Bartholomew Nelson and the World of Zathya: The Prince and the Heir

Bart didn’t even realize that he had fallen asleep until he awoke with his eyes staring straight up at the stars. The sky was extremely clear on this night and Bart could see nearly every star. He found himself starting to count them before he realized the temperature was higher than before.

“Why is it so warm,” he asked looking around for Jason, but Jason was nowhere to be found. He stood up, almost too fast, and just about fell over trying to re-catch his balance. Jason was still absent and he started to panic a little. Then he saw Charlotte sleeping peacefully about ten feet away, which made him calm down a little. Of course he was still on edge and didn’t know why Jason had vanished but he figured that if anything were wrong, he and Charlotte wouldn’t be sleeping unharmed. Bart took a couple deep breaths and prepared to lie back down when he caught a small glimpse of the pond. The water was emitting a neon blue glow slightly above the water. At first, Bart was confused and started to rub his eyes in disbelief. “No way,” he said walking closer, half expecting the glowing to stop and half expecting him to wake up from the weird dream that he was obviously having. Then again, with all the things Bart had seen lately, a glowing pond didn’t seem to be that farfetched of a phenomenon. When he got up to the side of the pond, he knelt down and looked in, seeing fish swimming around with no problems and the glowing continued. He was scared to touch it for what it might do to him but the colors inside the water had him intrigued. As he placed his hand above the water he could feel the heat rising up and touching him. “That’s why it’s so warm,” he said with a smile.

“The water is enchanted,” a voice said startling Bart and almost causing him to fall in face first. He spun around to see Jason standing there beaming down at him, soaking wet.

“Scared me,” Bart said taking in a deep breath and relaxing. “Where did you go?”

“I went to make sure I covered our tracks,” Jason said looking behind him as if unsure if he did a good job. “I do not trust that Mafortian cannot find this place. He has been here before, even though that was a long time ago.” Jason knelt down beside Bart and waved his hand above the water.

“Why are you dripping wet?” Bart asked.

“Had to take a bath, I felt kind of dirty,” he said with a laugh.

“You said the water was enchanted,” Bart said trying to ignore the thought of Mafortian and his men showing up and wreaking havoc on such a peaceful place and Jason taking a bath.

“Yes, it is,” Jason said stretching a smile across his face. “Camathlion created this place as an entry way to Zathya when he originally created Zathya. This was the only way in or out of Zathya for a very long time.” Bart looked confused at this revelation.

“Wait, you mean to tell me some guy created this entire place and all of Zathya? Who is this Camathlion, a God?” Jason laughed hard at Bart’s question, making Bart feel like the question was the dumbest he had asked yet. He frowned as Jason collected himself and stopped laughing.

“I only laugh because it is so unnatural that someone wouldn’t know who Camathlion is,” he said finally calming down.

“Well excuse me for not even knowing this place or Zathya existed for fifteen years,” Bart said sharply. “I think I can get a pass.” Jason smiled.

“Indeed you can, indeed you can,” said Jason. “Camathlion is no ordinary man, but he is no God. He is a majestic.” Bart recognized the name from earlier when talking with Victoria. Jason continued on explaining, saving Bart the time it would have taken him to ask the question. “Majestics are beings of pure energy. We don’t know where they came from, but Camathlion is one of them. They have extraordinary abilities. With that comes all the myths as well. Some people believe they come to them in many different forms to guide them. Some have even said that Camathlion himself has appeared to them in the forms of animals or as an elderly man to give them advice or take them to where they need to be.”

“He can transform into an animal?” Bart asked completely baffled.

“I can’t say if he can or cannot, but I wouldn’t be surprised. Majestics are extremely talented and powerful. You know of some, because many have been living amongst you for ages. You hear stories about them all the time.” Bart looked at him like he was out of his mind.

“I think I would know if I knew a Majestic,” Bart said with a slight laugh.

“Oh but you do,” Jason said with a smile. “I’m sure you have heard the name Ambrosius before, yes?” Bart again looked confused indicating he hadn’t heard the name after all. “Ah, I see. You’ll probably know him better as the wizard Merlin.” Bart’s eyes widened.

“Wait,” he said completely puzzled. “You mean to tell me that not only was Merlin real but he was a Majestic? Are you serious?” Jason continued to smile.

“Of course I am. His real name is Ambrosius Marvela. He’s also known as Merlin or simply, the grand master. Ambrosius is one of the Divine Three and many believe him to be the most powerful of all the Majestics.” Bart couldn’t believe what he was hearing. How could Merlin be a majestic? It was just so crazy to think about.

“So this guy is stronger than this Camathlion guy?” Bart asked.

“Of course, of course,” Jason said. “He is Camathlion’s uncle.” Bart was in shock. So much info to take in and now he finds out that the most popular wizard in fiction is actually a real guy who was a majestic and uncle to the guy who created the world that Bart was from. Bart’s mind was a maze of confusion. “So back to my story, Camathlion created this world but many people believe he created this world in an attempt to create a place where people could live in harmony.” Bart seemed relieved that he didn’t have to ask any questions. He was starting to wonder if Jason was just reading his mind so that he wouldn’t have to. As easy as that made things, Bart wasn’t sure that he liked the idea of always having his mind penetrated. He made a mental note to ask how to defend himself against mind wielding later. “However, my father told me that wasn’t the case. According to him, Camathlion was running from someone.” Bart didn’t even give Jason the chance to read his mind. The question just came out abruptly.

“Wait,” he said quickly. “An all powerful, majestic being made of energy, running from someone? Was it Merlin?” Bart asked. Jason smiled and dipped his hand into the warm, glowing water.

“Another Majestic this time,” he said letting the water seep through his fingers. “I don’t know the entire story; Demetrius would be a better person to ask about the story of the conflict between Camathlion and his father.”

“You mean to tell me,” Bart started but Jason finished the sentence for him.

“Yes, Camathlion was running from his very own father.” Bart looked completely thrown off by this. Why would Camathlion’s father be after him? “Anyways,” Jason continued. “Camathlion created Zathya and this cove for whatever reasons, and he brought with him his wife, his son, many of his majestic cousins and friends, Dragonians, the Elves, and some ‘new ones’ that he deemed worthy of his new world.” Bart looked completely lost at this point. He had never heard of Dragonians, Majestics, or the “new ones” before in his life. He almost didn’t want to ask but he felt the need to, since Jason seemed as if he would continue with the story if he didn’t. It was semi-frustrating that Jason picked and chose when to invade Bart’s mind. Either do it all the time or not at all was how Bart saw it.

“Okay, so I don’t know if you know this, but I have no idea what or who half of those things you named are,” Bart said. “I mean, what in the world are Dragonians? And since when were elves real?” Jason smiled again but did not laugh. “And who are the new ones?”

“I see that your mother and uncle have chosen to keep much from you,” he said with a small chuckle.

“Wait you know my mom and uncle?” Bart said, becoming sidetracked.

“Yes, I know them both very well, but we can discuss that later.” Jason’s response didn’t seem too happy and for the sake of not arguing Bart decided to let it go. “For now, I will focus on Dragonians, Elves, and New Ones. Let’s start with the most basic. New ones or the new ones of short existence are simply humans.” Now Bart was really confused. Humans had a special name in this place? “What you have to realize Bart is that Majestics, Dragonians, Elves, Dwarves, and many other mythical beings were here long before the arrival of humans. When the humans arrived, they were called new ones because they were a species that had never been seen before on this planet.” Bart was taken aback. How could humans be something new? For him, all these “beings” Jason was talking about were new, so to hear the humans were dubbed “new ones” came completely out of left field for him. “Then, once the Majestics saw how short their life span was, they called them the new ones of short existence.”

“Wait a second,” Bart said, dangerously close to having his mind explode from the constant and ridiculous amounts of crazy and impractical information it was receiving. “Short life span? What does that even mean?”

“Well Majestics and all the others are immortal, Bart,” Jason said casually. “Except for Dwarves, but their life span was extremely long compared to humans anyway.” Bart sat back, baffled by what he was hearing. Immortal beings created and completely made up of magic. Humans being the new species on the planet. It was all too much to handle.

“So what are these Dragonians then? Dragons in human form?” Bart was clearly joking but Jason’s expression didn’t seem to change.

“Well close enough,” he said, making Bart’s smirk vanish in the process. “They have all the abilities of a dragon except flight. Only a small number of Dragonians can actually transform fully into a dragon, but I don’t believe any more of them still exist.” This is outrageous Bartholomew thought to himself as he stared at Jason, eyes widened to a point of socket bursting.

“You mean to tell me that people who are basically dragons live in Zathya?” Bart’s question was obviously rhetorical, since Jason just explained that there were.

“Yes, but they haven’t been seen since Camathlion disappeared. At least outside of their homeland that is. We are allowed in every certain number of years for the Dragona games but other than that they keep to themselves.”

“Wait Camathlion is gone? Why?” Bart asked.

“No one knows,” Jason said, glancing back to see if Charlotte was awake or not. Bart had completely forgotten she was even here. He was sure she would’ve loved to hear this story since she loved to read about new worlds and fantasy and magic. “One day Camathlion was just gone and so were all the other Majestics. Once they left, the Dragonians decided to go into seclusion and haven’t left their territory since. The elves also left, retreating to Zathya Island. The Dwarves eventually died out and all that was left were the humans and the people like you and me.”

“When you say you and me, what do you mean by that?” Bart had never once thought of himself as anything else besides a human. It was hard for him to even do that now, even though he had just heard about so many mythical beings.

“Bart, you and I are descendants of Majestics. We have majestic blood in us, no matter how small or large the amount. It’s why we can become self aware easier than humans, and it’s why we can wield more efficiently than humans.” For once Bart wasn’t confused. He knew that all this was true. He wasn’t just a regular guy and now that he thought about it, he never really was. “That’s right,” Jason said interrupting Bart’s thoughts. “Your constant need for adventure is because you have majestic blood in you. Your sense of danger and your unusual talent to pick up on things is because you have majestic blood in you.” Bart looked out at the water as he took in everything. He knew his world was about to change, but he had no idea how much until now. He thought that he could just learn some new tricks, get his mom healthy and then he could leave with Charlotte and his mom back to the real world, the world that he really belonged in but now things seemed different. Did he really belong here? The more and more he travelled down this road, the more and more he felt as though he didn’t belong here. He was so confused as to what to do. Maybe he did belong in Zathya.

“Wow,” he said, still looking at the blue neon water. “This is a lot to take in.”

“I know it is, trust me,” Jason said putting his hand on Bart’s shoulder. “It’s harder for you because instead of just growing up in a world where this is your reality, you have been living a lie. You’ve been living in a false reality and it will be hard but you have to wake up.” Bart didn’t know how to wake up. He didn’t know how to let go of everything he knew. “You have people who will help you. You just have to help yourself take the first step.” The fact that Bart’s life was a complete lie didn’t sit well with him. He wasn’t sure how he would adjust and that frightened him. There was never a time where Bart was genuinely scared of something besides maybe being afraid of the dark when he was a young boy. Throughout his life he had experienced a few scary situations, but in the end he always knew he could handle them. Now they were talking about dragons and elves and Majestics, and it was tough for Bart to handle it all. How would he survive in a world with all these fantastical elements when all he had was mediocre training at best? Bart was unsure on what to do. So many thoughts were running through his head when suddenly the neon light in the water was replaced with a much brighter white light illuminating the entire cove. Bart couldn’t see anything while the light continued to shine.

“Jason, what’s going on,” Bart said as he shielded his eyes from the blinding light. Before Jason could answer the light stopped and everything was dark. Bart opened his eyes but couldn’t see anything. Even the moon had stopped shining but that was due to clouds masking its glow. “Jason do you know what that was,” Bart whispered, looking around for anything his eyes might be able to make out. There was no response from Jason, which worried Bart. “Jason?” There was still no response. It was too dark for Bart to move around and he didn’t want to end up in the water. Of course he also didn’t know if there were any attackers near so moving might alert them to where he was. He opened his eyes wider as if that would actually help him see in the dark but his sight didn’t improve. “Charlotte,” he whispered in hopes that the extreme brightness of the light awoke her. Again there was no response.

“You know if you thought moving around wasn’t an excellent idea, then whispering wasn’t too bright either,” said a voice coming from in front of Bart. Bart stood completely still and strained to try and see who had spoken.

“Show yourself,” he shouted. All of a sudden, the neon glow from the small pond returned and Bart could see clearly. A woman standing at the edge of the water returned his gaze. Bart was shocked to see how beautiful she was. He had thought Victoria was the most beautiful woman he had ever seen but this woman was far and beyond that level of beauty. She had white pants on and no shoes. Her shirt was white as well with silver designs on it. Her hair was long and black. It looked like it was made of silk as it shined in the neon radiance. Her eyes were a beautiful tint of gold. Bart had never seen golden eyes before. Her skin was the same as Victoria’s; maybe a little lighter, but it still had that nice milky brown color to it. She was definitely from some kind of Egyptian origin or background. She was smiling and it was one of the most gorgeous smiles Bart had ever seen. “Who are you?”

“My name is Arianna,” she said softly.