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

red clouds and reflected off the dew on the ground. It was a beautiful sight, but the boys didn’t notice. They were concentrating hard.
But while one concentrated on winning the game, the other didn’t. Doelan had other things on his mind.
“Interesting move Doelan,” said Liri as Doelan sat there rubbing his chin. “I didn’t know rooks could move diagonally.”
“Hmm?” said Doelan, seeing his mistake. “Oh, I’m sorry.”
As Doelan corrected his mistake, Liri looked at him suspiciously. “You seem distracted Doelan. Is something wrong?”
Doelan froze with his hand on one of the chess pieces. Something had indeed been on his mind. He had this feeling that nothing he knew was real, but he couldn’t tell where it came from, and he didn’t always feel that way. He also didn’t understand it, but it still weighed heavily upon him. He just couldn’t get rid of it.
And of course it all started with that rock and stone wall.
It had been on his mind quite often lately, and he had been thinking, deciding whether or not to tell Liri, for he sometimes felt he had to tell someone. But of course Liri was about to leave, and his family had already decided where to go. They would see the land of the cyclopses. The question was whether or not to tell Liri before, or after he left.
Until he decided, he figured he would stall. “Nothing,” he said.
“Doelan, you haven’t made such an elementary mistake at chess in a long time. I know, you actually beat me for the first time last week.”
Doelan couldn’t help but grin, “Yeah, I did. Alright, I’ll tell the truth,” but he wasn’t going to tell the truth that was on his mind. “I’ve been thinking lately about...maybe...getting out of the orphanage for a while.”
“With us on a trip?” said Liri hopefully.
Doelan chuckled. “Well, not out of Halhor yet, maybe someday...but that wasn’t what I meant. What I mean is that I might want to get out on my own for a while, right here.”
“Why?” asked Liri, who obviously didn’t understand.
There was no easy way to say it. “I wanted to...to ask around, you know, about when I was found on the outskirts of the city and...” He sighed. “I want to try to find my parents.” It was only part of the picture, but it was enough of the truth that Liri nodded his head in understanding.
“I see. What’s brought this on?”
Wanting to find something that was real and not…false…is what Doelan wanted, but he didn’t say that. Instead he said something that he hadn’t been thinking of lately, but was still true. “I want to find people who are more like me.”
“This again?”
“What do you mean ‘this again?’”
“You’ve been on this before.”
“Well I’m still different. I still don’t get the whole eternal youth thing and you’re still my only friend.”
“It’s not as bad as it was. No one comments on it anymore, and even that kid Neron doesn’t make fun of you anymore.”
“Well, yes that one person seems to leave me alone now, and the others are nicer, but that’s really all anyone besides you has ever been. Just nice.” Doelan sighed, and Liri looked like he could do the same. “But Liri, you are literally my only friend. It’s just that I want to find my family.”
Liri nodded his head. “I suppose I can’t really say anything against that. I have my family after all, and I love them.”
“And I want the same. I want a family I can go on trips with.”
“You could you know,” said Liri hopefully.
Doelan smiled. “I appreciate it, but it’s just that...it still leaves me with unanswered questions. That’s really my problem. You naturally belong in Halhor; I don’t. Liri, I don’t have a place I belong and people I belong with. I don’t know where I come from.
“I just don’t know who I am.”
“I’m sorry Doelan, I don’t know what to tell you. We really are leaving soon.”
“I know,” Doelan sighed. “I know…but I do want to stay.”
“Alright,” said Liri. “I understand. Will you see me off at least?”
“Of course,” said Doelan, smiling. Though their mood was more subdued after that. Neither was looking forward to being separated.
…
The Halhor border was set in a field full of bright, colorful flowers. The border itself was made of several marble huts with fences linking them. It was here that Doelan saw Liri off. Liri’s family, made of his mother, father, two sisters and brother, were already at the hut to check out with the border guards. Doelan thought the guards looked silly. Teenagers in armor, though he figured they weren’t really teenagers. Really though, he was sad. He wouldn’t see Liri in a while.
He stood and faced Liri next to him.
“Well, this is it,” said Liri.
“This is it,” said Doelan. He considered telling Liri his problem, about things seeming not real. But he didn’t. He just said, “Goodbye.”
“Goodbye,” said Liri a little mournfully before joining his parents. They were cleared by the guards, allowed through the fence, and then they left. Doelan watched them until they were out of sight, and then marched back.
He’ll be back. Doelan thought. But until then, he knew he would miss him.
On the way back to the orphanage he passed that same wall, and saw the same rock he had thrown earlier. Out of curiosity, he picked up the rock again and threw it.
He saw himself throwing not at the wall of an orphanage, but the inside of a cave.
He suddenly felt very nervous. He felt as if it was a memory. A memory of a time he had run away from Halhor, and been gone for a week. No one ever figured out where he went, not even Doelan himself, but he was certain this memory was from that time.
He picked up the rock and threw it again. Same image. Again and again he threw the rock, and the last time it clattered against the wall he stopped, for out of the corner of his eye, he was certain he had seen a goblin!
Could it be? No. He was imagining things. He was certain of it.
Then he looked and saw that girl, Ailean, looking at him with a confused expression.
“Oh,” said Doelan nervously. “I was…practicing my throw for skipping rocks.”
“Couldn’t you do that at the lake?” asked the girl.
“Uh…I didn’t feel like it.”
“Okay,” said the girl, still confused, before walking off.
Doelan took a deep breath, and considered throwing the rock again. Then he decided he didn’t want to see a goblin again. His skin was already crawling. Those things just…he shuddered!
He walked away, wishing that Liri was there. He really needed a friend.
From somewhere unseen, that mind that watched him thought, Yes. He’s definitely seeing through my veil again. And she was not pleased.
****

Chapter Four
His Secret

In Halhor when a gisler turns fifteen he stops ageing and that is when he becomes a man. Most Gislers would get excited during that time. Most gislers would be very exited.
Doelan, a young fourteen year old boy from Halhor, was not.
And he stood at a lake skipping rocks with Liri, who noticed.
“Doelan,” said Liri, skipping a rock three times. “Are you alright?”
“I’m fine,” said Doelan, who only managed two skips with his own rock.
“You say that every time I ask,” said Liri. “I don’t know what’s wrong with you. You seem distracted sometimes, like your mind is somewhere else.”
Doelan didn’t answer at first.
The truth was Doelan did have something on his mind, and had for a while. It was that problem that had come up when Liri left on his last trip. The feeling that things weren’t real, that nothing he saw should be the way he saw it. He couldn’t explain it, and it baffled him. That is, until he started seeing goblins around the village.
That’s when it truly frightened him.
It was as if something was hiding these goblins, and he was seeing through it. Horrible creatures they were, with those big, round, bald heads, thin yet muscular bodies, compound eyes and wings like a dragonfly. They wore loin cloths and carried swords, and most of all…
Doelan was more afraid of them than any other creature.
Still, he had learned to shut them out. As long as he didn’t think of them, he wouldn’t see them. But then he would remember his feeling that nothing around him was real and start seeing them again. It didn’t happen often.
But he didn’t want Liri to worry. Even though Liri had come back from his trip, Doelan hadn't told him for that reason. “It’s nothing,” Doelan said after a moment.
“Okay,” said Liri uncertainly.
That happened a few more times. Liri would ask if something was bothering him, and Doelan would say no. It didn’t happen too often, after all Doelan didn’t see goblins frequently. He figured he would keep shutting them out, and he did. He did for the longest time, right up until Liri left again for another one of his family’s trips. Even with that deadline, he put off telling Liri anything.
At the Halhor border, in that field of flowers, with marble guard towers linked by fences, Doelan said goodbye again.
“Goodbye Liri,” he said.
“Goodbye. I promise I’ll be back for your birthday. Fifteen years old! A man at last.”
“Then I’ll be up to speed with you. It’s still hard to believe you became a man so recently.”
“I know.”
“Uh huh. You also know that my birthday isn’t far off. It would have to be a short trip.”
“It is. I’ll be back soon. If I’m not, you can…push me in the river.”
Doelan grinned, “Alright. Deal.”
They shook on it, said goodbye again, and Liri left with his family. Doelan watched, knowing he would miss him. The last time Liri had left, he had been so lonely.
And that’s when he’d started seeing goblins again.
No, Doelan thought. Don’t think of that. He pushed that thought away as he watched Liri leave again, and even as he realized he should have told Liri sooner. Even though he was afraid to.
When Liri disappeared he turned and walked away. He looked back though, expecting the border guards. Silly looking people who looked like fifteen year olds in armor. Such was the curse of adult gislers. What Doelan really saw was horrifying.
They were wearing ragged leather that obviously wasn’t made for them.
He only saw it for a second before they looked like they were still in armor, but it was enough to terrify Doelan. He turned and ran back, thinking that he should have told Liri about everything, for he knew…
It was getting worse.
…
In the city of Halhor, the quaint marble cottages sat under a gloomy grey sky. In the mostly empty town square a fourteen year old Doelan sat next to a simple stone fountain, thinking to himself.
He was nervous. More than nervous really. Of course it was tied to this feeling. Looking at something normal, like the