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Member
Join Date: May 2007
Location: Japan
Gender: Male
Posts: 2
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No title as of yet...
The first sections of the first chapter of a book i'm currently writing.
Editing and such still needs to be done, but let me know what you think so far.
(First chapter is done, just not done typing it yet, more to come)
“When the world is green fields,
and light is taken for granted,
when mankind begins to slack,
in it’s defence against the darkness,
then is the time of rebirth,
and chaos shall split the earth.”
Bodies littered the street, bloodied and torn, here and there a lone survivor struggled to hold onto life while his or her wounds guaranteed mortality. The crows were just beginning to settle upon the corpses, tearing strips of flesh, plucking eyeballs from without the skills of fallen heroes and monstrosities alike. Rats were converging on the bodies now, rending the soft parts of the corpses, armpits and groins, ears and faces. The crows didn’t bother trying to chase away the rats when they arrived at a body, they mearly moved onto another.
Pieces crumbled from building, still settling from the tremors and shocks, falling to crush whatever happened to be beneath them be it corpse crow or rat, it makes no never mind to stone. The whole of the city was tattered, demolished.
The city had had a long good life, from providing housing and defence for the Survivalists and headquarters for the Human Resistance. It had survived the Transition and had been a major city in former Germany, though not many bothered to remember the name of the country, the name of the city had been long since forgotten. Steadfast had always been seen as a place that would never fall, a place of haven and safety.
“What have I done…” The words echoed from the heights, echoed down the streets, startling the crows. The silence was so great that even the whispered words carried much strength with them.
“Don’t go questioning yourself now Mathais” The deep voice boomed over the courtyard, Smothering the sound of his approaching footsteps. The man was a tower, standing six foot seven and carring close to three hundred and fifty pounds of pure muscle.
“ I should have known I’d see you here, wherever he needs muscle he sends his Giant, how are you my old friend?” Mathais’s voice carries no emotion, which only further supports his enemies referring to him as the Reaper. Hs skin is taunt across his frame, making him appear extremely frail and weak. Muscles coursed beneath that tight frame however, surrounding bones that seemed unbreakable. Where he walked, it was said, death followed.
“ They call me that to scorn me you know, Giant, Though I think it puts more fear into them than it does anger into me anymore. I couldn’t stand that name at first, it infuriated me how people are so ignorant as to discriminate a man for something so simple as his height. What I would’ve done if only I could’ve gotten my hands on the man who started all of that. You don’t happen to know who it was do you, you always did have a knack for learning all the small things.” The Giant had been pacing as he was speaking now coming to the position of parade rest, waiting for Mathais to speak.
“ You don’t have to do that you know” Mathais’s voice was patient as he paused to wait for a response.
“Old habits and all that, besides it’s a comfortable position, and just out of curiosity, how do you do that?”
The tang of the atmosphere is hardly that of two warring generals coming to discuss treaties, but more like a meeting of two old friends for their Friday night poker game.
Turning around to address his old friend, Mathais scans the area for threats, as he has always done everywhere he has ever gone. “ some things are best left unknown my friend, as for who gave you that name, it was me, I knew it would make you angry and at the time I was hoping that that anger would make you stupid on the battlefield, you held together better than I thought you would. So what exactly do you plan trying to do to me.” The question was there, though as always Mathais spoke it as a statement, making it sound as though he already knew the answer.
“So it was you then? Well I suppose it would be beneficial to my health to forgive you, wouldn’t really do much good for me to die over something so trivial now would it?” A sense of nervousness had entered his voice as he went on.
“Still convinced you’d lose if you fought me my friend?” With a small chuckle, more a rapid exhaling of air in a wheezing attempt at a laugh, Mathais continues, “I’m not so sure as you anymore, I seem to be losing my will to even survive. More and more frequently I slip into momentary depressions where I lose all hope, what hope can be left when the great Berlin lies in ruin, I wished so much that Gwen’s will could hold the Survivalists together, that maybe HE could be defeated, but now it seems to have been too much to hope for. Now especially you would snap me in half without receiving so much as a bruise.” The smallest hint of regret, barely a phantom of feeling, had entered Mathais’s voice as he said Gwen’s name.
“Berlin, I’d forgotten this city’s name, thank you for that, it had been bothereing me, digging at the back of my skull like a memory long forgotten trying to come again.” Slowly the Giant paces the room, giving himself time to think of what to say next, all too aware that Mathais’s infamous temper is sparked by the smallest of things. As he comes to one of the balconies overlooking the Great square he begins to speak again slowly, watching Mathais for any sign of discontentment. “You could’ve fought on their side you know, fought veside Gwen as once you did. With you to lead them they may have stood a chance.” The Giant seemd to show remorse at saying this, almost as if he’d somehow wished that he could have been on the other side himself.
“I could never have led them, how could I ask men to follow me when I was the one who all but signed their death warrant. No, truth be told I knew there was no hope the day I released him, or maybe it was when the council split that I truly lost hope. If we’d all have been on the same side perhaps we could’ve won. Not like if’s have ever really mattered of course, there were only so many viable courses of action from the start.” Mathais was pacing around the room, looking at the paintings on the walls, fine paintings of battles long fought, two even had what appeared to be him in them. One depicted him leading a force of men into the depths of a barren scorched valley while the sun rose in the background. The other showed him alone amongst a horde of monstrosities desperately fighting to stay alive, a mass of bodies, all monstrous in size, were drawn about him. The two paintings were titled “Stand Fast” and “Determination”, he supposed they were supposed to be motivational.
“You always speak as though there is only one course in life Mathais, as if there are no choices. Personally I don’t see how you can still think that, having made decisions that have affected the world, I mean bringing about the Transformation was somewhat of a major turning point in history, wouldn’t you say?” The Giant felt bad for Mathais, it was hard seeing your former leader in pain.
“The decisions I’ve made would’ve been made by another if not by me my friend. The actions that were taken were necessary for the progression of the world, if I hadn’t made them, the fates would’ve forced someone else to. No my friend, all I’ve done is save some other poor soul from the torment I now suffer.” Hints of anger tinted his voice, remnants of when he had still felt, felt for the world, felt compassion and fear. He hadn’t spoken of this since he’d still felt. Not since she’d died.
“But you made them, you did Mathais, don’t you think that if that “other poor soul” had been the one to make them things would’ve ended up the same way? What you did you did out of necessity, the fates may have chosen someone who sought power like me, but you took that option away. By your decisions, not the fates, yours.” Compassion and conviction filled the Giant’s voice, compassion he’d never shown his enemies on the field, conviction he’d never felt for his new master.
“What I did, I did selfishly. I struck out of anger, out of anguish. I wanted someone, something to fight that was so powerful that it would swallow me whole. I wanted to find something to kill me for what I’d done, to rip my heart out and devour it so I’d never have to feel again. Afterward, after I managed to escape I came to you, my friends. I came to the council to let you know, so that maybe you would stand, maybe you could win, because I had seen it’s power, it was immense beyond belief. At that point I’d thought all feeling dead in me, certainly I was cold enough to manipulate the council, of my making, made of my most trusted friends. But I did still feel, until she died, I did. I didn’t know that when I was following him, not until I tried to save her, you should remember that day, just barely not getting there in time, watching the blade strike, everything died in me that day, I died that day, what you see now is mearly the cold remains of a body unwilling to quit.” With a pause uncommon to his usual calm demeanor Mathais continues on with his first train of thought. “But you didn’t react how I thought you would… I remember that day so clearly…”
“For so long now my friends, you have erged me to find a god,” Mathais pauses to allow this to sink in, hoping that the council doesn’t hear the despair in his voice, that they don’t notice the change from the normally jubilant if overly strict teacher that Mathais is used to being. Looking around the room to see the effect, when their faces hold a satisfying amount of anticipation, he continues.
“You have begged me to embrace a faith. You’ve said to me, ‘Why do you bear that cross about your neck when you carry no religion in your soul?’ Well I come before you today to announce that I have found a god, a god who has deigned to present himself on this plane, this time, this realm! Only for me to see!” Their reactions vary from outright shock to dead calm, in the forth chair up the right side, Lindsay is trying to revive Mary from the fainting spell that she had. Gwen sits at the head of the table, motionless, not caring for the reaction of the rest of the council, mearly staring at Mathias’s eyes, trying to find some hint of what he intends.
As the commotion dies down, Mathais sweeps his eyes over to meet Gwen’s stopping his pivot to stare straight into her eyes, glaring with the heat of a frozen hell straight into Gwen’s soul. Suddenly the knowledge of precisely what Mathais is doing hits Gwen, and her eyes widen in shock at the knowledge she feels.
“It is no longer enough for me to run this council. We advise the world, lead it by the rope, without any actual recognition. The time has come for one to take hold of the reins and lead this horse in. I will rule the world, who will be with me!” Mathais’ voice rises in intensity as his speech comes to it’s crescendo, growing no louder merely more fierce, lacking emotion.
The breath held in every member, stunned in shock, came rushing now to declare their feelings in a cacophony of human tones. Though not all had the same opinion of the situation…
Only Gwen held her peace, remaining seated, staring with wonder at Mathais. Staring, looking, searching for any sign, anything, whatever it may be, any sign of what this mysterious man that she thought she had known, whom she’d thought had changed, searching for any sign of hope in his eyes, his face, his manner, anything, anywhere she could find it, staring and hoping, looking and pleading with her mind, searching his face for any sign even the worst of signs.
“This is outrageous, how can you say these things! You used to talk of unity, of the strength in The People. What happened to all of this, to all that you taught those of us who followed! Blindly we followed, believing in nothing but your word! Where went the man I loved so dearly!” Mary’s screams pierced the room first, drowning out all others through the duration of her speech.
The room broke into commotion, every member of the council screaming to get their opinion heard, arguing with one another, demanding that only their own opinion was the right one. No two people stood together on that day, regardless of how close their opinions were, in that moment, chaos waged.
Gwen sat silent, however, staring at Mathias, seeing what he would do next, this strange creature that she had thought of as dead. Mathias stood motionless, glaring around the room with the look of most utter resentment at the chaos spreading in the room. `Already it begins,” he began in a somber tone, almost remorseful “The madness is spreading and it will not stop, nothing can stop it, short of total domination it will stop at nothing in ruling this world we so covently built.” He voice cut away, unable to be heard any longer, though his lips kept moving in a silent prayer `God let them see the message I intend and not the words from without my lips.`
Only one persons eyes remained on him as he left the room, marching down the stairs with his will broken and his back kept straight. Gwen’s eyes followed his every move, waiting to see something, anything, that could possibly be held within of the person she’d so dearly held in her heart. `Why Mat, why after so long have you gone back to your old god, what have you done`
Her thoughts were solitary as she stood, her alone of those left alive knew of Mathias’s past, knew his darkest secrets. “Stop this” she spoke in a mild, yet demanding tone. Her voice echoed from the room, amplified by the possition she took at the high chair, as the room had been designed. Taking time to enunciate every word, her resolve and presence were so set that the cacophony of earlier died, seeming to fill the room with a void bearing down on all that were present. “This is not how the coucil works.”
Mathias looked back from the door as gwen rose to take her new place as leader, `They’ll follow her, hopefuly they all will, I wish you the best Love, I’ve done all I could to prepare you, please be smart enough to use it.` With that he walked away from the last meeting of the council.
critique more than welcome.
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The sword is grateful to the forge, for making it what it is today... But it does not look fondly on the flames. (paraphrased from WoT by Robert Jordan)
Last edited by slvrwolfa1c : 05-08-2007 at 06:51 AM.
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