. "Run into the citadel", he instructed. "You'll be safe in there".
     Mrs black did not need to be told twice. She hauled Leon by the arm and dashed towards the citadel.
    Some ogres Noticed one of them had fallen and then they slowly and very cautiously positioned themselves round Larin who stood boldly at the center with his sword in his left hand. As the ogres advanced, he attacked with unbelievable speed and accuracy. In nothing more than a minute and ten seconds, he pulled his sword out of the last standing ogre. He took a few deep breaths as ogre blood dripped from his sword. It was then he noticed all he did was just slaughter a batch if the ogres millions more were approaching. He looked back at his men who were standing battle ready. Even if every man standing behind him were to be as skilled ad he was they still wouldn't be able to defeat the ogres. They were just too much. "Withdraw into the citadel", he ordered. " we'll mount our defences on the walls. Like that we'll stand a chance".
    The men fled back with lightning speed. Larin looked at them; if some one did not cover them it would be just a matter of time before they'll be caught up with. He clutched his sword with both hands in readiness for the ogre army. He took deep breaths. If he died now then he died as a general should he thought.
    Mrs black crashed into a heap of hay at the citadels gates. Her wrist was bleeding at a dangerous point and a doctor was quickly assigned to her.
    Leon gazed hopefully at the doctor.
    "Am sorry kid, there's not much I can do here", the doctor said.
    Gently, Leonard put his hand over the bleeding wrist.
    "You shouldn't do that kiddo, You could get her infec-", the doctor was caught off guard by the glow in Leon's pupils. "What-was-that?".
    Leon took his hand off the wrist.
    A shocked look crept over the doctors face. "The-the the cut is gone", she stammered.
    Mrs black sighed. "Gifted kid", she said to the doctor with a raspy voice. She lay back on the hay and took deep breaths.
    Panting,  soldiers ran in through the citadels gates. "Close the gates! The ogres are gaining", one called out. The soldier in charge started pulling the great gate together.
    Leon looked out. "Someone is still out there", he remarked.
    "general Larin!".
    "He's gonna make it. He's not gonna!", the soldiers debated.
    The general fought gallantly and at the same time retreating towards the gates. While fighting, he stumbled over a rock and came crashing down. An ogre stood over him and raised its axe in attack. Even if it took the strike with eyes closed, the general would be dead for sure. Just then, Leon's eyes glowed. Following the glow, the piece of land upon which the ogre stood did a hundred and eighty degrees rotation. The ogre was to stunned to hold his attack. In a blink, he split a fellow ogre into two. The general smartly did a Chinese get-up and then beheaded the ogre closest to him. He looked towards the citadel and his eyes met Leon's. The eyes conveyed the message; "run, I'll cover you". The general flung his sword at the nearest ogre to him sending its to its early grave and then started Dashing towards the  citadel. The ogres started after their unarmed victim. The citadel's gates were closing up slowly and the ogres were also gaining on the general.
Leon stood by the gates at stretched his hands forward. For the first time ever, Mrs black heard her son chant a spell. "Lis talem tes lum num", he chanted. His eyes glowed golden as he spoke.
    Suddenly, a wall of wind erupted between the general and his pursuers. The wind blew so powerfully that the general was catapulted forward and into the citadel just before the gates closed.
    The general crashed into the hay alongside Mrs black. The soldiers present stared in awe at Leon.
    "Thanks kiddo", the general managed.
    King George paced around furiously in his throne room. The lower level of his kingdom had now been reduced to ash with most of its inhabitants killed. The remaining survivors were camped round by the citadel's gate. Defences were mounted up on the walls in form of well trained archers who thwarted any of the ogres plan to break through the gate or climb the walls. But even he knew they couldn't hold out against the siege for long.
    "My lord", one of the officials of the court called.
    The king turned to face his officials. "Let's skip formalities, I called this meeting to discussing putting an end to this siege as quickly as possible".
    Dely stared down at his feet sadly. "My lord, I don't know what to say. We don't even have enough medicine to treat the citizens that have Overrun the citadel talk less about the wounded soldiers", he remarked.
    "Larin?", king George called.
    "Sire, there is very little I can do. All our attempts to call for help have been thwarted. We were caught totally unprepared and so do not have enough ammunition for a full scale battle. I believe we can either hold the siege and hope the neighboring lands notice our predicament or...", he took a long look at peter before continuing, "we could use magic".
    King George shifted uneasily in his seat. "Peter?".
    "Its a suggestion worth a try but I doubt it would work as we lost most of our major wizards to the massacre of the inhabitants of the lower lands by the ogres. It still seems more sensible than a full scale battle though", the wizard replied.
    "What do you suggest?", the king asked.
    "Jade is a no go area and so that leaves us with just one more source of very powerful magic". He studied the facial reactions of the officials before continuing. "I suppose we here all know of the supposed myth of the sword of heroes?".
    "Oh, its no myth alright, it's real. At least that much I know.", the king replied.
    "In the hands of a pure hearted wizard, powerful power can be invoked from its steel amplifying its bearer's power a hundred fold", peter explained. "Its our best chance".
    "But", king George tipped in. "Come on, be quick with it. There's always a but with magic".
    "Like I said earlier if anyone noticed, the sword can only be wielded by a Pure heart".
    "And.. You're not?".
    "The sword decides my lord".
    King George sighed. "Larin gather the men, we leave at dawn tomorrow".
    "Going with men might be a bad idea my lord, where we're going is the home of the most feared magical beings in all the lands. It's advisable we make ourselves seem vulnerable", peter advised.