story so far

Chapter 1


        A Blind Old Man










Rory Drew was asleep on his desk in school as usual only to be woken                                           by a stinging pain on the back of his head. His teacher had learned not to waste his breath shouting at Rory for sleeping and to just hit him on the head with a ruler, it was far more effective. “Well as I was saying before Rory’s snores interrupted us…” and Mr. Kelly began to drone on about the Normans. “ I have better things to be doing than listening to him” thought Rory and he began to pretend to be paying attention. The second school was over he darted out the door and went straight home.
       His teacher had given them homework off so he was out the door and cycling down the road before his mum could even say hi. He liked cycling in the woods, it was so quiet as he bounced through the tangle of thorns and weaved through the trees. Today the birds weren’t even singing, something was wrong. Suddenly he was blown into a tree by an unnaturally strong burst of wind. He fell into a bed of dead leaves and looked up at a tall hooded figure. “can’t let you go running home to your mummy can I?” he asked himself “Na, I’ll just have to kill you instead” he said and a ball of fire began to form in his hands. Someone jumped out from the shadows and pulled out a scythe, the hooded guy pulled out a sword, let the flame go out and engaged the other guy in combat. The hooded guy kept on sending the other guy flying back but he always got back up again. Rory was in too much pain to run away so he lay there and watched.
      The hooded guy was getting tired and was now only defending while the other guy was quick as ever. Eventually the hooded guy let through one swing of the scythe which went straight through his chest and blood gushed out as his body hit the ground. Rory vomited. The man with the scythe grabbed Rory “don’t speak a word of this to anyone” and he was gone.
  Rory kept away from the woods over the next few days but he was tempted to go in and see if there was anything weird so he went back to where he witnessed the fight. It was as it was and the damage from the fight was gone. Rory did find some footprints, vomit and blood that might have been left from the fight but he wasn’t sure. He sat down against a tree and began to eat a chocolate bar. How can people conjure fire out of nowhere and control the wind ? It was too confusing. “You have seen too much” said a man’s voice from behind him. “If you are going to kill me do it fast” Rory said trying to sound brave.
“If I wished to kill you, you would be long dead by now” said the voice “But your blood is innocent”.
   “What”
  “Your blood is innocent”
  “What do you mean? How is my blood innocent”
  “You’ve never killed someone”
 “Oh, but how do you know that? Are you stalking me?”
 “No, hey look a diversion”
 Rory looked away, saw nothing, looked back but the man was gone.  “A tree” he thought “what a brilliant diversion”.
   He was beginning to get angry now and how was he stupid enough to look away at a diversion, a diversion, how idiotic.
   He cycled home thinking about what just happened. “Hi mum” he shouted as he ran up to his room. He sat down on his bed and started staring at the floor he was getting confused. People disappearing, conjuring fireballs, controlling the wind, his brain couldn’t take it.
    And what had he seen too much of? He was really confused. Charlie, his Irish setter was sleeping on the bed behind him. Rory felt something wet and slimy slide across his neck, he’d forgotten about Charlie. “Good boy Charlie” said Rory and he began to rub him.
   The next day he was cycling over a ramp he made. It split straight in half on his first attempt over. That was his good ramp, he’d been using it for years. Nothing was going his way. He cycled back to the woods again with Charlie this time. Nothing at all, no footprints, no blood and no litter. Only that the footprints and blood wasn’t unusual but because he was in Ireland with no litter, that was unusual.
   Charlie was sniffing the ground and he froze for a moment, then he was off like a bullet, or a bus Erin dog. Rory sprinted after him right into the depths of the woods. There was an old man with a long bone in his hand which he was leaning on, lot’s of scars, and a cloth over his eyes. Rory stopped dead, “hello Rory” said the man with the bone. “H-h-hello” stammered Rory.
   “You have seen much but I can’t kill you,” said the man “So I may as well tell you now”.
   “W - w - what”
   “Your world of technology isn’t the only world, there’s a world of magic too”
   “Oh”
    The man grabbed the bone and spun it into the side of  Rory’s head.
    Rory spun to the ground.
   “Rule one of battle craft, be ready for an attack at all times”.
   Rory got back up again “why are you teaching me battle craft?”
   “be back here tomorrow at precisely twelve thirty if you wish to join the world of magic and hear the answer to that question, if not, don’t”
   And he was gone. Rory hated those damn “magic” people, they always leave so suddenly and it was beginning  to annoy him. He cycled home with Charlie running alongside him, wondering  about what had just happened. he was extremely curious and began to wonder was it just one big prank.
     The next day at  precisely  twelve thirty Rory  went back to the  woods    with  Charlie  because he was  curious, either   the people  that are  pranking him  are  brilliant  actors  or  this was   all  actually  true.
     He  walked  along the path,  no  water  balloons yet   which was  some   proof  that   it wasn’t a prank. He walked to where the old man was the day before, there he was  and standing right beside him was a girl who was around Rory’s  age.








                                      



                                        Chapter two
                                     Necromancy

   “Hello Rory” said the old man “this here, is Amy, Amy Rogue”.
    “Hi” said Amy.
    “Eh… hi Amy”
    “So back down to business, which type of magic would you like to learn. There’s the elements, like Amy here, necromancy or  plain magic with a few of your own tweaks added in” said the blind old man “and by the way my name is Amadeus Scortus”
   “Hi Amadeus” said Rory.
   “what type of magic would you like to learn?”
   “Eh… would you explain them please”
   “ Ok, there is the elements, water, earth, air and fire, necromancy, that’s death magic-”
   “Ok, I want to do necromancy”
   “But you don’t even know what the last one is”
   “Yeah, but I like the sound of death magic”
   “Ok, but you can’t decide to change halfway through”
   “So, what exactly is necromancy anyway?”
   “Necromancy is death magic, you gain power from places that have seen death. Your power is placed into one object.”
   “Cool, when do I start?”
   “as soon as you find an object.”
   So Rory turned away to leave, but only got about five steps before Amadeus called him back “Oh and Rory” he called “The answer to the question you asked yesterday is there is always fights in our world, you need to be prepared”
    Rory turned and hopped onto his bike and cycled home, with Charlie running alongside him. He flung his bike into the garage and burst in the door. There was a note on the table: gone shopping, be back soon.
    Excellent, he could search for a weapon. first he went to the shed, he laid out  a bunch of possibilities:
A scythe
A pitchfork
A secateurs
A pickaxe
A lump hammer
A chainsaw (maybe he could find a hockey mask…?)
A hatchet
A spear gun
A drill
     None of them really appealed to him (the chainsaw would be brilliant but  he didn’t  have a hockey mask). He  went  back inside. On the table  lay a  large  piece  of pork, beside it… a large carving knife, it was  enormous. It  had a inky  black leather handle  and a silver  stainless steel blade. Perfect.
    The rest of the day it was all that was on his mind. he didn’t speak during dinner, he didn’t do anything. He just went to bed. In  the morning he had breakfast,  read a few chapters of a book and  then sat down to listen: his mum was preparing a cake  for a coffee morning in her friends house, his sister was in a friends (it was a sleepover) and his dad was at work.
    He walked into the kitchen, seeing his mum putting the cake on a cooling rack. He kept walking into the sitting room. There he sat until he heard his mum leave. The time was right. He went out into the kitchen and searched for the knife.
     He found it in the drawer and went back out into the shed. This time he knew exactly what he was looking for. Eventually he found it, a long thin strip of black leather. He went inside while wrapping up the blade in the leather. He got a fistful of dog biscuits, a dog lead and a bar of chocolate.
    The leather was stiff and retained the shape of the blade. He fastened on a clip to the scabbard and clipped it onto the inside of his jeans. (wouldn’t want to get caught by the guards, would you) he tied on Charlie’s lead ans set off at a jog towards the woods because it would be too uncomfortable to cycle with the knife hidden.
     A thought struck him on the way there, what if they’re not there? oh no, there was no organised time like last time! Oh well, he would just have to hope for the best.
    He entered the woods and kept going until he found where he first saw Amadeus and Amy. They weren’t there. He sat down and was giving Charlie, who was sniffing around, a dog biscuit and gave himself a dog biscuit too, which he spat out ( Charlie licked it up ) and replaced it with a bar of chocolate ( without any meat flavouring ), when out of the woods came Amadeus and Amy.
    “Hello” said Rory.
    “Rory” said Amadeus “are you sure you want to get involved in this world? It’s not all fun and games you know”
    “ok, my life is pretty boring anyway. It can only be an improvement”
    “all right then” he replied, and began to chant with his arms on rory’s shoulders. The chant was in some crazy language that Rory couldn’t understand. At long last, he was finished.
    “What was that?” Rory asked.
    “A spell, when people you know see you they will be filled with stories of you and to them you will have been there all the time, but when your gone, they will forget you completely. I find it quite indigenous actually. I do it to all my apprentices, it’s way simpler than having to make up excuses.”
    “ok. Can I start magic now?”
    “yes. Take out your knife”
    Rory took out the knife and Amadeus lay his fingers on the top.
    “This may hurt” he muttered and a cold feeling of loss went through the arm Rory was holding the knife with. “that’s the magic” Amadeus explained “I am sucking the magic from you then sending it back, it can’t return to you so it stays in the knife.”
    Rory opened his eyes, he felt great. The knife was now swirling in black. It was really cool.
     “thanks, it’s eh…  really cool”
    “Think nothing of it”
    “Okay, I won’t!”.
              

Chapter 1

        A Blind Old Man

Rory Drew was asleep on his desk in school as usual only to be woken                                           by a stinging pain on the back of his head. His teacher had learned not to waste his breath shouting at Rory for sleeping and to just hit him on the head with a ruler, it was far more effective. “Well as I was saying before Rory’s snores interrupted us…” and Mr. Kelly began to drone on about the Normans. “ I have better things to be doing than listening to him” thought Rory and he began to pretend to be paying attention. The second school was over he darted out the door and went straight home. 

       His teacher had given them homework off so he was out the door and cycling down the road before his mum could even say hi. He liked cycling in the woods, it was so quiet as he bounced through the tangle of thorns and weaved through the trees. Today the birds weren’t even singing, something was wrong. Suddenly he was blown into a tree by an unnaturally strong burst of wind. He fell into a bed of dead leaves and looked up at a tall hooded figure. “can’t let you go running home to your mummy can I?” he asked himself “Na, I’ll just have to kill you instead” he said and a ball of fire began to form in his hands. Someone jumped out from the shadows and pulled out a scythe, the hooded guy pulled out a sword, let the flame go out and engaged the other guy in combat. The hooded guy kept on sending the other guy flying back but he always got back up again. Rory was in too much pain to run away so he lay there and watched.

      The hooded guy was getting tired and was now only defending while the other guy was quick as ever. Eventually the hooded guy let through one swing of the scythe which went straight through his chest and blood gushed out as his body hit the ground. Rory vomited. The man with the scythe grabbed Rory “don’t speak a word of this to anyone” and he was gone.

  Rory kept away from the woods over the next few days but he was tempted to go in and see if there was anything weird so he went back to where he witnessed the fight. It was as it was and the damage from the fight was gone. Rory did find some footprints, vomit and blood that might have been left from the fight but he wasn’t sure. He sat down against a tree and began to eat a chocolate bar. How can people conjure fire out of nowhere and control the wind ? It was too confusing. “You have seen too much” said a man’s voice from behind him. “If you are going to kill me do it fast” Rory said trying to sound brave. 

“If I wished to kill you, you would be long dead by now” said the voice “But your blood is innocent”. 

   “What” 

  “Your blood is innocent”

  “What do you mean? How is my blood innocent”

  “You’ve never killed someone” 

 “Oh, but how do you know that? Are you stalking me?”

 “No, hey look a diversion”

 Rory looked away, saw nothing, looked back but the man was gone.  “A tree” he thought “what a brilliant diversion”. 

   He was beginning to get angry now and how was he stupid enough to look away at a diversion, a diversion, how idiotic.

   He cycled home thinking about what just happened. “Hi mum” he shouted as he ran up to his room. He sat down on his bed and started staring at the floor he was getting confused. People disappearing, conjuring fireballs, controlling the wind, his brain couldn’t take it.

    And what had he seen too much of? He was really confused. Charlie, his Irish setter was sleeping on the bed behind him. Rory felt something wet and slimy slide across his neck, he’d forgotten about Charlie. “Good boy Charlie” said Rory and he began to rub him.

   The next day he was cycling over a ramp he made. It split straight in half on his first attempt over. That was his good ramp, he’d been using it for years. Nothing was going his way. He cycled back to the woods again with Charlie this time. Nothing at all, no footprints, no blood and no litter. Only that the footprints and blood wasn’t unusual but because he was in Ireland with no litter, that was unusual.

   Charlie was sniffing the ground and he froze for a moment, then he was off like a bullet, or a bus Erin dog. Rory sprinted after him right into the depths of the woods. There was an old man with a long bone in his hand which he was leaning on, lot’s of scars, and a cloth over his eyes. Rory stopped dead, “hello Rory” said the man with the bone. “H-h-hello” stammered Rory.

   “You have seen much but I can’t kill you,” said the man “So I may as well tell you now”.

   “W - w - what”

   “Your world of technology isn’t the only world, there’s a world of magic too”

   “Oh”

    The man grabbed the bone and spun it into the side of  Rory’s head.

    Rory spun to the ground.

   “Rule one of battle craft, be ready for an attack at all times”.

   Rory got back up again “why are you teaching me battle craft?” 

   “be back here tomorrow at precisely twelve thirty if you wish to join the world of magic and hear the answer to that question, if not, don’t” 

   And he was gone. Rory hated those damn “magic” people, they always leave so suddenly and it was beginning  to annoy him. He cycled home with Charlie running alongside him, wondering  about what had just happened. he was extremely curious and began to wonder was it just one big prank.

     The next day at  precisely  twelve thirty Rory  went back to the  woods    with  Charlie  because he was  curious, either   the people  that are  pranking him  are  brilliant  actors  or  this was   all  actually  true.

     He  walked  along the path,  no  water  balloons yet   which was  some   proof  that   it wasn’t a prank. He walked to where the old man was the day before, there he was  and standing right beside him was a girl who was around Rory’s  age.

                                        

                                        Chapter two

                                     Necromancy

   “Hello Rory” said the old man “this here, is Amy, Amy Rogue”.

    “Hi” said Amy.

    “Eh… hi Amy”  

    “So back down to business, which type of magic would you like to learn. There’s the elements, like Amy here, necromancy or  plain magic with a few of your own tweaks added in” said the blind old man “and by the way my name is Amadeus Scortus”

   “Hi Amadeus” said Rory.

   “what type of magic would you like to learn?”

   “Eh… would you explain them please”

   “ Ok, there is the elements, water, earth, air and fire, necromancy, that’s death magic-”

   “Ok, I want to do necromancy”

   “But you don’t even know what the last one is” 

   “Yeah, but I like the sound of death magic”

   “Ok, but you can’t decide to change halfway through”

   “So, what exactly is necromancy anyway?”

   “Necromancy is death magic, you gain power from places that have seen death. Your power is placed into one object.”

   “Cool, when do I start?”

   “as soon as you find an object.”

   So Rory turned away to leave, but only got about five steps before Amadeus called him back “Oh and Rory” he called “The answer to the question you asked yesterday is there is always fights in our world, you need to be prepared” 

    Rory turned and hopped onto his bike and cycled home, with Charlie running alongside him. He flung his bike into the garage and burst in the door. There was a note on the table: gone shopping, be back soon.

    Excellent, he could search for a weapon. first he went to the shed, he laid out  a bunch of possibilities:

A scythe

A pitchfork

A secateurs

A pickaxe 

A lump hammer

A chainsaw (maybe he could find a hockey mask…?)

A hatchet

A spear gun

A drill

     None of them really appealed to him (the chainsaw would be brilliant but  he didn’t  have a hockey mask). He  went  back inside. On the table  lay a  large  piece  of pork, beside it… a large carving knife, it was  enormous. It  had a inky  black leather handle  and a silver  stainless steel blade. Perfect.

    The rest of the day it was all that was on his mind. he didn’t speak during dinner, he didn’t do anything. He just went to bed. In  the morning he had breakfast,  read a few chapters of a book and  then sat down to listen: his mum was preparing a cake  for a coffee morning in her friends house, his sister was in a friends (it was a sleepover) and his dad was at work.

    He walked into the kitchen, seeing his mum putting the cake on a cooling rack. He kept walking into the sitting room. There he sat until he heard his mum leave. The time was right. He went out into the kitchen and searched for the knife.

     He found it in the drawer and went back out into the shed. This time he knew exactly what he was looking for. Eventually he found it, a long thin strip of black leather. He went inside while wrapping up the blade in the leather. He got a fistful of dog biscuits, a dog lead and a bar of chocolate.

    The leather was stiff and retained the shape of the blade. He fastened on a clip to the scabbard and clipped it onto the inside of his jeans. (wouldn’t want to get caught by the guards, would you) he tied on Charlie’s lead ans set off at a jog towards the woods because it would be too uncomfortable to cycle with the knife hidden.

     A thought struck him on the way there, what if they’re not there? oh no, there was no organised time like last time! Oh well, he would just have to hope for the best.

    He entered the woods and kept going until he found where he first saw Amadeus and Amy. They weren’t there. He sat down and was giving Charlie, who was sniffing around, a dog biscuit and gave himself a dog biscuit too, which he spat out ( Charlie licked it up ) and replaced it with a bar of chocolate ( without any meat flavouring ), when out of the woods came Amadeus and Amy.

    “Hello” said Rory.

    “Rory” said Amadeus “are you sure you want to get involved in this world? It’s not all fun and games you know”

    “ok, my life is pretty boring anyway. It can only be an improvement”

    “all right then” he replied, and began to chant with his arms on rory’s shoulders. The chant was in some crazy language that Rory couldn’t understand. At long last, he was finished.

    “What was that?” Rory asked.

    “A spell, when people you know see you they will be filled with stories of you and to them you will have been there all the time, but when your gone, they will forget you completely. I find it quite indigenous actually. I do it to all my apprentices, it’s way simpler than having to make up excuses.”

    “ok. Can I start magic now?”

    “yes. Take out your knife”

    Rory took out the knife and Amadeus lay his fingers on the top.

    “This may hurt” he muttered and a cold feeling of loss went through the arm Rory was holding the knife with. “that’s the magic” Amadeus explained “I am sucking the magic from you then sending it back, it can’t return to you so it stays in the knife.”

    Rory opened his eyes, he felt great. The knife was now swirling in black. It was really cool.

     “thanks, it’s eh…  really cool”

    “Think nothing of it”

    “Okay, I won’t!”.