Seasons | Archers - Preface (I-III) by Glake Micole Riuno - HTML preview

Section III: Prologues, Scene I Witches & Whereabouts

After several seconds of hesitation, I managed to gather up every ounce of courage in my body, and quickly made my way into the woods. I had no clue as to where I was going, and had nothing to guide my way through the darkness other that the lightly glowing stone that dangled against my chest. The further I made my way in, the darker it grew, and the thicker the trees had become, blocking out every ounce of sunlight. It wasn’t long until I came across something that caught my eye, something truly horrifying. The smell of smoke made its way into my nostrils. It started as a light smell, at first I thought something might have been cooking in one of the nearby huts that I had past, but I was soon to learn that was not the case.

I continued to walk, as the smell grew stronger, and just like that, it appeared.  My eyes spotted a dark orange color in the far distance, it seemed to be dancing and moving rapidly. “Fire” I thought to myself as I dashed towards the glowing flames in the dark woods. The flames seemed to be growing brighter and taller, the closer I came to them. It wasn’t long until I came to a complete halt, stunned by what I saw. There were woman, maybe about five or six of them, dressed in long, shadowy, black robes; surrounding the fire, heads bowed, and hands connected. The moment I caught glimpse of them, my heart began to race. “They must be witches.” I thought to myself, holding my mouth. I looked down at Clarity’s stone, only to notice that it was glowing much more brightly than before. My first thought was, maybe they had the Orb, but as I inched away from them, too avoid being spotted, the orb began to glow much brighter. I continued to inch backwards and around them until something caught way of my feet from behind me, as I crashed to the ground. I quickly examined what I tripped over, as from first feel, I would’ve guessed it to be a log or a tree branch of some sort, but I would have guessed wrong. For what I had tripped over put me into a noisy panic. It was a body. But not any ordinary body, and I knew this based on first glance. It lay there, it’s thin, long, black hair spread out on the ground, eyes balled out, wide open, and mouth as well, which gave off an overall shocking expression to the face. But, there was something much more noticeable, much more frightening, than all of that. And that of which were its teeth, they were long, yet thin; and several seemed to grow out from another, layers and layers of teeth. And that’s when I knew, this was the creature Lance and I came across. I got up in a scramble expecting it to lunge at me, but it didn’t take long for me to notice that it lay there dead. I quickly looked up towards the woman surrounding the fire, just in time to catch one of the women look up to notice me. She let out a loud hiss, her lips, dark as the night sky. I dashed further down the path to get away from them, now in search of the armory for protection. “Don’t you dare run from us! Outsider!”, I heard one of them hiss as I dashed off down the path. Still on the run, I looked down at the stone once again to notice it shining even more brightly, this time; it gave off a blinding glow. The armory was now in reach, and I quickly made my way inside. Upon making my way inside I let out a sigh of relief, hands on my knees. I made my way up to the counter, only to notice no one was there. I noticed a silver service bell further down the counter. I rushed to it quickly and began to ring it excessively. “Anyone here??!!” I yelled, still in somewhat of a panic that just happened. I looked down at the stone once again, but this time had to turn away due to how brightly it was shining. A few moments passed until I heard a quiet rustling coming from the room behind the counter, which was covered by the same purple curtain that I had noticed last time. It began to sway lightly; I noticed a hand slowly grasp the edge of the curtain, pushing it aside. Behind the curtain however, stood a different woman than that was present from my last visit. This woman’s face was covered with piercing’s, with several necklaces and pendant’s around her neck, she wore a black turban around her head, which gave her an overall mysterious look. She slowly walked toward the front of the counter, eyes fixed on the glowing stone around my neck. She squinted, as she got closer, more than likely because of the strong luminance the stone was giving off. In a flash she peered up at me, “What brings you hear my dear?” she spoke softly. “The Witches!” I said in a panic, “They’re after me, I really don’t know why! They’re conducting some ceremony not too far from here; I fear they are still on the lookout for me. This stone led me into the woods, I know whatever it’s picking up is close by!” The woman broke out a light smile, “You’ve come to the right place.” She said as she came around the corner. “I have been waiting for you for a long time, my dear.” She spoke mysteriously. I had no idea what she meant; I’ve never seen this lady once in my life. “We’ve all been waiting for you for a long time. Come, I can give you the answers that you seek!” She said as she quickly made her way behind the curtain. I hesitated for a second, but I knew this woman knew something that I did not. And even if she could help me in the slightest in finding the Autumn Orb, I was all for it.

I made my way behind the curtain, and to my surprise it led to a very small room. The walls decorated with animal skin, odd statues, and pendants, bottles and weapons, things of all sorts. In the center of the room stood a small round table, with two seats, one on each side. On the table in the dead center, stood a crystal ball, glowing with an odd midst from inside of it. “What’s a place like this doing inside of an Armory?” I thought to myself. “I know you may be a bit confused as to why I brought you back here, young one.” The woman said as she took a seat at the table. “Allow me to explain a bit about myself. My name is Serena, and I am BlueEarth’s fortuneteller! And this, is my Sanctuary!” My eyes widened, “The stone led me here? But, why? How?” I asked, now in total confusion. “The Season Orbs are not the only thing the stone reacts to my dear. But of course, The Goddesses do not know this.” Serena spoke mysteriously, as she gazed into her crystal ball. “Sit, my dear.” She demanded pointing towards the seat across from her. I quickly took a seat, now becoming a bit unnerved, as the room held an overall eerie feeling. “Relax my dear, the stone has brought you the right place, and now we shall find the answers you seek!” She assured as she gripped my hand tightly. The stone was glowing extremely brightly now, and it was at that moment where I finally came to the realization that the stone was attracted to the crystal ball, this entire time. Serena began circling one hand around the crystal ball, the other still hanging on tightly to mine. She began to speak in a strange tongue, her overall tone gradually became louder, and eyes strongly fixed on the crystal ball. The mist within the ball began to clear to a bright white color, she began to speak, eyes now closing, “Towaile, is it?” she asked. “Yes, that’s corrected.” I confirmed, feeling even more nervous now. “Hmmmm, so it seems you are indeed the outsider to BlueEarth that everyone has been speaking of. I see the stone was given to you by our lady Clarity, she trusts you greatly with it. She worries in fear that danger will come to you, yet she has faith that you will pull through.” I sat frozen in the chair, both hands now sweating, yet I sat amazed from the ability I was witnessing right before my eyes. “Your task, as well as desire, is to find the Autumn Orb, which lies in your world.” Serena spoke, eyes still shut. She began to wave her hand around the crystal ball once again; it now began to shift to a more, bright green color. I squinted my eyes due to the brightness. “Ahh yes, here we are!” Serena exclaimed, “I see a fields 2 and 3, they lie within the perimeter of Woodwurn, the home of the outsider. The Orb lies asleep at the center of these fields.” I jolted in excitement, “You can see the stone?” I asked. “Hush young one!” Serena demanded. “I see something dangerous as well, it is faint, but it protects the Orb, and will do all it can to see that the Orb stays put!”

I began to think long and hard, “Fields 2 and 3. I’ve never seen them before.” I thought to myself. Suddenly, a loud banging interrupted us both, which could be heard from the outside walls of the armory, followed by several loud, and screeching laughs. I got up quickly, forcing Serena to let go of my hand. She cursed, “You fool, you broke my concentration!” she hissed as she slowly got up. “Serena, it’s the Witches! We have to get out of here before they come inside!” The odd smell of smoke began to appear, before I could notice it coming from the walls around us. “They’re going to set the place on fire! We have to move!” I yelled in panic. Serena grabbed hold on my wrist, “Listen, it is all up to you to find the Orb, you must bring it back to Clarity the moment you find it, everything is in your hands now!” She spoke softly, staring at me directly in the eyes. I nodded. Flames began to seer through the walls of the room we were in, and the laughing of the Witches outside grew louder. “I must stay here and guard the armory, you head back to your homeland immediately, it is not safe here!” Serena commanded. I took out my bow from my bag and quickly spun it around in the air, awakening it. I made a lighting run for it out the armory, and noticed the Witches were behind the building, I made safe distance before looking back to see the entire building engulfed in flames. “Serena..” I thought to myself. I prayed she was safe, but at the same time I knew I had to return to Wudwurn to pinpoint the location of Fields 2 and 3. Suddenly, out of nowhere a bright orange light crashed into the ground right next to me, knocking me back. I hit the ground hard, but managed to get back up without much trouble. I immediately knew a Witch had casted some sort of spell at me, but missed. I heard the laughing in the distance. Suddenly, I heard what sounded like footsteps coming up behind me, and upon turning around, my eyes caught glimpse of twenty to thirty archers, all of which dashing towards the armory. I noticed the one from earlier, Autumn had scolded, completely drenched in armor from head to toe, this archer quickly began firing multiple arrows at the Witches, heading straight into the heat of battle, I was in awe. “Towaile!” I heard a voice call from behind me, I turned my head, it was Lance. “I don’t know what in the world you were thinking to come to such a dangerous place, but you must leave immediately! Return to your world, now! That’s an order!” Without hesitation I nodded, and dashed towards the exit of the woods, still looking back at all the archers running towards the in-flamed building, which was once an armory, and home to a fortuneteller.

Though my mind was still worrying about Serena’s wellbeing, I knew I had to focus on the whereabouts of Fields 2 and 3. I figured I’d search it on the web upon returning home, it was my only hope left to finding the Orb really, and I knew now I was closer than anyone has ever been in all of BlueEarth history. Upon exiting the woods, I noticed many citizens standing outside their homes with weapons in hand, “You shouldn’t be out and about at this time, boy, it’s not safe!” one of them called out, “That’s right, head on home!” Called another. I knew it had to be because of the Witches. Without hesitation I made my way towards the exit of BlueEarth and the entrance to my world, now anxious to return home.

Section III: Prologues, Scene II: The Leviathan

I returned home late that night, around midnight to be exact. I knew it would be too risky to sneak in through my window, for it was Halloween, and I expected my parents to still be awake from the possibility of servicing the last minute trick-or-treaters. I entered the garage code, and made my way into the house. Both my parents lay bundled on the couch watching some horror movie. I heard the screams, and saw the flashes coming from the TV. I tried to block it all out, I had enough panic and freight for one night, and something deep inside told me tomorrow would bring much the same. “You’re home late Towaile, have a good time at the party?” My mother asked as she lifted her head up from the arm of the couch. “Wasn’t as fun as I’d thought it would be” I answered, once again contributing the lies I had made earlier. My dad began sniffing the air, almost as if he could smell a fresh home cooked meals scent traveling up his nostrils. “I smell smoke, have you been smoking Towaile?!” He blurted, jumping to conclusions. I had completely forgotten about the possible strong scent that could have lingered on me, and here I was being reminded. “N-No, there were…a lot of smokers there! Plus a smoke machine!” I lied in a scatter, “I swear, I didn’t smoke, dad.” I confirmed honestly. “Well, alright, I trust you know better than that.” He said, as he began to focus on the movie once more.

I kicked off my shoes, and quickly made my way upstairs to my room, still anxious to discover the exact location of Fields 2 and 3. I locked the door behind me, and flung open my laptop. I opened my search engine and filled it in with ‘Wudwurn Fields 2 & 3’, upon hitting enter; I was excited as to what I saw. The location was approximately 1.0 miles from my house, and roughly 6 blocks away from where I lived. The overall premises and street was familiar, I knew I had past by it several times, however I never noticed fields of any sort. “Tomorrow this is where we go,” I said quietly as I pulled the stone out of my pocket. The stone had completely stopped dimming, I hoped tomorrow it would help me in my search once again, but the most important thing I needed to worry about at this moment, was sleep. I unlocked my door, un-dressed, and quickly crawled into bed, drifting off quickly to sleep.

The following morning I awoke late, in a panic, only to realize that there was no school this Tuesday due to parent teacher conferences. I made my way downstairs only to notice both of my parents were nowhere to be found, I figured they both left off to conferences and decided to let me sleep in. Generally I would have been concerned about them going off to conferences, I had always been quite nervous as to what my teachers had to say about me, but at this time, my focus was on finding the Autumn Orb. Today was the first of November, and I knew winter here was soon to arrive, and how wonderful it would be, to be able to return the natural seasonal cycle to BlueEarth, for them to experience winter for the first time in fourteen years. It motivated me even more to find the Orb. I ate breakfast quickly, and gathered my things. Since my parents were gone, I had no reason to sneak out my bedroom window, so left through the garage instead. I took out the stone from inside my pants pocket and wore it around my neck once again, and began making my down to the street in which the fields apparently resided on. I noticed nothing out of the ordinary. Houses, much like in all other places in Wudwurn laid naturally spread out, cars and people traveled up and down the street. It wasn’t a street that I would have imagined an ancient orb to be hidden on, or within even. I eventually made my way towards the end of the street and noticed a small park. I turned and made my way around the street from the north end. As I walked I noticed the trees began to grow thicker as the park began to fade the further down the street I walked, there was a woodsy like perimeter near the street, however I couldn’t spot an entrance. I continued to walk until the trees were fully out of sight, and a small field came into view. It was covered in flowers of all sorts. “This is one of the fields?” I thought to myself. I exited the sidewalk and made my way up onto the small flowery field and noticed a man on his knees gardening in the nearby distance, he wore a sun-hat and gardening gloves. I assumed he was a park and rec worker. “He could surely tell me where I am!” I thought, as I rushed up to him. I stood behind him, the man, completely absorbed into his work didn’t even realize I was near. “Excuse me, sir?” I said, hoping to get his attention. “Yes, how may I help you, young one?” The man replied, still gardening, back towards me. I thought it to be quite rude to not make eye contact, as well as to assume I was young, even though it was a lucky guess. “I’m looking for a Fields 2 and 3, do you know where I could find them? I asked, now in a hurry. The man lifted his head, and pointed straight ahead. I looked, I saw nothing but trees in the distance, but I figured he wouldn’t lie.

I thanked the man, and he responded with a feint “Be careful”, almost as if he knew I was up to something. I immediately became a bit intimidated about where I was heading, but now was not the time to chicken out. I dashed off towards the trees in the distance, only to notice a wooden sign that read, “Fields 2 & 3” I quickly glanced down at my stone, and noticed it hadn’t begun glowing. I wondered if I were even in the right place. Upon getting closer to the trees in the distance, I noticed a path that connected into some small woods not too far off from me, I made my way inside in a rush, open to go anywhere to see if the stone would react. It wasn’t long until the end of the path was near, but by that time I knew I was getting closer. Upon exiting the path, I now caught glimpse of a giant open brown grassy field in front of me, with a giant hill standing tall in the distance. I glanced down at the stone, to notice it still had not begun to glow. I continued to glance around. “The Orb sleeps in-between Fields 2 & 3.” I said to myself. It wasn’t long until I caught glimpse of another field, not too far off, this one however it seemed to be under construction, dirt was all dug up, and mountains of it lay all over the place, making it seemingly close too impossible to navigate. It was at that moment something told me to take a step back, and look carefully at the area that I had in which made my entrance in. I turned around back towards the path I had rushed through not too long ago, only to notice a large body of trees, which seemed to span out about a hundred yards. It was at that moment, that I noticed the body of trees stood in the dead middle between the two fields. “This has to be it, but there’s gotta be another entrance!” I said to myself. I tried to peer through the trees, but they were too thick, I ran up and down the fields until I noticed another entry path, which seemed to go on further than the one I had traveled into prior. I quickly made my way inside, and that’s when it began to happen. The stone let out a feint cry, almost like a soft whistling, as began to glow dimly. “It’s in here!” I said aloud in excitement. It was at this moment, that I remembered what Serena had warned, about something dark and dangerous protecting the stone. I quickly took out my Bow and a few arrows. I awakened my bow, and began making my way further down the path. Birds could be heard chirping happily from above. The trees did not cover the sky, and the feint sound of cars driving on the road from outside the woods could be heard, I knew for a fact then, that I was not in another world. I continued to walk until I caught notice of a bridge in the distance; I made my way onto it. From one end it gave view of the entire street, I noticed cars passing by slowly, and the houses that lay on the other side of the road. But there was something else I noticed. The bridge stood over the only opening of ground the path had, and the entire woods in general. A small stream, which opened up into a small pond, further in the distance, could be seen from the other side of the woods. Golden weeping willows, a rare sight to my eyes, could be seen drifting over the pond, reflecting from the water, just barely touching it. And the other trees, of various bright and vibrant colors stood tall and strong around the pound. It was almost as if the entire season of autumn was bundled into this small area…and that’s when it hit me. I knew the orb had to be in here, but where? I looked around from the bridge to see if I could spot anything out of the ordinary hanging, or glowing from within the ground.

It wasn’t until I made my way off of the bridge, had I began to notice something strange. The stone began to glow even more brightly. I stopped in my tracks and made my way closer near the stream, which flowed beneath the bridge. The stone began to glow even brighter. I stepped into the stream and began searching the water frantically for a glowing orb, but no luck. I walked further down the stream, only to notice that the water was quickly rising up my legs, my pants were drenched up to my kneecaps, but that’s when I knew the stone was sensing something from the center of the pond. I knew I had to make my way into the body of the pond, but I had never swam in pond water before, I always thought of it to be extremely slimy, diseased filled, and full of duck feces. I sighed, and took off my shirt and shoes, throwing them on top of the bridge. I looked straight ahead at the center of the pond and sighed. I thought for a second, “I can’t lose this stone in the water, it’s my only beacon.” I said to myself. I quickly took off the stone and tied it around my bow. I figured I’d use it as a sort of flashlight under water to spot the Orb. I took a deep breath, and began to swim out towards the center of the pond, the shallow water immediately cut off after a few steps, and I knew at that moment I was in for a hell of a search. I dove underwater and held out my bow, the stone began to glow extremely bright, and the echoing ring could be heard quite loud, even from under the water. I quickly began to swim deeper downwards, hoping to soon reach the bottom…but it hadn’t yet appeared. But the stone gradually continued to glow brighter and brighter. I swam faster downwards, my ears now beginning to hurt from the water pressure. My eyes were fixed on the glowing stone until something else caught my attention. Something that frightened me so deeply, the water immediately seemed too go from warm, too icy cold in a matter of seconds. A long and wide shadow could be seen swarming in circles not too far from me, I panicked and began to swim deeper, in a hurry to find the Orb.

It wasn’t until a loud and terrifying roar could be heard coming from below, my body froze. Everything was silent for maybe ten seconds following, until the shadowy creature came violently crashing into my left arm, knocking it out of its socket. In immense pain, I let myself free fall, deeper into the pond, the creature swarming around me once again. I held out my Bow with my right arm, in an attempt to catch view of the creature. I managed to catch glimpse of its mouth, it was long and wide, with teeth longer than tree branches. It soon came rushing for from above, mouth wide open. In a panic, I swam to the side to avoid it, it’s teeth just nicking the side of my stomach, but good enough to the point where my flesh was sliced open a few inches downwards. Still free falling beneath the never ending depths of the pound, I held out my Bow, this time attempting to land the only loaded arrow in my bow, directly into the creature’s mouth. It was quiet once again for a good thirty seconds, but I soon heard the sound of water pressure separating not too far below me, I aimed my bow downwards, and shot the bow in that direction. The creature came swarming upward, colliding mouth on with the arrow as it stuck right into its throat. It let out several loud cries that shook the entire pond, and began violently swarming downwards, “It could be headed for the orb!” I thought to myself.  I began to trot after the creature, but it picked up speed, and began to swim even further downwards, I kicked off and swam faster, until something else caught my eye. My body froze once again, but this time, not out of fear, but out of anything but fear. But rather Excitement, joy, happiness, relief, you name it. A dim orange glowing mist could be seen not too far in the distance, the stone around my bow glowing violently brighter with every inch I grew nearer to the midst. I cuffed my Bow in-between my left armpit, and reached out my right arm as I swam closer to the midst. And there, lying at the bottom of the pond in between Fields 2 & 3 was the key to the continuation of time within a world different from mine, The Autumn Orb.

Section III: Prologues, Scene III: The Blonde Haired Girl

I reached out and grabbed the Orb. It contained warmth to it, un-describable warmth. It had a smooth curve to it as well, which made it take the shape of a sphere; it beamed a bright orange light from within it, lighting up the entire bottom of the pond. It was almost as if I held the setting sun within the palm of my hand. Vexed by its beauty, I had completely forgotten about what I had faced only several seconds ago. The creature was nowhere to be found. I grasped the Orb tightly within my right hand and kicked off from the bottom of the pond with my feet, now heading to the surface. I felt it to be a bit strange that the creature was no longer around. It continued to swim straight downward, even as I swam after it, it somehow, managed vanish within the thin water. I tried to not think about it too much, and within a few seconds that was the last thing on my mind, as my adrenaline had begun to wear off, and the pain from my injuries began to kick in once again.

Upon reaching the surface, the pain was so immense; my entire body began to shake. I kicked my way over to the shallow end of the pond, and soon limped my way out, back onto the solid ground. I dropped on my knees and cried out in pain. Usually when you get an injury putting pressure against it would be a mere natural reaction. However for me, with both a gash on the right side of my stomach, and dislocated left arm, there was no way I could tend to both injuries with only one free hand. “I have to get back to BlueEarth” I said to myself, “There’s no way I can let my parents see me like this. I unraveled the stone from my bow and through it around my neck, putting my bow back into my backpack. I used the left shoulder strap on my backpack as a sort of crutch for my left arm, using my right shoulder as a sort of beacon for the backpack. It was an ‘okay’ temporary solution, for what seemed like a permanent problem, but it had to do, until I made my way back into BlueEarth. I grabbed my shirt off the wooden rail of the bridge and stuffed it between the bottom of my right backpack strap, it pressed aga