Mystical Times

Mystical Times-

“Remember my fellow slave runners that the waters we are about to enter are infested with mystical beasts and other anomalies that we are not used to seeing in our everyday life,” The captain of the runaway slaves stated to the crowd of on-looking worried faces. Captain James Halloway was renowned for his inventions, but he also was being herald as a treasonistic coward for his role in freeing many of the slaves from the mines. His long black hair was getting in his way as he spoke so he pushed it quickly to the side and continued on towards the boat that the slaves and him would take to get to safety. If they did not hurry the slave owners would find out about this treacherous act and surely would kill James Halloway on the spot, but he wasn’t concerned for his life and never had been for the most part. He was worried for the others that have already lost so much in these dire times.

Wormwood had become a very deadly place to live. It was no longer the sweeping beauty that it had been only a full century ago. It was written by the scholars as having beauty like a sapphire in the glowing sun. Now all that was left of that beauty was a single tree that stood in the middle of a park in the capitol of Wormwood. Everything had changed when Darkonna had came into rule. The happiness of the land seemed to fade year by year and now it was all but nonexistent.

Darkonna took the children of his towns and forced them to work in the mines to harvest the rare Plossum fruit that was only found in those minds. This fruit was the only thing that had kept Darkonna alive all these years. The fruits were mystical in nature like much of Wormwood. People always fought when they would find the mystical items, but every single item would find its way back to Darkonna. Those that tried to hide power from him were instantly crushed under his iron grasp. He would be the destruction of all of Wormwood.
Captain James Halloway had once worked under Darkonna’s rule as the leader of the imperial guard, but when his only child was taken from him by soldiers one fall day he knew that Darkonna only cared about one thing and that was power. He would stop at nothing to stay alive forever and he would continue to make the lives of his subjects unbearable. He quickly discovered a resistance force that was helping those that were being treated the worse to escape the world of Wormwood and find shelter in another land not that far away. He first met Tula Burnstein at the resistance. Tula was his fiercest ally and helped him with everything with the resistance. Tula helped set up all the escape attempts of slaves from Darkonna’s mines.

“James, please be careful tonight. This is the largest number of slaves we have ever have attempted to leave at one time from Wormwood.” Tula was shivering in the night air and she didn’t want James to know but from fear of what could happen on the waters tonight. She would never tell James but she had secret desires from him. She smiled at James and walked back towards the resistance, but turned around, “Promise me James you will be safe.”

“Tula, I promise I will be safe.” James said as he quickly huddled the slaves towards him, “Get on the boat now. If you see anything in the water leave it there. Do not, I repeat, Do not attempt to touch it or save anything you see tonight.”

The slaves and James got on the boat and began their journey towards the near land. About halfway into the waters one of the passengers on the boat stared deeply into the waters and started to scream, “There is a man in the water! Do you not see him? He needs to be rescued. We must save him or he will surely die.” The slave grasped down towards the water and another slave tried desperately to remind them that it was an illusion. The waters were playing mind games too heavily on the slave as they began to rock the boat heavily and that is when James saw it. In the waters he saw the beady eyes of a great shark-like beat. The teeth were gleaming from the moonbeams being cast down on the sparkling water. James knew what was about to happen and there was no way he could prevent it. He knew that the slaves and himself would never…

THE END