Final Fantasy 1: The Coming of Chaos
By: Zio

Prologue:
The world lies shrouded in darkness.
The winds die...
The seas rage...
The earth decays...
But the people believe in a prophecy,
patiently awaiting its fulfillment.

"When darkness veils the world,
four Warriors of Light shall come..."

After a long journey, four young travelers did at last appear...
...and in the hand of each was clutched a crystal.

A mage, torch in hand and walking through a cave located close to an island shaped like a crescent moon, found a tablet. A tablet, written in a language long ago thought to be dead, that held the future of his world.

"At last!" he exclaimed. "My visions have not been for nothing. I have found the stone inscribed with the prophecy of this world. It must be time that the world is put into harms way once more."

He bent over to look at the tablet more closely. The mage's brow furrowed in thought, and his soft, grey eyes looked back and forth across the tablet reading and re-reading it. "The zenith of their evil powers are nigh; they shall roam free once again. I hope that the ones foretold in the prophecy are ready to face the hardships that lie ahead against the powers. I fear the worst if they are not successful in there quest. Chaos shall rule the world if the job is not completed."

The mage leaned forward and touched the tablet running his pale, white fingers over it. He thought, "I must tell the others in the circle about this." He stood erect and briskly walked toward the entrance to the cave.

A rumble came from behind the mage. "What is happening?" he thought and turned around to see what could be causing such a disturbance. "The tablet," he paused. "Could this be the doings of the tablet? NO! The prophecy!" He ran towards the tablet as fast as he could but was too late.

The tablet shattered leaving four crystals of different colors behind amongst its remains. The mage walked over slowly to them and bent down to pick one up. "Brown, red, blue, and green?" He looked over the four crystals that laid before him. "These must be the crystals told about in the scripture. They are unlit; I wonder what that means." He paused to think, and an idea struck him that turned his pale face whiter. "The crystals are not with the chosen ones. What does this mean? How does this change the prophecy?"

The crystals flashed once and then once more. The flashing became more frequent. The mage carefully placed the crystal he picked up to its rightful place among the other three. "What is this? Never have I seen anything like this," he thought. The crystals flashed once more and returned to there translucent color. The four crystals levitated above the ground, level to the mage's head, and shot upwards breaking a hole in the ceiling of the cave. The moonlight poured in through the hole.

The mage, shocked at the scene of floating crystals, ran out of the cave yelling, "It is starting! It is starting!"