“What the hell!” Ambrose yelled as he looked out his window to the street below.
It was a normal morning for Ambrose until he looked out his bedroom window, and instead of the normal Darkshore City street he was expecting, it was filled with what looked to be fantasy creatures. Some flew above the cars or passed through them like they weren’t even there, and on the sidewalk, creatures walked through the crowds like they weren’t giant or red-skinned. What looked like ghosts of animals and people mingled among the crowds, jumping through people and playing with one another happily, sometimes they interacted with the fantasy creatures, making people look at them a little strangely, but not saying anything otherwise.
“Maybe I’m still a little tired,” Ambrose muttered to himself as he stepped away, closing his blinds to prevent himself from looking outside.
Ambrose decided to ignore what he just saw and continue on with his morning routine, he had to be at work in an hour.
“Maybe I won’t drink before bed from now on,” Ambrose told himself as he entered his bathroom, pausing when he saw himself in the mirror, he had short, curly blond hair, sharp eyebrows, blue eyes and an athletic body from daily exercise.
But what he saw behind him is what shocked him. Floating behind his body was what looked to be the top half a giant ghostly man in plate armour. On its curly-haired head sat an intimidating red crown, with diamonds embedded in it equidistant from one another. From the neck down it had black plate armour with a golden script running along the edges, it glowed an otherworldly colour that left Ambrose feeling somewhat intimidated. On its hip sat a sword that looked to be made from the same metal as his crown, it had a golden script running along its entire length and glowed just like his armour. And he was staring right into Ambrose’s eyes.
“H-hey man, what are you doing in my bathroom!” Panicked, Ambrose said the first thing that came to mind, which immediately made him feel like an idiot.
Contrary to his expectations, the ghostly king just continued to stare at him, staying completely still.
“Uh, you aren’t here to kill me or something?” Ambrose asked as he slowly walked out of his bathroom. Once again he didn’t get an answer.
As Ambrose moved he watched as the ghostly king followed behind him, somehow matching his pace exactly while walking backwards.
“Are you… attached to me?” Ambrose deduced that somehow this ghostly king was connected to him somehow. Surprisingly, the king responded by nodding his head in agreement.
“Continue… day.” Ambrose jumped as he heard someone speaking directly into his head. He wasn’t sure how, but he could tell it wasn’t able to be heard by others.
“Okay? You’re not gonna kill me or something right?” Ambrose asked it again, to which he earned another nod.
And so Ambrose continued on with his morning routine, pointedly ignoring the giant man behind him. He quickly finished brushing his teeth, showering, and getting dressed. While he was eating he discovered that he was a lot stronger than yesterday when he deformed a spoon when he put too much pressure onto it. He concluded that it had to do with the ghost guy, and continued to eat with a new spoon. On his way out of his building, he saw a family of what appeared to be people with dog ears and tails walking by him. He watched as they looked behind him, at the Ghost King in awe then sent him a friendly wave as he passed them.
“Can everyone see you? Or just fantasy things?” He asked the ghost king as he walked by a mirror, it shook its head in denial, then nodded. Ambrose was happy to see it being more interactive with him, but he was interested in knowing if it could talk more.
“I know you can talk, why don’t you just do that?” He asked innocently, but the Ghost King frowned and looked away in disappointment.
“Hard!… You... not strong” It spoke into his mind with a harsh tone. When he looked back at the Ghost King it was glaring at him with its arms crossed.
“I’m not strong enough? Sorry.” Ambrose spoke with indignation and stormed off to work, ignoring the strange sights around him.
“Dunn! You’re late!” Ambrose grumbled as his boss reprimanded him, while the Ghost King behind him glared.
“Sorry boss! You wouldn’t believe the morning I’ve had!” Ambrose apologized to his boss, happy with the joke he made.
“That’s what you all say! You wouldn’t believe how many people I’ve fired for it! Get to work!” His boss laughed while he walked off, slapping him on the back in a friendly manner as he passed.
Ambrose quickly registered himself and found his seat, beginning to work as soon as possible. Ambrose worked as an editor for a publishing company and had a daily quota of work he was required to do, and the sooner he finished the sooner he could relax.
“So, why were you actually late? Did you bring that girl home?” His coworker, David, asked. Ambrose took a deep breath and looked over at him.
David was a good looking man with black curly hair, olive skin and short stature. He and Ambrose were friends and often hung out together after work, they started working during the same week and had many similar hobbies. Most importantly, he didn’t have anything weird about him and didn’t seem to be able to see the giant Ghost King behind him. Ambrose smiled at this while letting out his held breath.
“No, I’ve just had a weird morning. When I woke up I saw these… fantasy things - I don’t know what to call them - walking around and flying, and there’s this giant ghost guy behind me too. I’ve just been trying to figure it out.” Ambrose admitted, he wasn’t sure if he should tell people, but he knew David was a good guy. Ambrose was surprised when the smile fell from David’s face and he scooted over so he was right beside Ambrose, then looked over at his computer like he was checking for something.
“Have you told anyone else?” He asked Ambrose in a serious tone while checking over his work.
“Uh, no? What’s wrong?” Ambrose asked carefully, he was getting an ominous feeling suddenly.
“Good! Good! Well, sorry for hiding this from you, but I’m sure you’ll understand. Welcome to the secret side of Darkshore City. Don’t tell anyone else until I get you initiated, you’re not supposed to let mundanes know about it unless it can’t be avoided.” David said as he turned to him with a good-natured smile, but kept a serious tone.
“Wait, what? I’m confused, what does ‘mundanes’ mean?” Ambrose asked in confusion, he definitely was not expecting this.
“Don’t worry man! Just don’t tell anyone else, alright. Meet me after work.” David said as he scooted back to his desk, acting like he didn’t just confuse Ambrose even more.
Eventually, Ambrose got back to work, it took him a while, but he finished his quota before the workday was over and stewed in his thoughts for the rest of the time. When it was time to go home he waited outside for David, clearing his head for whatever was to come.
“Ambrose!” David said as he ran up to him, but didn’t stop. Ambrose fell into step next to him and walked in silence until they made it to their usual bar.
“Don’t make a big fuss when we go in, alright. I’ll explain it.” David said right before they entered.
“What do you me-” Ambrose shut himself up as they entered into the bar, all around him were people with pale skin and red eyes, some people stood out, like the band, a group of attractive elf-like people with pointy ears and skin of various shades of black and white. At the bar was a purple-skinned woman with large bull-like horns and bulging muscles, she deftly handled glasses despite her large sausage-like fingers. As soon as they entered David pulled out a badge that shined in the dark light, it had a large ‘G’ on it and had a script like the Ghost King's armour and sword running along its edges. People moved out of their way quickly when they saw the badge, they quickly made it to the bar where the purple-skinned woman waited with a smile.
“David! Ambrose! What brings you two here?” She asked, ignoring the elephant in the room that was the Ghost King floating behind Ambrose with a scowl on its face.
“Samantha! Hello! As you can see, Ambrose here awoke this morning. I need to initiate him.” David spoke while gesturing to the scowling spirit behind Ambrose. Ambrose kept quiet, but he really wanted to say something to Samantha, she looked very different.
“Yes, yes. We all see that David. Want a backroom? I’ll bring you some drinks,” Samantha said while the wall behind the bar slid away, exposing a hallway with a bunch of doors in it.
“Not today, thank you anyway,” David said as he pulled Ambrose along into the hall, the wall closing behind Samantha as she entered with them.
“Can I get an explanation?” Ambrose asked as he was quickly running out of patience, he and David may be friends, but that doesn’t mean he can just drag him along forever.
“Yeah, let’s just sit down first, not much longer anyway,” David said as he pulled open the second door in the hall, taking Ambrose with him. Ambrose sat down across from David and Samantha on the couches.
“So, explanation?” Ambrose asked while relaxing into the deceptively comfortable couch.
“Yeah, sorry man. This is just how it goes.” David said as he leaned forward. Suddenly a book appeared on the table between them, greatly surprising Ambrose, who thought he was all out of surprise for the day.
“Basically, you awoke your latent magical powers. What that means is that you can now interact with the entirety of the supernatural world, you can see it, touch it, smell it, the whole package. I’m what's called a Guardian, I am just a normal human who can use magic. Samantha here is what's called a Troll, she’s the same as before, she just looks different now. This goes for almost everybody you see, they aren’t monsters, they’re just people who look different. Got it?” David asked, making sure Ambrose got the whole rant. Ambrose nodded but looked somewhat offended that David would think he would be mean to people just because they look different.
“I know you aren’t going to discriminate just because people look different, but it’s part of the rules so I gotta say it. Now some history, roughly 3000 years ago there was a great schism in which the supernatural world separated from the mundane world, which is why you didn’t know about it until now. Other than some ‘myths’ here and there, we’ve done a great job of keeping it secret. My job as a Guardian is to keep it secret and guard mundanes against the supernatural world among other things. We also have to conduct these initiations when we spot a newly awoken mundane, that's you. Any questions?” David asks as he leaned back, relaxing into the comfortable couch.
“Obviously! What do I do know that I’m… awoken?” Ambrose asked unsure of himself.
“Well, you could continue on with your life, nothing much would change, just some new stuff in your day-to-day life. Second, you could join The Guardians, you will get paid and get to fight supernatural threats. Finally, you could do something else supernatural related, like working in a place like this bar or study magic, or something else. There are more avenues, of course, these are just the ones I know you’ll like the most.” David said as he pushed the book towards Ambrose, who was deep in thought.
“Can I be a Guardian?” Ambrose asked after a few minutes of compilation, he didn’t need long to know what he really wanted.
“Of course, take this book home with you and read it. It has all the things you need to become a Guardian. I’ll come to your house tomorrow to go over it and make you a little more comfortable with all of this, I know you’re a little overwhelmed.” David said while gesturing to the book, then turned to Samantha.
“If you ever need anything you can come to me, I have a large information network, so I can solve and help with many problems. I’m also a type of Guardian.” Samantha said as she stood up, handing Ambrose a business card. Ambrose looked at it with amusement, it was a scratch-and-sniff.
“I was expecting something fancier,” Ambrose said as he tucked it away.
“Not everything needs to be magic, it's better you learn that now than when you blow up an apartment complex,” Samantha said ominously as she left the room to go back to work.
“Wait! What?” Ambrose was a little bewildered, how would he blow up an apartment complex?
“Don’t mind her, that was just a joke. Come on let’s get out of here.” David laughed as he rose from the couch.
“I’ll believe you for now,” Ambrose said as he left along with David.
“See you tomorrow!” David said as he left in the opposite direction, going to do something probably magic related.
‘This day has been a little fast for me, I need to sleep.’ Ambrose thought as he walked home, he wasn’t used to all of this magic stuff so he was quite tired from the day.
“Goodnight ghost guy,” Ambrose muttered as he fell asleep, thinking what the next day would bring. He was a little afraid but excited at the same time.
