AoYC - Intertwined Fates: Ch 1

                                   Ch. 1 Scoldings and Stargazing

        Jath walked down a long corridor, muttering to himself how he was going to approach his leader, as well as what he would say. The halls were dark and deep, though light somehow found its way into them. Jath, as well as his subordinates, constantly found themselves bewildered of how this was done. There were torches, but they were so distantly placed from each other, that they couldn’t possibly light everything. With the type of abilities that Jath possessed, he knew multiple ways to make this work, but because of stamina and the limits of magic, it could only be done temporarily. If they had to do with magic, or even with dimensional alterations, why had they not run out?

      The hallways had this lighting effect continuously for as long back as Jath could recall. There was no period where they would dim, or stop to recharge, or anything of that nature. However, it was not bright in the slightest. The light barely illuminated the hallway. It created an eerie shadow to those who paced these grounds. The faint light, because of this, fostered the darkness more than the glimmer of itself. This light permeated, unceasingly, unchanging, and it seemed that they would emanate forever. This did not cross Jath’s mind today though, because his thoughts were filled with the stress of significant upcoming events, as well as some haunting failures.

        He arrived at a strange looking door, which slid open immediately as he came in proximity to it. He entered, and showed no emotion as he continued in. His eyes stared straight, and were unyielding to any distractions. This room was significantly brighter, and more vivid than the dull hallways. A figure had his back turned towards Jath, and it looked like he was fiddling with something. He was covered in a very odd looking robe that concealed his body. The robe was white, with black symbols all over it. The figure spoke with a piercing voice, without turning his back in the slightest, “Why are you here, Jath?”

      Jath looked puzzled, “did you not summon me, Lord Zerroda?”

      Zerroda snapped back with contempt that made Jath wish he had just been impaled with a sword, for it would have been less painful, “I am just surprised that you followed orders this time! For it seems that you had strayed from doing that in the past!”

      Jath froze for a second, and then spoke, “my lord, it is not my fault! I…”

      Zerroda slammed his fist on a small table near him, “I don’t want to hear your excuses! I already know every reason for your past failures! You know every reason as well, and I expect you to not fail again. If you do, I will not be so merciful next time. You will never progress if you are not disciplined, and so there must be some form of consequence. Your punishment is that you will be given the responsibility of recruitment into our forces. I will also be accompanying you to make sure you do not fail again. Is that understood?”

      The responsibility that he had been given had not crossed his mind yet. He was still feeling the pain from the scolding that he just received. He couldn’t face Zerroda directly, but he kept his stance. When the new job finally came to mind, he became baffled, “Recruitment?…sir, I had no idea that you were going to be actually constructing a mass army.”

      Zerroda laughed, “Mass army? No, never. That would take much too long to develop, as well as to move into action. It would take months, maybe even years to become victorious in our endeavors. We do not have the time, and we don’t really have a necessity for it either. We have enough power in our numbers to take out any force, no matter how strong or numerous they are, even if we have little. I had in mind to recruit a very select few who would secure our goals and plans, as well as take down any opposition that we face without having our own selves intervene, so that we could focus more on the objective without distractions.”

      “Ah, I understand. This would serve us well my lord. I will not fail you this time. I will recruit the greatest and most powerful men I can find. I will not fail you.” Jath still felt the sting of Zerroda’s disappointment even at this time, but he had kept a dignified look so as to not look weak in front of his superior.

      Zerroda finished whatever he might have been doing, and put some unknown items into the inside pockets of his robe. “Do not think that I am foolish enough to just recruit anyone that comes my way. I have already looked into the many lands of this dimension as well as others, and I have chosen those few that would suitable for our forces. You just have to make sure that you do your job in making sure they accept our terms, no matter what methods you have to turn to, is that clear?”

       “Of course, my lord. I will make sure every candidate accepts, even if they have no desire to.”

      Zerroda walked right past Jath, without even staring at him, hardly even recognizing his existence. “Come Jath, we must not waste any time. Let us go and meet our new pawns.”

      Jath gave a silent sigh as he followed Zerroda out of the room.

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      Yoshiken slowly opened his eyes, and after a few blinks to remove the blurriness from his vision, he found himself on top of an ash-covered hill. As he arose, he felt a scorching pain on much of his body. He felt very lightheaded and faintly noticed the many burn wounds on his body, as well as ash marks.

      Yoshiken couldn’t recall why he was here, or what happened to him. He had no idea why it appeared as if a massive forest fire had just swept over the area. As he was observing the area, he noticed a familiar figure on the ground. It was a light blue female yoshi, with white feathery wings. A mage’s staff lay by her hand as well. His eyes widened, as adrenaline rushed through his body. “Anjil!”

      Anjil laid, unconscious, on the ground. She also had many burn marks on her body. Yoshiken sprinted over to her, ignoring the pain, and attempted to wake her by shaking her body.  “Anjil, wake up, wake up! You need to wake up! Please!”

      “…Wha…what happened?” Anjil opened her eyes and saw a red yoshi with a blue headband, blonde hair, and dragon-like wings. “Yoshiken? Why are you…?” Anjil looked at her scorched surroundings, and froze in shock. “Where are we!? Who would bring us to a place like this?” She looked at her staff, which was also covered in ash. “My staff! Why is my staff as well as everything else covered in ash!” She struggled to get up, as the painful stings of the many burns on her body swept over her. She became aware that Yoshiken had similar injuries.

       Anjil gripped her staff, and whispered, “Shah Moduuk.” An almost transparent aura permeated out of the staff and enlarged itself until both Anjil and Yoshiken were encased in it. It stopped, and then dissipated into the air. The pain, for the most part, seemed to dissipate with it, and many of the wounds seemed to become smaller as well, some disappearing entirely. Yoshiken let out a sigh of relief, “thanks Anjil, I needed that. To respond to your earlier question though, I really do not know where we are or what we are doing here.”

      An unfamiliar voice came from behind Anjil, “Ah, a holy mage, you do not see many of those around here.”

       Anjil and Yoshiken quickly turned themselves around to face another yoshi. This one was blue, but with unusual marking on his left arm and right leg that had the appearance of small stars. There was also a similar marking on his cheek. “May we help you?” replied Yoshiken.

      The blue yoshi responded calmly, “Oh, not really, I had simply planned on stargazing here tonight. The view of the stars is absolutely beautiful from this hill. My name is Sho-Hoshi Sora by the way, but you can simply call me Sho. What happened here and why do you both look so filthy? Was there a fire?”

      Anjil and Yoshiken paused with baffled expressions on their faces. Anjil was the first to reply, “Well, we actually do not know what happened, and it is also a mystery to us how we got here. I don’t even know where I am.” Yoshiken nodded his head in agreement.

      Sho-Hoshi pondered for a few seconds, “well, this is quite the predicament. Follow me, and I will take you back to the village that I reside in, and you can rest at my house. Hopefully you remember something soon, because this doesn’t seem like a simple accident.”

      Anjil smiled, “thank you for your kindness, but you don’t have to do that for us. You had plans to stargaze, and we do not want to spoil that. We will be fine.”

      “No, it is not out of kindness that I offer you these things, but it is out of duty. I am a protector of my village, and from what I have seen this day, there is a possible threat to the village. If you two were to remember what happened here, then it would be a great aid to my responsibilities.”

      Yoshiken spoke, “Well, sure, that sounds good, we would love to know what happened ourselves, and we could definitely use a rest. We will try to not be a burden though. My name is Yoshiken by the way, and this is Anjil. We are glad that you came our way.”

       Sho-Hoshi turned and started walking down the hill. “Come, the village is about 4 miles away from this spot.”

      As they traveled to the village, they passed by a small lake. Sho-Hoshi stopped and faced the clear, calm water. “Here, let me help in cleaning that ash off your body.” He stretched his hand out towards the lake, and water started to rise and place itself into the hand of Sho-Hoshi. The water stretched and formed itself into the shape of something long and narrow. Once the shape was formed, the water fell straight to the ground, leaving the user with a staff made out of some mysterious material.

      Sho-Hoshi pointed the staff towards the water, focused his mind, and raised the water. Whichever way he moved his staff, the water followed, and so he swung it in quick, random arcs and loops, having it pointed towards Yoshiken and Anjil. They were caught off guard, and slightly panicked as water bombarded them at every angle.

      “What the…!? What is happeni…” Yoshiken couldn’t continue his complaint as water aggressively rushed into his face. After just over a minute, the water suddenly dropped, and they were left drenched. Sho-Hoshi pointed his staff at them again and the water that stuck to them rose up from their bodies, leaving them completely dry.

      “Ah, a mage specializing in the element of water, how impressive,” replied Anjil. “Thank you for helping to remove that ash from our bodies, it was becoming pretty bothersome.”

      Just as Sho-Hoshi was about to respond, a strange conduit formed just near the group. A voice bursted out of the portal, “Yoshiken! Anjil! I am so glad to see that you are unharmed!”