A tiny boat puffed its way through the calm and gentle water in the Quartz sea. The sea was named so as the pure silica substance was commonly found in the sea’s many rocks and submerged caves and cliffs. It was a common spot for holidaying families, in this case, a small family known as the Thatcher’s. All born and raised in the world of Heart, Gerald and Susanne Thatcher could not have been prouder of their son, Nicholai, who had been invited to start his training at a school called Slate Academy. Nicholai would learn how to fight and defend himself, along with the good people of Heart against evil. He would also learn a very valuable ability, commonly known to people as magic.

But Nicholai wouldn’t be learning cheap tricks, like making a coin disappear in his hand and then pull it out of some oblivious person’s ear. No, that was more his father’s thing. Nicholai would learn real magic. He would learn to create fire, ice, water and lightning out of nothing at all. He couldn’t wait to get started at the Academy. He’d received a letter from the Headmaster of the Academy, a man called Jepp Falcon. It had told him to come to Slate on the 12^th of February of this year – which was just three days away. Gerald and Susanne could not have been prouder. Gerald had always dreamed of going to the Academy as a young boy, but sadly had never received the important letter. He was at least glad his son would be able to attend, and his son’s children and so on. Susanne was equally proud but twice as nervous. Nicholai had never been away from home for more than a day. She’d never not seen him for more than a day, a matter a fact. Even though he was sixteen, Susanne would be sad to see Nicholai go. Susanne didn’t like to admit it, but she was one of those clingy mothers, the kind that got nervous the first time Nicholai did anything on his own. Nicholai didn’t seem to mind that his mother was like that, but he did wish that she was a little more relaxed.

It was nearing noon and the Thatcher’s small steam-powered boat chugged along at a calm and steady pace. At the helm of the boat stood Gerald, looking out at the horizon, letting the cool sea breeze blow across his face. Gerald didn’t like to admit it, in fact he lied about his age quite a bit, but he was nearing forty years of age. Ten years off half a century, Gerald had become deeply saddened as to how fast life was passing him by. If felt like just yesterday he was graduating from school and getting out into the world of Heart. He’d always wanted to get out and see the world, but after marrying Susanne and being blessed with Nicholai, Gerald realised that he was going to have to settle down a lot sooner than he had anticipated. His family needed money and Gerald proudly worked for every cent he made. Sure, meeting Susanne and having a son had been the highlight of his life, but now what? As a young boy, he’d always wanted to get out and go exploring – an undying sense of adventure that he’d ignored for the last thirty years of his life. It was like an old spark being smothered by the duties that a family required.

Today, that spark would be reignited. Something came into view on the horizon and immediately caught Gerald’s eye. He stared at it as his small boat powered slowly towards it. It was large, like a huge whale jumping up above the horizon. But this was no whale – it wasn’t even an animal of any kind. It was a landmass, an island.

“Nicholai, bring me that map down there,” Gerald asked politely to his son, who was sitting on the edge of the boat, holding a crudely made fishing rod.

Nicholai tossed his bait-less rod onto the ground and brought his father a map of the world of Heart. Gerald examined the map and found his current position. Nothing but sea until they reached the Slate Islands, the location of the Academy. There was no island on this map; perhaps it was an undiscovered one, Gerald thought. Perhaps I should be the one to discover it, was Gerald’s next thought.

“Susanne? How about a nice lunch on the beach of a beautiful island?” asked Gerald cheerfully as he pointing the island, which was much closer now.

Susanne looked out at the island and smiled.

“That sounds lovely, but I don’t remember one being anywhere near here. Is it on the map?” Susanne asked curiously as she came up to the helm, her long brown hair being blown around in the strong wind.

Gerald handed his wife the map who proceeded to scan the area of the map, leaning in so close to the map it looked like she was trying to smell it. Nicholai couldn’t help but laugh at her. Nicholai grabbed his fishing rod and went back to trying to catch a fish, but so far he’d had no luck. Having no bait on the rod was no doubt a contributing factor to that. Looking down into the ocean, Nicholai could see quite a few things. He saw several types of fish, a small pod of yellow and grey fish, a small dolphin of some kind which was equipped with three dorsal fins. There was also a strange looking fish which changed colour as it moved through the water. Nicholai was mesmerized by the fish, watching it glide through the water, every few meters leaping out of the water. It had characteristics of a dolphin but was no longer than a foot. Whenever it jumped out of the water it turned a bright violet colour. It was beautiful. Nicholai turned his attention to his parents at the helm to see where they were headed. If he had looked just a second longer, he would’ve seen the rainbow fish, along with the pod of yellow fish suddenly sucked down into a dark whole with jagged, white edges. A mouth.

At the helm of the boat, Gerald was steering towards the island while Susanne prepared their lunch; several roast beef and chicken sandwiches. After a good twenty minutes of traveling, the boat arrived at the beach and the Thatcher’s disembarked. As Susanne and Gerald got the food off the boat and grabbed a thick blanket to sit on, Nicholai went for a walk up and down the beach. He looked out onto the horizon. This island seemed to be so out of the way of everything, completely isolated. The island had a long beach, stretching almost a kilometer down. At both ends of the beach were large sections of sharp rocks which led around to the sides of the island were cliffs were. Nicholai thought that would be an ideal spot to do some daredevil jumping and flips into the water. But Susanne would never even let him get near the cliffs. She’d probably shout at him for even thinking about it. Nicholai turned his attention to the middle of the island. It was one huge, thick forest. The trees were packed really tightly with thick vines, shrubs, bushes and other plant growth wrapped around them. It looked almost impossible to walk in without having to climb over a tree and navigate your way carefully through the labyrinth of trees. Nicholai could’ve sworn he saw one of the trees move, but it must’ve been his imagination.

“Nicholai! Come and eat your lunch, son!” called out Gerald to Nicholai.

“Coming!” replied Nicholai.

He ran down the beach and sat down on the blanket his parents had set out for him. The Thatcher’s got stuck into their lunches consisting of sandwiches, juice, biscuits, crackers and some chocolate cake. As Susanne packed away the leftover food and plates back on the boat, Nicholai went for another walk down the bright yellow beach, this time down the other end of the beach. Nicholai stood up on a large collection of rocks, some which were very sharp. He looked up at the bright, orange sun in the center of the sky, as it stayed for the entire day in Heart. The water was reflecting the sun’s light so brightly that Nicholai had to turn his back on the ocean and look inland.

Nicholai saw something rather odd. The whole inland of the island seemed to be made up of thick, tightly packed trees. On a large beach on the other side of the rocks that Nicholai stood on was a large row of trees, just like the ones on the beach his parents were on. But these were different somehow. There was a large section of trees missing. Not entirely missing, as a matter a fact. Most of the trees were lying on the ground, torn up from their roots and knocked aside. Other trees had been pushed sideways and were now growing at a strange angle.

Nicholai moved to the edge of the rocks to get a better view at the torn up area. What in the world had done that? The destroyed area of trees was more than fifteen feet wide. Nicholai was about to climb down the rocks to investigate further when his parents called him back down the beach. They were going to have to get going if they wanted to arrive at the Slate Islands before nightfall.

As Gerald and Susanne climbed back onto the small boat, ready to make the rest of the journey, Nicholai made his way towards the boat. All of a sudden, a strong gust of wind blew in from the ocean. Gerald and Susanne lost their footing against the wild wind and found themselves on the floor of the boat. Nicholai fell to the sand and closed his eyes as the wind kicked coarse sand up into his face.

Several items from the boat were blown onto the beach. A cane basket knocked into Nicholai and a picnic blanket blew straight past him towards the forest. Then, as quickly as the wind had picked up had it ceased. Gerald and Susanne picked themselves up and brushed off sand that had been thrown around. Like his parents, Nicholai did the same, removing the grainy sand that covered his clothes.

“The blanket blew into the forest, Dad!” yelled out Nicholai to his father.

Nicholai turned to retrieve the blanket when Gerald called back out to him, “I’ll get it!”

Nicholai nodded and went back towards the boat as his father went into the thick forest to retrieve their lost blanket. Nicholai climbed aboard with his mother and sat down, brushing off more sand that had been caught in his hair.

Nicholai’s head snapped up and turned to his mother. She was sitting silently, organizing his suitcase for his time at Slate Academy. Had Susanne just been talking to him? Nicholai thought for the moment. He was sure he’d just heard his name being called. IT was no louder than a whisper, but he’d heard it nonetheless. Shaking his head and putting it down to sand in his ears, Nicholai continued to brush himself free of dirt and sand.

It happened again. It was almost like a whisper on the wind, but Nicholai was sure that someone was calling his name. It wasn’t his mother, she’d been silent the entire time. It almost sounded like…Gerald! Nicholai stood up and looked to the forest. His father had not yet returned to the picnic blanket. Nicholai had been so busy getting himself clean that he hadn’t even noticed that it’d been a full ten minutes since his father had departed into the forest.

“Mum, why hasn’t Dad come back?” asked Nicholai nervously.

Susanne looked up at her son and checked the time on her watch. She frowned as she saw it had been ten minutes since Gerald had departed. She got to her feet and walked to the bow of the boat. She leaned forward as she looked at the forest.

“I’ll go have a look. Stay here, Nicholai,” said Susanne, trying to hide the fear in her voice but she did it so poorly that Nicholai could feel how scared she actually was.

As Susanne made her way to the forest, Nicholai couldn’t believe he’d been told to stay on the boat! He was going to Slate Academy for crying out loud – to learn magic, fighting and tons more. Nicholai shook his head and got to his feet. He ran over to where his luggage was. Behind his large suitcase he found what he was looking for. He pulled up an old leather sheathe. Inside the sheathe was a long, rusted broadsword. It was so old that the whole thing had turned an unpleasant brown colour. But Nicholai didn’t care, because it was his, and his father had given it to him proudly.

Nicholai carried his sword and jumped over the front of the boat, landing softly in ankle-deep water. He made his way up the sand quickly. His mother was just entering the line of trees now.

“Mum! Wait for me!” he called loudly.

Susanne mustn’t have heard her son, as she descended further into the forest. Nicholai starting running to catch up, yelling out for his mother to wait for him. Nicholai arrived at the line of trees. He looked inside but it was so dark that he couldn’t see more than a few feet in front of him.

“Mum? Dad?” Nicholai yelled out into the forest.

It was weird and odd, but Nicholai felt like his voice wasn’t going anywhere. It was like he could scream at the top of his lungs and someone standing right beside him would hear nothing but the crashing of waves in the ocean.

Pulling the sword from its sheathe, Nicholai carefully entered the forest. The trees were tightly packed, Nicholai had to climb over most of them. The tightly packed trees and vines went on and on. It looked like it never ended. It was so dark and cold in the forest. There was a thin layer of mist on the forest floor, making the bottom legs of Nicholas’s pants damp and wet. Nicholai looked back and memorized the shape of the trees, creating a path in his mind so he could find his way back out.

Nicholai continued forward until – BOOM!

A large, thick vine slammed into Nicholai. It knocked Nicholai to the side and right into a large tree. He lost grip of his sword and looked at the vine. It was moving around on its own. It trashed about violently trying to move through the dense trees. It was moving around like a snake! Nicholai couldn’t believe what he was seeing. He tried to scream but all he could muster was a weak croak.

The head of the vine, which had a small, purple flower growing on it came towards Nicholai. The head of the vine came level with Nicholas’s face. It looked him up and down, despite the fact that the vine had no eyes, none that Nicholai could spot anyway. The vine reared its head up and prepared to attack. Out shot three barbs. Nicholai quickly ducked and leaped for his sword. Nicholai grabbed the sword and sliced up without looking.

The head of the vine shook for a short moment before falling off the rest of the vine. The rest of the vine seemed to retract away while the head with the flower lay motionless on the ground in front of Nicholai. Dead. Nicholai looked at the three yellow barbs on the tree he’d been leaning against moments before. They were leaking a thick, yellow substance. It was steaming and sizzling, eating into the bark of the tree. Acid barbs.

Nicholai took a few deep breaths and got to his feet once again.

“Mum? Dad?” he called out once again.

Nicholai was starting to shake. He was getting a little scared at being alone in this place. His parents may have already gotten out of the forest and were waiting for him back at the boat. As much as Nicholai knew it was probably folly to think that, he couldn’t help it. He didn’t want to stay here any longer.

Nicholai turned and looked for his path that he’d memorized. It was gone. Nicholai looked around but he didn’t recognise one of the trees. Had the trees…moved? Nicholai closed his eyes and rubbed them hard. He looked up again and…the trees were different – again!

Nicholai started breathing a lot faster and harder. He was really starting to freak out in this place. Without thinking, he starting running, cutting down anything that was in his way, small trees, vines – whether they were moving like a snake or not – and shrubs. He kept running for what felt like an eternity until he finally found something, or somewhere to be more precise.

The tightly packed trees ended and Nicholai entered into a clearing. He moved slowly into the clearing, holding his sword tightly. There was nothing here. There was a pile of rocks near one end of the clearing but apart from that – nothing. Nicholai guessed he was in the center of the island, as there had been no clearings anywhere else, besides the one he’d seen on the beach.

“Mum? Dad?” Nicholai called out once again.

There was no reply. Nicholai shook his head and prepared to start running as fast as he could in a straight line. If he went straight, he’d eventually reemerge at the beach. Nicholai started running when –

It was the voice again! But it didn’t sound like it did before. Before it had been soft and deep. It was still soft but now rather light and pleasant. Nicholai couldn’t help but think that it sounded like his mother, but she was nowhere to be seen, as was his father.

Suddenly, a tree to Nicholai’s left moved and a shadow leapt from tree to tree. Nicholai looked carefully at the trees. There was something moving behind them. Something very fast.

Nicholai heard whatever was moving move again, whooshing around the trees. It was so fast, Nicholai couldn’t tell where the sound was coming from. Without warning, it started to get darker. Nicholai clutched his sword tighter. What was doing this? Nicholai looked up and saw that the sun was moving at a steady pace, getting lower and lower. It must’ve been six o’clock. In the world of Heart, the sun went from the center of the sky below the horizon at six.

The sun was moving down, casting large shadows across the clearing. The large trees were casting the biggest shadows. Nicholai heard the creature moving again. Eyes darting in every direction, Nicholai looked for whatever was moving.

“Where are you?!” he screamed furiously, loud enough to be heard on the whole island.

Then it appeared. A creature lunged forward out of the shadows and the world went dark for Nicholai Thatcher.