Crystal Bloodlines

Chapter 1

The air felt searingly hot. Even the rock beneath the two young men's feet felt incredibly overbearing. 

"Dell, can you see anything?", Cyrus gasped in the dirty hot air. 

"Not a thing, there's some space going upwards ahead of me though. I worry that if we go any farther the heat might not be bearable.", Dell sounded frustrated.

"All our preparation yesterday and we end up inside some dark hole, I'm wondering if going through that portal was really a good idea."

Dell sighed and pointed out that it was most certainly a better idea than rotting on their home world of Earth. Cyrus silently agreed and they momentarily quieted. Then the two of them started blindly crawling upwards in the dark.  

As they  crawled in the dark musty tunnel time slowly passed and the air slowly became cooler. They must have crawled for at least a few thousand meters, passing openings and coming about corners, continuing their trek upwards. 

"I don't think I've ever been down so far.", Dell murmered.  

"If you don't move fast enough, we'll never have the chance to ever go so far again. The air is so thin."

Every movement felt labored after hours of travel, but just when it seemed like it would never end, they saw a light up ahead. It almost looked like an exit that was boarded up. Approaching what might have just been salvation, the two young men inhaled a chilly breath of air. This wasn't anywhere like the place they started at. When they left Earth, it was well over eighty degrees and sunny. Past the boards they could see a view of some snowy trees under a gloomy sky.

"We've heard the stories but this is beyond unbelievable! There's two moons Dell! Look up."

"It's been a while seen I've seen something that's that epic."

There were two moons that were gigantic and the largest one took up a huge part of the sky, even with the cloud cover, it was quite noticeable. 

Deep inside, Cyrus almost felt a kind of resonance with the larger moon. Almost as if the moonlight made him feel calmer. The air was so rich and the world itself almost made Cyrus feel lighter. Definitely better than Earth he thought.

Dell moved to step under the barrier that separated the apparent mine shaft and outside world. Looking back in the shadowy moonlight, they could see broken pickaxes on the ground and strange symbols on the walls. Even carts that looked like they had been well used before being abandoned.

What a strangely similar yet different world, Cyrus thought. "Weird huh?", Pointed out Dell. 

"Yeah, I was just thinking the same thing. 

Shuffling forward, Cyrus followed Dell out of the darkness into the moonlight. "Where should we go? This world has civilizations, we saw the articles. We need to find one."

"Let's just hope we aren't near any barbaric ones, that'd be a bit precarious.", Dell wasn't amused by the thought of being lost in an unknown and unexplored land, at least it seemed so. 

In their long sleeved shirts the boys walked through the cold and came to a trail about a dozen feet away from the mine. Snow started appear heavily at the entrance to the trail, even the air seemed colder in this vicinity.  

"After you my friend, we can take turns going head first into this adventure.", Cyrus grinned and waved his hand towards the trail. 

"Certainly! But just remember, you're going first next time!", Dell said with a joyful tone. 

Just as Dell stepped on the crunchy snow, a shriek could be heard in the distance. 

Cyrus turned to Dell and gave a questioning look but said nothing as Dell slowly walked towards the sound. "What was that?"

"I'm not sure. I'm not sure I want to know either.", Cyrus could barely see the person he was replying to in the dim light that the tree cover gave.

"But, it... It seemed like it was a pained sound.", Dell stumbled towards the sound in the gloom.

As he stepped closer to the sound, only a couple of feet into the bushes off the trail, an odd absence of sound seemed to occur. 

Cyrus stumbled after him and quickly knocked into him, causing the two to take another step forward. 

Except. 

Their next step landed on empty air and they started tumbling down a snowy hill, falling slightly separated in the snowy darkness. Mimicking the previous shriek, cries sounded out in the night.