The Legend Unleashed. L.S. Strange

      Chapter 1

      Michael Smithfield watched as the second hand on the clock slowly made its way around the face. It moved agonizingly slow, tick…tick…tick, with each second seeming like an eternity. Just two minutes until it was three o’clock, and he would be released from the bondage of school for an entire summer. Anxiously he watched the clock with the anticipation that could only be experienced by a child. All he could do was concentrate on this keeper of the time. His fingers nervously traced the edges of his notebook, and his breathing quickened. He was so hyped up that his right leg was pounding up and down tapping the bottom of the desk.

      Michael was as tense as a wound spring, just waiting for release. He licked his lips and never removed his eyes from that generic classroom clock. Michael was not usually a clock-watcher, typically being the last one to leave class collecting his things only after the bell had rung. Today was different. An adventure was waiting for him, and the clock was binding him here. He had been watching the clock since 2:30 p.m., trying with all his might to will it to move faster, but it just plugged along. The silence of the classroom was almost deafening to Michael as he positioned himself in his seat ready to bolt at the sound of the bell; his freedom ring.

      The classroom remained quiet as the attention of all the students was riveted on the clock. The teacher, Ron Kingston, was sitting at his desk, scrolling through Facebook on his tablet. He was a young man on his first teaching assignment. Being incredibly handsome, he was the subject of many daydreams of the young female student body. Ron’s jet-black curly hair made any style we wore look gorgeous. An olive complexion enhanced his chiseled features with deep brown eyes that mesmerized. A body that was sheer sculpted muscle, not one loose or saggy spot on it. Not many of his college buddies, with their beer bellies already blocking their feet, could boast that.

      As the time drew near, Mr. Kingston felt a twinge in his heart. He had to let these kids go for the summer. This was a difficult matter since he had become close to this class and looked at all of these students as though they were his own children. Ron had to stop thinking like this for the sake of depressing himself.

      He managed to push this from his mind knowing he would spend the first part of the summer with one of his students, Michael. Ron had known Michael’s family most of his life and had become very close to them. He had no family of his own, and Michael’s family sort of adopted him. Over the next two weeks, they would be toughing it out in the wilderness on a camping trip in the Colorado Rocky Mountains.

      The shill ring of the school bell interrupted Ron’s thoughts. A loud cheer burst from the students as they fled the classroom, papers flying.

      Michael was the first one out of the door. He left the classroom, which was on the second floor of the school, and made a beeline for the stairs. He placed his butt on the banister and sailed down to the first floor. As he approached the bottom, he jumped off and made a perfect landing. Michael was a good-looking kid and very popular among his thirteen-year-old female classmates. His sandy blond hair had a slight waive to it. Styled in a popular cut, it hung down his forehead but did not cover his sparkling blue eyes. He was the tallest boy in class, which made him appear older than his actual years.

      Being