This is A Prelude to Rise, its sort of the Prologue to The Voyage. This whole first arc tied in with Ckbrothers' story, The Aura Chronicles. If you want the whole story, or most of it at least, I do suggest you read his story as well.

A Prelude to Rise

A Story by EnderScar

Chapter 1

The Start of Something New

How wonderful it is that nobody need wait a single moment before starting to improve the world.

-Anne Frank

I felt myself being shoved down to the ground, the dark armored man held his rapier high into the sky, ready to strike at any moment.

"Ender." Vades voice echoed inside of my head.

"Just a minute..." I said, before bringing my sword to my head, blocking the blow from the man. I lunged forwards knocking his weapon from his hand and knocking him to the ground. I seemed to overpower him for a moment, before he somehow hastily wrapping his arm around my throat. The surprise from this motion made me completely exposed, allowing him to finish his move. His arm seemed to crush my throat, I gagged at the sound and seemingly, from survival instinct, took my sword and shoved it through my arm, and jabbing him through the chest. The man's body seemed to stop in place, his hands jolted back from my throat. The man and I fell down to the ground, my arms reaching for my throat, air rushing through, I almost forgot that I had impaled my arm, before the pain began to set in. The armored man seemed to fade from existence as I pulled the sword from my shoulder.

"Ender." Vades voice called again.

"For fuck's sake..." I choked out, "I've just impaled myself, give me a moment..."

"Ender, you do realize that its not real? Right?" Vade said, before everything around me began to fade to black.

"Sorry," I said. "I just caught up with everything for a moment." The pain in my arm came back for a moment, I quickly grasped back to it.

"Let me get that for you." Jin said kindly, she seemed to come from nowhere. She took a finger and wrote a strange-looking symbol under the hole in my arm. I watched as she finished, the flesh and muscle began to regrow at a extremely fast rate.

"That was fast..." I said in shock. I moved my arm around to reveal that I had fully recovered.

"You may have been fighting a fake enemy, but you can still hurt yourself. Be careful."

"Just cut to the chase." I said ambitiously, "I don't need you baby-sitting me."

Vade sighed as he created a sight in-front of us, the view was of a kingdom being attacked by dark figures, fires dotted the landscape. Ant-like figures of features swarmed the hills and plains. Some sights showed that of families being torn apart, the father running into battle to protect the ones he loved. Others kneeled beside there friends lifeless bodies. I didn't know how it felt, to lose someone you loved, but somehow, I knew what it felt like. The pain and agony going through your mind. I seemed to stare of into nothing when Vade raised his voice to me.

"Ender," I shook slightly and looked towards. "I know it's tough to think about, but you need to hear me out."

"Right..." I said, the looks on people's faces still echoed through my mind as Vade continued to speak.

"We're going to send you in here, to a part of The World called Fanto. What your seeing now is what it was like before the other side of the world discovered it. It's much different that it is as you see right now."

"Alright." I said before Jin began to create symbols in the air.

"Before you do send me off," I said, causing Jin to stop and glance at me for a moment. "Is their anything else I need to know?"

Vade smirked for a moment as the world around me began to fade to a shining white.

"You'll know what to do..."

I sluggishly crawled out climbed out of a bed before realizing where I was.

I was in a cabin that was on a boat.

The room was simple in design, pale white walls with a wooden-framed bed and white sheets. a window lead out to a small deck with a chair. The waves of the ocean splashed from below.

"The hell..." I said to myself before a intercom system rang throughout the hull of the ship.

"Welcome to Fanto, we will be arriving at the docks shortly." The voice said before cutting off to static.

I opened the glass door and looked out to the side to see a dock with people flooding it from side to side.

"Well that was easy." I said to myself as I walked out of the room into the white walled hallway. People had begun to walk out of their rooms as well carrying luggage and other items.

The deck was covered with people, all flocking towards what was presumed to be a ramp leading to the concrete dock below.

"Come on, single file, we don't have to be in a rush." One of the sailors said as he tried to force people into a straight line.

"Excuse me sir?" I said as I moved out of the way of a family, almost knocking over their luggage.

"We'll, if you actually read the signs before you got on, you'd see that you've arrived at Fanto." The sailor said as he practically gave up on his duty.

"Thanks," I said, walking off with the hoard of people.

The town was what you would normally see in a docking port, simple brick homes, lampposts that would light the way at night. People all around held out signs with 'Warm Welcomes' or 'Welcome Home'. All for a normal reunion. I focused back on the task at hand, I needed to figure out what the problem was. "I have to find some of the veterans of this town, they probably know their way around here." I thought as I scanned the buildings, looking for signs of age. A wooden house made inside of the trunk of a giant tree. I walked over to a older man, "Hey, do you know who lives in that house over there?" I threw the question out to him, he seemed startled for a moment before responding.

"Yeah, her name is Qreck Choreck she's one of the oldest people in this town, she wouldn't even let the custodians tear it down, something about it 'being a part of history.'"

"Anything else you know?" I asked.

"All I know is she rarely comes out, she usually keeps to herself, I've only see her out about three times, only to get common goods."

"Alright, thanks." I said, before walking up to the wooden fence surrounding the home. It looked as if a simple gust of wind could tear it down, yet, here it stood.

I noticed a cloaked figure hunched over in a garden inside of the property, "This has to be her..." I thought to myself before jumping over the fence and walking to her.

"Excuse me Ms..." I said to her, before she turned over to me, "Do you happen to know who Qreck Choreck is by any chance?" I said, before the woman chuckled in response.

"Yes... that would be me." The woman said with a rough and aged voice. She went to take off the hood from her head.

"Great, I was going to ask you abo-" I said, before cutting myself off in confoundment. The woman's face was that of an owl's, her face covered in light brown feathers, a beak replaced where a mouth would reside, but still worked like a functional one. Her black beady eyes stared at me waiting for a response.

She seemed to know that I was shocked, before responding in a irritated tone, "What's wrong? Never seen a Furso before?"

I snapped out of my daze, "Yeah... I just got here, I've never heard of anything like that before."

"Ahh, I see..." The woman said, before heading inside.

"Oh! Wait a second Qreck." I shouted, "I forgot to ask you, do you happen to know anything about Fanto?"

The owl seemed to balk at the question for a moment, "Know anything? I've lived here my whole life."

"Great! Could you possibly tell me about Fanto?"

The owl nodded in agreement, "But, you have to come inside with me, and have some tea... I get pretty lonely here all by myself."

"Alright then, Qreck, you've got yourself a deal." I said, before heading inside.

"Thats Mrs Q. for you."

The sound of a kettle boiling caused me to jump for a moment, before Q seemed to jump in her seat. "Oh good! I'll go get the tea for us." The woman seemed to dart for the kettle as fast as her body would let her, before coming back with two cups in her hands.

"What do you know about the land?" I asked before taking a sip of the drink.

"Well, this town is used as a dock between all of the cities, the ship you came on, as a matter of fact, also doubles as a storage boat, used to bring in goods from the eastern continent."

"What was it like in your youth?" I threw the question out there.

Her face seemed reluctant at first, before she let out a sigh, and reached over at a book on a table besides her.

"This whole eastern part of the continent used to be under the rule of Jackson Kyle, and the rest of his family."

"Used to?" I asked.

"That was, before it was attacked..." Q said as she trailed off.

"By who?"

"Some people say it was demons, or raiders, but I remember seeing it with my own two eyes." She said, tears beginning to well up on her face. "It was a colossal cloud of smoke, it seemed to go for miles in any direction. I didn't happen to see who anyone was fighting, I was fleeing for my life. I left everything there and moved down to the southern end of the continent, and, well, here I am today."

"Do you think anyone survived?" I asked.

"Oh, I assure you that people survived, it was as if this... army that came to attack, left in a instant, once they achieved their goal."

"What was their goal?"

"To kill all of the royal family."

I paused for a moment, remembering the view that Vade and Jin had shown me before, that of shadowed figures, people running, into battle, and away. My hand clenched into a fist for a moment, before I calmed myself.

"Thank you Mrs. Q." I said in a grateful tone.

"No, thank you, I haven't gotten out much in forever, and its nice to see a new face every now and then."

"I have one last question for you..." I said, ready to leave at any moment. "Where should I go if I want to learn more about the land?"

"The only place I know of would be a city a few days travel from here. They have a large library of information that I think you may find useful."

"Alright. I'm off." I said, before walking out the door.

"Good luck!" The aviary said.

"Thanks..."

"I'm going to need it."