Introduction
A boy with wavy sand colored hair was wandering around the streets of his now-gone neighborhood. He stood with ragged clothes and a burn mark on the right side of his head. It looked just like a skull. A fire has started up and nobody knows how it started and nobody saw the boy. He hid because he feared that they would send him away to a place far away from the memories of his only friend, the dog, who has perished in the terrible fire. The boy did not know his name for his foster parents did not care for him. He never heard a single name addressed to him and when someone called him over to him they said,” You, boy, come here!” They did not care for him so he did not care for his foster parents either. As soon as the firefighters and police drove away he set off to find a friend that he could trust and stay with.
Early in the morning he left in secrecy for police officers arrived in the morning to watch for any stray people. He left by a huge field with a pack of food he stole and a pair of shoes his current shoes worn out. He did not know where he was going but he at least got to see the world. When he came out of the field there was nothing but wildlife. He imagined this in his sleep but not like this. This place had many people with tents and fires. He stayed away from the huge crowds of people. He know what would happen if he went over to them. He would get whipped for wandering around. He did not wish another one. During a meeting his parents had, he found a kind doctor and the doctor noticed him walking with a limp. The boy showed him his back and the doctor took him into his office in the mansion. The boy was afraid but did not regret the visit. The doctor explained to him that if was to harm his back one more time that his spinal cord would snap. As he said that the boy ran out of the office afraid what would happen and took his only belongings (which was not much) and hid in the field. He did not go far because his father told him of horrible stories and the father laughed as the boy trembled and yelled at him to stop. As he yelled he would get a beating from the butler for yelling at the master. As he wandered he met a few kids who called him over. He was told to obey everyone since everyone was higher than him so he went over to the group of rough looking boys. They told him to stare at a dot on a piece of paper. He noticed a girl his size behind them crying with a red mark on her cheek. He tried to ignore her when one of the boys, the leader he guessed, came over and slapped him. The boy did not feel it for he had had much for pain before. The boy just stood there staring at the dot as he was told. As he stared at the small black dot a tall skinny boy burst through the paper with a shrunken skull was put right in his face. The boy crawled away as if the world was going to end. He crawled into a few bushes and got caught in the bramble. The gang laughed like crazy and pointed at him. The leader called the boy over and was surprised to see that he actually came over. They named him Skull because of the burn mark on his right cheek. Finally, Skull thought, I have a name. Skull decided to hang around the gang and find out where they were going. The gang had a meeting around a little fire. They decided to head over to Cilva, a big city. So it was decided, he was going to Cilva.
Skull hitched a ride on the back of the gang’s wagon. (Yes, they did steal it.) Every night Skull would steal food from a big barrel but what Skull didn’t know was that the gang knew Skull was in the box that their wood was in. All the wood was found in the morning on the side of the old dirt road. Later on that day the gang waited until dark when they found that Skull was asleep. They silently opened the box and got a good scare from Skull. Skull heard them coming and got prepared. The gang was surprised that Skull was so good at sneaking and listening. The gang decided that Skull should join them and he could be the co. head thief because of his sneaky surprises and he could reach into small places. Every time a wagon passed by, the gang would send Skull to steal items for their wagon. Unfortunately, some times the wagons had people in the back and sometimes Skull was nearly shot. One time a wagon was loaded with bombs and was apparently an enemy’s cart traveling to destroy a big part of Cilva. When skull stepped on one…BOOM! Skull was kept in the wagon for 5 weeks for his arm, leg, and head to heal. Over those 5 weeks, they easily went broke. They could barely be kept alive. After 3 more weeks, they arrived in Cilva.
In Cilva they tried to get many jobs. They only succeeded in one job. A thief. They worked days and nights but sent only Skull out to do the day work. During the sunset they sent Skull out to hide under the books and then he would steal all of the big volumes. When he got back to the camp just on the outskirts of town the gang would burn all of the pages to keep their fire going. One night he found a book named History of Cilva. He decided to keep the book and found many fables and tales of treasure hidden under the city. He never told his friends and set off one night. The gang was reckless without him. They searched the city and ended up getting caught for snooping in the trash in someone’s yard. They were sent to a small building with one giant stained glass window on the top floor and it was made with all glass. They built the window so it would not look so menacing. Back to Skull’s story, Skull was looking in libraries and stealing books. Soon all of the books on history of Cilva were missing. He soon found that only one theory matched in all of the books. He learned that the treasure was a chamber full of treasures and he eagerly made a run for where the capitol stood to that day. He entered the main library and found a book full of maps of the city and all of the surrounding cities. He stole the gang’s money that was left in the camp. He saw that the camp was deserted so he took 3 water bottles, 5 cans of corn already cooked, 10 pieces of bread and a big loaf of sour dough. He started his journey in the east side of the elegant library. In ht east side there stood a tall shelf of historical fiction to his right and a tall shelf of literature. A librarian saw walked passed and caught a glimpse of him removing the great big rusty lock that kept people out of the forbidden section that had the personal information. As he rushed to get into the locked gate with his new GIANT picklock for the GIANT lock, he accidentally knocked over the literature bookshelf. He was finally in the forbidden section and he quickly did a forgotten spell that he learned from one of the books he found in a big solid glass case, it was not very difficult to open because it was wide open. He grabbed the spell book and disappeared into the next door.
Skull found himself in a small room that did not have a door and as he went in he illuminated the tiny room and found at least 12 skulls and 13 full bodies. He saw mud tracks in the tiny room and he felt them. They were warm and soft. Someone was recently here. He found that they led to a solid door with a faded purple shadow around it. Skull guessed that it was cursed. He wasn’t taking any chances so he headed back but he soon discovered that the door disappeared and the wall started closing in. Skull realized what had happened. The wall closed in until the people had to touch the door and get cursed until they died of suffering. He wondered if this was the end. He knew he was no different than anybody else. He soon thought of something. If the book was in the stand than someone had to come get it from the recent person or... the other corpses never got the book! There was still a hope but he had to be careful and constantly watch the wall. He flipped through the pages and soon found an opening spell. He was soon lifted up into the clouds with hope. Then, he plopped right down again. He did not have a dragon horn or the Amulet of Sakramedes. As he backed away towards the wall he tripped and by the skin of his teeth he lived. He found a dragon horn but to his dismay he did not find the amulet. “I’m done for,” Skull said aloud. As he lay down, awaiting his fate he heard a clinking sound. He looked around but saw nothing. He heard it again and soon found a necklace around his neck. It was the necklace he was given at birth. He hid it but did not know he brought it along. He collected the two treasures and thought that they would be a nice present for the next victim. He whispered in his head the spell. He started to get frustrated. He yelled the spell for there was nothing else to yell and as he did, a purple tornado burst from his chest where the two treasures lay. He realized that his necklace was the amulet! As the tornado cleared from the door a circular shape etched into the wall. He pressed the amulet into the big wooden door. The door creaked open but with out the purple glow around it. Skull pushed the door just so slightly so he could squeeze into the next room.
The next room was pretty small and looked just like a bedroom. There was a small bed with the sheets pulled tight. There was a big pillow propped against the wall. There was a small dresser and a circular rug. The rug had candles surrounding it. Skull took a step closer to examine the candles. They still carried smoke so he knew that they were lit not long ago. As he stepped onto the rug the rug rose above the ground. Skull hovered there on the rug. The candles instantly lit themselves and Skull heard a voice behind him. A figure emerged from the shadows. Skull had not thought of inspecting the whole room. How foolish was he, he was going to die here as for he could not get out. The ends of the rug started to close around him. The next thing he felt was the tug like a giant hand reaching for him. Skull started to thrash around, trying to find a way out of the dusty, old rug. The candles fell off of the rug but he heard no sound. He started yelling for help even though he knew it was useless. Suddenly he heard a thump. He started to pry the rug open and what he saw was a HUGE castle. It looked like a medieval structure. People strolled by not even noticing him. As he looked at himself to see what was wrong, he noticed that he was transparent, not invisible but completely see-through. He tried to talk to somebody but as he tapped the butcher on the shoulder, the butcher just shivered and continued on his way. Skull gasped and sat down to rest against a wall. A boy walked up to him and said to him “ Why are you sitting, they are waiting for you in the meeting room.” Skull looked around to see whom the boy was talking to. Skull noticed a small rat, but that was all. After the man would not leave, Skull swung his arm at him and to his surprise; the boy fell down hard on the square rock road. Skull instantly got up and lay down in front of him, waiting for his beating. The boy sat up instantly and looked the boy in a quizzical look. “Why are you down on the floor?” the boy asked. He helped Skull get off of the ground and started to shake the dust from his old vest. Skull kept his head down and instantly started to apologize. The boy just shook his head and grabbed Skull’s hand. Along the way they went through many alleys where parents where yelling at their kids to get out of the way of the Royal Messenger Boy.
As they neared the castle the boy put on a lopsided cap and started to explain that his name was Kiro. “My name is Kiro; I am the Royal Messenger Boy. I am taken that you are Skull, am I right? Well, you were taken as a baby and sent to the real world; by a necromancer named Shelio Cromant. The man you encountered in the secret room was Shelio, trying to grab you and send you away from his workshop. He never expected to find you in there so you had some luck that when the candles dropped that his level of magic also dropped and you were intercepted of the transportation and landed here. Are you following all of this?” Skull nodded, though slightly dazed for he had never learned so much at once. One question still bugged Skull though. As soon as he was about to raise his voice though, a man screeched to a stop in an old caravan pulled by a small mule. The man half leaped, half fell from the caravan and fell to his knees in from of Skull. Skull backed away from him and looked at Kiro this time with a quizzical look. Kiro laughed out loud and told the man to get up. The man rose from his dirty position and took a quick bow. He went back to his caravan and offered to drive the two boys to the castle, even though it was out of his route. The boys talked in the back with hushed voices for there were many enemies in this time. Kiro showed Skull a small butcher knife hidden in his leather belt. He took out a smaller one but still a fair sized blade and handed it to Skull. Skull backed away from the blade but Kiro grabbed his hand and made Skull take the wooden handle. He explained that this was only to be used for protection or emergencies.
