Legends: Beginnings
Disclaimer: I do not own anything that is related, remotely related, or is in the game, Illusions of Gaia. It is owned by Enix and all related companies. All Original Characters, Stories, and anything else that is not in, related to, or remotely related to the game, was solely created for creative and entertainment purposes. Thank you for your time.
Author's Note: There are a few things that I need to quickly cover before the story begins, and I promise that this will be the longest Author's Note that will grace this story. Just a fair warning that this note does cover several paragraphs, and I have no intention of making a separate chapter just for the sake of a small note.
For the creative purposes of this story and any other Illusion of Gaia fan fics I may or may not write, I have made Freedan and Shadow as two separate characters even though in the game they are both supposed to be transformations of Will, or as close to it as I imagine they are. I am going to assume for the most part that they are/were, in fact, two separate characters before, during, and after the game and had to bend to Gaia's will. This roughly means that that they had to transfer their own images/allow themselves to do whatever Mother Nature wanted them to do. This is just my random thinking, and I have been wrong in the past before so if I AM wrong I don't mind any directions to sites that say otherwise.
For the most part this story does not, in fact, take place during Illusions of Gaia's original game canon time frame, nor does it take place during any of the other two Soul Blazer canon time frames. In fact I am going to assume that this story does take place in the "new world" at the end of the game. I am taking liberty with some key elements from the game and spinning it my own way, hence the term "fan fiction". This story is in no way, shape, or form supposed to be taken as cannon nor does it imply that everything canon is to be used properly or is cannon itself. I have taken some liberty with a few things here and there.
Please also be aware that until a couple of years ago, I never even realized that Illusion of Gaia had been a part of a series! So anything that has happened in those games that may or may not have any impact on this game will be ignored for the sake of this story or until such time as I get a copy of said games and actually, you know, play them.
I also do not assume that I am the best out there in terms of writing, nor should I assume I'm the worst either. I much rather receive constructive criticism over the normal "this is great!" type of comments, although I don't mind them. This prologue will be short and done in the first person view, but the rest of the story is done in the third person and the chapters will be considerably longer. Most of the chapters will be in the 2,500-6,000 word range, depending the chapter.
If anyone has any problems with this story - they don't like it, it's not that kind of story they like, or have another reason entirely - the back button is your friend. I do not take kindly to people who, for whatever reason, decide they want to flame this story instead of just getting the hell away from it. Thank you for your time.
Prologue - As The World Goes On
The ways of the ancients and the old ways of civilizations past seem to change and morph into modern ideals that are more foreign then one remembers. They move on without the notion that some just don't want that change to happen and damn the new ways, in whatever form they want to take. Everything changes, everything moves to the tune of the universe and it's always the ones that had gone by the ways of old that are stuck in the middle of a new world and the world of the old, like standing in a trance between light and dark.
They stare at the world from inside their prisons that they call their bodies, the vessels in which house something deeper, in hopes that if they stand there long enough the world would go back to the way it once was. Then they find that life has moved on without them and won't be going back to the days of old before they realize that they have stood by without a care. That is the world in which all humans live in, regardless if they find the courage to accept the fact that they can't change what refuses to change nor can they do anything about it.
That's the way I've found the world to be as life, as I watch from a distant shoreline in hopes that, one day, the Earth that I knew as a child would return to the way it once had been. But who am I to say what comes and goes with the gentle lapping of the sea against the beach? I am just an immortal soul, trapped forever in a body that hasn't aged in centuries since my late teen years. I only live to serve the one person that has kept me alive all these countless years, the mistress that I had died once for already and most likely would do it again for.
Maybe that's the cold truth behind what I do, what I see in the dense jungles of the island - or it could be something else entirely. I have control of my own body, when I am allowed to roam freely amongst the birds and animals. My mind is my own even with her not too far away, like what normal humans call "little voices inside their mind". She is always there, keeping me confined to what I know and can do but allowing me to be of my own free will. I made the choice to serve her and continue to do so to this day, even with the knowledge that I could never live in the world that has changed so much since the days of old. She, in return for the services I have given, gave me more than a mortals mind could ever think of.
Or perhaps it had to do with the way the past has treated me that I look out into the great, vast ocean and hope that the future is better then the way the world has treated me. I can't say for sure what my life was like before or, rather, can't remember every detail that has transpired prior to me becoming what I am now. Perhaps it's just fate that I am standing here, looking out into a world that has gone on without me and will continue to change for the better or for the worse. The world has a few more billion years to live, and I will be watching every day until I am released from my duties whenever She wishes to.
I am out of my own slumber, out of it for five decades now or more if I remember correctly, and have wandered around the island more then I care to admit. There is only so much I can do on an island that I do not wish to leave out of my own accord but rather I listen to what the wind has told me and what information she has given me. There are tasks that need to be done that I cannot do on this island but the fear of the changed Earth has left me unable to carry them out. She knows this and understands, like a Mother understanding her Child; these tasks are not meant to be fully carried out. I do not understand this and cannot for my own sake. What drives me to act like I do is not something that I will admit freely to myself or to anyone else - not even to Her despite that She knows what happened.
There is a tug at the back of my mind, a soft voice that coaxes me out of my daydreams. The day is still young as I look up at the sky above and force myself to smile; I have seen too many days that my appreciation for the blue sky and white clouds has dwindled to almost nothing. I still see a certain beauty in it and that beauty has kept me alive for so many years that I've lost count as to how long I have actually been alive.
I sigh and put my head down, turning around to face the forest that has become my home for the longest time. She has called me back in front of her once again, to tell me something of importance that I must know or She would not have called me. It is a destiny in a world that goes on without me and a world that will become entangled in something that no mortal should become involved in again.
As I move towards and then into the forest, I do no sense the presence of a dark force that forms out in the wilds of another island. It has clouded itself against my own given powers and that of the one I serve; had we known it would return after decades of slumber, I would not have remained on the island. I would not have been commanded to stay, but to get rid of the taint that I, myself, had fought before.
And we - that dark force and myself - will clash together once again.
Until Next Time