Chapter 1: Start of a legendary tale

“Man, I thought history class couldn’t get no more borin’,” a teenaged boy muttered, sitting in a classroom with several other students.

He was placed at one of the many desks in the back of the class. With uninterested black eyes, he stared at his desk and brushed his very short black hair forward. While playing with a pencil in his other hand, he glanced at the clock. “Only ten more minutes until this class is finished!” he whispered to himself, happily.“Whit Alexander!” a masculine voice bellowed.

The brown skinned teenager looked up at a man standing in front of the class beside the black chalkboard. “Yeah, what’s up, teach?”

An angry expression appeared on the man’s face. Strangely, though, the man did not even look human like Whit did. He had blue skin, short purplish gray hair, two dark brown eyes, and a pointy nose. In fact… It was not just him. There were a few other students in the class that were not human either. They looked like monsters.

“My name is not teach,” the man replied, mocking Whit. “My name is Mr. Hisakawa! Get it right!”

“I can’t even say that name right,” Whit said while looking at Mr. Hisakawa’s dark brown business suit.

Mr. Hisakawa rolled his eyes. “Whit, have you even been paying attention to what I’ve been saying?”

“Yeah.” Whit nodded, trying to sound truthful.

“Oh, really?” Mr. Hisakawa’s eyes narrowed. “Okay then, answer this. Where did humans originally come from?”

“Uh…” Whit thought for a moment, but he could not come up with the answer. He had heard the answer before, but he could not remember what it was as he hardly paid attention in class. The only thing he knew was that the planet was not in their solar system and to him, that is all he needed to know.

“Earth,” a student whispered to him.

Mr. Hisakawa locked his eyes on another human student sitting on the left of Whit. “Gee, Darryl Greene, I had no idea your name was Whit,” he said sarcastically.

The light brown skinned teenager looked down at his desk shamefully for a moment, then met the teacher’s eyes with his dark brown ones. “I’m sorry, Mr. Hisakawa.”

“Its alright, Mr. Greene,” Mr. Hisakawa answered softly.

Whit scoffed at Darryl’s politeness and rested his chin in his hand, wondering why his best friend bothered to apologize at all.

Mr. Hisakawa’s eyes darted back to Whit as his gentle look hardened. “Now, Whit, let me ask you another question.”

“Sure, go ‘head,” Whit replied, putting his feet on the desk.

“Get your feet off the desk,” Mr. Hisakawa said coldly.

Whit groaned and did as he was told, scowling at the teacher.

“Now, Whit, tell me. Even you should know this answer,” Mr. Hisakawa started. “What planet do we live on?”

“The planet Nupiture,” Whit answered confidently. He would have to be an idiot to get this question wrong.

“Correct,” Mr. Hisakawa said.

The bell rang, signaling everyone to get to their next class. Whit stood up and brushed off his baggy, dark blue jeans and long white t-shirt. Darryl stood up beside him. He was wearing a black shirt and blue jeans. His clothes were not as baggy or as long as Whit’s were and unfortunately for Whit, Darryl was about three inches taller than him.

Whit looked up at Darryl with an annoyed expression. “I hate bein’ short,” he mumbled as he grabbed his black backpack.

Darryl chuckled. “How many times do I have to tell you? Five-foot-seven isn’t short.”

The two boys walked out of the classroom and continued down the lengthy, navy blue hallway, casually passing by numerous classrooms and students.

“Well, five-foot-seven ain’t very tall eitha,” Whit stated. “Especially for a fifteen year old.”

“Is height the only thing you think about?” Darryl asked.

“No.” Whit shook his head. “I also think about the day I’ll get fire powers like Rogan.”

“Oh, yeah, that’s right,” Darryl said. “We’re supposed to be leaving for our journey tomorrow.”

“Yeah!” Whit replied. “What element did you wanna learn again?”

“I wanna learn the wind element,” Darryl declared. “Being able to control wind would be awesome!”

“Still ain’t as good as fire,” Whit arrogantly commented.

Darryl scoffed. “Whatever.”

They arrived in the lunchroom a few minutes later and walked into a line full of humans and monsters.

“You got enough money for lunch today?” Darryl asked, glancing back at Whit.

Whit nodded. “Uh-huh.”

After a few minutes, they got their lunch and quickly took a seat at one of the white lunch tables where several other students sat and hungrily ate their food or chatted among their friends.

“Hey, Whit, hey, Darryl!” A human boy called out.

The two teenaged boys turned to see a pale-skinned boy with medium length brown hair walking towards them.

Darryl waved. “Hey, Al.”

“What’s up?” Whit greeted as he took a bite out of his ham sandwich.

Al sat on the opposite side of Whit and Darryl and took out a brown lunch bag from his green backpack and placed it on the table.

“So… I guess tomorrow’s the day, huh?” Al asked, putting a hand on his orange shirt.

“Yeah, I can’t wait!” Whit acknowledged excitedly. “I’ll finally have fire powers, just like Rogan!”

With worried brown eyes, Al stared at his friend. “Whit… You do realize that it’s not going to be that easy, right?”

“What you mean?” Whit asked.

Surprised that Whit did not know, Al glanced at Darryl. “Darryl, you did tell him the dangers of going out to learn a natural element, right?”

Darryl shook his head. “No, I thought he would know.”

Al’s eyes drifted back to Whit. “Whit, listen carefully. There are ten different elements that an individual can possess: fire, water, land, wind, electric, plant, psychic, ice, light, and dark. Obtaining any one of these elements is a challenge.” he straightened his eyeglasses and continued. “Finding the location of where the element is at is easy. The real challenge is conquering the trials and element based wild monsters and humans in there.”

“Wait a second!” Whit cut in. “Wild monsters and humans? You mean I gotta fight against monsters and humans that is evil?”

“Well… They’re not really evil,” Al corrected him. “Actually they’re not even real. They’re just obstacles summoned there to stop the individual from receiving the natural element. They will kill you without a single thought, and if you do make it past all the wild monsters, you must go up against the guardian of the element. Once you beat him, the element will be yours for the taking. Due to these deadly reasons, there are few people who possess element powers.”

A terrified expression appeared on Whit’s face as he gulped. “I gotta do all that?”

Al nodded. “Yes. Since Rogan possesses the fire element, maybe you should ask him some questions about where he had to go and what wild monsters he had to fight.”

“But I don’t even know if he in school today,” Whit replied.

“He’s here,” a short brown skinned male goblin answered, a few seats away from them. “I saw him in class last period.”

“I wonder where he is now?” Darryl pondered, tapping his fingers on the table for a moment. “Isn’t this his lunch period, too?”

“Andrew’s not here either,” Al added as an afterthought.

“I ain’t worried about Andrew,” Whit said, finishing off his ham sandwich. “He probably plannin’ ta surprise me like he always do, but this time, I’m a be ready.” Whit took out a wooden sword from his backpack.

“Hey, when did that get there?” Al asked while pointing to a lunch tray covered with three warm slices of pepperoni pizza resting in the middle of the lunchroom as several students idly passed it by like it was a normal sight to see.As Whit’s mouth dropped open, he began to drool uncontrollably, gazing at the pizza. “Oh, my god! Is that pizza?!”

“Don’t worry about it,” Darryl told him. “It’s most likely a trap set by Andrew to catch you off guard.”

“Yeah, right,” Whit said sarcastically. “Do he really think I be stupid enough ta fall for somethin’ like that?”

Whit dashed for the tray on the floor and right when he picked it up, a swift, blurry figure appeared from the left of him and struck him on the forehead. The struck made Whit’s eyes roll to the back of his head as he dropped his wooden sword and fell backwards with the three slices of pizza landing right on his face.

A few of the witnesses laughed at the incident as the blurry figure became visible while looming over the fallen Whit. The figure was a teenaged asian boy that wore the same gray school uniform jumpsuit with black shoes as most of the students in the lunchroom. He sheathed his wooden sword and grinned widely as his black eyes stayed fixed on Whit.

Darryl slapped his forehead with embarrassment and covered one eye while looking at Al with the other. “Well… I told him it was a trap set by Andrew, but he didn’t listen.”

Al sighed with disappointment. “He’s very hardheaded.”

After two long hours passed, the school day finally ended and, like always, a massive wave of students rampaged out of the school building yelling and screaming like a horde of wild animals. By the time Whit and Darryl emerged from the school building, everyone else was long gone. The two teenagers strolled down the sidewalk, enjoying the hot sun’s rays beat down on them from high up above, ensuring them that the rest of the day would be beautiful.

“Damn, it’s about time!” Whit commented.

“Yeah, now we can start planning for tomorrow,” Darryl said as he glanced at Whit. “You still wanna go, right?”

“Yeah, why wouldn’t I?” Whit asked. “You think I’m scared or somethin’?”

“Well, you looked kinda scared in the lunchroom when Al was talking to you,” Darryl reminded him.

“No, I wasn’t,” Whit lied, shaking his head for a moment. “But anyway, just think of what I could do with fire powers. I wouldn’t have to use microwaves to heat up my food and I could use my powers to win the Jenio Region World Tournament! I be the first person from the town of Fosia to become the champion of Jenio’s whole region!”

“Well, it’ll take a whole lot more than fire power to win that tournament,” Darryl replied. “If you sign up for the tournament, I’ll sign up too and beat you!”

“Beat me?” Whit repeated as he stopped walking and stared at Darryl. “With what? Ya wind powers?” He jeered. “What can wind do against fire?!”

A cunning expression appeared on Darryl’s face. “I could use the wind to deflect your flames right back at you and I could use my wind current to fly!”

Whit shook his head with a cocky expression. “Yeah, whateva. If you can even get the wind element.”

“I could say the same thing about you,” Darryl shot back.

Suddenly, Whit felt a force slightly push him forward and then saw an arm resting around his neck. He looked back to see a familiar spiky haired asian boy smiling at him.

“Oh, it’s you again, Andrew,” Whit replied with arched eyebrows as he was apparently still irked about earlier.

“Hello. How are you guys?” Andrew asked, removing his arm from Whit and slapping Darryl a five.

The three of them began to walk. Andrew glanced at the lush, dark blue, grassy fields on the right side of the sidewalk they traveled on.

“I was fine ‘til you attacked me today,” Whit retorted. “You gotta stop with the surprise attacks in school.”

“But it’s a part of your training, though,” Andrew said. “You must always be alert.”

“I wanted you to teach me how ta use a sword,” Whit continued. “I don’t wanna be a damn ninja like you.”

“I’m not trying to make you a ninja,” Andrew denied. “I’m just trying to make you a better swordsman, that’s all. Those skills should help you when you set out tomorrow.”

“Andrew, did you see Rogan today?” Darryl curiously asked.Andrew nodded. “Yeah, in fact, he’s still in the school building right now.”

“Hey, Andrew! Show us some of ya dark powers!” Whit insisted, changing the subject without a care as he always enjoyed watching Rogan and Andrew display their element powers.

“Okay,” Andrew said as he ran a few feet away from Whit and Darryl.

He took a deep breath while an ominous black aura gradually surrounded his body and began to glow. Whit and Darryl stared in awe and reminded silent as Andrew raised his right arm and formed a black orb in the palm of his hand. He then dropped the orb on the ground, causing most of the sidewalk to turn completely black, glowing the same color as his aura. After a few seconds, the black aura vanished from Andrew and the sidewalk returned to normal. The dark element user turned to Whit and Darryl, waiting for them to comment, but the two were still too enthralled to talk; no matter how many times they watched Andrew use his powers, it was always amazing.

“That’s cool!” Whit finally remarked with enthusiasm.

“Yeah it was,” Darryl agreed. “The dark element does look pretty powerful, but you should really be careful with it. Because if you’re not, you’ll be manipulated by the dark power and become insane, just like The Dark Master.”

“That won’t happen to me,” Andrew said. “I’m well aware of the dangers of possessing the dark element.”

“I bet you and Rogan feel pretty cool, seeing as how you guys are the only ones in the whole town that have elements,” Darryl guessed.

“It’s great having powers and all, but I don’t really need them,” Andrew said. “Unless I fought in the Jenio Region Tournament.” He looked at his friends’ clothes and his face turned to disgust. “How come you guys didn’t wear your school uniforms today?”

“It’s optional, remember?” Darryl said. “We don’t have to wear our school uniforms if we don’t want to.”

“I think the school uniforms is ugly anyway,” Whit commented. “That’s why I neva wear it.”

“Aw, come on, where’s your school spirit?” Andrew jokingly questioned.

“Hey, fellas!” a male voice called out to them.

The three of them turned to the voice and saw someone running out of the school building. Like Andrew, he too was wearing his gray school uniform. As the person got closer and closer, Whit and the others could identify who it was.

“Rogan!” Whit and the others shouted.

“Hey!” Rogan answered back as he finally reached them.

Rogan’s dark gray, thin, furry tail wagged behind him and his dark gray cat ears wiggled as he stared at them.

Rogan was clearly not human. He was a human-looking cat monster.

Whit looked into Rogan’s dark blue eyes. “I been lookin’ for you all day!”

Rogan ran his hand through his short black hair. “You have? Let me guess. You wanna know about the wild monsters in the Volcanic Cave?”

“Is that where I gotta go?” Whit started. “The Volcanic Cave?”

“Yeah, that’s where the fire element’s at,” Rogan confirmed. “I’ll tell you more about it tomorrow, since me and Andrew will be accompanying you on your journey for a while.”

“You guys are coming with us?” Darryl asked with a shocked expression.

“Yeah.” Andrew bobbed his head. “It was my idea. We’ll lead you all the way to Buckwood.”

“That’s good!” Whit responded. “I can’t wait!”

“Hey, Whit. You coming over to train later today?” Andrew eagerly asked. Sword sparring with Whit was one of his favorite things to do after school.

Whit shook his head. “Naw, I need ta rest today.”

“Oh, okay. Never mind then,” Andrew said in a slightly disappointed tone.

“Well, we’ll see you guys tomorrow,” Darryl replied as he and Whit started to walk away.

“Alright see ya!” Rogan waved.

Andrew waved too. “Bye.”

Day quickly turned to night as Whit lay on the blue covers of his bed in his room and stared at the plain white ceiling. Just then, an old man opened the door and saw Whit.

“Oh, I didn’t know you were sleeping,” the old man said. The elderly man had very short hair like Whit, but it was gray instead of black. He had dark brown eyes, and brown skin. He looked to be in his early forty’s and barely had any wrinkles. Like most people, his grandpa was a few inches taller than Whit was.

“No, it’s okay, Grandpa,” Whit replied. “I ain’t sleepin’.”

“Your grandma would like to know, if you’d like to play a game of blackjack with us?” he asked.

“Naw, I ain’t good at card games,” Whit said.

“Okay then,” his grandpa replied as he walked away and closed the door.

A moment later, the phone rang. With his anticipation high, Whit quickly reached for the white phone resting on the brown dresser next to his bed, praying that it was the girl he gave his number to a few days ago.

“Hello?” He anxiously waited for the person on the other line to answer. Was it her?

“What’s up, Whit?! It’s me Al!”

“Oh…Hi, Al,” Whit said dully as all the anticipation instantly seeped out of him. A strong urge to hang up the phone came over him, but he knew that would be rude. “What is it?”

“Oh, nothing.” Al sat on his bed. “Just wanted to wish you good luck tomorrow if I don’t see you.”

“Okay,” Whit motionlessly spoke. “Uh… is that it?”

“Uh…” Al frantically tried to think of something to discuss with Whit, but he could not come up with anything, at least until he spotted his history textbook several feet away from him. “Hey, Whit, were you paying attention in history class today?”

“No. Why?” Whit asked.

“Mr. Hisakawa talked about the greatest history event on the planet Nupiture,” Al said with excitement.

“And you tellin’ me this because…?” Whit waited for an answer.

“Because it’s really interesting stuff,” Al explained. “And I just wanted to share it with you.”

“But-”

Before Whit could say another word, Al had began talking. “Over nine thousand years ago, only monsters inhabited the planet Nupiture until a new type of monster started to appear all over the planet. No one knows where they came from, but they immediately began to attack all the monsters. This started the very first major war on planet Nupiture. The new monsters were winning until two guardians, who were believed to have been created from the stars above the planet, came and sealed the new monsters underground. One of the guardians called the new species of monsters, demons. Six hundred years later, humans arrived on Nupiture from the planet Earth. Years went on and humans began to become a common sight on the planet. Things were going good, until one day a woman gave birth to a strange looking baby. It wasn’t handicapped or anything, it just didn’t look like a normal human being. Soon, more newborns came out the same way. Their appearance was frightening to normal humans, and as the strange infants grew up they just looked more terrifying. Scientists discovered that it was Nupiture’s atmosphere that was making the infants look different. It was a thirty percent chance that any human that was given birth on this planet could come out looking like some mutant.”

“Uh-huh,” Whit said as he got up and walked around with the phone in his hand. For once, he was actually listening to Al.

“Eventually regular humans became so scared of the strange looking humans that they attacked them and exiled all of them to the other side of Nupiture, where the demons first appeared…” Al continued as he walked downstairs and began to eat his dinner in the living room. “Years later, somehow, the demons resurfaced and joined forces with the thousands of strange humans exiled to their land. One of the two guardians from the first war switched sides and became known as The Demon Guardian. It is still unknown why the guardian became evil,” he briefly paused to take a big sip of his soda.

“The Demon Guardian coined the name Anti-Humans for the strange humans that were exiled. Together, The Demon Guardian, the demons, and the anti-humans started a war with the humans and the last remaining guardian. The demons and anti-humans were dominating the war until the monsters formed an alliance with the humans and helped them fight back,” Al said while getting absorbed into the story as well. “The monsters back then couldn’t speak in human tongue and weren’t intelligent at all, but they knew their planet was in trouble. The war went on for months until the human and monsters’ Guardian defeated The Demon Guardian. Since the good guardian wasn’t strong enough to seal the demons underground she created a large barrier that blocked off The Demon Guardian, the demons and the anti-humans crossing over to our land. That barrier is still blocking their way to this very day… A purple orb the guardian left behind is still sustaining the power of the barrier. While the human and monsters’ guardian was putting up this powerful barrier, four demons put an evil spell on her, which put her into a deep, eternal slumber. The guardian is still in that deep sleep as we speak and will probably never wake up again.”

“All that sounds like one big lie,” Whit replied, sitting back on his bed. “You sure all that’s real and ain’t just some story someone made up?”

“No, it’s true,” Al informed. “Ancestors of ancient monsters and humans have had the story told to them when they were young and they’ve passed it down to the next generation after the next.”

“Wow,” Whit said. “I can’t believe all that really happened in the past.”

“Yeah, I knew you’d like the story,” Al claimed. “Its my favorite history class story. We’re gonna have a test on it tomorrow.”

“Good thing I ain’t gon be there,” Whit snickered, switching the phone to his left ear.

“Lucky you,” Al rolled his eyes.

“Well, it’s gettin’ late,” Whit replied. “I’ll talk to ya later.”

“Alright. Farewell, Whit!”

“Yeah, see ya, Al.”

Whit hung up the phone, and grabbed his black TV remote. He lay on his bed and turned on the TV and watched the television until he fell asleep an hour later.