Chosen Ones: Young Knight

Chapter 1

My name is Samuel Knight, the story you're about to hear can't be easily comprehended. This story is about a boy who never wanted anything more than to be the adventure, then to explore the world. If you're reading this, prepare for your life to change forever and you're never going to be able to come back.

It all started when I was about 5 years old, my mother died from cancer. Before she died she put a necklace on me. The necklace had been passed down from generation to generation and with her death came time for me to have it. My father and I had trouble getting over how my mother had died, after we moved to New York and I joined a new school. But when I was 7 a police officer came to my door. My father had been out that day as he usually was, he never gave me the specifics of his job or what he did all I knew was that he was getting money and we still were here. The police officer told me that my father had died when making a deal with a gang to rob a museum and sell what they got for money, the gang that my father was working with killed him that night. That day I remembered the pain I felt when losing my family. I had no place to go to other than an orphanage, where I was later discovered to have dyslexia. By age 10 I had gotten used to life in the orphanage and met the caretaker of the orphanage, Peter Operio. Soon at school he then met his best friend, Jackson Liberta. Jackson and I had met at school where they tried to teach kids with disabilities certain parts of life that they said we needed. Jackson had Autism but was still fully verbal. Him and I became friends almost instantly, and we told each other everything. He wasn't an orphan like me, but he was very underappreciated in his abilities. His most liked subject was archery, which I also thought was an interesting subject. We were more than friends, it felt like we were brothers. So much so that when the orphanage was sending me away to a summer camp that was outside of the city, which I had never been to before, Jackson signed up for it as well. This was the start to the biggest adventure that anyone could ever have in their life.

“So is this camp going to be like the movies?” Jackson had always misunderstood things with what they were in the “movies” he says.

“I don't think so, from what I heard it's like a prison for kids.” Samuel says, 

“Well, I guess we’ll find out together!” Samuel had always been jealous of Jackson's ability to make everything seem better than they already are.

“Are there movies here?” Jackson says, he's also obsessed with movies. 

“I don't know, but from what I hear it's basically just school in a forest. That or a prison in a forest.” Ever since Samuel could remember Jackson had been one of the best people he’s ever met. He was very naive, but also very positive. He’d probably fight somebody for saying anything offensive to a friend.

 “Alright! Huddle in everyone!” The entrance to the camp was a giant bonfire, and there was a stage around it that somebody was standing on. “Welcome to camp, in this camp you will be learning skills that will assist you in life.” the man on the stage said, he wore a collared shirt with a pin that said ‘We Shape YOU!’ on it. He also had a clipboard and pen, he looked very young to be running a camp and seemed very inexperienced with talking to people. “Now, parents and guardians you may go.” Jackson's parents waved goodbye to him and Jackson waved back.

“WAIT! I forgot my slingshot!” Back when Jackson and Samuel were around 11 Samuel had gotten him a slingshot that Jackson loved and had never gone anywhere without, well as far as Samuel knew. 

“I got it!” Jackson came back holding his slingshot in his hand. “I can't believe I almost forgot this! If I had I wouldn't stay for long I think.” Samuel couldn’t remember a day at school that Jackson forgot his slingshot, or ever! His parents didn’t fully expect the gift, but Jackson wouldn’t let go of it after Samuel gave it to him.

“Alright everyone now that the parents are gone, you have to go to your cabins. Then we’ll meet for lunch after you settle in.” The man with the clipboard walked off the stage. Everyone started their move.

After Samuel and Jackson settled into their new bunk beds, which Jackson loved, the counselors ushered them to the camp equivalent to a cafeteria. Samuel was disappointed that it was so small, so small in fact that a whole half of the camp had to wait to eat. Including Samuel and Jackson. That made Jackson super upset, 

“Why can't we go in!” Jackson yelled. 

“Because, they don't have enough space for everyone.” Samuel said. 

“Well, you were right. This place stinks, and it's nothing like the movies!” Samuel laughed, 

“Ya well, I guess we’ll have to make our own fun.” Samuel smiled at Jackson who looked very confused, then his eyes grew wide. 

“Will we get in trouble, what about the movies and the bunk beds, what about our stuff…” Jackson went on and on about reasons he thought were good enough to stay, which some were true. 

“Jack, wait it's fine we’ll just go exploring for a little bit then we’ll come back.” Jackson looked spectacle about the idea. “And we might be able to find the movies.”

“Movies!” Jackson started jumping up and down. “Where!” Jackson said Samuel always knew what made Jackson want to do something. 

“There’s a shed in the forest that has all of the movies, we just need to get there. And if we do get the movies we can watch any one of them you want.” 

“Yes! Maybe this will be the best week ever!” Samuel and Jackson snuck away from the group, and they went to their cabin. 

“Wait, what are we doing here?” Jackson said, 

“Like I said, it's in the forest. We need to get some stuff before we leave, you don't need much, just the essentials.” Samuel said. Samuel immediately knew what Jackson was going to get but before Samuel said anything…

“Yes!” Jackson shouted from behind him, “The perfect thing to start a quest as important as this one.” He held up his slingshot. “And I’ve been gathering stones ever since we've gotten here too.” 

“Perfect,” Samuel said “Now all I need is my walking stick…” 

Samuel saw the one thing he’d never let go of, his mothers necklace, he still missed how she’d cared, and supported him. He carefully put the necklace on and it was like her words were inside him, ‘I got this from my mother, now you’ll get it from yours, your fathers family called it the eye necklace. But mine has always called it, The Tome Key.’ The Tome Key was the only thing left of his family and he wasn’t going to let it out of his sight for as long as he lived. 

“I’m ready!” Jackson shouted from above he looked down, seeing Samuel looking at the necklace. “Oh, sorry. You're having a moment with your mom, I'm sorry.” 

“No no, don't worry.” He tucked the necklace into his shirt. “You're ready to go.” Jackson nodded wildly, and jumped down from the top of the bed. 

“More ready than anyone has ever been.” Jackson ran to the door and stopped for Samuel, and Samuel was just ready to get away from this place.

Walking to the forest was much harder than you’d think it is. Samuel and Jackson needed to sneak past all of the counselors to do this. From what Samuel could see there were only 5 counselors around, there was a straight path to the forest. Sadly Samuel was terrible at being any kind of sneaky, but Jackson was the best at it. 

“Ok Jack, you ready?” Jackson nodded, 

“This is just like the movies, sneaking away from the camp!” 

“alright you’ll sneak behind them while I distract them, Ok?” 

“Got it!” Samuel grabbed a rock and prepared to throw it. 

With amazing accuracy Samuel threw the rock over the counselors, and into the bushes, and hit the rock floor hard. This gave them the perfect opportunity to sneak away. Jackson eagerly got across to the forest, and ushered for Samuel to follow. Samuel hoped and prayed for them to not hear them, once he started to walk across his foot and hit a stone panel making a loud noise. Then he saw the counselors coming around the corner, 

“Hey you're not supposed to be here, guys campers left their groups!” 

Samuel had never been the most athletic type, but when you're about to be chased by a bunch of people who want you to stay in one place he would run like he's never ran before. Jackson ran once Samuel caught up to him, and they headed straight toward the forest. Once they got to the forest Jackson turned around and tried to hit one of the counselors with his slingshot, sadly it wasn't able to hit any of the counselors. Jackson ushered for Samuel to go off the path and into the woods, where they hid. They watched the counselors run past into the woods, where they would hopefully not find them when coming back. Samuel looked over the shrubbery to look for any counselors, but it looked like none had followed.

“Ok, I think they're gone…” He looked behind them to find Jackson walking into the forest. “Jackson! Where are you going?” Jackson looked back at Samuel, 

“Sorry, but is that a light?” Jackson never sees things. 

Samuel looked back to see a huge rock and from behind the rock a light. They started walking around the rock, but the light seems to be getting farther away. When they finally made it to the other side there was a giant opening, and it seemed to be 10 feet tall. At the top there were symbols, but they weren't in english. 

“What’s that!” Jackson pointed at the wall. 

“Um, Jackson there’s nothing there.” 

“No No,come look.” 

Samuel followed Jackson's eyes and walked right next to him seeing what he saw. It was the most amazing thing he had ever seen, It was a blue wall that was swirling in circles. 

“What is this,” Samuel had never seen anything like this in his life, and if he had this would have been better. 

“Is this like some kind of waterfall?” Samuel asked, 

“I have no idea.” Said Jackson.

“Hey, I think I heard something.” Samuel looked at Jackson, Jackson shook his head. 

“They found us, we have to run.” Samuel heard footsteps outside of the cave, he backed Jackson back. 

“Nevermind.” Samuel looked at Jackson to ask if he had any ideas,

But when he did Jackson was looking into the wall. “I think it’s safe.” Jackson said, Samuel’s mouth dropped. 

“You think WHAT!” Samuel yelled a bit too loud.

“Come on.” Jackson tried to push Samuel into the wall, but failed. 

“What are you doing?!” 

“I’m trying to get us a way out of the situation we found ourselves in.” 

“We don’t know what's on the other side of that thing! What if we can't come back!” 

“Then we’ll find a way back just like we’ve always had, together.” Jackson held out his hand to Samuel, and Samuel took it. 

Samuel felt like he’d been thrown into a blender and thrown back out. Everything was blurry, Jackson was gazing at something behind him. Samuel’s head was pounding, and looking up wasn’t helping with the sun. When he finally got up he looked up at the thing Jackson was gazing at to find a massive door that had a clock on the top and an eye on the lock. Samuels eyes widened, the eye was the same eye on his necklace. It took awhile to finally get up on his feet but when he finally did he saw much more than the door, there was a bridge leading to whatever was beyond the little island they seemed to be on. The only other thing on the island were four statues of what seemed to be guards of what they were on. Suddenly the island began to shake, gears on the sides of the door started to move. Samuel ran toward the door, but before he got there the doors closed.