writers_loft | Burning Star: Prologue (Reply)

Ok, this is the first time I've posted to this community so I hope you like it! This novel hopeful is called Burning Star, which I have been writning for about six months, which is a major acheivment for me! This is the first of hopefully four books I am going to write called the True Star Saga. This is the first, the second will either be called New Star or Shining Star. The third is a battle between Super Nova or Dwarf Star. That last will be called Black Hole Forming. I'm not going to tell you what they are about because thats just spoiling it! Well here goes!

Prologue

This was it. They had finally found out. They were coming to kill me, to kill us. It had been fun the past four hundred years or so. More than that, it had been brilliant! The birthdays, the Verildans, everything. But now we reached the end of the fine wire we toed across all these years.

I could hear them now, screams of betrayal, the fires of never-ending pain, the beginnings of a war.

After four hundred years of piece, the high council of Hemerai had discovered the existence of a half-breed. ‘An outrage!’ they had said. ‘Unacceptable!’ they had continued.

The small wooden house felt like straw now, when we saw the mob of outraged citizens, disgusted council members and even the peaceful gralites marching towards us, one thing on their mind.

“Nova, stay here! We will protect you!” my mother had told me, pushing me towards the corner furthest from the door.

“No matter what happens, my tiny blessing, we will always love you” they both told me and for the first time that day I felt hope.

The door was smashed to bits instantly. My Hemerain mother and my Vorneyen father, eternal enemies, fighting side by side to save me. The half-breed.

I had been taught much about the traditions and gods of my mothers world. She had once told me in the ancient legends of Hemerai if such a thing like this was to occur that Renalda Alta Verildan herself were to appear to smite those who have disgraced this world, but no such being presented itself now.

My mother shot the council members with streaks light, but the elders were too well protected, having foreseen such an act. The ancient magic of light was taught to our kings and queens for centuries by the gods themselves but it has never been of use. Until now.

My father stood behind her, giving her his own magical powers of the gods. Still, it had no effect. The warriors pushed forwards until they were at the door.

The deafening scream of defeat ripped from my mothers throat as they tackled her and took her away. My father snarled fiercely and pounced on those who carried my mother, taring at them with his sharp dragonic teeth and claws, ripping them from limb to limb. They dropped my mother onto the soil, now stained with enemy blood. She ran for the house.

“Nova,” she breathed my name, as if it were a struggle “Run! Hide!” I was barely four and I understood everything around me.

“No, I will not go mother! I will help stop them!” I said confidently, shaking my head. She knelt down, to my level, staring me in the eye. Her deep brown eyes were full of fear and infinite love.

“Nova, my darling, we fight against an impossible enemy, for you, my love, for you to live. Now go! live!” she said to me and I finally understood.

Then she was snatched from my arms by the warriors again. She screamed and struggled with their huge arms, having little effect against the brawny men.

My father, hearing my mothers screams, abandoned his victims, running towards her and attempting to free her again. This time it did not work. They battered him away as if he were nothing.

I stood there, frozen to the spot with fear. I watched the scene unveil before me, the bloodied victims of my father staggering around or lying dead on the ground, the elders constructing a fire and stake to burn my mother at and the huge men dragging my mother away from me forever. I stared at her in disbelief.

Our eyes locked and she saw my fear.

“RUN, NOVA!! RUN!!” my parents screamed at me. I nodded and ran. I ran for the only other safe place I knew. Andrew’s house.

I reached the top of the giant hill before hearing the agonising howl of my father. I whirled around seeing something I thought impossible.

Another of the brawny men had him in a lock around the waist. He struggled just like my mother had before turning in the mans arms and taring his head off. It rolled to the ground at the bank of the hill where I stood.

Then the fire began. My eyes found the white body bound to the pole sticking out of the ground. The flames licked her body, disintegrating her majestic wings.

Thousands of years living under the wise rule of this beautiful woman, who was my mother, and this is how it ends? The queen of Hemerai burned at the stake? The beginning of the greatest war of my time? For the sake of what we live for most; Love?

I screamed in agony. The pain of loosing the only bond I have to this world destroyed me. The blood curdling sound echoed all around us, sending shivers down the spines of my enemies.

“NOVA!! RUN!! NOW!!” my father shouted, ordered at me. And this time, I did, never looking back, never wanting to know the outcome of my creation. I felt hot tears running down my cheeks but I didn’t care. I tripped and smashed my arm into a boulder. I knew it should be burning but I felt no pain. I knew the blood would be streaking my white clothing but I didn’t care. I felt nothing. Absolutely nothing. It was scary feeling nothing.

I burst through Andrew’s doors, panting.

“Help me!” I struggled to say. He walked forward and caught me before I hit the ground. I clung to him desperately.

“It’ll be okay, Nova. It’ll be okay” he whispered. My best friend, Selenai, came to stand with Andrew and I.

“I can take her,” she offered “She’ll be safe with me”

“Yes. Only when she is away from this world will she ever be safe again” Andrew agreed.

Then I heard them coming again.

“They followed me?!” I said bewildered.

“Go, Selenai! Keep her safe!” he shouted.

“No!” I screamed. I couldn’t loose him too. I just couldn’t. I lunged forward grasping at him.

“I wont leave you, too! Not to face them alone!” I screamed between sobs. Only then did I realise how badly had I been crying. Sobs racked my body, reaping me of whatever little strength I had had left.

“Shhh, little star. You’re not leaving me. I will always be with you” he whispered to me. He kissed me gently on the forehead and it stung. I sighed, relived that I could feel something again, even if it was pain. I hugged him tight for the last time and then I did something even he didn’t expect. I spoke his real name.

“Andris” I whispered touching his face, the symbol of eternal friendship.

“Novana” he said, repeating my actions. And then I was being pulled away from him, towards Selenai’s ship.

“Be safe!” he pleaded to me.

“Always!” I promised. Then he was gone forever.

As we took off I could see the flames emerging from his roof and I screamed. With all my strength diminished, I collapsed into a heap on the hard grating of the floor.

I lay on a bed that night. Words and voices ran around and around in my head and I thought maybe I had gone insane.

“No matter happens, my tiny blessing, we will always love you” “Nova, my darling, we fight against an impossible enemy, for you, my love, for you to live. Now go! live!” “Yes. Only when she is away from this world will she ever be safe again” “Shhh, little star. You’re not leaving me. I will always be with you.”

The voices of my mother and Andrew haunted me for the rest of my life.

As I lay in the bed, I reached deep within my mind, heart and soul, searching for anyone, anything that could tie me to my world. But there was nothing. Just the emptiness of my heart, the silence in my mind and the twisted pain of my soul. I screamed over and over, never falling completely into sleep before being woken by the scenes of my mother being burned, my father fighting without hope and my Andrew being consumed by flames in his home.

~*~~To Be Continued~~*~