Chapter 1

Traveling through the gate, caused a blinding light, as if their eyes had dilated all the way, by the time that their vision had settled and refocused they were standing on an extremely small beach, one wave would consume the whole shore, luckily the water was calm. Bree quickly let go of Chrine's hand, pulling it away fast enough to be considered rude, Chrine was hurt but he said nothing.

"Well… at least there's not a storm here." Chrine broke the silence again.

"What are we doing just standing around? Let's get moving." Bree started walking away from the water.

"Where are you going?"

"This way, we clearly can't go into the ocean."

"But why that way? Why not along the beach?"

"You want to walk across this dinky little beach? Why?"

"Well I don't- I mean I don't not want to either- I'm indifferent to it."

"This is the way I'm going, it just feels like the right way."

"No."

"No? I'm pretty sure that this is the direction I'm walking in."

"Correction: The direction that we're going in, I'm coming with you."

"Why? We don't even know each other."

"That may be true however I think there's safety in numbers, besides if there was something attacking you there's not much you could do with just a shield."

"I guess that's a fair point, just try not to hold us up too much."

The beach quickly changed to a dry, empty desert, only a few small rocks in the loose sand were really of note on the ground at least, above was far more interesting, a thick layer of clouds covered the sky but something was shining through the thinner sections of clouds. They didn't speak much to each other, neither had much to say.

"Hey uh… What's that?" Chrine asked after climbing over a dune, breaking the silence once again, he was good at that, he thought.

"Lemme see… Is it a person?"

"Oh wait, it's two people!" They started to get a good look at the pair in the distance, one was wearing a red cape, they had spiked up hair and were currently welding a spear and shield like a Spartan. The other had a similar cape though this one was navy. They were obscured behind the red cloaked person.

"Let's check it out." Bree said sliding down the hill with a hesitant Chrine behind her. It seemed like neither of these caped people noticed Bree or Chrine.

"I didn't want it to come to this, I'm sorry." The red caped boy said. The person with the navy cape could only respond with a mixture of laughter and crying.

"What are they tal-'' Bree's whisper was interrupted by a loud crunch as the red caped boy stabbed the navy caped person in the chest with his spear. It wasn't the crunch of bones breaking but the sound of brittle stone violently crumbling away.

"What the hell!?" Bree shouted as the boy turned around, in a fighting stance, Chrine pulled his spear off his back and held it shakily.

"Oh, moths. Don't sneak up on me like that, it could've ended poorly for you."

"You just killed them! What did they do to you!?" By now the navy cape itself had vanished and the wearer had turned into a stone statue with a hole in the chest. The red caped boy reached into the statue and pulled out a candle. It wasn't lit and it was cut in half, cleanly, a sharp tool had done this. The top of the candle was red but the rest of it was black. The red caped boy presented it to them.

"They had become corrupted by the darkness, it was too late to do anything." Seeing the candle like this filled Bree with a sadness that she couldn't quite place. Chrine almost vomited at the sight of it, he didn't know why but if felt like looking at diseased organs out of a body. "Here, I can help you two, are you lost?" The caped boy said after burying the candle.

"Maybe… What's your name?" Bree asked suspiciously, not sure whether she could trust this person.

"My name's Ozfonzo, and yours are?"

"Bree."

"Chrine."

"Well I have a present for the both of you, but you'll have to grab them fast, they can't stay outside very long, ready?" Chrine nodded

"Sure." Bree said. Ozfonzo reached into his chest with both hands and pulled out two lights. They were a nice shade of blue and had an orange-y brown crest around them.

"Quickly! Bring them into yourself!" Ozfonzo instructed. Under the pressure of orders Chrine let it into his chest, Bree hesitated but did the same.

"I feel… warm." Bree said

"Sounds about right, what you just collected are called Winged Lights, they help you grow, get stronger, and fly farther."

"Fly!? That would be amazing!" Chrine shouted excitedly.

"Alright so what you want to do first is take that warmth of your feeling and pull it into one point on your body, on your back in between your shoulders, then when enough pressure on it is built, release it." Chine started trying immediately and after a few tries, something happened, his body was covered in light as a cape slowly grew out, it was brown and had a small four sided star over the point of focus that allow Chrine to form it, the warm feeling was gone however.

"Woah… I want to try." Bree got a hang of it almost instantly, and just like Chrine she was covered in light and a cape grew, it was also brown and had the same four pointed star.

"Wait, why are our's brown and your's is red?" Bree asked as the warmth faded.

"You two are moths, I assume you just came into being recently?"

"How could you tell?"

"Well you didn't even have capes yet, you can normally tell based on how many Winged Lights someone has how long they've been around, it's basically your age. Now why are you two here?" Bree and Chrine looked at each other, they hadn't really thought of an answer for a short while.

"We're going to fix the engine." Chrine broke the silence, as he had done before. Ozfonzo looked at them with disbelief.

"Don't try it. You two are far too unprepared. Besides, that's what I was sent here to do, you'd help out all our survival chances more if you just tried to settle down and make a new base for us." Ozfonzo's tone was harsh, offended, angery. "I had better get going." he said before he kicked up a large amount of sand with a flap of his cape and he soared into the air, once he got high enough a beam of light shone on him for about a second before Ozfonzo suddenly disappeared. There was a moment of pause, Chrine didn't know what to do in response, Ozfonzo's reaction was sudden and probably the last thing that he expected him to do.

"We don't need you!" Bree shouted as he flew away. "C'mon Chrine, let's fix that engine." She grabbed his hand and started walking towards the light shining through the clouds, it was their only lead but they didn't get far before it started to get dark, Luckily there was a nearby cave they could take shelter in.

"I don't know if we'll be able to see in here." Bree said, concerned. Chrine looked back on what Ozfonzo did with the statue and reached into his own chest and pulled out a burning candle, red all the way through. It didn't make him sick like the last one, and it didn't make Bree feel sad, he planted it on the sandy ground. And before they knew it they both fell asleep.

…

They heard it again. The call.

"Fix the Engine." It pleaded as they both started to wake up.

"Why did you say that again?" Bree asked groggily. Chrine only responded with an upset moaning, he was barely awake. The candle's flame had grown small and dim.

"Hey. Wake up." She began shaking him awake.

"Huh? What's happening?"

"Why'd you say that again?" Bree was getting frustrated.

"Say what again? When I woke up I said 'Huh? What-"

"No, I mean what you said when I woke up."

"Didn't you just wake me up though?"

"I-... you're right, then who said that?"

"What did they say?"

"Fix the Engine." Chrine immediately sat up.

"I heard it too!" The candle's flame grew significantly larger.

"Who said it through? I think we're the only ones here, either way they couldn't have gone far. Let's get moving again." Bree started walking away. Chrine stood up and grabbed the candle and placed it back into his chest. He didn't feel empty while it was out but he definitely felt more complete with it in, he jogged back to Bree.

Bree was leading their trek across the barren desert.

"Hey Bree I have a question."

"Ask away." She said without looking back at Chrine.

"Are we siblings? Or related or something? Or do we just share a birthday?" Bree stopped in her tracks and just stared at Chrine for a moment with utter confusion, she didn't didn't have an answer, she just stood blinking, trying to come up with an answer. Both of Chrine's suggestions made sense to her. "Are you okay?" She shocked her head slightly, snapping out of spacing out.

"Yeah, I'm fine, I was just thinking. Either way I have no idea." They continued up another large dune. When they got to the top they saw something at the base on the other side, it was small and looked like it was made of stone and had black outcroppings on it and it was moving.

"What is that? I wonder what it's doing."

"Let's find out." Bree said before she slid down the hill towards it. Chrine decided to stay, watching from the top. Up close Bree could tell that it was some kind of crab, even if it didn't look like a crab too much. "Hey little guy, what are you doing here?" Bree squatted in front of it to inspect it further and it started hissing. "Hey! You don't need to take that kind of tone with me! I'm-" she was interrupted by the crab lunging forward and slamming her in the gut, she fell back and slid across the sand for a short distance.

"Bree!" Chrine shouted as he slid down towards Bree in the conflict, pulling out his spear.

"Ouch…" Bree stood up pulling the shield off her back. "So you want to play rough huh!?" I can play rough!" The crab charged again, but this time Bree swung her shield in a frenzied parry, knocking it away where it landed on it's back, it's short legs unable to right itself. "Bet you feel pretty stupid now!" Bree pulled her leg back and prepared to swing it full force into the crab's body but before she could Thunk! A spear flew into the exposed belly of the beast. It writhed and wriggled in pain before it stopped moving. It was dead. Chrine slid down next to Bree.

"That's why I don't rush in, are you alright?"

"Yeah, I'm fine." Bree's gaze didn't shift from the body. "Nice throw there… Thank you."

"Yeah no problem, I was just making sure you were alright."

"Well no use in just standing here, grab your spear and let's go."

As they traveled further across the sands they left the carcass of the crab behind, they knew it wouldn't miss them.