The sun was just beginning to rise over the small town in the sandy desert, Desert Town, the snakes burrowing into the sands to avoid the burning sun.
The houses, if one looked at them from afar, looked akin to a small mountain, each built just so on top of each other, blended together as if some artist had placed each and every one. Catci circled the village, providing a natural border around it.
Here, in a smaller house, a young boy awoke in his bed. Today was an important day for him. He'd been meditating all of yesterday in preparation, for the Elders had called upon him to come to be tested in the chamber of Darkness Before the Moon. He'd never before been allowed near this sacred chamber, hidden in the highest room upon the village and sealed from every side, a small trapdoor beneath it, leading from behind the elder's room being the only entrance for it.
But time for that in a moment. For despite his seriousness, there be other important things to draw his attention.
Like breakfast.
Dracos
Liao rubs the sleep from his eyes, and then opens the window to look at the sun for a minute. After admiring the view, he changes out of his bedclothes, and into his kung-fu suit. Once that's properly adjusted, he puts his aesthetic's robe on over that. The kung-fu suit doesn't usually make him too warm, but the heavy aesthetics's robe can be very warm.
Once properly attired, Liao pads out of his room to meet with his parents, who are already awake. "Good morning Father, Mother," Liao says quietly.
"Greetings son." Liao's father briefly acknowledged, already having started his morning meditations.
Liao's mother smiled warmly at Liao, bringing a warm bowl of rice to the table. "Remember, Liao to be respectful of the elders today." She advised.
His brother was somewhat conspicuously absent at the moment.
Dracos
"Yes, Father. Yes, Mother," Liao replied in the subdued manner he was accustomed to. The rice was bland, but it was also all that was required; more was a luxury.
Once he had finished, Liao bowed silently to his parents, and opened the door, pausing a moment to see if his parents had anything else to warn him about before he departed.
They did not stop him, letting him go.
He did have a few minutes to compose himself. It wasn't every day a child such as himself went before the great elders.
Dracos
Liao took a breath to still himself. In his mind, he already had an idea of how things might go, even though he didn't really know what would happen. He was sure it would show him exactly where he belonged; behind his brother, helping him do his work.
Whatever that was.
Maybe the mystery would be revealed today.
Blinking his eyes to clear his mind, Liao began padding his way to the wash area, to clean up. Once he had finished washing his face, he resumed his path to the elder, pausing only once to make sure his robes were in order, and his hair was neat.
He arrived soon in the room of the elders. Three great wise ones of his village peering at him as he entered.
Lio Zhu, the master of warfare, his aged body twisted with muscle, his scared visage hiding ages of experience in the arts of destruction, sat on the left, clad in a green robe with a slight silver trim upon the edges, the only indication of this ancient man's station among the residents of Desert Town. He regarded the child Liao calmly, his eyes neutral.
Kez rak Hiu, seer of what the shadows hide sat to the far left, beneath him a purple carpet upon which he rested his tired legs, the famous staff of ancients held calmly in his hands, horizontal across his form. His steel gray hair ran along his back, carefully trimmed as he watched with sharp green eyes, seeming to judge with every motion this young boy who came before them.
Finally, Zia Czar, the oldest in the tribe, descended of the clan of the stars. No hair sat on his ancient crown, a simple gray robe being his only accedance to the chilly climate of the desert at this time of year. He watched with bright eyes, defying his age. His crinkled face bent slightly as he smiled. "Welcome child Liao Xhiu of the Feng family. We are aware of you and recognize your right to come before us."
Dracos
Liao bowed deeply to the wizened elder, not rising until the elder nodded. "I am glad to be before you," he said quietly. "I come to weather the trials of the Darkness Before the Moon." Bowing again quietly, he remained low to the ground until spoken to again.
"You do honor to your family name. Remember, the trial is a personal one. It is not to be trivialized. It shall reach to your inner limits and beyond. It shall teach you things that your mind may not yet be ready for. Listen to them well, young Liao. Do you have any questions before beginning your trial of Darkness Before the Moon?"
Dracos
"No, Elder," Liao said quietly. "No questions. I am prepared to recieve the wisdom of my trials.
Elder Hiu rose. "Follow me, child."
He lead to the back of the room, slamming his staff once into the ground.
The roof opened, a ladder sliding down out of it.
"Here, you go alone."
Dracos
"Yes, Elder," Liao says meekly, bowing to everyone before scurrying up the ladder, trying to appear calm, despite a small spark of excitement he could feel inside. What was inside the room of mystery?
The first thing that struck him was the darkness of the room. It was all encompassing. The only fragment of light that dared enter the room was from the small trapdoor he'd come from. And even that was taken from him as the door closed, leaving him standing in the darkness. He couldn't tell how big the room was. It could be as huge as the entire village or just ending outside of his line of sight, which slowly faded as the his eyes started realizing there was no actual light to see by. The room was entirely silent, not even the sound of his own footsteps being audible to his ears. The floor was polished rock beneath his feet. At least, he thought it was, for that was how it felt. The room was neither cold nor warm, nor did he feel the flow of air across his skin. He was certain though that there was enough to breath, for the air in the room was fresh.
Dracos
Liao reached one hand for the trapdoor to escape before he caught himself. This was a trial! He couldn't run, now. Not from this.
And what was darkness except an absence of light anyway.
Liao felt around him at around waist-level, checking to make sure he wasn't near any walls. Once he'd established his position, he immediately began practicing one of his kata with exaggerated care and slowness. If he was able to complete the kata without feeling a wall, or a drop-off, or ... something ... then he'd do it again the right way.
He did not bump into anything. For all he could tell, the room could be endless. An empty space, barren of any trait save the darkness and the floor he stood upon.
As time passed, he heard a slight hum, an incredibly soft sound, audible only against the perfect silence of the room.
Dracos
Liao froze his kata, turning his head to one side and trying to locate the source of the noise.
The sound was everywhere and it was nowhere. It was all around him. Growing slowly...then fast.
A thunderous beat sounding once.
Before the entire room went silent once more.
Something was there, in the corner of his eye.
Dracos
Liao spun to try and see what was visible in this dark place.
He saw...his brother... his left leg missing, as he held a wounded stump. Clear as day despite the darkness.
"Brother, would you lend me your leg, so that I may stand?"
Dracos
Liao's jaw drops open, and he stares at the image of his brother in silence for a moment before he regains his senses. "Brother, what are you doing here?" he asks, nearly in a panic. "I can't give you my leg; it won't fit. You're too tall."
"Agh...it hurts so much...you would abandon me brother, in my time of need?" His brother ignored his questions, holding to his painful stump.
Dracos
"Well, I'd help you if I could," Liao said, "but I don't know how to give you a leg!" Kneeling, Liao tried to examine the wound, to see if he could bind it to prevent additional blood loss.
"Thank you brother. I shall remember this." With that, his brother reached out...and tore off Liao's leg, taking it for his own.
The pain was unimaginable, a reddened stump where his leg once was. He did not feel as if he was dying, but... so the pain!
His brother stood on two legs, turning and walking away, leaving Liao alone in the darkness.
Dracos
Liao stared after his brother, and then looked down at his leg. Physically, the pain was crippling, but emotionally, he'd gone numb. "But ... we were supposed to go on together ... brother? Why are you leaving me?"
His brother's image became blurred with tears before it vanished. "Why...?"
The hum returned.... Followed again by the thunder. Almost like a heartbeat. Sudden, yet suddenly quiet.
"Son...can you hear me son?"
His father's voice called out...from behind him?
Dracos
Turning, painfully and slowly, Liao tried to face his father. "Father?" he asked weakly. "My.... Where is brother?"
"Liao, I'm so proud of you Liao. You do our family proud, my son. ...if only I could hear you again." His father didn't answer his question. Of course, after a few seconds, it became obvious. The sides of his father's head were blank. He had no ears to hear with.
Dracos
"Father?" Liao asked in confusion. "Well ... if ... I can give Brother a leg, I should ... give Father ears." Liao doesn't know how to do this, but thinks about it, trying to ignore the pain of his missing leg and figure out how to help his father.
He felt a sharp pain as his ears vanished, his father smiling, his mouth opening and speaking as Liao heard nothing.
He started to fade before Liao's eyes.
Dracos
"But ... wait! How am I supposed to...." Liao trailed off, as his father was already gone. "Hear," he finally mumbled, unable to hear his own words.
His father vanished, leaving him alone once more. The silence seeming ever the more omnipresent....
Before the hum slowly returned, a sensation he could sense, despite not being able to hear.
This continued for a time... friends...family...strangers...each coming and taking from him...
Until he lay on his back...unable to move. His strength gone, his body broken, blind and deaf.... Even the sensation of the cold rock floor against his back had fled, leaving him capable of feeling nothing but emptiness.
A voice spoke into his mind. It was old. Ancient beyond his reckoning. It was calm and patient as it slowly murmured, audiable somehow despite his lack of ears.
"What do I see here? A child, his body broken, his spirit ravaged... A pity...for I was hoping for someone who could find within themselves the strength to save..."
Dracos
"But ... I have to give," Liao thought, no longer being able to speak in protest. "Because it is all I can do. There's nothing for myself ... I have to help other people."
"A man who keeps nothing for himself is nothing but a child who cannot help anyone, even himself." The voice calmly responded.
"Watch now, child of Desert Town. Watch your future as it stands before you...as you lay, everything given away with no strength to help."
Though Liao had no eyes to see nor ears to hear, he saw it.
He watched a horrific vision, his town beset by demons. Strange demons, for they flew in the air and came from the ground, their bodies covered in metal. He watched his family die, one by one, his gifts turned to ashes with them. His body, though it twitched, could not rise to lend even the slightest of aid in their hour of need. He saw elsewhere, towns and cities of which he had never before in his short life seen, all beset by these beings.
"This...is a future as it stands, but not...as it might stand." The voice answered, as suddenly it was darkness once more.
Dracos
Liao watched in horror, not trying to speak until the visions were finished. "A ... real ... protector ... would protect people, and not destroy himself trying to help them?" he asked. "But ... if Brother needs a leg ... do I fight for him?"
"You must decide your own fate... The future lies before you...take hold or remain a child."
A glowing star was visible above, just within reach, his body suddenly feeling whole once more...in fact, he felt as if he'd simply been lying there, staring into nothingness for hours.
Dracos
Liao feels foolish, but also filled with an odd, new sensation; confidence.
Standing up, Liao reaches out to grasp the star.
He felt it, cool against his hands, some kind of twisted metal. It was hard to see in the darkness, but it felt right for him to take it.
Dracos
Liao only hesitated a heartbeat before taking the star. If he had to protect people, there wasn't much time to waste.
Liao acquired the metal star, leaving him once again in darkness, though a feeling of peace ran through the air.
He could sense something now on the floor. Perhaps the trap door he entered through?
Dracos
Liao carefully pocketed the star to examine later, and checked the floor, trying to feel for a handle or a lever to pry the door back up.1
He found a place his fingers fit that gave him leverage for pulling something up.
Dracos
Grunting, Liao attempted to pull ... whatever ... up. Hopefully it was the correct trap door.
The trap-door opened, revealing light.
It was a bit blinding at first, but his eyes soon grew used to it. A servant quickly brought a ladder around, putting it up so he could climb down.
Dracos
Liao climbed down to the floor, and then looked around, his eyes blurry with a lack of focus as he readjusted to the light.
The elders regarded him as he came down, calmly analyzing him.
The eldest of the eld gestured kindly for him to come to where he was before and take a seat. A brief glance at the servant and the room was quickly emptied of all but the three elders, the one exit door shut.
Dracos
Liao stood where he was, waiting what happened next, trying not to fidget or reach for the star in his pocket.
The ancient elder coughed once. "Please, young Liao, come and sit. We wish to hear of your trial."
Dracos
Liao nods, and sits before the elders, and says, "It was very dark." He looks nervously to the elders for approval to continue, and then goes on: "In the darkness, Brother approached. And he'd lost his leg, so he asked for mine. And then he was gone, with my leg. And then Father came, and could not hear me, so asked for my ears. And then...." Liao continues the litany, detailing the discomfort, the pain, and eventually the numbness after he'd given away nearly everything.
"But then ... then someone told me I did it wrong," he says, bowing his head in shame. "Someone said that I needed to keep my strength to do my job. And then ... I was told to take my fate in my own hands ... and either take hold of it, or be a child forever." Liao then pulls the star out of his pocket, finally looking at it now that there is light.
The elders were, for a moment, at least visible disturbed.
"bring that here, child. And explain in detail, who told you this and what did you see?"
Dracos
"Well," Liao says, fidgeting slightly. "There ... was ... one other thing, but it was really unhappy."
Liao then closes his eyes and goes into detail about the army of demons and the destruction they wrought ... the cities that Liao had never before seen, or really heard of ... and the implications of the speaker that he was somehow responsible for preventing the horror. "'This...is a future as it stands, but not...as it might stand,' it said," Liao finishes.
The men looked quite grim, eying each other silently as they considered what they had been told. For a moment, silence was the lord and master of the room.
Finally, Elder Hiu, seer of what the shadows hide brushed his chin. "Show me this star that you pulled from the heavens." He reached forward with a hand.
Dracos
Liao held out the star he retrieved from his vision.
Elder Hiu examined it consideringly and looked to the eldest for confirmation.
The eldest nodded and gave his judgement. "Liao, speak of this to no one. We shall meditate upon this. Come the morrow, you shall return here."
Dracos
Liao nods, and then runs back to his own house.
Once there, he lies down for a bit to recover from the visions.
The night passed on, his meditations only being interrupted by a warm bowl of soup.
Soon, morning was upon him.
Dracos
Morning comes, the trial is over, and today Liao is to meet with the elders.
Liao greets his parents, washes up, and once he makes sure he's properly dressed and presentable, goes to meet with the elders, forgetting breakfast in his anxiety over the visions.
When he arrived, the mood was decidedly grim, an atmosphere of seriousness fully taking hold of the room.
"Greetings, young Liao Xhiu of the Feng family. Come, sit before us."
Dracos
Liao bowed to the elders, and then sat as instructed, looking to them for guidance silently.
"Liao...we have meditated at length upon your vision and considered that it could only be true prophecy. A warning from the future as to what awaits."
"It has been pondered and considered. And the conclusion is that you must leave here. The vision I had was quite clear.... there are two others who shall bear crests like the one you were given. You must bring them together, and in doing so, you will find the strength to help ensure these events do not come to pass."
Hiu rose. "In order to ascertain where they are, I have meditated. I am certain now that one is in Sixton. You must go there. But the journey is long... So it is time for you to study the secret art of teleportation."
Dracos
Liao blinks at this, and nearly scoots a step back, away from the elders.
Steeling himself, he timidly asked, "Teleportation?"
"Yes. For Sixton is a land far, far away. And you would be as old as me before you would walk there."
The eldest looked at Liao. "Liao, you must tell no one of where you are going. You will leave as soon as you have grasped teleportation. While we must act, we must not allow a panic to go through the village."
"Now, come with me." Hiu rose, leading the way outside, heading all the way out to the desert outside the village with his slow pace.
Dracos
Liao noded, understanding the value of keeping calm. Rising, he padded after Elder Hiu.
In the desert, Elder Hiu turned. "There's enough room here, I suspect. Now, Liao, tell me what you know of travel."
Dracos
"Put one foot before the other, and continue until your destination is reached," Liao says, looking at the mirages on the horizon.
"Good. Now though... how long must a journey take?"
Dracos
"As long as it takes," Liao says. "But ... the traders say it takes nearly a week to reach the next village."
"For them, it shall take a week. But what if there was a way to shorten the journey...to make each step longer and longer...until you could step from one place to another? The journey would be near instantaneous, understand?"
Dracos
Liao nods. "I suppose. How do you take longer steps, though?"
"When you run...your body moves faster and faster...your steps getting longer and longer until you reach your limit....with the power of the spirit, PSI, you may surpass this limit and continue to increase. Watch."
Hiu, the ancient, started to walk....moving faster despite seeming to not move his legs faster....before vanishing, leaving Liao alone.
Dracos
Liao stoped, and looked at Hiu's footprints in the desert sands. How nice it must be to be able to move like that. "Power of the spirit," Liao murmurred to himself, thinking of the star he had recieved yesterday. Taking a cautious step forward, he tried to imagine himself following Hiu's footsteps, following the elder forward.
It took a few tries, the footsteps already warming back to desert temperatures before he managed it....slipping through the spaces between the world and traveling before stopping, finding himself staring at the elder's back on top of a great mountain, the rising morning sun before them.
"Good job, Liao. You are a swift learner." The elder turned, handing him a bag. "You must find another in Sixton. He will be a child. Your age. He will also bear a crest and will have a strange talent for tools. There is one more as well. Go now and godspeed."
Dracos
Liao looked at the elder, and then across the distance, towards where his home was now hidden in a sea of mirages. Looking back to the Elder, he nodded. "I'm ready," he said. "Which direction do I go?"
The elder handed Liao...a map.
Liao gains world map! Sixton is marked clearly on it.
Dracos
"Thank you, Elder." After carefully pocketing the star, and studying the map (and putting it safely away, too), Liao bows to the elder, and begins the quick trip through non-space to Sixton.