The Ageless One: Beginnings by The Ageless Author (early reader chapter books TXT) 📖

goblins keep getting passed around, those telling them will be arrested. I’m sure it was meant as a prank, but this cannot go on.”
Doelan and Liri lowered their heads. Of all the things that could have happened, this was the worst.
They had failed.
They left as the other gislers left, pouring out of the building. Some gislers shot angry glances at them, but they paid no heed. They only wished they could have helped them. They didn’t dare mention any illusion now. It would only make things worse.
They went to that oak tree, but didn’t’ play chess as usual. They just sat there on opposite sides feeling glum.
“I don’t think that could have gone worse,” said Liri.
“It couldn’t have,” Doelan replied.
“So what now?”
Doelan hesitated, but said it. “I think we’ll have to leave without them.”
Liri didn’t answer for a moment, and when he did, what he said couldn’t be denied. “I’m scared, Doelan.”
“So am I Liri. So am I. We’ll make up our minds tonight.”
“Liri!” called a stern voice. Doelan saw it was Liri’s father, who looked exactly the same as he did when Doelan first met Liri, except this time he was angry.
“I have to go,” said Liri, walking off.
Doelan watched. He remembered when the two of them had met so long ago. They were still children in the eyes of gislers. Liri’s father called to him, and Liri said he had to go. His father was the same, but Liri was so different. Like now. So much around them had not changed, but they were different. They saw things no one else did, and they knew they would have to make a choice. To stay, or to go.
It was a choice that he wasn’t looking forward to, and he knew Liri wasn’t either.
Invisible, the mind watched Doelan, and she thought, It worked perfectly; whispering to everyone that it was all tall tales. Whispering to the mayor that it was a prank was perfect! It’s not over yet, but if Doelan really wants to leave without other gislers, he’s more than welcome to.
…
It was a starry night sky over the small city made of quaint marble cottages. Inside Liri’s cottage sat Doelan and Liri. Both were nervous; the kind of nervous that comes before making a decision; and what a decision they had to make.
“Are you sure about this Doelan?” asked Liri apprehensively.
Doelan didn’t answer right away. “I don’t...no, I’m not certain.”
“We don’t know what we are getting ourselves into.”
“Well...that’s why I’m not sure.”
“I mean, would it really be so bad to stay? Say we are in an illusion set up by the goblins and our bodies are doing something else. What harm is really coming to us?”
Again, Doelan took a second to answer. “None to us, but whatever the goblins are using us for, I don’t think it can be good. I don’t know about you but I don’t like the idea of being used for something sinister; not one bit.”
Doelan shook his head nervously and crossed his arms. Liri still seemed uncertain.
“Well I can’t say I like it any more than you do,” said Liri. “But suppose the real world is nothing like what we know? We could end up lost forever.”
“I don’t think so,” said Doelan, loosening his arms a bit. “Why would the goblins give us knowledge of them in the illusion if they created it from scratch? We know what they are, and that let us figure out that they were in control of this illusion. If the goblins had invented this world they could have avoided this, keeping us from knowing what they were, but they didn’t. In the end I think it’s probably much easier just to copy the real thing than it is to make something completely new.”
Liri also crossed his arms, but with a much different attitude than Doelan.
“You do have a point,” Liri said. “You’re best chess strategy so far has been to copy my moves until the right moment, rather than make your own.”
Doelan smiled.
“That’s where I got the idea. Besides, if I’m right, there will be gislers in the real world.”
“That’s alright for you Doelan,” said Liri without any ill will. “But I have family here. I’m not an orphan. I have people to leave behind.”
“Liri, I don’t want to leave anyone behind either, and I mean anyone. Mayor Aralor is a good leader. Aileen and Ivilin, Neron's friend and the inkeeper, are nice to us. Even Erid, who practically raised us. Neron...I’d have to think about, but like I said I don’t want to leave everyone else either. But we tried to tell them, and they wouldn’t listen. The way I see it we can escape and come back to save them, but then we'll have help.”
Liri didn’t answer right away, but when he did he was resolute in his answer. “Yes, yes that sounds better.” He loosened his arms as well.
“Then what do you think?”
“Doelan, you are the one who’s thought it through, and much better than I have, I have to say. Why are you not sure?”
Doelan didn’t expect this question, and had to think about it. However he didn’t have to think about it long. “I am sure about what we need to do. We need to escape.”
“Then I trust you,” Liri replied. “But promise me we will come back to save the others, especially my parents.”
“Of course. I wouldn’t have it any other way.”
“Good,” Liri answered. “So what do we do?”
“Well, it was our hunger for truth that let us see it. So focus on that.”
“Okay.” He became grave. “I wish I could say goodbye to my family though, but they still don’t understand this.”
“I know,” Doelan sighed. “I know. Ready?”
Liri hesitated for a second, but then said, “yes.”
They nodded to each other and closed their eyes, both of them focusing on the truth. They began to chant, just to keep it in their minds. Over and over again they whispered, “I want the truth. I want to truth.”
Over and over again.
“Doelan I think..,”
“Shh...” Doelan said quickly.
They continued to chant, “I want the truth,” again and again until...
“What’s happened Liri? Something just happened.”
Doelan opened his eyes to see that he was in a musty cave tunnel with no visible light source, and yet he could see well enough.
“We’re out! We’re out! It’s the real world! Liri we did it!”
He was holding a pickaxe, but he didn’t notice it, all he noticed was that Liri was not there. Panic started to settle in. This wasn’t right. They were supposed to escape together.
“Liri? Liri? Liri?!”
He dropped the pickaxe and continued shouting Liri’s name over and over. He shouted until he thought his neck would burst, but stopped and froze when he heard a sound, as if crickets were making bloodcurdling shrieks. The goblins had heard him.
It came from one end of the tunnel, so he ran the other way. He didn’t dare call Liri’s name again, though he wished he could. He ran from the goblins, terrified, but through his fear he thought one thing.
Liri! Where are you!?
And from somewhere he couldn’t see the mind laughed at him. She thought, I promised myself I’d let you leave without the other gislers. And she laughed long and loud.
****

Chapter Six
His Destiny

Doelan had never felt so miserable in his life, stuck in that dark, cold cave. Liri was gone. He hadn’t really been with him in the real world. Doelan’s eyes had pierced the illusion, only to find that Liri wasn’t there. He was alone, running as fast as he could. When he had the strength that is.
There were other things that got to him. The animal skins he was wearing didn’t fit properly, and irritated his skin. His stomach was grumbling, and he couldn’t remember the last time he had eaten. Of course he realized that anything he remembered eating was probably part of the illusion. He shuddered to think of what the goblins really fed him. His feet were the coldest part of him, touching the stone floor. Even with no light source he could somehow still see, but all he saw was more cave, and nothing else.
He hadn’t seen any goblins since he first broke through the illusion. He had lost them, but a lack of goblins probably just meant that these caves were really big.
He might never get out.
Eventually he lost the strength to run. With no goblins around he just walked through the cave, randomly picking directions when there was a fork in the tunnel. He didn’t know where he was going, all he knew is that he wanted to get out of the cave.
He didn’t know how long he had been down there. Days? Weeks? Months? No, it couldn’t be that long. He had no food and no water, and he knew it was true with his rumbling stomach and parched throat. He would never have of lasted that long anyway.
It still felt like forever.
His feet seemed heavier with each step, and he was losing hope. He felt like curling up and dying right then and there. What could he do? Except, he heard sloshing. He ran ahead, turned a corner and…he froze…his heart pounding…there were goblins!
They hadn’t seen him. They were drinking from some sort of subterranean lake in a wide cavern. Doelan had to force himself to move. These were no illusions. They were real.
He backed away around the corner and hid against the wall. He realized he had been holding his breath, and his heart was beating so fast he felt he might faint. He breathed as quietly as he could. He would have run, but with water so near…He was so thirsty.
Then he heard buzzing. Loud, terrifying buzzing…that slowly got quieter…and then disappeared. Doelan stayed still for a few moments, and then inched forward. He peered into the cavern. There were no goblins, just water.
He slowly crawled forward towards the water. Then he stopped by the edge and cupped his hands, taking a drink. It tasted horrible, but it was water. He drank, then rested.
He thought. Liri was gone. His people were gone. No…that was wrong. He was the one that was gone. His people were still where they were, in the illusion. He might never see Liri again. But no. He had found water. It wasn’t much, and he was still afraid, but it was something. He drank as much as he could bear, but since he couldn’t carry any with him he went on.
He walked through more tunnels, and more still. He started getting thirsty again, but he had more time…though how much time he couldn’t tell. He kept going and going, and saw nothing but bare rock, but he kept hope that he would find something, anything.
Later, as he walked through the cave, looking at the earth around him, he wondered if