Code of Rainbow: Soaring Flame and the Dragon-transcending Magimal (Book 1)

Filton worked in a small rural village as a carpenter and a tree-feller. Although he worked very hard, he wasn’t a rich man and lived a tough life. What made life even tougher was that he had a baby boy to feed. But Filton never complained. Even though the boy wasn’t his son, he still loved him so much.

The boy’s name was Soarame.

Little Soarame had a cute, chubby face and a pair of big twinkling eyes. Filton believed that the boy had been born very curious – he kept stretching out his little hands towards the air, waving and grabbing at it. Then, after he learnt to speak, he repeatedly used just two words – “here” and “there.” This amused Filton for a while but then started to worry him, because it’s obviously a pretty odd behaviour for a toddler.

The worry kind of went away when Soarame started to learn more words; then his favourite words became colours, specifically, “red”. After Filton taught him more words on colours, the boy started to shout out different colours one after another.

‘Purple, grey, yellow, blue!’ On this particular day, the now five-year-old Soarame was once again running around the house and counting colours.

‘What happened to white?’ Filton asked, working on shaping a bedpost.

‘It’s not white, it’s grey!’ Soarame stopped running. ‘You just told me yesterday, remember?’

‘Of course, grey is different from white.’ Filton smiled at Soarame but he sighed inside – if this boy didn’t have a problem with his young brain, then he’s doing a good imitation of it. ‘What about red, then? I remember it’s your favourite colour before.’

‘It’s not red, it’s purple!’ Soarame clapped his hands. ‘You taught me that long ago!’

‘Oh sure, sure.’ Filton stroked Soarame’s little head. At first the boy used to shout ‘Red, white, yellow, green’, but now three words out of four had been replaced. Thinking of that, Filton had a sudden idea. ‘So, it’s not green, it’s blue?’

‘Yes!’ Soarame was running and jumping around. ‘Blue, blue!’

‘Okay, it’s blue.’ Filton wasn’t sure what he could do. Wait, what about yellow, then? Maybe it’s not yellow, it’s orange? Thinking of this, Filton asked the boy.

‘No, it’s yellow.’ Soarame stopped and looked at Filton, seemingly surprised. ‘I thought you were smart?’

‘Well…’ Filton almost choked up. ‘Maybe not as smart as you are.’

‘It is yellow, right?’ Soarame pointed at something. ‘Orange is different.’

Puzzled, Filton couldn’t help asking. ‘What yellow? Where?’

‘Here. See?’ Soarame was still pointing at something. It’s hard to tell if the “something” was nearby or far away.

‘See what?’ Filton looked in the direction Soarame was pointing. Come on, there’s nothing there!

‘The yellow dot!’ Soarame claimed. ‘Between the blue one and the purple one!’

‘What yellow dot?’ Filton was confused. ‘Blue where? Purple where?’

‘What’s wrong with you?’ Soarame became impatient. ‘They are right here! Oh, the yellow dot flies away now.’

‘What are you talking about?’ Filton became worried this time. It seemed that Soarame was seeing something colourful and was therefore trying to describe it – or maybe them.

‘Your eyes are bad!’ Soarame seemed very unhappy. ‘There are so many of them!’

‘Oh, I see!’ Filton decided to play along. ‘So, you were running because you were chasing them?’

‘Yes, but they keep flying away.’ Soarame seemed frustrated. ‘I can’t catch them.’

‘Okay, let me try.’ Filton was determined to figure out exactly what’s happening. He asked the boy to point at one of the mysterious “coloured dots”, and he tried to snatch it out of the air –

‘No, it just flies away, see?’ It seemed that Filton’s first attempt had failed.

‘You aren’t aiming right!’ The second attempt seemed to be worse.

‘What are you doing? You missed it completely!’ The third attempt, again, no luck.

‘I’m done with you!’ Soarame finally ran out of patience, and rushed out of the house to play.

‘Be careful! Don’t come back too late!’ Filton was sweating after his intense bout of elusive dot-chasing. He watched the boy run out, deep in thought. Maybe I should take him to a doctor. Filton had always wanted to do that, but seeing a doctor was expensive, so he had always hesitated to do it.

The village had always been a safe place, and Filton was happy to let Soarame go out of the house by himself. But the trouble was that the villagers didn’t seem very nice to little Soarame.

‘Look, it’s the troublemaker again.’ As Soarame ran down the village, a baker and his customers talked.

Although their voices were low, Soarame was sensitive enough to catch it. He stared at them, not happy. He had been experiencing unwelcoming situations like this since forever, and he had sort of guessed out the reason: he could see something that no one else could – a large number of coloured dots. The dots were everywhere around him, so he didn’t understand why nobody could see them. Soarame had always wondered what exactly these dots were, but since no one else could see them, he couldn’t get an answer.

The unpleasant experiences agitated little Soarame enough that he ran towards the small hill out of the village. He had never been there before, because Filton told him there were wild animals and dangerous traps. But Filton’s words were not always convincing – for example, he claimed he could see the colourful dots yet he obviously couldn’t.

So, little Soarame decided to go wild. He really liked the beautiful and quiet forest with no annoying gossip. And there’s no wild animal either, at least not yet.

‘I just knew you were bluffing again!’ Little Soarame humphed and walked deeper into the forest. He kept running and jumping after the colourful dots – they were everywhere. Until, suddenly –

‘Ahh!’ Soarame felt his legs get bundled together by something, and before he knew it, he’s rotated over and dragged upwards.

‘A trap!’ Seeing a thick hemp rope strapped around his legs, Soarame’s heart sank and he started to cry. It seemed that Filton wasn’t always bluffing; his claim could be true.

No matter how hysterically the poor little boy cried, no one was coming to help him – he’s too far from the village to be heard. Instinct for survival forced the boy to make a desperate attempt, and he took his thin legs out of the rope.

The next moment, his little body fell.

At the same time, a blast of wind came from nowhere and supported the little boy. The wind seemed to blow from Soarame’s body towards the ground, so that it slowed his fall and he landed with a light thump. He checked himself over and realized he’s barely even bruised from his fall.

‘What?’ A dumbfounded Soarame climbed up and stared at his hands. He vaguely recalled what happened in the last moment – a blast of grey dots surged at him and attached themselves to his hands and feet. As he reflexively waved them off while falling, the odd wind emerged and saved him.

‘That’s awesome!’ Little Soarame had always felt that the grey dots seemed to like him, but nothing like this had ever happened before. He kept staring at his hands, but the grey dots had gone away and became untouchable again.

‘Soarame, what’s the matter?’ Filton opened the door, and saw his boy with dishevelled hair and a dirty face. ‘God, what did you do? Where have you been?’

‘Just walking around.’ Soarame brushed the dirt from his body.

‘Nonsense! You got flowers and leaves on your butt!’ Filton checked him up and down. ‘These are from the hill!’

‘Help! Someone help!’

Right then, a scream came from somewhere in the village. Filton looked out and saw several people running and screaming –

‘Boar! Run!’

‘What a weird day!’ Filton frowned and relented in his interrogation of Soarame. ‘How could a boar be here in the village?’ As a tree-feller, Filton had encountered lots of wild animals like boars, but they only showed up in the wild forest and never came close to a village. Filton was wondering if those people had mistaken something else for a boar, until he went outside and saw the beast with his own eyes.

‘Holy crap!’ Filton dashed back into the house and fetched an axe, then closed the door before rushing back out. ‘Soarame, stay inside!’

‘Everyone! Come and help!!’

The street was in total chaos. As Filton had seen, it’s a ferocious beast, although he wasn’t certain if it’s a boar – he had never seen one as big as an elephant before. The beast was about ten feet tall, with a giant head and nose just like boar’s, and a pair of boar-like tusks over three feet long. Its eyes were red and its body was covered by some kind of black fur, long and thick. The beast was on a rampage, tearing around, ripping buildings up. If it had been aiming at people, some would have been killed.

‘Filton, thank god you’re here!’ Everyone was happy to see Filton come to help. ‘You are experienced at this, so tell us what to do!’

‘I would if it’s just a boar!’ Filton yelled. ‘But I don’t think it is! Unless its mother accidentally over-fed it!’

Wooaaal! The beast roared, and stood on its hind legs like a bear.

‘That’s not a boar! Something’s wrong!’ someone yelled.

‘What, then?’ another shouted back.

‘Defend yourselves! We can’t let it destroy our village!’ Filton shouted. ‘We don’t know what it is, so don’t attack, just stick together!’

Wooaaal! The beast pounced on a lone man, knocking him away like a stray leaf. Filton joined the other men in attacking the beast, hacking and slashing at it with all kinds of weapons. However, the unknown beast seemed to have a really thick layer of skin; it’s very difficult for Filton to hurt it even with his tree-felling axe.

‘We can’t beat it!’ People started to fall back. ‘What now?’

‘We can’t admit defeat! This monster is knocking down our houses!’ Filton yelled anxiously. ‘If we let it go through the village, we’ll all be homeless!’ Filton was right; especially as his house was the nearest one and Soarame was inside.

‘But we can’t… Arghhh!’ A man tried to argue with Filton, but the beast threw him up into the air.

‘Darn it!’ Filton cleaved hard at the beast’s neck with the axe once again. This the axe cut through its tough skin, but it got stuck in its muscle. The beast was enraged by the sharp pain; it swung its neck and tossed Filton away like a roll of paper. Filton landed right on the steps of his own house. His forehead smashed against the wooden handrail, stunning him and making him bleed furiously.

‘Filton! Watch out!’ The villagers were dumbfounded to see this. They wanted to help, but no one dared to charge at the beast anymore. The enraged beast swang its neck to throw the axe off, then turned towards Filton, charging at him.

‘NO!!’

Right then, the door of the house opened, and a little figure jumped out. ‘STOP!’

‘NO! Get away!’ People screamed at Soarame, but it’s too late.

Just when everyone was expecting the beast to crush the poor boy, something weird happened – it abruptly changed its trajectory and knocked into the house, barely avoiding both Soarame and Filton. The big weight and tough body of the beast knocked the house left and right, but fortunately it didn’t collapse.

Filton came to sense at the noise, and he’s terrified to realise what had happened. ‘Soarame, are you out of your mind?’ There’s chaos around the house; some men were motioning to take Filton and Soarame away from the beast, but all they managed to do was shaking and hesitating as the big creature turned back from the house.

‘GO AWAY!’ The little boy was howling at the big boar-like beast, ignoring Filton. Everyone panicked; the beast must be ready to strike again.

However, the beast’s reaction puzzled everyone. It pulled back from the little boy, hesitating, seeming to sense a threat somehow. Instead of attacking, it’s staring at him, but didn’t move closer.

‘GO! AWAY!! YELLOW!!’ Soarame howled as loudly as he could. Although the boy tried his best, his voice was still neither scary nor commanding. In fact, it wasn’t even that loud. However, the next second, the beast turned around and ran away. The villagers looked on, dumbfounded, jaws hanging like they were about to drop off.

‘What the heck?’ Filton struggled to his feet on shaky legs. His knees were knocking like his legs were trying to clap. ‘Soarame, didn’t I ask you to stay inside!’

‘Hey, Filton, he saved your life!’ Everyone came over. They sized Soarame up and down with wide, frightened eyes. ‘Boy, what did you do?’

‘I told it to leave!’ Soarame answered, rubbing his sore throat.

‘Of course.’ The neighbours were amused, despite their remaining fear. ‘What exactly did you say? Go away, yellow?’

‘Yes! It’s yellow and I think it’s afraid of purple!’ Soarame claimed. A few minutes ago, when Filton was in danger, the colourful dots suddenly started to gather around him again; this time the purple ones. Although Soarame didn’t know what they could do, he’s filled up with courage and had decided to strike at the scary beast.

‘The beast is yellow?’ People were not sure if they should agree with that – the beast was black. As for purple… there’s nothing purple at all.

‘Never mind, just leave it.’ Filton waved towards the crowd. ‘Let’s take care of the wounded first, then the collapsed houses.’

‘Right! You don’t really think a five-year-old scared the beast off, do you?’ Another man agreed. ‘There must be something else, like it suddenly missed its papa.’

People chuckled and walked away to help. Meanwhile, Soarame was looking at his own little hands, flipping them up and down – a cluster of purple dots were leaving his hands, back to his surroundings to start swirling again. Only then, Soarame suddenly felt a wave of fear; he had no idea why he suddenly toughened up and challenged the beast. But he had a strange feeling that it’s due to the purple dots – they brought him the courage and power, so that he felt fearless and scared away the beast.

The rumour about what had happened started to spread. However, most people talked proudly about how they fought bravely against the beast, and finally defeated it. Of course, Filton and Soarame were in the story; but, as the story went, the beast ran away because it feared the crowd of brave villagers. Soarame, on the other hand, was a poor kid living in an illusion.

****

One day, Filton was watching Soarame again – chasing some invisible colourful stuff. Right then, there’s a knock on the door.

‘Greetings!’ An old man was standing outside, wearing dishevelled clothes.

‘Hello, can I help you?’ Filton assumed the man was a beggar.

‘Yes, I need some help, but it’s hard to explain…’ The old man said, embarrassment visible on his face.

‘Not a problem at all.’ Filton smiled. ‘I will get some bread and water for you right now, but, I’m sorry, I don’t have any coin to spare.’

‘That’s nice of … wait, what?’ The old man seemed puzzled.

‘Sorry, I know this house looks big, but I’m really not rich at all.’ Filton sighed and was about to turn around.

‘Hold on…’ A look of realisation crossed the old man’s face. ‘I would just like to rent a spare room from you. I’m new to this village.’

‘Pardon?’ Filton was surprised. This old man was indeed a new face, but he did not look to be able to afford a room. After chatting a bit, Filton was convinced that this man was no threat. ‘My name is Filton. Please come in.’

‘Scankeen. Pleasure to meet you.’ The old man seemed like a gentleman with a decent education. Scankeen took a quick look at the only vacant room, and he decided to stay. ‘This should be enough for a year, but if not let me know.’

‘Err… sure… hmm…’ Filton was bewildered when the old man put a bag of silver coins into his hand. ‘Scankeen, you don’t need to pay this much in advance.’

With that, Filton couldn’t help sizing Scankeen up – tall and thin in shape, white beard to his waist, wrinkles all over his face, and a cloak matted with clay. Filton was amazed that this person actually possessed so much fortune. He staggered because of distraction, and hurriedly propped his body against the door plank, causing a series of noises somewhere.

‘Watch out!’ Scankeen suddenly raised his voice – a wooden beam was falling off the roof. This was most likely a delayed effect from the beast’s attack last time, and Filton’s impact on the structure made it happen.

Filton caught a glimpse in his peripheral vision. Arms protecting his head, Filton was surprised to feel nothing but his cold sweat. The beam should have fallen right onto his head, but…

‘What’s this?’ Filton raised his head, and saw the beam floating on top of him quietly. A few feet away, Scankeen was pointing at it with his index finger.

‘What. Is. Going. On?’ Filton was stunned.

‘Grey?!’

The next moment, Soarame’s joyful shout aroused Filton. Before he reacted, the boy had already dashed to them. ‘You are full of grey!’

‘Shh!’ Filton stopped Soarame. Scankeen’s mysterious performance had already overworked his brain and he didn’t want any more trouble. ‘Go ride your wooden horse, boy.’

‘No, it’s dull!’ Soarame protested. ‘I wanna play with grey!’

‘Not now. I’ll be your horse later, but you be quiet now!’ Filton commanded. Riding a horse had been Soarame’s favourite game; of course, sometimes his horse was Filton. Ever since Filton had let Soarame ride him for the first time, Soarame would ask from time to time, giving Filton real headaches.

‘Hold on.’ Scankeen cut in. He looked interested. ‘What do you mean by “grey”, boy?’

‘The grey dots!’ Soarame exclaimed. ‘On your finger!’

‘What!’ Scankeen looked surprised. ‘So, you are talking about these small grey dots that keep swirling around my finger?’

‘Yes! And on the wood!’ Soarame pointed at the floating wood beam. ‘See? Filton, your eyes are bad! He can see them!’

‘What’s going on?’ Filton was confused. He looked at Scankeen. ‘You are kidding him, right?’

‘No, he’s not!’ Soarame yelled before Scankeen had a chance to speak. ‘He can see them!’

‘Well, let me make sure we are indeed talking about the same thing.’ Scankeen seemed really excited for some reason, his breath becoming rapid. With a slight wave of his finger, the wood beam landed in a corner of the house. ‘Where are the grey ones now?’

‘Oh my god!’ Soarame’s eyes suddenly widened. ‘They moved to your left foot! How did you do that?’

‘Oh my god.’ Scankeen’s eyes widened too. ‘You really can see them!’

‘Oh my god…’ Filton’s eyes widened even more. ‘What’s going on?’

‘What else can you see?’ Scankeen asked urgently, completely ignoring Filton. ‘Any other colours?’

‘Purple, grey, yellow, blue!’ Soarame was proving his colour naming skills to be quite proficient. ‘Can you put purple in your hand?’

‘Sorry, dear, I can’t.’ Scankeen said quickly. ‘One more time, tell me where they are now?’

‘On Filton’s legs!’ Soarame clapped his hands excitedly. ‘How did you do that?’

‘What. Is. Going. On?!’ Filton screamed. ‘You are all kidding me, right?’

‘I’m kidding no one.’ Scankeen finally realised that he’d been rudely ignoring Filton. ‘Your boy is special – he can see magic elements!’

‘What?’ Filton wasn’t sure if he’d heard right. ‘Magic?’

‘Yes, the colourful dots have a name – magic elements.’ Scankeen nodded seriously. ‘In other words, your boy has magic gifts and could grow up to be a wizard!’