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The sun hung low in the horizon, though already it blazed hot. It beat mercilessly upon the backs of the laborers who tended the harvests that were born from the watering months.
The wheat reached high on their stocks as they stretched towards the sun before the scythes came down and mightily broke their backs. The carrots and other underground vegetables pushed their strong roots through the hard-packed, dry soil in search of water to quench their thirst. All while the sun beat down, and gave them the energy that was a necessity to them, that their green leaves reached to intake.
And beyond the fields and it's workers stood strong walls of bronze and gold that reached high to the skys. Two large towers rose from each side, facing the North, the South, the West, and the East, the West and East towers being the most important and the most looked upon. From those towers, villagers would watch the sun rise from it's nightly rest and replace the moon as their source of light as they looked to the East. While at dusk, they would watch the sun sink behind the curtain of imposing, snow capped mountains, to only to have it replaced by the lesser light, the moon as they watched from their spots in the West.
Buildings stood upon flat land stretching out inside the barriers of the walls, their sides bleached from the sun white as bone. Rows and rows of straightly lined houses marched their way up to a second wall, this one much higher then the first, it's sides the color of sands that were only found in the legendary far seas, that no one now living had ever seen.
Tall buildings stacked up to the clouds, their few windows gleaming in the light of day. Upward the road winded up the steep hill in the center of every other building inside the first gates. As the hill steepened the shops and houses became scarce until at the highest point of the monstrous hill stood the tallest, widest building that any of the village residents has the pleasure to see. It's sides were pebbled with stones ranging from deep sea greens to pale butter yellows. The sun reflected off the stones making the Palace radiant to look upon.
At the bottom of the hill was the educational center, a school if you will. It was made from dark mahogany boards that gave it an ageless beauty. It rose a several feet off the ground, balancing on stilts that made it an imposing feature amongst all the structures cemented into the ground. Many steep and narrow steps led up to it's doors.
Inside the Educational center were multiple desks, all exactly alike in tidy rows. They ran up to the front of the room, stopping and leaving a wide space for the teacher's desk with it's various city maps and writing utensils behind it.
The teacher was a thin, average hight male, about forty-five years of age. He paced slowly in front of the room, his wooden shoes scraping against the smoothed, wooden steely gaze penetrated any student who had the misfortune to divert their eyes from their assignment. His Educational Room held boys and girls of the level H-3, their ages raging from late 15's to early 17's. About twenty or so children resided in the room.
The teacher stopped his pacing for a moment and stared disgusted at one fighting female student.
“Does any one require assistance with their Mathematical work?” He directed this question to the girl.
She kept her eyes lowered behind her full-face veil, making sure that she could not look at him in a manner that was most rude of females to give to the superior males. “No sir, I do not require assistance.” Everyone in the room could tell that this was a lie considering no one knew how to do the assignment.
“Good. Because to require assistance would be to suggest that you were incapable of doing it your self. It would mean that you were weak enough, that you would have to shame your self, your family, and your countrymen, to ask for help.” He began pacing again as he readied himself for a full-fledged rant which he delivered to the students at least once a day to ensure that they fully understood how utterly, and completely shameful it was to admit that they required assistance.
“No man, with any love of his country, will admit defeat. He will always over come the enemy, whether it be a person, or a mathematical problem. But, if another human requires help in any way, and asks you for help, help them you must. No man turns his back on another.
“During the year 131, during the rein of Theophic Hawkmen the Second, when we required assistance, many men, of many countries came to our aid. Some were from out of this planet, barbaric and ignorant of the ways of which proper men do things, but they came and they fought with us, and helped us defeat the So'm'ur sands men of the North. Yet, five hundred and eleven years later, when we were being attacked by armies of Prince Jurtan, not one man came to our aid, and we were forced to slowly push them back, push them into the forest that they had never before seen, behind a wall, one hundred feet thick, and one thousand feet tall, where they still reside today. Or they would if they weren't dead. But fortunately, they are.
“But if a man from a different planet comes and asks us for aid, then we shall assist them. Because we still have honor enough to remember the deeds they have done to help us thousands of years ago, but we will never forget the times that they have not.” He finished off his speech by sitting down at his desk and began grading papers.
The children worked in silence, the only sound heard was the scrapping of metal tipped quills against coarse parchment. The day's quiet was broken by soft whispers. They steadily grew louder, but not loud enough that the children could tell what was being said. Their teacher walked over to the open window in the back of the class and leaned out to hear what was being discussed. After a few moments, he continued to stand, still and unmoving. His normally bronze colored skin turned pale.
The children slid noiselessly from their seats and hurried over to the window peering out as best as they could around his body. Throngs of people lines the road looking nervously at the Palace and whispering loudly, fear apparent on their faces. They waved their hand wildly about as they pointed to and fro.
After a few moments more the teacher slowly backed away from the window and preceded to walk out the door, not even casting a backwards glance at his students as he went and joined the crowd. After waiting a few seconds to be sure he was well and truly gone, the students followed.
They made sure to keep out of his sight as they trekked up the steep inclinement after him. He marched up to the palace as if he had a purpose stopping directly in front of the large, solid gold doors with their beautiful engravings.
Most of the students broke off to find their families except for about five of them who went and stood behind their teacher. They knew without a shadow of a doubt that he knew exactly what was going on.
The door swung open and there stood the king. As he saw the crowd and it's size he scowled displeased. He turned to his companion who was hidden in the shadows and spit out his words.
“You see what you have caused?” he spread his arm out to indicate his people. “You've disrupted the daily course! You have thrown off the balance! You never should have come here! You will fill our children with disastrous thoughts and they shall be the ruin of us all! Leave this land at once and return to your own planet! Maybe if we try hard enough we can still save them.” The person he was speaking to stepped from the shadows and into the sunlight. Everyone gasped in fright and shock.
Such a man as he was never seen before. His skin was golden like that of the wheat in the field, lighter then any other villager, who's colors ranged from dark bronze hues to damp earthen shades. He had black hair the color of a raven's wing. No one in the village had hair, They all went through the monthly head shaving ritual, to keep them cleansed for their king.
He was in his mid-thirties, heavily muscled but finely toned. He wore a robe unlike the un-dyed shapeless ones the villagers wore. His were gathered at both legs all the way down to his black boots. He was dressed from head to toe in clothes with different colored spots on them, dark green to brown to black. His eyes were hard and black, but you could see the faint laugh lines at their corners. He looked at the people with equal disgust as the king had.
“You have trained your people well,” he said with a twisted sneer. “They run and do your bidding with no original thought in their head. So I wonder, why have you broken the warrior spirit that once held captive your country? You have sat around, keeping none of the old alliances with your neighbors, never helping them in their time of hardship, as your country grows fat and prideful, ripe for the picking of anyone with a sword or bow in his hand. Yet you have the nerve to tell me, that you will not help anyone because we were not there for you. Generations had past, your highness,” He said mockingly. “ Did you not stop to think that we had lost opening spells for the doors? Or indeed, their location as we had? We can not be faulted because greedy, land hungry kings came to our lands, slaying our men, raping out women, and burning the books that we needed in order to cross over.”His eyes blazed with fury. “And yet, that thought didn't cross your mind did it? You didn't even send a rider to call for us, you just expected us to be able to scry for you as we were bound and gagged and forced to till in the fields. What have you to say about that??
The king looked abashed for a moment before regaining his anger. “And how, pray tell, were we supposed to know this?”He smiled for a moment because he believed that he had boxed his opponent into a corner. His smile faded as the strange man began to speak. ”If you did not realize that we were in trouble, how were we supposed to know the same about you? We couldn't. So really, all this is, is admitting that we failed to come to each others aid. Yet now, when we have finally managed to come to your land and plead for help, you deny us this request. It seems that all your honor was killed in your last battle.”
Everyone was silent. They were the most honorable people in the history of the worlds. Who was this stranger to come in here and tell them otherwise when he obviously knew nothing about their ways of life, considering he had interrupted their daily routine. They looked upon him, hatred in their eyes, as he knowingly smirked. He had hit below the belt. He knew their was no way that they would not help now that their honor was on the line.
“ I will need two children to accompany me.” He had asked for children because he wanted to show someone from this isolated place the outside world, with all of it's entertainment and free thoughts. Children would also be easier to talk to then an adult who had grown up learning these thoughts of being the superior people, full of honor and love. Children were more open to new ideas and possibilities.
The colonel stood in front of the desk of his leading officer. A piece of wood had his name in bold platted gold: General M.T Mathers.
He was a weather worn harden war veteran. His face was tough like leather, tanned by the sun so many times it finally just stayed that way. He had dull brown eyes but they pierced through you until you were sure they could see everything about you. He was not very tall, about five foot six, but the air of command around him was so strong it made up for his lacking in the hight department. Yet, he was one of those people you could expect to see playing catch in the front yard with their son, or tucking their daughter in for the night after reading her a bedtime story.
“Report,” He rested his chin in his hands and the Colonel began relaying the information.
The Colonel stood uneasily at attention. ?”Seventeen days ago a young man was murdered in broad daylight outside of a multiplex. When police preceded to take the witnesses information, they were met with the same story. Several creatures varying from forms such as a seven armed, three winged creature with the head of a Jackal with multiple spiked horns protruding from all areas of it's face, to a creature with one arm, no wings and the face of a dove. All reports were alarmingly similar in their...wildness. The murder victim had been burned to death with a heat so fierce and deadly, the policemen would never have believed the story if it hadn't been for the security tape. A few hours later a stead stream of more murders killed in the same way were called into police stations all over California and neighboring states. We later found out that such going-on's had been happening all over the world. Most of Europe and Asia have crowded into the only countries that haven't been hit yet: Russia, most parts of China, and many neighboring islands. Many, many people have been killed. These....things are popping up eveywhere. We've tried guns, bombs, any weapon we could get our hands on. We've tried attacking them from the air, from the water. Nothing is working. But we did noticed that when an art collector who we were trying to evacuate from his building threw a spear at one of the creatures, it bled and dropped into the ocean like a ton of bricks. So they can be killed, just not by the normal weapons we have been using for years.
“Right now, I'd say about, maybe half of the worlds population is dead. The rest are trying to hide from these things. We don't have enough people to fight them. We will need backup.” He waited, big pearly drops of sweat running from his forehead, as Mathers looked thoughtfully at him.
“Tell someone to go get me those books they dug up a little less then a month back. The ones that were half burned and thrown into that mass grave. I think we might find something there.” Mathers continued to mull over his thoughts as the Colonel hurried out of the tent and began barking commands.
The entire village was plunged into chaos. Who would they send? When would they comeback? Why did he want children instead of an adult who could help him more easily?
Most of the adults returned to their assigned work area, as the children stayed behind. They lay down on the ground looking at each other but did not speaking as it was not permitted. It was clearly stated in the Rules Of State ' No child may speak unless requested to. Anyone caught in this act will submit themselves to the slaughtering hut for two risings of the suns and two settings of the moon.'
The slaughtering hut was a vile place where the animals were slain for the daily sacrifice to the king. It smelt of stale blood and rotting flesh. Time in there would drive a person mad.
The strange man was unnerved by the children, and the city's silence. Children were supposed to be loud and rambunctious, mischievous and cheerful. These children were sullen, staring at him suspiciously with haunted eyes. He could tell that however these kids were being raised and treated he didn't like it already.
“Will everyone please stand up?” He cringed slightly as he say then stand at attention as if they trained their entire lives to perfect it. He began moving down the line to pick the two children he would take with him on his journey to their neighboring lands.
