Fantasy Novel Chapter 1

Hi guys. While waiting for you to comment on Silvius' Story, I was working on a fantasy novel. Here is the first chapter. I would love feedback.

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An ancient, all-seeing eye snapped opened in the dark cave. Servius had awoken from his millennia-long slumber. His rider was coming.

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   Zane awoke in a cold sweat. He had had that dream again;the dream he had been suffering for the past year. He wondered what it meant, if anything. It was always the same story.

He began the dream in a gloomy chamber with a single torch in the middle. Around the outside were thousands of pathways. He always picked out a different one, as he remembered what was down the others. However he still died in many ways. Down most of the hallways, he died in combat. In others he died to dragon fire. In still more he fell or was knocked off the back of his own dragon. But no matter what, it was always the same result. He died.

Zane walked out of his bedroom and down to the bathroom, where he splashed cold water on his face. He couldn’t figure out why he kept having the dream. He had talked to his dad, who just said that it was nothing. He had even spoken to people about how to stop having the dream, but those people merely said the dream meant something. He debated about the dream a bit. This time he had been walking up to a huge castle before he was struck by lightning, even though there wasn’t a cloud in the sky! He walked out of the bathroom, and started getting ready for school.

By the time he got to the bus stop, the dream was still bouncing around his head. He sat next to his friend Sam on the bus.
“Have that dream again?” Sam asked.
“You betcha. I can’t figure it out.”
“What happened this time?”
“It started out the same, so I went on an awesome adventure like most times. This time I died to a phantom lightning bolt.”
“That sounds astonishing. Not the dying part I mean, but the adventure part.”
“I know, but dragons don’t exist, and we aren’t in the medieval ages anymore. I merely wish I could stop having it.”
“Yea. At least we have something to think about during the lecture today.”
“That’s always fun. Mr. Denholm has the worst lectures.”

They promptly moved on to lighter topics, and soon they arrived at school. As they predicted, Mr. Denholm gave a boring lecture, and Zane thought about the dreams the whole time. He mostly thought about how to stop them, because they were interfering with his sleep schedule. After class he was talking with his friends in the hallway, and Sam brought up the dream once more. That led to Zane explaining his dream, and then another friend, Lukas, said he might be able to do something about it.

“About that,” he said, “my uncle-in-law just recently returned from his trip. He is an expert at figuring out dreams. He could help you at least figure out why you keep having this dream, if not stop it.”
“Excellent,” Zane responded. “Can I come after school?”
“Sure. I’ll let my uncle know.”

The remainder of the day passed uneventfully, with the thought of finally figuring out the dream filling his head. He knew it was likely false hope. He had been to countless others, and was still no nearer to figuring it out. But even so, there was that tiny part of him that thought this might be the time. Time appeared to slow down as the end of the day drew near, but eventually the bell rang. He met up with Lukas after school.

“My uncle’s house is walking distance,” Lukas told him. “Let’s hike there.”
They walked down the road, talking about many things, but most notably the dreams. Before long they reached Lukas’ uncle’s house. His uncle greeted them at the doorway.
“Welcome,” he pronounced. “Come in. We have much to talk about. My name is Eduarow, but you can call me Ed.”
“Has Lukas told you about my dreams yet?” Zane inquired.

“Not much. Only that you were dreaming of going on adventures in a fantasy land. I need to take you to a private room where we can sit and talk about the dreams.”

They walked upstairs, and entered Ed’s office.

“Stay out here Lukas,” Ed said. “I need to talk to Zane in private if we are to figure out this dream.”

They walked inside the room, and it was surprisingly bare. There was only a small wooden table with two chairs. The walls were pure gray, as were the ceiling and floor. It was hard to tell where the corners of the room were. They walked over and sat opposite at the table.

“Tell me about your dream,” Ed commanded.

“Well, it starts out in a gloomy chamber with tons of passageways around it, and down each of those passageways is a different adventure. But I die down all of them.”

“Have you tried them all yet?”

“Not even close.”

“Okay. There is something I need to tell you. Don’t interrupt me, no matter how unbelievable it is. Understood?”

“Yes.”

“The place you are dreaming of is a real place. It is a world that exists alongside yours. It is that world that is an inspiration for almost all “fantasy” books. The authors of those book all scratch the surface with their subconscious minds. The realm they see is called Algasia. It is a realm of magic and adventure. The place you start your dream is called the chamber of the oracle. In that chamber, you can see all the paths you can take in Algasia.”

“Okay. Umm, I have tons of questions.”

“Fire away.”

“How do you know all this? Why did you call it my world? Why am I in the chamber of the oracle? And most importantly: Why aren’t you in an insane asylum yet?!”

“Calm down, Calm down. I know that it sounds crazy, but to answer your questions I’ll need to take you way back....

Our world started in a strange way. It was inhabited by nothing but dragons. They warred among each other with their unfathomable magical abilities. The most powerful of them could take the shape of a human to concentrate their power. The problem was that it made them weaker. So the true wizards created a whole race of humans to inhabit the world, thinking they could hide in the masses. But the wizards made one mistake. They used too much magic. Some of the humans inherited the extra magic, and they came to be known as half wizards. These half wizards were hundreds in number, and they fought against the dragons who turned their world into a wasteland. The wiped out the dragons, and slowly half wizards filtered out of the population. Now a half wizard is a rare sight, but people soon discovered trans-dimensional gateways that led to this world and others. One of the trans-dimensional gateways slowly solidified into the chamber of the oracle. A prophecy came floating out of of the portal at the last second. This prophecy said that one day a dragon would return. He would be would be one of the ancients who created our race. He would fight alongside us with a person from another realm to help defend against a great evil. It said that we should watch the gateways until someone dreamt of the temple of the oracle. They would come to us and we could take them into our realm. I was appointed the warden of this realm. That is all I know.”

“How can I be sure you’re telling the truth? And even if you are, I can’t do all that.” Zane inquired while looking around for hidden cameras.

“I’m not sure either. There is no immediate threat, and you seem quite young. But nevertheless, I can show you Algasia. That is why this room is so barren. It exists trans-dimensional.”

“Okay,” he humored, “let’s go.”

Suddenly everything went dark. 10 seconds later the lights came back on. The room looked exactly the same.

“Wowww, the lights went out. That’s amazing.”

“Be sarcastic if you want, but let’s go out the door. Shall we.”

Zane trudged out the door and was surprised to walk out into bright light. He looked around and noticed he was standing on a hill. There was a large sign post at the base of the hill, and a small village situated around. He saw a couple horses on the horizon and the road was not paved. He was obviously not in modern times.

“Now do you believe me?” Ed said snapping Zane back to consciousness.

“Yea.”

“Let’s head down to town. We need to introduce you to everyone and get you trained at the soldiers' camp. You should also pick up some gear. I’ll help you.”

“What about Lucas. Won’t he come looking for us?”

“I forgot to tell you. We can return to the instant we left no matter what. Just don’t die and you’ll be fine.”

Zane suddenly had a huge flash of deja vu. This was where all the dreams started. He didn’t doubt anything anymore.

“Then let’s go.” He responded.

They walked down the hill and Ed schooled him on the currency along the way.

“Our currency is unlike yours. We use things of actual value. Most people use copper coins, 10 of which equal a bronze. After that 25 bronze is a silver, and 50 silver is a gold. You’ll need to know this so you can buy supplies. I have plenty of money so I will give you some before we part ways. For now, I’ll cover your purchases. You will need a weapon, a horse, and some other things. We will need to figure out what type of warrior best suits you. To do that we can go to the soldier training camp. First though I’ll need to talk to the lord of this town. Tell him the prophecy came true.”

They reached the village and were stopped at the gate.

“State your business,” The voice at the top boomed down.

“I am the warden of Earth. My name is Eduarow and I have the prophesied one. I will need to talk to the lord. What is his name these days?”

“I apologize, you haven’t come to town in centuries. I didn’t recognize you. The lord’s name is Gadyar. He will be happy to talk to you right away.”

“We will also need accommodations while we buy supplies. We would prefer them to be in the soldiers' camp so Zane here can learn.”

“That can be arranged. Welcome to our town.”

They walked through the majestic gates and were greeted by another guard. He took them to the residence of Gadyar where they waited outside of the small tower for him to be ready to see them. After what seemed like hours, Gadyar walked out the door.

“Welcome back to town, Ed. I see you have the prophesied one. Hopefully he’s not a mistake like the last two. Come in. Let’s test Zane.”

“Hold on a second,” I recoiled. “What mistakes are you talking about?”

“Ed didn’t tell you? There have been two others that were said to be prophesied that failed the test. One of them was from earth.”

“What do you mean by failed?”

“Killed. Now let’s go on in. It’s a long test.”

“Wait! What? You just expect me to go along with a test that could kill me. You must be crazy!”

“I’m afraid you really have no other choice. I thought Ed would have explained this to you. You can’t enter Algasia if you don’t take the test. Our universe is not for sight seeing. Now you can take the test or be executed.”

“You can’t do this to me! I have rights!”

“Which you waived by entering Algasia. I’d like to see you take a different dimensional being to court. Now take the test for a chance of dying, or die anyways!”

“Fine.”

Zane reluctantly trudged into the house and they sat him down in front of the fireplace.

“This part won’t hurt a bit. We will perform an ancient ritual that will show your most beneficial future to Algaisia.”

Servants carried a bowl over to the fireplace and sprinkled the dust in it all over the logs. Then they took out two impossibly clear crystals and struck them together once for a flurry of sparks. One of the sparks caught the wood into a bright purple flame. The flame then started to change colors, flickering between green, yellow, red, black, purple, and invisible. Gadyar started chanting.

“Ofel kadyar Ofel kadyar Ofel kadyar Ofel kadyar Ofel kadyar.”

Ed joined in and Zane saw the colors flicker faster. He also felt inclined to join in, and soon the words overpowered his will and he joined in. Now all three of them were, faster and faster, chanting the words.

“Ofel kadyar”

The fire blazed hotter than ever and took a deep shade of black.

“Ofel kadyar”

The fire sunk to the logs and disappeared.

“Ofel kadyar Ofel kadyar”

The logs started shimmering.

“Ofel kadyar Ofel kadyar Ofel kadyar Ofel kadyar”

The shimmering hardened into a image.

“Ofel kadyar Ofel kadyar Ofel kadyar Ofel—”

Suddenly, the air of magic in the room vanished. The image became one of Zane walking along a meadow. There was a huge castle wall in front of him. He recognized this scene. This was where he was right before he got hit by lightning in last night's dream. It seemed like years ago. This time though, the bolt came down and was simply deflected by a wave of Zane’s hand. He kept walking in spite of being pelted by deadly objects, and reached the wall. He walked into the castle and the image stopped.

“Wow!” Gadyar exclaimed as the vision ended.

“Yeah,” Ed replied. “Turns out our little friend here is a half wizard. I don’t seem to recognize that castle though."

“I did,” Gadyar replied. “It was the castle of Servius-The Creator of Man.”