L`Univers: "The Sigil" Book 2

The two villages

     The world of Oniphere was only but a single continent surrounded by the giant ocean that spanned across the planet. The continent itself was also named Onipehere after the planet it was simple enough, what wasn’t simple enough was the shape of the continent, it looked like nothing… it didn’t form any recognizable shape, it simply looked like a cancer cell on top of the blue canvas that was the giant ocean. The continent whilst it might not have looked the best from outer space, the surface was a thing to behold, every region had its own unique climate, its own vegetation, its own resources, and its own people called Kin. The Kin were once a prosperous civilization living in unification, no differences, they had one universal currency and every citizen followed the same rules as the other citizen on the other side of the continent, it was equality for everybody. That was before they discovered the iron and bronze, and after that, they just couldn’t stand each other. The fact of the matter was that this world contained magic and some of the Kin knew how to use it, after the discovery of iron and bronze society took a turn towards the steampunk era, they figured out how to combine charcoal and iron together and built machines that could do tasks who thought impossible to do. The Kin were soon starting to forget about magic and that it ever existed in fact, but not all of them, not all of them wanted to forget about magic and about the gods. You see the way they learned to use magic was to appease the gods which were a couple of them, each god gave one kind of magic with different abilities depending on who you worship. Those that turned to technology were no longer interested in magic, and those that wanted to continue to practice the ways of magic were not interested in technology from the start. This caused a shift not just into the politics of the continent but its geography as well, and thus the continent changed, the rules changed, borders were drawn, Kin became hostile towards each other, first there were cults, then clubs, then factions, and in the blink of an eye it became an army that wanted to occupy land on its own. They split the continent amongst themselves and never bothered each other again, those that wanted to practice magic practiced in the northern part of the continent, those that wanted to study science and technology could do that in the western part of the continent. The middle part was the lungs of the continent as well as the beacon of Oniphere. It was green the forests were rich and thick with trees, where the forest ended a giant lake of grass stretched across a flat plain whilst the gentle breeze was rocking the grass blades. In the middle of the lake of grass proudly and tall stood the White City, a capital for all of Oniphere if the forests were the lungs of the continent the city was the heart of it. If all else fell and gave up the White City was the last hope if the White City fell the whole continent fell. Here Kin from all parts of the world traveled if anybody wanted to travel somewhere it first must go through the city and then to the final destination. Traders from all over the continent also flooded the markets where tourists would buy their wares. The Kin also managed to make a living in the city, it wasn’t just for trading and diplomacy between the factions, but the city was also home to almost half the population on the continent if you count the two villages Villeurve and Silverwater that surrounded the White City. The Kin that lived here never really gave much thought to which faction they belong to they just used the benefits of both and for the most part, they remained neutral. The city was some fortress, its walls were tall and made of white stone, there was no ladder nor machine tall enough to climb over them, the only entrance was the giant gate that was reinforced with iron. If anyone foolish enough to attempt to conquer the city, that somebody not only would he have to go past through the first set of walls but once he enters the square of the city he would get greeted by another set of walls and behind those walls another set of walls and just like that all the way to the top, where the kings palace stood. In summary, if anyone wanted to conquer the city it would have to prepare an army that could conquer five cities instead of one because that’s how hard it was the White City counted for five cities and nobody had the manpower nor the technology for such endeavor.

     To the north was Everpeak, the Northern kingdom, Everpeak was a mountain it`s peak was ever so high into the heavens you could not see it with bare eyes, tales have been told that some have dared to climb it but no real proof has been shown, it is said that when you reach the top you could touch the stars. But below the peak at the base of the mountain were the city’s walls and gates made out of emerald stone, who were high as well. Inside the mountain is where they thrived digging ever so deep in the mountain erecting buildings here and there in the insides of the mountain connecting them with bridges. They were a well mannered and cultured, smart and wise in the ways of magic, some say that their faith in the Watcher of Ice gives them the ability to perform magic as thanks to their faith, but they still have to practice in order to be able to use magic properly without hurting anybody. The path to Everpeak is narrow and surrounded by hills and mountains anybody who wasn’t born in the north never dared venture there but only the brave and the foolish, its harsh temperatures were not a joke. The northerners had no problem but anybody else could not stand the cold and often times it was fatal, it was a trip that was just not worth it. That is one of the reasons why magic remained only in the north, the northerners never bothered coming down, they had everything they needed in the mountain and nobody dared go north, it was a rare sight to see a northerner all the way to the middle of the continent except for those that were excommunicated from Everpeak or the criminals that managed to escape the prisons.

     Upon the west was Lastcliff or Steampeak as the natives called it. It had two names because of two reasons first of all the city in the west was located at the edge of the continent, and because of its high altitude it was all rocks and canyons, there were no beaches and sand. If a vampire were to build a castle on a rocky shore where the water would splash on the rocks down below this is where he would build it. It was a cliff and after that, it was just the giant ocean, after that there was no land it was the last cliff before the giant ocean or Lastcliff. The name Steampeak also came from their fascination with engineering, they weren`t like the folks from the North believing in some sort of Watcher. The word magic they turned into a science, the flying gryphons they turned into zeppelins and kites. The hammer and anvil were the sacred items for them, machine and Kin together to a better and stable future. Inventors, scientists, doctors, and engineers working tirelessly on progress and innovation, unlike Everpeak, Steampeak was much easier to reach in fact they welcomed everybody with open arms into their city in hope that they would manage to make somebody stay there and follow their ways. “What’s the point of teaching magic, if nobody is able to study it?” that`s what they would always say about the north since nobody could reach Everpeak. Steampeak and Everpeak never really saw eye to eye luckily the White City was there to keep things in order.

     On the South, the region was called Dryland and it was dry indeed, sand as far as the eye could see, there was only one thing that was distinct in all that sand. It was a river that split the region in two and in between the river in the center of the region a city stood. Yimeon it was called ruled by its young sheikha. Their culture was known for their crafts of rugs and carpets with various forms and patterns. They also experimented with various seasonings in their food. The city itself was built with yellow sand bricks giving it a distinct look of Arabic civilization. The south-eastern part of the continent contained most of the resources the world needed in the sand they managed to discover glass, charcoal, and iron. Miners would mine those resources and then sell them to the traders in the city. Yimeon is where most of the traders came from this was their starting position most of them would buy the resources from the miners and then would set off to different parts of the continent to sell the resources, not only did the traders sell raw materials but all the seasonings for the food, Yimeon was also known for their plantations with apple trees and it wasn’t long before Steampeak came up with a machine to turn the apple into an apple cider. Basically, Yimeon fed the whole world.

     Nobody knew what was on the east of the map as it was just a blank space waiting to be drawn out. Many legends and theories circle around the continent about what could be there. Steampeak has a theory that there`s a giant volcano that spits lava now and then and would explain why theres glass charcoal and iron in the southeast of the sand dessert. Ofcourse they tried confirming this but every time they tried the engine of the machine or the zeppelin would stall and crash making it an impossible journey since the land was burned and barren with no river nor animals nor any kind of food in sight. Then it was the Everpekans turn they mounted their gryphons and set out to chart the east, but it was not to be as no gryphon would dare go deep into the east, the poor terrified creatures would lose their mind and flap their wings chaotically. A gryphon was loyal to its master but as soon as they neared east, they would lose their mind and the survival insticts would take over loyalty, often times they would knock off the rider from the mast and the Everpeakan would fall to his death and those that managed to hold onto the crazed gryphon never came back to tell the tale, because the gryphon would fly off into a random direction and never come back. What force could it be? What power holds back everything from ever venturing to the east? You see there`s history about the east whether its true or not is disputed because enough time has passed that is no longer a true historical fact but a legend. The Kin may not be very creative when it comes to naming their cities or the continent, but they will be excused because giving names to the cities was the least of their worries the world and its subjects have been no strangers to hardships, from famine and dark ages to wars between civilizations, and to put their differences aside in order to fight the giant beast Vega. Who was Vega? A dragon, described by many and a real threath that could someday return. But just a myth to others, bedtime stories, or just to scare away the kids. Some say it brought great destruction and for generations has killed many who dared to oppose him. The Kin, bidded their time, hidding in the shadows revealed the weakness and defeated the mighty Vega. Magic and technology combined alas. Steampeak and Everpeak working together against a common enemy, the result of their alliances brought them peace and safety, but it wasn`t to last forever. These humble subjects never knew of the outside, never dared sail, never dared fly, never even dared communicate to each other again and soon again they reverted to their old ways again. Years have passed and the alliances have faded away every nation retreated to a different corner of the continent, each thriving in their own tradition and culture in sacrifice of losing communication with each other, could a real threath bring them close again and have them work together as they once were? Only time will tell, because nobody knows best than… time.

     `Twas a beatiful sunny day the birds chirping, the wind rustling the trees, the mountains in the background looking gorgeous as always until a flaming arrow flew right across the scenery, no two arrows, no the whole flock of arrows just flew right across and fell next to the dead bodies of soldiers hitting and missing whereever they land. Smoke was coming out from every corner of the battlefield the ground was scorched beyond recognition, foot tracks and blood everywhere on the muddy ground, `twas a real battlefield. Francis the brave they called him, who had a long blonde hair, brown eyes, thin lips and small nose. His body was masculine with average height as it should be for someone who is called brave or a soldier for that matter. He was wearing a brown soldier’s uniform combined with a red cape on the back, he sliced soldiers left and right such skillful killing no one has ever seen before on the battlefield, who would dare to opose him? Who could say has the same skill? He kept slicing the enemies as he also kept moving and pushing on the battlefield but there was a one man who had enough, who was tired and angered by the death of his men. Hugo le noble, Hugo had a short black hair, dark eyes, small nose and thin lips, his height was about the same with Francis he had a silver-ish uniform with blue cape on the back and had an authentic french accent. He just finished killing an enemy from the red capes as he starred at Francis and he starred back at Hugo. Hugo pointed at him and pulled back his palm, Francis knew that he was being challenged and ignored everything and everyone around him and headed toward Hugo.                                                                                                                 

     “Francouis,” Hugo paced around him.                                                                                   

     “It`s Francis, you, noble f**k,” he also paced, both of them paced in a circle.   “My sword is thirsty for a noble blood,” Francis taunted him. “It would have been better that your father came, then I would have gotten to kill the king.”                            

     “For this tiny army the king?” Hugo laughed. “What is this? You`ve gathered the whole village to fight for you?” asked Hugo, and he was right, Francis`s army was not that big but neither was Hugo`s. Both of the armies indeed came from a village. You see, the same river passed through the two villages and Silverwater was the village that Francis lives in, and down by the river is Villeurve where Hugo lives in. The problem is that the two villages depend on the river but lately Silverwater has been polluting the drinking water for Villeurve thus they couldn`t come to an agreement and began the war.                                                                                                 

     “You know what you are doing isn`t right,” said Hugo. “You are standing on the wrong side of justice.”                                                                                                                  

     “I`ll show you justice,” said Francis as he took a swing of the sword but Hugo dodged it and readied his sword holding it firmly in his grasp as he screamed and swinged the sword toward Francis, but he was ready and winged his sword again, both of the blades clashed and clanked for a while and none of them showed any sign of weakness nor tiredness. They kept going at it, still remaining in a stalemate, the fight looked like a well-planed out coreography it was sort of pleasant for the eyes, outmanouvering themselves and dodging certain hits and blows. The sweat and the frequent breathing finally caught up to them, they became slower and the swings were less frequent. Hugo distanced himself a few steps back as he was ready to start taking his armor off because it slowed him down and was becoming really heavy. The war stopped, every soldier stopped fighting and stood still, all of them together as if they didn`t try to kill each other minutes ago, they stood and they watched as the epic battle unfolded in front of their eyes. The two men took off their armor and remained only in their clothing, their bodies were a mixture of sweat, blood and mud and their faces were nothing better, but they kept going neither one of them was going to slow down any time soon. But it wasn`t to be, something else took their attention. A sound like they never heard of before, as if a giant boulder tore itself because of its weight from a top a hill, and a thunder striking from the heavens, as if all those sounds mixed together. None of them didn`t want to look away, not knowing when one could strike a blow, but both of them were intrigued aswell. They looked toward the direction of where the sound came but nothing… It became silent all the soldiers stopped killing each other, the birds stopped chirping and the trees stopped rustling what was once a very noisy battlefield became as quiet as a graveyard, as if time stood still or the sound was set on mute. They looked at each other and looked away towards the direction of the dreading sound. The hill was quiet for a while and looked normal, but only for a while. A blinding red light flashed in a second from behind the hill and sent out a shockwave that traveled all the way to the battlefield and threw everybody on the ground as they collapsed immediatelly.

     The soldier’s ears were ringing, stunned in their minds they moved around not knowing what just occurred. Could it be supernatural? Or could it be some sort of magic? However, Francis and Hugo were laying motionless on the muddy ground, they weren`t dead, far from it, their hearts were still beating it would seem that they have passed out by the shockwave, rather strange that the only two generals would pass out whilst the soldiers were fine. They were reasonable enough and made a pact between the two sides that there has been enough bloodshed for one day. The soldiers took Hugo`s and Francis`s bodies and brought them back to the villages. Cedric stood impatiently at the gates of Villeurve as the sodliers carried Hugo. Hugo`s father: Cedric; was the leader or king of the village according to Francis. He went running to hug Hugo`s motionless body thinking that his only son was dea, but his hearth was still beating what could have happened? Cedric was like a fly without a head just buzzing around the village left and right bothering the soldiers to explain to him what exactly happened. Even stranger nobody seemed to remember, nobody knew about any crashing sound as if the earth tore itself apart, nor anybody knew about any blinding red light, everybody seemed to have forgotten what just happened to them. Perhaps Hugo and Francis knew, but they were in a coma for the time being.

     “Where is he?” a girl ran toward the gates of Silverwater as the soldiers carried Francis, Cristina threw herself to hug him as she cried over his body, she thought that he was dead but he wasn’t, he simply was in a coma.

     “What`s going on?” a man who wore dark clothes and a dark cape walked toward the group of soldiers that were gathered at the gates, the man had long curly black hair, blue eyes and a small round face the crowd cleared a way for him he had his sword straped on his bossom, you`d think he is always ready for war.

     “It`s Francis sire, he is not well Anfroy sire, he fell on the battlefield,” explained one soldier. Anfroy just looked at the soldier and kneeled down to Francis to hear if he has a heartbeat. “Cristina…” he called out to her as she looked at him. “He is alive, get to the hut he needs tending to.”

     “Tell me he is going to be fine Anfroy…” she cried.

     “He will be, go now,” he stood up. “Come on men! Help her!” he ordered the soldiers to carry Francis into his hut.

     Cristina remained at Francis’s side day and night non-stop if there was a slight hope of life, a flinch she would of noticed it, but Francis never did that for the next three days. Francis was trapped in a dream but it wasn`t just him. 

                                                                                            ֍֍֍

     “Do you remember son?” Francis`s father asked him, he was sitting on a three-legged chair next to the wooden wall of the hut, whilst his son was swinging a wooden sword in the air. “The tales of our ancestors, how they fought bravely against Vega?”

     “Yes father,” Francis just a small boy with a short blonde hair, training with his wooden sword. “The giant red beast wth fiery eyes, scales hard as iron, it`s sharp talons and it`s giant wings capable of creating a hurricane. Tell me father how was it slain?”

     “It wasn’t,” said his father. “Our Kin had been covering for centuries against the foul beast, covering and biding their time.”

     “For what father?”

     “Knowledge son… Machinery and magic brought together, thus the foul beast was defeated.”

     “Did they kill him father?”

     “Nobody knows… Nobody has dared to venture east where it fell, injured.”

     “If it returns father…” Francis struck his wooden sword at the dummy. “I shall be prepared.”

     “All right then…” his father pushed him to the ground as he tickeld him. “A warrior will need his strenght, off to eat now come on,” Francis ran toward his house.

     “Father…” he stopped before entering the house. “What`s that?” he pointed toward the smoke coming from behind the walls of the castle.

     “Go inside kid,” his father looked toward the smoke as he grabbed the sword.

     “But father no!”

     “Go inside Francis!” his father looked at him angrily. “Lock the doors and don`t come out whatever you hear! Protect your mother and sister!” his father ran to defend the city, little did Francis knew this was the last time he would see his father alive, not that a scary dragon killed him but in fact it was Cedric`s soldiers that invaded. It’s the main reason why Francis simply cannot stand Hugo, not only the fact that they are rivals, but Hugo’s father killed his father and for that there’s personal vendetta for Francis towards Hugo and especially towards Cedric, even though Hugo was just a small boy just like him back then and had nothing to do with the attack.