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WORLD OF LIGHT AND DARKNESS
By AUSTIN NACHBUR iUniverse LLC
Copyright © 2013 Austin Nachbur
All rights reserved.
ISBN: 978-1-4917-0826-2
CHAPTER 1
THE LIGHT
Brilliant rays poured in from the crack in the sky, breaking and splattering over multi-foliate branches, and finally creating a pool of light around my seat, a light unlike all others in my world. Others like this lie elsewhere in the forests, but this one is the largest, making it unique. I always wonder; where does it come from? Why is it light sometimes, but dark the rest? Why is there light in an otherwise dark, rocky sky? What is it? It is not fire. Fire burns in hues of orange and red. This is just overflowing, brilliant, white light. It seems so otherworldly. It comes from a world of light, rather than this world of darkness, where fire burns just so we can see.
My name is Xenos. They say it means virtue in the Language of the Ancients. My parents also joked that it meant curiosity, before they moved to the lower level, because as a baby, as a child, and even now, I've always looked for something new. Especially this light. It never gets boring. It's always unique. It shines with different strengths, at different times. What is it?
Today is my birthday. Today I will be twenty-three macro sleep cycles old. All my friends are nowhere to be seen, so here I am, under the light. I know they're planning some surprise, I just don't know what.
CRASH!! Woahhhhhhhh, oof!
I laughed hysterically as Acres, my best friend, tumbled down from a small ledge about three feet away from me.
"Surprise ..." he weakly croaked, obviously not the surprise he was going for.
"I was gonna give you this statue of you, but it kind of smashed."
His face turned red as he showed me a handful of rock chunks to me. My dear friend Acres is a brilliant craftsman, but considerably clumsy. He quickly regained his composure.
"Follow me," he commanded. "We have something to show you."
"We?" I asked.
"You'll see."
So we ran, kicking up dust, jumping stones, and swinging on a vine across a ten-foot wide gorge. We ran under a dark sky, made entirely out of stone, save the holes that the light came through. My friends and I had always wondered what was above, if anything and why did we lead our lives below? The questions rattled my mind as I followed my friend.
After about half an hour, I saw the volcano ahead of us. It was inactive now, and we climbed into the crater all the time. Even though safe, it's still swelteringly hot. We almost touched the sky once, when we made it to the top.
Acres soon started to climb, and I followed him. As we made it to the first ledge, we stretched and I asked him, "Alright, what are you planning?"
He smiled and shook his head, "You'll see, you'll see."
We kept climbing. I started to see figures moving about the top of the mountain. I couldn't tell who they were. When we made it to the next ledge, I asked Acres, "At least tell me who's up there!"
"I'm pretty sure I made it clear that you are not going to know. Do I have to call you Xenos Hico, meaning 'virtuously impatient'?"
We both laughed. He excels at the Language of the Ancients. Then again, his name, Acres, does mean speaker. I find it quite interesting how a person's name seems to match up to his or her personality.
We started climbing again. Eventually, we made it to the third ledge, almost four hundred feet up. Then we entered a tunnel, which led to the crater. Inside were just a few people, five to be exact. Acres and I made seven. They all began saying happy birthday to me.
These five, Ticreo, Jhonil, Typho, and the brothers Hylekk and Porus, were my greatest friends since birth. We all were around the same age, with differences of four macro cycles between Ticreo, the oldest, and Porus, the youngest. This meant we moved between caves at around the same time. Our world was built in three massive areas, connected by narrow tunnels. The first was for babies, young children and their parents, the next for older, unmarried persons, like us, and the last for the elderly. All being nearly the same age, we lived together for the majority of our lives.
After this, Typho called us all to sit down. He served as leader for our little group, and he sure was a good one. He possessed courage and perseverance, but sometimes was quite a show-off.
He had a fire burning, so we all sat down around it. Then he started to speak.
"Xenos, for your birthday this macro cycle, we decided to give what you've always wanted."
This is going to be good, I thought to myself.
"We have decided to bring you to the light."
The words hit me like a stone to the head. My eyes widened.
"Ha, ha. Now what do you really mean?"
"I'm not joking," he answered. "We've been planning this for a while, actually."
"What?" I shouted. "Planning for what? Death? Trying to get there is suicide! We would have to scale at least two miles of sheer cliff face, and then another mile of the sky! We'd be upside down! Thanks for the offer, but we'll probably die trying."
"We're not climbing," Typho responded. "We're going through the Guardians."
Now he was sounding crazy.
That's even worse!" I shouted back at him. "What are you thinking?"
The Guardians were the creatures who kept us in check, and punished those who did wrong. They would also move us from cave to cave as we aged. They were not the nicest guardians, though. They ruled with an iron fist and were said to have the power to invade the minds of all who opposed their rule. They claimed their authority from their Guardianship, but we did not even know what they were guarding us from. Crime? It barely ever happened. Hurting ourselves? They would rarely help someone unless they were very seriously injured. All they did was make us gather food for them and punish us for breaking their rules. They never even spoke to us, except to say, "Seg," meaning, "come", when they were about to punish someone.
"Look, Xenos," Typho began, "this is more than just a present. It's more like a wake-up call. We have been locked down here for generations! Forced to live in a land of darkness, and subject to those terrible Guardians, and no one dares oppose them! If we can do this, we will save our world from their tyranny. Don't you see the good in this?"
I thought for a minute. The Guardians said that they protected us, but from what? Nothing ever attacked us. Could it really all be a hoax?
"I guess," I began, rather weakly, "but how could we fight them? It's impossible!"
"What do you mean 'impossible'?" Ticreo asked. "I bet I could take one or two of them down with my bare hands!"
Ticreo was a giant, over six feet tall and built like a mountain, with two-hundred pounds of pure muscle, and boldness to match. No wonder he would make such a comment.
"Maybe you could," I answered, "but not someone like Porus."
"Hey!" Porus interjected, rising to his feet and still not clearing five foot five. "I can beat a Guardian!"
Porus, an amazing artist, made paints out of all manner of natural things. But for strength, well, not so much.
"He can," Hylekk said, "and I have proof. While Porus and I were looking around in this crater for some charcoal to use in Porus' painting, we found carvings."
Then he beckoned for us to follow him. We did, and he led us to an area surrounded in gravel and loose stones, indicating recent digging. Once inside, he pointed to the wall.
A carving in the stone depicted people holding long sticks, hitting each other. Some of them were lying down bleeding.
"Are they ... killing each other?" I timidly asked. Murder is something that very, very rarely happened here. It was always so peaceful.
"Yes," Acres replied. "I also translated the script at the bottom. It's in the Language of the Ancients. It says; 'the Great War, where man fought man under open skies, where all gentleness ceased."
They let the words sink in for a moment.
"If you didn't catch that, it means that there is something up there," Hylekk added, gesturing up.
"Open skies," I answered, eyes wide.
"Exactly. We used to live on the surface, in the land of light, but we were imprisoned down here by the Guardians!"
"And by creating the weapons our kind used to own, we will get past them," Typho declared.
"How will we make them?" I asked incredulously.
"Iron," Hylekk answered. "I found a way to get it, and Jhonil figured out how to form it into those weapons."
I gasped. Iron was the material the Guardians made their weapons out of, and no one knew where it came from. I looked into Jhonil's piercing blue eyes, seeking confirmation. He nodded. Jhonil was a skilled woodworker, just as Acres was a talented sculptor. He used sharp stones to carve myriads of different items, from buckets to sculptures, so it did not surprise me he could work the iron.
"The weapons can be made with nothing but a wooden handle and a sharpened iron tip," Jhonil explained. "And believe me, they work beautifully."
"You tried them out already?" Hylekk asked, eyes wide open. "Without the armor? What were you thinking? The force of even a small cut would easily be enough to-"
"Oh, stop worrying so much, Hylekk," Ticreo interjected. "It cleaved through a melon like it was nothing! I can't imagine a Guardian to be much stronger."
Hylekk gasped in fear, and then smiled, as if realizing that his idea had proved so effective. Hylekk was a shy, yet incredibly intelligent person. Sadly, he always thought of worst-case scenarios for every possible instance, making him very fearful.
"I am ready to do this," Typho proclaimed to us all. "I've been planning this for a long time now. If you all are still in, let me know."
"I'm in," Ticreo declared.
"As am I," Hylekk continued.
"Me too," Porus chimed in.
"I'll follow you, Typho," Acres added.
"And you, Xenos?"
I thought about it for a minute. All eyes were on me. Was I ready to give up everything for this crazy plan? It would be dangerous, but we would be free. That was a cause worth pursuing. Wasn't it?
"I will go."
"You will not regret this," Typho concluded. "You're not the only one who wants to leave this place, Xenos. Together, we will break out!"
CHAPTER 2
PREPARATION
"Xenos, on your left!"
I barely had time to sidestep away from the incoming blade, which buried itself in the ground inches from me. Pushing my first opponent back with a powerful uppercut, I looked to see who had come at me. Acres looked me straight in the eyes, bearing a determined countenance.
"You just won't give up, will you?" I taunted, moving my blade into a defensive position.
"Not after last time," he responded, producing a wry smile on his face. "This fight's mine!"
Typho engaged Hylekk, my previous opponent, as I deflected a follow-up attack from Acres and moved in for an offensive.
"We'll see."
I was right in the middle of our seventeenth practice bout since we had finished the building of our breakout arsenal. I had helped Hylekk and Acres with the weapon making, while the others worked with Jhonil to create wooden armor. I couldn't believe that anyone, not even an incredible craftsman like Jhonil, could make wooden armor that would protect me, and at the same time not weigh me down. But he easily outdid my expectations.
We had gone through over a macro cycle of crafting, training, and evading Guardians to bring us to where we were now. The iron weapons had proved themselves on all sorts of targets, from melons to wooden dummies. We made two kinds, long, straight poles with pointed tips, for stabbing, and sharp blades with wooden handles, for slashing. Hylekk said they were called spears and swords respectively. We had also trained with throwing stones, as a ranged means of combat.
Teaming up with many others, who gathered materials and served as watchmen for patrolling Guardians, we had kept our operation a complete secret thus far. This sort of activity the Guardians would brand treasonous and punishable by death.
I countered another strike from Acres' wooden sword before I unleashed a flurry of slices that forced him back a few paces. Our mock battles were fought with two teams of three, with one person judging and giving advice to the fighters. We used dull, wooden weapons so that we did not hurt each other too badly. The team that had Ticreo won more often than not, but careful tactics could bring victory to the other team. Just my luck that he happened to belong to the other team this round.
"Hit! Hit on Jhonil!" Porus excitedly shouted, overseeing the battle.
I stole a quick glance to my left and saw Ticreo's sword touching Jhonil's armor.
Great, I thought. Now they have the advantage of numbers, too.
"Ha!" Acres boasted. "Worried yet?"
"Not in the slightest," I responded with a smile. "Don't think the loss of Jhonil will slow me down at all."
Acres and I had been rivals since the fourth fight, when we first were on opposing teams creating fierce competition. Often best friends are most easily made into rivals, in sports, of course.
Acres resumed his offensive, and our swords danced with each other as my parrying blade met each strike perfectly. I waited patiently for him to make a mistake, and when he finally did, I exploited it. After deflecting his blade to my right, I spun around him and swung full force into his back, pushing him to the ground.
"Acres is out!" Porus shouted once again. "The teams are even once more!"
"Told you," I whispered to my friend before returning to the fight. He responded only with rolling eyes.
I ran to help Typho, who was barely keeping Ticreo and Hylekk at bay with his spear. Catching Hylekk off guard with my charge, he staggered backwards as he poorly blocked my attack with his spear. Typho saw the opening and stabbed, taking him down.
"Hylekk is gone!" Porus promptly exclaimed. "Prospects look grim for Ticreo. Who will win?"
"We got this," I whispered to Typho. He nodded in reply.
Typho and I circled Ticreo, waiting for the right moment to strike. Ticreo feigned an attack on me, and before I could warn Typho, he had already taken the bait. Ticreo swung around full force and hit Typho in mid-stab. Now it was just the two of us.
Ticreo, free from the burden of covering himself on two fronts, began a vicious assault with his sword. It took all my strength and concentration to keep up with the speed and force of his wild attacks. My mind scrambled trying to find a way to outmatch my opponent. No one had ever beaten Ticreo one-on-one in a duel, and that seemed unlikely to change.
He retreated back, giving me a second to recover, but then threw a slice with all his strength to my left. The force of the blow knocked me over as I raised my sword in defense. He was too strong. Then, suddenly, I saw my opportunity. I waited until he had come upon me for the final strike, then somersaulted under his weapon and popped up, stabbing his breastplate while his sword missed my back by a millimeter. Stunned, I realized I had won.
"Nice job, Xenos!" Jhonil called out as he ran to congratulate me with Typho.
I shook hands with Ticreo.
"Good game, Xenos."
"You too."
"We've all greatly improved from the beginning, guys," Typho began. "Remember when you first learned how to hold a weapon?"
"Yeah," Porus laughed, obviously remembering when he couldn't even hold his sword for more than a few seconds before dropping it, often on his toe.
"All this training, all this preparation will not go to waste," Typho continued. "Seven cycles from now, we break out."
Our shouts of excitement and approval filled the air as we heard the news.
"Soon, we will be in a land of light, free from the Guardians. For freedom!"
"For freedom!" we all shouted in response. The time had finally come.
For the next seven cycles, we said goodbye to our world. Everything we knew and loved: the forest, the volcano, our other friends. Porus even painted a goodbye message on the side of a large stone, for all to see. Hylekk told him it was a dumb idea, especially since the Guardians might see it. But that still didn't change his mind.
"If we're already gone, it won't really matter, right?"
On the last cycle, we gathered together, under the light, and planned our imminent escape.
CHAPTER 3
THE BREAKOUT
We packed up some food and a flask of water and put them on our belts. Then we started walking to the edge of our home, where several large stones were arranged to make a "do not cross" line. We stealthily crawled up the largest boulder. Jhonil looked down.
"There are about sixteen of them. They don't see us yet."
(Continues...)
Excerpted from WORLD OF LIGHT AND DARKNESS by AUSTIN NACHBUR. Copyright © 2013 Austin Nachbur. Excerpted by permission of iUniverse LLC.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
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