Goraeth

Chapter 1

Girath was walking to school on an early Norath day, the sky lay dark and barren. Norath is a season on this strange world, it lasts exactly 120 days. It's the season of Darkness. He walked past one of his bullys' houses. He spat on the ground next to the rose bush, and kicked the roses until the land remained as barren as the sky. Girath, he payed no attention to consequences, it's not like his bully was home, he was probably way ahead of him by now. Girath always came to school late, after hard nights of training his form. For a kid his age, his body was like all the others. Being at least 11 years old now, he was a little man. His arms looked toned beyond expectations and his legs looked constantly overworked and muscly.

He kept walking until he realized that first period was about over, he couldn't use his magic since it was a Girath village. Girath was also the God of Wisdom at the time, all Gods of Wisdom are heavily against Dark magic. He knew this instinctively, after being made fun of for having the same name as the God, but seemingly having no magical powers. If only the kids actually knew of Girath's abilities. It was rare that someone would be able to handle the constant flow of dark magic, most people get turned into beasts of great proportions called by the same name as the season, Noraths.

After only living for 11 years, he became the only user of dark magic, which can handle the constant flow of darkness. He should have been dead by now if he didn't have control over such magic. Nobody else has been reported to have such control over magic. Igduth granted him this ability ever since the darkness took control of him and he killed his parents. The whole village heard about it. But none of it travelled from the adults' mouths ever again, ever since that night, nobody has talked to him. He goes to school every day, but never talks to anyone, unless he's getting made fun of. Then he is the one getting talked to instead of talking to someone.

He walked down the cobblestone road, he reached his hand towards the first door to the building and opened it. He walked in with a generally fast pace. The kids stared at him, some laughing at his quiet demeanor. Everybody constantly made fun of him besides one girl in the class, she generally kept to herself as well, but if given the chance, would probably make fun of him as well. However, Girath kept hope, hoping that possibly someone would be able to accept him and let him into their heart.

He sat down into his chair, and let out a congested sigh. The window tantalized his vision and kept him looking out for a bit, until a test was given out to the students. He didn't know the subject, nor any of the meanings of the words. He couldn't read, ever since he was a baby, his vision always produced letters of Yoriz in a jumbled manner, seeming as though he couldn't even view them normally. He also talked to himself during the test. He didn't pay much time to his surroundings.

He constantly spent his time during class staring out into the nothingness. Talking to the nothingness. Hearing the nothingness. He constantly spoke nothingness, speaking in words that made no sense to the other students. He called it a language that nobody else could understand, Nokterm he called it. It was beast talk, that's what the word translated out to. Nokterm was the word for beast in Yoriz. Girath didn't know this, he barely knew any words besides the curses the kids called out to him.

It was a very slick speach pattern, making no sense, yet to him, made all the more sense than the jumble of words on the pages he constantly had to look at. He often brought the work to his burnt-up home, and screamed at it. Possibly to have it make more sense. He never wanted the words to make sense, he never told anybody that the words didn't make sense, just another thing he had to overcome.

He looked away for a mere second, he saw the girl who never talked glance over at him and then back up front. He's been noticing this for a while now. The girl would constantly glance over at him, possibly to mock him, he didn't think of any other reason besides to mock him. He quickly looked back, or else the students would make fun of him for staring. They constantly did that, if he stared at his work, or at one of the girls in the class. He was staring for the same reasons of working hard, for selection purposes, he wondered which girl he would get first, he never possibly thought of the girl that glanced at him though. She was too quiet for him.

He didn't like the girls he would select, just rather a selection of logical purposes. He picked the pretty and loud girls for better genetic purposes. He wanted his children to be a little more gregarious than him, he didn't want the same life for them as he had. Girath at his age was a better-looking child than the most. His red hair glistened in the air, and his red eyes pierced the light. He had no gaps in his teeth, and none were tilted. The air around him smelled like flowers that were too beautiful to name. The only thing he got wrong, was his personality. Being so reserved gave the kids around him a chance to make fun of how lonely he was.

He hated them all, even the girls he would pick, in fact, the only person he didn't hate, was the shy girl. She never did wrong to him, so he had no reason to hate her. The teacher, however, also had a death wish, she hasn't remained as nice as all the other kids. She is the only one who has gotten close to figuring out his disorder with words. Constantly making fun of him, and teasing him for his lack of work, the students probably take on her insults and use them against him only because of her.

They always gave him the chills. The words that came out of his mouth always sort of disturbed him, not the gibberish that commonly expelled from his mouth, but just, his interactions with people using normal Yoriz. He always worded things weirdly. Never without a single care on which way to say things, it's almost like the words didn't want to come out. He would answer simple questions with riddles. It's like his mind had an entirely different person inside of him.

A beast seemed to take root inside of him, steering him into the wrong direction. He didn't fight back against this beast, he seemed to just take it, take it as much as he possibly could. He was a strong boy for his age, but his mental capabilties were beyond the other children. Although he couldn't read, he had a perplexing ability to do math. He excelled in doing most of his mathematical operations. He seemed to be doing math for a good amount of his time.

The teacher yelled, it broke him out of his trance. He looked her straight in the face. The anger on her lips came forth like waterfalls. The words bounced off of his head. He was getting yelled at for not paying attention again. He didn't care, he could hear the kids' laughter and giggles as the teacher wasted her breath. The only person that didn't laugh was the quiet girl.

He sort of gained an attraction in the moment, staring at her again. It was sparse and revolting to him, this girl wasn't fit to be his maiden. Yet he still had a yearning for her. A yearning for acceptance. He didn't want her, yet his heart did. He wanted to be accepted into somebody's heart again. Like his parents once did for him.

The teacher then slammed her ruler on her podium and arranged a recess. The kids rushed out and he stayed back. The teacher shared no sympathy for him. He removed himself from his seat and walked outside.

He sat down against the cold stone wall, not crying, not even feeling like crying. He simply sat and thought about his life. He wanted to become the Buhtali, the Buhtali of something. He wanted the impossible, he wanted something that he couldn't possibly get with his current disposition. Most Buhtali are erudite and devout followers of the God of Wisdom. And the God of Wisdom hated him. Dark magic, so disgusting to the God that it should never be allowed into the Buhtali.

He stared out onto the hills, rolling with green. They appeared beautiful to most human eyes, but not his. He disliked them. The green was a disgusting tint to him, like that of vomit. He watched the locals work their farms, they too were ugly to him, dusty and covered in dirt. He wanted to escape these people.

He squinted at something in his periphery, it was a person walking up to him.

"H-hi…"

He didn't look over at the feminine voice. Her voice sounding unfamiliar to his ears. He decided to give a quick glance over to this girl next to him. It was her, the quiet girl. His heart jumped at the mere sight of her. He didn't bare another look but remained in the panicking state.

"H-hey…", he said.

"Can I sit next to you?"

What? He thought in his head. How could this girl possibly want to sit next to me?

"Only if the grass is green."

"Thanks."

She sat right next to him, unspeaking, almost at the point of unbreathing, she simply sat next to him and didn't breathe, in fear of waking a hidden beast within him. His face was pure red. He feared what this girl's intentions might be. They both looked away from one another. Her face also a bright red color. He couldn't stop thinking about being backstabbed.

Minutes turned into an hour of pure fear for both of them. Then the teacher came back out and called the children back inside. They all filed in, except the two of them, both of them too focused on their embarassment. Then, once all the children were back inside, she looked over and spoke in quiet tone, unhearable by him.

"What?", he said.

"Nothing!", she receded into a ball. He didn't know what was currently happening, but he couldn't even gather a semblance of logic either. Both of them slowly curled into a ball. Then she decided to speak once more.

"What I was saying was… was simply that I didn't like seeing you alone all the time."

He uncurled slowly and says, "Really?"

"Yeah…"

"What a lie!"

She sprang back in surprise, "But it's true!"

"I don't need any more proof of you deciding to become friendly with me and then to finally become my enemy just like the children before you!"

"No, no… I wouldn't do that, I'm not like the other children."

"Lies, all of them, lies."

"No…"

Tears welled in her eyes. They sprang forth like geysers. She cryed loudly, attracting the attention of those around her. Many farmers looked over at them to see what was happening. Girath didn't want to attract the teacher outside so he decided to consul with her.

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry. I didn't mean it, I just, don't trust others as easily as you might think."

The crying stopped and she reached for a hug, something he hasn't had in years. He, of course, accepted in order to stop her from crying even more. The hug gave tingles that ran up his spine. He hugged her even tighter in order to squeeze out some extra tingles. She began to push away, something he couldn't accept, so he hugged her more closely.

She finally gave a big shove, and he was sent back, she was breathing hard, he didn't realize that he was suffocating her. She forgave him quickly though, as she went in for another hug. His face was now burning from embarassment. He tried to evade the hug, but he didn't move enough in order to dodge out of the way. She finally whispered into his ear.

"I know about your powers."

He pushed hard now, she went flying a short distance before slamming onto the dirt. His arms were satin black. He quickly receded his dark magic into his heart, the only place he could hide it. He got up, and he could hear the crying of the girl in front of him. He decided that now would be a great time to use his powers.

His legs turned a shade of black and the air rippled around him as he propelled himself forward, catching the girl in his arms and flying into the air. He had to get away from the people, so he turned towards the forest about 3 miles away and shot himself towards it.

He made it about 15 minutes later, the girl no longer cried, but he felt if he stopped the people would notice his powers and would come after him. He set her down and found a place to sit, he didn't want to question her right now, as he was out of breath. After a while of sitting, both regaining their breath, they decided to talk.

"Okay, tell me how you know about my powers."

"Simple, I decided to follow you home one night and see what all the talk about you is for."

"So you decided to stalk me?"

"No, not necessarily."

"Then what are we going to call it?"

"Learning."

"Oh, so something as simple as learning then?"

"Yes, let's call it learning. Learning the truth."

They sat in silence for a bit before she finally decided to continue the conversation.

"Hey, at least I didn't tell anyone about your powers."

"Really? Because I don't feel like believing that."

"You really are immature like the other children say."

"Be beat down for most of your life and then come back to me on that opinion."

"How about you listen to me!"

"No. You silly little girl, I should kill you right now for even knowing about my powers, but I don't because I like you!"

"What?"

"What did I say?"

"You… you like me?"

"Wait, no, that's not what I mean."

"You like me!"

Her face was overcome with pure happiness. This was her first time being liked by anyone. She had no knowledge of ever being liked by any other boy than him now. She hugged him again and again. She liked him too, of course. After seeing his immense power, she has been overcome by a primal lust for the strongest. She needed the strongest boy. That was him.

“I'm so glad you like me too!”

“Too?”

He didn't realize what he had gotten himself into until now. He hated his new placement along the lines of his life.