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At approximately 2 AM in March 7th, 2008, the world changed dramatically. Though nobody could have known the difference at the time, the arcane binding that had kept the world silent of magic had been broken. Not for eons had anyone known the ways of magic. A spell so potent that it rendered the world of all its magic had been cast such that nobody was able to use magic for fifty thousand years.

At that time, magic was everything. Magic spawned life. Magic grew food. Magic created towns. Magic established empires. Magic erected marvels. Magic harnessed weapons. Magic started war. Magic destroyed empires. Magic destroyed life. Then, for an unknown reason, magic vanished. Those left standing from the ravages of war were left to rebuild from dirt. The art of magic had been passed from generation to generation and would occasionally make its way to an ancient scroll, but for the lack of use, magic was forgotten and the world moved onwards.

And at approximately 2 AM in March 7th, 2008, deep below the earth's crust, a circle of incantation encased in a sphere of time slow had begun to lose its effect. Uncoincidentally, at the exact same time deep below the earth's crust, the eyes of the beast began to open for the first time in fifty thousand years...

If the world should blow itself up,the last audible voice would be an expert saying it can't be done

This post was edited by Hawkeye on Dec 06, 2006.

Cody had always been a lonely boy, but not one without its fair share of ambitions. He had always wanted to be a nurse, though he would never admit it to himself. His first pet, Buck was a bloodhound that never moved far from the house. Cody would always throw his arms around Buck after school, and share what miserable things had happened that day. Buck often never so much as raised its head, but it never bothered Cody at all. Cody had an abusive alcoholic for a father, and had no mother to turn to. Without any friends, Buck was the closest thing he had to companionship.

His father was a partner owner of a bowling alley downtown. Most days, he would come home, open a beer, and watch television until he fell asleep. If Cody was lucky, his father would bring home leftover donuts from work to eat, but more often than not, Cody had to fend for himself.

The fridge was always full of beer, but rarely had more than baking soda and mustard to eat. Cody used to order meals for himself and run out without paying, but the local restaurant owners wised up quickly. Instead, he would fend through heaps of trash at the back of restaurants... mexican, chinese... whatever suited him at the time.

However, about once a week, his father's business goes badly; a partner stole money or he's past on bills again. In times like those, Cody knew extremely well the look in his eyes, which burned of hells fury. The madness in his eyes seemed to essentuate a sickish yellow hue to his face that was horrific to set gaze on, because it would have meant being in the mercy of a wronged man without his reason. He had long since learned to stay clear of him on such nights, having once been beaten so bad, one of his ribs broke and hurt for many months afterwards when touched nearby. He would stay clear, and take the beating the next day when his father was not drunk. The beating was still intolerable, but at least he knew when to stop.

Unfortunately, Buck was not always so lucky. Buck, too, knew the look in Cody's father's eyes, for when he enters the house drunk, Buck cowels in a dark corner and keeps his head down when he would normally continue to lay on the floor motionless. The beating that Cody would miss from his father, Buck would receive to some extent from kicks and curses. Cody always felt responsible for Buck because of this reason. The day after, Buck was almost always bleeding and covered in bruises. Cody had searched online and found simple remedies such as aloe leaf to heal wounds. He stole aloe from the neighbor's garden that he would always apply them to Buck the day after, usually with a face full of tears.

He imagined himself as an important nurse, saving patients suffering from similar wounds as Buck and justifying himself for all the times he let Buck suffer instead of himself. Perhaps it was the fact that he was an outcast or perhaps it was the fact that he was abused by his father; but for whatever the cause, he never felt like it was his life. To him, he felt like he was someone of great importance sometime in his past, though he knew for a fact he wasn't. Perhaps in another lifetime...

There was never a day of the week in which Cody did not dress himself in black when he went to school. His black-maroon dyed hair was combed across his head and over half his face. He wore gloves in which the ends were cut off at the end. His t-shirt was always black with a beer logo on the left breast from one of his dad's collections. He wore black denim shorts that were tapered at the knee, leaving a series of tattered threads hanging down.

School had always been an obbligation. He had little choice in the matter, since going to school was enforced by his dad's beatings. His grades were rarely higher than a C, and teachers often despised him for the way he dressed. All of which, he figured, amounted to nothing ultimately since he was never going to amount to anything, much less a nurse.

The school was run by the football team, a group of jocks that often did little for schoolwork but spent the majority of the time being trained by the high school coach with a keen mind to win the next game. It was well established fact that the football team was the pride of Bunsen County, but a lesser known fact was that the football team was 'unofficially' rewarded by the cheerleader team after winning games.

Most were abrasive, arrogant, and felt they had a right to push someone out of the way if they wished. Moreover than the fact that they were bullies, Cody dispised them on principle. They have the entire school in their hands, and instead of doing something honest and decent with such power, they've only flared it around and used it selfishly to achieve what they want at the moment. They reminded him of his father. His father, with the power to hurt or help his own son and pet, he chose to abuse it, and a passion grew from this which caused Cody to hate his father more than anyone humanly possible.

May 7th, 2008 Cody woke up from a nightmare. In his dream, he saw dragons gliding with almost divine grace through the sky. It would have been a beautiful sight to behold except that fire left their mouths and caught entire villages on fire in two breaths. He saw a mother and a two-month old child running for their lives. He prayed for them to be able to dodge the dragon descending upon them in time, but their bodies flashed bright yellow as their flesh burned. The mother screamed as it happened, and although Cody could not hear any noise, it seemed to pierce his ears anyway. Then he found himself standing in the village as well, but not fleeing with the others. He was fully grown and looked nothing like himself, but he somehow knew it was him. The bold Cody stood with legs apart speaking an incomprehensible language yet he could understand it. He was initiating a barrier that would withstand heat. The black dragon descended again upon the village, but Cody stood firm. The dragon spotting the defiant, almost with sentient intelligence, aimed directly at Cody with another burst of fire.

Cody could feel the intense heat of the fire surrounding him. The spell had not been meant to withstand very long, but the fire continued. The complex arcane texts and shapes scrolled in light, apparently withholding the spherical barrier surrounding him began to flicker... The heat continued its stream of heat, and Cody could no longer see due to the heat. The skin began to boil, and the pain was intense. Cody let out a scream of pain, and the incantation finally collapsed, engulfing Cody in flames. The pain was extrutiating and seemed a thousand times worse than with the incantation.

The heat ceased finally, but the pain continued without stopping. A burning corpse finally collapsed on the ground along with the many many others in the nameless village.

Then Cody awoke. He could have sworn the pain was real. Having thought about it a bit later, he thought it strange that he didn't awake before he died. He was alive the entire time he dreamt it.

(To be continued...)

If the world should blow itself up,the last audible voice would be an expert saying it can't be done