The Malefor Chronicles Book One – The Return of Malefor

Chapter 1-The Curtain Rises

Our story opens up in a faraway place, a place located in another world. It's early morning, a dense, cool fog lays heavy on the ground. Here we meet a boy at the age of 14, he's of moderate height, with dirty blonde hair and blue eyes. The boy is wearing a dark blue jacket over a black shirt, he is wearing blue jeans with a pair of old shoes. He's sitting in a tree, looking through a pair of binoculars at a floating island across from him. The ground below him is grassy and moist with morning dew, to the left of the tree was an old, wooden bridge leading to another island.

"Can you see anything?" asked a voice, slightly feminine, inside his head. On the boys left shoulder, a gem locked inside of a holster pulsed with energy when the voice spoke.

"No," replied the boy, "the fog's to thick, Buzz must not want us to know what we're getting in to."

"This is your fault you know." said the voice, "If you didn't say 'surprise us' we wouldn't be going in there without any information."

"You know what, you're right." stated the boy, "But it's not like you haven't made a few mistakes yourself."

"Are we really going to fight about this?" asked the voice.

"No." the boy answered.

"Good."

The boy dropped from the tree and walked to the bridge connecting the two islands, but just before he got there, the voice yelled, "Stop!"

"What is it?" asked the boy, slightly annoyed.

"Trolls." the voice answered.

The boy looked across the bridge and saw what the voice was talking about. On the other side of the bridge were two trolls with their backs to the boy. Trolls are like an ogre's shorter, uglier cousin. They are small, green creatures with pointed ears like an elf. The trolls in question wore nothing but tattered loincloths that thankfully covered up all the unwanted areas. They both had maces in their hands, that, combined with the troll's raw power, could break a boulder in half, and their smell was unmatched.

"Great, now how are we going to get over there?" asked the boy.

"There's only two of them." the voice said, "We can take them."

"Not before one of them alert the others." Stated the boy.

"Well, we're still dealing with some thick fog, and their backs are still turned to us," stated the voice, "maybe we can sneak around them."

"Good idea." responded the boy.

The boy slowly walked across the bridge, careful not to make any sound. Another thing about trolls is that their sight and smell are horrible, with their hearing being their only good sense. Because of this one fact, the young boy almost failed at sneaking around them. While circling around the trolls to get down the hill to the right of the bridge, the boy accidentally step on a branch that fell from a nearby tree. The branch made a loud snapping sound and drew the attention of the trolls. The left most troll barked a series of orders to his partner in undistinguishable grunts and snorts and they came over to investigate. The boy slowly began to back down the hill. Once he reached the bottom, he hid behind a rock and waited for the trolls to go back to their stations. The bottom of the hill was a few large rocks and a handful of shrubs. On the other island across from him was an oak tree but no way onto the actual island itself.

"Yeah, 'surprise us'," said the voice mockingly, "that's the last time I let you say something stupid before a fight or a mission."

"Will you please shut up about that?" asked the boy, "How about water under the bridge?"

"Okay, one, it's not water, it's a stupid comment," said the voice, "and two, how can it be under the bridge if it's drowning you?"

"You really don't understand analogies, do you?" asked the boy

"Well maybe I would if you weren't the only one of your kind I get to communicate with!" roared the voice.

"You and I both know that you've had plenty of chances to talk to other humans." Said the boy, trying to keep his voice level.

"The only reason I haven't talked to other humans is because we're always busy doing something else!" the voice responded hotly.

"Can we just, I don't know, forget about it, huh?" asked the boy, "Or do you want us to fail?"

"Fine." said the voice, obviously not wanting to forget about it.

The boy looked around at the bottom of the hill for a way to the other island, but he saw no bridge or any other way across, all he saw was the oak tree.

"Great, no way across," said the voice, "maybe we missed something back at the top of the hill."

"Or we could grapple across." stated the boy.

"We could if they weren't destroyed during that cargo plane incident." said the voice

"Well, I do have this." said the boy as he pulled out a black, metal cylinder with a hook on top.

"Where did you get that?" the voice asked.

"The Academy's storeroom." the boy answered.

"You stole from the Academy's storeroom?" asked the voice, somewhat surprised.

"It's not stealing if it's technically mine." answered the boy.

"You're impossible." said the voice humorously

"I know, now if you will please activate the armor we could actually get somewhere." said the boy.

"You do now you can just think it on, right?" asked the voice

"Yeah, but I always think it on." said the boy, "It's like having steak and potatoes every night, sooner or later you're going to want something else, you know?"

"No." stated the voice simply, "No I do not, I don't eat remember?"

"Yes, I remember, now will you please activate the armor?" asked the boy.

The armor activated, materializing from the gem on the boy's left shoulder, which is the source of the voice. The armor itself was a sight to behold, becoming fully formed in a fraction of a second, it was made of an odd metal that not even the voice knew the name or properties of the helmet was tinted yellow. The chest plate and holster were a silver color as well as the 9mm wrist canon and sword on the right arm. On the helmet was a visor with armor readings and other information on the screen.

"I feel stupid for asking this, but how will you make sure you don't miss?" asked the voice.

"The visor's aim function, and you are stupid for asking that." answered the boy, "I can't believe you forgot that."

"I'm sorry, am I supposed to remember everything about you, the armor features, and everyone we've ever met?" asked the gem, not actually expecting an answer.

"Can we please argue after the mission's over?" asked the boy.

"Fine." said the gem somewhat reluctantly.

The young boy took aim then pressed a button on the metal cylinder, when he did so, the hook shot off the cylinder and caught on a branch of the oak tree on the other island. Connecting the hook and the cylinder in the boy's hand was a chain made of solid light. The boy ran to the edge of the island and jumped. Without the grapple, he would have fallen to his death, instead, he slammed into the side of the other island about 10 feet below the base of the tree.

"Please tell me you know how to retract the hook." said the gem, her voice tinged with fear.

"Sadly, no, no I do not." the boy answered.

"You're telling me you didn't test this thing before you took it?" asked the gem, anger taking place of her fear.

"Sadly, yes, yes I am." responded the boy.

"Ok, well do what you do best and start pressing buttons." said the gem.

"Alright, one, pressing buttons is not what I do best, two, I dislike you, and three, fine." said the boy, angrily.

After a few button-presses and dropping five feet, the boy found the right button and was pulled back up to the edge of island. Once he was on the ground, he reached up and untangled the hook from the tree branch then hung the cylinder back on his belt and deactivated his armor. The island was covered with shrubs and a few trees and large rocks littering the ground. On the far side was another bridge leading to an island with high stone walls, like a fort. Off to the side was an air dock with a hot air balloon tied to it. There was a hole in the wall that the boy thought led to some type of sewer system.

"Great there's no way to get inside without walking through the front gate." complained the gem.

"That's where you're wrong." said the boy, "We can go through that hole in the wall there, which probably leads to a sewer system or maintenance shaft. From there, we can find our way to the holding cells, free the objective, and escape via hot air balloon."

"You know what?" asked the gem.

"No tell me." answered the boy.

"Your plan is stupid enough that it might not fail miserably." said the gem, jokingly.

"Are you saying that all of my plans fail miserably?" asked the boy.

"No," answered the gem," only most of them."

And with those words, the boy made his way across the bridge and into the hole.