Caged Horizon..

Chapter 1: The Sky-Graves
Part 1: The Weight of the Upward Look
The wind at 30,000 feet doesn’t howl; it screams with the voices of everyone who ever fell. A Mountain.. names The Pillar of Gnosis.. Home to a race called Aethelgards.. who are deprived of their freedom and stuck in a mountain so high and most people think this is the entire world.. People have to fight against.. a creepy specie.. a dangerous being.. a monster every once in a while.. The monsters come to take away people once they turn 35.. Very few survive..A boy obsessed with freedom,
Elian stood on the "Lip"—a jagged outcrop of rusted rebar and ancient stone that served as the city’s edge. Below him, the Cloud Sea churned, a brilliant, blinding white desert that hid the graveyard of the world. To the people of Aethelgard, the clouds were holy. To Elian, they were the walls of a coffin.
"Don't look down, Elian," a voice rasped.
It was Miller, an old veteran with skin like cracked leather and only one eye left to see the tragedy of their existence. He was tightening the straps on Elian’s Vertical Maneuver Rig.
"I'm not looking down," Elian whispered, his hands trembling—not from fear, but from a cold, vibrating rage. "I’m looking for a way out. I wanna.. see the world beyond this mountain"
"There is no 'out.' There is only the Peak, and there is the Harvest. The Great Birds don't like it when the meat tries to run."
"Then let them come," Elian said, snapping his goggles over his eyes. The glass was scratched, blurring the horizon into a smear of grey and gold. "I’m tired of waiting for my turn to be a meal."
Suddenly, the massive bronze bells of the Cathedral began to toll. It wasn't the slow, rhythmic chime for prayer. It was the frantic, discordant clanging of the Eclipse Warning.
The sky didn't darken because of the moon. It darkened tHigh above, a shadow began to unfurl—a skeletal, a large feathered wing.. The Monster named Harvester
what are harvesters? what will happen next? stay tuned for more