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Prelude
The world’s view on death is an extremely boring one. Many people expect to that one day they will die in their bed at a ripe old age, and such a death is perfectly fine with them. Truth be told, what fun would it be if that’s how everyone went? Why die in a non-memorable way when you can go out with a bang? Why be just another person? Why would anyone want to be average when they could be extraordinary?
All of these thoughts were running through my head as I looked up at a man who had every intention in the world to destroy me. A sly grin formed on my face as I remembered everything that had happened to me lately. I wasn’t just somebody; I was Saiya Alice Kage. I was a Warrior. I was going out with a bang alright, a bang that would shatter the world. I wasn’t done just yet. I wasn’t going to die without a fight. I was going to die a martyr and I was going to die proud.
“Bring it on, you coward,” I growled through my smirk.
Chapter One
Enter Zain, Land of the Warriors
You have earth, and then you have Zain. The world of Zain is a very different one indeed. Upon earth there are humans and animals, plants and water. Everything is ordinary and nothing is magical. That’s not how it is in Zain. In Zain there are also humans, animals, plants and water, but that isn’t all. There are elves, vampires, beasts and magicians, but most importantly, there are the Warriors.
Warriors protect the land. They are strong, beautiful, magical, and wonderful, but they also have one extreme fault. Once a month a Warrior’s tremendous power will take them over and turn them into a bloodthirsty monster. When this happens the Warriors are no longer able to control themselves and try to kill everyone and everything in sight. You must understand that this is not the Warrior’s fault. Once it is over the Warrior cannot even remember what happened during their rampage.
In the olden days the only way to protect one’s self against a rampaging Warrior was to get to a protected place as fast as possible and hide until the Warrior was back to being his or her self again. That is no longer the case. When a Warrior goes insane now-a-days, they are the ones locked up, not the people. You may wonder how this is possible. Over the years the government of Zain has discovered ways to predict when a Warrior will change and the Warrior is brought into a safe area where they cannot hurt themselves or anyone else. If they don't predict the change a group of witches and warlocks rush to the scene to contain the Warrior.
Even though the Warriors sometimes become a threat to the land, the people still love them for the amazing things that they do. They did way back when and they do now. The only problem is that even Warriors are not always sure hearted, and just like anyone else, their hearts can become tainted and evil. When this happens the Warrior becomes one of the Soulless.
Now, not many from earth know of Zain, and the few that do are retired Warriors or somehow connected to said Warriors. When a Warrior is taught of Zain and their purpose it is called an awakening.
When a Warrior is done fulfilling their purpose or they have worked long enough, they have a choice: they may continue to be a Warrior or they may retire. If the Warrior chooses the second option, they have yet another decision to make. They can continue to live in Zain as an average citizen or they can live on earth like a normal human being.
This second road is the one my mother and father chose-- and never bothered to tell me about. I had no idea about this other world and foolishly thinking that life was ordinary, I was stuck with my feet on the ground. I never even imagined that there were other worlds besides the one I existed in. Sure, maybe there was life on other planets, but I had nothing to do with them and they had nothing to do with me. In my mind their possible existence never really even registered.
I was always different though. I never felt like I belonged with everyone else. Maybe it was the way I looked. I had a long, shiny black mane that fell in curly cascades to my waist. Bright, nearly neon eyes, one blue, the other green, were laid in the pale canvas of my skin. My eyes were the thing that set me apart more than anything else. I was tall and had an hourglass shape, but I never could bring myself to love my appearance. The other girls all had tans that I could never achieve. I was always pale no matter what I did. Their eyes weren’t neon or different colors. They all had skinnier, pin straight bodies. All the boys seemed to love that. All I ever wanted was to be loved, but everyone shied away from me like a disease. I wanted to be like everyone else, even if I didn’t look the part.
My only real friend was Ravyn Audere. I felt alone a lot of the time since I had no siblings, but I was okay for the most part. Loneliness was usual for me though, and when ever it got really bad I called up Ravyn or initiated a bonding day with my parents. I learned to handle it to the best of my capabilities, but things still bugged me.
Anyway, the day of my awakening started out like any other. I got up, took my shower, got dressed, and walked to school with Ravyn. Ravyn had straight black hair that wasn’t too short and wasn’t too long, yet every girl I know wouldn’t mind if he was bald or had hair to his ankles. His other amazingly beautiful features would have made up for it. His bright gray-blue eyes stood out from his skin which was light, yet darker than mine. I’d never dated him and I never figured I would, but every other female on the face of the earth (and probably men, even the straight ones) wanted to. Men of course were extremely jealous, yet no one seemed to hate him. He usually seemed cold to most people, a mystery, which I would assume is one reason why he was so attractive to the girls. He was perfectly open and warm with me though.
I’d known him since I was born, but, like any possible existence of other worlds, it never registered until I was about four. You see, his parents and my parents were very close friends and so Ravyn and I were together a lot. When I was six or so it really became clear in my head that he was my best friend. Being the tomboy I am, Ravyn and I instantly clicked and were always getting down and dirty and stirring up trouble. Ravyn and I had stayed the best of pals all through grade school, middle school, and high school.
“Dude, I had such a weird dream last night!” Ravyn exclaimed.
“Me too, it wasn’t scary, but it was odd. What happened in yours?” I asked.
“So, I somehow ended up with these crazy, super-natural powers and I had to be the protector of this world somewhere. There was this evil overlord or something that was ruining the land and killing all of the people, and it was my job to stop him.”
I looked at him wide-eyed. “Are you serious?”
“Yeah, why? I didn’t think it was that amazing,” he looked at me like I was crazy.
“I had the same dream!” I gave him a confused look.
“Really? That’s creepy.”
“It is. You better get the hell outta my head buddy, ‘cause there isn’t enough room for both of us in there,” I grinned.
All of my classes rushed by in a non-memorable blur and Ravyn and I found ourselves once again walking through the streets of Worland Wyoming. Worland was one of those small hick towns where everyone was either a farmer or worked on the oil fields. There was never anything fun to do. In Worland you just had to make your own entertainment or live the dreary life that was set for you.
We were walking on one of the back streets towards my house which was over by the sugar beet factory. You see, Worland, like any other town I’m sure, had an abundance of, well, interesting smells, but the most distinctive had to be the sugar beet factory. For a while each year that factory would make the town smell so bad that it was hard to go outside if you lived anywhere close to it. I guess you kind of got used to it after a while, but if you weren’t prepared that smell would always surprise you when you walked outside.
Since it was Friday I gave Ravyn the usual offer of staying the night over at my place. If you’re some traditional senior citizen and you’re thinking, “Gasp! Boys and girls staying the night together!” you can just put down this book right now or get over it because that’s what we did. It’s not like we did anything and our parents knew that. They trusted us completely.
“Yeah, I’ll ask my mom when I get home,” Ravyn said to my proposal. “She probably won’t care, I mean, we do this every weekend. Plus, your house is much more fun than mine.”
“If you think my house is fun you live in a dull, dull world my friend,” I laughed.
“Well your house is farther away from the stench of the sugar beets,” he laughed.
As it turns out, Ravyn was right. His parents said yes, as they usually did, and he was at my house by six. Dinner was just as normal as the rest of the day, as was everything else that happened until bed. After we lay down to sleep was when it got intense. We had stayed up until four in the morning, so, of course, we were exhausted, and both of us fell asleep almost immediately. I was nice enough to let Ravyn have my bed and I slept on a miniature mattress on the floor. You see, our house was pretty big, but my room was small.
My room, though small, was very comfortable. The walls and ceiling were three different colors of green. The front and back walls were a dark green, the side walls a medium green, and the ceiling and doors were a really light green, giving the room the look of a cube. It was different and that’s what I loved about it. We took a lot of time carefully painting those walls-- though you could barely see them through the pictures and such that I had hung on them. Magazine clippings, pictures, drawings, posters, etc. were spread out all over the walls.
Fake vines crept their way around my curtain rods and green mesh material took the place of curtains. Three black roses were nestled in the mesh. Lying on top of the curtain rods and trailing down the wall was a string of Japanese paper lanterns. The lanterns were hooked to an industrial sized orange extension cord that was curled up under my no-where-near industrial sized bed. Blankets, two or three depending on the weather, lay on my bed with the four pillows that were always there.
My bedding was a patchwork of whatever I could find. The main blanket and one of the pillow cases were green, which had been bought to match my room. The other main blanket was a blue quilt. Sometimes a green and black quilt that my deceased grandmother had made graced the bed when I got really cold, other times it lay across the brown chair perpendicular to the bed. The two pillows I used for my head, the green one and a blue and white checkered one, lay at the top of the bed under my head board. The other two, a blue and white stripped one and a brown stripped one, sat at the side against the wall.
On my headboard sat an assortment of glass animals, figurines, a jewelry box, and most importantly, a bunch of vases filled with dead flowers. Whenever someone gave me flowers I set them on my head board and left them there. When they died I kept them there anyway. I liked them. Needless to say, I’m a huge packrat.
My small room barely had enough space to move around in because other than the bed there was the brown chair, a desk, a dresser, and a huge glass bookcase. The desk held a mess of art supplies, school stuff, and random things that I had no other place for.
On top of my dresser was a stereo and a bunch of stuffed animals. On top of the book case sat a fan and a fake skull wearing a fedora. The skull’s name was Uncle Sue. The bookcase itself was filled with books. We jokingly called it my personal library. The bookcase also held an assortment of bottles that I collected and a bunch of pictures of my parents. My floor was hardwood but a large square rug with a design of green vines and flowers covered it. My room was brimming with random stuff but I loved it.
Anyway, after we fell asleep I began to dream immediately. I dreamt that I was back in that other world and the evil overlord, (who was called Shirk), and I were in a heated, full-out battle to the death. I crouched low and sprang at him (something I never would have been able to do in real life), nearly catching him with the long sword I held. At the last second a burning sensation ran through my body, centered on my heart. Shirk had materialized behind me. One second I had him in my sights and then the next he was gone. I dropped to the ground, wide eyed and speechless, a sword through my chest.
I woke with a loud gasp and shot into a sitting position. I slowly looked around and realized that Ravyn was awake as well… and looking at me with the same expression of horror. I stared at him, unable to speak, and he stared back. I let out a deep breath that I hadn’t known that I was holding.
“Bad dream…” we murmured in unison and looked at each other in surprise. I let it slide and put my hands up to my face, rubbing my sore eyes. “What was yours about?” we both whispered, again at the same time.
“I told you to get out of my head,” I laughed uneasily.
“Sorry,” he put a hand on his forehead.
“I dreamt that I was fighting that guy again and he killed me,” I looked at him.
“Shirk?”
“Yeah… wait, how do you know his name? I don’t recall ever telling you.”
“We established this, this morning. I had the same dream. Yesterday and tonight. It’s creeping me out,” he shivered.
“Well, it should,” said a voice to my left.
I screamed and watched as a short girl walked out from behind my door. She had short silver hair that gleamed even in the slight light of my alarm clock. Her eyes also glowed a metallic silver. I looked at her in shock. “How did you get in my house?” I choked out as Ravyn continued to look at her with wide, unbelieving eyes. This reminded me of a movie I had been afraid of as a child. I had watched the movie behind my parent’s backs. The experience had scarred me enough to teach me a lesson. A murderer had broken into a defenseless woman’s house and...
...the man looked at the woman with dark eyes that seemed to have no soul within them. He had snuck into her room. I was glued to the movie, watching it with great fear, feeling like I was about to lose control of my bladder. I was eight and scared shitless. A whine escaped my throat as the man walked slowly towards the sleeping woman. He moved towards her and pulled out a knife. He slid the blade of the knife over her cheek, drawing a line of blood. The woman woke up and sleepily touched her cheek. Then she looked up at his face and all traces of sleep fell from her as she tried to scream. She didn’t get her final scream out because the man slit her jugular. Her back arched and blood shot all the way to the ceiling, staining it red. The man took the woman’s twitching body in his arms and laid her on the floor where he continued to defile her. He slit her cheeks open from her mouth all the way to the back of her head where he snapped the jawbone, making her top and bottom jaws separate pieces.
At this point I was so scared that I screamed and ran into my room unable to finish the movie. I buried my head in my pillow and began having myself a good cry. My parents came into my room, having heard me scream. They were pissed of course, but they were also very understanding because I was so scared. I was a good kid; they knew I’d learned my lesson. They tried to console me and put me to bed. As soon as they left I crept to the closet and grabbed the metal bat that we had. I set it right next to my bed and it stayed there for the next three years of my life. I lay there, night after night, unable to sleep, afraid that the killer was going to come and get me. Sooner or later I decided that if he was going to kill me he’d kill me whether I was asleep or awake. Having the mind of a child, that somehow made it all better. I got back to sleeping easy, but that bat stayed next to me.
“I walked through the front door, duh,” she raised an eyebrow and grinned at me.
“Okay, fair enough,” I recovered my bearings. “Do I need to escort you from the premises?” I asked rather sarcastically.
“Oh, I don’t think so, I’m rather harmless when I want to be,” she shrugged, still grinning.
“Fine, whatever, who are you?”
“I’m the one and only Sasha!“ she threw her hands up.
“Naw, I’m sure there’s more than one Sasha in the world. In fact, I know about four in our high school alone,” I crossed my arms over my chest.
“Aw, come on, none of them are as awesome as me,” she set her hands on her hips and the colorful bracelets she wore jingled.
“I wouldn’t know, but since you are breaking and entering, I think my opinion of them is higher than that of you right now.”
At that moment my parents rushed through the half-open door. “What’s this ruckus?” my father demanded.
“Yeah, you nearly gave me a heart... Sasha!” my mother squealed and hugged the small woman who had somehow ended up in my room.
My dad turned to look. “Sasha, it’s been such a long time! What’s brought you to this neck of the woods?”
“It’s time, isn’t it?” my mother grinned.
“Yes, I’ve come to take them for training,” Sasha smiled. “I’ve already spoken to Andie and Robert.”
“My parents? How do you know my parents?” Ravyn spoke up for the first time since Sasha had shown up.
“Mom, Dad, how do you know her?” I inquired.
“Oh, the old days, when your father and I were Warriors, she was the witch on our team,” my mother smiled, reminiscing.
“Uh, Warriors? Witch?”
“Yeah,” Sasha spoke up, “the protectors of Zain.”
“Zain?” asked Ravyn, who was also completely lost.
Sasha sighed. “Must I really explain all of this? Didn’t you tell them anything?” she addressed my parents.
“No,” they both said guiltily.
“Well, no use messing around here any more. We’ll get going now. Thank you, Allana and Jonathan. It was wonderful seeing you again,” she hugged each of my parents in turn. She pointed a finger at both of us and suddenly I felt like my stomach was being twisted in a pair of extremely powerful hands.
Ravyn and I were suddenly dropped on a rough patch of grass. A low “oof” escaped each of our mouths.
Sasha was laughing. “Welcome to Zain! Thank you for taking Sasha the Amazing Airlines!”
“We couldn’t have opted for a more comfortable landing?” I grumbled.
She laughed again. “Oh no, not after your remark back in the bedroom. Though I suppose,” she put a finger to her lips, “your opinion of me must be ever lower now.”
“You have no idea lady,” I growled under my breath.
“I hate this, I hate this, I hate this,” Ravyn chanted quietly beside me.
“Too bad, now stand up so we can get going,” Sasha ordered.
“Screw that, I’m staying right here until I’m clued in,” I glared at her.
“If I must,” she sighed and then began to explain to me the story of Zain and the Warriors. Ravyn and I sat on the ground and listened intently to the lengthy story. “And that’s all I can tell you. You’ll have to wait for Queen Audra to explain your purpose.”
“I see,” I said lamely as a huge jumble of thoughts concerning her story ran screaming loudly through my mind.
“Shall we get going?”
“Sure,” Ravyn and I mumbled and stood up.
“Wait, you’re still in your pajamas!” Sasha looked horrified.
“Hey, don’t give me that look, my P.J.’s may not be the most beautiful things in the world, but they get the job done,” I snorted, but at the same time I realized how cold I was.
“Such sad, sad children,” she shook her head and once again pointed her finger at me. This time I didn’t miss the small silver glow that surrounded the tip of her finger. I felt a tingling sensation and then I was wearing a whole new outfit. I now had on long black pants and a black turtle neck sweater that had a green “x” crossing from my shoulder, across my breasts, and then down to the hem of the shirt. The outfit was completed with knee high boots that you obviously couldn’t see through the pants, but would protect me from the elements (as long as they didn’t pass my knees) and looked wonderful while doing so.
I turned to look at Ravyn. He was wearing a long-sleeved black over shirt and loose black jeans. Underneath the over shirt was a red shirt that I assumed must be a tank top if his outfit matched his personal style as mine did. Black boots covered his feet.
“Either you’re a stalker or you’re just really good,” I looked at Sasha with wide eyes. “You got our styles well.”
“I’m magic remember? Not only did I dress you according to your own styles, I dressed you for success by making sure you were suited to the weather. If that wasn’t splendid enough, there wasn’t even any stalking involved! In fact, tonight was the first time I’ve met either of you. All it took was a wave of this baby, “she flaunted her finger, “and I knew exactly what you would like to wear!”
“Hmm amazing,” I sounded indifferent not wishing to let her know that I was extremely amazed.
“Aw, you’re no fun,” she pouted.
“Thank you anyway,” I smiled.
“Agreed, I like this outfit,” Ravyn said finally speaking more than a few words.
“It speaks!” Sasha looked amazed and then she giggled.
“It does,” I agreed, “but only sometimes.” I laughed, “Don’t worry, before long he’ll be talking non-stop! You just have to get to know him first.”
“You’re one to talk,” he grumbled.
After a small argument about who was more talkative we started to walk through the dark forest. According to Sasha, our destination wasn’t extremely far, but it would involve a little walking to get there. We walked and listened to Sasha ramble on and on about unimportant things. I suppose she was only trying to break the ice, and I didn’t mind. She had a pretty voice. Smooth as silk.
The forest was beautiful. There were millions of trees, bushes, and other plants. Flowers of every size, shape, and color grew in the forest. Every once in a while we would see a few colorful lights coming from God knows where.
Sooner or later we cleared the trees and what we saw on the other side caused our jaws to drop. Walls surrounding a large castle-like building loomed over the field in which it was constructed. The soaring walls were covered in beautiful stonework which was embedded in the walls. Stories were told on those walls. There were pictures of wars, marriages, deaths and births. They were stunning images like gray photographs-- moments caught in time, every detail preserved for eternity.
Gorgeous gardens framed the edifice. Flowers of every shape, size, and color created a mosaic that must have taken years to create. Vines crept from the flowers, which were swaying gracefully in the wind. These vines crawled their way around the stone with delicate twists and turns. The vines carved their paths all the way up to the top of the walls where there were yet more flowers edging the sides. Behind this masterpiece the clouds rolled lazily by, adding to the perfection of the structure.
We moved forward along a stone walkway that seemed to have been laid very carefully, every stone picked for perfection. The walkway was lined by beautiful hedges. We came upon a large, dark gate, seemingly made out of the most beautiful wood in the world. The door rose to our arrival. Beyond the door I could see a waterfall, glimmering in the sunlight.
A tall woman stood within the gate, people flocking at her heels. The woman had a head of long, curly brunette hair and blue eyes that would pierce the heavens. Beautiful silken robes fell in pools around her body, touching each curve with careful perfection. Upon her head sat a delicate silver tiara.
“Welcome, my friends,” the woman spoke in a voice that could rival those of the angels in heaven. “I am Audra, Queen of Zain.”
 LastLadyStanding · Mon Jul 27, 2009 @ 12:44am · 0 Comments |
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