The fire crackled merrily before them, easing the persistent chill that had accompanied them since the encounter with the bear. Everyone huddled together, well everyone except Chrono who sat quietly in the corner. Jul tended to the fire, idly running hands through it to draw shapes made of dancing fire.
“That was way too close,” Gilded groaned.
A chorus of agreement met his proclamation, though Tara only nodded silently.
“I thought we were goners,” Matt agreed.
“Hey” complained Tyre, fingering his sword hilt, “I could have taken him!”
Persy, who had been silently playing with the flowers in her hair, snorted.
“I could have! I can cut anything!” He flicked a bare hand, sending out a flicker of cutting intent to sever one of Jul’s fire drawings. She turned to glare at him and he sheepishly apologized.
Jona chuckled. “You think that could have handled such a beast? No, a bigger weapon is required for such a beast.” He motioned to his hammer. “Now that would do it.”
“Oh yeah” Tyre retorted, “Well I…”
Gilded let their voices drift over him, bringing warmth greater than the fire ever could. With his siblings, he felt alive in a way he rarely did otherwise. Part of something greater than just himself. He looked over at Chrono, and wondered how he bore the loneliness. He seemed content, though Gilded could not fathom why. He wanted to go over and ask, but something about Chrono, namely the small smile dancing over his lips as his closed eyes gazed into something Gilded couldn't see, stopped him.
Each to their own.
Gilded refocused on his sibling just in time to stop Jona and Tyre from getting into a fight.
“Come on guys. What's important is that we survived. All of us.” He swept his gaze over his siblings, and with a brush of will, called their attention to him.
“This day has shown us that the world is more dangerous than we thought. That there are storms that scour the earth and beasts that control it. That there are plains that span the earth and mountains that pierce the sky.”
He swept his gaze across them.
“The world is vast and mighty, inconceivable. We are nothing to it. And yet… here we are. Having crossed the endless plain and scaled the sky piercing mountains. Having weathered the all-encompassing storms and outrun the inescapable beasts. In the eye of the world, together, we have proven ourselves worthy. And we will continue to do so.”
The only sound in the cave was the crackling fire and Gilded drew in a quiet breath. He closed his eyes briefly, basking in the silence before opening them with new energy.
“Come beast or storm, we will overcome them all. Victory is our birthright, and now is the time to claim it. Our family is counting on us, and together, we will not fail them”
Silence met his proclamation. Then Kel started laughing. “You sound just like your dad!”
The others joined in the laughing, and soon even an annoyed Gilded joined in.
And beyond the fire, it was the laughter that finally dispelled the persistent chill.
Leaving only warmth behind.
—------------------------------
The journey resumed soon after, taking them out of the mountains and through the winding foothills beyond. They seemed endless, an eternal sea of green waves, bright in the shining sun.
But with time, even they passed, revealing a rich scorching land of red clay and majestic canyons. They met beast’s there, creatures of poison and fire, but together they managed to overcome them all.
Finally, months after they had left home, months of freezing in the cold mountains and baking in the scorching desert, months of fighting and traveling and surviving and living, they found their destination.
At last.
—------------------------------
The fire that night was more energetic than usual, the joy at finally making it enveloping them. The real work would begin in the morning.
The night, however, belonged to revelry.
And celebrate they did, the few mind altering plants Persy had collected being fed into the fire, infusing it with strange properties. Jul protested at first, but was rapidly placated by the strange fumes, and began to trace what appeared to be an upside-down mountain. Cara joined in, complementing her mountains with smoky details.
Tyre and Jona were playing an unnamed game of speed, where one struck out with a reed and the other tried to dodge. Even in their addled states, their motions blurred, tracing arcane patterns through the wind. Kel laughed as he watched, occasionally flinging a small rock to distract one or the other.
Even Tara relaxed, leaning against Hypno and waking him long enough for him to sleepily wrap an arm around his shoulders.
Gilded smiled as he watched then. This was what he lived for. This glorious unity of not mind and body, but emotion and joy. To maintain oneself under the banner of something greater.
To let it augment rather than envelop.
Matt, at his side, let out a contented sigh. “Finally, we did it.”
Gilded chuckled. “You know this is only the beginning, right? We still need to collect the materials. And from what you’ve said, it's going to be quite the hassle.”
Matt groaned. “Just let me have this!”
A rock flew out of the haze and struck him on the head with a soft thunk. “‘Ow! Kel!”
A smile stretched across Gilded’s lips as he watched his brother surge into the smoke. He was glad they were all here. Well, all except one.
Chrono sat alone, frail body lonely against the fire’s dancing light. A faint tugging urged Gilded to engage, and following his instincts, he approached the son of Adam.
Chrono snapped out of his trance as Gilded approached. “Son of Micheal” he nodded. “What can I help you with?”
He was always like this, separate and impersonal, and while it lacked malice, it was normally sufficient to drive Gilded off.
But not tonight.
Gilded sat directly in front of Chrono, feeling the furthest reaches of the fire’s heat lapping his back. “Why don’t you join us? Just this once, in celebration of achieving our objective.”
“We are not done yet.”
“Even so”
He thought for a moment. “I shall have to decline.”
“Why.”
Chrono observed him for a second, as if surprised by the blunt question, then seemed to come to a decision. “Follow me.” he commanded, standing up and marching into the night.
Gilded hesitated for a second before following.
The further they got from the fire, the colder it got. But they were both beyond such concerns, and after a few minutes of walking through the hard rocky ground, they arrived at a pile of rocks larger than the rest. Not quite a mountain, nor even a hill, but nevertheless it towered over their flat surroundings.
The darkness was no obstacle to their climb and shortly they found themselves at the top. The view, even through the dark, was marvelous, with the orange glow of the fire at their backs and the cold light of the stars at the front.
“We are seeing the past.”
Gilded nearly fell off the rock upon hearing Chrono speak, having nearly forgotten of his presence. Chrono continued unimpeded.
“Each of the stars in the sky shines bright. So bright the sun would be considered dim among them. And they are so far it takes light itself thousands of years to reach here. We are seeing their past. They are the past.”
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He turned to Gilded.
“And soon, I will be too. Me and my siblings.”
He turned back.
“You see, we are those stars. We shine brilliantly, isolated in our domains. We are fiercely independent, refusing to take the hand of another. We are pure, beholden to our path and nothing else. And as we traverse our paths, we become more like them. We are those stars, shining ever brighter, and from ever further distances.”
He sighed.
“I used to think that was the only way. That we are each individuals, fighting and dying alone. And yet… you are different. You and your siblings. You do not live for your paths, but rather use them as a means to an end. You live together, rather than alone. It makes you weak, and yet… you gain something in the process. Something that I am steadily losing as I progress further and further. As I become more and more foreign.”
Something in him shifted and as if he shed a cloak he had been wearing, he suddenly became something else. An eternal grindstone, one which wore away at all things. A river nothing could escape, even him. A promise, a constant beyond the reach of even gods.
He suddenly felt a thousand miles away, as far as the stars.
He spoke in the voice of ages, a tongue so far removed from Gilded own it should have been incomprehensible, but drawing on unity Gilded made do.
A million voices spoke, from a thousand different times yet they spoke one thing.
‘I am time” It said, “And I see further than ever before. The pathed will become rare, weak. And in the place of their individual might, a collective will rise up. Humanity. And with a billion voices, and a trillion faces, they shall decide the fate of this era.”
The thing turned to look at Gilded with endless eyes.
“You are the future.”
Then it was gone and Chrono stood where it once had. He quietly stared at the stars, as if lost in thought. The world was silent except for Gilded’s harsh breathing.
“What was that?!”
Chrono smiled, still looking at the stars.
“That was me. Me as I truly am.”
He turned back to Gilded.
“Now do you see why I would rather sit alone?”
Gilded could only nod.
—-----------------------------------------------
Gilded was silent as they walked back, and still quiet when he rejoined his siblings. They could sense he needed space, and left him to his thoughts as they frolicked about.
Here the light of the fire, drowned out the light of the stars, obscuring their ancient glory.
And man eclipsed the heavens.
Gilded thought of Chrono’s words.
And slowly, a thread of understanding began to worm into him.
Perhaps they were the future after all.
—----------------------------------------------
The next few days were busy.
The challenges of the road had been replaced with those of a more sedentary nature.
Different, but no less difficult.
Under the direction of Matt, they gathered the and shaped the tools needed for their operation, erecting settlements and securing food sources.
And slowly but surely, a new city began to rise from the rocky ground, building by building, flower by flower.
A home away from home, a foothold in this grand new world.
The future seemed to loom closer.
—--------------------------------------
The ground was cracked and splintered as Persy’s roots forced their way through, and turned to dust by Tara’s merciless palms. Matt walked out of the dust, another chunk of metal in hand, and tossed it to Tyre before returning to the dusty world below.
Tyre tossed it to Jona without missing a beat and Jona tossed it to the fire where Jul seized it. She plunged it into the fire, calling upon its heat to purify the raw ore. Cara worked beside her, reaching into its smoky depths to extract strands of impurities, which once more became fuel for the everburning flame.
The refined ore was then tossed to Kel, who guided it to its final resting place, a dusty clay storehouse. Hypno stirred nearby before going back to sleep, the burden of their exhaustion difficult for even one such as him to bear.
Gilded felt them all keenly from his position on the small rock mound overlooking them. His path stretched over them, like a divine conductor, guiding them into the rhythm. It was glorious, Gilded could truly see that now. They were separate, but they were one.
A collective of immeasurable power, many faces of one.
Humanity.
They were the future. It seemed inevitable.
And so, lost in the music of the collective, Gilded continued his conducting.
—--------------------------------------
The first warning was a faint prick at the ends of Kel’s senses, though through the unity they felt it all, and focusing on it together, it resolved.
It was another awakened beast, this one a long slithering creature, as red as the sand it glided upon. Black ridges adorned its head, appearing to form a dark crown.
It reeked of poison and death.
And it was heading right at them.
A moment of deliberation found a consensus reached. They would not run, not now. The collective reordered preparing for war. A thousand plans manifested before their collective consciousness, being refined and discarded until one was chosen.
The snake surged over the rocky ground, concealing itself behind rocks till it was within striking distance. The world seemed to hold its breath as It coiled up, visible only through Kel’s widespread eyes. Then, with a rustling exhale, it struck.
One to find itself met with Jona’s hammer. A loud hiss rang out as the beast reeled back, shaken by Jona’s blow. Tara, light as a feather, ran along its back and struck the same place with preternatural force before flipping to Jona’s side. Tyre stepped out beside them, even the air itself flinching from his drawn blade.
They stood as one, and the snake flinched back at their aura. But it was an awakened beast, and it was not without power of its own. A swirling domain erupted from it, a patchwork of swirling black mist and orange flame that merged together to become a tornado of sicky green flames.
Jul, overlooking the battle beside Kel, raised a hand and forced the flames down, weakening them to the point where a swing from Tyre split the cloud in two, just in time for Jona and Tara to land another blow. Persy joined in, summoning roots to bind its movements, and Cara guided strands of its own poisonous haze to obscure its eyes.
And as one, they fell upon it.
Metal glinted in the sun and roots erupted from the earth as the ground around them was shredded. The wounds were slowly accumulating on the snake, spilling black blood to hiss on the red sand. They may not be paragons, but together, even the paragons could be brought low before them.
But they were tiring.
Directly forcing the world to bend before them was a tiring proposition and even with Hypno subsuming the majority if their exhaustion into himself, they wouldn't last much longer
But neither would the snake.
And with its fall, it would be done.
Humanity would be on the stage.
They pressed harder, watching as it faltered and retreated. It tried to flee, summoning great gouts of green flame to cover its path, but was cut off by Kel throwing stones with supernatural accuracy, borrowing Tara’s force to make them powerful. Tyre arrived shortly to send it reeling with another sundering slash.
Finally seeming to accept its fate, it drew itself to its full height, covering itself in sickly fire. It looked fierce, but they could sense it was on its last legs. Jona took point, preparing the finishing blow as the other cleared a path.
He lept into the air, hammer trailing behind him. He brought it over his head in a wide arm, sending sunrays carrening over the desert as he brought it down with undeniable force.
A blur was all the warning he had before he was swiped from the air.
Suddenly, the weak pressure coming from the snake tripled, and its wounds began to heal at a visible rate. Awareness struck them like a cold shower.
It had been letting them strike blows, all to lure them away. As to why, Gilded couldn't begin to guess but all that mattered now was survival.
Persy’s roots erupted before Jona, pure fire dancing along them courtesy of Jul and Cara. The snake's coiling strike took him through the triply enforced barrier like it was paper, fangs leaking corrosive venom as he flew towards Jona in a red blur.
Time seemed to slow as Gilded waited with horror for the snake to strike his exhausted and wounded brother.
And it continued to slow.
Then it stopped.
Gilded could no longer move, could barely think, yet he recognized the voice that spoke.
“You may be the future” the thousand voices of time said, “But the future has yet to come.”
Through frozen time, Gilded got the impression of a colossal fist rising, preparing to strike down at the frozen snake. Gilded could almost see its eyes rolling in hopeless terror.
“It is still the present,” the voice continued, “And here, power is king.”
The colossal fist came down.
And before his eyes, the snake aged. Vibrant crimson faded to dull red which faded to pale pink. From pale pink emerged a skeleton of white, until time ground even that into dust.
And soon, even that dust vanished into nothing.
Time remained frozen for one more instant, before crashing back with vengeance. They stumbled back as the world warped around them, protesting at the abuse it had suffered.
Chrono stood in front of them, his true nature once more concealed in his frail human form. He observed them wearily before waving a hand and letting time wash away their wounds.
“Careful” he said.
Then, as soon as he had come, he was gone.
—------------------------------------------
The night the fire was subdued. Their near death had shaken them, shaken their faith in their nascent collective.
And reflecting on the events of the day, Gilded couldn't blame them. He still believed, but the overwhelming power of the beast and Chrono seemed unreal.
Unapproachable.
Gilded knew they would get there eventually, but now it seemed futile.
They may be the future.
But the future had yet to come.
And unspeakable things still wandered the world.
Gilded shivered.
And the rest shivered with him.