ODDs Beginnings

Wavey Tonntach

Description

The ODDs Beginnings is about how an old order of demon fighters and wizard trainers is wiped out in one night, and what the powers of good (the Powers of Light) choose to do in reaction to this. They choose a teenaged guy, David Murphy, as the Water Empowered and then Richard Stephens as the Fire Empowered. These young men have increased physical strength, heal faster, and eventually begin to learn how to control their respective powers. The story follows them from when they both first become Empowered and through trying to learn about these powers, with the help of Christopher Games and Jerry Sweapons and a team they build up called the ODDs: the Organisation of Demon Destroyers. Early in the story David has a dream and as the story progresses it becomes evident that this dream is actually prophetic. The dream changes as David's circumstances change and each dream (bar one) takes place on what they call "The Night of the Green Hands." The dreams reveal an enemy called Scoilteach (an Irish word meaning 'Acute Pain') who plans on raising an army and taking over the world. He needs to open a Dimensional Portal on a hill known as Oakhill (now a hockey pitch in a school) and the ODDs need to stop him or he will achieve his ends, rebuild his army, and bring destruction to the world as we know it.

Sujets

• Fantasy (canción de Mariah Carey)
• Fantasy

Informations

• Publié par: Andrews UK
• Date de parution: 19 novembre 2013
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781783333806
• Langue: English

Extrait

Title Page
THE ODDS BEGINNINGS


By
Wavey



Publisher Information
The ODDs Beginnings
Published in 2013 by Andrews UK Limited
www.andrewsuk.com
This book is sold subject to the condition that it shall not, by way of trade or otherwise, be lent, resold, hired out or otherwise circulated without the publisher’s prior written consent in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published, and without a similar condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser.
Copyright © 2013 Wavey
The right of Wavey to be identified as author of this book has been asserted in accordance with section 77 and 78 of the Copyrights Designs and Patents Act 1988.
Front cover illustrations: Jamie Cowpar and Andy McClintock
Back cover: Anna-Victoria Lynch



The Beginning is an End
March, 1999 AD.
March, 11 BE.
“Joel, Joel!” someone shouted waking Joel from his slumber. Joel sat up and shook his head to move his black hair out of his eyes. Some of the strands on the right hand side fell back down, so he tucked these behind his right ear.
Joel’s blue eyes came into focus and he saw the round face and scared green eyes of his fellow officer, Jahsesh, “What is it my friend?” Joel asked the other officer.
Jahsesh pointed with the quarterstaff he was holding out into the distance, “Demons, on the plains.”
Joel focused his attention to the base of the mountain on top of which the city of Noksung sat. He saw them, hoards and hoards of demons, completely covering the plain below. They were even beginning to climb the mountain to reach Noksung.
“How did they manage to get so far without us noticing?” Joel asked, bewildered and terrified by what he was seeing.
“I do not know, one moment all was well, the next there was all this commotion, they somehow managed to hide themselves from us,” Jahsesh said, fear prevalent in his green eyes as he took in all the different species of demon present, “you must go and find Sintra...,” he finally said to Joel, “And wake the armies; worry not about me,” he finished and gave Joel a sad smile.
Joel was about to protest but thought of the reason there were night watch guards: this was it, in case an attack came at night, so the others could be warned. Joel turned towards the city. The high walls, topped with red tiles, perfect for archers to fire from. He looked further in and saw the central training-centre, the highest point in the city.
The city was really a training ground. Those who were willing to become warriors, those who wished to learn magic’s, those who were inhabited by demons, such as the werewolves, and wished to control the demon within, all these came to this city: to learn and to train to be better people.
Sintra was the head of all of this: he was a Knight of Light, one of twelve. He was also the closest thing Joel had to a father.
Joel’s real father had been killed by Scoilteach, an Irish demon, who in the 1500s had ruled all of Europe. Joel laughed to himself at this. He knew of medieval map makers and they always depicted Europe as demon free. How blind they really were. Joel’s father had, at one point in time, opposed Scoilteach; much later then the 1500s of course. The result was that Scoilteach killed his dad. His mother had then fled here, to Noksung, heavily pregnant with Joel, hoping to learn the secrets of how to avenge her beloved husband’s death.
One day, however, just a little after Joel’s third birthday, she went to meditate in a garden just outside the city walls. She had been brutally killed by a demon army looking to destroy Noksung.
Joel barely remembered his mother, but these thoughts still brought a tear to his eye and a pain in his heart, as he weaved through buildings on his way to Sintra’s home.
That war was why the training building was now the biggest in the city. This building had seventeen floors and a massive steeple with the symbol of the Knights of Light on it. It faced west, towards places like Jerusalem and Mecca, both of high spiritual importance. The buildings just inside the wall were smaller, low to the ground. This was all part of the planning of the city. The reason being that if the walls were breached by demons archers could stay higher than them and still attack as the closer one got to the training building the higher the buildings got. The city had been unplanned the last time there was a demon attack and the city had been destroyed; when Joel was three.
By the time Joel was six the new, current, training building and the apartments around it had been completed. This was also the year that Sintra invited Joel to join the martial arts class he taught on Wednesdays. Joel was delighted and accepted the invitation gratefully. By the age of fifteen, Joel had half as many black belts as Sintra himself and on his sixteenth birthday Sintra had personally knighted him as a warrior of Noksung. Even the oldest of people living in Noksung said Joel was the only warrior they ever remember Sintra knighting himself.
Sintra was a lot older now, he had aged much in five years, and fears of his ever nearing death were growing. The very next day Sintra was to name his successor and present him with the dragon belt, the belt of the Grand Master. Sintra would then go and live in the famous Knights of Light head quarters, accompanied by one guard, who would stay with him until the time of his death and then return to Noksung and announce that death: it was an ancient tradition. Joel had been shortlisted as one of the possible guards to join Sintra.
Sintra was a very humble man and he lived in one of the smallest houses, just under the shadow of the symbol of the Knights of Light on the steeple. The only thing that made his home recognisable, or distinguishable, from all the other houses around it was the Knights of Light symbol atop a pole that stood in the garden. A guard stood outside the door. He saw Joel on his approach.
“Hello Joel...” he said, “...what brings you here at such a late hour? Why are you looking so worried too?” the guard asked Joel, worrying himself now.
“You must go and ring the bells,” Joel said back, “our city is at war,” with that he opened the door to Sintra’s house and went in.
The house had four cushions around a table and two screens at either side of the room, one led to the bathroom and the other led to Sintra’s bedroom.
Sintra emerged from his room, his aqua eyes still drowsy, sleep clinging on to him for dear life. He had a blue night robe on and his hair was not tied up in its usual platted ponytail, it was flowing everywhere, so white that it made the white on the screens and the walls look grey when compared with it.
“Joel, my boy, why do you disturb me from my slumber at such an ungodly hour as this is?” Sintra asked and despite the tone of his words he smiled broadly, arms outstretched and welcoming: like a father’s, “you look tired, please sit,” Sintra said and motioned to one of the cushions on the ground.
Joel looked at the cushion and then shook his head, but less then a second later he was seated: fatigue washing over him. Sintra sat too; Joel noticed this and immediately jumped back onto his feet.
“Sintra, my lord...” Joel began.
“Why the formalities Joel?” Sintra interrupted.
“Father,” Joel explained, “Noksung is under attack from hoards of demons. We must leave here, now. You must escape.”
Sintra studied Joel for a moment and then turned, picked up his sword and belt and secured them around his waist. He turned to Joel and said, “You must go to Shie Hulan.”
“No, Sintra, we must leave now!” Joel pleaded with a sense of urgency.
“Joel, I am touched by your concern for my well-being; but I am old, as you know, Shie Hulan is my chosen successor. Go, find and save him,” right after saying this Sintra put his hand to his temple and screamed.
“Master, are you okay?” Joel asked, concern etching across his features.
“Yes, now please go,” Sintra commanded.
Joel shook his head and said, slightly regretfully, “I am a warrior of Noksung, and as such it is my duty to protect the Grand Master: that’s you.”
“If that is so then it is Shie Hulan that you are duty bound to protect.” Sintra said and stood closer to Joel. Joel was a good foot taller than the old man, but that was the only way he out measured him.
Joel looked at Sintra puzzled and exclaimed, “I don’t understand.”
“The pain you witnessed me experiencing was the passing of the powers of the Knight’s of Light from my body to Shie Hulan’s. He is who you must protect. I am now expendable and can die for this city: a luxury I have not had open to me until this very moment,” Sintra explained.
“I shall find Shie Hulan,” Joel promised, he then looked Sintra in the eye and said, “But only if you come with me.”
“Agreed,” Sintra said and they left his house.
All over the city bells were ringing loudly. They were deeply involved in a battle to waken the sleeping people of Noksung and call them to fight. Archers already stood on some of the roofs, firing arrows over the walls in clouds of dark with splatterings of colour every now and again: from the feathers on the arrows. Joel watched them fly overhead as he and Sintra walked below them. Warriors were moving towards the gates, preparing themselves for the unlikely event of the walls being breached.
“Joel,” Sintra called over the noise, “Shie Hulan lives on the north side of the city, come.”
Joel followed Sintra, fear welling up inside him, the north gate had been where he had been positioned earlier. The north was the side the demons were attacking from. The north of the city would certainly have been the part that would have been attacked first.
As the two continued to walk through the city many people passed them goin