Fallen Kingdom

PROLOGUE

Gavin Forge was a little more than irritated. It was mid-day, hot and humid being the bright season of the year. Even though the forest provided ample shade, most of the beasts that could were hidden away in there homes under rocks and in the hollows of trees, enjoying the coolness they provided. Solaris was especially bright today, and Gavin almost suspected that every time he came out of the shade of one of the Paone trees, it grew brighter, as if it were trying to roast him like a stuffed chisme.

He sighed as he stopped and sat down under the shade of one of the prickly Paone trees while leaing against its strong trunk and took a reprieve from the blistering heat. He closed his eyes and listened to the sounds of the forest. He heard the birds in the branches above chirping and chittering to eachother as though the unusaull heat did not affect them. He heard the noise of a yurni gathering food in the foilage around him. He peeked open an eye and and although his mood was sour felt smile creep onto his face as he saw the yurni not two feet away on a rock investigating him with big brown eyes. It was big for a yurni, almost one foot tall with a red slim body and four tiny paws and legs good for climbing. It also had a long bushy tail that helped it stay balanced as it leaped from branch to branch. It nibbled at a berry in its paws and got juice down and around its tiny mouth, but never took its eyes off of Gavin. Gavin watching the yurni eat suddenly felt is own keen hunger.

Gavin had been walking since before dawn, coming up in the mountains to perform a dangerous task. Gavin had reached the age of trails, today would be his 17th cylce. He was taller than average, with dark brown hair cropped short and light blue eyes. His skin was tanned and lean from days working in the light of solaris. He was wearing a blue tunic and light pants held up by a a couple of feet of Olo line, so named for the beast the procured it. He carried no weapon save a long staff made of a sapling paone tree. And hung over one shoulder he carried a simple sack made of loa leave braided together to keep his lunch in.

He rummaged around inside finding a pouch of which was filled water from a stream. He then pulled out a peice of cooked vension that that was seasoned with salt and began to munch, taking a draft from the pouch inbetween. He would need all his energy for the challenge ahead.

Gavin chuckled, "challenge," thats what his intructors called this dangerous mission. A challenge to see if he could cut it, if he was a man, to see that he could really be a Guardian. He closed his eyes and envisioned the task that he would have to perform. Every young man in the country of Vald when reaching the age of puberty were tested to see if they had the energy manipulating power of a Guardian. Guardians had the actual ability to manipulate energy or aura as it was called, to do various things for them.

One of there most import roles was the power of imbuing, or transfering energy to Tala crystals that powered everything in the world of Tarra. Unlike the regular military, Guardians did not carry any armor or weapons. They could manipulate the energy into taking a physical super-hard for of there choosing, almost like a potter could shape clay. When a guardian fought he simply formed the energy into a protective shield around him stronger than titam metal. He could form the energy into the shape of any weapon he chose, and it would manifest it self in a ulta-hard tranparent class like material. However there were weaknesses, as no Guardian could keep a manifested object intact forever and when his reserves were spent would collaspe from exhuastion.

Guardians were tested by being thrown in hot but not lethal water. If they were a Guardian, thier body would naturally use aura to protect him and if not then they would have some minor burns for a couple of weeks. Gavin couldn't help but smile despite the heat. If he failed at this task he would recieve more than a few burns. When someone was found to be a Guardian they were sent to the Guardain Academy nestled in the Alvannain mountains. The Academy was a secret to all but high military and politcal leaders, as well as the Guardians themselves, who when graduated were bound with a oath not to reveal its location. When a Guardian reached their 17th cylce they recieved a dangerous trial. At the top of the mountain was some sort of test or challenge that they would have to use all there skill to defeat. The instructors never said what the challenge was but they said that is was very dangerous. No one had died during the trail, but those who failed never spoke of it and came back with expressions of terror. Those who failed usaully quit the army and became imbuers or other related professions.

Gavin finished eating and put the food in his pouch, hopping up he grabbed his staff and stode off toward danger. The yurni finishing its meal watched him go, then turned and went off in search of other amusement.



Something hurts, something hurts alot. Why is it so dark? Why can't I move?
I'll just try to move my arm, OWW thats what hurts so much. Why is it so dark?
Where am I?...........I don't remember.........anything.......why is it so dark?

Gaving raced up the increasingly steep slope towards were he suspected a Wailer was waiting. As he ran up hill he couldn't feel the heet of solaris anymore, nor did he notice the forest slowly giving way to rocky jagged rock. He was on the hunt now, he was about to do something he had waited to do since he was 12 cycles old. Gavin was unique among the Guardians. Most Guardians were serious and focused believing that since they had been blessed with the ability to use surge or one of the Light Touched as they were called, has the responsibility to be an example of the morals and principals that upheld the nation of Vald. However Gavin was carefree and "high spirited" as his instructors called him on occasion. Gavin had not been tested like the others, at least not in the same way. Gavin was an orphan and had never known any other family then the the four other children he roomed with at the Last Hope orphinage in Calatia, the capitol of Vald.

The orphinage was a small one, with a joint room for boys and girls to sleep in, a small nursey/playground, one bathroom and bath, one classroom and only two staff, a cook/caretaker, and the head of the orphinage a kind but strict lady named Persila Terrarly, who the kids affectionatly nicknamed auntie Terror. The other was the cook who everyone just called "Gramps" for he had to be over 60 cylces and he never bothered to give his real name. It was strange to Gavin that he couldn't remember the other kids names although it had only been 6 cycles since he had seen them. Training at the academy was all consuming and left very little free time for one to reminsce about things.

Gavin's childhood was brought to an abrupt stop.When he was in his 11th cycle some men in silver and blue armor and uniforms had arrived at the orhphinage led by a tall man wearing a cape over a blue body suit with a 3 pointed silver star stitched on his chest, the emblem of Vald. He told Prisila that the orphinage had to be closed down becuase the area was needed for a new military building and that the both she, Gramps, and the children would be relocated to a different orhpinage in the city. Prisila gave her consent and gathered up the children and Gramps to move to thier new homes. all except Gavin. Gavin was busy gathering up his things with the other children, but when Prisila came to get him he would not go. He couldn't find his pendant, the one thing he owned and that had been found with him when he was young. When Prisila coudn't get him to come along, one of the soldiers tryed to move him by force. Gavin was only 11 cycles old but he put up quite a fight and even managed to knock the soldier on his back. At that point the tall caped man walked foward, simly pointed his hand and Gavin was stuck fast. He then walked up to Gavin who was still angry and looked the child in the eyes. He saw no fear there and a determination not to leave until the boy had found his pendant. The tall man smiled at him and told him he would get him another pendant to replace the one he lost.Gavin's answer was a balled up fist to his face that sent the man rocketing back into the wall on the opposite side of the room. The man was more suprised then angry and returned to look more closely at Gavin. Gavin was afraid he would be punished, but the man suddenly smiled agian this time chuckling as he did. "

My boy" he said" You are most fortunate for it seems that you are one of the Light Touched and quite a powerful one at that for not many can use aura without having first gone through the test."

Gavin was confused and still suspicous but he lowered his guard and noticed that everyone in the room was looking at him now with curious expressions on their faces.
" Let me show you" the tall man said" as he picked up a reflector that had been forgotten in the packing and held it to Gavin's face.

Gavin looked at the man then at the reflector and was startled for his eyes were now glowing a intesne white. "This only happens when a Guardian is using aura"the tall man explained," This means that you are light touched and have the abilty to manipulate aura."

Gavin was still suspicous but now interested and as he took a step foward his foot brushed something. Looking down he saw the pendant he had been searching for which he somehow had overlooked and picked it up. He found out later that the man's name was Rylof Forge, a very powerful Guardian and that he was the head or Master at the Guardian Academy and wanted Gavin to go there. Gavin had always heard stories of the famed Academy and the Sentinel like Guardians and couldn't think of a place he would rather go more. When he asked Rylof why he was at the orhphinage, he told Gavin that he had been a orhpan too and that when he heard that they were demolishing the building for a new training center he decided to come along and make the process as easy as possible.

"As I recall" Rolof had said" Something similar happened to me when I was chosen to be a Guardian, only the man I hit was knocked out cold for the next two days."

Rylof adopted Gavin being in his 34th cycle at the time, and more a man of action then of love had not children of his own. He was a generous but strict father, who loved Gavin from the start and trained him to be a Guardian. And as he said Gavin was powerful indeed, one of the strongest at the Academy. His instructors said that he would soon be as powerful as they were which was an achievment few had accoplimshed at his age. However combine power with a taste for adventure, and a disregard for the rules and you had quite a volatile mix. He never saw Prisila or the others again.

Gavin pulled out the pendant that he always wore around his neck and marvelled at it. It was a pretty thing, a disk made of some kind of red metal, it shined crimson in the light of solaris. It had no insignia or markings by was obvisouly supposed to be worn around the neck for the tiny tube the was attached to the top for string to be threaded through. Gavin put the pendant away and continued his climb upwards, confident that he was getting close to his destination.

I cant move my legs but I can move my hands............hmm........cant move my arms but I can still move my hands......................why is it so dark?

Gavin heard it before he saw it, and could'nt help but smile as he came over one last rise and saw before him the lake. Lake Alvannain glimmered in the light of day, shimmering like a giant reflector. Gavin now had a veiw of the land around Alvannian and having never been this high before, took a look at the breathing taking scene. Alvannian Mountain was on a island, or more correctly was an island. The mountain was just one big spire with the top cropped off which made a basin that was Alvannian lake. The mountian sloped down each side until it reached the Endless, or the giant mass of water that extended until it met up with Kuldar on the other side of the world.

The Academy was at the base built into the mountain in a U shaped facility that stretched down the mountain until it met the only land on the island which was only a strip of hills a couple of leaques long until it met with the beach and the sea. He could just make out the cluster of grey that marked where the Academy building were and thought that it was funny that such a large facility could fit under his thumb from this high up. Turning away from the spectacle he surveyed his surroundings.

The lake shore was strewn with boulders the size of a small house. There more many theories to why this was, the most prominent being was that the mountain used to be a volcano and that the boulders were from long ago eruptions. Most said that the lake itself was formed by hot springs deep within the lake, although this was a hard thing to imagine as seeing the the lake was an almost perfect cirlce at least 4 miles across and the amount of spring water to fill it it up would be huge. On one side the over flow from the lake cascaded down in a waterfall some 100 feet across at low side of the lake, which was the sound Gavin had heard earlier.

Gavin looked around for something out of the ordinary but couldn't see anything strange. He put down his staff and pouch knowing he would not need them and prepared himself.

why cant i move?........................I guess I'm stuck......I wish it wasn't so dark........