A Wizard Golden Stone: The Kingdom of Chthonic Adventure

By John E Pointer

This first novel presents a grand adventure about a golden stone, the mystical education of a young boy, and a journey with his brother and friends to The Kingdom of Chthonic. Through this epic journey the young boy, with his brother and friends, travel to a magical kingdom, battle an evil warlock, his army, and his fire-eating dragons to s

• Language: English
• Publisher: BWA Publishing
• Release date: May 10, 2024
• ISBN: 9798869366764

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A Wizard Golden Stone

The Kingdom of Chthonic Adventure

John E Pointer

Copyright © 2024 by John E Pointer

All rights reserved. No portion of this book may be reproduced in any form without written permission from the publisher or author, except as permitted

by U.S. copyright law

Table of Contents

About the Author:

Dedication:

Acknowledgment

Preamble

The Beginning and The End of a Wizard

Chapter 1

The Village of Colmar and The Dome

Chapter 2

Mr. Wrikle & The Warlock

Chapter 3

The Village Mystery

Chapter 4

The Discovery at Mr. Wrikle’s Home

Chapter 5

The Wizards GoldenStone

Chapter 6

A Young Wizards Training

Chapter 7

The New Camp Site

Chapter 8

The Discovery

Chapter 9

The Magic and Spells Begin

Chapter 10

The Adventure Begins

Chapter 11

The Kingdom of Chthonic

Chapter 12

Travel Through Time

Chapter 13

The CentEarth Castle and Village of Grunlin

Chapter 14

The Cave and Hidden Chamber

Chapter 15

The Escape to the Forest

Chapter 16

The Castle Intrusion

Chapter 17

The Castle Invasion Plans

Chapter 18

The Castle Invasion

Chapter 19

The Search Mission

Chapter 20

The Escape

Chapter 21

The Dragon Battle

Chapter 22

Battle Preparation

Chapter 23

The Battle Royal Strategy

Chapter 24

The Passage Duels

Chapter 25

The Battle Royal

Chapter 26

Kingdom of Chthonic Victory

Chapter 27

Demise of the Tyrant and Kingdom Celebrations

Chapter 28

Preparation for the Celebration

Chapter 29

The Celebration and Departure

Glossary

About the Author:

John E. Pointer has been a world traveler for most of his life. His journey began in the 1950s when he joined the U.S. Navy, exploring both the Atlantic and Pacific regions. After his Naval career, he continued his travels and worked in various challenging and rewarding environments across the globe. Throughout his adventures, his favorite books were always by his side. His love for adventure books started during his early years growing up on a farm in Central America. Now retired, he hopes that his first novel, A Wizard's Golden Stone, will be just the beginning of his literary journey.

Dedication:

I dedicate this first novel to Mrs. Joan Marian Pointer, my wonderful wife and mother to my three children. Your ability to make everyone feel comfortable, secure, and loved were your greatest strengths. It has been more than 67 years since I first saw you walking across Grosvenor Square in London, England. I could not believe you would consider a date with me. You said yes, and we were married a year later. I look back over these past 66 years with so much happiness.

You were my soul mate and my inspiration for this first novel. I know you will be with me as I write the second adventure of The Wizard's Golden Stone. You have always helped me through thick and thin. You supported and loved us all and were always there to help me navigate life's challenges.

Joan, my beautiful and wonderful wife, you may be in heaven now, but I know you are looking down at us with a big smile on your beautiful face, saying, Forge ahead – make the best of life – and I'll see you soon. We have work to do up here, too.

Goodbye, my dear, sweet wife, and God bless.

Acknowledgment

First and foremost, I want to thank my brother, Jesse Earl just Jess for sticking with me and keeping our secret ofthe Golden Stone. Jess and I have personally experienced the power, balance, and resourcefulness of the GoldenStone as we grew up in the Central Mystic River ValleyBasin in Illinois near the Mississippi River.We havefollowed, explored, and had many of our adventures in and around the many tributaries and waterways of a small river called Crooked Creek. The Golden Stone has given bothhim and me a beautiful and abundant world of adventures. Thanks, Jess.

I would like to recognize my wife, Joan Marian Pointer,for her patience and understanding.I love and miss youmore than the heavens anduniverse.

I would like to thank my children, Denise S. Kleinfelter,Steven J. Pointer, and David R. Pointer, who have always believed in my world of stories and fantasy.

Lastly, thank you Mr. Wrinkle; and thanks to the peopleof Colmer for my wonderful young life that was full ofadventure.

Preamble

The Beginning and The End of a Wizard

There is an introduction needed before I present this andother adventures to the world.I am an old Wizard withmany adventures in my past.At my pleasure, some ofthese adventures will be exposed to the world before Iexhale my last breath in this world, and I pass on toWixcaelum, where old wizards withdraw and retire.

When I arrive in Wixcaelum, I will have revealed my last adventure to this world.I will have conducted my finalmagical incantation, chant, or spell. I will fade and vanish fromthisworldintoWixcaelum.UponarrivalinWixcaelum, I will be reunited with my beautiful wife, Ms. Joan. I will then throw my golden stone into the wizard’spool, where the golden stone is revitalized with its unique magicalpower.Itwilleventuallyfindariverorstream somewhere in this big world near where a young boy orgirl lives. Hopefully, this young person will have courage and a good heart.He or she will find my revitalized goldstone and begin their life as a young wizard.This golden stone will teach him or her the secrecies of a wizard, andthey will experience a world of wizardry and adventure.

I next must say that the real explanation and beginning of my providence, fortune, and destiny is with the discovery of the golden stone and its growing influence and powerover me, and with my future. I have found that the golden stone illuminates and radiates with the energy of the earth, andreflectsstability,patience,honesty,balance,andresourcefulness.The golden stone is of the Wixcaelumworld and it is found to release the correct balance of high magical powers.A Wizard only has his or her birth withthe discovery of a golden stone when released into thisworld from Wixcaelum.As a Wizard and his golden stone ages so does their power, energy, and dominance in thisworld.Withageandgoodfortune,aWizardwilleventually return to Wixcaelum; the stone will becomereenergized when thrown back into the wizard’s pool, and;

somewhere in this world a new young person will begintheir future wizardry.

Only children with special given birthrights on this vastearth have the ability to discover and see this golden stone.

There are customs, traditions, and laws that come with this discovery of the wizard’sstone.

First, a young girl or boy whose age is less than fourteenyears will discover the golden stone.Secondly, fromwherever the stone is found, this chosen child must see the golden stone as a bright golden object, and it will beckonthe child to pick up the stone.Third, after less than onehundred years as a practicing Wizard, he or she mustreveal at least one of their most giving and benevolentadventures to this world before passing in to Wixcaelum.Fourth, and most importantly, the golden stone may never be lostand notrecoveredbyits owner.If the stonevanishes, the Wizard’s spirit will be enslaved and tortured by evil deities.His or her spirit will die and fade intooblivion and their golden stone becomes crushed, never to be reborn with the coalition and harmony of a young child.

With the discovery of the golden stone and my beginning as a young wizard, my future has been governed by thesefour laws.I have not been a victim of or violated thesefourmajorlawsfornearlyonehundredyears.Asa Wizard, I have been tutored and granted the ability toperform secret powers and perform powerful magic fornearly one hundred years of mylife.

My time for Wixcaelum is near because I am now ancient; my magical power is declining and diminished.I mustnow make plans to reveal my first adventure.This firstadventure begins in the 1940s with the early life of a small boy living on a farm with his mother, father, and brotherjust outside a small village that we will call Colmar.Theadventure commences in a beautiful area called the Mystic River Basin in central Illinois with a young boy namedJohn, andhis brother named Jess.

Chapter 1

The Village of Colmar and The Dome

Colmar is the center of John and Jess Pointer’s lives. It isa tiny village with many farms nearby.This village is near a river, known by the local folk as Crooked Creek, near adark forest below a large hill, called The Dome, in thecenter of North America.John and Jess were taught inschool that Crooked Creek was a major river system called theLaMoineRiverandthatthisriverflowedsouthtowards the Illinois River.

However, everyone living near  Colmar would always call this river system CrookedCreek.The two Pointer boys and their friends wouldalways think of this mystic river and its many twists andturns as a wonderfulplace for their adventures.

Crooked Creek is on the border of the Pointer’s farm, near The Dome.

TheDomewasamysteriousandheavilyforestedwilderness near the village of Colmar and near the Pointer family farm.It was believed by many of the local village people that the Dome and Crooked Creek were created by unexplained, strange, and mysterious events.The boy'smother was a teacher, and she would tell John and Jess that the Dome was created in 1811 during significant historical earthquakes.She would tell them that they should notlisten to local gossip and that local village people wouldtalk about the Dome and Crooked Creek.She wouldexplain that deep fissures and cracks were formed thatextendeddeepinto theearth’scrust.Theearthquakepushed the earth’s surface upward creating a huge mound of stone and rock that over many years became the Dome.      As time passed, the Dome was covered by a thick and dark forest.John and Jess would learn about these earthquakes from their mother and in school. They would also listen to storiesthatlocalfolkwouldtalkaboutmysterioushappenings around the Dome.It was believed by manypeople around Colmar that the Dome and Crooked Creekwerecreatedbystrangeevents,whichnoonecouldexplain, during the early history of the Mystic River Basin.

The Pointer family lived on a two-hundred-and-fifty-acre farm in an old nineteen-century two-story farmhouse with wallpaperedwalls,akitchenwithtime-wornwoodcabinets,widewoodenfloorplanks,andwoodhandnotchedceilingbeams.

Thefarmhadalargebarnwith twolevels,wheretheupperlevelprovidedspaceforstorage of hay and grain. The lower level provided shelter for livestock.The barn had an entrance to a central atrium.  Both Jess and John believe that their home, outside thevillage of Colmar, offered a chance for adventure everyday.Throughout the year, they would believe that theirhomeandfarmwasthegreatestplaceonthisearth.Spring,summer,andfalldayswerespentattheirmany campsites on Crooked Creek with their friends.CrookedCreek had many small streams which ran through hiddenvalleys and forgotten forests.These tributaries, valleys,and forests were Jess andJohn’s playground.

ThePointer’sfarmboundary,totheWest,touchedCrookedCreekwhichcameoutofthedarkforestsurrounding the Dome.The Pointer farm is a few milesfrom the village of Colmar, and this is where their dad took his produce and grain harvest that he wouldsell.

Colmar has a general store owned by Frank DoLittle. The general store is where local folk go for their farm supplies and groceries.Mr. DoLittle was thought to be a good man who owns and manages many of the farms around Colmar. Tenant farmers would pay a share of their crops to live on farmland that belongs to Frank DoLittle.Mr. DoLittle and his wife Shirley were exceedingly kind to the local farmers and people who lived and worked in and around Colmar.Frank’sgeneralstorewasamagnetforthechildrenbecause he delighted in treating the local children withcandy.

There is also Jim VanBittle who works for Frank DoLittle as the manager of the general store.The boy’s dad andJim are best friends.Their father and Jim would spendmany a Saturday afternoon sitting on the front porch of the general store telling stories of their past and about growing up in and around Colmar.

John, Jess, and their friendsdelighted in sitting and listening to the stories they would tell.Jim and his wife Mary lived across the railroad tracks from the train depot ina stylish and eleganthouse.

Up the street from the general store, there is the local gasstation and grocery run by Wilber and Jessica Wickerback. Wilber has a small farm just outside of Colmar that hemanageswiththehelpofMrs.Wickerback.Mrs.Wickerback would compete with Mr. DoLittle weekly,providing the best treats for the children of the village.The kids living around Colmar loved this competition and so didJohnandJess.

Then there is the post office across the road from theDoLittlegeneralstore,whereeveryweekdayinthemorningyoucanfindlocaltownfolkandfarmerscollectingtheirmail,sitting,andtellingstories,anddiscussingtheirfarmproblemsandsuccesses.JakeEveroff is the postmaster.He and his wife, Evelyn, runthe post office and served hot meals andexcellent coffee.

Further up the road from the gas station and post office,there is Evermore Street. On Evermore Street, there is the ColmarchurchandtheColmargradeschool.Mostmornings and afternoons Jess and John would either walkorride their poniesthetwomilesfromtheirfarmtoEvermoreStreetgradeschool.Inthe1940stheColmar

grade school was a one-room schoolhouse with a potbelly stove in the corner for warmth in the winter.Grades onethrough eight were taught by one teacher all year long.Ms. Watz was the boy’s teacher, and she was a strict butexcellentteacher.WhenMs.Watzretired,Mrs.IvaPointerbeganteaching

allthechildren.Mostofthe children who went to the Colmar School lived on farmsaround Colmar.

Colmar also has a grain elevator where most of the farmers would bring their harvest for sale and where Mr. DoLittle would provide the farmers with fair prices for their crops. FrankDoLittlealsofunctionedasthePastoroftheMethodistchurchandalwaysgavehissermoneverySunday morning before Sunday school started.

Just outside of Colmar, next to the Pointer’s farm, livedthe Beckers on their farm.Mr. and Mrs. Becker were good friends with John and Jess’s dad and mom.John andJess’sdadwouldhelpMr.Beckerwithsomeofhissummer and fall crop harvests, and Mr. Becker would dothe same for their dad.They have two daughters, Jessica, and Louise, who Jess, and John spent many summer days togetherhavingfunandadventureinandaroundthe village of Colmar.

Then downriver, past the Becker’s farm, there was theKramerlands who lived and farmed their land.NickoKramerland and his wife were also good friends with John and Jess’s dad and mom.They have two sons, Jimmy, and Samuel,whoalsospentmanysummermonthswithJessica, Louise, Jess, and John, acting out their adventures around their campsites near Crooked Creek and the Dome.

Crooked Creek and the Dome were thought and believedby the local folk to be mystic, in that Crooked Creek began its flow north of the Dome fed by subterranean cavernous springs.Crooked Creek would wind around the Dome,into and through the forest.This winding and twistingstream of water would become larger and mysteriouslyappearoutfromthedeepforestandmeandersouthwesterlynearColmarandthenitswaterflowedsouthward towards the IllinoisRiver.

The local folk would tell stories about Witches, Ghosts,Spirits, and strange events that were thought to occur inand around the forest at Crooked Creek and The Dome.Over hundreds ofyears, there werestoriestold aboutstrange happenings where local people would go missingand years later reappear in the forest next to the Dome. In theearlynineteenforties,onesuchpersonwhowent missing was Jake Evermore who was a prominent city and state official.Jake and some of his friends would comedown from Chicago to the Colmar and Plymouth area tohunt deer in the forest around the Dome.Plymouth was a nearby village.John and Jess could remember and would always look forward to their arrival; they had big guns.These people looked different with their fancy huntinggear and dress.When they arrived from Chicago, John,Jess, and other children would sneak around the DoLittleand Everoff stores, looking and laughing at how funny and different these people looked.Both boys knew that theirdad and his friends did not like these people from Chicago.

Mr. Evermore and his friends would always gather at theDoLittle or Everoff stores, with their big cars and hunting rifles, before heading off on their hunting expeditions into theforestbelowtheDome.Theydidnotheedthewarnings from the local people; they laughed at thesewarnings and off they would go into the forest surroundingthe Dome.

On their last hunting trip, Mr. Evermore andone of his friends, Mr. Ortho, disappeared and no onecould ever findthem.

John and Jess could remember their dad and mom talking about how two men could just disappear and never befound.Their dad would always think that it had something to do with bootleggers or city criminals taking revenge.Their mother thought that it had something to do with the Dome and other strange events.

The local sheriff put together searchparties, and theyfound Mr. Evermore’s rifle and one of Mr. Ortho’s shoesin the forest.His family came down to Colmar with thepoliceandauthoritiesfromChicagotohelpwiththesearch, but no one could ever find Mr. Evermore and Mr.Ortho, or explain their disappearance.The authoritiesfrom Chicago and the local sheriff from Plymouth thought that someone in the area took revenge, or there had beenan argument between these two men resulting in someterrible event in the forest.

Duringthe1920-1930s,IllinoiswasgrippedbyProhibition and violence became a way of life that affected innocent residents of Illinois.The illegal bootlegging ofalcohol cost the lives of many residents.Prohibition ended in1933,buttheboy’sfatherthoughtthatpossibly

gangsters from Chicago could have been involved with the two men’sdisappearance.

John and Jess would sit for hours listening to their fatherand other farmers talk about liquor stills and the gangsters whocontrolledbootleggingofliquorinandoutofChicago.

After a long search, Mr. Evermore and Mr. Ortho werenever found.The search party disbanded, and the peoplefrom Chicago would leave and never return.Chicagoauthorities had a reward active for the discovery of eitherman.It was a mystery and disappearance that for yearswas never solved.

There were also other mysteries and stories passed downby Indians, pioneers, and settlers who lived and exploredin the local area around the Dome.Stories and tales were told of mysterious happenings and disappearances in the1800s after a series of large earthquakes.John and Jesswere both fascinated by their mother’s story about anancient lost world, discovered by coal miners, beneath the Mississippi River Valley basin.

This ancient world was thought to be thousands of yearsold.JohnwouldsaytoJessandhisfriends,Maybeone day we can venture down the river and try to find thisunderground lost world.

Jess would crazily look at John, saying You’re weird; I’m                          not going down into an underground city.Their friendswould agree that this wasa bad idea.

John and Jess’s life began in the nineteen thirties andexcept for the radio, and the local paper, they had littleknowledge of world events.John, Jess, and their friend’s world of adventures were carried out no more than tenmilesfromColmar,CrookedCreek,anditssmallmysterious tributaries and forest.They were aware of only a few world events that took place in the nineteen thirtiesand forties.

Their mother would talk about the legal right of women to vote, and she would teach the boys that this right to votewas established in the United States nationally in 1920.She wouldtellthe boysaboutthe 19th Amendment to theU.S. Constitution granting women the right to vote. They  would also hear their mother talking to their dad aboutAlexander Fleming’s discovery of penicillinin 1923.

Their father was more interested in pre-sliced wonder bread that became available nationwide in the 1930s. This led to the popular phrase the greatest thing since sliced bread.

In 1929, there was the Great Depression, followed by World War II starting in 1939 and ending in 1945.Jess and John would hear their dad, mom, and the local village people discuss these historical events.But these worldevents did not interest John or Jess; they would be moreinterested in the campsite on Crooked Creek and enjoying their adventureswith their friends.

At the perimeter of the forest and in the grassy meadowson their farm there were beautiful flowering black berrybushes and wild plants of many kinds.The forest acrossCrooked Creek and close to the edge of their farm was abeautiful place for the animals because they had plenty of comfortableplacestosleepandsweetberries,nuts,mushrooms, to eat and survive.The sounds of the forestwouldcompriseofmanynoisesfrombirdssinging,animals rooting in the underbrush, the groaning of treeswith the wind, hostile screeches from animals, and manyotherstrangesounds.Theforestwasdappledwithmysterious shafts of light. These shifting patterns of lightwould expose rocky creek streams, moss-covered fallen trees and thickets of ivy.

Crooked Creek would flow southward from the Colmar area through the center of Illinois. The small town of Colmar, Crooked Creek, the many farms, the Dome, and the forest would be John andJess and their friend’s playground.

There would be many days that the two boys would search out adventures with their friends within this beautiful area with its many forest streams that emptiedintotheCrookedCreek.Theywouldmaketheircampsites, fish, swim, and float for hours on their rafts on Crooked Creek.

There was a section of Crooked Creek where there existed a large stone with a strange mystical mark that resembled a lightning strike.From this large stone, Crooked Creekcame out of the deep forest and the Dome.The boys’father would always tell them that they must never gobeyondthislargestoneduringtheiradventuresonCrooked Creek.

Jess and John would play with their dog named Tippyand the ponies, Silver and Queen near the forest, theDome, and on their farm next to Crooked Creek.Theywouldwatchtheanimalsplay,hideinthewoods,swim, go fishing, and build campsites.

They would help theirmother pick blackberries from berry bushes in the grassymeadowsfortheirdinneratnight.Theirmom’sblackberry pie was a treat that everyone looked forward to and really enjoyed.It was a happy place for Jess and John to grow and learn about the small world around them.

Chapter 2

Mr. Wrikle & The Warlock

Mr. Wrikle’s farm is located on Route 22, leading toColmar, opposite the Pointer farm where John and Jesslived.Route 22 is the main route connecting Colmar andPlymouth; twolocalvillages.

Mr. Wrikle was a widower who had lost his wife.It wasthought by the boy’s parents and the local folk aroundColmar that Mr. Wrikle was a lonely old man who missed his wife very much.On many days, it was normal for John and Jess to walk or ride their ponies across this main road between the two farms, where they would spend manyafternoons helping Mr. Wrikle on his farm.They wouldclimb into the large hayloft of his large barn and fork down hay to feed the two horses he kept on the farm.Theywould haul grain from bins in the barn out to his sheep and chickens.In the summer they would sometimes mow his small lawn and help him tend to the gardens around thehouse.

On many of their visits, after they had helped him withmany of his farm chores, Mr. Wrikle would sit on an oldstone bench under a large oak tree standing next to thebackentranceofhishouseandtellstoriesofhislifeasa boy growing up on his father’s farm.

John and Jess would sit on the lawn next to the bench, and he would spendhourstellingthetwoboys’storiesabouthislifeand adventures around Crooked Creek.John and Jess enjoyhis stories; they were captivated and mesmerized by theexcitement and thrill that sprung from these adventures.He would give them lemonade and small pieces of candyhe buys, for just this occasion, from the grocery store inColmar, or sometimeshe would pay them for their work.

On this very sunny warm day, the boy’s mother had given them a blackberry pie to take over for Mr. Wrikle.Theirmother felt sorry for him, and she enjoyed baking pies and cakes for