The Ageless One: Beginnings by The Ageless Author (early reader chapter books TXT) đ
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ItâsâŠLiriâs been having this problem tooâŠweâŠâ Erid was getting confused, which made Doelan more nervous. âItâs a real problem andâŠLiri has the same problemâŠâ
âDoelanâŠâ
âWeâve been seeing goblins in Halhor!â
That took Erid by surprise, which, ironically, Doelan didnât find surprising. The same could be said about Eridâs response.
âDoelan, thatâs very serious, but donât you think that if there were goblins in Halhor weâd be seeing signs?â
Not if were in an illusion, Doelan thought, they wouldnât want us to see signs of them. However he only said part of that thought. âWell, maybe they donât want anyone to see them.â
âAnd you say Liriâs been seeing goblins too?â
âYes sir.â Normally, Doelan found that adult words like sir were hard to use for a person who looked only fifteen. However, this time he swallowed his feelings on the matter and did what any âsensibleâ gisler would do.
âWow,â said Erid. âYou called me sir. I thought we looked the same age.â
âErid, please. Liri and I are really scared.â That was true. That was so true, and that made Eridâs response hurt all the more.
âDoelan, youâre probably imagining things. Iâve seen you two, always talking about the stuff Liri brings back from his familyâs vacations. Youâve got your head in the clouds all the time, instead of here, in Halhor. Now Doelan, please, just try and concentrate on whatâs real.â
As Erid walked back into the orphanidge Doealn felt like screaming, THATâS WHAT IâM TRYING TO GET YOU TO DO! But of course he didnât. He turned back, feeling worse than before.
âŠ
âIt didnât go well with Erid did it?â asked Liri as Doelan entered the room.
âIt is that obvious?â asked Doelan, plopping down on a chair.
They were inside one of the marble cottages, Liriâs to be exact. Inside were more of the same marble columns from outside, wooden furniture, woolen rugs, and bright candles. It was all somehow rich looking, like nobility housing, and yet accessible, like a commonerâs home, and all Doelan could think about was how none of it was real.
âHow did it go with your parents?â Doelan asked, but one look from Liri told him that it hadnât gone any better. No one was going to believe them.
âYou know,â said Liri. âNot long after telling them about goblins they talked about leaving me behind on their next vacation.â
This surprised Doelan. âWhy?â
âThey think Iâm getting too many ideas. All the tales of battles from other nations are going to my head.â
âIf only it were that simple.â
âTell me about it. Iâve heard the stories. The cyclops sorcerer who shot lightning from his eye, the eagle man and goblin wars, the slefah invasion of the Ciniceros empire, even some of the older stories about the Twyla. The difference is those stories didnât scare me. This does.â
Doelan knew exactly what Liri was talking about. The old legends seemed so distant that no matter what happened in them they werenât too frightening. Stories where the ancient Twyla trapped a sorcerer and cast every dark spell he had cast back into himself was less frightening than goblins in the village.
Because that wasnât an ancient legend. It was real, and it was happening right then and there.
âIt doesnât really matter,â said Liri. âItâs not like anything I saw on those vacations was real. Eagle men, cyclopses, none of them really exist. At leastâŠI think they donât. Iâm not sure anymore."
Doelan didnât answer. He hadnât really thought about exactly how much was real. It was as frightening an idea as anything. However, he knew he would have to consider it. Something told him that even though they were surrounded by an illusion, some things were real, or at least it was based on reality. But he would figure it out later.
âWell,â he said. âOur guardians didnât help. Weâll keep trying. Weâll tell anyone who will listen.â
He knew that would be harder.
âŠ
It was.
Liri tried to tell the rest of his family about the goblins, while Doelan tried talking to anyone he could. He remembered walking up to the first random stranger he could find; a brown haired gisler boy just strolling through town on a bright sunny day. For all Doelan knew he could be thirty or forty. Doelan walked right up him in the town square, right next to the central fountain and said, âExcuse me sir.â
âOh, thereâs no need to call me sir,â said the other gisler. âIâm only sixteen.â
Not that much older than Doelan, who felt a little embarrassed. Thereâs no need to describe the painful scene of Doelan trying to get the worlds out. Suffice it to say the conversation didnât end well.
âOh please. I stopped telling stories like that when I was ten,â the other gisler said before walking off.
Doelan sighed, but he wasnât going to give up that easily.
He tried gisler after gisler with no success. Apparently Liri hadnât had any progress with his family because he eventually joined him. They told everyone they could find about the goblins, but no one believed them. They didnât mention the illusion. People were already calling them crazy, so they didnât want to push it.
Later that evening they stopped and played a game of chess underneath the oak tree outside the village. The twilight was gloomy, much like their moods.
âSo,â said Doelan, making his move. âHow many people called us mad?â
âI counted seventeen,â said Liri. âThis was not our day. SoâŠnow what do we do?â
âWe keep trying.â
âFor how long?â
âAs long as it takes.â
âBut what if no one ever listens? DoelanâŠwhat if itâs impossible to get them to see the truthâŠwhat if we have to leave without them? â
Doelan didnât answer at first. He didnât want to leave anyone, but he would if he had to. He wasnât sure if Liri could. For his sake, they had to keep trying.
âLiri, anything is possible. I once thought it impossible that Iâd ever have a friend. I once thought it impossible that anyone else could see things the way I do. Okay, maybe both of us seeing goblins isnât so great, but you get my point. And I also thought it impossible to beat you at chess once. Let alone three times in a row. Seriously, my winning streak proves anything is possible.â
Liri looked at him grimly. âExcept winning four times in a row.â
âWhat?â
Liri moved a piece and said, âCheckmate.â
Doelan stared at it, and sure enough it was checkmate. Liriâs win. It was at that moment that they both burst out laughing!
âAlright! Maybe not everything is possible! But Liri, we figured out the truth, and so can they. Thatâs possible. Weâre not giving up.â
âOkay Doelan. Okay. Thanks.â
âYouâre welcome. Thatâs what friends are for.
They set up for another game, not sure how they were going to convince people of the truth.
âŠ
Something was different that morning amid all the marble building and cottages. Doelan could feel it. No one was out. Everyone was inside. As the sun hid behind a layer of clouds, everyone else hid in their homes. Something was different.
Were they hiding from him? He looked and saw a window close, right before he looked at it. Yes, they were avoiding him. No one was going to listen. No one.
This was probably it. He and Liri would have to leave without the rest of them. He knew it would break Liriâs heart. And besides, they would be alone facingâŠwhat exactly? Was Liri right, and the whole world was fabricated? Was there a real Ciniceros Empire? Eagle menâs nest? A real Halhor?
Could the goblins have created a whole world from their imaginations? Doelan thought of how hard it was just to come up with a new chess strategy. A whole world would have been maddening!
He thought about it, and then he realized perhaps there was a real Halhor, and everything elseâŠand he knew why. He was just about to tell Liri, to soften the blow of this news, whenâŠ
âDoelan.â
He spun around to face the last person he expected. Neron. He looked at Doelan stoically.
âI suppose youâve heard about what Iâve been saying,â said Doelan. âAnd you have something to say about it?â
âNothing mean or hurtful if thatâs what youâre expecting.â
It was what Doelan expected, âWhy did you stop teasing me anyway?â
âAilean. Apparently she had been teased about her voice. It used to be a bitâŠgoofierâŠbefore I met her. Left a bad taste in her mouth when she saw me doing something similar.â
âBut whyâŠâ
âBecause I found I liked her company more than I liked teasing you.â
And Doelan was grateful for that, but he wasnât sure.
âIâm not here to tease you about this,â said Neron. âI admit, I had thought of some things to say in that regard, but I keep those to myself these days.â
If Doelan had though it strange to watch Erid act like an adult when looked fifteen, it was something else entirely to watch Neron do it now. Neron had always been the most childish person around him, and seeing him act like this when Doelan had given him every opportunity to jibe with this goblin issueâŠ
âSo what are you here to say?â asked Doelan.
âIâm here to say that your stories have gotten to people. Thereâs been talk andâŠpeople have started seeing things.â
It couldnât be. âGoblins?â asked Doelan.
âYes. I thought I saw some to.â
âDo you think theyâre real?â
âI donât know. I honestly donât know.â
It wasnât a âno.â And a ânot a noâ from Neron could almost mean a yes from anyone else. Things were looking up. Maybe they could bring the other gislers along after all? Maybe they wouldnât face the outside of the illusion alone!
âŠ
And then they were brought to court.
Made of cold marble, the courthouse of Halhor was set up like an amphitheater, with seats in a semicircle around the judgeâs podium, also made of marble like the columns around the room. The mayor, Aralor, stood where the judge usually did. Despite looking like a child in his teen years he had a commanding presence, but that just added to the hopelessness that Doelan and Liri were feeling. As it turns out people had been seeing goblins, but then this meeting was called to discuss it. It had been ruled that the goblins had been imagined by people who got scared by a tall tale. This was the final decree on that issue.
âThis is a very serious matter,â said mayor Aralor. âTwo gislers, one of them just reaching the age of a man, spreading this kind of rumor. People afraid to come out of their homes, whispers that this might be real, and all because of these two making up wild stories.â
Doelan and Liri would have objected, but with one glance at each other they knew it would only get them in more trouble.
âIt pains me to do this,â the mayor went on. âBut I canât have panicked citizens hiding from shadows. Life must go on. Therefore, if these stories of
âDoelanâŠâ
âWeâve been seeing goblins in Halhor!â
That took Erid by surprise, which, ironically, Doelan didnât find surprising. The same could be said about Eridâs response.
âDoelan, thatâs very serious, but donât you think that if there were goblins in Halhor weâd be seeing signs?â
Not if were in an illusion, Doelan thought, they wouldnât want us to see signs of them. However he only said part of that thought. âWell, maybe they donât want anyone to see them.â
âAnd you say Liriâs been seeing goblins too?â
âYes sir.â Normally, Doelan found that adult words like sir were hard to use for a person who looked only fifteen. However, this time he swallowed his feelings on the matter and did what any âsensibleâ gisler would do.
âWow,â said Erid. âYou called me sir. I thought we looked the same age.â
âErid, please. Liri and I are really scared.â That was true. That was so true, and that made Eridâs response hurt all the more.
âDoelan, youâre probably imagining things. Iâve seen you two, always talking about the stuff Liri brings back from his familyâs vacations. Youâve got your head in the clouds all the time, instead of here, in Halhor. Now Doelan, please, just try and concentrate on whatâs real.â
As Erid walked back into the orphanidge Doealn felt like screaming, THATâS WHAT IâM TRYING TO GET YOU TO DO! But of course he didnât. He turned back, feeling worse than before.
âŠ
âIt didnât go well with Erid did it?â asked Liri as Doelan entered the room.
âIt is that obvious?â asked Doelan, plopping down on a chair.
They were inside one of the marble cottages, Liriâs to be exact. Inside were more of the same marble columns from outside, wooden furniture, woolen rugs, and bright candles. It was all somehow rich looking, like nobility housing, and yet accessible, like a commonerâs home, and all Doelan could think about was how none of it was real.
âHow did it go with your parents?â Doelan asked, but one look from Liri told him that it hadnât gone any better. No one was going to believe them.
âYou know,â said Liri. âNot long after telling them about goblins they talked about leaving me behind on their next vacation.â
This surprised Doelan. âWhy?â
âThey think Iâm getting too many ideas. All the tales of battles from other nations are going to my head.â
âIf only it were that simple.â
âTell me about it. Iâve heard the stories. The cyclops sorcerer who shot lightning from his eye, the eagle man and goblin wars, the slefah invasion of the Ciniceros empire, even some of the older stories about the Twyla. The difference is those stories didnât scare me. This does.â
Doelan knew exactly what Liri was talking about. The old legends seemed so distant that no matter what happened in them they werenât too frightening. Stories where the ancient Twyla trapped a sorcerer and cast every dark spell he had cast back into himself was less frightening than goblins in the village.
Because that wasnât an ancient legend. It was real, and it was happening right then and there.
âIt doesnât really matter,â said Liri. âItâs not like anything I saw on those vacations was real. Eagle men, cyclopses, none of them really exist. At leastâŠI think they donât. Iâm not sure anymore."
Doelan didnât answer. He hadnât really thought about exactly how much was real. It was as frightening an idea as anything. However, he knew he would have to consider it. Something told him that even though they were surrounded by an illusion, some things were real, or at least it was based on reality. But he would figure it out later.
âWell,â he said. âOur guardians didnât help. Weâll keep trying. Weâll tell anyone who will listen.â
He knew that would be harder.
âŠ
It was.
Liri tried to tell the rest of his family about the goblins, while Doelan tried talking to anyone he could. He remembered walking up to the first random stranger he could find; a brown haired gisler boy just strolling through town on a bright sunny day. For all Doelan knew he could be thirty or forty. Doelan walked right up him in the town square, right next to the central fountain and said, âExcuse me sir.â
âOh, thereâs no need to call me sir,â said the other gisler. âIâm only sixteen.â
Not that much older than Doelan, who felt a little embarrassed. Thereâs no need to describe the painful scene of Doelan trying to get the worlds out. Suffice it to say the conversation didnât end well.
âOh please. I stopped telling stories like that when I was ten,â the other gisler said before walking off.
Doelan sighed, but he wasnât going to give up that easily.
He tried gisler after gisler with no success. Apparently Liri hadnât had any progress with his family because he eventually joined him. They told everyone they could find about the goblins, but no one believed them. They didnât mention the illusion. People were already calling them crazy, so they didnât want to push it.
Later that evening they stopped and played a game of chess underneath the oak tree outside the village. The twilight was gloomy, much like their moods.
âSo,â said Doelan, making his move. âHow many people called us mad?â
âI counted seventeen,â said Liri. âThis was not our day. SoâŠnow what do we do?â
âWe keep trying.â
âFor how long?â
âAs long as it takes.â
âBut what if no one ever listens? DoelanâŠwhat if itâs impossible to get them to see the truthâŠwhat if we have to leave without them? â
Doelan didnât answer at first. He didnât want to leave anyone, but he would if he had to. He wasnât sure if Liri could. For his sake, they had to keep trying.
âLiri, anything is possible. I once thought it impossible that Iâd ever have a friend. I once thought it impossible that anyone else could see things the way I do. Okay, maybe both of us seeing goblins isnât so great, but you get my point. And I also thought it impossible to beat you at chess once. Let alone three times in a row. Seriously, my winning streak proves anything is possible.â
Liri looked at him grimly. âExcept winning four times in a row.â
âWhat?â
Liri moved a piece and said, âCheckmate.â
Doelan stared at it, and sure enough it was checkmate. Liriâs win. It was at that moment that they both burst out laughing!
âAlright! Maybe not everything is possible! But Liri, we figured out the truth, and so can they. Thatâs possible. Weâre not giving up.â
âOkay Doelan. Okay. Thanks.â
âYouâre welcome. Thatâs what friends are for.
They set up for another game, not sure how they were going to convince people of the truth.
âŠ
Something was different that morning amid all the marble building and cottages. Doelan could feel it. No one was out. Everyone was inside. As the sun hid behind a layer of clouds, everyone else hid in their homes. Something was different.
Were they hiding from him? He looked and saw a window close, right before he looked at it. Yes, they were avoiding him. No one was going to listen. No one.
This was probably it. He and Liri would have to leave without the rest of them. He knew it would break Liriâs heart. And besides, they would be alone facingâŠwhat exactly? Was Liri right, and the whole world was fabricated? Was there a real Ciniceros Empire? Eagle menâs nest? A real Halhor?
Could the goblins have created a whole world from their imaginations? Doelan thought of how hard it was just to come up with a new chess strategy. A whole world would have been maddening!
He thought about it, and then he realized perhaps there was a real Halhor, and everything elseâŠand he knew why. He was just about to tell Liri, to soften the blow of this news, whenâŠ
âDoelan.â
He spun around to face the last person he expected. Neron. He looked at Doelan stoically.
âI suppose youâve heard about what Iâve been saying,â said Doelan. âAnd you have something to say about it?â
âNothing mean or hurtful if thatâs what youâre expecting.â
It was what Doelan expected, âWhy did you stop teasing me anyway?â
âAilean. Apparently she had been teased about her voice. It used to be a bitâŠgoofierâŠbefore I met her. Left a bad taste in her mouth when she saw me doing something similar.â
âBut whyâŠâ
âBecause I found I liked her company more than I liked teasing you.â
And Doelan was grateful for that, but he wasnât sure.
âIâm not here to tease you about this,â said Neron. âI admit, I had thought of some things to say in that regard, but I keep those to myself these days.â
If Doelan had though it strange to watch Erid act like an adult when looked fifteen, it was something else entirely to watch Neron do it now. Neron had always been the most childish person around him, and seeing him act like this when Doelan had given him every opportunity to jibe with this goblin issueâŠ
âSo what are you here to say?â asked Doelan.
âIâm here to say that your stories have gotten to people. Thereâs been talk andâŠpeople have started seeing things.â
It couldnât be. âGoblins?â asked Doelan.
âYes. I thought I saw some to.â
âDo you think theyâre real?â
âI donât know. I honestly donât know.â
It wasnât a âno.â And a ânot a noâ from Neron could almost mean a yes from anyone else. Things were looking up. Maybe they could bring the other gislers along after all? Maybe they wouldnât face the outside of the illusion alone!
âŠ
And then they were brought to court.
Made of cold marble, the courthouse of Halhor was set up like an amphitheater, with seats in a semicircle around the judgeâs podium, also made of marble like the columns around the room. The mayor, Aralor, stood where the judge usually did. Despite looking like a child in his teen years he had a commanding presence, but that just added to the hopelessness that Doelan and Liri were feeling. As it turns out people had been seeing goblins, but then this meeting was called to discuss it. It had been ruled that the goblins had been imagined by people who got scared by a tall tale. This was the final decree on that issue.
âThis is a very serious matter,â said mayor Aralor. âTwo gislers, one of them just reaching the age of a man, spreading this kind of rumor. People afraid to come out of their homes, whispers that this might be real, and all because of these two making up wild stories.â
Doelan and Liri would have objected, but with one glance at each other they knew it would only get them in more trouble.
âIt pains me to do this,â the mayor went on. âBut I canât have panicked citizens hiding from shadows. Life must go on. Therefore, if these stories of
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