//------------------------------// // Prologue // Story: Echos of Strife // by dusk flame //------------------------------// Their world burns. Why should I see this as a problem? An ethereal being shaped like a dancing flame turned away from the Earth to face three others. To his left was a being that held the form of shifting sands with a covering of emerald green leafs. Because, Ignis, that is not as it should be. You know as well as I do that the Earth is a place of life and beauty. The humans are not all impure, many suffer and yet still, they honor the elements. The second being turned towards Ignis, a feeling of concern radiating from her as she spoke. While Ignis was the youngest and most inexperienced of the group, Natura, the nature spirit, was the most recent addition. The humans brought chaos to their world of their own accord. Let them burn in the cleansing flames so their world can begin anew. A third being, a water spirit with the appearance of a light blue storm cloud, broke from her respite to reprimand the flame spirit. Ignis, I insist you refrain from engaging in such brash thoughts. It belittles our very reason for existing. With mock horror he responds, Oh! Spare me the indignity Procella— Control yourself. Natura is correct; relocate humans capable of symbiotic existence. The fourth, a being of translucent wind, turned to face the group as he spoke. This one, the eldest and commanding the most respect, is the wind spirit Zeyphr. The flame spirit turned towards Zeyphr, radiating waves of displeasure. Not you too Zephy. I thought you would be on my side for this one! Procella perked up again, sensing another opportunity to reprimand the young flame spirit. Dear Ignis, you have much to learn. Will you just sit this one out and let the three of us handle the matter of Earth? The flame spirit radiated even more waves of displeasure while speaking with a strained tone. Oh, my apologies, I forgot I only mattered when you wanted a little... fire in your life. The wind spirit radiated a powerful wave of annoyance, in order to draw the attention of the other three spirits. They turned towards him as he began. Salvage their race. They have unique minds. Corrupted, but unique. The nature spirit turned away from the group, an ethereal tear falling from her eye accompanied by thick waves of sadness. I still think we should have done something back then to combat Obitus. We could have avoided this entire affront to nature if only we had intervened! Oh sure, and then they could have been all peaceful and loving and lived in harmony with everything I would have gone to sleep ages ago if that's how this planet developed. I don't even care if they still had their conflicts. Anything even close to your 'ideal world' bores me to silence. Ignis, whenever you are done with your incessant complaints of how horrid peace and love is, may we move on and finally decide on a course of action? Just a suggestion, but I recently discovered this planet inhabited by sentient quadrupeds among other races. They would be a perfect foil to whichever humans we decide to send. Ignis sighed and radiated a light wave of contempt. After a few moments of thought he spoke up, a new realization filling his thoughts. I can hardly believe I'm saying this... but I agree with Procella. It would be fun to watch and I certainly wouldn't be opposed to the thought of sentient predators living among equally sentient prey... I'll support this under one condition: we send our own humans without consorting with anyone else. It'll make things far more interesting that way. Zeyphr, after a period of deep thought, looked towards the Earth for a few moments before addressing his fellows. Acceptable. Thank you all for agreeing to spare the humans. I say we should get to work on choosing who we should send. Oh yes, you three should do that. I for one have already sent a human! Hmph... Leave it to you to act as you please. I think I'll settle for watching how your human reacts, It'll help me pick out who I want to send. Send multiples. Enough to propagate. I completely agree with you. They would be ever so lonely and afraid if we sent them one by one. Knowing you you'll probably send those naturalists. They'll probably think they've died and gone to heaven or something from what I've seen! Yes... Well the little human I have sent is beginning to awaken. Shall we observe him?... I took the liberty of expanding his speech patterns. I do suggest that to be a common theme for any other humans we decide to send over. It would just be such a bother to have them deal with such an outstanding language barrier. The flame spirit laughed at this remark, a wry grin upon his ethereal face. I didn't even consider that... The four spirits slowly fade from view as they leap across the vast expanses of space; their sights set on Equis and the soon to unfold events that will transpire.