THE SECRETS OF ORBIUS

The Sacrificed Serentro

Chapter 1

Darkness. Just Darkness. But not the kind of darkness you see when you close your eyes.

Or the kind of darkness, that is seen when you turn off a lamp.

No. This darkness is different.

Unfamiliar. Nothing is like this darkness. I think the only darkness that is like this one, is the darkness that a dead persons eyes see when they are buried dead in the earth.

But for, some reason I’m not scared. Even though, since I could remember, I have been afraid of the dark. It’s as if the darkness is reassuring. Like something I have seen or experienced before.

But what I am worried about is how am I going to get out of this place – wherever i am.

I don’t know how i got here, and i don’t know where i belong.

There is some strange smell in the air.

Like a dead Gillowa or a meal that has been out in the sun for too long.

But for some reason, i am drawn towards it.

Maybe, somewhere deep inside my mind, i know what it is.

Or maybe it is my instinct telling me to go and search out the answer to the unknow.

I start to walk. But i dare not make a sound, as i do not know where i am.

And i do not know if i am in here alone.

There has to be light somewhere.

It is impossible not to have light.

I wish i had my Staph with me.

But i left it back in my Village of Quizko.

Sadly, here in this quaint little town called Orbius, they do not allow magic or any magical devices.

So i have left my Staph behind.

I can smell the stench very clearly now. From what my nose is telling me. I am right next to, whatever is giving off this strange smell.

I reach with my left hand to where my nose is telling me.

I feel around to try & feel something that i recognise.

I feel something very cold & sticky.

I can move my finger around, in it.

It’s like a pile of goo, from what i can tell.

It feels like the blood of a creature that my mother used to cook with when i was still a young wizard in school.

But my mother had to stop using it in her cooking because the hunters killed to many females & leaving the males with no mates.

The males soon became very aggressive.

And started terrorising villagers. The elders from my village called upon the best hunters in the land to wipe out the rest of the species.

So that our villages would be safe again.

But this can’t be the blood of a Serentro, they were wiped out over 30 years ago.

But still, deep inside my mind i know that it is true.

Suddenly a burst of a bright light comes over a hill, exposing rocks that i couldn’t see before.

Now i see the blood on my hand of the thought extinct, Serentro.

Then a whisper echoes around the now recognisable rock formation that i am standing in the middle of.

The rock formation is a group of ten stone arches in a circle, surrounding a flat, smooth rock in the centre.

And it now appears that the Serentro was sacrificed.

I read of such happenings when i was still in school.

But it has never been recorded to have, happened in this region.

The echoes are eerily soothing, and easy on my ears.

But they come from every direction & after a while it makes my head spin.

I look around for where the whispers are coming from.

But i see nobody.

I see nothing but trees about a kilometre away.

I stand still, concentrating all of my energy to listen to the whispers & try to cipher what they are saying.

It is very hard to understand, because when the echo comes around it distorts the new part of the message.

But from what i can hear it appears to be saying –

“Vintoro... Vintoro... Vintoroâ€