Vocatum Sunturran (Call of the Sunturran)

The Penthor Family Children’s Home was the most famous children’s home known to London. Mr Penthor, a large balding man, was a banker who worked in Westminister. His wife Mrs Penthor, the matron of the children’s home, was a small plump woman with short blond hair and did what ever her husband told her to please him. Of course, she was the proudest of housewives, dedicated to keeping the home at 27 Oak Drive in Sevenoaks at it’s best, making sure that the lavish, towering building was always the most extravagant on the drive. Mr and Mrs Penthor were the proud parents of their son Arthur, who considered himself royalty amongst all the home’s children. He was a very spoilt sixteen year old boy who had blond hair, blue eyes, was very fit, very handsome and very popular.

At the home, nearly all the children were under the age of twelve. The oldest was a sixteen year old boy called Aiden, a skinny teenager with dark hair and green eyes. Aiden was brought to the home when he was two days old having been found on the side of the road under a blanket outside Stockwell park in Brixton. Most of the children at the home preferred to avoid Aiden- he had been involved in many strange accidents at the home in which many of the children got hurt. The only person in the home that had not been hurt in any of these accidents was Mr and Mrs Penthor’s son Arthur. Arthur was in fact the closest person Aiden had to a friend.

Arthur had always shown a slight friendliness towards Aiden. He liked to think of Aiden as his “personal servant in the palace of Penthor” as Aiden would do most of the things he said. Though Arthur loved to pick on Aiden, if any of his friends, or children at the home were to bully Aiden, he would protect him.

It was late on a Friday night. Aiden was in Arthur’s room helping him pack for a weekend trip into London.
“That’s not what I asked you to get” complained Arthur when Aiden had brought him a jacket, “That’s my dark blue hoodie, I asked you to bring me my black one”.
“More like ordered” muttered Aiden under his breath as he walked away to find the other jacket. “Now Aiden. I have a request for you” said Arthur as Aiden walked back with the correct jacket “My mum is only taking me to London so she can do some shopping in Oxford Street. I do not want to spend my weekend in a bunch of stupid designer stores. So. Don’t take this as if we’re actually friends, but I would like it if you came with me”. “That’s kind of you, but I’m sure one of your friends would be much happier going with you” replied Aiden trying to get out of having to listen to Arthur gloat about himself all weekend. “Yes. I suppose” said Arthur in return. “But, Aiden. None of my friends will carry my things around london for me. Will they?” Arthur turned gave Aiden a small mischievous smile. Aiden then thought ‘Well this can’t be as bad as many of the other thing’s he’s made you do’ whilst thinking about the time he was forced to climb down a sewer pipe to collect a 5 pound note Arthur had dropped. “Fine” Aiden sighed, and he walked out the room before Arthur could order him to do anything else.

The next day, Aiden got up eight thirty in the morning to get ready to leave for London at nine thirty. He also, being Arthurs personal alarm clock, went to wake Arthur up, nearly being hit by an empty bottle thrown by Arthur in the process. As Aiden was the oldest out of all the children at the home and he had been in the home the longest, his bedroom was on the same floor as the Penthor family’s bedrooms. This was convenient because he didn’t have to walk up and down two flights of steep and creaky steps every morning to wake Arthur. After getting dressed, Aiden tried as best as he could to walk down the creaky steps quietly, so he did not wake any of the other children, but failed when he heard what seemed to be an elephant jumping on the ground and turned to find Arthur stomping down the stairs as loud as he could, waking up everyone in the process.

When Aiden got downstairs, he walked into the kitchen to find Mrs Penthor speaking to another woman. He assumed that she was stepping in for Mrs Penthor whilst she was out for the weekend. She was very old, with her grey hair tied into a bun and her small round glasses resting on the end of her long nose. She also wore very old fashioned clothes, she looked a bit like one of those old matrons you would find in a painting from the middle ages. She turned to see Aiden walking towards the kitchen table. As she looked at him, something happened that made his heart skip a beat, her grey eyes (this was only for a split second) flashed a different colour. He thought he saw them turn red, it was like the eyes of a demon, or a witch. Aiden shook it off. ‘Nah, must have been my imagination, or the way the light hit her eyes. You know there’s no such thing as witches and demons’ he thought and continued to walk to the table to get breakfast.

At nine thirty they set off. Aiden had to spend the fifty minute drive from Sevenoaks, to London listening to Arthur boast about how amazing he was at football and how he thought he was probably good enough to be in a UK football team. Even though this really annoyed Aiden, he could not disagree to this as it was quite true. Arthur was amazing at almost anything. The first time he had gone to a football lesson when he was four he managed to score nearly twice as many goals as his coach in a one-on-one game. He was also an astounding fighter, he had never taken any lessons but he’d taken on many well trained fighters and beaten all of them. Even so, having to listen to Arthur gloat about this every single day of the week did get on Aiden’s nerves.

As soon as they had arrived at a small hotel near Oxford Street, the boys dropped their bags off and Arthur went to tell his mother that he and Aiden would be going out. As he walked out of her room Aiden could hear her yell after him “Be careful don’t let any-”.

As they were leaving the hotel, Aiden asked “What was she talking about?”.
“It’s nothing” replied Arthur “She thinks that we’ll be attacked by chavs or something. We’ll be fine”. Aiden gave him an uncertain look back.

Aiden had never been to a big city before. It was like being in a crowded jungle of buildings and cars. Every so often he would get pushed around by the crowds, but he would ignore them because he was so mesmerized by the massive shops and department stores all around him. Though, there was something that made Aiden feel very uncomfortable, it wasn’t the fact that he was in an unfamiliar place. He could swear that he and Arthur were being followed. It wasn’t that he could see anybody, it was more of a feeling. He brushed it off, ‘as long as we are in a crowded area, no ones going to try and attack us. And also Arthur can fight anyone off’ he thought to himself. The boys continued to walk through the crowded streets until Arthur turned off into an empty alley way. “Umm… Arthur. Where exactly are we going?” asked Aiden, starting to feel uneasy. “Don’t be such a wimp Aiden. This is a short cut. I found this amazing store last time I was in London. It’s faster to go through the alleys, it’s not as crowded.”
The boys continued to walk through the alley until they reached a group of older teenagers standing together smoking. One of them turned to Aiden and Arthur, he reminded Aiden of a rhino, he was very well built and looked like he was one that was not to be messed with.

“Oi, what do you fink you’re doin’ ‘ere” shouted the boy, he had a very strong cockney accent. Aiden was about to say something, but as usual Arthur butt in. “We’re just passing. You got a problem?”
“What did you jus’ say to me?” replied the boy, glaring at Arthur.
“I said, WHAT THE HELL IS YOUR PROBLEM?”
“Kid, that’s it. You’re dead”
The boy and his friends lunged at Arthur, shouting and swearing at him. Aiden though had completely zoned out.

Aiden was looking at a young girl. She couldn’t have been more than six, she had straight black hair and was wearing a snow white dress with a blood red ribbon tied around the middle. She had stepped out from a door way holding a small box in her hands. She was looking back at him. All was quiet. It was as if Arthur and the boys were not even there. It was just him and the girl. She started to walk towards him, as she did, the alley seemed to become as dark as night and her eyes started to turn as red as the ribbon on her dress. Aiden was not scared though, in fact, he did not feel anything. When she reached him she whispered something to him in a language he did not understand “Vos estis qui protegentibus. Is mos succurro vos reperio fatum. Quoniam tu nos ab Sunturran. Duobus pueris virtus magicis”. The girl then gave him the box and started to fade away, but as this was happening he could hear the girl whispering in his head ‘Two boys. This will lead you. Protect him…’

Suddenly before Aiden could think, reality hit him like he was being punched in the stomach. He was still holding the box, but before Aiden could stop to think about the box, he remembered Arthur. He was lying on the ground barely conscious and a the group of teenagers were kicking him, there were too many of them for Arthur to take on alone. It was a wonder how they had not noticed Aiden. He ran to them yelling “Get off him, he did not mean anything, I swear! Get off, Get off!” Then without warning, Aiden felt a huge surge of power flow through him and before he knew it, a huge force had pushed all of the teenagers away from Arthur. They went flying in all directions, it was like something out of a superhero movie. They all hit the walls with a tremendous force. None of them got up.