Disclaimer: I do not own the Storm Hawks or anything related to them. If I did, my Dad wouldn't be able to complain about me not doing anything with my life.
Authors Note: There are two reasons I am writing this. One is to settle a bet. The second is to give me a break from some of my other works. I hope you enjoy.
Now who's laughing?!- Prologue.
The cautionary tale of the Laughing One and the Crystal of Merbia.
Many ages ago the Merb people were tall, proud warriors that walked on the once stable lands of Terra Merbia. Unafraid of the world around them, the warriors of Merb were masters of their domain in all but one regard. They were as dumb as rocks. While other Terra's were in the early stages of developing flight, our ancestors had barely worked out how to start fires with rocks without setting themselves ablaze with a success rate of sixty precent.
One day, a pack of hunters uncovered a deep cave. Being as stupid as they were and not worried about any of the thousands of creatures that could have lived inside that cave, waiting to feast on their juicy innards they went inside. After a fair walk the hunters uncovered a large chamber that houses a crystal the size of a large hut sitting in the middle of the chamber. While they all agreed that the crystal was beautiful to behold while showing off a wave of colours and patterns that the eye could barely believe, none of the hunters could agree on just what the colours or patterns were. Within minutes, the hunters were on the urge of killing each other like the brutish creatures they were when they all heard laughter coming from on top of the crystal.
This is the first accounted sighting of the Laughing One. None of the hunters could agree on just what form the Laughing One took, since each of them saw the creature laughing on top of the crystal differently and every time one of them blinked it changed. Male, Female, Merb, Human, Dragons of all different shapes, sizes and colours were just a small fraction of the ways the Laughing One was seen by those hunters that day.
When the stupid leader of the Merb hunters demanded that the creature stops laughing, the Laughing One did so before glaring down at the hunters with a gaze of amusement. Being as stupid as they were, the hunters didn't start running then and there. While most of the conversation that took place in that cave has been lost over time, it is known that the Laughing one made a bargain with the hunters. If the Merb people were still on Terra Merbia in five years, he would offer to the Merb people the large gem alongside revealing the closely guarded secrets of reality to them. The hunters, who have been established thus far to be lacking in the brains department, agreed to the bargain.
Every day for the next five years, natural disaster after natural plagued Terra Merbia. The brave but stupid Merb's died out rather quickly, the smarter and more edgy Merb knowing when and where to run in order to avoid the worst of a certain disaster. After five years, the brave but stupid Merb who had once dominated Terra Merbia were long gone, the paranoid and intelligent Merb that survive to this day being all that remained. On the day that was agreed upon, our people returned to the crystal cave and met with the Laughing One a second time. He upheld his end of the bargain.
No Merb has ever returned to that cave since for it draws the attention of the one who laughs. Even if the Laughing One has been sighted a number of times since these first two meetings, going to that cave will draw his gaze onto you. Beware the laughter of the one who laughs, for he will share the secret of reality with you as well.
Empresses Cyclonis removed her finger from the final line of the ancient Merb tablet, rubbing her tired and strained eyes but proud that she had finally managed to finish the damnable translation. Ancient Merb was tricky enough to translate due to the natural disasters that plagued their home terra damaging and wearing down anything that stayed on the Terra to long, but the fact that their works were further encoded using their infamously morbid poetry made the task so unsettling and depressing that few souls were able to work through the pain. Cyclonis herself had been forced to learn of fifty two different ways that the ending of the life of a daisy was a tragic and morbid occasion.
Had she been forced to learn fifty three, she would have had to go and torture some of her more stupid and incompetent minions in order to boost her spirits to safe levels or risk slitting her own wrists just so she would have an excuse not to continue with the damn translation!
Still, she had continued on despite all the pain of having to read such morbid and frankly poorly written poetry and been rewarded for her efforts with knowledge. Her own series of sensory crystals had managed pick up the signals of something big on Terra Merbia years ago, prompting her Grandmother to take the Terra in the name of the Empire to find it. Tragically at the time, the natural disasters made finding the exact location of what they had taken the otherwise worthless Terra for in the first place impossible.
But now Cyclonis had a better understanding of just what it was she was looking for, as well as a pretty good idea of who would know where it was located in the first place. The tablet had even given her warning of some sort of guardian of the crystal that she would no doubt have to overcome. She had encountered such beings before in her study of crystals and while she was confident that she would overcome this 'Laughing One' just like all the rest knowing it was going to try and ambush her would just make dealing with it all the easier.
Sure the Merb were scared of it, but that was like shooting fish in a barrel. The Merb avoided coming out in daylight because they were frightened of their own shadows and the only way to get them out of their huts at night was to set the damn things on fire.
Feeling a wicked little grin appear on her face due to her high sprites, the Empress of the Cyclonian Empire put down the ancient text and began to plan the rest of her day. It would take a little while to get her ship and talons ready for a trip to Terra Merbia so she decided she would use her downtime while waiting to dish out some cruel and unusual punishment towards those stupid enough to fail her.
Today was going to be a good day.