Omega Crossing
Prelude
Keth cautiously walked down the narrow aisle. Sets of bench style seats ran the length of the metal encased cart. A row of metal framed windows lined each wall. He stooped down and peered out the broken windows, at the rubble scattered about the streets of the long abandoned city. It was always strange to him, to think that the ancients once found solace in these formed stone and iron fortresses. More like prisons he always thought. Judging by the number of dwellings, thousands upon thousands must have lived in such close proximity to one another. The fighting must have been ceaseless. He never understood how they had food for so many with nearly all the ground being covered by this cursed formed stone. How does one make food without farms? Even the most gifted mages needed soil to drain nutrients from. This was, but one of the many mysteries forgotten by time of the seemingly great ancients.
Keth’s thoughts came to a sudden halt when he sensed movement from the corner of his eye. He ducked between a set of seats, stopped breathing and focused his sense. Closing his eyes, he broke full contact with his fleshly senses and began to take in his surroundings with his spirit sense.
The naked eye would show that his surroundings was more or less a wasteland of formed stone, metal, and other synthetic materials. His spirit-sight saw a different world. Looking down at his own body, it was beaming with a brilliant blue aura. The disparity between his body and it’s monochrome synthetic surroundings was absolute. Beneath the formed stone road, the soil was glowing with all shades of browns, blues, and greens. They were beaming with life and possibility. Every patch of moss, every plant that forced it’s way through the stone to reach the light was clearly visible. It would seem that life will eventually overcome even the graveyards of the ancients.
Momentary distracted by the beauty of his surroundings, Keth regained focus and began to seek out the disturbance. Tracing up the road past the many long abandoned metal carts and into a cave entrance of one of the buildings about one hundred paces from his body, almost to the limit of his spirit sense, he saw the dim white glow of a rabbit. It was nibbling on a patch of glowing pink flowers that had pushed it’s way through the formed stone ground at the cave entrance. Keth could see the pink petals being chewed in it’s mouth and the subsequent journey to it’s stomach where it faded away into the general white glow of the rabbits body.
The image collapsed and he was snapped back into his body as his stomach ached with hunger. It had been close to a week since he last ate meat. He had been surviving mostly off of moss and weeds he had transfigured to vegetables. This was a life saving gift taught to him by his grandfather just prior to his passing.
Keth stood up and slowly exited the long faded yellow cart which he had been his hiding place. After grabbing his bow and an arrow from their holder on his back. Notching the arrow, he pulled back on the string and held his breath and reached out partially with his spirit-sense. He reacquired the rabbit and let the arrow fly. Having released the string, he now fully entered his spirit sense.
While in his spirit-sense, time reacted differently to Keth than in his fleshly senses. At times it would slow down. Minutes could become hours and likewise, hours could become minutes. He didn’t really understand this gift of his and only had minimal instructions from his grandfather. It was on his twenty second name day when it first manifested. That day was the most exciting and terrifying day of his life. A re-birthing of sorts…
PS Remember don't hate me, I'mjustsaying.
This is the prelude to my Science fiction, Fantasy novel. I would love to continue to complete this work here on Steemit. I have nearly completed the first chapter it just needs to be polished up before I can post. If any of you find this work of value and would like to help support me in this journey I will be attempting, to leave a comment in this post each week until I have posted the next post. If you are so inclined and this post is past 7 days your welcome to upvote it and support this creation.
I welcome peoples feedback on my writing. The story is not yet set in stone, parts have been revealed to me, but most of it I will have to witness as I write. Your feedback could influence the journey our hero must take. I get inspiration from all over. Thank you for your time and support.
-K