Chapter 1: It's a Small, Secluded World
Author's Note: 2/18/12
Throughout the years I have been following the Kirby fandom, there has not yet been a single written work covering the entirety of the events before the anime in what I believe to be a fully canonical way. Whatever few works I've been able to come across have either been long since abandoned, or only contain a few scenes of it, and any few details I've been able to find have pieced up something incomplete.
This fanfic is going to cover the entire account of the Galaxy Soldier Army, from start to finish. It's sort of a prequel to Kirby of the Stars (the Kirby anime), but even if you don't know much about the anime, no knowledge of the series is required in order to enjoy this story, and arguably might even make reading this story better. In other words, regardless of whether you know about Kirby or not, anyone could understand this fanfic. My goal with this fic is to provide a full, canonical account of what happened during the war with Nightmare, all while kicking common Kirby cliches to the curb, fleshing out the canonical characters, and doing my best to stay within the range of the canon given to me. Some things I still hold my creative license of interpretation with, but in other words, it's like a case study.
This project has taken a very long time to get this far, as it's such a massive undertaking. A total of four years has gone into the production of making this fic readable to the public. Four years of planning, drafting, writing, rewriting from scratch, and starting everything all over again.
Because of this, I consider Stardust Utopia to be the Magnum Opus of my entire writing experience, and never again will I have the capacity nor the energy to write another story like this again. So enjoy it when it's still being written, and when I'm still working my hardest to bring this story to light.
I'll do my best to stay true to my words and carry them out all the way to the end. That'll be my end of the promise.
Content notes: I purposely did not name the narrator, but I did leave some clues. His identity is revealed in the next chapter, if it isn't obvious enough who it is already.
This first chapter might seem slow, since it sets the scene and include many crucial things. Expect things to really heat up and get a lot darker by around the fourth chapter, since that's when the main goal of the story really starts.
Of course, I do not own any of these characters, only my interpretations of them. All copyrights are to their due respects.
Without further ado, enjoy my first – if not only – published work and please leave a review.
THE FIGURE crept through the dark like the shadow of an assassin sneaking up to its victim.
He stood alone in the center of an empty cavern, facing a dark passageway that led to places far within. The only light was a small, hopeful ray seeping through the open door, left ajar - leading to a ravaged, barren wasteland filled with nothing but smoke from burned-out buildings, destruction, and lost causes.
Spiraling from the world outside, seeping into the solace of safety and darkness, was the scent of war. A pungent smell, at the least. Of blood, burnt hair, and the bodies of the dead. There were no funerals for the enemy or his comrades, no honor or memoir for the fallen. All became one on the battlefield, crashing together in a spark of fangs and steel so that no one was the wiser, and no one was the victor.
Many things had changed. Peace had changed, power had changed, the tides of battle had changed. But war, the only constant...war will always remain the same.
There was no turning back. It was either to follow through, to walk on and leave this place—to carry on, or stay there forever, in that same spot—unmoving and helpless, not knowing whether to go forward or to look behind. Either way, it would be an end, as well as a beginning.
He hesitated, and for that short moment, it was almost as if the weight of the world pressed down on his shoulders, waiting for him to make that one decision, within that one step.
He chose to follow through.
The warrior would find him. No matter how barren the skies or the distance to fly, even if it was his final order, even if it was the last thing he would ever do, he vowed to keep his promise. That promise to himself, to the one he was seeking, to his comrades among the stars, to the whole universe that depended all on this single declaration. He would find the child.
.
..
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Chapter 1: "It's a Small, Secluded World..."
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..
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…Day after day, the same mediocrity.
…Night after night, the same restlessness.
Nothing can break that cycle. That's the only certainty.
These thoughts passed my mind as I drifted down the familiar pathway that led to the forest. I drew in the morning air with a long breath, and let it out, along with the thoughts that wore me down. My breath was visible in the cold, and each heavy sigh billowed out a cloud of warm vapor. Leaves rustled beneath my purple feet, and above my round blue body, shafts of warm light shone through the canopy of trees overhead.
It wasn't anything I needed to escape in particular, nor anything I wanted to avoid-
…but the essence of being alone was the only thing to look forward to.
Walks like these in the woods would take up the entire day. I had nothing to miss. Leave in the morning, retrace my steps for a midday rest, and return until nightfall, when I was forced to come back home again. This quickly became a routine, and it stuck. The fall's early sunset shortened my hours, but it provided a beauty – something striking – that, also, was something to look forward to.
These walks served another purpose to me – for me to think, unhindered by anything else except my own thoughts. My mind and the forest were indispensable – there were many topics to think about.
However, this forest and this mediocrity was the only life I knew. Hopes of anything else were merely fantasy, some arbitrary pipe dream dreamt of on a long walk, and nothing more. If there was anything else other than this…I would give up hope of ever knowing it.
.
I spent the whole day in the forest and returned home earlier that evening, just in time for dinner. Not that anyone was around to call me back in, though.
I lived alone in a village – well, it would have been a stretch for one to call it that – with a small population. Although our numbers were few, everyone knew each other and cared for one another. However, I was perfectly capable of managing on my own, as one less worry for everyone else.
The house I lived in was a small one – but for me, it was just big enough. There was nothing to hide in it, and nothing of value, either. The only entrances were a drafty wooden door that could only be locked from the inside, and a tiny, narrow window at the top of my bedroom wall. There were only three rooms in it – my bedroom, a kitchen with a small gas stove tucked into the corner, and a room for my parents…if they were ever present. I was fortunate enough to have running water and electricity for a few hours each day, and the only light source I had was from a flickering lightbulb in the kitchen. And once it broke, I didn't have a replacement.
The place provided little comfort, but just enough to sustain. Now, this change of season would have been the time to start stocking a supply of firewood and finding a thicker blanket.
...But it's not the cold I mind.
On most nights I'd light a candle and read from a dusty, thick book about old legends, wrapped up in several blankets. The only other books I owned were an even thicker one about history and a book filled with facts. Neither of them were good reading material to spend the evening hours with, but I had no other choice.
But, I thought, not this time. Not the usual routine today. Today was special.
In a small storage closet by the door was a simple ladder fashioned out of sticks I had collected from my long walks out in the forest. It wouldn't have been able to hold up a grown adult, but for my purposes, it did exactly what I needed it to do.
I dragged the ladder out of the closet, threw open the door, and without closing it behind me, headed out. I had done this before, and tonight, I was going to do it again. I propped the ladder against the side of my house, steadied it, and with a leap and a bound, pulled myself upright and climbed up to the roof.
The sky was clear that day. So full of stars. Containing worlds I could never reach, never comprehend, and only hope to see.
I liked being up high, away from all other noises, with just me, my mind, and the stars for company. Here I could see everything going on in both planes, ground and sky. It gave me a strange feeling of authority that I shouldn't have.
Occasionally, on specialdays like these, I would come down from that vantage point…and step into the world of the mundane.
In that moment it had struck me of how bland my life had become, with every single action part of some customary routine. Even the time I spent in awe and bewilderment was planned as well. Everything had all of a sudden felt so fake, trivial, superficial – and I was determined to change it. Thus, I decided to pay a visit to the villagers in hopes that they could ease my mediocrity.
I had no interest in the antics of the villagers – they gave me a home, a constant supply of food, and I didn't need anything else – except for the stories they had to tell.
That night (which seemed to be special, even beyond my point of view), a crowd had gathered in one house, the home of the person who served as the storyteller, and the dirt path that ran through the settlement was bustling with commotion. I ignored their stares, the dumbfounded expressions of those who thought that I would never have appeared in that crowded area, or even in their line of sight altogether.
"That kid…since when does he ever go here?"
"What business does he have with us?"
"As if he isn't crazy enough already…"
The atmosphere was that of a happy one, so invigorating that it had almost affected me. The crowd had spilled out all the way into the street, and with my tiny frame, it was less of a challenge to squeeze into a place where I could see the person in the center of all this commotion. When I was able to get inside, I settled into a corner, distancing myself from the other people my age.
In the middle of the room sat the storyteller, I assumed – on a plush velvet armchair. Children sat beneath him on all sides on the carpeted floor.
Here, in the shadows, was where I began to listen.
"So, what story do you want to hear today?" the storyteller began. "Would you like to hear about King Arthur?"
The crowd of children babbled with dissent.
"No, we've heard that one a million times!"
"That one's old! You tell us that every night!"
"How about…hm, something about the Star Warriors?" The storyteller suggested.
"But which one? There's tons of legends about them!"
"Hm…I think I have one. You'll see. But first, let's start from the very beginning…"
...Now this was what I had come for!
And with a clearing of the storyteller's throat, the tale began.
"…In the beginning, long before any of you were born, long before anyone knew what war or sadness was, there was peace. And there were the Star Warriors, who stood for hope, peace, and justice itself, maintaining, preserving, and keeping that balance throughout the entire universe."
"How did they get there, in the first place?" A boy in front of me asked.
"What matters isn't how they got there, it's what they do that's important."
There was a quiet, obvious "Oh", and the storyteller continued his legend.
"But anyway, there was the universe, and all was well…until someone came along to ruin it.
"You see, every story must have a villain, right? In this case, our story's villain is the work of one man…and his organization. And that man is called Nightmare – the Emperor of Darkness, the paragon of all evil."
"What's that mean?"
"Embodiment, representation, you know – well, if evil was a person, it would be Nightmare.
"Tens of thousands of years ago, Nightmare decided that the best way to take over the universe would be through a company. And so he formed one. He called it 'Nightmare Enterprises'.
"This organization isn't just your average company – as a whole, instead of making things that help people, they make monsters. Dragons, demons, evil beasts, monsters of every shape and form, made in the likeness of nightmares themselves…they all exist – made by Nightmare, of course. However, their products don't do what exactly what they say on the label. They're made only to cause destruction, and nothing more. Everything they do, everything they make, is for one cause alone – and that is to rule the entire universe under an iron fist.
"Soon enough, people found out the real reason behind the origin of the monsters. And there were a few that knew, for sure, that what Nightmare did was wrong. And they decided to speak up against it. And so, they began to fight the monsters."
"The Star Warriors, weren't they?" Someone in the crowd of spectators had been quick to jump to the conclusion.
"Why, yes! Think of it this way—if Nightmare is everything evil in the universe, then the Star Warriors are everything good. They are a race of honor, destined to take part in the clash between good and evil. They stand for everything in the name of justice, and stomp down everything in the name of anger and hatred beneath their feet. It is said that the mark of the Star Warriors is the power of the stars themselves, for they are vast in number, as countless and unmeasurable as the stars in the sky.
One day the Star Warriors got together and they said, 'This isn't right! We need to protect the universe, and warn every single person that their very existence is in danger.' And so, the Star Warriors gathered together to declare war against Nightmare and his creations, and the battle began!
They fought and they fought. Battles were won, victories were made. Planets and entire galaxies were liberated, and all was well. Until one day…this company, Nightmare's Corporation, decided to do the one thing they could do to prevent the Star Warriors from taking him down—he took their trump card, the most powerful weapon in the universe, away from them."
"What is it?" I heard someone ask. "What's the most powerful weapon in the universe?"
"My friend, the most powerful weapon in the universe is the sacred sword, Galaxia, spoken of in legends very much like the one I am telling you right now. By no means is it a mere sword! It's said that it was forged by the gods from bolts of lightning, and it even has a mind of its own. It took many years, just to forge that sword, and it possesses enough power to kill a soldier just by the energy that pulsates from it. And there's no doubt that the Star Warriors needed it, and how Nightmare wanted it. For as long as it was in Nightmare's possession, the Star Warriors could not stop him from universal domination.
"Nightmare sent one of his creations to take care of the matter, and once he recovered it, he hid it in a subterranean cave, secured in a faraway land—where it is, nobody knows except for Nightmare himself. Thousands of years passed, and the Star Warriors did everything they could to recover Galaxia, but they had all been in vain. Every soldier they sent to retrieve it had never returned.
"The Star Warriors have said that the only people that can wield the sword are people of the purest hearts, the most valiant and brave. Galaxia has a temperament—if it deems a warrior too impure for its standards, it will destroy that warrior immediately. That is the most that they know, and everything else is unknown.
"Now, you might ask, 'What's the point of trying to get something that nobody who tried has ever gotten before?'. It's not about the what-ifs or the should-I's, it's about getting things done! You'll never reach your goals unless you try, right? And who knows? If you train hard and aim high, one of you may be the first to find Galaxia…and come back to tell the tale."
As soon as the storyteller had finished his story, the children, without even bothering to clap after the telling was finished, responded with "We want another story!"
A woman standing beside him, most likely a mother, leaned over to say something to him. "Well, well, look at them. You wound them at all up. At this rate, they'll never sleep on time. You'd better tell them another one that'll make them sleep. How about just scare 'em straight? That always works."
"You never know it, with kids like these," he answered. "But now what?"
"Go ahead, tell them another one. We've got all night."
"I can't think of anything else," he replied.
"I'm sure you've got one. If you can't think of anything, you can always make one up on the spot."
The storyteller sighed visibly as the children incessantly begged him for another story. Finally, he sat up straighter, and readied himself.
"Well, here you go. All right, all right, kids, here's another story. This one's a story you all know—the legend of…Galactic Knight."
There were quiet whispers and murmurs, and even I let out a breath of anticipation.
I certainly didn't know of it. Not once in any of my books had a 'Galactic Knight' been mentioned, making me all the more curious.
"Long, long ago, in a galaxy far, far away, lived a certain Galactic Knight."
"Like King Arthur?"
"Oh, yes—much like King Arthur. He was a Star Warrior, maybe even the strongest one who ever lived. He fought for justice, smiting evil, defending the weak…but however! There was one big difference. He did it all for himself."
A hush fell through the crowd.
The one to break the silence was a kid near my age, sitting by the door. "But…how? Why would a good guy do that?"
"You see, the only thing he wanted was power. Galactic Knight cared for nothing else except getting stronger. To him, banishing evil was only a means of training himself to become stronger. The more he fought, the less he remembered his original cause. So every evildoer that fell at his hands was not in the name of justice, but because of his own selfishness.
"Soon enough…people realized it. That Galactic Knight wasn't fighting for the sake of others, but out of his own greed. But no one could stop him; he had grown too powerful. It is said that at the galaxy's end, there is a comet that can grant any wish. One only needs enough power to summon it, and once their wish is stated upon that comet, it will be granted. Galactic Knight didn't just want power—he wanted to be the greatest warrior in the galaxy! He had more than enough power to summon that comet. His comrades, however, knew about this. And so they set up a plan to get rid of him—for good.
A few of the Star Warriors, along with Galactic Knight himself, headed out in search for that comet. And with the help of Galactic Knight's strength, they summoned it. Like I said, it could grant any wish, right? So, the Star Warriors took that wish and used it to seal him away, for his own power had become too great for him to bear. The Star Warriors stole his wish, and thus, Galactic Knight was banished away from the universe for eternity. And still, to this day, he remains there, locked away in some place; we'll never know where.
"...But who knows? Legends say that if the time is right, Galactic Knight will reawaken, seeking revenge upon the Star Warriors that sealed him away. And he'll stop at nothing, no one—including yourself, young ones. He'll make no discernment, no difference between mortal man or Star Warrior. He will kill everyone, and everything, that attempts to stand in his path of vengeance.
"Well then, always remember—don't go too far with anything you can't handle yourself. And don't stay up too late after dark—who knows if Galactic Knight might be lurking around in these parts? So, go to sleep on time tonight, or Galactic Knight might get you! That's it for today!"
The crowd of children clapped, finally satisfied, and discussing the stories amongst themselves, they slowly filed away. From my corner I heard them out in the street, play-fighting each other with sticks. "I'm a Star Warrior! Feel the power of my magic sword, Galaxia!" I overheard. How naïve. Hearing a legend and re-enacting it with such folly.
The storyteller was about to get up from his chair and head upstairs until I suddenly approached him.
"That Galactic Knight-was he really sealed away?" I asked abruptly.
He looked in my direction, obviously surprised. "Hey, it's you, huh? Never would have expected you."
"Was he really sealed away?" I demanded again, only caring about an answer and not how surprised people were to see me reveal my face in public.
"If the legend's true, then yes. But, as for re-awakening…well, you gotta come up with things to scare the kids sometimes, right? Haha…funny how you can control their minds like that. Tell them about Star Warriors so they can learn their morals. Tell them about monsters, and they'll stay closer to home without daring to wander off."
By the time the storyteller trailed off that sentence, I had already turned my back and started walking away.
Even though I knew it was silly to believe them, and I had no way of verifying them, still—these legends…they were quite something.
...Star Warriors, huh?
I remember distinctly that night, the way the story had struck me—how a simple legend made for children to behave could have been felt so close to my heart.
That night, as I lay in bed awake, pondering and absorbing the events of the day, something became known to me that I hadn't realized before.
Throwing off the covers and leaping out of bed, I made my way in the dark to the nightstand and fumbled for a candle and the matchbook that lay beside it. I lit the candle and reached into the bottom drawer, and from under a pile of bedsheets, I pulled out a golden metal star.
It was this little trinket that had been nagging at me. "The mark of the Star Warriors", the storyteller had said, "...is the power of the stars themselves." I had been pondering that line as I walked home, and my golden metal star came to mind.
How long I've had this star I didn't know, but it had always been sitting in its place at the bottom of all my things. Occasionally, on special nights like these, I'd often take it up to the rooftop and hold it up to the sky, covering up the moon and reflecting its light.
It seemed to be made of gold, or some other metal of that color, but small and light enough to fit in the palm of my hand. And when the going got tough, I always knew that I had this star, worth more than I could ever imagine – I figured could bring me a large sum of money if I traded it away in a faraway land. Still, I knew I couldn't bear selling it, let alone parting with it. It seemed that I had a natural attachment to this strange, curious object, but I couldn't name nor put my finger on exactly why that was.
I held it in my palms again, letting it catch the warm firelight of the lit candle, and admired its beauty once more before putting out the candle and going back to bed.
…And, just in case Galactic Knight did decide to pay me a visit, I placed the metal star under my pillow as a good luck charm.
The next day came like any other. Bright, brisk, and rather cold.
And, as it had turned out, Galactic Knight had not decided to stop by.
As a step of my adequately scheduled routine, I would make myself breakfast before going on a long walk once more. I made an effort to do these things quickly and quietly, so that I would slip away unnoticed, even by the early risers of the village. But it meant for me that as the fall season ended and winter would be soon approaching, it would be harder for me to compete against the frigid, dark mornings and my own tiredness, as the sun rose later and the day grew shorter. It also meant that my walks would be significantly shortened, and I would be good as dead if trapped outside in the woods after dark. It was only early fall, though, so I had still the last traces of summer to hold onto before it got much colder.
Today, just for my own benefit, I decided to break my routine yet again and I took the metal star, still under my pillow from last night's thoughts, and set off clutching it in my hand.
I took a different route than usual, a scenic detour by a stream that cut through the middle of the forest. Here I could follow the stream up to its source, a clearing with a waterfall with a drop as tall as the canopy trees. It would take an hour or more just to walk there, seeing as it was so far into the woods, but I knew my way around and it would be well worth the trip.
As I walked I thought about how I rarely ever kept favorites, but fall was indeed a beautiful season. There was no denying it, even a person like me would lose to the breathtaking scene of the now half-bare trees, leaves turning into a palette of colors and bringing life to my existence.
Through that hour came to me this realization:
There were some things I had learned to appreciate in my world, the only one I knew of.
One of them was that I had this beautiful forest to myself. It was here to stay, and so was I.
The other was that I was bound to never leave it. There was no reason for me to leave, and I didn't have a reason to deal with the troubles of the world that existed outside mine. That world gave nothing to me, and I would take nothing of that world as well. Ignorance was bliss.
Here, in this cage, it's a small, secluded world. That is the way it has been, and always will be.
When I reached the clearing I sat down on a flat rock away from the spray of the waterfall and dangled my feet in the cold flowing water. My troubled thoughts were set free, trickling away downstream and melting into the riverbanks of the forest.
Still holding it in my hand, I looked at the metal star I had brought along with me and held it up to the sky, right next to the sun. The sun was a star also, but it was unfathomable to me how large it was. I had remembered reading in a book that a million average-sized planets could fit inside a sun. And even so, I couldn't comprehend just how much a million was. On paper, it was only one followed by six zeroes. But in life? I didn't have any frame of reference to realize just how much that could be.
When I had first found out about that fact, I eagerly turned the page and found that there were more stars in the universe than grains of sand on the beaches of my planet. And even still, I was living in the solar system of just one star among the 200 billion in this galaxy.
That had brought me to wonder...'what does that make me?' To think that I was just one lone person, amidst a sea of unfathomably large numbers, among things so unremarkably insignificant.
In reality, it's a big world, after all.
I lowered the star and turned my gaze to the trees, simply stopping my train of thought to just relax, to be at ease with my laughably small self. I wanted to enjoy this peace; it was the among the only things I was guaranteed. Hours passed with ease with nothing but the sound of the waterfall, the wind rustling through the trees, and my own thoughts as I let them go and wander.
For that moment, all was calm. Nothing could have happened that day, and I could have spent the entire morning right here, by myself, with nothing but the sound of my thoughts and the water.
Looking up towards the sky, I noted that the position of the sun told me it was around noontime. I would have stayed in the forest for much longer, but however, something instinctual within me told me to leave. Strange, I thought. A premonition, maybe? As odd as it seemed, I followed the feeling down the stream and began to trace my way back home, metal star in hand.
The freeing of my thoughts had left me in high spirits, and for once, I was genuinely happy. As I skipped over rocks and logs and walked over patches of light, the little star seemed to gleam even brighter, filling me with cheerful, broadening energy.
At the edge of the forest where the trees began to thin out, the dreadful instinctual feeling returned. Something was definitely wrong, I knew it for sure—I could feel the tension—but what the danger I sensed was remained unknown to me.
...That was when I smelled smoke.
I ran in panic, breaking free from the cover of the last few trees and bolted down the dirt path. Bracing myself for something horrible, I imagined the worst.
What I saw before my eyes had been far worse than I had expected.
Destroyed. Everything had been destroyed.
The village was gone, reduced to burning embers. I continued down the path that ran through the middle of what used to be two rows of houses.
Ahead of me, my home, the only one I'd ever lived in, lay in ruins. This struck a nerve inside me, as if my own carelessness had led me to ignore the safety of my own village. Or perhaps, that same carelessness had saved me from being burned to the ground, along with everything else?
I clenched my fists and grimaced. This was no ordinary house fire that had spread due to the houses being so closely built together. It wouldn't have taken long for the fire to travel from one to the other, eventually dousing the entire community in flames and soot under burning conflagration. I shook that image out of my head.
There was definitely a greater force at hand...but what business would they have with us to do all of this?
That question was answered when a large one-eyed dragon and its rider on top of it jumped out from behind the remnants of a brick wall, blocking my way out.
Suddenly, I thought back to the story I'd heard just the night before.
"Dragons, demons, evil beasts, monsters of every shape and form, made in the likeness of nightmares themselves…they all exist-made by Nightmare, of course..."
"No way!" I yelled aloud, pointing in fear at the dragon and its master. "But monsters don't exist! They're just legends!"
"Say that again when you meet your maker," growled another voice behind me.
I turned around to see another beast, this one different than the other—it had amber-colored scales and had a set of three claws on each paw, like an animal that I'd only read of in books before. The rider on top of it, the one who spoke, motioned to his comrade on the dragon.
"This is the one we're after. Our master will be happy to deal with him while he's alive."
I was surrounded now, and quickly running out of options. If I ran, both my escape routes would be blocked and I would only face fate in pain. If I fought, it would have been an unwinnable battle.
The henchman on the amber beast, seemingly amused by the expression of utter fear on my face, brandished a weighted net in one hand and a needle in the other. "Don't worry, kid," he cooed in false reassurance. "This will be quick...and painless."
In an instant, they were upon me, and they threw the net over me and jabbed the needle into my cheek. And before I could resist or fight back, they threw me into a burlap sack and carried me away.
...Where am I?
When I came to, all the signs of anything familiar had disappeared. Carefully, I felt every joint of my body to check if anything was damaged. Although I was aching all over, nothing had been broken. I reached to touch my backside and felt that it was surprisingly itchy, and when I scratched and looked at my hand, I saw blood from a wound I'd just reopened.
Good, at least I'm alive, I thought. But what now?
I couldn't piece together anything. Where I had come from moments before had all been a blur. I tried in vain to trace things as far back as I could. Just last night I had been listening to a story about…monsters, was it? Then, the next morning, I had gone for a walk, and upon my return, a pair of the monsters I heard about the night before had appeared, and one of the guys with the monsters had put me in a net, injected something in me with a needle...and after that, I remembered nothing.
It was an amnesiac drug, I realized. They drugged me so I wouldn't be able to remember what they did to me. What did they do? Maybe I'll never find out...I knew I lost consciousness—I could have been out cold for hours, days, weeks for all it mattered, and I woke up with no sense of where I'd come from the minute before.
Hesitantly, I clawed at the ground and pulled myself forward, inches away from a fifty-foot drop to my death.
Standing at the edge of a plateau, I stared down at a vast expanse that looked like a gigantic empty bowl cut into the ground. What probably had once been an ocean had been reduced to a few dirty scattered puddles. It looked like something from the depths of my nightmares, the cruel parts of imagination that were never meant to surface. Anything I'd ever known before was now gone; this was nowhere near home. I could have been on the other side of the world—even on a completely different planet with a different star.
An uncanny wind broke through the silence, as the clouds suddenly parted, rays of sunlight piercing down to the canyon below. A shadow cast down on the rocky seabed, and with a brilliant flash of light and the whirr of a powerful engine, a gigantic machine with a long cylindrical body and a spiked metal wrecking ball on a chain in its hands descended from the sky. The machine blasted at the world beneath it with the power of engines attached beneath its feet, with the ground shaking violently from its force. I stepped back, holding an arm up for a sense of protection. Was this what they call a 'monster'?
Far off to my right I could see, to my surprise, a tall figure in full armor standing at the far end of the empty sea. Tensing himself, cape billowing behind him, shield and sword in hand, he held his weapon forward and charged at the giant machine.
The robotic monster responded instantly by hurling its flail at the plateau the warrior stood on, breaking off a huge chunk of land. To this the warrior paid no heed, dodging the spiked wrecking ball with ease. He had the advantage now—the head of the flail lay buried under the remains of the rock ledge, rendering it useless to its wielder, the eldritch and colossal machine.
Then, defying all logic I'd ever come to known, the warrior ran past the wrecking ball and sprinted up the thick chain that was his bridge between his position and the machine itself. It was a risk that no sane man would ever have taken—one misstep and he'd have nothing between him and the ground to stop him from a plummet to his death.
The machine, assuming if it was even sentient, had a vague understanding of this concept. It increased the force of its engines and hovered higher above the ground, pulling back on the chain with a screech of metal to wrestle the flail free. Yanking the chain back towards its core, the machine returned its weapon to its hands, sending the warrior down to the earth.
He was free-falling now, and for a moment he turned to look in my direction as he realized the prescence of another person. I caught a glimpse of his features—spiky golden hair, a silver mask covering his face, a golden metal star pinned to his chest...It looked like he was panicking, thinking of a way to slow down his fall somehow. Desperation took over and there was nothing he could do but hold his sword up defenselessly. In fear I peered over the edge of the canyon—shouting, even, as if it could have helped.
At that moment, I could've sworn he turned his head to wink at me, as if he was hiding an obvious trick that would have trivialized the entire battle.
"...SWORD BEAM!"
A brilliant ray of light shot through the warrior's weapon, hitting the ground beneath him at an angle to slow his fall. As he landed, he angled the blast upward, shooting energy like magic I'd never knew existed across the canyon, homing right into the monster's core. In a final grand explosion, the monster was destroyed, hailing down tons upon tons of metal pieces that tore away the entire rim of the dried sea, sending me toppling down to the canyon in a landslide of rocks and dirt.
The dust settled, and when I looked up, I saw the warrior towering over me, as he sheathed his weapon and pulled off the mask that concealed his face. He extended a hand, the gesture beckoning me to reach for it.
"So you're the one," he said in a smooth, masculine voice. "Hey there. Did I scare you?"
I shook my head, and as I tried to stand up and take a wobbly step towards him, I felt a wave of fatigue envelop me. The last few days had broken me down to the core, equally a burden on my body as well as my mind. Every muscle and bone in my body felt sore.
I reached up, staggering over to grab the warrior's hand, but fell short and collapsed on the ground. There was no energy left within me, not even enough to pick myself up. I lay helpless in the dirt, as my senses were dimming and my body succumbing to physical defeat.
"Hey…hey, kid! Wake up!" The warrior yelled, but even the sound of his words were fading.
And as quickly as the man had come and won the battle, the world closed in on me, and everything went dark.
Author's note: 2/18/12
To get a feel for the pacing of this story, I'd estimate that each chapter will be around 7,500 words long. Originally, the first and the second chapter were supposed to be together, but due to the length, I had to split them in half.
This is the first work I've posted on this site, but it definitely isn't the first thing I've ever attempted writing. I've spent a total of four years planning, building and revising the premise of this story, and it's definitely taken me a lot of work to present this in its current form. I appreciate any feedback and will gladly answer any questions you may have.
Update 3/27/12: Went back to add a scene to the prologue and a few little words here and there. No major changes, though.
4/22/12: Finally got around to doing some minor edits that a few reviewers have mentioned before. Thanks to all who help me make this story even better!