Blood soaks his clothes and pools all around him. Reaching out with a blood-stained hand, he looks for anything to help. His hand makes contact with something wooden. He grips the wooden object with all his strength. He slowly tilts his head to look at what he grabbed only to be met with the leg of a chair. Not helpful at all. The constant, unbearable pain spikes through every part of his body. Fearing the worst, he continues scraping across the stone brick floor, finding nothing. Strength leaving his body, he reaches his bloodied hand out one last time, grasping the air as if something might be there before exhaustion from the pain takes over and his eyes tightly close shut. Darkness takes over…

A boy jolts out of bed, covered in sweat. His eyes widen in fear, and his heart beats rapidly. It takes a while for his mind to adjust to where he is. His hands reach for his head, covering his eyes as he takes deep breaths. What did I just see? The boy thinks. Was that a dream? His mind scrambles for what he saw. He tries to picture the dream again, but as all dreams do, it fades quickly. The boy, not wanting to forget what he had witnessed, slaps the palms of his hands to his head and focuses on concentrating on the fading image. A voice from below breaks his concentration.

“You up, Rowan?” His mother’s voice travels its way upstairs. “You better not be late to the Academy today!”

Rowan, who now could only remember a glimpse of what he saw, finally made the rest of the way out of bed. He takes a deep breath and dresses himself, all the while trying to cling to what he witnessed. Was that another of those dream predictions? Rowan thinks while getting ready. If this is a prediction, it's definitely different from what I normally get. This prediction is nothing like my usual ‘I’m going to be clumsy and trip over another rock’ or ‘Watch out mother; don’t spill that cup of tea.’ Was that a prediction of my death? 

With questions still on his mind, Rowan heads downstairs for breakfast. Sitting down at the dining room table, his thoughts continue to race for more answers. His mother harshly setting down his morning tea on the table snapped him back to reality. He takes the cup and goes for a sip, but is caught by his mother's arm as she stares directly into his eyes.

“What’s got you so distracted?” She calmly asks Rowan as her violet eyes deeply stare.

“Uh— it’s nothing. It’s nothing,” Rowan hurriedly responds, breaking eye contact with his mother, “I was just making sure I had everything I needed today.”

“Oh… okay,” 

His mother lets go and leaves the room. Finishing his tea, Rowan stands up, adjusts his Academy robe one last time, making sure the vibrant whites and reds are in the right place and heads out the door toward the Academy. Heading down the stone path, Rowan constantly looks down toward his feet, in fear of tripping over a rock. His constant paranoia about small pebbles continues for most of the trip until something within his mind tells him to look up. Giving in to the urge and looking up, his blue eyes lock onto something. A specific opening within the village’s borders. The opening to the Mystical Forest. Rowan thinks. Still as heavily guarded as ever by those same halberd-wielding knights. The village of PineHolm is located right on the outskirts of the Mystical Forest, a place filled with various magical creatures and plants. Why does this forest always catch my eye? Rowan’s mind switches thoughts. This village banished magic a whole century ago, after the whole Mayor Leon ordeal. He pauses briefly, concentrating on the forest opening as if looking for something. Information from his history classes fills his mind. Leon would keep people in fire cages, or throw them off cliffs with wind magic. His magic was so powerful, not a single person could do anything to stop him. The village would have been stuck under his control if it wasn’t for his trip into the magical forest. The reports that Leon had been killed by a dragon was the saving grace everyone at the time needed. The village then quickly banished magic, making sure there wouldn’t ever be another ruler like Le—  An arm wraps around Rowan from behind, interrupting his thoughts.

“Rowan, what’s up?” The arm connects to a boy.

“Good morning Lee,” Rowan responds without even looking behind him, “I’m surprised you aren’t already at the Academy.”

“I kind of stayed up too late. You know, doing all that Academy work.”

“Yeah, yeah, the Academy does give us a ton of work.”

Almost like it was waiting for the conversation to end, Rowan’s foot trips over a fallen twig, and he tumbles to the ground. Lee breaks out in laughter.

“You’re… such a… clutz,” Lee tries to speak through his laughter.

“Oh shut up,” Rowan remarks as he stands up and attempts to brush the dirt off his robe, “Now, my robe is ruined.”

“Uh oh, you might get in trouble with the headmasters.”

“Come on, this is basically a daily occurrence. At this point, if I showed up with a clean robe, people would start asking questions.”

Approaching the entrance to the Academy, Rowan and Lee give each other a quick wave before heading off to their first classes. Rowan sits in the back of his history class and puts his head on his desk. It doesn’t take long for his eyes to shut. It will only be a quick nap… There’s still plenty of time until class starts. His thoughts justify the nap as he drifts to sleep.

“Rowan, hey, wake up,” A woman’s voice whispers accompanied by small pokes to Rowan’s side.

His eyes slowly reopen, and he lifts his head. He can faintly hear the professor at the front of the room in the middle of the lecture. Ignoring the current lesson on the founding of PineHolm, Rowan tilts his head to see who had awakened him. His eyes meet those of emerald green, and Rowan recognizes the girl sitting next to him.

“Did you have to wake me up, Jade?” Rowan grunts, “I was enjoying my nap.”

Jade giggles. “Well, you can’t be missing out on the founding of PineHolm.”

“I couldn’t care less about the founding; it's always the same story,” Rowan rubs his eyes. “One dude decided he wanted to go somewhere else, and so he went there.”

“Hmph,” Jade pouts. “You’re no fun.”

“I never said I was.”

The rest of Rowan’s boring history class goes by with Rowan barely paying attention, and Jade constantly starting random conversations with him. Rowan and Jade split up with a small wave as they head to their next class. Rowan’s foot stumbles over something, causing him to fall into the corner of the hallway he was approaching. As he slams into the corner wall, he is plunged into darkness. When Rowan finally recovers from his tumble, he can only faintly make out a place he doesn’t recognize. Rowan, unable to see well except for a dimly lit staircase leading into the darkness, slowly absorbs his surroundings. Reaching around with his hands, he realizes he is in an extremely small room with the only focus being the main staircase. However, while examining the room with the palms of his hands directly opposite the staircase, Rowan notices the wall rotates. He pushes on one side of the wall, and the whole wall rotates back around into the same hallway he had tripped in. What’s down that staircase? Rowan’s discovery sinks in. And why would it be hidden by a secret passageway? 

Rowan heads out to find Jade and Lee, deciding he wants to explore the ominous staircase, to invite them along for his investigation. As he finds them in their respective classes, he lets them know about his investigation.

“I found something worth investigating,” Rowan speaks to them, “I want you to join me. Meet me at Hallway B3 after classes are over.”

With his message delivered, he heads back to class.

“We’re here,” Lee approaches with Jade following closely behind, “You said you wanted to show us something.”

“I wanted to show you this,”

Slowly, he once again pushes his hand against the wall, and making sure Jade and Lee can see, he rotates the wall 90 degrees, revealing the hidden staircase.

“Woah, how ominous,” Jade quietly gasps, “How did you find this?”

“I might’ve tripped and accidentally fell into it…”

That causes Lee to burst out laughing, “Of course, your clumsiness caused this!”

“Well, let’s check it out anyway,” Rowan leads the way.

Walking through the corner crevice, Rowan heads down the stone brick staircase. He grabs a lit torch off the wall to light the way in front of him and continues down. He only stops when a pair of hands grip his left arm. He turns around to see Jade holding onto him.

“I’m sorry,” Jade whimpers, “I might be a little afraid of the dark.”

“That looks way more than a little afraid,” Lee remarks, “You’re basically clinging to Rowan.”

“Leave her alone,” Rowan stands up for Jade, “We all have our fears. It’s better to have someone comfort those fears rather than leaving them in the dark, no pun intended.”

Jade’s cheeks start to blush, “Thanks, Rowan.”

As they continue down the staircase, they wind in several directions before the staircase finally leads to an opening. Rowan walks into an open catacomb-like area with large wooden beams and shelves lining the sides. Each shelf contains a great number of books, all aged with time and seemingly untouched for ages.

“Woah,” Jade’s mouth is open in shock, “It’s so grand.”

She rushes over to the shelves to check out the books. After glancing for only a couple of seconds, she shrieks, drawing the attention of the other two boys.

“These are magic tomes!” she squeals.

Rowan quickly heads over to see what Jade is talking about, and, sure enough, the books on the shelves are either magic tomes or texts describing the usage of different types of magic. 

“Magic, here, in PineHolm? I need to grab some paper; I gotta take some notes!” Jade proclaims while heading back up the staircase, completely ignoring her previous fear of the dark.

Rowan continues down the shelves, taking in all the mystical texts before his eyes notice a particular book. He slowly pulls the book off the shelf and lightly dusts the front cover off with part of his Academy robe. The title of the book simply said, “Deciphering and Controlling Magic Dreams.” He takes the book and looks at it, unable to control the thoughts spinning around in his head. This is exactly what I need. I can finally figure out these stupid dreams I keep getting. Rowan flips open the book, ready to finally figure out answers to questions he has had since his childhood. A sharp pain tears through Rowan’s waist. Rowan looks down to see a blade, stained with blood, it had punctured through him before being withdrawn. Unable to comprehend what happened, Rowan spins around to see Lee standing there holding the bloody sword.

“Lee?” Rowan asks in desperation.

“You never should’ve come down here.”

Rowan covers his wound with his hands barely able to stand up.

Lee continues rambling. “It would’ve been just fine. I could’ve been the only one to know about this. I would’ve been able to harness all the power myself.”

“What are you talking about?” Rowan struggles to stay standing.

“I’m going to retake PineHolm. Like my ancestors did.”

Rowan’s confidence, unaware of the situation, takes over, “Well, I’m going to stop you.”

“Stop me with what, magic?” Lee laughs.

Lee struts his way over and kicks Rowan hard in his stomach, causing Rowan to collapse to the ground.

“Guess I gotta hunt down that annoying brat now,” Lee scoffs, “Can’t have her ruining my perfect plan.”

Lee heads up the staircase, sword in hand, disappearing into the darkness. Rowan, desperation filling his eyes, attempts to stand up once again. He securely plants his hands and pushes himself off the ground. He manages to upright himself, but not for long. His legs give out from exhaustion, and his body slams to the floor once again. Blood soaks his clothes and pools all around him. Reaching out with a blood-stained hand, he looks for anything to help. His hand makes contact with something wooden. He grips the wooden object with all his strength. He slowly tilts his head to look at what he grabbed only to be met with the leg of a chair. Not helpful at all. The constant, unbearable pain spikes through every part of his body. Fearing the worst, he continues scraping across the stone brick floor, finding nothing. Strength leaving his body, he reaches his bloodied hand out one last time, grasping the air as if something might be there before exhaustion from the pain takes over and his eyes tightly close shut. Darkness takes over…

…

…until a bright light shines through his eyelids. Slowly, Rowan feels strength coming back to his body, and he reopens his eyes. Looking down at the blood-soaked floor, he can clearly see a radiant white glow enveloping his body. He tilts his head up, only to be met with a recognizable pair of emerald green eyes.

“Oh my god, Rowan!” Jade’s voice echoes through the basement, “Please let this work!”

Rowan’s words have a rough time leaving his mouth. “Jade…”

Rowan lays on the ground for a while, breathing heavily, before his pain disappears into nothing, and he pushes himself off the ground. He fully uprights himself, only to be met with a pair of arms wrapping around him.

“I’m so glad that worked,” Jade spoke softly. “What even happened?”

“Betrayal. That’s what happened.”

“What do you mean? Where’s Lee?”

“Lee tried to kill me! He’s trying to take PineHolm.”

“Why would he do that?” 

“Something to do with following his ancestors… I don’t know; I was trying to avoid dying.”

“Ancestors? You mean like Mayor Leon?”

“I’d have to assume so. I don’t know anyone else who took over PineHolm by force.”

“Why would Lee do this? He’s our friend isn’t he?”

Rowan couldn’t think of a response. The pair stood in silence until a new question entered Rowan’s mind.

“What was that light? How did you heal me?”

“That light was magic…” Jade slowly responded. “I saw you on the ground and all the blood, and I panicked. I saw a book about healing magic and used the first spell I saw.”

Her eyes go wide, and she backs away from Rowan.

“Oh my god, I just used magic,” Her eyes look fearful, “The village is going to kill me!”

“No, they aren’t.” This time Rowan’s arms wrap around Jade, “We’re going to get out of here before they get a chance to.”

“What… what do you mean? You don’t have to do that. You didn’t do anything wrong!”

Rowan walks over and picks up the book he took off the shelves, “I’ve been dealing with magic dreams since my childhood.”

Jade covers her mouth in shock. Rowan throws the book down on a table and paces around the room a plan forming in his head.

“We’re going to grab anything useful here and flee into the Mystical Forest. Let’s embrace and learn what our village banished, so we can come back and stop Lee.”

Rowan stops pacing and looks into Jade’s eyes, “Only if you want to join me of course.”

Jade, still looking into Rowan’s blue eyes, stands in silence for a couple of seconds, before she finally speaks, “I would love to join you.”

Without wasting any more time, and still being as meticulous as possible, Rowan and Jade worked to fill a briefcase within the catacomb basement full of any useful tomes and scripts they could find. Rowan, taking hands with Jade, leads the way back up the staircase and out of the Academy. Heading down the stone path without looking back, the pair heads directly to the opening of the mystical forest. Until Rowan stops in his tracks.

“The guards! I completely forgot about the guards!” He spoke out loud. “How are we going to get past them?”

Jade looks up, realizing a solution. “The sun just started to set, which means the guards change. We can slip out while they switch shifts.”

Not wanting to waste the perfect opportunity for escape, they wait in silence until the guards leave their post. The moment they notice the guards are distracted, they bolt right past them and out toward the Mystical Forest. They continue running through bushes and over fallen trees until they are out of breath. Stopping to catch their breath, Rowan examines their surroundings, where he spots a nice, followable path through the forest. Making sure they are both no longer exhausted, Rowan takes Jade’s hand, grabs their briefcase full of unknown magic, and leads the way toward their new journey.