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

Liri was still in the illusion, or if he was doing the same thing, wandering about these caves with little hope. He stopped, and almost cried right then and there, but no…he couldn’t break down now. He shook himself and kept going. He had to get out. He had to…he…
It was strange that the shriek could remind him of crickets, and yet chill his bones at the same time. He turned around, his heart pounding instantly! They were far off, but he wasn’t going to waste time. He picked up speed.
The shrieking came again, faster this time. Doelan picked up more speed, his breathing getting faster. Then, when the shrieking was loudest and Doelan was convinced they were coming directly for him, he broke out into a run!
He ran for his life.
He got to the end of the tunnel, only to find more tunnels. He started picking directions randomly, searching frantically for escape. The shrieking behind him got louder and louder, and eventually he could hear buzzing.
The goblins were getting closer!
Where’s the way out?! He asked himself as he ran. How do I get out?!
He nearly screamed when he saw it, a bright light at the end of the tunnel. He had found the way out! The joy lasted a split second when he remembered he was being chased. He ran towards the light. It was far off, but if he could just get there…
He heard the shrieking and the buzzing, louder than ever this time. He looked but he still could not see them. He was beginning to feel wind, as if from a thousand wings beating at once.
He kept running, that bright light getting closer and closer. He was almost there!
And then he looked back.
He could see them, the goblins. They were coming for him. He didn’t want to see them. He didn’t want to see those skinny, yet muscular builds, or their big round bald heads. He didn’t want to look at their two slits for a nose, their thin lipless mouths, their dragonfly eyes and wings, or the swords that hung from their loin cloths. Yet here they came, ready to kill him!
He ran, getting closer and closer to the exit, and the goblins flew, getting closer and closer to him. He was almost there. Just a little further. He thought. Just a little further. Just a little…
And then he tripped.
He fell face first on the stone, and felt a pain in his ankle. He tried to get up, but the moment he put pressure on his ankle he cried out in pain and fell back. He had sprained it. He turned around he crawled backwards. The goblins were almost on top of him! One raised his sword to strike! Doelan covered his eyes!
And then nothing happened.
Doelan could still hear the angry shrieks, but they weren’t attacking. He felt himself shaking and sweating, and his heart pounded in his chest. Slowly he looked, and saw something strange. The goblins were stopped, as if held back by an invisible force, but that wasn’t what was strange. In front of the goblins, floating, were pink leaves, also held up by some invisible hands. The goblins couldn’t pass the leaves. Doelan didn’t know why, but they couldn’t pass those leaves.
Doelan stood as best he could, not putting weight on his ankle. He started limping towards the exit. He turned back, thankful, and then saw the goblins with a torch!
They reached the torch out and began burning the leaves one by one. Doelan limped as fast as he could. The Goblins got more torches, and burned more leaves. Doelan was almost to the exit, almost to that bright light!
When the last of the leaves burned the goblins came on! Doelan limped as fast as he could! He was right on the threshold of the light! The goblins were almost upon him and then…
They cowered!
He had reached the light! The bright blinding sunlight that the goblins feared. He was safe, but he didn’t stop. He limped on and on until he was out into the sun and then…He fell down on the ground, remembering nothing afterwards.
…
“We’re out! We’re out! It’s the real world! Liri we did it!”
Then 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?!”
Doelan awoke to a strange sensation, as if he was suspended in the air. No, there was something under him, but it swung back and forth gently. It felt smooth, whatever it was. He opened his eyes. Above him was a bright blue sky, and below that were trees, unlike any he had ever seen. They had pink leaves, like the leaves that had held the goblins back.
The goblins. It came rushing back to him, and he wished he could forget.
He realized he was in a hammock. It was white, and it shimmered in the sunlight. Silk, that’s what it was made of. He was in a silk hammock in a forest clearing with strange trees that were too dense for him to fit through and had silver apples. He could literally see his face in those apples, resting with the pink leaves of the trees.
He wanted to cry. Where was he? Who had put him in this hammock? Where was Liri?
He almost did cry.
Then he heard a buzzing, but not like goblins. It was quieter, like a real insect. That still made him a little uncomfortable, until a tiny man flew into view.
Doelan wiped his tears away and looked at him. It was an old man in a cloak with insect wings coming from his back. He had a grey beard, a solemn expression, and a small gem tipped stick in his hand. He was small enough to stand in Doelan’s palm. He flew over and stood on a nearby branch.
“Hello,” said the small figure. “My name is Tulbor.”
“Doelan,” he said with frailty. “Where am I?”
“Filia Forest. The home of the fairies. Us.”
“Was it you that saved me? Sent those leaves? And…” he realized something. Hi ankle didn’t hurt. “Did you heal my ankle?”
“Yes, that was all us. We used our wands.”
He lifted the gen tipped stick in his hand, which Doelan supposed was the want, and pointed it at a tree. A leaf fell from the tree and hovered in front of Doelan.
“The trees of this forest,” said Tulbor, “are enchanted to repel evil. It makes a good protection.”
“Oh,” said Doelan, who was still getting over the fact that he had never heard of fairies before; or Filia Forest. Where was he? And where was everyone he had ever known?
“You seem distracted,” said Tulbor. “Let me ask you, what are you?”
“A gisler,” said Doelan.
“Hmm, yes. That is a…complication.”
“What do you mean?”
“You’ve never heard of fairies before. Have you?”
“Never.”
“That is because we do not exist in the world you are familiar with.”
“The world I’m familiar with is…” he hesitated. He still didn’t want to think about it. “An illusion. The goblins made it to trap me. I don’t know for certain if anything I remember is real.”
“I’m sure it is,” said Tulbor. “While I’m certain this illusion you speak of has false elements in order to be deceiving it must have real world elements in it to be convincing. This illusion is probably a copy of the real thing.”
I knew it! Thought Doelan, feeling sliver of hope. I just need to find gislers in the real Halhor! It must be pretty far away since I’ve never heard of fairies, but if I can find them, maybe they can help me…
“But you cannot go to the places you are familiar with here in the real world.”
“What? Why?”
“Listen very carefully. This will be very difficult to explain, and you may not understand it. The world you are familiar with is one of many. These worlds are connected only by magic. You could travel as far as you liked and never find another world. The only way to reach other worlds is to open a doorway through enchantment. You, Doelan are from a world where there are gislers. In that world you would recognize a great deal. Civilizations, histories, and other species. In this world, there are no other gislers, and you will recognize next to nothing. Do you understand?”
No. He didn’t understand.
“How do I know any of this is real? How do I know that there are other worlds? Beside my own?”
“You are a gisler. You will remain a fifteen year old boy for a very long time. Perhaps magic spells can grant this, but the world you remember is the only one where people are born that way. There are no such people here.”
“How do you know about gislers?”
“We have many secrets that we protect. How we know such things is one of them. I cannot tell you more than that.”
“But what about enchantments to reach these other worlds? Surely you must have some!”
“Though we know about them we have never had use for them. The only enchantments we know of that pass through these worlds belong to the goblins, and I doubt you are ready to face them again. I’m sorry.”
This couldn’t be happening. A world without gislers?! He was different enough when there were gislers. Now he was without his friend or creatures like him.
He was truly alone.
…
Lir? Liri?! Where are you!? Liri!
Doelan woke up in the hammock on his third day in Filia forest. He wasn’t crying anymore, but that didn’t mean he felt better. At least he wasn’t hungry anymore. The silver apples in the trees melted into a honey in his mouth and quelled his growling stomach. Now he wasn’t hungry and miserable.
Just miserable.
The worst part was not that he was alone. He had been used to that once. It was that he couldn’t save anyone else. He felt powerless. Simply powerless.
The next moment Tulbor flew into the clearing, buzzing over Doelan.
He said, “It is time for you to leave.”
“Now?” asked Doelan.
“Now.”
Doelan got out of the silk hammock slowly. It wasn’t as if he wanted to stay there, he just wasn’t certain what he wanted. And there was something else he wasn’t sure of.
“Where will I go?” he asked when he stood up.
“There is a man that you will meet outside this forest. He sells magical trinkets. Trifles really. We’ve determined that he should be a suitable guardian for you. He doesn’t know about us, or you yet, so you will have to explain, but it should be safe to tell him your story.”
Doelan didn’t know what to make of this. He stood there, confused, as Tulbor raised his wand. The trees next to Doelan started moving away from each other, making a grinding sound in the