Chapter 1
Abel woke up, slightly scared, sweating mildly. Attempting to see, he opened his eyes, but was still as blind as the day he was born. He had a dream, where he was in a white room with a strange woman in chains. He was confused to see what was around him, and the woman said something to him that he can't quite remember. Why was he so scared? He lied back down, trying to sleep again. It felt like an eternity before he could rest.
He woke up to the sound of his mother, Mary, working downstairs. Abel heard the clinking and clanging of pots and pans, and he smelt something cooking. Mary had purchased a refurbished oven, which was running off magically imbued stones. It was the cheaper alternative to the newer electric ovens, but it was somewhat annoying to maintain and took more work to get imbued stones. He searched around his nightstand until he felt his cane, he picked it up and started walking out of his room. He still wasn't quite used to the house, as he and his mother had to move out of their old one after it got flooded due to an incredibly heavy downpour, and it didn't help that their house was in a lower land than the surrounding areas.
He traveled through the hallway, tapping his cane around, and finally felt a dip in the ground, signaling to him there was a staircase. Carefully, Abel traversed down the stairs and finally reached the solid floor again. He was starting to be able to develop the skill to use a form of echolocation since he was younger, and had almost mastered it, the tapping of his cane reflecting off of the floor and into his ears gave him some sense of where he was, but it was still easier to just use it to find footing. Mary saw Abel and was relieved that he was adapting to his new surroundings quite well. "I made some breakfast!" She said with slight excitement in her voice.
They were able to buy the house for quite cheap, even though its condition was great. She had not known what may have decreased the price, as even the neighborhood was great. The schools were of high quality, even the public school. When buying the house she felt there was something off, but she put it to the side because they needed a new home.
She guided Abel to a chair and sat him down. "You don't have to baby me so much, mom," he said with slight annoyance. "I'm already seven, and I'm not, like, an infant." "Well, you're still my baby, even if you're growing up," she commented as she placed a plate of scrambled eggs, sausages, and a glass of water. Abel quickly scarfed down his food, his mother widening her eyes slightly. "Woah, Abel, you shouldn't eat so quickly, you might get sick…" Abel slowed down slightly, "sorry…" he murmured as he started eating more slowly, his fork scraping around his plate searching for the food. His mother sighed softly, scared for the day to come.
Mary chuckled to herself, "You woke up pretty early, huh, Abel?" Abel's eyebrows furrowed in confusion,
"Huh? What time is it?"
"It's five A.M., Abel."
"Why are you up at five A.M.?"
Mary hesitated to answer, "Uhm, I was just cleaning up the house a little bit, and I thought I might make some food, for later, but I guess you just woke up in time to have some." Abel raised an eyebrow at her words, and he sensed an undertone of sadness, but he decided to ignore as of now. He jolted in slight surprise as he remembered he had his first day at his new school today, he had forgotten due to the stress of moving houses, and he asked "When does school start again?" His mother, amusingly, had also forgotten, "You're right, I completely forgot. I think it starts at 7:30?" Abel nodded his head, "How far away is it? I think I wanna sleep a bit before we go." "I guess you can sleep for an hour and a half, just until about 6:30. Do you want help going up stairs?" "No, I'm okay…" Abel replied quietly. He grabbed his cane and traversed his way back into his room.
He decided to take his mother's advice and rest for a bit. He lied When he opened his eyes, he was underwater. He instinctively opened his mouth to gasp for air, but he couldn't breathe, and he tried swimming toward the bright light he thought was the sun. Then, a chain dropped into the water, and he grabbed it and was lifted up onto a raft. The chained woman from earlier was the one who had picked him up out of the water, and she tried speaking to him. When she spoke, no words came out. Abel tried to talk, but words didn't come out of his mouth either. The woman rolled her eyes and slapped him, hard.
Abel woke up again, attempting to use his eyes, but to no avail. He started crying, silently. After a few minutes, he wiped his tears and picked up his cane, walking down the stairs again. He could hear light snoring coming from downstairs, and he went to his mother, and tapped her lightly on her arm.
"Hey, wake up." he said softly. Mary opened her eyes and gasped lightly, and saw Abel. "Oh, thank you for waking me up, Abel." She got up and walked to the kitchen, where she checked the clock. "Huh, it's 6:30 almost exactly… Anyways, Abel, we gotta get you ready for school!" She lit a candle, illuminating the house. It was barely dawn, and even though the house had a small amount of light coming in, she would appreciate having some more. "We need to get some light fixtures installed, they're advancing technology so fast with the stuff that has happened recently…" She had said to Abel before she went upstairs, grabbing a uniform for the school. "Here you go." The uniform was placed in Abel's hands, "Thank you, mom." He had said. His mother went back upstairs, and he changed into his uniform.
Mary was in the restroom, looking at herself in the mirror, she sighed to herself. 'Why am I always so tired? These eye bags are horrendous…' she thought to herself, as she started applying some light makeup, covering up her eye bags and trying to make herself look as pretty as possible, without using too much. It seemed whenever she used too much she would get light headed. She headed back downstairs and saw Abel in his outfit. "Oh my goodness!" she said, excited. "My little boy is looking so cute on his first day at his new school!" She pinched his cheek. He giggled to himself. "Stop, don't only grannies pinch their grandkids cheeks?" Mary frowned. "Whatever," she said. "I was joking!" Abel said.
Mary's face relaxed some, a worried smile plastered onto her face. She realized Abel was different then other children, he was maturing faster than other kids, growing faster as well. Even though he was seven, he looked like he was twelve and acted like he was fourteen. She had thought he may perish sooner than other people, and sometimes cried over the thought.
She pulled Abel into a hug. "Promise me you won't get into trouble at school, okay?" Abel sighed and hugged her back. "Don't worry, I'll be fine, probably." Mary sighed. "Alright, very funny. Just say you won't try to get into trouble, please." "Okay, fine. I will try not to get into trouble." "Good enough, I guess. We still have a couple of minutes, but we should probably go to the school a couple minutes earlier so you can know the layout a bit better." "Yeah, that's probably a good idea."
They left the house and travelled down the gravel road, their feet hitting the ground and moving the rocks between their shoes. "Also, Abel… There are, uhm, other Humanoid species other than just us humans…" "Oh, like who?" "Well, there are I think almost all of them, there are Elves, Orcs, Dwarves, Ophidarcs…" "What are Ophidarcs? I've heard of Elves n' stuff, what are they?" "Oh, well, they're just serpent people, like snakes?" "Oh, I see."
'Maybe that's why this place was so cheap to buy. Racial diversity doesn't really go well here. That's why there's so much war.' She thought to herself. Mary clenched her hand hard. 'Why do we have to hate each other so much? What's the point?' After a while of walking, they reached the school.