This is like a prologue of an original story I have started to re-write. So far, I have about fourteen chapters done for the story, which I am re-writting before going on. I've re-written this one and am in the middle of beginning to re-write the first chapter. Enjoy the beginning of this one!
In the beginning, there was nothing but ash and soot. Fires rages where there would be forests and groves, smoke where there would be sky, and darkness where there would be light. There was no life that grew before the dawn of the first day, nothing that could survive the harsh reality of the beginning of everything that would come to be. It was the daze before the elements that made it possible for life to awake and start the first steps towards becoming the world that all life knew it as. It was a beginning at least, not one easily forgotten by the craters that still existed in lands far away from those that had only heard the stories of how their realm came to be, passed down from the first walks of life that sprang from this very beginning.
During the time of birth, the Earth formed in it's short infancy, allowing the fires to shape her body, the winds to comb her hair, the waters to bathe her, and the soil to bring life to the sphere that would, one day in the future, allow all forms of creatures to walk upon it. Although these changes were slow, calculating, and went with any notice of life for what seemed like millions of years, it was a time when nothing was certain what it was to become. Forests soon grew in places that once had been beds of molten fire, oceans swam onto the shores of crystallized sand, the sky became a blue sea of clouds and sunlight. And the Spirit of the Earth, the soul of the planet and the heart of all creatures, awoke with the first breath of new life that came upon her lands.
The Spirit of the Earth walked along the plains of her world, the paths of the mountains, the roads of the forest, and the borders between water and land, taking in the first signs of the life that began so peacefully. Creatures dwelled in the places that life itself had touched and allowed to flourish, natural order taking it's place alongside the creations that had taken countless years to create and to come to be. Lives were born and taken away, the natural order flowing along with the cycle of night and day, as it fell into the patterns of life. It was as it should be, the Earth Mother satisfied with the ebb and flow of the tides and the dawns of new days.
Yet, from within these new changes and new lives, came something else that had not been expected and threw these cycles into a whirlwind that would take many more years to finally calm the waters. Chaos, Hatred, and Sorrow had seeped into the darkest parts of the Earth from the beginning of the Earth and had grown into entities that would cause everything to turn around. Chaos caused disorder among the still growing life, throwing it off balance and into a sea of distrust and unrest. Hatred soon followed, causing all those that felt it to becoming hateful and biter, turning those that felt it the most into creatures of darkness. Sorrow molded itself into the last entity and with it came the sadness of things that had passed, things that were happening, and things that would happen.
These entities, churning in waves of darkness and rain, roamed the lands for centuries, leaving a trail of their deeds behind them so big that it would take another century for these same paths to be cleansed. The Earth Mother saw how these entities worked, keeping herself at bay for as long as she could before tracking them down with her powers and many eyes to watch them. It was a struggle to contain them into three separate stones, orbs of dark matter that had fallen onto the Earth during its creation, and seal them up so that they would never escape. None with a pure heart could be corrupted by these stones, no matter how close they came to them.
She placed Chaos into one of these stones and into the stone she placed several of the night's stars into it, allowing some light to penetrate the deep blackness that consumed the stone. It gave light where there had been no light before and kept Chaos within the stone so it would not escape. From there, the Mother placed Chaos into a deep cavern, sealing it so that no being, living or dead, could ever look upon the destructive power that it had created from the years of living upon the plains of the Earth.
Hatred seeped from the black hearts of those that allowed the pulsing beat to thrive inside of them, tainting the blood of those that once felt emotions that had been drained from the beings that Hatred touch. The Mother slowly collected the souls of the damned that had felt the wrath of this creation, finding little that escaped her touch. With careful ease, she placed it into a stone made of the purest metal so that Hatred would not dare escape the confines of its eternal prison. She then placed it into a watery grave, placing coral around it so that no life form would be able to feel this emotion again.
Sorrow roamed the Earth's plains longer then the other two had, the Earth Mother allowing it to do so for the sake of those that had killed in Hatred's wake. She plucked Sorrow from its roams once it had gone its course, allowing some of it to stay inside the hearts of the creatures so that they would always remember the wrong that they had done in the past. She placed the hurt into a crystal-like stone, thus giving Sorrow a view from inside its ultimate prison. The Mother then threw the stone into the heart of a volcano, creating a barrier of lava so that there would be no escape from within.
Once the Earth Mother had completed her task, she noticed that her hands were tainted with all three of the entities, glowing brightly like a newborn star. Fear had risen as she tried to rub Chaos, Hatred, and Sorrow off of her hand but to no avail. Many years went by, the three entities still glowing on her hands with more intensity then ever before. As a desperate act, she places the remaining bit into a fourth stone made from the creatures of myth and legends. This last stone she held in the sunlight, her eyes gazing upon the last bit of those that she had taken away from her body and sealed up inside a stone. This stone was thrusted into the soil below and a gigantic rock was placed on top so that it would serve as a reminder to those that had lived through the reign of the entities.
Thousands of years passed without incident, the Earth blossoming into young adulthood. New creatures emerged from the ashes of the old, new dangers lurking around the corners for those that had thrived since the beginning of life and the destruction of old ways. The natural order had changed since the first cycles had started, changing slowly over the course of these thousands of years until there was little trace of what once had been. Centuries molded and formed into new centuries, dawns of the new days and dusks of the old nights forming the same cycles of sunsets and sunrises like they had always been since they had been created. The Earth Mother had watched this from afar, still just as satisfied with the work that she had helped create and understanding that nothing would ever remain the same no matter how many reincarnations that would take place.
A new wave of unrest soon came onto the Earth, one that would take more then the Spirit of the Earth to contain. Five of the Elements that had helped carve the Earth as it was, Wind, Water, Fire, and Earth, went out of the Earth Mother's control and into separate directions to form their own alliances with the remains of what had once been. It had started as a gradual separation until they went out of control, doing as they wished without remorse of what they did or what came in their way. Even as she tried to get these powers back under her spell that she had held for so many years, not one would obey her commands. She watched in horror as Fire burned forests and plains into dust; as Water swept away the costal beaches and cliffs; as Earth shook the lakes and rivers dry; as Wind fiercely tore down mountains.
There was nothing that she could to bring these Elements into the same alliances that they had held for so many years; even the innocent pleas of creatures did not fall upon the ears of these powers. They ignored the fear that swept into the homes of all that stood and watched their lives come apart at the seams, watched as Fire burned, Wind raged, Water swept, and Earth rumbled their way from coast to mountain. The Mother took her powers to the highest levels that she knew and her present embodiment could handle before she collapsed and breath nearly seeped from her body. Even the great Mother Nature could not control what was just out of reach, not without the help of those that could contain it more then she could.
It took that desperate call from the Mother for four powerful Wizards to step forwards and take control of the Elements, where she had failed to do so. The battles that she had lost, were won with the powers that the Wizards commanded from the same Elements that had taken hold of the Earth. Struggles came from the sides of the Elements, the Wizards hardly faltering in their presence as they battled with each Element in single combat with spells and nature alike. Earth used its strength to keep the Wizards at bay, Fire lashed out with lava and ash, Water drowned out the spells that the Wizards had learned over their lifetimes, and Wind pushed them into the paths of the other Wizards. It looked like a hopeless cause, the Elements banding together to keep their capturers as far away as they possibly could.
Battle after endless battle ensued, the Earth Mother fearing that the Wizards would not come out of the ordeal alive. So many lives had already been ripped apart, once by the entities and now by the Elements, that she did not want to place any more lives in risk. Just as the rising sun came over the faraway horizon on the last day of battle, four figures walked towards the hidden palace of the Earth, tattered, bruised, and battered from battles that had been won and lost. Their strength had been tested, their defense beaten down, and their souls placed at the end of the limits, but they were alive as they could be.
In their presence, the four Wizards held four orbs: one for Fire, one for Earth, one for Water, and one for Wind. Inside, the Elements looked out, defeated, tired, and holding their faces towards the Earth Mother for forgiveness. Seeing this victory where there should have been a failure, and as a punishment for the Element's deeds, the Mother granted the Wizards control over the Elements. This allowed them to have full power for the same things that sustained her planet and her life-force. It was a gift from the Spirit herself, one that was rarely given to those that spent their lives doing nothing but the greatest deeds for the world they lived upon. The Wizards accepted this gift and their duties, they bowed and went in opposite directions without a glance behind them or a word of thanks to the one that had granted them unlimited power. It was a silent exchange of words with the last look between Wizard and Nature, one that need no words spoken.
During man's middle years, many more thousands of years after the Elements had been contained, the Earth Mother wondered if there would be more struggles that would arise before a new incarnation of evolved creatures came forth to claim the thrones of the old. Peace had reclaimed its title among the creatures that still remembered the old ways and the times of struggle, as well as the ones that were still learning the ways of natural order and the balance of life. There was nothing to indicate what the next struggle would be, the struggle that would test the strength of these same orders and balances and form a new breed of darkness.
The four stones that the Earth Mother had placed into prisons that were impossible to locate and to open, had been unveiled by means that she could not have seen. These same prisons had been tampered with by the Elements unknowingly and, with the flow of time, had broken the last seals to the orbs that were never supposed to see the light of day again. These orbs were placed into the hands of those that given their souls to a higher power that was even greater then the Spirit of the Earth. These four powers had grown in the darkness of four different places and had grown with the touching of their stones, thus the Holders of the Stones were born in the same darkness that they had lived in for the majority of their lives.
With Chaos, Hatred, and Sorrow at their sides, these Holders terrorized the lands, disrupting lives at their will, and allowing the three entities to be loose once again. Wars were started during the times of peace, lives were once again torn apart, and the creatures that had been alive during the last two struggles wondered if there was anything else that could tear apart the sphere of Earth any more then it had. Some looked towards the Earth Mother for suppose, but there was nothing she could do with the second coming of the entities. Chaos, Hatred, and Sorrow had become more powerful then they had when they were first loose countless years ago.
The Wizards, in their own palaces that they had created on opposite sides of the lands, saw the destruction that Chaos, Hatred, and Sorrow brought with them. Having heard it only from the tales that the Earth Mother had handed down to them, and from the creatures that they had crossed paths with, there was interest in the entities that caused them to come out of their hiding and to where the Earth Mother still dwelled. Pleading with the Mother to help the creatures of the land, the Wizards begged for her to create four beings, two females and two males, of Purity, Wisdom, Happiness, and Love. These beings would have a way to conquer the entities that had been unleashed and as an experiment, to see if there was anything but the Spirit herself that could control the tides of battles and the Elements that the four Wizards held.
The Mother refused to create anything that would dare go up against the four Holders, allowing no more beings to be create that would turn their backs upon her when they had the chance. She had seen what her creations had done to her in the past, her own life becoming a myth itself before her own existence was ignored completely. She would not let anything else stand in the way of those that went against peace and order, finally defeated by the only things that had been forgotten themselves.
The Wizards then suggested that they find theses warriors, whom had one of each of their traits, themselves. The Mother took this into consideration, allowing the though to swirl in her mind until the suffering of man and creature alike was no longer bearable and those that needed her help called out to her. She agreed to let the Wizards each chose a warrior that held the traits of Purity, Wisdom, Happiness, or Love inside of them and attempt to bring down the Holders that dared disrupt the Earth. The Wizards bowed again to the Earth Mother a second time, once again departing in their separate ways and with a call of returning back with the warriors at their sides. This time, however, their quests were to find those worthy to help the Earth Mother and to return peace to the lands.
It took ten years for the Wizards to find the four that held these same traits inside of them, representing the ideals that the Mother wanted upheld. These were not the warriors that had been envisioned by the Wizards or the Mother, yet they still held the traits that made them suitable for the battle that would decide the fate of the world around them. They were simple people, their lives only knowing what they had seen and done in the years that had been taken away by the return of the entities. They were fierce but kind, coming from different backgrounds and different walks of life, from a merchants daughter to the son of a bard. None had known the others before this chance meeting, their bonds threading together on the first meeting before coming before the one person that held the life of the Earth in her hands.
By the time the last two years had passed, the Earth was on the verge of destruction and there was little hope that it would survive much longer. With the Mother's help, the Wizards equipped the warriors with weapons for their strength, armor for their protection, and attacks for their skills. They were trained as much as they could with the time that they had, the Holders reign coming to an almost complete circle. There was little else that the Mother could give and teach these warriors, watching them teach themselves in the ways of other cultures that had sprung up in the wake of time and the battles of the Holders. They were ready for the troubled times that laid in their paths.
However, the Wizards felt that the warriors were incomplete, an element missing from their souls and their training. As a reminder, the Mother told them that they still held the Elements at their beck and call and could use each to aid the warriors that stood waiting for their final orders. The Wizards agreed and it took only a moment for them to call upon the Elements that they held and guarded, each Element still in their orbs. With the last of the Wizards power, and four separate flashes of light, the orbs went black as they drained of the life-giving Elements that had created the same realm they lived in. Around the warriors necks appeared pendants, each fused with their own Elements that the Wizards gave to them to hold. It was a passing of power and lives that had been created, a last order given by masters of olds.
As the Wizards disappeared in the directions they had come from, the orbs scattered back to where they had come from and their resting places. All four returned to their alters, now empty shells of what once had been inside of them except when these warriors could return these powers to these places of hiding when the last of the threats were over. They were now in the warriors control, the Wizards last wishes before they departed from a world that was not their own.
With the power that came from the Wizards, once held by Mother Nature herself, the warriors searched for the Holders that held the fate of the Earth in their deadly grasp. The years of torment to the lands only strengthened the search to find the darkness and the bond between the four increased with every battle. The minions of the Holders, the eyeless wolves, the white hawks, and the sandstorm worms, all forced them back yet the warriors pushed even harder then they could ever before. Their young eyes saw what Chaos, Hatred, and Sorrow had bestowed upon the once-fertile ground, a unwavering and unspoken vow to return Earth to her former glory set on their faces.
In their last battles with the minions, at one of the very first sunsets of the final battle, the Holders appeared, descending from silver clouds that were guided by ebon hawks. They had seen all, heard all, and ordered all of the threats that had been placed against the warriors, from the safety of their thrones and their castles. They were ready to challenge what the Mother had sent out to destroy them, children in their eyes but warriors none the less. They were ready, the sides of light and dark, as they prepared to fight to the death for their own rights.
The minions of the dark had scattered in the broken fights, forming vast circles around the warring parties, as they awaited their masters orders to give the last deadly blow. The sides remained firm where they stood, their eyes meeting and hands placed upon their weapons. There was no motion from the eight opponents, no movement towards the center of the last circle in which the minions circled constantly. There was no escape for both Chosen One and Holder, as the last rays of sun went down over the horizon and the sides clashed together, light and ark coming together to see who would prevail.
The fate of the Earth rested on the shoulders of the four warriors, as well as the Elements that each held around their necks. Chaos, Hatred, and Sorrow watched effortlessly as the Holders pounded the warriors with ease, the young ones backing up to the first wall of minions that guarded their masters well. They were still alive at the beginning of the battle, still ready to fight despite the lack of discipline in the art of fighting, still ready to defend their lives with all that they knew how to. Sword went up against sword, blood up against blood, sweat up against sweat, the Chosen fought until a faint glow separated them from the Holders and grew into a shining light.
The Elements had appeared before them, forming into creatures that would never been seen again, as they aided the warrior that held their pendant. Their weapons and armor changed, their weapons powered, and their spirits renewed as they pushed back against the Holders with all of their might. The entities that had watched around the minions, now stepped into the battle with their own strength placed into the Holders. Chaos had seen the Holders beginning to falter, adding it's consuming power to the stone that bound it's power to it's Holder. Hatred seeped into the ground, flowing around the Holder that kept it close by and swallowed attacks of Purity.
Sorrow was the only remaining entity that stood out, the overwhelming sadness of the battle not allowing it to go between Holder and Chosen One. Where it stood, the Holders minions stopped and turned towards the entity, gazing at it with their dead eyes and muttering things in tongues long since lost. They did not move nor asked why the pain of battle had overcome them, not when the need for Sorrow came too great for the entity to ignore as it moved into the wind and soared towards the battle ahead of it. It seeped into the hearts of the Holders, to allow them to feel the urges of guilt and sadness it felt while watching the epic battle in front of it. This did not deter the Holders as they pressed on, their emotions long since locked away in a place where not even the simplest things would bring them to the surface.
The struggle between light and dark last for days on end, Elements battling entities, Holders against Chosen Ones, and minions with minions. The circles around the battlefield had begun to break, gaping holes becoming wider as the creatures fell from wounds sustained from battle or were too tired to fight any longer. The days were growing longer themselves, the nights shorter, and the battle all but completed. All were exhausted, until the final sunrise of the last day did the Holders finally collapse and the dust settle did the Chosen fall to their knees in victory. They, too, were ready to give up, even when the Holders were struggling to maintain their rights as rulers of Earth. The Holders stopped only a few feet from where the Chosen knelt, having crawled on their bellies until they could not go any further and their minions had long since scattered back into the depths of the unknown.
Even with the Holders final forfeit, there was still the danger of the Element and entity clashes. That battled lasted for half of a day more, when the two clashed together one last time in a light of sheer brilliance. The light eventually faded, the entities falling back beside the Holders that held them so very close by as the Elements returned to their masters orbs around their necks. The four warriors stood from their kneeling positions, looking up the Holders with a weariness as they backed up and walked away, knowing that the last blow to them would come as the Earth Mother walked into the battlefield herself to see the damage caused by those that held nothing dear to them but wanted everything. Her eyes did not go far, as they fell upon the tired Chosen and the wounds that would have killed any mortal being. They did not hesitate to the take the gifts of healing from the sky above, basking in the glow of the power that only Mother Nature could give. While their wounds were not completely healed, the Chosen were no longer in danger of their wounds.
After the last Chosen had been healed, the Mother turned to face Chaos, Hatred, and Sorrow to send them back into the depths from whence they had come. Before they could be harnessed back into their prisons, the three entities rose from beside three of the Holders side and engulfed the area with smoke and fog. A barrier to hide their deeds, Chaos, Hatred, and Sorrow wrapped themselves around the three Holders of their choosing and rose above the cloud of smoke and fog. By the time the barrier had lifted, only one Holder remained, her stone in the palm of her hand and her companions no where to be found. Only the Earth Mother seemed to know where the entities had taken the remaining three Holders, to the End of the Earth where no being could escape again. Perhaps, she had thought, that was a forgiveness that the entities wanted to bestow upon the world that they had nearly destroyed.
Her gaze fell upon the last Holder, who had never awoken to the sounds of her companions leaving her behind. Despite the warnings from the warriors, the Earth Mother retracted the stone in her hand and placed her hand upon the Holder's head. She then wiped the memories from the girl so that they would not hinder her in a new life she would take upon, placing them into the stone that was held in her hand. Instead of sending the stone back into the depths of the cavern it had come from, where it would be in more danger of another being finding it once again, the Mother allowed it to stay with the girl, knowing that there would be memory of the past contained inside of it. It would serve a purpose to the girl that did not remember anything, the girl that would begin a new life somewhere else. Using her powers, she sent the girl to a place in time where she would be reborn with the stone, giving new memories of what had never happened and things to come.
The warriors watched what the Earth Mother had done in pure disbelief, not understanding the simplest things of what she had done. The questions of the warriors were ignored, dismissing any dangerous thoughts that they were thinking and ways of finding the Holders that had gotten out of their grasp. Instead of stripping them of their Elemental powers, she turned towards them and gave them new instructions, instructions that would allow them to rest for many years and to watch over the Earth as they should be. As the mother chanted a spell that created light around each warrior, she worked her hands around the light and created a weaving pattern around them. It only took several minutes for her next task to be complete, the light dimming and revealing what the warriors had now become: tiny infants. Their armors and weapons laid next to them, the pendants still around their necks as they were gently lowered down into the battlefield.
The Mother smiled at her work, a faint memory of when she first created the walking man that was not scattered along the vast planet. Yet, there was no time to remember old memories, as she waved a hand over each of the warrior's eyes as they fell into a deep sleep. They would eventually be placed into four separate locations as the days progressed, one next to the forest, one next to the water, one next to a volcano, and one next to a mountain. There, the warriors would unknowingly watch over the Earth in their slumber and awake to a time when they were needed the most. The Earth Mother kept the memories of the Holders in the minds of these warriors in the forms of dreams, careful not to allow these same memories to help them to find their paths once again. They would be a reminder of their true past that would be told in another tale.
The Naughty Or Nice Guild
