- Location
- A pile of cheese
*Cough* Still awaiting a continuation to the PM about the crossover project*Cough*
Writing Something Every Day*, Xantalos Edition
Tales From Epochs Past - A Life Journey
Xantalos
Turtle-Speed Writing
I was looking through some old projects of mine last night and I found one of the very first writing endeavors I ever did. Well, not very first, those were when I was very very young, but this was still before I was even a teenager. 12, maybe?
It's not very good. In fact it's rather shitty. It does, however, hold the dubious distinction of being the first story that I fully completed - the rest of my projects up to that point had been incomplete ideas or sets of worldbuilding stuff that I never got around to building an actual world out of. (One of them I legitimately plotted out the history of the entire universe up to present day in the setting, and I never made a single character).
This is also the first story that I ever wrote while under a time constraint, which ... explains some things.
Anyhow, I figured you guys might find it amusing to see the depths of enthusiastic ineptitude I started from, so here it is, transcribed exactly as I wrote it, grammatical mistakes and all. I did do some formatting stuff in places to make it less WALL, however. I'll see if I can't upload the pictures of the story and cover art I made for it to imgur, since I actually drew illustrations and such for it as well.
Behold, A Life Journey!
It was revealed that The Horde was not alive, and dedicated to the destruction of all life. There is no record of what happened next, but it is known that all life in the Universe ended, but not before a speck of life was imbued on a round ball like rock. It was given by Karona, a lowly death spirit in The Horde's army.
The sun went dark. It would be millennia before again life awakened. Later, The Horde vigorously set about some... improvements. The trees were still there, but became brittle and lifeless. The view was a panorama because there were virtually no landmarks. The rock was growing, giving the occasional shudder, and once, a spontaneous bounce, sending it tumbling into a crevasse in the Earth. There it would grow, getting stronger until it opened it's eyes. But that was a long way away...
The thing opened it's eyes. Questions immediately rushed into it's mind, whispering, "Where am I?", "Who am I?", and "What am I?". A voice drifted through it's mind, saying over and over again, "Kono-Kal, Kono-Kal." It was not sure, but that fit, somehow. Kono-Kal tried to figure out where he was, but how was he he? How did he understand anything at all? What was he? Again the voice drifted through his mind, this time saying, "Bohrock-Kal, Bohrock-Kal". So, he must be a Bohrock-Kal, even though he had no idea what exactly that was.
By now his eyes had adjusted to the darkness, and he could see that he was in a huge cavern, and out of the corner of his vision, something trickled down the wall. WATER!!! He did not know what water was, but instinct told him he needed it immediately! He tried to get up on his feet (but what were feet?)But could not. He tried to move his feet every which way, but they would not budge. The he tried to move his arms (Arms? Never heard of them!), and they finally came loose. With the release of his arms, his feet also became free. His foot lifted, and his body shifted forward. Suddenly he realized that his body was off balance. He tipped forward and fell. THUD! He landed on a plateau with a dip at the edge. He walked forward to the dip quickly, paused at the edge, bent his legs, and sprung forward. On instinct he folded his legs upward, pressed his arms against his sides, and landed on a spike, and bounced off with a Tock!!!
He heaved a breath that he somehow knew was a sigh. Circling around the spike, he saw a sort of fountain, with water spouting from a smooth slide and rocketing up into the slightly musty air. Right at that moment, a rock smacked down on the top of his head. Within nano seconds, his head snapped forward with such violent force that it completely shattered the fountain and sent rock and dust spraying all over the cavern.
Five hundred meters above, Karona paused, he thought he had heard a clearly audible RUMBLE. His mind flashed back to the time he had created Kono-Kal (though he did not know his name). He had never really liked the Horde, and wanted really only to irritate him. Was it possible the Kono-Kal had survived? He dismissed this thought from his mind. He had left it on a barren rock, it couldn't have possibly survived, but still he couldn't help feeling it disconcerting, and strode quickly on.
Back down in the cavern, Kono-Kal had discovered something very tragic. Although he had made it almost to the roof of the cavern (he had made steps of sorts using his head to carve the cavern walls into stairs), he had just realized that he was the only thing alive in the universe! And besides that, how would he get any food? (He was voraciously hungry now that his thirst had been quenched from the fountain.) He was at the roof of the cavern and popped out with a BUNK and saw the figure of Karona receding into the distance. Acting on instinct, he ran up top a tree, snapped off a big branch and it became absorbed in his body... he had eaten at last!
Kono-Kal rolled into a ball and rolled after Karona at speeds up to 100mph, and quickly caught up with him. He unrolled and touched Karona lightly on the shoulder. It was a critical mistake. The Horde, (who at the time was on a killing massacre in a universe filled with shape shifting robots that transformed into vehicles....) Sensed the touch (even from galaxies away), and began to travel through dimensions to the source. Kono-Kal's instincts took over. His hands started glowing, and (still holding Karona) reached up... and ripped a hole between dimensions.
Not really being troubled by Karona's weight, he leaped through and into another universe. They tumbled onto a platform. A strange being rode up to them and handed over two things saying briskly, "You're at Forge 7A45923314792L.... get to work!". "What?" asked Karona, confused. "Work, isn't that what you came here for? Beings always come here to make more of whatever they trade." Before the bewildered duo could answer, he shoved them into a pod, and they were carried down to another platform with a humongous fire and several long things, like the ones they were holding. The things suddenly took control of their bodies, and they had to start to make things in the forge.
When they got a break, they finally talked. "What are you?" Karona asked suspiciously. "Who and What are YOU?" Kono-Kal growled. Then before Karona could react, Kono-Kal grabbed him, and slammed him against a wall. "Yet I sense you have made life." Confused, he released him. "I am Karona, a death spirit. The life you sense must be the time I created the poor short-lived rock, on the rocky plateau, back in that other universe we came from. I wish the Horde had never created me. I always just wanted to live." Explained Karona. Kono-Kal replied, "I am Kono-Kal, I have no idea who or what I am, but I know that I want to get OUT OF HERE!!"
They formed a partnership, and Kono-Kal learned all that Karona had learned, and Karona was assured of his protection, word of honor. After a while, Karona started "You'll see." wondering why they were not escaping. "You'll see!" Kono-Kal said, always smiling. "You'll see."
So things stayed that way, work work work, day after day, week after week, until finally, 43 years, 7 months, 2 weeks, 5 days, 17 hours, 47 minutes and 12 seconds after their arrival, Kono-Kal acted. He and Karona were on work duty, so the long stick things were controlling their bodies as usual, but this time they had it all planned out.
Kono-Kal ripped his mind free of the tool's constraints. Karona, with Kono-Kal's help, managed to do the same. Normally, they would have ran, jumping from platform to platform, and there would have been a lot of shooting and danger with the attempted escape, and maybe if they were lucky they would get a fast paced theme track. The way they actually traveled was quieter, and a lot more convenient.
"Wow!" Karona said as they landed. "You modified the atoms in the air to make a solid air cushion! Whoo." They had spent all those years testing their abilities. It turned out that Kono-Kal had quite a few! He was quite amazing for such a little creature. Kono-Kal's hands glowed, and ripped an inter-dimensional portal, but before they went through, Kono-Kal unleashed a blast from his body that freed them from their tools' constraints and filled them with the urge to jump through the portal.
One of the other worker beings came to them saying, "Take me with you, PLEASE!!!! I never meant to be here!" Begged the little being. Kono-Kal was sympathetic. "Okay" he said, "but you have to tell us who you are and swear that you will not betray us. "No problem," said the being, "I am Takuan, and I absolutely SWEAR with all my heart that you will not need to worry about me betraying you." "That is good." smiled Karona, "Now come on, let's go!" They all stepped out through the portal.
It was dark for a moment, then they caught sight of another building, but not any ordinary building. it was a fortress! The trio stared up at the fortress in awe. It would be absolutely impossible to either break in - or out. There was no other real choice, so they walked up to the massive gate and Kono-Kal gave it a pounding, putting a huge dent in it. "We'd better look friendly. With security like that, inside who knows what type of beings they are!" Said Karona.
"Good point, but from what we know, they could never bring ME down," said Kono Kal. (It was true, one of his weakest abilities was to fire extremely corrosive acid fire from his eyes.) The gate swung open. A tall being that was covered in armor plating greeted them, "Hello, are you the new trainees? I am Galia." It had a surprisingly gentle voice. "Please, come inside."
As soon as they were inside, the gate slammed shut, and Kono-Kal instantly whirled, hands trained on a point on the door. A powerful beam began to pulse inside the space where his hands were, then he restrained himself. Takuan said, "Why did you not restrain him? He could have blown the gate right off it's hinges." "I doubt it, those gates are impenetrable.", Galia said cooly. "I doubt that!" muttered Kono-Kal. "I am sorry, but it is security measures," explained Galia, starting along a long corridor, and motioned for them to follow. "You never know when you might be attacked."
Takuan had noticed something, "Aren't you a little paranoid about the attack thing? This place looks like a fortress from the outside!" Galia seemed to ignore this comment, "You must be tired, let me show you to your rooms.." "We thank you for your hospitality, don't we?" Takuan asked rather venomously, as none of the triad had thought of thanking Galia.
Galia led them to a few rooms that were not luxurious, but had accessories that none of them had seen before. After giving quick instructions as to how to work the new things in the rooms, she bid the three good day, and left them alone.
That night, Kono-Kal pondered on himself. As far as he himself knew, he was not supposed to live for more than a few days. Instead, he had defied expectations, and actually survived without food or water for 50,000 years! He did not really know what to do with himself, he just wanted to discover his purpose in life. Perhaps, eventually someone could explain it to him.
In the meantime, maybe he could figure out why there was a light shining over him, and his two sleeping companions, or what the strong smell of burned rope in the air was? Rope.... uh-oh. Rope and something that looked like spikes above them... he dove out to the side and pushed his friends roughly out of the cot they were sleeping on, and at that precise moment, the rope snapped. At the same time, Kono-Kal ripped open space and time to create a portal - the trap was dropped into the portal, and was transported to another universe. Karona, now awake and aware put a shield orb around himself and Takuan, none too soon, as the floor opened up beneath them, and they fell!
Karona stopped them with a quick grab, and a secret compartment opened and began pelting them with rocks... more accurately, their shield orb. Many other things occurred that night, many of which legends are composed on. The predicament they faced in the morning was, unfortunately, far worse. Galia opened the door, and seeing that Kono-Kal was the only one awake, motioned for him to follow, and to bring the others.
He levitated them, which was easier than carrying the two companions. "Today your training begins," said Galia, leading Kono-Kal down a hallway. "I will introduce you to an instructor, but from then on I will only guide you to him." said Galia. For perhaps the first time Kono-Kal noticed that Galia wore blue armor.
She led them to a being with red armor who looked none too friendly. After the red armor being woke the other two, he said "show me your abilities." He was pointing first to Takuan. "Bbb-u-ttt I don't have don't have any really special abilities," stammered Takuan. "Good, you can be on the work force," the being seemed very nasty. All of them hated him instantly.
"Now you," he said pointing to Karona. After Karona had demonstrated everything he could do, (which was quite exhausting) the red being told Kono-Kal to do the same. In the end they were assigned to different categories based on their abilities, Karona to Strike Assassins, and Kono-Kal to Assault Chargers. Well, no thanks, the three agreed they would escape to anywhere else but here! As said before, it was impossible to break out, so there was only one option left for Kono-Kal.
He used his illusion power (which he had not shown the instructor) to make the illusion that there was a huge battle army right at the door of the fortress! Instantly, an alarm sounded. They raced out of their door, grabbing Takuan (Kono-Kal had put a warrior disguise illusion around Takuan) and ran outside, and began to battle" the "army". After that, Kono-Kal transported them to another universe, but not before someone grabbed hold of Karona's hand. The mystery person was still there when they arrived in the next universe, which was dotted all over in giant temples! When they turned to see who it was, Galia smiled upon the three sheepishly.
Galia seemed relieved. "I knew you were leaving," she said, "and I always wanted a change!" Karona smiled, and asked, "Well, where are we now?"
Kono-Kal was already halfway to the nearest temple. "Let's find out, I am getting bored already!"
By the time the others had caught up with Kono-Kal, he had already gained admission to the main temple, and many short, and wise looking beings were hobbling around him. From Kono-Kal's point of view, they were Turaga, wise beings that had enormous knowledge of many things, and could help him find his destiny. When the others arrives, he told them what he knew, and the Turaga saw the fatigue in the group. They invited them to retire to some modest quarters to rest. They gratefully accepted.
Kono-Kal decided to ask about his destiny. He really wanted to know what it was he was meant to do!! When he asked, almost everybody said, "Go to Dorana. Dorana will tell you." So after asking around a bit more, he went to Dorana. Dorana, after taking several hours to get into a trance, mumbled, "Battle The Horde, soon you must; in Karona place your trust."
"But what of Takuan?"asked Kono-Kal. His answer was "Takuan, oh now, smart is he, but just how brave, you will see."
"And Galia?"
"Galia risk her life will she, be her conscious* you must be."
Kono-Kal pondered this, and then said, "Very well, I will do as you say." Three days later, Kono-Kal called his friends to a meeting and said, "We have to leave." The decision was unanimous. There was nothing to do here. They were astonished when a Turaga walking past, Moroda, agreed! Even more so when he asked if he might join them!**
So two days later, they all met a short distance outside one of the temples. Kono-Kal opened another portal, and they traveled to the universe where he had originated. It was here that the showdown with the Horde would take place, for now, nothing much would be damaged.
Kono-Kal suddenly felt woozy. Darkness started eating away at his vision and he fell. Karona, seeing Kono-Kal fall, rushed to his side. "He's collapsed. Demonstrating his abilities to the instructor must have drained his energy - more than he thought." Inside Takuan's head the spark of an idea was bouncing around, ricocheting around his skull. "Why don't we transfer our energy to him so he will be able to battle The Horde?"
"It could work," said Karona nervously. "But if we start, and he is still unconscious, we will eventually die!!!"
Kono-Kal stirred. "Give me a thimbleful of energy........I'll generate the rest myself."
So they poured their energies (only a thimbleful!) into his body. He started glowing, and rose into the air, whole body pulsing with light. There was a flash, and Kono-Kal was on his feet, limber as ever. He notices that the other four were exhausted from their efforts, so he gave them a blast of light that revitalized their bodies.
Kono-Kal was the first to turn to the main matter of trying to defeat The Horde. "How are we going to attract The Horde to this place?" he said, gesturing at the completely flat and barren landscape. "Well, the last time we attracted him, you touched me on the shoulder when I didn't expect it." "Well, might as well get it over with," said Kono-Kal, and touched Karona on the shoulder.
The Horde was split with outrage. There was still life in a Razed Universe!!! He would take care of this. The Dark Spirit army that he commanded would crush the life somehow still surviving there.
From Kono-Kal's point of view, things were getting nasty. A second Takuan had appeared!!! Yet this one had an evil aura about him. Had to be the Horde. This was confirmed when 'Takuan' split into a massive horde of insects and, out of an interdimensional portal, a million creatures that looked like Karona came through.
"You take care of the army," Kono-Kal whispered to Karona and Takuan. "I'll take on their leader." Before any of them could react, however, Galia could not restrain her rage any longer, and threw herself at The Horde. Kono-Kal sent out a hand of heat energy and caught her just before she was within The Horde's range. He put her in a cage made of light. "Sorry, Galia, I'll have to take him. Remember your conscience."
Karona was already at the Death Spirit's front. Kono-Kal marched to The Horde's face. Karona started talking to the Death Spirits. "Haven't you ever just wanted to stop destroying things? What did The Horde promise you in return for your services?"
"Life," one of them called out.
"But The Horde is DESTROYING life, all life," Karona shouted. "And besides, you have all seen The Horde's abilities over the years," he roared in outrage. Takuan hurried to Kono-Kal's side. "Give them a vision of what it is like to be alive and they will probably lose confidence - a lot of it." Karona was still talking. "Have you EVER seen The Horde give life to ANYTHING?!"
Takuan hurried over to Karona and was telling him about his plan with the vision when a particularly nasty Death Spirit unleashed a blast of shadow energy right at Karona. Takuan trusted these three beings more than any he had ever met. All his life he had been conned and cheated by other beings trying to climb the ladder of power, and as a result he would do anything for the four in his company.
He threw himself in front of Karona and was struck by the bolt of writhing, dark energy that hungrily absorbed his life force and left him an empty shell on the ground.
"NO!!!!!" screamed the loudest voice anyone had ever heard. It came from Kono-Kal. He sent a wave of shifting energy towards the army and they were treated to a rendering of an invasion of the universe by the army - with them as the inhabitants.
On a grassy plain, a portal opened, and what looked like a small, mole-like creature stumbled out. It looked around for a bit, then went to the place where the ruler of that universe resided. It quickly threw the universe into a panic by claiming that the universe was in danger from dark energy that wanted to consume it, then the entire universe was bowing down to it when it pulled out a seed and claimed that it could destroy those dark forces.
It planted it and instantly, everything froze. The thing chuckled, then a massive portal opened and an army of Death Spirits came flooding out. A black cloud with evil red eyes was in place of the mole-like creature. Everything was still frozen, but the frozen inhabitants could still see their plight. Every one of the Death Spirits came to a victim, and all went dark.
The Death Spirits were very disconcerted, and then, they realized that just before everything froze, The Horde had shouted, "Life shall not exist anywhere!!!" So as one, they vanished, gone to try to right their wrongs. The Horde seemed fairly angry, but that was nothing compared to Kono-Kal's rage. He knew that The Horde had created the Death Spirits, and now one of them had killed his friend and one of the few beings anywhere that he trusted. It was only a matter of time until his fury was unable to be contained and he burst with uncontrollable power.
Galia, inside her cage, shed a single tear. It was this that drove Kono-Kal over the brink of mindless rage.
"BROAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGHHHHHHTAAAAARRR!!!!" he screamed, charging forward. His hands began glowing, with one he (with his telekinesis powers) squeezed all the insects that comprised The Horde's form into a tightly packed sphere. With the other (which had become coated in pure explosive napalm) he drew back... and let fly with an enormous punch.
The explosion was legendary. A fireball nine hundred million leagues wide and tall was created within 0.1/900,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 of a nano-second of a nano-second and yet did not touch the four beings and one dead body there. The full force of the blast his the cloud of insects that was The Horde. In logic, it should have been incinerated. Yet when the smoke cleared, it was there, seemingly unscathed, but very badly shaken. Kono-Kal followed that up with a gigantic poison gas cloud which he summoned from midair.
Now The Horde realized the weaknesses of his 'swarm of insects' form. They dispersed and formed a cloud of darkness with evil red eyes at its center. Kono-Kal took care of that with a well-placed beam of laser light. With a scream of agony, it assumed the form of a being in a full cape that covered its entire body. It held a menacing staff in its hand. It unleashed a massive winter storm at Kono-Kal, whose three companions (and one dead body) were frozen solid where they were. Kono-Kal engulfed himself in a fireball of electricity and and sent a shock through the winter tempest that was The Horde. It decided (in pain) to get into its worst form of all. A black hole appeared, attempting to absorb Kono-Kal and his companions (and dead body) into it's maw.
Kono-Kal realized that it was no use trying to destroy it, so acting on instinct once again, he grabbed Karona, walked to the very brink of the black hole's gullet... and they became one. The Horde (because of course he was the black hole) was amazed at simply how powerful the little creature with the big head was. Even when he actually fought against beings, they usually crumbled before his might. And now the two of them (one of them a traitorous Death Spirit no less) were merging into a single, giant being!
Karia (for that is the being's name) simply lifted it's hand... and the black hole began consuming itself. With a horrible, screeching wail, it collapsed into the form of a small, mole-like creature. Karia split back into Kono-Kal and Korona.
"Help me," whispered the thing. "Help me." It looked up at Kono-Kal, and he saw a flash of pure hatred in it's eyes. His head whipped forward, and the little thing was driven several meters down through solid rick, where it lay unnaturally quiet and still. "So it is done," Kono-Kal murmured. "The Horde is dead."***
Yet there was still one thing to be taken care of. Possibly two. He walked over to Takuan, lying dead on the ground. He cast his mind about and grabbed the last remaining tendril of life in that universe that was not theirs - the branch he had eaten! He reached out and pulled the life out of it and cast it into Takuan's body. Takuan shuddered violently, then stood up as if nothing had happened!
Kono-Kal was very happy about this, but he would rejoice later; he called for his friends to gather (for he had melted all of them free) and said, "I need you to combine your energy with mine." They did not question him, but did so, and Kono-Kal whipped his head forward to strike the ground, and from that point of impact, life sprouted in a rush. Everything came back to life again, and all the beings were freed too.
This happened in all the Razed Universes, until all of existence was back to where it was supposed to be, except The Horde, who was nonexistent.
The five of them stayed in that universe for a while, but then one day Karona asked, "Can we go to a someplace where we can live?"
"That reminds me," Kono-Kal said, and gave Karona the gift of life. He was happy beyond words. Then Kono-Kal opened a portal, and they all stepped through into a place where they could reside happily and keep watch over all life.
fin
*AN - I'd forgotten how to spell conscience, something I remember later on in the story.
** - True to his profession as a supremely wise monk who does nothing, Moroda is for some reason never mentioned by name in the story again.
*** - The fact that the Horde, being in opposition to life itself, would've logically been immune to being killed in the first place apparently never occurred to me.
tl;dr - Local rock wakes up, becomes more powerful than god via the power of being a vaguely disguised Bionicle OC, makes friends with the spirit of COVID-19, blows up Unicron Frieza Zerg Overmind (who happens to enjoy cosplaying as a mole) along with most of the local universe after being confronted with one (1) sad thing. He then reverses entropy without any regard for the consequences and ends the story before the author had to think about that.
The cringe from having to reread and type this out nearly killed me. Be grateful. Everything in Part 5 was a single paragraph. Line breaks? Fuck outta here, eye health is for the week. In this house we carry all the groceries in a single trip and write the story without ever touching the god damn enter key
If any of you ever invent a time machine, please let me know, I need to travel to the past and kick the ass of my younger self. Prescient little shit was expecting it to happen, but they didn't account for the fact that I would account for that fact and remember all their plans to kick my ass!
It's not very good. In fact it's rather shitty. It does, however, hold the dubious distinction of being the first story that I fully completed - the rest of my projects up to that point had been incomplete ideas or sets of worldbuilding stuff that I never got around to building an actual world out of. (One of them I legitimately plotted out the history of the entire universe up to present day in the setting, and I never made a single character).
This is also the first story that I ever wrote while under a time constraint, which ... explains some things.
Anyhow, I figured you guys might find it amusing to see the depths of enthusiastic ineptitude I started from, so here it is, transcribed exactly as I wrote it, grammatical mistakes and all. I did do some formatting stuff in places to make it less WALL, however. I'll see if I can't upload the pictures of the story and cover art I made for it to imgur, since I actually drew illustrations and such for it as well.
Behold, A Life Journey!
A Life Journey
Prologue
There was a time before this. Before the Horde. It was a time when life flourished, unbound, a happy cheerful time. Then, the Horde came. In spite of it's name, it was only one being, but that was because of the life. It claimed the universe was in great peril, and to save it he had to plant a seed. He did... and then great destruction came. Prologue
It was revealed that The Horde was not alive, and dedicated to the destruction of all life. There is no record of what happened next, but it is known that all life in the Universe ended, but not before a speck of life was imbued on a round ball like rock. It was given by Karona, a lowly death spirit in The Horde's army.
The sun went dark. It would be millennia before again life awakened. Later, The Horde vigorously set about some... improvements. The trees were still there, but became brittle and lifeless. The view was a panorama because there were virtually no landmarks. The rock was growing, giving the occasional shudder, and once, a spontaneous bounce, sending it tumbling into a crevasse in the Earth. There it would grow, getting stronger until it opened it's eyes. But that was a long way away...
Part One - The Awakening
The thing opened it's eyes. Questions immediately rushed into it's mind, whispering, "Where am I?", "Who am I?", and "What am I?". A voice drifted through it's mind, saying over and over again, "Kono-Kal, Kono-Kal." It was not sure, but that fit, somehow. Kono-Kal tried to figure out where he was, but how was he he? How did he understand anything at all? What was he? Again the voice drifted through his mind, this time saying, "Bohrock-Kal, Bohrock-Kal". So, he must be a Bohrock-Kal, even though he had no idea what exactly that was.
By now his eyes had adjusted to the darkness, and he could see that he was in a huge cavern, and out of the corner of his vision, something trickled down the wall. WATER!!! He did not know what water was, but instinct told him he needed it immediately! He tried to get up on his feet (but what were feet?)But could not. He tried to move his feet every which way, but they would not budge. The he tried to move his arms (Arms? Never heard of them!), and they finally came loose. With the release of his arms, his feet also became free. His foot lifted, and his body shifted forward. Suddenly he realized that his body was off balance. He tipped forward and fell. THUD! He landed on a plateau with a dip at the edge. He walked forward to the dip quickly, paused at the edge, bent his legs, and sprung forward. On instinct he folded his legs upward, pressed his arms against his sides, and landed on a spike, and bounced off with a Tock!!!
He heaved a breath that he somehow knew was a sigh. Circling around the spike, he saw a sort of fountain, with water spouting from a smooth slide and rocketing up into the slightly musty air. Right at that moment, a rock smacked down on the top of his head. Within nano seconds, his head snapped forward with such violent force that it completely shattered the fountain and sent rock and dust spraying all over the cavern.
Five hundred meters above, Karona paused, he thought he had heard a clearly audible RUMBLE. His mind flashed back to the time he had created Kono-Kal (though he did not know his name). He had never really liked the Horde, and wanted really only to irritate him. Was it possible the Kono-Kal had survived? He dismissed this thought from his mind. He had left it on a barren rock, it couldn't have possibly survived, but still he couldn't help feeling it disconcerting, and strode quickly on.
Back down in the cavern, Kono-Kal had discovered something very tragic. Although he had made it almost to the roof of the cavern (he had made steps of sorts using his head to carve the cavern walls into stairs), he had just realized that he was the only thing alive in the universe! And besides that, how would he get any food? (He was voraciously hungry now that his thirst had been quenched from the fountain.) He was at the roof of the cavern and popped out with a BUNK and saw the figure of Karona receding into the distance. Acting on instinct, he ran up top a tree, snapped off a big branch and it became absorbed in his body... he had eaten at last!
Part Two - The Forge
Kono-Kal rolled into a ball and rolled after Karona at speeds up to 100mph, and quickly caught up with him. He unrolled and touched Karona lightly on the shoulder. It was a critical mistake. The Horde, (who at the time was on a killing massacre in a universe filled with shape shifting robots that transformed into vehicles....) Sensed the touch (even from galaxies away), and began to travel through dimensions to the source. Kono-Kal's instincts took over. His hands started glowing, and (still holding Karona) reached up... and ripped a hole between dimensions.
Not really being troubled by Karona's weight, he leaped through and into another universe. They tumbled onto a platform. A strange being rode up to them and handed over two things saying briskly, "You're at Forge 7A45923314792L.... get to work!". "What?" asked Karona, confused. "Work, isn't that what you came here for? Beings always come here to make more of whatever they trade." Before the bewildered duo could answer, he shoved them into a pod, and they were carried down to another platform with a humongous fire and several long things, like the ones they were holding. The things suddenly took control of their bodies, and they had to start to make things in the forge.
When they got a break, they finally talked. "What are you?" Karona asked suspiciously. "Who and What are YOU?" Kono-Kal growled. Then before Karona could react, Kono-Kal grabbed him, and slammed him against a wall. "Yet I sense you have made life." Confused, he released him. "I am Karona, a death spirit. The life you sense must be the time I created the poor short-lived rock, on the rocky plateau, back in that other universe we came from. I wish the Horde had never created me. I always just wanted to live." Explained Karona. Kono-Kal replied, "I am Kono-Kal, I have no idea who or what I am, but I know that I want to get OUT OF HERE!!"
They formed a partnership, and Kono-Kal learned all that Karona had learned, and Karona was assured of his protection, word of honor. After a while, Karona started "You'll see." wondering why they were not escaping. "You'll see!" Kono-Kal said, always smiling. "You'll see."
So things stayed that way, work work work, day after day, week after week, until finally, 43 years, 7 months, 2 weeks, 5 days, 17 hours, 47 minutes and 12 seconds after their arrival, Kono-Kal acted. He and Karona were on work duty, so the long stick things were controlling their bodies as usual, but this time they had it all planned out.
Kono-Kal ripped his mind free of the tool's constraints. Karona, with Kono-Kal's help, managed to do the same. Normally, they would have ran, jumping from platform to platform, and there would have been a lot of shooting and danger with the attempted escape, and maybe if they were lucky they would get a fast paced theme track. The way they actually traveled was quieter, and a lot more convenient.
"Wow!" Karona said as they landed. "You modified the atoms in the air to make a solid air cushion! Whoo." They had spent all those years testing their abilities. It turned out that Kono-Kal had quite a few! He was quite amazing for such a little creature. Kono-Kal's hands glowed, and ripped an inter-dimensional portal, but before they went through, Kono-Kal unleashed a blast from his body that freed them from their tools' constraints and filled them with the urge to jump through the portal.
One of the other worker beings came to them saying, "Take me with you, PLEASE!!!! I never meant to be here!" Begged the little being. Kono-Kal was sympathetic. "Okay" he said, "but you have to tell us who you are and swear that you will not betray us. "No problem," said the being, "I am Takuan, and I absolutely SWEAR with all my heart that you will not need to worry about me betraying you." "That is good." smiled Karona, "Now come on, let's go!" They all stepped out through the portal.
Part 3 - The Fortress
It was dark for a moment, then they caught sight of another building, but not any ordinary building. it was a fortress! The trio stared up at the fortress in awe. It would be absolutely impossible to either break in - or out. There was no other real choice, so they walked up to the massive gate and Kono-Kal gave it a pounding, putting a huge dent in it. "We'd better look friendly. With security like that, inside who knows what type of beings they are!" Said Karona.
"Good point, but from what we know, they could never bring ME down," said Kono Kal. (It was true, one of his weakest abilities was to fire extremely corrosive acid fire from his eyes.) The gate swung open. A tall being that was covered in armor plating greeted them, "Hello, are you the new trainees? I am Galia." It had a surprisingly gentle voice. "Please, come inside."
As soon as they were inside, the gate slammed shut, and Kono-Kal instantly whirled, hands trained on a point on the door. A powerful beam began to pulse inside the space where his hands were, then he restrained himself. Takuan said, "Why did you not restrain him? He could have blown the gate right off it's hinges." "I doubt it, those gates are impenetrable.", Galia said cooly. "I doubt that!" muttered Kono-Kal. "I am sorry, but it is security measures," explained Galia, starting along a long corridor, and motioned for them to follow. "You never know when you might be attacked."
Takuan had noticed something, "Aren't you a little paranoid about the attack thing? This place looks like a fortress from the outside!" Galia seemed to ignore this comment, "You must be tired, let me show you to your rooms.." "We thank you for your hospitality, don't we?" Takuan asked rather venomously, as none of the triad had thought of thanking Galia.
Galia led them to a few rooms that were not luxurious, but had accessories that none of them had seen before. After giving quick instructions as to how to work the new things in the rooms, she bid the three good day, and left them alone.
That night, Kono-Kal pondered on himself. As far as he himself knew, he was not supposed to live for more than a few days. Instead, he had defied expectations, and actually survived without food or water for 50,000 years! He did not really know what to do with himself, he just wanted to discover his purpose in life. Perhaps, eventually someone could explain it to him.
In the meantime, maybe he could figure out why there was a light shining over him, and his two sleeping companions, or what the strong smell of burned rope in the air was? Rope.... uh-oh. Rope and something that looked like spikes above them... he dove out to the side and pushed his friends roughly out of the cot they were sleeping on, and at that precise moment, the rope snapped. At the same time, Kono-Kal ripped open space and time to create a portal - the trap was dropped into the portal, and was transported to another universe. Karona, now awake and aware put a shield orb around himself and Takuan, none too soon, as the floor opened up beneath them, and they fell!
Karona stopped them with a quick grab, and a secret compartment opened and began pelting them with rocks... more accurately, their shield orb. Many other things occurred that night, many of which legends are composed on. The predicament they faced in the morning was, unfortunately, far worse. Galia opened the door, and seeing that Kono-Kal was the only one awake, motioned for him to follow, and to bring the others.
He levitated them, which was easier than carrying the two companions. "Today your training begins," said Galia, leading Kono-Kal down a hallway. "I will introduce you to an instructor, but from then on I will only guide you to him." said Galia. For perhaps the first time Kono-Kal noticed that Galia wore blue armor.
She led them to a being with red armor who looked none too friendly. After the red armor being woke the other two, he said "show me your abilities." He was pointing first to Takuan. "Bbb-u-ttt I don't have don't have any really special abilities," stammered Takuan. "Good, you can be on the work force," the being seemed very nasty. All of them hated him instantly.
"Now you," he said pointing to Karona. After Karona had demonstrated everything he could do, (which was quite exhausting) the red being told Kono-Kal to do the same. In the end they were assigned to different categories based on their abilities, Karona to Strike Assassins, and Kono-Kal to Assault Chargers. Well, no thanks, the three agreed they would escape to anywhere else but here! As said before, it was impossible to break out, so there was only one option left for Kono-Kal.
He used his illusion power (which he had not shown the instructor) to make the illusion that there was a huge battle army right at the door of the fortress! Instantly, an alarm sounded. They raced out of their door, grabbing Takuan (Kono-Kal had put a warrior disguise illusion around Takuan) and ran outside, and began to battle" the "army". After that, Kono-Kal transported them to another universe, but not before someone grabbed hold of Karona's hand. The mystery person was still there when they arrived in the next universe, which was dotted all over in giant temples! When they turned to see who it was, Galia smiled upon the three sheepishly.
Part 4 - The Temple
Galia seemed relieved. "I knew you were leaving," she said, "and I always wanted a change!" Karona smiled, and asked, "Well, where are we now?"
Kono-Kal was already halfway to the nearest temple. "Let's find out, I am getting bored already!"
By the time the others had caught up with Kono-Kal, he had already gained admission to the main temple, and many short, and wise looking beings were hobbling around him. From Kono-Kal's point of view, they were Turaga, wise beings that had enormous knowledge of many things, and could help him find his destiny. When the others arrives, he told them what he knew, and the Turaga saw the fatigue in the group. They invited them to retire to some modest quarters to rest. They gratefully accepted.
Kono-Kal decided to ask about his destiny. He really wanted to know what it was he was meant to do!! When he asked, almost everybody said, "Go to Dorana. Dorana will tell you." So after asking around a bit more, he went to Dorana. Dorana, after taking several hours to get into a trance, mumbled, "Battle The Horde, soon you must; in Karona place your trust."
"But what of Takuan?"asked Kono-Kal. His answer was "Takuan, oh now, smart is he, but just how brave, you will see."
"And Galia?"
"Galia risk her life will she, be her conscious* you must be."
Kono-Kal pondered this, and then said, "Very well, I will do as you say." Three days later, Kono-Kal called his friends to a meeting and said, "We have to leave." The decision was unanimous. There was nothing to do here. They were astonished when a Turaga walking past, Moroda, agreed! Even more so when he asked if he might join them!**
So two days later, they all met a short distance outside one of the temples. Kono-Kal opened another portal, and they traveled to the universe where he had originated. It was here that the showdown with the Horde would take place, for now, nothing much would be damaged.
Part 5 - The Horde
Kono-Kal suddenly felt woozy. Darkness started eating away at his vision and he fell. Karona, seeing Kono-Kal fall, rushed to his side. "He's collapsed. Demonstrating his abilities to the instructor must have drained his energy - more than he thought." Inside Takuan's head the spark of an idea was bouncing around, ricocheting around his skull. "Why don't we transfer our energy to him so he will be able to battle The Horde?"
"It could work," said Karona nervously. "But if we start, and he is still unconscious, we will eventually die!!!"
Kono-Kal stirred. "Give me a thimbleful of energy........I'll generate the rest myself."
So they poured their energies (only a thimbleful!) into his body. He started glowing, and rose into the air, whole body pulsing with light. There was a flash, and Kono-Kal was on his feet, limber as ever. He notices that the other four were exhausted from their efforts, so he gave them a blast of light that revitalized their bodies.
Kono-Kal was the first to turn to the main matter of trying to defeat The Horde. "How are we going to attract The Horde to this place?" he said, gesturing at the completely flat and barren landscape. "Well, the last time we attracted him, you touched me on the shoulder when I didn't expect it." "Well, might as well get it over with," said Kono-Kal, and touched Karona on the shoulder.
The Horde was split with outrage. There was still life in a Razed Universe!!! He would take care of this. The Dark Spirit army that he commanded would crush the life somehow still surviving there.
From Kono-Kal's point of view, things were getting nasty. A second Takuan had appeared!!! Yet this one had an evil aura about him. Had to be the Horde. This was confirmed when 'Takuan' split into a massive horde of insects and, out of an interdimensional portal, a million creatures that looked like Karona came through.
"You take care of the army," Kono-Kal whispered to Karona and Takuan. "I'll take on their leader." Before any of them could react, however, Galia could not restrain her rage any longer, and threw herself at The Horde. Kono-Kal sent out a hand of heat energy and caught her just before she was within The Horde's range. He put her in a cage made of light. "Sorry, Galia, I'll have to take him. Remember your conscience."
Karona was already at the Death Spirit's front. Kono-Kal marched to The Horde's face. Karona started talking to the Death Spirits. "Haven't you ever just wanted to stop destroying things? What did The Horde promise you in return for your services?"
"Life," one of them called out.
"But The Horde is DESTROYING life, all life," Karona shouted. "And besides, you have all seen The Horde's abilities over the years," he roared in outrage. Takuan hurried to Kono-Kal's side. "Give them a vision of what it is like to be alive and they will probably lose confidence - a lot of it." Karona was still talking. "Have you EVER seen The Horde give life to ANYTHING?!"
Takuan hurried over to Karona and was telling him about his plan with the vision when a particularly nasty Death Spirit unleashed a blast of shadow energy right at Karona. Takuan trusted these three beings more than any he had ever met. All his life he had been conned and cheated by other beings trying to climb the ladder of power, and as a result he would do anything for the four in his company.
He threw himself in front of Karona and was struck by the bolt of writhing, dark energy that hungrily absorbed his life force and left him an empty shell on the ground.
"NO!!!!!" screamed the loudest voice anyone had ever heard. It came from Kono-Kal. He sent a wave of shifting energy towards the army and they were treated to a rendering of an invasion of the universe by the army - with them as the inhabitants.
On a grassy plain, a portal opened, and what looked like a small, mole-like creature stumbled out. It looked around for a bit, then went to the place where the ruler of that universe resided. It quickly threw the universe into a panic by claiming that the universe was in danger from dark energy that wanted to consume it, then the entire universe was bowing down to it when it pulled out a seed and claimed that it could destroy those dark forces.
It planted it and instantly, everything froze. The thing chuckled, then a massive portal opened and an army of Death Spirits came flooding out. A black cloud with evil red eyes was in place of the mole-like creature. Everything was still frozen, but the frozen inhabitants could still see their plight. Every one of the Death Spirits came to a victim, and all went dark.
The Death Spirits were very disconcerted, and then, they realized that just before everything froze, The Horde had shouted, "Life shall not exist anywhere!!!" So as one, they vanished, gone to try to right their wrongs. The Horde seemed fairly angry, but that was nothing compared to Kono-Kal's rage. He knew that The Horde had created the Death Spirits, and now one of them had killed his friend and one of the few beings anywhere that he trusted. It was only a matter of time until his fury was unable to be contained and he burst with uncontrollable power.
Galia, inside her cage, shed a single tear. It was this that drove Kono-Kal over the brink of mindless rage.
"BROAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGHHHHHHTAAAAARRR!!!!" he screamed, charging forward. His hands began glowing, with one he (with his telekinesis powers) squeezed all the insects that comprised The Horde's form into a tightly packed sphere. With the other (which had become coated in pure explosive napalm) he drew back... and let fly with an enormous punch.
The explosion was legendary. A fireball nine hundred million leagues wide and tall was created within 0.1/900,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 of a nano-second of a nano-second and yet did not touch the four beings and one dead body there. The full force of the blast his the cloud of insects that was The Horde. In logic, it should have been incinerated. Yet when the smoke cleared, it was there, seemingly unscathed, but very badly shaken. Kono-Kal followed that up with a gigantic poison gas cloud which he summoned from midair.
Now The Horde realized the weaknesses of his 'swarm of insects' form. They dispersed and formed a cloud of darkness with evil red eyes at its center. Kono-Kal took care of that with a well-placed beam of laser light. With a scream of agony, it assumed the form of a being in a full cape that covered its entire body. It held a menacing staff in its hand. It unleashed a massive winter storm at Kono-Kal, whose three companions (and one dead body) were frozen solid where they were. Kono-Kal engulfed himself in a fireball of electricity and and sent a shock through the winter tempest that was The Horde. It decided (in pain) to get into its worst form of all. A black hole appeared, attempting to absorb Kono-Kal and his companions (and dead body) into it's maw.
Kono-Kal realized that it was no use trying to destroy it, so acting on instinct once again, he grabbed Karona, walked to the very brink of the black hole's gullet... and they became one. The Horde (because of course he was the black hole) was amazed at simply how powerful the little creature with the big head was. Even when he actually fought against beings, they usually crumbled before his might. And now the two of them (one of them a traitorous Death Spirit no less) were merging into a single, giant being!
Karia (for that is the being's name) simply lifted it's hand... and the black hole began consuming itself. With a horrible, screeching wail, it collapsed into the form of a small, mole-like creature. Karia split back into Kono-Kal and Korona.
"Help me," whispered the thing. "Help me." It looked up at Kono-Kal, and he saw a flash of pure hatred in it's eyes. His head whipped forward, and the little thing was driven several meters down through solid rick, where it lay unnaturally quiet and still. "So it is done," Kono-Kal murmured. "The Horde is dead."***
Yet there was still one thing to be taken care of. Possibly two. He walked over to Takuan, lying dead on the ground. He cast his mind about and grabbed the last remaining tendril of life in that universe that was not theirs - the branch he had eaten! He reached out and pulled the life out of it and cast it into Takuan's body. Takuan shuddered violently, then stood up as if nothing had happened!
Kono-Kal was very happy about this, but he would rejoice later; he called for his friends to gather (for he had melted all of them free) and said, "I need you to combine your energy with mine." They did not question him, but did so, and Kono-Kal whipped his head forward to strike the ground, and from that point of impact, life sprouted in a rush. Everything came back to life again, and all the beings were freed too.
This happened in all the Razed Universes, until all of existence was back to where it was supposed to be, except The Horde, who was nonexistent.
The five of them stayed in that universe for a while, but then one day Karona asked, "Can we go to a someplace where we can live?"
"That reminds me," Kono-Kal said, and gave Karona the gift of life. He was happy beyond words. Then Kono-Kal opened a portal, and they all stepped through into a place where they could reside happily and keep watch over all life.
fin
*AN - I'd forgotten how to spell conscience, something I remember later on in the story.
** - True to his profession as a supremely wise monk who does nothing, Moroda is for some reason never mentioned by name in the story again.
*** - The fact that the Horde, being in opposition to life itself, would've logically been immune to being killed in the first place apparently never occurred to me.
tl;dr - Local rock wakes up, becomes more powerful than god via the power of being a vaguely disguised Bionicle OC, makes friends with the spirit of COVID-19, blows up Unicron Frieza Zerg Overmind (who happens to enjoy cosplaying as a mole) along with most of the local universe after being confronted with one (1) sad thing. He then reverses entropy without any regard for the consequences and ends the story before the author had to think about that.
The cringe from having to reread and type this out nearly killed me. Be grateful. Everything in Part 5 was a single paragraph. Line breaks? Fuck outta here, eye health is for the week. In this house we carry all the groceries in a single trip and write the story without ever touching the god damn enter key
If any of you ever invent a time machine, please let me know, I need to travel to the past and kick the ass of my younger self. Prescient little shit was expecting it to happen, but they didn't account for the fact that I would account for that fact and remember all their plans to kick my ass!
- Location
- California
Reading the intro, I see you've kept your love for vague mysticism and I mean that in the most complimentary way possible.
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Xantalos
Turtle-Speed Writing
Vague mysticism, excessive descriptions of flashy magical attacks, and inscrutable character motives are basically the key ingredients to my writing style even as it is now
Xantalos
Turtle-Speed Writing
183 words down for Respect Your Elders turn 11. It's real inconvenient having to solve a minor existential crisis every time I want to get my literary engines running, but I think I've got most of the metaphorical gunk cleared out. Excellence is a habit, not a state of being.
Noroboro
Consistency is key and I’m consistently tired :)
- Location
- Canada
You doing okay dude?
Xantalos
Turtle-Speed Writing
As much as I ever am, yeah. Writing's one of my two primary coping mechanisms for the general ... unavoidable-awareness-of-one's-own-discontent-with-themselves-and-the-world-around-them type of resignation I've been carrying around with me since my early teens. I suppose duhkha from Buddhist teachings is a good shorthand for it. When I'm in the process of creating something, I can immerse myself in that labor enough that I forget about that sense of primordial dissatisfaction, but it comes back when I finish, and usually makes it annoying to get started again. Now that my wheels have started turning it should fade away.
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Noroboro
Consistency is key and I’m consistently tired :)
- Location
- Canada
Jeez, that sucks to hear man. But I know things will get better for you dude
Xantalos
Turtle-Speed Writing
Nah, I'm just being melodramatic about it. It's the natural state of being for people to be unhappy with existence on some level, I just tend to be more whiny about it.
- Location
- A pile of cheese
Xantalos
Turtle-Speed Writing
Which ones don't lead to other stuff? Hard to tell for certain since I'm often struck by inspiration while writing a thing as to how that thing could be used in other actions, but generally it's just stuff like straight upgrades. The guns and whatnot you took this turn, for example.
- Location
- Somewhere Beyond the Sea
What words are you writing
What secrets are you hiding?
(Im joking btw) progress is progress
What secrets are you hiding?
(Im joking btw) progress is progress
Xantalos
Turtle-Speed Writing
Secret gremlin words, doing horrible gremlin things!
Speaking of which, I wrote 461 words today. One section left for this bit!
- Location
- Somewhere Beyond the Sea
- Location
- A pile of cheese
Kaboomatic
Where the Wild Things Are
- Pronouns
- He/Him
You're starting at the beginning