Chapter 1

"MOOOOOOOOOOOMM!!!! Celfi hit me!!!" 10year-old Ashton yelled as he was being chased across the yard by his much older sister Celfi.

"Don't yell dear. You'll wake up Minn." Said his mother, not glancing up from the Salva Times.

Celfi punched Ashton in arm a few more times, and then ran off to terrorize Ashton's other 11 brothers and sisters. Ashton sat down and pouted, while two more of his brothers chased a rabbit across the yard.

One of them tripped over Ashton, and landed on his face.

"Watch where you're sitting, stupid!" His brother yelled, and ran to catch up with his other brother.

"I'M NOT STUPID!! MOM!!! JAY'S CALLING ME NAMES AGAIN!!" Ashton screamed.

"You're such a cry-baby, Ashton." His 16 year old sister, Sarah, said from out the window of the house.

"Your yelling is keeping me from applying this lipstick. My boyfriend is going to pick me up for a date, and your yelling will make me look bad. So shut up." Ashton picked himself up and brushed his clothes off.

Nobody cared about how downcast Ashton felt.

"Mom, I'm going to Salva Drift." Ashton said forlornly.

"You do that, George." His mother said.

"I'm Ashton, Mom." Ashton said, wondering how his mother could forget his own name.

Tomorrow was his birthday, and he knew everyone's already forgotten.

He didn't care, frankly.

But being the 13th child in the family was tough.

He slowly walked to the mine.

"Hey, Kid, get outta my way!!" a burly man with a large load said grumpily to Ashton.

"S..so…sorry mister!" Ashton said franticly as he ran for safety.

He kept wandering in town, trying to avoid people who looked like they would beat the crap out of him.

He finally reached the entrance to Salva Drift.

"Hey! Kids aren’t allowed in the mine! Didn’t ya hear? There’s a demon on the loose!" The grumpy guard yelled.

Ashton ran, and hid behind the rock.

Slowly but surely, the guard leaned against the wall and fell asleep.

Being rather intelligent for his age, Ashton sneaked up on him and carefully unsheathed the longsword.

The guard snorted, but continued sleeping.

Ashton crept stealthily away, but tripped on a rock and fell smack down on his face.

The guard jumped a few feet.

"More soup ‘n bread…." The guard mumbled some incoherent words after that, but continued to sleep once again.

"That was a close one…" Ashton said to no one in particular, and walked a lot more carefully into the cave.

He looked around the interior, and saw some shovels and wheelbarrows, some tipped.

Ashton concluded that the work stopped abruptly, probably because of the demon.

"AEIIIIIIIIIII!!!!" Ashton heard a blood-curdling scream from deep inside the cave.

It sounded rather young, so he decided it was a young girl who also fooled the guard.

Ashton ran to the source of the voice to find a young girl, around 14, cornered by FunnyTheives.

Having some battle experience, he swung the longsword around, trying to look intimidating.

This got their attention.

Ashton quickly dove out of the way when one of the thieves thrust their short sword at him.

The girl stared at Ashton, half with bewilderment, and half giving the message ‘YOU IDIOT!!!’

Ashton ignored her for the time being, and continued with the battle.

Ashton was still rather clumsy with a sword, so he ended up looking more like an idiot than a fearless hero.

He slashed around wildly, thankfully hitting and killing a few FunnyThieves.

The last FunnyThief ran towards Ashton.

Ashton swung his sword around, but it slipped out of his hand, the hilt burying itself in the ground, the blade sticking out.

The FunnyThief walked over to a weaponless Ashton, and struck him over the head.

It was a badly timed and miscalculated blow, and Ashton was struck with the flat side of the blade.

It still proved effective, however, and sent Ashton tumbling into the rock wall, rendering him unconscious.

The FunnyThief, turned around to face his original victim, but stumbled on some debris.

He fell forward, and stupidly impaled himself on Ashton’s misplaced sword.

The girl brushed herself off, and picked Ashton up and carried him out of Salva Drift.

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