"Destiny - Chapter 1"
by: Imzadian Orchid
Summary: When a child is hidden away, she still finds her destiny hard to ignore and sets out to make things right.
It drew her close, pulling her up the steep mountain trail. Each of her steps carefully calculated by the unknown force. Amaya knew she was getting close. Close to what was uncertain, but somehow she knew it was important.
Abruptly her trek came to a hault infront of a cave. The entrance was small, so, on her hands and knees she crawled into the darkness of it. After two meters, the cave opened up into a large cavern, a brightness eluminating every inch of it. In its center atop a pedistool was the source of the illumination. Walking forward towards it, Amaya discovered that it was a rather large gem.
The eurethral light eminating from it held a presense of mystery and envoked an overwellming feeling of curiosity in the teenager. Reaching out with her hand, to gingerly touch the crystal, she froze the moment contact was made, as images began to flow through her mind.
Two people were dancing on a shadowed dance floor, a man and a woman, their faces lit with happiness and contentment. Through the window behind them, one could see pin points of light streaking by as if the universe was spinning around them. Then the woman was alone in the room, her arms wrapped around her swollen abdomen as she cried out in anguish. Sounds of chaos and war screaming from outside her solitude. She then saw a baby, swadled in blankets of emerald and ivory, her obsidien eyes gazing up at the exotic looking woman holding it. The woman was obviously distraught as she pressed a tender kiss to its forehead and handed the newborn to another woman who Amaya recognized as her late mother, Anij. The earlier woman then entered some sort of ship and excaped to the stars without the child. For a moment the images came faster, the baby grew before her eyes, from an infant to a toddler, to an elementrey child, a preteen and finally a teenager.
To her surprise, Amaya found herself standing face to face with her own image. Then it was replaced by the image of the former man, his oceanic blue eyes smiling sadly down at her. As suddenly as the images had arrived, they disapaited. Replaced with a breeze that began to gently swirl around her. It lifted her long ebony curls in its current, and warmed her soul. Carefully, she removed her hand from its place on the crystal as it grew steadily in its brilliance and a voice insistantly spoke into her mind, "You must save your father...you must rescue him..."
~*~*~*~
Amaya woke with a start, sitting straight up in bed. "No way, not real." she tried to convince herself as her body shook with denial. "Not real..." she said again, her voice dying out as the two words fell from her mouth.
Finally pushing away the dream, Amaya got out of bed and dressed, making her way down stairs, where she found her god-mother and father cooking breakfast. "Good morning." she spoke to them with all the forced happiness she could muster. She sensed they bought her masquerade as they both turned to look at her smiling.
"Good morning, Amaya." her god-mother replied shoveling out eggs and bacon onto three plates and handing one to her. "Sleep well?"
Amaya had anticipated her question and without missing a beat responded, "Yep, like a baby."
The rest of the day proceeded as normal: they ate and her god parents went to help out at the community garden. The only thing different was that she was left alone today, for today was the anniversary of her mother's drowning. Every year on this day she was left to her own mourning. It was four years to this day that her mother had gone diving alone and had been caught in the underwater foliage. It had taken them six days to recover her body and by then it was obviously too late.
Gathering a small basket of food for herself, Amaya took off for the lake, to have a quiet picnic there with her mother's spirit. A ritual that she had practiced every anniversary in her honor, whether her mother's spirit was there or not.
~*~*~*~
Arriving at the lake, Amaya laid the lavender quilt on the soft grass and began to carefully pull out and place each of the articles of food. Two cheese sandwiches, two pieces of friut and one piece of chocolate cake. She remembered when she was young and her and her mother use to go on picnics together, they always ate these things and every year, even though she was the only one there, she brought percisely the same things.
Quietly, Amaya ate her half of the food, focusing her thoughts on her mother. When all that remained was her mother's half, she delicately wrapped the food in a white silk napkin and tied it off with a blue ribbon, setting it under the weeping willow that grew at the edge of the lake.
After cleaning up, she layed out on the quilt, stretching languidly in the warm sun. In moments, Amaya found herself fast asleep, awaking once again in the cavern from her dreams. The crystal was still producing an illumination, but this time it was more subdued in its brilliance. Off to her left, she noticed a hooded figure watching her, its hood sufficiantly hiding the person's features. "Who are you?" Amaya called out , her voice echoing against the cave's stone walls.
"There is no need to yell." It spoke softly in her mind with a familiar voice that Amaya couldn't place at the moment. "in fact there's no need to speak aloud at all."
"I'm not a telepath, ofcourse there's a need to speak out loud." she replied back sarcastically.
"No, not a telepath, but pretty close." Amaya took a step back as the figure began to move closer to her, now speakig aloud. "However, that is really besides the point."
"Then what is the point?" Amaya did not move away when the figure came closer this time, instead opting to stand her ground.
"You must save your father."
"My father is dead, he died in a cave in."
"No."
"No? You're calling me a liar?" this person was starting to grate dangerously on her nerves, where did it get off saying such things.
"No. There are things that you were not told, things that you must now know."
"Oh yeah, and what would those 'things' be?"
"The people who claimed to be your mother and father were not your parents." the figure held up a hand to Amaya to halt any arguements. "Just listen to me first, then decide for yourself." The teen only nodded in compliance. "When you were concieved, the universe was at war, it has only recently within this last few weeks disappaited. Your father had left and presumably died on a mission before your mother could tell him of you. Your mother believed that it would be too dangerous to keep you, so she brought you here to Anij and her husband Brian. You're wondering why this place would be so much safer in a war." again Amaya only nodded. The figure then explained that after something called the So'na tried to drain their world of its life affirming resources it was concluded that their planet be cloaked from offlanders and all mention of their world erased from all records.
For the moment, Amaya decided to play into this little delusion, "Well then, how would I go about saving my 'father'?"
"256.9 mark 3." Was all the figure said before it vanished and she found herself waking up to a rapidly setting sun.
Quickly, Amaya gathered together her things back into the basket and practically ran the two miles back home. She was surprised to find that her god-parents had not yet returned and bounded up the stairs into her mother's old room, a feeling of strong confusion causing her eyes to well with salty tears.
Safely inside her mother's room, Amaya went to Anij's closet to pull down her photo album. Reaching up for it, her fingers grazed across and small metallic box next to it. Grabbing the box, she inspected the locked container, the photo album forgotten for the moment. Sitting down on the bed, she sat felt overcome with a need to view its contents and went about trying to pry it open. After several minutes the rusted lock broke and fell to the floor with a dull thud. Gingerly, Amaya lifted the lid to discover several pictures.
Emptying the contents onto the bed, she began to carefully examine each one. The photos all seemed to be of people she didn't even recognize. One was of a bald man, a red headed woman and another man with strangely pale skin. Another was of a black man and the pale man and young boy who looked strangely similar to a man several years older then her. Picking up yet another picture, Amaya nearly fainted when she saw the couple grinning happily at the camera. It was the couple from her dream.
Summary: When a child is hidden away, she still finds her destiny hard to ignore and sets out to make things right.
It drew her close, pulling her up the steep mountain trail. Each of her steps carefully calculated by the unknown force. Amaya knew she was getting close. Close to what was uncertain, but somehow she knew it was important.
Abruptly her trek came to a hault infront of a cave. The entrance was small, so, on her hands and knees she crawled into the darkness of it. After two meters, the cave opened up into a large cavern, a brightness eluminating every inch of it. In its center atop a pedistool was the source of the illumination. Walking forward towards it, Amaya discovered that it was a rather large gem.
The eurethral light eminating from it held a presense of mystery and envoked an overwellming feeling of curiosity in the teenager. Reaching out with her hand, to gingerly touch the crystal, she froze the moment contact was made, as images began to flow through her mind.
Two people were dancing on a shadowed dance floor, a man and a woman, their faces lit with happiness and contentment. Through the window behind them, one could see pin points of light streaking by as if the universe was spinning around them. Then the woman was alone in the room, her arms wrapped around her swollen abdomen as she cried out in anguish. Sounds of chaos and war screaming from outside her solitude. She then saw a baby, swadled in blankets of emerald and ivory, her obsidien eyes gazing up at the exotic looking woman holding it. The woman was obviously distraught as she pressed a tender kiss to its forehead and handed the newborn to another woman who Amaya recognized as her late mother, Anij. The earlier woman then entered some sort of ship and excaped to the stars without the child. For a moment the images came faster, the baby grew before her eyes, from an infant to a toddler, to an elementrey child, a preteen and finally a teenager.
To her surprise, Amaya found herself standing face to face with her own image. Then it was replaced by the image of the former man, his oceanic blue eyes smiling sadly down at her. As suddenly as the images had arrived, they disapaited. Replaced with a breeze that began to gently swirl around her. It lifted her long ebony curls in its current, and warmed her soul. Carefully, she removed her hand from its place on the crystal as it grew steadily in its brilliance and a voice insistantly spoke into her mind, "You must save your father...you must rescue him..."
~*~*~*~
Amaya woke with a start, sitting straight up in bed. "No way, not real." she tried to convince herself as her body shook with denial. "Not real..." she said again, her voice dying out as the two words fell from her mouth.
Finally pushing away the dream, Amaya got out of bed and dressed, making her way down stairs, where she found her god-mother and father cooking breakfast. "Good morning." she spoke to them with all the forced happiness she could muster. She sensed they bought her masquerade as they both turned to look at her smiling.
"Good morning, Amaya." her god-mother replied shoveling out eggs and bacon onto three plates and handing one to her. "Sleep well?"
Amaya had anticipated her question and without missing a beat responded, "Yep, like a baby."
The rest of the day proceeded as normal: they ate and her god parents went to help out at the community garden. The only thing different was that she was left alone today, for today was the anniversary of her mother's drowning. Every year on this day she was left to her own mourning. It was four years to this day that her mother had gone diving alone and had been caught in the underwater foliage. It had taken them six days to recover her body and by then it was obviously too late.
Gathering a small basket of food for herself, Amaya took off for the lake, to have a quiet picnic there with her mother's spirit. A ritual that she had practiced every anniversary in her honor, whether her mother's spirit was there or not.
~*~*~*~
Arriving at the lake, Amaya laid the lavender quilt on the soft grass and began to carefully pull out and place each of the articles of food. Two cheese sandwiches, two pieces of friut and one piece of chocolate cake. She remembered when she was young and her and her mother use to go on picnics together, they always ate these things and every year, even though she was the only one there, she brought percisely the same things.
Quietly, Amaya ate her half of the food, focusing her thoughts on her mother. When all that remained was her mother's half, she delicately wrapped the food in a white silk napkin and tied it off with a blue ribbon, setting it under the weeping willow that grew at the edge of the lake.
After cleaning up, she layed out on the quilt, stretching languidly in the warm sun. In moments, Amaya found herself fast asleep, awaking once again in the cavern from her dreams. The crystal was still producing an illumination, but this time it was more subdued in its brilliance. Off to her left, she noticed a hooded figure watching her, its hood sufficiantly hiding the person's features. "Who are you?" Amaya called out , her voice echoing against the cave's stone walls.
"There is no need to yell." It spoke softly in her mind with a familiar voice that Amaya couldn't place at the moment. "in fact there's no need to speak aloud at all."
"I'm not a telepath, ofcourse there's a need to speak out loud." she replied back sarcastically.
"No, not a telepath, but pretty close." Amaya took a step back as the figure began to move closer to her, now speakig aloud. "However, that is really besides the point."
"Then what is the point?" Amaya did not move away when the figure came closer this time, instead opting to stand her ground.
"You must save your father."
"My father is dead, he died in a cave in."
"No."
"No? You're calling me a liar?" this person was starting to grate dangerously on her nerves, where did it get off saying such things.
"No. There are things that you were not told, things that you must now know."
"Oh yeah, and what would those 'things' be?"
"The people who claimed to be your mother and father were not your parents." the figure held up a hand to Amaya to halt any arguements. "Just listen to me first, then decide for yourself." The teen only nodded in compliance. "When you were concieved, the universe was at war, it has only recently within this last few weeks disappaited. Your father had left and presumably died on a mission before your mother could tell him of you. Your mother believed that it would be too dangerous to keep you, so she brought you here to Anij and her husband Brian. You're wondering why this place would be so much safer in a war." again Amaya only nodded. The figure then explained that after something called the So'na tried to drain their world of its life affirming resources it was concluded that their planet be cloaked from offlanders and all mention of their world erased from all records.
For the moment, Amaya decided to play into this little delusion, "Well then, how would I go about saving my 'father'?"
"256.9 mark 3." Was all the figure said before it vanished and she found herself waking up to a rapidly setting sun.
Quickly, Amaya gathered together her things back into the basket and practically ran the two miles back home. She was surprised to find that her god-parents had not yet returned and bounded up the stairs into her mother's old room, a feeling of strong confusion causing her eyes to well with salty tears.
Safely inside her mother's room, Amaya went to Anij's closet to pull down her photo album. Reaching up for it, her fingers grazed across and small metallic box next to it. Grabbing the box, she inspected the locked container, the photo album forgotten for the moment. Sitting down on the bed, she sat felt overcome with a need to view its contents and went about trying to pry it open. After several minutes the rusted lock broke and fell to the floor with a dull thud. Gingerly, Amaya lifted the lid to discover several pictures.
Emptying the contents onto the bed, she began to carefully examine each one. The photos all seemed to be of people she didn't even recognize. One was of a bald man, a red headed woman and another man with strangely pale skin. Another was of a black man and the pale man and young boy who looked strangely similar to a man several years older then her. Picking up yet another picture, Amaya nearly fainted when she saw the couple grinning happily at the camera. It was the couple from her dream.
