Fallen Dreams Chapter 2
Rise Into Destiny
By Nassaire Blue
Generations passed and the planet continued to decay. The burned out plains slowly froze and an ice age was ushered in. But from a mountain that sat alone on an island, a voice broke the silence…
"Your kind has messed with the pure force of Terra… Terra has wrought its revenge… We have watched… Guarding your icy frames… For millions upon millions of years… While we are different, we were once the same… We tried using our revival magic… To no avail, did we come… You were doomed to stay frozen until Terra forgave you… But being descendants of both humans and Reptites, we could not allow this… We know by doing this that our fates are sealed… Terra will punish us, as it did you… But our oracles guide us to this… So, we will revive your race… In hopes it will do better than our own… We send you this, kind people… The innermost core of Terra… In all its glory… It will revive you… Remember us, the Mystics… The great god Lavos bids you remember him and us… Now… Minds locked in time, focus your thoughts into the core… Make it shine… Make it live…!!"
"Power of purity… Enter this core… Make it glow… Fill it with light so we may live… Fill it with energy so white… Allow us to fulfill our dreams… We, the frozen people focus our minds and souls… LUMINAIRE!!!"
The storm, which had turned Terra into a giant ball of snow, ceased. The clouds ran about until they fizzled into nothing. For the first time in 62,985,000 years, sunlight fell upon Terra. The multiple feet of snow that had gathered on the surface melted away instantaneously at the strong heat. The ocean mysteriously ceased its chopping and there was silence all over the planet. The frozen humans became visible as ice-cases thawed away from their bodies.
While still motionless in a deep sleep, a small point of white light appeared on every human's forehead. The points then extended rays into the sky. The rays gathered into one giant, blinding orb.
The ground below Iver rattled, unearthing many pebbles. As seismic action grew more intense, a small crevice opened in the outskirts of Iver and split into a deep trench. A tiny cylinder of yellow light emerged from the trench and connected to the hovering ball of light. The orb reacted and began rotating in an odd number of ways. Suddenly, a flare of yellow power rocketed from the trench and into the orb. The globe then lost its equilibrium and toppled heavily towards the Iver castle. It crashed through the roof and smack-dab into the largest Dreamstone, fracturing it into a small boulder and a million tinier pieces. The light withdrew into the now rock-hard ball. The ball then flickered and came to life, shining bursts of almost blue light into the whole annex.
The trench boomed and banged as it began closing up. As the final centimeter of space was being sealed, a sonic wave erupted and raced north. The roar tore through Iver, unnerving everything in its path. As the wave cleared the castle, the orb-stone glowed brightly and the people of Iver slowly fluttered their eyes open.
It was a miracle. The people of Iver stretched and took in the sight of what was left of their snow-damaged kingdom. They had no clue what had happened. To them, only a few short seconds had passed. While a cluster of women began running around, preaching doom, most people hurriedly crowded to the castle and demanded the king. The king, on the other hand, was reading a red leather-bound book he found in his lap when he awoke in the dusty, cobweb-plagued annex.
The king skimmed through the precious book and gathered that he and his people had been frozen for millennia, a result of the gelatin ball reacting with the Dreamstone. He also discovered that one woman had escaped the "sleeping spell" and mated with the last surviving Reptite to spawn a new species of life. This species had learned how to use magic to keep themselves healthy as the environment of Terra worsened. The frozen kingdom had also intrigued them. They conducted countless experiments with their magic to try and revive the people. This species had angered their god, Lavos, by doing this. As punishment, they would be isolated in a desolate region of Terra. But, so their penalization was not in vain, they sent a new source of power to Iver, in hopes that Iver would be able to revive and rule the world in their place. This power source, which was obviously the bright stone, was the very center of Terra. It held the strength of a million organisms. While it required constant energy from, it possessed the sun's full intensity. This was indeed amazing.
The king made a speech to the people and summarized the data he had absorbed from the book. Many had blank stares and others simply scoffed, but some of the king's committee opened with a question about this principle of "magic" that had been mentioned in the book. The king replied that he knew some of the creatures that used to roam the land had the ability to manipulate the elements to a mild degree, thus forming some sort of attack. This excited the audience and they inquired as how one comes by this "magic." The king was not sure but he set his most intelligent scientists to find a way to acquire magic.
As the scientists began formulating a way to force the Dreamstone boulder, a shadow of its former self, to induce magic, the king had to make necessary changes to his kingdom. The dreadful winds and torrential snowfall had returned. In addition, the temperatures were far colder than when they had fallen asleep. A system of hunters had to be organized to retrieve fur. It would have to come at a price though. The king implemented the first monetary system in Terran history (that they knew of). Iver would use pieces of Dreamstone as compensation for services or items. Every citizen would be allowed equal amounts of Dreamstone every month to purchase what they saw fit. Iver was now officially a modernizing society.
A near decade after the "Great Awakening," the king's researchers gave up in finding a way to allow humans to use magic. They had manipulated the Dreamstone boulder's power in every way imaginable, but still no magic could be drawn from it. The king was uneasy at having to deliver this sorry news to his people. Having magic would allow one to conjure up a fire to keep a house warm. He wanted to have this privilege to bestow on his kingdom. So he vowed that before he left the mortal coil that he would provide magic to Iver. This great king was Iroum Yakra I.
Iroum then wondered about the glowing orb, the Sun Stone, as it was now called. The annex it had landed in was sealed off because the stone was far too mysterious to tamper with, especially after what had happened with the gel ball. But being zealous to please his subjects, Iroum barged into the dusty room, grabbed the glowing sphere and took it to the scientists. Many of the royal committee scorned the king for doing this and a handful of the scientists resigned out of pure fear. But King Iroum demanded that a way be found to make the stone usable for the people of Iver nonetheless.
The remaining scientists used many of the algorithms they had on the Dreamstone and achieved the nothing. Iroum grew increasingly agitated, but a strapping young scientist showed up at the castle one day and changed all that. The blue-haired man, Reo Zeal, was an overseer at Algetty and had been known to have some sort of odd control over the rocks. He was always seen with the Nus.
The Nus were short, blue creatures with wide faces and long arms. They usually had a small tuft of green hair on top of their head and really short legs. Nus were also mischievous personalities and notorious for their narcolepsy. They tended not to like humans and stayed in the Algetty caves. Their leader, whose name was Spekkio, was a magnificent shade of coral and was supposedly the single most powerful creature on Terra. His location was unknown except to Reo.
Although quiet and seemingly serene, Reo was diligent and surprisingly self-sure. After working on the science team for merely two months, he demanded an audience with the king. The guards snickered then told him very rudely to leave. Reo shook his head and pushed his way past the guards into the throne room. As he closed the door behind him, a sand storm blasted the guards in the previous room. As the attack ceased, a small river of blood crept to Reo's boots. Nothing was going to stand in his way.
Reo looked the puzzled king directly in the eyes and declared that Spekkio had taught him to use magic. The king was in dismay as the stranger demonstrated his power by making a jagged stalagmite pierce through the floor of the throne room.
"Dear stupid king… One of us has finally learned the skill. After all those years of sterile research and experimentation, the answer was right there under our noses. The key is not within the talisman, it is within ourselves! But you were too slow to realize that… You forced your diluted theories onto us and only funded research that backed up your postulates. It was so easy to figure out once I started to think on my own. Of course, I did have some help from a very powerful warrior. I hate to say it, but this is a mutiny. Your horrific reign over this kingdom is over. I have big plans for Iver. And should you try to return to this kingdom… Well, let's just say that you will be unable to return to the kingdom."
With that, Iroum Yakra jumped to his feet. He started to charge at Reo but the new king had already started a spell. Yakra spouted some threat of revenge just before being magically transported away. He would never be seen again. Reo Zeal propped himself up on the throne and started laughing. He indeed had big plans.
Zeal was to be an entirely different kingdom. It was costing the treasury an incredible amount of money to fund the fur scavengers and the once proud culture was plummeting into a sort of dark age. Iver was essentially falling apart. But Reo was a radical dreamer and no sooner had he stopped laughing than he had come up with a scheme. A crazy, unpredictable scheme.
Reo was extremely ambitious. In his first speech to Iver, he boldly stated his overthrow of Yakra and his formation of the Zeal Kingdom. But Zeal was to be perfect. All who could find themselves to use magic and the end of a half-year would be allowed to "rise into destiny" with the new kingdom. All others would be "left behind… or below rather…" The people perplexed, Reo retreated to his castle and encased it in a purple shield. He would not be bothered until his people were ready.
It was amazing that the only clue Iver was left with on how to figure out one's capability to use magic was to "look inside your favorite element, look inside you…" Many of the reactions to this were quite amusing. Little girls tore their dollies apart, searching through the stuffing. Housewives would cut open their loaves of bread and stare blankly into them hoping for some sort of zap. These, would be the unfortunates, however.
The more intelligent bunch found small streams with running water, dark caves full of wondrous rock structures, burning logs with embers emanating that warm familiar light, and even the powerful shock of lightning from the occasional thunderstorm to be the subject as they engaged in meditation. Suddenly it would occur to them that THIS was the clue to magic. Finding one's self within nature and being able to be one with that element. Soon, people were lighting their fires without stones, filling their pales without going to the wells, and even sweeping the floors without the use of a broom.
While the concept of magic came easy to a large percent of Iverians AND Larubans, there was still a considerable amount who could still not master the skill. Those non-magic-users were living in a horrible state of affairs that worsened with each passing day. Magic-using children would hurl immature spells at poor, defenseless children who could do nothing. Magicless adults were outcast and forced to live in Algetty. Those who chose not to relocate had to evade the harsh words and judging eyes. The kingdom had divided in two. The "Enlightened," those who could use magic, were elitist and made life for the "Unfortunates," those who could not use magic, miserable.
Reo, on the other hand, was totally unaware of what was going on outside his castle. His reasoning for locking himself up in his castle was valid. Plans had to be made for the Zeal Kingdom. This was going to be a completely "high-tech" kingdom. It would be governed by the most fabulous orange-and-almond colored buildings. Once the snow melted, rolling plains of fresh green grass would need to be planted. A decorative, yet environmentally sound forest would be needed to sustain the many species of plants and animals. The men would be wielders of swords, spears, axes, bows, and spears. And they would wear gold belts that would help store and release appropriate amounts of magic. The women would be adorned in the finest golden jewelry and laced with jewels from all colors of the spectrum. And everyone would wear bright colors. An overall mood of happiness and content would rule the kingdom. There were just so many new and exciting possibilities. Within a few months, Reo had plans drawn out for almost every aspect of Zeallic life. Zeal would be a kingdom to last, one that no one would forget.
Meanwhile, time was running out. There was less than a month left from when the mysterious king would lead the former Iverians into the new kingdom. Most of the Unfortunates had simply given up hope and sunk into the lower-most caverns in Algetty. The remaining few Unfortunates dwelled on the outskirts of Iver and attempted vainly to conjure up a small fire or gust of wind. Algetty was mostly devoid of any Larubans, though. Amazingly, the once slave race was prone to magic using. Iver was once a well-organized society where everyone had a definite place, but in its present state, it was a smattering of people here, a handful of people there and there was no decent economical structure at all. Something drastic had to be done soon otherwise Iver could end up in civil war.
Time was up. Precisely six months after the mutiny, the shield disappeared and Reo emerged from the castle, unshaved and looking sleep deprived. He wheeled out a small cart covered in a sheet.
Removing the sheet and unveiling the model, Reo yelled, "THIS IS ZEAL!!!!!!!!"
On the wooden cart sitting, or rather hovering above, was a rock covered in luscious green landscaping, smattered with buildings, trees, rivers, and even lakes.
The crowd gasped and after a few minutes, applauded the model. They were pleased. Reo smiled. He then went on to explain the layout of the kingdom and the work that would be required. The Enlightened ones nodded in agreement. One person asked how they intended to get rid of the snow. This was the question Reo was waiting for.
"Zeal will not have to worry about the snow… Or for that, the weather at all… That is because our glorious new home will sit above the clouds!"
The bold statement turned a few heads and raised a few eyebrows. He elaborated, "I will use the energy of the Sun Stone to raise the island just east of here, right next to the Earthbound Mountain."
The crowd nodded again in agreement and Reo continued to summarize the schematics. The whole "island in the sky" was a lot for the people to take in but it promised a warm, safe future. Later that day, Reo would bring out the Sun Stone and the Enlightened of Iver would go to the new island and make their rise into destiny. The reason Reo needed the people to be able to use magic is because for the Sun Stone to be able to perform such a strenuous task, it would require the cooperative efforts of all those who could use magic.
The fateful day melted away into the late afternoon. A few patchy breaks in the clouds allowed some murky light to fall on the new Zeal Island. Past the mountain and a few icicle-bound trees trudged the zealous magic-users. They were a soggy-looking crowd, too. About 700-800 Larubans, 1500-some Iverians, and near 300 children, most hauling some sort of wagon or suit case full of their most treasured items. This was an Exodus. These poor children who had been punished by the earth would now rise above it all. Rise into their kingdom of dreams.
The bunch reached the island and Reo smiled, facing his kingdom and the wind battering his side. He set foot on the sturdy wooden land bridge and crossed to the barren island. Nothing was there but a huge expanse of space and a mountain at the northern edge. They plodded on for nearly and hour before they reached the estimated center of the island. Once satisfied with his location, Reo took the Sun Stone from one of his aides and placed it into the snow. It glowed brilliantly against the soft, pure snow.
Everyone gathered around the stone and began to focus. Each person visualized his or her own life force mingling with the elements then pouring energy into the stone. They pleaded with the stone and fed it with power to raise their island.
Suddenly, a jolt shook the island. Then another. There was a brief tremor then the island began to rise. Very slowly it rose out of the ocean. Then the speed increased as the people concentrated harder. Soon the bottom of the huge mass of land completely emerged from the water and continued to rise into the clouds.
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