Chapter 8

Walking off of the grounds of the magic school was sad, even though he hadn’t been there for long. 

“Hey,” Samuel looked behind him to see Eric, Charles, and Charlene. Eric held out his fist, and Samuel did the same. 

“See ya next year.” Samuel said to Eric. Eric nodded. Samuel, Jackson, and Sylvan started their long walk through the forest once more. Within the first hour Jackson was hungry and made everyone know, 

“I’M HUNGRY!” Jackson yelled out into the forest. 

“Jackson we have to make it to the burrow first,” Samuel said. 

“Are we sure the burrows are even over here?” Sylvan asked. 

“I’ll check.” Samuel pulled out the book,

But he didn’t have much room to carry it. So he fumbled with his walking stick and his book, until he dropped the book. He tried to catch it, but he missed. But before the book hit the ground the eye glowed, and the book stopped in mid-air. Samuel put his walking stick on his back, and reached out for the book. After he had taken it, he looked back at Jackson and Sylvan. Who were speechless. Sylvan started walking again, 

“That's no ordinary book.” Sylvan said as he walked by.

Samuel continued walking, but after about 2 more hours and Jackson’s constant reminders of hunger. They had finally made it to the tunnel, and a tunnel it was. The tunnel had to be at least 20 feet big, with a steep but climbable hill. 

“So, all we have to do is go south from the tunnel and we’ll be closer to the portal. We have to be quiet in the tunnels though, we don't want the Burrow Rats or the Molehorns hearing us. Most of all watch out for Controllers, they roam the tunnels for beasts to control.”

Sylvan came up next to Samuel. 

“Samuel, maybe you should rest. After reading the book and gaining all that knowledge, you must be tired.” Sylvan was looking at him with worried eyes.

Samuel looked down, and nodded. “Ya, let’s rest.”

In the morning Samuel had a dream, it wasn’t a regular dream. 

‘Hello?’ Samuel said, 

‘Hello young Knight.’ A figure came from behind him, 

‘Who are you?’ Samuel asked. The figure started to fade, 

‘I, am your fate.’ Samuel woke up instantly, 

“Good, you're awake.” Sylvan was crouching in the bushes, 

“What’s wrong?” Samuel asked. 

“You were right, they're here.” Sylvan gestured for him to go to Jackson, 

“Jackson, Jackson!” Samuel said in a hushed voice. 

“Five more minutes.” Jackson mumbled. 

“I'm sorry to say this, but we don't have five more minutes if you dont wake up.” Jackson got up. He looked around, 

“Huh, still not a dream.” 

After Jackson and Samuel had gotten to the bushes they could see the issue they had run in with, Controllers. 

“What are they doing here?” Sylvan asked. Samuel looked at Sylvan, 

“Probably using the tunnels as free transportation.” Jackson wasn’t looking at the Controllers, but the sky. 

“Jackson, you ok?” Jackson looked at Samuel. 

“I have an idea.” Jackson started to move around the bushes surrounding the controllers, and closer towards the hole. Jackson looked back at the others, 

“Sam, can you create a shield around the hole when we jump in?” Samuel nodded. “Sylvan I need you to lead making sure nobody’s already in the hole.” Sylvan nodded, “Alright we all jump on three. One,” They all prepared to jump, 

“Two,” 

“One,”

“Go!”

Samuel slid down into the pit, and cast shield on the opening. Only Sylvan and Jackson were allowed in, 

“Come on!” Samuel yelled. 

Sylvan fell from above, and did not land well. Jackson landed perfectly, and looked back at Samuel. 

“Can you keep it up for a bit longer!” Samuel put a thumbs up. Turned and ran with his wand still focused on the shield, he helped Sylvan up and ran with him. Once they hit the first intersection Samuel knew where they were, it was called ‘Dead Elf Cliff’. One led to eternal doom and one led to freedom in the tunnels, 

“Where do we go!” Jackson yelled from the front.

“Left!” Samuel yelled to Jackson,

Jackson ran straight through into the darkness. Samuel and Sylvan quickly followed, finding themselves in a pitch dark cave.

“Samuel?” Said Jackson.

  “Ya?” Samuel said.

  “Do you know some kind of light spell?” Jackson asked. 

“Nope.” Samuel said. 

“Great, we're stuck here with no light.” Sylvan said. 

Suddenly the book started to float again, summoning a ball of light, but only for it to open and show Samuel a quick glance of a spell. When the ball of light finally drifted away Samuel had memeried the spell, 

“Glarpose!”

A ball of light came out of Samuels wand and floated above them. 

“So the book can teach you magic?” Sylvan asked. 

Samuel looked at him “I guess.” 

“Then you have one good teacher right there.” 

Sylvan motioned for Samuel to lead the way and with the light above them illuminating the tunnel Samuel could easily navigate them through the tunnels. After about a day they were all exhausted, and they decided to set up camp in the middle of a tunnel. 

“Are you sure no monsters will come and eat us?” Jackson asked. 

“I'm sure they won’t, right Samuel?” Sylvan was asking for his advice about his universe, which sounded weird, 

“Not if we were careful.” Samuel said.

Samuel had been putting out all the lights he’d created while setting up camp, they had dug a little hole in the wall to hopefully stop creatures from finding them. 

“If they do, I’ll cut their heads off.” Samuel said. 

“Is that supposed to be a nice thing to say?” Sylvan asked, “Cause if so then I think you did pretty good.” Sylvan laid down. Jackson didn’t look so reassured, Samuel came over to him. 

“Don’t worry we’ll be home in no time, we’ve already traveled half of the way there.” Samuel cased his growth spell to create a wall of defense just in case. 

“Already?” Jackson asked. 

“Ya, whoever made the book theorized that the tunnels had some kind of time loop and that they took…” Jackson looked wide eyed at Samuel, 

“Sorry.” Samuel said 

“No, it’s ok. It’s just I've never seen you so positive about learning before.” Jackson said. 

“I've never had anything interesting to learn about in the human realm, here everything I can learn about is amazing.” Jackson nodded, 

“I get it, I just think that you're coming out of this realm a whole different person. I don't want to lose the real you.” Samuel smiled at him, 

“You’ll never have to worry about that, ever.” Samuel snapped his fingers making that last of the lights die out.

Samuel opened his eyes to find himself in another dream, 

‘Uh, again.’ 

‘If I didn’t summon you again, you wouldn’t know the truth about your family.’ Samuel turned around to see the figure again, 

‘The truth?’ Samuel asked. 

‘Your family has been here before and you are the last of your family. Doesn’t that mean something to you?’ 

‘Of course, it means the pain of my family has been here before. If I ever do come back it’ll be to help my friends, and it won't be for anything you want me to do for my family.’ The figure walked closer to him, 

‘You have been hurt badly by us, and we apologize for that. We want to make it up to you all of us, this will be the last you’ll hear of us for a while. Until you fulfill your quest to go home, then we shall talk more.’ 

‘Wait your my family? Wait! Wait!’ 

“Wait!” Samuel woke up yelling from another dream, and he couldn’t believe this. He gasped and grabbed the book from his pouch. It opened its eye. 

“Thank goodness you're still here, what did they mean until they fulfill my prophecy?” The eye squinted and looked down, then it opened showing a page of dust. Samuel blew on the pages, showing a page which read 

‘A child born of human blood shall return, for not of heart but of soul. Who knows what this child shall do. Create or destroy, the child will choose.’ 

Eyes wide Samuel closed the book and turned to face it, 

“I’m coming back?” The eye blinked. 

“How do I choose?” The eye just stared back. Samuel put the book away. 

“What’s wrong?” Jackson was awake. Samuel could just say it was a bad dream, but Jackson was his best friend. 

“Alright, I’ve been having these dreams ever since I got the book. I think since I'm mentally connected to the book it’s able to talk to me in my head.” Jackson was wide eyed. 

“Alright,” Sylvan was awake. “So the book is talking to you.” 

“No the book isn’t talking to me, something else is talking to me, It said it was my family. It also said before that the first dream I had they said that they were my fate.” Sylvan looked confused 

“How can your family be your fate?” 

“I don't know, but they said they won't talk to me until I get home.” 

“But how are they going to talk to you?” Sylvan asked, 

“I dont know.” Samuel responded, “All I know is that there’s this,” He showed them what he’d found in the book. 

“‘A child born of human blood shall return, for not of heart but of soul. Who knows what this child shall do. Create or destroy, the child will choose.’ Does it mean I'm coming back? Or does it mean that Me and Jackson are coming back? What’s happening?” 

Sylvan looked down. “I don't know, but they said they’ll talk to you once you complete this quest right? So let’s finish it.” Sylvan got up and packed up his stuff, Samuel and Jackson did the same. 

“Hey,” Jackson said, “Are you ok?” Samuel looked down, 

“No! I have no idea what’s going on, and I want to know.” Jackson gave him his things and Samuel took them. 

“We’ll be ok, we're almost there just like you said.” Samuel smiled, then he heard somebody talking to him. 

‘Soldiers, there coming’ Samuel looked behind him only to see the book looking back at him, Samuel nodded. 

“We have to go, Soldiers are right around the corner.” Sylvan looked at him, 

“How do you know?” Samuel pointed at the book, 

“Great you two are forever connected,” 

“We always have been, I think. Now we have to go.”

After they had packed everything up, and Samuel hid their plant-shelter they started running farther into the tunnel. After about 30 minutes of running through the tunnel Sylvan thought they were a good distance away from the soldiers. Samuel couldn’t make a light, but there were small holes in the ceiling that sent light down into the tunnels just enough so that they could see. 

“It should be about 20 minutes until we get to the exit!” Samuel said 

“Shhh!” Sylvan said from behind them. Samuel started hearing strange sounds all along the tunnel, Sylvan looked at Samuel and in a hushed voice he said “Mole horns.” 

Giant creatures were all lining the walls, but they all looked like they were asleep. They had big horns and spikes lining their backs.

“They all come closer to the surface for more heat,” Samuel said in a hushed voice. Suddenly Samuel could hear the controllers approaching, he looked behind them to see lights. 

“If they come too close they’ll make them wake up.” Sylvan said. Samuel smiled, 

"I have an idea, run straight through them.” There was a path right through the Mole horns if they got through there they could get out almost instantly. 

“Are you crazy!” Jackson said in a hushed voice, Samuel smiled 

“If you haven't noticed, yes I am. Now go, I’ll be there as soon as you know it.” They ran right through the crowd of Mole horns, “Alright book, do you have any cool things that can help us get out of here?” The book floated and opened right in front of him showing him many magical items, and spells, but what he was really looking for was one spell he saw. “That's the one.” He said. 

“There! It’s the Knight!” Somebody yelled. Samuel looked up from the book, and smiled at the men. 

“Good to see you my friends, and the Knight, very creative.” He put the book away, and five of the men came at him with spears 

“hands up!” Samuel smiled, 

“First I want to introduce my friends, the mole horns. Slark!”

As Samuel raised his wand a huge firework came out of his wand causing the cave to shake, then it shaked even more when the mole horns woke up. Three of the mole horns that woke up came straight at them, but Samuel used his necklace to move aside for the mole horns to attack the Controllers. Samuel saw the captain, smiled and boosted his way out of the caves through the holes in the ceiling.

When Samuel boosted out of the ceiling he found himself in the middle of the forest, and heard people shouting. Hopefully the Controllers. Then he heard other people shouting, but they were shouting his name. Sylvan and Jackson, Samuel ran through the forest and jumped over a bush to reveal himself. 

“I am the one who fights for rights, I am the one who talks to magic itself, I am the newly pronounced Knight of Marshlake.”

Sylvan and Jackson had their mouths open, and then they just ran at him. And they both hugged him. Sylvan got off him first but Jackson held on, 

“So ‘Knight of Marshlake’ how’d you get out?” When Jackson finally stopped hugging him he asked as well, 

“Ya, how did you get out?” 

“Well first I found a spell in the book called firework. Then when the controllers came around the corner, they came at me with spears. Then they said ‘There it’s the Knight!’ and I said I liked the name. Then I said ‘I want to introduce you to my friends the mole horns’ and I shot off a firework to wake up the mole horns to fight the controllers as I boosted out of the hole with the holes in the ceiling.” Samuel was out of breath by the end, but it was worth it. Sylvan walked up to him, 

“‘The Last Knight of Marshlake,’ I like it. So you both are ready to go home the portal is just up ahead” Sylvan started to walk, but Samuel stopped him. 

“Thank you.” Samuel said, Sylvan smiled 

“Any time.” and he winked at them. “Now I think we should hurry before they get out of there.”

They were back at the portal, where it all started. 

“Well it was nice knowing you guys while it lasted. Next time don't take almost all my money please." They all laughed, 

“Like I already told you, I’m coming back next year and going to the magic school just for a bit.” Jackson came from behind Samuel, 

“So am I.” Samuel smiled. Suddenly a blast of energy went right across Samuels head. Samuel turned around to see the Controllers, and 3 Mole horns all with collars. 

“Why, hello Last Knight of Marshlake.” The commander of the controllers said, and the Mole horns roared at Samuel, Jackson, and Sylvan. “Why, how thankful will HIM be if I personally brought him The Last Knight. I’ll be showered with gifts.” Samuel grabbed his wand, “Sorry, you won't be able to receive the prize.” Samuel said. “Why? Because of you! Ha!” Samuel clenched his teeth. 

“By us.” The commander stared at Samuel, 

“Knock them out.” Then Samuel fell.