Hey guys, it's GivenAnythingButLove here :D I hope you like my newest story!
D.I.S.C.L.A.I.M.E.R! Renata the echidna and Aidan the fox both belong to me. Thank you.
Chapter One
January 4, 3038, 5:35 PM, just as the sun was setting.
That's when I died, along with all of my friends, and found myself in this inhuman world, where creatures scurried about me like ants, and there was fire... Fire, nothing but fire everywhere.
My head pounded, my heart ached, and I couldn't shake the feeling that something horrible was going to happen because of me. Something that would ruin an entire civilization, an entire planet.
I could only hope that when I had died, I had come to Mobius with a sense that I could help, that this would be a place that I wouldn't feel guilty about intruding on them.
That's when I saw them: three short figures, one electric blue, the other black, and the last a metallic white color, zip past me so fast that if I had blinked I would have missed them completely. I whirled around on the spot and saw them at the top of the mountain that I stood in front of.
Three hedgehogs, and male, easily - their quills were unmistakable. While each of them were similar, they all had distinct markings and features that made them unique. The blue one had slicked back quills and a tan oval stretched across his torso; he looked to be about 15. The not fully matured muscles gave that away. The ebony one had red stripes, and four of his back quills curved up at the tips, as if he had not taken the time to smooth them down like the blue one. He had a tuft of white fur on his chest. He, physically, looked 15 also, but the weary look in his eyes and the scowl on his face made him seem as if he had been living for decades.
The last one, the metallic white one, was easily the most unique. He only had 2 back quills, but 5 front ones that resembled a cockatoo's feathers. He had a thick tuft of fur on his chest as well. He seemed to be the youngest of the three, and he was slightly shorter... maybe 14? I couldn't be sure without talking to them.
But I saw that they were on a mission, and let them be for the time being. I didn't want to interrupt a plan that could save my life. I was not going to die again.
I looked down at my new body, the one that I had created back when I was human, before I had died. I was thin with curves and fair breasts, and my skin was a neon yellow. I had given myself bright violet eyes and semi-long hair. I was an echidna in this world - that, I had not been able to choose. That was chosen at my human birth.
Maybe I should back up a little bit and explain what the hell was going on here in the first place... but we need to go back to the very beginning of this time.
In the year 2100, the planet that I was on now sent a messenger to Earth asking to meet with the human leaders. They told the humans that their planet, "Mobius", wished for a special favor that would help their dying civilization. Being amazed by the unique creatures they were - talking little fellows around 3 feet tall when they stood on 2 legs - the humans agreed.
They said that there was a magical ceremony that they needed to preform, and that they wanted to use it here. The ceremony went like this: a creature from Mobius, whenever a new human child arrived in the world, would arrive and an ancient saying would be spoken by the Mobian as they clasped hands with the baby human: "Yuhanda hee taka rheydt alae moe ghana la spina," or "Let us unite Mobian and Human for eternity." This way, whenever that human died, their spirits would travel through the light-years to reach Mobius, and become one of them, thus repopulating their planet. But they had to become the same animal as the Mobian that preformed the ceremony with them. (That's how I became an echidna - one of those was what preformed the ceremony with me when I was 2 minutes old and screaming my baby lungs out. What a day.)
This plan was ingenious, if a bit confusing at times, and the humans became in awe of any Mobian that stepped on Earth as they zipped to the newborn baby to preform the ceremony. Soon, they even came up with the idea of custom creating their forms digitally. Bases of creatures - hedgehogs, foxes, chameleons - were downloaded into the computer, and at a young age, we could design our own forms that we would become when we died. That's where my highlighter yellow quills and purple eyes came in.
But then, this year in 3038, there was an asteroid that had been in orbit around Earth for centuries, possibly for millenniums. This year, however, gravity had pulled it closer, and it zipped through the atmosphere. It struck the ocean, and a great flood washed over the planet - the asteroid was at least 4000 miles in diameter.
I was sitting at my old school Mac computer that everyone made fun of, fiddling with a school project that I should have done last week, when I heard a BOOM that nearly burst my eardrums. I clapped my hands over my ears and found myself lying on my side, on the floor. I looked out of the open window through squinted eyes and saw a large blue mass approaching me with greater speed than I had ever seen.
This wasn't exactly the way I had planned on seeing the ocean for the first time. I tried to jump up and slam my window shut before the tsunami reached me, but it was hopeless - the giant wave was too fast - and the water swooshed into my room and filled it up in less than half of a second. Before I knew it, I was breathing the salty water, drowning, desperately wanting to get out.
I opened my eyes, even though it was extremely painful to do so with how saline the water was, and everything was blue. I swam toward the window, trying to keep most of my strength, and thankfully I reached it. I looked out, and only saw water. Water filled the sky, had flattened the trees, blocked my view of the Sun, and was finding its way into my lungs. I gasped stupidly, and tried to find a surface.
I never found one, and soon I just gave up and let the water burn my throat, my nose, my heart. I felt it stop beating, and I let my eyes close.
Waking up was the best feeling I'd ever had. I felt dry, airy, as if I didn't have a care in the world. I was still in spirit form. I tried to open my eyes without success, but realized that I didn't have to open them to see. I could see with my nose, my fingers, all of my other senses, except for hearing. I could create images.
I then felt myself materialize at a snail's pace, from the top of my head to the tips of my polished toenails. I felt myself grow a muzzle, thick quills/dreadlocks/things, and a small lightning bolt shaped tail. I sensed my eyes change shape and color, from the average, dull blue to the bright violet that I'd always dreamed of.
It was once they had fully formed that I could open my new eyes, and all at once, sound began blasting in my ears - the sound of screaming, the sound of crackling flames.
Now we get to present time: the hedgehogs standing at the peak of the mountain, staring down at the horrifying burning scene. I wondered why they didn't do anything about it, why they didn't go down there to try to put the fires out. Around me, I saw more bodies begin to materialize - hedgehogs, foxes, echidnas, chameleons, a few mountain lions, and even some crocodiles. I shouldn't have been surprised to see them. Everyone must have died in the flood.
I saw the white hedgehog shake his head, turn and walk back down the mountain. The blue one looked down at him and began to follow. The black one stayed where he was, his arms crossed over his stomach and his eyes brooding. Finally after several long minutes, he went in the direction that his companions had, and the top of the mountain was bare again.
I looked around me, absorbing whatever I could with my new eyes. The planet looked nothing like the photographs that my parents had shown me long ago, when I was much younger. This world was too crimson, too dark. The sky was nearly black, there was so much smoke and ash in the air. I coughed violently to clear my lungs of the irritating mixture, but it was no use. It was choking me.
I felt a hand clap me on the back and I looked up from the ground. I saw a fox that looked familiar. She was bright red, the color of magma, and had light blue-gray eyes. A pair of black glasses rested on her nose. I suddenly realized that this was my best friend's form. "Aidan?" I said. "It's me, Renata."
Aidan smiled. "Yes, I know." She looked around her, a sad and mournful expression pulling at her face. "It's a disgrace, this area of Mobius. We need to get out of here." She ran to the west and I followed, occasionally having to pause to cough until my throat was aching. I needed water, but I couldn't see any pools nearby that weren't gray and cloudy, full of ashes.
We ran for hours, and we must have gone pretty far, because soon, the sky turned blue again, there was light that nearly burned my eyes after adjusting to the dim, and I could see greenery. I breathed in the clean air, relishing the way it felt in my lungs.
Now if only the whole planet were this pure, I thought.
R&R, as usual :D
~ GABL ~
