Justin Millett

How to start this story, how to start it… First things first… this is not your typical fantasy story. Oh no, quite the contrary. In fact this is unlike any other story or fairy tale ever told. There are no dragons or wizards here, nor are there demons and angels. We speak naught of god and the devil, or of magic and swordplay. This story is different in many a way, but in it’s most valuable quality, this story is true. Nay, a story of dragons and knights would be much a bore to me, but heroes; every story needs a hero. And this one happens to be about just that.

I met young Nathanial many years ago, just after his birth. His parents and I had been dear friends for many, many years. He was a beautiful child; jet black hair with bright blue eyes, and as he sprang from the womb he laughed with joy and was as comfortable as could be. Not a tear fell from his blue eyes on that day. All Nathanial did over the next 16 years was laugh. He was a comfortable learner and a prized student in school. He knew to write well and he knew to read, and he knew of many things others did not. Some of those things being : When he turned 13 he knew that someone would die in the school board. Surely enough, half way through the year, the principal had died of a stroke. But Nathanial knew it was the right time for Mr. Grimslie and he had no guilt nor grief in the death. All he did was stare up with those blue, blue eyes and laugh. He laughed so much, some of his friends thought that he was laughing at god, getting back for all the death in the world. Or maybe he was just trying to let himself go mentally. All we do know is that, when Nathanial turned 16, God started laughing back.

His parents had been out for the night and driving home through the country when they were hit head on by a truck much larger and faster than anything they’d thought they had seen. They were pronounced dead on the scene and they sent a lone cop to tell the boy exactly what had happened. And that is where I come in. My name is Frederick Gregory. I am an officer in the very same town that Nate grew up and I am the man who told Nate of his parents. I went to his door and knocked, and he came and opened it and just stared up at me with his blue eyes. Boring into my heart they was. And I said, with all my heart and soul;
“Nate, I have news for you that you aren’t going to be fond of.”
“Well, Frederick I think its best you told me anyway.”
“There was an accident tonight lad. Two people very close to you are gone on to a better place.”
“No…”
“Nate…you have the choice of staying with me or at the boarding house; and I think I know which one you’ll choose.”
I took a long look at him and suddenly his eyes were no longer blue but a glow of hazel, as if all the courage had drained from him. We stared for a good long time and I wondered, where was his happiness when he truly needed it and who the hell is laughing elsewhere in the world? I bet my soul that on November 10th 2007 the world stood waiting for laughter. I bet my everything that on that fateful day, there was a moment of silence for Nate. I bet you that that very day, the skies closed up and everything became dark for just a moments grace.
And this is where the story begins.





CH1



Now, Nate never was one for conflict, but a few weeks after the death of his parents, some of the other children had started to push him into thoughts of anger. He would sit and listen to the other children’s remarks about how dead his parents were, and about how good it was that they were that way. He clenched his fists and closed his eyes until he was finally alone. He was by himself in his own world. The place in which he had once created to shell his happiness from society, now only existed as a mirrored escape from his hatred of it.