Young Writers Society

The night sky is so beautiful and clear; clear enough for the stars to be seen as they glistened so brightly. Out at night, a man with red hair and green eyes, wearing short, brown baggy pants with blue stitches that showed his ankles, a tanned vest with a long collar, and beige sandal-like shoes. The man stood outside staring at the sky and admiring the stars; however, something caught the man’s eyes. Falling from the heavens, a meteor blazed across and landing right into the ground, fifteen feet from where the man was standing. What in the name of Mithra was that? The man thought; he ran over, stumbling upon a large crater that was about 20-feet-wide. Inside, he saw a large, oblong-shaped object covered entirely in crystals and when it cracked, a loud cry was heard. There's something inside it! He entered the crater and began prying the rock open, despite his hands burning from the intense heat festering from it.

Once he had it opened, he saw the source of the lamentation. “My god, it is a child,” he whispered to himself, astonished by what he had discovered. He reached inside and picked the child up into his arms. The child was small, about two feet in height, having pale, yet lightly tanned, skin and black hair; he almost looked like a human child, but, strangely, the only thing that was different were the yellow eyes. He, also, noticed another thing unusual about the child; on his back, there were strange markings of four horizontal black lines stretching down.

He left the crater walking about twenty feet and headed to a small cottage with a straw rooftop, gray brick walls, and a brown wooden door with a rope handle on the side. Opening the door, the man was greeted with a voice, “Back so soon, honey, I didn’t expect you to be done with stargazing.” Turning her attention, a young woman with tanned skin, long black hair, and brown eyes, looked to see the man with a gentle grin; however, her expression faded when she saw him with an infant in his hands. “Ryu, why do you have a child in your hands?” she inquired, puzzlingly, eyes-widened from the astonishment.

“I found him inside a crater, Emilia, right after a star fell to the earth,” the man, Ryu, explained; he walked over to his wife, Emilia, and presented the child to her. She reached out her arms, grabbing the child and examining him up close.

She looked into the child’s eyes and saw the innocence within them as he chirped while forming a smile on his face; she stated, happily, “Ah, he’s so cute! This must be a sign from the gods!” she blushed lightly at the end of the sentence.

“You may be right, Emilia; for years, we’ve been trying to conceive a child and were unsuccessful, but, now, the gods have given us one from the stars.” Ryu stood beside his wife, looking down and smiling at the young infant. “What should we name him?”

Emilia replied without turning her attention away form the child, “I think we should call him…Sora!”

16-years-later…

The sun rose, bringing forth a new day; the sun’s light beamed through the open window and hit the eyes of a sleeping young man. Fluttering his eyes open, the young man cringed by the sight of the light, which caused him to jolt out of his hay-filled bed and onto the dirt-covered floor. Tracing a hand into his neck-length black hair, his yellow eyes looked down at his feet with his mouth letting out a sigh. “I had that dream, again,” he said to himself; for days, he had had a recurring dream of a strange world set ablaze by hellfire and being sent away inside a star. As he got up, he heard a voice call out to him: “Sora, breakfast is ready! Come and get it before you father eats it off your plate!”

Eyes perking up, the young man, Sora, ran out of the door of his room and dashed straight into the kitchen where he sat down at the end of a circular, wooden table where he looked to see a porcelain plate with two fried eggs and a slab of cooked meat placed right in front of him by Emilia with a smile forming on her face. Now, right before he could dig in, the front door flew open and walking in was Ryu who sat down at the head of the table; he then began eating the breakfast placed in front of him, as well.

“So, dad, how are the fields today?” asked Sora; he took a bite at one of the eggs.

Looking up from his meal, Ryu replied to his son, “Not so good, Sora; domarats have settled a nest underneath the ‘Bumi’ stalks. It’s gonna take awhile to clear that nest out before harvest comes; if we don’t, we won’t have enough crops to sell at the market.” His expression faded into a frown while he kept on chewing.

Sora pondered for a moment as he ate a piece of meat; then, he spoke up, “What if I help you out, dad; with two people, we might be able to get rid of the infestation.”

“Sora, you know you’re not ready to take on something s difficult as domarats, you’re only 15-years-old,” Ryu retorted, sternly, pointing his fork at the young man.

The young man grimaced; he hated being treated like a child. “Oh, come on, dad, I’m old enough to handle it. How bad can a domarat really be?” Sora stated, irritatingly.

Letting out a sigh, Ryu gave up, standing up from his chair and said, “Fine, if you think you can handle it, then maybe you should help out in dealing with the pests, but don’t say I didn’t warn you!” at the end of the sentence, Ryu shared a similar annoyed frown just like his son with a cross-shaped vein forming on the side. After that, he walked out the door, telling his son, “Put on your work clothes; things are going to get messy with what we’re going to be up against.”

Crossing his arms, Sora was pleased by this result; like his father, he stood up from his seat, as well, and headed back to his room to prepare. After he finished getting dressed, he walked outside of the cottage wearing a pair of black shorts, a gray tunic, and a pair of fringeless, blue low boots. Now, Sora was prepared to head out with a shovel in one hand and a bag in the next.

This is the story of a young man who, believing there is nothing special about himself, will soon learn of the catastrophic destiny that awaits him.