Chapter 1

Silver Unicorns and Rainbow Dragons

CHAPTER ONE:
Introduction to Silver and Two Enemies

"I hate you. I hate everyone," Thomas screamed as he ran from the cafeteria. Chris had just called him a dummy, saying he couldn’t even eat right. This was after Thomas accidently turned his milk over at the table. Chris was always picking on Thomas. Everyone is always picking on em, Thomas thought. Just because he was clumsy about some things, everyone thought he was retarded and teased him all the time. But, Chris was the absolute worst.

"Thomas, are you in there?" His teacher, Ms. Carson had come looking for him. He had a "safe place" he could go to when things got too much. He had a tent in Miss Jackson’s room where he could go at any time and be by himself for a while. Ms. Carson always came in a few minutes to check on him. It made him feel safer. He knew she was watching out for him. Still, she didn’t always know what Chris and the other kids did, and he didn’t dare tell her. The kids would just pick on him more, calling him a baby. Chris began to cry softly when he thought of what Chris often said about him. He called him a cry baby. Thomas often would cry when the kids got so bad. He didn’t want to, didn’t mean to cry at all. But, he just felt so bad. His life was not worth anything because of all the kids. He just wanted to crawl in his tent and stay forever. He never, ever wanted to come out and face the world.

It wasn’t just the kids at school. It was the same everywhere. The kids in the neighborhood treated him just as badly. When he came out to play in the afternoons the kids either all scattered and went places together, never inviting him, or they stayed and teased him, refusing to let him play with them.

It was bad everywhere. Even at home it was bad. His older sister, Lynda, was always hitting him and taking his things. Then, if he hit back or snatched something of hers in return, she cried to his mother. She never told what she did. She only told on Thomas. Mom never let Thomas tell what really happened. She always sent him to his room.

Of course, Thomas didn’t hate that too much. He loved to draw. He had all his art supplies in there, in a box hidden high on his closet shelf so Lynda couldn’t find it. He would get it down and draw for a long time. It was the only time he had alone. Mom wouldn’t let Lydia or his younger sister, Becky, come into his room while he was in time out. So, time out wasn’t always so bad. He just hated always being in trouble. It wasn’t fair. Nothing about his life was fair.

One day, he decided, he would take care of that. They would all see. When he got a little bigger, he would take care of them all. He meant everyone, including Mom, his sisters, his neighbors, the kids at school, and even the teachers at school. Everyone deserved to get paid back. And one day he would pay them all back. He had some plans, but he wouldn’t share them with anyone right now. He couldn’t do anything right now, but just thinking about how he would get even one day make him feel a little bit better. Just wait until he got older. They would see.

After a few minutes, Thomas came out of his reverie about home and went back to his classroom. That was their arrangement. Usually Miss Jackson would talk with him and help him work through whatever was bothering him. At least, that is what she called it. But, they never worked through anything. He just talked to her and told her what was bothering him. She would make some suggestions about how he could deal with it. He always listened, but secretly he knew he had his own way to deal with it. He just had to wait until he got a little older. But, his time would come. Still, Miss Jackson was nice and tried to help him. It made him feel better to talk to her. She really listened. When she wasn’t there he talked to Ms. Grant. Today, Ms. Carson went and got Ms. Grant because Miss Jackson wasn’t there.

Ms. Grant always asked Thomas all the ‘right" questions. He knew what she was supposed to ask because Mrs. Jackson always asked the same question. So did the doctor at mental health. How did he feel about what happened? How could he have handled his anger differently? What was he going to do differently next time? Was he thinking about harming himself or anyone else?

That was the question he had to keep concealed. He knew if he told anyone what he was planning on doing, he would be in the hospital, or even juvenile. He would definitely go to juvenile, or maybe even big jail, when he did what he planned. But, it would be worth it to get even with everyone in the whole world.

Yes, he meant everyone in the whole world. There was not a single person who Thomas cared about. He loved him mother, but didn’t care what happened to her. She hurt him all the time. She did things to him mother’s weren’t supposed to do. He knew that, The doctor told him that. So did the worker from that children’s protective place. They were always trying to get him to admit what happened at home so they could protect him. Yeah, right! Protect him, for sure. The couldn’t do anything at all. The only thing that lady could do was take him away from his mother. He would probably get put somewhere even worse. At least with his mother he knew how to keep her from hurting him too much.

A new home might not be as good as the one he now had. Still, he would like to get Becky out of that situation. She was only a baby. She didn't deserve what their mother did to her. He didn't really care about Lynda. She deserved it. And, he knew he deserved whatever he got. But Becky was a different story. He really would love to help her. But, to do that he would have to put himself in danger of being moved.

Thomas especially hated his sister. She was always getting him in trouble. She also stole his stuff. He couldn’t have anything at all of his own. She took it. When he told his mother, she just made him let Lynda keep it. His little sister was okay. He would let her escape the punishment if he could. But, he planned to do it anyway, and if she got in the way, well, too bad. He would hate to hurt her, and would try not to, but he couldn't let her stop his plan. It was a plan he could not let anyone stop, and could share with not one soul. Someone would stop him if they knew.

When Thomas got to school the next day, he knew automatically that is was going to be a horrible day. Ms. Carson was out, and so was Miss Jackson . Chris always was worse when Ms. Carson wasn’t there. When Miss Jackson was out, he didn’t even have anyone to help him work through all his anger. He really was afraid he would lose it today.
T
Thomas walked into his classroom, determined that he was not going to let Chris bother him. Chris immediately stood up, and Thomas knew it was going to be bad.

"Okay, everybody. Let’s do it all together." Chris then proceeded to lead the whole class in a chant.

"We hate Thomas. We hate Thomas. We hate Thomas."

They repeated the chant over and over, like a football cheer. The entire class seemed to join in. Thomas couldn’t look at anyone. He just ran to his desk. He sat down and put his sweat jacket over his head. That is why he always wore it. Kids teased him about always wearing it. But, he had to have it to hide in. When he hid in his jacket, he could go anywhere his mind took him. He went far, far away from this classroom and their spiteful chant.

Thomas got on his magic unicorn. He often got on him and rode away, through the sky, when things got too bad. That way no one could touch him, with words or blows.
......

"Hey, Thomas, where do you want to go?" Silver Snow asked.

That was what made him magic. He could talk. Of course, he could fly, but that wasn’t really magic. Silver Snow had once explained to Thomas that all unicorns could learn to fly. They just had to work hard at it and concentrate. But talking, well, now, that was something else. Silver Snow said he was the only unicorn that could do that. And, he belonged to Thomas.

How he got so lucky as to get a talking unicorn, Thomas never could figure out. He just knew that he loved Silver Snow and that Silver Snow always showed up when he needed him. The went on many adventures together.

Sometimes, when they were on an adventure, some classmate would get so loud or hit so hard that Thomas became aware of them again. That was also part of Silver Snow’s magic. If Thomas lost his focus, he was immediately returned to where he had started from before he and his unicorn left. Silver Snow would just disappear and Thomas would be abruptly brought back to the place he started from.

But, this time, he was going to make sure he didn’t get called back. He was going to focus so much on Silver Snow and what they were doing that no one else mattered.

"Silver Snow, let’s go find the evil prince on the dragon," Thomas asked.

That was his very most favorite adventure. He loved to duel with the evil prince, Demonia. He and Silver Snow often had that adventure together.

Demonia rode on a huge, fire-spitting dragon. The dragon was rainbow colored, with purple, blue, red and green, and just a small streak of yellow on each side of its head. It was magnificent. It was huge, too. Thomas was supposed to fear it, but secretly he loved it, and wished he could ride on it.

Of course, he would never tell Silver Snow. That would hurt the poor unicorn’s feelings too much. Demonia had hurt Silver Snow so many time in a battle. Silver Snow hated Demonia. But, he was way too polite to let on how he felt. They just battled, which was the nature of dragons and unicorns.

"Hey, Thomas, you dreaming about dragons and unicorns and demons and such again?" Maurice taunted.

Thomas immediately snapped back to reality. He hated it when that happened. It always seemed to happen at the height of a very exciting battle. He usually missed the whole battle when that happened. When he was able to revisit Thantera the battle usually was over. Silver always told him what happened, in vivid detail, but it was just not the same as being there in person.

"Who won this time, the dragon or the unicorn?" Thomas wished he had never told Maurice about Silver and Demonia.

He had thought Maurice was a friend and would understand. But, Maurice had told the rest of his class, and they taunted him about his "dreams" as they called them. They just didn’t understand that there was a whole other world in another dimension.

It was a parallel world. His classmates were so shallow that they couldn’t envision anything outside their own little world. They didn’t even realize the extent of the world in this dimension, much less one in another dimension. They thought he was stupid, but in reality they were the ones who were stupid. They just didn’t understand if they hadn’t seen it.

One could only visit the world of Thantera if they believed in it. It took a special intelligence to accept what one had never experienced, according to Silver. Thomas believed him above everyone else. Silver was the most intelligent, most well-adjusted creature he had ever known. Even though he was a unicorn, he was more intelligent than any human Thomas had ever met. Silver often said that Thomas was the most intelligent, but Thomas knew better. Silver was just trying to make him feel better.

"Thomas, Thomas, Thomas, Daydreamer who’s a mess," the class began to taunt. Ms. Davis was in the hall, talking to Mrs. Carson. He knew she heard what they were saying, but chose to ignore them. She was always telling him he had to learn to ignore them. But, he couldn’t. If he tried, they got in his face and got louder and louder. Sometimes they would hit him if he didn’t respond.

"Hey, Thomas, are you dreaming while your awake, or are you asleep? We can’t tell the difference."

"Leave me alone," Thomas suddenly screamed at them. "Leave me alone. All of you. Get out of here. Get out of this classroom right now. Leave me alone. Get out of my face."

"Thomas, stop it this minute," Ms. Carson shouted. Thomas didn’t realize he had been knocking things off the shelves and desks until she shouted at him. "Go to Ms. Grant’s room and cool off. When you get back you can clean up the whole mess. We will be in P.E. You will miss P.E. for this little escapade."

"Yes, Ma’am," Thomas answered. He was suddenly very tired, and had no desire to be in the classroom. At least in Ms. Grant’s room, he would get to sit in the corner and visit Thantera or draw, or both. Ms. Carson didn’t realize he didn’t even want to go to P.E. There were just more kids with less supervision to taunt him even more. P.E. was his least favorite place of all in this stupid school.

He didn’t mind cleaning up his mess, either. He made it, he would clean it up. At least none of the kids were allowed to be in the room while he cleaned. He knew he was safe for that period of time. If he took too long, the whole class would go out on the front step and Ms. Carson would read to them until he finished cleaning.

Thomas loved hearing Ms. Carson read, but he would rather have the room all to himself. It was the only time he was safe. He was never safe, even if only one student was around him. Maurice pretended to be his friend, but he really wasn’t. He just tried to find out what Thomas was thinking so he could go tell the rest of the class and give them something with which to taunt him.

Maurice thought that the kids in the class were his friends, but they weren’t. They just pretended to be so they could get him to rat out on people to get ammo for their incessant taunting. They made fun of Maurice, but since Maurice had some problems, he didn’t even realize what they were doing. He thought they were laughing with him, but they were laughing at him.

When Thomas got to Ms. Grant’s room, she had another class in there. She was the special education teacher, and had smaller classes than his. Plus, they never bothered him. He didn’t mind that they were in there. Except, sometimes he like to talk to Ms. Grant. He couldn’t do that when she had a class.

"Thomas, you may sit at our art center and draw if you like. We are not using it right now." Ms. Grant was always kind with him. Even when he was throwing a major fit, or really out of control, she talked gently to him, and acted like what he was doing was entirely normal. He knew some of what he did was not what other students did. But, Ms. Grant wasn’t like the other teachers. She never acted like he was crazy or anything. She was never afraid of him, no matter how out of control he was. If he students acted scared of him, she would tell them not to worry because he was just upset and getting himself in control. That usually helped him get in control. Also, she seemed to understand what he was going through. She didn’t think he was crazy. She told him that once.

"You are not crazy, Thomas," she had said. "You just have a different way of calming yourself and getting in control." That made Thomas feel not so strange. She did tell him he had to learn not to destroy stuff, or threaten kids or do things to them. Just like today, when he screamed the curse words, and threw milk on the other kids. He knew he shouldn’t do that. He had not been like that in a very long time. He just lost it today. He would have to work harder at staying in control.

Thomas sat in the art center. He began to draw his fantasy creatures. At least, that is what everyone else called them, even Ms. Grant. He knew better, though. He just got tired of arguing about it, so let them think he agreed with them. When Ms. Grant called them fantasy creatures, he agreed with her out loud, but inside he was arguing that they weren’t fantasy, they were real. He knew, because he visited them often.

Thomas drew Silver first. He loved him, and loved to draw him. He could never get that shiny, silvery sheen of his white coat. That is why he was called Silver, because of that sheen. It was impossible for him to recreate it with crayon, pencil, markers, or paint. Nothing could capture the silvery glow. He took quite some time, and Ms. Grant came over from time to time to check on him. She didn’t comment on his drawing, but just smiled at him.

"Thomas, are you ready to go back to class?" Ms. Grant asked him after her students had left for class. "Or, do you need to talk to me? You know you can’t draw all day. You need to get back to class. If you want to come back during silent reading time, you can if Mrs. Carson doesn’t mind."

"I will go back to class. I am calm now. But, if those kids start in again, I may not stay calm. I promise I will try. But, they are horrible. I can’t stand that class. I want to come to your class like the others do."

"You don’t need me for academics. You are very smart. You do good work. All you need me for is to learn how to better control your behavior. I am glad to help you do that. But, you need to stay in class as much as you can. You know you have to make up missed work."

"I know. But, it is not hard to do. It doesn’t take that long to do the work. I can go in and finish in a few minutes what the other kids have worked on all period."

"I know you can, Thomas. Maybe that is why you daydream so much? Do you think that might be it?"

"Sure. Probably." Thomas just agreed with Ms. Grant out loud, but he knew it wasn’t day dreaming. He actually visited with his friends in Thantera. He had found out, though, that even Ms. Grant couldn’t accept his friends as real. She thought they were fantasy creatures. So, he just agreed with her to keep from arguing.

Still, she was right. He did visit Thantera so often because he was bored in class. The other kids acted like it took forever and that the work was so hard. He knew better. It never took him over about five minutes to do what they worked on for thirty minutes. And, It was not hard at all.

Today when Ms. Grant left him to go work with her next group, he put his head down on the table. He did this when he wanted to go to Thantera and didn’t want anyone to know where he was. He felt safe about it in Ms. Grant’s room, but he still didn’t want to have to explain it to her. When he put his head down, she thought he was resting and getting himself in control. He was, but in the bst way he knew how. He was visiting Thantera.

When Thomas first saw Silver, he was worried. Silver seemed to be hurt or something. He had red streaks all over him. The color was sort of clear, letting Silver’s coat shine through. It appeared to be a clear jelly or something on him. But, what worried Thomas was the way Silver was acting. Anytime Thomas visited, Silver would run across the open area and meet him eagerly. Today, Silver just stood there, shaking like he was cold or something. He looked sick.

"Silver, what is wrong?" Thomas asked him, the worry showing in his voice.

"Sh-sh-sh," Silver whispered. He barely spoke, and did not move except for that strange shaking. Maybe Silver was cold. Thomas could remember shaking like that when he woke up sometimes and it was so cold in his room because he had left his window open.

"Why do we have to be quiet?" Thomas asked.

"Look over there. But don't let your gaze linger. Take a very quick look," Silver said, pointing his horn in a direction behind and to the left of where Thomas was standing. He turned, and gasped. There, behind him, at some distance, was a majestic, evil-looking character. He was awesome. Even though he looked very dangerous, he still looked majestic. Thomas couldn’t help but admire him.

"Wh-a-a-t , wh-o-o, what is that thing?" Thomas was almost not able to speak he was so awed by the huge creature. He had just walked past him toward Silver Snow and had not even seen the creature, just his reflection on Silver's side.

"That is Centana, the oldest and most powerful demon in Thantera. He is beautiful, but very dangerous. You must not touch him. Don’t even look at him. When you look at him for too long, he takes over your soul. You can regain your soul if you only look. Once you touch him, you soul is lost forever."

The creature stood a good ten feet tall or more. He was so beautiful to look at that Thomas had trouble looking away. Silver had warned him, but he couldn’t look away except for short periods of time. Then he would look back again.

The creature was a strange, but beautiful, clear, almost see-through red. It was almost as if it was just a huge splash of color, of the most beautiful red Thomas had ever seen. The creature had huge wing-like arms. When he spread them out, they were a full twenty feet across. He creature could cover one whole side of a house, and not one speck of the house would show around him. He had blue, purple, and green streaks spread throughout his body. They were of the same clear-looking substance.

"Why is he see-through?" Thomas asked Silver.

"It is called translucent. That means it is almost see-through. If you look, you can see that he is not totally see-through. It is just that he seems to have no substance. But, believe it, he does. He is the most evil of all creatures. He is the source of all evil in the whole world."

"Even in my world?" Thomas asked.

"Yes, even your world. The whole world. That is why he is so evil."

"He doesn’t look evil. He looks beautiful," Thomas said.

"He does that on purpose. He wants to appeal to people so they will follow him. But, to follow him is a big mistake. To touch him, or even look at him is a mistake. When one touches or looks at him too long, they become entranced with him. They come under his power, and he controls them. Don’t even linger too long near him."

Thoms was fascinated to think he was able to actually look at all that was evil in his world. He gazed for some time at the creature. He didn’t see how such a beautiful creature could be thought of as evil. Maybe Silver was mistaken. He was obviously extremely afraid of the creature. Maybe he was over-reacting.

"Thomas, don’t look at him any longer. You will be sucked into his power. Turn away. Look at me." Thomas heard Silver, but it was as if he was hearing him from a great distance. He was barely able to hear what Silver said.

"Come on, Thomas. Look at me." Thomas tried hard to turn his head away and look at Silver. It seemed so important to Silver. He found it almost impossible, though. Finally, he was able to turn his head away and look at Silver, who was still trembling like he was freezing.

"Why are you so afraid of him?" Thomas asked. "He is beautiful, and he is not harming you in any way. He is only spreading his wings. They are so lovely."

"That is his danger. He is preening, trying to get you to come under his spell. That is how he works. He doesn’t force himself on anyone. He just appeals to them in a way that they need. If you need beauty, he spreads his beauty. If you need comfort, he comforts. Whatever you need, if you look at him long enough, he supplies your every need. But, it is a trap. Once he gets you, he turns on you. But, by then it is too late."

"How do you know all this? Have you ever been caught up by him?"

"Only once. I don’t really want to talk about it. It was a horrible time. I lost someone very dear to me because of my stupidity. Don’t fall into that trap. I will never again be deceived by him."

"Who did you lose? How? And why is he so evil?"

I will tell you all about him later. Let’s leave this place, first."

Thomas followed Silver for a distance, then turned to see Ms. Grant standing over his shoulder. Sometimes it happened that way. Sometimes he was still in Thantera when his other world intruded on him.

"Thomas," Ms. Grant began. "Are you ready to go back to your regular class? It is time, you know. You’ve been in here a really long time today."

"I know. I guess I will go back." He didn’t really want to go back, but he knew Ms. Grant expected him to get under control and go back. He didn’t want to take advantage because she might not let him come again.

"I am in control. I can go back." Thomas wanted to stay and go back to Thantera and talk to Silver. He sensed that Silver was just about to tell him something very important when Ms. Grant brought him back. T

hat was the way it worked. When someone from this world spoke to him and got his attention, he left Thantera immediately. He hated it. Often he was really enjoying himself, talking with Silver or something, and someone would draw him back. But, he could always go back to where he left off.

That was part of the magic of Thantera. Though life continued while he was away, when he returned, he could sometimes return to where he left off. Everything would just as he had left it earlier. At other times, though, he missed what happened while he was gone, and would return to some other time or place in Thantera.

He would find time today and visit Thantera and find out all about Centana.