PHASMA BOOK 1

PHASE 1: In which We Embark on a Wondrous Journey

Preface: The Rebel

Dear

scratch that...

Mother.

I had been a good kid all my life.

Hmm... let's try that again...

In all my thirteen years, I have never asked much from you. I have always done what you ask of me. I never argued when you forbade me to go to the settlements – which are too far from our home anyway. You are usually away and we hardly have a handful of human neighbors, but I have never troubled you with my loneliness.

I have read all the books you've given me, studied all the materials and dissertations, put up with my mentors. I even finished the last batch of experiments you told me to work on for the whole summer.

After finding a pamphlet from the book that YOU brought home, I saw for the first time, something that I, myself, wanted to learn.

All I wanted was for you to buy me a camera. All I asked for was an instructional book to teach me how to use it. Instead, you snatched the pamphlet from my hands and tear it up right before my eyes, telling me 'it's just a useless hobby for slackers who have too much time in their hands'.

Well, there are still a couple of weeks left before the leaves change color, thus, I am, as you call it, a slacker with too much time in my hands, and as such, I have decided to go to this 'Summer Camp' in Aubrianne Royal University.

Please do not worry

cross that one out...

You need not worry. I am old enough to take care of myself. I have memorized the map by heart and am confident that I can find University on my own.

Love,

or rather...

From your son,

"Oh, scrap it all" said the boy after reading the latest letter he wrote.

He crumpled the paper, threw it into the waste basket, and took a fresh one from his drawer, lifting his pen one last time.

"Mom," he mumbles as he writes, "I'm going to Photography Camp in Aubrianne Royal University and you can't stop me!" he looks at the short note, nods approvingly at it and signs his name at the end.

'Dorin'

Thus, begins the adventure of a boy who has never set foot off the mountains where he and his mother have lived in for the past ten years.