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  • From Our Ashes Ch. 01

From Our Ashes Ch. 01

I'm gonna be upfront here, there will be minimal sex scenes in my stories, which WILL have a decent plot, and there WILL be lots of violence since I have lots of anger management issues that I get rid of through bloody action scenes.

Please enjoy the story.

Chapter I

I don't know how you all expect the world to end but I can certainly tell you how mine ended, it burned, and we all burned with it. It had been sudden, a hacker's prank god awry, one minute we were all just going about our lives and the next was fire, white hot and instantaneous, as some fool managed to set off every weapon of mass destruction that mankind had ever managed to create and stockpile. When it was over, all I knew was flames and a stone room, with chains in my hand as I apparently was forced into spending my afterlife doing what I'd trying to do when I was alive: keep my wild side under control. Now as fun as it is to spent all of eternity fighting a shadowy werewolf-like monstrosity armed solely with chains of logic and rationale, it gets old after the first few thousand years.

"Get up, the fight is not over." My inner darkness orders, his arms bound in chains that I had snuck onto him so long ago I barely remember it.

'What's the point? We've been doing this for so long that I should have gone mad.' I reply mentally, glaring with annoyance and boredom at the trapped lupine form before me.

"The Fight is our lot, the Fight is our legacy," My other half begins to argue, before smirking mischievously, "Besides, you went mad the day you were born."

'I know.' Is my only rebuttal to the beast before me as I stand up and once again examine the cell we'd been bound in, the walls and floors of stone, the fire dancing two inches over the floor that seemed to part around me instead of burning, the door of white marble that was set inside a wall as though it had always been there.

Wait, a door?

Closing my eyes then reopening them I felt a strange and very foreign surge of eagerness as the door refused to vanish.

'I can finally get out of here!' I exclaim mentally, I had stopped speaking out loud in the first century, and rush for the double doors that looked like genuine gates to Heaven itself.

"No, stay away from that!" The beast begs as he strains for the first time in eons against the chains I had trapped him in.

'Hell no I'm getting out of here!' I reply as I jump through the opening door, ignoring the anguished howls I was leaving behind.

++++

It was bright, that was the first thing I noticed about wherever I was, covering my eyes with my hands as I hissed, having grown used to the dimness of firelight after so long that bright yellow sunlight was incredibly painful to bear. Almost as immediately as I thought this however the sunlight dimmed as the trees above me rustled to block it out, leaving me in much more comfortable dimness for the few minutes it took my eyes to adjust. When I could finally handle looking around I realized I was in a forest, surrounded by more trees than I could count and none of them were ones I could identify. Looking around at my surroundings I only half noticed the sense of belonging I felt as I walked, or the fact that all the roots and rock I should have been tripping or injuring my bare feet on weren't there, almost as though the forest was going out of its way to make me comfortable, hell even when I stepped on a thorn it just crumbled away instead of injuring me.

What I did notice was the air, and how clean it was, and the sensation of something watching me, studying me like a child looks at an elderly person and fails to comprehend the shear age of them.

"What are you?" A voice demands and as I spin around to face the source I find myself confronting a white haired woman in a thin white dress, her entire form slim and alluring, not that I cared too much, I'd always preferred stacked women.

'Wha?' I respond, momentarily confused.

"What are you?" The female... thing repeats, and I notice she's literally floating a good six inches off the ground.

'Hopelessly lost,' Is my initial reply before I realize that I haven't been talking out loud and the woman floating in front of me looks impatient.

"I... am. Very lost." I finally reply, my voice raspy and parched from the unfathomable amount of years it wasn't used.

"DON'T PLAY GAMES WITH ME!" The thing shrieks, suddenly furious, "This forest has stood longer than any race on this planet yet even the Monarch trees which have existed since the First Day bow to you as their elder, WHAT ARE YOU?!" The woman screams, clearly upset by the facts she just stated, her entire figure glowing with power as she suddenly grabs me despite having been almost ten feet from where I was less than a second ago.

"AND YOUR ELEMENTS!" The rant continues, "NO EVIRONMENT ON THIS WORLD HAS REEKED OF METAL AND LIGHTNING SINCE THE FALL, YET YOU EXUDE THOSE ELEMENTS SO STRONGLY YOU'RE PRACTICALLY AN AVATAR!" ... Apparently this girl was about to have a breakdown over this...

"I-I am a human." I reply, my voice weak still.

My reply seems to just get her more upset.

"That's impossible! Man was wiped away in the Fall, the Creators made sure of it!" The woman screams, throwing me at a tree which just catches me, rubbing my head and setting me down.

"And even now despite me telling it not to the forest aids you!" The woman cries out indignantly before charging at me with her hands curled into talons.

At this point I've had enough, when the weird forest woman, a voice in the back of my head hypothesizes she might be a dryad or something similar, tries to claw me with her hands I do what comes naturally, my right palm snapping upward and the base of my palm striking her solidly in the forehead, her own momentum and the snap of my arm joints flying at her doubling the pain and knocking her back as I follow-up by grabbing her by her dress and yanking, briefly noticing the fact that I move to pin her, straddling her back with my hands holding down her arms.

"O. Kay. First... I want you to... calm down. And. Second... Tell me what is going on." I request haltingly, my voice slightly stronger now.

After struggling for a few moments the woman beneath me finally stops moving, unable to break my grip and unable to dislodge my much greater weight.

"I am the Keeper of this forest, I first sensed you an hour ago, but when I arrived you were unconscious and you reeked of old fire and darkness, like a salamander from the Black Mountain. When you began moving I stayed back, trying to discern your nature, when I saw how the Monarchs reacted however I felt the need to examine you myself." The girl explains, her features having somehow shifted from a 25 year old to 19 as she was speaking.

"And you attacked me why?" I prodded, still confused about that.

"... I attacked because despite the Monarchs' insistence you precede even they all I sense is a boy that is barely a seedling yet he reeks more powerfully of the Old World that he could pass for a relic." She replies, giving me a dry look.

"So you wanted to test me?" I supply, trying to understand her logic and failing.

"Yes, since the only creatures that present such paradoxes are usually Immortals or Devils." The girl explains, and its only now that she's started speaking normally that I realize her voice had been made as though it were leaves rustling.

"So you wanted to drive me out in case I was dangerous?" I ask, sort of understanding now as I get off of the girl, offering her my hand to help her up, which she takes with a curious look on her face.

"Yes, and um, why is your face turning so red?" The girl answers, cocking her head as she looks at me in confusion.

"Your dress..." Is my only reply as I offer the girl the black hoodie I had been wearing, her dress had apparently been very thin since when it tore the whole front of it had apparently fallen apart since she was now standing with her smooth skin completely exposed to the word.

"Ah, thank you." The girl replies, taking my jacket and putting it on, blinking as she stares at the zipper curiously, which forces me to zip it up for her. The entire time she just looks at me as though she doesn't understand my embarrassment.

"Um anyways, where am I?" I ask, avoiding eye contact with the girl as I examine the fallen tree branches for something I can use as a walking stick. When I spot one, a six-foot limb just slightly thinner than my wrist, I pick it up and to my surprise the wood instantly warps, turning into a polished walking staff in the blink of an idea.

"You are in the First Forest, and I must say, the Monarchs really like you." The girl replies with a giggle, standing behind me suddenly, causing me to yelp.

"Don't do that!" I shout, pointing at her, "And what are these 'Monarchs' you keep mentioning?"

"The Monarchs are the oldest trees in the world; they are so old that the Creators themselves planted their sapling after the Fall of Man." The girl explains.

"Okay, that tells me much more than I expected, now before I forget and spend the rest of however long we are together calling you 'Crazy Girl' what is your name?" I ask, the words 'Fall of Man' indicating I was probably still on Earth but apparently it was not going to be the one I knew.

"My name is Gaia, and as for the time we will be spending together," At this point the Gaia, great I'm dealing with what is likely an earth goddess, grabs my right arm and smiles cutely at me. "That will be until the day you die."

Just. Frackin'. Great.

++++

After spending three hours wandering the First Forest aimlessly the near silence of the wood is ripped apart by the scream of something female, the noise such a cliché cry for help I momentarily think it's a trap before I go off towards the source, the forest parting to help ease my passage with Gaia floating behind me like some sort of groupie.

When I reach the source of the noise I find a much stripped down and very well endowed blue-haired woman being assaulted by three men that look like Dark Elves out of some old D&D game.

"You have got to be kidding me..." I mutter weakly as I walk towards the three men.

"Excuse me boys, I don't suppose that I can just say 'stop' and you'll leave the lady alone will you?" I ask, trying the diplomatic approach first. Instead of replying the three Drow stare at me with an expression of horror and I momentarily wonder if Gaia was doing something intimidating behind my back, but when I turn to look not only is she not there but something hits me in the head.

As I whirl around to face the three Dark Elves I see one of them has a slingshot, and they apparently had just launched something at me.

"That hurt you know..." I say darkly, feeling an unreasonable flash of anger as I heft the staff in my hands like a weapon, barely aware of the fact that it was now sporting a rather wicked looking point on its tip. Scratch that, I was aware, in fact I was so aware of what was happening around me that I felt like I could even see the minute twitches of every muscle underneath the three Drow's heavy cloaks. Not pausing even a moment to consider my newfound battle prowess I shot forward, everything becoming a blur before I realize that the javelin in my hands in now buried in Dark Elf brain.

"You bastard!" The other two scream at me, drawing two evil looking broadswords and swinging them, in response I just duck, striking the one on my left in the kneecap and feeling satisfied at the crunch and scream that follow before I stand up and drive my fingers into the eyes of the Drow on my right, feeling minor revulsion at the squish and pop of the visual-sensory organs when my fingers invade their sockets.

Both of the living Drow are screaming messes now as I feel the rush and power that had been so sudden fade away as fast as it came, in reply to it I toss the Dark Elf I had just rendered blind away from me, leaving him to clutch his face and writhe next to his companion as I grab my javelin, now just a walking staff again, from the one I had killed and walk towards the blue-haired woman that part of me notices looks about 20.

The girl, needless to say, is outright horrified and is staring at me with a mixture of revulsion and... actually, it's just revulsion.

"Um, sorry for showing you that." I try weakly, as I hand the girl the white cape that was a few feet from her. "Please cover yourself." I all but beg as my right hand indicates the ruined top half of what was probably a white dress.

"Step away from my sister." A feminine voice orders me from behind, and I have the distinct impression that there is probably an arrow aimed at my head.

"Okay, I will, but please don't do anything." I request as I stand up, holding my staff in my left hand as I move sideways away from the blue-haired girl, whom I now notice had pointed ears.

'Ah, she's an elf too.' Something scientific in me notes with joy as I look at the slender girl dressed in brown that was currently still aiming an arrow my way, two other arrows having been used to put the two Drow I hadn't killed out of their misery. Judging from this new girl's blue hair she was likely an elf of the same breed as the woman I had just rescued, maybe they really were siblings then.

"Who the hell are you and what did you do to those Duernum?" The ranger-type elf interrogates me with a weary look in her eye.

"To answer the first question, I am a traveler who forgot his name a long time ago. And as for the second... I was keeping them from raping your sister." I reply.

"What type of being forgets their own identity?!" The blue-haired ranger shrieks, I was beginning to get some serious déjà vu here.

"The type that spent more time than I want to admit trapped in a cell with a lycanthropic being that was more interested in killing them than talking." I reply, and both the elven women and Gaia, who somehow reappeared between them, seem to be struck speechless by the proclamation.

"Um, Marae, perhaps you could take this lost traveler to see the Matron?" Gaia requests, the ranger-elf only now noticing the forest spirit's presence and momentarily she stands at attention before processing the request.

"But Lady Gaia, bringing a man into the settlement is-!" the ranger begins to protest, only for the spirit to cut her off.

"It is allowed when I request it, do not test me girl," The forest spirit orders.

'Don't I get a say in this?!' I protest mentally, unable to bring myself to voice my complaints.

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