Chapter 1: Creatures of Lore

"One day you too will take your place as the elite of our keepers. One day, I will not be here, and you will have to take my place," Gyais smiled down at the small child that stood before him, hopping from one foot to the other uneasily. The child hid its eyes behind tiny hands that could barely hold a weapon. It had just been chosen from a handful of creatures to one day watch over Karmathor as well as guard the necromancer. It would be many years before that day came, but training began early for the younger generation of keepers, trained by the current protectors.

"Bu-but what if I cannot be a keeper? What if I fail? Why is it that I am to be a keeper? Why not someone else ...will there ever come a day when the world will no longer need keepers? Do we have no other purpose? Why cannot the Dagthars, even the Rens protect the necromancer? Why are we left to that dead end trail?" The child shook its head in an attempt to clear that foreboding feeling that had been welling up inside for some time now.

"Don't worry, you will know what to do when the time comes young one," Gyais laughed half-heartedly while standing up from the officer's desk that resided in the Guard Post. The days seemed to be passing quickly since the child had learned its fate about a week ago. Questions mounted its head, what would happen should the keepers fail?

The child thought quietly when the time comes, will I be able to accept my destiny as a keeper? Or, as so many before myself, will I fall to the darkness?

**

"Mom says to hurry up! We are going to be late for school, and I am not going to be late for my first day of middle school," Robert banged once again on the bathroom door, "You have been in there for over an hour and I need time to get ready as well! If you don't get out of this bathroom, I am going to tell mom! Dad is not home and you are going to be in so much trouble!"

I jumped, almost losing my balance as the thuds echoed off the tiled walls, the water in the toilet bowl forming ripples on the outer rim. I smiled my normal smile, knowing exactly where my response was going and then responded, "Why the rush Robby? Are you going on some kind of date today and need to have a bath for the first time this week?"

"I told you over and over again to stop calling me that! My name is Robert! I am not a little baby anymore, and I wished you'd just give it up! Can't you accept me as a growing adult and stop acting so childish?! And I am supposed to be the younger sibling? No, I do not have a date waiting for me...but I just wish you would stop picking on me!" Robby yelled from the other side of the door.

I smirked, returning my attention to the reflection in the mirror. A girl of seventeen with waist length raven hair and amethyst eyes shot back the smirk instantly, an eerie doppelganger. My image startles most people that I run into for the simple fact that no one had eyes like mine; I have always been different even when I was living at the all girls home. My eyes were different in a way that people always gave me a second glance, just to make sure they actually had seen what was in front of them. Yes, it hurt, every time. Who wants to be the odd ball out?

"Hello? Hurry up. You are taking forever!"

"What in the world am I doing?" I sighed and shook my head, "ever since the accident, I can't even remember my own birthday, my own parents, or if I ever had any siblings...everything is just blurry each time I try and dig into my past. I wonder if my parents are even alive or if they had died in the accident...or maybe they cannot remember either."

"Okay...I'll be here all day. I could order pizza, and it would get here faster than you getting out of that bathroom. Why don't you have a bath while you are at it?"

"Now that I have progressed from that day, I feel as if I don't belong ... like there's something else that I am supposed to do. My eyes, for instance, they never give me the security I need when I am around others my age. Boys turn away, stunned and appalled by my appearance, girls talk quietly in their own clans about me which leads me to have a friend's list of zero. Even my adoptive parents give me strange looks when I ask about my past if the all girls house had any information about where my birth parents are. Why am I so different? Why am I the outsider?"

"Yeah...I'm still here."

"Denying my feelings for a different life would be stupid, insane. But, there is nothing else waiting for me, at least, not here...I'm just a girl trying to find her way, and trying to survive school, like any normal girl. Doesn't that make me normal?"

Robby began to give up, but not before huffing out, "Orphan." His stomping footsteps could be heard throughout the whole house as he made his way downstairs, floorboards creaking beneath his socked feet.

My eyes began to water as a single tear slid down my cheek, reflecting rainbows in the sun from the bathroom window. A thought I had wanted so dearly to escape from since the moment I could understand what that fateful word meant. Another reason I was different from other students at my school, heck, I couldn't even remember my own name when they came to pick me up from the all girls house.

Richard had looked at me full of warmth, love, and kindness and thought I was something unique, so he gave me a special name. Nami, the name given to me means, "Ocean Wave" but I also had another idea when I searched my name on one day out of curiosity and found it an acronym for National Alliance for the Mentally Ill.

"I'm not..." I looked deeply into my eyes and turned on my heel, a shadow hovering above my head, a feeling of sorrow stabbing at my heart by tiny daggers that were too small to be seen. The start of my senior year was about to begin at Daybreak High School, and I was going to be late, not that it really mattered that much considering the events this morning.

"I told you to hurry up dear, now I have to drive you," Jennifer glared from the other side of the island in the kitchen, clearing off the last bit of food left after Robby. He never could take care of himself and relied on others for his own protection, even if that meant stooping down to being a mama's boy. He was a spoiled brat. Each morning I would wake up, and it was the same story, "Nami do this! Or, Nami do that! Or, can't you leave your brother alone for five minutes?" Yup, that was my everyday life.

The room was dully-lit; the little light that remained in the area was flickering off the peeling walls, something Jennifer and Richard had been meaning to fix, but never seemed to have any time. It felt like living in the middle of Battle Ground Dump. Jennifer was a short and very skinny woman. She no longer attracted men, though; she was ignored when flirting with others at the supermarket...sometimes even right in front of Richard. I pitied him, he deserved so much more than her, but their families were angry when Robby was born out of wedlock. The families threaten to disown their children, so they were forced to marry. Jennifer treats every man far nicer than her own husband. Her hair was the color of black and her eyes the shimmering color of an icicle, also known as the wicked foster mother.

I nodded and replied, "But why can't I drive myself? I am a senior this year, and I think I am quite old enough to take care of myself. I don't want to be the only senior not driving themselves to school, think of what a fool I would look like showing up with my mother dropping me off."

"Your father has taken the BMW for a business meeting this morning, so I am left with the Prism." Jennifer ran the water over the plates in the sink, trying desperately to clean off the ham and eggs she had recently served to Robby; her voice was beginning to become irritating. She must have woken up on the wrong side of the bed, and I was the only one in sight to lash out at.

I slowly sauntered behind Jennifer and placed a hand on her shoulder, hoping it might make her feel better. I wished she could just understand how emotions are stronger than words in times like these. She jolted upright and turned to face me, danger playing across her face. For some reason, I guess this was crossing the line, especially this morning.

"What is it Nami?" Jennifer questioned my look, but my hand removed its self from her shoulder and back down to my side, I always could sense danger in her eyes, "Mother...I needed to ask you something." Jennifer sighed and turned back to the dishes, shrugging off the strange encounter. She never cared to spend precious time discussing how I felt, she would rather spend time with Robby, even if that meant cleaning up after every mess he made.

Immediately I turned away and headed for the sliding glass door and grabbed my backpack that was sitting next to the planter, my temper flaring within seconds and I did not want to take it out on my mother even though she may have deserved it. Yes, she was not my real mother but she is the closest thing to a mother I have ever known. She is after all, the only woman that had been in my life 'taking care' of me.

"But you won't listen."