Notes: Every chapter is going to be started with a quote. I am telling you this because I do not know who said all of them, so I will put where I found them. If you happen to know a quote origin, please, please, tell me! Also, I have never done a novel-length story before, so bare with me! This is my guinea pig! Feedback welcome. If you notice something wrong with the characters (I put down so-and-so has green eyes when they have blue) please tell me. Thanks.Any flames will be fed to my Writer's Block, who will then visit you when your writing something important.
Prolog: Amaya's World
"We dance in a ring and suppose, but the secret sits in the middle and knows"
- Robert Frost
In a world frightening like our own...
It was a nice little place within the plains of Freedom, a place most people wish they could live but would never get too. It had its own downside, of course, every settlement does. This one's downside was named Amaya Hamasaki. She lived with her parents on a farm surrounded by trees, right before you enter the settlement of Rainbow's Death.
Amaya had a vivid imagination. She was sixteen, and in a few months was finally going to move out of her parents house...to the dismay of any in town. Amaya's imagination found things that were not there.
Take today as a prime example. Enjoying the last few months of being a child under her cultures law (she would have to begin working soon), Amaya was playing in the trees by her house. Most sixteen year olds wouldn't be caught dead 'playing', but the way Amaya saw it was that even people in their twenties, thirties, even forties should play a little. Just like laughter. It does the soul good. Better then any medicine a doctor could shove down your throat. Of course, Amaya reasoned, in times of seriousness only a fool would 'play'.
Her driveway was at her heals, and her dog Sebastian was following her around. Twirling around - she was pretending to be a dancer (key word 'pretending'. No grace at all.) - when she saw something in the distance. At her sudden lack of movement, Sebastian barked. He was dancing too, and now that his partner had stopped he was a little irked.
Amaya shushed him. Sebastian cocked his head.
Her black eyes squinted as she tried to make out what it was. People. Maybe. They were too far off for her to see if they were people; for all she knew they could be itty-bitty twisters. She doubted it, but there you go.
Turning to inform her mother travelers might be coming, start the pot for a welcome meal, Amaya got a sudden, deep fear. Like when your little and your parents turn off the light. Creatures were going to get you! Turn that light back on!
Amaya slowly went back to look at the shapes in the distance. They were no longer just shapes; Amaya could see that they were Lonerian, just like her. Sebastian whimpered, backing up a little. He came forward and took Amaya's skirt in his mouth, pulling her with him. She let him, her gut twisting in fright. Something was wrong with those people on the horizon. She didn't know what, but her sixth sense was screaming for her to run and hide.
She ran to her house, nearly running into her mother. "Mama!" she started, mentally kicking herself for using a child's name for their mother. "A group of strangers are coming up! They're evil!"
Mrs Hamasaki just rolled her eyes. "Amaya, stop that. I'll go get the pot on, and you'll see, they're just here for food, water, and rest. Go make some lemonaide or something."
Amaya silently steamed. Her mother didn't believe her?
"Come on!" she ordered Sebastian, dashing into the trees. Sebastian was terrified like her, but he wouldn't leave her side. He kept nipping her to make her go faster, and soon the pair of them were running across the little meadow that separated her farm from the outskirts of town.
Usually if she was frightened like this she would go to the police station. Unknown to her though, she and Sebastian went to the museum. As soon as she and her dog entered the old building, the doors slammed shut, locking. Feeling more safe now, in fact, she felt safer then safe, a great relief was on her. She turned to talk to the head of police - to come face to face with Mrs Sander, the museum care-taker.
Amaya looked around the room. Everyone in it had the same shocked face she did; apparently she wasn't the only one that was aiming for the safety of the police station. What shocked her more, though, was that Mrs Sander was letting Sebastian into the building.
"Uh...why are we here?" A boy named Yakov wondered.
"I just got . . . scared," Rachel, Mrs Sander's daughter, butt in. "I was aiming for the flower shop. But I came here. Like I was on autopilot."
"Well - let me out!" Mr Waters spat. "I've work to do!"
"No." Mrs Sander shook her head. "I locked us in. Please, everyone, follow me. We are not safe, not even here."
"Safe from what?" Yakov whined.
"What he said." Rachel pointed to her friend. Mrs Sander glared at them all.
"We need to go to storage."
"Storage?" Rachel echoed. At Amaya's questioning look, Rachel explained, "Storage is a building behind the museum, but you can't get to it without going through the museum first because of the stone walls. Our house is back there, too." So that was where the Sanders lived. "Storage is built out of re-enforced steel."
"Woa. Why?" Amaya questioned.
"Dunno. Ask mum," Rachel answered. Amaya frowned. It didn't make sense that a storage building would be made out of re-enforced steel. No sense at all.
Sebastion growled at the door. This was enough for everyone to follow Mrs Sander through the museum. Amaya felt a shiver ripple through her as they entered the Sander's yard.
The storage building was huge. Amaya wondered if the museum was that big; no, it wasn't. What was in there that needed that much room? They only had a small little town, the museum was just little artifacts they dug up from the fields that encompassed the town. Nothing that large.
Unless...that ring they found. They hadn't shipped it yet? That would be a good reason for the re-enforced steel. Amaya wasn't supposed to know about the Ring That Pre-Dates History, but it was hard to keep something secret in a small town - no matter how hard the government tried.
Mrs Sander paused out side of the door. She turned to each of them, even her daughter, and stated, "Do not tell anyone what you are about to see."
With that she unlocked the door - screaming was now being heard from the main street - and the door to storage opened. Everyone filed in, Sebastian last as he wouldn't allow Mrs Sander to go in before him. Once the doors were closed, Mrs Sander started to put in place a lock system that would of taken her at least a month of planning. Anything trying to get in would have a hell of a hard time.
"Mum...why are you doing that?" Rachel sounded nervous.
Mrs Sander turned to them. "When we unearthed the Ring, we also found a tablet. It told of a prophecy- once the Ring was unburied it would summon a race that were condemned to live here. They are a cruel race, and as long as the Ring was buried they would sleep. It was the curse that their enemies put upon them so they would not look for the Ring and then carry on their evil in the universe."
"Okay. Why are we in storage, again?" Yakov inquired.
"It also said that a handful of people would be drawn to the Ring as well, and they would wait for the ring to activate and send in warriors of another world to help them. We are safe while we are near the Ring."
"Near?" Amaya echoed. She turned to see this Ring. Her mouth dropped, she was sure the others that mimicked her movements also had the Idiot look.
The Ring was definitely the cause for the storage building to be this big. Like she had expected, it was a ring. What she didn't expect was the symbols carved into it, the strange dull jewels that decorated its rim, nor did she expect the rocky steps that led up to it. A little device off to the left must of belonged to the Ring. It looked like a decorative alter with the same symbols to it.
Amaya closed her mouth. As the screams outside grew louder, and the sounds of destruction made its way into their relative haven, Amaya studied the Ring and hoped it would bring help.