Chaos Redemption

1

It was almost noon, the first-grade class of the local elementary was out on the playground. The students had all gathered in their own little friend groups. But one boy was hidden under the slide all alone, hugging his knees and stirring the pebbles to make shapes and faces. What the young boy did not know was that an ancient being was watching him. As the being slid into the child's mind he created an image only the boy could see. The boy feeling as though he was being watched looked up from the pebbles under his tiny hands. As the boy looked in the shadows under the playset connected to the slide he was under, he saw a purple dragon with bright golden eyes, slightly larger than a dog. The child's blue-grey eyes stared into the dragon's golden ones, and with a quiet tone the boy called out, "Shadow."

----------- 8 years later ------------

"What the hell man, no way!!" The boy now in ninth-grade says as his new friend tells him about a world of magic.

"I am being completely serious right now Chase, you are capable of amazing things," Tyler says trying to prove that what he was saying. The spring winds blew gently across the forest clearing they were gathered in. The small group consisted of four young men, Chase the youngest of the group stood apart from the rest who were all part of the eleventh-grade class. Tyler stood just ahead of his friends who Chase hadn't had much contact with but still knew their names. To Tylers left stood the tall slim figure of Carter, and to his right was the built figure of Cole. What the group didn't sense was the stirring of an ancient being inside of Chase's soul. 

"Chase, I am not one to tell many lies," Carter said stepping forward. "So believe me when I say that everything Tyler says is true. We can control certain elements based on our zodiacs and our personality, then we are gifted some by beings of other plains."

"Guys as cool as all of this sounds I can't accept it I left my fantasy world behind me years ago, please don't shove me back into it," Chase says as he steps away from them. "I need to think about all of this, can we talk about this another time?" Chase asked the group before him as he took another step back.

Tyler responded with a heavy sigh before nodding and saying, "I'll talk to you more about it tomorrow hows that?" Chase gave him a thumbs-up as he turned and started walking off to go to his peaceful spot. As Chase moved out of earshot Tyler turned to the rest of his friends and said, "Tonight we're having a meeting to discuss how to go about this if I can't convince him tomorrow."

As Chase walked through the forest, he began thinking about what the guys had just confronted him with. 'I mean, it's not like I don't believe them but my mind has just become too rational since I gave up my fantasies...' Chase thought as he reached his spot. It was at the top of a cliff overlooking the ocean and the sunset, "Maybe I'll bring Amber up here sometime," Chase muttered into the wind as he thought about his girlfriend. Chase had been up here so much that he had built a fire pit, and had moved one of the fallen trees for seating.

After a while of looking out at the ocean, dusk had arrived, as Chase stood up to walk home he saw a giant dark shape that seemed to black out the sun, but just as fast as it appeared it vanished. Dismissing it as an illusion of his tired brain, Chase started walking home. Soon he had reached the clearing where he had spoken to Tyler and the others. As he entered the clearing Chase felt as though he wasn't alone. With a great pain erupting from his chest, Chase collapsed to his knees. Looking up at the stars Chase felt something leave his body as the presence grew stronger. The pain soon ceased, Chase weak from the pain looked ahead in the clearing. A giant pair of gleaming golden eyes stared back as he fell unconscious.

When Chase awoke he was in an unfamiliar house, the bed he slept on was soft and comfortable, a lot more than his own. After a moment Chase heard voices, but the voices were muffled and unclear. As he stood he slipped his shoes on and crept to the door. Gently opening it Chase snuck into the hallway, following the sounds. After a moment he came across a door cracked slightly light spilling into the dark hallway. Sneaking closer the voices grew louder, he recognized them as the voices of Carter, Cole, and Tyler. Confusion set in as Chase crouched outside and started listening.

"If you can't convince the child, I will kill him," Cole's voice growled inhumanly. Through the crack in the door, Chase could see Cole's eyes shone with more lupine features.

"Don't even think about it Fenrir, we need him alive," Tyler responded in his own growl. 'Wait, why did he just call Cole, Fenrir?' Chase thought as he continued to listen.

"Why is he so important to you Zhi?" Carter's voice said in a smoother tone than normal, almost like a dancing flame. Chase looked over to Carter, thinking to himself, 'Zhi?' but then he noticed the flames in Carter's eyes.

"I can't explain, Evander, if I could I already would have," Tyler said frustrated at the questioning of the other two in the room.

Before Chase could form his next thought a hazy feeling embraced him, he watched as his body rose to its feet without his command. Through fuzzy ears, Chase heard Cole say to the others "Do you feel that?" and faded into blackness.

Tyler's eyes had shifted to the door, as the familiar feeling washed over him. But not as he remembered, there was no doubt it was his energy but it wasn't like something else was attached to it. The door creaked open, the light of the room not filling the shadows of the hall as it should. From that darkness stepped the form of Chase, but his eyes were a solid gleaming gold, dark reptilian pupils the only disruption of the golden sheen. And in a deep rumbling voice, that the young teen should not have been able to produce Chase boomed, "I am Damascus, Harbinger Dragon of Darkness. And any attempts to harm this boy will be met with deadly force." As he finished talking a dark aura folded out around Chases form, launching tendrils towards the three. Presenting their minds with the image of a giant purple dragon cloaked in shadow, its eyes glowing golden. The beast was so large it couldn't even use their bones as toothpicks. While the three realized it was not an empty threat, they also realized that it would not harm them unless necessary. As the vision faded for the three, they watched as Chase started to fall, as he had passed out. But he hung midair, to the eyes of Coal and Carter. To the eyes of Tyler though, he was being held by an angel, no an Archangel... Archangel Uriel, The Fire of God.

Uriel gently laid Chase's body on the floor, then looked up at Tyler. His flaming wings shining bright even in the well-lit room, "Let him find me on his own, do not tell him I am here, do not push him and work with him. Tell the others this but do not mention me unless necessary." Tyler nodded at the angel and watched as his form faded into a ball of light that then floated down into the unconscious form of Chase.