It was a rather normal day for the town of Stormgrad, birds were singing, flowers were blooming, kids were playing in the fields, and farmers were laboring in their fields yelling at kids to get off them.

In the entrance of the town, a younger man, have not even come of age, was exiting the town to go help his father, one of the four city blacksmiths, by grabbing some raw wood for the smith fire.

Today would be the day his father showed him how to craft his first blade, and for someone who hasn’t come of age yet the boy was extremely giddy.

He greeted the guards of the city on his way out. The guards knowing him as the young kid who was always on an adventure, easily let him out of the city.

As the boy was leaving, he heard a shout from behind him: “Thomas! I’m coming with you this time, regardless of what you object with.” Thomas looked behind him to see David, one of his friends from his fathers shop.

Although David played the part of a jester more often then not, he was a diligent worker more frequently then not. Not having much control over the situation, Thomas sighed “Fine, but no pranks this time. We need to be quick, I don’t want to keep my father waiting while he is still in a good mood.”

Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

As the two scurried into the forest, this time around they would find more than just simply wood and pranks. No, perhaps they would find something that would change their very lives.

…

As soon as the E.A.I. Astra regained awareness, they were already in planet-fall mode and the ship doing its best to slow the landing with no response.

“Systems check shows there is major damage to many of the thruster systems, re entry speed is at 16,000 mph roughly 4.44 mps distance above planet 180 miles, eta to impact 40, now 39 seconds.”

“initialize complete backup to android unit A001, time till backup complete: 30 seconds.”

“move android to emergency escape pod, upon backup completion, eject.”

As the E.A.I. was coordinating the evacuation of its new counterpart, it suddenly had a thought to itself, one it would never have normally.

‘I’m going to die.’

Suddenly, without any logical reason, its instincts burst into full motion, intercepting the backup and injecting its current conscious into the android. During of which it finished the backup and ejected the pod itself.

Thus, the E.A.I. Astra survived in the escape pod while its ship exploded upon impact, never to be seen again.

As the escape pod shifted itself to get far away from the burning ship as possible, Astra looks down from her new android body into the pods one way glass window on the floor, she sees a small settlement right above them, and they slowly descend into the forest nearby.

…

Somewhere, in a tower forgotten to time, long since decayed, on a mountain top above the clouds. An old man in a grey cloak opens his eyes, bugs escaping his cloak as he tilts his head back to the skies above the tower.

For the first time in millennia, he speaks: “The Prophecy is upon us”.