First of all I would just like to say that, whoever reads this and feels the need to leave a review. please be as honest as possible and thorough as possible. I'm writing this story for my first project and any feed back is greatly accepted :)
-Mortal Odyssey-
“We all have our darkness but there cannot be shadows without the light”
-Chapter 1-
Hiro is a child of five years old. He is about three feet and three inches tall. He has short spiked black hair and a gold colored headband tied around his forehead. He also has deep blue eyes that look as if they can see directly into your soul. He is a scrawny child for his age; very thin. He is in his house taking a nap when suddenly he hears the ear piercing screams of the people in his village. He runs outside and sees a horrific sight; a large and powerful demon is cutting everybody down with a nasty grotesque double bladed sword. The demon is roughly seven feet tall, he is very human looking except for his blacker than black colored skin. He has some horns protruding from the side of his head wrapping around towards the back. They have long red streaks running the length of them. The demon doesn't have any armor on. He has dark black cracked skin and his built is very muscular. His hand are similar to that of a human's but they have short sharp claws coming out of the tips of his fingers. The blade he carries is a double sided curved blade. The kind with two blades coming together in the middle forming the handle. The blade is black and the sharp edges are red. There are several demonic looking sigils engraved into the metal that also glow red with almost a black smoke bellowing out from them. The whole blade has a dark red aura surrounding it. As he cuts each person down he places his hand on their chest and Hiro sees a strange glow come from the demon’s hand. As the demon lifts his hand from their chest it opens up and suddenly what looks like to be the persons very essence is absorbed into the demon’s clawed dark colored hand. As the demon finishes, the body of the person goes completely limp and is thrown to the ground. That's when it happens; the demon sees Hiro and begins to charge towards him. Hiro frantic with fear and begins to sprint away as fast as he possibly can. The demon dashes at a speed that makes him appear as a blur. He catches Hiro in a matter of seconds. Hiro starts squirming around struggling to get free from the demon’s grasp. The demon puts his hand on Hiro’s chest and begins to drain him as he did the others. He feels this horrible hot burning sensation in his chest and a red “X” appears on his flesh. It creates a large “X” shaped opening. As his body begins to numb with the sheer pain of his soul being ripped from his body, he starts to cry but something happens. Hiro sees his parents begin casting spells at the demon. They are gold colored balls of pure energy. The demon drops Hiro to the dirt. As he lays there bleeding feeling as if a reaper will come at any moment to claim his soul. Hiro looks on helpless as his parents get ripped to shreds, this demon is ruthless in his attacks. Suddenly Hiro feels a calming warm sensation in his heart. His body begins to glow with a strange gold colored energy and a dome of the same gold aura surrounds him. He looks for his parents corpses to be on the ground limp just as the others but he does not see them. They have vanished. They have cast a spell that now protects Hiro but it extinguishes them from existence. Their very souls become one with their child in the ultimate sacrifice. The demon quickly turns his attention back to Hiro as he is the last surviving person left in the village. As the demon tries to reach for him, the dome burns his hand. The demon roars with a mighty vigor. Suddenly Hiro blacks out.
Hiro wakes up in the woods, naked and alone. He is roughly six feet tall, his body is well chiseled. He has long black hair that runs about halfway down his back. He still has the same soul piercing deep blue eyes. He has a few scars on his body but most notably a large “X” shaped scar on his chest. Each line of the “X” starts from each of his shoulders and goes across his chest down to the opposite side of his abdomen, with the center of the “X” in the center of his chest. His face is stern and he has a goatee with five o’clock shadow, causing him to look rough yet groomed at the same time. He is confused, he seems to be in his own body just significantly older. He looks down and sees the scars across his body, feeling the unfamiliar ridges of his unsmooth skin.
He asks himself, “What the hell is going on here? Where am I?” Startled by his own deep voice, he jumps and looks around confused.
Confused he says, “Wow, why is my voice so deep? Seriously what is going on? I’m naked and alone in the woods. Why is my body covered in all these scars? Man, I sure have a lot of catching up to do! I wonder if I can find anybody who remembers me or anything about me.” He looks around once again, still seeing nobody in sight.
As he begins to wander he hears a stream in the distance and begins walking towards it hearing the leaves crunch under his feet. He feels the brisk air on his skin. The leaves on the trees are beginning to change colors with the season; red, orange, yellow, and brown. There is cotton floating around the air as well. He see the cotton swirl through the air as a gently breeze spins and shoots it in all directions. The woods consist of both cottonwood trees and cedars. When he arrives at the stream, he drinks some of the cold refreshing water. The stream is roughly three feet wide and flowing very fast. The water is clear and you can see the bedrock. The water is only about one foot deep. He begins to hike up stream in hopes to find some sort of civilization. Although something strange is going on.
With a puzzled look on his face he says, “It’s quiet, too quiet. What in the hell is really going on here?” He hears nothing; no animals, no bugs, nothing, just the stream and the crunching of leaves under his feet. The only thing he can smell is the cool water from the stream and the wood from the cottonwood and cedar trees. Still baffled as to why everything seems so strange yet so familiar. He continues hiking along the stream and eventually runs into an abandoned town, the chimneys are still puffing with smoke.
Strangely the town seems to still be intact but nobody is in sight. He walks up to a house and stares wondering if he should go inside or not. It's cheaply made shack on the edge of town. The door doesn't even have a lock on it. He opens the door and walks inside and he sees there are clothes and food inside. He begins nervously sifting through the clothes, keeping an eye out for anybody possibly still lurking in the house. In the clothes he sees several basic white, black and brown short sleeved shirts. He also sees several pairs of black and dark blue pants. He also sees a pair of dark brown leather boots on floor next to the dresser. He quickly puts on a black shirt and a pair of black pants, then grabs the leather boots but sees a light brown studded leather belt. He puts the belt on as well. The bedroom he is standing in is small and has crudely made furniture. A dresser, bed, nightstand, and a chest at the foot of the bed. He opens the chest and sees among other things, a small axe resembling a hatchet. He picks up the old rusty hatchet and hooks it into his belt.
He smells fresh baked bread in the kitchen so he quickly grabs a loaf of bread that's still warm sitting on the table in the kitchen. The kitchen was small and consisted of a small wood stove and an oven. It has a small crudely made table for dining on, with two splinter ridden yet sturdy chairs.
Confused, he begins to ask himself, “What happened to the people of the village.” He wanders into the town center and sees strange markings burned onto the ground. They are in the form of strange demonic looking sigils. The sigils are slightly imprinted into the dirt. They go into the dirt about one inch deep. They are in a ritualistic looking circle. The circle has the sigils around the border of the circle creating the outer ring. On the inside of the circle, there is a pentagram with demonic looking inscriptions along each line. The pentagram is also imprinted into the dirt about an inch deep.
Intrigued he says, “Possibly some sort of magic has made the people of this town vanish. I have this feeling it was something dark and evil.”
He wanders into the blacksmith shop that still smells of coal and hot iron. The shop looks like any other blacksmith, it's got a large chimney type ventilation and small rugged looking workshop attached. Inside he sees the forge is still hot and there is some basic equipment inside hanging on some racks on the walls. There are all sorts of tools such as hammers, tongs, and thick leather gloves hanging behind a large, well used dark grey colored anvil. He quickly equips himself with some iron armor and a one handed sword. The sword feels familiar in his hands but he can't place where he gets the feeling. Hiro swings the sword around a few times making slashing and stabbing motions. He moves with almost a natural grace and it feels very familiar.
He goes over to the general store which has a strange old smell; it's almost like herbal incense. It’s filled with loads of shelves and each shelf has any number of things on each. They contain things like various herbs, camping equipment, dried meats, and potions. There is an old looking counter sitting near the back of the shop. It’s smooth and well used. It’s also made from cedar and has a smell of wood infused with a mix of herbs. He grabs a few healing herbs and some other provisional items including a knapsack, some antidotes, a tent, tinder, flint, a knife, some more food, and a canteen. He also takes the gold that's behind the counter, adding up to about one hundred gold pieces. Finally he sees the road out of town and it's a well packed hard dirt road with sprouts of grass poking through the center. He sees the ruts in the road from the countless carts that have traveled on it over the years. There are dried leaves of all colors lining the road and he can see the hoof prints of the horses that travel along it. He fills his canteen at the stream and begins hiking down the old dust covered road.