Charles king lonely hope part 1

We only had to suffer with Curtis’s presence for about 10 minutes before Aunty Alex came back downstairs and got her husband, said her byes, and then left.

“Thank god,” Dad said when they left. Mum and Madison came down 10 minutes after that, my mum looked lovely, it was strange to see her all dressed up, nice white top, jeans, heels, and a fancy new jacket I hadn’t seen before. It took me a few minutes before I noticed Mum had dressed everyone similarly again, why did she do this? Madison was again her mini-me, in the same clothes minus the heels, plus a pair of brand-new white shoes. I wanted to ask why we were all dressed the same again, but the doorbell rang, and we all looked at Dad. He didn’t even argue, just shook his head, and left for the door.

“Alex?” Lincoln asked.

“Oh no” Mum said sitting down on the arm of the couch, “I don’t know who it is” she added The front door closed and then the living-room door opened and in bounded a small black dog all fluffy and his tail wagging.

“JACKSON!” Madison yelled before scooping the dog up for a cuddle, squeezing him to her face, Jackson returned the affection and licked her face in excitement, dad walked in followed by Uncle Tommy, he looked cool. dark hair slicked back, shiny brown eyes, strong jaw etched with facial hair, definitely been cut in the barber shop recently, his leather jacket looked cool too, don’t know about his top underneath though, greyish V-neck top.

“Alright,” Tommy said, he always sounds so easy-going, “everyone is in team King colours I see” he eyed everyone up laughed and began to start hugging everyone, he got to me, “Like your book? But don’t worry it’s not your only present,” he said the later before I could answer his question.

“I did thank you; I ever tried a spell.”

“Oh yes? What one?” Tommy said, sitting down next to me. I explained what spell I tried, and what happened. “that’s interesting isn’t it?” Tommy turned his head to Dad and then my mum. “Fire and water ay, tomorrow should be fun” he punched me in the arm lovingly, then clapped his hands and said, “Right is everyone ready to go, we can’t leave them waiting.”

“Them?” Madison asked quizzingly, stroking Jackson who’s now all curled up on her legs.

“Everyone in the guild, of course, dying to meet you all, and see them two again,” He said the latter part and twiddled his thumbs at Mum and Dad like it wasn’t important.

“Why are they excited to see us?” Madison asked.

“Joking right” The entire guild can’t wait, most of them have known your mum and dad since they were kids, and some have only seen photos of you all and your brothers, and are both happy and scared to be meeting them for the first time” he twiddled his thumbs again, Lincoln pulled a face which Tommy seen and prompted “you forget they’re both and kind of powerful mages” whack! Mum hit Tommy around the back of the head. “Fine, very powerful mages, happy? Good, anyway, the newbies have never met them either, and they can’t wait to do so.”

10 minutes later, we are finally leaving for the guild, Tommy had made jokes about how the newbies think that my mum is a scary legend who will eat them alive, and dad can’t take a joke and will fight anyone for the littlest annoyance, Mum and Dad weren’t happy about that, Tommy kept winking at us and holding back a laugh. Dad opened the front door we were both hit by a surprisingly chilly wind, the sun was already setting, leaving a nice orange glow in the sky. It was decided that we would walk, it’s only a five-minute walk. Jackson grew five sizes bigger up to Madison’s hips and walked alongside her. Tommy remarked on how posh the area was and how he and Dad used to live in a similar area when they were younger.

5 minutes later we arrived at the footsteps of a large building surprisingly, for it being in the middle of London, marble steps lead to thick wooden double doors. Above that in bold letters “ETERNAL DRAGONS” it even had dragons racing through it. I suddenly felt nervous and a little sick, I have been waiting for this moment all my life, Jackson brushed up against my leg.

“Ready?” Dad asked standing by a door, Tommy walked over to the other one and pushed, and light cracked through the door. Just as Madison and Lincoln joined me side by side. It was amazing! The doors flew open, and an eruption of noise came pouring out.

“Happy birthday!” I’m shocked. I didn’t expect this. There were so many people, so many smiling faces, I even recognised some of them from magazines. There was Ryan Garland gangly man with ashy blonde hair famous for hunting dangerous monsters. Stacey Hay, A short ginger short-haired woman, is renowned for her work in tomb raiding and finding treasures. Adele Meadow, A chunky woman, with sickly skin but didn’t surprise me since she was famous for her potions, especially poisons. I had a quick look around the guild it was incredible. Such a large room bigger than what I ever could have imagined, to my right was a bar that spread around the corner and even further along the right wall, every drink I had ever known was behind that bar and some I didn’t. past that along the right wall was a door with signs above them.

“Training room” I don’t know where they would put a training room that would be big enough for this guild in the middle of London.

“Changing rooms. Boys” and next to that “girls” and finally “stairs to flats” I didn’t think while I was outside why the building was so large, but I guess now it makes more sense. The furthest back wall had a large map of the United Kingdom, red dots scattered across it, and a cluster of them in London. The left wall had trophies, photos, achievements, and weapons. Everything had a reason to be hung up, I wanted to check it all out. and the centre of the room was filled with tables and chairs and what looked like a hundred people.

Before I could remember who I thought the next person was, a man walked to the front of the crowd, he was very well dressed in a navy-blue suit, now I had a closer look he was old, but nobody told him, because he was ripped. ocean blue eyes and grey hair that had a mind of its own, it looked like he had been electrocuted.

“I have been waiting a long time for this” his voice was soft but firm. He stood next to me and ruffled my hair, He shook Dad’s hand, hugged my mother then declared loudly “The Kings have returned” A loud cheer boomed down my ears, and suddenly two large hands grasped either side of my face and turned my head around, I came face to face with my Godfather. I hugged him instantly. I got lifted off my feet since my godfather was like six foot five. he always smelled like sweets too, he did always eat them too, so I’m not surprised.

He put me down and I stared up at his smiling face. He was so cool and a powerful lighting mage too! Marvin claimed he was cool thanks to his Jamaican side, but I doubted that very much, he just oozed coolness and sometimes electricity. He’s a tall Black guy, with a trendy haircut that was cut short around the sides, large brown eyes and as his wife Tracy says he has a massive head. He had on jeans, white shoes and a tight blue top, but I think he wanted to show off his muscles. “I’m taking him,” Marvin said over my head to someone, and then I heard my dad say “Fine.” Marvin ushered me through the crowd of people, all happy to see me, saying hi introducing themselves and wishing me a happy birthday.

“So, tell me, is your mother annoyed about the sweets, she has been giving me evil looks” Marvin whispered as we were still making our way through the crowd, we both turned around and sure enough there across the room giving him evil looks but then a smile at the end.

“I had some sweets, I got a yellow eye and some marks across my face, she was like you can’t go to the guild like” I added the last part in the best impression of my mum I could do.

“that’s hilarious” Marvin said before bringing me to a halt at a round table, across from me was a mini-Marvin, with the same hair, and the same massive head, it looked even bigger on him because of his smaller body. “This Charles is my son Kevin” Now it makes sense why they look so much alike, Marvin could never say Kevin wasn’t his son, same head, ears, mouth, and nose.

“alright” Kevin said nodding upwards at me. He has a slight cockney accent that I didn’t expect, “so fire or water?” he added.

“What?” I asked I wasn’t sure what he meant.

“Your dad is a fire mage, your mum water, so what do you think you will be? I know you can be something else but that’s very rare.”

“I don’t know after today.” Kevin gave me a confused look. Marvin did too as he sat down, so I decided to sit down too and tell them about my attempts at fire spells.

“You burnt your finger from the inside? That’s cool!” Kevin declared, and it made me laugh, “What happened after that?”

“My mum done some spell, something cold it was, it helped.”

“Your mum can do ice spells?”

“That doesn’t surprise me,” Marvin said, ” once we were all in some cave in Wales hunting down a horde of goblins that had kidnapped locals. Me, Tracy, your mum, and dad” he added when he saw my look of confusion and wonder of who we all were meant, “anyway they had set up traps hadn’t they only dropped fire on us though, as you can imagine it didn’t affect Nick, your father, he has always liked heat. But me, not so much. I had been burnt all down my right arm and most of the right side of my body, but your mum managed to heal me, first cooled me down with an ice spell, then healed me with light magic.”

“I never knew that” I said, “mum doesn’t really talk about any quests she went on.”

“Really?” Came a soft voice from behind me, I looked up and saw Tracy, Marvin’s wife, and Kevin’s mum. I had only met her once before she was very nice, she hadn’t changed much, she still looked young even though she was in her mid-30s, she a pretty black woman, her long braid was resting over her shoulder and almost hitting me in the head, large eyes filled with love and happiness looked down me. She had two diamond earrings one in each ear, a button nose and a pointy chin too. She leaned over me and squeezed me tight. This is my mum’s best friend I have heard so much about. “it’s so nice to see you, and I have all the stories about your mum.”

“I can’t wait to hear them, Mum did tell me some stories about you though Tracy is it true you once tried to ride a giant scorpion?”

What!?” Kevin said he looked deeply shocked.

“Oh, I see what stories she was telling” Tracy laughed and then looked a little terrifying ” Did you know your mum once tried to punch said scorpion in the face because she was angry It knocked her water bottle over?”

“I did not, that’s hilarious what else?”

“Let me think,” Tracy said pondering, Marvin sat back in his chair, looking at this won’t be good, while Kevin still looked shocked over his mother riding a scorpion.

“She once kicked a chief goblin in the nuts, and a troll, and a yeti and a minotaur, all in the nuts”

“Life lesson don’t be somewhere Isabella King can kick you in the nuts,” Kevin said, and I laughed.

“You can call me Bella” Kevin and I stopped laughing, ” you know your mum once kicked a ghoul in the nuts, a ghost in the nuts, a draugr in the nuts, skeleton in the nuts and a vampire.”

“Life lesson two, don’t be anywhere either one of you two can kick me,” Kevin said looking more scared than amused. Mum and Tracy stared at each other for a moment, then laughed and embraced each other with a hug, easy to see how much they missed each other.

“I can show you around if you want?” Kevin asked, I nodded and said.

“Let’s go” We stood up and left the table. And made our way around the guild, Kevin introduced me to people as we went. I felt jealous of him in those few moments, he explained he had been around the guild for as long as he can remember. He knew everyone and they all called him Kev or little Kev. But when I thought about it, I get to be around everyone too, I get to spend time here and the more I meet people the more I can’t wait to be around the guild for a long time.

I was first introduced to Madam Morris; she runs the guild according to Kevin. What she says goes. she’s not the guild master though but no one argues with her. She works behind the bar, cooks all the food, cleans the guild and even helps with homework, she’s the guild’s mum everyone loves and would kill for her. She was an older woman who liked to wear tracksuits, grey hair scrunched up into a bun and a mole on her cheek. She squeezed my face and welcomed me.

Next was Eric Bridges, a veteran guild member who likes to wear kaftans, and sunglasses and carries a glass of wine, he used to be a teacher in the kingsborn academy, and taught both mine and Kevin’s Parents. He is not to be messed with and is super strict but he will give magic lessons in the training hall if he is in a good mood. he told me I looked like my dad but hoped I acted more like my mum. The funny thing is I think that might be true.

I was introduced to so many people, they all seemed so nice I was surprised to meet A journalist from popular magazines and online blogs. Kevin put his foot down when they began to ask questions I didn’t know the answers to or I was too uncomfortable with, like “Who do you think is stronger? Your mother or your father?.”

“he’s not gonna answer that” Kevin said, “who’s stronger out of your sons?” she was not happy with that question and turned around. “Never give journalist the time to ask you questions they will always try and get something weird out of you, trust me.”

“You Handled that well Kevin” came a voice from behind me, I turned around to see the guild master, he might be the most famous person in here. I felt his ocean-blue eyes staring a hole through my head. He took a sip of a cloudy drink while still keeping his eyes on me, then said. “So, your mother tells me you burnt your finger with scolding hot water, after successfully performing two fire spells, can you try it now, nobody is paying attention to us?” my mouth suddenly went dry, and a famous mage was asking me to show him a spell. I feel nervous but excited if I impress him I could impress the entire guild.

“I can try,” I said, nervously.

“Good, fire right at me” he tapped his forehead, did he think this wouldn’t hurt him if it hit? Does he think I am weak? Or does he think I won’t be able to do it? Why am I so annoyed? I know I’m young and not supposed to be good at magic yet. most kids have never been taught how to use magic, they don’t until they go to school, but I have so.

I put my hand in the air and pointed my finger at the guild master’s forehead, I caught Kevin covering his mouth and his eyes rolling from side to side. the words of my mother echoed in my head, you have to mean magic, you have to be clear on what you want to do. I focused on remembering what my book said too, holding my wrist. Focus on pushing the magic through my arm. I cleared my mind and began!

Magic flowed through my arm; I was still feeling annoyed, more so that the guild master was grinning at me. My lip curled; my arm twitched, and my Wrist felt like fire. I paused for a moment took in a breath and focused completely on pushing as much fire out as I could. No water this time, a fireball, a big one! It blasted the guild master in the face, his head whipped back.

“Oh god,” Kevin muttered. Through his hand still covering his face, everything went ghostly silent, I turned around and to my horror, the entire guild was all staring at me, that wasn’t the scariest thing though, the creepy laughing coming from the guild master was terrifying. Ice fell off his face while he was still laughing.

“I seen that coming,” he said loudly and pulled more pieces of ice off his face, “I asked young Charles to show me a spell and even asked him to aim it at me, a mistake on my part, I may have offended the young man so no surprise he put more power in it, thankfully I guarded myself with my ice shield. Or I would have lost an eye from that range” My hand got raised into the air.

“The birthday boy, Charles King!”

“The birthday boy!” was cheered from the guild.

“Snap him up while you can, he won’t be available for long.”

“I don’t get what you mean?” I said.

“Almost nearly every guild member is on the lookout for up-and-comers to take under their wing as understudies or for better or worse sidekicks,” Before I could respond there was a random face of some guy I don’t know inches from mine. “Nice! you passed the masters test well done you, have you gotten any offers yet, I would like to offer you a summer spot with me.”

“No, you should come with me,” said a round-faced woman.

“Ignore them two, I can teach you a lot,” said an older man with sunglasses on, before I knew it I was surrounded and getting offers I could barely hear. Thankfully or so I thought, the guild doors burst open and in walked my Grandparents. A pin drop could be heard. My grandmother stood proudly in the doorway, leopard print handbag tucked under her arm, silver bob length hair framing her face. She had bright red lipstick on, large sunglasses, black pants, and a white shirt.

“Where are my Granbabies?” she demanded. I noticed the people around me slowly backing away.

“You’re one of her granbabies aren’t you” Kevin whispered, before backing away too. thankfully my nan caught sight of Madison first, Who was in conversation with a girl around her age with red hair, across the guild from me, It’s safe to say Madison looked terrified, and Nan barged past everyone in her way to get to Madison. Conversations only picked back up when Madison was forced into a suffocating hug. my grandfather had on a nice navy blue suit and white shirt, he noticed me, raised his thick grey eyebrows, and began to make his way over, shaking hands with people as he came. Kevin came back to the side.

“Your nan is scary.” Kevin whispered.

“You have no idea,” I said back, “hey grandad” I hugged him as he came close.

“Happy birthday,” he said, “sorry about your grandmother you know how she gets.”

“it’s okay and I do.” I shivered at the thought of my nan at her worst. “this is..”

“Kevin,” Grandad interrupted me, “I have known your dad since he was your age.” Kevin looked a little surprised but quickly shook it off and asked.

“Really? I think I’m better looking but what was dad like?”

“He and my son Nicolas were troublemakers, always getting into a spot of bother only got worse the older they got and when they learned more spells.” Kevin and I laughed, “come on I’ll get us all a drink and tell you more stories about your father.”

I like spending time with my grandfather he is so relaxed and has good stories, we sipped our drink a blue cocktail with a mini umbrella in it. Virgin Sea Waves it’s called I like it. My dad and godfather got in a lot of trouble, they broke into dark guild HQ to capture them, It failed, and they nearly died. They tried to ride on the back of a minotaur and almost died. While on summer camp they heard about goblins kidnapping people and then tried to save them and they almost died. They nearly die a lot. Speaking of nearly dying, I suddenly got a vice-like hug from behind. and I could not breathe. A strong smell of perfume burned my nostrils.

“Happy birthday!” said my Grandmother, I was finally let go and could breathe again, I could see Kevin holding back a laugh, which annoyed me.

“Thanks nan, Kevin told me before that you look really lovely, and your hugs look amazing, and he wants one!” his smile immediately faded. Before he was enveloped by my Nan.

“That’s so sweet young Kevin come here.” Kevin glared at me over my nan’s shoulder. “Have you had a good day?” she asked letting go of Kevin he was still not happy.

“I have thank you and thank you for the grimoires.”

“Anything happens with any of them?” Nan asked.

“I don’t think so,” I said truthfully. They all seemed the same apart from the colour.

“Has Ernest done his Little test yet?”

“What test? And who’s Ernest?” I asked.

“He has” Kevin answered, and then looked at me ” Ernest is the guild master and when he got you to use a spell on him, that his test, he does it to everyone new, you have to be thirteen though” he added when I looked at Madison.

“What happened?” Granddad asked, I explained what happened and that I was slightly annoyed at the guild master. “of course, he annoyed you he wouldn’t want you to go easy on him, the test he made your dad do was catch a chicken, but he enchanted the chicken took your father a week to do it.”

“He got me to spar with Tommy” he pointed behind him at my uncle Tommy in a fast-talking conversation with a blonde-haired woman. ” He took it easy on me and pretended to be knocked out when I hit him.” I spent the next hour being told about all the different tests the guild master had done, somewhere wrestling creatures or fighting monsters, some were simple spells, it did make me think why he had done this, but I stopped thinking about that when my nan began telling stories of her time as a teacher and she had taught half the guild during her time. She stopped fights and caught students with random and dangerous animals they had tried to bring into school, I began to feel more at home as the night went on everyone was nice, despite not knowing me, I barely spoke to that many people I was having fun talking with my family and Kevin. Before I knew it the night was over and I was home, in bed already looking forward to the upcoming reveal day tomorrow.