Destiny is something all decide on. Even in the darkest of moments – even when choice seems just so far away – we all still have choice. Nobody can decide your fate but you.
The Time Crystal
The night skies lay sombre and starless, the faint green scars streaking through the shattered mountain like static lightning barely visible. After one hundred and fifty years, the Mountain of Malefor – the Well of Souls – still retained a fraction of its dark, maleficent energy. It kept bandits, raiders, and all manner of people away from it. They feared they would be cursed like the apes of long ago, and they were not wrong to believe that.
While the event was unlikely, people had come home as little more than skeletal bodies – their flesh had peeled away like a snake sheds its skin, leaving nothing but a rotting carcass. They still walked like the creatures of the Dragon Realms, still talked like them; however, they had changed ambitions and personalities, and it had felt as if the long dead purple dragon, Malefor, had his influence over them.
They were swiftly put down, thrown into a gaping maw of fire, never to be seen again.
Of course, this didn't keep every daring soul from adventuring there. Researchers and archaeologists found how it continued to stand, despite the circumstances, perplexing. Everything was out of place, but it didn't come crashing down, as if time itself there stood still. Most of them thought the research was valuable, but one researcher had more determination than the rest of them.
Jasper was his name.
"Daine. Grab your things. We're heading down there."
Jasper had a fair idea of how this was happening, but he couldn't be certain. The only way to test his theory would be to get a closer look. If that meant risking his life – being cursed, stripped of his body and mind – then so be it. He was a rather bold individual, and for such research, he would go to almost any length.
"What? You can't be serious, Jasper," a male voice said beside him. A cheetah, Daine, looked at the mole in shocked surprise. "You'd be willing to die just to uncover that thing's secrets?"
Sighing, Jasper looked at him, stroking his elegant white beard once. "Why, of course. If it means uncovering more about the Dark Master, I'm game." He glanced at the feline. "Plus, I've got you. Most talented swordsman I know. You've done a mighty good job so far, old bean."
Daine smiled a little, but it swiftly vanished. "C'mon, Jasper... Let's head back. There's nothing but heaped rock over there. You are aware that everyone who's tried heading over there has died, right?"
Shaking his head back and forth, the mole said, "You were always so stubborn. Too stubborn for a cheetah... I'm going whether you want to come anyway."
"And you're calling me stubborn..."
Jasper didn't wait for him. He carefully hopped down his rock platform after stumbling slightly. The mole looked back a moment, but only saw the cheetah's paws clasped over his face. Shrugging, he began the journey towards the mountain.
Lightning cracked in the sky, the fumes of the Well of Souls making it appear a sickly green. The land around him seemed to spring to life – its once dead, unearthly look was replaced by a strange, plant-like substance.
Jasper wondered why he was all of a sudden padding on grass.
The world around him shifted. Rolling hills, gorgeous valleys, sparkling lakes. The birth of a new day was fast approaching. And by the Ancestors did he want a swig from one of those pools.
But Jasper wasn't fooled by the obvious trickery. The Mountain of Malefor must have thought him a dunce, like the rest of the imbeciles who came to waste their existence, but it had been proved wrong. He wasn't going to fall for such an illusion. He never could.
The breaking of what sounded like bone scared Jasper half to death. He quickly turned to find the feline behind him; the remains of one of the Empty, skeletal fragments, lay strewn about the hills. Jasper lost a bit of his confidence there.
The scenery changed back. The mountain realised he was not going to be taken so easily.
"It's not safe here, old man," Daine spoke, "but I'm gonna follow you anyway. You have my friendship – I have to honour that."
"And I respect that." He sighed, still recovering from what would have been the end of the line. "We should hurry, though. I don't feel like turning into one of them."
Daine nodded and they quickened their pace to a jog. In spite of Jasper's old, frail appearance, he sure could run when he wanted to. Usually he would try to take in the sights, breathe in the pleasant air of the wilderness, but at the Mountain of Malefor... What was there to take in and actually enjoy?
The pungent stench of rot filled Jasper's nostrils as they neared the mountain, the scent of the Empty Daine had left destroyed in his wake. He noticed just how damaged it was. The fact it stood was still impossible to believe, yet it did just that. Even the damn entrance was intact, a glow emanating from within.
None of this, but the colour of said glow, dumbfounded him. A lustrous, proud orange looked completely out of place in such a dreaded area – the Dark Lands were certainly not known for their beauty.
However unnatural it was, it struck him as being gorgeous. Perhaps there was a torch inside there... Maybe there was a living thing.
Or maybe, most likely, it was an illusion – a warm, welcoming way to get him inside and never out again.
He still followed it. It seemed like his only chance at obtaining the knowledge he so desperately wished for.
"This place..." Daine looked to the roof above them, fractured, covered in stony spikes, like stalactites. "It hurts to see what the Dark Master has done to everything. Especially this mountain..."
"At least those things have stopped bothering us, old bean," he said. "Be a little thankful for that one."
"Shh... You'll jinx us in a second."
They rounded a bend and the amber light seemed to glow brighter than ever before, and the hallways of what was once a fortress for the ranks of Malefor's army lay more decrepit, as if they'd sluggishly weathered away after thousands of years. Masonry had never seemed like a skill the apes would have the time to pursue and make use of, what with the war a century and a half ago, but that didn't stop them. This had to be the reason some of the mountain still stood, right?
Jasper was only awaiting another trick from the mountain – another death threat. He couldn't help but get the feeling it had a mind of its own, constantly toying with him, laughing at whatever his next move was.
He sidled along this wall cautiously, rubbed his paws anxiously together, and looked down the next ruined hallway. The mole half-expected death to plough through him like a freight train. To anybody else, the sight he actually found would've been pretty, and perhaps worth quite a number of coins, but he knew exactly what he had his eyes set upon.
Large and dignified, a crystal stood, translucent orange in colour. Its dazzling light shone down upon Jasper; it took precious seconds to adjust his eyes to the blinding brightness of the crystal. This hadn't been what he anticipated when he journeyed here at all.
For whatever reason, a time crystal stood before him.
And, inside of it, he could see a little black figure, unconscious.
"Are you seeing what I'm seeing, Daine?" he asked. "Is this another illusion?"
The cheetah stared on in shocked realisation. "I... These don't exist, Jasper. The last one was back in the war... It's an illusion, for Baara's sake."
It didn't make sense, but Jasper felt oddly compelled to not doubt its existence. The figure inside it was a dragon, probably of at least ten years of age, if he wasn't mistaken. The mountain could've been playing with his mind once again, yet his instincts said otherwise.
It just felt real. And this was the closest anyone had come to discovering more about the mountain.
Jasper walked onward. Daine, after exhaling a quivering breath, followed closely, keeping his blade near.
The path didn't shift, the scenery didn't change, and the silence was unbearable. Where were the walking bodies? The apes and the others who'd been turned? Why was it so calm all of a sudden? The mole grasped onto his wispy beard for a moment, a sign he was in thought. He was just waiting for the mountain to make a move.
But nothing came. No tricks, no foes, nothing at all. Just him, Daine, and the time crystal.
Its marvellous glow was warm, almost like the firelight from a blazing sconce. Jasper looked it up and down. Who was inside of that? And, more importantly, why?
Jasper felt compelled to place his paw against it, so he did so. He could feel the warmth rush up his body, replacing that dreadful chill he had felt travelling to the mountain, and a little happiness overcame him. The surface was like soft glass; however, it remained indescribable beyond that.
But what left him feeling excited was the fact that it was real. The only thing illusions had in common with each other was how they physically felt – like thin air. This was no illusion.
The dragon was real.
He felt off at that moment. Jasper drew his hand away, and something beneath the world seemed to vibrate. Daine looked at him with uncertainty.
"I think you might've pissed off the Ancestors," he joked. Jasper rolled his eyes. Those vibrations continued, and they seemed to get stronger. It was no earthquake from what he could tell, having been in one before, but it was definitely something else... Was it the crystal?
His question was answered moments later. A resounding crack broke the eerie silence of the mountain. The crystal seemed to split in two, white light escaping the rough slit created. Daine seemed prepared to lash out at something, but he clearly wasn't sure what, his eyes darting around the room. Jasper only shut his.
Another crack. The crystal released a wave of sheer power; the mole could feel it reverberating throughout his core. While the power of the elements could be felt by all, this was one such energy he had never experienced. It was more powerful any of those. Almost nauseatingly so.
Once more. The glow dimmed. He felt he could open his eyes.
Like the sound of glass shattering, the time crystal broke into millions of tiny fragments, tinkling on the cavernous floors. It left its contents behind.
The room was dark save the little fragments of orange littering the floor. Jasper couldn't do much but aimlessly wave his arms around, and he jumped a little when he lay a paw on something furry, realising it was Daine a second later. He continued to keep his paw on him.
"I've got a bad feeling about this, Daine."
Something shook, and Jasper definitely knew the feeling this time around. The mountain was shaking, falling apart at the seams. The crystal had kept it together all this time. He had broken its only support.
His thoughts were instant.
"Daine, grab the dragon and let's get out of here!"
The feline quickly followed his instructions, and Jasper was out the door as fast as he could possibly go. The roof gave way and its rocky contents sealed it shut. Daine was only just in time, and he easily caught up, managing a swifter pace than a frightened Jasper.
The hallway shook this way and that, the roof spikes crushing the floor beneath their weight. The end was almost in sight, but the entire mountain was about to fall at once. Jasper could tell by its quavering. He wouldn't make it. Not by a long shot.
But Daine had a chance. That was something Jasper wasn't going to let slide. The cheetah could live.
He had to do this.
"I won't make it, Daine," he breathed. Despite his quick speed, he had always been one to exert himself quickly. The cheetah looked about to reply but he cut him off. "Don't worry about me, old bean. I'll get out of here myself. You need to get back to Shimmervale."
"But... J-Jasper-"
"No, Daine." The end was right there, the green glow of the sky visible. "Just get them to safety. I'll... I'll find you."
The feline didn't have a chance to respond to his lies. Throwing himself as forcefully as he could, Jasper knocked the cheetah out the door before the mountain could come crashing down. He saw the two roll for a moment before everything darkened around him, the exit now gone.
He heard Daine outside yell, but he didn't pay it any mind. The cheetah deserved life.
An old mole running fool's errands didn't deserve that. He was ready to accept that now. His research was over.
In the end, it seemed he had been made a fool of by the mountain.
Wow, I'm amazed. You got past the first chapter. And you clicked on a terrible cover too.
Anyway, hey. Welcome to Stasis, a project I've had ideas for way before I even completed (but not really) Dragon's Ruin. I ended up despising that one, as anyone who read it's contents knows. The thought of this book just wouldn't stop coming back to me, either. I really wanted to work on this thing for the longest of times, but I just couldn't work on two books at once. Too difficult for me. Not that that was the reason I stopped DR, but yeah.
I'll get a question out of the way as well. No, this isn't any kind of sequel to the aforementioned book. It's not even in the same world – it's now within a world I've completely redesigned from the ground up. I've taken a few bits and bobs from that story's rather tiny amount of lore and reapplied them here, but expect this to be very different to the previous story. The last thing I wanted to do was write another DR.
The chapters are also going to be shorter than the one's written for the previous story. It played into my motivations dying for it, and I also wanted to be able to write less and obtain more quality through that. So, if you don't like super short chapters, perhaps this one isn't for you?
I also planned DR to have multiple books at one point. It was supposed to end up being some kind of trilogy, but that never happened. This is just going to be a single book too. I'm not exactly sure what I'm going to do with everything I've created after this is all said and done, but I'll probably do more with it if I actually like what I created. Believe me, there's fat chance of self-loathing me actually liking the book. XD
I'm not entirely convinced I'm ready to share my work yet as well. But, you know... I'll never think it's actually ready to share. Not everything I've created is truly ironed out yet, and I'm definitely not done thinking of it all, but I'll probably come up with things as we go along. Bad writing, maybe. But whatever. We'll see how I go. If it really does end up sucking, then I'll do something about it. XD
And now, update schedule. When the hell will I be uploading? Welp, to tell you the truth, I dunno. Updates will probably be scattered everywhere. I have already written eight chapters at the time uploading this, but they're not all going to come out at once. I want to keep just a little here in case I make some kind of error somewhere down the track. Nobody'll notice them if I can fix them first. :P
Anyhow, now that that's all said, again, welcome to Stasis. I hope you enjoy what you've found buried amongst so many other probably better books than this. Happy reading!