Castle in The Sky (Countryhumans)

Prologue: The Castle in the Sky

(City of Eden, 1000+ Years After The End)

This certainly didn't feel like a dream. It was too real and too frightening to be one. From the frigid breath that fogged up my visor to the footprints I left on the ground, nothing could make me believe that this was all in my head. If it was, my brain must hate me.

Pieces of broken pillars and buildings that were beautiful once upon a time stretched on forever in all directions. I searched for a place in these ruins to hide as the trembling ground warned me of the danger that lurked nearby.

With a desperate plea in my heart, I snuck a quick glance at the device strapped to my wrist, which had been blinking silently for the past however-long-I-had-been-running. Still, there was no response. No signal, no static– nothing. I finally accepted the fact that everyone else had gone on without me and threw the useless thing to the side. Perhaps it would serve a purpose and divert my pursuer's attention that way.

I had only made it a few paces further when the cramps hit. Of course, I was only human, and I couldn't run on forever so I settled beneath a fallen arch. The hollowed curve tucked me under its wing, offering what little shelter it could as I clutched my hands over my mouth to muffle the erratic gulps for air. Even though it was also suffocating me, it had to be done or else it would hear me. Do not cry, the cold stone walls warned me. Perhaps then, you will survive.

There was silence. It was a sort of quiet that you have never heard before. Usually, there was always some sort of background noise or buzz, no matter how small, that played everywhere you went, without you realizing it. Even as you lay awake in the dead of night, your brain usually fills it in with something. There was none of that here, which made me wonder if I had gone unconscious.

The frigid air went still as the pebble by my shoe began to jump, higher and higher, and I almost gasped. Trembling, the ground pulsed in sync with my racing heartbeat. Then, it stopped. There was no shadow or anything that signified the new presence but instinctively, I knew that it was right behind me.

"Take a look. You must look at it", a voice in the back of my mind commanded. That was the voice that had paid attention during survival drills, and I knew better than to doubt it. This was what over a decade of training was for. If I wanted to live, knowing what I was up against was the first step.

My eyes crept over the dark horizon I hid under and was immediately met with an otherworldly sight. The creature towered at the height of a three-story building with a glistening ivory shell that housed countless giant serrated mouths. Bony limbs stretched out of its sides like a weathered skeleton plastered with pure white feathers, combing away debris like they were merely dust. It was searching for me.

That realization almost made me sick, and I lowered myself just in time to avoid its gaze. It hadn't found me. How did I know? Well, I wasn't dead yet.

These monsters were the reason I had been training since I was four. They were the reasons Crusaders, who entered this place in teams, often came back as individuals. They infested the bottomless abyss that sat on the outskirts of our paradise-like city and hunted us like rabbits. We knew of them as Saints. They knew of us as suckers.

A broken pillar flew over my head and slammed into the ground where I lay mere inches from. I clamped down on my hand to keep myself from screaming.

"Panic is useless," the voice came again. "Remember your training. You've seen it, so now what?"

Now, I had to analyze, I remembered and told myself to breathe. The memory of taking the Crusader's exam flooded into my mind, and, looking back on it now, it hadn't been so bad. Thousands of future adventurers were crammed into the city hall, hunching over papers and gripping pencils like it was the key to their future. No one exchanged glances, no one spoke a word. We all knew that if we passed, most of us would die before ever reaching adulthood.