I remember the first time Dad took me camping. I must’ve been ten, maybe eleven. Danny, my younger brother wasn’t quite old enough. We didn’t go far, just up into the hills near Kootenay Park, but to me, it felt like we were miles away from civilization. The trees stretched out for miles, the air smelled like Earth, and the ground was littered with leaves and twigs that crunched underfoot.
I had no idea what I was doing. My idea of "roughing it" at that point was visiting the family cottage. But Dad? He thrived out there. You’d think he was born with a compass in his head, always knowing exactly where we were, even when I got completely turned around.
I can still see him, grinning ear to ear, as we set up camp. I was struggling with the tent poles, making an absolute mess of it, and Dad just watched for a bit, laughing to himself before finally stepping in to help.
“Ben,” he said, kneeling down next to me, “you know what the Crawfords are good at?”
“Screwing up tents?” I had grumbled, frustrated.
“Nope.” He chuckled and started guiding my hands, showing me how to slot the poles together properly. “We’re good at finding adventure. Even when we’re not looking for it.”
He finished the tent in a couple of quick motions, then stood up, brushing the dirt off his hands.
“Life’s full of unexpected things, Ben. Weird turns, strange places, stuff you can’t plan for. But us Crawfords? We always find a way to make it into an adventure.”
That night, as the fire crackled and the stars blinked into existence overhead, he pulled out his old pocketknife—a beat-up thing with a worn wooden handle—and handed it to me. I didn’t know what to say. He’d had that knife for as long as I could remember.
“Every one starts with a choice,” he said, poking at the fire with a stick. “You can decide to sit back and let things happen to you, or you can dive in and see where it takes you. Might be tough, might be weird… but it’ll always be worth it. You remember that.”
I nodded, turning the knife over in my hands. It felt solid, reliable—just like Dad. The warmth of the fire, the weight of the knife, and his words all stuck with me. Even when we packed up the next morning and headed home, I knew that adventure wasn’t just something that happened to other people. It was something you chose. Something you embraced, no matter where it took you.
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I had passed the point of thinking I was still in a dream or a hallucination. Something inside me had made the connection. This was happening. Ever since meeting Diana, it felt like I had understood that. Maybe it was the tea?
All I knew was that I couldn’t go home. I was on an adventure. Thank you Dad for using that term so frivolously throughout my childhood. What was more, I had four people, seemingly royalty on another world, asking me to have it with them… It sounded absurd. My Dad would love it. I could tell that the group was looking for me to respond but I just couldn’t. Felix had even sat back down, their expressions all turning a bit more melancholy.
“I’m just free to leave?” I ask. The room seems to deflate and Elara nodded reluctantly.
Out into the unknown never to return... Or I see what these seemingly friendly people who have actually been helping me have to offer.
It was honestly not as easy of a decision as I had thought it would be. But Elara and Diana seemed to carry some kind of gravity in their world and they appeared genuine. Were they Royalty? Actual Royalty?
I exhaled slowly, rubbing a hand over my face. “You know,” I started, my voice shaky. This sounded so cheesy in my head but the memory was too fresh. “My dad used to talk about adventure all the time. It was kind of his thing—pushing me into doing the next crazy thing, trying to convince me life was just a string of adventures waiting to happen.”
They were watching me now, more intently. I forced a small smile, though it felt a little crooked. “I don’t think this is quite what he had in mind.”
Cassie grinned a little but Felix stayed quiet. They were waiting for me to make the choice.
“This is bat-shit insane, right? I wake up buck-fucking naked on the other side of the Universe, discover magic is real, I can do magic-Apparently quite well. I have met four,” I say holding up four fingers. “-Four different sentient species in an afternoon…or morning… or… What time is it?” I trail off.
“Well at least he swears like a human,” Diana said with a smile, she seemed to understand my tone.
“I watched a guy rip a hole in space and time with his bare hands,” I look at Cassie and Felix, then to Elara. “And now the people he works for are asking if I’m interested in learning how?”
The room seemed to wake up immediately, everyone now understanding my tone.
“That’s an accurate summary,” Elara replied, her lips turning upwards.
“Fuck it,” I said finally. “The more you know about something the less scary it is, right?” This was ridiculous no matter what way I tried to swing it. Felix actually pumped his arm in the air. I furrowed my brow at Cassie. “And just to be clear, you said ‘healing pill’ earlier right? If we’re hunting monsters I want a lot of those.” Everyone laughed. I was being serious.
“Good!” Diana said standing up. “Then I guess I should go see what Marco did to my office,”
“What? So soon Mother? He just said he was interested-you’re going to scare him away.” Elara said.
“If he was going to leave he would have, darling.” Diana replied smoothly. “I need to get back to the academy. I’ve been gone for an ages and there’s an exam in two months,” Cassie audibly groaned. “Come Stanley, I need a lift.”
Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.
Diana walked out to the balcony overlooking the internal Atrium. Stanley chirped brightly and lifted off of his perch on Cassie’s shoulder. Somewhere between Cassie and the balcony Stanley’s canary form shifted. It made me think I was looking at him upside down with a strange sense of vertigo. When I had blinked he was no longer a canary.
He was gorgeous. Amazing. My mind knew what it was looking at but I couldn’t seem to look at him hard enough. A Phoenix.
Stanley was a golden Phoenix about the size of a horse, bright orange feathers accented with a deep blue on his wings. Golden chains were woven into his tail feathers, and intricate spirals of gold and silver filigree seemed to spiral through his down. His face was soft, kind, and gentle which was strange for a bird. But his eyes? They screamed at me that he was the sun. Pure sunlight. Rich and life-giving. It was like staring right into the sun, and yet, I couldn’t look away. Stanley wasn’t just any bird—he was power itself, alive and real in front of me. And he was... Stanley?”
“Holy shit, Stanley’s a fucking phoenix,” I said out loud. I meant to think it but… “He’s… incredible,” I continued.
“Oh don’t-” Elara started but it was too late.
Stanley’s eyes seemed to approve of my words, curses and all, because he spread his wings and let out an appealing call that sounded like the melody of a song. Golden sparks flew from his wings as he flapped them. He posed.
“Oh stop it Stanley. We need to go. I don’t want to be here when Lyra shows up,” Diana scolded. Stanley jerked with what sounded like an “irk?”.
It was like the air had gone out of the room. Elara looked to the stairs, her eyes defocussing.
“Fuck,” she said. Oh I knew that one for sure - it was technically a worse word but it was essentially the same thing. “That’s not a conversation I want to have right now. Come on Ben, let’s continue this elsewhere,” She motioned towards the door she had come through.
Diana straddled Stanley - his wings beating the air as he rose into the atrium.
“I believe its ‘ta-ta’, Ben. We’ll be talking soon. You’ll want to get him to a front desk, darling. I don’t think it matters which one,” She said to Elara as Stanley beat his wings.
Wait not the front desk? How many desks were there?
Stanley rocketed up the Atrium incredibly fast and I just stared, face slack. Then it clicked.
“Lyra?” I asked. The little mouse lady? The sprocket. I mean she seemed harmless. But Felix and Cassie did seem to drag me away from her pretty quick.
Boom!
A rumble shook the room and several pillows fell off of seats, plates slid off the table and smashed leaving food everywhere. Cassie and Felix scrambled to their feet and were running towards the door. Cassie flickered and was instantly at the door opening it and running through a hallway.
I didn’t feel like I was in danger though. Elara’s eyes were bright, her eyebrows raised like a mischievous child. “My mother has been running her around in circles like she did with Nessa. Unfortunately they don’t call Lyra the Stormfire for no reason. We should go.”
Elara straightened her uniform and held her hand out with a smile, palm up. I took it and braced-expecting a static shock that seemed to represent magic. But instead, we were running. Fast. I could barely keep up.
We blew through the doorway into the hall. It was made of the same alabaster stone and marble floors. Two hunters, I presumed by their attire, one on each side of the door looked up at us and I caught their glance. One, a man with jet black hair and ivory skin had swirling eyes just like I had seen on Chas. They seemed concerned.
“Headmistress?” The other one asked. A massive tattooed woman with blond dreadlocks.
“Hold the line, Guardians. The Stormfire is coming out of her hole.” Elara said while we rushed past into an antechamber. I couldn’t make out exactly what the ivory-skinned man said but it sounded a lot like “Fuck that.”
And then they were running too. Was everyone really scared of the mouse lady? Of Lyra? She had a little notebook and goggles!
Another rumble rocked the building, the sound of stone shifting coming from below. Hadn’t Felix called her something? Adept Stormfire? That sounded pretty scary, and something was definitely happening below us. Why didn’t I feel like I was in danger though?
I was barely paying attention to where we were going. Hallway, stairs, hallway, room, back door from a room, room that looked kind of like a classroom, secret door in a wall-nice touch. We were moving like the wind. My legs screamed at me to stop, and I couldn’t keep up the pace for much longer.
We finally emerged into a massive room where the white stone and marble shifted in favor of a darker stone and metal. It was a massive circular room with what seemed to be a domed… whoa.
It was the Sistine Chapel but so much more badass.
At the center of the domed ceiling, where it was highest, was a colossal depiction of a legendary battle. A godlike figure of a man wore battle-scarred armor and wielded a massive spear made of pure, glowing energy. He was locked in combat with an impossibly large creature—a serpent, coiled around him. Its body was covered in runes and scars, ancient and powerful. Too many eyes glowed with an eerie light. The battle was taking place on a mountain of bones, clearly thousands of dead creatures.
The background swirled with storm clouds and crackling lightning complete with streaks of gold and silver that seemed to shimmer as if real. The clouds were moving, roiling, pulsing as if they yearned to return to the sky. Radiating outward from the central figure, the dome was covered in images of battle. Mounted combatants rode all sorts of creatures, massive crab-like creatures were being slaughtered by groups of men holding swords that were far too big to be practical. It was simply too much to take in. It didn’t need orchestras and organs playing like in a chapel, it needed a death metal concert to truly pay respects.
There were vignettes of carnage everywhere - it was so overwhelming that I tripped. Reality slammed back into focus as my shoulder collided hard with the ground. I did a clumsy roll landing on my back with a loud grunt, my gaze turned back to the ceiling.
Was that Chas? I laughed out loud. “No fucking way.”
Somewhat high up on the dome above me was a man with jet-black skin covered in golden runes. He was punching a mountain.
Hands grabbed my arms and lifted me somewhat gently to my feet.
“On your feet, initiate,” A massive man with Cassie’s general appearance all but forced me up to my feet. He was every bit the seven-foot tall blond viking complete with braids, tattoos and a legendary beard.
There were a lot of people wearing those vests around us. I hadn’t even noticed.
“Adept Ironheart,” Elara seemed to snap him to attention from behind.
“Sir.” He replied promptly.
“Your sister and Felix Aldertree are looking for us. Bring them here.”
The viking man saluted, his fist held out to the side parallel to his body, palm out.
“On it,” And he raced away.
So not royalty. Military?
Elara had stepped forward and gave a few more commands as several other attendants rushed off down other corridors.
“This isn’t going to be good, Ben. Be ready.” Elara said. My heart started to race - I reached out to the bravery rune feeling it course through me. That was new. I could feel the sensation of my awareness spreading out around me. Everything went vibrant and that coiled up feeling was searching for a reason to compress. A reason to be wary. And it found… nothing? I even felt my heart slow down as the magic faded, it was as if nothing was wrong—I was just kind of standing there. Elara’s muscles were tight, ready for something... but what?
I turned to see a small white mouse woman with her goggles down, strutting into the massive room-people literally running away from her as if terrified. She brushed some soot off her little vest as she approached but I felt nothing as she entered the antechamber. Elara tensed as Lyra walked right up to her and lifted her goggles. She pointed at Elara’s face and in a much louder voice than I would have thought possible said:
“I demand diplomacy!”