A Shrouded Ring of Hope
By Huepow00
PROLOUGE
The faint cries of battle rose to a shrill scream that filled the air around the poor soldiers like a fog. Had it not been for the eclipse earlier, as dangerous as it had been, they wouldn't have been able to sleep at all.
It was still to dark to see anything, but the sun would come out soon, it always did. The eclipse's came often now, through some turn of events the Dark Spirit must have had control over. It filled the empty barren land surrounding the men and forced them into fear. A wrenching fear that infants get when separated from their mothers. A fear that, if left unchecked, would seep into the soldiers mind and poison his every thought until he was no longer a soldier, but a hollow shell with no will to fight.
Shells lay everywhere and although the eclipse had blacked out the main source of light, an eerie glow still surrounded the men from all sides. Refracted light twisted and crept through every crevice from the enormous crystals surrounding their home, gigantic crystals of every hue imaginable that towered over the fearful men like a monolith of color and brilliance. A monolith that, inscribed upon its shimmering surface, gave each man a reason to keep fighting and to keep his eyes open in the dark.
Then, as if through some unseen force, the fog lifted slowly. The wasteland was beginning to loose the dark shade of black that had enveloped it the past few hours, and the iridescent reflections of home dissolved in a bright sunlight. It was apparent, now that the men could see that nothing had drastically changed during their slumber. The same hordes of monsters were rushing towards them from familiar places, and the normal ambiance of war returned them to their senses. Their home was fully visible now through the twilight as it continued its conflict with the darkness slowly surrounding it.