Welcome to Gaia! ::

what? is no one going to post in here?

you want me to post what i've written so far? it's not that far at all.

here you go. tell me what you think!














Prologue

December 24, 2008

A moonless night, a cloudy sky, and snow is on the way. Three hours to midnight. Three hours to another New York Christmas day. A perfect time to hunt.
Atop the roof of one of the many thirty-story buildings in the city, in the shadow of a stone gargoyle, a figure moves. It is a man, or something that resembles a man. He was near six feet tall, clothed in a black trench coat. His long platinum hair was pulled back in a ponytail which reached down to the center of his shoulder blades. His face was thin, drawn tight across his skull. His mouth set in a grim frown, his eyes, the color of liquid silver, scanned the night. To a normal human’s eyes, the evening sky would have revealed nothing, but to this young man’s eyes, the night held no secrets. He sighed heavily, watching his breath steam in the cold winter air.
He reached to his right side, feeling the cold leather grip of the sword that hung there. He slowly ran his thumb over the words carved into the hilt. Natarill Caas Saa Rallin. The words were engraved into the silver of the hilt in gold. Even to the current date, he doesn’t know what those words mean, or even what language they were in. Never the less, he always carried it, for it was his only link to his past.
“It’s time,” he whispered, his voice as smooth as silk. “Time for the hunt.” He stretched his legs in preparation. In the darkness, no one saw his clothes turn to black robes, his boots transforming into the talons of an eagle, his legs rippling as new muscles formed and old ones grew stronger, longer. They didn’t see his arms do the same, see the claws that grew from his fingertips, or the faint azure glow that appeared in the depths of his eyes, nor the white feathers that grew along his neck. They neither saw his hair turn scarlet red in color, nor his ears elongate to points. And no one saw the white angelic wings that unfolded from the cloak-like position around his shoulders. This was what he called the Avian Form.
He stood up to his full seven and a half foot height and leapt from the building, relishing the gentle caress of the wind, the bite of the winter chill. He let himself freefall for another forty feet, and released his wings from their tight hold against his sides, bracing himself for the uplift. Air filled his wings, raising his form higher into the night sky. He let the wind carry him higher and higher and watched as the city dwindled in size below him.
“Tis a wonderful sight,” He whispered to himself. “To see the workings of men so meaningless to one so blessed.” With a down thrust of his wings, he flew towards the Bronx, watching the streets below with his inhuman sight. As he landed on another building he tuned in his ears to the sounds of the city below, finding amusement in the trivial concerns around which the humans’ conversations revolved. But this amusement was quickly covered by the all too familiar feelings of sadness and regret. He used to be one of them, with no worry of what did not affect them or their lives. But that all changed a year ago…



Chapter 1

May 21, 2007


It was a bright, semi-clear skied day, and Talon Seeker was trying (unsuccessfully) to catch up with his soon-to-be girlfriend, Bridget Laysha. She was weaving in and out of the crowds, trying to catch up to their friend, Melody Munoz. Looking for Bridget, all Talon saw was a flash of dirty blonde hair and a backpack covered in key chains before she disappeared around a corner.
“Bridget!” he called. “Bridget, wait!!” He sighed. As usual, he had to run to catch up to her. He picked up his blue backpack and took off at a run. Damn, why did he have to put up with this? The answer was there even before he finished thinking. It was simple. He loved her. That was all there was to it. He only wondered if she loved him back. Everyone said he was fairly handsome, but that didn’t mean that he was any less worried if a girl liked him or not. It’s true. Go ahead, shoot him for being honest. Not that he’d ever admit such a blasphemous thought to the public.
However, his looks didn’t mean he automatically was popular. It was quite the opposite, actually. He was part of a small group, sort of. He only had a few friends: Melody, Bridget, Kazmanir and Adam were the closest. He hung out with them whenever he could, and considered himself lucky to have even them. He smiled to himself. Soon enough, Bridget would be more than a friend. That is, if she liked him.
Suddenly the bell rang, signaling the beginning of another sophomore school day. He sighed. He had really wanted to talk to Bridget this morning. Damn it. He ran up the steps to his first period class, Topics of Algebra, the most boring class he’d ever had. Well, he’d have to live through it. Or, in this case, sleep through it.
He was sleeping soundly, dreaming of Bridget, when suddenly he was awoken. He raised his head from his desk, looking around to find what had disturbed his sleep. At first, he saw nothing but the normal classroom things, students whispering, passing notes, mouthing words across the room, and his friends doing their work. Nothing seemed out of place. He shrugged, thinking that it was probably his neighbor accidentally elbowing him, and laid his head back upon his folded arms on the desk. But then he felt something, something watching him. He kept his eyes closed and tried to sense from where the feeling came from. It felt evil, whatever it was. He sensed hatred, loathing… hunger. Suddenly, he knew. It came from behind him. He quickly sat up and spun around to see where this feeling came from. All he caught was a glimpse of…. something. It was roughly human in figure, but it looked like it was shrouded in a cloak of writhing darkness, and deep in its hood was a pair of red eyes, which glowed with a malevolent light. That was all Talon saw before the figure vanished.
Now, any normal, average, everyday human being would have been terrified at such a sight. But for some reason, all Talon felt was anger. And hatred. For some strange reason, he felt like the creature had challenged him, and, also, that he had accepted it.
He turned back to his worksheet (not done) and thought about what he should do. It’s strange, but felt like he should know this thing.
As he turned, Mr. Wood, the math teacher, was standing in front of him, glaring down at him. “Sleeping in class again? This is the fifth time this week!” he said. “Do I have to go over this with you one more time? This has been a constant problem since the beginning of the semester! Is this too hard for you, huh? Do I need to send you back to learn simple preschool stuff?” As he yelled, he slammed a stack of papers on the desk. Damn. “You have a week to finish all this work and turn it in. If you don’t,” here his face turned red. “I’ll flunk you!”
Talon just nodded, annoyed at the interruption of his thoughts. He sighed, shoving the memory of the black thing to the back of his head for later study.
His next class was World History, another boring class. As he entered the class, he noticed that the sky had darkened outside. Dark clouds, filled with rain, engulfed every inch of blue. Great, he thought, now it’s going to rain. What else could go wrong?
“Pop Quiz!” Ms. Mamula, the teacher, called out. Great. He just had to say it, huh? Damn.
Talon quickly sat down, shoving his backpack under his desk. He reached into his pocket, identifying by feel which of the objects was his pen and pencil. He asked the girl in front of him, McShire, if he remembered correctly, for a sheet of paper. She handed him one, grinning. Great. Just great. Another follower to add to the ranks of those who thought of him as beautiful. At least this can’t get any worse, Talon thought to himself. After the detested, and seemingly pointless, quiz, Ms. Mamula called out, “When you’re done with the quiz, I want you to put it on the edge of my desk. Remember, the five page essay on World War I is due at the end of class.”
“Oh, that’s nice,” he muttered under his breath. “Well, that’s going to be more work to add to the stack.”
An hour and a half later, the bell rang. He hadn’t exactly finished the essay, but he got enough to get a half-decent grade. Next up was Building Trades I, a better class than the other two. He walked down the stairs to ground level and ran to the next building. He ran in just as the late bell rang. He sat down and waited for instructions. Soon enough, he was in the workshop with his team, working to build a wall made of 2x4’s. It wasn’t easy. The wood kept splitting, he hit his thumb with the hammer, and almost pounded a nail through his friends hand.
Then the bell for 3rd period lunch to end rang. Sweet, he thought. That means the 4th period Woodworking I class was coming in, with Bridget in it. He wondered, should he tell her about the Shadow? A few seconds later, he came to the conclusion that, no, he shouldn’t. Not right now, anyway.
He saw Bridget come in. Her hair was pulled back in a ponytail, dirty blonde hair reaching below her shoulders. She had a pair of safety glasses on, covering her beautiful blue eyes, and as she walked in, she pushed them higher onto her nose. She was wearing her Japanese silk coat. It was black with blue roses and other designs on it. She was also wearing blue jeans with carpenter’s boots on. She was gorgeous. But, unfortunately, he didn’t have enough time to talk then. So when the bell rang for his lunch “hour”, he ended up not speaking to her at all.
He didn’t see Melody, Bridget, Adam, or Desiree during lunch, and, therefore, was bored. He sat at one of the round lunch tables, ignoring his food, a slice of cheese pizza and some fries. It was all grease, and it didn’t really taste good, either. He crossed his arms on the tabletop and laid his head on them. He was tired, and since he had nothing better to do, he might as well catch up on sleep.
He was in the middle of a rather “interesting” dream concerning Bridget, when a loud crash scared him awake. Four things flashed through his head in one instant:
1. His food was missing.
2. It was raining.
3. There was no one in the cafeteria, at all.
4. His food was missing.
He looked around for his pizza and fries. God, he was hungry. That’s when he saw it. The Shadow. It was near six feet in height and its body was surrounded in what looked like a cloak made of shadows. He could still see the scarlet eyes boring into him, as if it could see right into his soul. All of the malice, the hate, was still there. Talon could sense it, hitting him with waves of evil. So far, the creature hadn’t moved. It just hung there, gliding a foot off the ground.
Suddenly the creature moved. It raised its right hand, pointing one shadowy finger at him. A voice boomed out from all directions, and for a moment he wasn’t sure if he had heard it with his ears, or his mind. “YOU!” it boomed. “IT SHALL BE YOU WHO WILL BRING DEATH UPON YOUR WORLD! IT WILL BE YOU WHO OPENS THE GATE! IT IS YOU, TALON AVARIANNA!”
At the sound of the last word, his whole body tensed. Something inside of him seemed to open, and his veins surged with energy. He felt as if every inch of his body was being engulfed in flames. He screamed.


Chapter 1 Interlude

December 24, 2008


Snapping out of his memory, Talon noticed the screaming was not just from his memory. Below him, in one of the many dark alleys that ran through the city, a woman was being attacked. He banked to his left, angled slightly downwards. He saw that there were three attackers and one victim. Talon was insulted. If there was going to be an attack before he returned to the base, there should at least be enough to give him some sort of challenge. Three armed thugs were too easy.
He pulled his wings tight against his body, plummeting to the ground at almost ninety-five miles an hour. The would-be thugs had no idea that what most that saw him referred to as “the Angel of Death” was falling towards them. Flipping over and spreading his wings, he hit the ground feet first, at nearly a hundred miles an hour, sending cement, trash, dirt, hobos, and stray animals in all directions.
He stood, transforming back into his human form. His silver eyes scanned the alley, taking in everything he saw in a glance. He saw three shapes, who swore as they picked themselves up off the ground. One shape stayed lying prone on the cracked ground. As the dust cleared, he saw that the three men all looked similar. They all wore identical filthy shirts and black pants. Thug 1 had a pipe in hand, Thug 2 had a chain, and Thug 3 had a Stiletto in his hand. All three finally seemed to notice him.
“Who da hell are you?” said Thug 1. A stream of blood ran from his nose.
“Your worst nightmare, come to life,” Talon said with a smirk. He drew his sword, placing the tip on the ground in front of him.
Thug 2 started spinning his chain. Talon noticed the fourth form still hadn’t moved. He tuned in his sight to see what it was. He saw that it was a young woman, around sixteen. Her panties were missing, and the rest of her clothes were torn to shreds. Rage enveloped him, giving his sight a tinge of red. He turned a baleful glare upon the thugs, who promptly retreated a few steps.
“You will suffer for this,” Talon whispered. His hand tightened around his sword, turning his knuckles white. “You will suffer for your transgressions!” He raised his sword above his head.
Wind erupted around him. His hair fanned upwards, glowing white in the light of the moon. His eyes were illuminated from within by a silver fire. Thug 1 and Thug 2 turned to run, while Thug 3 turned to pick the woman. Talon bared his teeth in a snarl.
“YOU WILL SUFFEEERRRR!!!” he roared, bringing his arm down in a slashing motion. A bright light erupted, tearing the ground apart, streaking towards the thugs.
Thug 2 screamed, “DROP THE b***h AND RUUUN!” Thug 1 and 3 ran as if their lives depended on, which, of course, it did.
The light hit them, tearing apart their bodies, sending blood in all directions. In a matter of seconds, the Thugs were gone. All that remained were stains of blood on the walls and the scarlet mist that hung in the air. Talon sheathed his sword and ran to the woman’s side. He placed his hand on the abdomen, sending forth a tendril of energy downwards. Good, there was no penetration. He had gotten there soon enough. He looked at her face, and a double take. He knew her! From Kellis High! What was her name? Jessica? He couldn’t remember her last name, though. He picked her up and shifted to his Avian form.
He looked down at her sleeping form in his arms. How long had it been since he’d seen her? A year? It’s been a long time for sure. He spread his wings, and with a mighty thrust, sent himself skyward back into the chilly evening sky.


Chapter 2

May 21, 2007

Talon awoke, crying out in agonizing pain. He stopped screaming and grabbed the sides of his head, gasping. He looked around and saw that everyone was back, and that they were all staring at him. He stood up and grabbed his backpack, his food forgotten.
“Sorry,” he muttered into the silence. He headed for the exit.
He stepped out into the cloudless day, and almost immediately began to sweat from the cruel summer heat. He sighed. He headed to the library. The funny thing was, no one ever thought of a popular kid liking to go to the library, or read books for that matter. But He loved books. To read about a world filled with magic… it was wonderful. He always wished that he had powers, magic of his own. Then he could do some good in the world.
He walked into the library, called hello to Mrs. Zolin, the librarian, and strode over to some chairs at the back. He took his favorite chair, the one on the left, and laid his head back. He sighed and closed his eyes. That was one weird dream I had, he thought. Bridget will probably make fun of me when I tell her.
“Well, might as well get back to reading.” He said. He reached into the secret pocket on the right side of his coat. Inside was his book, Vale of the Vole, an Xanth book by Piers Anthony. He began reading, becoming lost in the magic of that world.

mrgreen

as soon as i get the descriptions for the other characters. my friends are putting their own characters into it. i just need them now.

any constructive criticism?

rofl