Elona Bound: Prologue
----- Awoken -----
Once when I was young, my mother laid down her restless child for the night sleep. Having no intent of slumber, I requested a tale. No stranger to stories, my mother ritualistically placed a shade over the lantern and filled my small mind with dreams too unfathomable to be untrue. Gods and Goddesses battling for power, with the fate of Elona in the balance; heroes sacrificing their very being to rise up and combat those powers - further still becoming that which they fought in effort to keep the very magic from breaking our world apart. Wide-eyed excitement eventually gave way to the moon's sleep magic and I slept deep to the rhythmic melody of my mother's lore. It was the last time I would hear her lovely voice; quite possibly the last time I've let sleep take me so strongly with its embrace. I was suddenly jolted from the dreamland and whisked away by a panicked neighbor. Hoisted over his shoulder, I watched as our village burned to the ground. I remember being so overcome with shock, I did not cry, enthralled by the burning embers which were once our home. My family perished that horrid night, and unbeknownst to me, so did my innocence.
I then caught the gaze of the beings which caused the devastation upon an overlooking mound. Palawa Joko, the self-proclaimed god-king and his awakened minions watched our village flee in terror. I would later discover our destruction was a political message; a tactic to spread his reach of power through fear and promote loyalty. I cared nothing of this as a child... I simply understood this to be a wicked, cruel, inhumane act. Moreover, rather than fear, I remember feeling resolute in that moment, with a clarity that only comes from such an encounter. With everything in my being, I would become one of the heroes in my mother's stories; I would rise up against my parent's killer and make him pay for their deaths.
However, there are many twists and turns on the path to one's ultimate destination, and I would travel a path from Vabbi to Tyria, then back to Elona before facing my life's ambition.
[To Be Continued...]
