Jake walked down the high street in Aberdeen. He passed shops that would usually interest him enough to go inside, like Game, Gamestation, HMV and Virgin Megastore. but today he didn’t feel like doing that. Today, a wet dreary Scottish day, he felt like trying something new.

As he walked by an alleyway between some buildings, something caught his eye. Backtracking, he warily wandered inside the alley, keeping his eyes open for some dodgy characters that usually skulked in alleyways. Straight ahead of him, a small shop, barely visible due to the dustbins, resided at the end of the alley. Jake had only noticed it from the flint of its well polished name plate. The golden letters read: Claw of the Dragon.

‘Cool,’ Jake said, interest growing inside him. Still wary, he walked to the shop door and reached out for the door handle. The tip of his index finger touched the handle and pain rushed into his finger, spreading up his arm to the rest of his body.

‘Ack!’ he screeched, trying to pull his hand back, but at that moment, a tall, grey-haired man with black thick-rimmed glasses and a very very long nose opened the door and, grinning enthusiastically, took his arm and pulled him inside.

Jake found himself being seated on a chair in a dark and musky room with the grey haired man leaning on the wall opposite him, still grinning.

Five minutes passed, and they were just staring at each other, Jake staring, one eyebrow up, and the grey–haired man staring, grinning manically.

Finally, Jake broke the silence.

‘Erm… Hi!’ He gave a half hearted wave, his other hand clutching his jeans nervously.

‘Yes, rather. Hello!’ The grey haired man jumped form the wall to Jake, grabbed his hand and shook it vigorously.

Pulling his hand away nervously, Jake said, ‘Yeah. Ok. I’ll just go now.’

The grey-haired man suddenly had a desperate look on his face. ‘No! Please! You must know of your fate! Oh – destiny is a strange thing, that you should come across my little shop…’ His voice trailed off. Then, when he realised Jake was still there, he grinned and said, ‘My shop is cursed. The Claw of the Dragon has not had a customer for many years, for you see, whoever touched the front door of this shop shall, quite simply, burst into flames. It is magic as much as it is a curse, for the flames are blue, and burn even the ashes of the unfortunate victim of, well, my shop.’ He gave a small sneezy giggle. ‘So, with no ashes, no trace. No trace, no telling of what happened. The Police are always quite baffled.’ He giggled again, yet this time it was heartier, and Jake thought it was rather creepy.

‘Lovely story, but I really need to go…’ Jake was cut off by the grey-haired man.

‘I know of you. You survived the door. Usually, one touch, dead. But you…’ He swept down over Jake. Jake smelled carrots off this weirdo, and it just made him want to run. ‘You,’ he continued, ‘survived. You resisted a curse, the darkest of all Magic… You are Jake.’

Now the fact that he knew his name freaked Jake out a bit, but he could have found out his name by talking to his friends or spying on him… Yet his spine still tingled.

‘I have a name from long ago, and I doubt that you could pronounce it at this stage of your teen years. So call me Herbert.’ Herbert smiled weirdly again.

‘I’m not a baby,’ Jake said. ‘I’m 14, so I think I could say one name.’

Herbert grinned. ‘Alright,’ he said. ‘It’s…’ What Herbert said next was so unbearably hard to say, let alone write, Jake got a headache from trying.

Herbert smiled kindly at him. ‘You are the future defender of this earth. Well, one of them anyway. You are in the bloodline of The Blessed, six chosen ones who, aided by mythical creatures of lore, defend mankind in great need of peril. Naturally born with the ability to resist magic, The Blessed learn techniques of the Supernatural, the Worshipped, the Dead and other different categories of magic. When you touched the door, you felt pain, yes?’

Jake, who had been staring disbelievingly, trying to catch the words coming from Herbert’s mouth, was suddenly broken out of a trance at a question directed at him. ‘Er… yes, I did.’

‘With training, you will feel no pain in the future.’ Herbert suddenly leapt out of the dark room. Jake sat motionless, and heard Herbert rummaging around his shop.

After a few minutes, Herbert called Jake to him and said, ‘It was lovely to see you. Don’t come back though. It’s a bit dangerous for you right now.’ And with that, a quick grin and a giggle, Herbert pushed Jake out into the alley.

Stunned, Jake stood for a moment and then grinned. ‘What a weird old codger! Defender of mankind! Ha! As if… Can’t even pass tests at school, let alone defend the earth.’ Laughing, Jake headed for home.

At the shop window, Herbert took something out of his pocket. It was a small baby dragon, only about as long as both of his index fingers put together. It had golden scales, strong muscular legs, claws, and small, elegant wings. Placing it outside the shop, Herbert whispered, ‘Follow him home.’ The dragon looked at him, and then half ran, half slithered after Jake.

‘Let your training begin, Jake.’ Herbert smiled, opened his door with his bare hands, ignoring the spasms of pain, knowing his small knowledge of magic would protect him, and disappeared inside. Never to be seen again.

To be continued…