When the Sky Meets the Sea

Chapter 1: Hawks at Aggrobah

A pair of dark brown eyes fluttered open as a deep groan was heard.

"Ugh, my head feels so fuzzy all of a sudden-" This voice came from no one other than Frankester Harris, or otherwise known as Frankie.

"Oh thank goodness, you're awake!" A cheery female voice rang in the room. The sound of several footsteps getting louder and louder was followed. "The wizard has awaken!"

"Ugh, Nalia, can't it wait? It's like, seven in the morning- oh hi!"

Once Frankie's blurry vision cleared up, he could see some kind of white cat donned in light blue clothing walking with a pair of feet... how was that possible... and this pink genie floating around. To him, the genie looked like a genie-version of Princess Peach from the Mario series which gave him a chuckle.

"What's so funny?" asked the pink genie. "You weren't that laugh-y daff-y when Overlord Xerxes wiped you out, heh. You should've seen the look on your face- ow!"

The cat, Nalia, elbowed the pink genie. "You should be mindful of the words exiting your mouth, Istar."

"Well so-rry." The genie chuckled but hung her head low in shame before looking back to Nalia and Frankie. "I'm Istar. The house Djinni of this... house. Yeah, I work for Sultana Sharzad." She introduced herself. "This is Nalia Dunestrider, she studies in Pigswick Academy in Wysteria but she's here to pay me and Sultana a visit." Istar added while glancing to Nalia. "It's finally nice to meet you, young wizard. Paul Hawkbane, correct?"

This confused Frankie even more. What the hell is a walking cat and a genie doing here? Or is he still on earth? And... young wizard? Overlord Xerxes? Paul Hawkbane? Boy, this was giving him quite a headache.

"Wait... who the hell are you?" Frankie began to interrogate defensively, quickly standing up on the bed he was lying on a few minutes ago pointing accusingly at Nalia and Istar. "Where am I? Who the hell am I? How the hell did I get here? Wait... where are my friends?!"

"Whoa whoa whoa, easy there tiger." Istar cornered him and helped calm him down.

Nalia motioned Frankie to sit back in bed. "You fainted during a battle with Overlord Xerxes. Well, it's fine since it was your first time battling him." Istar snickered. "Bet he wasn't that easy to beat. Oh well, the bad news is that he's gonna start wreaking havoc once he gets in the graces of some random being and yada-yada-"

"I don't understand anything. Where did I come from?"

"Uh... from the Arcanum?" Nalia nervously answered. Sighing after, she added, "I guess it's safe to say that the young wizard Paul here has gotten amnesia. Maybe Xerxes did hit him several times too hard in the head..."

"Wait wait wait wait wait. You two don't understand. I was in the library with my friends at school because we were in detention. Then we opened up this book and I read a passage from it by accident. Then I remember being sucked into that freaking book, a popping headache that I was sure would split me in half, and BOOM, here I am, talking to some random genie straight out of Aladdin and a walking cat."

Nalia and Istar listened to his tale, looked at each other for five seconds, and burst out laughing as if they were having a session of girl talk, talking about embarrassing secrets.

Istar took the time to catch her breath as her laughing died down. "So you're telling me, you have no idea that you are Paul Hawkbane, Prodigious Sorcerer and Arcanum Understudy?"

Frankie shook his head no.

"Ha! Oh, we are so dead once the Sultana finds out about this. She's gonna think we KO'd your head with a giant boulder and dyed your hair purple or something! Oh wait, your hair really is purple." Istar continued to blabber, earning her another elbow jab from Nalia. "Ow! Stop doing that! You're hitting someone who works for a person part of the royal family, you know!"