I look out the window into the street, the fading orange seeping into twilight purple and black. The small amount of people remaining on the street hurry to their homes and families, hoping to outrun the sinking sun. Because, if they don't get home, they risk being taken by the reapers. They basicly guard our village. And imprison us. I hop off the window and go to the kitchen to steal a snack before bed, but mum has already thought of that.
"You know that eating before bed makes you tired in the morning." She is standing in front of the cabinet, guarding it with a feirce expression and crossed arms.
"I just wanted a cracker, mum, no need to be all protective of the food." I try to get around her, but she blocks my every move with a step to the right or left.
"You go to bed right now, Jay, or I will forbid you from going to the market tomorrow." She points to my bedroom, tapping her foot.
"But mom! Tommorow is the only time the market comes in five years!" It was rare for it to come because they were scared of the King. They had all of the outside resources that we couldn't get because we couldn't leave.
"Now!" She jabs her finger to my room. I grumble and stomp to my room, slaming the door shut.
The next morning, I jump out of bed and quickly slide on my clothes, grab some money and sprint to the kitchen, grabbing an apple. Before I can leap outside to my freedom, mum stops me.
"Are you sure you can be safe?" She has a worried look in her eyes.
"Yes, mum, I'll be fine, the market is protected by our finest guards." They protect it so people don't steal the goods, thus discouraging the market from coming again.
"Alright, Jay." She finally releases me into the wild that I know will be the market.
I weave between the people buying fine silk clothes and exotic fruits, looking for my favorite shops. I finally spot my all-time best, the Dragon's Cave. It has lots of accessories for dragons, accessories made of dragon parts, and even trinkets to ward away evil dragons. It just reminds me that all dragons are not invincible, like the King.
The King is the dragon that keeps us in our small village, and creates the reapers to do so.
"Hey, little birdie. Come back for some items?" The shopkeeper knows me well, as I visit him everytime the market comes.
"Yeh, I'm just looking so far, but..." I spot a ring with a glass dragon eye in it, a beautiful creation with a jewel-like blood red iris and a pure black slit for the pupil. The ring seems to faintly glow purple, making my fingers a strange tint. I immediately pick it up and put it on the counter.
"Ahh, this little jewel of a ring. I'm afraid it will cost much more than how it looks." He raises his eyebrows when I dump all my ₱100 on the table. He takes the money and slides the ring back to me. I snatch it and quickly exit the rush, and head back home.
I show mum the ring, and she gasps.
"How much did that cost you? Is that the only thing you bought?" I nod. "But, you had ₱100 on you..." I smile, and go to my room to look at it closer.
I'm my room, I plop onto my bed and inspect the ring in every corner, cleaning the imperfect spots. I notice four words inside the ring, saying: "Fith falls to sixth." I don't know what it means, so I ignore it, and I put the ring on my right index finger. It glows a brighter purple and makes my finger tingle. I position my hand to look at it on my finger, before I notice the floor has popped up, creating a bump. I panic, trying to push down the bump with my feet, then my hands...and I push it down. I raise an eyebrow, suprised I actually did it. I then look at my ring.
The eye looks at me.
I scream, quickly pulling it off and throwing it under my dresser. The ring rolls back out again, coming at me. My right hand moves toward it unwillingly, and puts on the ring again. My eyes widen, as I try to pry off the ring again, but failing. Shaking, I look at the hand cursed with it, the eye glowing red along with the purple of the band. It looks from side to side, then at me intently. It then moves my hand up, making the floor come up with it. The realization that I can move the very earth makes me grin, and then I realize the ring can control my hand, making me worried. What will it do? Does it have a separate agenda? I cautiously try to raise the floor again, and I do. I weakly smile, hoping it doesn't want to kill anyone.
Practicing with my new powers, I quickly discover I can also levitate things, as shown by the smashed mirror. I cleaned that up pretty easy. I groan when mum yells dinner is ready, only to agree with her when my stomach groans. I step to the dinner table.
"So, you like that ring, huh?" She says it sarcasticly, expecting to say I don't like it.
"Actually, its really cool. It shows my personality, and goes with my eyes well." I know it really doesn't, red does not go well with brown, but I needed an excuse.
Mum is surprised. "Ok... Whatever makes you happy." She smiles and goes back to setting the table.
After dinner, I dissapear into my room to mess with the ring again, then reluctantly go to sleep. My dreams go from what happened during the day to a very realistic dream.
"You found it?" A deep voice rings out through blackness. I dont respond, so the dream changes.
"My precious things..." Six very bright objects, so shiny I can't make them out, stand before me. For some reason, I make out six words as well: Ruby, Zircon, Citrine, Emerald, Sapphire, and Amethyst. I jolt awake, feeling a great power drawing me into an infinite sleep, forever with the six names...
Mum fully wakes me by knocking on my door. "Time to get up." She then walks away to prepare breakfast.
I stumble into my school clothes and to the breakfast table, finishing that and going out to school. I think about the six...things.
"Hey, Jay, how yah doing?" My best friend comes up to me and rubs my head, making me annoyed. We walk to class, talking about our weekends and the market, and then I show him the ring.
"That thing is so cool! Where'd you get it?" He takes my hand to look at it closer.
"I bought it from that dragon shop, the one I go to every year. It was the only thing I bought." I look over to his face, seeing shock, his mouth agape.
"This?! This ring is the only thing you bought?! Why!"
I look around before answering. "Well, it can do some weird things."
He raises an eyebrow. "Like what?"
"Like moving the earth and levitating objects." I know he won't believe me. As I predicted, he laughs.
"Oh really? Or did the shopkeep only say that to make you buy it?" I drag him to an isolated corner wheeling him around to face me.
"Look at this." I move my hand up, focusing on the ground, and it creates a small bump. I move it back down again.
"What the..." He stumbles back. "That's magic! You ever hear the stories? They're all pretty bad and gruesome." He looks worried.
"I haven't died yet, have I?" I give him a disbelieving look.
"Yeh, but lots of magic weilders are chased down for life. Very stressful life, that is." He shrugs.
"This is only a taboo because the King has it!" I say that louder than I ment to. Some people look at us strangely. I then say quieter, "I call bull-" the bell rings.
My friend warily looks at the ring, and we split to go to our different classes.
As I'm going to third period, I see a couple of girls snickering, and pointing at me. I stomp over to them.
"What?" They giggle.
"Is he fun?" I guess they're talking about my friend. They think were dating. I decide to ignore them and go to third period, brimming with anger. I pass by a window, and I look at my reflection. The most glaring feature is my now bright blue eyes. I blink, thinking its just the light, but any way I turn they're still there.
"Blue eyes?..." I look at the ring. It hasn't changed, and even dimmed the glowing a little. I look back up to see my normal, brown eyes. I shiver and go to third period, thinking about them.
In third period, the teacher start talking about...whatever. I start daydreaming, then hear a gruff voice, "Powerful ring..." I jolt out of the fog, looking around for the source. I look at the ring yet again, but it still hasn't changed. I glance around once more before I pay utmost attention to the teacher.
The rest of school passes by in a breeze, and soon I'm at home staring at my homework. I start to write the answers, and even though I paid no attention to most of his lessons, the third period homework was easy. And it wasn't even because of the voice. The answers just seemed to come to me every time I looked at the answers. Once I'm done, I inspect the ring again.
This has to be the answer to what's been happening. As my friend said, it was magic, and magic was unpredictable! At least I hope it is, or I'm going crazy. Before I get up, the eye looks at me again. I shiver, flicking it. It then blinks and...actually starts watering up. As the water drips down my finger, I get a crazy idea.
"Hey... Mr. Eyeball... I know your kind of harsh about not being on my finger, but can I take you off from time to time?" I doubted it actually could hear, until I took off the ring.
"That worked? That's weird! Maybe I can ask it questions..." Although, it couldn't talk.
"Ok, look left if its a yes, and look right if its a no. Understand?" It looked left.
I grin, a I prepare a mountain of questions to bury it under.