Centhin: The Opening - Erin Riordan (free e books to read online txt) 📗

a small Creature. The only other change was that he could see the tips of her top, sharp teeth poking out. She bared her teeth in a snarl.
Eliana said, “These two will fight until they are at a point where death would come, or until one person forfeits. You can instruct Kimoshu and use your connection with her to help her on. Let’s fight!”
Cæma leaped forward at Kimoshu with startling speed and bit down on her leg. She scrambled away before Kimoshu could close her jaws on her. Joey now understood why Eliana had chosen that Cæma had such a small form compared to Kimoshu. Agility could sometimes beat size and strength.
Kimoshu was being beaten badly, only being able to nip Cæma’s tail.
Joey shouted, “Eliana! We’re beaten. I forfeit.”
He called Kimoshu back to him and she shrunk to a normal panther size. Her head was bowed.
“I-I’m sorry I messed things up Joey. I couldn’t even get at her,” Kimoshu wailed.
“It’s alright Kimoshu. Sometimes agility can match size. Next time, we’ll make you smaller so you can move more quickly,” Joey encouraged.
“Alright.”
Eliana and Cæma were walking over to them.
“Hey Joey, maybe you should train with the Big Cats sometime. They usually become very large, like Kimoshu was and then you could test out her strength,” Eliana suggested.
“I’ll do that. Hey, what’s in those woods?” Joey asked, looking into the trees.
“Shædems and some other things. There are beasts in there that are neither Centhin nor Shæma. They are sort of their own thing, outside of reality. We go in there and fight them whenever we want. Kyros captures them from the outside world and brings them here,” Eliana said.
Suddenly, there was the sound of explosions. Joey jumped, startled.
“Come on Joey, that must be the houses of Serpents and Large Birds. They’ve been feuding all this week. I’m allied with the Large Birds. Strangely, the house of Rodents has allied itself with the Serpents, calling a temporary truce,” Eliana called over her shoulder as she sprinted back towards the circle of houses.
When they reached the top of the hill, they looked down on a battle scene. The other three people in Eliana’s house were fighting, their fox bighting and clawing at snakes and all assortments of rodents. Birds swooped down and used their talons to claw at rodents and throw them around. Many mice and hamsters were picked up and brought to the roof of a house made of mainly twigs which Joey took to be the house of Large Bird Form.
People were fighting with swords, knives, spears, fists, you name it. They all had war armor on with their house’s emblem on their breastplate.
“I’ll ally my house with yours Eliana. But what if our Creature gets hurt?” Joey asked.
“Inside the boundaries of this safe haven, no Creature can be harmed fatally. Humans can be hurt though and this is your first battle so try to stay out of the fighting,” she answered. “Now come on, get Kimoshu to be a little smaller and get those serpents, the birds have the rodents under control.”
Together, they raced down the hill. Kimoshu and Cæma leaped at a snake that had wrapped itself around a bright red falcon. The snake was tossed away and a bird in the air caught it and flew it back to its house. Eliana held a sleek silver knife which she used to disarm and slice. Joey soon lost sight of her.
A girl from the house of Serpents stepped out of the mass and charged Joey. Suddenly, she stopped and growled, “Why don’t you fight me, new boy? I don’t believe your Divine. You won’t even fight.”
Her taunting was making him mad. He reached for his coin and was about to change it into a sword when someone called from the main battlefield. “Hey Sell! Come help us, we’re losing!”
Sell turned around and ran back to the fighting with a bronze spear in hand.
Joey had stopped fuming from Sell’s insults. He looked down at the battlefield again. The fighting had stopped and both fox and bird alike were cheering in victory. Joey ran down to Kimoshu.
“Oh, Joey that was amazing! I thought I fought really well for such little training I’ve had,” Kimoshu exclaimed.
“Hey Joey,” Eliana said, walking up with blood oozing from her arm. “Would like to make an official alliance with the house of Large Birds and Fox? I don’t think the one with the birds will last but we could have one to last a while yet.”
“Okay,” Joey said. “The house of Divine Forms allies itself with the house of Fox Forms.”
“Good. Let’s go to the house of Small Birds. They’re excellent healers, also allied with the Large Birds,” Eliana suggested.
“Alright, let’s go,” Joey agreed, even though he was not injured at all.
The house of Small Birds was almost exactly like the house of Large Birds except that the roof’s twigs had flowers blooming in between some of them and the house was painted blue. The Large Bird’s house was painted red and was very military-like.
Cæma flicked Eliana’s brown ponytail with her front paw for entertainment. A pretty, blonde-haired girl with a flower behind her ear walked out of her house and to Eliana. She carried some different kinds of leaves and a wrap bandage.
She nodded at Joey and said, “I’m Keira, and this is Yula on my shoulder.” A blue bird had landed on Keira’s right shoulder and was staring intently at the wound on Eliana’s arm. Yula whispered something the Keira and she looked at him with happiness in her eyes. The news that the Large Birds had won was spreading.
Yula pressed some leaves on Eliana’s arm while Keira wrapped the bandage. In only a few moments, Eliana’s wound had been treated.
“Thank you Keira, Yula,” Eliana said graciously. “Come on now Joey, we can introduce you to some people from the house of Large Birds. They are your allies now.”
After Joey had said good bye to Keira and Yula, they headed back to the house of Large Birds. Joey stopped just outside the door. There was a boy about Joey’s age sitting with his back against the side of the house. Joey walked over to him.
“Are you alright?” he asked.
“I guess,” the boy answered. “The leader of my house wouldn’t let me fight today. I know I could’ve helped. Fælon would’ve beaten every serpent out there!”
A brown-red bird fluffed its wings in agitation that it hadn’t been able to fight.
“It’s alright Fælon. We’ll fight next time,” the boy promised. “Oh, by the way, I’m Gelp.”
“I’m Joey,” he replied.
“And I’m Eliana.” Eliana had just walked up behind Joey. “And my Creature is Cæma and Joey’s is Kimoshu.”
“Hi,” Gelp said. “Are you two allied with my house?”
“Yes. We’re fought for them just now. We’re here to meet some of our allies,” Eliana replied.
Gelp gasped, “Hey Joey, you’re from the house of the Divine Form, aren’t you? That’s amazing.”
“Yea I am. Thanks,” Joey replied. “Eliana, Gelp do you two want to go into the woods?”
“Sure!” They replied in unison. Gelp said afterwards, “I’ll just have to check with the head of my house first.”
Gelp went into his house and quickly returned, assuring the two others that he had permission to go.
“You two are so lucky. You’re the heads of your houses and you don’t have to ask permission to go anywhere,” Gelp joked.
“Let’s go!” Eliana said. She raced off, up the hill she had already climbed twice that day with Joey.
“We better follow her Gelp.”
“Yea. Race you there!” Gelp took off up the mountain with Joey right on his heels.
Kimoshu said to Joey, “Climb on my back. We’ll beat them!”
Joey climbed on and Kimoshu spread her wings and used them to push her forward. They soon overtook Gelp and came to a rest in the clearing at the bottom of the hill. Eliana was looking into the woods, her back to Joey. He climbed off the panther.
Two glowing red eyes were staring at Eliana from the dark forest.




Chapter 3

The red eyes stayed for another heartbeat and then they disappeared. Joey felt frozen to the spot. The eyes had frightened him so much, he couldn’t move. Then Gelp came racing down the hill.
“Aw man, I came in last! I’ll beat you next time though! Maybe…” Gelp stopped. He noticed the shocked state his two companions were in and started panicking.
Gelp started shaking Joey, and then Eliana. Joey shook his head to clear it and relaxed his stiff position. Eliana took a moment longer and then she tore her gaze away from the forest.
“Did you see those eyes Joey?” Eliana asked with fear in her eyes.
Joey nodded. “What was that?”
“I’m not sure. Maybe we shouldn’t go in the woods though,” Eliana said.
“Why not?” Gelp asked. “What did you guys see?”
Eliana leaned in and whispered to Gelp, whose eyes widened. “Oh. Yea, let’s not go in the dark, creepy forest.”
The trio headed back to the cabins in silence, their Creatures following in the same shocked state. The creature with the red eyes had given them quite a scare.
The sun was high in the sky now so they went to the Commons house to get lunch. They ate at their own tables in silence. After their meal, Joey walked towards a circle of dirt, just out the back of the house of Dogs. He thought he’d practice his fighting with a sword.
Joey flipped his coin in the air and turned it into a gleaming sword. It was perfectly balanced in his hand. He tried some stabs and swings and tried to pretend he was fighting an opponent.
“Good job, for a beginner. But I think I can help you.” A boy about sixteen years old in a blue collared shirt and baggy brown pants walked up to him. He had a silver sword in hand. A yellow lab was trotting next to his master.
“Uh, hi,” Joey said. “I’m Joey.”
“I’m Dalen. Now come on, let’s practice.” Dalen showed Joey some techniques in sword fighting that Joey thought were brilliant. The yellow lab – his name was Taq – was showing Kimoshu some battle skills.
The two practiced and fought for hours until they were both dripping with sweat, and the sun was setting in the west.
Dalen called them to a stop. “Let’s go grab something to eat and catch up on some sleep.”
Joey noticed then that there were dark circles under Dalen’s eyes.
“What’ve you been doing these past nights?” Joey asked.
“I’ve been out in the woods, hunting a Shædem. It has glowing red eyes. It is my quest, assigned to me by the head of the house of Owls to kill this monster,” he replied proudly. “I will get it.”
“I saw it today, down in the clearing on the other side of that hill. I wouldn’t want to have to fight something as fierce as that.” Joey shivered.
“Alright, I’ll have to look over there. Let’s go to the pavilion.” And Dalen and Taq walked away with a friendly wave back.
Joey and Kimoshu were exhausted. Kimoshu had changed into a mouse and was resting on Joey’s shoulder. He didn’t feel hungry so he headed straight for his house. He walked inside and collapsed on his bed. He fell asleep watching a thunderstorm on the ceiling.
That night, Joey’s dream-self was asleep with his body.

∞ƾ∞ƾ∞ƾ∞ƾ∞

Joey blinked his eyes open and looked up at the ceiling. It was blue like the sky and had clouds floating around on it.
Joey realized he still had on the clothes he’d worn when he’d