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Alrighty. Thanks for all the replies, esecially your donation Winter Night. Very appreciated. Here's the next chunk of my prologue, I'd give you all of it but I cannot fit it.
After that I'll stick chapter one on here. Stay tuned in.
Hylon looked down the cave. It was a dank place and it smelled of death in his opinion. "We’re going down there?"
"I don’t think we have much of a choice," Marner answered. His height still struck Hylon sometimes. He couldn’t believe that his friend was an angel, or at least he couldn’t think of him that way.
Hylon walked over to Indoun, "Hey, man. Come on, time to get up on your feet."
Indoun looked up at him, his blank stare still disconcerted Hylon. "I want to see Quinn…" Indoun muttered turning his face back to the ground. "He has to be at least three by now… Let’s leave Hylon, there’s no point. Let’s go home, I know you want to see Loren and Faaloun. He’s got to be three now, too… I want to go home."
"Come on, Indoun." Hylon said pulling him up to look him in the eye. "You don’t want to quit now do you? Do you really want Czak to have died for nothing?"
"I could’ve saved him…" Indoun muttered to himself shaking. "If I’d just paid attention…"
Hylon shook Indoun with enough force for his head to roll about. "Czak’s death was no ones fault! You got that! We all knew what we were getting into when we started this. And we all knew that it was unlikely that any of us would survive that battle. It was nobody’s fault!" The image of a little girl with blue eyes and brown hair flashed through his mind. Eylana… I’m sorry. He apologized to the girl that would never truly know her father.
"Let’s get going," Marner said as he strolled up and placed a hand on each shoulder. "The sooner we get this done the quicker we can return to our families."
"Right," Hylon agreed. They all turned to the cave and a wave of shivers ran through Hylon. It still smelt of death to him.
The cave slowly slanted steeper and steeper until it got to the point where they couldn’t go further without sliding down the grade.
"What now?" Hylon asked as he stretched out over the hole, trying to see the bottom of the cave.
"It is wide enough," Marner answered and from his back leapt two pure white, feathered wings. "I will be back in a second."
"He needs to stop doing that." Hylon muttered to himself about those wings simply appearing, it was so disconcerting.
"He does," Indoun agreed.
Hylon turned to stare at him; Czak’s death had shaken him to the point that Hylon believed the only thing keeping the man sane was his flask, which he quickly produced and took a long draw from it. Indoun… Just a bit longer buddy. We’re almost ready to go home. Heaven, do I want to see Faaloun and Loren again, though. That’s it, stop thinking. Focus, first thing’s first, reset Terra.
Hylon reminisced of the meeting the last meeting they had had with the Mage.
"The time will come when all that will save you from Terra is your own concentration. If your thoughts stray but a little you will be lost to yourself and all will be in Terra’s possession, save your mind." The Mage said as he strolled about the room. "And we cannot afford you all to fail. The world cannot." It seemed that he was talking to himself now rather than to anyone else in the room. "Already in great danger is the Trip, Czak’s death truly was a great loss…"
"What do you mean by, concentration?" Hylon asked interrupting the Mage.
"What? Oh, yes. In this domain, your thoughts of yourself will define your reality, that deep in its power if you are not strong of mind it will rip your power away from you, change you, that is why it is so important to be of one mind about the world."
Marner reappeared then, hovering in front of them, "It goes down for about twenty feet then it reaches a… Portal."
"Portal?" Hylon asked.
"That’s the only way I can describe it. It sits their, shimmering, I think we will have to go through it."
"Great, my favorite, a leap of faith. Well… Why flaming not!?" Hylon then leapt into the hole of the cave.
"Way to impulsive," Marner said as he let his wings disappear and followed Hylon down, dragging Indoun with him. |
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