Cythera Chronicles: The Shadow Prophecies, Part 1

Katerei walked into the Alraeican Tavern holding a thick, leather-bound book. She sat down at one of the tables and flipped it open, then began to search through the pages.

Leandra came over and sat down next to her. "What’s that?"

"Hmm?" Katerei asked, distracted. "Oh- it’s a book I found at the library. I was looking for some light reading."

"Light?" Leandra said incredulously, looking at the thick spine. "Looks heavy to me."

Katerei ignored that comment. "It’s actually quite interesting so far. I can’t find a title anywhere, but it seems to have been written quite a long time ago. I just started reading, so I’m not quite sure what it’s about yet."

Leandra nodded. "Well, I’ll leave you to your reading, then."

*

Later that night, Katerei was still sitting at the table reading. The book was amazing- it was a prophecy of sorts, foretelling things that were going to happen in the future. The startling part was that since this book was written a long time ago, the events it was talking about might be happening very soon. And that wasn’t necessarily a good thing.

*

Next morning, Moonshadow entered the Tavern to find Katerei fast asleep on top of her book. She gently shook Katerei, who sat up and looked around, blinking. "Hmm?" she said. "Is it morning?"

Moonshadow smiled. "Yes, it is. You must have fallen asleep reading."

"Mmm. Now, where was I?" Katerei said vaguely and looked down at her book. She ran a finger across the page, then stopped. "There."

"What are you reading?" Moonshadow asked.

Katerei frowned. "I’m not sure what it’s called, but it’s very interesting. Some parts are scary, though..." She flipped back a few pages and pointed to a paragraph. "Read this."

Moonshadow sat down and began reading. This is what it said:

The prophets are saying that there will come a time, far, far in the future, when Cythera will be thrust into a world of trouble. A shadow will fall across the land and the dark ones will walk the earth. The sun, the stars, the moon will give way to the darkness. The shadows will roam, killing all who stand in their way. None shall stop this darkness except one. Only this person, the chosen one, will stop the darkness from spreading and destroying the land of Cythera.

Moonshadow raised an eyebrow. "A darkness will overcome the land? That does sound scary, but it’s hard to believe. So when is this supposed to take place?"

Katerei shrugged. "I’m not sure. This was written a long time ago, but there’s no record of anything like this happening, is there?"

"Not that I know of. I wonder who the chosen one is," Moonshadow replied thoughtfully.

"I’m not sure about that either. I guess the only way to find out is to keep on reading."

*

A few days later, Katerei, Moonshadow, Slayer, Ferazel, Indigo and the Ronin were all gathered in the Alraeican Tavern. Katerei was still reading the book.

Trinias glanced over at her. "Are you anywhere near finishing that?"

Katerei shook her head. "I’m about half done. It’s a very big book, and I haven’t had much time to read recently."

Indigo was about to comment, but he was interrupted as a man came rushing into the Tavern. "Help!" he cried. "Oh, heaven help me, what is that? It’s chasing me!" He had a wild, terrified look in eyes.

Brianna hurried over from the bar and helped the man to sit down. "What? What’s chasing you?"

"I don’t know," the man moaned. "It’s a shadow or- or something! I could see through it, and it was chasing me, and I ran here...ohh," and he slumped down in a dead faint.

Katerei looked at his limp form, shocked. "A shadow? Just like the book said..." she trailed off, turning to stare at the book.

"Oh, you don’t believe that, do you?" Sasha asked. Katerei had, of course, told them all about the book.

"I’m not sure," Katerei said slowly. "I’ve learned to trust my instincts, and they tell me this is real." She glanced up sharply. "Some of the things mentioned in here have already happened. This book predicted the War of the Undead."

Flynn turned around sharply. "The War of the Undead? Where did it mention that?"

"Wait, let me find it..." Katerei murmured and searched frantically through the book. "There," and she handed the book to Flynn.

He read the few pages about it quickly, then looked up slowly. "Oh my god, it does. When was this written?"

"Far too long ago to have been faked," Katerei said darkly. "I’m afraid these shadows are real."

Sasha shook her head. "I think we ought to go look for this shadow, then. If it was actually here, we might still be able to find it." She stood up. "Anyone willing to come?"

Wolmark, Indigo and Leandra offered, so the four set off to search for the shadow.

"Be careful," Katerei called after them. "If you see it, don’t attack. Remember, all you’re doing is looking for it."

*

Outside, the three Ronin and Indigo found footprints leading across the soft ground. They led up to near the Tavern, then turned away to the south.

Wolmark bent down to inspect them. "Anywhere that there’s a footprint, the grass has wilted. Seems suspicious to me."

Leandra studied the tracks. "Look- they’re more or less normal over here, but as you go farther to the south they began to look darker. It’s odd- as if there’s just an absence of light."

"I think this is what we’re looking for, then," Indigo commented.

Sasha nodded. "Come on- I think south is the way to go." She followed the prints, the three others following behind.

As they went farther, the prints did seem to become darker. Indigo frowned. "I’ve never seen tracks like these before. Maybe Katerei was right."

"It seems very odd how there’s just a lack of light where the prints are...That’s not physically possible," Wolmark mused.

They followed the footprints for about five minutes, then they ended abruptly. Sasha frowned. "That’s odd, but I suppose we should have expected something like this. There’s not much we can do now, so I guess we should just return to the Tavern."

*

Kwon Chen looked up as they re-entered the Alraeican Tavern. "You did not find anything?"

Leandra shook her head. "We found some footprints, but they ended suddenly so we had to come back. They were really odd - all the grass was dead wherever there was a print, and they were dark as if the light just disappeared."

Katerei narrowed her eyes. "Then they probably were the shadow’s footprints. I’m convinced these shadows are real, and unfortunately...there’s not much we can do to stop them."

Moonshadow frowned. "Not necessarily. Remember it said in your book there was one person who could stop the shadows?"

"But we don’t know who that person is," Katerei sighed. "And even if we found out, it’s probably not going to be somebody anywhere near here."

Little did she know just what was in store for them...

(to be continued)

[This message has been edited by moderator (edited 03-05-2002).]

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