Prologue
"Great stories happen to those who tell them."
-Ira Glass
We find ourselves in a house atop a tall hill. This was no ordinary house, and nor was the world around it, for we are not in our world anymore. This world was the kind one only a child would believe in: a world of magic... a world of adventure... a world of wonder! This was the Wonder World; a mystical land where every myth began before entering the human realm. Twas a realm of bubbles floating everywhere, griffins and whales flying across the sky, and races of beings the average man would consider to be only myth. But back to the house, shall we? I would like you to meet an old friend of mine.
Within the walls of the house, it appeared to your typical fairytale household; wooden floors with a fancy rug in center, flowers in the windowsills, and a firepit for the chimney. The thing is about this house is that it held many bookshelves with more books than one could count. At the center of it all was a small table with a few more books on it, and sitting next to this table was a man with ivory skin, green hair, brown mustache, and red cheeks. He wore a pink hat, glasses, red boots, pink pants, a red shirt covered by a translucent green dress shirt, a silver bowtie, white golves, a yellow flower pinned to his jacket and a small tree growing out of his shoulder which acted as a home to a robin. This man was a long-term resident of Wonder World; my old friend... Tassel!
"Bonne lecture!" Tassel said, introducing himself, "Mr. Narrator, it has been a long time. And I see you've brought along an audience."
That I did indeed, Tassel. So how's life here in Wonder World treating you?"
"Fairly, I suppose," He said before grabbing a book from the stack on the table, "However if you're here, I imagine it's not just to catch up?"
Ah, you assume correctly, Tassel. It's time the audience knows the story of... him...
"Him?" Tassel said, a tad bit shocked at my statement, "Are you certain?"
Unfortunately so... they all need to know about him... and the prophecy...
"The prophecy..." Tassel said before sighing, "I had hoped to never hear of that again... I guess you're right."
"Excuse me, but can you please explain what's going on here?!" One of our audience shouted, clearly demanding answers from us.
Oh, of course, young one. Sorry, I guess we should start at the beginning. Tassel, would you mind?
"Of course! Ahem!" Tassel cleared his throat before explaining, "As you can see here, I am Tassel, and I know this is a tad sudden, but books are quite the novelty, aren't they?!"
Here he goes... gesturing to all the books in this room alone.
"You can just about everything there is to know within books," He explained, "Such knowledge includes mythical creatures, animals, stories, even the history and experiences of others who came long before us!"
Tassel then opens up the book he held, which popped up with the image of a great tree surrounded by mushrooms, smaller trees, floating mountains and more.
"Once upon a time..." Tassel began reading from the book, "The world we live in was created by the greatest book ever created; a book of infinite knowledge, stories and records, such would continue to fill in the book until the end of time. This book even records the true history of humanity itself!"
What Tassel speaks is true, for this book was known as the Omniscient Tome, for only the one true god could truly harness the knowledge between the covers.
"True, but an item of great power attracts those who seek it," Tassel turned to a page of ten figures in cloaks, standing before a giant sword embedded into the ground, "To defend the Tome, a group of swordsmen made by inhabitants of Wonder World, formed the Sword of Logos, a sacred guild of knights who vowed to protect all worlds from dark forces. But only the strongest of the guild could wield the most powerful weapons forged in this or any world: the Sacred Swords!"
Tassel turned the page again revealing the knight's true appearances and their Sacred Swords as he began to list them off one by one.
"Durendal of the merfolk... wielder of the Jikokuken Kaiji, the Worlds' Sword of Everflowing Time..." The knight in question was a man with fish-like features: gills, eyes, fins, webbed hands and feet, and a fish tail.
"Sabela of the arthrosapiens - or bugfolk, if you will... owner of Eneiken Noroshi, the Smoking Sword of the Mists of Wisdom..." A woman with eyes like those of an insect, antennae, four exoskeletal arms, and a bee-like thorax on her lower back.
"Saikou of the celestials... guardian of the Kougouken Saikou, the Great Sword of Everburning light..." An angel-like being with wings colored white like clouds and golden hair.
"Calibur of the shadowborn... masters of the Ankokuken Kurayami, the Crescent Sword of Everlasting Darkness..." A man with no facial features, but his hands were like claws with black smoke emitting from them, and where his head should be.
"Of the dwarven race was Slash... wielder and smith of Onjuuken Suzune, the Rythmic Sword of Blasting Echoes..." A dwarven figure with an orange beard and head of hair.
"Kenzan of the forest elves... holder of the Fuusoeken Hayate, Twin Sword of Forest Winds..." A tall, lanky figure with elongated, pointy ears and long green hair.
"Buster, the smallest but strongest member of the giants... master of the Dogouken Gekido, the Mountain Sword of Quaking Earth..." A tall, strong man with muscles showing from his cloak with torn sleeves, wielding a giant sword.
"Espada of the djinns... master of the Thundering Sword of Striking Storms, Raimeiken Ikazuchi..." A man wearing a turban with blue eyes, golden hair, mustache and beard, whose lower half was just smoke coming from a golden lamp on the ground.
"Suiseiken Nagare, the Flowing Sword of Streaming Waters... was wielded by Blades, King of the Beastfolk..." A figure with the body of a man, but with the claws, tail and head of a white lion.
"And last but not least... Kaenken Rekka... the Crimson Sword of Raging Fire... wielded by the leader of this noble guild... Saber... last descendant of the legendary dragon race, and prince of dragonblood clan..." The last figure was a man who resembled a human but had slit pupils in his green eyes, and red scales on his neck and wrists, wings and tail sprouting from his back, and sharp claws.
"For as long as anyone could remember, the Sword of Logos safeguarded both worlds by protecting the Tome," Tassel said before his face became rather grim and spoke in a nervous tone, "However, a force of evil and malice would soon break destroy that very peace... The Megiddo..."
The book turns to a page where legions of the dark, insidious creatures popped out. They appeared to be inhumane, grotesque, and even unholy. These were the Megiddo, the bringers of destruction, harbingers of doom, closers of stories... the authors of the end times...
"A great war took place over possession of the Omniscient Tome!" "Tassel turned to another page showing the knights and Megiddo waging a fearsome battle before turning again to show Omniscient Tome opening and scattering into different books, "At the end of it all, the ancient book was split and scattered across both Wonder World and the human world...! And possibly even beyond...!"
"The war between the Megiddo and the guild continues to this day..." Tassel then looks to the audience with a smile and says, "But not long after the Tome broke apart, one page of it revealed a special prophecy to the Sword of Logos..."
Tassel then began to speak in a deep, ominous tone.
"LEGENDS, BEASTS, STORIES AND MORE
A GREAT BOOK DIVIDED SPARKS THE WAR
FIRES RAGE, RIVERS FLOOD, AND STORMS BREW
THREE SWORDS SHALL BRING BALANCE ANEW
SHOULD THE VOID AWAKEN AND RUIN BEGINS
JUSTICE ARRIVES AS STONES, SOUNDS AND WINDS
THE DARKNESS AND LIGHT ECLIPSE THE ON-GOING SKY
ALL UNITED BY THE KNIGHTS OF SMOKE AND TIME
WHEN THE FALSE KING RISES, DON'T FEAR THE END
FRIENDSHIP AND UNITY WILL REIGN AND DEFEND
THREE WORLDS UNITED BY THE TRUE KING, SHALL IT BE
FOREVER, THE KNIGHTS STAND
THE KNIGHTS OF HARMONY!"
Indeed old friend. Just hearing the prophecy is enough to send shivers down your spine, and I don't even have one. Nevertheless, my friends, it's time to turn our attention to the near past...
We now find ourselves in London, England, whereas of right now, a great battle was taking place. It was a full-scale invasion of the Megiddo, who denied the truth of the Prophecy of Harmony, and decided that this was their world for the taking. Many of their monstrous legions were and killing innocent bystanders as houses, buildings and even Big Ben were destroyed and brought up into a vortex resembling a book in the middle of the sky, one that links our world with Wonder World. Right below the vortex, however, two children - at least eight years old - were holding onto each other for their dear lives.
One was a girl in a white dress and shoes, had white skin, blue eyes, and short red hair was being sucked in by the vortex, holding onto her friend's hand. He had warm ivory skin, green eyes and blond hair, and wore a blue shirt, pants and shoes, and was trying to keep her from being pulled in. The pulling force of the vortex, however, proved to be too strong as the girl was losing her grip, and the two could only hold onto each other by their pinkies as if making a promise. The girls screamed in fear as the vortex pulled her out of the boy's grip and right into the book. The boy reached trying grab her again, but it was already too late...
"ARTHUR!" The girl yelled before vanishing into the book before it closed and faded away.
"GWEN!" Arthur yelled in shock and pain at the loss of his friend as he fell down to his knees.
Just then, he was attacked by a horde of Megiddo, making him crawl back in fear. But before they could even touch him, a man who seemed familiar to him wielding a silver sword with red symbols and handguard got between them. He had short black hair, dark brown skin, and brown eyes and wore clothes one would only see in medieval times: a gray shirt covered by a violet jacket, and crimson pants over black shoes. His face was covered in cuts and bruises and it seemed his clothes were cut by some sort of blade.
"Hope exists beyond your resolution, boy..." He glanced at the boy, who looked confused at the statement.
"Find the light...!" He exclaimed before taking his sword, which was engulfed in flaming red energy, and stuck it into the ground, blocking some kind of violet beam of dark energy, and unleashing an explosion that wiped out almost every Megiddo in the area.
When the smoke cleared, Arthur found himself waking up in the grass in the middle of a park. He sat up and saw that everything seemed to be normal, with people walking around as if nothing had ever happened. But the flashes of what really happened seemed to be burnt into his mind, as he could still hear Gwen's screams. He then noticed something in his hand; it appeared to be a black book with a red cover titled "Brave Dragon" with the image of a dragon on the cover. Arthur was now confused more than ever before a voice called out to him.
"ARTHUR!"
He turned around and saw a woman he recognized: a woman with blonde hair, blue eyes, and ivory skin wearing some kind of uniform in red. She ran towards him with a worried expression on her face before getting to the ground and hugging him with a choked-up sob. This was the kind of hug only a mother was capable of...
"Mom..." He said, hugging her back.
"Oh, you had me so worried..." She said before breaking the hug but still holding Arthur, looking him in the eye, "Don't you ever scare me like that again! You hear me?!"
"Mom...?" Arthur said before asking, "What happened?"
"..." She stuttered in confusion, "What do you mean, Sweetie?"
"Gwen..." Arthur spoke in equal confusion, "Where is she? What happened to the buildings? And where are we?"
At this point, his mother was shocked. She began to sob again as she hugged her son tightly again, not wanting to lose him. Whatever had just happened not only affected Arthur's mind, but also his memories. He could only remember his mother, but no more than that. He then looked at Brave Dragon again with a raised brow, unaware that this would the start of a grand and dangerous adventure!
We turn our attention to the present in the United States in the year 2020, where Arthur has grown into a young man working in his mother's book store and even writing his own stories. Not long after what he and his mother think was a dream and how Arthur lost most of his memories, they moved to the States so Arthur could start again and make a new life. However, he cannot seem to let go of the Brave Dragon book, despite how his mother advises him to get rid of it. He ignored that one request and kept it as a good luck charm, especially since it was the only connection to his past aside from his mother.
He was now 18 and wheres a black fedora with a white T-shirt and black overall pants. He works part-time at his mother's store reads to little kids whenever he gets the chance. However, his big success was him writing his own story which he wrote; the bestselling novel, Lost Memory, based on his amnesia. This story was such a hit, he and his mother were receiving profits from publishers all over the world, and he and his mother were able to keep the shop. He also met a friend in high school named Tracey Underwood, who worked part-time at his publisher's office as their assistant. The lives of these people ended up pretty normal for the past few years. Little did they know that would soon change...
We find Arthur sleeping on his desk in the book store, waking up from the same dream he's had for years. He groaned as he sat up before massaging his neck from the position it was in before sighing.
"Damnit... that dream again..." He said, pinching the bridge of his nose, "Every day for the past ten years..."
He looked at his Brave Dragon book in his hand, wondering why he was having these "dreams" to begin with. He then took a deep breath and stood up from his chair before walking around his store to take inventory. The store itself was small but decently sized. There were many shelves holding many books, and a had a section for kids with a table of a fantasy world with dragons, lions and other creatures all over it, even a working train moving along the railroad.
"Every time I have that dream, I feel like a part of me is missing..." He said, adjusting his fedora, "But what? I know it's really important, but what?"
Arthur then shrugged it off for now and continued to take inventory of his mother's store, unaware of the destiny that lies ahead of him.
Meanwhile, up in the sky where one could see the moon clear as day, the craters that make up its unique pattern - the Mare in the Moon - started to form a much clearer shape, like that of an actual mare with a horn on its head. This was sign for the prophecy, for it was not just Wonder World and Earth that needed saving, but one beyond both of them. A world filled with as much magic and adventure as Wonder World, and even more dangers...
Will Arthur regain his memories of his past? Will the Sword of Logos defeat the Megiddo? Will this new world mean salvation or doom for us all?
Join us next time for the first chapter of Saber and the Knights of Harmony!
A/N: I hoped you all enjoyed the prologue. I know it's been a while since summer began, but I've been having trouble with writer's block for a while with all my stories. I apologize for the delay of this story's release, and encourage you all to be patient for the first chapter. Also, if you're wondering why my story was like the narrator and Tassel talking to each other, the answer is simple: I picked it up from Ever After High. I found how Maddie Hatter could somehow hear the narrators rather humorous, and Tassel has always reminded me of the Mad Hatter because of how goofy he can be. I thought I could add that kind of humor here. For those of you who are concerned about such, don't worry, you'll only see these conversations happen in the beginning and endings of chapters only, nothing in between unless Saber dictates it. Anyway, I bid thee all farewell for now!