Excerpt: Xicarth: Adia's Story

Prologue

They did not know how long the boat ride was. They did not even know where they launched from. All they knew was that they were kept in cells they could not break or blast through, the windows where too dirty to see though, it was storming, and that the food was the most horrible thing they had ever been forced to eat.
It was a blessing to be able to see the others that they were traveling with; a blessing as well as a curse. Some could see that their silent companions were strange, with wings growing from their backs or elegant tails protruding from behind them. Others appeared normal, but broke out screaming in the night as fire shot in every direction from their body. Across the way there could have been a sulking being who stared at people, and those who stared back would collapse in a fit of spasms. What was always worse, was that one always knew why they were there, they just did not know where ‘there’ was.
No one knew how long they stayed in those cells, they did not know how often they were fed. But they knew that even though the doors to their cells slammed open, they were still not free from their prison.
Rain beat against them as they walked down the gangplank under the hard stare of the crew. There was a figure wrapped in a heavy rain jacket waiting for them on the soaking beach. Unease filled them as they stepped closer.
“Welcome.” The man yelled to them. “Welcome to the island Xicarth.” He pulled out a package wrapped in a plastic bag and put it on the sand before the wary travelers, clearly as reluctant to approach them as they were to approach him. “Everything you will need to know is in there. Things start immediately.”
“Why are we here?” Asked a beautiful woman with a look about her that made it clear she was not one to take lightly.
“It will all be explained in there.”
The woman took a step forward, her arm outstretched. “Just please, tell us why we’re here?”
“It is all in the packet!” The man said, taking a step back before bolting into the trees that lined the beach.
They are all left in a silence broken only by the wail of the wind through the rain and the crack of thunder.
“Fuck this shit!” Spat the sulky figure before also vanishing into the trees, followed by the one who was plagued by fiery dreams.
“That man lied.” said a boy who had been quiet the entire boat ride. Everyone remaining looked at him, and he back at them. “We, clearly, are not welcome to Xicarth.”