The Start of A New Age
By Lord-Luzar
Waking up wasn’t a fun experience for many humans, and Zephyr was not an exception. And throughout his ten years of life he had been a relatively good child, but like any other he had his moments where decisions would not be a strongpoint. Unfortunately, it seemed that Zephyr got to a lot of these points in his life, and it annoyed the little boy. No matter how hard he tried, no matter what he did, trouble always wanted to follow and follow it did.
Zephyr’s parents were alright for parents in their late 20’s, and they had decent jobs, but how they treated their son was repugnant. They were heavily racist, beat Zephyr till he would cry himself to sleep, and he had nowhere to run. No one to run to, not mommy because she was the worst with the beatings and daddy was an alcoholic who wouldn’t even hug the child. Yet somehow the child kept hoping for someone to hug him or kiss him lovingly, because his parents decided not to.
Some moments Zephyr was told he was a mistake, and though he didn’t understand at the time he would let his emerald orbs drop salty tears. They told him to suck it up and stop making the wooden floor wet, and then would make him wipe the tears with his shirt. And Zephyr had no other shoulders to lean on, no brothers or sisters. He was truly and utterly alone in the cruel world ruled by humans, and his experience with adults was that they all wanted to hurt him in some way.
So by the time Zephyr was ten he had made a plan: to escape this hellish life. First he would skip out on school after arriving, and run home knowing that they would be at work. Use the key he hid underneath the welcome mat, take everything he could carry, and then go to the one he could trust the most; the church. Surely they would help him in his greatest time of need?
Well that wasn’t true and the Priest of the Church cast him out immediately, but left him his disgustingly low rations. By the time he had survived three days on the streets, his rations were gone and he had been begging on the street. He never once saw his parents looking for him, neither did he want to, yet people he knew would look at him in surprise before quickly leaving him be.
So on the fourth day with his dirtied black shirt, blue jeans, muddy converse, and the odd black cap he had found days prior, he came across something odd. He was walking through the town park after drinking from the fountain and right in front of a wooden bench was an invisible ripple. It rippled as if it were water and Zephyr’s thoughts changed from dark, cloudy thoughts to ones of confusion and curiosity. Letting his imagination and curiosity get the best of him, Zephyr slowly inched forward and poked the invisible ripple with his left index finger.
The ripple violently reacted in response, smacking him across the face, hard. It had toppled him and still violently reacted, going out in wild directions before completely freezing. Zephyr opened his eyes when he realized that the ripple had stopped and was surprised to see a single hand reaching out. It was a pure white, somethin Zephyr couldn't compare to his blackened and dirtied hands. He felt bad when he grabbed onto the hand, as the soft texture made him feel as if he being rude to this person by being in its presence.
Yet he let out a small yelp when the hand pulled him through the ripple, taking Zephyr by surprise. The hand still gripped onto his own as they passed through an odd white plain while travelling straight down, the hand still remaining as a hand. It kept leading him closer and closer to what Zephyr recognised as another ripple.
“No!” He cried out, shutting his eyes tight.
“What do you mean?” A voice questioned, and Zephyr couldn’t determine whether it was masculine or feminine.
“I-I don’t want to go back home!” He cried out, now silently sobbing.
“You are going to someplace better,” The voice assured as kind as it could.
“You promise?”
“You have my word.”
“What shall I call you?” Zephyr asked, now hopefully looking at the ripple.
“You may call me...Elohay.” The voice responded, sounding sincere.
“Thank you, Elohay.” Zephyr finally croaked, before turning to the ripple, eyes happily awaiting.
Zephyr felt his body being flung towards the ripple as if it were nothing but a rock, and he could’ve sworn that an arm started to form as he left through the ripple.
Flying through the ripple felt as if he had been violently tossed onto a pile of pillows filled with nothing but more pillows. He softly landed on what felt to be grass, and it caused his head to turn. Zephyr had landed on his back and was now looking up at what he saw to be the moon. It slightly hung over the hole in the cavern, causing his head to tilt slightly. Now fully interested in his surroundings, Zephyr noticed a couple of green leaves hanging on trees from the hole in the cavern. The trees were like nothing he had ever seen before, being both tall and skinny, unlike the small ones he was used to seeing at home.
Yet, he had left home and instead was greeted by a mysterious voice, kind enough to lead him through to a different place. The experience in itself was odd, as only a hand talking to him would never be widely accepted in where he used to live. Zephyr shook his head, trying to rid himself of the old home he once dwelled in. Now, he instead looked up at the gleaming stars in wonder, trying to point out all the constellations he had memorized at his old home.
It was likely the only thing Zephyr had enjoyed at his old home, and would likely be the only thing he would try to remember. The confusing thing was that he could not spot a single recognizable constellation, not even Orion’s Belt. Yet he could point out a few that seemed similar to the ones back home, like the Big Dipper, but it seemed more prominent than before and actually looked like a large bear in the stars, rather than a large pot for boiling spaghetti. Now Zephyr spotted vines crawling down from the mouth of the cavern and began to wrap around the sides of the minorly lit cavern, and from what he could tell was that some type of place he had never visited lay in wait for him outside.
Propping himself up with his elbows, Zephyr looked around and directly in front of him stood a large mirror, likely nine feet tall. It was an oval in figure and was surrounded by another oval that was this time thick and silver, while blue gems dotted around the silver outlining. He then noticed that it still rippled slightly as if it were waiting for another to arrive. Turning his head around, Zephyr then noticed the smooth grass that surrounded the mirror, along with an odd amount of rocks that were randomly scattered across the grass area, creating indents in the soft dirt.
Realizing that only one spot was left unchecked by himself, weakly stood himself up and looked behind himself only to see something that amazed and confused him all the same. A large pond awaited him, and it stood still while a large boulder slightly stuck out from the left side of the pond. It’s diameter had to be about 12.5 feet across and it looked about three feet deep. Rushing over to the pond, Zephyr didn’t even notice the smaller being that lay unconscious on the ground behind him on his right. He was too busy slurping up the clear water to quench his thirst to realize that a pastel colored pony lay behind him.
After drinking for a minute straight, Zephyr laid back, completely pleased with the pond he now looked at. It wasn’t the prettiest sight, but it was very clear and was surprisingly clean, so it was completely fine to drink. Now turning back, Zephyr finally spotted the pony but did not know what to make of it, and seeing it laying down breathing heavily was worrying to the young boy. Yet his head snapped back to the mirror as it began to violently react once more, lashing out and wildly thrashing around before another figure fell to the ground on the other side, or from what Zephyr could tell.
This figure was definitely human, just he was not white as Zephyr was. The black man lay unconscious on the ground in an odd outfit, one differing from Zephyr’s own clothes. The man was large compared to Zephyr, seeming to be at 6’8’ and fully grown. His body was very large compared to Zephyr’s own current size, a measly 3 ½ feet, which was quite small for a child of his age. Yet Zephyr knew he would grow, it just seemed that the process was taking a long time for him. It was slightly confusing but also interesting.
Zephyr gave the large man’s clothes a closer look over, seeing that it truly did differ from his own style of clothing. The man wore brown boots that went up to his high shins, and Zephyr couldn’t see the socks. Brown loose pants were stuffed inside of the interior of the boots, and an odd burgundy shirt that seemed to be padded. A small brown belt went over the shirt and wrapped all the way around, to keep the pants up. And chainmail was on top of his shirt, hanging down to his hips while a hood of chainmail waited in between his shoulders.
He groaned slightly performing with a baritone of a voice, before his grey eyes fluttered open and looked over to Zephyr who was hovering the the man’s left.
“Where am I?” The man asked making Zephyr shrug in response, as he truly didn’t know either but the man sighed in return.
The large man’s eyes flew open when he realized that the mirror stood there, rippling violently once more, “You might want to stand back.”
The man looked over to Zephyr who stood a good five feet away from the mirror making him follow suit and watch as the mirror violently shook about before throwing out another figure towards them.
“What magic is this?” He yelled in surprise towards the mirror, looking down at the other man.
This man looked very different, much younger in fact. As the two looked over him they noticed something that stood out differently from the both of them, he had pointed ears. They stood there as if it were normal for them and the two looked at each other in confusion and concern. The new man’s hair was golden and he wore a lot of green on his body.
His dark brown armor covered his whole legs and it all seemed to be conjoined, no strings were visible and it wrapped around his legs running all the way up until his lower thighs, where a black material could be seen. Black chainmail covered just above where his leg armor ended and at the top of his hips began a chestplate that wrapped all the way around his chest, though it didn’t spread out from his shoulders. Small curved lines ran down the chestplate that curved inwards from where they began, running all the way down the chestplate. The chestplate diagonally pointed outwards from the chest by about three inches while it slightly curved towards the large line running down the middle from the point where the lines met.
Gauntlets with the same design as the chestplate were clamped on his wrists and the chainmail spread from his shoulders to down under the gauntlets. The chainmail reached up and covered most of his neck while a dark-green cloak did the rest. It wrapped around the top of his chestplate and hung down to the back of his knees. The interior of the cloak was a dark-grey, while runic symbols were inscribed around the edges. The cloak was hooded as well but it was limp at his back like he large man’s own chainmail.
Zephyr then noticed two sheaths hidden by the cloak that were attached at the top of the leg armor, where the handles to two daggers lay. The man’s skin was very white compared to Zephyr’s own tanned skin, and his lips were a small shade of red.
“Hey...what’s your name?”
“Ordo.” Ordo answered looking at at Zephyr expectantly.
“Zephyr,” He answered in return making the large man nod.
“Have you spotted the daggers yet, Ordo?” Zephyr questioned making the larger man nod once more.
It felt wrong looking at the fellow man, but the two did so anyways, as if trying to deem him trustworthy or not. Yet his face told them that he was very young, perhaps even still a teenager. Zephyr noticed that the mirror was acting up again, and looked over at the different man before trying to pull him out of the way. He felt the man effortlessly lift in his grasp after a couple of moments but looked back to see Ordo carrying him instead. Zephyr then decided to smile.
The mirror spat out another person but this time it cracked, surprising both of them. It was very small and originated at the epicenter of the mirror but it seemed as if it would grow in use of the mirror. The figure was once more a man with pointed ears yet he looked far more regal than the younger one. He had pure white hair instead of the golden hair and a rough face, that looked as if made for scowling. Two braids laid across his shoulders and a long ponytail nestled at the back of his head tied together with a green band. Small silver beads were attacked at the lower parts of each ear.
His boots were tan and ran up to his knees before triangle shaped cloth covered over his knees. Light-brown pants with small patterns of leaves and vines adorned on it slipped into his large boots. Small bits of green rectangular cloth hung from the bottom of his leather tunic that was adorned with small semi-sphere silver orbs dotted around the leather armor. The heavily padded parts were tan while the lighter parts of the tunic were brown with patterns of leaves on them. Large tan shoulder pads hung from each shoulder with the smaller pieces of brown cloth underneath with golden designs on the edges while and even smaller piece of green cloth hung down with small bits of gold as well, before finally reaching his elbow.
His gauntlet was tan with designs from white chalk written on it while the silver semi-sphere orbs dotted around them, along with a single emerald at the center of the gauntlet. A belt wrapped around his chest and underneath his left arm to hold up his quiver filled with twenty arrows. An intricate light-brown wooden bow hung around his back by a tight string while two emeralds stood at the ends of the string. A small green hood hung over the top of his tunic and wrapped around the back while also having a hood for him. A large sheath hung from his right hip, wrapped around over the green pieces of cloth showing the hilt of the sword that was dark-brown leather and the pommel being a round bit of silver. The sheath itself was quite simple, being brown with the occasional intricate design using silver metal on the sheath.
By this time his eyes opened, revealing a hawk-like gaze filled with yellow orbs that threateningly stared at them. He immediately somersaulted backwards before pulling out his bow and notching an arrow, aiming it straight at Zephyr who in turn raised his hands in surrender. Ordo stood still, watching the man with an amused expression, until the mirror began to violently shake once more.
After the shaking had subsided another figure came through, causing it to crack once more. Zephyr and Ordo looked at each other worriedly before staring at the long-eared man. Now a woman lay on the ground with very pale skin. Her eyes immediately opened revealing two orange orbs that pierced through all their stares. The black hair hung down her shoulders and went down her back
The woman stared at the man with the bow in disinterest and she wore a black cape that wrapped all the way around her body, while a black vest adorned her chest and a white dress shirt was underneath it. A small golden pocket watch hung from the vest’s pockets, slightly going against her dark color-scheme. Gray pants were at her slim legs, and black dress shoes with one-inch heels at the back were on her feet. She was dressed simply yet greatly, as if ready to go to a ball.
“This is getting really old.” Zephyr announced, looking back at the mirror that had been acting violently for a sixth time.
Another person shot out, causing it to crack even more, and this time the most prominent feature was the lab coat. He had a blue shirt on and black pants while rectangular glasses were on his head, his shoes were a simple black. When he opened his eyes he spoke with an accent, “Oh no, zis is not good.”
Zephyr recognised it to be a German accent, and felt that it was kind of cliché, with him being a german scientist and all. Yet as he tried to get up another body fell on top of him causing him to tell out.
“Scheiße, steigen sie von mir!” Zephyr could only assume they were curses.
Next a woman stood up, and she looked very odd compared to every else, even the men with the long ears. She held a staff and had flame-like hair that fell down her back to her hips. Her eyes were a brilliant green like Zephyr's own. She wore a black vest that had small red, blue and green wires running from the vests pocket into her own pocket. The black pants she wore were unique as more wires ran through where the belt would be. A white dress shirt was underneath her own vest, and a black top hat rested upon her head while goggles with gears on them were wrapped around the base of the hat. Her black shoes had golden gears on each side as well, and the silver staff she carried had wires running through the glass middle while the ends clearly sparked with electricity and a small vent stood at the end of the staff, and Zephyr saw steam rise from it.
With the next person that fell through, the mirror broke, startling everyone except the man that had fallen through. He stood up and looked at everyone with tired blue eyes, while his hair was a brilliant black with small grey hairs showing around. A burgundy shirt wash on his chest while his blue pants tried to contrast with it, and his brown boots came up to the middle of his shins, while the pants were tucked in.
The man pointed at the younger man that was still unconscious, “So...what about that one?”