Ancient Chronicles - Prologue

Volume 1 : Ancient Journey


Prologue







She was on the ground, feeling afraid and was all alone in the dark. Everyone who was always by her side weren't there at all. She couldn't stand the feeling of being alone and started to cry. Suddenly, she heard a voice from somewhere.

"Here... Let me help you." The gentle voice said.

A flash of light came from behind her and a hand reached out. She stopped crying and was about to reach for that hand but a different voice replaced the gentle voice.

"Ayako… Ayako… Ayako…"

Everything turned white.

"Ayako… wake up."

She slowly opened her eyes to find herself leaning on her desk.

"Where, am I…? Oh, this is my class." She muttered, rubbing the sleep from her eyes when someone called her name once again.

"Ayako, homeroom just started." Miho, who was sitting next to her said.

"Oh, Miho. Was I asleep?" She asked, rubbing her eyes again, trying to be more sober when talking to her friend,

"You're really tired after yesterday. I'm sorry." Miho said apologetically, patting her hand. "You should sleep early tonight." She advised her friend with a smile.

That's right. Yesterday was Miho's sixteenth birthday. We had a lot of fun and I was very tired. I should sleep early tonight. Well, now's not the time to sleep! I should be awake now! Ayako stretched her arms out and suddenly feels energetic for the day.

"…And Ayako?"

"Yes?" Ayako tilted her head to the side in question.

Miho points to the side of her mouth and Ayako got the message, her cheeks turning red in embarrassment. She wiped the drool off the corner of her mouth and turned to the front as the teacher called the rooster.

"Ayako Toushiro."

"Here!" Ayako said enthusiastically as she raised her hand.

***

After calling the roster the teacher made an announcement. "Today, a transferred student will be in our class." The class began to get noisier. The groups of boys were whispering about whether she'll be a cute girl while the girls were chattering whether he'll be some handsome guy.

Ayako didn't join in on the prattle, as she did not mind if the transferee was of either gender, instead she began to clean her nails and wonder what she'll have for lunch later.

"Everyone, please be quite," The teacher ordered, his eyebrows furrowed in dislike as a frown graced his features and with that he room fell in silence. "You can come in now." He gestured to the person on the other side of the classroom door and all heads, including Ayako's, snapped towards it.

The door slid open and someone walked into the class, stopping at the teacher side. Everyone else was just staring at the new student with their mouths open, as if he were some alien from another planet. The teacher then presented the transferred student.

"Hi, my name is Satoshi Hiroyuki. I'm new here so please take care of me." His smile was so genuine that it caught the attention of the girls but what was even more attractive about him was his long auburn hair which was tied up at the back. Most of the boys envy him as he was able to grab the girls' attention in a single glance though a small few admired his feat. The class was once again in a buzz, only Ayako and Miho stayed quiet.

Miho just smiled while Ayako had something on her mind. Satoshi Hiroyuki? But he looks more like a foreigner. Maybe he's of mixed blood… The seat behind me is empty; I should greet him when he comes here.

"Alright everyone, please settle down. Satoshi, you can sit over there and we'll start our lesson."

As he was walking to his seat he was greeted by Ayako. "Hi, my name is Ayako Toushiro. It's nice to meet you, Satoshi."

"… You look like a tomboy." He said as he was scratching his cheek.

The room fell in total silence before it was disrupted by a cat-like growl from Ayako. "What did you just say?" Ayako asked in an angry manner as their eyes met, fire in her eyes as her blood slowly boiled.

"Um, did I say something wrong?" Satoshi was confused and thought to himself. Damn! I thought that would be a compliment seeing her records that she's good at sports. I should've read everyone's data twice! "I think you've got it wr-" He tried to explain before he was cut off when Ayako gave him a knuckle sandwich which sent him flying across the classroom and drop to the floor with a thud. "H-Hey! Did you have to hit me that hard?" Satoshi asked, rubbing his back.

"You didn't have to call me a tomboy! You could've said something else!" Ayako shouted as she sat back down on her chair.

"Well I apologize if I said something wrong but you didn't have to show your distaste by punching me." He stood up and walked back to his supposed seat behind her.

Everyone was glaring at them. The teacher was shocked but said that it was typical of her.

"Ayako, aren't you going to apologize to him? He already did." The teacher said letting out a sigh.

She just turned her head away from the teacher signalling that she won't. Everyone laughed nervously and turned to the teacher to continue their lesson.

What's up with this guy?! We just met and he said that straight to my face! And I was the one being friendly with him! Geez, are all foreigners like this? Oh, whatever! She continued to complain as Miho let out a sigh and smiled as always.

Meanwhile, Satoshi began unpacking his bag and saw Ayako being frustrated. He giggled at the sight at how she was angry and opened his notebook. He listened to the teacher inventively as he thought to himself; Ayako, huh?... a tomboy indeed.

***

It was night time and while everyone else was at home studying or playing video games, someone was walking under the street lights and started complaining.

"What the heck was that? I got to stay behind and do the cleaning duty after afternoon activities just because I was being rude to the transferred student?! He was the one being rude!" Ayako shouted as she walked her way home. "Geez! I don't think I'll ever be friends with him! If something happens like that tomorrow, I'll-"she suddenly heard a noise behind her.

It wasn't a cat or a dog. It was something strange, like a tiger's growl.

What was that?... A molester? I should've run home earlier if I knew there would be one.
She started walking at a fast pace. But the noise got closer and closer, louder and louder. She was a bit scared and started running. But it just got nearer. She turned to a junction and stopped behind the wall to catch her breath.

As soon as she can start running again, the noise stopped. "Huh?" she was puzzled and looked behind. "There… is no one here." As she walked out from the junction, a garbage bin toppled down and startled her. "Kyaa!" she screamed and turned around to see what happened.

"…Meow" said a cat crawling behind the bin.

It was just a cat. Phew, I thought it was something else… Wait, when did cats growl like that? Oh well, maybe they're just growing. I need to head back now.

As she was on her way back, the noise that disappeared came back and grew extensively closer to her. As soon as she heard it behind her, she felt a chill crawl down her spine like as if she felt a ghost behind her. She slowly turned around as her whole body was shaking. The sight made her eyes bulge and jump from their sockets. She was looking at a white tiger that was double her size with razor sharp teeth pointing out of its mouth, its eyes as sharp as a knife and saliva was dripping as it stared at her hungrily.

Ayako was so terrified, she couldn't say a word. She tried moving her body but she stayed rooted at the spot. All she could do was watch the beast come closer to her. Then the beast lunged towards her. All she could do was close her eyes and cover herself with her bag.

A few seconds had passed and nothing seemed to happen. "…Eh?" she took a peek at the situation. She slowly put her bag down and saw the beast a few meters away from her. But what was more stunning was that she saw someone in front of her. She figured that person was a man due to his height, his broad shoulders and his clothing.

He wore a dark-brown cloak, a hood that covered his face and was holding a staff. She didn't noticed the staff and couldn't tell who it was but wanted to thank him.

"Excuse me, but, t-thank- huh?" she paused herself as she looked at the bleeding young man's hand.

"An Ancient, huh? This is a good lead." He whispered and was amused to find something of his interest and cast a spell on the beast.

Das Feuer, das in mir wohnt, Flick eine Flamme, die leicht glüht!

Huh? What's he blabbering about? I've never heard those words before. A foreign language? Ayako was confused, but she just watched him.

A ball fire appeared on the tip of the young man's staff and he threw it at the beast.

Ayako was both surprised and puzzled, is this some kind of CG? Am I in a movie setting?

The tiger managed to dodge it and quickly retreated. "Hmph…" The man was disappointed and chased after it, leaving a dumbfounded Ayako behind.

"H-Hey! Where are you going?" she said but he was nowhere in her sight anymore. Ayako just stood there for five minutes thinking of what had happened. She soon shook her head off and said to herself; maybe I'm watching too much anime. Let's just pretend this has never happened. I'm hungry; I wonder what's for dinner.

***

"Miho?" Ayako called her as she fiddled with her pen.

"What is it?" Miho said as she turned her head away from the book she was reading.

"If you watch too much anime, do you get delusional?"

"I-I guess so. Why are you asking?" Miho asked with a question mark on her face.

"Well, I think I've watched too much and might've been seeing things lately! But it's ok now!" she exclaimed with a refined voice that carried like a bell.

"Then, I hope you'll be alright." She smiled and continued reading but she remembered something and turned back to Ayako. "Oh, yeah. One more thing."

"What's up?" Ayako's head perked up.

"Satoshi has been really popular lately. Look at him." Miho pointed at him who was behind Ayako. Many of their classmates were surrounding his table talking amongst each other.

Ayako's blood boiled at the mere mention of the boy's name since yesterday's incident. "Well, that's normal. He's a half-and-half after all." She crossed her arms and turned around just to see what was happening.

"Wow! So you're half Japanese and half German?" a girl asked in amazement.

"Well, you can say that." Said Satoshi and laughed nervously. Why did I have to change my name? It'll be complicated if they're going to ask me these kinds of question. The teacher came in and he raised his hands up to his chest and said that homeroom is starting.

Everyone had enough fun and went back to their seats.

What's up with him, being all popular? That guy must have a big ego. She complained but she soon paused for a second. Huh? What happened to his hand? It's all bandaged up. She saw his hands covered up with band aid and asked him. "Hey, what happened to your hand?" she asked grumpily.

"Oh, it's just nothing. You can say a dog bit me when I was giving it food." He explained thoroughly. Soon he realized she was being kinda friendly with him and asked, "Hey, are you being nice to me?"

Ayako was reluctant and said; "N-No way I'm being nice to you until you said something yesterday!" she turned around and was angrier than before.

He paused at her actions and giggled. She's funny. He then wrote the exercises on the board.

I'm not being friendly with him! Who said I was? She continued fussing about it, but soon she cooled down… His hand… Oh well, it's nothing in the end. She thought to herself and listened to the teacher.

***

As everyone was listening to the teacher, Satoshi was daydreaming as he looked out of the window to his left, "It's been quite a day, so was the other day... Heh, Even though it was just yesterday, it was fun..." he thought to himself as he gazed out of the window. The scene changed to a view of a bright blue sky and the scene whitens.







Author's notes; In every chapter... well... mostly, I'll be writing each character's profile so it'd be easier to know them. So please read the next chapters XDD

The part where Satoshi called Ayako a tomboy was from a real life experience. And yes, you got that right, I did that once, and that was what happened to me O.o" It was rough i tell you, it was when was in elementary of course, I mean, hey, you can mistake a girl who ties her hair like a boy, a boy... And that's where misunderstanding happenes O.o"

But all well, ends well ^_^

Now the origins of the story, well... It just came out from my mind all of a sudden, but I did make it up with a second thought. But I already planned how the middle of the story or volume is going to be... That's why, i want to continue this!!! XDDD

I have the drawings of the characters here; Touka Ayamo's Novel Blog