History Unmasked
Presents
The Descendant of the Dragon Charmer
Chapter 1
Atlantis
“Grandma,Grandpa are we almost there. We've been on the sail rail for hours.” Asked Woodrow, him and his cousin Herbert had gone to drop off an errand to Alexander the Great, the king himself. The year was 323 B.C., they were on their way back from Macedonia.
“Yes, we’ll be home very soon, look I can see the Atlantian Tower now,” replied Grandma. Coming ahead of them was the giant island of Atlantis. The Atlantantian Tower towered over everything, is was the capitol building of Atlantis. King Alexander worked there sometimes, but mostly he was in Macedonia. The grandma was the grandmother of the two cousins. Both boys had lost their parents, due to the evil forces of King Philip, but he was no longer king, his son was Alexander was. Alexander had made peace with the family.
The reason there wasn't peace with the family before was because Grandma’s father was a dragon charmer. The people were all scared of the dragon charmer, in fear that he might become too powerful. King Philip’s father, who was king at the time was also scared of the dragon charmer. He was scared that the dragon charmer would take over the kingdom. In his fear he ordered his guards to kill the dragon charmer, along with his dragons. In the process of killing all the dragons 592 royal guards, were killed. While killing the dragons, the king met the dragon charmer face-to-face. In that run in, the dragon charmer cursed the king, and it caused the king to die. Since the king was dead, his son Philip reigned over Atlantis. Philip realized that since there was a dragon charmer, there would come a wizard. He didn’t want a wizard. Philip ordered all the family of the dragon charmer to be executed. Grandma had barely escaped with her life, but her 3 sisters were not so lucky. She lived the rest of her life on the run. She eventually married Grandpa, and they had 3 kids. All three of her kids had now grown up, and each one had one son. Lorenzo, the oldest, Woodrow, and Herbert, the youngest, were all cousins, and Grandma grandchildren. Unfortunately, king Philip was still in fear of the wizard that was sure to come. He found out where the children of Grandpa and Grandma lived, and sent his guards to kill them. Grandma’s kids each hid their son, but the guards killed their parents. Grandma came and picked up the children. Grandpa and Grandma raised Lorenzo, Woodrow, and Herbert as their own.
Chapter 2
Lorenzo
The sail rail had now pulled up to their house. They got out and went into their house. Woodrow asked the question
“Grandma, what happened to Lorenzo?” Grandma immediately stopped what she was doing.
“Lorenz… Lorenzo, Lorenzo, lets not talk about him.” She stammered. She walked out of the kitchen. Lorenzo had ran away a week ago, and they've never heard back. Lorenzo was 18 years old, and his parents had also been killed by the forces of king Philip. Woodrow was 14, and Herbert was 12.
“Well, I need to know what happened!” Shouted Woodrow.
That night at dinner, Grandma and Grandpa were unusually quiet. Then Grandpa broke the silence, and said,
“Boys, me and your Grandma have been talking, and we need to tell you,” he stuttered.
“We need to tell you what happened to Lorenzo.” Everyone was dead silent.
“What happened to Lorenzo?” Asked Herbert.
“Besides the fact he ran away.” He finished.
“Lorenzo… have you heard of your great-grandfather, the dragon charmer.” Asked Grandpa.
“Yeah I heard that Great Grandpa Clyde was a dragon charmer, is that true?”Asked Woodrow.
“Yes, Great Grandpa Clyde was a dragon charmer, and people didn't like him very much. And the king had him executed. So that means somewhere in the family, a wizard will be born. That wizard is Lorenzo.” Said Grandpa.
“Wait… lorenzo is magic.” Said Herbert in disbelief.
“Wait how do you know he is magic.” Questioned Woodrow.
“Do you remember that giant storm that tore out our tree?” Asked Grandma.
“Yeah… why,” Said Woodrow.
“Lorenzo summoned that storm, with his magic.” Said Grandma.
“Well, we have to find him.” Argued Woodrow.
“Yes, we are. Get in the sail rail, we’re going to find Lorenzo.” Said Grandma excitedly.
Chapter 3
Alexander the Great
“Aristotle, stop looking at the stars, get over here!” Ordered Alexander. He had gotten mad at his adviser, Aristotle. He had been outside for a few hours every night, just looking at the stars. Aristotle walked over.
“The Persians have reconquered the Indus River, we have to get it back.” Said Alexander concerned. They were at a war council,
“It doesn't matter.” Aristotle muttered under his breath. Alexander took a deep breath.
“What… do… you… mean… it… doesn't…matter.” Said Alexander slowly. His teeth were clenched, he was clutching the table. He stood up and yelled,
“Aristotle! For the last couple days I've been dealing with your nonsense! Looking at the stars! Reading all the records! What is wrong with you!” He turned to look at the war council, and shouted. “Council Dismissed!” They all left the room, just leaving Alexander and Aristotle.
“Oh, I’m just concerned that we will all be dead by tomorrow.” Said Aristotle calmly.
“What do you mean, we will all be dead by tomorrow?” Asked Alexander.
“Oh have you noticed that tonight the lunar penumbra will cross the moon’s path.” Asked Aristotle.
“That means tonight there will be a lunar eclipse, and according to the prophecy, the dragon charmers descendant’s will become a wizard tonight, and if he is a wizard he can kill us all.” Stated Aristotle.
“Well, what should we do?” Asked Alexander.
“We attack, send the military, we will kill the wizard and his family and your kingdom will be safe.” Said Aristotle. Alexander thought this over, finally he said, “I’m afraid I cannot. I made a peace treaty with that family, and I’m not going to break that promise.”
“No”Aristotle got up,
“You will attack the wizard!” Shouted Aristotle.
“I promised not to,”Alexander yelled, and then stood up.
“No”
“Yes”
“No”
“They were arguing they were up in each other’s faces now. Alexander yelled,
“Guards!” Since Aristotle was a wizard he held magic, he shot magic into Alexander.
“You will listen to me,” Said Aristotle.
“Yes, sir.” Alexander replied in a monotone. The guards burst into the room.
“Sir, is something wrong,” the guards asked. Aristotle shook his head at Alexander.
“No, nothing is wrong.” Said Alexander. The guards left the room.
“Perfect”, Aristotle thought.
“We attack in an hour.” Commanded Aristotle.
“Master, there are some problems with this plan.” Said Alexander.
“And what are those?” Asked Aristotle.
“We don’t know where the wizard is .” Stated Alexander
“Oh, I do, the wizard is hiding on the abandoned island of Kessel.” Stated Aristotle.
“Sir, there is another problem, the island of Kessel is only available by sail rail, and even that route is dangerous. The mist there is cursed, so our navy can’t go, and we can’t take our whole army by sail rail.” Stated Alexander.
“Yes, I've considered that, but I've put a spell on all the war elephants, that they may breathe underwater, the troops will be able to breathe because of the oxygen bubbles around them. This way we can walk on the bottom of the ocean, we can walk right onto the island.” Proposed Aristotle.
“Okay, I’ll get the troops ready,” said Alexander. He walked off.
Chapter 4
The 1000 foot bridge
“Grandpa, where are we going, I've never been here before.” Asked Woodrow. They were on the sail rail, trying to find Lorenzo.
“We’re heading towards the island of Kessel, that’s where we will find Lorenzo.” Replied Grandma.
“The island of Kessel! I thought the sail rail didn't work there.” Asked Herbert.
“It does work, but it isn't very good, look how rusted those poles are.” Said Grandpa. The rail they were traveling on was now completely rust colored, with little splotches of actual metal.
“Why is it so rusted?” Asked Woodrow.
“The mist, here is a little different, it rusts the metal twice as fast.” Responded Grandpa. Grandpa looked ahead and his face was struck with fear.
“Oh no…” He said. “The 1,000 ft. bridge.” Said Grandpa very scared. Coming up was the sail rail track, except it went up, really high into the air, instead of being on the ocean. Also parts of it had collapsed. Most of it was sideways. Everyone was scared.
"Grandpa why is it so high, and twisted?" Asked Woodrow
"There used to be a glacier here, they built the sail rail over it. Now the glacier melted, and the sail rail started to fall apart. The only reason I know this is because my dad was the man who invented the sail rail. When the glacier melted, they sent him to fix it. When he went out . . . he was harnessed into the sail rail, and he rappelled down to fix something, and the harness broke, he fell into the water and died. There is something about the water here, it caused him to drown unnaturally fast. The government closed this sail rail, so we are basically breaking the law. We can't go back to Atlantis after this." Grandpa said seriously. They all stopped and thought about that. Woodrow looked into the water, and noticed it was now pitch black.
"Boys, hold onto something, here comes the bridge." Grandpa implied.
Woodrow first knew things were going to be bad when they started accelerating speed.
"Why are we going faster." Woodrow questioned with much nervousness.
"Wish I could tell you why, the entire sail rail system is messed up! It says on the speedometer we are going 646 mph, no, now we are going 713 mph, now we are going 879 mph!" Grandpa yelled back.
"Hold on!" Grandpa yelled. and they began the journey of the 1000 foot bridge.
First they were whipped up into the air, second they were thrown onto their sides. They sailrail cart was hanging onto one of the fallen parts that was on its side. That smaller part made some grunts and groans, and then fell off the main rail. The cart went flying off the broken part and two of the four wheels landed on another part of the rail. Luckily, it pulled them onto another part of the rail. The weight of the sailrail cart causing that part of the rail to tip over knocking Herbert out of the cart. When Woodrow looked down he saw Herbert hanging onto the rail for his life!
"Herbert! Hang on! I'll get you!" Shouted Woodrow. Woodrow scooted down, and grabbed Herbert's hand just as he let go. Woodrow pulled Herbert into the sail rail cart.
“Boys, watch out!” Grandma yelled. The boys ducked just as a rusted bar fell off, it would have hit them.
“Thanks,” Woodrow replied. Through all the tossing and turning Grandpa said something that made them pause.
“Um… there is no more track! We’re goners! We’re gonna have to jump out and swim for the island!” Grandpa yelled. About 100 yards in front of them was the island of Kessel.
“Grandpa, you said the water, is magic and it kills people unnaturally quick!” Herbert yelled in almost hysterics. Grandpa looked sad, heartbroken.
“Boys” Grandpa muttered he was clearly depressed. He continued. “We’re not gonna make it.” And the entire sail rail crumbled into the ocean.
Chapter 5
The Island of Kessel
Woodrow knew it was over. As he made his final jump he realized how close they had come to finding Lorenzo. They had risked their lives to find Lorenzo, and then they end up dying 100 yards short. They would drown, and nobody would ever know what happened to them. Woodrow closed his eyes, and braced for impact. He was waiting for freezing cold, black water to consume him. But it never happened. He waited for about a minute and then he opened his eyes. He looked down and saw that he was floating about 3 feet above the water. He looked up and saw that Grandpa, Grandma, and Herbert were all floating as well. He looked to the island of Kessel, and saw a person standing on the beach. He immediately recognized the person, the person he had lived with for 14 years of his life. That person was his cousin Lorenzo. Lorenzo had his arms extended out in front of him. He pulled his hands to his body, and the family flew towards the beach. When they arrived on the beach, Lorenzo looked happy. He had black hair, blue eyes, and he was skinny.
“Hey guys,” he said. “Nice to see you again.” said Lorenzo with a smile. He explained that he had to come to island to escape Alexander’s and Aristotle’s forces. He also explained that he had been reading Great Grandpa Clyde’s journal, and that he knew he had to come here.
“Oh, and here’s the best part,” Lorenzo finished. But before he could finish, and arrow came out of nowhere and almost hit Lorenzo, if he hadn't have dodged it.
“Run, to the castle! It’s safe there!” Lorenzo commanded. The family ran, and was quite surprised to see a castle. They had seen it on way here, but they thought it was some old fort or something, but it was an actual caste. They were on their way, and two men, in black cloaks jumped in front of the them. They both pulled out swords, and lunged at the family. Right before the cloaked figures could hurt them, two blasts of lightning hit the two men, sending them flying. They looked back and saw that Lorenzo’s hands were smoking. Another cloaked figure jumped on top of the castle, and drew a bow and an arrow. He was about to fire the arrow, when a flash of blue hit him. The flash of blue flew down to ground in front of the family. When it landed they realized it was a blue bird, that was about a yard tall.
“This is a war bird,” said Lorenzo.
“They protect me from the ravens.” finished Lorenzo
“What the heck is a raven, and who were those men?!” Asked Herbert, freaking out.
“Those men were ravens. By day the bird ravens, by night they’re assassins.” explained Lorenzo.
“Well… where do they come from?” Asked Woodrow.
“They are spawned by Aristotle. He has kept me cooped up in this castle. He spawns the ravens, but I spawn the war birds.” He said. At that moment, a sudden screech pierced the air. Lorenzo looked concerned.
“Hey… Lorenzo… what the heck does that mean!” Shouted Herbert.
“I… uh… don't know.” He muttered. One of the war birds flew down next to him and started chirping. Lorenzo nodded his head in disapproval. It was surprising when Lorenzo chirped back.
“Guys, get in the castle. this is the most serious thing I've faced yet.” Stated Lorenzo. They walked into the castle, and found that it was mostly hollow, and that it was falling apart. There was a staircase that led to nowhere. Woodrow assumed a second floor was there, and it fell down. They looked out where there should have been a window. And saw Lorenzo on the beach, assembling warbirds, there was a lot. Another screech happened, and they saw why Lorenzo was scared. Coming out of the water, and onto the beach, was an elephant that was covered in armor. On top of the elephant looked like, what appeared to be a tent. There was military soldiers in the tents. Another elephant came out of the water, then another. In five minutes there must have been 50 war elephants. They all came charging towards the castle, but before they got there, Lorenzo lowered his hand. 200 warbirds, flew from on top of the castle and swarmed an elephant. When they flew off the elephant, there was nothing but bones. They swarmed the next elephant, and then the next. But every elephant they took out, 15 warbirds went down. The soldiers on the elephants were shooting the war birds with bows and arrows. This happened for a long time, by the time they were down to there last elephant, there was only 2 warbirds left. Two archers on the last elephant, shot down the remaining war birds. Rope ladders came down from the elephant. Soldiers climbed down the ladders and began to run towards the castle. The last two people to come down were, Aristotle and Alexander.
“Charge! Kill the wizard!” Shouted Alexander. He pulled out a sword and ran towards the castle. Lorenzo charged the troops, and started blasting them with lightning. Then, Lorenzo was thrown into the air, and landed 20 feet. from where he was previously standing. Aristotle stood holding a staff. The soldiers ran past Lorenzo and cornered the family.
“Herbert, grab a sword. We’re going to defend our grandparents.” Woodrow whispered. They both turned towards the suits of armor on the walls. They each yanked a sword from a suit. And started fighting the guards. At that moment, Lorenzo was in a magical combat with Aristotle. Lorenzo firing lightning, Aristotle shooting little black orbs that did major damage. They walked into the castle still fighting.
“You will die! You don’t even have a staff!” Shouted Aristotle, shooting Lorenzo across the room.
“Never!” shouted Lorenzo. Standing back up. Woodrow knew his cousin wasn't going to win. Lorenzo kept losing ground, Aristotle kept gaining. Lorenzo started backing up the staircase, Aristotle went up too. Alexander was waiting at the bottom. The soldiers were keeping the family busy. Together Woodrow and Herbert had taken out three guards, but there was still 13 more. Grandpa and Grandma were huddled in a corner. Lorenzo reached the top of the staircase there was nowhere to go. Lorenzo blasted as much lighting as he could at Aristotle, but Aristotle blocked it all with magic. Aristotle raised his staff and was about to hit Lorenzo when Lorenzo caught the staff in one hand. Aristotle was quite surprised.
“Oh well, are you sure that’s what you want to do. The staff’s magic will overtake you. You will die.” said Aristotle calmly. He knew he was going to win.
“You know what.” Lorenzo said through clenched teeth. He was in pain, he was using all his magic, to make sure that the magic didn't overtake him.
“I think not.” finished Lorenzo. He grabbed the staff with both hands, and poured all his magic into it. Aristotle grabbed the staff with both hands and poured all his magic into it. A crack appeared in the staff. Then another. Many cracks appeared in the staff. Lightning started coming out of the staff.
“No!” Aristotle shouted. Aristotle was losing the battle. The staff was now pouring with electricity. The staff then exploded, Aristotle and Lorenzo both walked back.
“No!” Aristotle’s hand were turning gray, then his forearms, then his arms. Within a minute Aristotle was all gray. The gray began to harden, and then Aristotle was completely stone. Then he crumpled into dust, and blew away. Lorenzo was exhausted, he fell down, which was off the staircase. Alexander was no longer controlled by Aristotle, he could do anything he wanted. He could let the family go. But still, that wizard killed Aristotle, his best friend, his most trusted adviser. He could not let the wizard get away with that. Alexander grabbed his sword, and stabbed the wizard. Lorenzo looked down and saw the sword point sticking out just beneath his ribs. Alexander pulled the sword back. Lorenzo fell to the ground. As he was laying on the ground he moved his hand, and shot a jet of blue magic into Alexander.
“Oww!” Alexander screamed in agony. He almost fell down.
“Help me!” He shouted to his soldiers. They ran over to help him. They carried him off to the remaining elephant. They got on and went to Babylon, and ten days later he died.
Grandma ran over to Lorenzo, who was on the ground.
“Oh… it will be okay.” She tried to comfort him.
“Grandma, so much magic happened here on this island, that it will sink. You can’t escape through the sail rail. The only reason I came to this island is because, in Great Grandpa Clyde’s journal. It says he left dragon eggs on this island. Go to the cave on the far side of the island, take the dragons, and flee Atlantis forever. Woodrow here is the journal that Great Grandpa Clyde gave me. Good bye.” whispered Lorenzo. He closed his eyes. And the entire island shook.
chapter 6
Escape from Kessel
“Grandma hurry!” They were running to the cave where these dragons were supposed to be. They had to get off the island before it sunk. They were sprinting the entire way. The island was shaking.
“Look I can see ocean! We’re close!” Shouted Herbert. They ran to the beach. Woodrow spotted the huge cave and pointed it out. They ran towards the cave. When they got close, they could hear roaring. They slowed to a walk.
“You ready for this.” Asked Woodrow. Herbert nodded in approval, they walked into the cave. When they walked in they saw two amazing creatures. Both creatures were 20 feet tall, with huge wingspans.
“Grandma, you were related closest to Clyde.” said Grandpa. She walked towards the dragon, and placed her hand on it. It lowered it’s neck.
“Climb on,” grandma yelled. Grandpa and Grandma climbed onto the red one, Woodrow and Herbert climbed onto the green. The red started walking, then running towards the end of the cave. By the time it reached the end of the cave, it was at a full sprint. It jumped into the air, and flew into the sky. The green one did the same. They had done it, they had escaped Kessel. With nowhere in mind, the dragons soared off.
