Of Past and Future: The tale of a Traveller (A pre-post SFA fic)

Disclaimer: I do NOT own Star Fox, Star Fox Adventures or any of their characters. Heck, if I would, the game would not be so feckin´ short. I do own Skysoar and the concept of World Travellers, however. If you want to use them, ask.

This part of the story is set approximately 20 years before the Star Fox 64 game (or Lylat Wars, as it was called in Europe), in the time the main characters were mere children.

This chapter introduces a character of my own invention. Not much happening, but plenty of descriptions. Bare with me, O reader mine, for there will be action in the next chapter.

Part One- Pre- SFA

Chapter 1- The Arrival

Cold wind howled eerily in the frozen hills. Dark mist circled the hills, apparently unmoven by the gales of freezing wind. No movement except for the swirling mists was visible. This was a place of ancient magic where the the streams of arcane energy condensed into a nexus of power. As such, most living creatures avoided the foreboding hills, for the magic here had strange effects on the surroundings.

The howling winds grew suddenly stronger. Mist, glowing dim azure blue, appeared on top of the highest hill. Two small, golden lights appeared above the mist and the mist rose to surround the orbs. The mist formed a blue pillar unmoven by the winds. The blue mist seemed to condense and gain more luminosity. The light grew brighter until all that was visible was the hellish blue light and two golden speres, both the size of the heart of a child.

Suddenly the light faded away leaving a creature standing on the top of the hill. The being stood like a man but looked like a small dragon. It was over eight feet tall, very muscular but still slender in a reptilian way. The face was dragonlike with a long snout filled with sharp teeth. The jaws had two small horns protruding from their base, one on both side. The sides of the head housed two finlike ears consisting of five thin bone spikes, connected with a translucent membrane. It had two pairs of horns, the first pair only an inch long above the eyes, the second pair a good seven inches long and slightly curved positioned behind the smaller pair. The horns and the teeth of the creature shone bone white. The arms were muscular and humanlike but ending in hands with only four powerful fingers with wicked black claws. The legs were double hinged like a human standing on his toes, with three strong toes baring sharp black claws. The being had a very long, muscular tail ending in a white leaf-shaped bone plate. From the back of the creature sprouted a pair of batlike wings sized like small sails. The entire body of the creature was covered in sapphire blue, diamond-shaped scales. Its eyes shone golden from amongst the azure scales with humanlike intelligence. The pupils were narrow vertival slits like those of a cat.

Wind filled the creature´s wings. It drew a deep breath and spoke with a deep voice sounding like storm winds howling in a deep gorge. "Wrann gar´nich?"

"Wrann gar´nich?" Skysoar thought aloud. "Where am I? Skysoar asked again, speaking in his ancient language, Draconian. He looked around and found himself on a frozen hilltop in the middle of desolate tundra.

Skysoar winced slightly as he felt a deep emptiness within himself. Every time he left a world to reappear in a new realm, he would lose a small part of his memories. A small price for immortality, but to him it felt like leaving behind a part of himself every time he Travelled. Travelled… Travelling, a fabulous gift and a dark curse. Skysoar was a World Traveller, a Realm Walker, Wanderer of Dimensions.. so many names for the same power. In a way he truly was immortal. When he died in some world, his soul would Travel to a random world in a random realm-a dimension- and be instantly reborn on a place of power in that world. Non-Traveller souls would move to the Spectral Realm- an empty dimension with only wisps of grey mist and the souls of the dead- to spend a period of rest equaling their former life in length and be reincarnated in a random world, in a random plane- without any memories of their former lives, whereas Skysoar lost only a fraction of his memories. He would, however, never lose his memories from the time before he became a Traveller. Never would he forget.. nor would he leave behind the pain within some of those memories.

Skysoar knew nothing of the world he had been born in, but staying here in the hills would take him nowhere. Finding food and shelter from the elements fould be imperative. A quick glance gave Skysoar the general direction to travel. The sun was setting, giving him a rough sense of directions. To the north, east and west there was nothing but blank and desolate tundra. In the south, however, rose a mountain range with what looked like snowy woods in the valleys between the mountains. Where were trees, there most likely were animals too. There would be food. Skysoar smelled the wind and began his walk. It would take him at least the entire following day and night to reach the mountain by foot. His wings were not only for decoration, but the winds here on the open tundra were too unpredictable for him to attempt flight. He was rather hungry then nursing a broken wing.

Skysoar arrived at the foot of the mountains at dawn. The first rays of the morning sun reflected off his crystalline scales, making them glow like molten sapphire. He spreadt his wings slightly to absorb as much heat into himself as possible. Looking up at the mountains, the Draconian felt small and meaningless compared to them. Still he would live on when the mountains had crumpled to dust, though he would most likely not remember them.

Skysoar sighed and gazed into the snowy forest, its edge some half a mile above him. The way was covered in good three feet of snow- enough to cover him up to his waist. That would have made things harder for a normal traveller, but not for a winged Draconian. Skysoar flapped his wings and rose a good foot off the ground. Using a combination of hovering, hiking and swearing in Draconian for the wind (Once a sudden gale pushed him down and he found himself nearly chest deep in the soft snow) he reached the edge of the forest in almost an hour.

Skysoar entered the valley and began looking for a place to rest. After hours of hiking he found himself on a small cliff overlooking the valley in the side of the western mountain. He looked around and found a small cavern at the end of the cliff. After making sure the cavern was empty (he was in no mood to fight with a bear for the ownership of the cave. He could hurt the poor animal) he found his way to the rear of the cave and sat down, leaning on the cave wall. He fell quickly asleep.