The 5 year long journey: Part 1

"Life is an echo. What you send out, comes back. What you sow, you reap. What you give, you get. What you see in others, exists in you."

- Anonymous

Location: Unending Primal Forest

Time: Year 11 of the Era of Change Era: Era of Change

"Finally I've found it!" shouted a man in a dark black cloak which covered his entire body. This man was standing at a now ruined, but once tall standing building.

Strangely enough, this building was the only one that still had any resemblance to what it once was. Everything else, was either covered or overtaken, by the large vegetation of the area, making it very difficult to see what this area once looked like.

"Hmmm... I've no idea where I am though, or what this place once use to be! All I know, is that this area is not too far away from those idiots who dare call themselves the "Foundation Faction! How pathetic! A faction! Not a sect, not an empire, not a kingdom, but a measly, low-ranking one at that! How can a faction dare call themselves a foundation? The arrogance! But for now, I will let them be! I have more important things to do!" hissed the man while taking a deep breath, since he had been raging around for a while.

"Now, time to find out what this place once was, so that I can get enough clues for the trackers," mumbled the man as he started to explore the area to find out what it once was.

After a long time of exploring and mindlessly wandering around the area, he suddenly found something. It was a very old and ruined castle. This castle, for some reason though, had not yet been overrun with all the vegetation in the area.

As the man noticed this, he headed towards the castle. He found this very strange! How come this building had not been completely overrun by vegetation? In this new era, buildings had to be built with very specific materials.

These materials were either ores or woods that had Primal energy in them. Primal energy was the energy that had come after the awakening. It was from the core of the earth and it was an ancient and powerful energy of life.

Only by using these materials that had been absorbing this energy, would buildings in this new era be able to survive and not be overrun by vegetation.

Therefore, the man found it very strange that a castle made out of stones of the previous era, somehow was still standing. While thinking of this, he cautiously walked into the castle, trying to mainly find a clue about its origin and even about the area around it.

As he was walking in the courtyard of the castle, he saw something. It was a bronze sign, covered by some moss and a lot of dust. As he walked to the sign, he carefully removed the moss and blew away the dust.

At last, he finally found a clue about this area and the castle. The castle was called "Heidelberger Schloss". There were some other things there as well, but he couldn't understand much about it.

"Uh, I guess this is a clue, but for some reason, I feel like something is going on here and I don't like this feeling. I better go and inform the others of what I have found so that we can start as soon as possible," grunted the man with a serious expression as he vanished from the area.

After the man left, a noise was heard. It was the sound of a heartbeat.

"Badum..."

"Badum..."

The sound of the heartbeat constantly reverberated throughout the castle and then suddenly it stopped. Thereafter, a shinning white light shot into the sky and the area beneath the castle that was once only covered with vegetation became an old and ruined city.

There was no life, no movement in the city, yet for some reason, it had a mythical feeling to it. But just as all of that had happened, the white light disappeared along with the continuous heartbeat. The city as well slowly faded away into obscurity, as if it had never existed.

Location: Ancestors Cave

Time: Year 11 of the Era of Change Era: Era of Change

"She has been given more than enough time! No! I cannot condone this anymore! She knows of the important decisions lying ahead of us! The other clans are almost ready for the meeting, At most we have a year! She knows this will impact the future of our clan! And yet she cries and grieves like a child! If she will not listen, then she must leave!" spat one of the ancestors in rage.

He had previously let her go and mourn her loss, but now that he saw that Melisandre was continuing with her childish acts, he couldn't hold himself back anymore.

"You are crossing a line, that you won't be able to return from if you do that," warned one of the other ancestors in the cave.

"Ooooh... are you threatening me?! I hold the power in this clan! I have most tribe members and I have the most allies! Do you dare make me face consequences?!" seethed the ancestor with a rage-filled tone.

Following this, there was an eerie silence in the cave, no one said anything until a rough old voice could be heard:

"So be it! If you are not willing to understand if you think you can decide and do whatever you want, without us saying or doing anything. You are sorely mistaken," fumed the voice filled with energy, as if to proclaim his and the other's stance regarding this issue.

"Hmmm... is that so? You pathetic excuse for ancestors, will regret your decision!" as the ancestor spat this, he and many others stormed out of the cave in a rage, not looking back one moment, for the dice had been rolled and nothing could be taken back.

"Sigh! Inform Melisandre, we must prepare our tribe members to get out of here as soon as possible! Knowing him, he'll rather wipe us out, than let us go," said the old rough voice with a sigh.

"But why don't we fight back?!" asked one of the other ancestors still remaining in the cave.

"And involve the young ones? We can't. Too many members of our tribes have switched loyalties and become the loyal servants of the other ancestors."

"And you also know that if we don't preserve our bloodlines, our respective unique species will die out and be replaced by the many others in this large world. We are not alone and we are not rare. Although they are not the same, many are just like us, but have only a few minor differences. The only true difference between us and the others is... that boy," solemnly explained the old rough voice.

"Now gather those that are loyal! We need to meet up with the scouting group and get out of here!" he urged.

Following this everyone who was still left in the cave ran to do their tasks before time ran out.

Location: Underground Mining area 50-G

Time: Year 11 of the Era of Change Era: Era of Change

"Well, seeing that we're all together, let me introduce everyone to each other. First is my group, we came from the slave ship that dropped us off not too long ago. In this group, we have the short man Thon, the naive Steven, the deva Celine, the cold and stoic big brother John, the cute and innocent little sister Violet and the two twin twisting sisters Alene and Melene… and of course the last for best is me, Xiang!" chuckled Xiang with a grin.

"Now everyone else remaining are the remnants of the slaves that have been dropped off here over the last few months. So basically, everyone you see here, the one hundred and fifty people, are all that remains of the once many ten thousand slaves," declared Xiang with a bitter smile.

Hearing this everyone went silent. Only they, knew how much they had to do to survive, unlike Steven and his group who were very lucky to be close to this location. The others were extremely far away, so it had taken many lives and a very long time to finally reach this destination.

They had killed and lost many companions. But to them, even though it was slightly tragic, this was the world they lived in. No one had time to mourn, to care about who they had lost and who had fallen.

What was most important to them was their survival. If one looked into their eyes, one would only see a cold and emotionless gaze. Any emotion they once had, became long lost on their journey.

As Steven observed this, he subconsciously felt very blessed that he had met the people in his group and no one else. For the people in his group, even though they tried to hide it and forget about it, still had strong memories and emotions that reminded them of what it once was like to be human.

As he was thinking this, he did not realise, that everyone in his group thought about that as well. They had been withered, exhausted and were almost at the point of giving up all emotion, except to their loved ones. And even then, they didn't know if they would also lose those emotions for their loved ones, one day.

So when they thought of how Steven came into their life and reminded them of the emotions and memories in them, they were very thankful, and it was because of these newly remembered emotions that they had developed a sense of camaraderie with each other, especially to Steven.

They were in actual fact, very protective over Steven, for they were not willing to lose someone that had become so important to them. He was the catalyst to their memories and to their remaining as close to being human as possible.

"Now I would recommend, we get going! Who knows if those disgusting vermin will appear once more to feast on us," hissed Xiang with a disgusted expression.

As everyone heard this, they shivered in fear. As it was not too long ago that they had to face those creatures that had ripped people apart and eaten them, right in front of everyone.

Following this, everyone went together to the tunnels leading into different locations. No one knew where these tunnels were heading to. Some would gradually go up, others would continue going straight and worst of all, some would go down, right into the depths of the caverns, where all sorts of abysmal creatures lurked.

As everyone was discussing in which tunnel they should go to, someone raised their voice, trying to get the attention of the entire group.

"Everyone... I have had experience in these type of situations! If my knowledge is right, the last tunnel to the right should work its way up to the surface," advised the man with a confident expression. This man had an average physique that was very well toned, nothing special though, especially for people in this era.

Their bodies had been changed and it was not difficult for them to remain fit. The only thing to note, was that the man had dark purple hair and a very peculiar moustache.

The moustache from left to right looked like a fuzzy ball of hair. It's colour was pink, not at all fitting in with the colour of his hair. And the man's clothing was also very strange indeed. He seemed to have made his clothes out of the carcasses of the monsters he had faced while journeying to this point.

Apart from this though, when everyone saw how confident this man was, they felt that it would be a good decision to follow this man, and if anything happened they could always turn around. As the man saw this he smiled confidently, and walked towards the last tunnel to the right. Seeing this, many people started to follow him.

Steven though, wasn't even paying attention to what the man had said, rather he was looking at the ancient words he had previously seen.

They were floating above one of the middle tunnels. Somehow they were shining with a majestic feeling to them, even though their ancient appearance was the exact opposite of this.

"Hey guys... can you see the words at the top of the tunnels?" asked Steven in a low but still audible voice.

As some heard this, their eyes sharpened towards the top of the tunnels, to see if there was anything there. As they looked for a while they could see something, yet they couldn't make out what those words meant.

They found it strange that they somehow had missed those words, yet a frail weak-looking boy had somehow managed to easily see it.

"Steven… what do you see?" patiently asked Xiang with a serious expression.

Although he knew Steven didn't possess any special powers, he was not certain if indeed the celestial might have given him some kind of help or ability to survive. Especially knowing that Steven, for some reason, always tended to get involved in crazy events.

"Uh nothing much, just that one of the tunnels in the middle has some words on it that say:

"The beginning of the journey," read Steven with a confused expression. Hearing this many fell into contemplative thoughts. Should they believe what the boy said? If yes what is the meaning behind those words?

Many didn't notice that of the once large group, only about thirty people remained at the entrances of the tunnels. The rest had either followed the man or had gone in their respective directions. Not caring about what Steven or anyone else for that matter, had to say.

"Oye... then let's get going!" decided Thon for them all, as he patted Stevens back and started to walk to the tunnel Steven had spoken about.

Steven was confused, why did Thon not question or try and at least find out more about the tunnel, before listening to his words, trusting him, and walk directly towards that tunnel.

"You don't need to question it Steven! We know you wouldn't try to deceive us. We all don't know anything about these tunnels and where they lead to, so you showed us some type of a clue. I would rather follow that, than solely relying on the words of a strange man," explained Xiang with a smile.

"Well then... should we get going?" asked Steven with a bright smile.

"Yeah!" answered Xiang. Xiang and the rest of Steven's group started walking through the entrance of the tunnel and caught up with Thon, teasing him about how slow he was.

As the people who were left observed this, they felt intrigued. They had never seen anything like this in this era. It was something new and refreshing. Trust, kindness, honesty. Things they thought they would never see again.

As they thought of this, they smiled for a brief moment but then quickly resumed their expressionless faces. They too ran and caught up with Steven and his group. Not realising that this decision had saved their lives.

As everyone has chosen their respective paths, they all had to face their trials. Some had to try and find food to survive, others had to fight waves upon waves of grotesque monsters.

While some, mostly Steven's group, did not have to face any big challenges. Sometimes, they had to fight monsters or scavenge for food, but mostly they just had to just continue walking and find a way out of the tunnels.

If the people in the other tunnels had seen this, they would want to rip Steven and his group to shreds. How dare this group have a picnic while everyone else was screaming and dying and just trying to survive the toughest journey out of this hell hole.

These respective adventures would take over a year and now everyone was reaching the respective next challenges that would await them.