Chapter 1: Wake Up!

“Wake up!” A hardened, low pitched voice shouted, “Wake up or I’ll wake you up!”

Julius opened his eyes. He seemed to be lying down on the ground. A tall man stood before him. He looked to be about 20 years old. He had bright red eyes and messy black hair with long bangs. The man had a strange attire, a long black robe that looked as if he was wizard. Although mages and wizards of course didn’t exist.

“Who-“ Julius started.

“Finally!” The man interrupted grabbing Julius’s arm and picked him up off the ground. “ We have to get going, I don’t know who you are, but it’s my obligation to help people no matter who they are.”

Julius looked around. They were in the middle of a field of grass. He could see some trees in the distance and hills beyond that. A trail was also dividing the field heading into the forest. He saw roofs and chimneys in the distance over the trees that the trail lead into.

“Where am I? Who are you?” Julius had so many questions.

“We are just outside the village of Hillian and who I am doesn’t matter right now!” The man hurriedly exclaimed. “We have to get going!”

Julius looked around once again, “Why so hurried?” He had no clue what was going on but it seemed to be rather peaceful in the area.

“KAAA!” A loud noise resembling a hawk rumbled in the distance. Julius fearfully fell back to the ground.

“What the hell-“

“That’s why we need to get going!” The man helped Julius back up, “Follow me, if you lose me I’m not coming back for you!” The man ran off towards the village far way in the distance. Julius followed behind.

Julius used this time to try and understand what the hell was going on. He had no recognition of this place before and that man’s clothes were not normal. And that scream! Julius had never heard such a terrifying sound in real life.

The man was fast, and it was hard for Julius to keep up with him. “ Wait up!” Julius was out of breath pretty quickly into the sprint. Julius was fit and healthy, but he trying to keep up with this man was like trying to keep up with an Olympic athlete.

The man turned around, “We have to keep-“ The man’s eyes widened as his eyes diverted to staring at the sky behind Julius. “Run!”

Julius out of curiosity turned his head around ever so slightly. What he saw was probably the most terrifying creature ever know to man.

It was a large hawk like bird as big as an elephant. It had long, sharp-looking teeth and pitch black eyes. The bird’s talons and feathers were a mixture of black and grey. All of this on top of the fact that it was nose diving down towards Julius at incredible speeds. Julius froze in fear, his death imminent. He closed his eyes hoping that he would feel no pain.

Surprisingly, Julius was still alive after 5 seconds of closing his eyes. The are arround him suddenly grew in heat and his curiosity took over once again. His eyes slowly opened, and quickly widened as he witness a beam of fire blasting into the mostrous bird.

The bird screamed in anger and flew past Julius. Some of it’s feathers still caught on fire from the miraculous event.

Julius quickly turned around to see if the man was alright. He saw the impossible in that moment. The man’s hand was opened wide and fire was being formed from nothing. The man yelled out blasting the fire straight into the face of the approaching beast. The beast circled around the man screeching in pain.

“How-What-“ Julius couldn’t articulate words. He passed out soon after in complete disbelief and fear of what was happening. He was a coward. His fatal flaw.

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“AHHH!” Julius quickly rose up from his bed. His face geeked with anguish. He was now in a bed in a small, unfamiliar room surrounded with wooden walls. He looked around, no one was in the room with him. “Was it a nightmare?”

“He’s awake!” A muffled voice called out from beyond the door. The door slammed open and in came a pretty, blonde haired girl. “Good morning, you’ve been asleep for a few days!” She giggled. She was wearing a green cut off shirt that exposed her stomach and shorts that were so short they barely could pass a shorts. She wore thigh high boots and had green stockings. Her hair was long and made into a ponytail. She had bright blue eyes and long pointy ears as well that reminded him of an elf.

“Huh-“ Julius was utterly confused, was the nightmare actually real.

“You suffered no physical pain, but you put yourself into a coma after fainting!” The girl informed Julius. She was was smiling wide, talking in a caring voice.

“So all of that was real?” He asked the girl. “The fire... the m-monster.”

“Yup!”

“How? Where am-“ Julius paused himself.

Julius thought to himself, “I’m no longer in my original world am I. How was I transported here? Did I die?” He was so confused.

“Where am I?” Julius asked the girl.

“You are currently in the city of Armalisa.” She replied, still smiling.

Yep, Julius had never heard of that city in his life. He was almost certain now that this wasn’t his world.

“Oh! How rude of me!” She facepalmed in disappointment with herself. She held out her hand towards Julius, “My name is Edea.”

He shook her hand, “Uh- My name’s Julius.” He replied.

“Nice to meet you Julius!” She smiled once again. She was very cute and her smile was contagious. Julius slightly formed a smile.

Knock! Knock!

“Come in!” Edea called out.

The door opened slowly, the man from earlier peeked in, “Ah so he’s awake.” The man fully stepped into the room. He was different now.

“I-I’m so sorry!” Julius’s eyes were filled with horror. “It’s my f-fault!”

“It’s alright.” The man chuckled slightly, “I’m a mage, I only need one hand anyways.” The man’s left arm was in a cast, it no longer had a hand.

“What happened?” Julius asked, still feeling awful about the incident.

“I wasn’t able to take it down, it had bitten off my hand pretty quickly after you passed out. Luckily, I was able to hold it off for a few minutes.”

“How did you get us away from it?”

“Well we were saved actually. That reminds me! The man who saved us told me he wanted to have a talk with you. I don’t have any clue why, but he said it was important.”

“A talk with me!” Julius was confused, “What did I do?”

“Don’t know?” The man looked kind of jealous, “He didn’t specify any reasons. We are in his estate right now so he should be up in his office, I can guide you there if you’d like.”

“Okay, I’d appreciate it!” Julius was nervous. He had just been bombarded with so much information. For one, that wasn’t a nightmare and that monster actually existed. Secondly, he was definitely not in his origninal world. Lastly, he was in an estate owned by someone who wanted to talk to Julius for some unknown reasons.

“I would request that you go get dressed for your appearance in front of Master Vigor himself. He doesn’t usually request private conversations, especially amongst guests.” Edea informed Julius.

“Oh okay, I don’t have any extra clothes though.” Julius replied.

“That’s fine, Mastor Vigor has a guest closet for this reason.” She stood up and headed towards the door, “Follow me!” She excitedly told the boys. Julius assumed she was excited to pick out clothes for him.

As they walked behind the girl the two boys struck up a conversation.

“By the way, my name is Max,” The young man told Julius.

“My name’s Julius. I’m sorry about your hand, I know I’ve already apologized but-“

“Like I said, it’s fine I won’t hold a grudge. Although you might want to learn how to fight” Max advised Julius.

“I guess that would be a good idea...” Julius pondered the idea. It was insane to him that he would ever have to consider the idea of him having to learn how to fight. “I’ve never thought about learning.”

“You don’t seem like you are from around here.” Max asked Julius.

“Well, that’s true.” Julius scratched the back of his head struggling for an answer. He doubt Max would believe him if he said he was probably not from this world. “I honestly don’t know where I’m from anymore.”

Max looked at Julius with a confused look, “Weird...”

“This is the room, I’ll help you find something you’d look good in. Max if you’d wait out here?” Edea and the boys had arrived to the door of the guest closet. Or at least Julius assumed it was some kind of a guest closet.

“Of course, I’ll wait out here take your time.” Max replied.

The closet amazed Julius as he entered. It was huge, all sorts of clothes were hung up around room. It almost looked like a clothe store without the front desk.

“Alright, let me looke for something.” Edea looked so excited to find clothes for Julius to wear. Julius was indifferent, he didn’t really care about clothes that much, but she seemed so happy about it that he’d play along for a bit trying out different outfits and such. He also wanted to delay this meeting. He wasn’t feeling to good about it, since he honestly was so confused with the situation.

After around 30 minutes of trying on clothes he pair settled for him to wear a long sleeve tunic and breeches. Although it wasn’t very fancy he looked the best in them and found them the most comfortable.

“Okay, I think you look fine enough to present yourself to the Master.” Edea said as he finished putting on the tunic.

“Thank you, all you guys have been such a big help to me.” He exclaimed.

“Your welcome, don’t worry about your private meeting with master Vigor, I bet you’ll be fine.” She gave him a thumbs up.

“Alright let’s go we shouldn’t keep him waiting any longer.” Max told Julius as they left the guest closet.

“Your right,” Julius replied, “I’m a bit nervous, but I can do this. Bye Edea!”

“Bye you guys! I hope to talk to you two later!” She waved as she headed the opposite way. She was off to go clean around the house.

“You should be grateful that you get to speak to someone of such power,” Max muttered. “Although I don’t understand the reason I assume it’s important.” He was definitely jealous.

“Is Mastor Vigor famous?” Julius asked knowing that he would sound like an idiot to Max.

Max scoffed, “Famous! That’s an understatement. He is one of the five greatest warriors in all of Sunaria.” Max shook his head in embarrassment that I didn’t understand that.

“Sunaria?” Julius was still confused.

Max looked at Julius in complete and utter confusion, “The continent we are standing in right now. One of the 5 main continents in this world!”

“Oh!” Julius felt really stupid.

Max stopped at a large set of two doors. “This is his room, don’t be ignorant around him. Just listen and reply with short answers that don’t make you sound stupid.” Max condescendingly gave Julius advice.

“Okay, I’ll try not be stupid.” Julius replied very nervous for his meeting.

“Okay good I’ll wait for you out here.” Max assured Julius.

Julius reluctantly opened the doors. He entered another hallway that led up to another set of doors. He slowly walked up glancing at the paintings that riddled the walls of the hallway. Painting of who he presumed was Mastor Vigor.

The man seemed to be around 30-40 years old in these paintings. He was obviously handsome, but he looked saddened and rough in most of the portraits. He had a scar on both his right cheek and the left side of his lip. He had long brown hair fashioned into a ponytail. His eyes were painted with a storm cloud grey color. He wielded a greatsword in most of the paintings that showed his full body. The greatsword was the same in all, a golden hilt and a dark blade.

Julius finally reached the end of the hall and slowly pushed the doors open. His mind racing, scared that he would mess this encounter up. He opened the door to see a medium sized room. Bookshelves covered the walls filled with large sized books. A cluttered desk rested in the middle of the room. At that desk sat the man in the paintings.

“Hello!” The man smiled waving at Julius, “My name is Vigor! Take a seat.”

Julius didn’t utter a single word. He couldn’t think of anything to say in front of such an obviously powerful person. He took a seat at the chai opposit of his desk. It was comfortable enough, but that didn’t bother him at this moment. He looked on at the man waiting for him to start their meeting.

“I didn’t expect we’d have another chosen so soon. I expected a few more years to pass until that time.” Vigor poured a cup of tea and pushed it over to Julius.

“Another chosen?” Julius replied. Was he referring to what Julius thought he was referring too.

“Oh!” Vigor laughed, “Of course you have no clue what I’m talking about.” Vigor took a sip of his tea. After the long sip all of his focus was put onto Julius. “You are the 6th person ever to be transported to this realm. You are one of the chosen.

“What? How do you-“ Julius was amazed that this man knew he wasn’t from this world.

“Because I’m also one of the chosen. The first actually.” Vigor stated.

Julius almost passed out again. He couldn’t believe what he was hearing, that he was chosen to come to this realm for reasons he yet understood. “But why? Why me?”

“Make yourself comfortable, I’ll explain it to you in detail.” Vigor told Julius as he grabbed a book from his desk’s drawer and placed it on the table, “We need to find your prophecy first.”

TO BE CONTINUED...

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