Stardust Mountain: Origins

Prologue

Like every other child, I was thirteen when it happened. We knew it could happen, yet we never expected it to happen to me. I was not the first: many others Shifted before I did, but I still belonged to the early ones, when the Stardust curse was still new. But even then, the world was afraid.

We have all seen it before, in books and in movies. People start getting powers, and the government hunts them down out of fear for what they can do. Mankind fears what they cannot understand, they always say. Now that it is about to become reality, we realize that it is true. People are scared, and I do not see any reason to blame them for it. It is scary, seeing your neighbours, friends and children change into another version of themselves. It is even worse for the Shifters themselves, who can feel their physical shape transform into something new, as if your body no longer belongs to you anymore. The first time was awful.

Harper Stones is my name. Until three years ago, I was a quite normal child. I lived in London, attended school there, had my own group of friends to hang around with, doing the things every youngster did. I also had a family. I was the youngest with one older brother.

When I was twelve years old, the meteorite struck the earth. It landed somewhere in Asia, I think. The rock from space made it to the global news, of course, as larger meteorites that land on the surface still being intact are rare here, and people always seem to be looking for something to make a fuss about. The excitement amongst the population of the earth that were no meteoricists faded away just as quickly as it came: After about a week, you could hardly hear anybody talk about it anymore. Of course you also had those whose speculations about not being alone in the universe were refuelled, but like every other time it happened, not many took them very seriously.

For a few months, the rock was forgotten, as do many events similar to this one. However, as it later turned out, this event was nowhere similar to any others. Nobody knew, but then again, how could they have known? Even now, three years later, the exact reason for the Shifts is still a mystery. I figure they eventually stopped trying to understand it and instead focused on the chaos that is now unleashed upon the world. People rioting, your typical apocolypse image with fires and explosions. Just kidding.

It is worse than that.

We are being hunted. As you may have figured by now, the world is not very fond of us, the Dusted. They fear what they do not understand, and they do not understand us. We do not even understand ourselves. Nowhere is safe, save one place in the world. Imagine being afraid of everyone you meet, not knowing who you can trust, or imagine being afraid of yourself, of your emotions. That is how we live. Every day, afraid of every shadow. Welcome to our world.