Light & Dark: The Awakening of the Mageknight Read Free Page A

a
shuddering halt. Danny tuned around to find Ms. Samantha, the art
teacher, with an iron grip on his backpack. Tied up in a ponytail,
her long, blonde hair draped just past her neck, leaving her
focused brown eyes to peer into Danny's frightened gaze. Her
expression was firm, but carried an air of kindness.
    "Walk, please," she said with a slight
grin.
    Danny nodded, "Sorry."
    "That's alright, just don't be in such a
hurry next time. You still have five minutes till class starts."
She smiled and relinquished her grip, allowing Danny to disappear
into the small stream of quick-moving students.
    Danny trudged along in annoyance. He would
have to find her locker some other time. He sighed and realized
that he was close to science class at least. With the need to hurry
over, he descended the stairs located in the middle of the long
hallway and located the large, green double doors, the entrance to
the science labs.
    Taking out the small piece of white paper, he
found the classroom and sat in a desk near the back.
    The room, separated from the other classrooms
by a series of thick boards on wheels, was in the shape of a crude
triangle. Six science stations, each equipped with a faucet and
sink, test tubes and stools lined the back of the room. Above each
station were slanted windows with white blinds, shielding the room
from the sun. The entire science area was one large octagon, with
six classrooms constructed in the east and west corners, three on
each side.
    Danny could hear voices coming from the labs
on the other side of the building, most likely sixth or seventh
graders. He heard two familiar voices echo down the hall, nearing
the room. Danny recognized the quick-tongued boy as none other than
Alonso; the other, a rather loud, high-pitched voice, had to be
Matt Mickler. The two youths strolled past the wheeled wall and
entered the room.
    Danny was happy to see the pair of familiar
friendly faces.
    Matt Mickler, somewhat overweight, kept his
bulk concealed beneath oversized shirts that tended toward the
darker shades of the color spectrum, featuring his favorite metal
bands printed across the chest. His jet-black hair was just long
enough to get in the way of his purple eyes, causing him to adjust
a pair of black glasses with thick lenses and heavy frames. Due to
his tendency to be a bit hyperactive at times, in combination with
his nerdy appearance, Matt was often the target of bullying. His
quick wit and sharp tongue never seemed to help matters. He usually
found victory in conflicts of rhetoric, but disagreements of the
physical nature tended not to end in his favor.
    "Hey, Danny!" Matt yelled. "Wait till you see
my new card. Did you bring your deck to class?"
    Danny nodded and dug through his backpack,
pulling out a small rectangular box.
    Over the summer, Danny and his friends had
gotten involved in Knights, a popular card game, where creatures of
fantasy and knights of legend were used to defeat the opposing
players. The players were divided into three factions: Light, Grey,
and Dark. The game pitted the forces of good, neutral and evil
against one another. Danny's box portrayed the emblem of Light, an
intricate circle of glowing white chain intertwined with links of
black, engulfed in tendrils of darkness.
    Matt pulled a small card box from his own
backpack, with the symbol of Grey emblazoned upon it, a weave of
grey chain linked in a circle. Matt had chosen the neutral faction
for his deck, using technology and fanatical knights to win
battles, while Light used righteous knights and holy dragons to
defeat opponents.
    "Look at this," Matt said. He pulled a deck
of cards from the box, took the top card from the pile and held it
up for both Danny and Alonso to see.
    "That game is stupid," Alonso said, sighing,
taking a seat in front of Danny.
    Ignoring the boy in front of him, Danny
leaned over to inspect his friend’s new card—a heavily-armored
knight in brass-colored armor sitting upon a jet-black steed.