The One (Prologue)

                                                                                    Prologue





Forget all that you know, for all religions are both right and wrong…..



         In the beginning, there was Earth.  It is unknown how the Earth came to be, but what is known is that it is immortal. Though things that grow and live on the surface can die, the Earth has a spirit, which replenishes the mortal things on the planet. For many years the Earth lived in peace, then one day several bright lights appeared. When the lights faded, creatures that Earth had never seen before came into focus. All of Earth’s creatures came to see these curious beings. The wind blew and the earth shook in excitement. The beings called themselves Star Children, for they came from above. Earth and its many companions upon it had never seen creatures that looked so bizarre. The Star Children stood on two legs; they had arms, hands, and fingers. Their heads were roundish with noses, eyes, lips, and ears. And they had almost no fur, except on some parts of their bodies, most of it on the top of their heads.  The skin that showed so nicely was of all different colors; brown, white, black, and blue. Earth noticed that even though they appeared the same, there were two things that separated them from the other; there were both male and female sex.



         Earth had no reason not to trust them, so with open arms, Earth welcomed the Star Children and showed them all its wonders. Earth would whisper in the wind explaining to them why the animals mated or how fruit could come from a tree. They introduced them to the ocean and showed how life thrived in it as well. Earth showed them volcanoes, snowy mountains, all the animals and plants, Earth even showed the Star Children pools of water that were heated by the planet.



         One day, the Star Children witnessed something they had never seen– a killing. A large, brutish animal with sharp teeth and claws attacked one of the smaller creatures and tore it apart before devouring it. Earth quickly whispered to the Star Children that this is how things are here. Animals must eat to live and some can only survive on the meat of the others, and therefore those creatures must die. However, whatever is left over of the bodies sinks into the soil, fertilizing it, causing new life to spring forth. This even happens when plants die. The Star Children were confused; death? Eat? These words made no sense for they were immortals. They did not need to eat, and as far as they knew, they could not die. Suddenly the Star Children became frightened for their new friend, the Earth, thinking it, too, could die. Earth calmed their fears and explained that it was also an immortal.



         “You see,” said Earth, “the things that grow and breathe on the surface continue because of me. I am the spirit that makes all things move as they do, so I cannot die. I make the world turn, I am the wind, I am the beating of the hearts of the animals, I am the force of this planet.”

         

         This settled the minds of the Star Children and they returned to exploring the many pleasures that the planet had to offer. After seeing and learning so much, the Star Children wished to experience everything they had been shown. First, Earth introduced them to food, even though the Star Children did not need to eat. Earth hoped that by showing them this wonderful pleasure, they would treasure this planet and Earth itself. Earth told them to pick the fruits and taste how sweet they were and Earth quickly killed some of its precious children, cooked them upon a flame, and also gave it to them. The Star Children’s eyes widened at the first bite of both these gifts. Never had they known something to be this good. Their mouths watered, their bodies tingled and warmed, even happy moans escaped their lips. They had never eaten and therefore had never tasted, and it was good. After the feast, the Star Children looked upon themselves and saw the mess they had made. Earth also saw the mess and led them back to the heated pools of water.



         “Step in,” said the Earth to the Star Children, “and see yourselves cleaned from this mess.”



         The Star Children obeyed and stepped into the warm pools. The moment the hot water rushed over their naked bodies a sensation of pure bliss hit them. This feeling of heat relaxed their bodies and made their minds empty. After a long period of time the Star Children stepped out of what they now called baths and felt the cold wind hit their bodies. They shivered; they felt cold for the first time and had no way of getting warm. The Earth saw this and decided to help its new found friends once more. Earth took its many animals that had thick fur and hide and gave it to the Star Children. The Star Children began to make the many furs and hides into shapes that would fit their bodies and draped it over themselves. The Star Children’s bodies instantly warmed and they loved the feeling of such nice, comfortable things touching their bare skin.



         Earth told the Star Children that it had shown them all it could and they were free to stay, explore, and enjoy its planet. All Earth asked was that they respect the planet and everything on it because this is all Earth had and would do anything to protect it. The Star Children did as the Earth said and found that there was indeed more wonders to enjoy.  They found many things to use in order to make clothes to cover themselves; they used animals and plants to make it more comfortable and they found that stones made them look nicer. One of the Star Children stumbled on some rare rocks that were underneath the ground and found them to be beautiful. When the Star Child came out of the ground and showed his fellow brethren what he had found, they began to dig up as much of it as possible. The sight of these wonderful rocks made the Star Children’s eyes glisten with greed. The Star Children experimented with these new found delights and forged them into things they could wear and carry with them at all times. Earth did not mind this but decided to keep an eye on the Star Children a little bit closer for they seemed to be getting lost in their pleasures. As the Earth watched them, it saw that not all the Star Children were alike and that they too had powers of their own. Earth watched as some of the Star Children hunted down its creatures and killed them just for sport, sometimes they would torture the poor animals before ending its life. The Earth could feel the pain of the animals when this happened and did not like it, but again did nothing because it hoped that this would end and they would come to love the creatures on this planet as much as it did. Not all of them were bad, many of the Star Children already did have deep love for the animals and plants on the planet and helped them in any way they could. They helped keep them from dying, helped many become fertile who could not, and even summoned rain when the plants were in need of water.



         After many years on this planet, the Star Children had tried everything that the Earth had shown them and they had found except one thing–sex. This intrigued them more than anything else. Most of the animals did this as a form of procreation and the Star Children did not procreate for they are immortal and had no need to make more of themselves. However, they also saw that some of the species did it for pleasure and many also did it with the same sex. Earth explained this wasn’t about just procreation, some animalistic urge that was programmed into every living thing in order for its species to survive, but it was also about love. This word the Star Children knew and understood. But love in a physical form was new to them and they did indeed want to try it. The Star Children began to experiment with this unknown pleasure and found it to be one of the greatest things they had ever experienced. They soon found out that, like all the animals on the planet, they too could have offspring. So more Star Children were born and at first Earth was happy because it loved life and believed this was a good thing. However, after many hundred years, Earth saw how greed and true pleasure had made the Star Children darker. The darkness was always there, yes many were good but most of them were born on the planet and therefore knew only pleasure which corrupted their minds. Soon they were destroying parts of the planet; they started cutting down trees to build homes and ships. They used most of the rare rocks after destroying plants and land to get to them and they began to manipulate metals and made weapons. At first the Star Children only used these weapons to hunt but soon the sounds of dying animals that served no challenge to these unbeatable beings grew boring to them and they turned on each other. Battles erupted and the Star Children found that weapons made by their own hands could indeed destroy them. Earth believed in life and could not stand to see so much death without a cause. Soon the many living things on the planet began to suffer from the darkness the Star Children were showing and Earth began to feel weak. It knew it could not die–it was different even from the other mortals; unlike the Star Children, Earth could not be seen or touched for it had no physical form. However when Earth began to grow weak, it started losing control of the planet. This would cause the planet to eventually die and Earth would lose its only purpose for living, a fate worse than death.

         Earth’s children were suffering and they needed their protector, so Earth called to the Star Children out of anger.



         “Leave!” yelled Earth, “You have abused my planet for too long and now I am telling you to return to the stars and never come back!”



         The Star Children grew angry at this demand; they had no intention of leaving. They put aside their differences and came together to fight Earth. The war for who would control the planet had begun. The Star Children fled into the shadows in order to figure out their plan and remained hidden from Earth’s all seeing eyes.



         Earth took advantage of this time and began to heal its planet and as a result, Earth regained strength and control over it. For a while things were quiet and Earth believed that the Star Children had obeyed and left, but it was wrong.

On a warm night, when the moon was full, the Star Children struck. A loud roar came from the darkened sky as things engulfed in flames fell to the planet below, burrowing deep into the ground. The things stood and Earth’s spirits sank. Some of the Star Children had found a way to manipulate one of its elements and made it a part of them. The fiery beings used their new found powers to burn as much of the planet as they could; trees were incinerated leaving only piles of ash in their places, fields were gone in one breath of the flaming Star Children, and many animals were burnt alive, causing great suffering and pain. Earth felt all of this and acted quickly; Earth called forth a massive flood to wash away the fires and the few Star Children that had been sent to commit the assault. Water came crashing down on them before they could get away, extinguishing the flames on both them and the planet. Earth washed the Star Children into the ocean chaining them to it. It did not kill them but it destroyed their flames forever.



         Once they were detained in their new prison, Earth looked down at the destruction they had caused. Death was everywhere; it would take many years for this part of the planet to come back to life. Even though it was just a small amount of space destroyed, it still hurt to see it so wounded and Earth wept at the sight. Soon sadness was replaced with rage; the planet shook from Earth’s anger, the wind howled in despair, and the oceans crashed violently upon the shore as a storm began to brew. The Star Children had wanted this and launched their full attack on the Earth; they came from every direction and began destroying everything in sight. Rage filled the heart of the Earth and it started defending its right to control the planet. Vines wrapped themselves around some of the Star Children warriors, pulling them to ground, making them immobile and part of the planet’s foundation. Trees sprouted out of the ground engulfing any who came near and caged them inside for all eternity. The ground opened and swallowed several hundred Star Children at once before shutting quickly; their new home the center of the planet. Volcanoes erupted, spewing boiling lava over many of the fighters, encasing them as it hardened. Some were so big it appeared to be nothing more than a mountain or an island. This went on for a thousand years and neither side was winning the war.



         Both sides had grown tired of the fighting; they realized that they could not defeat each other but neither was willing to back down from control of the planet. So, after many tiring years of battle, both sides called a truce and came together to talk terms. Mutually, they decided to create a third party that would choose the fate of the planet. Earth wanted it to be a creature that would be created from the planet, therefore making it connected to it. The Star Children agreed to this; the Star Children, however, demanded that they look like them and could think on their own. Earth said it would only agree to this if the creatures were mortal and could decay, making them return to the ground from which they came. The Star Children quickly agreed on it, for this would be a great advantage for both sides.

After all conditions were met, the Earth used its power to create and a new life was born from the ground. It arose from the dirt and Earth kept its promise, for the new creature looked like a smaller version of the Star Children, and that is how we humans came to be.



         When our original ancestors opened their eyes, Earth greeted them and they knew Earth was their mother. So Earth took its newest child and taught it how to feed itself, how find shelter, and how to breed. Earth taught us how to survive slowly, for it new that we were a lot like the Star Children and would forget to respect the planet. For this reason, Earth did not show us fire or how to clothes ourselves, we would have to learn on our own and earn Earth’s trust. We humans lived simple lives for a long time, slowly learning our way in the world, getting along with the rest of the living things on the planet until one day the Star Children decided it was their turn to try and influence us.



         It was early morning when they arrived; they descended from above and floated over our ancestors’ heads. The Star Children lied and claimed to be our creators and gave us the very thing that would eventually lead us to the technology we now have; fire. Earth had not wanted us to have it because it feared we were not ready to have the ability for so much power and it was right. The fire was used to warm our ancestors first, then the Star Children showed them how to kill and cook our fellow animals. This caused humans to go to the top of the food chain, above any other animal alive. Such power became intoxicating and humans, just like the Star Children, wanted more. The Star Children promised them everything their hearts desired, even life after death. All we had to do is swear are allegiance to them, to worship them, and to obey their every command. Out of greed and fear, we did so swear and we named the Star Children gods.

It did not take long for the newly named gods to become jealous and greedy for our attention and soon they broke apart from one another, demanding their own followers. Wars between the gods and men soon followed, bringing the world into darkness and chaos. That is how religion began; by war, blood, greed, and jealousy.



         We humans were seen as nothing more than slaves by the gods; it had appeared that the third party had made its choice. However, many humans stayed with Earth and knew the truth of their creation, but more humans had chosen the gods so they had more of the power over the planet. Earth still had control but was weakened. Both sides could now use the planet to their advantage.

We began to be as bad as the Star Children had been, causing pain, death, and destruction on a catastrophic scale that Earth foresaw we would destroy its precious planet. Earth believed it had made a mistake once more and it ached at the thought of causing the permanent death of the one thing it was supposed to care for. Humans were not bad, they were just easily misguided and Earth knew this. No matter what mistakes we humans made Earth still cared for us, for we were a part of it.



         A millennium had gone by and Earth was merely watching its planet in sorrow when it saw a religion die. It is not important what religion it was but what was important is what happened to the gods of that religion. The gods had gotten so used to the power of our love and devotion that once it was lost, they were weakened and lost a large amount of control over the planet. Earth realized that the war was not over and made a plan to bring down the gods.



         Earth created five heroes. The Twins; siblings born at the same time, raised by Earth itself, never knowing human touch while children. They would be taught how to control the planet and each sibling would be connected to one of the elements of the planet. The Twins represent humanity’s connection with nature. The Child With the Broken Soul; a child born of the worst humans, it will be able to feel the emotions of others but it cannot feel its own. It will be physically strong, intelligent, and will have a dark side. The Child With the Broken Soul represents humanity and its darker half. It too is made connected to one of the elements of the planet. The Seer, the wisest of them all, will have the ability to look into its own past and future. It will be kind hearted and peaceful by nature and will know only good. It, like the Child With the Broken Soul, will represent a part of humanity–the light half. These four special humans are the guardians of The One. The One is the final of the five and is destined to demolish the gods and restore order to Earth. It will have no powers other than the ability to wield the weapon that can kill a god. It will be born and raised of humans, it will show kindness, bravery, compassion for all living things, a hero, and it will be connected to all forms of mankind.



         The Earth has no control over these special humans, so it does not know when they will succeed in their destined task; it is solely up to them. However, Earth made it so they could be reborn into different bodies once they die if their task was not completed. They were now immortal like the gods and Earth, in their own way.

The final battle is upon us because time is running out. We have slowly destroyed our planet and the five are the only ones who can save humanity and restore order.





Next Chapter: "The One Chapter 1 (P1)"