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Hylon landed and rolled looking around, Strength of mind, the Mage’s voice echoed in his head, “Right, strength of mind.” He stood up and looked around, it was, not what he had expected. It was, beautiful. A golden sun burned high in a cloudless blue sky, wind rustled green blades of grass like a never-ending ocean on this great plain.
“Uhn…” Hylon turned and saw Marner and Indoun make quite ungraceful landings. Hylon spun around looking for the portal they had come through, there was no sign of it.
“Where are we?” Marner asked as he looked around. “This… isn’t was I was expecting.”
“Me neither, but I think we should be more concerned with how we’re going to get out of here; I can’t see anything like our portal anywhere.”
“Our first concern should be our minds and Terra.”
“What good will it do if we defeat Terra and can’t get out of here?”
“A lot of good for the world,” Marner replied.
Indoun finally rose from the ground after a long draw from his flask, “Easy, that way to Terra,” he said pointing forward, “that way to go home,” he added pointing left.
“How do you know that?” Hylon and Marner asked as one.
“You cannot see the paths?” Indoun asked of them
“‘In this domain, your thoughts will define your reality’, the Mage wasn’t screwing around when he said that.” Hylon answered both. “I think Indoun has the strongest mind right now.”
“How very flaming ironic,” Indoun said as he started to walk down the path to Terra. “If you insist on doing this, let’s go!”
“This is nuts! How much longer! I don’t think I can take another step!” Then suddenly Hylon’s legs changed from sore muscle to water and he simply collapsed.
“Hahaha!” Marner laughed at Hylon, “Thought defines reality. Think that you can walk forever, and here you can.”
Hylon pictured himself walking forever and felt the strength returning to his legs. “I don’t think I’ll ever get the hang of this.”
“You really need to watch what you think here,” Marner said.
“Are either of you thinking that we’ll never get to Terra? Because when I first saw the path we should have been there by now.” Indoun then took another draw from his flask, which he tucked back away in his coat.
“That raises an interesting point. What if we thought ourselves their?” Marner asked more of himself than to everyone else.
“Do you think it would work?” Hylon asked.
“From what I made out from the Mage our mind has power over everything except another sentient being.”
“So we could do it?’
“Let’s do it already,” Indoun said, he was near drunk, and his newfound temper was getting the best of him. “Let’s finish this flaming hell appointed task… Let’s go home…” Then he began to weep softly, through his sobs Hylon could make out, “I’m so sorry, Czak… I… I’ll see that Eylana gets a good home. I promise.”
“We should wait till he’s sober before we do this.”
“Yes,” Marner agreed, “but he’ll never get sober as long as that flask is full.”
“I wouldn’t want to take it from him right now,” Hylon said as he looked at the weeping man, “A drunk man with a sword is nearly as dangerous as a blademaster.”
“He’s so plastered he’ll pass out soon. We’ll take it then.”
“Alright.”
Morning broke with Indoun casting out the final contents of his stomach, He was surprised to find his flask missing when he sought to wash out the foul taste with alcohol. “Ugh… Where is it?” Indoun began to wildly search his person for it, then scrambled about the ground looking for it. Marner and Hylon exchanged glances, it was good they had buried it a great deal away from them, the way Indoun was searching he might have found it if it was closer. "Where could it flaming be?" Indoun then let loose a stronger swear as he groped about on the ground.
"Indoun, come on. Let's do this," Hylon said.
"Are you flaming stupid! That flask is good luck we're screwed if we don't have it… We have to have it!"
"Indoun we'll be fine, you have to believe that, if not we will fail," Marner said.
Indoun looked up at him. "You don't understand…" Indoun looked up with a pleading look in his eyes, "Please… We need it… It was Czak's."
Hylon felt his knees grow weak. He would never understand a man drinking his life away, but he wanted that flask, too. Anything he could to tell Eylana that she had a good father. Hylon walked over to Marner and said, “Get him to help you break camp. I’ll go finding the flaming flask.”
Marner simply nodded deeply.
Hylon drew his knife and used the blade as a crude tool and began pushing the freshly turned earth aside. To Hylon’s horror, the flask was gone. Hylon stared at the small horrified momentarily, then broke out laughing. Hylon imagined the flask in his hand-devoid of liquor-and there it appeared. I could get used to this.
“Where’s he off to?” Indoun said as he rolled up his bedroll.
“Bathroom.”
“Hell hold the world, where did it go?” Indoun cursed as he stopped packing up and started searching around the ground again.
“Indoun, we’ll find it later. Help me pack up.”
“Let Hylon pick up his own…”
“Hey, guys,” Hylon called as he jogged back into their camp. “Indoun I found this on the ground while I was out there,” Hylon then proffered the flask. Without a word Indoun snatched it from Hylon’s hand and glared suspiciously at him and then Marner.
Wordlessly they continue to clean up where they had slept. After a time they finish and look at each other. “Let’s do this,” Hylon said simply and everyone nodded.
Hylon focused his thoughts, Facing Terra. Fighting Terra. Beating Terra. Hylon closed his eyes, Facing Terra. Fighting Terra. Beating Terra. Hylon reopens his eyes, and he is standing on seemingly nothing, around him swirls chaos, glimpses of places Hylon never would have thought possible. It was sheer madness, then from the chaos appeared someone with no face.
“Why have you come here?” Its voice demands as it rings through Hylon’s head. How did it do that?
Hylon looks around, “Marner? Marner! Indoun!”
“We are alone, now why have you come here?” The beings voice was still only heard inside Hylon’s head.
Hylon rips his sword from its scabbard and points it at the faceless being. “Where are they?”
You would bare steel against me? How ironic that you would threaten me with my own flesh.”
“Terra!?”
“Why have you come here?”
“Because you have gone mad!”
“Is that so…?” The entity walks up to Hylon and looked-Hylon was not sure how the faceless body managed to do that-deep into his eyes. Then the being changed, and there stood a beautiful golden haired woman cradling a baby in her arms.
“Loren…?” Hylon barely whispered, “Is that you?’
“He’s grown up so much, Hylon,” The golden haired women says as she gently rocked the child, looking up at Hylon she adds, “He has your nose. See?”
Hylon looks intently at the child then suddenly a spasm wracks his body and he falls to his knees. His stomach wretches his contents and his body falls into fits of convulsions. “Hahahahahaha!” The voice cackles inside Hylon’s head. “Hylon, is your name? Let’s make you more fitting of your namesake, Lion.”
Hylon felt his body being ripped apart and being completely reformed, felt his insides shifting. “AHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!” Hylon screamed in pain, and it was only made worse as the last words the Mage had said to him raced through his head, “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.”
Prophecy of the Pyraethenon
Foreword: These are the chronicles of the one to come, as it was revealed to me by the protector. May this be a testament to its will. May the protection of Terra be blessed upon you when the time for his birth comes. Grace favor us all, for he shall break us all.
The Strong Defender will be born when Black and White clash across the land of the Great King and the blood spilt will make a new river run.
In this time shall he be born, the blood of the Great King. The flesh reborn, the soul anew.
But he shall become so much more than any Man yet to come. He will be more than any King of Men, any Ca-liph of the Derador, any Lord of the Aelva, any Potentate of the Elves, and even any Original of the Angels. He will pull the gods from their mighty thrones and with all the world watching, slay them. Death shall be in the wake of the King of Terra and the Lord of the Stars.
Emotion will be his instrument of victory. He will hold power over death and life, hope and anger. These shall be his. His death will not come to pass until the time is right and the world is in his vision. The world will be reformed, to his vision. We will be made anew.
I squeeze myself into a ball and pull my knees tight against my chest. I gently rock myself back in forth, soothing myself as best I can. In this position, a sob rips its way from my clenched teeth. I fight back the impulse to reach out an touch the sides of the walls around me, instead I close my eyes and picture myself outdoors; anywhere other than this prison I’ve made.
When I reopen my eyes the walls are still there, though. I stretch my arms out and feel them closing in on me. All I need is someone, someone to see my prison, someone to give me a way out. I don’t care how… I don’t care who… I can’t breath. The walls push against my hands. The walls thicken.
Soon, I will be trapped, with no way for anyone to help me. Soon the darkness will crush me. I wrap my arms back around my knees, and gently try to soothe myself. So, I rock back in forth, in the darkness. Waiting for someone to end my prison, for someone to get through my shell… For someone to know me. |
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