When I was a boy, Pa used to tell me stories of the old world. He spoke of elegant buildings that rose so high they poked holes through the fluffy little clouds that drifted about in a wonderfully turquoise sky. The skyscrapers, curved, bent, every one unique. Filled with humans. Proud cities with beautiful metal boxes called cars that wove and slunk through between the buildings like small lizards do in the rocks. Glittering lights stretching for miles that made you dizzy to look at, nations of billions. Communities. Families. Friends.
He described giant beasts that survived on the land like us, horned creatures that roamed the fertile lands, great gnarled horns that twisted in magnificent patterns like the branches of an ancient tree. Sleek big cats that slunk over hills and mountains, with majestic eyes that spoke of the land, lush green, pale sky blue on a winters morning.
He said there were animals that lived in the sea of blue, golden, orange, greens and reds with small shields for skin that darted in the water. Huge ones, bigger than life, with smooth, tough skin of black and white that leapt out of the water into the sky. He said his Pa told him that they had tails the size of a house, and they would flip and circle in the sky, elegant and powerful.
Pa told me that once, the land was beautiful, that it boomed with life, lept with it, held it peacefully on its perfect green planes, it's rocky Mountains, the endless deep blue that fed the land.
That could be again son, he told me. That was his dream, for a world his son and daughter could live in. For people to live side by side. He called it hope. And it killed him.
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Trial of Hope
FantasySet generations after a plaque wiped out most of humanity, a small group of survivors are attempting to rebuild a form of civilisation. However, when survivors fleeing a murderous gang turns up, a war is started. In order to survive, they must band...
