Welcome to Gaia! ::

Lying against a tree rested the owner of the red and blue piece of cloth. The cloth was obviously a torn piece of his clothing, as he wore a red and blue soldier’s uniform with a yellow-gold emblem on the front. The boy had so many questions to ask. Who was he? What happened to the forest? Why was he that uniform? But not of these questions were to be answered, because owner of the red and blue cloth was a skeleton. The man had been dead for some time now, over a month definitely. His shattered ribcage at least told the boy one thing: the soldier died a violet death. The teen stared at the dead man’s uniform. A red and blue soldier’s uniform. The youth’s head suddenly began to throb painfully. He grabbed his head and squeezed to ease the pain. It was like his skull was ready to explode.

Each throb was like the pounding of a drum. Ba-bum! Ba-bum! The boy ran away from the dead soldier and waited for his head to stop throbbing. He closed his eyes to focus but when he closed his eyes, he saw flashes of images. A soldier on a horse chasing him. A dark rainy night, illuminated only by the bright flashes of lightning. Then a giant wolf monster. Then… black followed by the cry a dying creature. The boy fell to his hands and knees, broken out in a cold sweat. He panted to catch his breath. “What –pant- was that?!” the boy exclaimed. The boy looked around and saw a trail of broken trees, some of which was already being grown over, but the trail was visible none-the-less.

“Do I follow the trail? What if I run into something again that makes my head pound?” After much deliberation, he decided to follow the trail. He had come here for answers, and regardless of the consequences, he would find those answers. The adolescent followed the trail deeper into the woods. The trail led him to a shallow area of the river. After washing up in the water, finally removing the black soot that stained his hands and feet, the boy resumed following the faint path. The trail led to a dead-end. The area was nothing but forest. But something inside the boy drove his attention to his right. He felt drawn, repelled, comforted, and repulsed all at the same time. Something was over in that direction, and there was only one way to find out what.

He boy raced out of the cave, and ran as far from the dark aired cavern as his legs would let him. He stopped half a mile away to catch his breath and look at his unburied treasure. The object that had called for him was hidden under a layer of soil save for one spot where he scratched the service which revealed an indigo shine. The boy looked at his hands, which were black. The cave was covered in the same coal-like black soot that painted his hands black back at the burnt area of the forest. The boy decided that he had better find some water to wash the black off, since his hands were bloody and battered, he didn’t want that stuff getting in him. After finding a stream along the forest floor, he followed it to the river and washed the black off. After washing himself, he grabbed the lump of dirt and held it tight to his chest before jumping back into the river to clean off the treasure.

The river carried off the dirt and grime that covered the object and finally left the boy with his prize. It was an ocarina. He crawled out of the river and looked at the musical instrument. “It’s an ocarina… why was an ocarina calling for me?” the confused youth blew into it to play a note but only managed to blow out the remaining water and dirt from the inside and make an unpleasant sound in the process. “Let’s try that again.” The boy took a deep breath and put the vessel flute to his lips and blew again. This time a crystal clear C-sharp note emitted from the ocarina. The young man played all the notes in two octaves. Finally, he began to play a tune. He played and played music until his lungs were tired. He wasn’t sure how or why, but he knew how to play the ocarina, and more importantly, it felt so right. “This isn’t just an ocarina, this is my ocarina. It has to be, I just know it.” He stared at his distorted reflection in the indigo color instrument and smiled.

Playing the ocarina lifted his spirits. Where the feelings of shame, fear, and loneliness once strived; happiness, peace, and bliss came and pushed the feelings away whenever he played the ocarina. He strolled through the forest playing a happy melody all the while. The sun seemed to pour in through the tree tops. The next day, the boy grabbed his treasure and continued wondering through the forest. Having found something from his lost past, the boy felt he had discovered all that the forest was going to give him. He thought of the magic the forest seemed to possess, but in doing so he stopped looking where he was going and tripped again. This time it wasn’t a rock or a tree root, but a metal bar. “What on earth is this?” The boy looked at the alien sight before him. Two metal bars on the ground that ran parallel to each other and stretched far into the distance. Boards of wood laid in-between them. “Is this some kind of trail?”

When the boy woke up, he found himself surrounded by two guards and one usher on the train. “What happened?” asked the dazed boy. A vexed woman stormed past the guards and stood in front of the boy. She was big, really big. She wore a pink flower patterned dress and large gold earrings and a set of clean white gloves that went up to her elbows. “You ruffian! You destroyed my luggage! I demand you pay me back!” the woman screamed. “Pay… you… back? With what?” the boy replied. “With money of course!” the woman snapped back. “I don’t have any of that.” The boy said as-a-matter-of-factly. The guards looked at each other and moved to block the aisle to prevent any escape attempt from the stowaway. “Those gold bracelets, take them off and give them to me than.” “They don’t come off.” “We’ll about that!” The portly woman lunged at the youth and grasped onto the golden cuff on his right wrist and yanked to pull it off, but the cuffs held firm. “Stop that hurts!” cried the teen, but the woman in her enraged state didn’t listen and continued to pull. Finally, her hand slipped and boy swung his arm away from her but accidentally smacked the woman in the face. The guards immediately rushed the boy, seeing the slap as a hostile attack.

The peace and tranquility of the train was quickly terminated as half the train security was chasing the boy wearing ragged clothes and golden cuffs all over the train. The boy easily avoided the futile attempts by the train staff. He jumped over the security and swung out the window and onto the roof of the cars. Seeing as he was being chased, he ran towards the front of the train. Unfortunately after reaching the coal bin right behind the train engine he was cut off by a shovel. The metal spade swung over the boy as he dropped to the coal floor only to be welcomed by the tip of the shovel being stabbed down at his head. The boy rolled around on the surface dodging the attacks from the coal-shoveler. He rolled back far enough to safety get back on his feet, and bolted back onto the top of the train. But luck wasn’t on his side this time. A blockade of train security was already waiting for him at the other side.

With a dangerous shovel-wielding worker on one end and a small army of security guards on the other, the boy looked to see if the side was a viable escape route. But the rocky canyon below the bridge they were currently on said it wasn’t. With most of his options cut off, he decided he’d be better off in the train than on top of it at this point. He slid off the side and grabbed the train roof and swung into the train, breaking through the window, scaring a couple sitting quietly in their private booth. The screams tipped off the security and soon the boy was trapped between two set of guards. They were entering a cave, so going out the window again was out of the question this time. After the train entered the tunnel, the guards rushed the stowaway in the dark. Reemerging into the light the guards looked to see none of them had the boy. They looked around confused until a loud squeeze focused their attention up at the dirty teenager holding himself up against the ceiling in the narrow passageway. The security was finally able to catch the hooligan.

The boy bolted across the sandy beach, beginning to regret his hasty escape. While the train did feed and wash him, they didn’t give him anything but a coat, and that still meant no shoes. “Hothothothothothot!” the boy screamed as he sprinted across the burning sand in his bare feet. “Soooo hooooooooot!” he cried. The boy finally reached the water and sighed as the ocean cooled down his feet. It wasn’t until after the pain dissipated that the boy took notice at the sheer size of the ocean infront of him. He had never seen anything like it. “This lake is HUGE!” the boy exclaimed. He bent down to slurp up some water but wasn’t very happy with his newest discovery. The salt water spewed out of his mouth as he discovered one of the traits of ocean water. “Salty! Yuck!” he said as he spat out the taste. He looked around and spotted a town in the distance next just off the ocean. “Looks like that’s my next target.” He looked again at the far off beach village. “Why can’t they ever be close?” he whined.

The next day, the boy finally reached the town. His stomach roared at him for food, but after the incident on the train, the boy now knew better then to just take food. People weren’t inclined to share things freely. They wanted… money. He walked around the area, eventually finding himself on the pier. There, all kinds of different people were performing. He took special notice at one guy who had a cloth in front of him and people would throw shiny coins of bronze and silver onto the cloth as the man played his tiny guitar. Recalling his experience of being tipped on the train, and adding it to the new found discovery of the pier-side performer, the boy quickly took off his ragged shirt and laid it down at his feet. He sat down and began to play his ocarina.

After an hour, he looked at the rewards for his music. He ran to the first food sack that his nose led him to. After spending every coin he made on food, the boy went back to the pier and began to play his music again. He was beginning to realize that the rest of the world didn’t operate like the farm he had left behind. While Horace’s family took him in and fed, clothed, and nursed him back to health, that wasn’t the case with most people. So he came to a conclusion that he would use to survive in this town. Music meant money, and money meant food, and food was good.

Over the following three days, the boy came to be known as “the ocarina dude” amongst the surfers. One of them, named Dougie, invited him to stay at his home. Dougie was the very embodiment of a mellow surfer. He had blonde hair that hung just above his shoulders; he wore a green pair of trunks and a blue headband that kept the hair out of his eyes while surfing. He kept his surfboard, a long white board with red flowers designed on it, with him nearly all day, and he spoke with heavy surfer lingo. Dougie’s ‘home’ was nothing more then a run down wooden shack on the beach just under the pier, but it still beat sleeping outside in the cold night air, so the boy gladly accepted Dougie’s kind offer. Dougie slept in an old worn-out bed and offered up his hammock for “the ocarina dude” to sleep in.

It wasn’t long before the boy came to look like one of the locals; he got a beach tan, swim-trunks, a headband, and even sandals. He really liked the sandals, especially after having to sprint over the burning sand barefoot. The surfers gave their new buddy a surfboard to use and after a grueling week of training and practice, the boy finally learned how to surf. He still had a long way to go, and he still was a surfing ‘newbie’ as they said, but he showed quick progress, finding his balance on the board in only a few days and learning how to ride a wave. The big waves still made him wipe out, but that never stopped him from trying… and his epic wipeouts were always enjoyed by the experienced surfers.

Dougie was especially nice to “the ocarina dude”. He said if he ever had to leave, he was welcome to take anything from the cabin, save for his board of course. The boy was happy to have been welcomed into a group. But his new found happiness was not without any problems. As the moon slowly weaned down, the demon voice in his head grew stronger every night. Inferno was coming back; he could feel it. As the moonlight gradually faded away, Inferno’s voice gradually became louder. And the night of the new moon was nearly here again.

The boy woke up the next day; it wasn’t noon yet, but the day had already begun without him. Dougie had returned from surfing and set his board up against the wall as the ocarina dude got up out of his hammock. “You know ocarina dude, if something ever comes up, you’re welcome to take anything you’d like here from the cabin… except my board! She’s mine and ain’t nobody gonna touch her but me, got it?” Dougie quickly added. The boy simply smiled and laughed lightly. “Yeah I got it; I feel the same way about my ocarina. Sorry about yesterday, I’m not sure what came over me. I guess I really just hate the whole idea of the new moon. But I’m feeling much better today, so let’s go get some grub.” Dougie ran his hand through his wet hair and gave his roommate a thumbs-up.

The two meet up the others at the clam shack and ate lunch. To everyone ‘the ocarina dude’ looked like he was back to normal, but the boy was merely putting on a show. He was trying to enjoy one more day before chaos struck. The voice in his head was relentless. Even though it was still day out Inferno was trying to break free, and a few times he got close to succeeding. The boy went back to the cabin and changed out of his daytime outfit of swim-trunks and into his worn down scarecrow clothes he arrived in. He looked at his ocarina and decided it’d be safer to bury it here for night. Thus, right under his hammock, the boy dug a hole and gently set his most prized possession in it before covering it up. The moment he finished filling the hole, he heard a loud explosion outside.

He ran out to see the cause of the loud boom, and was greeted with the sight of a cannonball blasting into the beach less then ten yards away from pier. He looked to the sea and saw a ship with a black flag decorated with a white skull and two crossing bones. He remembered hearing about this flag with the skull and cross-bones. It was the jolly-roger: the flag of pirates. His train of thought was interrupted by another cannonball induced explosion. The boy ran up the beach to get to the beginning of the pier. By the time he got to the pier, the pirates had landed and started their charge up the beach towards the small beach village. The boy jumped onto a tiled roof and began ripping off tiles and hurling them down at the pirates running by the pier. He managed to nail about three of them square in the head, knocking them cold, but the others retaliated with an onslaught of pistol-shots. The boy was out numbered, out armed, and ultimately outmatched completely. And worst of all, the sun was disappearing over the horizon.

Fire engulfed the boy, appearing out of thin air. The blazing flames swirled around his body as his heart skipped a beat. That skipped heartbeat was all it took for his body to be overtaken. Suddenly, his body exploded into his alter-ego, Inferno. The transformation was not like it was before, slow and painful. This time, the change was immediate and sudden. The fire spinning around the body dissipated and revealed the orange fire demon that replaced the spiky-haired boy. The orange demon extended his wings out and jumped into the air. He watched the pirates running down the pier below. He formed a fireball in his hands and began to throw the burning spheres down at the buccaneers, watching as they were flung around by the explosions created by his fireballs. “You pathetic mortals. This is my body! So long as I’m still using it, nobody is going to destroy it.” The orange demon stated, as the rest of the pirates fled like rats from a sinking ship.

Inferno gently landed on the end of the pier again and exhaled a small flame from his mouth. His momentary lapse in attention left him open to attack. The pirates back on the ship, having seen the orange monster fly in the sky and rain down fire at their crewmates, loaded the cannons and fired at the clear orange target standing at the pier’s end. It was a direct hit. The cannonball exploded as it slammed into Inferno’s back. The demon was blown into the floor by the assault. He groaned as he stood back up to his feet, just in time to see another cannonball coming at him. He dodged to the left and the cannonball destroyed the bronze statue instead. “You putrid little scumbags!” the enraged demon seethed. The direct blow to his back had seriously hurt the demon, and his wings were damaged enough to prevent him from taking flight.

“You’re all dead! Dead you hear!?” The demon shot a fireball at the ship but the attack did next to nothing against the ship’s water soaked side. “Fine, if a normal fireball won’t do anything, I’ll just show you my true power.” Inferno closed his eyes for a moment as he charged up a fireball in both his hands and made it grow larger and larger, but before he could shoot it off, he was blown back by yet another cannonball. The pirates continued shooting cannons at the orange monster. Inferno began shooting the cannonballs out of the air, but he was strictly on defense. He didn’t have adequate time to charge his fireballs up enough to damage the ship before being hit with the pirate’s attacks. Another blow by a cannonball flung the tired demon back and into the fire that was slowing burning the pier down. “Now you stupid assholes are going to die by your own fire.”