*Slap* *Slap*
"Get out of my house you good for nothing piece of trash!" Screamed a fat, ugly woman after landing two forceful slaps to a boy's face.
The boy was just about to apologize even though he didn't know what he'd done wrong. However, he was cut short by another resounding slap. This time, the woman used a frying pan that was close to her hand.
He was dazed for a moment and he staggered trying to find his way out of the bungalow.
He seemed to be wasting time because the fat woman took him by the collar, and roughly dragged him and threw him out of her house, banging the door after him.
The boy stood outside the house unable to move. He was still too dazed by that third slap that his brain wasn't passing any commamds to his legs. His jaw had gotten the full brunt of the slap and it ached him terribly.
After five full minutes, his mind was clear enough to make him move his entire body sluggishly from the front porch of the fat woman's house.
His name was Klimo and it was given to him by a woman in an orphanage. The orphanage he'd ran away from when he was seven. He had short black hair, green emerald eyes which were now teary, a crooked nose and extremely thin lips.
He was short, standing at 5ft and he was 15 years old. He was terribly lean from lack of good food and generally looked sickly.
His earliest memory was of him being picked up from the ground on a cold stary night and being taken to an orphanage. He'd never known his parents, and as far as he knew, they'd never bothered looking for him.
He'd ran away from the orphanage not only because he wanted to explore the world, but because he suffered endless abuse from so called power users and he had no powers to defend himself with. But that did just so much good.
He soon realized that the world at large was just as it was in the orphanage, even worse. The strong maltreated the weak, seeing them as people below them.
He'd had to fend for himself, many times stealing from unsuspecting road travelers and shop owners, mostly because at first glance he looked harmless. However, there were times when he was caught and that he had to go through the beating of his life. Luckily, they were ordinary humans like him who didn't have any powers so they let him go after a few hits.
Being the only one caring for himself, he'd never picked up on any good skills. He couldn't even cook for himself, no matter how well he'd followed the instructions.
He'd been to many houses, offering his poorly learnt services as a servant so he could get some coins to feed himself. But he was always kicked out two or three days after. The complain was; he was good for nothing!
And that was what happened just now. This one was even worse than the others because he'd resumed work today and was kicked out just a few minutes after.
Even if he was asked twelve consecutive times what exactly he did wrong, he would be without an answer. He could only say the woman was short tempered and aggressive.
After ten long minutes of dragging his body, he reached his destination; a three storey building which in any way did not belong to him. The first two storeys were occupied by two different families while the third was empty and up for rent. It was in the third storey he lived in. Though it was a well maintained place, it was nearly empty as Klimo barely had anything he could call his own.
After scanning to see if there was anyone looking at him and was sure there wasn't, he went around the house to the side which was by the side of an alley and began climbing the wall until he got to the window on the third floor, which he'd left unlocked as that was his entrance and exit since passing through the front door would be a very stupid thing to do.
Just as he was about to slide the window open, his eyes saw movement within the room from the glass. He pressed his face to the glass so he could have a clearer view and it was in that moment that a man's gaze from within the room fell on his.
The man pointed at him and seemed to yell some words. The room was sound proof and it was the reason why Klimo had not been caught by the family directly below him. Klimo couldn't make out what the man said, but the very presence of the man in the room already told Klimo that he had been discovered.
As fast as he could, he scaled down the walls and began running with no destination in mind. He didn't know who the man was and how he was found out and he wasn't ready to find out.
A car almost hit him as he ran across the road and into the woods. He continued running till he was exhausted. He turned to look for the first time and was glad to see that he wasn't followed.
He found a shade under a huge red wood tree and sat under it, resting his back on its trunk. His rushed breathing continued for a while until his body relaxed and they reduced to long exhausted breaths. He'd never ran this fast or long before. He felt completely spent.
As he sat there, he began thinking about the way life had treated him. He tried thinking of one good thing that had ever happened to him and couldn't count one.
He'd just left all his belongings back there, not that they were worth much to begin with. All he had now was the golden signet ring on his middle finger and a palm size book in his pocket. The signet ring had the image of a phoenix carved on it.
Both were stolen items from a particular noble. Klimo had stolen them yesterday and planned on selling the ring today since it looked a bit fancy but had to postpone it for later since he had to resume work which did not go so well.
As for the book, it was unopenable. There were no visible locks on it but throughout yesterday, he'd tried everything he could think of just to open the book but it didn't budge.
At a point, he was frustrated and hit it with a hammer. He was shocked to hear a soft *clang*
At once, he inspected the book. There was no sign of damage on it. But the same couldn't be said of the hammer. Immediately he lifted it up, it's head split into two!
That was when he'd realized that the book was a magic item probably made with drops from beast which would explain its high durability. He plunged one hand into his trouser pocket. There was a hole in it, but it wasn't big enough for the small book to slip through.
He brought it out and inspected it again since he had nothing else to do.
The front and back of the book was painted golden and there was just one writing on it in red. He guessed it was the name of the book, although it seemed to be in an ancient language. Just below the writing was a slightly raised spot which from his perspective looked to be a tiny version of a pot.
He couldn't guess what it meant.
The breeze blowing cooled Klimo's body, and hoping he wouldn't be found by his pursuer, he slowly closed his eyes and five minutes after, he was asleep, the book resting on his laps.
***
*HISS*
The malevolent hiss of a cobra woke Klimo up with a start, and that sudden movement only succeeded in making the cobra spread its hood while giving Klimo a death glare. It was just in front of him and it was really big. He froze on the spot.
'why is life so unfair?' Klimo thought.
He felt like crying because he knew there was definitely no way in hell he was escaping death.
Then his eyes saw a long branch by his right side. Maybe he could pick the branch and hit the snake while standing to run at the same time.
But he had to be quick. Quicker than the cobra.
Although it seemed impossible, he was willing to try. He wasn't ready to die just yet. He had great dreams for himself that were yet to be achieved.
This dream was his driving force that had been moving him all these days, and that was what gave him the strength to stretch his hand towards the branch.
Unfortunately, the moment his hand moved, the snake attacked which ended in Klimo being poisoned from cobra bite. Klimo gave a short scream instantly.
Once the snake bit him, it slithered away.
Tears ran down his face as Klimo held his hand where blood had started dripping from the two holes the cobra had decorated his hands with, in pain.
"Curse you stupid cobra!" He yelled.
Unknown to him, blood had begun dripping on the book. The first three drops fell around the miniature version of a pot, and finally the next drop fell into the pot.
Once that happened, the book began glowing brightly in a golden color and it rose into the air.
As the cobra poison flowed to Klimo's heart, the book opened of its own accord, sending a shockwave through the forest. The insides of the book glowed even brighter than the outside and the wind began to pick up. Through teary eyes, Klimo saw what looked like runes, all in gold being projected out of the book.
The runes were rotating randomly and they continued that way for some more seconds before the book suddenly closed and began changing form till it turned to a golden phoenix the size of a child's fist.
And just as the poison got to Klimo's heart, the phoenix flew into the ring in his middle finger.
Klimo was only able to see the ring glow before his heart stopped beating.
And in that moment, a voice spoke, although its owner was nonexistent.
[oh, he died? It's quite unfortunate that he missed the Phoenix system]