“Wynter! Run away!” a distant voice screamed.

I looked around me, but I couldn’t see anything at all. I was surrounded by darkness, deprived of every sense except my hearing. I listened as the faint echo of my biological parents’ scream faded into the void. 

It’s this dream again, I thought to myself. 

This time though, the dream was different. All of a sudden, I could see what was happening. The darkness cleared up as if it was a cloud of mist being blown to the side. I was in a village on the side of a mountain, surrounded by lush grass hills. It was a breathtaking view with flowers spread across the entire landscape, painting the canvas of green with a plethora of different colors. In the middle of the village was a well, surrounded by multiple cottages made from stone.

Everything seemed fine, so why was this dream always so scary? 

“Wynter! Run away!” the voice repeated.

As I turned to see if I could find who the warnings were coming from, my attention was brought to the man sitting on top of the well. He was old. Impossibly old.

His face was wrinkled beyond belief, almost like he had spent his entire life in a pool. His hair was entirely gray, bordering on white, and he had a long beard and mustache that almost covered his mouth. He reminded me a little of if Santa Claus didn’t wear glasses and was severely malnourished.

An evil grin spread across his face as the well disintegrated beneath him, spreading the decay throughout the entire village, completely reducing everything to a gray dust. 

I turned around and sprinted as fast as I could, desperately trying to escape, but all that happened was I was whisked back to in front of the man as he laughed.

“Return to Father Time,” the man croaked. “None shall escape Chronos.”

“Wynter!” the voice screamed again. “Wake up!”

Suddenly, I was back in my room, my eyes watery and my mouth dry. I quickly wiped my eyes with my blanket and looked up and barely made out the massive figure of my adoptive father in the darkness.

“Huh? What’s going on?” I asked, confused. My father was always insistent on making sure I got a healthy amount of sleep, so he would never wake me up before noon knowing that I usually slept at three.

“We’re leaving. Come on,” he said gruffly. “It’s not safe here anymore. I’ll explain on the way.” 

With that, he grabbed me and threw me out of my bed, knowing that I’d already be in my clothes as per his rules. Another weird habit my dad had was forcing me to sleep in the clothes I’d wear tomorrow.

“Are we moving again? What’s with the urgency? And why in the middle of the night?” I asked.

“Take a look at what time it is,” he said, pulling out his phone and showing me it was already noon. “Does it look like it’s twelve outside right now? We’re in danger.”

I walked alongside him as he flung open the door and went outside to the car. 

“Does this have anything to do with why we move so often?” I asked.

“Quiet!” he thundered, looking up. “It’s too late.”

“What do you mean, ‘too late?’ Look, if this is about me yelling at you for making us move so often without explaining to me what your job is, I’m sorry. Can I go back to sleep now?” I whined, thinking this was some prank that he was pulling on me. “I mean seriously, I’m not a kid anymore, dad.”

“Take the car and drive as far as you can. Do not look back, don’t wait for me. Drive as far as you can, and never settle down. Run until the academy finds you.” he said through clenched teeth. 

“Wha- I’m serious! This isn’t funny! You’re starting to scare me a little.”

Immediately after I said that, a humanoid figure covered in a dark purple mist dropped down about twenty meters in front of the car. As he landed, any part of the ground that touched the mist was covered in it, spreading just as the decay in my dream did.

“Hello, boy,” the man in the mist said. He was clearly not the same man I had seen in my dream, but his voice did bear some similarity to the voice in my dreams that I always assumed was my biological father’s. It was deep and rich, but also silky smooth. “How have you been?”

“You know me?” I asked him as he slowly walked towards us, the shadowy mist consuming the ground as he approached.

“Stay behind me,” my father ordered, pushing me behind his massive frame. I wasn’t short by any means, but he completely blocked my line of sight. 

“Gunther Forrest. Step aside and let me speak to the child. This is a family matter.” 

“I’m his only living family, as far as he’s concerned. Get lost before I send you back to Hell.”

“Oh, don’t be like that. It would be such a shame if Chronos found out where we were,” the man threatened. 

“I’ve heard enough, Erebus,” my father said, clapping his hands together. An area of golden light formed underneath us, expanding to the ground underneath Erebus. By now, everything except the golden light was consumed by the mist, making the environment look like the pitch-black darkness I’d always seen in that dream.

Erebus cackled. “Are you going to fight me? You? The man who retired to become a family man?” 

As he finished his sentence, the mist around Erebus suddenly expanded and rushed towards us like a massive wave, threatening to consume us whole.

“Rule one: confine Erebus to a physical body.” my father said.

Golden chains shot out of the ground, locking around the mist and compressing it, until it was the same height as my dad. Erebus stood up and smiled and when I saw what he looked like, I was shocked to my core.

Standing in front of my father was someone who looked almost identical to me. He was about six inches taller than me, but his face was the exact same as mine, apart from the eye and hair color. He had purple eyes and hair as opposed to my black hair and dark brown eyes. 

He pushed his hair up out of his face, making sure I got a good look. He raised his hands and spread them to the side in a dramatic fashion. The golden chains which were no longer connected to the ground hung off each of his wrists, with another chain wrapped around his neck like a collar. 

“Let’s get this family reunion started, shall we?” Erebus chuckled. 

Before I could even react, my father was in front of me, his hand cut off and bleeding as Erebus stood on top of the car behind us and laughed.

“You’re fast! I guess it’s those fatherly instincts, huh? Stepping in to protect your beloved son?” Erebus mocked.

“Rule 2: grant Gunther Forrest invulnerability,” my father said, ignoring his taunts. 

For some reason, in my mind, I automatically understood the rules of the golden area that my dad created. It was an ability that crowned him as king and would allow him to create three  unbreakable rules, even if those rules bent the fabric of reality. In addition, family members were considered part of the court and could add rules as long as they were next to him.

“Rule 3,” I said. “If Erebus is within the court, erase him from existence.”

“Rule denied,” a disembodied voice said. “The target ‘Erebus’ does not exist.”

“What?” I turned to look at my father. “How come the chains worked?”

“Because I’m a paradox. I exist in the sense that I can be interacted with, but I am the void. I am zero. You can’t erase zero because there’s nothing to erase. Does that make sense, boy?” Erebus laughed. “That cheat code of yours may have worked on Chronos, Gunther Forrest, but I am different.”

Before I knew what was happening, Erebus had a shadowy claw less than an inch away from my face. The only thing stopping him from decapitating me was my father grabbing onto his wrist. 

“They don’t call you the strongest for nothing, huh?” Erebus whistled in admiration before grinning. “But just because I can’t become mist doesn’t mean I can’t use it.”

In an instant, I could no longer see or feel anything, just like in my dream. I felt a sharp claw grab hold of me, and I screamed, but no sound came out. 

Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

“Rule 3: render Erebus’ mist useless!” the panicked voice of my father rang out as the mist cleared.

Erebus cackled again, this time louder and with more glee than any of the previous times. “You lose, Gunther Forrest! You’ve got baggage, and now you’re going to die for it! Choose wisely, your life or his?”

“Rule Change: if he is within the court, teleport Wynter Forrest to Alistair Forrest,” was my father’s response.

I stared at my dad in disbelief before the realization set in. There were already three rules in place. Changing one of them meant that my adoptive father, the one who took me in and cared for me, was about to sacrifice himself.

“Understood,” the disembodied voice announced. “Which rule would you like to change?”

“Change rule one. Leave rule two.” 

My eyes burned as I pleaded for my father to reconsider. Tears began pooling onto the metallic claw pressed against my cheek. Something could be done. Anything. There had to be another way. I racked my brain for answers, but when I couldn’t think of any, I choked out another sob. There was no way I could think of a solution when I had no idea what I was up against, but I kept trying. 

“There has to be another way!” I pleaded.

My father looked at me solemnly and shook his head. His usual gruff and strict demeanor was nowhere to be found.

“I still have a chance.”

“I won’t go!” I fought, kicking and screaming, despite the claw being pressed against my cheekbone. “Change the rule back!”

“Wynter,” my father said as Erebus threw me to the side. “Raising you was the best thing that ever happened to me.”

The last thing I saw before being whisked away was my father and Erebus clashing with each other, locked in combat that I could barely see, both of them too blurry to make out.

As I was teleported away, the sound of Erebus’ insane laughter was still fresh in my mind. I stood up and dusted myself off, observing my surroundings. I found myself smack-dab in the middle of nowhere, nothing but sand as far as the eye could see. Not even a cactus or any bushes in sight.

The first thing I noticed was the heat. Not even five seconds of being here and I was already drenched in sweat. I wiped my forehead with my sleeve and checked my pockets. Nothing.

My father’s words ran through my mind.

Never settle down. Run until the academy finds you.

Right. I had to get moving. I needed to find wherever this academy was and hold out belief that my dad was alive. After all, even Erebus had acknowledged him as the strongest. 

I began heading east, with the sun almost directly above, just barely behind me, which would guide me in the right direction. Perhaps this Alistair person was nearby. 

A couple of minutes passed before I took off my shirt and wrung it out, releasing a stream of sweat onto the sand. I hung it around my neck and hoped that it would help to ease the unbearable heat.

Maybe an hour had passed before I collapsed. I knew it hadn’t been that long, but step after step with nothing in sight, knowing my father’s life was in danger really took its toll. A bitter mixture of sweat and tears came rolling down my face into the sand as I pressed my hands deeper into the ground.

Erebus’ words came rushing into my mind against my will.

You lose, Gunther Forrest! You’ve got baggage, and now you’re going to die for it!

The realization sank in that my dad was being targeted. Targeted because he needed to protect me, leaving a huge hole to be exploited, a hole that might have ended in his death. 

More sobs forced their way out of my throat, each one more guttural than the last. I killed him. My father might be dead because of me. The last sob came out in the form of vomit, leaving the taste of bile in my mouth, dribbling onto my chin.

A horrifying shriek filled the air, causing me to flinch and look up. I squinted as I tried to get a look at what produced the horror, which didn’t sound anything close to a bird, nor did it sound terrestrial. In the sky, I could barely make out three winged shadows, one of which was rapidly descending.

I quickly darted to the side to avoid being flattened. As the massive red-scaled body dropped, it sprayed a massive cloud of sand everywhere. Another screech resonated through the air, causing me to flinch again and cover my ears. I looked back up and saw the other two creatures diving down, as opposed to the first one that dropped limply from the sky.

“Stay out of the way, bro.” a voice from on top of the creature’s back said.

I turned in the direction of the voice, blocking the sun with a hand to see who it came from. It was a boy who looked around my age, who was extremely tall with his shirt in burnt tatters, revealing a lean, muscular body. He smirked at the sight of the two creatures dive-bombing.

“This is what I’m talking about!” he cheered. “Double or nothing!”

The boy clasped his hands together and above his head, and two holograms appeared. The first was a red four with heart patterns scattered throughout the inside. The second was a black six with clover patterns.

As the two creatures landed, my suspicions were confirmed. They were definitely dragons, and they were pissed. The two massive lizards circled the boy, liquid gasoline dripping from their mouths, fire burning within. I wrinkled my nose uncomfortably at the smell, and then nearly gagged when I got a whiff of the stench they were giving off.

I decided there wasn’t much I could do between the hologram boy and the two dragons, so I hid under the wing of the dead dragon, despite how badly the stench made me want to vomit. Despite being terrified, I made sure to peek my head out from underneath the wing to make sure I could watch what was happening.

“Come at me!” the boy challenged, stomping towards the dragons. 

One of the two rushed him as the other continued to circle, barrelling towards him with flames spouting from its mouth. The boy somersaulted out of the way before spinning around with a vicious backfist, pushing the dragon to the side a little. My jaw dropped at the display of strength, which had caused the dragon to let out a grunt of some sort and shake its head as if it was stunned. 

Another hologram appeared above the boy’s head, this time a capital J with spades. The boy grimaced.

“That’s no good,” he said as he clicked his tongue, jumping out of the way of the other dragon, charging him, and vaulting onto its back.

The dragon flew up and began attempting to throw him off, bucking back and forth violently as the boy struggled to hold on. The other dragon, now recovered from its concussion, tackled the first dragon to knock the boy off.

Both of the dragons flew towards the boy with their mouths open, ready to chomp into him and savor the taste of a fresh teenage boy, but the boy grabbed both of their mouths and slammed them into each other.

Two more holograms appeared; a ten of diamonds and an ace of hearts.

“I feel it! Let’s go! Give me a King and Queen!” he yelled, pointing to the ground as if he was a boxer gesturing to fight toe-to-toe.

Once again, both of the dragons charged him mindlessly, taunted by the gesturing of the boy. He jumped towards them and did the splits mid-air, kicking both of them to opposite sides. As his foot connected with them, two more holograms appeared before fizzling out shortly after; a seven of spades and eight of diamonds.

“Oh no,” was all the boy muttered before being slapped by the tail of one of the dragons, causing him to land face-first in the sand next to me. 

The boy lifted his head and spat out some sand.

“Are you kidding me?” he complained. “What are the odds I get a high card twice in a row?”

Before I could ask about anything, the boy turned to me and asked, “So what’s your cetana? Can it get us out of here alive?”

“My what?” I asked. “I have no clue what’s going on. A few minutes ago, I was with my dad trying not to get killed by some lunatic who looked like me! I have no idea what you’re talking about!”

As I was trying to take it all in and make sense of the situation, my eyes began to burn, the salty taste of tears dripping into my mouth. The boy next to me groaned. It was such an unexpected response that it snapped me back to reality to stare at him. I wasn’t exactly expecting comforting words, but straight-up groaning seemed a bit harsh.

The boy had mid-length wavy blonde hair and looked like he belonged on the cover of Vogue. His face was almost perfectly symmetrical, with a defined jawline, high cheekbones, and a high nose bridge, all of which served to make him look like a stereotypical jock. The only imperfection on his face was the scar that ran from his right cheekbone through the right corner of his lip. I really wanted to punch him but held back out of fear of being discovered by the dragons.

“Damn it,” the boy sighed as he sat down. “I really didn’t want to end on a loss. While we’re waiting here, I may as well ask. What are you doing here? And how are you able to see myths?”

I chose not to respond, gesturing towards the two dragons pacing back and forth, sniffing the ground for any traces of us. 

“They can’t find us as long as we don’t move from here or throw anything at them. Dragons are notoriously stupid and trust their nose more than any of their other senses,” the boy explained.

“Can they not smell us?” I asked.

“Under this guy’s musk? Probably not,” he answered, prodding the dragon’s body with his elbow.

Reminded of the stench, I accidentally breathed in through my nose, once again taking in the horrible combination of wet dog, gasoline, and rotten eggs. I gagged a few times before finally vomiting for the second time today. 

“Ah,” the boy deadpanned. “Great. Vomit. Just what I needed. Are you gonna answer my question?

“I don’t know anything about what’s happening. All I know is that I was at home when my dad woke me up and said we needed to leave. And then some psycho named Erebus showed up and tried to kill my dad. That’s when my dad set up a court with rules that he had to follow, before changing one of the rules to teleport me to some guy named Alistair. That wouldn’t happen to be you, would it?”

“Your dad made rules that Erebus had to follow? Is your dad— Actually, never mind that. I’m Byron, Byron Adamson.” the boy introduced himself. “If you were teleported to Alistair, then I’m sure we’ll be fine. He should be close.”

“Byron!” a feminine voice shrieked, followed by a string of cuss words. “You teleported off without us again!”

Byron and I both popped our heads out to look at the newcomer, a super cute black-haired girl. The two dragons screeched at her and she fell back in shock as they sprinted toward her.

“Aelia!” Byron yelled, climbing out from our hiding spot, ready to jump off the back of the dead dragon to try and save her.

“I’ve got you,” a man who bore an uncanny resemblance to my father said.

He raised his left hand with his palm facing up and then folded his pointer finger under his thumb, the remaining three fingers pointed at the dragons. A blast of multicolored energy which looked like a light ray going through a kaleidoscope blasted the two dragons into nothingness, and the other dragon faded away too.

“Never seen a horde of only three dragons before,” Byron commented. “Man, Teach, they really gotta give you a higher grade. Who’s ever heard of a B grade effortlessly dispelling a dragon horde?”

“Nice try. I’m still not showing you my cetana.” the man chuckled.

“Worth a sh- Ow!” Byron was interrupted by Aelia bringing her fist down on his head. “Damn, that hurt!”

“You deserved it,” Aelia spat. “You could get yourself killed out here! You aren’t Olwen, and you’re barely a B grade, so don’t get cocky.”

She turned toward me and looked me up and down. “Who’s this?”

“Oh! That’s—” Byron paused, realizing he didn’t know my name. “Uh, who are you?”

“Wynter, right?” Not-Gunther said. 

“Y-yeah, how did you know?” I asked.

Looking at the man who resembled my dad hurt. In my mind, he was likely dead, and seeing someone with the same face reminded me that it was my fault. I took a closer look and noticed the difference between the two. While they both had brown hair, my dad’s was a lot redder in color, and his beard was more of a stubble and less viking-y. Besides that, my dad was a lot burlier and slightly taller than whoever this man was, more lumberjack than track athlete.

“I met you once when my brother first found you. I suppose you don’t remember much from back then though. It’s Alistair, by the way.” His blue eyes bore into me as if they were looking right through me.

“Is he alive? Is my dad alive?” I asked, my heart rate speeding up. 

Alistair shook his head and put a hand on my shoulder. I felt my heart drop. My knees gave out and I collapsed face-first into the sand, my fragile hope shattered once again.