Princess of Silver Sands - Prologue
Posted by: Kura in Writing, Princess of Silver SandsPrincess of Silver Sands
Book 01
Prologue - The History of Fynta
The Story of Fynta
Fynta, a world just like any other, with seas like all others, and lands filled with creatures both familiar and not. Of these lands there are seven countries, all of which hold history, but only one of them holds the story I am about to tell you.
There is the land of Merlin, which long ago was named after a wizard great in power. It is he land where wizards and sorcerers were born, where many beings of magic began and to this day still live and prosper. It is ruled by a powerful man, who not only rules over Merlin but five of Fynta’s other countries as well.
The leader of Merlin also rules the island of dragons, where these magnificent creatures travel the skies and nest. The continent of the dwarves, a land filled with a small, yet intelligent race of people, who have made the land they live on the most advanced in Fynta. There are the untamed lands, where orcs and trolls were born, and the Beast Colonies, where creatures as wise as humans gather Then there is The Land of Promise, a place that many wish to enter, yet only a select few may travel to. A place where many are told any dream you wish for can come true.
Lastly, there is the land untouched by the emperor of Merlin, a land that was once a single mass, but due to a large scale war has been torn, and is now made up of four collective continents surrounding a small ocean. Each continent is ruled over by a powerful royal family. Once known by the name of Thanatos, since its divide it is now know as The Four Continents. It is this land that our tale begins.
The story you are about to embark on is one of the history of Fynta, one that through the years has been changed and twisted. This, one of the few true accounts that remain.
Prologue
The History of Fynta
“Oh world of ours that exists within the stars,
Mother of all that live upon you.
The skies, waters and land are all your children.
As are we, the people that live under you.
May you never grow ill, may you never grow weak.
May all your children grow strong,
And may you never take the gifts you have given us away.
Great Fynta, you are one of many earths,
But you are greater to us than all others,
Because you are our home and haven in times of danger.
In return for your shelter we will protect you from those who do you harm.”
- A Fynta Proverb Written by Seclude,
Fynta’s Most Skilled and Powerful Wizard
For thousands of years the people and animals of Fynta thrived, sorcery and magic strong in the roots of those grown on it. Though the people would often have wars amongst themselves as all races do, it was nothing compared to the threat that was one day brought to the land, forever changing the way the people of Fynta lived.
Long ago, in a history now unforgettable to those who know it, a horrific battle between heaven, demons and the people of Fynta arose.
For hundreds of years this holy war continued, heaven faltered and drew back from the fight, but the people of Fynta did not back down. Though the demons were great in power they were largely outnumbered by the population upon Fynta’s surface, and for a long time it looked as if humans would forever be able to overpower the demons, but…
A thousand years before this time a great plague was cast upon the lands of Fynta. Countless lives were lost, the deadly illness affected the humans, wizards, elves and all other races of man, in the end after it’s passing, only a small few managed to survive. Before humanity could pull itself back to its feet, the demons again attacked. Because of the losses caused by the plague the demons now outnumbered the races of man, and the people of Fynta did not stand a chance. It looked as if all would be lost until a single brave heroine sealed the last leader of the demon’s race away. In doing so the power of the demons was cut, weakened greatly by the loss of their source of power the humans once again overcame them, killing them and forcing its remaining members into hiding. Slowly, the many races of humans began to replenish.
Eight hundred years later, the demons again tried to overthrow Fynta. This time they were more powerful than ever before. They had acquired a key, a key that opened a rift from their hell into the living world. This key slowly unlocked the demon mother, gradually increasing their power. It was because of a great and powerful figure that the new problem was contained. The demons had gotten so close to regaining power, that again this tactic was used, and two hundred years after their first attempt, the demons once again created a key…
“The Weeping Rose.” A woman with long brown hair and pale blue eyes stares at a rose bush with leaves of silver, the light of the almost hidden moon reflecting off it’s already glimmering figure. The petals of the roses the bush held a bright white that cut through the dark sky surrounding them, as if attempting to overpower the darkness that lay around it. The woman continues to stare at them as if completely captivated by their beauty a warm smile never leaving her face. “It was once called by another name, but then one day it stopped blooming… as if it were crying…”
The woman was standing in a well kept guardian, the white rosebush she stared at the center of the all the other flowers around it, the most loved and cherished plant of them all. She continued talking, the flower she spoke of being her most love flower, but her most beloved possession there. “There’s a story behind its sudden sadness. It’s about an elf that fell in love with a young woman, a human. It was a forbidden and hidden love… but….” She turns away from the bush, looking towards a young man who was lying in the garden with his eyes closed seeming to ignore the world. From the look of his clothes it was clear that he was not a human but a member of the well respected race know as wizards. “…but at the same time it was a pure love.”
The wizard opens his eyes at her comment, turning and glaring over at her. He grabs a magic staff resting at his side and gets to his feet, dusting the dirt of his white robes. “It is not and will never be pure. It will always be a sin.”
The woman chuckles lightly to herself as she turns back to the bush continuing her story. “The two had a child together, but the mother grew weaker as the baby grew inside of her, and one the day the child was to be born died shortly after birth to the child. Overcome with sadness the elf wept by this bush, when his tears touched the flower petals the flowers felt his pain and sorrow of lose, and the flowers closed their petals, weeping with him. Now they only bloom once a year, on the hour of the child’s birth, welcoming him, but then close once more on the hour of his mother’s death.”
A man with fancy and decretive robes chuckles warmly at the story. “It’s a beautiful story, and it would be even more beautiful if it were true.”
The woman looks disappointed. “How could it not be true? The tears of elves have been known to make plants do such things.” She holds her hand out to the bush continuing her explanation. “When I was a child these flowers would open every day… but then recently… only a few years ago they stopped…”
The wizard looks over to her explaining in a voice that was soft, yet at the same time harsh. “There were never any elves in the four continents, they always stayed far from these lands. Even in other countries the elves have died out and have become nothing more than a memory. They are a forgotten race… extinct. It’s impossible for one to have been here only a few short years ago.”
The woman smiles still convinced that her story was the truth. “You know as well as I do that elves can disguise themselves as humans. Perhaps there are more elves then you think.”
The wizard doesn’t look all that happy to be talked back to. “There are no elves. Furthermore even if there happened to be one it would never fall in love with a human. Elves were known for strictly keeping the blood of their race pure. It’s impossible for one to suddenly break the tradition he’s followed for thousands of years of his life for a simple woman.”
The well dressed man interrupts before anymore can be said between the two. He nodded his head to agree with the woman. “Maybe you’re right. We can never be too sure.”
The woman laughs, turning from him to the wizard. “See? Even the king agrees we me.” She frowned when she sees the wizard shake his head and sigh. “Don’t you give me that! If you have something to say then say it!”
The wizard opens his mouth to speak but is interrupted by another man walking into the garden. “If what you have on your mind is an insult, then don’t bother saying anything. I will not have the royalty offended in my house especially by someone who isn’t welcome in it.”
The wizard stays in his place, not moving to the man’s subtle yet obvious order for him to leave. The king walks up to the man, a smile on his face. “You’re home! I as well as my wife have come a long way to meet you and your family. Your charming wife was just giving us a tour of this beautiful garden of hers. She’s got quit the green thumb.
Soft pale hands cuff gently around the base of one of the flowers, a woman with long black flowing hair knelling towards it, closing her eyes so that the scent of the flower was singled out. She smiles looking back at the brown haired woman. “Its scent is so crisp… like the cold air of winter”
The woman smiles back at the queen. “It’s a shame it blooms so little.”
The wizard turns leaving as the man and the king start talking over the various antiques and artefacts that the man had collected to sell to him. The woman who owned the gardens noticed his leave and quickly runs over to him, grabbing onto his cape, stopping him from walking farther. “Why are you leaving so soon? It’s not like you to actually respect my husband’s wishes.”
“It is not your husband I am avoiding.” He turns to the queen who is now kneeling down to take a closer look at several flowers closer to the ground. “The queen of east is guarded by a wizard named Siren.”
“Siren?” The woman looked confused. “Why would you be afraid of Siren?”
“It is not Siren I am avoiding!” He pulls his cape from her hand turning to leave. “If Siren is here that means ‘he’ is here as well.” A painful look fills his face as he begins to leave. “I cannot show my face to him.”
“He…?”
She turns back to look at the people behind her. Her husband calling out to her when he sees that she’s staring in their direction. “Let’s go inside, it’s too cold for us to be staying out here for so long.”
She looks reluctant to follow, but does so anyway looking back at the wizard one more time before joining them.
Her husband shows the two members of royalty into the house, stopping and glaring back at his wife before entering. “What was he doing here? I thought I had made it clear to him he’s not welcome.”
His wife walks past him, brushing her hair out of her eyes doing her best not to look at her husband’s face. “I asked him to come.”
“Asked?” Her husband was enraged at this information. “Why would you ask him to come here!?”
“I wanted him to protect me!” She stops turning back to him, an uneasy look on her face. “I’ve been hearing strange voices since this morning… frightening whispers who owners I cannot see. Cold winds that pierce my skin like ice in the middle of a warm day. Something’s been lurking around the village…” She turns in the direction the king and queen had gone in. “Something terrible is going to happen… I can feel it… they’ve been waiting for them…”
Her husband shakes her head, not easily believing her excuse. “Nothing’s going to happen. Not only do the king and queen have part of their army here to protect them they’ve got Siren, their very own personal wizard. It’s impossible for them to get hurt.” He turns following the King and Queen. “Don’t let him near you again.”
She lowers her head, closing the door that her husband had left open, speaking quietly under her breath to herself. “It wasn’t an excuse… this time…” After locking the door to keep those unwanted out she follow the three to the room where all the things the king was looking to buy were resting.
*******
A ring of deep growls and roars fill the air and dozens of strange creatures scream threateningly at an animal in front of them. They’re bodies large and length, the creatures resembling large deformed mantises with the faces of a human. They stood protectively in front of a an even larger more disgusting creature, a large worm type creature, with as many legs of a centipede, each leg resembling the arm and hand of a human, it face the same at the others. The smaller ones all let out hideous screams at the creature ahead of them, trying to drive it away.
A hiss and snarl of a large wild cat returns their call. In front of their path with its head lowered, teeth bared and fur standing on end. With a large black panther, its coat darker then the night sky, its greenish yellow eyes fixed on the creatures in front of it. Though the jungle cat was large its size was nothing compared to that of the creatures before it, but even so these hideously frightening creatures were afraid of her, unwilling to approach her.
The panther takes a step forward, the creatures backing off, their noise and screams getting louder. The panther lashed her tail back and forth angrily, hissing and snarling as took another step forward, causing them to back off even more.
“What’s this?” A woman’s voice asked as a female figure stepped forward, stopping in front of the group of strange creatures. She looked the most human out of all the strange creatures but it was still clear that she was far from it. Her skin dark and discoloured, her skin on her back, arms, and legs as leathery as a reptiles, a pair of black bat like wings on her back. She places one of her claws on her hip, squinting her eyes at the animal in front of them. “A leopard? Why would you be weary of a leopard?”
The panther stops hissing upon seeing her, she regains her stance holding her head up, although she was no longer looking like she would pounce she was still threatening, her tail continuing the lash back and forth. The female creature in front of the others narrows her eyes, something catching her attention. “A cat that smells of lilacs?” She snarls baring her fangs and opening her wings, readying her body to attack. “Lucifer!”
The panther again lowers it head hissing, the winged female keeping her eyes on the cat she spoke to the creatures behind her. “Go do as our lord ordered.” The other creatures quickly scramble to the side, the panther immediately jumping forward to attack them as soon as they moved, the winged female quickly jumping the panther pinning it to the ground and biting into its shoulder.
The panther cries out, biting onto her wing and throwing her off, quickly turning to the other creatures only to find that they had already quickly disappeared. She runs to follow them but is again stopped as the leather winged woman digs her claws into the panther’s back leg pulling and throwing her back.
The panther gets back up, the woman standing in her path. “Not tonight demon hunter. You won’t be able to kill us off this time.” She narrows her eyes ready to attack the panther again dare it try to get past her. “This time we will complete the will of our lord!”
The panther snarls yowling hatefully as she quickly rushes forward, attacking the demon head on.
*******
The white wizard stops in the middle of the town streets, looking around him. He turns in the direction of the forest staring quietly in their direction. “Lilacs?” He pauses, listening carefully, faint whispers and strange voices where starting to fill the air. He narrows his eyes, holding his staff in front of him. “Demons…”
He looks around him but is unable to see any unfamiliar shadows. “Where are they?” Although he could hear the obvious voices and snarls of the demons they were no were to be found. The wizard turns back towards the house he had just come from. Although they were impossible to see it was clear what direction they were headed in.
Before he can take a single step forward a loud roar breaks the silence, he looks back to see the large worm demon with thousands of arms behind him. He narrows his eyes ready to attack when the moment asked for it. “A demon shaman? What business do you have here?”
The large demon wheezes as it intakes a large breath of air, then begins to exhale, a raspy wheezing voice being made from the sounds he main breathing out. “You are a hateful creature wizard…” It again takes a large gasp of air, the sentence having taking all of its breath. It was clear this creature was unbelievably old, and as terrible as it was, was struggling to keep himself among the living. “For too long have we allowed you to live… you and the creatures known as humans…”
The wizard growls at the demon’s response. “That is not the answer I’m seeking from you!”
“The answer I give you… will be something you wished… you had not had found.” He sighs a deep growl that shakes the ground, each of his many hands glowing with a black aura. “I’ve come for the key… the key that locks away our power…”
A smirk escapes the wizard after hearing this. “The key you seek was destroyed years ago. The demon race is slowly dying, seeking for something that does not exist will not revive it.”
The demon places his hands on the ground, pillars of black light forming around each one, the earth around him shattering into sand and circling the demon’s shaman. The wizard is forced to take several steps back to avoid the sand. A louder than anything ever heard before suddenly breaks through the air as the ground splits open and everything touched by the demon begins to die. The earth itself screaming from the pain this creature was causing it. The sands fall to the ground as the demon begins to walk forward the sand now light silver.
The demon takes another gasp for air. “I have not come seeking that which has ended… I come seeking that which is beginning.”
The wizard holds his safe in the air, a strange white mist forming around him. “There are no beginnings for demons.”
The demon turns towards the wizard crying out a call resembled the sound of hundreds of creatures screaming out in pain at once. It hurls its body forward attacking the wizard at a speed that looked impossible for a creature so large.
*******
“A baby?” The man smiles at the information the king had just announced. “So the kingdom of East will soon have a prince of its own.”
The Queen smiles shyly. “Or a princess…”
The king nods his head. “Either will be welcome with open arms.”
The man’s wife turns her eyes toward the ground, an uneasy look on her face. The reaction catches the queen’s attention and she turns to her questionably. “Is… something wrong?”
The woman’s husband turns toward his wife looking her over. “Her? She always gets like this when you mention kids. She can’t have any of her own and for some reason it upsets her.”
A strange shrill and piercing scream suddenly fills the air, each person in the room covering their ears in hopes of blocking the terrible sound out. “What the hell is this noise!?”
The Queen gets to her feet, stumbling over to the window. “These screams… I’ve heard them many times before.” She opens the window, leaning out of it looking down at the guards surrounding the household, who were also covering their ears to try and block the painful screams out. She then turns in the direction the scream was coming from spotting the white wizard fighting the large grotesque creature. She then looks back at her guards, spotting the one man not affected by the sound. An old long bearded wizard with an owl on his shoulder. “Siren.”
The wizard turns to the queen upon hearing his name as the Queen continues her request. “Get rid of the noise so that our guards can attack!!”
The wizard nods his head, lifting his staff into the air. “It’s always the young ones that cannot stand the screams of demons, when you’ve heard the screams as much as I have your ears grow numb to sound.”
The owl opens its wings pulling it body into the air, flying away from his master as the wizard’s staff begins to glow with a strange yellow light. The wizard opens his mouth yelling at the top of his lungs “SILENCE!”
At once a loud piercing chime sounded in the air as the yellow light grew and flash into a blinding white light. Soon the chime grew weak and the light vanished, as did all the sounds within the town. The screams to demons could no longer be heard, the scurrying of the mantis demons as they swarmed towards the house was no longer present, the sounds of the guards drawing their sword to attack the creatures also feel upon no one’s ears.
No voice could be heard, no sound could be distinguished. The violent and blood filled battle began and continued in absolute silence.
Daylight was breaking through what was once the night by the time the battle had finally ended. The town its people were in shambles, the cries of both the children and the wounded could now be heard. Blood and bodies of both humans and demons littering the ground. Only two figures continued to fight, the large demon shaman and the white wizard. Both of them were barely able to move but were still fighting each other with all the strength they had in them.
Blood spilled from the demon’s body ever move it made, it was clearly suffering greatly knowing well that it was to die in this battle. The wizard too looked to be suffering, deep cuts covering his body, his skin pale from the loss of blood. A weak and tired look filled his face and he looked unable to continue much longer.
Quick footsteps could be heard as the queen quickly approached them, stopping when she sees the two. She stares at the young wizard in disbelief. “You… you’re all that is left… of all the people fighting the demons tonight… you’re the last one standing…?”
The woman who had welcome the king and queen soon caught up to the queen, coming to a stop and leaning forward with her hands on her knees catching her breath. She looks up, her eyes widening in horror at the scene in front of her. “No…” She runs up to the wizard standing in front of him. “Stop it! Don’t hurt him anymore!”
The wizard grabs onto her shoulder forcing her out of the way and throwing her to the side, but before he is able to attack the demon the woman gets up and throws the wizard to the ground, pinning him down. “Are you trying to kill yourself!? You can’t attack any more… you have nothing left!”
The demon lets out a pitiful cry as it takes a step forward to attack, but instead fails falling to the ground. Not having the strength to even walk anymore, the ground shaking as its weight falls upon it, dust rising and covering the town.
The demon’s struggled breathing could still be heard, the creature not dead yet. It slowly opens its eyes, its vision a dark blur, a single figure coming into focus.
The queen of east stops only inches in front of the demons fallen figure, the dust still settling around all the figures there. She looks down at the fallen creature her eyes fixed in a glare. “You… you did all of this to get to me.” It was clear to the queen that the demons had attack because of her presence. After all the demons were afraid of attacking this town because of demon hunter that lived nearby it. “What is it that you wanted?”
The demon closes its eyes, barely able to respond. “You… the one brave enough to approach me… the child you carry is what we have come for… and now. Now that it is done it will become what we seek.”
The queen narrows her eyes, clenching her fists in anger as she raises her voice, yelling angrily at the demon. “What have you done to my child!?”
“Cursed her…” The demon shaman laughs weakly, it’s body barely moving from its breathless laughter. “Changed her… no longer a human… but a tool… a key…” His dry laughter continues as the queens expression grows more hateful. “Your child will be born… and from the very day of her birth she will be fated to die at the hands of demons… it is her blood that will unlock our power and hand us the world.”
The queen turns away walking towards one of the fallen guards and taking the sword from his cold hands. Walking back to the demon shaman who continued to laugh at the pain he caused her. She stops in front of the demon lifting the sword above its head. “She… she will not die at the hands of demons.” She thrusts the sword down stabbing the weapon onto the creature’s head immediately cutting off its laughter. “I will not allow that to happen…”
Twenty years later…
