The Coming Darkness
by
JamesPicard_007
Chapter 4
Dalaam
The harvest moon shone brightly over the country of Dalaam. Its soft glow reached over the homes and fields of the people. Even the palace had a certain softness about it in the light of the moon. Two guards stood outside the palace door. In the calm of the night they had started a fire and were cooking a pot of noodles to eat.
The night was peaceful and would be seemingly uneventful like all the others. Then a crackle of energy surged through the air. At first it was alone then the crackling intensified. The guards readied themselves even as the nearby air tingled. Then an explosion ripped through the air joined by a brilliant flash of light.
Ness, Paula and Jeff emerged from the gap in the time-space continuum. As quickly as they had appeared the gap collapsed upon itself and the hole in time-space reverted to normal. The guards stood in shock at the sudden appearance of these strangers. They prepared to drive them of when a voice came from above.
"What is going on out there?" the voice yelled.
Above Prince Poo had stuck his head out a window. The guards were immediately flustered and had no idea of what to do. Poo looked from the guards below to the new arrivals. Ness, Paula and Jeff waved to the prince. Poo waved back and told the guards to escort them into the palace.
A few minutes later the Chosen Four was reunited once again. They joined Poo in his bedroom and told him the dilemma at hand.
"So. Instead of trying to hunt this new arising evil down, we are going to hunt down this mystery man of your dreams?" Poo asked.
"More like nightmares." Paula replied.
"We are the Chosen Four. Is it not our job to fight the evils that threaten our world?"
"According to Paula's vision our parts are already written. However because of this guy the future is uncertain." Ness explained.
"As far as we know we could succeed in thwarting this evil, but because of this man the future is uncertain. We could do everything humanly possible to stop whatever is coming and this guy could upset everything we have worked for." Jeff said.
"One man could upset the entire course of the future? What about fate? Does fate not apply to him?" Poo asked.
"Apparently not." Ness said.
"According to my vision we are heading down a dangerous path. The future is fuzzy, unclear then there is nothing, but darkness. It is even possible that if evil should triumph that the universe itself will be destroyed. That is why we must find this man. For some reason he will be the deciding factor in the fate of existence itself." Paula replied.
"Indeed. I shall prepare to depart immediately." Poo answered.
Fourside
The wind blew softly through the little hotel room. Allen lay asleep on his bed. By the door were a few bags that Allen had packed on this trip. The phone on the bedside stand began to ring. At first Allen tried to ignore it, but soon he gave in and picked up the receiver.
"Hello?" He asked sleepily.
"Al?" A voice said.
"This is Allen. Who's calling?"
"It's Sam."
"Sam! How ya doing?"
"I fine, but you sound terrible."
"You caught me in the middle of a nap."
"Napping on the job. What would your employers think of you now?"
"For your information I have already finished that job. Thank you very much."
"Oh well then you can come out here and help me."
"Wha?"
"The Scarabian government has finally given me permission to search the Pyramid of the Ancients."
"Uh-huh. And I guess that you want me to tag along with you?"
"How did you ever guess?"
"Call it just knowing you. How soon do you need me out there?"
"Well right now I'm in Summers. The museum here has decided to help fund the expedition. I'll be here for a few more days so…"
"Right now I'm going to have to catch a lucky break considering that Summers is the travel hot spot right now."
"If anything we don't catch up in Summers I'll go ahead and get you a room at the hotel I'm staying at. It's the Hotel of the Desert. Think you can remember that?"
"It's not really in the desert is it?"
"Heh. I'll see ya when you get out here. Bye-bye."
"Bye."
The connection on the other side clicked off and Allen replaced the receiver. He returned to his napping and woke up again in the early evening. He then gathered his bags and checked out of the hotel. Allen called a taxi who took him to the Fourside Port.
He got lucky and got the last available ticket to Summers. Allen rested as he traveled to the tourist attraction of the world, but did not imagine the trouble he was about to get into.