Zzards - Excerpt from Chapter 1

OPENING SCENE - Introduces MC's primary problem, supporting characters, and basic rules of magic system

Nand chanced upon a few other children from a neighboring village playing a game, their Zzards either coiled around their arms or riding on their shoulders as they ran back and forth along the shoreline. They seemed to be playing some sort of catching game, one child throwing a ball high into the air with the other children jockeying for position underneath to be the one to catch the falling toy. The boy who was launching the ball noticed Nand watching their game and smiled at him.

“Hey! Hey, you wanna play?” The boy was talking in Nand’s direction, but Nand was so taken aback, he actually looked round to see who the boy could be talking to. “Yeah, you! Come on, see if you can catch my falling star shot!”

“Um… okay!” Nand’s face split into a grin as he ran over to where the other kids were gathered to receive the catch. A red-haired girl with freckles, blue eyes, and a blue Zzard on her shoulder smiled at him as he came over.

“Hi. What’s your name?” she asked him. “Nand,” he replied. “That’s a neat name! I’m Felice. Where’s your Zzard?” She looked at him quizzically for a second.

“Alright, this one is worth a diamond!” the first boy called out loudly. Felice turned away from Nand before he could answer, and the other kids began spreading their arms and shifting each other out of the way. Nand looked up in time to see the boy launch the ball into the air about a good thirty feet. Felice moved away from him towards the front, jostling with a couple of the other kids to try and position herself to score the point. She and another, taller boy were right on the cusp of grabbing it when her blue Zzard darted out from her outstretched hand and snagged the ball from the remaining inches between her and the other boy.

“Hey, no fair!” the tall boy complained. Felice plucked the ball from her Zzard’s mouth and tossed it back to the first boy, smiling. “Be quicker next time, Syver!”

“Alright, this one is worth gold!” The first boy was winding up to chuck the ball again. “Get ready, Nand!” Felice called back to him, a fierce grin on her face. Nand got right in the middle of the group and started jockeying for position right along with the other kids. The boy with the ball threw a spiraling shot that came speeding directly towards the center of the group. Nand’s hands shot up reflexively and caught the little ball before it smashed him in the face.

“Nice one!” Felice said appreciatively. Smiling, Nand tossed to ball back to the first boy and got in position right next to Felice for the next catch.

“Alright, you lot. Time for the falling star!” the boy said with a wicked grin. Everyone exclaimed in eager anticipation and began shoving each other out of the way. The boy drew back his arm, and suddenly a green and blue Zzard crawled off his shoulder onto his back and grew seven feet tall, binding himself to the boy’s arms and legs. At the last instant, the boy and his Zzard launched the ball high, high into the air. It arced over their heads, and everyone started backpedaling madly to try and catch it. The ball started to disappear into the gathering dark of the skies and fell with a soft thud some six hundred feet behind where they all were, amongst the stones at the foot of the western mountain.

“Torsten, what’d you pitch it into the mountains for?” Felice shouted at the first boy, clearly annoyed. Torsten’s Zzard was shrinking back down to its normal size, and Torsten stepped lightly back onto the ground as the dwindling reptile released its grip on his legs.

“Sorry – bit too much pepper on that one, eh?” Torsten smiled amiably while the other kids grumbled. “Well, come on, let’s go get it before it gets dark!” He led the charge towards the foot of the mountain as Felice, Syver, and the other kids followed, scrambling to keep up with Torsten as he began to climb. Nand sprinted along behind the rest of the children, reaching the mountain’s roots last and searching for purchase with his feet.

“It’s got to be around here somewhere,” Felice groused. “Syver, give us a light, will ya?” Syver stretched out his arm, and his black and yellow Zzard scurried from his shoulder onto his back and began to stretch his limbs to connect to the boy’s. Nand reached the level where the other children were just in time to see the transformation. Once Syver’s Zzard was fully grown, Nand saw that there was a bulbous appendage on the top of the Zzard’s head, hanging down in front of its face. The next instant, the hanging limb lit up like a lantern, bathing the rocks at their feet with a warm, yellow light.

Night was falling fast. The first stars were already winking into view overhead, and the harvest moon hung huge and pregnant, low in the sky. Nand was searching nearby where Felice was when a horn blast from the village sounded off the rocky mountain.

“Oi, it’s the harvest horn!” Felice shouted at the others.

“Back to the village!” Torsten cried. “Last one there’s a n’atch!” Immediately, the other kids’ Zzards scrambled onto their partners’ backs, grew, and merged. Felice, smiling from a face-sized hole within her own blue Zzard’s chest, said, “Come on, Nand, you don’t want to be late!” Nand watched as Felice, Torsten, Syver and the rest all bounded down the mountain and took off towards the village lights, their Zzards’ powerful legs carrying them far away in a few heartbeats.

She doesn’t know I don’t have a Zzard, Nand thought to himself. But everyone knew. The whole valley knew that there was one boy in one village that didn’t have a Zzard, one out of the entire population. She doesn’t necessarily know it’s me, though. It was important to him, somehow, to make sure he convinced himself of this. His happiness evaporating like a burst soap bubble, Nand began the slow descent down the mountainside.