Jack couldn't run anymore. His lungs felt like they were on fire, and his throat was as dry as the ancient wellspring in the Sahara Desert, and his feet felt like they were made of unset jelly. He slowed down, turned to the right. He saw a forest to his right and darted into it, leaving the alley he was being chased in. He found a large tree stump and hid behind it. Hoping no one would notice him. He could hear them getting closer. He could hear all their voices, yelling out his name and mocking him. 

‘Where you going Jackie?’ yelled out the loudest one. 

He must be the one closest to Jack. Jack obviously didn't respond, he stayed quiet and tried not to make a single sound. 

Soon, the two men realised that Jack was hiding and not running anymore. 

‘You hiding Jackie? You hiding from me?’ yelled another voice.

‘Or is it me your hiding from?’ yelled the other voice.

Jackie did not say a thing, he knew that he could take them down, but he sensed they had something to play dirty, he sensed some unusual magic with them. So Jack decided to play it safe. He didn't want to take any chances after yesterday.

While he was thinking about what the magic was, elemental, dark or pure, he heard a crystalline cracking sound close by. It sounded like shards of crystals breaking, satiating yet annoying, he thought.

'Come on Jackie! We just want to introduce you to our new friend that's all!' yelled the voices together. They were close by now.

Jack knew he should look, it was too dangerous, especially whatever made that crystalline cracking sound. Jack could literally feel the magic coming from his rippling heat on his skin. It was too tempting, and Jack really wanted to know what the magic was, so he turned and took a little peek.

What, he saw blew his mind. It was nothing like anything he'd seen before. It was larger than the Himalayan Mountain Trolls he learnt about last year and looked like a bright pink and crystalline Magma Golem. 

Since he was so fascinated by the creature, he didn't realise that he had been noticed.

'There" yelled one of the men. He was probably the leader of this little gang and was quite agile and fast for his large and muscular size.

He darted toward Jack, but Jack was fast too. He used the trees as cover as they slowed down the Golem and the two men also.

Jack darted to the left, then sneakily ran to the right using the night as cover and vanished into the darkness. He heard the men run to the left. He caught a glimpse of the golem, it was glowing brightly in the dark and emitted some sort of whitish smoke from cracks on its skin whenever it moved. Unsurprisingly, the golem moved quite slowly. So luckily for Jack, he could see the golem turning its head. Jack quickly turned back and hid. The golem didn't notice him.

Jack sat there, still as an owl, listening to the sound of running and tripping coming from behind him to fade. 

Finally! It felt like forever, but Jack couldn't hear anything. He slowly got up, making sure no twig ruined his cover, like what always happened in the movies he and his dad watched when he was young. He almost cried thinking about his dad. He remembered, when he was 4, he was woken by his dad packing. He went down to see what was happening, and saw his father, face full of cuts and blood, looking like he'd played with pigs on a puddle. 

He had said ‘Pa, where are you going?' his father had replied saying ‘Pa’s going to get you some toys from a carpenter in the other town, he'll be back soon.'

‘But Pa, you look hurt! Jack had noticed. "Oh, it's nothing, I just tripped on a stick, Pa will heal himself, and you take good care, my son. I'll be back!' His father had replied.

It had been almost 8 years, his father wasn't heard of yet. Jack sat there in a moment of silence, wondering where his father was, what he was doing, was he even alive?

Suddenly, a distant explosion shook him from his thoughts, in the sky he saw a giant cloud of green flame, it burst, leaving a snake and a ring flying down the sky, past the horizon. Jack knew what that was, wasn't good. It wasn't at all.

It was the sign of the Soul Snatchers.

Jack, ran. He ran as far as he could from that snake in the sky. It was what the Soul snatchers used to summon their ranks. 

If those were Soul Snatchers then that golem must have been made of Dark Magic. Dark Magic was the most forbidden form of magic. Unlike the Elemental, and normal Magic, Dark Magic required a sacrifice of soul, and sacrifice, especially of souls was frowned upon by all sentient Magical Beings.

Jack knew only one place safe enough to hide from the Soul Snatchers. 

He ran deeper into the woods, avoiding all alleys and streets. It was night, but he knew his city well, where what forest was, what tunnel led where, after all, he did love exploring the woods and the ancient ruins whenever he was able to slip out of that horrible prison of a school he went to.

The woods started to become denser and overgrown, it was harder to run with its much vegetation. Jack was struggling with avoiding branches and vines while running, but his size and agility aided him greatly.

Jack wove through the canopy and went to the heart fo the forest. There, he saw the shrine. The shrine was a small ruin with 3 broken pillars, each facing a different statue beside it. The statues were new, it was made during the restoration but had no spiritual or magical purpose, it was probably only there for the tourists, Jack stood in a corner, wheezing, he must have ran a whole mile. He was always stronger and endured more than others thanks to his mother's elf blood, but it wasn't all just a gift, elves weren't treated as fairly as wizards and witches in most lands. Elves could only find true safety and peace in their own lands and nowhere away from it.

Jack walked to the center of the little atrium, wheezing and panting. He pulled the little leaf made of emerald on his pendant, which easily fell into his hand. He willed it to transform into his staff, a trick he'd learned from his uncle. He stood in a defensive form and moved the handle. pointing the top fo the staff outwards and channeled the magic to cast a Protection Spell. This was advanced magic for Jack's age, but the shrine's magic and the moon's warm rays helped him focus and even aid some magic. He'd done it. The spell was cast, now all he had to do was wait, until the mark of the Soul Snatchers vanishes, and hope he won't be found by them.