A Companion for all Time - 1. Chapter 1 - Welcome to Zarch

Right, left, left again, down the stairs, straight for two blocks, right, and pause. Nothing, did they give up? No. Footsteps not too far from me. Miller’s alley, it should be safe now.

I take one last gulp of air before dashing towards the shadows, careful as to not make too much noise. I grip the bag tighter, dinner for Lin, Fale and me! Better not lose it…

Right, left, right again, duck under the pipes, jump over the sleeping guy, straight, and finally left in Miller’s Lane. I slide in the little opening at the end of the street, only kids can get through that, and soon even I won’t fit anymore! And I’m not tall or big, it’s just really, really small…

“Irion you're back!” calls a tiny voice from the back of the little tunnel Lin, Fale and I call “home” as a joke. It used to be a sewer pipe I think, because it reeks on any day that’s hot. On the flip side we sometimes get a few rats, and though you might say that it’s disgusting and all, on a day where you have nothing else it’s meat, and we don’t get a lot of that in Zarch’s 6^th circle. It isn’t very big, and now that I’ve gotten a bit taller I have to crawl everywhere.

“Did you get us some food?” asks Lin in his squeaky voice.

“Yeah, stole a few things from Old Mace down in the 5^th.”

I open my bags of stolen goods. A few things still smell kinda nice! I split up the food equally, making sure the two little ones get enough. I can skip a meal, I don’t mind, wouldn’t be a first, and it wouldn’t be the last.

Once both had their fill, I nibble on an apple that was still somewhat fresh, and head over to my “bunk,” or should I say, the pile of my old clothes that I use as a blanket. I lie down and sigh before reaching up with my hand and feeling the stones with my fingers for a small crack. Found it. I reach and take a small key out of it. The key once opened the doors to my home, my real home, down in the 1^st, when Ma’ and Pa’ were still with me, before the fire took them. I sigh and clutch it tightly against my heart. As I do every day, I talk to them. I might sound crazy, but I’ve been doing it for 9 years now. Every day I tell them how my day went, and I tell them that I love them and miss them. It doesn’t help most of the time, but I still do it. Because it’s all that I have left of them.

“Irion?”

“Yeah Fale?”

“Can I come sleep with you?”

I sigh, he does this often. I can understand him, he is only 4 years old, and he only lost his parents a few months ago. Lin is a little older, he will turn 9 two days after I turn 16, so in three days… Yeah tomorrow is my birthday, oh joy!

Not really…

Well, yes and no. Tomorrow I turn 16, and all over the country, rich or poor it doesn’t matter, it’s special. See every adult has a sort of pet called a soul-bond. The soul-bonds represent our souls in a way (why’d you think we called them soul-bonds in the first place?), and it also represents our affinity to magic. A big soul-bond means you can be pretty darn good with it, while small ones means you can’t do anything, at all… A person with a rat for a soul-bond will never use magic, well maybe once or twice in his whole life time if he’s lucky. The ones in the 1^st have some larger soul-bonds, nothing very big though, but at least they can tamper with luck and stuff. Soul-bonds represent our social status a bit, as they will help us, or not, to succeed. On a person’s sixteenth birthday, there is a ceremony of sorts, and the person gets his soul-bond.

But that’s not all, for us lucky orphans we get a new set of clothes to last us until the next year! Isn’t that awesome?! And a bit of money! Though that money goes in the pockets of goons as soon as we leave the Circle Center…

Tomorrow promises to be a great day...

“Sure come on.”

He comes up close and clings to me. I do my best to wrap my arms around him to comfort him as best I can.

I wake up to the sound of a busy street up above. I crawl over to one end of the tunnel and take a piss. I try to emerge from sleep, and get thinking again. If you don’t think in the 6^th you die, basically. Goons are always looking for a guy to bully, sometimes rape, and if you’re not careful you could wind up surrounded by them. Never happened to me, I think fast, and I’ve got good legs, useful to run away. But I’ve seen some innocent boy get caught once. I went back after they left to check on him, and after that I went to the Circle Center to report a death. When asked to describe how I found him, I gave the woman the look. She got the point, everyone knew but everyone kept quiet. Nothing anyone could do anyways… The 6^th circle of Zarch Island is a mess, it belongs to no one at all, and laws are used to scrape shit off one’s bottom. The mayor is nice at least, he changed two years ago. The last one died one night in an alley. He has more authority than the last five ones, but that still isn’t much. Last year, he talked with me a bit when I came to get my clothes and my money. He asked me where I lived, how I survived etc. I didn’t lie to him, what was the point? For some reason it felt good to talk to someone. From what I heard and all, he’s trying to make a difference here, maybe that’s the reason he is still with us. Most mayors who get assigned the 6^th don’t last six months. It’s almost a death sentence to get sent here.

Gently I wake Lin and Fale. We still have a few leftovers from last night, so for once we have breakfast. Today is different though, and more than telling them to stay here and wait for me to come back, I decide to take them out. Won’t hurt them to walk a bit if I’m there to guide them. Besides I need to go to the Circle Center. We weave through odorant and grumpy people. We use a few safe shortcuts to the Circle Center. I take them in with me, I know that they will be safe as I proceed with whatever I have to do to get my stupid soul-bond. Most don’t have a fucking brain and are fucking useless. I can’t wait to get a rat! Going to be very useful I’m sure.

We go up to the front desk, and I check one more time that I have my key with me, as it’s also my good luck charm.

“Hi, I’m Irion, and it’s my sixteenth birthday,” I tell the lady behind the glass window.

Was maybe a bit rough, but whatever I don’t feel like being polite today. Whatever the case she looks at me and answers:

“Hello Irion, the Mayor is waiting for you in the Hall of Attunement, down the hall on the left.”

She even smiled. I change my mind about being polite with her.

“Can you look after these two little guys please?”

“Sure thing, they can sit over there as they wait for you.”

I take Lin and Fale to sit down and tell them that I’d be right back.

I go towards the hall and keep going until the door the lady told me was the Hall of Attunement, whatever it means. I knock before opening it.

“Hello Irion, please have a seat.”

“Hello Mr. Mayor.”

I go sit down in the only seat in the room, right in the middle of a circle.

“Happy birthday I should say, now let’s get started, it should be over soon, then we can chat a bit before we give you some new clothes. My you’ve grown!”

“Thank you.”

“Now just stand still and close your eyes.”

I do as I’m told and wait. I hear him rummaging around, and cursing under his breath.

“Don’t move, I just need to activate the circle and you soul-bond will be revealed, wonder what it’ll be…” he asks himself.

I feel strange, a slight tingle everywhere at once, suddenly my mind clears. It’s something completely new to me. My mind is clear, I just can’t describe it any other way. I can see myself, my soul. A sound distracts me. A gasp, from the mayor. I open my eyes, and I can see him on the floor looking in awe at something over me. I look up and see the most beautiful beast flying above me. It looks like a serpent or something, and it’s slithering in the air, like literally! Its face is nothing like a regular serpent’s. It looks powerful and graceful, and it’s midnight scales glisten in the morning sun. Could that thing be my soul-bond?

“Of course I am you dolt… Why do you think I am of this color” says a voice in my head.

True he is like my hair when it is washed, and it’s eyes are like mine, red but his have pupils like a cat’s.

“Yo-you can talk?” I stammer out loud.

“Obviously.”

The mayor is still in shock on the ground.

“Are you ok sir?” I ask him.

“A sky-dragon, I-I-I can’t believe it!”

Slowly he gets back up, not taking his eyes off the thing over me.

“Irion, it is my great honor to present to you your soul-bond, a companion for all time!”

I look at the majestic being still floating above me.

“Do you have a name?” I ask.

“My name is Avenia.”

This time, the voice wasn’t in my head. With that, Avenia floated to me and wrapped itself around my shoulders in a scarf-like manner.

“F-f-follow me,” the mayor says, still under the shock I guess.

He leads us to his office, and tells me to sit in a chair. He gets behind his desk and gets out a phone, he was starting to dial a number when his phone rang.

“Hello?”

“Mayor Andras? Something just happened in Capital Island! A son of one of the king’s cousin got a sky-dragon as a soul-bond!!”

“Well, actually, I was about to call you sir.”

“Why is that, and I are you not excited about this, there hasn’t been one in over 100 years!!”

“I know sir but, well, how to put this. I was calling you to tell you, sir, that I have in front of me a sky-dragon.”

Silence for at least thirty seconds.

“You are joking right?”

“No, no I am not. Actually I really wish I was…”

Suddenly the call drops, and the mayor falls in his chair.

Silence, for thirty minutes, though I talked cautiously with Avenia for a bit. It was still in a haze what had happened… Finally a man burst through the door.

“You weren’t joking,” says the man in awe. “Two sky-dragons! Two in one day…”

He looks at me, then at Avenia and back at me.

“Congratulations young man, you’ve just won a ticket to Capital Island, you leave immediately.”

“What??”

“You heard me, and I’m very sorry standard protocol.”

“But I can’t leave! Lin and Fale! They need me! They are too young to take care of themselves!”

“They’re going to have to manage.”

“No!”

The man steps in closer to me, but Avenia gets in the way and snarls at him, making him back up in fear.

“I’m sorry boy, but you must come with me King’s orders.”

“Irion I will take care of them, don’t worry,” says Mayor Andras.

“But…”

“Just go, I will take them in, always wanted children anyways.”

“Can I at least say good bye?”

The man sighs but accepts.

Lin and Fale are there waiting for me.

“Hey, look I’m not really sure what happened, but I have to go. I-I-I will see you two soon ok? For now stay with the mayor he promised to take care of you ok?”

Both look lost, and Fale is crying.

“Let’s go, you have a zeppelin to catch,” the man reminds me.

He grabs me by the shoulder and guides me towards the door. Tears sting my eyes.

“Irion!! Come back!” Fale wails behind me.

“I will little guy!” I call back, but I don’t turn to face him, I can’t let him see me crying.

Thank you for reading, this is my newest story, something I will work on during the summer I'm not giving up on Golden Heart or anything, but I might put that one on hold for now (I've had trouble finding inspiration actually).
 
This is very different as it is set in a magical universe, something I've wanted to try for a while.
Please tell me what you think, this is sort of an introductory chapter, so it is bound, I think, to get better along the way.