Angelus’s P.O.V

I was flying down to the market with Hana by my side. We were running low on fresh fruit, so my father had asked me to get some while he finished a new sword for Takeshi, since he broke his last one practicing. It was an old sword; the metal was dulling and weakening. So when he hit his friend’s brand new shield after his friend taunted him by calling him weak, the sword broke, as well as his friend’s wrist. I had foreseen it in a vision and told Takeshi not to get angry, but he did not listen. I warned his friend too, and he claimed Takeshi wouldn’t do it if I warned him. Of course it happened, and Takeshi claimed he deserved it.

Right now that wasn’t on my mind. I had been looking forward to a pleasant fly with peace and quiet but on my way I saw Hana coming up, apparently to my house to hang out and she decided to tag along. Not that it was a major problem, but she was very hyper today and going on and on about Skye (the tailor’s daughter) and Nathan (Hana’s cousin) who were according to Hana “the cutest couple in the village” and how she had never seen her cousin blush so much. They had just gotten together and Hana seemed to be more excited about it than the new couple were.

“I still can’t believe how cute they are! Like when they kissed the other day…”

I sighed in slight annoyance, we were almost at the market and the whole journey had been Hana saying the same thing over and over again (just worded differently) and as much as I do like hanging out with her, it was getting annoying.

“Hana, instead of yapping on about how cute they are, why don’t you go out and find a boyfriend!?” I interrupted, only to yelp at the small electric shock she gave me on my arm with her magic. “Hey! That hurt!”

She tutted; “Damn, I was aiming for your leg! Why can’t I get it right!?”

“You’re not going to say sorry?!” I asked.

“You should have seen it coming!”

“I’m still training; I can’t foresee everything! Just like you’re still learning magic expect you have a teacher!”

“Yep! Jealous?” She teased.

“No but you are,” I said and she gave me a puzzled look. “Of Skye and Nathan, you can’t stop talking about them almost as if you want a relationship like theirs.”

“Well, yeah I guess…” she muttered as she looked away sadly.

“I’m sorry,” I said feeling a little bad now “I didn’t mean to make you sad, I didn’t know you liked someone!”

“It ok… He’s not into me anyway…”

“Who?” I asked slightly curious now as to whom my best friend was crushing on.

“I’ll give you a hint; he’s strong and kind of an asshole but he’s super-hot!” She suddenly became all hyper again, like she wasn’t all sad a few seconds ago. 

“That’s not fair! Most of the guys are strong, assholes and hot!” I blurted and then blushed when I realised what I said.

“Did you just say most of the guys are hot?” Hana asked a huge smile on her face.

“I mean hot from a girl’s point of view!” I sighed trying to cover up what I said. I was only sixteen and just come to terms with the fact that I like guys so I wasn’t about to tell anyone especially not my overly hyper best friend.

“Are you sure, Angelus?” she teased and then went all serious “I’ve never seen you look at girls or talk about them like the other guys do!”

“I have no idea what you’re on about!” I said, hoping she wouldn’t realise I was getting defensive.

“Yes you do! Angelus, admit it! You are totally gay!”

“I am most definitely not!”

“I think you meant to say ‘am’ not ‘not’”

I bit my lip, I was gay but I didn’t think I was ready to come out yet if ever, I was different enough as it is, but that being said Hana was my best friend and I trusted her. She helps me all the time, so maybe she’d help take the load off a bit. I did want to tell someone but I don’t want to disappoint my father by saying he won’t have grandkids because I liked guys... I would have to tell him eventually but not now. It just felt right to tell Hana. I decided on the spot and said “Okay Hana, you got me I like guys.”

“Really?” Hana asked and stopped walking; “Because I was joking you know?”

I stopped flying and hovered off the ground “yeah, I’m gay, Hana… Please don’t tell anyone.”

There was a silence and I began to worry; what if she hated me now? But as soon as that thought popped into my head Hana burst out in a fit of laughter “That’s so cool!” She shouted and then muttered under her breath; “I’ve got a gay best friend!” Before I could saying anything more she asked; “So who do you like? What’s your type? Would you like to be the bottom or top?”

I sighed and answered her three questions one by one. “I don’t like anyone in particular. Wouldn’t you like to know? What do you think?”

“Hey, you didn’t answer properly!” She snapped playfully as she folded her arms across her chest and pouted.

“Neither did you when I asked who you’re crushing on. When I find that out I’ll answer your questions properly!” I said and stuck out my tongue. Hana opened her mouth to speak, but I suddenly got a quick vision and shoved her as hard as I could, as an arrow went flying past her head; just missing her and going into a nearby tree. I pulled her up from the ground, and saw men in black armour running through the village.

“RUN!” Hana called and we did. We ran back the way we came and hid behind a tree. “You didn’t get a vision for this?” She whispered and I shook my head, feeling angry with myself; this was an army! How could I not foresee something this big?! “What do we do?” She asked, clearly panicking.

I closed my eyes and took a deep breath to calm myself, and forced a vision to come so we could plan our next move. “Shit…” I hissed. Hana looked alarmed and I told her before she asked; “we need to split up!” I said quickly. “Takeshi will be killed if someone doesn’t help him and my father will be fatally wounded at the same time!” I was shaking in fear at the vision; I couldn’t lose my father.

“Where’s Takeshi?” Hana asked. “I’ll get him, you help your father!” she said, taking deep breaths to calm herself.

“He’s at his house! You’ll need to borrow your father’s spell book so you can just read the spells, so you don’t fuck up,” I told her and she ran off without saying anything.

I didn’t have the time to worry. I had to get home before these soldiers got there. So I flew up above the trees so I could just go in a straight line to get home faster. When I was up in the sky and had larger view, I saw the rough number of the invading force, it was huge; definitely a lot bigger than any bandit groups and far better trained as well. I couldn’t help but wonder what such a powerful army wanted with my small village that was in the middle of nowhere.

I got to the workshop and burst through the door making my father jump “Angelus! What happened? Why’re you back so soon?” He asked me, his face showing alarm when he saw how worried I looked.

“We have to go!” I shouted. “Now! There’re soldiers in the village!”

“What?” My father ran up to me and grabbed my arm. “Are you hurt?”

“I’m fine, but we really need to go!” I said, panicked.

My father picked up his sword and pulled me outside. “This way,” he said, pulling me into the forest that was at the back. Our house was at the very back of the village and the forest that surrounded the village, separating it from the rest of the world.

I got a vision straight away and pulled my father in the other direction. “No! Not that way! They’ve got another force surrounding the village! If we go that way we’ll be captured!” I told him. I was surprised that it was captured and not killed, but right now was not the time to think about anything other than escape. “We should find a weak spot in their blockade and sneak past!” My father nodded and we ran in the other direction towards the main part of the village.

Once we got there we noticed people fighting with the army. The villagers were desperately trying to protect their families. Arrows flew back and forth, there was the sound of metal against metal, all sorts of magic was being cast and the smell of blood was thick with corpses littering the ground. In the centre of it all was a young man with black hair, scary white eyes and dressed in grey and purple. He was fighting like a madman and was barking orders at the men. Clearly, he was the leader and a scary one at that.

“Angelus!” I heard a voice shout and I turned to see Takeshi with Hana by his side.

“Oh thank goodness you two are okay!” I said feeling a little better now that my friends were safe. They got closer and I noticed that Hana’s bright red hair was a mess like it got when she failed a wind spell, I would have laughed at her but I noticed that both of Takeshi’s arms were bleeding “Are you okay?!” I asked quickly, I was worried it could be serious.

“Its fine,” Takeshi told me. “I’ll probably need stitches, but cool scars wouldn’t be a bad thing,” He shrugged, trying to be the tough guy.

“You are so weird,” I muttered. My father quickly dragged Takeshi behind some large boxes as Hana and I followed. We stayed low and protected them (Hana with magic and me with my father’s sword that was too heavy for me, I could barely use it) as my father inspected Takeshi’s wounds and wrapped with them with the bandages; he always had them in his pockets in case he hurt himself while working. I noticed that there was a large cut on Takeshi’s right arm from the top to halfway down his forearm, it seemed to be thinner in the middle-ish. There were two on his left arm, one on his forearm and one just below his white wing tattoo on his upper arm.

“You know I’m fine!” He said and my father shook his head.

“Even if you are, we can’t let these get infected!” My father told him. When they were finished, we all began to run to find a way out before we were found and killed.

We got around a block of houses and away from the main conflict, when I was suddenly zapped with an electric spell. I screamed and fell to the ground in pain. I really wished my powers were stronger; I should’ve seen it coming. I couldn’t see properly nor could I move and I suddenly thought of something; my dream! Could this be it? It couldn’t; I still hadn’t found the gold light but everything that was happening felt like it was the ‘dream’. I felt so doomed in that moment, I felt cold and dizzy and I wanted this to end.

My sight returned to see my father and my two friends surrounding me. For a moment I felt safe and I smiled weakly, when suddenly I saw the white-eyed man go for Hana with a jewelled dagger. “Watch out!” I shouted and they jumped out of the way, only to have the dagger get thrust into my shoulder. I screamed in pain again. Before I had a chance to move or do anything my father and Takeshi attacked the madman, and Hana ran to my side. She said something but I was in too much pain to hear her. It felt like my shoulder was on fire and I could feel the warm blood pour out of me and soak my shirt. I could also feel pain all over my body from the electric shock. I was getting dizzier and dizzier. I barely heard Hana shouting at me to stay awake, and I barely saw the madman slice Takeshi’s face before I lost conciseness.

*~*~*~

Dreamless. Finally a dreamless sleep where I wasn’t haunted by a horrid future that was sure to come. That’s what I thought when I first awoke and I felt happy until I remembered what happened and then my happiness was crushed. My friends and father were they okay? Where was I? And why do my wrists and ankles feel heavy?

I opened my eyes slowly and found myself in what looked like a large wooden box. I had just enough room to sit up if I wished but I was in too much pain to do so. The next thing I noticed was that I had shacks around my wrists and ankles explaining the heaviness. Finally I noticed to my horror that was I totally naked for some reason except from bandages that were wrapped around my wounded shoulder which still hurt. I was so scared and confused, so many questions needed to be answered, but I knew better than to call out. The one thing I knew for certain was that whoever came to my village had kidnapped me, stripped me naked, treated my wound, shackled me and put me in this box. I closed my eyes and tried to look into the future, to see if I could get answers or find a way out but as soon as a vision started, I was knocked out of concentration by a sudden movement. The box moved! Probably pulled by a horse. The terrain was rough and I was thrown around and I hit my head on the wall, and of course I was knocked out again being as weak as I was.