This is what I've been doing all day
Oct. 20th, 2007 07:17 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
plazmahJust a little something I whipped up, original fiction style. Based on a dream I had last night. Kinda. Enjoy!
Darkrush
Every thirty-three years, when the tide-locked triplet moons of Teles aligned in a rare configuration, colonists and Telesians alike would head home-side to witness a phenomenon that had to be seen to be believed. For in the beginning there had been a dream, and from this dream sprang the five nations, bound together by the strength of their wishes. The power of dreams was a force to be reckoned with, and with the nighttime alignment came the phenomenon, the Darkrush. Those who had parted from their mortal lives, taken before their life's work was fulfilled or simply missed by those who loved them, were free to rise again at the behest of one's wishes. Wives remembered their dead husbands, sisters remembered their slain brothers, friends and companions remembered those who were close to them. They would appear slowly appear, faintly at first but growing clearer as the memory of their mortal life inevitably returned. The war took so many, caused so much sorrow. But in those moments of temporary revival, the sorrow was gone as those who died were remembered and brought back to the world of the living.
I had hoped to end the sorrow with my death. But when I passed, there was no one to remember me, no family or companions to assure me that I would be brought back in the Darkrush. They had already gone before me, sacrificed at the cost of peace. As I died, I breathed my last knowing that I would never see my world again.
I was wrong.
---
His eyes opened and he had no idea where he was. It was night and he was lying on his back in a grassy clearing. But much more disconcerting than not knowing where he was, was the fact that there was an unfamiliar woman with rich brown hair looking down at him with dispassionate eyes, wearing full military regalia of somber blue and maroon.
"Who are you? What am I doing here?" He said, scrambling backwards from the slightly menacing figure. The sound of his strained voice startled him, and he realized that not only did he have no idea where he was, he had no idea who he was either.
The woman frowned, more puzzled than annoyed. "You don't recognize me, captain?"
"I'm a captain?" The words sounded foolish and confused coming from his mouth. Was he her superior? Were they in the military together? He knew nothing and had so many questions. Panic began to grow within him as he looked around wildly. Who knew who this woman was, and what she wanted from him in this darkened, desolate place.
"Of course you are. You're the legendary captain Tennin Besley, hero of Teles. You don't remember?"
"Legendary...?" His mind raced. Tennin? Was that his name? He couldn't be sure. But one thing was for certain; with the panic and fear welling up in his throat, he did not feel a hero nor a legend in any sense of the words.
"You have no memories." The woman appraised him with a critical eye as he sat on the damp grass. "This is an unforeseen turn of events. You're useless to us if you're not the man we remember."
Suddenly, there was a high-pitched whisper in his ear, eerie and child-like. "But can he do magic?"
Tennin wheeled around fearfully, throwing his arm out to shield himself from whatever malevolent force was behind him. It was a young girl, a child really, with long yellow-white hair that hung past her shoulder in delicate ringlets. She wore bright crimson boots and a black and white dress with endless frills and ribbons. She was also floating six inches above the ground.
Only seconds after Tennin processed all this information, a bright orange glow began to form on his palm. Within the blink of an eye, the fiery spectral image of a dragon-snake burst forth from his hand, shooting towards the girl and passing through her like she wasn't even there. The dragon-snake flew on until it struck some distant trees with a loud boom.
"Well, Pepper? I think that answers your question." Tennin could hear triumph in the woman's voice though he could not see her. His eyes were glued to his own palm, shaking slightly and still pointed towards the young girl.
"He does not remember because this is not the way the Darkrush usually works." Pepper said solemnly, looking at the charred vegetation left in the wake of his reflexive power before calling towards the distant trees. "You can all come out, he has returned."
Lowering his arm, Tennin watched as three figures emerged from the wood. Two of them floated like the girl before him, soaring through the air to the place where he was lying. He gave a small yelp as the floating figures came closer.
"You're... cats?"
The two figures paused in mid-air, indigo cloaks fluttering silently.
"Do I look like a cat to you?!" Barked the creature on the left, her face and hands covered in orange and white fur, green eyes glittering with indignation.
The figure on the right, entirely gray-furred, looked at Tennin with appalled brown eyes. "He doesn't even remember the nations? Even if he can do magic, our captain was more than simply his might. He was shrewd and charismatic, not-" He gazed at Tennin from behind Pepper. "-this frightened thing that trembles on the ground."
"Leave him be, Cozumel." A tanned, stocky man wearing a military outfit in the same colours as the woman had joined their group at last, speaking in soothing, measured tones. "We had no idea what to expect from this Darkrush, and I would say that it turned out better than we could have hoped for."
"But he called me a cat, Dominic." The creature on the left reiterated with a pout, settling on the ground so that she could lean towards Tennin worriedly. "Dear captain, I look nothing like a felis, much less a common cat!" She exclaimed, posing proudly. "Note my regal muzzle and glossy red fur, as opposed to Cozumel's flattened snout and dull colouring. You always used to compliment me on my looks!"
"He did not, Bieti." Cozumel huffed, slightly baring his sharpened teeth at her.
Bieti bared her own teeth back, more amused than angry. "He did so! And you would get jealous, even though we were bonded in our magics."
"We still are."
Pepper cleared her throat politely. "Like I was saying to Marium, it was inevitable no matter which one of us called for captain during the Darkrush, that he would not remember his mortal life. We're..."
A tense silence wrapped around them until Marium spoke. "We need to head back inside and plan our next move. There isn't much time."
They began to walk to a crumbling cabin some distance away. Tennin did not speak as they walked, he was too deep in thought as they trekked towards their shelter. He let the sounds of the night wash over him as they walked...Bieti and Cozumel arguing, Dominic advising everyone to stay calm, Pepper humming a tuneless song, the dry wind echoing across the clearing, and Marium saying absolutely nothing.
Inside the cabin, a weak fire was burning in the fireplace, and amongst the shadows was another creature, fur of brown and white and black stripes, fiddling with the dials of a large communication device that sat on a table, headphones on top of his elongated head.
"Captain! Thank goodness you have been remembered!" He turned from the machine and enveloped the awkward Tennin's hand in a vigorous handshake. "As much as I had wished to be the one to bring you back, I knew Marium would succeed."
Dominic put his large hand on the creature's shoulder, as if to steel the creature from the words he was about to speak. "Garber, you should know that captain Tennin did not regain his memories as part of the Darkrush."
Momentary sadness flashed across Garber's eyes, but it was gone in an instant. He continued to shake Tennin's hand. "No matter, we will overcome that particular barrier in time. It is still good to see my captain again."
"Captain, do you remember what nation Garber is from?" Bieti asked cautiously.
Squinting at the badger-like creature before him, Tennin regretfully withdrew his hand from Garber's grasp. "No, I'm sorry."
"I'm sure it will all come back in time, captain." Garber smiled and nodded, returning to his communication device. "It will all come back in time, and then you will restore Teles to the peace and serenity you granted it almost a millennium ago."
Seeing matching expressions of hope on everyone else's face, Tennin closed his eyes, taking a calming breath. "I think you all owe me the biggest explanation ever."
---
"... In any case, the homis and and mustelis have been trying for centuries to figure out how the Darkrush works, how our magics work. The sauris, well... some of them can be fanatically religious about the matter, attributing magic and the Darkrush to a force that we cannot comprehend and shouldn't even try to comprehend. The felis and vulpis don't care either way. They just use the magic and the Darkrush, without concerning themselves with the mechanics of the situation." Marium looked carefully at Tennin. "Does that answer all your questions?"
"I think so. Let me get this straight. I'm dead?"
"Yes." Marium replied, weariness etched into her forehead. It was late, and it had taken hours to explain Tennin his past and the history of his world.
"And the rest of you are dead too?"
"Yes."
"And since it wasn't a living person who called me during the Darkrush, I didn't regain the memories of who I was when I was alive."
"Exactly." interjected Pepper.
"Huh." Tennin thought for a moment, then looked to Pepper. "That must be why my magic didn't affect you, why the dragon passed right through you... because you're dead."
Pepper's golden eyes lit up. "Yes, that's absolutely why."
"Maybe there's hope for you after all, captain." Cozumel quipped, visibly relaxing.
Tennin pressed onward, looking questioningly at Cozumel. "But if we're all dead and magic doesn't affect us, how can we use magic?"
"Quite frankly, we're treading through uncharted territory at this point." Cozumel explained darkly. "No one knows the effect of one spirit remembering another during a Darkrush. Normally, a remembered spirit does not even exist in this plane long enough to see the next Darkrush."
"We're the exception to the rule." Garber called from across the room, where he was working with Dominic and Bieti on the latest set of transmissions he had received from a source not yet explained to Tennin.
"It was Marium." Pepper said after a pause, watching the woman as she spoke, as if she were afraid that she was revealing too much. Marium did not look at Pepper, choosing instead to stare at the fire that crackled in the fireplace.
Cozumel continued when Pepper grew silent. "Marium was brought back in the Darkrush a little less than a century ago by a living felis, and that single act set our mission in motion."
Marium's mind seemed to be in a faraway place as she talked. "There's a storm brewing, has been brewing for some time now, captain. Without us, without you, all will be lost once more." The gravity in Marium's voice shook Tennin to the core, and he felt the stirring of familiar feelings within him, ghosts of his former life perhaps. There was no way for him to tell.
"These ancient texts that you were talking about, the ones the sauris were decrypting... it all sounds so unreal." Tennin murmured. "What is this power they keep talking about, the one that will supposedly make me invincible?"
Garber stood up suddenly, knocking over his chair and startling Dominic and Bieti. "An old friend, captain." Picking up the transmission printout, he rushed over Marium and handed it to her, pointing to a particular passage. She read in silence, everyone else watching expectantly.
There was a grim look on Marium's face when she looked up from the printout. "Everyone? We need reunite captain Besley with his familiar. You know what that means."
"We have to confront that greedy slime Purcel." Cozumel hissed with distaste. "He nearly took us out the last time we ran in to him, what makes you think we'll be better off this time?"
"Silly felis, think about it." Bieti said with a shake of her head. "The captain's familiar is sure to recognize him. The tides will turn, I know it."
"Er, no one mentioned what my familiar is. What is it?" Tennin asked.
Everyone looked at him incredulously. Pepper started to giggle. "Captain, didn't your instinctive magic already give you the answer?" She leaned forward and took his hand in both of her own smaller hands, closing her eyes as she did. There was a tingling sensation and his palm began to glow a faint orange, the same shade as the fire burning in the fireplace.
Marium spoke with reverence and fear. "Your familiar is a dragon, the most powerful dragon familiar in Teles. And at this moment, the most evil of all dragon familiars in Teles." She looked into Tennin's eyes and he knew what she was going to say.
"We have to free it."
---TBC---
Okay, I'm off to another party. LOL.
Darkrush
Every thirty-three years, when the tide-locked triplet moons of Teles aligned in a rare configuration, colonists and Telesians alike would head home-side to witness a phenomenon that had to be seen to be believed. For in the beginning there had been a dream, and from this dream sprang the five nations, bound together by the strength of their wishes. The power of dreams was a force to be reckoned with, and with the nighttime alignment came the phenomenon, the Darkrush. Those who had parted from their mortal lives, taken before their life's work was fulfilled or simply missed by those who loved them, were free to rise again at the behest of one's wishes. Wives remembered their dead husbands, sisters remembered their slain brothers, friends and companions remembered those who were close to them. They would appear slowly appear, faintly at first but growing clearer as the memory of their mortal life inevitably returned. The war took so many, caused so much sorrow. But in those moments of temporary revival, the sorrow was gone as those who died were remembered and brought back to the world of the living.
I had hoped to end the sorrow with my death. But when I passed, there was no one to remember me, no family or companions to assure me that I would be brought back in the Darkrush. They had already gone before me, sacrificed at the cost of peace. As I died, I breathed my last knowing that I would never see my world again.
I was wrong.
---
His eyes opened and he had no idea where he was. It was night and he was lying on his back in a grassy clearing. But much more disconcerting than not knowing where he was, was the fact that there was an unfamiliar woman with rich brown hair looking down at him with dispassionate eyes, wearing full military regalia of somber blue and maroon.
"Who are you? What am I doing here?" He said, scrambling backwards from the slightly menacing figure. The sound of his strained voice startled him, and he realized that not only did he have no idea where he was, he had no idea who he was either.
The woman frowned, more puzzled than annoyed. "You don't recognize me, captain?"
"I'm a captain?" The words sounded foolish and confused coming from his mouth. Was he her superior? Were they in the military together? He knew nothing and had so many questions. Panic began to grow within him as he looked around wildly. Who knew who this woman was, and what she wanted from him in this darkened, desolate place.
"Of course you are. You're the legendary captain Tennin Besley, hero of Teles. You don't remember?"
"Legendary...?" His mind raced. Tennin? Was that his name? He couldn't be sure. But one thing was for certain; with the panic and fear welling up in his throat, he did not feel a hero nor a legend in any sense of the words.
"You have no memories." The woman appraised him with a critical eye as he sat on the damp grass. "This is an unforeseen turn of events. You're useless to us if you're not the man we remember."
Suddenly, there was a high-pitched whisper in his ear, eerie and child-like. "But can he do magic?"
Tennin wheeled around fearfully, throwing his arm out to shield himself from whatever malevolent force was behind him. It was a young girl, a child really, with long yellow-white hair that hung past her shoulder in delicate ringlets. She wore bright crimson boots and a black and white dress with endless frills and ribbons. She was also floating six inches above the ground.
Only seconds after Tennin processed all this information, a bright orange glow began to form on his palm. Within the blink of an eye, the fiery spectral image of a dragon-snake burst forth from his hand, shooting towards the girl and passing through her like she wasn't even there. The dragon-snake flew on until it struck some distant trees with a loud boom.
"Well, Pepper? I think that answers your question." Tennin could hear triumph in the woman's voice though he could not see her. His eyes were glued to his own palm, shaking slightly and still pointed towards the young girl.
"He does not remember because this is not the way the Darkrush usually works." Pepper said solemnly, looking at the charred vegetation left in the wake of his reflexive power before calling towards the distant trees. "You can all come out, he has returned."
Lowering his arm, Tennin watched as three figures emerged from the wood. Two of them floated like the girl before him, soaring through the air to the place where he was lying. He gave a small yelp as the floating figures came closer.
"You're... cats?"
The two figures paused in mid-air, indigo cloaks fluttering silently.
"Do I look like a cat to you?!" Barked the creature on the left, her face and hands covered in orange and white fur, green eyes glittering with indignation.
The figure on the right, entirely gray-furred, looked at Tennin with appalled brown eyes. "He doesn't even remember the nations? Even if he can do magic, our captain was more than simply his might. He was shrewd and charismatic, not-" He gazed at Tennin from behind Pepper. "-this frightened thing that trembles on the ground."
"Leave him be, Cozumel." A tanned, stocky man wearing a military outfit in the same colours as the woman had joined their group at last, speaking in soothing, measured tones. "We had no idea what to expect from this Darkrush, and I would say that it turned out better than we could have hoped for."
"But he called me a cat, Dominic." The creature on the left reiterated with a pout, settling on the ground so that she could lean towards Tennin worriedly. "Dear captain, I look nothing like a felis, much less a common cat!" She exclaimed, posing proudly. "Note my regal muzzle and glossy red fur, as opposed to Cozumel's flattened snout and dull colouring. You always used to compliment me on my looks!"
"He did not, Bieti." Cozumel huffed, slightly baring his sharpened teeth at her.
Bieti bared her own teeth back, more amused than angry. "He did so! And you would get jealous, even though we were bonded in our magics."
"We still are."
Pepper cleared her throat politely. "Like I was saying to Marium, it was inevitable no matter which one of us called for captain during the Darkrush, that he would not remember his mortal life. We're..."
A tense silence wrapped around them until Marium spoke. "We need to head back inside and plan our next move. There isn't much time."
They began to walk to a crumbling cabin some distance away. Tennin did not speak as they walked, he was too deep in thought as they trekked towards their shelter. He let the sounds of the night wash over him as they walked...Bieti and Cozumel arguing, Dominic advising everyone to stay calm, Pepper humming a tuneless song, the dry wind echoing across the clearing, and Marium saying absolutely nothing.
Inside the cabin, a weak fire was burning in the fireplace, and amongst the shadows was another creature, fur of brown and white and black stripes, fiddling with the dials of a large communication device that sat on a table, headphones on top of his elongated head.
"Captain! Thank goodness you have been remembered!" He turned from the machine and enveloped the awkward Tennin's hand in a vigorous handshake. "As much as I had wished to be the one to bring you back, I knew Marium would succeed."
Dominic put his large hand on the creature's shoulder, as if to steel the creature from the words he was about to speak. "Garber, you should know that captain Tennin did not regain his memories as part of the Darkrush."
Momentary sadness flashed across Garber's eyes, but it was gone in an instant. He continued to shake Tennin's hand. "No matter, we will overcome that particular barrier in time. It is still good to see my captain again."
"Captain, do you remember what nation Garber is from?" Bieti asked cautiously.
Squinting at the badger-like creature before him, Tennin regretfully withdrew his hand from Garber's grasp. "No, I'm sorry."
"I'm sure it will all come back in time, captain." Garber smiled and nodded, returning to his communication device. "It will all come back in time, and then you will restore Teles to the peace and serenity you granted it almost a millennium ago."
Seeing matching expressions of hope on everyone else's face, Tennin closed his eyes, taking a calming breath. "I think you all owe me the biggest explanation ever."
---
"... In any case, the homis and and mustelis have been trying for centuries to figure out how the Darkrush works, how our magics work. The sauris, well... some of them can be fanatically religious about the matter, attributing magic and the Darkrush to a force that we cannot comprehend and shouldn't even try to comprehend. The felis and vulpis don't care either way. They just use the magic and the Darkrush, without concerning themselves with the mechanics of the situation." Marium looked carefully at Tennin. "Does that answer all your questions?"
"I think so. Let me get this straight. I'm dead?"
"Yes." Marium replied, weariness etched into her forehead. It was late, and it had taken hours to explain Tennin his past and the history of his world.
"And the rest of you are dead too?"
"Yes."
"And since it wasn't a living person who called me during the Darkrush, I didn't regain the memories of who I was when I was alive."
"Exactly." interjected Pepper.
"Huh." Tennin thought for a moment, then looked to Pepper. "That must be why my magic didn't affect you, why the dragon passed right through you... because you're dead."
Pepper's golden eyes lit up. "Yes, that's absolutely why."
"Maybe there's hope for you after all, captain." Cozumel quipped, visibly relaxing.
Tennin pressed onward, looking questioningly at Cozumel. "But if we're all dead and magic doesn't affect us, how can we use magic?"
"Quite frankly, we're treading through uncharted territory at this point." Cozumel explained darkly. "No one knows the effect of one spirit remembering another during a Darkrush. Normally, a remembered spirit does not even exist in this plane long enough to see the next Darkrush."
"We're the exception to the rule." Garber called from across the room, where he was working with Dominic and Bieti on the latest set of transmissions he had received from a source not yet explained to Tennin.
"It was Marium." Pepper said after a pause, watching the woman as she spoke, as if she were afraid that she was revealing too much. Marium did not look at Pepper, choosing instead to stare at the fire that crackled in the fireplace.
Cozumel continued when Pepper grew silent. "Marium was brought back in the Darkrush a little less than a century ago by a living felis, and that single act set our mission in motion."
Marium's mind seemed to be in a faraway place as she talked. "There's a storm brewing, has been brewing for some time now, captain. Without us, without you, all will be lost once more." The gravity in Marium's voice shook Tennin to the core, and he felt the stirring of familiar feelings within him, ghosts of his former life perhaps. There was no way for him to tell.
"These ancient texts that you were talking about, the ones the sauris were decrypting... it all sounds so unreal." Tennin murmured. "What is this power they keep talking about, the one that will supposedly make me invincible?"
Garber stood up suddenly, knocking over his chair and startling Dominic and Bieti. "An old friend, captain." Picking up the transmission printout, he rushed over Marium and handed it to her, pointing to a particular passage. She read in silence, everyone else watching expectantly.
There was a grim look on Marium's face when she looked up from the printout. "Everyone? We need reunite captain Besley with his familiar. You know what that means."
"We have to confront that greedy slime Purcel." Cozumel hissed with distaste. "He nearly took us out the last time we ran in to him, what makes you think we'll be better off this time?"
"Silly felis, think about it." Bieti said with a shake of her head. "The captain's familiar is sure to recognize him. The tides will turn, I know it."
"Er, no one mentioned what my familiar is. What is it?" Tennin asked.
Everyone looked at him incredulously. Pepper started to giggle. "Captain, didn't your instinctive magic already give you the answer?" She leaned forward and took his hand in both of her own smaller hands, closing her eyes as she did. There was a tingling sensation and his palm began to glow a faint orange, the same shade as the fire burning in the fireplace.
Marium spoke with reverence and fear. "Your familiar is a dragon, the most powerful dragon familiar in Teles. And at this moment, the most evil of all dragon familiars in Teles." She looked into Tennin's eyes and he knew what she was going to say.
"We have to free it."
---TBC---
Okay, I'm off to another party. LOL.
