A Thousand Worlds Ago

Intro.
I thought of this story when I was lying in bed, actually, it's a adaptation from a story I would daydream about when I was 9. I have no idea how this will sound to you, It could be weird or fascinating. It's set in a fantasy world, and features a young male elf named Fabian, and a female dwarve named Adeela. Both characters meet up on an unlikely quest to find an ancient city. It isn't to save their town, city, country or world, it's to save themselves. You see, Adeela isn't the only one following him on this quest......and if they are not careful, both will be killed......

Prologue.
Sam raced over to the edge of the field, wind whispering towards his face. On the hill, lay an old man. Sitting down, playing his Teet flute. When he was younger and looked more like the father he was, the flute would play songs that would bring the most melodious birds down to sit with him. Now, he only played songs tragic and old. Sam's heart prickled with worry, and wondered whether to ask about his brother Robin. But he feared what the old man might say. He knew that it was possible that sometime, somewhere in this war-torn country, his rotting body would be sinking in the dirt. But of course, Father told him nothing. At least, nothing that could possibly be true. All the lies that he had spouted out of his frail mouth began to build up in Sams throat. He couldn't keep quiet anymore. Sam sought answers.

"Dad...where is Robin?" Of course, the only answer was a rusty note from his instrument.

"Who are we fighting?" but still no answer. That was it. His patience was decreasing bit by bit. "Who are we fighting!?!?"

His father finally stopped playing, and just gazed at his dejected face. Sam walked closer, and sat beside him. "Something happened at school today. Some of my classmates were giving me ugly looks. They said that it is my kind's fault that the dwarves are starving and the elves are weak. What are they talking about?"

His wrinkled face shifted to an empathetic stare "Those children have no right to say such things. But haven't you gotten insults like this before? You must have known at some point that you are....different from the others."

Sam shook his head.

"Hasn't anyone told you who you are?" Sam shook  his head again.

"Then it's time to tell you a story, a story about our race. Come, lets go home before it gets dark." Sam thought this was a waste of time, but he still walked up the hill to their house. Which was a tiny appartment on top of an old toy shop from the Silver Age. Sam lighted a few candals, dusted some furniture and lit up the fireplace. He sat on a cousin while his father, Marvelo, sat on his rocking chair. "Have you ever heard of the old religion? The one that used to worship the stars?"

"Oh yes!" Sam loved mythology. Most kids his age would rather learn to fight or to create potions, but he preffered to get lost in an old text book.

"Then why don't you recite for me the first chapter?"

Sam's troubles were washed away, he was now completly oblivious about the war, his brother and all the things that drove him to his father in the first place. "Once....nearly a thousand worlds ago, where the sky and the stars would sink through the edge of the earth, the Star Gods decended to the world and built a massive city. This city was called Silverfall. The city was inhabited by every constellation and all the children of the Divine. For two hundred worlds, the stars were harmonous with each other, until-"

"I'm going to stop you there son. Because that part is where things get a little tricky. If you buy a different copy of your book, you will undoubtly find a different version of the story. In one version, Silverfall is ruled by Leo, the Lion God. In the other version, it was ruled by Aquillus, the Eagle God. In each one, one god kills the other."

"Which version is correct?" Asked Sam.

"Neither. What I am about to tell you is the real story. For this, lets just say Leo was the one that was assassinated, Silverfall had no leader and thus, the great city fell apart. Leo's body lay in his palace for many years. Until some of his allies realized that he could be resurrected. So they found his body and cut his heart out and hid his heart in a cave, hoping someone would find it and return it to a new body. Many heros and crusaders tried to reach the heart, but none of them survived. Some wanted to steal it in hope it would sell for a good price, others tried to destroy it. Every time someone would enter the cave, their life would end in a blood-curling scream. In other words, the Lion's soul would kill them. After that, their bones would appear outside the cave for 6 days, before disappearing mysteriously. Leo hoped that one day, someone with a foolish heart would come into the cave. And one day, a young elf named Fabian entered the cave. And this is where the story begins...."

Fabian.
He was just about to leave until the merry call of his friends running down the hill convinced him otherwise. Any elf that wasn't his age would think it would be foolish to play in this weather, but children don't seem to have a sense of temperature, as long as it's fun, they'll do it. Fabian socialized with the rough and tumble sort of elves, the same ones that would play 'pass the stone' every winter Saturday. Indeed, that was exactly what those eight children would do. Out of all these children in the gang, Fabian was the oldest and boldest. Because of this, he would make the great decisions, so when he told his friends when they caught up that they were going into the forbidden forest to collect rocks, not one of them blinked. (Except for maybe Tadruff, who is always blinking due to his magical birth defect.) There weren't any girls in the group, not because there weren't any in the neighborhood but because Fabian was secretly afraid of them. Yes, he has a fear of women, which the scientific name for it is called common sense, no, don't look at me like that, I'm serious. Elven girls are not to be messed with.

When the children began making their way to the forbidden forest, oh wait, you want to know why it's forbidden? Very well, it’s forbidden because, surprise surprise, this was apparently the same place Leo’s heart was hidden, and as you know already many people were killed in ancient times. So the only logical reason would be to forbid anyone from going into the forest. But Fabian Nutcase, er, I mean Fabian Firilo did not know this at all. When the group entered the forest, Fabian sent two scouts, Gaben and Saratris through to find places which may have ‘good rocks’ to play their games. The two scouts came back saying they found a cave, and so the little group of boys proudly marched through the forest like the arrogant, annoying imbeciles they are. After a while, they started chanting a little song Yuri, one of the elves, had made up on the spot.

“We’re the bravest elves in the land!

Animals bow wherever we stand!

We’re always smart

We’re always cool!

So come join Fabians hunting band!”

(Not a very good song, but I think Fabian approved.) Shortly after they came at a stop. Now if it were anyone else who had come into that cave first, this story would have ended tragically. But instead, Fabian, who had the most foolish heart out of all of them, entered the cave and found nothing but a beautiful golden stone. He held it up, it’s reflection shimmering through the cave.

“Guys! Look what I’ve found!” And of course all the boys came running in. And at once the whole cave was a pandemonium of little boys shouting.

“We could sell it!” “We could use it!” “We could go find more of these!”

“We could do all of those, but first lets do what I want to do. We’re going to play Pass The Rock with this, plus, it’s my birthday.” Said Fabians voice, which somehow managed to soar higher than all the others.

“But Fabian, you said it was your birthday last time!” Moaned Tadruff, which I think was the only sane one of the group.

“Shut up Taddy!” Snarled Fabian. And off they went back into the field. Each Elf started to pass the stone to each other, and if the other person caught it they would take a step backwards. When it was Tadruffs turn, he made a clumsy throw due to his defect, although no one knew that at the time since Decordance Syndrome hadn’t yet been discovered back then. The stone hit Fabians chest, well, sort of, it sunk into his chest.

“WHAT DID YOU JUST DO TO ME?”

“I-I…” But before Tadruff could say anything else, all the Elves started to run away.

“HEY COME BACK GUYS!” and as he said this he turned around to see what they were running away from.

It was a lion. Fabian was stuck to the ground with pure fear, unable to think of what he should do. He thought maybe he should say something, but instead, the Lion talked.

“Have thou stolen my heart?” Fabian, didn’t say anything.

“Where is my heart, give it to me now!”

“I’m sorry….but what does your heart look like?” gulped Fabian.

“It’s in the form of a crystal, and BOW next time you speak.”

Fabian didn’t know what to say. He now knew what happened to the Heart. And this was perhaps the first time Fabian had to use his brain.

“The heart is inside of me now, I don’t know wh-” but at once the Lion lunged at him and bared his ferocious teeth at him, snapping.

“Please don’t kill me….Mr….?”

“I am The Lion God Leo.”

“If you kill me….” Said Fabian, searching his mind, “You might die. If your heart has sunk into my body, doesn’t that mean it’s mine now? You can’t break you own heart.” Suddenly, Leo leaped off Fabian and let out a loud, furious roar.

“How can I regain my throne now?”

“What throne?” Said Fabian, remembering to bow this time.

“Don’t you know who I am? What world is this? I am Leo, King Of The Divine Kingdom!”

“The Divine Kingdom of Silverfall is just a myth!” Fabian stuttered, regretting it immediatley after.

“How dare you? You don’t know anything Small Boy! Only Godly Magic can help me now!”

Fabian thought fast, “Where can you find Godly Magic?” “Only at Silverfall! And from what it looks like to me, this is thousands of worlds after my time! It’s probably destroyed.”

Even if it was destroyed, Fabian couldn’t lose hope now, not in the presence of a savage God. “It might not be! We have maps at my village library! We can go there together, and then you can get my heart out.”

Leo was considering this, until he had a horrible idea. “Convince me why I shouldn’t rip your heart out without magic.”

Fabian was slowly losing time, “Only I can take you to Silverfa-” But once again Leo leaped onto him, except this time the god intended death on him. No one will ever know if it was pure luck or fate, but Fabian closed his eyes, and when he opened them again the Lion was gone.

TAKE ME BACK NOW!

No. thought Fabian

Take me back or I’ll kill you.

You can’t. Thought Fabian boldly, which may have been the first thing he had ever said which was correct

After that, Leo kept on popping in Fabians head. And to be honest, I don’t think Fabian knew how to bring him back. After dinner with his parents, who lived in an apartment over a Toy Shop which was destined to stay for many worlds, he went to the town library. There he read this paragraph in this small book:

''Silverfall was one of the greatest cities the Gods had built. It was set up in grid like streets, with a beautiful fountain in the center. In the southern part of the city was the main castle, which stretched out. It was  100 feet long and had two twin towers that could reach the clouds. Along impenetrable wall around it. Ancient Elves believed that it may have been located in the Valley Of Fire, which today historians still can’t figure out where it was. -The Star Gospel, pg 110.''

It’s no use Leo, I can’t find out where Silverfall is.

Wait, what is that place on the map? Said Leo, who was now ‘awake.’

That’s Starpool lake.

'''I-I think I know that place. Take me there now'''! Leo begged, and before he could say anything else Fabian pushed him out of his mind, he needed to think about this. Suddenly a familiar tip tapping sound came running from around the corner.

“Helllllllllllllllllooooooooooooo Fabian! Good to see you here! How are y-”

“SHUT UP TADRUFF!” roared Fabian. And I do mean roar. Poor Tadruff ran away in tears while Fabian sat there wondering what had happened. All the villagers in the library had their eyes on him now. Fabian didn’t know what to do, so he ran. He ran out of the library and into his house. To his surprise his father was still awake. He turned around and cast an icy gaze.

“What are you doing here this late?”

“I-I was researching in the library.”

“About what?” Said his dad with a raised eyebrow.

“About Stellaism.” Fabian replied.

His dad grinned, “Ah yes, it’s an interesting thing to learn about isn’t it?” This was what Fabian’s dad would do when trying to start a conversation, as he is an extremely socially awkward person. In reality, he didn’t have any interest in the religion. Fabian remembered his Dad knew a lot about mythology.

“Excuse me, but I have a question….what would happen when someone stole another person’s heart?” It was a logical question, especially since it had just happened to him.

“Normally, in the old stories, the person who has the heart either goes crazy or dies.” Fabian’s blood went cold. “What happens is, when a person acquired someone else’s heart, they would have everything inside that heart. Memories, emotions and morals. Eventually, the person with the heart would start becoming more like the original owner, and eventually die.”

“Why would the person die?”

“Because no one can have two hearts. It has been proven, one heart must go in order to live. No one can hold someone else’s life…..unless they give up their own.” his Dad stopped, “Why are you asking this...is something wrong?”

Fabian paused, fear gripping his lungs, he drew a breath, “No.” and he walked to his bedroom and sat on his bed. Now he knew he had to leave. Tomorrow morning. It would be the only way.

I must find the Lost City Of Silverfall with Leo, the only way to do that is to go to the lake he was talking about and pray he remembers something.

Tomorrow, I will begin my Quest.

Adeela.
All the other dwarves were already thinking of ditching Adeela. You can’t blame them really, this is not the type of dwarf you would work with for anything. In the whole 2 hours she had been in the cave, her peers had been yelled at, insulted, and even sweared. Which isn’t really the most dignifying thing to do when you are stuck in the deep caverns of  a mining colony. A dwarven mining colony to be exact. Adeela wasn’t even in charge, but if you were watching this you’d think she was. She may be small but she is certainly bigger in the inside. And whenever she was with a group of people, Adeela would take charge of the scene and make sure everything revolved around her. Normally, Adeela would be acting up when she was tired. But today was a very special day, and special days usually bring the worst of her. She was woken up early, and told there was a ‘special request’ to mine as much Caserite by the end of the day saying that, the King of The Elf Kingdom needed it for a ‘project’. So together she and 12 other dwarves got to work as soon as they could. This would be a great joy to the colony, as when a royal makes a request, it will always meant a wealthy reward.

Although it was hard to tell, Adeela really cared about the well being of the colony, and that year they weren’t doing as well as they could have. So when she was informed of all this, she saw this as a golden opportunity to turn her old and penurious little down into what every other mountain between the Elven and Dwarven border looked like. But of course when they begun mining, things didn’t go as planned. There were cave ins, injuries, ores mistaken for other ores, and all the worst possible things that could happen that day. Most in the group didn’t mind, Harrybrook Mine was always known for its extreme bad luck. But the most affected by it was Adeela, she had dreams of the colony being randomly turned around, and in most of these dreams she was the hero who did it. So when one of the dwarves suggested that they rest, Adeela blamed everything that happened on them.

“How could you slimy, lazy, idiots think of resting? We have barely done anything at it is all your fault! I hate you all!” and with that she stormed away into another tunnel, where, in her thoughts, was ‘where she would finish her work.’ As she began stomping through, the walls on her side started to narrow a little, and I hate to say this but Adeela is slightly claustrophobic. To calm herself down, she sang a little poem her guardians taught her

Through the forests, the hills the rivers,

Lies the stolen mountains of old,

Stolen by elves who called themselves givers

They took every colony and gold,

But we were lucky,

We kept our only home,

Now Harrybrook mines,

And Harrybrook delivers,

Their town had a little history with the elves, a hundred worlds ago, Elves took a large portion of the dwarves land. You see, around that time there was a lot of tension between the two races, the dwarves had a very gullible and submissive king. The queen of the elves demanded some of their land for treasure, and the king agreed so. What the King didn’t know was that there were tiny mining towns in the area, these towns were small but was a must-for for travels. If your family was really poor at the time, you could move to a colony like Harrybrook and work there. So when those towns were instantly changed to elven territory, the currency was changed too. All the families that immigrated to mining colonies were stricken by poverty because of this, Adeela’s parents included. They couldn’t return to their old homes, because when the Queen found out about the colonies, she forced the Dwarves living there to send all the recources that they harvested from the mountains to The Elf Kingdom, and it had been like that ever since.Not all the dwarves survived of course, most of them starved to death since their money wasn’t worth anything anymore. This is why Adeela is a orphan, and is why she lives at Harrybrook, and every dwarf in the village made sure she knew this. As Adeela took her slow steps through the tunnel, she remembered this, and started getting angry again. She had never met an elf, but if she did she would probably attack it. ''I hate elves, they ruined everything! I wouldn’t have grown up at this foul place if it weren’t for them. I could have lived a normal life! Horrible, greedy creatures….''

She was just about to turn back when she noticed a little glow hiding in the dark. Whether it was her desire to prove herself, or the fact that the tunnel looked a little wider farther ahead, Adeela decided to push her fears behind her and started walking towards it. When Adeela was close enough, she began trying to identify what it was. There weren’t many geologists at Harrybrook, but every dwarf there had at least some knowledge. But no matter how hard she stared at the stone, no word escaped her lips. Curious, and I suppose a little stupid, she reached out to touch it. Instantly, Adeela was pushed back by some electric force. What she saw would have driven her across the continent, but it didn’t because she was conveniently up against a wall, so there was nowhere to run.

Her wings were glorious, her feathers glowed like tiny sun crystals, her iron beak was like a talking sword, her majestic eyes danced across the room as she searched for the culprit. She was Aquillius, the great Eagle God.

"Have you stolen my heart?"

"You mean the crystal you had just come out of?"

"Yes. Now give it back."

Adeela proceeded to do this, but as soon as she touched the 'heart' it sunk into her hand just like what happened to Fabian.

"How did you do that?" said the eagle in a regal tone.

"I-I don't know."

Suddenly, Aquillus looked frightened, and started to heave her feathery chest back and fourth; she was breathing.

"How do I take back Silverfall without my heart? The guards will turn me away!" then Aquillus tilted her head and stared directly at Adeela's hand. "Darling, could you come a little closer please?"

But Adeela was to smart to fall for that, she knew what the god was thinking, in fact she thought of that before her. "No. Are you sure there isn't an other way to take the crystal-er I mean heart out of my hand at your home. If there are talking eagles beyond Harrybrook, there is bound to be some sort of magic."

"There is....but I don't know how to get there."

"What if I try to find it for you?"

Aquillus ruffled her feathers in impatience. "Fine. But I doubt I will be very welcome wherever I am, assuming there are other dwarves in this place. So I'm going to teach you a little trick, close your eyes...."

Adeela did as she was told.

"Now, say the following words, 'take the heart's desire from view.'

Adeela reiterated her magic words, and when she took a peek, the eagle was gone.

'''Muuuuch better. I'm Aquillus by the way, nice to meet you.'''