Hey everyone! I decided I would redo the first 3 chapters (don't worry, they won't change dramatically, like switching out Maria for a guy, or something). You'll still see a lot of the same things, but the story will the be better this way. Or at least it will in my eyes. So, I hope you enjoy this newly edited Chapter 1! (I had gone through this a few times, and was actually going to go through it again, but then I decided if I kept going over it, I was never going to get to posting it, so I decided, "Just post it already." So, here it is!)
(Grr... This won't let me make smilies...)
Disclaimer: I do not own Golden Sun. I do own Thana and Maria though.
Sol Adept Chronicles
Book 1: Revelations of the Past
Chapter 1: Nightmares
A small, frantic figure was running like her life depended on it, her breath coming in quick, frightened gasps.
Thana had to get away.
She would be in trouble if she didn't make it.
Thana's hurriedly-packed sylph backpack bounced a little as she made an effort to put the straps a little tighter to could gain more speed. She glanced fearfully behind her, face covered with sweat of exertion and fear. She ran, buildings from the city streets looming like mountains beside her.
Even though she tried to stay hidden by them, she felt afraid of every shadow, every bush, every building. The enemy could be concealed in anything! She must not be caught. If she was, she would have failed.
She could not allow that to happen.
Thana tried to pick up her pace. Her home was far behind her. Her goal- far away. She couldn't lose her speed, or her focus. If she did, it was over.
She ran behind a giant magnolia tree a couple minutes later to catch her breath, trying to hide within the black shadow of the huge leaves and the huge, sweet-smelling white blossoms. Nervously, she glanced around her, checking her bearings.
She saw nothing, and she held a good position, from the look of it.
But things weren't always as they appeared. Her assailant was very quick, and very cunning. They might use their knowledge of city layouts or of her to gain an advantage. She had to put as much distance between the stalker and herself as possible!
Leaving the safety of magnolia tree, Thana took off again, fleeing to the shadows and silently screaming her anger out at the full moon. Not only was it giving more light that could possibly give away her position, but it was also making her feel… woozy… uncomfortable. She could never explain why she felt that way on nights with a full, or almost-full, moon, but for as far as she could remember, she always felt real jittery and almost… drained, similar to Kyo reacting when it would rain. Except it nights that decided to cradle a full moon on its blanket of stars were what bothered Thana, not rain.
Thana picked up her pace again, and felt the wind rushing by her, blowing her short, red-gold hair away from her eyes and cooling her hot, sweaty body. Her glasses slid a little; she pushed them back up, and then risked a quick glance down at her watch.
10:47 PM.
It's almost time! She thought excitedly. Just a little longer…. She ran even faster, the knowledge giving her more strength.
Maybe I can lose them even more! She thought, seeing an alleyway, but took too sharp a turn and didn't look. She tripped over a slab of broken concrete, knocking the wind out of her for several moments. In her panic she could've sworn she heard footsteps approaching, and picked herself up and ran, forgetting any feelings of embarrassment immediately. Her pursuer had gained time on her, and she didn't want to be caught!
A dark shadow passed over the alleyway a few minutes later and soon materialized into a form, hovering over the wall overlooking the alleyway. It seemed to just wait there for a few seconds, watching as the small figure leaving the alleyway began to disappear into the following darkness. It waited until she was almost invisible in the darkness before participating again in the chase, like a predator playing with its prey.
Thana was off and running again, adrenaline burning through her veins like acid being poured onto a long strip of paper. She scarcely noticed the wild beating of her heart or whether she was entering the city's outskirts or core. Her only thought was that she needed to evade her pursuer, and in any way permissible.
Jumping down from a roof as silently as a cat, she ran some distance and then climbed up a stone wall. Balancing precariously on barely 6 inches worth of foot-space, she took off again, running carefully along the backyard wall of the dark, new (under construction) housing development before entering the downtown business district. There were very few streetlights here, so Thana decided to leave the shadowy wall for darker shadows. The shadows were good, and she had nearly run out of wall, anyway.
She landed next to a fence near a Watermill Express. Fleeing to the fence's shadows, she stayed so close to it she could feel tiny splinters from the boards pressing up against her skin. Thana was beginning to breathe in quiet, gasp-like breaths. She would have to be careful of how much she exerted herself, or she might find herself with an unneeded asthma attack.
In a brief moment of light, she fearlessly risked another glance down at her watch.
10:54 PM.
Yes! She thought. Almost!!
She skirted the sidewalks and, after across a short bridge, jumped down to a lower walkway. She landed. A soft thump sounded behind her, causing Thana's hair to stand on end.
Her heart racing, she swung around without thinking to look behind her. A swish of long hair from the less-dense shadows was all she saw before she felt a sharp blow from behind. Her eyes clouded over with darkness.
"Hah, caught you! You almost escaped me- nice try!" was the last thing she heard before the world closed in around her.
The wind roared angrily, nearly bursting Thana's eardrums as it whipped her hair around her face. She felt the ground tremble beneath her feet and stood precariously, trying to maintain a sure footing, since she was standing near the edge of what appeared to be the top of a mountain. She could feel a dark cloud hanging ominously in the air; she shivered; the feeling chilled her.
Where am I? She wondered, and then the answer appeared before her. Oh, I'm in a dream. She was about to dismiss the thought, when another came to mind. Hey! Wait a minute! Did that mean I failed-?! Her thoughts were interrupted when a commotion attracted her attention.
A group of people stood at the center of the mountain peak.
Deciding to figure it out later, she slowly and curiously wandered over.
There appeared, in her opinion, to be a wide variety of cultures, because after every few people, the next set looked different. In the center, there was a muscular man with flaming orange hair, gripping the hilt of the sword at his belt. In front of him, several feet away, there was a woman. She had waist-length, slightly-wavy flame-colored hair that looked like fire when it danced in the wind. Almost like my hair, but WAY totally longer, Thana thought. She seems cool. Her hands were bound behind her back with shackles that seemed to pulsate with energy. Two men were supporting her by her arms; she was so beaten that she was unable to stand, and there were cuts and bruises all over her slim frame. Er… maybe not. Thana thought, as an afterthought. She seems pretty beat up. But what jerk goes around beating up girls?
She turned to a couple of people that were nearest to her.
What's going on here? Thana asked aloud.
No one seemed to hear her.
Hello, peoples! Thana said, waving a hand in front of the face of the one nearest to her.
They didn't seem to be able to see her, either.
I'm just a silent observer in another weird dream, I guess, Thana mused to herself.
Suddenly there was a shout from the other side of group. A name was called.
The shout came from a man with long, bluish-silver hair and… the head-piece thingy the Lemurians wore, Thana thought. This dream's getting weirder…. Why am I seeing Lemurians? Unlike the woman from the other side, he was just restrained. He was struggling to free himself, but his slimmer physique than his captors' was no match for the vice grips of the two that held him. He shouted again in a tongue that Thana couldn't translate, and called the name again.
This time the woman responded, murmuring something that Thana couldn't understand, softly in a despairing tone, and not lifting her head. The man began talking to her, telling her something, but it seemed to call her attention, because she raised her head to look at him. As their eyes met, a fire sprang into the woman's eyes. She started to reply, but before she could finish, she was cut off.
This is like watching TV in a foreign language you're trying to learn… Thana concluded. You don't understand what's going on until you finally learn it!
It was the orange-haired guy in the middle that had cut her off, and then began speaking to them about something in an emotionless tone. His eyes were shut tightly; he was gripping his sword so tightly that the whites of his knuckles showed.
It's kind of like he's regretting what he's about to do, Thana thought, trying to figure out what was going on by analyzing the character's voices and actions. But I couldn't figure out what's happening in the first place….
The man continued, his voice shaking with pain, and his fingers loosing their grip on the hilt of his sword. He opened his eyes, staring blankly at the ground, and his hand fell from the sword to his side.
The woman murmured something to him in a questioning, scoffing tone. The center man's head shot up, his voice shaking as he tried to retort an answer. She raised her head, this time stronger and more confident as she pressed on. The center man cut her off, his eyes narrow and blazing. He whipped out his sword. Face like a stone mask, he barked something angrily and signaled to the men holding her. Their hands began to glow. Sparks of electricity and flame crackled around her. She began to scream. The blue-haired man cried out her name in anguish, struggling even more earnestly to free himself. The man in the center advanced.
No! Not again! Thana thought, shutting her eyes as though to push away the images. She knew what was going to happen next.
The woman would die.
She knew the procedure of this story already, but every time she saw it she felt the pain anew.
Suddenly Thana felt a surprised feeling of nothingness.
Hey, Thana thought. This has never happened before-
And then there was pain. Burning, slicing, piercing pain. Thana's screams rose with the woman's as she felt herself feeling the woman's pain.
What happened…? Thana's mind was filled with that single thought. Then, like the morning dawn after night, the realization was there.
She was inside that woman.
Somehow, someway, she had been thrown inside her.
Suddenly she tasted blood in her mouth as she felt the sword penetrate her heart. With difficulty, she raised her head, looking into the hate-filled eyes of the man from the center, his sword impaled through her. The woman, and Thana, spat something painfully to him before the agony intensified. The blue-haired man ceased struggling. Tears poured down his fair cheeks like rain; helplessness stealing his face as he was forced to watch her die. The man from the center spat something disdainfully, looking down at the dying woman as Thana felt her begin to fade away. Blood dripped down, the stream becoming a pool around her feet. Thana couldn't even describe the intensity of her pain.
But then Thana felt a greater anguish within the woman, not a another physical wound, but a great sorrow from within the woman's soul as she released her final cry-
Thana awoke screaming, the images replaying themselves before her eyes as strong as they had been when she dreamt them.
A/N: What do you think? Better? Worse? Please R&R!! And I'm still working on Chapter 4, nobody panic! I just needed to add in the revisions, but I thought that if I was going to add some changes in the previous chapters, now would be as good a time as any. Besides, I think, really, that (pardon the pun) Chapter 1's the one that's really going to have the most changes. So, in theory, it shouldn't be long before I get the next 2 done, and then I'll be able to post Chapter 4 when the revisions are done:D That's my plan anyway. Well, please R&R!! Thank you so much!!
