Those That Tether

Act 1: The End of the Beginning and the             Beginning of the End.

                               Chapter 1

   I open my eyes to the sight of skies complete with gray, and the ground completely covered in dark muddy waters as far as the eyes can see and the horizons meet. "Where... am I?" I mutter to myself in an echoey undertone. Last thing I remember was going into the woods with my mother right outside the village, she gave no reason why but I could tell that getting here was of the utmost importance to her, so I came.

As I'm looking around my vicinity I meet eyes with a boy not too far from me, who looks around my age or height at least.

He's walking towards me.

The closer he gets, the more of his appearance I get to see. Hair white as snow, with big bright golden eyes, and bronze zig zag markings streaming across his face from the corner of his eyes.

"Wait. Bronze markings. He's one of them."

Upon hearing this he smiles, a menacing grimm smile.

His soft waddle turns into a full on speedwalk.

I want to run but I can't move my legs for some reason, like I'm paralyzed from the waist down stuck forever in place, and the closer he gets the more my heart races and my breathing hastens.

"Get-Get Back! Y-You stay away!" I scream out in fear and confusion.

He stops right in front of my face with that still grim smile on his face.

He opens his gated smile to speak.

"You... fear me?" He asks in a condescending tone.

But he's right. I'm so scared I could cry right now. So scared that I can't find any words to speak, I just sit there, breathing heavily.

He Chuckles. "Well one day, that fear will be..." He licks his lips in two quick swipes. "...devoured."

"Who-Who are you?!" I yelled as he leaned in closer..

His grin widens.

"Me? You don't know?"

He stops all of sudden, grin and all.

"It's time."

"Get Up Hajime, it's time."

"Wait how do you know my na-"

"Doesn't matter!!" He cuts me off. "Don't you get it? It's time!"

"Time for what?!"

"It's time... for the Beginning of the End of course! With you, Mr. Natsuki, as the star of our little ordeal, so... GET UP!!

I open my eyes to the sight of tall green trees and bright blue skies, laying still on my back.

"I'm back."

                               Chapter 2

I'm back in the woods that my mother came into, right before that bizarre nightmare I just had. Except one thing's missing, my mother. "Mom! Moooom!" I scream running through the lush green and blue forest.

Maybe she went back to the village to father.

So I make my way back to the village after calming down.

After walking for so many minutes, I'm hit with a strange smell.

"Is something... cooking or... no that's smoke." "Wait, smoke...THE VILLAGE!!

My recent calmness immediately turns back into panic and angst, as I break into a full run, slicing through the dark lush forest tree by tree, bush by bush, and the closer I get to the village, the stronger the muggy smell of suffocating smoke gets.

Now I see it. Large bodies of smoke floating up into the blue skies, larger than I've ever seen, accompanied by the faint screams of what sounded like women and children.

"Please, please, please, be ok, Please!"

At this point, the smoke has gotten so strong I can barely see, let alone breath.

When I get to the outskirts of the village, I see what could be only described as My Personal Hell.  My village is in shambles, buildings, houses, and huts consumed by a gargantus flame, that I can't even make out the blue skies as I just did not too long ago. Instead the skies are filled with the tails of crimson blood red flame accompanied by the smoke it birthed.

"Wh-What's happening?! Who did this?! Why-"

In an instant, every internal organ in my body seemingly ceased to worked from the sight I saw.

It's them.

The bright colored hair that sat atop their heads, bright colored eyes that shine so brightly yet ominously, the dark blue royal military outfits they wore, and those markings!! Those markings swimming across their faces. There's no mistaking it... their Purians!!

This isn't Hell... it's much worse.

"What are they...How did they even find us!!... Wait MOM!!"

The weight of the situation just increased tenfold, along with my heartbeat, I could pass out at this very moment.

I need to find mom and dad. They'll know what to do.

I sneak along the bush path that I used to use secretly when going out late at night with Akila.

The Purians, they're hurling women and children out of their homes, then immediately setting them ablaze, with strange machines.

What are they looking for!?  Hell, how'd they even find us, we've been under the protective barrier for the last 12 years!

Soon enough I get to my house, one of the only houses that hasn't been completely consumed by the monstrous flame. The back windows open.

Now's my chance.

But then what? What if there are Purians in this very house? What if the house gets set aflame while I'm in it, then what?

All this thinking is irritating. I need to take action now!!

As soon as I begin entering the window, I hear a familiar voice somewhere in front of the house. I wouldn't mistake that deep toned voice anywhere, it's father!! I can't make out what he's saying though, the flames surrounding us are so large they're practically deafening. Covering my mouth and nose I begin to make my way around our house and peek around the corner.

No.

Damn it.

They caught him.

I see a Purian with golden-blonde hair and a long gray streak dashing through his bangs, with bright turquoise eyes and wavy bronze marks dancing across his face, putting these strange looking cuffs on my father's arms.  My father's looked damaged through and through, and he's bleeding from a small wound on his temple

Did he fight some of them? Did he...win?

Doesn't matter, I can't let them take him, no way!!

I dash into the mix on impulse, straight to the Purian with the weird streak in his head.

"ARGHHHHHHH!!!!"

Before I could even blink, a brisk blue figure appeared before me, and struck me in the gut. I couldn't even make a noise, all of the air in my body shot out, along with everything I ate this morning.

I look up to take a good look at the man that struck me, just to meet eyes with a golden-eyed, bright blue haired Purian with similar bronze markings as the streaked Purian.

"Wait. That's my son." I hear my father say in a deeper tone than he normally uses.

"And?! Hmph, since when have we given a damn about you weak insignificant humans huh!? Let alone these ingrate offspring you seem to never cease having." The blue haired Purian grumbles. I look up at him once more regretfully. He looks back down in pure disgust.

"Ugh! You Disgust me. I SHOULD BLOT YOU FROM THIS EARTH THAT YOU AND YOUR KIND ALIKE HAVE SOILED, THIS VERY INSTANCE!!"

He reaches for this strange looking black whip covered with purple accents and symbols.

Is that what I think it is...?

"No Lieutenant Gorean." The streaked Purian muttered.

"But Sir!"

"You know what we came for. And since we have it, we can now take our leave. We need not unnecessary bloodshed..."

He looks down at me.

"...Even of this human child, you need not waste your power on him, it'd only be a waste."

"Bastard." I whisper.

It can't end like this. It can't...

"Wait, let me speak to him before we leave." My father says

The blue haired Purian in front of me breaks into a loud laughter.

"HAHAHAHA, Like hell you are!!"

"Wait a second Lieutenant, let him converse with haste."

"Tch. You have too much compassion for these impurities, Commander Pytha." 

"Wait...Before we leave?" I repeat.

My Father lets out an apprehensive sigh.

"I'm the one they came for, Hajime."

Everything stops.

"No why...WHY?! Why does it have to be you?! Where did Mom go?! Why..."

"SON!! LOOK AT ME!!" He cuts me off with a forceful tone, one I haven't heard in a while."

I take my face soaked in tears, soot, and dirt, off the ground and look up at him. I look at his dark red and black hair, that he always took pride in, especially around my mother. I look at his tall, buff statue and face full of scars, evidence of past battles, scars I'll never know the history of.

Is this really the last  time I'll see my own father?

                           Chapter  3

My father's face turned from regret into him breaking out into an ear to ear smile. Not because he was happy, but to reassure me.

He breaks the silence.

"I know you have a lot of questions. And I think we both know that I can't answer all of those questions right now. But..."

"Well just answer one! Why are they taking you!? What did..."

He begins to shake his head, all the while maintaining that ear to ear smile.

"You never let me finish my sentences. Reminds me of your mother ya' know." He chuckles.

"What I was going to say was that one day... one day all of your questions will be answered, and that's a promise."

"B-But what do I do until then! I yell.

"Three things, three things is all I have left for you."

He lifts his still hands in the special shackles, to put up his index finger.

"Number one: the obvious one, survive. Survive until we meet again, Hajime."

He puts up his middle finger, following the index finger.

"Number two: those friends of yours, Akila, Malik, Akil... and Yuda. Their good kids, stick with them to the very end, no matter what."

I'm fighting to remain conscious, between the constant smoke filling my lungs and that blow from earlier I took from the Lieutenant. I guess they notice this and they begin to turn around to leave.

"WAIT!!" I shout in desperation.

My father turns back around just to start laughing again but this time harder than the first.

"HAHAHA, still conscious I see, HA that's my son all right, I see you''ll be just fine until we meet again!"

"Y-you... never t-t-told me... the third thing... to do." It took everything I had just to say that. I'm so weak, it's pathetic.

"Oh yes, I almost forgot. This is the most important one of all. Remember this, stay away..."

"...from those that tether."

At this the two Purian officers look at father with a surprised and suspicious mixed look on their faces.

And right before they turn around once more to leave, my body finally gives out, and I begin to black out.

"Fa...ther."

                           Chapter  4

It's been eight long years since the village was invaded and my father was taken from me. I'm eighteen now, but I'm not the first nor the last that this type of thing has happened to. This story begins way before I was even set to touch this earth. 

Almost four hundred years ago, in the year 1775, our planet earth was only inhabited by one intelligent primate race: us. But one day, all around the world different segments of different continents and countries started disappearing along with whatever was inside of them. We call this event, The Evanesce. Replacing the area left behind after The Evanesce, were lands foreign to our world, we now call The Dark Continents. What came out of these Dark Continents were them-- The Purians, they look like humans but they couldn't be any farther from us. They're faster, stronger, smarter, and maybe a bunch of other things we don't even know about yet. Nobody knows for sure where the name originated, but I assume it has something to do with the fact that they believe themselves to be the most pure. Despite how much they pillage, burn, enslave, and even kill, but looking from mankind's history, I'd say we're no different huh?

What a twisted reality we live in.

We don't know where they came from or why they came here in the first place, but immediately they attacked without warning, initiating the World V. Purian War on April 19th, 1775.

Of course, we lost, even though the number of Purians at the time was less than half of the entire human race. At least until, they killed off roughly 20% of mankind in this war alone. After regrouping from that vicious massacre, humanity decided to launch war after war, attack after attack on the Purian race, after they settled to our home as if it were their own. But each time we fell short.

After cutting roughly 40% of humanity, the Purians decided to enslave half of what's left while the other half roamed free as before they came, to ensure another war never happens again. As to who were enslaved and who weren't, was determined by territory and status. Apparently for whatever reason, the Purians around the globe let the highest of nobility and the richest of the rich have their freedom while the rest of the unlucky ones fended for themselves. Whether in the Dark Continent or the Old Continent (the land that was here before), there are various territories that are marked and unmarked. Whatever unlucky humans that are caught in the unmarked, get instantly taken to the nearest slave plantation, and if they refuse... they'll blot them out without another care in the world, as if swatting a fly.

The Wars, Human enslavement, these weren't the only calamities imprited upon our world by those demons of mass destruction.

Being that the Purians and the Dark Continents are foreign to this world, from wherever the hell they came from, not too long after they came different anomalies started happening all over the world, even to the world itself.

Whole ecosystems, wildlife, and plant life changed drastically or rather... evolved. But the most important, most dangerous anomaly mankind has faced, is that of the Tethers. Nobody knows the source, or how they came to be, but one day random objects and items had been imbued with power and certain abilities all around the world. It's been said that in order to even be able to use one of these great objects, one has to form a bond with the object, connecting the object with one's very own life force or the soul, hence the name, Tether.

Evidently, somehow the Purians knew more about the Tethers than we did, considering along with their unrivaled strength, speed, and intelligence, the Tethers are what really turned the tide with the war.

We had no chance.

If we could just get our hands on the Tethers ourselves, we could turn the tables on them and take back our planet once and for all! But for some reason father's last words before leaving were, "Stay away from those that tether."

But why! It doesn't make any sense. Why would he...

"YO! Earth to Hajime!" a loud voice says coming from in front of me.

I look up to see a tall, dark-skinned man standing in front of the glaring sun so bright I couldn't even make out whose face it was.

Although I didn't need to.

I could make out that explosive voice from anywhere.

"Oh it's just you, hey Malik."

My eyes start to focus and his face starts to become clearer.

"Damn, took you long enough, big head." Malik says with that big bright smile he carries along with him every single day, as if not a care nor calamity in the world.

Chapter  5

Malik grabs my head with both of those huge hands of his and looks into my left ear.

"Like seriously, what the hell you be havin' going on in here man? Rocket science?"

"H-hey stop it!" I say as I casually push him off of me.

He laughs casually.

"C'mon man, we got mining duty."

"Wait really, today's not our day though."

"Well apparently now it is so lets gooo." He says as he pulls me out of the seat I was so kindly sitting in, uninterrupted deep in thought.

Mining duty.

When I woke up from unconsciousness 8 years ago, a lot had changed while I was out.

All of the adults in the village had been taken away to another plantation, while our very own village had been turned into a plantation in itself. Divided into two, with the males on one side and the females on the other, the males handle a couple of things but mostly we handle something we call mining duty. Apparently there's a huge cave nearby full of valuable Quarks that we pick for hours, while Master Gorean sells all of our hard work for his own mysterious gain.

I can only imagine what the female's side work is.

"So wait, it's just the two of us?" I ask.

"Ew no, it's me, you, Akil, and Yuda.

"Oh, that's nice."

"What's nice?" The voice behind me grunts.

The voice I grit my teeth to hearing.

The voice I hate the most in this world.

Master Gorean.

No.

Lieutenant Gorean.

"N-nothing sir." I say as I hesitantly look back to meet his cold hate filled gaze.

He kicks me sharply in the back and I land straight into the muddy water below.

"DID I TELL YOU TO LOOK BACK ME CRETIN!!" he yells.

I bawl my fist up.

I want to hit him, right in his stupid garbage spewing mouth.

I know I won't win, but it'd be worth it.

Right as I decide to get up, Malik quickly bends down to cover my bawled fist.

"Are you trying to get us all killed? He whispers in my ear.

"Sorry sir! We were actually just on our way to mining duty."

"Tch. Well get to it." Gorean grumbles as he walks past us.

Malik might not be the sharpest tool in the shed, but he sure does know how to get out of a bad situation.

And a bad situation that would've been.

I'm sure if he wanted to, Lieutenant Gorean would be able to lay this entire village to waste.

Me and Malik continue our path to go get Akil and Yuda.

"Sorry I was being so selfish." I say to Malik.

"It's cool man, I'd probably want to punch that bastard's light out too, but you gotta' think about the rest of us too y'know... you gotta think about Akila."

He nudges me with his elbow upon mentioning Akila.

"Oh shut up."

We both laugh

"We'll speak of the devil's twin brother."

Akil and Yuda come into sight, Yuda and his always cool, calm, and collected lean on the shed and Akil's awkward, cautious and somehow paranoid stand, both with metallic pickaxes in hand.

"Yo' Hajime!" Yuda calls out.

His english is getting better.

Even though I'm only half Japanese technically, Yuda is the only other Japanese boy in the village.

None of us know who his parents are or what happened to them, he just has always kind of just been here. Despite that, he's also always been the coolest, most collected, and definitely smartest out of the group, aside from Akil that is.

"Is that mud on your shirt? Master Gorean again huh? I swear, he despises all of us here, but Hajime I think he despises you the most." Akil says.

Akil.

Despite his twin sister Akila's brave and sometimes reckless behavior, Akil is more cautious and unnerved. After Malik and Yuda, the twins Akila and Akil showed up from a nearby orphanage that had been taken over by Purians, they settled into the village quickly and we hit it off just as quick.

Although that settling was short term.

"Yeah the feeling's mutual, if it wasn't for Malik I would've laid him out."

"Ha, yeah right. This coming from the same guy that's still deathly afraid of Spiders." Yuda comments

"I would've! And that was like years ago!" I snap back.

We all laugh.

"Wow, it's been a while since the gang was together." Akil starts. "I mean everyone's here...everyone except Akila."

"You know how Akila is man, I'm sure she's fine." I try to ressasure.

"Yeah, I hope you're right." Akil responds.

-To Be Continued-