The Cold Light Fades - Book 1 of the Crystal Chronicles

Prologue - Life from lifelessness

Life from lifelessness

(The Legend of Karna and Kax, Part 1)

Clanesta was good for nothing more than target practice by the passing asteroids, which is how life was brought to the world.

A giant comet smashed into Clanesta, it caused great upheaval and started a most unexpected metamorphosis. The comet was named Penta; he was half as big as his target, with a core of solid iron and layer, upon layer of ice and rock. The planet and the comet became as one and the force of the collision pushed Clanesta further in toward the red star. The glowing ball of crimson fire caught the newly re-formed planet in its arms, grasped her close and held her tightly in a steady orbit.

Clanesta's egg shaped body was now able to glide smoothly through space. She pulled in the debris from the almighty impact and seized it around her to create a band of rings. Her rings were mainly made of rock and ice, but there were also several bands of colourful frozen crystal shards.

This was Penta's secret, for within his many layers were segments of organic crystal that shone in bright contrasting colours, from deepest blue to brightest red. When Penta hit Clanesta, the patches of crystal were pushed deep into the surface of the planet. The strange living minerals splintered and some of the shards of crystal flew back into space and eventually joined the great glistening rainbow rings.

Now that he was closer to the red star, the ice from Penta began to melt, which formed a rich atmosphere, around Clanesta's molten iron core. In this instant, Clanesta gained air and moisture. She felt the first trickles of water roll over her as seas, rivers and lakes cut across the rocky surface.

Clanesta now had the necessary building blocks for the development of life and soon basic creatures began to thrive. Insects, fish and plant life all began to develop on the planet, but these life forms were not being born from natural evolution. They were being created from the chunks of living crystal that were scattered all over the northern continent.

There were five different types of organic crystal, the burning red fire rubies, the pale blue ice sapphires, the swirling purple air amethysts, the grey iron quartz crystals and the bright green plant emeralds. These gemstones were concentrated in different parts of the mainland and their wildly different properties formed the basis of the weather patterns that passed over the northern continent, which was named Pentatha.

Pentatha was a harsh and unforgiving land; in the north were the bleak and frosty snowfields of Anectar, while to the south the humid Fentissa jungle overgrew the land, before eventually dropping into the sea. The Fire Mountains of Negadenta reached towards the heavens in the west and to the east, the deep iron chasm of Tenash fell right down to the planets centre. In the middle of the continent was the thunder plains of Ithor where storms and high winds tore across the rolling fields with savage force.

As time marched on, the living crystal beings evolved at an alarming rate, forming bigger and more complex creatures. The life forms soon discovered that their elemental powers made them strong, but it also made them natural enemies too, and a civil war broke out amongst the crystal creatures. War raged on Clanesta, with red fire beasts attacking icy cold creatures and fast flying aerial animals swooping down to strike at the slow-moving steel beings below.

It was about this time that humanity appeared on Clanesta, and they were stuck right in the middle of the vicious war of the elemental beasts. There were many human casualties and at one point, it looked like the humans were going to die out as quickly as they arrived. Until one day, when a great man named Karna Scorch discovered how to bond with Clanesta's strange inhabitants.