Young Writers Society

Author's note: I have never written anything this big so far. Expect some grammatical mistakes because i'm still learning the English. And I'm sure that the story could be written a lot better but i have almost none experience with writing. Hope you like it! End note.

Ch. 1

Deep within the world of lifeless rocks and nothingness, a spark appeared, a spark that won't only ignite it's surrounding but change the course of the universe. A never ending flame bursts life and emotions, spreads across the universe. Giving a meaning to everything that was created before; creates new things that will become one with the old, and merges with it like it was always like that.

From eternal darkness comes light that shines upon all that which was hidden and unexplored. It brings new paths and new ways of doing things. Things will never be the same as they were. Life came to be.

A gift to the universe, for hard work and patience. Though, life could get out of control, if the universe doesn't watch over it, it could go wonder on its own. Young beings don't know their place, they would wonder until they get in trouble and all of the living organisms pass, just because life didn't have anything to hold on to. That was the best thing that could happen, if it didn't get to any obstacle, it could get older and spread all over the universe, devouring everything in its path, and when the whole universe is filled, all the resources will be used and the universe will not be able to sustain life anymore.

That's what happened here, well sorta, I mean, I'm alive, ain’t I? My village is alive, isn't it? I don't know, my village elder said that. I really don't understand most things he says, he makes some weird noises so sometimes I literally don't understand him. He's pretty old though, he's one of the root mangians (Mangians – kind of biomechanical beings, root mangians – first mangians).

My name is Henox, a builder in the Heka village, the earth village. There are three main villages known: Lagu, the village on the ocean; Flech, the village in the sky and our village Heka, of earth.

Today is my day off, so I can do anything. There's a haku game going on today and I plan on going there. There will be a team from Flech against one of our teams, it will be intense because the Flech teams are usually the best. You might be wondering, what is haku? Well it's the most popular mangian sport game. I want to bring my friend Halnau to watch the match with me too.

I took a bag and started packing some food and some of my stuff, because the game will be all the way in Lagu, and it's a long way from here. When I finished packing I went out of my hut and started walking towards Halnau's hut. Our village is very ugly to me, it is in a rocky desert so there is very little vegetation, just so enough that we could survive. There is almost no real soil here so the roads here are so uncomfortable to walk on with sharp rocks. Our village is very small too, it has only a few hundreds of mangians. Lagu, in the other hand, has over a thousand mangians.

I was getting close to Halnau’s hut, when I got there, I went trough the entrance. She was drawing something on her workbench. Oh, yeah, I forgot to say that it's a female. I never really understood the male - female sorting. I mean we are a bit different, but what's the purpose of that? Some say that males and females get attached to each other in a weird way, and can't be without each other, but I never saw that happen to anyone. Why would that happen to someone anyway? There are a lot of mysteries about mangians witch I don't understand, like, where do we come from? There are myths about a giant being, called Nebes, who brought us here. But I don't believe in that stuff. I think that our village elder knows more than I think he does. But I believe he has his reasons.

Now back to the topic.

Halnau stood up when she saw me.

- Oh, hello... -

- Hey, wanna go to the haku match with me?-

- There's, a haku match today? Oh, yeah... Against Flech, right?-

- Yes, wanna go?-

- You ask? - She said ironically.

- Ok, I'll wait for you outside while you pack, it's a long way.-

- No, come in, sit.-

I stood at the middle, looking around while. Her hut was twice as big as mine. She had two rooms, one for work, and one where she sleeps and keeps her stuff.

I took a look at what she was drawing. It was a plan of our village, with some new gaahku fields (gaahku – kind of plant that emits more oxygen). Halnau just got in the room with some decorative cloth.

- What is that for? - I said pointing in the cloth.

- We're going to Lagu right? The centre of culture. We don’t want to embarrass ourselves. So, what do you think? -

- It looks nice... I'm not really into body decorative art, so, I don't think that my opinion really counts. -

- Come on, don't be like that. That's the point of it, if it looks nice than it’s good. -

- Ok, are you ready to go? -

- Mmmm, I think so. -

- We shall take the best transport to Lagu. There is a waner waiting for us at the edge of the village. I guess it will be fast enough to get us to the sore in time. -

A waner is a vehicle designed to cross long distances on rough roads. It has eight legs on the sides on which it stands on. When going across bumpy terrain at optimal speed, you don't feel a thing. It is perfect for our trip to Lagu. But, there are only a dozen left, nobody doesn't even know who made them, we just have them as long as we can remember. Some mangians are suspicious about them and don't use them.

We walked back to my house where I left the stuff I packed earlier. We had luck because the waner was waiting just behind my hut.

I helped Halnau to get on the waner and then I got on it myself. I looked on my compass to see in what direction I should go. When I fished, I started the waner and we took of trough the mountains. A trip to Lagu is very exciting, because we go between the two biggest mountains on our continent, past the great monolith rock and over several beautiful rivers.

Although my village wasn't that pretty, the rest of our known world was just beautiful: Arhanom temple, Aure forest, Flech Mountains and many more places. Most of them I have never visited, but I have heard stories of them.

We just went past the great monolith rock. It's a gigantic rock shaped as a perfect rectangle. Nobody knows who made it, it was there longer than anyone can remember. It certainly isn't natural.

- Hmm, I wish I knew what it was. - Halnau said

- It's a big rock. - I replied.

- Yeah, I know, but who put it there? And why? I'm sure it means something. -

- Some say it's Nebes inside.-

- Out of all the wired stuff about us Nebes doesn't seem that strange.-

- You believe in him?-

- I don't know, I'm open minded.-

The trip wasn't as fun as I've imagined. We went trough many amazing places, but the rest of the trip was long and dull. We have just arrived to Lagu. It has two parts: one on the ground and one floating on the ocean. It is very crowded. People from all around the world came here to watch the game.

- Now we just need to find the stadium.- I said ironically.

- I think I know where it is. I was here before, I think it's in the middle of the ocean part.-

We started walking through Lagu towards a wooden pontoon. The huts were very similar to ours in Heka, only they used a different kind of stone. The tiles on the floor were a lot smoother than in Heka, it's much easier to walk here. Everything else was pretty much the same.

When we got to the ocean part, then it was a different story. Everything was made out of wood and was pretty stable even though the waves were pretty high. We were walking along the main street, we could never miss the big stadium. It was huge, its floor was higher than the rest of the village, so it looked much bigger than it really is.

We entered the stadium, squeezing through the crowd. We managed to find two seats in a decent place. The game has just started.

Heka players were painted in Brown all over, and were pretty big and heavy. The Flech players were white and were smaller and more agile. Everyone was running around the playing ground to warm up.

Haku consists of three balls and six players in each team. It is played with sticks that have a cup like thing on the end where they hold the ball. There are three baskets on each side of the pitch. When you put all three balls in the tree baskets of the enemy team, you get a point. During the game you are allowed to take the balls out of your basket. In each team, there is one keeper who doesn't allow the balls to get in the baskets but when they get in, he can't get them out, tree attackers who need to put the balls into the enemy's baskets, and two annoyers who try to prevent the enemy's attackers to get in the situation that they could get a basket.

Then suddenly we heard a voice, it was the commentator:

- Greetings fellow mangians! And welcome to the second major game of the tournament! Lagu welcomes two teams: Heka and Flech!

The players took their positions and were ready to start.

The game started really fast, it is complicated to follow all three balls at the same time. A Flech player took two balls and started running towards our baskets, but one of our annoyers smashed into him, he flied five meters backwards dropping the balls. The other ball witch was left was already in the Flech basket. Two of our attackers immediately caught the two balls which were dropped. The fast and light Flech annoyers were no match for our big and heavy attackers. They smashed right through Flech defence and SCORE! The first point of the game goes to Heka! The crowd cheered. Later in the game, Flech didn't let the match so easily, they were a lot faster than our players so they quickly got their point back. After that, everything was uncertain. At the end, the game was tied 3-3. I wasn't so happy about the result, but Halnau was glad we didn't lose cause honestly, I never thought we could win either.

After the match, we went to my friend from Lagu. He lived in the less crowded part of the village.

As the night began to fall, Lagu got more beauty full... (mangian day is like three earth days, and the same for the night)

Torches and lamps began to light up, and the village got a magical feel. It stood perfect with the silent sound of water and wood cracking. No wonder it was the centre of culture, everything was so inspiring.

My friend's house was at the end of the street. It was a bit taller than the others, the wall around the door was covered with large fish scales and there was a large fish skeleton with a shovel like thing on its mouth on the upper edge of the hut.

When we got there, there were no lights and the door was locked. I knocked a few more times just to be sure. Nobody answers. I honestly didn't know what to do. We were stuck in Lagu with no vehicle to get us back home.

- What now? - Halnau said with a little bit of anger in her voice.

- I don't know what's going on... He said, he will be here...-

- Are you even sure you got the right place?-

- I don't think that there are any other huts like this in Lagu... If he doesn't show up so on, we will go back home on foot.-

-Humph, yeah right, we won't get home till tomorrow.-

- Yeah, but do we have a choice? He was supposed to take us home.-

- Urrghhh! OK. - She said in anger.

Time was passing really slowly. Everything was silent, except for the occasional fish splash. We were just sitting there staring at the water. The Alsuna (an asteroid cluster orbiting the planet) is beginning to come out. Every time I stare at it for a bit, I begin to see shapes in it, and every time it is something different. This time, for example I see a bunch of stick man. Some think that if you could read it, you could tell the future. I honestly don't know what to think about it, I have no idea what it actually is.

I was growing impatient. I don't like waiting.

- That's it, let's go! - I yelled.

- It's about time, I don't know if I could take it much longer. But... Where should we go now? - She said while standing up.

- I don't know, we'll just keep going towards the mountain-clearing, and if we have luck, we will run into someone who could give us a lift.-

- That's stupid.-

- Yes it is, now let's go.-

She wanted to protest but she didn't find anything smart to say. As we got to the main street, we have noticed smoke coming out of the Coast part of the village. At first we taught it was nothing, but then we saw flames. I was curious what was happening, I mean, it’s not every day you see fire in the water village. We ran towards the place where the flames were most intense. It was chaos everywhere, mangians were running in everywhere, we could only guess what was happening.

Suddenly something hit me on the back of my head, I saw a bright flash and then, everything was dark.