Alumina

[Judas]

Here's my project, Alumina (subname pending).

I don't know what I'm going to do with it, either publish it or wait 'til I get into the game industry and make it into a script. I don't know how often I'll write chapters, I write weeknights from 8-9 PST, and sporadically on weekends. Chapter 1 is pretty long, taking up 19+ pages of my 100 page composition book I've started it in, but I write pretty big.

It's in a world I've made up myself, including all original names I've never used before in RPs or other written things I've done (so far anyways). I take inspiration from all the fantasy stories I've read and RPGs I've played, so that should be a big clue as to what this story is going to be like.

Feel free to talk and comment in the thread, I'm usually around sometime during the day. I enjoy every type of criticism, even the kind that flames my work. I won't care if you flame it, but, the mods might, so be careful. Take in to account that my writing depends on how I feel the night I write it.

Well, that's it, enjoy Alumina as it unfolds!

Progress:
Chapter 2
Story: 90%
Typed: 0%
Edit: 0%

Chapters: (Chapter placement and names subject to change)
Prologue - Legacy of the Heroes
1 - The End of the Beginning
2 - Antlions and Apertures

- A Long Journey and an Annoying Rival
- The Vines and the Leaves
- The Bramble and the Thorns
- The Stem and the Rose
- The Blossom That Longs For The Dirt
- Looking for Heaven
- Finding Hell
- An Immaculate Chorus
- Every Time A Bell Rings, An Angel Gets Its Wings
- A Demon With Angel Wings
- Rem
- Falling From Grace

[Judas]

Prologue – Legacy of the Heroes

It’s raining today. It wasn’t raining yesterday, and it won’t rain tomorrow. Today is the funeral of his parents. Daiid stands over the graves of the heroes that helped reshape the world. With the death of his parents, all 5 heroes have become legends, living entirely in history now. Tears stream down the faces of the concession, except for Daiids. He remains strong for himself in their memory. As friends depart, he remains on the hill, the rain having already soaked him to the bone. A light shines upon him from far away. Looking up, Daiid beholds the sun as it sets in between the clouds and the plains. Illuminating the raindrops, the light refracts and 2 rainbows appear over the graves. “The world is grateful for your sacrifice, however I,” he says, his sentence trailing off. Pulling a ribbon from his pocket, he drops the silver satin on the disturbed dirt and turns away. “Rest in peace,” he whispers, heading down the hill.

Chapter 1 - The End of the Beginning
A Few Years Later…

“Five in the morning is too early,” Daiid complains, his team mates around him nodding in approval as they huddle around a magi fire.
“Five in the morning is too early to be complaining as well. It’s not like we can practice any other time of the day. Wouldn’t want another district to sit in on our practice,” the team captain, Ruby, retorts back. A rather striking girl, Ruby’s auburn hair flows to her mid back, but is hidden at the moment by her cloak. Her real name isn’t actually Ruby, she doesn’t like her real name, so she insists on everyone calling her Ruby ever since her dad coined the nickname to her because of her blazing red eyes. Normally wearing risqué skirts and bodices, for the morning practices she bundles in furs and animal hides.
“Say what you will,” Daiid remarks, pulling his black cloak close to his body and walking off to start doing the meditations and exercises for training.
“Alright, you guys get started too,” Ruby, tells the group, beckoning groans from them. “What wrong?” she asks Daiid after catching up with him.
“It’s nothing, I just have a bad feeling about today,” he tells her, closing his eyes and breathing deep.
“Well, just keep focused, we don’t want to lose to any of the other districts. We’ve done well so far in the exhibitions, we just got to keep this mind set for when the season starts,” she encourages, patting Daiid on the shoulder before jogging after the main group to join them in their laps around the meadow.
“Easy for you to say, I seem to recall doing all the work,” he thought to himself as he sat down on the wet blades of grass and started to stretch.
The darkness passed quickly and the sun rose in the western sky beckoning the start of a new day. Cloaks and furs had been discarded all over the grass, and most of the team was exhausted. Daiid had removed his cloak to reveal his forest green shirt and black slacks. Out of everyone, he was the only one still standing, and not covered in sweat (although he had started to perspire towards the end). Running his fingers through his short, brown hair, he sighed as he looked around and then started walking towards a patch of trees. “Where are you Ruby?” he called out, his gaze up in the trees.
“Up here Dai,” she called from a branch from a tree behind him.
“What’re you doing?” he asked, sounding aggravated as he looked up at her.
“Oh, nothing,” she replied, jumping down and landing gracefully on both feet. “Looking at the menacing storm clouds in the distance, actually,” she added quickly, making him promptly close his mouth, as he was about to say something.
“Could that be the bad feeling you had? A little rain?” she teased him, sticking her tongue out at him with an innocent look on her face.
“Could be,” he responded, but quickly added “or that.” He pointed across the plain to 2 men wearing white and blue robes that had just come from North District.
“Who or what is it?” Ruby asked, squinting her eyes in the direction he had pointed in.
“North District,” he mumbled, about-facing quickly and headed back to the team.
The town of New Central Dram is actually 4 towns joined in a union. A quad crossing of trade roads separates the towns, or districts. North, East, West, and Central Dram are the only remaining districts, South Dram having been annihilated during the Legacy of the Heroes and never rebuilt.
“Get up, all of you, North District is here,” Daiid shouted to all of them. Quickly rousing from their rest, the boys formed rank in front of Daiid, Ruby rejoined them as well, standing beside Daiid.
“Make yourselves presentable,” she told them, turning around to face the couriers for when they arrived. Coming through the woods, the ND couriers presented themselves to Daiid and Ruby.
After the union of Dram, the city council decided to place certain niches into the districts. West District was given farming and food production. Central was assigned research and development, as well as political science. East District was handed building and manufacturing. North District was appointed with luxury. As such, competition arose between them in one form or another, depending on the generation. Among the youth, it was forming teams within their districts and challenging other districts to competitions. There is no real reward, only bragging rights.
“So, what are last years winners addressing East District for?” Daiid asked the two of them, glaring at the one who stepped forward.
“We are here to give a challenge and announce the start of the season with it. East District, you are challenged by North Districts Racch to a relay race around Dram,” said the one with a brown mop top for hair.
“For those that don’t know, the competition seasons lasts for 6 lunar cycles. Please consult your districts leaders regarding the rules for the different competitions and any new competitions that may have been constructed during the off-season,” the other one with the straight black hair said. With a bow, they left and headed back to Dram.
“Pompous ND pricks,” mutters Daiid, walking away from the group. Ruby, looking flustered by Daiids response, tells the group to get ready for the race and runs to catch up with Daiid.
“Think we can win this time?” she asks him, skipping along and around him.
“I don’t do well with the hypothetical, something is always bound to change last minute that wasn’t in the original plan,” he responded, bending over to pick up his cloak but not stopping.
“So, in other words, no,” she said, sounding displeased by his attitude.
“I’ve been doing this for 3 years, something always manages to go wrong,” he retorted, glancing at her for a moment before looking ahead at a assortment of houses.
“Yea, there was that time with Stev, and then there was that claim that we had cheated, and your learning curve year. Huh, guess you’re right,” she quipped, counting the incidents out on her fingers as she recalled them. Silence came over them as they continued on through the grass, Ruby humming a tune as she stopped skipping, walking now. Sighing, Daiid looked over at Dram and stopped, Ruby stopping just a little ways a head. “What’s wrong?” she asked, looking back at him.
“I won’t promise we’ll win, or even say that winning is in our power, but I’ll try my hardest, and that’s all you need to know,” he told her, looking forward at her and then continued on. Turning as he walked passed her she smiled and shook her head.
“You’re so weird,” she mumbled, before running to catch up with him.

“Well, if it isn’t ED. Decided to show up after all?” Racch said sarcastically as Daiid, Ruby, and the rest of East District walked up to the starting area. Ruby now wore a black bodice with dark red strings interweaving through the leather and tied off above the chest in an intricate bow. A matching dark red skirt adorned her as well, with skintight shorts that stopped above the knee. Daiid’s forest green shirt and black slacks are still attached to his body, but form fitting scale armor crawled up his arms.
“I’m surprised myself, Racch, after the beating we gave you the last time we held a cross town relay, I wouldn’t have expected a challenge like this. Maybe one more fitting for you, like, shoe shining,” Ruby shot back, inspiring laughter from her team. Even Daiid smiled.
“Still the viper as ever, Ruby,” Racch said, Ruby flicking her tongue at the mention of viper. “Enjoy your memories while you can, after today, you’ll only remember the crushing defeat handed to you by North District,” Racch threatened, a crowd beginning to gather there, the starting point, in west district.
“It’s the same route you used last time, markers for the baton passes are set up across the town. We’ll start when the clouds block the sun,” a referee explained suddenly. “Which will be very soon, so runners should get to their places,” he added, taking his place amongst the other spectators.
The ref is one of the founders of the district teams, and thus knows about all of the challenge competition rules and such. He refs every event, even if the districts simply ignore his rulings and argue between themselves over what happened. He wears a black and white stripped uniform so he is ‘easy to spot.’
“Alright guys, this is it, our first real challenge of the season. Let’s start with…” Ruby droned on to the team, Daiid not really caring for a pep talk. Heading away from the group, he heads towards Central, where his marker is set. The bad feeling came on again as he attempted to get to his position before the race started, which he was getting to at a slow, steady, gait. Central district is the most of advanced of the districts, but also the dirtiest of them all. Trash is piled in the gutters, but steam machines fly about, picking up the piles and taking them away. Cobblestone streets run between buildings and apartments, but the hustle and bustle has stopped for the race.
“These competitions really are a city event,” Daiid said to himself as he kicked a cobblestone on the sidewalk back into the street. A bang was heard in the distance, and Daiid realized he was nowhere near his starting point, so he sped up the pace just a tad.

Reaching his destination just in time, he heard the stomping of a runner as he turned to face the baton holder.
“Daiid!” Ruby shouted, running with a limp towards him. Seeing her, he ran up to her and caught her just before she fell to the ground.
“What?” Daiid asked sternly, looking over her body, noticing burns on parts of her skin.
“A man, he suddenly attacked with some kind of magic rock. A lot of people were sucked up into it. He was asking for the ‘Legacy Sun’ or something,” she managed to say, stressed out from the attack and running so far to get to Daiid. Setting her down gently, Daiid stood up and sighed, adjusting a bracelet he had on his left wrist.
“That’s me,” he told her and took off in a full on sprint back to where Ruby’s marker was. “The ‘Legacy Son,’ it’s been a while since I’ve been called that,” he reminisced, heading in the direction of the smoke that was billowing into the air.

“Where is the ‘Legacy Son’? I won’t take ‘I don’t know’ as an answer anymore,” the assailant asked, holding a burning crimson rock in his right hand, pointing it at a scared stiff Racch.
“I…” he stuttered to say, unable to give the man an answer.
“Then allow the Burning Soul to add you to it’s fine collection,” he told Racch, squeezing the stone.
“Daiid!” Racch called out as he showed up, slightly out of breath.
“Daiid?” the man muttered, turning around. “You!” he shouted, squeezing the Burning Soul out of excitement, launching a string of fire out at Daiid. His green eyes lighting up, Daiid dodged to the side, the string lashing against the wall of a building. “Sorry, I’m glad to be in your presence once more,” the man said, placing the stone into a pouch he had on his hip. His dark blue robes hid his clothing, but he didn’t seem to be wearing any sort of bulky armor. A sheet of straight brown hair falls around his face, obscuring his brown eyes from view. Daiid noted the clothing to be that of a holy man, a Remite.
“What’s a Remite doing here?” Daiid asks, clenching his armored fists.
“I come in search of lost gizmos and hidden legends, the forbidden artifacts by a name the stories tell,” the man informed him, reaching into his pouch. Daiid remained silent for a moment before speaking.
“The what’s?”
The man stopped rifling through his things and looked at Daiid, or at least that’s what Daiid saw.
“The legendary items forged by Ioku and given to humans as gifts by Rem! How could you not know about them?!” he asked, sounded upset and aggravated.
“Oh, those dusty things? I was never much for history, so I had forgotten,” Daiid informed him, yawning slightly. “In fact, I’m getting tired just mentioning them.” The Remite, in his anger, pulled out a sword out of his pouch. It was about 5 hands in length, and a dull shade of silver for the blade. A 1/2-inch thick and about half a hand wide, the blade extends from a ring pommel with chains around the handle.
“Those who forget the past are doomed to repeat it. Why not try to impress your parents and remember what they did for you,” he said, tossing the sword to Daiids feet. “The Mémoire Sword, the blade your father wielded through his journey. He recorded all of his battles on it,” the man explained as Daiid bent over and picked it up.
“This rusty thing? Looks like it’s about to fall apart,” Daiid commented, swinging twice in front of himself.
“That sword has always looked that way, except when it’s recording,” the man informed Daiid, pulling another sword out of his pouch, a rapier.
“So, what? Why’d you give me this hunk of metal?” Daiid asked, stabbing the sword into the ground and leaning on it.
“I can’t use it, so I gave it to the person who can,” the man responded, taking a fighting pose against Daiid.
“That’s it? That’s dumb, considering I don’t know any sword play and-“ but Daiid was cut-off by the man charging and thrusting at him with his rapier. The Mémoire Sword flashed as the chains wrapped themselves around Daiids wrist and took control of his arm. Raising the blade up awkwardly, he blocked the stab. “Hey, I was talking,” Daiid complained, pushing the man back. “At least give me your name,” he asked raising his sword up, pointing it at the man.
“You may call me Drev,” he told Daiid, lunging at him again.

“Racch!” Daiid shouted as he tried to keep with the actions of the Mémoire Sword. Racch had been listening the entire time, but was still scared stiff from almost dying. Snapping out of the daze as he heard his name, he looked up at the two fighting. Slashing at Drev, Daiid made contact with his sword against Drevs. Taking the opportunity, he kicked him away. “Racch, run to the others and tell them to evacuate!” Daiid told him as he continued to battle Drev. Nodding, Racch got up and ran off.
“What’s this about? You know what my sword does?” Drev asked, pushing Daiid away and pointing his rapier at him. It’s silver sheen lit up a bright red and shot out a ball of fire.
“Magi fire?!” Daiid grumbled, dodging the fireball that ignited the building behind him. “No, but I do now,” Daiid responded, taking a stance with his sword. The chains of the blade wrapped themselves tighter around Daiids arm as the blade began to glow a dark green color. Daiids gaze stared off into nothing, as if he had lost consciousness. Drevs eyes looked startled for a moment as he beheld Daiids stance.
“Just like his,” he muttered, gripping the hilt of his sword tighter. Daiid raised his sword up so it was pointed at Drev, and then quickly brought his arm around his body and under his right one. Dashing towards him, he slashed his sword at him diagonally downwards as he passed him. Stopping on the ball of his foot, he turned around and ran past him on the same side and slashed diagonally upwards. An X of light where he had slashed through Drev appeared and then shattered, sending Drev to the ground. “The,” Drev wiped some blood he had coughed up away from his mouth “Cross slash,” he said to himself. Snapping out of his unconsciousness, Daiid stumbled around a little before grabbing his head with his free hand.
“What happened?” Daiid asked, trying to recall what he did.
“The Mémoire Sword is working, your body is learning the moves your father used,” Drev explained, standing up and digging through his pouch. “You’ve discovered the first ability of the blade, there’s more if you keep using it,” he told Daiid, holding up a piece of a mirror and vanishing.
“Wait!” Daiid shouted, running to the spot where Drev had been. “Damn it,” Daiid muttered, kicking a cobblestone at the burning building. As the stone hit the wall, the building began to crumble and suddenly a giant pillar of fire erupted from the apartment. Shielding his eyes, the chains on his arm went limp as his backside was blasted by heat. Regaining himself, he turned to the building to find a newly born magi fire giant. “Fire isn’t supposed to do that,” he mumbled before taking off in a full on sprint down the road. “Gotta find Ruby,” he thought as the fire giant howled behind him and started to destroy buildings.
Getting to the place where he had left her he called out to her. No answer. Suddenly, something covered his eyes.
“Guess who?” a feminine voice asked with a slight giggle.
“As much as I love to play this game, which I don’t, we gotta go before the fire giant levels the entire town,” he told her, picking her up with his free arm and running down the road again. Despite her protests and questions, Daiid remained silent as they continued their way through Central. Finally reaching a crowd of screaming and terrified people, Daiid slowed down some.
“We made it,” Ruby said in relief, having become adjusted to her perch on his shoulder.
“We’re not out of the woods yet,” Daiid said, looking back to see the giant growing bigger as its flames consumed more buildings.
“Dai!” a voice from the crowd shouted. A person pushed there way to where they were through the ever-continuing sea of people. “Dai!” Racch shouted, finally reaching them.
“What?” Daiid asked, continuing to carry Ruby as they jogged with the crowd.
“I got everyone to get out, which wasn’t too hard once they saw the fire giant,” Racch informed him, grinning with pride.
“That’s nice, can we finish running away now?” Daiid asked sarcastically, speeding up.

Reaching the hills away from the town, Daiid stood on a rock and watched as the rain from the clouds put out the burning town. It had already been cloudy that day, and the giant just made the clouds heavier, causing the rain to fall harder and faster. He sighed as he looked upon the destruction of the town, gripping the Mémoire Sword in his left hand,
and hoping he wasn’t about to do what he thought he was going to do.
“Dai? We’re going back down to salvage the town, are you coming?” Ruby called from below. Looking down at her, he looked back at the town and shook his head.
“This rain was here on that day too. If I run again, it’s not like anything will change,” he said to her, jumping down off the rock. Ruby remained silent as he continued. “I won’t run again, at least, not from this. I’ll make Drev pay for destroying Dram.”
“Sounds like that guy pissed you off, you’re talking more than usual,” Ruby said, looking down at Dram.
“Sh-Shut up! I just want to break the routine,” he said, sliding down the muddy hill.
“Daiid!” she called out to him, sliding down after him but tripping. Sticking the sword in the ground, he reached out and caught her wrist.
“You can come if you want,” he told her before letting her go.