Shadows Awakening Chapter 1: the lost shadow. under a willow tree a boy slept a boy with no name and no family born of darkness itself, and then that all changed changed due to fate, someone else just happened to be in that part of the woods her name was Astrid and she was on the run from some guards she and robed the king with good reason and the bounty hunter was after her, she heard a guard call out to her and then whoosh, an arrow stuck in a willow tree close to the woman's head, the young boy who was under the tree got scared and started crying the woman herd the crying of the boy under the tree, she picked him up and put him under her cloak with the gentle touch of a mother and started to run on through the woods wondering who this child was and what she would half to do with him, she didn't know what to do with the poor boy, then she saw the light of her old village were she knew one of her old friends still lived so she ran as fast as she could to his front door and left the boy at the step with her amulet so her old friend would know who left the boy, she ran into the woods surrounding herself in mist never to be seen again! 11 years laters "Get up boy get up you have to to start you chores now! there’s a hole in the roof that needs patching! and my door is starting to creak"the old man said, "fine fine, just give me a minute to get ready"I wined, "fine but you won't be getting any breakfast so you better hurry up or I will patch the roof with you, and you know I could do that with just a snap of my fingers boy"the old man bragged, The boy rolled over on the pile of old rags and hay that he slept on and he slowly got up groaning and muttered" like I get breakfast any other day" I put on a an old tunic and a travel cloak with a hood that I had made in my spare time, I also brought my little stone knife that my friend had given me, My friend gives Lots of nice things maybe he felt pity for me , I brought my knife everywhere but it isn't really a weapon it is craved stone, made to look ornamental witch it was but it was sharp enough for a defensive weapon but he did not own his own bow but he borrowed his friends short bow made of birch, all the boy got for his last birthday was a fresh bread for dinner instead of stale bread. but he often got fresh bread now but he only got it as one small loaf a day no lunch or supper to wash it down and he only got it because his master had Spare bread from the stuff he sold to the villagers, but his master was not all bad he says that he was once a wizard but the boy did not believe this, he had seen wizards and mages and necromancers before and he thought his master was just playing a joke on him but how could he know, just then he heard someone calling, Tulles were are you, “I’m out the back” Tulles called, for that was his name. I have been looking for you everywhere"how I have only been gone for around ten minutes and I said to meet up hear and anyway I just got up" I said, "just got up! I have been up all morning mostly improving our cave base, I have added two new sleeping mats in their and I was at the market trying to find you a good present for tomorrow "James said, "oh you didn't have to James its ok I don't like present any way" to late I have got your present and you will get it tomorrow on your birthday, and its something you really wanted forever, oh and my dad got you a present to , said James, oh not him as well my master soled the last thing he gave me, answered Tulles, well just hide it this time and it will be a good thing for your master to, now lets go to the wood I’m starting to get bored standing out here chatting lets go hunt ,James answered back, fine ill make something up to get out. Chapter 2: the lost shadow found Be very still and quiet don’t make a sound, I don't think it will attack if you don’t startle it, tulles whispered, do… don’t you know a spell or something all of those old books one of them has to be magic, you have to know something!, the old man your master or whatever I always thought he was some sort of wizard I always thought you were like his apprentice or something"James said a little to loudly, the shadow growled still staring at me "no I’m not his apprentice that is just stupid!"I frantically whispered, the shadow started to slowly moved closer, "ok then got any bright ideas to save us or will we sit and die hear"James said "yeh I do help help h...."James put a hand over my mouth but the damage was done, the shadow lunged at me just before it jumped I herd a loud whistling sound coming closer and right before it hit me it got knocked aside with an invisible force so strong it knocked me unconscious. I woke up being dragged by James who was saying " come on get up they will catch us" I blinked and stood myself and just started to run for it "I can see When I got back to my cottage James thanked me for saving him and told me to come to his house in the morning and I said, ill try my best to get there on time. "Your late boy what took you so long"my master said softly, we were attacked by some sort of shadow, I muttered, “a shadow ah! What was it like”my master squeaked clearly excited , "why are you so interested in the stupid shadow when Im the one that almost got killed, clearly I am just a slave to you well anyway if you really don't care about me it was like a wear wolf made of thick mist and with glowing red eyes not like the hovering ball of darkness in the storeys”, I said sleepily , it’s called a wisp not a ball of darkness and that are not all that evil but the shadow you meat in the woods was a demon of the shadow realm, and I’m sorry!! to say you are in great danger now and you half to leave now although I don't really care about you I want to keep on living I can’t say why but you will properly die, but better you than me, my master said simply, suddenly the door exploded and the shadow from the woods dashed in knocking my master over I wish I could stay to see my master killed eaten or whatever a shadow does to a human but I knew I was next, I looked toward the door I was a strange white light outside that quickly vanished and I dashed out the door. Chapter 3: a new gift As you would think I ran strait to James that night to tell him everything and this is were everything gets a bit complicated now I was far away from the hut now and I was running so fast that I tripped and fell twice I heard a sound like ice braking behind me, I turned and looked back but there was nothing there but dust and “shadow” I turned around still running then a splintering sound like wood breaking and felt something cold go right through me, then a flash of light and I saw.. it a “shadow”with red eyes and dark almost sold claws stretching out to me, then something cold touched my heart and I blacked out. I woke up covered in sweat even tho I was in a cold cavern and groaned realising that it was not a cavern at all it was mine and James cave hut we made together I put my hand on the ground to get up and felt something cold and wet "ice" I realised, "how did that get in hear" I thought, I felt around for the lamp we kept beside the sleeping mats I found it and as soon as I touched it, it lit!then I remembered that James got enchanted lamps he must of brought one in hear and then I heard footsteps outside the sleeping area coming closer and closer , I held my breath thinking it might of been the shadow, then James walked in and I let my breath out, "thank that gods it's just you"I panted" what was I thinking shadows don't have feet" " Then something weird happened even though his lips did not move I heard James scared voice in my head saying "calm down now no need to freak out James everything is normal the ice around James was always there, in... The summer ok ok deep breaths now" I wasn't sure what happened but I knew I had just read his mind I said" are you ok" am I ok me! what about you? lying on the path half dead covered in ice and surrounded in shadow?" James said, sorry I said guiltily, could you tell me what happened I don't remember much after. After the blast of light"James cut me off, "yeah so you saw that then"I said, did I see it! The whole village saw it, oh and hears your present its a day late"James said, wait! I have been out, for a whole day, yeh I thought you were dead, like I'm going to be when I get home"James said quietly,have you been hear all night that's....... I was cut short by a rustling sound outside the hidden cave entrance "what was that!" I whispered, "I have absolutely no idea' we should hide"James whimpered.then his eyes widened" open your present " what? I don't think now is a good time"I whispered impatiently, "just open it, what I got might help us"James muttered impatiently as the rustling changed to growling I slithered over to the birthday box quietly and opened it" A bow! This is better than the one." Sshhhhhhhh"James cut me off, but it was to late. The thing rushed through the entrance straight towards me,(now this is were things got weird)my eyes started to glow white and I raised my right hand and a stream of ice blasted from my hand striking the shadow and to my surprise it made contact and did not pass through it, instead the shadow screamed and started shrinking until it was a bit smaller than my fist then my eyes went back to normal and I lowered my hand I turned to face James and gasped "what?" He said afraid, I could see a small white light pulsating inside his chest then it vanished "nothing just. Let's see about that shadow"I bent down and picked up the small dark orb. Suddenly the orb glowed red with heat and absorbed itself into my hand,the pain was to much to bare, I passed out Chapter 4 the mark Wake up wake up! "Ok ok just a minute I had the strangest dream sir"I said, "sir? It's me James you have only been out for a few minutes"James said,I stood up looking around, the bow and quiver was still on the small desk were I dropped them, I went over to the desk to examine the bow, it was made of dark oak and shadow ivory with runic carvings. I read some of the carvings and said " this bow will never run out of arrows? It must of cost a fortune" "well yeah it's the only present you get so I made it the best it could be"James said I pulled out one of the arrows out of the quiver, it seemed to beautiful to use, it was made of dark oak and shadow ivory like the bow but the tip of it was a blood stone " how did you get this? blood stone is illegal and so is shadow Ivory"I asked James looked guilty " I um I stole it from an old evidence chest' they were going to burn it" he added quickly "thanks this is amazing and I know we're to get more"I said' here's the truth, I have absolutely no idea how I knew were to go or the name of the person I even knew how to get their and I said" I'm not sure how to travel in this way James but I think I can" "oh ok then"he replied confused,"he we go then" I said equally confused I pointed my hand towards the wall with co light on it and i started to pull the light from it till it looked like empty space "this way" I held out my hand ,James replied nervously " um ok are you sure about this" I ran toward the wall of shadow pulling James with me and we became shadow itself. We rushed on and on through walls and forest over lakes then we saw a hill with a door in to and we slowed down and fell out onto the ground outside the hovel I brushed myself off " that was fun hey?"I said laughing, and I say James green in the face saying " I think I forgot my stomach" and he threw up, I adjusted the bow on my shoulder and put my arm under James holding him up " come on this way" I led him over to the door of the hovel and went to knock on the door but as soon as I raised my hand ice shot out and froze the side of the hill. I jumped back in fright and tripped over a lose stone dropping James "sorry about that James " I said a bit shaken I got him back up and went to open the now frozen door, but it crumbled into little shards of ice "ops" I muttered. As soon as I looked inside I gasped with shock of what I have done, first of all the whole of the inside of the hill had been hollowed out and the walls were covers in weapon racks and display cases covers in weapons of every shape and side and all over the place were men but none of them were moving they were all frozen and on the counter for it was a shop lay a frozen orb like the one he had absorbed into his hand. He looked at his hand now just releasing their was a mark burned into it, he reached for the orb on the desk and it flu into his hand it absorbed into his hand but did not glow like last time but suddenly my hand started to shake and the snake like tendril on the mark started to twine around my hand to the base of each of my nails and go up my arm, it did not hurt but it was like cold fire then it stopped and my hand stopped shaking, he found the closest empty chair and put James in it, i went behind the counter looking through the many bottles of assorted potions and found one labeled "travel sickness" "ah this should do just fine" I muttered to myself, then I saw a blood red bottle with a skull bottle cap labeled "demon blood" it has many medical uses but on its own it was poison, I decided to pocket it and went over to James and gave him the travel sickness potion, he drank it and thanked me to "have a look for some supplies in here and you should check the pockets of the shop keeper he might have the keys or something" James said weakly, "ok I'll be back as soon as possible"I replied, I walked over to the shop keeper who was on the floor because I had knocked him over when I was getting the potion he had four keys three of witch were labeled and there was one bronze cylinder with 10 legs like needles all around the base I pocketed both of them and the needles folded themselves inside the cylinder "hu that's handy" I muttered, the three keys that were labeled said "supply room" "smithery" and "shop key" but the unlabelled one looked new and clean but i did notice the scratches on it so it was used. Chapter 5 geared up I looked around till i saw a door behind me saying "supply room" i got out the key labeled to that door and unlocked the door, there were seven chests all labeled with different weapon materials such as iron, steel and bronze i looked at the two chests and the far back of the room only one was labeled the other one was pure metal, dwarfs work "there must be something important in their" I thought, i went over to the chest beside it that had a padlock on it and it was labeled "blood stone" i bent down and pulled out the keys, i looked at the unlabelled key and saw that it was made of the same material as the lock, the key fit perfectly and the lock fell off I opened the chest and it was full of beautiful blood stone weapons and a note " don't forget about the chest under this one" " oh that's interesting but now i have to move this chest full of weapons" i took some stuff out of the chest first of course. I grabbed one side of the chest and pulled nothing happened "need a hand"James said from the door" "oh I see your feeling better then and yes I do"I replied, we each grabbed one end of the chest "pull on three ok ,one, two, three" the chest slid back and on the ground was a long panel taller than me with a small handle, I pulled up the panel and I found three beautiful items the first one was was a leather belt with a dozen throwing knifes the second thing was a pair of spear heads and the last thing was a a beautiful dark oak and blood stone bow-staff I also released the spear heads were for the staff "the staff and knifes are cool and all but you the one who actually knows how to use a bow-staff or throwing knife I'm good with a sword or bow your the sneaky one"James said unnervingly "yeah that's true you keep the bow you gave me then and there is a sword and shield in that chest but you should take the buckler as you are quite small I'll take the knifes and staff" I replied, now, I am 14 and James is 15 and James is average height but I am taller than him by a foot even tho I am a year younger "that sounds like a good idea but we should hurry before the people in shop begin to thaw"James replied back, "I am still not sure how to open this Dwarf chest but I do have a bit of an idea"I said in question "well I don't really know anything about dwarfs but I am pretty good with locks so let me see it"James replied in answer, I pointed toward the chest and he knelt in front of the chest "this is weird most locks have around two pins to be pushed into place and they are in a row but this one appears to have ten and they have to be pushed inwards not upward"James said confused, then I remembered the bronze cylinder, I pulled out the cylinder when I put it close to the lock the pins extended and pulled towards the pin holes around the device and after a minute the chest clicked open at this point I was holding my breath but when the chest opened I let it out "some old cloak, boots and a pair of gloves"James said disappointed I pulled out the cloak and something fell to the ground "oh what's this? A letter" the letter said " this is not an ordinary cloak it is chain mail made of the so fine a type of metal it feels like silk and the pendant has a spell to turn the wearer of the cloak invisibility but the pendant is unnecessary for it to work, for the gloves and boots they will allow the wearer to climb vertically or even on the roof if one wishes.PS the cloak will look like whatever material is in the inside pocket" Inside the bottom of the chest lay a pendant and some patches of material for the cloak I guess, I handed the letter to James who skimmed though it "wait this can turn you invisible and let you climb up walls" James said amazed, "yeah I have put some spun Cotten in the inside pocket to make it look like a travel cloak"I replied "oh my gods look at your hand!"James said in shock, "what!" I looked down my hand was now completely covered in tattoos and I hand long sharp black nails " wow" suddenly my nails went back to normal and the new marks slid up my arm "what was that!" James said offensively, " it's nothing important and don't get mad at me its not my fault" I said defensively, I heard moaning from outside the door "quick get you stuff I'll try shadow travel again" I put my new staff on my back tightened my knife belt put the hood of my new cloak up and grabbed James " no wait I don't wan"James got cut off by being turned into a shadow Chapter 6 why! "Ahh. please don't do that again it makes me feel sick and you really need to explain some things like h.. Tull