(in the making). The Soul Harvest Please read & enjoy, sorry for a couple of parts not having names. If people like this enough, I'll add more. -- The event that became known as The Harvesting began on April 1st, around 1:00 am in the morning. | | | Part 1 | "Drunk as Hell" | At twelve-thirty am on that day, of no particular importance to anyone, a youth blundered out of the local bar. His given name was Tynan, and with a silly name like that, he was surpisingly brilliant. Of course, someone you wouldn't expect hanging around the bar. Nor would you expect such intelligence of such a frivolous name, but it was so. So thus, his name was Tynan and had the most confused look on his face, as if he had no clue as to why he had exited the bar. But that didn't seem to phase him. He was drunk as hell; and when he shambled forward in the fading light, his foot caught the curb and down he went. Cracking his head painfully against rock, there he stayed curled in a tight ball. Passerbys merely glanced at the youth on the curb as they continued their walk, none caring enough to stop and assist. So it came to be, the youth named Tynan, who slept through the very beginnings of The Harvesting. | | | Part 2 | "Making an Appearance" | Over the grand city of Varrock; the most essential town of business and trade, and surely the best place for any enemy to strike; a light flared. Or so what people thought at first. But it didn't just flare--that was an understatement! It completly illuminated the sky, which was now as black as a criminals' heart. None took heed to this strange new light; in fact, hardly any even noticed. Such was a busy night of the people, but when a second light appeared (close to the first), some looked to the sky--puzzeled expressions among them. Rather hesitantly, they continued their walking and trading, but when a third-fourth-and even a fifth appeared, some started to panic. And soon that "some" escalated to thousands--from thousands to millions--and before long the entire population of Varrock (32 million to be exact!) was in hysterics. Shops were deprived of their precious items, people were trampled as stampedes mauled through streets, but the youth on the curb remained safe. None of this commotion waked him--which was surprising considering this was the first time in history this many humans went berserk! Not ten minutes later, more than seventy lights had appeared in the sky; it now seemed to be day. The light was so brilliant and hot, some people were forced for shelter. But the majority was still stampeding here and there--looking like idiots. Near the defending walls, thousands were fleeing from the city. Little was being taken with them, but no matter how far their feet would carry them, it would not be far enough. These people--mortal and immortal alike--were purely terrified of these disturbances, and figured the sky was falling. Approximately six minutes later-yes six!- one of the lights descended down close to the city. It was still too intensified to be properly seen, but this sent the whole city into a higher level of panic. It seemed to hover just above the grand castle, located directly inside the city (used as the ruling house of the empire) for a little time, and then just like that the light faded. It nearly dissappeared from sight--but remember, these people had such glare in their eyes it would seem so. All but a few cries emmited from the people, this had shut them up. It's quite amazing that more than 30 million people can shush so quick, just by some light. But it happened so. Then an in instant, just an instant, the light quickly reappeared and some kind of beam shot down from it. It cut right through the top of the castle, and as this happened, people scattered like dolls. A hundred thousand cries erupted through the air (this is when our youth on the curb awakened)--and some kind of bulb came down through the beam. It struck the castle; the whole structure seemed to implode on itself; and a massive 60 foot shock wave went through the city. It smashed through banks, through houses, and it even swept the cities defensive walls out into the surrounding forestland! More than 10 million people died on this first wave, but when the second fire wall rushed through the city, it killed off more than 20 million. Only a few million people survived (either stuck under rubble or seriously injured) and this included our youth. Both shock waves erased every building, every tree, every example of the Asgarin empire. No mercy was shown by these "lights", and as the other sixty-nine of them shot off to other cities of the world, Tynan howled with anguish and horror. What the hell...? Stuck under some of the rubble of the pub, he struggled to get unstuck. But his hands shook, and his palms sweat with the excursion. Cursing aloud, sensing the city caving down to Hell around him, Tynan gave a final cry and went dead. | | |Part 3 |"Inferno" | April 1, 1:30 am. The Kingdom of Kandarin, along with Asgarnin, had been struck and struck hard. This area contained six thriving cities-- East Adrougne (heart of the empire), West Adrougne (down-trodden), Seers Village (full of the ever-mystical people named Seers), Catherby (largest fishing port of the entire world), Yanille (smallest village within Kandarin) and Fremminik Province (northernest and only barbarian city within this part of the world). An ideal area for devastation to full scale. Early in the morning, minutes after Varrock was erased without cause by visitors from the skies, a red haze hung about to the east--illuminating the stretched clouds of late night, early morning. Few who scrounged the streets of the Kandarin cities looked on in concern. Some whispered among each other; silent, eerie talkings barely audible that bounced off cold rockwalls and faded with the shadows. Others, still floozy with wine, called upon sleeping doors and pushed them open--beckoning the inhabitants to come outside in rather harsh tones to speculate at the haze. Streets became crowded as people filled them, rushing from their homes as they began to feel growing fear. Dogs and animals of all sorts weaved through the presses of bodies, yapping at the feet that struck them. Suddenly--lights. Damn bright orbs that emmited a soft hum as they hovered above all six cities. Hushed silence. Stretched fear. Then--chaos. Absolute havoc. Unwanted visitors had come. -- Asleep on her plump bedress (undisturbed by the rantics of outside), Ruby was startled from Dreamlands as her frontdoor thumped. No, absurd--who'd call this late hour? But ears fail not in younger years as a second and a third thump-thump blasted through the door. Shaking the sleep from her 30-year-old eyes, she called. "Wha-? Wh-who's there?" No answer. Crash! Something fell in her livingroom. "Hello? Damnit, who's there?!" This time, though, answer came:"Ruby? Ruby, is that you? Where are you?" "D-dad?" "Yes--" Her bedroom mantle burst forth her father, still clad in night gowns. Wood splinters littered his greying hair. "Get up--we have to go!" "Huh?" She swung her feet over the side and wiped the sweat off her brow. "Hurry goddamnit!" Flinging open a wardrobe, he drew various clothes hither and thon. "Put something on. Let's go, now." "Father, wha-?" "Just do as I say, and move!" He was behind her, pushing, forcing her to the clothes askimbo. "Father--let go of me! What the hell is the matter? LET GO!" She snapped at his hands, and finally he halted. He looked hysterical. Ready to scream. "Are you ok? What's the matter, daddy?" "Something's happened. We need to get out of here, and quick." "Happened? What's happened?" Ruby took his head in her hands. "Father, what's happened?" Small beady eyes darted herethere, therehere. He looked ready to faint. "The skies have fallen." "What do you mean? Don't be ridiculous.." "No time for explanations. Grab something. Let's go." Sweaty hands let him go. Her father's worried eyes bored into her. Then almost desperatly she dashed for the shaded window. She must see... Outside, in what should be a black and deserted late night early morning of Catherby, licked the flames of death on the walls of the buildings..on the planks of the anchored ships..even on the wood of the houses surrounding her. What she saw was an Inferno. Ruby screamed. | | |Part 4 |"Surging Waters" | | Captain Archetes of the Prins Maurits-- a luxurious 16-masted cruise ship that was carrying close to five thousand passengers-- stood erect as a thistle on the stern, peering intently out to sea. After several minutes of this, satisfied that everything was in place, he turned and headed for his cabinroom. A good ten paces, and Archetes approached the sturdy oak door that swung outwardly on its hinges. Before stepping into his close-to-stern and ever-the-grand living space, though, he swiveled once more for the final checkings of the deck. Late hours offered little disturbance to the montrous planking, and all was quiet except for the occasional sloshings of mist from the sea far below. Once more satisfied, he propped onto the bed moments later and instantly fell to slumber. Archetes woke to a sharp tap-tap on his door. Hustling from his over-stuffed bed and shambling into his captains' uniform at nearly the same time, Archetes was known for his quick-wit and hot temper. Whatever was wrong, he thought, would surely not be enough to wake him. Later, he regretted those such thoughts. "What is it?" rasped the captain, after throwing the door open and revealing Peter, the ships' steersman. "C-Capitan, we've goot ah prooblem." Peter's ugly dialect often annoyed Archetes. "What time is it?" the bemused captain asked, stiffling a yawn. Peter was always a-knocking on his door, it seemed. So many problems that weren't really problems and were easily solved. "Nearlah 400 hours, sir." Archetes sighed. "Get inside, come on. Too cold out there." Reluctantly, the steersman walked inside the large room. After quietly shutting the door, Archetes motioned for Peter to sit as he went for some brandy-bottles. Seconds later, two rather exquisite cups were between the men on an oval table. Archetes smiled. "Rather late for this, eh? So tell me, what is the bother with you? Why must you seek me this late hour?" "Looghts." Peter sipped from his hand. For the first time in days, or maybe even weeks, old rusty-nailed Captain smiled. "Impossible. There's not another ship around for miles, and it's far too misty for glow to travel at such lengths." "T'would think so. But mah eyes rarely deciahve meh." Peter's eyes had such seriousness too them, it was startling to look upon. "Are you sure of this?" The grin was dropped immediatly. "Ah am." Several long minutes passed before Archetes spoke again. "How many of them?" "'Undreeds, p'aps 'ouseends. All o'er, e'erwhich place! As'hif tha sea was afire!" Another long silence. "Have you alerted the crewmen? Passengers? I should surely hope not!" "Ner, Capitan. S'ould ah 'ound tha bellz?" Captain Archetes rose then, taking on the full air of his title. "No, for god sakes, we don't want five thousand hysterical people! Go to Commanding Officer Kerid's stateroom, wake him. Give him word I want to see him on main deck in fifteen minutes. Leave. Now." "Yesh Capitan," and in an instant, Peter the steersman was gone. Late-nights, early-morns in April were often very cold. Perhaps even in the freezing temperatures. Captain Archetes blanketed himself with a cloak, slumbering out into the breezing weather with just long underwear beneath. -- Peter the steersman of the Prins Maurits had just crossed the thresh'old of the galley when the first gigantium wave heaved over the railings, spewing hundreds of tons of water over the deck and washing it clean. Whisped out to sea as if weight meant nothing, the solitary man was forever lost to the depths of a watery hell . . . to be never found again. -- Seeing is believing. But that didn't register with Archetes. He couldn't quite comprehend what his eyes were seeing as the great wall of water rose before the stern of the ship, larger by the moment. As though in a trance, he watched as the horrendous wave splashed over-deck and sped toward him with increasing speed. Finally, with a shout, miliseconds before the water could sweep him away, Archetes made a wild dash for his cabinroom, and upon reaching the still open door, threw himself inside and dead-locked the latch. Bracing his back against the oak, he could only pray to the gods for mercy as the montrous cataclysm smashed into the cabinroom and dissintigrated it. Archetes joined Peter for breakfast at the corals. -- Below decks, in a small stateroom fit for a poor woman, Rhrion lay snoozing. She almost smacked her head on the ceiling as the ship suddenly heaved. Then, in one corner, a gash formed and water spurted in with torrets. Rhrion once again almost cracked her head on rafters as she jumped from her soggy bedress. First, she had no clue as to what had happened. But no time for reasoning was given, because the ship gave a much more violent heave and this time indeed did Rhrion hit her head. Now more water rushed in and the small confinement (or what she felt it was) started to fill to full. Almost panicking, in now what was waist-deep water, she trudged to the door and threw her weight upon it. Thank god, for it broke out. Unfortunately, coming out of waist-deep water resulted in coming neck-deep. Now she really started to go hysterical. She looked to the left, right, left-right, no clear exit to be found. Forward, though, were the stairs. But no such luck. Water was roaring down the hallway in front and preventing her from exiting this holocaust-like hell, roaring around her ears, sploshing around her eyes . With one last desperate scream, her head plunged deep below water. Five thousand people drowned inside the Prins Maurits. But that's a mere drop in a bucket when compared to the other lives lost in the very same hour, with total different horrors. But every single devastation was linked somewhere . . . perhaps even to something. And that link was surely the skies. | | |Part 5 | | Tynan hardly even knew he passed on. What he did know, moreso, was that all present shape and form--whether it be sound, color or sight-- was seemingly forced into one stantilizing mass. Indeed, he reasoned quite later, not even the Gods in the Heavens themselves could lick a finger in the swirling mess and make some sense. But yet, from the world he passed through--(however, "passed" would sound more correct if said as "teleported")--to the world he so recently resided now, little differences could not be found. Something was wrong. Very, very wrong. And Tynan noticed almost immediatly. After a moment or so (possibly three moments, actually) Tynan remembered the city. The ever-grand City of Varrock, minutes before the "visitors" had arrived. Perfectly red-stoned buildings columned like a perfect-mans town. Nothing was out of place, it had seemed. Until "they" came. Then he remembered the rubble, the rubble of the pub, which had been thrown ragously upon his body as the waves of fire roared through the city, caused by the hovering disks. Then wasn't he. . .dead? Then how come. . . what the hell-? Another moments thinking was lost as the "stantililizing mass" began to draw away. . .suck away, more-like, from him. From Tynan. From his almost transparent body. Or was it his body? He knew not--all he could tell, really, was bright energy (or what he figured) being pumping through it. . . tons and tons of the endless energy. Orangish-brown. The only definite color to be seen. Instantly, seconds after the mass was being drawn away, it made a soft pop and vanished. Like it seeped into some invisible hole--gap, perhaps--and vanished. What the hell. . .? he thought again. Then without thinking, he dashed towards the still-open gap and leaped through. Why not? Heaven was not to be found. Heaven was not waiting for him, at the end of the long tunnel, which he never came to see. Tynan leaped into another distant planet. To a faraway dark corner of the universe. ---- White-hot ash seared her gown, fringed her hair, and even nipped at her fingernails. This was like Hades. But no, it wasn't. She sure thought it was--seemed it was--, but that would be impossible. . .wouldn't it? Maybe. Like thousands of others, Ruby and her father forced a determined struggle through the streets. They were jam-packed with panicky survivors, all pushing and crawling for the last remaining portship open. Entrana. Amazingly enough how the ship had withstanded the blast, let alone the Inferno that was now spreading fast and diminishing everything. Shoved forward and beyond the now rubbish fish shop, Ruby clung desperatly to her father--the only one person left for comfort in this world; managing to spit out: "F-father. . ." "Yes. . .yes, dear? Come. . come along. We must keep moving." Following and frogmarching his daughter, he bumped her lightly along. Two steps or so and she toppled over, clearly exhausted and frightened. He helped to pick her up, after a moments' rest atwixt the crampening peoples, then continued onward. "Father, w-wha' ...happened? I'm so scared. . ." "I know, baby-girl, I know. Just keep moving." Already, breakouts and fightings were occuring closest to the boarding plank, where the ships crew were trying to hold off the peoples and let only a few aboard--turning turtle was not on their agenda. But their efforts turned into failures, and those escalated to complete loses. Men and women alike in their slugness pushed past the crewmen and leaped aboard the low-lined water vessel, which staggered dangerously below the platform. Soon, the vessel would reach maximum occupancy and sink below the surfaces--along with the peoples whose family and friends were crammed below-decks. What a nightmare. Then, without natural cause, a far-fetched screech echoed across the waters. Every head creened in the general direction that the sound came from. Silence. Then: Screeech boom! Water was errupted to the most southern horizon and rose in a wall of seventy feet. It buckled over and ripped its way forwards to the coastline on which the half-destroyed Catherby lay distraught. The crowds that were pressed around the dock surged backward and fled the ship, heading for the highest ground in little possible time. Ruby was immediatly trampeled as the crowds did a U-turn and broke her grasp of father. She screamed--but was muffled by the solid wall of human bodies. Best she could do was cover her head and pray to the Gods. Somebody, in a fleeting moment of their scurying, bent and scooped up poor dear Ruby and skedaddled her away in their arms. ---- Being totally submerged under water was horrifying. Deep, dark cravences that held secrets men over thousands of years never properly understand lay deep within the ocean that Rhrion was fastly approaching. And sure enough, she felt horrified. After desperatly trudging down the almost-completly water filled corridor and trying several doors (none giving in for pressure changes), she gave up hope for one horrendous moment as the water over-layed and submerged her head, again once more. But then--through the dark and desolute landscape of the sea water--she saw a light. A light? Underwater? Only could be; above and beyond her head. Like a great swan stroking its wings for flight, Rhrion swam up and through a hole in the once ceilling of the now rapidly sinking ship. Breaking surface of the ocean; gasping in breaths as long as elephants would've taken; Rhrion figured it was some sort of spirit that had guided her. Well what else? Too early for the sun to shine down like that. Far too cold for any lights to be working up there, right? Woosh. . .woosh. . . What the hell-? Two net-like substances dropped out of nowhere and covered her partially-underwater body. But yet, these weren't nets--for nets she could break or chew with her teeth. These were like steel things. Though she struggled restlessely. She felt glued to the sea, unable to move any longer, but the net-things were preventing her from drowning. . .and catching sight of the disks high in the air over her head. Down beside her feet the loose ends of the net-things seemed to tie together of their own accord, and now she had no choice but to remain perfectly still. This was even more horrifying. What did these people want with her? How did they know where she was? Had they been involved in the sinking of the cruise-ship? Pop! and something landed beside her in the water. She chanced a glance--and oh my god, oh my lord--what was that?! It looked like. . .a gnomeball, or a persons head! But second thoughts were banished as the thing burst open and needle-like jabbers rushed out and stabbed her every-which-place. A few minutes, and she was out cold. A long rope-or-another dropped down from the nearest orbitting disk and wrapped around Rhrion's unconcious, netted body; liffting her clear of the water and inside the hull of "it". The disk hummed off. -- TO BE CONTINUED.
