literature

'Balance' Prologue + Chapter 1

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Prologue

It has been said that nothing in this world is ever black and white, and that there are no absolutes. Everything in this world upsets the balance in a specific way, and because of this, the overall balance of the universe throbs like the breathing and heartbeat of a sleeping child. However, there is a keeper to both sides, put here on this earth to keep the balance in line. For centuries, the two sides were warring, and one side was getting too strong. From the ashes of the destruction caused by this, rose another powerful being...

Allow us to introduce ourselves. Our names are Sabre and Katar, and life was given to us by our masters as a requirement for receiving the status of sage. Mages, a step below sages, have yet to learn how to do this, so anyone who is a sage or above definitely has an eminence, as we are called. Also along those lines, anyone who has an eminence is definitely a sage or above. We are guiding animal spirits attached to a human at birth, given a solid form if and when the human learns what we are and where we are. This includes both magic-users and mundanes alike.

We are the keeper of secrets. We are the messengers. We are what our masters trust most. We are a solid form of the very energy that comes from within them. We see our masters for who they are, nothing more, and nothing less. We take from this world scarcely what we need, and give back all that we are. We are sentient beings without true emotions. We are a representation of our masters' inner thoughts. And we are here to tell their story.

Chapter 1: Unnatural Rescue, Natural Snacks

My master, a boy of about 15 years of age, was walking me, his large white wolf, along the beach. Elijah was average in both height and weight, maybe a little under average weight. His lengthy, dark black hair was blowing in the slight breeze. The irises of his eyes were a mysterious cream color. I came to about halfway up my master in height. My long fur was almost pure white with a small amount of orange tint to it.

Elijah was concentrating on something as the rising sun brought color to the world. The waves extended their longing fingers, leaping off the shoreline in an attempt to escape the warm colors of the new sun when I erupted into a barking frenzy.

"What now, boy?" the boy said, startled from his trance. "Don't tell me you've interrupted me from my training again for another stupid seagu-" he stopped in mid-sentence, noticing a vague presence originating from a nearby area. "Where is it, boy?" He then closed his eyes to concentrate on the presence, locating the general direction from which it came. Looking toward the dying tides, he saw a tuft of black just above the water.

He ran in that direction while I stayed clear of the water. As he neared the edge of the ocean the receding liquid began to reveal the body of a scrawny, young girl. Seaweed was tangled throughout her long, black hair. Still breathing, the unconscious girl looked very pale. She almost looked peaceful, the newborn sunlight now beating down on her, warming her high cheekbones in a vain attempt to give her some color. He could just barely notice her eyes flutter beneath their locked lids, as if consciousness wasn't far out of her reach.

Then the bedraggled girl's eyelids slowly peeled back, revealing beautiful, bright red eyes. The sky above her swam in and out of focus, the waves licking her face. Her eyes burned from the salt, forcing her to clench them immediately. Failing to realize where she was, she continued to lay there as the water chilled her to the bone. She lay still for a moment, quietly groaning as she slowly became more aware of the scene around her. It was cold, it was bright, and she was alone…except that there was a dog barking in the distance.

The girl turned her head toward the sound, her neck seeming to turn on rusty hinges. She could see two figures coming toward her, one of them on four legs and the other on two. She strained to focus more, reaching out to them with an iron-heavy hand as if she believed they didn't notice her.

Reaching the girl first, I began to lick her clammy, outstretched hand, which instinctively closed when it felt the warmth of my tongue against its cold flesh.

"No, boy!" Elijah wacked me on the nose and grabbed the girl's hand. He pulled her out of the water, knowing that the ocean was always cold at this time of day. He bent down on one knee, leaning her body against his so she was sitting upright. Ignoring my master's commands, I began to lick the girl's face this time. I sensed something was wrong and wanted to cheer her up. This caused her hands to shoot up to her cover her face while she muttered a rather disgruntled sound.

"Sabre!! Stop it, boy! Leave the poor thing alone." He looked down at the girl's face, seeing her bright, crimson red eyes nestled among the pale skin. "Are you okay?" he asked the gaunt human. "What happened to you?" A million questions began to float to the surface of his mind, many of which he found could, and probably should, wait until a better time.

Once the licking ceased, the girl removed her hands along with hair, seaweed, and any other obstructions from her face. She shivered as the boy spoke, making a few stifled noises before she could finally spit out some actual words. "I…I don't know…" she said, looking more than just a little confused.

"Well, you look like you're starving and that you could use some cleaning up. How about I show you to my house and prepare some food while you take a nice, warm shower?" He said as he looked into the girl's red eyes. Unless the events were physically draining, it seemed as though my master was always energetic. He could always talk, that's for sure. "Maybe you'll remember more after you've been conscious for a few hours and get some food in your belly. Is there anything you would rather I cook?" I jumped excitedly and ran in the direction of the house, understanding my master perfectly and loving his idea. Here I am saying my master was energetic when I was obviously no different.

For a moment the girl seemed still, her eyes blank despite their bright color. She was trying to answer the boy's question of 'What happened to you?' to herself. Unfortunately she was only drawing up a blank, her memory appearing to be lost because of the previous events that happened to her, whatever they were.

"Do you think you can walk?" Elijah asked.

She slowly shook her head, trying to clear it. She didn't imagine that she could get much of a sentence together in her current state. "Yeah." was all she managed as she shifted her weight forward to get her feet underneath her.

"Looks like Sabre likes you already. That really means something. He's usually wary of all strangers that come to these parts." He started to escort her in the direction of his house. I was impatiently bounding in circles around the two humans.

The girl shivered violently as she stood and began walking. Whatever muscles that remained from her underwater journey were hardened and not used to the delicate art of walking. That probably made it harder to walk than anything else that might be wrong with her legs. She leaned on my master for a while until the stiffness was finally worked out of her and she felt she could manage on her own. She stared at the ground as if transfixed by the single grains of sand and occasional furry white lump that was me running around.

"So…do you at least remember your name?" The boy's usually one-track mind showed that it couldn't think of much else besides whom the girl was and what had happened to her.

"No…I…can't remember anything at all," she replied sadly, hugging her arms around her as she took stiff steps toward wherever it was she was going.

They walked for about ten minutes before the scenery decided to change. It didn't literally change on its own but a sloping cliff did seem to appear out of nowhere. It had always been there but it was such a change in surroundings that no one ever expected it until it was there. The cliff sloped down until it became level with the beach that they were walking on. It looked like it was an incline or ramp made by humans specifically to get to the level of earth that towered above them. There were trees around the base of the cliff, some even in the sand, and along the edges. It was almost like they were soldiers positioned to welcome you through and into their home. Various sizes of large rocks and boulders were scattered around the base of the cliff where the trees were nonexistent.

They turned and began to walk up the steep incline. I was leading them by quite a distance, of course. Elijah's kindness caused him to try and help her, offering to stand behind her to make sure she didn't fall backwards. However, she decided that she wanted to try it on her own. When she felt like she was having troubles, she used the many trees to brace her from falling.

As if to complete the picture of entering one of nature's many kingdoms, a tall, bulky tree appeared as the slope flattened out. On the tree were glittering, golden yellow fruits. It seemed as though they were in the presence of a king, and perhaps they were. Who's to say that trees can't have monarchies?

"Ahh, a good place to take a rest. You're going to need quite a few of those in that condition." Elijah said as we approached the tree. "It even has natural snacks! This golden apple tree is one of my favorite places around here. It's like we're in nature's own kingdom and it's got such a good view of the ocean. Actually, this tree is one of the rarest apple trees in the world. There's only a few known to exist at one time." He continued as he reached up to snag a pair of delicious looking apples.

Sitting down at the tree's base, the girl's waist-long black hair curled underneath her rump. She watched the boy as he attempted to harvest a pair of large apples that were just out of his reach. As though it noticed my master's needs, the tree's branch moved down just far enough for him to reach it. Only the slight breeze that came with the movement left doubt in my master's mind that the tree had moved on its own. I curled up next to the strange female while my master picked the two crisp, fresh apples off of their branch.

Elijah walked the short distance to where we sat and plopped down on the other side of me. Holding his hand out over me towards the girl, he offered, "Here, have an apple for a snack while we rest. Or an appletizer as my grandfather would say."
The girl gave a small smile as she took the apple from my master's hand even though her nature screamed at her not to take apples from strangers. She pushed the feeling back in her mind without ever revealing it. The boy had just plucked her out of the ocean, therefore saving her! She bit down into the apple, juice dripping down from her lips as if to wrap around her chin. Wiping her sticky chin with the backside of her free hand, she found that having even the slightest amount of food in her stomach made her feel a little stronger.

The two of them sat there for quite the while, filling their stomachs with tart, juicy apples while I sat between them watching them eat. Elijah continued to constantly flap his mouth, despite the sticky juice and apple pieces occasionally spraying out of it.
The name "Balance" is a code name I'm using for my book on here. I still haven't decided on what the actual name will end up being. It could stay as "Balance" or become something completely different.

This story started out as an RP between a friend and me. I decided that I wanted to use the RP as a base for an actual story, hopefully one that I can eventually bet published. She agreed with me and so our RP went on longer than we planned. I have only recently started typing it out, taking out the RP elements to turn it into more of a story. Unfortunately she stopped talking to me a while ago but Im not going to let that stop me from my goal. I'm not one to quit just because someone else quit first.

The characters are 100% original to my knowledge. If the writing or characters seem similar to any other storyline, it is completely accidental. It may also be subconsious influence from some of my favorite series.

If enough interest in my story is shown on here, I will try to continue to post a chapter every week, maybe more. This obviously depends on my schedule and how much time I have to type up the story.

Please leave comments when you're done reading!
© 2010 - 2024 ElijahWilkes
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reginadiedraghi's avatar
hello
your wonderful lit work has been featured in :iconthe-dragon-writers: news article here [link]
please :+favlove: the news article if that's ok with you :)