Prologue
Before the Eternals
The explosions were gaining on them. Muse ran as if the hounds of hell were upon her. Her brother followed closely behind, hurriedly urging her to go even faster. “You must keep running, sister. We are almost to the transference chamber.”
She did her best to comply, frustrated to not be able to shift. “If I could turn, I could move us both much faster.” Her owl form would easily cover the distance to the hidden chamber beneath the caverns of their home world, Rohestia, in half the time it was taking them to run on their human legs.
Their planet was small and basically defenseless from the intruders from the farthest star. Already, the inhabitants of their community, including their parents and siblings had been taken. Soon, their people would be put to work on the silver planet; home to the Demonion species.
The Demonion’s were a race of thick scaly skinned monsters, with long curvy horns which sprouted from their heads. They were said to be the true sons of Lucifer. Because Lucifer had no daughters, they raided the smaller, weaker planets of their galaxy and took the females to mate with and the males to use as slaves. This was not the first time they had attacked the people of Rohestia. Many times before over the past centuries, they had annihilated other cities and towns of the Rohestian world, taking the people young enough to suit. The elderly they simply killed.
Muse and Tenaryn had been ordered to hide, then once night fell, make their way to the Transferance chamber, where they could escape to the Galaxy that housed the world, Gaia. Gaia was a sister planet that had not been discovered by the Demonions as of yet.
Just as they reached the chamber, the battle cry of their enemy let them know they had not escaped yet. Tenaryn pushed Muse into the Chamber, following swiftly behind. As he hit the panel which made the wall to hide the chamber slide into place, the Demonion, fired the first shot of their lazer, trying to hinder the wall closing.
When he turned, Muse was already activating the transference stone. As she dialed in the ancient symbols needed to take them to a sister planet in a different galaxy, Tenaryn took his place beside her on the stone. Looking at her with a sad expression, he opened his hand and began letting his magic build. Muse whimpered in alarm when she looked from his face to his hand.
“It’s the only way, sister. To keep them from following us, we must destroy the chamber.” He explained softly, so the enemy would not hear.
She nodded, even as she answered, “So we can never return.” She looked up into his eyes. “What of the others? Are we dooming anyone still here to our parents fate?”
Tenaryn spoke an incantation and released the energy orb out into the chamber and watched as it began to grow. As the transference of their energies began, he turned and took Muse’s hand. “Father already searched. We are the last. Our planet is dying now. There is no one left.”
He looked back toward the orb as it now seemed to engulf the room. “On Gaia, I will choose others to become as we are, and begin building an army strong enough to stop this enemy before they ever have the chance to start attacking that world. We will survive this, sister.” As they were transported from their world, they only heard the beginnings of the explosion, and the start of the Demonions pained screams.
Soon, they began their new life on the planet they had known as Gaia. They also began using their abilities to help the people who looked so much like them, but did not share their powers. Muse gained a kinship with the plants and animals. Tenaryn began to slowly pick and choose the warriors who would become the guardians against the evils from both within their world, and without.
In all that time, Muse never asked Tenaryn to gift someone of her choosing; except once. . .
Gideon
If the warrior had only known what his fate would be, he would have gladly surrendered his life instead of going into this holy war. But it had been at the Kings demand. If he played a part in taking down the Moorish, Saracens, and other enemies of the Church, he would return to his country a free man.
Within days of being in the strange new land, he had begun to see the crusades were nothing more than an excuse for bloodshed of the most horrific kind. He could follow the orders to kill the men who held up arms against them, but when the command came to kill the pregnant wife of one of the men he’d slain, he could no longer abide such tyranny. His logic begged the question of him; What God would order the death of a helpless woman and unborn child? And he knew the answer. Not his. The God he had always served and believed in was merciful and had sacrificed his own son to put an end to things like this!
He made his decision then to break away from the ranks and leave. There was nothing of his country to go back to anyway. He would find a new place to call home. He was, by trade, a blacksmith. He once made exquisite swords for the King and Knights of his homeland. But now, he vowed he’d make no more. Now he wanted only to find a place to live in peace. But his change of heart came too late. For there were those which remained unseen who had witnessed the commands he’d followed before he felt the prick of conscience. And as far as they were concerned, he had sealed his fate.
He did not see the attack coming. He’d never even known he was in danger until it was too late. The number of men who surrounded him were more than he could have hoped to fend off and he had been rendered unconscious within mere moments. When he awoke, it was to find himself in a pit of some kind, in the company of something who could never be confused for Human.
The Creature was hideous. Its head was shaped strangely, and it was completely bald with the skull seeming to be nearly twice the mass of a normal mans. Eyes, darker than the darkest depths of the blackest abyss stared back at him when he had first seen it. Long yellowed teeth protruded from its mouth much like the teeth of a saber toothed tiger which it used to drink from his veins repeatedly. Sometimes the creature took from his neck. Other times it attached itself to his wrist. In the beginning, he would fight, still clinging to the hope of freedom. But as weakness set in, the will to fight left him and he only wished for death.
The only thing to still appear human about this monster was the fact it still walked on its hind legs. Its hands no longer bore any resemblance to those of man. They were longer, and half of each finger seemed to be razor sharp claws in place of a normal mans flesh.
Gideon covered his head and lay in a fetal position at this point, praying to the God of man to just take him already and have done with it. Let the accursed thing have all of his life blood as long as he didn’t have to live through it. The pain was near unbearable and the Beast only seemed to laugh at him and the torment would continue.
Now, he was merely a dry empty husk, waiting in stone silence for the moment when the creature would show mercy and let him die. He was ready to die. He found himself praying for it. In death, he could be reunited with the ones he loved above all others.
But death, it seemed, was not what fate had in store for him. As he began to find it hard to draw breath, he was taken from the pits and left, deserted on a long stretch of desert, with no shelter in sight. If his fate was to have been different, then upon the rising of the sun, he would have known death. The creature who tormented him, slowly feeding off both his blood and his souls essence had been a Nosferatu, a specific, deadly type of vampire. Soulless creatures with no care for the life or emotions of others for they have none of their own.
Had he been left there all night, he would have burnt to death when the sun rose. His ashes would have scattered with the wind and he would have been nothing but a distant memory. But instead this was the night which forever changed his life. It was the night his God decided he would join the ranks of the Eternals. It was this night when she found him.
She was a beautiful woman with long onyx hair and eyes the deepest shade of green which seemed to glow with an almost unearthly light. She placed her hand on his forehead and whispered soft words. Almost immediately, he fell into a deep sleep.
When he woke, in the woman’s place, was an Owl; an almost mystical bird which seemed to have an intelligence about her that could only be described as surreal. She guided him to the place where he met Tenaryn, the Wizard who told him of what he had become and offered him the chance to become something more than he ever thought to be.
At first, he wanted nothing, save revenge on the ones who had cursed him to this fate. He fought Tenaryn tooth and nail when it came to learning the safe ways he could feed from warm blooded animals or humans when his hunger was great without causing them damage. He didn’t want peaceful feedings. He wanted slaughter to the ones who robbed him of mortal breath.
Tenaryn, his mentor, had granted him the right to seek out revenge on the creature that had done this to him, but refused his thirst for revenge on the people who had held a part in his fate. When his anger cooled, he understood why. As he wanted revenge on them, they’d only been seeking revenge for their loved ones tortured and killed by his hand. It was an eye for an eye and they were, as Tenaryn told him, innocent of anything more.
Through every trial, the new Eternal, Gideon faced, the Owl, with eyes which reminded him of the beautiful unearthly woman he had dreamt of that strange night, stayed at his side committed to helping him accept his new life. She became more to him than just a constant companion and pet. She was his friend. He trusted her more than even the Wizard who had taught him how to survive.
For centuries, Gideon was known as the Eternal who fought with two swords and carried a hauntingly beautiful Owl on his shoulder. He never once questioned who the Owl was or why she came to him. He only believed their destiny’s to be intertwined.
