Eternal Beasts

Chapter 1: A Dream

Author's Note: Please be advised that this chapter, and others throughout this work will discuss mental illness as a plot point. Mental Illness is a serious issue that has become even more important as the COVID-19 pandemic continues to press against our civilization, forcing us to deal with the repercussions of isolation, loss of family members, and debilitating effects caused by the novel illness.

As such, if you or anybody in your family or social circle are struggling with mental illness, get them talking about it. Let us de-stigmatize an increasingly serious issue affecting every cohort and age group, regardless of ethnic background or upbringing. And let us help them get the assistance they need to get better.

For more information regarding mental illness, please check out this link:

https://mentalhealthcommission.ca in Canada

https://wfmh.global Internationally 

And I would strongly suggest researching in your own country for your local mental health support system. Thank you. Sincerely, Shawn Jackson, aka bloodsword

It is said the Maker took a handful of sand and with one mighty cast, scattered it amongst the velvety black of space. Where each grain fell it became the shimmering jewel of a single world, a place where life grew and filled the darkness with light. Yet, as far flung as those worlds are, and as differently as life on them began, they are all connected together by their common origin, an invisible web that stretched from one end of the universe to the other.

One world, close to some and far from others, was a wondrous place of sapphire blue, emerald green and quartz brown. Its continents teemed with life, pulsing beneath swirling clouds of lightning-shot white and her oceans, deep and dark, thronged. This world was a vital place, seething with possibility and promise just as lightning seethed within the winter storms lashing at the west coast of one of its northern landmasses.

Down the rain fell, soaking both the great artificial mountains where the humans of this world dwelt and the forests, valleys and shores where nature lived. Temperate thanks in great part to the vast ocean lying to the west of its shores, rain fell on this place through fall, winter and spring, creating a haven from the chill and snow. Humans, some of the most numerous inhabitants of this world, flocked here by the thousands to dwell. Here they built grand cities with their universities, churches and places of recreation, glad to quit the cold that gripped most of the continent during the winter months.

This day the rain soaked one such city very near the ocean, a smaller place than others but graced with uncommon beauty. Here, in this place, as the rain fell, a beginning was born, a beginning that would shock the vastness of space and send a ripple across the web that connected all worlds. But, as beginnings oft were, the birth was small, almost insignificant. Like a single drop of rain, spattering against the window pane.

Grunting non-coherently, the young man sat up, blinking his eyes in a vain attempt to wash away the images floating like ghosts before them. Behind him, spilling in gray light, the room's only window quietly drummed to the subtle music of rain striking it. The images a fog dancing before his eyes, he twisted to look at the small electronic clock sitting on the cluttered desk directly opposite his narrow bed. Its glowing numbers read 7:30 am; a good half hour before anything on campus opened.

Hands lifting to scrub at his tired face, the young man let a long sigh whistle out his nostrils and through his fingers. It had been a long time since he had the dream, the one filled with stark and brutal images of a strange city of stone, invaded, on fire and dying. Five years of psycho-therapy for what the shrinks had called 'dissociative disorder' and a pharmacy worth of anti-hallucinogens supposedly cured it. Yet there it was again, filling his eyes with fire and death and his heart with dread.