Rivershire was a small city in the Western Plains, only a few acres wide. It was situated upon a huge river that flowed down from the Blue Mountains. The water was crystal clear, so you could see fishes sailing down and above the stream.
Goldfish were travelling in a group when a stone splashed the water, scaring them away. Clyde picked up another stone and threw it at the river again. It had always been like this. He had unknowingly wrote those weird letters on his homework textbook, which made the teacher angry and got him expelled from the class. Again.
Clyde didn't know where or how he learned the language, or what language it was, but he knew it didn't belong to this world.
"Snyder expelled you from class again?" A beautiful girl with long white hair and ocean-blue eyes stared down at Clyde, who seemed rather shocked to see her.
"Lailah? What are you doing here?" Clyde asked as Lailah sat beside him on the riverbank. "Hawk and I argued a bit, so I came here to clear my head. I'm glad I find you here, I really need a friend right now," she replied.
Clyde looked away, his usual grim face becoming more dull. "If I were you," he said. "I would not call someone whom everyone considers an alien a friend."
Lailah chuckled, thinking it was a joke. Clyde might not say it, but he too enjoyed Lailah's company. Out of the billions of people on Celesterra, only two people saw him as a normal person. One was Lailah, and the other was his foster father, Theo Marcellus.
Theo Marcellus was in his mid-forties, but he looked no older than thirty. Sometimes, Clyde wondered if his foster father knew some kind of magic which made him stay young forever. Clyde never knew his biological parents, but he heard from his foster father that they died in a war—which Theo Marcellus didn't care to emphasize.
Theo loved Clyde as his own and never let him feel the absence of his parents. To Clyde, Theo was the only family he had and he was everything to him.
Thinking about his foster father, Clyde could not wait to see him as he was returning from his journey.
Clyde stood as he extended a hand to Lailah. "Do you want to come with me to the Terminus? Theo is returning today."
Lailah smiled, holding Clyde's hand. Picking up their backpacks, they rushed back to the city. But on the way, they encountered a young lad
who was hiding under a tree, looking so afraid.
"Little friend, are you alright?" Clyde asked as he approached the boy.
The boy mumbled words with his soft voice. Clyde leaned down and listened, then heard the boy saying, "I didn't kill them" and "You made me do it."
Clyde's eyes widened as he turned to look at Lailah, who was now as pale as a corpse. Her head was raised, and her eyes were round like circles. Her whole body shivered as she pointed at the things she was looking at.
Upon the tree, two bodies were hung, their limbs incomplete. Clyde thought it was best to grab Lailah and leave immediately. However, the little boy was pulling Clyde's leg as he begged him not to leave. Lailah was so scared that she was practically frozen.
The sun was setting soon, and it was always at nighttime that strange things happened. Like a few days ago, when a man killed his whole family during dinner. And before that, a woman drowned in a well in the middle of the night. It was as if there were something sinister about the night, which tempted people into committing grave sins. "Let go!" Clyde shouted as he kicked the boy. He then grabbed Lailah's wrist as they ran away. Behind, the little boy was chasing after them. Clyde thought he had seen it wrong, but the boy was actually getting taller and taller.
"STOP RIGHT THERE!" the little boy shouted, his voice sounding grotesque and monstrous.
Clyde's boots hammered against the earth, his breath coming in ragged, desperate gasps. Lailah was light in his grip, her feet barely touching the ground as he dragged her forward.
The boy—or whatever he was—was gaining weight. The sound of his footsteps had changed from the soft patter of a child to the heavy, rhythmic thuds of something impossibly large.
"Clyde, stop!" Lailah gasped, her voice trembling. "I.. I can't run anymore."
Clyde didn't dare stop, fearing the creature might catch them. "I'll lead him away," he told Lailah. "You go to the Terminus and find Theo."
"What about you?" Lailah asked, reluctant to leave him alone. Clyde knew Lailah would not listen to him, so he pushed her down the slope. Lailah rolled all the way to the highway. When she looked up, she saw a giant, red-skinned monster with six arms chasing Clyde.
Lailah recalled what Clyde had told her, so she ran down the street, hoping to find a kind soul who would take her to the Terminus. She should have gone to the county office to report the incident and ask for help, but what they had encountered was unbelievable; the authorities would surely find her words a joke.
Theo Marcellus was a scientist, so he would believe whatever Lailah had to say—especially with Clyde's life at stake. But Lailah never found Theo at the Terminus. She had been dropped off at the place an hour ago by a framer she met on the way. But no matter how long she waited, the arriving trains never carried Theo.
~~
Clyde ran toward the river, the moon already shining bright. A little while ago, he had fallen and caught a glimpse of the creature. It was nearly 300 centimeters tall and had six arms. Its skin was blood-red and tattooed with black ink. The tattoos looked like thick veins through which venomous blood flowed.
Clyde had never seen such a creature, however, his instincts told him that it wasn't the only one of its species.
Hiding under the water, Clyde tried his best to hold his breath until the monster left. However, the monster possessed a consciousness; it could not be fooled.
Clyde saw the monster breathing in air, and something sparked inside its mouth. Fire erupted from the monster's mouth, which boiled the water. Clyde immediately jumped out and crawled to the other side of the riverbank. The monster laughed, which sounded like thunder and an earthquake combined. "You are not so brave, boy. You are weak and fragile. I can give you strength. I can give you courage. All you need to do is let me into your heart. "
"Wha—what are you?"
"I am your deepest desire. I can give you anything and everything you want. Just let me in." The monster's eyes glowed as it grabbed Clyde's head. Clyde was paralyzed. His body stiffened, and his eyes turned black. His soul was trapped in his subconscious, unable to break the chains that bound him. He watched his body being claimed by the monster, but there was nothing he could do.
When he thought it was the end of his life, a blinding light descended from the sky. The monster's hand was severed, and a man wearing a black cloak snatched Clyde's body and laid him under a tree. The monster fought against the black-cloaked man and was losing. Finally, the black-cloaked man stepped aside as a fiery arrow pierced through the monster's heart, burning it alive.
Clyde saw everything from his subconscious. From the part where he was rescued by the black-cloaked man to the monster being burnt alive, it had only taken a second to happen.
"Is he the one?" a young woman, wearing the same black cloak, asked. Her voice was rather deep for a woman.
The black-cloaked man took a photo form his pocket and compared the photo with Clyde's face. "He is the one," the man said, the photo disappearing in his hand like dust blown away by the wind.
Clyde's physical body was able to move again, so his subconscious gradually faded. The moment he opened his eyes, it was already morning. He was at his house, sleeping on his bed.
Clyde grabbed the alarm clock to look at the time. It was already half-past ten. What happened the previous night seemed all too real to be a dream or a nightmare.
Clyde got down from the bed, taking off his his tunic and pants as he checked himself in the mirror. He wasn't injured anywhere, and his organs felt just fine.
"Was it really just a dream?" he asked himself.
~~
When Clyde went downstairs, he found a stranger sitting in the chair where his foster father usually sat to read the newspaper. The man looked a bit older than Theo, with long, straight silver hair which was tied in a loose ponytail, the bangs falling over both the sides of his face. He was dressed like a nobleman of a high status, and he indeed looked like one.The man was writing something in a notebook, but as he saw Clyde, he put away the book and walked towards him.
"Hello, Clyde. I am Tobias Grindelwald, a friend of your foster father?" Tobias reached out his hand and Clyde politely accepted the greeting.
"Where's Theo?"
Tobias didn't answer right away, which made Clyde uneasy. He feared that something had happened to his foster father. "Clyde," Tobias addressed him, taking out an envelope from his coat pocket. "This was left for you by your foster father."
Clyde snatched the envelope and tore it open. Inside was a letter and a ring. As Clyde read the letter, he understood that something had indeed happened to his foster father.
Clyde fingers trembled as he smoothed out the parchment. The handwriting was unmistakably Theo's. As he read the first few lines, the air in the room seemed to grow heavy, as if the weight of the words themselves were pressing down on him.
Clyde,
If this letter ever gets to you, it means I am no longer with you. Son, there are many things I want to tell you, but time was a luxury I no longer possessed. All I can say is that you are a very important person—not just to me, but to this world and to the worlds beyond. The universe needs you.
I know you will find it hard to believe, but the story about the legendary kingdom I told you when you were a kid is real. You always asked me why you were different from other children. I never explained because you were too young to bear the weight of the truth. But now that you have grown up, I can finally tell you the reason.
You are not just different, but also special compared to other children. You and I are not from this world. Our home is beyond the sky. And I am sorry for the secrets, Clyde. I only wanted you to have a normal life for as long as possible. But the blood in your veins does not belong to the earth, and the stars are calling you home. Tobias is the only one I trust to guide you now. He will take you home, and help you master your arcana.
Take care of your mother's ring. You will need it to uncover the secret of your birth. Be brave. You are stronger than you know.
With all my love,
Theo
Clyde stared at the ring. It was a dull, heavy silver, etched with runes that seemed to pulse with a faint, rhythmic glow. He looked up at Tobias, who was watching him with a gaze that was both clinical and deeply sympathetic.
"He's—dead?"
"We can't be sure. But we haven't been able to contact him for weeks." Tobias stood up, the silk of his noble attire rustling in the quiet living room. "Theo is a man of many escapes, Clyde, but this time, the stakes were higher than even he could manage. He didn't leave you because he wanted to. He left so they wouldn't find you."
"They?"
"Demons," Tobias explained. "I will tell you more about it when we arrive at the sanctuary." Tobias opened a portal to a space loop. Clyde was amazed; he didn't expect to find people like him. And the funny part was that he was indeed an alien.
"You must know," Tobias said, "after we leave, you will not be returning here for a long time. Everything you need is there at the sanctuary. Bring only which you can't live without."
Clyde didn't have many possessions, and he wasn't too attached to his belongings, either. Therefore, he had nothing to bring along besides the photo of him and Theo. He wore his mother's ring, as he followed Tobias into the portal. What felt like twenty seconds passed, and they reached the other end.
The golden light coming from the end of the portal was bright and blinding. Clyde lost his vision for a moment before it returned. He was completely amazed by the beauty of the kingdom, which was built above the clouds.
Twelve high towers surrounded the entire kingdom, with a highway connecting them. A grandiose golden palace stood at the heart of the kingdom, protected by high walls. There were houses made of marbles, and the people there looked heavenly.
Clyde turned his head toward Tobias, who was now dressed in a white, regal military attire with a cape hanging off his shoulders. A bridge appeared before them, leading to the two gigantic gates of the kingdom's entrance.
Tobias reached out his arm, gesturing for Clyde to go first. "On behalf of the Lord Almighty, I welcome you to the Holy Sanctuary. This will be your home from now on."
"Amazing." That was all Clyde could say.
xxx