《Against The World, All Alone? (Harry Potter SI)》Chapter – 2.1: I want the World
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Chapter - 2.1
A month had passed since the boy got back to the orphanage. Usually, he would have left for another journey by now, but this time it was different. He was done with his training and everything he could be taught by the man. Now he had to wait for the right time.
Sitting in the garden, the boy was enjoying the last of the gentle warmth of the sun before the summer dawned upon them, and it gets unbearable to even leave the room. Suddenly, out of nowhere, something fell into his lap.
It was an envelope. The boy looked around to see where it fell from when he saw a large, brown owl flying away.
The envelope was thick and heavy, made of yellowish parchment, and had a purple wax seal bearing a coat of arms, a lion, an eagle, a badger, and a snake surrounding a large letter H.
'So this is it, huh...' The boy thought.
Turning the envelope over, the boy saw his name and address written in emerald-green ink.
Mr Alexander Ashbridge,
Hope Spring Home orphanage
40 Crown Street
London
The boy, Alexander, smiled, looking at his name. Staring at the envelope in his hand, the boy could not help but reminisce about how it all started.
It all started with that fateful encounter seven years ago. It was also seven years ago that Alexander and his sister first arrived at the orphanage, thanks to that man.
The siblings were all alone, wandering from place to place when the man found them in a town. They had not eaten for days, and Alexander had to leave his sister under a bridge with nothing but a worn-out piece of rag to cover her up.
He went around, from one shop to the another, looking for a job, and after a whole day of labour, he had earned enough to buy bread and eggs for his sister.
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But the satisfaction he had was short-lived. When he returned, Alexander found his sister burning with fever. While her brother was out working, the little girl was all alone under the bridge, waiting for her brother with nothing but a piece of cloth protecting her from the cold. The snow, on the other hand, made it even worse.
Flustered, Alexander had neither enough money nor any idea about what he was going to do now. But at this moment of crisis, that man showed up out of nowhere.
"Mister, please help me. My sister is burning with high fever," Alexander, when saw a man dressed in black robes show up when there was no one in sight for however far he might look, asked for help. Of course, he was afraid that this might not turn out well, but in front of the suffering of his sister, he had to take the risk.
The man did not say anything right away but stared at Alexander hanging on to his robes. He gauged the little guy in front of him from top to bottom for a while before he opened his mouth.
"I will help you, but you need to do something for me," the man spoke.
"I will do anything, anything you ask of me. But please save my sister," Alexander agreed right away without even thinking of the weight of his words.
"Think it through. You might end up in an even worse situation than now," the man cautioned Alexander, "I am not the type of guy you want to mess with."
"I am confident," the little Alexander clenched his fists and looked at the man with determination.
"Very well then," the man nodded and pulled out a small stick from his robes.
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"Don't resist," the man said as he waved his stick. Soon, Alexander and his sister were floating in the air as a black mass started to envelop them. It did not take more than a couple of seconds, and it was like they had entered another dimension. They were flowing through something Alexander could not even explain. It was like floating with the flow of the river.
And before he knew it, everything was back to normal, and they were outside a large iron gate.
It was dark, but Alexander could still make out the words written on the board beside the gate. It was an orphanage, the same one he was living in right now.
Alexander lifted her sister in his arms as he followed behind the man inside. Being only seven years old, it was hard for Alexander to walk carrying his sister. But when the man offered to help, Alexander was reluctant to accept. Though he had accepted the man's offer, Alexander still did not let his guard down. Even if he had to go down, he wouldn't go down without a fight.
But it was a waste of time for the man. He did not argue with Alexander, but suddenly, Alexander and his sister were floating in the air.
"Let's make it fast," the man said, and with hurried steps, he entered the building with the siblings floating behind him.
It was not that late, but they did not come across anyone until they entered a room. Inside the room, a lady was waiting for them.
"You are finally here," Alexander heard the lady say as soon as they entered, "Where is the girl?"
"She is here," the man said as he put down Alexander while the lady got hold of his sister, "Take care of her. I have something else to take care of," the man said and turned towards Alexander, "Follow me."
"Wait..." the lady tried to stop them, "Look at him. How weak he looks. Let him have something first."
The man looked at Alexander before shaking his head towards the lady, "He can wait," and with that, the man left the room.
Alexander looked at his sister one last time, and then, nodding towards the lady dressed as a nun, he followed behind the man.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
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UnFamiliar
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8 99The Middle Child of the Fire
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8 108Tales From Mirthland: Rorik's Quest
Rorik Stormcoast, a wizard of some regard, has embarked upon a new quest. He's dared to climb a perilous mountain and seek out a legendary dragon to learn his secrets. But as Rorik makes for the summit, he is joined by a strange companion, and soon finds his quest more challenging and dangerous than he ever anticapated.
8 281The Empire That Blocked the Sun
Zeke Wilson, a man who just quit his job at a company that takes advantage of charities to fund their own wants and needs, finds that wishing for the fall of a company can come with harsh consequences. As his world comes tumbling down, both figuratively and literally, he is once again buried underneath the lies and corporations he sought to leave, as Empire Rize takes him underground. Battered and bleeding, Zeke must find a way out of the rubble. [Participant in the Royal Road Community Magazine Contest January 2022 - "And Then The Sun Went Out"] Completed, in the Novella region of 10,000 to 40,000 words. Cover image is edited by me from free images found online.
8 65Sector 27
It wasn't until June 3, 2101 that World War 4 ended. This was not a war that ended in peace treaties or truces; this war ended with disease. The atomic war caused plague and disease that crippled major countries. The generals and great leaders of the countries at war died from the radiation that penetrated every part of the globe. It was only then that humanity realized what they had done- what they had created. The first ever mutant was publicly executed the very day the war ended, and a new war began: the war against mutants. The surviving nation of Japan quickly rebuilt their country by dividing it into safe zones, or Sectors. There are currently 26 livable sectors in Japan; Sector 1 is the richest sector and the only sector that has completely rid itself of all radiation left over from the war. In fear against the threat of mutants, the once small section of the police force grew until it became the main police force in Japan. After all, humans shouldn't be blamed for crimes when the real threat to society is mutants. This police force that goes by their motto: Special Treatment Against Mutants (STAM) is comprised of agents that go about their work to capture and detain all mutants. Sector 26 is the poorest sector that humans can barely survive in; but there is one more part of Japan. This "dead zone" has such a high concentration of radiation that if a human were to step inside the barrier, they would die in mere moments. But within this dead zone, this 27th Sector, there lies a secret organization of mutants that fight against STAM and protect all mutants from their grasp. The Mutant Recovery and Protection Agency (MRPA) operates to hide mutants in society and allow them to live human lives. The only thing that stands in MRPA's way is STAM and its agents who hunt them down ruthlessly, so MRPA has their own set of skilled agents. And the battle rages on...
8 130Homeland
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER -- In Cory Doctorow’s wildly successful Little Brother, young Marcus Yallow was arbitrarily detained and brutalized by the government in the wake of a terrorist attack on San Francisco—an experience that led him to become a leader of the whole movement of technologically clued-in teenagers, fighting back against the tyrannical security state.A few years later, California's economy collapses, but Marcus’s hacktivist past lands him a job as webmaster for a crusading politician who promises reform. Soon his former nemesis Masha emerges from the political underground to gift him with a thumbdrive containing a Wikileaks-style cable-dump of hard evidence of corporate and governmental perfidy. It’s incendiary stuff—and if Masha goes missing, Marcus is supposed to release it to the world. Then Marcus sees Masha being kidnapped by the same government agents who detained and tortured Marcus years earlier.Marcus can leak the archive Masha gave him—but he can’t admit to being the leaker, because that will cost his employer the election. He’s surrounded by friends who remember what he did a few years ago and regard him as a hacker hero. He can’t even attend a demonstration without being dragged onstage and handed a mike. He’s not at all sure that just dumping the archive onto the Internet, before he’s gone through its millions of words, is the right thing to do.Meanwhile, people are beginning to shadow him, people who look like they’re used to inflicting pain until they get the answers they want. Fast-moving, passionate, and as current as next week, Homeland is every bit the equal of Little Brother—a paean to activism, to courage, to the drive to make the world a better place.
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