The Second Prophecy (Part 1 of the Dragdani Prophecies) (34 page)

“
Everyone
grows up.”

“
Tell that to
Kilamen and Ulicoth. They are like children waiting for their
father, Salith, to return. And the only way that you can defeat
them is to think like them. You see, it’s okay to grow up in body
and mind, but never grow up in heart or soul. So go out with your
friends, have as much fun as you can, and live, son. Remember those
words, for in the end, they may be the difference between winning
and losing the war, or even the difference between your life and
his.”

“
How can you
know that?”

“
I don’t
know. I believe that because I forgot who I was, I lost and paid
the price. Do yourself a favor and remember my words to remain
young at heart and soul. That is how to be forever young. Oh, it
looks like time’s nearly up.” said John.

To Peter’s
eyes, John was fading, away and when he looked at his own hand, he
saw that he too had started to vanish.

“
Peter, the
chest and everything in it is all yours. You’ll find that there’s a
magical lock on it. All you have to do is say the words:

“Wern fasu hutat som truu oprit hiwt comtro
helj lilet sanit porap haet

uen I haj jeon gad tor lio lawf. Uen legin
som tju vaka haet hute tru ront

et
thi fotjad droult haet agen uen ker yega bena jalcor
comtro.”

In English
John’s verse meant,

Be
it known to thee that thy master has long since
passed
,

and now I
, his son, am
here at last.

Listen to this voice and know the truth
of my father’s disaster.

Open now for your new found master.

“
My rhyming
is a little weak,” he added, “but it should do the job
nicely.”

“
What makes
you think I’ll remember that?” laughed the teenager. “I’ve got a
head like a sieve. You know, kind of the worst memory in
history.”

“
Don’t worry.
You’ll remember. Your memory will get better, trust me.”

Peter nodded.

“
Now remember
all that I’ve said, Peter,” said John in the most serious tone.
“See you soon.”

The boy
looked on as the outline of his dead father finally
disappeared.

The next
Peter knew, he was looking up through the square hole and at the
beams that were holding the roof over his head. He lay there at
first wondering whether it had really happened or whether it was
all just a dream. When he did get up, he climbed the ladder to the
attic and went straight to the chest. It was still covered with the
dusty white sheet. Peter pulled the sheet off and laid it on the
floor. It was quite large and spread out far. It overlapped as it
ran out of room. He saw an old mattress sitting in a corner and
dragged it over and set it on top of the sheet. He knelt onto the
mattress and recited John’s verse. There was a click and the lid
opened.

“
It was
real,” he thought. Peter looked in. There was a sandy-colored cloth
with Dragdani’s Dragon sewn into it. He lifted it away, and there
was John’s old wand and the sword he had used to use to play
Ves-guards and Dark Wizards with his friends when they were
young.

There was
also a short sword and his old spell book. On the book was an
inscription in the Wizard language, which Peter read, even though
he had never seen this type of writing before. To his surprise, he
knew exactly what it meant.

Plias thi Dorminya.

In English it roughly means:

Take me to my Dorminya.

A blue light
started to surround him. With one hand he grabbed part of the
mattress, and with the other he took hold of the sheet, as though
hoping that would stop whatever was happening to him. But that only
caused the light to surround them as well.

When the light completely engulfed him, he
felt as if he were sinking forever in a deep beautiful blue
ocean.

Chapter Fourteen

The Huffy Hog

A blast of
light and an explosion of sound is the only real way of
explaining
Peter’s entrance into
Dorminya.

After the
sinking feeling he had during the Phaze, he was yet to feel another
only this time it would be real. The young King didn’t know that in
order to Phaze successfully, you have to think of either your
destination or, if you have never been there, its name. Though
concentrating on only the name of the place is still very risky, as
you could end up merging with something. For example, if you were
Phazing into the outdoors, you could merge with a rock or bolder,
perhaps a passing cart or even, heaven forbid, another
person.

Peter, on the
other hand, was lucky. Some might call it bad luck, for he ended up
in midair; however, the old mattress and the dusty sheet had Phazed
with him, so others might say he was lucky. The white sheet would
stop the mattress from tipping over and throwing him off, provided
the wind kept in his favor. Regardless, the mattress would most
certainly take some of the fall. Peter’s quick healing powers would
take the rest.

As he fell,
he found himself praying to God, something that he had not done
since he was a child. Halfway through his pleading, he landed with
a splat. He had landed in a very muddy field.

H
is healing powers were quick to
kick in, and he was soon throwing the now muddy sheet aside and
taking his first look at the world he had longed to see without
even knowing it. He certainly felt a little lucky, for when he
checked, only the soles of his shoes were muddy as he stepped into
the field.

“
It could’ve
been worse,” he said aloud.

Just then,
the wooden chest from the attic fell with another splat. Mud flew
in every direction, covering him from head to toe.

“
Me and my
big fat mouth. Great, just great.” Peter then tried to wipe the mud
away from the picture of the red Dragon that was on his hoodie.
Afterward, he took his first real look at this new world. The sky
was cloudy and grey, but apart from the weather, there was no
difference from the world he had just left. Normally he would be
curious, but now he just wanted to find somewhere to get out of the
cold and wipe the rest of the muck off of his clothes.

He looked in
all directions. After staring around for a considerable amount of
time
, he again turned his attention back
to finding somewhere he would be able to stay, and there on the
horizon, he could see a thin steady stream of smoke rising in the
distance.

His Dragon
eyes showed themselves, and Peter zoomed in on the location of the
smoke. It was a small farmhouse. The young Draga-Wizard-Elf felt a
little serge of excitement at the sight and started walking in the
direction of the smoke. Though as he did, he heard a creak of wood.
When he turned round, he saw the old muddy chest floating in
midair. Peter stepped back and it moved to follow. The boy
continued to retreat, and the chest continued to follow.

“
Well,
at least I don’t have to
carry the thing.”

He set off in the direction of the smoke at a
run, his chest following his every step.

There were
trees at the borders of the field; Peter could see some them
clearly. They had brown leaves and yellow trunks.

As Peter
went, he felt lighter than before, as if he had lost weight without
even knowing it. He began to run faster and faster.

While he ran,
the loose muck from the ground that came off his track shoes
splashed up the back of his black hoodie, covering the picture of
the silver Dragon on the back and the seat of his jeans. Now he was
completely covered in mud front and back. The front had dried with
the force of the wind blowing against him.

At his top
speed, he had reached the cottage in a few seconds. There what
Peter thought to be a horse like creature was pulling a plough, but
it looked twice the size of any horse that the boy had ever seen.
Then again, he had only ever seen about three or four horses in his
life. The creature’s head was oddly shaped, though at that range,
Peter couldn’t see its full features. He could see, however, that
its head was considerably small by comparison to its overall size.
Its plump, thick body led to the assumption that it was very well
looked after and hardly did any work, though its legs told a
different story, for they were large and finely-tuned.

The young
King could also see a man behind the creature steering the plough
(presumably the farmer).

“
HELLO!”
Peter shouted after the man.

The farmer
turned. “Your name, stranger,” he said as he started toward the
boy.

Peter also walked forward.

“
My
name is
-” Peter paused, not knowing
whether he should use his Wizard name or Normal name. After a
moment he decided. “My name is Peter.” He thought this best, as he
did not know how well known his Wizard name might be in this new
world.

“
What
happened to you?” asked the man curiously. For these were surely
strange sights to behold: a boy-covered head to toe in muck, not to
mention the floating chest which Peter had forgotten about, and the
boy’s clothes.

“
I fell in
the mud.”

“
I’ll say.
Well, you better come in,” the farmer said as he moved his head to
gesture for Peter to go into the house.

“
Did you see
that light in the sky, Jert?” said a large woman at the door of the
house.

“
Huri, we
have a visitor.”

“
Oh, yes,
right. Well, if you what to - what happened to you?”

“I slipped and fell in the mud,” Peter
repeated.

“
Well,
we’ll have to get you out
of those dirty clothes. You better come in,” said the woman, who
now had fixed her sight on the floating chest. “This is your chest
is it?” she asked.

“
Yes, it’s
one of those new chests from Earth, designed so you don’t have to
carry it. Handy, don’t you think,” Peter lied.

“
That’s
funny,” said the farmer smiling, “I thought it was a Wizard’s
chest, and it looks by no means new.”

His wife
laughed, and Peter blushed and felt like an idiot.

“
If you’ll go
on in, I’ll explain how I know what I know,” said the
man.

The farmer’s
wife got Peter some clothing from a cupboard and sent him to a room
to change, which he did quickly. When he emerged from the room, he
was wearing a thin crimson shirt and trousers to match; he still
wore his own track shoes. He made for the small living room that he
had seen on his way in. Jert was sitting in one of three puffy
plump chairs, which to Peter’s eyes looked very
comfortable.

“
Ah, that’s a
good fit,” he said as saw the boy enter. “The clothes belonged to
our son.”

“
Where is
he?” asked Peter keenly.

“
He’s dead,”
said Jert gravely. “He left the farm for the Wiz-Wit city,
Cayer-Huld, to join the Ves-guards and was killed in
battle.

“
I’m so
sorry,” said Peter somberly.

“
I find it’s
good to think of him. Besides, we were very proud that he had
decided to join the Ves-guards.”

“
So
your son was a
-”

“
A Wizard,
yes he got it from me,” said the farmer. “You see, I was once a
Ves-guard myself, and I have seen my fair share of war. Or should I
say that I’ve seen too much. And after the battle of Kealhal, I
went into early retirement and set up this farm.”

“
So your son
followed in your foot steps and became a Wizard?”

“
Yes,” said
the farmer’s wife, who peered round the corner. “In fact, we
encouraged it, although I myself am not particularly fond of magic.
We thought it best that Tiore know both sides of his heritage. It
was only fair, after all.

“
And if
you’re ready to eat, dinner’s ready,” the woman added. “You are
hungry, aren’t you, Peuer?”

“
Yeah, and
it’s Peter.”

“
Oh, I am
sorry. It’s such a strange name. Well, the dinner’s ready, so hurry
before it gets cold.”

“
It’s a
Normal name,” said Jert when they sat down, “which means he’s from
the Normal world, Earth. Am I right? You mentioned it
earlier.”

“
Would you
like a drink?” asked Huri, as though her husband had said
nothing.

“
Yes,
please,” replied Peter politely while taking a look about. The
dining room was just as modest and quaint as the rest of the
house.

“
I am right,
aren’t I?” asked the farmer again.

“
I’m afraid
we only have Taljun juice. Will that be all right?”

“
Please,
Huri, don’t interrupt me when I’m talking to the boy,” said Jert,
obviously irritated by his wife butting in.

“
You’re not
talking to him, Jert; you’re interrogating the poor lad. It’s not
polite.”

“
It’s okay. I
came out of nowhere, and you were good enough to take me in. You
have a right to ask questions,” said Peter happily.