**This is an excerpt from "A History of the World," a story I wrote for my Writing Fiction class.
**The paper is actually a tiny portion of a much larger story that I've been working on for two years.
*******
Leo sat down in the middle of the aisle and opened to the foreign map again. His mouth fell open in shock when he saw four large areas of land were now clearly marked: Earth, Air, Fire, and Water. Leo couldn’t believe what he was seeing, not just that the labels had mysteriously appeared but also that he could read them.
He quickly turned the page to the picture of the dragon. The light in the dragon’s throat was brighter than before. It had also moved higher up in the dragon’s throat and looked on the verge of exploding forth from the dragon’s jaws. That couldn’t be right, he must have looked at the picture wrong earlier. There’s no way a picture could move.
But that still didn’t explain those labels.
Leo touched the spot of light with his index finger and gasped. The spot was hot to the touch. He hissed in pain as a red blister formed on the end of his finger. He looked back at the page and saw that the hieroglyphs were now shaking on the page. At first he thought his vision had blurred from the tears of pain welling in his eyes. He used the bottom of his shirt to wipe at his face and then looked back at the page. The symbols were still squirming and transforming into English words. Leo could now read the caption under the picture of the white dragon: Yual, the Creator. Line by line, the paragraphs under the picture appeared and Leo read them eagerly:
In the beginning there was only the Great One who slumbered in the black vacuum of None. For eons, Yual lay in the middle of None and dreamed strange visions of light and darkness, love and hatred, greed and death. This was the story of the land of Ak’terr and it saddened Yual greatly to know it.
Once Yual dreamed of something so terrible that he awoke suddenly, stretched his great wings, and took flight. This was the first moment of Air and Yual soared on it in graceful tranquility. The fear of the dream had passed, but still Yual was surrounded by darkness. And so he opened his powerful jaws and, from the center of his chest, came forth a ball of burning light that vanquished the darkness of None. This was the first moment of Fire.
Yual could now see a cloud of brown dust floating far below him. He took the dust in his claws and fashioned it into a mountain and a valley, a field and a forest, a desert and a canyon. This was the first moment of Earth and the creation of Ak’ter. Yual came to rest on the summit of his mountain and looked out over the world.
It was then that Yual remembered his dream, the one that woke him from his long slumber. He remembered the terrible events that would come to be in this place and he wept for his beautiful creation. His tears flowed from his eyes, down the side of the mountain, and filled a large canyon to form the great sea. The circle of Elements was then complete with this first moment of Water.
Leo flipped through a few more pages of text and stopped on a picture of four people standing inside a circular room with walls lined with hundreds of books. The picture was titled The Keepers of the Elements.
Standing to the far left was a tall young man wearing clothes of fine silk. His short, dark red hair stuck out from his head like a ball of flame. His eyes were a yellow-orange and gleamed with a disconcerting cunning. He wore a tight-lipped smile and had his right hand resting on a long sword tied to his belt. The caption under this man read Ferno, Lord of Fire.
Next to Ferno was a young woman in a flowing knee-length dress. She looked the youngest of the four. The caption underneath read Wel, Lady of Water. She had wavy blonde hair that came down to her waste and reflected the light of a lamp on a nearby table. Her face was open and kind, her light blue eyes were wide, her nose was sprayed with freckles, and her smile shone as bright as her hair. She had one arm flung around the shoulders of Ferno and the other arm around the shoulders of another, slightly older, woman who was standing next Wel. The second woman was captioned Avrin, Lady of Air. Avrin wore a floor-length gown that seemed to blow gently in a breeze. Her skin was very pale and her eyes were a translucent grey. She looked like she was barely there, but the way she stood with her hands clasped in front of her and how she held her chin high, gave her a very dignified air.
Standing to the far right in the picture was a muscular man wearing nothing but brown animal fur pants and a shy, boyish grin. This was Eialu, Lord of Earth. His thick arms were folded comfortably across his well-toned chest. His torso tapered into a thin waist and even through the fur pants, Leo could see his bulging leg muscles. His hair was dark brown and shoulder-length and fell in lazy curls over his high forehead and into his eyes. Leo couldn’t stop looking into Eialu’s eyes, one was forest green and the other a deep, clear blue. They were big and sleepy, giving the man a deceptively uninterested expression. But there was a clear intelligence in those mismatched eyes that pierced through the picture and off the page.
Suddenly, Leo felt something cold brush against his palm. He jumped and snapped the book closed. His mouth fell open in shock. The metal symbol on the cover had lifted off the page like an angry snake and was now winding its way up Leo’s right arm. It wrapped four times around his wrist and then the two ends of the dragon tail melded together in an unbreakable clasp. Leo tried to pull the bracelet off but it had squeezed just enough against his skin that there was no room to wiggle it off.
Leo scrambled to his feet and stared at his wrist. His breath caught in his throat.
**The paper is actually a tiny portion of a much larger story that I've been working on for two years.
*******
Leo sat down in the middle of the aisle and opened to the foreign map again. His mouth fell open in shock when he saw four large areas of land were now clearly marked: Earth, Air, Fire, and Water. Leo couldn’t believe what he was seeing, not just that the labels had mysteriously appeared but also that he could read them.
He quickly turned the page to the picture of the dragon. The light in the dragon’s throat was brighter than before. It had also moved higher up in the dragon’s throat and looked on the verge of exploding forth from the dragon’s jaws. That couldn’t be right, he must have looked at the picture wrong earlier. There’s no way a picture could move.
But that still didn’t explain those labels.
Leo touched the spot of light with his index finger and gasped. The spot was hot to the touch. He hissed in pain as a red blister formed on the end of his finger. He looked back at the page and saw that the hieroglyphs were now shaking on the page. At first he thought his vision had blurred from the tears of pain welling in his eyes. He used the bottom of his shirt to wipe at his face and then looked back at the page. The symbols were still squirming and transforming into English words. Leo could now read the caption under the picture of the white dragon: Yual, the Creator. Line by line, the paragraphs under the picture appeared and Leo read them eagerly:
In the beginning there was only the Great One who slumbered in the black vacuum of None. For eons, Yual lay in the middle of None and dreamed strange visions of light and darkness, love and hatred, greed and death. This was the story of the land of Ak’terr and it saddened Yual greatly to know it.
Once Yual dreamed of something so terrible that he awoke suddenly, stretched his great wings, and took flight. This was the first moment of Air and Yual soared on it in graceful tranquility. The fear of the dream had passed, but still Yual was surrounded by darkness. And so he opened his powerful jaws and, from the center of his chest, came forth a ball of burning light that vanquished the darkness of None. This was the first moment of Fire.
Yual could now see a cloud of brown dust floating far below him. He took the dust in his claws and fashioned it into a mountain and a valley, a field and a forest, a desert and a canyon. This was the first moment of Earth and the creation of Ak’ter. Yual came to rest on the summit of his mountain and looked out over the world.
It was then that Yual remembered his dream, the one that woke him from his long slumber. He remembered the terrible events that would come to be in this place and he wept for his beautiful creation. His tears flowed from his eyes, down the side of the mountain, and filled a large canyon to form the great sea. The circle of Elements was then complete with this first moment of Water.
Leo flipped through a few more pages of text and stopped on a picture of four people standing inside a circular room with walls lined with hundreds of books. The picture was titled The Keepers of the Elements.
Standing to the far left was a tall young man wearing clothes of fine silk. His short, dark red hair stuck out from his head like a ball of flame. His eyes were a yellow-orange and gleamed with a disconcerting cunning. He wore a tight-lipped smile and had his right hand resting on a long sword tied to his belt. The caption under this man read Ferno, Lord of Fire.
Next to Ferno was a young woman in a flowing knee-length dress. She looked the youngest of the four. The caption underneath read Wel, Lady of Water. She had wavy blonde hair that came down to her waste and reflected the light of a lamp on a nearby table. Her face was open and kind, her light blue eyes were wide, her nose was sprayed with freckles, and her smile shone as bright as her hair. She had one arm flung around the shoulders of Ferno and the other arm around the shoulders of another, slightly older, woman who was standing next Wel. The second woman was captioned Avrin, Lady of Air. Avrin wore a floor-length gown that seemed to blow gently in a breeze. Her skin was very pale and her eyes were a translucent grey. She looked like she was barely there, but the way she stood with her hands clasped in front of her and how she held her chin high, gave her a very dignified air.
Standing to the far right in the picture was a muscular man wearing nothing but brown animal fur pants and a shy, boyish grin. This was Eialu, Lord of Earth. His thick arms were folded comfortably across his well-toned chest. His torso tapered into a thin waist and even through the fur pants, Leo could see his bulging leg muscles. His hair was dark brown and shoulder-length and fell in lazy curls over his high forehead and into his eyes. Leo couldn’t stop looking into Eialu’s eyes, one was forest green and the other a deep, clear blue. They were big and sleepy, giving the man a deceptively uninterested expression. But there was a clear intelligence in those mismatched eyes that pierced through the picture and off the page.
Suddenly, Leo felt something cold brush against his palm. He jumped and snapped the book closed. His mouth fell open in shock. The metal symbol on the cover had lifted off the page like an angry snake and was now winding its way up Leo’s right arm. It wrapped four times around his wrist and then the two ends of the dragon tail melded together in an unbreakable clasp. Leo tried to pull the bracelet off but it had squeezed just enough against his skin that there was no room to wiggle it off.
Leo scrambled to his feet and stared at his wrist. His breath caught in his throat.