Shadows of the First Age - Book One: The Rise and Fall of the Ancients

The Rise and Fall of the Ancients

Chapter One: The First born Setting

The chapter opens in a mist-laden forest in prehistoric England, centuries before mortals will know its name. It is an ancient world of shadows, primal fears, and a tribe on the edge of survival. The elders of this tribe, the Kaelmari, speak of spirits, but none yet know the true powers that lurk beneath the earth.

The Story Begins

Vara Eldren moved through the night with steps as soft as a whisper, the ancient forest around her heavy with mist. She could feel it—a pull deep in her bones, guiding her forward as though she were a vessel waiting to be filled. Tonight would be a night of change, a night when the unknown would finally reveal its secrets.

She was alone, save for the silent figure trailing behind her, Kaelen. His dark eyes never left her form, watching as if she were a flame in the darkness. Kaelen was young, but he was fierce, a warrior without fear. And if he knew that fear had begun to seep into her own heart, he gave no sign. To him, she was the elder, the leader of the Kaelmari, the one chosen by the spirits to seek out the ancient relic of which their dreams had spoken.

Kaelen's voice, soft yet piercing, cut through the silence. "We should go back. Whatever draws you here could be a trap." He didn't believe in legends as she did, not yet. For him, the world was blood and earth, a simple tale of hunt or be hunted.

But Vara was older. She knew the stories and sensed truths hiding beneath the surface. "There is something waiting for us," she murmured, pressing forward. "We have to trust the path."

They came upon a clearing, an ancient ring of stones hidden in the dense forest. The stones bore strange symbols, etched into them in a language neither Vara nor Kaelen understood. Their edges glowed faintly under the moonlight, casting eerie reflections into the surrounding mist.

Vara moved to the center, feeling the ground pulse beneath her bare feet. She felt something alive here, something that had waited millennia to be found. Kneeling, she brushed her hand across the stones and whispered words she did not fully understand, only that they had come to her in visions—a chant of old syllables that seemed to echo back to her.

And then the ground shuddered.

Kaelen staggered backward, drawing his weapon as the earth before Vara split open with a slow, rumbling sigh. She watched as something emerged—a dark crystal, veined with threads of scarlet, as though blood itself flowed through it. It pulsed like a heartbeat, thrumming in time with her own.

It was then that she understood. "This... is the heart of the world," she whispered, reaching out.

Kaelen took a step forward, his hand trembling as he reached to stop her. "Vara, don't. We don't know what it will do."

But it was too late. Her fingers closed around the crystal, and an electric current surged through her, filling her with a power that was both ecstatic and terrifying. The forest around them seemed to come alive; shadows deepened, creatures scattered, and the stars above shone brighter. Her body was flooded with strength and vitality as ancient memories filled her mind—faces of those who had touched the stone before, voices whispering truths long forgotten.

Kaelen's eyes widened as he watched her transform. Her skin grew pale, her eyes dark and sharp as obsidian. She looked at him now with a gaze that held no fear, no doubt.

"We are more than mortal now," she said, her voice laced with something both beautiful and monstrous. She stepped toward him, and he took a step back, fear flickering in his eyes.

"You can join me, Kaelen," Vara whispered, holding out the stone. "Together, we can be gods."

Kaelen hesitated, every instinct in his body warning him of the power he could sense radiating from her. But he was devoted to her, and deep down, he wanted what she offered. He wanted power, to see beyond the world he knew.