Crystalia... Chapter 1:- Where The Story Begins
Our story begins within the mystical town of Crystalia, where nothing is as it seems.
As you walk into the town for the first time, you'll be met by the vibrant colours and the exotic aromas from the tree whose blossoms seemed to glow even in the bright of day and as the wind gently caresses and swirls around everything that it touches the scent of the exotic flowers fill the air. The grass that carpets the land feels soft and melds beneath your paws, tickling your pads with every step, and all shimmers with morning dew in the sunlight.
Now we find ourselves moving towards the central part of town where there are houses as old as the folk tales and apartments that look as if to touch the skies. The house we are entering is one of the original houses that were the first to be built when Crystalia was founded. The roof made from black slate, that has slowly turned to grey due to the varying weather sits slatted together, the face of the house is smooth as marble to the touch and slowly shifts in colour from a brilliant white to a now creamy yellow colour again due to time and the elements, just as the window frames made of solid timber painted bright red have now faded to and off pink colour due to the sun.
The small squares of glass that connected in the window frame reflect the light from the sun towards large bog oak door, surrounding it with squares of light, however the squares the hit the pitch black wood seem to simply vanish, as if the door itself absorbs the very light itself. The wood that makes up the door has been preserved due to the unique conditions of the Turf bogs that used to cover the land before Crystalia was founded.
The bogs waterlog the wood and keep it free from oxygen and sunlight which would cause it to decay. The chemistry of the Bog also reacts with the wood and transforms it's colour into a pitch black. The wood itself has become strengthened through its preservation, every decade making it heavier and harder until it was retrieved and carved into a door, which has a black cast iron lion head door knocker in the centre.
As we enter the house, we find ourselves alongside the main character, Star who is arguing yet again with her mother about something of no real concern. Now let me explain a little about Star. Star is 19, (soon to be 20) she is a panther/wolf hybrid, at first glance, you would likely be somewhat intimidated. Looks alone however are deceiving, the hybrid while intimidating wouldn't hurt a fly without good reason, if you were to give her a reason however my advice, Run. Star has piercing red eyes, a daunting colour unto itself in the dark all the more so, reflecting the tiniest bit of light and magnifying it, this has led to several wanderers to run screaming out of the village in fear.
She has a well-built athletic body, though many of her more muscular features are thanks to her dad, the big black wolf who runs the local bar, The Red Oak. While she is well muscled she still has plenty of curves from all the running, cycling and field hockey that she plays in her spare time. Her fur is a dense jet black colour until she moves that is, as you will then see the flashes of a reddish/brown, from her panther markings, inherited from her mother. Lastly her tail, a nice long and fluffy tail, which star calls confused from not being sure as to whether it should be a Panther's tail or a Wolf's.
Still Arguing in the kitchen, a constant battleground for her and her mother, is where the story really begins.
"Where do you think you're going?!," Pat Snarled at her daughter as she walked towards to the front door, "We are not finished yet, get your arse back here NOW!"
Star rolled her eyes and slumped back into the kitchen asking "What now? What have I supposedly done this time? If that little shit has been lying about me again..." Star knew she would have a good ear bashing now for insinuating that her brother was lying, but she was trying to make her mum see that her brother isn't the precious angel she so believes he is.
"Do not think you can blame your brother for everything! He isn't the problem here, YOU ARE!" Her mother roared.
This made Star go over the edge and let go of all her anger, her eyes lit with what looked like flames and just vented it at her mother.
"Oh that's just the fucking cherry on top ain't it!? You fucking defend him over everything no matter how big or small, but the moment I need fucking help, I get a thousand and one questions and told I'm a fucking problem! He has you all wrapped around his tiny little fucking fingers, and you refuse to acknowledge the fact and you know its FUCKING true!"
"That is not how it works! This wasn't supposed to turn into a fight, but once again you seem to be unable to hold a sensible conversation with me!"
"This would never turn into a fight, PAT, The second you lay a paw on me I'm gone. Dad would never have let you do this, but you're trying to control me, just like you tried controlling dad and look what happened there! You, yes YOU. Broke up the fucking marriage. You know what! You don't have to worry about this shit anymore, I'm Gone!" With that Star started to turn, but saw something coming out the corner of her eye and turned round in time to catch her mother's fist in her own palm. At that point Star spoke very calm but through her teeth, which always scared her mum, due to how much it sounded like Mic, Star's dad.
"Nice try mum, like I said I'm stronger like MY dad, not that pathetic little weasel who calls himself a Dog, and 'the man of the house'," And without twitching her eyelashes Star twisted her mum's hand and put her in a wrist lock and pulled her near, "I'll be back in the morning to collect my things." Star slowly let go of her mother's wrist and watched her stumble and catch herself before missing and falling to the floor.
Just as Star had her paw on the door handle a voice boomed behind her, "If you open that door you will never be allowed back in this house, this is my family's house, not a hotel. If you leave, I have no Step-daughter!" this voice came from the pathetic Dog named Rich, (known as weasel by Star) her mum had married Rich when Star was 6 and half. Turning to face Rich Star clapped her hands in a sarcastic way "Well done, you got your wish, have my mum to yourself then! Have the perfect life. I don't want broken goods; both you and she know she'll breakdown without me. You may want to reconsider how you bring up the favourite, try to control him too much and he'll turn out like me. Oh and if I were you, you little weasel I would watch how you talk to me, wouldn't want the big bad wolf to come pay visit would you?"
Rich's face dropped and went ghostly white, seeing this reaction always brought a smirk to Star's face. With no one saying anything anymore Star grabbed her phone, a set of keys and her money and cash cards and put them into her jean pockets and opened the door, before stepping out she added in a calm, almost Cheery voice "Oh, and you never were family to me, you're not my father, you're nothing but a self-centred cowardly Weasel who will do anything for your brat of a son. Good bye." She finalized before stepping through the door, both Pat and the weasel staring at the closed door in disbelief. On the other side Star sighed in relief, finally getting that off her chest before padding into the night
Tonight was a clear night, clearer than it had been in a while. The sky holds its twilight regality, almost glowing between blue and purple and every colour between, the stars shine like glinting little diamonds in the sky. Nothing was moving the only thing that could be heard was Star's breathing and her footsteps as she raced over town. Star had one ability that her classmates at school had always hated, her speed and agility, she was able to move so quick and quiet that it was like a blur, just a quick flash or black and red moving past your eyes, as if you never saw anything but a shadow.
Star was racing across town to see her dad. Star and Mic got on like a house on fire, it was a strong bond between Father and Daughter that could not be broken or supressed as her mother had found out, trying to break them apart so many times before yet only proving to make that bond stronger. There is only so many times before you get burned when playing with fire and her mother had been burnt a lot.
Fire, this set Star on thinking about what people around town called her.
Fire, Pyro, these are a couple of Star's many nicknames from people around town, mainly because her anger could flare up at any moment, but she was always playing with fire. There was something about it that she found fascinating. Like how the colours blend together, how it provides warmth, how you can't cage it before it unleashes hell and spreads like a disease. Slowing down, as she approached The Red Oak, Star took a couple of seconds to catch her breath and regain her composure.
After a couple of moments she opened the wooden saloon style doors, she walked straight up to the bar, where a big built grizzly bear was standing, drying the same glass since Star had walked into the pub. The bear's name was Dancer, although he's a big built grizzly bear, his bark is worse than his bite, He's been friends with her dad since she can remember and thinks of him as an uncle.
"Hey Dance, how you doin'? D'ya know where my dad's at?"
"Hey Pyro, Er, yeah yer dad's here alright, he's down below sorting the kegs out. Well he was last time I saw him, either that or he's on break and on the ps3."
"Oh ok, cheers Dance, I'll have snakebite please since you're doing nothing but drying the same glass." She said grinning ear to ear, the drink was one of her favourites, half cider and half lager simple enough but the drink of the gods for the hybrid.
With that remark dancer flipped the towel at her sending water spray over her face, she liked Dancer he always knew how to make her smile, even if it was at the wrong time. An example of this would be when he made a face and doing mime behind her step dad's back when he was telling her how to ride her bike properly, Star had burst out laughing and had got an ear bashing for being rude to him, even though she wasn't laughing at Rich at that time. Star collected her snakebite, and crouched under the bar [Not spilling a drop on the way] and headed out back to find her dad.
"Hey! DAD! Where are you?" Already she could hear gunfire and glass being smashed, after a couple of moments a faint reply came from the room out back. Star made her way to the back room, where the voice came from; she followed the sound of anarchy and unrestricted video game violence through into the back room where sure enough she found her dad, Mic.
Her dads was sat on his cream leather corner sofa, surround sound blasting around the room and vibrating the floor, and was concentrating hard on the plasma TV in front of him which showed he was on Dead Rising 2 on his Ps3. It was always a competition between her dad and herself, to see who is better at, well everything. The Races, completion time, whom could get 100% completion first and so on.
Hearing his daughter come into the room, her dad paused the game, getting up and walking over to Star he wrapped his arms around her in a tight embrace. He loved his daughter and would do anything for her and god help anyone who tries to harm her. He could tell something was troubling her, there was nothing she could hide from him, and he knew her too well. Plus the alcohol gave it away a little, since she only drank the stuff when she was majorly pissed off.
Star loved her dad, she loved how no one bothered to start any shit with him and how easily he could end the argument or the fight by picking the trouble maker up by the scruff and throw them out without batting an eyelid. Another fact she loved about her dad was the fact that her dad towered over everyone as he stood at 6"11, this helped along the intimidation effect he had on others. Though one thing that not many people knew Mic was that although he looked evil and you wouldn't willingly pick a fight with, he really was a big softie inside, he just didn't like to show it to people as he liked his rep as a big bad wolf.
"Hello little one, what brings you here unannounced?" Mic said peering down at his only daughter with a wide smile, and he felt her arms wrap around him. "Hey dad, I had a fight with mum again, the weasel stepped in as well and said I'm banned from going home, so guess what, you got me to be a burden again. Sorry" Star hugged her dad tight, when she was with her dad she felt safe and right at home, she knew he would drop everything to come to her side if she was ever in trouble. Her dad had paid for a bigger house than he'd needed, he bought a 3 bedroomed house so that in times like these she could run home to him, and always know that there was a bed and a roof waiting for her.
Mic hugged Star and leant down and kissed the top of her head, then lifted her chin to say "My little one, you can always run back home to me, and you will never be a burden on my shoulder for as long as I live. As I told you when you were younger there is only so long before you get burned trying to control fire. You and your mother will always clash, as you are MY daughter, you are the spitting image of me.
Well besides the fact that you are a girl and your gay, but you're too much like me and your mother cannot cope, it was why our marriage broke apart. You are not to be controlled, nor do you seek to control as you will always have fire in your heart, as you are my daughter and have most of my attributes. But no matter what life throws at you, I will always be here, just give me a call and I'll come running any time day or night I'll be there to make sure my only offspring is happy. You just remember that little one." And with that said, Mic gave Star, his only daughter a hug and held her tight.
Hearing her dad having his softie moment always warmed Star's heart, it wasn't very often that her dad showed that side to her, but what he said was true, if you placed Star in danger then you would be very stupid and end up in hospital with more than a couple bruises. "Thanks dad, I love you. Guess I'll go find a blanket for the spare room then. Thanks again." She leaned up and kissed her dad on the cheek and slowly pottered out of the room and started up the stairs, thinking about what her dad had said about fire.
As star started climbing the stairs to spare room above the pub that she usually stayed in, she felt very warm. To begin with she didn't feel anything of it, she'd had a little drink and her dad had just been a bit soppy with her, but then she started to feel hot, very hot. Star started to run up the stairs to the landing at the top of the stairs, to see the mirror, she didn't notice the walls either side her shining glowing even in the light. When Star reached the top stair, she looked in the mirror and dropped her glass, spilling the remains of her drink and causing the glass to smash. Star was alight with red/purple flames emerging from all over her body! She started to walk backwards away from the mirror forgetting she was at the top of the stairs, and lost her balance and started to fall.
After hearing the smash Mic ran from the room, forgetting about game, he could feel something was wrong with Star, and started to race to her, and saw just in time as she was about to fall down the stairs, but she was on fire! 'Why the hell is Star on bloody fire?! What's the girl been doing now?!' Questions raced around his head, but natural instincts over ran the questions driving him to grab Star before she fell all the way to the bottom she'd already fallen half way. He caught her trying to hold her without the fire catching on his own fur and raced her towards the bathroom and poured water over her body as watched as the flames slowly went out.
As Mic looked over his daughter to see if she was seriously hurt, something caught his eye. A mark, a mark near her right eye, that looked like reddish/purple flames, he moved closer to check it was really there, and it was burned into her fur, he cradled Star and spoke out loud "Oh no, please, not now, she's not ready for this. I'm not ready for this."
When Star woke up, she felt like she'd gotten the worst hangover in her life, her head was pounding and her eyes were sore. She looked round and saw a bedside table with a cloth and small bowl of water. She leaned out of bed and dipped the cloth in the water and rinsed it out and washed her face. The moment the water touched her right eye it burned, and Star growled a little and hastily removed the cloth. She jumped out of bed and looked in the mirror above the bedside table. Star let out a little gasp when she saw the mark around her right eye. "What happened to me? Where did this mark come from? I was at the pub with my Dad; he wouldn't let me do anything stupid when drunk. What's going on?"
Star splashed water onto her face and looked around the room she was in. the walls were a duck egg blue colour, and a few had over head lights and a small TV mounted onto the wall with a phone hanging next to the TV. There were several beds in the room that all had the lights and TV/phone above them, the beds were separated by a blue curtain. It took a few moments for it to sink into Star's head.
She was in hospital.
A voice behind her spoke. "Oh good, your awake, Welcome to the Gregis Talentorum, Covent of Talents."
So why did Star catch fire? What is the Gregis Talentorum, Covent Of Talents? What will happen in the Covent Of Talents? I guess we'll have to find out next time.......