Greetings. This is something I've actually been working on for years. Any way you can think of to help me out or make it better is welcome, though things may or may not fit with the story itself. REad this, give me feedback, first thoughts, anything would be appreciated. Also, if you could possibly help me with where exactly it should be placed- one part of the story deals with fantasy worlds, another part deals with sci-fi, and the rest I odn't really know where to fit, so any input there would be helpful. So, I suppose, enjoy! FYI: The intro is in first person, but the rest of the story will not be. Thanks!
Fate and Choice
~Introduction~
This darkness- it’s oppressive. Whispers around me remind me of everything I’ve done that I’ve regretted, every time I messed up. I open my eyes, but it changes nothing- there are no light sources in a sea of black.
I can feel it- I’m not supposed to be here. I’m a disturbance, a being of flesh in the Plane of Shadows. But, then why am I here? There must be a reason. I’m not being attacked by shadow creatures- they seem to be avoiding me like the plague. That at least means I can move, but the suffocating nothingness is endless. Perhaps answers are closer than I think…
…Like about an arm’s reach away, in the form of a white book. My mistake, a white book marbled with black, certainly one I’ve never seen before… What is this? As I turn it over in my hands, I see it continue to change, as lines become blurred and areas of gray appear, followed by other drops of both black and white drifting over the cover as food coloring would in a glass of water. This is not a regular book, but then what is it? And why does it feel so familiar?
As I flip through it slowly, I’m hit by a ton of bricks- a realization that secretly horrifies me, after all I’ve worked for recently. I certainly have heard this story before… No, I’ve lived it. Quickly closing the book, I process this new development- and realize just how soft and malleable I was, back when I was new at this.
That was a very long time ago. I look at the beginning of this book and realize that this is only my current story. Everything that is actually important to me is cut out.
Well, that certainly can’t be right. Without it starting where I could start it myself, the story can’t be right. Then it dawns on me… Perhaps that’s why I’m here…
No way. Not possible. Years have been spent protecting and hiding my story, and now I hold it in my hands. Certainly I haven’t been trapped in the Plane of Shadows just so I can give it an introduction? Writing an introduction to my own story… I mused. It was actually a slightly funny concept, or would be, if my story wasn’t what it is…
If it is what I’m here for, then I can do it and get out of here within record time. If it’s not… No harm, no foul, right? I’d just have to look more anyways. Besides, as it is this isn’t even a real story- it has no reason. Surely all stories, no matter how strange they seem, need to have pointed out where they really start, even if it’s quite literally in the middle of nowhere on a planet no one’s ever heard of, under a random cherry blossom tree outside of a tiny village that doesn’t even have a currency. Well, I suppose, here goes nothing.
~*~
If there was one village that the world didn’t seem to care or know about, it was my village. Supposedly founded by a small caravan of utterly lost travelers, it turned into a very tight-knit community that grew enough to keep the village as a whole alive. With one of my parents dead and the other missing but assumed the same, I was the whole villages’ boy, and became a jack of all trades, becoming quite adequate at a few in my spare time. It’s not that I didn’t have time for play or anyone to play with, but seeing as there was only one other person close to my age and they were also a hard worker, neither of us minded working long so that we could get whole days of free time at once. Yes, we happened to be very close friends- of course, it helped that I ended up working for her family a lot, as bakers commonly needed as much help as they could get.
When we did get those days, we would disappear from the village up to a hill, on which you could see the whole village and more. We would sit under the cherry blossom tree at the top of hill and basically craft stories with words and envision crazy things that could never happen. I really can’t say much more about those times with feeling like a complete and utter idiot- and I suppose that’s because to some extent, I was one, but didn’t figure it out until it was far too late.
Yes, she was a girl. Yes, I am a boy. I am quite sure you are able to see where this is going- especially when we’re already close friends. As I can’t explain it any more without feeling quite lame, I won’t.
In my twenty second summer, in the early days that the cherry blossoms were in full bloom, we had one of these days on the hill- or would have. I reached the hill slightly before dawn, expecting to find her already there, as we usually watched the sunrise together. To my surprise, she wasn’t there. Neither was she there after the sun had risen, and of course, I became quite anxious. Being the fool I was, only then did I notice that no birds sang that morning, and the breeze was unnaturally chilly for the warm summer days. The village was silent- which in and of itself was abnormal, since farming villages commonly rise at sunrise if not before, as I had. My mind turned back to the village, considering going down to it and poking around to see if my friend was detained somehow. Unfortunately, I didn’t get a chance.
I’m still not totally sure what happened next- I remember an impact to my back and then feeling grass on my face as I sprawled forward, before my thought were blotted out with pain more intense than I had felt in my darkest dreams. It was like every ounce of pain you’ve ever felt in your life, crammed into one period of time, and intensified. I would’ve been deathly afraid, but I didn’t know what it was I was supposed to be afraid of… which was also quickly answered.
My senses overpowered with excruciating agony, I barely felt it when the back of my shirt was grabbed and I was dragged back away from the side of the hill, under the tree. I was thrown roughly back at the base of the tree, and I was barely able to register what I saw through the still-unbearable pain.
A man stood over me- he was tall, about fully-grown I’d say, and there was something about the look in his eyes that screamed to me that this is not someone I should be in the presence of- especially not relatively helpless with him standing over me. It was a mix of malice and madness- pleasure at my pain and something else that I later found to be impatience.
“Salutations and so forth, you don’t recognize me, but that shall soon be cured, as I will soon leave an imprint on you memory you will never be able to remove.” He ginned, and it was an evil grin, the kind that sent warriors chills in their bones.
Of course, here I was only registering half of what he was saying and wondering who in the world this lunatic was and why he was here- he certainly wasn’t from the village, and we almost never got travelers. What didn’t occur to me was that I could’ve rolled away and whapped the crazy man with a tree branch- one of the things that I now regret.
The man adjusted the cuffs on his long sleeves, very out of place on this fine, warm day, but he didn’t seem to care. “Now, my young comrade, on to more important things. I am currently a being that has a job, and this job is strange and this job is tough, and I have grown quite sick of it. Now, I know you and your strange, so far unsophisticated mind are greatly confused about how this could ever apply to you. Well, you have been chosen to fill my role, so I decided I might as well go ahead and pass it on so I can get on with other things. Long story short, I’m here to confuse you, abuse you, and watch as you hurt yourself trying to understand what in the strange universe I’m talking about. Oh, and laugh.”
Now that I think about, that actually ended up being pretty accurate.
He took a few paces, looking me over, at one point walking right in front of the sun. It was only for a moment, but it was disturbing. The early light reflected off of his cloak and made it seem bathed in blood, a sickly glistening crimson. It wasn’t much, but it was enough to give me the feeling that whatever he was going to tell me, I didn’t want to hear.
“You only really need to know a few things about me. I am your successor. I am Scarcist, and I can never be hurt or die. I have been cursed to wander the cosmos for all time, as you shall soon experience yourself.” His grin turned into a smirk, and he laughed again- his laugh really sunk right to the bone and froze my blood.
At this point, I was capable of coherent thought again, and was thinking that this guy was quite a lot of marbles short of a complete set. That was up until he went on- then I wondered if he had ANY marbles left.
“I was chosen to be the equalizer of the universal powers of good and evil. I traveled though the mist for years, doing what was necessary to move on. But, I tire of playing by these rules. I grow bored of helping those unintelligent fools. Therefore, I am passing that lame responsibility onto you, gnat.” Scarcist grinned evilly again and held his hand out, and the look of joy that passed over his eyes made me frown the split second before real lightning arched from his fingertips, reviving the agony and making my body burn like fire. I felt myself seize up and reeled back, closing my eyes… Another thing I regret. I saw things I had never seen before- the land, my village, burned and broken. No houses stood, no fields remained, charred wood and smoking embers strewn across the ground were the only things that remained, other than piles of debris and rocks blown out of the sides of hills. The cherry blossom tree was still standing, but it was bare and dead, and the tips of its branches were still alight with tiny flames…
I opened my eyes and tried to jerk myself out of this image that scared the life out of me. I lifted my head from the ground and tried to look at this strange madman, Scarcist, and I saw something form in his hands. There was a flash, and he held a birdcage- a golden birdcage made of fine material. The specimen inside was a dove, seemingly with feathers of liquid early-morning sunlight, feathers that matched the cage, except for the breast feathers. They appeared stained with crimson blood, as if its heart had been pierced and its lifeforce had made streaks down its chest. It was like nothing I’d ever seen before, breathtaking, yet I got the feeling that to keep the creature caged up like that must have been some sort of sin- the look it wore broke my heart, but the thing that made me stare was when I realized that its eyes were the exact same color as my close friend’s… and when I thought about it, the dove reminded me of the natural color of her hair. What really answered my question was when it flapped its wings, revealing not only a want to get out but silver underneath feathers.
. . . Aislynn?
Scarcist already knew what I was thinking. As soon as the recognition passed over my face, the cage disappeared and the bird with it. Turning his full attention back to me, he made fluid motions with his hands, pointing and pulling at the air. I watched as out of nowhere appeared tendrils of shadow, waves of pure darkness, and as they washed over me, I felt like I was crushed and my chest was pressed on from all sides. I remember them wrapping around me, the first time I felt like I was truly being strangled or suffocated, and experienced the feeling of true, pure, raw fear as everything I knew and loved disappeared before my eyes. What had been my life flashed chaotically, and my best memories of the village and its people was all that I could hold onto, as the shadows held me tightly, and I gradually slid into my own darkness of unconsciousness due to lack of oxygen and overpowering of mind. I will never forget that day- and I don’t believe I’ll ever forgive myself.
It felt like forever, and yet like no time at all before I woke up again- at least I safely assumed I was coming around, seeing as my head was throbbing dully. Millions of questions that had slowly built up in my mind rushed me at once, causing a back up that only made my head hurt worse. Hoping to get away from the inside of my mind, I opened my eyes, which happened to be an even bigger mistake. Ha ha.
The light was blinding for a second, but finally I quit seeing stars and spots and could actually make out that I was in a small room that didn’t automatically register, except the familiar feeling of a mattress underneath me. Oh hey, I’ve been moved. Wait a sec, I’ve been moved. I remember thinking that because it seemed like a strange thought. Surely someone from the village had moved me, but it didn’t look like any house I recognized right off the bat. It was more like a cave with holes in the wall to serve as make-shift windows and let light in. There really weren’t any tables- collections of pots covered most of the floor.
“Oh good, you’re finally awake.”
I am quite serious when I say that if my head hadn’t hurt so bad, I probably would’ve jumped a foot in the air. And from a laying position, that’s pretty good.
The elderly woman near my bed frowned as I tried to prop myself on my elbows and look around. “Oh, no. Don’t you DARE try to get up.” She put her hand on my chest and pushed me back down which really felt sort of strange, as she seemed a lot stronger than she looked- either that or I was still amazingly tired. “It’s enough that you’re awake- you’ve been asleep for days.”
She looked at me, and whatever look I gave I gave her must have been a cross between utter disbelief, confusion, and ‘Oh CRAP!’ because she promptly burst out into spastic chuckles.
“Just kidding.” She smiled. “You’ve only been out for a few hours- it’s a bit past noon.”
Not thinking it was very funny, I just laid there for a minute, thinking and blinking. I actually did know this old woman a bit, she was basically the village’s healer, or herbalist. She was an awkward woman who went by the name of Vermillion and apparently had a strange sense of humor, other than living in a cave and using nothing but pots for, well, anything. She always had a cure or a solution to anything, but always stayed out of the main village except for when someone was very sick. Even though she was wise and experienced, she was generally avoided because of her odd, blunt nature, but that didn’t really matter in most cases when you had someone who could be seriously injured. She left my side, muttering to herself, and brought back a clear, sweet- smelling mixture, telling me to drink it.
“It’s a pain killer, a good measure until we get everything sorted out; a few of the townsfolk found you on the hill, unconscious, and brought you here.” She told me as she pulled a random rug over to my mat. The concoction was a bit bitter, with a sweet aftertaste that I couldn’t place. Something strange, but that was usually what medicine was like anyways.
“Now…” She stashed the container away somewhere. “Tell me. What happened?”
Not such a good moment, everything rushing back like that. I’m pretty sure I freaked out, because I remember her looking at me very sternly like she was warning not to move to much or she’d pin me to the bed until I couldn’t feel my arms. Eventually, though, I relayed everything that had happened, up until I blacked out- in a bit of a paraphrased form, not with many specifics. I shifted uneasily, remembering his demented grin.
She furrowed her brow- I could tell she was deep in thought, as her expression was concentrated. She finally looked at me again, and her eyes studied me closely, looking at every aspect of my being, as if to affirm a hunch. She rose and shuffled across the room, rummaging and muttering to herself. After looking at several pots, she pulled a generic-looking one out of the mess and moved back to my pad. Carefully popping off the lid, she held it towards me slightly. “Take a whiff of this.” She instructed.
I warily moved myself slightly to where I could smell it vaguely, then blinked and took in a bit of a larger breath. It reminded me of a meadow after a rain- refreshed and surprisingly sweet. I told her this, and she watched me for a minute, before nodding and quickly sealing up the pot again. I heard her take a deep breath herself after it was closed up.
“This is the pollen from a Cryciadya flower- not only are their fibers able to copy many different types of fabric if used correctly, but a whiff of this stuff can knock a full grown man unconscious for hours- too much of it, concentrated, can kill you.” She shuffled off again.
That really made me wonder what she was trying to do, as it was pretty obvious that though I still wasn’t totally organized or anything, I wasn’t falling unconscious again, much less dying.
As she was still across the room, I heard something nearby me emit a deep hissing noise, like steam. I glanced over to see a tan and brown snake sharing the foot of the bed with me, coiled up and not looking too happy.
“If he’s hissing, it means he’s already bitten you.” Vermillion announced as she returned. Well, that already doesn’t sound very helpful.
“This snake, Lance, is a Silcoma snake. They’re a very rare breed, actually- they’re called Silcoma because it uses the first part of the word silent, which they usually are when moving, and coma because they hiss after biting so that whatever they bit will move away so it doesn’t hit the snake when it falls- their venom sends you into a coma, giving it the ‘coma’ part. They’re also just called Silent C-snakes, but I like Silcoma better.” She chuckled slightly and held out her arm. Lance gladly slid up it, closing his mouth and taking no more heed of me. She finally allowed me to sit up, and I sat there, distinctly not feeling dizzy or collapsing, and beginning to really freak out, no matter how much I attempted to remain calm.
“What… Are you trying to prove?” I finally asked.
She turned an observant eye towards me. “I am trying to prove to you, and myself, that you have undergone serious changes unknown by the likes of your people.” She let Lance slither off her arm, among the pots and containers. “In case you hadn’t noticed, you remain totally unaffected by any of these things.”
Certainly I had noticed- I just didn’t know what to do about it.
Vermillion continued. “This suggests that either you have the ancient disease andxyiomotompetrgionoctopemorardiosis,” I was baffled by how she could pronounce such a thing, “or…”
She pulled out a bulky volume and flipped through it. I saw that concentrated look come over her again and she started up muttering again. She stiffly turned and pulled from seemingly nowhere a leather pouch. I watched carefully as she sat next to me on the bed with it.
“Don’t worry, I know what I’m doing.” She assured me as she slid a sharp, clean knife out of its sheath, which was the pouch. Her words didn’t assure me much at all- I wonder why.
In all reality, though, if you trust a strange old woman that you barely knew with a knife, and all they say is ‘Don’t worry’, then you have the right to worry about yourself. A lot. I now know why many people didn’t actually honestly trust her much.
With basically no other option since there was only one way in and out of the cave and educated guess said it was locked, all I could do was just watch as she grabbed my wrist with one hand and pulled it out a bit. I observed carefully how she slid the knife over my forearm, flinching slightly at the sight of my own blood, but the pain I was ready for was replaced by a slight tingling sensation. I sensed her freeze waiting for something, and I waited myself. It was just a cut…
Her grip on my arm tightened as I inhaled sharply. We both watched my skin heal itself, repairing the break like zipping a zipper. In no time at all, other than perhaps a drop of blood, it was like there had never been a cut there in the first place. She rubbed the blood off my arm; there wasn’t even a scar.
“AHA!” She rose quickly, muttering gibberish and wiping off the blade before stashing it back in its pouch and hustling away yet again.
This is when I first experienced the feeling of being a stranger in one’s own body, a foreigner in my own skin. Vermillion seemed elated, but that certainly didn’t help my mood any.
“What’s going on?” I asked with as calm a voice as I could, deadly serious.
She returned and sat beside me solemnly. “My young friend, you have been changed. You are no longer of this world.”
“You mean… I’m… dead?” It didn’t sound very intelligent, but it was all I could think of.
“No, I mean you are no longer mortal.”
“So… I’m dead?”
“No.” She sighed. “You are very much alive, but you can no longer die. You can not be wounded; any injury you gain will automatically heal.” She gestured towards my arm. “Basically, you are by all means immortal and shall most likely live forever.”
My response: “Wait, what?”
She chuckled. “You are a smart lad. You will get used to it eventually.” She frowned. “But, you must leave. You cannot stay here.” I remained silent as she went on. “One way or another you shall go to other places, but if you purposely stay here too long, I’m afraid the cosmos may come down around you.”
Let me tell you how comforting that was- zilch. It was very anti-comforting. And I barely even knew what the cosmos was- only that it was too big for my comprehension. She opened her volume to a page and set it on her lap. To my great surprise, the page was completely and utterly blank. She ran her finger over it as if reading text, and looked up at me again.
“That man, that creature you encountered; he is not bound by space and time. Now, the same may be said of you. You, in simple words, have been cursed to wander about the cosmos.” She slammed the book shut as I stiffened.
“That’s exactly what he said…” I pointed out.
“Is it now? Well then, you’re already one step ahead of me.” She sighed, her age finally showing as she blinked tiredly. “My boy, I can’t do much else. You must go back to the town and gather your things. Tomorrow before sunrise you must leave. Go northwest to the Mistfields. I have told you everything I know, and now it is your turn.” She rose once more and glided over to the door. She swiftly unlocked it as I slowly pushed myself up to follow her, and seeing my stay was up, I moved towards the doorway, still very confused about it all.
Right as I crossed her threshold, I remembered something, and turned back quickly. Suddenly frantic, I asked, “What about Aislynn?”
She looked at the ground, suddenly downcast. “….Both of your parents are dead. You have no siblings. Aislynn was the last thing tying you to this world…” She sighed, and somehow I understood. If he hadn’t taken Aislynn, I would have never wanted to leave. As she slowly closed the door, it occurred to me that I may never see Aislynn again- a thought which in and of itself made me feel like a total fool. I could’ve done something…
The door opened again, for only a second, and she peered out at me. “One last thing- you must tell no one. Not. A. Soul. No one is allowed to know you are immortal, that you are the keeper of the equilibrium, nothing. No one must even learn your real name. Names have power, boy.” With that, she closed up the door again and left me on my own.
The rest of the day passed unnoticeably. People greeted me and asked me if I was alright, what had happened, etc, but I just told them that I was fine and that I didn’t really know what had happened to me, and so on. It really saddened me that I had to lie to them- it broke my heart that I had to leave them. But I did- the next morning, long before dawn, I did what I was told to. Pulling out a bandanna I had, I gathered everything I had that was portable that I really cared about, which wasn’t much at all. A small journal I kept some pressed flowers in, a whet stone and some polish I had always used on tools, a necklace…
Okay, so the necklace was actually Aislynn’s. The chain had broke, and I had promised her that once I figured out how, I would fix it. It was a tear-drop shaped translucent stone with a silver rim and around it was what looked like feathers in miniature wings- five feathers on each side, the symbol of our small village. I held it up to the night’s remaining light, and even with that minimal amount of light, it caused a haze of colors to dance across my floor as the pendant refracted the waves. It was still beautiful. I slipped it in my knick-knack pack as well before tying it to my belt. I didn’t have much, but I had some.
I finally set out, it was still before dawn, but my time was growing short. I hurried silently through the sleeping village. I paused underneath the cherry blossom tree, just long enough to take one of its blossoms and press it into my book- one of the things I had always wanted to do, but put it off because I had always known the tree would be there tomorrow. And the next day. And the next day.
Well, that wasn’t happening now. I finally left the hill, still wishing I could go back in time and change events past- but wishing helps with nothing. I continued north and west- the grassland changed to shorter and shorter grasses quickly, until I was walking through a meadow without flowers. The Mistfields… How am I supposed to know when I get to the…
Then the fog set in. Out of nowhere, it seemed to envelope me all at once- soft tendrils of mist that circled me. It was like nothing I had ever felt- one moment you’re in a familiar area, and the next, all you know is cool mist. Soft mist. And a breeze that carries you away from everything you’ve ever known. That was what caught me- and that was how I left. That is where this strange book picks up, even though that is now where my story starts.
~*~
There. It actually feels good- to finally be able to tell all of that. To acknowledge it happened, even if I’ll never be able to go back. To say that I wasn’t always this way- that I did not start my life under a dark hat with a mysterious air. To know that there was a time when I was what I am not now- I was normal. I was mortal. I was happy.
But that time is over. And now this objective has been completed. The Plane of Shadows knows my sorrow- this book knows my beginnings. And now, once again, I can clearly say to these shadows, that no matter how hard they try, they have no hold on me…
And thus the mist returns- and I am on my way, to wander another part of the universe, one I’ve probably never known or seen before. And thus, this endless cycle begins again. Thus goes my legacy. Thus continues my story.
I like the type of books like this and you definatly left me with tons of questions in my head, which is ALWAYS good for a reader to have. You're really good! Can't wait to read more!!!! 
... I love my three lives.
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