Chapter 1: Chapter 1: Kyle
It's a cold and windy morning. Kyle opens his eyes slowly, closes them, and his mind goes back to the conversation he had with his grandfather before he passed away. "Do you know what the most important thing in the world is?" asked his grandfather, "cheesecakes?" Kyle answered and laughed, his grandfather smiled and looked up and continued "no, well I could use a slice right now but no." He sighs and looks down to his feet on the wheelchair. He's quiet for some time and then proceeds to speak, "I'll be going soon, and I don't want you to stay in this small empty town that has left you with nothing but heavy scars." Kyle sits up and his expression changes. "Listen son" his grandfather continued. "When I'm gone, I want you to go on an adventure, see the world, and one day, when you'll feel like you're all adventured out, start your own family, meet someone, get married, have kids. I want you to feel like you haven't wasted your life. I'm old, I have lived a full life, but I still have lingering regrets." He sighs then continues, "when you'll be 80, sitting down on the porch with your grandkids, I want you to tell them about your adventures, okay?" Kyle stares blankly into the horizon and says, "Now I'm craving cheesecake." "You little…" said his grandfather while he laughed.
Kyle lived with his grandfather, just out of town. He didn't know much about his parents. All he knew about them was that his mother was a soldier and his father was a scientist who worked for the government, they died when he was 4, 15 years ago when a drunk driver drove into them. Kyle was the only survivor.
He worked part-time at a bookshop. The bookshop was not selling very well, but he enjoyed working there, mostly because he could read old books that weren't selling in there without paying. He read a lot of fantasy books. Books on magic, elves, dryads, dwarfs etc. He wished he were born in a world where life was that easy. Like his grandfather, he preferred holding a book than scroll through a screen.
Like clockwork, his grandfather passes away. He had requested to be cremated and his ashes to be released into the ocean near his hometown. He always longed for the ocean. Kevin Storm, Kyle's grandfather, grew up on an island very, very far from here, called Wadriadge.
Kevin Storm was a peculiar old man. Some of the stories he spoke about, that he said happened to him and around him, seemed quite fictional and stories like the ones Kyle enjoyed reading. He spoke about huge fighting sea monsters and large land beasts, ferocious dark elves and long fanged monsters. He called life on the island a paradise he wished he could return to. Kevin was a battle junkie, which means he loved to fight. He taught Kyle everything about fighting, surviving in enemy territory and living off the land. Kyle didn't know it yet, but he was taught more than what he thought, his grandfather gave him a "magic" bracelet he was told it would protect him if his life was in danger.
Kevin had an accident that led to him being in a wheelchair long before Kyle was born. Even on a wheelchair, he had quite the build. People in town thought he must have been a retired boxer or something that involved fighting and keeping in shape, who was putting his grandson through the same routine he did because Kyle was quite big for his age.
Kevin seldom spoke about growing up surrounded by water and how beautiful the island was. So much so that Kyle wondered why he left but could never ask why after how unresponsive he got the last time he asked, his grandfather was out of touch for almost a week.
Kyle Storm was a tall and well-built young man, he never worked out, but everyone thought he did. He was in the swimming team in high school until his grandfather got sick, so he quit to take care of him. His skin was a bit dark, short sliver-like hair, but he dyed it black and dark blue eyes.
Three months after his grandfather passed away, he quit his job, bought a couple of books to read, and decided to leave the house. He thought he should take his grandfather's advice. Took an old keychain his grandfather gave him shortly before he passed away, Kevin's journal, and a backpack with certain essentials. He set off towards Wadriadge. He couldn't find the island on any map online, nor could he find the port town, but they were clearly depicted on the map his grandfather had in his journal.