Nightscythe - Part 2 (398 hits)
Category: Quotes & StoriesRating: 1.2 on 6 reviews (Rate this item) (V)
Submitted by Enter The Midnight (View user info) at 2005-02-20 16:48:08 EST
Find part 1 here: http://www.ubersite.com/m/60094
The first thing I remember after that was the feeling of being surrounded by something cold and hard, and being pulled towards it with the same force I had felt in the room--gravity. My eyes fluttered open at my command, and I struggled to move my arms and legs. I could see a bright blue overhead--not like the ceiling of the room, but far more expanded and covering the entire field of vision. I presumed this was what they called the sky. I sat up a few seconds later, my arms propping my stiff and hurting body up, and looked around at my surroundings.
The scientists were not there, and neither was any of the lab equipment. I saw great brown towers covered in masses of green that extended up to the sky amid a vast carpet of green, sword-shaped life forms. Trees and grass--simple enough. I was in a forest of some measure, and the day was growing late. I looked in the direction of the source of light, and found it to be three intense circles of light hovering above the horizon, releasing brilliant beams of gold light. I put my hand out in front of the light, trying to capture it, but I found that I could not. Instead, a black shape appeared behind my hand, where the light could not go--a shadow. The light I found invigorating--I wanted the light for my own, to be able to radiate it like the three stars, and somehow I knew this could not ever be a physical fact. I stood up to my full height, and examined my body. I seemed comparatively tall, and young, and my body was well muscled, and dressed in attire that flashed in the sunlight--a golden uniform that was fairly tight. Yet, now I seemed to discover a new set of muscles at my back, one I hadn't noticed earlier. I struggled to look, but my head would not turn that far. The muscles contracted, and two huge shapes swooped past my field of view, coming out from my back. It seemed to make sense--I had wings. They flapped involuntarily in the wind, then I gained control of the muscles in the wings and they held their own against the wind that now howled through the trees with a vengeance as the sky darkened with the onset of night. What were wings used for? I couldn't remember--and I looked to the horizon where only two of the three suns were left above the ground, where two shapes loomed in the air. I focused, and even though they were miles away, I could see them clearly. It was a pair of birds, and majestically they spread their wings against the air.
Of course--wings were for flying!
As the second sun sank below the horizon and the sky darkened to a deep blue-black, I spread my iridescent wings to their full span and flapped them several times, hard, against the air. I felt the pull of gravity give way, and my feet lifted from the ground, and I exulted with the feeling of being in the air. Higher and higher I rose, my eyes not affected by the winds that whipped at my face, and finally I came above the treetops. I looked full into the last setting sun, then up into the sky, where several points of cold glimmering light began to appear. I focused on them, and discovered they were distant versions of the daylight suns, and my intrigue increased. Here were so many bodies that could radiate light, and yet I was not one of them. I longed for the light, but now the last sun had dove below the horizon, and the skies grew to velvet black, studded with thousands of the diamond stars. Darkness had fallen.
I glided along the cool night breezes above the trees, wondering what was going on and how I had been transported here. My wings began to ache shortly thereafter, and so I lighted down on the forest floor again near a large rock. I relaxed against the rock, folding my wings up against it and giving them rest. My heart was thudding heavily against my side, but its rate slowed now that there was a lack of work for it to do.
The night grew heavy and the humidity rose as a silver moon shot from the eastern horizon, leaping into the skies and illuminating the landscape in a sleepy, spectral glow. The leaves of the trees shone with a strange, unearthly light, and the grass seemed the color of a ghost. This new light I contemplated, deciding that I preferred the warm light of the sun more so than the cold, melancholy light of the night's celestial authority--but I did like the stars. Presently the air grew gray and thick with a mist that hung just below the boughs of the trees and obscured my view, yet somehow I could still see past it. The night wore on, and I saw little signs of life other than the occasional breeze of wind that passed the trees and made them wave like giant hands in farewell.
I stood back up, the ache in my wings already gone, and my body feeling mysteriously rejuvenated. My hands tightened into fists--I wondered why they had this capability, and I felt the new energy surge into my biceps and the rest of my body. Incredible--I thought. This was far beyond what I might have expected of life had I come to exist any other way.
Exist? Where did I come from, anyway? I remembered my first moments on the lab table, the few minutes I spent with the scientists, and then finally my hours in the forest night. However, I did not recall an origin or any sort of lineage in my mind. What was I? I didn't even know. Who was I? I could not bring myself to recall any sort of name, and yet I could determine what types of trees were which, and I could recognize stars, suns, and moons. I was in a state of confusion--who had given me this selective knowledge?
At that point, my hand wandered down my side until it hit something hard and metallic. My hand gripped almost involuntarily at the handle of something, and it felt sturdy and powerful in my hand. I looked down at it--it was a handle that was attached to something buried deep in a gold covering, namely a sheath. I pulled gently at it, and the handle drew out a long, clear triangular shape from the golden sheath with a gentle scraping sound. It was a huge sword, appearing as if it had been made by the finest of sword-smiths, and its blade was a crystal of clear color that cast fantastic lights from the stars on the ground. I noticed that the moon's light did not create such an effect, and I concluded the moon must not be luminous, but reflected a light of something else. I held it in front of my face--a sword was for fighting, was it not? So why did I have one? I examined the blade and hilt more closely, until my eyes ran across an inscription in the rich gilded handle studded with rubies--"Zok''anai dorchei kazene zantasuko miyadoka zendorialex (Konkaisa Sokachai Joshua Starbringer)ka."
User Reviews
Submitted by Sherman (user info) at 2005-02-24 01:21:04 EST (#)
Ranking: -2
No Comment
Submitted by Benny (user info) at 2005-02-21 02:05:04 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
This is good stuff. Please keep going with this.
Submitted by thecaes (user info) at 2005-02-20 21:43:32 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
I think I liked the first part better. Something about the inconsistency with which he recognized things is kind of off putting...
But still well written and intriguing.
Submitted by TheMidnight12AM (user info) at 2005-02-20 19:42:18 EST (#)
Ranking: 0
This is a novel. It's simply being serialized on Uber.
Submitted by tech-junkie (user info) at 2005-02-20 19:33:45 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
Ever thought of writing a book? You could easily expand it to a novel.
Submitted by rad1101 (user info) at 2005-02-20 17:41:27 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
+2 cause you rule. That and my boy Williamson needs to be schooled once in a while.
Nicely played old chap!