Prologue

Midnight. A lonely town street with only the flickering light of a still, half-dead streetlight to give it inhabitance. There was silence, but strange silence – more than just the dead of night. On one side of the road there were houses. The other side led out into an expanse of fields. A thick, virulent fog rose steadily from the fields. It crept outwards, spreading to and infecting every single cell of the town's body in only a short, swift matter of time. All of the citizens – in their comfortable, routine lifestyles – slept away, not letting the presence of evil stir their slumber.

Somebody melded into existence in that lonely town street. At his arrival, the dreams of the town's inhabitants violently turned into nightmares, and even Nature herself took a deep, foreboding breath. Hidden by the folding layers of shadow and fog, he stayed and he watched and he waited with eternal patience. A shadow appeared – someone with no fear for this dark man – piercing the dense fog and drifting his way towards his hidden acquaintance.

Stopping rather purposely a few feet away from the man, he spoke soft and confident words, 'I've inspected the boy.'

'And?' a response came breathlessly from the darkness.

'He's fine. And I've placed all of the protections you asked for.' the shadow replied, quite sure that his orders had been carried out to the letter.

'Excellent.' whispered the man, 'Even though this life is miniscule compared to the one he deserves, he'll be safe here. Very safe. We'll return when he's ready to begin.'

'There was something else. . .'

'About the boy?'

'Yes. He had an unusual aura, an peculiar presence. It felt oddly unique.' there was a brief break in his speech, '. . .The closest I can compare it to is yours.'

'Curious.' the man breathed, his interest in the boy now properly aroused.

'What if he's the one we've been waiting for?'

'Do you feel he may be?'

'. . .Yes.'

'Then we'll have to wait and see.' the dark figure now turned slowly and started to wander away from the town, away from the street, away from that shadow of a man.

'You know something, don't you?' the shadow asked loudly as his associate disappeared into the darkness, 'Something you're not telling me. Something about the boy.'

The intimidating voice resounded out one last time, and from no particular direction, 'You must trust him, my friend, trust him more than anyone else. Take care of him. . . And don't let him slip away from Fate, because if he does. . . He may shatter the heavens.'

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Author guidance for This story

Kae:

1) I write these when I'm tired, mostly because my imagination tends to work more ferverently. There'll be very silly mistakes or really awkward bits that I'll eliminate later. Sorry!

2) The prologue, first chapter and start of the second chapter are completely awful (IMO) and I'm going to rewrite them at a later point.

3) A lot of it is unedited, and I will go back to sort this out. The overall quality should be higher when I've (finally) done this.

4) I usually do each chapter in at least two sittings, and more often than not I post up unfinished chapters and finish them later. Just a warning there.

Despite all that, enjoy!

updated Jul 10 '11 by Diomedes