Gallimaufry

Story Idea # 1

The beginning of the story about to be told belongs at the end of another story. This isn't a new concept, most stories are continuations, sequels, or independent creations that start somewhere near the middle of things.

But in regard to this one in particular.

A world had been struggling against the tide of time and onslaught of change that was so catastrophic that a nation of people was fighting for their very survival. There were heroes, monumental feats of sacrifice and successes that maintained the balance of probabilities in their favour far longer than expected.

But, in the end, change needed to come, and the planetary empire of a just and peaceful society fell to the evil machinations of greed, division and bias. This is a hard pill to swallow and if you were reading the end of that story, such an ending would be dissatisfactory.

This, however, was also a beginning. Though there are never any guarantees that the following story will end in any better a situation. If you wait long enough, all stories are tragedies.

***

The air was thick with smoke, though the smell of blood was the strongest scent that hit Mya's nose as she climbed further into the mountains than her oldest maps had catalogued. The entire world had belonged to one nation, one people, but not all parts of their mother Gaia had people living within it.

Gaia was burning where people had settled and when Mya took the time to stop and get her breath in the thin air, she could see the valleys stretch out below, glowing toxic green and burnished red into the dark sky of Gaia's longest night.

Two suns, who often ensured long and fruitful days, would disappear from the sky over what would normally constitute several days. It happened once every fifty years and had long ago been thought to bring about times of great change. But things had been so peaceful, so steady for so long, that the long nights had merely been a time for rest and rejuvenation. Even with the periodic attacks from the rebels and creatures who sought to destroy Gaia, her people had known mostly peace.

That had all ended at the beginning of the long night, which was due to last the span of time of about four more days. The temple of the brave had been the first to be razed to the ground, in all the cities across the globe. And then the masses of fighters had appeared from the shadows and begun fighting and destroying.

Mya wasn't a warrior. She had been training in the ways of scientific magic at the Gaian University, half a world away from where her family had been living.

When the attacks began, she had started out with a group of three other students and two of the city warriors, heroes of epic renown on a task from the dean of the university. Go beyond the furthest edges of the eastern maps, until your breath is thin and then turn north. Travel until you find the five sisters with their crowns of stars, find the tallest of the peaks, and climb until the rock turns to ice. Follow the path that the ice creates for you, when it creates it, and it will lead you to the heart of Gaia.

Gaia would die in this form, but the only way to ensure the planet's immortality was to find the heart and follow its guidance.

"C'mon, Mya. We have to keep going." Renzo, the old grizzled warrior and her only remaining companion, offered after several moments of watching their world continue to burn. "We'll freeze if we stop moving, exposed like this."

Mya looked to the older woman and nodded, pulling herself up to stand and falling into step behind her. "Do you think there's any chance at all?"

"For them, down there?" Renzo shook her head, face hidden by the furs that muffled her voice. "No. The only chance we had, died in the first wave. They... got us good, Mya. But if Prenisa said that there's some chance in this direction, we have to go."

Mya didn't know why she survived and the others had not, other than the fact that Renzo had chanced to grab her hand and pull her to safety in the last landslide that had taken out, Werick, who had been the smartest and most magically gifted out of all of them.

The other warrior had died giving them chance to escape the city and Mya's longtime friend and tutor, Klenia, had been cut down by a blazing arrow when they thought they were far enough away from the city walls to walk in the open.

Bad luck or providence. Or maybe because she was a little bit of a coward and stuck close to Renzo and did not volunteer to step out of the shadows like Klenia did. Pondering the various ways that things could have been different took her mind off the driving ice and snow that crusted over her less than ideal layers, making her body stiff with cold and shivering in exhaustion.

They wandered until she began to fall more than she could stand, and then Renzo pulled her into a shallow cave that smelled of mold and defecation, but appeared to have been abandoned, according to the gruff words of the other woman.

There, they managed a small magical fire and windbreak, allowing themselves to dry off as they ate.

Renzo glanced toward the mouth of the cave, frowning. "I think that at the next northward pass, we should turn north. Wind is going east west anyways, so a northward pass will protect us from the storm."

Mya nodded miserably, before settling down as close to the flames as she could, falling into fitful sleep. She dreamed of darkness, fire and a rivers of blood, then painful, numbing cold.

When she woke up, she found herself shivering, frowning first at the spot where Renzo's magical flames should have been, and then toward the mouth of the cave, where snow had begun to drift, along with the wind. It confused her at first, as Renzo had said that her magical wards could block out the wind and the cave had been warmer than expected when she fell asleep.

"Renz..." Mya turned to look toward where the other woman was, frowning when she saw the vacant stare of death looking back at her.

With tears in her eyes, Mya sat dumbly and stared at the other woman's body.

There was still so far to go. How could she ever hope of making it on her own?