Imagine a world where your soul is tortured Imagine a world where you die painfully but still live Imagine a world where you cry your own blood This is no fairy tale, it's a reality A quote from the Novels Of Time

Chapter 1

The Beginning Of The End

Valeva, my home, my habitat, my world. Emerald grass as sharp as sword edges but as weak and limp as cloth. Sapphire seas filled with silvery fish making patterns as they swim. The trees are the rulers of plants as they stand tall over all. They say that they whisper to each other and produce ear bleeding screams to protect travellers from fiends and the most valuable item of Valeva is the very sphere itself hovering above the world constantly engulfed in flame to feed Valeva.

My job, to capture these features in my pictures for I am an artist. I travel Valeva in search of landscapes to paint, draw or sketch, I travel through the lands like a bird, a raven if you will, in fact, that is my name, Raven. I'm not really sure how I got that name, I never really think about it. Anyway I wouldn't want to live anywhere else, as there is no other planet. Valeva's a small planet so we don't really have many towns or cities, I live in a small village called Robin's Field, its nothing special, it has a few houses, two shops, a bunch of farms and a temple where we give our thanks to the Navien, the Gods that created and now look over Valeva. It seems a shame that I had to leave this behind for good.

Everything began here as I walked home from the Tangled Woods collecting fruit for my next expedition. I walked up to my home as from the inside of it there was an explosion, only a small one. I paid no notice to it, instead I produced a smirk on my face and shook my head thinking in my head "typical," and I walked in. The walls, floor and ceiling were scorched with burns and soot. In the middle of the room was a man sitting down looking at a sort of sphere shaped object in frustration.

" Blown up again?" I asked in a witty way.

"It's suppose' to blow up" he said back in annoyance keeping his eyes on the half blown up object.

"I hope your gonna clean this up?" I said again in a witty way.

He kissed his teeth and said, "Ok ok," in annoyance once again as he rose from his chair and got a brush and bucket from the closet. I went back outside with a smirk on my face, that was my brother, Rytner, he looked after me once our parents were killed by fiends, so I guess that makes him my guardian. He's an alchemist, which means he spends most of his time being blown up by his experiments, he's working on a new one called a grenade, its supposed to kill fiends by blowing them up but if it makes that big an explosion I'd rather step on them to kill them. He used to be in a tribe known as the Psycho Circus, the less I say about them the better, which explains his leather armour and piercing on his left eyebrow, and that is why I'm nearly always out of the house.

I walked across the village square to the general shop for supplies for our trip. I remember myself as a child always coming here to buy rare tear candy, it had nothing to do with tears, it was just called that. A jolly voice caught my ear as I was looking on the shelves.

"Raven my boy, long time no see" said the jolly clerk.

"It's been a long time Ralned," I said with a grin on my face.

He was a short plump fellow with a brown bushy beard and very greasy hair, he was a mix between a granddad and an uncle to us, he also became a good friend to me and Rytner.

"So how is that brother of yours?" he inquired. As he finished his question, there was another explosion from our home.

"Does that answer your question," I wittily answered.

Ralned chuckled, "Oh good gracious me," then he finally stopped. "Right," he said "What can I get you,"

I held up a list of food and started reading it, "Let’s see, cheese, pork, fish, bread, carrots, tear candy and two bottles of ale please."

"I'll get those right away for you," he replied and went into the back room. As I waited, I looked through a window showing the back of the house and saw a giant wooden contraption. It looked like a giant cart but it had two long strips of metal on the top. Ralned returned from the back room with our supplies.

"That's 20 aren" he said. I dug into my pocket and pulled out a bag of coins, I poured out twenty and pushed them towards him. I pick up my supplies, said my goodbyes and headed to the door.

Just then I was stopped by the words "Wait! Wait! Are you interested in this?" As soon as I turned my head, there I saw Ralned threading through his fingers a pendant. I walked to the shop desk and stared at it in amazement. It was diamond shaped with a gem inside it.

"Where did you find it?" I asked in astonishment.

"I just found it on a cliff face on my morning walk." he replied.

"How much?" I asked still staring at it.

"For you my lad er...... 20 aren" he said. I dug into my pocket, took out some aren and gave them to him. Before I left, I asked "What's that contraption at the back," staring through the window.

He replied "Ah, that's my latest invention, its a flying machine. Haven't tested it yet but I guaranty ye, it will fly."

Trying not to laugh, I put on the pendant and left saying my goodbyes once again. I headed back to the house and saw Rytner cleaning the black soot from the inside.

"C'mon," I said "Let’s go" I grabbed my bag with the food and paint supplies in it and followed Rytner out the door. I took about five steps before I heard the words...

"Think fast!" from Rytner, so I turned round and caught a shabby looking sword. "You know the rule," said Rytner, drawing out his blade.

The rule being, every time we leave for a trip, is always to have a duel with him. It's a crap rule but I always do it, he says its to prepare myself for the worst, he has a point. I drew out my blade and made the first move by swinging it for his neck but he countered, blocking my shot and disarming me at the same time leaving me with a gash on my wrist. I was used to it by now, but Rytner always came prepared handing me a piece of cloth.

"We'll work on that after our trip," he said while heading to the forest. I wrapped my hand with the cloth, picked up my weapon and followed him into the wood.

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