Randall woke up early this morning, much earlier than usual.  He hadn’t slept much either, he was worried that he’d let his father down.  His father had high hopes for him. Today he became a man. The rest of the boys he knew were all looking forward to today, but not Randall.  Randall was in no hurry to leave his childhood behind.
It’s not that he wanted to stay a child.  He didn’t like it when the adults told him to wait with the little kids.  He wanted to be with his friends, or the kids his age that he called friends.
All of Randall’s friends had already become Men or Women by finishing their trials… but not Randall, he had failed each year for that last 8 years… he couldn’t make it past the entrance.  The dark paralyzed him.  He was the only one in his village that hadn’t gotten past the entrance on the first try and now he was on his 23rd year and he still couldn’t do it.
But not today! Today Randall finally found a way to get past his fear.  He found a Magic Lite that didn’t use magic and it didn’t burn like a candle so the gargoyle wouldn’t see it.  He found it last year shortly after a huge crashing sound outside the village.
After village elders made the area restricted, Randall snuck in one morning to see what was so dangerous that no one was allowed.  He didn’t see the big deal, it was just a big burning hole of useless metal.  He found it on his way back nestled in a tree, glinting in the early morning sun.  The adults must have missed it in that initial search and no one had been back since it was restricted.
At first it just looked like a chunk of worthless metal with some glass on it.  It wasn’t anything special he thought, but then it slipped from his fingers and tumbled to the ground.  On it’s way down it hit several branches and Randall heard an clicking noise.  When he climbed back down and picked it up, he saw that light was coming out of the glass end.  There was a protrusion that he pushed on and the click noise happened again.  He dropped it, startled by the loud click.  He picked it back up after a few seconds and gave it a hearty shake to see if there was anything inside it.  It didn’t make any noise.
He pushed on the protrusion again and it made the same click and suddenly there was a blinding light in his eyes, which caused him to drop it again… once his vision cleared, he picked it back up and pressed the protrusion again… again it clicked and the bright light no longer came from the glass.  Over the next few mornings, he figured out that you had to shake it to make the light brighter, dropping it also worked, but seemed to take longer.  He also figured out that it would only get so bright and if you used it for for too long without shaking it, the light would stop without pressing the protrusion.
He was confident that he would finally make it through the trials … or at least the entrance this year.  He would finally be able to join his friends as an adult.