Dark Horizon: Story of My Own

The Stage Sets
It was nighttime in the snow-covered city of Berlin, Germany. The roads were covered with ice, making it to where most, if not all cars couldn't even pull out of their own driveways. Houses were darkened with only a handful of lights, and snow was constantly piling on their roofs. Today certainly wasn't a good day to go outside for anyone, lest they want to be frozen solid.

Inside one of the smaller houses was an effeminate young boy, around the age of ten or so, it would appear. He had big blue eyes and fairly short, magenta colored hair, while also wearing a white sweater with black sweatpants. He was laying on his fairly small bed next to his room window, gazing out at the dark blue sky and watching the individual snowflakes fall onto the ground outside. There were small and large books, opened and closed, scattered on his bed and in his floor, stacked on his various dressers and tables.

Clearly, he was a boy of imagination and adventure, as most all of these books had the symbol of a sword or some fantastical creature on their cover, but the dissatisfied look on his face implied that he had read through most, if not all of these books. Had his searching for questing and excitement reached it's end?

knock-knock

"Sieglinde?"

A feminine, matured voice would sound through his door softly, after a couple of knocks on it's wooden surface. "Are you awake in there, or did you just leave your lamp on again?" it would continue, before the door would slowly start to crack open, revealing the source of the voice. She was a fairly tall, late twenties to early thirties appearing woman with a mature figure, with silverish-white hair and cyan-colored eyes. She too was wearing a white sweater, but with blue jeans instead, along with a pair of winter socks. She was also holding a fairly large, square-shaped object that was covered in Christmas wrapping.

She glanced over the boy's room, taking note of all of the books that were already scattered about and calmly sighed to herself. "Honestly, Sieglinde, you really do need to start taking better care of your room." she said as she started walking towards his bed, stepping over the books underneath her. "I mean, I'm glad you're taking an interest in something besides tv or games but this is a tad bit... excessive, don't you think?"

"... oh... wha-" Sieglinde started as his attention seemed to snap away from the night sky and back to his approaching mother. As he registered what she was saying to him, his indifferent expression almost immediately became one of shock, along with a comical hint of fear. "OH!! I-I must have been day dreaming and forgot all about it! Please don't get angry!"

"Relax, goofball." she replied as she finally reached the boy's bed, sitting down on it next to him and rubbing his head softly. "You can clean it up tomorrow after school. For right now, I've got a little something for you that I think you're going to like." She then placed what appeared to be a large, square object in his lap gently. It was covered neatly with Christmas wrapping paper, along with a blue tie on it's top.

"Oh geez." Sieglinde said in a quietly surprised tone as he placed his hands around the large, gift-wrapped object. "This is really big, who did it come from...?" he started to continue, but before he could do so, he noticed that there was a note tucked just under the blue wrapping tie. Quickly taking it out and looking at the small piece of paper, his eyes began to widen and a gleeful smile slowly formed on his face. "I-It's from grandpa!!!!" he said aloud in joy, quickly putting the note down next to him and tearing off the wrapping paper from the gift.

His mother put a warm smile on her face as he did so. "It sure is. He wanted me to tell you that he won't be able to make it back for Christmas, but he will be here in time for your birthday just a couple of weeks afterwords."

"Oh gosh, I can't wait to see what it is!~" he said as the wrapping came off more and more, revealing the contents of the gift: It was a rather large book, with a strong, high-quality leather cover as well as silver metal braces around it's edges, all of which had distinct, plant like runes engraved on their surface. "Wow! With a book this big, there's no telling how long it will take me to read what's in it!" Sieglinde said with glee as he immediately opened the book's cover to the first page.

With a chuckle, his mother calmly sat up from the bed and began to leave the room. "Well, have fun reading it, but don't stay up for too long now, okay?" she said as she departed, earning only a slight acknowledgment from Sieglinde, who had already made his way to his small table and opened the large book. As he sat down, his big beaming eyes glared down at what lied in the pages within. The first page he saw contained a small paragraph, which was another note from his grandfather.

My dear Sieglinde,

It pains me to inform you that I won't be able to make it to Belgium for Christmas. Not only has the weather in Denmark worsened, but more pressing issues have come to my attention during my time here, issues that I cannot afford to ignore.

To ensure that your Christmas won't be entirely empty and drab, I decided to send down this very special tome that's lived in our family for generations. I know how much you adore reading, so I decided that I would leave you a little story that I know you've wanted to hear for a very long time. However, there is also a little challenge that I would like for you to partake in.

When this first story ends, the rest of the book is nothing but blank pages. I want you to go out and have an adventure of your own, and when you do, I want you to record each and every thing that happens to you on that adventure in this book. You read all of the things that I give you, now I want you to do the same for me. I trust you'll make it a tale I will never forget.

Sincerely,

Your Grandfather, Siegmeyer Lange

"Wow..." Sieglinde muttered to himself in quiet excitement. "My own story... but how could I have an adventure that's like anything in my other books?" he would continue, looking down at all of the books he had read. Beowulf, Siegfried, Arthur, all of these different heroes of old had great adventures and tales of their exploits recorded for more and more generations to read long after they had gone, but how would he ever be able to do something even remotely close to that?

"Guess I'll have to start by reading this..." he said to himself calmly, taking the large book and setting it on his desk. As he opened the page past his grandfather's note, he couldn't help but marvel at the level of detail in the unique writing style present in the book. This would be a fun read for him, that much he knew.

"Alright Grandpa." he thought to himself with beaming eyes fixed on the first page. "Let's see what you have for me..."

And so the story goes...

The Age of Light

Many centuries ago, the Lord of the Light was born In his infancy his body was small and weak, but his mind was vast and strong He had the power to share his Light with lesser beings, and would heal them of their wounds And to others, he would bestow great power, the power to harness the strength of spirit and soul

But he who has the power to give, also has the power to take

Those who were healed and those who were given power also paid a heavy price For only days after receiving these mighty gifts, they would die and corrode into nothingness But their spirits, the part of their being that held their gifts, would all return to the baby, and make him stronger His eyes would open, his smell and hearing would return, and he would perceive the world clearly

But he who has the power to take, also has the power to rule

As he grew older, the Lord of Light would spread his power to more and more people And when these people died, that power would return to him, but stronger, which made him more and more powerful Hundreds, and soon thousands would follow him, hailing this mighty being as their guardian deity With such numbers, and all with the power to harness the energy of Spirit around them, they became known as 'The Quincy'

But he who has the power to rule, also has the power to build

With the Lord of Light's guidance, the Quincy used their power to build a great kingdom Their powers gave them absolute control over all things of this world, in both the physical and the spiritual There was no physical force that could stop them, and all of the world's armies seemed to tremble at the feet of the Quincy But even the great King, the Lord of Light, knew that something would try to topple their rule

For he who has the power to build, also has the power to destroy

As their kingdom grew, they began to see great white beings of various shapes and sizes, roaming about their lands The Quincy could feel nothing within these monsters, even when knowing that they were Spiritual beings Thus, they called them 'Hollows', for the absence of their souls These Hollows were powerful, and were poisonous to the Quincy race, so the King waged a massive war upon them

And he who has the power to destroy, also has the power to wage war

The war was long and bloody, and as the Quincy seemed to lose their numbers, the Hollow's numbers only seemed to grow Soon, however, the Hollows all seemed to slowly subside, and leave the World of the Living for another plane of existence But the Quincy's struggle was far from over, as beings garbed in black appeared shortly after the Hollows had vanished Led by a being who wore flames upon his back, the men of black robes decimated the Quincy's forces

Those who bring about war, also bring about their own destruction

The Lord of Light, one of the last few Quincy alive, finally challenged the flame being in a single confrontation to the death Their fight seemed to rock the earth, but in the end, it was the avatar of fire who emerged triumphant Before he could lay that final blow, darkness consumed the body of the defeated King of Light, and he vanished His death destroyed the kingdom of Quincy, but those who remained afterwords knew he would return one day

Those who bring about their own destruction, live on in the memories of their followers

In nine-hundred years, the King will regain his pulse

In ninety years, he will regain his mind

In nine years, he will regain his strength

And in nine days, he will regain his world

End