The Last Of The Ancient Race I

AuthorHouse

Chapter One

Over the many years since the Original-Jay has disappeared, many have tried to locate it, but no one to this day knows where it is. Sidney on the other hand, was said to have had a son, who followed in his fathers footsteps and continued to look for the Original-Jay, so he could control that power. Even to this day there are followers of Sidney the Great who up hold his search for the most powerful of all creatures, the Original-Jay ...

Simon stopped reading the old black book and looked at his bedroom door; he had heard something move on the landing. "Simon! Bed! Now, before I come in there and take that book away." A stern voice said from the other side of the small wooden door.

"Yes Sue ... night." Simon replied and listened for Sue to go down stairs before looking back at the book and reading the gold writing in the bottom corner:

Told, written and published by West. E

There was movement on the bedroom floor as Simon put the book away under his pillow, he turned off his torch and put it on the floor next to his bed. As he lay on his back, he thought of what he had just read. "He was so powerful that Sidney wanted nothing, but to control that power ... Wow." Simon whispered before he turned onto his side and stared into the silent darkness.

Deep down Simon knew that the book was made up, but the thought of a creature with great power to do anything, amazed him. As he turned onto his other side, he sighed and then slowly closed his eyes to fall into dreams full of many possible forms that a powerful creature might take and what he would do if he met it.

Simon sat up with a start, breathing heavily and sweaty; he pushed his shoulder length light brown hair out of his sparkling blue eyes and tucked it behind his ears. The sun was shining in through the small window. Its morning he thought and then tried to remember the dream that had woken him up. He recalled he had been talking to a man, but couldn't remember what they had talked about. A bird flew past Simon's window as he pushed his cover off him; he got out of bed and stretched. As he walked across his small messy room to his wardrobe, he put the dream out of his mind. There was a noise outside his door, which he ignored as he opened the wardrobe and looked at the many clothes along the rail. Sunlight shone through the window as he picked out a pair of old black trousers and t-shirt before he changed into them. Animals called out from outside as Simon looked around his pictured covered walls with his favourite bands, football players and places he wanted to visit one day on, to the window next to his bed. His eyes fell onto the desk under it with his school books and other gadgets that he had collected over the years, some of which he couldn't remember getting. As he saw a picture of him and his best friend in the nearby forest, he recalled the events that had happened on the day. It was a while before he looked around his room to the dismantled toy plane on the floor and finally walked over to the bedroom door. He opened it, making sure he shut it behind him, knowing that if Sue and Ken saw it in a mess they would ask why he hadn't cleaned it yet and send him back up to tidy it. The landing was empty as he walked across it and down the sandy carpet covered stairs. At the bottom, he walked through the first door in the hallway and into the dinning room. A tall man with short black and brown hair was sitting at the table listening to the radio. The man looked up at him with his blue eye and green eye as Simon's eyes fell onto the man's small scar down his cheek. In the time that Simon had lived with the man he had asked many times how the man had got the scar, but each time the subject was ignored or changed; so Simon had given up on trying to find out. "Morning Ken ..." Simon politely said as he walked across the room and sat down at the large wooden dinning room table.

Ken had gone back to reading the newspaper; he muttered, "Morning, Simon ..."

There were two papers in front of Ken, one of the papers was called, "Hidden World News" and the other was called "What's happening Jays?" Simon was just about to ask what they were, when both disappeared in front of his eyes. He blinked in disbelief, he couldn't believe his eyes. Ken turned a page as Simon slowly reached for a piece of toast from the plate in the middle of the table and knocked over an empty glass. "Are you all right Simon? Did you sleep well? I hope you weren't reading well in to the night again ... What time did you get to sleep in the end?" Ken asked; there was an unusual hint of panic in his voice.

Simon quickly looked away from where the papers had been and picked up the fallen glass. "Yeah ... I'm fine ... I slept well." he replied, but didn't say what time he had gone to sleep because he wasn't quite sure.

It went quiet as Simon took a bite out of the piece of toast that he had picked up. He stopped chewing and looked at it confused. On realising there wasn't anything on it, he reached over and picked up the honey pot before he spread some on the toast. As Simon picked up the toast again, he noticed that Ken was watching him carefully; he gave Ken a kind smile, who smiled back at him before he went back to reading the paper. An unsure silence filled the air as Simon put the papers out of his mind and ate; he was used to things suddenly disappearing or going quiet when he entered a room. But Simon wasn't sure why, but he had the feeling that, although Sue and Ken cared for him and loved him as their own son, they were hiding something. Simon started on a second piece of toast and watched Ken reading the paper. He was sure that if he watched long enough, Ken would give him a longing and worried look as if he wanted to say something, but thought that the world might fall apart if he did. When Simon had finished his second piece of toast, Ken hadn't looked up at him as he usually did. A bird flew by the kitchen window as Simon gave up; he knew that if Ken hadn't done it by now, he wasn't going to and would feel very guilty later on, which usually meant Simon got a trip into town to buy something of his choice. As Simon stood up and walked over to the kitchen part of the dining room, he smiled to himself. He put his plate in the dish washer by the fridge before going back up stairs to his room.

It was quiet as Simon shut the door behind him and walked over to his desk, he sighed and thought; school starts tomorrow. Jo won't come around unless he has something important to tell me he thought as he picked up a small Firework from the desk. Children called out from outside the window as Simon looked at the rework and then sat down on his bed deep in thought. I'm sure it needs more gun powder then one gram, but Jo was adamant that nothing else was needed to be done, Simon thought. There was a noise outside his door and shortly after an unusually black wolf came through the dog flap at the bottom of the door. "Magic? I don't suppose you know if one gram of gun powder will be enough for the Flybuster?" Simon asked her; she looked up at him with her pale blue eyes before quickly running out of the room.

"Thanks ... It's not as if I'm going to set it off in here." Simon called out to her, before he looked back at the Flybuster and sighed; he gave up and put the Flybuster in his trouser pocket.

People outside the window talked as Simon lay back on his bed and looked up at his white ceiling. It had been a boring summer with Jo away on holiday and Ken away on some work related business Simon thought and then wondered what work Sue and Ken did as they had never told him. Although Simon loved Sue as much as he would his mum, she wasn't fun; her idea of fun was sitting in doors watching the world go by. He much preferred it when Ken was around as he would take Simon to the local forest. As Simon turned onto his side he thought that Sue and Ken's hearts were in the right place. His mind wondered to the disappearances that had happened over the summer. Every night there had been something about it on the news Simon thought as he sighed and turned onto his other side. He watched the sun shining in through the window and slowly fell asleep ...

It wasn't until late afternoon that Simon awoke with a start; he sat up and looked around the empty room. Ken was calling him from the bottom of the stairs; he stood up, walked across to his door and opened it. As he walked across the landing Ken said, "What where you doing?"

"Nothing." Simon replied as he sat on a step halfway down the stairs, prepared for the pre school pep talk.

There was movement from the kitchen as Simon looked at Ken and waited. "This year you won't be going to school ... Sue and I have decided that it is too dangerous with all the disappearances that have been going on.... Sue will be back tomorrow." Ken said.

Silence led the house as Simon stared at him in shock; he hadn't been expecting him to say that. He couldn't believe his ears and he never thought that they would go this far. "I can't believe you ... you can't keep me locked up here. I have to go to school, it's law." he replied.

"It's law! Stupid Humans ..." Ken muttered to himself.

Simon looked at him and waited, he knew he was right. It took Ken a long time to reply; he said, "... You will be home schooled and that is final ... Now, I'm going to have something to eat. If you want anything you can come and help make it."

Ken quickly walked into the kitchen before Simon could say any more on the matter. "Why do you do that?" Simon asked.

There was movement and it was silent; Ken's head slowly appeared in the doorway and looked up at him confused. "What do you mean? Do what?" he asked.

Barks came from a dog somewhere outside as Simon looked at him and shook his head in disbelief before he replied, "You know what I mean.... lying. You and Sue do it all the time when I ask about my parents and when you say that Jay's and the Original-Jay are not real ... You inch each time I bring them up too, like you did just then."

Ken looked at him for a while and then finally turned away. "I don't know what you are talking about Simon ..." he replied and disappeared into the room.

Simon quickly stood up. "You know what I mean." he said more to himself then to Ken.

Movement of pots and pans came from the kitchen as Simon quietly walked down the remaining stairs and along the empty hallway to the front door; he hesitated and looked back before quickly opening the door and running down the garden path. As Simon ran along the street towards the forest, he noticed Old Mac Donald was out in her garden, sitting in her rocking chair. A dog barked as Simon turned a corner and he heard Ken's voice shout, "SIMON!"

Children watched as Simon ignored the shouts and jumped over a fence into the forest, he continued to run along the overgrown path.

This is the first time in my life that I've left the house without Sue or Ken with me, Simon thought as he ran past a wild horse drinking from a stream. He continued to run for a long time before he finally slowed to a walk and sat down on an old fallen tree to catch his breath. It was then that he noticed that Magic and a grey wolf with brown eyes had followed him; he looked from Magic to the other wolf as they lay down in front of him. They looked up at him with interest as if to say what was that about?

"What?" Simon snapped at them and they put their heads on the floor, he looked at them and sighed; he felt a little guilty, so he added, "Sorry, Magic ... Sorry Patch."

Magic lifted her head up and looked at him understandingly. "I've had enough ... they always told me to tell the truth, and they don't tell me anything." Simon added, he paused in thought and then continued, "... I'm not going back, not until they tell me what I want to know."

Simon stood up and continued to walk along the path; he stopped and looked at Magic and Patch. "Are you coming then?" He asked.

Patch and Magic looked at each other and then stood up; Simon smiled at them and watched them as they walked over to him. I like how they looked as if they know what I'm saying, he thought. "It will be fun ... I can see places that they would never take me." Simon said to them as he continued along the path and wondered why he hadn't run away before, it was great.

Eventually Simon left the forest and came to open grassland, which he thought must have been a field as there were black and white cows in the distance. A bird flew past and Simon stopped as he watched the small bird fly past. He wondered how it felt to be up in the air, riding the wind and looking down on the people below; he continued on in thought. It was hours before Simon walked into a small forest and noticed that the sun was starting to set; he walked a little further and found a tree that he could sleep in. The birds called out as he climbed the unusual shaped tree to a thick branch that stretched out from the trunk. There was a grove that he could lay in and he settled in it before he looked down at Magic and Patch. They were lying at the bottom; Simon smiled at them and then looked up through the branches at the star filled sky. Muttering came from the floor below, which Simon ignored and tried to remember the names of the pictures in the stars that Ken had taught him. As he looked up at the stars, he wondered what Ken was doing. A small wind blew the tree's branches as Simon thought about how he thought he heard Magic and Patch mutter to each other. He smiled as he thought of the man on television who made mistakes and sweated all the time. An owl called out as Simon thought of how Jo would react when he found out that Simon wasn't at school. There was movement at the bottom of the tree as Simon slowly fell into an uneasy sleep ...

A wind blew as Simon looked around the field he was stood in. The sun shone down on his face and the birds were singing as they flew by. Simon felt as if he knew this place, it was calm and relaxing. There was a noise by his feet and he looked down to see a red squirrel happily eating a nut by his feet; he looked around the miles of grassland and stopped on seeing a man in the distance. As Simon ran up to him the man ran away from him and Simon followed. What was he running away from? Simon thought as he followed the man into a forest. When Simon caught up with the man in a clearing, he slowly walked up to the man and looked at his face, which was covered by long scruffy black hair and some sort of scarf. Suddenly, there was a loud howl and a pounding of hooves on the ground; Simon quickly looked around to see big hooded creatures appear from nowhere. His heart pounded fast against his chest. Some of the creatures were sat on the backs of big dark horse-like creatures and others were on foot. Simon caught a glimpse of one without its hood up. Its head was a vicious black dog's head, with pointed ears and foam coming out of its teeth bared mouth. The body as far as he could tell was Human, and he could see under the tatty black cloak that their dog-like legs were elegant. The creatures walked towards the man, with sharp clawed hands stretched out. They were going to kill him, Simon thought, he was sure of it. As he stepped forward to help the man, Simon fell, down into darkness ...

The trees moved in the wind as Simon sat up with a start, he was hot and sweating all over. As he looked around at the trees, the sun shone through the branches. He looked up from the forest floor at the big tree that he had spent the night in. Magic's head appeared in front of his face; it looked concerned and panicked. Simon patted himself and counted; one body, two arms and two legs that aren't broken, one head, no blood. Good Simon thought. "Are you ok?" a voice from next to him asked.

(Continues...)

Excerpted from The Last Of The Ancient Race Iby V J Errington Copyright © 2010 by V J Errington. Excerpted by permission of AuthorHouse. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
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