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// Let my dreams guide me 
// Story: The Start of a New Age 
// by Lord-Luzar 
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The Start of A New Age	


By Lord-Luzar




The creaking of the wooden stairs reacting to the weight of the small human boy turned the heads of Ethan and Ester, both startled by the sudden noise. He rose with cobwebs attached to him, and a very confused look on his face. Ester walked over to the boy in concern while Ethan observed from his spot near the window in front of the house. 
“Zephyr...are you alright?” Ester asked, worry in her voice.
The boy stared off for a moment before snapping towards her suddenly, causing Ester to slightly jump, “Yes, yes I’m fine...just in shock.”
Ester raised a brow before putting her hand on his left shoulder, “If you need to talk to anyone about anything, come to me...I’ll listen.”
Zephyr slowly nodded with a distant look in his eye but shook his head once more, before turning to look at Ethan. The scientist in turn stared at the boy for a minute before examining the outside via the clear window. Truly having the time to look around, Zephyr tapped the talisman once more, finally noticing that it had gone dark and walked down the small wooden corridor. The corridor was in alignment with the door and was heavily supported with what seemed to be makeshift supports out of the trunks of large trees, shaved down. After walking what seemed to be 20 feet and spying four pairs of supports, Zephyr reached the bottom of the corridor where he realized a fire had been started. 
Mentally slapping himself, Zephyr saw Zerial sleeping on a leather recliner next to the fire. Not wanting to wake the sleeping man, he turned to inspect the interior of the room. It gave of the same homely feel as the small living room immediately after the door with yet another large amount of books decorated in bookcases that surrounded the room. The roof was reinforced with hard wood and Zephyr wondered exactly who had built the house in the dirt, seeing as how everything was built with wood. A widely decorated red rug stood under his feet, differing from the dirty brown rug in the living room. Spotting a futon at the exact opposite location of the recliner that housed dark blue cushions made the boy raise a brow. He certainly knew next to nothing about home interior and decorating, but it seemed that this home was decorated by an idiot while being built by the same idiot.
A wooden coffee table lay three feet in front of the brick fireplace, the first intelligible design Zephyr spotted, that had a small sheet of glass in the middle of it. Walking over and looking through said glass Zephyr realized that another well-designed rug snugly fit on the wooden floor, the rug being tan in color with red designs swimming around the sides and mainly coursing around the corners. A small wax candle sat in a golden handle, partially melted on the coffee table, while a dusty brown tome sat next to it with a bookmark laying near the end of the tome. 
Curiosity clouding his judgement, Zephyr picked up the book and opened up to the page that the bookmark patiently sat between, practically feeling its happiness for gaining fresh air. It mostly described some kind of journey, plainly being well described and based around some ancient tale. From the gist of a couple of paragraphs Zephyr assumed it was about somepony who had the guts and willpower to challenge an ancient race of conquering ponies the end currently being unknown.
Sliding the bookmark at the beginning of the book and folding it under his arm, Zephyr poked Zariel in the shoulder and was greeted with a snore of annoyance. Regretting his decision before actually committing to it, Zephyr grabbed the tome by the end of the book and hit it across the man’s shoulder. He shot up immediately, glaring at whom who dared to wake him from his peaceful slumber yet calmed down considerably when recognising the smaller boy holding a tome. Zariel recognised it as the tome that had sat on the coffee table, but decided not to comment on it instead holding his head lightly.
“Hey kid, would you gather the others in here? And wake up Stormchaser as well...he would likely want to sit in front of a fire instead of sleeping upstairs.” Zariel requested making the smaller boy nod without protest.
“Of course, but I’ll need to know where they are,” His response elicited a chuckle from Zariel.
“Straight to the point you are, a good trait to find once in a while...the stairwell is where you’ll go to find the rest of them. There’s a surprising amount of beds upstairs...makes you wonder what stayed here before us.” Zariel commented while Zephyr nodded in response once again.
Walking away from the older man, Zephyr looked around the living room in wonder of where this stairwell resided. Looking to his immediate left straight out of the corridor he was surprised to see said stairwell awaiting him, and he wondered as to how he had not seen it before. Perhaps it was covered well or simply he had not paid much attention when walking around the house. 
Reaching upstairs Zephyr realized it was much different from the lower floor of the house, seeing brighter shades of wood as the walls instead of the dark browns he had seen below. Now shades of light red danced across his vision, while darker shades of red played as the floorboards beneath him. Wondering as to what tree the wood respectively belonged to, Zephyr looked ahead while using the talisman to light the way. 
He had passed at least three doors and now stood at a larger set of doors, and they stood a far darker shade of red compared to everything else, almost looking black in color. Opening said doors with the similar aluminum door knobs, Zephyr was greeted with the sight of Zena sprawled out over a large rectangular bed. She seemed to be asleep, due to the annoying sound that scratched the invisible chalk board, specifically named: her snoring. More books rested in bookcases that reached the ceiling, yet again still confusing the far younger child. Smacking her foot with the tome and walking away to avoid the fallout, Zephyr was awarded the violent sounds of her thrashing about angrily.
Now patiently waiting outside the doors, he didn’t flinch as the twin doors slammed against the walls due to the woman’s anger. She looked down at the small boy and flashed her fangs in an effort to inflict fear and make him run away in terror. His deadpan look confused her along with the unamused look in his eyes.
“Zariel wants you downstairs.” He said before turning around and walking over to the first singular door.
Standing in shock, Zena simply closed the double doors and went to redress herself. After walking back outside she saw that the boy had awoken almost all of the others that had gone for naps, including the irritating elf Aeris. He stared into an empty room with an odd look in his eye, seemingly a forlorn feeling erupting from his body. Yet he closed the door and turned to the one next to the staircase, likely belonging to Ordo.
Walking inside, everyone that stood awake wondered if Zephyr would rush out of the room but instead walked outside with directing a curt nod to the still open door before walking down the steps. In her confusion, Zena didn’t notice Stormchaser trot out of his room with an annoyed look on his muzzle, while his primaries touched the floor in agitation. His wings simply hung limp at his side, not caring that they lazily dragged on the wooden floor.
Feeling exactly like the pegasus, Zena left her room with a hunched back, basically dragging her feet across the floor and stepping down the stairs unenthusiastically. It seemed conga line representing the same thing, yet Ordo and Triton patiently waited for the rest to cross their paths. They stepped out of their rooms like they had slept for two days straight, though likely sleeping less than the others had. 
Both walked down the stairs at the same pace and gait, as if they were unknown twins. They both waited for the two other humans two get up from their spots and walk down the corridor with them, as if being so patient was normal. Eventually they entered the room with the fire blazing proudly and stood at the back in silence. Zariel stared at the fire for a long time, long enough that Zena sighed in irritation which seemed to snap him out of his gaze.
“Now I know that most of you are tired,” He started his rough speech, “but I just wanted to inform you of what we’re doing tomorrow. Most of you are going to be searching for food, while I’ll take two of you to come hunt with me, likely Triton as he possesses a bow. I want someone to go back for water, and bring as much as possible while someone else gathers wood and logs for the fire.
“Zephyr will search the basement once more, just in case of anything he might’ve not found earlier. After that we’ll have lunch then rinse and repeat. Then dinner will occur and unfortunately we’ll have to skip having bathes for a couple of days.” He concluded.
“Didn’t you speak of sending Stormchaser of somewhere?” Zephyr interrupted making the man nod with a smile.
“A point I was getting too...as you all know Stormchaser has wings, far too small to lift him up of course, but somehow he gets it to work. Seeing as how we are in a random jungle, out in the middle of nowhere, I’ve decided that it would be of our best intentions to search for some form of civilization. Stormchaser will search first north, then east, then south, and then west...and if he doesn’t find any civilization we should likely just make it out of this forest instead.”
Most nodded in content with the simple plan, seeing as it was formed after some minor planning and thinking. Yet Stormchaser decided to add his own two cents, “Actually, we are in the far south, in a country called Zebrica...mostly populated by zebras. But on my way here I swore I saw a settlement in the far east, maybe I can retrace my steps and search far north for the path I took to get here?” 
His option seemed far better than randomly choosing a direction and flying that way, “It seems more sensible than what I originally planned, so I believe that you should retrace your footsteps and go northwards tomorrow morning.”
Just as Stormchaser was about to correct Zariel, Aeris spoke up, “As much as you guys want to continue talking in front of this annoying fire, I want to go get some sleep...seeing as I have to deal with you people for a while.” He mumbled as he left the room.
“I agree with the elf...even though he really wants to make me choke him.” Zena spoke in turn, tiredly dragging her feet down the hallway.
Zephyr looked up from the tome he had been reading, now on page 3, “Did I miss something?”
Trinton looked over to the small boy and gently asked, “When did you acquire that book, Zephyr? What is it about?”
“Oh, I found this on the coffee table over there. And typically I believe it is telling of some ponies adventures in trying to take down some ancient empire...its surprisingly good though.” Zephyr answered in a interested tone, reading once more.
“Actually, I was wondering as to what you want me to do once I finish in the basement.” Zephyr suddenly said, not looking up from the tome. 
Ethan raised his voice before any others could, “Actually, I found some empty books earlier and some quill and ink along vith it. I wanted to study some of the wildlife of this jungle, it all seems so different yet so similar.”
Zephyr nodded without raising his head, “I see, but I would like to ask...exactly what type of scientist are you?”
“Oh, I’ve been asked that question many times and truly I really don’t have a directed profession, I vas mostly asked questions about anything and I could answer it. I spent most of my time studying many professions and types of science, except geology...zat one was very, very boring.” Ethan frowned, his accent suddenly becoming less prominent.
“Hey kid, could you go pick a room and go to bed? The next conversation shouldn’t be heard on such young ears,” Zariel said making the eyebrows raise of the fellow adults in the room.
“Sure, though you’ve purely stoked my curiosity.” Zephyr truthfully spoke, placing the aged bookmark in between the pages. 
Looking up, Zephyr stood up from the futon he sat on, leaving the side of Ester and Ethan. Making his way through the corridor and gently stepping up the stairs Zephyr overheard something he might’ve not supposed to hear, “I know that most of you had something back home that was very important to you...I plan on knowing who took that from us.”
Zariel’s voice had suddenly become very dark, and no one seemed to object. Simply a long silence followed, the only thing the boy could hear was his own footsteps against the wooden floor. Zephyr suddenly stopped in front of a room, knowing that someone hadn’t used it before him. It was the third from the stairs, and his prediction of how many doors there were in the hallway seemed to be wrong. Correctly counting now, Zephyr counted seven, not including the double doors at the end.
The thing that drew him to the door was not in fact that it wasn’t occupied, but the slight whispering that now entered his mind. It felt familiar, truly it was similar to the feeling he had gained when travelling through the small vent and met the odd totally non-egyptian Empress. It was very odd though, meeting a powerful Empress that had slept for a millennia while just after leaving a magical mirror that shattered as the last of them left it. It felt to close together to be more than just a coincidence, and Zephyr felt that something was going on, yet as much as he wanted to do something about it, he couldn’t.
He merely now possessed an orange talisman and a book which tells the tale of a stallion on a grand adventure, not much to take down some dark plan that waited in the shadows. Shaking his head, Zephyr turned the knob on the door and walked inside the room, the interior not differing from the other rooms. Yet instead of bookcases lining the walls he found simple paintings of the moon and sun spreading their light over different types of landscapes. 
Two flowers sat at either side of the bed, looking like the sun and moon. The one on the left glowed a brilliant white and light-blue, while the flower itself had a blue color scheme with a green stem. Five petals symmetrically positioned around the pistil while six golden stamen sat erect, differing from the blue color. 
The orange flower had two layers of petals, the first layer being pure orange while the one behind it was a darker orange. The same six golden stamen were positioned around the pistil, and small dark orange dots were randomly placed around the first layer of petals. The green stem differed from the color scheme as well, while the golden stamen seemed to add to it’s seemingly holy grandeur. 
Shaking his head at the odd appearance of two celestial flowers, Zephyr laid the book on the nightstand with the moon based flower potted on it. He had liked the color blue slightly more than the color orange for a long time anyways, and the way in countered with the room made him feel slightly better about whomever decorated this house. Slipping off his shoes and placing them in front of the same nightstand, Zephyr then took off his shirt in turn. 
He had always been more comfortable when the different cloth brushed against his skin instead of sleeping in his own clothes. Yet he kept his pants and socks on, knowing that his feet would always be could in the morning without socks. Sliding into the left side of the black sheet covered bed, Zephyr wondered of what he would dream of. Though the words of Zariel had lingered in his mind, as if it were some devious plot and Zephyr had a premonition about it ending horribly. But that couldn’t been true...yet his senses had never failed him, or have been oddly specific. 
Looking at the celestial flower that resembled the glowing moon, Zephyr closed his eyes, hoping to meet something warm in his dreams for once. Yet he never realized that something all-too-familiar would greet him instead.