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From Out Of Nowhere ©2002 Kenneth Reed Written By Kenneth Reed With Ideas By: Jim Minton Sam Mild Chad Betson Foreword ~~~~~~~~ From Out Of Nowhere is my own sci-fi series in the tradition
of the many science fiction and fantasy books, movies, television series',
and video games that I have read, watched, and played. It's hard to say exactly
when I started writing it, since it consists of many ideas I came up with as
a Game Master for various roleplaying games such as Dungeons & Dragons, Robotech,
and Rifts. During those adventures, I developed several different stories involving
completely different sets of characters. After playing the fourth in the
Phantasy Star series of video games (which spans about 3000 years), I was inspired
to create an even larger saga. That was when I started piecing together all
of the stories from the roleplaying adventures. I had to change certain details
to avoid copying other sources. Once I got all of the stories organized, I
started filling in details to explain the connections between the various stories.
Eventually, I started adding in new stories. Some were based on ideas I never
got around to using in the roleplaying adventures, and others were completely
new. The first chapter of this saga is basically finished. The rest of the saga
is still rough and not quite readable as a story yet. Of course, the more feedback
I receive regarding the chapters I have finished, the more motivated I will
be to type up another chapter. At the end of each chapter is a brief preview
of the following chapter. Chapter 1 - A Dying Ember, A Raging Fire ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Angelina stared out of her son's bedroom window, watching
the setting sun. She remembered how she used to sit on the porch with her dearly
departed husband and watch the sun sink below the distant mountains. But that
was years ago, before his fatal heart attack. "Mom, what causes the stars to shine," her son asked. "Climb into bed Greygor and I'll tell you," Angelina said, "Do you remember how I told you that life creates light? Well, the stars are alive, just like you and me, but their light is not the same as ours. The light we create can not normally be seen. Someday, I will teach you to see it." "Well if the stars are alive," asked Greygor, "does that mean that the universe is alive as well?" "Oh my precious little boy," said his mother lovingly, tucking him under the covers, "you are so bright. I can see that one day your light will shine with the fire of a thousand suns. You are right, the universe is alive, but I will tell you more tomorrow. Now it's time for you to go to sleep." "Tell me a story before you leave. Tell me how the universe began" pleaded Greygor. "Alright," his mother said, "but after that you go to sleep, ok? No one really knows how the universe began. There have actually been many universes. It was originally a never-ending process of two natural forces exchanging energy, but that was before the arrival of gods. You see, gods have not always been, though many people like to believe they have. Gods are merely people with unbelievable power, and many gods were originally mortals. A lot of gods claim to have created the universe and many actually believe that they did, but none of them actually knows the truth. Some gods have driven themselves insane searching for the truth, but despite all of their power and magic, none have ever succeeded." "But what exactly is the universe," interrupted Greygor. "I was just getting to that," his mother replied, "The universe is like a river. Space is the water and time is the current. Sub-Space is the dirt holding the river on course. There are also other dimensions between space and sub-space." "What is sub-space," asked Greygor. "Well, that's complicated," his mother replied, "I'll tell you more about that some other time." "What's a dimension," Greygor asked. "I think I'm straying from the story a bit," she said, "You see, the universe hasn't always been alive. Life evolved on its own, but it was the first god who breathed life into the universe itself. This fact has become twisted to mean that he created it, but that is not true because he was once an ordinary mortal just like us. He was a man with a highly scientific mind, but also secretly dabbled with magic. He began to see it as a science. Like any man though, he wasn't perfect. His enthusiasm led to a critical oversight while experimenting with unknown magic. His experiment produced a huge magical explosion which destroyed his labratory and home. Somehow, he survived totally unharmed with his clothes intact. He soon found out that the explosion had somehow transformed him into a being of incredible power. Not only was he immortal, but magic was now as easy to him as blinking. His powers enabled him to help people in a way no one had ever been able to do. He became a local hero, and within a few years a religion dedicated to him began to form. Over the next decade, he attempted to convince his sister to let him give her the gift he had received. However, she didn't want to live forever, so she continually declined his offer. Years later when she was old and about to die, he could not stand to let her die when she could live, so he performed the experiment on her, giving her the same divine powers he had recieved. She became furious with him, and vowed never to speak to him again. As a result, he decided not to create any more like him." "However," she continued, "after a million years or so he became lonely, and decided to try to create more gods. This time though, he wanted to be sure that his subjects would be willing, so instead of giving the gift of immortality to a person, he chose to put souls into the two forces that run the universe. Since they were not truly alive, he felt they could not possibly be offended by his gift once they were. These two new gods became known as The Light and The Dark. The Light was the force that generated the universe, while The Dark was the force that consumed everything when each universe ended. The consumption would create energy that would be tranferred back to The Light which would then create a new universe. In the time between the beginning and the end, they would both lay dormant. Without either one, no new universes would be created after the current one ended. Without the continuing cycle, the universal river would dry up. This would destroy all of space and time, and almost everything in them (including gods and those not affected by time). All other dimensions would dry up and be destroyed, making new ones impossible to create. The only thing that would be left would be sub-space. Once The Light and The Dark were given souls, their power as gods became much greater than the first god's. They quickly came to resent each other but could not kill each other. As a result, they both hated the first god even more, and decided to trap him and his sister into planets. They trapped the first god in our planet, Adiende, and they trapped his sister in a planet far away." "How long have gods been around mother," asked Greygor sleepily. "Well, that is hard to say," his mother replied, "I do know that the first god gained his immortality several universes prior to this one. The Light & The Dark made sure that the first god and his sister would remain trapped in their planets forever by allowing the planets to survive through the ending of each universe. To this day, The Light & The Dark continue to create and consume the universes, but avoid each other whenever possible. They remain neutral in nearly all matters not concerning them. The Light is good and just, while The Dark is pure evil. The first god and his sister are able to occasionally affect events on their planets, and sometimes even each others' planets." "How do you know," Greygor asked. "That is a story for another time," she said, "Tomorrow we'll continue your magic lessons and I'll tell you more about the universe we live in." "Mother," he asked curiously, "why is everyone so afraid of magic?" "One thing you will learn," said Angelina, "is that magic is very hard to understand, and people often fear what they do not understand. The people of this land believe that magic is a tool of evil. What you must realize is that magic, like anything, can be used for good and for evil. You are a good boy. With my guidance, you will learn to use it to help others, but you must always use your power cautiously. No one must ever know what you can do. Now go to sleep." "Goodnight," yawned Greygor. "Goodnight son," she said, kissing him lightly on the forehead, "I love you." "I love you too mother," he said. Angelina walked out of the room, pausing briefly to look at the moonlight shining in through the window. As she turned to leave, she noticed out of the corner of her eye a falling star streak across the night sky. A chill ran down her body as she closed the door behind her and walked back to her room to go to sleep. ***** That night, she dreamt about her son. He was standing over an unmarked grave looking down, his little hands balled up into fists. As he looked up, his eyes were replaced with balls of fire and his face twisted into a look of pure hatred. He walked right through her as though she wasn't there. She turned to see where he was going, but he was gone. Instead, she saw their village in ruins. She walked through the streets surveying the damage. What was left of the buildings was little more than charred wood and piles of ash. Suddenly, she tripped and instinctively started to fly to avoid hitting the ground. She flew upward, until she was high above the ground. Then she noticed a plume of smoke in the distance. Looking around, she saw other plumes of smoke and a huge forest fire not far away. There was something strange about the way the forest looked, and she thought she could hear screams. She flew down to the ground to get a closer look and saw that it was not a forest at all, but thousands of people burning (the ones in front she recognized from the village) while tied to large wooden stakes. She heard an evil laugh from above. Looking up, she saw a face in the smoke. With horror, she realized it was her son's face. Then something like a large bat flew in front of her and wrapped itself around her. She struggled to free herself, but fell over. She hit the ground and suddenly she was awake, lying on her bedroom floor wrapped in her blanket. ***** Later that day, following her son's magic lesson, Angelina sat in a chair and used some minor levitation and other little tricks to clean the house while she watched her son play in the front yard. Though she could concentrate on several things at once, she still had to briefly stop watching her son every whenever she was done cleaning something so that she could decide what to clean next. At one point, she turned away to levitate stuff back onto a shelf she had finished dusting, and at the same time started looking for something else to dust. Several seconds later, she heard her son scream. She quickly looked out the window and saw her son run by. Before she could react, something crashed into the corner of the house behind where she was sitting. The impact sent her sprawling to the floor head first, momentarily knocking her unconscious. A few minutes later, she awoke and raced outside. She saw what looked like a giant wolf starting to pick up her son's body in its mouth. She screamed out in horror, accidentally bringing herself to the creature's attention. It dropped his lifeless body to the ground and began to run towards her. As it neared her, an arrow hit the beast's neck, causing it to veer to the side and crash into the house. The giant wolf began to struggle to its feet, but several more arrows struck it in the side, and one hit it in the head. The monster fell to the ground with a final thud and let out one last whimper as it died. Without even looking to see who had fired the arrows, she rushed over to her son's body. She held him in her arms for several minutes, crying, before she realized she could save him. She did not even notice the men walking up behind her as she layed Greygor on the ground and placed a hand on his chest, followed by a hand on his forehead. She closed her eyes and began focusing all of her energy into his body. Her hands began to glow, and the glow quickly spread to her son's body. The men walking up to her stopped when they saw this and watched in both awe and fear as life flooded back into her son's body. Seconds later, Angelina fainted and Greygor's eyes slowly opened. Angelina awoke to a bucket of cold water being splashed in her face. Stunned and confused, she looked around wearily. She was tied to a large wooden stake in the center of town, and piled up around her feet were sticks and branches. All around her was a crowd of people shouting and screaming angrily at her. There were three guards standing in front of her, two holding torches and the one in the middle holding the bucket. "Angelina, daughter of Roland," shouted the middle guard, "members of the militia witnessed you using the powers of darkness to bring your son back from the dead. As a result, you have been sentenced to be burned at the stake without trial." "Why are you doing this," Angelina demanded weakly, "I use magic for good, not evil!" "We will not listen to your lies witch," shouted the middle guard. "Please," she pleaded, "my son needs me!" "You should have thought of that before you dabbled in the black arts," the middle guard responded angrily as he motioned to the others to start lighting the branches. The angry crowd's shouts and jeers grew louder as the flames began to spread, and they even began to throw rocks. As the flames began to rise and consume her, she screamed out to her son. Her cries soon faded as the pain caused her to faint. ***** On the outskirts of the village, Greygor sat crying in a corner of his uncle's cottage. Suddenly, a gust of wind blew open the shutters of a nearby window and Greygor thought for a second that he heard his mother's voice. "Mother," Greygor called out hopefully, but there was no reply. "Forget about your mother, boy," said his uncle, "That witch has cast her last spell on this town." "When is she coming back," Greygor asked sadly. "She's not coming back," his uncle said with a little laugh, "Your mother was caught casting magic. She was burned at the stake for her crime. Now, I'm saddened at the loss of my sister, but if you ask me, she was askin' for it." "I don't believe you," yelled Greygor with tears rolling down his cheeks, "She's coming back!" "Look you little brat," shouted his uncle, "I may have been stuck with taking care of you, but that doesn't mean I have to like it. Now listen up. While you're living here, you do as I say. I don't want to hear any back-talk or complaining, and don't go trying to run away. You've already seen the kind of things you could run into in the forest, but even if they don't get you, I will. I used to be one of the village's best hunters." "Now," his uncle continued in a low serious voice, pausing slightly to turn and look directly at Greygor, "I want you to go to your room and be quiet. I don't care what you do as long as I don't hear it." Greygor ran into his room, collapsed on his bed, and cried himself to sleep. ***** That night, Greygor dreamt about his mother. She was kneeling over his lifeless body crying. She kissed him on the forehead and then stood up and stepped back where he couldn't see her. Greygor sat up slowly and looked around, but she was gone. He stood up and found himself looking down at an unmarked grave. His little hands balled up into fists as a tear began to form in his eye. As quickly as the tear formed though, it evaporated as his eyes transformed into balls of fire. Greygor turned and started walking down the hill toward the village. By the time he reached the bottom of the hill, he had grown into an adult. As Greygor walked into town, he threw several fireballs at buildings and then released a thick fog from his fingertips that blanketed the village. He proceeded to magically throw the villagers onto large wooden stakes and tie them down. Greygor grinned with satisfaction as he set the villagers on fire and watched them burn. ***** Greygor awoke later that night after his uncle had gone to sleep. It was cloudy out, and had just begun to rain. He quietly snuck out of the house and made his way back to his mother's home. When he got there, he found that the place had been burned down. He walked through the ruins, occasionally sifting through the rubble with the hope of finding any of his mother's magical books and supplies. At first he found nothing, but as he was about to leave, he saw some men walking towards the ruins with torches. He turned to run, but his foot landed on a weak spot in the floor which proceeded to collapse beneath him. Just at that moment, a bolt of lightning struck a nearby tree. Greygor fell through the floor and landed on cold hard dirt. He couldn't see much around him, but he could tell he was in some sort of room. "I didn't know we had a basement," he thought to himself. He could hear the men approaching, so he crawled back into the darkness and looked up expectantly at the hole he had created when he fell through the floor. For several minutes he saw the flickering of torch light and the mumbling of voices, but soon the men left. Greygor stumbled around in the darkness trying to find a way out, occasionally knocking stuff over. Eventually, he found a desk with a candle and matches on it. He lit one of the candles and looked around. All around him (on shelves, on tables, in boxes, even on the floor) were books and papers, as well as jars, bottles, flasks, and vials (all filled with strange substances), and the occasional item that he could not even guess at what it was for. He also noticed a set of stairs on the far wall that led to up to a trap door. Greygor did his best to cover up the hole he had fallen through, and then returned to his uncle's house and went back to sleep. He would later learn that the ruins of his mother's house and the land around it had been condemned, and that the village militia occasionally patrol it. For years after that, Greygor would sneak out of his uncle's house and return to the ruins to study his mother's books and journals. He also used the ruins as a place to practice magic in private. Over the years, Greygor's uncle grew increasingly abusive, both verbally and physically. One day, when he was 19, Greygor decided that he would no longer let people control him. No one would ever tell him what to do. No one would ever hurt him again. "From now on," he thought, "I'll be doing the hurting." He stood up calmly and walked casually out of his room. He leaned up against the railing by the top of the stairs and waited quietly for his uncle. When his uncle came walking up the stairs a few minutes later, he stopped and looked sternly at Greygor. "What are you up to," he demanded. "Why uncle," Greygor said sarcstically, "what ever do you mean?" "You know what I mean you little bastard," replied his uncle, "you're just standing there looking all innocent. You're up to something, and you're going to tell me what it is right now, or I'll throw you down these stairs." "You actually believe you can do that, don't you," Greygor asked smugly. "Alright come here! Do you think I'm joking," his uncle asked, advancing towards him, but Greygor stopped him using a simple levitation spell. All of Greygor's calm demeanor was now replaced with a gravely serious look. "You'd better watch your step, Uncle," Greygor said, looking towards the stairs, "It looks like you're about to fall." Greygor made some slight movements with his fingers, lifting his uncle off the floor. He held him there for a second before slamming him against the wall and then throwing him down the stairs. His uncle tumbled down the steps and landed lifelessly at the bottom, his neck broken. Greygor's sense of calm had returned as he walked casually out of the house to report his uncle's "accident". No one was ever able to prove that Greygor was responsible, but there was lingering suspicion for some time afterwards. He continued living at his uncle's house, but few people were willing to hire him for any kind of work anymore. The only job he was able to get was that of the village's undertaker. Eventually, he gathered the courage to visit his mother's grave and began doing it regularly. During his visits, he would replay the past in his mind over and over, giving new fire to his growing madness. One night, after remembering how his mother had brought him back to life, he decided to try doing the same for her. As he dug up her coffin, a passerby noticed him and ran to get the militia. Greygor was arrested and exiled to live on the larger island to the northwest. Though humans occasionally led expeditions onto the mainland, none of them dared to live there, for it was a land rife with danger. Monsters far more fearsome than those found on their own island lived there, and there were rumors of elven cities in the trees and frog-like humanoids that protected the land and forest. Several weeks after his exile, Greygor was attacked by a vampire. During the struggle, Greygor managed to kill the vampire by using telekinesis to impale it with a broken tree branch. Some of the vampire's blood splashed onto his face and ran down across his lips, causing him to instinctively lick them. After washing his face in a river, he took shelter in a nearby cave, and went to sleep. The next day he awoke and went outside to forage for food, but became paralyzed with pain when he stepped into the sunlight. With great effort, he managed to crawl back into the cave and pass out. He awoke later that night, and quickly realized that he had become a vampire. A plan for revenge began to form in his mind. In this chapter, we saw the origin of the saga's archvillain. In the next chapter, we will see the saga's first major hero rise to meet his destiny. If you have read this far, then it must not be that bad. :) Please share your opinions of this first chapter with me by sending me an e-mail. |
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