In the AD (also known as Alternate, or Alternate Dimension) there was The Wizard Order. This Wizard Order was created to uphold peace of magic with magic in the Alternate Dimension. This was initiated after the Third Wizard War had wreaked havoc on the non-wizard community. If wizards do not join the order then they are put in a stasis spell that keeps them living, and in ultimate suffering.
“Damion?...Damion?!...DAMION!!”
“What do you want Mom?!”
“You need to do your homework before you go to the AD with your friends!”
“Hey Cecilia,” yelled Damion as he ran through the field of freshly cut grass, “thanks for not leaving without me!” Damion was having a bad hair day, his medium length brown hair looked as though it had been run through a electric mixer. He had a farmer’s tan and his shorter-than-average sleeves showed it. He was lean and you couldn’t tell by looking at him but he could lift half again his own weight.
“No one else waited,” Cecilia replied. “They decided that it wasn't worth it.” She was laying down in the grass looking at the cloud formations. Her long, light brown, almost golden, hair splayed out over the grass flowed slowly in the slight breeze. She had recently tried to trim her hair but had only succeeded in shortening it by an inch or two. “What are you staring at,” she asked, feeling awkward as he stared at her in awe, “I don’t look any different than usual.”
While Damion and Cecilia were conversing their three friends, who were siblings, that went ahead found out that you can only jump to the AD in groups of two, starting that day. Seeing as they didn’t want to leave a sibling behind they headed back. Besides, the eldest thought, the weather here isn’t bad, we can have a practice bout before Damion and I spar.
They met Damion and Cecilia on their return home and explained it to them. “Maybe next time,” said the eldest sibling. “I still want to see which one of us would win in a sword fight. Even if you have had more practice, Damion.”
“Next time it is,” Damion replied, even though he knew that his friend couldn’t touch him, even on a bad day. After all he had been partially raised in the Alternate Dimension and they still did some medieval type things there, though not as bad as the true medieval times.
Damion and Cecilia went to the portal to ‘jump’ to Alternate. The portal consists of two rings, one that spins perpendicular to the ground and another inside that one that rotates with it while rotating parallel to the ground. The entire mechanical marvel was painted a strange shade of green that was almost the color of steel. They climbed the fifteen marble steps up to it, paid the miniscule upkeep fee and ‘jumped’ to Alternate. While they were in transit the machine’s power was cut and that is when things went out of control…
…
“Damion,” said what Damion thought was an angelic voice, “can you hear me?”
“Who is that? And where am I,” asked a confused Damion. “And where is that beautiful voice coming from?”
“It's me, Cecilia you weirdo. We made it to the AD but we landed somewhere strange. Are you alright?”
“I'm fine,” said Damion, then, teasingly, “thanks for the concern my dear lady.”
Cecilia then replied flatly, “thanks. And you're welcome.”
“Excuse me,” said a voice unfamiliar to Cecilia, but one that Damion could never forget, “but why are you two at the wreckage of the old portal to the other land?”
“Wreckage,” Cecilia said, confused, “we just came th-”
“You mean,” Damion interrupted Cecilia, “that the portal was destroyed? When did this happen?” Damion came to the sudden realization that something was terribly wrong. The only way, Damion thought, this could happen is if the power to the portal on the other side was cut while we were in transit. The power on this end wouldn’t matter because they only need to receive the traveler, not transfer any power to them.
The stranger replied, “it happened about five years ago, but you would know that if you were from around here...”
“Who are you anyways,” asked Cecilia curiously, realizing what had happened. When we went through the portal something happened and we were thrown forward in time, she thought, that means that this end of the portal would have deteriorated. The one at home would have too! The two need each other to remain in good condition.
“I am a warrior who is currently on a journey to visit my homeland again,” said the warrior. “I do not wish for anyone to know my real name so just call me by my warrior nickname, Sabre.”
“Well my name is Cecilia,” said Cecilia, “and this is Damion.”
“Welcome to the Alternate Dimension, as your people call it,” Sabre welcomed them. “I can tell you are not from here because of your accents. I will help you two to the Dakorn Fortress because I am passing by there. I know that is where you need to go as well, if you have any hope of returning home.”
“What has happened here in the past five years,” Damion inquired about his homeland. “I actually grew up here and I like to keep up with what happens here.”
“Edwardian, I'm sure you've heard of him,” began Sabre, “succeeded in taking over The Wizard Order. He also was able to put all other known wizards into stasis. He is very powerful and knows some arts that were long lost to the Wizard Order.”
“So nothing else must have happened, right” Cecilia asked. “For five years that can’t be the only eventful thing that has happened.”
Sabre replied, “the only other thing is that really stupid and restricting laws have been issued by the wizard order. And Edwardian IS the wizard order.”
“That makes sense,” Damion stated. “When power changes hands laws are changed immediately but other things take longer. Like the oppression of a people or of peoples.” He referenced the elves and the dwarves at the end of his sentence, knowing not-Sabre would know what he meant. He also knew Cecilia, being from the other dimension and not Alternate, wouldn’t know what he meant. I don’t believe that someone that powerful would be unable to tell I know who he is, Damion thought, somewhat towards not-Sabre.
So you are telepathic then, not-Sabre replied to Damion, and you know who I am. So I guess you know that there is only one reason I would hide my identity. We will talk later when I am certain that nobody can listen in.
“What do you mean? There is only one group of people that I know of in the AD and they all live close together,” said Cecilia, confused. She had no clue that the men she was with had exchanged ‘words’.
“You haven’t gotten around Alternate much,” said Sabre. “Have you Cecilia?”
“No, why,” Cecilia replied with a question.
“You’ve never heard of the elves or of the dwarves?”
“No Sabre, I have not,” replied Cecilia.
Damion interrupted them saying, “we should probably get out of this clearing. These dead trees are starting to freak me out. Besides I think I hear a patrol approaching.”
“Agreed,” Sabre agreed, “we need to get moving. The Dakorn Fortress is this way.” He pointed to the North and slightly to the East, where there just happened to be an opening out of the small, circular forest. They set off, moving quietly. This was hard to do as the dead trees had recently started dropping dry branches all over the ground. Damion was surprised that the patrol didn’t find them but was glad that they had gotten out of there safely.
…
“So now that we’ve been traveling with you for over a week,” began Damion, “can we call you something other than Sabre?”
Not-Sabre didn’t answer the question. They were in the open highlands but not-Sabre knew that Edwardian was able to turn some weaker wizards to his side. These weaker wizards can cloak themselves in order to listen in on Edwardian’s enemies. He did not know if any were nearby but he dared not use chakta [magic] around Cecilia.
Suddenly Damion sensed something. “Have we been followed the whole time, since we arrived in AD?”
“What do you mean, followed?” Sabre seemed concerned, “because I circled around behind us last night and I saw very strange tracks. The tracks were of a dragon, but whoever, or whatever, made these tracks was a biped. I have never heard of a dragon that walked on two feet before.” What he didn’t mention was that the smaller claw marks that he found every twenty feet or so seemed to be the claws of a large eagle, but a dragon wouldn’t travel with an eagle. It would eat it before they would have gone ten feet, let alone twenty.
…
In the penal colony on the northern continent of Klatove [Klātōvē] Jasox had summoned a demon from the earth. The demon immediately bent his decaying grey flesh on destroying the nearby fields, eating all he could. He began to turn to a more pinkish color but there wasn’t enough food in the fields. After the demon had destroyed all of the fields in the colony Jasox was able to bind it back under the earth from whence it came. This was because the demon was not yet at full strength and needed to rest. He had originally called the demon to work the fields for him but had lost control. His blonde, shoulder-length hair was drenched in sweat and his lean, muscled form showed through his thin, drenched shirt.
Jasox was called to a trial and gave a testimony that was 100% true. But the penal colony officials did not believe him and discovered he had used what they thought was the language of chaltos [death], which was actually the language of Chaktas, and they passed sentence on him. He was going to spend a month in the colony’s jail, which consisted of an iron cage and a key. He would only be fed once a week in the ‘prison’. Upon hearing his sentence he flew into a rage. His blue veins were visible under his pale white skin, that did not burn or tan under the intense sunlight, and he put his rage into words.
“Froko et xadioso risan un destrot thesa tawnr owni oin1,” Jasox had yelled, invoking the power of chakta. He destroyed the colony that had not believed him and had treated him worse than dirt. In fact, he had done nothing to end up in the penal colony to begin with. He then found a boat that had not been destroyed by his rage. He began his journey to the Dakorn Fortress to try to find refuge from the evil warlord Edwardian. Edwardian was the one who had sent him to the colony, with no reasons other that his own safety as a warlord.
…
Zander started to walk away from the village of Kartosia. He had been exiled from and was now wanted, but only if he stepped foot into a village under the control of Edwardian. This would never have happened to him if he didn’t think out loud. He had said the wrong thing when the guards had come up behind him. Had he know he would have said so even if he had seen the soldiers. He had a problem with keeping his opinions to himself and this didn’t help him any.
“I should head to the Dakorn Fortress,” Zander thought aloud. “If I get there then maybe I won’t get caught, or destroyed by Edwardian’s cronies.” He pushed his rectangular glasses back to the bridge of his nose and began the journey east to the Dakorn Fortress. His black robes flowed behind him, if someone had been observing they would wonder why his lean, almost sickly looking form wasn’t sweating in the end-summer heat.
…
All of the travelers had set off for the Dakorn Fortress, had they know that they were all using the old roads they probably would have met up right then. But the old roads are know to but a few, and no maps show them, and they all lead to the same place, the Dakorn Fortress. Built from the Redstone cliff centuries before when the elves first arrived in the land. They were running from humans, and so were the dwarves, a few humans went with them as they opened the magic portal to the new place, a place free of the evil of the humans that were left behind. But unfortunately the evil humans would find their way back, though some of them were not evil anymore. Cecilia is one of the humans from the other land that will help the elves, even though at this time she did not know they really existed. Another will be met by Damion with kindness and as a long lost friend, though he won’t be able to recall where he had met him, or when.