Darkness Before Dawn

Act: I

-Sunset-

Chapter 1

-Meeting of Evils-

The hybrid was middle aged, wealthy, and politically powerful. That was simply the way he was. He enjoyed the power he had bought himself almost as much as the physical wealth. He was a male of the planet’s mixed species, the hybrid; also the dominating specie of said planet. He wore simple, light weight fabric, formal attire in his culture. The thin, silky fur that covered his body was not enough to be modest in the least amount, nor was it proper to have his long tail, which was currently wrapped tightly around his waist, or the long lines of glowing, natural markings to show too much. He could not help the fact that his unique pattern traveled to his hand and one streak horizontally across his face, a neon green in color. The same color and glow that was in his eyes, for the matter. These people stood upright, on clawed hooves and long, elegant hawks. Very much what a human would call an Egyptian jackal’s back legs. But these people did not know of the race of the human, or the little blue planet which that species resided on, that was in the farther reaches of the galaxy that this world was yet to discover. Though, like the humans, they had flat faces and the general body shape, but similarities ended very abruptly, clawed hands as well as feet, tails, beast like ears that sat upon the top of their heads, the light fur, glowing tattoos, and hawked legs.

This was a hybrid, an evolutionary wonder, created by years of inter breeding. They have stayed the same as such for one simple thing. Thumbs. They turned afraid after long times that anymore inter breeding would return them to beast like creatures, for comparison to the civilization on neighboring planets. Among those planets in the same galaxy, Mayna was known as the Unlucky Planet. Known that for the formation of the second sun, Solace. Close enough to Mayna that that sun had sucked the unfortunate planet into its own gravity, while far enough away from the planet’s first sun, Crotice, that they did not merge and destroy themselves. So Mayna was stuck between the void of the two suns, one burning hot blue, while the other burning yellow. The planet once spun on its axis, but when the second sun formed, the gravity was messed with. The planet no longer spins.

That was the birth of the two deserts. The first desert is the Moon desert. The name was given for this side of the planet no longer rotated to face the sun, thus plunging that half of the planet into an endless night, only penetrated by two out of three of the bright moons, Haya and Coo. The other desert was known as the Sun desert, for it endless day. Never does the sun set in hot desert.

But because the suns both pulled the planet, the suns still gave the appearance of movement across the sky. Thus was the border, which had both night and day like before S.S. (the abbreviation to the change in time period, like B.C. It stands for Second Sun.) The border was lined with cities and farms, forests and the only body of water the planet boasted. But as time grew on the hybrid civilization grew, they expanded. The Sun and Moon deserts became dotted with protected cities.

With the cities, came people and the people formed nations. The tan, heat resistant, Contorians of the Sun desert, and the pale, ice dwelling Dishens of the Moon desert. The Contorians gained power by the suns, and water from deep underground springs. They grew there food in the protected sanctuary’s beside every city. The Dishens gained power from the raging wind and the violent lightning storms that lit up the endless night. There water came from the Ice Fields, the dangerous, icy patch in the middle of the desert that seemed to stretch on forever. But unlike the self-sufficient Contorians, the Dishen had the problem that they could not grow there own food. So, they had to import all foods and such from the middle cities or the Contorian cities.

The reason the neither the Contorian nor the Dishen ‘owned’ the margarine cities was the Clans, the most powerful political group on the entire planet. Although they had much fewer numbers than the other two faction, they were stronger, physically than either. The reason, special bloodlines and specific training that made every member of the numerous families deadly in any kind of fight. The Clan members were strong, deadly, and smart, the worst combination in any kind of war, even when they fought each other.

But Lienen Scop did not want to create a dispute between one Clan to another, especially after the disastrous events of the Clan Wars. Said war had torn their world apart and brought its people to their knees. But the arrival of the Great May, which the planet was quickly named for, had stopped the war and brought its wrath down on many Clans. A peaceful time had become of the time between then and now, nearly a hundred solar changes ago (Solar change – one year).

But the Dishens were proud and did not like having to always rely on the Contorians for food. Raids broke out, fights, disputes between the leaders of the three nations. Scop was a bitter enemy with Mrin by now, but it could not be helped. The Contorian commander and political leader could not justify the fact that the Torys were not a peaceful nation like they wished they could be. At least, Scop comforted himself, he was not trying to out right start a war like the Dishen commander and political leader, Clay Mrin.

And with that explained, the topic of political unrest is where we start this long story. Scop glanced out the window again, watching as the capitol city of Saycon flashed past his green eyes. No matter how much time he sent in this large city, he would never shake the vulnerability he felt when he glanced skyward and saw no dome covering the populace. Saycon, being the planetary capitol, resided in the border between the deserts and needed no protective dome like the cities of the desert.

“Commander, we will be arriving in seven klicks (klick – one minute).” The soft voice next to him informed politely. “Are you ready?”

Scop turned to his second and fixed his young face with a stern look that read clearly his reply. Still he spoke, “Of course I am, Captain.”

Sozen Mark nodded his head once and returned his silver eyes to the data-pad he had been going through. He dragged the stylist over the glowing screen several time, dragging documents into different categories for later analysis and generally doing his job. The younger hybrid looked calm and Scop briefly wonder how this male could be so mundane when about to go into the enemy’s court. But then quickly reminded himself of the boy’s impressive background and pushed the question from his head as quickly as it had invaded.

The vehicle finally came to a steady halt and Mrak pulled the glass to his visor, a rare commodity to find in any Maynan, over his face. The lock snapped into place and the glass briefly glowed, the light coming form within the device, not the eyes of he wearer. After a moment, Mrak turned his small head toward his commanding officer, giving the impression that he was looking at the hybrid, the visor making it hard to be sure. Scop briefly pulled himself together before opening the door and stepping out of the transport, Mrak followed quickly after.

The larger, older hybrid looked around, quickly taking in the gigantic home, the iron gates, and the grassy lawn the stretched between the gate and house. It wasn’t a truly far walk but it was obvious that they were not allowed to bring the vehicle past the gate. Scop approached said gate and placed his hand on the handle. When it didn’t budge or move he cursed, why of all the most wealthy people on the entire planet, did they have a manual opening gate, and with a lock!

Mrak examined the lock and looked apologetically up at his commander, “Sorry, sir. I’ve never dealt with something like this before.”

As he finished talking, a soft voice spoke, coming from the gate itself. “Identification.”

“Contorian commander Linen Scop and Contorian first captain Sozen Mrak.” Scop answered smoothly, despite him being startled by the fact that the gate had suddenly started talking.

“Invalid identification, please wait while I fetch a house member.”

Scop frowned. Just what he needed, the Clan he was trying to get help from was going to think he had tried to break in. The Assaily Clan was the biggest of this time period, and the strongest. Although these days, it was hard to get one Clan’s approval with out all the other seven but if the Contorians could get ‘happy points’ with the Assaily leader, then maybe they could get the upper hand when the slag hit the fan and the two factions finally broke down into war. It was a long shot but worth a try.

After a few moments of long waiting, a young male appeared across the lawn and proceeded to jog across the grass toward them. Like all Assailys, he was small, lithe, with rare silver hair and bright blue markings and eyes. He was classified as a teenager by the planet’s standard but Scop had no idea what the Clan standard form age was. The legal age for an adult was thirty years, but sometime that rule was bypassed. For Mrak’s example; when Scop came across the young hybrid, he was still very young, about the age that the approaching Assaily is now. He was a good fourteen years under the age limit but a hybrid of his status and skill could not be wasted. That was several years ago, Mrak was still under the age limit but he acted accordingly; no one that didn’t know his records would not be able to tell he still illegal.

When the Assaily male finally got to the gate, he looked up at Scop and his second for a long moment, as if trying to figure out what to do with them. Well, it wasn’t really like they could see his eyes or half his face for the glass visor, very much like Mrak’s, obscured the vision of the two outsiders. From what Scop could understand, and he wasn’t a tech expert of any kind, the visor headset, where it reached around and connected to the side of a hybrid’s head was actually connected to brain, like an artificial brain half. He heard that the surgery to get them installed was very painful and there was no reverse surgery that had ever ended up with the patient physically or mentally dead. It was rare to see the device on the general populace, a few were acceptances (they weren’t illegal just nobody had the money nor the pain tolerance to get them installed…) but most Clan member of all eight Clans had the device installed when at a very young age.

“What do you want?” The Assaily growled, obviously not liking them so close to his home.

“We’ve come to talk to the Assaily Leader.”

“My father isn’t seeing anyone right now, so stop sending people to recruit us.”

Scop had not been expecting this answer, nor the blunt anger that was in this young hybrid’s voice.

“Look here, you little rat, you have no idea what kind of people you are talking to. The least you could do was show a little respect.” Mrak, short to anger, was already at the gate, baring his fangs and trying to tower over the teenager. The Assaily, as expected, didn’t take the threat in stride, and showed off his own impressive fangs, his white ears flattening against his head.

“Blackblade!” The younger hybrid flinched as a much larger, taller Assaily suddenly appeared out of almost no where. “Stop trying to pick a fight and go do something productive.”

The Assaily, Blackblade (what’s with Clan members and weird as slag names?), turned and nodded his head to the much older Clan mate in clear respect before heading off toward the house. Then it was the older Clan member’s turn, “Can I help you with something?”

After repeating the request, the Assaily donned a glare to match his younger’s. “We’ve already been asked by Clay Mrin, we do not want to choose a side in a war we are trying to prevent.” He talked calmly, though his voice became steadily more strained.

“That’s what the younger one said.” Mrak retorted. “Just let us talk to the Clan Leader and we can see what he says.”

The Assaily suddenly puffed up his chest in annoyance at Mrak’s mistake. “I am the Clan Leader.”

Mrak’s eyes widened behind the visor but he managed to make it appear as if he had given no reaction. Scop on the other hand was not as lucky and went into a tirade of apologies. The leader simply waved him off with a flick of his clawed hand. He then turned his back to them both, a sign of disrespect. “I will not be helping either faction and I doubt that the other Clans will agree with me.”

He then walked away from the gate and along the rock fence. His foot steps abruptly silenced a moment later when he seemed to disappear again. Thinking of crazy Clan Leaders and secret passages, Scop turned back toward the vehicle, guiding a sputtering Mrak behind him. They both got back into the luxury transport and waited in silence as it slid away from the grounds and back into the city. “Don’t worry, Captain, we’ll think of a way to make them come around.”

XXX

Bridge Builder Assaily, or his Clan name, Blackblade, watched as the door opened and in walked his father. “Dad!” He called out, coming onto stride with his father. “What’d they say?”

“Nothing, Bridge.” He brushed off. Bridge frowned at his father’s lack of cooperation. “Where is your sister?”

“Which one?”

Lloyc Song gave his son his strange look, stopping midstride for a second. He then shook his head and smiled at the teenager. “Sorry, kit. I’m a little distracted.”

Bridge frowned at the change (not to mention the name), and asked again. “Which sister are you looking for.”

“Ture.” He answered simply.

Bridge’s older sister. She had been acting strangely the last few days, he admitted to himself. The distractedness from his father was making his nerves jumpy. “What’s going on?”

“Never mind that, I need to see Ture.”

“Whatever.” Bridge mumble. “She’s in your study, last time I saw her.” He answered. His father than broke into a run down the white marble hallways that comprised the hime, leaving Bridge behind. Said teenager huffed once in annoyance and went to find his two twins.

XXX

A/N: Yay, the début chapter of one the biggest projects I will ever write. There is five books in all; Sunset, Gathering Darkness, Midnight, Darkest Time, and Dawn. There was originally had only five but decided that Midnight was too long and split it in half. Thus was born Gathering Darkness. So I’ll be updating this weekly until I have all the chapters up for the first book then I’ll be taking a break to finish Gathering Darkness because I doubt it will take less than thirteen weeks to write it.

Anyways, I hope you enjoyed this! This was a lot of writing for me to do and I am now late thanks to it. I have no idea how the hell I’m going manage when school starts next week.

D.R.M/Broken Wolf